••• The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021

Inside 21/9/21 News

▼ Boris Johnson told the UN general
Four sections every weekday assembly in New York that a lack of
action would be judged by history
PHOTOGRAPH: STEFAN ROUSSEAU/PA MEDIA
be clear to all which of us has lacked
News and Sport the courage to step up,” he said.
Without singling out individual
countries, he added: “It is the biggest
Derbyshire tragedy economies in the world that are caus-
ing the problem, while the smallest
Man arrested on suspicion suffer the worst consequences. And
of murder after deaths of while progress is being made all over
woman and three children the world, the gulf between what has
Page 11 been promised, what is actually being
delivered, and what needs to happen
… it remains vast.”
Golf The UK is entering the final leg of
a frantic diplomatic effort to ensure
Rory McIlroy says it’s Cop26 produces a significant agree-
getting ‘tougher to win the ment. The Cop26 president, Alok
Ryder Cup on the road’ Sharma, travelled to the US with
Page 46 Johnson to press the case with indi-

Johnson urges world’s rich

vidual countries.
Sharma told journalists in New
York that of the G20 countries, only
•

G2
Journal Outside G2
nations to act on climate
Labour should approach its conference with hope Polly Toynbee, page 3
the G7 plus Argentina had so far
Daily
pullout
life &
As car workers, we are fighting for green jobs Frank Duff y, page 4

Opinions and ideas

arts
section
John Challis, hugely popular Only Fools and Horses star Obituaries, page 10
The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021
Inside
produced the emissions reduction
Opinion
targets they had committed to set
 The Merkel myths – and ahead of Cop26.
and ideas

He urged the other G20 coun-

how the lauded leader mixed Heather Stewart tries – which include China, India
Biden will have to talk fast
her messages on refugees New York and Russia – to step forward. “The
Daniel Trilling ball’s in their court and they need to
Page1 Boris Johnson has warned the world’s Joe Biden will make his first speech deliver,” he said.
rich countries that “history will to the United Nations as president It remains unclear whether the key
judge” if they fail to act now to tackle today, seeking to “close the chapter polluter China will attend Novem-
 Labour must travel in the climate crisis, as the US climate on 20 years of war” and begin an ber’s summit. Beijing was irritated
The refugee
W
hen Angela Merkel steps around the “wir schaffen das” moment, both of ILLUSTRATION:
down as chancellor after which overstate the significance of her intervention MATT KENYON

Germany’s elections later and mischaracterise its effects. The populist right

envoy, John Kerry, suggested Presi- era of intensive diplomacy. by the announcement of the Aukus
this month, the tributes blames Merkel for prompting one of the largest

crisis created
will centre on her role as mass migrations in the continent’s recent history, a

hope and show how it can

the figurehead of western “catastrophic mistake”, as Trump later put it, that
liberalism; an island of would undermine Europe’s security and identity
stability, caution and through an overwhelming foreign intrusion.

two myths of
openness in an era marked by turbulence and far- Liberals, meanwhile, treat it as a triumph. Merkel’s

dent Joe Biden was poised to commit He will however have to contend defence and security deal, which is
right reaction. She will be remembered “for serious stance, in this telling, held true to the values that
work, stable leadership and having a gift for political supposedly underpin the European project and
compromise”, wrote Ishaan Tharoor in the Washington showed that a crisis could be met with compassion.

Angela Merkel
Post last week. When she faced off against Donald In truth, Merkel’s contribution to Europe’s politics

make people’s lives better

Trump after his inauguration in 2017, some newspapers of immigration went much further, and her legacy is
dubbed her the new “leader of the free world”. far more mixed. As an investigation by Die Zeit has

Fundamental to this image is the intervention she
made in late summer 2015, at the height of Europe’s
Daniel refugee crisis. “Wir schaffen das” – we’ll manage this –
Trilling was Merkel’s public statement as thousands of people,
mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, were making
their way through Turkey, Greece and the Balkans
more funds to the fight. with hostility from China, a rift aimed at confronting China.
shown, “wir schaffen das” did not, for the most part,
encourage migration: it acknowledged a reality that
already existed. The refugee crisis had been under way 
for several months by the summer of 2015, with people
motivated to travel more by what was pushing them
Daniel Trilling
is the author
from their homes than the reception they expected in of Lights in the

Polly Toynbee At the UN general assembly in with France and widespread Developed countries promised
to western Europe. By declaring Germany – and, by Europe. Syrians, for instance, were facing a worsening Distance: Exile
extension, Europe – open to refugees, she was making conflict, decreasing food rations from and Refuge at
a bold, pragmatic statement of intent.
Yet two contradictory myths have grown up
aid agencies, and employment bans in
Lebanon and Turkey, where most Syrian  the Borders
of Europe

Page 3 New York, the prime minister urged scepticism over his commitment more than a decade ago at the Copen-
other developed countries to increase to multilateralism following hagen summit to make $100bn in
their contributions, to help meet the disagreements over Israel, a chaotic public and private financing avail-
target of $100bn in climate financing withdrawal from Afghanistan, and able to help developing countries
G2 Centre pullout Gone to the rats! set more than a decade ago. a nuclear submarine deal that took transition to clean energy sources,
Features and arts Behind the scenes of the big British bin crisis
“The world will see, and your adversaries and allies by surprise. and cope with the extreme weather
people will remember, and history The White House sees the triggered by global heating.
The Lovers’ Guide will judge,” he said, underlining the speech to the UN general assembly But the Organisation for Economic
importance of achieving an ambi- (Unga) as a chance to reclaim the Co-operation and Development
Michael Hann examines tious outcome to the Cop26 climate global initiative. Biden will say (OECD) reported last week that the
the video that began a talks, which the UK is hosting in he does not believe in the notion target appeared likely to be missed
second sexual revolution Glasgow in November. of a new Cold War. However, the by up to $20bn.
Page 4 Johnson was speaking ahead of a UN secretary general, António Johnson said en route to the US
roundtable of developing countries, Guterres, said US-Chinese rivalry that he believed there was only a
which he co-chaired with the UN sec- was stopping progress on global six in 10 chance of the $100bn target
‘It just snowballed’ retary general, António Guterres. issues. He told CNN “the old Cold being reached before the Cop26
Tuesday 21/09/21
Zoe Williams
Should I really
worry about
crumpet shortages?
He added: “Cop26 will be staged in War was more easy to manage ... summit.
Ayub Khan Din and page 3

the full glare of the global spotlight. Now things are more complex.” But Kerry, also attending UNGA,
‘We made love on

Jimi Mistry on the the living-room carpet’

30 years of The
Lovers’ Guide
And when the summit ends, when Julian Borger Washington expressed more optimism. “I think
making of East Is East page 4
most of the world has committed to we’re going to get it done,” he said,
•

Page 9 decisive, gamechanging action, it will Aukus row Pages 26-27  when asked about the $100bn.

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Visit theguardian.com/paper-subss ‘risked lives the Taliban, which seized power in
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ing house again tonight”.
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Weather
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While over 17,000 people were res-
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will come out.
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Quick crossword Cryptic crossword evacuation since the second world ation] Pitting masks a criminally
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Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian
‘Original genius’
Frankenstein first
edition sells for
world record $1.17m
Alison Flood
M
ary Shelley was
just 18 when
she dreamed
up her story of
a “pale student
of unhallowed
arts” and the “hideous phantasm
of a man” he created. Now a first
edition of her seminal classic of
gothic horror, Frankenstein; or,
The Modern Prometheus, has
set a world record for the highest
price paid for a printed work by a
woman, after selling at auction for
$1,170,000 (£856,000).
The first edition was one of 500
copies printed in 1818, and the
first to be auctioned since 1985.
Christie’s, which described it as
“exceptionally rare”, had estimated
the copy would sell for $200,000-
$300,000. It said this was a new
world record for a printed work by a
woman, with bidders participating
from around the world.
A copy of JK Rowling’s The Tales
of Beedle the Bard sold for £3.98m
at Sotheby’s in November 2007, but
▲ Mary Shelley’s seminal classic was
published anonymously at first
The name’s Bond ... but more
caring and compassionate
Nadia Khomami
He’s the brooding bad boy who drives
luxury cars, jumps through windows
and wrestles on top of moving trains,
all while having a constant array of
beautiful women on his arm. But the
one thing James Bond has never been
is “woke” – until now.
Charlie Higson, the author of the
Young Bond novels, says Daniel Craig
•
News
it was handmade and illustrated, as
opposed to printed.
Shelley, the daughter of the
philosopher William Godwin and
the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft,
famously came up with the idea for
Frankenstein during the summer
of 1816, while staying beside Lake
Geneva with Percy Shelley, her
husband, and Lord Byron.
The group had been reading
French translations of German
ghost stories, and Byron challenged
them to write their own. Shelley
wrote in a preface to a 1831 edition
of her novel that she “busied
[herself] to think of a story, – a story
to rival those which had excited
us to this task. One which would
speak to the mysterious fears of
our nature, and awaken thrilling
horror – one to make the reader
dread to look round, to curdle the
blood, and quicken the beatings of
the heart”.
She had an “acute mental
vision” while trying to sleep, she
continued, of “the pale student of
unhallowed arts kneeling beside
the thing he had put together”, of
“the hideous phantasm of a man
stretched out, and then, on the
working of some powerful engine,
show signs of life, and stir with an
uneasy, half vital motion.”
Her story of how Victor
Frankenstein creates a being
from body parts, and brings it to
life, would go on to be published
anonymously on 1 January 1818
in a run of just 500 copies by the
publisher Lackington’s. The novel
had been turned down by John
Murray, when Percy presented it
to the publisher as his own work;
Lackington’s, which “dealt mainly
in cheap books”, gave Mary a third
of the net profits, wrote Miranda
Seymour in her biography of the
author. “These were not good
times for controversial works and
– who plays cinema’s most famous
spy for the fifth and final time in
upcoming film No Time to Die – has
“given us woke 007, who’s tender,
cries and gets into the shower in his
tuxedo to comfort a woman”.
Craig, who moonlights as a pro-
ducer on No Time to Die, has been
vocal about his work to ensure the
inclusion of strong women in the
Bond franchise, and even revealed
he chose to wear his now famous blue
speedos in 2006’s Casino Royale as an
The 1818 first edition
copy of Frankenstein
antidote to bikini-clad “Bond Girls”.
“There are certain things attached to
Bond of which we would say: ‘No, you
can’t do that anymore,’” Craig told
the Radio Times. “We’re very con-
scious of what’s going on in the world
at the moment, but we’re still story-
tellers, we’re still trying to entertain
an audience.”
The 53-year-old actor, who lost
teeth, tore muscles and severed
tendons over the course of 15 years’
of shooting for Bond, said he was
“more naked than the women” in
the upcoming film, adding: “I’ve
designed it that way”.
Higson highlighted the level
of change since Ian Fleming first
devised the character of Bond in 1952.
the manufacture of a creature
from human parts without
divine assistance was highly
controversial,” Seymour added.
With a preface from Percy and a
dedication to the then-anonymous
author’s father, William Godwin,
Frankenstein had mixed reviews.
Walter Scott was impressed by
the author’s “original genius” and
“uncommon powers of poetic
imagination”, the Quarterly Review
asked if “the head or the heart of
the author be the most diseased”.
Shelley would publish a revised
edition of the novel in 1831, under
her own name. Today, Frankenstein
is seen as one of the world’s first
▲ Craig’s blue speedos in Casino
Royale was antidote to ‘Bond Girls’
5
‘[Creating]
a creature
from human
parts without
divine as-
sistance was
highly con-
troversial’
Mary Shelley
biographer
 Finishing
touches at the
Mary Shelley’s
House of
Frankenstein
attraction
in Bath, as it
prepared to
open in July
PHOTOGRAPH: BEN
BIRCHALL/PA
science-fiction novels, a work of
horror, invention and philosophy,
which addresses key questions of
what it means to be human, and
inspired countless adaptations.
“It was on a dreary night of
November, that I beheld the
accomplishment of my toils. With
an anxiety that almost amounted to
agony, I collected the instruments
of life around me,” she writes as
her creation awakens. “My candle
was nearly burnt out, when, by the
glimmer of the half-extinguished
light, I saw the dull yellow eye of
the creature open; it breathed hard,
and a convulsive motion agitated
its limbs.”
Fleming would be bewildered by
many of the changes in society since
then, Higson said. “He’d be able to
mansplain the correct temperature
that champagne should be served at,
but he’d be all at sea trying to negoti-
ate the correct use of pronouns.”
But Higson said the writer also
“kicked against the old-fashioned,
1950s view that women should be
simpering housewives.”
Asked if he would support a more
diverse appointment as his replace-
ment, Craig said: “There should
simply be better parts for women
and actors of colour. Why should a
woman play James Bond when there
should be a part just as good as James
Bond, but for a woman?”

6 National
Meat Abattoirs run low on CO
Drinks Gas supply warning
Prepare for a new winter
of discontent, Britain
warned, as gas crisis hits
 Continued from page 1
question of the lights going out, or
people being unable to heat their
homes”. The minister also dismissed
the idea of “three-day working weeks
or a throw-back to the 1970s”, saying
such thinking was “alarmist, unhelp-
ful and completely misguided”.
However, the British Chambers of
Commerce (BCC) said factories were
already discussing a “more perma-
nent reduction in their operating
capacity”, such as a three or four-
day working week, or reducing their
hours because of high gas prices and
consequent shortage of CO2.
Firms known to be considering
such a move include energy intensive
industries, as well as the meat and
fresh food packaging suppliers that
rely on CO2. Ranjit Singh Boparan,
the owner of Bernard Matthews, the
poultry producer, and 2 Sisters Food
•••
Energy supply
Group, has warned workforce short-
ages alongside the CO2 issues could
result in Christmas being “cancelled”.
Last night a joint statement from
Kwarteng and the energy regulator,
Ofgem, stressed that the crisis “was
not an issue of supply” and said the
UK has capacity “that can more than
meet demand”.
A roundtable with leading energy
suppliers and consumer groups held
yesterday will be followed by one
with smaller suppliers in the com-
ing days. “Central to any next steps
is our clear and agreed position that
the energy price cap will remain in
place,” the joint statement said.
Suren Thiru, the head of econom-
ics at the BCC, said the energy price
crisis “risks aggravating the already
severe supply chain predicament”
facing many industries.
Companies are already struggling
with a shortage of haulage and staff,
Fresh foods Distribution risk
Dairy Packaging shortage
linked to both Brexit and Covid, as
well as global supply chain disrup-
tion linked to the pandemic, while
experts warn higher energy prices are
likely to lead to inflation.
Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat
leader and former energy secretary,
said the prime minister and his gov-
ernment should not be dismissing the
crisis as a “global problem or a hic-
cup” with supply. He said the cost of
living crisis would “hit the most vul-
nerable people in the country”, yet
the government had “failed to invest
in making homes warmer through
insulation … failed to diversify the
UK out of over-dependence on gas for
heating … and [the] botched Brexit
deal is already hiking food prices”.
Green, a former work and pensions
secretary, estimated there would be
about 500,000 people who are par-
ticularly vulnerable this winter.
“These are people many of whom are
The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021
▲ The sectors that have warned they
could be hit as a result of the energy
crisis that has led to a shortage of
supplies of carbon dioxide
already working very hard to keep
their families’ heads above water.
Already the £20 cut was going to be
difficult for them,” he said. “Now we
see we’re going to get rising energy
prices, and we’ve already seen that
the growth in inflation is faster than
it has been for a generation. There’s
the possibility of very, very difficult
times ahead for hundreds of thou-
sands of people in this country.”
Ed Miliband, Labour’s shadow
business secretary, said he feared
the government was “much too com-
placent on the price and economic
impact of the current situation”
with energy. He called on Kwarteng
to set out his plans to support busi-
nesses, particularly energy intensive
industries, and say whether he had
£139
The average amount that energy
bills are due to rise in October for
households across the UK
500,000
The number of people the former
cabinet minister Damian Green
says will be vulnerable this winter
considered the provision of gov-
ernment aid in the form of loans for
businesses facing difficulties.
Stephen Elliott, chief executive of
the Chemical Industries Association,
a trade body representing UK chemi-
cal and pharmaceutical businesses,
said the industry was “already pay-
ing a premium” for energy compared
with the rest of Europe as it faced ris-
ing costs of cutting carbon emissions.
Kwarteng said he was looking at
options to help industry as well as
making sure customers of collapsed
energy companies did not lose money
or supply of gas and electricity. The
Guardian understands officials are
considering state-backed loans to
help the UK’s large energy suppli-
ers to pick up potentially millions of
unprofitable energy customers ahead
of a “tsunami” of energy supplier col-
lapses this winter.
As an alternative, the government
is also considering plans for a “bad
bank”-style company to take on cus-
tomers left stranded.
Emma Pinchbeck, Energy UK’s
chief executive, said the “priority of
all involved is to protect customers as
much as possible”. She added: “While
the focus is on the current situation, it
shows why we must continue the low-
carbon transition and further reduce
our dependency on fossil fuels.”
Five small suppliers have gone
under in recent weeks, and another
four are likely to fold before the end
of the month.
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian
Perfect storm How
factors combined to
drive UK energy
system into chaos
Jillian Ambrose
The UK’s energy system has
been plunged into chaos by a
perfect storm of market forces
which threatens to rip through
the economy from home energy
suppliers to heavy industry, and
from factories to farmers.
That has stoked fears that a wave
of energy suppliers will fold, and
that households will be saddled
with unaffordable bills. As winter
draws nearer, these are the factors
shaping the country’s energy crisis.
China’s post-Covid bounce back
China’s appetite for energy is
always a key driver of global market
prices. In 2021 its post-Covid
economic ramp-up has coincided
with an uptick in demand across
Asia and Europe too.
As economies begin to recover
from the the pandemic, countries
across the northern hemisphere,
which experienced a long, cold
winter in 2020-21 that depleted
gas storage levels, have been left
scrabbling to secure supplies.
Gas prices in the UK have more
than quadrupled over the last year
to highs of 180 pence per therm,
from around 40per therm this time
last year.
In the last month alone, prices
have climbed by 70%.
Market experts at S&P Global
Platts said earlier this year that
China’s demand for gas was likely
to rise to 360 billion cubic metres
(Bcm) this year, up 8.4% from an
estimated 332 Bcm in 2020.
To satisfy its record demand
for gas, China’s imports of gas via
super-chilled tankers was expected
to surge by almost a fifth, meaning
that fewer shipments have been
travelling to Europe from countries
such as Qatar.
▲ Gas market prices in the UK more
than quadrupled over the last year
•
Russian gas games
As shipments of gas have turned
from Europe towards China, flows
of pipeline gas to Europe from
Russia have failed to make up the
shortfall.
Yesterday gas prices across
Europe surged by another 10% after
Russia’s state-backed gas company,
Gazprom, refused to increase its
exports to Europe - despite record-
high prices across the continent.
The company has met its
contractual obligations for gas
delivery over recent months but
Gazprom has come under fierce
criticism for appearing to send little
extra to help meet the enormous
demand in Europe.
EU lawmakers have called on
the European Commission to
investigate whether the company’s
behaviour has been designed to
keep market prices high, and put
pressure on regulators to approve
of its controversial plans to build
the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a major
gas line which would double its
capacity to send gas to Germany
via the Baltic Sea.
Nordstream 2 has faced US
sanctions and provoked concern
that the EU would increase its
reliance on energy imports from
Russia.
Generation gap
The global gas crunch is
particularly bad news for the UK.
Around half of the UK’s electricity
is generated by burning the fossil
fuel in gas-fired power plants, a
trend which has become more
deeply entrenched over recent
months following a string of
problems in the UK electricity
system.
Ageing nuclear power plants
have been forced to undertake
unplanned outages for
maintenance, a major power cable
used to import electricity from
France has shut down following
a fire, and the UK’s wind turbines
have slowed during some of the
least windy months since 1961.
The UK also relies heavily on
gas for home heating and cooking.
Yet despite the obvious reliance on
fossil fuels for electricity, homes
and in heavy industry the UK has
some of the lowest amounts of
gas storage capabilities in Europe,
leaving the market uniquely
exposed to the supply crunch. Less
than 1% of Europe’s stored gas is
held by the UK.
Uncapped entry to a
capped energy market
The UK can expect scores of
suppliers to fold over the coming
winter, leaving millions forced to
Britain relies heavily on electricity from Europe
Active interconnectors
North Connect
Due 2022
Moyle
EWIC
Gridlink
BritNed
2022
Greenlink
2022 Eleclink
FAB
Aquind
2022
IFA2 2022
2020
Source: Nord Stream 2
How the food industry uses CO2
Canning and
packaging
Filling packaging
with CO2 or other
gases preserves all
manner of foods,
including fruit and
bread, by
preventing certain
bacteria from
growing
Stunning animals
for slaughter
Stunning is a key use
of CO2. The gas has
an anaesthetic effect
but at high
concentrations it can
also stop the brain
from functioning,
causing death
The energy price cap for summer 2021 was set at £1,138
Default price tariff cap
£1,217
£1,104
2018/19 2019
winter summer
Source: Ofgem. Note: Default tariff price cap for a dual-fuel, direct debit customer with typical consumption
switch to a new, more expensive
supplier, as the government’s
policy of tough regulation on prices
collides with loose rules on which
companies can join the market.
The energy price cap sets out a
maximum level for default energy
tariffs twice a year based on the
cost of supplying energy. It is set
to rise by over 12% from 1 October
and is likely to rise again next April.
But the hikes will not come fast
enough for dozens of small energy
suppliers which don’t have deep
enough pockets to survive the wait
until the next cap increase.
Many small suppliers joined the
market after the regulator dropped
the barriers to entry for the energy
supply market in 2014 to make it
easier for entrepreneurs to set up
an energy company without strong
links to major banks and investors.
It was designed to increase
competition for the legacy Big Six
suppliers, and caused the market
to swell from less than a dozen to
Contracted Planned
The route of the
NSL
Nord Stream
2 pipeline
2021
Viking Link
2022
Neuconnect
Lubmin
The pipeline will reach
the European gas grid
on Germany’s northern
2028
Nemo coast
IFA1
A fire this month forced the
shutdown of one of Britain’s
most important power cables
Carbonation
Added to fizzy drinks
and some beers CO2
gives sparkle, affects
flavour and helps
preserve the drink,
preventing the
growth of bacteria
and fungi. It is also
used to dispense
drinks from kegs
Decaffeinating
coffee
‘Supercritical carbon
dioxide’ – a form of
CO2 with the properties
of both a liquid and a
gas – is passed through
the coffee to dissolve
the caffeine, leaving
other substances intact
£1,143 £1,126 £1,138
£1,042
2019/20 2020 2020/21 2021
winter summer winter summer
around 70 at the beginning of the
year. The regulator has already
backtracked on the scheme,
setting tougher financial stress
tests for companies which hope to
become energy suppliers. But the
energy crisis may rewind seven
years of loose regulation over six
months, which some fear may
leave only 10 suppliers standing
by spring.
Fossil fuel heavy industry
The impact of the energy
crisis will not be contained to
rising energy bills and struggling
suppliers. Major steelmakers,
chemical factories and
manufacturers are all vulnerable
to the impact of energy costs and
are already feeling the financial
pain of the energy price shock.
The government faces rising
calls to tackle the problem of
unaffordable energy before
it erodes the UK’s post-Covid
economic recovery.
Damaged
Food
Industry calls
Narva Bay
for immediate
action to avoid
The pipeline
begins here
major crisis
Sarah Butler
Joanna Partridge
Food producers have called on the
government to subsidise the fertiliser
plants that produce the CO2 essen-
tial to much of the sector – including
packaging, fizzy drinks and animal
slaughter – amid fears over shortages
in supermarkets.
The Food and Drink Federation,
which represents hundreds of food
processors and manufacturers,
joined retailers and meat producers
in calling for urgent action as they
warned of serious disruption in food
supply chains.
“Across industry, there is a united
view that the situation is worsening
with little prospect of additional CO2
supply unless the UK government
intervenes,” wrote the FDF’s chief
executive, Ian Wright, in a letter to
the food secretary, George Eustice.
He said some companies had already
stopped production, and others
could cease within the week.
Record energy prices have forced
the temporary shutdown of two fer-
tiliser plants in the UK last week,
which, as a byproduct of the process,
generate 60% of the food-grade CO2
used in packaging meat and dairy
products to keep them fresh. The gas
is also used to stun pigs and poultry
£1,500
for slaughter.
1,200 Several major retailers confirmed
that shoppers would begin to notice
900 shortages by the end of next week of
poultry, pork and some other fresh
600
foods, if the government did not take
300 action.
Adam Couch, the chief executive of
0 the British pork producer Cranswick,
said: “I call upon the government to
act immediately to avert a major crisis
in the food industry. The sector has
been asking for support to ease the
labour crisis, and now CO2 shortages
could effectively bring production to
a halt throughout the supply chain.
“The industry is already at tip-
ping point ahead of the demanding
Christmas period. We have worked
tirelessly throughout the pandemic
to keep food on the shelves, but there
is a real risk of product shortages
across the country if the government
does not act immediately to address
these issues.”
Andrew Opie of the British Retail
Consortium trade body, which rep-
resents most major supermarkets,
said: “It is vital that government takes
immediate action to prioritise key
suppliers and avoid significant dis-
ruption to food supplies.”
Retailers said the CO2 crisis, which
also affects fizzy drink and beer pro-
duction, and dry ice for keeping
food shipments cool, was adding to
problems caused by the shortages of
HGV drivers, and production issues
on products caused by high demand
and staff shortages, driven by the
pandemic and Brexit.
 • The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021
8 National
Energy supply
World UK supplies robust,
Volcano terror
Thousands flee homes and no question
after eruption in the
Canary Islands
of lights going out,
Page 31  says Kwarteng
Rowena Mason
Deputy political editor
No 10 has brushed off the idea that
there could be disruption in energy
supplies and food shortages over
Christmas, saying the UK is “highly
resilient”.
With the government locked in
talks with energy suppliers about
the rising cost of gas and many
firms struggling to stay afloat, Kwasi
Kwarteng, the business secretary,
said there was “no question of the
lights going out”.
“There will be no three-day work-
ing weeks or a throwback to the
1970s,” he said. “Such thinking is
alarmist, unhelpful and completely
misguided.” He also insisted the
energy price cap to protect consum-
ers from sharp rises in bills would
remain in place.
However, households are already
facing a rise of 12%-13% in the cap –
an average of £139 – this October, and
there is no guarantee that it will not
rise further next year in response to
the global gas price shock.
Ed Miliband, the shadow energy
secretary, said many people were fac-
ing a “triple whammy” from rising
energy costs, the national insurance
hike, and a cut to universal credit.
The high price of gas has forced
some CO2 producers to shut down,
leading the meat industry to warn
that there could be shortages in the
coming months because the gas is
needed for humane slaughter, stun-
ning, packaging and refrigeration.
However, Johnson’s spokesman
insisted the UK would not fall victim
to any food shortages, despite poul-
try producers raising the alarm that
there may not be enough turkeys and
other meat for Christmas.
“We’ve got a highly resilient food
supply chain in the UK, we’ve seen
‘There will be no
three-day weeks or
a throwback to the
1970s. Such thinking
is alarmist’
Kwasi Kwarteng
Business secretary
that throughout the pandemic, and
we will obviously continue to work
with industries that are facing issues
to ensure that remains the case,” he
said. “We will consider any contin-
gency plans as appropriate.”
Downing Street was asked if there
was a plan to help CF Industries, the
UK’s biggest supplier of CO2, reopen
two large fertiliser plants in Teesside
and Cheshire, which produce CO2 as
a byproduct.
The spokesman said: “We have a
highly diverse source of supplies but,
as I say, Kwasi Kwarteng has spoken
to the company involved over the
weekend and will consider any con-
tingency plans as appropriate.”
Kwarteng said he was still discuss-
ing the options for addressing the
stoppage of CO2 production as well
as being in negotiations with energy
companies, with many smaller ones
at risk of failure.
One option is providing emergency
loans to energy companies that take
on the customers of failed suppliers.
But Kwarteng also did not rule out the
idea of a state-backed supplier – an
idea floated by the Liberal Democrats
– even though he said he wanted to
“avoid” that as an option.
James Cleverly, a Foreign Office
minister, also stressed the UK’s resil-
ience when asked about the financial
strain that could be caused by the
sharp rise in gas prices combined
with the effect of the planned cut to
universal credit.
He told BBC Breakfast: “The UK
economy has shown itself to be resil-
ient. We now have vacancies in the
job market, which means employers
will have to offer more to fill those
vacancies or retain members of staff
who might otherwise move to job
offers that are out there.
“That will have the good old-fash-
ioned supply-and-demand curves,
there’s an increase in demand, that
will mean that wages should rise. Ulti-
mately, of course, that is the healthy,
sustainable way of making sure that
people have good, decent pay pack-
ets, and that’s through employment.
“It’s absolutely right that we make
sure that we match vacancies to
people seeking work and watch the
natural phenomenon – supply and
demand phenomenon – of increas-
ing wages through the UK economy.”
Pushed on whether the univer-
sal credit uplift would therefore be
kept, he said: “It was always meant
to be temporary, and it’s really impor-
tant that temporary measures are
temporary, because if every single
response like an uplift on universal
credit had to be permanent it would
massively limit the flexibility and
agility of governments in dealing
with one-off events like the corona-
virus pandemic.”
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian
Q&A Rising bills, firms
going bust – are you well
insulated from the crisis?
Five energy firms have gone bust
in the past two weeks, and with
suppliers likening events to the
2008 financial crisis, households
could be in for a choppy ride.
What will happen to energy bills?
It looks as though they are only
going one way – up. The regulator
Ofgem’s price cap – the maximum
suppliers can charge customers on
their standard variable tariffs – was
already set to rise by 12% to £1,277
a year for average (dual fuel) use
on 1 October. Households that use
prepayment meters – typically the
most vulnerable customers – will
see average bills rise to £1,309.
Analysts are warning that the
cap could go up to between £1,440
and £1,500 next spring if the rise in
wholesale gas prices is sustained.
The cap is set every six months
after a review. In the very unlikely
event that Ofgem suspends its price
cap this week, gas and electricity
bills will leap alarmingly, according
to Joe Malinowski, who runs the
Energy Shop.
I’m with a smaller supplier – what
happens if it goes bust?
Experts are warning that there will
be a tsunami of company failures
unless the government intervenes,
•
and it will be smaller firms that
are likely to go under, with bigger
companies taking their customers.
When a supplier fails, Ofgem has
a process to automatically reassign
customers to a “supplier of last
resort” so they will not be cut off.
However, depending on their
current tariff they could see their
bills rise considerably – some
could see increases of 40%. The
customers of Utility Point, which
failed earlier this month, have all
been moved over to EDF. Yesterday,
customers of People’s Energy,
another collapsed firm, were told
they will move to British Gas.
Customers should make sure
they take meter readings when
notified of any supplier change.
Will I stay on the same tariff as
offered by the failed supplier?
No. In previous years the new
supplier sometimes honoured the
old firm’s tariffs, but that’s not
going to happen now. Ofgem has
confirmed that default suppliers
can only put the customers they
inherit on a price-capped tariff.
Customers who were on the
best fixed rate deals taken out
nine months ago will see bills rise
by as much as £250 a year if their
supplier goes bust and they stay
▲ A chemist serves a shopper during
one of the many power cuts that
affected Britain during the 1970s
PHOTOGRAPH: MIRROR/ALAMY
with the “new” supplier that has
been chosen for them.
Can I switch, and what happens to
credit I have built up?
The supplier you are moved to
will honour any credit balance
that you built up with your old,
failed provider. Once you have
been switched over to the Ofgem-
appointed supplier, and any
balance transferred over, you can
leave at any stage without paying
exit fees, although at the moment
you are unlikely to find a much
better deal. Switches typically take
14-21 days.
My small supplier is still trading;
should I switch to a bigger one?
In theory there is nothing to stop
you, but it probably makes sense
to sit tight and see how this plays
out, particularly if you are on a
cheap tariff. It looks as though the
government will to have to put in
place some kind of rescue package,
so it may be worth waiting.
£1,309
Increased price cap set by Ofgem
from October on yearly average bills
for prepayment-meter customers
£250
Possible annual bill rise for people
who stay with a default supplier
after their original firm goes bust
Are there any low-priced energy
deals left?
Most suppliers pulled all of their
cheapest tariffs last Friday, but
there are a few deals still being
advertised.
Yesterday a number of firms
including E.ON were offering one-
year fixed-rate tariffs for about
£1,200 a year for dual fuel. E.ON
also has a two-year fixed-price
tariff, which is only a shade more
expensive than the one-year deal,
although these may not be around
for very long.
British Gas’s HomeEnergy
Secure tariff has prices fixed until
November 2023 and costs about
£1,400 a year. This compares to
the £1,000 that switch-around
customers were paying prior to
this crisis.
Should I fix when the best deals
are so expensive?
If you really value price certainty,
look at the E.ON/British Gas
two-year plus deals; however, if
your existing tariff is significantly
cheaper than the current deals,
it’s probably worth waiting
to see how things play out,
according to Martin Lewis from
the financial advice website
MoneySavingExpert.
I have solar panels on the roof. Am
I insulated from all this?
Sadly not, and if your supplier
fails you will face the added
complication of securing your
feed-in tariff payments that come
from your electricity supplier.
Unless you are off-grid and only
using the power you produce, you
will be affected by all this as much
as your neighbours. Miles Brignall
Renewables
Government
‘should have
moved earlier
to low-carbon’
Fiona Harvey
Environment correspondent
Renewable energy and low-carbon
heating could have done much to
reduce the impact of this winter’s
soaring gas prices if the govern-
ment had done more to shift the
UK’s energy market sooner, indus-
try experts have said.
The gas crunch has prompted a
flurry of government meetings and
reassurances from the business sec-
retary, Kwasi Kwarteng, that “there
is no question of the lights going out”
in the “highly resilient” UK.
But the supply issue demonstrates
that fossil fuels are inherently subject
to wild price fluctuations, according
to Roger Fouquet, of the London
School of Economics. “Price volatility
is an inevitable part of the fossil fuel
energy system,” he told the Guardian.
“Renewables do not suffer from these
market-related problems.”
Dan McGrail, RenewableUK chief,
said the government should learn the
lesson for future years. “The first pri-
ority for government and the sector
is, of course, protecting consumers
in response to this price surge. The
only way to do that in the long term
is to have an energy system powered
by cheap renewables, with flexible
storage, hydrogen and other low car-
bon technologies to meet demand at
lowest cost.”
He pointed out that it was already
cheaper, even before the gas price
began soaring, to generate electric-
ity by building a new windfarm than
running an existing gas power plant.
The growth of renewables has cut the
proportion of power the UK gets from
fossil fuels from 60% to under 40%
in the last few years.
McGrail said: “The industry is
working with government to accel-
erate investment in renewables …
Alongside massive investment in
renewables, we need to shift the dial
on electrification and green hydrogen
production in the UK to meet net zero
at lowest cost.”
Solar power has also plummeted
in cost in recent years, despite a lack
of support from the government, and
is forecast to be the cheapest form of
power within a few years, surpassing
even onshore wind farms.
Chris Hewett, trade body Solar
Energy UK’s chief, said solar power
could continue to provide electric-
ity through the winter months. Solar
currently provides about 4.5% of the
UK’s electricity, but he said it was
“eminently achievable” to triple that
by 2030, at no cost to consumers, if
the government would clear the way
by removing regulatory difficulties.
However, as Fouquet noted, “wind
and solar do suffer from intermittency
problems. So, while accelerating the
transition … it is important to develop
an energy system that is flexible to
these intermittencies.”
 • The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021

10 National

Police arrest 29 environmental several times last week, when actions

were staged on M25 junctions in Kent,
Essex and Surrey over three days.
near Chorleywood, where several
protesters were glued to the motor-
way. A further 16 were arrested near
activists after M25 halted again Shapps told the PA Media news
agency that the protests were irre-
junction 4 of the A1(M), near Hatfield.
Ch Supt Nick Caveney said: “We
sponsible and dangerous. “It’s not have robust plans in place in order
secretary, called on police to move right for our roads to be blocked for to minimise any disruption and to
Damien Gayle more quickly to clear blockades. illegal protests like this to take place, allow us to make arrests as quickly
Shortly after 8am, activists from and for it to happen repetitively,” he as we possibly can.”
Insulate Britain (IB) blocked the M25 said. “I’ve no doubt at all the police An IB spokesperson said: “Given
Twenty-nine environmental activists and slip roads in several locations. will want to learn from their experi- what’s just happened to energy prices
have been arrested over coordinated They are calling for the government ence and make sure they’re able to … the demand to start insulating
protests that stopped traffic on Lon- to insulate all homes in the country step in more quickly and efficiently.” the homes of the poorest people in
don’s M25 motorway for a fourth by 2030, starting with social housing. Hertfordshire constabulary said ▲ Hands were glued to the road at the country looks more and more
time, as Grant Shapps, the transport Many had already been arrested 13 arrests were made at junction 18 junction 4 of the A1(M) near Hatfield reasonable.”

Firefighters failed to use

equipment properly,
Grenfell inquiry hears
Robert Booth
Social affairs correspondent
The London fire brigade (LFB) did
not know how to properly deploy
water equipment that could have
doused flames all the way to the top
of Grenfell Tower and potentially
saved lives, the inquiry into the dis-
aster has heard.
In what a lawyer for bereaved
people and survivors said was “an
extraordinary possibility to have
to contemplate four years after the
fire”, an expert witness has found
that water from a ground monitor –
a nozzle on a fixed base – beside the
tower was capable of reaching the
15th floor and that all the available
aerial pumps were capable of launch-
ing water to the top of the building.
But neither happened “because of
a fundamental misunderstanding of
the technical features of water supply
and the consequential failure to alter
incident strategies to secure greater
water flow,” said Danny Friedman
QC, representing bereaved people
and survivors.
Friedman said the as-yet-unpub-
lished analysis by Dr Ivan Stoianov,
an independent expert appointed
by the inquiry, was that “there was
equipment ready that might have
made the difference but for the lack
of institutional knowledge of how
+ + +
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+
+
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+
best to use it”.
+ + + +
+
+
+
+ + + +
+ In opening remarks to the latest
+
stage of the public inquiry into the
14 June 2017 disaster in which at least
72 people died, Friedman alleged the
LFB was “dangerously unprepared”
and still needed outside intervention
S
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‘There was equipment
ready that might have
made the difference’
Danny Friedman
Families’ lawyer
will hear from the commissioner,
Andy Roe, and Dany Cotton, who
was in charge in 2017 and received
criticism after she told the inquiry
she would not have done anything
differently.
Friedman said while more water
would have been unlikely to have pre-
vented upward spread of the fire, it
did contain fires on floors 10 and 11
and enabled the rescues of Antonio
Roncolato at 6.05am, four-and-a-half
hours after flames topped the tower,
and Elpidio Bonifacio at 8.07am.
He raised the contrasting fate of
flats in higher storeys – including flat
113, three floors above, where four
people died. “This new evidence on
water adds a potential additional
reason as to why this flat and this floor
stand out as the paradigm of prevent-
able death,” he said.
Friedman said that when other fire
brigades had adopted a more sophis-
ticated system for guiding incident
commanders through crisis decision-
making, the LFB had stuck with a
system devised in the 1940s. When in
2014 the fire brigade in Kent devised
a new system to evacuate buildings
that, like Grenfell, have stay-put
policies, it did not follow suit. The
inquiry’s expert in firefighting has
concluded this could have saved

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describing it as “incompetent to meet In his opening statement, Imran
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The inquiry will investigate why highlighted the LFB’s failure to train
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the LFB was not better prepared. It commanders and firefighters in tack-
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ling high-rise cladding fires despite

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knowledge of the risks in the UK and

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abroad. He also called for the inquiry

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to consider whether the treatment of

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Leslie Thomas QC highlighted cuts

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to the LFB’s budget and urged the
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Boris Johnson, when he was London

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▲ The LFB was ‘dangerously mayor, to impose “stringent cuts”.
The inquiry continues.
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unprepared’, the inquiry heard
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian •

National 11

‘We are heartbroken’:

 Jason Bennett
with his children
John Paul and
Lacey in a

tributes to woman image from his

Facebook page.
Lacey’s friend,

and three children

Connie Gent,
was also killed

killed in house attack

Josh Halliday
Jamie Grierson
Tributes have been paid to the three
children and a woman who are sus-
pected to have been killed at a house
near Sheffield at the weekend.
A man, 31, has been arrested on
suspicion of murder after Derbyshire
police were called to a property in Kil-
lamarsh at about 7.25am on Sunday.
The force said a murder investi-
gation had been launched, but that
it was not looking for anyone else in
connection with the deaths, though
questions remain over how the four
people were killed.
Police say the victims were Terri
Harris, 35, her children John Paul
Bennett, 13 and Lacey Bennett, 11,
and Lacey’s friend Connie Gent, 11,
from Sheffield.
Jason Bennett, the father of John
and Lacey, collapsed in tears as he laid
flowers at the police cordon around
the property yesterday morning.
Asked about his feelings as he left,
he told reporters: “Heartbroken, mil-
lion pieces, shattered.”
John and Lacey’s grandparents,
Debbie and Trevor Bennett, were also
at the scene. Debbie said: “They were
beautiful, well-mannered kids. Terri
was a beautiful mother, a wonder-
ful mother. We are just devastated.”
She said her son was on holiday in
Devon at the time of the incident and
returned home overnight. “He has
lost everything,” she added.
Both the children enjoyed football,
TikTok and walks with their dad, the
grandparents said. Debbie added: “As
far as Lacey goes, she was a proper
girl, pink and sparkly. John was into
computers. They always said please
and thank you. I don’t know how we
are going to cope.”
The third child victim was Lac-
ey’s best friend Connie, who was
at the house for a sleepover, they
said. “Their parents have got to be
devastated. Just the same as us,”
Debbie said.
Her husband said: “My son Jason is
going to be in bits, he’s lost his entire
family.” He added: “ He will be blam-
ing himself, there will be the ‘what
ifs?’ I don’t know how he’s going to
come through this.”
Outwood Academy City, a second-
ary school about five miles away from
the incident, said it would be closed
yesterday after a tragic incident
“involving three of our students”.
A spokesperson said: “We are cur-
rently trying to come to terms with
this weekend’s devastating events.
The thoughts and prayers of every-
one at Outwood Academy City are
with those affected.”
Derbyshire police chief constable
Rachel Swann said: “While under-
standably worrying and upsetting,
this is believed to be an isolated inci- ▼ Terri Harris
dent in which those involved were was described
known to one another and nobody as ‘a beautiful
else is being sought in connection mother, a
with the deaths.” wonderful
The North East Derbyshire MP, Lee mother’
Rowley, offered his condolences after
the “terrible and hugely tragic” inci-
dent. “Killamarsh is such a lovely,
close-knit and warm community,
and I know that many residents will
be shocked and worried by the news,”
he tweeted. “I’ve no doubt that the
village will pull together at this dif-
ficult time.”
A short walk from the scene, a
steady stream of residents arrived at
St Giles parish church, visibly shaken
by the scale of the tragedy, but keen
to pay their respects. Helen Guest,
the rector, said that the community
was “stunned” and “absolutely dev-
astated” by the news.
She said: “How can you possibly
put into words what one feels when
you see on the news that four people
have died? No one can possibly antic-
ipate a tragedy like this, especially in
our community. This is a very, very ▲ Flowers at the police cordon at the home in Killamarsh where the three ▲ Debbie and Trevor Bennett said
sad time for us all.” children and a woman died. PHOTOGRAPH: CHRISTOPHER THOMOND/THE GUARDIAN they were devastated at the deaths

Staff to gain right to request from a wider programme called the

flexible working from day one
Peter Walker
Political correspondent
Employees will have the right to
request flexible working from the
moment they start a job, with compa-
nies obliged to explain their reasons
a major reshaping of the way people
work in a post-pandemic world, mak-
ing flexible work the default.
But before the release of the doc-
ument, unions are warning that the
proposals do not go far enough and
that rather than obliging people to
ask for flexible working, job adverts
Good Work Plan, begun in 2019.
It is examining the full range of
flexible working including working
fewer or different hours, compressed
hours – working more hours on fewer
days – working from home for some
or all the time, and job shares.
It is understood that the key rec-
ommendation will be to allow people
who seek flexible working from day
one of a job rather than, as now, hav-
ing to wait for six months.
In addition to this, businesses will
be enough to fulfil the government’s
manifesto pledge to make flexible
working the default option, point-
ing out that at least some workers had
been able to request flexible working
by law since 2003, and that beyond
the explosion of remote working dur-
ing Covid, little had changed.
Sue Coe, the TUC’s senior equal-
ities policy officer, said labour force
surveys showed that between 2013
and 2020 the proportion of people
who did any kind of flexible working
rose only from 26% to 30%. “If you
look at that, does it say to you this is
a policy that’s working but needs a
little bit of fine-tuning?”
Other data showed that one in
three requests for flexible working
were refused, while research by Beis
and the Equalities and Human Right
Commission said almost four in 10
working mothers had not requested
some type of flexible working they
would like. This was often because
they assumed it would be rejected,
but also many said they feared work-

if it is then refused, the government
will propose this week.
The plan, contained in a con-
sultation document, would also
oblige employers to respond to such
requests more quickly, and is billed as
should set out what sort of options
are available for the role.
The consultation document, due
to be published on Thursday by the
Department for Business, Energy
and Industrial Strategy (Beis), comes
be obliged to respond to requests
quicker than the current maximum of
three months. If a request is refused,
the employer will need to state why
and suggest an alternative.
The TUC has said this would not
30%
Proportion of the UK workforce
engaged in flexible working before
the Covid-19 pandemic hit
ing flexibly would harm their careers.
While Beis is not commenting
ahead of the document’s release, offi-
cials are understood to believe it is a
sensible attempt to balance the needs
of staff and employers.
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian
Ready to wear – again? Film unpicks
fashion industry’s sustainability ethos
Jess Cartner-Morley
C
ircularity – a concept
drawing on principles
such as “designing out”
waste and ensuring
clothing can be remade
again and again – is the
buzzword at London fashion week.
At Preen by Thornton Bregazzi,
designers Justin Thornton and
Thea Bregazzi spliced together
clashing rolls of floral fabric “that
had been hanging around in the
studio, left over from different
seasons” and designed one entirely
new look.
The dress, with pink blossom
above the waist and multicoloured
wildflowers below, and two
further floral prints on the back
– accessorised, for London Fashion
Week, with a space-age black
visor edged with a neoprene frill
– allowed the duo scope to be
creative and offer customers a
new look, while reducing their
environmental footprint.
•
National
But a new documentary warns
circularity may not be an effective
strategy for sustainability – as it has
been billed in some quarters – when
applied to mass-produced clothes,
which account for the vast majority
of the fashion industry.
“The clothes you see at London
fashion week have a good chance of
having a decent life,” said Veronica
Bates Kassatly, an independent
analyst of sustainability claims, at
a screening of Fashionscapes: A
Circular Economy.
High-cost clothes are more likely
to be worn multiple times “and the
prices mean that it makes economic
▲ Veronica Bates Kassatly and Livia
Firth query fashion’s green claims
sense for shoppers to repair rather
than replace”, said Bates Kassatly.
She noted that she was recently
quoted £45 by a cobbler to fix a pair
of worn-out shoes, a price at which
many consumers would choose to
buy a new pair instead.
The short film shows bales of
discarded fashion at Kantamanto
market in Ghana. While some of the
clothing is mended or upcycled,
much of it is of too poor quality to
reuse, or has been thoughtlessly
constructed with embellishments
and extra fastenings that render the
garments useless.
Clothes sent to Kantamanto
are often recorded as having been
“recycled”, but 40% leave the
market again as landfill. “This is
circularity as greenwashing,” says
Andrew Morgan, the director of
Fashionscapes.
Sustainability activist Livia
Firth, hosting the film, said
that circularity “has become a
marketing tool which allows big
brands to put a recycling bin in
their store while continuing to use
supply chains that wreak havoc on
13
the natural world”. Environmental
writer and expert Lucy Siegle
added that “circularity is an
exciting opportunity, where it is
genuine – but it has been hijacked”.
Consumers are being misled, she
said. “There is this idea that plastic
is infinitely recyclable, and that’s
just not the case.”
Alberto Candiani, owner of
Candiani Denim, a small Milan-
based brand which produces the
world’s first biodegradable jeans,
believes that while the catwalk
fashion for upcycling may not be
an effective sustainability model
at lower price points, high fashion
has a vital role to play in pioneering
better fabric production.
About 65% of clothes on sale
now are made from polyester, the
base material of which is either
gas or oil. Candiani has created a
A Preen dress made with biodegradable plant-based denim
left-over rolls of fabric which is compostable, “and even
beneficial for the soil – fertiliser for
cotton”.
He believes that the fashion
industry should capitalise on rich
fashion consumers’ interest in
sustainability to fund research into
future regenerative fabrics.
Premium American denim brand
Frame, which has boutiques in
London’s Chelsea as well as New
York, LA and Aspen, has partnered
with Candiani on a new upmarket
range of sustainable jeans.
 • The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021
14 National
Man killed
PA Media
and climate Sacha Dench, who was attempting
a world-first circumnavigation of
activist hurt mainland Britain in a paraglider to
raise awareness about the climate
in paramotor crisis, has been seriously injured in
a paramotor accident in the north-
west Highlands of Scotland.
accident Dan Burton, a member of her
support staff, was killed during the
incident, which happened late on
Saturday afternoon.
Dench is in Aberdeen Royal
Infirmary in a serious condition.
Nicknamed the “human swan”, she
had been attempting a 3,000-mile
round Britain climate challenge
before the Cop26 conference, which
begins on 31 October.
In a statement, the trustees of Con-
servation Without Borders, which was
founded by Dench, said the accident
happened near Loch na Gainmhich in
the far north of Scotland. The state-
ment said: “We are very sorry to have
to confirm that Dan Burton, the sup-
port paramotorist, has died as a result
▲ Sacha Dench, left, was seriously
injured and Dan Burton, who was
filming the activist’s flight, was killed
New therapy for infants
cuts chance of autism
diagnosis – study finds
Ian Sample
Science editor
Doctors have shown for the first time
that a new therapy aimed at infants
can reduce autistic behaviour and the
likelihood the children will go on to
be diagnosed with autism before they
reach school age.
Infants who received the therapy
after displaying early signs of poten-
tial autism, such as avoiding eye
contact and not responding to their
name, were only a third as likely to
have autism diagnosed at the age of
three compared with those who had
standard care, the researchers found.
The findings suggest that inter-
vening in the first year of life, when
autism may be suspected but far
from certain, can boost social devel-
opment in autistic children, with
long-term beneficial knock-on effects
for their broader lives.
“This is the first worldwide evi-
dence that a pre-emptive intervention
can reduce autism behaviours and
the likelihood of a later diagnosis,”
said Prof Jonathan Green at the Uni-
versity of Manchester.
“We think this is a landmark find-
ing because it suggests intervention
at this early time can have this sub-
stantial effect. It may well change the
way services provide support to a
large number of children worldwide.”
The international research team,
led by Prof Andrew Whitehouse at
the University of Western Australia
in Perth, assessed 104 infants aged
nine to 14 months who had come to
the attention of community health-
care services after displaying early
signs of autism. While half were ran-
domly assigned to have routine care,
the others received 10 sessions of
therapy over five months. All were
then reassessed for autism behav-
iours at 18, 24 and 36 months.
In the therapy sessions, par-
ents were videoed playing with
their children. A therapist then
reviewed the footage with the par-
ent and helped them understand
6.7%
The proportion of infants who
underwent the new therapy and
later received an autism diagnosis
of the accident. Sacha Dench is seri-
ously injured and is being treated in
hospital. Her injuries are serious but
not life-threatening.”
Police Scotland said officers had
been alerted at about 4.45pm on Sat-
urday. Dench had been flying earlier
in the day with Burton, whose role
includes documenting the challenge
from the air, taking film and photos.
They had landed before taking off
again at about 3.30pm. The ground
crew, who communicate with the
flyers and pick them up when they
land, lost contact thereafter.
‘This is a new clinical
model that could
transform support
for families’
Andrew Whitehouse
Research team leader
the different ways their child was
trying to communicate, and how
they might better engage the child.
The aim was to strengthen the con-
nection and improve the “back and
forth” between parent and child, to
help the infant develop social com-
munication skills.
Writing in the journal Jama Pedi-
atrics, the researchers describe how
the therapy appeared to reduce some
autism symptoms, a change that
largely remained until the children
turned three. At that point inde-
pendent clinicians assessed each
of the children. While a fifth who
underwent standard care received
an autism diagnosis, only 6.7% of
those who had therapy did.
According to the study, the children
scored better on social interactions
but also on other symptoms, such as
repetitive movements and unusual
reactions to senses such as smell and
taste. Further research is needed to
see if the therapy merely delays diag-
nosis or prevents it in some children.
The researchers stress that the
therapy is not a cure for autism.
Many of the children still had signif-
icant developmental problems when
they turned three at the end of the
study. But the findings suggest a tai-
lored therapy may at least help some
infants to develop their social skills
before they reach school age.
“The clinical impact that could be
immediate is really gobsmacking,”
said Whitehouse. “To date no therapy
has shown such positive effects on
development that it has influenced
child’s diagnostic outcomes.
“For this reason, the therapy has
the very real potential to change
how we provide support to children
developing differently. At its most
basic, this is a change from ‘wait
and see’ to ‘identify and act’ – a new
clinical model that could transform
support for families.”
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian
Novels direct: Fight Club
author aims straight at
readers with online book
Dan Milmo
Global technology editor
The first rule about Substack is you
don’t talk about conventional book
publishing. The Fight Club writer
Chuck Palahniuk has become the
latest high-profile author to serial-
ise their work online in a deal with
the fast-growing newsletter platform.
Palahniuk’s 16th novel, Greener
Pastures, will be published in regu-
lar instalments from next Monday, at
a subscription price of $6 per month
or $40 per year (about £4.40/£30) .
The move follows Salman Rush-
die’s deal to publish his next work
of fiction as a serialised novella on
Substack, while Patti Smith and the
Israeli writer Etgar Keret have also
signed up with the company.
Substack, which has based much
of its appeal on attracting well-known
journalists such as the Rolling Stone
contributor Matt Taibbi, has more
than 500,000 paying subscribers to
its roster of writers.
Palahniuk, whose best-known
novel was turned into a cult film star-
ring Brad Pitt, said he was approached
by Substack to publish his next work
on the platform and was drawn to an
offering of editorial independence.
“That’s really attractive, the idea that
you don’t have somebody editing the
content of your work.”
Substack has paid Palahniuk an
upfront sum for Greener Pastures but,
•
National
▼ Other famous unlike a typical publishing advance,
faces also there are no conditions over what
on Substack he writes. The serialisation will be
include, from interspersed with short stories from
top, Salman Palahniuk and current and former
Rushdie, students from his writing workshop
Patti Smith in Portland, Oregon, as well as lessons
and Edward on writing craft and how to navigate
Snowden the publishing industry.
The first three chapters of Greener
Pastures will be free and will be
published on 27 September and
4 October, although his Substack
launched officially yesterday with a
newsletter containing anecdotes and
writing lessons. Palahniuk fans can
also pay $200 to be “founder mem-
bers” of his venture.
The 59-year-old writer said Greener
Pastures had started out as a piece
of young adult fiction and became
“really dark and somewhat sexual-
ised”. Greener Pastures depicts “the
crisis young people face as they must
choose a career, a partner, and find a
home and job” and is about a group of
high school students who are offered
the chance to auction themselves off
as successors to billionaires and roy-
alty around the world.
The novel contains signature, jolt-
ing Palahniuk scenes. It opens with a
14-year-old girl climbing the stained
glass window of a church in front of a
hostile congregation, bleeding from
glass cuts as she tries to free a trapped
hummingbird. Later, two parents
seek refuge from a forest fire by hid-
ing in their own partially filled septic
▼ Brad Pitt, left, and Edward Norton
in the film adaptation of Fight Club,
directed by David Fincher PHOTOGRAPH:
ALLSTAR/CINETEXT/20TH CENTURY FOX
tank. “I was told young adult fiction
could not be too dark but it’s a slip-
pery slope,” said the writer.
Palahniuk, whose Fight Club
depicts a disaffected, isolated group
of men, hopes that his newsletter and
serialisation will build a more pos-
itive online community. Admitting
that he is “sick” of “editoralising”
online articles and prefers more
useful internet content such as You-
Tube tutorials on how to clean garden
furniture, Palahniuk said: “If it’s just
opinion I don’t want to hear it. With
this, I want to be offering people the
nuts and bolts, the skills that people
have taught me over the years.”
In the offline world, Palahniuk
has a three-book deal with Hachette,
under which he has published his two
most recent novels. Greener Pastures
could be printed by the French-
owned publisher, which has first
refusal. “My readership tends to be
completist and they want copies of
all the books,” said Palahniuk.
The publishing industry will be
“phlegmatic” about well-known nov-
elists moving into the digital sphere,
according to one expert. “In the his-
tory of modern publishing, no one
has really worked out how to make
long-form narrative fiction or non-
fiction work commercially unless it
is in a book format,” said Philip Jones,
editor of trade title the Bookseller.
The Substack deal comes after
Palahniuk found himself “close
to broke” when he was the victim
of embezzlement by an account-
ant working for his former literary
agency. Darin Webb, a bookkeeper
for Donadio & Olson, was sentenced
to two years in prison in 2018 after
Palahniuk lost an estimated $2.5m
as part of the fraud.
“I was compelled to sell my house,
but Hachette has helped me regain
my footing. The Substack deal was
not motivated by money, but my curi-
osity,” said Palahniuk.
15
Analysis
Dan Milmo
Audiences are
biting as media
empires start
to crumble
S
ubstack’s mission
statement depicts a
journalistic dystopia
that wouldn’t look out
of place in a book by the
platform’s latest recruit,
Chuck Palahniuk.
“The great journalistic totems
of the last century are dying,” it
reads. “News organisations – and
other entities that masquerade as
them – are turning to increasingly
desperate measures for survival.
“And so we have content farms,
clickbait, listicles, inane but viral
debates over optical illusions, and a
‘fake news’ epidemic.”
That was 2017, and Substack’s
subsequent
popularity has
The great journalistic made clear
totems of the last that there is
at least strong
century are dying ...
and so we have content
farms, clickbait and
appetite for any
antidote. The
San Francisco-
based company
has more than
a fake news epidemic 500,000 paying
subscribers to
its newsletters,
published by an
array of writers from whistleblower
Edward Snowden to salad
aficionado Emily Nunn.
Substack was launched by
Chris Best, who had previously
launched Kik, a messaging app
that he described as “kind of like
WhatsApp”, former Kik colleague
Jairaj Sethi and journalist Hamish
McKenzie. One of the platform’s
backers is Andreesen Horowitz,
whose previous investments
include Facebook and Twitter.
Substack’s most popular writers
make vast sums from the platform,
with its top 10 bringing in $7m
(£5.1m) per year between them.
Substack takes 10% of subscription
earnings and payment company
Stripe takes a further 3%. Writers
charge around $5 a month or $50 a
year for access to their newsletters,
although the many free newsletters
also have a big following.
Substack has offered grants to
authors – including six figure sums
for major writers – to build an
audience on the platform, and its
number of active writers doubled
in the first months of last year, as
scores of journalists were made
Chuck Palahniuk, redundant due to the pandemic.
whose 16th novel Fittingly for a digital publisher,
will be serialised social media can play a role in who
on Substack Substack approaches. While it does
not consider what the author is
writing, it will look at the size and
enthusiasm of their following.

16
Johnson sparks Dutch spat
over Brexit border dispute
Daniel Boffey Brussels
Heather Stewart New York
Boris Johnson has sparked a diplo-
matic row with one of the UK’s closest
allies after claiming the prime min-
ister of the Netherlands had been
seeking to mediate between Brus-
sels and London over the post-Brexit
arrangements for Northern Ireland.
Speaking on a plane to New York
for a meeting of the UN general
assembly, Johnson suggested the
Dutch government was looking to
act between the European Commis-
sion and London on the differences
that have arisen in recent months.
“I talked to Mark Rutte [the Dutch
PM] the other night, who wanted to
come and see if he could mediate on
the issue and I said, you know, we
really want to make progress,” John-
son had said. “We seek a solution, but
it has to be one that allows the free
movement of goods between all parts
of our country.”
Dutch diplomatic sources
expressed surprise at the comments,
insisting that Rutte had instead
specifically urged Johnson to be
• The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021
National
▲ Boris Johnson and the Dutch PM
Mark Rutte outside No 10 last Friday
pragmatic in his dealings with the
European Commission.
The EU’s executive branch has
been tasked by member states with
ensuring the UK implements the
withdrawal agreement, including
the Northern Ireland protocol setting
out the post-Brexit border arrange-
ments. Dutch sources rejected any
suggestion the commission was being
sidelined through bilateral discus-
sions or that there was a division
among the 27 member states.
“Both the UK and EU share the
responsibility to make the protocol
as negotiated and ratified on both
sides of the Channel work for the
people in Northern Ireland,” a Dutch
diplomatic source said of last week’s
meeting between the two leaders.
The French government has in
recent days expressed its fury over
the UK’s involvement in the Aukus
security partnership with Australia
and the US, which has cost France
a €90bn submarine contract. One
French minister described Britain
as being in “vassalage” to America.
Relations are, however, at risk of
deteriorating further in the coming
months. Johnson has repeatedly
warned that the UK will not hesitate
to trigger article 16 – the override
mechanism that would suspend
parts of the Northern Ireland proto-
col, which is designed to avoid a hard
border on the island of Ireland.
He has demanded a renegotiation
of the terms of the protocol, which
effectively leaves Northern Ireland
in the single market and establishes
a customs border down the Irish sea.
The EU has refused any such nego-
tiation but is expected to offer some
solutions to other onerous checks
and paperwork. Asked on the plane
to New York whether he intended to
trigger article 16, Johnson had sug-
gested he wanted to find a pragmatic
solution, but added that “the current
situation can’t go on for ever”.
He said: “I don’t believe it’s sensi-
ble, 20% of all checks in the whole of
the perimeter of the EU are now done
in Northern Ireland. So we do need to
sort it out, we need to sort it out fast.”
Anaesthetist jailed for injecting
partner with drugs in ‘exorcism’
Sarah Marsh
An anaesthetist has been given a
14 and a half-year jail sentence for
injecting his partner with drugs dur-
ing a series of exorcism ceremonies
that left her close to death.
Dr Hossam Metwally, 61, made
dozens of recordings of himself
administering fluids through a
▲ Anaesthetist Hossam Metwally
was sentenced to 14 and a half years
cannula to Kelly Wilson, who was
left with multiple organ failure.
As he administered the drugs he
chanted as part of a “dangerous per-
version” of the Ruqya ritual – an
exorcism in Islam. He believed Wil-
son was possessed by supernatural
spirits known as jinns.
Metwally, a father of four, worked
as an anaesthetist at the Diana
Princess of Wales hospital in Grimsby
and ran his own pain clinic from his
home in the town. He had also filmed
two female patients without their
knowledge.
The doctor was sentenced at
Sheffield crown court yesterday for
endangering Wilson’s life by the
intravenous administration of anaes-
thetic drugs, the supply of various
controlled drugs or medicines,
possession of a controlled drug
with intent to supply, fraud and
voyeurism.
The court heard that Metwally
had performed more than 250 ritu-
als and made dozens of recordings
over a four-year period starting in
2016. He was arrested after Wilson fell
into a coma on 4 July 2019. A police
investigation found a “vast stock of
drugs” at his home.
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian
Commissioner urges new deal
for ‘heroic generation’ of pupils
 Continued from page 1
one in five were unhappy with their
mental health, with girls and older
children in deprived areas the worst
affected. Girls aged 16 to 17 were the
worst off, according to the survey.
De Souza’s report rejected the idea
of a “snowflake” or “lost generation”,
however, depicting the Covid cohort
instead as heroic survivors.
“This report is an appeal directly
to the government, to the Treasury,
to put children at the heart of the
recovery,” she says. “The first pri-
ority is to bolster catchup funding
for schools; we should then use this
effort to embed high-quality, early
Analysis Will another warning
on school funding be ignored?
Sally Weale
Education correspondent
F
our months after Sir
Kevan Collins quit his
role as government
education recovery tsar
in a row over funding,
the new children’s
commissioner for England has
entered the fray over how best to
help pupils catch up with learning
lost to the pandemic.
Collins, a popular and widely
respected figure in the world of
education, felt he had no choice
but to resign after his proposals for
•
National
intervention support in the long-term
– both pastorally and academically.
“Very simply, if we keep expecta-
tions high – as we must – we must also
give students the support they need
to be able to reach those standards,
especially the disadvantaged and the
vulnerable.”
De Souza wants a rapid expansion
of mental health support to provide
children with open access to NHS
services. She also calls for stronger
safeguarding from social media plat-
forms and action to prevent children
accessing pornography online.
Her intervention comes four
months after the resignation of the
education recovery commissioner,
a £15bn “landmark investment” in
teachers, tutoring and an extended
school day to rescue the country’s
battered education system were cut
back to £1.4bn, taking total catch up
funding to about £3.1bn.
The Department for Education
tried to persuade him to stay,
promising more money in the
autumn spending review but the
gulf was too vast and the money
would not get into classrooms
quickly enough, so he left.
With the spending review now
just weeks away and pressure
mounting on the chancellor, the
children’s commissioner Dame
Rachel De Souza will be hoping
Sir Kevan Collins, over the gov-
ernment’s failure to fully fund his
proposals to help children catch up.
With the comprehensive spend-
ing review weeks away, De Souza was
reluctant to put a figure on what was
▲ The report author, Rachel de Souza
her intervention, via her Big Ask
survey, will have greater success.
A former head teacher and
academy trust leader, De Souza is
thought to have a good relationship
with Conservative ministers. The
Inspiration Trust, which she led
in Norfolk and north Suffolk, was
founded by the Conservative peer
and former academies minister
Lord Agnew, while former
education secretary Michael Gove
was such a fan he told a local paper
his ideal education policy would be
to clone her “23,000 times”.
The timing may also be in
her favour, coinciding with the
appointment of a boisterous
new education secretary, Nadim
Zahawi, who will be hoping to have
more success at persuading the
Treasury to open its coffers than
predecessor Gavin Williamson.
Although she would not a put
a figure on the amount needed
 Students
take part in a
protest urging
political leaders
to take action on
climate change
PHOTOGRAPH:
PETER SUMMERS/
GETTY IMAGES
needed for catchup – but endorsed a
plan put forward this month by edu-
cation leaders who called for upwards
of £5.8bn over three years.
De Souza said: “What I’ve tried
to do is put forward some strong
ideas that come from the children
themselves.”
The report found that after men-
tal health, the top issues children
cared about were things to do in their
local area, life at school and progress
in education, while 39% of nine- to
17-year-olds said the environment
was a main concern for the future.
“This is not a ‘snowflake gener-
ation’. It is a heroic generation. A
generation of children who are vet-
erans of a global crisis,” said De Souza.
“They have seen how colossally
frightening life can be, far too young.”
Commenting on the report, the new
education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi,
said: “Too often children’s voices are
missing from national debates about
their wellbeing, but they must be
heard – and I am listening.”
to support a comprehensive
catch-up package, De Souza
expressed support for a letter sent
to government and signed by head
teachers and leaders of five major
academy trusts which called for
£5.8bn “as a bare minimum” to
support catch up.
Yesterday, the day before
publication of the Big Ask survey,
the signs were good. The launch
was marked not with a press
conference, but with a photograph
of De Souza with the new education
secretary.
“Read into that what you will,”
said one insider. “One of the things
she wanted to do was to say – ‘I’m
independent, I’m on the side of
kids and I really, really want you to
take away from this that we should
be putting them up, front and
centre as part of this recovery.” How
far the government listens remains
to be seen.
17
Ark attracts
rising tide of
interest in
climate crisis
Libby Brooks
Scotland correspondent
When Argyll and Bute council’s plan-
ning department asked David Blair if
the huge wooden ark he had raised
on a hillside overlooking the Kyles of
Bute was a permanent structure, he
did not think long about his answer.
“I told them it’s not permanent in
the same way that humanity won’t
be if we don’t take action on the cli-
mate,” says Blair with a laugh that
does not diminish the urgency of
his message.
Built from European larch, the
20-metre-long, six-metre-high boat
frame stands about half a mile up the
road from the village of Tighnabrua-
ich, on the Cowal peninsula, in a field
that Blair – a woodsman by trade – has
taken as a grazing let for a year, and
near a convenient parking spot so that
visitors can stop off to investigate.
“It is a beautiful structure, and I
hope it stands as a symbol of strength
and urgency,” he says. “I thought I’d
have to put up signs explaining it, but
its already being well visited and the
majority interpret it to be about cli-
mate change, sea levels and Cop26.”
The elegant structure was
built by Blair and other members
of Tighnabruaichs’s Extinction
Rebellion chapter over the two-week
period of the “Impossible Rebellion”,
a series of climate protests across the
UK calling for an end to investment
in fossil fuels.
With world leaders, representa-
tives from global civil society and
indigenous communities converg-
ing on Glasgow in November for the
Cop26 climate conference, Blair says
he wanted to do something “to up the
game and raise awareness”.
“I thought of an ark because we
know the story of Noah and the great
flood and I wanted to make that deep
connection with people.”
He hopes their efforts will
encourage other Scots to do
everything they can to raise the pres-
sure on decision-makers.
Blair admits there have been “a
couple of negative comments locally,
but that’s to be expected”.
As for the planning department,
Blair ponders whether his ark should
remain in situ until 2045, when the
Scottish government has pledged to
reach net zero carbon emissions.
“I hope it encourages leaders to
think big and be bold,” he says.
▲ David Blair with the ark he has
built atop a Scottish hillside

18
Comedy review
Spirituality for geezers
Russell Brand
Royal and Derngate,
Northampton
★★★☆☆
Brian Logan
A
re we here for laughs
or spiritual healing?
Both, Russell Brand
seems to think,
apologising for
the whimsy and
promising the deep stuff will be
along in a mo. But it never really is.
Yes, there are striking perspectives
from the place where Brand’s piety,
politics and sense of humour meet
– like the one about the NHS as a
matriarchal deity. And, as usual,
the jokes jostle with chat about “the
transcendence of the individual
ego”. But finally the soul searching
stalls at first base, as Brand loops
back to the sexual frustrations of
married life and nostalgia for the
narcotic frenzies of his youth.
• The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021
National
Fair enough – that’s where the
laughs are. And they’re bigger for
Brand presenting himself as this
thwarted seeker, lofty aspirations
forever betrayed by his neuroses
and carnality. If that still feels like
a small yield from the personal
tuition he’s received from Eckhart
Tolle and the Dalai Lama, well,
maybe that’s the point. From
the gap between ambition and
attainment, big, self-mocking
laughs are mined – as per Brand’s
droll routine about the parent he
thought he’d be, until reality bit.
Material on fatherhood closes
the show, as Brand’s laissez-faire
parenting goes into meltdown
on a family holiday. This is
unadventurous content, but our
host – as charismatic and animated
as ever – sells it with brio. There’s
also an account of the pandemic,
the exuberance of Brand’s ridicule
revivifying some jokes (about Jeepers creepers The listed Tu Hwnt I’r Bont Tearoom near
Dominic Cummings’ trip to Barnard Llanrwst beside the River Conwy was built as a private home
Castle, say) we’ve all heard before. in 1480 and used as a courtroom a century later. The National
At Cheltenham town hall on Trust took on the lease 50 years ago and the building’s seasonal
PHOTOGRAPH:
Thursday, then touring PETER BYRNE/PA hues have since become a favourite with visitors to Snowdonia.
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian
US to reopen to fully jabbed
UK travellers in November
 Continued from page 1
will now be able to travel to the US if
they are double-vaccinated.
Johnson said a bilateral “travel
taskforce”, which had been meeting
fortnightly since the summer, had
been “hard at it”. But his spokesman
was unable to say how it had added
any value, given the new rules apply
equally to many other countries.
The White House announced
yesterday that fully vaccinated
passengers from the UK and most
European Union countries would
be allowed to travel into the country
from early November.
The move signalled the end of a
travel ban imposed by Donald Trump
more than 18 months ago in the early
stages of the pandemic. In addition to
First in the
queue
Quinn Foakes,
15, from Leigh-
on-Sea, Essex,
yesterday
became one
of the first of
three million
UK children
aged 12 to 15 to
get a Covid-19
jab after the
programme
was extended
to include
his age group
yesterday.
PHOTOGRAPH:
GARETH FULLER/PA
Face masks
London mayor
powerless to
enforce use by
passengers
Gwyn Topham
Transport correspondent
London cannot stop “significant
numbers” of people from travel-
ling without masks, Sadiq Khan
has admitted as he appealed to the
•
News
Coronavirus
the UK and the 26 Schengen countries
in Europe, the easing of restrictions
will also apply to Ireland, China, Iran,
Brazil, South Africa and India.
It was welcomed by Johnson, who
tweeted: “It’s a fantastic boost for
business and trade, and great that
family and friends on both sides of
the pond can be reunited once again.”
No 10 is keen to showcase the
warmth of relations between the
prime minister and Biden, as well as
the strong investment links between
the two countries, when the pair meet
in Washington today.
But Johnson, who had previously
boasted of the prospects for a trans-
atlantic trade deal, told journalists it
now appeared unlikely to be immi-
nent. “The reality is that Joe has
a lot of fish to fry. He’s got a huge
government to restore the law or
assist the capital in passing a bylaw
to ensure face-coverings are used.
The London mayor spoke of
his frustration at the reduction in
compliance on the Tube and buses
since national rules changed on 19
July. Mask-wearing to tackle Covid
transmission remains a condition
of carriage on Transport for London
services, but is no longer mandatory
nationwide.
According to recent TfL figures,
just 221 people were stopped from
boarding transport services and
53 people told to get off in the first
seven weeks since 19 July, with pas-
sengers no longer facing the threat of
prosecution.
Khan said of the current regime:
“It sends mixed signals. We can’t use
infrastructure package, he’s got a
build back better package. We want to
do it, but what we want is a good free
trade agreement. And I would much
rather get a deal that really works for
the UK than get a quick deal.”
With the travel ban no longer
on the agenda, the two leaders are
expected to discuss the situation in
Afghanistan, the climate crisis, and
the need to expand vaccination to
developing countries.
Johnson will also meet Biden’s
deputy, Kamala Harris, and congres-
sional leaders, before having dinner
with his Australian counterpart, Scott
Morrison, at the Australian ambassa-
dor’s residence, after the pair signed
the Aukus defence deal last week.
Despite the chaotic withdrawal
from Afghanistan in the summer,
British Transport Police to enforce
mask-wearing and there is no pen-
alty, no fines, prosecutions.
“So what you are seeing is that
although the vast majority of Lon-
doners are doing the right thing,
significant numbers are not.”
Anecdotal reports suggest mask-
wearing on the Tube slipped rapidly
since the last official estimates from
August, when TfL said about 82% of
passengers were covering their faces.
Speaking at the opening of the new
London Underground Northern Line
extension yesterday, Khan added:
“We continue to lobby the govern-
ment to either bring back the national
requirement for wearing face masks,
so we can use police and there is con-
sistency, or help us pass a bylaw so we
can use BTP officers.
which saw the UK unsuccessful
implore Washington to delay its
departure, Johnson insisted en route
to the US that “our relations with the
USA are about as good as they have
been at any time in decades”.
The former US president Barack
Obama sparked controversy during
the Brexit referendum campaign in
2016 by claiming that leaving the EU
would put the UK at “the back of the
queue” in trade negotiations with the
US. Johnson, then London mayor, hit
back with a comment piece in which
he attributed Obama’s hostility to the
fact that he was “part-Kenyan”.
Under current policy, only US citi-
zens, their immediate families, green
card holders and those with national
interest exemptions (NIE) can travel
into the US if they have been in the
UK or EU in the previous two weeks.
The White House coronavirus
response coordinator, Jeff Zients,
said yesterday international trav-
ellers would require proof of full
vaccination before boarding a flight
and a negative Covid-19 test within 72
hours of departure. They will not be
required to quarantine upon arrival.
“To give an idea of the scale of
the challenge: we have 272 stations
and 9,000 buses and we have 400
enforcement officers.”
Since 19 July, the date on which
the government said it was lifting
the last coronavirus restrictions,
▲ Sadiq Khan expressed frustration
at the decline in mask wearing on
the tube since rules changed in July
19
Christmas
PM refuses
to rule out
disruption to
family plans
Heather Stewart
Boris Johnson has refused to guar-
antee that he will not have to disrupt
family Christmases for a second year
running by imposing Covid restric-
tions, though he insisted it is “very
much not the plan”.
Last year the prime minister
repeatedly struck an upbeat note
about Christmas before imposing
last-minute rules preventing many
people from seeing their families as
the Alpha variant spread rapidly.
This year Johnson appears to be
sticking to the government’s cautious
new line of not giving any guarantees
about what the virus response may
demand. Asked whether he would
promise not to ruin a second Christ-
mas in a row, Johnson said: “That is
very much not the plan.
“I just want to go back to what
I said about plan A and plan B,” he
added. “Plan A is what we’re on, and
plan B is what we might have to do.
It’s a graduated series of steps and we
certainly don’t want or expect to have
to do anything like last Christmas.”
Last week the government set out
“plan A” for managing the pandemic
in winter, involving boosters for over-
50s and jabs for 12- 15-years-olds.
Ministers set out contingency plans,
including potentially making masks
mandatory in some settings and rein-
stating work from home advice.
The NHS has announced that 1.5
million people will be contacted this
week inviting them to book in their
booster vaccinations.
There was no mention in the plans
of lockdowns, and the government
is confident it can manage without
them, given high vaccination rates.
But the plan warned: “There remains
considerable uncertainty, and sce-
narios which place the NHS under
extreme and unsustainable pressure
remain plausible.”
passengers on transport services such
as national rail have been “expected”
to wear masks in closed and crowded
carriages but it has been an individual
choice. Industry research has shown
the risk of contagion on trains is far
higher without masks.
Andy Lord, managing director of
London Underground, said com-
pliance was “reasonably high” but
there were hotspots where people did
not wear masks. “It would be really
helpful if there was a consistent pol-
icy across transport but that’s up to
the government,” he said. “At TfL we
think it’s important that people their
face-coverings.”
Recent Office for National Statis-
tics figures suggested that more than
4 million people have stopped wear-
ing masks altogether.
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian
Maternity units too
slow to learn from
scandals – watchdog
Denis Campbell
Health policy editor
Babies and mothers are at risk of
injury and death because too many
maternity units have not improved
despite a string of childbirth scan-
dals, the NHS watchdog warns today.
In a highly critical report the Care
Quality Commission (CQC) voices
serious concern that lessons are not
being learned and that many inci-
dents involving patients’ safety are
still not being recorded.
Some hospitals have been too
slow to take the steps needed to
make labour and birth safer, despite
multiple inquiries, reports and rec-
ommendations to do so, it says.
The CQC also found other persis-
tent weaknesses in maternity care
including difficulties between obstet-
ric doctors and midwives, and poor
oversight of risks to patients, during
an in-depth inspection of maternity
care at nine hospitals in England.
The NHS has been criticised for
major maternity scandals involving
poor care, which sometimes gone
on for many years, at trusts such
as Morecambe Bay, East Kent, and
Shrewsbury and Telford.
The NHS in England has been
under pressure from the govern-
ment, NHS leaders and patients for
many years to overhaul maternity
safety to reduce the number of babies
being left brain damaged or dead, and
mothers injured or dead as a result of
poor care during childbirth.
The watchdog also criticised
hospitals for doing too little to seek
the views from black and minority
ethnic as well as poorer communities
about how to improve their experi-
ence of giving birth.
•
National
Studies show black women are
four times more likely to die in child-
birth than white women, and Asian
women are twice as likely.
“We know that many maternity
services are providing good care
but we remain concerned that there
has not been enough learning from
good and outstanding services,”
said Ted Baker, the chief inspector
of hospitals.
He stressed that the CQC’s find-
ings were not representative of the
quality and safety of maternity care
across England as a whole, because
the nine hospitals it visited were
chosen because evidence suggested
patients were being put at risk.
He added: “But we cannot ignore
the fact that the quality of staff train-
ing; poor working relationships
between obstetric and midwifery
teams, and hospital and commu-
nity-based midwifery teams; a lack
of robust risk assessment; and a fail-
ure to engage with and listen to the
needs of local women all continue
to affect the safety of some hospital
maternity services today.
“The death or injury of a new baby
or mother is devastating and some-
thing that everyone working in the
health and care system has a respon-
sibility to do all they can to prevent.”
An NHS spokesperson said: “The
NHS is committed to providing safe,
compassionate maternity services,
and has invested an additional £95m
into workforce numbers and training
programmes to improve leadership.
“We continue to tackle poorer
outcomes including by introduc-
ing our new equality strategy and
fast-tracking our continuity of carer
programme, which is proven to
significantly improve their overall
experience of care.”
Lizard is star
of the show
at eco-friendly
Chelsea garden
Helena Horton
Visitors to Chelsea flower show come
from all over the country and range
from senior royals to interested gar-
deners looking for some new plants.
This year, however, there has been
a rather special guest – a common
brown lizard. Gardeners at the Yeo
Valley Organic display were delighted
to find it in a pile of logs.
In the past, Chelsea was known as
a showcase of perfectly manicured
lawns and prize-winning blooms. But
there is now a clear trend towards
nature-friendly gardening.
This has been controversial, with
▼ Daisy Desire, the drag queen
gardener, meets actor Judi Dench at
the Chelsea Flower Show yesterday
PHOTOGRAPH: CHARLOTTE GRAHAM/REX
veteran gardeners including the
Royal Horticultural Society rose
expert Charles Quest-Ritson argu-
ing that people do not attend flower
shows to see piles of logs and patches
of nettles. He believes prizes should
not be given for “weeds”.
But Quest-Ritson is in the minority,
and this year’s show features mul-
titudes of nature and eco-friendly
gardens including a Cop26 garden
and a woodland planting supported
by Prince Charles, which urges visi-
tors to “plant a tree for the Queen”.
Yeo Valley Organic’s garden is built
to attract amphibians and reptiles,
as well as pollinators and insects.
Spotted … the
stowaway lizard
21
It seems to have achieved that aim,
with the lizard making itself at home.
Sarah Mead, who created the Yeo
Valley Organic garden, which is a per-
manent fixture at the company’s farm
in Somerset, said there had been a
discussion about whether the liz-
ard had hitchhiked from the farm,
or whether had it crawled in as a rare
example of a London lizard.
But it’s identity is not in doubt.
“It’s definitely a common brown liz-
ard – there are lots of them in the West
Country so we are sure it came down
from Yeo Valley in Somerset among
the stone that was transported from
the farm. As lizards are cold-blooded,
they like the cool stone.”
The gardeners have enlisted
experts from the Wildlife Trusts to
help them keep the lizard comforta-
ble at the busy show and teach them
more about it.
Features of the Somerset garden
include an open perennial meadow
with flowering plants and a glade
of silver birch. The design features
charred logs as garden markers and
rammed earth walls, both highlight-
ing the importance of soil health.
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian •

National 23

Young cancer Andrew Gregory

Health editor
There is international consen-
sus that help should be provided to
cancer patients at risk of losing their
ensure that NHS funding is availa-
ble for all to provide the appropriate
security and hope for these individ-
However, not one of the centres in
the Midlands and the east of England
had referred a patient for mature egg
patients face Children and young people with
fertility. Clinical guidelines recom-
mend freezing or storage of ovarian
uals while permitting delivery of
accepted and NHS mandated stand-
storage, while only one in four in the
south of England, half in the north of
‘inequality in cancer face a postcode lottery for
services to preserve their fertility, a
tissue or eggs, and testicular tissue
or sperm is offered to children and
ards of care,” said the lead author,
Prof Adam Glaser, from Leeds teach-
England, and six out of 10 of centres
in the devolved nations, had done so.

provision of report has revealed.

Treatments for childhood cancer
have improved dramatically over
fertility care’ the past 50 years, and more than
80% of patients will live for decades.
However, one in five are likely to have
fertility problems as adults as a result
of the disease or treatment.
teenagers whose fertility may be
impaired.
But research, published in the
journal Archives of Disease in Child-
hood, has discovered wide variation
in the provision of funding for these
services in the UK.
“Urgent action is required to
ing hospitals NHS trust.
Researchers investigated access to
fertility services and funding for these
treatments at the UK’s 20 paediatric
cancer units. Of the 18 that replied to
the survey, all had referred at least
some patients for fertility preserva-
tion in the previous 12 months.
“Inequality exists in provision
of fertility preservation for chil-
dren with cancer across the UK,” the
researchers said.
“There is lack of formalised
government funding to support inter-
national guidelines, with resultant
geographical variation in care.”

 Rosie Duffield,
has decided
not to attend
Labour’s annual
conference over
fears of being
targeted for her
views on trans
rights

MP calls for talks with

Starmer over Labour’s
trans rights policy
Peter Walker
Political correspondent
Rosie Duffield has called for Keir
Starmer to meet her and other female
Labour MPs to discuss the party’s
policy on transgender issues. She
also confirmed she will not attend
Labour’s annual conference over
worries she could face abuse because
of her views on the subject.
“I took the decision a few weeks
ago not to go,” the Canterbury MP
told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“I didn’t want to be the centre of
attention. This is Keir Starmer’s first
conference speech since the pan-
demic. I think it’s really important
we focus on that and the policies that
emerge from conference. I really did
not want to be the news story.”
Saying she had received some
“pretty unpleasant” threats online,
and had contacted the police, Duffield
was worried about being targeted at
the party conference in Brighton,
which begins on Sunday.
“It’s hard to know how serious to
take threats by people who post them
online. But they’re pretty awful, and
I did not want to subject myself and
other people to that kind of abuse,”
she said.
“I’m not imagining they’re neces-
sarily going to physically harm me,
but the kind of level of vitriol is pretty
‘The kind of level
of vitriol is pretty
horrible’
Rosie Duffield
Canterbury MP
horrible, and I didn’t feel like I wanted
to go through that, to be honest.”
Duffield said she hoped to have a
meeting with Starmer, and that others
sought this too. “Lots of women have
been asking to meet with Starmer, in
groups or one to one, about this issue.
Obviously he’s incredibly busy, but
it would be good to just clarify what
our position is as a party, and just
to discuss how we go forward with
this issue.”
Asked what the response had been,
Duffield said: “He’s always positive
about trying to organise a meeting
but it just hasn’t happened yet.”
The Canterbury MP has become a
focal point for criticism from some
LGBT groups in Labour for actions
such as liking a tweet that said “indi-
viduals with a cervix” should instead
be referred to as “women”.
In July, Labour LGBT groups called
for the party to investigate her after
she liked a tweet from a gay US rapper
which complained about trans groups
appropriating the word “queer” and
described them as “mostly hetero-
sexuals cosplaying [costume playing]
as the opposite sex and as gay”.
Asked if she accepted that liking
the latter tweet could have inflamed
the debate, Duffield defended her
decision, saying the tweet’s author,
whom she knew via social media, was
“incredibly distressed and insulted”
about what he felt was the appropria-
tion of gay culture, adding: “I think he
has a valid right to talk about it with-
out being cancelled.”
Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor
of London, and Pat McFadden, a
shadow Treasury minister, have
expressed concern that Duffield
feels she cannot go to conference,
although neither has endorsed her
stance on trans issues.

26
France to punish Australia
over Aukus pact by trying to
delay trade deal with the EU
Patrick Wintour
Diplomatic editor
France is seeking to enlist European
Union support to delay a planned EU-
Australia trade deal as part of a plan to
punish Australia for what it regards as
serial deceit and subterfuge by Can-
berra before it cancelled the contract
for 12 attack class French submarines.
The A$90bn (£48bn) submarine
contract was the centrepiece of
French-Australian co-operation in
the Indo-Pacific, but the Australians
have instead opted to form a US-UK-
Australia pact, dubbed Aukus, and
build eight nuclear-powered subma-
rines likely to be delivered between
2030 and 2040. The EU Commission
president, Ursula von der Leyen,
weighed into the diplomatic row
yesterday, saying France had been
•••
treated unacceptably by the US,
Australia and the UK, adding many
questions remained unanswered. EU
foreign ministers were due to discuss
the crisis at talks on the sidelines of
the UN general assembly in New York.
The next round of EU-Australia
trade talks are due next month. It
remains to be seen how deeply other
EU states wish to become embroiled
in the fallout from the French loss of
a commercial contract.
The Australian trade minister Dan
Tehan denied the security row would
spill into the planned free trade deal
with Australia’s third largest trading
partner. “It’s just very much business
as usual when it comes to our negoti-
ations on that free trade agreement,”
he said. “Everything points to the fact
that it’s in both the European Union
and Australia’s interests that we con-
tinue that FTA.”
The French have recalled its
ambassadors to Washington and Can-
berra in an unprecedented protest
and its defence minister, Florence
Parly, has postponed a planned meet-
ing this week with the British defence
secretary, Ben Wallace.
A planned phone call between
the US president, Joe Biden, and
the French president, Emmanuel
Macron, requested by Biden, has not
yet been put into diaries.
In New York, France’s foreign min-
ister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said he
had no plans to meet his US coun-
terpart, Tony Blinken, at the UN
general assembly this week, unless
they bumped into one another “in a
corridor”. It was now up to Europe
to define its own Indo-Pacific strat-
egy as an alternative to the US-driven
approach, which he warned was lead-
ing to confrontation with China.
The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021
‘Australians died defending your soil’
Acting PM rejects French anger over submarine deal
Barnaby Joyce, Australia’s acting
prime minister, has said his
country has no need to prove itself
as an ally of France, because of
the sacrifices made by Australian
soldiers in both world wars.
The French government’s
anger at the announcement
of the strategic partnership
between Australia, the US and
the UK, known as Aukus, and
the subsequent cancellation of a
French-Australian submarine deal
worth £48bn, has shown no signs
of abating. The French ambassador
to Australia said his nation felt it
had been “fooled”.
Joyce said: “We have tens of
thousands of Australians who
died protecting French soil from
the countries that surround them,
both in the first world war and the
second world war. I never expected
they came with a price.”
Joyce made the comments after
the prime minister, Scott Morrison,
flew to meet the US president,
Joe Biden. Australia’s decision to
scrap the contract and enter Aukus
“blindsided” the French, who said
they were left in the dark until the
very last minute. France recalled
▲ Joe Biden
hosts a
videoconference
with Scott
Morrison, the
Australian PM,
left, and Boris
Johnson from
the White House
PHOTOGRAPH: DOUG
MILLS/NEW YORK
TIMES/REDUX
 HMS Queen
Elizabeth draws
a crowd as it
leaves Tokyo
Bay after joint-
exercises this
month with
Japanese, Dutch
and US forces
PHOTOGRAPH: YUICHI
YAMAZAKI/GETTY
its ambassador over the decision
and has made no secret of its anger,
questioning Australia’s treatment
of its allies, while cancelling a
defence summit with the UK.
Meanwhile, Australia’s
diplomats are working to ease
tensions over the Aukus deal in
the Indo-Pacific, with several of
Australia’s partners expressing
concern about what the “forever
partnership” means for the region.
Australia’s ambassador to the
Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (Asean), Will Nankervis,
is seeking to reassure regional
partners, including Indonesia
and Malaysia, that Aukus did not
mean a ramping up of defence
infrastructure. “Our commitment
to Asean centrality remains as
steadfast as ever following the
announcement that we will
create [Aukus which] will allow
us to better share technology
and capability,” he said. “It is
not a defence alliance or pact.”
Nankervis reiterated that Australia
would not host nuclear weapons,
despite the possibility of Australia
purchasing nuclear-powered
submarines. Amy Remeikis
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian
Paul Rusesabagina
Conviction for Hotel
Rwanda hero
Page 29
“The Europeans have their own
fundamental interest,” Le Drian said.
“These may not be in contradiction
with those of the United States but
we need to talk about it.”
Macron, facing re-election next
year, was remaining silent about the
humiliation inflicted on his country.
But lawyers acting for the French
government and the state-backed
Naval Group are already preparing
a massive compensation claim that
will turn on the flexibility and break
clauses written into the contract first
signed in 2016. Other French options
include selling nuclear-powered sub-
marines to India, or persuading the
US, Australia and the UK to let them
join the Aukus pact, and even play a
role in building the submarines.
Boris Johnson insisted the pact,
due to extend beyond submarine
manufacture to AI and robotics, was
not intended to be exclusionary.
“The UK and France have a very, very
important, indestructible relation-
ship, and of course we will be talking
to all our friends about how to make
the Aukus pact work so that it is not
exclusionary, not divisive, and it
really does not have to be that way”.
Wallace, speaking in the Com-
mons, sought to soothe the French:
“There is no absolutely no intent
here by the UK government to slight,
upset or drive a wedge between us
and France. There was no sneakiness
behind the back.”
The French say no mention of the
planned cancellation of the contract
was made by the UK when Wallace
and then foreign secretary Dominic
Raab met their French counterparts
in Paris to discuss their “separate
responsibilities” in the Indo-Pacific.
The value of Johnson’s words
may be reduced in French eyes
by his choice to celebrate the new
pact by dining tonight at the Aus-
tralian ambassador’s residence in
Washington.
The French insist that despite
direct inquiries of Australian min-
isters, they were never given any
private warning that the contract
was so close to being torn up. Aus-
tralia says it was a matter of public
record, that the government was con-
sidering a Plan B due to inadequacies
in the French-designed submarine.
France believes the US actively
encouraged Australia to drop the
French contract by making the
unprecedented offer to share its
nuclear-powered technology.
•••
Hall of shame
Contest celebrates
China’s ugly buildings
Page 32
China seas crisis
Japan urges Europe to
fight Beijing expansion
amid ‘hot conflict’ fears
Helen Davidson
Taipei
apan has urged European
J
countries to speak out
against China’s aggression,
warning that the
international community
must bolster deterrence
efforts against Beijing’s military
and territorial expansion amid a
growing risk of a hot conflict.
Japan’s defence minister, Nobuo
Kishi, said China had become
increasingly powerful politically,
economically and militarily and
was “attempting to use its power to
unilaterally change the status quo
in the East and South China seas”,
which are crucial to global shipping
and include waters and islands
claimed by several other nations.
Tokyo had “strong concerns in
regards to the safety and security
of not only our own country
and the region but for the global
community”, Kishi warned. “China
is strengthening its military power
both in terms of quantity and
quality, and rapidly improving its
operational capability.”
Kishi’s comments are a strong
signal of the rising international
concern over China’s military
ambitions in disputed regions
including the Indian border and,
in particular, Taiwan. His remarks
China
India
Dozens were killed in clashes
along the disputed border in
June 2020
South China Sea
China has claimed sovereignty
over waters and features within
what it calls the ‘nine dash line’,
but The Hague found there was
no legal basis for the claim
Indian Ocean
were echoed by senior figures on
the island. The comments come
amid fresh tensions over a new
trilateral security partnership,
under which the US and UK will
give Australia the technology to
build nuclear-powered submarines.
Kishi, who spoke before the
new security pact was revealed,
said Japan had gained the
understanding and cooperation of
many countries, but far more was
needed to counter Beijing. He said
the European parliament, as well as
the UK, France, Germany and the
Netherlands, had shown interest in
supporting “a free and open Indo-
Pacific”, but “it is important for
many countries to speak out about
the situation, and this itself will
become a deterrent”.
According to figures released by
Japan’s coastguard, the number
of incursions by Chinese vessels
into disputed areas has increased
dramatically since 2012. Earlier
this year Chinese vessels were seen
near the Japanese-administered
Senkaku Islands for a record 157
days in a row, and Japan recently
lodged formal protest over a flotilla
of seven Chinese coastguard
vessels patrolling the contiguous
zone on 30 August.
Japan has become significantly
more vocal in recent months,
calling for greater engagement
in resisting what it calls Chinese
Beijing
Taiwan Strait
China is increasing activity Yellow
in the strait, sending ships Sea
and planes towards Taiwan
East
Taiwan China
Beijing considers Matsu Sea
Taiwan a province
of China Kinmen
Senkaku
Islands
South
China
Sea
Whitsun Nine dash line
Reef
expansionism. The outgoing
prime minister, Yoshihide Suga,
was due to travel to Washington
yesterday to attend a summit with
representatives from the US, India
and Australia.
The US has increased its
presence in the region, issuing
warnings to China and pledging
support to those targeted. The UK
has also announced a permanent
military presence in the Indo-
Pacific and recently led a carrier
strike group – including Britain’s
largest warship and Dutch and US
assets – to participate in exercises.
In April, the EU declared tensions
in the South China Sea were
threatening regional peace and
stability, while French warships
have participated in exercises with
the US and Japan, and Germany
recently sent a warship for the first
time in two decades.
Kishi said he had met recently
with several foreign counterparts,
including from the UK, and “shared
that what is happening in the East
China Sea and the South China Sea
▲ Nobuo Kishi’s comments signal
concern over China’s ambitions
‘China is attempting
to change the status
quo in the East and
South China seas’
Nobuo Kishi
Japan’s defence minister
Sea of
Japan
Japan
East China Sea
The Japan-controlled Senkaku
(or Diaoyu) islands are also
claimed by China and Taiwan
The Philippines
In May 2021 the Philippines
reported repeated illegal
‘incursions’ by what it said
were hundreds of fishing boats
carrying Chinese maritime
militia
Pacific Ocean
27
is not only a regional problem, but
at the same time also a problem for
the international community.”
China has increased the budget
of the People’s Liberation Army
annually for the past two decades,
building up coastal infrastructure
and other capabilities. Recent
reports have also said it is building
hundreds of missile silos in its
deserts and converting passenger
ferries for military amphibious lift
– a key defence capability in which
analysts had until now said China
was well behind.
Beijing says it pursues a military
policy that is “defensive in nature”.
“We do not intend to and will
not pose a threat to any country,”
spokesperson Hua Chunying said.
“Compared with 20, 10 or even
five years ago, Beijing just has
more tools – missiles, warplanes,
aircraft carriers,” said Carl Minzner,
a senior fellow at the Council on
Foreign Relations in New York.
The PLA has increased military
drills and intimidatory sorties into
Taiwan’s air defence identification
zone, clashed with Indian troops
in border regions, and amended
coastguard law to justify weapon
use against other vessels.
It has ignored a 2016 ruling by
The Hague that there is no legal
basis to its South China Sea claims,
and continued building artificial
geographic structures, inflaming
tensions with other claimants.
Earlier this year the PLA sent
hundreds of fishing boats carrying
alleged militia to Philippines-
claimed islands.
“These Chinese military trends,
including the rapid strengthening,
increasing activity and expansion
of its operational capabilities,
combined with the lack of
transparency regarding its defence
policy and military capabilities,
have become a strong security
concern for Japan, the region and
the international community,”
warned Kishi.
The PLA and Chinese coastguard
frequently enter the waters around
the disputed Senkakus – or Diaoyu
islands in Chinese – and into
Japan’s air defence identification
zone, prompting the immediate
scrambling of Japanese jets.
Kishi said Japan would take
“all measures against airspace
incursions in accordance with
international law and the Japanese
Self-Defense Forces Act”, and
that the “incursions” around the
Senkakus were “very regrettable”
violations of international law
which “must not be tolerated”.
Frank communication doesn’t
appear to be working, critics say.
China has ratcheted up its grey
zone tactics: coercive activities
which deliberately don’t meet the
threshold for an act of war, but
serve to exhaust and intimidate.
“It is generally acknowledged
that grey zone activities have the
risk of leading to a larger military
conflict,” Kishi warned. “A calm yet
robust stance is required in order to
prevent such a situation.”
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian
Hunt for fiance of US ‘van life’ blogger
as FBI say body found is probably hers
Peter Beaumont
Police yesterday searched the Flor-
ida home of Brian Laundrie, the man
wanted for questioning in the disap-
pearance of his fiancee, Gabby Petito,
whose body was apparently discov-
ered on Sunday in a national park in
Wyoming.
Video showed at least a dozen
officers, including one wearing an
FBI jacket, pulling up to the house
in North Port and rushing inside.
The officers served a search warrant.
Local media reported that Laun-
drie’s parents were seen getting into
a police van.
The disappearance of Petito, 22,
during a four-month cross-coun-
try trip by van has captivated the US
media. Laundrie had returned alone
and declined to be interviewed by
police after the alarm was raised by
her family.
Laundrie, 23, was reported miss-
ing by his parents on Friday.
Interest in the case has been fuelled
by the apparent disconnect between
idealised images the couple had pro-
moted on their social media accounts
and the more fractious reality that has
emerged from police body cam foot-
age of an encounter with the couple
during a fight between the pair.
Human remains, which the FBI has
indicated were most likely Petito’s,
were found in Bridger-Teton national
forest on the east boundary of Wyo-
ming’s Grand Teton national park.
The body recovered on Sunday
resembles Petito’s description, but
a cause of death has yet to be deter-
mined, said FBI agent Charles Jones.
Jones said Petito’s family had
been notified of the discovery, but
that authorities would not be able to
confirm that the body was her until
after forensic analysis.
“On behalf of the FBI personnel
and our partners, I would like to
extend sincere and heartfelt condo-
lences to Gabby’s family,” said Jones.
Hero of Hotel Rwanda film jailed
for 25 years on terrorism charges
Jason Burke
Paul Rusesabagina, a businessman
whose role in saving more than
1,000 lives during the 1994 genocide
inspired the film Hotel Rwanda, has
been sentenced to 25 years in prison
after being convicted of terrorism
offences by a court in Rwanda’s cap-
ital, Kigali.
The 67-year-old was found guilty
yesterday after a seven-month trial
and faces a life sentence. Rwandan
authorities accused Rusesabagina
of being “the founder, leader, spon-
sor and member of violent, armed,
•
World
▲ Paul Rusesabagina helped save
1,200 people during the genocide
extremist terror outfits … operating
out of various places in the region and
abroad.” He denied all the charges
against him.
Prosecutors sought a life sentence,
but the judge Beatrice Mukamurenzi
said the term “should be reduced to 25
years” as it was for a first conviction.
Rusesabagina was arrested in
Kigali in August 2020 after a sophis-
ticated operation to lure him back to
Rwanda from exile in the US. He had
travelled to Dubai where he boarded
a private jet that he believed would
take him to a meeting in Burundi but
which landed instead in Kigali.
The abduction was aimed at
silencing Rusesabagina’s outspoken
criticism of Rwanda’s veteran presi-
dent, Paul Kagame, supporters of the
former hotelier say. “We knew from
the day he was kidnapped that the
verdict would be ‘guilty’ on some or
all of the false charges,” the family
29
“As every parent can imagine, this
is an incredibly difficult time for the
family and friends.”
Petito contacted her family last
month to inform them that she was
in Grand Teton, and authorities say
she had not been heard from since.
Laundrie had returned alone to
their home in Florida on 1 September
and 10 days later Petito’s family filed
a missing persons report. Underlin-
ing the mystery had been the release
last week by police in Utah of video
of a traffic stop of the couple, which
showed Petito weeping.
Laundrie had acknowledged that
the couple had scuffled after he got
into the van with dirty feet, and
described the “emotional strain” of
sharing the small space of their van.
However, both asked the police to
treat the incident as a “mental/emo-
tional health break” rather than as a
domestic assault, with Petito saying
she suffered from anxiety.
Authorities had previously
expressed “frustration” about not
being able to speak to Laundrie, who
police had identified as a person of
interest in the case.
According to local police and the
FBI, Laundrie, who had declined to
be interviewed about Petito’s dis-
appearance through a lawyer, went
missing over the weekend, with offic-
ers searching a large nature reserve in
Florida among other locations.
The body was found after police
focused their search on the Spread
Creek Road dispersed camp in Grand
Teton national park, one of sev-
eral that Petito had said the couple
 A coroner’s ▲ Gabby Petito planned to visit.
vehicle in the and fiance Brian The search of the campsite came
area where a Laundrie had after another couple, Jenn and Kyle
body matching posted glowing Bethune, posted video describing
Petito’s images of their coming across a vehicle similar to
description downsized life that owned by Petito and Laundrie
was found in on the road in August.
Wyoming’s PHOTOGRAPHS: “This is at the Spread Creek dis-
Grand Teton AMBER BAESLER/PA persed camping area,” said Bethune,
NOMADICSTATIK/
national park UNPIXS (EUROPE) narrating the video he posted on
Saturday night. “We got there and
there was a huge gravel lot and we
‘I would like to extend decided we wanted to try to drive
more toward the back.”
sincere and heartfelt His wife continued: “And we came
condolences to across a white van that had Florida
plates, a small white van. We were
Gabby’s family’ going to stop and say hi because we’re
from Florida too, but the van was
completely dark there was nobody
Charles Jones there so we decided to continue on
FBI agent our way.”
of Rusesabagina said in a statement victims were ethnic Tutsis but some
after the verdict.
Yolande Makolo, a spokesperson
were moderate Hutus.
The 2004 film told the story of
for the Rwandan government, said
the trial had “exposed the terrorist
how Rusesabagina used his influence
and bribery to save the lives of 1,200
activities of the FLN group led by people who sheltered at the Mille
Rusesabagina”. Collines hotel in the capital during
Kagame, who won a third term in the worst of the massacres.
power with 98% of the vote in elec- Rusesabagina became disillu-
tions in 2017, is a polarising figure sioned with the new Tutsi-dominated
credited with the stability Rwanda government led by Kagame, the rebel
has experienced since the genocide leader turned president whose forces
but is also accused of intolerance. ended the mass killings, and he left
Several unsolved murders of Rwan- Rwanda in 1996, fleeing to Belgium
dan dissidents in African countries and the US.
have been blamed on Kigali, though In 2004 Don Cheadle played Rus-
Kagame’s government has strenu- esabagina, a moderate Hutu, in the
ously denied any responsibility. Oscar-nominated blockbuster. The
Rusesabagina was the general Rwandan government disputes Ruse-
manager of a luxury hotel in Kigali sabagina’s story about saving people
during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. during the genocide. Ibuka, a Rwan-
An estimated 800,000 people were dan genocide survivors’ group, has
killed with knives, clubs and other said Rusesabagina exaggerated his
weapons in the genocide. Most of the role in helping people escape.

30
Migrant
expulsions
A border patrol
agent tries to
stop Haitians
entering an
encampment
in Del Rio,
Texas. The
US has begun
deporting
Haitians, in
what could be
the swiftest
expulsions
of migrants
in decades.
PHOTOGRAPH:
PAUL RATJE/AFP/GETTY
Mexican authorities
failing women as 10
a day die in femicide
epidemic, says report
David Agren
Mexico City
At least ten women and girls are mur-
dered every day in Mexico, according
to a report which said that victims’
families are often left to carry out
their own homicide investigations.
The scathing findings, released
yesterday by Amnesty Interna-
tional, document both the scale of
the violence and the disturbing lack
of interest on the part of Mexican
authorities to prevent or solve the
murders.
“Mexico is continuing to fail to
fulfil its duty to investigate and,
therefore, its duty to guarantee the
rights to life and personal integrity
of the victims as well as to prevent
violence against women,” said the
report, Justice on Trial.
“Feminicidal violence and the fail-
ings in investigation and prevention
in northern Mexico are not anecdo-
tal, but rather form part of a broader
reality in the country,” it added.
Femicide has been rife in Mexico
for decades – most notoriously in an
epidemic of murders which claimed
 Women hold up crosses with
slogans reading ‘Not one more’ at a
memorial for victims of femicide
PHOTOGRAPH: MAHE ELIPE/REUTERS
• The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021
World
the life of more than 400 women in
the border city Ciudad Juárez dur-
ing the 1990s.
In recent years, a growing feminist
movement has held massive street
protests against the violence, but
authorities have proved unwilling to
take action to stop the killing. “It’s
always a question of political will,”
said Maricruz Ocampo, a women’s
activist in the state of Querétaro.
Ocampo has been part of teams
lobbying state governors to issue an
alert when femicides reach scandal-
ously high levels – to raise awareness
and mobilise resources. But officials
often resist such moves, she says, as
‘The authorities say governors worry about their states’
image. “They refuse to recognise
it is organised crime there is a problem,” she said.
and that’s that. Many President Andrés Manuel López
of these aggressors Obrador has also downplayed the
problem. When asked last year about
find protection under rising violence against women, he
responded: “Tell all the women of
that excuse’ Mexico that they are protected and
represented, that we’re doing eve-
rything possible to guarantee peace
Yolotzin Jaimes and quiet, and that I understand that
Women’s rights activist our adversaries are looking for ways
to confront us.” Mexico recorded
the murders of 3,723 women in
2020. Some 940 were investigated
as femicides.
The Amnesty report focused on
Mexico State, a vast collection of
suburbs surrounding Mexico City. It
has become notorious for femicides
– and for the way former president
Enrique Peña Nieto, a former Mexico
state governor, ignored the problem.
The report found cases of fami-
lies carrying out their own detective
work, which were ignored by inves-
tigators. In many cases, authorities
contaminated crime scenes or mis-
handled evidence. They often didn’t
pursue leads such as information
from victims’ mobile phones.
Julia Sosa’s children believe she
was killed by her partner. Her two
daughters found her body buried on
the suspect’s property – but had to
wait hours for police to arrive and
process the crime scene. One recalled
the subsequent interview process, in
which “the officer was falling asleep”.
Sosa’s partner hanged himself,
prompting police to close the case,
even though family members said
there were more leads to pursue.
In states rife with drug cartel vio-
lence, activists say cases of femicides
go uninvestigated as impunity is
commonplace. “The authorities say
it’s organised crime and that’s it,” said
Yolotzin Jaimes, a campaigner in the
state of Guerrero. “Many of these
aggressors find protection under the
excuse of organised crime.”
The persistence of femicide is in
stark contrast to recent gains by the
women’s rights movement in Mex-
ico, where the country’s supreme
court decriminalised abortion ear-
lier this month. A new congress
recently sworn-in has gender parity,
and seven female governors will be
installed by the end of year – up from
just two prior to last June’s election’s.
“But when it comes to violence, we
still see it everywhere,” Ocampo said.
In brief
Italy
Prison inmate fires gun
‘smuggled in by drone’
An Italian prisoner has shot at
fellow inmates through the bars of
his cell with a weapon believed to
have been smuggled in by drone.
The 28-year-old man, who has
links to the Neapolitan mafia, fired
three shots on Sunday but no one
was hurt, said Donato Capece, the
head of the Sappe prison union.
The man’s lawyer advised him
to turn his weapon over to the
authorities in the prison, about
60 miles south-east of Rome. “We
assume that the weapon arrived by
drone,” Capece said.
Italy has the most crowded jails
in the EU, with 120 prisoners per
100 normal-capacity beds. AFP
New Zealand
Auckland to ease Covid
lockdown restrictions
After nearly five weeks in
lockdown Auckland will move
out of the highest setting, New
Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda
Ardern, has said, adding she was
confident there was no undetected
transmission of the Delta variant
in the community. “Level 4 has
done what we needed to do – it has
helped us contain the outbreak,”
Ardern said. New Zealand recorded
22 new cases of coronavirus in the
community yesterday. Almost all
cases of the last 14 days have been
known contacts. Level 3 allows
people to expand their bubbles
and more businesses can provide
deliveries. Eva Corlett Wellington
Russia
Gunman kills eight in
university shooting
A gunman has opened fire at a
university in Russia, leaving eight
dead and 24 injured. The suspect
was detained after the shooting
at Perm State University, pictured
below, yesterday, according to the
interior ministry. The Tass state
news agency cited an unnamed
source in law enforcement as
saying that some students jumped
out of windows during the attack.
The attacker used a gun designed
to fire non-lethal projectiles, the
university press service said.
The state news agency RIA-Novosti
cited local officials as saying
the gunman owned the weapon
legally. AP Moscow
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian
Putin party set to run Duma
amid claims of vote rigging
Andrew Roth
Moscow correspondent
The ruling United Russia party, which
supports the president, Vladimir
Putin, appears poised to main-
tain a constitutional majority in
the state parliament, mysteriously
outperforming its sluggish polling
numbers in an election marred by
accusations of vote rigging.
With more than 99% of the votes
counted, United Russia held nearly
50% of the parliamentary vote,
according to government results.
But election officials said the party
was also winning 198 of the 225 first-
past-the-post districts, meaning it
will continue to hold a two-thirds
majority and can enact Krem-
lin policy including changes to the
constitution.
The Communist party was in
second place with 19.41%, a boost
from previous elections due to
Spain seeks
to reassure
tourists as
thousands
flee volcano
Sam Jones
Madrid
Spain’s tourism minister has been
accused of insensitivity after
suggesting a devastating and ongoing
volcanic eruption on the Canary
island of La Palma could be used as
an “attraction” to lure visitors to the
archipelago.
About 5,500 people have been
evacuated and at least 120 homes
destroyed following the eruption,
which came after more than 22,000
tremors were reported within a
week in the Cumbre Vieja mountain
range, one of the most active volcanic
regions in the islands.
Speaking yesterday, Reyes Maroto
said the government wanted to reas-
sure tourists already on La Palma – or
headed there – that the island was
still safe despite the eruption, which
began on Sunday afternoon.
“The most important thing right
now is reassuring tourists who have
been affected, and also those who
may be travelling to the island today
or during the course of the week,”
Maroto told Canal Sur radio.
“We’re providing information so
that tourists can travel to the island
and witness something undoubtedly
unprecedented for themselves.
“That information will let tourists
know that the island is open and also
•
World
considerable anger with the gov-
ernment over rising prices, stagnant
wages and the government’s erratic
coronavirus response. Communist
candidates in Moscow called for pro-
test after online voting results flipped
races in eight of 15 Moscow districts
toward pro-Kremlin candidates.
Two or three other parties that
regularly agree with the Kremlin on
key issues will also join a Duma dom-
inated by United Russia.
A Foreign Office spokesman said
Russia had sought to “marginalise
civil society, silence independent
media and exclude genuine opposi-
tion candidates from participating”
in “a serious step back for democratic
freedoms”.
The US State Department spokes-
man Ned Price said the vote “took
place under conditions not condu-
cive to free and fair proceedings”
and said that Washington would not
recognise the results of votes held
in Crimea, which was annexed from
▲ A house burns in the Cumbre Vieja
national park, top, while lava flows
through Los Llanos de Aridane
PHOTOGRAPHS: BORJA SUAREZ/REUTERS
DESIREE MARTIN/AFP
120
The number of houses that have
been destroyed thus far by the
volcanic eruption on La Palma
▲ Moscow officials greet United
Russia supporters at the party’s HQ
Ukraine in 2014. The UK also con-
demned Russia for holding elections
“on Ukraine’s sovereign territory.”
The results mean that little will
change in Russian politics, where
Putin recently led an effort to change
the constitution so that he can run
for president twice more until 2036.
Andrey Turchak, a top United Rus-
sia official, said the party had won
at least 315 seats in the parliament
in a “convincing and clean victory”.
But many others, including some
whether their hotel has been affected
so they can stay elsewhere and enjoy
their holidays. We can also make the
most of this as an attraction so that a
lot of tourists who want to enjoy what
nature has brought to La Palma can do
so in the coming weeks and months.”
Maroto said the state tourism insti-
tute, Turespaña, and the country’s
embassies “would provide all the
necessary information so that the
island can become an attraction for
Communist candidates and backers
of the jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Nav-
alny, have disagreed.
Videos from polling stations
showed the usual efforts at ballot
stuffing and attempts to drive off
vote monitors keeping a close eye
on the ballot urns. But the greater
scandal came yesterday morning,
as the results of nearly 2m online
votes flipped many of the elections
that appeared to be going against the
Kremlin’s preferred candidates.
“The electric votes gave [my oppo-
nent Evgeny] Popov a lead of 20,000
votes. I know that this result is impos-
sible,” wrote Mikhail Lobanov, a
Communist candidate who held
a 10,000-vote lead at polling sta-
tions. “So I call on all candidates
who disagree with the results of the
electronic voting to gather today and
discuss further actions.”
Bringing protesters out on the
streets is a red line for the Kremlin.
The largest protests of the last dec-
ade broke out in 2011 over fraud at
parliamentary elections. Since then,
the Kremlin has employed various
tactics to prevent similar outbursts.
The main target of the Kremlin’s
ire before the elections was Navalny
and his supporters, some of whom
have been blocked from the elections
or driven out of the country ahead of
the three-day vote.
‘Tourists can travel
to the island and
witness something
undoubtedly
unprecedented’
Reyes Maroto
Tourism minister
those tourists who want to see this
wonderful natural spectacle in a pru-
dent manner, because what we are
worried about right now is the safety
of citizens and tourists”.
Asked if La Palma could become a
“volcano tourism” destination, the
minister said that the island “has a
volcanic part to its tourist offer, and
that could be an attraction we can
make the most of”.
Maroto’s political opponents were
quick to seize on her comments.
“Minister, this is totally inappro-
priate,” said Agustín Almodóbar,
the tourism spokesperson for the
conservative People’s party (PP).
“There are people who are losing
their homes.” Almodóbar’s colleague,
the PP’s secretary general, Teodoro
García Egea, tweeted: “Can someone
confirm that the minister said this
while hundreds of people are losing
everything they have?”
According to the Spanish news
agency Europa Press, about 100
houses have been destroyed as a
result of the eruption, which has not
so far caused any injuries.
Maroto sought to clarify her
remarks later yesterday, insisting that
the immediate focus was on working
to help islanders. “Today we stand
with the victims and those affected
and we’re thinking about how best
to get back to that normality that
nature’s changed,” she said.
31
Police seek
identity of
woman found
on island
in Croatia
Jon Henley
Europe correspondent
Croatian police have released a
photograph of a woman who they say
speaks “perfect English” but is una-
ble to tell them who she is or how she
came to be found on a jagged outcrop
of rock off the island of Krk.
The news website 24Sata said the
woman, who appears to be in her 60s
and has cuts and bruises to her face
and body, was first spotted by a fisher
at 10am on Sunday sitting on a rock
in a bay near the village of Soline, in
the north of the island.
Worried that his boat might run
aground if he tried to rescue her him-
self, the fisher alerted police, who
dispatched an emergency rescue
team in two 4x4s. They had to aban-
don their vehicles and walk almost 2
miles (3km) to reach to her.
Local officials told the website
that the woman, who is 5ft 4in with
shoulder-length brown hair and was
wearing a pink sun hat, striped top
and dark trousers, had no documents
or phone that might have allowed her
to be identified.
She appeared to have spent several
nights outside in the area, officials
said, and she was so weak that she
was unable to drink water unaided.
She is being treated in hospital in
Rijeka on the Croatian mainland.
One local resident told the website:
“It’s very strange she was in the area
at all. It is an extremely inaccessible
part of the bay, with terribly sharp
rocks – literally like razors – that will
cut the rubber on the soles of your
shoes.”
The resident said there was “no life
or animals” in the area “except maybe
wild boars or bears”. An average per-
son of that age “certainly could not
swim that distance, it needs excep-
tional strength”, the resident said.
One Soline resident said the
woman had not been staying in the
village because she would have been
recognised. Another suggested she
may have “got lost while out walk-
ing, fallen, hurt herself and lost her
memory through a blow to the head”.
▲ The woman was found sitting on a
jagged outcrop off the island of Krk
 • The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021

32 World

Panned designs
 Mixed results egg-shaped
in ambitious office building
architectural in Guangxi
projects: province, and
(clockwise from Tianzi hotel in

Architecture website left) a pyramid-

shaped edifice
in Jiangsu
Hebei province
PHOTOGRAPHS:
SIPA ASIA/REX/
SHUTTERSTOCK
province, an

runs vote to name

and shame China’s
10 ugliest buildings
 This east-
meets-west
building in
an unfinished
theme park in
Hebei province
features one
half looking like
China’s Temple
of Heaven and
the other like the
US Capitol
PHOTOGRAPH: REX/
SHUTTERSTOCK

In an unfinished Hebei theme park,

Vincent Ni a quirky east-meets-west building
China affairs correspondent features one half looking like

A
“hall of shame”
listing China’s top 10
ugliest buildings has
kicked off with 87
bizarre designs in the
running, including a
violin-shaped church and an Inner
Mongolia hotel in the form of a
babushka doll.
Over the past 11 years a Chinese
architecture website, archcy.com,
has organised a lighthearted annual
contest that it hopes will encourage
people to ponder the flexible notion
of beauty. For years, China has
been a testing ground for ambitious
domestic and international
architects, with mixed results.
China’s Temple of Heaven and the
other like the US Capitol.
Among this year’s contenders
is a “welcome to hell” glass bridge
connecting two mountains in
Sichuan that terrifies walkers with
two huge statues of figures in
regional costume, and a gigantic
gate in a Yunnan park that mirrors
the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
The vote’s organiser said the
purpose was to “spark discussion economical, green and pleasing buildings that had a strange style also posted photos of what they
about the beauty and ugliness to the eyes”, although it did not were “a waste of resources”. consider “unattractive buildings”.
of architecture and promote specify what could be regarded as The intervention triggered Among them are students from
architects’ social responsibility”. ugly architecture. further curiosity among internet Zhejiang University in eastern
This year’s competition comes It is not the first time authorities users. The hashtag #Banning- China. They have been complaining
as the central government has have stepped in to regulate how UglyArchitecture has been viewed about the university’s huge
become more prescriptive buildings should look. According to 170m times on Weibo. Users have southern gate, built with donations
about architecture. In April the the Global Times, China’s housing from alumni. It comprises six pillars

A building for the national
broadcaster in Beijing, designed by
the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas,
is called “big pants” by Chinese
social media users as some say it
looks like a pair of trousered legs.
national development and reform
commission (NDRC) banned the
construction of “ugly buildings”.
Beijing’s top economic planning
body urged local governments to
ensure buildings were “suitable,
and urban-rural development
ministry joined forces with the
NDRC last year to issue a document
clarifying how to strengthen the
management of architecture
in cities. They concluded large
8,739
Votes for Zhejiang University’s
shortlisted southern gate, which
students say is not fit for purpose
and five archways. Students say it
is not fit for purpose so they voted
to make it this year’s “ugliest”
architecture. So far, the gate has
gained 8,739 votes – topping this
year’s ugliest buildings list.
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian
FTSE 100 All share
-59.73 - 36.43
6903.91 3986.90
Markets slump as fears over inflation
and Chinese property sector take hold
Richard Partington
Graeme Wearden
Global financial markets have fallen
sharply amid concern over rising
inflation and the threat of contagion
in China’s property sector from the
debt-stricken developer Evergrande,
despite a boost from the relaxation of
US travel rules.
Markets around the world came
under selling pressure, with the FTSE
100 in the UK slumping by 60 points,
or 0.9%, to 6,903.
Europe’s Stoxx 600, a pan-Euro-
pean index of listed companies,
closed down 1.7%. Shares fell by more
than 2% in Germany, France and Italy
and 1.2% in Spain.
US markets also fell sharply, with
the Dow Jones losing 1.7%, the S&P
Electronic
Arts in $1.4bn
deal to buy
games maker
Playdemic
Mark Sweney
Electronic Arts has completed the
$1.4bn (£1.04bn) deal to buy Play-
demic, the mobile games maker
known for its Golf Clash franchise,
the latest British video games maker
to be snapped up by the California-
based firm.
For EA, the maker of titles includ-
ing Battlefield and the Sims, the
all-cash deal struck with AT&T’s
Warner Bros Games division marks
the latest move to expand its sports
and mobile gaming business. The
takeover of Playdemic, founded in
2010 and based in Cheshire, follows
EA’s £954m deal in December to buy
the Warwickshire-based Codemas-
ters, maker of racing simulators
including the Formula One series.
“We are thrilled to officially
welcome the Playdemic team to Elec-
tronic Arts, adding to out growing
mobile portfolio and expanding our
leadership in sports,” said Andrew
Wilson, the EA chief executive. “The
addition of the incredible Playdemic
team not only adds to the strength of
our mobile teams globally, it also con-
tinues our expansion and investment
in UK-based talent.”
•••
Dow Indl Nikkei 225
-614.41 Closed
33970.47 30500.05
500 closing 1.6% lower and the tech-
heavy Nasdaq down more than 2%.
It came despite a rally in airline
shares following the US announce-
ment of plans to partially lift a travel
ban on UK and EU citizens imposed
in response to Covid-19.
Shares in British Airways’ owner,
IAG, soared 11%, making it the best
performer on the FTSE 100, while the
jet-engine maker Rolls-Royce was
among the top risers with shares end-
ing the day up more than 4%.
Shares in the German airline Luf-
thansa and Air France-KLM rose
about 5%.
“The lifting of travel restrictions
for double-jabbed visitors to the US
provided the thrust needed to send
the recovery in airline stocks full
throttle,” said Susannah Streeter,
a senior investment and markets
EA, which has a market value of
$37bn, has sports franchises includ-
ing Fifa and Madden NFL. The deal
to buy Playdemic is the largest in the
company’s history.
The Wilmslow-based Playdemic
was founded in 2010 by Paul Gouge
and Alex Rigby – who are still with
the business as head of studio and
creative director respectively – and
80m
The number of global downloads
of the Playdemic mobile sports
game title Golf Clash
£/€ £/$
1.1659 1.3670
-0.0053 -0.0077
analyst at the investment firm Har-
greaves Lansdown.
The rise in airline stocks helped
London’s blue-chip index to claw
back some losses from earlier in the
day. However, concerns over China’s
heavily indebted property sector rat-
tled markets on a choppy in dealing
rooms across the City.
Analysts said the soaring energy
costs and inflationary pressures
risked upsetting the recovery from
lockdown, at a time when growth
in several advanced economies was
slowing.
“Still nervousness hangs over the
financial markets, with inflation
worries nagging investors, par-
ticularly with gas prices sky-high.
Concerns are also mounting that
problems are piling up in the Chinese
economy due to the precariousness
counted the Games Workshop co-
founder Ian Livingstone as a chief
investor.
In 2011 Playdemic was acquired
by the social gaming company Roc-
kYou, which was attracted by its early
Facebook hit, Gourmet Ranch, but
was sold back to its founders later the
same year after the US-based com-
pany ran into financial difficulty.
Playdemic’s founders then sold the
business to the Warner Bros subsid-
iary TT Games in 2017, not long after
the developer launched Golf Clash,
which is now one of the biggest
mobile sports games in the UK and
US with more than 80m downloads to
of Evergrande, the property con-
glomerate,” Streeter said.
Central banks, including the US
Federal Reserve and the Bank of Eng-
land, will provide updates this week,
with expectations among financial
Evergrande shares continue to fall
HK$
Apr May Jun Jul Aug
Source: Refinitiv
▲ Burnley FC players advertise
Playdemic’s Golf Clash, which is
one of the biggest mobile sports
games in the UK and US
date. The company employs 65 staff.
“This is an exciting day for Play-
demic as we become part of the
Electronic Arts family,” said Gouge.
“I am proud to bring the amaz-
ing talent which exists at Playdemic
into the EA business to both continue
to build on Golf Clash’s incredible
success and to build new games,
which we believe can be even more
successful in entertaining and engag-
ing audiences globally.”
33
market investors for a gradual retreat
from emergency pandemic stimulus
at a delicate juncture for the eco-
nomic recovery from Covid-19.
Walid Koudmani, a market analyst
at the online trading firm XTB, said:
“Investors will be keeping an eye on
the upcoming central bank decisions
later this week along with any new
developments in the Chinese real
estate market, which could poten-
tially cause a domino effect.”
The annual rate of UK inflation
jumped by the most on record in
August from the previous month,
reflecting a rapid recovery from lock-
down as well as a sharp jump in food,
drink and energy prices.
Wholesale gas and electricity costs
have surged to record levels, push-
15 ing several small energy providers
into administration and threatening
to boil over into a cost of living cri-
10 sis for British consumers this winter.
It comes as investors warn con-
tagion risks in China’s indebted
5 property industry could ripple
through world markets, after shares
in Evergrande plunged to an 11-year
0
low. The country’s second-largest
Sep
real estate developer faces a dead-
line for debt payments this week.
UK companies
given deadline
for ending
‘greenwashing’
Rob Davies
The UK competition watchdog has
given companies that make mislead-
ing claims about their environmental
credentials until the end of the year
to stop the practice, which is known
as “greenwashing”.
Too many businesses were “falsely
taking credit for being green” in order
to woo environmentally minded con-
sumers, the Competition and Markets
Authority said.
The CMA highlighted the forth-
coming Cop26 climate conference
being hosted by the UK in Glasgow,
and urged firms to adhere to new
guidelines it published on Wednes-
day to support global efforts to reduce
carbon emissions.
Starting in 2022, the regulator
will launch a review of misleading
green claims, with sectors includ-
ing fashion, transport, the beauty
industry and the food and drink sec-
tor likely to come under particular
scrutiny.
The CMA began looking into green
claims last year, finding up to 40%
could be misleading to consumers.
The Advertising Standards Author-
ity has clamped down on several
major companies in recent years over
greenwashing adverts, including the
airline Ryanair, the carmaker BMW
and the oil producer Shell.

34
‘He’s got good ears’
The man who kept the
pop industry’s lights on
Mark Sweney
n the dark days of the
I
noughties, a time marked
by plunging record sales
and rampant digital piracy,
Lucian Grainge was on the
warpath because of the lack
of chart-topping new stars being
discovered by his label. Arriving
last at a management meeting, he
turned the lights off, circled the
room, and told staff: “Get used to it.
That’s what it looks like when you
don’t have any hit records.”
A problem producing hits is now
laughable for the chief executive of
Universal Music Group, the world’s
biggest record company and home
to acts from Ariana Grande to Bob
Dylan, which in any given week can
claim as many as nine of the top 10
selling songs.
“When I joined UMG 35 years
ago, the idea that we could some
day build it into a leading music
company with the ability to
determine its own destiny, that
would have been unimaginable,”
Grainge says. “But here we are.”
The chief executive will today
crown the remarkable streaming-
• The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021
Financial
led revival that has transformed the
fortunes of the music industry over
the last decade when Universal
Music makes its €40bn (£34bn)
flotation in on the Amsterdam
stock exchange.
But Grainge, who will receive
a “transaction bonus” of at least
$150m when the parent company,
Vivendi, spins off the music
group, almost did not live to see
the milestone. Weeks after a
star-studded 60th birthday party
last February, he was admitted
to hospital in Los Angeles with
the coronavirus. It took him five
months to fully recover.
In his role as Universal chief
since 2010, the man considered the
most powerful executive in music
has been a key architect of the
revival of an industry that looked to
be facing terminal decline.
In 2011 he pulled off a stunning, if
controversial, coup by buying EMI,
home to the Beatles and Coldplay,
for £1.2bn after a disastrous period
of ownership under the venture
capitalist Guy Hands during which
the UK label was laden with debt.
The deal came in for widespread
criticism. The Beatles’ producer
Sir George Martin described the
sale as “the worst thing that music
has ever faced” – and it faced
regulatory scrutiny on both sides
of the Atlantic. “The common
wisdom was that buying EMI
would never get [regulatory]
approval and that it would never be
swallowed by any of the big three
[music companies],” says a former
executive at a rival record company.
“But Lucian came up with a plan
to hive bits off, but keep the vast
majority. It was a brilliant move.”
Grainge was forced to sell off
some parts to appease competition
 Universal’s
catalogue
includes the
Beatles, Ariana
Grande, Queen
and Lady Gaga.
Lucian Grainge,
below left, is
set for a $150m
transaction
bonus when the
business floats
in Amsterdam
PHOTOGRAPHS: DAVID
MCENERY/REX; KEVIN
MAZUR/GETTY; ANWAR
HUSSEIN/GETTY; MATT
SAYLES/INVISION/AP
concerns, notably the Parlophone and promote more competition small record store, and Grainge
label to rival Warner Music, but among streaming platforms to the remembers spending the 1960s
kept about 70% of EMI. The benefit of consumers and artists,” and 70s listening to “just about
acquisition gave Universal a 40% he says. everything – from Wagner to Ray
market share, and meant Grainge In the year he struck the deal, Charles to Mozart to Elvis”. He left
had the muscle to negotiate from Universal Music made €4.2bn in school at 18 after walking out of an
a position of strength with the revenues and turned a profit of A-level exam to attend a meeting
new wave of digital services led by €507m. This year the company is on where he negotiated his first record
Spotify that have become central to track to make almost €8bn revenue deal. His first signing was the
the music industry’s recovery. and profits potentially of €1.5bn. Psychedelic Furs.
“I pledged that if we acquired Born in north London, the Within five years he had moved
EMI we would breathe life back lifelong Arsenal fan was always to a record label and was director
into it and Capitol and Virgin, destined to work in the music of A&R, responsible for finding and
invest in more artists and labels, industry. His father owned a developing talent. In 1986 he joined
 • The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021

38

Weather
Tuesday 21 September 2021
UK and Ireland Noon today Forecast Around the UK

London
Sunny Mist Fog 1016 Low 12 High 19 Lows and highs Precipitation Air pollution
1020 Tomorrow
14 11 20 5% Low
Sunny intervals Hazy
Manchester

Mostly cloudy
6 Inverness Shetland 11 19 0% Low
Overcast/dull Edinburgh
15 17
17
13 18 0% Low
Sunny showers Slight
Belfast
Edinburgh
11 Low 12 High 15
Sunny and heavy showers Glasgow 13 18 0% Low
1024 Thursday
Birmingham
Light showers Newcastle
ca
17
10 20 5% Low
1028
Rain Sleet Light Belfast Slight
Brighton
snow 17
York

Snow showers 12 18 5% Low

Dublin Liverpool
rpoo
ol 20
19
Bristol
Heavy snow Ice
35C
Nottingham
Nott m
Norwich
Carbon
19 12 19 5% Low
30
Birmingham
ming
min count
Thundery rain Cardiff
25 Daily atmospheric CO2
readings from Mauna Loa,
20 19 20
2 Hawaii (ppm):
Thundery showers 15
Cardiff
Ca L
London 13 19 5% Low
Latest
X
10 20 19 Sep 2021 413.32 Newcastle
5
Dover Weekly average
Temperature, 0 12 Sep 2021 413.09
ºC
-5
19 11 19 0% Low
Plymouth 20 Sep 2020 411.65
-10 19
20 Sep 2011 389.38 Penzance
-15
Slight 5 Pre-industrial base 280
Wind speed, Windy
mph -20 Safe level 350
The Channel Islands 14 19 5% Low
Source: NOAA-ESRL

Atlantic front 1016

L 1008
L Weatherwatch Around the world
992
1000
984 L H Lightning is a leading cause of the Algiers 26 Lisbon 27
1024
huge wildfires that have caused Ams’dam 18 Madrid 22
H so much damage around the globe Athens 31 Malaga 25
1032 1016 L recently. But it also has a slower and Auckland 17 Melb’rne 12
1024 more insidious destructive effect, B Aires 16 Mexico C 23
especially in rainforests. Bangkok 28 Miami 31
L H
Dr Lucy Rowland, a University of Barcelona 21 Milan 21
Cold front 1032 Exeter ecologist, was researching Basra 41 Mombasa 28
PETER 1024 1016 the flow of sap in Amazonian trees Beijing 27 Moscow 7

Warm front 1008 when something unexpected Berlin 16 Mumbai 30

happened: “I had sensors installed Bermuda 28 N Orleans 30
in this tree monitoring the water Brussels 17 Nairobi 26
Occluded front flow rates. I came back and the Budapest 17 New Delhi 31
sensors had completely exploded.” C’hagen 15 New York 23

Trough ROSE No one saw the lightning strike, Cairo 35 Oslo 15

and the tree itself appeared Cape Town 20 Paris 19
unharmed, but the electrical Chicago 20 Perth 25

Sun & Lighting damage was unmistakable. Corfu 27 Prague 13

High tides
Source: © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. Times are local UK times

“The pulse of electricity was so Dakar 31 Reykjavik 10

Moon up large it even jumped all the fuses Dhaka 26 Rio de J 30
I had installed in the systems and Dublin 18 Rome 26
Aberdeen 0209 4.4m 1444 4.2m London Bridge 0256 7.1m 1513 7.0m Belfast 1926 to 0711 damaged adjacent equipment.” Florence 25 Shanghai 30
Avonmouth 0823 13.2m 2041 13.7m Lossiemouth 0038 4.2m 1317 4.0m Birm’ham 1907 to 0653 Rowland was monitoring tree Gibraltar 23 Singapore 31
Barrow 0012 9.3m 1239 9.0m Milford Haven 0722 6.9m 1938 7.2m Brighton 1901 to 0647 mortality in the area and noted H Kong 32 Stockh’m 10
Belfast -- -- 1222 3.3m Newquay 0613 6.9m 1828 7.2m Bristol 1911 to 0657 the tree was dead a few months Harare 31 Strasb’g 18
Cobh 0631 4.0m 1849 4.2m North Shields 0416 5.2m 1650 5.0m Carlisle 1912 to 0657 later, along with its immediate Helsinki 9 Sydney 16
Cromer 0723 5.2m 2005 4.9m Oban 0652 3.8m 1905 4.2m Cork 1934 to 0720 neighbours. Lightning strikes may Istanbul 23 Tel Aviv 31
Dover 0015 6.6m 1220 6.8m Penzance 0545 5.4m 1800 5.7m Dublin 1926 to 0711 make trees more vulnerable to Jo’burg 26 Tenerife 30
Sun rises 0644
Dublin 0022 4.1m 1300 3.8m Plymouth 0656 5.4m 1906 5.6m Sun sets 1900 Glasgow 1919 to 0703 fungal infections or pathogens. K Lumpur 32 Tokyo 26
Galway 0615 5.1m 1828 5.3m Portsmouth 0001 4.6m 1239 4.7m Moon rises 1936 Harlech 1917 to 0703 A colleague, Dr Tim Hill, is fitting K’mandu 26 Toronto 23
Greenock 0121 3.6m 1351 3.3m Southport -- -- 1203 8.9m Moon sets 0651 Inverness 1918 to 0701 trees with lightning detectors Kabul 30 Vancouv’r 18
Last Quarter 29 Sept Kingston 31 Vienna 15
Harwich 0038 4.2m 1252 4.1m Stornoway 0759 4.7m 2003 5.1m London 1900 to 0646 to establish if taller trees are
Kolkata 29 Warsaw 13
Holyhead 1132 5.5m 2339 5.8m Weymouth 0704 1.4m 1915 1.6m M’chester 1910 to 0655 suffering more strikes. The impact
L Angeles 30 Wash’ton 26
Hull 0708 7.7m 1954 7.3m Whitby 0452 5.7m 1724 5.5m Newcastle 1908 to 0652 of greater mortality due to more
Forecasts and Lagos 28 Well’ton 15
Leith 0327 5.6m 1556 5.6m Wick 0005 3.6m 1239 3.4m
graphics provided by
Norwich 1855 to 0641 thunderstorms each year could be
Lima 16 Zurich 18
Liverpool -- -- 1222 9.2m Workington 0017 8.4m 1240 8.1m AccuWeather ©2021 Penzance 1922 to 0709 disastrous. David Hambling
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian •
Racing Golf
Cheltenham What happened
reception will be to Ryder Cup heroo
key test for Elliott Anthony Kim?
Page 41  Page 47 
▲ Jordan Cox flicks the
ball back into play and
into the hands of his
Kent teammate Matt
Milnes in the T20 Blast
final against Somerset
ASHLEY ALLEN/GETTY IMAGES
T
Dazed and confused
he woman in the bird costume can
scarcely believe what she’s seeing. The
man dressed as a bottle of mustard is
mesmerised by the flight of the white
Kent’s Blast triumph
ball against the dark night sky. The
pair of jockeys leaping in anticipation
of a Somerset six now clutch their
heads as Jordan Cox of Kent hurls
a rare authentic
himself skywards, flips the ball back over the boundary
rope and into play again. By the time Cox has finally
hit the turf, Matt Milnes has grasped the catch off the
bowling of Darren Stevens, and Kent are on the way to
moment in cricket’s
becoming men’s Twenty20 champions of England for
the first time since 2007.
And for all the individual brilliance on display, Kent’s
triumph felt like a team effort, a fitting reward for a
endless sprawl
likable bunch of cricketers: the evergreen Joe Denly,
the brilliant Qais Ahmad, the grinning Sam Billings,
the veteran all-rounder Stevens, a man who looks like
he’s just thrown a shoe over a pub and can’t wait to do
it again. Above all it felt like a moment of catharsis for
Kent’s long-suffering fans, who through global plague
and trophy drought have impressively endured.
In other words, it meant something. Maybe not to
everyone. Maybe not even to everyone at Edgbaston
on Saturday, some of whom had clearly arrived with no
greater ambition than to sink pints in rented costume.
There are times when Finals Day feels less like a
Jonathan Liew cricket occasion and more like a sort of strange pagan
ritual. But amid the confected frivolity and industrial
consumption was an event with sport at its core: a
thing of joy and pain and sacrifice and achievement.
Less than 24 hours later I watched Mumbai Indians
39
taking on Chennai Super Kings in the resumed Indian
Premier League. This, too, was a fine game. The
young opener Ruturaj Gaikwad scored a scintillating
unbeaten 88. Dwayne Bravo hit an effortless 23 off
eight balls, and then took three quick wickets without
at any point threatening to break into a run.
But there was something else here, too: an
expression of ownership and power. Adam Milne, the
fast bowler who had so impressively secured Kent’s
Blast qualification earlier in the summer, was now
taking the new ball for Mumbai. Many of the players
on display – Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul
Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Moeen Ali – were due to play
in the abandoned fifth Test against England at Old
Trafford, but had instead been spirited east, blown to
Dubai by the trade winds of cricket finance and a series
T
of hastily arranged charter flights.
his, then, was the product of all those
boardroom-level talks, the fraught and
frantic negotiations, the ripped-up
schedules. For all the glossy sheen of
the production, these days it’s almost
impossible to watch the IPL without
also being aware of everything that
has been pillaged and plundered to
make it happen: the gravity of an entire sport warped
just so we can watch Suresh Raina waddling around
trying to burn off his breakfast.
Above all, as someone who likes all the cricket, who
will watch it being played between pretty much anyone
in any format, it’s hard to remember a time when
this sport felt more bewildering, more disorienting
and exhausting to follow. The Blast finals took place
three weeks after the quarter-finals, which took place
five weeks after the end of the group stage. The IPL
comes straight after the truncated Test series, which
overlapped with the Hundred, which overlapped with
the Royal London Cup. The County Championship
finishes this week. England’s women are playing New
Zealand for the second time in seven months. There
are T20 World Cups in 2021 (men), 2022 (men), 2023
(women) and 2024 (men again).
In whose interest is all this cricket being shovelled
at us? How is anyone sanely and sensibly supposed
to track it, to trace the narrative threads, to work out
who’s playing who, and when, and why? Who does
Chris Jordan play for right now?
There are (There are at least four answers, none
of them wrong.) And when cricket
times when has been repackaged as a kind of
Finals Day endless content, a sprawl of games
feels less like and jurisdictions and competing
self-interests, at what point does it
a cricket stop mattering who wins and loses?
Perhaps this is the moment at
occasion
which a sport dissolves. It becomes
and more a fungible entertainment product, a
like a sort lucrative payday, an object of tribal
bickering, and nothing else. Nothing
of strange
can be taken away, only added, and
pagan so over time the only real way of
navigating this infinite feed is to
ritual choose a filter, choose your character
– T20 specialist, Test connoisseur,
county diehard, IPL obsessive, Knight Riders stan,
Worcestershire ultra – and fight to the death.
The irony is that English T20 arguably did more
to ignite this process than anything else: the rapid
greed, the schedule sprawl, the narrow parochial
interest. Now, curiously, Finals Day feels like one of
the few constants left in the domestic game: a wild
phenomenon that through saturation and neglect, new
fads and new fashions, still manages to generate full
houses, to feel vital and authentic and unique.
This is why Cox’s catch felt like such a special
moment: a 20-year-old and a 46-year-old combining
to exorcise a 14-year curse, a rare moment of clarity
that like all the best sport felt connected to the past
and tethered to the future, while making absolutely
no sense in the present.

40
Who will prevail
in four-way fight
for county title?
David Gower is rooting for his
old club Hampshire as they
look to pip Lancs, Warks and
Notts in the final round
Tanya Aldred
D
avid Gower was
at Scarborough
this month, when
Yorkshire thrashed
Somerset to end, yet
again, their hopes of
winning the County Championship.
He was giving an after-dinner
speech on the second day – the last
as it turned out – and managed to
escape the handshakes and small
talk for long enough to squeeze in
some time to sit in a deckchair and
watch some of the younger players
have their day in the sun.
Gower was not always known for
his dedication to the county grind
but – with one round left to decide
the winners, and four clubs in hot
pursuit – his old club Hampshire
are in with a shout of their first
Championship title since 1973.
Gower, a friend of Rod
Bransgrove, the Hampshire
chairman who saved them from
insolvency, is hopeful for the club
Pakistan accuse
England of ‘making
excuses’ over tour
 Continued from back page
the ECB said: “The mental and physi-
cal wellbeing of our players and sup-
port staff remains our highest priority
and this is even more critical given
• The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021
Sport
Cricket
and his friend: “I’d like to see Rod’s
ambition recognised. It has come
at some personal cost to him to put
his money where his mouth is.”
Hampshire (58.5pts) have zipped
up to Liverpool where they will
take on third-placed Lancashire
(54.5) today while second-placed
Warwickshire (55) have the plum
game against Somerset, beaten
in the Blast final on Saturday, and
falling apart since the late-summer
restart of the Championship.
Fourth-placed Nottinghamshire
(52) entertain out-of-the-running
Yorkshire, at Trent Bridge. Theirs
would be an unlikely title, but quite
the story after going almost three
years without a Championship win
until they thrashed Derbyshire in
a Stuart Broad-inspired triumph
in May. Yorkshire can still clinch
second and qualify for the Bob
Willis Trophy final that starts on
28 September should they win and
other results fall their way.
Most England players are
unavailable to their counties, with
Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe
Root and David Willey sitting on
the bench for Yorkshire’s game.
Not even the temptation of a first
possible Lancashire Championship
in 10 years is enough to tempt a
weary Jimmy Anderson to pull on
those bowling boots again and Liam
the times we are currently living
in. We know there are increasing
concerns about travelling to the
region and believe that going ahead
will add further pressure to a playing
group who have already coped with a
long period of operating in restricted
Covid environments.
“There is the added complexity
for our men’s T20 squad. We believe
that touring under these conditions
will not be ideal preparation for the
ICC men’s T20 World Cup.”
Livingstone is in white-ball mode
for the Rajasthan Royals. But Chris
Woakes, whose past year has been
lived in a constant state of cricket
interruptus, and who inspired
Warwickshire to victory with six
wickets against Yorkshire in the last
round, will play at Edgbaston.
Warwickshire last took the
Championship in 2004, with the
champions winning just five games,
and their captain, Nick Knight,
saying: “I’m the first to admit that
Kent or Surrey should have won it,
but they weren’t good enough to
win it. So we won it.”
Gower, despite his champagne
reputation, has a soft spot for
the county game and is worried
by the constant messing with
the structure. “You cannot get
anywhere without playing county
cricket,” he says. “Four-day cricket
is a vital part of the system.
“There were days, I’ll admit,
that I wasn’t switched on, but days
when I was, and I loved it. If I was
ever not switched on it was more
fatigue than anything to do with
the product, with games squeezed
David Gower says:
‘Four-day cricket is a
vital part of the system’
The cancellation comes less than a
fortnight after India pulled out of the
fifth Test at Old Trafford in response
to a Covid-19 outbreak among their
support staff. Tom Harrison, the ECB
chief executive, stressed the issue
was one of mental health rather than
being caused directly by the virus.
While one lost Test could damage
the ECB to the tune of £40m unless
rescheduled and offset by insurance,
Pakistan faces the prospect of more
teams declining to tour and a return to
 Brad Wheal and Nick Gubbins
of Hampshire celebrate after the
dismissal of Warwickshire’s Chemar
Holder at Edgbaston this month
TONY MARSHALL/GETTY IMAGES
between Test matches, sometimes
driving across the country for a
one-day game. It took it out of you.
“I still value four-day county
cricket and I dearly hope the
schedules, which are now
ridiculously crowded and totally
bonkers, make time for it.
“Two divisions is probably better
than the alternative, but the more
important point is trying to play
enough four-day cricket at the right
time of the year. At the moment
you’ve got a motorway pile up in
the middle of the summer, it is like
trying to get around Birmingham
on a Friday afternoon.”
As it is, excluding the four
runners for the title, the rest of the
clubs go into the final round not
entirely sure what they are playing
for. Points? Money? Promotion?
There is due to be an end-of-
season review by the county chief
executives this month, before a
vote is taken on the structure for
2022 – a summer the England and
Wales Cricket Board still fears
could be disrupted by Covid. Up for
discussion is a Championship to be
played during the Hundred, a plate
to reward the lower divisions of a
conference competition or a return
to two divisions – a scenario that
could mean Nottinghamshire, who
were relegated at the end of the
2019 season, dumped back down
into the Second Division.
There are goodbyes to be said,
too: to Surrey’s stalwart Rikki
Clarke, a veteran of two Tests and a
handful of one-day internationals,
but more memorably an
indefatigable servant of county
cricket; to Essex’s talisman Ryan
ten Doeschate, who led the club to
two County Championship titles, in
2017 and 2018; and to (briefly) the
Nottinghamshire, but mostly the
Somerset, batting all-rounder Peter
Trego, virtuoso of 22 seasons in the
county game.
Gower, who hung up his
cricket boots in 1993, and lost his
broadcasting gig with Sky in 2019,
hasn’t forgotten the good times
with Leicestershire or Hampshire,
but “it is not like me to wander back
to old things, most of my thoughts
are to what is going forward”.
He has done broadcast work for
the Pakistan Super League, is an
ambassador for last Saturday’s
Voneus Village Cup at Lord’s but
desperately misses his commentary
stints on Sky and knocked on the
door of TMS to no avail. He knows,
more than any, that sometimes
your race is run.
the near eight-year exile that resulted
from the 2009 terrorist attack on the
Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore. All eyes
will now be on Australia’s men, due
to visit Pakistan in February.
New Zealand’s hasty withdrawal
over the weekend was triggered
by information from the Five Eyes
intelligence network that also serves
Australia, Canada, the UK and the
USA, and came despite the PCB
insisting its 4,000-strong security
detail was “foolproof”.
Olympics
IOC delays
transgender
guidelines
again to 2022
Sean Ingle
The International Olympic Commit-
tee’s new transgender guidelines
for sports have been delayed
again because of “very conflicting
opinions” and are now unlikely to be
published until after next February’s
Beijing Winter Olympics, three years
later than originally planned.
The news was revealed by the
IOC’s science and medical director,
Dr Richard Budgett, who said the
forthcoming advice for international
sports federations would “prioritise
inclusion” and “avoidance of harm”.
As things stand, the IOC suggests
trans women should be allowed to
compete in the women’s category
if they reduce their testosterone
for 12 months – although individual
sports federations are allowed to
come up with their own rules.
However, speaking to a Council
of Europe conference on protecting
and promoting the human rights of
intersex and transgender athletes in
sport competitions, Budgett said the
IOC’s approach would shift. “There’ll
be broad high-level guidelines – more
like a framework,” he said. “It’s the
international federations who will
determine the specific rules for their
sports and their events.
“The particular changes from 2015
are the emphasis on the priority of
inclusion, and on the avoidance of
harm, but always bearing in mind the
importance of fair and meaningful
competition. We still have to agree
on the framework. It’s challenging.
But it will be published in a few
months’ time – at the latest just after
the Beijing Olympic Winter Games.
We’re very aware that sex, of course,
is not binary. It’s a continuum. The
sectors overlap. And so the solutions
are not essentially going to be binary.”
Budgett also revealed the
IOC would move away from the
one-size-fits-all approach for sport,
as in the current guidelines issued
in 2015. They state that trans women
should be able to compete in the
women’s category without gender
reassignment surgery as long as they
keep their total testosterone level in
serum below 10 nanomoles per litre.
Recent scientific papers have
reported, however, that anyone who
undergoes male puberty retains sig-
nificant advantages in power and
strength even after taking medica-
tion to suppress their testosterone.
“Transgender women are women,”
Budgett said. “But we also have to
separate gender from eligibility. And
eligibility needs to be sport-specific in
order to have this fair and meaningful
competition at all levels, but espe-
cially at the elite level. There’s going
to be different criteria for different
sports. And we have to determine
what really is a disproportionate or
insurmountable advantage.”
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian
Cycling
Van Dijk ends long
wait for her second
world time trial title
William Fotheringham
Ellen van Dijk of the Netherlands
endured a long and painful wait for
her second world time trial title,
eight years after she won for the first
time at the 2013 championship in
Tuscany. Yesterday the Dutch racer
set a blistering time after starting 19th
in the 50-rider field and had to endure
almost an hour’s wait before her
teammate, the Olympic champion
Annemiek van Vleuten, approached
the finish line and it finally became
clear that Van Dijk had won gold.
One of the enduring images of
world championships this week
will be the 34-year-old’s sudden
transition to a state of tearful joy
as Van Vleuten had 300 metres to
go and the clock made it clear that
Van Dijk’s time of 36min 05sec for the
30 kilometres would stand.
“It was quite horrible,” Van Dijk
•
Sport
 Ellen van Dijk
celebrates on the
podium after
her world time
trial title win
in Bruges
said, “because when I arrived in
the hot seat Annemiek had still not
started. It was nerve-racking. You sit
there and have nothing to do.”
This was another gold medal for
the Netherlands’ golden generation
of women cyclists, who have won 11
of a possible 15 medals in this dis-
cipline in the past five years, and
it came even in the absence of the
defending champion Anna van der
Breggen, who opted not to start due
to her impending retirement.
Van Dijk had also had to endure the
indignity of being dropped from the
Dutch team for the Tokyo Olympics
which was less a reflection on her
ability than the quality of her illus-
trious teammates Van Vleuten and
Van der Breggen, while this spring
she had to take time out after con-
tracting Covid-19.
At the recent European champion-
ships Van Dijk won gold in the road
race with a dominant solo break, but
she was defeated by the Swiss Marlen
Reusser in the time trial, and on the
world championship course between
Knokke-Heist and Bruges it seemed
likely that Reusser would improve
on her silver medal of 2020 when
she reached the first checkpoint four
seconds faster.
However, Van Dijk had gauged her
ride more precisely; Reusser slowed
slightly before the second check-
point, where she led by only 3sec,
and when she reached the finish line
she had faded badly to finish 10sec
slower than Van Dijk, joining the 29
other riders who had failed to better
the Dutchwoman.
Only Van Vleuten was left to come
home, and she had never looked at
her best in contrast to the smooth
styles of Reusser and Van Dijk. On
Saturday, Van Dijk and Van Vleuten
will be joined by the evergreen
Marianne Vos and Van der Breggen
for the road race, where the Dutch
women will be favourites to take their
fifth successive title.
Behind Van Dijk, another early
pacesetter was Great Britain’s Joss
Lowden, who crossed the line almost
2min behind the Dutchwoman, and
was only shifted from a medal slot
when the final batch of favourites
started at the back of the field. Her
eventual eighth place was the best
British ride since Emma Pooley took
fourth at the 2012 championship in
the Netherlands.
“We can all find things in the ride
that we could have done better, but
I’m happy,” said Lowden, who was
only 40sec behind Van Dijk at the
first checkpoint but faded in the final
two-thirds of the race. “The plan was
to go out easy and ramp it, but the
ramp went down as opposed to up.”
Lowden, who rides for the
UK-based Drops-Le Col team, will
now go on to attack the world hour
record at the end of the month in
Grenchen, Switzerland, hoping to
better the distance of 48.007km held
by the Italian Vittoria Bussi.
▼ Slovenia’s Eugenia Bujak
competes in the time trial
TIM DE WAELE/GETTY IMAGES
Racing
Elliott returns but
the damage done
will surely endure
Even now it is not clear
the disgraced trainer fully
appreciates the scale of
the hurt he has caused
Greg Wood
A
s one of the biggest
names in jumping
officially departed
the stage last week,
two more returned to
action as a National
Hunt campaign that officially
started in May slowly works its way
through the gears. Farewell Altior,
one of the outstanding two-milers
of recent decades. Hello again,
Davy Russell and Gordon Elliott,
after many months on the sidelines
for very different reasons.
In the last two seasons of his
career, much more time was
expended on speculation about
where Altior would run next,
and then forensic analysis of the
reasons why he had not, than in
watching him in action.
At his best, though, Altior had an
irresistible, captivating brilliance
and an aura of invincibility built up
over the course of four unbeaten
seasons over hurdles and fences,
setting a jumping world record
with 19 consecutive wins, in 2019.
At a time when Willie Mullins and
Elliott were coming to dominate
the Cheltenham Festival, Altior also
saw off everything Ireland could
throw at him. That challenge now
passes to his stable companion,
Shishkin.
The most enduring memory of
Altior is probably his second win
in the Queen Mother Champion
Chase, which was achieved despite
running half a stone or more below
his best and drew on his courage
as much as his exceptional talent.
But he was special from an early
stage and sets a very high bar for
Shishkin as the new season unfolds
towards a potential meeting with
Energumene, Ireland’s best two-
miler, in the spring.
There is more to the National
Hunt calendar than Cheltenham
and unlikely though it seemed last
October, Russell is back for one
more season at least. His return to
the winner’s enclosure at Navan on
Saturday came 342 days after a fall
in the Munster National at Limerick
that left the veteran jockey with a
fractured C6 vertebra in his neck
and seemed likely to spell the end
of his 23-year career.
Russell returned to a hero’s
welcome after winning on an
odds-on shot and followed up on a
14-1 chance at Listowel on Sunday,
his only ride. Both were trained by
Elliott, who had made a more low-
key return a few days earlier.
41
▲ Gordon Elliott’s low-key comeback
was received warmly at Sligo
Elliott’s reception after a winner
at Sligo on Wednesday was warm
rather than rapturous, but he will
have been more than content simply
to be back on a racecourse after a six-
month ban that could – and arguably
should – have been longer.
Few will need reminding about
the reason for Elliott’s ban or the
damage inflicted on racing’s image
when a photograph emerged of him
astride a dead horse on his gallops,
posing for the camera with a smile
and a victory V sign.
In addition to his ban and a
€15,000 fine, Elliott lost several of
his best horses to rival trainers after
the picture was published. He has
undoubtedly paid a price for his
mindless stupidity.
Whether even now he fully
appreciates the scale of the damage
he inflicted, however, is hard to
say. The only interview before
his return to action, in the Racing
Post, included as much reflection
about the possible motives behind
the release of the photograph as
expressions of regret for it.
“As much as it is so competitive
here in Ireland,” he said, “we
all have each other’s backs and
through things like that you find
out a bit more about who your real
friends are.
“Everyone is entitled to their
opinion, but I was disappointed
with some people. I shouldn’t have
done what I did but I’m a human
being who made a mistake.”
The damage will endure even
as Elliott rebuilds his career and
will remain a ghost at the banquet
when he saddles a big winner for a
long while to come. The warmth,
or otherwise, of the reception after
his next winner at Cheltenham
remains to be seen.
Greg Wood’s tips
Lingfield 1.00 Miquelon 1.30 Danni California
2.00 Shamlaan 2.35 Trouser The Cash
3.10 Nicks Not Wonder 3.45 Emblem Empire
4.20 Time Interval
Beverley 1.20 Silky Wilkie 1.55 Golden War
2.25 La Rav (nap) 3.00 Brando 3.35 Guilded
4.10 Captain Corelli 4.45 Possible Ambition
5.15 Carey Street
Warwick 2.10 All Clenched Up 2.45 Sir Tivo
3.20 Isthebaropen 3.55 Quartz Du Rheu
4.30 Armattiekan 5.00 Lutinebella
Newcastle 4.50 Act Of Magic (nb) 5.20 Seven
For A Pound 5.50 Thriller’s Moon 6.20 Sea King
6.50 Lucayan 7.20 El Hadeeyah 7.50 Secret Daay
8.20 Tamaska

42
Rugby union
Vunipola set
to be left out
of England
squad
Gerard Meagher
Eddie Jones is set to usher in the next
stage of England’s 2023 World Cup
preparations when he names his first
squad of the new season today with
Billy Vunipola believed to be among
the senior players whose places are
in jeopardy.
Vunipola was rested for England’s
summer Tests against the USA and
Canada, having been overlooked
by the British & Irish Lions and has
been struggling for his best form for
some time. The 28-year-old played
all 80 minutes of Saracens’ impres-
sive opening victory against Bristol
on Friday night in front of Jones, but
the latest indications last night were
that he is likely to be a casualty today.
It would be a surprise given Vunipola
has come to be almost undroppable in
Jones’s eyes, but the head coach has
come under increasing pressure to
explore other options at No 8.
Jones is, however, free to select
England’s British & Irish Lions con-
tingent despite the fact that they are
currently in the middle of a 10-week
rest period following the series defeat
by South Africa. It means Jones can
select players such as Marcus Smith,
who made his debut over the summer
before being whisked away with the
Lions, as well as his captain Owen
Farrell. But while he is expected to
select the majority of the 13 who
toured South Africa, there are likely
to be some who are absent. Elliot Daly
is also expected to miss out but it is
believed his absence would be injury
related.
Last summer there were an alarm-
ing number of injuries suffered at
England camps, which may raise
eyebrows over the Lions’ players
Results
Football
SCOTTISH CUP
First round Berwick Rangers 2 Gretna 2008 1
LA LIGA
Barcelona 1 Granada 1
SERIE A
Udinese 0 Napoli 4
Cricket
INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE
Abu Dhabi RC Bangalore 92 (AD Russell 3-9;
V Chakravarthy 3-13). Kolkata KR 94-1 (S Gill 48).
Kolkata beat Bangalore by nine wickets.
Tennis
WTA OSTRAVA OPEN (Czech Republic)
First round: A Kontaveit (Est) bt S Cirstea (Rom) 6-4 6-4;
A Potapova (Rus) bt C Garcia (Fr) 6-2 7-6 (6); M Linette
(Pol) bt O Dodin (Fr) 6-2 7-6 (3); S Sorribes Tormo (Sp) bt
A Zakharova (Rus) 6-3 6-3; P Badosa Gibert (Sp) bt
V Gracheva (Rus) 6-2 6-2
ATP ASTANA OPEN (Kazakhstan)
First round: T Skatov (Kaz) bt A Seppi (It) 7-6 (3) 4-6 6-1;
J Munar (Sp) bt J Vesely (Cz) 6-3 7-6 (6); L Djere (Ser) bt
D Elahi Galan (Col) 6-4 3-6 6-4; M Kecmanovic (Ser) bt
F Verdasco (Sp) 6-4 6-2
••• The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021
Sport
▼ Anthony Joshua in action against
Wladimir Klitschko in 2017
RICHARD HEATHCOTE/GETTY IMAGES
potential inclusion. But it is under-
stood the coming get-together, which
begins on Sunday, will feature just
one training session with a heavy
focus on off-field activities.
Over the summer Jones handed
out 16 debuts in victories over the
USA and Canada, with senior players
either away with the Lions or rested
in the cases of George Ford, Jonny
May and Vunipola.
A number of those youngsters
will be hopeful of being included
today with Freddie Steward chief
among them after an impressive
performance at full-back for Leices-
ter against Exeter on Saturday. How
many Jones retains, and whether he
omits any more of the senior players
rested over the summer in addition
to Vunipola, will be indicative as to
his World Cup plans with what will
be close to a full-strength squad of
around 45 marking the start of a new
two-year cycle.
Jones also has a new-look coaching
staff in place with Richard Cockerill,
Martin Gleeson and Anthony Seibold
recently appointed following the
departures of John Mitchell, Simon
Amor and Jason Ryles. It is under-
stood, however, that Seibold will not
attend the training camp given the
lengthy travel from Australia. Boxing you were doing. I drove home [from
Meanwhile, the director of per- Joshua’s training camp in Sheffield]
formance rugby Conor O’Shea has
acknowledged the Rugby Football
Union is powerless to stop England
Joshua expects Usyk going: ‘Bloody hell.’”
After the laughter faded Joshua
made a serious technical point. “It’s
losing players they have developed
to other nations due to dual nation-
ality. The Harlequins wing Louis
fight to be his toughest made me think about my position-
ing, my lead hand control. A lot of
people, when they fight southpaws,
Lynagh excelled towards the end
of the season and scored twice in
the Premiership final but was not
since facing Klitschko don’t realise the importance of the
jab. But the jab is so important.”
Joshua nodded when I asked if
selected by Jones over the summer. there was a testing psychological
The 20-year-old is also eligible to play dimension to this fight because,
for Italy and Australia. London 2012, with Usyk fighting a despite their difference in size and
Champion says title defence division below Joshua. Since then heavyweight experience, Usyk will
against unbeaten Ukrainian Usyk has compiled an 18-0 record and step into the ring believing he can
‘definitely ranks up there’ in 2018 he became one of boxing’s win. “Definitely. As you said, physical
rare unified champions by winning all advantage is one thing, but it doesn’t
four cruiserweight belts. He relishes make the world’s tallest man heavy-
Donald McRae fighting in front of big crowds. Sixty weight champion of the world. He’s
thousand fans will be crammed into coming into the ring confident. But so
the stadium on Saturday but Usyk, am I. You know boxing. You have to be
Anthony Joshua has suggested his 34, has won his three biggest fights aggressive and beat that confidence
world heavyweight title defence in hostile territory. Joshua, 31, cannot out of your opponent. He’s confident,
Eddie Jones is preparing against Oleksandr Usyk at Totten- rely just on his size and power against his team are confident but I feel like
for a three-day training ham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday such a bold and assured technician. it’s easy to watch me on YouTube.
camp in Teddington could be his most difficult fight since He stressed again that he has taken When you are in front of someone
he beat Wladimir Klitschko in an epic special measures to prepare for his it’s a completely different ball game.
battle in April 2017. southpaw challenger. “It’s not just “He’s done well at heavyweight.
“It definitely ranks up there,” about training to get fit. It’s about The difference is that when Evander
Joshua said. “The biggest threat he training to get better, putting yourself Holyfield came up from cruiser-
ATP MOSELLE OPEN (Metz) brings to me is probably the southpaw in a vulnerable situation and finding weight he had six fights at heavy-
First round: L Sonego (It) M Fucsovics (Hun) 6-3 6-2;
V Pospisil (Can) bt G Barrere (Fr) 6-3 6-4; N Basilashvili
stance. He’s fought many men that out who you are. When Eddie Hearn weight before he fought for the cham-
(Geo) bt G Mager (It) 6-3 7-6 (5) are orthodox and he’s used to seeing [his promoter] came up here he saw pionship. That was against Buster
Cycling guys like me throughout his career. me spar and I was only allowed to Douglas [who had just beaten Mike
ROAD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (Leuven, Belgium) “I’ve only trained for him the use my left hand. I sparred 12 rounds Tyson in 1990]. Usyk has fought two
Women: Time trial (Knokke-Heist - Bruges; 30.3km) last three months. But, during my just with my left hand, which is really heavyweights. So he’s jumping in
1 E van Dijk (Neth) 36min 05sec; 2 M Reusser (Swi) +0:10sec;
3 A van Vleuten (Ned) +0:24; 4 A Leone Neben (US) +1:24; training for a southpaw, I’ve learnt challenging against a southpaw. The deeper here. It’s fair to swim deep,
5 L Brennauer (Ger) +1:30; 6 J Labous (Fr) +1:47; 7 L Klein where my feet need to be and how to sparring partners are allowed to do rather than tread water, because you
(Ger) +1:52; 8 J Lowden (GB) +2:00; 9 R Markus (Neth) at
same time; 10 A Amialiusik (Blr) +2:19; 11 L Kirchmann (Can) control a southpaw. He’s had years of whatever they want but I’m only can still get caught in a current and
+2:35; 12 E Cecilie Joergensen (Den) +2:43 listening to these southpaws beating allowed to use my left hand. So it was drown anyway. You might as well
Fixtures up orthodox fighters and I’ve got to good, deep practice.” just jump in the deep end and try and
Football (7.45pm unless stated) reverse the trend and be an orthodox Hearn, who was listening to the survive. So good luck to him.
Carabao Cup fighter who beats up a southpaw.” conversation, joked: “Thank God “Even though it’s not Tyson Fury,
Third round Brentford v Oldham; Burnley v Rochdale;
Fulham v Leeds; Man City v Wycombe; Norwich v Liverpool; Unlike Joshua, who lost his world you told me that. I wondered what it’s still a great fight. I’m up against
Preston v Cheltenham; QPR v Everton; Sheffield Utd v heavyweight titles to Andy Ruiz Jr an opponent that makes me want to
Southampton; Watford v Stoke; Wigan v Sunderland
Sky Bet League One Crewe v Morecambe; Gillingham v in June 2019, Usyk remains unde- get up in the morning because I want
‘The biggest threat
Charlton; Portsmouth v Plymouth
Sky Bet League Two Crawley Town v Harrogate Town
feated. Joshua regained his belts in to improve. There’s a lot of talk about
the rematch six months later but size – good big guy beats good little
he brings to me
Women’s World Cup Qualifiers Luxembourg v England
(7.15pm); Scotland v Faroe Islands (7.35pm)
memories of that solitary loss in eight guy. But if that’s the case, why am I
is probably the
Cricket (10.30am unless stated)
LV= Insurance County Championship (first day of four) years as a professional remind him waking up in the morning to train?
Division One Lancashire v Hampshire, Aigburth; that heavyweight boxing is always Why am I sitting in ice baths? Because
Nottinghamshire v Yorkshire, Trent Bridge; Warwickshire v
Somerset, Edgbaston. Division Two Essex v freighted with risk. He seems deter- southpaw stance’ I’m fighting a good guy. I’m looking
Northamptonshire, Chelmsford; Gloucestershire v Durham, mined not to underestimate the forward to the challenge.”
Bristol; Surrey v Glamorgan, The Oval. Division Three Kent
v Middlesex, Canterbury; Sussex v Derbyshire, Hove; Ukrainian even though this will be
Worcestershire v Leicestershire, Worcester
Third Women’s One-Day International
Usyk’s third fight as a heavyweight. Anthony Joshua Book Joshua v Usyk at
England v New Zealand, Grace Road (1pm) Both men won Olympic gold at Heavyweight champion skysports.com/Joshua
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian
England Women
Wiegman opposes plan
for biennial World Cups
Suzanne Wrack
The England Women manager,
Sarina Wiegman, has cautioned
against plans for a biennial World
Cup because of the toll it would take
on players.
“I wouldn’t do it,” the former
Netherlands head coach said before
her team’s second 2023 Women’s
World Cup qualifier, in Luxembourg,
tonight. “It’s not very good for the
players, for their welfare.
“When you have all these tourna-
ments [World Cups, Olympics and
Euros] every year, where are the
players going to get some rest? Where
are they going to recover from a very
intense football year every year?
Players are not robots.”
Wiegman, who said that Leah
Williamson would continue as cap-
tain in the absence of the injured
Steph Houghton, urged Fifa to
Rodríguez in Qatar for talks
over move from Everton
Andy Hunter
James Rodríguez has travelled to
Qatar for talks over a possible move
from Everton 12 months after his
arrival from Real Madrid.
The Colombia international’s
future at Goodison Park has been
uncertain since Carlo Ancelotti sur-
prisingly returned to Madrid in June.
Ancelotti had been instrumental in
•
Sport
Football
include managers and players in its
consultations. Fifa has said it will
hold an online summit with football
associations next Thursday.
“I hope that all the stakeholders
will be asked and that they will take
some advice from them, and coaches
with international experience are
stakeholders and we should be part
of that discussion, and we know
the players: players are stakeholders
too,” she said.
The England full-back Demi Stokes
echoed Wiegman’s misgivings. “The
welfare of players physically but
most of all mentally is important,”
the Manchester City player said.
“When you come back from a tour-
nament, whether it’s been success-
ful or unsuccessful, it is very taxing
and very draining.”
Stokes said if the change were
made it would be important that
resources were put in to support
players through the increasingly
intense schedule. “Welfare of players,
the 30-year-old’s decision to join
Everton on an initial two-year con-
tract worth in the region of £200,000
a week.
Rodríguez has yet to feature under
Rafael Benítez this season and was
informed early in the summer that
he was free to find another club as
Everton went about reducing their
wage bill.
Potential moves to Porto and Istan-
bul Basaksehir failed to materialise
during the European transfer window
physio, strength and conditioning,
all that then has to elevate with it,”
she said.
Stokes has seen the impact
international tournaments can
have on club football, with City
shouldering a huge number of inju-
ries primarily among players who
competed with Team GB at the
Olympics. Lucy Bronze, Keira Walsh,
Ellie Roebuck, Steph Houghton,
Lauren Hemp, Caroline Weir, Ellen
White and Georgia Stanway have, or
have had, injuries requiring varying
levels of treatment.
“We want to put on good perfor-
mances and play good football and
I think in order to do that you have
to have the full package of making
sure a player is mentally, physically,
recovered to go again,” said Stokes.
“At some point you will break down if
you keep going and going and going.”
‘I wouldn’t do it.
It’s not very good
for the players, for
their welfare’
Sarina Wiegman
England Woman manager
▲ James Rodríguez has not
featured for Everton this season
On Friday England defeated North
Macedonia 8-0 in the first game of
Wiegman’s reign and a first competi-
tive fixture since the Women’s World
Cup in 2019. It was not the only large
margin of victory in the first round
of European qualifying, with Aus-
tria beating Latvia 8-1, Spain and
Norway putting 10 past the Faroe
Islands and Armenia respectively
and Germany beating Bulgaria 7-0.
Wiegman said those kinds of results
were not ideal and that there had to
be discussions on “what’s best to get
the women’s game to a higher level”,
with pre-qualifiers an option.
“It’s hard,” she said. “These
teams are developing and what
you want to do is develop women’s
football worldwide, and also in
Europe of course, but the difference
between qualities now is actually
huge and it’s not very competitive
when you win 8-0 … Countries that
are lower-ranked need help with
developing programmes, maybe
something grassroots.
“I don’t know the situation in all
the countries, but projects at the
grassroots and involving top-level
competitions, all those things that
make the gap closer or tighter. That
takes time but now the top coun-
tries have improved so much so the
gap has become a little bigger than
we hoped.”
 Alex
Greenwood
volleys the
ball during
an England
training session
yesterday
RYAN PIERSE/GETTY
IMAGES
but an alternative is the Middle East.
The Qatar club Al Rayyan have been
reported as a possible destination,
although negotiations are at an early
stage.
The playmaker missed the start
of Benítez’s debut season at Everton
with Covid issues but has been
overlooked since returning to full
training. He scored six goals in 26
appearances for the club last season,
when a highly impressive start was
disrupted by injury.
Everton visit Queens Park Rangers
in the Carabao Cup this evening
when they could be again without
Richarlison, Dominic Calvert-Lewin,
Séamus Coleman and Jordan Pick-
ford. All four missed Saturday’s 3-0
loss at Aston Villa through injury.
43
Liverpool line
up ‘diamond’
Gordon for bow
Andy Hunter
Kaide Gordon is in contention to
make his Liverpool debut tonight,
with the assistant manager, Pepijn
Lijnders, describing the 16-year-old
as one of “many diamonds” on the
pathway to the first team.
The winger has made a major
impression since joining Liverpool
from Derby in February and has been
named in Jürgen Klopp’s squad for
the Carabao Cup third-round tie at
Norwich. The 18-year-old midfielder
Conor Bradley is another youngster
in the travelling party, with Liverpool
poised to make wholesale changes.
Gordon made one senior appear-
ance for his home-town club before
moving to Anfield for an undisclosed
compensation fee. He impressed
Klopp when called into the senior
ranks for pre-season training, starting
the friendly win against Osasuna at
Anfield, and Lijnders has described
how the winger instantly caught his
eye this summer.
“Before pre-season we make
sure our biggest talents start a week
earlier than we do,” he said. “They
start with the under-23s so I went
to the under-23s training ground
and I saw one player who had fire in
each moment he touches the ball.
He passes players like they are not
standing there. I called Jürgen and
said: ‘We have a new player here.’
“We take all these young players
to pre-season and when do you know
you have a good player around you?
It is when the senior players start
taking care of this young player. So
when you see James Milner speaking
with Kaide, when you see Trent
[Alexander-Arnold] becoming like
a proper mentor to him, when you
see all the boys invite him to sit at the
table, that made it good for him to
adapt to our team and our style.
“He has a goal in him and he has
this natural ability to be in the box
between the posts to score even when
a cross comes from the opposite side.
He is a typical Liverpool Football Club
winger in my opinion because he has
goals and speed. We really like him.”
Lijnders insists it is essential that
Liverpool show their academy pros-
pects there is a route to the first team
despite the risk to the prospects of
winning the Carabao Cup. “With one
player we push, we inspire the entire
academy, so we have to keep the logic
of the inside pathway. One, because
we win players and, two, because we
become a better team because young
players will never let you down.”
▲ Winger Kaide Gordon joined
Liverpool from Derby in February

44
Footgolf and vegan tarts
Preparing for City
the Wycombe way
A visit to Wycombe’s
training ground shows
thoroughness, fun and
humility as they prepare
for a Carabao Cup
p visit
to Manchester City,
ity,
writes Ben Fisher
er
t is 10.30am on Thursday, the
I
morning after Manchester
City put six goals past
RB Leipzig, but at Wycombe
Wanderers’ training ground
the focus is not on their
glamour trip to the Etihad Stadium
tonight but their next League One
opponents. Downstairs the kit man,
Steve Vaux, is applying the Carabao
Cup logo to the sleeves of the away
kits but upstairs Gareth Ainsworth
has the attention of his players
as he runs through some clips of
Charlton Athletic.
An hour later Ainsworth drags a
goal into place in preparation for an
XI v XI game, which he occasionally
halts to make a point. “If you let
him turn on the ball there, bloody
hell we’ll be in all sorts,” he says,
urging the centre-backs Anthony
Stewart and Ryan Tafazoli to get
tight when on halfway.
Making mental notes from
the sidelines is Dr Misia Gervis,
the sports psychologist, while
the analyst Josh Hart films from
a scaffold tower. Gone are the
days of Hart and David Wates, the
head of sports science, making
up the numbers as defenders in
practice matches, as they did
on the eve of promotion to the
Championship.
Training begins with a passing
exercise and an attack v defence
drill, which is a couple of minutes
old when Curtis Thompson rifles
in a shot. Ainsworth encourages
his players “to get in the boiling
pot” adding: “We can’t hang out
on the edge of the box waiting to
hit a worldie.”
Garath McCleary whips in a
delicious ball – “early crosses
will kill teams” – before Brandon
Hanlan slips in Daryl Horgan with
a neat reverse pass. “Superb,” his
manager says. The bulk of the
squad head in after the practice
game but the assistant manager,
‘Jack Grealish did
a lot for us that
season of the Great
Escape – and he still
had massive calves’
• The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021
Sport
Football Carabao Cup third round
Richard Dobson, leads a shooting
drill for the forwards.
Thompson played at Notts
County alongside an 18-year-old
Jack Grealish, who helped the club
avoid relegation to League Two
on the final day. “He would go
past one, two, three players, slow
down and then go past another,”
Thompson recalls. “He would come
in off the left and do his bits, as
he does now. Jack especially did a
lot for us that season of the ‘Great
Escape’.” Did Grealish wear petite
shin pads then too? “Yes, and he
still had the massive calves.”
As the players decide whether
to have chicken or a vegan tart
for lunch, outside a net bulges.
“That’s our CFO,” says Ainsworth,
as the chief financial officer, Pete
Couhig, in jeans and trainers,
leathers in a volley from a cross
by the B team head coach, Sam
Grace. The end of training is the
cue for eight coaches, and Couhig,
nephew of the chairman, Rob, to
have some fun. “Let’s have a bit of
‘Quadrant’,” says Ainsworth. They
play this game of, in effect, foot golf
– “par 24, it should be three shots a
hole,” Wates says, deadpan – every
day after training, with the aim of
kicking the ball into each corner.
Ben Sayers, the GPS analyst, and
Couhig contest a play-off to decide
the loser or, in other words, who
has to get teas and coffees in.
Getting the drinks in is easy since
a coffee machine replaced a kettle
in the canteen, one of the smaller
improvements at the training base,
with new pitches and changing
rooms part of a summer facelift.
“We joked with Rob [Couhig], the
owner, in pre-season and said:
‘We’d love a coffee machine,’” the
goalkeeper David Stockdale says.
“He said: ‘Right, beat Accrington
first game, we’ll get you one.’
Me being me, I emailed him and
said: ‘When’s it coming, Rob?’”
Stockdale breaks into laughter.
“When you have a squad spirit like
us, everyone is involved.”
Stockdale is speaking as Lisa
Bowker, a volunteer, strims
the bushes. Rob Couhig, who
completed his takeover in
February 2020, arrived from
New Orleans a few hours earlier.
He is paying for a coach load of
office staff to travel to the game
tonight and all injured players will
attend. Wycombe took Tottenham
to the wire in the FA Cup in January,
when José Mourinho resorted to
introducing the cavalry from the
bench, but given Wycombe were
21st in League Two the last time
City lost a League Cup match,
in October 2016, they are hardly
expecting a picnic. “We’re going to
have to score a couple at half-time,”
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian •
▼ Wycombe’s staff get involved in
footgolf (top) before showing their
serious side in training this week
TOM JENKINS/THE GUARDIAN
▲ Manchester City have won the Carabao Cup for four successive seasons
TOM FLATHERS/MANCHESTER CITY FC VIA GETTY IMAGES
Stockdale says, laughing. “You still
never know. Records are meant to
be broken.”
Wycombe continue to make
impressive strides under Ainsworth
but the gulf to City remains huge,
even if both teams boast a “tunnel
club”. In the gym, Tjay de Barr,
nicknamed “the Gibraltar Tevez”
by teammates, is among those
doing strength rehabilitation
work. De Barr equalised on debut
against Stevenage in the previous
round to set up a shootout, in
which he scored the decisive
penalty, before celebrating with
Pete Couhig who, standing among
fans on the terraces, embraced
the striker. For now, De Barr
drives a Toyota plastered with
the Wycombe crest and lives with
Michael, the stadium chef.
f anything reinforces the
I
humility, it is Ainsworth
and his staff counting the
balls in before heading
inside. Ten minutes later
Matt Bloomfield, a player-
coach, returns from the stinging
nettles with the missing ball and
the marks to prove it before a
meeting with Gervis, Dobson and
three players. “I think counting the
balls in is something I will always
do,” Ainsworth says. “They are
£40 or £50 a pop, so if I’m asking
the chairman to help me out
financially with the budget, I’m
going to do my best on the other
side. We’re never, ever going to be
too big for our boots.”
Stockdale did not see City
demolish Leipzig – “sometimes
it is better not to watch them put
six past somebody else and then
worry” – but his son, Billy, took
in the third-round draw. “It came
out that Man City [would play at
home] and he was like: ‘Oooh,
wouldn’t that be good?’ It came
on that it would be us. He ran
around the room, gave me a list
of players’ shirts to get and how
many autographs he wanted. I said:
‘I’m not sure I can do that for you,
son, you need to be realistic here.’
He was like: ‘All right then, just
‘I would love to get
a little conversation
at the end with Pep,
to just take one
snippet away’
win then.’ I was like: ‘Right, which
shirts do you want?’”
It is 4pm and time for Ainsworth
and Hart to study training. In
Ainsworth’s office is his bass guitar
and on the wall a record of The
Wanderer, which his band the
Cold Blooded Hearts, of which
he is the lead singer, released a
cover of in 2019. They are due
to release their first album next
spring, produced by Geoff Downes,
who wrote Video Killed the Radio
Star and, Ainsworth says, is one
of the greatest keyboard players
of all time. “This is not Waddle-
Hoddle or an England anthem,”
he says. “I came out of the studio
and he said, ‘You sound a bit Neil
Diamond-ish’ and that was good
enough for me, although I’d have
preferred Jim Morrison.”
Paying the Premier League
champions and Pep Guardiola
a visit is an occasion not lost on
Ainsworth, who acknowledges
“everyone in the world expects
Man City to pummel Wycombe”.
Tonight he will swap the Nike
Premiers for cowboy boots and
concedes the first touchline battle
will be in the fashion stakes.
“I would love to get a little
conversation at the end with
Pep. I can speak a little bit of
broken Spanish so I’m hoping I
can impress him with that,” says
Ainsworth, whose partner, Donna,
is Venezuelan.
“I would love to be able to just
take one snippet away from who
I consider to be one of the top five
managers of all time. It is going to
bee awesome.”
Gareth
Ainsworth,
the manager
Taking the knee ‘losing a bit
of strength’, says Alonso
David Hytner
Marcos Alonso says he has stopped
taking the knee before matches this
season because he feels the power
of the action has been diluted. The
Chelsea wing-back has chosen
instead to stand and point at the
anti-racism message on the sleeve
of his shirt.
Alonso was asked to explain his
thinking after Chelsea’s 3-0 win at
Tottenham on Sunday and, although
he did not go into detail, he made
clear he believes there is a better way
to make the point than by kneeling.
“I just prefer to do it this way,”
Alonso said. “It’s my way to do it. I
think it’s another way. And maybe
I think it’s losing a bit of strength the
other way. So I just prefer to do it this
way and to show I am fully supportive
of fighting against racism.
“I am fully against racism and I’m
against every type of discrimination.
I just prefer to put my finger to the
badge where it says: ‘No to racism’,
like they do in some other sports and
football in other countries. I prefer to
do it this way and, of course, to say
very clearly that I am against racism
and I respect everybody.”
The Crystal Palace winger Wilfried
Zaha stopped taking the knee in March
because he felt it was “degrading”,
his parents having taught him to
stand tall and be proud of being black.
Zaha has argued that the action has
become more of a ritual, its meaning
increasingly lost. Moreover, he does
not feel it has had the desired impact
in changing behaviours.
Alonso, who did take the knee
last season as part of the drive to
raise awareness of racial discrimi-
nation and social injustice, said that
he had not discussed his stance with
his teammates.
“We haven’t talked about it,”
Alonso said. “We are in the changing
room and we are like a family. I
have a very good relationship with
everyone. I love everyone and, up
to now, we haven’t talked about
it. I don’t think there is a need to
Football
In brief
Football
Dorries urged to stick
with regulator plans
Nadine Dorries, the new culture
secretary, has been urged to retain
the government’s commitment to
an independent football regulator
in a letter signed by more than 100
supporters’ groups. The fan-led
review into football governance
chaired by Tracey Crouch MP will
be published next month and
she suggested the government
should establish a regulator in
recommendations in a July letter
to the then culture secretary Oliver
45
but, of course, if I have to speak to
anyone, I will say the same that I
just told you and I don’t think there
will be any problems. For now, I pre-
fer to point to the sleeve and that’s
what I will do.”
Taking the knee has been wrongly
construed by some matchgoing
fans as a political gesture and it
has been booed inside English sta-
diums, including Wembley before
England games at Euro 2020. It was
also booed before the national team
played in Hungary and Poland this
month. The England manager, Gareth
Southgate, has repeatedly said the
meaning behind the action could not
be clearer – and that it has nothing to
do with politics.
Alonso was booed on Sunday, as
he tends to be by Spurs supporters,
although it was only fuel for him,
as he and Chelsea maintained their
excellent start. Alonso has been an
ever-present, keeping Ben Chilwell
on the sidelines, and Chelsea are
unbeaten and joint-top of the Premier
League with Liverpool. They face
Manchester City at Stamford Bridge
on Saturday.
“To be booed when you play away
– it’s music to my ears,” Alonso said.
“It might be because I have scored
a few goals against them [Spurs]
and I think they maybe have these
memories in their head when I touch
the ball. I love it and even more when
we get the three points and we play
like we did.”
Is it a bad idea for opposition fans
to jeer Alonso? “I think during the
game, they were more and more
quiet and we were playing better and
better, so I don’t know,” he replied,
with a smile.
▲ Marcos Alonso said he had not
discussed his stance with teammates
Dowden. He said the government
would be willing to take “bold
steps” to improve football
governance. Dorries replaced
Dowden at the Department of
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
(DCMS) as part of last week’s
cabinet reshuffle. PA Media
Football
Barnet sack Kewell and
Butler after poor start
Barnet have sacked head coach
Harry Kewell and his assistant Paul
Butler. Kewell was appointed in
June having previously managed
Crawley, Notts County and
Oldham. Barnet are second-bottom
of the National League with two
points. Barnet’s head of football,
Dean Brennan, will take charge on a
temporary basis. PA Media
 ••• The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021

46 Sport
Golf Ryder Cup countdown

‘You’re playing
the fans as well
represent Europe for a week every
two years possibly feel antipathy
towards their adopted home?
Perfectly easily, as it transpires.
McIlroy expanded on his “best
“I looked that way after JT beat
me because I had not put a point on
the board for the team. Going in to
Hazeltine in 2016, I was very proud
of my singles record.
even though I was part of a great
match.
“The match with JT was great
too but to be beaten on the last hole
both times, in a Ryder Cup? That’s

as the team’ country” remark by pointing to the

convenience of life for someone in
his “fortunate” sporting position.
McIlroy admires this “land of
“I hadn’t lost in three and had
two really good wins over Rickie
Fowler and Keegan Bradley. Losing
to Patrick there was tough to take
tough to take. You are put out in
a position, up in the order, to put
blue on the board and I didn’t do
that. But it doesn’t at all mean that
opportunity.” Yet one glance at
his face upon his singles defeat to
Rory McIlroy believes home Justin Thomas at Le Golf National Ticket to Ryder
in 2018 or his hulk-like demeanour
advantage is an ever-growing when losing narrowly to Patrick
influence, but that might not Reed in the same format two years
be such a bad thing
ing earlier reveals someone who can
very easily turn against the star-
spangled banner. The Ryder Cup is
Ewan Murray not the cosy domain of those who
frequent the coffee shops of West
Whistling Straits Palm Beach.
“One hundred per cent, oh yes,”
McIlroy says when asked whether
hen Rory competitiveness comes easily

W
McIlroy used
a devilish
pre-Masters
question about
voting rights
to call the United States “the best
country in the world” it was easy
to sense another blow to the once-
ferocious rivalry that existed in the
Ryder Cup. How could McIlroy and
the other residents of Florida who
▲ McIlroy shows his dejection at
losing his singles match to Justin
Thomas at the last Ryder Cup
to him. “You are part of a team,
playing against another team. The
competitor comes out in you.
“I could be playing against my
best friend and you put that aside
because the competitor in you just
wants to win. Justin is one of the
guys I’m closest to out here and I
was dejected when he beat me. You ▲ Shane Lowry, Bernd Wiesberger, Tommy Fleetwood, captain Padraig
want to win, you want to do it for Harrington, Tyrrell Hatton and Lee Westwood at Heathrow yesterday
your team. ANDREW REDDINGTON/GETTY IMAGES
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian
◀ Rory McIlroy reacts to a jibe from
an American fan at Le Golf National
in the 2018 Ryder Cup in France
TOM JENKINS/THE GUARDIAN
after that you don’t go back out
and cheer the boys on as much as
possible.”
There is concern in some
quarters that home wins are
becoming too much the norm in the
Ryder Cup. Europe have won once
in the US since 2008. “It’s going to
go more and more like that,” says
McIlroy. “It’s becoming tougher to
win on the road as it becomes more
partisan. You are not just playing
the other team, you are playing the
fans and especially this year where
European fans cannot travel. That
keeps it interesting in the sense
that a road win feels much more
meaningful.”
ádraig Harrington,
P
Europe’s captain, has
floated the idea of a
neutral course setup. “If
you want away teams
to have a better chance
to win it’s a good idea but I do
think there is such a thing as home
advantage,” McIlroy says. “Most
other sports have that so there is no
reason that shouldn’t happen in the
Ryder Cup.”
When McIlroy was starting out
on his career in Europe, Harrington
was winning majors and making
regular playing appearances on this
side of the Atlantic. The pair have
less of a connection, therefore,
than McIlroy had with Darren
Clarke or Graeme McDowell. Yet
Harrington is full of enthusiasm
about McIlroy’s behind-the-scenes
contribution to this Ryder Cup. The
respect is mutual.
“Pádraig is very smart, very
analytical,” says McIlroy. “Captains
are made by who they have around
them as well. It’s not just the
captain making the decisions, it’s
the vice-captain and other people
around the team. But the captain
sets the tone for the week.
“For the first few days, it’s about
getting across how you want the
week to feel for your team. Thomas
Bjørn did a very good job of that in
Paris and Pádraig was a part of that
process so I’m sure he will want to
do something pretty similar.”
It is difficult to know what
to make of McIlroy this season.
Shortly after a coaching shake-up
he won for the 19th time on the PGA
Tour, at Quail Hollow in May. A tie
for seventh at the US Open – where
McIlroy did threaten to win for
a spell – and his role in a play-off
for bronze at the Olympics were
subsequent highlights. However
McIlroy’s wait for a major title
will lapse into an eighth year, an
extraordinary state of affairs for
someone of his talent.
It would be a mistake, though, to
assume the 32-year-old places extra
emphasis on this environment after
– by his standards – a low-key run.
“It’s not about how you do as an
individual,” he says.
“It’s about what you do for the
team. If you can help the team win
that cup, that’s the most important
thing. I have always said it; I would
happily go zero and five if it meant
the team wins.” With the odd
associated grimace, that is.
•••
▲ Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks
Koepka are unlikely to play together
Stricker insists
DeChambeau
and Koepka rift
is a ‘non-issue’
Ewan Murray
Whistling Straits
Steve Stricker, the US Ryder Cup
captain, has declared the Bryson
DeChambeau versus Brooks Koepka
dispute a “non-issue” ahead of this
weekend’s event at Whistling Straits.
Stricker revealed he has received
promises from the pair that linger-
ing and mutual antipathy will be left
aside as the US seek to reclaim the
trophy from Europe.
“It’s a non-issue, really, for me
and the team,” Stricker said. “We got
together a few weeks ago and I’ve had
conversations with them both. They
have assured me it’s not going to be an
issue. I have no worries whatsoever.”
Stricker unsurprisingly admitted it
is highly unlikely that DeChambeau
and Koepka, who have traded public
blows throughout 2021, will form an
on-course partnership in Wisconsin.
“Will we pair them together? I don’t
think so at this point but things could
change,” said Stricker.
“Could always happen but
probably not. Again, I had a dinner;
they all showed up. We had great
conversation, great talks. So I’m not
seeing it as an issue at all and they are
completely on board.”
Stricker had cause to have fur-
ther discussion with Koepka after
comments from the world No 10
appeared last week. Koepka hinted
at indifference towards the Ryder Cup
environment, which he branded “a
bit odd”. Stricker said: “I’ve talked
to him about it. I’ve had experiences
with Brooks over many, many of
these teams, and the conversations
that I have had with him and what
I have personally seen in the team
room does not live up to what I was
reading in those articles.
“Again, I am not worried about
Brooks. He assures me he’s healthy.
He assures me that he is 100% all-in
on this team and whatever he need to
do for this team to become the winner
at the end of the week. I’m not wor-
ried about Brooks at all and it’s been
good talks and he’s ready to get down
and start playing.”
Stricker confirmed Tiger Woods
will not be on site this weekend as the
15-times major winner continues his
recovery from a serious car accident.
“I think it’s just not a good time for
him to be here physically because of
where he’s at in his rehabilitation,”
Stricker said.
Anthony Kim
The Ryder
Cup hero
who vanished
from sight
Ewan Murray
Whistling Straits
ugust 2011. A second
A
round of 71 is not
sufficient for Anthony
Kim to make the
cut at the US PGA
Championship, but
falling short by one appears far
from disastrous. Kim, 26, had tied
fifth at the Open Championship a
few weeks earlier demonstrating
the versatility that had earned him
third place in the 2010 Masters.
At Augusta National in
2009, Kim had birdied 11 holes
in a single round. With Tiger
Woods wilting, Kim appeared a
legitimate successor to the throne
and one who could have done so
much to break down barriers as a
Korean American.
Yet Atlanta Athletic Club and
the final major of 2011 proved a
key moment in the story of Kim.
He has not appeared in one of the
big four individual events since.
Given a decade has now passed,
it is safe so assume he will not
again. Kim’s absence has proved
more fascinating than his spell
inside the ropes. Golf’s answer to
the Loch Ness monster, if you like,
▶ Anthony
Kim played a
big part in the
USA’s victory at
Valhalla in 2008
HARRY HOW/GETTY
only Kim definitely did exist – to
the point where Nike latched on to
a potential global star.
Free-spirited play and a
penchant for a party meant Kim
brought some much needed
movie-star appeal to a world of
chinos and polite applause. “I miss
Anthony Kim,” Rory McIlroy said in
2019. “The tour was a better place
with him in it. He was exciting.”
The occasionally mischievous
McIlroy appreciates those who
refuse to bow to convention but
beyond that he was simply aware
of Kim’s ability. Kim won three
times on the PGA Tour between
2008 and 2010; this was a player
with substance.
The Ryder Cup provides scope
to reflect. In 2008, Kim was a
boisterous member of the US
team that dismantled Europe at
Valhalla. Kim trounced Sergio
García 5&4 in the opening match
of the Sunday singles, setting the
tone for those in stars and stripes.
A day earlier, while supporting his
teammates in the fourball session,
Kim body-checked a visibly irate
Ian Poulter. “I explained my dislike
of the situation to him … in so many
words,” Poulter said last week. Kim
was, at that point, ranked in the
world’s top 10.
Henrik Stenson, so unimpressed
with Nick Faldo’s pairings
pontification at Valhalla, took it
upon himself to tell the captain
he would play alongside the
English rookie Oliver Wilson in
the Saturday foursomes. Kim and
Phil Mickelson, who had seen off
Padraig Harrington and Graeme
McDowell a day earlier, lay in
wait. At four down after six holes
– Europe’s pair were level par –
Stenson regretted his intervention.
Europe, though, rallied to win
the match to ensure a memorable
debut session for Wilson.
Having beaten Kim before, he
was far from overawed but fully
appreciative of his status. “I had
played quite a bit of golf with
47
Anthony and got on well with
him so I wasn’t intimidated but I
knew how good he was,” he says.
“I always thought he was a world
No 1 in waiting.
“Anthony didn’t have a
weakness. His mentality was like
he was already No 1 in the world.
He had every shot, there wasn’t
one he was ever scared of taking
on. He could produce ridiculously
low rounds. He just had it all. He
was cocky but in a nice way, a good
guy to be around.”
Wilson, then in the world’s top
50, subsequently encountered
struggles. The scale of delight
throughout the game as he won
the Dunhill Links Championship
of 2014 endorsed how popular the
Englishman was and is. Wilson’s
current battle is to retain his
European Tour card, one he will
surely relish. Kim, remarkably, has
no footprint in golf whatsoever.
oulter, despite the
P
pair’s spat, echoes
Wilson’s sentiment.
“He was a great player,
an incredible player.
There haven’t been
many young talents at that level
to completely fall by the wayside.
We can all play the ‘what if’
scenario but, genuinely, where
would Anthony Kim be today if he
didn’t jack it in?
“It’s bizarre, it’s a shame.
Even though he was a feisty
character and we had that run-in,
you miss competing against
people like that.”
So what happened? It is
easy – fun, even – to portray
Kim’s disappearance as some
great mystery. The reality, as far
as anyone is aware, is that Kim
was the holder of a lucrative
insurance policy. Depending on
your perspective, he was either
prevented from playing by a series
of injuries or was given the option
of not having to play after the
injuries took hold.
Kim’s last post-round media
appearance was at the Arnold
Palmer Invitational in 2012,
where he discussed a hole in one.
He underwent achilles surgery
in June of that year and never
returned to the PGA Tour.
There have been snapshots,
which only add to the legend.
In early 2019, Kim was
approached by an eagle-eyed
fan in Hollywood while walking
his dog. Benjamin Bujnowski
reported Kim to be perfectly
amiable and approachable. When
asked about the state of his game,
Kim said: “Nonexistent.”
Kim’s longtime coach, Adam
Schriber, posted an Instagram
image from Dallas alongside his
one-time star pupil to kick off
2021 with the promise of “special”
things to come. Schriber could have
meant anything at all, or may have
just been playing to an expectant
gallery, but Kim has not been
presented in public since.
“I’m a pretty relaxed person, I
like to have fun,” Kim said before
life took him down an alternative
path. Will he watch this Ryder Cup?
Does he even know it is taking
place? Still only 36, one of the
greatest players in a generation is
a forgotten man.
 •••
The Guardian
Give it a rest ‘Another way’ Tuesday 21 September 2021
Two-year World d Alonso stands
Cups would be alone as he
a toll on playerss stops taking
says Wiegman the knee
Page 43  Page 45 

‘It’s tough
to win on
the road’
Rory McIlroy on why the
partisan crowds at the
Ryder Cup make away
wins extra special

Exclusive interview
Page 46 

HARRY TRUMP/R&A/GETTY IMAGES

Pakistan fury
England accused of ‘making
excuses’ after ditching tour
Ali Martin
England have been accused of
“failing a member of their cricket
fraternity” and “making excuses”
after cancelling next month’s tour of
Pakistan and citing mental wellbeing
as one of the driving factors behind
the decision.
The short trip was to be England’s
first visit to Pakistan since 2005, fea-
turing two double-header men’s and
women’s Twenty20s in Rawalpindi
on 14 and 15 October before the
women’s side stayed on for three
one-day internationals. But it was
plunged into doubt on Friday when
New Zealand withdrew their men’s
team from the country in response
to a “specific” and “credible” secu-
rity threat that was relayed to their
government by intelligence services.
Yesterday the England and Wales
Cricket Board confirmed the widely
expected knock-on effect, calling off
its tour citing “increasing concerns
about travelling to the region” and a
belief it would “add further pressure”
to players who have operated in bub-
bles since the start of the pandemic.
Ramiz Raja, the former interna-
tional batsman who is now chair of
the Pakistan Cricket Board, tweeted:
“Disappointed with England, pulling
out of their commitment & failing a
member of their Cricket fraternity
when it needed it most. Survive we
will inshallah. A wake up call for Pak
team to become the best team in the
world for teams to line up to play
them without making excuses.”
Though expected, the decision was
always likely to be met with dismay
and anger in Pakistan, not least since
the tour was arranged last November
as a show of gratitude towards the
Big call
PCB after it sent its Test side to the UK Jones set to
during the Covid-affected summer
of 2020.
That series, during which the drop Vunipola
Pakistan players spent two months
in the strict biosecure bubbles at in England
Old Trafford and the Ageas Bowl,
helped the ECB to avoid losses
greater than the £16.5m deficit
shake-up
eventually recorded. Pakistan’s
men also returned this year, playing Page 42 
six white-ball matches despite a
Covid-19 outbreak forcing England
to pick an entirely new squad.
The ECB thanked its counterpart
for its support over the past two years
and said the governing body was “sin-
cerely sorry for the impact this will
have on cricket in Pakistan”. With
this came a promise to fulfil the full
men’s tour that is scheduled for 2022
and features both Test and limited-
overs cricket.
Explaining the decision
40 
to cancel this year’s visit,
 •
Labour should approach its conference with hope Polly Toynbee, page 3
As car workers, we are fighting for green jobs Frank Duff y, page 4
John Challis, hugely popular Only Fools and Horses star Obituaries, page 10
The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021
Opinion
and ideas
The refugee
W
hen Angela Merkel steps
down as chancellor after
Germany’s elections later
this month, the tributes
crisis created
will centre on her role as
the figurehead of western
liberalism; an island of
stability, caution and
two myths of
openness in an era marked by turbulence and far-
right reaction. She will be remembered “for serious
work, stable leadership and having a gift for political
compromise”, wrote Ishaan Tharoor in the Washington
Angela Merkel
Post last week. When she faced off against Donald
Trump after his inauguration in 2017, some newspapers
dubbed her the new “leader of the free world”.
Fundamental to this image is the intervention she
made in late summer 2015, at the height of Europe’s
Daniel refugee crisis. “Wir schaffen das” – we’ll manage this –
Trilling was Merkel’s public statement as thousands of people,
mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, were making
their way through Turkey, Greece and the Balkans
to western Europe. By declaring Germany – and, by
extension, Europe – open to refugees, she was making
a bold, pragmatic statement of intent.
Yet two contradictory myths have grown up
G2
Daily
pullout
life &
arts
section
Inside
around the “wir schaffen das” moment, both of ILLUSTRATION:
which overstate the significance of her intervention MATT KENYON
and mischaracterise its effects. The populist right
blames Merkel for prompting one of the largest
mass migrations in the continent’s recent history, a
“catastrophic mistake”, as Trump later put it, that
would undermine Europe’s security and identity
through an overwhelming foreign intrusion.
Liberals, meanwhile, treat it as a triumph. Merkel’s
stance, in this telling, held true to the values that
supposedly underpin the European project and
showed that a crisis could be met with compassion.
In truth, Merkel’s contribution to Europe’s politics
of immigration went much further, and her legacy is
far more mixed. As an investigation by Die Zeit has
shown, “wir schaffen das” did not, for the most part,
encourage migration: it acknowledged a reality that
already existed. The refugee crisis had been under way 
for several months by the summer of 2015, with people
motivated to travel more by what was pushing them
Daniel Trilling
is the author
from their homes than the reception they expected in of Lights in the
Europe. Syrians, for instance, were facing a worsening Distance: Exile
conflict, decreasing food rations from and Refuge at
aid agencies, and employment bans in
Lebanon and Turkey, where most Syrian  the Borders
of Europe
 • The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021
2
The refugee crisis created
two myths of Angela Merkel
Daniel Trilling
 Continued from front
refugees have settled. When Germany
 announced in September 2015, a few days
after Merkel’s speech, that it would keep
its borders open to refugees heading westwards from
the Keleti railway station in Budapest, people had
been travelling for months already.
What’s more, Europe’s “crisis” – the chaotic and
deadly arrival of people not just through Greece but
across the central Mediterranean from Africa – was
in large part a product of the continent’s border
policies, which had closed off safe routes to asylum
and funnelled people into dangerous bottlenecks.
Germany under Merkel, as the EU’s most powerful
member, played a key role in creating the problem. It
helped to maintain a system in which border security
was given higher priority than refugee reception.
Likewise, Merkel’s insistence on punitive austerity as
the solution to Europe’s earlier economic crisis fatally
weakened the capacity of frontline states such as
Greece to respond to greater numbers of refugees at a
E
crucial moment.
ven the moment of openness that “wir
schaffen das” expressed was short-
lived, with Germany soon working
to rebuild and strengthen Fortress
Europe. By mid-September, Germany
had introduced temporary controls on
its border with Austria, the beginning
of a process that would eventually
see migration routes through south-eastern Europe
closed off. A few months later, Merkel was a leading
proponent of the 2016 deal that effectively trapped
many refugees in Turkey, while Germany has done
nothing to challenge the EU’s authoritarian turn that
has made search and rescue in the Mediterranean
almost impossible. Merkel may have been a bulwark
against far-right domination of European politics, but
the price was to absorb some of the far right’s agenda
on border control.
Yet while Merkel did not radically alter the
European course of the crisis, she shifted the tone of
debate at a crucial moment. Fleeting as it was, this
mattered. Its effects can be seen in the way German
society accommodated the 1.7 million people who
claimed asylum there between 2015 and 2019. Despite
the dire predictions from the right, this has been an
undoubted success: as the Guardian’s own reporting
has shown, more than half of those who arrived are in
work and pay taxes, while more than 80% of refugee
children say they feel as if they belong in Germany and
are welcome. The xenophobic backlash, playing on
fears of crime or terrorism, is real, but it is something
that can be – and is being – challenged.
Britain’s government makes an instructive
comparison: even as it proclaims its generosity
towards a small fraction of the people currently trying
to flee Afghanistan (the official scheme promises to
resettle 20,000 people over five years), this is drowned
out by its authoritarian posturing. The latest example
of this, a promise to “turn around” migrant boats
in the Channel, risks deadly consequences if it ever
comes to pass. The response to recent Afghan arrivals
itself reveals the shoddiness of Britain’s asylum
system: why is it being left to volunteers and charities
to provide essentials such as clothes?
Ultimately, Merkel’s legacy tells us less about one
politician’s actions than about what can be done if
a society has the will to help people in need. That
is a collective effort. But the myths and symbols
politicians trade in can enable such efforts, or destroy
them. In Britain, it often feels like the debate on
asylum is dominated by a competition to see who
can sound the toughest: between politicians who
enthusiastically push a hard-right agenda, and those
who purport to be liberals but take a tough stance
because they think it’s what the public wants.
This goes beyond the peculiar cruelties of our
current government: it is the product of years of
xenophobia encouraged by the rightwing press, and
will take a huge effort to unpick. But Merkel should
remind us, however inconsistent her actions might
have been in reality, that there is always an alternative.
Founded 1821 Independently owned by the Scott Trust № 54,456
‘Comment is free… but facts are sacred’ CP Scott
Energy
Use the state to shield the
public from a climate
crisis and price shocks
There is a level of government complacency about
energy price shocks. Ministers think the best course
of action is to just accept them. Wholesale gas prices
are now more than five times their level two years
ago, raising the prospect that household bills will rise
by 12% next month. Shoppers could also face empty
supermarket shelves as it becomes unprofitable to
produce the dry ice and carbon dioxide needed to
store meat products. If the energy crunch continues,
industry warns, a 1970s-style three-day week might
have to be introduced.
The government response has been familiar: deny
the problem, deflect responsibility for failure and
delay taking action. This strategy is a reminder of the
importance of perceptions in a crisis. If something
feels like a crisis, it is effectively a crisis. That is why
perhaps Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, says
there is “no question of the lights going out, of people
being unable to heat their homes”. But what if people
cannot afford the energy costs to heat and light their
homes? About 85% of the UK’s domestic heating comes
from natural gas. Fuel poverty is a real issue, especially
when millions of workers are facing cuts to universal
credit and a hike in national insurance. Price caps help
poorer people afford necessities of life such as gas – but
there’s no sign that ministers think the hardship merits
more generous help.
Mr Kwarteng also made it clear he did not favour
the emergence of a state-backed energy company. Yet
this may be the inevitable consequence of a “supplier
of last resort” that the government is setting up to pick
up customers left stranded by the collapse of energy
suppliers. The rightwing Tory business secretary is
Family
Falling birthrates offer
proof that we live in an
alarmingly insecure world
There are not many things that most people agree on.
But one is that it is a good thing if adults who want
children are able to have them. This is the simple idea
at the heart of a new report from the Social Market
Foundation thinktank, which examines the case for
pronatalist policymaking in the UK in the context of
a falling birthrate, and recommends more research.
The Scottish government, the report says, already has
a population taskforce.
So far so uncontroversial. The birthrate in England
and Wales stood at 1.58 in 2020, well below the 2.1
required to replace the population (in Scotland, the
birthrate was 1.29). More than a quarter of the world’s
countries have explicitly pronatal policies, usually
entailing financial incentives designed to encourage
people to have babies. While often associated with
anti-immigrant rightwingers, such policies include
birth grants in Finland and variable tax rates in France,
as well as housing subsidies and other rewards in
Hungary and Poland. Pronatalism need not be the
exclusive concern of nativist politicians seeking to
reverse population declines.
That said, many socially liberal people, and
particularly feminists, are suspicious of those who
advocate for larger families as public policy. Such goals
have long been seen as running counter to women’s
struggle for equality at work, and in public life more
loath to admit that his shadow, Ed Miliband, was
right when he promoted “common ownership” of
key utilities. Mr Miliband also scored a direct hit
from across the dispatch box by reminding MPs that
when the privatised giant Centrica closed Britain’s
largest gas storage site in 2017 it left the country
more dependent on imports and exposed to price
shocks. The Tory government at the time defended
its actions saying the market knew best. Now, unlike
its European neighbours, Britain has limited buffer
stocks to stabilise volatile prices. Mr Miliband
was making a valid point: gas privatisation had
led to a lack of regulatory oversight and strategic
vulnerabilities.
There is a logic behind ministers’ reluctance
to elevate the present difficulties: if there’s no
crisis, there can be no crisis management. The
Conservative party has been in power for a decade,
and it shows no sign of engineering, via industrial
policy, a green transformation of the economy.
Every move, rather, is in the opposite direction.
Ministers are, in effect, saying that the climate
emergency will be solved by the market and its
institutions. There’s no sign of that happening.
To protect the security of Britain’s energy supply
ministers need to accelerate the provision of
domestic zero-carbon power. Instead they appear
to be slowing it down. Nowhere is this more obvious
than in the delay to produce a heat and buildings
strategy to deal with the 10m-plus draughty homes
that run on gas boilers. Greenhouse gas emissions
from homes are higher today than in 2015. But the
installation of electrically powered heat pumps and
loft insulation are running at rates less than 10%
of what’s needed by 2025, says the UK’s climate
change committee. This while the government
botched its £1.5bn green homes scheme, which
prioritised economic stimulus over reducing
carbon dioxide. The UK’s net zero pledge is simply
public relations without a coherent plan to reduce
emissions. A climate emergency is no place for the
rigid application of free-market principles. A pity no
one has told ministers.
broadly. Historically, pronatalist policies have been
linked to attempts to restrict female reproductive
and other freedoms, most notably in Nazi Germany.
Such disturbing associations aside, discomfort
often accompanies the idea of official intrusion into
what we have been taught, in liberal democracies,
to regard as a highly personal choice. What business
of the government is it whether we decide to have
one child, four children, or none? The SMF answers
this question as tentatively as one might expect,
given its own centrist politics and the UK’s socially
laissez-faire record in this area. But it concludes that
the economic effects of the demographic shift that the
UK is now going through merit further consideration.
Evidence from around the world suggests that
if the committees recommended by this report are
convened, the climate crisis will figure much more
prominently as an issue than it does here. One
recent survey found that four in 10 young people
are hesitant about having children due to their
awareness of the growing risks of disastrous global
heating. Along with this existential threat, and the
fundamental lack of security and hopefulness about
the future that it gives rise to, are more immediate
problems including the UK’s dysfunctional housing
system, low wages and insecure employment, and
a chronically underfunded childcare sector that is
the third most expensive in the world.
It is impossible to say definitively which of these
has contributed most to the decline in births. There
is no reason why people should not discuss this.
But when funding cuts over the past decade have
led to a situation where nearly half of all families
with three children or more live in poverty at the
moment, it seems fanciful to imagine that the
government would exert itself to improve the life
chances of babies who have not even been born.
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian •
Opinion
A
Labour should
head of the Labour party conference
this weekend, many are hoping for
a magic leader’s speech to turn the
tide overnight. Orthodoxy decrees
approach its
that a midterm opposition should
be polling far ahead, not in Labour’s
current position – three percentage
points behind the Tories. But it would
conference
be a historic first for Labour to overturn its worst defeat
in eight decades in just one leap. Many of the seats it
lost in the 2019 election had been sliding away for years.
“You go bankrupt gradually, then suddenly,” is how Ben
with hope
Page of Ipsos Mori describes the slow erosion of support
in seats such as Sedgefield, in County Durham.
Keir Starmer, who is polling well below Boris
Johnson (though both have negative approval
ratings), has remained relatively unknown, and
Polly voters are still vague on who he is and what he
Toynbee stands for. Covid-19 prevented the opposition from
making bareknuckle assaults on a government
coping with a deadly emergency. Meanwhile Tory
mega-donors have funded “more polling and
focus groups than I’ve ever seen”, says Page.
Labour’s frontbench is decent and serious, and
surefooted in pointing out egregious policy blunders
and dishonesties by Tory ministers, yet they too remain
largely unknown, and the launch of numerous Starmer-
era policies go unnoticed. Anxious supporters call
for charisma, as if a glitter ball over their conference
hall might help. Too dull, too grey, where’s the zest? If
Johnson has turned politics into a gameshow, Labour
is neither in the celebrity jungle nor on the dancefloor.
That’s why Labour people huddle together
glumly, watching calamitous policies glide through
parliament under Johnson’s untouchable majority.
Aside from the endless internal strife caused by
those who seem more intent on capturing the
party than winning real elections, is it all over?
No, because what comes next is the show where
Johnson’s balloons burst, his promises unredeemed.
The one where the economy bites deep into pockets,
with wages falling behind inflation, the cost of
food rising, Brexit denuding shelves and winter gas
prices soaring. Save Christmas, Johnson orders his
ministers, but he may be the turkey. Plentiful job
3
Half-heard
news clips
from a speech butter
few parsnips, but
the right note struck
incessantly does
filter through
vacancies in low-paid sectors are no replacement for
better jobs that have been lost, warns the Institute
for Fiscal Studies. The end of the furlough scheme
and the cut to universal credit will force many
families into food banks. Positive forecasts are few.
Economic woe will collide with a back-to-austerity
budget in October. Schools will be worse funded than
in 2010, NHS waiting times are already critical and
phantom funds for social care will cause care home
closures. The “levelling up” agenda is yet to materialise.
Infrastructure projects take for ever, so Michael Gove
will struggle to whistle up hi-vis quick wins.
Governments famously lose elections, oppositions
don’t conquer. The Exchange Rate Mechanism fiasco
destroyed John Major. The global crash slew Gordon
Brown: that was unjust, but governments take the rap
for losing their grip on economic security. Tony Blair
even feared the end in 2000, when hauliers blockading
oil depots caused angry petrol pump queues. The
public may not forgive another Covid surge; a
masked Labour conference may look better than the
flamboyantly maskless Tory cabinet in a closed room.
Political earthquakes do happen. But waiting for
Keir Starmer a national disaster is a bad look. Voters have yet to
in Falmouth decide if Labour is a safe emergency service to rescue
in June the country. Starmer has put its house in order,
PHOTOGRAPH: tightened his team and gripped the ruling executive.
HUGH HASTINGS/
His top team is quite chipper for a number of reasons.
GETTY IMAGES
Yo-yo polls suggest a narrowing of the Tories’ lead.
“Even this government can’t defy political gravity for
ever,” says Prof Tim Bale of the University of London.
Voters are fine-tuned to the real economy: the cost of
living is increasing and many are indignant that tax
rises have fallen on working people, not the rich. Bale
agrees with party analysts who say Starmer may not be
H
popular, but equally there is no hostility to him either.
alf-heard news clips from a
leader’s speech butter few political
parsnips on the day, but the right
note struck incessantly does
eventually filter into the public
consciousness, despite a hostile
media. Open goals will leave
Labour spoiled for choice: after the
economy, security is Starmer’s domain. Who can call
Labour “soft on crime” with law and order collapsing
under three-year delays for criminal trials? How can
Johnson face Cop26 with no roadmap for missed
environmental targets? On public services, people
already trust Labour. And when it comes to Brexit,
does Starmer dare to damn Johnson’s record and put
forward a better deal? For those of us yearning for
future radicalism, proportional representation is the
one hope that could ensure it. Dare Starmer back it?
In his recent speech at the Trades Union
Congress, Starmer pledged secure jobs, an end to
zero-hours contracts and fire-and-rehire policies,
£30bn for green jobs and an end to the freeze
on key-worker pay. Expect shadow chancellor
Rachel Reeves to fire up wealth creation through
investment, closing unjust tax loopholes and
calling for a windfall tax on pandemic profiteers.
These policies also chime with soft Tory voters.
If the economy turns dangerous, hourly focus
groups will only tell Johnson what’s coming. But
he’s only safe until a self-disciplined Labour party
proves it’s the fire brigade people can trust.
 • The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021

4 Opinion

As car workers,
components, and hybrids about 40%. The move to
electric will only continue, as UK factories unveil their
new vehicle plans before purely internal combustion
engines are banned in 2030.
of the takeover at the time, arguing that the
company’s track record of seeking to restructure the
organisations that it acquires and sell them on after
three to five years meant that it was not a suitable

we are fighting
In order to future-proof our jobs and the British
automotive industry, we need to transition to
producing components for EVs, including new
propulsion systems and e-drives. GKN Automotive
long-term owner.
Three years later, our factory is being closed.
You can trace GKN Automotive’s origin back as far
as 1759 and our own site on Chester Road has seen

for green jobs

has developed a new e-drive with UK government
funding at its Oxfordshire research facility, but sadly
we won’t see this innovation creating new green
jobs for British workers. Melrose, the owner of GKN,
has decided to close our plant in 2022 and move the
Frank jobs overseas.
Duffy We realised that if we wanted to see a green
future for the UK car industry and save our skilled
jobs, we couldn’t leave it to our bosses and had to
take matters into our own hands. We put together
a 90-page alternative plan detailing how we could
generations of the same family work here since it
opened in 1956. Now we’re looking down the barrel
of hundreds of skilled manufacturing workers being
added to the local unemployment statistics.
Five of the 10 constituencies with the highest
jobless rates anywhere in the UK can be found in
Birmingham. Erdington, the home of our plant, has an
unemployment rate of 12.5%, significantly higher than
the national average.
Birmingham has been here before. When the
massive Rover factory at Longbridge closed in 2005,

M
ore than 500 workers,
me included, at the
GKN Automotive factory
in Birmingham have voted
for strike action to save
both our plant and British
manufacturing. It’s the last
thing we ever wanted to do,
but we feel we have been left with no choice.
Currently, we manufacture and assemble
components for drivelines, the all-important section
underneath your car for transferring power from
the engine and transmission to the wheels. In 2019,
90% of GKN Automotive’s components went into
traditional combustion engines, but that may halve
by 2025, with electric vehicles (EVs) taking 15% of
reorganise production to save money and make these
new components.
Ours is the first transition plan for an automotive
plant proposed by union stewards in the UK, and an
echo of the 1976 Lucas Plan, when shop stewards
at Lucas Aerospace, also in Birmingham, proposed
converting their plant to socially useful products.
Now, as then, our alternative plan proposed saving
jobs in Birmingham while transitioning the plant into
an asset to support the wider UK industry. That’s a win
for the workforce, the industry and the environment. If
that isn’t what’s meant by the phrase “just transition”, I
don’t know what is. However, Melrose declined to take
our plan forward.
Melrose, an investment company that specialises
in buying up and reselling manufacturing businesses,
acquired GKN Automotive following a hostile
takeover in 2018. Our union, Unite, was critical
the impact was felt for years.
Unite’s predecessor union, Amicus, supported
research that showed that despite 90% of the workers
finding alternative employment, 66% were financially
worse off, average annual incomes fell by more than
£6,000 and 25% reported being in debt or being reliant
on savings to get by.
Every automotive company in the world is gearing
up for the transition. The future can’t be built on
outsourced or offshored jobs, where workers in
 different countries are pitted against each other in a
Frank Duffy race to the bottom.
is the Unite If we all want to see British manufacturing
the Union transition to new environmentally friendly
plant convener technologies so that there are employment
at GKN opportunities in the future, we need to retain jobs
Automotive, and skills like ours to make that happen. Support us.
Birmingham We’re fighting for your future too.
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian •

The long read

The bias that blinds

Medical practice has long assumed a narrow definition of the ‘default’ human,

badly compromising the care of anyone outside that category.

How can this be fixed? By Jessica Nordell 

 • The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021
6 The long read
I
met Chris in my first month at
a small, hard-partying Catholic high school in north-
eastern Wisconsin, where kids jammed cigarettes
between the fingers of the school’s lifesize Jesus
statue and skipped mass to eat fries at the fast-food
joint across the street. Chris and her circle perched
somewhere adjacent to the school’s social hierarchy,
and she surveyed the adolescent drama and absurdity
with cool, heavy-lidded understanding. I admired
her from afar and shuffled around the edges of her
orbit, gleeful whenever she motioned for me to join
her gang for lunch.
After high school, we lost touch. I went east;
Chris stayed in the midwest. To pay for school at
the University of Minnesota, she hawked costume
jewellery at Dayton’s department store. She got
married to a tall classmate named Adam and merged
with the mainstream – became a lawyer, had a couple
of daughters. She would go running at the YWCA and
cook oatmeal for breakfast. Then in 2010, at the age
of 35, she went to the ER with stomach pains. She
struggled to describe the pain – it wasn’t like anything
she’d felt before. The doctor told her it was indigestion
and sent her home. But the symptoms kept coming
back. She was strangely tired and constipated. She
returned to the doctor. She didn’t feel right, she said.
Of course you’re tired, he told her, you’re raising
kids. You’re stressed. You should be tired. Frustrated,
she saw other doctors. You’re a working mom, they
said. You need to relax. Add fibre to your diet. The
problems ratcheted up in frequency. She was anaemic,
and always so tired. She’d feel sleepy when having
coffee with a friend. Get some rest, she was told.
Try sleeping pills.
By 2012, the fatigue was so overwhelming, Chris
couldn’t walk around the block. She’d fall asleep at
three in the afternoon. Her skin was turning pale. She
felt pain when she ate. Adam suggested she see his
childhood physician, who practised 40 minutes away.
That doctor tested her blood. Her iron was so low, he
thought she was bleeding internally. He scheduled a
CT scan and a colonoscopy. When they revealed a golf
ball-sized tumour, Chris felt, for a moment, relieved.
She was sick. She’d been telling them all along. Now
there was a specific problem to solve. But the relief
was short-lived. Surgery six days later showed that
the tumour had spread into her abdomen. At the age
of 37, Chris had stage four colon cancer.
Historically, research about the roots of health
disparities – differences in health and disease
among different social groups – has sought answers
in the patients: their behaviour, their status, their
circumstances. Perhaps, the thinking went, some
patients wait longer to seek help in the first place,
or they don’t comply with doctors’ orders.
Maybe patients receive fewer interventions because
that’s what they prefer. For Black Americans, health
disparities have long been seen as originating in the
bodies of the patients, a notion promoted by the
racism of the 19th-century medical field. Medical
journals published countless articles detailing
invented physiological flaws of Black Americans;
statistics pointing to increased mortality rates in
the late 19th century were seen as evidence not of
social and economic oppression and exclusion, but
of physical inferiority.
In this century, research has increasingly focused
on the social and environmental
environme determinants
terminants off
health, including the way differences es in access to o
insurance and care also chan
change health
lth outcomes..
The devastating disparate impact off Covid-19 on
communities of colour vividly illuminates these
factors: the disproportionate burden can be traced ed to
a web of social inequities, including more dangerous rous
working conditions, lack of access to essential
resources, and chronic health conditions stemming i
from ongoing exposure to inequality, racism, exclusion
xclusion
and pollution. For trans people, particularly trans ns
women of colour, the burden of disease is enormous. mous.
Trans individuals, whose marginalisation results ts
in high rates of poverty, workplace discrimination, ion,
unemployment, and serious psychological distress, ress,
face much higher rates of chronic conditions such uch
as asthma, chronic pulmonary obstructive disorder, rder,
depression and HIV than the cisgender population. ion.
A 2015 survey of nearly 28,000 trans individualss in
the US found that one-third had not sought necessary essary
healthcare because they could not afford it.
More recently, researchers have also begun
looking at differences that originate in the providersiders
– differences in how doctors and other healthcare are
professionals treat patients. And study after study
shows that they treat some groups differently
from others.
Black patients, for instance, are less likely than
white patients to receive pain medication for the same
symptoms, a pattern of disparate treatment that holds
even for children. Researchers attribute this finding
to false stereotypes that Black people don’t feel pain
to the same degree as white people – stereotypes that
date back to chattel slavery and were used to justify
inhumane treatment. The problem pervades medical
education, where “race” is presented as a risk factor
for myriad diseases, rather than the accumulation
of stressors linked to racism. Black immigrants from
the Caribbean, for instance, have lower rates of
hypertension and cardiovascular disease than US-born
Black people, but after a couple of decades, their
rates of illness increase toward those of the US-born
Black population, a result generally attributed ed to the
particular racism they encounter in the US.
Black patients are also given fewer therapeutic
peutic Ch is was told that her symptoms, iincrea
Chris increasingly
i gly
l
procedures, even when studies control for insurance,
nsurance, unmanageable,
un manageable, were not serious. Women as a group
illness severity and type of hospital. For heart rt attacks, receive
rec eive fewer and less timely intervention
interventions, receive
black people are less likely to receive guideline-based
ine-based
based lless
les
ss pain
pai treatment and are less frequently
frequentl referred
care; in intensive care units for heart failure,, they y to sspec
specialists.
i li t O
One 2008 study
t d off nearly
l 80
80,000
are less likely to see a cardiologist, which is linke
linkeded patients
pattient in more than 400 hospitals found that women
to survival. having
havving heart attacks experience dangerous treatment
These biases affect the quality of many other her delays,
del lays, and that once in the hospital they more often
interactions in clinics. Doctors spend less timeme anand
nd die.
die
e. After
Aft a heart attack, women are less likely to be
build less emotional rapport with obese patients.
ients. referred
ref
ferred to cardiac rehabilitation or to be prescribed
Transgender people face overt prejudice and d the
e right
righ medication. Critically ill women older than
discrimination. The 2015 survey also found that in i 50 are lless likely to receive life-saving interventions
the preceding year, a third of respondents had had ad than m men of the same age; women who have knee
a negative encounter with a healthcare provider,, pain are 22 times less likely to be referred for a knee
including being refused treatment. Almost a quarter arter replacement than a man. A 2007 Canadian study of
replace
were so concerned about mistreatment that they y nearly 500,000
5 patients showed that after adjusting
avoided necessary healthcare. Transgender individuals viduals for the severity of illness, women spent a shorter time
can therefore face a dangerous choice: disclose their heir in the ICU
IC and were less likely to receive life support;
status as trans and risk discrimination, or conceal it after age 50, they were also significantly more likely to
and risk inappropriate treatment. die after a critical illness.
Even though medical providers are not generally Women of colour are at particular risk for poor
intending to provide better treatment to some people treatment. A 2019 analysis of their childbirth
at the expense of others, unexamined bias can create experiences found that they frequently encountered
devastating harm. condescending, ineffective communication and
disrespect from providers; some women felt bullied
into having C-sections. Serena Williams’s childbirth
story is by now well known: the tennis star has a
history of blood clots, but when she recognised
Black patients are less likely
the symptoms and asked for immediate scans and
treatment, the nurse and the doctor doubted her.
Williams finally got what she needed, but ignoring
than white patients to receive women’s symptoms and distress contributes to higher
maternal mortality rates among Black, Alaska Native
pain medication for the and Native American women. Indeed, Black women
alone in the US are three to four times more likely to die
same symptoms of complications from childbirth than white women.
There’s also a structural reason for inferior care:
women have historically been excluded from much
of medical research. The reasons are varied, ranging
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian •
from a desire
desire to prote
protect
ct child
childbearing wome
womenen from
drugss that could
co impair
impaair foetal develo
development,
opmen nt, via
notions
ons that women’s hormones coul could
ld com
complicate
mplicate
research,
h to an iimplicit
li i jjudgment
d that
hat men’s lives were
simply more worth saving. Many landmark d k studies
di on
ageing and heart disease never included women; the
all-men study of cardiovascular disease named MRFIT
emerged from a mindset that male breadwinners
having heart attacks was a national emergency,
even though cardiovascular disease is also the
leading cause of death for women. In one particularly
egregious example, a 1980s study examining the
effect of obesity on breast cancer and uterine cancer
excluded women because men’s hormones were
“simpler” and “cheaper” to study.
Basic to these practices was an operating assumption
that men were the default humans, of which women
were a subcategory that could safely be left out of
studies. Of course, there’s a logical problem here:
the assertion is that women are so complicated and
different that they can’t be included in research, and
yet also so similar that any findings should seamlessly
extend to them. In the 90s, the US Congress insisted
that medical studies funded by the National Institutes
of Health should include women; earlier, many drug
studies also left out women, an exclusion that may
help explain why women are 50%-75% more likely to
experience adverse side-effects from drugs.
As the sociologist Steven Epstein points out,
medicine often starts with categories that are sociallyially
and politically relevant – but these are not always
medically relevant. Relying on categories such as race
risks erasing the social causes of health disparitiess
and may entrench the false and damaging ideas
that are inscribed in medical practice. At the same e “medically unexplained” reinforces the stereotype
time, ignoring differences such as sex is perilous: as
a result of their exclusion, women’s symptoms have ave
not been medically well understood. Doctors were re
told, for example, that women present with “atypical pical
It used to be said that women
present with ‘atypical’ sympto
symptoms
of heart attacks. In fact,
they are typical – for women
BRUNO HAWARD/ symptoms” of heart attacks. In fact, these “atypical”
GUARDIAN DESIGN symptoms are typical – for women. They were only
“atypical” because they hadn’t been studied. Women
and men also vary in their susceptibility to different
diseases, and in the course and symptoms of those
diseases. They respond to some drugs differently.
Women’s kidneys filter waste more slowly, so some
medications take longer to clear from the body.
This dearth of knowledge about women’s bodies
has led doctors to see differences where none exist,
and fail to see differences where they do. As the
journalist Maya Dusenbery argues in her book Doing
Harm, this ignorance also interacts perniciously
with historical
his stereotypes.
When women’s understudied symptoms don’t
match th
the textbooks, doctors label them “medically
unexplained”. These symptoms may then be classified
unexpla
as psych
psychological rather than physical in origin.
The fact that so many of women’s symptoms are
“medica
that women’s
wom symptoms are overreactions without
a medica
medical basis, and casts doubt over all women’s
narratives of their own experiences. One study found
narrativ
that while
whi men who have irritable bowel syndrome
are more
re li
likely
ikely to rec
receive
ceive scans
scans, wom
women tend to be
offered tra
tranquili
anquilisers and lifestyle advice. In response
to her p
painn and fatig
fatigue, my friend Chris was told she
should get some sleep.
The doctor who finally ordered the right tests for
Chris told h her that he’d seen many young women
in his pract
practice whose diagnoses had been delayed
because their
th symptoms were attributed to stress.
Indeed,
Indee ed, studies
stu show that women around the world
experience
exper rience delays in receiving a correct diagnosis
for ma
many
any ddiseases, including Crohn’s, Ehlers-Danlos
syndrome,
syndrd coeliac disease and tuberculosis. A 2015 UK
study of more than 16,000 patients also found delayed
diagnoses for many types of cancer – bladder, gastric,
diagn
head a and neck, and lung cancer, and lymphoma,
for ins
instance.
sta As Dusenbery argues, the problem is
exacerbated
exace erba by the fact that doctors rarely receive
feedback
feedb ack about their misdiagnoses. They never learn
where e th
they went wrong.
Diagnostic
Diaagn errors, it is estimated, cause 80,000
deaths
death hs a year in the US. Cognitive factors are estimated
to play y a role in 75% of these cases. What could have
been
beeen don
d
done in Chris’s case? Certainly, it’s essential that
doctors
dooctors iincrease their awareness of their own capacity
forr biase
fo biased decisions, and their motivation to overcome
it. We know
kn that biases are more likely to arise when
people
peeople area mentally taxed. Meaningful, collaborative
contact
coontact with
w those in other social groups can also help.
But
Buut there’s
ther another approach to reducing bias that can
support
su
upport all these efforts, providing another layer of
protection against the risk of interpersonal bias.
pr
Elliott Haut is a trauma surgeon at Johns Hopkins
hospital
hoospita in Baltimore. Affable and baby-faced, he
looks
loooks happiest
h when talking about safety. The desk in
hiss office is scattered with books about preventable
hi
deaths.
deeaths A note taped over his computer reads
“reduce system errors”.
“reduc
“r
In ot
other parts of the country, the trauma unit
might see s farm accidents or motorcycle crashes.
At Hopkins,
Hop many trauma patients are victims of
gunshots or stabbings. One patient arrived with
gunsho
the sha
shard of a beer bottle still lodged in his neck, the
entire w word “Budweiser” perfectly legible along the
length of jagged glass.
About 15 years ago, Haut was asked to oversee
Abo
efforts to improve the Hopkins trauma department.
The goal
go was to create better outcomes for the
patients by improving the performance of the
doctors. When Haut dived into the hospital’s data,
he found that patients were developing blood clots
at a strikingly high rate.
Blood clots – the condition that threatened Serena
Williams’s life when she was in the hospital giving
birth – are gelatinous globs of stuck-together blood
cells that can travel through blood vessels and block
blood flow to the lungs. They kill about 100,000
people a year in the US – more than breast cancer,
Aids and car crashes combined. Many of these
clots are preventable, if doctors prescribe the right
clot prevention. In some cases, this means blood
thinners; in others, mechanical “squeezy” boots
that inflate and deflate around the legs to get the
blood moving. But at Hopkins, only a third of the
highest-risk patients were getting the right blood-
clot prevention, Haut found. “We’d get a patient into
surgery – a routine surgery – and a week later they’d
die of a pulmonary embolism,” he told me as we sat
in his office in east Baltimore, near a pile of wooden
puzzles. And this problem wasn’t specific to Hopkins:
at hospitals around the country, patients were getting
proper clot prevention only about 40% of the time – a
problem that the American Public Health Association
was calling a crisis.
Haut wasn’t sure why doctors were failing to
prescribe the right interventions. Maybe, he thought,
they overestimated the risks of blood-clot prevention
because patients who had developed complications
from blood thinners sprang to memory more easily
than those who were treated successfully. Haut
wasn’t thinking about disparities; his goal was to

improve clot prevention for everyone.
To do so, Haut and his team sought
 • The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021
8 The long read

out an approach that had been developed by Peter
Pronovost, another Hopkins doctor, whose own father
had died because of a cancer misdiagnosis. Pronovost
had formulated a technique for improving medical
care by adapting an approach used in aviation: the
humble checklist. A checklist is just what it sounds
like – a reminder of all the mandated steps a clinician
should take. It plugs memory holes and hangs a safety
net under human errors so they don’t add up. Proper
ICU care, for instance, requires nearly 200 separate
actions each day. Complications can arise from
missing even one or two.
Pronovost showed that using a checklist in
intensive care units reduced infections simply
by ensuring that doctors adhere, each time, to a
predetermined set of tasks. In one trial, a five-step
checklist reminding workers in more than 100 ICUs to
do things such as washing their hands and cleaning
the patient’s skin with antiseptic led to a 66% drop in
catheter-related bloodstream infections. The drop
held steady over the 18 months of the study.
Haut and his team decided to try developing
a checklist for blood-clot prevention. In their
version, whenever a healthcare provider admitted
a patient to the hospital, a computerised checklist
would pop up on screen. The checklist would walk
the doctor step by step through risk factors for
blood clots and for bleeding from blood-thinning
medication. After the checklist was complete, the
system would suggest a recommended treatment
– a blood thinner, for instance, or a mechanical
squeezy boot to move the blood. If doctors didn’t
choose the suggested treatment, they had to
document their reasons.
The approach worked. After introducing the
checklist, the percentage of patients getting the
right clot prevention surged, and preventable
clots in trauma and internal medicine were close
to eliminated. One study of a month of hospital
admissions found that the number of internal
medicine patients who returned to the hospital with
blood clots within 90 days of discharge fell from 20 to
two. And after the introduction of the checklist, the
rate of fatal pulmonary embolism was cut in half.
That could have been the end of the story. But
Haut’s office was, at the time, two doors down
from the office of Adil Haider, a doctor who studies
gender and racial disparities in health care. Their
The use of checklists interrupts
the process by which doctors
make decisions, disentangling
the thinking behind them
conversations prompted Haut to wonder whether
there had been disparities in blood-clot prevention.
The team hadn’t sliced the data that way, but when
they went back over the numbers, an alarming pattern
appeared. While 31% of male trauma patients had
failed to get treatment, the rate was 45% for women. In
other words, women had been nearly 50% more likely
to miss out on blood-clot prevention than men, and in
greater danger of dying of this particular cause.
It’s possible that factors other than gender might
have been at play. Most patients who arrive with
gunshot wounds, for instance, are men; perhaps
doctors prescribed more prevention for more severe
injuries. But as the researcher who analysed the data
put it, the disparities in treatment fit a consistent,
large and well established pattern of women
receiving suboptimal care.
Looking at the numbers after the checklist was
introduced, Haut and the team found that it had
eliminated the gender disparities. Women and men
received the right clot prevention at exactly the same
rates. The gap had disappeared.
In 2008, the University of Chicago economist Richard
Thaler and the legal scholar Cass Sunstein, co-authors
of Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth,
and Happiness, coined the term “choice architecture”
to describe a powerful phenomenon: the context
within which we make a choice has a profound
influence on the way we choose. Just as the design of
a physical environment can influence our behaviour
(as seen in coffee shops that skimp on electric outlets
to discourage people from sitting with laptops), the
design of a process can also shape our behaviour. It,
too, can be thought of as a kind of architecture.
For instance, researchers at the University of
Minnesota discovered that they could coax students
into eating more vegetables simply by redesigning their
lunchtime routine. In a typical lunch line, students
encounter carrots next to more tempting options such
as fries and pizza. Instead, the researchers gave kids a
cup of carrots the moment they arrived in the cafeteria,
when they were at their most hungry. It worked: kids
ate a lot more carrots. The key was to put the carrots
“in a competition they actually can win” – a contest
not against fries, but against being really hungry. To
change how students ate, it wasn’t necessary to sell
them on the virtues of vitamin A. What changed was
the choice architecture.
The Hopkins checklist is a kind of choice architec-
ture, too – a way of shaping a doctor’s behaviour not
through persuasion, but through design. It doesn’t
ask doctors to think more carefully about their biases;
it simply interrupts the process by which they make
decisions. The Hopkins checklist forces doctors to
disentangle the thinking that goes into a medical
decision. It acts like a prism, reverse-engineering a
holistic judgment into its constituent parts, the way a
prism separates white light into its rainbow colours.
The checklist also supports that human judgment.
It is meant to remind doctors of steps they might
forget, but bias isn’t really about forgetting. It’s about
using assumptions to judge and evaluate, without
necessarily being aware of those assumptions. Some
doctors resist the intrusion, pointing out that these
mandated checklists aren’t perfect. As one hospitalist
told me, they may not take into account the full range
of factors a doctor might consider. As scenarios become
more complex, the checklist may be best considered a
failsafe for decision-making, not a substitute.
But checklists have been shown to reduce bias
elsewhere. After a structured decision-making tool
was introduced in the state of Illinois, the disparities
between psychiatric hospitalisation of young, low-risk
Hispanic and Black patients and white patients shrank.
When the Mayo Clinic instituted a system of automatic
referrals for cardiac rehabilitation after heart attacks,
the gender gap between men’s and women’s referral
rates disappeared.
Using principles of behavioural design to reduce
bias dates back to 1952, when the Boston Symphony
Orchestra began changing the way it auditioned
musicians. Instead of having musicians play in full
AMY CICCONI/ view of a panel of judges, a screen was set up to divide
STOCKIMO/ALAMY them. Women musicians were asked to remove their
shoes, so clacking high heels wouldn’t be a tell.
In the following decades, curtained auditions
rippled through American orchestras. By the 90s,
most had adopted the practice. When the economists
Claudia Goldin and Cecilia Rouse studied the
differences between orchestras that did and did not use
this approach, they found stark evidence that masking
gender changed judges’ assessment of women’s skills.
They found that concealing musicians’ identities
increased women’s odds of advancing to the next
round of auditions by 50%. Today, women make up
almost 40% of orchestras.
Relying on a blunt tool like blurring out a person’s
social identity is problematic, and can veer toward
erasure, which is itself a form of discrimination. But
in the case of a hiring decision, it can also shield a
person’s evaluation from harmful stereotyping – or
unfair advantages.
Of course, the masked approach isn’t possible in
medicine, which usually depends on face-to-face
interactions between doctor and patient. Structured
decision-making tools such as checklists is a close
cousin. These steer people in positions of power
from using assumptions and preconceptions, so
they rely instead on official criteria. That alone
can unleash powerful changes. •
 This is an edited extract from The End of Bias: How
Jessica Nordell We Change Our Minds by Jessica Nordell, published
is a writer based by Granta on 23 September and available at
in Minneapolis guardianbookshop.co.uk
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian
Established 1906
Country diary
Moccas Park,
Herefordshire
I’m wary of the way that the new
government formula of net gain is
being bandied to justify all manner
of pet projects. It’s intended to
ensure developers leave more
nature than they subtract, but
the value of landscape isn’t easily
measured in simple metrics.
Oliver Rackham best illustrated
the point when he suggested that
10,000 century-old oaks were not
equal to one 500-year-old tree.
By this equation, Moccas Park
would be worth a good portion of
the rest of this county because it
is full of veteran trees. It is one of
Britain’s oldest wood pastures and
the moment you step through the
gates you’re aware of the element
that invariably determines real
value in nature – time.
Lawn Pool, for instance, directly
in front, was first fashioned from
meltwaters off the last glaciers
grinding through the Wye valley.
On all sides you start gradually
to pick out the trees: grotesque
boss-bellied veteran oaks, or
sumptuous teepees of emerald
foliage about giant chestnuts.
All of the wood looks stalagmite
hard, but strangely the fungi
that proliferate on these parts
seem soft and even appetising.
A huge specimen of oak bracket
looked like one of those home-baked
flatbreads dusted in spelt flour,
while its goo-studded rim suggested
a particularly delicious kind of
honeyed halva. One gorgeous plump
specimen of beefsteak fungus
reminded me of ripe peach flesh.
The last was growing on
arguably the oldest and most
important of all these irreplaceable
oaks: the Old Man of Moccas.
I have no problem with his exalted
status. It is, for example, one of
the few trees here that holds a
beetle (Hypebaeus flavipes) found
nowhere else in Britain. Its gender,
however, seems inexplicable.
Its one inescapable feature is
the way the bark, top to bottom
through its six-metre-high boll,
seems to have been peeled back
into two thick-rimmed labia. From
between these surface ripples is
borne a protean mass of tissue
that is upswollen with a sense
of enduring life. A friend has
since suggested an alternative:
the Mother of All Moccas.
Mark Cocker
We do not publish letters where
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to our terms and conditions: see
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•
Letters
Viewing the Aukus pact
through lens of history
The Aukus pact is not a “new world
order” (Journal, 18 September),
but very much an old order; it is
colonial gunboats. I do not expect
politicians to have read history
such as the first Anglo-Afghan
war of 1839, but I do expect
them to be aware of history in
their own lifetimes. Eton may not
teach the failures of empire, but
China has been very clear about
Taiwan since 1950.
When Biden said, “This decision
about Afghanistan is not just about
Afghanistan. It’s about ending an
era of major military operations to
remake other countries”, he was
committing to another battle in the
Pacific. The global dominance of
China has been clear for more than
20 years, and yet we are unwillingly
signed up to face this new empire?
Simon Allen
St Albans, Hertfordshire
• Your article concerning a possible
Chinese backlash over the tripartite
agreement to furnish nuclear
propulsion technology to the Royal
Australian Navy puzzles me (Report,
17 September). It’s not Australia that
has been claiming large chunks of
the South China Sea by building
Safeguards against predatory marriage
I was deeply saddened to read
Daphne Franks’ account of her
mother falling prey to a predatory
marriage (G2, 15 September).
Solicitors for the Elderly, the
membership body that specialises
in supporting older and vulnerable
people, has seen a steady 13%
increase in these types of cases.
Frustratingly, once a marriage
has been officiated, there are few
protections in place for the victim
or their family. It’s also impossible
to annul a marriage after death –
even with proof of coercion or of
the victim’s lack of mental capacity.
This leaves families who wish to
The immeasurable kindness of doctors
As a GP who retired at the end
of last year, having worked the
last nine months of my career in
primary care in London, I have
been despairing when I hear
repeated criticism aimed at GPs.
So thank you, Zoe Williams, for
your kindness (G2, 14 September).
I would only like to question the
words “usually tiny” used to
describe their acts of kindness and
wisdom, which caused me to reflect.
As a GP, you need to use
enormous amounts of kindness and
mental energy to generate empathy,
military outposts on remote atolls
and islands. Nor has Australia been
intimidating its neighbours.
What we see now is an
increasingly bellicose China that
wishes to retain the monopoly
of bullyboy tactics against all its
neighbours, while hypocritically
claiming that the Australian
move is a threat to regional and
world peace. As for Britain being
drawn into a regional conflict
provoked by a Chinese attack
on Taiwan, I ask – what with? I
believe the Royal Navy has so few
operational ships you can count
them on the fingers of one hand,
and the aircraft carriers would do
well to reflect on what happened
to the carriers of the Japanese
navy at Midway in 1942.
Michael Saunders
Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire
• Your editorial (16 September)
says that “Boris Johnson has
highlighted the promise of UK
jobs” from the Aukus defence pact.
But the likelihood is that Britain
won’t gain much – economically,
militarily or diplomatically – from
the new alliance. At present, it
doesn’t suit Washington to be seen
reclaim their loved one’s estate
with drawn-out litigation. Legal
disputes are emotionally and
financially draining.
As a society we need to ensure
that there are better safeguards
for vulnerable people in the
community. We need to make
sure that capacity testing is
rigorous and that medical records
proving dementia, or any other
capacity-limiting diseases, are
properly understood and taken
into account by registrars before
approving suspicious marriages.
Any person who has entered
a predatory marriage should be
and to enable the full use of your
knowledge and experience to deal
with a vast variety of problems.
Working remotely for patient safety
means you often have to plumb
new depths of your psychological
resources to maintain standards.
Mistakes can cause medical errors,
or misunderstandings and upset.
I don’t think any GPs would
agree that the kindness and
wisdom used every day at the
frontline of primary care is tiny.
Dr Kate Cabot
London
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 @guardianletters
as unilaterally ramping up pressure
on Beijing, so the White House has
helpfully described the deal as a
“downpayment” on the “concept
of global Britain”. This, of course,
encourages Johnson’s fantasy
post-Brexit narrative about Britain’s
vaunted place in the world.
In truth, however, Aukus has
very little to do with the UK (or
even Australia). Rather, it is all
about the US flexing its Pacific
military muscle in an increasingly
panicked response to China’s
extraordinary rise in global
economic power and prominence.
Joe McCarthy
Dublin
• Theresa May asks if the Aukus
pact could lead to Britain being
dragged into a war with China
if it invaded Taiwan (Report,
18 September). For more than
40 years the US has made clear
that this would not be a casus belli.
In 1972, President Richard
Nixon and Henry Kissinger
said that the island was “part
of China”. President Jimmy
Carter unilaterally annulled the
Sino-American mutual defence
treaty once diplomatic relations
were established with the People’s
Republic of China in 1979. The
Taiwan Relations Act (reconfirmed
in 2021) promises cooperation,
but not direct US military
assistance in case of an invasion.
Dr John Doherty
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
encouraged to have it annulled. If
they don’t have the mental capacity,
it is possible to make an application
to the court of protection to do
so. If they do have capacity, they
should also be encouraged to make
a new will as the marriage will
have revoked any previous will.
They should also consider a lasting
power of attorney.
If a person doesn’t have
capacity to make a will, an
application for a statutory will can
be made to the court of protection.
In such cases, it’s best to seek the
expertise of a specialist lawyer
experienced in working with
vulnerable and older people.
Jenny Pierce
Solicitors for the Elderly
• It’s not face-to-face contact
that I miss with my GP surgery
(Letters, 15 September), but its
preventive role in my healthcare.
I take medicaments to control my
blood pressure and cholesterol,
and I use inhalers for my asthma.
I used to have annual checkups
for these conditions, usually
carried out by a nurse and reported
to a doctor if necessary, which
provided an opportunity to express
any worries. I hope this routine
preventive healthcare role can be
resumed as it provided valuable
oversight and reassurance.
Bernadette Sanders
Norwich
9
Corrections and
clarifications
• Errors crept into our Emma
Raducanu coverage. In her A-levels,
she got an A* in maths and an A in
economics, not the opposite (How
charisma and talent could take
tennis’s new star to billion-dollar
league, 13 September, page 4);
Bromley and Beckenham are in
London, not Kent (‘I’m just loving
life’, page 5; Club toasts Raducanu’s
win …, page 7); and her opponent
Leylah Fernandez is 10 weeks older
than her, not a year (Fearless fire
of next generation takes hold …,
14 September, page 46).
Editorial complaints and corrections can be sent to
guardian.readers@theguardian.com
Essential eating
for homebuyers
I am wondering what kind of
house hunter approaches an
estate agent with the requirement
that they need to live near a
Michelin-starred eaterie (Fantasy
house hunt, Money, 18 September).
Steven Burkeman
York
• “Ever since the vaccines became
widely available, people who
menstruate have been sharing
stories about weird changes
to their cycle following their
shots” (Who says it’s no big deal
if the Covid vaccine temporarily
disrupts menstrual cycles?,
theguardian.com, 18 September).
So that would be women then.
Sarah Garside
Manchester
• The 1970s must have been
the acme of scathing lecturer
comments for aspiring teachers
(Letters, 18 September). When
training as an English teacher in
1976, as well as awarding me a low
grade, my lecturer wrote: “This
essay is like a holey jumper; it
reveals more than it covers.”
Andrew Keeley
Retired English teacher,
Warrington, Cheshire
• We are told that Tory MPs and
cabinet ministers do not need to
wear masks because they all know
one another, so why is it that at
the meeting of the new cabinet
they each had a name plate in
front of them (Look, no masks.
Again, 18 September)?
Michael Sweet
York
• Re the book Schrödinger’s
Kittens being found in the “Pets”
section (Letters, 20 September),
in the 1940s Woolworths had
the bicycle section loaded
with potted cyclamen.
John Rae
St Albans, Hertfordshire

10
John Challis
Actor who enjoyed huge
popularity in the role
of Boycie in the BBC’s
Only Fools and Horses
T
he actor John
Challis, who has
died of cancer aged
79, was familiar to
the many millions
of viewers of
John Sullivan’s
long-running BBC
television sitcom Only Fools and
Horses (1981-2003), in which he
played the used-car salesman Boycie.
The series depicted the
aspirations of the deluded but
determined Peckham market
trader Derek “Del Boy” Trotter
(David Jason) and his money-
making schemes – “this time next
year we’ll be millionaires,” he
would assure his brother Rodney
(Nicholas Lyndhurst). After a
modest start the series, with its
flawed but lovable characters and
sense of optimism in the face of
disaster, became a huge hit.
Terrance Aubrey Boyce was one
of the bevy of regulars who popped
up in the Nag’s Head to collude in
Del Boy’s escapades or, more often
than not in Boycie’s case, to mock
him when they went wrong.
Challis invested the character
with braggadocio, a nasal twang,
• The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021
Obituaries
a nice line in sarcastic asides and a
staccato machine-gun laugh. Flashy
and often seen puffing a cigar, he was
ostentatious about his wealth but
vulnerable to gossip about the past
promiscuities of his wife, Marlene
(Sue Holderness), and his own alleged
lack of virility. He and Holderness
bounced off each other – “Come on,
Marlene, let’s go home and ignore
each other for the evening” – and
became friends off screen.
Challis appeared in the second
episode of the series and the role
gradually became a mainstay
– Boycie got Del Boy involved
in a diamond scam in the 1985
Christmas special To Hull and Back;
tried adoption in From Prussia
With Love (1986) (“amazing innit,
everything you buy off him has
something missing,” he observed
when Del Boy produced a baby
girl instead of the promised boy);
and became embroiled with
the mafia in the ambitious 1991
two-parter Miami Twice, filmed
in the US. For all his rivalry with
Del Boy, though, there was an
undercurrent of grudging respect
which exemplified the warmth that
permeated the series.
When Only Fools and Horses
ended in 2003, Boycie and Marlene
then became stars of their own
show, the Sullivan-penned spin-off
The Green Green Grass (2005-09),
which found the couple forced to
relocate to a farm in Shropshire to
escape retribution from a pair of
gangsters. It ran for four series.
Challis was born in Clifton,
Bristol, the only child of Alec, a civil
servant, and Jean (nee Harden), a
drama teacher and keen amateur
actor. Alec’s work took them to
London when John was a baby and
after a peripatetic period the family
settled in Tadworth, Surrey.
He was educated at Belmont
Challis, left, preparatory school in Dorking and
as Boycie with Ottershaw boarding school. He did
other cast not take any A-levels and became a
members of trainee estate agent. Emboldened
Only Fools and by encouraging words from a
Horses. From former drama school principal with
left: David whom his mother had arranged
Jason as Del Boy a meeting, but not fancying
Trotter, Kenneth formal training, he answered
MacDonald an advertisement in the Stage
as Mike the newspaper for the Argyle Theatre
Barman, Roger for Youth and secured employment
Lloyd-Pack performing in Pinocchio in schools,
as Trigger earning £11 a week for 24 shows.
and Nicholas From 1963 he was playing small
Lyndhurst as parts in rep and he got a decent
Rodney Trotter role in the film Where Has Poor
BBC HISTORY/BNPS Mickey Gone? (1964). His West
End debut came in Portrait of a
Queen (Vaudeville theatre, 1965),
whereafter he joined the RSC,
spending a happy summer in
Stratford-upon-Avon playing tiny
parts opposite David Warner’s
Hamlet and Ian Holm’s Prince Hal,
Henry V and Malvolio (1966).
Later theatre work included
collaborations with Tom Stoppard
– Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land
in South Africa (1977) and the West
End (Arts theatre 1978), Dogg’s
Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth (US tour,
1979) and On the Razzle (National
Theatre, 1981). He was also in Rattle
of a Simple Man (Savoy, 1981),
Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay (Criterion,
1983), The Rivals (National Theatre,
1983), Relatively Speaking (with
Holderness, at Eastbourne, 2001),
and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy (Hackney Empire, 2013). He
was memorable, too, as King Rat in
Dick Whittington and Captain Hook
in Peter Pan (both several times).
After his debut in The
Newcomers (1967), Challis settled
into TV work and excelled in tough-
guy parts. The action director
Douglas Camfield used him often:
on villainous henchman duty in
The Sweeney (1975); giving a terrific
turn as the brutal mercenary Scorby
in the 1976 Doctor Who adventure
The Seeds of Doom – tussling with
Tom Baker’s Doctor before being
dragged to a watery death by lethal
vegetation; and as Corporal Dupre
in Beau Geste (1982).
His many police roles included
stints in Z-Cars (as Sergeant
Culshaw, 1972-75) and Coronation
Street (1974-77) and playing Chief
Inspector Humphreys in an episode
of Sullivan’s Citizen Smith (1980), a
performance – based on a pub bore
– which so pleased the writer that it
led to him being cast as Boycie.
Despite a healthy CV brimming
Challis was with good TV parts, acting was
extremely
proud to be
a precarious profession and his
experiences working in a garden
centre when struggling for work
made an
honorary
inspired the sitcom Bloomers
(1979), written by James Saunders.
Even so, he could not get cast in
citizen
of Serbia
the part based on himself; Richard
Beckinsale took the lead but died
with only five episodes in the can.
Challis was able to sustain a long
television career well into the 21st
century, playing Captain Peacock in
the one-off revival of Are You Being
Served? (2016) and Monty Staines
in Benidorm (2015-18).
He released two volumes of
autobiography – Being Boycie (2011)
and Boycie and Beyond (2012) –
and Boycie in Belgrade (2020), a
documentary about the popularity
of Only Fools and Horses in Serbia:
he was extremely proud to be made
an honorary citizen of the country.
His first three marriages, to the
stage manager Carol Robertson and
the actresses Debbie Arnold and
Sabina Franklyn, ended in divorce,
but in 1990 he found enduring
happiness with the wardrobe
mistress Carol Davies (nee Palmer).
The couple married in 1995 and
relocated to Hereford, where he
was a popular and active member
of the local community.
A lifelong Arsenal fan, he
was also a patron of the British
Hedgehog Preservation Society and
successfully embraced social media:
engaging with fans and striking up
an incongruous friendship with the
rapper Ice-T on Twitter.
Carol survives him.
Toby Hadoke
John Spurley Challis, actor, born 16
August 1942; died 19 September 2021
Tuesday 21 September 2021 The Guardian
Abdelaziz Bouteflika
President of Algeria
for nearly 20 years and
veteran of his country’s
war of independence
A
bdelaziz
Bouteflika, who
has died aged
84, was Algeria’s
longest-serving
president,
elected in 1999
and returned
to office in 2004, 2009 and 2014. He
finally resigned in 2019 following
mass protests in the streets at his
bid for a fifth term in office.
In 2002 he brought an end to a civil
war known as the “black decade”,
which had resulted in the deaths of
up to 200,000 people, and he also
carried out reforms that challenged
Algeria’s hardline generals. In 2011 he
pre-empted riots in Algiers by putting
a halt to the emergency rule that had
been in place since 1992, and this
helped protect the regime in Algeria
from the fate of its neighbours during
the Arab spring. Nonetheless, his
early presidency saw continued
violence both from the éradicateurs
in the army committed to wiping out
armed Islamist groups, and from
militant Islamists.
Bouteflika was born in Oujda,
Morocco, the son of Ahmed
Bouteflika and Mansouria Ghezlaoui,
who both came from the Tlemcen
region of Algeria. At the age of 19
he joined the Armée de Liberation
Nationale (ALN), the military
wing of the Front de Libération
Nationale (FLN) fighting for Algeria’s
independence from France.
During this period Bouteflika was
controller of the Wilaya V district
in north-west Algeria, close to the
Moroccan border, before becoming
administrative secretary to Houari
Boumediene, a key figure in the
FLN. At independence in 1962,
•
 obituaries@theguardian.com
 @guardianobits
Bouteflika joined Boumediene
and the external armies to support
Ahmed Ben Bella, who would
become Algeria’s first president,
against the internal provisional
government of the Algerian
Republic. Boumediene unseated
Ben Bella in 1965 to become
president himself.
Bouteflika served as foreign
minister from 1963 until
Boumediene’s death in 1978. A
bright, self-made man with no
university background, he relied
at first on an intellectual elite
but gradually steered away from
this group and opted for party
stalwarts. He was then forced
into exile for six and a half years
after the new president, Chadli
Bendjedid, ousted members of
Boumediene’s circle. However,
Bouteflika was brought back into
the central committee of the FLN
when new reforms backfired.
In 1992, after a first round of
voting in which the Islamist party
Front Islamique du Salut (FIS)
overwhelmingly defeated the
FLN, the army moved to prevent a
second round of elections taking
place. During the violence that
followed, with the army fighting
the Groupe Islamique Armé (GIA),
Bouteflika lay low until 1999, when
Liamine Zéroual stepped down
from the presidency.
In the new presidential elections
Bouteflika won 74% of the vote,
according to the official count.
Having secured the presidency he
initiated a referendum on his policies
to offer amnesties to rebels and
restore peace. The referendum was
won overwhelmingly and a delicate
peace has held. Since 1992, only
moderate Islamist parties have been
permitted to participate in elections.
From 2004 to the most recent, in
April 2014, elections have been
accepted as reasonably free and fair.
Bouteflika was a colourful
character in contrast with the
austere Boumediene. In 1983 an
Algerian court had convicted him
of embezzling $23m from Algeria’s
chancelleries. When, in 1974, he
served as president of the 29th UN
general assembly, he was criticised
by the US for what it deemed to
be politically partisan decisions.
But after the 9/11 attacks of 2001,
Bouteflika signed an intelligence-
sharing relationship with the US.
Bouteflika He refused to join the Nato-led
giving a speech campaign against Muammar Gaddafi
in Algiers after in Libya in 2011 or to send Algerian
his re-election in troops to join the French-led
2009 offensive in northern Mali in January
ZOHRA BENSEMRA/ 2013. However, when Islamist
REUTERS militants seized the In Amenas gas
plant in south-eastern Algeria in
January, killing dozens of foreign
oil workers, Bouteflika allowed
US surveillance drones to hover
overhead throughout the siege.
In 2013 he was treated at a
military hospital in Paris for a
stroke, which paralysed his legs
and affected his speech. Despite his
fragile health, and having amended
the constitution in 2008 to remove
the two-term limitation of the
office of president, he managed,
without making a single speech,
to be re-elected in 2014 to a fourth
term. However, he then reamended
the constitution by restoring for
his successor the two-term limit
of five years and adding a clause
precluding the candidacy of
Algerians, like himself, who have
been born abroad. A colleague once
said of him: “He has many friends
but is the friend of nobody.”
Critics felt that Bouteflika had
been merely a figurehead for a
clique, which included his brother
Said, since 2013. Algeria has long
been governed by a military group
known as Le Pouvoir (The Power),
but in September 2015 the feared
General Mohamed Mediène, who
led the “dirty war” against the GIA
and helped win Bouteflika his 2014
victory, was ousted, the clique
around the now inactive president
having decided to consolidate
power without the general.
Bouteflika’s final public
appearance came in 2017. When it
was announced that he would run
for a fifth term in 2019, protests
erupted across the country.
A pledge not to serve a full term
failed to quell public anger and, after
losing the support of the then army
chief, Ahmed Gaid Salah, Bouteflika
decided not to stand. Continued
protests led to his resignation in April
2019 after two decades in power.
In 1990 he married Amal Triki,
but they were rarely seen together
in public and later divorced.
Trevor Mostyn
Abdelaziz Bouteflika, politician,
born 2 March 1937; died 17
September 2021
11
Birthdays
Shinzo Abe, former prime minister
of Japan, 67; Sir Curtly Ambrose,
cricketer, 58; Marcus Binney,
architectural historian, 77; Jerry
Bruckheimer, film producer, 78;
Charles Clarke, former Labour
MP and cabinet minister, 71;
Ethan Coen, film-maker, 64;
Shirley Conran, novelist, 89;
John Crawley, cricketer, 50;
Vicky Ford, Conservative MP, 54;
Liam Gallagher, singer, 49; Rose
Garrard, sculptor and mixed-media
artist, 75; Chris Gayle, cricketer,
42; Christopher Graham, former
information commissioner,
71; Nyree Kindred, Paralympic
swimmer, 41; Stephen King,
He has novelist, 74; Ricki Lake, actor,
53; Simon Mayo, broadcaster, 63;
many Juanjo Mena, conductor, 56; Bill
friends Murray, actor, 71; David Newell,
but is the former chief executive, News
Media Association, 70; Kevin Rudd,
friend of former prime minister of Australia,
nobody 64; Graham Southern, gallery
owner, 61; Sarah Thane, former
director of programmes, ITC,
70; David Williams, former chief
executive, UK Space Agency, 70.
Nyree Kindred,
the swimmer,
is 41 today. She
has competed in
four Paralympic
Games, winning
10 medals
Announcements
ANDREW, John, ARCA MCSD. Lettercutter,
stonecarver, retired assistant principal
Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design,
has passed away after a short illness. Much loved
husband of Pauline, father of Matthew and Vicky,
grandfather of Sam and Noah. So dearly loved so
sadly missed.
O’HARE, Dr Philip John. Son of Philip and
Margaret. Loving husband to Carole, father to
Matthew, John and Simon. Grandfather to Isla,
Abigail and Elliot. A great friend to many. Linguist,
lecturer, proud European, lifelong Manchester
United fan and Guardian reader, he taught at
universities in Leeds and Bradford. Phil died on 11
September 2021 aged 77. Funeral at Holy Trinity
Church LS16 7LP on Monday 27 September at
1pm. All who knew and loved Phil are welcome to
attend.
NEWSUM, Mark G. 30/08/1962 - 21/09/2020.
Monty, my beautiful boy. Remembered every day.
"I’m thinking that it must be love".
For Announcements, Acknowledgments, Adoptions,
Anniversaries, Birthdays, Births, Deaths,
Engagements, Memorial Services and In Memoriam,
email us at announcements@theguardian.com
including your name, address and telephone
number or phone 0203 353 2114.
Reread our obituary of
Jimmy Greaves, one of
football’s greatest strikers
theguardian.com/
obituaries
 • The Guardian Tuesday 21 September 2021

12 Puzzles

Yesterday’s Killer sudoku Codeword

solutions
Easy Each letter of the alphabet makes at least one appearance in the grid,
and is represented by the same number wherever it appears. The letters
Killer sudoku The normal rules of decoded should help you to identify other letters and words in the grid.
Easy Sudoku apply: fill each
row, column and 3x3
box with all the numbers
from 1 to 9. In addition,
the digits in each inner
shape (marked by dots)
must add up to the
number in the top corner
of that box. No digit can
be repeated within an
inner shape.

Medium

Medium

Codeword

Cryptic crossword Guardian cryptic crossword No 28,556 set by Matilda

Solution No. 28,555
L ETF LY STAGED
A U A A H U I 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Across Down
OMA N D A N D E L I O N S 1,5 Single forehand shot and scores 2,22 Projection, which could
B A D I F N G produce a headache with
DAS S I E MI TREBOX are settled (2,4,8)
D R A S A E 9 This forced one to take the stairs, part exchange (8)
WA S P I S H L Y A P E S 9 10 thus getting exercise (4,4) 3 Dual Asian model somewhere in
O K I
C A L F H I S T OG R AM 10 Cycling in Yorkshire? (6) southern Europe … (9)
A A M N I L 11 Singletons? (6,6) 4 … lowers self for Europeans —
S TAR L I NG GOAT E E
K B N D R S W 13 Resorts of times past (4) just saying! (6)
P I GEONHOL E S K I D 11 14 Monk sounds drunk on gin (8) 5 Film of float at a tantric gathering
N A O M S E F
S H R EWD T S E T S E 17 Mushy peas served with pork pie, (5,10)
12 right for trainer (8) 6 What about cunning bloke? He’s
18 15’s range (4) no alien (8)
13 14 15 20 Attractive European’s bearing? 7 See 12
(8,4) 8 Past one’s best, left to admit
16 23 Make secure? (6) defeat on the radio (4,2,4)
24 Inflexible, as if in Fife (8) 12,7 A father’s wise rewriting of an
17 18 25 Their own pants became idiot’s novel (1,7,2,5)
threadbare (4,4) 15 Nice person demonstrated a little
19 26 Stick around, admitting love by energy (9)
the end of fiery speech (6) 16 2% of Hawaii, as a state (8)
20 21
19 After a short time, moved up and
down (6)
22
21 Special position of hotel in 15
location (5)
23 24
22 See 2

25 26
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 Gone to the rats!
Behind the scenes of the big British bin crisis

Tuesday 21/09/21
Zoe Williams
Should I really
worry about
crumpet shortages?
page 3

‘We made love on

the living-room carpet’
30 years of The
Lovers’ Guide
page 4
•
 •

Pass notes 3
The Guardian
Tuesday 21 September 2021

Zoe
Williams
Food shortages? Gas These police
heroes really
prices? Wake me up take the (dog)
when it’s all over biscuit

I
tend not to worry about things until they have happened. The Thin Blue Paw is a new
This is somewhere between a policy and a habit – and has
its ups and downs. Sometimes I think it would be nice to
have fewer appalling surprises, but not often enough that
organisation that honours the
achievements of police dogs. The
inaugural award for outstanding
№ 4,334
I try to change.
Mr Z is the exact opposite. He conducts a minute-by-
minute threat-level analysis of the medium term, as if he has one
bravery was won by Stark, a West
Midlands rookie who kept holding
on even as the suspect in his grip
Elvis the spy
of those angled dental mirrors into the future. Consequently, he is attacked him with a machete. Age: Born 1935.
extremely worried about gas prices and very worried indeed about Initially, I thought: have these Appearance: A trifle conspicuous.
food shortages. He also has some ambient concerns about nuclear people never met a dog? That is Are we talking about Elvis Presley? Yes,
submarines. He spends his life, or at least the portion of it covered what they do. There is an adjective the legendary singer and spy.
by radio news bulletins, trying to bring me up to speed on things I named after them. It’s like giving I’ll admit I didn’t know about the second
should also anxiously engage with. He is remarkably unperturbed Kate Winslet an award for having part. That’s how spying works. According
by his lack of success. Maybe it is not remarkable – maybe he has expressive eyes (she won an Emmy to reports, Elvis was recruited as a spy in
seen into the future and there is a time when I start paying attention. the same week for this very thing). the 70s by none other than Richard Nixon.
I cannot get exercised on the subject of whether or not we will Then I read how many times To spy on whom? John Lennon.
be able to source a turkey for Christmas, partly because it is so far Stark (pictured with PC Paul Where are these reports coming from?
away, partly because I am not wild about turkey and partly because Hopley) was hit with the machete From Bob Harris.
my kids will be with their dad this year. I am not moaning. I can see and revised my view to be more You mean Whispering Bob Harris? Yes, the
that I made this divorcee bed and have to lie in it. But the shortage awestruck. But I still thought: if it’s DJ. Speaking on the Rockonteurs podcast,
of your own offspring on Christmas Day is a famine so profound tenacity the police are looking for, Harris said that Nixon “had detailed Elvis
and unnatural that whether you are eating turkey or rat is a they should switch to staffordshire to gather as much information about John
second-order concern. bull terriers. My dog would still Lennon as he could”.
I cannot get “It’s the lack of CO2,” said Mr Z, with all
the authority of someone who has just read
be attached to the criminal – he
wouldn’t let go for long enough to
Why? Due to the musician’s outspoken
criticism of the Vietnam war, Harris said,
exercised about an internet explainer for the lay worrier.
“Something-something fertiliser by-product.”
attend the awards ceremony.
Then I read the extent of Stark’s
“Nixon loathed Lennon”. By 1972, Nixon
was trying to get Lennon deported. Elvis
whether we will “Not to worry,” I replied, which I believe is
a well-worn English phrase, but I use it more
injuries, and the happy news that
he has recovered, and I had a hard
and Lennon also disliked each other when
they met in 1965.
be able to source a as a Yoda-style instruction to others.
“CO2 is also important to the manufacture of
word with myself. This is indeed an
outstanding dog, who deserves all
But is this spying story true? Harris
claimed that Nixon and Elvis were great
Christmas turkey crumpets,” he continued. “Warburtons had a
shortage in 2018.”
the plaudits life will throw at him.
Prison Service dogs have a
friends; while that may be an exaggeration,
it is true that the pair had a weird meeting
COVER: DIGITAL ZOO/PETER DAZELEY/GETTY IMAGES. THIS PAGE: NATIONAL ARCHIVES/NICK DAVID/GETTY IMAGES; PENNY BIRD/PA

My brain went immediately to all the bread
products I would eat happily instead of crumpets.
That took ages, and I didn’t share it with him,
because I am trying to preserve my mystique.
Besides, he knew that was what I was doing.
“I’m going to carry on going until I find something
you care about,” he said. “The shortages are also
threatening production of soft drinks and beer.”
Gas prices, meanwhile, I find even harder
to care about, since, dur, it is still 21C outside
(according to my phone). “Looking beyond
the next 48 hours, can you see any cause for
concern?” he asked, mildly. “Given something-
something-something-something, are you even
a tiny bit curious about what’s going on?”
While, emotionally, I remain inert, I will admit
that this piqued my interest. My friend C’s partner
is a gas trader, so I texted her to ask him what was
going on. If I had asked her what the guy in The White Lotus was also
in, or how to make Irish stew, she would have replied within five
minutes. Instead, two days went by. Then, finally: “He has a lot to
say on this.” They are, I realise, having the same relationship as us,
one and a half miles away; he tells her things to worry about and she
zones him out, the difference being that his stuff is mainly gas.
Although the decision to ruminate or not is, of course, mainly
temperamental, at this point in 2021 it is also political. I do not
want to be arguing on social media about whether or not these are
Brexit effects, or whether long-haul lorry drivers would have left
the UK anyway because of Covid, or how every country runs out
of CO2 every now and again, but the meedja doesn’t talk about it.
Never would an “I told you so” taste more ashen in my mouth than
delivered across an empty bakery aisle, from one thinking person
who couldn’t find any crumpets to another. I prefer not to notice
that anything is going wrong anywhere.
complex awards system, as do staff
members of the prison estate. I’m
a trustee of the Butler Trust, which
celebrates the people, not the dogs.
One year, another trustee was
also on the dog panel. I definitely
considered merging the two bodies
so we could have the ceremony for
both species at Buckingham Palace.
The canines were just so incredible:
drug dogs that could also smell
sim cards, perimeter dogs that
also cheered people up. I wasn’t
thinking they should go head to
head with the prison officers, by the
way, who are more incredible still.
People always call them “service
animals”, presumably to indicate
that cats are also eligible. Yet cats
never win, because they are not
pro-social. Cat people, one day,
will accept this.
at the White House in 1970.
What was the meeting about? Elvis was
apparently trying to secure a Federal
Bureau of Narcotics badge. According to
notes taken at the time: “Presley indicated
that he thought the Beatles had been a real
force for anti-American spirit.”
So Elvis did hate the Fab Four. His
voluminous FBI file makes it clear. One
report read: “He is of the opinion that the
Beatles laid the groundwork for many
of the problems we are having with
young people by their filthy, unkempt
appearances and suggestive music.”
And that’s why he needed a badge? To
fight the Beatles? According to his former
wife, Priscilla, Elvis thought that, “with
the federal narcotics badge, he could
legally enter any country both wearing
guns and carrying any drugs he wished”.
Elvis doesn’t really strike me as the
undercover type. Really? Then how do
you suppose he has managed to keep such
a low profile over the years?
By dying in 1977? Not necessarily. One
theory holds that Elvis faked his death
to enter a witness protection programme
after helping the FBI infiltrate an organised
crime syndicate.
Is there any evidence to back that up? No.
I didn’t think so. But the idea that Elvis
didn’t die persisted; supposed sightings
were common in the years after his demise.
Do say: “Not all heroes wear capes.”
Don’t say: “Even if Elvis had lived, he’d
still be dead by now.”
 •
6 Tuesday 21 September 2021
Andy Gee with
his recycling
truck in Torbay,
Devon
‘The public
A
don’t care.
ndy Gee
doesn’t mind when people call him
They look
a bin man, but it depends on their
tone. “If they say you’re just a bin
man,” he says, sitting in the driver’s
seat of his recycling lorry, as we wind
through Torquay, Devon, at the tail
at us like
end of the tourist season, “then it’s
like, hang on a minute. I’m just a
person getting rid of your rubbish!
But to be described as a bin man – at
the end of the day, I looked at bin
we’re scum’
men as bin men when I was a kid.”
On the pavements, overflowing
boxes of recycling stand to
attention, waiting for collections
that have become less frequent in
recent months. Gee is contracted to
work a 40-hour week, but lately he
has been clocking up 55 hours, with
paid overtime. “I personally will
Overflowing bins, swarms of do every hour I can to help people
catch up,” he says. Today, Gee plans
maggots, the reek of dirty nappies: to finish his round and then pick up
two weeks’ worth of uncollected
Britain’s refuse collection is in recycling on someone else’s route.
The proper name for Gee’s job
crisis. Is it all down to Brexit and the is a waste and recycling driver,
and men like him (they are almost
shortage of HGV drivers? Sirin Kale always men) are in short supply.
The UK is in the grip of a nationwide
joins a worker on his rounds rubbish collection crisis, triggered
by a shortage of the HGV drivers
necessary to operate recycling and
refuse lorries. This month, it was
reported that at least 18 councils
have delayed bin collections due to
a lack of drivers, with virtually all
areas of the UK affected.
Across the country, effluence
oozes from bloated sacks, rats
rummage in recycling bins, and
foxes enjoy nightly feasts of
epicurean proportions. Meanwhile,
council inboxes and Twitter feeds
overflow with angry messages and
unsightly images of uncollected
rubbish. For the first time since the
strikes of 1978-1979, the public is
starting to appreciate the essential
work that bin men do – usually
after a disturbing encounter with
a particularly potent bin.
Keith Clark, a 27-year-old teaching
assistant in Croydon, recently
had one such encounter. He came
home from work to find his front
porch covered in what he initially
thought was rice, but subsequently
realised was hundreds of maggots
swarming out of a food waste caddy
that hadn’t been collected in a
month. “It was disgusting,” Clark
says. “It made me cringe. I couldn’t
stop scratching myself.”
Meanwhile in Kirkby, Merseyside,
Adam Brown, 35, who works in life
sciences, stares out of the window at
his general waste bin, which hasn’t
been emptied for six weeks. Brown
is a new father. “Can you imagine
what a six-week-old bin full of
The Guardian
used nappies smells like?” he says
glumly. “It was 32C the other day.”
Tempers are fraying, too, on the
hyperlocal app Nextdoor. “What
are we paying council tax for?” one
south London resident writes. “I’ll
dump my refuse at the town hall!”
In response to an overwhelming
volume of complaints, local
authorities plead for understanding,
explaining that an unprecedented
set of circumstances beyond their
control is to blame for the mounting
rubbish on our streets.
First, and most significant,
is Brexit. EU HGV drivers are no
longer able to obtain visas to work
in the UK. The Road Haulage
Association (RHA) estimates that
nearly 20,000 European HGV drivers
returned to EU countries in 2020.
Then there’s the pandemic,
which has caused many HGV
drivers to reassess their priorities.
“Covid has made a lot of drivers
think about their quality of life,”
says Richard Burnett of the RHA.
“How would you feel about
starting a shift at 2am and driving
for 12 hours, only to collapse, fall
asleep and do it all over again the
following day?” The average age of
a HGV driver is 56, so many have
taken early retirement.
Other, Covid-related challenges
include the DVLA having been
operating at limited capacity, due to
staffing pressures, meaning fewer
HGV licences have been issued. And
the “pingdemic” knocked entire
crews off the road for much of the
summer, although such staffing
shortages have abated recently.
To make matters worse, this year
the government closed the IR35
tax loophole, which had allowed
some HGV drivers to reduce their
tax contributions. “Agency drivers
withdrew their labour and said that
if agencies weren’t prepared to pay
the difference, they wouldn’t keep
driving,” says Burnett.
As a result of all this, drivers
find themselves in unprecedented
demand and salaries have soared.
Pre-Brexit and Covid, the average
HGV driver would have earned about
£35,000; now, reportedly, Waitrose is
offering £53,780 as a starting salary,
while Gist, which supplies drivers for
Tesco and M&S, is offering £56,674,
plus a £5,000 bonus. Yet despite this
largesse, bare shelves have become a
routine sight at many supermarkets.
Local authorities are
haemorrhaging drivers like never
before, because they can’t afford
to match these salaries. “What
we’ve got at the minute is a perfect
storm,” says Beth Whittaker,
human resources officer at the
outsourcing giant Veolia, which
handles refuse for 7m households
across the country. Veolia currently
has 80 vacancies for HGV drivers.
But Burnett says problems in the
sector have been brewing for years.
Even pre-Covid and Brexit, the
logistics industry had a shortage
of 60,000 HGV drivers. Unions had
been sounding the alarm about
pay, conditions, hours and an
ageing workforce. “This isn’t a new
phenomenon,” he says. “It’s been
going on for years now.”
In Torquay, Gee is waging his
own battle against the rubbish

The Guardian
Tuesday 21 September 2021
crisis. Eight of Torbay council’s
40 drivers have quit the service
in recent months, tempted by the
high salaries of the private sector.
The service is so short-staffed,
managers are having to go out on
rounds, but can still run only 18 of
their 22 weekly collections.
Without Gee, the service would
be in even direr straits. He’s the
best in the game – everyone says
it. “I wish I could clone him,” says
Ian Hartley, Torbay council’s head
of waste and recycling. “He’s so
efficient that he always finishes his
rounds, comes back, empties his
vehicle, gets in another vehicle,
goes out and finishes someone
else’s round.” Gee, who is 51 and
lives locally, is ripe for promotion
into the office as a supervisor.
“But I worry about that,” Gee says.
“Because then they won’t have me
out here. If they had five of me this
place would be a different story. I’m
not just blowing my own trumpet.”
Refuse collectors work in
three-man crews. Working with
Gee today are two loaders. As the
driver-loader, Gee is in charge.
He is a voluble and often hilarious
presence, but so fearsome is his
work ethic that some loaders dread
being assigned to his crew. “I have
got a name for myself,” says Gee.
“I’ve had people in the office saying
they won’t come out with me. If
you don’t want to work, don’t come
out with me, because I won’t carry
anybody.” But even Gee is starting
to slow down. “I’ve been at the
top of my game now for 11 years,”
he says. “But I can’t keep this up.
That’s my only worry. I’m nearly 52.”
Today, Gee is operating a
12-tonne Romaquip kerbside sorting
Twitter feeds
are overflowing
with unsightly
images of
uncollected
rubbish
Gee in the cab
of his truck
PHOTOGRAPHS: MARK PASSMORE/APEX
•
vehicle, which he handles as nimbly
as a Mini Cooper. On the outside
of the lorry are compartments for
food waste, mixed paper, small
electricals and textiles, glass,
plastics and cans, and cardboard.
Once each compartment is full,
a hydraulic ram lifts it into a
compartment at the top of the
vehicle, where it is compressed. The
cardboard compartment always fills
up the quickest – all those Amazon
parcels. Because dry cardboard is a
nightmare to compact, experienced
bin men pray for rain, like farmers.
“People think we don’t want to
work in the rain,” Gee says. “But it’s
actually better for us, because we
can get rid of all of the card.”
I hop in beside Gee in the cab,
which is immaculately clean and
fresh-smelling. “It’s like a game
of chess,” he says Gee of his job,
reversing around a residential
cul-de-sac. “You’re always having
to assess whether it’s worth
continuing to fill the lorry, because centre in
the fuller it is, the longer it takes to Paignton
compact the recycling. Or, should
you drive back to the yard, get rid
of the card, and speed the round
up?” Gee generally prefers to do a
“tactical tip”, as he terms it, even
if it adds more time to his rounds,
because it means he can clear away
more rubbish.
Morale, he says, is low. Gee and
his crew work long, unsociable
hours, in all weather conditions.
Because it’s dark when he starts
his shift in winter, Gee often can’t
properly see what he’s doing and
gets sprayed with rotting food and
dog poo. He works bank holidays,
except for Christmas and New
Year’s Day, and gets holiday leave,
but no sick pay above the statutory
minimum. “I got food poisoning
once,” he says. “It was bad; I was
in hospital. The specialist said he
thought I got it from doing this job.
Splash of chicken juice – it’s that
easy. It put me off work for two
weeks. They paid me sick pay by
accident, and took it back off me.”
Then there’s the general public,
who tend not to treat Gee with the
respect a man of his experience and
professionalism deserves. “The
public frustrates me, with the fact
that they don’t care,” he says. “We’re does is drive from Didcot to Exeter.”
heroes to zeros in seconds. During
the pandemic we were heroes,
At the recycling
because we were out working, but
as soon as they went back to work
we were zeros again. Some of them
look at you like you’re scum.” The
older generation show greater
respect. “They care more,” Gee says.
“They’re the ones who sort their
boxes meticulously for us.” (When
people fail to sort their recycling, it
can add hours to Gee’s round.)
Gee has considered leaving.
“A guy just left here and he’s gone
up to £44,000,” he says. “All he
But for now, he plans to stay put.
“If I was in a lorry driving up and
down the motorway all day I’d be
on my own,” he says. “At least I’ve
got these two idiots to talk to.” Gee
is paid £24,000 a year. “That’s quite
a sad salary,” he says. “Isn’t it?”
T
he great British
public generally trouble their
elected officials about one of
only two things, says the Torbay
councillor Steve Darling, from his
office in an otherwise deserted
town hall. “Bins and potholes.”
Darling has the enervated air of a
man with a heaving, angry inbox.
“Most people have been incredibly
understanding,” he says, with a
tight smile. “But it’s wearing thin.”
This month, Torbay, Teignbridge
and North Devon councils wrote
to the home secretary, asking her
to allow EU HGV drivers back into
the country for the two years it will
take to train a new generation of
British drivers. “We need that two-
year visa waiver from Priti Patel,”
says Darling, “so that we can take
the pressure off the supermarkets.
They’ll stop poaching our drivers,
and people can start getting their
bins collected more.”
So far, Patel has been unmoving,
even as the UK chokes on its own
filth. I ask Darling, who backed
remain, whether it’s frustrating to
receive so many irate emails from
his constituents, given that 67% of
Torbay voted to leave the European
Union. Doesn’t he want to tell them
to wake up and smell the bins?
This is what they voted for. “It’s
pointless rubbing people’s noses in
it,” Darling responds evenly.
In an attempt to retain drivers,
Torbay council recently put up their
salary by 61p to £11.49 an hour, plus
£60 for every full week worked.
This has cost the council £200,000,
but it is not enough. “If you look
at the average cost of a HGV driver
around here,” says Hartley, “it’s
currently £15 an hour. If we put
all of our drivers on £15 an hour, it
would add half a million pounds
to our budget. We just don’t have
the money.” For every pound the
7
We need
supermarkets to
stop poaching
our drivers –
then people can
get their bins
collected
council used to get from central
government, he says, it now gets
15p, and every bit of extra money he
throws at his drivers is less money
to spend on schools or social care.
But not all council refuse services
are operated in-house by cash-
strapped local authorities. Many
are run by outsourcing giants such
as Serco, which predicts profits of
£200m this year, and Veolia, which
had global revenue of £26bn in 2020.
Veolia is offering bonuses of
£1,500, trying to encourage more
women to enter the refuse industry,
and has started an in-house
training academy to secure recruits’
HGV licences, free of charge.
Whittaker tells me that Veolia has
also put up pay in some affected
areas, but she won’t tell me by how
much, and neither will Veolia tell
me how much it pays its driver-
loaders. (Looking online, average
pay appears to be advertised at
about £11.80 an hour.) “It’s not just
about salary,” Whittaker says, when
I ask why Veolia doesn’t just pay its
drivers more.
At Torbay council’s recycling
plant in Paignton, Gee unloads his
day’s catch into an enormous blue
contraption called the hopper,
which rattles and shudders and
makes a tremendous grinding
noise. Seagulls line the approach
like well-wishers at a royal visit.
Hawks are sometimes brought in
to scare them off, but they’re too
expensive to have around full-time.
I watch as a rainfall of glass,
plastics and cans is fed into the
hopper and emerges in orderly
bales, ready to be sold as recycling.
“That is one lorry,” Hartley
observes. “And we have 22 lorries
coming back, twice a day, every
day, for 52 weeks a year. We’re
shockingly bad at consuming stuff.
Quite often you’ll see food in there
that’s still in the package. A whole
bag of chips.”
As I watch the hopper’s maw
crunch down on an endlessly
replenishing banquet of refuse,
I think to myself that humans are
the maggots, really. We buy and
consume, and waste and complain,
while the bin men carry away our
rubbish at the crack of dawn, quietly,
for paltry wages. And it’s only now
that they’re scarce that they may
get the recognition they deserve.

The Guardian
Tuesday 21 September 2021
Spoofs and
sketches …
Adam Buxton
and Joe Cornish
The World of Wonder empire
grew throughout that decade.
Bailey and Barbato gave
camcorders to 10 Angelenos to
document the city in the aftermath
of the Rodney King riots, then
cut the results together to make
LA Stories. From their New
York headquarters in the East
Village, they selected the juiciest
titbits from America’s booming
homemade cable-access channels
and compiled them into the
Channel 4 series Manhattan Cable.
In 1995, they established a London
office above the Body Shop in
Brixton and launched Takeover TV,
which broadcast videos by budding
talents such as Graham Norton and
Alexander Armstrong, and up-and-
coming film-makers such as Edgar
Wright and Garth Jennings.
“Randy and I were pigs looking
for truffles,” says Bailey, who
sometimes slept in the office to
guard the editing equipment.
Their democratic philosophy
went against the established idea
“that entertainment was all about
gatekeeping and doing anything
you could to prevent access to
production. We encouraged the
opposite.” The DIY landscape
they fostered and facilitated
looks now like a forerunner of
the internet. Bailey has only one
regret: “We didn’t invent YouTube.
Goddammit!”
Adam Buxton was another
regular contributor to Takeover
TV, eventually roping in his friend
Joe Cornish; Bailey and Barbato
then produced The Adam and Joe
Show, with its stunt sketches and
its movie spoofs populated by casts
of toys. For Bailey, it’s not such an
unlikely leap to go from that to Drag
Race 10 years later. “It’s all about
the excitement of ideas,” he says.
“That’s what gets us out of bed in
the morning. We love pop culture;
we think it’s the engine of western
civilisation.”
Most World of Wonder projects,
he explains, have sprung from the
same question: wouldn’t it be cool
if …? “You know: ‘Wouldn’t it be
cool if Adam and Joe had their own
show?’ or ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if Ru
had a No 1 record, and there was
this big black drag queen at the top
of the charts?’”
It was with Drag Race that they
•
really hit their stride. Drag had been
part of the couple’s life since their
earliest days together: they made
a film at university about a drag
queen who moves to suburbia, and
they would often skip classes to
watch drag shows at the Pyramid
Club. “We called it super drag
because it took all of popular
culture and slapped it on, mocking
and celebrating it at the same time,”
says Bailey. “That mashup seemed
the perfect way to synthesise all the
media madness, the bombardment
of stimuli, that was becoming the
new normal.”
The tradition survives on
RuPaul’s Drag Race, which
combines reality show, talent
contest, sketch comedy, spoof
and musical. “The show is like a
drag queen. It’s this, that and the
other. It’s a TV show, but it’s also
appropriating all these things from
different elements of the culture.
The format itself is in drag.”
What cultural differences have
they observed in the various Drag
Race series around the world?
“When Baga Chipz walked on set
on the first UK season and said,
‘Ooh, I just shit my knickers’, it was
very much end-of-the-pier, back-
of-the-panto hall,” marvels Bailey.
“British drag is different from the
US version: it’s a bit dirtier and
more truck driver-y.”
Barbato is shaking his head. “I’m
going to disagree here,” he smiles.
“It’s hard to pinpoint specific
cultural differences because no two
drag queens are the same.”
Bailey takes the point: “I suppose
the only thing any drag queen has
in common with another is that
they’re drag queens. That said, the
ones in Australia really are much
ruder to each other.”
As Drag Race has progressed,
there have been landmark
moments, such as the first final to
be populated entirely by queens of
colour (season eight). Its political
power, though, has been a constant,
even before competitors were
required to give gay US military
veterans a drag makeover (season
five) or to take part in Trump: The
Ru-sical (season 11), or to welcome
Nancy Pelosi on the third series of
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.
“Ru always says, ‘Every time
I bat my eyelashes, it’s a political
act,’” Bailey points out. “The
essence of the show is political
because it embraces outsider
voices. It’s all about empowerment,
and giving the establishment a big
‘fuck you!’”
Among the many forthcoming
World of Wonder projects is Queen
of the Universe, a Eurovision-style
contest in which drag queens will
sing – rather than lip-sync. Will the
drag cupboard ever run bare?
“We compare it to rap,” says
Bailey. “Everyone said rap was a
passing phase in music, and now,
of course, rap is rock. Drag is like
that. It had never previously been
given a place at the cultural table
but there’s a whole realm of talent
that’s never been appreciated or
recognised before. It’s out there.”
In more ways than one.
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 3
starts on BBC Three on Thursday.
How we made
East Is East
‘We first saw it at Cannes. They only gave us one hotel
room, so everyone slept on the floor’
Bittersweet …
Emma Rydal
and Jimi Mistry
in East Is East
Ayub Khan Din
Writer
My Pakistani father came over from India in
the merchant navy, jumped ship in London
in 1927 and moved to Manchester where he
met my Irish/English mum, who worked as
a clippie – a ticket-taker on the buses. They
married in 1947, opened a chip shop in the
slums of Salford, and had 10 children – eight
boys and two girls. I’m eighth.
I’d always wondered how my parents coped
in their mixed-race relationship, bringing up
so many children, and when I came to drama
school in London, I started writing down little
incidents from my childhood. The play sat in
a drawer for years until the Tamasha Theatre
Company – formed in 1989 with a mission to
bring more Asian drama to the British stage –
used it in a workshop for young actors before
staging the whole play at the Birmingham Rep
in 1996. It was such a personal piece I didn’t
know if it would relate to an audience. But we
sold out by word of mouth before we’d even
got to London.
Everyone kept saying: “We haven’t seen
Asians behave like this before.” It was a
massive shock to see so many brown faces
on stage, selling out the West End. It was the
first time people saw that such theatre can be
commercially successful. A producer friend
at the BBC said: “This will transfer really
well to film.” But then they said Brothers
in Trouble, a 1995 film about an illegal
Pakistani immigrant, hadn’t made its money
back, and dropped out. So Film4 put up the
whole budget. I desperately wanted to cast
everyone straight from the play. Luckily, the
director agreed and we got almost everyone.
The film got a standing ovation at Cannes
film festival and then just snowballed. Now,
PHOTOGRAPH: FILMFOUR/ALLSTAR
the play is back on a fresh tour. People ask
me: “Why now?” But it has never stopped
being performed. The play is more political
than the film, but it still crosses cultures. It’s a
story about family relationships, a patriarchal
father, and identity within a family. I think the
arguments are as relevant today. Because of
Black Lives Matter, we’re all questioning our
identity, where we belong and what our place
is within the history of this country.
9
Jimi Mistry
Played Tariq
I left drama school in Birmingham in
1995 and moved to London. My agent
sent me to the Royal Court theatre where
the Tamasha Theatre Company were
workshopping a series of plays. The next
thing I knew, I was asked to audition for
East Is East. Back in the mid-90s, there were
very few British Asian actors. They must
have auditioned from a very small pool.
My father is from India, my mother from
Northern Ireland and I have two younger
sisters, so I was bang on for Tariq. I had had
exposure to the Indian side of my family, but
I considered myself very British. My mum
would say I was quite strong-minded and
rebellious. I don’t think a part has ever fitted
me so perfectly.
As my first theatre job, it was amazing. We
knew that Ayub was hoping to turn it into
a film. Film4 had done Shallow Grave and
Trainspotting, and every young actor wanted
to work for them, but we had no idea if the
director would cast us just because we’d been
in the play. For two years, we knew they were
auditioning, but were saying to each other:
“Have you had a call?” “No, I haven’t had a
call. Have you?” When we thought it was too
late, we finally got invited to audition.
The budget wasn’t ginormous but there
was already this huge bond between myself
and the other actors. We knew we were using
sensitive, racist language and didn’t know
if people were going to get offended or find
it funny, or even if such a bittersweet tale
would translate to film.
The first time we saw it was at Cannes.
They only gave us one hotel room, so
everyone slept on my floor. I had just started
on EastEnders, playing Dr Fred Fonseca, so
I flew back on Sunday night and walked on to
the EastEnders set on Monday. The Guardian
had run the headline “East is best at Cannes”
with a picture of me in the film. Everyone
gave me a standing ovation. I had no idea
what was going on.
Interviews by Rich Pelley. East Is East is
at Birmingham Rep until Saturday, then
the National Theatre, London, 7-30 October.
 •

TODAY’S PET CORNER ANSWER TOPER

12 The Guardian

Puzzles Tuesday 21 September 2021

Yesterday’s Quick crossword no 16,029

solutions 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Wordsearch Across Down 8

1 Condition that kills a tree or shrub, 1 Piece of turf dug out with a golf
starting from the tip of its leaves or club (5) 9
from its roots (7) 2 Early anaesthetic (5)
8 Squeeze out (7) 3 Somewhere to stay (13) 10
9 Means of travel (7) 4 Custodian (in goal?) (6)
10 Diving seabirds — children’s books 5 What can hide one’s feelings (5,5,3)
11 12
(7) 6 Charmingly old-fashioned (6)
11 (Make a) monotonous sound (5) 7 Ungenerous (6)
13 Use of wooden veneers to create a 12 Getting this, you’ll be upset (4) 13 14
decorative pattern on furniture (9) 14 Ready to eat (4)
15 Danger for over-the-limit drivers? 15 Outline (6)
(5,4) 16 Commission (6)
18 Shrub or small tree with scented 17 Write down (for future reference)
15 16 17
white flowers and black berries (5) (6)
21 Inconsistent (7) 19 Close together (5)
Solution no 16,028 18 19 20
22 1928 Virginia Woolf novel (7) 20 Origins (5)
P A R A C H U T E U S 23 Straightforward honesty (7)
V G U R K N O T 24 Sadden (7) 21
C O ME A G A I N C I
N D G V B E A N
S A R E N E W R G 22
U N L O A D T E S T E R
B A B I A A
23
S O R D I D B R A I N Y
C M D O P E D N S
R A I N R A G S 24
I S P S Y C H O T I C
B U T T E O E G
E S I T I N E R A N T
Stuck? For help call 0906 200 83 83. Calls cost £1.10 per minute, plus your phone company’s access charge.
Service supplied by ATS. Call 0330 333 6946 for customer service (charged at standard rate).
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Sudoku no 5378

Sudoku no 5379 Suguru Wordsearch

Medium. Fill the grid so that each row, column and Fill the grid so that each square Can you find 15 words associated
3x3 box contains the numbers 1-9. Printable version at in an outlined block contains a with buffets in the grid? Words can
theguardian.com/sudoku digit. A block of 2 squares contains run forwards, backwards, vertically
the digits 1 and 2, a block of three or diagonally, but always in a
squares contains the digits 1, 2 and straight, unbroken line.
3, and so on. No same digit appears
in neighbouring squares, not even
diagonally.
Word wheel
ELABORATE

Suguru

Word wheel Pet corner

Find as many words as Which of the following
possible using the letters was NOT the name of a
in the wheel. Each must dog owned by George
use the central letter Washington?
and at least two others. a. Tipler
Letters may be used only b. Toper
once. You may not use c. Tipsy
plurals, foreign words or d. Drunkard
proper nouns. There is at Answer top right
least one nine-letter word
to be found. TARGET:
Excellent-41. Good-34.
Average-25.