t 2014 10 09

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thursday october 9 2014 | thetimes.co.uk | no 71323

The power of viral campaigns A political force that is clicking with the young

Page 46

Pages 46-48

Deborah Ross My recipe for the perfect marriage

RICHARD POHLE FOR THE TIMES

Cameron resists calls for ebola screening Chris Smyth Health Correspondent Jill Sherman, Deborah Haynes

Cracking tale Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, stars of the Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game, at its premiere in London last night News & review, page 3

Terror plot ‘ringleader’ had just returned to UK

Medical student dubbed ‘the Surgeon’ was under surveillance for months Sean O’Neill Crime and Security Editor Fiona Hamilton Crime Correspondent Georgie Keate

The suspected ringleader of an alleged plot to carry out an Islamic State attack on the streets of London arrived back in Britain only 48 hours before he was arrested in an anti-terrorism raid.

Security agencies believe that Tarik Hassane, 21, had been to Syria, but flew back to London from Sudan at the weekend.

MI5 had been tracking the movements and communications of the medical student from Ladbroke Grove,

west London, whose nickname is “the surgeon”, for months. His arrest came less than 12 hours after he tweeted “Oi lads . . . I smell war”. Friends insisted that the remark was banter.

The alleged plot is one of several under investigation by the authorities and the tense security situation led last night to Theresa May, the home secretary, abandoning plans to restructure Britain’s counterterrorism policing.

The Home Office had wanted to strip the Metropolitan police of responsibility for national counterterrorism and pass it to the National Crime Agency.

However, Mrs May wrote to police

chiefs saying that the proposal was being shelved “in light of the recent increase in the terrorist threat level”.

The development came as: 6 Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, said that ministers would be prepared to go back to parliament to seek permission to extend British military action to Syria if US commanders considered it useful. “We absolutely have not ruled out playing a role in Syria,” he said.

6 Nineteen people were killed in Turkey as Kurds rioted over the country’s inaction in the crisis, and there was further intensive fighting between

Kurdish forces and Isis in the border town of Kobani.

6 EU security officials held talks with Google, Facebook and Twitter about countering online radicalism.

Mr Hassane was arrested before dawn on Tuesday when police raided a flat only a street from where two members of a bomb cell were arrested in July 2005. Stun grenades were used and Mr Hassane was tasered.

Three other men, two aged 20 and one 21, were arrested in simultaneous raids. All four were being interviewed last night at a high-security police Continued on page 2, col 3

David Cameron is facing growing calls to screen airline passengers for ebola as they arrive in Britain after the United States ordered immediate checks at airports last night.

Hundreds of NHS staff and more than 750 British troops will be sent to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea as the government insists that the best way to protect the UK is to contain the deadly virus in west Africa.

Surprise ebola outbreaks will also be simulated around Britain to test how well the health service is prepared.

The World Health Organisation attempted to calm fears in Europe yesterday as news came of the death of an ebola victim in America. This coincided with reports in Spain of a series of failures in infection control measures that prompted panic after a nurse caught the virus in Madrid.

Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, insisted that Britain’s specialist ebola unit “probably has the most experience in western Europe in dealing with highly infectious diseases”.

However, he added: “We are one of the most international countries in the world. We need to be prepared. Ebola is one of the most serious health emergencies of recent years. We are taking it incredibly seriously.”

GPs, hospital doctors and other health professionals have been put on “high alert” to look out for anyone with flu-like symptoms who could have contracted ebola. Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, circulated new guidance on the key steps needed to identify potential sufferers.

Patients with unexplained fevers should be asked whether they have travelled to affected countries. Posters will be put up in airports to inform anyone coming in from an infected area to phone a helpline if they have concerns.

During an emergency Cobra meeting in Downing Street yesterday, Dame Sally disclosed that hundreds of nurses and doctors would be flown to Sierra Leone to help staff the new medical units which are being set up by military personnel.

The health staff, all volunteers who have been trained in UK hospitals in how to deal with an outbreak, will be Continued on page 11, col 5

IN THE NEWS Yes to nuclear plant

The big experiment

Dewani gay websites

EU migrant curbs

The ‘bionic man’

The European Commission gave the go-ahead for EDF Energy, the French power company, to build the first new nuclear power station in Britain for 20 years. Page 31

Tens of thousands of school children are to take part in classroom trials to see if new findings in neuroscience can be used to boost standards in education. Page 4

Shrien Dewani’s computer was logged into fetish and gay websites the day before his wife Anni was murdered on their honeymoon, his murder trial was told. Page 5

Britain welcomed a proposal from Brussels for new curbs on the movement of migrant workers when more states from eastern Europe join the EU in the next decade. Page 2

A Swedish truck driver has been given a “biologically integrated” prosthetic arm in an advance that blurs the boundaries between man and machine. Page 14

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News World

Britain welcomes plan for curbs on new EU migrants

Page 27

Charles Bremner Brussels

INSIDE TODAY

Opinion

Churchill would be aghast at this Tory plan Tim Montgomerie, page 19

Arts

The director Irina Brook on how her affair with Iggy Pop inspired her new take on Ibsen Times2, page 46

Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

Casino tycoon fathered French minister’s love child

Cricket

The special place that should be seen but not heard Mike Atherton, page 59

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Brussels is considering placing curbs on the movement of migrant workers when more states from eastern Europe join the EU in the next decade.

David Lidington, the Europe minister, said Westminster was pleased the commission has pursued ideas voiced

by David Cameron on the need for new safeguards against big migration flows.

Mr Lidington said: “This is further evidence that we are working with partners to shape the debate about the future of Europe and to ensure it addresses issues that matter to citizens.”

In its annual report on the state of accession talks with former Yugoslav states and Albania and Turkey, the commission said that there was a possible need for new types of “transitional measures and/or a safeguard mechanism on the free movement of workers” coming from those states.

New members from the east, such as Romania and Bulgaria, have been subject to transition periods before their citizens could enjoy the EU right move to any part of the union for work. During these periods, reaching up to five

Brussels has always insisted that problems of “welfare tourism” could be dealt with through legal processes which did not discriminate against foreigners.

Britain has been pilloried for challenging the movement principle when it has historically been among the strongest supporters of taking in new EU member states.

It was becoming clear in Brussels, that, although 10-20 years away, the prospect of workers arriving from the poorest fringes of the continent, might need new rules, said an EU official.

Mr Lidington said Britain had long supported EU enlargement “as a driver of peace, prosperity and reform across our continent”.

However, he added: “We recognise that many across Europe have been concerned by the large-scale movement of people that has followed the accession of new countries to the EU and this needs to be addressed before more members join.”

The exception among candidate states is Iceland, which announced last year that it was suspending its accession talks because it was no longer so keen on membership.

Farage prepares for landmark victory Laura Pitel Political Correspondent

Ukip in Westminster

Victory in today’s Clacton by-election will mean Ukip has “broken through the closed shop that is British politics”, Nigel Farage declared last night.

The Tory defector Douglas Carswell is expected to make history in the Essex seat by becoming Ukip’s first MP. Speaking on the eve of the vote, Mr Farage said that winning a seat in Westminster would “make all the difference” to the party’s future success.

“It will show that we can win under the first-past-the-post system,” the Ukip leader told The Times. “That will mean a great deal to voters.”

The rise of Ukip threatens David Cameron’s chances of winning next year’s general election. The prime minister used his party conference speech last week to warn that backing the party would run the risk of “going to bed with Nigel Farage and waking up with Ed Miliband”.

Mr Farage said that victory in Clacton would disprove the claim that supporting Ukip was a wasted vote. “People have often said ‘I like you, but I can’t vote for you because you can’t win’,” he said. “The busting of that perception is very, very important.” The Tories are resigned to defeat in Clacton. They

6 If elected, Douglas Carswell will be able to table parliamentary questions on behalf of Ukip. He can challenge David Cameron at prime minister’s questions, table backbench motions and amendments, vote on legislation and take part in debates.

6 All MPs are entitled to a budget for staffing and office costs, allowing Mr Carswell to hire a team of people to work for him. Much of their time will be taken up on constituency work, although they will also be able to help with policy.

6 The number of select committees members given to each party reflects their number of MPs. Small parties must fight to win a place on select committees and Mr Carswell may have a battle on his hands.

6 Parties with one MP and more than 150,000 votes at the last election qualify for an annual slug of public money to help with their costs. Ukip secured more than 900,000 votes in 2010, but the funding is only for parties with MPs secured at a general election.

have already turned their attentions to thwarting a second defector, Mark Reckless, in a by-election in Kent.

The party last night attempted to outfox Ukip by announcing a “postal primary” to select their candidate for Rochester and Strood.

Every registered voter in the constituency will be sent a postal ballot that allows them to choose from a shortlist of Conservative hopefuls.

The method was last used in Totnes in 2009 to select Sarah Wollaston. A quarter of the electorate took part in the vote, which cost the party £40,000.

A Conservative source said that the open primary would “energise democracy” and would “stand in marked contrast to Ukip, who parachuted both candidates” into the two by-elections.

Ukip hopes that a resounding victory for Mr Carswell could convince other MPs that they must jump ship if they are to avoid losing their seats next May. Mr Farage said having an MP would strengthen the party’s case for being allowed to nominate representatives in the House of Lords. He added that it would become increasingly untenable to try to exclude Ukip from televised leadership debates. “The argument has always been that we don’t have any MPs,” he said. “That starts to melt.”

Terror suspect had ‘travelled to Syria’ Continued from page 1

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years, citizens were required to seek visas in other member states.

The commission’s review of accession talks suggests that further measures could be required to mitigate what it called “migratory pressures”.

The commission said negotiations were at a standstill with Macedonia and also with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Serbia needs to deliver more reforms to advance its accession negotiations, and Albania has far to go before meeting EU criteria, it said.

Turkey, which is the longest-standing applicant state, had created serious concerns over the independence of its judiciary and protection of citizens’ rights.

Montenegro is the farthest advanced in its accession compliance, the commission said, but it needed to do more to control corruption and “accelerate” investigations into cases of violence against journalists.

British officials were gratified that a chink of light had appeared in the wall that the outgoing commission, headed

by Jose Manuel Barroso, had erected against any change in the rules to the sacrosanct free movement principle.

station in Southwark, south London.

The arrests are the first in connection with a suspected plot since Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, an Isis spokesman, urged sympathisers in the West to launch attacks using knives, guns, poison or any weapon they could find.

Mr Hassane is the son of a Saudi father and a Moroccan mother. He wrote on social media about trying to get into King’s College London to take a medical degree. Friends say that he got his nickname in secondary school because of his passion for medicine.

When he did not get the grades he needed for King’s, Mr Hassane won a place at the University of Medical

Sciences and Technology in Khartoum, Sudan.

Friends said on social media that his “I smell war” tweet referred to an online dispute with some “rowdy girls”. One insisted: “If there’s still justice in this country, he’ll be released, I think.”

Scotland Yard refused to discuss the investigation in detail but officers were expected to seek permission from a magistrate overnight to detain the men further. They can be held for a maximum of 14 days before being charged.

Police chiefs will welcome Mrs May’s decision on counterterrorism policing.

They argued that the vital link between beat officers and counterterrorism detectives would be broken if police lost

the responsibility. A Home Office spokesman said: “Our national counterterrorism policing structure is very effective and the police and security service work tirelessly to detect and disrupt the threats we face. The Home Office is committed to exploring the possibility of enhancing these capabilities in the long term, and improving collaboration between police and agencies working on counterterrorism and organised crime remains a high priority. But in light of the recent increase in the terrorist threat level we can confirm there will be no review of counterterrorism policing in this parliament.”

Fighting Isis online, page 7 World, pages 24-25

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

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World ‘owes a huge debt to Turing’

News

Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays the troubled mathematician, says he should be on banknotes, writes Will Humphries

Alan Turing has an apology, he has a royal pardon and now he has a biopic that has drawn talk of Baftas, Golden Globes and Oscars.

For those who have spent decades fighting for him to take his rightful place in history, the hope is that the power of cinema will finally see him recognised as the genius he was.

The Imitation Game, a film about the mathematician’s role in cracking the German Enigma code at Bletchley Park in the Second World War, opened the BFI London Film Festival last night to a rapturous reception.

Kevin Murrell, the deputy chairman and trustee of the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park, said that Turing deserved a place on the back of a bank note.

“What Turing did in terms of codebreaking and cryptography is without equal and the feat of mental acuity in wartime and code breaking is really quite phenomenal,” he said.

“He laid the basis and theoretical grounding for a lot of the computer science we rely on today and he should be rewarded.”

Mr Murrell said he hoped that the impact of the new Hollywood biopic would encourage millions of children to take up computer science.

Turing was given a posthumous royal pardon in December for his conviction for homosexuality in 1952, which led to his chemical castration and the withdrawal of his security clearance for postwar work at GCHQ. He killed himself in 1954.

Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Turing in the film alongside Keira Knightley, said: “More needs to be done to honour him. He is incredibly important to our culture.

“Everything we have in our hands, from mobile phones to the idea of what an algorithm is, is thanks to him. Every time we use a search engine on Google that is using algorithms which he put in place.

“His impact on the war and his tragic demise and his extraordinary effort with a lot of other quiet stoic heroes of the Second World War to break the Enigma code and save millions of lives and shorten the war by at least two years is something that deserves national hero status.”

A Bank of England spokesman said that Turing was on a list of candidates for inclusion on a bank note.

REX FEATURES

Alan Turing, the Bletchley Park codebreaker, was convicted of homosexuality in 1952, which led to his chemical castration. He killed himself two years later

Star performances make cracking tale of mind games Film Kate Muir The Imitation Game London Film Festival HHHH( With a large dose of Sherlock, and a sprinkling of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Benedict Cumberbatch is just brilliant in the role of Alan Turing, the Second World War codebreaker in The Imitation Game. His Turing is as enigmatic — and often as mechanical — as the German encryption machine he lives to break.

The film is set among the Nissen huts of Bletchley Park, the secret service communications headquarters, which possessed a stolen Nazi Enigma machine, but lacked the code that made sense of intercepted enemy radio broadcasts.

Enter Turing in tweed, a Cambridge mathematician and author of a paper on the imitation game, a blueprint for a universal thinking machine.

Turing’s job interview with Commander Denniston (Charles Dance, ever comfortable in military fig) is hilarious: Turing’s hyperintelligent condescension and unwillingness to play the game of politeness, versus the officer’s patronising irritation.

The scriptwriter Graham Moore’s take on his geek manqué has a touch of The Social Network about it, although the film, based on Andrew Hodges’s biography, makes more of Turing’s Asperger’s tendencies: an inability to read emotions, a desire to colour-code his vegetables or, as Turing explains: “Mother always said I was just an odd duck.”

The story goes from the homosexual and mathematical crushes of Turing’s Sherborne school days in 1928, to 1951 when detectives

arrived at a botched burglary at the professor’s house and began the investigation that led to his prosecution for “gross indecency” and chemical castration at a time when homosexuality was still illegal.

The business of Manchester plods (led by Rory Kinnear) pursuing Turing seems perfunctory. The juicy drama occurs in the confines of Hut 8 at Bletchley, where a

motley crew of brilliant minds, including Matthew Goode as Hugh Alexander and Allen Leech as John Cairncross, find Turing’s mad professor schtick very annoying.

Fortunately, Keira Knightley enters the fray as Joan Clarke, with a blue velvet hat and a double first in mathematics. Usually I find Knightley too mannered, but this is the perfect part for her.

I suspect that the plot is gussied up, and the impression that Turing was left in charge of deciding which information to use and withhold seems far-fetched. That said, there are moments where Cumberbatch’s face conveys a raft of unspoken emotion, and I could watch him read out the alphabet — which is basically what he does in this film — and still be mesmerised.

Lead roles: Keira Knightley and Benedict Cumberbatch

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Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

News PAUL KINGSTON / NNP

Slog on the Tyne An estimated 30,000 salmon must negotiate this weir on the River Tyne at Hexham, Northumberland, as they return from the North Atlantic to their spawning grounds high in the Pennines

Children will get extra hour in bed as schools sign up to performance tests Greg Hurst Education Editor

Tens of thousands of schoolchildren are to take part in classroom trials to test whether findings in neuroscience can boost standards in education.

The studies, the first of their kind in the world, aim to create a firm evidence base for simple, low-cost practices that could be adopted by teachers to improve learning.

The largest experiment, involving 31,800 pupils at 106 schools, will test whether teenagers achieve better GCSE results by starting their school day later, at 10am, to suit adolescent sleep patterns.

Others include whether high intensity physical exercise improves children’s attention spans and memory, and if pupils concentrate harder in science lessons when they are offered unpredictable game-show style rewards. All of the studies will use randomised control trials, with one group exposed to the intervention while another is not.

Until recently this approach was widely regarded as unethical in educa-

tion research, with critics arguing that interventions which appear to benefit the experimental group must be shared immediately with the control group to maximise educational opportunity.

Randomised control trials have, however, been championed by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), a charity set up by Michael Gove to explore the most effective ways of learning, which is funding the projects jointly with the Wellcome Trust.

It says that the impact of educational innovations must be measured using scientific approaches and also insists on independent evaluation of research.

Many schools have introduced classroom methods seeking to draw on neuroscience, usually on the recommendation of colleagues or consultants but rarely based on scientific or academic advice, according to two surveys commissioned by the Wellcome Trust. The trust concluded, in a delicately phrased description, that teachers were “running ahead of the evidence base”.

Common examples are teachers dividing children into visual, audiotory or

Ofsted’s lighter touch Good schools will face lighter-touch, more frequent inspections under plans to reform how Ofsted operates.

There will be more inspections, but they will be shorter, and inspectors will engage in “professional dialogue” with head teachers to ask how they will tackle weaknesses, said Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of schools. He will unveil more detailed proposals today for how the inspection process will change from autumn next year. Ofsted, he said, needed to be a “more proportionate, risk-based model” that concentrated on schools that were struggling.

kinaesthetic learners, who respond to different learning styles; left-brain or right-brain emphasis on creative or analytical tasks; Brain Gym, a series of exercises said to stimulate “brain buttons” to enhance learning; and biofeedback, whereby pupils monitor their brainwaves or heart rate to create optimal learning conditions. Three quarters of teachers admitted in the survey that such techniques had no discernible impact and even that handful who claimed some benefit acknowledged they were unable to quantify this.

The six experiments, to run over the next four years, will cost £4.7 million, operate in 385 schools and involve 66,000 children, and academics from leading universities including Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol.

Kevan Collins, EEF chief executive, said: “By funding large-scale, controlled trials of these interventions and using independent evaluators to assess them, we hope to develop a significant body of evidence that can be used to improve attainment, especially for disadvantaged pupils.”

Boys are happier than girls — and Dad’s got it easy Rosemary Bennett Social Affairs Correspondent

Girls are considerably less happy than boys about their appearance, according to an official analysis of children’s wellbeing. It found that three quarters of children said they were content and felt their lives were worthwhile, but fewer than seven out of ten girls (68 per cent) said they were happy with their looks compared with eight out of ten boys.

Older girls were particularly anxious about their appearance. Almost one in

five (17 per cent) of aged ten to 15 were unhappy about how they looked.

The proportion of older children happy with their appearance has fallen from 77 per cent in 2002 to 71 per cent in 2012. Satisfaction with appearance is considered among teenagers and preteens to be crucial to overall happiness.

The Office for National Statistics said the “importance of image in popular culture”, and increasing use of social networking websites has made matters worse for children.

Deep unhappiness about personal

appearance is strongly linked to mental health problems, including depression.

The study on childhood found that fathers have an easier time with their children than mothers. Almost a third of youngsters quarrel with their mothers once a week compared with one in five with their father.

However, mothers get to hear more about what is going on their children’s lives. Two thirds of ten to 15-year-olds say they talk to their mother about things that matter a lot to them once a week. Only two in five fathers have reg-

ular meaningful conversations with their children.

Childhood obesity is declining with 14 per cent of two to 15 year olds overweight and the same number obese. In 2004 the figure was 34 per cent.

The hours spent on computers are a growing cause for concern, however.

Nearly three quarters of boys spent up to three hours playing games on a computer on a typical school night, with one in ten spending four hours on a screen.

The figures for girls were lower at two thirds.

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Speaker’s aide resigns John Bercow’s chief spin doctor has quit after a speech at the Liberal Democrat conference in which she dismissed rival parties as “a collection of clowns”. The tirade may have jeopardised the impartiality of the Speaker of the House of Commons. His office announced the resignation of Justine McGuinness in a statement last night.

Conference reports, pages 12-13

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the times | Thursday October 9 2014

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News

Dewani ‘used gay websites hours after killing’ Ruth Maclean Cape Town

Shrien Dewani’s computer was logged into fetish and gay dating websites the day before his wife Anni was murdered on their Cape Town honeymoon, and the day after her body was found, it emerged at his murder trial yesterday.

The British businessman has been charged with masterminding the killing of his wife in a case that is expected to centre on claims that he was secretly gay and wanted to get rid of her just two weeks after their £200,000 wedding.

He has already admitted in court to being bisexual and to seeing male prostitutes, despite previous denials, and a 55-year old British parliamentary aide is expected to testify that he had regular gay sex with the former care home owner at fetish clubs in London.

In a dossier of admissions handed to the judge, Mr Dewani, 34, has revealed that as the couple waited in Johannesburg airport for their flight to Cape Town, his computer was logged in to the dating site Gaydar for half an hour.

On the night after she was found dead, still in her cocktail dress and high heels, in the back of a car in a rough Cape Town area, it was signed into Gaydar again as well as into Recon, a site which advertises itself as “the world's

largest website for men into fetish”.

A few hours later, Mr Dewani went to identify his wife’s body. He cancelled his six-year subscription to Gaydar on the day of his wife’s funeral, the court documents show. The defence is expected to argue his device connected to the sites automatically.

Yesterday, Mr Dewani came face to face with one of the men jailed for murdering his wife, in their first meeting since the night she was shot.

As police led Mziwamadoda Qwabe, 29, to the witness box, Mr Dewani glared at his accuser and then gazed at his hands as the tour guide-turnedmurderer began giving evidence.

Qwabe is one of the men who claims he was hired by the businessman four years ago to kill Anni Dewani and disguise the hit as a random robbery and killing. His partner, Xolile Mngeni, 27, fired the shot that severed Mrs Dewani’s spine, killing her immediately.

Mr Dewani started to cry as Qwabe described the moment she was shot. He said that he was focusing first on driving and then on looking for the bullet casing, and that his partner, Mngeni, was the one interacting with the couple. “I didn’t take much notice. I glanced at her,” he said indifferently as Mr Dewani took several deep breaths.

Qwabe said that he had received a

Mr Dewani and Anni. The court was told he had a six-year subscription to Gaydar

Pistorius trial casts its shadow

Analysis Ruth Maclean

T

hat's exhibit O — for Oscar,” Francois van Zyl, Shrien Dewani’s lawyer, said with a twinkle as he submitted his evidence to the judge.

Titters ran round the courtroom at the reference to South Africa’s other big murder trial.

Two bright, beautiful women, their lives cut tragically short; two sets of families, sitting close together but irrevocably divided; two broken men, both fallen from a great height of success: the two trials have much in common. There is a big difference,

however. There was never any question that Oscar Pistorius killed Reeva Steenkamp. Mr Dewani, in contrast, did not fire the fatal shot, and denies any involvement in his wife’s killing.

Another difference is that his trial is not being televised.

Pistorius’s trial had a television channel dedicated to it, at the insistence of South Africa’s National Prosecution Authority (NPA).

Millions of viewers worldwide were hooked. The NPA appears to have learnt its lesson, and indicated that this time around it would

not even ask the judge to allow filming. Nor is the prosecution releasing a list of the witnesses it will call, fearing that they will be harassed.

Conducting the Dewani case correctly is hugely important to the country. When he claimed that his wife had been a victim of high South African murder rates, it had an impact on Cape Town’s tourism.

Having spent millions of rand on flying him to South Africa and getting him the very best psychiatric treatment at public expense, much is at stake for the prosecution if he suffers a relapse.

phone call from Zola Tongo, the taxi driver allegedly commissioned to arrange Anni Dewani’s killing, on the day before the murder.

“Zola told us there was a husband who wanted his wife to be killed, and to make it look like a hijacking,” he told Judge Jeanette Traverso, who is hearing the case at the Western Cape High Court.

The agreed fee for the murder was 15,000 rand, he said — now worth £840.

In return for implicating Mr Dewani, Qwabe got a reduced sentence. He has already served two of his 25 years at the Drakenstein prison. Mngeni, his partner, was sentenced to life by a judge

Shrien Dewani arrives yesterday at the honeymoon murder trial in Cape Town

who called him “a merciless and evil person”.

Now suffering from a lethal brain tumour, Mngeni did not enter into a plea bargain, and is not expected to be called as a prosecution witness.

Mr Dewani has spent four years in Britain fighting extradition back to South Africa on mental health grounds.

He denies having arranged the murder.

The prosecutor, Adrian Mopp, has not released the state’s witness list, but it is expected to feature the leather-clad Leopold Leisser, a male prostitute, who allegedly says Mr Dewani paid him for fetishist sex sessions, which included drug taking and racial humiliation.

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Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

News

Labour tax plans will kill votes, says donor Lucy Fisher Political Correspondent Michael Savage Chief Political Correspondent

Ed Miliband has been criticised by one of his party’s biggest donors, who savaged his tax proposals as a “votekiller” yesterday.

In a second blow to the Labour leader’s authority, his party’s ruling body, the national executive committee, denounced plans to freeze child benefit.

Assem Allam, the owner of the Premier League football club Hull City, derided Labour’s plans as an economic “fallacy”. He said that Mr Miliband’s proposed income tax rises and mansion tax policy were a “disastrous decision”.

The Egyptian-born millionaire has donated £210,000 to Labour since 2010, placing him in the top five for individual donations to the party since the last election.

He attacked Mr Miliband’s plans to place an annual charge on all properties worth £2 million or more: “The mansion tax is a very bad idea. It’s a vote killer. He will lose more votes than what he will get.”

The move “will reduce prices in the market place”, he warned, and he said that reduced property prices would mean reduced stamp duty revenue.

Dr Allam also criticised Labour’s plan to hit the rich with high tax rates and urged Mr Miliband not to implement a policy that he believes would

harm the economy by compelling many wealthy individuals to flee the country, taking their money with them.

Questioning Labour’s economic calculations, he added: “It is a fallacy really that to gain votes the politicians keep telling people ‘Tax the rich, do this to the rich, do this to the rich’. It sounds nice for the voters, but it isn’t good for the economy . . . The only way to raise the standard of living in society is by encouraging more people to be rich.”

Dr Allam, who owns an industrial generator manufacturer and has property development interests, argued that high net worth individuals were essential for wealth creation and generating jobs.

He also accused the Labour leadership of trying to gain political capital by twisting the economic reality of raising taxes for higher earners and by deploying divisive rhetoric. “I hate the idea of misleading people for the sake of votes . . . You want to increase the number of rich people and stop talking about the societies of the poor and the rich. It is one society, where one person is more capable of generating wealth,” he said.

Dr Allam’s attack came as the leadership faced pressure from the party’s left.

Its national executive committee was said to be angered by the announcement by Ed Balls that child benefit would be curbed to balance the books.

Many party activists are worried that voters who previously backed Labour will opt for Ukip.

House prices still rising but at slower rate Kathryn Hopkins Property Correspondent

Diamond life Empress Eugénie’s Feuilles de Groseillier brooch, which she left behind when she fled France for England in 1870, is set to make £1.2m at Christie’s

Hefty house price growth in the UK has peaked and will start to ease throughout the rest of the year, according to Halifax, the banking chain.

The average price of a home in the UK rose by just 0.6 per cent in September to £187,188, the lender’s latest figures showed. On the year it was up 9.6 per cent, lower than the 10.2 per cent recorded in July.

Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, said: “The recent rapid rise in house prices in some parts of the UK, earnings growth that remains below consumer price inflation and the possibility of an interest rate rise appear to have tempered housing demand.”

He believes that annual house price inflation may have peaked at about 10 per cent and that a moderation in growth looks likely during the remainder of 2014 and into next year.

A separate survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors released today found greater caution across the UK as house price momentum slowed to the level it was 16 months ago. New buyer demand fell for the third month in a row.

The survey also found a drop in price expectations for the coming 12 months for larger properties, as demand for homes worth about £2 million wanes amid the prospect of a “mansion tax” if Labour comes to power in May.

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

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Tech giants join terror talks in attempt to fight Isis online

News

Aspiring doctor sent jokes and beheadings

PA; HANNAH MCKAY / NATIONAL PICTURES

James Dean Technology Correspondent

European security ministers have begun high-level talks with technology giants about countering online radicalism and the spread of jihadist propaganda by Islamic State (Isis).

Security officials from across the continent met representatives from Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and other technology companies at a closed-door meeting in Luxembourg last night. Joint training between antiterrorist police and internet industry specialists was recommended, as were public sessions to raise awareness of online terror, according to a source close to the meeting.

Participants also discussed “sensitive security elements” that could not be disclosed to the public or the media, the source said.

Big technology companies have long advised European officials on internet terror threats. However, the success enjoyed by Isis in spreading its message through web technology appears to have forced the European Commission to codify the relationship.

Isis has used YouTube and other video-sharing sites to publish footage of beheadings to a huge audience, and social media to attract young European Muslims to its cause.

The group has also begun to launch increasingly potent cyber-attacks against Western governments and businesses. It is recruiting hackers from across the world to help launch these attacks, spread its message and attract fighters.

A commission insider said that the meeting was the first high-level political discussion of terrorism between security ministers, the European Commission and the technology industry.

“The threat is becoming more prevalent,” they said. “It’s very important to put everyone together. An open discussion helps to counter terrorist propaganda and extremist narratives.”

The Luxembourg meeting was called

by Cecilia Malmström, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs. Her spokesman said: “The internet and social media play a profoundly positive role in our lives and societies. However, they are also used by violent extremists to advance their aims, whether through engagement, propaganda, radicalisation or recruitment.

“Dialogue is an essential tool to discuss issues of common interest.”

The Home Office said that James Brokenshire, the immigration and security minister, attended the meeting but declined to comment further.

A recent Isis recruit is Birminghamborn Junaid Hussain, 20, who was jailed for six months in 2012 after hacking Tony Blair’s digital address book and publishing it online. Earlier this year Hussain used his Twitter account to call on those who “cared about Gaza” to “raid them embassies” and “behead the first ambassador or [Israel Defence Force] soldier u see”.His account was shut down by Twitter last month.

The meeting in Luxembourg came as Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, suggested that it was inevitable the internet should have a dark side. “When you look at the web, you see humanity,” he said yesterday.

However, he said it would be awful if there was “an ethical web where we could only do nice things”. “The medium has got to be neutral,” he told the IP EXPO Europe conference in London.

Fiona Hamilton Crime Correspondent Georgie Keate John Simpson

Muktar Said Ibrahim and Ramzi Mohammed, involved in the July 2005 attacks, were caught at a flat near Ladbroke Grove

Tarik Hassane went to study at a medical college in Sudan

West Londoners’ journey to jihad

T

arik Hassane is part of a Muslim community around Ladbroke Grove in west London from which a number of young men have gone to fight in Syria and other jihadist battlegrounds (Tom Coghlan writes).

Hassane was known to two jihadists killed in Syria in 2013: Mohammed el-Araj, 23, who came from a North African community in the Ladbroke Grove area, and Choukri Ellekhlifi, 22, a British Morrocan from Paddington.

The two men were killed two weeks apart in August 2013, and Hassane tweeted eulogies to his friends after their deaths.

Ellekhlifi skipped bail and went to Syria in 2012 after conducting a crime spree to fund the trip.

Targeting wealthy individuals in Belgravia, he threatened them with a Taser unless they handed over valuables.

The two men were later photographed holding Kalashnikov rifles and wearing other military equipment alongside a well-known Dutch jihadist fighting for the al-Qaeda-aligned Nusra Front.

The latest arrest will shock the residents of

Ladbroke Grove, who nine years ago witnessed Muktar Said Ibrahim and Ramzi Mohammed, involved in the July 2005 bombings, emerging from a flat in nearby Dalgarno Way. Mohammed was thrown out of the alManaar cultural heritage centre and mosque in nearby Westbourne Park for his extreme views after attempting to have the local imam ousted.

Two other worshippers at that mosque died in Syria in 2012.

Nassim Terreri, a British Algerian man also from Ladbroke Grove, died fighting alongside another British Algerian from London, Walid Blidi. Terreri’s family claimed he had gone to the country as a freelance journalist, although Syrian rebels claimed that the two were fighters who came to the country to wage jihad.

Binyam Mohamed, a former inmate of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, was also a former worshipper at the al-Manaar centre. He was tortured after he was captured in Afghanistan.

Mohamed was released from Guantanamo Bay in 2009 and was later awarded £1 million in compensation for “cruel,

Tarik Hassane was known on the Princess Alice estate in north Kensington for being a football fanatic and aspiring doctor. In the online world, where he was prolific on a series of social networking sites, those interests competed with his preoccupation with the Islamic faith and an increasingly fundamentalist outlook.

Posting from Sudan last year, he said that women should not wear make-up outside. Among his tweets was an image of a beheaded female Kurdish fighter with the words “#IS are scared of #PKK women — oh wait”. The PKK is a militant organisation that has fought for self-determination within Turkey.

However, more extreme comments were tempered with the ordinary interests of a young Briton. He regularly tweeted about football and his account, @abubakrhijaz, was littered with jokes and funny videos. In response to the beheading of the aid worker Alan Henning, he wrote that he did not support the killing of innocent people.

He appeared to be tweeting continually hours before his arrest. At 9.30pm on Monday he wrote to two friends “I smell war”. While the phrase was the

A terror plot was foiled by raids on the London estate

inhuman and degrading treatment by the United States authorities,” in which the British government was complicit.

Andrew Rowe, a British Muslim convert, was also from the area. He was jailed for 15 years in 2005 on charges of plotting terrorist attacks in Britain.

Another regular at the mosque, a convert called Aine Davis, persuaded his wife to get a friend to smuggle €20,000 (£15,800) to him, which she hid in her underwear.

Davis sent his wife pictures of himself fighting with Islamic State (Isis). His wife, Amal el-Wahabi, is awaiting sentence for providing money for terrorism. The mosque, which is Moroccan influenced, is one of the largest in west London.

The steady procession of young men choosing to travel to Syria is being challenged increasingly from within the Muslim community, security sources say, amid widespread revulsion at the brutality of Isis, culminating in the public denunciations that followed the beheading of Alan Henning, the aid worker from Salford, last week.

Security sources say a growing number of community leaders and family members have come forward in recent months to raise concerns about suspected recruiters or family members who are being groomed by extremists.

source of speculation yesterday, his friends said it was banter about girls.

Mr Hassane’s mother was from Morocco and his father from Saudi Arabia but he was born in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea. He is thought to have been living with a female relative but his mother, reportedly a teacher, lives close by.

Nicknamed the “surgeon” in school, he revealed on Ask.fm that he did not get the grades to study at Kings College London. Instead he chose to attend the University of Medical Sciences and Technology in Khartoum. He appeared to be writing from Sudan about 12 months ago when he said that women should not wear make-up outside the home and that it was best for them not to work as it would “burden her since her main job is to maintain the household and raise up children”.

He said that Muslims were being persecuted, posting: “Al Hamdulilah our brothers and sisters in Syria have realized that Jihad is what will bring them true freedom and justice, not some democratic system.”

One neighbour, who did not want to be named, said he had been a “happygo-lucky guy” but became increasingly serious in the past two years. Another, Lewis Willis, said: “I know he went to Sudan and was in Syria before that. He’s been away for ages and I saw him for the first time again this weekend.”

Analysts at King’s International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence said that Mr Hassane had been in communication with British jihadists in Syria and their supporters for some time. The Times understands that since June he exchanged more than 100 online messages with the brother of a British jihadist who was killed last year in Syria.

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News

Will and Kate’s budget break to Australia might clip royal wings Questions raised as the Cambridges’ official visit costs a fraction of the Queen’s last tour, writes Valentine Low The cost of royal travel came under the spotlight yesterday after it emerged that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge toured Australia for less than one-fifth of the cost of the Queen’s tour three years earlier.

The couple achieved their budget travel bill — which was picked up by the Australian taxpayer — by travelling there first class on a scheduled airline instead of a chartered flight.

It meant the total bill for their trip earlier this year was A$474,137 (just under £260,000) excluding security. The Queen’s trip with the Duke of Edinburgh in 2011 cost £1,470,000, including a bill of just under £1 million for her international chartered flight.

The figures for the ten-day spring tour by the Cambridges and Prince George emerged from a Freedom of

Australia tours Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, April 2014 £137,428 Transport £40,264 Domestic travel, food and accommodation £46,683 Media liaison £32,531 Hospitality £2,357 Miscellaneous Total £259,263 Queen and Duke of Edinburgh October 2011 £989,133 International charter flight £242,217 Other transport £120,793 Domestic travel, food and accommodation £49,740 Media liaison £56,897 Hospitality £11,643 Miscellaneous Total £1,470,423

Information request by The Australian newspaper.

They included the cost of the Royal Australian Air Force flying them from New Zealand to Australia as well as internal flights and advance visits, all paid for by the Australian taxpayer because the Queen is head of state in Australia. They did not include security costs, which have been estimated at £820,000. The family travelled first class to and from the UK on commercial airlines.

The huge difference in cost prompted questions about the royal family’s tendency to charter aircraft for

them and their entourage on royal tours.

Later this month the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will embark on a tour of Colombia and Mexico which will involve chartering a plane for the whole of the eight-day tour, including transatlantic flights.

In 2012-13, royal travel cost the British taxpayer £4.5 million. This included £369,000 for the Cambridges’ tour of Singapore, Malaysia and the Pacific islands, which involved both chartered and scheduled flights.

Prince Charles spent more than £1.2 million on official travel that year, including £250,000 on hiring a private jet to attend Nelson Mandela’s funeral.

The Duke of York has been criticised for the amount of taxpayer-funded travel he undertakes, earning him the nickname of “Air Miles Andy”.

According to aides, the Cambridges and Prince Harry have shown enormous willingness to embrace “a different style of travel” — in other words cheaper — than “older members of the royal family”.

A Clarence House spokeswoman said: “The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall do not always travel by chartered flight. When they do, it is because all the options have been looked at very carefully and a commercial charter can sometimes be the most practical solution to the logistical challenge of the visit.”

On their 2012 tour of Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand they used a scheduled flight to get to and from the Britain, she said.

Royal sources say aircraft are chartered to avoid the risk of cancellation or delay, and to cope with moving a large party which can include government and embassy staff as well as the royal household. In Colombia and Mexico the prince will be visiting six cities in nine days. It can also be safer from a security point of view, and not much more expensive, to charter a plane in London rather than arranging one locally, a source said.

Dickie Arbiter, a former Buckingham Palace press secretary whose memoir, On Duty with the Queen, has just been published, said there was a difference between the Cambridges travelling to Australia and the Queen going as head of state, who would be expected to entertain while there.

“You have to make allowances for the head of state because there are that many more people going, because of the backup that the head of state requires.”

“Then you have to work out what that would cost on a regular flight.

The airline would have to bump up the ha costs because they would have to section a part of the aircraft off.

“It would have to be security swept.”

Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

Cut-glass accents are still the most attractive Valentine Low

Call it the Queen’s English, received pronunciation, or just talking posh — it is an accent that is as much derided as it is admired. However, new research has suggested that no matter how much the BBC might strive to include more regional dialects, the Queen’s English is still Britain’s favourite.

The only time it fares less well is in regard to humour, where the Geordie accent scored highest, followed by Liverpudlian, Irish, Cornish and that of Essex. Posh folk, it seems, should not bother trying to be funny.

The experiment for eHarmony, a dating website, involved 750 participants listening to audio clips of men and women with 19 different international and regional accents. They then scored the person on ten character traits, depending on their accent.

As well as being the most attractive, received pronunciation (RP) was rated the most romantic accent, with French ranked third behind Edinburgh’s accent. After RP, men were most attracted to the London accent followed

by Yorkshire and Edinburgh, while women found Mancunian, Irish and Australian most attractive.

Geordie scored well in the “friendly” category, while American ranked highly in “interesting”, Yorkshire in “honest”, and Irish in “charming”.

Professor Jane Setter, a phoneticist at the University of Reading, said: “RP speakers have been rated highly in terms of intelligence, and the accent itself as attractive, since studies like this began. Actors with this accent — such as Patrick Stewart, Michelle Dockery [Lady Mary in Downton Abbey] and Richard E Grant — come over as urbane, charming, witty and educated and, well, wouldn’t everyone want that from a prospective romantic partner?

“The Edinburgh accent is also associated with culture and intelligence — think Sean Connery or David Tennant and you are already swept off your feet.

“However, comedians are rarely RP speakers so it is no surprise to see it rated less highly in that respect; Sarah Millican [who is from South Shields] and John Bishop [Liverpool] spring to mind as wonderfully funny, articulate people.

“Our preconceptions and love of certain lilts, drawls and tones when it comes to accents is mostly down to experience and stereotyping. This helps to explain why RP scores so highly across all categories: it’s the accent we associate with trusted news readers.”

Sophie is off-target

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he Countess of Wessex came perilously close to hitting a spectator when she had a go at archery while visiting a Wheelpower charity event at the Stoke Mandeville stadium.

Most of her arrows missed the target.

Red-faced PM says sorry to the Queen Jill Sherman Whitehall Editor

David Cameron was expected to make his promised apology to the Queen last night for disclosing that she “purred” when he informed her of the result of the Scottish independence referendum.

The prime minister had one of his regular audiences at Buckingham Palace in what is thought to be the first face-to-face meeting with the Queen since he made his indiscretion.

Mr Cameron has already said he was “very embarrassed” for letting slip the Queen’s relief following the “no” vote during a conversation with Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, which was picked up by TV microphones. He told Mr Bloomberg that he had phoned the Queen to tell

her the result. “She purred down the line,” he said. “I’ve never heard anyone so happy.”

By convention prime ministers never discuss details of their conversations with the Queen. The remarks were particularly embarrassing as they seemed to reveal the Queen’s own opinion on a politically sensitive issue.

Appearing on BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show recently, Mr Cameron made clear he regretted the comments. “One of those moments when you look back and kick yourself very hard. It was not a conversation I should have had, even though it was a private conversation,” he said. “I have made my apologies and I think I will probably be making some more.”

Downing Street refused to elaborate

on the meeting. “As is widely known, the prime minister has regular audiences with the Queen,” said a spokesman.

Around a week after the indiscretion in New York, claims emerged of a new breach of royal protocol.

Mr Cameron is reported to have told Tory MPs gathered at Chequers about a time when the Queen was corrected by his curator after saying an original Anthony van Dyck painting, of which they were viewing a copy, was in the Royal Collection. An awkward moment was said to have followed as she was told her painting was in fact a copy.

To compound Mr Cameron’s embarrassment, an art historian later said the Queen was right as both possible candidates for the portrait, which was not specified, are in the Royal Collection.

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

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News

Mrs Clooney joins battle for return of Elgin Marbles Tom Whipple

As if it wasn’t enough that she stole the world’s most coveted bachelor, it now seems that the new Mrs Clooney is also looking to steal the world’s most coveted marbles. Or, depending on your view, liberate them.

Barely a week after Amal Alamuddin married George Clooney, the international human rights lawyer has already turned her attention away from the metaphorical Greek god that is her husband, to the more literal, and even more chiselled, kind: she is advising the Greek government on the return of the Elgin Marbles.

At present, the Parthenon Marbles, to use their other name, occupy a wing of the British Museum, after the 75metre frieze depicting figures from Greek myths was controversially removed from the Acropolis of Athens by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century.

Their subsequent display in London in 1816 caused a sensation among the British public — and intense anger among the Greeks, who continue to view them as stolen intellectual property.

Now it has emerged from leaks to the Greek press that their government has hired Ms Alamuddin, along with Geoffrey Robertson, QC, a fellow lawyer at Doughty Street Chambers, to help prepare a legal case for the return of the 2,500-year-old Marbles.

They will surely be hoping that Ms Alamuddin’s advice is more rooted in the work of Mr Robertson, who has long argued for the emergence of a system of international law to enable the return of cultural treasures, than in the work of her husband, who recently appeared in The Monuments Men, a film about looted art.

When asked his opinion about the Marbles while publicising the film, Clooney told Greek reporters that their

TMS

diary@thetimes.co.uk | @timesdiary “send the Red Arrows to sky-write ‘knock it off, you ****s’.” Sorted.

Speaking of foreign troubles, Philip “Lively” Hammond and the human anaesthetic that is John Kerry held a joint press conference about Isis in Washington yesterday. Has there ever been a less charismatic pair of foreign secretaries? Brings a new meaning to drone warfare.

Clegg finally gets to grips As Lib Dem members go back to their constituencies and prepare for oblivion, Nick Clegg will need all his power and control of spin today when he partners Andrew Castle, the former British No 1 tennis player, in a doubles match for the Make Some Noise charity at Queen’s Club. John Bercow will keep order from the umpire’s chair (best give him a booster seat).

This counts as yet another Tory defection, since Castle, above, used to coach David Cameron so that he could beat the Clegger. The PM and his deputy haven’t played this year. “He’s running scared,” Clegg says. “He nicks my policies and he won’t play me at tennis.” Some might suggest that Clegg should be getting out the vote in one of the two by-elections taking place today, but perhaps he wants to focus on something he can win.

Clegg’s big speech didn’t quite turn out as billed by one BBC political reporter. Shortly before he started, Louise Stewart tweeted that he would be “executed on stage at 1.20pm”. I knew he was unpopular...

But it was just a typing error. She meant to write “expected”.

best of british Al Murray was keen to deny that his Pub Landlord creation is a Lib Dem after being quoted in the great address.

He then laid out some of his alter ego’s policies for Clegg to consider. On tax: “pay cash”; on crime: “bring back hanging for the sake of the rope industry”; and on Isis:

parsons hot on the buzzer He may be 91 tomorrow but there’s nothing wrong with Nicholas Parsons’s reflexes. A wasp tried to disrupt his talk at the Cheltenham Literature Festival yesterday and refused several invitations to buzz off. Eventually Parsons leapt up, shouting “Kill him! Kill him!”, and stamped the insect to death. “Any animal lovers in the audience?” he then asked sweetly. Some might like to see him do the same to Gyles Brandreth next time he gets uppity on Just a Minute.

Margaret Atwood, below, has won prizes galore for her dystopian science fiction, but there are some who would prefer her to use solid facts rather than her imagination.

“One publisher said to me: ‘Please, please can you stop writing about the future, can’t you write about the 19th century again?’” she said in a talk at the central London Apple Store. “People like historical novels because we know what happened.”

stop that coughing An opera company in Perth, Australia, has been banned from performing Carmen. Bizet’s opera, set in a cigarette factory, has been stubbed out so as not to upset the health agency that sponsors the company. The West Australian Opera’s manager said they had agreed to avoid subjects “that could be seen to promote unhealthy behaviour”. Presumably Don Giovanni will be banned for encouraging promiscuity along with La Traviata (the drinking song) and Rigoletto (mocks scoliosis sufferers) and as for the Ring Cycle and its inference that dwarves are all greedy and duplicitous... patrick kidd pat

return was “probably the right thing to do”. Quizzed later by British reporters, he backtracked: “It was one of a hundred questions at a press conference, a Greek reporter asking me about the Marbles — and I just said I thought it was probably a good idea if they found a way back at some point.”

He added, however, “I did a little research to make sure I wasn’t completely out of my mind, and even in England the polling is in favour of returning the Marbles.”

Ms Alamuddin and her

colleagues are considerably better briefed about such cultural feuds.

In 2007, Mr Robertson successfully represented Aboriginal Tasmanians seeking to stop the Natural History Museum performing tests on the skulls of their ancestors.

It is likely that the Greek case will rest on a call by Unesco for the British Museum and the Greek culture minister to Amal Alamuddin is to advise Greek officials

engage in mediation in the hope of resolving the dispute, with possible solutions involving the Marbles spending time in both countries.

However, Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum, has repeatedly said he would not countenance their return.

Maybe the Greeks are hoping that the promise of meeting a woman described by Hello! magazine as having “a cascade of lustrous hair and eyes the size of saucers” — and, for balance, described by her chambers as having “particular expertise in international criminal law” — will at the very least bring him to the negotiating table.

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Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

News

Crime unit failed to pass names of suspected child abusers to police Sean O’Neill Crime Editor

Dozens of sex offenders have been able to evade justice for months because the “British FBI” failed to share intelligence about their online activities.

A music teacher, a former British Airways pilot, a swimming instructor and a junior football coach convicted of child sex crimes in the past year are the latest offenders whose names, it can be disclosed today, were on a list of more than

2,300 suspects given to the authorities

by Canadian police in July 2012.

The list was not distributed to police forces because the National Crime Agency’s child protection unit assessed the indecent images in the Canadian case, codenamed Project Spade, as lowlevel.

The information was eventually disseminated last November after the Canadian authorities reported 348 convictions worldwide from their intel-

ligence. The agency admits that three weeks after concerns were raised following the conviction of the Cambridge hospital consultant Myles Bradbury, it does not know how many of the people on the Project Spade list have been convicted of serious sex offences.

The Times has identified 11 cases that have resulted in convictions or are before the courts, but the agency said that number would rise. Keith Bristow, the agency’s director-general, will be

expected to provide answers about the handling of the case by his Child Exploitation and Online Protection command when he faces MPs next week.

The failure to send out the intelligence material is being investigated by the police complaints watchdog.

The latest confirmed cases linked to Project Spade involve people who had access to children and should have been high-priority suspects.

Bartle Frere, 50, a former BA pilot, was convicted at Bournemouth crown court this week of possessing indecent images and arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence in India. He was being investigated by Dorset police when the intelligence arrived from the agency last year.

Philip Evans, 38, a music teacher at the independent King Edward’s School, Edgbaston, Birmingham, was jailed last December after being convicted of offences including using a hidden camera to film himself indecently assaulting pupils. West Midlands police were investigating Evans when they received the Project Spade intelligence.

Alan Rattigan, 64, a junior football coach in Coventry, was jailed in June for travelling to Egypt to abuse young boys.

Brian Taylor, 59, a swimming coach of Tamworth, Staffordshire, was given a community sentence last month after the discovery of more than 120,000 child abuse images.

West Midlands police received 58 names, which resulted in four people being charged; 16 are under investigation. West Yorkshire police received 60 names but made no arrests.

Child abuse investigators privately express frustration at delays in action being taken but say they lack the resources to tackle a soaring number of cases involving child abuse images.

Huge rise in harm linked to witchcraft Fiona Hamilton

Allegations of child abuse in London linked to witchcraft have increased almost thirty-fold in the past decade, Scotland Yard has said.

There were 27 such claims in the past year, it said, including children being dunked in water or knocked on the head to “drive out the Devil”.

Police officers met teachers, childcare and health workers at City Hall, London, yesterday to discuss the issue.

The practice has been associated with three child murders in Britain.

Victoria Climbié was tortured and killed by her guardians in 2000, and a year later the torso of an unidentified boy, given the name Adam, was found in the Thames. In 2010 Kristy Bamu, a teenage boy visiting his sister and her boyfriend from Paris, was tortured and drowned because he was suspected of practising witchcraft.

Despite the increasing rate of referral, convictions remain extremely low.

Terry Sharpe, a detective superintendent in the Metropolitan police’s child exploitation unit, said it was difficult to convince people to speak out. “Families or carers genuinely believe that the victim has been taken over by the Devil or an evil spirit, which is often supported by someone who within the community has portrayed themselves as an authority on faith and belief,” he said.

Boy born prematurely wins £2m damages A seven-year-old boy who was born early after his mother was fitted with a contraceptive device while she was pregnant has been awarded £2.25 million in damages. Cian Bowen suffered brain damage when he was born at 29 weeks. He has cerebral palsy, although his intellect is intact.

Cian , described by Mr Justice Spencer as a “very delightful little boy”, was at the High Court in London with his parents, Stephen Bowen and Tracy Ann Hughes, of Carmarthenshire, south Wales, for the settlement of his action against Helen Claire Jenkins, a GP, who admitted negligence.

Ms Hughes was fitted with an intrauterine device in March 2007 when she was 14 weeks pregnant, although she did not realise this for seven more weeks.

Court hears death call A dog breeder shot dead his former partner and her daughter then told police: “They’ve been giving me s*** for weeks”, Guildford crown court was told.

Lucy Lee, 40, saw her mother Christine, 66, shot by John Lowe, 82, during an argument and fled, but returned to the farm in Tilford, Surrey, to confront him, the court was told. “I’m gonna go back for him but I’ll die,” she said in a 999 phone call shortly before her death.

Mr Lowe denies two charges of murder. The trial continues.

Body found in school Pupils were shocked after a body — thought to be that of a member of staff — was found at a grammar school in Liverpool.

A police spokesman said officers were called to Blue Coat School in Wavertree after a member of staff reported concern for the safety of a colleague. The body was found in a basement, away from where students are taught.

The man’s death is being treated as unexplained and a post-mortem examination will be carried out.

£13m David Frost will David Frost, the veteran broadcaster who died last year aged 74, left nearly £13 million in his will, it was revealed yesterday.

Sir David, known for his TV interviews of famous figures, left the bulk of his estate to his wife Lady Carina. He also left sums to his friend Michael Rosenberg, to his sister Margaret, and to each of his sister Jean’s four children.

Sir David died in August last year after suffering a heart attack on board a cruise ship where he was expected to give a talk to passengers.

Dad’s Army remobilises Dad’s Army, the classic sitcom, is to be remade as a film with a cast including Catherine Zeta-Jones, right, Michael Gambon, Bill Nighy, and Toby Jones. Set in 1944, it finds the men in low spirits as fitter troops prepare for the Battle of Normandy.

Filming will begin this month.

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

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News

Blunders raise fears of ebola contagion DANIEL BEREHULAK / NEW YORK TIMES / REDUX / EYEVINE

Graham Keeley Madrid

A series of catastrophic mistakes led to the first ebola outbreak in Europe, raising concerns over the ability of western hospitals to contain the deadly virus.

The number of people being monitored in Spain for ebola rose yesterday to 84. There had been long delays before the nurse in Madrid received a diagnosis. Thomas Eric Duncan, who died in Dallas yesterday, suffered similar delays.

Spanish officials admitted that the nurse, who was the first to contract ebola outside Africa, visited a hospital with a fever but was sent home with paracetamol. Teresa Romero, 44, eventually learnt that she was suffering from ebola when she read the news on her mobile phone on a hospital isolation ward.

A senior doctor at the hospital where Ms Romero and five other quarantined patients were being treated attacked a lack of training. Dr Santiago Yus, a specialist in intensive care, said: “Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow I will be expected to treat the ebola patient and nobody has even taught me to put on the protective suit . . . I am not ready, I am not trained. And it’s the same with my colleagues.”

Ms Romero was part of a team treating a Spanish missionary who died on September 25. After developing a fever, she was treated by staff without protective suits and told to take paracetamol.

Days later she was kept waiting in a busy emergency ward despite telling staff: “I am worried I have ebola.”

Even after she had ebola diagnosed, for a while she was separated from other patients and staff only by a curtain and two pieces of tape. Nurses and doctors are understood to have worn only masks and gloves. After about 12 hours, she was transferred in an ambulance by paramedics who did not wear protective suits.

Ms Romero’s account of how she might have contracted the disease also points to serious lapses in safety procedures. Speaking from her bed in an isolation unit yesterday, she said that she believed she might have become infected by touching her face with a glove as she removed her protection suit.

“I see it as the most important moment in which [the virus] could be passed on, but I am not sure,” she said in a telephone interview with El País newspaper. She said that she no longer had a fever and felt better.

Health workers staged a protest outside Carlos III hospital in Madrid over poor safety measures. Authorities insist that they followed health protocols correctly. Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, appealed for calm and promised transparency over the ebola scare.

In Sierra Leone, the contagious bodies of ebola victims were left rotting where they fell yesterday after the burial teams went on strike. They said they had not received danger pay supplement of £10 a day for two weeks. A similar row is brewing in Liberia, where health workers are demanding higher salaries and better protective clothing.

Cameron resists calls for screening Continued from page 1

Health workers in the high-risk zone of an ebola treatment unit in Liberia. In Spain, 84 people are now being monitored

Fight over Excalibur the dog

Thomas Eric Duncan: the ebola victim who died yesterday in the US

Teresa Romero with Excalibur and, below, appeals to save the dog

S

cuffles broke out yesterday outside the apartment of the Spanish nurse suffering from ebola, as health workers who have been ordered to euthanase her dog tried to enter the building (Kat Lay writes).

Firefighters and workers in hazardous materials suits were seen inside the complex, and photographers captured images of the dog, named Excalibur, on the balcony.

Madrid’s regional government obtained a court order to kill the dog, saying “available scientific” information could not rule out the risk of contagion.

By last night, more than 350,000 people around the world had signed a petition begging the authorities to reconsider their decision

sent out in groups during the next few weeks to work in Sierra Leone in five new treatment centres with 700 beds.

No 10 said that the package would help 8,800 patients in six months.

The experts also decided to stage a “resilience” training exercise in the UK in the next few weeks.

The surprise exercise will involve a deliberately staged ebola outbreak in several areas of the country to see whether each region is fully equipped to deal with the disease.

The trial is likely to involve mobile isolation units — which would be set up by hospitals or local authorities — possible mobile phone alerts and the distribution of protective clothing.

In the US, President Obama ordered Homeland Security officers to inspect all travellers for “general signs of illness”, while from this weekend people arriving from ebola-affected countries will have their temperatures checked and face detailed questioning.

Whitehall sources said that Mr Cameron had decided not to set up routine

to put Excalibur to sleep.

Javier Limón, the husband of Teresa Romero, the nurse, said the dog should be put in quarantine, like human patients.

Jonathan Ball,

professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, said he saw “no harm in quarantine”. However, other experts said the decision to kill Excalibur was not an overreaction,

given the severity of the virus. To date, there have been no human infections linked to contact with dogs, but they are thought to contract ebola without showing symptoms, making it unclear how effective quarantine would be.

During an outbreak in Gabon in 2001 and 2002, scientists tested 337 dogs in the country. In villages within the outbreak area, up to 25 per cent of the dogs showed antibodies to the virus, suggesting that they may have been infected at some stage.

Ben Neuman, a University of Reading virologist, said: “Unlike most viruses, ebola really gets around. It can infect a wide range of animals including bats, rodents, monkeys, apes and a kind of tiny antelope — and the more people test, the more they find. Until we understand more about animals with ebola, the dog will be a risk.”

ebola screening in airports but would be watching how successful the scheme was in the US. Keith Vaz, chairman of the home affairs select committee, said that a wait-and-see approach would damage public confidence. “Our immediate response should be to tighten regulation and introduce measures such as screenings at airports, train stations and ferry ports to ensure that this deadly disease cannot take more lives.

“Immigration officers are not trained health professionals. Greater support must be offered to ensure that they are equipped to deal with this outbreak to prevent it reaching the UK.” Norman Baker, a Liberal Democrat Home Office minister, said that the case for increasing screening in airports should be examined. “We need to consider whether existing controls are adequate,” he said.

Professor David Heymann, chairman of Public Health England and head of global health security at Chatham House, said, however, that this would be a “false reassurance because it doesn’t stop [ebola] and it could take our guard down because people think the problem has been solved”.

Letters, page 21

Every patient to be asked if health records can be shared Chris Smyth Health Correspondent

Every patient in England could be personally asked by their GP if they are happy to have their medical records used for research, as health chiefs attempt to resurrect a controversial data-sharing scheme.

NHS England insisted it would not retreat on the central thrust of the scheme and has refused to bow to critics who want patients to be auto-

matically excluded unless they explicitly allow their data to be used.

Hundreds of GP practices will test ways of explaining the scheme to patients, using letters, leaflets, emails and text messages. While tougher rules on commercial use of the data have been promised, NHS England says the pilot schemes will test only ways to explain the project and will not alter its aims.

Under the plan, details of patients’ ill-

ness, drugs, age and postcode would be uploaded from their GP records to a central database, where they will be linked with similar information from hospitals. NHS chiefs say the scheme will allow doctors to track new diseases, assess new drugs and spot areas where the health service is failing.

The plan was put on hold in February after family doctors turned against it.

Now surgeries in Leeds, Somerset, Hampshire and Blackburn have been

recruited to test ways to revive the scheme, known as care.data.

Tim Kelsey, director for patients and information at NHS England, said: “We have been listening to the views of the public, GPs and other important stakeholders to hear their concerns about data sharing. We have heard, loud and clear, that we need to be clearer about the care.data programme and that we need to provide more support to GPs to communicate the benefits and the risks

of data sharing with their patients, including their right to opt out.”

Phil Booth, co-ordinator of the privacy group medConfidential, said: “Fundamental issues about the consent process and who will be able to use patients’ data, and for what, are not nailed down. It’s all very well to make promises, but patients must be able to trust them. NHS England cannot fudge what it says to GPs and patients, or it risks another crisis of confidence.”

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Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

News Liberal Democrat conference

I’m here to stay . . . and so are coalitions, says Clegg Sam Coates Deputy Political Editor

Nick Clegg set out a pitch for the Liberal Democrats to remain in power after the election whoever is in Downing Street, declaring coalition to be the best form of government.

The Liberal Democrat leader told his party that it should sell the benefits of

coalition to voters rather than presenting a “caricatured” image of two-party government. The call came in a speech riddled with attacks against their Tory coalition partners.

He also set out the central, defensive theme of the Lib Dem election campaign, claiming that his party would moderate the activities of both

Labour and the Conservatives. He told the hall: “The Liberal Democrats will borrow less than Labour, but we’ll cut less than the Tories.” The Lib Dems would match the Tory deficit reduction pledge by 2018, he said, but 20 per cent would be done through tax increases rather than spending cuts.

“We’ll finish the job, but we’ll finish it

in a way that is fair. And just as we are refusing to saddle our children with mountains of debt, we are determined to hand them on a clean planet too.”

Mr Clegg launched a series of attacks on Tory “snobbery” and “bile”, singling out Theresa May and George Osborne for criticism. However, he also gave the clearest indication to date of how the Lib Dems would work in a second coalition with the Tories, by challenging their tax plans, protecting welfare and imposing red lines on the environment.

The speech gave fewer hints of how the Lib Dems might work within a Labour-led coalition.

Speaking on the final day of the party’s conference in Glasgow, Mr Clegg said: “After the 2010 election, the Conservatives could not have formed a government and secured this economic recovery without the Liberal Democrats . . . and the Liberal Democrats could not have secured this economic recovery without the Conservatives.

It’s called coalition — and in my judgment it is most likely Britain will have more in the future.”

Some Lib Dems such as Nick Harvey, the North Devon MP, have suggested that the party should sit out the next government if there is a hung parliament. Others worry that the image of the party clinging to ministerial office is further eroding its support.

Mr Clegg also used his speech to-

Inside today

Conferences have left 2015 election wide open Leading article, page 20

intensified his attacks on the Tories, revealing details of private conversations in order to claim credit for key coalition policies. Reacting to the Tory manifesto promise last week on raising the taxfree personal allowance to £12,500, Mr Clegg told activists how George Osborne had opposed such moves earlier in private.

“In 2012 — I’ll never forget this — Danny [Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury] and I said: let’s go further and faster to cut people’s income tax. It’s possible now, so why wait? George Osborne turned to me and said: I don’t want to deliver a Liberal Democrat budget.”

The most passionate part of the speech defended the Lib Dem role in the Tory coalition. This section also gave the best indication yet of what issues he would want to challenge in the event of a new coalition negotiation with the Tories.

By contrast Mr Clegg’s attacks on Labour suggested that he did not believe Mr Miliband had the credibility to become prime minister and deliver promises. “Ed Miliband is now promising a new Nirvana where everyone will be well-off, no one will be out of pocket, we don’t need to cut government spending and the public finances will be miraculously fixed. Sounds great. How does he intend to deliver this?”

At the start of his speech, Mr Clegg cited the comedian Al Murray, the pub landlord, for his remarks about Britishness at a rally in Trafalgar Square during the Scottish referendum campaign.

Mr Murray yesterday distanced himself on Twitter from the Lib Dems, writing: “Attention world’s media: This Clegg business is nothing to do with me.”

Speech unspun Analysis Philip Collins Let it go, Nick Tuition fees will be Nick Clegg’s epitaph. This is a non-attempt to shrug it off as a mistake. He might have been better doing an Ed Miliband and forgetting it. This section ends with the best line in the speech: “The Liberal Democrats will borrow less than Labour, but we’ll cut less than the Tories” is a pithy statement of intent. I would have brought it further up and used it as a refrain, to structure the “stronger economy, fairer society” theme.

Easy on Labour This is a deliberately low-wattage attack on Ed Miliband. The Tory attacks in this speech are both more numerous and more venomous. Don’t take this as a revelation that he would prefer a coalition with Labour than the Tories; he wouldn’t. Take it as an indication of where the Lib Dems know they need to recover votes — from people who are moving to Labour. Hence he has to do plenty of Tory-bashing.

Stale words The idea of opportunity has been made stale by repetition. It has to be lifted by a story or a wordpicture. This is a speech devoid of people and empty of metaphor. It was delivered well but there was little colour in the language. It was a highly political speech, designed principally to rally the troops. That limited objective was well served.

Having it both ways So, after disowning much of the coalition, Clegg concludes by praising it again. Note that he is not praising specific measures but the very face of coalition politics. He is returning here to the tune of “a new kind of politics” which, as the tuition-fee Judas, he can hardly carry. The “red lines” of coalition negotiation were mentioned only once but to end here shows that Clegg is looking forward to May 2015 when he finds himself in a room, negotiating. Which he probably will.

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

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Liberal Democrat conference News

Something very un-British is taking root in our politics. A growing movement of people who want to pull us apart.

Salmond, Farage, the bitter tribalism of left and right — in their different ways they’re all doing the same thing. A growing pick-a-side politics, in a world of us versus them.

Worried about your job? Your business? Your children’s future? Your way of life? No matter, just blame Europe/ Brussels/foreigners/immigrants/the English/the South/ professional politicians/Westminster/big business/ anybody claiming benefits/even onshore wind farms.

Politicians of every party have fed this growing cynicism by exaggerating and overstating what governments can do.

We’ve all done it. I’ve been there. When I apologised for the disappointment and anger caused by our inability to scrap tuition fees, I knew we could never, ever make that mistake again. And we won’t . . . The Liberal Democrats will borrow less than Labour but we’ll cut less than the Tories.

The biggest change in income tax in a generation — designed and delivered by Lib Dems. The biggest overhaul of our pensions system . . . designed and delivered by Lib Dems. That is an extraordinary record from anyone, let alone a party that had never been in government before, let alone at a time of upheaval and strife. So when you meet people who still aren’t sure about us, ask them this: How will you judge us? By the one policy we couldn’t deliver in government or by the countless policies we did deliver in government?

While this party has learnt from our mistakes, can the same be said of our opponents? Ed Miliband is now promising a new Nirvana where everyone will be well-off, no one will be out of pocket, we don’t need to cut government spending and the public finances will be miraculously fixed . . . This is a man who was part of the government which . . . ruined the economy.

David Cameron and George Osborne, meanwhile . . . most astonishingly of all, they have chosen to single out the working-age poor to bear the brunt of the final years of deficit reduction, while refusing to ask the super-rich to make a single additional contribution . . . That’s the people scraping by on the minimum wage . . . No wonder they’ve stopped claiming that we’re all in it together.

So our mission now is to give people a reason to reject bitter, us-and-them politics, to shun the politics of blame and fear, and choose something better. To do that, we have to provide the one thing that so many people across Britain still lack and crave: opportunity . . . No matter who you are. Opportunity for everyone.

And then there’s one more policy, one I care about passionately. Mental health. The Cinderella treatment of mental health services . . . threatens the opportunities available to hundreds and thousands of our fellow citizens.

Anxiety, panic attacks, depression, anorexia, bulimia, selfharm, bipolar disorder — these and many other mental health conditions are one of the last remaining taboos in our society, and yet they will affect one in four people.

After the 2010 election the Conservatives could not have formed a government and secured this economic recovery without the Liberal Democrats . . . and the Liberal Democrats could not have secured this economic recovery without the Conservatives. It’s called coalition and in my judgment it is most likely Britain will have more in the future . . . the British public . . . know we’ve been in government for this parliament and we’re not suddenly going to pretend that it had nothing to do with us.

Nick Clegg after his speech to conference in Glasgow and with his wife, Miriam. He launched a series of attacks on Tory “snobbery” and “bile

Taking on tribalism Some politicians seek to understand the allure of Ukip. Here Clegg goes in hard to confront it. It is an effective description of Nigel Farage’s basic nihilism and an example of what Clegg can do. As everyone hates him he might as well tell the truth.

All eyes on trousers of leader on last legs Ann Treneman Political Sketch

His conundrum Probably the former, if we’re honest. Unfair as that is. This is what the activists in the hall will be saying as they fight the election.

This is a speech in which Clegg seeks to have his cake and eat it, always the best position to be in, cake-wise, if you can manage it. He takes credit for the coalition’s achievements then later spends a lot of time trashing his Tory partners in government. It is the speech’s unsolvable conundrum.

A missed opportunity There is a promising theme in here that is not brought out — the historic Liberal championing of earned income over unearned. It is hinted at in the critique of the Tories for hitting the working poor but not developed. This is a missed opportunity. Between Labour’s welfarism and Conservative austerity there is room for an argument that lauds the importance of supporting work properly through policy. This could have been central to Stronger Economy, Fairer Society which is so blatantly nicked from Blair that I kept thinking I had not only heard it before and read it before, I had written it before.

More of this, please The Lib Dems should do more of this. A small party can afford to raise issues that are vital but not mainstream. It can change the debate and alter the priority we accord to things. For a rich country, Britain’s mental health services are a disgrace and Nick Clegg should be congratulated for making this a central part of his speech. It is a shame it was followed by the now obligatory auction on NHS spending.

T

he day began with a mini-rumour — a shhhhh of a whisper of nothing that could be something — that Nick Clegg was going to resign during his speech. That this whisper was based on the fact that a few days ago Nick had worn chinos on stage (“He’s given up!”) was ignored for the very good reason that it was by far the most exciting thing to happen in Glasgow so far.

The hall was full. Had they heard the rumour too? Tim Farron, the rather Huck Finn-ish president, gave an Oscar-style speech as he stood down as Lib Dem president. “The next time you get caught with your pants around your ankles, the media can call someone else!” The crowd creased up.

Pants? Trousers? Creases? Was this some sort of code?

When, finally, for he was late, Nick strode on stage, I am sure that I was not the only one to stare at his trousers. Sadly, they were not chinos. Instead he was wearing one of his crisp, metrosexual Euro-suits.

He wasn’t resigning, at least not today. For now, the only place he was going was the dry-cleaners, for I’m sure Miriam, impossibly chic in the front row, doesn’t do errands.

He began by telling us something that Al Murray (“He of Pub Landlord fame”) had said during the Scottish referendum campaign. “He said there was something wonderfully vague about being British. After all, he said, that’s why we call ourselves Brit-ish. And it’s true! You can be Brit-ish as well as Scott-ish, Engl-ish, Northern Ir-ish, Welsh . . . ish . . .”

Or, indeed, Lib Dem-ish. If you ask me, this was the ultimate “ish” speech.

He insisted that only the Lib Dems

believed in fair taxes, strong economy, education for all, the EU, green crap, etc.

“Look,” he said, for he still loves Tony Blair secretly, “I’m sure Ed Miliband and David Cameron would say that their parties are parties of opportunity — no one’s against opportunity!” But, he said, only the Lib Dems could deliver opportunity and trousers for all. He apologised (again) for tuition fees, boasted about the Lib Dem record, castigated George Osborne at every chance. He made fun of Farage, pronouncing his name with a French accent, Farrraaage. It was a very elegant smear.

It was, if not his best speech, then the next best. Well-crafted, heartfelt, passionate. His commitment on mental health was important and will, I predict, be copied by all.

But there was just something about him that made me look closer.

He was more relaxed, passionate, natural. As he gave it his all, voice soaring, arms out, rallying the Ishers to the cause, I felt that although he wasn’t resigning, this was the last time we would see him in this slot.

This was his swansong conference speech as Lib Dem leader. It was a resignation speech without a resignation (which is, of course, so Lib Dem). Miriam had the fixed snow-white smile of a woman who was not going to have to do this again.

The audience do not love him but they respect him. There were no standing ovations during the speech but plenty of clapping and hoots.

When he finished, he stood, arms waving around like windscreen wipers. He and Miriam did a short walk up the aisle, escaping in a matter of minutes.

He was gone and, truly, almost immediately forgotten. The talk among the delegates as they shuffled out was not about the speech or even trousers, but transport. “I’m heading all the way down south,” said one man. His friend nodded and they chatted amiably about how the A74 had changed.

NHS can ill afford better mental health services Chris Smyth Health Correspondent

The NHS cannot afford better mental health services without risking cuts elsewhere, experts said yesterday, while praising a “milestone” commitment to treat psychological problems as seriously as physical ones.

From next year patients with mental health problems will have the same right to prompt treatment as those with physical illness, and Nick Clegg wants to spend half a billion pounds on improving “Cinderella” services.

The plans have been widely welcomed, but hospital leaders said the rest of the NHS could ill afford to lose money. A report on hospital finances by the King’s Fund think-tank yesterday prompted warnings that the NHS is “on the verge of financial meltdown”.

Concerns have also been raised about the uneven quality of counsellors, and a lack of specialist training if therapy services are expanded rapidly.

While official figures show that 93 per cent of patients seen by the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies scheme are treated within 18 weeks, a

third of patient referred drop out before seeing a counsellor. Mental health patients are a fifth less likely to be treated within 18 weeks than those with physical problems, according to analysis by the Nuffield Trust.

Saffron Cordery, of the Foundation Trust Network, which represents hospitals, said the pledge was “a really important milestone and has put mental health on the agenda. But as yet we don’t know where the money is going to come from.”

A promise of £120 million over the next two years has been made to improve mental health services, while Mr Clegg wants to spend half the extra £1 billion the Lib Dems have pledged to the NHS on mental health. “We haven’t seen this proposal fully costed over the long term,” Ms Cordery said.

Paul Briddock, of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, asked: “Is the additional money resources coming into the system or are those resources going to be found elsewhere?

If it’s not more money, it will put pressure on the system somewhere else.”

Leading article, page 20

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Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

News

Real-life cyborg: the bionic arm that has grown on its owner Hannah Devlin Science Editor

A Swedish truck driver has been living for over a year with a “biologically integrated” prosthetic arm, scientists have revealed, in an advance that blurs the boundaries between man and machine.

The prosthetic is the first to be directly connected to a patient’s bone, muscles and nerves and feels so natural that its owner views it as part of his body.

“It’s not like a machine. It’s like my own arm,” said Magnus, the amputee who has worn the arm continuously for the past 18 months, taking it off only to shower. Cyborgs have long been a staple of science fiction, from Luke Skywalker’s prosthetic hand to Robocop.

Now the idea that robotic components could be seamlessly assimilated into the body appears close to reality.

The 42-year-old has kept his job as a truck driver in northern Sweden, and is adept in tasks such as tying shoelaces, using a drill and catching objects — challenges that would normally be impossible with a prosthesis.

Max Ortiz Catalan, who led the work at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, described the latest generation of prosthetics as an “intimate union between the body and the machine”. Magnus, whose surname cannot be published, lost his arm in

2003 after he was involved in a metalwork accident and went on to develop cancer in the limb. Last year, he underwent surgery in which a titanium implant was screwed into his bone to anchor the new prosthetic. In the months following, bone cells grew around the screw, creating a join robust enough for him to use the limb in vigorous everyday activities.

During surgery, electrodes were attached to his muscles, allowing intuitive control of movement. Three pressure sensors in the robotic hand send sensory feedback to separate electrodes attached to nerve cells, which the brain interprets as touch. “The patient feels like you are touching him on his missing hand,” said Dr Ortiz Catalan.

The trial, described to-

Magnus shows how he can use a drill with his prosthetic arm

How it works 2 Muscle contractions send electrical signals to the hand, allowing “natural” movement in the fingers

3 The biceps and triceps receive sensory feedback from the prosthetic hand Bone

Frances Gibb Legal Editor

Muscle Skin

1

Nerve

The prosthetic arm is screwed into the bone, which eventually grows around it

day in the journal Science Translational Medicine, showed that the system worked well in the real world over a wo significant period, not just a short laboratory trial. “I have it on all the time,” said Magnus, addMa

Bully trapped by camera in sunglasses

Range of motion

ing that the arm allows him to use a snowmobile, go fishing and ski.

A second prosthetic hand that allows textures such as sandpaper and cotton buds to be felt shows that even more sophisticated devices are on the horizon. Fitted with sensors at 20 points, the technology replicates the hand’s normal nervous system. Dustin Tyler, a biomedical engineer who led the project at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, said: “Our goal is not just to restore function, but to build a reconnection to the world.”

A student has successfully brought a private prosecution of a man who harassed and abused him after gathering video evidence on a pair of specially adapted surveillance sunglasses.

Haresh Mehta, 20, who lives in Southampton, complained repeatedly to the police about insults and intimidation, but no formal action was taken.

Mr Mehta, who is studying IT security, resolved to bring the man to justice himself and bought a pair of sunglasses with a video recorder in the frame.

The charge, brought under section 5 of the Public Order Act, said that the defendant’s conduct involved “threatening, abusive and insulting words or behaviour . . . which caused [Mr Mehta] harassment, alarm or distress”.

Lawyers for the defendant had written to the CPS asking it to take over the case and prosecutors concluded on the basis of the video evidence that there was a realistic prospect of conviction and that it was in the public interest for the case to go ahead. However, they decided not to take over the case as both parties were represented by lawyers.

The man, who pleaded guilty, cannot be named for legal reasons. He was given the option of paying a £500 fine or serving one day in custody; he chose the day’s custody.

Because of his guilty plea, the veracity of the video evidence and the way it was obtained were never an issue.

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

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News

Outsider Nancy is Bake Off winner Alex Spence Media Editor

Her raspberry and almond croissants were a bit doughy in the middle and the lack of piped cream in her victoria sponges upset presenter Paul Hollywood, but the showstopping pièce montée had the judges licking their lips.

Nancy Birtwhistle, a retired GP practice manager, won the fifth series of The Great British Bake Off last night.

The 60-year-old from Lincolnshire was the outsider of the final three contestants, but she pulled off a surprise victory after Richard Burr, the favourite, stumbled in the first two challenges.

“I can remember having to stand for what seemed an eternity to hear the result,” Ms Birtwhistle said yesterday.

“We were all pretty exhausted, Luis [Troyano, another finalist] was close to tears and Richard looked the same.

Then the judges said my name and I can’t really remember what happened.”

About 10 million people were expected to watch the final last night, the biggest live audience since the show began in 2010. Hundreds of thousands more will view it on catch-up services in the coming days. Only a handful of shows, such as Sherlock and Call the Midwife, attract that many live viewers.

Bake Off established itself in this series as one of the corporation’s most popular programmes, helped by the move from BBC Two to a prime slot on the main channel and a national outcry

about a molten baked alaska in an earlier episode.

So intensely has baking fever gripped the country that sales of scales and rolling pins have soared, Asda, the supermarket chain, said. Aldi boasted a 143 per cent rise in sales of “baking butter”.

Mr Burr, 38, a builder from north London, was the bookmaker’s favourite to win the competition after being judged star baker in the earlier rounds five times. However, he disappointed the judges with his pastries and cakes in the first two challenges. “He doesn’t usually make mistakes, but that tarte au citron was just overcooked,” Mary Berry said during the technical challenge.

Entering the last showstopper challenge, it was down to Ms Birtwhistle and Mr Troyano, 43, from Cheshire.

Berry said: “You never know how the bakers will be affected as we go through filming week by week, but Nancy remained constant throughout. It was a close run when it came to judging the final, but Nancy is deservedly our winner, and I must admit that I have been inspired by her baking.”

This series will be remembered for the events of the fourth episode, when the contestant Iain Watters stormed out after throwing his melted baked alaska in the bin. Viewers had earlier seen another contestant, Diana Beard, take it out of the freezer. Mr Watters’ departure provoked an astonishing backlash on social media.

MARK BOURDILLON / LOVE PRODUCTIONS / BBC

Nancy Birtwhistle, centre, with Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, defied the odds to win The Great British Bake Off

Andrew Billen TV review

I

t was Richard’s to lose and he lost it, not as in throwing macaroons around the tent in frustration, but nobly. His pains au lait touched one another, an indiscretion that hanging judge Paul Hollywood promised he would never get over. His

tartes au citron were little disasters with sweet scrambled eggs for filling.

Even his ambitious exhibit in the pièce montée round, a quixotic windmill, could not grind out victory for him. As Hollywood said, a little nastily, how the mighty fall.

Not that the winner, Nancy, described at the beginning as the queen of consistency, had a perfect final all those weekends

ago back in July (the most amazing thing about Bake Off is that its secrets keep so long). Her raspberry croissant was “doughy”.

The jam in her miniVictoria sandwich was sloppy and she had not piped the cream on.

“When you are trying to impress, you pipe,” observed Mary Berry, the “nice” judge. “This is the final of Great British Bake Off — you pipe!”

harrumphed Hollywood.

In the very last moments a blade from her Moulin Rouge windmill (yes, one show, two windmills!) fell off.

In the final round, Luis asked if anyone else was in a state of “silent panic”.

“Constant, constant,” Richard agreed. Even Nancy’s hand trembled as she piped her way to victory. The fear was good enough to eat.

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comment pages of the year

Opinion

Churchill would be aghast at this Tory plan Tim Montgomerie Page 19

How to deal with internet trolls? Toughen up

Online abuse teaches us two things: that we should all be nicer to each other – and that we must grow thicker skins had his time over again he would decide not to doorstep an unknown and unknowable minor social miscreant like Brenda. In a very soft and calm voice she told him that she thought she was entitled to make the comments she had, and then she went off and committed suicide.

Who knew? And Brunt will be very upset. But now, of course, the critics came for him. A Facebook page was set up arguing that he should be fired. And a little voice whispered inside my head: “And what if he kills himself?” Will we go after the anti-Brunt Facebookers?

It is nearly two years since the Jacintha Saldanha suicide. She was the nurse hoaxed by a pair of Aussie radio pranksters into putting their phone call through to a colleague treating the Duchess of Cambridge for morning sickness. Ridiculed, she killed herself. Everyone then turned on the young DJs. Had she not left a note saying that she blamed them?

So they were bashed up by everyone.

Then it transpired that Ms Saldanha

David Aaronovitch

@daaronovitch

B

renda Leyland, the Leicestershire mother who killed herself five days ago, was not a “troll”. She was, rather, a common-or-garden internet conspiracy theorist. I’ve come across hundreds, maybe thousands, of Brendas, all of whom believe there has been a vast official cover-up of some traumatic event and who feel it is their duty to bring it to the attention of a supine or bamboozled public. Some go for power theories, such as suggesting that George Bush blew up the World Trade Centre, others for health and child-related conspiracies such as the one over MMR or, in Leyland’s case, the fate of Madeleine McCann.

In her head, Madeleine’s parents were the key to the conspiracy, so when she typed into her computer phrases such as “I’d waterboard Kate and Gerry”, it was not fundamentally different from a 9/11 theorist writing: “I’d waterboard Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.”

There is an understandable fashion among mainstream journalists for “outing” anonymous so-called trolls.

The logic runs that they deserve to be confronted because of the distress we think they cause. But the problem, as Carol Midgley wrote in yesterday’s Times, is that we have no idea who they really are, or their state of mind.

In this instance the woman turned out to be very fragile indeed.

I am pretty sure that if the Sky News crime reporter Martin Brunt

Sometimes public life looks like one pitchfork procession after another had a history of suicide attempts and their crime became a proximate, not an absolute, cause. So they were left alone for a bit.

Sometimes public life in the modern world appears to be one pitchfork procession after another.

The mob collects outside the town hall with flaming torches, yelling and waving sharp implements. A whiskered man on the steps shouts: “Ludwig, you will take the first group and search the wood!” Mob: “Aarghh!” “And I will take the second group and search by the lake!” Mob:

“Aarghh!” And off they go.

Off we go. Again and again and again. And nothing makes us more liable to shout for the capture of the monster than our confusion and fear about what people are doing in cyberspace. Increasingly we demand that the law or some other intermediary step in to prevent the daily unpleasantness and discourtesy that people give vent to. As Gerry McCann himself put it in an interview this week: “Something needs to be done about the abuse on the internet. I think we probably need more people to be charged.”

Lord above, but I understand why he says this. And Lord above, I also know that madness this way lies.

Because unless we are very clear and limited in what we seek to ban or proscribe online, then we will find ourselves running around the woods and lakes of the internet ignoring really important issues until we discover that we’ve been chasing a chimera. If we don’t save legal intervention for the worst cases — the real stalking and serious harassment — then we will go crazy.

And waste a lot of money.

Every huge brouhaha gives rise to Brendas. The Jimmy Savile affair has created a small army of Twitter child-abuse vigilantes, who tweet about nothing else and widen the circle of their celebrity accusations with every week that passes. The laws of libel are broken a thousand times a day and these “campaigners”, as they see themselves, regard any contradiction as a certain sign of paedophile tendencies. Shall we prosecute them all for their stupidity? Or just the ones who have more than, say, 100 Twitter followers? Or shall we demand that internet service providers understand the context of every communication made using their

online, whether on Facebook or, more particularly on Twitter or chat rooms has always been to try to remember that they are publishing, just as I am now. Would you say these words in this voice to the person about whom you are writing?

To your father or your daughter?

No? Then don’t do it about others, even in what you imagine is a closed circle of like-minded people.

But this advice is slow to penetrate.

And in the meantime the rest of us have to apply a firmer harm test, for

Save intervention for the worst cases or we will all go crazy

When confronted, Brenda Leyland was found to be in a fragile state of mind

service and intervene far more liberally?

It isn’t practical and it isn’t really desirable. So two things follow. One, we must be nicer to each other and two — paradoxically — we must toughen up.

Be nicer. Brenda Leyland could not imagine Gerry and Kate McCann as real people who would suffer and suffer over the years. She could not empathise, or she chose not to.

Even so, do we imagine for a moment that she would have said her meanest things to their faces? Of course not. She lived quite near them. Her hatred was abstract.

When she was “outed”, many people will have seen her simply as a hardfaced troll and failed entirely to see her as a person too.

My advice to people posting

our own sakes. Are these words really going to kill me? Can I not cope by blocking the offender or by realising that they are probably inadequate and isolated? Or am I, objectively, conniving at being driven round the bend?

I ask myself this about some silly accuser nearly every day. Me and Zionism. Me and child abusers. Me and Rupert Murdoch. My hide has got thicker and thicker. So when the right-wing controversialist Katie Hopkins tweets, as she did this week, to ask: “How many more must die before the McCanns accept that their negligence is at the heart of all their grief?” I don’t reach for my pitchfork.

I reach for my mute button. Goodbye, Katie. And the rest is silence.

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Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

Opinion

Labour is losing its grip on its core voters Miliband is failing to address people’s real concerns on immigration, welfare and Europe Jenni Russell

@jennirsl

O

ne, two, two. Those were the Tory leads in three opinion polls this week, and slender and fleeting as they may be, they have sent shivers of apprehension through the Labour party. They expose the fragility of its support and the ease with which it may be eroded. Seven months from an election an opposition expecting to win should not be trailing its opponents, however briefly. Its lead should be substantial enough to survive the enticements that a ruling party can always offer before polling day.

Some MPs are stoically unmoved by the fluctuations. “These wobbles will pass,” said one shadow cabinet minister. Others point out that even if the Tories are two points ahead, the unequal distribution of votes means that Labour might still end up as the largest party. But this determined confidence is not the rule. Party members who suppressed their unease about Labour’s strategy or leadership while it looked certain to win are starting to feel scared that victory might slip away. They fear that Labour can’t rely on its core supporters because it has taken them too much for granted and ignored their real concerns.

One previously loyal MP sounded

completely weary as he talked. The party’s strategy of winning power with just over a third of the vote was looking dangerously optimistic, he said. Morale was low. “We aren’t even on the 35 per cent. Ed is a really good guy and I don’t want to add to his difficulties, but I think we’re heading for another hung parliament. It’s possible we could be the largest party. But it’s more likely to be the Tories than us.”

Labour isn’t hungry enough, forceful enough or frank enough with the voters, he said. The party and its leader should be in full-on campaigning mode, on the airwaves, holding meetings, convincing people they can take difficult decisions, will implement cuts and have answers on immigration. They should be fighting; instead they are strangely absent.

A shadow cabinet minister is even blunter. The leadership issue is as

The party should be out there fighting. But it is strangely absent dire and stark as ever, and on the streets “we’re fighting a ground war without air cover”. The core vote strategy can’t be counted on because the party isn’t addressing the fears voters come up with on almost every doorstep: the three intertwined issues of Europe, welfare and immigration.

Labour policies on the NHS, skills or redistribution are welcomed by Labour voters as far as they go, but Westminster has almost nothing to say about the lived reality of life in some inner cities, where recently-arrived

Once Labour voters had nowhere to go to. Now they have Ukip or the SNP

European immigrants are crammed into buy-to-lets with three families per house, or where parents can’t get their children into local schools because the influx has been so great.

Immigration is no longer mainly about race. Ethnically diverse wards are only fractionally less worried than white suburban ones. It’s about competition for jobs, schools and homes, about loss of identity, continual change and fairness in the welfare system. People are angry and bewildered that those who have never contributed or only just begun to pay into the system can be entitled to so much from the state.

They can see this social disruption is the new reality and want to know how Labour proposes to manage it.

One MP is blunt; Labour’s answers are vague or non-existent. That absence embodies the gulf between

Westminster and the country. Rather than addressing working-class voters’ concerns, Labour focuses on emblematic policies such as the mansion tax. It assumes this is universally appealing, which is why it lifted it from the Liberal Democrats.

In practice the proposal doesn’t have much traction outside London. Of course the poor are sympathetic to the idea that the rich should pay more towards fixing the deficit — and they are right — but it’s rarely mentioned on the doorstep. What people want to know is: what will you do for me?

A former cabinet minister and a peer tell me anxiously that Labour is in danger of paying the price for years of brushing working-class anxieties aside. It dismissed them as old-fashioned, racist or right-wing.

Peter Mandelson used to assure Tony Blair that these voters could be ignored because they had nowhere else to go. That’s no longer true.

They have Ukip, or the SNP, or they might choose to stay at home.

The figures still favour Labour. The Tories have core-vote troubles of their own. Labour’s numbers will rise again. But this week is a flashing signal to the party. It’s not empathetic, imaginative or creative enough about what the country needs in an unstable world. Sticking timidly to the safe territory of health and redistribution won’t be good enough.

At conference season, voters take a brief look at politicians. Labour’s lead evaporated as soon as they did. The party must ask itself honestly: what will the electorate think of us when we come under the merciless scrutiny of the election campaign?

Janice Turner Notebook

The gift that can make every woman a godmother

W

hen I first heard that doctors had successfully implanted the uterus of a 61-year-old into a young woman, thus allowing her to bear a child, I confess I recoiled. It seemed incongruous that such an elderly organ should be retrod like a used tyre in order to bring forth new life. But later when I read that several women are expecting babies in wombs donated by their own mothers, this story seemed less Frankenwomb than something bizarre yet infinitely beautiful; a moment when medical advances throw up undreamt-of human scenarios.

Imagine: your child is growing in the very place where you grew yourself; your mother, having used her reproductive power to create you, is passing it down as a loving gift; even before you are swaddled in your grandmother’s knitted blanket

or matinee jacket, you are nurtured in her very flesh.

A donor liver or heart allows one life to endure but this permits other lives to be brought into being. It turns out that the 61-year-old Swedish woman whose donated womb gestated the first successful baby, a boy called Vincent, was just a family friend. She is now his godmother, an old-fashioned word when you look at it closely. But in this case never more apt.

Definitely maybe

T

he caution of female voters drives political parties mad. During the Scottish referendum women wavered right up to polling day. The No campaign, in a patronising video, treated female don’tknows as dithering birdbrains, while perplexed male bloggers wondered how, after a six-month media bombardment, these women couldn’t know their own bloody minds? And in today’s Heywood and Middleton byelection, “that-don’timpress-me-much” female voters remain unswayed by the bluster of

Ukip. Only 21 per cent of women, compared with 41 per cent of men, are prepared to back an untested party, even if its leader is a charming card.

It is rather an admirable trait, this disinclination towards tribalism and wariness about the flashiest new show in town. The theory of the Mumsnet website is that, unlike men who associate indecision with weakness, women see no loss of face in saying: “I’m sorry but I really don’t know.”

Look away now

I

arrive at Tracey Emin’s new show to find my way blocked by the velvet rope militia usually found outside “hot” nightclubs. I assume that the White Cube gallery must be teeming with celebrities but when finally admitted, I see only Lulu. Emin’s exhibition, The Last Great Adventure, has been ramped up into a triumph. “It is an attack on the patriarchal temple,”

raves The Guardian. “She not only invades the museum, she shakes it to the core.”

Hmmm. The works are mainly drawings or sketchy paintings of Emin with her legs splayed, her pudenda in full view. Deftly executed and faux-risqué, they’ll look swell on some Notting Hill plutocrat’s dining room wall. But somehow the exhibition depresses me. Why must our foremost woman artist compulsively paint her own genitals?

I know an artist does what an artist must do. But I’m weary of female narcissism masquerading as empowerment or even noble philanthropy, as seen this week in yet another charity trend: celebrities releasing (carefully posed) selfies of the moment they wake up. Oh, Jemima Khan, your brave bed head has inspired me to give money away!

Meanwhile, Lena Dunham has issued a book that disappears ever deeper up her own front bottom. Ten dreary pages devoted to her food diary. In my view, the most respectful and loving portrait of the female genitals is by a man: Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du monde. All that magical power, as demonstrated by that Swedish miracle. But maybe it’s time to stop looking up our own vaginas and out into the world. @victoriapeckham

The trouble with the IMF is that it’s run by the French Ross Clark

I

f John Lewis’s managing director, Andy Street, finds himself looking for a new job, which is possible after he was forced to apologise last week for describing France as “hopeless and downbeat”, maybe he should be nominated for the post of next chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He is just what is needed to reverse the French takeover of that organisation.

Yesterday the IMF’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, admitted that she got it wrong in April 2013 when she warned George Osborne that he was “playing with fire” by persisting with an austerity programme when Britain was teetering on a triple-dip recession. Of course, Britain did not suffer a tripledip recession — and, in fact, not even a double dip. Immediately after Ms Lagarde delivered her grim verdict the economy began to accelerate and should grow by 3.2

The fund is hopelessly married to the concept of currency union per cent in 2014, the fastest of any G7 country and a world away from the sclerotic eurozone.

Why did a supposedly expert body of international economists get it so wrong? Because the IMF is ideologically wedded to the French model of capitalism. It believes in a big state, buying growth through Keynsian spending splurges, and in higher taxes on the wealthy, which Ms Lagarde demanded in 2012. The IMF is also hopelessly married to the concept of currency union. Not satisfied with the mess created by the euro, the IMF’s previous managing director, the nowdisgraced Dominique Strauss-Kahn, called in 2011 for a world currency to challenge the dollar.

All this is not surprising, given that five of the IMF’s past eight leaders have been French, spanning all but 12 of the past 50 years. Not only is its current managing director French but its chief economist is too. Worse, leadership of the IMF has come to be seen as springboard for a bid for the French presidency. It would be one thing were its recent leaders elder statesmen who are beyond ambition; quite another having them dishing out economic advice to foreign governments when they have one eye on a domestic election.

Admittedly, Ms Lagarde was the candidate backed by Britain and she is about as economically liberal as French politicians come. But it cannot be healthy to have an international body dominated by one country for so long.

The same, it is becoming increasingly obvious, cannot be said for the French economic model. It is high time the IMF’s grand fromage came from elsewhere.

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

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Opinion

Buy prints or signed copies of Times cartoons from our Print Gallery at timescartoons.co.uk

Churchill would be aghast at this Tory plan

The great leader believed in helping those who slip off the ladder of opportunity – unlike George Osborne, it appears Tim Montgomerie

@timmontgomerie

I

f the greatest-ever Briton is looking down at us from a celestial cloud he probably didn’t watch Nick Clegg’s speech yesterday. Neither, if we take him at his word, will he have been preoccupied by the free world’s half-hearted attempts to stop the barbarism of Islamic State (Isis).

When looking forward to the afterlife Winston Churchill promised to spend “my first million years in painting, and so get to the bottom of the subject”. Churchill turned to painting at the age of 40 as a refuge from the political and military defeats he had suffered. Historians have speculated that, without his art, his “black dog” depressions might well have engulfed him.

He painted more than 500 pictures over five decades and by common consent they are pretty good. I hope that the taxman will therefore look kindly on the Churchill family’s suggestion that the nation keeps the 38 paintings that are on display at

Chartwell, the Churchill family home now run by the National Trust.

In return, the inheritance tax due on the estate of Churchill’s youngest daughter, who died earlier this year, will be waived.

Even if Churchill is not interested in the Liberal Democrats, they are interested in him. Tim Farron, the party’s president, argued that the man who spent 20 years as a Liberal would return to the fold in protest at today’s Tory threat to withdraw from the European convention on human rights if it is not reformed. Chris Grayling, the lord chancellor in charge of this shift in Conservative policy, is not so sure. The great man did want a postwar convention to

Britain is seeing an historic decline in the wages of the low-paid stop torture and other attacks on fundamental liberties, but it’s not evident that he would have supported votes for prisoners and the other imaginative interpretations of the convention by activist judges.

It’s not impossible, though. While Churchill was a man of many contradictions, one of the reasons that the Labour minister Mo Mowlam proposed him as the

greatest-ever Briton was because of the progressive side of his politics.

When he was a member of the Liberal party at the start of the last century he worked to improve working conditions in the mining industry and to reform penal policy.

He even made the case for some kind of wealth tax.

But just as Churchill was much better at painting landscapes than portraits, he was better at big-picture strategy than detailed tactics. Field Marshal Alan Brooke would certainly agree. Throughout the Second World War the chief of the imperial general staff was engaged in almost daily battles to stop Churchill from interfering in military policy.

Lord Alanbrooke (as he became) would also have conceded that Churchill’s constant challenge to make his military commanders think innovatively helped to win the war.

His insistence on bombing Germany at the height of the Battle of Britain, for example, may well have been the war’s turning point — encouraging the Luftwaffe to change tactics rather than continue its destruction of the RAF. If Winston Churchill could offer strategic advice to David Cameron today it would not just be to send ground troops to Iraq and to broaden the war against Isis into Syria, he’d urge the Conservatives to learn from

his own biggest defeat. “Christian civilisation” may have been saved during the Second World War but by 1945 Britain wanted homes, jobs and, in the memorable phrase of that year’s Labour manifesto, to “win the peace”.

These aren’t the 1930s but we are seeing an historic decline in the wages of the low-paid. Record numbers of Britons are turning to food banks. Clacton will vote Ukip in

The Universal Credit is actually the most Churchillian of reforms large numbers today because many in lower-income Britain don’t feel the Tories understand how tough their lives are. That sense will only have been reinforced by George Osborne’s threat to cut the benefits of the lowest-paid while those of much wealthier Britons are protected.

This, much more than Mr Grayling’s initiative, would have alarmed the man who tops Margaret Thatcher as the greatest Conservative leader. Asked in 1951 to define his Conservatism, Churchill argued that it was a philosophy of the ladder, where everyone could rise high and fulfil their potential. But he didn’t end there. “If anyone slips off

the ladder,” he promised, they should be rescued by “the finest social ambulance service in the world”.

Today’s Conservatives often give the impression that they resent funding the safety net. It’s an unfair impression. Not least because in Iain Duncan Smith’s proposed Universal Credit the coalition is pursuing the most Churchillian of reforms. If the welfare secretary is able to overcome the considerable practical difficulties (where is his Alanbrooke to help him with the detail?), it will be possible to achieve a whole range of socially just goals simultaneously. Work will always pay more than welfare. Moreover, because benefits will — at long, long last — finally be seamlessly related to income, it will be possible to enhance the basic income of every person in Britain by redistributing from higher earners in much less need.

It’s time for Mr Cameron to get his brushes out and paint a picture of a welfare state that we can all be proud of — one that always rewards work, always provides a decent income for the poor and doesn’t load taxes on to business to fund benefit payments for people who don’t need them.

If he does, I reckon Churchill might break away from his heavenly easel and flash his legendary V-sign.

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Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

Leading articles Daily Universal Register

Political Stalemate

The conference season left the general election of 2015 wide open. David Cameron was the only speaker who sought to reach out beyond his conference hall In an address otherwise aimed squarely at his activists in the Glasgow conference hall, Nick Clegg yesterday ended with a telling point about British politics. Lavishing praise on the government that, in his view, has seen Britain through a period of economic peril, he said: “It’s called coalition, and in my judgment it is most likely Britain will have more in the future.”

At the end of the party conference season, the state of British politics is a little clearer but it is still in search of someone who can break the deadlock.

Leaders who can reach beyond the natural habitat of their party are rare; it is not a gift David Cameron or Ed Miliband naturally have, but it is an indispensable requirement for winning a general election. The so-called “core” vote of any party will not deliver victory.

Mr Miliband’s address was that of a man who appears to have given up on large parts of the electorate. The criticism from within the Labour family that followed his conference came because Mr Miliband has a plan to sneak victory, aided by bias in the electoral system, on 35 per cent of the vote. The sections he prepared but forgot, denouncing business for not paying tax and some meagre words about the deficit, showed a leader seeking only to mobilise his own troops.

Mr Clegg yesterday did much the same.

Although for a party on a mere 6 per cent in the opinion polls, the very idea of a core vote is something of a fantasy, the Lib Dem leader offered more to his party than he did to the nation. This was a speech of Lib Dem political positioning that veered sharply towards attacking their Conservative coalition partners in the hope, probably forlorn, of attracting back those who have moved to Labour since the 2010 election.

In Birmingham, Mr Cameron at least attempted to describe a picture of a Conservative future. A question mark needs to be placed against the viability of tax cuts when progress on eliminating the deficit remains stuttering and slow. It would be desirable, however, to allow people to keep more of the money they have earned and it was salutary to see the Conservative party seeking both to lift the tax-free threshold at the bottom end of the spectrum and, higher up, raise the threshold at which the higher rate begins. This is not a tax cut that will primarily benefit the best-off. It will benefit public service workers who have been dragged into a higher rate tax band that was never intended to cover them.

Whether this means the Conservative party is able to build a winning electoral coalition remains

doubtful, though. It is not unprecedented for an incumbent government to add to its vote in office, but it is rare. To do so during a period in which the government distinguished itself mainly by cutting services is unlikely. On the evidence so far, however, the Labour party has not managed to comprehend the errors it made in its recent economic policy and has been rewarded with a ranking more than 20 points below the Conservatives on the vital question of economic competence.

The conference season left British politics in a state of suspended animation. In that context, it would have been good to hear Mr Clegg say more yesterday about his “red lines” in the event of coalition negotiations with either party. It will surely be impossible for all the parties to get through an election campaign without spelling out what they are not prepared to forgo. It would certainly be dishonest.

That raises the main spirit that was present at all the conferences — the anti-politics mood. Mr Clegg started his speech by confronting the antipolitics case. The best things all the leaders could do, from here until May, is to speak to nation rather than party and to begin to clarify the priorities on which they will not yield, in the likely event that they do not win outright.

Saving Kobani

Turkey must become a full-blooded ally in the fight against Islamic State The battle for the dusty Syrian-Turkish border town of Kobani has become an early test of the resolve of the broad US-led coalition in its fight against the jihadists of Islamic State. Should the town fall, Islamic State (formerly known as Isis) will have a hold on what is essentially a long Nato frontier. It is therefore imperative that Turkey puts aside its anxieties about the Syrian Kurds and acts with the United States to beat back the jihadists.

Anything less would be a desertion of duty to the alliance that has shielded Turkey for the past 60 years.

So far Turkey has sent only a lorry load of medical supplies to the besieged Kurds of Kobani and has otherwise confined itself to the role of spectator, its tank regiments watching passively as the smoke rises over the town. That has drawn anger from Turkey’s long-standing allies. Some observers have even compared this inertia to that of the Soviet Red Army in 1944 which, despite being close at hand, failed to prevent the German slaughter of the Polish resistance.

The simple fact is that Turkey regards the Syrian Kurds, affiliated to Ankara’s arch enemy, the

Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), as potentially more dangerous than Isis. In the Turkish view both the Kurdish militants, who if victorious will push for a greater Kurdistan, and the Isis jihadists, are in cahoots with the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

It is therefore sceptical about the value of a military campaign that concentrates on saving Iraq but fails to topple the Syrian dictatorship. And so far, it refuses to take sides between Kurds who might destabilise Turkey and Islamic State, which is intent on destabilising the whole region.

Turkey must, however, make that choice. With the aid of US airpower, it must open the road to Kobani and allow through anti-tank weapons, medical supplies and food. It should allow Nato allies the use of Incirlik airbase, which will make bombing missions against Islamic State shorter and more effective. If it allows the United States to operate attack helicopters from Turkish territory, it can introduce a crucial new element to the conflict.

This should be more than act of alliance loyalty

by Turkey. Ankara must understand that fighting Islamic State is a question of national self-interest.

Kurds across Turkey have been taking to the streets, outraged at the official indifference to the citizens and defenders of Kobani. Moreover Turkey’s domestic security cannot conceivably be improved by permitting heavily armed jihadists to control access to its southern border.

Part of the Turkish predicament is due to the composition and bifurcated mission of the coalition. Since so many members of the alliance have ruled out fighting in Syria, Turkey fears being left in the lurch. If it moves alone and with great force into Kobani, Syria will treat it as an act of war.

Turkey might be left in isolation facing a wave of refugees, a rise in Kurdish militancy, the guns of the Islamic State and a hostile Syrian air force. It therefore urges an internationally legitimised buffer zone, guarded from the air by US and other allies. France yesterday expressed a readiness to help to set up such a security cushion. It is a move that should be supported by Britain.

First, however, Turkey has to demonstrate that it is a full-blooded Nato ally, dedicated to wiping out Islamic State. The battle for Kobani is a battle for its international credibility.

Cinderella Shall Go to the Ball

Nick Clegg’s pledge to improve mental health provision is necessary and welcome In stating yesterday that the reallocation of National Health Service resources to tackle mental illness is a “great liberal cause”, the deputy prime minister is only half right. He is right, though, about the half that matters. Addressing the scourge of mental ill health is certainly a cause for liberals, but not just for liberals. It should concern everyone, no matter their political, social or intellectual inclination.

That being the case, the Liberal Democrat leader was correct to identify the proper and prompt treatment of such illness as a great and noble cause. The prominence Mr Clegg gave this

in his conference speech in Glasgow was unusual, but wholly appropriate.

If you break your leg, or experience chest pains, you expect that a doctor or nurse at your home, surgery or hospital will offer diagnosis, assistance and, if not a cure, then at least care and relief, as rapidly and efficiently as possible. Such expectations, while almost always met for most patients, are met rather less often for victims of mental illness.

Historically because of ignorance or prejudice and latterly, as attitudes have improved, because of a lack of requisite political determination, ail-

ments of the mind have become the poor relations of the health service.

Such ailments account for 28 per cent of the national disease burden, yet their attempted alleviation receives only 11 per cent of the budget.

While targets are ubiquitous throughout government, none exists to cover the state’s performance regarding citizens who suffer from poor mental health, not even those who present with a threat of suicide. This situation is, if you will pardon the expression, madness. Mr Clegg has promised that it must and will change — and soon. His commitment to righting this wrong is commendable.

UK: The Bank of England’s monetary policy committee announces its latest interest rate decision; John Swinney, Scotland’s finance secretary, sets out new tax rates in his draft budget; by-elections are held in Clacton-onSea, Essex, and Heywood and Middleton, Greater Manchester.

Europe: The Nobel prize for literature winner is announced.

Nature notes Flocks of finches are now roaming the countryside in search of seeds, their most important food.

They have stout beaks with which to tackle them if needed; whereas insect-eating birds such as warblers have fine, narrow beaks. Goldfinches are looking for thistle seeds. They can sit on thistle heads and draw the seeds out, but now that many thistles have been beaten down by the wind and rain, they will go to the ground to pick out the seeds lying there.

Their gold-barred wings flash as they flit lightly to and fro. Flocks of linnets sweep over farmland, hoping to find weeds in fields that have not yet been ploughed and sown. They sometimes sit in long lines on telephone wires. Greenfinches descend on yew trees to attack the pink berries, and on hornbeams to tear off the seeds which look like tiny, hanging Chinese lanterns.

However, there are fewer flocks of greenfinches to be seen this autumn, because they have been suffering in some parts of the country from a disease called trichomonosis, which makes their throats swell and prevents them from swallowing.

They can catch it from soiled bird tables and bird baths, so it is kind to keep these clean. derwent may

Birthdays today David Cameron, pictured, prime minister, 48; Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, architect, 75; Andy Atkins, executive director, Friends of the Earth, 54; Rosie Atkins, curator, Chelsea Physic Garden (2002-10), 67; Brian Blessed, actor, Flash Gordon (1980), 78; Tony Booth, actor, Till Death Us Do Part (1965-75), 83; General Sir Samuel Cowan, chief of defence, logistics, ministry of defence (1998-2002), 73; Sir David Goodall, chairman, Leonard Cheshire Foundation (1995-2000), 83; the Duke of Kent, 79; Helen Kilpatrick, governor, the Cayman Islands, 56; Sir Peter Mansfield, physicist, Nobel prize winner (2003), 81; Donald McCullin, photojournalist and war photographer, 79; Marianne Neville-Rolfe, executive coach and regional director of the Government Office North West (1994-99), 70; Steve Ovett, athlete, 800m Olympic gold medallist, 1980, 59; John Pilger, journalist and film-maker, 75; Sir John Rose, deputy chairman, Rothschild Group, chief executive, Rolls-Royce (1996-2011), Bill Tidy, cartoonist, 81: Brett Wigdortz, founder and chief executive, Teach First, 41.

On this day In 1701 Yale College received its charter; in 1779 the first Luddite riots, against the introduction of machinery for spinning cotton, began in Manchester; in 1899 the first petrol-driven motor bus began operating in London; in 1962 Uganda became independent.

The last word “The philosopher’s treatment of a question is like the treatment of an illness.” Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-born philosopher (1953)

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Letters to the Editor

1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF Email: letters@thetimes.co.uk

Care must be safe, effective and compassionate

Data security Sir, Expanding and diversifying our use of communications media is essential to prosperity, and we must build public confidence in data security legislation.

News reports suggest that the authorities may have targeted journalistic sources under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), thus avoiding the judicial scrutiny that would have occurred under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (Pace). This not only threatens public confidence but is potentially a serious interference with press freedom.

The legislation covering interception of communications has evolved piecemeal and needs to be reviewed urgently to ensure adequate protection for professions that handle privileged information and use confidential helplines. hugh boyes Institution of Engineering and Technology

Effects of buy-back Sir, M Cohen (letter, Oct 6) is wrong to assume that only private equity companies would be affected by a UK government buying back its obligations for private finance initiatives at a discounted price.

It would amount to a default on Britain’s obligations, affecting our perceived creditworthiness. Architas invests billions of pounds on behalf of British pensioners, and PFI assets are widely used in pension funds. caspar rock Chief investment officer, Architas

Reading music Sir, If Peter Davies plays music in his bookshop (letter, Oct 8), I’m not surprised that he doesn’t make a profit. I wouldn’t shop there. antony moore Oxford

Sir, I would like to clarify the position of the CQC with regard to your stories (“Green light for relatives to spy on care homes”, Oct 6, and “We don’t want secret cameras in care homes, say residents”, Oct 7). We know that cameras have been used to expose failings but they can also compromise a person’s privacy, dignity and human rights — the last thing we would want. Views are mixed, which is why we want to help providers and the public to be well informed and more able to make decisions. We will discuss this issue in public on Wednesday and expect to publish guidance at the end of the month. Also, we are launching a new inspection regime this month, following testing and consultation.

It is most important that care is provided safely, effectively and compassionately, and that staff are trained and supported. If anyone is concerned about a service and feels unable to raise it with the provider, I encourage them to get in touch with us. andrea sutcliffe Chief inspector of adult social care, Care Quality Commission Sir, Safeguards in care homes should not include covert CCTV. What is missing is recognition that homes should be located within communities. A theme of “community-engaged” ensures that links are maintained. One large operator with which I am familiar makes space available within homes for community groups to meet and to relate to residents. Visiting is

60mph efficiency Sir, A Dutch report says that cars produce harmful emissions at six times those claimed (“Speed limit cut to reduce pollution”, Oct 8). This is irrelevant in the case of the proposed 60mph limit on the new A556 road in Cheshire; a car can be efficient at 60mph or 70mph. Many well-driven cars will be more efficient at 70mph. john ratcliffe Cavendish, Suffolk Sir, I wonder whether a driver of a battery-electric vehicle with zero tailpipe emissions would escape

Corrections and clarifications 6 Because of an editing error we incorrectly stated (News, Oct 8) that “if you have a heart attack while in hospital you have only a 16 per cent chance of survival”. This should have been “if you have a cardiac arrest . . .”

6 We said that Theresa May was educated at Wheatley Park comprehensive (Sept 27). According to the biography on her website, Ms May in fact “had a varied education spanning both the state and private sectors, and both grammar school and comprehensive school”. We are happy to make this clear.

The Times takes complaints about editorial content seriously. We are committed to abiding by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (“IPSO”) rules and regulations and the Editors’ Code of Practice that IPSO enforces.

Requests for corrections or clarifications should be sent by email to feedback@thetimes.co.uk or by post to Feedback, The Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

on this day october 9, 1914

LIONS AT ANTWERP ZOO SHOT Antwerp is an extraordinary place today. This morning the streets were in turmoil. Now they look like those of an English provincial town on Sundays, the shops nearly all shuttered and the pavements almost deserted, save when squads of troops march by. To St Nicholas the Government has already gone; whether to stay there or to go to Ostend I do not know.

The post and telegraph offices

encouraged and events involve the public. In these and other ways, introversion is avoided, caring skills are enhanced and human relationships fostered. Regulatory activity may weed out bad practices but it is well-supported local leadership that sustains high standards. chris vellenoweth Heswall, Wirral Sir, The use of covert cameras in care homes only protects the fortunate few. Those staff who are less than scrupulous will be aware when a new “clock” or other spy device appears, and transfer poor care to another unfortunate soul.

The real answer to better care is better management. john merrett Devizes, Wilts Sir, Cameras may “impact on residents’ freedom” says Davina Ludlow of carehome.co.uk in your report (Oct 6), but if your relative can’t move or speak for themselves, what freedom are we talking about?

As for there being “a knock-on effect on the motivation of staff ”, I would have thought that 12-hour shifts at £6.50 an hour would be the main factor here. Though many homes charge more than £1,000 a week, I know of no TripAdvisorstyle review websites, and sites that “review” care homes give recommendations only, for fear of litigation. In my experience CQC reviews are also not fit for purpose.

Negative comments are “not upheld” unless the commission sees prosecution for driving at 70mph on this stretch of new road? dan wild Malvern Hills Electric Automobile Association

Cost overshoot Sir, Lord Jones’s observation (You’re next, troubleshooter tells BBC”, Oct 8) that the BBC could halve production time by being more efficient, reminds me of a building project I undertook at an airport.

When it was complete, I told the BAA that its procedures meant the project had cost twice what it should. BAA are closed. All public bureaus have suspended and shut their doors. I went to the famous Restaurant du Grand Laboureur for lunch; the cook had fled, but the patron made me an omelette, which the solitary remaining waiter served with the aid of a single boy.

Earlier in the day I went from curiosity into the admirable Zoological Gardens, and there I saw one of the saddest sights of the war — a great open grave with four splendid lions, still limp, lying in it.

One was a beast with a truly superb mane. They had been shot, lest in the course of the bombardment their cages should be broken and they should get out. I spoke to the man with a rifle who was on his way to kill the other dangerous carnivora, and spoke to the director of the gardens, and both choked with sorrow as they talked.

The fact is that we are expecting bombardment at any moment. We expected it at 10 o’clock this morning, but apparently the enemy has not yet got his large guns in satisfactory position. His shrapnel

the same activity on one of its twiceyearly visits. Cameras are essential. clive morris Epsom, Surrey Sir, Relatives of people in care should consider keeping a memoryjogging diary of their visits, recording facts and figures and what was said to whom and when. In this way they will build a picture of the care being delivered and systemic issues will become apparent. Our diary has been invaluable with regard to my mother’s care. brian parton Chepstow, Monmouthshire Sir, The notion of using hidden cameras is riddled with flaws.

Creating a Big Brother culture will make homes increasingly defensive and may lead to higher costs. The negative perception of care homes is unfair: 99 per cent provide good quality care. david waters Managing director, Care Home Insurance Services Sir, Your report “Care homes lock up thousands of old people” (Oct 4) conjures up an image of residents sedated and in straitjackets. In my dad’s case a deprivation of liberty order protects him and others. At nearly 90, he couldn’t see the danger of obstacles such as pedestrians, kerbs and traffic. Now he has to have an escort, and this ensures his safety and continuing quality of life. christine nixon Bedford responded that this was good: it had budgeted on three times. patrick hogan Beaconsfield, Bucks

Arctic threat Sir, Confronting Isis, preparing for ebola, keeping the lights on. We face complex threats. Then in Weather Eye (Oct 7) I read that, “all the high arctic is experiencing some of the highest rates of climate warming on Earth” and I hear a fuse burning quietly a long way off. james shillady London SW15 is now reaching the inner forts; but he can reach the centre of the town at almost any minute. It is a curious sensation waiting for it.

The Burgomaster and General Commanding have both urged the civil population to go away. In the early hours the streets leading to the station and to the gates on the north and west were crowded with fugitives, the same forlorn people I have seen in every road in Belgium for weeks past. This afternoon, stragglers still go hurrying by, many of them the wealthier citizens dragging bundles, bags, and even trunks for which no porters or cabs are to be found.

I understand there will be one more boat leaving tonight, but do not know if it is true. Thereafter those who are in the city will, presumably, only get out by walking to the Dutch frontier. sign up for a weekly email with extracts from the times history of the war ww1.thetimes.co.uk

High notes Sir, We are looking forward to the new musical Made in Dagenham, but the assertion by its director Rupert Goold that “we have a f***ing awful musical theatre tradition” in Britain is not fair (Review, Oct 4). Yes, some shows have failed to thrill, but recent work that has been enthusiastically received includes London Road, The Go-Between and Glasgow Girls. Stiles and Drewe, creators of Betty Blue Eyes and Honk! among many others, are almost a musical industry on their own, with productions all over the world.

Success is not defined by the West End, but there Billy Elliott and Matilda continue to hold their own. And not long ago Jerry Springer – the Opera, composed by Richard Thomas, lyricist of Made in Dagenham, was pulling in the crowds. There is a great deal of work in development which we hope will delight British and international audiences. jodi myers Chairwoman, Musical Theatre Network

Sugar fillings Sir, With regard to poor teeth (letter, Oct 6), sugar is the enemy and it is in too many foods. Consume it three times a day and you will have caries; all other measures are palliative. In Scotland, the state of children’s teeth is a national disgrace. Recruiting more dentists won’t solve the problem. The government must act to combat sugar. dr donald douglas Blairgowrie, Perthshire Sir, Although excessive sugar consumption is a factor in tooth decay, consideration should be given to the NHS payment system, which pays dentists the same amount whether they fill one tooth or several teeth. The incentive is to leave other decayed teeth. rashpal mondair Birmingham Dental Hospital

Predating the web Sir, I was interested to read that the world wide web is celebrating 25 years since its invention (Law, Oct 7).

In the short film Telly Savalas Looks At Birmingham (vimeo.com/67995288, password: Baim88), Mr Savalas says: “The library, which houses Europe’s largest collection of Shakespeare, has online computer searching service with access to 100 databanks from Italy all the way to California.”

Is this the first description on film of the web? The film was shot in 1979. richard jeffs The Baim Collection

KP the victim Sir, I read Mike Atherton’s article with interest (“Kevin Pietersen’s latest version of truth tries to deadhead Andy Flower again”, Oct 6). Mr Atherton was, as always, balanced, but to me KP is one of those people who believe they are always a victim.

Such self-pity makes megabucks nowadays — but I won’t be adding to that. colin brown Wells, Somerset Sir, What an unexpected pleasure it was, while attempting the crossword (Oct 8), to be able to doodle all over Kevin Pietersen. patricia heath Warwick

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Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

News

Police seek bicycle number plates to stop rogue riders Kaya Burgess

Cyclists should wear identification similar to car number plates to help curb misbehaviour, according to a police commissioner.

Katy Bourne, the police and crime commissioner for Sussex, told a public meeting: “I would like to see cyclists wear some form of identification like cars have, so when they go through traffic lights you can identify them and prosecute them for breaking the law.”

However, safety campaigners say the proposal is unrealistic. A similar idea was dismissed by the RAC in 2006 as “impractical, bureaucratic and danger-

ous”. Carlton Reid, author of Roads were not Built for Cars and executive editor of BikeBiz, said: “It has been tried and is not something that has worked in any country ever.”

The plate would have to be big enough to be visible to traffic cameras, making it difficult to fit on to an average bicycle, he said.

“Number plates don’t stop motorists texting at the wheel, going through red lights or speeding,” he said.

“It’s an ill-thought-through idea.

Does she expect every six-year-old to have a number plate on their bicycles?”

Ms Bourne told the Brighton Argus: “When you use the road, if you are driving a car, you have your number plate.

Other people register; they pay to use the roads. Cyclists don’t, admittedly.”

The myth that motorists pay for the roads while pedestrians and cyclists do not is frequently debunked

by The Times’s Cities Fit for Cycling campaign. Road maintenance is funded from general taxation paid by all taxpayers. Motorists do not pay for “road tax”, which was abolished in 1937, but they do pay vehicle excise duty, which is

linked to emissions and does not go back into road maintenance.

Mr Reid said: “This is not something you expect from an elected official.

Everybody pays for the roads. The NHS isn’t just paid for by sick people, and the roads aren’t just paid for by motorists.”

Tony Green, of the Brighton and Hove Cycling Campaign, described the licensing of cyclists as unrealistic.

“There are cyclists who break the law, but ten or one hundred times as many motorists break the law,” he said.

MPs will debate cycle safety in the House of Commons on a week today as calls intensify for the government to create an annual cycling budget worth

£10 per capita. The demand has been supported by the AA, British Cycling, the Commons transport committee and James May, the Top Gear presenter.

The Department for Transport has promised to publish a “delivery plan” for improved cycle provision, but campaigners fear it will not be made public before the debate and will not pledge an annual fund.

Labour last year published a “cycling manifesto” and pledged to provide “long-term funding” for cycling, but Mary Creagh, the shadow transport secretary, has so far refused to commit Labour to establishing an annual budget for cycling.

Man, 47, with HIV bit two officers

DJ ‘raped girl who replied to advert’

Pupils’ model car reaches 556mph

Two police officers in Brighton are receiving medical treatment after being punched and bitten by a man with HIV. They were trying to stop the man, who appeared to be on drugs, from walking in a road. A man aged 47 was arrested and released on bail until January.

A former Radio Caroline DJ accused of raping a girl, aged 15, with Jimmy Savile raped another teenager after she replied to his advert promising fame, Manchester crown court was told. Ray Teret, 72, of Altrincham, denies 18 rape charges. The trial continues.

Schoolchildren claim they broke the land-speed world record after their rocket-powered model car hit a speed of 556mph.

Pupils at Joseph Whitaker School, Nottinghamshire, beat the existing record of 287mph set in 2011 during a visit to Rolls-Royce’s track in Hucknall.

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Tattoo parlours push travel agents off the high street Will Humphries

The unstoppable rise of internet shopping was supposed to sound the death knell of the British high street. Tattoos were never part of the bargain.

However, as price comparison websites and online retailers have gobbled up the business of high street travel agents, entertainment stores and clothing shops, local town centres have been saved by a huge rise in the number of tattoo parlours, convenience stores and health clubs in the past ten years.

The premises left empty by the closure of traditional shops have been replaced by ones that provide the kind of service a mouse click cannot deliver.

The number of tattoo parlours has surged by 173 per cent since 2003, according to Experian, which has tracked the changes in 2,000 key retail locations around Britain.

The number of takeaways has risen by 54 per cent, and the nation’s favourite is back on the menu: fish and chip shops have enjoyed an 84 per cent rise.

Perhaps as a corollary of the rise in takeaways, there are now more than twice as many health clubs as in 2003.

The greatest growth — 186 per cent — is in convenience stores, such as Tesco Express and Sainsbury’s Local. The big supermarkets are increasingly opening stores tailored to customers who want to buy little, locally and often.

Richard Jenkings, a senior consult-

ant at Experian, said the figures showed that the internet had had a dramatic effect on the make-up of the British high street in the past decade. “The high street has clearly become a more social environment, with more restaurants, cafés and leisure facilities emerging up and down the country,” he said.

Mr Jenkings said the changes suggest that “time-pressured consumers were increasingly expecting the high street to play a different role, providing services that can exist as a complementary offering alongside internet shopping”.

The expansion of the so-called nighttime economy has been most marked in cities such as Bristol and Durham, and Brixton in south London. In the Broadmead area of Bristol, the number of restaurants, cafés, pubs and nightclubs is up by 75 per cent in ten years.

Large increases have also been recorded in Manchester, Norwich and the seaside town of St Ives, in Cornwall.

However, the rise of the internet has driven some well-loved pastimes to extinction. The days of popping out to the shop to rent a film are gone, with DVD rental outlets plummeting by 98 per cent, replaced by online streaming services such as Netflix.

The number of travel agents has almost halved, and film- processing shops are down by 70 per cent as holiday snaps are increasingly taken with digital cameras and smartphones.

High street gloom, page 38

Britain’s changing shopping habits

186%

173%

114%

84%

Convenience stores

Tattoo parlours

Gyms

Fish and chip shops

Film developing

DVD rental shops

Travel agents

-48%

-70%

-98%

Source: Experian

-46%

Womenswear

Soldiers waged trench warfare on wasps, piles and the clap Simon de Bruxelles

Sexually transmitted diseases, wasp stings, flu and piles were among the most common medical problems British soldiers faced during the First World War, according to research.

A comprehensive analysis of medical records reveals that gonorrhea contracted in French brothels, piles from sitting on cold ground and rheumatism from having to crouch constantly also claimed huge numbers of casualties.

One of the most lethal injuries was a broken leg. During the first two years of the war, before treatments improved, a fractured femur carried an 80 per cent risk of dying.

Researchers from the website Forces War Records are in the process of digi-

tising 1.5 million wartime medical records held at the National Archives at Kew. The results of collating the medical records of the first 30,000 men will be available online today.

Expected hazards such as gunshot wounds, trench foot and gas poisoning feature heavily, but sexually transmitted diseases also claimed thousands of casualties as soldiers sought “warmth and comfort” with prostitutes. Piles were a persistent problem for men forced to sit on cold, damp ground.

Wasps also plagued the front lines throughout the conflict as the insects thrived on the detritus of trench warfare.

Sign up for a weekly email with extracts from The Times History of the War at ww1.thetimes.co.uk

News KINEZ RIZA

The hand of history Limestone stencils and paintings discovered in caves in Sulawesi, Indonesia, have been found to be 40,000 years old — 30,000 years older than expected — making them among the oldest figurative artworks in the world

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Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

World

19 die as Kurds take Isis battle to Turkish streets Turkey

Alexander Christie-Miller Istanbul Hannah Lucinda Smith Mursitpinar

Turkey deployed troops in cities across the southeast of the country yesterday to quell the deadliest riots it has witnessed in more than a decade.

Nineteen people have died and scores have been injured, with hundreds arrested in the past two days as Kurds, furious at Ankara’s refusal to allow military aid to the Isis-besieged town of Kobani, have taken to the streets in violent protest.

American-led airstrikes appeared to have turned the tide yesterday in favour of the town’s Kurdish defenders, but that was not enough to quell the unrest across the border.

Most of those killed in the riots were the victims of clashes between supporters of the Kurdish rebel PKK group and a rival fringe Kurdish Islamist movement.

Turkish authorities cancelled all leave for police, imposed a curfew in areas of the southeast, and flooded flashpoint cities with riot-control officers. Nevertheless, protests were once again intensifying last night.

Many of Turkey’s 15 million Kurds have been outraged by their army’s refusal to intervene in Kobani, even though a column of Turkish tanks is lined up hundreds of metres from the besieged town.

“Turkey has dragged the Middle East quagmire inside its own country; now it has been stuck in the quagmire,” said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main opposition People’s Republican Party told reporters.

He accused the government of meddling dangerously in Syria’s civil war — and of offering covert support to Islamic State (Isis). While that idea

A coalition airstrike scores a direct hit on an Isis position in Kobani yesterday

lacks evidence, it has found growing support among Kurds who for the past three weeks have watched the jihadist group tighten its grip on Kobani. The defenders of the town, known as the YPG, have close links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Their fate seemed a little less desperate yesterday as the international coalition continued its airstrikes on Isis positions around the town. Six bombs which hit their targets destroyed several Isis armoured vehicles.

In Turkey, the protests were most intense in Diyarbakir, Siirt, and other Kurdish-populated cities. Ten people died in Diyarbakir on Tuesday night during gun battles between protesters and supporters of Huda Par, a Kurdish Islamist movement.

Each side accused the other of insti-

gating the clashes. About 45 people were taken to hospital and 30 arrested, the city’s governor said.

Ertugrul Kurkcu, an MP for the proKurdish People’s Democratic Party, said: “This religious group is on a parallel with Isil, and they are being manipulated by the Turkish security forces to attack us.”

Mehmet Yavuz, Huda Par’s generalsecretary, denied any sympathy for Isis, and insisted that PKK elements had launched an unprovoked assault on his party offices.

The death toll in the 48-hour period is more than double that recorded during the month of anti-government protests that shook Turkey in the summer last year.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president, and Ahmet Davutoglu, the prime

minister, have so far remained silent in the face of the violence, but Mehdi Eker, the agriculture minister, condemned what he called a “lobby of chaos” during a visit to Diyarbakir yesterday. “Everyone should refrain from expressing their hatred and displaying violence, so that the protests do not spread,” he said.

In Kobani, street-to-street battles continued to rage yesterday, but YPG commanders reported that Wednesday’s strikes had pushed the militants back from the town centre. Huge rounds of applause broke out among the crowds watching the battle from the Turkish side of the border as the day’s first strike hit near the centre of the town at 11.40am.

For the past six days, Kurds from across the region have flocked to the area to show solidarity with the people of Kobani, and have watched the the Isis advance on the town with growing despair. Yesterday’s success was a rare moment of jubilation for the frustrated observers.

A YPG fighter inside the town said that the airstrike had hit anIsis position near to the Turkish border. “They are in an agricultural area close to the hill,” said Furhat Drey Dayfur, a Kobani resident who had left the area to seek asylum in Europe when Isis began advancing on Kobani, and returned to help to defend his town. “It is a point where they have a lot of guns and heavy weapons.”

Another strike two hours later hit close to the top of Mistenur hill, a high point overlooking the town that Isis has been trying to take for the past six days.

However, heavy artillery strikes from Isis positions to the west of Kobani are continuing. By late afternoon, large fires were blazing and smoke was drifting across the western part of the town.

Leading article, page 20

An Isis fighter walks the abandoned

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Casino tycoon fathered minister’s love child Page 27

LEFTERIS PITARAKIS / AP

France splits allies by backing demand for Syria buffer zone Charles Bremner Paris Catherine Philp Beirut Devika Bhat Washington

streets of Kobani, clearly visible with the aid of a telephoto lens from Mursit Pinur, a crossing point on the Turkish border

Insects, superfood of the future, fly off the shelves Page 29

France parted company with its western allies in the battle against Islamic State (Isis) yesterday when it backed Turkey’s plan for a buffer zone on the other side of the Syrian border.

President Hollande of France called President Erdogan of Turkey to voice fears of an imminent massacre in the Kurdish town of Kobani and to back Turkish demands for a buffer zone.

Turkey wants a safe border cordon inside Syria to host refugees and protect Turkish security as a precondition of its involvement in the fight against Isis. Its other conditions include a no-fly zone over the area and the training and arming of the Syrian moderate opposition.

President Erdogan has been pressing Turkey’s Nato allies to help to form a buffer zone since soon after the Syrian conflict began in 2011, with France’s backing. Yesterday was the first time that France had voiced its support for the idea since Turkey revived its establishment as a precondition for action against Isis.

Britain and the US gave the idea a cautious welcome. John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said it was worth examining. Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, said: “We’d have to explore with other allies and partners what is meant by a buffer zone, how such a concept would work, but I certainly wouldn’t want to rule it out.”

General John Allen, the retired US commander overseeing the anti-Isis coalition, will examine the proposal over the next few days, Mr Kerry said.

The United States and Britain have grown exasperated in recent days with Turkey’s failure to help the besieged Kurdish border town of Kobani. “This

isn’t how a Nato ally acts while hell is unfolding a stone’s throw from their border,” a senior member of President Obama’s administration told The New York Times.

“There’s growing angst about Turkey dragging its feet to act to prevent a massacre less than a mile from its border. After all the fulminating about Syria’s humanitarian catastrophe, they’re inventing reasons not to act to avoid another catastrophe,” the official added.

Mr Hammond said: “They are saying that they are prepared to step up and be a significant contributor to the coalition, provide a significant input to the campaign to defeat [Isis], but we need to see the form that commitment will take in theatre.

“As yet, we haven’t seen direct Turkish intervention in any form.”

Mr Hammond said that he was preparing to discuss the matter with Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister.

Defence analysts say that Turkish ground intervention may now be the only way to save Kobani from an Isis takeover, but Turkey seems determined to exploit the threat to Kobani to neutralise the growing autonomy of Syrian Kurds, which they fear will embolden its own Kurdish separatist movement.

Syrian Kurds, who along with Isis, control much of the area for the proposed zone, regard Turkey’s demand as little more than an attempt at occupation of the autonomous Syrian Kurdish region known as Rojava.

US officials insisted that Turkey’s excuses were running out of steam, noting that the call for a no-fly zone in northern Syria had been answered in all but name as the US and its allies occupied Syrian airspace and effectively warded off President Assad’s forces.

Trouble looms for Ankara on both sides of the border

Analysis Catherine Philp

U

ntil Islamic State militants came for them, the Syrian civil war was not going badly for the Kurds. As the rebellion against Assad grew and Damascus’s power shrank, Syria’s Kurds seized the moment to establish selfgovernment enclaves in the country’s northeast.

It was their first step towards the autonomy already accomplished by their brethren in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Once the dream was a united Kurdistan, a home for the world’s largest ethnic group without its own country. As time went by, the dream morphed into a patchwork of demands, from more rights to full blown independence.

Iraqi Kurds saw that dream come a great deal closer this year when, in the midst of a tussle with Baghdad over oil, Isis crossed from Syria and chased the Iraqi army

from a swathe of northern Iraq.

Kurdish fighters moved in to take control of Kirkuk, the city they had long sought as part of an independent Iraqi Kurdistan.

Secure and prosperous, Iraqi Kurdistan had tired of being part of the basket case that is Iraq. It had made peace with Turkey, the biggest market for its oil, despite Ankara’s worries about emboldening its own Kurdish nationalists.

When Isis turned its guns on Arbil, the West was quick to step in, launching airstrikes and providing weapons to push the jihadists back.

Yet now that Syrian Kurds are fighting to save Kobani, the airstrikes may have come late and too lightly to save them.

The self-government cantons Syrian Kurds established two years ago were set up with the help of Turkey’s PKK, which has waged a

Istanbul

24% of population 11%

TURKEY Gaziantep

Number of Kurds 15.4m

Kobani

9.5%

SYRIA Kurdish majority

Arbil

22%

1.3m

separatist war since the 1980s. The PKK is a proscribed terrorist organisation in much of the West, including the US and Turkey; the Syrian Kurdish militia it helped to establish, the YPG, is, by extension, also banned.

The PKK has been in peace talks

Kirkuk

IRAQ

6.8m

IRAN

4.3m

with Ankara for 18 months. All that time the YPG’s power in northern Syria was growing, until it found itself in the way of Isis.

Ankara fears that an autonomous Syrian Kurdistan could reembolden its own Kurds with separatist dreams. Kobani’s

defenders do not want Turkish troops to come to their rescue, they want a passage across the border to rearm them. Turkey refuses, demanding a buffer zone that could crush Syrian Kurdish ambitions.

Iraqi Kurdistan has stayed remarkably silent on what might have been seen as a betrayal of their Iraqi brethren; intra-Kurdish politics are complex and Iraqi and Syria Kurds have many differences, the sharpest perhaps being their relationship to Turkey.

Turkey’s Kurds are a different matter, as the unrest across Kurdish areas has shown. Even the PKK has warned that it may be unable to contain the anger of radicalised young Kurds if Kobani falls because of Turkish intransigence.

In trying to contain one Kurdish insurgency, Turkey may end up sparking a new, joined-up one on both sides of its southern border.

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Mayor on the run after town’s police massacre students Mexico

James Hider Latin America Correspondent

Creative spark An Indonesian artist creates a halo of light using unorthodox tools: steel wool, a whisk and a cigarette lighter

Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

A busload of missing students, a mass grave in the hills and a police force infiltrated by a drugs gang: in the southern Mexican town of Iguala, an investigation into a massacre that has shocked the nation has uncovered how a town has been being overtaken by organised crime.

Federal police have taken control of the town, in Guerrero state, after dozens of local officers were arrested, suspected of machinegunning buses full of student protesters. The mayor, Jose Luis Abarca, and his wife have fled, after it emerged that two of the wife’s brothers had been lieutenants in the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, and died in gun fights with rival gangs, while a third continues to run another criminal outfit.

At least 43 students from a teacher training college are still unaccounted for, after members of the Guerreros Unidos crime gang and, it is alleged, police, opened fire on them as they protested in Iguala on September 26. The students had commandeered three buses, and their demonstration threatened to clash with a nearby public appearance by Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa, the wife of the mayor.

Eight gang members have been detained, some of whom led federal police to a mass grave containing 28 bodies that had been burnt beyond recognition.

Several buses were raked with gunfire in the attack, including one being used by a local football team, the Chilpancingo Hornets. “The goal of the police was to kill any person that was

inside the perimeter they had,” a student told reporters. One member of the football team was killed.

One of the players, Omar Sanchez, described the massacre. “We were just watching a movie and we saw the bullets come in, and then it was like we were going off a cliff and the bus tipped over. And it was then that they started firing at us with machine guns,” he said.

“It sounded so ugly, the gunshots and my team-mates screaming, ‘Help, leave us alone, we are injured’. A teacher said, ‘You have already blinded me, please, The family of Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa, the mayor’s wife, have ties to a drugs cartel

we are the team from Chilpancingo’.”

But the gunmen showed no mercy, Mr Sanchez said. “One of them said: ‘Now you are going to be taken, we are going to kill all of you’, before opening fire again.”

Prosecutors have said that dozens of local police officers are suspected of having worked for the Guerreros Unidos, an offshoot of the Beltran Leyva cartel whose boss was arrested last week.

“Everyone knew about their presumed connections to organised crime,” said Alejandro Encinas, a senator from the mayor’s Democratic Revolution Party. “Nobody did anything — not the federal government, not the state government, not the party leadership.”

Searchers recreate final moments of flight MH370 Australia

Bernard Lagan Sydney

Flight MH370 went into a shallow left turn at 35,000 feet over the Indian ocean as its fuel ran out, and rapidly spiralled down into the sea.

That is the conclusion of the first official account of the last minutes of the Malaysian airliner. It will provide fresh encouragement that any wreckage is likely to be found close to where analysis of satellite communications suggests that it hit the sea, about 1,120 miles off the west Australian coast.

The report, by the Australian Transportation Safety Board, which is coordinating the search, concluded that the Boeing 777’s right-hand RollsRoyce engine was likely to have cut out first as its fuel ran out, with the left engine stopping seconds later.

“This scenario resulted in the aircraft entering a descending, spiralling, lowbank angle left-hand turn, and the aircraft entering the water a relatively short distance after the last engine flameout,” the board’s report said.

It based its findings on months of flight simulations re-creating the aircraft’s final moments. It vanished, with 239 passengers and crew on board, while on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.

Some theories had suggested that the aircraft glided for hundreds of miles in an unknown direction, far from the point at which its engines stopped. The

Priority search zone, 60,000 sq km Perth

Most likely resting place of MH 370

1,000km 2,000km

official investigators assumed that the aircraft had been cruising on auto pilot at about 35,000ft (10,665m), at more than 460mph, and that there was no reaction from the flight deck as the engines stopped.

They believe the crew and passengers had become incapacitated, probably after a malfunction starved them of oxygen.

Investigators are now hopeful that the aircraft’s wreckage will be found on the ocean floor within six miles either side of where MH370 is thought to have been when it made its last automatic communication with a satellite.

The official theory of MH370’s last minutes generally concurs with a scenario put forward by an independent group of scientists and aviation experts who have set up a privately funded organisation to assist in the search.

The first of three specialist ships contracted by the Australian government to begin the sea-floor hunt reached the search zone on Monday.

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

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Casino tycoon fathered French minister’s love child France

Charles Bremner Paris

A five-year paternity mystery that transfixed France was solved yesterday after a 70-year-old casino tycoon was ruled to have fathered a love child born to the country’s glamorous former justice minister.

Dominique Desseigne, a widower who is chairman and chief executive of the Barrière chain of casinos and hotels, fathered Zohra Dati during a brief affair with his mother, Rachida, 22 years his junior, it decided.

The birth of Zohra in 2009 caused a stir in France because of Ms Dati’s media image in politics a Cinderella figure; a beautiful and ambitious woman from humble origins whose rivals claimed had only been advanced in her career by prominent men. She excited further

interest by returning to work a week after giving birth.

Paris gossip columnists had linked her romantically with the newly elected Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 before he married Carla Bruni.

Mr Desseigne had contested Ms Dati’s 2012 paternity claim, and refused a court order to submit to a DNA test.

He also supplied the court with the names of other men with whom he alleged she had been involved at the time. He has promised to appeal the decision.

French law allows men to decline the test but, in the absence of strong contrary evidence, courts often consider the refusal to amount to an admission of guilt.

Ms Dati initially refused to indicate who might be the father, prompting feverish speculation in the press. Mr

Desseigne claimed she had tried to trap him with her pregnancy. He is reported to have had no contact with the child, and questions of inheritance remain unanswered.

Ms Dati, who enhanced her glamorous image by posing for Paris Match in haute couture while serving as a minister, was dismissed by Mr Sarkozy soon after Zohra’s birth in 2009, but was given the consolation of one of the centre-right’s safest and most powerful mayoral seats, the opulent 7th Arrondissement of the Paris Left Bank, as well as a guaranteed seat in the European parliament, to which she was re-elected in June.

A court in Versailles ordered Mr Desseigne, whose fortune is estimated at €430 million (£340 million), to pay €2,500 a month in child support,

Dominique Desseigne and Rachida Dati had a brief affair

KEYSTONE / HULTON ARCHIVE / GETTY IMAGES

Bernard Lagan Sydney

Goebbels’ heirs rise to head German rich list

D

minister, was the mother of Harald Quandt, who, with his half-brother, Herbert, inherited the industrial empire built by his father, Günther Quandt, which produced Mauser firearms and missiles for the Nazi war machine.

After Günther Quandt’s first wife died in 1918, leaving him a widower with two young sons, Hellmut and Herbert, he married Magda in 1921. Their only son, Harald, was born later that year. Hellmut subsequently died.

The couple divorced in 1929, and Magda married Goebbels in 1931 — Hitler was the best man.

Harald lived with his mother, Goebbels and six

Magda and Joseph Goebbels with their six children and Harald, Magda’s son from her first marriage

half-siblings before the war.

In 1939 he joined the German army and was in a British PoW camp in Libya in 1945 when he received his mother’s farewell letter, written from Hitler’s bunker where she and her husband killed themselves after murdering their six children as they slept.

“It’s likely that you’ll be the only one to remain who can continue the tradition

of our family,” she wrote.

Günther Quandt died in 1954, dividing his empire between his two surviving sons, Harald and Herbert.

Herbert saved BMW from collapse in the 1960s after backing new models, and the recent success of the company has propelled the Quandts to the top of the Teutonic wealth tree.

The extended family owns 46.7 per cent of BMW.

The daughters of Harald Quandt — Colleen-Bettina Rosenblat-Mo, 51, AnetteAngelika May-Thies, 59, Gabriele Quandt, 61, and Katarina Geller-Herr, 62,— tend to shun publilcity, but Herbert’s widow, Johanna Quandt, 86, and their children, Stefan Quandt and Susanne Klatten, have remained in the public eye as major shareholders in the company.

Dubai police use cyber specs to keep an eye on crime Dubai

Hugh Tomlinson

Dubai police intends to issue Google Glass to its detectives, the first force outside the United States to deploy the hands-free eyewear in the fight against crime.

Having bought a fleet of luxury sports cars for its traffic police last year, the Dubai authorities are taking the force more high tech, fitting the devices with face recognition software linked to a database of wanted criminals and suspects.

Google Glass uses a tiny comA Bugatti Veyron, which is part of Dubai’s fleet of police cars

Australians help fund hunt for Cook’s ship Australia

Colleen-Bettina Rosenblat-Mo and Gabriele Quandt, Harald’s children

escendants of Joseph Goebbels’s wife, one of the Nazi regime’s most influential women, have become the richest family in Germany (Allan Hall writes).

The Quandts have a combined net worth of about £24.5 billion, according to Manager magazine, thanks to the rising value of their stake in the carmaker BMW — outstripping the families behind the discount supermarket giants Aldi and Lidl as Germany’s richest for the first time in a decade.

Magda Goebbels, the wife of Hitler’s propaganda

backdated to December 2013, not to the child’s birth date in January 2009. Ms Dati, 48, the daughter of a Moroccan workman who shot from civil service obscurity to stardom as protégée of Mr Sarkozy, had asked for €6,000 a month.

Pushed out of the power circles of the Union for a Popular Movement, the party which Mr Sarkozy is trying to reconquer, she has been publicly sniping at her former mentor in the past month as he has tried to make his political return amid judicial investigations on potential corruption charges.

Last week, she said on Europe 1 radio that she did not believe Mr Sarkozy’s denials that he was unaware of the existence of Bygmalion, an event-organising company whose bosses face charges of hiding €18 million of overspending in Mr Sarkozy’s 2012 election campaign.

puter mounted on a spectacle frame, which is capable of capturing video and taking photos. The device has already been tested for use by officers in the US, including by the New York police department.

The introduction in Dubai will see the devices being used by traffic police, at the scene of accidents and to track

vehicles involved in motoring offences.

If successful, Google Glass will then be used by detectives.

It is not yet clear if Google will agree to sell the technology to Dubai, however. It has so far allowed only a small number of devices to American police forces to use in field tests. New users must apply online to join Google’s Explorer programme, buying the eyewear for $1,500 (£933).

Dubai has developed its own face recognition software that will recognise suspects based on a “face print” and alert the officer wearing the device.

The emirate already deploys the software on CCTV around the city.

When Mossad, Israel’s spy

agency, assassinated Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the Hamas commander, at a Dubai hotel in 2010, the software was used to track the killers’ movements around the city.

After that incident, controversial plans were announced to deploy face and voice profiling software at Dubai international airport to spot Jewish visitors. The scheme was deemed unworkable and was quietly dropped.

Dubai spares no expense on law enforcement. Last year, the police force received a fleet of luxury supercars, including Lamborghinis, Mercedes and a Bugatti Veyron. Dubai’s female police received a Ferrari for use as a patrol car.

The emirate’s deputy police chief said that the fleet of cars was appropriate for Dubai’s image.

Australia will help to fund a new search for HMS Endeavour, the long lost ship on which Captain James Cook made his first great voyage of discovery to Australia and New Zealand.

After modest beginnings as a collier, Endeavour was bought by the Royal Navy in 1768 for Cook’s voyage during which he would become the first European to reach the east coast of Australia, in 1770, and go on to map New Zealand.

Despite her illustrious place in history, the barque is believed to have been scuttled by the British on Rhode Island in 1778 in an effort to blockade a harbour during the American War of Independence.

Australia’s National Maritime Museum will sign an agreement tomorrow to launch a new search for the vessel in the hope that it can be found before the 250th anniversary of Cook’s voyage to Australia.

Dr Kathy Abbass, a marine archaeologist based on Rhode Island, believes that she has uncovered evidence that the renamed Endeavour was part of a fleet of 13 ships that the British scuttled to protect the settlement of Narragansett Bay on Rhode Island from a French attack.

According to Dr Abbass, one of the scuttled boats, the Lord Sandwich, matched Endeavour’s dimensions and construction history and she has uncovered records confirming that Endeavour had been renamed.

In 2000, searchers discovered the remains of a wooden vessel in the harbour, but it has yet to confirmed as Cook’s vessel and there are at least eight other known wooden wrecks lying on the seabed.

The National Australian Martime Museum in Sydney will help fund a new examination of the sunken ship and contribute marine experts.

“To be able to find the last resting place of Endeavour would truly be a nationally significant event , if not internationally,” said Kevin Sumption, the director of the museum, which has a replica of Endeavour on display.

The cannons thrown overboard by Endeavour’s crew after they grounded on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef were recovered in 1969. One of Endeavour’s anchors was also found.

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World

Hollande pleads for EU to end austerity France

Charles Bremner Paris

President Hollande appealed to Angela Merkel and other EU leaders to ease austerity rules that underpin the eurozone because excessive focus on deficitcutting was stifling economic growth.

“We are all affected by the slowdown in growth. We all have to do reforms,” said the Socialist president. “And we also have to adjust budget policies, given what’s at stake on growth.”

France is at loggerheads with Brussels and Berlin after admitting it would break EU rules against running a budget deficit of more than 3 per cent of national income. France’s deficit for 2015 is forecast to be 4.3 per cent. It will not be below 3 per cent until 2017, four years later than Paris promised.

Mr Hollande, speaking in Milan, promised to pursue his drive to ease the tax and regulation burden on businesses. However, he called on Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, to take steps to boost demand. “If everyone practises austerity, which isn’t the case with France, we’ll end up with an even greater slowdown,” he said.

Germany has turned a deaf ear to the campaign by Mr Hollande and Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, for financial help for the eurozone economy.

Mr Hollande’s comments came as Pierre Moscovici, France’s proposed EU commissioner, appeared set to be confirmed as economics commission-

er. Lord Hill of Oareford, David Cameron’s man in Brussels, was also on course to be appointed chief regulator of Europe’s financial services industry.

However, Slovenia’s nominee to the European Commission was rejected by MEPs last night as unsuited to a vicepresidency on the executive. Alenka Bratusek, 44, Slovenia’s last prime minister, was voted down by the European parliament. MEPs heard allegations that she rigged her appointment to Brussels after losing her leadership post.

She left them unimpressed by her expertise, and suffered from being opposed by the new centre-left government in Ljubljana.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the incoming president of the commission, must find a Slovenian replacement, preferably a woman because of the need for gender balance, to take charge of energy union, Ms Bratusek’s designated post.

Mr Juncker, the former prime minister of Luxembourg whose appointment as commission chief was opposed by Mr Cameron, is expected to modify some portfolios to take account of the parliament’s views — notably its insistence that Tibor Navracsics, of Hungary, a member of that country’s nationalist ruling party, was not qualified to preside over EU culture and citizenship.

The parliament questions each of the 27 national nominees but must accept or refuse the commission as a bloc in the final vote on October 22.

BROOKS KRAFT / CORBIS

Kenya ‘blocks inquiry into mass murder’ The Hague

Jerome Starkey Africa Correspondent

A total lunar eclipse — known as a blood moon, and viewed in ancient times as a harbinger of doom — hangs over the Capitol in Washington DC

The President of Kenya was accused of obstructing justice at the International Criminal Court yesterday, as he became the first sitting head to appear at The Hague.

The prosecution called for an indefinite adjournment in the case of Uhuru Kenyatta, claiming that the Kenyan government — and by implication, the president — were thwarting their investigation by refusing to disclose phone records and bank statements which would prove his guilt.

The son of Kenya’s founding president is accused of fuelling the postelection violence which left more than 1,100 people dead and forced 600,000 to flee their homes six years ago.

President Kenyatta arrived at the court in The Hague voluntarily, with his wife and an entourage of Kenyan politicians.

His lawyer, Steven Kay, demanded his acquittal after the prosecution admitted that they did not have enough evidence to proceed to trial.

“The case has failed. It has failed in a way that there’s no prospect to go further,” he said.

“It would be an affront to common sense to say that we are not entitled to an acquittal.”

Judge Kuniko Ozaki and her two assistants must rule on whether Kenya is co-operating and whether to proceed.

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

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Super-food of the future flies off the shelves STEWART STICK

United States

Four legs bad

The kitchen is full of the aroma of cinnamon and the tray of freshly baked cookies looks inviting. Golden brown, they crumble with a chewy, buttery crunch in the mouth. You might never guess the surprise ingredient: a quarter of a cup of pulverised, roasted crickets.

These cookies are a sugar-coated introduction to the world of entomophagy — the eating of insects.

Recipes such as this promise to become much more familiar: amid warnings that conventional farming is unsustainable, the business of edible insects is suddenly booming.

High in protein, minerals and omega oils — and, for the moment, price — bugs are touted as the superfood of the future.

Mark Cuban, the US billionaire, recently backed a company that makes protein bars from crickets.

Called Chapul, and each bar containing the equivalent of 25 crickets, they are on sale at Whole Foods, the posh American grocers, at £2.

Six Foods is making crisps out of the same creepy-crawlies, while another insect-food start-up, Aspire Food Group, won last year’s $1 million Hult prize, the largest award in the field of social entrepreneurship.

The bugs that went into my soft ginger cricket cookies came from Next Millennium Farms, the first company in North America to produce bugs for human consumption on an industrial scale.

Jarrod Goldin, one of three brothers behind the venture, explained their business pitch. First, bugs are very good for you. They are increasingly popular with people on fashionable, cavemen-inspired, low-carb “pale” diets. Crickets contain more iron than spinach, all nine essential

Water needed for 1lb of meat Cricket 1 gallon Cow 2,000 gallons

Rhys Blakely Los Angeles

Feed needed for 1lb of meat Cricket 2 bags Cow 25 bags Greenhouse gas emissions Cricket 1 unit Cow 100 units Nutrition for 200 calories Cricket 31g protein/8g fat Cow 22g protein/15g fat

Source: kickstarter.com

Zoe Goldin tries one of her father’s cricket and caramel-topped cup cakes

It’s not just cricket . . . ½ cup “cricket flour” (chopped up crickets, not actual flour) 1 ¾ cups flour ¾ tsp cinnamon ½ tsp ground cloves 1 tsp baking soda ¼ tsp salt ¾ cup butter ¾ cup white sugar 1 egg

7 tbsp brown sugar 3 tbsp molasses 1 tbsp orange juice Combine dry dr ingredients.

Cream butter and white sugar until

Oyster farm shells out £4m to beat fraudsters France

Adam Sage Paris

They are reputed to be the world’s finest oysters, known for their voluptuous flesh and unparalleled flavour — and for their price, which can reach €120 a dozen in Paris.

Now the molluscs produced by the Gillardeau family on the Atlantic coast are to boast engraved shells, in an effort to beat the counterfeiting gangs, both in France and internationally.

The move comes amid evidence that oyster lovers are increasingly falling victim to dishonest French restaurant owners and criminal gangs lured by the prospect of vast profits.

The Gillardeaus, who have been growing oysters in Marennes-Oléron for four generations, claim that lowclass oysters are being passed off as their superior products in China and France, and that they are losing 20 per cent of their revenue and an incalculable slice of their reputation because of the One Gillardeau oyster can cost €9.80 in Parisian restaurants

counterfeiting. They worry that the diners who eat the fake Gillardeau oysters will come away imagining that the family that produces them — placing nine-month old oysters in bags and submerging them in plankton-rich water for years — have lost their knack.

“Customers prepared to pay €9.80 for a Gillardeau oyster in a Parisian restaurant are entitled to the product they have ordered,” Véronique Gillardeau, who runs the company, said.

The French press has devoted extensive coverage to oyster counterfeiting in China, which accounts for 80 per cent of the world’s oyster production. However, industry sources say the scam is flourishing in France as well, with a number of supposedly reputable restaurants working hand-in-glove with the counterfeiters.

The Gillardeaus say they have spent €5 million (£4 million) on a laser that will engrave each shell with the family name, in an attempt to end the traffic and save their reputation. Mrs Gillardeau said that the process would not affect the quality of her oysters.

light and fluffy.

Beat in egg, brown sugar, molasses and juice.

Stir both mix mixes together.

Place in fridge idge for 20 mins.

Roll into 24 inchsize balls over sugar and place into oven at 180C for 8-10 mins.

Thousands flee clashes in Kashmir India

Robin Pagnamenta Mumbai

Five people were killed and thousands were fleeing border areas of Kashmir yesterday after India and Pakistan traded the heaviest crossborder shelling in more than ten years.

At least nine Pakistani and eight Indian civilians have died this week, exacerbating tensions in the Himalayan region, which is claimed by both countries.

Nine people died on Monday after shelling along a stretch of the border between Kashmir and Punjab — the highest death toll on a single day since a ceasefire agreed in 2003.

Masood Khan, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, called for the Indian government to “immediately cease fire and help us preserve tranquility”. Major General Javed Khan, of the Pakistani paramilitary border force, said he “failed to understand why the Indians are targeting Pakistani civilian populations”.

Rajnath Singh,India’s home minister, said his country would not tolerate border violations by Pakistan and suggested the nationalist government of Narendra Modi was determined to pursue a more muscular policy than the former government led by Manmohan Singh.

amino acids and more calcium than milk.

Second, in a world of dwindling resources, humans should not expect to keep eating meat, Mr Goldin said.

Every pound of beef requires 2,000 gallons of water to produce, compared with only one gallon for the equivalent amount of cricket. And farming beef produces a hundred times more greenhouse gas emis-

sions as raising crickets. “It is incredibly irresponsible to eat meat like we presently do,” he argued.

The UN agrees. Last year it urged the world to eat more insects to help to boost nutrition and reduce pollution. It admitted that “consumer disgust” in the West was a barrier to eating insects, but a straw poll suggests that it is not insurmountable.

Last week Mr Goldin sent me a sample pack of insect snacks. Adult visitors to the Blakely household were sometimes hesitant to sample the crispy Moroccan crickets, but children invariably had no qualms about digging into sea salt and pepper mealworms and the like.

To make the cookies, Mr Goldin supplied a powder called “cricket flower” — it has no flour in it, but is made of ground-up crickets and can be added to conventional recipes. It smells a bit like pet food and it costs $40 a pound. Per gram of protein, it is slightly more expensive than beef, although with the potential to be much cheaper when mass produced.

It also has more beneficial nutrients, Mr Goldin said. In the finished cookies, it is hard to detect.

The Table, pages 44, 45

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World

Pot-smoking Mountie is found dead Canada Rhys Blakely

A Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer has died in an apparent suicide after his use of medical cannabis sparked a nationwide debate over whether he should be allowed to smoke pot while working.

Corporal Ron Francis, who served in New Brunswick, was found dead on Monday afternoon. “It appears no one else was involved in the death,” said a spokesman for the force.

Corporal Francis had a prescription for medical cannabis to treat post-traumatic stress linked to his 21year police career. However, last

November he was ordered to hand in his uniform after he released a video of him smoking pot while wearing it.

He quickly became known as the “pot-smoking Mountie”. Peter MacCorporal Ron Francis smoking pot on the video

Kay, the justice minister, said he set “a very poor example for Canadians”.

“I worked hard for that uniform,” a tearful Corporal Francis said at the

L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO

time. “I bled for that uniform. I cried for that uniform for 21 years . . . They ordered me to give up the only thing that I’ve lived and identified with for 21 years.”

He added that he was trying to draw attention to the “fact that the RCMP fails to have a programme in place for proper [post-traumatic stress disorder] screening ... People are dying, they’re committing suicide because there’s no proper backup.”

At the time of his death he was on medical leave. He was due to stand trial in September on six criminal charges, including assaulting fellow officers after they tried to take him for a mental health assessment.

Holy hitch-hike The Pope invited two boys aged nine to join him in the popemobile before being driven through the crowd to deliver his message in St Peter’s Square

Five Afghan men hanged for rapes Kabul Five Afghan men

were hanged for the gang rape of four women despite the UN, EU and human rights groups criticising the trial and urging President Ghani to stay the executions.

The attack in Paghman, outside Kabul, provoked a national outcry, with many Afghans demanding that the men be hanged.

Their death sentences were signed by President Karzai before he left office last week. (AFP)

17 dead after boat sinks near Bali Jakarta At least 17 people from a wedding party, including a two-year-old boy, have died after a boat sank off the Indonesian island of Bali. Eight of the 49 people on board the vessel were rescued by helicopter and 24 are still missing. (AFP)

Palestinians stone Jews at holy site Jerusalem Clashes broke

out near the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem as Palestinians threw stones at Jews visiting the holy site before the Feast of Tabernacles. Jews are not allowed to pray there for fear that it could provoke disturbances. (AFP)

Chimps are people too, court to hear New York An appeals

court is hearing a bid to have chimpanzees declared as “persons” so that one can be freed from a cage. A lawyer will argue that a chimp called Tommy has basic rights and should join others at a Florida sanctuary. (AP)

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

31

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Pietersen’s book test

Fed in fine balancing act

Fourth time unlucky

Page 33

Page 34

Page 37

Publishers hope batsman can strike

Rate-setters worry about Europe

Business

FirstGroup suffers Scottish setback

Going Dutch on bike and train business commentary Alistair Osborne

O

n yer bike. What a pretty parting shot from Alex Salmond to FirstGroup — the transport outfit from Aberdeen that now can add being shunted off ScotRail to those derailments on Thameslink and the Caledonian sleeper (story, page 47).

Too much fence-sitting when it mattered from Tim O’Toole, its American boss? Fancy not donning a kilt and saltire underpants.

Yup, Mr O’Toole did keep his head down during the big vote — but that’s not why he lost, knocking 5 per cent off the shares. His bid was rubbish, or not good enough, anyway, to make the first two. No, it was the Dutch wot won it — the state-backed Abellio — bringing “a new approach to cycling with more than 3,500 parking spaces and bike hire at a number of stations”. Or so explains Transport Scotland — right at the top of the press release, too.

Was there another reason? Hard to tell, what with Mr Salmond awarding the biggest of the Scottish government’s contracts to the second cheapest bidder — a novel take on a Dutch auction. National Express won on price, the category counting for 65 per cent of the bid evaluation process. It lost on something much more subjective: “quality”. In total, it got 0.24 fewer marks out of 100 — 87.21 v 86.97. It hasn’t ruled out a legal challenge.

It’s a fine call, anyway, from Mr Salmond on a heavily subsidised ten-year deal “worth up to £6 billion”, apparently. Nothing like making taxpayers pay extra for going Dutch. And to think the unions wanted a nationalised service. At least they’ve got one now. From the Netherlands.

What, though, of all that extra Abellio quality? That’s a puzzler, too. It says it’ll put on up to 80 new electric trains for the EdinburghGlasgow trip — but all the bidders offered that. NatEx’s bid added new, faster trains for inter-city routes.

Too bad, then, it thought bike hire was “unsafe”. Must be why it lost.

Still, at least Mr O’Toole needn’t worry about such fine margins. His choice is a blockbuster bid for the East Coast franchise — or goodbye to FirstGroup’s £100 million a year rail revenues. Lose and Mr O’Toole could be on his bike.

Building budget

T

hings you thought you’d never write: thank you, European Commission, for saving the British taxpayer money. Phew, not easy that — even if those red-tape bunnies from Brussels were claiming as much yesterday after a year’s fission trip at Hinkley Point C. They’ve split the subsidies for France’s state-backed EDF Energy and its Chinese partners. And guess what? They’re as radioactive as they looked, at least if you’re a British

taxpayer. Sure, it’s not a walk in the park building the first new nuke for a generation — since Sizewell B in 1995 — but David Cameron was kind of generous. Sadly, the commission hasn’t done anything directly about the £92.50 per megawatt hour “strike price”, obliging the consumer to pay twice the wholesale price for electricity for 45 years, allowing for the ten years building the reactor. Yet at least the commission should save us a few billion.

Via the infrastructure guarantee scheme, the government is underwriting £17 billion of loans — now coming with a higher annual fee of 2.95 per cent, or up to £501 million, thanks to the commission. The fees cut after-tax returns on the project from 11.7 per cent to 11.4 per cent. Exceed that, too, and the taxpayer takes a bigger share of the extra profit, up from 30 per cent to 60 per cent over a threshold. Still, there looked to be a catch: the commission doubling build costs to £34 billion, just as Vincent de Rivaz, the EDF boss, did his “don’t worry too much about the numbers” routine. Luckily, that was after contingencies, inflation and financing costs. So Hinkley’s still just £16 billion to build. For now.

Midas to magpie

I

f only Newcastle United showed such energy around the park.

What a box-to-box player he’s proving, that Mike Ashley, the club’s owner and Sports Direct founder.

He never stops. Bets running, via the retailer, at Tesco and Debenhams, stakes in MySale and JD Sports — and now a nice bit of fun, PA, through his Mash yer legs investment vehicle (story, page 43).

He’s upped his stake in Rangers FC to 9 per cent and called for an early bath for its two top directors.

That’s set the hares running over his designs on the club — not that they can catch Mike, him being a nifty mover for a big lad. It’s entertaining all right, but isn’t it a bit distracting?

Sports Direct shares are down 10 per cent in a year and September’s performance has rivalled the Magpies. Just a thought.

Cuts to the quick

Y

es, it was a bit much Bertrand Badre, the World Bank’s finance chief, getting a $94,000 “scarce-skills premium” for shaving $400 million off costs. Now Jim Yong Kim, its president, has cut that, maybe the troops could stop moaning. They’re in revolt about cuts to business-class flights, breakfast allowances and subsidised parking. You can see why, given one of the themes of this week’s annual junket: Building Shared Prosperity in an Unequal World #endpoverty.

alistair.osborne@thetimes.co.uk

Wind farms operating at full pelt swamped the grid with so much electricity in the early hours of Monday that it almost became free. The wholesale price, which is about £45 per mw/h when demand is higher, fell to just over £1 per mw/h

Brussels’ green light for a nuclear future Tim Webb Energy Editor

The cost of building Britain’s first nuclear plant in a generation could reach as much as £34 billion.

The European Commission gave the go-ahead yesterday for EDF Energy to build the giant plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset, sparking into life a renaissance for Britain’s nuclear industry.

When EDF Energy and the government announced the project last October, the construction cost was put at £16 billion. It has emerged that after adding financing costs, such as paying interest on debts and other unspecified expenses, the bill would rise to £24.5 billion.

The commission admitted that in a “worst case” scenario, the total cost of what will be Europe’s largest infrastructure project could hit as much as £34 billion, if the project suffered huge cost overruns and delays similar to those its parent company is experiencing in the construction of a new reactor at Flamanville, in France.

Vincent de Rivaz, the chief executive of EDF Energy, emphasised that the new estimates would not add to the forecast £10-a-year cost to Britain’s household bills over 35 years. He added: “You should not worry too much about the numbers. The good news is that the costs have not changed.”

EDF Energy and its Chinese partners, the state-backed China General Nuclear and China National Nuclear Corpora-

Love thy neighbour?

Country-bashing has leapfrogged from Britain to France and now to Germany, with one of France’s most powerful businessmen claiming that its neighbour’s energy industry was “a disaster” (Tim Webb writes).

Henri Proglio, the chairman of the French state-controlled EDF Group, the parent company of EDF Energy, said of RWE and E.ON, Germany’s big energy companies, that “one is more or less dead, the other one is in a very difficult situation”.

Mr Proglio was responding to barbed comments first reported in The Times from the boss of John Lewis about France.

Andy Street had described the country as “sclerotic, hopeless and downbeat”.

tion, had been required to demonstrate to Westminster and Europe that they could fund any budget overruns from their own balance sheets. French executives said that they would lose their jobs if this happened.

The commission originally had suggested that generous subsidies awarded to EDF Energy by the government could amount to illegal state aid.

After a year-long investigation, commissioners yesterday approved a compromise deal, by which the developers

would have to hand back a bigger share of any excess profits from the project to consumers via their energy bills.

The headline subsidy rate will not change and the two new reactors at Hinkley Point will still be guaranteed £92.50 mw/h for its electricity, more than double the present market rate, for 35 years.

Five of the 21 commissioners voted against the deal, arguing that as a mature technology, nuclear should not be subsidised.

Austria will launch an 18-month long appeal to the European Court of Justice against the deal, although this will not stop EDF Energy formally signing off on the project at the turn of the year.

Preparatory work has begun on the site with construction expected to be finished by 2023.

EDF Energy also revealed that it planned to sign off on another giant twin-reactor project at Sizewell, in Suffolk, in two years’ time.

Having gone through the painstaking process of agreeing subsidies for Hinkley Point, EDF Energy said that it would be “very easy” negotiating more consumer-funded subsidies for the Suffolk project.

Peter Atherton, the analyst at Liberum Capital who had described the subsidy package at Hinkley Point as “economically insane”, said that he had not changed his position. “I do not take any comfort from this as a consumer,” he said.

32

Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

FGM

Business

Need to know Your 5-minute digest Manufacturing: Disappointing performances by the manufacturing and services sectors may be the “first alarm bell” of slower growth, according to the British Chambers of Commerce.

The lobby group said that while the economy was still growing, it had slowed in the third quarter. Page 34 Eurozone: Many banks in the region are holding back global recovery because they lack the “financial muscle” to boost growth at a time when economic disorder threatened to wipe trillions off global bond holdings, the International Monetary Fund said. Page 34

banking & finance 0.12% Just Retirement: Salaries at the specialist pension provider froze and contributions to pension were halved as part of a £14 million cost-cutting drive after George Osborne’s March overhaul of the annuities market, according to the annual report. Page 38 RSA: Britain’s biggest commercial insurer named Phil Wilson-Brown as the new managing director of its More Than personal lines brand. Mr Wilson-Brown, who has worked for RSA for a decade, was previously the strategy, marketing and customer director for the insurer’s Scandinavian division.

Liontrust Asset Management: Assets under management rose by about £200 million to £3.8 billion in the six months to the end of September, with an institutional mandate worth another £320 million won by the fund manager this month.

Tempus, page 40

Barclays: The bank has settled the first class action over its role in Libor-rigging, paying $20 million to end a claim brought against it by a group of futures traders. The New York payout comes more than two years after it admitted its role in rate manipulation.

Wonga: An advertisement for the payday lender has been banned for failing to disclose its high interest rate. The Advertising Standards Authority ruled Wonga’s advert breached guidelines after a complaint from Citizens Advice, one of Wonga’s most vocal critics.

construction & property 2.19% Aspect.co.uk: The property maintenance company is encouraging unemployed people in their twenties to consider starting a franchise by providing hands-on assistance with everything from writing a business plan to securing a bank loan.

consumer goods 0.05% Burberry: Christopher Bailey, who recently clashed with

shareholders over his £20 million pay package, has topped a table of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender boardroom leaders in an annual study by OUTstanding, a networking group. Page 34 Heinz: The factory in Norfolk where Aunt Bessie’s crinkle-cut chips have been made since 1999 is to close in a move that places 200 jobs at risk. Heinz said that it had been forced to shut the plant after the owners of the Bessie brand had declined to renew Heinz’s licence. Page 33

leisure 0.93% Marston’s: Despite some falling off in trade in the relatively damp August, the pub operator and brewer put out a positive year-end trading statement, with a 3.1 per cent rise in like-for-like sales in the year to October 4 at its Destination and Premium estate. Tempus, page 40 Rangers FC: Mike Ashley, the retailing tycoon and owner of Newcastle United, has called a special meeting of shareholders in the Scottish football club for a vote on whether to oust two directors — Graham Wallace, the chief executive, and Philip Nash, a financial consultant. Mr Ashley owns almost 9 per cent of Rangers through his MASH Holdings investment vehicle, and called the vote six days after taking his stake through the 5 per cent level that allows him to do it. Rangers has 28 days to respond. Page 33 easyHotel: Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s recently floated budget hotel group reported positive trading, but said that it had spent £230,000 on an aborted corporate transaction that would be reported in its results as a one-off cost.

Punch Taverns: Net debt at the tenanted pub group has been reduced by £600 million to £1.5 billion after completion of a protracted restructuring.

City People, page 36

media 0.19% Viacom: Philippe Dauman, the chief executive of the American media group that owns Channel 5, has thrown a challenge to Channel 4, declaring that overtaking it in the ratings was only the start of its ambitions. Mr Dauman, visiting London for the first time since completing the £463 million purchase of the broadcaster from Richard Desmond, said that Viacom believed that its acquisition, the smallest of Britain’s five main free-to-air television channels, had room to grow and would substantially increase investment. Page 36

natural resources 1.36% Rio Tinto: It has been dubbed one of the worst mining deals in history, but Rio Tinto has got shot of its ill-fated venture

into Mozambique’s coalmines — albeit at a heavy cost. Amid the furore around Rio’s rejection of a £100 billion merger proposal from Glencore, the FTSE 100 miner said that it had sold Rio Tinto Coal Mozambique to International Coal Ventures for $50 million. The price is less than 2 per cent of the $3.7 billion that Rio paid three years ago. Page 35 London Mining: Talks are under way to find a “strategic investor” to save the company after the Sierra Leone-focused iron ore miner that its shares had “little or no value”. Page 35

professional & support services 0.67% Boardroom splits: Vince Cable has written to companies including JD Sports and Enterprise Inns pressing them to appoint women to their “unacceptable” all-male boards. The business secretary intervened amid signs that Britain’s top 350 companies will miss a government-set target of 25 per cent female representation the proportion of FTSE 100 female directors has risen from 20.7 to 22.8 per cent over the past six months.

However, in the FTSE 250, only 17.4 per cent of directors are women and 29 companies have all-male boards. Page 34

retailing 0.47% High street: Coffee chains and discount outlets struggle to fill the gaps left by disappearing video rental stores, fashion boutiques and pawnbrokers.

Although the economy has improved, 3,003 shops shut during the first half of the year, while the number of new shops opening slumped from 3,157 to 2,597, leading to a “net” loss of 406 shops over the six months to June, according to a study

by PwC and the Local Data Company. Page 38 HSS Hire Service: Hiring out cement mixers is about to become of great interest to movers and shakers in the City.

The group, and its private equity owner, are understood to be close to appointing bankers to advise on a flotation that could value the company at £600 million, according to Sky News. Page 38 DixonsCarphone: Directors expect to beat a deadline for stripping £80 million of annual costs out of the combined business only months after sealing the merger of the two electronics goods retailers. The executives also told investors at the first DixonsCarphone strategy day that they sensed a “huge opportunity” from the collapse of Phones4u and that it had offered jobs to 500 workers that were previously employed by its rival over the past three weeks.

technology 1.49% Horizons Ventures: Li Ka-Shing, Asia’s richest man,

World markets FTSE 100 6,482.24 (-13.34)

6,750

FTSE 250 14,933.52 (-165.70)

15,600

6,650

15,200

6,550

14,800

6,450

Fri

Mon

Tue

Wed

6,350

Dow Jones 16,994.22 (+274.83) 17,400

Fri

Mon

Tue

Wed

Fri

Mon

Tue

Wed

Nikkei 15,595.98 (-187.85)

14,400

16,150

17,200

15,900

17,000

15,650

16,800

15,400

16,600

15,150

Fri

Mon

Tue

Wed

Commodities Gold $1,206.65 (-2.47)

Fri

Mon

$ 1,240

Tue

Wed

Brent Crude $91.91 (-0.73)

$ 96

1,220

94

1,200

92

1,180

90

1,160

Fri

Tue

Mon

Wed

88

Currencies £/$ $1.6065 (-0.0006)

$ 1.640

£/€ €1.2667 (-0.0058)

¤ 1.295

1.620

1.280

1.600

1.265

1.580

Fri

Mon

Tue

Wed

1.560

Fri

Mon

Tue

Wed

1.250

The day ahead The Bank of England’s interest rate-setting panel announces its latest decision at noon, with most analysts predicting no change. The base rate is expected to be held at its three centuries low of 0.5 per cent for the 67th successive month.

CPI inflation is a benign 1.5 per cent, well below the panel’s target of 2 per cent, pay levels are falling and there has been recent evidence that the recovery in manufacturing is faltering, all good reasons not to

tighten policy, the doves argue.

The hawks think that the strong momentum in the economy gives the Bank a good opportunity at least to embark on the long, painful haul back to more normal levels of interest rates and before the general election starts to cast a shadow over policymaking.

Last month the panel voted 7-2 for no change, as well as to leave the QE stimulus programme unchanged at £375 billion.

Graph of the day Oil prices have fallen to a 27-month low after slipping below $91 a barrel.The price of Brent crude fell by $1.22 to $90.89, the lowest since June 2012, after the International Monetary Fund cut its global economic forecasts for the third time this year, highlighting weak demand for crude Oil price $ per barrel

130 125 120 115 110

Source: Thomson Reuters

economics

Q1 Q2

105 100 95 90 Q3 2012

Q4

Q1

Q2 Q3 2013

Q4

Q1

Q2 2014

Q3

85

The day’s biggest movers Company Worthington Group Trading update Interserve Peel Hunt and Berenberg are positive Man Group Pushed by RBC Capital Markets Tesco HSBC upgrades Petrofac Bargain-hunting TUI Travel Ebola worries Spirent Downgrades come through Ferrexpo Its own broker turns more cautious Guscio Fundraising London Mining Equity may be worthless

Change 23.5% 3.8% 3.1% 1.4% 1.4% -3.9% -7.7% -7.7% -43.2% -75.8%

has pumped £2.3 million into a musical instrument maker that constructs high-tech keyboards under railway arches in northeast London. The billionaire’s investment fund has invested in ROLI, which is the company behind the bizarre-looking Seaboard Grand piano.

telecoms 0.80% EE: Olaf Swantee, the chief executive, said that the success of the mobile phone company’s new television service could be judged by continued growth in its broadband unit. Analysts said that EE’s TV launch would put pressure on other telecoms companies to consolidate to offer mobile and TV services.

Three: The mobile phone network has been fined £250,000 after Ofcom ruled it had not been dealing with customer complaints fairly.

The fine, one of the largest handed out by the regulator, is part of a crackdown on telecoms companies that do not deal with customer complaints adequately. EE is under investigation over a similar issue.

AT&T: The phone company will pay $105 million to settle allegations of unauthorised charges on customers’ cell phone bills, a practice known as cramming, federal regulators said. The settlement comes after years of complaints from mobile phone owners about being charged for services daily horoscopes or trivia that they never requested.

transport 0.18% FirstGroup: Britain’s biggest train operator is be turfed out of running railways in Scotland. It has lost out on four train franchises in the past five months, three of which where it was the incumbent operator. The company is relying on the Department for Transport to extend its two remaining franchises, Great Western and TransPennine Express, and needs to win the upcoming contract for the East Coast Main Line if it is to make good its promise to come out of the recession with as much operating profit from the railways as it had when the downturn hit. Page 38

utilities 0.71% EDF Energy: The cost of building Britain’s first nuclear plant in a generation could reach £34 billion and Europe’s largest infrastructure project which will be paid for by households over 35 years. The European Commission gave the go-ahead for EDF Energy, the French power company, to build the giant plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset, sparking Britain’s nuclear renaissance. When EDF and the government announced the project last October, the cost wasat £16 billion. Page 31

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

33

FGM

Business

Rangers on the defensive as Ashley approaches goal

Pietersen, postman and the punk set to lift publishers

years ago from Charles Green, the company’s former chief executive, for £1.

It has prompted fears among insiders at the club that Mr Ashley is trying to gain creeping control. “He’s clearly trying to wield some sort of power,” one Rangers source said.

Rangers’ finances are in a parlous state. It raised just over £3 million from shareholders last month, less than it had hoped for, and will have to find extra funds before the end of the year to cover its costs.

Mr Ashley issued a personal statement at the time of the fundraising, saying that he would not be taking part.

Rangers’ shares, listed at 70p, have since slumped in value, closing 2 per cent higher at 22½p yesterday.

UK Publishers Sales (£m - net invoiced prices)

3,500

5

£3.7bn

3,250

4

Average 3.3%

3

3,000

2

2,750

1 0

la nd Fi Ne nla th nd er la nd s

been a clear slowing in growth for digital. It seems to have found its natural place in reading habits now.”

About 315 titles will be released today, including Please, Mr Postman, the memoir of Alan Johnson, the former Labour minister, Vivienne Westwood, the story of the fashion designer’s journey from a working-class Derbyshire neighbourhood to the catwalk, and KP, in which Kevin Pietersen takes aim at his former England cricket team-mates. Sheila Hancock, the actress, makes her debut as a novelist with Miss Carter’s War, a chronicle of postwar Britain.

Tim Walker, president of The Booksellers Association, said: “Times have been tough on the high street and bookshops have faced a fundamental challenge from supermarkets over twenty years and from online sellers over the past ten or fifteen years. But the number of bookshop closures is slowing.” He said that customers were getting used

Estimated ‘typical’ bookshop’s net profit margin 6%

Total book market in the UK

Ire

A

postman, a punk fashion idol and a disgruntled cricketer carry the hopes of Britain’s publishing industry on their shoulders as booksellers set out their Christmas wares today on so-called “super Thursday” (Andrew Clark writes).

Staff at bookshops are being called into work at dawn to stack shelves on the first day, traditionally, that retailers are permitted to sell books earmarked by publishers for Christmas.

After a long, painful erosion of sales to ebooks and online retailers, bookshop bosses are hopeful as they near their busiest time of the year.

“We’re dramatically more optimistic than last year,” said James Daunt, the managing director of Waterstones, who added that a decline in sales of physical books was tailing off. “Last month, our book sales were up — that hasn’t been the case for quite a while. There’s

stand behind its incumbent directors and urge shareholders to veto the motions.

Mr Wallace, the former finance director and chief operating officer of Manchester City, has been chief executive for less than a year. Mr Nash, who previously has overseen the accounts at Liverpool and Arsenal, joined as a consultant director in Janu-

ary. Mr Ashley, the Sports Direct founder who has held shares in Rangers since it was bought out of administration and listed on the stock market in December 2012, made his move less than a week after Mash took its holding above the 5 per cent threshold required to call a vote.

The colourful retailer’s intentions were not entirely clear yesterday.

Under Scottish Football Association rules, he is not allowed to own more than 10 per cent of the business because of his ownership of Newcastle.

However, he has agreed a deal previously to run the club’s retail division, and last month it was revealed that he had bought the naming rights to the club’s Ibrox stadium in Glasgow two

UK

Mike Ashley stepped up the pressure on Rangers yesterday, as the billionaire sportswear tycoon — and owner of Newcastle United, south of the border — used his shareholding in the embattled Scottish club to call for the eviction of two board directors.

In a statement to the stock market, Rangers said that Mr Ashley had demanded a shareholder vote on whether to oust Graham Wallace, the chief executive, and Philip Nash, a financial consultant.

Mash Holdings, Mr Ashley’s investments vehicle, holds an 8.92 per cent stake in Rangers and has the right to convene a special meeting of the club’s

investors. Rangers has 28 days to comply. However, the club, which is struggling to meet the costs of its players’ wages, said that it would try to annul the demand. It is thought likely to question a technicality about the size of Mr Ashley’s holding in the club, which was disclosed by Mash at 5 per cent but according to the club stands at almost 9 per cent.

“The company is verifying that the notice is properly constituted,” Rangers said. “If valid, the board intends to seek to have such notice withdrawn in order to avoid the cost and disruption of an ad hoc general meeting.”

It noted that its annual meeting was due to take place shortly. If forced to proceed, Rangers said that it would

U Sw S ed en

Miles Costello, Danielle Sheridan

987

2005

2014 2009 21

UK market share (volume) % Internet-only retailer Direct seller

3

Other non-specialist shop Supermarket Bookshop

to using different formats of books side-by-side: “It might be convenient to take an ereader on the train when they’re on the move, but when they’re at home, they want the feel, sensation, smell and physicality of a paper book.”

05

07

09

11

13

2,500

2013 48

8

6

03

Celebrities launching books for Christmas Sheila Hancock (top right), Heston Blumenthal (centre right), Alan Johnson (bottom right) and Vivienne Westwood (left)

Independent bookshops in the UK

1,535

01

11 14 10 31

46

6 The storm provoked by KP, which goes on sale today, could prove highly lucrative.

The former England batsman has trademarked #24 by Pietersen for products ranging from clothing to beer. The hashtag suggests that Pietersen, who has

almost two million followers on Twitter, wants to use social media to generate sales.

The trademark, which also covers mineral water, fruit juices and wines, is owned by Kevin Pietersen Limited, a company founded in 2004,

before his England career ended in acrimonious circumstances. The company’s secretary is Jessica, his wife, a former pop star, and Pietersen is the sole shareholder. Last year, it had £1.5 million of shareholder funds.

Balfour’s crash landing in Blackpool Aunt Bessie waves Norfolk Robert Lea

An annus horribilis just got even worse for Balfour Beatty, with the struggling construction company giving up on one of Britain’s oldest airports and calling in the liquidators.

Blackpool airport will close next week after Jet2, the airline for northern tourists, indicated that it was to pare back operations.

Balfour, which has pumped £30 million into the hub overall, says that it has not been able to compete with the growing might of Manchester and Liverpool John Lennon airports.

Balfour Beatty has flown into a weather front of slumping share price, haemorrhaging profits, no chief executive and a chairman on his way out.

The story of the airport appears to sum up its luck. It took control in the summer of 2008, paying £14 million to

6 Heathrow has placed another bond with international investors, taking to £1.5 billion the amount of money it has raised on capital markets this year. The company behind Britain’s largest airport has been in a state of near-perpetual refinancing. It announced that this week it had raised £250 million in a bond maturing in March 2025 paying a coupon, or interest rate, of 5.75 per cent. three Irish property adventurers, led

by Adam Armstrong, calling themselves MAR Properties. It promised to create the holiday gateway of choice for Lancastrians and Cumbrians and build on the 500,000 passengers a year that had been flying from the terminal.

Weeks later, Lehman Brothers collapsed and the economy slumped.

Within months, Ryanair, which had

been wooed by local councils to use Blackpool, took its aircraft out and statistics for 2009, Balfour’s first year in charge, showed that numbers had almost halved.

Numbers have remained low and the airport has dropped to 29th amongst Britain airports, wedged between Scatsta and Sumburgh, the Shetland isles’ two airports.

Closure ends Balfour’s dalliance with airports. Not long before Blackpool, it bought Exeter airport, but it has since sold it. It also gave up a contract to operate Derry airport in Northern Ireland.

Balfour has spent £16 million on the airport since the £14 million acquisition. It will continue to own the property and is in discussions with the local councils on what might happen next. It is understood that the airfield, which opened in 1909, could be used as a base for the offshore energy industry in the Irish Sea.

goodbye as Heinz pulls out

Deirdre Hipwell

The factory in Norfolk where Aunt Bessie’s frozen potato products have been made since 1999 is to be closed in a move that places 200 jobs at risk.

Heinz said that it had been forced to close the Westwick factory in North Walsham after the privately owned William Jackson Food Group, which owns the Aunt Bessie’s brand, declined to renew Heinz’s licence to continue to make the frozen potato products. The licence ends in April, when William Jackson Food will bring production back in-house.

Heinz said it was deeply disappointed to have to make the announcement, but there would no longer be “sufficient manufacturing volume to keep the factory operational”. The Westwick

facility’s staff have entered a 45-day consultation process.

Julia Long, the national officer for the Unite union, called Heinz decision “devastating news so close to Christmas . . . It is particularly concerning that Heinz is planning only 45 days to consult on their closure plans. This is a direct consequence of the current government’s law change, which allows companies to walk away from communities in a matter of weeks.”

Norman Soutar, chief executive of William Jackson Food Group, said: “Heinz has done a great job with our Aunt Bessie’s potato business, but we’re now keen for it to join the rest of the Aunt Bessie’s operations in-house, giving us greater influence over its management and long-term future direction.”

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Business

Cable takes stick to male bastions

VICTOR VIRGILE/GETTY IMAGES

Andrew Clark

Vince Cable has written to companies including JD Sports and Enterprise Inns pressing them to appoint women to their “unacceptable” all-male boards.

The Business Secretary has intervened amid signs that Britain’s leading 350 companies will miss a governmentset target of 25 per cent boardroom representation by 2015.

Figures today will show that the proportion of FTSE 100 female directors has risen from 20.7 to 22.8 per cent over the past six months. However, in the FTSE 250, only 17.4 per cent of directors are women and 29 companies have uniformly male boards.

“It is unacceptable for the voice of women to be absent from the boardroom in modern Britain,” Mr Cable writes in a letter co-signed by Lord Davies of Abersoch, which bluntly tells companies that the government wants them to appoint “at least one woman” to their boards — and soon.

The letter continues: “This is not about political correctness. This is about good governance and good business.”

In a report commissioned by ministers three years ago, Lord Davies ruled out Scandinavian-style mandatory quotas as a means to improve balance.

Nevertheless, Britain is among the top five countries for women directors, according to Egon Zehnder, a headhunter. Only Norway, Finland, France and Sweden have a higher proportion on corporate boards.

Weak growth in Europe and Asia and the continuing strength of the dollar are an increasing concern for the US Federal Reserve as it decides when to increase the cost of borrowing in the United States.

According to minutes of the central bank’s September meeting, members of the rate-setting federal open market committee also appear to be concerned that their guidance on the timing of any rate rise may be misinterpreted by markets.

Those markets rallied yesterday, winning back most of the week’s losses, as it became clear that the Fed remained committed to keeping interest rates low until it was more confident about the strength of the American economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average

Fashion chief is a cut above

T

he Yorkshireman credited with providing the design inspiration behind Burberry’s catwalk collections has been named as the world’s

most influential gay business leader (Andrew Clark writes).

Christopher Bailey, 43, above, who clashed with Burberry’s shareholders over his £20 million pay package recently, has topped a table of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender boardroom

leaders in an annual study by OUTstanding, a networking organisation.

The fashion group boss became the first openly gay chief executive of a FTSE 100 company when he succeeded Angela Ahrendts in May. “He’s unself-conscious and very confident of his

gay identity in public,” Suki Sandhu, the chief executive of OUTstanding, said.

The runner-up was Antonio Simoes, the chief executive of HSBC’s British business. In fifth was Stephen Clarke, the chief executive of WH Smith.

gained 275 points after the publication of the minutes and closed the day 1.6 per cent higher at 16,994.22. The S&P 500 closed up 1.74 per cent at 1,968.77.

The minutes revealed that as Fed staff cut their growth outlook, some officials feared that “the persistent shortfall of economic growth and inflation in the euro area could lead to a further appreciation of the dollar and have adverse effects” on US exports, while leaving inflation below the Fed’s 2 per cent target for longer. The dollar has gained more than 10 per cent against the euro since early May. Others on the Janet Yellen has yet to move on rates

committee said that lower economic growth in China or Japan or events in the Middle East or Ukraine might pose a similar risk.

The minutes also suggested that debate on when to raise interest rates was heating up. For months the Fed’s guidance was that it would keep a lid on interest rate rises for a “considerable time” after it completed its bond-buying programme in October. Most analysts had taken this to mean some time in mid- 2015. However, the minutes showed growing division on this.

“The concern was raised that the reference to ‘considerable time’ in the current forward guidance could be misunder-

stood as a commitment rather than as data dependent,” the minutes state.

Fear of being misunderstood by investors ultimately convinced FOMC members to leave the wording intact, as participants considered that “changes to the forward guidance might be misinterpreted as a signal of a fundamental shift in the stance of policy that could result in an unintended tightening of financial conditions”.

Last month Janet Yellen, chairwoman of the central bank, tried to assert that the Fed’s guidance depended on how the economy evolved.

William Dudley, the New York Fed president, said this week that a rise in mid-2015 seemed “reasonable”, while Narayana Kocherlakota, the Minneapolis Fed president, said that it would be “inappropriate” to raise rates next year with inflation so low.

Eurozone banks lack muscle to boost recovery, says IMF Alexandra Frean Washington

Many banks in the eurozone are holding back a global recovery, the International Monetary Fund claimed yesterday.

The banks were said to lack the “financial muscle” to boost regional growth, while a disorderly process of monetary policy normalisation could wipe trillions off the value of global bond portfolios, In its global financial stability

Economic slowdown ‘rings first alarm bell’ Kathryn Hopkins

Europe’s weakness and the dollar’s strength force Fed into balancing act Alexandra Frean Washington

Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

report, published yesterday, the fund said that there were banks in the single currency region that could not provide lending to promote economic growth.

José Viñals, the fund’s financial counsellor, said that although traditional banks were safer, thanks to capital requirements spawned by the financial crisis, many “do not have the financial muscle to provide enough credit vigorously to support the recovery”.

Among 300 large banks in advanced

economies studied by the IMF, institutions representing almost 40 per cent of total assets were unable to supply adequate credit to support the recovery.

This rose to 70 per cent in the eurozone.

“When banks are receiving a clean bill of health in terms of capital adequacy, it means that they are safe enough to lead a ‘normal life’. In many countries, we need banks to be ‘athletes’ who can vigorously support the recovery,” Mr Viñals said.

The IMF also warned that a dis-

orderly process of monetary policy normalisation could wipe $3.8 trillion from the value of global bond portfolios and “trigger significant disruption in global markets”.

The report said that 80 per cent of assets of large institutions had a return on equity that did not cover the cost of capital required by shareholders. These banks, it stated, “need a more fundamental overhaul of their business models”, including repricing existing business lines or retrenchment.

Disappointing performances by the manufacturing and services sectors may be the “first alarm bell” of slower growth, according to the British Chambers of Commerce.

The lobby group said that while the economy was still growing, it had slowed in the third quarter.

Indices for both sectors were down in the three months to September and the strong upsurge in manufacturing at the start of the year appeared to have run its course, the BCC said.

Concerns over the strength of the pound were “high and rising” among businesses and the lobby group said that, with a worsening outlook for the eurozone, those worries reinforced the case against an early rate rise from a record low of 0.5 per cent.

The Bank of England’s nine-strong monetary policy committee will end its two-day meeting today, but it is not expected to make any changes to rates.

So far, only two of its members, Martin 6 Employers are failing to address a plague of “presenteeism”, according to the authors of a study suggesting that 93 per cent of people go into work while they are ill. A typical employee took 4.4 days off sick over the past 12 months, a slight increase on last year’s figure but well below the pre-recession level of 5.6. The research, by Canada Life Insurance, found that one person in twelve would call in sick only if they were hospitalised or had no choice, while a fifth would go into work while suffering a stomach bug with vomiting and diarrhoea. Most feel that high workloads do not allow them to take time off.

“Not only is presenteeism detrimental to the individual concerned, it has a negative impact on the wider business, as well, encouraging the spread of illness,” Paul Avis, of Canada Life, said.

Weale and Ian McCafferty, have called for an increase.

The BCC also raised concerns over sharp falls in domestic orders and sales by manufacturers in the three months to September, after hitting record highs in the second quarter.

John Longworth, the body’s directorgeneral, said: “The British economy has strengthened significantly since the recession, but to say that strong growth cannot be sustained indefinitely is simply not good enough.

“To avoid sinking back into mediocrity, we must steer clear of measures that dampen business confidence and press ahead with reforms to the business environment.”

The chambers of commerce warning came despite the latest forecasts from the International Monetary Fund, which showed that Britain’s economy is surging ahead of those of most of its rivals.

The IMF expects growth of 3.2 per cent this year, more than any other G7 nation. In 2015, it expects Britain to expand by 2.7 per cent.

Separate research found that despite recent growth, the British construction sector is still operating below levels seen before the recession and 26 per cent lower than where it should be.

Scape, the procurement company, put the shortfall down to a lack of growth in the private sector.

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

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Business

Tim Tookey

Rio Tinto escapes coalmine debacle

It’s time to pick up your pension pot and carry it around with you

‘‘

Tim Tookey is chief financial officer of Friends Life

Pretend for a moment that I’m not the chief financial officer of a pensions company and merely someone who’s interested in people and their savings.

There are about eight million people in the UK with defined-contribution pensions and, thanks to auto enrolment, that number will double in the coming years. This is a good thing that should — and has to — happen.

It’s a brave government that has shepherded this change into force at a time when families are not exactly awash with cash. A lot of auto-enrolment schemes have minimum 2 per cent to 3 per cent contributions in total being paid in; over time, legislation will see that minimum rise to between 7 per cent and 9 per cent. Savers can’t do a lot of retiring on a 3 per cent total annual pension contribution, even allowing for the rise in minimum amounts.

Ideally, we should all be putting a combined 10 per cent to 15 per cent into our pension pots, but getting people into the saving habit so that they feel more inclined to stay in a scheme as the minimum contributions rise has to be a good thing.

There is a generation born in the 1930s that came through the war as children, did national service, joined a company and retired with the same company after about 40 years on two thirds of final salary. I wouldn’t say this generation is carefree, but look at their grandchildren, with debts to pay, soaring property prices to contend with and the time when they are able to save meaningfully for retirement getting shorter. A lot of their grandparents’ assets will have to skip a generation; otherwise I can’t see how today’s young people are going to get on. And that should worry us all.

It’s so important to start saving early as, over time, the retirement fund can be significantly larger than it would be if savers are late starters.

So when an employee is one of those eight million new auto-enrolled customers, it’s a good thing for them as individuals — especially if they start saving early and can stay with their employer to create a decent-sized pension.

But people don’t stay in the same

REX FEATURES

Grandad’s pension may be in rude health, but junior is nowhere near as lucky

job like they used to, so, if we’re expecting to see 16 million people auto-enrolled pretty soon, what’s going to happen when they feel like changing jobs? Quite a few businesses experience high levels of employee turnover and inevitably this will create lots of mini pension pots, which will be left behind when their employees leave.

Let’s say that a quarter of auto-enrolling employees change employer five or six times in their working life. Wind the clock forward ten years and there could be more than 25 million pots, all of which need

to be administered. The well-intentioned push to get people saving needs to be supported by the right mechanisms to administer pension pots effectively, so that the industry can make a decent return for savers.

It is imperative, therefore, that we implement rapidly a process to simply and cheaply aggregate all those pots together — either before retirement or when savers come to retire. Having a single, larger pension pot will make it easier for people to make decisions and may also enable them to benefit from that greater scale to get a better

deal at retirement. Now that the government has confirmed that it is planning to introduce the “pot follows member” approach, the priority is to create momentum so that this important initiative is in place as quickly as possible. “Pot follows member” means that any small pots are taken with the employee to their next employer, building up scale as they go.

This brings the clear benefits of a larger pot and lower administration costs overall. Also, arriving at a new employer’s pension provider with some money helps the provider to make more of an investment return, offsetting the costs of bringing the new member on to their platform. In addition, a good-quality workplace scheme helps to encourage employee loyalty and employees should also get a better deal on scheme charges.

Some had suggested an alternative consolidator model, where small pots would be sent to consolidator schemes, separate to any workplace scheme. However, this would mean each employee having at least two pots, including the consolidator and their present employer’s scheme, and they would lose the benefits of their employer’s negotiating power when selecting a consolidation provider.

Those lucky enough to build up a large consolidation pot would have many providers competing for their attention . . . but those with smaller pots might receive higher charges, or a poorer service.

“Pot follows member” ensures that employees retain only one active pot, which they can focus on, and that the buying power of the employer is used to get them a good deal. We need to get on with implementing these important changes so that the industry is well placed to provide customers with a good return on their pensions savings and a range of options at retirement.

I think government and the industry have done well to make the progress they have with auto enrolment and the benefits of accruing long-term pension savings are clear. Now we need to focus on getting the solution in place to defuse the “mini pots time bomb”.

That is something that everyone involved with pensions must work to address.

’’

Deirdre Hipwell

It has been dubbed one of the worst mining deals in history, but Rio Tinto finally is shot of its ill-fated venture into Mozambique’s coalmines — albeit at a heavy cost.

Amid the furore this week surrounding Rio’s rejection of a £100 billion merger proprosal from Glencore, the FTSE 100 miner said yesterday that it had sold Rio Tinto Coal Mozambique to International Coal Ventures for $50 million. The price is less than 2 per cent of the $3.7 billion that Rio paid for the venture in Benga three years ago, a deal that cost Tom Albanese, its former chief executive, his job.

Rio had planned to ship coal down the Zambezi to a deepwater port, but those hopes foundered when it could not secure the approvals to ship the coal 6 Talks are under way to find a “strategic investor” to save London Mining after it said yesterday that its shares had “little or no value” (Dierdre Hipwell writes). The company, which mines iron ore in Sierra Leone, said that its lenders supported its talks with potential investors, which include JSW Steel, of India, but would not provide short-term funding. London Mining has been hit by this year’s 40 per cent-plus fall in the price of iron ore and the ebola outbreak. Its shares lost 77 per cent to close on 0.7p. by river. The failure led to the departures of Mr Albanese and Doug Ritchie, the head of Rio Tinto’s energy group, who had led the acquisition.

Analysts have likened the deal to another disastrous merger for Rio when it bought Alcan, an aluminium producer, for $38 billion at the top of the market.

Rio is one of many miners that overpaid for assets in the decade to 2011, when rising commodity prices and hubris led to large tie-ups. A PwC report in June calculated that the world’s largest miners took $57 billion in writedowns on their assets in 2013, on top of $40 billion of impairment charges the year before.

Rio said that it would continue to manage the Benga mine while it was being transferred to International Coal Ventures, a state-backed Indian joint venture set up to buy coalmines in overseas territories. Shares in Rio Tinto closed 22½p lower ar £29.98.

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Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

Business

It’s a numbers game as Channel 5 vows to overtake 4 Alex Spence Media Editor

The chief executive of Viacom has thrown down the gauntlet to Channel 4, declaring that overtaking it in the ratings was only the start of the American media group’s ambitions for Channel 5.

Philippe Dauman warned: “We are here to compete. We are here to win more viewership.”

Mr Dauman, visiting London yesterday for the first time since completing the £463 million purchase of Channel 5 from Richard Desmond, said that Viacom believed its acquisition, the smallest of Britain’s five main free-to-

air television channels, had room to grow and would substantially increase investment in programmes.

He dismissed claims by David Abraham, the chief executive of Channel 4, that the growing presence of American conglomerates would harm Britain’s television industry. In addition to Viacom’s purchase of Channel 5, John Malone’s Liberty Global has bought Virgin Media, the production company All3Media and a stake in ITV. “We have been here almost as long as Channel 4,” Mr Dauman said, pointing out that Viacom’s MTV channel had broadcast in Britain since 1987 and its Nickelodeon children’s channel since

4.2%

Channel 5 viewing share in September, just behind Channel 4’s 4.4 per cent

Source: BARB

the early 1990s. Viacom would boost British creative industries by increasing its investments here and making London the hub for its international ambitions, he said.

Through its television channels and the Paramount film studio, Viacom employs 1,100 people in Britain, a tenth of its global workforce. It spends more

than £300 million a year on programmes for its British pay-TV channels, which include Comedy Central, and plans to increase that amount.

With money to spend on new programmes and access to shows from Viacom’s pay-TV channels, Channel 5 will be able to increase its share of the viewing audience from 4.1 per cent, Mr Dauman said. Asked if overtaking Channel 4 in the ratings was an ambition, he said: “That’s the first step . . . We do not put bounds on our ambitions.

“We think Channel 5 has made great progress over the last few years, from where it was. It has a long way to go. We will climb up the ranks and I can understand how some people are afraid of competition and strong competition.”

Viacom, controlled by Sumner Redstone, the 91-year-old media tycoon, has annual revenues of about $14 billion from its pay-TV and film production businesses. Its purchase of Channel 5

was the first by an American company of one of Britain’s main TV channels, and also the first time that Viacom had bought a free-to-air broadcaster.

Mr Dauman said it was a “unique opportunity” to expand the reach of its television brands to a national audience and to secure a high, guaranteed slot on electronic programme guides. He would not give details about the plans for programming on Channel 5, but indicated that Viacom wanted to appeal to younger viewers.

On whether Viacom would try to keep Big Brother, the reality show that was Channel 5’s biggest draw under Mr Desmond’s ownership, Mr Dauman said that he would leave that decision to programming executives. Mr Dauman praised Mr Desmond for taking over Channel 5 during the recession and disagreed with claims that the publishing tycoon had “starved” the network of investment in high-quality programmes.

CITY PEOPLE The feuds, the faces and the farcical Dominic Walsh@walshdominic

Business big shot name stephen billingham age 56 position chairman, punch taverns

I

t seems appropriate that, in the same week as World Zombie Day, one of Britain’s biggest zombie companies is back in the land of the living. After three years on the brink, Punch Taverns completed a debt restructuring yesterday and, in the words of Stephen Billingham, its chairman, is “a normal company again”.

With its net debt £600 million lower at £1.5 billion, Mr Billingham is to relinquish his executive duties and revert to

ever wondered where your wonga was going?

Despite the many people who loathe payday loan companies, Wonga clearly remains optimistic over its long-term future. It has taken a ten-year lease on an Art Deco office in Camden, north London. Greater London House is famous for the two big black Egyptian-style cats that guard the entrance. Accounts for Wonga showed the company had set aside £2.5 million for the “fit out of part of a floor at Greater London House”. Presumably, not a loan. a genuinely terrible pun Justin Rowlatt, the BBC presenter, was in a chirpy mood during the early morning business slot on the Today programme yesterday. He chortled his way through items on the eurozone and the resignation of two HSBC directors, but when it came to the proposed closure of the UK’s last tobacco factory he could scarcely contain himself. “I’ve written a rather terrible pun,” he tittered. “The fag end of the British cigarette industry looks set to be snuffed out

being non-executive chairman. A search for a chief executive has been launched, although Neil Griffiths, the chief operating officer, is tipped to get the nod.

Mr Billingham celebrated by sharing a pint with Steve Dando, his finance director, at The Crown in Alrewas, Staffordshire, and giving all 400 or so members of staff a bottle of champagne (“a very cheap one,” he adds hastily).

Some of the group’s pub tenants were not in the mood to celebrate, however. Val Spencer, a veteran anti-pubco campaigner from the pressure group Licensees Supporting Licensees, said that the restructuring would do nothing to help the company’s landlords. “Punch may no longer technically be a zombie, but it continues to suck the life out of its hard-pressed publicans.” with the closure of a factory in Northern Ireland. I shouldn’t laugh, 900 jobs are going.” Indeed, he shouldn’t.

the french connection City folk may like to think they’re irreplaceable, but some are more replaceable than others. Take Simon French, until recently an analyst at Panmure Gordon. Within weeks of quitting to join Cenkos Securities, Panmure announced the appointment of a top Whitehall civil servant as a senior economist on a 12-month secondment. His name? Simon French. re-investing your profits Helical Bar has come up with a novel way of selling properties at its Barts Square development in West Smithfield. Gerald Kaye, the development director, and Nigel McNair Scott, the chairman, have bought flats for £1.575 million and £1.625 million, respectively, while Mr McNair Scott’s son is buying one for £1.6 million — all deals “based on independent valuations”.

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

Fourth setback leaves FirstGroup promise in danger of being derailed Robert Lea Industrial Editor

Investors in FirstGroup were jostling for the exit yesterday after learning that it is be turfed out of running the railways in Scotland and is in danger of losing its status as Britain’s biggest train operator.

FirstGroup has lost out on four train franchises in the past five months, three of which where it was the incumbent operator. The company is relying on the Department for Transport to hand it contract extensions on its two remaining franchises, Great Western and TransPennine Express, and needs to win the contract for the East Coast Main Line if it is to make good its promise to come out of the recession with as much operating profit from the railways as it had when the downturn hit.

86m

Passenger journeys made on ScotRail in the 2013-14 financial year

Source: FirstGroup

The decision by Transport Scotland to ditch FirstGroup and appoint Abellio, the British division of the Dutch state railway, was not without controversy and could face a legal challenge While FirstGroup railed yesterday at a decision that it says flies in the face of its strong ScotRail operating performance over the past decade, National Express, another losing bidder, is considering its position, having been told

by Transport Scotland that the cost of its bid to the British taxpayer had come in lower than that of Abellio.

In a statement last night, National Express, which had lost ScotRail to FirstGroup in 2004, said: “We are surprised and naturally very disappointed that a bid combining brand new intercity trains to all of Scotland’s cities and

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significant journey time improvements, among a host of other initiatives, has been unsuccessful.

“There is very little in today’s announcement [of Abellio’s winning submission] that was not included in our bid and we believe we combined this with an attractive offer to taxpayers.”

It is understood that FirstGroup, which was nursing a share price fall of 5½p to 109½p last night, will not be joining any potential challenge as it regroups after another big setback for Tim O’Toole, its chief executive.

Summer on the railways got off to a poor start when the group was told by Transport Scotland that it was no longer needed to run the Caledonian sleeper service between London and the Highlands, the operation being handed instead to Serco, another troubled contractor.

FirstGroup was shortlisted for, but lost out in, the competition for the south Essex c2c franchise. Then it was stripped of its First Capital Connect commuter operation in London, losing out to the Go-Ahead-Keolis consortium in the bidding to run the enlarged Thameslink-Southern super-franchise.

Now Mr O’Toole has heaped pressure on himself in a statement that puts increased focus on the battle to win the East Coast franchise between London, Yorkshire and Edinburgh.

In a message to investors, he said: “[The ScotRail] news does not alter the group’s stated medium-term targets. As one of the largest and most experienced rail operators, we are actively participating in franchise competitions with the objective of achieving earnings on a par with the last round of franchising.”

FirstGroup is likely to get much of the way to that when the DfT, as is expected, grants an extension of up to five years on the Great Western franchise that FirstGroup has run — with varying degrees of success and popularity — since privatisation. It is also in

Business Taking the low road Dec 07

1,000p

Sep 08

FirstGroup joins FTSE 100 but shares slide after bad press

Collapse of Lehman Brothers prompts global banking crisis

Feb 07

900

800

Sept 10

Takes over Laidlaw of the US for £1.9bn

Moir Lockhead retires; hands over to Tim O’Toole

700

Mar 12

600

Problems emerge in UK bus operations

500

May 14

400

FirstGroup begins run of four lost train franchise bids

300

200 Mar 09

May 13

2004

05

06

07

08

100

Forced into £615m rights issue

Falls out of FTSE 100

09

negotiations with the DfT to extend the TransPennine Express to 2016.

FirstGroup will face an earnings shortfall if it does not land the East Coast contract in a hot three-way contest. The DfT is due to announce the winner of the reprivatisation of East Coast next month, five years after being run by the department. The bidders for the East Coast are a consortium of Stagecoach and Virgin and, on the

10

11

12

13

14

0

other hand, a joint venture between Eurostar and Keolis, operators that are partly owned by SNCF, of France.

Abellio runs the East Anglian franchise as well as Northern Trains and Merseyrail in a joint venture with Serco. Jeff Hoogesteger, its chief executive, said: “This is a huge day for Abellio and indeed the Netherlands, which has such a rich history of commercial and cultural trade with Scotland.”

New driver, old problems Profile Tim O’Toole

T

im O’Toole joined FirstGroup in May 2009, a couple of months after the bus and trains group had fallen out of the FTSE 100. Nothing much has gone right since (Robert Lea writes).

Footsie status had been the crowning glory of Sir Moir Lockhead, the one-time apprentice bus depot mechanic who transformed Grampian Regional Transport into FirstGroup, a blue-chip operation with significant interests on both sides of the Atlantic.

It is what he bequeathed Mr O’Toole in the summer of 2010 when the latter, then a non-executive, accepted the chief executive’s job, that has set the tenor of the past four years. A £1.9 billion takeover of Laidlaw, the school bus, city bus and Greyhound operator, in 2007 saddled FirstGroup with unserviceable debts and US market problems exacerbated by the economic downturn.

In Britain, while FirstGroup had grown to become the biggest rail company, its bus operations were exposed as inadequately managed. A sliding share price cratered when Mr O’Toole ordered a £615 million rights issue to patch up the balance sheet in 2013. On the railways, things hit the buffers and Mr O’Toole has overseen the loss of three franchises in a few months.

Mr O’Toole, now 59, joined FirstGroup initially as a part-time director to spend more time with his American-based wife, giving up a job as boss of London Underground, where he had been widely lauded. He led the operation through the aftermath of the 7/7 terrorist atrocities on the network in 2005, for which he received a CBE.

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Business

High street gloom as Britain shuts up shop CARL COURT/REX FEATURES

Andrew Clark Deputy Business Editor

The sickly condition of the nation’s high streets has worsened as coffee chains and discount outlets struggle to fill the gaps left by disappearing video rental stores, fashion boutiques and pawnbrokers.

Although the economy has improved, 3,003 shops shut during the first half of 2014, equivalent to 16 closures daily, according to a study of 500 town centres by PwC and the Local Data Company.

Although the closure rate was not as bad as last year’s rate of 18 daily closures, the number of new shops opening has slumped from 3,157 to 2,597, which meant a “net” loss of 406 shops over the six months to June, compared with 371 for all of 2013.

Mike Jervis, a retail specialist at PwC, described the findings as “depressing” for town centres: “At this point in the economic cycle, maybe you’d expect to see more optimism in openings, but you’re not. It’s clear that the high street is still suffering as people migrate online or to out-oftown shopping centres.”

Building societies accounted for more closures than any other retail category, followed by DVD rental

Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

HSS tools up ready for flotation in London Deirdre Hipwell

Percentage net change of shops opening and closing in the first half of 2014

RISERS

FALLERS

Women’s clothes shops -4.80%

American restaurants

7.65%

Discount stores

4.05%

Men’s clothes shops

-6.99%

Coffee shops

2.99%

Pawnbrokers

-7.02%

Betting shops

2.54%

Building societies

Banks

1.11%

Video libraries

outlets, which have been virtually wiped out since the failure of the Blockbuster chain. Pawnbrokers and clothes shops also fared poorly.

Among new openings, the relentless march of William Hill and Ladbrokes continued as betting shops topped the expansion league, ahead of coffee outlets such as Costa and Starbucks, with banks and discount shops also in the mix. American restaurants such as Five Guys burgers also did well.

Patrick O’Brien, a retail analyst at Verdict, said that the changing mixture was not necessarily negative and that “restaurants and coffee shops serve a purpose in terms of town centres retaining their place in the community”.

He added that discount stores such as Poundland and Poundworld had built a durable business model: “The

-10.32% -100%

discounters have earned their place on the high street; they serve a strong purpose for consumers.”

The only regions where openings outpaced closures were London and the east of England. Worst hit were the Midlands, the northwest and the southeast.

The picture is likely to get even worse. Since the figures were compiled, Phones4u has collapsed, with the majority of its 700 outlets shutting permanently. La Senza, the lingerie chain, has also been liquidated, with 55 shops closing.

In 2011, David Cameron asked Mary Portas, the retail expert, to carry out a review for the government on how to revitalise town centre shopping. She made a series of recommendations, including the creation of so-called “town teams” and a national market day.

Pay frozen and perks cut by pensions specialist Miles Costello

Just Retirement has scrapped a pay review, slashed pension contributions and cut benefit allowances for senior directors and managers in the wake of George Osborne’s surprise overhaul of the annuities market.

The specialist pensions provider, which was forced to cut its cost base and review its product lines after the chancellor declared in his budget that retiring savers need not buy an annuity, also cut the fees paid to independent directors by 10 per cent.

Freezing pay and cutting perks for top staff helped Just Retirement to save more than £4 million, accounting for more than a third of the £14 million in cost cuts that the company pushed through in the wake of Mr Osborne’s pensions overhaul.

Details of the measures were contained in Just Retirement’s annual report yesterday, which showed that Rodney Cook, the chief executive, collected just under £1.2 million in pay bonuses and benefits for the year.

He received a £532,000 bonus on top of his base salary of £560,000 on the ground that Just Retirement performed more strongly than had been

expected during the nine months before the budget and far better than was feared in the three months after.

Just Retirement reported a 3 per cent drop in underlying operating profits to £97 million before tax for the year to the end of June as it offset lower annual sales with a rise in work insuring corporate pension schemes.

Mr Cook was seen as having responded quickly to Mr Osborne’s reforms by driving the creation of new pensions products designed to cater to savers’ increased financial flexibility. He also was said to have moved swiftly to cut the company’s cost base, which included shedding more than 90 jobs from a workforce of almost 800.

Just Retirement halved its company pension contributions to 5 per cent of salary, in a move that will last for at least a year and hits three quarters of the workforce. Allowances for executives and senior managers were cut by 10 per cent of salary, in a temporary measure and, as from July, the fees of non-executive directors were cut by 10 per cent.

Shares in Just Retirement, which halved in the aftermath of the budget, closed 2.5 per higher at 126½p.

It may not be the most glamorous trade to be in, but hiring out vacuum cleaners, power drills and cement mixers to cleaners, builders and even offshore oil companies is about to become of great interest to movers and shakers in the City.

HSS Hire Service Group and Exponent, its private equity owner, are understood to be close to appointing bankers to advise on a potential flotation that could value the company at £600 million, according to Sky News.

If HSS floats, it will mark a strong return to form for a business that was forced to restructure its debt during the recession as the property crash hit demand for its power tools and DIY products.

It could also generate a quick return on a company that Exponent has owned since 2012, when it bought HSS from Aurigo, an investment company set up by Archie Norman, the chairman of ITV, and Och-Ziff, the hedge fund. The consortium of Aurigo and Och-Ziff bought HSS Hire in 2007 at the height of the buyout boom, for £310 million from 3i, the listed private equity group.

Although HSS had a tough recession, its fortunes have improved. Last year, revenue jumped 24 per cent to £226 million and net earnings rose 36 per cent to £55 million. In its results for the half-year to June 28, HSS reported another strong rise in turnover of 33 per cent to £130.6 million with net earnings rising 35 per cent to

£330m

Total net debt of HSS as of December 31, 2008 Source: Management Today

£15.3 million. Chris Davies, the chief executive, said that its performance was a result of its “highly diversified customer base and focus over the long term”.

HSS has expanded its operations by snapping up rival businesses. In April, it bought Apex Generators, a Scottish generator hire company, to boost its specialist power division, which provides equipment to the construction, housebuilding, industrial, marine and offshore sectors.

The purchase of Apex came after other deals, including UK Platforms, which supplies electric and dieselpowered products to the construction industry, and TecServ, which works in the cleaning sector.

HSS operates from more than 250 sites in Britain and Ireland. Ninety per cent of its revenue comes from business customers, such as Network Rail, Otis, J Sainsbury and Heathrow.

The company joins a rising number of companies hoping to list in what is set to be a record year for initial public offerings in London. Businesses including BCA Marketplace, formerly known as British Car Auctions, and the “challenger banks” Aldermore and Virgin Money have outlined their intentions to float. However, last week, Miller Homes, the Edinburgh-based housebuilder, pulled its float, citing “recent volatility” in the financial markets.

HSS and Exponent declined to comment.

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

39

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Business AT THE COALFACE Construction is booming but finding qualified tradesmen is a growing problem in Britain

We have the work, but who’s going to do it?

A

working lunch André Garrett Cliveden House, Taplow, Berkshire

Sarah Semley says that “if you’re willing to work, women can be just as successful as men in practical, hands-on roles”

390,000

Workers who left the industry during the downturn

182,000

Additional construction jobs that will be created between 2014-18

7,280

People who completed apprenticeships last year

10 Percentage of those employed in construction aged 19-24 Source: CITB

local college and they offered him a woman. It was the first time he’d ever taken on a female joiner — not because he didn’t think they could do the job, but because he’d never come across one before. In fact, Sarah Semley, 25, who was inspired to become a joiner after seeing how much her mother enjoyed working as a tiler, was so good at her trade that she is now head joiner at Evergreen and recently won the SkillBuild Apprentice of the Year award.

“The team I work with is predominantly male, but, by following in my mum’s footsteps, I’ve proved that if you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and work your hardest, women can be just as successful as men in practical, hands-on roles,” she said.

K&M McLoughlin Decorating, based in Islington in north London, has worked on a number of big projects in the capital, including at the British Museum, the Olympic Park and King’s Cross Station. It, too, is approaching employment in a different way.

While it has long been a big advocate of apprentices, it has realised that, if the painting and decorating company is to grow, it needs to equip those who have successfully completed

apprenticeships with management skills so that they can progress to the next level and manage projects.

“We want to make sure that the young individuals coming into the construction industry know that there’s a progression route. We’ve got so many different avenues that they can go down,” Jean Duprez, its business development manager, said.

At present, she is looking into management courses for its young workforce.

“If all they want to do is have a paint brush in their hands, then that’s fine, they can do that — but they can also become surveyors, health and safety inspectors, site managers and many other things.

“If we keep them as apprentices and painters, we won’t have anywhere near enough skilled staff to go into management roles in the future. We want to support career progression for everyone. We’re trying to develop the managers of tomorrow from within.”

According to Mr Radley, companies are trying to recruit those who have left the Armed Forces, persuade older workers to stay on as trainers or mentors and work on improving the image of a career in construction in schools.

franchise news

A fresh aspect on helping the young unemployed Danielle Sheridan

Finding jobs is not the only solution for unemployed young people, as one London-based property maintenance company is proving. You can turn them into business owners.

Aspect.co.uk is encouraging people in their twenties who are out of work to consider starting a franchise by providing hands-on assistance with everything from writing a business plan to securing a bank loan.

Will Davies, a co-founder of aspect.co.uk, said: “We are taking indi-

What to eat and where to go Jeff Mills

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JON SUPER

A skills shortage is posing new problems for recovering businesses, reports Kathryn Hopkins

lex Hutt is panicking about the end of the week.

An employee is leaving his company. Business may be booming for Evergreen Joiners in Ulverston, Cumbria, but there are not enough staff to do the work.

“I have a guy that’s leaving on Friday and I have to replace him and I’m worrying about it. The skills shortage is a tough one — and people wonder why there are lots of migrants coming over to fill the gap.”

The same story can be found across the industry, among bricklayers, painters and decorators, plasterers, architects, conveyancers and surveyors. When the financial crisis struck in 2008, it almost crushed the construction sector, pushing many businesses to the brink of bankruptcy and forcing 390,000 workers out of the industry.

The pain was obvious and even in a recovering industry driven by an advancing economy and incentive schemes such as Help to Buy, that pain is still being felt. Many of those who lost their jobs in the depths of the downturn have retrained and don’t want to come back, while an estimated 410,000 construction workers who stayed on will reach retirement age in five to ten years.

There is not enough young blood coming in to fill that gap.

“Companies have gone very quickly from worrying about survival and where the next order is coming from to now being really concerned about where they can get the skilled people to meet the orders that are coming in,” Steve Radley, director of policy and strategy planning at the Construction Industry Training Board, said. “Companies are looking to see if they can tempt people back into the industry who have left in the past few years. In many cases, people have found a new job and are enjoying what they do. They also associate construction with uncertainty in terms of earnings.”

For this reason, many businesses are being encouraged to look beyond the norm and to do more to diversify their workforce, attracting women as well as workers from different ages and different backgrounds.

Mr Hutt is one of these. When he last looked for a joiner, he called the

LIFESTORE

viduals with limited experience and we are holding their hands through the process. We can open the door and be there for them to give them the best possible chance of getting the money they need to develop a business.”

The company said that already it had used the approach to establish four new franchisees and it planned to add at least six more over the next year.

“It is not done just out of charity,” Mr Davies, 39, said. “We have a loyalty that we take from franchises, but it is also a very attractive business model for them.” Would-be franchise entrepre-

neurs need to contribute about £5,000 to get started, although Mr Davies said that he was willing to contribute half of that amount for those lacking the necessary funds.

Mr Davies said that relevant industry skills were less important than being “driven and having a desire to build a business themselves, and put in the hard work needed to achieve that”.

Paul Rowland, 24, originally from Shropshire, is working with aspect to build his own business. He moved to London in 2008 aged 17, to “get ahead and make a name for myself”. After set-

ting up a business in property management with aspect, which he launched in January, he said he was on his way to running a successful small company.

He is running the franchise after a series of failed attempts at trying to build a business on his own. “I needed to put together a business plan and they helped me with that. If they had a 23-year-old sitting in front of them in a bank, without aspect’s backing, it wouldn’t have worked,” he said.

Aspect said that a typical franchisee should expect to have sales of £500,000 by the end of its second year.

Order Modern British dishes such as cocotte of Dorset lobster and fillet of Cumbrian longhorn beef, or reinvented classics such as Dover sole Veronique and venison Grand-Veneur. The menu has been created by André Garrett, the chef, formerly of Galvin at Windows in the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane, central London. His seasonal soufflés alone make a visit worthwhile.

Expect The refurbished restaurant is in the beautiful setting of Cliveden House, now a National Trust property but once home of the Astor family. Christine Keeler famously frolicked there during the Profumo scandal. An excellent choice if you’re looking for somewhere different to entertain senior contacts.

postcard from Vienna Vienna’s central European location works now as it has in the past, even if Habsburg-era decadence has largely gone.

Man on the ground “There’s a real international feel to business in Vienna, not surprising when the city is host to Opec, has its own stock exchange and is seen as the business gateway to the markets of the former eastern Europe,” Otto Hochegger, a corporate adviser, says.

Refuelling Check in at Das Trieste, on Wiedner Hauptstrasse, a high-tech designer gem of a hotel and a ten-minute walk from the main business districts.

Acting local For some history with your after-work drinks, go to the Schwarzen Kameel on Bognergasse, said to be one of Beethoven’s favourites.

40

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Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

Business Markets companies news

Martin Waller Tempus Buy, sell or hold: today’s best share tips

marston’s

Marston’s share price

160p 155 150 145 140

Q1

New sites to be built this year 25

M

Q2

Q3

135 Q4

arston’s is now the highest-yielding pub MY ADVICE Hold operator on the stock WHY Marston’s has one of the market, although to be most attractive estates in the fair there is not a lot of competition, what with several of its pub sector and will benefit rivals being precluded from paying a from restructuring, while the dividend at all because of heavy debt dividend yield is a plus burdens.

The company is also approaching the end of a wide-ranging restructuring under which it has market has helped this, because ditched hundreds of drinks-led about two thirds of these were boozers and focused instead on pubs converted to other uses. Roughly the selling food. In this Marston’s is same will be divested this year. merely going along with the By contrast, Marston’s rest of the sector, but the reckons that new freehold company is more interested sites can be built on about 3.1% in building new pubs, six times’ earnings, even in Rise in sales at about 25 each year, rather the competitive market in food-led estate than competing with rivals the southeast, where it is in auctions for existing relatively under-exposed. stock.

Its pre-close trading update This makes sense; in the showed some slowing in sales financial year to the end of growth in the last three months, after September, more than 200 pubs were similar statements from its rivals sold, on an average of 7.5 times Greene King and Mitchells & Butlers. earnings. The booming property August was always going to be mothercare Size of rights issue £100m

T

o sceptics, Mothercare has the look of one of those retailers in the wrong place at the wrong time, selling goods on the high street that are available more cheaply in the supermarkets or on the internet: think HMV or Game Group, in their earlier incarnations.

Nevertheless, shareholders will be given the opportunity today to grant the company another lease of life when they vote in favour of a £100 million rights issue. This is on a nine-for-ten basis on a thumping great discount to the market value, at

The Serious Fraud Office has launched its first criminal prosecution using new anti-bribery legislation against four men alleged to have been part of a biofuel investment scam.

The SFO alleges that the defendants, said to have used money from the business to buy sports cars, operated Sustainable AgroEnergy as a pyramid scheme with new investors’ money paid out to existing investors. The men deny the charges, the first by the SFO under the Bribery Act.

liontrust asset mgmnt

Pint of order

Source: Google finance

New pubs mean the glass is half-full

First Bribery Act case

125p against a closing price yesterday of 238p, down 6¾p.

The money is desperately needed to shrink the British business, which accounts for just under 40 per cent of sales but lost £21.5 million in the latest financial year. There are about 220 UK stores. This will fall to about 160, with the cash being used to extract Mothercare from onerous leases and to refurbish the remaining estate, which has not had much spent on it of late.

This reorganisation and a greater emphasis on online sales should push the British business back into the black, a task that will be helped a couple of rivals shrinking or exiting the market entirely, taking some of

By the end of 2014-15 financial year:

Assets under management £3.8bn

F

und management ought to be a relatively straightforward business, providing that you get the basics right. As assets under management increase, staff costs will do so, but at a slower rate. Therefore the bigger you are, the better the 800 Taverns, margins. most run on So it seems to be proving at franchised basis Liontrust Asset Management. It was losing money a few years ago; today, 350 leased pubs it is achieving margins in the 30 per cent area, with the prospect of reaching 40 per cent, the sort enjoyed by its larger rivals, within a few years as assets difficult, up against hot under management reach follow me weather and good trading a £7 billion. on twitter year before and containing To do this, Liontrust will for updates the washout summer bank have to follow those larger @MartinWaller10 rivals into Europe and, holiday.

Still, over the year indeed, the company is like-for-like sales at its setting up a distribution office Destination and Premium pubs, in Luxembourg. Getting to that those focused on food, were 3.1 per £7 billion figure, though, will follow a cent ahead, while even in its slow and lumpy trajectory. In the poorer-quality leased estate, profits three months to the end of were up by 3 per cent, helped by the September, those assets grew to disposal of those underperforming £3.8 billion, net inflows of £94 million assets. being offset in part by an adverse By this time next year, the market movement of £59 million. restructuring will be complete and In the days since, Liontrust has about half the company’s profits will added another £320 million, come from those Destination and winning an institutional mandate.

Premium pubs. It reckons to have I have suggested before that the new sites under contract or identified shares, up ½p at 214½p, are only for to take it to 2017. the patient.

The shares, off 1¼p at 139½p, have done little over the past year, but much the same can be said for the MY ADVICE Hold sector as a whole. They sell on about WHY Prospects are good, but 11 times this year’s earnings, although progress may be slow the main support will come from that 5 per cent dividend yield.

Disposals running at about 200 a year

400 food-led Destination and Premium pubs, providing majority of the earnings

the pressure off from excess discounting. Mothercare has just been signed up by Debenhams to put franchises in several stores on a trial basis.

The latest trading statement saw the profitable international business back to double-digit growth, yet doubts over Mothercare’s long-term place in the market remain. The shares are a straight punt, and not a terribly attractive one, then.

MY ADVICE Best avoided WHY Its chosen market is difficult and competitive

Small business pledge Royal Bank of Scotland is trying to improve its relationship with small businesses with a pledge to lend £1 billion more to existing customers. It said that its small business fund would provide affordable fixed-rate loans of between £1,000 and £250,000 with no arrangement fee. The bank promised that nine out of ten applicants for the loans would receive a lending decision within five days.

Healthy refinancing Nuffield Health has completed a £330 million refinancing to provide capital to develop its gyms and private hospitals. Pricoa Capital and Metropolitan Life Insurance have provided fixedrate loans of ten to twelve years.

Banks including Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC have extended facilities. Nuffield operates 31 hospitals, 65 health clubs and bought a handful of Virgin Active’s gyms in August.

Phone giant pays out America’s second-largest mobile phone company has agreed to pay a record $105 million to settle allegations that it added millions of dollars in bogus charges to bills. AT&T Mobility was accused by the Federal Communications Commission of charging some people a monthly fee, typically $9.99, for services that they did not request, such as ringtones, horoscopes, racing tips and celebrity gossip.

And finally . . .

P

unch Taverns’ restructuring seems to have been grinding on for years, but finally it is complete, leaving existing holders with only 15 per cent of the new equity. The shares, a penny stock already, fell another 7 per cent to 8¼p yesterday. The restructuring will leave the bondholders with most of the equity and no particular reason to sell; institutional holdings will be very light. Now the hard work begins. The heavy level of debt has, of necessity, constrained much-needed spending on the estate.

For breaking news as it happens thetimes.co.uk/ business

PRICES Major Indices New York Dow Jones Nasdaq Composite S&P 500

London Financial Futures 16994.22 (+274.83) 4468.59 (+83.39) 1968.89 (+33.79) 15595.98 (-187.85)

Hong Kong Hang Seng

23263.33 (-159.19)

Sydney AO Frankfurt DAX

403.46 (-3.05) 5241.60 (-43.20) 8995.33 (-90.88)

Singapore Straits

3226.71 (-17.28)

Brussels BEL20

3100.04 (-22.04)

Paris CAC-40

8517.29 (-44.70) 3053.31 (-28.79)

Long Gilt 3-Mth Sterling

London

Tokyo Nikkei 225

Amsterdam AEX Index

Zurich SMI Index DJ EURO Stoxx 50

4168.12 (-41.02)

FTSE 100 6482.24 (-13.34) FTSE 250 14933.52 (-165.70) FTSE 350 3515.68 (-12.01) FTSE Eurotop 100 2683.86 (-20.55) FTSE All-Shares 3454.51 (-12.56) FTSE Non Financials 4017.85 (-18.64) techMARK 100 3202.49 (-30.93) Bargains 1188784 US$ 1.6134 (+0.0049) Euro 1.2674 (-0.0023) £:SDR 1.08 (+0.00) Exchange Index 87.4 (-0.2) Bank of England official close (4pm) CPI 128.30 Aug (2005 = 100) RPI 257.00 Aug (Jan 1987 = 100) RPIX 256.50 Aug (Jan 1987 = 100) Morningstar Long Commodity 850.98 (+0.12) Morningstar Long/Short Commod 4577.62 (-15.59)

3-Mth Euribor

3-Mth Euroswiss

2 Year Swapnote 5 Year Swapnote 10 Year Swapnote FTSE100 FTSEurofirst 80

Period Dec 14 Mar 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Jun 15 Sep 15 Dec 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Jun 15 Sep 15 Dec 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Jun 15 Sep 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Dec 14 Mar 15

Commodities

Open 114.67

High 115.14

Low 114.64

99.370 99.230 99.060 98.880 98.700 99.920 99.930 99.935 99.930 99.910 100.04 100.07 100.10 100.09 111.59

99.390 99.260 99.100 98.940 98.760 99.920 99.935 99.940 99.935 99.915 100.04 100.08 100.10 100.09 111.59 111.56 127.32 100.00 146.61 100.00 6475.0 6408.5 4279.5

99.370 99.230 99.060 98.880 98.700 99.915 99.925 99.930 99.925 99.905 100.03 100.06 100.07 100.07 111.58 111.55 127.26 100.00 146.35 100.00 6424.0 6400.5 4278.5

127.28 146.61 6425.0 6400.5 4278.5

Sett 114.92 114.92 99.380 99.245 99.090 98.920 98.750 99.915 99.925 99.930 99.925 99.910 100.03 100.07 100.08 100.08 111.58 111.58 127.27 127.27 146.45 146.45 6468.5 6418.5 4011.5 4012.5

Vol 282432

Open Int 433133

73816 106700 110640 101366 175285 14767 21147 14281 18645 25782 4497 5545 2722 2173 117 104 404 3 197 3 122156 3 75

473423 413824 411558 299107 342803 511476 406848 378278 286504 302402 76832 79735 41606 25415 23010 10075 4684 572321 1030 75

Jan

ICIS pricing (London 7.30pm) Crude Oils ($/barrel FOB) Brent Physical Brent 25 day (Jan) Brent 25 day (Feb) W Texas Intermed (Jan) W Texas Intermed (Feb)

90.65 91.20 91.65 87.30 86.60

-0.65 -0.70 -0.80 -1.55 -1.40

Products ($/MT) 915.00 774.75 488.00 741.00

916.00 776.75 497.00 743.00

-4.00 -4.75 -11.00 -18.00

774.25-773.75 777.75-777.50 781.00-780.50

Brent (9.00pm) Nov 91.64-91.63 Dec 92.05-92.04

Cocoa Dec Mar May Jul Sep Dec

unq unq unq unq unq unq

Mar May Jul

Sep Nov Jan Mar

unq unq unq unq

May Jul

unq unq unq Volume: 19597

Jan Feb

785.25-784.25 BID Volume: 266259

Feb Mar

108.00-91.80 93.70-92.28

unq unq Volume: 11355

White Sugar (FOB) Reuters

ICE Futures Gas Oil Oct Nov Dec

Volume: 978303

RobustaCoffee

Spot CIF NW Europe (prompt delivery) Premium Unld Gasoil EEC 3.5 Fuel Oil Naphtha

92.57-92.48

LIFFE

Dec Mar May

unq unq unq

Aug Oct Dec Mar

unq unq unq unq Volume: 6630

London Grain Futures LIFFE Wheat (close £/t) Nov May

113.65 120.15

Jan Jul

116.00 122.25

Mar 118.05 Volume: 610

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

41

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Markets Business

ROBERT BOSCH/MAMMUT/CATERS NEWS

ITV in sharper focus as Credit Suisse tunes in Gary Parkinson Market report

I

nvestors tuned into ITV after a broker put the Downton Abbey broadcaster’s name in lights.

Omar Sheikh, Credit Suisse’s media analyst, told clients that there was plenty of scope for ITV to return more cash to shareholders. By his calculations, the £8.2 billion company should generate more than £400 million in cash, on top of what the business needs this year, and more than £600 million in 2015, when it would be “logical” to hand back as much as £360 million.

Then there’s the value of ITV Studios, the television production business, potentially beneficial regulatory changes, strong earnings and cheap shares.

“The recent pull-back, on global growth concerns, provides an

telecoms

Italian job in Vodafone’s sights

V

odafone’s shopping list has fed the febrile imaginings of every market rumourmonger since the ink dried on its $130 billion sale of Verizon Wireless in February (Nic Fildes writes).

It has delivered so far, certainly. After the mobile operator added “inorganic” opportunities to the “to do” part of its “Project Spring” global network upgrade, it landed targets in Germany and Spain.

But there’s more, apparently. One name said to be at the top of

Wall Street report The Federal Reserve’s latest minutes prompted a busy day on Wall Street as investors piled in — and out — and markets oscillated wildly before linking arms and marching upwards.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed on 16,994.22 points, up 274.83.

Stunts take adverts to a new level

S

ome of these models may have come to regret accepting this particular assignment. Showing off the latest lines is one thing, but the

trail runners pictured against a backdrop of mountains in Diavolezza, above, were hired for a series of gravity-defying stunts, all in the name of advertising for the latest Mammut clothing line.

The Swiss outdoor clothing company, which has specialised in mountain sports since 1862, went to extreme lengths to

AHDB meat services Average fatstock prices at representative markets (p/kg lw) Pig Lamb Cattle GB 0.00 154.29 184.27 (+/-) +0.00 -4.45 -0.06 Eng/Wales (+/-) Scotland (+/-)

Cash

Bullion: Open $1210.20

7310.0-7320.0

2101.0-2102.0

1980.0-1985.0

Zinc Spec Hi Gde ($/tonne) 2331.5-2332.0 2340.0-2340.5

1943.0-1948.0

20295.0-20300.0

Alum Hi Gde ($/tonne) 1920.0-1920.5 1950.0-1950.5 Nickel ($/tonne) 16695.0-16700.0 16750.0-16755.0

20385.0-20435.0 2280.0-2285.0 18770.0-18870.0

1.1427-1.1428 1.1188-1.1191 5.8697-5.8705 0.7886-0.7887 7.7565-7.7574 108.43-108.45 3.2712-3.2852 6.4764-6.4780 1.2786-1.2787 7.2228-7.2278 0.9566-0.9570

Argentina peso Australia dollar Bahrain dinar Brazil real Euro Hong Kong dollar India rupee Indonesia rupiah Kuwait dinar KD Malaysia ringgit New Zealand dollar Singapore dollar S Africa rand U A E dirham

13.593-13.604 1.8358-1.8359 0.6020-0.6096 3.8706-3.8866 1.2668-1.2671 12.461-12.462 98.555-98.758 19600-19638 0.4621-0.4646 5.1482-5.3509 2.0588-2.0593 2.0536-2.0548 17.941-17.969 5.8984-5.9047

2 mth

3 mth

6 mth

12 mth

0.7133

1.0590

Krugerrand $1194.00-1267.00 (£743.15-788.58)

Clearer CDs

0.58-0.43

0.60-0.45

0.65-0.50

0.80-0.65

1.13-0.98

Platinum $1271.00 (£791.07)

Depo CDs

0.58-0.43

0.60-0.45

0.65-0.50

0.80-0.65

1.13-0.98

192.07 +9.62

Lead ($/tonne) 2093.0-2095.0

Australia Canada Denmark Euro Hong Kong Japan Malaysia Norway Singapore Sweden Switzerland

0.5643

151.74 -3.11

15mth

Dollar rates

0.5324

unq

Interbank Rates

Silver $17.15 (£10.67)

Eurodollar Deps

0.15-0.25

0.19-0.29

0.23-0.33

0.36-0.46

0.51-0.66

Palladium $798.00 (£496.68)

Eurodollar CDs

0.15-0.08

0.18-0.12

0.22-0.15

0.36-0.21

0.52-0.38

European money deposits %

Sterling spot and forward rates

Currency 1mth

3mth

6mth

12mth

0.10

0.15

0.23

0.48

0.51

0.56

0.71

1.05

-0.15

-0.07

0.04

0.21

Dollar Sterling Euro

venture opinions of their own.

Instead, they did what analysts told them. Bank of America Merrill Lynch slapped a “double downgrade” on GKN, from “buy” to “underperform”, sending the tooler of spare parts for cars 10¾p lower to 294¾p. HSBC called time on the recent markdown of Tesco, 2½p higher at 185p.

Peel Hunt and Berenberg pushed Interserve, a support services company, up 22½p at 610p. Cantering the other way was Ferrexpo, falling 8p to 95p after Deutsche Bank, the iron ore producer’s own broker, trimmed its target price for the shares from 300p to (a still ambitious) 286p.

Finally, Worthington Group, the £10.5 million aspiring conglomerate whose shares rocketed more than 6,000 per cent in barely a month before then halving, published a trading update and jumped 23.5 per cent to 89½p. A mile from both the 3½p at which they changed hands at the end of August and the 198½p they fetched at the end of September.

Money rates %

0.5079

AM $1220.00 PM $1217.00

3mth

attractive entry point for news can actually be bad news investors looking for for markets, rather than in exposure to one of the rare, more recent times when bad follow us growing, TV content assets news was often good news on twitter in Europe,” Mr Sheikh said. due to the extended for updates Credit Suisse added ITV @timesbusiness liquidity it might bring. to its “Europe Focus List” With the ECB still some way and “Global Focus List”. The away from QE, even if we shares stood at 205¾p yesterday think they’ll eventually pull the after rising 1½p in a weak market, trigger, it’s easy to see how we might against Mr Sheikh’s “base case “ value be in a liquidity vacuum for a while.” of 270p and his “blue sky” price of Plenty of investors simply sat it out 346p. until minutes of the latest meeting of There was much for the wider the Federal Reserve were released market to chew over, little of it good: after London had closed and Alcoa, ebola, the International Monetary the aluminium giant, had kicked of Fund’s downgrade of expected global another quarterly earnings season on economic growth earlier in the week, Wall Street. the yawning French budget gap and The FTSE 100 fell a further 13.3 duff German industrial production. It points to 6,482.2. France and Paris, was a struggle to find investors keen Madrid and Milan fell more. Leisure to load up on shares. shares, still rattled by ebola reaching Jim Reid, Deutsche bank’s highly Europe, again led London lower. TUI regarded strategist, caught the mood: Travel, the owner of Thomson and “Perhaps investors are realising that First Choice Holidays, retreated we’re very soon to be in a world another 15p to 367p. without US QE and therefore bad Few investors felt suffiently bold to

1 mth

Low $1205.08

183.38 -1.13

Vodafone’s wishlist is Fastweb, an Italian broadband company owned by Swisscom.

Voda is said to have made an approach over the past year, only to have been rebuffed.

Such a deal looks to

Base Rates Clearing Banks 0.5 Finance House 1.0 ECB Refi 0.05 US Fed Fund 0-0.25 Halifax Mortgage Rate 3.5 Treasury Bills (Dis) Buy: 1 mth 0.38; 3 mth 0.42. Sell: 1 mth 0.35; 3 mth 0.38

Close $1206.34-1206.95 High $1220.10

154.85 -4.45

Copper Gde A ($/tonne) 6754.5-6755.0 6705.0-6706.0

Tin ($/tonne) 20215.0-20220.0

Gold/Precious metals (US dollars per ounce)

0.00 +0.00

London Metal Exchange (Official)

promote its range of equipment — dangling the models from mountains thousands of feet in the air. The shots show stunts, such as hanging from ropes and ski jumps. For the finale, Mammut created a chain of red lights from climbers on the Hörnligrat ridge of the Matterhorn in Switzerland.

Vodafone has been expanding after the Verizon Wireless sale

Mkt Rates for Copenhagen Euro Montreal New York Oslo Stockholm Tokyo Zurich

Range 9.4138-9.4702 1.2724-1.2665 1.7929-1.8014 1.6042-1.6105 10.377-10.417 11.554-11.612 173.44-174.30 1.5351-1.5417

Close 9.4300-9.4307 1.2671-1.2667 1.7971-1.7981 1.6064-1.6067 10.403-10.408 11.603-11.613 174.18-174.24 1.5369-1.5370

1 month 41ds 4pr 9pr 4ds 82pr 17ds 9ds 7ds Premium = pr

3 month 133ds 11pr 27pr 13ds 258pr 66ds 34ds 25ds Discount = ds

Other Sterling

be just the sort that Vittorio Colao, Voda’s chief executive, likes: strengthening a low-growth business in a big European country with some fixed-line prowess.

Swisscom finally looks ready to sell after it appointed UBS, coincidentally Vodafone’s adviser, to explore a €5 billion disposal of its Italian unit. Mr Colao, a veteran of the Italian telecoms sector, would relish the opportunity to take the fight to his old enemy, Telecom Italia. Vodafone shares were 1¾p easier at 204¼p.

Exchange rates Australia $ Canada $ Denmark Kr Egypt Euro ¤ Hong Kong $ Hungary Indonesia Israel Shk Japan Yen New Zealand $ Norway Kr Poland Russia S Africa Rd Sweden Kr Switzerland Fr Turkey Lira USA $

Bank buys Bank sells 1.990 1.730 1.960 1.700 10.190 8.930 12.710 10.110 1.390 1.220 13.430 11.810 431.460 354.980 22634.600 18054.600 6.570 5.610 188.610 163.350 2.290 1.940 11.330 9.800 5.880 4.820 69.320 57.720 19.990 16.930 12.350 10.980 1.700 1.460 4.070 3.260 1.760 1.540

Rates for banknotes and traveller's cheques as traded by Royal Bank of Scotland plc yesterday

Data as shown is for information purposes only. No offer is made by Morningstar or this publication

42

Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

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times2 the table

The foodie who serves just a pear for lunch Alice Waters has influenced everyone from Jamie Oliver to Michelle Obama.

Tony Turnbull talks to the Californian chef who started a cooking revolution

I

f you want a revolution, there are few better places to start than Berkeley, California, in the late Sixties and early Seventies. If students weren’t marching in the name of free speech they were protesting against the Vietnam War, and counterculture hung heavy in the air. So it was that a young Montessori teacher launched her own, no less radical, campaign to change the way America, and from there the world, thought about food.

When Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse restaurant in 1971, she didn’t

see it as an act of political defiance at first. She simply wanted to replicate the way she had eaten in France as a student, where she had seen schoolchildren come home for two hours to have lunch with their families, where people shopped twice a day to get the freshest ingredients, where a baguette hot from the oven was something you’d queue an hour for. She wanted to honour the farmers who took care over their produce by presenting it as simply as possible.

That this allowed her to circumvent the big food conglomerates and give

We need to come back to nature, to feeling human and connected

the finger to “the man” was a bonus.

Her cooking can be almost brutal in its simplicity — she’s been known to serve a single whole pear, presented on a plate with a knife — but its influence can be seen wherever the ingredients are king, from the River Café in London to Noma in Copenhagen. If you open a menu and read words such as local and organic, if it tells you the breed of the chicken you are about to eat and the name of the farmer who grew the tomatoes, then you should know that it all started in a small neighbourhood restaurant a couple of blocks back from San Francisco Bay. Like many simple ideas, it requires a lot of work to make it look so effortless. As there is no artistry to hide behind, Chez Panisse can only be as good as its ingredients. “I’m not the one dictating the menu, it’s the farmers who dictate them,” says 70-year-old Waters. “We don’t print the menu until the last minute and sometimes we’ll reprint it between sittings because we only had so much of something. It’s about catching that moment when an ingredient wakes you up and you say: ‘That’s the best thing I’ve ever tasted’ even if it’s just a fig off a tree.

“What I ate last night perfectly represents Chez Panisse,” she tells me.

“Little tiny squid that were grilled just right, the fire hot enough to give a beautiful, beautiful colour and the tentacles separate from their little bodies. Some aioli, two pieces of rose-coloured potato, boiled and then quickly put on the grill. Then a salad of rocket that was just out of the garden and it stood up the way rocket

does when it has just been picked; it still has the life in it. And really finely shaved fennel, tossed together with a vinaigrette. That’s all it was, but I was so pleased to eat it.”

Being a child of the revolution, it wasn’t long before Waters made the political link with what she was doing, and for nearly 40 years she has used her message of minimum-intervention, ultra-seasonal cooking to spearhead her advocacy for the slow food movement, of which she is vicepresident, to counter the fast-food culture. Her own Edible Schoolyard Project, to get children to eat more healthily, makes Jamie’s School Dinners campaign look like a fifthformer’s rushed homework. She has lobbied Michelle Obama to plant a vegetable garden on the White House lawn and been named in Time magazine’s 100 most influential people.

“We need to bring real food to our children,” she says, “to feed them differently and feed them well. It’s like what Jamie Oliver is saying and doing, but I’m going the whole way. [Food] needs to be involved in the whole academic curriculum so you are using the garden and the kitchen, not to teach cooking and gardening per se, but to teach maths in the laboratory of the garden and the kitchen. It’s about coming back to our senses. Our world is limited by what the fast-food culture wants us to see and do. We need to come back to nature, to a way of feeling human and connected to things that are important.”

Like Jamie, she has been accused of elitism, of not understanding how difficult it is for the deprived in society

Alice’s roasted guinea fowl

Serves 4 Ingredients 1 x 1.5kg guinea fowl Sea salt and pepper Sprigs of herbs such as bay, rosemary, thyme and sage 1 head garlic, cut in half across Olive oil 1 small pumpkin or squash 1 dsp chopped sage 2 large cooked beetroot, peeled and cut into wedges 3 ripe purple or green figs, cut into quarters Watercress or young spinach leaves

Method 1 Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4.

Clean the bird inside and out with kitchen paper. Season inside the cavity and fill with the herb sprigs. Place in a small roasting pan with the garlic. Rub olive oil over the bird and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.

2 Cut the pumpkin or squash into evenly-sized wedges, place in a bowl

with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and the chopped sage, and jumble together. Place in the tin around the bird.

3 Roast the bird, breast side up, for 25 minutes or until the skin has turned golden, remove from the oven and turn it over. Turn the pieces of squash over so that they roast evenly.

Continue to cook for up to 50 minutes or until the juices from the thigh run clear when pierced with a skewer.

4 Remove the bird to a bowl, breast side up, and cover tightly with aluminium foil. This will allow the meat to rest and retain its juices.

Place the squash on a warm serving platter and cover.

5 Skim away any excess oils from the pan, add the beetroot and roast for 5 to 10 minutes or until piping hot.

Add the figs to the pan and toss with the guinea-fowl juices.

6 Serve the guinea fowl on the warm serving platter surrounded by the roasted vegetables and figs and finish with a few watercress or spinach leaves. Serve immediately with the pan juices.

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

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BARRY J HOLMES/LICKERISH; FOOD PICS; JOHN CAREY FOR THE TIMES

to access this utopia of farm-fresh fruit and vegetables. The no-choice dinner at Chez Panisse costs up to $100 (£62), although you can also get “Bob’s cucumbers and radishes with avocado” upstairs in the café for $9.

“We’ve been told that having food that is fresh and ripe and nourishing is elitist, but I think good food is a right, not a privilege. In the US we spend less on food as a percentage of income than any other country. We have to pay the real cost of food.”

She spends most of her time now promoting the cause, so it’s all the more of a coup that she is in London this week to help her close friend and acolyte Sally Clarke celebrate her own restaurant’s 30th anniversary with a series of lunches and dinners.

Clarke was an early adopter of the Waters way, first eating at Chez Panisse in 1979. “The moment I put my hand on the doorknob I knew I was in heaven,” she remembers.

“I couldn’t believe that this idea I’d had since I was 12 to have a restaurant that only served what was best and freshest in the market that day, and only that, was happening in such a beautiful way. It was like a touchstone.

Whenever I write a recipe I ask myself if Alice would approve.”

Since she opened Clarke’s off Notting Hill Gate in 1984, Sally Clarke has introduced all of London to the Waters ethos of rigorous simplicity (Lucian Freud came in every day for lunch until his death three years ago), but she admits to being rigid with fear.

“I’ve never been so nervous in all my life,” she says.

Her version of Waters’ celebrated goat’s cheese salad has ended up on the menu, so too has a dish of guinea fowl with pumpkin, donated by a local primary school, and, to finish, damsons and ice cream, made with honey from another local school. This being Waters, though, there are sure to be plenty of tweaks on the day, just to keep things interesting.

Waters and Clarke: they sound as though they might have provided the soundtrack to the original protest movement, and it promises to be quite the reunion.

Chez Panisse at Clarke’s, 124 Kensington Church Street, London W11, until Oct 11, lunch £50, dinner £70 (020 7221 9225; sallyclarke.com)

MARLON JAMES

Farming roots: Rohan Marley and, inset, his father Bob

Rohan Marley: I found redemption in a coffee cup

T

he majority of Bob Marley’s 11 children have followed in his footsteps. Not Rohan, his seventh, and I know why. As he sings One Cup of Coffee, the B-side to his father’s first single Judge Not, he apologises for his croak.

“I don’t sing, how ironic!” he laughs.

Instead he grows coffee, Marley Coffee, on his estate in Jamaica, which is sold in Lion of Judah emblazoned bags with names such as Lively Up! and One Love medium roast. The company tag line? Stir It Up. He is isn’t just trading off the Marley name, though. Last night, Rohan was awarded a Soil Association organic award for the quality of his produce.

“Just being my father’s son wasn’t going to cut it,” Rohan says.

It hasn’t been an easy journey for the Marley who was regarded as the tearaway of the family. “I was Bob’s bad son, I was the bad apple,” he says.

His mother was Janet Hunt, one of Bob’s girlfriends while he was married to Rita. She and Bob adopted him when he was 4, but sent him to live in America with Bob’s mother in Miami to get some discipline at the age of 12.

Rohan almost became a pro American football player, but didn’t quite make it.

He got together with the multi-award

winning singer Lauryn Hill, and fathered five children. And he struggled with his father’s legacy.

“I was thinking, my father is such a big man, how do I take my inspiration and touch people’s lives?”

The answer came to him in the form of $200,000 in royalties from his father’s music, with which he bought a 52-acre estate in Jamaica. He grew coffee; it was a return in many ways.

“My grandmother was a farmer, my father farmed cocoa, he’d go to the bush and chop bush, y’know? My father always said after music he’d return to the farmland, and I took it upon myself to represent him on that.”

The coffee, though, was low grade and the business floundered, until a trip to the Rastafari spiritual home, Ethiopia, led him to repurpose it. By importing beans from the African country, his company boomed.

What would his father make of it? “‘Go deh Rohan!’ that means go for it son! But in doing it, always make sure people laugh and smile wherever you go, because you come to help, not take away,” he says.

And how did Bob like his coffee?

“Sweet and warm, just like it says in his first song.”

Daisy Greenwell

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Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

arts

How Peer Gynt became a rutting rock ’n’ roll star

Irina Brook tells Dominic Maxwell how her brief affair with Iggy Pop inspired her new take on Ibsen — and why she swapped acting to follow her father, Peter, into directing

J

ust after Irina Brook finished her A levels, aged 18, she flew to New York to study acting and hook up with Iggy Pop. This might sound like fantasy: even if you are the daughter of the great theatre director Peter

Brook, you don’t go waltzing straight from boarding school to an affair with a wiry rock god in downtown Manhattan. As it happens, three decades later, after an unsatisfying career as an actress that eventually became a fulfilling if transient life as a theatre director, Brook herself was

starting to think of the whole escapade as “a strange vague teenage dream in my distant past”. Yet three years ago she started to revive an idea she first thought of back in New York. She imagined the restless, rutting title character of Peer Gynt, Ibsen’s fantastical verse drama of 1876, as a Pop-like rock god.

The finished show has just opened in the Théâtre National de Nice, the 900-seater in the south of France that Brook took charge of in January.

This week she is making a rare visit to Britain as her multinational, multi-instrumentalist cast bring it to the Barbican. It’s flavoured by rock, but also by jazz and blues and folk.

And alongside contributions from the American playwright and actor Sam Shepard, who contributed lyrics and monologues, are two new songs by Iggy Pop. When Brook got in touch with him, they hadn’t spoken in 30 years. He sent her two distinctively swaggering songs: I’m the Dude and Independent Day. Then they met for a day in Paris to talk through the show. “And it was extraordinary to find that was all something real,” says Brook, 51, “and that it was very real for him too, it wasn’t something that I just dreamt.”

What’s more, Pop — “Jim” to his friends — wowed her afresh. “He’s one of the most remarkable people I have ever met. I thought, what an amazing thing to live in that rock’n’roll world and to have matured and developed, to be very present and very brilliant and very funny and very ironic.”

These days Brook is, if not quite self-possessed like a rocker, composed and loquacious. Yet she insists that, back when she was 18, she was introverted and unconfident. So how did she even meet Pop, then 34, let alone have a relationship with him?

This, it turns out, is a bit of a story — one she hasn’t talked about publicly before. When she was in her last year at Bedales, the progressive public school in Hampshire, she and two friends snuck out to go to London to see an Iggy Pop concert: “We did the classic pillow-in-the-bed, over-thewall kind of thing.” Once there, they made their way to the front. “I was entranced. And despite my shyness I still retained a kind of Aries determination which has never left me

Iggy Pop is one of the most remarkable people I have ever met: very funny and very ironic

and I thought, ‘Ooh, I’ve got to meet this person, he is absolutely extraordinary’.” The three of them sneak backstage. “And the next thing we knew we were in Iggy Pop’s dressing room.”

He was taking a shower. She was wearing the “de rigueur outfit of the time”: long men’s shirt, Kickers, flea-market overcoat and fluorescent green socks she had just bought from Kensington Market. “I remember sitting on the floor and being shy, you couldn’t get more un-groupie-ish than me, it was not the glamorous look, and he came out of the shower and said something about my socks and anyway . . . it’s a very long story.

But we met.”

Soon afterwards, just out of school, she auditioned for her father’s production of The Cherry Orchard. He told her she wasn’t ready yet. “So I thought, well, I have to leave and find my own way.” She went to New York to study acting. At first she couldn’t face calling Pop, but then “somehow we met up again” and their affair began. “It was just a very, very huge, luminous, extraordinary moment in my 18-yearold life.” They lived together briefly, experienced the downtown scene together.

And this “very fleeting moment”, plus the three years in New York that followed, stayed with her long after she returned to Europe to ply her trade as an actress.

Brook is, like all her family, “very, very English”, yet lives in France,

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

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arts

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER BRUNO BEBERT, MONIKA RITTERSHAUS

there were parties and Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, but I came at a moment when everything became very concentrated and serious.”

In Brook’s Peer Gynt, our young antihero announces: “I’m going to be a star!” From the age of five, Brook felt the same. Yet though her acting career went well for a while — including starring opposite Oliver Reed in the film Captive — she insists that she was barking up the wrong tree.

In France, people still believe that theatre th can change your life ch with her children Prosper, 15, and Maia, 12. French audiences find the variety of work Brook does confusing, she says — she has mixed classical and modern, large-scale and small. They have less trouble accepting her as French. After all, she lived most of her childhood in Paris after her father moved there to run the Bouffes du Nord theatre. Her mother, the actress Natasha Parry, was a part of his ensemble. When they went on exploratory travels to Africa or Iran or America in the early 1970s, Irina and her younger brother, Simon, would sometimes join them. “There was an awful lot of moving around and I guess it gets in your DNA, you get the gypsy spirit. I fear for my own because they have been moved around even more than I was.” She has never

lived anywhere for more than three years since she was 18. “I try to comfort myself and my children by saying it’s like being ambassadors, not gypsies.”

And what was it like being in the court of Peter Brook? Emma Thompson said in an interview last month that her parents, who were also a director and an actress, played host hos to plenty of actors and directors and writers but that she suspected it wasn’t sn’t “the sort of talk that was around Peter Brook’s table”. Brook chuckles.

“No, when we moved to Paris, there wasn’t anyone around at the house! It wasn’t at all like great tablefuls of theatrical folk laughing and telling anecdotes — which, I mean, I would have loved. Before I was born there was a great showbiz moment when

The cast of Peer Gynt, main picture. Above, Irina Brook with Oliver Reed in Captive (1985).

Left, Iggy Pop has written two new songs for Brook’s production.

Top right, Irina Brook in Nice

“In France I think people have an image that it’s all come on a spoon for me, whereas I feel I have struggled so hard to achieve anything. As an actress, in particular, it was an unbearable struggle.” Yet, tied to her childhood st dream, it wasn’t until 1996 that she switched from her mother’s profession swit to her father’s. Had she felt up till then that being Peter Brook’s daughter she would only suffer by comparison? Yes, having such a “monument” of a father meant she “didn’t even have an inkling” she would try directing, “for that reason”.

And then, living in England, fed up with being an out-of-work actress, she started trying to find plays in which to appear. In America, she found a play she liked called Beast on the Moon. She

brought it home, then decided to direct it rather than appear in it. From the first day of rehearsals she knew she was on the right path. “It was almost a hallucinogenic moment to be sitting on the right side of the room and not standing on the wrong side.

My mind was exploding. So there was not a second to think, ‘What will people say? My father, blah blah blah’ — it was too all-encompassing to let those thoughts come in.” She hasn’t acted since.

Since then, her work has taken her all around France and all over the world. So this play about the freespirited, unsettled Peer Gynt is inspired not just by New York and Iggy Pop but also by the 30 years that followed. “Hopefully I’ve never been as extreme or as selfish as him, but the travelling, being unable to settle, the restless side . . .” Peer ends up, after a 30-year rock tour, heading back to his hometown, perhaps to settle.

And now Brook has committed to a job that should keep her in Nice for the next ten years. “There is some parallel. Finally I’ve had to regroup and say, ‘OK, there could be more strength in being less diffuse, settling down’.”

That means, with her father still based at the Bouffes du Nord, that there are now two Brooks running theatres in a country where, she says happily, they’re not ashamed to take this stuff gloriously seriously.

“In France, people still believe that theatre can change your life. In England, one is a little too cynical to be allowed to say such things.”

Peer Gynt is at the Barbican, London EC2 (020 7638 8891), until Oct 11

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times2 GETTY IMAGES

A perfect marriage is easy — just lower your expectations Deborah Ross

T

he cinema sensation that is Gone Girl — it took £4.1 million in its first weekend — is about an unhappily married woman who goes missing, leaving her husband accused of murder, and is rather good, if silly.

(It’s as if Patricia Highsmith swallowed Basic Instinct, then vomited it up, quite madly, all over the table.)

It has also kicked off a debate about marriage, principally because its star, the actress Rosamund Pike, has said that our expectations are too high.

“People have ridiculous expectations of a mate,” she said. “In my grandmother’s day, you wouldn’t expect your husband to fulfil the same need in you as your sister, or girlfriends, or colleagues at work.

You’d have different needs met by different people. Now we want all our needs met by one person, and I don’t believe that’s possible. Or rather, it is, but I don’t think it’s universally achievable.”

Loving someone, and being loved in return, has to be among the best of all human experiences, yet with the divorce rate currently standing at 42 per cent, marriage isn’t exactly cutting it. Pity it doesn’t come with a warranty, you might think, although even if it did, such a warranty would probably prove useless. “I’m sorry, madam, it no longer applies, and we don’t make parts for this kind of marriage any more anyway. How old is this marriage? Have you tried de-scaling it?”

The key, I think, is to approach marriage with fairly low expectations, and then lower them again, and then again. Over the years, I have lowered my expectations so extensively I’m practically wearing them round my ankles and fully expect one day to trip over them, probably on the stairs, thereby cutting open my chin. Low expectations are, at least, “universally

Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

The rise of the The latest viral campaign asks men to post selfies of themselves holding their crotches. The young may be apathetic voters, but they know how to click to get what they want says Carol Midgley

#petitions — How the young vote

achievable”, and here are my top five: 1. Do not expect to ever win “chore wars”. According to surveys for Mumsnet and Woman’s Hour released earlier this week, working mums spend an average of ten hours a week on household chores, while men chip in with just five hours a week.

Outrageous, but refusing to accept this can only lead to rancour, as in: “Who do you think stacks and unstacks the dishwasher. Elves in the night, shoemaker allowing?” And: “How long are you leaving this blackened ovenware to ‘soak’ before I finally succumb to scouring it?” Give up, otherwise you’ll turn into someone even you don’t like.

Sorry, feminism, truly, but how long is anyone expected to live with this “soaking” business? A year? Two? Until the very end of time itself?

2. Do not expect to use sex as a currency throughout your marriage.

It’s effective at first, but as time passes, you’ll find it’s a currency that may be worth even less than the Deutsche Mark in Germany in 1923, and you’ll have to drag huge amounts of yourself down the road in a wheelbarrow and still find you have no purchasing power. Get over it.

3. Do not expect his “short cut” through “these back roads I know” to be any quicker than the planned route.

If your expectations are realistic, you will rightly anticipate that any short cut is likely to extend the journey quite considerably.

4. Don’t expect your time to be the same as his time. For example, when you have children, it will be assumed your time is the children’s, while his time is his own unless you ask him otherwise. Once you comprehend this, you can start making things up, such as “I can’t take them swimming on Saturday because Sue’s asked me to look round this house she’s thinking of buying,” when there isn’t a Sue, or a house, but there is a Costa, with newspapers. (Sue didn’t like the house, by the way; too cramped.)

5. Do not expect him to tell the truth about you. For example, over the years I have overheard my husband say that I never put the tops back on jars properly, never turn radios off when I leave a room, leave washing in the washing machine until it smells and has to be done all over again and will sometimes bite things that are in the fridge, then put them back, but you know what? Lies. All lies, as I am perfect. No one need ever lower their expectations around me.

Culottes are the new onesie In yesterday’s Times I read that culottes are now “really trendy” and “everyone from Alexander Wang to Topshop Unique showed them during the relevant fashion weeks”. Culottes which look like a very bad skirt divided down the middle? You know, if I wanted to wear a very bad skirt divided down the middle I would call it just that, not culottes.

Fashion throws me, time after time. I recently saw a fashion feature on “six ways to wear a cape”, although why anyone would wish to wear a cape even the one way is a mystery.

Here is something I have noticed about the cape which appears to have passed everyone else by: it is a coat with gaping holes where the arms should rightly be.

As an outer garment which should, by definition, garment your outer, how can it be fit for purpose when so much is missing?

Would you buy socks without heels? Bras without cups?

So I cannot get my head around capes, or culottes, or even the onesie. Why, when you could opt for the more toilet-friendly “twosie”?

(On a cold day, I have been known to wear a sixteensie, which is spectacularly cosy.) As for the “slanket”, as Viz once pointed out, you can make your own by wearing your dressing gown back to front. I’ve tried this, it works and costs £0. Result.

S

o what did you make of Jemima Khan’s bed hair?

Or Naomi Campbell pouting and gorgeous reclined on her pillow as part of Unicef’s new #WakeUpCall campaign?

If you sighed and thought, “It’s yet more celebrities self-promoting under the guise of fundraising” then that is understandable. But you might want to reconsider.

Because online campaigning — whether that involves celebrities pouring iced water over their heads or grabbing their crotches to raise awareness of testicular cancer (see the cover and over the page for pictures of men doing just this) or ordinary people creating internet petitions to incite social change — is producing some stunning results. The most recent was a 16-year-old window cleaner setting up a petition demanding that Ashya King, the fiveyear-old boy suffering from a brain tumour, be reunited with his imprisoned parents. It gathered more than 250,000 signatures and within four days the teenager was at No 10 Downing Street. Some call it “clicktivism”; some call it the new politics or “hashtag heroism”.

Whatever you want to call it, if online campaigning manages to engage young people politically at a time when most say they won’t bother voting at the next general election then it is achieving something that mainstream politics patently isn’t.

Research conducted by the Hansard Society has found that only one in 12 under-25s intends to vote in the general election next year. A YouGov poll this year discovered that of the 17- to 21-year-olds it polled, 59 per cent won’t bother voting in 2015 because they think politicians are only interested in “big business, celebrities and pensioners”. Voting apathy is not, of course, solely confined to youth. According to the Hansard report last year, a fifth of the general population now say they are “absolutely certain not to vote” and 18 per cent are “unlikely to vote” but don’t entirely rule it out. Excitement over the Scottish referendum and Scotland’s lowering of the voting age to 16 may have stimulated

interest and these figures may improve but, all in all, such disengagement paints a pretty depressing picture.

But hold on. Might it be that people, young and old, are just as passionate about issues as they ever were, but now simply show it differently — via their keyboards? The recent surge in “citizen campaigning” has seen some incredible successes such as Caroline Criado-Perez’s campaign to persuade the Bank of England to put a woman on banknotes. Perhaps, after years of empty soundbites, platitudes and posturing from career politicians, the new generation has found a more direct, more relevant way to make their voices heard?

Brie Rogers Lowery, 29, who is campaigns director for change.org, the website on which these petitions were posted, thinks so. Many people are “absolutely” turned off by party politics, she says, but are enthused about using new technology as their moral and political loudhailer. “I was never very interested in politics as a teenager but I always cared really passionately about issues that affect people.” Having attended Camden School for Girls she doesn’t remember many conversations there about political ideology, but plenty of discussion about campaigning and issues such as the Iraq war and where our food comes from. “I disagree with the view that people, and particularly young people, are apathetic because that’s not what we see on this site. Of six million users, one in three has been part of a campaign that has won.

There is no lack of passion and enthusiasm from the public.”

In some cases, the digital world has allowed people to insert themselves into mainstream politics. Take Dominic Aversano, 29, who heard work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, say on the Today programme in 2013 that he could live on £53 a week if he had to — and challenged him to prove it. Aversano’s petition on change.org collected 500,000 signatures and within days he was giving TV interviews.

However he, like many, believes we shouldn’t overstate the power of new technology and that it would be dangerous for people to see petitioning as any kind of substitute for the ballot box. “Used well, the internet can enhance democracy,” he says, “but I think it’s dangerous if people say, ‘We’re going to completely go round

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clicktivists, the new power elite COVER: TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER BEN GURR; BELOW: PAUL ROGERS FOR THE TIMES

#f #feelingnuts — The men behind it Th

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the Westminster system,’ unless you are also going to reform that system.

Because all you’ll do is disengage all the progressives from that system and then the most powerful members of society will exploit it even more.”

Russell Brand recently declared that he has never voted and never will and considered that a more “potent political act” than “obediently X-ing a little box”. Aversano, who has been interested in politics since he was a

teenager, thinks this is somewhat naive and self-defeating: “The net effect of someone like him, is to enhance [traditional] power.” As Aversano says, petitions are nothing new: 800,000 signatures were gathered against the deportation of the Tolpuddle Martyrs but “online petitions can gather signatures faster, transcend geographical restrictions and provide an interactivity that their predecessors could not.”

According to the government website e-petitions are an “easy, personal way for you to influence government and parliament in the UK”. If the e-petition gets at least UK 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in the House of Commons. Petitions such as Ethan Dallas’s get many more than that. The 16-year-old window cleaner who is a friend of King’s family says he is not remotely political himself (Jehovah’s Witnesses do not vote and so registering is not an issue for him) but he saw the petition as a way of drawing attention to an injustice. He was staggered by the response. “I was expecting a couple of hundred expec signatures, maybe after a week, a thousand,” he says. It gathered so much momentum that Nick Clegg responded to him directly.

Change.org launched in the UK in 2012 having been founded in the US in 2007 by Stanford graduate Ben Rattray who was going to be an investment banker but changed his mind. It can produce results very quickly and seems to be much more effective than old-style paper petitions.

Today’s e-petitions are living things and can gather global support within minutes. Indeed, MPs themselves are catching on to their efficiency. The Tory MP Nicola Blackwood started a

Above from left: Andrew and Simon Salter, Simon Tucker: the man behind the Feeling Nuts campaign.

Unicef #WakeUpCalls: right, Naomi Campbell; below right, Nigella Lawson; left, Kelly Brook; below left, Jemima Khan. Below far left: Brie Rogers Lowery of change.org

Some call online campaigns the new politics, some call it hashtag heroism

petition on the site calling for fo the prime minister to take action to stop child sexual exploitation online.

Lucy Herd suffered a terrible tragedy in 2010 when the youngest of her three children, Jack, aged 23 months, drowned in a garden pond.

Amid colossal grief she discovered a shocking truth: there is no automatic paid leave from work for someone who has lost a child or other loved one though government guidance suggested three days, one of those three days to include the funeral. This meant that Jack’s father had to take any extra time as holiday. As Herd says, it seems absurd that the state allows someone to take a year off for the birth of a child but only three days for a death. Under the strain of their loss the couple eventually separated.

A few months after Jack’s death she began a petition to try to get statutory bereavement leave increased. It amassed huge support, she began working with Acas to create new guidelines for employers and last month spoke at the House of Lords as the guidelines were launched. She is still campaigning for legislation to be introduced and plans to take her fight to the European Union. Indeed, her petitioning experience has so awakened her interest in politics that she now wants to stand as a local councillor and possibly as an MP. She also set up Jack’s Rainbow to help other bereaved families suffering the sudden death of a child. Was she political before? “No not at all,” she says. “This is the funny thing: I love it.

I want to learn. I have been to the House of Commons and the Lords . . . and I actually feel at home. I know that sounds daft.” Could this kind of digital activism pave the way for a new generation to enter politics?

y meeting with Andrew and Simon Salter takes place in a room donated

by The Club at The Ivy, which is typical of the way the St Albans brothers operate.

With no budget to speak of, they’ve set up a grassroots campaign for testicular cancer, Check One Two, that is rapidly snowballing into a viral phenomenon.

“We realised early on that money wasn’t necessary to solve the problem,” says Andrew, 25. “So we created a new currency through social awareness, that we’ve called a “socialthon”. Young guys don’t want charities lecturing them so we took a different approach.”

That approach was to ask men to post selfies of themselves checking their testicles online along with the hashtag #feelingnuts. An impressive number of celebrities have obliged, including actors Hugh Jackman and William Shatner, comedian Ricky Gervais, chef Jamie Oliver and the boy band 5 Seconds Of Summer. Ant and Dec joined up this week and Channel 4 is on board, with a TV special fronted by Jack Whitehall next week.

“We had this rather quixotic idea that we were going to inspire a whole generation of young men,” says Andrew’s brother Simon, 31.

Both are well-spoken but despite Simon being a PR graduate from Leeds University, they are hardly slick Third Sector salesmen. As they explain how they’ve got to the stage where A-list stars are queueing up to clutch their crotches, a waiter arrives and, with no discernible trace of irony, places two plates of chipolatas before us.

Despite all the macho posing, Check One Two’s story begins with a woman, Wendy Gough, who lost her son Matthew to testicular cancer in 1998 because he was too embarrassed to discuss it. Although the disease is treatable — more than 95 per cent of those diagnosed early are cured — because it is prevalent in young men (it peaks in the 30-34 age group), shame is a major obstacle. Gough now devotes her life to giving awareness talks in schools, and has left a lasting impression on more than one pupil.

Adam Mason heard one of Wendy Gough’s talks when he was 16, checked and found a problem. “The doctor couldn’t feel anything but I insisted on an ultrasound because I’d heard Wendy’s talk,” he says. A CT scan revealed a tumour. The malignant testis was removed and replaced by a prosthetic. “When you’re 16 you’re very self-conscious about your body.

I’d be less fussed now because I’m married and more comfortable in my body but at that time it was important to me. Now I don’t really think about it. It’s like a hard squash ball. You can’t tell to look at me. The only thing is the scarring in my groin from the op.”

Gough’s talk also affected Simon and Andrew when they heard it at school and after reading more about her foundation in a local paper years later, they decided to pitch in, and founded Check One Two in 2012.

“I never met Matthew but when I heard about his death I was deeply W

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The day I joined the clicktivists #feelingnuts Robert Crampton

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volution, we must sometimes conclude, is not all it’s cracked up to be. Or rather, to be fair, evolution remains — by definition, I suppose — a work in progress. Knees, for one thing: they’re a long way from being up to the job, are they not? Same goes for ankles. Feet and hands as well, come to that: way too fragile, all four of them.

As for the well-documented flightor-fight instinct, I am amazed it is still so rudimentary. At the very least, I’d have thought, in terms of an instant atavistic response to imminent unpleasantness, we could after however many zillion years reasonably expect evolution to have come up with a wider choice. How about “come on chaps, let’s all calm down and have a cup of tea”, for instance? Natural selection ought to have hard-wired that option years ago.

Which brings me to testicles.

Testicles being — as all of us saddled with the ambivalent pleasure of ownership must sooner or later acknowledge — weirdly misplaced appendages. If ever there were organs deserving of protection deep within the abdominal fortress, surely the testicles are it. And yet there they dangle — in warm weather, at least — soft ’n’ squishy, visible ’n’ vulnerable, undefended, unsafe, unsightly, lolling around in their ugly scrotal home.

It’s plum crazy, in my view. Yes indeed, in terms of nadgers, evolution lost its marbles. Failed to tackle the issue. Went nuts. Bollocksed it up. Probably, therefore, deserves to get the sack. And so on and so forth.

By way of illustration, ladies, you wouldn’t be happy, would you, if your liver — or your kidneys, or your ovaries — took up residence outside your body, would you? Helpless against the merest poke or prod? Let alone, God forbid, a full-on punt?

Consequent to which pokes, prods or punts nauseating pain floods the middle third of your being in the most shockingly disproportionate fashion imaginable? Not a fun day out, I can

the men behind #feelingnuts (cont.)

X moved,” says Andrew, “and reading about some people who had survived thanks to Wendy galvanised us to take up her cause.”

To publicise their campaign they decided to stage a music event and set up enough meetings with people in the entertainment industry as possible to justify a trip to the States. “It was naivety really,” says Simon. “We wanted big hitters and not having a clue, we picked the biggest names we could think of, like Simon Fuller.”

On the plane across, they bumped into another set of brothers, Simon and Phil Tucker of the creative agency Attention Seekers. The Salters sold them their cause and the two groups

assure you. But hey, that’s the way it is, knacker-wise.

Perhaps furnishing men with external clackers is the creator’s way of compensating women for the agonies of childbirth. I wouldn’t presume to claim it’s an equal trade.

All I can assert is that any impact in this area above and beyond the most tangential feather-light connection almost certainly hurts like hell. Any man who’s ever engaged in contact sports, or been horse-riding, or misjudged the bounce of a tennis ball or the angle of his bicycle’s crossbar or had a playful wrestle with a child — or a woman, or a dog, even a small dog — will know what I mean.

Nevertheless, we are where we are, they are where they are, and we chaps must learn to live with the anatomically anomalous hand we’ve been dealt. To simplify, broadly three responses to this bothersome balls-business can be identified.

Some guys choose to brazen it out. Like, yeah, here they are, what do you reckon? Guys of this persuasion tend to strut around naked more than is strictly necessary in the changing room.

Bend down to tie your shoelaces, straighten up and their pride and joy is perilously proximate to your face. This behaviour — the temptation to call it balls-out is overwhelming — is closely related to going commando, giving your penis a name and being German.

Never a natural towel-flicker, I have to say ball-flauntingg is not my style.

Nonetheless I confess to a sneaking admiration, speaking as the attitude does of confidence, optimism, a willingness to make the best of a bad situation. Privatesparaders are basically ally saying OK, fair play, granted these hairy wrinkly objects may not be the most aesthetically pleasing

spent the flight reconfiguring the campaign, ditching the idea of the live event. In LA, the Salters went to see Fuller, the creator of Pop Idol, who described their cause as “undeniable”.

“It was the key to the celebrity citadel,” says the older Salter brother.

“From there we were able to open more doors to agents and celebrities.

People understood we weren’t asking for their money, just their consent.”

The tipping point for Check One Two arrived in August when the brothers dropped their trousers in Oxford Street and took a selfie grabbing their bits. Using the hashtag #feelingnuts, they started a monthly call to action for men to check themselves regularly. They then issued an online challenge to 5 Seconds Of Summer and Sam Branson, who took it up. Since then, #feelingnuts has been seen more than half a billion

items you’ll ever clap it eyes on, but hey, I’ll be damned if I’m going to apologise for them. So cop a load of my clockweights.

Such is the thinking behind the viral #feelingnuts campaign, a campaign which I find myself endorsing, a campaign which features pictures of men — young and old, famous and obscure — giving their crotch a hefty old grab.

Which is not, as I say, the sort of carry-on that comes naturally to me in the way it might to, say, Jamie Oliver or Ricky Gervais. But which approach is far healthier, I submit, than what lies at the other end of the coping-with-your-cods spectrum.

Because while pride (especially in something so obviously ridiculous) may be a sin, shame can become debilitating, disabling — sometimes even dangerous.

And sadly, in my experience, a fair few blokes are — if not perhaps ashamed of their apricots — then certainly wary enough to fail to wa register potentially regis ominous balls-related developments. To these shy guys I say: have a rummage right now!

And so we arrive at the third response — the correct response — to the cosmic cojones comedy: don’t take the daft little fellas too seriously, but take them seriously enough to make sure they’re in good order.

While modesty may be admirable, saving your life beats it every time.

Robert Crampton. Far left: David Gandy and, left, Hugh Jackman

Simon Fuller is the key to the celebrity citadel

times on Twitter and Instagram alone.

“There’s a time when a campaign needs the kudos of a celebrity to embrace what the public is doing,” says Simon. “It’s a simple gesture and it’s still owned by the public.”

“Social media is the graveyard of a thousand attempts to do things like the Ice Bucket Challenge,” says Peter Gilheany, director of PR at Forster Communications, a media agency dedicated to building brands with a social purpose. “In most cases these campaigns work best if they feel spontaneous. We crave authenticity and we don’t like sponsored content.

“The hashtag #feelingnuts has taken flight because Hugh Jackman adopted it. He’s just the sort of person you’d want to endorse your campaign — he’s a buff movie star, the embodiment of masculinity and he’s demonstrating to everyone that he’s prepared to grab his

bits and show that blokes check themselves for cancer.”

A recent study conducted by three UK academics, published in the International Journal of Cultural Studies, stated that celebrity promotion of charities was more effective in promoting stars than in raising awareness. That doesn’t appear to be the case with Check One Two, Andrew claims. “We’re seeing searches for testicular cancer rise directly in line with the spike of interest in this campaign. That says it’s working.”

Mason, 30, who is now a trustee of The Wendy Gough Cancer Awareness Foundation says, “What the Salters are doing is inspirational given they have no vested interest in it.” The campaign couldn’t be closer to his heart. “If I had waited I might not be here,” he says.

“Wendy’s talk saved my life.”

Mike Pattenden

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Journalist with an unfailing nose for a story Angus Macleod Page 50

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Obituaries

Geraldine Mock

Lives remembered

The first woman to fly solo round the world who was fêted across the US as ‘the flying housewife’ TOPFOTO. BELOW LEFT: SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM

Who remembers who came second?

On March 19, 1964, Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock, calling herself “the flying housewife,” took off from Columbus, Ohio, in her 11-year-old single-engine Cessna 180, determined to be the first woman to fly solo round the world.

Two days earlier, Joan Merriam Smith, an experienced commercial pilot, lifted off from Oakland, California, in her twin-engine Piper Apache, with the same end in mind.

Smith had learnt to fly before she could drive a car. She had planned her trip meticulously, following the same route taken by Amelia Earhart, the legendary pioneer who had disappeared during her own round-the-world attempt in 1937.

In the race that followed, Smith came last. Mock, having selected a route some 4,000 miles shorter, had luck on her side, along with superior organisation, masterminded by her husband Russell and her two brothers, both engineers. She beat her rival, whose epic flight was plagued by technical problems, by a full 20 days, noting later that while she was savouring her victory back home in America, Smith was shopping in Singapore.

Neither woman would have been the first aviator to circumnavigate the globe. That honour fell to Wiley Hardeman Post, a former roughneck and car-jacker, who, as long ago as 1937, had managed the feat in an astonishing seven days, 18 hours, 49 minutes. Post’s aircraft, a stocky Lockheed Vega, known as the Winnie Mae, is on display at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. Post himself died in a crash resulting from an ill-judged aerial stunt in 1935.

Mock was, however, up against an obstacle that Post never had to face: her gender. Most flyers and engineers, nearly all of them men, simply didn’t believe that women had what it took to

She kept a pair of high heels and a skirt with her in the cockpit fly, unaided, around the world. Mock, 38, proved them wrong. “Nobody was going to tell me I couldn’t do it because I was a woman,” said the mother-of-three who claimed to have settled upon the idea after telling her husband “If I don’t get out of this house, I’ll go nuts”.

Her flight, in the aircraft she named the Spirit of Columbia, was a masterpiece of planning, albeit blessed by good fortune. Audacious in concept and execution, it demonstrated that anything a man could do in the air, a woman could do equally well.

The fact that she kept a pair of high heels and a formal skirt with her in the cockpit — she would step out of the plane at each stop neatly dressed — only underlined her claim that femininity and true grit were not antithetical.

“Some air force bases were strictly no-nos; certain countries didn’t want me,” she later recalled. “That took time, cablegrams back and forth. I went to embassies all around Washington,

Mock alongside her Cessna 180 after landing in Cairo on her record-breaking flight

wrote letters, and did a lot of research.

That was the hardest part — the flying was easy.”

Her flight started in Oakland where she heard the traffic controllers telling

each other, “Well, I guess that’s the last we’re going to hear from her”. Her route took her, via Bermuda, to the Azores, where the only telephone call she could make was to Portugal (subsequently patched through to her husband).

There, noting that the islands got a lot of rain and were very green, she visited the church where Christopher Colum-

bus had worshipped on his way to the Americas. Next, she set her specially installed airline compass for Casablanca, where she spent a “wonderful” time with friends who took her out to a restaurant serving couscous — her alltime favourite.

Cairo was next. But before she got there, while flying several thousand feet over the Libyan desert, she noticed that her antenna wire, which ran from her radio down the fuselage, to trail behind the aircraft, was glowing bright red. Given that the wire ran past her oversized fuel tanks, the risk of an explosion was very real. “That was the scariest part of the trip,” she told Air and Space Magazine.

“Fortunately, I had enough sense to realize what it was, so I turned [the antenna reel switch] off and it cooled down.

You study these things; you know if this happens, you do that.” Nothing else went wrong. Spirit of Columbia behaved perfectly.

Gender was the big issue in Egypt.

Having landed, mistakenly, at a military airport rather than at the nextdoor civil facility, she was surrounded by armed soldiers, who brought her before an official who refused to believe that she was the pilot and insisted on seeing her boarding card before allowing her to proceed. Only after a flurry of phone calls was her identity established and the necessary permissions given.

From Cairo, having first ridden a camel to visit the Sphinx, Mock’s route took her to Sri Lanka, via Karachi and Calcutta, before a series of island hops that included Guam, Wake and Hawaii.

When she landed at Guam, she was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd and was provided with overnight lodgings in the governor’s mansion.

Finally, on April 17, 1964, after a flight of 23,103 miles, lasting 29 days 11 hours 59 minutes, Mock landed back at her starting point in Ohio. She was immediately hailed as a hero and fêted across the US. She was granted the freedom of ten American cities; President Lyndon Johnson presented her with Federal Aviation Agency’s “Decoration for Exceptional Service”; and she became the first American to be awarded the Louis Bleriot Silver Medal for Aviation.

Nothing that happened afterwards could equal that achievement. Though Mock continued to fly for several more years, securing a number of records for speed and distance, she retired from flying in 1968. “Anything else would have been anti-climactic,” she said.

After completing her memoirs, she settled in Quincy, Florida, to be close to her three children — her sons Gary and Roger both predeceased her but she is survived by her daughter Valerie, who lives in Ohio. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of her flight she visited the small Florida airport near her home.

Geraldine Frederitz Mock was born in Newark, Ohio, in 1925. Her mother tried to bring her up as a conventional girl, but eventually gave up when it became clear that she preferred to play with boys and had a keen interest in machinery.

A childhood flight, lasting just 15 minutes, was what convinced her she wanted to be a pilot. “It was so nice to look down at the houses,” she said. “I decided that would be the way to see the world.” From then on she told anyone who would listen that she would grow up to fly around the world.

Aged 19, Mock enrolled in an aeronautics course at Ohio State University, only to drop out when, a year later, she married Russell Mock, a commercial pilot. After working as an administrator at two private airports she finally obtained her flying licence at the age of 32, embarking on a series of long and dangerous flights that would prepare her for her ultimate test.

It was her husband who challenged her to do what she had always wanted, and he, along with her brothers and others, who prepared the Spirit of Columbia for its record-breaking flight.

It was Russell Mock who was always at the other end of the telephone line warning her of the conditions she would face and how fast she needed to go to beat Joan Smith.

Geraldine Mock, aviator, was born on November 22, 1925. She died on September 30, 2014, aged 88

The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire Tony Palmer writes: Some years ago I wrote to the duchess (obituary, Sept 25) asking for permission to stage a visit that Handel had made to Chatsworth in the 1720s for a film I was making called God Rot Tunbridge Wells, starring (in his last major role) Trevor Howard. I even mentioned that it had been written by John Osborne, fearing that if she found out later she might object. Permission was granted. We set about dressing the great hall for the dinner to welcome Handel. Suddenly the duchess appeared, took one look, summoned me and said: “This is not good enough.”

Grovelling, I said it was all we could afford on our miniscule budget. “Don’t be silly, young man,” she said, and summoned her butler, telling him to bring up the best Devonshire silver and gold plate and candelabra and dress the table accordingly. “Don’t want it looking like Butlins,” she said. The only stipulation was that the butler had to be dressed as a bishop and sit at the table to keep an eye on the treasures. Later, as the camera panned around the scene, there was the duchess, unannounced, dressed in her 18th-century finery.

When she realised she had been spotted, she said: “Just don’t make a fuss of it.”

Philip Howard Peter Jones writes: After Friends of Classics was founded we asked Philip Howard, a founderpatron, to read at a fundraising concert. He turned up swathed in bandages: “Got some glass in my eye, dear boy.” We told him to go straight to Moorfields eye hospital. He refused, did the reading in some pain, and would have come to the dinner afterwards had he not been frog-marched off by two Friends. Imbued with an overwhelming sense of duty and responsibility, if he said he would do something, he did.

Robert Miller Murray Hedgcock writes: Robert Miller (obituary, October 6) was, as your excellent obituary spells out, guided by the true spirit of cricket as skipper of the Gold Bats — the team of the PG Wodehouse Society (UK). When my cricket-loving teenage granddaughter Georgia asked if she could play in the fixture against the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, Bob made a slot for her as 12th man, where she enjoyed spells fielding for both teams. She has been a regular member of the XI ever since.

If you would like to add a personal view or @ send recollection to a published obituary, you can your contribution by post to Times

Obituaries, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF, or by email to tributes@thetimes.co.uk

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Angus Macleod Journalist whose talent for spotting a story and passion for newspapers made him a formidable operator in Scottish politics SUNDAY MAIL

For more than 20 years Angus Macleod was the doyen of political journalists in Scotland, his knowledge, experience and network of connections unmatched as the nation progressed through devolution towards the referendum on independence. As Scottish editor of The Times, he brought authority and insight to bear on the unfolding campaign, although illness prevented him from playing as full a part as he would have liked. No one doubted, however, that the standards of fair reporting and well-informed commentary that he had set remained the guiding principles of the paper during a period of high political drama.

Macleod’s news instincts were second to none. He could spot the nuance in a political speech and transform it into a front-page “splash,” expose the unanswered questions in an ill thought-out policy initiative, or pursue with relentless intensity a campaign that he thought important to the interests of the country. He could be tough on politicians if he thought they had fallen short, but he never lost their

He could be tough on politicians but he never lost their respect

Macleod during an interview with Tony Blair shortly before the leader of New Labour won the 1997 general election

respect. Above all, he relished newspapers, and everything about them. As editor, he was generous in his praise, towards rival journalists as well as his own colleagues. But he did not hesitate to complain loudly if a particular edition fell short of his expectations. An early telephone call after perusing the paper would either be an exercise in what he called his Hebridean gloom, or a burst of enthusiasm for a wellexecuted story.

Struck down by illness, which was later diagnosed as pancreatic cancer, he continued working until the last few weeks of his life, delivering, at his final appearance among his staff, a carefully thought-out speech of farewell to a young trainee whose progress had delighted him.

Angus Macleod was born in 1951, the youngest of three remarkable brothers born to a poor, and at one stage homeless, family on the Island of Lewis. The family had been forced out of their

house in Shawbost, and had taken up residence in a collection of former Nissen huts near Stornoway aerodrome, before being awarded a tenancy in Plasterfield. His father was a “warper” in the Harris tweed industry, working in the colours of lengths of tweed hung on pegs on the wall, who frequently had to look for extra work in the docks. His mother was a keen member of the United Free Presbyterian Church, and Sundays in the Macleod home were austere events.

He developed, however, a keen interest in cricket, a game that had been introduced by RAF employees, playing on the runway at Stornoway after the last plane had left for Glasgow. When football-obsessed colleagues later teased him about his fixation with an English sport, he advised them they were insufficiently intelligent to understand the game.

All three brothers were educated at

the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway.

Norman, the eldest, became a lecturer at Edinburgh University, Allan built a career in manufacturing, and Angus, after gaining a degree in English literature at Edinburgh, won a year-long traineeship with Thomson regional newspapers, before joining The Scotsman as a reporter.

Remembered, even in those early days, as a colourful character, happy to cultivate an image as a “wild Gael”, he was regularly sent to cover the Mod — the annual festival of Gaelic music, sometimes known as “the whisky Olympics”, from where he once sent back an expenses form for £250 for “entertaining the Lochgilphead Gaelic Choir”. A colleague described his extravagant lifestyle as “a Technicolor reaction to his monochrome Lewis background”. During a period in the London office he covered the committal hearings that led to the trial of the

Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe and the siege at the Iranian embassy in 1980.

He was recruited in 1981 by Charles Wilson, later editor of The Times, to join the newly launched Sunday Standard in Glasgow, and became a freelance for two years after the paper folded. He then joined the Sunday Mail, a paper which, in its heyday, was read by half the population. Macleod’s punchy, succinct prose was ideal for a tabloid arena.

He was afforded great respect for his intellect and, on a Labour paper, his union contacts. Nicknamed Haggis, his cry of “I’ve got a howitzer of a story!” would echo round the newsroom. His Hebridean accent and his island perspective on women — “she’s got great shoulders for the peat” was a typical Macleod comment — plus the many drunken scrapes he got into, were sources of mirth and mythology. The good times, however, took their toll, and his drinking and heavy smoking became prob-

lematic. By the early 1990s his job was at stake, as was his health. He had major intestinal surgery and was warned by doctors that one more drink would kill him.

With great courage and fortitude, he stopped drinking and rebuilt his life. It was a Herculean task, but with the help of several senior journalists, colleagues and friends, he succeeded. There emerged a man reborn, no longer the clown. His rare talent — fierce intellect, writing ability and an extraordinary nose for a story — was able to flourish as never before. He was sent to Washington, where, thanks to a Lewis connection on the presidential staff, he was photographed with Bill Clinton. He won journalist and reporter of the year in the 1994 Scottish Press Awards, and was made political editor, before moving to a similar role at the Express.

Sobriety brought him other things, among them personal happiness. In 1996, he met Janet Jackson; their 15 years of married life together were close and fulfilling. She survives him. with his two brothers, and a stepson.

In 2001, recognising his talent, The Times hired him as political correspondent to cover the new Scottish parliament, and the unrolling of the devolution process. At last, he was in a job of the stature and scope that he deserved, and he made full use of it. His speed, work rate and articulacy were legendary. BBC Scotland recognised it too — he was one of the most sought-after commentators on radio and TV, and his weekly review of the papers on Radio Scotland, picking out the diamonds from the dross with humour and precision, became essential listening.

He was a workaholic, almost as if he was trying to catch up professionally for all the wasted years. Macleod’s importance to the paper was recognised when he was made Scottish Editor, to pilot The Times through the referendum. Paying tribute to the skills with which he did so, one colleague remembered he had praised the late Margo MacDonald for giving politics a good name. Angus Macleod, he added, had given journalism a good name.

Angus Macleod, journalist, was born on May 13, 1951. He died of cancer on October 7, 2014, aged 63

Geoffrey Holder Actor who had already made his name as a dancer on Broadway when he landed the part of a James Bond villain Geoffrey Holder created one of the most frightening villains in the James Bond films and one of the few to make it through to the final credits — even though Bond seemingly killed him twice. As Baron Samedi in Live and Let Die (1973), the towering black actor was the personification of Death on the fictitious voodoo island of San Monique.

Bond dispatches the principal villain Kananga and his henchman Tee Hee in the course of the film. He also shoots Samedi at the climactic voodoo ceremony and when Samedi literally comes back from the grave he knocks him into a coffin full of snakes. Yet at the end of the film Samedi is seen riding at the front of the train that is carrying Bond and his lover Solitaire — and closes with his deep, demonic laughter.

An imposing figure, Holder was 6ft 6in, with a voice that seemed to emanate from deep underground and a rich, sometimes unsettling laugh.

Although he was best known for Live and Let Die, he was also a highly accomplished New York-based dancer. He was choreographer on the film and worked on the voodoo dance sequences

and the jazzy funeral processions in New Orleans.

Just a couple of years after his appearance as a Bond villain, he won Tony awards for his direction and costume designs on the original Broadway production of The Wiz, the African-American version of The Wizard of Oz. He was also an award-winning artist, who exhibited at the Guggenheim in New York, a photographer and sculptor. “You can’t put a label on me like a can of soup,” he told Newsday in 2007.

One of four children, he was born Geoffrey Lamont Holder into a middle-class family in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1930. His father was a salesman and his elder brother was Boscoe Holder, who also became a successful artist and dancer. As a boy Holder suffered from a serious stammer, but found expression in dance. He was only about seven when he began dancing with his brother’s company, which drew on African and Caribbean influences.

The dancer-choreographer Agnes de

Mille encouraged him to go to the US and when he left home his father said: “Don’t go to New York looking for atmosphere; you must take it with you”.

He was in his early 20s, but had already had some success as an artist and financed the journey by selling paintings.

He arrived in New York in 1953, made his Broadway debut in 1954 in the musical House of Flowers, in which he also played a version of Baron Samedi, the traditional voodoo character, while in 1955 he became principal dancer with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.

In an interview, he explained his approach to performing. “I create for that innocent little boy in the balcony who has come to the theatre for the first time. He wants to see magic, so I want to give him magic. He sees things that his father couldn’t see.”

He began to stretch himself as an actor as well, playing Lucky in an allblack Broadway production of Waiting for Godot in 1957. He was William Shakespeare the Tenth, the ruler of a floating island in the 1967 film version of Doctor Dolittle with Rex Ha Harrison but it was a a long and difficult shoot and Holder did not get on with Harrison or his wife, the actress, Rachel Roberts, whom he considered racist.

He is survived by his wife CarHolder with Jane Seymour in Live and Let Die

men de Lavallade, a dancer, choreographer and actress, whom he met on House of Flowers, and their son Leo, who works in film and television as a graphic artist.

Live and Let Die was Roger Moore’s first film as Bond. The producers were nervous after Sean Connery’s departure and played fast and loose with Ian Fleming’s novel, developing the voodoo elements and shifting most of the story to San Monique.

Reprising the character of Baron Samedi, which he had played on Broadway in a very different context 20 years earlier, Holder’s character is introduced in the film as the “voodoo god of cemeteries and chief of the legion of the dead”. In reality, neither Holder nor Moore were quite as fearless as their characters — both were desperately uncomfortable about working with snakes — but Live and Let Die was a big hit, outgrossing the previous Connery film Diamonds are Forever.

Geoffrey Holder, actor and dancer, was born on August 1, 1930. He died on October 5, 2014, aged 84

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

51

FGM

Television & Radio/Announcements Births, Marriages and Deaths

Today’s television BBC ONE

6.00am Breakfast 9.15 Rip Off Britain 10.00 Homes Under the Hammer 11.00 Saints and Scroungers 11.45 Break-in Britain: The Crackdown 12.15pm Bargain Hunt 1.00 BBC News; Weather 1.30 BBC Regional News; Weather 1.45 Doctors 2.15 Perfection 3.00 Escape to the Country 3.45 Home Away from Home 4.30 Antiques Road Trip 5.15 Pointless 6.00 BBC News 6.30 BBC Regional News Programmes 7.00 The One Show 7.30 EastEnders 8.00 Your Home in Their Hands 9.00 Who Do You Think You Are? 10.00 BBC News 10.25 BBC Regional News; Weather 10.35 Question Time 11.35 This Week By-Election Special 2.05am-6.00 BBC News

BBC TWO

6.05am Homes Under the Hammer 7.05 Saints and Scroungers 7.50 Break-in Britain: The Crackdown 8.20 Sign Zone 10.35 HARDtalk 11.00 BBC News 11.30 BBC World News 12.00 Daily Politics 1.00pm A Taste of My Life 1.30 Ready Steady Cook 2.15 Cash in the Attic 3.00 Gymnastics: World Artistic Championships 5.15 Flog It! 6.00 Eggheads 6.30 Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two 7.00 The Great British Bake Off Masterclass 8.00 Cat Watch 2014: The New Horizon Experiment. Documentary 9.00 Peaky Blinders 10.00 Mock the Week. Panel show 10.30 Newsnight 11.25 Who Won the War? 12.25am-12.55 Sign Zone: Workers on the Breadline — Panorama 4.00-6.00 BBC Learning Zone

ITV London

6.00am Good Morning Britain 8.30 Lorraine 9.25 The Jeremy Kyle Show 10.30 This Morning 12.30pm Loose Women 1.30 ITV News; Weather 2.00 Dickinson’s Real Deal 3.00 The Alan Titchmarsh Show 4.00 Who’s Doing the Dishes? 5.00 The Chase 6.00 Regional News 6.15 ITV News; Weather 6.45 Emmerdale 7.15 Live International Football: England v San Marino 10.00 ITV News at Ten and Weather 10.30 Regional News 10.40 International Football Highlights 11.40 Sunday Night at the Palladium 12.35am Jackpot247 3.00 The Jeremy Kyle Show USA 3.45 ITV Nightscreen 5.05-6.00 The Jeremy Kyle Show

Channel 4

6.20am The King of Queens 7.10 3rd Rock from the Sun 8.00 Everybody Loves Raymond 9.00 Frasier 10.30 Undercover Boss Canada 11.25 Four in a Bed 12.00 Channel 4 News Summary 12.05pm Four in a Bed 2.10 A Place in the Sun: Summer Sun 3.10 Countdown

4.00 Deal or No Deal 5.00 Four in a Bed 5.30 Come Dine with Me 6.00 The Simpsons 6.30 Hollyoaks 7.00 Channel 4 News 7.55 Stephen Graham: Stand Up to Cancer 8.00 Location, Location, Location 9.00 Educating the East End 10.00 Scrotal Recall 10.30 8 Out of 10 Cats. Panel show 11.20 Ramsay’s Costa del Nightmares 12.25am The Paedophile Hunter 1.25 One Born Every Minute USA 2.20 Operation Maneater 3.15 Unreported World 3.40 Phil Spencer: Secret Agent 4.35 Hugh’s 3 Good Things: Best Bites 4.40 Deal or No Deal 5.35-6.20 Countdown

Sky1

6.00am The Real A&E 7.00 Harrow: A Very British School 8.00 Futurama 9.00 NCIS: Los Angeles 11.00 Hawaii Five-0 1.00pm NCIS: Los Angeles 3.00 Airline 3.30 Emergency with Angela Griffin 4.30 Harrow: A Very British School 5.30 Futurama 6.30 The Simpsons 8.00 Modern Family 9.00 Forever 10.00 The Last Ship 11.00 A League of Their Own 12.00 NCIS: Los Angeles 1.00am Hawaii Five-0 3.00 Cop Squad 4.00 Stargate Atlantis 5.00-6.00 Airline USA

BBC World

6.00am BBC World News 6.30 World Business Report 6.45 BBC World News 7.30 World Business Report 7.45 BBC World News 8.30 World Business Report 8.45 BBC World News 9.30 HARDtalk 10.00 BBC World News 10.30 World Business Report 10.45 Sport Today 11.00 BBC World News 12.00 GMT 1.00pm BBC World News 1.30 World Business Report 1.45 Sport Today 2.00 Impact 3.30 HARDtalk 4.00 Global with Matthew Amroliwala 5.30 World Business Report 5.45 Sport Today 6.00 Outside Source 6.30 Focus on Africa 7.00 World News Today with Zeinab Badawi 8.30 World Business Report 8.45 Sport Today 9.00 Business Edition with Tanya Beckett 9.30 HARDtalk 10.00 BBC World News America 11.00 Newsday 11.30 Asia Business Report 11.45 Sport Today 12.00 Newsday 12.30am Asia Business Report 12.45 Sport Today 1.00 Newsday 1.30 Asia Business Report 1.45 Sport Today 2.00 BBC World News 2.30 Asia Business Report 2.45 Sport Today 3.00 BBC World News 3.30 Asia Business Report 3.45 Sport Today 4.00 BBC World News 4.30 HARDtalk 5.00 BBC World News 5.30 World Business Report 5.45-6.00 BBC World News

5.30am News 5.43 Prayer for the Day 5.45 Farming Today 5.58 Tweet of the Day 6.00 Today 9.00 In Our Time 9.45 (LW) Daily Service 9.45 Germany 10.00 Woman’s Hour 10.45 The Book of Strange New Things 11.00 From Our Own Correspondent 11.30 August Shines 12.00 News 12.01pm (LW) Shipping 12.04 21st Century Mythologies 12.15 You and Yours 1.00 The World at One 1.45 An Eye for Pattern: The Letters of Dorothy Hodgkin 2.00 The Archers (r) 2.15 Afternoon Drama (r) 3.00 Ramblings 3.27 Appeal (r) 3.30 Bookclub (r) 4.00 The Film Programme 4.30 BBC Inside Science 5.00 PM 5.54 (LW) Shipping 6.00 News 6.30 Can’t Tell Nathan Caton Nothing 7.00 The Archers 7.15 Front Row 7.45 Germany (r) 8.00 The Report 8.30 The Bottom Line 9.00 BBC Inside Science (r) 9.30 In Our Time 10.00 The World Tonight 10.45 Book at Bedtime 11.00 Ayres on the Air (r) 11.30 Punt PI (r) 12.30am Germany (r) 12.48 Shipping 1.00 As BBC World Service 5.20-5.30 Shipping

Sky Sports 2

6.00am Super League Gold 7.00 Total Rugby 7.30 Watersports World 8.30 Street Velodrome 9.30 Sportswomen 10.00 One-Day International Cricket 11.00 Castle Howard Triathlon 11.30 Total Rugby 12.00 World Grand Prix Darts 4.00pm One-Day International Cricket 5.00 WWE Vintage 6.00 Super League Gold 6.30 Castle Howard Triathlon 7.00 Super League Gold 7.30 Live Elite League Speedway: Poole Pirates v King’s Lynn Stars 9.30 Castle Howard Triathlon 10.00 Sportswomen 10.30 Super League Gold 11.00 Live NFL Network Pre-Game Show 1.25am Live NFL. Houston Texans v Indianapolis Colts (Kick-off 1.25) 4.30 Football Gold 5.00-6.00 Ashes Fever

Sky Sports 3

6.00am Live ATP Masters Tennis: The Shanghai Masters 3.00pm Total Rugby 3.30 Sporting Greats 4.00 Max Power 5.00 Fishing: World Feeder Championship 6.00 ATP Masters Tennis 7.00 Sporting Greats 7.30 Live Greyhound Racing: The All England Festival 9.30 Ringside 10.30 WWE: Late Night — Raw 12.30am WWE: NXT 1.30 ATP Masters Tennis 2.30 ATP Tour Uncovered 3.00 Max Power 4.00 ATP Masters Tennis 5.00-6.00 Sporting Greats

British Eurosport

6.00am Football Gold 7.00 WWE: Experience 8.00 Football Gold

7.30am Speedway European Championship 8.00 Speedway Grand Prix 9.00 European Tour Golf 9.30 NFL: Monday Night Football 10.30 NFL Round-Up 11.30 WTA Tennis 1.00pm Live WTA Tennis: The Generali Ladies Linz. Coverage of the second-round matches at the TipsArena Linz 8.45 WTA Tennis 10.15 NFL: Monday Night Football 11.15-12.15am NFL Round-Up

BBC World Service

Radio 3

Sky Sports 1

Today’s radio

Radio 4

9.00 Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Football 10.00 Barclays Premier League Legends 11.00 Football Gold 12.00 Time of Our Lives 1.00pm Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Football 2.00 Sporting Heroes: Gary Newbon Interviews Naseem Hamed 3.00 Football Gold 4.00 Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Football 5.00 Fantasy Football: The Highlights 5.30 Barclays Premier League World 6.00 Ringside 7.00 Live World Grand Prix Darts. The fourth day at the Citywest Hotel, Dublin 11.00 Ringside 12.00 Anthony Joshua: Heavyweight Hopes 1.00am Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Football 2.00 Ringside 3.00 Football’s Greatest Players 3.30 Barclays Premier League World 4.00 Ringside 5.00-6.00 Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Football

5.00am Newsday 8.30 Business Daily 8.50 Witness 9.00 News 9.06 Assignment 9.30 Healthcheck 10.00 World Update 11.00 News 11.06 Outside Source 12.00 News 12.06pm Outlook 1.00 Newshour 2.00 Newshour 3.00 News 3.06 Business Daily 3.30 Assignment 4.00 The Newsroom 4.30 Sport Today 5.00 The Newsroom 5.30 World Business Report 6.00 World Have Your Say 7.00 The Newsroom 7.30 Science in Action. Science and technology news 8.00 News 8.06 Assignment 8.30 World Business Report. Financial news 8.50 News About West Africa 9.00 Newshour. The stories behind the latest headlines 10.00 News 10.06 Outlook. Perspectives on important issues 11.00 News 11.06 The Newsroom 11.30 World Business Report 12.00 The Newsroom 12.20am Sports News 12.30 Assignment 1.00 News 1.06 Business Matters 2.00 The Newsroom 2.30 Science in Action 3.00 News 3.06 Outlook 4.00 Newsday 4.30-5.00 World Football

6.30am Breakfast 9.00 Essential Classics 12.00 Composer of the Week: Johannes Brahms. The composer romantically pursues one of Clara Schumann’s daughters 1.00pm News 1.02 Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert. Ben Johnson and Iain Burnside perform Edwardian and Victorian songs 2.00 Afternoon on 3. Verdi’s La Traviata from La Scala, Milan 4.30 In Tune. A Ten Pieces special with CBBC’s Blue Peter and Barney Harwood 6.30 Composer of the Week: Johannes Brahms (r) 7.30 Live Radio 3 in Concert. The BBC Singers in works by Brahms, including the German Requiem 10.00 Free Thinking. Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female production of Henry IV at Donmar Warehouse 10.45 The Essay: Brahms Experience. Lesley Chamberlain explores comparisons between Brahms and Freud 11.00 Late Junction. Including music by Richard Dawson, Meta Meta, Kate Bush and Errollyn Wallen 12.30am-6.30 Through the Night (r)

the times.co.uk/announcements

52

Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

FGM

Games My Bridge Club is lucky enough to have as one of its regulars Nevena Senior, originally from Bulgaria and now a mainstay on the English Women’s Team which has done so well for many years.

Watch her make 6♠ on ♦10 lead.

Declarer won dummy’s king of diamonds, crossed to a top spade and led the queen of hearts. I’m guessing she’d have risen with the ace if West had played low smoothly – then relied on the clubs. Understandably, West covered the queen with the king.

Winning dummy’s ace of hearts, declarer cashed the jack throwing a club and ruffed the nine. She cashed a second high trump (East discarding), then crossed to the ace of diamonds and ruffed the third diamond.

Here is the ending with South on lead: ♠ 10

♥♦♣AQ 6 4

♠7 N ♥10 W E ♦9 S ♣10 2 ♠ K 9 ♥♦♣9 8 5

♠♥8 ♦Q ♣K J 7

Declarer led and passed the eight of clubs [if West had played the ten, declarer would have covered with dummy’s queen to bring about the analogous endplay]. East won the jack but was stuck. A second club would promote declarer’s nine, whilst a red card would enable declarer to throw a club from hand and ruff in dummy. 12 tricks and slam made – via a lovely

Word Watching Paul Dunn Dealer: North, Vulnerability: Neither

♠ 10 5 3 ♥A J 9 ♦A K 3 ♣AQ 6 4

Pairs

Advanced

♠6 ♠7 4 2 ♥K 10 6 4 W N E ♥8 7 5 3 2 ♦Q 8 5 4 ♦10 9 7 6 S ♣10 2 ♠ A KQ J 9 8 ♣K J 7 ♥Q ♦J 2 ♣9 8 5 3

S(Senior)

W

N

E

1♣ Pass 1♠ Pass 2NT(1) Pass 6♠ (2) End (1) 18-19 balanced in the modern style. [1NT rebid would be 15-17 and 3NT rebid would be gambling: a good hand based on clubs].

(2) Should have good chances given the fabulous spade quality and 6-4 “bid more” shape.

Contract: 6♠ , Opening Lead: ♦10 (♣10)

Partial Elimination and Throw-in [Partial in the sense that West still held a trump – which didn’t matter as it was East who was endplayed].

6♠ can also be made on the seemingly fatal ten of clubs lead.

Trick one goes ♣10, ♣Q, ♣K, ♣3 and declarer wins East’s safe spade return. After cashing a second top trump, he leads the queen of hearts, covered by king and ace. He cashes the jack of hearts and ace of clubs, then runs all his spades.

West must keep the ten of hearts (to prevent dummy’s nine from promoting); East must keep the jack of clubs (to prevent declarer’s nine from promoting). Neither can keep three diamonds and the last three tricks will be won by dummy’s ♦AK3. A classic Double Squeeze.

andrew.robson@thetimes.co.uk

Chess Raymond Keene Biblical proportions It is of great interest that three books have recently appeared on Aron Nimzowitsch, author of the strategic chess Bible, My System.

These are Aron Nimzowitsch on the Road to Chess Mastery 18861924 by Per Skjoldager and Jørn Erik Nielsen (McFarland), Aron Nimzowitsch 1928-1935 edited by Rudolf Reinhardt (New in Chess) and Nimzowitsch: Move by Move

by Steve Giddins (Everyman Chess). Although the books published by McFarland and New in Chess are of undoubted historical interest there is no doubt that the Giddins book is by far the most instruction-packed for the aspiring chess student. A case in point is Giddins’ analysis of the delicate endgame which follows.

White: Aron Nimzowitsch Black: Richard Reti Berlin 1928

________ á D DkD D] àD D DR0 ] ß DKD D 0] ÞD DB4 D ] Ý D D D D] ÜD D D D ] Û D D D D] ÚD D D D ] ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ 46 Ra7!!

A brilliant move. After 46 Rxg7 Rf5 47 Kd6 Rf1 the position is a draw. Nimzowitsch realizes that he needs to keep the enemy gpawn on the board.

46 ... Re1

This loses relatively easily. The most tenacious defence is 46 ...

Kf8, though 47 Kd6 Re8 48 Rd7!!, still wins.

47 Kd6 Kf8 48 Rf7+ Ke8 49 Rf2 The threat is 50 Bc6+ and 51 Rf8+, mating.

49 ... Kd8 50 Rf8+ Re8 51 Rf7 Re1 52 Rxg7 Re2 53 Rh7 Re1 54 Rxh6 This is the Philidor position.

54 ... Re8 55 Rh7

________ á D irD D] àD D D DR] ß D I D D] ÞD DBD D ] Ý D D D D] ÜD D D D ] Û D D D D] ÚD D D D ] ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ

55 ... Kc8 The main line of the Philidor analysis is: 55 ... Re2 56 Rb7 Rc2 57 Ra7! (this waiting move is designed to force the black rook off the seventh rank) 57 ... Rc1 58 Bb3! (the rook lacks a check on the d-file, thanks to its position on the first rank) 58 ... Rc3 59 Be6! Rd3+ 60 Bd5 Rc3, and now we have the rook where we want it, on the sixth rank, the worst rank of all. 61 Rd7+!

Kc8 (or 61 ... Ke8 62 Rg7) 62 Rh7 Kb8 63 Rb7+ Kc8 64 Rb4 Kd8 65 Bc4! Kc8 66 Be6+, and wins.

56 Rc7+ Kb8 57 Rb7+ Kc8 58 Rb4 Rd8+ 59 Kc6 Re8 60 Ra4 Kb8 61 Kb6 Kc8 62 Bc6 Black resigns The Winning Move is a little known Nimzowitsch gem from the Reinhardt book.

________ árD Dni D] Winning Move àDb1rg D ] ß DpDp0QD] White to play. This position is from Nimzowitsch-Plüss, Simultaneous DisÞ0pD D Dp] play, Zurich 1931. Ý D DN) D] White needs an accurate move to blast ÜD GBD D ] through the remnants of Black’s defences. ÛP)PD DP)] Can you see it? Ú$ D D DK] For up-to-the-minute information follow ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ my tweets on twitter.com/times_chess.

Solution right

Sudoku No 6869

Pranayama a. A yogurt drink b. A scimitar c. Controlled breathing Sastruga a. A snowy ridge b. A fur hat c. A salad leaf Scholiast a. A failed student b. An annotator of texts c. A school in classical Rome

T2 CROSSWORD

No 6527

Times Quick Crossword 1

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C U RER I N S SH I U N K EWE

H B A D

1 Emitter of electronic sound (6) 2 Uncommon (4) 3 Protect from harm (6) 4 One wanting to secede (13) 5 Type of demo (3-2) 6 Think deeply (8) 7 Roman playwright (6) 13 Transport system (8) 15 Cotton reel (6) 17 Worn away (6) 18 Walk with exaggerated hip and shoulder movements (6) 19 Stupid person (5) 22 Former Persian ruler (4)

Check today’s answers by ringing 09067 577188. Calls cost 77p per minute.

6

27

7

13

12

21

9 9

21

Polygon From these letters, make words of four or more letters, always including the central letter. Answers must be in the Concise Oxford Dictionary, excluding capitalised words, plurals, conjugated verbs (past tense etc), adverbs ending in LY, comparatives and superlatives.

27

15

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Fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. The digits within the cells joined by the dotted lines add up to the printed top left hand figure.

Within each dotted line ‘shape’, a digit CANNOT be repeated.

Codeword

No 2211

Numbers are substituted for letters in the crossword grid. Below the grid is the key.

Some letters are solved. When you have completed your first word or phrase you will have the clues to more letters. Enter them in the key grid and the main grid and check the letters on the alphabet list as you complete them.

17 20

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Winning Move solution

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Pranayama (c) In yoga, the art of breath control.

Sastruga (a) One of a series of ridges on snow-covered plains, caused by the wind (from Russian).

Scholiast (b) A medieval annotator, especially of classical texts.

28

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Word Watching answers

7

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14

Yesterday’s answers cere, ceroc, clerk, clocker, cockerel, cockle, cockler, coerce, coke, cole, core, creek, creel, keel, koel, leek, leer, locker, lore, ocker, orle, recce, reck, reek, reel, role

5

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Tough 26min

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Solution to Crossword 6526 ROZ V L E T R A L W T EN

9

4 7

4

20 Russian composer of Prince Igor (7) 21 Fertile desert spot (5) 23 — Jones, architect (5) 24 Czech composer (7) 25 Sound of disapproval (3)

Distress call (3) Shelved display stand (7) Female name (5) Portion (5) Very foolish (7) Tending to put right (8) Indian classical mode (4) U2 frontman (4) Radio (8) P EC T P L A S N I S T I O T I T HE AD L E DA T E S T S C A L S P A A R ERHE A T G Y E NEGE S

1

18

Across

A S H RA M S P O TO

1 2 5

Killer No 3947

24 25

7 3 4

Fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9 Solutions tomorrow, yesterday’s solutions below

4

4 8 9 10 11 12 14 15 16

8

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No 6527

5

Difficult

6 4 2

9

6

1 Ng5! leads to 1 ... fxg5 2 Qh6+ Ng7 3 Qxg7+ Ke8 4 Bg6+ Kd8 5 Qg8+ Bf8 6 Qxf8 mate.

Bridge Andrew Robson

17 20

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 1

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Sudoku, Killer and Codeword solutions 8 3 4 7 6 2 9 1 5

7 6 1 9 5 4 8 2 3

2 5 9 8 3 1 7 4 6

6 9 3 5 4 8 1 7 2

No 6867

1 2 5 6 9 7 4 3 8

4 8 7 2 1 3 6 5 9

5 7 2 1 8 6 3 9 4

3 1 8 4 2 9 5 6 7

9 4 6 3 7 5 2 8 1

5 6 9 7 2 8 1 4 3

8 7 1 9 4 3 2 5 6

2 4 3 5 6 1 8 7 9

3 8 7 6 1 2 4 9 5

No 3944

1 9 5 4 3 7 6 2 8

4 2 6 8 9 5 7 3 1

6 5 2 1 7 9 3 8 4

7 1 8 3 5 4 9 6 2

9 3 4 2 8 6 5 1 7

L MA U BR E P L A L I R J O N V I C

A NN A OC O E N D Z A

D I E E R QU O U CO L I P N T Y E X

RD U E N I N POR E A E EWE R S S T O T

No 2210

G F A V E R I W T H E N S C I T E O N PWA R D A U T RA I T D N U L K E D Y D

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

53

FGM

Sport

Sent to Coventry Fans will have to watch Wasps in the Midlands by the end of the year

Ferguson mea culpa United’s former manager admits for first time his squad needed upgrading

Rugby union, pages 56-57

Football, page 61

Army recruits part of 2020 vision CPL RICHARD CAVE / CROWN COPYRIGHT

Olympics

Rick Broadbent

Olympic talent-spotters are tapping in to the Army’s combat skills in an effort to boost Great Britain’s medal haul.

A radical new programme, partfunded by money the Army received after the G4S security controversy at London 2012, means that soldiers at every base are being tested to find out whether they have what it takes to win gold in Tokyo in 2020. Those who excel will be fed into elite sports, including shooting, boxing and rowing.

The Army and UK Sport jointinitiative comes in the wake of Heather Stanning’s rowing gold medal in 2012.

Since then, the captain in the Royal Artillery has done a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan and helped to set a world record at the World Championships in Amsterdam. “We want more Heather Stannings,” Brigadier John Donnelly said at yesterday’s launch at the Army’s school of physical training in Aldershot.

The Army elite sport programme, also backed by the English Institute of Sport, is using £1.4 million donated by G4S after the Army stood in for the company when it failed to deliver enough security guards for the London Olympics.

For Stanning, who is now back in the GB Rowing programme with Helen Glover, her partner in the women’s pair, it is a no-brainer. “When I first joined my regiment I looked around and thought there were so many talented sportspeople, but they’d just never had the opportunity,” she said. “They joined up because they wanted to do the job and didn’t realise what was open to them. The thing with soldiers is they joined the military because they are determined, hard-working and committed, so they already have the right mental attitude.”

Fifty women were assessed at Aldershot yesterday, while British Shooting’s performance director was running the rule over marksmen on the range at Bisley. Soldiers who get through the tests will be following in the footsteps of Army Olympians, including Dame Kelly Holmes, the double gold medalwinner. The scheme’s creators believe many more have fallen through the net.

As for why the Army is happy that some of its best physical specimens take sporting sabbaticals, Brigadier Donnelly said: “Sport is in our DNA. It has run through the Army for centuries and maintains our standards.”

Alonso’s two-wheel venture goes on hold Cycling Fernando Alonso’s foray

into cycling will not take place in 2015, but the UCI will welcome further discussions over a team backed by the two-time Formula One world champion, below. The UCI announced the teams who have registered for racing licences for the coming season yesterday, and an Alonso-backed team was not among them despite talks over his entry to the sport. In a statement, the UCI said “our door will always be open”. Sir Dave Brailsford, Team Sky’s principal, said at the Leaders in Sport conference in London: “I am disappointed. It was an exciting prospect. Hopefully it might not be the end of the project. I’d encourage him to get involved.”

Answering the call: talent-spotters want soldiers to put their competitive skills to use in sports such as rowing and boxing

Stanning certainly seems to have benefited from six months in a desert.

“It was my choice to go back into the Army after London,” she said. “The Army did not make me, but I wanted to make sure I still had a career and was employable. I’d done my time in Sandhurst and wanted to use it. I needed to get it out of my system.

“When London went so well it was tempting to carry on for four years, but two years down the track I’d probably be burnt out. Afghanistan was fine, it was good, just a tour. Time out made me

realise I wanted to jump back in the boat.”

It was, though, a shock to go back to military life after the public love-in at London. It was also hard to be without Glover, who was fast-tracked to success through another UK Sport talent ID scheme, Sporting Giants, which targets people over 5ft 9in. “For six weeks before the Games we were sharing a room in every hotel, seeing each other every day, so it was weird without her,” Stanning said. “I think it was good for us to do our own things. It was healthy.”

Olympic soldiers Heather Stanning The Royal Artillery captain, below, won rowing gold with Helen Glover at the 2012 Olympics and at the World Championships in August Al Heathcote Part of the Britain men’s eight who won silver at the 2008 Olympics, Heathcote joined

the Army in 2001 and served in Bosnia and Iraq Dame Kelly Holmes Won a silver medal at the 1995 World Championships while serving in the Women’s Royal Army Corps and took double gold at the 2004 Olympics Kriss Akabusi Served in the Royal Corps of Signals before winning a silver medal at the 1984 Olympics and two bronze medals in Barcelona in 1992 Words by Rick Broadbent

It also paid off in Amsterdam almost six weeks ago, when they set a global best. “It’s where we ought to be,” she said with a soldier’s perspective. “We had a year away, but the event is moving on and we need to be doing those sorts of times already.”

Nevertheless, it bodes well for Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Stanning had just returned from a reconnaissance trip to Rio for the rowing team. She said the aim was not to be surprised by anything. “It’s good to know there’s Christ the Redeemer looking over the rowing lake and traffic right next to it.

You don’t want to be distracted when you get there.”

That no-stone-unturned policy is now being adopted by the Army for the 2020 Games in Tokyo, although successful recruits may compete in various world championships before then. The scientists behind the project say they are looking at sports where late starters can thrive, but are particularly hopeful of finding shooters and women boxers.

The use of specific talent schemes paid off at this year’s Winter Olympics.

Lizzy Yarnold won gold for Britain in the skeleton after taking advantage of a Girls4Gold assessment day to see if she suited the sport. She had previously been a low-ranking heptathlete.

Leading role for Howell Golf David Howell, who has played twice in the Ryder Cup, will complete the five-man panel that selects the Europe team’s captain for the 2016 competition at Hazeltine, Minnesota. Howell joins the past three captains, Paul McGinley, José María Olazábal and Colin Montgomerie, and George O’Grady, the chief executive of the European Tour, on the panel. The choice will be made early next year.

Winchester off to flyer Equestrianism Chloe Winchester,

below, won the early headline class as the 2014 Horse of the Year Show opened at the LG Arena in Birmingham yesterday.

The Suffolk rider, 20, landed the Canaan Farm Young Riders Championship of Great Britain. A stellar entry in the international classes starting today is headed by Scott Brash and Ben Maher, the London 2012 gold medal-winning Britain team-mates.

Shanghai surprises present Murray with timely boost Tennis

Sarah Ebner

Andy Murray’s chances of reaching the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals received a boost yesterday when three of his rivals for a place in the seasonending tournament were beaten in the second round of the Shanghai Masters.

Murray plays David Ferrer in the third round today, having dispatched Jerzy Janowicz, of Poland, 7-5, 6-2, and the departures of Rafael Nadal, Kei Nishikori, Stanislas Wawrinka, Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic yesterday will raise the British No 1’s hopes of winning the event in China.

The match against Ferrer, who beat

Martin Klizan 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, has extra significance as Murray is ninth in the Race to London rankings that determine the eight qualifiers for the World Tour Finals, a place ahead of his Spanish rival. With four of the five players who occupy the remaining qualification places — Wawrinka, Nishikori, Raonic and Marin Cilic — out of contention in Shanghai, Murray and Ferrer have a gilt-edged chance to force their way into the top eight.

Murray was impressive throughout against Janowicz, who needed treatment on an injured right calf, and lost only four points on his serve during the opening set. He saved two break points at the start of the second,

breaking the Pole in the fourth and eighth games.

Nadal, who has appendicitis, lost to Feliciano López, also of Spain, 6-3, 7-6.

He will now decide whether to have surgery before the World Tour Finals.

Battling to qualify for that tournament is quite a new experience for Murray, who held a position in the world’s top five from September 2008 until January this year, but he insists that he is not fazed. “All of the players looking to qualify for the World Tour Finals will be aware of what’s going on,” he said. “You just need to concentrate on trying to win your matches. I haven’t been in this position for a while, so in some ways it’s kind of new. But I’m

enjoying it so far. It is giving me a bit of extra focus and direction for the last few tournaments.”

Victory at the Shanghai Masters is worth 1,000 points in the Race to London standings. Murray trails Raonic, the Canadian who occupies the eighth and final berth, by 175 points, but will close to within five if he beats Ferrer.

Novak Djokovic, who beat Dominic Thiem, of Austria, 6-3, 6-4 in round two, Roger Federer and Nadal have already secured their places in London.

6 Heather Watson, the British No 1, lost 6-4, 7-5 to Yulia Putintseva, the world No 122 from Kazakhstan, in the second round of the Japan Open in Osaka.

Britain fall short Gymnastics Great Britain’s women

finished sixth in the team final at the World Championships in Nanning, China, yesterday. The line-up of Hannah Whelan, Kelly Simm, Becky Downie, Claudia Fragapane, Gabby Jupp and Ruby Harrold scored 168.496 points across the four pieces of apparatus to finish just short of their best placing of fifth in Tokyo in 2011. The United States won gold ahead of China and Russia.

54

FGM

Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

Sport Rugby union

Rainbow warrior reflects on life of pride and prejudice Gareth Thomas tells Matt Dickinson why it will be some time before football can be dragged out of the closet in a world still replete with bigotry

A

s he squeezes his big, muscular frame into an armchair, taking a break from a whirlwind of engagements, Gareth Thomas seems almost incredulous at his own happiness.

The joy he radiates is understandable when you consider that he has journeyed from a cliff edge, wondering whether to hurl himself into the Bristol Channel, to a coffee shop in Henley-onThames, where we are talking about his bestselling book, a play and a forthcoming movie about his life. “It’s mindblowing,” he says with a laugh. “All I’m missing is a song.”

In front of us is a copy of Proud, his astonishingly powerful memoir. To understand Thomas’s contentment,

you must read his story of how the captain of Wales and the Lions was trapped for so many years by the secret of his homosexuality; how he became so ensnared by his own lies that suicide seemed the only solution; how he eventually came to find peace through honesty.

In a week of polarising autobiographies from Kevin Pietersen and Roy Keane, which seem to destroy and diminish, it is a book that soars above the petty score-settling. Brutal insults are thrown by Thomas, but only at himself for those years of mendacity when he was a married man sneaking off to gay bars.

At the end of it all emerges an affecting message of hope and inspiration, which Thomas is eager to share; especially with those lonely souls he knows are out there enduring the sort of agonies that once drove him to lie to friends and family, and from there to downing vodka and pills.

Thomas has been open about his sexuality since 2009, but in digging deep — “very f***ing deep,” he says, recalling how he became ill during the book process — he has become a highprofile crutch for so many others who feel trapped.

Letters, messages, tweets and emails arrive almost daily; often from fearful

Ayr

Bet of the day

Rob Wright

Tiger Twenty Two (5.10 Ayr)

2.10 Fortuna Glas 4.10 Margrets Gift 2.40 CaptainRevelation(nb)4.40 Latin Rebel 3.10 Monel 5.10 TigerTwentyTwo(nap) 3.40 Coiste Bodhar 5.40 Royal Duchess Thunderer: 3.10 Monel. 5.40 Rioja Day (nap).

Going: soft (good to soft in places) Racing UK Draw: no advantage Tote Jackpot meeting

2.10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

2-1 Sir Chauvelin, 9-4 Battleranger, 11-2 Fortuna Glas, 13-2 others.

Rob Wright’s choice: Fortuna Glas improved when third at Hamilton and can open his account Danger: Sir Chauvelin

Nursery Handicap (2-Y-O: £2,911: 6f) (10)

T Hamilton 1 (2) 2401 MIGHTY WARRIOR 16 (B,D) R Fahey 9-7 D Tudhope 2 (3) 32432 WESTHOUGHTON 9 D O'Meara 9-7 G Lee 3 (8) 0221 CAPTAIN REVELATION 14 (D) T Dascombe 9-7 R Kennemore 4 (4) 535 NAMED ASSET 22 Jedd O'Keeffe 9-0 D Sweeney 5 (7) 053 EXPLAIN 22 M Meade 9-0 6 (9) 26513 CLASSIC FLYER 11 (D,BF) D O'Meara 8-10 Sam James I Brennan 7 (1) 060 HEADING HOME 45 J J Quinn 8-6 P P Mathers 8 (6) 46030 AGADOO 16 (H) Shaun Harris 8-1 A Mullen 9 (10) 660 APROVADO 45 M Dods 8-1 D Fentiman 10 (5) 5653 REASSERT 29 (B) T Easterby 8-0 4-1 Captain Revelation, 9-2 Classic Flyer, 11-2 Westhoughton, 7-1 Mighty Warrior, 15-2 Explain, 8-1 Aprovado, Heading Home, 14-1 others.

Wright choice: Captain Revelation showed a good attitude to win at Pontefract Dangers: Explain, Mighty Warrior

3.10

Rob Wright’s midday update thetimes.co.uk/sportsbook

Maiden Stakes (2-Y-O: £3,881: 1m) (7)

T Eaves (2) 5244 BATTLERANGER 73 K Dalgleish 9-5 03 FORTUNA GLAS 18 D McCain 9-5 P McDonald (5) 30 GO DAN GO 20 K Dalgleish 9-5 J Gormley (7) (4) MON GRIS K Stubbs 9-5 D Tudhope (1) 0 ROYAL REGENT 9 Mrs L Normile 9-5 Megan Carberry (5) (3) G Lee (6) 6422 SIR CHAUVELIN 19 J Goldie 9-5 WOOFIE R Fahey 9-5 T Hamilton (7)

2.40

Has struggled on faster ground of late but this easier surface will suit and he is now 7lb lower than when placed at York in May

Handicap (£1,940: 6f) (15)

Joe Doyle (5) 1 (6) 54055 DARK OPAL 56 (V,C) J Weymes 4-9-7 G Lee 2 (15) 45442 JUMBO STEPS 24 J Goldie 7-9-6 14360 MONEL 21 (CD) J Goldie 6-9-6 F Lynch 3 (1) G Whillans (5) 4 (7) 30006 OPT OUT 9 (P,CD) A Whillans 4-9-5 5 (13) 55504 SPIRIT OF ALSACE 8 (H,CD) J Goldie 3-9-2 J Garritty (5) J Fanning 6 (8) 00260 SEWN UP 9 (P,D) K Dalgleish 4-9-0 7 (2) 00210 METHAALY 28 (B,CD) M Mullineaux 11-8-13 A Hesketh (7) 8 (10) 26055 MASKED DANCE 58 (P,C,D) S Dixon 7-8-12 P McDonald 9 (4) 56200 LORD BUFFHEAD 24 (V,C,D) Richard Guest 5-8-10 J Hart 10(11) 00026 SAXONETTE 9 (C,D) Miss L Perratt 6-8-10 C Beasley (3) T Eaves 11 (5) 406 BON CHANCE 85 (B) M W Easterby 3-8-8 12 (9) 45504 DE LESSEPS 48 J Moffatt 6-8-7 Rachel Richardson (7) 13(14) 00024 BERBICE 9 (D) Miss L Perratt 9-8-7 Sammy Jo Bell (5) 14 (3) 00630 ABRAHAM MONRO 34 (D) Mrs R Carr 4-8-7 J Sullivan N Farley (3) 15(12) 43000 BENIDORM 9 (V) Richard Guest 6-8-7 6-1 Monel, 13-2 Opt Out, 15-2 Jumbo Steps, 8-1 Dark Opal, Lord Buffhead, Spirit Of Alsace, 9-1 Saxonette, 10-1 Berbice, Masked Dance, 11-1 others.

Wright choice: Monel handles cut and has gained all five wins at this track Dangers: Abraham Monro, Jumbo Steps

3.40

Handicap (£1,940: 6f) (15)

T Eaves 1 (5) 22004 LIVE DANGEROUSLY 10 K Dalgleish 4-9-7 G Lee 2 (4) 15500 GONINODAETHAT 9 (CD) J Goldie 6-9-7 P McDonald 3 (1) 16124 BEARSKIN 18 (B,D) Mrs A Duffield 3-9-6 D Tudhope 4 (10) 43403 COISTE BODHAR 7 (P,D) J Tuite 3-9-3 5 (12) 53150 NEW LEASE OF LIFE 21 (P) J Goldie 5-9-1 G Bartley (3) P Aspell 6 (6) 40526 CAHAL 42 (BF) D Nicholls 3-9-0 F Lynch 7 (14) 10000 BLACK DOUGLAS 8 (D) J Goldie 5-9-0 8 (15) 30000 THE NIFTY FOX 9 (P,CD) T Easterby 10-8-10 J Sullivan 9 (8) 31502 INCOMPARABLE 60 (P,D) S Dixon 9-8-10 M Hopkins (5) 10 (2) 00634 MINTY JONES 60 (B,D) M Mullineaux 5-8-9 A Hesketh (7) 11 (9) 23660 TADALAVIL 21 (CD) Miss L Perratt 9-8-9 Sammy Jo Bell (5) J Fanning 12 (7) 50053 ROCK CANYON 9 (D) Miss L Perratt 5-8-7 13(11) 45342 CAPTAIN SCOOBY 2 (P,C,D,BF) Richard Guest 8-8-7 T Hamilton 14 (3) 05006 CELESTIAL DAWN 141 (D) J Weymes 5-8-7 J Nason (5) 15(13) 50006 SPOKEN WORDS 35 (H,P) J Riches 5-8-7 Joe Doyle (5) 13-2 Coiste Bodhar, 15-2 Goninodaethat, 8-1 Incomparable, 9-1 others.

Wright choice: Coiste Bodhar is back down to to his latest winning mark Dangers: Live Dangerously, Rock Canyon

4.10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Handicap (3-Y-O: £2,911: 5f) (8)

(1) 16500 LEXINGTON ROSE 22 (V,D) B Smart 9-7 P Mulrennan D Allan (7) 22231 MARGRETS GIFT 56 (P,D) T Easterby 9-7 D Tudhope (8) 42604 SCORELINE 9 (P,D) D O'Meara 9-7 14030 CHOOKIE'S LASS 9 K Dalgleish 9-4 T Eaves (2) J Hart (5) 66114 FREDRICKA 15 (CD) G Moss 9-4 P P Mathers (6) 45263 RED FOREVER 40 (D) A Berry 9-0 G Lee (4) 14350 SLEEPER CLASS 48 (C) J Goldie 8-13 C Beasley (3) (3) 62040 SECRET APPLAUSE 34 (H) M Dods 8-7

100-30 Fredricka, 4-1 Margrets Gift, 9-2 Scoreline, 6-1 others.

gay men, but also from others who are seeking the courage to be honest with themselves.

Thomas cannot promise them the contentment he has found with his boyfriend, Ian, or the support of a loving family.

He certainly cannot give any reassuring guarantees to the gay footballer who has been in touch, still fearful that terrace tribalism will prove intolerable.

He urges more players, such as David Beckham posing in Attitude magazine and Joey Barton championing the rainbow laces campaign, to speak up, though he knows football’s closet will stay firmly locked for now.

“But I just want to share some of the positivity I feel,” Thomas says. “When I hear from people who feel there is something they can’t overcome, and they feel they can’t carry on, whether it’s because of their sexuality or whatever, I’ve been in their shoes.

“I’ve stood there on the edge of the pit looking down wondering if there is any point going on. You can only realise what it’s like to be suicidal when you’ve been there. And I’ve shown them life can be OK.” Agony aunt is now Thomas’s job for life. “I’ll probably go to my grave still talking to people, telling them my story 5.10

Handicap (£7,762: 7f 50y) (14)

G Lee (12) 51100 GREEN HOWARD 5 (D) R Bastiman 6-9-12 D Nolan (2) 54040 FARLOW 19 (D) R Fahey 6-9-7 J Fanning (6) 01006 SILVER RIME 19 (CD) Miss L Perratt 9-9-6 (4) 02000 VICTOIRE DE LYPHAR 13 (E,D) Mrs R Carr 7-9-6 J Sullivan 5 (3) 22513 ALEXANDRAKOLLONTAI 10 (B,C,D,BF) A Whillans 4-9-2 C Beasley (3) G Chaloner (3) 6 (10) 0P026 OUR BOY JACK 40 (D) R Fahey 5-9-2 7 (13) 13065 ESCAPE TO GLORY 21 (CD) M Dods 6-9-2 P Mulrennan 8 (8) 60012 EVANESCENT 14 (CD,BF) J J Quinn 5-9-0 Joe Doyle (5) T Hamilton 9 (11) 55000 REGIMENT 32 (D) R Fahey 3-9-0 P Aspell 10(14) -0060 SECRET RECIPE 54 (D) D Nicholls 4-8-11 11 (9) -1112 TRIXIE MALONE 136 (C,D,BF) K Burke 4-8-11 P McDonald 40300 TIGER TWENTY TWO 48 R Fahey 3-8-11 J Garritty (5) 12 (1) D Allan 13 (7) 00501 BACHOTHEQUE 21 (H,CD) T Easterby 4-8-10 J Hart 14 (5) 50260 TED'S BROTHER 9 (E,D) Richard Guest 6-8-10 1 2 3 4

6-1 Evanescent, Trixie Malone, 7-1 Bachotheque, 15-2 Alexandrakollontai, 8-1 Farlow, 10-1 Our Boy Jack, 12-1 Escape To Glory, Regiment, 14-1 others.

Wright choice: Tiger Twenty Two, ideally drawn, goes well with cut in the ground Dangers: Evanescent, Silver Rime

5.40

Handicap

(£1,940: 7f 50y) (14)

D Tudhope 1 (9) 31041 SECRET CITY 9 (B,CD) R Bastiman 8-9-13 J Nason (5) 2 (6) -3665 PAT'S LEGACY 62 (P) Mrs M Fife 8-9-7 J Sullivan 3 (10) 06000 HAB REEH 15 Mrs R Carr 6-9-6 G Chaloner (3) 4 (3) 40132 WOTALAD 21 (P,D) R Whitaker 4-9-6 00040 TOBOGGAN STAR 12 (P,D) Mrs A Duffield 3-9-5 5 (14) P McDonald F Lynch 6 (7) 25620 BLUE SONIC 17 J Goldie 4-9-5 7 (13) -0041 PITT RIVERS 9 (CD) Miss L Perratt 5-9-5 P Mulrennan C Beasley (3) 8 (4) 35034 FINDOG 9 Miss L Perratt 4-9-3 G Lee 9 (12) 00043 RIOJA DAY 9 (B) J Goldie 4-9-3 Joe Doyle (5) 10 (8) 33302 INDIAN GIVER 9 (P) J Riches 6-9-2 11(11) 2-202 ROYAL DUCHESS 59 Mrs L Normile 4-9-2 Megan Carberry (5) T Eaves 12 (5) -0660 UNCLE BRIT 59 (P,C) R Menzies 8-9-1 J Garritty (5) 13 (2) 26000 PETERGATE 45 (P) B Rothwell 3-9-0 14 (1) 22056 VERY FIRST BLADE 2 (B) M Mullineaux 5-8-12 J Fanning 7-2 Secret City, 5-1 Pitt Rivers, 8-1 Indian Giver, 9-1 Pat's Legacy, Wotalad, 10-1 Rioja Day, 11-1 Royal Duchess, 12-1 Hab Reeh, 14-1 others.

Wright choice: Royal Duchess, second here last time, can gain an overdue success Dangers: Rioja Day, Findog

Wright choice: Margrets Gift has improved since fitted with cheekpieces Dangers: Fredricka, Chookie’s Lass

Course specialists

4.40

Ayr: Trainers J J Quinn, 14 from 47 runners, 29.8%; D O'Meara, 18 from 85, 21.2%. Jockeys J Nason, 7 from 18 rides, 38.9%; Megan Carberry, 4 from 13, 30.8%.

Handicap (£1,940: 1m 5f 13y) (10)

P Mulrennan 1 (1) 230-0 ROC DE PRINCE 37 (T) J Ewart 5-9-12 G Lee 2 (3) 56266 RONALD GEE 17 J Goldie 7-9-9 3 (10) 33614 HARRISON'S CAVE 10 (CD) K Dalgleish 6-9-7 J Fanning J Hart 4 (7) 14340 ROCKWEILLER 103 (C) Shaun Harris 7-9-4 G Bartley (3) 5 (6) 42545 LATIN REBEL 21 (P) J Goldie 7-9-2 P McDonald 6 (5) 00053 SCHMOOZE 10 Miss L Perratt 5-9-2 7 (2) 23500 GRAND DIAMOND 9 (CD) J Goldie 10-9-0 Rachael Grant (7) F Lynch 8 (8) 340/0 NAY SECRET 21 J Goldie 6-8-12 J Garritty (5) 9 (4) 4-650 I AM WHO I AM 34 (T) I Jardine 4-8-12 10 (9) 464 HATTON SPRINGS 84 W S Coltherd 3-8-4 D Fentiman 4-1 Harrison's Cave, Rockweiller, 11-2 Grand Diamond, 6-1 others.

Wright choice: Latin Rebel, fifth over course and distance, can do better Dangers: Grand Diamond, Harrison’s Cave

Exeter: Trainers D McCain, 3 from 13, 23.1%; A Honeyball, 5 from 22, 22.7%. Jockeys J M Maguire, 9 from 29, 31.0%; A Wedge, 3 from 12, 25.0%.

Wolverhampton: Trainers R Hannon, 5 from 12, 41.7%; S Bin Suroor, 29 from 87, 33.3%. Jockeys W Buick, 25 from 84, 29.8%; T E Durcan, 33 from 157, 21.0%.

Worcester: Trainers P Nicholls, 22 from 66, 33.3%; Miss R Curtis, 16 from 52, 30.8%. Jockeys A P McCoy, 109 from 372, 29.3%; G Sheehan, 8 from 36, 22.2%.

Coming out to play: Thomas was forced to recount painful times in compiling his 6.50

Wolverhampton Rob Wright

5.20 Luna Mission 7.20 Emirates Flyer 5.50 Pollination 7.50 Perspicace 6.20 Three Robins 8.20 Evacusafe Lady 6.50 Mister Bob Going: standard At The Races Draw: 5f-7f, low numbers best

5.20 1 (2) 2 (1) 3 (7) 4 (3) 5 (6) 6 (11) 7 (12) 8 (10) 9 (9) 10 (8) 11(13) 12 (5) 13 (4)

Maiden Fillies' Stakes

(2-Y-O: £2,911: 5f 216y) (13)

5 BONFIRE HEART 28 D Loughnane 9-0 5 EMMA BOVARY 52 J Norton 9-0 0 EXOPLANET BLUE 54 H Candy 9-0 0 GLENBUCK LASS 33 A Bailey 9-0 33 LUNA MISSION 23 (BF) M Botti 9-0 04 MARY'S SECRET 24 T Dascombe 9-0 0 PERFECT BOUNTY 36 Clive Cox 9-0 SCENT OF SUMMER W Haggas 9-0 2 SILVERY BLUE 15 H Palmer 9-0 523 SIMPLE ELEGANCE 17 C Appleby 9-0 4 SLOVAK 28 J Tate 9-0 56 THE FAIRY 13 J Gosden 9-0 0 VIXEN HILL 45 C Hills 9-0

J F McDonald J Butterfield (3) Dane O'Neill R Tart M Harley R Kingscote R Tate (3) S W Kelly James Doyle C Hardie (3) Luke Morris W Buick G Gibbons

7-2 Luna Mission, 4-1 Simple Elegance, 11-2 The Fairy, 13-2 Silvery Blue, Slovak, 9-1 Mary's Secret, 10-1 Scent Of Summer, 16-1 others.

5.50 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Maiden Stakes (£2,911: 7f 32y) (8)

S Levey (4) 32532 BOLD SPIRIT 60 (B) R Hannon 3-9-5 53 COPPERBELT 23 M Johnston 3-9-5 F Norton (6) S Donohoe (3) 0-R0 GENTLEMEN 139 (H) Phil McEntee 3-9-5 F Tylicki (2) 0620 INCREDIBLE FRESH 50 J Fanshawe 3-9-5 POLLINATION C Appleby 3-9-5 W Buick (5) 0 ROAD MAP 23 D Loughnane 3-9-5 L Day (7) (1) (7) 003 TASAABOQ 71 (T,V,BF) Phil McEntee 3-9-5 Luke Morris 05 YARD OF ALE 132 K Stubbs 3-9-5 G Gibbons (8)

9-4 Bold Spirit, 11-4 Incredible Fresh, 3-1 Copperbelt, 9-2 Pollination, 9-1 Tasaaboq, 16-1 Yard Of Ale, 100-1 Gentlemen, Road Map.

6.20

Claiming Stakes

(2-Y-O: £2,911: 1m 141y) (13)

0 EL DRAQUE 5 Sir M Prescott 8-13 Luke Morris 1 (10) James Doyle 2 (7) 32453 FRAMLEY GARTH 7 D Elsworth 8-13 Martin Dwyer 3 (9) 45240 JET MATE 7 (P) W Muir 8-13 MISSANDEI M Botti 8-13 M M Monaghan (5) 4 (12) W Buick 5 (8) 0530 COLOURS OF GLORY 28 C Hills 8-10 S Donohoe 6 (3) 000 DEEPER MAGIC 17 (B) J Moore 8-8 J Fahy 7 (11) 50046 ACTIVATION 10 H Morrison 8-6 8 (1) 0265 DIAMOND RUNNER 10 (B) H Palmer 8-6 N Garbutt (5) C Hardie (3) 9 (4) 33006 THREE ROBINS 50 R Hannon 8-6 F Norton 10(13) 50500 VERCHILD LAD 24 (V) P D Evans 8-6 00 LEXI GRADY ALICE 30 M Tompkins 8-5 J Quinn 11 (2) D Probert 12 (5) 60450 DIMINUTIVE 9 G Harris 8-4 D Brock (3) 13 (6) 00660 MORE DRAMA 9 S Kirk 8-3 5-1 Framley Garth, Three Robins, 6-1 Diamond Runner, 13-2 Colours Of Glory, 7-1 Missandei, 10-1 El Draque, Jet Mate, 12-1 Diminutive, 14-1 others.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Handicap (£2,264: 2m 119y) (8)

(1) 0-350 PHOENIX FLIGHT 169J (C) H J Evans 9-9-7 S Donohoe F Tylicki (5) 50505 AZRAG 26 (T,B,C,BF) M Attwater 6-9-5 T E Durcan (8) 32116 MISTER BOB 16 (P,BF) J Bethell 5-9-4 (4) 32052 HONEST STRIKE 12 D Loughnane 7-9-4 E J Walsh (5) M Harley (6) 23156 ANNALUNA 16 (V,D) P D Evans 5-9-1 J Duern (5) (3) 53063 LACEY 12 (P,C) A Hollinshead 5-8-13 02354 BLACK ICEMAN 16 (C) L Pearce 6-8-6 H Bentley (7) D Probert (2) 40523 JUST DUCHESS 10 M Blanshard 4-8-2

7-2 Annaluna, 9-2 Azrag, Mister Bob, 11-2 Honest Strike, 6-1 Lacey, 8-1 Phoenix Flight, 11-1 Black Iceman, 14-1 Just Duchess.

7.20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Conditions Stakes (£4,725: 1m 141y) (9)

T E Durcan (9) 2-000 ENERGIA EROS 103 (B) J Berry 5-9-10 (2) -1223 EMIRATES FLYER 194 S Bin Suroor 3-9-4 James Doyle (1) 50040 ZAMPA MANOS 19 (V) A Balding 3-9-4 Thomas Brown (3) W Buick (3) 6-602 DRAGON FALLS 222 (H) C Appleby 5-9-3 G Baker (7) 30-30 PREMIO LOCO 201 (D) C Wall 10-9-3 M Harley (8) -5644 SOLAR DEITY 174 (C,D) M Botti 5-9-3 Luke Morris (6) 05033 COMPLICIT 47 P Cole 3-8-13 (5) 34111 FIFTYSHADESFREED 12 (P,CD) G Baker 3-8-13 P Cosgrave (4) 10144 MINDUROWNBUSINESS 24 (D) D Simcock 3-8-13 C Hardie (3)

4-1 Solar Deity, 9-2 Emirates Flyer, 11-2 Premio Loco, 6-1 Fiftyshadesfreed, 13-2 Complicit, Dragon Falls, 9-1 Mindurownbusiness, 12-1 others.

7.50 1 2 3 4 5

Median Auction Maiden Stakes

(£2,587: 1m 4f 50y) (5)

05 BLUE VALENTINO 12 A Hollinshead 5-9-12 G Gibbons (3) 0 I'MWAITINGFORYOU 12 P Bowen 5-9-7 D Muscutt (5) (4) 05 DUKES DEN 14 S Kirk 3-9-5 L Keniry (5) James Doyle (2) 2202 PERSPICACE 29 R Charlton 3-9-5 (1) 34462 STRAWBERRY MARTINI 16 W Muir 3-9-0 Martin Dwyer

6-5 Strawberry Martini, 11-8 Perspicace, 10-1 I'Mwaitingforyou, 14-1 Blue Valentino, 20-1 Dukes Den.

8.20

Handicap (£2,264: 1m 1f 103y) (13)

1 (6) 03142 ROGER THORPE 127 Mrs D Sanderson 5-9-9 J Duern (5) 2 (8) 00032 SPIRIT OF GONDREE 26 (B,C) J M Bradley 6-9-8 Luke Morris P Donaghy 3 (2) 36060 MCBIRNEY 55 (C) P D'Arcy 7-9-8 S Donohoe 4 (12) 43055 COILLTE CAILIN 77 D Loughnane 4-9-7 5 (11) 22506 YOURINTHEWILL 26 (C,D) D Loughnane 6-9-7 S W Kelly W Buick 6 (4) 35124 BON PORT 13 (C) H Morrison 3-9-6 G Baker 7 (5) 5405 ROXY HART 21 E Vaughan 3-9-4 8 (13) 34411 EVACUSAFE LADY 5 (T,CD) John Ryan 3-9-4 M Harley S Levey 9 (10) 16000 TEIDE PEAK 51 (C,D) P D'Arcy 5-9-3 G Gibbons 10 (9) -0066 ON THE HOOF 15 (C) M W Easterby 5-9-3 11 (7) 56422 CLASSIC MISSION 28 (B) J Portman 3-9-3 N Curtis (5) Doubtful 12 (1) 05030 SCARLET PLUM 21 R Charlton 3-9-1 13 (3) 0/60- EXCLUSIVE DANCER 327J G M Moore 5-8-11 L Keniry 3-1 Evacusafe Lady, 8-1 Bon Port, Teide Peak, 9-1 Roxy Hart, Spirit Of Gondree, 10-1 On The Hoof, Yourinthewill, 12-1 Classic Mission, 14-1 others.

Blinkered first time: Ayr 2.40 Reassert. 3.10 Bon Chance, Dark Opal. 4.10 Lexington Rose. Wolverhampton 5.50 Tasaaboq. 6.20 Deeper Magic, Verchild Lad. Worcester 2.00 Go Ruby Go.

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

55

FGM

STU FORSTER / GETTY IMAGES

latest book, Proud, but now cuts a happier figure, right, as he looks ahead to a film and play being made about his life 3.20

Exeter

Rob Wright 2.20 Get Home Now 2.50 Yabadabadoo 3.20 Caulfields Venture Going: good to firm Racing UK

2.20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1

3.50 Many Stars 4.20 Like A Diamond 4.50 Bajan Blu

6

Handicap Hurdle

(£3,898: 2m 3f) (8)

4-1 Bathwick Man, Get Home Now, 5-1 Avel Vor, 11-2 Trend Is My Friend, 6-1 Shadarpour, 7-1 Fuzzy Logic, 8-1 Johnny McGeeney, 14-1 Ascendant.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(£6,330: 3m) (6)

112-4 CAULFIELDS VENTURE 157 (CD) Miss E Lavelle 8-11-12 A Coleman 12145 WELSH BARD 45 D McCain 5-11-7 J M Maguire 46651 GREEN BANK 18 (T,B,D) C Longsdon 8-11-7 A Tinkler P2PP- REGAL PRESENCE 177 (B,D) V Dartnall 7-11-7 D F O'Regan -3361 AMERICAN LEGEND 51 (V) Jonjo O'Neill 6-11-4 R McLernon 21441 ACCORDING TO SARAH 30 P Hobbs 6-11-1 Tom O'Brien

100-30 Green Bank, 7-2 According To Sarah, 4-1 American Legend, Caulfields Venture, 6-1 Welsh Bard, 15-2 Regal Presence.

1/640 JOHNNY MCGEENEY 4 (H,T) D Pipe 9-11-12 C O'Farrell 03/25 ASCENDANT 29 A Reid 8-11-9 J E Moore F0221 GET HOME NOW 12 (T,D) P Bowen 6-11-9 S Bowen (7) 02213 BATHWICK MAN 7 (D) D Pipe 9-11-7 K Edgar (5) 130-1 SHADARPOUR 161 A King 5-11-1 W Hutchinson -16P5 FUZZY LOGIC 32 (CD) B Llewellyn 5-10-13 R Williams (5) 60103 TREND IS MY FRIEND 18 (H) D McCain 5-10-12 J M Maguire 0-P14 AVEL VOR 88 P Hobbs 3-10-2 J Best (3)

2.50

2 3 4 5

4.50

Handicap Chase

3.50 1 2 3 4 5

(£3,249: 2m 5f 110y) (7)

253-0 YABADABADOO 137 Miss E Lavelle 6-11-12 A Coleman -2060 NI SIN E MO AINM 48 (P) N Mulholland 6-11-4 M Byrne 32345 VINCESON 31 Miss J Westwood 6-11-2 W Kennedy 30PF6 STATE DEPARTMENT 18 P Hobbs 7-10-10 Conor Smith (10) 0-054 ALDERLEY HEIGHTS 99 P Gundry 5-10-10 N Scholfield /663- KILDERRY DEAN 451 J Frost 7-10-6 Tom O'Brien /600- ITS APRIL 287 R Walford 6-10-0 J E Moore

3-1 State Department, 100-30 Yabadabadoo, 7-2 Ni Sin E Mo Ainm, 9-2 Kilderry Dean, 8-1 Vinceson, 12-1 Its April, 14-1 Alderley Heights.

(£4,548: 3m) (5)

7-4 Many Stars, 15-8 Mackeys Forge, 7-2 Armedandbeautiful, 8-1 Fuse Wire, 16-1 I'm In Charge.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Novices' Hurdle

Worcester Rob Wright

2.00 Lady Charisma 4.00 El Macca 2.30 Sportsreport 4.30 Gaelic Myth 3.00 Mount Haven 5.00 St Johns Point 3.30 Debt To Society Going: good (good to soft in places) At The Races

2.00

(£3,249: 2m 1f) (9)

0-215 LANDAU 23 (T,P) G Elliott (Ire) 4-11-5 350/ BAJARDO 544 Miss E Baker 6-10-12 503- FREE OF CHARGE 179 P Hobbs 5-10-12 3-2 LIKE A DIAMOND 22 E Williams 4-10-12 45- SONNY THE ONE 177 C Tizzard 4-10-12 31-33 THE CAT'S AWAY 130P R Ford 6-10-12 ANGINOLA 12F D Dennis 5-10-5 0- MISS LAMORNA 309 S Gardner 5-10-5 0-0PP REBEL ISLAND 20 (P) J Panvert 5-10-5

1115- SNOWELL 181 (P,D,BF) Miss E Baker 7-11-12 G Malone (5) 12032 BAJAN BLU 30 (T) D Brace 6-11-11 S Bowen (3) 41F24 JAJA DE JAU 49 (T,BF) A Honeyball 5-11-9 G Derwin (3) -3342 PRETTYASAPICTURE 18 (P) A King 5-11-1 T Bellamy (6) 6-360 DALRYMPLE 115 (T,D) N Ayliffe 8-11-0 Matt Griffiths 060-0 POSITIVE VIBES 18 (H,P) R Woollacott 5-10-11 M Nolan 60-60 MORATAB 122 (T,P) Keiran Burke 5-10-8 Peter Carberry 2025- LORDSHIP 320 T Gretton 10-10-4 N Boinville 0-513 PARTY GIRLS 13 (T,P,D) D Pipe 6-10-2 M Heard (8) 0/P-0 RHINESTONE REBEL 19F (H) P Hiatt 8-10-0 T Whelan -0540 BACH ON TOW 20 (D) S Gardner 7-10-0 J Best

4-1 Prettyasapicture, 9-2 Jaja De Jau, 5-1 Party Girls, 6-1 others.

-3650 FUSE WIRE 20 A Dunn 7-11-5 D Crosse 1/1-P I'M IN CHARGE 13 J G Cann 8-11-5 N Scholfield 0-242 MACKEYS FORGE 33 (P) H Froud 10-11-5 B Hughes 0210- MANY STARS 181 (T) D Skelton 6-11-5 I Popham 0642- ARMEDANDBEAUTIFUL 171 T Gretton 6-10-12 Felix De Giles

4.20

Novices' Handicap Hurdle

Beginners' Chase

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle (£2,924: 2m 1f) (11)

J M Maguire J Banks (5) Tom O'Brien A Wedge B Powell A Thornton A Coleman I Popham C O'Farrell

5-6 Landau, 5-1 Free Of Charge, 11-2 Like A Diamond, 10-1 Anginola, 12-1 Sonny The One, 16-1 Miss Lamorna, 20-1 The Cat's Away, 25-1 others.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Novices' Handicap Chase

(£3,898: 2m 4f) (12)

3U531 ISLANDMAGEE 9 (T) E Williams 7-12-1 L Gordon (10) 1F4-0 LADY CHARISMA 146 P Hobbs 5-11-12 R Johnson 5-0P2 VUJIYAMA 73 (H,BF) Jonjo O'Neill 5-11-11 R O'Brien 40-61 PURE POTEEN 139 (T) N Mulholland 6-11-8 A P McCoy 0-400 INDIEFRONT 56 Jo Davis 5-11-1 M D Grant 2446- ALANJOU 216 J Snowden 4-11-1 D Jacob 5460- VEXILLUM 10F (T) S Hodgson 5-10-10 Peter Carberry (3) P110- ADMIRAL BLAKE 197 (D) Mrs L Young 7-10-10 D C Costello 0-403 ADIOS ALONSO 88 (D) Mrs R Gasson 8-10-8 B Poste (5) P-FPP SAIGHEADA BEAGA 70 (T) C Down 11-10-8 James Davies

Rugby union Sport and hoping it gives strength to others,” he says.

He wishes he could make himself redundant. He would love to reach a point where no one would have any trepidation about being open about their sexuality, even a footballer.

That perfect world can feel decades away. Homophobia is all around us; sometimes loud and vile, at other times unwitting and unconscious.

Thomas tells of watching a rugby match and his best friend’s teenage son exclaiming “that’s so gay!” when a player missed a tackle.

“I’ve heard so many negative associations with that word,” he says. “I grew up believing it was a bad word.

When I asked my friend’s son, he said, ‘That’s how everyone talks in school.’ ” So Thomas spends at least two days a week leading an anti-bullying campaign in schools. He challenges the pupils’ perceptions of what gay people look like, what jobs they do — in his case, representing Wales 100 times at rugby union and also at rugby league.

“Going into these schools is my absolute passion,” he says. “It’s about solving the problem [of attitudes] before it can become too big to solve.”

Visiting schools, trying to embolden those who look timid and afraid, will be his work over the years ahead rather than a career in coaching.

That and pantomime. “Some people have asked why I’m doing it,” he says. “But who wrote the rules about what an ex-rugbyy player can do and can’t do?”

He will not be appearing in the play about his life, but he did help to develop the story that intertwines his agonies with those of teenagers from his home town of Bridgend, where there was a

spate of suicides. Thomas, 40, sat down with parents and teachers of some of those lost children.

“They felt they had no future,” he says. “These were young adults saying all they wanted to do was leave Bridgend. All I ever wanted to do was stay there and represent it.”

As the home-town hero, Thomas felt the thrill of pleasing people, making them proud of his achievements. He was sure that to have revealed his sexuality would bring down his rugby career, so he built one lie on another; marrying his best friend, feigning happiness, lying over hundreds of pages in a previous book, Alfie!

In contrast, his new book is so raw that when Thomas read the last pages, an open letter to his younger, frightened self, he was on his hands and knees sobbing at the painful memories and how he has emerged proud and contented on the other side.

His former wife, Jemma, who sounds like she deserves a medal, read it and said that he must go ahead and publish. His parents did not find it easy, his father having to put the book down for a few days after boo reading about a suicide attempt, readin but they too understand the importance of Thomas’s role not as a gay campaigner — he is not planning any marches — but as an example to others unsure where to turn.

He has no easy answers. “It is easy to say ‘go for it’, but then you walk away,” he yo says. “That person is still left living with fear.”

But he will do whatever he can to help. “As long as I keep receiving messages,” he says, “I’ll never stop.”

6 Proud, by Gareth Thomas and Michael Calvin, is published by Ebury Press.

11 3U2F5 THE OMEN 48 T Vaughan 8-10-0 12 P02PP GO RUBY GO 30 (B) K Morgan 10-10-0

4.00

A Johns (7) G Sheehan

5-2 Islandmagee, 5-1 Vujiyama, 11-2 Lady Charisma, 13-2 others.

2.30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Amateur Riders' Handicap Chase (£2,495: 2m 110y) (10)

34133 ACCESSALLAREAS 7 (T,P,CD) S Davies 9-11-12 J Mahot (5) 53044 TENBY JEWEL 18 (D) M Gillard 9-11-10 M Barber (5) 15334 EL TOREROS 13 (T,P) Mrs L Hill 6-11-7 Mr M Legg (3) -3323 THINK ITS ALL OVER 41 (BF) E Williams 7-11-7 Miss C Prichard (7) 4-5F2 SPORTSREPORT 113 (BF) J S Mullins 6-10-13 D Sansom (7) 0-60P TOPTHORN 88 (P,D) M Bosley 8-10-12 Z Baker (7) /P5-0 ARUMUN 128 (D) A Phillips 13-10-9 Miss A Stirling (3) U0P33 JUNE FRENCH 18 K Tork 6-10-5 F Penford (7) 43654 NO NO CARDINAL 10 (T) M Gillard 5-10-4 T Gillard (7) 4-5B5 STAFFORD CHARLIE 81 (V,CD) John O'Shea 8-10-0 D Burton (3)

7-2 Arumun, 9-2 Accessallareas, 5-1 Sportsreport, 13-2 El Toreros, Think Its All Over, 9-1 No No Cardinal, 10-1 June French, 14-1 others.

3.00 1 2 3 4 5 6

NH Flat Race (£1,624: 2m) (6)

2-1 MOUNT HAVEN 127 D Pipe 4-11-7 T Scudamore 531- A GOOD SKIN 186P T George 5-11-0 P Brennan 6212- GLENWOOD STAR 166P Miss R Curtis 6-11-0 A P McCoy C031- HEROES OR GHOSTS 193P Jo Davis 5-11-0 L Aspell 1 MASTERPLAN 138P C Longsdon 4-11-0 N Fehily VIEUX LILLE P Hobbs 4-11-0 R Johnson

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Handicap Hurdle (£3,119: 2m) (8)

532- EL MACCA 198 Miss R Curtis 5-11-12 A P McCoy 6F2F5 WORLDOR 13 (T,D) A Dunn 8-11-12 S Twiston-Davies 0F43- STORM OF SWORDS 187 (D) D Skelton 6-11-7 H Skelton -236P MONT ROYALE 56 (D) Jonjo O'Neill 6-11-6 M Linehan (3) 43331 KAYFTON PETE 30 (CD) C Pogson 8-11-4 A Pogson 06P-1 MINELLA HERO 36 (D) Mrs S Humphrey 6-11-4 J Quinlan 03311 GOING CONCERN 10 (D) E Williams 7-11-4 P Moloney 03-46 TAARESH 30 (P,CD) K Morgan 9-11-2 N Fehily

9-2 El Macca, Going Concern, 11-2 Worldor, 6-1 Kayfton Pete, 7-1 others.

4.30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Novices' Hurdle (£3,443: 2m) (7)

2124- AS DE MEE 235 P Nicholls 4-10-12 S Twiston-Davies 4000- CLUBS ARE TRUMPS 287 Jonjo O'Neill 5-10-12 M Linehan (3) 1- GAELIC MYTH 170 (D) K Bailey 4-10-12 D Bass 603- HIGHPOWER 283 Jonjo O'Neill 5-10-12 A P McCoy 05- MIDNIGHT SPIN 170 P Hobbs 4-10-12 R Johnson 2000- OBISTAR 182 D Pipe 4-10-12 T Scudamore 146- STEPHANIE FRANCES 265 (D,BF) D Skelton 6-10-5 H Skelton

100-30 Highpower, Stephanie Frances, 7-2 As De Mee, 5-1 others.

5.00

Maiden Hurdle

(£2,599: 2m 7f) (10)

1 12142 DEBT TO SOCIETY 13 (T,B,BF) R Ford 7-11-1 H Challoner (3) T Scudamore 2 1F451 TEMPURAN 7 (P) D Bridgwater 5-11-1 C McKee (7) 3 34-60 DOUCHKIRK 9 (V) John O'Shea 7-10-10 L Edwards 4 R5052 ZAFARABAN 13 (B) A Sadik 7-10-10 LEGEND TO BE Mrs S Humphrey 4-10-9 J Quinlan 5

3-1 BALLYCOE 152P (T) P Nicholls 5-10-12 S Twiston-Davies /400- CASTLE CHEETAH 235 M Keighley 6-10-12 R Johnson 00P-P DAIZY 13 H Parrott 5-10-12 R McCarth (5) 350- KEEP PRESENTING 198 (BF) Miss R Curtis 5-10-12 A P McCoy D Jacob 5 2236- MAJOR MILBORNE 213 J Snowden 6-10-12 1ST JOHNS POINT 208P C Longsdon 6-10-12 N Fehily 6 7 4F14- THE WINKING PRAWN 166P (T) G McPherson 7-10-12 P Moloney Killian Moore (5) 8 165-5 TRAFFICKER 148 G McPherson 7-10-12 D C Costello 9 -5206 ANNAMULT 39 A Phillips 6-10-5 L Treadwell 10 PP33 BONNIE 20 (P) J Spearing 5-10-5

13-8 Tempuran, 7-4 Debt To Society, 7-2 Legend To Be, 7-1 others.

7-2 Major Milborne, 4-1 Keep Presenting, 9-2 Ballycoe, 11-2 others.

11-4 Mount Haven, 3-1 Masterplan, 7-2 Glenwood Star, 11-2 others.

3.30

Selling Hurdle (£2,274: 2m 7f) (5)

1 2 3 4

Yesterday’s racing results Ludlow Going: good (good to firm in places) 2.00 (2m hdle) 1, Bishop Wulstan (G Sheehan, 25-1); 2, Aristocracy (9-2); 3, Moving Waves (8-1). Sternrubin (4th) 11-10 fav. 9 ran. Sh hd, 7l. H Whittington.

2.30 (2m 5f hdle) 1, Upsanddowns (P Moloney, 2-7 fav); 2, Georgie Lad (10-1); 3, Brave Helios (7-1). 4 ran. 1Kl, 39l. E Williams.

3.00 (3m 1f ch) 1, What A Warrior (H Skelton, 7-4 fav); 2, Rockiteer (16-1); 3, Imperial Circus (7-1). 10 ran. NR: Chapolimoss. 10l, 4l. D Skelton.

3.30 (3m hdle) 1, Dark Spirit (A Wedge, 13-2); 2, Maypole Lass (9-1); 3, Mrs Peachey (9-4 fav). 8 ran. Ns, Ol. E Williams.

4.00 (2m 4f ch) 1, Bullet Street (P Moloney, 7-2); 2, The Bear Trap (10-1); 3, Azza (11-10 fav). 5 ran. 2Nl, 35l. E Williams.

4.35 (2m hdle) 1, Curragh Hall (H Skelton, 7-2);

2, L Stig (16-1); 3, Descaro (12-1). Zarzal 15-8 fav. 8 ran. NR: Sunblazer. 4l, 2Nl. D Skelton.

5.05(2mflat)1,VintageVinnie(APMcCoy,Evens fav); 2, Champagne Chaser (5-1); 3, Milestone (7-2). 6 ran. NR: Outrath. 1l, l. Miss R Curtis.

Placepot: £162.40.

Quadpot: £28.70.

Nottingham

Going: good (good to soft in places) 2.20 (6f 15yd) 1, Code Red (M Dwyer, 16-1); 2, Amazour (10-1); 3, Mujassam (10-1). Spiriting (6th) 4-9 fav. 15 ran. NR: Exact Science, Royal Blessing. 4Kl, 6l. W Muir.

2.50 (5f 13yd) 1, Charlie Lad (J Fanning, 15-2); 2, Snow Cloud (8-1); 3, Youcouldntmakeitup (121). Polar Vortex 6-1 fav. 13 ran. NR: Ivors Rebel, Rio Ronaldo, Zipedeedodah. Kl, nk. O Pears.

3.20 (1m 75yd) 1, Stoked (G Baker, 5-2 jt-fav); 2, Winterval (5-2 jt-fav); 3, Chorus Of Lies (12-1). 9 ran. NR: My Judge. 4l, 1Kl. E Walker.

3.50 (1m 75yd) 1, King Bolete (A Atzeni, 11-4); 2, Felix De Vega (7-1); 3, Bold (9-4 fav). 9 ran.

Nk, 5l. L Cumani.

4.25 (1m 1f) 1, Crafty Choice (C Hardie, 11-2); 2, Paddys Motorbike (13-2); 3, Alans Pride (15-2).

6 ran. NR: Black Granite. 3l, 2Nl. R Hannon.

4.55 (1m 75yd) 1, Lord Franklin (J Hart, 8-1); 2, Lady Guinevere (9-1); 3, Artful Prince (11-2 fav). 15 ran. NR: Tides Reach, Woody Bay. 1Ol, 1Nl. E Alston.

5.25 (1m 2f 50yd) 1, Dame Lucy (A Mullen, 16-1); 2, Principle Equation (100-30); 3, Beltor (9-4 fav). 9 ran. NR: Ajig, Escape To Glory, Party Royal, Red Runaway, Rock ‘N’ Roll Star. 1Ol, 2Kl. M Appleby.

6.00 (1m 2f) 1, Polar Forest (J Butterfield, 16-1); 2, Gala Casino Star (8-1); 3, King Of Paradise (9-2 fav). 13 ran. NR: Frontline Phantom, Hydrant, Urban Space. Nk, 6l. R C Guest.

Jackpot: not won (£9,345.89 carried forward).

Placepot: £916.70.

Quadpot: £18.90.

Towcester Going: good to firm (good in places) 2.10 (2m 5f hdle) 1, Combustible Kate (Charlie Deutsch, 2-1); 2, The Kvilleken (11-10 fav); 3, Leith Hill Legasi (5-1). 5 ran. NR: It’s Oscar. 2l, 6l.

N Kent.

2.40 (2m 110yd ch) 1, Garrahalish (C Poste, 9-4); 2, Knight Of Pleasure (13-8 fav); 3, Kitchapoly (5-2). 5 ran. NR: Regal One. 3Ol, 2Kl. R Dickin.

3.10 (2m hdle) 1, Vertueux (L Edwards, 8-1); 2, Kalimantan (8-11 fav); 3, Ullswater (4-1). 9 ran.

NR: Hollywood All Star. 1Ol, 15l. A Carroll.

3.40 (2m hdle) 1, I C Gold (J Maguire, 2-11 fav); 2, Surf In September (33-1); 3, Dawnieriver (6-1). 4 ran. NR: Miss P. 10l, 11l. G Elliott (Ire).

4.10 (2m 3f 110yd hdle) 1, Con Forza (R Hatch, 9-4 fav); 2, Warsaw Pact (9-1); 3, Taroum (11-4). 11 ran. 6l, 1Ol. P Middleton.

4.45 (3m 110yd ch) 1, Georgian King (I Popham,

5-1; Thunderer’s nap); 2, Bob Will (7-2); 3, Ballyvoneen (9-1). Fast Exit (6th) 7-4 fav. 9 ran.

9l, nk. M Keighley.

5.15 (1m 5f 110yd flat) 1, Gold Man (J Maguire, Evens fav); 2, Whats Left (5-2); 3, Jackfield (12-1). 6 ran. NR: Bricbracsmate, Pied Du Roi. 2Nl, 16l. K Bailey.

Placepot: £6.00.

Quadpot: £2.60.

Kempton Park

Going: standard 5.55 (6f) 1, Just The Tip (T Eaves, 9-2); 2, Classic Seniority (14-1); 3, Designate (2-1 fav). 9 ran.

NR: Ar Colleen Aine. 4Kl, 2Kl. K Dalgleish.

6.25 (7f) 1, Algaith (P Hanagan, 9-4 fav); 2, Gold Will (5-2); 3, Velociter (33-1). 12 ran. NR: Flying Fantasy, Ocean Bentley. 1Ol, 2l. B W Hills.

6.55 (7f) 1, Convey (James Doyle, 4-6 fav); 2, King To Be (20-1); 3, Lethal Legacy (4-1). 13 ran.

NR: Free One. 5l, 1Ol. Sir Michael Stoute.

7.25 (1m 3f) 1, Fair Share (James Doyle, 9-4); 2, Panatella (11-4); 3, Steppe Daughter (13-8 fav).

8 ran. NR: Duke Of Dunton, Tiger Stone. Ol, 5l.

Lady Cecil.

7.55 (1m 3f) 1, Double Discount (R Kingscote, 7-1); 2, Jazz Master (7-2); 3, Masterpaver (112). Clear Mind (6th) 3-1 fav. 9 ran. NR: Hoist The Colours. 2l, 2N. Tom Dascombe.

8.25 (6f) 1, Hallelujah (Hayley Turner, 7-2); 2, Krypton Factor (5-2 jt-fav); 3, Ballista (9-2).

Hasopop (5th) 5-2 jt-fav. 5 ran. NR: Captain Secret, Ninjago. 2l, 1Ol. J R Fanshawe.

8.55 (7f) 1, Brigliadoro (Danny Brock, 7-1); 2, Elizona (10-1); 3, Dubawi Fun (16-1). Secret Success 7-2 fav. 11 ran. NR: Art Official, Bayleyf, Exzachary. 2l, Ol. P J McBride.

9.25 (7f) 1, Diamonds A Dancing (F Norton, 7-2); 2, Stapleford Lad (11-4 jt-fav); 3, Red Shadow (25-1). Rasselas (5th) 11-4 jt-fav. 13 ran. NR: Heartstrings. 3Ol, hd. B Gubby.

Placepot: £9.70.

Quadpot: £4.20.

56

FGM

Sport Rugby union

Wasps employ blue-sky thinking TOM SHAW / GETTY IMAGES

Alex Lowe

Wasps will move into the Ricoh Arena in December, with the first game at their new home to be against either Castres in the Rugby Champions Cup or London Irish in the Aviva Premiership, after a ground-breaking deal to buy Coventry city council’s share of the stadium was finalised. The exact date will be settled once the European fixtures are published.

Wasps — and they will continue to be known as Wasps, not Coventry Wasps — own 50 per cent of the 32,600-seat Ricoh Arena and they hope to conclude a deal with the Alan Edward Higgs Trust to purchase the rest of the shares and take full control of the stadium.

The charity has to give the liquidators of CCFC Ltd, the former owner of Coventry City, the first option, because of an agreement dating back to 2003, but if that is not taken up, Wasps will step in and complete a takeover.

The full deal is believed to be worth about £20 million and will secure the financial future of a club who were losing £3 million a year and came within hours of going broke less than two years ago. At the stroke of a pen yesterday morning, Wasps became the club with the biggest turnover in the Premiership.

The Ricoh Arena complex, with its hotel, casino and conferencing and exhibition facilities, is a healthy business in its own right, turning over £14.4 million in 2013-14. Before this deal, Wasps were wholly reliant on the deep pockets of Derek Richardson, the owner, who stepped in to save the club from going out of business.

“This is a watershed moment in the history of Wasps and the professional game,” Nick Eastwood, the chief executive, said. “We are breaking the mould of how a professional rugby club operates. It will help us realise our ambition to re-establish ourselves as one of the best teams in Europe and will guarantee the long-term success of the club.”

Dai Young, the director of rugby, insisted that a sound financial footing and plans for a state-of-the-art training centre put Wasps in a strong position to keep star names such as Joe Launchbury, the England lock who is out of contract at the end of this season and a target for Saracens, as well as attract top-class international players.

“Joe is very respectful of what Wasps have done for him,” Young said. “We knew we’d have to demonstrate certain things to him to make his decisions easier — one that we’re an ambitious club; two that we will attract players and improve the squad; three that we won’t overplay him and, on top of that,

Q&A

Why are Wasps relocating to Coventry?

The club have been losing £3 million a year and needed to own their own stadium to survive. The Ricoh Arena offered them a chance to buy a stadium complex that was already operating as a healthy business, securing their financial future less than two years after nearly going bust.

Why not move back to London?

The club say they could not find a suitable site to build a stadium in London or the southeast, and that any such project would be riddled with risk and take ten years to complete, even if planning

Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

Worcester seek to warn new arrivals off their turf Alex Lowe

Worcester Warriors have sought assurances from the RFU and Premiership Rugby that Wasps’ relocation to Coventry and stated plans to lay roots in the city will not be in conflict with their own community programmes and academy investment.

The Wasps academy will remain in situ, covering Middlesex, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, and there has been no request for the boundaries to be redrawn. If Wasps did make such an approach, Worcester would demand a seven-figure compensation package.

The Championship club said they are concerned how “Wasps’ fan engagement and community programmes will sit alongside the significant investment we have made in our current academy programmes in the area without conflict”.

Premiership Rugby said that it would accommodate Wasps in the same way as it would a promoted club, but Worcester are not the only ones with concerns about the move.

Simon Shaw, the former England lock who made 237 Premiership appearances for Wasps, tweeted: “Trying to see the positives but I’m coming up with nothing apart from short-term survival.”

Rob Smith, who spent 40 years at the Dallaglio thinks his former club had no option but to move

Home from home: James Haskell, left, and Andy Goode become acquainted with the club’s new surrounds in Coventry

providing clear evidence that we’re sustainable.

“I think we’ve pretty much ticked all those boxes. Discussions are ongoing, but we expect to put this to bed in the next month or six weeks. If this project hadn’t happened, if we didn’t have our name over the door on our own stadium, I don’t see the likes of Joe Launchbury staying.

“We know that the stadium will take a bit of filling and that will take a lot of

Inside today

Gareth Thomas finds contentment at last Pages 54-55

permission was granted. Being tenants in a London stadium was not a financially viable option.

Why not stay at Adams Park?

Wasps attract only 6,000 supporters to home matches and they receive only 15p from every £1 spent. Buying the stadium was discounted because of poor infrastructure.

How do Wasps plan to appease angry supporters?

The club apologised for keeping supporters in the dark, citing confidentiality clauses, and they plan to lay on free coach travel for season ticket-holders. They will also have access to a hospitality lounge and lower ticket prices next season.

When do Wasps move in?

The first match will either be

hard work. It is my task to try and attract three or four big-name players that can excite the local rugby followers and attract new supporters.

“We have identified some players. I am shopping in Marks & Spencer now when I have been in Lidls for three years. It is really exciting.”

Not for everyone, it isn’t. Many Wasps supporters are furious about the move and the lack of consultation.

They feel betrayed and abandoned. The club apologised for that yesterday and sought to provide an in-depth explanation for the relocation.

Richardson has already ploughed £10 million into the club and he said last year that owning their stadium was imperative for the club’s existence. The rental agreement at Adams Park gives against Castres in the Rugby Champions Cup on December 12 or against London Irish in the Aviva Premiership on December 21.

A decision will be made when it has been established whether the European tie will be home or away.

4

Coventry

Cambridge

Milton Keynes Oxford

3

Wycombe 25 miles

1

2

London

them 15p from every £1 spent on a match day.

There have been accusations that Richardson was targeting Coventry before he even took over Wasps, but the club insisted that every avenue for building a new stadium in London and the southeast had been explored before they concluded it would take up to a decade to complete.

With the club’s losses, the £20 million purchase of the Ricoh Arena emerged as a “once in a lifetime deal”, according to Eastwood.

The club will lay on free coach travel and offer other inducements to help season ticket-holders to attend matches in Coventry. “I fail to see how any supporter would rather see a club go bust than move,” Young said.

What does it mean for Coventry City?

The Sky Bet League One football club will continue to play at the Ricoh Arena, and they retain primacy of tenure. Wasps are likely to play on Sundays.

Words by Alex Lowe

1

1923-1996 Sudbury

2

1996-2002 Loftus Road

After a nomadic start, Wasps found their first permanent home in west London

Wasps moved in with QPR when Chris Wright took over both clubs

3

2002-2014 Adams Park

4

2014 Ricoh Arena

Sharing with Wycombe Wanderers was initially seen as a short-term solution

Wasps will move to the 32,600-seat stadium in December

club as a player and a coach, was disappointed at Wasps’ decision to relocate without consulting the supporters. “The family has gone without telling us,” he tweeted.

In contrast, Lawrence Dallaglio, the former Wasps captain and board member, paid a visit to the Ricoh Arena yesterday and gave the move his full support. Despite claims that Wasps had become the MK Dons of rugby, he said: “This is still my club. It has been part of my DNA. I never had a home as a club player. Wasps was about the people.

Something radical had to happen because the alternative was going under, and that was not an option.

“No one is offering you a turn-key solution in London, as romantic and lovely as that would be.

“In an ideal scenario there would have been a consultation process, but that was not possible. The fans who turn up week-in and week-out will be heard. There are a lot of people throwing things at the club who I don’t see at Adams Park every week.”

Harlequins and Saracens are both ready to welcome disaffected Wasps supporters to their clubs. “If there are commercial opportunities for us, I am sure people here will see that,” Conor O’Shea, the Harlequins director of rugby, said.

Premiership Rugby is likely to consider the prospect of a Midlands double-header, with Wasps now just 25 miles from Leicester and 35 miles from Northampton. Jim Mallinder, the Northampton Saints director of rugby, would view a trip to the Ricoh Arena as another home match.

“They are going to have a massive challenge to build up that fanbase,” he said. “We’ve always enjoyed playing at the Ricoh. Hopefully we’ll have more fans than them.”

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

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Move is a catastrophe for loyal fans Team look to Owen Slot Commentary chief rugby correspondent

I

t was said yesterday during the official announcement of Wasps’ move to Coventry that this was “a watershed moment in the history of the game”. Maybe this is right. Maybe the game did change suddenly with a business deal done in Coventry, but my instinctive reaction is that it did not change for the better.

Please prove me wrong, Wasps. Please fill the Ricoh Arena with tens of thousands of rowdy new fans cheering new glories. In persuading all those old fans to board your free buses to Coventry — good luck.

I realise you are asking us to imagine the future, and that is hard; what is clearer, naturally, is the present and the past — the club with the long and sometimes glorious history, with generations of proud players and a few thousand passionate fans.

For those fans, this

is emotionally catastrophic. Sport now is business; that is accepted. But rugby trades heavily on the value system within the game. Respect, loyalty. It is hard to see much of that in the decision to relocate so far away.

And yes, they say this was the only way of keeping the club afloat. Yet this argument overlooks the Borehamwood option available last year (a 12,000 to 15,000-seat stadium they would ha had built by have Se September 2015, with hotel attached). They turned that down because they wanted to move closer to central London. Well, Coventry that ain’t.

Coventry may be commercially better.

Geographically, clearly it is worse. Surely geography counts.

All that, though, is now done. The argument is over. Good luck in proving the doubters wrong.

For now, Wasps will be a fascinating new business model. Will it work?

At the centre of the riddle is a modest, quiet man, Joe Wasps must Launchbury. He persuade is key. His Launchbury contract to stay expires at

the end of the season and it is no secret that Saracens would like him to jump ship. And if Wasps cannot persuade their star forward to buy into their brave new world in Coventry, then what message does that send out to others?

This is all so short-term, but short-term is suddenly very important. It is about two things: one, retaining the player base; two, attracting new talent.

Launchbury wants to know that the Wasps he stays with will be a successful winning club.

Everyone, of course, wants to be with a successful team, with a top-six club. But Wasps players also wanted to be in London; they liked commuting on the Tube.

If Wasps have a good season, those players out of contract this season will be thinking, “OK, let’s stick together and move to Coventry.” If not, the lights of Coventry do not look so bright.

Launchbury, however, will have to make his mind up sooner. Wasps want the deal done by the end of next month. If Launchbury goes, the picture changes.

It takes a leap of faith to go to a new home an hour and a half away, to a big new stadium where the decimated support base will look tiny.

Wasps want old talent to stay and new talent to come. It will help them massively if Launchbury shows them the way.

For the Coventry project to work, it needs new fans. To attract new fans, it needs one hell of a team. Without both, this is no watershed.

Sport

regroup after Bianchi crash Formula One

Kevin Eason Motor Racing Correspondent, Sochi

Formula One waits today to discover how the Marussia team will react to the devastating injuries to their star driver as the authorities at the Russian Grand Prix tighten their grip on safety at the new Sochi circuit.

Up to 650 marshals will be on duty this weekend, including experts drafted in from the motor racing authorities in Australia. Although the FIA, the governing body, has not issued any new edicts yet in the wake of Jules Bianchi’s crash in Suzuka last weekend, every loophole is being covered.

Marussia were setting up as usual yesterday, but the storm clouds are gathering over the sport’s minnows.

They announced that they were withdrawing their Marussia Manor Racing junior squad from the GP3 series this weekend, but for “commercial reasons”.

That will cripple morale in a team used to scrimping and saving, but now shell-shocked by the severe head injuries suffered by Bianchi at the Japanese Grand Prix. While John Booth, the Marussia team principal, has remained in Japan at Bianchi’s bedside, Graeme Lowdon, the racing director, was expected to arrive in Sochi last night to supervise the team.

His first job is finding a driver to partner Max Chilton. The alternative is not to run a second car, a dilemma that no

Bianchi’s name is seen on what would have been his side of the garage

one in motor racing ever wants to face.

Most teams attempt “business as usual”, but this could be a hammer blow for the most likeable team in the paddock trying to pull themselves together for what is ostensibly their home race.

The GP3 team are fifth in the championship and Dean Stoneman, from Croydon, was promising to become a star of the series after winning last time out in Monza and in Belgium on the epic Spa circuit. A statement said: “That Marussia Manor Racing GP3 currently lie in fifth place in the GP3 Series standings, and only recently celebrated their third win of the season in Monza, makes this withdrawal all the more difficult for the team.”

The question now is whether the GP3 team will be disbanded and whether there will be a knock-on to their F1 counterparts.

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ECB struggles for reason in row Decision to part ways with Pietersen has still not been fully explained

DAVE THOMPSON/GETTY IMAGES

John Westerby

It is two years ago this week that one of the more unlikely press releases issued by a sporting governing body dropped into the inbox. There was no subject line and it began with the words: “ECB and Kevin Pietersen confirm that agreement has been reached . . .”

The parties have agreed on little else since. This was the press release that introduced the bizarre phrase “reintegration” into the lexicon of team sports, detailing how a contrite Pietersen would be accepted back into the dressing room, once he had swallowed a mouthful or two of humble pie after the “Textgate” saga in the summer of 2012.

On the day that Pietersen’s autobiography is officially published, it is a moot point whether those involved with the batsman’s carefully stage-managed return to the England team at that time is something they regret. All summer long, the dates around Pietersen’s book launch have been circled in red among ECB management as a week in which they could expect to be a little busier than usual.

The ECB line in the great debate remains that Pietersen’s non-selection has been for “cricketing reasons”. The governing body’s problem, however, is that the explanation of these reasons to the wider cricketing public has proved impossible. First there were the confidentiality clauses in the severance of Pietersen’s central contract. Now there has been the leaked lawyers’ report detailing a number of minor alleged misdeeds during the Ashes series last winter. Still those “cricketing reasons” have not been clearly defined.

In simple terms, though, those reasons mean that those in charge of the team — captain, coach, national selector, managing director of England Cricket — felt that Pietersen would subtract from the team more than he would add. It is a subjective judgment and one that may have varied according to circumstance at different points over the past two years.

August 2012, “Textgate” Pietersen has accepted in his autobiography that he was wrong to send provocative texts about Andrew Strauss, the England captain, to opposition players during the series against South Africa. Many observers, including Michael Vaughan, his former

Pietersen hits out at officials for behaving like ‘dinosaurs’ John Westerby

Wrong answer: defeat by Sri Lanka did little to ease the pressure on Cook and England after their split with Pietersen

captain, have felt that Pietersen should never have played for England again after this incident.

Would the public have felt the same?

His non-selection would still have been a hard sell, not least because he had just played a remarkable innings of 149 against South Africa at Headingley.

And because England lost the Test series 2-0.

October 2012, reintegration Top of Alastair Cook’s in-tray when he took over the captaincy of the Test side from Strauss was weighing up whether he felt Pietersen was worth the trouble.

Filled with faith in his own leadership abilities, Cook looked ahead to a Test tour to India and decided he wanted Pietersen back in the side. Matt Prior was said to have played a key role in the process and Andy Flower backed the decision. He would be reintegrated providing he recommitted convincingly to the collective cause.

November 2012, 186 against India More than all the propaganda on social media from Pietersen’s camp, which has caused the ECB such angst, this innings remains the most compelling argument in his favour. In difficult conditions, it was an innings that changed the momentum of a match and a series, that few other England batsmen, of any era, could have played. Freshly reintegrated to the side, this was a time at which Pietersen’s runs were demonstrably worth more to the team than any extra effort required to manage him.

July 2013-January 2014, back-to-back Ashes series Relations in a cricket dressing room are different from any other sport because of the sheer amount of time spent together. The importance of leadership follows from this point.

So when the anomaly of back-toback Ashes series cropped up in the schedule, any submerged tensions were

likely to surface at some point. During the home series, Pietersen scored a century, averaging 38.80, and the team won 3-0. When they were thrashed 5-0 in Australia, Pietersen’s average slid to 29.40 and the fallout in personal relationships left Flower, Cook and Paul Downton, the new managing director, feeling that he was taking away more from the team than he was adding.

Summer 2014, Sri Lanka and India Retrospective judgments on the decision to sack Pietersen were always going to be coloured by England’s results. A home series defeat by Sri Lanka hardened the case against the new regime, but Cook clung on to the captaincy with a 3-1 series victory over India. Did that scoreline represent a cricketing justification for the reasons Pietersen was sacked? Despite the expiry of the confidentiality period, that is a question the ECB has been unable to answer in convincing fashion.

Ear defenders required when two imaginary sides go to war across Pietersen divide The Kevin Pietersen all-star XI 1 Michael Vaughan “People will say, ‘It’s all about Kevin.’ But ask any great sportsman and he will tell you, ‘It’s all about me.’ It’s what makes them great.”

2 Michael Carberry Allegedly called “useless” by KP, but tweeted: “I’ve never had any issues with Kev.” 3 Ricky Ponting KP urged people to read the former Australia captain’s account of playing against England: “We always had a feeling they would implode quickly.”

4 Chris Gayle Signed up to coach at Pietersen’s academy in Dubai after denouncing his IPL mate’s treatment by the ECB: “It’s disrespectful the way he had to go.”

5. Kevin Pietersen (captain) “To me, I would have said: ‘I know how hard you train. Continue to work your tits off. I know you will make mistakes when you bat, but you will come off next time. Keep doing it!’ ” 6 Graham Ford Surrey coach avoided overburdening

Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

his star player in 2014 by not selecting him for a single first-class match.

7 Gary Ballance “It’s nice to hear another South African accent in the dressing room.” KP said of the Zimbabwe-born batsman.

8 Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper) “Fewer Q&A’s, more Sussex nets methinks, @MattPrior13! #josbuttler.”

9 Piers Morgan Dubious in the nets against Brett Lee but a master in the art of of mental disintegration.

10 Chris Tremlett One of the first former England team-mates to side with Pietersen.

11 Ajmal Shahzad Uncomfortable with the culture of forced apologies.

Coach Duncan Fletcher Appointed by default after passing the vital Strauss hit out at KP

“woodpecker” and “mood hoover” tests.

The ECB he’s-gone-too-far XI 1 Alastair Cook (captain) KP will be pleased to be up against the “weak and tactically inept” Ashes-winning captain and leading century-maker.

2 Andrew Strauss Described by KP this week as “a nice guy”; he described KP this summer as a “complete c***”.

3 Graeme Smith “An absolute muppet . . . childish and strange,” KP said.

The reply? “I’m patriotic about my country, that’s why I don’t like Kevin Pietersen.”

4 Nick Knight “Can somebody please tell me how he has talked his way into the commentary box for home Tests this match?

Ridiculous,” Pietersen might say.

5 Andy Flower How could the world’s greatest reversesweeper get along with the world’s greatest switch-hitter?

6 James Taylor “There’s this lie out there that I rubbished him in front of the team,” Pietersen said. “It’s not true.”

7 Matt Prior The man responsible for reintegrating KP, without whom we would not be arranging this fixture.

8 Jason Gallian Famously threw KP’s kit off the pavilion balcony at Trent Bridge.

9 Graeme Swann Another “c***”, according to Pietersen in the dodgy dossier. “That’s not very pleasant, is it?”

Swann replied.

10 Stuart Broad “Not the sharpest tool in the box.” And definitely not in any way responsible for the sharpest parody account on Twitter.

11 James Anderson “We will have to block it out as best we can,” the nightwatchman said.

Coach Peter Moores Knows better than most that “everyone deserves a second chance”. Especially after Pietersen told him exactly that when he was reappointed to the England job.

Words by Josh Burrows

Kevin Pietersen has described the leaking of confidential ECB documents this week as the work of “dinosaurs” who have undermined their own case against him. Before the launch of Pietersen’s autobiography today, documents were leaked on Tuesday detailing elements of the batsman’s conduct during the Ashes series in Australia last winter that led to his subsequent sacking.

In the latest of his round of interviews publicising the book launch, Pietersen felt that the document would serve only to harden public opinion in his favour. Speaking on The Clare Balding Show, which will be screened on BT Sport 1 tonight, Pietersen said: “I don’t think the ECB helped themselves.

When you’re dealing with dinosaurs that don’t understand social media, they are going to shoot themselves in the foot, and they’ve done it.”

One of the charges levelled against Pietersen in the document was that, contrary to “express instructions” from Andy Flower, the team director at the time, he had taken “two young players drinking with him until late” during the build-up to the Adelaide Test, providing front-page material for the local newspapers, but Pietersen claims that Stuart Broad was also in attendance.

“We went out, we had a few drinks, I was pictured on the front of a newspaper and in all the newspapers was Stuart Broad, so where the young players scenario came in I have not got a clue,” Pietersen said. “This was on a Ponting backs up Pietersen’s claim about the bowlers

Sunday night, the Test match started on a Thursday. I pride myself on my training. I would never, ever go out and get hammered or drink before I train, because training has given me my success on the field.”

The expiry of Pietersen’s confidentiality agreement with the ECB has resulted in him returning to the headlines as he argues in his autobiography against the perceived injustice of his sacking. “It’s been a tough couple of days,” he said. “I said to my wife and team last week, this week will be carnage, I’ll be in the eye of the storm, and it’ll happen and then it’ll go.”

Pietersen found an unlikely ally yesterday in support of his claims that there has been a culture of bullying by a “clique” led by senior bowlers in the England team. Ricky Ponting, Australia’s captain in three out of four Ashes series defeats, claimed to recognise the examples given by Pietersen of England bowlers condemning fielders who made mistakes. “We saw them doing it.

Anderson was always the same, and Swann,” Ponting said. “The pointing of fingers, and you’d hear a few expletives if there was a misfield or a dropped catch. The guys who were doing it were the so-called leaders.”

Pietersen’s criticism of Michael Carberry’s ability was a further item mentioned in the leaked document, but the Hampshire batsman tweeted his support for Pietersen yesterday. “Just to set the record straight re: @KP24. I’ve never had any issues with Kev. We have always got on well and still do,” he said.

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

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Comment Sport

A place that should be seen and not heard Mike Atherton Chief Cricket Correspondent

L

ord’s, last week. Typical corporate function. The Long Room. Two hundred people. Andrew Strauss and Graeme Swann, the guests.

Dinner, ask them a few questions, polite conversation, decent folk at the table. Job done. Nice and easy.

Beforehand, a question from a guest as we take pre-dinner drinks in the bar. Can we have a look at the England dressing room? Sure, no problem. Nip up the two flights of stairs, past the portraits of Gooch, Vaughan, Stewart. Through the door that says admittance by permission of the captain only, and into the hallowed place.

Save for the honours board that marks the Lord’s dressing room as special, it is like any other. Seats around the perimeter. Pegs for clothes. Huge table in the middle for autographs, sandwiches, coffee, tea. A physio’s table. Washbasin in the corner. Nothing else. Bit cramped. I point out my old chair, next to where the Big Cheese, Matt Prior, once put his bat through a window. Used to sit there. OK, he says. We leave. I sense he’s disappointed.

It’s what people always want to see at Lord’s. Not the Long Room. Not the media centre. Not the restaurants or bars. Not the MCC committee room or the library. The dressing room. The England dressing room.

What’s it like, they say? Just like any other dressing room, I say. Uh? Oh. What they really want to know, of course, is what goes on in the dressing room. What goes on in the middle of a Test match? How do people behave? What’s it like? Ah, that’s different. It ain’t normal. There’s a reason why the cameras aren’t allowed in there. There’s a reason there’s a notice on the door saying admission at the permission of the captain only. It’s a private place. A place for people to let off steam.

You see, it’s not like a normal working environment, not like a normal office. You want normal?

Become an accountant. What’s it like?

Here’s Kevin Pietersen during the first Test of the 2013-14 Ashes series in Brisbane, page 244 of his autobiography: “Lunch, no thanks. I was sitting there thinking: I could die here in the f***ing Gabbatoir.”

Mitchell Johnson bowling at 95mph; 45,000 Australians baying for blood; Michael Clarke baying for blood. It’s not like sitting in an office with the year-end results.

No surprise, then, that cricketers occasionally lose the plot in there.

That’s why the ECB tries to put in a confidentiality clause in players’

GARETH COPLEY / GETTY IMAGES

Room with a view: Pietersen celebrates Ashes success at the Kia Oval last year, but the cricketers’ dressing room can be home to many conflicting emotions

central contracts. That’s why Sir Clive Woodward got his rugby World Cup-winning squad to agree not to dish the dirt on each other. Not because revealing every little detail paints an accurate picture of what goes on, but because it does precisely the opposite. The juicy bits, the fights, the arguments — they all happen, inevitably, and they are memorable, but without the rest or without context they can paint a totally inaccurate picture of what goes on.

I’m not a violent man. One day, after a tight quarter-final defeat for Lancashire, I took my bat to a brick bath in a changing room after the game. Tried to destroy it, brick by brick. Destroyed my bat in doing so too. What was I doing? I can’t explain what drove me to do it, except that we lost a game we should have won. Out of the cup. Out of order. Immature.

Ridiculous. But it happened and I’m not a violent man.

I’m not a fighter. Never thrown a punch in my life. Never got into a fight. Probably a bit yellow if truth be told. One day, in the Lancashire dressing room, I had to be separated

from another England player just as I was about to throw a punch. Lucky for me. He would have nailed me to the floor. The man who did the separating had the bridge of his nose cut by a bat being used as a weapon.

This happened, but I am not a fighter.

I don’t rant and rave.

Mild-mannered most of the time.

One day, just outside the England dressing room, I grabbed an England

‘It’s not like a normal working environment, like a normal office’ bowler by the scruff of his neck, and let rip. He was twice my size and, by rights, should have floored me. Out of order, totally out of order. I’m a mild-mannered man, honest.

Want more? I’ve seen players destroy showers, break mirrors, kick fridges, smash lockers, hurl abuse at each other, throw kit around. I’ve seen them frozen with fear, nauseous with nerves, exhausted, bitter, angry, tearful and mad. And you know

what? For most of the time, the dressing rooms I was a part of were great places to be in, full of fun and laughter and joy. Terrific. If I only told you tales in isolation you would think I was stark raving mad. A lunatic. I’m not, I promise.

Andy Flower, the sourpuss, apparently walked around the England changing room towards the end of the last Ashes tour with a face like thunder. You know what?

England were losing, getting hammered, thrashed, their arses kicked all over Australia. People laughing at them. Whitewashed.

Flower cared about that.

Maybe England supporters want a coach and captain who appear unconcerned about looking like a rabble. India’s captain didn’t appear to be too concerned about losing a Test in three days this summer. Said he was happy for the extra days off. Just another game. I don’t think England supporters want that.

I’m not sure, either, they want to see bowlers shouting and screaming out on the field, when a fielder makes a mistake. Out in the middle.

Everything visible. Stay tight, united, disciplined instead. Flower and Strauss and Alastair Cook spoke about that. The dressing room is the place to wash the dirty laundry, not out in the middle. The dressing room.

Something needs to be said, that’s the place to do it. To each other’s face, not through social media. I repeat that I have sympathy for Pietersen’s critique of the parody Twitter account and the behaviour of some bowlers towards certain fielders when mistakes were made in the field.

But a bullying culture in the dressing room? This place to let off steam, to rant and rave. This fun place, joyful place, caring place; this tearful place, tough place. “A tough environment, it was dog eat dog,” said Ajmal Shahzad, a veteran of one Test and 11 one-day internationals.

Welcome to international sport, Ajmal. Soon enough, if the gory details continue to be told, but only the gory details, coaches will ask for someone to minute what goes on in a dressing room. Want a normal environment? Try accountancy.

Do you know your KP from your Keano?

2. “It’s the most angry I ever got in that dressing room. I

3. “The dressing room had been awful for years.”

4. “The manager had a go at us as we were getting on the bus, and people were going on about a fight in the hotel the night before.”

5. “Contagiously sour. Infectiously

dour. He could walk into a room and suck all the joy out of it in five seconds.”

6. “I must have heard him talk 500 times and I always thought: ‘Yeah, that was good.’ ” 7. “As much as anything else, it was fear that decided me — fear of the unknown.”

8. “Sport’s unfortunately now just like politics.”

9. “Success papers over all cracks. I’m thinking, that son of mine could coach this team from the buggy.”

10. “He was driven and ruthless. That lack of warmth was his strength.”

8. Pietersen dreams of returning to the England side 9. Pietersen recalls England Ashes win in 2010-11 10. Keane admires Ferguson’s ability

1. “I apologised but afterwards I was thinking, ‘I’m not sure why I f***ing apologised.’ ”

thought, I reckon I could hit these guys.”

1. Keane rues saying sorry to Sir Alex Ferguson after leaving United 2. Pietersen is wound up by England’s dressing room “bullies” 3. Pietersen has a moment of realisation during the 2013-14 Ashes series in Australia 4. Keane recalls head-butting Peter Schmeichel on a pre-season tour 5. Pietersen on Andy Flower, whom he described as a “Mood Hoover” 6. Keane is impressed by Ferguson’s ability to keep tactical and motivational talks interesting 7. Keane rues not moving to Real Madrid when he had the chance

Roy Keane and Kevin Pietersen released their latest autobiographies this week, but can you work out which of sport’s infamous hotheads uttered the following statements?

Neil Gardner sets the questions

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Özil adds to Arsenal’s injury worries DAVID PRICE / GETTY IMAGES

Matt Hughes Deputy Football Correspondent

Arsenal’s worsening injury record came under further scrutiny last night after the revelation that Mesut Özil will be out for up to three months with ruptured ligaments in his left knee. The Germany midfielder suffered the injury during Arsenal’s 2-0 defeat by Chelsea on Sunday, but did not undergo a scan until the second day of international duty in Munich yesterday. Özil became aware of the problem during the match at Stamford Bridge, but opted to play on through the pain.

The 25-year-old discussed the injury with Arsenal’s medical staff after the game, but it was not deemed to be particularly serious.

Arsenal informed the German Football Federation [DFB] about the problem and asked it to exercise caution with Özil, but took no action on the player’s day off on Monday before allowing him to fly to Germany the next day.

When Özil finally had a scan yesterday, it revealed a partial lateral ligament tear in the left knee.

The DFB made it clear that Özil had travelled with the injury and the organisation reinforced the point in a statement. “Özil complained about pain in his left knee when he arrived in Frankfurt on Tuesday,” it read. “The MRI examination revealed a partial rupture of the outer band of the left knee joint.

The treatment is six weeks of immobilisation of the knee joint. Mesut Özil is likely to be out for 10 to 12 weeks.” Özil becomes the ninth first-team player out of action at Arsenal, which is likely to lead to further questioning of the club’s medical staff by Arsène Wenger.

The manager has already expressed exasperation this season at his club’s medical record, particularly after Mikel Arteta and Aaron Ramsey suffered non-impact muscular injuries during last month’s 1-1 draw at home to

Walking wounded: Özil injured his knee during Arsenal’s defeat by Chelsea but played on, and the seriousness of the problem was not detected until yesterday

Tottenham Hotspur, and is likely to ask why the extent of Özil’s injury was not picked up by his own staff.

The Frenchman launched an internal inquiry after the Tottenham incidents, covering all areas of the club’s training, preparation and even the condition of the Emirates Stadium pitch, and his investigations are likely to be redoubled after the latest setback. Özil will return to London to enable Arsenal’s medical staff to examine him

fully and determine the best course of action in terms of his rehabilitation.

He may return to Germany, however, as he has a close relationship with Dr Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt, the national team doctor, and in the past has opted to be treated by him. Özil’s form has been fitful since returning from an extended break after the World Cup finals in the summer, but he has remained a fixture in Wenger’s first-choice starting line-up and showed signs of developing a greater

6 Romelu Lukaku is expected to be dropped by Belgium for the Euro 2016 qualifying matches against Andorra tomorrow and Bosnia and Herzegovina three days later. The Everton forward will give way to Divock Origi, the Liverpool striker who is on loan at Lille this season.

Origi has scored three league goals this season and his displays have been closely monitored by Brendan Rodgers, the Liverpool manager.

“I get a text from him regularly and he’s come to see me in Lille,” Origi said. “After some games I’ve also seen a scout of Liverpool. They follow me and sometimes give me feedback after a game. Rodgers really wanted me already at Liverpool. I have ambition. It is certainly not that I do not want to go to Liverpool, but it is in general interest that I have a year in Lille.” understanding with Alexis Sánchez in last week’s 4-1 Champions League win over Galatasaray.

He missed six weeks towards the end of last season with a hamstring injury before recovering to play his part in Germany’s World Cup triumph.

If the DFB’s diagnosis is correct, Özil’s injury is likely to keep him out until after Christmas, meaning he could miss up to 12 Barclays Premier League matches and the remainder of the Champions League group campaign. Özil joins a lengthy injury list at Arsenal, with the latest blow only partially offset by Theo Walcott’s return to training this week for the first time since suffering cruciate ligament damage to his left knee in January.

Olivier Giroud and Mathieu Debuchy are long-term casualties with fibia and ankle problems respectively, while Ramsey is not expected to play before the start of next month because of a hamstring strain. Serge Gnabry, Yaya Sanogo, Abou Diaby and Arteta are also out, while the date of Walcott’s first-team return is not yet known.

Premier League and European clubs on collision course Oliver Kay

Leading European clubs will push for the World Cup finals to take place in January 2022, risking a clash with the Winter Olympics, but such a move would be opposed by the Premier League as well as by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Umberto Gandini, the AC Milan director and vice-chairman of the European Club Association, said yesterday that, contrary to Fifa’s pledge

to the IOC, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar should take priority over that year’s Winter Olympics. With Fifa exploring the possibility of switching the World Cup to winter in 2022 because of the risks of playing in the summer heat in Qatar, Gandini believes that January would be the best time even if it risked a clash with the build-up to the Winter Olympics, which are due to take place either in Beijing or Kazakhstan from February 4.

“The World Cup is one of the major

events in the sports landscape with the Summer Olympics, but the Winter Olympics, with all due respect, are not up there,” Gandini said at the Leaders in Football conference in London.

“When you have such a huge event like the World Cup, and you have to move it from its summer window, don’t tell me it’s not possible to find a solution and move the Winter Olympics a bit so they don’t clash.

“November or December would be Fifa’s preferred option, but, for Europe,

January or February would be more logical.”

The Premier League, which unlike most leading European leagues has no winter break, maintains that a World Cup in Qatar should take place in summer — with the help of climatecontrol technology — if at all. It believes that if the season has to be disrupted to make room for the World Cup, it would ideally be in November so that, after a short break, the club season could resume on Boxing Day.

Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

Germans and Lineker lead opposition to overseas plan Oliver Kay Chief Football Correspondent

Controversial plans to stage Premier League matches overseas were criticised yesterday as the head of Germany’s Bundesliga ruled out following a similar path.

The Times reported yesterday that the idea of a Premier League “international round” had been revived at a Premier League shareholders’ meeting last month. Although the idea is described as being at an “embryonic” stage, some club executives consider it inevitable that the league will stage matches abroad — like American football’s NFL — sooner or later, perhaps even once the next broadcast deal begins in 2016-17.

Gary Lineker, the Match of the Day presenter and former England captain, took to Twitter to call the plans “rotten” and driven by “disrespectful avarice”, while the Football Supporters’ Federation (FSF) said that it was prepared to mount the “strongest possible opposition” to any such proposal.

The idea also met with disapproval Seifert has said the Bundesliga will not be playing abroad

from Christian Seifert, the Bundesliga chief executive, who was in London to speak at the Leaders in Football conference at Stamford Bridge. Seifert said that the German league would not contemplate such a move, despite the obvious financial possibilities it might create.

“A 35th game for the Bundesliga in foreign markets? I would say we have a completely different approach about our idea of German football,” Seifert said. “I think it’s a creative idea — for the financial side, maybe it would be a good idea to play a match day all over the world — but [not for] the supporters who are visiting 34 games of that club, no matter if it’s snow or wind or rain.

“A match day [abroad], which can have an impact on who is going to be relegated, who is going to be champion, who plays Champions League, would be completely against our understanding of how the fans should be involved.

If that game has the impact that the team might be relegated and they cannot be there because it is in Thailand? No, I think this would not be an approach for the Bundesliga.”

Results Football Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Southern section Cheltenham

(0) 1

Gornell 64 3,599

Bristol City

(1) 3

Burns 28 Smith 56, 84

Vanarama Conference Kidderminster (2) 2

Welling Utd

Hodgkiss 14 Dunkley 39

Beautyman 53 1,560

P W D Barnet.................15 10 2 Gateshead...........15 8 5 Halifax.................15 8 4 Bristol Rovers.....15 8 4 Torquay...............14 8 3 Woking................14 8 3 Forest Green.......15 7 5 Wrexham ............ 15 8 2 Kidderminster.....15 7 4 Macclesfield........15 6 6 Grimsby...............15 5 6 Braintree.............14 6 2 Eastleigh.............14 5 5 Chester................15 6 2 Aldershot............15 5 4

L 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 5 4 3 4 6 4 7 6

F 33 27 27 18 25 26 20 21 19 18 25 20 21 16 15

A 10 18 14 13 12 14 14 18 12 13 12 15 20 24 16

(0) 1 GD Pts 23 32 9 29 13 28 5 28 13 27 12 27 6 26 3 26 7 25 5 24 13 21 5 20 1 20 -8 20 -1 19

Lincoln City.........15 Welling Utd.........15 Altrincham..........15 Dartford .............. 15 Dover Athletic .... 15 Nuneaton............15 Southport............15 Alfreton Town .... 15 AFC Telford Utd..15

Baseball

5 3 4 3 4 4 3 3 1

3 7 23 6 6 18 3 8 16 5 7 15 2 9 16 2 9 11 3 9 14 1 11 11 4 10 19

27 23 30 22 26 24 28 32 37

-4 -5 -14 -7 -10 -13 -14 -21 -18

18 15 15 14 14 14 12 10 7

MLB play-offs National League: Divisional series (best-ofseven): San Francisco 3 Washington 2 (San Francisco won series 3-1); St Louis 3 Los Angeles Dodgers 2 (St Louis won series 3-1).

Cricket First one-day international India v West Indies Kochi (India won toss): West Indies beat India by 124 runs West Indies (balls) D R Smith b Jadeja 46 (45) *D J Bravo c Dhawan b Shami 17 (24) D M Bravo c Dhawan b Mishra 28 (45) M N Samuels not out 126 (116) †D Ramdin c Jadeja b Shami 61 (59)

K A Pollard b Shami 2 (4) A D Russell c Kohli b Shami 1 (2) D J G Sammy not out 10 (6) Extras (b 7, lb 5, w 17, nb 1) 30 Total (6 wkts, 50 overs) 321 S J Benn, R Rampaul and J E Taylor did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-34, 2-98, 3-120, 4-285, 5-296, 6-298.

Bowling: Kumar 10-1-38-0; Sharma 9-0-61-0; Shami 9-1-66-4; Jadeja 10-0-58-1; Mishra 10-0-72-1; Raina 2-0-14-0.

India (balls) A M Rahane run out 24 (22) S Dhawan b Samuels 68 (92) V Kohli c Sammy b Taylor 2 (5) A T Rayudu c Benn b Russell 13 (21) S K Raina b D J Bravo 0 (2) *†M S Dhoni b Sammy 8 (21) R A Jadeja not out 33 (36) B Kumar c Sammy b Samuels 2 (10) A Mishra lbw b D J Bravo 5 (13) M M Sharma c Taylor b Rampaul 8 (7) Mohammed Shami b Rampaul 19 (17) Extras (lb 1, w 14) 15 Total (41 overs) 197 Fall of wickets: 1-49, 2-55, 3-82, 4-83, 5-114, 6-134, 7-138, 8-146, 9-155.

Bowling: Rampaul 8-0-48-2; Taylor 10-1-50-1; D J Bravo 6-0-28-2; Russell 4-0-21-1; Benn 5-0-16-0; Sammy 5-0-23-1; Samuels 3-0-10-2.

Umpires: I J Gould (England) and S Ravi.

6 West Indies lead five-match series 1-0

Darts Partypoker.com World Grand Prix Citywest Hotel, Dublin: Second round (England unless stated): K Painter bt A Lewis 3-2; J Wade bt R Thornton (Scot) 3-2.

Gymnastics World Championships Nanning, China: Finals: Team: Men: 1, China 273.369pts; 2, Japan 273.269; 3, United States 270.369; 4, Great Britain (D Purvis, M Whitlock, D Keatings, K Thomas, C Tulloch, N Wilson) 269.170. Women: 1, United States 179.280; 2, China 172.587; 3, Russia 171.462; 6, Great Britain (G Jupp, R Harrold, R Downie, C Fragapane, K Simm, H Whelan) 168.495

Ice hockey Rapid Solicitors Elite League Sheffield 6 Hull 3.

Tennis

ATP Shanghai Rolex Masters Shanghai: Second round: M Jaziri (Tun) bt

Wang Chuhan (China) 6-0, 6-4; D Ferrer (Sp) bt M Klizan (Slovakia) 4-6, 7-6, 6-4; G Simon (Fr) bt S Wawrinka (Switz) 5-7, 7-5, 6-4; J Benneteau (Fr) bt G Dimitrov (Bul) 7-5, 6-3; R Bautista-Agut (Sp) bt V Pospisil (Can) 7-6, 3-6, 6-4; J Sock (US) bt K Nishikori (Japan) 7-6, 6-4; A Murray (GB) bt J Janowicz (Pol) 7-5, 6-2; M Youzhny (Russ) bt I Dodig (Cro) 7-6, 6-7, 6-3; T Berdych (Cz) bt R Gasquet (Fr) 6-3, 6-1; N Djokovic (Serbia) bt D Thiem (Austria) 6-3, 6-4; J Mónaco (Arg) bt M Raonic (Can) 5-2 ret; J Isner (US) bt S Johnson (US) 7-6, 7-6; F López (Sp) bt R Nadal (Sp) 6-3, 7-6; R Federer (Switz) bt L Mayer (Arg) 7-5, 3-6, 7-6.

WTA Generali Ladies Linz, Austria: First round: A-L Friedsam (Ger) bt D Cibulkova (Slovakia) 2-6, 6-3, 6-4; K Knapp (It) bt S Lisicki (Ger) 7-5, 2-6, 7-6; E Bouchard (Can) bt P Mayr-Achleitner (Austria) 6-4, 6-1.

Second round: M Erakovic (NZ) bt K Koukalova (Cz) 6-0, 6-2; C Giorgi (It) bt O Jabeur (Tun) 6-3, 6-2; S Vögele (Switz) bt A K Schmiedlova (Slovakia) 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.

WTA Japan Open Osaka: Second round: L Kumkhum (Thai) bt E Hozumi (Japan) 2-6, 6-4, 6-4; Y Putintseva (Kaz) bt H Watson (GB) 6-4, 7-5; E Svitolina (Ukr) bt N Osaka (Japan) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; M Keys (US) bt M Doi (Japan) 6-0, 6-4.

WTA Tianjin Open Tianjin, China: Second round: A Riske (US) bt O Govortsova (Bela) 6-4, 7-6; S Cirstea (Rom) bt A Hlavackova (Cz) 6-3, 6-0; A Tomljanovic (Cro) bt Duan Yingying (China) 6-4, 6-4; V Lepchenko (US) bt Liu Fangzhou (China) 7-6, 7-5.

Fixtures Football Kick-off 7.45 unless stated European Championship qualifying: Group C: Belarus v Ukraine; FYR Macedonia v Luxembourg; Slovakia v Spain. Group E: England v San Marino; Lithuania v Estonia; Slovenia v Switzerland. Group G: Liechtenstein v Montenegro; Moldova v Austria; Sweden v Russia.

European Under-21 Championship play-off, first leg: Holland v Portugal (5.30).

Under-21 international: Norway v Ireland (6.0, in Drammen).

Other sport Equestrianism: Birmingham NEC: Horse of the Year Show.

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

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United squad I left behind had to be changed, says Ferguson James Ducker Northern Football Correspondent

Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted for the first time that the Manchester United squad he left behind was in need of being overhauled.

Ferguson believes that Louis van Gaal was right to “clear the decks” during the summer and has praised the way the Dutchman has set about rebuilding United.

Van Gaal spent in excess of £150 million on six new players, including a British-record deal to sign Ángel Di María, the Argentina midfielder, from Real Madrid for £59.7 million.

Although United were crowned champions in Ferguson’s final season in charge in 2012-13, the former manager came in for criticism for the quality of the squad he bequeathed to David Moyes, his successor and Van Gaal’s predecessor.

Moyes was sacked in April after ten months in charge, with United finishing the season in seventh position in the Barclays Premier League.

Van Gaal admitted in the summer that the squad — which, with the exception of Marouane Fellaini and Juan Mata, whom Moyes signed, was largely untouched from the one Ferguson had left — was “unbalanced” and “broken”.

Ferguson has barely spoken about United’s fortunes since he retired, but in an interview with MUTV, the club’s television station, which is due to go on air on Monday, the Scot conceded that wholesale changes were required,

an admission for the first time that the squad was not up to standard.

“Louis van Gaal has made a lot of changes, and thinking about that, maybe he’s doing the right thing — to clear the decks and build his own team because he’s got the experience and coaching ability to do that,” Ferguson said. “The way he’s approached it, I think, has been brilliant.”

Of the 18 principal players Ferguson signed for a combined total of £166.2 million in his final eight transfer windows dating back to the summer of 2009, when Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tévez departed Old Trafford, 11 have since left the club either permanently or on loan.

Of the seven players who remain at Van Gaal’s disposal, only David De Gea, Robin van Persie and arguably Phil Jones command starting places.

Despite United’s spending spree in the summer, Van Gaal is thought to want to sign another two to four players in the next two windows, with a rightsided centre half and a central midfielder a priority, another indication of the size of the rebuilding task at Old Trafford.

Van Gaal may make an offer for Kevin Strootman, the highly regarded Roma and Holland midfielder, in January, though any move will hinge on how the Dutchman recovers from the torn anterior cruciate ligament injury he suffered to his left knee in Ma March.

Strootman, 24, began working with the ball again for the first time on Monday, although he is not expected back until December, which may not leave

LAURENCE GRIFFITHS / GETTY IMAGES

Mourinho on ‘wrong path’ over racism Gary Jacob

José Mourinho has been described as out of touch with his views on racism in football by the head of Fifa’s antidiscrimination task force.

Mourinho declared last weekend that there was “no racism in football”.

When asked if enough was being done to encourage black managers, the Portuguese argued there was no need for an NFL-style Rooney Rule because football would not be stupid enough to close its doors to top people.

Chris Powell, appointed by Huddersfield Town last month, and Keith Curle, who took charge at Carlisle United two weeks ago, are the only black managers in England’s top four divisions.

Jeffrey Webb, a Fifa vice-president, speaking at the Leaders Sport Business Summit at Stamford Bridge yesterday, said that Mourinho failed to understand the issues.

“Mourinho said that? Incredible,” Webb said. “That was unwise. It’s out of touch. I don’t think Eddie Newton Chelsea’s manager said there was no racism in football

Reassuringly expensive: Di María, for whom United paid a British-record transfer fee, is one of several recent arrivals that Ferguson, below, admits were needed

United enough time to make an accurate assessment of the player’s fitness before the winter window opens.

Rudi García, the Roma coach, has said that he hopes to have Strootman available for his team’s final Champions League group E game, against Manchester City, in Italy on December 10.

Roma have placed a prohibitive €100 million (about £79 million) price tag on Strootman, although that appears to be little more than a negotiating position.

Ferguson has kept busy since retiring, with, among other things, guest speaking and a long-term teaching role at Harvard University, although the 72-year-old has admitted that old habits die hard.

Speaking in Sir Alex: Life After Management, his forthcoming interview with MUTV, Ferguson said that he was on holiday with his wife, Lady

Cathy, in Abu Dhabi last December when his thoughts momentarily turned to his old job. “It was the first time I’ve ever had a holiday in December and I’m sitting there at the poolside in Abu Dhabi and I said to Cathy, ‘I should be at Carrington,’ ” Ferguson said.

Meanwhile, Radamel Falcao, the Colombia striker who joined United on a season-long loan from Monaco last month, believes it may take longer than he expected to adjust to English football. He said he was also indebted to United for “gambling on me when it was very difficult to do so” in the wake of the anterior cruciate ligament injury he suffered in January, which ruled him out of the World Cup finals.

Falcao — who scored his first goal for United in the 2-1 win at home to Everton on Sunday — said: “I’m still going to need some time to be OK, but I am feeling very comfortable.”

would agree with it.” Webb was referring to the former Chelsea midfielder who was assistant to Roberto Di Matteo when Chelsea lifted the Champions League and FA Cup in 2012, and is now technical coach for the club’s youth development programme.

“You have a coach who won the Champions League doing well at a club — Eddie Newton,” Webb said. “He can’t even get an interview. We are not talking about a job. An interview. That is the reality that we face.

“We have got to have one or two managers through who are very successful. Once they get that opportunity and they are successful, that might change the mentality and the landscape that currently exists.”

Webb said that football has tried to sweep the issue of racism under the carpet and that there needed to be a cultural change in the game. “No one wants to deal with it,” he said.

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Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

Sport Football

Rooney aims to claim his place at top table in feast Captain given chance to move farther up the England all-time goalscoring charts against minnows likely to feature nine part-timers, Oliver Kay writes

T

here is an irresistible temptation to play the numbers game when San Marino are the opposition. This is a tiny country with a recorded population of 32,576 people. Their starting line-up at Wembley tonight contains two professional footballers and nine part-timers. Their all-time record is played 123, won one, drawn three, lost 119. It is not a case of whether you beat them, but by how many.

For Wayne Rooney, the England captain, the numbers game goes farther. At the team hotel in Hertfordshire yesterday afternoon, he did not need reminding of his own statistics.

He has scored 41 goals in 97 international appearances. Three goals tonight would take him to 44, level with Jimmy Greaves, third on England’s alltime scoring list. Gary Lineker is on 48, Sir Bobby Charlton on 49. If Rooney is to break Charlton’s record sooner rather than later, filling his boots against San Marino tonight — and to a lesser extent away to Estonia on Sunday — would go a long way towards

England v San Marino European Championship qualifying Wembley Kick-off 7.45pm TV ITV Radio BBC 5 live Referee M Borski (Poland)

Head to head England P4 W4 GF26 GA1 Group E England Lithuania Estonia Slovenia San Marino Switzerland

thetimes.co.uk/football

W 1 1 1 0 0 0

D 0 0 0 0 0 0

L 0 0 0 1 1 1

F 2 2 1 0 0 0

A 0 0 0 1 2 2

GD 2 2 1 -1 -2 -2

Pts 3 3 3 0 0 0

England (4-3-1-2) Hart Jagielka

Cahill

Chambers Henderson

Exclusive to members

the game blog Kevin Pietersen furore shows that footballers need to be judged by different standards, says Rory Smith

P 1 1 1 1 1 1

Wilshere

Baines Lallana

Sterling Rooney

Welbeck Selva Hirsch

M Vitaioli Battistini

Brolli

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Gasperoni

Della F Vitaioli Buscarini Valle

Simoncini

San Marino (5-3-1-1)

In the home stretch: Jack Wilshere, left, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, centre, and Raheem Sterling go through their paces

doing so. It would also, inevitably, bring accusations that Rooney is a flat-track bully. After all, he failed to score in the 2006 and 2010 World Cups or at Euro 2012, finally ending a ten-year goal drought in tournaments when he scored in England’s 2-1 defeat by Uruguay in June.

Recent years have seen some of his peers, David Villa, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cristiano Ronaldo, Robin van Persie and Luis Suárez, become the all-time highest goalscorer for Spain, Sweden, Portugal, Holland and Uruguay respectively, but, even in an era when mismatches have become a grudgingly accepted part of international football, Rooney knows that, as he closes in on

Greaves, Lineker and Charlton in the scoring charts, he still has plenty to prove as an England player.

Undoubtedly, goals at international level are easier to come by these days — few Germans, for example, would suggest that the record-breaking Miroslav Klose was a better striker than Gerd Müller or Karl-Heinz Rummenigge — but players can only perform against the opponents in front of them.

Would Rooney feel sheepish about scoring a hatful against San Marino?

Would he even feel motivated by the prospect of facing them? What do you think?

“I’ve heard ex-players say in the past about players who have scored a lot of

goals against San Marino or whatever,” Rooney said, “but the fact is you’re playing for your country. If you score goals against San Marino or you score goals against Brazil, it means you’re scoring for England. That makes you extremely proud.

“To get yourself up for a game at Wembley is quite easy. It’s a qualifying game, a game we’re expected to win and one that we believe we can win comfortably if we play the right way. We have to go out and do that.

“It would be great [to break Charlton’s record]. I would never have thought when I came into this England team that I might one day be best goalscorer. It would be massive for me and

Challenge is on to increase feelgood factor with perfect ten Matt Hughes Deputy Football Correspondent

Roy Hodgson challenged England last night to qualify for the European Championship finals in style by winning every one of their ten qualifying games. Hodgson enjoyed an unbeaten record in guiding England to last summer’s World Cup, but there were drab draws along the way and he wants his players to improve on that.

England got off to an ideal start by winning their most difficult group fixture 2-0 in Switzerland last month, and should encounter few problems against San Marino at Wembley tonight.

Hodgson’s side travel to Tallinn to play Estonia on Sunday, before rounding off

the year with a home qualifier against Slovenia next month, and the manager is targeting maximum points in a weaklooking group completed by Lithuania.

“In the last qualifying campaign we won six and drew four,” Hodgson said.

“It would be nice to go through this qualifying campaign unbeaten, and if we get two good results in the next two matches we’ll set ourselves the target of winning all the games.”

Hodgson hopes that England can build on the feelgood factor that followed their impressive victory in Basle, and atone for a poor performance in a scrappy 1-0 win over Norway three days before that, their most recent appearance at Wembley. The manager is likely to resist the temptation to rest

players for what he expects will be a more difficult match against Estonia on Sunday, and is not exactly blessed with options in any case.

Hodgson has only six defenders in his squad and plans to give a debut to Calum Chambers at right back.

Nathaniel Clyne is also likely to be given game time at some point in place of his former Southampton team-mate, but Hodgson plans to stick with the Clyne is in line to make his England debut at Wembley

established partnership of Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka at centre back.

Jack Wilshere will again operate at the base of a midfield diamond as Hodgson stays with the system that proved so effective against Switzerland, his biggest decision being whether to retain Fabian Delph or play a more offensive player such as Adam Lallana alongside Wilshere and Jordan Henderson. Wayne Rooney will again be partnered up front by Danny Welbeck, the match-winner in Basle.

Hodgson has instructed his players to deliver a high-tempo performance in front of a crowd in excess of 50,000, the size of which he regards as an achievement given the opposition. “The thing about Switzerland was it came after the

disappointment of the summer,” Hodgson said. “It was going to be another big test, but we showed ourselves ready to pass that test. You get the group you get, the opponents you’re given. It’s foolish to differentiate.

“I know we’ve been spoilt in the past with massive crowds, even against San Marino. But it’s incredible we’ll have 50,000 tomorrow night and 20,000 at Wolverhampton on Friday for the under-21s. I don’t think there’ll be many crowds in qualifying games with that.

“I’m looking very much at the movement of our front players and midfielders, which is something we’ve worked on for a long time and continue to work on. I want us to put pressure on ourselves to keep the tempo up.”

the times | Thursday October 9 2014

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Football Sport PAUL ELLIS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Q&A

England won that one by the narrowest of margins: 8-0.

At Wembley this evening, England renew hostilities with one of their greatest rivals on the international stage: San Marino. Few of their players will be familiar, so here The Times offers you a handy, cut-out-and-keep guide to European football’s rising superpower.

I’ve heard that there are no easy games at this level. Is that true?

It is not true at all. San Marino are the epitome of an easy game, ranked by Fifa as the world’s worst international team, along with Bhutan, the Himalayan mountain kingdom. In qualification for the 2014 World Cup, they managed to concede 54 goals in ten games. They did not qualify for Brazil.

They were in England’s group then, weren’t they?

They were indeed. They held out for a moderately impressive — by their standards — 5-0 defeat at Wembley, holding Roy Hodgson’s side for 35 minutes before Wayne Rooney broke the deadlock. Things were even more tight and tense in Serravalle in the return game.

So they are pretty bad, then?

Well, it’s swings and roundabouts.

Yes, they conceded 54 goals, but they also scored one. Admittedly, it came in a 5-1 defeat by Poland, but beggars can’t be choosers: Alessandro Della Valle’s strike was the country’s first in any game for five years. Recent results haven’t been too bad: they won one friendly and drew another this summer, and lost only 2-0 to Lithuania in their first Euro 2016 qualifier. More importantly, the under-21s recorded their first win in any competition, beating Wales 1-0. They may be on the cusp of a golden generation.

Who is the main threat?

Probably Andy Selva. If you think Wayne Rooney has a job trying to overtake Sir Bobby Charlton’s scoring record for England, pity the Sammarinese who have to try to overhaul the 38-year-old. Selva is the greatest player the principality has produced — he has played for Sassuolo and Hellas Verona in the third tier of Italian football — and has scored eight times more goals than any of his nearest challengers.

(Eight as opposed to one.)

Words by Rory Smith

So, just how bad are San Marino?

England face the undisputed worst national team in Europe tonight.

San Marino even leave Andorra in the shade, while the Faroe Isles are a powerhouse by comparison. Can we play you every week?

Low and behold Fifa’s lowest ranked teams

San Marino (first match: 1986) P128 W1 D4 L123 F20 A545 Goals conceded per goal scored

205= Djibouti

27

during a training session at St George’s Park yesterday in preparation for the match against San Marino at Wembley

make my family proud. I want to do it.

Hopefully, one day I’ll be sat here having done it.”

Does Rooney appreciate the historical context of what it would mean to become England’s record goalscorer.

“Yes,” he said. “I’ve seen clips of Jimmy Greaves and of course Bobby Charlton.

It’s there for me to overtake them all, I feel. I feel I’m capable of doing that.

“Jimmy Greaves, I’m three goals from him. I’ve never thought I have to break the record. I’m confident in myself and I believe I will, but the game is more important than me scoring four or five goals.”

Under normal circumstances, talk of how many goals a player might score

‘I would never have thought that I might one day be best goalscorer’ would attract accusations of English arrogance. This is San Marino, though.

The most celebrated player in their squad is Andy Selva, a 38-year-old forward who boasts a record of eight goals — the most recent in 2008 — in 63 international appearances and who has come out of retirement to play in the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.

Not for nothing are he and his assembly of clerks, accountants and barmen known as the whipping boys of international football.

Rather than make small improvements over time, San Marino’s record has become even worse in the ten years since their last win (a friendly match

against Liechtenstein). Many would suggest that they, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Gibraltar and other no-hopers have no place playing against the bigger nations and should be required to pre-qualify rather than be left as goal

England’s leading marksmen 1, B Charlton (1958-70) 2, G Lineker (1984-92) 3, J Greaves (1959-67) 4, W Rooney (2003-present) 5, M Owen (1998-2008)

49 48 44 41 40

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difference fodder. “Pre-qualifying has been mooted many times before,” Roy Hodgson, the England manager, said.

“It’s a question for Uefa.

“The obvious answer is that there are a certain number of teams in Europe with footballing status and Uefa have not wanted to say, ‘You’ve got a lower status than these others.’ But if they play the game properly, do their best and play proper football, it’s not such a bad thing that there is this discrepancy.”

On the evidence of their previous encounters with England — at least with the exception of those momentous opening seven seconds in which San Marino scored in November 1993, before succumbing to a 7-1 defeat — there is nothing like a guarantee that they will go to Wembley with a plan to play what top-class coaches would usually call “proper” football.

Just occasionally, though, these matches can become awkward if the early goal does not come and if frustration begins to set in.

“The last time we played them here [a 5-0 win in October 2012], it took us 35 minutes before we got the first goal,” Rooney said. “After that we got more.

We have to be patient. If we play with the speed and tempo we’ve been showing in training, they’ll struggle to contain us.”

In reality, England will almost certainly not have to play to trainingground tempo in order to beat San Marino or for Rooney to score. Winning, of course, is the first objective.

Once that is assured, thoughts will inevitably turn, as usual against San Marino, to the numbers game.

Best result Apr 28, 2004, friendly: v Liechtenstein (H) 1-0 W Worst result Sept 6, 2006, Euro 2008 qualifier: v Germany (H) 13-0 L Andorra (first match: 1996) P121 W3 D11 L107 F34 A334 Goals conceded per goal scored

10 Faroe Isles (first match: 1988) P160 W19 D16 L125 F101 A415 Goals conceded per goal scored

4

Bottom five 205= Cook Islands 207 Anguilla 208= Bhutan 208= San Marino Captain Andy Selva San Marino against leading European nations Overall (18 games) For 1 Against 118

England (4 games) For 1 Against 26

Holland (6 games) For 0 Against 39

Spain (4 games) For 0 Against 26

Germany (2 games) For 0 Against 19

Italy (2 games) For 0 Against 8

*They have not faced France or Portugal

England set for roadshow Continued from back page

the capacity at the San Siro in Milan, for a match against Denmark.

England’s home attendances have been considerably higher at the new Wembley than before the stadium was 6 Tottenham Hotspur will not be able to use Wembley for home matches during the redevelopment of White Hart Lane in either 2016-17 or 2017-18. The FA hopes to stage more American football matches at the national stadium, which would make it impossible to host 19 league matches. Spurs have considered using Wembley, stadium:mk in Milton Keynes and the Olympic Stadium, and could still play bigger matches at Wembley, but they would need to present a compelling case for their need to use two venues to be approved by the Premier League.

knocked down and redeveloped, but the enormous construction costs mean that frequent usage and high attendances are paramount in the FA’s moves to pay off the debt by 2023.

Wembley has become the venue of choice for Uefa, hosting the Champions League final in 2011 and 2013, with the likelihood of more finals before 2023, as well as being selected last month to stage the semi-finals and final of Euro 2020. It has also become a popular venue for the NFL, which is contracted to stage three of its regular-season matches there this autumn and is expected to expand that arrangement as the long-term possibility grows of an American football franchise in London.

For now, Hodgson is happy for England to play at Wembley. “That is what we’re contracted to do,” he said.

“Sometimes I have to accept it’s not always that wonderful atmosphere, but I love taking the team out there.”

Sport

Thursday October 9 2014 | the times

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Matt Dickinson, 54-55

Mike Atherton, page 59

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England ready for roadshow TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER, BRADLEY ORMESHER

Oliver Kay, Gary Jacob

The Football Association is contemplating staging England home matches around the country again after 2017 as it prepares tonight for the prospect of the lowest attendance for a competitive game since Wembley was rebuilt.

Every England home match has been staged at Wembley since it reopened in 2007 but, with the 90,000-seat stadium likely to host a crowd in the region of 55,000 for this evening’s Euro 2016 qualifier against San Marino, FA sources have indicated a willingness to take at least some fixtures “on the road”.

This would happen after the initial ten-year debentures, which underpin the £757 million stadium’s business plan, have expired.

Any potential loss of income will be offset by growing possibilities for Wembley not just with the prospect of Euro 2020 and future Champions League finals, but also the likelihood of an expansion in its arrangement with the NFL over the staging of American football matches. In the longer term, a London-based NFL franchise is a growing possibility.

The majority of England matches will still take place at the national stadium, with the FA eager to make its Club Wembley packages as attractive as possible, but some more low-profile games, such as tonight’s, could be held elsewhere in the country. An FA spokesman declined to comment on the matter, but there is a growing belief that staging more matches nationwide would help England to reconnect with their fanbase.

The 40,181 attendance at England’s previous home game, a friendly against Norway in August, was their lowest since the stadium reopened.

Although there has been a late rush

Covering all bases: Rooney could find himself playing some England home matches away from Wembley as the FA considers efforts to widen the team’s appeal

of interest, the crowd tonight is expected to be the lowest for a competitive game at the rebuilt Wembley. The present figure is the 57,897 who overcame a Tube strike to watch a World Cup qualifier against Andorra in June 2009.

The quality of the opposition, ranked

Times Crossword 25,913 1

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208th and joint-bottom of Fifa’s world rankings, is undoubtedly a factor in the expected turnout, as are the difficulties of attending on a Thursday evening, but England’s previous encounter with San Marino two years ago this week, a 5-0 win, brought a crowd of 85,654.

“We have been spoilt in the past with

massive crowds, even against San Marino, but it’s incredible we’ll have 50,000 at Wembley and 20,000 at Wolverhampton on Friday for the under-21 match [against Croatia],” Roy Hodgson, the England manager, said. “I don’t think there will be many qualifying games this week with crowds that big.”

Hodgson is correct. Spain, the European champions, attracted a crowd of 18,553 in Valencia for their first qualifying game, against FYR Macedonia last month, while Italy’s highest attendance in their five World Cup qualifying matches was 37,027, just over half

across

down

Yesterday’s solution 25,912

1 Behind teacher’s back, young delinquent talked a lot (8) 6 Brandy before hike is fine (6) 9 Extremist group, wild frantic one restrained in sudden attack? (7,6) 10 Tense individual seen with dagger every now and then (2,4) 11 This person extremely slow, restricted by tight clothes (8) 13 Rogue and I will get together after brief kiss, finding love? Wrong (10) 15 Confident fellow finally overcome by failure (4) 16 Language teaching hasn’t always impressed heads (4) 18 Travels in group in western mountain range (10) 21 Tenderloin offered at a cheaper price? (8) 22 Imagine the human form (6) 23 Maybe hotel most of day is overwhelmed by air-conditioning noise (13) 25 Metal objects wife placed in safe (6) 26 Delicate design of most of folder, square (8)

2 Whitehall endeavouring to give asylum to former president (7) 3 Be one over the eight, guzzling order for liqueur (11) 4 For example, Mr Right (that sportswoman’s after?) (5) 5 Falsely claimed to make a sort of point (7) 6 Lively dance stirred up an old fear (9) 7 Girl with a new name (3) 8 Crew member serving dish with meat — tough, not hot? (7) 12 We ultimately appreciated sounds of bells band produced (7,4) 14 Word once coined to describe minute plumbing fitment (9) 17 Female outlaw having drug as source of poison (7) 19 Put heads together to make vegetarian dish (7) 20 French author’s written about river close to Aquitaine area (7) 22 Flourish or flourished, overcoming trouble (5) 24 Bed cover from which article’s slipped out (3)

Continued on page 63

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