The times 2014 10 10

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friday october 10 2014 | thetimes.co.uk | no 71324

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Newsand reviewsofthe the latestreleases es Pages43-45 43-45 RICHARD POHLE

On the brink of history, says Farage Laura Pitel Political Correspondent

Douglas Carswell and Nigel Farage pose for a selfie with a voter in Clacton yesterday. The former Tory was favourite to win the by-election to become Ukip’s first elected MP

Ukip was last night confident of making political history by winning the Clacton by-election and breaking into Westminster.

Nigel Farage declared that after years on the political fringes, Ukip would today become a serious political party by securing its first elected MP. Douglas Carswell, the former Conservative MP for Clacton, was preparing to return to the Commons under a purple banner after his spectacular decision to defect to Ukip six weeks ago.

Shortly before polling stations closed in the Essex seaside town last night, Mr Farage said that he was increasingly confident that his party would win.

Mr Carswell has been favourite to take the seat after two polls placed him comfortably in the lead shortly after his defection.

Victory would underline the extraordinary ascent of Ukip, from polling 3.1 per cent in the 2010 general election to second place in seven byelections since 2011.

Overturning a 12,000 Tory majority in Clacton would deliver a major blow to David Cameron, who fears that the Eurosceptic party will prevent him Continued on page 8, col 4

Diabetes: a cure at last

Scientist devoted 23 years to research after infant son developed condition Hannah Devlin Science Editor

A cure for diabetes is within reach after scientists developed a treatment that eliminates the need for sufferers to inject insulin.

The therapy involves a one-off transplant of laboratory-grown pancreatic cells, which scientists have finally succeeded in producing in large enough volumes to be able to treat patients. The cells worked normally for many months when implanted into mice, and the first human patients should undergo the treatment in the next few years.

The breakthrough by Harvard scientists was hailed yesterday as a medical advance potentially as significant as the

advent of antibiotics. Jose Oberholtzer, an expert in transplantation at the University of Illinois at Chicago, predicted the development would “leave a dent in the history of diabetes”.

About 400,000 people in Britain have type 1 diabetes, including 30,000 children. The breakthrough could also help 10 per cent of Britain’s three million type 2 diabetes sufferers.

The advance is the culmination of 23 years of research by the Harvard scientist Doug Melton, who began working on type 1 diabetes when his son, Sam, had the condition diagnosed in childhood.

Professor Melton said yesterday that his team were now just one step away from the finish line, adding: “It was

gratifying to know that we could do something that we always thought was possible, but many people felt it wouldn’t work.

“If we had shown this was not possible, then I would have had to give up on this whole approach. Now I’m really energised.”

Chris Mason, professor of regenerative medicine at University College London, said that if confirmed in a clinical trial the impact on diabetes would be “a medical game-changer on a par with antibiotics and bacterial infections”. The scientists are now in the last stages of animal testing in nonhuman primates.

Type 1 diabetes, which normally begins in childhood, is an autoimmune

disease in which the body kills off all its pancreatic beta cells. The cells produce insulin, which regulates blood sugar.

Without beta cells, the body’s sugar levels fluctuate wildly, meaning that patients need to monitor glucose and typically inject insulin several times each day.

In a study, published today in the journal Cell, Professor Melton’s team used embryonic stem cells and adult cells that had been genetically “rewound”.

Both these cell types have the ability to turn into any cell type in the body, but require the right biochemical environment to be “coaxed” down a particular developmental route. Scientists have struggled for years to get the set-up

right to produce the volumes of pancreatic cells that would be necessary for clinical use.

Professor Melton’s team appears to have cracked this problem by identifying an efficient way to turn both stem cell types into beta cells.

When the cells were tested in the laboratory, they produced insulin, responded to glucose and appeared to work normally for many months when implanted in mice.

Crucially, a single production line of cells could be used to treat all patients, rather than each person needing their own genetically matched treatment, the study suggests.

Before being transplanted into the Continued on page 2, col 3

IN THE NEWS Euro recession fears

Ebola screening

Prisoner voting ban

Student terror arrest

England victory

Wall Street plunged amid fears that Germany could be in recession after it reported a near 6 per cent drop in exports in August, the steepest fall since 2009. Page 29

Passengers arriving in Britain from west Africa will face extra ebola checks from this weekend, after an abrupt government U-turn on screening at airports. Page 4

A serial killer and a child rapist are among more than 1,000 offenders who are trying to win compensation from Europe over a blanket ban on prisoners voting. Page 13

A 20-year-old physics student at a leading London university was arrested in this week’s counter-terrorism raids and is suspected of plotting a gun attack in the capital. Page 7

England beat the minnows of San Marino 5-0 at Wembley to maintain their perfect start to the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign. They remain at the top of their group. Page 64

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News INSIDE TODAY

Opinion

Features

Ben Macintyre, page 19

Pages 46, 47

Canada’s claim on the Arctic is part of an international tussle over oil

Obituaries

Ozzy Osbourne gives a sober reflection on his wild life

Prince Nicholas Romanov, head of the former Russian ruling family Page 49

Business

Celebrity boycott hits Dorchester Collection’s super-luxury hotels Page 37

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Pensions keep public sector workers ahead in pay stakes Jill Sherman Whitehall Editor

The pay gap between the public and private sector has almost closed during this parliament but public sector workers are still better off because of their generous pension arrangements, new figures show.

An analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that the austerity programme, which included a two-year public sector pay freeze, has reduced the pay difference with the private sector to pre-crisis levels.

Nurses, teachers and local government workers earn on average only 4 per cent more than their private sector counterparts and this is likely to drop to 2 per cent next year. After next year’s election, the gap could reverse if the government continues to bear down on public sector pay, the IFS said.

However when pensions are factored in, public sector workers are 17 per cent better off because these are still linked with final salary. Almost all companies in the private sector have dropped the salary link and pension pots are dependent on market growth.

Including pension benefits, an average public sector worker now earns £34,000 compared with £29,000 for a private sector worker.

Carl Emmerson, deputy director at the IFS, said that if the next government wanted to continue to bring down the public sector pay bill, it would be better to do so by reducing pensions rather than pay. He said: “When you look at pay alone, it looks like public sector workers are paid the same on average as a private sector worker but this ignores pension provision which is much worse in the private sector.”

The government has already announced big reforms to public sector pensions by moving most workers to a pension linked to average career salaries rather than final pay, However these reforms will not kick in for a decade as older workers are protected.

A separate report from the IFS showed that take-home pay for female public sector workers was still 8 per cent higher than their equivalent in the private sector; the salaries for male workers were equal.

The Institute added, however, that

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the grades with the highest differences were lower-paid female public sector workers such as cleaners and catering staff, a group that most governments would be unlikely to penalise any more.

“The uncomfortable truth is that it is lower paid workers, women and those in poorer regions who do best in the public sector relative to the private sector,” Jonathan Cribb, IFS research economist said.

Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, said the IFS figures showed just how deep the pay squeeze had been for vital public sector staff. “Already the NHS is having difficulty recruiting and retaining staff, and morale has hit rock bottom following the government’s rejection of its own pay review body’s recommendation,” she said.

The Treasury said: “Pay restraint since 2010 will have saved the taxpayer an estimated £12 billion by 2014-15, helping protect crucial frontline publicsector services and jobs.

“Reforms to public service pensions are predicted to save £430 billion over the next 50 years and will be fair to taxpayers, employers and employees.”

Devolved powers for northern cities Jill Sherman

Billions of pounds and greater powers are to be devolved to city regions across England in response to the Scottish referendum, under measures to be unveiled next week.

Greg Clark, the cities minister, will set out the next phase of devolving power from Whitehall to northern cities such as Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds, as he calls on industry leaders to invest in order to help drive up economic growth. He will also revive the idea of directly elected mayors Some £12 billion is to be allocated over the next five years to help to boost local economies across the regions, mainly for housing and transport.

Further measures are likely to be announced by George Osborne, the chancellor of the exchequer, in the autumn statement.

David Cameron has been under

mounting pressure to devolve responsibilities such as taxation and welfare to English councils since the referendum.

Regional organisations demanded the same powers pledged to Scotland during the referendum campaign, to be set out in a white paper next month.

Later this month, city leaders are planning to submit their own report calling for powers over business rates, property tax, skills and welfare as well as backing a raft of “metro-mayors”.

Whitehall, however, has long resisted ceding powers to local councils.

Mandarins back some devolution but are resisting more ambitious plans to move taxation or welfare out of Whitehall control. Mr Osborne, MP for Tatton, in Cheshire, has been particularly keen to boost growth in northern cities and help the Conservatives get a foothold in traditional Labour voting areas.

Mr Clark and the chancellor are working closely with city regions, such

as Manchester, and are keen to give them more influence. Manchester city council has joined forces with nine other districts in the area and pooled resources for housing, regeneration and planning, giving them more clout.

“Manchester will be just the first and this will roll out to other cities,” Mr Clark told Property Week magazine.

“Any city that can demonstrate the ambition to make more of its revenues than the Treasury can will get the financial support and spending powers that it needs to make a real difference.

“It is our belief those who live and work in our great cities know what money should be spent on better than anyone else, and we’re giving them the powers to do just that.”

Six other metropolitan authorities are currently in talks with the Treasury to agree their own financial settlements, including Birmingham, Bristol, Tyneside, Leeds and Liverpool.

Diabetes treatment is a ‘game-changer’ Continued from page 1

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Friday October 10 2014 | the times

mice, the cells were placed in a porous capsule, which allowed insulin to diffuse out, but protected the cells from attacks by the body’s immune system.

This eliminated the need for geneticmatching to patients, meaning that cells could be produced on an industrial scale and used in patients without the risk of immune rejection. A further advantage would be that the capsule of cells could be quickly removed and replaced if it stopped working.

Although insulin injections help to keep glucose levels broadly in check, they do not match the body’s fine tuning, and this lack of control can eventually lead to complications from blindness to the loss of limbs.

Richard Elliott, of Diabetes UK, said that the treatment could “transform” the lives of people with the condition, although it was likely to be years before the cell-based therapy could be used routinely. “It could mean they no longer need to use insulin, which would be a historic breakthrough,” he added.

The treatment could also help the 10 per cent of patients with type 2

Profile Professor Melton

D

oug Melton’s satisfaction is as much personal as professional. His son was found to have type 1 diabetes when he was six months old.

Later, his daughter received the same diagnosis. The Harvard professor, who completed his PhD in molecular biology at Trinity College, Cambridge, told The New York Times: “Like any parent, I asked myself, ‘What can I do?

The answer was to shift my research to an area that might help them. I wanted my children to know I was doing everything I could.”

He had to overcome scepticism and political hurdles. In 2001 he secured private funding when George W Bush cut research into new stem cell lines. In 2007 he appeared on Time magazine’s list of 100 most influential people.

diabetes who rely on insulin injections.

Type 2 diabetes, which is diet related and affects about 3 million people in the UK, occurs when the insulin cells stop working properly or when the body stops responding normally to insulin.

6 The discovery of a new type of “good” fat made in the body could help to prevent and treat type 2 diabetes. The previously unidentified lipid molecules increase insulin sensitivity and blood sugar control. Unlike omega-3 fatty acids found in oily fish, the good fat named fatty acid hydroxyl fatty acids, or FAHFAs, are molecules found in fat cells as well as other cells throughout the body.

The NHS estimates that in England there are 3.1 million people over 16 with diabetes but by 2030 the figure is expected to rise to 4.6 million, with nine out of ten sufferers having type 2 diabetes.

The new findings, made by a team of scientists from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and the Salk Institute in California, was published online by the journal Cell.

the times | Friday October 10 2014

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News

How does Google map the desert?

Camel-cam of course The technology giant’s roving eye conquers its latest frontier with a trek that follows every roll of the sand dunes, writes James Dean First there were cars, then snowmobiles, and now there is a camel. To further its aim of creating a virtual copy of the entire world, Google has strapped a camera to a camel’s hump and sent it off into the desert.

The camel-cam has captured a trek through the Liwa oasis, west of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

Like a virtual nomad, the curious can log on to Google Street View and follow the camel’s journey as it roams across rolling sand dunes, through date farms and past tiny settlements.

Street View is a function of Google Maps, the technology giant’s vast mapping project, which has already captured satellite imagery of the entire planet. Street View zooms in even closer to the Earth, presenting a virtual three-dimensional view from roads, landmarks and even inside buildings.

“We want to give users the opportunity to really see what they’re looking for in the places that matter to them,” Ulf Spitzer, the programme manager for Street View, said. “Ideally, we would like to cover everything.”

His team has already captured the pyramids of Giza and the great sphinx in Egypt, but more of the wonders of the Middle East were high on the list.

“The region is extremely interesting for us,” Mr Spitzer said. “But we’re looking to cover more historic sites — anything that’s a Unesco world heritage site or an important landmark.”

Doing so would help people with their travel plans, he said.

Najeeb Jarrar, the Google engineer in charge of the desert mapping project, said that mounting a camera on a camel

— a first for Street View — helped to minimise the environmental impact on the desert.

“Some of the richest history in this desert lies in the Liwa oasis,” he said.

“Many people across the UAE can trace their origins to the first tribes that settled there and established the region as a trade centre. The oasis is also home to date farms, whose trees and fruit are important cultural symbols — the trunks of the palms were used to weave

Raffia, a 10-year-old camel, roams the Liwa oasis in the United Arab Emirates with the Google camera strapped to its back

Street View’s toughest assignments

Great Barrier Reef, Australia Underwater propellerpowered camera Hazards: Sharks, coral Churchill tundra, Canada Ice buggy-mounted camera Hazards: Polar bears, cold Canals of Venice, Italy Gondola-mounted camera Hazards: Low bridges, tourists

the walls of Bedouin tents, baskets and more, while the fruit was a treasured treat for the locals.”

The camera that was strapped to the camel is known as the Trekker. It has already been carried by humans to capture images of the Grand Canyon and other places that cannot be reached by car.

Google has also employed fleets of trolleys and trikes to take photographs for Street View. The photographs are patched together using GPS information from the camera and depth information from its lasers to form a single 360-degree image.

Trekkers are currently being used to capture popular walking routes in the Peak District, which will make it the first national park in the UK to be mapped with Street View. Google has already pictured the racecourse at Epsom Downs, the inner courtyards of Edinburgh Castle, the pitch at Wembley Stadium and Hyde Park in London.

The imagery is not, however, limited to what can be found on solid ground.

Google has used underwater cameras to capture scenes from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It has also begun to picture the insides of buildings, including museums, art galleries, airports and train stations.

The Street View project was launched in 2007 to chart the roads of the US. It uses automatic face-blurring to hide the identities of the people it photographs. However, privacy campaigners have attacked Street View cars on occasion. It is hoped that the camel will not meet the same fate.

Social media is marketplace for dodgy gear James Dean Technology Correspondent

Criminals selling counterfeit goods are increasingly turning to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to sell their illegal wares, the government has warned.

Sales of pirated goods on social media have jumped by 15 per cent in the past year, according to a report by the Intellectual Property Office.

Thousands of counterfeit items are available for purchase on social media every day, the report said, with Facebook traders openly publishing photo

albums of such merchandise including clothing, footwear, jewellery, handbags, music, games and films.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe, the intellectual property minister, said: “Criminals who steal work and ideas, or make and sell fake merchandise, pose a real threat to jobs in the UK, and deceive consumers who want to know the goods they buy are the real thing.”

Pirate Facebook traders often have hundreds of “friends” to help them sell their goods, the report said.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Group, a trade association that represents 160 organisations, said that it would be

‘Criminals who steal ideas or sell fake merchandise pose a real threat to jobs’ Baroness Neville-Rolfe

taking action in the coming year. In December the group found 30,000 Facebook listings advertising counterfeit goods, as well as hundreds of profiles for pirate traders.

The group was later successful in removing 650 traders and 2,500 listings from the social network.

Some 72 million items of copyrighted digital material were removed by the British Phonographic Industry last year. More than 1.6 million links to books that infringed copyright were taken down by the Publishers Association last year, a four-fold increase on the year before.

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Passengers from ebola zone face symptom check and blood tests LEON NEAL

Chris Smyth, Richard Ford Shaun Turton Bucharest

Passengers arriving in Britain from west Africa will face extra ebola checks from this weekend after a government U-turn on airport screening.

Blood tests will be carried out at Heathrow, Gatwick and the Eurostar terminal in London if travellers arrive from Sierra Leone, Guinea or Liberia showing signs of illness or after close contact with victims of the deadly virus.

A British man with ebola symptoms died last night in Macedonia, prompting an urgent investigation by the Foreign Office. The hotel in Skopje where he stayed was sealed, keeping another Briton inside.

Jovanka Kostovska, of the Macedonian health ministry, said the man in his fifties, who arrived from Britain last week, had been suffering from fever, vomiting and internal bleeding and his condition had deteriorated rapidly.

Samples were sent to Germany for tests to confirm the cause of death and officials were investigating whether the man had recently been in west Africa though according to his colleague he had not. Last night the country’s health ministry admitted there were “high chances that this is not a case of ebola”.

David Cameron made the decision on screening despite scientific advice from Public Health England, which had said that it was “almost never worthwhile”. Government sources said that

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Hospital waiting times are getting longer, patients are struggling to get access to mental health services and stress among NHS staff is rising, according to a report by the Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation. The number of patients waiting more than four hours in A&E for a bed had risen 79 per cent since 2010-11, it said, and one in ten waited more than 18 weeks for an operation.

A tablet at bedtime

An isolation unit with a team of specialists is in place at the Royal Free Hospital in London to deal with cases of ebola

How quickly does it spread?

Case are doubling every few weeks. The World Health Organisation said that, without better controls, the number could hit 20,000 within weeks. Even with enhanced isolation of victims in west Africa, the total will climb from more than 8,000 known cases. Many others will go unrecorded.

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the decision involved “the juxtaposition between politics and science”.

Lucy Moreton, general secretary of the Immigration Services Union, said: “The only reason to do this is presentational and for political reasons.”

Downing Street denied that it had acted after newspaper coverage yesterday demanding to know why travellers were not being tested, saying that the plans had been under discussion for some time. Hours before they were announced, Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, had insisted that screening was not needed and warned against “hysteria” on ebola.

Under the “enhanced screening” plans, border agents will use flight records to identify passengers arriving from the three west African countries, even if they arrived via a connecting airport. They will face questions from health staff about their movements, contacts and state of health.

Travellers with symptoms or who have been in contact with ebola victims face immediate quarantine. A Downing Street spokesman said: “These measures will help to improve our ability to detect and isolate ebola cases.”

Ebola victims show no symptoms for up to three weeks after infection, meaning they would not be picked up by screening checks until they had become unwell.

David Miliband, the former foreign secretary, criticised the slow response to the crisis in west Africa. Mr Miliband, who is in Sierra Leone with the International Rescue Committee, which he heads, called on the world’s “big guns” to lend support. He said: “There’s no question that there’s been a tardiness, a slowness, a lateness of response.”

Friday October 10 2014 | the times

Q &A What is ebola?

A virus first identified in 1976 among a group of Belgian nuns in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). The virus is thought to have originated in fruit bats, to have been caught by apes and passed to humans through eating “bush meat”, which includes bats, monkeys and lions. The current outbreak, the worst known, has killed more than 3,800 people in west Africa.

How do you know if you have it?

The virus incubates for up to three weeks before causing symptoms. Only then do patients become infectious. The initial symptoms — fever, headache, muscle pain,

sore throat, weakness — are similar to many other diseases, so recognising infection early is difficult. Later symptoms include diarrhoea, vomiting, a rash, impaired kidney and liver function, stomach pain and bleeding. Suspected cases are confirmed by a blood test.

How dangerous is it?

About two thirds of people affected die. The direct cause is often multiple organ failure.

How is it spread?

Through direct contact with infected blood or bodily fluids. It cannot be spread through the air. Ben Neuman, a virologist at the University of Reading, said: “The list of people who can give you ebola is pretty similar to the list of people who have seen you naked — doctors, nurses and very close family members.”

How is it treated?

There is no treatment other than keeping patients hydrated and hoping they recover.

Outbreaks are fought by trying to isolate affected areas and burying bodies quickly. A series of vaccines is being trialled. Will Pooley, a British nurse, recovered after being given ZMapp, an experimental drug. Volunteers in Oxford are testing a potential vaccine.

How many people come to Britain from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia?

An estimated 6,00010,000 per week.

How effective is airport screening?

The WHO said it was effective for passengers leaving affected nations, and those embarking in west Africa should be checked. However, it can be carried without symptoms for weeks.

Virus cannot beat modern medicine Analysis Dr Mark Porter

E

bola’s fearsome reputation was earned in rural Africa, not in Europe or America where, thanks to modern medicine, it faces a far more hostile environment.

While patients with ebola have been treated in the West before, this is the first time that significant numbers of them are likely to receive the best that modern medicine has to offer, and it will affect the prognosis.

About half of all the 8,000 or so suspected cases so far have died, giving a fatality rate of 50 per cent. But averages like this mean little for individuals. The chances of an infirm elderly person in rural Liberia surviving are tiny. A fit young man treated here in the UK — such as the nurse William Pooley — is more likely than not to pull through.

Much has been written about experimental treatments such as ZMapp and the antiviral brincidofovir, but it’s still too early to tell just how big a difference these make.

What definitely does help is our ability to provide very sick patients with the sort of support that is standard fare in a modern intensive care unit.

While ebola may win a few battles here in the West, experts are unified in their belief that the virus will never win the war.

TV sets are disappearing from children’s bedrooms and being replaced by tablet computers for viewing on demand, suggests research by Ofcom. One in three children aged between 5 and 15 owns a tablet computer, nearly twice as many as a year ago.

Despite the rise of on-demand TV, older children are watching less — 14.6 hours a week now, compared with 15.4 hours in 2013.

Illegal parking tickets Calderdale council has suspended all on-street parking charges after discovering serious errors in its legal documents going back six years. The mistake came to light after a parking ticket was sucessfully challenged by a member of the public, and is expected to cost the council hundreds of thousands of pounds as an estimated 7,000 drivers become eligible for refunds.

Bake Off ratings win Nancy Birtwhistle’s victory in The Great British Bake Off attracted a bigger television audience than any other programme this year except the World Cup final. The series finale on BBC One had a peak of 13.3 million viewers on Wednesday night, according to initial overnight ratings. Its average audience, 12.3 million, was slightly ahead of the football, which had a peak of 16.7 million.

Most read at thetimes.co.uk 1. A place that should be seen but not heard 2. Agnew leaves Twitter 3. ‘Ringleader’ had just returned 4. Rise of the clicktivists 5. Dewani ‘used gay websites’ 6. Toughen up to beat trolls 7. Bicycle numberplates call 8. Mrs Clooney joins battle for return of Elgin marbles 9. Churchill would be aghast 10. United squad ‘had to change’

the times | Friday October 10 2014

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Forget Venice. For the Clooneys, there’s no place like Sonning Tom Whipple

The rumours began over the weekend.

In the small Thameside village of Sonning, with its pretty church and 500year-old pub, a mansion had been sold.

Not just any mansion: a Georgian riverside property, surrounded by a ring of trees, protected by more than a dozen CCTV cameras and with enough bedrooms to house a Brangelina-style family.

Then, on Saturday night, a newly wed couple were spotted in one of the nooks of that 500-year-old pub — the Bull Inn. Not just any newlyweds: the most famous newlyweds in the world.

The Clooneys have bought their marital home, and they have chosen the Home Counties.

Yesterday Sonning was still digesting the news of the arrival of yet another multimillionaire to a stretch of river already favoured by financiers and Arab sheikhs, and on which properties are among the most expensive in the world. But the village was also moving to practicalities.

Over lunch in the Great House Hotel, the discussion was about where George Clooney and his barrister wife Amal Alamuddin would shop. “Well,” said David Beddis, “there’s the Waitrose at Woodley.”

Tony Thorne agreed that was the obvious choice, adding only that one shouldn’t discount “the Sainsbury’s at Winnersh”. Either way, both were adamant that, whatever happened, the Thames Valley’s latest A-list resident was not going to go

grocery shopping in the direction of Reading station. That’s where the Tesco is.

Residents were keen to point out they were not star struck: celebrities are no rarity in these parts. Indeed one said, with a hint of pride: “You often see Theresa May around the village.”

In Saint Andrew’s church, Dave Costard also argued that Clooney should feel at home — and demonstrated why by opening the parish magazine. Paul Daniels is in one picture, so is Debbie McGee. Michael Parkinson makes an appearance. As, naturally, does the ubiquitous home secretary. “He will be greatly welcomed,” said Mr Costard.

Especially in some quarters. “I’m sure the ladies and girls of Sonning will welcome him with open arms.”

They might not be the only ones who are pleased: Clooney’s accountant might also approve of the purchase that was arranged by Savills. Some analysts believe London property to be overvalued, forecasting a drop in prices next year of 2-3 per cent and possibly more in prime areas.

The couple are following the example of other affluent buyers, who have been looking to cash The Clooneys were seen in the Bull Inn

Budget airline Life-saving to introduce Titanic map family seating to be sold Billy Kenber

Simon de Bruxelles

Package holiday travellers will soon enjoy family booths with facing seats and romantic pods for couples, thanks to a charter airline’s plans to “make travel experiences special”.

Thomson Airways, which is based at Luton airport, will offer the innovative seating arrangements on 47 new Boeing 737 jets due for delivery by 2020.

As well as allowing four to six passengers to sit around a table at the back of the plane, the aircraft will offer pods for couples, with mood lighting and a place for champagne between two seats.

During flights, “dedicated holidaymakers” equipped with iPads will give passengers advice and information on their holiday destination. The company also plans to introduce a “beach snack bar” for those travelling in its Premium Club.

The airline has announced that it is buying two Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets which will allow it to fly to new longhaul destinations including Costa Rica and possibly Vietnam and Malaysia.

David Burling of Thomson said: “Our overall goal is to make travel experiences special and — as the flight marks both the start and end of the holiday — we see it as an integral part of the whole holiday experience.”

A deck plan and the only surviving menu from the Titanic’s first-class restaurant are expected to be sold for up to £100,000 at auction next week.

The deck plan was used by Frenchborn Elise Lurette to find her way to the lifeboats after the passenger liner hit an iceberg in April 1912. More than 1,500 passengers and crew drowned but Ms Lurette, a 59-year-old maid, survived.

The plan was given only to first-class passengers. Ms Lurette, who worked for the wealthy Spencer family, wrote on it “Depart le 10 Avril” and marked the paper plan with a cross to indicate the location of her cabin.

Also in Ms Lurette’s coat pocket when she was rescued was a lunch menu. The choice in the first-class restaurant included mutton chops, roast beef, Melton Mowbray pie, lamb and mint sauce, ox tongue, tapioca pudding and greengage tart.

After managing to find a lifeboat Ms Lurette sat alongside her employer, Marie Spencer, Molly Brown, an American passenger who was depicted in the 1997 movie Titanic, and Frederick Fleet, in lifeboat number six. She kept the documents and left them to her family before her death a year later. The documents will be sold by Henry Aldridge and Son of Devizes on October 18.

in their London gains, exploiting the price lag between capital and shires.

How though would the Clooneys occupy their time? As luck would have it, the neighbours are thespians. Over the river is the Mill At Sonning, a theatre Mr Costard recommends.

“They get entertaining shows,” he said.

Currently, they are playing A Party To Murder endorsed in press clippings as “Cheeky and skilfully crafted mayhem”.

One actor has her own big screen experience, having appeared in Hot Fuzz.

News TIMES PHOTOGRAPHY, VAGNER VIDAL / INS

If the newlyweds don’t fancy cooking, they could go out to a local restaurant

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News

E-cigarettes allowed to advertise on TV as rules are relaxed Chris Smyth Health Correspondent

Electronic cigarettes will be seen in TV commercials for the first time, under new rules that take a relaxed approach to celebrity endorsements.

The Advertising Standards Authority’s first specific guidance on ecigarettes focuses on restricting the product’s appeal to children and nonsmokers, but says companies should not be stopped from making them attractive to those who already smoke.

The guidance was welcomed by antitobacco campaigners, but some public health experts continue to push for a total ban on advertising of e-cigarettes, saying it will inevitably attract children.

Until now, e-cigarettes have been covered only by general guidance prohibiting misleading, harmful or offensive advertising, while existing rules on tobacco meant the products could not be seen in screen commercials. From next month, e-cigarettes manufactur-

ers will have greater freedom to advertise to adult smokers, as long as advertisements do not appeal to children, feature people under 25 or appear in programmes popular with the young.

Ads will also be banned from promoting tobacco or encouraging nonsmokers to use e-cigarettes.

Shahriar Coupal, director of the ASA’s committee of advertising practice, said: “We’ve moved quickly to put in place appropriate and clear regulation around e-cigarette advertising.”

Because e-cigarettes contain no tobacco, only nicotine, many experts believe they are safer than cigarettes and thousands of lives would be saved if smokers switched. However, the new rules will not allow the products to claim they are safer or healthier than cigarettes unless they are licensed as medicines. Doctors will not be able to endorse them.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH),

YOUTUBE

Friday October 10 2014 | the times

Lung cancer can go unseen for 20 years Hannah Devlin Science Editor

Jenny McCarthy, the actress, stars in a controversial e-cigarette advert in America

said she would have preferred a ban on celebrity endorsements and free samples, but welcomed greater protection for children.

Professor Martin McKee, presidentelect of the European Association of Public Health, called for a total advertising ban. “These recommendations fly in the face of experience that advertisers, such as those promoting alcohol,

find many ways to circumvent commitments not to target children,” he said.

Charles Hamshaw-Thomas, of the e-cigarette makers E-Lites, said: “E-cigs are proving an enjoyable and increasingly popular alternative to cigarettes among many smokers, but as a young industry we have to show we are run by responsible professionals and not sniggering schoolboys.”

Lung cancer can go undetected for more than 20 years, according to research that could explain why the disease is so difficult to treat and survival rates remain so low.

The study, one of the most detailed investigations into the genes involved in lung cancer, revealed that in some patients the first mutations that caused their cancer occurred more than two decades before diagnosis.

By the time it is treated, the cells within lung cancer tumours have often diversified, accumulating a vast range of mutations, meaning that most drugs are effective in only a fraction of cells.

Charles Swanton, who led the work at Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute, said: “Survival from lung cancer remains devastatingly low, with many new targeted treatments making a limited impact.”

The study is published in the journal Science. More than 40,000 people in the UK have lung cancer diagnosed each year and fewer than 10 per cent survive for more than five years.

the times | Friday October 10 2014

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Student suspected of gun terror plot

Shock over arrest of ‘normal boys’

Fiona Hamilton, Georgie Keate, Sean O’Neill, Samuel Conn

A physics student at one of London’s most prestigious universities was arrested in this week’s counter-terror swoop and is suspected of plotting a terrorist gun attack in the capital, it emerged last night.

Scotland Yard said last night that the 20-year-old undergraduate was the fifth person arrested over a suspected plot to carry out an Islamic Stateinspired attack.

His arrest was not disclosed earlier for operational reasons, police said, but it is understood that he was detained on Tuesday afternoon. Four other men were arrested earlier that day in 4.30am armed raids in west London.

It is believed that a firearm and ammunition were recovered in raids carried out some time ahead of this week’s counter-terrorism operations.

The concern that the suspected plot might have involved firearms explains Scotland Yard’s decision to employ heavily armed units. Specialist firearms officers used stun guns and a taser and were equipped with full protective body armour when they carried out the raids.

Despite a social media backlash over the arrests and criticism of the show of force by police, security sources insist the arrests were part of an intelligenceled operation following months of surveillance aimed at “the early stages of attack planning”. At least one of the suspects is said to have travelled to Syria.

Last night’s disclosure of a further arrest indicates the investigation is still live and there may be more police action as detectives discover more details about the alleged plot.

Scotland Yard said in a statement: “On Tuesday 7 October 2014, in the afternoon, a fifth male was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. His arrest followed the arrest of four other males as part of the ongoing investigation.

“The men were arrested all under the Terrorism Act and a warrant of further detention was granted at a magistrates’ court on Wednesday 8th October. All are UK nationals.”

The men are being interviewed at Southwark high-security police station and other police stations. Detectives can hold them until next Tuesday. They can then seek to detain them a further seven days without charge.

The suspects are all allegedly known to each other. The newly disclosed arrest is of a student at a London university who cannot be named for legal reasons.

He is a member of a social media group called “Islam is Peace: Judge for yourselves”. Another group, “For A Safer Syria”, is described as an “online platform launched . . . in support for ending the brutal inhumane crackdown by Bashar al-Assad on his own people”.

Tarik Hassane, top, and Gusai Abuzeid, pictured with friends at Westminster City School, were described as laidback, normal guys. The arrest of Rawan Kheder, left, over an alleged Isis-

Events organised in tribute to the murdered British hostage Alan Henning were recently posted on the page.

Another of those arrested is understood to be Rawan Kheder, 20, whose father is the trustee of the Kurdish Council of Imams and Preachers.

Friends of two other arrested men — Tarik Hassane, 21, and Gusai Abuzeid, 21 — expressed shock and disbelief at their arrests.

Security agencies believe that Mr Hassane has been to Syria, but flew

back to London on Sunday from Sudan, where he is a medical student at the University of Medical Sciences and Technology in Khartoum.

His relatives played down the significance of his arrival in the country just 48 hours before his arrest, saying that he had returned to spend the Eid holiday with his family. Friends said that he was in Syria to give medical aid and that he had had the nickname “surgeon” since year seven because of his aspiration to be a doctor.

attend but will change into civilian clothes when socialising in bars and restaurants or using public transport.

An army spokesman said: “Following guidance from both the Dutch and Belgian governments that members of their militaries should not wear uniform in public places, UK troops will adopt this policy outside of official commemorative activities.”

The guidance is also being shared with regimental associations to alert veterans travelling to the Netherlands and Belgium of the sensitivities about wearing military uniform.

Veterans do not typically wear full uniform, however, and are unlikely to

feel the need to hide their berets, medals and regimental blazers.

“I imagine there is no way on Earth they will be taking those off in the pubs afterwards just because of the threat of a few jihadis lurking in the shadows,” a defence source said.

The Dutch and Belgium governments issued the no-uniform rule for their forces last month, amid fears of an attack by militants from either country who had travelled to Syria to join Islamic State.

Despite the threat posed by Islamist extremists in the UK, there has been no change in uniform guidance issued to personnel by the Ministry of Defence.

inspired plot also surprised neighbours because his family is well known in the Kurdish community in London. Below, messages of support for the suspects on Twitter

There has been increased anti-terrorist police activity across the country, especially in London, since the threat level was raised to “severe” in August.

Tensions were raised further when Islamic State urged its sympathisers to carry out attacks in the West.

Police concede that the threshold for intervening in a suspected terror plot is lower than it was six months ago and that they less likely to “let things run” in the hope of gathering more evidence.

Turkey widens rift with Nato, pages 22, 23

The suspects in the alleged terror plot were last night described as “laid back, normal guys” who enjoyed playing football and grew up together in inner-city London (Fiona Hamilton, John Simpson, Georgie Keate and David Brown write).

Neighbours confirmed that police raided the home of Rawan Kheder, 20, on Tuesday morning.

His father, Emin Kheder, is a chairman of trustee of both the Salahuddin Trust, an Islamic charity, and the Kurdish Council of Imams and Preachers in Britain. He refused to comment last night. The family is well known in the Kurdish community in London, sparking surprise that Rawan had been accused of involvement in an alleged Isis-inspired plot.

Neighbours said that police officers had been coming and going since the raid on Tuesday.

One, who did not want to be named, said: “I know the family very well, I have known them for years.

My son knows Rawan, they are friends. They are such a nice family.” She identified a picture of Rawan and said: “He’s a nice boy, very polite.”

He attended Westminster City School with Tarik Hassane and Gusai Abuzeid, both 21. They are thought to be long-term friends with a fourth suspect, who has not yet been named.

Mr Abuzeid was said to have eaten dinner with his family and watched Homeland, the American counterterrorism programme, before his home near Marble Arch was raided.

His brother Adai said he had little interest in religion and could not have been involved in any plot. He told The Daily Mail: “I looked at Gusai, using my eyes to ask what was going on. He just looked baffled.

“I was more shocked than scared.

We haven’t heard from him since.

He’s working hard to make something of his life. I can’t believe he’s been arrested — it doesn’t make sense.

“He smokes, he drinks, he has a girlfriend. If anything, he’s not really a Muslim — he doesn’t pray. He’s not political either. Our whole family is against what is going on out there.” He said six members of his family, including his elderly grandmother and father, who is a political refugee from Libya, were forced on to the floor by police.

Soldiers told not to wear uniforms I had bomb-making list, Deborah Haynes Defence Editor

British soldiers, cadets and reservists have been told not to wear their uniforms in public when visiting the Netherlands and Belgium because of concerns by their governments about the chance of a terrorist attack.

Hundreds of British military personnel are expected to visit both countries in the coming months as part of organised trips to commemorate key battles of the First and Second World Wars, as well as annual Remembrance Day services.

They will be able to wear their uniform at any ceremonies that they

admits ‘secret’ defendant Sean O’Neill

A defendant in Britain’s most secretive terrorism case has pleaded guilty days before his trial was due to begin.

Mounir Rarmoul-Bouhadjar, 26, from London, admitted at the Old Bailey this week to possessing a document entitled “Bombmaking”.

His guilty plea can be reported after Mr Justice Nicol lifted reporting restrictions. A second charge of possessing a false British passport was dropped.

Rarmoul-Bouhadjar’s co-defendant,

Erol Incedal, 26, will stand trial next week on related charges. Mr Incedal and Rarmoul-Bouhadjar had been known as AB and CD for months after their arrest in October last year as the government argued that the case should be conducted in secrecy.

An appeal by the media resulted in restrictions being relaxed and the defendants’ names made public. Parts of the trial will still be conducted behind closed doors.

Rarmoul-Bouhadjar will be sentenced at the end of Mr Incedal’s trial.

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Friday October 10 2014 | the times

News By-elections

Farage’s millionaire friends Lucy Fisher, Laura Pitel

Ukip members have accused the party of allowing donors to buy their way into top positions after the latest businessman to donate money was awarded a parliamentary seat to fight.

Since Arron Banks pledged to give £1 million to Ukip last week, after a dramatic switch of his allegiance from the Conservatives, it has emerged that the insurance tycoon intends to contest a Westminster seat next May. This week, another donor, Paul

Sykes, the Yorkshire businessman who has donated more than £4 million to the party, was made Ukip’s chairman of campaigns. His appointment to the influential post has caused consternation among party members.

A senior Ukip party figure, who asked not to be named, said: “Why on earth has Paul Sykes been appointed to run campaigns? What does he know about campaigning? One stint in 1997 for Jimmy Goldsmith’s Referendum party isn’t good enough.”

A third donor, Alan Bown, who has

Red Box

Join the columnists and political commentators Tim Montgomerie, Matthew Parris and Dominic Cummings for a Red Box debate on the future of the Conservative party on Tuesday, October 28, at the offices of The Times Tickets cost £10 at mytimesplus.co.uk

donated more than £1.3 million in cash and services to the party since 2003, also wields substantial influence in the party, sitting on its national executive committee.

Mr Bown, a retired bookmaker and businessman, has conducted polling for the party and been an integral figure in developing Ukip’s campaign strategy.

Caven Vines, a Ukip councillor in Rotherham and the party’s parliamentary candidate for Wentworth and Dearne, said: “If you’ve got a big enough chequebook, anyone listens to you. It’s not right,” he said, but added “life’s not right”. When he travels to London this week, he said, “I dare say I’ll be asking a few questions” about the issue.

Another parliamentary candidate for Ukip, who asked not to be named, said: “It’s really not good that donors can just rise up in the party because they give money. And it makes you wonder. We’re campaigning along one line, but then it seems we’re becoming just like the rest of them.”

Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, told The Times yesterday that Mr Banks had “been in touch a lot” since his announcement of a £1 million donation last week.

Mr Farage said: “He wants to go ahead as a candidate but he also wants to talk about fundraising for us. He’s very interested in political polling and issues like that but things have been rather busy lately and we haven’t had time to discuss that.”

At last week’s press conference, Mr Banks said that, like other donors, he would be stipulating where his money went. “I think it will be directly to the party but it will be for specific purposes — the election campaign.”

Asked about the idea that he could get involved with directing certain aspects of the election campaign, such as market research, he said: “There’s a whole package of things we might do for Ukip and that might be one of them.”

Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, armed

By-election win in Clacton ‘will make political history’ Continued from page 1

from securing a second term in Downing Street.

Despite efforts by the Tories to fend off the Ukip threat by promising an inout referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union, Mr Farage’s party has continued to grow in strength by highlighting public concern about immigration.

The prime minister will now face calls to take a tougher stance on both issues, and to reconsider entering a non-aggression pact with Ukip. He will also be braced for further defections by MPs fearful of losing their seats if they stick with the Tories.

Ed Miliband is also under significant pressure from Ukip in Labour’s northern heartlands. Senior party figures warned last night that Ukip had been polling only 2,000 votes behind in a second by-election yesterday in Heywood & Middleton.

Mr Farage said that he did not expect to win the Greater Manchester seat, but predicted that the party would do phenomenally well.

“The fact is that in nearly all of those big cities of the north now the Conservative party and the Lib Dems have almost disappeared,” the Ukip leader said. “We are the only challenger to Labour in those seats.”

Ukip has come a long way since being

written off as a bunch of “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists” by Mr Cameron in 2006.

It secured its first elected representatives in 1999, when Mr Farage became one of three MEPs, but it has only recently begun to break through on the domestic political scene.

A turning point came in March 2011, when Ukip was runner-up in the Barnsley by-election, the first time it had ever come second in a Westminster contest. Since then it has come second to Labour, the Lib Dems and the Conservatives in seats across the country.

In May last year it secured a record number of council seats, making huge gains in the Eastern counties of Essex, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Kent.

Last May Ukip became the first of the small parties to top a national poll in 100 years, winning first place in the European elections, with 27 per cent of the vote.

The party is still enduring growing pains. Despite the claim by Mr Farage that it has “come of age”, it suffers from its relative inexperience and small size.

Poor vetting of candidates has left it exposed to embarrassing outbursts from racist or bigoted candidates.

It is heavily reliant on a small group of donors for its funding, which pales in comparison to support for Labour and the Conservatives.

the times | Friday October 10 2014

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By-elections News

buy way to the top of Ukip TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER , RICHARD POHLE

Battle of the doorsteps rages right to the end Heywood & Middleton Lucy Fisher

with a “McFlurry” ice cream, meets Howling Laud Hope, the Official Monster Raving Loony candidate on Clacton’s seafront

A final flurry before polls close Clacton Laura Pitel “There’s a first time for everything,” Nigel Farage said, while anxiously clutching a McFlurry in the middle of Clacton-on-Sea’s town centre. It was a reference to the McDonald’s ice cream bought for him by Douglas Carswell.

In between tentative mouthfuls, however, he could barely hide his excitement that the man standing next to him was on the verge of becoming Ukip’s first elected MP. Surrounded by a crowd made up of photographers and iPhone-wielding supporters, the party leader took a moment to reflect on the occasion. Ukip was finally “coming of age,” he said.

The party turned 21 last month, and Mr Farage claimed that it had outgrown a phrase when it was embarrassed by racist or bigoted “outbursts” from candidates. He appeared to have forgotten an incident in August when one of the party’s newly elected MEPs, Janice Atkinson, described a Thai constituent as “a ting tong.”

The Ukip leader said that he had sometimes felt like the “patron saint of patience” after fighting and losing 35 by-elections. He was reluctant to say, however, that winning the 36th would mean Ukip had finally entered the political mainstream. “Having won the

European elections, does breaking through under first-past-the-post make us now a serious political party in Britain? Yes,” he said. “I think the word mainstream . . . it’s rather too maligned for me. I can’t bear the thought of it.”

Clacton appears to have enjoyed the political circus that has descended on the town over the past six weeks. Even those too young to vote were yesterday taken by the occasion. “Look, it’s Douglas Carswell!” shouted one schoolboy as the Ukip candidate walked by.

At the Tudor Green polling station in Jaywick, on the southern tip of the Essex constituency, voters excitedly told of switching to Ukip from both Labour and the Conservatives.

“I just want to shake up politics a bit,” said Brian Stote, 57, a full-time carer for his disabled wife. “I want Labour to know that we won’t accept whatever Europe says.”

Philip Growden, 74, was once a Conservative supporter, but voted for Ukip yesterday.

“They are for the people,” he said of his new party.

“The others are totally out of touch.” John Chittock, a former member of the local Conservative

Douglas Carswell: victory was so close he could taste it

association, was acting as a teller for Ukip at the polling station. He said that there was a sense of history-making at the ballots. “Some of them [voters] come up to you and give you a little squeeze of the arm on the way out,” he said. “Others give you a wink and a nod.”

As for Mr Carswell himself, he said that the campaign had been “incredibly invigorating”. About 300 volunteers turned out yesterday alone to help get out the vote. “I feel as if I’ve finally come home,” Mr Carswell said.

As he and Mr Farage joked around for the cameras, there was no sign of any of the tension that some believe will inevitably develop between the two men. The Ukip leader has a history of responding badly to threats to his authority.

Yesterday, however, it was all smiles as the pair waited the last anxious few hours before their fate was sealed.

Mr Carswell said that he was convinced that he had made the right decision by jumping ship. He compared Labour and the Conservatives to the big banks that had turned out to be “not that good at banking.”“

Ukip fielded activists at each of Heywood and Middleton’s 51 polling stations in yesterday’s by-election, and boasted 100 more campaigners on the streets, in a fierce campaign that began just a month ago with the death of the Labour MP Jim Dobbin.

Members from Devon, Worcestershire, Scotland and Sheffield travelled to get out the Ukip vote. The party delivered 200,000 leaflets, it claimed.

According to the latest opinion poll, published by the Tory peer Lord Ashcroft on Monday, Ukip reached 68 per cent of the seat’s residents by visit, telephone call, leaflet, letter or email in the weeks before the by-election.

This almost matched Labour, which reached 69 per cent of the local electorate; Labour could count on hundreds of activists from the red-dominated Greater Manchester region.

“Whatever happens, we’ve certainly not lost the battle on the doorstep,” said one Ukip activist yesterday.

The party was also a strong presence on the roads, with three advertising vans, a minibus and a megaphonemounted car driving around the constituency. Inside the latter, Denis Allen, a former lieutenant in the Light Infantry and Ukip’s candidate in Telford, broadcast through the speakers: “Vote for Ukip! Vote for change!”

A Labour insider admitted “grave concern” at the indent Ukip had made on the vote in Heywood and Middleton.

Labour sources were predicting that their majority, which stood at 5,980 in 2010, could be reduced to just 2,000.

At least nine Labour MPs were out in force in the seat yesterday. The Times joined Graham Jones, Labour MP for

Hyndburn, and Alan Campbell, MP for Tynemouth, who were campaigning on housing estates in Castleton in pouring rain.

Mr Jones said that the rise of Ukip in the north “is an anti-Labour vote. It used to be the Lib Dems, now it’s coalescing around Ukip”.

Many residents who claimed that they were voting Labour said they did so with reluctance. Stephen Williams, 65, a former bus driver, said: “I’m voting Labour because I can’t stand the flipping Cons or the flipping Liberals. But I’m not happy at all with Labour, mind.

“It used to be for the working man, but all politicians are in the same pot now. I was tempted by Ukip but figured it would be a vote for the Cons.”

Many of the votes Ukip gained appeared to have come from Labour.

Michael Nolan, 69, a retired wholesale manager, who voted Ukip, said: “I’ve been Labour all my life, and my dad too, but it’s time for a change. That Miliband’s got no charisma.” He added that his three grown-up children and ex-wife were voting Ukip, too.

John Bickley, the Ukip candidate, said: “This is a two-horse race between Ukip and Labour. We’re seeing many Labour voters switching to us.”

6 The tension between Labour and Ukip rose to such a pitch yesterday that the police were called after an incident between two opposing councillors.

Donna Martin, a Rochdale Labour councillor, was accused of damaging a mobile phone belonging to Paul Brothwood, a Dudley Ukip councillor, during an altercation outside a polling station at Jumbo Social Club. Mr Brothwood called the police. No charges were brought. Ms Martin told The Times she had asked Mr Brothwood to stop putting his phone near her face and photographing her. She said only the phone’s case was damaged.

Carswell is our enemy, but we can be friends, says Gove Laura Pitel Political Correspondent

Douglas Carswell will not be shunned in the corridors and tea rooms of Westminster, Michael Gove has insisted.

Some Conservatives believe that they would be forced to avoid a Ukip MP in the House of Commons for fear of falling under suspicion themselves.

Speaking on a visit to Clacton earlier this week, the chief whip said that the atmosphere would not be “like war-time Paris” if Mr Carswell was elected. “There’s no rule against fraternisation with the enemy,” he said.

“Once every member of parliament is there then we will treat them all in the same way.”

Mr Gove rejected claims by Mark Reckless, another Ukip defector, that party whips were leaning heavily on others who might jump ship.

“No, we don’t put pressure on people.

We try very hard to make sure we understand what people’s concerns are.

“There’s a caricature view of how parties and whips’ offices operate. We don’t do that. We operate by friendship, persuasion and support. With Mark, we took him out to lunch, made sure how

he felt about all the major issues. The difficulty in Mark’s case is, he clearly made a decision and as a result of having made a decision, he did not follow through on the undertakings he gave us on loyalty to the leader and to the party.” Mr Gove said that he could never be certain that there would not be further defectors. “Like Queen Elizabeth I, I cannot make a window out of

men’s souls. You can never know what people are going to do.”

If, as expected, Mr Carswell arrives in Westminster next week, he will have to navigate a series of commons etiquette questions. “Where will he sit in the chamber?” asked one MP. “And what about the tea room? The Conservatives sit at one end. Labour sit on the other side. He will be alone. The black sheep.

No one will want to talk to him, or be seen talking to him.”

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It’s just not cricket, says pundit in Twitter row

TMS

diary@thetimes.co.uk | @timesdiary

Boney wasn’t great in bed Napoleon the Great? Not according to the historian Adam Zamoyski, who argued with Andrew Roberts at an Intelligence Squared debate on Wednesday that the Corsican despot wasn’t all that impressive. As one example, Zamoyski referred to Napoleon losing his virginity to a prostitute but said that she was the fourth one that he had tried to purchase. “Now excuse me, but if a young officer cannot pick up a tart I don’t see that as some mark of a great achiever,” he said.

Roberts won the post-debate vote, though, despite the sneering moderator, Jeremy Paxman, who said that Napoleon was “too short to be dashing”. Some might take that as a dig at Roberts himself, who is 5ft 6in.

Aptly, since the debate clashed with the final of The Great British Bake Off, Paxo reflected that the only Briton to be called “the Great” is Alfred, best known for burning cakes.

royal fillip for farage While David Cameron was being debagged at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday night for the offence that landed him in purr-gatory, the

wearing heavy tweed suits . “I literally sweated for my stories,” he said. As the years passed, his dress changed. A colleague recalled the time that Hennessy burst into his office late at night wearing a white tuxedo. “Saw your light on and had to ask: what do you think?” he said.

“Is it a bit too Sean Connery?”

These days he restricts his fashion statements to luridly bright socks.

Duke of Edinburgh was similarly loose-lipped after a banquet at Lord’s to mark the cricket ground’s bicentenary. One guest suggested that the duke should stand for parliament. “No need,” he replied.

“They’ll soon have that Farage chap chivvying them up.” And to think that the Queen was criticised merely for saying that people should think before voting in Scotland.

hacking jacket’s too hot Peter Hennessy, the constitutional historian, delivered a valedictory lecture this week at Queen Mary University of London, where he has been a professor for more than 20 years. He used part of it to reflect on his bad fashion sense when he joined The Times 40 years ago as Whitehall correspondent. In an attempt to persuade the Civil Service mandarins he lunched that he was much older than a lad in his mid-20s, Hennessy said he took to

Friday October 10 2014 | the times

A new publication comes to my attention. Jail Mail is a monthly newspaper delivered to all prisons in Britain, a captive audience of 87,000. The paper provides them with crime reports, puzzles, lots of adverts for lawyers (probably a bit late) and, oddly, a review of the new iPhone. For some reason, it lacks a travel section.

judi stamps out tattoos At 42, Finty Williams is old enough to have tattoos if she wants them but the actress’s mother, Dame Judi Dench, drew the line at the idea of her daughter “growing” ivy over her body. “I wanted to have ivy tattooed on me for my 40th [birthday], then add to it every year so that I’d look like it was covering me by the time I was 70,” she tells Surrey Life. “Ma put her foot down.” Time for Dench to turn over a new leaf? patrick kidd

Valentine Low

One is the emollient, avuncular voice of cricket on the BBC, the other a former pop star who modelled a supermarket lingerie range.

At first glance, there would seem to be no reason why the worlds of Jonathan Agnew and Jessica Taylor of Liberty X should ever collide.

Collide they did, however, in an acrimonious exchange which yesterday led to Agnew quitting Twitter, complaining: “It has become so unpleasant.”

And, a few short hours later, joining it again.

It was all cricket’s fault.

Ms Taylor, 34, is the wife of Kevin Pietersen, the cricketer whose autobiography has been making headlines this week. The talking point concerned the spoof account @KPGenius, which angered Pietersen with a string of mocking tweets in the summer of 2012.

In a discussion about the allegation that three of Pietersen’s England Jessica Taylor defended her husband, Kevin Pietersen

teammates — Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann and Tim Bresnan — knew the password to the account, Ms Taylor felt that Agnew was pulling his punches.

She wrote: “There is absolutely no reason to have the password for a Twitter account unless you intend to tweet from it. Anyone with a brain knows that.”

Agnew tweeted back: “@JessicaLibertyX lose the attitude. One person (account holder) runs the account.

Others, with access, can provide info.”

A number of other Twitter users who had been following the exchange weighed in. One told Agnew: “Hope you’re the first ebola victim.”

Yesterday morning Agnew announced that he was quitting the social media site. “Almost did this last night. This is not what Twitter was when I joined. I will now leave it to the bullies and trolls.

Shame,” he wrote, before deleting his @Aggerscricket account.

A few hours later he was back again, because it was the only way he could catch up on the latest news about the row.

However he said he would no longer be tweeting: “I will be monitoring news but I am certainly not going to engage. It has become a jungle out there.”

the times | Friday October 10 2014

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News

Nobel prize novelist is a man of few words Jack Malvern Arts Correspondent

A French author with a formidable reputation in his own country but little known elsewhere yesterday won the Nobel prize for literature.

Patrick Modiano, 69, was described by the Nobel Academy in Sweden as “a Marcel Proust for our time”, but his book sales in Britain are negligible.

The number of Modiano books sold in Britain since 1998, according to Nielsen Bookscan, is 2,123 — an average of 133 books a year.

The author may be best known outside France for his screenplay for Lacombe Lucien, a downbeat film of collaboration during the Second World War, directed by Louis Malle of the French new wave. Peter Englund,

permanent secretary of the Nobel Academy, admitted that the winner of the £700,000 prize was obscure outside France.

“Patrick Modiano is a well-known name in France but not anywhere else,” he said. “He writes children’s books, movie scripts but mainly novels.

His themes are memory, identity and time. His best known work is called Missing Person. It’s the story of a detective who has lost his memory and his final case is finding out who he really is: he is tracing his own steps through history to find out who he is.”

Modiano tends to write short tales of about 150 pages, which Englund said were “variations of the same theme — memory, loss, identity, seeking”. The author’s name has appeared in The

Times five times over the past 30 years, including a mention in the obituary for Joanna Kilmartin, who translated his work into English. The sole description Patrick Modiano is revered in France but little known elsewhere

of Modiano was of someone who was “agonisingly shy and inarticulate to the point that he never finishes a sentence despite being one of France’s best-

known novelists”. Akane Kawakami, a lecturer in French at Birkbeck, University of London, who has written a book on Modiano’s work, said that the author was ignored outside France because of his choice of subject matter and spare prose style.

“One reason is that he writes very much about the [German] occupation,” she said. “That’s a period which is a horrible black hole in the French consciousness, but not so much for other countries.

“He writes a very French classical prose. It translates well, but it looks simple and is not so attractive in English. The limpidity of his prose is really wonderful, but it is a limited vocabulary. He has favourite words, things like evanescent, light, and shades of grey.”

Dr Kawakami said that the prize was a surprise even to her because Modiano kept such a low profile. “He’s quite a recluse. He’s not a shouty writer.

“He made a terrible appearance on Apostrophes, which is the French equivalent of Front Row, during which he just couldn’t speak. I have never managed to interview him.”

Harvill, which published Modiano’s The Search Warrant in English in 2000, quickly ordered a reprint after the news broke yesterday.

However, Dr Kawakami suggested that Times readers might prefer to begin with Missing Person, which is known in France as Rue des Boutiques Obscures. “It’s a good story — a detective story with a twist,” she said.

Leading article, page 20

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER, DAVID BEBBER; SOTHERBY’S

Goddesses are going, going . . .

Sotheby’s displays Andy Warhol portraits of Brigitte Bardot and Elizabeth

Intimate photos of Dr Who star and model girlfriend are leaked online James Dean Technology Correspondent

The actor Matt Smith, the former star of Doctor Who, has become the latest victim of a celebrity photo leak alongside his former partner, the model Daisy Lowe.

Intimate photographs of the couple, believed to have been stolen by hackers, were leaked online yesterday.

Hundreds of private images of British and American celebrities, including the actresses Jennifer Lawrence and Kirsten Dunst and the singer Rihanna, have been leaked on the internet since late August.

The pictures are believed to have been stolen from the celebrities’ cloud storage accounts. Smith played the

eleventh Doctor before handing over the role to Peter Capaldi last year.

Smith’s relationship hip with Lowe ended in 2011.

Earlier this we week, Lawrence, the 24-year earold star of The Hung nger Games films, branded brand the photo phot theft hef a “sex crime”.

She said that anyyone who looked at the images should ould “cower with shame” because they were Hackers stole the photographs of Daisy Lowe and Matt Smith

“perpetuating a sexual offence”. Many of the leaked photographs show the stars posin posing for naked “selfies” in bathrooms, bedrooms and dressing rooms.

The hackers ha are believed to ha have used a variety of techniques to steal the images from cloud storage services, including Apple’s iCloud.

The FBI is investigating. ga Representativesfor Smith and Lowe fo did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.

Taylor and, above, Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Venus Verticordia before they go under the hammer in London

Online today

Thank Gott for German artist Sigmar Polke Rachel Campbell-Johnson, thetimes.co.uk/arts

Criminals remotely wipe phones seized by police James Dean

Criminals are deleting all the data from their smartphones from afar after their devices are seized by police, detectives across the country have said.

Six police forces each said that at least one device had been “wiped” while they were holding it. Dorset police reported six incidents within one year.

Smartphone and tablet owners can download remote wiping software to protect their personal data if their handset is lost or stolen.

Dorset police told the BBC: “We don’t know how people wiped them. We have cases where phones get seized, and they are not necessarily taken from an arrested person — but we don’t know the details of these cases as there is not

a reason to keep records of this.” Cleveland police confirmed one remote wiping incident, but said it was unclear whether the phone had been wiped before being seized.

Asked by the BBC if the force believed the issue had harmed its investigation, the spokeswoman said: “We don’t know because we don’t know what was on the phone.”

Derbyshire police confirmed one incident. A spokeswoman said: “The case concerned romance fraud, and a phone involved with the investigation was remotely wiped. It did not impact upon the investigation, and we went on to secure a conviction.”

Cambridgeshire, Nottingham and Durham police each confirmed one incident of remote wiping.

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Friday October 10 2014 | the times

News

Antibiotic prescriptions soar as doctors ignore superbug warning Chris Smyth Health Correspondent

The NHS is doling out increasing amounts of antibiotics, according to a comprehensive report that warns drugresistant superbugs are on the rise.

The health service was accused of “squandering an unbelievably precious resource” as figures showed that hospitals and out-of-hours GPs are failing to cut back on unnecessary prescriptions despite dire warnings from top doctors.

Public Health England will challenge GP practices and hospitals to justify their antibiotic use as the agency publishes the first comprehensive data on “one of the biggest threats of our time”.

David Cameron has warned that the rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs could take medicine “back to the dark ages”, while Professor Dame Sally

Davies, chief medical officer, has warned of an “apocalyptic” scenario where procedures, from hip replacements to chemotherapy, become fatal.

Between 2010 and 2013, total NHS antibiotic consumption rose 6 per cent, an increase which PHE said was unjustified. Last year doctors handed out 27.4 daily doses of antibiotics per 1,000 people, compared with 25.9 four years ago.

“We don’t think there’s been a major change in society over the past four years that can explain this,” said Susan Hopkins, the epidemiologist who compiled the report. “As a starting point, we want to roll back to 2010. We need a reduction in prescribing to patients. If we don’t, they will develop resistant bugs in their bodies and these bugs will flourish.”

Northern areas use many more anti-

VAGNER VIDAL / INS

biotics than the south, with usage in Merseyside as high as in southern Europe, and 30 per cent higher than the Thames Valley with the lowest rates.

GPs, who issue the bulk of antibiotic prescriptions, had a 4 per cent rise.

Hospitals increased antibiotic use by 12 per cent, while urgent care centres, outof-hours GPs and dentists had a 32 per cent rise.

Dr Hopkins found that one in 25 bugs that cause bloodstream infections is now resistant to at least one key antibiotic, and resistant E.Coli infections were up 12 per cent. While relatively few bugs are so far resistant to all antibiotics, Dr Hopkins warned that without more action Britain could be heading to a similar situation to India, where 10 per cent of such infections are untreatable by common drugs.

Epidurals ‘should be given when requested’ Kat Lay

The right time to give a woman in labour an epidural is when she asks for it, according to a new study.

Researchers in Singapore studied 15,752 first-time mothers, some of whom were given epidurals when less than 4cm to 5cm dilated and others who were given the procedure later on.

They found that neither group was

more likely to need a caesarean section or an assisted birth using forceps. There was no difference in the time spent in the second, “pushing”, stage of labour.

An epidural is a type of local anaesthetic, injected just outside the spinal column to prevent pain being felt below the waist or in the abdomen.

Dr Ban Leong Sng, lead researcher on the project, of the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Singapore, said:

“The right time to give the epidural is when the woman requests pain relief. If they request [it] early during their labour, the evidence . . . does not provide a compelling reason [for refusal].”

NHS statistics show that 16.5 per cent of deliveries needed an epidural or caudal anaesthetic last year. The study was published in the Cochrane Library, a database of healthcare research, funded by The Cochrane Collaboration.

Fruitful season Emily Thompson gets to work picking apples at Wisley Gardens, in Surrey, before too many fall to the ground. Windfalls are left for the wildlife

the times | Friday October 10 2014

Killers and rapists demand cash for losing their vote Richard Ford Home Correspondent

A serial killer, a child rapist and two people who have been told they must die in prison are among more than 1,000 offenders who are trying to win compensation for the prisoner voting ban.

Among those bringing the human rights challenge are Kenneth Regan and William Horncy, serving whole life sentences for the murder of a millionaire and his family, and David Mulcahy, the “railway rapist”, who is serving life for three murders and seven rapes.

The claims follow a European Court of Human Rights ruling nine years ago that the blanket ban on prisoners voting was unlawful.

Neither the previous Labour government, nor the coalition has been willing to give sentenced prisoners the vote and, in 2011, parliament agreed to keep the ban despite the Strasbourg ruling.

The 1,014 cases have been before the human rights court for the past five years and it has now asked the government for its comment on them.

Although the court ruled that the blanket ban was unlawful it has never awarded compensation in prisonervoting cases.

Sean Humber, head of human rights at Leigh Day, one of the law firms handling claims, said: “The important point

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about human rights is that they belong to all of us all, and not just the morally deserving. While the main purpose of the action is to make the government take action to bring the unlawful blanket ban on prisoner voting to an end, it is clearly right that those denied the vote are entitled to compensation for the past breach of their rights.”

Chris Grayling, the justice secretary, said: “ I just don’t believe that the public want to give prisoners, some of whom have committed the most heinous of crimes, the right to vote. It should be our parliament, not an unelected court in Strasbourg, that has the final say over such matters.”

The cases are listed in a document from the European Court of Human Rights which states that applicants were all “incarcerated” and were prevented from voting in one or more of elections to the European Parliament in 2009, the general election in 2010 and elections to the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and Northern Irish Assembly in May 2011.

Regan and Horncy have both been told they will die in prison after being convicted of the murder of Amarjit Chohan, 51, his wife Nancy, 25, their two children, aged 18 months and two months and Mrs Chohan’s mother Charanjit Kaur.

News

LINDA CUTCHE AND STEFANO COLTELLI / NATIONAL PICTURES

Fixer ‘knew of Dewani murder plot’ Ruth Maclean Cape Town

Small wonders A gloxinia stamen and a snail on a plant have been shortlisted for the macro category of the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition

A middleman who introduced Anni Dewani’s killers to the man allegedly in charge of arranging her murder knew about the plot, a South African court was told on the third day of the trial.

Shrien Dewani, 34, a British businessman, denies any involvement in the murder of his wife on their honeymoon in Cape Town in November 2010.

Monde Mbolombo, who has received immunity from the prosecution in return for testifying in the trial, says he recruited Mziwamadoda Qwabe and Xolile Mngeni, the men convicted of killing Mrs Dewani, at the request of the Dewanis’ taxi driver, Zola Tongo.

However, Francois van Zyl, Mr Dewani’s lawyer, put it to Qwabe that Mr Mbolombo was intricately involved in hatching the plan between the men.

“Monde clearly played a role in the events of that night; he was not just a link. What do you say to that?” he asked Qwabe at the Western Cape High Court yesterday. Qwabe’s reply to most questions was: “I do not recall.”

Mr van Zyl, referring to telephone records obtained by the court, said that at 9.30pm on the night of the murder, Mr Mbolombo told Qwabe: “It must happen today.”

The court adjourned early because both Qwabe and Mr Dewani complained of upset stomachs. It will resume on Monday.

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Friday October 10 2014 | the times

News

Good schools given easier inspections as Ofsted concentrates on the weakest Greg Hurst Education Editor

Good schools will have shorter, lightertouch inspections every three years as Ofsted moves away from its “cliff-edge” approach to monitoring standards.

The secondary schools will be visited by only two inspectors, who will spend one day with the head and teachers and another morning reporting their findings to governors. Primary schools will be checked by a single inspector.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief

inspector, said that he had abandoned plans to switch to the routine use of nonotice inspections. Heads will instead continue to be told in a lunchtime telephone call to expect Ofsted to arrive at 8am the next morning.

He had clashed with Michael Gove, the former education secretary, after demanding fresh powers to inspect schools without warning, but Sir Michael admitted in June he had decided not to proceed with such an approach.

The Trojan Horse controversy, in

Exclusive to members

School league tables thetimes.co.uk/education

which schools in east Birmingham were found to have been taken over by Muslim fundamentalists, revived Sir Michael’s interest in no-notice inspections. However he has decided instead

to make greater use of existing rules to inspect schools without warning if concerns warrant such an approach. He ordered 40 snap inspections earlier this term to test this power.

The new lighter-touch approach, to be introduced next September, applies to schools rated good in their last inspection — 61 per cent of primary and 48 per cent of secondary schools, according to Ofsted’s last annual report.

Weaker schools will still be subject to a full two-day inspection by up to four inspectors. Outstanding schools were exempted from routine inspection by Mr Gove, although Ofsted can visit if results plummet, key staff leave or parents demand an inspection.

The shorter inspections for good schools will begin with an inspector spending an hour with the head teacher, asking about the school’s strengths and weaknesses, backed up by performance data, Sir Michael said.

Inspectors will visit classrooms, as now, but not undertake formal lesson observations nor award a grade for the standard of teaching in each lesson.

They will continue to issue separate grades for the strength of each school’s leadership, pupils’ behaviour, standards of teaching and levels of achievement.

Sir Michael is consulting heads and teachers on whether Ofsted should introduce a fifth grade specifically on how well the school prepares its curriculum to be broad and balanced and meet the needs of its children. This was prompted by the Ofsted’s inspections of 25 schools at the centre of the Trojan Horse episode, which found that in several the curriculum had been consciously narrowed with greater emphasis on Islamic studies.

Sir Michael said he was not advocating “drive-by inspections”. Shorter visits would pick up on problems.“You can spot a good school within half an hour.”

The change was largely welcomed by the union for most secondary heads but criticised by primary heads’ leaders and teachers’ unions, who called for more wholesale reform of inspections.

Police class 4-year-olds as rapists Richard Ford Home Correspondent

Police in the West Midlands have classed two four-year-old boys as rapists, and suspect that a one-year-old girl was guilty of assault, although they could all be victims of a typing error.

The force recorded a total of 40 under-10s as rapists, and a further 84 children were suspected of other sexual crimes, according to details provided under the Freedom of Information Act. Two children recorded as aged two were suspected or deemed responsible for criminal damage between 2011 and 2013, according to figures requested by the Birmingham Mail.

None of the children could be prosecuted because each was under 10, the age of criminal responsibility.

A spokesman for West Midlands police said in a statement: “Data on ages is calculated from date of birth, which is inputted manually. Therefore inaccuracies may result from human error.

“However, in order to comply with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, we have disclosed the recorded data despite its inaccuracies.”

RAF officer abused children on base A former RAF officer has admitted 16 charges of sexual abuse against boys in his scout troop on a British base in Germany in the 1980s and was found guilty of seven more charges. Eddie Graham, 63, admitted abusing nine boys at RAF Gatow in Berlin and was found guilty of attacks on four more.

His court martial at Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire was told that he abused boys aged between 8 and 14. His victims contacted police after the revelations about Jimmy Savile, but officers were powerless to act because the abuse occurred abroad. The German authorities said that because the offences occurred while Graham was a British serviceman they could not prosecute him, so the RAF Police took over the case. Graham will be sentenced on November 10.

Petrol thief’s disguises Police are searching for Britain’s most prolific petrol thief, who has evaded arrest 29 times over two years by using an array of disguises (Simon de Bruxelles writes). Devon and Cornwall police said they had no idea of the identity or even the gender of the robber, who repeatedly drives away in his or her silver Vauxhall Zafira without paying for petrol.

The spree began in September 2012 at an Esso garage in Plymouth, and the thief, whose disguises include woolly hats and blonde wigs, has evaded detection by using cloned number plates.

BBC chief starts work

The new chairwoman of the BBC Trust, the corporation’s governing body, vowed that the interests of licence-payers would come first as she took up the position (Alex Spence writes).

Rona Fairhead, above, also promised to fight for the BBC’s independence and to give Lord Hall of Birkenhead, the directorgeneral, space to continue his reforms. Ms Fairhead, who sits on the boards of HSBC and Pepsico, was chosen by the government to replace Lord Patten of Barnes. He stood down in May after suffering from serious heart problems.

Definitely ex-parrots A bird keeper has been ordered to get rid of his parrots after neighbours complained that the noise was making their lives unbearable. Neighbours of Peter Hammond, 76, claimed he kept up to 500 parrots in his home in Battisford, Suffolk. Mr Hammond lost a retrospective application to keep the birds, as well as ten dogs, at a Mid Suffolk district council meeting. Sarah Griffiths, his neighbour, said that her family had suffered because of the man’s hobby. She said the parrots “emit what can only be described as alarming primeval squawks”.

the times | Friday October 10 2014

Hollywood heroes rescue Clive James from hospital hell The writer, who is terminally ill, dreamt of Rambo and Angelina as he fought for his life, Kaya Burgess reports Clive James, the critic and broadcaster who is terminally ill, has described in verse how his life was saved after he was rushed to hospital with a fever.

It is the latest poem documenting his failing health since he revealed that he is close to death after a battle with leukaemia and emphysema.

The new poem, entitled My Latest Fever, published in today’s New Statesman, which is guest-edited by Grayson Perry, James writes that he found himself “in hospital again” expecting an “attack of bugs” to rival the German invasion of Russia.

Drawing wry comparisons with films such as Rambo: First Blood and Shooter, in which the protagonists treat their own wounds, James pictured his body mending itself in his hospital bed, though he said: “While liquid drugs were pumped into my arm, / My temperature stayed sky high.”

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After 11 days, his temperature finally “dived off the bridge like Catherine Zeta-Jones / From the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur”, referring to the film Entrapment.

He concluded: “They sent me home to sleep in a dry bed / Where I felt better than I had for months. / No need to make a drama of my rescue: / Having been saved was like a lease of life.”

James’s most recent poem, released last month, was called Japanese Maple and was a more sombre work, describing his solace in watching rain fall on a Japanese maple tree chosen by his daughter.

He has been severely ill since 2010 and went public about his poor health in 2011, revealing he had been admitted to hospital for kidney failure and was then “immediately diagnosed for everything else as well, including several lung diseases and a version of leukaemia that is supposed to develop slowly but, in my case, couldn’t wait to get started, mainly in my lungs”.

James, who turned 75 on Tuesday, joked in the New Statesman earlier this month: “I am in the slightly embarrassing position where I write poems saying I am about to die and I don’t.”

News FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE NEW STATESMAN, OCTOBER 10 ISSUE

My latest fever clad me in cold sweat And there I was, in hospital again, Drenched, and expecting an attack of bugs As devastating as the first few hours Of Barbarossa, with the Russian air force Caught on the ground and soldiers by the thousand Herded away to starve, while Stalin still Believed it couldn’t happen. But instead The assault turned out to be as deadly dull As a bunch of ancient members of the Garrick Emerging from their hutch below the stairs To bore me from all angles as I prayed For sleep, which only came in fits and starts.

Night after night was like that. Every day Was like the night before, a hit parade Of jazzed-up sequences from action movies.

While liquid drugs were pumped into my arm, My temperature stayed sky high. On the screen Deep in my head, heroes repaired themselves.

In Rambo: First Blood, Sly Stallone sewed up His own arm. Then Mark Wahlberg, star of Shooter, Assisted by Kate Mara, operated To dig the bullets from his body. Teeth Were gritted in both cases. No one grits Like Sly: it looks like a piano sneering. ering.

My Latest Feve ver Clive James

Better, however, to be proof against All damage, as in Salt, where Angelina Jumps from a bridge on to a speeding truck And then from that truck to another truck.

In North Korea, tortured for years on end, She comes out with a split lip. All this mayhem Raged in my brain with not a cliché scamped.

I saw the heroes march in line towards me In slow-mo, with a wall of flame behind them, And thought, as I have often thought, “This is “The pits. How can I make it stop?” It stopped.

On the eleventh day, my temperature Dived off the bridge like Catherine Zeta-Jones From the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

I had no vision of the final battle.

The drugs, in pill form now, drove back the bugs Into the holes from which they had attacked.

It might have been a scene from Starship Troopers: But no, I had returned to the real world.

They sent me home to sleep in a dry bed Where I felt better than I had for months.

No need to make a drama of my rescue: Having been saved was like a lease of life, The thing ing itself, undimmed by images – A thrill a minute simply forr being so.

Clive James is terminally ill with cancer.

The publication of his new poem coincided with his 75th birthday

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Friday October 10 2014 | the times

News Cheltenham Literature Festival

Marr unmasks the leaders loved and hated at No 10 Jack Malvern Arts Correspondent

Andrew Marr has described No 10 under David Cameron as a surprisingly happy place compared with the eras of Gordon Brown or John Major.

The former BBC political editor gave a potted history of the prime minister’s official residence since the days of Margaret Thatcher to an audience at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.

He said that the atmosphere changed abruptly with the arrival of each new leader, resulting in alternating periods of contentment and turmoil.

“Cameron is loved by the civil service,” he said at the festival, which is sponsored by The Times and The Sun-

day Times. “All they want is decisions to be taken clearly and without problems.

They send him the papers and he reads them all and they have a decision the next day. He’s the first prime minister since [Tony] Blair where the papers come back the next morning.”

Mr Brown’s No 10 had a strict hierarchy but was a place where “the paper didn’t flow properly”, he said. “He had a gang of rather overweight big boys with rather florid faces who came and stared at you.”

Mr Blair’s tenure was characterised by younger women: “[It] was full of pretty girls half in love with Tony, with Cherie following them around with a scowl.” Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair’s

Andrew Marr: “The City is where the power has gone”

communications chief, and Jonathan Powell, his chief of staff, made their presence felt even when they were not in the room.

The later days of Thatcher’s decade in power differed totally from Mr Major’s leadership. “They were completely terrified of [Thatcher]. You could hear a pin drop. When John Major came in it all went to pot. John

Major’s No 10, all the way through, felt besieged. It felt like there were Thatcherite forces, socialist forces out there. It was a fairly miserable experience.”

Marr said that throughout his career he had noticed power draining from Westminster towards the City of London, to the extent that he would rather have Robert Peston’s job as the BBC’s economics editor.

“That’s where the action is . . . that’s where the power has gone. If I had my time over again I would spend more time with economics textbooks, blow through the jargon, go into the City, meet those guys — because that’s where the decisions are being made.”

Marr, who was promoting Head of ANDREA DUNLAP / GOOGLE

Google says its winged turbines, which float 300m above the ground, could help to solve the world’s energy crisis

Pie in the sky? It’s a wind farm with wings

G

oogle has offered tantalising glimpses of a future where wind turbines are tethered 300m from the ground spelling an end to the controversial groundbased versions (David Sanderson writes).

The winged turbines, which would float at high altitude tapping into the higher wind speeds, could increase the amount of energy produced and save on construction costs, one of the company’s British executives has said.

Peter Fitzgerald, Google’s UK sales director, said the turbines could help resolve the world’s energy crisis.

“It is kind of out there,” Mr Fitzgerald said at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. “It is tethered, has wings and you go to high altitude flying around bringing energy.

“You have to spend a lot of money on steel and

State, his first novel, said that “a long time ago” government had the power to fix wages and control mortgage rates.

“Now they can’t even tax the biggest corporations in this country — the Googles and the Amazons. That’s why a lot of people — not me — despise politics. It’s because they don’t have any power any more.”

He said politicians might regain respect if they were to emulate MPs of the past who had other careers first. “We have lost much of that gritty, real-world experience in the House of Commons.

I would like to see nobody allowed to be elected to the House of Commons until they are 40. That way, they would have to do something else first.”

Cheltenham in brief

Sol plays on the right The Former England footballer Sol Campbell has said that he would be prepared “to have a conversation” with the Conservative Party about involvement in politics. Campbell, who was brought up in east London with nine brothers and two sisters, said he could be crucial in securing the “black vote”. He provoked surprise on Twitter last month by revealing his vehement opposition to Labour’s proposal for a mansion tax.

Jaffrey defends women Madhur Jaffrey, the actress and food writer, has said she would “gladly strangle” Tom Kerridge, the Michelin-starred chef, after he suggested that many professional kitchens were offputting to women because they were like war zones. Ms Jaffrey told the festival that women had been running large kitchens for thousands of years, adding that men only began doing so “when there [was] money to be made”.

Don’t join your audience concrete to build these massive turbines and you can only do that in about 15 per cent of the world where the wind is fast enough.

Already you are getting double that amount of land where you can do it [with the tethered turbines]”, he claimed. Mr Fitzgerald said

the company’s Google X department was continually working on “the next generation of big bets ... the moonshots”. He spoke about Project Loon, which uses balloons to bring internet access to remote areas. The balloons are equipped with internet-

delivering technology and fly at high altitude, “using algorithms to try to figure out how [best] to ride wind currents”.

“There are so many parts of the world where if you put broadband in it is so expensive and it will take forever,” he said. “But if you

use balloons it is low cost and you can get hundreds of millions of people on the internet.” Other products the company is developing include “connected lenses”, equipped with microtechnology which analyses glucose levels in tears and could help tackle diabetes.

Sitting in the audience for his own shows has been dispiriting for Michael Frayn, he said at the festival.

The playwright and novelist described one of his experiences, at a preview of Noises Off: “When the lights went down, a women opened her programme and, just in that silence before the play starts, she said, ‘Oh, no, I thought this was by Alan Ayckbourn’.”

the times | Friday October 10 2014

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comment pages of the year

Opinion

Try some rat-like cunning when choosing kids’ pets Helen Rumbelow Page 18

Two truths that Labour doesn’t want to hear Voters like good leadership and economic competence: no wonder Ed Miliband had the worst conference showing a Wilson-like majority on as little as 34 per cent of the vote when in 1974 it required 39 per cent. Ed Miliband is aiming to do with the nation what he did with his brother, which is to win power on the tiniest of margins. It is also why, when Labour’s poll ratings dip below even the low level of its ambitions, despair comes quickly to the ranks. Senior Labour people know that their leader has bet the whole party on the rules of politics having been abrogated.

It would be foolish to dismiss the novelty elements of contemporary politics. In 1974 Labour and the Tories between them took 75 per cent of the vote and the Liberals a further 18 per cent. Other parties, which polled 7 per cent in 1974, are currently taking 26 per cent of popular preferences, 14 of which is going to Ukip. The mood has turned against the established political class and the fable of the Liberal Democrats within the coalition is a simple tale of what happens when

Philip Collins

@pcollinstimes

I

f I ever make it into a book of quotations I hope it will be for the observation that a week is not a long time in politics. Forty years, though, is a very long time in politics and it is precisely 40 years today since October 10, 1974, the last time any Labour leader, apart from Tony Blair, won an overall majority in the House of Commons. Coalition talks between the Tories and the Liberals had failed in February of that year, allowing Harold Wilson to form a minority government. Eight months later, in a second election, Labour won an overall majority of three seats.

As the curtain falls on the party conference season but rises on the by-election results in Clacton and Heywood and Middleton, the assumption of most commentary is that the four years since 2010 have been such a long time in politics that the prevailing rules have been repealed. In a two-party state it used to be axiomatic that a reputation for economic competence allied to good leadership would deliver a clean and decisive victory. It was thought necessary to appeal to centrist opinion in order to assemble a winning coalition of voters. It was assumed that protests that flowed in the middle of a parliament would ebb by the end.

Politics seems messier and less predictable now than it has in 40 years. It appears that Labour can win

When Labour’s ratings dip, despair comes quickly to the ranks you pass from outside the gilded elite of politics to a hateful position on the inside.

Heywood and Middleton and Clacton both feel like places that politics forgot. At the age of eight, Harold Wilson famously went from Huddersfield to London with his family and had his picture taken outside the door of 10 Downing Street. At the age of eight, when Mr Wilson was inside Downing Street, I took what turns out to be an almost equally momentous political journey.

I went on a trip from Heywood to Clacton. It felt like it took a week to

get there, which is a long time in holidays. I remember thinking at the time: “When there are simultaneous by-elections in these constituencies, I’ll get a column out of this.”

Since that day both Heywood and Middleton (which is two places rather than one) and Clacton have lost population, which tells you a lot.

In Heywood, I am always struck by the people who gather on the streets.

Six per cent of the town is unemployed but as many again are not working but not claiming benefit and the same number again are sick and disabled. That’s almost a fifth of the town. Clacton has a similar feel.

A quarter of the people of Clacton are retired and more than half the town is older than 55. In both places nine out of ten people are white British. These are not places that have changed much since 1974.

Except politically. Clacton, under a different name, was Tory in 1974 but fell to Labour in Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide, until Douglas Carswell took it back in 2005. Heywood and Middleton has the air of a place that has been forever Labour and it is, in fact, the site of the biggest byelection victory in British political history. In May 1940, in the midst of a coalition government that nobody minded, Ernest Everard Gates held off the challenge of the British Union of Fascists by taking 98.7 per cent of the votes cast. The only surprise is that Mr Gates was a Conservative, holding a seat that had been Tory since 1923 and had been Liberal before that.

These are exactly the sorts of places that might be exceptions to the rules of British politics. Yet there is a clue in the language to the limits of such an analysis. Exceptions do not prove rules; they disprove them.

The word “prove” originally meant “test”. The exceptional case of

years on, is quite as it was. But instant reflection on the conference season impels the thought that Labour was the clear and decisive loser. Waiting, hoping to benefit from a broken system, a Labour party content with such a victory would barely merit it.

The four years since 2010 have not, in fact, been all that long. Some Lib Dems have come to Labour, the rest have gone elsewhere, the Tories blew the vital boundary changes and Ukip is a new force that threatens to

A party content with victory from a broken system wouldn’t merit it Labour could win a Harold Wilson-type victory with only 34 per cent of the vote

Clacton will test the rules but a Labour win in Heywood and Middleton will show that, when all’s said and done, they still apply. It will be an appropriate place for such a point to be made. Repelling assaults on the citadels of Westminster are second nature to the people of Heywood, because the town is named after Peter Heywood, the magistrate who arrested Guy Fawkes after the failure of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Nigel Farage is a Guy Fawkes for our time. He was even caught posing on a tank this week, in a Heywood museum. He thinks he is blowing up the rules but I cannot believe that the political facts of life which have held true since 1974 count for nothing.

It is true that nothing today, 40

deny them victory, even though the economy is now better. There we are, that’s politics done with.

The accompanying conclusion is that there is surely life left in the truth that economic competence and credible leadership count, even in a broken system. This is the lesson for Labour. The essential point about Harold Wilson was that he sought a wide appeal. He was the folksy charmer from Huddersfield who was smarter than all the posh boys he encountered at Oxford. He had a 100 per cent strategy. He fell short of that but the rules of politics gave him victory. It is what Mr Blair did too but there are Labour party rules that mean we’re not allowed to mention him.

Morland animation Our cartoonist sees the Liberal Democrats digging themselves into their hole thetimes.co.uk/animations

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Friday October 10 2014 | the times

Opinion

Home-schooling is America’s next culture war The Sandy Hook massacre has exposed the nation’s struggle between freedom and conformity Justin Webb

@justinonweb

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amily life in the US began, for me, with a lesson on the peculiarities of American freedom. We had moved into our home in a Washington suburb and parked on the street outside. An hour or so after the removal people had gone we had a knock at the door. It was a neighbour with gifts for the kids, which you’d expect in friendly, warm, picketfenced America, and advice about parking, which, frankly, we did not.

“You had better move your car,” she warned. “You have left it facing the wrong way.” Welcome to the land of the free. In Washington and many other parts of the US (including Texas, for goodness sake) you have to park facing the direction of traffic.

We had just arrived from Brussels where you can park in the middle of the road if you can find a space between the officials’ limos. It was a shock to discover Brussels was, in some respects, freer than Washington.

There is a tension, of course, between my freedom to do something and your freedom to avoid the consequences of me doing it. In America you would generally expect those who feel themselves upset by my freedom to have to take a hike (“suck it up” is the great American phrase) unless I am

genuinely motoring over their toes.

But you would be wrong: America can be a constrained and conformist place. And although I never heard a libertarian say “heck, I’ve had it; I’m moving to Brussels”, those Americans who say that they believe in freedom are often not as welcome as one might expect.

Which is why there is about to be a big fight about home education. In the next few weeks the commission established after the ghastly 2012 massacre of children at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut is due to report; one of its recommendations will be to tighten the law on home-schooling in the state. The killer, Adam Lanza, had for a time been home-schooled by his mother. The commission is suggesting that parents of homeschooled children with behavioural and emotional problems would have

Begun by hippies, it became a darling cause of evangelicals to submit education plans to the authorities. No plans; no homeschooling.

Cue outcry from America’s vociferous home-schooling community and the start of a fight that will echo around the nation, pitching the freedom of parents to do what they want against the freedom of children to have the right to a decent start in life — and for that start to be checked by someone outside the family.

American home-schooling has an

The Sandy Hook killer was taught at home. Now officialdom is fighting back

odd history. It began in the counterculture 1960s and was favoured by hippies who admired the British educationalist AS Neill, father of the Summerhill free school. But as time passed and home-schooling became more popular and legally acceptable it was taken up as the darling cause of the evangelical movement. And while Neill trumpeted the psychological freedom of the child, the evangelicals were much more interested in freedom from the state.

Home-schooling in modern America is often seen as a way to keep the government in its place; a challenge to the insidious power of officialdom. Now, in the wake of a massacre that horrified the nation, home-schoolers think officialdom is fighting back.

So who will win this battle that the Sandy Hook commission is about to start? About 3 per cent of American families home-school their kids — that’s about two million children.

They have lawyers. But their basic appeal will be outside the law; it will be to the libertarian instincts they believe exist in the hearts and minds of Americans, even those whose minds have been polluted by school.

It might be tough. Americans like to think of themselves as suspicious of government. But when America was set up, those spiky individuals who defeated the natives and went west to conquer a whole continent faced a problem. In the absence of government they needed natural order in their townships. Orderly community life was much prized and informs the American experience; which is why sometimes Americans actually approve of conformity rather more than Europeans.

The home-school people are screaming: “They are coming for our children.” Many Americans will be unconvinced. Part of American freedom is American community, American rules. Although you can make a decent case that Adam Lanza would have killed whichever way he was educated, the Sandy Hook commission seems to be on reasonable American centre ground when it says: “OK, home-school but let’s talk about what you do, at least in some circumstances.”

The commission is reflecting an aspect of Americanism that we do not always recognise. When they circled the wagons around western campfires they probably all faced the same way. It just made sense.

Helen Rumbelow Notebook

If choosing kids’ pets, try rat-like cunning

W

hen you choose a pet for your children, you choose their first romantic partner, imprinting them for life. This explains a lot about our nation’s poor reputation when it comes to relationships. When, as a girl, I got a hamster, a creature prized only for fluff and sleeping all day, I basically fell for a cast member of The Only Way is Essex; next was a Woody Allen of a whiny, nervous wreck guinea pig. The tortoise, with its disdainful tour of the garden, was like making a life commitment to Prince Philip. Given this history, no wonder the British (especially me) continue to make poor choices when it comes to heavier petting in adulthood.

This week the London scientist John O’Keefe won a Nobel prize for his research into the “soul of a rat”. I too have searched for the soul of a rat and found it behind our dusty record collection. Because when it

came to my own children’s pets, I decided to get one of the most-hated vermin on earth. Two of them, actually. My decision was tested early on when Oreo and Nibbles escaped just as our most rat-phobic friend came for brunch, popping their ratty heads in and out of kitchen shelves as we attempted to both conceal and capture them, like in a poor man’s Fawlty Towers.

But the principle remains: when every conversation about us “having rats” leads to Rentokil, these creatures teach your children to love without prejudice. There’s a reason rats are called “cunning”, it’s shared with every social group termed “cunning”, from the Jewish to the ambitious poor. It’s a cruel way of saying “your intelligence threatens us”. Rats are bright and like to party, it’s just that they have yellow teeth and an image problem. Yes, I’m setting my children up to fall in love with the Scottish. This is a good thing.

Lab fab

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rofessor O’Keefe got some flak for experimenting on rats. A few years ago I was the first journalist to tour the rat experimentation laboratory of

AstraZeneca, which focused on cancer medicines.

Light rock music played as rats rolled across each other in bright plastic runs. It was only when I looked closer I felt a twinge of conscience.

Some had human lung-cancer tumours hanging off their flanks, others in prostate cancer trials bore vasectomy scars. But to me, after I adjusted my eye and my thoughts, it was no stranger than milking time in an industrial dairy.

Less strange, in fact. Of course I was aware my visit was heavily supervised but what surprised me, and could not be faked, was that the wa staff who cared for the rats were animal-potty. You know, the kind who have pet photos on their de desks instead of humans. Wasn’t this the worst job for them? No, they said, the best. Unlike farm workers, they got to work wo

with animals and provide something amazing for humans, rather than just sausages.

Stampy duty

A

fter a day on the treadmill, my son and rats like to slump together in front of the TV. But if only they would watch TV. Instead, they’re addicted to a phenomenon known as “let’s play”.

These are YouTube videos of a bloke commentating as he plays a video game. It’s TV unlike anyone over the age of 25 knows or wants. Stampy is a bloke from Portsmouth with many millions of followers and is arguably Britain’s biggest internet success.

Stampy’s nasal laugh rings out in family households across the land.

Parents laugh just as maniacally, having lost their mind with tedium.

Glad tidings! Stampy has thousands of adolescent male imitators.

I sit there silently and feel all this watching of playing is pornographic.

The stars fiddle with their joysticks alone and their fans watch them alone. Will any of these boys get a girlfriend? But what I say is: “Wouldn’t you rather play Minecraft than watch Stampy play it?” Lots of “sssshhh mum”. My partner defends Stampy: “How many more people watch football, than play it, huh?” @helenrumbelow

Illiberal liberals are no friends of a free press Mick Hume

A

s news breaks that police have been secretly hacking journalists’ phone records, perhaps we should update an old warning to the UK’s liberal elites: “First they came for The Sun, but you did nothing, because you hate The Sun. Then they came for the Mail on Sunday, but you did nothing, because you hate the Mail even more. Then they came for . . .”

But that wouldn’t be fair. Those illiberal liberals did not “do nothing”.

They actively encouraged firmer official action to monitor tabloid journalism, using phone-hacking at the News of the World as the pretext.

Now they are up in arms about police use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) secretly to trawl journalists’ phone records and identify confidential sources for stories about Plebgate and Chris Huhne’s speeding points. Are

Imagine the police playing by the rules?

Pigs might fly first our leading liberals really naive enough to imagine the police would play by their rules? Pigs might fly first.

The Labour MP Keith Vaz protests that the police phone hackers have “struck a serious blow against press freedom”. Noble words. He is no relation, presumably, to the chairman of the home affairs select committee who, in 2011, lambasted the Met for “not doing enough” to crack down on the excesses of tabloid journalism?

The Liberal Democrat conference has pledged to reform RIPA to “protect responsible journalism”, a policy proposed by the former MP Evan Harris, now a lobbyist for Hugh Grant’s Hacked Off. Nobody has been more “responsible” than Hacked Off for encouraging a contemptuous official view of tabloid hacks, whom the campaign’s executive director branded a “different breed” at the Leveson inquiry.

Nick Davies, of The Guardian, who led the crusade to expose hacking at the News of the World, says that the police have cheated by using RIPA to hunt down sources. Yet to judge by his new book, Hack Attack, Davies’s role in the hacking scandal was to act as the provisional wing of the Metropolitan Police, insisting that a stricter interpretation of RIPA would empower them to arrest more members of the tabloid press. The Met eventually followed the scent that he laid for them, rounding up 63 tabloid journalists, then using RIPA to hack phone records.

The lesson of all of this is that press freedom is an indivisible liberty that we defend for all or none at all.

If you invite the authorities to police journalism, don’t be surprised to find them “supporting” a free press as a rope supports a hanging man.

the times | Friday October 10 2014

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Opinion

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The ghost ship that triggered an Arctic cold war Canada must not use its historic discovery of a lost British ship to pursue its bogus claim over the Northwest Passage Ben Macintyre

@benmacintyre1

O

pposite the statue of Captain Scott in Waterloo Place, London, stands that of another British explorer, Sir John Franklin, two figures frozen in ice and time. The inscription on the Franklin statue is misleading: “To the great Arctic navigator and his brave companions who sacrificed their lives in completing the discovery of the North West Passage. AD 1847-8.”

Franklin famously did not complete the discovery. Sir John, his two ships and 128 officers and crew became stuck in the ice and perished.

Human remains discovered much later suggested that the crew had resorted to cannibalism. The boats had vanished. Franklin’s attempt to find a route through the Arctic Ocean connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific was a grand, grisly and heroic Victorian failure, commemorated in story and song. The Northwest Passage and the fate of Franklin’s expedition have been entwined

myths and mysteries for 170 years.

Now climate change has caught up with him. The retreating ice has unlocked the Northwest Passage, revealed Franklin’s ship and ignited a debate over sovereignty, free trade and exploitation of increasingly accessible natural resources.

Last week Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister, confirmed that a wreck discovered by Canadian scientists on the seabed in Victoria Strait is HMS Erebus, Franklin’s flagship. Canada has spent millions on the search for the Franklin expedition and the discovery has been hailed not just as a historic breakthrough, but as a moment of national self-definition, proof of

The retreating ice is unlocking the Arctic’s natural resources

Canada’s possession of the passage.

“This is a truly historic moment for Canada,” Mr Harper announced.

“Franklin’s ships are an important part of Canadian history given that his expeditions laid the foundations of Canada’s Arctic sovereignty.” In Canadian eyes, the passage between its mainland and its Arctic islands is an internal waterway.

That is flatly contradicted by the

US (and most of Europe), which insists that the passage is international, like the straits of Gibraltar, and should be freely and permanently accessible to all shipping. To ram home that point, in 1985 the US sent an icebreaker through the passage without asking Canada’s permission, sending that normally tranquil country into a rage.

The question of who owned the passage was largely hypothetical so long as it remained bound in pack ice, all but impassable. Global warming, however, has done what generations of explorers could not do: opened up a valuable trade route around the top of North America.

The first large freight vessel, carrying coal from Vancouver to Finland, traversed the passage last autumn. Scientists predict that in ten years it will be navigable for up to eight weeks a year; shipping via the Arctic could account for a quarter of the cargo traffic between Europe and Asia by 2030. Roald Amundsen made the first complete transit by sea, in a three-year journey on a shallowdraft herring boat that started in 1903; now cargo ships can plough through the Northwest Passage in a few days. The dream of explorers since John Cabot in the 15th century has become a lucrative reality.

Canada’s claim to sovereignty is part of a wider territorial tussle for

the Arctic and the oil riches beneath it, involving Canada, the US, Russia, Norway and Denmark. Last year Canada said that it planned to file an extended continental shelf claim that includes the North Pole. One sponsor of the scientific hunt for Franklin’s ships is the oil company Shell.

The discovery of Franklin’s ship does not enhance Canada’s legal position. Rather, it is being used as political tool to underpin what is

Canada is planning to extend its claim to include the North Pole

essentially a cultural and emotional claim to sovereignty. The Franklin expedition is embedded in Canadian national mythology. The numerous expeditions sent to find the missing ships successfully charted the waterways, mapping Canada’s northernmost edges. This is a de facto argument: Canada polices these seas, therefore these seas are Canadian.

John Franklin would have taken a very different view. HMS Erebus was a British ship. Built in south Wales and manned by seamen from England, Scotland and Wales, she embodied a very particular British imperial attitude to exploration, science and trade.

When he set off from Greenhithe in May 1845, with more than 1,000 books and 8,000 tins of food to last three years, Franklin was not concerned with sovereignty. His was a scientific expedition to map the last unnavigated sections of the waterway and find the Northwest Passage. His intention, like all those who sought the passage before him, was to forge an international shipping route, a free trade channel, a time-saving, profit-boosting short cut from Europe to the riches of Asia.

Like so many aspects of empire, the quest for the Northwest Passage was framed as a commercial project that would benefit the rest of the world.

Britain ruled the waves, of course, but the idea that any one country might lay claim to the passage would have been as alien to Franklin and his crew as the idea of owning the waters around Cape Horn.

Instead of propping up a nationalist claim, the grave of Franklin’s ghost ship should be declared a World Heritage Site, a place of international importance marking a shared trade route of expanding global significance.

That would make it harder to drill for fresh oil, thus reducing fossil fuel emissions, slackening global warming and, with satisfying circularity, slowing down the process that has finally revealed Franklin’s last berth.

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Friday October 10 2014 | the times

Leading articles Daily Universal Register

Screening Ebola

The government should not be distracted by political arguments about ebola screening. The fight against the virus will be won in hospitals and in Africa It is six weeks since Britain’s first confirmed victim in the current ebola epidemic. The next one is only a matter of time. That person’s chances of survival, and the number of others infected, will depend crucially on how quickly he or she receives a diagnosis and is isolated.

Swift action on both fronts will take a national effort and vigilance at every surgery and hospital, not just at specialist units and ports of entry. The international effort, meanwhile, must be concentrated on the countries worst affected in West Africa. The debate on whether or not to screen incoming passengers at airports is politically inspired and largely irrelevant.

Yesterday the government swung from confusion over screening to cautious support. In the morning the Department of Health and the defence minister ruled it out. By lunchtime the chancellor of the exchequer was keeping his options open. By the evening, limited American-style screening had been announced for Heathrow, Gatwick and Eurostar stations. This may silence the coalition’s critics in Westminster for a few days but the evidence suggests it will do little to halt the spread of the virus.

The screening announced in the US will consist of questionnaires for passengers arriving at five

airports from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, and body temperature checks for a small minority.

Exit screening along similar lines is already happening in the worst-hit countries, where the World Health Organisation argues that it is most effective. Yet even at the heart of the crisis screening is of limited use. Fewer than 100 passengers have been prevented from boarding flights out of Africa and most have subsequently had malaria, not ebola, diagnosed.

At the root of the problem is the gestation period of the disease. It can take three weeks for victims to start showing the most obvious symptoms, such as severe vomiting and diarrhoea. Even these are easily confused with signs of less serious infections. This is why the screening due to start tomorrow at JFK airport, in New York, would not have stopped Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian who entered the US carrying the virus but without visible symptoms and who died of it on Wednesday.

The lesson to be learnt from the Duncan case is not that developed countries can barricade themselves off from ebola by taking travellers’ temperatures at airports — they cannot — but that even the world’s best-equipped health systems are powerless against this disease if they are not alert.

When he first sought medical help in Dallas, Mr

Duncan was sent home with antibiotics even though he said he had arrived recently from Liberia. Dozens are now under observation in Texas in case they were infected by him.

Spain’s response in the case of a nurse fighting for her life is no more reassuring. Teresa Romero was known to have treated a Spanish missionary who died of ebola when she attended a hospital with early symptoms. She was given paracetamol and discharged. More than 80 others are being monitored having been at risk of infection because of inadequate training or protection.

The ebola virus does not show itself until it is contagious. Nor does it “wait for a direct flight”, as Keith Vaz has noted, putting his finger on another reason why the screening he advocates is so impractical. Direct flights from the worst-affected cities to London have been suspended. Travellers from Sierra Leone must come via Paris, Brussels or Nigeria. The case for screening on arrival there is stronger than here. British resources must be focused on the primary care level where the next case is most likely to appear, and on the stricken countries where the ebola infection rate is doubling every 20 days. The doctors, nurses and military personnel heading to Sierra Leone will save lives there, but also at home.

A secure zone on the Turkish-Syrian border would help to defeat Isis Air space above the zone would have to be patrolled lest Isis trains its artillery on the fleeing Kurds, or Assad’s jets try to establish control over what is still technically Syrian territory. The zone would also incorporate the tomb of Suleiman Shah, grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman empire, which is situated in a Turkish enclave on Syrian terrain.

Similar buffer zones have been effective elsewhere — on the Korean peninsula since 1973 and in Cyprus since 1974. A United Nations resolution allowing force would have to be passed in order to apply these precedents to the Turkish-Syrian border. That would require Russian support, which Moscow strongly indicated yesterday it would withhold.

A Turkish-Syrian buffer zone would, however, be a time-limited creation erected above all to ease a humanitarian crisis that is growing worse by the day. Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy in charge of finding a peaceful resolution in Syria, has warned that the Isis conquest of Kobani will lead to a grotesque spectacle. “The world has seen what happens when a city is overtaken by the

terrorist group,” he said. “Massacres, humanitarian tragedies, rapes, horrific violence.”

For the time being a broad international consensus determined to prevent such atrocities must be legitimacy enough for a buffer zone. Many countries, including Britain, have held back from becoming engaged in Syria, believing military action in Iraq to be better supported by international law. The battlefield is, however, changing fast, as is the predicament of civilians in northern Syria. Contributing in some way to a buffer zone and protecting the border of a Nato ally should be regarded as a legitimate mission.

The by-products of a buffer zone are all conducive to victory over the marauding armies of Isis.

It would ensure a more active Turkish involvement in the war. It would bring the conflict closer to the Isis headquarters in Raqqa. It would be a signal that the international community is committed to rebuilding Kobani and bringing back its Kurdish population once the jihadis have been defeated. And it sends a message to the Assad regime — that it no longer has remit in this stretch of northern Syria.

Nobel Cause for Literature

The prize sparks controversy but should be applauded for promoting obscure writers “He is well known in France, but not anywhere else.” With these stirring words, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel prizes, yesterday commended Patrick Modiano, who is this year’s laureate for literature.

While the description of Modiano’s artistic standing may sound downbeat, it is strictly true and nothing to be defensive about. The academy has done exactly what it should be doing: honouring literary excellence without regard to national and linguistic boundaries.

Modiano has won many awards in France since publication of his novel, La place de l’etoile, in 1968,

yet few of his novels have been translated. Perhaps part of the reason is that many deal with a specific episode in French history — the Nazi occupation— yet the themes of trauma, memory and secrecy that Modiano explores are of universal significance. His Nobel prize is not only a due recognition but a service to the literary public outside his homeland.

The Nobel prize for literature often throws up controversy because artistic excellence is a more subjective criterion than scientific discovery.

Some past laureates are admittedly much less fashionable than they once were. Few people now

Nature notes Goldcrests are arriving from the continent to join our million-strong native population for the winter, and accompanying them on their gallant flight across the sea there are sometimes firecrests. Both are tiny birds, easily overlooked. But when found, both species are quite tame. As they move restlessly along hedges or through the foliage of conifer trees, snatching up insects, they often seem unaware that someone is standing near by watching them. As they can be closely observed it is easy to distinguish them. Both are greenish birds with a brilliant orange or yellow line on their crown. Whereas the goldcrest has only a black stripe either side of the crown, the firecrest has a black stripe, a broad white stripe below it, and finally another small black stripe through the eye. The firecrest is also a brighter green above, and whiter below. They display their flaming crests most extravagantly in the breeding season, when they are courting and when they are threatening rival males. Older men may have trouble detecting them, since the birds’ very thin, high-pitched call-note can escape their powers of hearing. Older women can often still hear it. derwent may

Birthdays today

Buffered Border

The coalition against the unholy war launched by Islamic State is already tying itself in knots. The allies are manifestly unsure as to how the SyrianTurkish border town of Kobani can be saved without the deployment of ground troops. They are realising with increasing dismay that air strikes in northern Syria can stall an attack by the jihadists but cannot ultimately turn the tide of battle. And the coalition is struggling to persuade Turkey to subordinate itself to a single goal: the annihilation of Islamic State, also known as Isis.

Some of these issues can be clarified by taking seriously the Turkish request for a buffer zone, a secure, defended space that would span the border of Turkey and Syria. The United States and Britain say they are “examining” the idea. Only France has so far expressed a readiness to take part in a buffer-zone force that would address Turkey’s security concerns and the swelling refugee crisis.

Yet the case for establishing a buffer zone has never been so compelling. As the Turks see it, the zone could extend some 40 kilometres into northern Syria, providing a multinational defence of some 160,000 fugitives from Isis.

World: The Nobel Peace Prize winner is announced in Oslo; annual meetings begin of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group; World Mental Health Day; the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is in Belarus for the annual summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

read Pearl S Buck, who was awarded the prize in 1938 “for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China”. Numerous great writers of the 20th century went unrecognised by the academy, from Anna Akhmatova to Stefan Zweig.

Yet for all its occasional idiosyncrasies, no institution does more than the Nobel prize to invest the concept of “world literature” with real substance.

Some laureates, such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1970) and Gao Xingjian (2000), have suffered censorship at home. The Nobel awards spread great writing far beyond the confines of national borders and oppressive governments.

Sir Matthew Pinsent, pictured, four times Olympic gold medallist rower, 44; Amanda Burton, actress, Silent Witness (1996-2004) Waterloo Road (2010-11), 58; Baroness (Susan) Campbell of Loughborough, chairwoman, Sport UK (2003-2013), 66; Mary Curnock Cook, chief executive, Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), 56; Judith Chalmers, presenter, Wish You Were Here…? (1974-2003), 78; Charles Dance, actor, Gosford Park (2001), Game of Thrones (2011-), 68; Eric Fellner, film producer, Love Actually (2003), Les Misérables (2012), cochairman, Working Title Films, 55; David Hempleman-Adams, explorer and mountaineer, 58; John Makinson, chairman, Penguin Random House (since 2013), chairman and chief executive, Penguin Group (2002-13), 60; Nicky Morgan, education secretary and Conservative MP for Loughborough, 42; Dame Gillian Oliver, director of service development, Macmillan Cancer Relief (2000-04), 71; Murray Walker, motor racing commentator, 91.

On this day In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst formed the Women’s Social and Political Union in Manchester to fight for female emancipation; in 1935 the first performance of Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin took place in New York; in 1963 the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, signed by Britain, America and Russia, came into operation; in 1970 the Fiji Islands proclaimed their independence; in 1975 Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor married for the second time.

The last word “I submit to you that if a man hasn’t discovered something he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” Martin Luther King Jr, speech in Detroit (1963)

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Letters to the Editor

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

Feminism has skewed society for boys

Circus plea Sir, The House of Commons voted in favour of banning the use of wild animals in circuses in 2011 but the government has still to take action despite issuing draft legislation. While Whitehall procrastinates, lions, tigers, camels and other wild animals are suffering. Our exposés have shown the reality of life in some circuses, including the abuse of Anne the elephant in Bobby Roberts’ Super Circus three years ago, and the repeated pacing of big cats at Peter Jolly’s Circus earlier this year. The return of a big-cat act to Britain is a direct result of government inaction.

Jim Fitzpatrick MP has put forward a bill with the aim of putting in place a ban before the general election. We urge the government and MPs to support this bill at its second reading next Friday. dame judi dench and jan creamer Animal Defenders International

Stitch in time Sir, Lord Rogers of Riverside’s architectural practice is being sued (“Drip, drip of bad news”, Oct 3) over homes in Milton Keynes where water has caused supporting timber to rot.

Problems could have been avoided if a member of the Institute of Clerks of Works and Construction Inspectorate had been employed, providing impartial inspections. The cost of a clerk of works is tiny in comparison to the overall costs of such projects. tony smith Fellow, Institute of Clerks of Works and Construction Inspectorate

Honours contrast Sir, There is no more telling illustration of one of the absurdities committed by the honours committee than the excellent obituary of Peter Williams, the first director of the Wellcome Trust who, as you point out, was never knighted, appearing in the same edition (Oct 8) as a picture of Sir Mick Jagger attending a dinner. ch noble London SW7

Sir, In “How to Be a Man: that’s the book we need” (Oct 8) Alice Thomson is right to point to the growing emasculation and frustration felt by many young men.

Feminism continues to redefine the identities of young, mainly workingclass males. Since the 1980s middleclass feminists have skewed society to reflect an anti-male agenda.

Set against this has been a transition to a service economy, where “soft” skills are in demand.

The result has been greater empowerment of women at work and growing financial independence from men. At the same time, perceptions of marriage have changed: gone is the certainty of family life of the 1950s and in its place are more fragmented environments, often without the paternal role models which are so important to the developing male identity.

This combination of factors creates many of the chronic social problems relating to young men.

They leave school with inferior qualifications and poorer job prospects. Dismissed as potential husbands, fathers and providers by women at work or supported by the state, they feel unwanted, and express growing anger. The greater tolerance in society for “men are useless” statements, jokes and advertisements reflects a situation

Bankers’ freedoms Sir, It is unsurprising that John Trueman and Alan Thomson (“Bankers ‘jump the gun’ ”, Oct 8) are resigning as directors of HSBC rather than face new rules under which senior managers could be fined and disqualified.

The change means that if a financial institution is accused of misconduct by the Financial Conduct Authority, people in senior positions will have to show that they are not responsible for reckless misconduct — in other words there is a presumption of guilt. It is ironic that this comes at a time when the European Convention on Human Rights, which enshrines the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, is under attack, and there is public celebration for 800

Windy din Sir, Richard Black`s claim (letter, Oct 8) that “noise is not an issue with renewable energy” should spend a night in a tent near the eight turbines on Wharrels Hill, Cumbria. He will have changed his mind by morning. susan wasilewski Wigton, Cumbria

Corrections and clarifications 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 10, 1914

THE DEATH OF MARK HAGGARD Sir, In various papers has appeared a letter, or part of a letter, written

by Private C. Derry, of the 2nd Battalion, Welsh Regiment. It concerns the fall of my much-loved nephew, Captain Mark Haggard, of the same regiment, on September 13 in the battle of the Aisne.

Since this letter has been published and, vivid, pathetic, and pride-inspiring as it is, does not tell all the tale, I have been requested,

for which there is an increasing human and economic cost. john barker Prestbury, Cheshire Sir, Young people today are ready targets for those who wish to use them for their own ends, which often leads to their being so troubled while they try to find themselves.

Media interest in young people may well encourage self-absorption and much advertising is directed their way. The notion of adulthood has been undermined and the subjection of boys to the same sort of media horror that confronts girls must be avoided. It is unfortunate for some young people that they are supposedly protected by being compelled to keep the company of other disaffected youngsters in school or college rather than learning about adult life from adults, such as employers of apprentices.

We do not need a book for boys.

We need to ask how it is that we allow boys and girls to be misused by the very adult world that they are so keen to join. peter inson East Mersea, Essex Sir, What an excellent piece by Alice Thomson. However, I did write a book for men, Saving the Situation, in 1996, with a foreword by Baroness Faithfull. She was so horrified by the years of Magna Carta. It is a pity that parliament and the public believe that bankers have forfeited fundamental freedoms. harvey rands Memery Crystal LLP, London WC2

Winston’s words Sir, Tim Montgomerie is right to invoke Churchill in calling on the prime minister to paint a picture of a welfare state of which we can all be proud (“Churchill would be aghast at this Tory plan”, Opinion, Oct 9). In 1901 Churchill wrote to a friend saying: “For my own part, I see little glory in an empire which can rule the waves and is unable to flush its sewers.”

Likewise, there’s little glory in a growing economy when two thirds of poor children live in working on behalf of Mark’s mother, young widow, and other members of our family, to give the rest of it as it was collected by them from the lips of Lieutenant Somerset, who lay wounded by him when he died.

It seems that after he had given the order to fix bayonets, my nephew charged the German Maxims at the head of his company, he and his soldier servant outrunning the other men. Arrived at the Maxim in front of him, he shot and killed the three soldiers who were serving it, and then was seen “fighting and laying out” the Germans with the butt end of his empty gun, “laughing” as he did so, until he fell mortally wounded and was carried away by his servant.

His patient and heroic end is told

by Private Derry, and I imagine that the exhortation to “Stick it, Welsh!” which from time to time he uttered in his agony, will not soon be forgotten in his regiment.

Of that end we who mourn him can only say, in Derry’s simple words, that he “died as he had lived — an officer and a gentleman.”

statistics about male victims that she sent us to discuss the problem with Lord Mackay of Clashfern. Our estimate was that at least 100,000 men had been excluded from their homes due to false allegations of domestic violence since 1992. Our statements were frowned upon by the government and nothing was done. julian nettlefold Family Practice Press Sir, Alice Thomson’s article is to be applauded. I am a retired female academic currently completing a book (with a former male colleague) about the occupational experiences of male primary school teachers.

My data confirms the article’s views that men as well as women can be stereotyped and I suggest both women and men start to work together to end these unfair gender practices. dr elizabeth burn Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear Sir, I fear I would never be able to secure employment with a top management consultancy, not just because I’m a little unsure what management consultancy is, but also because I have absolutely no idea what a “mani/pedis” is/are. rob matthews Formby, Merseyside families and child poverty numbers are expected to rise steeply by 2020. alison garnham Chief executive, Child Poverty Action Group

Dastardly web Sir, The world wide web’s first description on film might have been in 1979 (letter, Oct 9), but the term had been used on the wireless in a 1954 episode of Take It From Here.

Frank Muir and Denis Norden used it to describe the criminal organisation of the dastardly Dr Chu Manfu. dr john burscough Hibaldstow, N Lincs Letters to The Times must be exclusive and may be edited. Please include a full address and daytime telephone number.

Perhaps it would not be inappropriate to add as a thought of consolation to those throughout the land who day by day see their loved ones thus devoured by the waste of war, that of a truth these do not vainly die. Not only are they crowned with fame, but by the noble manner of their end they give the lie to [those] who tell us that we English are an effete and worn-out people, befogged with mean ideals, lost in selfishness and the Iust of wealth and comfort. Moreover, the history of their deeds will surely be as a beacon to those destined to carry on the traditions of our race in that new England which shall arise when the cause of freedom for which we must fight and die has prevailed — to fall no more.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant, h. rider haggard Ditchingham, Norfolk, Oct 9. sign up for a weekly email with extracts from the times history of the war ww1.thetimes.co.uk

Betrayal of values Sir, Mr Cameron’s plan to leave the European Convention on Human Rights would not only send the wrong message to Mr Putin (letter, Oct 7), it would betray the one major European institution which the Conservative Party played a key part in creating in the aftermath of the Second World War. I attended the first meeting of the consultative assembly of the Council of Europe in 1949. The Conservative delegation, led by Winston Churchill and including Harold Macmillan, David Eccles and Sir David Maxwell Fyfe (the British prosecutor at the Nuremberg trial in which Goering was convicted) warmly supported the creation of the European convention. It seemed the right time to entrench the rule of law in Europe to ensure that no state would ever again abuse its power over its citizens.

The convention is incorporated into EU law. This means that EU institutions as well as individual states are committed to the convention, surely a safeguard for individuals that should be welcomed by those who fear excessive interference by the EU. I am neither a terrorist, nor blackbearded, but in the age of the surveillance state I will sleep less well if a Conservative-led government forgets history and tries to slither out of the body of European law which protects us all. christopher layton Hon Director-General, EU Commission

A healthy tree Sir, I was alarmed to read of Brian Blessed’s experience with “deceitful” genealogists (report, Oct 9). People wanting help with family history should be aware that the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (Agra) is the recognised body for genealogists and that our members are regulated and reputable. ian h waller Chairman, Agra

Plane or train?

Sir, The closure of Richard Branson’s Little Red airline (News, Oct 7) comes at a time when people in their millions are rediscovering trains, raising a question over the attraction and viability of short-haul air services. Together with the introduction of aircraft that can carry up to a third more passengers, this leads me to wonder whether we need new runway capacity. james miller London N1

God only knows . . .

Sir, In view of the forthcoming BBC charter renewal, not to mention questions about the licence fee, the insistent refrain of the BBC Children in Need song, “God Only Knows What I’d Be Without You . . . ”, may appear somewhat portentous. sue balsom Llanfarian, Aberystwyth

Ums ’n’ runs Sir, Apropos “To um or to er?”

(Oct 6). My teacher in the Fifties used “Um” and less frequently “Like”.

In our version of classroom cricket, the “Ums” were runs and the “Likes” were wickets. It required a lot of concentration to keep the score. dr james visick Norwich

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Friday October 10 2014 | the times

World

Turkey’s demand to topple Assad widens rift in Nato Turkey

TURKEY

Tomb of Suleyman Shah

Catherine Philp Beirut Hannah Lucinda Smith Mursitpinar Deborah Haynes Defence Editor

Splits within Nato deepened yesterday when Turkey refused to fight Islamic State militants poised to take a key border town unless the West promised to join battle against the Assad regime.

The West has given a lukewarm reception to demands for a buffer zone on the Syrian side of the border, with a no-fly zone patrolled by Nato. Yesterday, however, Turkey upped its demands, saying the West must agree to moves to bring down the Assad regime before it will send tanks and troops to save the Kurdish town of Kobani.

Russia complicated the picture by warning that a no-fly zone would be “illegitimate” without UN Security Council backing, something it has vowed to veto. The wrangling underlined the complex battlefield in Syria, with Isis the sole focus of US-led airstrikes while President Assad, who the West was on the verge of bombing last year, is left unmolested.

Turkey regards Damascus as the preeminent enemy in Syria and is holding out for a pledge to target the Assad regime, despite predictions that Kobani’s fall is imminent without an intervention only Turkey can provide.

“It’s not realistic to expect that Turkey will lead a ground operation on its own,” Mevlut Cavusoglu, the foreign minister, said yesterday in a defiant appearance alongside Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s new secretary-general.

Mr Cavusoglu said that Turkey was prepared to take on a bigger role, but only when a deal had been reached with the US-led coalition that included more commitment to fighting “Assad and his regime”.

The Turks have been emboldened by French support for their demand. Britain has also said it is prepared to consider the idea. Mr Stoltenberg, however, said the issue of a buffer zone had not

50 miles

Aleppo

Kobani

Raqqa

Deir Ezzor Proposed 15-mile wide buffer zone Isis control

LEBANON

Isis support Kurdish control

SYRIA

Damascus

IRAQ

Ankara revives buffer plan Behind the story Catherine Philp

T

urkey has been seeking to establish a buffer zone on the other side of its border with Syria since the conflict began three years ago, long before Islamic State rose to strength.

Ankara first mooted it as a place where Syrian refugees could be protected. It hoped that such a zone, which would require a peacekeeping force, would help to ensure its own security. The idea gained little traction among its Nato allies, save for France.

Now Turkey has revived the buffer zone as a condition of its military involvement

against Isis. The proposal, however, is no longer purely defensive. As Turkey envisages it, the buffer zone would not only accommodate refugees but serve as an area to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels for the fight against the Assad regime, which it still sees as the primary enemy. Isis, in the meantime, remains the most powerful enemy of the regime.

Ankara’s demand for the establishment of a no-fly zone underlines this offensive role. Isis has no air force so could not attack from the air. Only the Assad regime has that capability. If the zone were being used to

train anti-regime rebels, Assad would have every interest in attacking it.

Turkey sees the zone as a way of quashing the fledgeling Syrian Kurdish autonomous region just across the border. Syrian Kurds are seen by many opposition rebels — and by Turkey — as allies of Assad.

More importantly, however, Turkey sees that self-governance as emboldening its own Kurdish separatists, to whom the Syrian Kurds are closely allied. Crushing that threat would be a highly attractive by-product of establishing the buffer zone.

been formally considered within the alliance. “Isis poses a grave threat,” he warned. “So it is important that the whole international community stays united in this long-term effort.”

His language reflects anxieties about antagonising Turkey. Hours earlier, Ahmet Davutoglu, the prime minister of Turkey, hit out against “those who were silent in the face of the missiles” launched by the Assad regime, for “creating a global perception that Turkey should instantly solve the issue” of Kobani by itself.

Mixed messages have emerged from Washington, with the State Department suggesting that a buffer zone merited examination, only for the Pentagon and the White House to deny they were considering such a move.

General John Allen, the retired US commander leading the effort against Isis, arrived in Ankara yesterday to press Turkey over its involvement.

Isis fighters continued to fight their way towards the centre of Kobani despite intensified airstrikes throughout the day. Gun battles raged in the town’s industrial district, only 500m from the Mursitpinar border gate to Turkey.

Azad Dayfur, a Kurdish fighter positioned near the gate, said that while yesterday’s airstrikes had pushed Isis back, the assault had been renewed.

Much of the western part of the city is now covered in thick smoke. “Islamic State is setting fire to houses in the neighbourhoods it controls, so that the smoke will make it harder for the jets to hit their targets,” Mr Dayfur said.

US Central Command insisted that Kurdish fighters were holding the line, despite reports that jihadists now controlled a third of Kobani.

Turkey is struggling to contain the fury of its Kurdish population at its inaction. At least one person was killed and eight wounded after military police opened fire on a crowd following the funerals of two protesters in the Dargecit district of Mardin yesterday evening.

Leading article, page 20

Militants adapt tactics to avoid coalition airstrikes

Analysis Catherine Philp

T

he failure of airstrikes to push back Islamic State (Isis) fighters from Kobani underlines the shortcomings of the US strategy of trying to break the jihadists from the air.

When the strikes began last month, their targets were largely static — administrative centres, oil refineries and checkpoints.

Not only have those targets begun to run out, hitting them has done nothing to regain an inch of territory that Isis has taken or even prevent it from conquering more.

Activists on the ground in

Syria say that while the airstrikes had forced the jihadists to change their behaviour, the aerial assault has done little to degrade their capabilities.

Most of the fighters involved in the assault on Kobani came from Raqqa, and banked on it taking the Pentagon time to track their new positions.

They exploited coalition reluctance to launch daytime strikes to press their assault on the town, hiding tanks and weaponry under camouflage.

The Pentagon has confined most of its airstrikes to the hours of darkness because of

Two Australian aircraft refuel over Iraq during a night sortie

the risk of anti-aircraft fire during the day.

Christopher Harmer, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, in Washington, said the coalition failures

around Kobani emphasised the limitations of their campaign against an unconventional enemy. “Isis is a mobile force,” he said. “It’s hard to hit that when you

don’t have anyone on the ground calling in targets.”

He estimated that only one in ten sorties flown over Iraq and Syria had resulted in ordnance being dropped.

Washington insists it is focused on the long game, destroying Isis rather than thwarting immediate gains.

“As horrific as it is to watch what is happening in Kobani, you have to understand the strategic objective,” John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said on Wednesday.

Yet many warn that the longer areas remain under Isis control, the more entrenched its rule will become.

Turkish soldiers keep watch across the

10-yearTom Coghlan Hannah Lucinda Smith Suruc

Jihadists from Islamic State (Isis) have hailed their “youngest martyr” with songs, two weeks after the ten-year-old boy was alleged to have died in Syria with his father in a US airstrike.

The child was praised online by jihadists as a role model and referred to as “the lion cub” of the Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Pictures show the child, who is given the nom de guerre “Abu Ubaidah”, posing in a mask and a suicide belt.

Other images show him in combat clothing, levelling machineguns and a rifle, and raising a finger symbolically to the heavens to display his piety.

The boy’s father, who is believed to be an Isis fighter from the Gulf or Saudi Arabia, is also pictured with a suicide belt. The picture of father and son together carries a eulogy from the boy:

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Which twin will be heir to the throne of Monaco?

Page 25

ARIS MESSINIS / AFP / GETTY IMAGES

Giant bird terrified woman lost in bush Page 28

Victim of MH17 had oxygen mask on The Netherlands

Charles Bremner Europe Editor

border with Syria as Kobani burns. Isis fighters are believed to have seized control of a third of the town from the Kurdish militia, but Turkey has refused to intervene

old boy hailed as ‘lion cub’ martyr by Isis “May Allah protect you, my precious father You who have taught me the love of jihad and the people of jihad You who have made your life cheap for the sake of your mawla [spiritual leader] May he protect you.”

The use of child soldiers in Syria has been widely reported, though they are rarely as young as ten. Among the wounded Kurdish defenders of the besieged town of Kobani being treated in Turkey yesterday was a 13-year-old fighter.

The boy, named Zakaria, said that he had been fighting alongside his father.

Interviewed with his mother on the steps of a hospital in Suruc, just inside Turkey, the boy appeared furious as smoke rose in the distance. He then attempted to hobble towards Kobani with help from friends.

Three months ago the Kurdish YPG

“Abu Ubaidah”: hailed as a role model

militia defending towns such as Kobani announced that it would not allow soldiers younger than 18 to fight after a damning Human Rights Watch report identified the group as one of

many factions in the Syrian civil war using children on the frontline. The report also identified children as young as 12 being sent to training camps by Isis.

A former child soldier interviewed for the report said that Isis leaders identified younger children as having greater potential to become leaders and fighters through early indoctrination.

Isis has expended considerable effort on attracting entire families of jihadists to Syria. Khaled Sharrouf, an Australian jihadist, caused widespread revulsion in his homeland after posting pictures of his ten-year-old son taken in Raqqa struggling to hold aloft a severed human head.

“That’s my boy!” he wrote in the caption of the picture posted online in August.

Isis supporters have produced online videos that praise Abu Ubaidah’s sacrifice and describe how he would walk

beside rivers in paradise in the company of Prophet Muhammad. Online footage shows the boy trying to fire a Kalshnikov rifle that he can barely lift and chanting slogans in praise of Isis.

Analysts said that the video was unusual in portraying the boy as a martyr rather than a victim of Western aggression. “It is not typical to see a child being posed as a martyr. They are putting him up as though he is a serious, though extraordinarily young, fighter,” said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, director of the Centre for Terrorist Radicalisation at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies in Washington.

He said that images of children posing with suicide bombs and weapons were not uncommon among groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah but that the veneration of a child martyr appeared a natural extension of a trend within Isis. “Poor kid. This is child abuse,” he added.

At least one passenger had time to grab an oxygen mask after a Malaysia Airlines flight was hit by a missile over Ukraine in July, the Dutch authorities said yesterday.

Details of the mask, disclosed by Frans Timmermans, the Dutch foreign minister, appeared to confirm experts’ assumptions that shrapnel which tore into the front of the Boeing 777 on July 17 would not have killed all 298 people on board instantly. Oxygen masks would have dropped automatically when the ruptured cabin lost air pressure at 33,000 feet and passengers would have had moments to grab them before the airliner broke up.

The Dutch national prosecutor’s office, which is conducting the inquiry into the crash of Flight MH17, said that the passenger was Australian and that his relatives had been told after his body had been identified. The elastic strap was around his neck but the mask was not on his face. It was not known who put the mask on the victim because no fingerprints, saliva or DNA had been found on it.

No other masks have been found attached to the remains of passengers and crew, which had mostly been returned to the Netherlands, the departure point of the aircraft, which was en route to Kuala Lumpur.

Mr Timmermans, who has just been appointed deputy president of the European Commission, mentioned the mask in a television interview on Wednesday night. He was defending an emotional speech in which he had spoken to the UN Security Council about the horror felt by the passengers “when they knew the plane was going down”.

He acknowledged that no one aboard would have seen the missile hit, and added: “But do you know that someone was found with an oxygen mask on their mouth, and so they had the time to put it on?” Yesterday, he said that he regretted his disclosure after families of other victims were angry that they had not been told.

Prosecutors told them that no conclusions had been drawn about the mask pending the outcome of the full inquiry, which has been hampered by lack of access to the crash site. Mr Timmermans said: “I have an enormous amount of sympathy for the next of kin.

The last thing I want to do is compound their suffering in this way.”

A preliminary report by Dutch investigators last month found that the airliner was brought down by multiple “high-energy objects from outside the aircraft”, an event that would be consistent with the detonation of the warhead of a Russian-made BUK missile.

Western states assume that Russianbacked rebels fired the missile, possibly with the assistance of a Russian crew.

The impact of the shards of steel penetrating the front of the fuselage caused the aircraft to break up in flight.

Passengers not hit by shrapnel would have been aware of the catastophe as the aircraft bucked in the sky before hitting the ground 80 seconds later.

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World

Palestinian unity cabinet holds historic first meeting Gaza

Gregg Carlstrom Jerusalem

The Palestinian prime minister claimed that “years of division are behind us” yesterday as he became the first to visit the Gaza strip in nearly a decade and hosted the unity government’s first cabinet meeting.

Rami Hamdallah’s trip was considered an important step towards ending the seven-year schism between the secular Fatah, which governs the West Bank, and the Islamist Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in 2007.

It was also meant to reassure potential donors before a conference in Cairo

that aims to raise billions to rebuild the Gaza strip, which suffered huge damage to its infrastructure during last summer’s war between Hamas and Israel. At least 17,000 homes were destroyed in the conflict, in which 2,200 Palestinians and 73 Israelis were killed.

“The first and most important priorities of the government are to ensure the return of normal, safe life in Gaza and complete unity with the West Bank and east Jerusalem,” Mr Hamdallah said.

Hamas won a large majority in the 2006 Palestinian election, but Fatah disputed the results and a unity government was formed the following year.

The Islamist group then seized control

of Gaza itself in 2007 and since then the Palestinian territories have been governed separately.

A unity deal announced in April was meant to end the division. Both sides formed a technocratic cabinet and pledged to hold elections within six months, but those plans were suspended during the summer war in Gaza.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, last month accused Hamas of running a “shadow government”.

Hamas arranged a warm welcome for Mr Hamdallah yesterday, encouraging Gaza residents to greet him and deploying security forces heavily around his convoy. It was keen to avoid

a repeat of the incident in July when Jawad Awad, the Palestinian health minister, had to abort a trip to Gaza after crowds pelted him with shoes.

“Hamas has a lot to show in terms of its support,” Husam Zomlot, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, said. “What it did today, lending every support to this meeting, was a good first step.”

Mr Hamdallah toured areas in Gaza damaged during the summer’s 50-day war. The Palestinian Authority, led by Fatah, has said it will oversee the reconstruction, to assuage Israeli concerns that Hamas will try to import weapons.

In a sign of shifting policy in

Jerusalem, Mr Hamdallah and other ministers were allowed to enter Gaza through the Erez crossing with Israel.

In April, Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, urged world leaders to reject the unity pact and vowed not to allow ministers to cross between the West Bank and Gaza.

“Israel tried to stage a political coup against this government,” Mr Zomlot said. “And now it’s admitting defeat, admitting failure.”

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said that the group “welcomes the reconciliation government in Gaza and calls on it to meet its responsibilities towards the people of Gaza”.

Beaten Silva backs rival in Brazil poll

Gardener killed by swarm of bees

Corpulent corpse starts funeral fire

Brazil’s Socialist Party, led

by Marina Silva, has thrown its support behind Aécio Neves, of the centre-right Social Democrats, who is hoping to unseat President Rousseff in the run-off on October 26. Marina Silva was beaten in the first round by Mr Neves.

Douglas A swarm of bees from a hive estimated to hold 800,000 attacked four gardeners in southern Arizona, leaving one dead and another critically injured. The men had been mowing grass and weeding when the insects emerged from a nearby attic and attacked.

Virginia The roof of a

crematorium was destroyed by fire as staff tried to incinerate the body of a 36-stone man.

Jerry Hendrix, who runs Southside Cremation Services, in Henrico County, said the oven “got too hot too quick, because of the extra weight”.

the times | Friday October 10 2014

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Monaco faces riddle over which twin will be heir to the throne Monaco

Adam Sage Paris

Monaco could face a constitutional dilemma after the announcement that its royal couple are expecting twins: which one will inherit the principality’s throne and be first in line to a €1 billion fortune?

Monaco’s royal palace has confirmed reports that Prince Albert II, the tax haven’s ruler, and Princess Charlene, his South African wife, were expecting twins towards the end of the year.

If the babies are of different sexes, Prince Albert’s successor will be easy to determine since, under Monaco’s constitution, boys have precedence. But the best constitutional lawyers in Monaco and France are at a loss to say what will happen if the twins turn out to be of the same sex.

If both are boys, one is certain to become ruler, although no one knows which. If both are girls, one will become heir apparent, but she would lose her place if the couple went on to have a son.

Many lawyers say that the twin born first should be considered the older, and therefore first in line. In Belgium, for instance, Princess Prince Albert had two children before he met Charlene

Claire, the British-born wife of Prince Laurent, King Albert II’s second son, gave birth to twins in 2005. The firstborn son precedes the second in the line of succession to the throne.

However, Stéphane Bern, France’s best known royal expert, said that European monarchies were divided over the issue, and that there was a case for the opposite point of view. Mr Bern said that when Marie Leszcynska, the Polish wife of Louis XV, had female twins, the second-born was considered to be the older on the grounds that she had been conceived first.

The conundrum will be even greater if the babies are delivered by caesarean section, according to lawyers. In such a scenario — with an obstetrician determining who is born first — Monaco would find itself in unchartered legal waters.

Monaco’s residents once thought that they would never be troubled by such concerns. Prince Albert had many liaisons and two children out of wedlock but no wife when he succeeded Prince Rainier, his father, as Monaco’s 14th ruler in 2005. However, Prince Albert surprised his subjects in 2011 when, at the age of 53, he married Charlene Wittstock, an Olympic swimmer 20 years his junior.

Monaco’s future ruler would inherit the palace and its extensive collection of artworks, along with the right to “expenses” said to be tens of millions of euros a year. The monarch could also hope to inherit a substantial slice of Prince Albert’s personal fortune, which is estimated at about €1 billion.

France prosecutes parents for refusing vaccination Adam Sage Paris

A mother and father were put on trial yesterday for refusing to vaccinate their children, as French prosecutors clamp down on a growing campaign against immunisation, which they claim is endangering the health of the nation.

The couple, from the Yonne area of Burgundy, face up to two years in prison and a €30,000 fine if found guilty of refusing to allow their children to be inoculated against diphtheria, tetanus and polio.

Prosecutions of this kind are extremely rare in France, but officials decided to make an example of Samia and Marc Larere by using child mistreatment laws to punish them for refusing to have their daughter, aged three, and son, one, vaccinated.

“There is a movement of distrust and suspicion of vaccinations, which is worrying me,” Marisol Touraine, the health minister, said. “I am launching an appeal so that vaccinations do not come to an end, and so that people do not take risks with their own health and that of the French population as a whole.”

Parents in France have a legal obligation to vaccinate their children against the three diseases. Other vaccinations, including the BCG jab against tubercu-

losis, are recommended but are not legally binding.

Mr and Mrs Larere rejected the jab because it contains aluminium salts, which they say can cause macrophagic myofasciitis, a rare muscle disease. The salts are an adjuvant, designed to stimulate the body’s response to the vaccine.

Mrs Touraine said there was no evidence that the salts were dangerous.

The Larere’s case came to light last year when a doctor alerted officials after their son had a hospital check-up.

When they continued to refuse the jab prosecutors charged them with neglect.

Mr Larere told the court he would rather be fined or jailed than let his children have the jab. “I am prepared to accept a lot of sacrifices so as not to play Russian roulette with my children,” he said. “When you ask questions of doctors about the dangers, about why it contains prohibited adjuvants, you realise it’s ludicrous.”

Maitre Emmanuel Ludot, their lawyer, argued that the legislation was unconstitutional. “The right to health is . . . also the right not to have a vaccination,” he said.

The trial was adjourned after the court in Auxerre referred the question of constitutionality to the Conseil Constitutionnel, whose decisions are not subject to appeal.

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World KIN CHEUNG / AP

Anger in the street The cancellation of talks with demonstrators by the Hong Kong government led to more student protests

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Friday October 10 2014 | the times

World KIERAN KESNER / REX FEATURES

Ebola patients are dying on the streets of Monrovia, Liberia, where they outnumber hospital beds by five to one

Ebola nurse critically ill as fear grips Spanish hospital

Spain

Graham Keeley Madrid

The Spanish nurse who is the first person to catch ebola outside Africa was critically ill last night as some terrified medical staff refused to treat patients suspected of carrying the virus.

Teresa Romero, 44, helped to treat two Spanish missionaries returning from west Africa. Both died, and on Monday she tested positive for the virus. She is now in isolation at Carlos III hospital in Madrid.

Ignacio González, the head of the Madrid regional government, said that Ms Romero was “very ill and her life is at serious risk as a result of the virus”. Her brother, José Ramón Romero, said: “We don’t have great hopes for her.” Spanish media reported that she had respiratory failure.

Fear spread among staff at the hospital, with some refusing to treat seven people who are on an isolation ward because they came into contact with Ms Romero. A total of 84 people are under observation in Madrid. The authorities said that they would not force staff to treat ebola patients, and extra staff were being drafted in.

As pressure mounted on the government over its handling of the crisis, a doctor who cared for Ms Romero wrote a report detailing blunders

Hope is fading for Teresa Romero

in her treatment. Juan Manuel Parra treated the nurse when she went to her local hospital in Alcorcon, southwest Madrid, complaining of a fever on Monday. Dr Parra was the only doctor on emergency duty.

From 8am until after midnight, he looked after Ms Romero, who had diarrhoea and was vomiting and coughing. He said that he had to put on and remove a protective suit 13 times while treating other patients.

It was not until 5pm that he wore a full protective suit but it was too small, leaving his wrists exposed.

Dr Parra said that Ms Romero was brought into the hospital in a conventional ambulance and staff wore no protection. “From the moment I took the decision to take on the patient

and take charge of the situation, I was the only doctor who looked after her while she was here, accompanied by nursing staff when I visited her room,” he wrote.

She was isolated from other patients by a curtain and two pieces of tape. With her condition worsening, she was eventually transferred to the Carlos III hospital.

Dr Parra found out in the media that she had tested positive for ebola.

He, another doctor and two workers admitted themselves to quarantine.

Spain acknowleged to the European Union that Ms Romero may have become infected because of the “possible relaxation of security measures during the movement of the body of [a Spanish missionary] or the disposal of waste material”.

Mariano Rajoy, the prime minister, has resisted calls to sack Ana Mato, the health minister.

Ms Romero fell ill on September 30, but was not admitted to hospital untila week later, raising fears that others may have been exposed. She said that she might have caught the virus after touching her face with a glove after cleaning the room of a dead missionary. Javier Rodríguez, of the Madrid health authority, accused her of lying by failing to say that she had treated ebola patients.

Leading article, page 20

Spend all you need, IMF tells Africans Philip Aldrick Economics Editor

Leaders of the African nations struck by ebola have pleaded for help as a leading American scientist said that the outbreak reminded him of Aids.

President Koroma of Sierra Leone warned that government revenues were drying up, as he and the leaders of Guinea and Liberia called for hospital beds, health workers and financial assistance.

Underlining the scale of the crisis, Christine Lagarde, the managing

director of the IMF, urged the affected nations to forget their immediate budgetary responsibilities.

“It is good to increase the deficit. We don’t say that very often,” she said at a conference on ebola hosted by the World Bank in Washington.

The economies of the three nations are being devastated by the crisis. The International Monetary Fund has warned that the fallout from ebola could knock 3.5 percentage points off growth in Sierra Leone and Liberia this year, and 1.5 percentage points off

Guinea’s GDP. Their key industries of agriculture, mining and tourism were all suffering, the presidents said, yet the burden had fallen largely on the affected nations. “This disease deserves an international response,” President Condé of Guinea said.

Tom Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention, said: “I’ve been in public heath service for 30 years and the only thing I’ve seen like this is Aids.

We will have to work hard to stop it becoming the next Aids.”

the times | Friday October 10 2014

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Sri Lanka told to burn seized hoard of poached ivory Sri Lanka

Robin Pagnamenta Mumbai

Sri Lanka has been urged to destroy a huge stockpile of blood ivory seized more than two years ago, amid fears that the president intends to place it under his personal control.

Conservationists have written to Mahinda Rajapaksa demanding that the 359 elephant tusks, worth about £1.8 million and originally poached in Tanzania, be publicly burnt to demonstrate Sri Lanka’s opposition to the global ivory trade. The haul had been in transit from Kenya to Dubai. Seven months after the seizure, Mr Rajapak-

sa’s office tried to have the ivory transferred to his personal control. In a letter to the director general of Sri Lanka’s customs department, Mr Rajapaksa’s chief of staff wrote: “I shall be thankful if you could kindly get the tusks released to the Presidential Secretariat as early as possible.”

The letter said that the tusks would be donated to a Buddhist temple, Sri Dalada Maligawa. After a public outcry, the transfer — which experts say would have been a clear violation of UN laws on wildlife trade — never happened. In their letter, the team of Sri Lankan conservationists, allied to the Bill Clintonled Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), ANDREAS KNAUSENBERGER / CATERS NEWS

Soft landing This giraffe returned to her birthplace in the Masai Mara to deliver her calf. She gave birth standing up, leaving her offspring to fall 6ft to the ground

Al-Qaeda suicide bomber kills 50 Shia in Yemen Yemen

lona Craig Sanaa

Up to 50 people, including two children, were killed when a suspected al-Qaeda suicide bomber blew himself up during a Shia demonstration in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, hastening the country’s descent into sectarian conflict.

Body parts littered the street on the edge of Tahrir Square where thousands of Shia Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, had gathered to demonstrate against the appointment by President Hadi on Tuesday of Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak as prime minister.

Protesters, many of who were carrying AK-47 rifles, flocked to the squareafter the blast to hear a speaker rail against al-Qaeda.

Yesterday’s attack was the deadliest in the city for more than two years and the first to target civilians, 75 of whom were injured.

Hours later, a suicide car bomber rammed a security outpost on the out-

skirts of the port city of Mukalla, killing 20 soldiers and wounding 15.

The Houthis have long been rivals of the Sunni extremists of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and its insurgents, Ansar al-Sharia. Only in the past six months have they started carrying out assaults against Shia, with a sharp rise in attacks against Houthis since Ansar Allah fighters seized Sanaa last month.

A United Nations-brokered peace deal was signed by a number of political factions in an attempt to stem the crisis after four days of heavy fighting in the city. The deal was meant to pave the way for the appointment of a new prime minister and the formation of a new government, as well as to establish economic reforms.

However, the Houthis have refused to adhere to terms of the agreement that include the removal of their militiamen from the streets of the capital and government institutions. Critics of the Houthis view them as a proxy of Iran bent on seizing power.

Customs officials in Sri Lanka seized 359 elephant tusks from Tanzania

said: “We call upon you to demonstrate your sincere commitment by publicly burning the stock of blood ivory, as has been done by many other countries with a similar commitment to stop the

brutal practice of killing elephants.”

The letter, seen by The Times, was cosigned by the Federation of Environmental Organisations of Sri Lanka and the CGI. Blood ivory is the term used to describe ivory that has been taken from animals killed for their tusks.

Leslie Gamini, a spokesman for Sri Lanka’s customs department, confirmed that the tusks, which DNA analysis showed were poached in Tanzania, remained in its custody. “We have not decided what to do with them and nobody has given the order to destroy them,” he said.

Shruti Suresh, a campaigner at the Environmental Investigation Agency

in London, said that the only legal use for the tusks under UN law would be in scientific research or education. Donating them to a temple for religious purposes would be a breach of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species to which Sri Lanka is a signatory, she said.

Ms Suresh also asked why the tusks were still being held and why so little progress had been made in identifying the ivory smugglers and poachers behind the seizure.

“This was a huge shipment and a highly organised network but to date we are not aware of a single arrest,” she said.

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Women more racist than men in search for someone to love United States

Rosemary Bennett Social Affairs Correspondent

It may not be something anyone would care to admit, but when it comes to dating, everyone is a bit racist.

Christian Rudder, founder of the OkCupid dating website and probably one of the world’s leading authorities on finding a mate, said that the vast majority of people sought a relationship with someone from their own ethnic background, and that women were more “race loyal” than men.

He has used billions of pieces of data gleaned from the users of his website to establish what we really think when it comes to first impressions — a good guide to latent prejudice.

Almost 100 per cent of the three million or so users of OkCupid said they were totally in favour of mixed-race marriages. However, when it came to approaching or responding to a prospective partner online, every ethnic group showed a strong preference for someone from the same background.

The only exceptions were black men who prefered Latin American women, and Asian and Latin American women, who favoured white men.

Overall, women, whom studies have found to be more risk-averse and conservative, showed a stronger preference for men of their own race.

Mr Rudder said that he did not want to accuse online daters of racism. “An individual can’t really control who turns them on. I do think the fact that race is a sexual factor for so many and in such a consistent way, raises deeper questions,” he said.

These and other findings about dat-

ing behaviour have been collated and published in a book Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One’s Looking).

Some of the findings are unsurprising. While women on the dating scene are looking for men of roughly the same age, men of all ages, right up to the over 50s all want to date women aged 21.

Women want men to age with them, Mr Rudder said, while men appear inexorably drawn towards youth, however unrealistic their chances.

The finding is bad news for middleaged women looking for love. However, the findings on recruitment were even more worrying. Mr Rudder was able to use his website’s model for ranking users’ attractiveness — all dating sites do apparently — on an online recruitment service. The results showed that while men’s appearance meant nothing in the job market, with everyone from the ugliest to the most handsome getting the same amount of work, looks counted for women. More attractive women got more work.

Mr Rudder said: “Women are treated like they are on OkCupid even though they are looking for a job. Male HR staff weigh up female applicants’ beauty as they would in a romantic setting.”

The dating website was also able to work out what factors should make for a good match. The most ordinary questions have “amazing predictive power”, he said. “Do you like scary movies?” or “Have you every travelled alone to another country?” came out top, well ahead of life’s bigger questions such as “Do you believe in God”. In three quarters of the couples OkCupid brought together for a long-term match, both parties answered these questions in the same way.

Girlfriend survives 17 days in bush after a ‘bender’ Australia

Bernard Lagan Sydney

An Australian woman claims to have survived after being lost in rugged bush for 17 days, during which time she was chased by a crocodile and threatened by a cassowary, a giant bird. Her family said that she survived on creek water, insects and small fish and lost two and a half stone.

Shannon Fraser, 30, stumbled halfnaked, sunburnt and bleeding on to a remote Queensland farm close to where she vanished after a “bender” on September 21.

“It’s the The Biggest Loser [a TV show in which contestants compete to lose weight] meets Bear Grylls,” Dylan Fraser, her brother, told The Courier-Mail in Brisbane.

Police are mystified that a search using a helicopter, quad bikes and officers on foot failed to locate her, especially as she was found near the Golden Hole swimming spot from which she had disappeared.

Ms Fraser had gone A cassowary put Shannon Fraser in fear for her life

to the pool late last month with two men, including her partner, Heath Cassidy, to whom she had proposed two days before.

Mr Cassidy, who admitted yesterday, that the pair had been on a “bender” in the days before her disappearance, said he feared that Ms Fraser has been eaten by a crocodile. “Her whole body is scarred and peeling. She’s been through a lot,” Mr Cassidy said. “It’s amazing she is still alive.”

Ms Fraser, a mother of two, was taken to hospital and police say that it will be three days before she is well enough to talk about what happened to her. A Queensland health service spokesman said yesterday: “Her condition and symptoms are consistent with an extended period in the bush.”

Doctors are treating Ms Fraser for third-degree burns, welts from swarms of stinging flies and have swabbed stones from her feet.

Rhys Newton, a police inspector, said that the search had been professional and comprehensive and he could not understand why officers had not found her. “I have every confidence in the search co-ordinators and I am convinced that there was an extremely high probability of locating that missing person had she been in that area we were searching,” he said.

DEDY SAHPUTRA / EPA

Diving for cover Tourists landing at the airport on Saint Martin, in the Caribbean, do not have far to go to find the beach

the times | Friday October 10 2014

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Wrong number, right to party

Advice I can do without

Dorchester feels backlash

Page 31

Sathnam Sanghera, page 33

Page 37

Sir Charles set for 50th birthday bash

Business breakfasts tips are the pits

Business

Sharia boycott begins to bite

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER, JACK HILL

A gentlemanly payday missive business commentary Alistair Osborne

W

ho is Sutay Ceyhan — apart from the only person alive with a high opinion of payday loan merchants? “I just have to confess that your service is absolutely award-winning,” Sutay writes on the GetCashToday website. No surprise either, when it delivers £500 cash with only “60-second approval”.

Not all businesses have such appeal. So, it must rile the industry that killjoys such as the Archbishop of Canterbury and Stella Creasy, MP, are so resistant to its charms.

“Payday lenders are velociraptors”, scarier even than “tyrannosaurus rex” banks is how Ms Creasy puts it.

Such a one for a crisp soundbite.

Still, you do wonder if Britain’s regulators aren’t secretly thankful for the likes of Wonga. What would they do all day if they weren’t cracking down over fake lawyers, forcing a £220 million debt write-off or berating advertising puppets for omitting 5,853 per cent APRs? Yesterday’s 227-page regulatory missive came from the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA). It wants to see “a high-quality price comparison sector for payday loans” (report, page 46). Nothing wrong with that, either, except that soon there will only be four companies left, according to another regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). It said last week that its 0.8 per cent a day interest and fees cap on loans will kill off 99 per cent of the UK’s 400 payday lenders, leaving the industry focused on Wonga, QuickQuid and Dollar Financial, which already have 70 per cent of the £2.8 billion market.

Well, maybe. Sure, the industry needs cleaning up. Yet beware the unintended consequences: namely driving those desperate for cash to the baseball bat brigade. No way will the banks touch the 1.8 million payday loan customers, what with 38 per cent having a bad credit rating, 35 per cent in arrears with creditors, 11 per cent having a county court judgment and 10 per cent visited by a bailiff. Let’s hope Martin Wheatley, the FCA boss on £610,000 a year, has a feel for it all.

The CMA was on better ground, pledging to make things harder for “lead generators” — those rapacious website middlemen selling potential borrowers’ details to lenders.

Wouldn’t it be nice if they declared what they’re up to? Yes, but it’s a bit naive to think they all will. Such a gentlemanly business, payday loans.

Wolfgang in denial

B

rilliant timing from Wolfgang Schäuble. Who could have picked a better day for the German finance minister’s little speech on the sidelines of the annual World Bank/IMF bash?

“Growth and austerity: can the eurozone have both?” Not judging

by the goings-on in Germany, Wolfgang. Have you seen August’s German export figures? Shocking.

Down 5.8 per cent compared with July, the biggest drop since the world was financially poleaxed in January 2009? Forget the speech. What about Germany being in recession, having seen the second quarter already contract by 0.2 per cent?

Mr Schäuble denied it was and may have a point. August got whacked by the summer hols and Vladimir Putin’s Crimea adventures hit business in Russia, but July was unusually strong, magnifying the drop. And first-quarter German growth was decent enough.

No one should read too much into a month’s figures, not even George Osborne. He couldn’t resist warning that the “eurozone risks slipping back into crisis”, compared to Britain’s “stable economy” with its “working” plan. Really George, is there an election coming up?

Curvy forecasts

I

t’s 50 per cent off at N Brown — but luckily that’s the togs for the larger lady. The shares have only been discounted by 13 per cent — quite generous too after yesterday’s profits alert (report, page 51). No one’s quibbling about the makeover for the catalogue retailer, brought about by Angela Spindler since she took over as chief executive over a year ago. Yet, who would have thought brands such as JD Williams, Simply Be and Jacamo were fast-moving fashion? Three weeks ago Ms Spindler said: “Two weeks into September, we remain on track to deliver our full-year forecast.” Well, now the expected £102 million is down to between £88 million and £92 million.

Warm September weather is one reason. Another is Ms Spindler’s decision to skew 60 per cent of marketing to the autumn-winter season. She’s probably right but the extra £6 million’s had no impact, £8 million of profits have vanished and there’s up to £4 million of pain from shifting stock. Let’s hope Ms Spindler learns from the experience.

It’s the customers, not the forecasts, that are meant to be curvy.

In the money

D

o you recall Lee Cameron?

He’s the deputy CEO of Monitise, the mobile payments group, who cashed in £667,500 of shares under option last month at 44.5p, just days before news from Visa saw them tank to 27.75p. Well, luckily the shares are up since then, to 29.25p, even if they’re down 43 per cent in a year.

Mr Cameron’s pay has now jumped from £473,000 to £677,000 after a £413,000 bonus. More monitising.

alistair.osborne@thetimes.co.uk

Meerkats the stars of wireless space race

M

eerkats, Asian otters and Galápagos tortoises are playing a starring role in a new wireless technology after Google, Ofcom and ZSL London Zoo started to

stream footage of the animals over “white spaces” in the airwaves (Nic Fildes writes).

Ofcom has identified bands of spectrum that sit between existing frequencies and expects

that commercial services using the airwaves could be launched in 2015. The zoo trial will stream live footage of the creatures to YouTube. Google has licensed spectrum from Ofcom for the trials.

Wall Street spooked as Germany stumbles Patrick Hosking, Philip Aldrick and Alexandra Frean in Washington

Wall Street plunged last night amid fears that Germany, the traditional powerhouse of Europe, could already be in recession after it reported a near 6 per cent drop in exports in August, the steepest fall since 2009.

The worst monthly export performance from Germany for five years spooked global investors and heaped fresh pressure on European policymakers to inject more adrenaline into the moribund eurozone economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid by 334.97 points to 16,659, wiping out all of Wednesday’s gains, the best day of the year for Wall Street after a dovish Federal Reserve said it was in no hurry to raise US interest rates.

Coming only days after poor figures on industrial production and weakening consumer and business confidence, the export data led some analysts to predict that Germany would post shrinking output for the second successive quarter, the official definition of recession.

Germany’s Federal Statistical Office blamed the 5.8 per cent fall in exports partly on the late timing of the school

holidays this year, which led to some factories being temporarily closed. The crisis in Ukraine and Russian sanctions have also been blamed for the exports lurch.

However, investors were unnerved that Germany, home to a string of world-beating exporters from Siemens and Volkswagen to BASF and Bayer, appeared to be struggling. Carsten Brzeski, an economist with ING, described the latest August data as a summer horror story: “The economy seems

to need a small miracle in September to avoid a recession in the third quarter.”

The stumble in Germany, the eurozone’s biggest economy, is likely to intensify pressure on the European Central Bank to do more to stimulate the 18-member currency bloc. It comes just a day after the IMF downgraded its fullyear growth forecast for Germany and said the probability of the eurozone re-entering recession had doubled to

nearly 38 per cent since April because of slowdowns in France and Italy as well as Germany.

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, signalled yesterday that Europe risked a Japan-style lost decade unless EU members pulled together to fend off the threat of recession. “We are not saying that we are heading towards recession [in the eurozone] but we are saying there is a serious risk that happens if nothing is done,” she said. “More we hope will be done.”

Earlier this week, the IMF urged the European Central Bank to move to fullblown quantitative easing — a stimulus policy that has been repeatedly blocked

by Germany.

However, Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, suggested that member states should do more through fiscal policy. In remarks clearly aimed at Germany, he urged European governments to take more fiscal measures to stimulate demand. “For governments and European institutions that have fiscal space, then of course it makes sense to use it. You decide to which country this sentence applies,” he said.

This was rejected by the German Continued on page 32, col 4

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Friday October 10 2014 | the times

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Business

Need to know Your 5-minute digest economics Germany: Wall Street plunged amid fears that the traditional powerhouse of Europe could already be in recession after it reported a near 6 per cent drop in exports in August, the steepest fall since 2009. The performance spooked global investors and heaped fresh pressure on European policymakers to inject more adrenaline into the moribund eurozone economy. Page 29 China: London has taken another big step towards becoming the main nonChinese centre for renminbi trading after Britain became the first country to launch a sale of bonds denominated in the currency of the Asian giant. The Treasury said that the proceeds of the sale will be used to establish a reserve of Chinese currency. Page 32

banking & finance 1.15% National Australia Bank: Australia’s fourth-largest lender has blamed problems in its British subsidiary for a profit warning that is expected to lead to earnings for the year falling more than 10 per cent below market forecasts. NAB said that full-year results for the 12 months to the end of September would be off by as much as 14 per cent after taking into account the cost of £670 million of new provisions at Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks. Page 33 Pritchard Stockbrokers: The Financial Conduct Authority has fined and banned David Gillespie, the managing director of the broking firm, and David Welsby, the finance director, for serious failings in the protection of client money.

The FCA also censured the firm for recklessly failing to protect client money. Pritchard entered administration more than two years ago.

construction & property 1.73% New owners: Lending to firsttime buyers has fallen for the first time since January, adding to mounting evidence that the housing market is slowing down. After climbing to record highs on the back of an improving economy and government incentives, firsttime buyer lending declined by 4 per cent between July and August to 28,900 loans, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. Overall, the number of loans was down 3 per cent at 65,400. Page 32 Home costs: Average house prices in England and Wales are set to increase by 30 per cent in the next five years despite a raft of recent evidence pointing to a slowdown in the property market. While prices in London are set to rise by almost 33 per cent, it will not be the leader of the pack, according to research by Rightmove, the online

property portal, and Oxford Economics, an economic consultancy, whose forecasts take into account asking and sold prices as well as surveyor valuations.

Songbird Estates: The majority owner of Canary Wharf has reached a partial settlement over the collapse of Lehman Brothers, one of its biggest tenants, in September 2008. A bankruptcy court in New York has approved the settlement between Canary Wharf and Lehman of claims filed a year after the bank collapsed at the start of the financial crisis. Songbird, which was claiming $350 million, will receive 18.75 per cent of the total.

London commercial: Demand for office space in the City of London has risen to its highest level in 14 years as companies from outside the financial sector traditionally linked with the area compete for space in the Square Mile. Page 37

consumer goods 0.63% New Britain Palm Oil: A large Malaysian conglomerate has made a £1.1 billion bid for one of the world’s largest producers of palm oil. Sime Darby has offered 715p a share for the London-listed commodity producer, in a move that represents an 85 per cent premium to New Britain’s closing share price on Wednesday. The “knock-out” offer sent New Britain shares soaring 286p to 672½p.

Burton’s Biscuits: The maker of Cadbury Fingers and Jammy Dodgers is in talks to sell its licence to make Cadbury-branded products as it pursues plans for a £2 billion takeover of a rival. Executives believe that selling the licence to Mondelez International could remove a competition issue that could arise if Burton’s acquires United Biscuits. The company is believed to have already struck an outline agreement with Mondelez, formerly Kraft, which owns Cadbury. Page 37

leisure 1.39% Novus Leisure: Toby Smith, former chief executive of Stonegate Pub Company, is to be chief executive of the Tiger Tiger operator, succeeding Tim Cullum, who is leaving after a year in the post.

Dorchester Collection: Operating profits at the luxury hotel operator jumped by 29 per cent to £41.6 million last year, on flat turnover of £302 million, although results this year are expected to be affected by a backlash against the Sultan of Brunei, the group’s ultimate owner. Page 37 Peel Hotels: Reporting a 21.5 per cent jump in underlying half-year earnings to £1.33 million, Robert Peel, the hotel group’s chairman and founder, said that investors “can expect, after several years of disappointing results, a relative improvement in the fortunes of their company”.

natural resources 0.84% Fracking: Government failure to secure progress on fracking risks costing jobs, according to the CBI. John Cridland, the director-general, said that one in five members believed that the country’s energy security was worse than five years ago.

Heavy industry companies complain that they are penalised by energy prices that are higher than those paid by European rivals. Page 32 John Wood: The oil and gas services provider said that its performance this year was in line with expectations. This was led by growth at its PSN Production Services side, which has a strong position in the US shale industry. Tempus,

World markets FTSE 100 6,431.85 (-50.39)

6,750

professional & support services 0.53% Royal Mail: The former stateowned postal service has had to put aside £18 million to settle a French investigation into allegations that it acted anti-competitively. It said that it had made a provision of £12 million against the likely cost of any fine imposed by the French authorities and a further £6 million to cover its expected legal bill. Page 31 Banking Standards Review Council: Britain’s new banking standards body has appointed Dame Colette Bowe, the former head of Ofcom, as its first chairwoman after she was selected by an independent panel of experts that included Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England. The economist will chair the industry-funded body as it begins with a mandate to enforce and improve professional morals in financial services.

Hays: The recruitment specialist, which operates in 33 countries, reported a positive trading update for the three months to the end of September. Fee income was up by 9 per cent on a like-for-like basis and there were strong performances from Britain and Australia. Tempus, page 38

retailing 2.14% N Brown: Unusually warm weather in September hit sales at the home shopping group, which owns brands such as JD Williams and Jacamo that cater for a broad size range.

The company’s shares slumped 13 per cent to 302p after a warning accompanied halfyear figures that revealed a 3 per cent drop in profit to £42.7 million.

15,600

6,650

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6,450

Mon

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6,350

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Dow Jones 16,659.25 (-334.97) 17,200

Mon

Tue

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14,400

Thu

Nikkei 15,478.93 (-117.05)

16,150

17,000

15,900

16,800

15,650 15,400

16,600

Mon

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16,400

Thu

Mon

Tue

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15,150

Commodities Gold $1,224.48 (+17.83)

$ 1,240

page 38

Exxon Mobil: A World Bank arbitration tribunal ruled that Venezuela must pay the oil company $1.6 billion to compensate for a 2007 nationalisation. A separate decision in 2012 ordered the country’s state oil company to pay Exxon $908 million. The nationalisation will not incur double compensation.

FTSE 250 14,811.33 (-122.19)

Mon

Tue

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Brent Crude $90.60 (-1.31)

1,220

94

1,200

92

1,180

90

1,160

Thu

$ 96

Mon

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88

Currencies £/$ $1.6122 (+0.0057)

$ 1.640

£/€ €1.2724 (+0.0057)

¤ 1.295

1.620

1.280

1.600

1.265

1.580

Mon

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1.560

Thu

Mon

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1.250

The day ahead The Chancellor will be hoping that today’s trade data shows a significant pickup in export volumes and values in August after the British Chambers of Commerce warned earlier this week that a poor trade performance could damage the recovery. While the economy has been surging ahead, exports have been trailing behind, something the government is particulary concerned about.

According to the BCC exports slumped in the third

quarter compared with the previous three months. John Longworth, its directorgeneral, said that the disappointing decline “highlights that we must do something radically different”. The most recent set of figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that Britain’s deficit in goods and services widened to £3.3 billion in July, up from £2.5 billion in the previous month. This was the biggest shortfall since September 2013.

Graph of the day Ski homes are increasingly being bought as an investment, not just as a lifestyle choice, according a report by Knight Frank, the estate agent. The average price of a luxury ski home in 20 of the world’s top resorts rose by 5.9 per cent in the year to June.

Queenstown, in New Zealand recorded the strongest annual price growth, up 24.8 per cent.

1

Queenstown 24.8%

5

Telluride

13.1%

2

Aspen

20.7%

6

Whistler

9.7%

3

Vail

19.0%

7

Morzine

6.7%

4

Beaver Creek 14.3%

8

Zermatt

5.5%

Source: Knight Frank

Results in brief Name

Pre-tax figure Profit (+) loss (-)

Dividend

Brown (N) (retailing HY) £42.7m (£44.1m)

5.67p p Jan 9

6 Results in brief are given for all companies valued at more than £30 million. f = final p = payable

The day’s biggest movers Company

Change

London Mining Private investors wade in Fresnillo Dearer precious metal Randgold Resources Push by Numis Kazakhmys Fed worried about the strong dollar Burberry SocGen turns more positive IAG Ongoing fears about ebola Vodafone Competition worries Kingfisher Trades ex-dividend Kodal Minerals Share issue N Brown Profit warning

106.7% 6.4% 6.1% 3.7% 1.8% -3.0% -3.4% -5.1% -13.0% -13.3%

Jessops: The photography chain has made an operating profit of £280,000 from sales of £56 million in its first full year since collapsing into administration. Jessops intends to open six stores over the next few weeks, taking its estate to 34 outlets, and is testing concessions within Sainsbury’s supermarkets.

Mothercare: Investors backed a £100 million rights issue at a shareholders’ meeting. The money will be used to shut a quarter of Mothercare stores, refurbish the rest and improve the digital operation.

technology 1.65% NCC: Turnover at the cybersecurity consultant rose by 11 per cent on a reported basis to £39.5 million in the four months to the end of September. It said that there had been a delay in a project to offer clients a secure website.

Tempus, page 38

Monitise: The mobile payments company’s annual report showed that payments to Al Lukies, the co-chief executive and founder, rose to £1.1 million from £616,000 largely thanks to his bonus almost trebling to £819,000.

Lee Cameron, the deputy chief executive, saw his pay rise to £677,000 from £473,000.

Kofax: The software company, which is de-listing from London and moving its base to Nasdaq, has issued a profit warning after it said a large deal had slipped. Shares fell by 20 per cent as its warning followed those from Aveva and Spirent.

telecoms 1.05% Regulation: The European Commission will stop regulating the retail market for fixed-line telephony at the retail level, in line with local regulators.

GPS: Van drivers operating in the City of London pose a threat to high-frequency trading in the area, according to figures showing a 50 per cent spike in the amount of GPS jamming incidents in the Square Mile. Page 43 Carphone Warehouse: Sir Charles Dunstone, the mobile phone billionaire, will celebrate his 50th birthday in Venice.

Like George Clooney, the former mobile phone salesman has taken over the City’s five-star Cipriani Hotel, although the celebrations are due to begin on board his recently refitted superyacht.

Page 31

transport 0.27% Uber: Travis Kalanick, the 38year-old founder of the taxi app, tops Fortune magazine’s “40 under 40” list of rising business stars, sharing the position with Brian Chesky, 33, the chief executive and cofounder of Airbnb, which enables people to rent out their homes. Page 32

the times | Friday October 10 2014

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French letters to cost Royal Mail £18m Royal Mail celebrated the first anniversary of the pricing of its stock market flotation with the announcement that it has had to put aside £18 million to settle a French investigation into allegations that it acted anti-competitively.

The former state-owned postal service said that it had made a provision of £12 million against the likely cost of any fine imposed by the French authorities and had set aside a further £6 million to cover its expected legal bill.

In a statement to investors yesterday, Royal Mail confirmed that it was facing the penalty as a result of “alleged breaches of antitrust laws by one of its subsidiaries, GLS France”. “Royal Mail

confirms that, whilst a settlement has been agreed in principle, the French regulator is continuing its investigation. By agreeing to settle and provide compliance commitments now, Royal Mail will benefit from a reduction to any fine,” the company said.

The investigation by the French competition authority is looking into the activities of GLS up to the end of 2010 as part of an inquiry that has drawn in other big international delivery companies.

Shares in Royal Mail shrugged off the news and the stock closed yesterday’s trading session up 1 per cent at 402p, valuing the company at £4 billion.

The timing of the announcement on the eve of the first anniversary of the

pricing of Royal Mail’s controversial listing is embarrassing for the company.

Since floating, politicians including Vince Cable, the business secretary, have been criticised for under-pricing the company’s shares after they surged in value when they began trading at 330p in London last October.

Moya Greene, Royal Mail’s Canadian boss, joined the company only in 2010 and so the revelation of the French investigation has done little to dent her reputation. A spokesman for Royal Mail declined to comment on whether the company could go after any of its former executives to claw back their pay once a fine was agreed.

Royal Mail does not expect to hand over the money that it has set aside for

Share price

Source: Thomson Reuters

Harry Wilson

Q4 13

Q1 14

Q2

Q3

620p 580 540 500 460 420 380 340

the French fine until the second half of next year at the earliest.

FedEx, the US logistics company, Germany’s Deutsche Poste, and its Dutch rival TNT Express, which last month made a provision of €50 million

against the cost of the investigation, are facing similar allegations.

In July, Royal Mail admitted that it had received notice from the Autorité de la Concurrence that it was being investigated over the alleged competition law breaches.

It is not only foreign companies that are facing action. La Poste, France’s postal operator, announced at its interim results that it had made a provision against the cost of the investigation, with analysts at UBS estimating a fine of between €40 million and €50 million.

SNCF, the French railway operator, has also been caught up in the inquiry and said it had received a “notice of grievances” in early July.

It’s for you and you: Sir Charles calls friends to Venice for 50th birthday Richard Fletcher Business Editor

Sir Charles Dunstone, the mobile phone billionaire, will be joined by dozens of his friends in Venice this weekend to celebrate his 50th birthday.

The former mobile phone salesman has taken over Venice’s five-star Cipriani Hotel, which recently hosted George Clooney’s wedding to the barrister Amal Alamuddin, although the celebrations are due to begin onboard Shemara, his recently refitted superyacht that was owned in the 1950s by socialites Lord and Lady Docker.

The guest list includes the great and the good of the business world. Eddie Jordan, Sir Stuart Rose, Karren Brady, Lord Allen of Kensington and Lord Coe are among those believed to have been invited by Sir Charles’s wife, Celia. Duran Duran are said to have been booked to play at the main party on Saturday night. Sir Charles is good friends with Simon Le Bon and his wife Yasmin, the model.

Sir Charles set up Carphone Warehouse in 1989, with £6,000 of savings, while working as a sales manager for the mobilephone division of NEC. The company mainly supplied big corporate users, but he realised that those who really needed mobiles were small businesses and the self-employed. Then, the Motorola MicroTAC cost about £2,000.

In August Sir Charles completed a £3.7 billion merger

with high-street rival Dixons. He chairs the new company, which has annual sales of £10.5 billion, and more than 43,000 staff in 3,000 shops in Europe.

Sir Charles, estimated to be worth £1.4 billion, has signed up to Bill Gates’s and Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge — promising to donate at least half of his wealth in life or death.

Sir Charles Dunstone, with his wife Celia, left, will celebrate his 50th birthday with a lavish party at the Cipriani hotel in Venice

The riotous past behind an elegant exterior Behind the story Richard Fletcher

S

hemara will take centre stage during this weekend’s celebrations in Venice. Sir Charles Dunstone bought the yacht in 2010 and has spent three years and millions of pounds restoring the vessel to her former glory. The elegant yacht became infamous in the 1950s for the lavish parties hosted by the socialites Lord and Lady Docker, who then owned her, including a

cocktail party for 45 Yorkshire miners. “We had a riotous day,’’ Lady Docker is

reported to have said at the time.

She was sold in 1965 to Harry Hyams, the reclusive property tycoon, for £290,000 and languished in Lowestoft for decades. In 1970 Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton are said to have boarded the yacht with a view to buying her — but decided against.

Sir Charles rescued Shemara from decay and has

had the yacht stripped down and rebuilt in Portsmouth. The work was finally finished in June.

Sir Charles, a keen yachtsman who is backing a bid by Sir Ben Ainslie, the Olympic yachtsman, to mount a British challenge for the America’s Cup, also owns two racing yachts: the 98ft Hamilton and 73ft Enigma.

Built in 1938, Shemara was used by the Royal Navy during the war as a training ship to practise attacks on submarines.

How white van man can foil wheels of trade on stock exchange Nic Fildes, Technology & Communications Editor

Car thieves and white van men operating in the City of London pose a threat to high-frequency traders operating around the London Stock Exchange.

High-frequency trading, which accounts for between a third and 40 per cent of all volumes in London accord-

ing to estimates, relies on global positioning system information to time stamp trades to a millionth of a second.

However, a sensor set up in the Square Mile has logged a huge increase in the use of GPS jamming equipment in vehicles over the past year that could interfere with the signals needed for the traders’ computers.

Professor Charles Curry, who moni-

tors GPS jamming incidents across the country, said that he recorded 162 “events”, where the signal was interrupted by five seconds or more in July this year — up 50 per cent on last year.

GPS jammers, which cost less than £40 on the internet and slot into the cigarette lighter on a dashboard, are used by lorry and minicab drivers and car thieves to block equipment that tracks

their movement. White van men use them to avoid being detected by their bosses when moonlighting.

Professor David Last, a former president of the Royal Institute of Navigation, said that GPS signals are quite weak. “The satellite signal is weak. It’s like spotting a car headlight from New Zealand. A sniff of interference could knock it out,” he said. The London

Stock Exchange, which collates trading information, uses back-up systems to ensure that the information is robust.

However, Professor Curry said that the rising use of more powerful GPS jammers could present a “black-swan event” — author Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s term for an unpredictable and unusual disruptive event — that the exchange needs to prepare for.

32

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First-time buyers struggle to find loans as stricter rules deter banks Kathryn Hopkins Property Correspondent

Lending to first-time buyers has fallen for the first time since January, adding to mounting evidence that the housing market is slowing down.

After climbing to record highs on the back of an improving economy and government incentives, first-time buyer lending declined by 4 per cent 6 Interest rates were left unchanged at 0.5 per cent yesterday as benign inflation figures and a dovish tone from the US Federal Reserve left the Bank of England in no hurry to tighten policy. The nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee also left the quantitative easing policy unchanged, maintaining the stock of purchased assets at £375 billion. The pound rose above $1.62 for the first time in a week before the announcement but fell back later in the day.

Speculation that rates might soon start to be lifted was prompted over the summer by the decision of two members of the panel to vote in favour of higher rates. However, CPI inflation last month fell to 1.5 per cent, well below the panel’s 2 per cent target, the housing market is showing signs of cooling and the manufacturing recovery is easing.

Minutes this week from the US Federal Reserve showed that it was worried about the global economy and the strength of the dollar. between July and August to 28,900 loans, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Lending to home movers weakened for the first time in five months, falling by 3 per cent to 36,500 loans, and buyto-let loans fell by 13 per cent. Overall, the number of loans was down 3 per cent at 65,400.

Experts believe that new rules aimed

at curbing risky lending, implemented by the Financial Conduct Authority, and the decision by the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee in June to limit high loan-to-income deals have combined to dampen market activity.

The CML’s figures were released after a survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors found that house price momentum had slowed to rates last seen 16 months ago.

New buyer demand fell for the third consecutive month. Caution took a particular toll in London, where prospective new buyer demand dropped for the fifth consecutive month, according to the survey.

“The CML data and RICS survey reinforce our belief that — with housing market activity off its early-2014 highs — house prices are likely to generally rise at a more retrained restrained rate over the coming months,” Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said.

A separate report from LSL Property Services showed that the average cost of a home in England and Wales rose by 0.5 per cent in September to £275,820, the slowest monthly increase this year.

On an annual basis they were up 10.6 per cent, down slightly from the level in July.

The report found that only house prices in Greater London, the southeast, east Anglia and the southwest had surpassed their levels before the financial crisis struck. Of the six remaining regions, the north has the furthest ground to travel, with average prices 8.3 per cent below their housing boom high in March 2008.

“September saw the lowest monthly increase in property prices in 2014 so far, as a new spell of market adjustment sets in for the autumn,” David Newnes, of LSL, said.

“But while price growth dulls, activity in the market is still vibrant, and total house sales completions are up 16 per cent year-on-year in September.”

PAUL MORIGI/GETTY IMAGES

The government’s failure to secure progress on fracking poses a threat to job creation, according to Britain’s biggest business group.

John Cridland, director-general of the CBI, said that one in five of its members believe that Britain’s energy security is worse than five years ago. He added that high costs were affecting manfacturers’ ability to compete.

Heavy industry already complains that it is penalised by higher energy prices than competitors in continental Europe. Mr Cridland said that heavy energy users pay 35 per cent more than the median of the 15 biggest economies in the EU and that some CBI members reported costs were 50 per cent higher than in some European countries.

Developers attempting to exploit British deposits of shale gas have been

stymied by protests and reluctance from local authorities and landowners.

“Developments with shale in the US are undoubtedly adding to this pressure,” Mr Cridland said. “We need to secure progress on fracking so that we are making the most of what we have availabl. The reality of our energy crisis is starting to bite on the ground. Think only of the job losses at Tata Steel’s site in Port Talbot — it directly cited energy as a key factor in that decision.”

The desperation to secure affordable power supplies was underscored by Ineos’s move into fracking, which came with a promise that it would hand 6 per cent of revenues to landowners and local communities. The company won a battle with the unions this year to keep its Grangemouth refinery open despite high energy costs.

Mr Cridland also struck a note of optimism about Britain’s manufacturing

Yuan makes British bond debut through Bank of China Harry Wilson

All hail the power of sharing

T

ravis Kalanick, the 38-year-old founder of the taxi app Uber, tops Fortune magazine’s “40 under 40” list of rising business stars (Alexandra Frean writes). Mr Kalanick, pictured above with his girlfriend, Gabi Holzwarth, shares the No 1 position with Brian Chesky, 33, right, the co-founder of Airbnb, which enables people to rent out their rooms or apartments. The

ratings illustrate the growing power of the sharing economy. In the past 12 months, Uber has quadrupled the number of markets it serves to more than 170 cities.

It raised $1.2 billion in June, setting a $17 billion valuation that is among the highest for a tech start-up.

Airbnb has been used by 20 million people since it was founded in 2008. On its peak night this summer,

Fracking stand-off poses threat to energy supply and jobs, CBI warns Marcus Leroux

Friday October 10 2014 | the times

recovery, particularly trade with China.

Britain’s exports to China are growing faster than those of Germany or France, having doubled since 2007. In absolute terms, though, Britain still has catching up to do with Germany and France. Last year China bought 5.4 per cent of Germany’s exports, compared with 2.1 per cent of those from Britain.

Mr Cridland trumpeted British Airways’ new route to Chengdu in Sichuan province. However, Willie Walsh, the chief executive of the airline’s owner, IAG, conceded last week that the route had begun disappointingly, laying the blame on the visa system for deterring Chinese visitors.

The CBI says that British companies are still on the expansion trail. Its industrial trends survey in July showed that plans to invest in new products and innovation were at their highest level since 1989.

425,000 people stayed at an Airbnb room.

The list also includes 15 women, two from Britain.

Eighteenth on the list is Liv Garfield, 39, the new chief executive of Severn Trent. In 39th position is Dame Ellen MacArthur, 38, the yachstwoman, who has launched a foundation promoting the “circular economy” movement, in which products and buildings are designed for re-use.

Britain became the first country to launch a sale of bonds denominated in the yuan, in a big step towards establishing London as the main nonChinese centre for trading of the currency.

The Treasury said the proceeds of the debt sale, the first by any country other than China itself to be issued in yuan, will be used to establish a reserve of the currency and marks another sign of the country’s growing financial clout.

Bank of China, one of the country’s big four lenders, has been selected to help to lead the sale of the bonds to investors, along with HSBC and Standard Chartered, Britain’s Asiafocused banks.

George Osborne hailed the deal as the way to cement Britain’s place as the “centre of global finance”. The chancellor said: “We need to make sure [the yuan] is used and traded here, as that will be not only good for China, but good for British jobs and investment too.” Mr Osborne has led several trade missions to China as well as hosting frequent delegations of senior Chinese politicians.

Trading of the yuan increased by 50 per cent last year to $25.3 billion per day, but the UK is facing tough competition from Frankfurt and Luxembourg to become the European hub of Chinese finance and securing preeminence is seen as crucial to the longterm future of the City.

Andrew Carmichael, at Linklaters, the law firm, said: “Britain is keen to bolster its position as the world’s leading centre for foreign exchange trading.”

At the same time the UK is pushing ahead with building business and financial links with China and Asian economies as regulation is threatening to disrupt these flows. Standard Chartered was recently threatened by New York’s banking regulator with the loss of its dollar-clearing licence if it did not clean up its operations, while HSBC has come under scrutiny after large fines have been levied by American authorities over money laundering.

Britain’s decision to build up yuan reserves also points to a future in which the currency might come to rival the US dollar as the world’s main reserve.

Writing cheques can’t cure weak growth, Germany says Continued from page 29

finance minister Wolfgang Schauble, who said “writing cheques” was no cure for Europe’s weak growth. Structural reforms in France and Italy were the answer, he said, adding: “We don’t have a recession in Germany, we have a weakening of growth.”

George Osborne, the chancellor, warned that the eurozone risked “slipping back into crisis” and Britain was not immune to Europe’s problems.

“It’s already having an impact on our manufacturing and our exports, and we need to send a clear message out around the world that we have a stable economy [and] our economic plan is working,” he said.

The currency zone is by far Britain’s biggest trading partner and there are question marks over whether the UK could sustain its recent cantering growth if the slowdown across the

Channel intensifies. “August’s big drop in industrial production all but confirmed that German industry is back in recession,” Jonathan Loynes, of Capital Economics, said.

However, other economists were less worried by the August number. Huw Pill, of Goldman Sachs, said: “The headlines have been a bit hyperbolic.

Germany is weakening, but July was very strong for exports, production and orders. Take the two months together and the trend is much less extreme.”

The drop, in seasonally adjusted terms, means Germany exported goods worth a total of €92.6 billion (£72.9 billion) in August, down from €98.3 billion in July, while imports shrank by 1.3 per cent to €75.1 billion.

Exports in France also fell in August, by 1.3 per cent, according to data released yesterday.

Oil price falls below $90, page 35

the times | Friday October 10 2014

33

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Sathnam Sanghera

Bank blames profit alert on British subsidiary

My first tip for avoiding inane advice — steer clear of the breakfast club

‘‘

Sathnam Sanghera is a journalist and author. Follow him on Twitter @sathnam

I’m sure it hasn’t escaped your attention, despite the advance of Islamic State in Iraq and the alarming possibility of recession in the eurozone, that today marks the conclusion of London Breakfast Meetings week.

And I’m sure that you, like me, were delighted to pick up this month’s edition of Director to see the official magazine for the Institute of Directors marking the great occasion by running a column on “Five Tips for Brilliant Breakfast meetings”, from one Jane Sunley, “chief executive of people engagement specialists Purple Cubed”. Sunley claimed that the “business breakfast is fast replacing the power lunch”.

It was disappointing to discover that the advice it contained was the worst dispensed anywhere since MI6 suggested to Tony Blair that there might be weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Tip three stuck out in particular because it combined two things I have complained about in this slot in recent weeks — early mornings and fitness fads. “Arrive at the meeting early,” it said. “Even better, go to the gym beforehand so that you’re wide awake and ready to go, even if you’re not a natural morning person.” Which, intellectually, is like recommending you lose weight by eating a tray of doughnuts.

The rest of the advice was pretty woeful too. “Research your venue.

Breakfast can be a noisy affair, so find a place you can hold a conversation.”

If breakfast is “noisy”, you’re doing it wrong. Or getting it confused with a “Friday night out”. Then: “If you’re doing the entertaining, try to match your guest. There’s no point ordering the full English and side order of pancakes if your guest chooses half a grapefruit.”

So, let me get this: Sunley wants people to turn up early for breakfast, pink in the face with physical exhaustion, and then copy their guest’s order? Surely the only point and benefit of waking up early is to have a full English.

The whole thing made me suspect not only that the author has never had a breakfast meeting, but that she has never had breakfast. Then it made me despair for the standard of professional business advice out there

in general. One could overlook such silliness if Sunley was dim, and if such daftness was rare.

However, she turns out to be a panel member of the Economist Intelligence Unit, a visiting fellow at both Oxford Brookes and Sheffield Hallam universities, and the author of two books. And, unfortunately, her column is typical of the woeful professional advice I stumble across every week in the process of researching this column. Need evidence?

Well, take, for example, the article published on Business Insider this week entitled “21 Conversation Starters Professionals Can Use To Break The Ice”. Which included the suggestion that people trigger conversations with strangers with lines such as “What’s the scope of your responsibilities for the company?”, and “How did you get into accounting?”, and “College football has certainly been in the news this week. Are you following any teams?” I’m not sure what worries me more — that someone

would seek such advice, or that someone would suggest such advice, or that someone might actually put such wooden dialogue into practice.

Then there was a piece published on Inc.com the other week entitled “World’s Most Fun (and Effective) Productivity Tip”. Which suggested we boost our workplace effectiveness by . . . dancing. “A few weeks ago in Brooklyn, New York, more than 100 people gathered at a morning rave,” began Laura Garnett, who “helps business owners and CEOs develop a personalized leadership and performance strategy by identifying their zone of genius”. “As a harried entrepreneur, I left the event feeling clear-headed, creative, and focused.”

Unfortunately, her article left me feeling tired, confused and enveloped by cringe.

And on it goes. Here is a column on how you can boost your confidence and “learn more about yourself and grow” by walking into a coffee shop and asking for 10 per cent off your purchase or “purposely sit in the wrong seat on an airplane”. Here is a

long piece about what management lessons can be learnt from James Bond, which seems to overlook the fact that Bond kills people, sleeps with most of the women he meets, and is a fictional creation. Another impossibly confused and suspect article published on Inc.com, entitled “10 Words People Who Lack Confidence Always Use”, recommends that professionals eradicate the words “impossible”, “confused”, “suspect” “might”, “worried”, “quandary”, “won’t”, “usually” and “likely” from their vocabulary because they are inherently negative.

What’s driving this stupidity? I blame the internet. Let’s face it, professional business advice has long involved little more than banal listmaking, as reflected in popular business books such as The 48 Laws of Power. However, now that so much online journalism, on sites such as Buzzfeed and Business Insider, is also basically a process of list-making, we are plunging new depths of inanity.

I was going to end by expressing gratitude for exceptions in the form of certain newspapers and the intellectually rigorous Harvard Business Review, which this month ran a reassuringly dense 300,000word feature on offices. But then I came across a blog on the HBR website about “managing the immoral employee”, in which Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic asked: “How do we handle individuals who are prone to unethical behaviors, especially if they are talented and hard to replace?”

It began pretty sanely, pointing out that “dishonest work behaviors, such as staff abuse, rule bending, and theft cost the economy billions” before drawing “six tips drawn from the academic literature on how to manage morally weak employees”.

These included “engage them”, “lead by example”, “pair them with ethical peers”, “invest in moral training”, “reduce their temptation”, and “create an altruistic culture”. Everything, except the one blindingly obvious thing: fire them. It made me want to wake up at 3am, go to the gym and have a noisy breakfast meeting with Dr ChamorroPremuzic at which I copied absolutely everything about his order.

’’

Harry Wilson

National Australia Bank has blamed problems in its UK subsidiary for a profit warning that is expected to lead to Australia’s fourth largest lender report earnings for the year more than 10 per cent below market forecasts.

NAB said that its full-year results for the 12 months to the end of September would be off by as much as 14 per cent after taking into account the cost of £670 million of new provisions at Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks.

A new £420 million provision to compensate customers who were mis-sold payment protection insurance made up the larger part of the “conduct charges”. NAB also said that it would make a £250 million provision for costs relating to interest hedging products.

Yorkshire and Clydesdale are expected to be sold by NAB, although it has so far struggled to find a buyer willing to take on its UK business given the continuing costs of clearing up legacy problems that have led to large writedowns on its loan book.

However, the emergence of several private equity-backed challenger lenders has expanded the range of potential buyers of the business. The bank could also list its UK operations, following the lead of OneSavings, Aldermore and most recently Virgin Money.

Andrew Thorburn, the chief executive of NAB, has made no secret of his desire to get rid of the operation as part of restructuring of the bank’s wider overseas businesses. NAB has already filed details of a plan to sell a 27 per stake in Great Western Bank through a stock market listing of its US subsidiary.

Mr Thorburn described the provisions in the UK as disappointing, but said that the underlying performance of the bank remained strong. “Taking these decisions gives us more clarity going into the future and allows us to focus on the core Australian and New Zealand franchises, which remain in good shape,” Mr Thorburn said.

NAB added that its profits would also be hit by a $297 million impairment on a failed IT upgrade project, saying that the expected benefits of the software had been “substantially reduced”.

The bank added that it had also taken a $120 million hit on a deferred tax asset in its New York branch after reassessing the recoverability of the money.

NAB will publish its full-year figures on October 30 and said that it expected cash earnings to be in the range of $5.1 billion to $5.2 billion.

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Business

Payday lenders face further crackdown Alex Ralph, Patrick Hosking

The payday loans industry will have to reveal details of its products on accredited price comparison websites as part of tighter regulations designed to save customers £45 million a year.

The Competition and Markets Authority is pushing ahead with plans floated in June to force websites that sell potential borrowers’ details to lenders to be more open with customers about their interests and independence.

Payday loan companies will also be required to introduce “greater transparency” on fees and charges for late repayers and forced to give borrowers a summary of charges paid on loans.

The competition regulator says that the rules would shake up the market by opening it up to new entrants and ushering in better deals.

The CMA warned in June that the payday lending market was broken and a lack of competition was adding £5 to £10 to every loan.

The industry has claimed that it is being demonised and revealed that lending has slumped 50 per cent as a result of tougher rules.

The Financial Conduct Authority is due to enforce a price cap from January 2 that will ensure consumers never repay more than twice the amount they borrow.

Simon Polito, the chairman of CMA’s investigation, said: “Whilst the FCA’s price cap and its other regulatory

actions to clean up the market will protect customers from some of the worst excesses, greater competition will drive prices down and is the only way to ensure that customers are offered the best possible deals.”

He said that the introduction of accredited websites would provide “impartial, relevant and accurate information” about payday loans, making it easier for customers to make comparisons and encourage lower-cost loans.

The CMA wants the FCA to set up an accreditation scheme for payday loan price comparison websites. Under the proposals, every payday lender will have to have its loans listed by at least one accredited comparison website.

The move to force websites that sell potential borrowers’ details to lenders to “explain their role and how they operate much more clearly to customers” is in response to concerns among officials that the “lead generator” websites have “very little transparency”. The CMA is concerned that customers are “generally unaware” that these websites simply sell details to lenders based on the fees that lenders offer them.

The clampdown from regulators follows widespread criticism. The CMA said that its proposals had been reached following talks with consumer groups, debt charities, lenders and trade associations. It will now work with the FCA and consult on the plans until the end of the month before issuing its final report early next year.

CITY PEOPLE The feuds, the faces and the farcical Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux

a corking good read from the supermarket wine rack In the light of the Tesco accounting scandal, Harpers, the wine and spirits trade mag, has a hair-raising account of life as a supermarket wine buyer from Angela Mount, formerly of Somerfield. She writes: “The pressure on buyers is enormous at any company facing a difficult year-end, and each buyer is tasked with bringing in a certain extra amount each week. It was one of the many factors that finally made me decide to leave Somerfield. The message was ‘get the brands listed who are going to pay us money’.” Customers have wine in a rack; supermarkets have wine in a racket. beware the meltdown Pushed by reporters for details on the cost of building a nuclear plant at Hinkley Point, the chairman of the French company EDF seemed in danger of going nuclear himself. Henri Proglio, right, somewhat en colère, eventually started muttering at a table of British journalists in French. When asked for an explanation in

Business big shot name melanie leech age 52 position directorgeneral, food & drink industry

A

fter 12 years of lobbying on behalf of the commercial property industry, Liz Peace is retiring. She will make way for Melanie Leech, who will become chief executive of the British Property Federation next year. Ms Leech is no stranger to the world of lobbying as she has been directorgeneral of the Food and Drink Federation for the past nine years.

She also has quite a lot of practice in firefighting, having held senior government roles, including communications director at the Cabinet Office and head of broadcasting policy at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. She will have her work cut out trying to persuade the main political parties to pledge to make both business rates and council tax fairer.

(Kathryn Hopkins)

English, he snapped, helpfully: “It’s the same in English.” single-sex wards Vince Cable has written to 19 FTSE 250 companies to tick them off for not having any female directors.

Top of the list is Al Noor Hospitals Group — a company that, gloriously, has managed to find two people called William Ward to sit on its board but still can’t find a single woman. everyone say ‘cheese’ British Land could be forgiven for preferring its latest City skyscraper to be known as The Leadenhall Building. Alas, the “Cheesegrater” has stuck. At a media dinner hosted

by Chris Grigg, its chief executive, each table had a grater and a pile of grated cheese as its centrepiece. banker gets payback Tyrel Oates emailed his boss to ask for a pay rise. A fairly unremarkable event — except that he emailed the chief executive of Wells Fargo, one of America’s largest banks. And 200,000 of his colleagues. Oates, a Tolpuddle Martyr for the information age, implored his boss (or, more likely, his boss’s boss’s boss’s boss) to show that American corporations had a heart.

the times | Friday October 10 2014

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Business

ERIC SCHULTZ/AP

Norway helps Rolls-Royce power ahead

E

ngines made by Rolls-Royce have been selected by a Norwegian airline to power nine extra Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft (Tim Webb writes).

Norwegian has also signed a $440 million longterm after-care service contract for the Trent 1000Ten engines.

“We are very pleased that Norwegian has once again chosen us to support its fleet expansion,” Dominic Horwood, chief customer officer for civil large engines at Rolls-Royce, said.

The Dreamliner, which was launched in 2011, is Boeing’s rival to the Airbus A350.

Both aircraft are smaller and more efficient than jumbo jets and carry fewer passengers on highfrequency intercontinental and long-distance routes.

Rolls-Royce makes more than half its revenues from after-care and servicing.

More than 450 Dreamliner aircraft powered by Trent 1000

Old Mutual aims low on fund manager Miles Costello

engines have been ordered by 25 customers. In March, Rolls-Royce was selected by All Nippon Airways to provide Trent 1000 engines, worth $1.1 billion, for 25

Dreamliner aircraft. Other customers include British Airways and Royal Brunei.

Shares in Rolls-Royce rose by almost 2 per cent on yesterday’s announcement,

but eventually closed down 1½p at 942p.

6 Thomson Airways is to introduce family booths and pod-style seating with “mood lighting” for

couples. The airline, owned

by TUI Travel, is also upgrading its fleet through the addition of 47 Boeing 737 Max aircraft, due to be delivered by 2020.

Rio Tinto’s drive to meet Chinese iron ore demand angers Glencore Marcus Leroux

Rio Tinto defied the prognosis of its former suitor Glencore by sticking to its plan to pump millions of tonnes of extra iron ore into the global market.

Glencore, whose rejected merger proposal with Rio emerged this week, has criticised rivals for creating an oversupply in an attempt to meet Chinese demand. Rio Tinto and its rivals, such as BHP Billiton and Vale of Brazil, have ambitious expansion plans despite a huge surplus in supply.

The big producers are betting that their relatively low-cost bases and high-grade reserves will mean that they withstand spells of weak pricing better than rivals.

However, Ivan Glasenberg, the chief executive of Glencore, said this week that the benefit of booming Chinese

demand meant that the so-called supercycle commodities boom was not filtering through into higher prices.

“Iron ore is being attacked because everyone is adding production,” he said.

“You’re just killing the supercycle with oversupply.”

China is the key iron ore market and Rio Tinto relies on iron ore for the vast majority of its earnings. Rio Tinto told investors yesterday that Chinese steel production, the key determinant of iron ore demand, would rise to one billion tonnes by 2030.

In an update to investors yesterday, Andrew Harding, the chief executive of Rio Tinto’s iron ore division, said: “The whole reason we are pushing more tonnes inIvan Glasenberg is critical of Rio Tinto’s production tactics

to the market is to fill a void. If we don’t fill that void, someone else will.”

BHP’s and Rio Tinto’s networks of mines in Western Australia are vying with each other to be the world’s lowest cost. Vale, which relies heavily on Brazilian production, is hoping to compete by shipping its ore to China in its own 400,000 tonne-capacity carriers.

BHP this week laid out plans to reduce costs and ramp up production in western Australia, which it said would make it the lowest-cost producer.

Mr Harding said that higher-cost supply was beginning to get pushed out of the market. He estimates that this year 125 million tonnes of supply will leave the market, with 65 million tonnes coming from Chinese producers who mine lower grade ore.

Iron ore prices hit five-year lows this year and projections of further falls have miners scrambling to cut costs.

Smaller, less efficient miners are in

many cases struggling to survive, while a few mega miners, including Rio Tinto and BHP, take a bigger share of the $130 billion seaborne iron ore market.

Analysts at Investec said that the update was relatively upbeat: “The company sees the iron ore market fundamentals as robust despite the price weakness of late [in] a more upbeat presentation with regards to the outlook on the iron ore market than BHP released at the start of the week that focused on supply outpacing demand.”

Analysts reckon that if iron ore prices remain low it will constrain Rio’s returns to shareholders, which might push them into Glencore’s arms.

However, leading shareholders have said that they see Glencore’s interest as an opportunistic attempt to capitalise on weak iron ore prices.

Iron ore is the sole major commodity that it trades but that it does not produce itself.

Opec urged to cut supply as oil prices slide below $90 Tim Webb

Oil prices have dropped below $90 a barrel to hit a 27-month low because of the global glut of crude, feeble demand and the strong dollar.

The price of Brent crude fell $1.42 to $89.96, the lowest since June 2012.

The fall puts further pressure on Opec to cut production when it holds its bi-annual meeting next month in what has been billed as the cartel’s most important summit for years. Saudi

Arabia, the world’s largest producer, has so far refused to make any significant cuts for fear of losing market share to Iran and Iraq, its two resurgent rivals in the oil producers’ organisation. The Saudis had promised earlier this year to keep prices above $100.

Oil companies are anxiously watching the seemingly inexorable decline in prices. If they hit $80, the most expensive shale oil and oil sand projects in North America will be halted.

Barclays yesterday slashed its Brent

oil price forecasts for the fourth quarter this year from $106 to $93. Next year’s forecast of $107 has been downgraded to $96. It said: “The rapid demand contraction, dollar strengthening and unexpected Libyan output return has lowered prices and shields the market from a disruption in supplies from Libya, Iraq or other Opec countries.”

Prices hit $115 in June when the advance by Islamic State led to fears that Iraqi exports would be disrupted, triggering a global supply shortage. De-

spite the conflicts in Iraq and Ukraine and instability in the Middle East, supplies remain largely unaffected while demand is weakening.

The strengthening dollar, in which oil is priced, has also hit demand because it makes crude more expensive for all but the US, where crude inventories are much bigger than expected, adding to evidence of the global glut.

The International Monetary Fund has warned of sluggish global economic growth, which will dampen demand.

Old Mutual has put a bargain basement price on shares in its American asset management business after it laboured to sell the listing to nervous stock market investors.

The Anglo-South African financial services group priced shares in OM Asset Management at $14 apiece late on Wednesday night, raising $308 million and valuing the fund manager at $1.7 billion.

The price is below the range of $15 to $17 that Old Mutual and its bankers targeted late last month when they started the sale.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Credit Suisse managed the listing for Old Mutual, which has been considering a flotation for OM Asset Management for the past four years.

The asset management arm runs $215 billion of money on behalf of savers and investors and has been revitalised by Old Mutual during the past two years.

Despite the lower-than-hoped for valuation against the $2 billion it could have been worth, Old Mutual said that it was happy to have managed to offload 22 million shares, accounting for a stake of just over 18 per cent.

“We are pleased to have completed this transaction in a week when the US markets have been extremely volatile,” it said.

Six out of 14 initial public offerings to be launched since Labor Day in the US, on September 1, have priced their shares at below the range initially set amid investor concerns about the health of the economy.

Old Mutual is also expected to sell further tranches of shares in OM Asset Management in future as it moves to cut the size of its holding. One source said: “We only sold 18 per cent. There’s the option to sell a lot more.”

Pay policies off the pace Miles Costello

Nearly all Britain’s top 250-listed companies will have to tighten pay policy in the wake of guidelines on withholding or demanding back bonus payments from errant executives.

About 90 per cent of companies listed in the FTSE 250 index will have to draft new bonus policies or make their existing rules much clearer after the latest update to the rules on best boardroom practice, according to Deloitte.

In its first update to the Combined Code for two years, the Financial Reporting Council said last month that companies must put in place a mechanism relating to either “clawback” or “malus”. Under malus, a company can withhold a bonus if an executive has misbehaved, while under clawback, it demands the return of payments that have been made, for similar reasons.

The regulator said that the latest guidelines would come into effect from the beginning of this month.

Deloitte estimates that only one business in ten has a clawback or malus bonus policy that is fit for purpose for their next financial year.

Mitul Shah, a partner in the remuneration team at Deloitte, said: “Companies will need to start planning for [the new rules] as soon as possible as there are a number of complexities involved in implementing these policies.”

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Business

Apple rejects activist investor’s plea to buy back ‘cheap’ shares Alexandra Frean Washington

Carl Icahn put Apple in his sights once again yesterday, urging the tech company to ramp up its share buyback programme in the belief that its stock is selling at half its real value.

In a long, and extremely optimistic, letter about Apple’s prospects, the activist investor said that its shares, trading at just under $100 when markets opened yesterday, were worth $203. The shares popped by nearly 1 per cent shortly after the letter was made public.

The billionaire, who owns just under 1 per cent of Apple, emphasised that he did not intend to criticise senior management. In fact, he described Mr Cook as “the ideal CEO for Apple”.

However, he took credit for influencing a previous share buyback that had helped to boost shares considerably.

This time last year he wrote to Mr Cook, urging him to start an immediate $150 billion share buyback.

The company said in April that it would pump an additional $30 billion into a buyback programme that started

in 2012, taking the total to $130 billion by next year. It also announced an 8 per cent dividend increase and a seven-toone stock split. Since Mr Icahn’s initial letter the shares have risen by 35 per cent.

Apple lost no time yesterday in issuing a quick “thanks, but no thanks” response to Mr Icahn.

“We always appreciate hearing from our shareholders. Since 2013 we have been aggressively executing the largest capital return programme in corporate history. As we have said before, we will review the programme annually and take into account the input from all of our shareholders,” the company said in a statement.

This rejection, though, is unlikely to deter Mr Icahn. Apple reported a profit of $7.75 billion in the quarter ending June 28. In his letter he forecasts earnings growth for Apple over the next three years of 44 per cent, 30 per cent and 30 per cent, driven by strong revenue growth.

“We assume existing iPhone users will continue to act like an annuity, choosing to stay with the iPhone each

time they upgrade,” his letter stated. Mr Icahn added that “the iPhone will take market share because its merits are no longer viewed in isolation from the overall Apple ecosystem of products and services, which include iOS, iPad, Mac, Apps, App Store, iCloud, iTunes, and (more recently) Apple Watch, Apple Pay, Home, Health, Continuity, Beats.”

The letter also referred to his hopes for future Apple products, including a larger iPad, the iWatch, Apple Pay and even an UltraHD television set in 2016.

Apple has not indicated whether it intends to make televisions and reports have suggested that it has decided to delay the introduction of the larger iPad. Pre-empting criticism from analysts and investors who believe that some activists are only interested in shortterm gains, Mr Icahn, whose Apple holding is worth more than $5 billion, pledged that his hedge fund would hang on to its investment if Apple agreed to his suggestion to make a tender offer for shares “a lot more, and sooner”.

GETTY IMAGES

Explorer basks in the sun

BRITAIN’S LEADING MID-MARKET PRIVATE COMPANIES

?

DEFINITIVE GUIDE THIS WEEKEND

S

hares in Bahamas Petroleum Company rose by a quarter after a new law in the Bahamas set a legal framework for oil companies

there (Tim Webb writes). Tourist destinations such as the Canary Islands and Comoros Islands are already potential hotspots for explorers.

the times | Friday October 10 2014

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Business

Offices in demand as new industries squeeze into Square Mile Kathryn Hopkins Property Correspondent

Demand for office space in the City of London has risen to its highest level in 14 years as companies from outside the financial sector traditionally linked with the area compete for space in the Square Mile.

Office take-up has increased from 2.2 million sq ft in the second quarter of the year to 3 million sq ft in three months to September, a rise of 39 per

cent. Demand for office space has not been above 3 million sq ft since 2000, according to research from Knight Frank, the property consultancy for developers, owners and occupiers of commercial property in the City.

In the first nine months of the year alone, 6.9 million sq ft of office space was acquired in the area, compared with 5.8 million sq ft for 2012.

Occupier demand has come from a variety of industries, including pre-lets

by Amazon and the London Business

School. Dan Gaunt, head of the city agency at Knight Frank, said: “I see this as evidence of the Manhattan-isation of the City office market, where finance is now one of several sources of office demand now the Square Mile’s economy has drawn in a variety of new industries, as is the case in New York’s key office markets.”

He warned City landlords that they are now facing the challenge of delivering an environment where both a corporate law firm and a

6 The body that manages the Queen’s property has announced that it has agreed to sell one of its retail parks to Royal London for £37 million, the first time the Crown Estate has disposed of a directly owned asset of this sort. Hannah Milne, regional portfolio manager at the Crown Estate, said that Apsley Mills near Hemel Hempstead was being sold to improve the coherence and quality of its existing portfolio.

technology company could be sharing the same office building, with the requirement to ensure that branding and the decor of common areas are acceptable to two very different tenants.

As a result of the high take-up, the supply of offices in the City fell during the third quarter to 8.7 million sq ft, representing a vacancy rate at present of 7.3 per cent, the lowest level since 2007 and below the long-term average of 9.2 per cent.

REUTERS, GETTY IMAGES, SPLASH NEWS

Celebrities for and against the boycott

Jay Leno, right, and Ellen DeGeneres led protests against the Sultan of Brunei, left, while hotels favoured by fashionistas have also suffered

“Not that you were necessarily going to stay there, but time to boycott the Dorchester Group” Stephen Fry “No Virgin employee, nor our family, will stay at Dorchester Hotels until the Sultan abides by basic human rights” Sir Richard Branson

Dorchester out of fashion over Sharia

W

ith an average rate of well over £500 a night and suites costing thousands of pounds, the Dorchester Collection’s super-luxury hotels cater to an elite of the world’s richest and most glamorous people (Dominic Walsh writes).

Its financial performance is as impressive as its clientele.

According to accounts filed at Companies House, the group achieved a turnover of £302 million last year and an operating profit of almost £42 million.

It said that

while turnover was flat, due to the windfall from the Golden Jubilee and Olympics in London the previous year, profit was 29 per cent higher due to property revaluations. In addition, the directors’ report, signed off in May, talks optimistically of its ten hotels benefiting from continued growth in demand this year.

That optimism may turn out to have been premature.

Even as the auditors were signing off the accounts, the company was feeling the start of a backlash over the

“Is this man going to start stoning certain hotel staff members and clientele now?”

Sharon Osbourne “I won’t be visiting the Hotel Bel-Air or the Beverly Hills Hotel until this is resolved” Ellen DeGeneres “What is this, Berlin, 1933? Evil flourishes when good people do nothing” Jay Leno

decision of the Sultan of Brunei, the owner of the group through the Brunei Investment Agency, to introduce Sharia in his tiny oil-rich kingdom.

Suddenly, celebrities were less keen on staying in hotels owned by a regime that supports punishments such as the severing of limbs for theft and the stoning to death of adulterers and

Burton’s set to drop Cadbury’s link in bid to take the biscuit Deirdre Hipwell

Burton’s Biscuits is in talks to sell its licence to make Cadbury-branded products as it pursues plans for a £2 billion takeover of a rival.

Executives believe that selling the licence to Mondelez International could remove a potential competition issue that would arise if Burton’s acquires United Biscuits. The company is believed to have already struck an outline agreement with Mondelez, the

American group formerly known as Kraft, which owns Cadbury.

The potential sale of United Biscuits is one of Britain’s biggest “live” prospective merger deals and there has been significant interest from potential buyers. United Biscuits is twice the size as Burton’s, its nearest rival, and owns four of the five top-selling biscuits in Britain — McVitie’s Digestives, Go Ahead!, Jaffa Cakes and Jacob’s Cream Crackers. More than four million packets of McVitie’s digestives are eaten every day

homosexuals. The likes of Ellen DeGeneres, Sharon Osbourne and Stephen Fry took to Twitter to call for a boycott.

The Dorchester Collection last night refused to comment on trading this year, but it is clear that the backlash has had an impact.

Reports in Los Angeles suggest that the Beverly Hills Hotel had lost $2 million in

cancellations by June.

The fallout has affected other Dorchester Collection hotels, including Le Meurice, in Paris, and the Hotel Principe di Savoia, in Milan, both favourites with the fashion industry. The Dorchester itself, in Park Lane, suffered as banquets and product launches were cancelled at late notice. “They had a big dip, no doubt about

and the McVitie’s brand has targeted more than £500 million in annual sales in the next few years. Total sales at United Biscuits rose by 4.3 per cent to £1 billion last year.

Blackstone and PAI Partners, its private equity owners, are running a “dual-track” process to decide whether to sell the business or to float it in London. They bought the group for £1.6 billion eight years ago.

Burton’s, whose brands include Cadbury Fingers and Jammy Dodgers, is facing stiff competition from Kellogg’s, the American food giant, and Ulker Food Group of Turkey.

Ferrero, the Italian confectionery group, is also understood to be interested. Sources said that Kellogg’s was understood to be the most advanced in negotiating a deal to buy United Biscuits for between £1.5 billion and £2 billion. John Bryant, the

it,” said the manager of a rival London hotel.

“But they’ve dealt very effectively with the PR nightmare and the signs are that business has bounced back. It also helped that the Dorchester has a big Middle Eastern clientele.”

Chris Cowdray, the Dorchester Collection’s chief executive, insisted recently that it would “weather the storm”.

Crunch time

56m

packets of McVitie’s digestives are eaten in Britain each year

40% 8.5kg

United Biscuits’ UK market share

of biscuits are eaten by the average Briton each year

7bn

“biscuit-eating moments” last year, nearly 1½ times more than confectionery, acording to United Biscuits

“Throwing the staff of Dorchester Collection Hotels under the bus to make a political point is not acceptable” Russell Crowe “For a sultan that has $20 billion, this loss of business doesn’t even make a dent in his fortunes. But the hotel staff are being negatively affected every day” Kim Kardashian, left

Kellogg’s chief executive, is leading a senior management team in London this month in an attempt to strike a deal.

United Biscuits could yet scupper any negotiations by opting for a flotation. Martin Glenn, its chief executive, has met analysts and investors this week is understood to have received positive feedback regarding a potential listing.

Mr Glenn told The Times last year: “We want McVities [and United Biscuits] re-emerging as a world-class biscuit company and challenging American multinationals, such as Mondelez International and PepsiCo, and in the UK there is still a lot to go for.”

United Biscuits, which is likely to change its name to McVitie’s before a sale or flotation, is being advised by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan and Centerview Partners. It is understood that bids from prospective buyers are due at the end of this month. All parties declined to comment.

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Business Markets companies news

Martin Waller Tempus Buy, sell or hold: today’s best share tips

hays

Hays share price

160p 150 140 130 120

Q1

Up 6% rise in group headcount

H

Q2

Q3

110

ays produced its third quarterly trading update MY ADVICE Hold in a row that beat market WHY The latest in a series of expectations. For the first encouraging updates, but time in almost four years its three biggest markets — Britain, there must be some concern Germany and Australia — were all in over prospects for its business positive territory, as recorded in the in the eurozone first quarter of its financial year, to the end of September.

In Australia, the natural resources sector is on the way up, and the there are signs that hiring is rising 2 per cent rise in fee income there is again in financial services, the rise the first in two years. in fee income in London was Britain was especially strong, 23 per cent. The recovery is confirming the experience of spread across public and Robert Walters, a smaller private sectors; in the rival to Hays in the former, hiring in education 9% recruitment business, a was boosted by the new Rise in net fees in scholastic year. couple of days ago. The first quarter sector is one of the clearest And yet the fortunes of indicators of economic recruiters such as Hays are recovery, as people become tied to macroeconomic more confident in moving jobs, factors, to the extent that there and that upturn has spread to all is little point in making forecasts too regions save Scotland, where the far out. Germany and France may referendum created uncertainty. have grown fee income by 7 per cent So if you exclude the City, and apiece but the signs are not good john wood group $1 bn size of US shale revenues

S

hares in John Wood Group have been weak over the past month or so, on fears that the falling oil price will mean less investment in the sector, a slackening of contract wins and the need to take work at lower margins.

The good news is that none of this seems to be happening. Wood, because of its diverse workload, is less exposed to cutbacks by the big producers than others in oil and gas services.

The company warned last year that its engineering division might be

hit, as there was a dearth of early stage wins that would then lead to larger contracts.

Yesterday’s trading announcement indicated again, after a positive update in August, that some early stage work was trickling in again, which augurs well for prospects for next year and 2016.

The news coincided with a day for investors and analysts to hear about prospects for its PSN Production Services division. This is doing well out of the shale boom in the US. Five years ago it barely existed; today, aided by the purchase last year of Elkhorn, revenues are standing at $1 billion. Other work is coming through from large clients such as

BAE Systems is cutting 440 managerial jobs at its jet division as it weathers the drop in government spending. Its two sites in Lancashire, with 11,000 workers, will be worst hit, accounting for half the job losses.

The cuts by the defence company, which makes Eurofighter warplanes and Astute submarines, come after a review.

The company has already warned that cuts in the US military budget would take 10 per cent off full-year earnings.

ncc group

All thanks to UK and Australia

Source: Thomson Reuters

Caution is still key as recruiter beats bets

BAE sheds managers Revenue £39.5m, up 11 per cent

Like-for-like fee growth Asia Pacific

Cont Europe and ROW

UK and Ireland 13% 11%

T

here has been such a rush to register new domain names on the internet that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the international body 8% 7% overseeing the process, has been 6% swamped. This is the charitable explanation for the delay in 0 transferring the .trust name from Q4 Q1 Q4 Q1 Q4 Q1 Deutsche Post, which was happy to sell to NCC Group.

8,237 employees, 5,357 consultants, NCC wants to launch a third in 237 offices, across 33 countries cybersecurity service, in addition to Debt £60m (£97m at 30 Sept 2013) its advice and data storage businesses. The domain would let companies conduct from the eurozone, and transactions with each follow me that could go into reverse other in the certainty that on twitter again. they were dealing with the for updates Hays makes three points right site and not a @MartinWaller10 scammer or phisher. in its defence. There was no sign of a tailing off as the The market is potentially quarter approached its end, or huge, but the service has been so far into October. delayed by three or four months Its model in France, providing and will now start in February. A temporary staff on fixed-term selection of NCC clients will then be contracts, is proving popular with introduced, with first profits through cautious employers. Hays reckons it by the 2015-16 financial year. can still continue to increase fee The advice side is growing faster income whenever GDP growth in than storage, with revenues up 14 per any given territory is at 1 per cent cent in the four months to the end of or more.

September, traditionally the quietest The shares, up 2¾p at 122¾, period for NCC. The shares, up 2p at sell on about 17 times this year’s 187p and a subdued market this year, earnings. It is true that fee income sell on 21 times earnings for this year, growth will increasingly feed depressed by the investment in the through into earnings, and analysts domain. One for the patient. were inclined to upgrade their forecasts for this year. That caution remains, though.

MY ADVICE Long-term hold Debt is being eliminated, and there WHY New market is promising, will in due course be a special if it is taking time to enter dividend. This looks the best reason to hold the shares.

ExxonMobil and Woodside. In the turbine division, Wood is close to resolving the difficult Dorad contract in Israel, with the chance that some earlier losses may be written back at the year end.

I tipped the shares, up 13½p at 692p, at the start of this year. They now sell on a very reasonable 11 times’ this year’s earnings.

On the basis of all the above, recent falls look overdone. Buy.

MY ADVICE Buy WHY The fall in the shares looks overdone

Helicopter chief jailed The former chief executive of Finmeccanica, the Italian defence company, has been sentenced to two years in prison for falsifying invoices in a €560 million (£440 million) helicopter contract with India. Giuseppe Orsi, the former boss, and Bruno Spagnolini, ex-head of the Finmeccanica helicopter unit, AgustaWestland, had also been accused of bribing Indian officials but were cleared at a court north of Milan.

Bank standards chief Britain’s new banking standards body has appointed Dame Colette Bowe, the former head of Ofcom, as its first chairwoman after she was selected by an independent panel of experts that included Mark Carney, the Bank of England governor.

An economist by profession, Dame Colette, 67, will chair the industry-funded banking standards review council to improve morals in the City.

Amazon to open shop Having established itself as a leading online retailer, Amazon plans to open its first bricks and mortar shop, near New York’s Empire State Building, in time for the holiday season.

The pop-up store is expected to hold goods for same-day delivery and for online order pick-up as well as display products such as its Kindle tablets, smartphone, and TV box, according to the Wall Street Journal.

And finally . . .

B

reedon Aggregates, the UK’s biggest independent producer of heavy building materials, continues to make infill acquisitions even as it waits to see what assets will fall off the table from the Holcim merger with Lafarge. The latest deal is for Barr Quarries in Scotland, which also has asphalt and ready-mixed concrete plants, for £20.8 million or a bit less than eight times earnings.

One day that transformational acquisition will come along but, for now, Breedon is doing well enough out of consolidation in the industry.

All the latest breaking stories thetimes.co.uk/ business

PRICES Major Indices New York Dow Jones Nasdaq Composite S&P 500

London Financial Futures 16659.25 (-334.97) 4378.34 (-90.26) 1928.21 (-40.68) 15478.93 (-117.05)

Hong Kong Hang Seng

23534.53 (+271.20)

Sydney AO Frankfurt DAX Singapore Straits Brussels BEL20 Paris CAC-40

8482.90 (-34.39) 3042.45 (-10.86)

Long Gilt 3-Mth Sterling

London

Tokyo Nikkei 225

Amsterdam AEX Index

Zurich SMI Index DJ EURO Stoxx 50

402.66 (-0.80) 5293.30 (+51.70) 9005.02 (+9.69) 3259.25 (+32.54) 3092.71 (-7.33) 4141.45 (-26.67)

FTSE 100 6431.85 (-50.39) FTSE 250 14811.33 (-122.19) FTSE 350 3488.13 (-27.55) FTSE Eurotop 100 2673.45 (-10.41) FTSE All-Shares 3427.70 (-26.81) FTSE Non Financials 3989.89 (-27.96) techMARK 100 3180.35 (-22.14) Bargains 1252706 US$ 1.6112 (-0.0048) Euro 1.2706 (+0.0024) £:SDR 1.08 (+0.00) Exchange Index 87.7 (+0.3) 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 843.12 (-7.86) Morningstar Long/Short Commod 4585.26 (+7.63)

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 115.32

High 115.53

Low 114.76

99.390 99.260 99.120 98.960 98.810 99.915 99.930 99.935 99.925 99.915 100.03 100.07 100.08 100.07 111.59

99.400 99.300 99.160 99.010 98.850 99.920 99.930 99.940 99.935 99.920 100.04 100.08 100.09 100.09 111.59 111.56 127.42 100.00 146.72 100.00 6530.5 6392.0 4279.5

99.380 99.240 99.080 98.910 98.730 99.910 99.920 99.925 99.920 99.900 100.03 100.06 100.07 100.07 111.58 111.55 127.25 100.00 146.45 100.00 6354.0 6358.0 4278.5

127.33 146.61 6514.5 6392.0 4278.5

Sett 114.80 114.80 99.380 99.240 99.080 98.915 98.750 99.915 99.925 99.930 99.925 99.905 100.04 100.07 100.08 100.08 111.58 111.58 127.31 127.31 146.51 146.51 6408.0 6358.0 4000.0 4001.0

Vol 239668

Open Int 412437

85989 136876 123548 107985 223327 29477 30919 28211 21980 31085 6352 8563 6281 5207 232 104 391 3 374 3 143701 48 75

468670 415039 391765 303430 363530 512971 407628 378863 289831 301105 75378 81989 41816 25641 22995 10214 4633 569553 1031 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)

89.65 89.90 90.25 85.75 85.05

-1.00 -1.30 -1.40 -1.55 -1.55

Products ($/MT) 914.00 771.75 486.50 724.00

915.00 773.75 490.50 726.00

-1.00 -3.00 -1.50 -17.00

757.75-757.50 761.50-761.00 764.75-764.25

Brent (9.00pm) Nov 89.56-89.53 Dec 89.90-89.86

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: 37090

Jan Feb

768.50-768.00 unq Volume: 281144

Feb Mar

90.90-90.23 91.97-91.09

unq unq Volume: 16940

White Sugar (FOB) Reuters

ICE Futures Gas Oil Oct Nov Dec

Volume: 1054156

RobustaCoffee

Spot CIF NW Europe (prompt delivery) Premium Unld Gasoil EEC 3.5 Fuel Oil Naphtha

90.37-90.27

LIFFE

Dec Mar May

unq unq unq

Aug Oct Dec Mar

unq unq unq unq Volume: 4838

London Grain Futures LIFFE Wheat (close £/t) Nov May

112.30 118.80

Jan Jul

114.80 120.65

Mar 117.05 Volume: 534

the times | Friday October 10 2014

39

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Markets Business

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER, ROB STOTHARD

Miners a rare jewel amid Europe’s gathering gloom Gary Parkinson Market report The Fed’s salutary effect on the stock market proved short-lived, but its boost to mining shares endured.

After America’s central bank signalled that worries about an early interest rate rise were misplaced, the FTSE 100 ran nearly 50 points higher.

Deepening concerns about Europe’s economy then smothered any transatlantic optimism and London’s leading index staged a galloping retreat to its lowest this year, off 50.4 points at 6,431.9. Germany is a growing worry and October is living up to its reputation as the market’s choppiest month.

However, the Federal Reserve’s concern about the strength of the dollar was taken as supportive of metals, priced in bucks. Where metals went, miners followed, and precious

equity forecast

Run for your lives, says uber bear

S

ociété Générale’s uber bear is growling again.

Albert Edwards, strategist and howling voice of dissent throughout this last bull market, is calling the top for shares.

Sort of.

Mr Edwards, who regularly touts the idea of an economic “Ice Age” in which stock markets collapse under global deflationary pressure, urged the French broker’s clients to “sell everything and run for your lives”.

You can feel the growing nervousness in an increasingly choppy market, he

Wall Street report See-sawing on Wall Street gathered pace as the Dow Jones industrial average recoiled from its best day of the year to tumble 334.97 points to 16,659.25 on fears, prompted by the latest German export data, that Europe is sliding into recession.

Glastonbury keeps cash rolling in but profits slide

H

eadline acts such as the Rolling Stones and Mumford & Sons have helped the

company behind the Glastonbury festival to make £35 million in revenue, although profits were down (Alex Ralph writes).

The festival made a pre-tax profit of £764,000 last year after the costs of sales and administrative expenses wiped out much of the takings.

In 2011, when the

AHDB meat services Average fatstock prices at representative markets (p/kg lw) Pig Lamb Cattle GB 111.09 153.51 180.78 (+/-) +3.08 -2.33 +0.77 Eng/Wales (+/-) Scotland (+/-)

Cash

Bullion: Open $1219.75

7310.0 7320.0

2093.5 2095.5

1980.0 1985.0

Zinc Spec Hi Gde ($/tonne) 2327.5 2328.0 2338.0 2339.0

1943.0 1948.0

20175.0 20180.0

Alum Hi Gde ($/tonne) 1923.0 1924.0 1955.0 1956.0 Nickel ($/tonne) 16625.0 16630.0 16700.0 16710.0

20255.0 20305.0 2280.0 2285.0 18770.0 18870.0

1.1390-1.1392 1.1164-1.1165 5.8694-5.8696 0.7885-0.7885 7.7562-7.7571 107.98-107.99 3.2534-3.2554 6.4718-6.4740 1.2717-1.2719 7.2213-7.2236 0.9548-0.9549

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

13.660-13.662 1.8359-1.8366 0.6040-0.6116 3.8616-3.8777 1.2712-1.2714 12.504-12.506 98.318-98.522 19753-19791 0.4640-0.4666 5.1550-5.3584 2.0488-2.0508 2.0496-2.0508 17.873-17.889 5.9176-5.9240

2 mth

3 mth

6 mth

12 mth

0.7133

1.0590

Krugerrand $1211.00-1286.00 (£751.18-797.70)

Clearer CDs

0.58-0.43

0.60-0.45

0.65-0.50

0.80-0.65

1.13-0.98

Platinum $1280.00 (£793.98)

Depo CDs

0.58-0.43

0.60-0.45

0.65-0.50

0.80-0.65

1.13-0.98

Silver $17.42 (£10.81)

Eurodollar Deps

0.15-0.25

0.19-0.29

0.23-0.33

0.36-0.46

0.51-0.66

Palladium $803.00 (£498.10)

Eurodollar CDs

0.15-0.08

0.18-0.12

0.22-0.15

0.36-0.21

0.52-0.38

209.98 +6.06

Lead ($/tonne) 2081.0 2082.0

Australia Canada Denmark Euro Hong Kong Japan Malaysia Norway Singapore Sweden Switzerland

0.5643

150.81 +0.61

15mth

Dollar rates

0.5324

unq

Interbank Rates

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

0.70

1.03

-0.15

-0.07

0.04

0.21

Dollar Sterling Euro

Enegi Oil 10.5 per cent to 2.625p.

Hardy Oil & Gas bulls took heart from reports in India that its Petroleum Ministry is acting to try to progress discoveries held up by the regulator. Good news for Hardy, 2¾p easier at 97p, whose hefty D3 block has been bogged down for some time.

Stellar Diamonds edged 1.9 per cent higher to 1.375p after recovering its first diamonds from a kimberlite pipe in Guinea. London Mining shares that traded as low as 0.1p on Wednesday more than doubled to 1.55p as private investors piled in.

“Option money” was how one market marker described it: if funding is secured, the shares might jump to 10p.

If not, they go to zero and punters lose only what they put in.

Venture Life ticked another penny higher to 98½p, making a near-20 per cent improvement in a week after decent interim results, a push by WH Ireland and directors buying shares in the specialist in life sciences products for an ageing population.

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

0.5079

AM $1227.50 PM $1226.75

3mth

metal miners went furthest. quarterly earnings and a Gold ticked up to its dearest reassuringly bullish outlook. in a couple of weeks, rising Conversely, a string of follow us for a fourth day as Footsie constituents were on twitter speculators who had bet marked lower after starting for updates against its price tripped over @timesbusiness to trade without rights to themselves to close costly the next dividend. Among positions. them were Kingfisher, the Mexico’s Fresnillo, in truth owner of B&Q DIY, off 16p at more of a silver than gold miner, 296¾p, and the insurer Aviva, down added 46½p to 770p and South 13¾p at 499¼p.

Africa’s Randgold Resources Ebola’s spread to Europe ensured advanced 248p to £42.98 as Numis, that airlines and tour operators among the City’s better brokers, urged remained friendless. IAG, which owns clients to buy both, while trimming British Airways and Iberia in Spain, target prices for each. Another two where a case of the deadly virus has brokers, Peel Hunt and Canaccord been confirmed, lost 10¼p to 333p, Genuity, afforded another goldminer, while TUI Travel, whose brands Centamin, a similar rating after include First Choice and Thomson production proved solid in Egypt, holidays, fell 10p to 357p. where it remains bogged down in a Among the tiddlers, a bid for one legal challenge. palm oil producer prompted interest Sentiment towards London’s quoted in others. DekelOil was chased 5.5 per miners, which dominated the cent higher to 1.45p and MP Evans leaderboard, was further lifted by 6.8 per cent to 457¾p. From palm oil Alcoa, the American aluminium to North Sea oil, and a progress group, which delivered muscular report on its Phoenix project lifted

1 mth

Low $1218.99

179.60 +0.68

said. Fund managers are worrying that we have reached the end of the road and a “market top” may be forming. Not only are there concerning data coming out of the formerly dependable Chinese and German

Money rates %

Close $1224.24-1224.72 High $1232.86

153.78 -2.68

Copper Gde A ($/tonne) 6766.5 6767.0 6712.0 6712.5

Tin ($/tonne) 20200.0 20225.0

Gold/Precious metals (US dollars per ounce)

111.09 +3.08

London Metal Exchange (Official)

festival was previously held, it made a profit of £1.8 million on revenues of £32 million. The accounts show that Glastonbury donated £348,162 to charity.

Tickets for next year’s festival sold out in 26 minutes. The 150,000 standard tickets are priced at £225.

Sell everything: Albert Edwards, the howling voice of dissent

Mkt Rates for Copenhagen Euro Montreal New York Oslo Stockholm Tokyo Zurich

Range 9.4176-9.4747 1.2731-1.2668 1.7926-1.8016 1.6107-1.6224 10.377-10.435 11.388-11.645 174.02-174.99 1.5343-1.5400

Close 9.4610-9.4630 1.2713-1.2712 1.7993-1.8003 1.6120-1.6121 10.434-10.437 11.641-11.647 174.02-174.10 1.5389-1.5397

1 month 42ds 4pr 10pr 4ds 83pr 17ds 9ds 8ds Premium pr

3 month 130ds 11pr 27pr 13ds 254pr 61ds 31ds 26ds Discount ds

Other Sterling

economies, there are also expectations for the kind of US inflation that triggered the Fed to introduce quantitative easing. Yet, there seems to be no prospect of that now.

Quite the reverse.

“So maybe it’s time to stop dancing and sit this one out,” Mr Edwards suggested.

“Am I calling a top?

What’s the point? As an uber bear I am used to being called a stopped clock. By contrast the market embraces a bullish forecaster, however often they are shown to be overly optimistic.”

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 2.000 1.740 1.960 1.700 10.160 8.910 12.690 10.090 1.390 1.210 13.420 11.800 429.370 353.260 22667.100 18080.500 6.580 5.610 188.170 162.970 2.300 1.950 11.310 9.780 5.880 4.820 69.500 57.880 19.950 16.900 12.400 11.020 1.690 1.460 4.090 3.270 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

40

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Friday October 10 2014 | the times

arts

‘Homeland is about an intelligence officer, it’s not about a love affair’ It’s back on Sunday — but is Brody? Andrew Billen talks to the show’s creators about its reinvention

E

very winter the writers of the US espionage drama Homeland take a trip to Washington DC to spend a week listening to retired and serving intelligence officers, State Department officials, White House staffers and journalists. The Homelanders want to know what troubles the minds of the real players in American foreign policy and the war on terror. “And this year,” says the show’s creator and executive producer Alex Gansa, who is with Howard Gordon the brains behind Homeland, “it was all about the drawdown [of troops back to the US] that was going to happen in Afghanistan and the murky, murky relations we have with Pakistan, its immediate neighbour.” At the time, the rise of Islamic State (Isis) in Syria and Iraq was a cloud no bigger than a terrorist’s clenched fist.

This January can only have been a more than usually urgent fishing expedition. Gansa and Gordon’s mission was to find not merely a fourth act to their story but its reinvention. Season three had ended with Damian Lewis’s character Nicholas Brody — the US Marine turned by al-Qaeda and then turned again by his lover, the CIA agent Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) — hanged. Carrie was left pregnant with his child. Homeland had a reputation for writing its co-stars out in body bags, but this time a season had concluded not with a cliffhanger but having apparently hurled itself off a cliff.

Speaking from LA, Gansa says the economics of a successful television series would have never allowed the show to end there. “We didn’t think the story was over anyway. In fact, we always thought Homeland was a series about an intelligence officer and not about a love affair.” Brody’s had been a death much foretold, especially to Lewis. “I think I must have called Damian three times to tell him that his character was dying.”

Brody was given a reprieve. By delaying the character’s death from the end of season two to mid-series three and finally to its end, Gansa believes some extraordinary television was produced. The downside, some might say, was the ridiculous remote-

I think I must have called Damian Lewis three times to tell him that his character was dying

control killing of the vice-president in season two and the teen-rom adventures of Brody’s daughter in season three. Even Gansa admits the first season was hard to match.

“The story just felt very pure and you can’t find that every season. You try and you hope and sometimes you strike it and sometimes you don’t.”

He insists, however, it was his and Gordon’s original intention to put Carrie into the field in season two and thereafter make each run tell a distinct story, rather in the manner of The Wire’s five seasons. This Sunday’s premiere on Channel 4, then, has Carrie as a station chief in the US embassy in Kabul, in charge of assassinating terrorists from an ever-growing list. Cracking an apiarist joke, it is called The Drone Queen.

When the bombing of a Taliban leader kills innocent civilians at a wedding party, Carrie is sent to Pakistan to talk through the disastrous consequences with the US ambassador, another strong, trouser-suited female played

by Laila Robins.

Pakistan and Afghanistan feel, I say, an odd relocation for a series named Homeland. “You’re very smart to point that out,” says Gansa, perhaps playing for time. “This season we’ve made it a priority to create in Pakistan a little America, an embassy compound in which a lot of Americans are serving.

By viewing these people overseas we

the times | Friday October 10 2014

41

FGM

arts

COURTESY OF 20TH CENTURY FOX

forces a fighting chance against the Taliban. And it puts people like Carrie Mathison, it puts people like Lieutenant Edgars, the guy who’s flying the mission, and drone pilots in a very, very psychologically tough situation — not to mention the people on the ground, for God’s sakes!”

Speaking to me two years ago, Lewis boasted that the series had avoided “easy parallels” between Islam and violence. “I wondered,” he said, “if there was a more subversive story to tell of a Marine who found some sort of sustenance in Islam as a force for good.” With the introduction of a sympathetic Pakistani medical student played by Suraj Sharma (from Life of Pi), Homeland will continue to be an uneasy watch for hawkish Americans. Yet last week in The Washington Post, the film-maker Laura Durkay called Homeland the most bigoted show on television: “The entire structure of Homeland is built on mashing together every manifestation of political Islam, Arabs, Muslims and the whole Middle East into a Frankenstein-monster

This season we’ve created a little America in Pakistan

are commenting a little bit on how America projects its power in other parts of the world and how that is a reflection of who we are as people.”

It is this philosophical discussion, recurring over three years in the space between the Brody-Carrie romance and the killings, that lifts Homeland into a category of popular television all its own. Which other series would make its hero (never mind heroine) responsible for scores of civilian deaths and, what is more, receive the news with a look of irritation rather than horror? Carrie is getting harder and harder to like.

“I agree. Except to say, you know, what’s the alternative? In other words, what other policy is possible in that part of the world right now?

Nato forces are drawing down in Afghanistan. Obviously we don’t want to surrender that country after all the blood and treasure we’ve spent there.

So the strategy now is to try to kill as many bad guys as we can before we leave and give the Afghan security

Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison in Homeland and, far left, in the first episode of the new series. Left: Alex Gansa

Watch the trailer for Homeland season four

tablet editions and thetimes.co.uk/arts

global terrorist threat that simply doesn’t exist.”

“It’s impossible to win,” says Gansa.

“A lot of the audience felt that the strength of Homeland was the Brody-Carrie relationship and the other half felt that that was a complete distraction and that Carrie was a moonstruck teenager. You can’t spend your whole life as a creative person worrying about how people are going to respond or whether you’re coming down on the right or left side of an issue. You’ve just got to try to tell the truest story you can and be honest to the characters you’ve created.”

I wonder if he is cursing that the new season of Homeland focuses on the Taliban and al-Qaeda just as the world is gripped by the rise of Isis.

“I’m relieved, actually. I’m very comfortable telling a story adjacent to that crisis. I think it is so painful to turn on the news and see what’s going on in that part of the world right now. It’s too incendiary.”

For those of us who have watched Homeland as much for Carrie and Brody as the politics there is intriguing news. Carrie’s baby is now being brought up by her sister and we are promised a sensational revelation about the reasons for that next week.

Meanwhile, can it be true that Lewis has been spotted on the Homeland lot? “All I can tell you,” says Gansa, “is yes, it’s true Damian Lewis was on the set in Cape Town, but it’s also true that Nicholas Brody is dead.”

We are, I assume, talking either ghosts or flashbacks — either of which could be symptomatic of bipolar Carrie’s precarious mental state.

In DC, one fan will receive this news anxiously. President Obama requests advance DVDs of the show. “He told us, ‘Please be gentle on Carrie this season’,” reveals Gansa. It would appear the writ of the most powerful man on Earth runs only so far.

Series 4 of Homeland begins on Channel 4 on Sunday (9pm)

When the lead leaves

Blake’s 7 When Gareth Thomas wanted out of the 1970s BBC sci-fi drama after two seasons, Blake went MIA. For the next two series his crew looked for him — finding him in the finale.

Inspector Morse John Thaw played the clapped-out Morse on the mortuary slab in the last episode in 1999. Morse’s younger self has been revived in Endeavour.

Taggart Marc McManus, who played the grizzled Glasgow tec, died 11 years into Taggart’s run in 1994 — but the series stayed on the beat for STV for another two decades.

Two and a Half Men In 2011 Charlie Sheen was so disparaging about its showrunner Chuck Lorre that he was sacked.

Lorre cast Ashton Kutcher as his replacement. The series thrives.

Dallas Patrick Duffy’s Bobby Ewing was killed off in 1985. He was persuaded back and the season without him was revealed to be his wife’s dream.

42

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Friday October 10 2014 | the times

Richard Morrison the arts column ‘David Cameron me needs ed to brush rush up on hi his Magna agna Carta’ ANDREW MATTHEWS / PA

D

oubtless they will be frothing from all available orifices in Tunbridge Wells.

Magna Carta has been sold . . . to the Chinese! Happened this week, apparently, while we were all enthralled by the Lib Dem conference. Shocking. What next for our national treasures?

Westminster Abbey flogged to Qatar?

Bruce Forsyth put on permanent display in Disneyland?

OK, I am being economical with the actualité. It wasn’t the great charter itself that was sold. It was Magna Carta Island in Berkshire, the Thames isle where (according to one theory) King John famously met his rebellious lords on June 15, 1215 before putting his moniker, or at least his whopping Great Seal, on the document enshrining the freedoms that have been fundamental to our “island story” ever since: namely the right of rich barons to fleece helpless peasants whenever they get the chance.

The island was put on the market in the summer, asking price £3.95 million — which is roughly what my dentist charges for root-canal work. For a seven-bedroom house incorporating a 17th-century chapel, 3.7 acres of prime Berkshire land, 400m of river frontage and of course all that medieval history, four million quid seems like a snip.

Either way, Sotheby’s International Realty tells me that an offer “close to the asking price” was accepted from a Chinese family on Tuesday. After 800 years, what impeccable timing! It was

The City of London’s 1297 Magna Carta and three others are to go on show also on Tuesday that the British Library announced a ballot to win the ticket of the century — or perhaps that should be eight centuries. To mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, the BL is offering 1,215 lucky people (oh, the symbolism!) the chance to view all four surviving copies of the

For all that medieval history, four million quid feels like a snip

charter, which will be brought together for the first time in history (bl.uk/magna-carta for details).

The BL itself has two copies, the others (owned by Lincoln and Salisbury cathedrals) will be brought to London and exhibited together for three days only on February 2-4.

A big event is planned for the 1,215 ballot-winners, apparently hosted by “costumed characters from the 13th century” (gosh, sounds like lunch at the Garrick), but time will also be set aside to give the world’s most eminent medievalists a unique chance to examine the manuscripts side by side.

Then the various charters will go back to their usual homes to be the

centrepieces of individual celebrations.

Lincoln inaugurates its Magna Carta Vault next April, part of a £22 million restoration, while Salisbury opens a permanent exhibition in February, when its Magna Carta returns.

As for the BL, its huge exhibition, running from March to September, will bring together — for the first and maybe last time, certainly in our lifetimes — the three seminal documents enshrining the liberties of the English-speaking world: Magna Carta and (making their UK debuts) the American Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.

Many historians argue that Magna Carta, by limiting the supposedly Godgiven powers of the King, inspired the founding fathers of the United States to ditch him altogether.

I just hope all these Magna Carta celebrations, for which HM Treasury has forked out £1 million, don’t get hijacked by people making political points about British nationality or about what should be taught to schoolchildren (as, to a certain extent, the First World War centenary was hijacked). Magna Carta might have been an important landmark in the history of civil rights, but that journey from serfdom to democracy began a century earlier and still goes on today.

It needs careful explanation, not political grandstanding. David Cameron has already come close to the latter when, in the wake of the alleged takeover of Birmingham schools by Islamic extremists, he said that every child in Britain needed to study Magna Carta as “the foundation of all our laws and liberties”.

He should brush up his own knowledge first. Two years ago he was unable even to offer a translation of the words “magna carta” on the Late Show with David Letterman. No, not even a vague, Eton-educated stab in the dark. Good grief. In the immortal words of Tony Hancock: “Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you? Did she die in vain?”

A new dawn for funding music?

What good news that the Aurora Orchestra, the most bracing breath of fresh air to invigorate the British classical music scene in the past ten years, has landed a multialbum deal with Warner Classics, the giant that now owns what was the classical division of EMI. It’s not such good news that the orchestra has had to plea for £10,000 of crowdfunding in order to proceed with the recording of its new album, Insomnia. The money has to be raised by the end of the month.

What’s happened to the notion of record companies forking out the initial investment for recordings? That, it seems, is hopelessly 20th century. These days performers need diplomas in millionaire schmoozing as well as more traditional musical skills. Go to crowdfunder.co.uk/ aurora if you want to help this brilliant band etch a few groovy grooves in the vinyl — as we used to say in the 20th century.

the times | Friday October 10 2014

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THE CRITICS

Kate Muir

sees The Maze Runner lose its way p8

Will Hodgkinson

listens to a pair of Jessies p9

Rachel Campbell-Johnston navigates Sigmar Polke at Tate p11

Jack O’Connell at the centre of the action in ’71

Effie Gray

12A, 108min

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The Rewrite

12A, 107min

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Annabelle 15, 99min

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Gold

15, 86min

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I Blood and guts in Belfast the big film

Jack O’Connell thrills as a lost and hunted soldier at the height of the Troubles, says Wendy Ide ’71

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t is the basic premise of any number of war movies: a soldier is stranded behind enemy lines, and during his struggle for survival finds himself questioning just who the adversary really is. But by transposing the action to the back streets of Belfast during the Troubles, ’71 brings a fresh perspective and a piercing urgency to a well-worn scenario.

This propulsive, sickeningly tense thriller works particularly well because of the surreal familiarity — even banality — of the backdrop. This is not the barbed-wire labyrinth of the

trenches in occupied France; it’s not the blasted moonscape of Afghanistan’s mountain country or the unforgiving desert of the Gulf war. It’s a sprawl of dowdy little terraces, populated by lippy kids and no-nonsense matriarchs. But for the blazing cars and simmering hostility it could be any unprepossessing inner city in the UK. Jack O’Connell flexes every fibre of his formidable star quality as newly minted British soldier Gary Hook.

He has hurled himself into the training with a gusto that is only slightly deflated by the news that his platoon will be posted, not to Germany, but to Northern Ireland.

He and his fellow squaddies are not the only new recruits to arrive in the barracks. His new commanding officer, Lieutenant Armitage (Sam Reid), comes from a world far away from the gritty sectarian hatred and privation of Belfast’s streets.

His brayed greeting (“Hellair!”) betrays his nerves. A briefing explains the stark divisions that carve up the city — the roads that serve as a frontlines and the no-go areas, including the monolithic Divis flats.

It doesn’t take long for the soldiers to have to put their training into practice. Their very first outing, a spectacularly mismanaged routine operation in co-operation with the brutally gung-ho police, rapidly

ignites. Gary smirks incredulously as a gang of feisty pre-teens bombards them with bags of urine. But the smile fades as he comprehends the full force of the hostility that crashes down on them.

Director Yann Demange crafts a brilliant sequence in which the soldiers, unwelcome in the Catholic side of town, are greeted by a cacophony of bin lids bashed on pavement. Veiled by the assault of noise, menacing figures mass in the background.

The explosion of violence that leaves Gary bewildered, alone and covered in the blood of his closest friend is superbly executed. But it’s the aftermath that really ratchets up the tension. Following a shocking and unexpected event that snatches Gary away from safety, we follow the wounded young soldier as he stumbles through the hellish sulphurous yellow of the smoke-filled streets. O’Connell gives a wrenchingly physical performance — we feel every shuddering breath he forces.

The one question mark that hangs over the story is the role of the covert British undercover team that becomes as palpable a threat to Gary as the IRA. Their murky motivation and machinations feel more like a forced plot device than a credible story strand.

f ever a story cried out for the richly saturated, passionate tones of melodrama, it’s Effie Gray.

Scripted by Emma Thompson, this is the story of Effie aka Euphemia (Dakota Fanning), the teenage bride of the critic and essayist John Ruskin (Greg Wise) and, later, the wife of the pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais (Tom Sturridge). It’s a tale of intrigue and scandal; cruelty and sexuality. Or at least it should be.

Unfortunately, this buttoned-up costume drama is as wishy-washy as a watercolour. Partly because of Fanning’s somewhat bloodless performance and partly due to the focus on the oppressive abuse of Effie’s relationship with Ruskin rather than the release of her romance with Millais, this love triangle lacks edge.

The latest Hugh Grant rom-com, The Rewrite is a well-crafted piece, full of persuasive character detail and genuinely funny dialogue. Grant plays Keith Michaels, an Oscar-winning writer whose career has hit the skids.

In desperation, his agent puts him forward for a teaching position in a damp corner of upstate New York. It’s a job for which he is uniquely unsuited. He sleeps with a pupil and offends a powerful faculty member, played by Allison Janney, and that’s before he has even stepped into a lecture theatre. Marisa Tomei is sparky and likeable as the single-mum mature student who helps him to take stock of his life.

The prequel to last year’s The Conjuring, Annabelle is an effectively jumpy horror about a demonically possessed doll. Unfortunately, it’s effective mainly because it steals practically everything from other, better movies. There’s the creaky rocking chair that moves by itself; the possessed sewing machine and a whole lot of Rosemary’s Baby chewed up and spewed out.

The quirky Irish comedy Gold stars James Nesbitt and Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones). This is presumably why it is being released, because it’s not due to any actual merit. David Wilmot stars as Ray, absent father of the aspiring runner Abbie (Williams) who snivels back into her life and wrecks everything he touches. As charmless as it is unfunny. Wendy Ide

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Friday October 10 2014 | the times

film

We’ve got to get out of this place This tedious teen tosh is less taught thriller, more Lord of the Flies-lite, says Kate Muir The Maze Runner 12A, 115min

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Keep turning right, kids: Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario and their fellow maze runners

n the annals of dystopian young-adult franchises, The Maze Runner is less than totes amazeballs. Frankly, it’s a bit whatevs and derivs of the colossus of The Hunger Games.

But allow, fam — you may just have to give your offspring bare p’s to purchase a cinema ticket because, after all, YOLO. YOLO (you only live once, oldsters) could also describe the philosophy of the adolescents trapped in the maze of the title. Every so often one makes a dash for the exit, never to return, as the concrete passageways become monstrous by night, populated by creatures called Grievers.

The film was adapted from James Dashner’s books and, like The Hunger Games and Divergent, pits teenagers against each other in the shadow of a futuristic dictatorship. This time the protagonist is a young man, Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), who wakes up in a rattling goods lift hurling him upwards into the Glade, a verdant expanse surrounded by skyscraper-sized walls and the entry to the maze. Thomas has lost his memory and seems

The Calling 15, 108min

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Filmed in Supermarionation

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Gone Too Far! 12A, 87min

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Under-12s might be shocked but the full horror is muddily filmed

puzzled by this confined space, but to us it seems tediously similar to the island in Lord of the Flies or the arena in The Hunger Games.

The Glade is populated by lost boys, or at least boys who have also lost their memories. They grow crops, build huts and live on supplies that come in the goods lift each month with a “greenie”: a new member of their community. The elite of the group are “maze runners” who run in to map the labyrinth, a city without street signs or windows that changes its configuration every night.

At first they seem a milquetoast bunch, saying “Good job!” and living in harmony, which never makes for great cinema. Eventually, though, the Lord of the Flies character types emerge: handsome Thomas becomes a maze runner and leader like Ralph; Gally (Will Poulter, with his great puckered, worried face) is the opposing force, like Jack in Golding’s novel, and a Piggy turns up in the form of Chuck (Blake Cooper), a chubby, behind-the-curve kid.

Aside from Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Newt), the rest of the cast has that

still-in-a-school-play stench and the characters gain little depth.

The trips into the maze get formulaic and once you see that the boys have made an observation platform of tree trunks, the question recurs: what about a bigger ladder to see over the top? But that’s too simple and would prevent the monsters in the maze from scaring your arachnophobic child. While under-12s might be shocked by the monsters, older viewers will find the attacks are muddily filmed, so the full horror goes unseen. The decision to cut 43 seconds of “threat, violence and injury” and go from a 15 to a 12A certificate may have been the wrong one. What could have been a scary creature-feature has been reduced to an unintelligent actioner.

The dystopian element is equally underexploited. The boys are worryingly incurious about the fact that their supplies and walls are printed with the letters WCKD. Does the unknown authoritarian power knowingly call itself wicked? Is it a reference to Kafka’s The Trial? Or is it an advert for WKD alcopop? Discuss.

But they don’t bother.

Just as boredom sets in, a new greenie arrives in the form of Teresa, played by Kaya Scodelario (Wuthering Heights, Skins). In her limp hand is a note: “She’s the last one ever.” Now this is an interesting scenario. Will the lads make whoopee to keep civilisation going? Will Teresa make them form an orderly queue? No, she just ends up being one of the lads, with some snoozeworthy lines, and those hoping for the traditional young-adult love triangle will be disappointed.

Still, teenagers adore a gladiatorial popularity contest because it’s just like school. Kids raised on Big Brother will also relish the tempers fanned by a confined space. To me, however, The Maze Runner looked like a multiplayer computer game and perhaps that is because it’s the work of the first-time director Wes Ball, whose credits total a seven-minute CGI animated short.

Ball is clearly handier with effects than actors and the crediting of three screenwriters smacks of messy rewrites. Still, a sequel, The Scorch Trials, is lined up for next year. Have no doubt that this franchise will be thoroughly milked.

n The Calling Susan Sarandon stars as the now-ubiquitous grumpy, hard-talking female detective and gives a rounded and funny performance. Fun is also had with her passive-aggressive mother, played by Ellen Burstyn. However, the script of this Canadian serial killer movie is heavily signposted, so that even Sarandon’s Hazel Micallef seems bored by it. The killer likes to make dramatic, effortful statements — stolen stomachs; heads in freezers — and moulds the victims’ mouths into strange shapes. So when Christopher Heyerdahl walks into town as a religious healer with mad, staring blue eyes, no one is surprised, least of all us.

Giovanni’s Island is an anime feature about two young brothers who find themselves under Soviet occupation after the Second World War on the formerly Japanese island of Shikotan. The brothers, Junpei and Kanta, are obsessed by toy trains and the “galactic railroad”, despite never

having seen a real train in their fishing village.

When the Soviet forces and their families arrive, the Japanese and Soviet children are wary of each other until, in a charming moment, each group sings the other’s songs.

The burgeoning friendship between Junpei (he Italianises his name to Giovanni) and the Soviet commander’s daughter comes as relations between the two communities sour. The Japanese are starving, Junpei’s father is sent to a prison camp and the film, directed by Mizuho Nishikubo, enters into grim adult reality.

If the words “Thunderbirds are go!” leave you panting with nostalgia then the documentary Filmed in Supermarionation is sure to fascinate, although at almost two hours it may leave even the biggest fans of film-

maker/puppeteer Gerry Anderson flagging.

Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Joe 90 and Supercar were created by the zany and resourceful AP Films in a warehouse in Slough in the Sixties. The documentary shows talking-head interviews with producers and puppeteers and explains “Supermarionation”, a term coined by Anderson to describe humanoid puppets — such as Lady Penelope, above — on near-invisible strings with mouths electronically synchronised to the script and a background of explosive special effects.

The pleasure lies in watching excerpts from the old, delightfully clunky series: Thunderbird 1 blasting off through the plastic palm trees of Tracy Island and those pale-blue air-hostessy uniforms on the pilots Scott, Virgil, Gordon, John and Alan.

Gone Too Far! is set among black teenagers in south London and is based on the Olivier award-winning play by Bola Agbaje. The comedy has some real moments of insight and wit but suffers from some of the hammiest acting around: it’s like a panto transferred to a Peckham park.

Directed by Destiny Ekaragha, it focuses on Yemi, a Londoner whose long-lost Nigerian brother full of bonhomie, occasionally speaking Yoruba and wearing socks and sandals.

Yemi finds him cripplingly embarrassing, a knock to his street cred in front of the local girls.

Malachi Kirby is convincing as Yemi but his mother, played by Golda John, takes over-the-top to a new low.

Unnatural dialogue betrays the stage roots of the film, but the issues behind the teenagers’ feuds — a schism between communities with African ancestry and those with Jamaican — are given a thorough airing.

Kate Muir

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the times | Friday October 10 2014

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Two big Jessies battle it out TOM OLDEN / REX FEATURES

rock

The understated love songs of Jessie Ware thrill Will Hodgkinson — frantic Jessie J should take note Jessie Ware Tough Love Island

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or a brief period in the 1980s, tasteful jazzy pop became the height of chic. Sade was queen of the scene, saxophones were nothing to be feared and white soul poseurs Curiosity Killed the Cat even coaxed Andy Warhol out of retirement. It was music that went with a new shirt from Paul Smith and a Saturday night date in a wine bar — and now Jessie Ware is on a one-woman crusade to revive that smooth soundtrack to the lush life.

Her accomplished second album is the musical equivalent of suburbia: easy to mock, even easier to slip into.

All the emotion of life is there, but it’s restrained by decency, politeness, understatement. Even the cover, in which the 29 year-old south Londoner stares out of a window wearing a crisp white man’s shirt, suggests a certain dignified melancholy.

Ware is in a state of recently married bliss, but you would never guess from the title track. It’s a love song about solitude, a close relation to the post-divorce work of Phil Collins, in which her lighter-than-air soprano glides over a gossamer synth and the kind of beat that doesn’t like to get in the way.

Ware stands out by her normality. In recent years female singers have become known for everything apart from their singing: Rihanna for her sexuality, Lady Gaga for her theatricality and Miley Cyrus for being a one-woman hormonal explosion.

Ware asks to be judged on nothing more than her voice and songwriting.

She had a brief early career as a journalist, working at The Jewish Chronicle and the Daily Mirror, and she might have the inhibition of one more inclined to comment from the sidelines; she has talked in interviews about her discomfort at being a star.

That reticence is at the heart of the album. It has feeling and urgency, but it’s not in any way brash or showy.

Jessie Ware turns in a lush, restrained album, while Jessie J, right, does anything but

“How did you get here?

When did it begin? No one else can hear us,” she coos on the Sade-like Sweetest Song, while Pieces is an ultra-slow heartbreak ballad complete whose strings build into a crescendo of misery. miser It sounds like Kate Bush in one of her more commercial moments: unguardedly emotional, rooted in experience and with a complete lack of edginess.

The best song is the saddest. Say You Love Me has a complex melodic intersection of the type that’s used to put X Factor contestants through their paces and words about a relationship that is meant to be, but still appears to be falling apart. There’s a vulnerability to the song that suggests

it’s born of experience, which it is: Ware wrote it after she and her nowhusband had gone through a rocky patch.

Sometimes Ware goes too far in her quest for timeless adult pop tailored to soothe everyone and offend no one.

Champagne Kisses is an ode to her husband that’s so syrupy you feel a little queasy after listening to it. As is the way with so many modern pop albums, Tough Love has required a small army of collaborators, American producer-to-the-stars Benny Blanco among them, but what shines through is a unique timbre in Ware’s voice. Say You Love Me, which she co-wrote with Ed Sheeran, is the most commercial song here, but it’s made affecting by the tender way in which Ware sings: “Won’t you stay?”

Above all, this is a suburban album.

Accessible and classy, it’s very much in the spirit of the Eighties, the decade when suburbia, with its values of comfort, aspiration and unchanging reassurance, really made sense.

From one big Jessie to another: in the week Jessie Ware has brought back a sense of restraint to pop, Jessie J has done everything in her power to get rid of it.

Jessie J is the outgoing performingarts-school type who had huge hits with Do it Like A Dude and Price Tag before becoming an all-round celebrity, appearing at the Olympics closing ceremony and as a judge on The Voice. She’s good at being a pop star and she’s a cheerful role model for her mostly young, mostly female fanbase, but listening to her third album is like being bludgeoned to death by the cast of Glee.

“I’m going to do it like it ain’t been done!” the 26-year-old Londoner barks on Ain’t Been Done, before doing it like it’s been done many, many times on a slice of pure pop that’s juiced up with urban attitude and studio effects. She switches to Queen-like rock balladry for Burnin’ Up, which crams in not only as many musical styles but also as many clichés as possible. It becomes a sultry R&B anthem, then a dancefloor banger, then the rapper 2 Chainz pops up to say something about Lamborghinis and finally it ends with an electronic disco section.

At the very least it’s value for money.

Jessie J has a musical-theatre student’s approach to making an album, doing professional imitations of whatever style the song demands. She’s defensive about her abilities, too. “Why do they hate me?” she asks on Loud. “ Why are there blogs set up to debate but only forsake me?” It’s not a question you really want her to ask. Nobody wants to imagine their favourite pop star googling their own name.

The world’s finest lieder singers pick their favourite Schubert song

thetimes.co.uk/classical

arts music classical Cecilia Bartoli St Petersburg Decca

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he prospect of the singer Cecilia Bartoli running out of archive discoveries seems about as remote as Bartoli running out of breath.

Every few years this magnetic star mezzo, pictured below, pops up with another glossily packaged release, a promotional tour and a new set of foot-tapping, larynx-wobbling arias that few other people knew existed.

The new album’s title tells us where she found them, in St Petersburg, in the Mariinsky Theatre’s library — resting place of music written in the 18th century by the court musicians of what the publicity calls “three formidable tsaritsas”. Catherine the Great’s name we know about, but that’s not quite the case with her Empress predecessors Anna Ioannovna and Elizabeth Petrovna, or two of the visiting composers featured here, Francesco Araia and Hermann Raupach. None of the 11 selections, all

Who can yawn or thumb-twiddle when Bartoli burns your ears? from operas, has been recorded before.

Bartoli hurls herself into these lost artefacts of the Russian baroque with every drop of her usual flair and a little more vibrato than before. There’s nothing pale-faced either about the musicians of Diego Fasolis’s group I Barocchisti; when her coloratura flights fuse with their racing strings it’s as if you’re spinning into a vortex.

The performances’ giddy excitements delay for a time the realisation that the music’s quality, this time round, isn’t quite from the era’s top drawer. Gestures and rhythms often appear cut from the Baroque Pattern Book; melodies lack a twist of distinction. Yet the spectacle rolls on, unstoppable: who can possibly yawn and thumb-twiddle when Bartoli burns your ears, defiantly trumpeting Hercules’ descent into hell in Raupach’s Altsesta?

And that’s in Russian, too.

Italian is the usual language, though, relished in the gentler arias lamenting approaching death or when the music bends toward the pastoral, with flute and oboe solos.

There is something special about Bartoli treading pianissimo, delicately caressing each vowel and consonant; I wish she did so more often.

Like all her albums, however, St Petersburg is about coloratura firepower, about trills, runs and violent emotions. As for great music, well that can just about wait for another time.

Geoff Brown

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‘I survived and I didn’t kill anyone, I don’t think’

Ozzy Osbourne has a DVD out on his decadent life.

But how much can he recall, asks Rhys Blakely

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he latest offering from Ozzy Osbourne is a DVD “memoir”, but if you’ve followed his career, this might ring an alarm bell. Nobody doubts he’s led a life of unparalleled heavy-metal decadence. But how much of it can he really recall?

Ozzy admits to spending most of the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties as a “raving drug addict”. The blizzards of cocaine, the booze and the frequent blackouts help explain his antics — decapitating small animals (one dead bat, two live doves) with his teeth; snorting a line of ants; his arrest in 1989 for the alleged attempted murder of his wife, Sharon.

Ozzy started out as a soul singer in Birmingham, doing Otis Redding covers; his heroes are the Beatles and he seems bewildered at the role he played in inventing heavy metal.

But mind-bending substances might explain the competing explanations of how Black Sabbath, his first real band, came to lay the foundations of an entire subculture.

Survey the wreckage he’s left in his wake over the past 40 years (he’s admitted to not being able to remember the birth of his first two children) and it’s hard not to think his life story could be viewed as tragic, if not for the enormous popularity of his bumbling brand of henpecked self-destruction, as showcased on

It’s like being possessed. It’s hard being an alcoholic the mega-hit Noughties reality TV show, The Osbournes.

And today? Well, at the age of 65, the “Prince of Darkness” leads a seemingly sedate existence in a palatial mansion in Beverly Hills, surrounded by a pack of small dogs.

He shuttles himself between his personal gym and his daily AA meetings, is haunted by past misdemeanours and the urge to drink, and wonders, as we all might, at his body’s capacity to rejuvenate itself.

“Your liver can repair itself with time,” he tells me, settled in a throne-like armchair in a vast marble-floored mausoleum of a sitting room. And what about his brain? He looks pensive for a moment.

“I told my therapist last week, ‘My short-term memory is destroyed.

Do you think I have brain damage?’ And he said it will repair in time. And I thought, f*** me, I haven’t got that many years left.”

All things considered, Ozzy appears to be in pretty good shape.

He’s been sober for 18 months, after falling off the wagon last year, which prompted Sharon to kick him out of the family home for a spell. They’ve since

Friday October 10 2014 | the times

reconciled. I ask if there was a trigger: “I’m a f***ing alcoholic,” he shrugs.

The Ozzy brand demands a nod to the occult, and sure enough he’s wearing a necklace made up of dozens of tiny gold crucifixes. The jewellery (there’s a big gold ring in the shape of a skull) is paired with a black T-shirt, black trousers and a comfy-looking pair of black slippers. His hair is dyed chestnut and a veneer of foundation, applied for an upcoming photoshoot, gives him a healthy Californian glow.

He’s confessed to dabbling with plastic surgery and he looks trim; a knock-out smile reveals a mouthful of what appears to be very expensive dentistry.

The Brummie accent (he grew up in Aston, dirt poor, the son of a factory worker) may be mangled by that famous Ozzy slur, but the work ethic — surely nobody has toured harder — seems undiminished. Black Sabbath will do a farewell tour sometime soonish and release another album, the follow-up to last year’s 13, the band’s first US No 1.Ozzy and Sharon are reported to be worth in the region of £170 million. Their LA home is on a peaceful, sun-dappled street in one of the city’s classiest neighbourhoods.

The scant traffic on a weekday afternoon consists almost entirely of Hispanic gardeners in their pick-up trucks and vans ferrying sunburnt holidaymakers on sightseeing tours of celebrity houses.

In the driveway there are three black Range Rovers, a Bentley and the truck used by the visiting dog-grooming service. Ozzy used to have a Ferrari, but Sharon sold it when he started drinking again.

I’m led into a lounge that’s festooned floor to ceiling with expensive black-and-white photos, mostly from the Sixties, including a big original print of Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow at Truman Capote’s black-and-white ball in 1966. It’s surrounded by images of movie icons — Brando, Dean, Newman et al.

“Please don’t touch,” says Tom, Ozzy’s rather posh English assistant. A visitor recently scuffed a piece of art; Sharon was not amused. It’s not very rock’n’roll. Ozzy tells me about the time a fan came to a concert in the Eighties, wearing a freshly butchered cow’s head as a hat, but today there’s the sense that age and money might have finally mellowed the Osbournes.

I’m taken to his study; the first photo I see is of him next to Cliff Richard, meeting the Queen. “I think she does a tremendous job,” he says.

His new CD and DVD, Memoirs of a Madman, picks up the Ozzy story shortly after he was asked to leave Black Sabbath (his drinking and drug-taking having got out of hand) in 1979.

The DVD gives a whirlwind tour through the Eighties and Nineties, a period when Ozzy was biting heads off bats and outraging America’s moral majority by urinating on the Alamo.

Looking back, he says he didn’t believe in blackouts (“I thought it was a scare tactic to stop me drinking”) until he woke up wok one morning

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FGM TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER STEVE SCHOFIELD

Ozzy Osbourne and friend at home in LA. Left: playing live in 1991. Above right: with wife Sharon and children Aimee, Kelly and Jack in 1987

music accused of trying to strangle his wife.

She didn’t press charges.

But the scariest thing is probably the sight of Ozzy on stage circa 1984, dressed in a kind of purple-sequinned tent with shoulder pads. He was chubbier back then and he wore lots of mascara. He looks, in fact, like Elizabeth Taylor’s deranged evil twin.

“People thought I was camp — not my favourite time,” he admits. Indeed, the onstage extravagance is enough to make one wonder whether the madman stuff had been an act all along.

In 2011, his son Jack helped make a documentary, God Bless Ozzy Osbourne, that raised a similar question. Jack’s theory was that the young Ozzy was blindsided by his early success; that he was “an incredibly successful musician who developed a fantastically entertaining way of being self-destructive to mask his insecurity”.

The obvious question then is where did the “Ozzy” persona finish and the real “John” (his given name being John Michael Osbourne) begin? He says that for years he tried to separate the two. Today, when he attends his AA meetings he’ll introduce himself as “John” — but the division has never really held.

“The way I tried to explain it was that the guy who works at the circus as Coco the Clown, he doesn’t go home with his big nose and boots [on].

He takes [his] mask off and is a normal guy. But I wasn’t doing that: Ozzy was John and John was Ozzy.”

And both were alcoholics. Ozzy may have made millions out of messing about with inverted crosses, but the darkest thing in his life has been this disease. “I said to my therapist, last Friday: ‘You know what? It’s like being possessed with something.’

It’s so hard being an alcoholic; it creeps up when you least expect it.

You know that film, The Lord of the Rings, when Gollum slowly opens one eye? It’s like that.

“In the past, I’ve been with people and they’ve been drinking. It’s Christmas and I’ve been sober. I’ll think when I go home I’ll have one.

And when I wake up everyone’s left the house. I’m on my own, in my own

piss on the floor.”He’s a believer, he says, in the 12-step recovery program that calls for him to acknowledge a power greater than himself.

I ask him what it is. The old Ozzy, you might imagine, would have said Beelzebub — before trying to bite my ear off.

“It’s this place. The sky, the ocean . . . the goodness in me, if I have any left . . . nature, the world, the universe.

Whatever it is, it’s kept me sober and going back every day for 18 months.”

He catches himself; perhaps he’s getting a bit too sombre.

“I’m not turning into the heavymetal f***ing pope,” he says.

“I’m still crazy.

I always will be crazy. I’m not going to fake being crazy.

I am.”

So, any regrets? “I get asked this question a lot. I don’t. You go to the crossroads, you take one

I always will be crazy. I’m not going to fake being crazy [path] and you better be prepared to take the good and the bad that comes because you can’t change it. I chose the path that I went on to get here and I survived and haven’t killed anyone, I don’t think.”

But he doesn’t hide his past sins.

The reality show may have propelled him to a new level of fame, but he suggests it also sent his two children Kelly and Jack off the rails and into their own addiction problems. “The kids were getting out of hand, smoking dope, drinking,” he says. He admits to having been, at points, an abysmal father. He says that he is ashamed at having beaten his first wife.

So is he happy today?

“I’m happier. My head still tries to kill me on a daily basis. I am haunted by things. But today I’m doing OK.” Memoirs of a Madman will be released on DVD, CD, LP and picture disc on Monday by Epic/Legacy Recordings

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Friday October 10 2014 | the times

Register Obituaries

Andrew Kerr

One of the founding fathers of the Glastonbury festival whose vision of a new-age gathering in 1971 attracted an audience of just 12,000 BRIAN WALKER

When Andrew Kerr approached the Somerset farmer Michael Eavis in 1970 and asked if he could use his land for a rock festival, he had in mind a very different kind of event to what Glastonbury would eventually become.

Rather than 120,000 festivalgoers corralled behind a £1 million security fence paying ticket prices in excess of £200, Kerr proposed a freewheeling event with no advertising and no ticketing. He wanted a counter-cultural gathering of hippy tribes who would be fed on brown rice and lentils — paid for by donations from Jean Shrimpton — while they listened to free music by David Bowie, Hawkwind, Fairport Convention, Traffic and Arthur Brown.

Dubbed the Glastonbury Fair, it was timed to coincide with the summer solstice in June 1971 (a mystical date in the Druidic calendar) and was built around a “pyramid” stage made of scaffolding and plastic sheeting. Kerr — a former public schoolboy turned newage devotee — believed in ley lines as the source of the Earth’s spiritual energy and the power of occult ritual.

A report in The Observer at the time noted: “Kerr has the intensity of a man with a deep spiritual obsession. He claims he is trying to re-create a prehistoric science, whose huge energies are not recognised by modern society.”

The 1971 festival was not the first at Worthy Farm. Eavis had held a small event the previous year. The £1 charge included free milk. However, he had lost money so when Kerr offered to pay

a visit to the Isle of Wight festival in 1970 inspired the idea for his own event, to be organised on a radically different basis. “There seemed to be a need for a free festival,” he wrote. “All the others had some profit motive behind them.

The bread [money] was made out of the people who could least afford it. It was time they were given a party.”

When Stonehenge, his first choice of site, proved unfeasible, he settled on Glastonbury and together with Arabella Churchill, set about planning the event. They took decisions on the basis of astrology and tarot card readings.

The pyramid stage — on which Churchill spent £4,000 of her own money — was constructed as a 10:1 scale replica of the Great Pyramid at Giza and built upon a site identified by John Michell as a ley line allegedly connecting Glastonbury and Stonehenge. “What we were trying to do was to stimulate the Earth’s nervous system with joy, appreciation and happiness so that our mother planet would respond by breeding a happier, more balanced race of men, animals and plants,” Kerr explained.

Eavis later confessed that he found his fellow organisers to be “slightly unhinged”. He described one tarot reading after a disagreement: “The message read: ‘No one with the name of Michael should be involved with the festival.’

And I said: ‘Hang on a minute, isn’t this my farm?’” However, he paid tribute to Kerr and Churchill as “the eco-warriors of their day” without whose boundless energy and enthusiasm Glastonbury

He took decisions on the basis of astrology and tarot card readings

At lunch with Princess Margaret he described supernatural events

off the farm’s debts in return for the use of his land, he enthusiastically embraced the idea. To fund the event, which cost a reported £41,000, Kerr sold family heirlooms and enlisted the help of Arabella Churchill, the “wildchild” granddaughter of Sir Winston and daughter of Randolph Churchill.

The pair were dismissed by some in the music business as “a couple of toffs” but their improbable vision of combining modern pop culture and ancient magical rites — dreamt up over months staying at the farm and climbing Glastonbury Tor — attracted 12,000 people.

Copious quantities of cannabis and LSD were consumed and John Craven, at the time a junior reporter on regional TV news, told viewers that locals were “horrified by the free lovemaking, fertility rites, naked dancing and drugtaking”. One policeman reported: “Our men saw this girl making love in the mud . . . About a thousand people stood by and watched.” Yet there was virtually no trouble and only two arrests — although a naked druid named Rollo Maughfling was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. There were no further festivals at Glastonbury until the late 1970s — although each summer hopeful hippies turned up at the farm. When Eavis revived the idea on a more commercial footing in 1978, Kerr remained involved in its running and many of his innovations — including the pyramid stage and his eco-politics — continue to shape the event today.

never would have succeeded. The remarkable spirit of the event — arguably Britain’s closest answer to Woodstock — was captured by the directors Nicolas Roeg and Peter Neal in the film Glastonbury Fayre.

In the mid-1970s Kerr and his partner Lytte Piggott moved to a remote new age crofting community at Scoraig in Ross and Cromarty, accessible only by boat or a five-mile hike. They had two children, Martha and Jonah, now both crofters in Scotland. After Piggott left him Kerr embarked on various alternative lifestyles, including living in an ashram with an Indian guru and working as a dry stone-waller, before settling again in Piltdown, near Glastonbury.

He described the festival’s rebirth in 1978: “I’d been away for the weekend and I came back and saw these tepees over the hedge near the farmhouse, and there was Michael on his tractor with a couple of milk churns on the back. I said what’s going on, and he said with a broad grin on his face, ‘we’ve got a festival on our hands’. ” By 1982 it was a regular event. To mark the 40th anniversary of the Glastonbury Fair, Kerr was invited to organise a “Spirit of 71” stage featuring several of the original performers. “It was the most blessed thing in my life,” he said. “The chance to live out a dream, a really crazy dream.”

Kerr, pictured in 1971, once worked as a researcher for Randolph Churchill whose son described him as “intolerably hip”

“He brought a new green conviction to Worthy Farm, raising environmental and ecological concerns to a national level of debate for the very first time,” said Eavis, on hearing of Kerr’s death.

Born in 1933 at Ewell, Surrey, Andrew Kerr was the son of a naval officer and a descendant of the 6th Marquis of Lothian. He was educated at Radley, where undiagnosed dyslexia led to him being dismissed as stupid, and when he followed his father into the Royal Navy to do his National Service, it was not as an officer but as a stores assistant.

After various dead end jobs, in 1958 he went to work for Randolph Churchill as a personal assistant, initially to assist in research on the official biography he was writing of his father.

When he reported for work at

Churchill’s country home, Stour House in Suffolk, his employer greeted him at breakfast on the first morning with the words: “Mr Kerr, I’m afraid I was rather drunk last night and don’t really know why you’re here.”

Despite this unpromising start, he worked for Churchill for the next ten years until his death in 1968. His abilities as a researcher were poor and the task was soon ceded to the historian Martin Gilbert; but Kerr became his employer’s close and trusted companion and was virtually adopted as one of the family.

He was described by Randolph Churchill’s son as “intolerably hip” — a put-down which provided Kerr with a delicious title for his autobiography, published in 2011. However, he became

a close friend to his daughter Arabella (who died in 2007) and was warmly welcomed into Churchill’s circle of high society friends, including Lady Diana Cooper and John Profumo, whom he helped to hide from the press following his resignation from the government over his affair with Christine Keeler.

At a luncheon hosted by Cooper, Kerr found himself seated next to Princess Margaret, on whom he tried out the theory that the Bible described supernatural events carried out by extra-terrestrials. “I think she must have guessed I was a bit high,” he noted.

His interest in the writings of the eccentric new age guru John Michell — his inspiration for his conversation with Princess Margaret — led him into the hippy demi-monde of the time and

Andrew Kerr, co-organiser of the Glastonbury festival, was born on November 29, 1933. He died on October 5, 2014, aged 80

the times | Friday October 10 2014

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Register

Nicholas Romanov

Stateless head of Russia’s former ruling family who in 1998 co-ordinated the burial of the ill-fated last tsar and his family REX. BELOW: GETTY IMAGES

Although regarded by many as the head of Russia’s former ruling family, Nicholas Romanov never showed any interest in claiming back the throne.

Indeed, he was a republican who believed that the country had no need of a tsar. “It’s all over,” he said in 2003.

“That would be another upheaval and we have barely learnt to deal with democracy.”

Instead, he concentrated on strengthening the ties between the widely scattered descendants of the Romanovs (he lived in Italy) and on rebuilding links with their erstwhile homeland. “I am a lover of history and I have learnt from it,” he explained. This reaped a significant dividend in 1998 when he was asked by the Russian authorities to advise on the burial in St Petersburg’s cathedral of the remains of the imperial family, exhumed seven years earlier.

It was Prince Nicholas who suggested that all of those killed with Tsar Nicholas II at Yekaterinburg in 1918 — including his doctor and three servants — should be interred together. He hoped that this gesture towards equality would help Russia to come to terms

‘The Romanovs did a lot of bad things, but a lot of good too’ with its past. In 2006, his lobbying of President Putin led also to the return from Denmark of the coffin of the tsar’s mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, so that she could lie beside her husband, Alexander III. Romanov founded an association intended to prevent the family from losing touch and with what he termed their “Russian-ness” in 1979. As well as engaging in charity work in Russia, the organisation was also intended to keep interlopers out. For years he received begging letters from those claiming to be descendants of children of the tsar who were supposed to have escaped the massacre in 1918.

As president of the association, he led representatives of the Romanovs at the funeral ceremonies. However, his claim to do so was disputed by his cousin, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, on the basis that his parents’ marriage was not between equals and so violated imperial protocol. Moreover, she regarded Russia’s current rulers as being Bolsheviks still, and any dealings with

Nicholas Romanov in St Petersburg in 1998 for the burial of the murdered former Russian royal family, below

them as anathema. “It’s all very sad,” said Prince Nicholas, pointing out that in any event no living Romanov now qualified as a potential tsar under the strict laws of succession. “The Romanov family is the history of Russia. We did a lot of bad things but a lot of good, too. We represent Russia’s past. But exerting oneself, scrambling to get power and privileges. . . . Excuse me, we’re living in the 21st century, not the 18th.”

After the funeral of the last tsar and his family he said, “I have always said that not only were we burying the tsar and those who died with him, but we were also burying the most bloodstained pages of our past. Leave them to scholars. Russians should look forward.”

The elder of two boys, he was born at Cap d’Antibes in 1922. His father Prince Roman Petrovich of Russia was descended from the younger son of Tsar Nicholas I (1825-1855), and was cousin and godson to Tsar Nicholas II. His mother Praskovia was the daughter of the Grand Duchess Militsa, a princess

of Montenegro. Praskovia’s father had been a childhood friend of the tsar.

Nicholas’s parents left Russia in 1919 on board the British battleship Marlborough, which also carried into exile the Dowager Empress — aunt to King George V — as well as Prince Felix Yusupov, the murderer of the tsar’s adviser Grigori Rasputin. It was Nicholas’s grandmother who was said to have introduced the mystic to the tsarina.

Young Nicholas was given a Russian upbringing in France, keeping to the pre-revolutionary Julian calendar and being taught according to the imperial curriculum. His parents assumed that within ten years the Bolsheviks would lose power and the family would be able to return. Not that they scorned the Red menace; his grandmother bought almost the only house on the Riviera not in sight of the sea because she was worried about being abducted by a Soviet submarine.

In 1936 they moved to Italy, as the schools were thought to be better for

Nicholas, who hoped to pursue a naval career, although the discovery of his short-sightedness put paid to this. They lived as guests of King Victor Emmanuel, Queen Elena being a sister of Militsa’s. Indeed, following the occupation of Montenegro by the Italians during the Second World War, Nicholas was offered its throne because of the family connection to the country.

Wisely, he declined.

When the Germans took control of Italy, the Romanovs went into hiding, finding refuge in the Vatican. Prince Nicholas was obliged to abandon his plans to study engineering and after Rome was liberated in 1944 he worked for the US propaganda service.

One consequence of the war was that, once Russia was under attack, Nicholas and his parents rediscovered their love for it. “You see,” he said in 2003, “we always had this sense that we belonged to Russia, but that Russia did not belong to us. And belonging to it is a great joy. I am very proud that I am a Romanov.” Even so, he was unable to visit Russia until 1992, and spent most of his life as a stateless person, using a letter from the King of Greece as a travel document and only taking Italian citizenship in 1988.

The abolition of Italy’s monarchy had prompted him to settle in Cairo in 1946. He intended to go to university there, but he admitted: “I enjoyed a very carefree life: the women in Egypt were beautiful and some of them were available. Nothing to be proud of, but I did enjoy myself.”

In 1951 he married Countess Sveva della Gherardesca, whose ancestor Ugolino features in Dante’s Divine Comedy. After his brother-in-law died in 1955, he took over the family’s estates in Tuscany and for the next 25 years bred cattle and produced wine.

He sold the land in 1982, and thereafter he and his wife wintered in Switzerland and spent the summers with their three daughters Natalia, Elisaveta and Tatiana, who all married Italians.

The daughter of Natalia, Nicoletta Romanoff, is a well-known actress in Italy.

In 2003 Prince Nicholas hosted a party at Claridge’s to celebrate the publication of a new edition of the Almanach de Gotha, the directory of European aristocracy. He was at pains to point out that admittance to its pages was not a foregone conclusion. “Southern Italy is full of dukes,” he noted.

“Very nice families, but there are millions of them. And the Almanach has always been very careful with Portuguese dukes.”

He spoke five languages, but to his daughters’ regret, did not teach them Russian. “I would have made them foreigners in Italy,” he explained.

Nicholas Romanov, head of the Romanov family association, was born on September 26, 1922. He died on September 15, 2014, aged 91

Sheila Stewart Author who chronicled Britain’s vanishing rural life after emerging from a poverty-stricken upbringing in children’s homes Sheila Stewart had written two books about traditional country life when her butcher told her to investigate a local character he had heard singing in the pub in the Oxfordshire village of Enstone. Intrigued, she wrote to the man, a retired farm labourer Mont Abbott, and asked to meet. His answer came back, “Thee can come if thee wants. I have no transport, only a wheelbarrow.” She in turn replied that she would come to his house the following Friday at 2 o’clock: “If the wheelbarrow isn’t there, I shall know you’re out.”

It was the start of two years of close conversation that became Lifting the Latch: A Life on the Land, published in 1987, a record of a disappearing way of life that included carting, shepherding, church and pub, and was cited by Iona Opie, the folklorist and children’s literature specialist, as one of her favourite books.

Before this Stewart had published

Stewart set up a private nursery school

Country Kate in 1971, based on the childhood memories of an elderly woman in a Warwickshire village, and written in the vernacular. A radio adaptation won her a Writers’ Guild Award, and she followed it in 1975 with Country Courtship (1975), about rural customs of love and marriage.

Her first book, A Home From Home had been published in 1967, and was rather different. An eye-opening account of her time in children’s homes run by the Waifs and Strays Society (now The Children’s Society), it detailed the lack of food and clothing, enforced head-shaving to prevent lice, how her feet had become deformed from wearing the same pair of boots for years, and the bullying and loneliness she endured.

In spite of this, it was a positive tale, paying tribute to the efforts of the staff, particularly at one home in Ealing.

Much of the credit was due to her, though, particularly as the first girl from the “home” to attend a grammar school rather than to go into domestic service at the age of 14.

Stewart was also a pioneer in education, setting up one of the first private nursery schools in the country, which started in her own front room. Many of

the ideas she introduced were documented as best practice by the Department of Education. After moving to purpose-built premises, she sold the school to concentrate on writing but, as with her academic achievement, her influence lived on.

Sheila McCairn was born in Appledore, Devon in 1928. She only discovered in later life that she was the illegitimate daughter of a maid servant and that her father had been marked as “Not known” on her birth certificate.

Her mother, Maisie, moved to London soon after her birth and left her with distant relatives, an elderly couple living in a fisherman’s cottage on the Taw estuary. She recalled that they survived on a diet of gathered shellfish and could not afford to buy her bloomers, a matter of some scandal when she was taken into care at the age of three.

After school, she trained as a teacher in Chichester and found a job at the

Friends School in Sibford, Oxfordshire, where she taught English and PE. She met her husband, Eric, at the local table tennis club, and they were married in 1952, with the reception given by the matron at Stewart’s final “home”. Their first child, Sarah, now a horticulturist, was born in 1955, followed by Tim, a security-fencing director, in 1959, and Mathew, a payments consultant, in 1962.

The family eventually settled in Warwickshire where, in her sixties, she gave lectures to Women’s Institutes and was active with local horticultural and pensioners groups.

Her final book in 1993 was Ramlin Rose: The Boatwoman’s Story, an oral history of the women who worked on horse-drawn narrow boats along the Oxford Canal.

Sheila Stewart, writer, was born on January 6, 1928. She died on September 3, 2014, aged 86

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Friday October 10 2014 | the times

Television & Radio/Announcements

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 A Question of Sport 8.00 EastEnders 8.30 Would I Lie to You? 9.00 Have I Got News for You 9.30 Big School 10.00 BBC News 10.25 BBC Regional News; Weather 10.35 The Graham Norton Show 11.25 The Secrets 11.55 EastEnders 1.55am-6.00 BBC News

BBC TWO

6.10am Saints and Scroungers 6.55 Live Formula 1: Russian Grand Prix First Practice. The opening practice session at the Sochi Autodrom 8.35 Sign Zone 10.35 The Travel Show 11.00 BBC News 11.30 BBC World News 12.00 Daily Politics 1.00pm The A to Z of TV Cooking 1.20 Formula 1: Russian Grand Prix Second Practice 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 Mastermind 8.30 Lorraine Pascale: How to Be a Better Cook 9.00 Tom Kerridge’s Best Ever Dishes 9.30 Gardeners’ World 10.00 QI 10.30 Newsnight 11.10 Never Mind the Buzzcocks 11.40 Later: with Jools Holland 12.45am FILM: French Film (2008) Romantic comedy 2.10-3.10 Question Time 5.35-7.15 Formula 1: Russian Grand Prix First Practice

8.00 Everybody Loves Raymond 9.00 Frasier 10.30 Undercover Boss Canada 11.30 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 7.30 Unreported World 8.00 Stars at Your Service 9.00 Gogglebox 10.00 Alan Carr: Chatty Man 11.10 Scrotal Recall 11.40 FILM: 48 Hrs (1982) 1.20am Boss 2.20 The Inbetweeners USA 2.45 Very Important People 3.10 Phil Spencer: Secret Agent 4.00 Win It Cook It 4.25 Kirstie’s Handmade Treasures 4.45 Deal or No Deal 5.40-6.05 NFL: Rush Zone

10.00 Ringside 11.00 Anthony Joshua: Heavyweight Hopes 12.00 NFL 1.00pm Football’s Greatest Players 2.00 Football Gold 2.30 Fantasy Football: The Highlights 3.00 NFL 4.00 Ringside 5.00 Football’s Greatest Players 5.30 Football Freestyler 6.00 The Fantasy Football Club 7.00 Live World Grand Prix Darts. The fifth day. Coverage of the session at the Citywest Hotel, Dublin 11.00 Football’s Greatest Players 11.30 The Fantasy Football Club 12.30am Football Freestyler 1.00 Boots ‘n’ All 2.00 Ringside 3.00 Football’s Greatest Players 3.30 Football Freestyler 4.00 Barclays Premier League Preview 4.30 Football Freestyler 5.00-6.00 NFL

Sky1

Sky Sports 2

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 The Last Ship 9.00 A League of Their Own 10.00 An Idiot Abroad 3 11.00 The Simpsons. Double bill 12.00 Hawaii Five-0 2.00am NCIS: Los Angeles 4.00 Stargate Atlantis 5.00-6.00 Airline USA

BBC World

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 6.30 ITV News; Weather 7.00 Emmerdale 7.30 Coronation Street 8.00 Gino’s Italian Escape: A Taste of the Sun 8.30 Coronation Street 9.00 Lewis 10.00 ITV News at Ten and Weather 10.30 Regional News 10.40 The Job Lot 11.10 FILM: Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000) Comedy sequel 1.00am Jackpot247 3.00 The Jeremy Kyle Show USA 3.45-6.00 ITV Nightscreen

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 Talking Business with Linda Yueh 4.00 World Have Your Say 5.00 BBC World News 5.40 Africa Business Report 6.00 BBC World News 6.30 Focus on Africa 7.00 World News Today with Zeinab Badawi 7.40 Africa Business Report 8.00 BBC World News 8.30 HARDtalk 9.00 Business Edition 9.30 Football Focus 10.00 BBC World News America 11.00 BBC World News 11.30 Newsnight 1.00am BBC World News 1.10 UK Reporters 1.30 Talking Business with Linda Yueh 2.00 BBC World News 2.30 Horizons 3.00 BBC World News 3.10 The Police Chief of Kirkuk 4.00 BBC World News 4.30 The Travel Show 5.00 BBC World News 5.10-6.00 Secrets of South America

Channel 4

Sky Sports 1

ITV London

Births, Marriages and Deaths

6.00am Super League Gold 7.00 Sporting Rivalries 7.30 Live ITM Cup Rugby Union: Otago v Manawatu (Kick-off 7.35) 9.30 Super League Gold 10.00 Elite League Speedway 12.00 World Grand Prix Darts 4.00pm NFL 5.00 Anthony Joshua: Heavyweight Hopes 6.00 Super League Gold 6.30 Boots ‘n’ All 7.30 Live Euro 2016 Qualifiers: Netherlands v Kazakhstan (Kick-off 7.45). The group A match at the Amsterdam ArenA 10.00 Football’s Greatest Players 10.30 Boots ‘n’ All 11.30 Super League Gold 12.00 WWE: Late Night — Bottom Line.

Wrestling action 1.00am ATP Tour Uncovered 1.30 Sporting Rivalries 2.00 Time of Our Lives 4.00 Sporting Heroes: Gary Newbon Interviews Jackie Joyner-Kersee 5.00 ATP Tour Uncovered 5.30-6.00 Sporting Rivalries

Sky Sports 3

6.00am Live ATP Masters Tennis.

The Shanghai Masters quarter-finals 3.00pm ATP Tour Uncovered 3.30 Sporting Rivalries 4.00 WWE: Raw 6.00 NFL 7.00 The Rugby Club 7.30 Live Top 14 Rugby Union: Grenoble v Brive (Kick-off 7.45) 10.00 WWE: Late Night — Smackdown 12.00 Darts Gold 12.15am Football Gold 12.20-6.00 Live IRB Rugby Sevens: The Gold Coast Sevens

British Eurosport

6.20am The King of Queens 7.10 3rd Rock from the Sun. Double bill

6.00am Football Gold 7.00 WWE: Raw 9.00 Game Changers

7.30am FIA World Touring Car Championship 8.00 Live Cycling: Tour of Beijing. Coverage of the opening stage of the race 10.00 Cycling: Ras na mBan 10.30 Cycling: StreetVelodrome Series 11.30 WTA Tennis 1.00pm Live WTA Tennis: The Generali Ladies Linz 7.00 WTA Tennis 8.30 Cycling: Tour of Beijing 9.30 Horse Racing 9.45 Strongest Man 10.50 FIA World Touring Car Championship 11.20 GT Academy 2014: Masterclass 11.3512.40am Speedway Grand Prix

Radio 4

BBC World Service

Radio 3

Today’s radio

5.30am News 5.43 Prayer 5.45 Farming Today 5.58 Tweet of the Day 6.00 Today 9.00 Desert Island Discs (r) 9.45 (LW) Act of Worship 9.45 Germany 10.00 Woman’s Hour 10.45 The Book of Strange New Things 11.00 Care, Work, Sleep, Repeat 11.30 My First Planet 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 2.00 The Archers (r) 2.15 Afternoon Drama 3.00 Gardeners’ Question Time 3.45 Ian Fleming’s Thrilling Cities 4.00 Last Word 4.30 Feedback 4.55 The Listening Project 5.00 PM 5.54 (LW) Shipping 6.00 News 6.30 The Now Show 7.00 The Archers 7.15 Front Row 7.45 Germany (r) 8.00 Any Questions? 8.50 A Point of View 9.00 Plants: From Roots to Riches 10.00 The World Tonight 10.45 Book at Bedtime 11.00 A Good Read (r) 11.27 Punt PI (r) 11.55 The Listening Project 12.30am Germany (r) 12.48 Shipping 1.00 As BBC World Service 5.20-5.30 Shipping

5.00am Newsday 8.30 Business Daily 8.50 Witness 9.00 News 9.06 HARDtalk 9.30 Science in Action 10.00 World Update 11.00 News 11.06 Outside Source 12.00 News 12.06pm The 5th Floor 1.00 Newshour 2.00 Newshour 3.00 News 3.06 Tech Tent 3.30 World Football 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 The Why Factor 7.50 More or Less 8.00 News 8.06 HARDtalk. With Stephen Sackur 8.30 World Business Report 8.50 News About West Africa 9.00 Newshour. The stories behind the latest headlines 10.00 News 10.06 The 5th Floor. Global news 11.00 News 11.06 The Newsroom 11.30 World Business Report 12.00 The Newsroom 12.20am Sports News 12.30 World Football 1.00 News 1.06 Business Matters 2.00 News 2.06 The 5th Floor 3.00 News 3.06 The Newsroom 3.30 Heart and Soul 4.00 The Newsroom 4.20 Sports News 4.30-5.00 Boston Calling

6.30am Breakfast 9.00 Essential Classics 12.00 Composer of the Week: Johannes Brahms. The composer dedicates works to his lifelong friend Clara Schumann 1.00pm News 1.02 Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert. The pianist Llyr Williams plays Bartók, Daniel Jones, Beethoven, Britten and Albéniz 2.00 Afternoon on 3. The BBC NOW performs Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite 4.30 Live In Tune. Suzy Klein talks to the countertenor Lawrence Zazzo about his new album 6.30 Composer of the Week: Johannes Brahms (r) 7.30 Live Radio 3 in Concert. The pianist Stephen Kovacevich plays Brahms, Bach and Beethoven 10.00 The Verb. Ian McMillan’s guests include the poet Simon Armitage, the folk-music rising stars Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker, and the psychotherapist Jane Haynes 10.45 The Essay: Brahms Experience. Natasha Loges considers Brahms’ views on the future 11.00 Live World on 3. A live session by the Tashi Lhunpo Monks 1.00-7.00am Through the Night

the times.co.uk/announcements

the times | Friday October 10 2014

51

FGM

Games close choices between 2♠ and 3♠ with (iii) and 2♥ and 3♥ with (iv).

19 - Responding to a The fifth spade and the 5431 shape take-out double would tempt me to 3♠ with (iii) and Left-hand opponent opens One- the lack of wasted values and ♥109 of-a-Suit, partner doubles and would tempt me to 3♥ with (iv). right-hand opponent passes.

Partner’s double shows an opening Dealer: West, Vulnerability: Neither hand with three+ cards in all unbid ♠A K 4 2 suit. If the next hand had bid, the ♥A 5 4 2 double would be cancelled and you ♦5 4 ♣Q 5 2 would not have to bid. With the ♠ 10 8 ♠J 9 5 3 next hand passing, you have to bid.

N ♥Q 8 7 W E ♥J 6 You must choose your best of the ♦ A KQ J ♦9 6 2 S other suits, preferring a major to a ♣K 10 6 4♠ Q 7 6 ♣J 9 7 3 minor. You should jump a level ♥K 10 9 3 with fair values (about 9+ points) ♦10 8 7 3 and jump to game with 13+ points. ♣A 8 Exercise: What would you bid S W N E after (1♦) - Double - (P) - to you?

1♦ Dbl Pass (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) 2♥ (1) Pass 4♥ (2) end ♠K J 9 8 2 ♠Q 2 ♠J 7 3 ♠K J 2 Tips for Intermediates

♥9 7 6 2 ♥AQ 7 3 2 ♥Q 4 3 ♥K 10 9 2 ♦9 7 6 4 ♦J 8 2 ♦K 9 4 2 ♦4 2

♣A9752 ♣6 ♣Q7 ♣72 Hand (i): Bid 1♥. You cannot pass! If you do, 1♦ doubled will become the final contract (when opener happily passes) – and it will make – overtricks.

Hand (ii): Bid 4♥. Eight-card heart fit and values for game.

Hand (iii): Bid 2♠ – jumping to show 9-12 points. Bid 1♠ and partner will think you might have nothing [like Hand (i)].

Hand (iv): Bid 2♥. Jump to show 9-12 and choose the major to the minor, even though you have one more club. If there’s a game to be had, it’s far more likely to be 4♥ than 5♣.

Note that if the bidding went (1♦) - Double - (2♦) - to you [such that the double was cancelled], with Hand (i) you’d pass (relieved!) and with (ii) still bid 4♥. You’d have

On November 3 in Moscow the Petrosian Memorial will commence, a tribute to the Armenian grandmaster who held the world title from 1963 until 1969. Petrosian also won two individual gold medals on top board for the USSR in the chess Olympiads and in personal encounters defeated all of the world champions with whom he came into contact, namely Euwe, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Spassky, Fischer, Karpov and Kasparov. Today’s game is an object lesson in how to extract a winning advantage against a notoriously solid opponent who seems more than happy to enter simplifications and play for a draw. The notes are based on those in the outstanding new book on Petrosian by Thomas Engqvist, Petrosian: Move by Move (Everyman Chess).

White: Aleksandar Matanovic Black: Tigran Petrosian Kiev 1959 Caro-Kann Defence 1 e4 c6 2 Nc3 d5 3 d4 dxe4 4 Nxe4 Nd7 5 Nf3 Ngf6 6 Nxf6+ Nxf6 7 Bc4 Bf5 8 Qe2 e6 9 Bg5 Be7 10 0-0-0 Bg4 This is a clever prophylactic move played to eliminate any idea of Ne5 which would give White chances of claiming the initiative.

11 h3 Bxf3 12 Qxf3 Nd5 13 Bxe7 Qxe7 14 Rhe1 0-0 15 Kb1 Rad8 16 Bb3 Qf6 17 Qe2 Rd7 18 c3 The d4-pawn is a natural target for Black so White secures it.

18 ... b5 Targeting the c3-pawn instead.

19 g3 Rfd8 20 f4 b4 21 Qf3

Times Quick Crossword 1

2

5

West led out ♦AK, East following upwards (to deny a doubleton) and West switched to ♠ 10 (best).

Winning ♠ K, declarer cashed ♥A and led to (♥J and) ♥K. Leaving ♥ Q out, he ruffed ♦8, then crossed to ♠ Q and ruffed ♦10. He now led out ♠ A, hoping for a 3-3 split (and ♣8 discard on ♠ 4).

West was out of spades, but if he ruffed, he’d have to lead away from ♣K, so he discarded ♣4. Declarer ruffed ♠ 4 and again West discarded. At trick 11 declarer exited with ♥10. West won ♥Q, but finally had to lead from ♣K10. Declarer beat ♣10 with dummy’s ♣Q and scored the last trick with ♣A. Game made.

andrew.robson@thetimes.co.uk

Simagin’s recommendation 21 Bxd5 Rxd5 22 cxb4 is better. After 22 ... Qg6+ 23 Qd3 Rxd4 24 Qxg6 Rxd1+ 25 Rxd1 Rxd1+ 26 Kc2 hxg6 27 Kxd1 Kh7, a complicated but drawn pawn ending has arisen.

21 ... bxc3 22 bxc3 c5 23 Re5 cxd4 24 Bxd5 The knight had become too strong on d5 because of the pawn breaks with the c- and b-pawns.

Now, though, when the defending piece disappears White’s king’s position becomes very unsafe.

24 ... Rxd5 25 Rxd5 exd5 It’s important to keep both the major pieces due to White’s bad king’s position. 25 ... Rxd5 26 Rxd4 forces an exchange of rooks since 26 ... Rb5+ is answered by 27 Rb4.

26 Rxd4 h6 27 g4 Qe7 28 Qf2 Rb8+ 29 Ka1 Qa3 30 Qc2 Re8 31 Rb4

á D DrDkD] à0 D Dp0 ] ß D D D 0] ÞD DpD D ] Ý $ D )PD] Ü1 ) D DP] ÛPDQD D D] ÚI D D D ] ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ 31 ... d4 The third important break with a pawn. These three pawns, which sacrificed themselves for a higher purpose, should really be dubbed the three musketeers.

32 Rxd4 Re1+ 33 Rd1 Rxd1+ 34 Qxd1 Qxc3+ 35 Kb1 Qxh3 36 a4 h5 37 gxh5 Qf5+ 38 Kb2 Qxf4 39 Kb3 Qf5 40 Kc4 Kh7 41 Qd2 White resigns

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Fiendish

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No 6528 3

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Killer No 3949 19

Deadly 56min

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5 One not getting involved in other countries’ affairs (12) 8 Polish pianist-composer (6) 9 Marine reptile (6) 10 Embarrassing mistake (4) 12 Make wider (7) 14 Acetic acid (7) 15 A furtive look (4) Solution to Crossword 6527 B R D SOS E T AGERE I E R F P T P I ECE A S I E N R N REMED I A L O T BONO W I RE O O I O R BOROD I N O B A I I D I N I GO SME N L T U T D

R N R L

M EN D I N T AG T E S

S E N E C A

S A A S I S H H T ANA H Y

17 Large underground chamber (6) 18 Detection device (6) 20 Male hormone (12)

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1 The charge of the — — (Tennyson) (5,7) 2 Highest aftmost deck (4) 3 Combination of substances (7) 4 Grow greater (8) 6 Former Indian coin (4) 7 Working for one’s own benefit (4-8) 11 Light musical stage work (8) 13 Wood or nail coating (7) 16 Essential nature (philosophy) (4) 19 Midday (4)

Check today’s answers by ringing 09067 577188. Calls cost 77p per minute.

How you rate 12 words, average; 16, good; 21, very good; 27, excellent

8 3

11 11

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25

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 2212

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.

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Winning Move solution

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Grubber (c) In rugby a kick that goes straight along the ground.

Pomology (a) The branch of horticulture concerned with the study and cultivation of fruit.

Churrigueresque (b) Architecture in the baroque style of José Churriguera (1650–1725), the Spanish architect and sculptor.

4

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Word Watching answers

21 19

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Yesterday’s answers emit, etui, item, mist, mite, must, mute, muti, quest, quiet, quietism, quit, quite, quits, site, smite, smut, squit, stem, stum, suet, suit, suite, time, times

18

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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.

7

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

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Contract: 4♥ , Opening Lead: ♦A

á D D DkD] Winning Move àD DbD Dr] ß 0 0 D D] Black to play. This position is from KeresCandidates 1959. Þ0 h DpD ] Petrosian, This is one of Petrosian’s most famous Ý )PHp) 1] combinations. He has already given up a Ü) D ! 0 ] rook to gain access to the white king Û $ $BDPD] position. How did he now conclude? ÚD D DKD ] For up-to-the-minute information follow ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ my tweets on twitter.com/times_chess.

Solution right

Grubber a. A lepidopterist b. A rag-and-bone man c. A low kick Pomology a. Fruit-growing b. Posh English phraseology c. The science of perfume Churrigueresque a. With starkly contrasting shades b. Baroque c. Sausage-like

(1) Jumping to show 9-12 points.

(2) Three-and-a-half Hearts really.

Chess Raymond Keene Petrosian Memorial

Sudoku No 6873

Word Watching Paul Dunn

1 ... Qxf4+! 2 Qxf4 Rh1 mate.

Bridge Andrew Robson

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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 7 8 6 9 2 3 4 1 5

5 2 1 8 6 4 9 7 3

3 9 4 1 5 7 6 8 2

1 5 2 3 7 9 8 6 4

No 6869

8 3 9 6 4 1 2 5 7

6 4 7 5 8 2 3 9 1

4 1 8 2 9 5 7 3 6

2 6 5 7 3 8 1 4 9

9 7 3 4 1 6 5 2 8

4 2 7 5 8 6 1 9 3

5 9 6 1 3 4 8 2 7

8 1 3 9 2 7 4 6 5

3 7 5 8 9 2 6 4 1

No 3947

9 6 8 4 5 1 7 3 2

2 4 1 6 7 3 9 5 8

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A G I R BOA A M S CUB E K O E F L U X S A DU E L Q N T UN I T I Q V F L U F E D I

No 2211

L M I A I T UN T E U X I S T N O RD I N E I OX I C V N E RGE R O T T H

S S J T I E A T KNO T Z Y P A L E T CH O A SW I G B O OWN E Y Y

52

FGM

Sport

Friday October 10 2014 | the times

Rookie waits in wings Marussia agonise over risking reserve driver Alexander Rossi in Sochi

Shooting from the lip In his new book, and in the flesh, Roy Keane can’t help lashing out

Formula One, page 56

Commentary, pages 58-59

Martin is quietly confident over Quick Jack Andy Stephens

Tony Martin believes that Quick Jack has the “little bit of class” needed to help him to justify favouritism in the Betfred Cesarewitch at Newmarket tomorrow.

Martin knows better than most the attributes required to win the famous staying handicap, which has attracted a maximum field of 34. He landed the 2007 renewal with Leg Spinner and his other challengers, Barba Papa and Arc Bleu, both made the frame.

“You need a horse with pace, to be able to travel, and stamina, to get home, plus a little bit of class,” he said yesterday. “Quick Jack has that and would be a very similar type to my other horses who have either won or run respectably in it. I could not single out which of the four was the best or worst.”

Quick Jack has been transformed since being switched to Martin’s yard early last year, scooping competitive races on the Flat and over hurdles.

The five-year-old, who will be ridden

by Richard Hughes in the £250,000, two-and-a-quarter-mile marathon, has been absent since winning at the

York

Rob Wright 2.00 Four Seasons 4.05 Esteaming (nap) 2.30 See The Sun 4.40 Cabelo 3.00 Storm King 5.10 My Single Malt (nb) 3.30 Brando Thunderer: 3.00 GM Hopkins (nap). 3.30 Brando.

Going: soft (good to soft on bends) Draw: no advantage Racing UK Tote Jackpot meeting

2.00

Nursery Handicap (2-Y-O: £7,762: 6f) (10)

P Makin 1 (10) 12334 GEORDIE GEORGE 21 (D) J J Quinn 9-7 S A Gray (5) 2 (4) 213 CHARLIE CROKER 18 (D) K A Ryan 9-5 A Kirby 3 (8) 010 FOUR SEASONS 115 (D) C Appleby 9-4 G Cox (7) 4 (9) 0105 PILLAR BOX 76 (BF) W Haggas 9-2 R L Moore 5 (1) 10553 GEORGE BOWEN 21 (D) R Fahey 8-11 6 (3) 33136 MIAMI CAROUSEL 77 (D) J J Quinn 8-10 Joe Doyle (5) 31 ACOLYTE 35 (D) R Charlton 8-7 W Buick 7 (7) J Fanning 8 (6) 31043 SHOWSTOPPA 13 M Johnston 8-6 C Hardie (3) 9 (2) 54421 THE WISPE 12 R Cowell 8-0 P P Mathers 10 (5) 030 NORMANDY KNIGHT 33 R Fahey 8-0 9-2 Acolyte, 5-1 The Wispe, 6-1 George Bowen, 7-1 Geordie George, Pillar Box, 8-1 Four Seasons, Showstoppa, 12-1 Charlie Croker, 14-1 others.

Rob Wright’s choice: Four Seasons has had a break since flopping at Ascot Dangers: Charlie Croker, Geordie George

2.30

Handicap (£11,644: 5f) (20)

D Tudhope 1 (10) 12304 ECCLESTON 41 (D) D O'Meara 3-9-7 G Baker 2 (1) 46510 PEARL BLUE 41 (CD) C Wall 6-9-6 Amy Ryan 3 (9) 00623 BOGART 20 (P,CD,BF) K A Ryan 5-9-6 D Allan 4 (3) 66003 SEE THE SUN 13 (P,C,D) T Easterby 3-9-5 G Lee 5 (13) 11V45 SILVANUS 18 (D) P Midgley 9-9-5 6 (19) -2040 GRAPHIC GUEST 20 (H,D) R Cowell 4-9-4 A Beschizza P Makin 7 (14) 00000 MAGICAL MACEY 27 (B,D) T D Barron 7-9-4 A Nicholls 8 (7) -0200 PEARL ACCLAIM 27 (D) D Nicholls 4-9-3 9 (15) 00000 ANCIENT CROSS 76 (T,CD) M W Easterby 10-9-3 K Fallon R Havlin 10 (6) 10005 GLADIATRIX 6 (D) B Millman 5-9-2 B McHugh 11(18) 56353 JAMAICAN BOLT 13 (D) G Oldroyd 6-9-1 G Gibbons 12 (5) 2V204 LONG AWAITED 13 (D) T D Barron 6-9-1 W Buick 13(11) 03420 PIAZON 55 (D) Michael Bell 3-9-1 14(12) -0065 SECRET ASSET 73 (H,CD) Jane Chapple-Hyam 9-9-1 P Cosgrave 15 (4) 21400 ARCTIC FEELING 9 (C,D) R Fahey 6-9-1 Sammy Jo Bell (5) A Kirby 16(20) 01060 JUDGE 'N JURY 13 (T,CD) R Harris 10-9-1 17 (8) 22110 SECRET MISSILE 6 (B,D) W Muir 4-9-0 Martin Dwyer D Swift 18(16) 31000 TOP BOY 18 (V,CD) D Shaw 4-9-0 F Tylicki 19(17) 00030 FREE ZONE 41 (P,D) R Cowell 5-9-0 N Alison (3) 20 (2) -0100 ASIAN TRADER 41 (D) W Haggas 5-8-13 7-1 Bogart, 8-1 Asian Trader, 9-1 Long Awaited, See The Sun, 10-1 Eccleston, 11-1 Pearl Blue, 12-1 Arctic Feeling, Jamaican Bolt, Judge 'N Jury, 14-1 others.

Wright choice: See The Sun, back to form at Haydock, is now fitted with cheekpieces Dangers: Top Boy, Pearl Blue

Course specialists Carlisle: Trainers Karen McLintock, 3 from 8 runners, 37.5%; C Longsdon, 6 from 19, 31.6%.

Jockey N Fehily, 3 from 8 rides, 37.5%.

Newton Abbot: Trainers D McCain, 3 from 8, 37.5%; P Nicholls, 39 from 135, 28.9%. Jockeys A P McCoy, 58 from 207, 28.0%; D Jacob, 24 from 104, 23.1%.

Wolverhampton: Trainers S Bin Suroor, 29 from 87, 33.3%; S Dow, 9 from 37, 24.3%. Jockeys C Beasley, 11 from 40, 27.5%; T E Durcan, 33 from 157, 21.0%.

York: Trainers Jane Chapple-Hyam, 3 from 13, 23.1%; W Haggas, 27 from 118, 22.9%. Jockeys R L Moore, 34 from 172, 19.8%; K Fallon, 30 from 195, 15.4%.

Galway Festival in July, but that has been a deliberate ploy.

“You’ve got to try to conserve your horse, have him right for the big day,” Martin said. “This has been the plan since Galway as it’s a big pot and we thought it was well worth having a shot at. His form indicates that he has a good chance, he’s healthy, and I’m happy with him. He had a few issues when he first arrived but we sorted them out and everything has gone right from there.

He’s never let us down and been very consistent — fingers crossed he can continue that.”

Martin makes several references to “fingers crossed” and punctuates other sentences with the words “touch wood”. He recognises that fortune can play a part, as it did in the Cesarewitch six years ago when the wellfancied Arc Bleu finished second.

“He was desper-

Bet of the day Esteaming (4.05 York) Has run with credit on both starts at this track and shaped as though still in form when a fast-finishing fifth at Newmarket last time

Rob Wright’s midday update thetimes.co.uk/sportsbook 3.00

Handicap

(£16,172: 1m 110y) (18)

A Nicholls 1 (7) 05102 DON'T CALL ME 20 (T,D) D Nicholls 7-9-5 D Tudhope 2 (5) 31030 BALDUCCI 13 (V,D,BF) D O'Meara 7-9-5 W Buick 3 (4) 0-111 GM HOPKINS 14 (D) J Gosden 3-9-3 G Gibbons 4 (6) 13010 BIG JOHNNY D 13 T D Barron 5-9-3 P Makin 5 (13) 00005 LEVITATE 27 (V,D) J J Quinn 6-9-2 G Mahon (7) 6 (16) 10006 NAVAJO CHIEF 13 (CD) T Jarvis 7-9-2 Sam James 7 (12) 60031 EARTH DRUMMER 20 D O'Meara 4-9-1 J Crowley 8 (17) 66002 STARBOARD 46 D Simcock 5-9-0 R L Moore 9 (2) 0-160 HOMAGE 13 (D) W Haggas 4-9-0 K Fallon 10(18) 03310 ANDERIEGO 6 (B,CD) D O'Meara 6-8-11 11 (9) 42260 SPIRIT OF THE LAW 13 (CD) R Fahey 5-8-11 J Garritty (5) 12 (1) 60130 OSTEOPATHIC REMEDY 20 (T,D) M Dods 10-8-11 C Beasley (3) A Mullen 13(11) 14116 PEARL NATION 14 (H,D) M Appleby 5-8-10 O Murphy 14(14) 50614 STORM KING 27 (P,D,BF) D Griffiths 5-8-10 G Lee 15 (3) 13000 ST MORITZ 22 (V,CD) D O'Meara 8-8-10 Martin Dwyer 16(10) 50221 BIG BAZ 13 (D) W Muir 4-8-9 D Allan 17 (8) 13210 NO POPPY 6 (H,CD) T Easterby 6-8-7 J Fanning 18(15) 22033 CROWDMANIA 12 (D) M Johnston 3-8-3 5-1 GM Hopkins, 7-1 Homage, 8-1 Big Baz, 9-1 Earth Drummer, 10-1 Don't Call Me, 11-1 Anderiego, Starboard, 12-1 Balducci, 14-1 Big Johnny D, 16-1 others.

Wright choice: Storm King pulled hard in a slowly run race when fourth at Chester Dangers: GM Hopkins, Big Johnny D

3.30

Maiden Stakes

(2-Y-O: £6,792: 5f 89y) (13)

ARTIST CRY R Fahey 9-5 R L Moore 1 (12) G Lee 2 (1) 403 BRANDO 33 K A Ryan 9-5 03 ETIENNE GERARD 13 N Tinkler 9-5 Shelley Birkett (5) 3 (10) FOREST MISSILE J Wainwright 9-5 R Da Silva 4 (9) 5 HANDSOME DUDE 83 T D Barron 9-5 G Gibbons 5 (4) A Kirby 6 (3) 634 QUINTUS CERIALIS 26 Clive Cox 9-5 00 REFLATION 28 R Hannon 9-5 P Dobbs 7 (11) 35 WOLFOFWALLSTREET 122 E Walker 9-5 G Baker 8 (7) 50 GRANOLA 29 D Brown 9-0 O Murphy 9 (2) 0 KINLOCH PRIDE 33 N Wilson 9-0 D Fentiman 10(13) 5 SPIRITUAL JOURNEY 17 Mrs A Duffield 9-0 11 (5) P McDonald 05 THREATORAPROMISE 58 T Coyle 9-0 B McHugh 12 (6) J Fanning 13 (8) 26202 ZUZINIA 3 M Channon 9-0 5-2 Brando, 5-1 Quintus Cerialis, Zuzinia, 8-1 Handsome Dude, 9-1 Artist Cry, Etienne Gerard, 12-1 Wolfofwallstreet, 16-1 Granola, 20-1 others.

Wright choice: Brando improved when third over course and distance last time Dangers: Granola, Quintus Cerialis

6 Despite her brilliant success in the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Sunday, Treve is still rated 5lb below the world’s best. The latest official ratings, released yesterday, put Treve on 125, while Just A Way, who trailed in eighth at Longchamp, is still rated 130.

ately unlucky,” the Co Meath-based handler said, wincing at the memory.

“He broke too well and was very free up in the first two the whole way. Unfortunately, Johnny [Murtagh] could never rein him back and get him to drop the bit. He was always doing too much.”

Any runner showing similar zeal tomorrow could struggle, especially with more rain forecast. The Cesarewitch is the only race that starts in one county (Cambridgeshire) and ends in another (Suffolk) but Martin is not in doubt about Quick Jack’s ability to stay the distance, nor his effectiveness on testing going.

“The way he galloped up the hill when winning at Galway and Cheltenham makes me think he will get a furlong or two more on a level track,” he said. “He’s won on all types of ground and the possibility of it being soft would not worry Martin is hopeful that Quick Jack, right, can add to his fine record in the Cesarewitch 4.05

Handicap (£12,938: 1m 4f) (13)

1 (3) 11164 TREASURE THE RIDGE 6 (B,D) A Reid 5-9-12 D Brock (3) G Gibbons 2 (13) 15625 ESTEAMING 48 (CD) T D Barron 4-9-12 D Allan 3 (1) 0-005 ARDLUI 104 (B,D) T Easterby 6-9-10 D Tudhope 4 (2) 00000 CHANCERY 13 (P,CD) D O'Meara 6-9-10 B McHugh 5 (4) 40600 HI THERE 22 R Fahey 5-9-10 R Winston 6 (12) 50103 ARAMIST 13 (D,BF) G A Swinbank 4-9-8 Hayley Turner 7 (9) 15104 KINGS BAYONET 36 (D) A King 7-9-7 8 (5) 11105 SAVED BY THE BELL 63 (CD) D O'Meara 4-9-7 Sam James 9 (10) 11360 DOLPHIN VILLAGE 12 (D) R Fahey 4-9-6 G Chaloner (3) O Murphy 10 (8) 50115 ZEUS MAGIC 20 (CD) B Ellison 4-9-3 P Makin 11 (7) 22000 KASHMIR PEAK 70J J J Quinn 5-9-2 R L Moore 12 (6) 10120 OLD TOWN BOY 15 P McBride 3-9-1 J Garritty (5) 13(11) 12131 EMERAHLDZ 55 (D) R Fahey 3-8-10 6-1 Aramist, 7-1 Saved By The Bell, 15-2 Chancery, 9-1 Emerahldz, Esteaming, Kashmir Peak, Kings Bayonet, Old Town Boy, 10-1 others.

Wright choice: Esteaming, given a lot to do at Newmarket, will appreciate this softer ground Dangers: Chancery, Ardlui

4.40 1 (12) 2 (11) 3 (15) 4 (6) 5 (14) 6 (7) 7 (3) 8 (9) 9 (13) 10 (1) 11 (2) 12 (5) 13(10) 14 (4) 15 (8)

Maiden Auction Stakes

(2-Y-O: £6,469: 1m) (15)

0 WHO DARES WINS 20 R Hannon 9-3 P Dobbs 64 COMANCHE CHIEFTAIN 39 M Appleby 9-1 A Mullen GHOSTLY ARC N Wilson 9-1 P Sword (7) 00 MR CHRISTOPHER 21 N Wilson 9-1 J Haynes (3) 005 PONTY GRIGIO 23 T Easterby 9-1 D Fentiman BLETCHLEY PARK R Fahey 8-13 T Hamilton NOT AGAIN T Easterby 8-13 G Lee 334 RED RUBLES 85 (H) A Balding 8-13 D Probert MYTHICAL MOMENT W Haggas 8-12 R L Moore SUN ODYSSEY W Haggas 8-12 J Fanning 6 FATHER BERTIE 13 T Easterby 8-11 D Allan 2 STORM ROCK 35 H Dunlop 8-11 W Buick BROSNAN N Quinlan 8-6 Sam James 453 CABELO 17 B Ellison 8-6 Joe Doyle (5) 0 GOOD MOVE 44 B Rothwell 8-6 J Sullivan

100-30 Red Rubles, 7-2 Cabelo, 9-2 Storm Rock, 8-1 others.

Wright choice: Cabelo ran well when third at Newcastle and is bred to relish this trip Dangers: Red Rubles, Father Bertie

5.10

Apprentice Handicap

(£6,469: 7f) (20)

1 (8) 35201 SHOURANOUR 53 (P) D O'Meara 4-9-9 Josh Doyle (5) G Mahon (5) 2 (19) 53000 DUBAI HILLS 14 (D) D O'Meara 8-9-8 3 (18) 00000 WHOZTHECAT 13 Declan Carroll 7-9-8 L Leadbitter (5) M Hopkins 4 (5) 00000 ASKAUD 15 (P,D) S Dixon 6-9-8 S A Gray 5 (14) 11500 REPETITION 20 (D) K Stubbs 4-9-8 Alistair Rawlinson (3) 6 (1) 46001 MON BRAV 9 B Ellison 7-9-8 A Hesketh (3) 7 (9) 43P05 MUJAZIF 7 D Nicholls 4-9-7 P McGiff (5) 8 (20) 00540 NORSE BLUES 20 (D) T D Barron 6-9-7 9 (7) 0-000 RODRIGO DE TORRES 11 (H,C,D) J Murray 7-9-7 Doubtful K Shoemark (3) 10(15) 34003 REGAL DAN 49 (D) D O'Meara 4-9-6 11(12) 12000 TALENT SCOUT 24 (P,D) Mrs K Tutty 8-9-6 P Millman (3) 12 (2) 51650 FIELDGUNNER KIRKUP 20 (D) T D Barron 6-9-6 Gemma Tutty (3) J Garritty 13(16) 02200 GATEPOST 13 (C) R Fahey 5-9-5 14 (4) 20132 MY SINGLE MALT 28 (H,P) J Camacho 6-9-4 Joe Doyle 15(11) 03316 INSTANT ATTRACTION 13 (D) Jedd O'Keeffe 3-9-4 Megan Carberry (3) 16(13) 40000 SHOWBOATING 14 (T,P,D) A McCabe 6-9-3 N Garbutt 17 (6) 23030 GRAN CANARIA QUEEN 21 T Easterby 5-9-3 Rachel Richardson (3) 18(17) 0-206 PERSONAL TOUCH 62 (D) R Fahey 5-9-2 Sammy Jo Bell J Nason (3) 19(10) 06435 ZACYNTHUS 17 (D) Shaun Harris 6-9-2 20 (3) 3-053 ROUSAYAN 123 (BF) D O'Meara 3-9-1 M M Monaghan 13-2 Mon Brav, 9-1 Shouranour, 10-1 Dubai Hills, Regal Dan, 11-1 Fieldgunner Kirkup, 12-1 Askaud, Norse Blues, Rousayan, 14-1 others.

Wright choice: My Single Malt travelled best over an extra half-furlong at Chester Dangers: Shouranour, Mon Brav Blinkered first time: Carlisle 5.20 The Phantom Winger.

Wolverhampton 5.45 Punk. 8.50 Nashmi.

BRIAN LAWLESS / PA

me.” Martin intends running Thomas Edison and Ted Veale in the Irish Cesarewitch at the Curragh on Sunday but laughs at the prospect of pulling off a notable double. However, the bookmakers are unlikely to see the funny side if he does.

The former rider’s reputation for getting horses to peak on the big occasions, forged when the gambled-on Xenophon won the Coral Cup at the Cheltenham Festival in 2003, is well earned.

Soon, his focus will switch fully to his National Hunt team, which includes the popular pair of Flemenstar and Bog Warrior. Flemenstar, among the highest-rated chasers in Ireland, has been out for 11 months because of tendon trouble but is on the comeback trail. “He’s still at his owner’s, doing his pre-training,” Martin said. “The vets have been happy with his check-ups, so he’s cracking on with him.”

Bog Warrior is back from his summer break and doing routine exercise, but this weekend is all about the possibility of a Cesarewitch double. Can Martin scoop both versions? “One would be great,” he said.

Wolverhampton Rob Wright

5.45 Ashkari 7.50 The Wee Barra 6.20 Nyanza 8.20 Excilly 6.50 Eternitys Gate 8.50 Dimitar 7.20 Galactic Halo 9.20 Palace Princess Going: standard At The Races Draw: 5f-7f, low numbers best

5.45

Handicap (£2,911: 5f 216y) (13)

James Doyle 1 (9) 50034 REALIZE 27 (T,D) H Morrison 4-9-7 Kevin Stott (5) 2 (8) 00300 HADAJ 13 (D) M Herrington 5-9-7 3 (12) -0434 AMBITIOUS BOY 13 (D,BF) A Hollinshead 5-9-7 J Duern (5) S Drowne 4 (4) 06042 ASHKARI 20 (P,D) Clive Cox 3-9-6 D A Parkes (7) 5 (10) 52221 DOMINIUM 27 (B,CD) J Gask 7-9-6 6 (2) 00260 BABY STRANGE 13 (C,D) D Shaw 10-9-4 A McLean (7) 7 (6) 00405 LASTCHANCELUCAS 15 (B) Declan Carroll 4-9-4 J Hart 8 (5) 00455 SPRINGLIKE 24 (D) Miss A Weaver 3-9-4 D Muscutt (5) Luke Morris 9 (7) 43030 PUNK 15 (V) G Peckham 3-9-4 10(13) 33246 STORM LIGHTNING 25 (C) W M Brisbourne 5-9-3 W A Carson Martin Lane 11 (3) 23006 AL'S MEMORY 17 (C,D) P D Evans 5-9-2 Doubtful 12(11) 64033 ROCKET ROB 9 (C,D) W Musson 8-9-1 J Mitchell 13 (1) 4326- FLICKSTA 324 John Ryan 3-9-0 11-2 Dominium, 13-2 Al's Memory, Ashkari, 15-2 Ambitious Boy, Realize, 10-1 Baby Strange, Storm Lightning, 14-1 Flicksta, Hadaj, 16-1 others.

6.20

Handicap (£2,911: 1m 5f 194y) (7)

S Donohoe (3) -0500 PARIS SNOW I Williams 4-9-13 J Duern (5) (1) 30205 LINEMAN 14 (P,C) A Hollinshead 4-9-9 Martin Dwyer (6) 34156 GRAYSWOOD 20 (P,D) W Muir 4-9-6 (7) 14431 ATALANTA BAY 27 (H) M Tregoning 4-9-5 R Kingscote (2) 24544 ADMIRABLE DUQUE 14 (E,B,C,D) D Ffrench Davis 8-9-5 Martin Lane D Sweeney 6 (4) -1133 NYANZA 81 A King 3-9-2 7 (5) 0-111 HIGH SECRET 7 (CD) Sir M Prescott 3-9-2 Luke Morris 1 2 3 4 5

Evens High Secret, 6-1 Paris Snow, 13-2 Atalanta Bay, 9-1 others.

6.50

Handicap (£5,175: 5f 20y) (13)

1 (12) 24050 SLEEPY BLUE OCEAN 9 (P,C,D) J Balding 8-9-7 J Hart 2 (1) 06022 MONUMENTAL MAN 17 (P,C,D) J Unett 5-9-7 D Muscutt (5) Martin Dwyer 3 (11) -1005 ZAC BROWN 60 (D) T D Barron 3-9-6 P Mulrennan 4 (2) 24255 ANGELITO 27 (D) E McMahon 5-9-5 T Harrigan (7) 5 (4) 10450 CLEAR PRAISE 92 (C,D) S Dow 7-9-5 6 (6) 33214 NEWTON'S LAW 35 (H,T,D) B Meehan 3-9-5 James Doyle P Cosgrave 7 (8) -1061 CLEARING 77 (D) J Boyle 4-9-3 8 (3) 23010 DISTANT PAST 21 (C,D) K A Ryan 3-9-3 Kevin Stott (5) Doubtful 9 (13) 00315 TOM SAWYER 24 (B,D) J Camacho 6-9-3 10 (7) 33314 ETERNITYS GATE 9 (D) P Chapple-Hyam 3-9-2 J Crowley 11 (5) 11566 DREAMS OF REALITY 67 (E,C,D) T Dascombe 3-9-0 R Kingscote Luke Morris 12 (9) 04040 TEMPLE ROAD 143 J M Bradley 6-9-0 13(10) 20050 ROYAL ACQUISITION 44 (P,D) R Cowell 4-8-13 A Beschizza 7-1 Clearing, Newton's Law, 15-2 Distant Past, Dreams Of Reality, Monumental Man, 8-1 Eternitys Gate, 9-1 Zac Brown, 10-1 others.

7.20

Maiden Stakes (£2,587: 1m 141y) (12)

7.50

Nursery Handicap

(2-Y-O: £2,264: 1m 141y) (13)

1 (8) 45520 ROMANCE STORY 17 (P,BF) S Bin Suroor 9-7 Kevin Stott (5) G Baker 2 (9) 500 MASTER ZEPHYR 20 R Charlton 9-5 P Mulrennan 3 (12) 063 THE WEE BARRA 23 K A Ryan 9-4 A Mullen 4 (10) 06601 SECRET LIGHTNING 31 M Appleby 9-4 Martin Lane 5 (6) 30100 JUST MARION 16 (C) P D Evans 9-4 K Fallon 6 (4) 30044 AULD FYFFEE 10 John Ryan 9-3 R Tate (3) 7 (11) 60444 MIKANDY 11 Clive Cox 9-3 J Crowley 8 (3) 0065 KOPASSUS 16 P Chapple-Hyam 9-0 9 (13) 0600 AVENUE DES CHAMPS 17 (P) Jane Chapple-Hyam 8-12 P Cosgrave C Beasley (3) 10 (7) 54066 SEAMOOR SECRET 8 (T) A Hales 8-12 P Pickard 11 (2) 50512 INVINCIBLE WISH 6 (C) B Ellison 8-10 S Donohoe 12 (1) 5004 ROMAN DE BRUT 10 I Williams 8-9 R Powell (3) 13 (5) 00004 OCEAN CRYSTAL 7 John Ryan 8-6 9-2 Romance Story, 7-1 Master Zephyr, 8-1 Mikandy, 9-1 Invincible Wish, Just Marion, Secret Lightning, 10-1 Kopassus, 11-1 Auld Fyffee, 12-1 others.

8.20

Median Auction Maiden Stakes

(2-Y-O: £2,264: 7f 32y) (12) 1 (6) 2 (12) 3 (2) 4 (4) 5 (9) 6 (5) 7 (7) 8 (8) 9 (3) 10(11) 11 (1) 12(10)

BANGERS T Dascombe 9-5 Stephen Craine 5 DOCTORS PAPERS 10 D Brown 9-5 S Levey 06 FIRST SUMMER 14 E McMahon 9-5 P Mulrennan 05 KERRYMERRY 23 I Mohammed 9-5 A Subousi (7) 00 LONELY RANGER 29 Miss A Weaver 9-5 P Cosgrave 5 MARMOT 28 R Charlton 9-5 Doubtful 00 MYSTERIOUS STAR 17 M Meade 9-5 D Sweeney 6 NIGHT GENERATION 9 Sir M Prescott 9-5 Luke Morris PADLOCK D Simcock 9-5 J Crowley 5 UNNOTICED 16 O Pears 9-5 R Winston 22 EXCILLY 14 (BF) T Dascombe 9-0 R Kingscote 65 GENTLEMUSIC 17 M Botti 9-0 D Muscutt (5)

1-2 Excilly, 9-1 Gentlemusic, 10-1 Unnoticed, 16-1 Padlock, 20-1 Bangers, 22-1 Night Generation, 25-1 First Summer, 33-1 Mysterious Star, 50-1 others.

8.50

Handicap

(£2,264: 7f 32y) (12)

T Eaves 1 (2) 00033 BOGSNOG 13 (C,D) K Stubbs 4-9-7 2 (6) 54144 ZED CANDY GIRL 34 (P,CD) J Stimpson 4-9-7 E J Walsh (5) N Farley (3) 3 (7) 04000 LLEWELLYN 13 (D) Declan Carroll 6-9-7 T E Durcan 4 (9) 60505 RICH AGAIN 16 (P) J Bethell 5-9-6 G Baker 5 (12) 623 QUAINTRELLE 16 E Vaughan 3-9-5 G Downing (5) 6 (5) 6-505 LARGHETTO 14 (C,D) I Williams 6-9-3 S Donohoe 7 (3) 00003 DIMITAR 27 (P,C,D) J Farrelly 5-9-2 R Havlin 8 (10) 22564 BOSSTIME 14 (P) J Holt 4-9-2 Luke Morris 9 (4) 60-00 NASHMI 112 (V) G Peckham 3-9-2 R Tate (3) 10 (8) 5036 UNBRIDLED JOY 38 (BF) Clive Cox 3-9-0 P Mulrennan 11 (1) 32432 ORWELLIAN 20 (BF) B Smart 5-8-12 B McHugh 12(11) 02222 SLINGSBY 20 (B,BF) M W Easterby 3-8-11 4-1 Orwellian, 7-1 Bogsnog, Slingsby, 15-2 Dimitar, Larghetto, Quaintrelle, 8-1 Unbridled Joy, Zed Candy Girl, 9-1 Rich Again, 16-1 others.

9.20

Handicap

(£2,264: 7f 32y) (12)

26 CHAUVELIN 13 R Charlton 3-9-2 G Baker (12) HONEY BADGER A Hutchinson 3-9-2 S Drowne (2) R Havlin (10) 3344 KICKING THE CAN 39 P Chapple-Hyam 3-9-2 00 KIRTLING 38 A Brown 3-9-2 R Tart (1) Luke Morris (5) 03443 KUBEBA 14 P Cole 3-9-2 65 SO IT'S WAR 18 K Dalgleish 3-9-2 T Eaves (9) (6) 5-035 THRTYPOINTSTOTHREE 43 Mrs N Evans 3-9-2 P Prince (3) HIDDEN AMBITION S Hollinshead 5-9-1 J Duern (5) 8 (7) J Hart 9 (4) -0040 SERAPHIMA 35 (V) Mrs L Williamson 4-9-1 GALACTIC HALO Lady Cecil 3-8-11 James Doyle 10 (8) 65 HOUSEWIVES CHOICE 128 (H) J Bethell 3-8-11 T E Durcan 11 (3) PERSONA GRATA E Walker 3-8-11 R Kingscote 12(11)

1 (9) 12310 POUR LA VICTOIRE 16 (B,D) A Carroll 4-9-7 W Twiston-Davies H Bentley 2 (10) 05020 MALAYSIAN BOLEH 18 (C,D) S Dow 4-9-7 3 (1) 02546 MONSIEUR ROYALE 25 (B,C) G Oldroyd 4-9-6 B McHugh A Mullen 4 (8) 60014 ARABIAN FLIGHT 9 (P,CD) M Appleby 5-9-6 Martin Lane 5 (6) 04562 BLACK DAVE 3 (D,BF) P D Evans 4-9-4 6 (7) 21416 CLAPPERBOARD 52 (B,D) P Fitzsimons 3-9-3 W A Carson N Farley (3) 7 (5) 0/000 TWO PANCAKES 13 Declan Carroll 4-9-2 D Allan 8 (12) 025 REMEMBERANCE DAY 17 L Eyre 3-9-2 /40-0 DAZEEN 168 (D) M Herrington 7-9-1 R Winston 9 (4) P Mulrennan 10 (3) 00643 PALACE PRINCESS 14 E Dunlop 3-8-13 11(11) 10036 STREET BOSS 22 (V,D) Jedd O'Keeffe 3-8-12 R Kennemore 12 (2) 03305 EASTLANDS LAD 79 (BF) M D Hammond 5-8-7 T Eaves

4-1 Kicking The Can, Kubeba, 5-1 Chauvelin, 6-1 Persona Grata, 7-1 Galactic Halo, 9-1 So It's War, 10-1 Housewives Choice, 14-1 others.

9-2 Arabian Flight, 5-1 Black Dave, 11-2 Palace Princess, 13-2 Malaysian Boleh, 15-2 Pour La Victoire, 10-1 Clapperboard, Monsieur Royale, 12-1 others.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

the times | Friday October 10 2014

53

FGM

Sport

Tomkins enjoying green grass of home

Defeated Murray facing struggle to reach finals Tennis Andy Murray’s hopes of

reaching the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at London’s O2 arena suffered another blow when he was beaten 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 by David Ferrer at the Shanghai Rolex Masters yesterday. Ferrer’s win means that he replaces Murray in ninth place in the “Race to London” standings on 3,715 points, while the British No 1 is tenth on 3,655. Only the top eight qualify.

The Scot has not lost all hope of reaching the finals, but the defeat means that he is likely to compete for ranking points at the Valencia Open, which starts on October 20, and could also figure at the Paris Masters a week later.

MARTIN RICKETT / PA

Rugby league

Crossing the great divide

Is the grass necessarily greener for those rugby league players converting to union? Sam Burgess will shortly discover whether that is the case at Bath, but for Joel Tomkins, who broke into the England side for last year’s autumn internationals, a return to his native Wigan was based on the straightforward honest assessment that he was a better league than union player.

Tomkins had three years at Saracens and does not regret the experience for one moment, but knew once he settled back to life at Wigan Warriors that he had made the right decision. That was in June, when he was still recovering from back surgery. The 27-year-old’s transition from union centre to league second row proved almost seamless, despite the game “speeding up around the rucks in the time I’ve been away”.

Four months on, he is relishing a First Utility Super League Grand Final appearance tomorrow against St Helens, arch rivals whom he helped to overcome in the 2010 Old Trafford showdown. “I had those fears moving to union and coming back,” Tomkins said.

“You have to go into it 100 per cent and give whatever you can. Those are the risks. Returning to league I knew would be a lot easier than going the other way.

“It’s like riding a bike. You’ve done it for so long, it doesn’t really leave you, though it’s not been easy. It’s been a lot of hard work, but I feel at a level now where I’m confident.”

Last year’s final was not easy, watching Wigan and younger brother Sam lift the trophy. This year the boot is on the other foot with Sam, after a

Lote Tuqiri Dual-code Australia back played for Waratahs, Leicester and Leinster.

Back in league at South Sydney Rabbitohs and won the NRL Grand Final last Sunday with Sam Burgess.

Christopher Irvine

Rob Wright

2.20 Polamco 4.30 Petrovic 2.50 Solar Impulse 5.00 Abbeygrey 3.20 Sound Investment 5.30 More Buck’s 3.55 Taquin Du Seuil Going: good to soft (soft in places) At The Races 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Novices' Hurdle (£5,064: 2m 3f) (9)

03- ARENICE ET PICTONS P Nicholls 4-10-12 S Twiston-Davies 64-6 BORGUY 32 J Snowden 4-10-12 D Jacob 6U4-6 BUCKHORN TIMOTHY 161 C Tizzard 5-10-12 B Powell BURTONS WELL Miss V Williams 5-10-12 A Coleman 5/13- CREATIVE BORU 226 Mrs L Young 6-10-12 R Dunne 051- POLAMCO 190 (T) H Fry 5-10-12 R Mahon 421- SYKES 194P P Hobbs 5-10-12 R Johnson P-U TEA TIME FRED 166P S Gardner 5-10-12 Miss L Gardner (5) -P66P HUNTSMANS LADY 11 J Frost 4-10-5 Tom O'Brien

11-4 Polamco, 9-2 Arenice Et Pictons, Sykes, 7-1 Borguy, 8-1 others.

2.50 1 2 3 4

Novices' Chase (£6,330: 2m 110y) (4)

22-21 TURN OVER SIVOLA 136 (D) A King 7-11-5 W Hutchinson 0260- LITTLE JON 189 N Twiston-Davies 6-11-0 R Hatch (5) P-P33 SURPRISE US 10 (P,C,D) M Gillard 7-11-0 T Cannon 3051- SOLAR IMPULSE 172 (T,D) P Nicholls 4-10-4 S Twiston-Davies

5-6 Turn Over Sivola, 2-1 Solar Impulse, 11-2 Little Jon, 20-1 Surprise Us.

3.20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Setaimata Sa Samoa and New Zealand league player joined London Irish last year from Catalan Dragons but switched back in signing for Hull in May.

testing first season in the NRL with New Zealand Warriors, part of the Sky Sports commentary team. The pair are reunited in England’s league squad for the Four Nations down under this month, another reason for Joel to call time on his union spell.

“Sam, jealous? I hope not,” Tomkins said. “I wasn’t when I was watching him do the double last year. He’s a massive Wigan fan. He’s been as nervous as we have the last few weeks with the nailbiting games. It’s always a bit special to play with Sam or Logan [their younger brother at Salford Red Devils]. Sam’s

Handicap Hurdle (£15,640: 2m 6f) (8)

0-211 HENRYVILLE 6 (H,CD) H Fry 6-11-13 A P McCoy 1103- SOUND INVESTMENT 167 (T) P Nicholls 6-11-12 S Bowen (7) 210-1 ANY GIVEN DAY 51F (D) D McCain 9-11-12 W Hutchinson 4100- UNCLE JIMMY 190 (D) P Hobbs 7-11-8 R Johnson 1300- LIKE MINDED 189 (T) D Skelton 10-11-5 Miss B Andrews (7) 4255- TOBY LERONE 198 D Skelton 7-10-8 H Skelton 3-431 DELLA SUN 11 (C) A Whitehead 8-10-4 J Wall (7) 6312/ SPIRIT D'ARMOR 943 (BF) Miss V Williams 8-10-0 A Coleman

3-1 Henryville, 4-1 Uncle Jimmy, 11-2 Like Minded, 6-1 others.

1 2 3 4 5

Intermediate Chase (£18,768: 2m 5f 110y) (5)

112F- BLACK THUNDER 212 (C) P Nicholls 7-11-10 N Scholfield 3211- TAQUIN DU SEUIL 211 (D) Jonjo O'Neill 7-11-10 R McLernon 1253- WONDERFUL CHARM 189 (T,D) P Nicholls 6-11-10 S Twiston-Davies 1235- DOUBLE ROSS 189 (D,BF) N Twiston-Davies 8-11-6 J E Moore /232- COLOUR SQUADRON 211 (BF) P Hobbs 8-10-8 A P McCoy

9-4 Taquin Du Seuil, 11-4 Colour Squadron, 7-2 Wonderful Charm, 5-1 Double Ross, 7-1 Black Thunder.

4.30

Mares' Handicap Hurdle (£5,064: 2m 6f) (8)

M Byrne 1 411P- BARTON ROSE 205 N Mulholland 5-11-12 A Thornton 2 P23-P RUBY GLOW 146 J S Mullins 6-11-7 3 63PP- RUSSIE WITH LOVE 174 (D) C Down 8-11-7 James Davies L Aspell 4 3-562 TAGGIA 122 Mrs A Batchelor 7-11-4 W Hutchinson 5 5-613 OUR MAIMIE 80 (BF) G McPherson 8-11-3 45551 PETROVIC 21 (T) Jonjo O'Neill 5-11-2 A P McCoy 6 7 6P000 SHABRA CHARITY 13 (T) A McCann (Ire) 9-11-0 J Moore (7) 8 13-36 NELLIE FORBUSH 119 (P) Mrs S Leech 4-10-10 Killian Moore (5) 9-4 Petrovic, 5-1 Barton Rose, 11-2 Our Maimie, Taggia, 7-1 Nellie Forbush, 9-1 Russie With Love, 11-1 Ruby Glow, 14-1 Shabra Charity.

5.00 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Handicap Chase

(£4,548: 3m 2f 110y) (7)

0440- TEA CADDY 176 (T) J Snowden 8-11-12 B Powell 625-4 CRUDE 153P Paul Henderson 9-11-8 N Scholfield 2P12- MILOSAM 183 (B,BF) P Hobbs 7-11-5 Tom O'Brien 64231 ABBEYGREY 5 E Williams 5-11-5 A Wedge 2-P10 WHERE'D YA HIDE IT 117 Paul Henderson 8-10-13 Mr G M Treacy (7) 523P- TUSKAR ROCK 183 (B) Miss V Williams 11-10-13 A Coleman 34206 DUROOB 14 (B) A McCann (Ire) 12-10-10 J Moore (7)

7-4 Abbeygrey, 5-2 Milosam, 6-1 Tea Caddy, Tuskar Rock, 10-1 Crude, 14-1 Where'd Ya Hide It, 20-1 Duroob.

and decided I was a better league than union player.

“I had more to give in league and I’ve a lot of loyalty to it. The game’s been struggling and union’s gone up a level.

It’s important people can come and see what a great game league is. That might sound hypocritical after I’ve been to union, but that’s how I feel.

“Even if we weren’t in the Grand Final and I wasn’t going on tour, it would have been the right decision.

Being away you don’t realise what you’ve got until you’ve not got it any more.”

5.30

2.40

NH Flat Race (£2,053: 2m 1f) (8)

1- MORE BUCK'S 178 (D) P Nicholls 4-11-7 Miss M Nicholls (7) BELLS OF CASTOR T Vaughan 4-11-0 M Byrne 0- BILBROOK BLAZE 191 (T) P Hobbs 4-11-0 R Johnson DASHING OSCAR (T) H Fry 4-11-0 C Brassil (7) KINGS LANE N Mulholland 5-11-0 D Jacob U- NATIVE RIVER 207P C Tizzard 4-11-0 B Powell NORTHANDSOUTH N Twiston-Davies 4-11-0 S Twiston-Davies ACT NOW A Honeyball 5-10-7 Rachael Green

8

1-2 More Buck'S, 8-1 Northandsouth, 9-1 Act Now, Dashing Oscar, 16-1 Kings Lane, 22-1 Bilbrook Blaze, Native River, 25-1 Bells Of Castor.

Carlisle

Rob Wright 2.10 Nafaath 4.20 Back To Bracka 2.40 Knight’s Parade 4.50 Bright Abbey 3.10 Drop Out Joe 5.20 Kingswell Theatre 3.45 The Friary Going: good (good to soft in places) Racing UK

2.10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle (£3,249: 2m 1f) (15)

460P/ NAFAATH 21F D McCain 8-11-12 N Slatter (6) 245F- BIGGAR 224 (P) Miss L Russell 6-11-12 Ryan Nichol (10) 02-00 HANGA ROA 101 (D) F J Brennan 4-11-12 M Hamill (5) 23120 DYNAMIC DRIVE 15 (H,T,D) M Barnes 7-11-10S Mulqueen (6) 0033- WYFIELD ROSE 204 A Whillans 5-11-10 D Irving (5) 3334- SPANISH FLEET 228 J Wade 6-11-7 D O'Regan (5) 0P-B4 BOB'S CALL 13 T Coyle 5-11-7 J McGrath 21-44 FUNKY MUNKY 15 (C,D) A Whillans 9-11-6 R Day (5) 0-236 ASUNCION 42 R Menzies 4-11-6 T Kelly (3) 404-0 TWEEDO PARADISO 120 (CD) Mrs R Dobbin 7-10-10C Nichol 0-562 DISTRICT ATTORNEY 31F C Fairhurst 5-10-8 J Colliver 3P-05 KNIGHT VALLIANT 136 (C) Mrs B Butterworth 11-10-7Colm McCormack 54P-4 DALSTONTOSILOTH 150 F Murtagh 6-10-7 C Bewley (3) 203-6 ACORDINGTOSCRIPT 23 (H) M Todhunter 8-10-0H Challoner 5131- NALIM 194P H Bethell 8-10-0 J England

6-1 Funky Munky, 7-1 Tweedo Paradiso, 15-2 Dalstontosiloth, 8-1 others.

Boxing James DeGale has accused Carl Froch of being “scared” to face him, saying that losing to him would ruin the IBF and WBA super-middleweight champion’s reputation. DeGale faces Marco Antonio Peribán, of Mexico, at the Echo Arena, Liverpool, on November 22 and is the mandatory challenger to face Froch next.

Words by Christopher Irvine

got a lot of experience this year in the NRL and it’s a massive goal of his and everyone to beat the Aussies. It’ll be fantastic if we can get a win there.”

Joel was part of an England team who beat Australia at Twickenham last November. In common with Burgess, his main ambition was to play union internationally. “Three caps and being a dual-code international was a massive achievement for me,” he said. “Probably being there for three years wasn’t quite enough to really fulfil what I wanted to do. But when the opportunity arose to come back, I had a good look at myself

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Froch ‘scared of me’

Iain Thornley Threequarter is injured for tomorrow’s Grand Final with a knee injury. Returned to Wigan in 2012 after two years with Sale Sharks.

Playing to his strengths: Tomkins is pleased that he made the difficult decision to return to league, the code he thinks suits him best, after three years at Saracens

3.55

Newton Abbot

2.20

Chev Walker Former England and Great Britain player joined Bath in 2006 in a deal part-funded by the RFU. Returned to league ten months later at Hull KR. Now with Bradford Bulls.

(£3,249: 2m 1f) (12)

41 HEIST 42 (T,D) P Griffin (Ire) 4-11-5 B Hughes 00-1 KNIGHT'S PARADE 14 (T) G Elliott (Ire) 4-11-5 T Scudamore 3 5212- VOYAGE A NEW YORK 177 (C,D,BF) Miss L Russell 5-11-5 W Renwick 35- ASTAROLAND 236 J Candlish 4-10-12 Peter Carberry (3) 4 T Kelly (3) 5 00/00 CAPTAIN RHYRIC 31 J Moffatt 5-10-12 6 1220- FLY HOME HARRY 188 (D) G A Swinbank 5-10-12 P Moloney 310- GOLANS CHOICE 202 Mrs R Dobbin 5-10-12 B Harding 7 H Brooke 8 25-04 HAIL THE BRAVE 110 P Kirby 5-10-12 60- PEGASUS WALK 179 Mrs R Dobbin 5-10-12 C Nichol (3) 9 SKAGHARDGANNON LAD J Candlish 8-10-12 N Fehily 10 VITAL EVIDENCE 98F D McCain 4-10-12 J M Maguire 11 40 DALBY SPOOK 10 Mrs D Sayer 4-10-5 J Reveley 12 3-1 Vital Evidence, 7-2 Voyage A New York, 4-1 Knight's Parade, 6-1 Fly Home Harry, 9-1 Heist, 10-1 Dalby Spook, 16-1 others.

1 2 3 4 5

Novices' Chase (£4,223: 2m 4f) (5)

03-62 CAPELLANUS 54 (D) B Ellison 8-11-4 232P- DROP OUT JOE 202 (C,D) C Longsdon 6-11-4 33-06 GENEROUS CHIEF 16 C Grant 6-11-4 611-5 KEENELAND 126 (D) D McCain 7-11-4 5/3-4 WATER GARDEN 160 R Menzies 8-11-4

D Cook N Fehily B Hughes J M Maguire T Kelly (3)

9-4 Drop Out Joe, Keeneland, 7-2 Capellanus, 13-2 Generous Chief, 8-1 Water Garden.

3.45 1 2 3 4 5 6

Equestrianism The Great Britain

showjumping team have secured a place in the last round of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup jumping final in Barcelona tomorrow after superb rounds from Joe Clee, on Utamaro D’Ecaussines, and Spencer Roe, on Wonder Why, in yesterday’s qualifying round. Both riders finished on four faults.

4.20

Novices' Hurdle

1 2

3.10

Britain face final hurdle

Handicap Chase

(£6,498: 3m 2f) (6)

036-3 MAZURI COWBOY 83 B Ellison 9-11-12 W Renwick 231P- ORANGE NASSAU 178 (D) C Longsdon 8-11-12 N Fehily 41352 DARK GLACIER 46 (T,B) P Bowen 9-11-12 D Devereux 56-23 DREAMS OF MILAN 120 (BF) D McCain 6-11-5 J M Maguire 131P- THE FRIARY 208 (T,P) Miss L Russell 7-11-4 D R Fox (3) 431-2 OUTLAW TOM 153 (P) Miss L Russell 10-10-8 P Buchanan

3-1 Dreams Of Milan, 9-2 Dark Glacier, Mazuri Cowboy, Orange Nassau, Outlaw Tom, 11-2 The Friary.

Novices' Hurdle (£3,249: 2m 4f) (9)

D Devereux 1 112P3 ROLLING MAUL 37 (V,BF) P Bowen 6-11-12 T Scudamore 2 1P221 TOM'S ARTICLE 13 G Elliott (Ire) 5-11-5 3 165-1 BACK TO BRACKA 142 (D) Miss L Russell 7-10-12 W Renwick F Keniry 4 3000- CROWN AND GLORY 288 C Fairhurst 7-10-12 D R Fox (3) 5 4/20- GARTH 193 Miss L Russell 6-10-12 MOUNT BECKHAM Miss C Cannon (Ire) 5-10-12 B Hughes 6 P-1 SIMPLY THE WEST 145P C Longsdon 5-10-12 N Fehily 7 J M Maguire 8 5253- THE BACKUP PLAN 177 D McCain 5-10-12 050- QUEENS REGATTA 168 B Mactaggart 5-10-5 B Harding 9 15-8 Back To Bracka, 3-1 Rolling Maul, 4-1 Tom's Article, 6-1 others.

4.50 1 2 3 4 5 6

Handicap Chase (£6,498: 2m) (6)

1023F AUTHINGER 40 (D,BF) F Murtagh 6-11-8 B Harding 11F5- CLASSIC MOVE 174 D McCain 5-11-7 J M Maguire 541-6 IT'S A MANS WORLD 49F (D) B Ellison 8-11-5 D Cook 2140- BRIGHT ABBEY 173F (D) Mrs D Sayer 6-11-2 J Reveley 522-2 FINAL ASSAULT 16 (D,BF) Miss L Russell 5-10-13 D R Fox (3) 21121 ROBIN'S COMMAND 16 (D) Mrs R Dobbin 7-10-12 C Nichol (3)

11-4 Classic Move, 100-30 Bright Abbey, 4-1 It's A Mans World, 9-2 others.

5.20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

NH Flat Race (£1,559: 2m 1f) (14)

431 DIVINE PORT 23 (D) G A Swinbank 4-11-7 P Moloney A GOOD CATCH Karen McLintock 6-11-0 F Keniry CLASSIC STATEMENT Mrs R Dobbin 6-11-0 W Renwick 2- DEADLY MOVE 202P C Longsdon 5-11-0 N Fehily DERRYDOON Karen McLintock 4-11-0 P Brennan 4- KINGSWELL THEATRE 216 Miss L Russell 5-11-0 C Nichol (3) 6- KRASNODAR 172 (BF) J M Jefferson 4-11-0 B Hughes 64 MR STEADFAST 11 (T) G Elliott (Ire) 4-11-0 J M Maguire SHEPHERD STORM J Wade 4-11-0 J Dawson (5) 634 THE PHANTOM WINGER 45 (V) S West 5-11-0 J Colliver (5) 5/3 TIMEFORTEE 13 G Harker 5-11-0 D C Costello 06- HOPEFULL 241 R Mike Smith 4-10-7 P Buchanan 3- INNIS SHANNON 341 G Bewley 4-10-7 J Bewley (5) MAYZE BELL A Whillans 5-10-7 C Whillans (5)

7-2 Divine Port, 4-1 Mr Steadfast, 11-2 Deadly Move, 6-1 others.

Yesterday’s racing results Ayr

Going: soft 2.10 (1m) 1, Royal Regent (Megan Carberry, 80-1); 2, Sir Chauvelin (Evens fav); 3, Go Dan Go (22-1). 7 ran. 3l, 2Ol. Mrs L Normile.

2.40 (6f) 1, Explain (D Sweeney, 11-4 fav); 2, Aprovado (8-1); 3, Named Asset (18-1).

10 ran. Hd, 5l. M Meade.

3.10 (6f) 1, Lord Buffhead (Jason Hart, 14-1); 2, Monel (17-2); 3, Saxonette (14-1). Jumbo Steps 3-1 fav. 14 ran. NR: Opt Out. 1Kl, Kl. R C Guest.

3.40 (6f) 1, New Lease Of Life (G Bartley, 8-1); 2, Rock Canyon (16-1); 3, Live Dangerously (14-1). Captain Scooby (5th) 9-2 jt-fav. Coiste Bodhar 9-2 jt-fav. 15 ran. 1l, 1Nl. J Goldie.

4.10 (5f) 1, Fredricka (J Hart, 100-30); 2, Margrets Gift (13-8 fav); 3, Scoreline (6-1).

6 ran. NR: Chookie’s Lass, Lexington Rose.

2l, nk. G Moss.

4.40 (1m 5f 13yd) 1, Rockweiller (J Hart, 11-2); 2, Harrison’s Cave (3-1 jt-fav); 3, Nay Secret (14-1). Ronald Gee (5th) 3-1 jt-fav. 8 ran. NR: Hatton Springs, Schmooze. 1Nl, 2Ol. S Harris.

5.10 (7f 50yd) 1, Our Boy Jack (G Chaloner, 8-1); 2, Evanescent (13-2); 3, Farlow (8-1). Trixie Malone (5th) 4-1 fav. 14 ran. 3l, nk. R Fahey.

5.40 (7f 50yd) 1, Royal Duchess (Megan Carberry, 15-2); 2, Uncle Brit (25-1); 3, Pat’s Legacy (4-1 fav). 11 ran. NR: Petergate, Very First Blade, Wotalad. Ol, 1Nl. Mrs L Normile.

Jackpot: not won. £14,575.22 carried forward to York today).

Placepot: £845.80.

Quadpot: £130.20.

Exeter

Going: good to firm (good in places) 2.20 (2m 3f hdle) 1, Shadarpour (W Hutchinson, 100-30); 2, Get Home Now (3-1 fav); 3, Fuzzy Logic (14-1). 8 ran. 2Nl, 5l. A King.

2.50 (2m 5f 110yd hdle) 1, Ni Sin E Mo Ainm (Michael Byrne, 7-2); 2, Yabadabadoo (5-2 fav); 3, State Department (4-1). 7 ran. Hd, 14l.

N Mulholland.

3.20 (3m ch) 1, Caulfields Venture (Aidan Coleman, 11-4 co-fav); 2, American Legend (11-4 co-fav); 3, Welsh Bard (9-1). According To Sarah (4th) 11-4 co-fav. 5 ran. NR: Regal Presence. 2Nl, 9l. Miss E Lavelle.

3.50 (3m ch) 1, Many Stars (Ian Popham, 4-7 fav); 2, Mackeys Forge (5-2); 3, Armedand– beautiful (9-1). 5 ran. Ol, 1l. D Skelton.

4.20 (2m 1f hdle) 1, Landau (J M Maguire, 1-3 fav); 2, Free Of Charge (4-1); 3, Sonny The One (7-1). 8 ran. NR: Like A Diamond. 6l, Ol. G Elliott (Ire).

4.50 (2m 1f hdle) 1, Prettyasapicture (Thomas Bellamy, 5-1); 2, Bajan Blu (3-1 fav); 3, Jaja De Jau (7-2). 11 ran. Kl, 12l. A King.

Placepot: £5.60.

Quadpot: £2.50.

Worcester Going: soft

2.00 (2m 4f ch) 1, The Omen (Alan Johns, 14-1); 2, Pure Poteen (13-8 fav); 3, Islandmagee (9-2).

12 ran. 6l, 44l. T Vaughan.

2.30 (2m 110yd ch) 1, Topthorn (Mr Z Baker, 16-1); 2, El Toreros (11-2); 3, Think Its All Over (9-2). Sportsreport (pu) 11-4 fav. 10 ran. 23l, 8l.

M Bosley.

3.00 (2m flat) 1, Masterplan (N D Fehily, 15-8 fav); 2, A Good Skin (5-1); 3, Vieux Lille (10-1).

6 ran. Ol, 3l. C Longsdon.

3.30 (2m 7f hdle) 1, Debt To Society (Harry Challoner, 9-4); 2, Tempuran (15-8 fav); 3, Douchkirk (7-1). 5 ran. 47l, Kl. R Ford.

4.00 (2m hdle) 1, Taaresh (Adam Wedge, 7-1); 2, Kayfton Pete (8-1); 3, El Macca (7-1). Going Concern (4th) 7-4 fav. 7 ran. NR: Minella Hero.

5l, 1l. K Morgan.

4.30 (2m hdle) 1, Stephanie Frances (Harry Skelton, 4-1); 2, Midnight Spin (8-1); 3, As De Mee (6-4 fav). 6 ran. NR: Gaelic Myth. 2Kl, 4Kl. D Skelton.

5.00 (2m 7f hdle) 1, Ballycoe (Sam TwistonDavies, 9-4 fav); 2, Castle Cheetah (5-1); 3, The Winking Prawn (28-1). 10 ran. 1Kl, 33l. P Nicholls.

Placepot: £469.00.

Quadpot: £80.30.

Wolverhampton

Going: standard 5.20 (5f 216yd) 1, Luna Mission (M Harley, 7-2); 2, Scent Of Summer (7-2); 3, Mary’s Secret (22-1). Silvery Blue (5th) 9-4 fav. 12 ran. NR: Slovak. 1Kl, Kl. M Botti.

5.50 (7f 32yd) 1, Pollination (W Buick, 5-6 fav); 2, Yard Of Ale (40-1); 3, Copperbelt (11-4).

5 ran. NR: Bold Spirit, Gentlemen, Tasaaboq.

1l, nk. C Appleby.

6.20 (1m 141yd) 1, Jet Mate (M Dwyer, 13-2); 2, Framley Garth (15-8 fav); 3, Activation (16-1). 11 ran. NR: El Draque, Missandei.

Kl, sh hd. W R Muir.

6.50 (2m 119yd) 1, Mister Bob (T E Durcan, 9-4 fav); 2, Black Iceman (8-1); 3, Annaluna (6-1).

8 ran. 3l, 1Kl. J D Bethell.

7.20 (1m 141yd) 1, Complicit (L Morris, 7-2); 2, Emirates Flyer (4-5 fav); 3, Premio Loco (13-2). 7 ran. NR: Solar Deity, Zampa Manos.

Ol, nk. P F I Cole.

7.50 (1m 4f 50yd) 1, Strawberry Martini (M Dwyer, 2-1); 2, Perspicace (4-9 fav); 3, Dukes Den (33-1). 5 ran. 1l, 9l. W R Muir.

8.20 (1m 1f 103yd) 1, Evacusafe Lady (M Harley, 4-5 fav); 2, Classic Mission (8-1); 3, Coillte Cailin (40-1). 11 ran. NR: On The Hoof, Scarlet Plum. Kl, nk. J Ryan.

Placepot: £13.80.

Quadpot: £3.40.

54

FGM

Sport Rugby union

Bid to become bigger leads to doping feasting on young blood GETTY IMAGES

Owen Slot reports on the worrying trend of under-pressure players early in their career who are turning to steroids

Standing by injured players is hurting us, says Cockerill Alex Lowe

Rob Hawkins was in the final year of his contract with Leicester when his arm was broken by Calum Clark, the Northampton Saints flanker, in the 2012 LV= Cup final.

The injury ended his season and Hawkins could have faced an uncertain future, but the club stood by their hooker and awarded him a new two-year contract. Hawkins spent two more seasons at Welford Road before landing a two-year deal with Newcastle Falcons.

In his search for answers as to why Leicester have been hit so badly by injuries in recent years, Richard Cockerill, the director of rugby, rejects the notion that his training methods are stuck in the amateur days, but he admitted that his desire to stick by players, such as Hawkins, could be a significant factor.

If loyalty is to blame, he makes no apology for it, even though Leicester’s threadbare squad goes into tonight’s game against Harlequins after three successive defeats and sitting ninth in the Aviva Premiership.

“Some of it is circumstance, but after three years of it, it can’t just be bad luck,” Cockerill said. “Maybe it’s [player] retention. If a bloke’s been out 12 months with an injury, do we support him or say, ‘He’s busted, let’s sign someone else?’ We look after our players when they are injured. You have to send

P

eter Davies was 19 years old, in May, when a doping control officer knocked on his door early in the morning. He played rugby union for Newport High School Old Boys in the SWALEC League 3 East. It may seem odd that a doping officer should be interested in a 19-year-old amateur; clearly his mother thought so because a few minutes after his arrival, during which Davies had failed to provide a urine sample, she reminded her son that he had a university exam to go to.

What she did not say was that the exam was not for more than five hours.

The officer left after half an hour and returned six days later when Davies flatly refused to give a sample. The two incidents constitute an anti-doping rule violation. Yesterday, Davies was given a two-year ban from competitive sport.

His story would seem peculiar if isolated, but it is not. Two years ago, Gwent Police were tipped off about large amounts of money — more than £40,000 — being sent in the post from an address in Risca. The address was that of a family on benefit.

A police investigation called Operation Winter was opened into conspiracy to supply steroids that resulted in ten arrests and the criminal conviction of Philip Tinklin for contravention of the misuse of drugs act. In August, in the sport’s court of law, Tinklin was given a life ban from sport for possession of prohibited substances, for trafficking, assisting and encouraging their use. His daughter, Sophie, an amateur boxer, was banned for four years.

The intelligence from Operation Winter was hugely important to UK Anti-Doping (Ukad). In June, it led to an eight-year ban for Clive Peters, a rugby team manager for Surrey under-15 to 18s, for possession and trafficking. There was no evidence that Peters had attempted to distribute to the players he managed.

A month after Peters was suspended, Ukad announced the three-year ban of Christopher Edwards, a 29-year-old who played rugby for Tredegar in Welsh League 2 East. Edwards had been caught because a third party had sent Ukad a carrier bag containing syringes, needles and empty bottles of Trentest, an anabolic steroid.

Arguably the most concerning case in south Wales this year was that of Dean Colclough, the former Swansea hooker, who received an eight-year ban for possession and trafficking steroids.

It was from Colclough that Sam Chalmers, the son of Craig Chalmers, the former Scotland fly half, purchased the steroids that, last year, brought him a two-year ban. Chalmers was 19 and says he did not know what he was taking.

The circumstantial evidence mounts.

In the past two months, two 19-year-old Welsh rugby league players have been banned for taking steroids.

The geography here is not hard to spot. It would be safe to assume that south Wales is now being acutely

Friday October 10 2014 | the times

Leicester Tigers: M Tait; B Scully, M Tuilagi, O Williams, V Goneva; F Burns, B Youngs; M Rizzo, L Ghiraldini, F Balmain, B Thorn, G Kitchener, J Gibson, J Salvi, J Crane. Replacements: N Briggs, M Ayerza, T Pasquali, S de Chaves, R Barbieri, D Mele, S Harrison, M Benjamin.

Harlequins: M Brown; M Yarde, M Hopper, T Casson, A Tikoirotuma; N Evans, D Care; J Marler, J Gray, W Collier, C Matthews, G Robson, L Wallace, C Robshaw, N Easter. Replacements: D Ward, M Lambert, K Sinckler, S Twomey, J Trayfoot, K Dickson, G Lowe, O Lindsay-Hague.

Referee: T Wigglesworth.

Television: Live on BT Sport 2 from 7pm, (kick-off 7.45).

Workout warriors: the value of size in sports like rugby has led to a contemporary kind of youthful, impressionable dopers

target-tested. Ukad has been frustrated that it could not get access to Colclough’s distribution lists, yet when an officer turns up on the doorstep of a 19-year-old amateur, it suggests that its local intelligence network is strong.

“You just have to look at the number of cases we are running in the region to see it is of concern,” Andy Parkinson, the Ukad chief executive, said.

This might look like a Welsh issue, though that would ignore a third league player, from the Gloucestershire All Golds, who was banned in August. He was 18 and researched his entire doping programme online. Union players in England test positive, too.

Doping always was and still remains a concern at professional level in all sports, although the most-tested group in rugby, the top professionals, have a comparatively good record. At that level, education on nutrition and supplementation is good. Of all the above cases, only one was a professional, Rhys Pugsley, one of the young Welsh rugby league players, who was with the Wigan Warriors academy.

The greater problem here would appear to lie within two groups at the levels beneath the professional game: good senior players looking for a leg-up to a professional contract, and ambi-

tious junior players who can see the value of size.

As Parkinson said: “In any sport where athletes are required to be bigger, this is a concern to us.”

Three aspects collide dangerously.

Comparing badly 6 Rugby union did not fare well when compared with other sports in statistics released by the World AntiDoping Agency (Wada) this year.

Wada compiled figures from across all agencies and laboratories in 2013 and showed that while cycling and athletics had rates of 1.2 per cent of positive tests, rugby was at 1.3 per cent. Weightlifting was 3.4 per cent.

6 Cycling and athletics test more than rugby: 22,252 cycle racers were tested in 2013, 24,942 athletes and 6,126 rugby players.

6 Union’s big scare about doping in young players came at the Craven Week schools tournament in South Africa in 2011, when four boys tested positive for banned substances.

Words by Owen S lot

One: the need to be big in rugby.

Chalmers was told time and again that he was too small. Two: image enhancement, the social requirement of the body beautiful, magazines that tell you how to get a six-pack in six weeks.

Needle exchanges report that there is a higher use from steroid-users now than heroin-users. Three: availability.

Steroids used to be distributed in dark corners of gyms; now teenagers can shop for them online. And the internet can blur the line between a supplement and a steroid. Again, ask Chalmers.

One senior voice within rugby described this triple whammy as “the perfect storm”.

Stephen Watkins, the RFU’s antidoping manager, said: “Sam Chalmers is reflective of the young people we’ve caught. The young players we’ve caught are not dreadful people, they’ve just made a dreadful mistake.”

The Welsh Rugby Union yesterday said that it “takes anti-doping offences very seriously”. Education programmes are in place but will soon be more widespread. Schools have just employed 43 new rugby officers who will also act as anti-doping advisers.

The measures are wisely taken.

Doping is changing and so are those who dope.

the right messages. Sometimes that will cost you in the short term, but in the long term it is what we are about.”

Leicester remain without key names such as Tom Croft, who has spent most of the past two years injured, Tom Youngs, Dan Cole, Ed Slater and Geoff Parling, but they do have Manu Tuilagi back and Brad Thorn makes his Welford Road debut in the second row.

Harlequins have George Lowe in their squad for the first time since he suffered a neck injury in September of last year that almost ended his career.

6 Kurtley Beale has been suspended by the Australian Rugby Union and will face a disciplinary tribunal for allegedly sending “inappropriate and deeply offensive text messages” referencing an ARU staff member. It has been reported that they referred to Di Patston, the ARU business manager, with whom Beale had a heated argument on the flight to Argentina last week.

Exclusive to members

Tries! Tries! Tries!

Watch the action from Leicester v Harlequins on the Times Sport app for tablet and smartphone thetimes.co.uk/rugbyunion

the times | Friday October 10 2014

55

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Rugby union Sport

Wasps’ flight just a part of nomadic club’s history Stuart Barnes Commentary

W

asps’ move to Coventry might be new for rugby union, but it is a story that goes back nearly a hundred years on the other side of the Atlantic. In the fledgeling years of American football professionalism, teams frequently moved to survive. It was nothing uncommon for a club to be resurrected in a different city with the same owners and the same players. These switches were rarely controversial. Supporters understood the realities of the situation and accepted that, in the era of the American Depression, it was all right for a club’s owner to up sticks to keep the club afloat.

Not until much later in the 20th century were these moves controversial. With the sport believed to be free of financial instability, the perception of the move altered radically. Suddenly the abandonment of a community for what was perceived as purely financial motives provoked the purists’ wrath.

Not surprisingly, the owners of the clubs cited financial problems for decisions that turned fanatics against their beloved clubs. And this brings us to Wasps, their supporters, their

owner, Derek Richardson, and the present state of the club game in England.

Wasps’ supporters are stunned.

Fans who have followed them throughout their and the club’s life have been kept not so much in the dark as pitch black.

It took no time for a petition of 1,000-plus supporters to be raised to rail against the move. But the game has changed with professionalism.

There are a new set of rules by which the sport proceeds.

Fans are consumers. Their devotion is another part of the profit-driven reality of business. So the petitioners’ position is feeble. There are all too few of them to win the intellectual argument about the need for a move and even if there were 15,000 season ticket-holders, Wasps are their club to support but they no longer “belong” to the fans.

The days of a few thousand cheering them on at Sudbury and feeling an intrinsic part of Wasps is over. It is over with every Premiership club. The clubs will dress it up and market their gratitude to the supporters, but the point of a supporter is to come through the turnstile as shoppers walk through supermarket doors.

Adams Park and High Wycombe has failed. Consumer numbers are simply insufficient. Even had the local council granted planning for a larger stadium, one wonders whether Richardson really wanted to increase the size of a small ground that Wasps could not fill even

EMPICS SPORT

You’ve come a long way: Sudbury is Wasps’ past and Coventry is their future

when they were the greatest team in Europe.

The official line is that Richardson saved Wasps from bankruptcy. The club are indebted to him, to the extent that they are his club now, not theirs. In the infancy of the professional game one owner described his ownership of a famous club to me as “a stewardship” to be passed down to the next generation.

That was a wise and noble aspiration, but those days are done.

Let us flip back in history and cross the Atlantic again. The fury of the fans of the franchised teams who found their sides shifting across America was based upon the

helplessness of the individual in the face of corporate sport. The NFL awarded franchises not to the city, but the individual who owned the teams.

Clubs were one man’s business and with the Depression-era history, corporate greed became the enemy of the American working man. This is the tale told with sound and fury; an essential move according to Wasps’ management; a betrayal according to the diehard fans.

Society’s vision has regressed in this instantaneous age. One week is a long time in a news cycle, two decades takes us back to the Old Testament. In reality, 20 years is a brief period in the evolution of something that has been

as complicated as the professionalisation of rugby union. If you believe that the clubs have been liberated by the various financial windfalls, as the endless propaganda that passes for information tells us, it is easy to see the management’s position in the murkiest light.

History dumped for a “world-class facility” (world-class meaning anything that is not a dump) in a “fantastic” city. Now, home is where the heart is but Coventry as a “fantastic” city? Come on Wasps PR machine, let’s go easy on the excess. I understand why this reads like an absolute insult to the club’s fans. I empathise with them.

Yet if Wasps are losing millions per year and the game is not half as “professional” as some would have you believe, surely the bloke who saved the club has the right to shift that club in an attempt to shore up his own depleted finances.

Wasps have long been nomadic.

Their original name lacks any geographical hint. In the professional era they have wandered (not far or wide) without finding home. There is an undoubted corporate logic in the move even as there is a wrath in taking the supporters’ team into another part of the country.

Wasps became London Wasps and fooled no one. High Wycombe was never part of the capital. Now they have reverted to Wasps. Better to come clean and rename themselves Coventry Wasps. That city is every bit as much their future as London and High Wycombe is their past.

56

FGM

Friday October 10 2014 | the times

Sport ZHANG AILIN/ALAMY

Whitlock takes advantage of injury to claim silver Max Whitlock, right, won a surprise silver medal at the World Gymnastics Championships in Nanning, China yesterday, but only after scraping into the all-around final because of an injury to a team-mate (Rick Broadbent writes).

The European pommel horse champion thought that his hopes went with a disappointing qualifier, but a wrist injury to Nile Wilson meant a late, second opportunity. He matched Britain’s best previous result in the all-around final, by Dan Keatings in 2009.

“The whole trip has been a rollercoaster,” Whitlock said. “I really can’t believe I’m now standing with the world silver.”

Kohei Uchimura, Whitlock’s idol, took his fifth successive title for Japan.

“I think I went out and competed with no pressure,” Whitlock said. “I nailed my best routine of the week on the pommel and that set me off.”

Whitlock led after the first discipline before Uchimura took control of the final.

However, a fine floor routine sealed second place, while Dan Purvis, his teammate, was 11th.

The medal is a big boost to Britain’s men, who had come fourth in the team final.

Claudia Fragapane, winner of four golds at the Commonwealth Games, is in action in today’s all-around final alongside Ruby Harrold.

Drivers want answers over Bianchi accident Formula One

Kevin Eason Motor Racing Correspondent, Sochi

His name is above the garage and car No 17 has been checked and is ready to race. The only absentee is Jules Bianchi.

The agony of the past week was etched on the face of Graeme Lowdon, Marussia’s sporting director. This morning, he will decide whether Marussia will race at the Russian Grand Prix this weekend with two cars, one, or not at all.

Lowdon arrived in Sochi yesterday, shell-shocked by the accident that has left Bianchi, his driver, in intensive care in Japan. The 25-year-old was a rising star in Formula One but has suffered a severe brain injury that he may be lucky to survive, never mind drive again at 200mph.

In an incident of this cruelty, there must be answers and these will be sought by drivers tonight when they meet Charlie Whiting, the F1 race director. He was at the controls of the Japanese Grand Prix last Sunday when the rain teemed, the light dimmed and Bianchi veered from the circuit at 130mph and smashed into the back of a recovery tractor.

Nico Rosberg said that the drivers would have a list of questions, and Sergio Pérez, of Force India, demanded that the FIA, the governing body, recounts exactly what happened in Suzuka.

“It is not acceptable,” Pérez said.

“We have to look for answers from the FIA on what happened in this tragic accident. We have to make sure they hear us. In the future when there is a tractor coming up to pick up the car, we need a safety car, in no matter what conditions.”

Lowdon was at the Mie Medical Centre in Yokkaichi on Sunday night, where doctors operated for more than three hours, trying to ease the swelling in Bianchi’s brain. Lowdon

had to fly to Sochi to organise a team running on fatigue and hope, leaving behind John Booth, his team principal, who refused to leave Japan while his driver fought for his life.

Outside the Marussia hospitality paddock in Sochi, everything seemed normal as mechanics scurried backwards and forwards with their boxes of components. Inside, Lowdon struggled to explain the devastation of seeing a young life hanging in the balance and how he had to decide whether Marussia would — or indeed should — race this weekend.

The balance is between respect for a much-loved colleague and the competitive urge that drove Bianchi on to become a racing driver, graduating from the Ferrari academy to the

Marussia history 2010 Founded as Virgin Racing but bought by Russia’s Marussia car company. The team finish 12th and last.

2011 The team recruit experts from McLaren, but still finish last.

2012 María de Villota is badly injured in testing. Marussia finish 11th of 12 teams.

2013 Max Chilton finishes every grand prix and the team again end up one place off the bottom, earning a financial bonus.

However, De Villota is found dead in a Spanish hotel, believed to be a result of her injuries.

2014 Was to be Marussia’s best year after Bianchi finished ninth in Monaco, scored their first points in F1 and set up a $40 million prize bonus to help to secure the team’s financial future.

Words by Kevin Eason

threshold of a drive with the great Scuderia after an apprenticeship with Marussia these past two seasons.

Alexander Rossi, the American, is on standby to take Bianchi’s place.

Although he has tested an F1 car, he has not raced one, and certainly not on such a tumultuous weekend — ostensibly Marussia’s home grand prix. Apart from running the team, Lowdon will have to face Marussia’s corporate guests with a handshake and smile to hide a heavy heart.

Perhaps the psychological demands will be too great for him, his drivers and his team. There was no sign yesterday of Max Chilton, Bianchi’s British team-mate; his mental state will also have to be determined before he is allowed on to the track for the practice sessions today.

Bernie Ecclestone, F1’s chief executive, has told Lowdon to do what he must, even if it means that the Marussia cars miss the race.

Ecclestone has been a rock in the past few days, calling regularly to check on Lowdon, Booth and, more importantly, Bianchi.

It was difficult to escape Bianchi’s plight around the paddock yesterday.

Lowdon summed it up when he said: “Jules is not just an extraordinary driver, he is an extraordinary person.”

The tributes and concern were heartfelt. Felipe Massa survived being hit on the head by a metal spring travelling at 160mph at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix. He was brought out of a coma and revived his driving career with Ferrari and now Williams, but for him, the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend was “the worst race of my life”.

Massa said: “It is so difficult to be ‘everyday’ because I am thinking about Jules.”

For Russia, this weekend was to be a celebration but, for a sombre F1, it will be a weekend of tribute and hope for a young driver — the driver missing from car No 17.

the times | Friday October 10 2014

57

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Football Sport

Koscielny injury makes Wenger count to ten BEN QUEENBOROUGH / BPI/ REX

Matt Hughes Deputy Football Correspondent

Arsène Wenger may be forced to play Nacho Monreal out of position at centre back and Hector Bellerin, the teenager, at right back in Arsenal’s next Barclays Premier League match against Hull City a week tomorrow after the club’s injury problems worsened yesterday.

Laurent Koscielny became the tenth Arsenal player undergoing treatment when the France defender was released from international duty yesterday with an achilles injury.

Koscielny returned to the club for assessment after complaining of pain during training with France, which led to him being ruled out of their friendly internationals against Portgual and Armenia. Arsenal are hopeful that Koscielny will be fit to face Hull, but his injury remains a setback that has exposed the lack of cover in Wenger’s squad, particularly defensively.

Wenger decided to operate with a small squad during the summer, rejecting the opportunity to sign additional players at centre back and in holding midfield, a gamble that appears to have backfired as a result of the injury

Case for treatment: Koscielny’s achilles injury means Arsenal have a shortage of fit defenders for their next Premier League game against Hull a week tomorrow

United set to offer Blackett fresh deal James Ducker Northern Football Correspondent

Manchester United plan to reward Tyler Blackett with a new contract after the England Under-21 centre half’s first-team breakthrough at Old Trafford.

United are expected to open talks with Blackett over a fresh deal after the international break.

Blackett has taken advantage of United’s defensive injury crisis to start five of their seven Barclays Premier League games this season after first impressing Louis van Gaal, the manager, on the club’s pre-season tour to the United States.

The 20-year-old, who made his competitive debut in the 2-1 defeat at home to Swansea City on the opening day, is out of contract at the end of the season. He earns about £2,000 a week, although his wages would increase dramatically under the terms of a new deal.

Blackett made his debut for England Under-21 last month when he went on as a substitute against Moldova, although Gareth

Southgate, the head coach, omitted the defender from his squad for the European Championship two-leg play-off against Croatia in the belief that there were better candidates.

Blackett has benefited from a glut of injuries at Old Trafford, but Van Gaal hopes to have one of Phil Jones or Chris Smalling back for the game against West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns a week on Monday.

The match will come too soon for Jonny Evans, who is two to three weeks away from a return with an ankle injury, and Patrick McNair, the Northern Ireland Under21 centre half, is on the sidelines with a hamstring problem.

United’s faint hopes of re-signing Cristiano Ronaldo were as good as written off by his agent yesterday, Jorge Mendes announc-

ing that the World Player of the Year will stay at Real Madrid “to the death”.

United have explored the feasibility of a move for Ronaldo, but while the cost of funding a deal was prohibitive, Mendes has indicated that the Portugal forward’s respect for his former club does not amount to a wish to return to Old Trafford.

A more realistic target for United is Kevin Strootman, the Roma and Holland midfielder. Despite hinting that United had inquired about Strootman, James Pallotta, the Roma owner, insisted this week that the Italian club “don’t have any interest in selling” and suggested that not even a bid of £75 million would be enough to prise him away, although that appears to be little more than a negotiating position.

Results

Fixtures Slovenia

Football (0) 0 Ukraine

10,500

Group G

(0) 2

Martynovich (og) 82 Sydorchuk 90+3

Macedonia (1) 3 Luxembourg(2) 2 Trajkovski 20 Jahovic 66 (pen) Abdurahimi 90+2

Slovakia

Bensi 39 Turpel 44 7,000

Kucka 17 Stoch 87 Slovakia Spain Ukraine Macedonia Luxembourg Belarus

(0) 1

Alcacer 82 9,478 P 2 2 2 2 2 2

W 2 1 1 1 0 0

D 0 0 0 0 1 1

L 0 1 1 1 1 1

F 3 6 2 4 3 1

A GDPts 1 2 6 3 3 3 1 1 3 7 -3 3 4 -1 1 3 -2 1

Group E England

Liechtenstein(0) 0 Montenegro(0) 0 2,790

Moldova

(2) 5 San Marino (0) 0

Jagielka 24 55,990 Rooney 43 (pen) Welbeck 49 Townsend 72 Della Valle (og) 77

Lithuania (0) 1 Estonia Mikoliunas 76 4,800 Sent off: K Kallaste (Estonia) 86

(0) 0

(1) 1 Austria

(1) 2

Dedov 29 (pen) Alaba 14 (pen) 10,000 Janko 52 Sent off: M Janko (Austria) 83

Sweden

(1) 2 Spain

(0) 1 Switzerland(0) 0

Novakovic 80 (pen) 8,500 6 Table on page 74

European Championship Qualifying Group C Belarus

Taking his chance: Blackett has made five league starts after impressing Van Gaal in the United States

Toivonen 50 44,000

(0) 1 Russia

(1) 1

Kokorin 11

P W D L F A GDPts Russia 2 1 1 0 5 1 4 4 Montenegro 2 1 1 0 2 0 2 4 Austria 2 1 1 0 3 2 1 4 Sweden 2 0 2 0 2 2 0 2 Liechtenstein 2 0 1 1 0 4 -4 1 Moldova 2 0 0 2 1 4 -3 0 Under-20 international: Germany 0 England 1 (in Heerenveen).

Golf

European Tour Portugal Masters Vilamoura, Algarve: Leading first-round scores (play suspended because of heavy rain, resumes today; Great Britain and Ireland unless stated): 60: N Colsaerts (Bel). 63: A Levy (Fr), S Jamieson. 64: R Cabrera Bello (Sp). 65: F Aguilar (Chile), D Willett, D Lynn, C Doak. 66: R Bland, T Aiken (SA), J Kruger (SA), B Grace (SA), E de la Riva (Sp).

LPGA Tour Sime Darby Kuala Lumpur G&CC: Leading first-round scores (South Korea unless stated): 65: S Lewis (US). 66: Ryu So Yeon, Choi Na Yeon, Ji Eun Hee, Park Hee Young. 67: P Phatlum (Thai), J Shin (US), Lee Mi Hyang, A Yang, Feng Shanshan (China).

Gymnastics

World Championships Nanning, China: Men: All-around: Final: 1, K Uchimura (Japan) 91.965pts; 2, M Whitlock (GB) 90.473; 3, Y Tanaka (Japan) 90.449.

Tennis

ATP Shanghai Rolex Masters Third round: T Berdych (Cz) bt I Karlovic (Cro) 6-3, 6-4; G Simon (Fr) bt M Jaziri (Tun) 6-2, 6-3; J Benneteau (Fr) bt J Sock (US) 6-3, 6-4; D Ferrer (Sp) bt A Murray (GB) 2-6, 6-1, 6-2; M Youzhny (Russ) bt J Mónaco (Arg) 5-7, 6-3, 6-2; F López (Sp) bt J Isner (US) 6-3, 6-4; N Djokovic (Serbia) bt M Kukushkin (Kaz) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4; R Federer (Switz) bt R Bautista-Agut (Sp) 6-4, 6-2.

WTA Generali Ladies Linz, Austria: Second round: A-L Friedsam (Ger) bt J Cepelova (Slovakia) 6-0, 6-4; K Knapp (It) bt M Rybarikova (Slovakia) 6-3, 0-0 ret; Karolina Pliskova (Cz) bt M Barthel (Ger) 6-4, 6-2; T Pironkova (Bul) wo E Bouchard (Can).

Football Kick-off 7.45 unless stated European Championship qualifying: Group A: Holland v Kazakhstan; Latvia v Iceland; Turkey v Czech Republic. Group B: Belgium v Andorra; Cyprus v Israel; Wales v Bosnia-Herzegovina (at Cardiff City Stadium). Group H: Bulgaria v Croatia; Italy v Azerbaijan; Malta v Norway.

European Under-21 Championship playoffs, first leg: England v Croatia (5.45, at Molineux, Wolverhampton).

European Under-19 Championship qualifying: Group one: England v Belarus (3.30, in Grevenmacher, Luxembourg).

Scottish Championship: Raith v Queen of the South (7.35). League One: Ayr v Dunfermline.

Rugby union

Aviva Premiership: Leicester v Harlequins (7.45).

British & Irish Cup: Pool two: Yorkshire Carnegie v Rotherham Titans (8.0).

Guinness PRO12: Benetton Treviso v Connacht (7.0); Munster v Scarlets (7.35).

Other sport

Basketball: BBL Championship: Newcastle v Sheffield (7.30).

Equestrianism: Birmingham NEC: Horse of the Year Show.

Ice hockey: Rapid Solicitors Elite League: Braehead v Fife (7.30).

problems that have marred their start to the season.

The Frenchman’s lack of options at the back will be particularly acute against Hull, as the virtually everpresent Calum Chambers will be suspended after collecting his fifth Premier League booking of the season in last weekend’s defeat away to Chelsea. The 19-year-old was also shown a yellow card in Arsenal’s Champions League qualifier against Besitkas in August.

As a result, Wenger will be forced to hand a Premier League debut to Bellerin, who made his first start for the club in the Champions League defeat away to Borussia Dortmund last month, and will have to make a further reshuffle if Koscielny fails to recover in time.

Moving Monreal to centre back alongside Per Mertesacker appears to be his only option, but the Spaniard has not played for a month as a result of back trouble.

Arsenal’s continuing injury problems are the source of much frustration to Wenger, who has commissioned an internal inquiry in an attempt to get to the bottom of them without any obvious success. Mesut Özil returned to the club yesterday to begin his recovery after rupturing knee ligaments against

6 Liverpool are facing the prospect of further defensive disruption as they assess the extent of an injury to Dejan Lovren. The centre back has returned to Merseyside for checks

by Liverpool’s medical staff after withdrawing from the Croatia squad for their European Championship qualifiers against Bulgaria and Azerbaijan with an abdominal problem, which surfaced in training with his national squad. The 25-year-old has been an ever-present for Liverpool since his £20 million summer move from Southampton.

Chelsea last weekend, the seriousness of which was not discovered until he had a scan while on international duty in Munich on Wednesday.

In addition, Olivier Giroud and Mathieu Debuchy are long-term casualties with fibia and ankle problems respectively, while Aaron Ramsey is not expected to play before the start of next month because of a hamstring strain. Serge Gnabry, Yaya Sanogo, Abou Diaby and Mikel Arteta are also out, while Theo Walcott is back in training after cruciate knee ligament damage. His return date is not known.

58

Sport Football

Fifa backing for treatment of Courtois

FGM

Friday October 10 2014 | the times

Cheap shots take Second

Rory Smith

Fifa’s chief medical officer has insisted that Chelsea acted “correctly” over the head injury suffered by Thibaut Courtois during the Barclays Premier League victory over Arsenal on Sunday.

The 22-year-old goalkeeper, having been examined by Chelsea’s medical staff, played on after seemingly being knocked out in a collision with Alexis Sánchez, but was forced off 14 minutes later and taken to hospital for a precautionary scan. He has since joined up with Belgium’s squad for their European Championship qualifiers.

“I know the doctors at Chelsea and at Belgium,” Dr Michel D’Hooghe, the head of the Fifa medical commission, said. “They are serious people. The lady doctor at Chelsea [Eva Carneiro] did a correct examination.

“She came to the conclusion that he could go on, but she kept an eye on him and from the moment he didn’t feel well they took the right decision to take him off.”

Courtois suffered concussion

Arsenal hit by seedings blow James Ducker Northern Football Correspondent

Arsenal’s long-held position among the Champions League’s top seeds is as good as over after Uefa announced a radical shake-up of the seeding system for next season’s competition.

Gianni Infantino, the general secretary of European football’s governing body, said yesterday that the winners of the Barclays Premier League, along with the six champions from Europe’s other highest-ranked leagues and the reigning European Cup-holders, would automatically be placed among the top seeds in the draw.

The move, which signals the end of teams who finish fourth, third or even second in their domestic leagues having a chance of a top seeding, will be ratified at the next Uefa executive committee meeting in December. At present, the existing co-efficient system rewards teams who consistently qualify for the competition, such as Arsenal, yet penalises those relatively new, such as Manchester City, champions in two of the past three seasons.

League set to launch review The Football League is to conduct a review into the under-representation of black, Asian and ethnic minorities in management and coaching (Gary Jacob writes).

Only two non-white managers are employed by the 92 clubs and calls for the adoption of an equivalent of American football’s “Rooney rule”, which requires at least one ethnic minority candidate to be interviewed, have increased.

It is intended that a report and recommendations will be presented to clubs and published at the end of the season.

Keane as mustard: the Aston Villa and Ireland assistant manager was again tart in his responses as he launched his book at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin yesterday

George Caulkin hears Roy Keane take a fresh swipe at José Mourinho at the official launch of his new book in Dublin

T

here is much in Roy Keane’s new book that is thoughtful and self-mocking, insightful and funny. He spends more than a third of The Second Half relating his experience of managing Sunderland, which you would not believe from scanning through some of the more incendiary extracts, and as he put it yesterday, “It’s not all about falling out with people.” A fair point, apart from the fact that he is so damnably good at it.

José Mourinho is the latest. During Aston Villa’s 3-0 defeat away to Chelsea late last month, the Portuguese left his dugout before the final whistle and attempted to shake hands with Paul Lambert, the Villa manager, and Keane, his assistant, who blanked him.

“The game is still going on,” Keane said. “It’s disgraceful. I’ve seen him doing it to other managers, it is a disgrace. The game is still going on. You wouldn’t do that on a Sunday morning, you would get knocked out.” Was it disrespectful? “What do you think?

That’s a stupid question. Yeah.”

The Second Half, written with Roddy Doyle, the esteemed novelist, does not read like a long settling of scores. He talks about frailties, self-loathing, of

how working with Ireland and Villa “has given me back a love of the game” and a hunger that he has not had “for a long time,” but niceties such as that tend to disappear at a press conference and all the old fascinations remain: Sir Alex Ferguson, Alf-Inge Haaland, Saipan and Mick McCarthy.

Mourinho was a new topic, but it was not one Keane volunteered at his book launch in Dublin yesterday; he was asked and he answered, witheringly.

The same applied to Ferguson, his longtime manager at Manchester United, although, in this instance, the club’s former captain is still irked about his departure in 2005 and what he perceives as a rewriting of history. He used the word “lies” a lot. Specifically: “A pack of lies, just lies and lies and lies.”

“It’s afterwards when people start coming out with all sorts of nonsense,” Keane said. “For Alex Ferguson, not just to criticise myself, but other players who were part of a team that brought some good days to lots of supporters, for him to criticise that when you think of what he made out of it. He made millions of pounds out of it. He got his statues, he’s got his stand named after him and to come back and criticise . . . I said at the time, I wasn’t too bothered about myself, but to criticise people who brought him success was just ridiculous. Will I ever forgive him? I don’t know. Listen, I don’t know. We’ll see if we ever cross paths again.”

In his own autobiography, Ferguson

said that Keane’s tongue was the hardest part of his body. “I kick pretty hard,” came the response. “It was a cheap dig. He was never critical when we were winning trophies and he was getting his new contracts, getting called ‘Sir this’. He was not pulling me or other players, saying, ‘Listen, you need to relax a bit.’ ” Keane was asked to attend the ceremony when Ferguson’s statue was unveiled outside Old Trafford two years ago. “I don’t think he invited me, it was probably his committee or his son, but why would I go to that?” Keane said. “That was all power and control.”

Ruud van Nistelrooy was there. “But I’m not Ruud van Nistelrooy,” he said.

But he also fell out with Ferguson — badly. “Not as badly as me.” Was that not a conciliatory gesture? “No, no.”

What do you mean by power and control? “So, what, he comes in and we’re all standing and applauding and he’s, ‘I’ve got you where I want you?’ ” By then, Keane was with a gaggle of newspaper journalists, a few of whom had felt Ferguson’s wrath.

“You have to defend yourself,” he said. “A lot of people are sitting around here Cold shoulder: Mourinho, right, was “disgraceful” in his approach to Lambert

and people are frightened of him. You can’t go against him because you’ll never be allowed to speak to him again but, thank God, I don’t have those problems. Why do people let him get away with that? People sit back and are frightened to death of him.”

Does that include other managers? “I think a lot of managers would probably be intimidated by him, probably bow to him,” Keane said. “A lot of managers are heavily influenced by him, of course. I think [Roberto] Martínez reckons he was misquoted a few years ago when he said that Ferguson had his disciples, but he obviously does.”

Ferguson was also in Dublin on a speaking engagement last night. He referred to Keane as one of the “best midfielders in Europe.”

Keane then moved on to Haaland, the subject of another running feud.

Keane begins his book by saying “there are things I regret in my life and he’s not one of them”, which Haaland responded to on Twitter with a picture comparing his old — and prolifically bearded adversary — to Saddam Hussein.

Keane was aware of it. “I played against him, I know what he’s like,” he said. So what’s he like? “Weak . . . average player.” Sneaky? “That’s being polite.”

Working with Doyle, the author of The Commitments and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, had been like “a therapy session”, Keane said, and The Second Half is largely upbeat (it ends with the sentence, “it was brilliant”). There was less of that yesterday — the book is recommended — but it is difficult to move on from the old Keane when the barbs are as sharp as this.

the times | Friday October 10 2014

59

FGM

Football Sport

Half into stoppage time

Wales ‘golden generation’ can qualify, says Coleman

Outspoken Keane still struggling to keep dark side under control

Gary Jacob

Matt Dickinson Chief Sports Correspondent

C

ontrary to advance billing, Roy Keane’s new book does not read like a rampage, taking down his enemies remorselessly over 290 pages. The tone is often of regret, with self-loathing thrown in.

The freshest, most interesting chapters involve Keane’s years in management and a typical story takes us to a pre-season training camp when he was manager of Sunderland.

The Irishman is unhappy when Craig Gordon, his £9 million goalkeeper, is beaten in a match from 30 yards.

The next day Keane pulls on a pair of gloves and challenges his players to shoot from distance, saying that they must pay him £100 if they miss but he will give them £1,000 if they score.

He keeps a clean sheet, winning £800 and seemingly proving his point that his goalkeeper should not concede from that far out. That Gordon, a Scotland player, is looking on appalled occurs to him only afterwards. “I’d embarrassed, and maybe, belittled, the goalkeepers,” Keane observes. “I hadn’t meant to.”

That often happens in Keane’s life; impulsive actions or words with unintended consequences. “Maybe I should have . . .” is probably the most commonly used phrase in the book.

That, or “maybe I shouldn’t have . . .”

Why did he ask Carlos Queiroz, in front of the entire Manchester United squad, if he “sh***** his missus” in the same position every night in a jawdropping complaint about repetitive training — the final insult in a tirade that sealed his exit from Manchester United? “I haven’t a clue why I said that — and still don’t,” Keane notes.

Why does he lose his rag when “even when I know I might be right, there’s a voice in my head going, ‘You’ll pay for this’?”

Why does he feel a restlessness that can quickly turn to self-destruction?

“I can be sitting at home, the most contented man on the planet,” he writes. “An hour later I go, ‘Jesus — it’s hard work, this.’ ” The most fascinating passage of his book promises to answer these deep questions, to take readers to the core of his being. “I don’t know if it’s low self-esteem,” he says. But we never do find out. The moment passes and we do not discover if there is something in Keane’s childhood, his upbringing, his genes that can explain why he runs away from easy bliss, often destabilising his own life.

Why does he do it? Keane might be regretfully asking that question again of himself this morning after the launch of The Second Half, ghosted by the novelist Roddy Doyle, in Dublin.

Instead of the introspection of his book, Keane played up yesterday to the caricature of the angry man, attacking Ferguson, calling José Mourinho a disgrace for something as petty as post-match handshakes.

Instead of the coach who appeared to be regaining balance in his professional life as an assistant with Ireland and Aston Villa, stepping stones back to management and the successful career he seems to crave, Keane was living down to the dark, scary stereotype. Why was he

CHRIS RADBURN / PA

Arm-to-arm combat: Keane is embroiled in a heated disagreement with Patrick Vieira in a Premier League match in 1999

Giving voice: Keane lets his players know his feelings as a manager

sounding off, playing to the gallery?

The common answer is that he does not “give a f***” but, actually, his book reveals that he does care. He minds what people think. He frets how he will be remembered.

“We all want to be liked,” Keane notes when writing about his struggles to win over the dressing room at Ipswich Town.

His skin is thin. “People often say that the Championship is one of the toughest leagues in the world. I won it as a manager — I have to say that. No one else ever does,” he writes,

troubled that a successful season at Sunderland is not properly acknowledged.

Keane wants to be taken seriously but, as we were reminded yesterday, he cannot help lashing out like a baited bear, for everyone’s amusement. Go on Roy, give us a rant and a brooding stare. Grow that beard until you look like a pirate lost for years at sea.

It is self-defeating because he must know that if he wants to return to management, and to rebuild his career after his messy departure from Sunderland and failure at Ipswich, he should be avoiding talk of feuds with Ferguson, and suggesting that Mourinho would be “knocked out” in Sunday morning football, and worrying about rebuilding his credentials.

The room might groan in disappointment, but he should be talking reflectively of what he learnt at Ipswich from his mistakes. “I don’t think I’m a bad manager, but at Ipswich I managed badly,” he admits in his book. “My recruitment wasn’t good enough,” he notes. “I’ve no excuses.” He confesses that he badly mishandled some relationships, talking down to people.

What sort of manager does he want to be? It is perhaps not a great surprise to hear that Keane regards himself as unashamedly “old school”.

He tells how on the eve of his debut for Nottingham Forest, Brian Clough took the teenage Keane aside with the instruction: “Get it, pass it to one of your team-mates, and move. Can you

do that?” He does not try to deny that his own coaching has moved little beyond the simplest template. At Sunderland, he notes that “the only time we’d try to be tactically clever, we’d play with a sitting midfielder”.

He is aware of sports science, and the use of technology, but admits falling asleep in a meeting with Prozone when the company came to peddle its software. “It’s all about characters” is probably the line that best sums up his approach to management.

It is not the most persuasive of philosophies, but Keane clearly believes that simple instruction and plain speaking can work. At 43, he insists that he has learnt an awful lot since he took over at Sunderland and was initially overwhelmed by the workload.

“As a manager I’d like to take Clough’s warmth and Ferguson’s ruthlessness, and put them in the mix — but also add my own traits,” he explains, but the worry for any future employer remains what those traits are exactly.

Keane has certainly reminded us that there is something compelling — or “box office” — about him, and forthcoming speaking engagements to plug his book will no doubt reinforce his shock value.

Yet as he lashes Ferguson — who actually does not come out of the book that badly — any clubs thinking of recruiting Keane will also know that the self-destruct button is never far away.

Chris Coleman ran the risk of getting ahead of himself yesterday by heralding a golden generation in Welsh football and a chance to make history.

There were nods and comparisons to the greats and it sounded as if his Wales side were on the cusp of reaching a leading tournament and not at the start of a campaign. Perhaps it was because meeting Bosnia-Herzegovina tonight will probably determine their destiny and, for Wales, it has nearly always been over before it had begun.

With Belgium expected to walk away with the Euro 2016 group B, Wales fancy their chances of edging Bosnia and Cyprus as runners-up. It is a familiar scenario but has rarely played out, owing to Wales frequently shooting themselves in the foot at the start of recent campaigns.

“Yes, we can create history,” Coleman, the Wales manager, said. “They have a great chance to live up to the tag they have been given as the golden generation. If a bit of luck comes our way and we handle the pressure, then this can be the golden generation.”

It was quite a statement as Coleman played with Neville Southall, Mark Hughes, Ian Rush, Dean Saunders and Ryan Giggs. “What a team that was, but we did not do it,” Coleman said. “These [my] boys have also been handed that label and will live up to it if they do the business. Are they good enough? Yes.” The fresh start comes at a Cardiff City stadium that will be full but a team stripped of two of its three stars in Aaron Ramsey and Joe Allen, who are among five absent midfielders. Like his Wales (5-3-2): W Hennessey (Crystal Palace) — C Gunter (Reading), J Chester (Hull City), A Williams (Swansea City), B Davies (Tottenham Hotspur), N Taylor (Swansea City) — H Robson-Kanu (Reading), A King (Leicester City), J Ledley (Crystal Palace) — G Bale (Real Madrid), S Church (Charlton Athletic).

Bosnia-Herzegovina (4-1-3-2): A Begovic (Stoke City) — A Vrsajevic (Hajduk Split), O Vranjes (Pribram), T Sunjic (Kuban Krasnodar), S Lulic (Lazio) — M Besic (Everton) — S Prcic (Rennes), S Pjanic (Roma), T Susic (Hajduk Split) — E Dzeko (Manchester City), V Ibisevic (Stuttgart).

Referee: V Bezborodov (Russia).

Television: Live on Sky Sports 5 (kick-off 7.45pm).

predecessors, Coleman must wonder how thin his squad is.

On the only occasion Wales qualified for a tournament, the 1958 World Cup finals, they were helped by John Charles and Cliff Jones. “We are looking forward to the titanic challenge,” Coleman said. “There is a vibe about the team. It is a huge task to qualify but it is possible and we have a good enough squad. I would rather lose a fight walking forward throwing punches than on my hands and knees crawling away getting kicked up the backside. Who is prepared to step forward and accept that, knowing if they make a mistake the consequences could be dire?”

Wales, who also meet Cyprus on Monday, will be in a decent position if they achieve consecutive home victories. Led by Edin Dzeko, the Manchester City striker, Bosnia-Herzegovina surprisingly lost to Cyprus in their opening game. “It could be more pressure on them, it could fire them up more, but it’s about us,” Coleman said.

Safet Susic, the Bosnia head coach, said that he had no special treatment planned for Gareth Bale. Asmir Begovic, his goalkeeper, has never conceded against the Real Madrid player in five meetings. “He has one heck of a left foot and his free kicks move freakishly,” Begovic said. “We don’t want to give him situations like that.”

60

Sport Football Crowd watch

The undisputed highlight of the evening came half an hour in, when one of the 55,990 fans who did not have better things to do on a Thursday night ranted and raved for two minutes about Roy Hodgson’s side’s inability to score more than one “against the worst side in the world.”

He received a polite smattering of applause from his peers near by, but seemed to be pacified by Wayne Rooney’s penalty moments later.

FGM

Friday October 10 2014 | the times

Rooney still standing in shadow of predecessors The England captain is closing in on the goalscorers who went before him but has yet to convince he should be spoken of in the same breath, says Matt Dickinson

Record watch

Much of the build-up to the game centred on whether this would be the night that Wayne Rooney broke Sir Bobby Charlton’s England goalscoring record. This seemed a little ambitious, given that he would have needed to score nine times to do so. That would be good going, even against San Marino, given that the visiting team’s game plan centred on fouling, and if that didn’t work, placing as many players as possible in the box and hoping for a kind ricochet when the shots came in.

Tactics watch

These games teach managers, players and fans alike the sum total of nothing, essentially. What few bits of wisdom gleaned here can be boiled down to: Aldo Simoncini, San Marino’s goalkeeper, should be the subject of a biopic; the Pirlo role at the base of a midfield diamond is basically the only one that James Milner cannot play; you don’t really need to play two central defenders against a team ranked below the Turks and Caicos Islands by Fifa.

Words by Rory Smith

K

icked in the face, Wayne Rooney won the penalty and promptly, and firmly, scored the spot-kick that takes him to 42 goals for England. Two more and he will be level with Jimmy Greaves, which is not the same as saying he will be equal.

In a nation starved of much else to celebrate with the national team, we seem oddly fixated with side issues like the captaincy and goalscoring charts.

They do at least provide something to savour, and a link to the past, though it is hard to think of what Rooney and Greaves have in common, least of all their rate of international goals.

Rooney has reached his 42 goals after 98 caps.

It took Greaves just 57 games to amass his 44. He had his duck-shoots, including three in a 9-0 rout of Luxembourg, among an England record of six Chambers made a confident first start at the back for his side

hat-tricks, but his tally alone tells a story of an astonishingly ruthless finisher.

There is nothing to be gained by criticising Rooney for easy pickings, but, as he nears Greaves’s mark — and how he should have done so last night, spurning a succession of chances against the parttimers of San Marino — it is only fair to wonder wo what one of the game’s great goalscorers might have amassed for his country in happier circumstances.

Greaves was only 26 at the time of the World Cup finals in 1966, when a heavy tackle against France gashed his shin, and he lost his place to Geoff Hurst. The world knows what happened next.

The ousted, downcast Greaves played his last game fo for England the next year and retired from the international game months later. We may well reflec reflect what might have been — which is, perhaps, where he does share something with the man who, despite last night’s misses, will soon overtake

Spot the difference: Rooney scores a penalty against San Marino last night, but

him with as much inevitability as last night’s 5-0 win.

Even as he closes inexorably on the tallies of Greaves, Gary Lineker (48) and Bobby Charlton (49), the debate

continues as to what Rooney has not achieved as he nears his 29th birthday.

The Manchester United striker should still have one, perhaps two, tournaments left in him, but we

the times | Friday October 10 2014

61

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Football Sport

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER, GRAHAM HUGHES

Exclusive to members

the game blog Alyson Rudd: Stop giving foreign fans friendly fodder and take Premier League matches abroad thetimes.co.uk/football

missed several chances. Greaves and Charlton would probably have scored hat-tricks against such mediocre opposition

endlessly cast back to Euro 2004 and the great expectations that have not quite been fulfilled.

Since that prodigious announcement of his talents, with four goals in four

matches as a teenager, his tournament tally has disappointed, with only one goal at three World Cup finals and another at Euro 2012. Charlton and Lineker, it should not be forgotten, both

scored in World Cup semi-finals en route to their totals.

This is not to decry Rooney’s unfolding feat, but there was no disguising his own frustration at the end of a

night that yielded a predictably easy win for England, but not the hat-trick that was so easily within the captain’s grasp.

Against a San Marino side ranked joint last at 208th in the Fifa rankings, who have now lost their past 65 qualifiers since a draw with Latvia in 2001, there had never been a more inviting opportunity to shoot up the charts.

That penalty shortly before half-time set Rooney on his way but Aldo Simoncini, the accountant with the masochistic streak who volunteers to play goal for San Marino, kept thwarting him with blocks and parries.

When the eager Jack Wilshere lofted the ball over the top in the second half, enjoying more freedom than his restrictive role at the base of the diamond in Switzerland, Rooney went for the lob that should have been easy given that Simoncini was stranded in no man’s land. Chance fluffed.

A minute later, Rooney was through and tried to round the goalkeeper, but, as the ball caught under his feet, Simoncini dived to block.

When Rooney crossed soon afterwards, and the ball deflected off the chest of Alessandro Della Valle for England’s fifth goal, the stadium announcer at Wembley seemed to take pity on the United forward.

“Goalscorer for England, Wayne Rooney!” he shouted, but even the beneficiary looked a bit sheepish at that one. It will have to go down as an own goal, with Sunday’s game in Estonia the next chance for Rooney to close the gap on Greaves and the rest in the pantheon.

No doubt Rooney will claim that it is not about individual glory and that he was just glad that England took another step along the route to Euro 2016, but a game so pointlessly uncompetitive really should have allowed him to plunder more than one goal. Greaves will certainly believe that he would have had a hat-trick in his prime.

Stones likely to be out until new year with ankle injury Pete Oliver

John Stones will have surgery on his damaged ankle ligaments, which could rule the young England and Everton defender out of action until January.

If the 20-year-old is sidelined for up to 14 weeks as predicted, he will miss 16 games for his club and three for his country — the Euro 2016 qualifiers against Estonia on Sunday and Slovenia on November 15, and the friendly international against Scotland in Glasgow three days later.

Stones injured the ankle in an awkward fall during the closing stages of Everton’s 2-1 defeat away to Manchester United last Sunday and Roberto Martínez, the manager, said yesterday that he will require an operation.

The defender made his international debut in the 3-0 win over Peru on May 30 and has won four caps. He started at right back in England’s 2-0 win over Switzerland in their opening European Championship qualifying match last month and had been named in Roy Hodgson’s squad for the match against San Marino last night and Estonia before having to withdraw.

Martínez has paired Stones with Phil Jagielka, his England colleague, in three of Everton’s past four Barclays Premier League games.

The manager is likely to turn back to Sylvain Distin, who started the season as Jagielka’s central defensive partner, with the highly regarded Stones — whom Martínez has tipped as a future Everton captain — having to bide his time or fill in at right back for the injured Seamus Coleman.

Everton conceded ten goals in their opening three Premier League games, then three more at home to Crystal Palace and in the Capital One Cup away to Swansea City.

Distin, 36, was unavailable through a muscle injury for Everton’s past three games, but will be fit for the home fixture against Aston Villa a week tomorrow, when they will be looking for only their second Premier League win.

Martínez said: “John will need surgery, which will give us a perfect recovery for his left ankle. It’s a clear injury, not a complicated one.”

Southgate raises bar to help prepare players for senior service Brendan McLoughlin

Gareth Southgate will send his England team into their European Under-21 Championship qualifying play-off with the message that victory alone will not be sufficient to satisfy the head coach.

England host Croatia in the first leg at Molineux tonight before the return leg in Vinkovci on Tuesday, having won their group easily, with 28 points from a possible 30, averaging three goals a game and conceding a total of two.

Having disposed of the lesser lights, the stakes have been raised against a Croatia side who, according to Southgate, are a “step up” in standard.

England Under-21 (4-2-3-1): J Butland (Stoke City) — E Dier (Tottenham Hotspur), M Keane (Manchester United), L Moore (Leicester City), L Shaw (Manchester United) — T Carroll (Tottenham Hotspur), W Hughes (Derby County) — N Redmond (Norwich City), J ForsterCaskey (Brighton & Hove Albion), S Berahino (West Bromwich Albion) — H Kane (Tottenham Hotspur).

Croatia Under-21 (4-2-3-1): O Zelenika — T Gorupec, A Milic, D Zuparic, N Galovic — N Datkovic, D Pavicic — A Rebic, M Caktas, D Bagaric — S Perica.

Referee: J Estrada (Spain).

Television: Live coverage on BT Sport 1 from 5.45pm (kick-off 5.45pm).

Awaiting the winners is a place in next summer’s finals in the Czech Republic, where there is an opportunity to make amends for a calamitous showing in the previous tournament, in 2013.

Then under Stuart Pearce, Southgate’s predecessor as head coach, they careered out at the group stage after losing all three of their matches, prompting a barrage of criticism. They did not fare much better in 2011 with two draws and an equally swift exit.

The response since 2013 from what is a largely new squad has impressed Southgate, though, and he is demanding style and substance, standards that it is hoped will eventually reap rewards at senior level.

“We’ve started this process on the back of a tournament where people said that we could not play or didn’t care,” Southgate said. “I think this group of players have shown that is not true. Now we want to play. I’m setting the bar high for them.

“It’s not enough just to win. I want them to win with a style that will make them successful to take them to the

GARETH COPLEY / GETTY IMAGES

Window of opportunity: Southgate hopes that players such as Hughes, left, and Dier take England to the European Under-21 Championship finals in some style

seniors. If I’m making it harder for them so be it, but that’s the benchmark I want to set.”

That Pearce’s team arrived in Israel

for the 2013 tournament after nine victories represents a cautionary tale.

There is a realisation at the FA that its teams need to arrive at such

tournaments with a style of play already implemented if they are to compete successfully.

“I want us to show people the type of football we’ve played and reproduce that,” Southgate said. “Croatia proved dangerous foes on the road in qualifying, with maximum points away from home in a taxing group, which included Switzerland and Ukraine.

“We’ve set out from the start that we want to control matches with possession and that’s key,” Southgate said. “What will be the threat from Croatia is their ability to counterattack.

It’s something we’ve faced before but the quality is a step up.”

Southgate can call on the in-form Saido Berahino, the West Bromwich Albion forward, who is the joint-top goalscorer in the competition with nine goals.

“What I like about Saido is when he has dips in form he recognises it, he acknowledges it and has a desire to put it right,” Southgate said. “This is a lad who has been a pleasure to work with right throughout this campaign.”

62

FGM

Friday October 10 2014 | the times

Sport Football

Easy pickings for England as mismatch allows view of a diamond England

Jagielka 24, Rooney 43 (pen), Welbeck 49, Townsend 72, Della Valle (og) 77

San Marino

5 0

Oliver Kay Commentary chief football correspondent

Miserable was the word that came to Roy Hodgson’s mind, briefly, when he contemplated some of the qualifying matches that England would face in their inevitable procession towards Euro 2016. So, with that in mind, it feels relatively uplifting to say that last night felt about as productive as the habitual turkey-shoot against San Marino can be.

Goals from Phil Jagielka, Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck and Andros Townsend, a substitute, put England 4-0 up before Alessandro Della Valle, the San Marino captain, deflected a Rooney cross into his own goal in the closing stages. Rooney might reflect on a couple of missed opportunities on a night when he could have moved closer to Sir Bobby Charlton’s record of 49 goals for England, but was restricted to just the one, his 42nd, from a penalty.

That is the reality of international football these days. You expect mismatches and, in some cases, while they are utterly one-sided, they are not quite the goal avalanches that might be imagined. San Marino will take some respectability from keeping the score down to five, for which they can thank Aldo Simoncini, their goalkeeper, who combined some erratic moments with a few very good saves. It was not a match

from which to draw grand, wideranging conclusions, but at least Roy Hodgson had the chance to take another look at his diamond formation in midfield.

Raheem Sterling did not capitalise this time, prior to his substitution at half-time, but others did, notably Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Adam Lallana, who brought more intensity and ingenuity in the second half.

It was an evening for experimentation, really. Hodgson went with Calum Chambers at right back, for his international debut, and gave Kieran Gibbs a first competitive runout at left back.

Some of his choices, such as the recalls for Jagielka and James Milner, appeared a little more conservative, although Milner was being tried out at the base of the midfield diamond before swapping positions with Jack Wilshere during the second half following the half-time arrivals of Adam Lallana and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who was lively.

A YouTube compilation of San Marino’s worst moments last night would make for amusing viewing.

There was Simoncini, the poor San Marino goalkeeper, as he looked shocked at having an indirect free kick awarded against him for handling the ball twice in the penalty area. There was a throw-in from Mirko Palazzi that went straight out of play for an England goal kick. There was the way that they defended so deep as to appear as two banks of five on the edge of their own penalty area.

For all that, though, it was possible to discern a slight increase in organisation, at least in the first half, since their previous visit to Wembley, a 5-0 defeat two years ago.

At one stage in the first half, they even attacked down the left wing

Starting the rout: Jagielka heads in the opening goal for England as they stroll to a predictably emphatic victory. The home

through Matteo Vitaioli, who cut inside and struck a right-foot shot a yard or so wide of Joe Hart’s near post. That brief flurry of activity at Hart’s end of the pitch came shortly after Jagielka’s 24thminute goal.

To that point, England’s huffing and puffing, their passing and probing, had

Inside today

Rooney chases records but mainly vindication Matt Dickinson, pages 60-61

been of little consequence. Rooney had seen a free kick saved by the erratic Simoncini, while Welbeck had a shot deflected wide by Jagielka following good work by Milner down the lefthand side, but there was little to excite the crowd until Rooney moved infield midway through the first half and had a

Little point in taking The Great San Marino Back Off on tour Matt Hughes

It would be insulting to the people of Newcastle — or Derby, or Southampton, or even the remotest Cumbrian village come to that — to expect them to get excited about staging spectacles such as this.

Tickets for a senior international match would sell out at any of those venues no doubt, as shown by the remarkable figure of 55,000 turning up last night, but if the FA really wants the national team to reconnect with the country, those in the provinces deserve to see them engaged in a proper contest.

This was far from that, with the previous evening’s televisual offering of the

final of The Great British Bake Off offering far more bite.

Sadly, it seems that the prospect of England genuinely going on the road, as they did during the seven years it took to rebuild Wembley at the start of this century, remains a distant dream.

The FA may have more flexibility regarding its scheduling when the original ten-year debentures at the rebuilt national stadium expire in three years’ time, which was briefly the source of great excitement when it became known yesterday, but in reality remains committed to the notion of England’s permanent home being underneath the north London arch.

Even if its coffers are swollen by the establishment of a permanent NFL

franchise at Wembley, which would take some pressure off the repayment of loans due to expire in 2023, England will be staying put.

After 2017, the odd game could be moved elsewhere if there was a compelling reason, such as struggling to sell out Wembley, but that is the extent of the FA’s commitment at this stage. In reality, then, it will be a case of sending San Marino to Sunderland, or LiechHodgson proved committed to all-out attack

tenstein to Leeds, rather than a genuine attempt to take England back to the people. On this evidence they should not get too excited — the first Mexican Wave broke out after just 30 minutes, indicative of a crowd hardly immersed in the action.

England, with Roy Hodgson, the manager, committed to all-out attack, could not be faulted as they went about what is always a thankless task against such limited opponents with enthusiasm and professionalism, and Uefa is largely at fault for persisting with such mismatches.

The expansion of the European Championship to 24 teams has also served to make the qualification less competitive, so that even the odd

embarrassing defeat will be of little consequence to the leading nations.

In fairness, Uefa has responded with one positive innovation in recent years, and the establishment of the Nations League after 2018 should help to bring an end to the endless cycle of meaningless friendlies, which are often mismatches themselves. With Uefa’s 54 members to be split into four divisions, England will find themselves playing the likes of Germany and Spain more regularly, which will reassert the primacy of Wembley — definitely the stage for such fixtures.

For those England fans living north of Watford Gap, watching the odd thrashing of Andorra or the Faroe Islands will remain as good as it gets.

the times | Friday October 10 2014

63

FGM

Football Sport TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER, GRAHAM HUGHES

England (4-1-2-1-2)

Group E England Lithuania Estonia Slovenia Switzerland San Marino

P W 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 1 2 0 2 0

D 0 0 0 0 0 0

L 0 0 1 1 2 2

F 7 3 1 1 0 0

A GD Pts 0 7 6 0 3 6 1 0 3 1 0 3 3 -3 0 7 -7 0

England’s fixtures Sunday: Estonia (a). Nov 15: Slovenia (h).

2015: Mar 27: Lithuania (h). Jun 14: Slovenia (a).

Sep 5: San Marino (a). Sep 8: Switzerland (h).

Oct 9: Estonia (h). Oct 12: Lithuania (a).

San Marino (5-4-1): A Simoncini (AC Libertas) 8 — M Palazzi (Rimini 6; sub: L Buscarini, Cailungo, 74min), F Vitaoli (Murata) 7, A Della Valle (Folgore) 6, C Brolli (Folgore) 6, M Battistini (Juvenes-Dogana) 6 — A Hersch (Folgore) 5, N Chiaruzzi (Tre Penne) 6, L Tosi (Folgore 5; sub: A Gasperoni, Tre Penne, 63 5), M Vitaioli (Fiorentino) 7 — A Selva (La Fiorita 5; sub: D Rinaldi, La Fiorita, 87). Substitutes not used: E Benedetti (Cesena), G Muraccini (Folgore), M Cervellini (Juvenes-Dogana), M Stefanelli (Juvenes-Dogana), C Valentini (Tre Penne). Booked: Selva, Rinaldi.

Referee: M Borski (Poland).

side had huffed and puffed until that 24th-minute strike, but the minnows’ weaknesses were exposed later in the match

shot saved. England’s opening goal was entirely routine in its conception — unless, of course, you are of the view that Cahill’s trip on Simoncini was deliberate.

If Cahill intended to trip the San Marino goalkeeper, it was probably in the belief that he was entitled to appeal

for a penalty, since he was being held by Della Valle. Either way, when Milner’s corner was swung to the edge of the sixyard box, Simoncini was sent sprawling and Jagielka nodded the ball into the net to open the scoring.

On the touchline, Hodgson and his staff eschewed the usual fist-pumping

in favour of the sedentary applause you might expect at a county cricket ground.

The reaction from the crowd was barely any more animated. A few minutes there was the first Mexican wave, which tends to be symptomatic of boredom rather than excitement.

England lacked rhythm and intensity in the first half, but they were keeping Simoncini busy.

He frustrated Rooney on a couple of occasions after the interval, but the moment the accountant will treasure when he returns to work next week will be the outstanding save he made from Welbeck on 42 minutes.

From Gibbs’s first-time cross, Welbeck hit a rising shot goalwards, only for the goalkeeper to perform heroics in keeping the ball out.

A minute later England were 2-0 up.

Andy Selva almost took Rooney’s head off with a flying boot and, from the resulting penalty, the England captain scored his 42nd international goal, moving to within two of Jimmy Greaves’ total and seven short of Charlton’s record.

England improved in the second half, with Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lallana replacing Jordan Henderson and the quiet Sterling.

Usually you would say that the game opened up once the opposition’s resistance has been broken, but it did not work quite like that. England’s third goal, on 49 minutes, was one that Arsenal fans will enjoy, OxladeChamberlain winning the ball high up the pitch to set up Welbeck, sliding in at the near post.

Lallana thought he had scored midway through the second half, flicking Oxlade-Chamberlain’s shot past Simoncini, but his effort was disallowed because Chambers, not obviously interfering with play, was in an offside position.

Five minutes later it was 4-0, with Townsend producing his party piece, stepping inside from the right wing and beating the goalkeeper with a fierce shot inside the near post.

The fifth goal came when Rooney’s cross bounced in off Della Valle. The stadium announcer tried to award it to Rooney, but the captain will know better.

He could and should have scored more, but it was not a night to lose sleep over such things.

Costa and Co struggle as Spain run ends Bill Edgar

Costa, right, challenges Skrtel but Spain were to come off second best

Spain’s run of 14 successive victories in away qualifiers for the European Championship or World Cup ended dramatically last night when they were beaten 2-1 by Slovakia.

Miroslav Stoch, the former Chelsea player, headed the winning goal three minutes from time from a cross by Michal Duris in a Euro 2016 group C qualifying match.

Spain, whose starting line-up included three present Chelsea players in César Azpilicueta, Cesc Fàbregas and Diego Costa, are rebuilding after losing their world crown in the summer and the result suggests they may struggle to retain their European trophy.

Juraj Kucka gave Slovakia a first-half lead direct from a free kick, but Paco Alcacer had appeared to rescue a point for Spain when he brought them level in the 82nd minute.

Switzerland have started their group E qualifying campaign with two defeats after they lost 1-0 away to Slovenia last night. The Swiss, beaten 2-0 by England in their opening match, dominated the first half but were denied by a series of fine saves by Samir Handanovic, the Slovenia goalkeeper.

Slovenia, who had gone down to an 86th-minute goal by Estonia last month, produced their own decisive late strike last night. Milivoje Novakovic converted a penalty 11 minutes from time after Johan Djourou, the

former Arsenal defender, had fouled Kevin Kampl.

Lithuania recorded a 1-0 home win over Estonia, their Baltic rivals, via a goal by Saulius Mikoliunas in the 76th minute. Ken Kallaste, the Estonia defender, was sent off four minutes from time for a second bookable offence.

Sebastian Larsson, the Sunderland midfielder, had a penalty saved as his Sweden team were held 1-1 by Russia in Stockholm in group G. The Swedes, missing the injured Zlatan Ibrahimovic, fell behind in the tenth minute when Aleksandr Korkorin scored from outside the penalty area for Russia and three minutes later Igor Akinfeev saved Larsson’s spot-kick.. But four minutes after the break Ola Toivonen equalised.

by Rory Smith

6

joe hart (man city) Midway through the first half, Hart looked at the Mexican wave sweeping around Wembley and clearly envied the chance to do something. calum chambers (arsenal) That San Marino’s only shot came down England’s right will plague the teenager’s dreams for years.

6

6

gary cahill (chelsea) The centre back was employed as an on-pitch cheerleader for his colleagues. He applauded warmly and well.

6

phil jagielka (everton) His first competitive goal for England was only marginally less memorable than his strike in the Merseyside derby.

7

kieran gibbs (arsenal) An impressive performance that, given Leighton Baines’s form, might be enough to earn him the nod against Estonia.

6

james milner (man city) It doesn’t matter, not really, but Hodgson’s decision to play Milner in an anchor role looked like a sop to a player he left out in Switzerland.

6

jordan henderson (liverpool) This was not the sort of game where the midfielder’s highintensity pressing was required.

7

jack wilshere (arsenal) The sort of evening when Wilshere could have got through a 20 pack of Marlboro Reds and still dictated play.

6

raheem sterling (liverpool) The teenager has looked tired in recent weeks and will have profited from being the second man off.

7

danny welbeck (arsenal) Continued his fine goalscoring form — by his standards — since his move to Arsenal by finishing Alex OxladeChamberlain’s cut-back.

6

wayne rooney (man united) The captain’s penalty took him to 42 England goals. He missed enough chances, especially in the second half, to have made it to 46.

Substitutes Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal, for Henderson, 46min) 8 Adam Lallana (Liverpool, for Sterling, 46) 7 Andros Townsend (Tottenham Hotspur, for Welbeck, 66) 7 Not used: Fraser Forster, Ben Foster, Leighton Baines, Nathaniel Clyne, Fabian Delph, Jonjo Shelvey, Rickie Lambert.

Sport

Friday October 10 2014 | the times

Code breaker has it cracked

All-around success story

Return trip across divide ends happily for Joel Tomkins

Max Whitlock leaps on to world stage with silver medal

Rugby league, page 53

Gymnastics, page 56

thetimes.co.uk/sport

british press awards — sports team of the year

Rooney moves closer to record STEPHEN POND / THE FA VIA GETTY IMAGES

Matt Hughes Deputy Football Correspondent

England 5 San Marino 0 Wayne Rooney inched closer towards Sir Bobby Charlton’s England goal record last night by scoring his 42nd international strike as Roy Hodgson’s side cruised to a 5-0 win over San Marino in their Euro 2016 qualifying match at Wembley.

The England captain scored from the penalty spot two minutes before halftime after Phil Jagielka had given them the lead with a powerful header. Danny Welbeck, Andros Townsend and an own goal from Alessandro Della Valle underlined the home side’s obvious superiority in the second half.

Rooney was briefly given a 43rd goal by the stadium announcer, as it was his cross that Della Valle deflected into his own net, but that error was soon amended and the own goal awarded.

The Manchester United striker is seven goals behind Charlton’s record, but is closing in on Jimmy Greaves, who is in third place with 44 goals.

Rooney may regard this as a missed opportunity to score more goals, but Hodgson will have no complaints about an emphatic victory that cemented England’s position at the top of group E. Hodgson rested Leighton Baines as Kieran Gibbs won his fourth cap at left back and Calum Chambers, his Arsenal team-mate, made his debut on the opposite flank, but the Everton defender is likely to return to for Sunday’s match against Estonia in Tallinn.

Lithuania beat Estonia 1-0 and have joined England at the top of the group with six points from two matches, while Switzerland suffered a surprise 1-0 defeat by Slovenia.

All smiles: Welbeck’s good run of form continues at Wembley last night, where he scored England’s third goal in a one-sided contest against San Marino Pages 60-64

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Yesterday’s solution 25,913 R A L L E ON D P E

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