Th 2014 10 13 by Jurco Smotrych

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monday october 13 2014 | thetimes.co.uk | no 71326

The day I joined the Monaco set by Sathnam Sanghera Pages 40-41

ADRIAN SHERRATT

Isis hostage reveals fear he will be next to die Billy Kenber

Play misty for me A dog walker and companions enjoyed the mist rolling off the hills yesterday at Uley Bury, an Iron Age fort in Gloucestershire. Forecast, page 55

NHS reforms our worst mistake, Tories admit Times investigation reveals £5 billion wasted every year on inefficiencies

Chris Smyth Health Correspondent Rachel Sylvester, Alice Thomson

Senior Tories have admitted that reorganising the NHS was the biggest mistake they have made in government. David Cameron did not understand the controversial reforms and George Osborne regrets not preventing what Downing Street officials call a “huge strategic error”, it can be revealed. One senior cabinet minister told The Times: “We’ve made three mistakes that I regret, the first being restructuring the NHS. The rest are minor.” The prime minister and the chancel-

lor both failed to realise the explosive extent of plans drawn up by Andrew Lansley, when he was the health secretary, which one insider described as “unintelligible gobbledygook”. An ally of Mr Osborne said: “George kicks himself for not having spotted it and stopped it. He had the opportunity then and he didn’t take it.” The admission came during an investigation by The Times that has found: 6 At least £5 billion is wasted every year on inefficiencies, such as overpaying for supplies, out-of-date drugs, agency workers and empty buildings, a study carried out for ministers said.

6 Two fifths of NHS chief executives say that charges to see a GP or stay in hospital will be needed without extra money for the health service. 6 “Trolley waits” to get into hospital from A&E are running at almost three times the level of 2011 and the cost of bed blockers is at a record high. Simon Stevens, head of the NHS, said that the health service needed more radical change to cope with a lack of cash. As staff strike today over a pay freeze, Mr Stevens has warned that “recent methods of balancing the books are not going to be indefinitely repeatable”. After a political conference season

in which party leaders competed to promise support for the health service, the Tories admit that public trust of their stewardship of the NHS has been undermined by Mr Lansley’s reforms. While the Tories had promised to give GPs more control over organising and care and patients more choice over treatment, Mr Lansley’s plans took other ministers by surprise. He abolished almost every organisation that allocated NHS budgets and gave £63 billion to hundreds of new GP-led bodies to spend on services as they saw fit. The plans led to an 18-month fight

Continued on page 2, col 3

A British photojournalist held hostage by Islamic State has purportedly written an article describing how he has watched four fellow hostages taken off to be murdered and is now waiting his turn to die. In a four-page piece published yesterday in the Islamic State (Isis) magazine Dabiq, John Cantlie, who was seized in Syria two years ago, said that he was aware of the fate of other hostages and called on the British government to negotiate for his release. “I am still alive, but at some point in the near future, the Mujahidin will surely run out of patience,” he wrote. The article was released on the same day as Islamic extremists posted a new video of Cantlie online. While the article makes reference to the beheadings of two US and two British hostages, the video appears to have been filmed before the killing of the Manchester taxi driver Alan Henning. The piece reads: “I’ve had to watch as James, Steven Sotloff, David Haines and Alan Henning walked out of the door, one every two weeks since August 18, never to return, knowing they were going to be killed.” He described how they had grown close during their period in captivity, “supporting one another when it got tough, praying together every day” and said that he was now “just a man in a dark room with a mattress on the floor”. Addressing his “darling wife, my friends in the media and my family”, Cantlie said that he wanted them to put pressure on the British government to follow the example of other European nations in paying Isis a ransom for the release of their citizens. “Death holds no fear over me; I have lived beneath its wings for a long time,” he added. “But if that is to be my final destination, I would rather look it in the face knowing this was a fair fight and not a hollow capitulation.” Friends of Cantlie and experts on Isis said they believed that the article was genuinely written by the photojournalist, who has worked for newspapers including The Sunday Times. Olivier Guitta, a security adviser who was previously director of research at the Henry Jackson Society, said: “If you look at the way it’s set out, the way it’s Continued on page 8, col 4

IN THE NEWS Ebola checks urged

Church schools risk

Iraq suicide attacks

Eurostar sell-off

England march on

British hospitals have been urged to check their infection control procedures after a US health worker who treated an ebola patient contracted the deadly virus in Dallas. Page 13

The Church of England has said that its rural schools face a fight for survival because of a funding squeeze, high house prices in villages and a drive to raise teaching standards. Page 5

Islamic State militants brought carnage to Iraq with a series of suicide bombings and the murder of a police chief who had organised opposition to the terrorist group. Pages 24-25

The government hopes to attract bids of up to £300 million for its 40 per cent stake in the cross-Channel rail service Eurostar when it starts an auction process. Page 31

England moved closer to qualification for the Euro 2016 football championships when Wayne Rooney scored from a free kick to secure a 1-0 away victory over Estonia. The Game

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News

Monday October 13 2014 | the times

Matt Ridley

News

FTSE bosses earn 120 times more than average worker

Opinion, page 17

Page 23

Kathryn Hopkins

INSIDE TODAY If we lose the battle against ebola we face a pandemic as bad as the Black Death

times2

Young, free and single — but should I tell my date I have cancer? Pages 42, 43

Modern gadgets are stifling the flow of comic genius, complains Cleese

Obituary

Allan Rowley, dashing MI6 officer and expert on southeast Asia Register, page 48

Opinion 17 Weather 17 Cartoon 19 Leading articles 20 Letters 21 World 24 Business 31 Features 40 Register 47 Sport 51 Crosswords 50, 64 Please note, some sections of The Times are available only in the United Kingdom and Ireland

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The earnings of FTSE 100 company directors have risen by more than a fifth over the past year. Their average total earnings were £2.4 million, rising to £3.3 million for chief executives, according to research from Incomes Data Services. Wage growth for the overall workforce, meanwhile, trails well behind inflation, rising by 0.6 per cent in the three months to July compared with the same period a year earlier. This is less than half the present rate of inflation of 1.5 per cent. While Britain’s economy is set to grow faster than its G7 competitors this year, workers have not seen any boost in their pay to reflect recovery. The research found that between 2000 and 2014 the median total earnings for FTSE 100 chief executives surged by 278 per cent, while the corresponding rise in total earnings for full-time employees was 48 per cent. This means that a FTSE 100 chief

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awards and a 12 per cent rise in bonuses. Salaries rose by 2.5 per cent. Using long-term incentive plans — a form of remuneration more opaque to shareholders — has become increasingly common over the past decade. Shares in the company are placed in trust for a period, generally three to four years, and then vest if certain preset performance targets are met. The median value of vested longterm incentive plan share awards came in at under £2 million, according to the research, while the median bonus for the chief executives of FTSE 100 listed companies was £1.02 million. Ms Hargreaves said: “There is little connection between pay rises and any improvement in corporate performance. So shareholders are not getting what they think they are paying for.” Incomes Data Services said: “it remains to be seen whether the reforms will lead to an improvement in boardroom pay transparency”. Leading article, page 20

Miliband faces revolt over Palestine Laura Pitel Political Correspondent

Ed Miliband faces a rebellion today over a drive to recognise Palestine as an independent state. MPs warned that many in the Labour party were furious at a move to compel them to support the motion. Between four and six members of the shadow cabinet are expected to be absent from the vote, along with other frontbenchers and MPs. While the motion is symbolic, advocates argue that it offers an historic opportunity to support the Palestinian people. Is is expected to be backed by a significant number of Liberal Democrat and Conservative MPs, as well as those from Labour.The coalition

has granted backbenchers a free vote, while ministers will not take part. Some Labour MPs, meanwhile, are angry that they have been instructed to support it. “The party is in disarray,” said one MP. “People are divided. How can it be sensible to divide and factionalise the Labour party six months before an election over a backbench debate?” While the grassroots Labour party has strong links to the pro-Palestinian movement, many MPs are staunch defenders of Israel, and are angry that the leadership has changed the party’s stance without consultation. Supporters of the motion, put forward by the Labour MP Grahame Morris, argue that Britain should unilaterally recognise Palestine in order to

Cameron had no grip on £3bn NHS reform plans Continued from page 1

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executive earned 120 times more than a full-time employee in the past financial year, while in 2000, it was 47 times more. Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC, said: “Now we know who is benefiting from the recovery, and as sure as anything it is not the great majority of workers who continue to face cuts in their living standards. Every year people ask if soaring boardroom greed can continue. It seems that it can.” Deborah Hargreaves, the director of the High Pay Centre, said: “Directors are benefiting from increased rewards at a time when wages for everyone else are stagnating. Everyone in a company contributes to the success of that business, not just those at the top. We need to spread the rewards more fairly by bringing in company-wide profit share and elected workers on remuneration committees and boards.” Earnings growth for FTSE 100 directors was driven by a 44 per cent jump in long-term incentive share

with the health unions, which said that the reforms would be hugely disruptive, fragment care and allow more privatesector involvement in the NHS. After a Liberal Democrat revolt, Mr Cameron had to make concessions to get the Health and Social Care Act through. A former No 10 adviser said: “No one apart from Lansley had a clue what he was really embarking on, certainly not the prime minister. He kept saying his grand plans had the backing of the medical establishment and we trusted him. In retrospect it was a mistake.” Clare Gerada, who led the fight against the reforms as chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, called the admission disgraceful. She said: “I think politicians and policymakers need to have a long, hard look at themselves. They are saying this now but they should have said it then. The big issue is that nobody has been held accountable for it. If Mr Lansley was a doctor, he would have been referred to the General Medical Council.” Health service insiders say that the scale of the reorganisation, which cost an estimated £3 billion, wasted two years as managers were distracted from the urgent need to find £20 billion in efficiency savings to cope with rising

demand from an older, sicker population. Chris Ham, chief executive of the respected King’s Fund think-tank, said: “You’ve got leaders in the NHS rearranging the deck chairs when we’re about to hit the iceberg.” Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, said: “Andrew’s structural changes are saving the NHS more than £1 billion a year. Because of that we can employ 7,000 more doctors and 3,500 more nurses. We wouldn’t be delivering nearly a million more operations a year or be able to put more resources on the front line without what he did. The difficult question for those who complain about Andrew’s reforms is where would we have found the money otherwise?” Mark Porter, chairman of the British Medical Association’s governing council, said: “Rather than listening to the concerns of patients, the public and frontline staff who vigorously opposed the top-down reorganisation, politicians shamefully chose to stick their head in the sand and plough on regardless. The damage done to the NHS has been profound and intense, so this road to Damascus moment is too little too late and will be of no comfort to patients whose care has suffered.” This is going to hurt, pages 6, 7 Leading article, page 20

create a “level playing field” for peace negotiations with Israel. Opponents believe that doing so would jeopardise the peace process. Recognition should be granted only as part of direct talks on a two-state solution, they say. Having said that all MPs would have to attend the vote, the Labour leadership had to backtrack. MPs are compelled to support the motion, but only if they choose to attend the vote. Among those expected to stay away are Rachel Reeves, the shadow work and pensions secretary, Ivan Lewis, the shadow Northern Ireland secretary, and Jim Murphy, the shadow international development secretary. Melanie Phillips, page 18

Police to face new curbs on spying powers Greg Hurst

Police who seek to obtain a journalist’s phone records during a criminal inquiry are to face additional checks under plans to be unveiled by ministers in the coming weeks. Officers will need the approval of a judge or senior officer to access communications data of people working in “sensitive professions”. Senior officers must also have regard to the degree of intrusion that would be involved. The Home Office confirmed yesterday that journalism would be classed as a sensitive profession, but could not say whether a reporter, or their editor, would be told if such an application had been made. Theresa May, the home secretary, will publish a new code of conduct including this safeguard before Christmas. It follows concerns over police using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (Ripa) to access phone logs of reporters on The Sun and The Mail on Sunday and their sources. A Home Office spokesman said that communications data was a “critical tool”, but it was determined that nothing was done to put a free press at risk.

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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News

Never mind the anarchy, vote! AFP / GETTY IMAGES ; TIMES PHOTOGRGAPHER, GARETH IWAN JONES

Johnny Rotten still seeks revolution — but now he takes a more conventional approach, writes Jack Malvern As Johnny Rotten he cultivated a reputation as an agitator for an anarchist revolution, declaiming that he was the Antichrist who wished to “destroy passers by”. As John Lydon, speaking 38 years later to a crowd at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, he urged people dissatisfied with politics to take their grievances to their town hall. The lead singer of the Sex Pistols said that people such as the comedian Russell Brand who refuse to vote as a form of protest were “bumholes” who misunderstood the nature of power. He declined to say which political party he supported. “I’m very wary of tagging my name on to supporting any of those phoney b*****ds, but don’t be

like Russell Brand,” he said at the festival, which is sponsored by The Times and The Sunday Times. “If you don’t vote, you don’t count. It’s only a century ago that none of us had the right to vote and we don’t want to go back to that route.” Brand argued last year that refusing to vote was his way of renouncing the political system. He cited Lydon’s experience at state school, which he said “seemed to primarily be the installation of a belief system that placed his generation and class at the bottom of an immovable hierarchical structure”. Lydon said that people who wanted change should engage with politics, not reject it. “Go to town hall meetings and give them f***ing hell,” he said. “I’m not being flippant. If you don’t start locally you’re not going to change the world.” He asked people to shout the name of the party they support, prompting several cries of support for Ukip. “What is the UK [Independence Party] about? I’ve been away a bit and all of a sudden it’s a bunch of aw-haw-haws. They look like a real bunch of rejects from the other [Conservative] party.” Reflecting on his time in the Sex Pistols, he said that he regretted

Rory Bremner has diagnosed himself with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and strongly criticised the “pernicious” attitude that children with the syndrome are naughty. Without early diagnosis, children can go through years of distress, frustration, inadequacy and despair, the impressionist told The Times. He recognised the symptoms in himself after a relative was diagnosed. Mr Bremner is patron of the ADHD Foundation and will speak next week at its conference in Liverpool. He said that, even if diagnosed earlier, he would not necessarily have wanted to take medication for the condition as it could blunt the edge of his personality. Having ADHD gave

mother giving him heroin as a present. Lydon thanked a member of the audience who asked him about the bassist. “I have to confront my demons. Thank you,” he said. Lydon, whose stage name derived from the rotten state of his teeth, also urged people not to ignore dental hygiene. “I never knew how to use a toothbrush. In my house the only time I saw one being used was my dad using one to clean the muck off his boots from work. I’ve had to spend a small fortune.” The Sex Pistols were pioneers of punk, forming in 1975 under the management of Malcolm McLaren and with a look designed by Vivienne Westwood. They had their first top 40 hit in 1976 with Anarchy in the UK and won notoriety during a live television interview with Bill Grundy, who goaded band members into swearing. EMI sacked the band after three months, which was a long relationship compared with their ten-day stay with A&R. Lydon’s sardonic anthem God Save the Queen, released during the Queen’s silver jubilee, led politicians to call for them to be hanged as traitors. Leading article, page 30

involving Sid Vicious, whose birth name was John Ritchie. Lydon, 58, said he should have known Ritchie was too vulnerable. The bassist died in 1979 of a heroin overdose while awaiting trial for the murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. “Sid could not play an instrument and I could not sing,” Lydon said. “He didn’t stand a f***ing chance, and to this day I feel really bad that I brought him into the band. I needed an ally and friend within the Sex Pistols — to help me sort it out. I feel a lot of responsibility for his death.” He recalled being with Ritchie on his birthday and watching Ritchie’s

ADHD has helped my career, says Bremner Nicola Woolcock Education Correspondent

John Lydon, below, once faced accusations of treason over the sardonic anthem God Save the Queen

him periods of being able to “hyperfocus”, he said. “Many people with ADHD turn out to be creative. It helps you to make fast connections. When listening to someone I’m often thinking about something else or thinking outside the box. It’s my greatest friend and my worst enemy. “One analogy is that it’s like an oyster which produces a pearl because of grit causing an infection, or listening to a radio but hearing all the stations simultaneously. It’s my enemy because it’s frustrating to be forgetful and to be easily distracted and to have problems concentrating, but it helps me to make connections.” The comedian, who is renowned for his impressions of politicians, said that, in childhood, he was scatty, forgetful and constantly showing off. “Looking

‘When listening to someone I’m often thinking outside the box. It’s my greatest friend and worst enemy’

back now I apologise to my school and university friends. I was constantly chattering. I was very forgetful at primary school age,” he said. “But mimicry is one of the tools of an ADHD child, because it’s throwing up chaff, you become a master of distraction.” Mr Bremner said that countries such as Sweden automatically tested children who were repeatedly excluded from school for the condition. “ADHD is often presented as behaviour that is distracting or disruptive. The child finds him or herself excluded from school, or seen as a problem,” he said. “When a child as young as five is going to school having problems paying attention or organising themselves, or finding that their peers can do things more easily than they can . . . it’s a tragedy.”

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Monday October 13 2014 | the times

News DAN KITWOOD / GETTY IMAGES

Down to earth A competitor in the horse-drawn category of the British National Ploughing Championships near Basingstoke, Hampshire. More than 200 ploughmen and women compete over two days

Labour MPs tell Miliband to fight Ukip with tougher line on migrants Laura Pitel Political Correspondent

Ed Miliband was urged to get tougher on immigration last night amid fears about the rise of Ukip among Labour MPs in the north of England. The Labour leader insisted that he had heard concerns about uncontrolled migration, but MPs said that he had to talk much more about the subject to persuade voters to trust him. Others MPs warned that the party was running out of time to devise a national strategy to halt the growth of the insurgency. They fear that it will be a case of “every man for himself” at the general election next May. Mr Miliband is under fire after narrowly avoiding disaster in a greater Manchester by-election last week. The party hung on to Heywood and Middleton by 617 votes after an extraordinary Ukip surge. Harriet Harman, the

deputy Labour leader, yesterday insisted that “there is not a wobble in the ranks and nor should there be.” However, Mr Miliband is expected to endure a rough ride at a meeting of the parliamentary Labour party at Westminster today. Despite regaining a small lead in the national polls, his person ratings remain dismal. A new poll by YouGov, published in The Sunday Times, found that voters believed he was as bad as Michael Foot, who in 1983 led his party to its worst defeat in modern times. Election experts believe that Ukip has a good chance of taking seats in Labour’s northern heartlands in May. Rotherham and Great Grimsby are among the most vulnerable. Backbenchers have warned that Ukip’s precision targeting of local issues means that it is becoming too late for Labour to find an effective national

strategy that will stunt the growth of the insurgent party. Some speak fearfully of Ukip’s ability to latch onto push-button issues specific to each local area, be it sexual grooming scandals in Rotherham and Rochdale or the impact of high petrol prices on Derbyshire farming communities. “They are doing it phenomenally well,” one MP said. “They are so clever at a particular issue, and taking the populist route, that it’s almost on a constituency-by-constituency level that we need to be tackling them. We’re all going to have to work on the principle that we’re on our own.” Others want Mr Miliband to talk more on immigration. In an article for The Observer, he insisted that he recognised that Ukip was “tapping into a seam of discontent and despair that Labour cannot — and will not — ignore.” He promised to set out further poli-

cies to tackle problems caused by immigration. It is understood, however, that these will be limited to encouraging integration, ensuring that benefits are linked to contributions, and the exploitation of migrant workers — areas already explored by the party. There are no plans to reverse the party’s opposition to holding an in/out EU referendum or to call for changes to European freedom-of-movement rules, despite calls from some quarters for to do so. “We are not going to go down the wacky-racers route of calling for quotas or ripping up EU treaties,” a senior party source said. Ukip has said it expects further defections in the coming weeks and months, including the first from Labour. Austin Mitchell denied yesterday that he had called Douglas Carswell the morning after his victory in Clacton made him Ukip’s first elected MP.

“It seems to me to be quite reasonable to look at some system of control,” he told the BBC. His comments came as Nigel Farage said that his price for propping up a minority Conservative government — in the event of a hung parliament after the general election next year — would be an instant EU referendum. The Ukip leader said that he would enter into a so-called “confidence and supply” arrangement in exchange for bringing forward a promised in/out referendum by two years to July 2015. Mr Johnson yesterday piled pressure on the prime minister to toughen his approach to European negotiations in

order to fend off the Ukip threat, saying it was “vital” that Brussels knew that Britain would be willing to quit. “I think that is absolutely vital to go into any negotiation making it very clear to our friends, partners, our beloved European amis, that we love them, we want to be with them, we want to be in the single market, we want to be part of the whole thing, but unless we get some serious change we are prepared to strike an alternative arrangement,” he said. “You know, in any negotiation you’ve got to be willing to walk away.” Freedom of movement is regarded as a central pillar of the EU, and other nations have made clear that they will

resist moves to tamper with it. Mr Johnson argued that Britain already had an opt-out from the Schengen system of free travel and said it was possible that the EU could “cut us a bit more slack”. The mayor also took a swipe at the prime minister over his pledge to cut net migration to below 100,000 by 2015, a target that is now off course. He said that two “big deceptions” were to blame for public concern over immigration. The first was the Labour government’s decision to allow uncontrolled migration from eastern European accession countries in 2004, and the second was “saying that we could control the numbers when we couldn’t”, he said.

We must threaten to leave Europe, says Boris Laura Pitel Political Correspondent

David Cameron must announce that he is prepared to leave the European Union if he cannot secure stricter limits on migration, Boris Johnson said yesterday. The mayor of London said that the prime minister must consider imposing quotas on EU migrants. Mr Cameron has raised the prospect of creating transitional controls on immigration from new members of the EU based on the strength of their economies. Mr Johnson went further, urging him to consider a points-based system similar to one used in Australia.

Brown attacks Tories for ‘risk to the Union’ Hamish Macdonell, Laura Pitel

Gordon Brown accused the Conservatives of “playing fast and loose with the constitution” yesterday, warning that they were imperilling the Union with their tactics. In a dramatic intervention, the former prime minister warned that “nations can be lost by accident”. “Unions can disintegrate because mistakes are made, and I would like to think the Conservatives are not going to make mistakes that imperil the future of the Union,” he told Sky News. He accused David Cameron of being “unstatesmanlike” by linking Scottish devolution to changes to the English parliament just hours after the referendum result. It came as William Hague, who has been put in charge of masterminding the Tory plan for “English votes for English laws”, warned Labour that it had until the end of next month to agree to the plans. Ed Miliband has resisted calls to exclude Scottish MPs from voting on English-only issues in Wesminster. The change could limit the ability of a Labour government to pass laws that apply only to England. Mr Hague, the leader of the House of Commons, said that the “crunch point” would come at the end of November. He accused Labour of putting selfinterest before the needs of voters. Labour, in turn, have accused the Conservatives of playing politics with the Scottish referendum result. Mr Brown used a submission to a House of Commons committee to tear into the Tories’ proposals for greater devolution. Instead, he championed his own plans for more powers for the Scottish parliament, insisting that only his ideas represented a clear way forward. Diary, page 13

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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Villages risk losing church schools in battle over funds Greg Hurst Education Editor

Rural Church of England schools face a fight for survival from a squeeze on funding, high house prices in villages and pressure for higher education standards, according to a church report. The days of small village schools with their own head teacher, governors and site are “numbered” and they must consider mergers, partnerships or linking with several academies, it added. Some church primary schools in tiny villages should consider becoming specialist schools for disadvantaged children or pupils with special education needs, the study suggested The report, by the Rev Nigel Genders, the Church of England’s chief education officer, says clergy, parishioners and others involved in rural schools must ask themselves annually how

demographic trends will impact on them and nearby schools, what they would do if the head leaves and how they can work with others. Few primary schools have so far switched to academy status or joined academy chains, especially in rural areas, but Mr Genders said, this could not continue. “A failure or reluctance to do this, a longing for the status quo, will leave us with a system that was good for yesterday’s world, but is not fit for the purposes of education in the modern world.” Rural church schools are particularly vulnerable as, historically, many are small and serve remote communities. Of the 4,443 Church of England primary schools, 65 per cent have fewer than 210 pupils. The average number attending its smaller schools is 110. Their funding had been squeezed by the pupil premium, which gives extra

News GUZELIAN

money to a school for each poor child. Village church schools tend to have more affluent children, which the study says reflects high house prices. The drive by the government and Ofsted to enforce higher standards will make it harder for schools to achieve or keep an outstanding rating, the study warns, especially at smaller schools whose reputation hinges on a handful of teachers and governors. Mr Genders said he was convinced that church schools must collaborate to survive. While the report urges each school to find its own answer, it says that Department for Education incentives for two or three primary schools to create small academy groups would not “build the resilient school system we need in rural areas” and small schools would be better off in a bigger academy trust set up by their diocese.

Elite teachers will target failing pupils Greg Hurst

David Cameron will announce plans today to recruit an elite pool of teachers who could be dispatched to schools where children are not getting an adequate standard of education. The idea, first mooted last year by Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of Ofsted, will be part of the Conservative

party’s manifesto rather than enacted by the coalition before the election. Mr Cameron will also say that a Tory government would give eight regional schools commissioners the right to intervene in schools. Labour, however, asked why action to strengthen the oversight of all schools would not be introduced before the election. Ed Miliband has previous-

ly said he would create new posts of directors of school standards for each local authority area. Teach First, the charity that recruits high-flying graduates to train as teachers in schools serving poor communities, welcomed the proposal, saying evidence made clear that the quality of teaching was one of the most important factors in improving a child’s education.

Water dance 63 tubular stick figures controlled by a central computer light up the Mirror Pool in Bradford. The sculpture is part of the city’s Shine festival

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Monday October 13 2014 | the times

News Future of the NHS

Disastrous diagnosis that could

David Cameron pledged to protect the healthcare system. His government then began a shake-up ‘so big you could see it from space’. On the first day of a major five-part series, Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson assess the damage

Future of the NHS

he meeting in October 2010 is still described in Downing Street as “legendary”. The government’s leading lights had gathered at No 10 to discuss Andrew Lansley’s health reforms. According to one account, the health secretary talked “unintelligible gobbledygook” for half an hour. When he sat down, David Cameron and George Osborne turned to Oliver Letwin and said: “Are we sure this makes sense?” The Tories’ policy guru nodded sagely, telling his colleagues that it was a brilliant idea to hand the commissioning of healthcare to GPs. And that was that. As Sir Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet secretary, left the meeting, he muttered nervously that “anyone who went into the room worried came out much more worried and anyone who went in supportive left more in favour”. One ally of the chancellor says: “George kicks himself for not having spotted it and stopped it. He had the opportunity then and he didn’t take it.” With the NHS set to be a key political battleground between now and the general election, senior Tories admit privately that the reorganisation of the health service has been the government’s biggest error. One senior cabinet minister says: “We’ve made three mistakes that I regret. The first being restructuring the NHS; the rest are minor.” A former No 10 adviser admits: “No one apart from Lansley had a clue what he was really embarking on, certainly not the prime minister. He kept saying his grand plans had the backing of the medical establishment and we trusted him. In retrospect it was a mistake.” The Conservatives had campaigned in 2010 with a poster showing David Cameron’s face next to the words: “We’ll cut the deficit not the NHS.” The Tory leader had promised “no top down reorganisation” of the health service. Yet within weeks, the coalition had embarked on a shake-up so big, its architect said, “you could see it from outer space”. The Health and Social Care Act 2012 paved the way for GP consortia to take over the management of the NHS from primary care trusts, taking control of 80 per cent of the £100 billion budget, and being put in charge of planning and buying everything from community health centres to hospital services. A former Downing Street aide says that it was a “huge strategic error”. “A

lot of work had gone into persuading people that David Cameron believed in the NHS, had personal experience and cared about it. Then the Conservatives came in and forgot all about reassurance. Lansley managed to alienate all the professional people in Britain who were trusted on the NHS. For his own weird psychopathic reasons, he decided he had to do it his way. Consciously or unconsciously, he drove away all the potential allies.” Within weeks of the meeting at which the reforms were agreed, the backlash had begun, with doctors, nurses and patients groups increasingly appalled. By March 2011 it was, says one senior Tory, “clear it was a total car crash. Nobody understood why we were doing this anyway”. The No 10 policy adviser on health told colleagues that the key components of the reforms could have been introduced without legislating at all. When the Royal College of Nursing backed a motion of no confidence in the health secretary a month later, all he could say was: “I am sorry if what I’m setting out to do hasn’t communicated itself.” “That,” according to one aide, “is when we freaked.” A five-page memo from Andrew Cooper, No 10’s director of strategy, Craig Oliver, the director of communications and Stephen Gilbert, the political secretary, was soon put into the prime minister’s red box. “It set out in stark detail what a disaster this was, politically and practically,” says one person who read it. “It made the case that we didn’t have any good options but the best was to have an official pause and attempt to reset the dial.” The memo came back with a note from Mr Cameron, scribbled in Sharpie pen, saying that he agreed. Mr Lansley “was puce, absolutely furious and sat there steaming and fuming” when he was told the news by the prime minister. Jeremy Hunt, Mr Lansley’s successor, has closed down the NHS controversy with remarkable effectiveness. Concentrating on compassion, safety and access, rather than complicated structures, he has got many of the professionals back on side and reassured patients. “I challenge you to find the words ‘clinical commissioning

‘The NHS has coped incredibly well so far but in my view it won’t cope this year’ Sarah Wollaston Chairwoman of Commons health select committee

‘The professional bodies are very powerful lobbies. They’re ruthless with their shroud-waving’ Ken Clarke Former minister

group’ in any of his speeches,” says an aide. Now, though, as waiting lists rise again and the financial black hole deepens, Tory MPs worry that they may yet be blamed at the polls for a reorganisation that was meant to save £5 billion a year but is said by independent experts to have cost £3 billion. The referendum campaign in Scotland showed how effectively the NHS can be used — fairly or not — to play on voters’ fears. Sarah Wollaston, a former GP who is now Conservative chairwoman of the Commons health select committee, insists that the chancellor “needs to be writing a bigger cheque” for the health service in his forthcoming autumn statement. “The NHS has coped incredibly well so far but in my view it won’t cope this year,” she says. “All parts of the system are under great pressure and that is only going to increase. Once you’ve ticked the ‘getting to grips with the deficit’ box, that is no longer on voters’ minds as they go to the polls. Maintaining the ring-fence on health spending is not enough.” Nick Clegg believes that the Tory leadership lost the plot over health reform, describing Mr Lansley as like “a man possessed” when he discussed his reforms in one cabinet committee meeting. “It was amazing how Osborne and Cameron didn’t give him any steer,” he says. “The lesson I learnt was if you don’t set out the problem you’re trying to solve remorselessly and constantly, then don’t expect people to understand the solution.”

t was no coincidence that the director Danny Boyle gave a leading role to the health service in his dazzling Olympics opening ceremony. The NHS has a powerful emotional hold. The 1.7 million people who work in it — and the one million patients who use it every 36 hours — are also voters. They will judge politicians’ claims on the basis of their own experience. Lord Rose, the former chief executive of Marks & Spencer who is now conducting a government review of NHS leadership, says that the health service, like his old company, is a “taxi driver” issue. “Everyone has very strong opinions about it. The good news is there’s a lot of goodwill, a brand ethos, but it would be wrong for me to say that there isn’t a level of frustration.” Ed Miliband will do all he can to raise the political temperature on health after his pledge of an extra £2.5 billion a year for the NHS. Although Mr Cameron narrowed his rival’s poll lead with his announcement about forcing GPs to open seven days a week, a YouGov poll for The Times found that 54 per cent of people do not think that Conservative ministers are committed to improving the NHS, compared to 29 per cent who do. Labour’s pollster James Morris says: “Everyone has personal experience of the NHS, whether it’s in the GP’s surgery, A&E department or maternity ward. They are very proud of it but they think it’s got worse. They weave it all into the sense that the government is all about cuts.” No 10 insists that it is happy to fight the general election on the issue of health — “Labour have created a straw man by talking about privatisation,” a strategist says. There are, in fact, tensions within the Labour party over how

Osborne: “Are we sure this makes sense?”

Hospitals paying over the odds waste billions every year Ministers have been warned that as much as £5 billion is being wasted every year through NHS inefficiencies. At least £2 billion could be saved annually by improving the procurement of drugs, medical equipment and basic items such as tissues, analysis for the Department of Health suggests. A further £1 billion could be clawed back by reducing the use of agency staff, with similar savings possible from management of the NHS estate and reducing the disposal of out-of-date drugs, advisers believe. An audit of thousands of products by cloudBuy, an internet

Mind the gap Highest and lowest sums paid by trusts for the same items

Surgical gloves

Single use tourniquets

50p Hertfordshire Community trust £1.28 The Princess Alexandra Hospital trust

£6.03 North West Ambulance Service trust £13.12 2Gether Foundation trust

Toilet tissue

Hypodermic syringe

£32.78 Burton Hospitals Foundation trust

£4.21 Hinchingbrooke Healthcare trust

£66.72 City Hospitals Sunderland Foundation trust

£6.25 Clatterbridge Cancer Centre Foundation trust

(per pair)

(100 units)

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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Future of the NHS News

yet prove fatal for the Tories JAE C. HONG / AP

Danny Boyle paid tribute to the NHS in the Olympics opening ceremony with pirouetting nurses and cheerful patients

far to go with this line of attack. Although Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, accuses the Conservatives of “selling off” the NHS, Mr Miliband has deliberately avoided talking about privatisation, fearing that could backfire. It was Labour that first involved the private sector, creating independent diagnostic and treatment centres and giving patients the right to choose a private hospital if NHS waiting lists were too long. According to the Department of Health, spending on healthcare from private providers has risen a little since 2010 — from 4.4 per cent in 2010 to 5.9 per cent now — but the income to the NHS from private patients has remained virtually static at around 0.7 per cent. The number of NHS-funded operations carried out in the private sector has risen from 215,044 in 2009-10 to 401,357 in 2012-13. Chris Ham, chief executive of the King’s Fund think-tank, says that talk of privatisation is a “red herring”. More damaging, in his view, is the “distraction” of the reforms. “You’ve got leaders in the NHS rearranging the deckchairs when we’re about to hit the iceberg,” he says.

W procurement company that works closely with the NHS Business Services Authority, and seen by The Times, found that there were big discrepancies between the prices different hospitals pay for basic goods. In some cases, there were price gaps between separate parts of the same health trust. Although some hospitals, for example, pay £5.02 for shoulder slings while others pay £9.20. The price of orthopaedic implants ranges from £365.38 to £558.60. There is a 34 per cent discrepancy between the highest and lowest payers on medical tape, 31 per cent for hypodermic syringes and 23 per cent on disinfectant swabs. Some hospitals are spending under £4 for 100 blunt needles while others are paying more than £30. More than £5 million could be saved overnight if all hospitals simply bought the cheapest surgical gloves — at the moment some pay almost twice as much as others. Ronald Duncan, chairman of cloudBuy, says the NHS could save £2 billion a year by buying correctly. “It’s like turning

a supertanker around,” he says. “But these savings are do-able without affecting patients.” An additional £1 billion a year is being wasted on the incineration of unopened out-of-date drugs, he adds. The government is introducing national procurement of hundreds of the most commonly purchased items to take advantage of economies of scale and minimise discrepancies. A bar code system is also to be introduced in an attempt to reduce drugs exceeding their sell-by date. Ministers believe there are also big savings to be had from reducing the use of temporary workers who cost between four and five times more than permanent staff. According to an analysis by the Department of Health, if the hospitals that used the most agency workers reached the average level, it would reduce the wage bill by £600 million a year. The savings would rise to £1 billion a year if the bottom third of hospitals reduced dependence on temporary workers to that of the top third. Hospitals are being

encouraged to sell off land to release money and reduce management costs. An area the size of 1,300 football pitches owned by the NHS but not used for patient services has already been identified and between £100 million and £150 million is expected to be raised this year alone. An

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estimated 14 per cent of NHS real estate is lying empty. Dan Poulter, the junior health minister, intends to rank hospitals on how well they spend money, naming and shaming the most profligate. Guidance to be published next week will make clear that funding is conditional on adhering to the efficiency

measures. He insists the NHS must try harder to “make every penny of the extra investment count . . . efficiency will free up more money for care and enable patients to hold their public services and hospital managers to account for how their money is spent.” A businessman who was appointed to the board of an NHS Trust says there is a “huge amount of waste” in the health service. “It took me six months to get the finance department which had 250 people working in it to produce a profit and loss statement. They had never produced one before,” he says. “The NHS is set up to spend money, not to save it.” His proposals to capitalise on health service resources — by for example developing own brand plasters and food supplements, or offering lab services to the private sector when they were not being used — fell on deaf ears. “There are lots of things that could be done to generate money, but there’s a resistance from large parts of the NHS to anything that is seen as commercial.”

hat is clear is that the health service is still struggling to come to terms with what has become an extraordinarily complicated structure. There are 25 national organisations managing and regulating the NHS and dozens more at a local level. Alongside the 211 clinical commissioning groups, 18 “commissioning support units” have been set up, employing 8,450 people, alongside 152 “health and wellbeing boards” and regional “clinical senates”. There is an “NHS acronym buster” app to help to decipher the alphabet soup. One chief executive had to talk to 62 different people to change a cancer treatment protocol. “It’s a cat’s cradle of lines of accountability and the result is chaos,” according to an NHS board member. A businessman who has worked with the health service says that the structures are hampering the clinicians. “Every busybody in town has got their snout in the trough. There are some brilliant people in the NHS but they are succeeding despite the system, not because of it.” Now, just 18 months after it was set up, NHS England is embarking on another restructuring, with a quarter of managers set to go. The health service has already spent £1.6 billion on redundancy payments since the start of the reorganisation, with many six-figure payoffs. More than 4,000 officials who took redundancy have been reemployed by the NHS. Insiders say some of these will now almost certainly be paid off again. Last year the health service also spent £584.7 million on outside management consultants. Alan Milburn, who introduced foundation hospitals as Tony Blair’s health secretary, says: “The ill-thoughtthrough reforms have left the NHS in an awful muddle. What’s worse is the army of regulators unleashed on the health service. Every time you send in the inspectors it takes the NHS’s eye off the critical ball, which is patients.” Maureen Baker, who chairs the Royal College of GPs, argues: “It’s like trying out a new drug. You wouldn’t just shove it out and give it to patients without testing it first.” Peter Carter, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, says: “They got rid of one set of bodies and replaced it with another that was more complex than the one they disbanded. Making thousands of people unemployed then employing them again is just a waste.” Privately, senior Tories say that there

is a health service establishment “blob” — similar to the one Michael Gove identified in education — that suffocates genuine reform. “The professional bodies are very powerful lobbies,” says Ken Clarke, a former health secretary as well as chancellor. “They frighten the public by dressing up their financial demands as if there’s some threat to the health of the nation if they’re not met. They’re ruthless with their shroud-waving.” Many across the political spectrum fear that the pre-election battles will be a phoney war, which fails to confront the scale of the challenge. Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP who chairs the Commons public accounts committee, says: “We have got to be honest about closing hospitals. That would save a fortune. And we have to have an open debate about what the NHS should and shouldn’t provide.” Andrew Haldenby, head of the thinktank Reform, insists that charging for GP appointments and the “hotel” side of hospital stays should be on the table. “They are common in other countries and raise revenue without putting more pressure on taxation.” Lord Winston, the fertility expert and Labour peer, says that Mr Lansley’s changes have made the situation critical. “His reforms were an affront to logical thinking. He didn’t understand

The health service is still struggling to come to terms with what has become an extraordinarily complicated structure. There is even an ‘NHS acronym buster’ app to help to decipher the alphabet soup what he was doing and didn’t seem to care . . . In terms of fairness and efficiency they were a disaster.” He thinks that patients may now need to pay a deposit for appointments that would be refunded when they arrive. “My clinic was packed. People came from Ireland and Glasgow and Cornwall, but the people from Hammersmith didn’t bother to turn up — it was 20 per cent [missed appointments] at each clinic, costing £200 [each]. If you don’t pay for it, you don’t value it. Poor people shouldn’t pay for their GP but you could argue for means-testing.” Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of NHS England, insists that genetic medicine makes it more important than ever to have a universal health service free at the point of delivery. “Science has inadvertently got us to a place where we can really justify future pooled risk,” he says. “I think there’s a universal and growing feeling in the NHS that we’ve squeezed the orange quite tightly and that it’s time for a discussion on more money. We have an NHS based on a certain set of principles and values. What we can’t do is allow the NHS to be dismantled by mistake.” Leading article, page 20

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Terror suspect ‘is peace-loving model pupil’ Billy Kenber

The Sudanese university attended by a British terror suspect who was arrested last week has defended him as a “nonviolent” Muslim and a model pupil. Tarik Hassane, 21, a medical student, was one of five men arrested on suspicion of plotting a terror attack on British soil. Yesterday, Ahmed Babiker, the dean of the University of Medical Sciences and Technology (UMST) in Khartoum, appeared to cast doubt on claims made by security sources that Mr Hassane may have undergone terrorist training in Syria. Dr Babiker said that Mr Has-

sane, who lived with classmates in the city of Omdurman, had a good attendance record and suggested that the university kept hold of foreign students’ passports, making unauthorised trips unlikely. Dr Babiker, who described the private university as being of a “multiracial, multireligious nature with complete academic and speech freedom”, said that students were shocked by the arrest. “According to his colleagues, [he] deplores violence and is critical about

terrorism,” he said. “Through records and consulting with [ten classmates] they confirm that Tarik is polite, peaceful, well respected, a devout Muslim [who] shares no inclination to violence. All those who know him think he is a reasonable guy and were surprised with the accusation.” In social media postings, Mr Hassane, who has a Saudi Arabian father and a Moroccan The Isis handbook wants extremists to infiltrate the police

mother, had suggested that he narrowly missed out on a place at King’s College London before deciding to study medicine in Sudan. Dr Babiker said that the student was interviewed for a place in August last year and began his course the next month. “He completed his first year with attendance of over 85 per cent and passed all subjects and was promoted to the second year.” The dean said that the university’s public relations department “takes the responsibility of registering the foreign students in the Sudanese authority for exit and re-entry visas. So we keep a very close contact of our students.” The statement implied that Mr Hassane’s passport was retained by UMST staff until September 30, shortly before the university was to close for Eid, a religious festival. He attended a lecture before leaving Sudan by EgyptAir and was arrested a week later while staying in a flat in a council estate in west London. Police are investigating whether he and four other men were involved in planning shootings, bombings and beheadings in public areas. Yesterday it emerged that a jihadi manual has called for Islamic State (Isis) extremists to infiltrate the British army and police forces to carry out brutal attacks. The Mail on Sunday reported that the 268-page book The Management of Savagery also revealed Isis’s intention to target tourists in Islamic countries as well as western journalists and oil workers. The book, written by Abu Bakr Naji, suggested that efforts to infiltrate the police and army and other institutions including political parties and newspapers “actually began several decades ago, but we need to increase it”. 6 A team of 12 British soldiers has been sent to northern Iraq to train Kurdish forces in using British-supplied weapons, the Ministry of Defence confirmed yesterday. Troops from the 2nd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment are expected to spent a week in Irbil in a noncombat role after the MoD supplied local forces with machineguns and ammunition. RAF jets have been flying combat missions over Iraq since September.

Cantlie article urges Britain to pay ransom Continued from page 1

written and the state of mind of somebody that has been there for two years, I think it’s probably him.” He said that there was pressure from the families of murdered hostages to urge the US and Britain to change their stance on negotiating with terrorists. “The article can be viewed as propaganda but at the same time it’s very rational . . . It is very legitimate what he’s saying for someone that has been held for almost two years — why should British hostages die when the French and the Italians live on because their governments pay.” The video yesterday showing Cantlie appeared to have been filmed shortly after the murder of Mr Haines, which was confirmed in the middle of last month. Dressed in orange robes and sitting at a simple desk in front of a black background, the journalist refers to “the executions of my three previous cellmates, most recently Briton David Haines” and says he has not yet seen David Cameron’s response to this. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that it was investigating the contents of the article and the video.

Monday October 13 2014 | the times

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Newmark quits as MP Brooks Newmark, the disgraced former Conservative minister, is to stand down as an MP at the general election after being embroiled in further scandal. The MP for Braintree announced his intentions after The Sun on Sunday revealed he had sent compromising pictures of himself to a second woman he had met online. Mr Newmark resigned his ministerial post in September.

Jail for ‘revenge porn’ “Revenge porn” is to be made a new offence punishable by up to two years in prison. Victims and others will be able to report incidents to the police. Figures uncovered by the Press Association showed that the vast majority of victims were women, and that children as young as 11 had been targeted. The law will cover images shared in both electronic and physical forms.

Taxman catches more The number of criminal prosecutions for tax evasion in the last financial year jumped by almost a third, rising by 29 per cent to 795 in 2013-14, up from 617 in 2012-13, according to Thomson Reuters. HMRC has a target of 1,165 for 2014-15. It said that numbers were up five-fold since the government committed another £1 billion to HMRC in the 2010 spending review.

Dewani ‘criticised wife’ Shrien Dewani, the businessman accused of arranging the killing of his wife Anni on honeymoon in 2010, constantly criticised her, tried to change her appearance and refused to have sex with her, a South African court is expected to hear this week. Sneha Mashru, the cousin of Mrs Dewani, is due to testify about the couple’s relationship. Mr Dewani denies the charges against him.

Most read at thetimes.co.uk 1. United put backs into shirt bid 2. Scientists close to non-insulin cure for diabetes 3. Kidnap girls walk to freedom 4. MP to step down 5. Lesbian couple threatened with ejection from Sainsbury’s 6. I’m rich, but not rich enough 7. Ukip surges to 25 per cent 8. Voters are out of touch 9. Punch-up costs Wigan crown 10. The good back guide

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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A heavenly vision, stuck in a basement

ENGLISH HERITAGE PHOTO LIBRARY

Art Rachel Campbell-Johnston Rembrandt: The Late Works The National Gallery HHHHH This is the must-see show of the season. Here in the National Gallery’s Rembrandt: The Late Works is the vision of a master as he enters his majestic late period. And, despite the worst efforts of meddlesome curators, the power of this superlatively talented and supremely human painter still prevails. As far as the world was concerned, the great days of Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) were over by 1650 when this show begins. The dashingly ambitious, recklessly extravagant, eccentrically unpredictable master, who had once presided over the busiest workshop in Holland, was falling ever more deeply into debt and disgrace. Now was the moment to paint his way out of his problems. And yet even as the burghers of the Dutch Golden Age clamoured for the brightly lit, smoothly painted, selfconsciously classical compositions of current fashions, Rembrandt refused to be seduced by such surface effect. A painter who had spent the past decade of his career pursuing an ever more profoundly poetic inquiry into

Sleeping rough outside palace inspired singer Tom Whipple

the relationship between outer appearances and inner truths turned increasingly inwards towards philosophical and spiritual preoccupations. His last two decades were to witness some of the most strikingly original, ravishing beautiful and psychologically powerful creations not just of Rembrandt’s lifetime but of Western art history. The impact is instant. The visitor steps into an opening gallery of four late self portraits. The painter stands before us, stripped of all worldly pretensions. He presents the stark facts: the shabby brown robes; the pitted skin; the crinkled hair, grey and brittle; the rough, swollen hands. As you gaze into eyes freighted with melancholy knowledge, it feels as if it is the image which is weighing you in the balance, not the other way round. The intensity is not matched again until the final room and its all-but unbearably evocative Simeon in the Temple — the canvas with which Rembrandt too sung his Nunc Dimittis. A designer’s decision to slice up spaces with partition panels doesn’t help. This is surely a show that demanded the National Gallery’s grand upper rooms and not the Sainsbury Wing basement. There are dozens of momentous pictures, nonetheless. Here, the finest of several works never before shown in this county, is the

Four self portraits, including this one dated 1665-1669, create an instant impact

heartbreakingly tender Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph. Try to disregard the over-prescriptive curatorial theses of galleries encouraging the visitor to focus on the influences of predecessors or the breaking of artistic conventions. They might provide a way in to the paintings, but it feels like a narrow path. Rembrandt’s works have an intense

humanity, captured through the physical details. But it is the inner emotion that endows these images with their darkly glowing profundity. To stand in front of the late works of Rembrandt is to confront within yourself the unsparing human truth. Rembrandt: the Late Works is at the National Gallery, WC2 (7747 2885) from Oct 15 until Jan 18

In Ed Sheeran’s Homeless, the platinum-selling singer-songwriter sings: “It’s not a homeless night for me, I’m just home less than I’d like to be.” Yesterday we learnt his inspiration: he wrote the song while sleeping rough outside Buckingham Palace. Sheeran, 23, who played at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Concert, has revealed that his first experience of the palace was rather different. “There was an arch outside Buckingham Palace that has a heating duct and I spent a couple of nights there,” he told The Mail on Sunday. “That’s where I wrote the song Homeless.” After moving to London to study at music college when he was 16, Sheeran spent two-and-a-half years without a fixed place to sleep — spending nights on the Underground or begging space on friends’ sofas. “I knew where I could get a bed at a certain time of night and I knew who I could call at any time to get a floor to sleep on. I spent a week catching up on sleep on Circle Line trains. I’d go out and play a gig, wait until 5am when the Underground opened, sleep on the Circle Line until 12, go to a session.” Sheeran often had difficulty even finding a place to wash. His time spent living in London without a bed is described in his autobiography, A Visual Journey, which is released this week.

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Monday October 13 2014 | the times

News

Treasure hunter finds Viking hoard Mike Wade

A metal detector enthusiast blessed with “a magic touch” has discovered one of the most significant Viking hoards of the past century in southwest Scotland, his third outstanding find in less than a year. Derek McLennan, 47, from Hollybush, Ayrshire, said he was stunned by his latest success, despite a track record which has seen him unearth hundreds of medieval coins at two separate sites. This time, working in a pasture owned by the Church of Scotland, he pulled out an arm ring with a distinctive Viking pattern. That initial find at a site in Dumfries and Galloway was made last month. In the hours and days that followed, Mr McLennan and the county archaeologist unearthed more than 100 objects, including a silver Christian cross inlaid in gold, probably from Dublin, and a large Carolingian pot complete with its lid, one of only three of its kind known in Britain. The hoard dates from the 9th or 10th century and includes stamp-decorated bracelets and glass beads similar to some found in Scandinavia. Other exceptional items include a golden bird pin, A Carolingian pot was among the discoveries

likely to be Anglo Saxon, and large collection of silver and gold jewellery and ingots. The total estimated value is about £1 million. The first find was the most exciting, said Mr McLennan. He immediately phoned home but was too overjoyed to speak. “I ran to the car for my phone, but I hardly had any battery left, so I called my partner Sharon to get her to phone the [Treasure Trove] unit,” he said. “I was so emotional I was incoherent — Sharon thought I’d crashed the car. Eventually I calmed down a little and explained what I’d found.” After taking early retirement, Mr McLennan began detecting three years ago. Together with friends from “the Ayrshire Division” — a four-man detectorist club — his most publicised find so far was at Twynholm near Kirkcudbright, where he unearthed 322 medieval coins. A discovery earlier this year was reported to be even larger, but both pale into insignificance against the Viking hoard. A number of Viking treasures have been found in the UK in recent years. The Vale of York Hoard was uncovered in 2011, including arm and neck rings and more than 600 coins. The Ainsbrook Hoard, found near Thirsk in North Yorkshire, contained about 130 precious objects and was unearthed in 2003.

ZUMA / REX FEATURES

Around 400 Saxons and Normans re-enacted the Battle of Hastings at Battle Abbey, in East Sussex, over the weekend

One in the eye for Harold historians Tom Whipple

According to the Bayeux Tapestry, King Harold II was killed by an arrow through the eye. According to contemporary chroniclers he was felled by four knights and dismembered. According to Peter Burke, however, he survived the Battle of Hastings and lived a long, fulfilled life as a hermit in Kent.

Now the amateur historian and novelist is paying £2,000 for a radar scan in the grounds of Waltham Abbey, where he believes the body of the elderly former king was buried. He reached his conclusion, considered unlikely by modern historians, after studying the 12th-century document Vita Haroldi, kept in the British Library. Mr Burke’s quest to uncover the truth

about King Harold, defeated by William the Conqueror in 1066, is to be the subject of a documentary and will use the same survey company that found the remains of Richard III beneath a Leicester car park. “We have the Norman story put through the Bayeux Tapestry. The English story is a different one,” Mr Burke, 64, told The Independent on Sunday.

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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Our reward for abstinence? An even bigger glass Tom Whipple, Andrew Clark

For government health tsars there is some good news: Britons are drinking less frequently. Unfortunately for those seeking to change the nation’s booze culture, when we do drink it seems that we more than compensate by guzzling down more than before. A report for The Grocer magazine has found that half of us claim to have taken health advice to heart by instituting dry days and cutting down on the number of drinks. At the same time, perhaps unwittingly, we have increased the measures that we give ourselves — with volume sales of alcohol drunk at home rising by 1.3 per cent this year to 2.6 billion litres. “Almost half of adults are trying to moderate their consumption, but only 4 per cent are doing so through no-

alcohol or low-alcohol products,” the magazine said. “Instead, many are moderating through fewer occasions. On average we’re now drinking one less serving per week. Although the increase in volume sales suggests servings are getting bigger.” If we are drinking more, it seems at least we are also drinking better. The amount spent on alcohol rose by more than the volume increase — suggesting that we are buying more expensive drinks. This was supported by data collected on behalf of the magazine by Kantar Worldpanel, the market research firm, which showed a 15 per cent rise in sales of sparkling wine, and a 75 per cent rise in prosecco. “Shoppers are looking for something a bit special to treat themselves, and sparkling wine is a luxury product with an affordable price tag,” said Kevan Mulcahey, head of alcohol at Kantar,

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Brown tipped by royal circles Gordon Brown will make a rare appearance in the Commons on Thursday when he starts a debate on what to do next with Scotland. The Queen is said to have been pleased — she may even have purred — when Brown, above, intervened in the referendum and there is talk in royal circles that he will get his reward by being invited to join the Order of the Garter. While it has been deemed prudent that no one in the referendum debate will be recognised in the next new year’s honours list, the Garter, limited to 24 companions, is in the gift of the Queen alone. Brown is believed to have declined the Order of the Thistle, the Scottish rank, after the public gave him the Order of the Boot. It would have suited such a prickly character, but he may not have wanted Tony Blair, who so far is neither begartered nor bethistled, to get one up on him by joining the older order. Since the deaths of Lady Soames and Lord Kingsdown, though, there are two free Garter spaces and the Queen may honour one or both of her former PMs when the awards are announced next St George’s day. Perhaps, for once, Brown will even get preferred to Blair. “I like to eat everything, but I’m not remotely domesticated,” the novelist Kathy Lette, right, tells Waitrose Weekend magazine. “I use my smoke alarm as a timer.”

job creativity Four years after Mark Thompson, as the BBC’s director-general, revealed in evidence to a government committee that he was going to scrap the post of creative director, Alan Yentob is still in the job, although no one seems to know exactly what he does. In December, the great survivor will be presented with the Media Society Award at a gala dinner. Sir Peter Bazalgette, chairman of the Arts Council, says the award recognises that Yentob is “a great servant of the British public”. Since Yentob gets £180,000 for his non-job plus what is said to be £150,000 for hosting his arts series Imagine, one might suggest that the servant is really the master. A colleague is friends with a gardener in Essex. On by-election day last Thursday, one of his customers told him: “I wish I lived in Clacton. I’d vote for Ukip to stop all these Ebolans coming over here.”

saatchis isn’t working Perception is everything in advertising. Lord Bell, who got his ermine for marketing Margaret Thatcher’s election campaigns with Saatchi & Saatchi, says in his new book, Right or Wrong, that the agency was worried in the early days that it was too small to attract big accounts. The solution was to artificially inflate the staff pool. “If we had a prospective client in, we would bulk up the office with ‘extras’,” he writes. “Friends, family members, people off the street — and plonk them down at desks, telling them to pretend to be working. We’d give them a few quid just to sit there.” Ironic that the firm would then make its name with a poster campaign about unemployment. The reason for the by-election in Clacton, namely the defection of Douglas Carswell, seemed to have passed some voters by. Richard Benyon, the MP for Newbury, tweeted that one resident had declared: “Yes, I voted Ukip. The Tory MP’s done nothing for years.” patrick kidd

who suggested that much of the increase could be attributed to improved ranges at budget stores such as Aldi and Lidl. The improving economy has also allowed drinkers to aim higher in price terms. “Shoppers are trading up from cava to prosecco and from prosecco to champagne,” Mr Mulcahey said. It seems that farmers are also trading up to wines. The number of new wine producers in Britain has increased by almost 50 per cent in the past year, separate research has shown. The total has grown to a 20-year high of 135, according to UHY Hacker

Young. Roy Maugham, a spokesman for the accountancy group, said that localism and the trendy “foodie” market could be responsible for the increase. “Consumer interest in boutique products continues to grow. Food prod-

ucts such as artisan cheeses and organically reared meats, and drinks such as craft beer and artisan spirits, have been the focus of increased demand,” Mr Maugham said. “Now, we’re seeing the same thing happening in the UK’s once-mocked wine industry. English wines have enjoyed a genuine renaissance over the past couple of years and are now being taken seriously on the international stage. “Consumer demand is increasing as the public is beginning to recognise that these wines have become well-regarded premium products.”

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Monday October 13 2014 | the times

News After her hit TV series Girls, Lena Dunham displays her own wonderfully flawed humanity in a memoir that is revealing, relevant and funny, writes Lesley Thomas

A burst of honesty from below the belt

e’re all ready to knock Lena Dunham off her perch now aren’t we? And this is the perfect moment. The young woman who has been labelled the “voice of her generation” has published, at 28, a collection of memoir essays for which she was advanced more than $3 million. This, after creating and starring in three series of Girls, a very funny, exceptionally well-written show for

HBO that wasn’t just a comedy series but a “cultural phenomenon”. It’s Backlash O’Clock, regardless of how good this book is. In Not that Kind of Girl Dunham takes us through her story so far. She’s the precocious child of artistic liberal elite New York parents. Neurotic-seeming, of course, but not insecure. She’s fascinated with her own internal world and grows up to make a career out of this deep self-research. Critics are starting to

Not That Kind Of Girl by Lena Dunham fourth estate 288pp £16.99*

say that Dunham is a one-trick pony. Her TV series centred on the inner life of Hannah, a twentysomething, ambitious but directionless writer who seems to want to experience things so she can turn them into art. Her pursuit of this demonstrates an occasionally shocking lack of empathy — these moments are when the writing is at it’s funniest. Her memoir centres on Lena, our young writer and film-maker. When Dunham discovers the reason that her internet love interest, Igor, has gone all quiet is because he died alone in his parents’ basement choking on his tongue after a methadone overdose, Dunham asks a friend, “Did Shane say if Igor stopped liking me?” You get the picture . . . it’s the same girl. But it would have been so disappointing if Lena and Hannah didn’t have the same voice. The reason we fell in love with Dunham was partly because we assumed that Hannah — with her awful sexual experiences, her hypochondria, conflicted relationships with her girlfriends and of course her intelligence — was our author. Dunham’s essays demonstrate her wonderfully flawed, quite romantic humanity. With unfiltered frankness, poetic exposition and great humour she tells us what she’s learnt and the mistakes she made. There are moments where this could just as well be a memoir of Dunham’s vagina. We get to hear about everyone and everything that’s visited her crotch, from the first time she masturbates to her early sex life. Her visits to the gynaecologist are catalogued; so is the time she was raped. Dunham is indeed the voice of Generation Overshare but her stories don’t only strike a chord with 22-year-olds. These coming-of-age episodes could almost have been written at any time after the Pill was widely available. But they weren’t. No one’s been so honest about the life of a modern, middle-class vulva and its disappointments. In her introduction, Dunham refers to the influence of Helen Gurley Brown’s 1982 book, Having it All (Gurley Brown coined the term). What a world away we are from the sort of advice young women got from Gurley Brown, though: “The more sex you have, the more you can tolerate.” You get the feeling that simply by referencing Gurley Brown, Dunham is with a little subtlety placing herself in the canon of modern feminism. And she’s right to do so. *To order for £14.99 visit thetimes.co.uk/bookshop or call The Times Bookshop on 0845 2712134 Lena Dunham, 28, has been labelled the “voice of her generation”

RSPCA spends £22.5m on private prosecutions The RSPCA has spent £22.5 million on legal bills over the past two years under its policy of bringing private prosecutions for animal cruelty. The charity commissioned a review of its legal spending after a judge questioned why it had spent £326,000 prosecuting the Heythrop hunt in David Cameron’s consitutency for hunting foxes illegally. The review concluded that the charity was paying too much, with barristers charging between £800 and £1,200 a day, and recommended that the RSPCA pass cases to the police and Crown Prosecution Service rather than bringing its own prosecutions.

Teachers reject oath Teachers appeared to give a swift thumbs down to a proposal by the Labour party’s education spokesman, Tristram Hunt, to ask them to swear a professional oath like that taken by doctors. Mr Hunt, writing in The Sunday Times, got the idea on a visit to Singapore. Within hours, spoof versions of a teachers’ oath began circulating on social media sites. An online poll by TES found that 85 per cent thought it a bad idea.

Child abuse arrests Five people have been arrested in Rotherham in the wake of the town’s child sexual exploitation scandal. South Yorkshire police said that a further ten people had been interviewed, but the force did not disclose details of the individuals involved. It has previously said that there are 48 inquiries at present. These include two investigations into 18 potential suspects over the alleged abuse of 283 victims.

Woman, 67, stabbed A 67-year-old woman found dead at a house in Shepshed, Loughborough, had been stabbed, police said. Leicestershire police said that they were called to the house at 2.30am after reports that a woman was being held there against her will. Another woman, aged 33, was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries. A 36-year-old man has been arrested and is being treated in hospital.

Body image warning Children should be warned in primary schools of the dangers of wanting to look thin like models and pop singers, according to a pressure group. Debenhams and New Look are among businesses who have joined a campaign to challenge a “national epidemic” of low confidence among young people due to body image. They want schools to include body image in their curriculum once children reach seven years of age.

The supergood life The Royal Horticultural Society is encouraging gardeners to cultivate “supergardens” of fruit and vegetables packed with nutrition and flavour. The society said that gardens of any size could be used to grow foods ranging from tomatoes to kale. Gardeners who only have small plots or urban gardens can try growing blueberries in pots, training a kiwi vine over an arch or putting in alpine strawberries beneath trees.

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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Ebola warning for hospitals after US nurse struck down Chris Smyth Health Correspondent Devika Bhat Washington

British hospitals have been urged to check their infection control procedures after a US health worker who treated an ebola patient contracted the deadly virus in Dallas. NHS 111 call handlers have now been ordered to ask any patient with a fever about their travel history. An investigation began yesterday into the first known case of the disease being transmitted in the US, with officials saying infection control procedures had not been properly followed. “At some point there was a breach in protocol,” said Tom Frieden, head of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. “That breach in protocol resulted in this infection.” The infected victim has not been named but was identified in US media reports as a female nurse who works at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, where Thomas Eric Duncan died last Wednesday. The Liberian national became the first person to die from ebola on US soil. All those who treated Mr Duncan are now considered to have been fully exposed to the virus. There were concerns last night as to how the new victim, who was in a stable condition in an isolation ward, had become infected. She is not on the original list of 48 people thought to be at risk of exposure and wore full protective gear, including gown, gloves, mask and

Teresa Romero, the Spanish nurse infected while treating an ebola victim

shield, while caring for Mr Duncan. One line of investigation was examining how workers removed their protective gear — a process that if carried out incorrectly could result in contamination, said Dr Frieden. The case follows that of Teresa Romero, a Spanish nurse who was infected while treating an ebola victim in Madrid, in what also appears to have been a failure of measures designed to protect staff. In Britain, the Royal College of Nursing has urged NHS hospitals to double-check their infection control measures to make sure a similar mistake does not happen. “We urge all healthcare organisations across the country to review their preparedness arrangements. It’s essential to check that staff are all properly trained in infection prevention and control proce-

dures and in the use of specialist protective equipment,” a spokeswoman said. “Another key issue for healthcare organisations is to make sure they have sufficient stocks of equipment so that protective clothing is available for all frontline staff in the event of an outbreak occurring here.” Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, said he was confident that hospitals were prepared after an ebola training drill over the weekend. “However, we keep the need for further measures under review and will never be complacent — and so I asked for additional steps to be taken by NHS 111,” he said. “If a person with symptoms has recently been to West Africa and is at high risk of having been in contact with ebola, 111 will immediately refer them to local emergency services for assessment by ambulance personnel with appropriate protective equipment.” The second US case comes amid growing concerns about the handling of the outbreak by the Dallas hospital. Mr Duncan sought medical help for fever and abdominal pain on September 25 but was sent home despite telling a nurse he had travelled from Africa. He returned three days later and was placed in isolation, but died last week. On Friday night one of his treatment team reported suffering from a fever. A second person is now in isolation and the hospital has stopped accepting new emergency patients. Matt Ridley, Opinion, page 17

News GREGG DEGUIRE / WIREIMAGE / GETTY IMAGES

Shaping up Rod Stewart, 69, set the rumour mill alight when he posed in Beverly Hills with a protective hand over the stomach of his wife, Penny Lancaster, 43

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Monday October 13 2014 | the times

News

Halt green targets to keep lights on, says ex-minister Laura Pitel Political Correspondent

The lights will go out in Britain if ministers do not abandon green targets, the former environment secretary has claimed. Owen Paterson, a flag-bearer of the Tory right who was sacked in the last reshuffle, will use a lecture this week to warn that the UK will “run out of electricity” if it does not scrap the Climate Change Act of 2008. The legislation requires the country to slash carbon emissions by turning to renewable energy sources such as wind farms. It commits Britain to reducing CO² output by 80 per cent by 2050. Mr Paterson, a long-standing climate

change sceptic, supported David Cameron in voting for the act in 2008, when he was shadow Northern Ireland secretary. He will argue, however, that no other countries have made a legally-binding promise to adhere to such stringent targets. The UK should duck out of them until other countries agree to do the same, he will say. Mr Paterson’s speech, entitled “Keeping the lights on”, is his first major intervention in the energy debate since losing his job in July. The address will be delivered on Wednesday at the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a think tank set up by Lord Lawson of Blaby, the former Conservative

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chancellor. Mr Paterson will argue that “blind adhesion” to the current targets will not reduce emissions but will risk Britain’s energy security. “The current energy policy is a slave to flawed climate action,” he will say. “It will cost £1,100 billion, fail to meet the very emissions targets it is designed to meet, and will not provide the UK’s energy requirements. “In the short and medium term, costs to consumers will rise dramatically, but there can only be one ultimate consequence of this policy: the lights will go out at some time in the future.” Mr Paterson will argue that Britain’s energy needs should be met through shale

gas and a series of small nuclear power stations. Ed Davey, the energy secretary, said that tearing up the Climate Change Act would be “one of the most stupid economic decisions imaginable”. He said: “The overwhelming majority of scientists agree that climate change exists, while most leading British businesses and City investment funds agree with the coalition that taking out an ‘insurance policy’ now will protect the UK against astronomical future costs caused by a changing climate.” He added that the majority of European countries were now ready to adopt similar targets to Britain’s.

Satellite will net illegal fishermen For illegal fishermen there could soon be nowhere left to hide, after plans were unveiled for a British satellite system to track vessels back to port (Tom Whipple writes). The satellite network, the first of its kind, will use powerful software to follow tens of thousands of boats across the globe. Even small fishing boats in the middle of the ocean will no longer be able to guarantee that they can evade

the authorities. At present about one in five fish caught globally is thought to be taken illegally. The plans were backed by Vince Cable, the Business Secretary. Tony Long, a former Royal Navy commander now campaigning against illegal fishing, told The Sunday Times that the system can recognise sailing patterns to identify a vessel. “Many types of commercial fishing involve very distinctive patterns of vessel movement,” he said.

the times | Monday October 13 2014

Charles and Diana’s marriage was idiotic affair, declares Kohl Allan Hall Berlin

The Duke of Edinburgh is a “blockhead”, Prince Charles’s marriage to Diana was “an absolutely idiotic affair” and Angela Merkel could “barely hold a knife and fork properly”. Such are the views held by Helmut Kohl, one of Germany’s best-known politicians, according to a biography which he failed to prevent being published. Mr Kohl, 84, who presided over the reunification of east and west Germany, now rarely ventures out in public. He suffered a severe fall at his home several years ago and gave thousands of hours of tape-recorded interviews to a journalist, Heribert Schwan, for the book, The Kohl Protocols. Mr Kohl lambasted the behaviour of Prince Philip and says he was “unimpressed” by Prince Charles’s marriage to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. “Had she become queen immediately she would have done her bit in bed, created three princes and her duty to the nation would have been fulfilled. But like this she had to travel around, talk to mayors and so on and then she withered away.” Mrs Thatcher, who tried her best to thwart Mr Kohl’s dream of a reunified Germany, was clearly no friend. “She would doze off during summits and

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would then nearly fall off her chair, clutching her handbag,” he recalled. On another occasion, after he had excused himself from a meeting by saying he needed to return to his office, Mrs Thatcher saw him around the corner in a teashop eating cream cakes. The libido of Bill Clinton did not go without comment. Mr Kohl believed that the president’s dalliance with a White House intern was making him lose focus on the wars consuming the Balkans: “He has been fiddling with her knickers and now the whole world was only interested in those knickers.” While he praised George W. Bush and John Major, he saved the most vitriol for the woman he mentored — Mrs Merkel. He rants that at state dinners she attended, “she loitered around so much I had to repeatedly tell her to pull herself together”. He also branded Norbert Blüm, former labour minister, who was instrumental in exposing his slush funds which nearly ended up with him being sent to jail in 1999, as a “traitor”. Last Wednesday, Mr Kohl failed to stop the book from being published, after his appeal to the Constitutional Court was rejected. Since then, it has sold 100,000 copies. David Aaronovitch, Opinion, page 18

News HARRY ATKINSON / LNP

Father aged 81 ‘joyful’ after gender surgery Tom Whipple Science Correspondent

In the mood Hannah Williams and Matt Douglass were among 1940s enthusiasts who gathered in Pickering, North Yorkshire, for the annual Wartime Weekend

Like most people who undergo gender reassignment surgery, Ruth Rose knew from an early age that she was in the wrong body. Unlike most people in her position, she took more than seven decades to do anything about it. Now, at 81, the divorced father of three is believed to be the oldest person in the world to undergo the procedure. “I’m enjoying the fact that I have made the transition,” she told The Sunday People. “Not a day had gone by since I was nine when I didn’t think I was in the wrong body.” It was when she went in for a hip and knee replacement that Ms Rose, previously called James Rose, decided that it might be time for a more radical operation too. “My doctor had said I should have the gender transformation operation but I thought I was too old. But the surgeons wouldn’t have done it if they didn’t think I could go through with it.” She was aware that such a procedure was unusual at her age, but said that it had transformed her life. “I thought my life as a woman would never be fully fulfilled at my age. It’s as if the last vestige of shame has been taken away. It was much more than getting rid of some obnoxious unwanted parts. I felt euphoric. “It fills me with joy in so many ways that I notice my womanhood. It just falls into place.”

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comment pages of the year

Opinion

Recognising Palestine won’t promote peace Melanie Phillips Page 18

We can beat ebola with beds on the ground But if we lose the battle against this terrifying disease, we may be facing a pandemic as bad as the Black Death Matt Ridley

@mattwridley

t is not often I find myself agreeing with apocalyptic warnings, but the west African ebola epidemic deserves hyperbole right now. Anthony Banbury, head of the UN ebola emergency response mission, says: “Time is our enemy. The virus is far ahead of us.” Dr David Nabarro, special envoy of the UN secretary-general, says of ebola: “I have never encountered a public health crisis like this in my life.” However, this is a case where the hype could serve a purpose if it motivates action and thereby proves itself wrong. Two things could happen over the next few months. The more probable is that the brave aid workers, soldiers and medical teams heading for the region, and brave local health workers and burial teams, will gradually get on top of the epidemic in the three affected countries, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, the infection rate will peak and start to drop, and the crisis will pass. There will be cases in other countries, including Britain (and panicky reactions), but they will peter out. The epidemic’s worst legacy will be an upsurge in the death rate in west Africa from malaria and other diseases that are going untreated now for lack of spare beds and doctors. The other possibility is that the number of cases will continue doubling every four weeks, as it is

now, so that hundreds of thousands are dead by early next year. Superstitious fear of doctors and treatment centres will worsen, civil society will collapse in the region and all hope of fighting the epidemic by isolating victims will be lost. Ebola-carrying refugees will spread the virus to mega-cities such as Lagos, and even to areas controlled by terrorists such as Boko Haram. In the rich world, travel restrictions will multiply and people will start staying away from transport hubs, plunging the world economy into trouble. If that happens, and the infection rate is still accelerating at the turn of the year, I fear the ground war may be lost and the world may have to wait for a vaccine or new supplies of ZMapp monoclonal antibodies (made, please note, by genetic engineering in plants). Even if these work, manufacturing them faster than the epidemic manufactures new cases will be tough and it may take years for cures

The virus has killed three times as many as in previous outbreaks to overtake cases. That’s why the public-health ground battle is so crucial. If we lose that in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, then we are not facing paper tigers such as Sars or bird flu, but something much more like the great plague of Justinian, in AD541, or the Black Death eight centuries later. Compared with those bubonic plague pandemics, we have enormous advantages. We can know with certainty that epidemics are caused by germs and not by Jews or sin. We can deploy protective

clothing, gloves, disinfectant, rehydration therapy and blood transfusions from survivors. We can identify, sequence and probe the vulnerabilities of the pathogen. We can fly well-trained health workers around the world. We really should be able to cope. However, modernity also means that the virus can fly from one continent to another in hours, meeting hundreds of strangers along the way. And the conditions under which most of those in Monrovia and Freetown live are far too similar for comfort to the conditions of Constantinople in 541 or Pisa in 1348. Ebola has never got a hold in an urban setting before, let alone in three of the very poorest countries in the world — in cities without many hospitals or doctors, without reliable sewage systems, running water or electricity. The lesson is clear: prosperity is the best disinfectant. The world’s complacency when ebola appeared in Guinea last December was understandable. In every one of the 33 previous outbreaks of ebola, public health measures proved able to contain it; and that means essentially isolation of patients and their contacts. Though unusually lethal, this is not a very contagious disease. Whereas each case of measles in an unvaccinated population can lead to 17 more, even in this epidemic each ebola case is resulting in less than two more. Get that number below one with a few simple, low-tech precautions, and you soon get ebola under control. Hence the failure of governments to order a vaccine. The virus has now killed nearly three times as many people as in all previous outbreaks of ebola put together. That has another sinister implication. Ebola has now spent ten months jumping from one human

by reciting the numbers that are going in the right direction and that suggests the ground war is still winnable. Liberia has increased its burial teams from six to 54. By midNovember the Americans should have installed 1,700 treatment beds in Liberia, and the British 700 in Sierra Leone, more than trebling the capacity of the two countries to treat cases. That point is still a month away. There are far more cases than can be treated in treatment centres, which is why there is now a push to supply families with kits including gloves and disinfectant to treat cases at

Though unusually lethal, this is not a very contagious disease Living conditions in west Africa are for some as bad as in medieval Europe

being to another, outside its natural habitat of fruit-bat blood, much longer than it has ever lived in our species. Natural selection means that it is bound to be getting better at spreading among people, not because it is becoming airborne (viruses very rarely change their mode of transmission) but perhaps because it will find ways to become infectious before its victim becomes seriously ill. At present, ebola victims are unusual in that they do not spread the virus till they are really quite ill, and corpses are especially infectious. That is why healthcare workers are so at risk. If ebola evolves lower virulence, it may become endemic, like HIV and malaria. Having terrified myself with such thoughts, I can also reassure myself

home. Hundreds of thousands of such kits are now being distributed. These may not save many lives of those already infected but if they can lower the infection rate from live victims, and better equipped burial teams can lower the infection rate from dead bodies, then it should be possible to slow and then halt the spread of the virus. Because we neglected to develop a vaccine when we had time, beds on the ground will have to win this war, not high technology or medical science. Science can only be the back-up plan if the disease takes root.

The Opinion pinion pod podcast Tim Montgomerie, Daniel Finkelstein and Philip Webster on Ukip’s surge

thetimes.co.uk/commentcentral

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Germany Large amounts of cloud with some patchy outbreaks of rain, but some places staying dry. Maximum 22C (22F), minimum 7C (45F). Luxembourg, northern and western France, Belgium, the Netherlands Many places dry with sunny spells, but a few heavy showers will affect northern parts at times. Maximum 23C (73F), minimum 4C (39F). Scandinavia, Denmark, the Baltic states Some bright or sunny spells, but also a few showers, some wintry in northern areas. Maximum 17C (63F), minimum -5C (23F). Spain, Portugal Many parts dry with some hazy sunshine; cloudy with heavy rain spreading across western Iberia. Maximum 24C (75F), minimum 8C (46F).

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Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, the Balkans, southern Italy, Sicily Largely fine and dry with spells of sunshine, occasionally hazy, and feeling quite warm. Maximum 27C (81F), minimum 6C (43F). Switzerland, northern Italy, Sardinia, Corsica, southern and eastern France Rather cloudy with rain or thunderstorms, some heavy and prolonged in places. Maximum 26C (79F), minimum 5C (41F). British Isles Dry and bright across Scotland and Ireland, but heavy rain across many parts of England and Wales. Maximum 17C (63F), minimum -1C (30F). Outlook Many areas will have a mixture of sunny spells and a few well-scattered showers.

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Monday October 13 2014 | the times

Opinion

Recognising Palestine won’t promote peace British MPs should reject this dangerous proposal – just as the Arabs have so often done Melanie Phillips

@melanielatest

ith all the terrifying security issues now facing Britain, just what urgent topic is parliament debating today? Support for an independent Kurdistan, perhaps? Britain’s ties with Islamic State’s backers, Qatar? Whether Turkey should be expelled from Nato for refusing to help to fight Islamic State? No. This afternoon a motion proposed by a group of backbench MPs wants the government to “recognise the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel”. On so many levels this is just nutty. The idea that Israel-Palestine lies at the core of global danger has been exploded (literally) in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and other Muslim states. According to the motion’s main proposer, the Labour MP Grahame Morris, the international community has “cruelly refused” the Palestinians their right to a state and thus hindered peace and security in the region. Totally untrue. The sole reason no Palestine state exists alongside Israel is that the Arabs have consistently refused to accept one. Such a state was proposed in 1937, 1948, 2000 and 2008. The Jews agreed to or promoted every such proposal. The Arab

answer has always been rejection, war and terrorist campaigns. The reason the peace process has now stalled is that even the supposedly moderate Mahmoud Abbas remains committed to exterminating Israel. He has repeatedly said the Palestinians will never accept the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. His Palestinian Authority glorifies those who murder Israelis and teaches children to hate and kill Jews. In 2012, its TV service broadcast Palestinian leaders applauding children singing: “Oh my pure land, I shall saturate you with my blood, redeem you with my life.” Now Abbas is trying to turn diplomacy into a weapon of war by building international support to isolate Israel. Recognising Palestine, however, makes no sense as such a state has no agreed boundaries. Negotiations with Israel are supposed to hammer out the borders.

Palestinian leaders teach children to hate and kill Jews Unilaterally declaring a state tears up the Oslo treaty that committed both sides to a negotiated settlement. Imposing Palestinian demands upon Israel in this way would destroy the peace process altogether. Since Abbas has now embraced Hamas as a partner in the Palestinian Authority, MPs may also be about to recognise and thus legitimise a state part-governed by a terrorist outfit. And given current realities, if Israel withdrew from the West Bank it would instantly fall to Hamas (and

MPs may be about to legitimise a state part-governed by Hamas terrorists

maybe other Islamists, including Islamic State), thus enabling rocket attacks and terror tunnels just down the road from Jerusalem. In addition, Palestinian leaders have repeatedly said (in Arabic) that Jews would not be allowed to live in Palestine. “When a Palestinian state is established it will be empty of any Israeli presence,” said Abbas in 2010. So how can British MPs support such racist ethnic cleansing? Palestine has become the progressive cause of causes through an effective, decades-long campaign to twist western minds. It was Yassir Arafat who, in the 1970s, started to reframe the Palestinian Arabs as freedom fighters on the historically illiterate claim that they were the original inhabitants of the land.

Yet the Jews are the only people for whom Israel was ever their national kingdom, centuries before Islam invaded. Contrary to general assumption, the occupation and the settlements are legal, upheld both by the international law of defence against persistent belligerents and the unabrogated treaty obligations of the British Mandate for Palestine. That will surprise many. For no other conflict has ever been so misreported and misrepresented; no other victims of a century of annihilatory aggression have been so demonised and delegitimised. Last summer’s media coverage of the Gaza war, which caused a huge outbreak of anti-Jewish hatred, uncritically transmitted the Hamas falsehood that the vast majority of casualties were civilians. Analysis by Israel’s Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Centre shows that 49 per cent of fatalities were terrorists and 51 per cent civilians, a far lower civilian toll than in other wars. Israel is the West’s one ally in the Middle East and is essential to British intelligence and military security. Passing today’s motion won’t itself change anything. But as a propaganda stunt, its capacity to do harm is immense. It will turn parliament into a human shield for Palestinian rejectionism, help to weaken and endanger Israel and incentivise yet more Palestinian hatred, mass murder and war. In security terms, passing this motion would be an act of national self-harm. It would also be a moral stain on parliament and place Britain on the wrong side in the great battle for civilisation.

David Aaronovitch Notebook

The paradox of Germany, in paint and poetry

omeone opens a door for you, hands you a thread like Ariadne’s and you follow it, having no idea where it leads. Last Thursday the British Museum let me in early to the Germany: Memories of a Nation exhibition, which opens this week. It is not a huge Tutankhamun of a display, but intimate with relatively few objects and pictures, each acting as a portal to a bigger thought beyond. The beginning of one thread is a small, beautiful picture by the artist Anselm Kiefer, who turns 70 next year. It is of yellow corn against a darkening sky and Kiefer has painted through the corn, in black, the words “dein goldenes haar, Margarethe” — your golden hair, Margarethe. Who was Margarethe? The caption told me that the line was from a poem and poet I’d never heard of, Todesfuge (“Death Fugue”) by Paul Celan.

When I got home I followed the thread. Celan was a Romanian Jew. As a young man he and his family had been sent to the camps and only he survived. In 1945, the year Kiefer was born, Celan wrote Todesfuge; it was published three years later and it has disrupted my autumn. Margarete (Celan spells it without the “h”) is, I imagine, a German beauty, with the same name as the woman whom the anti-hero of Goethe’s Faust loves. Shulamith is a Hebrew name. The final five lines read: “a man lives in the house your golden hair Margarete/ he sets his pack on to us he grants us a grave in the air/ he plays with the serpents and daydreams death is a master from Germany/ your golden hair Margarete/ your ashen hair Shulamith”. Since Thursday this all I can think about; this being both the paradox of 20th century Germany — “der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland” — and of the idealistic terrorist. It’s how desire and horror can coexist, how the killer can be a romantic, how we and everyone

we love can become ash because of someone else’s dream. And now — if you’d never heard of Celan either — the thread is in your hand.

A master-peace

he largest piece in the exhibition is a bronze angel that appears to hover in the air, several feet above the ground, like a cassocked Superman. Lent by the cathedral of Güstrow, it was the work of the Expressionist sculptor Ernst Barlach, cast in 1927, and is a striking enough piece on its own. Yet, again, pull on the thread and more follows. Barlach, who fought in the First World War, became famous in preNazi Germany for his Ehrenmals — war memorials. The Hovering Angel was one, but the most extraordinary was his work for the cathedral at Magdeburg. I have only seen the Magdeburger Ehrenmal in the many pictures I’ve looked at since Thursday but it is hard to imagine a war memorial that is truer than this one, or anything much farther from the heroic Great War memorial sculpture we have

here in Britain. I wish I had more space to describe it. The Nazis hated it and they hated Barlach. His memorials were taken down. In postwar East Germany the sculptures were restored and in 1983 the dissident movement in the GDR began to organise weekly “prayers of peace” below the Magdeburg memorial. Within seven years the country was reunited and now peace is a master from Germany.

Election special

he Magdeburg original is now on my bucket list. And I think I may add a capricious journey to the seven (or is it eight?) electorates. For years I have heard or read about the Elector of Saxony, the Elector Palatine or the Elector of Hanover, without ever once finding out who or what they Elected. The Radio 4 series that accompanies the British Museum exhibition gave me the answer this week. The Electors, who also included the Archbishops of Cologne, Mainz and Trier, actually did elect the Holy Roman Emperor, who — however holy he was — was not Roman, but German. I can think of much worse tours than one going from the Rhineland to Prague and then up to Berlin. Via Magdeburg.

@daaronovitch

Pacts with Tory MPs give Ukip a backdoor to power Tim Montgomerie

ne or two more Conservative MPs may defect to Ukip but that should not be the Tory whips’ biggest fear. Much more dangerous — and more likely — is that a small number of Tory MPs seek local arrangements with Nigel Farage or even become joint Tory/Ukip candidates. I know of four or five Tory backbenchers who are already talking in these terms. I suspect there are more. If pacts are formed Tory MPs will move together. While one MP forming an alliance in defiance of David Cameron might be expelled from the party, it would be difficult for the leadership to move against a large group. This is Ukip’s backdoor to power. A handful of MPs elected directly, plus a good number more joining Team Carswell in some kind of parliamentary caucus. From a Ukip perspective, any deal with any Conservative is increasingly risky. It might undermine Mr Farage’s appeal to working-class Labour voters who feel that Ed

Some have much more in common with Carswell than Cameron Miliband doesn’t share their views on Europe, welfare or immigration. Nonetheless this practical barrier to local arrangements isn’t stopping a good number of Tory MPs from wanting them. Conservative MPs watch Douglas Carswell and know they have much more in common with his politics than with those of Mr Cameron or Ken Clarke. They look at the opinion polls and note that 41 per cent of the people who voted Tory at the last election say they’re quite likely or very likely to vote Ukip at the next. There are good reasons why the prime minister has closed the door to a nationwide Tory-Ukip pact. One YouGov poll, albeit a year old, found that the Tories would be boosted by only 2 per cent if Mr Cameron and Mr Farage joined forces. In contrast, Labour and the Liberal Democrats would gain 7 per cent; their ranks swollen by more moderate voters who are turned off by Ukip’s angry tendencies. It should not be forgotten that a clear majority of people under 40 see Ukip as a racist party — including 30 per cent of Tory voters. If Conservative backbenchers give up hope in Mr Cameron’s ability to solve the Ukip problem — and many have — they may take things into their own hands. The trigger may come if the Tories lose the Rochester and Strood by-election. Unlike Clacton, voters in Mark Reckless’s Kent constituency are younger and more middle class. They’re not natural Ukippers. They may have Mr Cameron’s future in their hands.

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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Opinion

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

Reform in haste and education pays the price Simply renaming a school as an ‘academy’ is not a magic bullet for improving it. We need more checks on sponsors Libby Purves

@lib_thinks

he English language enables many linguistic snobberies. “Academy”, for instance, means “school”. Its use got refined to seem grander, as Latinate words do: “an organisation intended to protect and develop an art, science or language”, as in Royal Academy. So the previous government bagged it to name schools removed from local authorities and run by “sponsors”. The academy idea was to break patterns of low expectation and encourage innovative teaching (although, of course, without relaxing central government control of the curriculum). The coalition expanded the programme and encouraged more sponsors. Boasts about its achievement are routine — and quite often justified. But ripening fruit can play host to worms. A Sutton Trust report has pointed out that while average attainment soon rose, that often corresponded exactly with a change in intake, the

proportion of pupils on free meals — the poor ones — declining as results improved. Exclusions in academies were higher than in neighbouring schools. Chuck burdensome passengers to the wolves and any sleigh goes faster. But “sponsorship” also mutated with the coalition’s rush to expansion; and not just with worries about the narrowing of cultural and religious focus — fundamental Islamism, or Christian-sponsored schools teaching creationism. Management itself needs watching too. Big chains took on flocks of schools, and some ran into trouble. Sometimes a sponsor withdraws, having bitten off more than it can chew (cases in Gloucestershire and Middlesbrough). Sometimes a plan stalls late in development (one currently in West Sussex). Sometimes a chain is banned from taking on more schools because its standards and financial management are suspect (14 cases so far). This year one huge chain — E-Act — was forced to hand a third of its 34 schools back after terrible Ofsted reports and other concerns. A string of problems — unqualified or fleeing heads, mis-spending, etc — suggest that expansion has been too rapid, too excitable and too focused on using the word “academy” as a magic bullet. Some local-authority run

schools have actually improved at the same rate as sponsored ones. At the Times Cheltenham Literature Festival debate, the splendid Educating Essex head Mr Drew mildly observed that actually he has no different freedoms or advantages since becoming an academy. Another big change, unnoticed outside the education world, merits consideration. Originally sponsors had to pay a couple of million: the coalition waived this fee for “thirdsector” sponsors — not just universities but further education and sixth-form colleges. They get sponsorship rights free, with a grant

Vulnerable schools are not a chance for others to promote themselves

of £150,000 or more for “pre-opening costs” and, of course, the ability to sell back-office services to the school they take on. This kind of takeover is booming: one law firm’s website offers assistance and lauds it as an opportunity for the parent institution to “promote and raise awareness” of itself “with no commitment to contribute financially”. Sometimes, no doubt, this works. The record, however, is not unblemished. In Luton, Barnfield, the

first FE college to be a sponsor, ended up investigated for improper manipulation of funding. The report shows how easy that was. In Ipswich, a college whose own Ofsted report is pretty dreadful has been allowed to sponsor a school which, although heavily challenged, has been more highly commended than the parent organisation. Read all about it in this year’s Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) report on Suffolk New College, the sponsor: “Requires improvement . . . proportion of students achieving functional skills in English and mathematics is low . . . teachers’ written assessments are of inconsistent quality . . . urgently implement action plans . . .” Yet that institution was allowed to take over a local school on a difficult estate which, although it has more freemeals and special-needs pupils than average, is reported as achieving significant improvement in grades and “an ethos of tolerance, understanding and the building of strong caring relationships . . . improved relationships and attendance”, according to Ofsted. Again, go back to the Cheltenham, debate and note the observation by Camila Batmanghelidjh, of the charity Kids’ Company, that promoting such “learning readiness”

is a necessary skill in itself when there are damaged, dislocated pupils. So even from the briefest scan, what we have is a college that “requires improvement”, easily acquiring hiring-and-firing mastery over a very vulnerable school community. It collars a substantial initial grant, power and promotion. It may turn out fine or it may not; but if the pattern is repeated unnoticed in towns across the country, with what seem to be minimal checks and caveats, one might feel unease. Vulnerable schools, even if castigated for their exam results, often do an extraordinary job for children with horribly disrupted lives. They are not just opportunities for other institutions to “promote and raise awareness” of themselves. I am no enemy of the Gove reforms or of academies. Some local authorities richly deserve to have their schools confiscated. But no community of parents and children should be handed over to a company, religious group, trust or local college without the most careful, rigorous consideration As my own first teachers snapped, exasperatedly pointing out misplaced decimals, dodgy spelling and grimy needlework: “More haste, less speed, Elizabeth. Rushing at it will only mean you have to do it again after school . . .”

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Monday October 13 2014 | the times

Leading articles Daily Universal Register

Protecting the NHS

The National Health Service has a high satisfaction rating but rising expectations mean pressures are rising. The Times will this week set out the coming problems In the wake of the by-elections in Clacton and Heywood and Middleton there has been a lot of airy talk about authenticity and honesty in politics. This is usually hard to specify but in one area of policy the political class is guilty as charged. It is not telling the truth about the scale of the problems in the National Health Service. Today The Times begins an in-depth series that establishes the state the NHS is now in. There is a set of immediate problems that may result in a crisis this winter. Despite being one of the only services whose funding has been protected, waiting lists for operations have lengthened and more operations have been cancelled for the lack of beds. In August the NHS spent an unnecessary £24.5 million keeping people in hospital who were well enough to leave and the bill for this problem is estimated to be £1 billion over the past four years. The government’s target of treating 90 per cent of patients within 18 weeks of entering the system has been missed these past three months. The wait for cancer treatment is increasing. In the longer term the NHS is subject to an ageing population and the advance of technology, which means it can, in principle, do more for sick people than ever before. It would be churlish to lament either of these two developments but, in a

system that does not ration by price, the result is that it is rationed by waiting. The choice is to queue or to find an extra £5 billion a year. The NHS is also caught in the middle of two broken institutions. The Patients Association has pointed out that six in ten patients have to wait more than 48 hours to see a GP and nearly a third fail to get an appointment within a week. It is no surprise that many of them are increasing the burden on hospital A&E departments. Then, when patients are ready to leave hospital, there is nowhere for them to go. The social care system is a disgrace to a rich country. The self-defeating consequence of protecting the NHS budget has been that local government has taken the brunt of austerity. That has meant cuts to social care of £3.7 billion since 2010. The immediate manifestation of the coming crisis will be financial. It does not help that as much as £5 billion is wasted every year because of inefficiencies, especially in procurement. Simon Stevens, the NHS chief executive, expects a deficit of £30 billion by 2020. Two thirds of hospital trusts are already in the red and the NHS deficit is likely to hit £1 billion by the year end. The response of the main political parties to this existential crisis has been lamentable. The Con-

servatives decided, in their wisdom, to visit a major reorganisation on the system, to put £80 billion of money for commissioning in the hands of GPs. Senior members of the government now admit this was an error that was, at best, irrelevant to the needs of the NHS and, at worst, spent scarce resources — £1.6 billion to date — on a change that has done little. The pointless nature of the change has been lost on the Labour party, however, whose health lead, Andy Burnham, has repeatedly levelled the ludicrous charge that the government is intent on privatising the NHS. There is a case for more private sector involvement in the NHS and it was the previous Labour government that introduced independent diagnostic and treatment centres and the right for patients to choose a private hospital if a waiting list was too long. Even so, private provision is still less than 6 per cent of the NHS total. The NHS is already treating more patients than ever before and does so to a high level of public satisfaction. That should not disguise the fact that big changes are needed. Hospitals need to close; the system needs to be less about remedy and more about prevention. This week The Times will set out the cliff over which the NHS is poised. The political question is over who now dare act.

Pay Day

Low wages in Britain demand a higher minimum but a more skilled workforce This economic recovery has been unusual. The absence of any electoral reward for the governing party is due to the fact that too few people have seen the benefit. The latest pay data show the total earnings of FTSE 100 company directors have risen by more than a fifth over the past year while wage growth for the workforce as a whole, at 0.6 per cent a year, is still below the rate of inflation. Since the 2010 election the median total earnings for FTSE 100 chief executives has risen by 278 per cent, compared with 48 per cent for fulltime employees. The solution to this problem is not to begrudge high pay at the top. Still less is it to inflict punitive taxation on high earners. It would be better to address the problem of low and stagnant wages at the bottom end of the labour market. There are two ways in which this can be done, one immediate, the other a long time in the making. The immediate change is to raise the national minimum wage above its current £6.50 an hour for workers over 21. Politicians do not control the wage floor, which is set by the Low Pay Commission, but there is no harm in using the bully pulpit of public office to demand an increase.

There is, of course, a point at which higher wages have an impact on employment. Not all companies, especially smaller ones, can afford to increase the wage bill. At a national level, however, the case is clear. The welfare bill for in-work benefits is huge and derives from the fact that wages are too low. The public purse is therefore subsidising the tendency of British companies — which are more prone to this than their counterparts in other nations — to pay poorly. It would be wrong, however, to load all the problems of low wages on to companies. The fundamental problem is that the British workforce is not arriving in the workplace with the requisite skills. Employers routinely report that workers lack the literacy, the courtesy, the social skills necessary to work well in an economy that is increasingly dominated by the service sector. This skill shortage is also a major contributory factor to the demand from employers for immigrant labour. The solution to this is for Britain to do something that it has never seriously attempted to do, which is to build a proper system of so-called “vocational” education. The 1944 Butler Educa-

tion Act was supposed to create a cadre of technical schools but they were never created. The schools system remains one in which it is necessary to fail an academic education before any alternative is offered. That remains the biggest lacuna in British education and it is the long-term reason that this country has so much low-paid work. The remuneration committees that set the pay of chief executives ought to have more regard to performance. Shareholders ought to be more active than they are in checking that long-term incentive plans are not offered for mediocre work. New rules came into force last October that require companies to include a single total pay figure for top executives and binding shareholder votes on boardroom remuneration. The gap between the board room and the shop floor has grown over the past three decades and the legitimacy of business depends on the pay awards being merited. The serious public policy problem, though, lies elsewhere. It lies at the bottom of the labour market, first in raising wage levels and then in raising skill levels. No political party has ever seriously got close to a solution.

Democracy in the UK

Johnny Rotten offers some sensible advice about getting on to the local council The Sex Pistols were never averse to taking the rewards from their great rock’n’roll swindle and now John Lydon has given the Cheltenham Literature Festival the sage advice to “go to town hall meetings”. It is time Mr Rotten, as he once was, updated his signature tune Anarchy in the UK. I am a nightmare I demand a day mayor I know what I want And I know how to get it I wanna vote in local elections ’Cause I wanna be democracy No central funding for me

Democracy for the UK It’s coming sometime and maybe For your sins they will empty the bins Your future dream is the planning regime ’Cause I wanna be democracy In the city How many ways to get what you want I use the ballot box I use by-election shocks Once Nigel Farage is shunned Use the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund ’Cause I wanna be democracy It’s the only way to be

Is this council tax band A? What is rate support grant worth today? Who don’t love section 106 anyway? I thought this was the UK Or just another country Another council tenancy I wanna be democracy (Oh what a shame) And I wanna be democrat You must assist, bureaucrat! It is salutary that Mr Lydon has become a spokesman for cherished institutions. Whatever will he say next? God Save The Queen?

UK: NHS workers hold a four-hour stoppage over pay; MPs are given a free vote on whether to recognise “the state of Palestine”; Imperial College announces a new drug for treating blood cancer. World: Oscar Pistorius is sentenced for culpable homicide over the death of Reeva Steenkamp; English Language Day celebrates the language used by two billion people.

Nature notes Ravens were once common all over Britain, but in the 19th century they were almost all driven back by gamekeeper persecution to the uplands of the north and west. The mountains of mid-Wales became one of their main strongholds. Now they are steadily returning to the eastern side of England, and a pair has even nested on the white cliffs of Dover. Nevertheless they are still scarce in many parts of the east, and it can be a momentous day when one sees one. In lowlands, they generally fly very high, and are often detected only when a deep, rumbling croak comes down from the sky. They are very large black birds, but at a distance a bird’s size can be hard to judge. The great bulk of a distant raven is most clearly seen when a crow, which is a distinctly smaller bird, flies up to tackle it. Ravens are playful birds in the sky, and one will sometimes plunge down fast, rolling around as it goes, or in level flight will suddenly turn over and glide on its back. These acrobatics are most frequent when they are courting, but are not uncommon at any time. They are one of the earliest nesters, and there may be eggs in their cliffledge or treetop nests by February. derwent may

Birthdays today Edwina Currie, pictured, Conservative MP for Derbyshire South (198397) and novelist, A Parliamentary Affair (2002), 68; Sacha Baron Cohen, actor and comedian, Brüno (2009), The Dictator (2012), 43; Stephen Bayley, founding director, Design Museum, 63; Sir John Beddington, chief scientific adviser to the government (2008–13), 69; Paul Chandler, chairman of Durham Cathedral, chief executive of Traidcraft (2001-13), 53; Michael Gooley, founder and chairman of Trailfinders, 78; Michael Heath, cartoonist, 79; Nana Mouskouri, singer, The White Rose of Athens (1969), 80; Iona Opie, folklorist, 91; Paul Simon, singer and songwriter, The Sound of Silence (1966), 73; John Simpson, chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary (1993–2013), 61; Rosemary Sisson, writer, First Love, Last Love (2002), 91; Ian Thorpe, swimmer, nine times Olympic medallist (Sydney, 2000, Athens, 2004), 32; Mordechai Vanunu, Israeli nuclear technician, 60; Sir Mark Waller, intelligence services commissioner, a Lord Justice of Appeal (1996-2010), 74.

On this day In 54 the Roman emperor Claudius I died after eating poisoned mushrooms given to him by his wife, the empress Agrippina; in 1792 the cornerstone of the White House, was laid by George Washington; in 1884 Greenwich was adopted as the universal meridian; in 1997 the Thrust supersonic car broke the sound barrier on land for the first time, reaching 764.2 mph.

The last word “Laws are silent in time of war.” Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43BC

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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Letters to the Editor

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

How the other parties have helped Ukip’s rise

A new alliance Sir, Your story (“Alarming pollution results buried on day of war debate”, Oct 2) shows that the UK is still failing to meet agreed standards for the reduction of noxious particles and nitrogen dioxide. We know the price paid for this failure — lives cut short by cancer or blighted by asthma — so why don’t we act? Sixty years ago Britain resolved to banish smogs that had blighted our cities for centuries, and smoke-control legislation improved our health within a generation. We need a similar resolve to deal with today’s air pollution, which is as lethal even if not quite so visible. In its earlier form as the National Society for Clean Air, Environmental Protection UK built alliances that led to the clean air acts. We believe it is time for a new national alliance, and we seek partners in science, public health, industry and national and local government, as well as the public at large, to join us to work towards cleaner air for Britain. Anyone who is interested in joining us should email secretariat@environmentalprotection.org.uk. john murlis, neil turner, stephen moorcroft, derek osborn, baron hunt of chesterton Environmental Protection UK

Pedal by numbers Sir, It’s not bicycles that misbehave, it’s cyclists (“Bring in bicycle number plates, say police”, Oct 9). Make all cyclists wear a numbered vest like athletes, with ID front and back. jim mann taylor Westbury, Glos Sir, In Peking in 1958 I had to have a Chinese number plate on my bike. I was eight at the time and I still have mine, battered but recognisable. georgina tuckett Stokesley, N Yorks Sir, The idea of number plates on bicycles to identify rogue riders is Orwellian. If the government were to introduce measures compelling us to wear an ID number around our neck as a tactic to stop antisocial behaviour, there would, rightly, be an outcry. frank greaney Formby, Merseyside

Corrections and clarifications 6 We incorrectly stated that Conservative donor Sir Paul Ruddock was made a peer in 2012 (News, Oct 11). He was knighted in the new year’s honours list that year. 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

Sir, Can our non-Ukip politicians not understand that others may have different views to themselves? That immigration is far more important than they believe it is? Voters do not seek to be educated in what their rulers believe is best for them — they want representative democracy. r bullen Beachley, Chepstow Sir, It is childish for David Cameron to say little more than “a vote for Ukip will let in Ed Miliband”. The Heywood and Middleton by-election showed that Ukip is the main opposition to Labour in many constituencies in the north. There, it is a vote for the Conservatives that will let in Labour. john kilclooney Mullinure, Armagh City Sir, Contrast Nigel Farage’s easy approach to the media with dour Miliband and condescending Cameron. For most voters, his policies are secondary to his persona and politics is in danger of becoming a celebrity-fest. The Ukip bandwagon could become more popular than The X Factor. terry moran Leeds Sir, Matthew Parris gives himself away by saying “We know [the voters] are wrong,” when referring to the Clacton by-election (Opinion, Oct 11). A man who thinks that an electorate is wrong when it makes a decision that he does not like cannot have much respect for democracy.

Education needed Sir, While applauding speedier access to talking therapies (“Mental health patients to get faster referrals”, Oct 8), prevention is better than cure. One of simplest ways of reducing stress and depression is to reduce tobacco and cannabis usage. Nicotine dependency makes tobacco smokers moody and irritable, so that smokers suffer from heightened levels of daily stress and depression. Cannabis is also damaging to psychological stability. Many individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia are suffering from cannabis-induced psychosis, and

on this day october 13, 1914

ANTWERP AND AFTER The fall of Antwerp has made a considerable moral impression, as the enemy doubtless calculated. We think the impression in this and in neutral countries would probably have been less if the Government paid some attention to the political and psychological aspects of the censorship. There were, of course, the best of military reasons for not disclosing the composition of the defending force. On the other

Ukip is winning because voters think it tells the truth while other politicians continue to try to be all things to all men and avoid the hard questions. david williams Horsham, Sussex Mr Parris said politicians “know what to do” and quoted Jean-Claude Juncker: “They just don’t know how to get re-elected when they have done it.” The major parties have shielded the comfortable pensioners, homeowners, landlords and property speculators — in short those more likely to vote — from the effects of the 2008 crash, leaving those on low and middle incomes, mostly living in rented property or unable to buy, to carry the burden. Politicians know what to do: cap rents and reduce the value of property. But that is what not to do to get elected. the rev paul nicolson Taxpayers Against Poverty Sir, Mr Parris says that today’s politicians are the best ever; they are certainly very good at ignoring what voters want. alan stephens Lindfield, W Sussex Sir, I support David Cameron’s dismissal of a Conservative pact with Ukip. I would have been forced to turn to the Lib Dems. susan paine Surbiton, Surrey Sir, It is time for David Cameron to stand up to his backbenchers. When when they quit cannabis, their mental health improves. Public education campaigns would be beneficial — and very cost effective. andrew parrott Professor of human psychopharmacology, Swansea University

Copy the Marbles Sir, You report that Amal Alamuddin is advising Greece on how to secure the return of the Elgin Marbles (“Mrs Clooney joins battle”, Oct 9). The art and the science of making copies of items has evolved hugely. Is it not hand, no military purpose was served by the prevention of allusions to the formidable character of the German attack, of which the press was fully aware. The almost complete disappearance of Antwerp intelligence from the newspapers for several days has caused the news of its fall to come with a quite unnecessary shock. As a matter of fact, there are no military or naval grounds for being alarmed about the German possession of Antwerp, and such questions must be our main concern just now. As our naval correspondent explains in detail, the Germans can derive no naval advantage from entering Antwerp, unless they violate the neutrality of Holland, which is unlikely at present. There are half a dozen other places in Belgium which would have served them equally well as a base for Zeppelins. Moreover, Zeppelin attacks directed against England, if and when they come, will have not the slightest effect upon the ultimate

he promoted centralist one-nation Toryism I thought that at last Tories were losing “the nasty party” tag, but it is fast returning with tax cuts for the better-off and benefit cuts for the poor. valerie crews Beckenham Kent Sir, Messrs Cameron and Miliband should learn from last week’s polls that Mondeo man no longer lives in working-class constituencies. His place has been taken by minimumwage man, who is fed up with working hard and being rewarded with a subsistence standard of living. david burbridge Droitwich, Worcs Sir, We don’t know whether Clacton people voted loyally for Douglas Carswell as their sitting MP or because he is now a member of Ukip. We should not let Farage’s blustering convince us that he is a major figure in British politics. john rogers Camberley, Surrey Sir, Like so many former Lib Dem voters, I shall never believe Nick Clegg again. But Philip Collins (Opinion, Oct 10) takes the biscuit. He tells us that at the tender age of 8 years old he went on a trip from Heywood to Clacton and remembers thinking at the time: “When there are simultaneous by-elections in these constituencies, I’ll get a column out of this.” Even the prophet Isaiah wouldn’t go that far. cc storer Parkgate, Wirral time to create replicas and so enable the originals to be returned to their apparently rightful owner? dr g domingue Hexham, Northumberland

VIP youngsters Sir, Very few of Wembley’s VIP seats were occupied for the England v San Marino game last Thursday. In future, can we reserve them for our most promising young players and their parents, who may not otherwise be able to afford to watch a game? graham barnes London SE4 result of the war. We know all about Zeppelins and how to welcome them. The German seizure of Antwerp will only become of appreciable value to the enemy if they make Belgium the theatre of a defensive campaign in the west. Should they be driven out of France, Antwerp considerably strengthens their chances of fighting in Belgium rather than in their own country. By holding on to Belgium they will compel the Allies to fight on a long front all the way from Antwerp to Belfort, but the chief scene of the operations will still be Belgium. Meanwhile they have still to be expelled from France. Whether, and at what date, this desirable end can be attained depends greatly on the outcome of the heavy fighting on the Allies’ left flank, where the enemy make no progress. sign up for a weekly email with extracts from the times history of the war ww1.thetimes.co.uk

Mission creep Sir, Christopher Layton (letter, Oct 8) expresses concern about proposals to change the relationship of the UK to the European Court of Human Rights, referring to its establishment after the Second World War. Unfortunately, however, the court has extended its activities beyond those for which it was established, and the tendency for its rulings to conflict with the decisions of democratically elected governments is at the root of the problem. The solution lies in the court’s hands. If it reserved mandatory judgments to the original principles and on other matters (such as prisoners’ voting rights) gave “advisory judgments” only, its authority would be enhanced. Those who invoke the memory of Churchill should remember that he was, above all else, a democrat. john s burton Cheltenham, Glos Sir, Any party wanting to replace the Human Rights Act should first publish what they intend to replace it with, to give us a chance to say which we prefer. ernest roberts Farnham, Surrey

Two regulators Sir, The Care Quality Commission is in an impossible position (letters, Oct 8). About one fifth of care homes are below standard and should be improved or closed. The CQC knows this but it would take a far braver regulator to act decisively and with the aggression needed. Compare this with Ofsted’s position within the nursery sector. For all its foibles, it’s a good regulator with teeth. It can afford to be tough — only five per cent of nurseries are in the “very bad” category. However, until eldercare is as well funded as childcare, no care home regulator will ever get it right. ben black My Family Care, London SW6

A zeugma, at last Sir, Having been taught about the zeugma, “Mr Pickwick took his hat and his leave”, at Skegness Grammar School in 1960, it has taken me until today to spot one. “Keira Knightley enters the fray as Joan Clarke, with a blue velvet hat and a double first in mathematics”, (review of The Imitation Game, Oct 8). As to whether this is a zeugma type 1, 2, 3, 4, a diazeugma, a hypozeugma, a prozeugma or a mesozeugma, I remain as confused as I was in 1960. john clark Keelby, Grimsby

It’s no secret Sir, Rob Matthews says he is unable to understand management consultancy (letter, Oct 10). It’s simple: management consultancy is common sense overlaid with gobbledegook. The gobbledegook comes in various layers of opacity. The fee is in direct proportion to the opacity and size of the ensuing report. john gardner Winchester

Spit, I miss you Having awoken to see Nigel Farage and Douglas Carswell posing for a selfie (Oct 10), I am mourning the passing of Spitting Image. sally hinde Bury, Lancs

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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News ANDREW LAWSON

Garden row Sir Roy Strong, former director of the V&A, has threatened to destroy Laskett Gardens, in Herefordshire, after his offer to give Britain’s largest private formal gardens to the National Trust was snubbed

Cheltenham Literature Festival: Hitler’s sex life, culture temples and the curse of open-plan offices

Help, we’re being repressed! Gadgets and office gossip ‘stifle comic genius’ Jack Malvern Arts Correspondent

John Cleese has blamed iPhones and open-plan offices for stifling creativity in the current generation of comedians and musicians. He said that the reason bands such as Fleetwood Mac were reforming is because they came from a time when artists were better able to concentrate on making enduring music. “All of these wonderful groups are getting back together,” he said at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, sponsored by The Times and The Sunday Times. “ The Sixties were a much more relaxed time and you didn’t have all these interruptions. The absolute killer of creativity is interruptions. You’ve got to get rid of those damn iPhones and those damn open-plan offices.” He said that friends who worked in offices found themselves interrupted every few minutes by well-meaning colleagues. Cleese, who was promoting his memoir So. . . Anyway, said that he

had used only a pad of paper and a set of pencils while writing his book. “Young people know that technology is the way that life must go, and it’s such crap. Henry David Thoreau said that technology is an improved means to an unimproved end. “People start out thinking they are going to use technology and they end up being used by it.” He said that he rarely watched comedy on TV. “When you’ve been doing comedy as long as I have, you know all the jokes. Every now and then you see somebody doing something new.” He said that he admired Eddie Izzard, Bill Bailey and Bill Hicks, but usually switched channels to watch sport. Cleese said he thought that things were “much better in my day”, when stuffiness gave way to creativity. “It was very stuffy up until 1962. Then there was Beyond the Fringe — they were making fun of things that were not being made fun of before.” He said it was unthinkable that

Monty Python’s Flying Circus would be commissioned now because they had made such a feeble pitch. Sir David Attenborough, who was controller of BBC Two in the late 1960s, regarded the Pythons with astonishment for being so poorly prepared, Cleese said. “In the end he said, ‘Oh, go away and make 13 programmes’ — just because he thought we had talent.” He said that he was closer to Michael Palin than the other Pythons. “We were never huge friends. I think people wanted us to be in the way everyone wanted Morecambe and Wise to be friends.” He gave a prolonged stage yawn when describing Palin’s later career John Cleese says that interruptions kill creativity

move into travel programmes. “Whenever I can’t sleep I turn on one of those,” he said. He praised Eric Idle for his accomplishments with song lyrics, but mocked Terry Jones for documentaries that have included one about a vacuum cleaner. “Terry Gilliam is off to make another of his plotless extravaganzas,” he said. “Beautiful images but absolutely meaningless films.” The comedian, who is 74, said that he had not been offended by his daughter Camilla’s show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August, when she made jokes about Cleese’s fourth wife, Jennifer Wade, who is 42. “She said, ‘There’s a new child in my family — it’s my stepmother.’ It was a good joke. [My wife] is extraordinarily beautiful and I can’t see what she sees in me — it certainly isn’t the money.”

Chief constable backs inquiry into police watchdog David Sanderson

A chief constable has admitted that the public has lost confidence in the police watchdog and accepted that a royal commission with wide-ranging terms of reference could be the answer to regaining the public’s trust. Sara Thornton, the chief constable of Thames Valley police, became the most senior serving officer to accept that there may be a need for a commission into police accountability. “We abso-

lutely need [the Independent Police Complaints Commission] to be effective and have the confidence of the public and I am not entirely sure that is the case all the time,” she told the Cheltenham Literature Festival. Ms Thornton said that another problem was the lack of democratic accountability of police and crime commissioners, many of whom have been elected on extremely low turnouts. She was responding to criticism from Andrew Mitchell, the former cabinet

minister currently embroiled in legal actions as a result of the so-called Plebgate incident, who used the same event to call for a royal commission. Mr Mitchell said a commission was necessary “to get back to a police force that can be trusted”. He warned that there were unhealthy relationships between the police and its watchdog and between the police and politicians. Also at the festival, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, whose son Stephen was

racially murdered, said that her trust in the police was again deteriorating because of a lack of information about their ongoing investigation into the killing. Although Ms Thornton said that crime was low and there was still an enormous amount of respect for the police, the chief constable said that she accepted many of Mr Mitchell’s criticisms, adding: “There’s no shortage of issues that the royal commission could look at.”

TV and the older woman Television has a culture of casting 50-year-old women as 60-year-olds because executives do not think middle-aged women are glamorous, a leading British actress has said. Rebecca Front, 50, known for her role in The Thick Of It, told the Cheltenham Literature Festival that actresses were “invariably cast as much older”. Others such as Emma Thompson and Juliet Stevenson have previously expressed concerns about the lack of roles for older women. Tony Hall, director general of the BBC, has pledged to put more older women on television.

‘Temples of culture’ at risk One of Britain’s most influential publishers has warned of the economic limitations of ebooks (David Sanderson writes). Baroness Rebuck, chairwoman of Penguin Random House, told the Cheltenham Literature Festival that there could soon come a “tipping point” when customers lose the opportunity “to wander past [a book in a bookshop] and think: ‘That looks interesting, I will have that as well’”, because of the rise of ebooks and online shopping. She said: “We can’t promote [writers] if we don’t have these temples of culture [on the high street].”

Hitler’s ‘untouching sex’ Sex between Hitler and Eva Braun probably happened without them touching each other or even taking off their clothes, according to the novelist Martin Amis. Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival about his new Nazi-era novel Zone of Interest, Amis said that while the truth about Hitler’s sexuality was unknown, he believed that the Nazi leader was “so fanatical about cleanliness” and such an asexual person that he would keep Braun at arm’s length and achieve an orgasm just by watching her lift her skirt.

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Monday October 13 2014 | the times

World

Suicide blasts take jihadists towards gates of Baghdad Iraq

Catherine Philp Beirut

Islamic State militants have launched a wave of suicide bombings across Iraq, bringing carnage to Baghdad and killing a police chief who was instrumental in organising tribal opposition to the terrorist group. Major-general Ahmed Saddag, the police chief of Anbar province, died in a roadside bombing hours after provincial leaders had warned that the region — the birthplace of the Sunni insurgency that tore Iraq apart in the aftermath of the American invasion — was in danger of being overrun by Isis. Control of Anbar would provide Isis with a swathe of territory stretching from their Syria stronghold in Raqqa to the western gates of Baghdad. The general was assassinated a day after local leaders had appealed for assistance from American ground troops to prevent the province, which borders Baghdad, falling into jihadist hands. The murder came amid a bloody weekend in Iraq, with bombings targeting Shia neighbourhoods in Baghdad, and a co-ordinated series of car bombs being detonated in a Kurdish-controlled town north of the capital. The area has experienced intense clashes between Isis fighters on one side and Kurdish and Shia militiamen on the other. General Saddag, a member of the prominent Sunni al-Dulaimi tribe, was at the forefront of Anbar’s battle against an Isis takeover, following the group’s seizure of Fallujah and part of Ramadi earlier this year. A roadside bomb was detonated alongside the convoy in which he was travelling a short distance outside the town of Ramadi. He was on his way to visit security forces trying to retake territory from Isis fighters after clashes on Saturday. Provincial leaders say that Isis now controlled 80 per cent of Anbar. They have appealed to the government in Baghdad for extra assistance in holding

Isis control Isis support Kurdish control Aleppo

TURKEY Mosul Kobani Raqqa Haditha dam

Kadhimiya

Car bombs, 11 killed

LEBANON

Damascus Shaoula

Two car bombs, 23 killed

Arbil

SYRIA

IRAQ

Tarmiyah

Suicide bomber, 11 killed

Baghdad

Qara Tapah 58 killed

Ramadi Chief of police killed in roadside bomb

10 miles

off the militants, and have pleaded with Washington to send ground troops to stop the province being overrun. Faleh al-Issawi, the council’s deputy head, predicted that Anbar would fall to Isis by the end of this week if there was no outside intervention. Iraqi security forces are engaged in daily battles with Isis forces in Abu Ghraib, the western suburb of Baghdad that achieved notoriety through a scandal over the treatment of prisoners in a former Saddam-era prison that was taken over by the American military. A strong Isis foothold in Abu Ghraib would put Baghdad and its international airport within range of the jihadists’ artillery. The US has about 1,500 military personnel in the capital and has been using Apache helicopter gunships to support Iraqi forces in Anbar, but has so far been unable to halt the militants’ advance. The attack helicopters had to be used to stop Iraqi forces being overrun near the international airport, the top US military officer said yesterday. Had they overrun the Iraqi position “it was a straight shot to the airport”, General Martin Dempsey, the joint chiefs of staff chairman, said. He suggested that there might come a time when he would recommend that

Baghdad

ANBAR PROVINCE

50 miles

American advisers accompany Iraqi troops in their fight against Islamic State targets — despite an assurance by President Obama that there would be no American boots on the ground. Abu Ghraib and other Sunni towns within the so-called Baghdad belt were in the thick of the Sunni insurgency that wreaked havoc in the capital during the dark years of sectarian bloodshed in 2006 and 2007. There was carnage in the streets of Baghdad, with daily bombings by Sunni insurgents in Shia areas. Shias responded with the targeted killings of prominent Sunnis, leading to the city’s Balkanisation along sectarian lines and the mass exodus of Sunnis. Those memories ed were sharply evoked when two car bombs detonated, one after the other, in Shia neighbourhoods of Baghdad on Saturdayy night, killing at least 34 people. The first blast came A fighter flies the Isis flag in a propaganda video

from a stationary vehicle which had been parked outside an ice-cream shop. In the second incident, a car packed with explosives was blown up by its driver a few hundred metres from the ice-cream shop. There was a third blast on the outskirts of the capital when a suicide bomber detonated the explosivespacked vest he was wearing in a busy market. In Tarmiyah, farther to the north, another suicide bombing killed 11 people. A co-ordinated series of car bombs struck a Kurdish-controlled town in the mixed province of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 58 people, many of them Kurdish militia veterans answering a call to re-enlist to fight the Isis advance. The bombs exploded within moments of each other outside Kurdish offices in Qara Tapah, close to a key battleground where Kurdish and Shia militias have fought off Isis. Officials in both Anbar and Washington have said that the battle against Isis may be fatally compromised by the weakness of the Iraqi army. Its failure to stand and fight put Anbar’s police force at the front of the battle to prevent a jihadist takeover. Sunni tribal leaders who rallied fighters to drive Isis’s forerunner, al-Qaeda in ru Iraq, out of Anbar, have said they will not ha do the same again until Baghdad withdraws Shia Ba militias which it has sent to the Sunni-dominated province. The nation’s Shia-led interior ministr confirmed in a statement the killtry in of the Anbar police chief, calling ing him a “hero who set a good example for self-sacrifice”. It praised him for his role in reorganising Anbar’s police force to take on a more paramilitary role, and leading fighting that inflicted heavy casualties among Isis ranks.

Clouds rise after an airstrike by US-led

Michelle rushes in where Barack fears to tread: the First Lady heads for Iowa in bid to halt the Republican advance, writes David Taylor Michelle Obama swept into the Iowa campaign rally full of fire and passion, hoping to reignite the love affair with the voters who started it all. Her husband’s fairytale run for the White House began seven years ago in the cornfields of the Midwest, but, weeks away from the final election of his presidency, he dare not set foot in the knife-edge state. With midterm elections looming in 22 days, and a Democratic majority in the Senate under threat, he faces a re-

peat of the “shellacking”, as he called it, which cost him control of the House of Representatives in 2010, and the prospect of an entirely hostile Congress for the rest of his time in the White House. Mrs Obama brought the emotion of the 2008 push for the White House to the Drake University campus rally, with a rousing speech in support of Bruce Braley, the man who would be senator here. She had problems with his name, repeatedly calling him Bailey until the crowd corrected her, but she laughed off the gaffe, and the cries turned immediately to “we love you Michelle!” She claimed her husband’s share of the credit for an economic recovery that has led to the creation of ten million jobs since 2010, and she warned of the consequences if Democrats didn’t show up to vote on November 4. “If we don’t elect leaders like Bruce, then we know exactly what will happen. We’re

Threats to America define election Comment

here are skeletons on the Hallowe’en-decorated porches of Iowa and, with three weeks to go until election day, fear stalks American voters (David Taylor writes). Disease, terrorism and the return of war have conjured up an atmosphere of dread and are defining the election script. “Evil forces around the world want to harm Americans every day,” one Republican advert runs. Some right-wing radio hosts are calling the occupant of the White House President Ebola. Mr Obama has

been portraying America on the world stage as the indispensable nation. It is his Ghostbusters response: when the world needs help, who ya gonna call? A lot is at stake. A Senate swing of six seats would put the Republicans in charge of both halves of Congress and let them start passing bills to take apart the president’s health insurance reforms. Mr Obama will have to use his power of veto and will be portrayed as a block on progress. If he loses that fight, expect him to test the limit of his executive powers in an effort to finally reform immigration, and even to try to shut down the Guantanamo detention camp. This could get ugly.

going to see more folks interfering in women’s private decisions about our healthcare; we’ll see more opposition to immigration reform and to raising the minimum wage for hard-working folks.” So has Iowa fallen out of love with the Obamas? This once-safe seat is in play after the retirement of a 40-year Democratic veteran, and a brash Republican, Joni Ernst, has a slight lead. She burst onto the scene with a campaign ad boasting that “I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm — so when I get to Washington, I’ll know how to cut pork”. Ms Ernst, 44, is a lieutenant-colonel in the Iowa National Guard; Mr Braley, 56, a former criminal lawyer, serves in the House of Representatives. They will clash for the final time in a televised debate on Thursday, and Mitt Romney, an early Ernst backer, arrived in Iowa yesterday to campaign for her. Mr Obama beat Mr Romney here in

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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Taliban killings spread fear in Malala’s home town Page 27

LEFTERIS PITARAKIS / AP

Kurds hang on after Isis sends car bombs into heart of Kobani Hannah Lucinda Smith Mursit Pinar Alexander Christie-Miller Istanbul

coalition forces on Kobani yesterday as Turkish troops patrol nearby. Isis detonated four car bombs in the town on Saturday

Black bra, white blouse: Parisian seduction tips cheer up the French Page 29

Kurdish fighters have faced a series of car bombings in Kobani as Islamic State forces change tactics in their attempt to take control of key central neighbourhoods in the pivotal border town. The militants detonated four car bombs on Saturday, and a fifth was destroyed by a coalition airstrike before it reached its target. YPG, the Kurdish militia, managed to identify and repel several more attacks. The long-range artillery assaults that Islamic State (Isis) deployed during the first days of the fight for Kobani, on the Syrian-Turkish border, have largely been replaced by gun battles in the town streets. Even so, crowds watching the battle from a hillside in Turkey were forced to move yesterday afternoon after three shells landed near by. “This is the strategy they are using now,” said Idris Nassan, a Kobani official. “They are using car bombs to push into places where they want to progress, to cause chaos and confuse the YPG fighters. They are preparing around ten car bombs every day.” The battle for control of the besieged town has reverberated across the region. Turkey was gripped by the deadliest riots in a decade last week as Kurds demonstrating against the Turkish government’s refusal to intervene triggered clashes in which 34 people died. President Erdogan of Turkey moved to crack down on protesters at the weekend, promising to “cleanse the streets of vandals” with laws expected to make it illegal for them to cover their faces. He said that hardline Islamists and Turkish ultra-nationalist protesters were “attacking the peace, stability and fraternity in Turkey under the protext of Kobani”. He added: “What does Kobani have to do with Turkey?” YPG fighters say that Isis is trying to take control of the neighbourhoods next to the Turkish border gate, which would leave the Kurdish forces, and the

700 civilians still in the town, entirely encircled. “We still have some capacity to move at the border, but it is shrinking,” said a YPG fighter who gave his name as Mahmoud. “In some places there is just one street between us and them.” The fight, which initially looked as though it would be over within days, is becoming a battle of attrition. Isis, armed with tanks and artillery plundered from the Iraqi army, is using its unhindered supply route from Raqqa, its stronghold city 60 miles to the southeast, to bring up reinforcements and armaments. The Kurdish fighters, who are short on weaponry, are relying on their local knowledge and urban warfare skills honed over decades spent fighting a guerrilla insurgency in Turkey. The coalition airstrikes are unlikely to bring the quick end to the battle that had been hoped for, but they have provided some breathing space for YPG. “The strikes help because it separates their fighters,” Mahmoud said. “We hear the F-16s and we know that within ten minutes they will do an airstrike. Once they do, we start to shoot.” For the people watching from Turkey, the battle for Kobani is turning into an unbearably tense affair. Airstrikes are met with rounds of applause and cheering, while Isis’s artillery strikes are watched with heavy silence. Some have been at the border for 12 days, squatting in the shade of olive trees and holding battery-powered radios to their ears. Some chat to YPG fighters on their phones, desperate for the latest details, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to reach them. Should the deadlock continue, the battle for Kobani will not be lost by the weaker side; it will be won by whoever can hold out longest. “Without the airstrikes we would run out of ammunition in a couple of days,” Mahmoud said. “But if they continue we can hold out for another 20 days. After that, if we die, they can take it. It’s theirs.”

Midwest The new Rockefeller faces record $15bn divorce claim 2012, but the farther one travels from the state capital, Des Moines, the more conservative the landscape becomes. In Red Oak, a town of less than 6,000 people in Montgomery county, home to Joni Ernst, the main square was deserted on a weekday morning. Around a table in the Rainbow Cafe, a group of 20 men, none under 70, met for coffee. They remembered when Red Oak had manufacturing, before the Eveready factory closed 20 years ago. They recalled Joni Ernst as “a good gal”. Julius Peterson, 86, a Lutheran pastor, said: “She was a member of my congregation as a girl. It’s exciting that she’s running, but not enough to convince me.” And Mr Obama? “If they would leave him alone a little bit, he would accomplish good things, but he’s got so much opposition to everything he brings up.” If Joni Ernst wins Iowa, that opposition might well be even stronger.

United States

Rhys Blakely Los Angeles

The $15 billion fortune of one of the world’s wealthiest oil tycoons could soon be divided in the biggest divorce settlement on record. Harold Hamm, 67, played a pivotal role in the fracking boom that has transformed US energy prospects, and no other American is thought to own more untapped oil. His second wife, Sue Ann Hamm, 56, an economist and lawyer who worked alongside him at his company, Continental Resources, is demanding as much as half after she sued for divorce, alleging that he was unfaithful. The nine-week trial ended last week, but the Oklahoma county court judge, Howard Haralson, has not yet handed down his ruling. The couple married in 1988 and experts say that an Oklahoma court could

order a split of “marital property”. Mrs Hamm has argued that as much as $15 billion (£9.3 billion) of the growth in Continental’s value is “active marital capital”, or subject to division. “I don’t know of anything that’s ever been this big,” said Barbara Atwood, a professor of family law at the University of Arizona. “There’s just so much money involved.” That Mrs Hamm worked for Continental for decades might strengthen her case, said Daniel Jaffe, a lawyer who has overseen some of America’s largest divorces. “She was married to him when the value of the company went up. She has got to be looking for a couple of billion dollars,” he said. The relationship appears to have long been rocky. In 1998,

Mr Hamm sued for divorce and demanded that his wife undergo a psychological evaluation. He later withdrew that request, but in 2005, Mrs Hamm sued for divorce. Mr Hamm contends that the couple “actually separated in the fall of 2005 and have lived separate lives ever since”. His wife, however, insists that they “continued to reside together, travel together, attend public functions together, raise their children together, file joint tax returns, and work together”. The state of the relationship after 2005 could be key, since shares in Continental have Sue Ann Hamm: says her husband was unfaithful

soared by nearly 500 per cent since 2007, when the company floated on the stock market. Mr Hamm, judged by Time magazine to be one of the world’s most influential men, is the 13th child of Oklahoma sharecroppers. He “has transformed the US oil industry like no one since John D Rockefeller”, according to Forbes magazine. His first job in the oil business involved scrubbing refinery tanks, but a few years later he drilled a fruitful well, which helped him to afford college. He founded Continental in 1967, and his biggest find came in the mid-1990s, when he helped to develop the Bakken field in North Dakota, the largest new US oil prospect in generations. Continental went on to pioneer the controversial technique of fracking. The Bakken field yields nearly 700,000 barrels a day, which is roughly 10 per cent of American output.

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World CORLETTE WESSELS / CATERS NEWS

Monday October 13 2014 | the times

Donors pledge $5.4bn to Gaza but warn violence must end Gaza

Bel Trew Cairo

International donors pledged billions of dollars at a conference in Cairo yesterday to rebuild war-torn Gaza, but insisted that they could no longer be expected to foot the bill for an endless cycle of violence. Representatives from 63 countries attended the reconstruction conference after the Palestinian Authority asked for $4 billion (£2.5 billion) over three years to rebuild infrastructure reduced to rubble during a 50-day war between Israel and Hamas. After a number of nations came forward with offers totalling $5.4 billion — including $32 million from Britain — John Kerry, the US secretary of state, urged a “renewed commitment from everybody to work for peace”. Britain said it was not prepared to

continue rebuilding infrastructure that would be destroyed in further conflict. “We have to be honest with the taxpayer. Four of the schools we had built were seriously damaged during the recent war,” Desmond Swayne, the international development minister, said. “We don’t want to be back here in another two years.” Hopes that the conference would offer a path towards lasting peace dimmed after Mr Kerry failed to offer details on how to restart negotiations. Israel and Hamas were absent from the conference. Israeli officials had silently agreed to stay away, while Hamas was not represented, apparently because it is still designated a terrorist organisation by many countries. Ban Ki Moon, the UN secretary-general, warned against expecting further promises of financial assistance. “I do not want my successor or yours to make

conferences such as this a ritual: building and destroying,” he told the meeting. “I call on all parties to come together to chart a clear course towards a just and final peace.” He will travel to Gaza tomorrow. More than 2,100 Palestinians were killed, and at least 100,000 people lost their homes during the summer of violence, which ended in a truce on August 26. The UN says that 67 Israeli soldiers and six Israeli civilians died. Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the Egyptian president, who brokered the current ceasefire, and his Palestinian counterpart renewed their call for a peace deal based on the 2002 Arab initiative. The agreement, put forward by Saudi Arabia at an Arab League summit, promises recognition of Israel in exchange for withdrawal from territory seized in the Six Day War and a “just solution” to the Palestinian refugee problem.

Conservative clerics say church risks gay schism Vatican City

Philip Willan Rome

All of a flutter This baboon doesn’t quite know what to make of a mass of yellow butterflies swarming on the bank of the Chobe river in Botswana, southern Africa

Conservative clerics have warned the Pope that a divisive debate over sexual morality at the Vatican’s Synod on the Family could lead to a “great schism” within the Catholic Church. Rogelio Livieres Plano, the former bishop of Ciudad del Este in Paraguay,

said that senior members of the hierarchy were working to “divide and confuse the People of God” and the resulting conflict could lead to an irrevocable split between the conservative and progressive wings of the church. Church teachings on homosexuality and communion for divorcees were among the most contentious topics being discussed. Monsignor Livieres

was sacked last month for quarrelling with fellow bishops and after allegations that he had protected a priest accused of sexual abuse. Cardinal Raymond Burke, a leading conservative, has also railed against any softening of the church’s opposition to homosexuality. The Pope has urged Synod participants to speak without fear or favour.

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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World

Taliban killings spread fear in Malala’s home town Pakistan

Robin Pagnamenta Aoun Sahi Islamabad

From Washington to Tokyo, the decision to award the Pakistani 17-year-old education activist Malala Yousafzai the Nobel peace prize has been praised. In her home town of Mingora, however, where she survived being shot in the head by an insurgent, a recent surge in Taliban killings and fear of a backlash against anyone welcoming the award have all but crushed any celebration. “There is a sense of insecurity prevailing in Swat valley,” said Ahmed Shah, a friend of Malala’s family and spokesman for the Swat peace council.

“In these conditions it is tough to talk openly in favour of Malala as she is a symbol of anti-Taliban ideology. The majority of people in the region are happy at her achievement and they want to celebrate it but they are afraid of a backlash from militants. That is why they . . . remain silent.” Fear of the Pakistani Taliban, whose leader, Mullah Fazlullah, is from Swat and who ordered Malala’s killing, looms large. Militants took control of Swat and imposed their interpretation of Islamic law, including beheading officials and burning schools, before being driven out by an army offensive. “Some people are silent because they do not like Malala and her father, while FERNANDA CALFAT / GETTY IMAGES)

Nuptial net A model takes to the catwalk at Pier 94, Manhattan, at the weekend to showcase a Badgley Mischka creation during the Fall 2015 bridal collection

Pistorius to be sentenced for killing

Boko Haram kidnap girls walk free

South Africa

Nigeria

Oscar Pistorius’s lawyers will argue today that he should not go to prison as he is finally sentenced for killing his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day last year. The sprinter was acquitted of premeditated murder but convicted of culpable homicide — the equivalent of manslaughter — for shooting dead Reeva Steenkamp. There are no minimum or maximum sentences for manslaughter under South African law, which means that he might be punished with only a fine, a suspended sentence or community service. However, Kelly Phelps, a law professor at the University of Cape Town, said that he would almost certainly be jailed. “When famous people are convicted they tend to get stiffer sentences,” she said, adding that Judge Thokozile Masipa “has had a tendency to be strict in the past”. Mr Pistorius’s lawyers are expected to plead for leniency on the grounds that he made a deadly mistake in extraordinary circumstances and is very unlikely to do it again.

Four kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls have escaped a camp run by the militant Islamist sect Boko Haram in Cameroon, raising hopes for the more than 200 who are still missing. The four, all aged between 16 and 18, had been told that if they criticised Boko Haram, their families would be killed. They were helped to escape by a teenage boy, also a prisoner, according to Stephen Davis, a British-Australian negotiator who had tried to bargain for with the extremists to secure their freedom. The girls were among about 219 taken from their school in northern Nigeria while sitting exams in April. Their kidnapping provoked an international outrage . The four walked west for three weeks guided by the setting sun, finally arriving in a Nigerian village, starving and traumatised. In a separate incident 27 hostages, including ten Chinese workers held for months by Boko Haram, arrived in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, on Saturday after being freed, apparently after a $400,000 ransom was paid.

Jerome Starkey Africa Correspondent

Ruth Maclean Cape Town

the majority of the people are silent because they are afraid of a possible backlash from militants,” said Muhammad Salman, a teacher. “People are still afraid of being linked with Malala,” he added. “The government named a girl’s college in Swat valley after Malala Yousafzai, but the students protested that they could be vulnerable to violence so the name was removed.” So far ar

AFGHANISTAN

Mingora

Kabul Peshawar

Islamabad

PA K I S TA N 50 miles

this year, 23 people have been murdered in “targeted killings” similar to the botched attempt which nearly took Malala life on October 9, 2012. By comparison nine were killed last year. Last week , three people were killed when a police station being built in the town of Charbagh was de-

stroyed in a bomb blast. The Taliban has not commented on Malala receiving the Nobel prize for her work advocating education for girls, but Ehsanullah Ehsan, a militant with the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar group, which has links to the Taliban, tweeted: “Characters like Malala should know that we are not deterred by propaganda of kuffar [non-believer]. We have prepared sharp and shiny knives for the enemy of Islam.” Pakistan’s armed forces began a major anti-Taliban offensive in June, capturing ten men who were allegedly members of the group that planned the attack on Malala, but police in Swat say the men have not been handed over.

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Monday October 13 2014 | the times

World

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT Western sanctions on Russia are provoking small acts of defiance. Some citizens, though, wonder why things have gone so wrong Helen Womack MOSCOW

‘O

bama not served here,” reads a sign on the booth of the passport photographer. Near by, a shop selling T-shirts urges buyers to avoid western symbols such as the Coca-Cola logo or the

Union Jack and instead choose from a new range of tops with pictures of vodka or strings of bubliki; round, dry breads, rather like bagels. The effect of western sanctions on Russia over Ukraine may be visible in the supermarket, with cheese and sausage stacked on one shelf where once they occupied two, and prices are up. More noticeable, however, is the emerging anti-western attitude in Moscow. Even mortgage lenders are exploiting it to attract clients. “9.5 per cent interest — our answer to sanctions,” reads one billboard, showing a picture of a house key, swimming like a fish and gobbling up stars from the US flag. It is reminiscent of the propaganda one used to see in Soviet newspapers such as Pravda and Izvestia — Uncle Sam flying on a rocket, or the fat

A sanctions protester at the US embassy in Moscow blames it all on Uncle Sam

“money bags” of Wall Street. In Cold War spirit, a duma deputy recently called for Russia’s network of bomb shelters to be made ready. “You never know,” said Sergei Obukhov, a communist. “An asteroid falls on us or something and the bomb shelters turn out to be in a decrepit state.” Propaganda is doing its job and there is a general aggrieved sense that Russia is under siege, surrounded by enemies. “Nobody loves us; the whole world’s against us,” said a young opera singer from a state troupe in Moscow. Posting on Facebook, an artist urged her

Putin tells his troops to back off Ukraine

Helen Womack

President Putin has ordered nearly 18,000 Russian troops near the Ukraine border to pull back to bases deeper inside Russia. The move appears aimed at improving the atmosphere before talks this week. John Kerry, the US secretary of state, and the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, are due to meet in Paris tomorrow, with Mr Putin meeting President Poroshenko of Ukraine on the sidelines of an Asia-Europe summit in Milan on Friday. “I don’t expect these will be easy negotiations,” President Poroshenko said, noting that, while Russia and Ukraine were close to regulating their gas dispute, the ceasefire between Kiev government forces and pro-Russia rebels that has been in force in eastern Ukraine since September 5 was still shaky. Last week the UN, which put the death toll in the war at 3,660, said that 331 deaths had been recorded since the ceasefire. Two civilians were killed in Donetsk on Saturday when a shell hit their building, and a border guard died when rebels attacked a Ukrainian convoy near Donetsk on Friday. Sanctions are starting to bite in Russia, where the rouble has plunged to lows not seen since the 1998 default, and, while not wanting to seem to bow to pressure, Moscow hardly needs to attract further US and EU punitive measures.

friends to fly the St George ribbon, the Russian equivalent of the remembrance poppy, to “show who is ‘svoi’ (one of us) and who is ‘chuzhoi’ (an alien)”. Extreme patriotism, once a minority position, has become increasingly mainstream and is given airtime. Russia’s bad-boy politician, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, was so bellicose in a TV appearance, warning that “dwarf nations” such as the Baltic states and Poland would be doomed in a third world war, that the Latvian foreign ministry summoned the Russian ambassador to Riga for an explanation. Yet, along with the defiant rhetoric, the Russian foreign ministry, for example, continues to agonise over why Russia has such a negative image in the world. Privately, some Russians ask what has gone wrong. The tiny minority of pro-western liberals are thinking increasingly of leaving the country, if they can. They are nervous to the point of paranoia. Some speak of their fear that the borders might be closed. Friends said last week that they hoped to stay in Russia, but if the atmosphere darkened any more they would consider moving to Latvia, which is in the European Union. “We like the fact that in Europe there seems to be an understanding that individuals are not to blame for the excesses of politicians,” they said. “Latvia attracts us because it is close to home and there are common cultural links.”

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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Blackbra and other secrets of French feminine guile France

Charles Bremner Paris

Always deny that you have a lover, skip breakfast and take special care of your hands and feet. For a decade, tips like that have fuelled a publishing fad devoted to putting English-speaking women wise to the secrets of their supposedly sexier French sisters. Yet the latest hit in the genre, How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are: Love, Style and Bad Habits has proved such a success in the US that it has prompted the gloomy French to marvel at a seemingly inexhaustible field in which they beat les Anglo-Saxons hands down: selling the art of femininity. “There is so much French bashing in the French press and the world at large that people are reassured by the fact that our reality is not as horrible as they read,” Karl Lagerfeld said. The couturier was commenting on the success of the autumn hit by Caroline de Maigret, a model who was one of his Chanel “ambassadors”, along with her co-authors Anne Berest, Audrey Diwan, and Sophie Mas.

The four, all exemplars of the chic, effortless, Parisienne style, have scored with an irreverent, younger-generation tone as they recycle the old rules. For example, in the standard advice on looking impeccably sexy whatever the circumstances, they use cruder language: “Always be f***able: when standing in line at the bakery on a Sunday morning, buying champagne in the middle of the night, or even picking up the kids from school. You never know.” The language is sharper, but the concept is familiar from dozens of titles that began in 2004 with Mireille Guiliano’s French Women Don’t Get Fat. “We are a bit more rock’n’roll . . . A bit more laid back,” De Maigret said of the collaborative book. Their book counsels the rulebreaking that is an old chestnut of the Frenchwoman genre. This time, the advice includes: “Wear a black bra under your white blouse, like two notes on a sheet of music” and only give up high heels “the day you walk into the delivery room”. Caroline de Maigret ponders baguette queue encounters

World STEFANO RELLANDINI / REUTERS

Under sail Some of the yachts gathered in Trieste harbour, northern Italy, yesterday for the annual Barcelona regatta

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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Faller at the first hurdle

A taste for UK food makers

Middling through

Page 36

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Working Life, page 39

Racing Post bidder pulls out of auction

Asian companies snap up bargains

Business

Mid-sized firms are key to growth

SOLENT NEWS & PHOTO AGENCY

Eurozone crisis never went away business commentary Patrick Hosking

t looks as though we may be heading into yet another iteration of the eurozone crisis. It always seemed a little unrealistic that three simple words from Mario Draghi in July 2012 (“whatever it takes”) would of themselves be enough to magically liberate the 18-country bloc permanently from its deep structural and debt problems. Twenty-seven months on, the doubts are growing again. This time the fear is that Germany, the engine room for the entire euro project, is starting to sputter. Terrible industrial production and export figures for August suggest that even the home of worldbeaters such as Siemens, Volkswagen and Daimler is running out of puff. Those worries may be overdone. It was only one month’s data and actually followed a perky July. But even if Germany can avoid recession, its neighbours continue to struggle. Growth is moribund and when economies stop growing, tax revenues are the first thing to turn to a trickle. That raises fresh questions about creditworthiness. It is no surprise that France has just had its credit outlook cut to negative by Standard & Poor’s. Adding to investor jitters, we are less than two weeks away from the results of a healthcheck into Europe’s biggest banks. The European Central Bank will shortly name the banks that have flunked its new tougher stress tests. The suspicion remains that too many banks in the eurozone are all but bust, their problems disguised by creative accounting and indulgent domestic regulators. As we’ve learnt from bitter experience, the banking crisis and the sovereign debt crisis are two sides of the same tarnished coin. The ECB, which is taking over responsibility from national supervisors, wants to be seen as tough and credible. The danger is that in these febrile times, no outcome will satisfy investors. If too many banks fail, that will confirm their worst suspicions, If too few do, the sceptics will worry that the ECB has been lenient. What is certain is that Britain cannot continue to gallop away indefinitely while the Continent — its dominant trading partner — is barely moving forward at all.

Getting fatter

o much for the shareholder spring. So much for Vince Cable’s efforts to rein in boardroom excess. Pay in blue-chip boardrooms is up by another 21 per cent in the past year, according to Incomes Data Services. The median FTSE 100 chief executive received £3.3 million. As usual, the serious moolah is not made through anything as transparent and simple as the

monthly salary payment. Base pay among executives is rising by a relatively modest 2-3 per cent. The extra rewards are coming through complex and opaque bonus schemes, in particular share-based LTIPs. Rising share prices not only help executives to tick the performance conditions box, but also boost rewards because their awards are based on past, lower prices. Double ker-ching. The sinister interpretation of this is that top pay has gone up so much precisely because the wages of the other 99 per cent have not. Share values (and boardroom pay) have risen because of tight cost control, in particular wage control. That is far from the whole truth, but it plays into a dangerous narrative for business, one that is not going to disperse until real wages for everyone start rising. That won’t happen overnight. New data out on Wednesday are expected to show average British earnings rising by just 0.7 per cent — or, in real terms, falling by 0.8 per cent.

Crude calculations

merica toppling Saudi Arabia as the world’s biggest oil producer is a symbolic moment. The gulf state has been top producer for at least 20 years and is still regarded as pivotal in holding Opec together and helping to stabilise the oil price (story, page 41). Proponents of shale oil, which has transformed America to the top, will seize on its success. What might it not ultimately do for Britain, with its dwindling North Sea production and growing reliance on imports? America’s production has helped to put downward pressure on the global crude price, which fell last week to a four-year low of less than $89 a barrel. Weak global growth, a production surge in Libya and disagreement within Opec all suggest it could well fall farther. A prolonged period of sub-$80 oil would throw into doubt the commercial viability of much of the US shale industry. America’s newfound oil hegemony is built on flimsy foundations.

Shop soiled?

f Ken Hanna is toast, he needs to be ejected sooner rather than later. Tesco was making no attempt to deny speculation yesterday that its audit committee chairman was going to announce his exit shortly. It would certainly make it easier for Deloitte and Freshfields, the experts carrying out an independent investigation into the profit-flattering scandal, if Mr Hanna were not peering over their shoulders in the meantime.

patrick.hosking@thetimes.co.uk

Delicious design Jessica Allsop models a 1920s-style dress made from 60kg of chocolate at the Sheraton Hotel in London. It was made by Caroline McCall, the Downton Abbey costume designer, and Paul Wayne Gregory, a Lindt master chocolatier

Osborne poised to sell Eurostar stake Philip Aldrick

The government will today press the button on the privatisation of its 40 per cent stake in the cross-channel train service Eurostar. An auction process will be launched today with the Treasury hoping to attract bids of up to £300 million for the holding. The funds will be used to help pay down Britain’s £1.4 trillion national debt. A sale would mark another step forward in the government’s asset disposal programme, through which it plans to generate £20 billion by 2020. It raised £2 billion by selling Royal Mail but is still a long way short of the goal. Eurostar celebrated its 20th birthday this year and in 2013 finally hit its original target of carrying 10 million passengers to and from Europe annually. The milestone was helped by the completion the previous year of Britain’s first high-speed line, connecting the Channel Tunnel to St Pancras station in London. Hopes of an early sale have been dashed repeatedly, but the recent shift of responsibility for the disposal from the Department for Business to the

Treasury appears to have cleared the deadlock. Pension funds, infrastructure funds and sovereign wealth funds are understood to be the most likely bidders for the stake. Among the potential trade buyers, Deutsche Bahn would be a front-runner. An offer of shares to the public has been ruled out. Eurostar has made significant progress in recent years, reporting record operating profits of £54 million last year and paying a £19 million dividend to its owners, of which £7.4 million went to the state. The Treasury controls its share of Eurostar through London & Continental Railways, the remaining nationalised part of the old British Rail. SNCF, France’s state-owned rail operator, holds 55 per cent and the Belgian government owns the remaining 5 per cent. SNCF has pre-emption rights on the British stake but is understood not to be interested in making a bid. “I am determined that we go on making the decisions to tackle our debts. So we will proceed with the potential sale of the UK’s shareholding in Eurostar today,” George Osborne said.

“As part of our aim to achieve £20 billion from assets sales by 2020, the sale proceeds would make an important contribution to the task of reducing the public sector debt.” The public listing of Royal Mail ran into controversy after the shares soared and the National Audit Office claimed that the government’s advisers — Lazards, Goldman Sachs and UBS — had undervalued the business by £1 billion. The largest single asset left is Urenco, the uranium enrichment group. The government’s one-third stake is estimated to be worth £3 billion but a potential sale has run into opposition from the Dutch government, which also owns a third of the business. Eurostar directors will inform staff of the government’s decision to sell the stake today, but the disposal is not expected to result in any change to working practices. The government expects to strike a deal in the first quarter of next year. It is being advised by UBS on the sale. Although it is not expected to take part in the auction, SNCF has retained an option to buy the stake at a 15 per cent premium to the winning bid.

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Monday October 13 2014 | the times

Business

Need to know Your 5-minute digest The week ahead today Television executives from around the world will be in Cannes for the annual Mipcom entertainment trade show. BBC Worldwide, Shine, Fremantle Media and All3Media will be aiming to sell their shows to foreign broadcasters. James Murdoch, co-chief operating officer of 21st Century Fox, and Simon Cowell are keynote speakers. Finals Renewable Energy Generation, YouGov AGM/EGM Avarae Global Coins Trading Statement Essentra Economics US: markets closed

tomorrow Investors will be keen to hear how Britain’s great commercial nanotechnology hope is joining up the quantum dots. Full-year results from Nanoco won’t give much of an insight but management comments about how future sales are shaping up will be key. Nanoco has developed semiconductive crystals measured in nanometres from its Runcorn research centre. These so-called quantum dots help make the view on a tablet computer or smart television even sharper. The company announced a licensing deal recently with Dow Chemical which is going in to South Korea, one of the main global homes of consumer electronics. Interims Boohoo.com Finals Nanoco, Matchtech Group; dotDigital Group; Bellway AGM/EGM Telstra, Investors in Global Real Estate, Scancell Holdings, Frontier Developments; Xplorer, Brack Capital Real Estate Investments, Assura Group Trading Statements Carpetright, SABMiller, Ashmore Group, Immunodiagnostic Systems, Michael Page International, Hargreaves Lansdown, Dragon Oil Economics UK: inflation figures, producer prices figures

wednesday Shareholders in Premier Foods will gather for the annual meeting to reflect on what has been a tumultous year for the maker of Oxo cubes and Mr Kipling cakes. The indebted food maker pulled off a £1.1 billion refinancing in an attempt to escape a web of financial constraints. It also raised funds through a placing and rights issue and has struck a deal to renegotiate new pension deficit payments. Premier may be in better shape but sales have been sluggish over the summer, and shareholders will no doubt be anxious for news on the food group’s current trading. Interims Vertu Motors, Datatec Finals Animalcare, Imperial Innovations, Connect

Taking stock: a sorry brokers’ tale Gary Parkinson Trade Secrets

unch at Le Relais and the veteran market maker is mopping up peppercorn sauce with medium-rare meat, getting gently sauced on a second bottle of the old vino collapso and warming to the idea of life after broking. Broking 2014-style is a game with sharp elbows, and he can no longer count himself among the million or so stiffs still working in financial services. Too young to retire, too used to West London life, cleaned out by wife number one (and deservedly so), kept awake at night by the newer, younger model’s Olympian shopping habits, he is lateForties and most definitely in need of a new job. In times past, when a chap’s face no longer fitted, he popped to the nearest juicer with a few pals from different firms. One was probably hiring. Or they’d know a shop that was. Sorted. Doesn’t work any more. Not often, anyway. Recruitment, like a good luncheon, has been policed into dust. Knowing a lot of really decent chaps, talking loudly, quaffing claret, cricket, horses and rugger, membership of the MCC and the RAC (Pall Mall club, not breakdown service), nepotism, sexism and wife-swapping are no longer considered professional qualifications in stockbroking. If not broking, then what? One enterprising chap he’d heard of set up a concierge service after leaving the City. High-end stuff. A mobile phone number, nothing more, distributed to London’s most well-heeled by muttered word of mouth. Sons of sheikhs, oligarchs’ offspring, financetypes, anyone with proper money. On offer, anything

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The week’s biggest movers Company Tesco Bargain hunting Fresnillo Bought as a proxy for precious metal Randgold Resources Positive analyst research Severn Trent “Defensive” shares in demand Burberry Pushed by broker Carnival Travel shares are friendless Ashtead US construction is cooling IAG Ebola reaches Spain Tullow Oil Oil price tanks TUI Travel Ebola worries

they desired, any time. Anything. Drugs, girls or zoo animals. Delivered to their door. Day or night. So successful was he that in short order two Transit vans loaded with mustard-hot working girls were parked up in west London each night with drivers ready to make speedy deliveries to five-star hotels and seven-figure addresses as soon as the call came. A bit like the ambulances that sit outside boozers and clubs in city centres around the country on a Saturday night to be close at hand when the fighting kicks off. The entrepreneur was making more money than he ever had in the City. Until he was subject to a hostile

Change 7.7% 4.2% 2.6% 1.5% 1.2% -9.5% -10.2% -10.7% -12.2% -12.4%

takeover. From the Albanian mafia. His business was now their business, they said. As gangsters across Britain learnt the hard way — from Yardies to Russians, Italians to Turks, as well as home-grown hoods — there’s little upside in messing with the Albanians. Though his equity was diluted to zero, the premium they paid let him walk away. If prospects in concierge services are limited, punting for yourself is always an option. Plenty of City pros minus a desk take a tilt at trading on their own dime. Most discover that decades of expertise in losing money for their clients easily translates into losing money for themselves. The lucky ones get the odd smaller company

NED chucked their way. Pitch up for half a dozen board meetings a year, favour the firm with the benefits of your accumulated market wisdom, trouser 25 grand. There’s always teaching, the chosen second career of the odd M&A banker. Presumably, humility or empathy are not national curriculum subjects. Other old City pros, like Glenn Poulter, choose to go back to school. Glenn started on the floor of the Stock Exchange as a blue-button, a glorified messenger, back when Frankie was telling everyone to Relax. Over the next 30 years, he worked for Hoare Govett, NatWest Markets, UBS, Schroders and Citigroup, where he ended up running the US megabank’s European cash equities business, then Icap and Oriel. With the broking industry in decline, a couple of years ago Glenn started to study for an EMBA (Executive Master of Business Administration) at Cass Business School. A few weeks ago he filed his dissertation. “Is UK Stock Broking a Dying Industry? (Strategy for Success in a Challenged Industry).” In 16,137 words over 74 pages, it’s a clear, coherent and rigorous analysis of how and why since 2007 broking has been grabbed by the lapels and shaken until its teeth rattled. Of how it’s going to be shaken a lot more. It’s a subject close to Glenn’s heart, and the hearts of every equity salesman, trader, dealer, market maker and broker in Le Relais still chugging though their green salad with walnut starters, chased by steak frites in secret sauce, the only things on the the menu. To be continued…

What the papers said THE SUNDAY TIMES 6 London Mining: Bidders are lining up to fight over the carcass of the West African iron-ore producer. Jindal Group, the Indian conglomerate, and Frank Timis, the founder of African Minerals, are among those interested 6 James Grant: A talent agency that represents Davina McCall, right, and Clare Balding has been sold to management backed by Metric Capital, for an undisclosed sum. Gresham put the business up for sale last year with a £60 million price tag 6 Elliott Advisors: A London-based partner at the hedge fund was paid

£38 million last year. Elliott made almost £60 million when Game Digital floated in London this year and has also been active in Argentine bonds, National Express and Vodafone’s German target Kabel Deutschland 6 Autotrader: Debt at the the used-car website has hit almost £1 billion after the Guardian Media Group sold its controlling stake in February to partner Apax. Pre-tax profit fell to £3.7 million from £22.8 million last year 6 Warm autumn weather is set to take its toll on Marks & Spencer sales and analysts have slashed quarterly forecasts.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

MAIL ON SUNDAY

6 SMRT: The Singaporean transport company is among a handful of suitors for Addison Lee, Britain’s biggest minicab operator. Carlyle, the American private equity owner is looking to cash in after 18 months 6 Network Rail is the front-runner for a £50 million contract to advise Saudi Arabia on improving its railways 6 The People’s Operator: A mobile phone company backed by the Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is expected to confirm its intention to float on AIM, the junior market, as early as this week 6 Sofa.com: The former boss of Wiggle, the online cycle shop, is working on a bid for the furniture retailer.

6 Euro Disney: Prince Alwaweed, the Saudi billionaire, is set to participate in a €420 million rescue of the theme park. He is already a 10 per cent shareholder 6 Wonga: MPs have called for the payday lender, and rivals’ names, to be taken off replica football shirts worn by children. The move would bring the sector in line with the drinks and gambling industries 6 Dyson: The vacuum cleaner group is in dispute with HM Revenue & Customs over a possible £10 million tax bill for founder Sir James Dyson 6 Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas will launch his Smart Watch in San Francisco on Thursday. He said the watch will have Bluetooth capability.

AGM/EGM Premier Foods Trading Statements Rio Tinto, Fresnillo Economics: UK: jobless numbers including the claimant count, average earnings. US: retail sales, production figures. China: production figures and inflation

thursday BSkyB releases first-quarter figures. Analysts will want to know if the the satellite broadcaster’s positive trends shown at the full-year stage, including the highest growth in customer numbers for three years and a 7 per cent rise in adjusted revenues, have been sustained. Investors this month approved the purchase of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland. After a year which Ivan Menezes, the Diageo chief executive, admitted had been tougher than he expected, the world’s biggest drinks group is expected to report a challenging first quarter. Organic sales in the first three months of the new year are likely to be down by about 1.5 per cent amid tough comparatives in its key US business and continuing issues in parts of Africa and Asia, notably China. On the plus side, Diageo can count a job well done in its hosting of the Ryder Cup at the Gleneagles hotel, which it owns. Interims Lombard Risk Management, Booker Finals WH Smith, Game Digital, Avacta, Connect AGM/EGM Rank, Renishaw, IG Group, Octopus Titan, Cambium Global Timberland, Zhejiang Expressway Co, Bango, Meikles Limited, Mattioli Woods, Aberforth Geared Income Trust. Trading Statements Diageo, Man, Rank, Renishaw, Speedy Hire Rathbone Brothers; bwin.party digital, Evraz, e2v, Ferrexpo, technologies, Mondi Economics Europe: trade balance, inflation. US: jobless claims, industrial production, Philadelphia Fed survey, NAHB housing market index, Treasury international capital flows

friday Travis Perkins reports its thirdquarter trading statement. The market is expecting some slowing of the earlier stellar rates of growth the builder’s merchant and owner of the Wickes chain has achieved but progress across most of the group. UBS is forecasting likefor-like sales growth for the quarter of 5.2 per cent, down from 10.2 per cent at the halfway stage, but thinks earlier full-year sales growth guidance of 6 to 8 per cent will be maintained. Interims Provident Financial Finals Aeorema Communications AGM/EGM Velocys, Lucky Cement, 1pm, John Swan & Sons Trading Statements Travis Perkins, Record, Provident Financial

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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American shale revolution ends Saudi Arabia’s reign as oil king Tim Webb Energy Editor

The United States is set to be crowned the world’s largest producer of liquid petroleum this week, knocking Saudi Arabia off the top spot for the first time in two decades. The shale oil and gas boom in America has led to output increasing from about 8 million barrels a day in 2011 to approaching 12 million barrels. The figures include production of natural gas liquids, such as ethane, that are often used in the chemical industry. As well as redrawing the global energy map, the jump in American production has prevented oil prices soaring over the past few years by replacing lost output from other countries, for example Libya during the Arab Spring. The surging performance is a big factor behind the slump in global prices. These fell below $90 per barrel last week for the first time in more than two years, from $115 in June, as demand weakens. Richard Mallinson, an analyst at Energy Aspects, said: “Over the past three years US production growth has been helping to balance the market at a time of global supply disruption. Shale oil from the US has replaced these lost barrels almost one for one and prevented prices going higher.” Rising output in America also undermines the ability of Opec, and in particular Saudi Arabia, to control oil prices. The Saudis have historically acted as a “swing producer” — the only country willing or able to adjust its output to stabilise prices. As its share of global pro-

duction falls, it would need to make even bigger cuts in production to arrest the slide. The cartel’s biannual meeting next month has been billed as its most important for years. The International Energy Agency’s monthly oil report for September, to be published tomorrow, is likely to confirm the US as the world’s largest liquid petroleum producer. Last month, the agency, which represents western countries, said that American liquids output, which hit 11.8 million barrels per day on average in August, was set to reach an “impressive” 12 million barrels in October. In August, Saudi liquid production was hovering at an estimated 11.5 million barrels. Official Saudi figures cover only crude production, though, leaving the agency to estimate its natural gas liquids. Last month, the gap grew wider, making it possible to confirm that the Saudis had been overtaken. According to US government data, crude output was running at just under 8.8 million barrels a day at the end of last month, compared with 8.5 million barrels in August. Production of natural gas liquids, which make up the difference, was also rising. The Saudis cut crude production by 400,000 barrels in August and the full impact will be borne out in last month’s figures. Saudi output also typically falls at the end of the summer because domestic demand falls as less air conditioning is used. Its natural gas liquid output is stable. There are doubts over how long the

Labour throws Energy costs spanner into halt ‘march of Hinkley deal the makers’ Tim Webb

Robert Lea Industrial Editor

Labour is threatening to unpick the £17.6 billion subsidy package to build EDF Energy’s Hinkley Point reactor, approved by Brussels last week, in an attempt to get consumers a better deal. Britain and EDF Energy agreed to make some concessions from the original agreement, which the European Commission had suggested could amount to illegal state aid. Tom Greatrex, the shadow energy minister, has written to the National Audit Office and the public accounts committee asking them to review the subsidies, which are funded by levies on household energy bills, and to investigate whether further concessions could be secured. “We must ensure that consumers are getting the best possible deal in the construction of Hinkley Point C. The substantial changes brought about by the European Commission raise questions about whether further scrutiny could lead to additional improvements,” he said. It is estimated that the subsidies would add an estimated £10 to annual household energy bills when the reactors starts in 2023. The move could further complicate operations at the first British reactor in a generation. If a future Labour government backs changes, EDF could be forced to review a deal that has taken more than two years to resolve with the government and Brussels. An EDF spokeswoman said: “This is a fair deal for consumers and investors — the EU state aid decision has underlined that.”

The renaissance in British manufacturing could be strangled by the rising costs of powering factories. Members of the country’s largest manufacturing trade lobby have warned that the predicted high price of electricity — inflated by investment in low-carbon and renewable technologies — will hit their profits and will force many businesses abroad. A survey by EEF, the engineering and manufacturers’ federation, makes grim reading for the chancellor, the business secretary and others who have heralded “the march of the makers”. The survey found that three quarters of members forecast lower profits because of the price of electricity, and half said that their competitiveness would be undermined by rising costs. A third said that they would be forced to cut investment while a quarter would consider moving overseas. The research found that energy costs accounted for 6 per cent of turnover and that affordability was at the top of the agenda for most members. Manufacturers understood why the government was investing in nuclear and green energies and a third agreed that the policy was driving innovation. However, more than 40 per cent were adamant that the policy was risking the nation’s competitiveness. “This is a wake-up call that the tension between the pursuit of low-carbon policies and Britain’s ambitions for a better-balanced economy must be resolved,” Gareth Stace, head of environmental policy at EEF, said.

Americans will be able to maintain top spot, however. Unlike conventional wells, which can maintain output for years, production from shale oil and gas finds can tail off dramatically. A shale oil well producing 1,000 barrels per day when it comes on stream could only be pumping 200 barrels by the end of the year. “The idea that the US will be able to sustain much higher production than the Saudis is yet to be proven,” Mr Mallinson said.

Business EDDIE SEAL / GETTY IMAGES

Higher output in the United States has reduced Opec’s ability to control prices

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Business AIJAZ RAHI / AP

Sky’s innings will continue for eight years

SkyB has fended off BT and kept hold of the rights to international cricket until 2023 (Nic Fildes writes). The deal means that the broadcaster will show the 2019 World Cup in Britain after teaming up with Star, an Asian broadcaster. BT has secured

Premier League football and Premiership rugby union as it seeks to challenge Sky’s dominance. Last year it paid £1 billion to show Champions League football from 2015. Barney Francis, managing director of Sky Sports, said that he was delighted to win the eight-year deal. “Our cricket schedule keeps getting stronger,” he said. Sky added more than 60 Indian Premier League games to its schedule from next year as part of the package.

Monday October 13 2014 | the times

Gloom deepens over Britain’s manufacturing Kathryn Hopkins Economics Correspondent

The ebola crisis and faltering eurozone are casting a cloud over Britain’s manufacturers, who have revealed that levels of pessimism are at their highest for 18 months. After a week when leading stock markets were rocked as ebola and Islamic State dominated the news and grim economic data emerged from Germany and China, BDO’s index of manufacturing output dropped from 113.2 in August to 111.6 in September. As a consequence, the index for all businesses slipped from 103.8 to 103.3. The wider index, which predicts businesses’ growth expectations over the next three months, remains well above 100, indicating long-term growth. The findings suggest, though, that factors including collapsing sentiment in the eurozone and geopolitical concerns are undermining confidence among Britain’s manufacturers. “With global conditions becoming increasingly challenging, it was only a matter of time before the stellar increases in economic growth recorded this year came to an end,” Peter Hemington, a partner at the global accountacy group, said. “Given their reliance on exports, manufacturers have borne the brunt of weakening global demand.” This lower demand is reducing cost pressures. BDO’s inflation index fell for the fifth month in a row to 96.6 in September — just above the 95 mark that separates inflation from deflation. Mr Hemington said that although

Online fortnightly briefings for sixth-form students competing in the Target Two Point Zero Bank of England and The Times Interest Rate Challenge continue today. thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/target2/

this would be good news for company profits, on an economy-wide scale the trend was worrying because it brought the British economy closer to the threat of deflation that has spooked European policymakers. A separate report from Lloyds Bank will do little to lift spirits. It showed that growth in the private sector lost momentum in England last month, with seven of the nine regions experiencing lower output growth than in August. The bank’s regional purchasing managers’ index, which measures overall business activity, dropped to 57.6 in September from 59.4 in the previous month. The only two regions to register an improvement were the east of England and the West Midlands. Softer growth mainly reflected a weaker contribution from manufacturers in September as weakness across the eurozone weighed on exports, Lloyds said.

Melrose hands cables to Canadian pension fund Nic Fildes

Melrose has cut the cord on another asset it acquired as part of the takeover of FKI in 2008 after agreeing to sell the cablemaker Bridon for £365 million. The engineer banked almost £1 billion from the sale of five former FKI companies last year, including Crosby, the lifting equipment maker, Truth, the windows and doors business, and Acco, a materials-handling company. It has offloaded Doncaster-based Bridon, a maker of specialist cables and wires that are used in the construction and mining industries, to Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, a Canadian fund. Bridon traces its roots back 200 years, when it was a traditional ropemaker. It was a listed business from 1978 until 1997, when FKI paid £130 million to take control. Melrose, which specialises in buying and restructuring engineering outfits and selling them on at a profit, paid £478 million for FKI six years ago. Melrose will pump £6.7 million into the Bridon pension scheme to complete the sale but has sold the business on a cash and debt free basis. Simon Peckham, chief executive of Melrose, said: “Bridon is an excellent example of the Melrose ‘buy, improve, sell’ model at work. It demonstrates our

ability to create substantial value for shareholders by investing heavily in our businesses and improving operational performance.” Bridon is the latest British company to fall into Canadian hands. The Ontario pension fund has bought assets including Bristol and Birmingham airports, the high-speed rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel, the national lottery operator Camelot, and Burton’s, the biscuit com-

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Bridon facility opens at Willington Quay

Source: Bridon

pany behind Jammie Dodgers and Wagon Wheels. It also owns a stake in Vodafone. Omers Private Equity, a division of Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System, jointly owns Vue Cinemas and paid £380 million for Civica, an IT company, last year. Other British companies to be owned by Canadians include Logica, the former FTSE 100 IT services company that is now owned by CGI, Fortnum & Mason, owned by the Weston family, and the Savoy Hotel, managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts.

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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Business

Ian King

Tesco set to make more room on the top shelf

At least the decline in bond yields has one positive: for the national debt

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Ian King is business presenter for Sky News. Ian King Live is broadcast at 6.30pm Monday to Thursday

Shares down, gilts up: January’s expectations defied %

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HSBC UK gilt index fund

4 2 0 FTSE all share

Source: Google Finance

With less than a quarter of 2014 to go, it is clear this year has been a disappointing one for stock market investors, or at least not as good as might have been expected. Think back to the end of last year. The yield on ten-year US Treasuries, arguably the single most important metric in financial markets, had risen during the previous 12 months from 1.7 per cent to 3 per cent, as momentum in the American economy began to pick up. Less clear, at the time, was the future path of US interest rates — other than an expectation that they would rise at some point — because there was a big gap between the Federal Reserve’s forecast path for its Fed funds rate and that implied by the Fed’s own forecasts for inflation and unemployment. Nonetheless, there was a general assumption that the Fed would begin to raise interest rates from the beginning of 2015 and that, by the end of 2014, the yield on tenyear Treasuries would be about 3.3 per cent, with downward pressure on US bond yields removed by the tapering, and then conclusion of, the Fed’s asset purchases. Similarly, there was an assumption in markets that yields would not just rise on US Treasuries but also on UK gilts and on European and Japanese government bonds, too. Alongside this was an assumption that equity

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markets — in the developed world, at least — would enjoy solid gains during 2014, buoyed by a recovery in corporate earnings in the US and the UK, and an improving macroeconomic backdrop in Europe. Now look what has happened. As the spectre of deflation has loomed in the eurozone, government bond yields in the single currency area have collapsed, to the point where German bunds of various maturities are attracting a negative yield even at auction. This is actually logical. The eurozone is moving closer and closer to full-blown quantitative easing, with every set of dismal figures pointing to

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low or negative growth, low or negative inflation and burgeoning unemployment. In the United States, meanwhile, the yield on ten-year Treasuries has fallen from 3.03 per cent on January 1 to just 2.32 per cent by the end of last week. And in the UK, after an initial rally in the first part of the year, gilt yields have been falling steadily for the past six months. For example, the yield on ten-year UK government bonds has fallen from 3.02 per cent on January 1 to just over 2.21 per cent on Friday, a level last seen in June last year. There have also been falls in yields of other maturities, notably the

The shocking truth behind those electricity bills

t’s no surprise that politicians such as Ed Miliband come up with policies like the one he has on energy when the public is so misinformed about the subject. Possibly the most startling finding in a survey published last week by YouGov, carried out on behalf of SSE, is that 30 per cent of those questioned think supplier profits make up the biggest part of their energy bill. Only 36 per cent correctly identified wholesale energy costs as the biggest element in the bill. When YouGov asked consumers what proportion of their energy bill was accounted for by profits, the average answer was 26 per cent, while

in reality the average net margin across the industry is just 4 per cent. Equally breathtakingly, three in four of those surveyed by YouGov thought that energy suppliers enjoyed a profit margin of 10 per cent or more. Astonishingly, these perceptions are held across society, regardless of age, gender or social class. It presents a huge challenge for the industry: the widespread perception that energy suppliers are enjoying abnormally high profits is what allows politicians to come up with anti-business rhetoric such as Mr Miliband’s planned assault on the industry. Yet it is not impossible to turn

around such perceptions. The likes of BP and Shell were criticised for years for profiteering on the backs of motorists. Patiently, they plugged away at getting the real story out there, which was that fuel retailers had margins of barely 5 per cent and that getting on for three quarters of the cost of a litre of petrol was accounted for by taxes. Lord Browne of Madingley, BP’s chief executive at the time, even had a catchphrase whenever his company was accused of exploiting motorists: “You’ve got the wrong Browne there.” SSE and the other members of the Big Six need to keep hammering away with a similar message.

30-year gilt, where yields last week slid to levels last seen when Britain was basking in the success of the London Olympics. Having assumed weeks ago that the Bank of England would begin raising interest rates in November, expectations of a rate rise have been pushed out well into 2015, with the market by the end of last week pricing in no tightening of monetary policy until the third quarter of next year. Understandably so: the 20 per cent collapse in oil prices since June means consumer price inflation is unlikely to come anywhere near the Bank’s target 2 per cent rate for some time, while the recent data from the housing sector points to a cooling of activity, even in the fizzing London market. The impact of this will be malign for company pension schemes. Owing to the way actuaries work, using the yield on long-dated gilts to discount future promises to pensioners to work out their present-day value, ultra-low gilt yields exaggerate pension fund liabilities and, in turn, scheme deficits. The effects of this should cannot be underestimated: in September last John Wraith, the rates strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, published research suggesting that a 71 basis point rise in 30-year gilt yields between May 2012-August 2013 had been more beneficial in bringing down pension fund deficits than a 23 per cent rise in the FTSE all-share index during the same period — even though the latter had lifted asset valuations by £85 billion in that time. As if to reinforce this point, strategists at Goldman Sachs last week published a note suggesting that the decline in European bond yields might have increased pension deficits for members of the Stoxx 600, Europe’s benchmark stock index, by between €150 billion-€170 billion so far this year. However, as if to prove that it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good, there is one very big beneficiary from this decline in bond yields. If UK interest rates stay lower for longer, so too does the cost of servicing the UK’s national debt — some £1.43 trillion at the latest estimate — which is good news for the government, particularly as it is unlikely to hit its deficit target this year.

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Nic Fildes

A shake-up at the top has continued after it was revealed that two more senior Tesco executives could leave the business by the end of the year. The grocer confirmed that Jonathan Lloyd, company secretary since 2006, had resigned and would leave in March next year but declined to comment on reports that Ken Hanna, a board member and chair of the audit committee, would quit as part of a board revamp. A spokesman did not rule out his imminent exit. Given his role as head of the audit committee, Mr Hanna has been in the cross-hairs of investors since the £250 million accounting scandal blew up last month. It had been reported that auditors warned the board of potential issues related to “commercial income”, which lies at the heart of the scandal but the company wrote in its most recent annual report that the audit committee “does not consider that this is a significant issue”. Tesco has suspended five senior executives, most recently Kevin Grace, its commercial director, as it investigates the scandal. Sir Richard Broadbent, the chairman, has also been under pressure because of perceived governance failures at the company although it is unlikely that he will depart before the results of an investigation into the scandal are published. The supermarket group appointed Richard Cousins, chief executive of Compass Group, and Mikael Ohlsson, former chief executive of Ikea, to the board last week to beef up the top team and add retail experience. It has been speculated that Mr Cousins could be a future chairman of Tesco should Sir Richard stand down and that Mr Hanna, a former finance director of Cadbury who has been on the board of Tesco since 2009, could leave to reduce the number of non-executive directors on the board. The inquiry into the company accounts is being conducted by Deloitte and Freshfields, the group’s external legal adviser. The company is also reviewing other operations including the Dunnhumby analytics arm and Blinkbox, the video and music streaming service, likely to be shed. Dave Lewis, the new chief executive, is expected to provide an update later this month when he reports first-half results. Mr Lloyd’s original resignation letter preceded the accounting scandal.

Springtime on the French Riviera or October in London? Kathryn Hopkins Property Correspondent

Every March swarms of developers, investors, brokers and bankers migrate to Cannes for the annual Mipim conference. Deals are usually done by bumping into colleagues along the Boulevard de la Croisette or over a glass or three of champagne on yachts surrounded by the property industry’s great and good. Now Britain is hoping that the charms of west London will outdo the lure of the Côte d’Azur on Wednesday when the first Mipim conference outside France starts in the more urban and less spring-like setting of the Olympia conference centre.

It will be Britain’s first all-encompassing property show, covering offices, shops and homes — and even sheds. Several local councils from all over the country, some of whom have been criticised for spending public money travelling to Cannes, will be in attendance in more straitened circumstances. Investors such as Singapore’s GIC, First Swedish National Pension Fund and Korea Investment Corporation, will also be present. However, questions have been raised over whether the London bunfight can match the success of the French Riviera. On top of the shift in location, the number of parties, where deals are traditionally forged, has been cut back leaving some participants to suggest

that the train home might be a more attractive option each evening. Bill Hughes, managing director of property at Legal & General and president of the British Property Federation, is putting a brave on any comparisons, emphasising that Mipim UK was not a replacement for Cannes, but rather “an important addition” to the key calendar events for the year. “While Mipim in Cannes has established its relationship as an unparalleled auditorium for inspiring international connectivity, flows of capital, off shore and off-market deal-making and large scale industry announcements, Mipim UK is about capitalising on the success of London on the global stage,” he said.

VALERY HACHE/ AFP / GETTY IMAGES

Many property professionals will seize the chance to network closer to home

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Monday October 13 2014 | the times

Business SIMON COOPER / PA

Runners in the Racing Post debt sale say they have been hampered by the lack of financial information, an allegation that KMPG denies

Racing Post bidder cries foul after it falls at first hurdle Deirdre Hipwell, Harry Wilson

One of the bidders jostling for control of the Racing Post has pulled out of the auction and criticised KPMG’s handling of the sale of the horse racing bible’s multimillion-pound debt. Tim Hailstone, a publishing entrepreneur, said that he would not make an offer for the Racing Post’s outstanding £170 million of loans because he had been denied access to crucial financial information. “There was only a very limited amount of information being provided about the business that supports this debt and I thought it would be difficult to get a financial backer to support a binding bid for the assets without that information,” Mr Hailstone, whose initial bid was understood to be backed by the private equity firm Apollo, said. The newspaper’s debts are being sold by liquidators acting for Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), the body winding up the assets of Anglo Irish Bank, the nationalised lender, on behalf of the Irish taxpayer. There has been significant interest in the debt because it could potentially prompt a change of ownership at the title, which was launched in 1986 as a rival to the 127-year old Sporting Life. It has an average daily circulation of nearly 47,000 and a digital business that could be a lucrative cash generator. Parties such as Sir Martin Broughton, the former chairman of the British Horseracing Board, and other newspaper groups are also believed to have expressed an interest. Stradbrook Acquisitions, the parent company of the Racing Post, has not filed accounts since 2012. It is understood that KPMG was asked to provide more detailed information about the business before second-round bids were due this week. KMPG declined to provide this, allegedly citing “commercial sensitivity”. Some bidders say that the failure to provide up-to-date financial information on the underlying business has potentially compromised the auction process and could ultimately cost the Irish taxpayer. Claims have also been made that the manner in which the loan sale was being conducted unfairly favoured FL Partners, the incumbent owner of the newspaper, which is also trying to buy the debt with backing from Hayfin, a specialist lender. FL, a Dublin-based boutique investment group, bought the Racing Post

Sheikh holds the reins The Racing Post was founded in April 1986 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, of Dubai, one of the world’s most prominent racehorse owners, as a rival to the Sporting Life. He owns the Racing Post trademark in perpetuity and in 1998 sold a licence to use the brand for £1 to Trinity Mirror, which then closed the Sporting Life, although it still operates as an multi-sport online business. Trinity then sold the Racing Post to the Irish consortium led by FL Partners for £170 million in 2007. FL secured a licence from the sheikh to continue to use the trademark. Any future change of control would again require the sheikh’s consent, which cannot be unreasonably withheld. The Racing Post appears in print and online and covers horse and greyhound racing. Its website racingpost. com had more than 1.3 million unique users in August.

from Trinity Mirror in 2007, using £150 million of debt from Anglo Irish. It led a consortium that included Denis O’Brien, the Irish telecoms tycoon, and members of the Racing Post’s management and editorial team. The largest shareholders are Alan Byrne, the former editor and managing director, and Peter Crowley and Neill Hughes, senior partners at FL. IBRC, through the special liquidator, has successfully sold €20 billion of a €22 billion loan book generating returns for Irish taxpayers. Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson, of KPMG in Dublin, said: “The [general] sales processes that have been employed by the special liquidators have been designed and continue to maximise value from the sale of IBRC loan assets for creditors. The SLs are satisfied that this has been achieved in the current and previous loans sales processes. The level of information made available to bidders . . . has been provided on the basis of legal advice.”

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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Business

Asian predators feast on a great British takeaway Deirdre Hipwell, Dominic Walsh

Acquisitive Asian companies have poured nearly £4.5 billion into the British food and drink industry over the past two years as they seek to satisfy soaring demand from their domestic consumers. Research by Dealogic shows that in the past two and half years Asia has splashed out nearly double the £2.8 billion it spent buying British food and drink companies between 1995 and 2011. Bankers said that they were increasingly receiving inquiries from businesses hungry for potential British targets, particularly from Japan and China. China-based Hony Capital surprised

‘There is a captive consumer audience for recognisable brands’ the market when it bought PizzaExpress in July with a knockout bid of £900 million from Cinven, a European private equity firm. Hony, which manages £4.1 billion, was attracted by the potential to expand its fledgeling Chinese restaurant business. It was not the only Chinese group interested in the pizza chain. Fosun, the conglomerate that has launched a bid to take private Club Med, the French holiday company, and Citic Capital Partners, another Beijing fund manager, were reported to have been interest-

ed. Last year, Mizkan, a Japanese food company founded 201 years ago that is focused on expanding abroad, bought the Branston Pickle, Sarson’s, Haywards and Dufrais brands from Premier Foods for £150 million. Another Japanese group, Suntory Holdings, bought the Lucozade and Ribena brands from GlaxoSmithKline for £1.35 billion. Viswas Raghavan, head of banking for EMEA at JP Morgan, said that the increased activity of Japanese companies would only accelerate as they realised that growth could not be generated from their domestic market alone. These companies realised that they needed to look overseas for acquisitions as Japan struggles to cope with a shrinking population. “There are very strong companies there and many are open to looking for opportunities outside Japan,” he said. Interest in British food and drink companies is widespread across Asia — from Bangladesh, Brunei and Thailand to Vietnam, Japan, China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Indonesia — at a time when, according to Mr Raghavan, the market is “awash with cash”. “It is about the ability to bring these brands into large captive demographics,” he said. “Asia is a very big market and there is a captive consumer audience for recognisable brands. “What we are also seeing is the shifting palate of consumers in these markets and companies are trying to sate that demand.” Data from Dealogic shows that Asia’s interest in mergers and acquisition

Eagle hopes to land prize

he Hong Kong owner of the five-star Langham Hotel in central London, above, is a surprise frontrunner in the auction of De Vere Group’s Village Urban Resorts chain (Dominic Walsh writes). Great Eagle Group,

controlled by KSL Capital Partners, owns The Belfry, a Ryder Cup golf venue near Birmingham, and last year paid £200 million for the Malmaison and Hotel du Vin chains. Sources suggest that the auction of the 25 Village hotels, which is being handled by JP Morgan Cazenove, attracted about 20 bids, with offers in the second round being

pitched at £450 million to £470 million. Village is forecast to deliver underlying earnings of £36 million, implying a multiple of 13 times that figure at the top end of the bid range. Great Eagle bought the Langham a decade ago for £100 million and spent a further £80 million on a refurbishment. None of the parties involved could be reached for comment.

extends beyond the British food and drink sector. Since 2000, just over £20 billion has been invested in British consumer companies, with a further £50 billion spent on the real estate, utility and energy sectors combined. The British transport sector has attracted more than £6 billion of investment since 2000, and this is also expected to grow. SMRT Corporation, the listed Singapore transport group, was reportedly considering making an £800 million takeover offer for Addison Lee, London’s biggest minicab operator which is owned by Carlyle, the private equity group. In addition, 23 deals totalling £3.7 billion have been made in Britain’s dining and lodging sector since 2000 and a further £3.1 billion has been ploughed into the leisure and recreation sector. Last month China’s Reignwood Group, which is developing the Ten Trinity Square hotel into a Four Seasons Hotel in the City of London, bought Wentworth Golf Club, in Surrey, for £135 million. Shangri-La Hotel, a listed Hong Kong group controlled by Malaysia’s Kuok family, has invested £90 million fitting out its luxury hotel near the top of the Shard in central London. Mr Raghavan said that the mood for mergers and acquisitions was improving. “The market is awash with cash and we have emerged from a five to six year period of prudence and an era of nearnegative yield,” he said. “There is definitely a renewed desire to do deals and every CEO has a list of things that they would like to do.”

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Monday October 13 2014 | the times

Business

Heathrow Express price cut aims to attract masses Robert Lea Industrial Editor

The world’s most expensive railway is cutting prices for the first time as it prepares for the potentially hugely damaging onslaught of Crossrail on the transport market. Heathrow Express (HEx) has long held a simple one-price structure for journeys to central London, but at £21 one way and £34 return, the 15-minute journey has been regarded as the preserve of the business passenger with an expense account or the wealthier foreign tourist. This month HEx, which is owned by Heathrow and whose 6 million passen-

gers a year help to bring in income of £124 million a year, is reducing its oneway fares by £6, or more than 25 per cent, for those passengers who book online one week ahead. The return fare on the same terms is being cut by £5. “We want to grow all sections of our customer base, in particular leisure,” Keith Greenfield, the managing director, said. “Our hope is that advanced-purchase deals will achieve this.” Mr Greenfield said that he expected to make inroads into HEx’s passenger mix, which is split 70:30 between business and leisure. Apart from the car and the long Pic-

cadilly Line underground journey, Mr Greenfield said that HEx’s main competitors were the cab firms who he says take far longer and are far more expensive. The price promotion has one eye on the arrival of Crossrail, the trans-London metro service which is due to go into service service from 2019 and which claims to be able to deliver passengers from the City to Heathrow in a little over half an hour. Crossrail’s pricing, and the cost of a fare to Heathrow, have yet to be revealed. “Without doubt Crossrail will bring new competition,” said Mr Greenfield. “But there are plenty of ways in

which we will be able to remain distinctive.” That, he says, includes the toilets available on HEx, the availability of staff on board to help passengers, the direct, non-stopping service and the fact that Crossrail is likely to be busy at times during the journey across London. This is expected to be a particular challenge at its main central London interchanges of Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street. According to Mr Greenfield, the price cut — a trial for the time being — is aimed at not only winning more passengers but showing the rail regulator that it should be considered as the

operator of future railway services to the airport. It is expected that from 2021, a new spur linking Heathrow to Slough and Reading and the Great Western mainline will be operational. While it will not be a business passenger, premium-priced train operation like HEx, Mr Greenfield is pitching to the Department for Transport to run the services. “We are testing in the short term what will and won’t work in the long term,” he said. “We are reshaping our business to stand the best chance of running west to the Thames Valley in future.”

When you just have to get there

£5.70

A single fare from central London on the Piccadilly Line

£9.90

A single fare on Heathrow Connect, the stopping rail service

Carney highlights hedge fund risks The asset management industry could face a crackdown, Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, has warned. He seemed to target the hedge fund industry when he said some activity needed monitoring and possibly a “policy response”. The main risks were high levels of leverage and holdings of illiquid investments alongside promises of liquidity at short notice. “Assets managed by investment funds have reached almost 90 per cent of global GDP, more than two thirds of the size of the commercial banking system,” he said in Washington yesterday.

Rising profits boost dividend indicator Dividend cover, a key measure of companies’ ability to keep paying shareholders, has begun to recover, according to analysis from The Share Centre. Among FTSE 350 firms, cover rose from a low of 1.3 times in the final quarter of 2013 to 1.5 times. Cover, defined as after-tax profits shared by the dividend bill, was 2.3 times at the end of 2011.

Spanish gas group eyes Chilean giant Gas Natural is planning a $3.3 billion takeover of Compañia General de Electricidad (CGE), Chile’s biggest electricity distributor, in an effort to boost its presence in Latin America. It would be the largest acquisition of a Chilean company and mean that the Spanish company was present in seven of the biggest cities in Latin America.

£21

Heathrow Express, falling to £15 if booked a week in advance

£30-£40

One-way fare by minicab. The price varies according to the time of day

£65

A black cab fare, from worldtaximeter.com, taking account of extras and traffic

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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Working life Business THE MIDDLE GROUND A mid-market index would quickly be seen as a measure for the real economy

From Tunbridge Wells to China, the clothes store leading a mid-sized surge In search of more friends “As a mid-sized business, you fall outside the glamour of the FTSE 100 as well as the assistance that small companies get,” says Christopher Fairfax, co-founder of another company on the Mid-Market Index. His pet insurance business, Animal Friends, has sales of £60 million and 110 staff. “It’s extraordinary that companies like ours employ a quarter of the private sector workforce yet we’re not well represented.” The CBI agrees. John Cridland, the business group’s director-general, says that mid-sized companies are a “forgotten army” who can play an even bigger role in the economy if they are given the right assistance. Others want more policy support to help unleash their potential. BDO, the accountant, is seeking changes to tax, funding and procurement policies.

hildrensalon used to be “a bit Tunbridge Wells” in its outlook, admits Michele Harriman Smith, the daughter of the clothing retailer’s founders. For most of its 62-year existence, its trade came from a single outlet in the well-heeled Kent town. Even when it began selling online in 1999, “fun” rather than growth was the aim. “We never wanted to be more than one shop. It was just fun to chat online to a customer from Japan or Russia,” Ms Harriman Smith says. However, changes made to improve the website and ordering systems in 2009 led to an explosion in international demand, as well as a dramatic broadening of her horizons. “Now, I get up at 5am every day to go on live [online] chat with our

customers in, say, the Arab states. I understand so much more about other cultures.” With exports to 130 countries and sales of £28 million, Childrensalon is no longer a small business but the largest dedicated children’s clothing seller in Britain. It is one of a small but powerful group of medium-sized companies that arguably offer the best hope for reviving the country’s overseas trading performance. A detailed study by Investec, the banking and asset management group, and Duedil, a financial data company, and backed by The Times, is shedding light on

Food for the mind and food for the stomach James Hurley, Hazel Davis

STEPHEN LOCK / I-IMAGES

A neglected but crucial corner of the economy is thriving and could lead Britain’s export recovery, James Hurley reports

‘MMI will deepen public understanding of the work really going on in the economy’

LIFESTORE

Michele Harriman Smith’s business has sales of £28 million in 130 countries

these often overlooked and misunderstood businesses. Childrensalon is one of 24,000 private companies that make up the Mid-Market Index (MMI), the first comprehensive indicator of the size, health and performance of mediumsized businesses. They represent only 1 per cent of active companies, yet produce 25 per cent of private sector employment. “Corporate UK is obsessed with the top 100 companies,” Philip Shaw, an economist with Investec, says. “They are extremely important but the midmarket is neglected. We hope to open up people’s views of mid-sized

companies, because they’re hugely important to the UK.” Damian Kimmelman, the chief executive of Duedil, argues that talking about the FTSE 100 as a “genuine proxy for the UK economy” is a mistake. “It’s lazy to refer to it as offering useful insight [for the economy]. A mid-market index is an index for the real economy.” The MMI looks at the sales, operating profit, return on investment and employment levels of private businesses with sales of between £10 million and £200 million. It reveals that Britain’s mediumsized companies are in rude health.

Analysed back to January 2006, the index has risen from 100 to 135.4 and is growing at 4 per cent a year. Operating profits for medium-sized companies are growing at more than 8 per cent, while return on capital is at a healthy 7.4 per cent. MMI will be updated twice a year and future analyses will reveal everything from sector-by-sector performance comparisons to regional data. Next month, The Times and Investec will reveal the UK’s 100 fastest growing mid-sized businesses from the index. “MMI will become a tool for policymakers, economists and the media,” Mr Kimmelman says. “It will deepen public understanding of the work really going on in the economy.” This sector in Germany, the Mittelstand, is highly regarded, but “relatively little is known” about the UK mid-market, Mr Shaw says. Over the coming years, the MMI will aim to put that right and “show the outstanding contribution of the British Mittelstand”.

working lunch The Grill on the Alley Deansgate, Manchester Order What better way to demonstrate your business’s prowess than with a wagyu fillet steak? Claimed to be the most succulent and tastiest meat in the world, the beef comes from cows that are massaged daily. Add honey, rosemary and chantenay carrots so you get at least one of your five a day. Expect Sitting side by side with some of the city’s finest restaurants, it holds its own with British comfort food.

the week ahead on radio The Bottom Line Thursday, 8.30pm Anyone running a consumerfacing company will understand the power of review sites. Here, Evan Davies discusses how to limit the damage of public criticism and maximise positive write-ups — and deal with rivals using fake reviews. Guests including the TripAdvisor founder Stephen Kaufer, above.

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Monday October 13 2014 | the times

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‘I’m on a megayacht — and I have no idea how to behave’ Sathnam Sanghera joins the billionaires for the Monaco Yacht Show, only to find himself completely out of his depth at every diamond-encrusted turn

he good news is that I am on a megayacht. Physically on board an actual megayacht in Monaco! And it is . . . mega. About 73m long, its five decks are being continually cleaned by a team of sunburnt teenagers with provincial British accents. The ceilings of its 12 guest rooms, seven “state rooms”, four double cabins and two twin cabins are lined with precious palladium leaf. The thick panels of sycamore that comprise part of the floor have been sandblasted, bleached and polished to such perfection that they feel like carpet to walk on and the corridor walls appear to be lined with leather, making you feel as if you are padding through a giant luxe handbag. The bad news is that, coming from Wolverhampton, where the nearest thing to a body of water is a canal, and only just able to swim, I have no idea of how to behave on a megayacht. So while there turns out to be an informal dress code among the select group of people being shown around — the men in chinos with a pastel pullover draped around their shoulders, the women all looking like a version of Princess Stéphanie of Monaco — my cords and lumberjack shirt don’t really cut the mustard. Having no idea you had to take your shoes off before getting on board, I am 15 minutes into the tour before I realise that my socks have holes in them. And everything I say is wrong, whether it is asking the price of the yacht (“If you need to ask, you can’t afford it,” says someone in our group), inquiring about the identity of the owner of the yacht

(“That is confidential information,” announces a representative of the Italian manufacturer), or trying to determine whether this boat classes as a superyacht, megayacht or gigayacht. “If you want to be elegant, you say it is a ‘large yacht’,” says one of the party. “Or a ‘very large yacht’.” Who made the mistake of letting me on? Well, I am at the 2014 Monaco Yacht Show, at the invitation of Boat International (BI) magazine, the Vogue of the superyachting world, to work out why sales are soaring. According to a survey by the industry association Superyacht UK, the British sector is seeing a return to order levels not seen since before the financial crash. BI magazine — so thick with high-end advertising and features on £112,500 Richard Mille watches that the postman fails to get it through my letterbox — estimates that, in terms of

The leather walls make you feel you’re in a giant luxe handbag length, 9,337m of superyachts were sold across the globe in the calendar year to July 2014, up from 6,716m last year, amounting to sales worth some €1.99 billion (£1.6 billion), up from €1.39 billion. Of course, having read in the newspaper cuttings, during my easyJet flight, about the Emir of Abu Dhabi’s 180m-long yacht Azzam, which at $627 million (£389 million) is classed at the most expensive luxury asset of all time, and Roman Abramovich’s 163m

Eclipse, which caters for 36 guests, requires 92 crew, includes use of a submarine and costs more than $2 million a week to charter, and how even smaller yachts, as a rule of thumb cost $1 million a metre to build or buy, I have put the boom down to a mindless need to keep up with the Joneses among the globally hyperwealthy. And I can’t say my 36 hours in Monaco entirely subvert these preconceptions, given (a) some of the yachts parked in the harbour go by names such as My Trust Fund and Privilege One, (b) I find myself at one point listening to someone complain that the font on the monogrammed towels on a superyacht doesn’t quite match “the design philosophy of the boat” (which forces me to redefine the entire notion of first-world problems), and (c) the esoteric nature of the goods flogged to superyacht owners in the miles of exhibition stands. They include: a glass company selling a €90,000 clock; a business flogging boat name signs that cost up to $70,000 each (“They are waterproof,” says the sales assistant, as if this is some kind of justification); a Dutch party organiser who tells me it is not uncommon for owners to spend £200,000 on one party just for 100 people, 50 of whom the owner might not even know (“I’m not a pimp!” he adds, without prompting), and a $25 million “full ocean depth submarine”, which will allow three of your guests to explore the bottom of the ocean while feasting on caviar and drinking champagne (“How many have we sold? None.”). It is insane, and I find myself

The Monaco Yacht Show. Left: Sir Philip Green ferries friends to his yacht in 2013. Above right: Prince Albert of Monaco. Below right: Lewis Hamilton

the times | Monday October 13 2014

FGM COVER: KOS PICTURES; BGELOW GETTY IMAGES, VANTAGE NEWS

times2 (and certainly not British) owners hiring dwarfs to water-ski around their boat; sending dry-cleaning by Learjet to New York; waking up one morning and firing the entire crew without notice; demanding that to toilets be cleaned with cotton buds. But it is also reflected in the reflec language that lan manufacturers use to court owners, with yacht builders at the yacht show talking about talkin “visionar owners” “visionary wners” and “building dreams” in their marketing literature. erature. And in the relentlessly ssly bespoke nature of the services on offer to yacht owners. One of the reasons there are no price tags is that every object, however mundane, is potentially on sale for infinity pounds as a result of being unique, with even a mattress manufacturer telling me that while prices start at $1,000, the potential spend is “unlimited” because “you could have them heart-shaped and made out of gold if you want”. Then there is the art, which is on sale everywhere at the Monaco Yacht Show, in various degrees of quality, and some of it in a gallery

I’m taken to the King of Norway. Will it be a yacht or a monarch? crying with laughter when I come across marketing material from one manufacturer that tries to make spending tens of millions on a yacht sound essential. “The simple pleasure of watching your family enjoying themselves,” it says. “The quiet joy of observing your friends meet new friends. The delight at the effortless service afforded by the discreetly attentive crew.” However, I battle with my sanctimony in an attempt to gain a more sophisticated understanding of the market. I remind myself that all wealth and poverty is relative and that the industry supports 140,000 jobs in the UK alone and contributes £6.2 billion to the economy. I attend (along with the likes of Tina Green and David Coulthard) the glamorous Boat International Party at the magnificent new HQ of the Monaco Yacht Club designed by Lord Foster, and talk to so many boat owners and board so many yachts that when, at one point, I am told I am being taken to the “King of Norway”, I don’t know whether it will be a yacht or a monarch. While there is no getting away from the inane bling of some of it, I will concede a couple of things, the first that for some owners, the yachts are a reflection of a deepseated interest in sailing. Admittedly, some owners don’t use their yachts to explore the world beyond the harbours of Antibes, Capri and Portofino. And some superyachts are packed with fittings that would make Liberace blush, and basically feel like Las Vegas hotels on water. But some of the boats, like the Italian one I tour, are utterly, supremely beautiful.

Get your jetty-quette right Come bearing gifts and make them count Don’t even consider stepping on board without a well thought-out gift. Anything monogrammed or personalised will go down a treat. Mug up on the age of your hosts’ children; there is little more embarrassing than giving a My Little Pony to a 14-year-old boy.

I went to the Monaco Yacht Show not even being able to imagine why someone would buy a superyacht, and left thinking that if I were a billionaire, I might be tempted. Another concession: for many owners, their superyachts, more than anything else in their lives, are a form of creative fulfilment. The hyperwealthy, of course, have no shortage of outlets of expression for their colossal egos. But while cars are designed by other people and houses are subject to planning limitations and local laws, you can stick almost anything on a yacht and, given the international nature of the waters you are travelling through, you can behave however you want once you’re on them. The fantasy nature of the world is reflected in the stories of excess: people in the industry are full of tales — uncorroborated — of anonymous

Get involved in the action No one appreciates an idle guest, but make sure you know how to use the toys. True story: one acquaintance was stranded at sea when her bikini bottoms got caught up in the motor of her Sea-Doo. The hostess was mortified when a crew member went to fish out her marooned, commando-style guest. The tipping point Every self-respecting yacht owner has a policy on tipping crew. Some encourage guests to show their appreciation, while others deem tipping to be the ultimate insult. Find out where your host stands on the issue and come prepared with a wad of cash just in case. Bring your A-game Every guest should have a special skill to bring to the

party. If yours is conversation, come armed with an arsenal of amusing anecdotes; if it is board games, pack your king-sized Scrabble; if you don’t have a skill, find one. Fast. Compliment the host Spend at least ten minutes a day extolling the virtues of your host’s yacht. A little sycophancy goes a long way. Mind over matter Avoid the pitfall of dosing up on anti-nausea medication unless you want to spend the entire trip asleep. True fact: on my first superyacht cruise I gratefully guzzled the travel sickness pills on offer and spent the next five days in a state of semi-consciousness, even falling asleep at the table — twice. I was never invited back. Drink with caution Everyone loves cocktail hour, but do monitor your alcohol intake. True story: one unfortunate friend, having ingested more than her share of wine, stumbled to her cabin only to discover in the morning that she had climbed into bed with the wrong man. By the Superyacht Wife courtesy of Boat International

that, for reasons I don’t understand, has a massive Porsche parked in the middle of it. But I find myself struck in particular by the work of the Irishman Eoin Turner, whose “commissioned art”, according to the literature, is “a blend of the classic and the sophisticated embodied by his unique bond with nature and his raw, evolving talent”, and who has on his stand a copy of a lead crystal and cast metal sculpture of Eddie Jordan’s yacht Blush, which he sold to the former Formula One team leader and which is displayed in the yacht itself. It turns out to be docked in the nearby harbour and the artist turns out to be on the exhibition stand. As he tells me that he is the “first artist to create models of yachts which are a hybrid of a model and a sculpture” — explaining that while the piece cost about €30,000 other works could be a lot more because they could be “inlaid with diamonds” and that his work appeals to superyacht owners because “they have been highly involved in the creation of their boat, which is an expression of their personality” — I can’t get the image out of my head. A multimillionaire superyacht owner, sitting on his multimillionpound superyacht, admiring a possibly diamond-encrusted sculpture of the superyacht in question. I guess whether you think this is something to aspire to or a nauseating celebration of inequality, defines not only how you feel about superyachts, but how you feel about life in general. Boat International is available every month on newsstands or on the web through boatinternational. subscribeonline.co.uk

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life

Professor Tanya Byron My teenage son likes wearing women’s clothes My 14-year-old son has been crossdressing, on and off, for three years. He has mild special needs and was living with his mother until three months ago. The social services became involved due to emotional abuse he has suffered from his mother over many years, and he moved in with me. She is essentially a very angry woman with few friends and rarely leaves the house. I separated from her eight years ago but have only just got the strength to start divorce proceedings. She bitterly complained about him stealing her make-up and bras, until finally she relented and gave him his own clothes. Over the past few weeks, he has begun speaking to his mum on the phone — she desperately wants him back. At home with me all has been well and he’s been a typical (stroppy) teenager! He has not shown any desire to dress up, until two weeks ago, when he secretly arranged for his mother to bring him a bag of clothes. I came across them and when I spoke to him his response was that he wanted me to buy him more, which I have done. I’ve asked him if he wants to become a girl and he said “no”. I’m worried his mother will “feed his habit” in the hope I send him back, unable to cope. On another note, he has developed an obsession with online porn. Most of which is normal stuff, from what I see on his phone, but there are often searches for “boys wearing bras”. Is it just a phase, a form of comfort from the emotional turmoil of being in the middle of divorcing parents? Surely it’s my duty as a father to do my best to turn him away from such thoughts and desires? Ajay

To begin with your last question, I believe that the duty of a parent is to first understand why their child is thinking, feeling and behaving in the way that they are, before trying to intervene. You appear to be open-minded about the issue of your son’s cross-dressing and have been able to talk to him and have decided to buy him clothes to dress up in. I admire you for taking this stance, which signals to him that you want to be non-judgmental. Cross-dressing in children usually begins before the age of ten and is more accepted in girls than boys. Young people who cross-dress may do so for a variety of reasons to do with their emerging identity, including questions around gender identity and sexuality. Research from the United States indicates that 90 per cent of those who cross-dress do not do so for sexual pleasure and 20 per cent of open (non-secretive) cross-dressing in boys was initiated, and encouraged, by a female family member. Many young men who cross-dress feel a deep sense of embarrassment about their behaviour and do so with shame and in secret. To try to make your son stop wearing women’s clothes would only make the behaviour more furtive, stressed and unhappy. You ask whether this behaviour reflects the emotional turmoil within the family and without wishing to pathologise your son’s behaviour, it is worth considering whether this may be the case. It would also be worth thinking about his relationship with his mother and what this behaviour may have represented for them. Gender identity, as a male, is a developmental process that requires boys to separate psychologically from their mother

Gender identity requires boys to separate from their mother

as they go through the adolescent process of individuation. This may be more problematic for boys without a constant male role model, especially if they have an emotionally fraught relationship with their mother. It appears that within an abusive relationship, your son was given understanding and support from his mother when it came to crossdressing. In some way his behaviour enabled a connection between them which may have felt loving among the emotional abuse. It is interesting that now he is living with you, he and his mother have met in secret for her to deliver women’s clothes — he could meet her by offering the part of him that she supports. Whether his cross-dressing indicates a more complex gender identity can only be understood over time with careful therapeutic conversation. While I am not suggesting your son engages in therapy because of his cross-dressing, he may benefit from a safe space where he can process the family turmoil and explore his own identity. Counselling can be arranged via a GP, or bps.org.uk, or bacp.co.uk. You have asked your son if he wants to be a girl and he has said he does not. However, this may need further discussion in case his first reaction was made in shame. Cross-dressing does not indicate dissatisfaction with one’s own gender, and most boys and men who cross-dress are heterosexual (see mermaidsuk.org.uk). The fact that you have engaged with your son about his cross-dressing means he feels able to communicate with you. His behaviour, in itself, does not indicate deep-seated issues despite the negative judgment it arouses in many. However, given the many issues that your son has had to cope with, with an emotionally labile mother and an at times absent father, he will require time, space and compassion to explore who he is beyond the clothes he enjoys wearing and the pornography he is viewing. If you have a family problem you would like Professor Byron’s advice on, email her at proftanyabyron@thetimes.co.uk

Monday October 13 2014 | the times

Shall I

Cordelia Feldman is young, single and recovering from breast cancer surgery. She’s also dating like never before, she says

‘S

o, why are you single?” my date Phil asks me as we sit at a table outside my local pub. “Oh, you know,” I say, gazing into my drink. “The love of my life became a monk. We were together for a while — on and off.” Putting on an air of 13th-century tragedy, for this is indeed a medieval problem to have, I hold his gaze for a few seconds, then look away. “So, why are you single?” I say. “Well, my last boss wanted me to be at work all the time — didn’t leave much time for a relationship,” he says, launching into an explanation of his boss’s cruel management methods. I listen. Danger over, for the moment. That’s not the whole story, although it’s certainly true. The love of my life did indeed split up with me to become a monk four years ago, but there’s a bit more to it than that: 16 months ago, at the age of 33, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. My tumour was 10cm across and I was told that it was inoperable. An invasive ductal carcinoma, it filled my whole breast, subsequently invading a large area of skin above it. The first symptom that I noticed was a rash. I had no idea that breast cancer could present in this way. So, I had a year of treatment: nine cycles of chemotherapy over six months, six weeks of growing a hump (nicknamed “Engelbert”) of extra skin

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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tell my Tinder date I have cancer? SONJA HORSMAN

my hair and even eyelashes falling out. So it was such fun to be able to dress up, meet new people, to talk about something other than cancer, hospital and the side-effects of drugs. Then I met “the Iceman” (because he’s from Iceland). Immediately something clicked. When we achieved a second date I told him about my breast cancer diagnosis. “Yeah, I guessed,” he said. “How come?” I said, surprised. “The wig, the scars around your chest,” he said. “Oh, OK,” I said. “You must be quite vulnerable,” he said. “Maybe,” I said. Unfortunately, he went back to Iceland, but now I know that there’s someone out there who wants more than one date with me. Hopefully he’s not the only one. However, I’ve now created another problem. When do I tell them that I’m writing a dating blog? Of course I change their names, the blog is anonymous and I don’t post any photos of them on it. In fact, when I say that I write a dating blog, the

In the first month I dated 30 men. Some days I met two chaps

on my back as I was going to lose so much skin; mastectomy with latissimus dorsi flap and reconstruction; 25 rounds of radiotherapy. So please — if you notice any changes in your breast tissue — go to the doctor. Then, in April, treatment was over and a month later I joined Tinder. It seemed a good way to start dating again: fresh, modern, fun. No need for a lengthy profile on how or where I planned to educate the children I won’t be able to produce; my tumour is oestrogen-dependent so pregnancy isn’t recommended for at least five more years, taking me to 40. While there was plenty of information and support around for young breast cancer patients with children and partners, there was very little for those of us who found ourselves dating again with a breast cancer diagnosis. Dating is stressful enough without having to worry about your false eyelashes sticking together, your wig coming off or the hot flushes caused by chemotherapy. I began writing a blog, “Scars, Tears and Training Bras”, in June. The basic premise is I date a lot of chaps and document my experiences and the men’s reactions to my news that I’ve had breast cancer surgery. I hoped that the blog would resonate with other young women in my position: struggling with mutilated bodies, ravaged minds and hormones all over the place. Internet dating has changed since the early 2000s, when I first

encountered it — the heady early days ys of JDate, Match.com and suchlike. Tinder is fast, furious, frenetic. You can deal with 100 possible matches per minute if you desire. It is locationbased: you search for people around you. The average age of Tinder users is 27, so although I set my search parameters from 25 to 45, I achieve many more matches at the lower end of that scale. This seems to confirm the cultural shift towards older women dating younger men. Tinder is fun — in a way that I’ve never found dating to be fun before. Younger men are great company and, of course, often very easy on the eye. It’s not all dates, drinks and toned torsos though. Last month my cancer flared up again in the skin, a mere four months after the end of radiotherapy. Once skin has had cancer in it, there’s always a risk of recurrence, so I’m back on the merry-go-round of hospitals, waiting rooms and horrible conversations. Breast cancer attacks your femininity from all angles. Before my diagnosis I had very long curly hair that I loved, a large bust and cleavage I was proud of and a gym-honed figure. After a year of treatment I was a stone heavier, with short, very curly hair that stuck straight up and scars all over my chest and back. I used to wear matching lingerie sets; now I have to wear teenage training bras — I still can’t wear a proper bra, even nine months after surgery. After a year away from dating, I worried that I would never want

Cordelia Feldman in her garden at home and, left, partying before her diagnosis

anyone to see my body again, but actually, almost immediately, I realised that it didn’t matter. Wearing my wig and some make-up, I was pretty much still me. I’ve bought higher-necked tops and I get my legs out more. My first Tinder date was with a 26-year-old trainee doctor who wrote “I fly little planes for fun” on his profile. How could I resist? As soon as we met I felt comfortable and happy in his company. We had a great evening: lots of drinks and chat and laughter. I realised that I could still do this dating thing. The year of breast cancer treatment has changed my outlook. Before, dating had seemed so serious, so important. Now, it didn’t seem to matter so much. I’d just spent a year having my veins pumped full of poison, my skin hacked and burnt off,

8 things not to say to someone with cancer by Cordelia Feldman thetimes.co.uk and tablet editions

standard response has been, “Just as long as you give me a good review, I don’t mind”. The writing itself sends me towards certain men. I’m always thinking about whether a certain chap will be a good story. So I’ve dated a polo player; a chap who is 6ft 8in — I’m a bit of a gigantophile: I love enormous animals and am fascinated by very tall men. Iceland, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, New Zealand, Australia, America, Canada, Israel, Belgium, France, South Africa, Portugal and Switzerland have all provided men for the blog. So along the way I’ve learnt about different cultures, languages and customs. In the first month I dated about 30 men. Some days I met two chaps: one at lunchtime, one in the evening. After that initial exhausting flood, I have reduced it to one or two per week. My parents are big fans of the blog, although there have been a couple of sticky moments. Once I wrote that I wasn’t having my elderly mother creeping round my flat when I came back from a date (I’m not running the Bates Motel!) and she rather took exception to that, but as I told her: I’m writing the blog, so I get the best lines. I’m so glad that I’m getting out there and enjoying myself. Life is short and it’s so important to make opportunities to meet people. The blog opens doors. I’ve just shot a short film sponsored by Estée Lauder as part of its Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign. At the launch at Kensington Palace last week, it was introduced by Elizabeth Hurley. I’m no longer obsessed with whether or not some random chap likes me and that in itself is a victory. Dating is meant to be fun, and finally it is. scarstearsandtrainingbras. wordpress.com. Watch a video of Cordelia Feldman and her mother discussing her dating blog: tablet editions and thetimes.co.uk/life

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Monday October 13 2014 | the times

arts

‘As a surgeon, I know flesh and blood well enough’ Neurosurgeon Henry Marsh had always doubted whether art could depict the impact of physical trauma. We sent him to a new exhibition about the horror of war to change his mind

an art convey the reality of modern warfare? Can it bring to us the sound of explosions or the smell of blood and torn flesh? As a surgeon, I know flesh and blood well enough from the trauma cases I have treated and have usually found the depiction of medical scenes by artists to be unsatisfactory (although, perhaps significantly, not some of the famous paintings of postmortems, such as Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp) even when the artists, such as Henry Tonks and Henry Lamb, are themselves doctors. I therefore approached a new exhibition of war art at Manchester Art Gallery, The Sensory War 1914-2014, with some reservations. It is true that we conceive of war — at least those of us who have not fought in one — in a rather sanitised, almost abstract way. To us it is a series of lifeless images or tactical battle plans in military history books with thousands of living and dying soldiers represented by broad black arrows pointing across maps. The experience for the soldiers, of course, is entirely different and involves all the senses: the terrifying noise of artillery and IEDs produced by modern ordnance; the stench of dead bodies and filthy latrines; the

eye-watering smoke and associated confusion; the intense comradeship and the deep fear of death and injury. But what can works of art give us that is not present in photographs? The curators of this exhibition, three years in the making, aim to show that art can add the missing senses, albeit indirectly. Manchester Art Gallery has always had one of the finest collections of First World War art in the country.

This was in the main the result of the work of its first director, Lawrence Haward, and the pictures he acquired for the gallery form the core of this exhibition, alongside loans from many other museums and some private collections. Rather than being a comprehensive survey, the exhibition includes artists famous and obscure, from this country and abroad, with many remarkable and little-seen images.

Advanced Dressing Station on the Struma by Henry Lamb, above, and 5,000 Feet is the Best by Omer Fast, above left

The Italian artist Pietro Morando’s powerful drawings of the Italian front and of life in a Hungarian prisoner of war camp were completely new for me; they remain eerily prescient of the concentration camps of the next war. This is, of course, a big and ambitious subject and as such has been split into ten themes, including Militarising Bodies; Manufacturing War; Female Factories; Bombing, Burning and Distant War, and Pain

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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arts

BELOW: MRS HENRIETTA PHIPPS / THE PUBLIC CATALOGUE FOUNDATION/ THE ESTATE OF HENRY LAMB

IMAGES COURTESY OF MANCHESTER CITY GALLERIES, THE ESTATE OF LEON UNDERWOOD, THE BRITISH MUSEUM

mask fused together, is used on the posters advertising the exhibition. These modern works, by artists without personal experience of war, inevitably lack the authority of those by artists with such experience, although some of the contemporary photographs — perhaps a little ironically given the theme of the exhibition — are arresting, especially of the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, some horribly injured. One shows a young woman holding out, with her left arm, her detached prosthetic right arm (technically speaking, she has had a “fore-quarter amputation”, with the entire arm removed at the shoulder). Warfare is barbaric and yet many young men are drawn to it — think now of the jihadis going to Syria — and what town or village in Britain does not have war memorials declaring that it is a fine thing to

A photographic exhibition on war would not have the same impact

and Succour, with more than 160 paintings and prints. The futurist CRW Nevinson’s initial images portrayed what he called “the beauty of strife” (the futurists admired violence, considering bloody war the only possible way of cleansing a decadent world) but his later pictures became more figurative (such as A Front Line near St Quentin). Nevinson had been deeply traumatised by the suffering of the poilus (French infantrymen) whom he cared for in clearing stations when serving as a volunteer ambulance driver. He had a difficult career after the war and fell out with many people; you may well wonder whether in the modern era he would be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. This show is worth seeing for his works alone, especially his depictions of aerial warfare, a form of fighting in profound contrast to the hell going on in the trenches below. Alongside beauty — Nevinson’s Searchlights and his Archies, for instance — there are, of course, some deeply distressing works, such as the drawings (and some

Bloody war was to futurists the way to cleanse a decadent world

Above, from top: Concrete Observation Post, Mount Kemmel by Leon Underwood and Gas Mask by Sophie Jodoin Left, from top: Dawn Halfaker by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and Making Aircraft: Acetylene Welder 1917 by CRW Nevinson Right: neurosurgeon Henry Marsh

contemporary photographs from Iraq and Afghanistan) of soldiers with disfiguring facial injuries. Some are grotesque and powerful (the works by Otto Dix and the lesser-known German Heinrich Hoerle), some profoundly moving in their raw simplicity, in particular the amateur works by Hiroshima survivors, known in Japan as hibakusha. One looks at first sight like a pretty floral tapestry — on closer examination you realise it shows thousands of bloated dead bodies floating in a river into which people had thrown themselves because of the terrible burns inflicted on them by the atomic bomb. These artists, many of whom saw action and were profoundly affected by it, show war in all its aspects — the maimed and shell-shocked soldiers, the devastated environment, the suffering of civilians (for instance Dix’s The Madwoman of Sainte-Marie-à-Py) and the grief of the parents of dead soldiers, represented by a series of woodcuts by the great German artist Kathe Kollwitz, one of whose two sons was killed in the First World War). However, there are also works by contemporary artists such as the Canadian Sophie Jodoin, in the section entitled Chemical War and Toxic Imaginations. One of these, a nightmarish image of a face and gas

die for one’s country? The Cenotaph is dedicated to the Glorious Dead. Much of the art of war (with a few exceptions such as Goya) has been propaganda, emphasising the glory and denying the destruction and suffering, but there is none of that here. Theodor Adorno famously wrote in 1949 that “to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric”, Au although he changed his opinion later and the quotation is usually taken out of its context. I have always been doubtful, alw if not downright critical, of contemporary writers and film-makers who set their stories in the wars and concentration wa camps of the last century: ca it seems to me to be a form of voyeurism and fo exploitation. exp By turning turnin a scene of devastation or suffering into an arresting or even beautiful image, I fear that as much is being lost as is being gained. However, despite my initial doubts, the work here is immensely powerful. A purely photographic exhibition covering the same subject matter would not have the same impact, and it is a challenge, as you walk round these works, to contemplate why that should be so. Perhaps it is because you identify with an artist in a way that you do not identify with a photographer and you feel less of a voyeur. Or perhaps it is because most of us recoil from photographs that show terrible scenes of suffering and death — we detach ourselves from the meaning of what we are seeing, just as I must sometimes detach myself from what I see in my work as a surgeon. These works show that art can reach across that gulf and bring us close to really hearing, smelling, feeling, seeing — whether we want to or not. The Sensory War 1914-2014 is at Manchester Art Gallery (manchestergalleries.org), to Feb 22

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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Dashing MI6 officer and expert on southeast Asia Allan Rowley Page 48

Obituaries

Alastair Reid

Lives remembered

Travel writer, poet and prolific translator of Hispanic authors who had stormy relations with Robert Graves REX FEATURES

It was while roaming Spain that the writer and inveterate traveller Alastair Reid made the connection that was to shape his career. The year was 1953 and, visiting the island of Majorca with his first wife Jean, he stopped in the village of Deiá. One morning he was sitting outside his pension when a passerby commented on his reading material. “I happened to be reading Samuel Butler’s Notebooks,” Reid later recalled. “If I had been reading Ezra Pound, he would never have spoken to me.” This was Robert Graves, the poet and author of I, Claudius, then 68. Reid became his pupil and assistant, spending a portion of each year with him. He was dispatched by Beryl Graves to accompany her husband on reading tours “to make sure he has his teeth in”, and even did the donkey work on his translations of classical texts. In return, he was shown how to survive as a poet by doing other work (“breeding show dogs in order to be able to afford a cat”) and via Graves’s corrections of his work, “scribbling on my English, moving things around”, how to write prose. The relationship came to a sorry end in 1960 when Reid, then married to his second wife with a one-year-old son,

Jorge Luis Borges visited him on the way to collect his Nobel prize made off with Graves’s muse, Margot Callas, to live in a watermill in the Basque country. Although Callas returned soon after, Graves never forgave Reid. He even wrote a poem, Beware, Madam, that referred to Reid as a “witty devil . . . his tongue oozing evil”. Reid also lived in Switzerland, Argentina, France, Mexico, Greece, Chile, England, the Dominican Republic and his native Scotland. His homes included a barge on the Thames, a one-room apartment in Greenwich Village, New York, and a shack in the Dominican Republic — on the beach where Columbus had made landfall in 1492. There, with his longterm companion, Leslie Clark, a television documentary writer and producer whom he married in 2011, he worked a ginger plantation during the day and spent the evenings in a hammock. In a story for The New Yorker, he told how the local fishermen, who knew him as “Don Alejandro”, enjoyed looking at his post. Seeing an advertisement for a rowing machine, they mistook it for a means of travelling faster. His explanation that it was used for exercise was met with incomprehension: “Exercise? What’s that?” Movement was, for him, “like putting on different lives” and his writing was much the same, encompassing poetry, translations of the great Latin American writers Pablo Neruda and Jorge Luis Borges, opera librettos and children’s books, including Ounce Dice Trice (1958), a celebration of strange words. He was also a valued contributor to The New Yorker, his association with the magazine lasting from 1943 to 2004, and

Robert Graves never forgave Reid, above, for running off with his muse

including more than 100 articles and poems, some of which were collected in Whereabouts (1987). For considerable periods of his life The New Yorker offices acted as his permanent address. Charles McGrath, a colleague there, wrote that “his mail used to pile up in wire baskets until Alastair suddenly swooped in for a few months, like some tall, sandy-haired bird of passage, before just as suddenly departing”. One of his essays almost ended the association, however, when in 1984 The Wall Street Journal declared that his series of essays, Notes From A Spanish Village, had included composite characters and other deviations from the truth, considered a betrayal of the magazine’s principles. The world of American letters was outraged, but Reid declared that he “didn’t feel a twinge of guilt” and cited a telegram he received from fellow writer Susan Sontag that read: “Dear Alastair

— It’s called writing.” Fortunately, his editor stood by him. The Notes From A Spanish Village were a neat summary of his chosen lifestyle: a remote dwelling, an unchanged way of life, no electricity or running water. From Graves he learnt to reduce his circumstances — candles and buckets became a way of life — and he cared little for his appearance. When the novelist Muriel Spark, a colleague at The New Yorker, called him the “second worst-dressed man in New York” (she declined to name the worst), he took it as a compliment. His bohemianism came with a relentless good humour, irreverence and remarkable lack of self-regard. At The New Yorker, said McGrath, “You knew he was in residence, even if you hadn’t seen him, by the sound of his exuberant laugh and sometimes by the tendrils of dope smoke seeping from beneath his closed door.” Alastair Reid was born in Whithorn, Galloway, in 1926. He was raised in what he called “an almost perfect Edenic myth of beginning”, a pastoral childhood of coast and field. Though

given a middle name at birth he never revealed it and had it legally removed. His father was a Church of Scotland minister, whose sermons instilled in him his love of language while his mother was the local doctor, and often used the kitchen as a surgery. In 1943 he began a degree in Classics at the University of St Andrews, where he was a noted rugby full-back, but his studies were interrupted by conscription into the Royal Navy a year later. Trained as a coder, he saw service in the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Indian Ocean and was on his way to the Far East when news came of the bombing of Hiroshima. He was changed irrevocably by his experiences and after completing his degree set off at once for New York, where he taught English at Sarah Lawrence College. He loved the openness of America, but it was Spain that transformed him into what he called “another self . . . more spontaneous and exuberant”. This came both from the people and the language but at the expense of his homeland, which he found unnecessarily forbidding. In his best known poem, Scotland, he recounted a conversation with a woman in a fish shop who reacts to his remarks on the fine weather with, “We’ll pay for it, we’ll pay for it, we’ll pay for it!” Nonetheless, he followed Heart of Midlothian football team through thick and thin, and in later years softened in his attitude. From 2003, he returned annually to a farm near his birthplace and on a visit in 2007 he publicly burnt a copy of the poem to show how his views had changed. He had, anyway, returned to Scotland in 1971 with Jasper, his son by his second wife, Mary MortimerMaddox. After his liaison with Margot Callas led to their divorce, he raised the boy in various places — in Spain, on his houseboat moored off Cheyne Walk in London, in Ohio and then in St Andrews. Jasper went to Yale University and now works as a management consultant and translator in Boston. Reid also had a son in 1950 from a previous relationship, Michael Reid who is now a id Hunter, Hu goldsmith and outreach worker in Alaska. Reid’s first published volume of poetry was To Lighten My House (1953), which was favourably compared with WH Auden and Dylan Thomas. For many years, he put aside his own work to translate others’ and was instrumental in spreading the reputation of Borges and Neruda into the Englishspeaking world. They became friends, as did other notable Latin American writers. Borges visited him in St Andrews on his way to collect his Nobel prize. It was Neruda who gave him the nickname that was to stay with him for decades: Patapela, meaning “barefoot”. Alastair Reid, writer and translator, was born on March 22, 1926. He died on September 22, 2014, aged 88

Philip Howard Norman Hammond writes: Philip Howard (obituary, Oct 7) was not only one of The Times’s longest-serving writers over half a century, he was also one of the last of the “Black Friars”, the journalists who worked at the paper’s original Printing House Square base and used the adjacent Black Friar pub as their local. William Rees-Mogg had just succeeded Sir William Haley as editor, and for a few months Philip, the late Charles Douglas-Home and I shared a desk. The next desk was occupied by Peter Hopkirk, later our chief reporter (obituary, Aug 27): we had all recently joined The Times — Philip in 1964, Charles in 1965, Peter in 1966, myself in 1967 — and those were (still just) the days when a tea-lady came round in mid-afternoon with a trolley bearing individual silverplated teapots for each of us. Nicholas Tatton Brown writes: First thing on a Monday morning, as the battalion was forming up for the adjutant’s parade, a familiar sight was a taxi hurrying round the barrack square from the guardroom to the officers’ mess. Two minutes later, 2nd-Lt Howard was on parade. He often cut it fine on his return from weekends visiting Myrtle.

Sir Donald Sinden Kenneth Cope writes: We were rehearsing at the Bristol Old Vic when a disembodied stage-door keeper’s voice thundered from the wings, “Call for Mr Sinden”, followed by a softer voice, “It’s important”. While the director raged, we consulted our rustling scripts. Donald (obituary, Sept 13) came back with an embarrassed, sheepish smile and announced, “They want me — I’ve got the part.” It was The Cruel Sea — Donald’s life had changed forever.

Dorothy Tyler Eileen Brewer writes: I belonged to the same athletics club, Mitcham AC, as Dorothy (obituary, Sept 29) and also competed against her in the high jump. I beat her once, but only in a handicap event when I was awarded an advantage of three inches. However, we both played for the same team in netball — she was a very good shooter. I wrote to Dorothy when she was awarded the MBE and said, “better late than never”. Her reply was: “I think I am enjoying it more now than when it would have been just another medal”. Thanks for the memories, Dorothy. If you would like to add a personal view or @ recollection to a published obituary, you

can send your contribution by post to Times Obituaries, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF, or by email to tributes@thetimes.co.uk

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Monday October 13 2014 | the times

Allan Rowley

Lives in brief

MI6 officer and expert on southeast Asia who played a pivotal role in the region after the war Brave, worldly and excellent company, Allan Rowley was just the sort of man the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), or MI6, was looking for as it began reshaping the organisation with which it had muddled its way through the Second World War. Rowley had developed notable leadership qualities, winning the Military Cross fighting in the jungles of Burma, and had acquired useful experience of southeast Asia. Whether the Cairo roof party where he met the beautiful and vivacious SIS secretary Anne Cresswell, who was to become his partner in a long and loving marriage, was also the place where he was recruited is uncertain, but not unlikely. Rowley was ready for something new as a war wound had left him with a limp, confining him to desk work in the army. Early recognition of his potential was indicated by a posting to head the SIS office in Rangoon in the early 1950s. Burma, which is modern Myanmar, had left the Commonwealth in 1948 but the Westminster-style government had run into trouble. The shrewd and charismatic prime minister in waiting, Aung San, had been assassinated by a jealous rival and the politically volatile peoples of the central plain felt themselves ill-used when their particular party failed to win an election. Frequent changes of government and a weak economy provided fertile ground for penetration of the indigenous “Red Flag” (traditionalist) and “White Flag” (revisionist) communist parties by the rival agents of Moscow and Beijing. By his characteristically frank and friendly engagement with the relatively naive local communist leaders, and in co-operation with the Burmese police, Rowley was able to counter both penetration attempts – and keep the issues domestic. He also attempted the ultimately disheartening task of trying to win over the recalcitrant hill tribes to the idea of being ruled from Rangoon. The tribes had loyally supported Britain during the Japanese occupation and mistrusted the men of the central plain for being

THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION / GETTY IMAGES

He would match a tired Willie Whitelaw drink for drink

Rowley brought a special ethos to the Far East brotherhood soft and corrupt. They were also religiously at odds with the Buddhist majority as a result of being subjected to Christian missionary zeal in the 19th century, and they proved impervious to Rowley’s warm-hearted persuasion. His grasp of Asiatic mores and prejudices led to his secondment to the office of the British commissioner-general for southeast Asia in Singapore, Sir Robert Heatlie Scott, who had succeeded Malcolm MacDonald in 1955. It was a delicate time for British influence in the region with Malaysian independence on the horizon, expanding communist influence in the Indo-China states, and Australia and New Zealand still hesitant about British withdrawal from east of Suez. Appointed OBE in 1959 for his work with the commissioner-general, he jumped at the offer of another secondment, this time to Melbourne as an adviser to the Australian Secret Intelligence Service. He immediately felt at home in Melbourne, so much so that as his time there drew towards a close he left the service to become a businessman in Australia. This was not a success, however, and he rejoined the SIS in 1967, aged 45. Acknowledged as an expert on southeast Asia, he was posted to Kuala Lumpur as counsellor and foreign af-

ing crises helped to improve interdepartmental intelligence co-operation. He and the then Northern Ireland secretary, William Whitelaw, became particularly close. During the most trying times Rowley would match a tired and embattled Willie drink for drink, giving him opportunity to let his hair down with someone in whom he had absolute trust. Rowley’s final post with the SIS was as Controller Far East, a deanery stretching from Pakistan to Japan and New Zealand throughout which he was known, respected and welcomed at the highest levels. Always electing to stay with the head of station, he would sit up until the early morning, listening and encouraging. He brought a special ethos to the Far East brotherhood. He was appointed CMG in 1978. His wife died on March 19 this year. He is survived by three daughters: Charlotte Eastwood, director of risk

Allan Rowley was appointed to head the MI6 operation in Rangoon, top, in the early 1950s after being recruited, possibly at a roof-top party in Cairo, where he met his future wife, Anne Cresswell, above. She was already working for the intelligence services. He had won the Military Cross in 1945

fairs adviser to the British high commissioner. The cosmopolitan and vibrant Malaysian capital suited him well. Whisky “stengah” in hand, holding forth at “The Dog” — the Royal Selangor Club — soon brought him new friends and, crucially, the trust of ministers and senior officers of the Malaysian police and special branch. Despite the main political party UNMO (United Malays National Organisation) being representative of all ethnic groups, resentment simmered among the poor urban Chinese. In May 1969 the population of Kuala Lumpur’s “China Town” rioted against alleged Malay dominance. Violence spread to

other towns in Selangor state and the urban Malay population met violence with violence. A state of emergency was declared and the local predominantly Malay brigade of the Malaysian army was deployed in the streets in support of the police. Order was restored but Rowley’s advice in the aftermath was evidently key to the return of calm. This was recognised by his appointment as a Tan Sri, a superior form of Dato (knight) and a high honour. From 1972 to 1974 he was seconded to the Northern Ireland Office, where his good fellowship and calmness in the face of continual and often exasperat-

and compliance in a Jersey Trust company; Sarah Van Haeften, the director of an art gallery in London; and Joanna Wort, a retired chef; and a son: Nicholas Rowley, the chief executive of an educational technology company. Frederick Allan Rowley was born in Rajputana, India, wa where his father was the regimental quartermaster sergeant of the Worcestershire Regiment. He te was educated at Haig wa School, Aldershot, where his ambitions were to play cricket for Worcester and join the army. He was selected for the county colts and through this found a job as a clerk in Aldershot town hall. A territorial army soldier on the outbreak of war in 1939, he was selected for officer training in India and comtrainin missioned in 1941 into the 10th Baluch missione Regiment, a unit with a reputation for courage dating from 1844. Rowley joined the 5th battalion in the 19th Indian “Dagger” division training for the 14th Army’s eventual recovery of Japanese-occupied Burma. The 19th Indian division just beat the 2nd British division in the race to Shwebo, the regional capital on the central reaches of the Irrawaddy. It was there that Rowley won his Military Cross in February 1945. As a company commander of 5/10th Baluch, he led the attack on a Japanese position half a mile ahead of the ground held by the battalion. With dash and skill he surprised the enemy, turning them out of a position that was delaying the advance of the entire brigade. Two months later he was badly wounded,resulting in the limp that would have confined him to staff or administrative posts had he elected to stay in the army. Both in the army and when with SIS, he is said to have claimed as an objective that anyone coming to his office should feel happier on leaving it than when they entered. Allan Rowley, CMG, OBE, MC, soldier and senior officer of MI6, was born on July 27, 1922. He died on July 28, 2014, aged 92

Michael Brooke, QC, was born on May 8, 1942. He died on June 8, 2014, aged 72

In the late Eighties and early Nineties Michael Brooke helped to win compensation for more than 1,000 haemophiliacs who had been treated by the NHS with transfusions of blood infected with HIV. He was the lead junior counsel in the case alleging government mismanagement of the National Blood Transfusion Service. The law was against the haemophiliacs, but after Brooke’s powerful presentation of the case, the judge, Sir Harry Ognall, took the unprecedented step of writing an open, handwritten note recommending a settlement. Even more significant was his handling of the Hepatitis C litigation in 2000, another case concerning contaminated blood transfusions. By then a QC (he took silk in 1994), his case was based on European and comparative law. In 2003 he was elected a Bencher of Gray’s Inn. He was born in London in 1942, the only son of a theatrical couple, Reginald and Beryl Brooke. He appeared in seven films as a child actor, including a role as Jack Hawkins’s son in the The Long Arm (1956). He studied law at Edinburgh University and was called to the Bar in England in 1968. In 1972 he married Sophie Vautier with whom he had three sons: Nicholas, Anthony and Benjamin. They divorced in 1985. He later married Mireille Colahan. After setting up the London-Paris Bar Exchange — involving a mock trial with barristers performing in a foreign tongue — Brooke was awarded the Legion d’Honneur in 2012. Martin Mays-Smith, banker, was born on November 17, 1930. He died on April 25, 2014, aged 83

As head of banking at Kleinwort Benson, Martin MaysSmith will be remembered for his wise lending decisions. Later in his career, as chairman of First National Finance, he turned the company around when it was suffering a liquidity squeeze. He was a man of great conviction, who also worked tirelessly for charitable causes. Born in 1930, he was educated at Eton and read classics at Trinity College, Cambridge. He worked at the Bank of England, Barclays, and William Brandt & Sons before moving to Kleinwort Benson in 1972. Old school, he was less interested in making piles of money than in behaving well. Yet he was a ferocious negotiator. He began one business lunch asserting, “Don’t you dare ask for a rate reduction because you won’t get one — now what would you like to drink?” His first wife, Jenny, died of cancer in 1989. Their three daughters survive him, together with his second wife, Eliza.

Court Circular

Buckingham Palace 12th October, 2014 The Earl of Wessex this afternoon took the salute at the Annual Inspection of the Light Cavalry, Honourable Artillery Company on Smith’s Lawn, Windsor, Berkshire.

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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Television & Radio/ Announcements Births, Marriages and Deaths

Today’s television BBC ONE

6.00am Breakfast 9.15 Rip Off Britain 10.00 Homes Under the Hammer 11.00 Saints and Scroungers 11.45 Break-in Britain 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 Inside Out 8.00 EastEnders 8.30 The Farage Factor: Panorama 9.00 New Tricks 10.00 BBC News 10.25 BBC Regional News; Weather 10.35 Ten Years of The Apprentice 11.35 Our World War 12.35am The Graham Norton Show 1.25-6.00 BBC News

BBC TWO

6.05am Homes Under the Hammer 7.05 Saints and Scroungers 7.50 Break-in Britain: The Crackdown 8.20 Sign Zone 10.35 Click 11.00 BBC News 11.30 BBC World News 12.00 Daily Politics 1.00pm A Taste of My Life 1.30 Ready Steady Cook 2.15 The Rockford Files 3.00 Cagney & Lacey 3.50 Who Do You Think You Are? 4.50 Great British Railway Journeys 5.20 Flog It! 6.00 Eggheads 6.30 Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two 7.00 Celebrity Antiques Road Trip 8.00 University Challenge 8.30 Only Connect 9.00 The Kitchen 10.00 Never Mind the Buzzcocks. With Sara Pascoe 10.30 Newsnight 11.20 Long Shadow 12.2012.50am Sign Zone: Scrappers 4.00-6.05 BBC Learning Zone

ITV London

6.00am Good Morning Britain 8.30 Lorraine 9.25 Jeremy Kyle 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 Tipping Point 5.00 The Chase 6.00 Regional News 6.30 ITV News; Weather 7.00 Emmerdale 7.30 Coronation Street 8.00 The Undriveables 8.30 Coronation Street 9.00 Grantchester 10.00 ITV News at Ten and Weather 10.30 Regional News 10.40 The Agenda 11.20 Billy Connolly’s Big Send Off 12.15am Jackpot247 3.00 Uefa Champions League Weekly 3.25 The Jeremy Kyle Show USA 4.10 ITV Nightscreen 5.05-6.00 Jeremy Kyle

Channel 4

3.00 Fifteen to One 4.00 Deal or No Deal 5.00 Four in a Bed 5.30 Come Dine with Me 6.00 The Simpsons 6.30 Hollyoaks 7.00 Channel 4 News 7.55 Lloyd’s Story: Stand Up to Cancer 8.00 Jamie’s Comfort Food 8.30 Gadget Man 9.00 24 Hours in Police Custody 10.00 8 Out of 10 Cats 10.45 Up All Night: The Nightclub Toilet 11.45 NFL: The American Football Show 12.45am FILM: Sulemani Keeda (2014) 2.20 Mammon 3.25 Phil Spencer: Secret Agent 4.20 Kirstie’s Handmade Treasures 4.40 Deal or No Deal 5.35-6.20 Countdown

Sky1

6.00am The Real A&E 7.00 Harrow 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 Inside RAF Brize Norton 5.30 Futurama 6.30 The Simpsons 8.00 Duck Quacks Don’t Echo 9.00 An Idiot Abroad 3 10.00 The Moaning of Life 11.00 Football’s Funniest Moments 12.00 NCIS: Los Angeles 1.00am Hawaii Five-0 3.00 NCIS: Los Angeles 4.00 Stargate Atlantis 5.00-6.00 Airline USA

BBC World

6.00am BBC World News 6.30 World Business Report 6.45 BBC World News 7.30 World Business 7.45 BBC World News 8.30 World Business 8.45 BBC World News 9.30 HARDtalk 10.00 BBC World News 10.30 World Business 10.45 Sport Today 11.00 BBC World News 12.00 GMT 1.00pm BBC World News 1.30 World Business 1.45 Sport Today 2.00 Impact 3.30 HARDtalk 4.00 Global 5.30 World Business Report 5.45 Sport Today 6.00 Outside Source 6.30 Focus on Africa 7.00 World News Today 8.30 World Business 8.45 Sport Today 9.00 Business Edition 9.30 HARDtalk 10.00 BBC World News America 11.00 Newsday 11.30 Asia Business 11.45 Sport Today 12.00 Newsday 12.30am Asia Business 12.45 Sport Today 1.00 Newsday 1.30 Asia Business 1.45 Sport Today 2.00 BBC World News 2.30 Asia Business 2.45 Sport Today 3.00 BBC World News 3.30 Asia Business 3.45 Sport Today 4.00 BBC World News 4.30 HARDtalk 5.00 BBC World News 5.30 World Business 5.45-6.00 BBC World News

Sky Sports 1

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Radio 4

BBC World Service

Today’s radio 5.30am News 5.43 Prayer 5.45 Farming 5.58 Tweet of the Day 6.00 Today 9.00 Start the Week 9.45 (LW) Daily Service 9.45 Memories of a Nation 10.00 Woman’s Hour 10.45 Book of Strange New Things 11.00 Hamlet Undressed (r) 11.30 Kerry’s List 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 Networking Nation 2.00 Archers (r) 2.15 Afternoon Drama (r) 3.00 Counterpoint 3.30 The Food Programme (r) 4.00 Can a Computer Write Shakespeare? (r) 4.30 The Digital Human 5.00 PM 5.54 (LW) Shipping 6.00 News 6.30 Museum of Curiosity 7.00 Archers 7.15 Front Row 7.45 Germany: Memories of a Nation (r) 8.00 The Devolutionaries 8.30 Analysis 9.00 Shared Planet (r) 9.30 Start the Week 10.00 World Tonight 10.45 Book at Bedtime 11.00 Wireless Nights 11.30 Today in Parliament 12.30am Memories of a Nation (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 The Why Factor 9.50 More or Less 10.00 World Update 11.00 News 11.06 Outside Source 12.00 News 12.06pm Outlook 1.00 Newshour 2.00 Newshour 3.00 News 3.06 Business Daily 3.30 Heart and Soul 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 Discovery. Insights from leading scientiﬁc ﬁgures 8.00 News 8.06 HARDtalk. 8.30 World Business Report. 8.50 News About Ebola 9.00 Newshour. The stories behind the latest headlines 10.00 News 10.06 Outlook. Perspectives on important issues 11.00 News 11.06 The Newsroom 11.30 World Business Report 12.00 News 12.06am The Newsroom 12.20 Sports News 12.30 Heart and Soul 1.00 News 1.06 Business Matters 2.00 The Newsroom 2.30 Discovery 3.00 News 3.06 Outlook 4.00 Newsday 4.30-5.00 The Documentary

12.00 Sachin Tendulkar: One in a Billion 12.30pm Sachin Tendulkar: One-Day King 1.00 FL72 Review 2.00 Barclays Premier League Legends 2.30 Goals on Sunday 3.30 Fantasy Football: The Highlights 4.00 One2Eleven 4.30 Football League Gold 4.45 Football Gold 5.00 Soccer AM: The Best Bits 6.00 FL72 Review 7.00 Football’s Greatest Players 7.30 Live Euro 2016 Qualiﬁers: Iceland v Netherlands (Kick-off 7.45) 10.00 Cesc’s Story of Spain 11.00 FL72 Review 12.00 Barclays Premier League Legends 12.30am Soccer AM: The Best Bits 1.30 Cesc’s Story of Spain 2.30 FL72 Review 3.30 Football Gold 4.30 Rise as One 5.00-6.00 FL72 Review

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6.00am Super League Grand Final 2014 7.00 Super League Gold 7.30 NFL 9.30 World Grand Prix Darts 10.30 Super League Gold 11.00 Sporting Rivalries 11.30 Super League Grand Final 2014 12.30pm Sporting Rivalries 1.00 NFL 3.00 Super League Grand Final 2014 4.00 Game Changers 5.00 WWE: Raw 7.00 Sporting Rivalries 7.30 Live Elite League Speedway 9.30 Sporting Rivalries 10.00 Red Bull Air Race 11.30 Elite League Speedway 1.30am Super League Gold 2.00 Sporting Rivalries 2.30 NFL 4.30 Super League Grand Final 2014 5.30-6.00 Sporting Rivalries

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6.00am Sporting Greats 7.00 Time of Our Lives 8.00 ATP Masters Tennis 9.00 Super League Grand Final 2014 10.00 Sporting Greats 11.00 Racing News 11.30 Sporting Rivalries 12.00 ATP Masters Tennis 1.00pm Time of Our Lives 2.00 Sporting Rivalries 3.00 ATP Masters Tennis 4.00 NFL 6.00 Sporting Rivalries 6.30 Red Bull Air Race 8.00 NFL 10.00 Top 14 Rugby Union Highlights 10.30 Sporting Rivalries 11.00 WWE: Late Night — Afterburn 12.00 WWE: NXT 1.00am Live WWE: Late Night — Raw 4.15 WWE Slam City 4.30 WWE Vault 4.45 WWE Slam City 5.00 Sporting Rivalries 5.30-6.00 Top 14 Rugby Union Highlights

British Eurosport

7.30am Motorsports Weekend 7.45 Live Cycling: Tour of Beijing. The fourth stage of the race 10.00 Cycling: Paris-Tours 11.00 Live WTA Tennis. The Luxembourg Open 3.00pm Cycling: Tour of Beijing 4.00 Live WTA Tennis. The Luxembourg Open 7.45 WTA Tennis 9.30 Cycling: Tour of Beijing 10.30 Cycling: Paris-Tours 11.00 Cycling: National Track Championships 12.00 Horse Racing Time 12.20am-2.00 Watts

Radio 3

6.30am Breakfast. With Clemency Burton-Hill. 9.00 Essential Classics. With Sarah Walker 12.00 Composer of the Week: Claude Debussy. Donald Macleod explores Debussy through his chamber works 1.00pm News 1.02 Live Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert. The Cremona Quartet plays Webern and Beethoven 2.00 Afternoon on 3. Katie Derham features the music of Strauss all week 4.30 In Tune. With the pianists Javier Perianes and Natasha Paremski 6.00 Composer of the Week: Claude Debussy. Donald Macleod explores Debussy through his chamber works (r) 7.00 Opera on 3: The Indian Queen. A new version of Purcell’s ﬁnal work, recorded at the Teatro Real, Madrid, with soprano Julia Bullock in the title role. Teodor Currentzis conducts Musica Aeterna 10.45 The Essay: A Body of Essays. Five writers reﬂect on an organ in the human body 11.00 Jazz on 3. Denys Baptiste’s trio Triumvirate in concert at the Vortex in London 12.30am6.30 Through the Night (r)

the times.co.uk/announcements

Monday October 13 2014 | the times

FGM

Games Bridge Andrew Robson Dealer: South, Vulnerability: North-South

♠ KQ 10 2 ♥A 9 8 2 ♦9 8 6 5 ♣2

Pairs

♠5 ♠9 4 N ♥Q 10 6 5 4 W E ♥J 3 ♦Q 7 4 2 S ♦A J 10 ♣8 4 3 ♠ A J 8 7 6 3 ♣KQ 10 9 7 5 ♥K 7 ♦K 3 ♣A J 6 S

In the pantheon of the world’s most impressive tournaments which I have been trying to construct, encouraged by Daniel Johnson, the distinguished editor of Standpoint Magazine, there is one remarkable event which is relatively easy to overlook. In 1966, an internal Soviet team championship was staged in Moscow and the resulting clash between the top board players resulted in a near perfect all-play-all contest. The extraordinary fact about this conclave of great players was, that to the best of my knowledge, it forms the only allplay-all tournament which included every single Soviet world champion from the time when Botvinnik seized the title in 1948 until Spassky lost it to Bobby Fischer in 1972. Add to the mix such superlative grandmasters as Geller, Keres and Stein, and this was evidently a stellar competition of the highest order. There was only one game which spoilt the all-play-all structure and that was Botvinnik taking a rest

Contract: 6♠ , Opening Lead: ♦A/♣8

then ran his trumps. On the last trump West had to discard from ♥ Q10 and ♦AJ (dummy holding ♥A9 and ♦98). Let go a heart and dummy’s ♥A9 would be promoted, so West threw ♦J to bare his ♦A. Reading the ending, declarer threw dummy’s ♥9 and led ♦3 from hand. West’s ♦A “beat air” and declarer could win West’s heart return with dummy’s ♥ A and cross to his promoted ♦K. 12 tricks and slam made. andrew.robson@thetimes.co.uk

(which the rules allowed him to do) thus missing his game against Chernikov. The quality of play evidenced by Botvinnik was also extraordinary as the following game extract demonstrates. White: Mikhail Botvinnik Black: Paul Keres USSR Team Championship, Moscow 1966

árD 1kD 4] à0 D D 0 ] ß 0b0n0 D] ÞD 0ND D ] ÝP)PhPDP0] ÜD DPG DP] Û D ! D I] ÚDRDBDRD ] ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ 22 ... a5 Unwittingly providing the avenue for his own destruction. 23 bxa5 bxa5 24 Qf2 Ra7 25 g5 0-0 26 g6 f5 27 Rb8! Black resigns A devastating blow which destroys Black’s defences. After 27 ... Qxb8 28 Qxh4 mate is inevitable.

USSR Team Championship, Moscow 1966 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Botvinik Geller Petrosian Tal Smyslov Keres Lutikov Spassky Stein Chernikov Birbrager

1 * ½ 1 1 0 0 0 0 ½

2 ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 n/a 0 0 0

3 0 ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0

4 0 ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0

5 1 ½ ½ ½ * ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0

6 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ * 1 ½ ½ 0 0

7 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 0 * ½ ½ 0 ½

8 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½

9 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ * 1 0

1 n/a 1 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 1 * 1 0 *

6/9 6½/10 6/10 6/10 5½/10 5/10 5/10 4½/10 4½/10 4/9 1/10

á D D D i] Winning Move à0 D D Dp] ß D D DpD] Black to play. This position is from Botvinnik-Petrosian, Moscow 1966. ÞD g DbD ] White had been doing well in this game Ý DPD D D] but has now got his pieces into a tangle. ÜD $ 0B) ] How did Petrosian exploit his opportunity ÛPD 4RDK)] with a clever combination? ÚD D D D ] For up-to-the-minute information follow ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ my tweets on twitter.com/times_chess. Solution right

Times Quick Crossword 1

11 12

15 16

20 21

1 Having completed a term of enlistment (4-7) 7 Waste pipe bend (1-4) 8 Newspaper format (7) 10 Affected by illness (8) 11 Flip (of a coin) (4) 13 Burrowing animal (6) 15 Cake; speak vaguely (6) Solution to Crossword 6529 Y P R TO S A P E PR O

O P E I

C R P OPU L M R PRE P

PO K B A G P R T I A S N T D S OMP P E ENC R I ARE

L I S M GP I R GER S P AC R L I M O E P D

HUP Y O P ER E T

P I P E L I N K E

P NO R N T R S A I P T

17 18 21 22 23

Be (4) Eg, from Kingston (8) Unsettle (7) Love greatly (5) Something accomplished (11)

How you rate 12 words, average; 16, good; 18, very good; 21, excellent

6 2 4 7 8 2 3 1 3 5 4

Killer No 3951 4

Gentle 6min 21

18 4

14 4

Down

1 Noise from the sky (11) 2 Customs and conventions of a community (5) 3 Stress; importance (8) 4 Run with light steps (6) 5 Red gemstone (4) 6 Fall asleep (4,3) 9 Good judgement (11) 12 Computer information file (8) 14 Region of S. Germany (7) 16 Stream’s murmuring (6) 19 Tedious job (5) 20 Exert force on (4)

Check today’s answers by ringing 09067 577188. Calls cost 77p per minute.

Polygon From these letters, make words of three 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.

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

Across

T R A P P I S T

2 7

5 1 3 3 4 7 2 6 8 9 9 4 9 1 3 1 6 8 5

No 6530

Easy

1♠ Pass 4♣(1) Dbl(2) 4NT(3) Pass 5♠ (4) Pass 6♠ End (1) Splinter bid, showing a raise to 4♠ + with a singleton (void) club. North is minimum in points, but those high cards are all in the right place and he does have a seven loser hand. (2) At favourable vulnerability, the double of a splinter bid is best played as suggesting a save (here, in 5♣). At other vulnerabilities, it is purely lead-directing. (3) Loves the club splinter. 4NT is Roman Key Card Blackwood. (4) Two of “five aces” (incl. ♠ K); plus ♠ Q.

Chess Raymond Keene Supreme Soviet

Lawting a. Preparing soil for seeds b. A binding pledge c. A court Myomancy a. Burmese law b. Telling fortunes with mice c. The study of fungi Clade a. A glacial depression b. A group of common descent c. Dressed

15 3

Codeword

No 2214

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. 1

23 17

1 2

2 3

1 26

Lawting (c) The former supreme court in Orkney and Shetland. Myomancy (b) A form of divination by observing mice. Clade (b) In Linnaean classification, a group of organisms evolved from a common ancestor.

Winning Move solution

10 21

6 10

23 12

2 9

22 10

20 17

22 26

Word Watching answers

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.

Saturday’s answers bison, boffin, bonus, boon, boson, bosun, buffoon, buffoonish, fino, föhn, fusion, hoon, info, nibs, niff, nosh, nous, nuff, onus, shin, shun, snib, sniff, snob, snub, snuff, soon

1 ... Be4! undermines the rook on e2 and wins. The main line is 2 Bxe4 Rxe2+ 3 Kh3 Rxa2 4 Rc1 e2 and ... Bf2 follows

My friend Peter Stocken reports this interesting slam deal from the Yorkshire Pairs earlier in the year. Normally it is best to lead an ace v a suit slam at Pairs scoring, for fear of “going to bed with it” (and giving away a precious overtrick) if it is not led. Note that giving away an overtrick is no big deal at Teams/Rubber, so the decision as to whether to lead an unsupported ace is far closer at those forms of scoring. It being Pairs, many Wests looked no further than the ace of diamonds opening lead. However this made declarer’s task a cinch, promoting his king. Slam made. Perhaps the presence of ♦J10 make leading the ace less wise (you may have a second trick in the suit if you refrain from cashing it). Some Wests, particularly those whose partners had doubled a 4♣ splinter, led more passively, a club or a spade. Generally declarer failed after a passive lead, drawing trumps and leading towards the king of diamonds. West beat the king with the ace and a second diamond was cashed. Down one. One declarer (receiving a trump lead) felt strongly that West held the ace of diamonds. [West had deliberated a while before making his opening lead, declarer assessing (doubtless correctly) that he was wondering whether to table his ace.] That declarer demonstrated that 6♠ can still be made. Winning the trump in dummy, declarer crossed to the (queen and) ace of clubs, ruffed a club, back to a trump, ruffed his jack of clubs, back to the king of hearts,

Sudoku No 6879

Word Watching Paul Dunn

22 14

23 23

2 26

26 23

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

Sudoku, Killer and Codeword solutions 3 2 8 7 1 5 4 9 6

6 9 5 3 4 8 1 2 7

7 1 4 2 9 6 5 8 3

1 5 9 6 7 3 8 4 2

No 6878

2 4 7 8 5 9 3 6 1

8 6 3 4 2 1 9 7 5

9 8 6 5 3 2 7 1 4

5 7 2 1 8 4 6 3 9

4 3 1 9 6 7 2 5 8

8 2 1 4 7 6 3 5 9

9 6 3 2 5 1 7 8 4

4 7 5 3 9 8 1 2 6

6 1 7 8 2 9 4 3 5

No 3950

5 3 8 6 1 4 2 9 7

2 9 4 7 3 5 8 6 1

7 5 2 1 6 3 9 4 8

1 8 6 9 4 2 5 7 3

3 4 9 5 8 7 6 1 2

O MU S T SWA O P R E N G Z H E S B T RO A

J E E UM E B P A L L S UMP P A T E C C R I T A T O S U P E S R

No 2213

P F Q E XODU R R I M I GH T I I S T I V E E B RA S H E E N E HOE K I A E I GH T D H H

S Y

D D H

the times | Monday October 13 2014

FGM

Sport

Victory the buzzword Wasps’ success on the pitch is matched by even more vital triumph off it

Grand Final punchline Police become involved after Flower’s violence disfigures showpiece

Rugby union, pages 59-61

Rugby league, page 58

Tizzard reports Cue Card on song for Exeter return Alan Lee Racing Correspondent

After a weekend when the leading Flat race fell to jumps connections, stars of the winter code are being readied for action. Cue Card will return from injury, and with a new jockey, in the Haldon Gold Cup early next month, while Silviniaco Conti, the King George VI Chase winner, is being pointed at the Charlie Hall Chase three days earlier. Paul Nicholls, the champion trainer, believes that Silviniaco Conti requires match practice before his first serious target in the Betfair Chase on November 22. “He needed the run there last year and we won’t make that mistake again, so he’ll run at Wetherby first,” he said. Cue Card, second in the King George after beating the same rival at Haydock Park, missed the rest of last season with a stress fracture but Colin Tizzard, his trainer, reported encouraging news yesterday. “He did his first fast work on Saturday and all went well,” he said. Tizzard’s son Joe, recently retired after riding Cue Card in all 20 of his races, partnered him in the gallop. “I wanted Joe to sit on him, as he knows him so well,” Tizzard explained. “But he’s Daryl Jacob’s ride now and Daryl

Sedgefield Rob Wright

2.10 L’Aigle Royal 4.20 Saddlers Deal 2.40 Correggio 4.50 Operateur 3.10 Solway Dornal 5.20 Billy Two Tongues 3.45 Langley House Going: good (good to soft in places on chase course) At The Races

2.10 1 2 3 4 5 6

Juvenile Hurdle

(3-Y-O: £3,509: 2m 1f) (6)

0-214 L'AIGLE ROYAL (D) J J Quinn 11-5 J Reveley 644 ISTIMRAAR 6F (P) P Kirby 10-12 H Brooke PORTHOS DU VALLON 13F (H) K Dalgleish 10-12 W Renwick SINDARBAN 50F (T) D McCain 10-12 J M Maguire 5 ANNOUNCEMENT 92 B Ellison 10-5 D Cook STRATEGIC ISLAND James Walton 10-5 Miss C Walton (5)

Evens L'Aigle Royal, 9-4 Sindarban, 7-1 Istimraar, 10-1 Porthos Du Vallon, 12-1 Announcement, 50-1 Strategic Island.

2.40

Novices' Hurdle (£3,509: 2m 1f) (10)

Mr W Easterby (7) 1 0/00- BANDERITOS 326 T Easterby 5-10-12 6P6/ CHARLES DE MILLE 19F G M Moore 6-10-12 F Keniry 2 6 CLOCK ON TOM 26 M W Easterby 4-10-12 J Greenall 3 CORREGGIO 25F M D Hammond 4-10-12 H Brooke 4 0-0 KWO NESHE 157 J M Jefferson 4-10-12 B Hughes 5 56 ROSERROW 34 D McCain 5-10-12 W Renwick 6 G Lavery (7) 7 /04-P SAB LE BEAU 148 Alan Brown 5-10-12 0/4 SKYFIRE 16 N Kent 7-10-12 A Wedge 8 SURROUND SOUND 20F T Easterby 4-10-12 D Cook 9 C Nichol (3) 10 40P-4 TRELIVER MANOR 154 Mrs R Dobbin 6-10-12 7-4 Roserrow, 9-4 Treliver Manor, 6-1 Skyfire, 7-1 Correggio, 14-1 Kwo Neshe, 16-1 Charles De Mille, Surround Sound, 20-1 Clock On Tom, 50-1 others.

3.10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Handicap Chase (£4,289: 2m 4f) (7)

25556 SURE THING 48 (H) M D Hammond 8-11-12 C Nichol (3) 22244 THE SOCIETY MAN 16 M Chapman 7-11-8 J Cornwall (5) 060PP MONTOYA'S SON 69 (D) K Dalgleish 9-11-7 W Renwick 1-300 ODDS ON DAN 99 (T) L Egerton 8-11-1 D Cook 22151 SOLWAY DORNAL 19 (P,CD) Miss L Harrison 9-10-12 R Day (10) 65-22 RUNSWICK DAYS 141 (BF) J Wade 7-10-9 B Hughes -4253 SHADY SADIE 19 (T) Mrs R Dobbin 7-10-0 B Harding

3-1 Sure Thing, 7-2 Shady Sadie, 9-2 Solway Dornal, 11-2 Odds On Dan, Runswick Days, 13-2 The Society Man, 20-1 Montoya's Son.

3.45 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Handicap Hurdle (£3,509: 2m 4f) (8)

0425- MIDNIGHT STREAKER 182 B Arthey (Ire) 5-11-12 P Brennan F0P-5 JUKEBOX MELODY 13 J Wade 8-11-12 J Dawson (5) -6410 MONITA BONITA 76 (B) T Easterby 5-11-12 T Scudamore 0-P44 MARLBOROUGH HOUSE 13 (B) K Dalgleish 4-11-12 W Renwick 06-64 DANCEINTOTHELIGHT 13 M D Hammond 7-11-5 J Colliver (5) 53U-3 LANGLEY HOUSE 13 Mrs D Sayer 7-11-1 B Hughes 0-422 BEYONDTEMPTATION 10 (H,T,BF) J Haynes 6-10-3 D O'Regan (7) /P00- SEA CLIFF 82F (CD) Andrew Crook 10-10-0 J Kington (3)

3-1 Monita Bonita, 4-1 Danceintothelight, 5-1 Langley House, Sea Cliff, 11-2 Beyondtemptation, 6-1 Marlborough House, 11-1 others.

has committed to all six of the horses owned by Bob and Jean Bishop.” The Tizzard stable has yet to register a winner in a season that began in April but there is no impatience. “We’ve got some lovely young horses to get on with now the ground is coming right,” the trainer said. “I want Cue Card to start at Exeter because he’ll need a run before the Betfair. “He’ll get beaten in the Haldon Gold Cup, for sure — he got beat there last year and he was 10lb lower, then. But it’s a lovely race to get him started. It will put him right for Haydock and another shot at the King George.” Terry Warner, one of Tizzard’s principal owners, landed his second Cesarewitch on Saturday. Big Easy, like his previous winner Detroit City, is trained by Philip Hobbs. “He’ll go back jumping now and we might think of novice chasing soon,” Hobbs said. “But I have an eye on the Ascot Stakes at the royal meeting next summer.” Warner has also turned his mind back to his favoured jumps. “What I’d really like to do is win the Triumph Hurdle again,” he said. L’Aigle Royal, his likeliest candidate this season, makes his debut for John Quinn at Sedgefield today. 4.20 1 2 3 4

CHARLIE CROWHURST / GETTY IMAGES

Alan Lee

Cue Card worked well on Saturday in preparation for his return next month

The New One, early favourite for the Champion Hurdle, will return at Kempton Park on Sunday in the same race that started his campaign last season. However, Nigel TwistonDavies, his trainer, has a diversion in mind after that. “We may go for the new £100,000 race at Haydock on Betfair Chase day,” he said.

Handicap Chase (£4,419: 2m) (4)

25F13 DEALING RIVER 17 (P,D,BF) Mrs C Bailey 7-11-12 A Thornton 22-53 BLACKWATER KING 19 (D) D McCain 6-11-5 J M Maguire 00102 SADDLERS DEAL 8 (D,BF) B Ellison 9-11-0 D Cook 40322 MUWALLA 27 (T,P,CD,BF) C Grant 7-11-0 D O'Regan (7)

9-4 Saddlers Deal, 5-2 Blackwater King, Dealing River, 4-1 Muwalla.

4.50 1 2 3 4 5

Handicap Hurdle

(£2,599: 2m 1f) (13)

/0-35 BRAVE SPARTACUS 18 (H) K Reveley 8-11-12 J Reveley F-321 OPERATEUR 22 B Haslam 6-11-9 A Tinkler 06-60 TRIPLE EIGHT 21F (P) P Kirby 6-11-5 K James (3) 5/0P- MONTHLY MEDAL 79F (T) W Storey 11-11-5 F Keniry 435O3 CLAUDE CARTER 26 (P,CD) A Whillans 10-11-4 C Whillans (5) 140/4 SNOOKER 26 (CD) Mrs R Dobbin 8-11-2 Mr T Dowson (7) 646-6 JEBULANI 8 F Murtagh 4-10-13 C Nichol (3) /P00- NEEDWOOD PARK 112F (P) R Craggs 6-10-12 A Thornton 440-6 PINK MISCHIEF 28F Andrew Crook 4-10-8 J Kington (3) 4133- DENY 367 (P,CD) H Hogarth 6-10-3 T Kelly (3) -2544 SO BAZAAR 8 (T,B) Andrew Wilson 7-10-0 B Harding 3U5-P BLUE SEA OF IBROX 165 Alan Brown 6-10-0 G Lavery (7) 3-PP3 MARDOOD 10 (B,CD) D Thompson 9-10-0 Phillip Dennis (7)

Lord Windermere, 20-1 winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, will not run again in England before defending his crown in March. Jim Culloty, his trainer, said: “We took him to Newbury last year and it knocked him back. He will start in the John Durkan Chase at Punchestown and have three runs in Ireland before Cheltenham.” 3.25

Salisbury Rob Wright

2.20 Sarsted 4.00 Tawhid 2.50 Sweet Dream (nap) 4.30 Strait Run 3.25 Admirable Art 5.00 Hidden Gold Going: soft (heavy in places) 7.15am inspection Draw: 6f 212yd, low numbers best Racing UK

2.20

Maiden Auction Stakes (2-Y-O: £2,911: 6f 212y) (14)

0 ORACOLO 13 D Simcock 9-1 3 SARSTED 23 H Morrison 9-0 00 PICKET LINE 77 G Deacon 8-13 EASY TIGER W Muir 8-12 LIBERTY RULES M Saunders 8-12 00 RESOLVE 16 D Simcock 8-10 0 POPPET ROCKET 24 B Meehan 8-9 00 ARTESANA 45 W Knight 8-8 5 LULANI 39 H Dunlop 8-8 PERESTROIKA H Candy 8-8 5 SILVER RAINBOW 68 C Hills 8-8 04 ALEXI 28 H Dunlop 8-7 CLASSICAL ROSE C Fellowes 8-6 0 JO BIBIDIA 21 J Portman 8-6

J Crowley R Havlin S Donohoe Martin Dwyer R While (5) Hayley Turner T Eaves C Shepherd (7) R Hughes H Bentley J Quinn L Jones Martin Lane J Fahy

7-2 Operateur, 11-2 Claude Carter, Deny, Snooker, 8-1 So Bazaar, Triple Eight, 10-1 Brave Spartacus, 16-1 Blue Sea Of Ibrox, Jebulani, 25-1 others.

1 (3) 2 (1) 3 (10) 4 (13) 5 (7) 6 (5) 7 (6) 8 (2) 9 (14) 10(11) 11 (8) 12 (4) 13 (9) 14(12)

5.20

11-4 Silver Rainbow, 7-2 Sarsted, 11-2 Lulani, Perestroika, 10-1 Easy Tiger, Poppet Rocket, 12-1 Classical Rose, 14-1 Oracolo, 20-1 Liberty Rules, 25-1 Resolve, 33-1 Alexi, Artesana, Jo Bibidia, 66-1 Picket Line.

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Handicap Hurdle

(£2,989: 3m 3f 110y) (7)

0-050 HIGH TALK 120 (T,B) M McNiff (Ire) 10-11-12 D R Fox (3) 54632 SUPAPOWERS 11 (T) R Stephens 8-11-12 Tom O'Brien 3U344 BILLY TWO TONGUES 22 M W Easterby 6-11-9 Mr H Bannister (7) 020/P RORY BOY 152 (E) Andrew Crook 9-11-7 J Kington (3) -3260 BOLLIN LINE 92 L Egerton 7-11-3 D C Costello -3P04 SAFE INVESTMENT 9 (T,P) Mrs L Hill 10-10-3 C Deutsch (7) P0650 CLOGGY POWELL 22 J K Hunter 7-10-0 C Bewley (7)

11-4 High Talk, 7-2 Billy Two Tongues, Supapowers, 6-1 Safe Investment, 13-2 Bollin Line, 15-2 Rory Boy, 22-1 Cloggy Powell.

Course specialists Salisbury: Trainers D Simcock, 8 winners from 35 runners, 22.9%; S Bin Suroor, 11 from 55, 20%. Jockeys R Hughes, 69 winners from 293 rides, 23.5%; James Doyle, 20 from 95, 21.1%. Sedgefield: Trainers D McCain, 50 from 170, 29.4%; J J Quinn, 4 from 14, 28.6%; J M Jefferson, 19 from 80, 23.8%. Jockeys P Brennan, 6 from 18, 33.3%; J M Maguire, 37 from 116, 31.9%. Windsor: Trainers R Fahey, 6 from 19, 31.6%; W Haggas, 15 from 56, 26.8%; J Noseda, 21 from 88, 23.9%. Jockeys A Atzeni, 25 from 97, 25.8%; J Haynes, 3 from 14, 21.4%; J Fanning, 3 from 16, 18.8%.

Ascot explores use of mobile course covers

2.50

Maiden Fillies' Stakes

(2-Y-O: £3,235: 6f 212y) (14)

Hayley Turner (12) 005 CASCADES 23 D Elsworth 9-0 ESTOURNEL H Dunlop 9-0 H Bentley (1) 4222 EVENING RAIN 15 S Bin Suroor 9-0 James Doyle (13) 0 GENTLE PERSUASION 19 Mrs A Perrett 9-0 J Crowley (14) 0 HEY YOU 84 R Hannon 9-0 R Hughes (11) 4 LADY PINNACLE 21 A Balding 9-0 D Probert (5) 32 MOONLIGHT SONATA 23 (BF) Sir M Stoute 9-0 (9) R L Moore 66 MUSIC AND DANCE 27 Sir M Stoute 9-0 Doubtful 8 (8) PANDORA'S PYX P Hide 9-0 T Eaves 9 (4) 0 SEA FANTASY 40 Miss J Crowley 9-0 A Beschizza 10 (6) 03 SPIRITED ACCLAIM 23 D Elsworth 9-0 R Tart 11 (3) 20 SWEET DREAM 23 R Beckett 9-0 P Cosgrave 12(10) 0 VICTORINA 102 W S Kittow 9-0 Martin Lane 13 (2) WILLOUGHBY J Gosden 9-0 W Buick 14 (7)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

11-4 Moonlight Sonata, Willoughby, 4-1 Evening Rain, 13-2 Spirited Acclaim, Sweet Dream, 10-1 Lady Pinnacle, 14-1 Hey You, 20-1 Cascades, 25-1 Estournel, Gentle Persuasion, 33-1 Pandora's Pyx, 40-1 Sea Fantasy, 66-1 Victorina.

6Donnacha O’Brien, the 16-year-old younger brother of Joseph O’Brien, gained a first big-race success on El Salvador in the Irish Cesarewitch yesterday.

1 (13) 2 (9) 3 (6) 4 (4) 5 (1) 6 (5) 7 (11) 8 (3) 9 (12) 10(10) 11 (7) 12 (8) 13 (2)

Ascot, deprived of several potential headline acts for British Champions’ Day on Saturday, is also resigned to testing going. It emerged yesterday, however, that the royal racecourse is researching a revolutionary covering system to protect the event in future years. Chris Stickels, the clerk of the course, explained the theory of a mobile, raised cover for the entire Flat track. “It hasn’t been done anywhere else and there are many challenges, including cost and logistics,” he said. “If it proves possible, it interests us greatly. “October, historically, is one of our wettest months, which is why we are thinking on these lines. We are looking at different options but it couldn’t be just like a frost cover, lying flat on the grass. Whether it’s possible for next year, I’m not sure, but we would like to stage some trials this winter.” Ascot’s ground was generally soft yesterday, with further rain forecast. Such conditions would have been ideal for Kingston Hill but the St Leger winner was ruled out of the meeting by Roger Varian, his trainer. However, he will stay in training. The retirement of Australia on Saturday was another setback for a fixture that has already lost Kingman. However, Treve will now stay in training to bid for a unique third Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe next year.

Handicap (£2,588: 6f 212y) (13) 00061 TELEGRAPH 6 P D Evans 3-9-8 05251 ADMIRABLE ART 38 (P,CD) A Carroll 4-9-7 52550 OSTRALEGUS 21 (D) J Gallagher 4-9-7 0-450 ROBIN HOOD 59 (H,D) P Mitchell 6-9-7 30640 MAD ENDEAVOUR 6 (B) W S Kittow 3-9-5 22350 BONJOUR STEVE 42 (P) R Price 3-9-4 00003 SETTLE FOR RED 12 (B) J Gask 4-9-4 34562 PINK LIPS 50 (V) J Jenkins 6-9-3 23454 SKIDBY MILL 145 Mrs L Mongan 4-9-3 36034 NIGHT TRADE 6 (P,D) R Harris 7-8-11 -5266 PLAUSEABELLA 29 W S Kittow 3-8-10 40055 TRIGGER PARK 6 R Harris 3-8-9 00040 REFLECTION 38 B Baugh 3-8-5

J Egan R Tart P Cosgrave J Fortune Martin Lane James Doyle J Crowley R Hughes L Jones R Da Silva H Bentley J Nason (5) D Probert

11-4 Telegraph, 4-1 Admirable Art, 5-1 Pink Lips, 7-1 Night Trade, 8-1 Settle For Red, 10-1 Skidby Mill, 12-1 Bonjour Steve, Robin Hood, 20-1 Ostralegus, Plauseabella, 25-1 Mad Endeavour, 33-1 Trigger Park, 100-1 Reflection.

4.00 1 2 3 4 5 6

(3) (2) (6) (5) (1) (4)

Conditions Stakes (£9,057: 6f 212y) (6)

1-052 TAWHID 9 (D) S Bin Suroor 4-9-7 00606 ANNUNCIATION 52 R Hannon 4-9-2 60243 EMELL 26 (C) R Hannon 4-9-2 65210 RED REFRACTION 16 (D) R Hannon 4-9-2 05531 VERSE OF LOVE 27 (D) P D Evans 5-9-2 11/ SEOLAN 729 (D) R Charlton 4-8-11

R L Moore J Fortune R Hughes J Crowley J Egan James Doyle

9-4 Emell, Tawhid, 3-1 Seolan, 7-1 Annunciation, 10-1 Red Refraction, 16-1 Verse Of Love.

4.30 1 (2) 2 (8) 3 (6) 4 (3) 5 (4) 6 (5) 7 (7) 8 (9) 9 (1) 10(10)

Handicap

(£2,749: 1m 1f 198y) (10)

01361 MISTER MAYDAY 6 (B,D) G Baker 3-9-10 P Cosgrave 4-404 BE SEEING YOU 44 (B) R Charlton 3-9-7 James Doyle 04122 PENDO 21 (C,BF) P Cole 3-9-7 R L Moore 06014 ZAMBEASY 14 (D) P Hide 3-9-6 T Eaves 64005 STRAIT RUN 19 (B) R Hannon 3-9-5 R Hughes 65640 TEA IN TRANSVAAL 26 (C) John O'Shea 3-9-5 S Donohoe 00630 TEMPLATE 52 Mrs A Perrett 3-9-4 R Havlin 00565 EDGE 11J (B) B Llewellyn 3-8-10 Martin Lane 40505 DISTANT HIGH 6 (H) R Price 3-8-9 Hayley Turner 0000 MOOJANED 23 D Burchell 3-8-7 J Fahy

11-4 Mister Mayday, 4-1 Pendo, 6-1 Be Seeing You, Strait Run, 8-1 Tea In Transvaal, Zambeasy, 10-1 Distant High, Template, 20-1 Edge, 25-1 Moojaned.

5.00 1 (5) 2 (8) 3 (10) 4 (2) 5 (9) 6 (1) 7 (7) 8 (4) 9 (6) 10 (3)

Handicap

(£7,763: 1m 6f 21y) (10)

400-0 ILE DE RE 16 K Frost 8-10-0 S Donohoe 55231 NOBLE GIFT 19 (C) W Knight 4-9-13 W Buick 10330 LINGUINE 30 (T,D) S Durack 4-9-11 Mikey Ennis (7) 00505 BOITE 31 P Chapple-Hyam 4-9-9 R Havlin 01201 HIDDEN GOLD 15 (C) S Bin Suroor 3-9-4 F Tylicki 31/05 EXEMPLARY 14J A Dunn 7-9-3 J Nason (5) 500/1 NEBULA STORM 56 (V) G L Moore 7-9-2 R L Moore 14061 SUNNY FUTURE 30 (H,CD) M Saunders 8-8-12 R Hughes 00-26 ROCKFELLA 94 (CD) D Coakley 8-8-12 P Cosgrave 06215 MOSHE 17 (BF) H Morrison 3-8-6 J Fahy

7-2 Hidden Gold, 9-2 Noble Gift, 6-1 Moshe, Rockfella, 7-1 Nebula Storm, Sunny Future, 10-1 Boite, Linguine, 16-1 Exemplary, Ile De Re.

Yesterday’s racing Goodwood

Going: soft 2.00 (2m) 1, Aiyana (R Hughes, 9-2 fav); 2, Flying Light (13-2); 3, Valid Reason (33-1). 14 ran. NR: Asker, See And Be Seen. Nk, 4Kl. H Morrison. 2.30 (5f) 1, Fligaz (Liam Jones, 14-1); 2, Lightning Charlie (8-11 fav); 3, Magical Daze (14-1). 5 ran. 2Nl, 1Nl. M Meade. 3.05 (7f) 1, Popeswood (Charles Bishop, 9-1); 2, Percy Alleline (8-1); 3, Its Gonna Be Me (7-2 fav). 11 ran. Nk, 1Nl. M Channon. 3.40 (5f) 1, Desert Ace (A Kirby, 16-1); 2, Ladweb (11-1); 3, Elusivity (8-1). Humidor (4th) 11-4 fav. 11 ran. 1l, 1Nl. C Cox. 4.15 (1m 4f) 1, My Lord (Mr J Doe, 20-1); 2, Yul Finegold (11-2); 3, Red Dragon (12-1). Last Echo (4th) 7-4 fav. 10 ran. NR: Bikini Island. 1Kl, Kl. L Dace. 4.45 (1m 1f) 1, Shadow Rock (R Hughes, 5-1); 2, Secateur (2-1 fav); 3, Deebaj (8-1). 12 ran. NR: Jakodima. Nk, 3Kl. R Hannon. 5.15 (1m 4f) 1, Yaakooum (R Hughes, 6-1); 2, Fun Mac (8-1); 3, Soviet Courage (11-8 fav). 8 ran. NR: Moontime, Oasis Fantasy, Spectator. Ns, Kl. R Hannon. 5.45 (1m) 1, War Singer (S Donohoe, 11-1); 2, Extraterrestrial (16-1); 3, Moonday Sun (9-2). First Post (4th) 5-2 fav. 12 ran. NR: Cricklewood Green, Good Luck Charm, Pleasure Bent. 2Nl, 6l. J Farrelly. Jackpot: not won (pool of £59,559.03 carried forward to Windsor today). Placepot: £256.90. Quadpot: £83.80.

Ffos Las

Going: soft 2.15 (2m 4f hdle) 1, Church Hall (James Banks, 10-1); 2, Audacious Plan (11-4 fav); 3, Grape Tree Flame (10-1). 9 ran. 1Ol, 2Nl. Miss E Baker. 2.45 (2m 5f ch) 1, Frontier Spirit (Ryan Hatch, 7-2); 2, Mister Grez (5-4 fav); 3, Cardigan Island (8-1). 6 ran. NR: The Ould Lad. 5l, 5l. N TwistonDavies. 3.20 (2m hdle) 1, Rons Dream (Donal Devereux, 6-1); 2, The Govaness (4-5 fav); 3, Ballyhollow (2-1). 5 ran. Ol, 6l. P Bowen. 3.55 (3m ch) 1, Doing Fine (J M Maguire, 6-1); 2, Carole’s Destrier (3-1); 3, Big Casino (3-1). Royal Player (5th) 2-1 fav. 6 ran. NR: Kilbree Kid. Nk, 26l. Miss R Curtis. 4.30 (2m hdle) 1, De Faoithesdream (Paul Moloney, 9-2); 2, Taste The Wine (5-1); 3, Dineur (6-1). Keel Haul (pu) 2-1 fav. 5 ran. 6l, 4l. Evan Williams. 5.00 (3m hdle) 1, Kapricorne (Killian Moore, 8-1); 2, Hector’s House (16-1); 3, Kingspark Boy (25-1). Nash Point 11-4 fav. 9 ran. NR: Abbeygrey, Bally Braes, Nicky Nutjob. 2Nl, 11l. Mrs S Leech. 5.30 (2m flat) 1, Rock The Kasbah (R Johnson, 6-4 fav); 2, Scorpiancer (2-1); 3, Sir Ivan (3-1). 8 ran. NR: Solstice Star. 8l, 10l. P Hobbs. Placepot: £775.30. Quadpot: £183.80.

FGM

Monday October 13 2014 | the times

the game 6 Euro 2016 qualifying

The Tony Awards

tony cascarino’s pick of the week

Rooney rewards oliver kay Chief Football Correspondent, Tallinn

Estonia

Leaps and bounds

GARY CAHILL

I could understand why Gary Cahill never quite made it at Aston Villa. I wasn’t sure what Chelsea saw in him at Bolton. But being around big players has brought out his best. Few players have improved so much, so quickly.

Just in passing . . .

ENGLAND’S SHORT GAME

One cautionary note for England — playing so many short passes on the edge of the opposition penalty area, with so many players ahead of the ball, is playing with fire. Better teams than Estonia will pick them off.

Long-term picture IRELAND

Robbie Keane might have scored a hat-trick for Ireland (against a terrible Gibraltar side) but Shane Long is a better bet for that lone striker role against Germany. He has the pace to trouble their defence and the energy to chase what few scraps come his way.

An unexpected Löw GERMANY

Germany may be world champions but make no mistake, this is a transitional period. Defeat by Poland after a loss to Argentina and a narrow win against Scotland prove that injuries, retirements and the euphoria of Brazil are damaging.

Taka nothing away SPAIN

Joachim Löw’s side’s travails immediately after winning the World Cup highlight how incredible Spain’s five years at the top were. They were the pinnacle of football for half a decade. That ought not be forgotten, even if their collapse has been spectacular.

England

Rooney 73

0 1

Referee M Strahonja (Cro) Attendance 9,692

Towards the end of a bitterly cold evening in Tallinn, the thought briefly occurred that a routine victory could somehow elude England. They had controlled and dominated the game, but as the clock ticked down, it seemed for the first time as if they might suffer the indignity of dropping points against a team ranked No 81 in the world. That scenario was averted with 17 minutes remaining when Wayne Rooney scored the 43rd goal of his international career. His touch, particularly his dead-ball delivery, had been poor all evening, but at last he got one right, curling a free kick over the wall, past a scrambling goalkeeper and inside the near post. Rooney and his team-mates showed their relief and Estonia’s players, having lost their captain to a red card early in the second half, finally seemed to accept that they were not, after all, going to pull off one of the greatest results in their small nation’s history. In Tallinn, they might yet come to look back with fondness on a night when they kept England — the mighty England — at bay for 73 minutes before their resistance was broken by the legendary Wayne Rooney, but such impressions were hardly enhanced by the evidence in Estonia. England looked like a team in a very early stage of their development and Rooney, his goal apart, hardly looked like one of the most celebrated players in world football. Whether the goal had come or not, though, much of the post-match inquest would have focused on Raheem Sterling, who, according to Roy Hodgson in a television interview beforehand, had told him on Saturday morning that he did not feel fit enough or fresh enough to do himself justice. Sterling evidently knows his body and mind better than anybody else, but it was still a surprisingly candid statement first from him and then from his manager about him. The Sterling issue throws up all kinds of questions about burnout, the need to avoid it and whether a player should push himself to play for his country if he feels less than 100 per cent fit. In reality, that would be a longer and more interesting debate than one about England’s performance, which was neither good enough nor bad enough to provoke much more than mild reactions. A better team than England — and, as has been clear in recent years, there are many of those in international football — would expect to have made much lighter work of Estonia, but

Hodgson was right when he said that a 0-0 draw would have been misleading. His team had dominated possession, setting up camp on the edge of the Estonia penalty area, but, with none of Adam Lallana, Danny Welbeck or Rooney on song, they had lacked a killer instinct. What was interesting was that, faced with a packed and obdurate defence, Hodgson steadfastly refused to resort to the type of football that characterised his and past England teams for far too long. What they most conspicuously lacked in the second half was width, but, rather than revert to his once-beloved 4-4-2, Hodgson stuck with the diamond, even after sending on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sterling, and in the end it just about worked. England performed far better in the first half, with Jack Wilshere and Jordan Henderson taking turns to drive forward from midfield, than in the second. That said, they almost got off to a calamitous start. In the opening minute, Fabian Delph lost the ball in midfield, leaving Sergei Zenjov with the chance to run at the England defence. Zenjov closed in on goal, but his shot was deflected into the side-netting, denying the forward the chance to become a national hero before he returns to play for Blackpool in the Sky Bet Championship. Henderson and Wilshere quickly brought control and focus, while Leighton Baines got forward well from left back, but England’s quest for a goal was undermined by their own sloppiness in the final third and by some obdurate Estonia defending. England’s best moment of the first half came when Wilshere dinked a clever pass over the Estonia back four and Rooney swivelled to strike a volley just over the crossbar. On another occasion, from an incisive Wilshere pass and a Baines cross, Rooney’s touch was either too heavy or not firm enough. Rooney, Welbeck and Lallana, playing in the hole, were all having a tough time, denied time and space on the ball by Estonia’s tenacity. It seemed that their task, and England’s, would become far easier once Ragnar Klavan was sent off soon after the interval for a second bookable offence, a lunge on Delph. But Estonia defended as doggedly with nine men behind the ball as they had with ten. Every 15 minutes or so, they would break forward and threaten through the pace of Zenjov, but he could never quite evade the offside trap, the England defence being marshalled well by Gary Cahill. England needed something new — if not width, then certainly pace and intensity. Oxlade-Chamberlain brought a little of both. So too, whatever his physical condition, did Sterling. In terms of team shape, Hodgson had

stuck to plan A, but by now it was less 4-3-1-2 than a narrow 4-1-3-2, with Lallana, Sterling and OxladeChamberlain pushing up in support of Rooney and Welbeck, leaving Wilshere as the only protection for the back four. Soon after his introduction, Sterling was fouled on the edge of the penalty area. Rooney had missed a few free kicks and there seemed something exaggerated about the way he was eyeing up the angles this time, but he got his calculations spot-on, beating Sergei Pareiko, the unconvincing Estonia goalkeeper. Finally he and England could relax. Rooney could and should have added another goal or two after that, but, the free kick apart, it was not his night. It was not much of a night for anyone in the end. In winning, England met their minimum requirement without resorting to regressive football. That much, at least, was reassuring.

Leading from the front: Rooney’s late free kick goal in Tallinn gives Hodgson’s team the points to maintain their perfect start to group E MICHAEL REGAN / GETTY IMAGES

England Slovenia Lithuania Estonia Switzerland San Marino

P 3 3 3 3 2 2

W 3 2 2 1 0 0

D 0 0 0 0 0 0

L 0 1 1 2 2 2

F 8 3 3 1 0 0

remaining fixtures Nov 15: Slovenia (H) 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)

A Pts 0 9 1 6 2 6 2 3 3 0 7 0

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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the game 6 Euro 2016 qualifying

patient England

Manager sticks up for ‘tired’ Sterling matt hughes Deputy Football Correspondent, Tallinn Roy Hodgson defended his decision to rest Raheem Sterling from England’s 1-0 win over Estonia last night and praised the player’s honesty in declaring himself tired on the eve of the European Championship qualifier. The Liverpool forward told Hodgson that he was suffering from fatigue at England’s Hertfordshire base before flying to Estonia on Saturday lunchtime, and the England manager responded by leaving him on the bench in Tallinn. The 19-year-old was introduced for the final 26 minutes and won the free kick from which Wayne Rooney gave England a hard-fought win with his 43rd international goal.

Hodgson insisted that he had no problem with Sterling effectively withdrawing himself, and even expressed delight at his candour. His own openness on the subject was criticised yesterday, Gary Lineker writing on Twitter that the manager had done his player no favours, but Hodgson was unrepentant. “People don’t like it when you simplistically tell the truth,” Hodgson said. “We were training at The Grove doing a light session, but also some work in how we wanted to play the game tactically. Just before we started Raheem came to me and said, ‘Look, I really am feeling a bit tired, and I’m not in my best form at the moment.’ “So I said the best thing is that Adam Lallana starts the game, you rest and I

have got you to bring on. As you saw when he came, on he isn’t suffering from anything. “It would be wrong of players to try to fool me into thinking they are ready when they aren’t. They are robbing somebody else of an opportunity.” Sterling’s withdrawal will raise further questions over the influence of Brendan Rodgers, the Liverpool manager, on the England team after Hodgson substituted both Sterling and Jordan Henderson at half-time in last week’s win over San Marino. Rodgers was furious when Daniel Sturridge suffered a thigh injury during an England training session last month, and blamed Hodgson for making the striker train when he felt that he should have been resting.

England (4-3-1-2) matt hughes

joe hart (manchester city) Had only two saves to make, and did so without fuss to keep his fourth successive clean sheet.

calum chambers (arsenal) Caught out of position in the first minute and his touch let him down, so will need to improve.

gary cahill (chelsea) Has emerged as a real defensive leader over the past 12 months and his calmness under pressure often averted danger.

phil jagielka (everton) Solid enough under little pressure at the back, although his distribution was erratic at times.

leighton baines (everton) Provided width on left, but his wasteful teammates were unable to capitalise on his crosses.

jordan henderson (liverpool) A mature performance and he dovetailed well with Wilshere to let him get forward.

jack wilshere (arsenal) Excellent on the ball as he passed and probed but may be exposed off the ball by better opponents.

fabian delph (aston villa) Solid again but will not want to be pigeonholed as the man for potentially awkward away games.

adam lallana (liverpool) A peripheral presence, reinforcing an impression that his best role is as an impact substitute.

wayne rooney (manchester united) Rescued a generally disappointing display by scoring his 43rd England goal from a free kick.

danny welbeck (arsenal) Quiet night at the wrong time. May not have done enough to keep Daniel Sturridge out of the side.

substitutions

the game podcast Gabriele Marcotti and his team pick out the England highlights — download from 5pm thetimes.co.uk/thegame

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain 6 (for Delph, 61min). Headed wide from Chambers’s cross. Raheem Sterling 6 (for Henderson, 64). Won free kick that Rooney converted. Rickie Lambert (for Welbeck, 80) Booked: Baines, Wilshere, Henderson. Estonia (4-1-4-1): S Pareiko 6 — E Jaager 5, I Morozov 6, R Klavan 5, A Pikk 6 — K Mets 5 — I Antonov 6, K Vassiljev 5 (sub: J Lindpere, 46 6), M Vunk 5 (sub: D Kruglov, 83), S Zenjov 6 (sub: H Ojamaa, 80) — H Anler 5. Booked: Klavan. Sent off: Klavan.

FGM

Monday October 13 2014 | the times

the game 6 Euro 2016 qualifying

What we learnt this week

rory smith

The form book What a week for prolific author and occasional football manager Harry RR Redknapp. He used the latest instalment in his fantasy series to claim the English manager is becoming extinct. We think we know why. Number of wins for QPR this season: one. Number of books Redknapp has written this year: two.

A Bridge too far Well done to José Mourinho for turning down Paris SaintGermain, not once but twice. It’s clear he’s not the sort of person who would enjoy helping a team of only moderate history win a couple of league titles just because they had come into an obscene amount of money. No, that’s not his thing at all.

Past imperfect Arsenal win the FA Cup, Frank Lampard starts to score, Chelsea go clear at the top of the league. Now Roy Keane is at Sir Alex Ferguson’s throat. This is 2005 again, isn’t it? In which case, let me tell you about my new invention: it’s this phone whose screen you can touch.

A rum steer “I am better equipped now to take over a club like Manchester United than I was when I took over [Manchester United] because I’ve had a chance to see what goes on,” said David Moyes, a man who you should trust with your fancy car because crashing the last fancy car he drove has taught him a lot. Cover image: Glyn Kirk, AFP / Getty Images

Rare talent needs careful handling

Matt Dickinson in Tallinn defends the England manager’s decision to rest Raheem Sterling from his starting XI Roy Hodgson’s startling revelation that Raheem Sterling talked himself out of the England XI complaining of fatigue on the eve of this visit to Estonia drew some predictable reactions that the young man should try working in a factory. There will be those who will have looked up to Terry Butcher, who happened to be in the commentary box in Tallinn, and remembered the old warhorse playing on with a hole in his head, white shirt stained red, in a symbol of patriotic commitment. “Angry of Wembley” will have made unflattering comparisons between England’s highly paid teenager and Artur Pikk, the Estonia left back, who had to be in military barracks for a midnight curfew last night as he serves his national service. They will cry about dedication and sacrifice — and they will miss the point that this is partly about tiredness but mostly about priorities. It is about England, as usual, having to fight for their its place in the order of things as they struggle even with the Capital One Cup. Sterling is tired, or at least

Spain leave out Casillas and return to winning ways in Luxembourg bill edgar Spain regained some self-respect with a 4-0 win away to Luxembourg on a night when they dropped Iker Casillas, their veteran goalkeeper. The 33-year-old captain has won 158 caps but was left out of the Euro 2016 group C qualifying tie in favour of David De Gea, ten years his junior. Casillas has just regained his place at Real Madrid after spending one and a half seasons on the bench for Spanish

not at his sharpest. You only have to look at some of the teenager’s recent performances to see a few rare clumsy touches which show that he is not quite fizzing. Hodgson speculated that Liverpool’s difficult start to the season might be taking a mental toll, but it is just as likely the number of games Sterling has played; seven in September, nine in 32 days, all but one from the start. It is a lot to expect from a 19-year-old already burdened with great expectations for club and country and, given the hopes that rest on him, it could be asked whether it was really necessary for Sterling to play all two hours, plus a penalty shoot-out, in the Capital One Cup third-round tie against Middlesbrough. The Liverpool

STRONG CASE FOR THE DEFENCE

Years since England previously won four consecutive games without conceding a goal (they beat East Germany 1-0, Finland 5-0, Turkey 8-0 and Northern Ireland 1-0, 1984-85)

Successive clean sheets for England, the first time since 2006

England goals in competitive games by Wayne Rooney, four more than the next most, by Michael Owen

England matches in a row where the goalkeeper has made the most passes among opposition players (also San Marino last week) Words by Bill Edgar

league matches but errors for his country have led to his demotion. De Gea, of Manchester United, enjoyed a quiet evening as Spain shrugged off last week’s defeat to Slovakia, with Diego Costa finally breaking his scoring duck at the other end. Costa, who has hit nine goals in as many games for Chelsea, missed seven chances last night and was booked for a kick before he found the net on his seventh international appearance, swivelling to score from close range. David Silva scored the first goal and set up the second for Paco Alcácer before second-half goals by Costa and Juan Bernat completed the scoring. Slovakia retained their perfect record at the top of the group with a 3-1 win away to Belarus. Marek Hamsik struck twice either side of a goal for Belarus by Timofei Kalachev before Stanislav Sestak added the third in stoppage time. Ukraine stand second after Serhiy Sydorchuk struck the only goal of the game at home to Macedonia just before

team that night featured some fringe players, coming days before an important derby against Everton, but Sterling slogged through the whole game. As ever — Jack Wilshere springs to mind as another example — we have seen it is perfectly fine for a club manager to squeeze the young man dry but the national team must make the compromises, giving Sterling only 45 minutes against San Marino and still finding out that he is not ready to start in Estonia. It is just as well that England are in such a luxurious position that half the team could claim fatigue on the eve of every international fixture in the next 12 months and Hodgson’s team would still qualify for Euro 2016. It was from an unusually relaxed vantage point that Hodgson was able to listen indulgently to Sterling saying that he was tired and change his starting XI to accommodate Adam Lallana. Hodgson could leave Sterling to make a cameo appearance — a decisive one as it turned out given that he won the free kick from which Wayne Rooney scored the only goal in Tallinn — then discuss the position from position of comfort, saying he admired the young man’s honesty. Having prompted the story in the first place with his unwise candour, Hodgson could play down a talking point that might have been an almighty stink in more high-pressured circumstances. The damage could be controlled, yet it still left the familiar uncomfortable feeling that we will be back having this argument soon enough, and that Sterling will be at the heart of it, given half time. Andriy Yarmolenko missed the chance to double the lead when his penalty hit the crossbar early in the second half. Lithuania slipped three points behind England at the top of group E after they were beaten 2-0 at home by Slovenia, who have joined them on six points. Milivoje Novakovic, whose late penalty had beaten Switzerland last Thursday, struck twice in four minutes in the first half to earn victory. Nejc Pecnik’s fine pass set up Novakovic to chip the ball over the Giedrius Arlauskis, the goalkeeper, in the 33rd minute, and soon afterwards the striker found the net after his initial effort had been kept out by Arlauskis. Russia recorded their second 1-1 draw in succession when Moldova held them in Moscow in group G. Artem Dzyuba converted a 73rd minute penalty after Victor Golovatenco had fouled Aleksei Ionov but a minute later Alexandru Epureanu headed the equaliser.

Easy street: De Gea, the Manchester United goalkeeper, came in for Casillas but had an untroubled night in goal

the times | Monday October 13 2014

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the game 6 Euro 2016 qualifying how much he carries the hopes of Liverpool and England. The evidence of England’s victory in Tallinn was that even a Lallana who is full of energy cannot begin to fill Sterling’s twinkling boots at the tip of the diamond. Lallana has one assist and no goals from 11 international appearances and never looked like providing the breakthrough. Although Wilshere was productive, England lacked the sort of penetration, and trickery around the penalty box, that is Sterling’s speciality. It is why, even at such a young age, Sterling finds himself as England’s talisman, leaving Hodgson to suggest that he might not be so willing to back down next time. “I don’t think it’s fair that I have to make the compromise always. It’s a little bit unfair if all the expectation to give the player a break falls on my shoulders,” he said. “On this occasion it was the right thing to do. Raheem was not as sharp

He decided to act with understanding, if not ideal discretion as he’s been. I had one player saying he was fatigued and the other full of beans. So it was a no-brainer, but I wouldn’t want that situation every time.” Hodgson may have been particularly sensitive to Liverpool’s wishes, given the recent injury suffered by Daniel Sturridge on international duty, and the arguments that has stirred up at Anfield. He decided to act with understanding, if not with ideal discretion, but it is for sure that this debate will recur, Sterling being central to the ambitions of England over the next decade, and the everpresent tensions between club and country. England need Sterling, so Hodgson decided to play the long game. As for those who say that the young man should try slogging in a factory, let us just be glad that he doesn’t.

Strikers must do better, says Hodgson matt hughes Deputy Football Correspondent, Tallinn England’s strikers were criticised by Roy Hodgson for their wayward finishing last night after the team were made to work hard for victory against an Estonia side reduced to ten men. Wayne Rooney in particular missed several good chances and endured a frustrating evening despite securing the three points with his 43rd international goal, moving him one behind Jimmy Greaves in the list of England’s record scorers. Hodgson was considering taking Rooney off just before his matchwinning free kick in the 73rd minute, but denied claims by ITV that he had submitted the captain’s name in the substitution form to Uefa officials. The manager said that Rooney could have

had no complaints had he been substituted, however, even though he eventually removed Danny Welbeck, who went straight down the tunnel for treatment on a slight ankle knock. “It was harder than it should have been because we created so many opportunities, in the first half particularly,” Hodgson said. “I saw so many goals coming that didn’t come, so it became hard work. In the end we had to make certain we got at least the one goal to give us three points. Maybe we’re saving some goals for a later date. “Wayne is very self-critical, but is delighted of course with the goal. He is happy to score the winning goal, but he knows he and his fellow forwards could have had so many more. It’s a case of glasses half-full and glasses half-empty. We knew it wouldn’t be a piece of cake to come here and win the game, but

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having dominated like that, we should have scored more goals and made life easier for ourselves. “We wanted to get Rickie Lambert on because Rickie’s a goalscorer, and we hadn’t been taking our goal chances. It really was a question of which one we take off, as they had both missed their chances. Neither could have been too critical of me if I had chosen him. As it turned out I didn’t have to make the choice, as Danny rolled his ankle.” Hodgson insisted that Welbeck’s ankle is not a significant concern, which will be a relief for Arsenal as Arsène Wenger is already without 11 first-team players through injury as he prepares for the Barclays Premier League match against Hull City on Saturday. “I think he just rolled it slightly, but the doctors are not concerned about it all,” Hodgson said.

Berahino wary of reception with under-21s on the verge of place in finals rory smith Saido Berahino, the England Under-21 striker, has insisted that Gareth Southgate’s team will keep their cool even under the most extreme provocation when they travel to Croatia for tomorrow’s second leg of their European Championship qualifying play-off. The West Bromwich Albion forward’s late penalty at Molineux on Friday evening ensured that Southgate’s side will arrive in Vinkovci — a town of just 35,000 near the border with Serbia — with a 2-1 advantage as they look to secure one of the seven available spots in next summer’s finals. The 21-year-old admits, though, that a daunting test of character awaits them in the Balkans; on the pitch, where they must deal with technically proficient, physically intimidating opponents, but perhaps more seriously off it, where a trip to this part of the world brings back bad memories. It is almost exactly two years since that dark night in the Serbian town of Krusevac when the under-21s found themselves subjected to sustained racist abuse from the crowd and, according to some accounts, players and staff from the Serbia side. The game finished with a rash of red cards, including one for England’s Danny Rose, and a mass brawl in which one member of Stuart Pearce’s coaching staff was allegedly headbutted. Clearly, it would be unfair to assume that returning to the Balkans will mean a repeat of that abhorrent episode, but Berahino confirmed that Southgate has not only discussed the subject with his players, but that there is a plan in place detailing how England’s players will respond if the worst does happen. “We won't worry about it until it happens,” said Berahino. “If it does, we have had discussions and we know how to deal with it. We are just going to let the referee handle it, and we are not going to get involved in any of it.” Berahino will hope that the game is memorable for rather more pleasant reasons: his strike at Molineux was his ninth for the under-21s, bringing him closer to the all-time record for the age-group side, jointly held by Alan Shearer and Francis Jeffers on 13. He is unlikely to draw level with them in Croatia, but victory would provide him with the chance to do so in the summer, and for the rest of the team to lay to rest the ghosts of their last trip to the European Championship in 2012 when they lost all their games, ultimately costing Pearce his job. “It is great that target is not far away,” he said. “We have to qualify first but we are looking forward to the finals. We know what happened last time and we don’t want that to happen again.”

FGM

Monday October 13 2014 | the times

the game 6 Euro 2016 qualifying

Ireland urged to relish prospect of German backlash george caulkin

Ireland

Keane 6, 14, 18 pen, McClean 46, 53 Pérez og 51, Hoolahan 56

Gibraltar

7 0

Referee L Trattou (Cyp) Attendance 35,123

There have been some bedraggled moments in Ireland’s recent history and Germany have provided two of them. Whether or not the 6-1 and 3-0 defeats of the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign have been banished — the finals in Brazil shone some perspective on those results — Martin O’Neill and his team confront familiar opponents with a renewed sense of vigour. If nothing else, they are not beaten yet. It may be too early to know whether Joachim Löw’s side are suffering from a debilitating hangover, but their 2-0 defeat by Poland on Saturday was not an isolated setback. They laboured to a 2-1 win over Scotland last month and were trounced 4-2 by Argentina in a friendly four days before that. Although there is justifiable concern that a backlash might follow, Ireland will visit Gelsenkirchen posing questions. While their own 7-0 victory against Gibraltar demonstrated very little aside from the lingering prowess of Robbie Keane, who plundered a nerve-settling hat-trick, Ireland no longer carry the stench of disillusionment with them, something that clung to them after their dreadful performances at Euro 2012. The optimism generated by O’Neill’s appointment with Roy Keane as his assistant remains intact, helped by two consecutive wins. In the hangdog days of Giovanni Trapattoni, days of playing down

Rested Fletcher in line for recall against Poland paul forsyth

Scotland

Khubutia og 28

Georgia Referee M Zelinka Attendance 48,000

1 0

Gordon Strachan, the Scotland manager, is weighing up whether to bring back Darren Fletcher, the team captain, for the Euro 2016 qualifying match against Poland in Warsaw tomorrow night. James Morrison and Scott Brown

chances and petty squabbles with players, the Irish felt diminished, but it is not in the nature of O’Neill or Keane to seek out excuses, even if their resources are largely unchanged. There can be few more contrasting double-headers than Gibraltar at home and Germany away — the smallest territory affiliated with Uefa and the world champions — but they look to it with exuberance, not fear. “We couldn’t be going in with more confidence,” the manager said. “Maybe that’s misplaced on my part, but I don’t think so. One, let’s relish it. Two, let’s give it a go. If we get turned over in the match and we’ve had a real go, I think I could live with that. If we’ve sat in all night looking — being driven back is a different thing — and been done because we’ve not made a go of it, I wouldn’t see the point.” Whatever happens, there should be no inferiority. “I don’t think our lads would be in any way like that,” Keane said. “I don’t think they’d be fearful going into any game. If anything they’ll look forward to it, it’s what it’s all about: brilliant atmosphere, playing against a top team. It’s a different challenge than Gibraltar, obviously, as everyone was not only expecting us to win the game, it was about by how many goals. “We’re going into a wounded animal. That will be a test, but that’s what we’re here for. We’ve lads with vast experience, who have played big games. We’re not a crowd of schoolboys. John O’Shea, Robbie Keane have played 100-odd times for their country. They should be looking forward to it.” Ireland expect a response from Germany. “I wouldn’t say it makes it any easier,” Keane said. “You think were preferred to the Manchester United midfielder for the victory at Ibrox on Saturday. Fletcher had played hardly any first-team football since he was substituted against Germany five weeks earlier. Strachan said after the match had been decided by a fortuitous goal — Shaun Maloney’s shot being saved by Giorgi Loria only to rebound into the net off Akaki Khubutia — that his team selection was based on the need to be positive at home, but more experience and security may be needed against Poland, who underlined their potential to qualify from group D with a stunning 2-0 win against Germany. One option would be to give Morrison a more advanced role, such as he occupied in Dortmund, and restore Fletcher to the team’s engine room. As Ikechi Anya acknowledged, his team-mates would be more than happy to have him back. “Darren is obviously a quality player,” Anya said. “Just because he did

Treble chance: Keane completed his hat-trick in the space of 12 minutes when he converted a penalty against Gibraltar ANDREW BOYERS /REUTERS

they’ll react after a defeat — from what I heard, they played some decent stuff — and they’ve still got that quality. The top teams always look forward to the next challenge. If you think we’re going to be playing a weakened Germany or that they’ve taken their eye off the ball, we are kidding ourselves.” not play [against Georgia] does not mean he will not play on Tuesday. The gaffer obviously thought James and Brownie were better in this situation, but maybe away from home he might feel Darren is better. He could pick names out of a hat. That is the sort of strength in depth in this squad. I am sure Darren is professional enough to know this. He is such a good player. He will keep his spirit high for us.” Brown wore the captain’s armband against Georgia, but Fletcher relinquished none of his leadership duties. In the dressing room beforehand, the 30-year-old played a motivating role, offering his team-mate words of encouragement. “Darren is a quality professional,” Anya said. “He was urging us on. Before I went out, he said: ‘Just keep on doing what you are doing.’ He is not one to dampen the mood. If anything, he uplifted us even more. He may not have been playing, but he was still giving orders from the bench. That is

It is not the kind of attitude O’Neill and Keane would encourage; steelyeyed, Ireland did what was required against Gibraltar. Aside from Keane’s three goals, there were two for James McClean, the winger, one for Wes Hoolahan and another courtesy of Jordan Pérez, the hapless goalkeeper. O’Neill hinted that Keane and Hoolahan may not even start against the Germans, preferring the muscularity of Shane Long and Glenn Whelan, which in one regard is heartening. Everybody is on their toes. teams

Scotland (4-2-3-1): D Marshall (Cardiff City) — A Hutton (Aston Villa), R Martin (Norwich City), G Hanley (Blackburn Rovers), A Robertson (Hull City) — S Brown (Celtic), J Morrison (West Bromwich Albion) — S Maloney (Wigan Athletic), S Naismith (Everton; sub: J McArthur, Crystal Palace, 80min), I Anya (Watford) — S Fletcher (Sunderland; sub: C Martin, Derby County, 90). Booked: Morrison, Maloney. Georgia (4-4-1-1): G Loria — U Lobzhanidze, S Kverkvelia, A Khubutia, G Grigalava — G Papava (sub: I Dzaria, 70), J Kankava, M Daushvili, D Kvirkvelia (sub: T Okriashvili, 46) — V Qazaishvili (sub: G Chanturia) — N Gelashvili. Booked: Grigalava, Daushvili.

group d Poland Ireland Scotland Germany Georgia Gibraltar

P 2 2 2 2 2 2

W 2 2 1 1 0 0

D 0 0 0 0 0 0

L 0 0 1 1 2 2

F 9 9 2 2 1 0

A 0 1 2 3 3 14

GD Pts 9 6 8 6 0 3 -1 3 -2 0 -14 0

teams

Ireland (4-4-1-1): D Forde (Millwall) — D Meyler (Hull City), J O’Shea (Sunderland), M Wilson (Stoke City), S Ward (Burnley; sub: R Brady, Hull City, 70min) — A McGeady (Everton), J Hendrick (Derby County), D Gibson (Everton), J McClean (Wigan Athletic) — W Hoolahan (Norwich City; sub: K Doyle, Crystal Palace, 64) — R Keane (LA Galaxy; sub: D Murphy, Ipswich Town, 63). Gibraltar (4-1-4-1): J Pérez (sub: J Robba, 60) — S Wiseman, R Casciaro, R Chipolina (sub: Y Santos, 58), J Chipolina — A Payas — B Pérez, R Bado (sub: R Guilling, 46), L Walker, J Gosling — L Casciaro.

the type of player he is. He just wants the best for Scotland.” By his own high standards of late, Anya had a quiet game on Saturday, able only occasionally to break free of a packed Georgia defence. It could be different in Poland, where there will be more opportunities to use his pace on the break. Despite the narrow margin of their first victory in the group, Scotland will head for Poland full of confidence. Not only did they win a friendly in Warsaw seven months ago, their solitary defeat in eight games was against Germany. Anya says it is all down to Strachan, who has been inspirational on the training field. “In the last 18 months, the team has continued to progress,” he said. “We had six unbeaten before we lost to Germany. We hope to carry this on to Tuesday and beyond. He feeds us that confidence. All the players love the gaffer and we all want to play for him. We all want to do well, not just for him, but for the whole country.”

the times | Monday October 13 2014

FGM

the game 6 Euro 2016 qualifying

Premier League’s global ambition offers only real hope for grassroots game

Tony Evans, Football Editor

G Battered Bale is fit to lift Welsh injury gloom gary jacob The withdrawal of Jonathan Williams with an ankle injury has swollen the list of absentees from the Wales squad to 11, but Chris Coleman will be relieved not to lose a player worth an entire team. It will take more than a little discomfort in his back to prevent Gareth Bale from starting against Cyprus tonight, when Wales hope to put daylight between themselves and a rival for second spot in Euro 2016 qualifying group B. Singled out for some rough treatment by Bosnia-Herzegovina during the goalless draw on Friday, Bale ran to the touchline to speak to Coleman at one point. “Whatever he was saying, my ears were closed because if there was an issue he wasn’t coming off,” Coleman said, tongue in cheek. “He had a kick but he’s all right. We gave him treatment; he had a bit of strapping on his back.” Bale trained without issue yesterday and Coleman said that the last thing he would want to do is irritate Real Madrid, Bale’s club. “He’s not playing for us every time at 100 per cent,” Coleman said. “We’ve never risked him. There’s a difference between playing

with a risk. You can’t do that. The last thing we want to do is send him back injured. But if there’s not a big risk and if there’s a chance of getting through the game in a little bit of pain, that’s all right.” With the best chance to qualify for a tournament in more than a decade, Coleman is entitled to feel exasperated by the absentees, with six midfielders out, and several other players badly short of playing time. Simon Church, who ran himself into the ground partnering Bale in attack, has not played for Charlton Athletic since late August and Wayne Hennessey has kept goal for Crystal Palace only twice this season. “It’s a double-edged sword: they’re hungry to play but they may not last 90 minutes and be a bit rusty,” Coleman said. “International football is a harsh environment.” He reflected on a missed opportunity to beat Bosnia-Herzegovina, when two late headers went begging, and looked forward with optimism to playing Cyprus at Cardiff City Stadium. Victory would give Wales a cushion over their rivals, especially if Belgium, who are expected to win the group, can defeat Bosnia-Herzegovina tonight. teams

Wales (probable; 4-4-2): W Hennessey (Crystal Palace) — C Gunter (Reading), J Chester (Hull City), A Williams (Swansea City), B Davies (Tottenham Hotspur) — H Robson-Kanu (Reading), A King (Leicester City), J Ledley (Crystal Palace), N Taylor (Swansea City) — G Bale (Real Madrid), S Church (Charlton Athletic). Cyprus (probable; 4-2-3-1): A Giorgallides — C Kyriakou, G Merkis, Dossa Júnior, M Antoniades — V Laban, N Nicolaou — C Charalambides, C Makridis, A Makris — D Christofi. Referee: M Gräfe (Germany). Television: Live on Sky Sports 5 (kick-off, 7.45pm).

rass roots and globalisation made the headlines this week. The FA and Premier League laid out their agendas to take the game forward, taking advantage of the international break. If this is a glimpse of the future, God help football. Greg Dyke, below, tried to connect with the common people via a marketing man’s variant of Tourette syndrome. The buzzwords tumbled out: “a degree of crisis” would be dealt with by “mapping the city” and the creation of “football hubs”. What any of it meant — and who might pay for it — was not explained by the FA chairman but the soothing, numbing phrases echoed round a series of hollow big ideas. The gist seemed to be that the English game’s future depends on more all-weather pitches. The Premier League, by contrast, has wider horizons. The 39th game proposal from 2008 — adding a match to the season and playing it abroad — is dead. Richard Scudamore has a better idea. Why not simply play one or two of the 38 fixtures overseas? It is a seductive notion for the clubs. It sends out the message that the English game has outgrown these shores. Parochialism is for the past and the Premier League is truly an international product. Scudamore is not the only one thinking this way. The landgrab for football’s untapped territories is well under way. While the Premier League chief executive was outlining his expansion plans, James Pallotta, the Roma president, was talking up the possibility of playing Serie A matches outside Italy. The sight of 109,000 paying customers crammed into a stadium in Michigan to watch a friendly between Manchester United and Real Madrid in the summer has accelerated the process. English clubs will play competitive games on foreign soil within the next decade. It will be unpalatable but the momentum of profit is unstoppable, although it is fantastical to imagine Burnley v West Ham United or Southampton v Sunderland — to take two matches from next weekend’s programme — selling out in Bangkok or Boston. That’s as detached from reality as dreaming that troops of FA-coached players will come off a production line of 3G pitches to fill out topflight teamsheets and win World Cups. The Premier League has the

Let’s hope Lennon is not being sold short It may not be the job he dreamt about, but it is good to see Neil Lennon back in management at Bolton Wanderers. Lennon’s achievements at Celtic should have put him in contention for better positions. Bolton appeared to be in freefall under Dougie Freedman, the squad seeming to have little faith in the manager. The Northern Irishman’s commitment will enthuse the players. There may be deeper problems. What possessed Phil Gartside to announce that the club are up for sale before his appointment is anyone’s guess. Let’s hope Lennon isn’t left wishing he waited longer to take a job.

ability and opportunity to improve the grassroots game in a way the FA can never emulate. Dyke has big ideas. The clubs have big money. It’s about to get bigger. Negotiations for the next television deal begin this month. At the moment, TV income is £5.5 billion. It could well treble for 2016. The gives the Premier League a massive opportunity to prove that it is not just a rapacious profit-generating organisation. The public expects that the huge influx of cash will disappear in player wages, transfer and agent fees and into owners’ bank vaults. Yet substantial chunks of the next deal could be ringfenced to subsidise ticket prices and finance serious grassroots investment. Match-day income will become an increasingly smaller proportion of overall income over the next few TV deals. Capping ticket prices would create a sense that clubs do not take the fan in the stands for granted. It would soften the blow caused by taking matches to foreign venues. Investing in youth football would send out a similar message and may even produce a greater number of homegrown players. The Premier League is already involved in a wide range of projects in the grassroots game, but making a more significant investment would give the organisation moral leadership of the game in this country and create a legacy that would make its stand apart from the discredited ruling bodies that dominate the sport. It would be a difficult job to persuade the 20 clubs that giving up cash in the short term would benefit them in the long run but Scudamore is perhaps the only football administrator of real substance. Dyke needs to go cap in hand to businesses and government to make his plans work. Any potential FA partners could legitimately ask why they should contribute when football is awash with money. The bitter truth is that the FA cannot revive grassroots football. The Premier League can, if it chooses to. It will be able to make a substantial difference, especially when the 2016 cash comes in. The clubs will be able to afford it. What they cannot afford is to alienate their core audience in pursuit of foreign cash. Globalisation and grassroots are not mutually exclusive. It would take a significant change of mindset, but the Premier League can be a force for good in the game. The FA just looks spent.

FGM

Monday October 13 2014 | the times

Sport

Sorry Flower may face police action St Helens Wigan Warriors

14 6

Rugby league

Christopher Irvine

The grotesque act of violence by Ben Flower, which disfigured Lance Hohaia in a boxing mismatch, left Wigan Warriors mortally wounded in Saturday’s First Utility Super League Grand Final and cast a cloud over the entire sport, led yesterday to Greater Manchester police liaising with the game’s authorities, St Helens and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) over what course of action should be taken. Flower, who left Old Trafford at half-time after his second-minute dismissal and rejoined his disconsolate Wigan team-mates later, was contrite in offering his apologies to all concerned, including Hohaia, who was still dazed on the ground from the 26-yearold prop’s right hook when Flower rammed his fist into his face a second time. The diminutive St Helens stand-off said he bears no grudges, although the case against Flower will not rest there. Police involvement has only underlined the magnitude of Flower’s actions, which will be further studied by a match review panel, with a recommendation for a substantial ban when he appears tomorrow before a disciplinary panel. The RFL is likely to charge him with violent conduct and recommend a suspension outside the normal grade boundaries of up to eight matches, with the disciplinary panel able to impose any length of ban it feels appropriate. Anything less than six months might be construed as a dereliction of duty, given the sickening nature of the incident. Flower was still trending on Twitter almost 24 hours after his infamy was sealed by a first red card in 17 Grand Finals. Notoriety will unfortunately now follow the Wales forward. There were immediate complaints to police from onlookers and television viewers. Even if the CPS feels there is a case to prosecute, St Helens were unwilling, at least at the height of their celebrations, to take matters further at this stage. But there is a pressing need for the sport, whose leniency on disciplinary issues

Federer not for turning despite his win double

STEVE FLYNN / AHPIX.COM

Players who crossed the line Duncan Ferguson The Rangers striker was sentenced in 1995 to three months in jail — he served 44 days in Glasgow’s Barlinnie Prison — for assault in headbutting Jock McStay, of Raith Rovers. Chris Kamara Then a Swindon Town player, he was convicted of grievous bodily harm in 1988 after he caught Jim Melrose, of Shrewsbury Town, with his elbow and broke his cheekbone. He was fined £1,200 and paid £250 compensation.

Narrow miss for Wilson Gymnastics Nile Wilson narrowly

missed out on a medal in the men’s horizontal bar on the final day of the World Championships in Nanning, China. The 18-yearold from Leeds defied a wrist injury to take fourth place with a score of 14.766, with Marijo Moznik, of Croatia, beating him to bronze with a score of 15.000. Epke Zonderland, the Dutch Olympic champion, won with a score of 16.225.

Rachid Bouaouzan The Sparta Rotterdam player received a suspended six-month jail sentence and 200 hours of community service for battery in a career-ending challenge on Niels Kokmeijer, of Go Ahead Eagles, in the Dutch second division in 2004. Rhys Peebles The Cross Keys rugby union player was jailed for a year in January for malicious wounding and inflicting grievous bodily harm after a punch left a Cardiff RFC opponent needing 28 stitches to a cut below his eye. Words by Christopher Irvine

has been highlighted this season, to crack down hard. Nathan Brown, whose last game as St Helens coach was his crowning glory, said that Flower “costing his side the Grand Final is sufficient punishment”. There had been provocation by Hohaia with a raised elbow as the pair tangled twice before Flower directed a retaliatory first punch. He might just have got away with that one, but his cowardly actions in standing over his prone opponent and striking him on the nose left the referee with no alternative and Wigan short-handed for 78 minutes. “There is no defence for my actions,” Flower said. “It was something in the heat of the moment when emotions and adrenaline were running high. I instantly regretted it and am devastated that I allowed myself to punch someone. “I offer my apologies to Lance. I have full respect for him and have never

Tennis Roger Federer insisted that he would not go out of his way to capture the year-end world No 1 ranking despite sealing successive Masters wins with victory in Shanghai yesterday. The Swiss, 33, will return to No 2 after his 7-6, 7-6 victory over Gilles Simon, of France. “I’m not even going to change my schedule because of it, Federer said. Bob and Mike Bryan, the 36-year-old American twins, became the first pair to win all nine ATP World Tour Masters 1,000 doubles tournaments after beating Julien Benneteau and Édouard Roger-Vasselin 6-3, 7-6.

Leicester march on Basketball The Leicester Riders Beaten by the punch: Flower, the Wigan forward whose dismissal reduced his team to 12 men for 78 minutes, attacks a prone Hohaia, the St Helens half back

gone on to a rugby field to injure a fellow player. I’d also like to say sorry to my team-mates, fans and Wigan club. I know I’ve let them down and accept I’ll have to live with this for the rest of my career.” An occasion unfortunately remembered for Flower’s fists will also be fondly recalled by St Helens for the fates that stuck with them through thick and thin all year after they lost in their previous five Grand Final appearances. Paul Wellens, the captain, who Scorers: St Helens: Tries: Soliola, Makinson. Goals: Percival 3. Wigan Warriors: Try: Burgess. Goal: Smith. St Helens: P Wellens; T Makinson, M Percival, J Jones, A Swift; M Flanagan, L Hohaia; K Amor, J Roby, M Masoe, L McCarthy-Scarsbrook, S Soliola, J Turner. Interchange: W Manu, A Walmsley, G Richards, L Thompson. Wigan Warriors: M Bowen; J Charnley, A Gelling, D Sarginson, J Burgess; B Green, M Smith; B Flower, S Powell, D Crosby, J Tomkins, L Farrell, S O’Loughlin. Interchange: E Pettybourne, T Clubb, J Bateman, G Williams. Referee: P Bentham.

endured every one of those agonies, admitted that he had been “lying through my backside all week that those defeats didn’t haunt me”. His hoisted kick created the winning score for Tommy Makinson, after Sia Soliola had crashed over for their first try as Saints eventually got on top of the Wigan Dozen. The momentary madness of Flower supplied St Helens with a crucial advantage, even without a recognised half back and with half the side playing out of position. It was a triumph of cussedness and sheer bloody-mindedness that even Brown admitted was “totally bonkers”. Whether the club turn to Keiron Cunningham, his assistant, or someone beyond Langtree Park, there is a big carrot for his successor in a World Club Challenge match at home to South Sydney Rabbitohs on February 22 next year.

maintained their perfect start to the BBL Championship season with a 99-91 victory away to the Plymouth Raiders. The Riders claimed a third successive win, with 26 points from Rashad Hassan, the American forward, and 20 points from Neil Watson. Team Northumbria secured the first points of the inaugural women’s season with a 57-49 win over the Cardiff Met Archers.

Levy singing in the rain Golf Alexander Levy, of France,

won the Portugal Masters title in Vilamoura after the last two rounds were abandoned because of bad weather. Thunderstorms and waterlogged greens had already led to the event being reduced to 54 holes. Levy’s rounds of 63 and 61 on the first two days left him three shots ahead of Nicolas Colsaerts, of Belgium, who had followed his opening round of 60 with a 67.

Results Basketball BBL Championship: Manchester Giants 73 Bristol Flyers 82; Plymouth Raiders 91 Leicester Riders 99.

Cricket Third one-day international Pakistan v Australia

Abu Dhabi (Australia won toss): Australia beat Pakistan by one run Australia (balls) A J Finch c Irfan b Ali 18 (34) D A Warner c and b Afridi 56 (63) S P D Smith b Tanvir 77(105) *G J Bailey c Shehzad b Irfan 0 (3) G J Maxwell c Amin b Afridi 20 (22) P J Hughes lbw b Tanvir 5 (14) †B J Haddin run out 2 (6) J P Faulkner c Amin b Tanvir 33 (42) M A Starc run out 5 (7) K W Richardson not out 9 (4) X J Doherty not out 1 (1) Extras (lb 3, w 1, nb 1) 5 Total (9 wkts, 50 overs) 231 Fall of wickets: 1-48, 2-102, 3-103, 4-138, 5-157, 6-159, 7-199, 8-220, 9-221. Bowling: Irfan 10-0-61-1; Tanvir 10-140-3; Ali 10-0-41-1; Babar 10-0-42-0; Afridi 10-1-44-2. Pakistan (balls) Ahmed Shehzad b Doherty 26 (41) †Sarfraz Ahmed run out 32 (39) Asad Shafiq lbw b Faulkner 50 (73) Fawad Alam c Smith b Doherty 0 (4) Sohaib Maqsood c Warner b Richardson34 (46) Umar Amin b Starc 19 (27) *Shahid Afridi c Smith b Richardson6 (12) Anwar Ali c Maxwell b Faulkner14 (28) Sohail Tanvir b Maxwell 10 (15) Zulfiqar Babar not out 14 (11)

Mohammad Irfan c Faulkner b Maxwell0 (4) Extras (b 2, lb 5, w 18) 25 Total (50 overs) 230 Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-80, 3-80, 4-154, 5-160, 6-174, 7-204, 8-208, 9-230. Bowling: Starc 10-1-33-1; Richardson 10-0-36-2; Faulkner 10-0-52-2; Maxwell 8-1-41-2; Doherty 10-1-54-2; Smith 2-07-0. Umpires: Ahsan Raza (Pakistan) and R K Illingworth (England)

Equestrianism Horse of the Year Show: Birmingham: 1, H Charles (Horse: Scoubidou Iv) 0 penalties / 33.35 seconds in jump-off; 2, J Hall-McAteer (Tixylix) 0 / 34.09; 3, C Ash (Aughnashammer) 0 / 34.13;, 4, F Adams (Some Like It Hot) 0 / 34.72; 5, A Gill (Amman Valley Santino) 0 / 34.74.

Golf European Tour Portugese Masters, Vilamoura (Par 71. Competition reduced to 36 holes on account of bad weather). Final leaders: 124: A Levy (Fr) 63, 61. 127: N Colsaerts (Bel) 60, 67. 129: F Aguilar (Chile) 65, 64. 131: R Bland (GB) 66, 65; M Madsen (Den) 65, 66; R Wattel (Fr) 67, 64. 132: M Hoey (GB) 65, 67; G Bourdy (Fr) 67, 65; S Jamieson (GB) 63, 69; C Wood (GB) 68, 64; D Willett (GB) 65, 67. 133 T Aiken (SA) 66, 67; R Cabrera-Bello (Sp) 64, 69; T Fleetwood (GB) 68, 65; Otaegui (Sp) 63, 70. P Waring (GB) 67, 66. 134: G Storm (GB) 69, 65; J Hahn (US) 67, 67; R Gonzalez (Arg) 69, 65; T Jaidee (Thai) 67, 67. Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur G&CC (Par 71, US unless stated): Final leaders: 266: S Feng (China)

67, 67, 69, 63. 269: P Phatlum (Thai) 67, 67, 65, 70. 270: So yeon Ryu (S Korea) 66, 65, 72, 67; C Choi (S Korea) 69, 66, 68, 67. P Lindberg (Swe) 70, 68, 69, 63. Frys.com Open, Silverado Resort and Spa, California. (Par 72, US unless stated). Leaders after three rounds: 200: Sang-moon Bae (S Korea) 66, 69, 65. 204: Z Blair 69, 66, 69. 205: B Koepka 68, 70, 67; S Langley 70, 66, 69; M Laird (GB) 67, 67, 71; M Kuchar 71, 68, 66; 206: H Mahan 70, 68, 68; H Matsuyama (Japan) 70, 67, 69; R Goosen (SA) 69, 71, 66; D Lingmerth (Swe) 68, 68, 70.

Gymnastics World Championship: Men’s Horizontal Bar Final: 1, E Zonderland (Neth) 16.225; 2, K Uchimura (Japan) 15.725; 3, M Moznik (Cro) 15.000; 4, N Wilson (GB) 14.766; 5, D Belyavskiy (Russ) 14.733. Women’s Floor Exercise Final: 1, S Biles (US) 15.333; 2. L A Iordache (Rom) 14.800; 3, A Mustafina (Russ) 14.733; 4, M Skinner (US) 14.700; 5, V Ferrari (It) 14.666. Men’s Parallel Bars Final: 1, O Verniaiev (Ukraine) 16.125; 2, D Leyva (US) 15.933; 3, R Kato (Japan) 15.666; 4, D Shudi (China) 15.633 5; Y Tanaka (Japan) 15.041. Women’s Beam Final: 1, Biles 15.100; 2, B Yawen (China) 15.033; 3, Mustafina 14.166; 4. A Teramoto (Japan) 14.100; 5, Iordache 14.066. Men’s Vault Final: 1, Ri Se Gwang (N Korea) 15.416; 2, I Radivilov (Ukraine) 15.333; 3, J Dalton (US) 15.199; 4, K Shirai 15.062; 5, S Sasaki Jr (Br) 15.016.

Motor sport

Rugby union

British Touring Car Championship Brands Hatch: Round ten: First race (GB unless stated): 1, J Plato (GB, MG) 33mins 43.232sec; 2, S Tordoff (MG) 33:44.132; 3, C Turkington (BMW) 33:45.039; 4, M Jackson (Ford) 33:46.551; 5, A Morgan ( Mercedes Benz) 33:46.705; 6, R Collard (BMW) 33:46.924; 7, F Giovanardi (It, Ford) 33:51.354; 8, T Ingram (Toyota) 33:51.835; 9, A Jordan (Honda) 33:53.789; 10, N Foster (BMW) 33:55.024. 2nd Race: 1 Plato 28mins 34.706secs; 2, Morgan 28:36.987; 3, Tordoff 28:38.207; 4, Collard 28:40.065; 5, Jordan 28:40.079; 6, Ingram 28:42.296; 7, Shedden 28:43.833; 8, A Smith (Ire, Volkswagen) 28:43.834; 9, J Goff (Vauxhall) 28:49.399; 10, Foster 28:50.627. 3rd Race: 1, G Shedden (Honda) 28mins 42.621secs; 2, J Clarke (Ford) 28:46.235; 3, Jackson 28:47.047; 4, Tordoff 28:47.379; 5, Smith 28:49.704; 6, Jordan 28:51.144; 7, Plato 28:51.813; 8, Foster 28:56.907; 9, Ingram 28:57.568; 10, M Hynes 28:58.026. Championship Standings: 1, Turkington 434pts; 2, Plato 399; 3, Shedden 349; 4, Jackson 316; 5, Jordan 310.

Aviva Premisership Wasps 29 Bath

Rugby league First Utility Super League Grand Final St Helens

14 Wigan

St Helens: Tries: Soliola, Makinson. Goals: Percival 3. Wigan: Try: Burgess. Goal: Smith. Att: 70,102.

Wasps: Tries: Penalty; Tagicakibau. Cons: Goode 2. Pens: Goode 4; Daly. Bath: Tries: Joseph; Young; Sisi. Cons: Ford 2. Pen: Ford. HT: 12-0. Att: 7;397. Guinness PRO12 Ospreys 26 Cardiff Blues 15 Ospreys: Tries: D Evans; Webb. Cons: Biggar 2. Pens: Biggar 4. Cardiff Blues: Tries: L Williams; Dacey. Con: Patchell. Pen: Patchell. HT: 19-3. Att: 10;821. P W D L F A B Pts Ospreys 6 6 0 0 183 84 19 26 Glasgow 6 5 0 1 176 118 21 23 Ulster 6 4 1 1 156 76 17 22 Munster 6 4 0 2 130 77 14 19 Connacht 6 4 1 1 94 102 10 18 Leinster 6 3 0 3 151 104 16 16 Scarlets 6 2 2 2 139 124 17 14 Edinburgh 6 2 1 3 84 149 7 11 Dragons 6 1 0 5 95 131 8 7 Blues 6 1 1 4 124 172 12 7 Zebre 6 1 0 5 74 146 7 5 Treviso 6 0 0 6 67 190 6 1

Tennis

ATP Shanghai Rolex Masters Final: R Federer (Switz) bt G Simon (Fr) 7-6, 7-6. WTA Japan Open Osaka: Final: S Stosur (Aus) bt Z Diyas (Kaz) 7-6, 6-3. WTA Linz Open Austria: Final: Karolina Pliskova (Cz) bt C Giorgi (It) 6-7, 6-3, 7-6.

the times | Monday October 13 2014

FGM

Sport

Finally, English clubs have added ambition to their grinding intensity Stuart Barnes Commentary

t is eight seasons since a Premiership club won the Heineken Cup. English clubs won five of the first nine European Cups. They will be hoping that a change of name effects a change in the fortunes for their challengers this campaign. Not that bad luck, big-budget French squads and well-rested Irish teams get anywhere near the true reason for a paltry return of three finalists since Wasps beat Leicester at Twickenham in an exclusive English affair. No, English rugby has been so busy reiterating the same old excuses, one unpalatable fact escaped it. The only thing English club rugby was doing at speed was regressing. “Intensity” has become the most frequently used word in English club rugby’s lexicon. A rough translation: clatter and bash. We have endured a slowing down of the sport and the rugby brain. Leinster, in particular, took advantage and dominated the tournament with a speed of thought and deed that swept away teams used to grinding “intensity”. Their excellence — and English mediocrity — was the deep-seated reason for the English failure that had no name. Excuses were unedifying. The Premiership failed to match Premiership actions with European deeds. In a less than vintage era in the English club scene, few people were keen to whisper a few home truths in the ears of the English emperors as they wandered naked through Europe. If the Aviva Premiership

breaks the duck this season, it will have little to do with luck and nothing to do with changes to either the name or format of the competition, now renamed the European Champions Cup. Link it to the clues that have unfolded in the first six weeks of the season. The French clubs still have the money, but the English have some momentum, and that momentum has less to do with budgets than the quality and fluency on the field. The “intensity” remains in place, but ambition has been added. For eight years, the aspect of the game (intensity) that should be perceived as merely the foundation from which to develop has been seen too often as the entire purpose of the game. Booming battles between English rivals replete with juddering collisions confused fans into thinking that “intensity” could take them to places where rather more was needed. Northampton were a classic case last season. They were sweeping all before them in England and fancied to overpower Leinster at Franklin’s Gardens (like most English commentators, I was carried along with the hype), but the Irish intelligence and accuracy were a revelation, a style not practised in England. A week later, lessons learnt, they adapted and produced a powerful performance to win in Dublin. The Aviva Stadium win was not as memorable as Saracens’ savaging of Clermont Auvergne in the semi-final, but it was as impressive, for Leinster were not the architects of their own downfall, as Clermont proved to be. The Saints finished the season Amlin Challenge Cup and English champions. They started this campaign in awesome (and I mean “awesome”) style, with a 53-6 demolition of Gloucester. They look an improved model from last season,

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER, RUSSELL CHEYNE

A very English affair: Wasps celebrate beating Leicester in 2007, but no Premiership club have won Europe’s top prize since

with as much power and pace, but more variety. They have a pool in which Racing Métro and the Ospreys are pitfalls on the road, but with Treviso a potential home and away bonus-point win, the Saints should target a home quarter-final. Saracens have not upped the pace of their game quite as much as Northampton, but their 39-0 win over Harlequins was a classic case of hit-and-run rugby, the sort of which will be needed to guide them to a crucial road-win in a pool in which Clermont and Munster will make the away victory all-important. A semi-final and final appearance is the right sort of experience required to take the next step. Along with the Saints, they have realistic hopes of going all the way. They are not the only English clubs

in contention. Despite defeat against Wasps yesterday, Bath have a shot at the knockout stages. They will need to remedy their set-piece in a treacherous pool with Glasgow Warriors, Montpellier and Toulouse, but, at the Recreation Ground, the West Country men are playing like giants. A powerful pack and a torrent of attacking angles from the back line make them a good tip for three home wins. In pool four, one away win and the odd bonus point may suffice. The biggest concern is their lack of grade-one European experience, but such is the vibrancy of their game on home turf, they must have a good chance of making the last eight. At the start of this season, Wasps, would not have been fancied to achieve much in Europe, but home

wins against Bath and Northampton have changed those perceptions. Of their rivals in pool two, Harlequins will not fancy their own “farewell” to Adams Park, and Leinster are a shadow of their former self. Brian O’ Driscoll’s retirement, compounded by significant injuries to Cian Healy and Sean O’Brien, have dented their confidence and dominance at the breakdown. James Haskell’s team look a better bet to reach the quarter-finals than Leicester. The Tigers have to overcome an injury crisis, as well as Toulon and Ulster in pool three. That will test even Leicester’s resolve. Toulon combine class, squad depth and winning knowhow. They are the team to beat, but in terms of quality and quantity, this is the strongest English challenge for some time.

World domination puts masterful Márquez in dreamland MotoGP

Rick Broadbent

Marc Márquez continued his inexorable march towards motor sport greatness by wrapping up a second successive MotoGP world title yesterday. As is the Spaniard’s way, it came with a record, that of the youngest back-to-back champion in history, beating the mark set by Mike Hailwood in 1963. “It is like I am in a dream,” Márquez, 21, said after finishing second to Jorge Lorenzo in the Japanese Grand Prix in Motegi. The result gave him an unassailable lead in the standings with three races left, was Honda’s first home-track coronation and left the rest of the two-wheeled world scratching its head. To add some icing to the cake, Alex, his 18-year-old brother, won the Moto3 race and heads those standings. There have been flickers of failings this year — his crash in practice in Japan followed others at Misano and Aragón — but Márquez is about as

dominant a figure as you will find in elite sport. He is Bolt on wheels. That he started the season by breaking his leg a month before the first grand prix, only to then win a record-equalling ten races in a row, shows how he can blur the line between fibula and fabulous. “Maybe it looks easy for the people because I’m always smiling, but there is a lot of pressure,” he said. In truth, the pressure is on the rest, and notably the other manufacturers. Márquez signed a contract extension this season that ties him down for another two years and he is improving. Yamaha will need to bridge a clear gap in performance if they are to hope to enjoy anything close to parity next season. His first championship was a close-run affair, but his second has been a high-speed procession. Even his rivals, who were a bunch of muttering malcontents last season, pointing fingers at his aggressive riding style and precociousness, were united this time. “He has been the best all season,”

Lorenzo said. “He makes no mistakes,” Valentino Rossi added after edging into second place in the standings via his place on the podium. Márquez got off to a slow and safe start in Japan, but picked his way towards the front, fending off Rossi in a mid-race duel, and settling for second. That is not the Márquez way but shows he has added some common sense to his sense-mocking manner of rubbing his elbow on the asphalt as he rounds corners. Now most expect further records to fall. He first arrived in the World Championship arena as a 15-year-old and, although he made a podium at Donington Park, that season was curtailed by injury. In 2010, aged just 17, he was the 125cc world champion. Two years later, Double top: Márquez made sure of winning the world title yesterday for the second year in a row, in Japan

despite preseason problems with his eyesight, he added the Moto2 title. He has been a world champion ever

since. Last year Rossi, the seven-time world champion in the premier class, was very quick to realise the threat posed. “Márquez is learning fast,” he said. “So we need to f*** him now because in another year it will be too late.” It was a pithy and prescient remark. “His riding style is very spectacular,” the Italian added, unnecessarily. Bradley Smith was the best of the British in Japan with a ninth place that leaves him te tenth in the standings. Cal Crutchlow and Scott Redding are 12th and 13th respectively. It was all about one man, wa though. After winning, Má Márquez was presented with a Samurai sword at trackside that he used to tra release a balloon. The bubble is in no danger of bursting.

FGM

Monday October 13 2014 | the times

Sport Rugby union

Wasps outflank Bath as late rally fails Wasps Bath

MIKE HEWITT / GETTY IMAGES

29 22

Scorers: Wasps: Tries: penalty try (48min), Tagicakibau (50). Penalty goals: Goode 4 (6, 22, 36, 45), Daly (40). Conversions: Goode 2. Bath: Tries: Joseph (52), Young (64), Sisi (70). Penalty goals: Ford (76). Conversions: Ford 2. Scoring sequence (Wasps first): 3-0, 6-0, 9-0, 12-0 (half-time), 15-0, 22-0, 29-0, 29-5, 29-12, 29-19, 29-22. Wasps: A Masi; S Tagicakibau, E Daly, A Leiua (rep: C Bell, 61), C Wade; A Goode (rep: R Miller, 72), J Simpson; M Mullan (rep: J Yapp, 74), C Festuccia, L Cittadini (rep: J Cooper-Woolley, 61), J Gaskell, B Davies (rep: S Jones, 66), A Johnson (rep: E Jackson, 71), J Haskell, N Hughes (rep: T Lindsay, 77). Bath: G Henson; S Rokoduguni, J Joseph, K Eastmond, A Watson; G Ford, C Cook (rep: M Young, 41; sin-bin, 48-58); P James (rep: N Catt, 46), R Webber (rep: R Batty, 49), D Wilson (sin-bin 44-54; rep: H Thomas, 58), S Hooper (rep: D Day, 50), D Attwood, A Faosiliva (rep: O Devoto, 75), G Mercer (rep: H Thomas, 47-57, D Sisi, 65), L Houston (sin-bin, 38-48). Referee: J P Doyle. Attendance: 7,397. B Pts P W D L F A Northampton 6 5 0 1 197 82 5 25 Saracens 6 5 0 1 188 121 2 22 Exeter 6 4 0 2 201 112 4 20 Bath 6 4 0 2 194 117 4 20 Wasps 6 3 0 3 149 141 3 15 Gloucester 6 3 0 3 162 159 3 15 Harlequins 6 3 0 3 127 135 2 14 Leicester 6 3 0 3 117 153 2 14 London Irish 6 2 0 4 125 156 4 12 Sale 6 2 0 4 147 168 3 11 Newcastle 6 2 0 4 115 153 1 9 London Welsh 6 0 0 6 47 272 1 1

Owen Slot Chief Rugby Correspondent

The best way for Wasps to persuade their supporters to follow them to Coventry is to put on a show like this every week. Why would you protest against this? If they could turn over teams such as Bath with a game like this every week, you might just walk to Coventry rather than avoid it. Wasps brought a real quality to this game and gave Bath, the soaraway success story of the season, a proper lesson. There have been some extraordinary scorelines in the Aviva Premiership already this season, but Wasps 29-0 up over Bath after 50 minutes is about as extreme as it gets. Just to give the narrative of the day a further twist, they switched off in the last quarter to allow Bath to mount a late dramatic comeback that Wasps just about managed to withstand. They did so thanks to an overwhelmingly powerful performance from a back row from which James Haskell added to his recent collection of man-of-the-match awards even though he looked no more influential than the other stand-outs in the loose, Ashley Johnson and Nathan Hughes. That the three loose boys looked so good was due in large part to the notable successes up front where Wasps dismantled the Bath scrum. Matt Mullan, generally a lesser-heralded England front-row contender, proved his quality at loose-head prop with a series of triumphs over David Wilson, a man of recognised international quality. Bath’s front row has been a real feature of their early-season success, but yesterday you simply would not have known it. Bath were messy at the lineout too, and all this happened with Wasps shorn of Joe Launchbury, their England lock who was in a car crash on the way to the game, a journey that finished at hospital rather than Adams Park. Launchbury was shaken up but not hurt and should be available for selection next week. Wasps, though, did not suffer for his absence. Bath were actually at their best in the first ten minutes, they found a really

Real quality: Leiua, the Samoa back, escapes a tackle at Adams Park yesterday as Wasps hold on for victory over Bath

good early rhythm and contrived to get Kyle Eastmond over the tryline after just five minutes, a score that was disallowed for obstruction. That, though, was as close as they got in the first half. Gradually Wasps asserted themselves, no more than in the scrum where Mullan began tightening the screw on the frustrated Wilson. They themselves got close with

a series of surges from the scrum, with Hughes tirelessly driving forward. Yet, nevertheless, they had four penalties as a reward, the last of those a 55metre effort from Elliot Daly. That 12-0 half-time scoreline was not much of an indicator of what was then to come. Bath’s disarray culminated in three yellow cards, Leroy Houston for a tip tackle on Joe Simpson just before

TMO (the monday overview) Try of the week

Premiership

Ken Pisi Northampton Saints

Manoa hat-trick keeps Saints top Northampton Saints demolished Sale Sharks 43-10, with a hat-trick of tries for Samu Manoa and others from the electric Pisi brothers and Kahn Fotuali’i, and stay top of the Aviva Premiership. Saracens, in second, beat a dogged Gloucester 28-21 at Allianz Park, and Exeter Chiefs thrashed London Irish 44-24 at Sandy Park, with five tries in the opening hour. Tries from Adam Powell, Mark Wilson and Ruki Tipuna helped Newcastle Falcons to see off London Welsh 23-2 at the Kassam Stadium.

The wing’s side-stepping piece of individual brilliance, leaving three defenders for dead in a confined space, lit the touchpaper for Northampton Saints against Sale Sharks on Saturday.

Team of the week M Tait (Leicester); K Pisi (Northampton), K Eastmond (Bath), B Barritt (Saracens), S Tagicakibau (Wasps); C Hodgson (Saracens), J Simpson (Wasps); M Mullan (Wasps), C Festuccia (Wasps), L Cittadini (Wasps), D Welch (Exeter Chiefs), A Hargreaves (Saracens), A Johnson (Wasps), J Haskell (Wasps, captain), S Manoa (Northampton).

Farrell returns for Saracens after injury Owen Farrell will be in the Saracens squad to play Clermont Auvergne next weekend after three weeks out with injury, Mark McCall, the director of rugby, said. McCall championed Brad Barritt’s England credentials after the centre produced a man-of-the-match performance in the win over Gloucester. “I would have him on my international team every day of the week,” he said.

half-time, followed by Wilson for a trip on Hughes just after, and then Micky Young. For about 20 seconds, Bath had 12 men on the field, but over the period that they were short-handed, Wasps accumulated two back-to-back converted tries and a penalty and stretched their lead to 29-0. The first try was a kick-through that Christian Wade was

Compiled by Mark Baldwin, Alex Lowe

7,397

Foreign fields England sevens start well

The crowd at Adams Park for what will probably be Wasps’ penultimate Aviva Premiership game at the ground they have called home since 2002. The recent average for Wasps at High Wycombe has been about 5,000, and the size of early gates at the Ricoh Arena, in Coventry, will be fascinating.

-225 2

Bottom club London Welsh’s points difference after only six games — they have shipped 272 and scored only 47.

chasing nicely until he was tackled off the ball just short of the line by Young. That decision earned Young a yellow card and Wasps a penalty try. Soon after the restart, Wasps pinched a Bath lineout, Johnson charged through into open space, releasing the excellent Sailosi Tagicakibau to go in under the posts. From this unlikely position, Bath mounted their comeback. They were still two men down when Jonathan Joseph was put through to score by a lovely Eastmond pass. That looked merely a consolation, but Bath then came back with two more. Young scored from a period of Bath pressure on the Wasps’ tryline and David Sisi had only been on for five minutes when he went through on an overlap. With two George Ford conversions, Bath were suddenly within seven points of the draw. Even though this showed good resilience from Bath, Wasps will have been kicking themselves and were forced to hang on in a tense final four minutes. They have now beaten Saints here this season and Bath too; maybe they should stay after all. Haskell had a different take on it all, as he so often does. “This is the best crowd we’ve had all season,” he said. “Maybe we should say were going to move somewhere else and we’ll get another big crowd next week.”

Wins in a row for Newcastle Falcons, with last week’s win at home to Exeter Chiefs followed on Saturday by a crucial, decisive 23-3 victory at London Welsh.

England made a promising start to the IRB World Sevens series by beating New Zealand, the world champions, 31-7 and also South Africa 19-0 on the way to finishing third in Australia. The top four countries in the series will qualify automatically for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Fiji made a flying start by beating England 48-7 in the semifinal and then Samoa 3124 in a thrilling final. The next leg is in Dubai in December. Williams back in black World Cup-winning centre Sonny Bill

Williams is in discussions about playing for New Zealand at the 2016 Olympics rugby sevens. Williams returned to rugby union this week before next year’s World Cup, after a two-year spell in Australia’s National Rugby League with the Sydney Roosters. Williams is expected to join up with the All Blacks for their tour to the US and Britain. Uruguay claim last place Uruguay claimed the final place in the 2015 World Cup by beating Russia 3627 in Montevideo, overturning a 22-21 firstleg defeat. Uruguay will join Australia, England, Wales and Fiji in pool A.

the times | Monday October 13 2014

FGM

Rugby union Sport

Fans’ discontent soothed by victory tonic NIGEL FRENCH / PA

Relocation may be an unpopular choice, but Wasps’ performance at Adams Park quelled a revolt, says Owen Slot

he sound and the fury at Wasps’ unloved and now temporary HQ in High Wycombe is actually rather pleasant. It involved a reasonable number of paying punters sharing a beer yesterday and debating how reasonable they are going to be. There was no protest at Adams Park. No police in riot gear. No furious supporters shouting “scab” at those who made it through the stadium’s unspectacular gateway. As if. No, not here in home counties rugby territory. Actually, at 7,397 it was Wasps’ biggest crowd of the season. Whether that was because it was Bath visiting, or because bigger issues had visited the club in the previous week, was hard to tell. But in the ground, there was only one stroppy “anti” banner fluttering in the breeze, and that was withdrawn long before half-time. Maybe its owner was simply enjoying the rugby too much. The early scoreline in the WaspsCoventry story is a significant win for the club’s public-relations team. The PR messaging was all over this game, starting with the match-day programme, which had a picture of Rob

battle to retain a portion of the support who were here yesterday. Forgiveness is one thing, getting to Coventry and back is another issue altogether. Eastwood said that he thought about 80 per cent of Wasps’ fans would follow them to the Midlands. That would appear to be on the positive side of wishful thinking, but if he carries on putting out the fires, he might retain some of them at least. Eastwood attended an emotional fans’ forum on Thursday. He followed the post-match media rounds yesterday by going straight to another supporters’ forum at the ground. He has another one this week. But, of course, rather than making the right noises in public forums, there is one very easy way of making friends

Inside today

English clubs could rule on the European stage Parting shot: supporters make a painted reference, but victory over Bath provoked more sound than fury at High Wycombe

Stuart Barnes, page 59

Miller, the fly half, on the front looking enthusiastically into the distance under the headline “A NEW DAWN”. Inside the programme, there were pledges of how the club will look after their supporters. Over the public address system, the same message was repeated. “We will make it as easy as possible . . . The players are very positive and excited.” On the pitch, at half-time, Tom Varndell was interviewed and confirmed that the players

and influencing people in sport — and that is by winning. Who knows how the mood of the crowd might have turned had Wasps played differently yesterday? That is the way sport works: the team deliver an emotional performance, the crowd fall straight into line and behave similarly. Wasps saved a big performance for the right day. It may not heal the wounds completely, but it has at least assuaged some of the hurt.

are indeed very positive and very excited. In his programme notes, Nick Eastwood, the chief executive, was getting his apologies in quickly. “We are truly sorry for the angst and upheaval many of you have felt over the past few days,” he wrote. At this stage, then, it seems that Wasps have got away with it. The management have sold their story to their punters and it seems that many of them have bought it. Their club are

leaving home, moving out. They had no option. The response was no longer anger. At least not at Adams Park yesterday, although there is a beer tent in the car park and the tipple was generally bitter. The real question is how many will follow them to Coventry. “We don’t want to leave our fans behind,” Eastwood had written in the programme notes. However, there is little doubt that Wasps face a steep uphill

FGM

Monday October 13 2014 | the times

Sport Formula One

Briton stars in role as diplomat after shining on track Lewis Hamilton wins Russian Grand Prix in front of president, but drivers’ thoughts are still in Japan, writes Kevin Eason from Sochi

ewis Hamilton was the only man in Russia unaware of the presence of one of the most powerful men on the planet. While Hamilton primped his hair ready for the podium ceremony that would be televised around the world, a man in a plain but neatly pressed white shirt stood grinning in front of Nico Rosberg and Valtteri Bottas. Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One’s Great Dictator, was introducing another of the breed — President Putin. Hamilton turned and did a retake,

unsure of who this was and what the formalities of meeting a president would be. He should know, because he was at the White House in August shaking hands with President Obama. Never mind winning the inaugural Russian Grand Prix. Hamilton should take a job in the diplomatic corps — he has the contacts now. There was the polite chit-chat. Putin wanted to know how much weight the drivers lost during a grand prix. He was told three litres by Rosberg, whose linguistic skills — he is fluent in five languages — do not stretch to Russian.

Race results 1, L Hamilton (GB, Mercedes) 1hr 31min 50.744sec 2, N Rosberg (Ger, Mercedes) at 13.657sec behind 3, V Bottas (Fin, Williams) 17.425 4, J Button (GB, McLaren) 30.234 5, K Magnussen (Den, McLaren) 53.616 6, F Alonso (Sp, Ferrari) 1min 00.016sec 7, D Ricciardo (Aus, RedBull) 01:01.812 8, S Vettel (Ger, RedBull) 01:06.185 9, K Raikkonen (Fin, Ferrari) 01:18.877 10, S Perez (Mex, Force India) 01:20.067 11, F Massa (Bra, Williams) 01:20.877 12, N Huelkenberg (Ger, Force India) 01:21.309 13, J-E Vergne (Fr, Toro Rosso) 01:37.295 14, D Kvyat (Russ, Toro Rosso)1 lap 15, E Gutierrez (Mex, Sauber) 1 lap 16, A Sutil (Ger, Sauber) 1 lap 17, R Grosjean (Fr, Lotus) 1 lap 18, P Maldonado (Ven, Lotus)1 lap 19. M Ericsson (Swe, Caterham) 2 laps Did not finish: K Kobayashi (Japan, Caterham) 32 laps, M Chilton (GB, Marussia) 44 laps. Qualifying 1, Hamilton 1min 38.513sec; 2, Rosberg 1:38.713; 3, Bottas 1:38.920; 4, Button 1:39.121; 5, Kvyat 1:39.277; 6, Magnussen 1:39.629; 7, Ricciardo 1:39.635; 8, Alonso 1:39.709; 9, Raikkonen 1:39.771; 10, Vergne 1:40.020; 11, Vettel 1:40.052; 12, Huelkenberg 1:40.058; 13, Perez 1:40.163; 14, Gutierrez 1:40.536; 15, Sutil 1:40.984; 16. Grosjean 1:41.397; 17, Ericsson 1:42.648; 18, Massa 1:43.064; 19, Kobayashi 1:43.166; 20, Maldonado, 1:43.205; 21, Chilton 1:43.649. Drivers’ World Championship 1, Hamilton 291pts; 2, Rosberg 274; 3, Ricciardo 199; 4, Bottas 145; 5, Vettel 143; 6, Alonso 141; 7, Button 94; 8, Huelkenberg 76; 9, Massa 71; 10, Magnussen 49; 11, Perez 47; 12, Raikkonen 47; 13, Vergne 21; 14, Grosjean 8; 15, Kvyat 8; 16, Bianchi 2. Constructors 1, Mercedes 565pts; 2, Red Bull 342; 3, Williams 216; 4, Ferrari 188; 5, McLaren 143; 6, Force India 123; 7, Toro Rosso 29; 8, Lotus 8; 9, Marussia 2. Remaining races Nov 2: United States Nov 9: Brazil Nov 23: Abu Dhabi

For Putin, the money shot came next, with 100 million pairs of eyes trained on Hamilton on the top step of the podium, shaking hands with the Action Man president who has turned Sochi from a sleepy seaside resort into a sporting giant. Putin personally signed the contract to bring F1 to Sochi and this was his moment of glory. And Hamilton’s victory smile is the sort of publicity that only £30 billion worth of investment in a Winter Olympics and a grand prix can buy to polish the image of man seen as a tyrant by half of the world, a hero by the people of Russia. If a script had been written, it could not have soothed the ego of the president and pleasured the crowd at the Sochi Autodrom any better than the English driver with the glittering winner’s trophy. Hamilton gushed for Britain in a eulogy that will have made hair curl in the sensitive regions of the world where Putin’s Russia is regarded as a threat and not a sporting wonderland. “[I am] so happy to be here,” Hamilton said on the podium. “We have had an amazing week. Russia has been so good to me and to the team. I am so grateful for the support and I am really looking forward to coming here many, many more times. It is not very far from where I live so I am going to be hopping over for some holidays, for sure.” Hamilton could hop over from his Monaco apartment for some hunting with the president or join him for skiing in his favourite mountains above Sochi. Hamilton would have to get over being starstruck, though, as he confessed later: “It was very surreal to meet him. I don’t know too much about him. I know a lot more about Barack. He is one of the most powerful men in the world.” We will take the powerful bit for granted, but surreal was the right choice of a word for an event that veered between political rally and, for

From Russia with love: Hamilton’s only moment of vulnerability in his fourth win

the drivers and teams, an emotional maelstrom. Formula One’s drivers wanted to remember their friend and rival, Jules Bianchi, who remains in intensive care in hospital in Japan. The Marussia driver’s life hangs in the balance after crashing at the Japanese Grand Prix and feelings were raw just a week later. The 21 drivers wanted to devote a silent minute to Bianchi before the race, yet a simple act of remembrance was overshadowed by nationalistic fervour and an unprecedented instruction from Ecclestone to line up in silence to re-

spect the singing of the Russian national anthem. As the Cossack choir burst into song, the drivers’ minds were clearly elsewhere and when they joined in a group hug, an act of support for Bianchi and his family, an unfortunate chorus of “Russiya, Russiya” rang out around the main grandstand. Jenson Button added perspective. “Before the race, after the race, the national anthems, it’s horrific,” he said. “But when you put on the helmet and get in the car and you are racing, you are in another world. “On the grid was emotional for

Rosberg, left, and Hamilton celebrate with Niki Lauda, far right, in Sochi

Sochi’s Olympic Park as they drove to the finish yesterday. Rosberg paid for an ambitious lunge to grab the lead from pole-sitter Hamilton at the first corner. He had to pit immediately for fresh tyres that would have to last the remaining 52 laps. Rosberg emerged from the pits in 20th place. By lap 31 he was second, where he would stay to the finish. Valtteri Bottas, whose Williams had given a glimpse of searing pace in qualifying, could not get near. He finished third, more than 17sec behind Rosberg. Rosberg’s crucial error was almost the only excitement of a disappointingly dreary race that would be instantly forgettable if not for the location and circumstances of the past week. The constructors’ title was never in doubt and we can be certain that, barring a lightning strike or an outbreak of pestilence in the posh mansions of Monaco, a Mercedes driver will

Forgotten man Brawn has a right Kevin Eason Motor Racing Correspondent

The gleaming trophy sat proudly in the team’s hospitality suite as the champagne corks popped and shirts bearing the legend “world champions” were donned. Mercedes, one of the proudest names in the history of motor racing, won the constructors’ world championship yesterday, and with the same crushing dominance that they have shown all year. Lewis Hamilton won the Russian Grand Prix, followed home by Nico Rosberg. That was the team’s eighth one-two of the season; it was Hamilton’s ninth victory of the campaign and these two are now effectively the only drivers who can contest the drivers’ world championship. They are blessed with a car of such immense supremacy that you feel they could have taken in the scenery of

the times | Monday October 13 2014

FGM

Formula One Sport PETER J FOX / GETTY IMAGES

Talent-fuelled British trio accelerating through ranks

Kevin Eason

in a row came when Rosberg, centre, pulled alongside the Briton at turn two at the start of the race, but the German locked up his brakes and ceded control

everyone and we, the drivers, had our time together. We were there for Jules. We drivers weren’t thinking about the national anthem, we were thinking about Jules.” Right at the back of the grid, starting last, was Max Chilton in Marussia’s only car. The tension was palpable and thoughts were halfway around the world, in that intensive care unit of the Mie General Medical Centre in Yokkaichi. It has been a tragic and trying week for one of the friendliest and most open teams in F1. It got no better with Chilton’s car lasting only nine laps.

President Putin, right, is greeted by Ecclestone during a dreary grand prix

An estimated 55,000 fans filled the stands, their curiosity unrewarded by one of the duller races of a tumultuous year. Maybe F1 needed a breather after the events of the past week, though, and 91 minutes passed like a sigh of relief. The president missed the ceremony and the early skirmishes, arriving late to be greeted by Ecclestone in the bright seaside sunshine. Putin took his place in the private box outside a special presidential suite, flanked by the King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, Russia’s new trading partner, then Ecclestone and Jean Todt, another presi-

dent, but of the FIA, motor racing’s governing body. It was like an autocrats’ convention. Todt’s fiancée, Michelle Yeoh, is Malaysian. She was not accompanying Todt at this grand prix, as she so often does. No one said it, but perhaps the sensitivity of a Malaysian celebrity appearing alongside a president whose nation is implicated in the downing of Malaysian Airlines MH17 over Ukraine with the loss of 298 lives would have been a diplomatic leap too far. Instead, this was President Putin’s day and his grand prix.

It was an embarrassment of British riches on Russian soil. Lewis Hamilton won the main event yesterday, but three up-and-coming talents vied for the honours in the junior categories and could yet give the nation a unique clean sweep of motor racing’s most prestigious titles. Jolyon Palmer became the first British driver since Hamilton in 2006 to win the GP2 Championship, the key feeder series for Formula One. The 23-year-old clinched the title with a win on Saturday with three races to go, after scoring in every round of a championship that has in the past bred winners such as Nico Rosberg, Romain Grosjean and, of course, Hamilton, who all went on to F1. The only stumbling block for Palmer will be about $10 million (about £6.2 million), the asking price to join one of F1’s smaller teams. It may be a hurdle too high, although Jonathan Palmer, Jolyon’s father and a former grand prix driver, is working to get a budget together that might open the doors to the world’s biggest race series. He may yet be beaten to it by either Alex Lynn or Dean Stoneman, who are fighting to the final round for the honours in the GP3 junior series. Lynn, 21, needs just two points to take the title, but he is under pressure from Stoneman, whose motor racing story is extraordinary. Stoneman, 24, was a member of the Marussia Manor Racing team who decided not to race in Sochi for “commercial reasons”. The timing could not have been worse, with Stoneman winning last time out in Monza and in confident mood. However, Stoneman, who had to take two years out to fight cancer, wangled a drive with the Koiranen team in a car that has been no better than 17th this season — and produced a stunning lights-to-flag victory on Saturday, which was followed by yesterday’s second. He is now vying for the GP3 title. Palmer celebrates his GP2 success

to feel proud of his role in Mercedes’ race to supremacy

be world champion. The odds are on Hamilton now, with 17 points in hand in the standings over his team-mate. He also equalled Nigel Mansell’s record of 31 victories, the most for a British driver. Yet that shiny winner’s trophy should be parcelled up today and sent to a riverbank somewhere in England, addressed to a Mr R Brawn. The bluff Mancunian, who was drummed out of his team last year, is the architect of this success. It was Ross Brawn’s planning, his recruitment and his magical inspirational and organisational skills that set up a first constructors’ title for Mercedes. The German carmaker has the pride and the resources but it was Brawn who sold it his eponymous team after they won the championship with Jenson Button in 2009 and handed over a squad that could transform ambition into reality. It was a hard road, with four unrewarded seasons, and now Brawn

HOCH ZWEI / ACTION IMAGES

Ferrari send a message of support to Jules Bianchi, the injured Marussia driver

cruelly has missed the climax and the accolades. It is a pity that such a great career should have ended in an ignominious departure from Mercedes when he discovered that Paddy Lowe had been hired from McLaren as his replacement behind his back. The tensions were evident last season and the pity is that Lowe, one of the nicest and most honourable of men, will have been uncomfortable with the arrangement. To his credit, Lowe has kept the ship on course and the Russian Grand Prix underlined the strength of Mercedes, the new power in the land after usurping four seasons of rule under Red Bull. The latter were nowhere to be seen around the Sochi Autodrom, the once mighty blue cars with the raging Red Bull emblem finishing a lowly seventh for Daniel Ricciardo and eighth for

Sebastian Vettel. The German’s extraordinary reign as champion is almost over, as is his hegemony at Red Bull. He is leaving, probably for Ferrari, and announcements are expected soon. Fernando Alonso, a disappointing sixth for Ferrari, says his next team will not be powered by a Mercedes engine. That points to a move to McLaren, who partner Honda next season, or even a swap with Vettel at Red Bull. Who knows? The atmosphere in F1's backrooms is always heavy with intrigue. Button will be interested in the outcome. His fourth place yesterday was his best performance for McLaren since the British Grand Prix in July. He is a former world champion and stands 45 points higher than Kevin Magnussen, his team-mate, in the title standings, yet he could be out of work by the end of next month. F1 can be a cruel sport.

Sport

Monday October 13 2014 | the times

Sterling suffers drop in value Hodgson in ‘burnout’ controversy as Rooney keeps England on top Pages 52-57

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british press awards — sports team of the year

Putin laps up Hamilton victory YURI KOCHETKOV / EPA

Kevin Eason Motor Racing Correspondent, Sochi

Lewis Hamilton won a Russian Grand Prix yesterday that was overshadowed by the presence of President Putin, risking controversy and condemnation. Only hours after ordering more than 17,000 troops to pull back from the Ukraine border, the president was in Sochi to present the winner’s trophy to Hamilton for claiming the first grand prix on Russian soil in a century. Millions of television viewers around the world watched as Hamilton warmly shook Putin’s hand and commended the authorities for staging an “amazing” race on the Olympic park in Sochi, built for the Winter Games in February at a cost of £30 billion. Putin also presented the trophy for the winning constructor to Paddy Lowe, the Mercedes technical director. Mercedes clinched the constructors’ world championship with a one-two finish after Nico Rosberg followed Hamilton across the finishing line. There were concerns that the presence of Putin would dominate proceedings, particularly with the thoughts of many in Formula One with the family of Jules Bianchi, the Marussia driver who was severely injured in a dramatic crash at the Japanese Grand Prix a week earlier. The 21 remaining drivers formed a circle before the start as a public act of support for their stricken colleague, who remains in intensive care in the Mie General Medical Centre in Yokkaichi. They also wore stickers on their helmets with the logo “Tous avec Jules #17”. Bianchi’s car, No 17, was prepared but left in the garage and Marussia ran a single car for Max Chilton, Bianchi’s team-mate, as an act of respect.

Hamilton, who warmly shook Putin’s hand, is 17 points clear in the drivers’ world championship after his triumph in Sochi

Times Crossword 25,916 1

12 13 14

16 17

19 20

23 24

across

down

1 Asian I expect is put in the shade (7) 5 Adversary is following me into hideout that’s not closed (7) 9 Frightful tale set in outskirts of Manhattan is mawkish (11) 10 Garbage decay (3) 11 Gave pen out, but missing penny to repay (6) 12 Luxury, light tree houses (4-4) 14 Film title is OK, Home Base (4,4,2,3) 17 Lucrative things one invested in well, the tops! (5-8) 21 Fancy stealing funny things (3,5) 23 Residence housing foremost of aristocrats? (6) 25 Line that’s said — as a hint (3) 26 Expert seeing a line pencilled in (11) 27 Hospital having withdrawn from charity programme sent back letter (7) 28 English relative found in wood, one raised in surprising circumstances? (7)

1 Italian chant, second half first (6) 2 Those proscribing flags (7) 3 Whatshisname a beanpole, struggling to chew? (9) 4 Yuetide, might you say? (4) 5 Removal of pests in particular? (3-7) 6 Children’s author left at the coalface? (5) 7 Withdraw score (7) 8 Soak was a poser on uppers initially (and speed!) (8) 13 Exhausted - as may be the departing stage performers? (7,3) 15 Repeating it, Queen musical sent up (9) 16 Moving image has come into play (8) 18 Ignore name in waiting to install leader of government (7) 19 Composer, one adding colour? (7) 20 Chicken and mustard (6) 22 Force politician to get garlanded up? (5) 24 It’s maximal, I fear, for a stretch? (4)

Unfortunately, it failed to complete the race, with the Briton forced to stop after ten laps. “The guys had to dig deep to get us to the grid,” Chilton said. “It was very emotional with all the support for Jules. The team, the sport and all the fans have really done him proud.” The atmosphere of the first Russian Grand Prix since a race was run in 1914 in St Petersburg was awkward and emotional. For the first time, the drivers were ordered to line up silently at the front of the grid for the singing of the Russian national anthem. Then all eyes switched to the arrival of President Putin, who took his seat about an hour after the start in a private box alongside Bernie Ecclestone, the sport’s chief executive, and King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, of Bahrain, who is in Russia for trade talks. F1 now takes a two-week breather before the next grand prix, in the United States, but will be anxious for updates on the condition of Bianchi, who remains critical but stable in Japan. It will be welcome respite for the Marussia team, who have time to recover from the incident in Japan before the final three grands prix of the season. “What the team needs now is to head home for support from their families and colleagues,” Chilton added. “Somehow we need to find the strength to regroup and move forward.” Marussia are engulfed in crisis at a time when their future is in doubt. Andrey Cheglakov, the chief investor, was in Sochi for the race, but no word emerged on whether he is prepared to bankroll another season, leaving staff at the factory in Banbury, Oxfordshire, to wonder whether their time in F1 will end on the lowest of notes. Race report and analysis, pages 62-63

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