Tt 2014 11 25

OF LONDON

tuesday november 25 2014 | thetimes.co.uk | no 71363

Nina Conti

Giles Coren My wild days (and nights) on Britain’s poshest magazine Pages 46-47

The funniest woman in showbusiness Pages 50-51 TERRY MATHEWS / ALAMY

Go online to treat your depression, teens told

Chris Smyth Health Correspondent

Big freeze The water meadow near Malmesbury in Wiltshire was covered in frost at dawn yesterday after temperatures fell below freezing overnight. Forecast, page 17

Benefits for OAPs will cost extra £12bn a year Pensioners have stopped being poor, says think-tank

Francis Elliott Political Editor

Taxpayers must find £12 billion a year to fund pensioner benefits by 2020 even though most retired people are better off than when they were in work, according to a stark analysis of the impact of an ageing population.

Spending must be slashed or budgets increased if the state pension and other retirement handouts continue to take an ever increasing share of public spending, the Institute for Fiscal Studies warns.

The cost of generous public sector occupational pensions will hit £36 bil-

lion a year — equivalent to about 8p on the basic rate of income tax — at a time when most people retiring are better off than they were in work, the think-tank says. Policy-makers should recognise that “pensioners as a group have stopped being poor”.

Paul Johnson, the director of the IFS, uses an article in The Times today to urge greater understanding of the consequences of policies such as the “triple lock”, which guarantees aboveinflation rises to the state pension, before they become politically impossible to reverse.

“In 2011, for the first time, the average

incomes of pensioner households — adjusted to take account of housing costs and the costs of children — rose above the average incomes of the rest of the population. Work recently carried out by colleagues of mine at the IFS suggests that most people retiring now will be better off in retirement than they were on average over their working lives.

“Those currently retired and those hitting state pension age over the decade have been spared most of the effects of austerity, at least in terms of their incomes.”

Mr Johnson calculates that by 2019

the cost of pensioner benefits will be £12 billion a year more than in 2010 as the number of retirees grows by a fifth.

“At the same time an ageing population will put increasing pressures on the health service. The NHS budget may be ‘protected’, but it is having to cope with serving a bigger and older population.

Our rough calculations suggest that keeping total health spending constant over the decade will have an effect similar to a 9 per cent cut had the population remained the same.”

The head of the highly respected think-tank says that to accommodate Continued on page 2, col 3

Teenagers will be encouraged to use apps to treat themselves for depression under government plans to fight mental illness.

Ministers want children and adults to be able to get treatment for mental health problems online as part of a transformation of how illnesses such as depression are dealt with by the NHS. Norman Lamb, the care minister, said allowing people to bypass traditional GP referrals to get help via the internet or over the phone would encourage hundreds of thousands of patients to seek treatment. Campaigners have welcomed the potential of online care, but warn that it must not be at the expense of face-to-face therapy.

Mr Lamb said that GPs were putting millions of people on antidepressants because they felt there was no alternative treatment, and insisted that had to change. The equivalent of one antidepressant prescription is written for every person in the country each year.

MPs on the health select committee said this month that mental health services for children and teenagers were inadequate from prevention to crisis care, as they reported increasing concerns over cyberbullying and selfharm websites.

Mr Lamb wants to use online tools to solve some of these problems, including computerised cognitive behavioural therapy, online counselling and peer support networks for the mentally ill.

“If you’re a teenager and your world revolves around digital access, we must make sure you get access to therapy online. So these programmes are being developed. We’ve got a taskforce looking at how we can modernise children and young people’s mental health and that’s one of the key elements to it,” he told The Times.

“What I want to achieve is a much more seamless service that allows you access online, face to face or over the telephone, whichever is appropriate.”

Some programmes had already been shown to work, he said. “These platforms are evidence-based so the risk is very low that they’re not appropriate.

Some people may need more than that so you have to have access to a gradation of different type of service.”

Sarah Wollaston, the chairwoman of Continued on page 2, col 3

IN THE NEWS Terror attack training Ukip wins class war Police are training to tackle a Mumbai-style terrorist raid as the home secretary warned that terrorism in Syria had created a “very significant danger” for Britain. Page 2

Ukip is more in touch with the views of the white workingclass than Labour, according to a poll, adding to fears that Ed Miliband is losing his traditional supporters. Page 4

‘Abusive’ headmaster

Putin’s French fund

A former headmaster accused of abusing five boys made a remarkable recovery within months of a judge ruling that he was too ill to stand trial, it was revealed. Page 7

France’s far-right National Front has admitted receiving a big Russian loan amid growing evidence of a secret Kremlin campaign to buy influence in European politics. Page 22

BT in talks to buy O2 BT has opened talks to buy back O2, the mobile phone arm it sold 13 years ago. It has also been approached by one of EE’s two shareholders over a potential deal. Page 29

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News INSIDE TODAY

World

Obituary

Machetes rule in war of greed and neglect

Jack Chalker: artist who documented his internment in a Japanese PoW camp

Page 27

Register, page 40

Rachel Sylvester

Ukip thrives on the British class divide Opinion, page 17

Times2

The Leeds school teaching English as a second language

Pages 44, 45

Police prepare for threat of terrorist attack on shoppers Sean O’Neill Crime & Security Editor

Police are training to tackle a Mumbaistyle terrorist raid as the home secretary warned yesterday that the terror threat from Syria had created a “time of very significant danger” for Britain.

Theresa May unveiled a series of new anti-terrorism powers on the eve of the publication of the long-awaited report by a parliamentary committee on possible intelligence failings ahead of the murder last year of Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, London.

The committee’s most detailed report ever is understood to acknowledge the difficulty of thwarting a “lone wolf” attack. However, it also criticises MI5’s response to signs that Michael Adebolajo — who the agency tried to recruit as an informant before he

murdered Fusilier Rigby — was becoming increasingly volatile. The intelligence and security committee has questioned Andrew Parker, MI5’s director-general, and had access to hundreds of pages of intelligence as it examined the agency’s contact with Adebolajo ahead of the murder.

The Times understands that dozens of specialist officers took part in an exercise at the Metropolitan police firearms range in Gravesend, Kent, simulating an assault by terrorists.

A shopping street has been mocked up at and a source said the exercise simulated terrorists running through the area opening fire indiscriminately. “It was intensive training and pretty shocking to watch,” said one source.

The Met has conducted such exercises since 2008, when 164 people were

Missing girl ‘left to fight Isis’ Opinion 17 Weather 17 Cartoon 19 Leading articles 20 Letters 21 World 22 Business 29 Markets 38, 39 Register 40 Features 44 Sport 54 Crosswords 43, 64 Please note, some sections of The Times are available only in the United Kingdom and Ireland

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Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

Deborah Haynes Defence Editor

A teenager from London may have become the first British female to join the fight against Islamic State in Syria.

The 17-year-old girl of Kurdish descent is thought to have left Britain by Eurostar on October 27. She was last seen in Belgium.

A male companion, aged 21, was arrested two days later in Hackney, east London, on suspicion of assisting a person to commit terrorism.

The teenager has been identified locally as Silhan Ozcelik, who lives in Haringey, north London, and is studying A-level law and politics.

Police are trying to establish whether she was planning to join Kurdish

fighters or to help humanitarian efforts. If it is confirmed that she has linked up with one of the all-female Kurdish defence units, Ms Ozcelik will become the first known female from Britain to join the fight against Islamic State — in contrast to the British teenagers who have become jihadist brides.

Friends at the Kurdish Community Association, in Haringey, where her family are well-known, said that the politically active student had been in contact with her older brother.

Ibrahim Yahli, 30, said: “Her mother told us that when she first went to Belgium she rang her brother. She said she was in Belgium and they should forget her.”

killed in an Islamist assault on Mumbai.

This is thought to have been the largest since the Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi last year and since a London plot in which suspects had acquired a firearm was foiled last month.

Police will speak to shopping centre management companies and security industry leaders part of Counterterrorism Week, which was launched yesterday. They are also appealing to commuters to be alert on their regular journeys and report anything “out of place or suspicious” to the authorities.

Mrs May marked the effort to raise awareness of the threat by announcing the range of new measures she will put before parliament tomorrow in the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill.

Schools, universities and probation providers will be required to prevent people from being radicalised. People suspected of terrorist activity can have their passports seized, be kept out of the country while they are investigated, and be relocated away from their homes. Insurance companies will be banned from making or reimbursing ransom payments.

Airlines and internet service providers will also be obliged to retain and share data on customers. However, Mrs May warned that the new powers to collect data were “limited” and she stressed that parliament would have to return to the question of law enforcement agencies’ access to communications data in the next parliament.

Mrs May said: “When the security and intelligence agencies tell us that the threat we face is now more dangerous than at any time before or since 9/11, we should take notice.”

Leading article, page 20

Mentally ill sent online for treatment Continued from page 1

the health select committee, said the NHS needed to “kitemark” effective online treatments. “People are going to use them irrespective of what we do,” she said.

“The NHS really has to signpost so that people can go to NHS Choices and it says, ‘These are the ones that are helpful’, rather than Google, where the ones that come top will be paid for, or sometimes very damaging ones. Rather than have young people go to pro-anorexia websites, we could point them to sites where people talk about recovery.”

Lucie Russell, director of campaigns

at the charity Young Minds, said: “Young people live in an online world and therefore we really do need to revolutionise services so that they are where young people are, rather than expecting young people to go to them.”

Mental health services should help train young people who offer support to others online, rather than the NHS attempting to replace existing sites with its own alternatives, she said.

She added: “What we need is a plethora of different responses to young people who are struggling. You shouldn’t do anything that says you don’t need to go to your GP. There is a

real risk. People with mental health issues are often desperate and sometimes they do need medication.”

Mr Lamb agreed that drugs would sometimes be needed, but said it was a “real concern” that antidepressant prescriptions in England had doubled in a decade to 53 million last year.

“The worry is where a GP might put someone on to medication as a sort of default position because they think there’s no alternative available. That’s why it’s so important to build up good, speedy access to psychological therapies that can actually help you recover,” he said.

Boost lifts pensioners out of poverty Continued from page 1

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these demographic changes “we have three choices and only three choices”.

“We can reduce benefits and services for the older population. We can recognise that the demands on the state have risen and therefore increase the size of the state, and hence taxes. Or we can continue to make big cuts to spending on most other things the state does.”

The analysis comes after the publication yesterday of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s annual update on poverty trends, which also highlighted a shift away from pensioners.

It found that while in 1990 about 40 per cent of pensioners were classed as living in poverty, that fell to less than 15 per cent by 2012-13. Over the same period the proportion of working-age adults living below the bread line increased from 15 per cent to 20 per

Older and richer Average change in income after housing costs between 2000-01 and 2011-12 (per cent) Pensioner couple Single male pensioner Single female pensioner Couple with children Single male without children -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20% Source: Joseph Rowntree Foundation

cent. Each party realises that cutting the benefits of pensioners, who are likely to vote, could be politically toxic. The Liberal Democrats are committed to enshrining in legislation the “triple lock”, which guarantees pensions rise by whichever is highest out of wage inflation, price inflation or 2.5 per cent a year.

Labour and the Conservatives say only that they will keep the lock in place for now. David Cameron is under pressure to say whether he will repeat a pledge made at the election to protect other universal old-age benefits.

A Conservative source said: “We are proud to deliver on the prime minister’s pledge to pensioners who have worked hard all their lives. It is only because of our long-term economic plan that we can deliver on this pledge.”

Paul Johnson, page 19

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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News

Amazing jungle tale of Arthur the dogged adventurer Race competitors give a new home to stray hound that tagged along for an epic journey through Amazon — and refused to leave, James Hider writes Adventure racing is not a sport that lends itself to animal mascots: athletes have to trek, bike and kayak over hundreds of miles of mountains, rivers and jungle to test their speed and endurance, with little room for fourlegged fellow travellers.

However, when a stray dog in Ecuador latched on to Sweden’s fourperson team, they found themselves with a companion who refused to leave no matter how dangerous or tough the going got.

The Swedes were deep into the 430mile adventure racing world championship, hungry, exhausted and covered in mud after descending the Andes on mountain bikes and facing a 20-mile hike through knee-high mud in the Amazon jungle.

Sitting down for a meal break of canned meat, Mikael Lindnord, the team captain, saw a hungry but friendly stray mutt — common in streets across the South American country — staring at him.

“I had just opened a food pack when I saw a scruffy, miserable dog in the corner of my eye. I thought he was hungry and gave him a meatball. Then I thought no more of it,” he said. It was the start of a remarkable journey.

The team, which also included Simon Niemi, Staffan Björklund and Karen Lundgren, tried to shake off their newfound friend but he was a truly dogged companion, even plunging into the sea after them when they set off on a 36mile coastal kayaking leg of their challenge, part of which took place at night.

The organisers warned the team not to take the exhausted dog any further,

KRISTER GORANSSON / PEAK PERFORMANCE

The Swedes grew so fond of Arthur, who walked and swam with them, that they took him home. Below, with Mikael Lindnord’s wife, Helena

for his and their own safety, so the Swedes leapt into the kayaks and tried to ditch him. But as they paddled off, the dog — whom they had nicknamed Arthur by this point — dived in and struggled to keep up.

Lindnord, unable to bear the sight of Arthur struggling in the cold water, pulled him aboard and to the cheers of spectators on the shore, the mascot became the fifth member of the team.

“He was kind of in the way during the whole paddle and we had to find different paddling techniques to not kick him off,” Lindnord said. “A few times he jumped into the water and took a swim, and then he crawled back up again and was freezing so he got to wear our jackets.

“One time we got quite close to land and he jumped off and swam to the shore, and we thought that was the last we were going to see from him.

But he ran on the road for a bit and then he swam back to us.”

From that point on, the team had

to stop and rest whenever Arthur was too tired to go on, pulling him out of the mud whenever he got stuck on the jungle trails.

“At one stage we had to take a break and the dog was totally wrecked. We opened two cans of food and let him eat because he could find no food at all in the jungle,” Lindnord said. The dog stuck with them for the final six days of their epic journey, eventually crossing the finishing line with them.

The journey did not end there. By the time they had completed the race, the team had grown as attached to Arthur as he was to them. Lindnord took the exhausted dog to a vet in Quito, the Ecuadorean capital, but decided he could not simply abandon Arthur to his fate and would have to take him home to Sweden.

He had to wade through paperwork for several days and as the deadline for the flight loomed, the team was worried that Arthur would not make it. The final document only came through while the team was waiting for the plane.

“Finally! Arthur is on the plane — going home to Sweden! 20 minutes before boarding the final document was delivered!” the team said on Facebook.

The Swedes had come 12th out of 50 teams in the race, but that mat mattered little to Lindnord. “I came to Ecuador to win the world championship. Instead, I got a new friend,” he said after his return to Sweden — with his loyal companion still in tow.

Jolie looks on as mentor takes seat in Lords Laura Pitel Political Correspondent

A refugee from the Yugoslav war who fled to Britain in 1992 with her sister and nothing else entered the House of Lords yesterday.

The Hollywood star Angelina Jolie watched from the gallery as Arminka Helic, her “mentor” and an aide to William Hague, was introduced as a Conservative peer. ss Jolie told The Times that Baroness Helic was an “extraordinary woman” Baroness Helic, who arrived in the UK as a refugee, with the actress

whom she had got to know through their work on preventing sexual violence in conflict. “I am extremely proud of her,” the actress said. “She’s been in many ways a mentor to me and she’s an extraordinary woman and I’m very, very honoured to be here today.”

Jolie has struck up an unlikely friendship with Mr Hague through their campaign against the use of rape as a weapon of war. It is said to have begun when Lady Helic, his senior adviser, gave him a copy of Jolie’s film In the Land of Blood and Honey. The film depicts sexual violence in the Bosnian conflict. Following her introduction to

the Lords by two Conservative peers, Lady Helic, 46, invited friends and colleagues for tea in the peers’ dining room, where they were served cucumber sandwiches, cakes and scones.

Jolie sat next to Sir Nicholas Soames, the Tory MP and grandson of Sir Winston Churchill, who described her as “everything I was told she was — wonderful, clever.” The Mid Sussex MP said it was “a great triumph of the human story” that his former adviser was joining the House of Lords after fleeing to Britain. “She came here with nothing and rose to a peer . . . It just shows what a marvellous country this is,” he said.

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Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

News OLI ARMSTRONG / SWNS

Catch of the day Oli Armstrong, 15, a British schoolboy, grabbed his camera and snapped on a family holiday in western Florida when this osprey swooped beside his boat and plucked a catfish from the sea

Working class prefers Ukip to Labour Francis Elliott, Laura Pitel Lucy Fisher

More voters believe that Ukip is most in touch with the views of the white working class than Labour is, according to a poll that will stoke fears over Ed Miliband’s ability to connect with his party’s traditional supporters.

The YouGov survey was conducted after Mr Miliband dismissed a frontbencher for a “disrespectful” tweet of a house draped in England flags with a white van parked outside. Asked which party was most in touch with the views of white working-class people, 21 per cent chose Labour and 27 per cent Ukip.

The margin was even greater among white working-class people themselves, at 20 per cent and 29 per cent respectively.

However, the poll also dealt a blow to Conservative hopes of winning back

Which party do you think is most in touch with the views of white, working-class people today?

(Brackets = white working-class) Labour 21% (20) Conservative 9% (9) Lib Dems 2% (1) Ukip 27% (29) None of them 29% (27) Don’t know 12% (14)

Q

Sample Size: 1,641 adults. November 23-24, 2014 Figures weighted

support from Nigel Farage’s insurgent political force. The Tories hope to scare voters back into the fold with the warning, “Vote Nigel, Get Ed”. The survey found that only 22 per cent of Ukip voters believe that the party’s success

would make it more likely that Mr Miliband will become prime minister.

The row over Emily Thornberry’s tweet on the day of the Rochester & Strood by-election helped David Cameron to escape the spotlight after a second successive poll defeat to Ukip.

Subsequent in-fighting over whether the Labour leader was right to force the resignation of the shadow attorneygeneral hampered his ability to exploit Conservative discomfort.

Tory nerves were frayed yesterday, however, as another poll showed Labour opening a five-point lead. The poll for Lord Ashcroft, a former Tory treasurer, put Labour on 32 per cent (up two points since last week), Conservatives on 27 per cent (down two), Ukip on 18 per cent (up two), Liberal Democrats on 7 per cent (down two), level with the Greens.

The man credited with building the

Liberal Democrats into a national force has attacked the party’s “unacceptable” performance in last week’s by-election.

Lord Rennard, a former strategist sidelined after being accused of sexually harassing four female activists, said that winning only 0.9 per cent of the vote had not been inevitable.

“We should not allow such a result ever again, because polling the lowest vote of any major party, in any by-election ever, casts doubt on our status as a ‘major party’, damages us in the wards and constituencies that we can win next year, and undermines morale, membership and fundraising,” he wrote on Facebook.

Lord Rennard dismissed claims by some party activists that “we have been there before”. He said: “No we haven’t.

Not in terms of parliamentary by-elections in England anyway.

His Facebook post appeared to be an

The codex is alimentarius for the Ideas Space man Ann Treneman Political Sketch

L

ord Ashcroft, the wily-faced Tory uber-pollster, couldn’t contain himself as Owen Paterson walked into a room called “The Ideas Space” in Westminster yesterday.

“Here comes the superstar!” chortled the Lord.

O-Patz, as we call him, strode in, clutching a thick sheaf of pages. But then Mr Paterson, formerly environment secretary, now allround Ideas Space man and the bane of David Cameron’s life, wasn’t just giving a speech. This was a blueprint — THE blueprint — for how to leave the EU. It was, as a subheading noted, an “optimistic, positive vision”. It was 28 pages long

with 32 “endnotes”. When O-Patz was environment secretary he once complained that the badgers had moved the goalposts. Well, this was his attempt to do the same. The whole event had the feel of a uni guest lecturer on the verge of an intellectual breakthrough. It felt as if he was reinventing CERN with the political version of the Large Hadron Collider. This was as close as we’d ever get to the God Particle.

O-Patz stood, ramrod straight, totally unrelaxed, only his head moving a bit. His delivery was just short of a bark, stentorian, syncopated, punctuated with forays into fluent French (“engrenage” being a favourite moment of mine) and German (Angela Merkel became quite definitely Angeeeelaa).

“Let’s start at the beginning,” he instructed. When people say this, I feel trepidatious. Not Genesis AGAIN, I think. Sure enough, it seems that in the beginning, the EU did not begin in the 1970s or even

the Treaty of Rome in 1957. Instead the European project — which later in his speech became La Projet — began at the battle of Verdun in 1916. This was observed by a Frenchman named Jean Monnet who, eventually, in 1951 drafted the Schuman Declaration (I hope you are KEEPING UP) and this led to six men gathering in the French foreign ministry’s Salon de l’Horloge (sounded a bit like orange) to sign the Treaty of Paris.

Deep breath. And that is only two paragraphs of the 28 pages. Anyway, I learnt a lot, not least that Mr (oops, Herr) O-Patz is simply wunderbar at saying “BadenWürttemberg” and “NoordBrabant” which are not, as I first thought, anything to do with sliced meats. I discovered his deep disdain for environmental groups which he calls “the GREEN BLOB”. And, yes, it is capped. I’ve seen it.

He explained how our lives are not ruled by Brussels anymore but by global entities such as the Codex

Alimentarius (KEEP UP!). The codex, as far as I can figure out, is like The Illuminati, except it is in charge of foodstuffs. Mr Paterson was “stung” to discover that New Zealand had more sway then we do on the codex over sheep. Norway, on the other hand, had an “enormously important” role on the codex when it came to fish. (If you doubt this, see Endnote 13.)

Finally we were getting somewhere. Herr O-Patz, basically, wants us to be Norway. He does not want to be held to ransom by the likes of Greece with their insistence on how to define Feta cheese or how America washes chicken carcasses in chlorine (endnote 22). “We should look at ‘unbundling’ ,” he insisted, “separate, unlinked deals.”

The way to exit the EU and access the codex is to “invoke Article 50”.

He wants this to be a Tory manifesto commitment. At this O-Patz beamed at us. It is, as Sherlock would no doubt not say, alimentarius.

attempt to persuade the Lib Dem leadership to allow him to return to the fold.

He always denied the accusations made against him and was not prosecuted. He wrote: “The whole party should be grateful to those who went to help them. But to avoid such results as Rochester again, the party must change its approach to such by-elections, and to all the various sets of elections in which we need to try and sustain our support and build again for the future.”

Nick Clegg yesterday ruled out the Lib Dems entering a coalition with Ukip in the next parliament.

He accused Ukip of representing “the politics of fear, the politics of blame, the politics of basically vilifying foreigners and the politics of economic self-harm by basically pulling the drawbridge up and driving the British economy into recession and driving many other people into greater poverty”.

Six ministers ‘back EU exit’ Sam Coates Deputy Political Editor

Up to six members of the cabinet would vote to leave the EU, a senior Conservative claimed yesterday, amid uncertainty over when David Cameron will hold his big speech on immigration.

Michael Gove, the chief whip, and Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, have both indicated that they would vote to leave without big reform.

Chris Grayling, the justice secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, and Theresa Villiers, the Northern Ireland secretary, are thought to lean towards exit, and Theresa May, the home secretary, is sending increasingly eurosceptic signals.

It comes as Mr Cameron continues to prepare his major immigration speech, which Tory MPs hope will be a “game changer” on the issue.

Some senior figures want to hold the speech this week so the issue can be “parked” before the autumn statement on December 3, when ministers wants to switch focus on to the economy.

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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Playing organised sport will make you £500,000 richer David Sanderson

People who play organised sports once a fortnight earn nearly £11,000 more than the average wage, according to researchers — more than £500,000 over the course of a career.

Triathlon participants are the biggest earners, with an average salary of £44,375. Cyclists, rowers and cricketers follow behind, with football, rugby, lacrosse, squash and netball players farther down the pay scale.

The research was commissioned by CBRE, a property company that is starting a partnership with England Rugby’s All Schools Programme to

widen access to the game for a million state school pupils. Opinion Matters, which conducted the survey among 2,000 workers, found that those who had not taken part in organised sport earned just under £24,000 on average.

In contrast, those who had taken part in organised sport between two and four times a month since childhood earned just under £35,000.

Maggie Alphonsi, a player for the England women’s rugby team, said: “The benefits of taking part in regular sport are well known in health terms but this research proves that the skills gained from participation have a far broader benefit.” Ciaran Bird, the man-

Hamilton celebrates victory with a drive down memory lane Kevin Eason Motor Racing Correspondent

Britain’s highest-paid sportsman had a cheap and quiet night after winning his second world championship on Sunday. While his Mercedes team popped open the champagne and celebrated deep into the night in Abu Dhabi, Lewis Hamilton drank watermelon juice and went for a drive down memory lane over dinner with his family.

Hamilton, only the fourth British driver to win Formula One’s world title twice, has come a long way from gokart racing as a boy on a council estate in Stevenage. The £5 million bonus he won on Sunday is almost loose change for someone who owns a cherry red private jet, homes in Monaco and Colorado, a vast collection of “bling” jewellery and a fleet of supercars, some worth more than $1 million.

At 29, he has already earned £68 million from Formula One and is about to sign a new contract with Mercedes worth £25 million a year. By comparison, Wayne Rooney, the Manchester United and England footballer, has to scrape by on just £300,000 a week.

Yet Hamilton’s celebrations were modest in a sport that has bred such glamorous stars as James Hunt, a notorious womaniser and playboy who partied long into the night after races with copious amount of bubbly and cigarettes.

Hamilton paid a courtesy visit to his team’s boisterous celebrations, where Prince Harry was a guest, but soon departed with Nicole Scherzinger, his popstar girlfriend, in order to have dinner with his family in his hotel. They had flown in without telling him they would be there on the day of the race.

Over dinner, Hamilton and his father reminisced about the early days in kart racing. “We talked about sitting in the back of the trailer with flasks of chicken noodle soup and shaking my dad’s hand before heading out on track,” he said.

They talked, too, about his first radio-controlled car, which he used to drive down a lane behind his father’s flat in Stevenage and a hostel frequented by drug dealers, and the go-kart that Lewis Hamilton with his girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger

set him on the path to world success. “I looked through the letterbox of my dad’s house to see if anyone was in, but saw a Christmas present on the table all wrapped up,” Hamilton said. “It was my first go-kart. I had to pretend I didn’t know it was there. I pretty much walked in backwards and went upstairs as if I hadn’t seen it.”

Hamilton could have lost the title to Nico Rosberg, his Mercedes teammate, in the final race, for which points would count as double. Their relationship over a season in which the lead in the drivers’ championship kept changing hands was occasionally fraught and after a series of incidents finally exploded in August when a collision between the pair led to Hamilton having to retire from the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa. In a behind-the-scenes feature on today’s Sports pages, Matthew Syed reveals the delicate diplomacy employed

by Toto Wolff and Paddy Lowe, the Mercedes team leaders, to ensure that their rival drivers could work together. “We knew from history that internal rivalry can destroy teams,” Wolff said, “and we were determined not to let that happen.”

The management decided to cut the drivers off from their support structure for five days and then held crisis talks to discuss how they wanted to progress.

“We told them that this not how we want to continue,” Lowe said. “They both understood. They are smart guys [and] could see that we were in danger of losing something special.” The result was that Mercedes dominated the rest of the season.

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aging director of CBRE UK, said that sport had a tremendous impact on overall wellbeing. He added: “The skills developed through sport help increase employability and earnings.”

The skills that employees believe they gain from organised sport that

lead to higher earnings include good communication, teamwork and confidence. However, the research found that few took part in sport with the aim of earning more. The primary motivation was to improve one’s health followed by having a good social life.

The average income of individuals varied depending on how late in life they begin participating in organised sport. Researchers calculated that over a 47-year career the difference in earnings can amount to more than £522,000.

Recent studies have shown that employers rate “soft skills” such as good communication, teamwork and confi-

dence as more important than technical knowledge. Research from Kaplan and the CBI found that 89 per cent of firms prized soft skills when recruiting graduates. Out of the “sporty employees” nearly half said that skills such as teamwork and communication had helped them to deal with pressures of the workplace and a quarter said they were better able to deal with criticism.

Tennis players earned £33,115 on average followed by hockey, basketball, running, athletics, badminton and swimming. The England Rugby All Schools Programme aims to have 750 state schools enrolled and playing rugby union by 2019.

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News

Wind farms owner gives up over political interference Ben Webster Environment Editor

Britain’s wealthiest wind farm entrepreneur is giving up trying to win planning permission for more turbines in England after claiming that the Conservatives have made it too difficult.

Dale Vince owns 60 turbines spread over 17 wind farms but said that he would not apply to build any more in England because he did not want to waste millions of pounds on projects that would be rejected.

Mr Vince, who owns Ecotricity and is said to be worth about £100 million, accused Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, of interfering unfairly in the planning system to prevent Conservative voters from switching to Ukip.

In an interview with The Times, he said: “The success rate in planning has halved in the past couple of years, entirely due to the efforts of the Tories, and it has made it less sensible to spend any real effort to try and get planning

permission for projects in England. We are fighting a moving target. The rules are being changed every few months in terms of planning, environmental assessments and financial support.”

Mr Pickles has intervened in 53 wind farm projects, calling in the applications so he can make the final decision.

He has published 25 decisions so far, with 22 rejected and three approved. In seven cases he rejected the recommendation of an independent inspector that a wind farm should be built.

Ecotricity is appealing against Mr Pickles’s decision to reject a plan for four turbines at Highbridge on the Somerset Levels. The company claims that Mr Pickles should have visited the site before making his decision.

Mr Vince said that David Cameron visited one of his wind turbines while in opposition and spoke very positively about onshore wind but that he had since abandoned his principles to try to win next year’s election. “Cam-

JANE HOBSON

eron has gone from husky-hugging to hammering the green crap.

“He knows we have to fight climate change but he’s scared of Ukip.

Ukip have three policies — antiEurope, anti-immigration and antionshore wind — and the Tories have aped all three of them.”

Mr Vince said that he would focus on trying to build wind farms in Scotland, where there was less political interference in planning applications.

Renewable UK, the industry body, said the amount of onshore wind capacity winning planning permission in England had fallen from 444 megawatts in 2012/13 to 155MW last year.

Mr Pickles did not respond when asked to comment but his department sent a statement from Kris Hopkins, a junior minister. Mr Hopkins said: “Inappropriately sited wind turbines can be a blight on the landscape, harming the local environment and damaging heritage for miles around.”

Men more complacent about climate change Ben Webster

Only 40 per cent of Britons fear that climate change will damage their way of life.

In the survey of 2,000 adults, a similar proportion disagreed with the statement that “climate change will negatively impact me and my

lifestyle”, while 21 per cent said that they did not know.

Men were almost twice as likely (42 per cent) as women to believe that taking action to reduce emissions would damage economic growth. A fifth of men and nearly as many women believed that action to tackle climate change could wait a few more years.

The survey was commissioned by the Department of Energy and Climate Change. In releasing the results, Ed Davey, the energy secretary, chose to focus on the finding that three-quarters of respondents agreed that “world leaders must urgently agree a global deal to tackle climate change”, saying this gave him a mandate for action.

On fire Nancy Nerantzi and Liam Riddick rehearse Burning, a new piece by Martin Lawrance set to Franz Liszt’s Dante Sonata, for a programme celebrating the Richard Alston Dance Company’s 20th anniversary at Sadler’s Wells in January

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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Swift recovery of head spared sex trial TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER, TOM PILSTON

Video shows a former teacher ruled unable to face child abuse charges apparently fit and well, writes Andrew Norfolk A former headmaster accused of sexually abusing five boys at an independent school enjoyed a remarkable return to health within months of a judge ruling that he was too ill to stand trial.

Alleged victims of offences by Colin Cope were stunned when a court ruled in 2009, when he was 78, that he could not receive a fair trial because physical and mental health problems meant that he did not know “what was going on” and would be unable to defend himself.

Eight months later, covertly filmed video footage obtained by The Times shows him telling jokes and reciting poetry while giving a public talk at his local church. He is also seen driving his car, carrying a table and climbing steep stairs while giving paying visitors a guided tour of his 18th-century National Trust home.

The boarding school where Mr Cope taught for 14 years subsequently paid £129,000 to settle a civil action by the five former pupils, now in their fifties.

Three, waiving their right to anonymity, voiced outrage that no jury was allowed to hear evidence of the sexual crimes they claim to have suffered in the early 1970s at the junior school of Tettenhall College, Wolverhampton.

Court papers reveal that police officers who first arrested Mr Cope in 2006, during a criminal inquiry that led to him being charged with 11 sexual offences against children aged from 11 to 13, were said to be “deeply concerned” about Judge Robin Onions’ decision to block the prosecution.

In addition to evidence from the five alleged victims, there were witness statements from another four ex-pupils and a former teacher at the school, each claiming to have witnessed inappropriate conduct by Mr Cope towards young boys. He denied any wrongdoing.

There was a striking contrast between Mr Cope’s apparent physical and intellectual prowess, as displayed in the April 2010 video footage, and the evidence of the desperate state of his health presented in court by defence medical experts a few months earlier.

Mr Cope did not attend the hearing held at Shrewsbury crown court in July 2009 to determine whether it would be fair to put him on trial. By then, three years had passed since his initial arrest during a West Midlands police inquiry that led to charges of indecent assault and gross indecency.

His alleged victims came forward independently in 2006 and 2007 to say that they had been abused by him as

Andrew Wood, circled, accused Colin Cope of sexually abusing him in the early 1970s when he was the headmaster of the junior school at Tettenhall College. There is no suggestion that any of the other boys in the picture were sexually abused

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children. They gave detectives detailed statements of crimes allegedly committed in Mr Cope’s private rooms at the boarding school, on camping trips, in his car and in a boy’s bedroom.

They also spoke of lasting emotional and psychological damage. Mark Shelton, 57, described feelings of anger, resentment and confusion. He told police that the charismatic Mr Cope, who always charmed the boys’ parents, “took a huge part of my childhood from me”.

“I’ve lived my life in shame. His actions took away any love, any faith and

trust I had. Those events changed me from a loving, caring, outgoing little chap to someone who was very introverted and very suspicious of people who came close to me. I’ve spent my entire life pushing people away,” he said.

A three-week trial was scheduled to begin in October 2009. The complainants believed that they would finally have the chance to tell their story to a jury. Such hopes were dashed when Judge Onions terminated the prosecution. He made his decision after considering reports and evidence from five defence medical experts, including a GP who was a friend of Mr Cope.

In addition to clinical depression and multiple “anxiety-related symptoms”, Mr Cope was said to be taking 12 medications for numerous physical ailments. He had heart disease, prostate cancer and type 2 diabetes. One defence expert concluded that he was “unlikely to make a full recovery while the spectre of prosecution looms”.

The judge noted that another defence expert “felt the defendant would have been unable to give evidence in his own defence” and would be unable to concentrate as the trial progressed. “In short, she

did not think that the defendant knew what was going on.”

The prosecution could offer little to counter such evidence. Its medical expert who had examined Mr Cope a year earlier, finding him fit for trial, was on maternity leave by July 2009. Owing to a mistake by the Crown Prosecution Service, no replacement expert was found. The prosecution thus had no recent assessment with which to challenge the defence’s assertion of a significant deterioration in Mr Cope’s health over the preceding year.

The judge also gave considerable weight to the long passage of time — more than 35 years — since the offences were said to have taken place. This, he felt, created difficulties for the former headmaster in challenging the prosecution case.

On those two grounds, he decided

Mark Shelton, left, Paul Barrington and Andrew Wood, right, waived anonymity

that “the defendant cannot now receive a fair trial”. When the news was broken to the five complainants, its impact was shattering. One, Paul Barrington, 54, described “an overwhelming feeling of shock, anger and disbelief”.

Andrew Wood, 56, first told a clinical psychologist in 2005 of being sexually abused as a child by his headmaster. He believes that all possibility of resolving the shame and insecurity that he has carried throughout his adult life was ended by the judge’s ruling. “One of the police officers who’d dealt with our case phoned and said he wanted to come and speak with me. When he told me, it felt like the end of the world. The officer seemed as shocked as I was by the decision,” he said.

The men’s dismay turned to outrage when they later viewed the video footage of Mr Cope. In addition to his bravura performance at a concert in a Dorset parish church, he was seen showing visitors around his home, a water mill owned by the National Trust.

He was, he remarked, “far too busy to be ill”. To the men still haunted by memories of the childhood abuse they claim to have suffered, this seemed a sudden and spectacular return to physical and intellectual fitness.

In July 2012, they received payments ranging from £5,000 to £60,000 when they accepted an offer to settle a civil claim against the school, which did not admit liability.

Tettenhall College stressed yesterday that Mr Cope’s alleged crimes happened more than 40 years ago. It said the safeguarding of its pupils in 2014 was “a priority”. A recent school inspection found that its child protection procedures were good.

There remains little prospect of its former headmaster facing trial by jury.

Mr Cope, a married father of two, is now 83 and said to be in poor health, but a CPS spokesman said last night that it would give “very careful consideration” to the April 2010 video footage “should the police wish to investigate the matter and refer the results to us”.

Court papers reveal that within minutes of police arriving at his house in August 2006 to inform him that he was under arrest on suspicion of sexually abusing a child, Mr Cope held his head in his hands and told officers: “I just know that I’ve done things that I shouldn’t have done in the past.” He also spoke of living “with the burden of guilt”. Though he has always denied committing any of the alleged offences, Mr Cope seems likely to be allow lowed to go to his grave without being asked to explain those words.

His solicitor, Julian Hardy, said ye yesterday that anyone in possession of evidence they believed would justify a re-opening of the criminal proceedings against Mr Cope should “seek permission from a High Court judge”.

Help me, I’m attracted to children, says man in TV show Alex Spence Media Editor

A man will admit on television tonight that he is sexually attracted to children, in a plea for medical treatment to help others like him before they commit abuse.

The 39-year-old, who is referred to only as “Eddie” but whose face is not obscured, admits to being aroused by girls as young as four but says that he has never committed any sex offences. He says he agreed to speak publicly to appeal for help for paedophiles before they become criminals. The Paedophile Next

Door, which will be broadcast on Channel 4 tonight, argues that child sex abuse in Britain has reached epidemic levels and that allowing paedophiles to seek medical help without fear of being vilified would reduce the number of cases.

Channel 4 said it hoped that the programme would give viewers “pause for thought”. Ian McFadyen, an abuse survivor who appears in the documentary, said many victims would be angered by calls for a more open attitude to those sexually attracted to children but that a change of approach was needed. “There are many Eddies

out there. They’re a ticking time bomb,” he said. “I don’t want to sit with paedophiles, I don’t advocate for paedophiles, I feel wholly uncomfortable with them, but . . . the damage is done to me and my generation. What I don’t want is that to keep occurring because we won’t look at new ways and sit down with the offenders before they offend.”

Eddie, who is taking part in a treatment programme abroad, says on camera that he realised when he was in his 20s that he was attracted to young girls as well as to adult women. He told the programme makers that because of

the “hysteria” around paedophiles he had struggled to find anyone to talk to about his condition and that it had driven him to contemplate suicide.

He said that he had never acted on his attraction to young girls. “Going around abusing children is not acceptable, viewing images of child pornography is not acceptable, but people are just waiting for you to offend before they help you,” he said. “If you don’t have that option to come forward and say, ‘Look, I have got a problem, I need help,’ what are we changing?”

The documentary’s producers said

that a scheme in Germany offered men like Eddie access to counselling and medication to stop them offending.

Jon Brown, head of strategy and development at the NSPCC, said that Britain should introduce a similar system.

“There are going to be men out there . . . who have some degree of sexual interest in children but are going to be able to manage it. There are sufficient inhibitors in place for them to know what they have got to lose, that it is not that strong and they can maintain a consenting adult relationship. They will probably be OK and not go on and offend.”

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Chinese colleges to take on Oxbridge Greg Hurst Education Editor

World’s best universities

One of China’s fast-rising universities is on course to rival Oxford or Cambridge as a world-leading research institution, a vice-chancellor has predicted.

Five Chinese universities are likely to break into the world’s Top 20 within two decades, from which one will emerge pre-eminent, he said.

Ed Byrne, principal at King’s College London, said that Britain risked losing its position as the world’s second strongest university sector unless research funding was maintained.

In his previous job running Monash University in Melbourne, Professor

1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2 Cambridge 3 Imperial College London 4 Harvard 5 Oxford 6 University College London 7 Stanford 8 California Institute of Technology 9 Princeton 10 Yale Source: QS World University Rankings 2014

Byrne set up a campus in Suzhou, east China, and knows its education system well. The Australian, who took over at King’s in September, said: “Just a decade ago I don’t know if there would have been any Chinese universities in the top 200 and there would have been very few in the top 500.

“They are now concentrating on 30 or so universities out of 3,000 and putting huge resources into them, and all of them are moving forward.”

Already two, Peking University and Tsinghua, are advancing in some rankings, with Fudan, Shanghai Jiao Tong and Nanjing just behind them, he said.

“Of those five universities I can’t

believe that 20 years from now several of them will not be in the top 20 and, if you go far enough ahead, I think one or two of them will be right up there with Oxford and Cambridge and Harvard,” Professor Byrne said.

“If you look at the rate of rise and just project that as continuing for another decade I think you will see Chinese universities right up there in the top rank.”

He plans to expand the science and engineering faculties at King’s and to turn its management department into a business school, with the goal of vying with University College London to be the capital’s premier general university.

He also plans a small number of alliances with universities in China and elsewhere to collaborate on research and developing students and academics.

“King’s is hugely strong in health, it is really strong in social sciences, public policy, it has a great law school now; it perhaps is not as strong in the exact sciences, in engineering and in business interpreted widely,” Professor Byrne said. “I don’t think you can be a great university at the highest level without significant strengths in the exact sciences and the new engineering disciplines.”

He added: “King’s will catch UCL at some time in the next few years. My second prediction is that that will not be by UCL going backwards but by King’s going forward even more rapidly because I think King’s has exactly the same opportunities that UCL does, a very similar institution with a very similar balance.”

Professor Byrne also plans to overhaul undergraduate teaching at King’s to combine research-led education with new technology to speed up assessment, identify concepts that students have not grasped and give feedback to lecturers on student views.

He said: “Chalk-and-blackboard education dressed up with PowerPoints is no longer acceptable.”

One in seven jobless after graduation Greg Hurst Education Editor

One in seven people is unemployed within a year of leaving school or university, research has found.

The study showed sharp differences in the unemployment rate for people with different qualifications. Only 5 per cent of young people who have recently finished a trade apprenticeship were out of work, compared with 16 per cent of those who left school or college after sitting A levels and 28 per cent of teenagers who left with low grades in GCSEs as their highest qualification.

The report, by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think-tank for totaljobs.com, a jobs website, looked at employment patterns among people aged 16 to 24 who left full-time education to enter the jobs market in the past year. Their average unemployment rate was 15 per cent. Only a third of these were graduates, with most having lower qualifications equivalent to A levels.

Spencer Thompson, a senior economic analyst at IPPR, said: “More than 60 per cent of those in the entrylevel job market are not graduates, and those leaving school with qualifications below A level are faring much worse in terms of unemployment in their first year after education. Although work has been done by this government to increase the number of apprenticeships available, participation in these schemes by under-25s remains low.”

Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

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Power plant fails test Fears are growing that the lights could go out this winter after an ageing power plant which is part of the UK’s emergency reserve failed its test run. Peterhead gas-fired station in Scotland, which is 32 years old and is operated by SSE, is one of three sites meant to supply back-up power. Britain’s spare capacity is forecast to fall dangerously low over the next two winters.

Free childcare wasted Thousands of families are failing to claim the free nursery care to which they are entitled, prompting the government to launch a campaign to advertise the full range of childcare subsidies on offer. In September 240,000 families on low incomes were eligible for up to 15 hours of free childcare for two-year-old children, but only 150,000 of them made use of the service.

Hounds killed by train Six hounds were killed by a train after a pack of hunting dogs strayed on to railway tracks.

About 30 hounds are thought to have run on to a stretch of the line near Ivybridge in Devon on Saturday. Tom Lyle, the joint master of the Dartmoor hunt, said: “Nothing like this has ever happened to the hunt before and it was very upsetting to all involved.”

Legal cuts hit children The most senior family judge has warned that lack of legal aid is leading to injustice for children.

Mr Justice Munby told a conference held by Families Need Fathers, a charity, that disparity in the availability of legal aid, which can lead to one parent having representation where the other does not, was “not only injustice to the parent but injustice and worse to the child”.

Most read at thetimes.co.uk 1. Israel set to make Arabs second-class citizens 2. Cost of divorce for children 3. Bill Cosby: more assault claims 4. How the EU silences our voice 5. Ask Tanya Byron 6. Police shoot boy, 12, dead 7. British ex-soldiers join Kurds 8. The lottery winners who don’t spend, spend, spend 9. Tweet has hit Labour hopes 10. How to bluff pop culture

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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We’re too busy for church on Sundays Fariha Karim

Sunday mornings are no longer the best time to go to church because families are too busy juggling shopping, children’s activities and home improvements, the Church of England has suggested.

The Very Reverend Adrian Dorber, the Dean of Lichfield, said that pressurised lifestyles had led to more and more people opting for midweek attendance at cathedrals instead.

The Church of England released figures yesterday showing that the number of people attending midweek services at cathedrals had doubled over the past ten years, from 7,500 in 2003 to

15,000 in 2013. Over the same period, Sunday attendances remained roughly level, at 15,600 adults in 2003 and 15,900 in 2013.

Mr Dorber said that for those who wanted a short snatch of peace the appeal behind midweek services was that there was a “guarantee that they’re going to be reasonably short”, at a time when “life’s run at the double”.

“At the weekend you’ve got commitments with children doing sport, shopping, household maintenance . . . weekends are very pressurised and very committed,” he said. “Taking out half an hour or an hour during the week is much more negotiable. It comes out of much more discretionary time.”

The Church of England report also suggested that the weather played a part in how often people attended cathedral services, and that Christmas attendances depended on when in the week it fell. In 2012, Christmas was on a Tuesday. Last year, when it was on a Wednesday, the number of worshippers who went to cathedral rose by 6 per cent to 124,300.

“Christmas attendance fluctuates depending on the day it falls and the weather,” the report said. “In general, attendance is greater when Christmas day falls at the weekend.”

Since the 1960s, the number of people attending parish church services has halved to below 800,000.

Senior figures in the Church of England have urged the institution to reinvent itself for the 21st century. The Rt Rev Julian Henderson, Bishop of Blackburn, said last month that “anything less will leave us to wither away, rather like the once mighty Lancashire cotton industry. A few tweaks and adjustments will not suffice”. Last year, Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, said that Christianity was just a “generation away from extinction”.

The Very Reverend Vivienne Faull, the Dean of York Minster, suggested that people found it easier to drop in to midweek services.

“If I take a eucharist at 12.30 in the middle of the week in the nave of York

Minster, there’ll be a lot of people who just slide in from the side,” she said.

“It’s not so much about anonymity, there’s the feeling there’s a journey you can travel which doesn’t require huge steps — it just requires one little step.”

Some have suggested that cathedrals are attracting greater numbers of worshippers because they have adapted to younger communities by, for example, opening cafes.

Liverpool Cathedral has extended its cafe and set up a “Night of the Living Dead” on Hallowe’en. The Church of England said that contemplation and peace, worship and music were reasons for higher attendance.

Frosty morning Sheep graze in the mist at sunrise on Ditcheat Hill, Somerset, left; frost on gorse at Bissoe Valley, Cornwall; and Freya Kirkpatrick playing on ice at Ashbourne, Derbyshire

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Anger as dispute delays meningitis jab Dying mother sues hospital Chris Smyth Health Correspondent

Ministers have been accused of refusing to discuss the introduction of a lifesaving vaccine as negotiations over the promised injection for meningitis B descend into acrimony.

The drug company that makes the vaccine says Whitehall is not returning its calls and that there has been no “meaningful negotiation” over the price of the jab, despite a pledge eight months ago that Britain would be the first to introduce it.

The accusation has angered officials, who said they would not be “held to ransom” by a company that wanted to use the spectre of dead children to extract money from the NHS. David Cameron has taken a personal interest in the Bexsero vaccine, which protects against the strain responsible for more than half the 3,200 annual

cases of meningitis. The main victims are children and young people. About one in ten die, with many others suffering deafness and brain damage.

Campaigners had assumed the delay was caused by wrangling over the price after government advisers doubted whether it would be cost-effective to inject every baby at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds. However, Andrin Oswald, head of vaccines at Novartis, which makes Bexsero, said that officials had refused to discuss a price, and had not returned his calls for two months.

“We’re just waiting and waiting. I find it odd, given the sense of urgency everyone agrees there should be when this disease continues to kill and maim children,” he said. “To date I haven’t had meaningful discussions with government officials over . . . the prices.”

He added that he had proposed a figure lower than the £75 list price.

Some regions of Italy, Germany and Canada have started a vaccination programme and Dr Oswald said that a million doses were ready for Britain.

“It’s sitting there waiting to go,” he said.

The Department of Health dismissed Dr Oswald’s claim. Officials said that such decisions had to go through a Treasury approval process. “An expert independent committee set a costeffective price for this vaccine at which the government is determined to introduce it — we have the money allocated, but we cannot be held to ransom by a drug company seeking to turn a profit because this would deny treatments to other patients,” a spokesman said.

Christopher Head, of the Meningitis Research Foundation, said: “The fact that deaths [from meningitis B] are now vaccine-preventable only makes them harder for families to bear.”

for postponing cancer tests

Simon de Bruxelles

A young mother with terminal cancer is suing the hospital that decided her case was “non-urgent”. Katie Maytum, 35, has been told that she has 18 months to live after breast cancer spread to her bones.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends that breast lumps in women over 30 should be seen by a specialist within two weeks.

However, the High Court, sitting in Cardiff, was told that Ms Maytum was not examined by oncologists at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend, south Wales, for nearly six months.

Ms Maytum was 31 when she went to her GP after noticing a lump in her left breast. She told the court that there was a history of breast cancer in her family.

Her GP faxed an “urgent” referral form to the South West Wales Cancer Network but the consultant at the hospital, Vummiti Murali-Krishnan, listed the case as “routine” because Ms Maytum was under 35.

Ms Maytum, who is due to marry her partner next month and has two children, Megan, 14, and Zac, 10, is suing the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board. Mr Murali-Krishnan denies negligence and says that it was “reasonable” to downgrade her case with the information he was given.

He said that the type of cancer Ms Maytum has meant that the delay made no difference. He has admitted negligence in failing to tell her GP about the downgrading of her case and in not arranging a three-month review.

The hearing continues.

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How to make people listen when you open your mouth

Tom Whipple Science Correspondent

It was the late 1970s and Margaret Thatcher’s team were convinced that she had the policies to put Britain back on track, the tenacity to see those policies through — and a handbag scary enough to strike fear into any minister who tried to stop her. There was only one issue: her voice. It was, says her biographer Charles Moore, “the hectoring tones of the housewife”.

So Thatcher’s aides called in Laurence Olivier to train her. The result was the voice we know and love or hate, which promised to bring harmony to discord, faith to doubt and, later, that its owner was very much not for turning. It was also the voice that a scientific paper described yesterday as perfectly designed to confer power and status.

Olivier clearly knew his oration.

In research titled The Sound of Power: Conveying and Detecting Hierarchical Rank Through Voice, scientists from San Diego State University studied how having ng power changes the way we talk, and also how the way people talk enables listeners to judge power.

A group of 160 male and female students were given a passage to read. Afterwards they were asked to pretend that they Margaret Thatcher: voice coach was Laurence Olivier

They changed their tune George Osborne He was christened Gideon Oliver. He went to public school, then Oxford.

He is the heir to a baronetcy. And last year, when speaking to Morrison’s workers, our Chancellor of the Exchequer suddenly went mockney — dropping his h’s and t’s and at one point talking about, “findin’ savin’s”. Well, we are all in it together.

Hillary Clinton A southern drawl appeared in her speeches especially (some claimed) when speaking to black audiences.

She said it was just a consequence of suddenly moving closer to her home of 20 years, Arkansas.

Gerry Adams Perhaps the most radical voice change of all. Banned from speaking on British television and radio, his words were read by actors.

When he stumbled on words, the actor would clear it up.

were negotiating. One was told that they had an advantage — either insider information, an alternative offer or high status in the workplace —

and then asked to read another passage.

Researchers found that people unconsciously changed their voices when they believed themselves to be in a position of power.

“The sound of hierarchy is distinctive,” the authors write in Psychological Science. “From generals directing soldiers into battle to the warning cries of high-status baboons telling competitors to back away, those in authority seem to speak in a different voice.”

Although the students did not become louder, the variability in loudness increased and their pitch become more monotone and higher.

Dr Sei Jin Ko, the study’s lead author, said: “There are many situations where you don’t want to give away your cards.

That’s when it might be nice to know what you are doing with your voice.

Parents with unruly kids for instance might want to sound as if they have authority. . . even when they don’t.”

So should people who want to be taken seriously change their voices?

Thatcher was on Dr Sei Jin Ko’s side.

“Every politician has to decide how much he or she is prepared to change manner and appearance for the sake of the media,” she wrote. “It may sound grittily honourable to refuse to make any concessions, but such an attitude . . . is most likely to betray a lack of seriousness about winning power.”

So get practising your loudness modulation.

Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

JEFF GILBERT / ALAMY

Pay time Clara Geyer, four, was on the street in south London yesterday with her mother, Jenny, in support of a four-hour walk-out by health staff over pay

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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It’s Bond v Blofeld at the Vatican JEFF J MITCHELL / GETTY IMAGES; FRANCOIS DUHAMEL / SONY PICTURES / AP; FIAT

Tom Kington Rome

James Bond is to make his first big-screen visit to Rome and, it is rumoured, come up against the arch villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

Daniel Craig, in his fourth outing as 007, will also have a hand in smashing up a Fiat 500 in the narrow streets close to the Vatican and land by parachute on a 15th-century bridge.

In the as-yet-unnamed 24th Bond film, Craig will steer his Aston Martin round the streets of the Italian capital in a night-time car chase involving at least one vehicle hurtling into the River Tiber, a source close to the production told The Times yesterday.

“After ejecting from his car, Bond will parachute down and land on the Ponte Sisto bridge,” said the source. The 400year-old footbridge over the Tiber links Rome’s historic centre with the Trastevere neighbourhood.

Due for release next October, the film will again be directed by Sam Mendes and star Ralph Fiennes as M, after the death on screen in Skyfall of his predecessor, played by Dame Judi Dench.

Christoph Waltz, the German-Austrian actor who played an SS officer and bounty hunter in the Quentin Tarantino films Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained, is rumoured to have been cast as Blofeld.

James Bond has yet to visit Rome, despite turning up in dozens of locations around the world over the decades. During shooting planned in the new

Daniel Craig takes part in a car chase involving a Fiat 500 through streets close to St Peter’s Square

year, car chases will be filmed on the central Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and in the labyrinth of streets next to the Vatican, where a Fiat 500 is due to be demolished during the high-speed pursuit.

Bond is also set to race down Via della Conciliazione, the avenue built by Mussolini that leads to St Peter’s Square, and is thronged by Catholics during the Pope’s Sunday addresses.

Plans to film scenes at the Royal Palace of Caserta — an 18th century palace built near Naples for the Bourbon kings, have been scrapped, the source said.

Though the film marks Bond’s debut in Rome, he has been a frequent visitor to Venice. Sean Connery killed the Smersh agent Rosa Klebb there in From Russia With Love in 1963, before Roger Moore returned in Moonraker in 1979, piloting a gondola-turned-hovercraft through St Mark’s Square.

Craig sailed into the city in Casino Royale, his first Bond film in 2006, before prompting a canalside palazzo to collapse with his lover, Vesper Lynd, trapped inside.

Craig reappeared in Italy at the start of Quantum of Solace, the followup to Casino Royale, in a car chase through the marble quarries at Carrara, followed by a chase on foot through the streets of Siena, as the city’s Palio horse race takes place.

The production source on “Bond 24” said that permits were being confirmed with Rome town hall and regional authorities to film the car chases in the city in February and March.

News

Top Gear gets pole position for Christmas Alex Spence Media Editor

Top Gear’s controversial foray into Argentina will be given prime billing in the BBC’s Christmas television line-up, the corporation said yesterday.

The episode of the motoring show caused a diplomatic incident after claims that a Porsche driven by Jeremy Clarkson had the numberplate, H982 FKL, chosen in reference to the Falklands conflict.

Alicia Castro, Argentina’s ambassador to Britain, made another formal complaint yesterday, accusing Clarkson and the programme of being provocative. In a letter to Rona Fairhead, the chairwoman of the BBC Trust, the ambassador said an earlier complaint to executives had been dismissed too hastily without a proper investigation.

Filming of the Top Gear Christmas Special was marred by protests in Patagonia. Presenters and producers were forced to flee after their convoy was pelted with stones. The BBC has insisted that the numberplate was not a reference to the Falklands conflict.

Other familiar programmes in the BBC’s Christmas line-up, include Doctor Who, Call the Midwife, Mrs Brown’s Boys and Strictly Come Dancing. Sir David Jason returns for another run of Still Open All Hours, the corner shop sitcom which drew more than 9 million viewers on Boxing Day last year.

Miranda Hart will wrap up her sitcom Miranda with the final two episodes.

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News APEX NEWS & PICTURES

Facebook friends make it harder to be strict, says head Greg Hurst Education Editor

Orange alert Orange ping-pong bats have been spotted in Devon. Experts are asking the public to help track the rare fungus

Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

Social media is making it more diffcult for parents to discipline their children by sending them to their room, a head teacher has warned.

Adolescents are increasingly refusing to back down in disputes with their parents as friends egg them on via Facebook or Twitter, she said.

Alice Phillips, the headmistress of St Catherine’s school, an independent girls’ school near Guildford, said that parents needed greater courage than ever to say no to their children.

“Parents are becoming less bold and intuitive in parenting adolescents,” she said. “Today, social media means they are conscious that their every action is the subject of global scrutiny.

“Children, as grumpy as any of us were, retreat in the same way to their bedrooms but instead of reflecting for a while to blaring music, broadcast their parents’ apparently unreasonable behaviour to all their Facebook friends, or Twitter followers.”

She said that where once “they might have taken time out to come to their senses”, now they were more likely to continue the argument.

Mrs Phillips told the annual conference of the Girls’ Schools Association, of which she is president, that parenting had never been as difficult as it is today: “The world of electronic media is one in which children pay far more attention to others’ opinions of them than used to be the case. Their formative impressions are of being watched and judged rather than of simply being and discovering. And if it’s tough, they take it out on parents.”

Parents must now hold out for longer in rows with their children, she said,

“until your teen gradually realises that you are in fact dependable, wise and ‘in the right’.”

She called on schools to think hard about how they could do more to support families. “Should schools offer more structured and reassuring courses on what to expect at each stage of their child’s development? Can we supplement the routine formula of parents’ evenings, which have the aura of speed dating, without the excitement, or routine lectures on the next stage of the curriculum to be taught and assessed, with something more informal that facilitates dialogue between

parents who may often feel isolated in making big parenting decisions or holding the unpopular line?”

Mrs Phillips also criticised the government’s introduction of performance-related pay progression for teachers in state-funded schools. Private schools are free to decide their own pay arrangements.

“I am unashamedly and volubly against performance-related pay in our sector,” she said. “I suggest to you that teachers who want PRP have missed the point of what we do in schools as a united team of adults working collaboratively on the development of the children in our care.

“Bonuses are for bankers. I’m not convinced they have even worked well for them, or led to institutional happiness, and thus success, in any sector.”

Help children Pupil ‘taped to at risk with chair and shut boarding fees in storeroom’ Greg Hurst Education Editor

Teenagers on the fringes of gangs should be sent to boarding schools to steer them away from criminality, a minister said yesterday.

Children at risk of being taken into care should also be considered for boarding places more often, Lord Nash, the schools minister, told a conference of state-funded boarding schools.

He was speaking at Holyport College, a free school in Berkshire which opened this term. It is the newest of 36 state boarding schools at which tuition is free but parents pay the cost of boarding, typically around £10,000 a year.

“I want to see more vulnerable and disadvantaged children taking advantage of the high-quality education and pastoral care provided by boarding schools. And I want to see local authorities looking at boarding as high-quality solutions for children,” Lord Nash said.

He added that he planned to open a boarding house at Pimlico Academy, a London school sponsored by his family charity, when he left government. “Adding boarding is something I would like to do at Pimlico Academy where, bluntly, we have at any one time at least 40 children who would be much better off not going home at night,” he said.

A teacher and a classroom assistant carried out a five-month campaign of bullying against a seven-year-old pupil in which they taped her to a chair and shut her in a storeroom, a court has been told.

Rachael Regan, 43, of Illingworth, West Yorkshire and Deborah McDonald, 41, of Halifax, went on trial at Bradford crown court yesterday accused of singling out the girl at a school in Calderdale.

Both women deny charges of child cruelty.

Simon Waley, prosecuting, said the school and police launched an investigation after the girl told her mother that Regan had tied her to a chair with sticky tape so she could not move and that it had been “hard breathing”.

The alleged incidents against the pupil, who is now nine, included sticking notes to her thumbs, tying her shoes on with string, calling her a nickname, kicking her chair, goading her with a biscuit, hiding her doll and tearing up her photograph.

Mr Waley said: “Their systematic treatment of her amounted to bullying . . . which caused her unnecessary suffering by way of upset and distress.”

The trial continues.

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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News

Law Society backs down on Sharia wills Frances Gibb Legal Editor

Controversial guidance on how to draft “Sharia-compliant” wills has been withdrawn after widespread criticism that it was discriminatory.

The Law Society has decided to pull its guide for solicitors across England and Wales on Sharia succession rules under which women would be denied an equal share of their inheritance and non-believers excluded entirely.

Children born outside marriage and adopted children could also be discriminated against. The guidance advised solicitors that “illegitimate and adopted children are not Sharia heirs” and that

“the male heirs in most cases receive double the amount inherited by a female heir”.

It also stated that “non-Muslims may not inherit at all” and that “a divorced spouse is no longer a Sharia heir”.

Andrew Caplen, president of the society, which represents 130,000 solicitors in England and Wales, said: “Our practice note was intended to support members to better serve their clients as far as is allowed by the law of England and Wales. We reviewed the note in the light of criticism. We have withdrawn the note and we are sorry.”

A society press officer said: “The Sharia practice note was intended to

support members to better serve clients who had asked for their assets to be distributed in accordance with Sharia succession principles, as far as is allowed by the law of England and Wales.”

The move comes after pressure from the National Secular Society (NSS) and the Lawyers Secular Society. It also comes after the solicitors’ standards watchdog, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), deleted references to the guidance from its website.

Solicitors acting on behalf of Southall Black Sisters and One Law for All, a campaign against Sharia, threatened legal action on gender equality grounds

on the basis that the SRA is a public authority under the Equality Act 2010.

The NSS objected on the ground that it encouraged discrimination, “legitimised Sharia” and was religious, rather than legal, advice.

Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the NSS, said: “This is an important reversal for what had seemed to be the relentless march of Sharia to becoming de facto British law.

“Until now, politicians and the legal establishment either encouraged this process or spinelessly recoiled from acknowledging what was happening.

“This is particularly good news for women who fare so badly under Sharia,

which is a non-democratically determined, non-human rights compliant and discriminatory code”.

6 Judges need to speak in plain English and use eye contact to make courts more user-friendly, a report due out today says. People coming to court can be fearful and not know what to expect, the Centre for Justice Innovation report says. A few practical steps could make the process seem fairer, including sending texts about court appearances.

It cites the family drug and alcohol court in London, where closer interaction between judges and families has meant that parents understand decisions — keeping appeals to a minimum.

MICROSOFT

Bug-ridden Halo game spells trouble for Xbox

T

he Xbox One has suffered a second setback in the runup to Christmas after players reported persistent problems with one of the biggest games to be released on the console this year.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which was released in the UK two weeks ago, has been beset with bugs that have made it difficult, if not impossible, for many players to take part in multiplayer games online.

Competitive online gaming is one of the main selling points of the four-game compendium, which is not available on Sony’s PlayStation 4. Players take on the role of cyborg soldiers to wage battles across more than 100 space-themed maps.

The collection, which costs about £40, comprises all of the Halo titles to have been released since the first came to the original Xbox in 2001.

The games have been digitally upgraded for the Xbox One, which was released late last year and costs upwards of £329.99.

343 Industries, the Microsoft-owned developer of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, has released several downloadable updates in an attempt to solve the problems.

None has worked fully and some have even created more bugs.

343 said that its programmers were working “around the clock” to fix the multiplayer issues but conceded: “We are aware that

far too many are not seeing improvements. We realise that silence, even when we have nothing new to say, is frustrating. We’ve already begun work on updates.”

Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft’s Xbox division, responded recently to criticism from Halo fans on Twitter. “Sorry about the issues. I know our fans expect more from us. Team is making progress but I know it’s still disappointing,” he wrote. His tweet was later deleted.

The problems with Halo: The Master Chief Collection come after bugs were found in Assassin’s Creed: Unity, in which players take on the role of assassins in the French Revolutionm and which was released two weeks ago on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Ubisoft, the French developer of Assassin’s Creed: Unity, said it was working hard to fix the problems.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection lets players revisit upgraded versions of the whole series, including Halo 4, above, and Halo 2, left

As fans, we deserve much better

A

fter years of waiting, this was the chance Halo fans had been waiting for: to battle it out on the games we grew up with (Peter Robertson writes).

The title that introduced many of us to online gaming and ignited a passion that lasted well into adulthood was back. Ordering months in advance of release, the excitement built with every leaked update, every portion previewed at gaming expos and the thought that maybe you’d be back at the top of the pile. An excitement that felt rather inappropriate for a 27-year-old design editor, but one I couldn’t help but enjoy.

Then the game was launched. I know these games, I don’t need to spend time working them out, I just want to play.

And yet, I can’t. It does not work. The excitement was built around the chance to play all the Halo games online, facing other players, and this portion of the game is broken. Finding matches against others can take hours, for a single fiveminute game, which then

crashes. As a player you feel you have been tricked and as a consumer you feel ripped off. As fans who have put more than three billion dollars into various pockets, you feel you deserve something better.

All we want to do is play and hopefully that will be possible soon, but the excitement that comes with unwrapping the disc for the first time can never be regained.

Banker reaches deal with Google over ‘extreme trolling’ Frances Gibb

A former banker who said he was a victim of “extreme internet trolling” has settled his High Court dispute with the search engine Google.

Daniel Hegglin had wanted Google bosses to take steps to ensure that abusive material posted about him did not appear in search results. However, a lawyer for Mr Hegglin yesterday told a judge that the dispute had been settled.

Mr Hegglin, a businessman who

worked with Morgan Stanley for 24 years, was seeking the automatic blocking of defamatory and abusive posts about him that have appeared over three years on more than 3,600 websites. He said that he had been wrongly described as a murderer, Ku Klux Klan sympathiser and paedophile in the multiple online postings.

Hugh Tomlinson QC told Mr Justice Jay at a High Court hearing in London that Google had made “significant efforts” to remove the abusive material

from websites. He added: “Whilst I am not in a position to disclose the details, I am pleased to report that the parties have now settled the matter. The settlement includes significant efforts on Google’s part to remove the abusive material from Google hosted websites and from its search results.”

A lawyer representing Google said Mr Hegglin’s case was exceptional.

“Google has considerable sympathy for Mr Hegglin in what is an exceptional case of internet trolling in terms of its

prominence and volume,” Antony White QC told the judge. “Google provides search services to millions of people and cannot be responsible for policing internet content. It will, however, continue to apply its procedures that have been developed to assist with the removal of content which breaches applicable local laws.”

A Google spokesman said: “We have reached a mutually acceptable agreement,” but declined to comment further on the settlement.

Mr Tomlinson added: “Mr Hegglin will now concentrate his energies on bringing the person responsible for this campaign of harassment to justice.”

At an earlier hearing the High Court heard that Google had run up £1.68 million in costs, prompting Mr Justice Edis to warn the final costs bill would be subject to detailed scrutiny.

The judges had been told that Mr Hegglin was an investor who lived in Hong Kong and had previously worked for Morgan Stanley bank in London.

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Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

News Boris backs wheelchair tennis masters to be smash hit Boris Johnson, the mayor of London and a keen tennis player, tried his hand at a trickier form of the game in London yesterday to publicise the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters.

The year-end singles competition, which begins tomorrow and runs until Sunday, is one of the first major disability sporting events to be held in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park since the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Mr Johnson, right, said: “Wheelchair tennis was a smash hit in 2012 and it is exciting to see the sport returning to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to inspire us all once again. I am sure thousands of fans will be trying to net themselves tickets to watch some of the world’s

STEVE PARSONS / PA

top players serve up an absolute treat in this superb competition.”

Baroness Grey-Thompson, Tennis Foundation Trustee and eleven-time Paralympic gold medalist, added: “The players will be the best in the world and the event will be a great showcase for Paralympic sport. This is a great opportunity for us to continue to build on the interest generated by the 2012 Games and inspire even more disabled people to play a version of tennis to suit them.”

The Tennis Foundation has won the rights to host the Wheelchair Tennis Masters in London for the next three years, allowing spectators see the competition from £10 a ticket, while visiting schools and groups will be able to test their forehand.

Fall in wading birds linked to end of grouse shooting A decline in grouse shootings has contributed to the loss of wading birds, including curlews, lapwings and golden plovers, a study has found.

The number of golden plovers has fallen by 90 per cent in Berwyn, north Wales, since grouse shooting and the killing of predators to protect grouse chicks ceased in the 1990s.

Curlews have declined by 79 per cent and lapwings have disappeared from the area, according to the study by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust. The RSPB said the grouse shooting industry could help sustain populations of some wading birds because they benefited from actions taken by gamekeepers to protect grouse chicks, such as killing foxes.

Mitchell could not recall Plebgate exchange, says MP A Conservative MP said that he was surprised to read a verbatim account

by Andrew Mitchell of the plebgate incident because the former chief whip had said earlier that he could not remember the words he had used.

Michael Fabricant told the High Court that he and Mr Mitchell had discussed the clash with police in October 2012. In a statement, Mr Fabricant added: “It was clear that he was unable to recall the exact words he had used during the exchange, though he was adamant he had not

used the term ‘plebs’.” Mr Fabricant said that two months later he read an article by Mr Mitchell in The Sunday Times, which included his account of the words he used.

In linked libel cases, Mr Mitchell is suing The Sun, which reported the allegation, contained in a police log, that he called officers “f***ing plebs” after being told that he could not cycle through the main Downing Street gates. PC Toby Rowland is suing Mr Mitchell for accusing him of fabricating his account.

Stray beer bottle shatters view from Tower Bridge The £1 million glass floor above Tower Bridge was damaged by a beer bottle less than two weeks after it opened. Part of the top layer was shattered on the transparent walkway 138ft above the River Thames in London, right. A bridge official said that an empty beer bottle had fallen from a tray being carried by a member of the catering staff during an event on Friday at the Tower Bridge exhibition. The damaged area was covered to protect guests from glass splinters and replaced two days later.

The exhibition remained open. Chris Earlie, head of Tower Bridge, said: “The new glass floor has four layers of glass with the sacrificial layer on top of that. This is installed so that it can be replaced.”

Clegg hints at extra £1.5bn in funding for health service Nick Clegg hinted yesterday that the government is to announce an extra £1.5 billion in funding for the NHS in the autumn statement next week.

The deputy prime minister said: “If you look at what Jeremy Hunt [the health minister] has said about the report by Simon Stevens, the NHS chief executive, it’s a compelling analysis about the needs the NHS now faces. I cannot believe any political party is going to stick its head in the sand.”

The extra cash next winter would

follow an extra £700 million for the health service this winter. Mr Stevens has demanded an additional £8 billion for the NHS over the next parliament.

Mr Clegg also said at his monthly press conference that the photo tweeted by the Labour MP Emily Thornberry of a house in Rochester with England flags was patronising.

He added that the Lib Dem showing in the Rochester & Strood by-election had been poor because voters were attracted to parties that stood for grievance and blame.

Wife locked up for whacking husband with magazine A woman who hit her husband over the head with a magazine was arrested and spent two nights in custody. Irene Clark, 53, and her husband, James, 52, had rowed over what to watch on television. A neighbour called police after overhearing the row. Four police officers entered the couple’s house

and took Mrs Clark into custody in Cupar, where she spent one night before being transferred to a cell in Dunfermline. She said: “I was put in a cell with just a blanket and lunatics shouting and screaming next door. It felt like forever.”

Mr Clark has criticised the police for intervening in a what both he and his wife say was “nothing untoward”.

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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News

‘I thought bike crash was end of the road’ Josh Burrows

An Olympic gold medal-winning cyclist thought she was going to die after an accident caused by a pothole.

Dani King, 24, spent ten days in hospital, two of them in intensive care, after she came off her bike on a training ride on a B-road between Merthyr Tydfil and Cardiff when another cyclist hit a pothole and collided with her.

Doctors have told King that the ten fractures to her ribs could have been fatal had fragments of bone become Dani King suffered ten fractures to her ribs in the crash

dislodged. Despite a punctured lung, she was back in training only a week after the crash.

Writing today in her column for The Times, King said: “On the way to the hospital, I still couldn’t breathe properly. That was when I thought I was going to die. All I remember was looking up at the bright lights in the ambulance and trying to stay calm.

“The paramedics had to give me morphine before they put me on a spinal board because I had curled over in pain. They had to get me flat and that was one of the worst things I have ever

experienced; I could almost feel my ribs grinding together.

“And then I was worried because I couldn’t feel my feet. That turned out to be because I was so cold, but I thought that even if I didn’t die, I might be paralysed.”

King, a three-time world champion in the team pursuit, says that her accident has highlighted the threat posed to cyclists by poorly maintained roads.

She has added her name to the group of professional riders backing the Times Cities Fit for Cycling campaign, which calls on the government to invest more money in safe cycle routes.

British Cycling, the sport’s governing body, has also called for £10 per head to be spent on improving infrastructure.

Despite her injuries, King intends to make a gradual return to training and aims to be back on the road by the beginning of January.

“It may sound mad, but a week after the crash I was on a stationary bike again, wearing a chest drain,” she says.

“The hospital staff had brought me pedals, which looked like something from the 1950s, but they put a smile on my face. The most frustrating thing had been not being allowed to exercise, so when the physio asked if I wanted to try and get on a bike, I said: ‘Yes! Let’s go!’”

She will focus on the road rather than the track next season.

Dani King’s column can be read online at thetimes.co.uk/cycling and on tablet

APEX NEWS & PICTURES

Surfers’ marriage is on the rocks within hours

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bride had to be rescued hours after getting married when she was caught in a riptide at a Cornish beach (Simon de Bruxelles writes).

Jennifer Grant, 30, above, her new husband

Warren, 41, and friends Mitch Seward and Scott Ward were body boarding after the ceremony at the Sands Hotel in Newquay, when a rip current swept the group out to sea. Mr

Grant from Ottery St Mary, Devon, was dragged on to rocks, but he managed to clamber to safety and raise the alarm, while his bride was left clinging to a rock.

Mrs Grant, a dental nurse, said: “The tide was coming in and the waves were crashing over the rock. I was terrified but Warren had always told me not to panic.

“I watched him climb on to the rock then I tried to get back to shore but I couldn’t get in. I realised Mitch and I were caught in the rip and being dragged to the rock, too.

“I was going to climb on to it and a wave smashed me into it and cut me up.

“We managed to get on to the rock but the tide was coming in and a wave then came and swept Warren away in to the sea.”

Mrs Grant jumped into the sea after two RNLI lifeboats arrived, She was later tended to in an ambulance.

Thanking the RNLI for saving her, she said: “It was definitely a strange day after such a special, perfect wedding.”

The couple plan to fly to Egypt for their honeymoon.

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the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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comment pages of the year

Can we afford to featherbed pensioners?

Paul Johnson Page 19

Opinion

Ukip is cashing in on our obsession with class British society remains as socially stratified as ever, but the political loyalties that went with it have been shattered Rachel Sylvester

@rsylvestertimes

I

t is almost 70 years since George Orwell wrote: “England is the most class-ridden country under the sun.” Yet even after decades of social progress our politics is still dominated by whether this is, as the author went on, a “land of snobbery and privilege”.

The ill-advised tweet by Emily Thornberry of a white-van driver’s home, decorated with England flags, tapped into a deeper anxiety. She resigned because she was seen to be a snob. When Dan Ware, the cagefighting car dealer whose house she snapped, turned up on her £3 million Islington doorstep, he declared that “Labour is full of the upper classes” who “need to get out of their mansions and visit the working class”.

Ed Miliband has himself been mounting a barely-disguised class war on David Cameron, pointing out at every opportunity the number of public schoolboys the Eton-educated prime minister has in his Cabinet.

Labour’s party election broadcast in May played overtly on this theme, portraying a collection of Tory pinstriped buffoons sympathising with a friend who is “down to his last two yachts”.

“Enough of government just for the privileged few,” said the slogan — a mantra which is likely to be replicated at the general election.

Labour is also planning a clamp down on private schools, reducing benefits for those that do not cooperate enough with state schools.

John Major hailed the “classless society” and John Prescott pronounced “we’re all middle class now”, but social divisions, whether real or perceived, continue to dominate our political and cultural life. The Labour leader’s bust-up with Myleene Klass over the mansion tax, the allegation that a Tory cabinet minister called a policeman a “pleb”, the call from a group of Tory MPs for a return to grammar schools, the rows over the pasty tax and bank bonuses, all tap into the age-old obsession. Our determination to cling to this historic national angst seems to have intensified, rather than diminished, during the recent recession.

America has The Wire, Denmark The Killing, but we have Downton Abbey. Posh, based on Oxford University’s Bullingdon Club, which boasted David Cameron and Boris Johnson among its members, is only the latest British film to give career breaks to floppy-haired actors educated at public schools. Posh

Ed Miliband wages a barely disguised class war on the Tories People, a BBC documentary set in the offices of Tatler magazine, is balanced by Skint, a Channel 4 series about the long-term unemployed in Grimsby. From Alan Bennett to David Hockney, writers and artists have found inspiration in class divides. Grayson Perry, who made a series of tapestries about social strata, yesterday called for more affordable housing in London because “rich people don’t create culture”.

We remain fascinated by the nuances of social division, whether

it’s middle-class professionals buying champagne at Lidl, chief executives flying to the ski slopes on easyJet or footballers spending thousands of pounds on Christmas trees. It is considered news that an aristocratic family is rethinking the future of Castle Howard, the setting for the TV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh’s novel about the upper classes.

The stratified society has become one of Britain’s most successful exports. Helen Mirren is guaranteed a hit when she takes her awardwinning performance in The Audience, about the Queen’s meetings with her prime ministers, to Broadway next year. The memoirs of Deborah Mitford, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, who died recently, were a New York Times editor’s choice. Russian oligarchs send their children to British public schools and Chinese businessmen are learning to shoot so they can play the role of English country squire.

At Westminster, the class system still permeates. There is a shockingly low number of working-class MPs. Each party can be divided into roundheads and cavaliers — the puritanical workers and the funloving charmers with a sense that they’re born to rule.

The old class-based tribal loyalties have, however, evaporated. According to Peter Kellner, the president of pollsters YouGov, there has been a dramatic change in the party allegiances of voters from different backgrounds over the past 40 years.

In 1970 80 per cent of Labour’s support came from working-class voters — by the last election, a majority of its voters were middle class.

The “white van” tweet mattered because it was emblematic of a wider problem. Labour is far more popular

more than 70 per cent of voters had no formal educational qualifications.

By the time Tony Blair became prime minister 33 years later, a third of the electorate was in professional middle-class jobs and one in five had university degrees.

Britain has changed in 50 years from a country where blue-collar workers determined elections to one where the aspirational middle classes decide the outcome. As David

The stratified society has become one of our most successful exports

Downton Abbey appeals to fascination with our upstairs-downstairs past

among middle-class voters in London (where it has 37 per cent support) than among working-class voters in the rest of the south (only 28 per cent). By contrast, Ukip has almost as many working-class supporters in southern England as Labour (25 per cent) but attracts only 9 per cent of the metropolitan middle classes in the capital.

In their book Revolt on the Right, Matthew Goodwin and Rob Ford track the demographic changes that have created such fertile conditions for Nigel Farage. This is a social rather than an ideological revolution.

Although in 1964 working-class voters outnumbered middle-class ones 2:1, by 2010 the middle classes had a 4:3 advantage. When Harold Wilson won power, almost half of workers were in blue-collar jobs and

Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg, all well-educated, wealthy metropolitan liberals, focus on wooing Middle England, Ukip appeals to the “left behind” workingclass voters who feel ignored by the political elite.

The anti-politics mood is growing all over the world, but manifests itself in different ways. In America, there is a loathing of big government that chimes with the individualism in the land of the free. In France a distinctive form of nationalism taps into the anti-establishment mood, while in Greece and Spain a left-wing anti-austerity message is winning support. In Britain, intrigued and horrified by its upstairs-downstairs past, Ukip is playing on historic class divides. That is what is so difficult for the mainstream parties to deal with.

Red Box For the best in political analysis, comment and exclusive YouGov pollingg thetimes.co.uk/redbox

Today Mild with showers across southwestern Europe, but cold with some snow in the north. Max 20C (68F), min -13C (9F) Noon today

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Iberia, France, the Balearics, Greece A few bright intervals, mainly in southern and eastern Spain, but otherwise mostly cloudy with showery rain, heavy in places. Drier in Portugal and northeastern parts of France.

Maximum 20C (68F), minimum 2C (36F).

The Low Countries, Denmark, Germany, western Poland, central Europe, the Alps Mainly dry with a few brighter spells, the best of which will be across Bavaria, but otherwise it will be dull and cloudy with mist and fog lingering in places. Maximum 11C (52F), minimum -3C (27F).

Italy, the Adriatic coast Staying largely fine and dry with sunny spells and feeling mild, but it will be cloudier along coastal areas. Maximum 19C (66F), minimum 6C (43F).

Western Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria Mainly dry and cold with sunny spells in Belarus and Ukraine, but otherwise largely cloudy and dull. Maximum 3C (37F), minimum -13C (9F).

Scandinavia, the Baltic states, Slovakia, eastern Poland Some sunny spells in southern Sweden and southeastern Norway, but otherwise mostly cloudy with a mix of patchy rain, sleet and snow.

Sleet and snow will be most likely in northern Norway and Sweden and across eastern Poland.

Maximum 7C (45F), minimum -11C (12F).

British Isles Patchy rain in southern England and southern Scotland, but drier elsewhere although foggy at first. Maximum 12C (54F), minimum -3C (27F).

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Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

Opinion

Countryside is being hunted to extinction Ten years after the hunting ban, the rural way of life is being run to ground by politicians what they regard as bullying by urbanites.

The paradox for the anti-hunt lobby is that hunting is often good for conservation. A recent study by the Welsh Ornithological Society blames the loss of lapwing and other wading birds on the decline of grouse shooting. How? Fewer gamekeepers means natural predators such as foxes have grown in number. What’s more, foxes in the countryside are worse off now because, without hunting, farmers and gamekeepers may as well shoot them. Let’s not rehearse all those arguments again.

Think back, though. The emotion triggered by the Hunting Act, expressed in the countryside marches, was only partly about hunting. The countryside felt misunderstood. Rural types saw themselves as the equivalent of Rochester’s white-van man. They

Clive Aslet

@cliveaslet

O

h no, not the Hunting Act again. Like a reformed alcoholic, I hoped I’d put it behind me. Since it became law ten years ago, it has come to epitomise legislative futility. More time was spent debating it in the Commons than the invasion of Iraq. Even Tony Blair now admits the unfairness. Serves him right, of course. I tried to tell him during two interviews before he came to power (the Big Tent really was big in those days). He didn’t listen.

The legislation doesn’t do what supporters meant it to do. Hunting with hounds still takes place.

Admittedly it’s something of a pantomime, with the quarry species being flushed towards birds of prey or people with guns. A good old English compromise, as Tony Blair says?

Hardly. It is still deeply resented by the relatively small number of folk who are affected, and criminalises otherwise upstanding members of the community who can’t conceive of themselves as committing a more than technical offence.

Prosecutions have been few. The police, not surprisingly, think that catching terrorists is more important than pursuing a few country diehards, who don’t want to submit to

London has more in common with New York than Newark were stigmatised by a political elite that got everything wrong in the foot-and-mouth epidemic. Infinitely more farm animals were slaughtered in woeful circumstances than the number of vermin killed by hunting.

Farmers were advised to build golf courses, rather than farm.

The canvas has now been repainted. In art terms, Hockney has replaced Rothko. Farmers who catch the yo-yoing wheat price at the right time can do well. After Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire is

The legislation has not worked, as hunting with hounds still takes place

growing faster than any other county (bless the Poles). Rural businesses have done well where broadband exists: speeds may be faster in the Highlands and Islands, thanks to grants, than in Pimlico. When David Cameron, with his rural constituency, came to power, the countryside breathed a sigh of relief.

Which makes the disappointment all the more galling. The Chipping Norton set to which he belongs isn’t composed of horny-handed sons of toil. Oxfordshire is too much within the orbit of London. And increasingly London no longer seems to be the capital of the UK, but a global city that has more in common with New York than Newark. Dairy farming has gone to the wall. Supermarkets, having raped the food industry, have

started to wobble. But like the banks, they may be too big to fail.

Owen Paterson, our best ever environment secretary, was replaced, for reasons of window dressing, by Liz Truss. The appointment reminded people of the dreaded A-list, which parachuted goodlooking urbanites into safe Tory seats in the shires. The brave shoots of localism, once a big idea, have been trampled into a meaningless pulp by big infrastructure projects such as HS2 and the almostanything-goes planning guidelines.

All over Britain, villages and small towns are being wrecked by overdevelopment, for no local need. Alas for Buntingford, in Hertfordshire. It has the sort of high street that Mary Portas would bite your arm off to replicate in other places. Now it’s threatened with expansion by nearly 100 per cent.

So the countryside, with its traditional values, is feeling as much ignored by the political establishment as the inhabitants of Rochester and the seaside towns.

None of the political parties puts its rural policy in lights. Think what would happen if the National Trust got together with the RSPB, and they were joined by the wildlife trusts, the Woodland Trust, the Royal Horticultural Society and any other organisation that cared about the natural world (not the RSPCA: there are limits). The numbers would knock the political parties into a cocked hat. It won’t happen. We’re too genteel. But it’s a lovely thought.

Clive Aslet is editor at large of Country Life and author of The Birdcage

Philip Collins Notebook

It’s just the smiling that makes me miserable

W

arning.This notebook contains flash ideas about photography.

Twice this week I have submitted to the gruesome business of having my picture taken. I have never owned a camera and I cannot abide people who forget to live their lives because they are too busy photographing it.

It’s the smiling that makes me so miserable. When I smile I look as if I am contemplating murdering the photographer which, because he keeps asking me to smile, I am.

This is a problem photographers were in on from the start. The first scientific study to be illustrated by the new medium of photography was Guillaume Duchenne’s Mechanism of Human Facial Expression from 1862.

To this day a natural smile, which raises the corner of the mouth and creates crow’s feet around the eyes, is known as a Duchenne smile. For

many years, however, smiling was not a photographic convention because nobody could hold a Duchenne smile for the full length of the exposure. Children had to be given chloroform to get them to sit still. That’s how I feel, sitting for the picture you see here. I curse William Henry Fox Talbot, MP for Chippenham, who got the exposure time down to eight seconds. The thought of an MP becoming a famous photographer makes me smile, unfortunately.

Inside out

S

tarting with roll film and Eastman’s Box Brownie camera in the late 19th century, photography was always the popular form, disdained by the fancy metropolitan elite who preferred painting.

After the digital revolution, photography is the fastest growing activity of the 21st century. A trillion and a half pictures are taken every year, none of them starring me. The critic Walter Benjamin

wrote that the photograph robbed the painting of its aura. Come to think of it, an aura is just what I feel robbed of. On seeing the first grainy plates, Turner, as daft as his brush as usual, declared: “This is the end of Art”. Turner was scared of the power of cameras. Today they have such sophisticated lenses that they practically go out on assignment for you.

That is not true, however, at the point where photography and medicine meet, which is in the X-ray.

The German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen took the first photographic plate in 1895, an X-ray of his wife’s hand which caused her to cry out like Turner: “I have seen my death.” Inside the body is the one place where the photograph captures what is invisible to the human eye. The radiologist is the critic who picks the bones out of these photographs.

I sit in a restaurant high up the Shard, looking over the city to which my birthday-boy 81-year-old radiologist father-in-law came in 1963. It is the end of a week dominated by a photograph of a St George’s flag and I reflect on an immigrant who came over here to read the pictures of our insides and who will, in February, celebrate 50 years’ unbroken labour in the National Health Service.

By George

T

he principle of the original camera obscura is that where light strikes, the image is dark.

It must seem so to Emily Thornberry, whose photograph of flags draped on a house in Strood has stripped her not just of her aura but of her job.

The camera never lies but it is not clear what it says. Does Ms Thornberry mean Labour cannot hope to win over people who drive white vans? Or does she mean that the not-very-English display of flags implies an assertive, unpleasant nationalism? The X-ray needs a radiologist to interpret it and, as I help to blow out 81 candles for the 50-year servant of the NHS, I can’t suppress a rueful smile for the undeserved fate of the shadow attorney-general.

@pcollinstimes

Theresa May’s brave new world is a terrifying prospect Mike Harris

T

he extent to which Britain is sleepwalking into a surveillance state is becoming clear. The confidential records of investigative journalists have been intruded upon with flagrant disregard for the law; the private conversations between lawyers and their clients, privileged for 300 years, have been intercepted. MPs’ contacts with prisoners have been monitored, and only last week we discovered that the comedian Mark Thomas, along with a number of journalists, were placed under surveillance for “domestic extremism” by the Metropolitan Police.

Tomorrow, Theresa May will announce yet more legislation to extend surveillance powers. Nothing will be done to protect journalists, lawyers, MPs or peaceful activists.

Instead, she will attempt to rush through the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill, which tilts the balance of power between the citizen and the

Police officers will be made redundant to pay for the technology government yet further towards the home secretary’s brave new world.

May will frighten MPs with the very real spectre of Islamic State.

MPs should be equally frightened by what is happening to our democracy.

Edward Snowden told us what the intelligence services had not told MPs — that GCHQ was harvesting the private family photos, videos, location and web-browsing history of every person in the UK who uses the internet. MPs from across the political spectrum were outraged.

May ignored them.

She rushed through the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act in three days after a cross-party stitch-up. Only 49 brave MPs said enough is enough.

With a general election coming, MPs will vote through legislation forcing the Home Office to pay internet service providers to install expensive technology (IPv6) that they would have installed anyway.

Police officers will be made redundant to pay for this. After the 7/7 bombings, an inquiry reported that electronic surveillance was no substitute for traditional policing.

Parliament refuses to debate surveillance. Your private data is held in huge server farms that the intelligence agencies won’t admit exist. Journalists, lawyers and peaceful protesters are now targets.

Police numbers will be cut in favour of technology that will enable the state to monitor your location via your smartphone to the nearest two metres.

Mike Harris is campaign director of Don’t Spy On Us (dontspyonus.org.uk)

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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Opinion

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

Can we afford to featherbed our pensioners?

The retired are now better off than younger people, but they are taking an increasing share of the nation’s wealth Paul Johnson

@theifs

H

ere are two facts. First, state spending, after inflation, won’t be much different in 2019 to what it was in 2010. Second, we are in a decade of extraordinary public spending cuts, which will mean spending on services such as police, transport, local government and environment, being reduced by more than a third over the same period.

How can both be true? Debt interest payments and an ageing population are the main answers.

Because we have borrowed more, we have to pay more interest. That reduces the amount that can be spent on services. Ageing has a similar effect. More older people means more spending on them and a squeeze elsewhere. And we are living through a profound demographic change. By 2020 there will be about two million more people aged over 65 than in 2010. That’s an increase of 20 per cent in a decade.

One consequence is increased spending on pensions. Despite increases in the state pension age for women, we are likely to be spending about £12 billion more on benefits for pensioners in 2018-19 than in 2010-11.

Spending on public service pensions for retired nurses, teachers, civil servants and so on, is also rising fast.

At the same time an ageing population puts increasing pressure on the health service. The NHS budget may be “protected”, but it has to cope with a bigger and older population.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) calculates that keeping health spending constant over the decade will amount to a 9 per cent cut if the population had remained the same.

Keeping spending on health constant is equivalent to a 9% cut

In the long term these changes will continue. To accommodate them we have three choices and only three: we can reduce benefits and services for the old; or we can recognise that demands on the state have risen and therefore increase the size of the state and hence taxes; or we can continue to make big cuts to spending on most other things that the state does.

The choices made by the government over this parliament have been pretty clear. It has decided not to increase the size of the state or taxes. And it has focused cuts on those of working age. Spending on benefits for pensioners has largely been protected. Some cuts to benefits for most people retiring after about 2030 have been announced, but not in a way that will be comprehensible to many.

But those currently retired and hitting the state pension age over the decade have been spared most of the effects of austerity, at least in terms of their incomes. Support for social care, paid through local government, has been squeezed quite hard — perhaps because this spending is less visible to most.

Cutting benefits for those over the state pension age is obviously difficult. People retire with a set of expectations about what the state will provide and may find it hard to adjust if that support is reduced.

More prosaically, pensioners vote.

But in thinking about the shape of support for the older population it is important to be aware of one rather important fact.

Pensioners as a group have stopped being poor. Or rather we have moved from a world only 30 years ago in which pensioners were much more likely to be poor than their younger

counterparts to one in which they are less likely to be poor. In 2011, for the first time, the average incomes of pensioner households, adjusted for housing costs and the costs of children, rose above the average incomes of the rest of the population.

Recent work by my colleagues at the IFS suggests that most people retiring now will be better off in retirement than they were on average over their working lives.

People retiring now will be better off than when they worked

This is probably the greatest triumph of social policy during my lifetime. But understanding and policy decisions often lag behind facts such as these. The continuing “triple lock” on state pensions, so that they rise by whichever is the fastest of prices, earnings or 2.5 per cent, and the continued protection of benefits such as the winter fuel allowance, must be seen in this context.

One problem is that once something is established in public policy, perhaps for very good reasons, it can be hard to change.

This is true of rather small things such as the winter fuel allowance which, for all the publicity associated

with it, costs only £2 billion. It is also true for much bigger things.

Here are just three examples: 6 Gross spending on pensions for former public sector employees will approach £36 billion this year.

Despite some reforms, these pensions, and those being accrued by current public sector workers, are hugely more generous than almost anything in the private sector.

6 No national insurance contributions are made when private pensions are paid out, nor were they paid on most contributions into pension schemes, a hugely generous tax break that costs billions. Decades of cutting income tax rates and increasing rates of national insurance contributions have, probably inadvertently, benefited pensioners at the expense of workers.

6 In the past 50 years male life expectancy at 65 has risen by nearly ten years. The state pension age has not changed at all. In that context plans to raise it by a couple of years by the mid-2020s don’t look so radical.

We may decide we do not want to change these things — but we do need to be aware of the costs of not doing so.

Paul Johnson is director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Ed Conway is away

20

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Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

Leading articles Daily Universal Register

Do Not Pay

The international trade in hostages funds terrorism. Britain is right to send an unambiguous public signal that paying terrorists is illegal When the security services state that the threat of terrorism is greater than it has ever been, politicians and the public have little choice but to take them at face value. When the abhorrent trade in hostages by terrorists escalates in terms of the number kidnapped and the ransoms demanded, the evidence is plain for all to see.

Yesterday the home secretary translated the latest official assessment of the terror threat into the language of public policy. Under the Counter-terrorism and Security Act being presented to parliament this week, schools will have a statutory duty to prevent radicalisation. Farms will have to keep fertiliser secure lest it be turned into bombs. Internet service providers will have to store information linking users to internet addresses and police will have new powers to pluck radicals from their home towns and send them elsewhere, to forestall terrorist plots. But the most pointed and timely of Theresa May’s proposals will in fact be a clarification of existing law, stating that it is illegal for insurers to pay ransoms to hostage-takers.

Paying ransoms to extremist kidnappers funds terrorism and encourages the taking of more hostages. That is why Britain’s longstanding position has been that it does not pay ransoms. This has not stopped the growth of kidnapping as a global in-

dustry and Mrs May’s warning to insurers is unlikely to do so either. It is nonetheless a vital signal to send in the wake of the grotesque filmed executions of dozens of western and Syrian hostages

by Islamic State. If the government’s only public response was silence, the risk is that terrorists would infer precisely the wrong message — that they only have to persist with their murderous business to break Britain’s resolve. They must be proved wrong. The hypocrisy of governments that do pay ransoms is a weakness that terrorists already exploit without mercy. To give ground on ransoms would be a serious strategic defeat.

Thanks partly to hostage-taking, Islamic State is the richest terrorist organisation in the world.

That most of its revenues come from seized oil refineries should not obscure the central contribution of kidnapping to the finances of related groups elsewhere.

In the past decade the value of a single western hostage to al-Qaeda affiliates such as those based in Yemen (AQAP) and Algeria has risen 25-fold to about $5 million. This year the US treasury estimated that such groups earned $120 million from hostage-taking between 2004 and 2012, and that AQAP alone has earned another $20 million since then. In the same period Somali pirates have

extorted an estimated $400 million from western shipping firms, most of it funnelled directly into the activities of groups such as al-Shebab, which murdered 28 people on Sunday for failing to recite verses from the Koran.

Because of such trends David Cameron persuaded the G8 heads of state to sign a statement against the payment of ransoms last year. It has proved largely meaningless. It is an open secret that France, Italy and Germany have authorised the payment of tens of millions of dollars in ransoms via proxies, leading inevitably to mounting pressure on the British and US governments from anguished relatives to do the same.

Such pressure is understandable. The death of each hostage killed by Islamic State is an appalling tragedy, but to respond by ransoming those still held would be tantamount to surrender. Western governments should unite instead behind a strategy that dismantles the kidnappers’ business model by pursuing them militarily. There can be no statute of limitations on the crime of trading lives for cash. The struggle against terrorism at home is one of stamina and vigilance. The struggle against the hostage-takers is one of nerve, and Mrs May is right to signal to the world that Britain has no intention of blinking.

A Poor Law

Israel must not condemn its Arab minority to second-class citizenship Israeli leaders proudly claim their country to be the only democracy in the Middle East. It is a boast rooted in Israel’s declaration of independence, which promised that the state “will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex”.

Now the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, is set to consider new legislation that reserves “national rights” for Jews alone and not for its Arab minority, a group that includes Muslims, Christians, Bedouins and Druze. A vote on the nationality bill was yesterday postponed, but only until next week. If passed it will carry the weight of a de facto constitution, recognising Israel’s essential Jewish character. It is meant to solidify Israel’s status as the homeland of the Jewish people. Various drafts suggest that it will lead to much more: stripping Arabic of its status as an official language, for example. Courts will be encouraged to apply Jewish law if civil law provides no clear answer to a case. By most critical readings, including those of dissident members of Israel’s cabinet, the initiative is an attempt to downgrade the Arab minority, which makes up 20 per cent of the population.

It is already plain that the bill will aggravate tensions in Israel. The country has been on edge for much of the year. The summer kidnapping and murder of three Israeli youths, followed by the 50 days war against Hamas in Gaza, has turned into a grim autumn including last week’s bloody assault on a Jerusalem synagogue. Yet Israel is losing sympathy especially in Europe, where the Palestinian narrative is being embraced.The Swedish government has recognised the Palestinian state and the House of Commons has also urged recognition.

Binyamin Netanyahu’s administration says, persuasively, that recognition of Palestine should be the culmination of the peace process. It will not win this argument, however, by the punitive detonation of the family houses of terrorists. Nor will it do so by introducing a law that risks making Arabs second-class citizens. Israel is increasingly being seen by its European friends as the core of the problem, rather than as a willing participant in a two-state solution with the Palestinians. It is in the nature of the 1948 independence declaration that Israelis accept a constitution that is both Jew-

ish and democratic. A law that seeks to be more Jewish and less democratic upsets a fine balance.

The nationality law is an unnecessary one.

There is no serious dispute that Israel is the Jewish state. Hebrew dominates national discourse; shabbat is the legal day of rest. Its national anthem celebrates the yearning of the Jewish spirit. Israeli citizenship is open to anyone with a single Jewish grandparent. Why the pressing need to establish this in a basic law? The answer appears to be tactical. Mr Netanyahu may be lining himself up for the Likud party primaries. And he is feeling more confident than he has for many months. In the US, Republican midterm gains allow him to shrug off pressure from President Obama.

There is, however, nothing wise or graceful about this proposed law. Mr Netanyahu says that Israeli Arabs will retain civic and individual rights in Israel under the law — which is thus in no way a pit stop en route to an apartheid state — but he denies them the right to claim the Israeli flag as their own. That sets an unfortunate tone. Israeli leaders are riding roughshod over their minorities.

They should think again.

Dentists are increasingly resembling health spas. What might be on the menu?

“Similar, sir, except it costs £95.”

“For a cup of hot water?”

“Unless you’re an NHS customer?”

“No. Of course not. Is anybody these days?”

“Ah well. In which case —and I know this might sound extravagant — how about Merino lambswool flossing?”

“Is that different from any other flossing?”

“It’s a more flossy sort of flossing. Or we could work on your contouring?”

“To make my teeth more tooth-shaped?”

“Oh, we can’t make any promises, sir. But some people do feel the creams add a certain firmness.”

Nature notes There is a last blaze of yellow on the trees before the remaining leaves fall. Sycamore leaves that are still on the twigs are a rich golden-yellow. They contrast strongly with the leaves that have already fallen on to pavements below. These are very soft and friable, and passing feet quickly turn them into a kind of slippery mud. Plane tree leaves are similar in appearance and size to sycamore leaves, though with sharper points.

However, they are far more leathery and slow to disintegrate, and wet ones leave a clear imprint on paving stones when they dry out. Many of the leaves on maples, which are small relatives of the sycamore, are also bright yellow still, some with a pink tinge. Maples are often found in mixed hedges, and they stand out against the bare hawthorns on either side of them. Some wild cherry leaves have turned bright red — the final stage of their transformation. Yet others are dropping this year while they are still yellow. Oaks are generally the last trees to lose their leaves, which are now mostly brown. But low sunlight in the evening brings out a soft purple tint in them before they fall. derwent may

Birthdays today John Taylor, pictured, inventor who developed thermostats for use in electric kettles, 81; Dickie Jeeps, former chairman of the Sports Council and England rugby player (1956-1962), 83; Charles Kennedy, Liberal Democrat MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber and former leader of the Liberal Democrats (1999-2006), 55; the Ven Janet McFarlane, archdeacon of Norwich, 50; Paul Murphy, Labour MP for Torfaen and secretary of state for Northern Ireland (2002-05) and Wales (1999-2002, 2008-09), 66; Donald Sassoon, emeritus professor of comparative European history at Queen Mary University of London, One Hundred Years of Socialism (1996), 68; Dougray Scott, actor, Mission: Impossible II (2000), 49; Gerald Seymour, thriller writer, The Glory Boys (1976), Vagabond (2014), 73; Sir Peter Wright, director laureate, Birmingham Royal Ballet, 88; the Rev Prof Frances Young, theologian, The Myth of God Incarnate (1977), 75.

On this day

Filling Time

“Well, that all seems to be in order, sir.”

“Gruhuuuh?”

“Indeed, but while you’re here, might you care for a massage? Sorry, do spit.”

“Pthooo. A massage? Lovely. I’ll turn over.”

“Oh, no need. I meant a molar massage, sir.

Because I couldn’t help but notice that your molars were looking a little uptight.”

“You’ll relax my molars?”

“Unless we go for a Turkish molar massage.

Which is similar, but really sore. Or perhaps a gum sauna? Look, I have one right here.”

“But that’s just a cup of hot water. Surely.”

UK: The intelligence and security committee publishes its report on the intelligence relating to the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby; coroner Mary Hassell delivers her verdict following the inquest into the deaths of four children at Great Ormond Street Hospital last year.

France: Phyllis Latour Doyle, a 93-year-old former British spy, is awarded the Legion of Honour 70 years after parachuting behind enemy lines in preparation for D-Day.

“To my teeth?”

“Yes. Provided we miss the tongue.”

“None of this sounds terribly appealing.”

“Well, then. Something more traditional. A homeopathic filling? For which we take a bit of the rotten tooth and put it back into the rotten tooth?

Hoping for the best?”

“No. None of this.”

“Fine. So how about a traditional weight-loss treatment? It’s from Bali, you know.”

“For, um, thinner teeth?”

“Well, theoretically. But don’t worry! Like everything else in a spa, it doesn’t actually work.”

In 1882, the first night of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe took place at the Savoy Theatre, London; in 1952 Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap opened at the Ambassadors Theatre, London; in 1956, Miss Rose Heilbron, QC, was the first woman lawyer to be appointed a recorder; in 1995 the result of an Irish referendum was announced, with 50.2 per cent voting for the legalisation of divorce.

The last word “The extension of women’s rights is the basic principle of all social progress.” Charles Fourier, social theorist, Théorie des Quatre Mouvements (1808)

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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Letters to the Editor

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

Faith schools and true freedom of thought

Gambling concerns Sir, Alice Thomson (“Why online gambling leaves us all worse off”, Opinion, Nov 19) is right to be concerned about fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) and their proliferation. They can, for instance, be introduced into existing betting premises without any consents being required. Further, if a retail-style unit has an existing Class A2 (finance and professional services) permission, no further permission is required (other than a change of shopfront, for example) to turn a dentist’s or solicitor’s premises into a betting shop.

The growth of betting shops and their FOBTs needs greater regulation.

The Use Classes Order should be amended to remove betting shops and any other gambling premises from Class A2 to a class of their own, so that proliferation can at least be subject to wider consideration as to their value to communities. peter r handley Secretary, The Westminster Society Sir, The betting industry in the UK takes its responsibilities to protect the millions of people who bet in its shops each year extremely seriously. We are fully committed to responsible gambling, as highlighted by our recent announcement forcing machine players to choose whether to set a limit.

It is impossible to lose £20,000 an hour on a gaming machine, and while making the point that £46 billion a year is said to be put into these terminals, your article failed to mention that approximately 97 per cent of that is returned to punters. paul darling, qc Chairman, Association of British Bookmakers

Corrections and clarifications 6 We have been asked by the publisher of Rising Stars Achieve Level 5 Mathematics to clarify that it is not a textbook (“Textbook case of sloppy work”, Nov 20). It is a revision guide for pupils taking Key Stage 2 National Tests.

6 We wrongly said that Tom Watson MP “rose to public prominence for campaigns to expose phone hacking at The Sun” (report, Nov 24). The phone-hacking investigation and trial involved the News of the World, not The Sun. We apologise for the error.

6 In settlement of a libel action brought by the solicitors Hodge Jones & Allen LLP over an article published in The Times on June 26, 2014, a statement was yesterday read in open court in which The Times accepted its error in publishing false and damaging statements and apologised to the claimant. It has also paid substantial damages and costs.

The Times takes complaints seriously.

We are committed to abiding by the Independent Press Standards Organisation rules and regulations and the Editors’ Code of Practice that IPSO enforces. Requests for corrections should be sent to feedback@thetimes.co.uk or to Feedback, The Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

Sir, Far from being, as your headline puts it, “prisons of the mind”, Catholic schools are envied precisely for the excellence of their teaching and performance across all disciplines (Janice Turner, Opinion, Nov 22). In professions such as science and philosophy, where independent minds and openness to ideas count most, Catholics excel.

Yet because fanatics have manipulated some Muslim “faith schools”, Janice Turner thinks that faith schools are particularly vulnerable to fanaticism. But Muslim fanatics manipulate secular schools as well; and pupils of Catholic “faith schools” are the least likely to engage in the tragic sectarianism that centuries of political manipulation have caused and fostered, sometimes deliberately, in Northern Ireland.

Catholic parents pay the taxes that fund their schools. Must their children be forced into schools, secularist in principle, where their faith is treated as “something other people do”? tom mcintyre Frome, Somerset Sir, If Janice Turner wants all schools to be diverse communities that provide a high standard of education while promoting respect for others, she should rejoice in the vast majority of faith schools that passionately uphold these values.

Instead, by hijacking a serious issue

Veterans’ charities Sir, While I agree with Sir Simon Wessely that mental health treatment should be left to the professionals, as the founder of two charities currently working in this sector I am saddened by the continual handwringing over veterans and their “mental health problems” ( “Charities for veterans ‘harmful not helpful’ ”, Nov 21).

As a non-clinician, my approach is from a practical, pastoral position and I feel this responsibility deeply. To me, a combat stress reaction is a normal reaction to an abnormal situation, and I help and encourage those I work with to understand why people react and respond the way they do (hypervigilance and a short fuse can be very off-putting to the uninitiated).

on this day november 25, 1914

LETTER FROM THE FRONT I know you won’t believe it but this story is absolutely true, and gives you an idea of things.

At the end and to the front of the French trenches by us were some haystacks. I am not sure quite where the German trenches were, but should think they were some 200 yards the other side of the stacks. During the night a Frenchman went to the stacks to get some straw to put in the trench;

in an attempt to advance her own anti-religious agenda, she undermines the very principles she claims to advocate. david culley Bristol Sir, Rachel Sylvester (“Ministers take sides in Tory culture clash”, Nov 18) misses the point when she claims that some Tories are “complaining about the promotion of equality”. Our letter to Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, highlighted the serious challenges to freedom of religion, both legal and philosophical, inherent in her new regulations.

The state requiring faith schools to actively promote things that are antithetical to their faith undermines the entire ethos of these schools, as well as striking a powerful and disconcerting blow against the freedom of conscience.

The regulations also mark a complete volte face from decades of previous Conservative policy of offering schools, families and communities more freedom from state-enforced orthodoxies. sir edward leigh mp House of Commons Sir, Rachel Sylvester misses out a key player in the story of getting the drains unblocked in No 10. The person who persuaded the PM to go into “Dyno-Rod mode” on the GCSE religious studies criteria was What is not helpful is to badge these people with a mental health “problem” which they and their longsuffering families then have to drag behind them everywhere they go.

Combat Stress is doing good work to reduce stigma, and I find a greater openness among serving personnel to discuss their wobbles. However, to use the mantra of Lieutenant General Sir Andrew Ridgway, the chairman of Cobseo, the confederation of service charities, what the sector needs is collaboration and cooperation, and those of us who serve these unique and very special people must try harder to reassure and encourage them to crack on — which is what they really want. anna baker cresswell Development director, HighGround, London SW1 on the other side, unknown to each other, was a German doing the same thing. The German lost his bearings and, coming round the stack, saw the Frenchman walking away with a huge bundle of straw.

He took him to be one of his pals and, shouldering his straw, followed him into the French trenches. They took him a very surprised prisoner, and we knew the story because just at dawn they sent him back with an escort of two men through our lines. The escort made him walk in front, and when they came to our lines they met a sentry on the road.

The sentry went for this German bald-headed with his bayonet, not seeing the escort, and the wretched man was only just rescued by his escort rushing up.

The Germans are very fond of telling a sniper to hide somewhere well in advance of their lines — in a tree or ruined farm -— who makes life miserable by shooting down our trenches. If they were not such impossibly rotten shots they would do some damage; as it is they merely put the wind up one. There

Stephen Lloyd, the MP for Eastbourne, who is chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on religious education. What he understands is the key role that good religious education plays in preparing young people in all our schools to live successfully in a world where faith and belief are, for better as well as for worse, at the top of the news on a daily basis. dr joyce miller Chairwoman, Religious Education Council, London N1 Sir, Is it not time for an urgent national debate about the place of religious studies in schools, whether state, faith or private? Janice Turner calls for the minimisation of the subject in the face of fears about partisan teaching and social unrest.

Whether such dangers are justified or not, there is no doubt in my experience that a model of religious studies that has philosophy (and not dogma) at its heart is a popular one, and as such can enable a truly open society to flourish. This is something which politicians of all persuasions might embrace, not least because students want to explore ideas, religious and atheist alike, and to be taken seriously as members of society. Any new plans for the subject and the curriculum should surely take this into account. esmond lee Head of Religious Studies, Trinity School, Croydon

Special measures Sir, Ofsted has placed Sir John Cass Foundation and Red Coat School in special measures, saying that it practises playground segregation (Nov 20). My sister and I attended the school in the early 1950s. Not only were boys and girls segregated in the playgrounds but we used to enter the school through different entrances, even though the classes were mixed.

The segregation was recognition that boys of all ages tend to be rather more boisterous at play than girls.

I doubt that anyone at the time thought that it was evidence of the school being substandard or in need of government interference. dr stephen j lockwood Glan Conwy, Colwyn Bay is about a quarter of a mile of the road leading to the trenches that some of these beggars can cover, and every time one goes along — we avoid it as much as possible, of course — these bullets come pockphit all the way, most nerveracking, but I have never heard of anyone being hit yet. It is awfully hard not to duck when you hear these things whining and phitting into the ground round one — I do every time — can’t help it.

I should think that immediately in front of us the German trenches were about 500 yards away, but am not quite sure as they give us no peace or respite from artillery the whole time, and our trenches are just over the crest of the hill — if we were on the other slope where the Germans could see us they would shell us to bits in five minutes — it’s bad enough as it is. sign up for a weekly email with extracts from the times history of the war ww1.thetimes.co.uk

Shepherd’s trick Sir, Atul Gawande’s article “How a checklist saved a little girl’s life” (Opinion, Nov 22) reminded me of an event in the late 1970s, when an infant fell into the garden pond of one of my neighbours. On hearing an anguished scream followed by pleas for help, I and an elderly neighbour dropped our gardening tools and struggled over the hedges and fence that separated us from the commotion.

The three-year-old girl was at the bottom of the pond; I jumped in, pulled her out and passed her lifeless body to my neighbour. He lay her down, got hold of her ankles, lifted her up and began, in a lunatic fashion, to swing her around his head. Horrified and paralysed, the child’s mother and I watched as, moments later, water poured from the child’s mouth and nose, and she gave a loud cry.

I asked my neighbour where he’d learnt to do such a thing. He said he’d been a shepherd for 30-odd years, and when lambs were born “dead” it was the standard way of making them breathe and of ridding their mouth of birth debris. But for the grace of this old shepherd, Aaron, that child would not be alive today. anita menzies Southport

Babble of Scrabble Sir, The Scrabble dictionary may have promoted domestic tranquillity (leader, Nov 24) but it has severely damaged the game. Instead of being one of skill and ingenuity, the game has now become one of memory: the winner is whoever can memorise enough obscure words from that wretched volume. At least half the words on the championship-winning board (Nov 24) would not figure in any reasonably well-educated person’s vocabulary. How many people have used, or even heard of, diorite, gapo, kon, kaw, talaq, umu, ventrous, or xenic? Not to mention all those highly dubious two-letter words such as al, de, et, si, or xu?

Could not the publishers of the Scrabble dictionary take a leaf out of the compilers of concise dictionaries, and produce a list of words in common usage? julian le grand Bristol

Sterile stations Sir, I am amazed that anyone still thinks that French motorway service stations are superior to their UK counterparts (Nov 24). The worst meal we have ever encountered was in a service station near Orleans.

Wanting something that would be relatively quick, we ordered two omelettes — and watched as the server opened the freezer, took out a bag, put it in the microwave and then emptied it onto a plate.

We have had a house in France for 20 years, and for several years now have found the quality of everyday eating establishments (especially pubs) in the UK to be considerably better than it is in France. gill walker Ilminster, Somerset

Doctor’s orders Sir, I paternally encourage my doctor to be on Christian name terms with me (“Chummy young doctors are bad for your health”, Nov 24) so as not to emphasise the social differences between us. john hatton Nailsworth, Glos

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Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

World

French far-right signs up to take Putin’s shilling France

Charles Bremner Paris David Charter Berlin

France’s far-right National Front has admitted receiving a big Russian loan amid growing evidence of a secret Kremlin campaign to buy influence in European politics.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the populist anti-EU party, confirmed after a media leak that it had borrowed €9 million (£7 million) in September from the Russian-owned First Czech-Russian Bank.

She said that French and other western banks had refused finance for the National Front, which is France’s most popular party, according to the opinion polls. “We signed with the First [bank] who agreed and we’re very happy about it,” she said. She insisted that it was “ridiculous to suggest that gaining a loan would determine our international position”.

“These insinuations are outrageous and offensive,” Ms Le Pen said. She added that her party had long held strong pro-Russian views.

Nevertheless, Wallerand de Saint Just, the National Front’s treasurer, hinted at embarrassment over the loan.

“I would prefer a French bank. It would be more comfortable,” he said. The party said that it needed the money to prepare for the coming elections, leading up to the presidential campaign of 2017 in which Ms Le Pen is to run.

Ms Le Pen’s words drew a sceptical reception from politicians and experts who have been tracking President Putin’s charm offensive with the National Front and other populist, antiEU parties of both hard right and left across the continent.

“You are always under obligation to your creditor,” said Bruno Le Maire, a former cabinet minister who is challenging Nicolas Sarkozy for the leadership of the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement. The First CzechRussian bank is owned by Roman Popov, a Russian who is close to power in Moscow and it is inconceivable that he had not received Kremlin approval to make the loan, diplomats said.

Reports have emerged of Kremlin support for Belgium’s Vlaams Belang, Greece’s neofascist Golden Dawn, Hungary’s Jobbik, Italy’s Northern League and the Freedom Party of Austria. All exceptt Golden Dawn were invited, along with the National Front, to observe Crimea’s vote to join Russia last March and all approved the annexation.

Jobbik, one of Europe’s most right-wing and proKremlin parties, has been under investigation in Hungary over allegations that it has received secret funding from Russia.

Germany’s antieuro Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ty was also reported yesterThe National Front admires President Putin as a patriot

President Putin’s world view resonates with Marine Le Pen’s National Front

Russia is losing billions from sanctions and oil price fall Ben Hoyle Moscow

R

ussia will lose up to $140 billion this year because of Western sanctions over Ukraine and the falling oil price, Anton Siluanov, the finance minister, said yesterday.

“We are losing about $40 billion (£25 billion) per year due to geopolitical sanctions and we are losing some $90 to $100 billion per year due to oil prices falling 30 per cent,” he told an economic forum in Moscow.

More than two thirds of Russian export income comes from energy, and soaring oil prices powered the rise in living standards that underpinned President Putin’s popularity in his first two terms in office between 2000 and 2008.

Now a steep fall in the value of oil at a moment of growing economic vulnerability for Russia could test the high approval ratings he has recorded this year in his third term, after annexing Crimea and unleashing a wave of patriotic euphoria.

The price of a barrel of crude oil has dropped from nearly $110 in the first half of this year to less than $80. Russia’s budget for next year, passed in parliament last Friday, assumes an oil price of $96.

Compounding the impact on the economy, sanctions imposed by the EU and US have blocked Russia’s access

to Western capital markets and key technologies while a heavily promoted move towards China has yielded headline-grabbing agreements but much of the investment has yet to materialise.

The rouble has lost 30 per cent of its value since the beginning of the year, stoking inflation.

Mr Putin said at the weekend that Russia could experience “catastrophic consequences” from these economic threats that would have a ripple effect on the rest of the world.

“The modern world is interdependent,” he said. “It’s far from guaranteed that sanctions, the steep fall in oil prices and the loss of value of the national currency will lead to negative results or catastrophic consequences only for us.” US and EU officials have said in the past week that sanctions against Russia could be increased if Moscow continues to provide military and political support to Russian separatists in east Ukraine.

Renewed military tensions between Nato allies and Moscow show no signs of diminishing. The commander of the US Army in Europe said yesterday that American troops would remain in Poland and the three Baltic states through to the end of next year and for “as long as necessary to assure all of our allies and to deter Russian aggression”. In Kiev, President Poroshenko declared that Lithuania, a Nato member state, had agreed to provide military aid to Ukraine. It was not clear whether it would be lethal or non-lethal aid.

day to be in the Kremlin’s sights. The Moscow-based Centre for Strategic Communications, a think-tank, set out in a report for the Kremlin how it could finance the German anti-euro party via gold sales as part of a campaign to influence key EU member states, according to German media.

In France, Jean-Yves Camus, an academic expert on the National Front, said that Moscow was exercising a kind of blackmail. “This is a case of Russia or Putin trying to send a message to governments in EU countries to say, ‘Be careful with your position towards Russia because if you don’t support us, we will support parties who are a threat to you,’” Mr Camus said.

The National Front’s strong support for Moscow goes back to the 1980s. It has intensified over the past 18 months, with Ms Le Pen being fêted on visits to Moscow and the Kremlin supporting National Front ventures, including a pro-Russian French television channel.

The contract worth several hundred thousand euros was recently halted ahead of next year’s launch of a Kremlin-run French-language television channel with a €20 million budget.

An investigation last month by Le Nouvel Observateur reported a close relationship between the Le Pen family and the Russian embassy in Paris. The alliance between the National Front and Russia “could change the face of the old continent”, the news weekly said. “For several months, the Kremlin has been betting on the National Front. It believes that it is capable of winning power in France and overturning the course of European history in favour of Moscow.”

The National Front, like its EU counterparts, admires Mr Putin as a strongman who stands up for his country. “He proposes a patriotic economic model, radically different from what the Americans are imposing on us,” Ms Le Pen said last month.

Mr Putin’s stand against homosexuality and in favour of religion and conservative moral values also goes down well with the National Front. Ms Le Pen wants a strategic alliance with Moscow and supports the idea of a “Pan-European union” that would include Russia.

Like much of the French political world, she is urging President Hollande to proceed with the delivery of two powerful warships to Russia after Mr Hollande suspended the handover pending developments in Ukraine.

Ms Le Pen’s fondness for Russia is partly shared by Nigel Farage and Ukip.

He recently named Mr Putin as the world leader he most admired “as an operator but not as a human being”.

The Russian report on Germany highlights gold trading, one of the AfD’s financing methods, as a way for the Kremlin to buy influence. It suggested that the Russian government could sell gold to the party at a loss or use the Germans as middlemen for gold trading and pay commission to fill party coffers.

The AfD has sold gold worth €2.1 million since October. The party won seven of Germany’s 96 seats in the last European elections and is allied with the British Conservatives in the European parliament.

Fatal attraction A theme park in Darwin,

Verona will Italy

Tom Kington Rome

With its graveyards packed to capacity, the Italian city of Verona is planning to build the country’s first high-rise cemetery, with space for 24,000 graves stacked over 33 storeys.

Council officials have given initial approval to plans submitted by Cielo Infinito — Infinite Sky — to build a futuristic tower topped by a chapel on the outskirts of the city where Shakespeare set Romeo and Juliet.

For a tomb with a view, customers can have their ashes stored, be buried in a coffin, or pick one of more than 2,000 group chapels where family members can be interred together.

A city spokesman said the idea had

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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Swiss museum agrees to take Nazis’ looted art Page 25

CATERS NEWS

The country where cannibalism, torture and rape are rife Page 27

US defence chief quits in rift with Obama over Syria United States

David Taylor US Editor

President Obama’s defence secretary resigned yesterday amid bitter claims from inside the White House that he “wasn’t up to the job” as the US tries to destroy Islamic State.

Chuck Hagel, a Republican Vietnam veteran brought in to preside over budget cuts and the winding down of the war in Afghanistan, instead found himself running the Pentagon at a time of several foreign-policy crises.

The battle against Isis was at the heart of disagreements between Mr Hagel and Mr Obama, with the defence secretary admitting in an interview that the offensive was “benefiting” President Assad, the Syrian dictator.

He also sent Susan Rice, the national security adviser, a memo last month in which he apparently wrote that the US needs “to have a sharper view of what to do about the Assad regime”.

Although he regarded Mr Hagel as a friend, the president and his national security team had lost confidence in him over the rifts.

The fallout opens up a problem for Mr Obama, with a race to appoint a new defence secretary before the Republicans take charge of the Senate in January, when they may seek to block the president’s choice.

Sources said that a successor would be named “in short order”, indicating that the president would try to push through an appointment during the “lame-duck” session. Republicans have said that they could block any appointments in retaliation for Mr Obama’s solo immigration reforms, although it would be risky politics to block such a vital position at a time of war.

Mr Hagel, 68, has been described as

having been quiet in cabinet meetings and there have been reports of clashes over the strategy in Iraq and Syria.

John McCain, the Republican senator who ran for the presidency in 2008 and who is a friend of Mr Hagel, said that the defence secretary visited him last week.

He said: “I know that Chuck was frustrated with aspects of the administration’s national security policy and decision-making process.

“His predecessors have spoken about the excessive micro-management they faced from the White House and how that made it more difficult to do their jobs successfully. Chuck’s situation was no different.”

In a separate dispute over strategy, Pentagon chiefs have said they were considering recommending that US troops would need to join Iraqi forces if there were a battle to take back the city of Mosul. Mr Obama, however, is reluctant to put boots on the ground.

Mr Obama and Mr Hagel have been in talks for several weeks about his role — and after the news broke yesterday, it was confirmed that Mr Hagel had sent a letter of resignation yesterday, which was accepted by the president.

It was “a mutual decision”, a senior defence official said, but NBC reported that a senior administration official said Mr Hagel “wasn’t up to the job”.

Speaking at the White House yesterday, Mr Obama praised Mr Hagel, who, he said, still carried the scars and shrapnel from wounds suffered in Vietnam.

He called him a great friend and “a steady hand” since his appointment in February last year as the first enlisted combat veteran to become defence secretary. Mr Hagel fought back tears, describing his time at the Pentagon as “the greatest privilege of my life”.

Iraqi Sunnis threaten to abandon fight against Isis Australia, offers visitors a face-to-face encounter with Chopper, a 16ft crocodile weighing 58st (368kg), in the “Cage of Death”

build new graves halfway to heaven won support because Verona’s main cemetery had been completely built around, and could no longer expand.

No final decision has been made, with a vote by all council members yet to be taken, he said.

Although it will be Verona’s tallest building, the spokesman said that it would be beyond the ring road and would not ruin the city’s skyline.

Opposition members on the council have called the idea absurd and complained that dead people should not be taken care of by a private company.

The spokesman said that a cash offer from Cielo Infinito for the land had helped to win officials round, as the council suffers funding cuts.

“We tried to sell the land involved for €750,000 (£590,000) and had no takers,

The plan has space for 24,000 graves

then this company came forward with an offer of €11.5 million,” he said.

“Those higher up the building will be closer to God, although I hope they

don’t get vertigo,” joked one council official who declined to be named.

The need for cemetery space has increased, but as cities grow, the available space has dropped.

The world’s tallest high-rise cemetery so far is the 32-storey Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica in Santos, Brazil, while a six-storey Buddhist temple in Tokyo allows visitors to use a swipe card to summon the remains of their relatives, delivered from the vaults on a conveyer belt.

In Israel, the Yarkon Cemetery on the edge of Tel Aviv, which is threatened by the rising waters of the Yarkon river, is planning to build 30 vertical extensions that will host 250,000 graves in addition to the 110,000 now dug at ground level and spread across 150 acres.

Iraq

Catherine Philp Beirut Tom Coghlan, David Taylor

Efforts to build a coalition of Sunni tribesmen to take on Isis looked to be in jeopardy yesterday after a court sentenced to death a politician from a key Sunni tribe fighting the extremist group.

Leaders from the Albu Alwan tribe, who are combating Isis in Iraq’s Anbar province, warned that their fighters would desert if Ahmed al-Alwani were executed.

The Albu Alwan is one of the few powerful Sunni tribes that the Baghdad government and its allies in Washington have co-opted in the fight against Isis in Anbar. They are deeply engaged in defending Ramadi, where Isis launched an assault on Friday.

Al-Alwani was convicted of killing two soldiers during an attempt to arrest him on unspecified terrorism charges last December. Local opposition to perceived oppression of Sunnis by the Shia-dominated Baghdad government

helped to set the conditions for the Isis takeover in Anbar.

Setbacks in Anbar contrast with recent military successes for Iraqi forces further north in Diyala province.

Iraqi forces backed by Shia militias and Kurdish peshmerga fighters yesterday seized Saadiya and Jalula, towns with mixed Sunni and Shia populations.

Officials accompanying Joe Biden, the US vice-president, to Turkey said that the momentum had also shifted against the Isis forces laying siege to Kobani in northern Syria in what has become a highly symbolic struggle. “[Isis] have lost hundreds and hundreds of fighters in Kobani because of the airstrikes. And they just keep coming from other parts of Syria,” said the official, adding that Isis forces were trying to adapt after airstrikes hit convoys.

“The objective is to degrade and eventually defeat . . . at the moment I think we’re doing a heck of a lot of degrading,” he added.

Iraqi government troops backed by Shia militias and Kurdish forces have retaken Baiji and a nearby oil refinery.

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World

Israel backtracks over Jewish law Israel

Catherine Philp Middle East Correspondent

Israel’s ruling coalition last night postponed a parliamentary vote on a law that critics said would make Arabs second-class citizens after centrists promised to vote against it and bring down the government.

Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, was to vote on the so-called nation state law tomorrow after it was approved by a majority of the cabinet on Sunday, despite a rebellion by several ministers.

Tzipi Livni, the justice minister, and Yair Lapid, the minister of finance, led the revolt against a law that would define Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. It would reserve national rights such as the right to immigrate for Jews alone, enshrine Jewish law as a source of inspiration for legislation, and demote Arabic as an official language.

Critics say the proposed law would undermine Israeli democracy and enshrine in law discrimination against the Arab minority, further inflaming Israeli-Palestinian tensions.

Others claimed the decision by Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, to endorse the bill in its harshest form, was cynical politicking aimed at shoring up right-wing support and potentially dissolving his coalition government, ridding himself of centrists who he hopes to replace with other rightwingers.

They said that the prime minister

knew all along that the bill, at least in its current form, would never pass the Knesset and would need to be significantly watered down. Mr Netanyahu had reportedly threatened to sack any ministers who refused to back the bill, a move that could force an early election.

Yesterday Ms Livni, a former foreign minister, dared him to do just that, insisting that she would vote against it and bring down the government. “The prime minister will have to decide whether he wants to fire ministers from his government and break up his coalition because those ministers decided that Israel should be both Jewish and democratic,” she said in an interview with Ynet, an Israeli website. “If he wants to go to elections over that issue, I have no trouble with that at all.”

The delay was agreed after emergency meetings between the factions that make up the ruling coalition. Mr Netanyahu said that he was determined to have the bill passed, with or without his coalition partners’ agreement.

Debate over the law comes amid soaring tensions between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs, who make up about 20 per cent of the population of eight million. The tensions have increased over Palestinian claims that Mr Netanyahu’s government wants to change the status quo at a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem, known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and Jews as Temple Mount, by allowing Jews to pray there.

Leading article, page 20

REN-TV

Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

Nuclear talks with Iran fail to reach deal Iran

Hugh Tomlinson

Forces’ favourite The former spy Anna Chapman has been filmed on manoeuvres with Russian troops to boost morale and lead the propaganda war over Ukraine

For a second time this year Iran and six world powers failed yesterday to clinch a historic deal to curb Tehran’s nuclear programme, instead agreeing a sevenmonth extension to resolve the crisis.

A week of negotiations in Vienna failed to yield a breakthrough. Disagreements remain between the two sides on a deal that would put nuclear weapons beyond Iran’s reach.

Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, said: “It is not possible to get to an agreement by the deadline that was set for today and therefore we will extend to June 30, 2015.”

Iran has rejected demands that it halve its active centrifuges for enriching uranium, while the west dismissed Tehran’s call for sanctions to be lifted in full once a deal is struck.

President Rouhani put a positive gloss on the delay, saying that “steps forward” had been made during the talks. Nevertheless, hardliners in Tehran and Washington will seize on this failure as proof that the other side is not negotiating in good faith.

Progress over the last 12 months between Tehran and the west cannot yet outweigh years of brinkmanship and mistrust. Iran needs a deal that can be presented as a victory, while President Obama must fend off Republicans determined to scrap any agreement.

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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World

Husband faces music over concert hall sale France

Adam Sage Paris

Parisian high society has witnessed many spectacular marital breakdowns over the years, but none giving rise to a Brahms concert beside the Seine.

Carla Maria Tarditi, a conductor, changed that yesterday when she assembled a 50-piece orchestra for an open-air concert that was both a shot across her husband’s bows and a threat to the cultural ambitions of Paris.

Other couples may fight over the children or the house, but Mrs Tarditi and Hubert Martigny, the wealthy businessman she is divorcing, are

fighting over the city’s most celebrated concert hall.

Having bought the Salle Pleyel in 1999 and placed his wife at its head, he sold it to the state for €60 million (£48 million) a decade later as part of a government plan to renew the capital’s classical music scene. The decision left Mrs Tarditi without an orchestra to conduct, and precipitated the end of their marriage.

She has now started legal, not to mention musical, proceedings in an attempt to overturn the sale, to the alarm of government officials who fear that their plans will now come undone.

Mrs Tarditi disputes the price, saying

that the Salle Pleyel is worth €110 million and is horrified at the contract, which stipulates that the art deco hall should now organise “pop, rock, jazz, music-hall and stand-up comic shows”, but not classical concerts.

The clause was inserted by state officials after a move to build a new philharmonic hall in eastern Paris for €386.5 million. They have no wish to see the grandiose, state-funded Philharmonie de Paris, which is due to open in January, facing competition from the concert hall built in 1927.

Indeed, President Hollande’s government appears more interested in the Salle Pleyel for its money than

its music. It plans to lease the hall, along with 2,100 square metres of offices and a penthouse in the same building, to a private operator for about €5 million a year, according to Le Figaro.

The income will be used to pay part of the annual €31.5 million running costs of the new philharmonic hall. Yet the government’s project has fallen foul of Mrs Tarditi, who won a ruling last month blocking all transactions in connection with the Salle Pleyel.

Yesterday, as the Paris appeal court heard a request from Philharmonie de Paris to overturn the ruling, Mrs Tarditi put up a white tent in the square STEPHEN SHAVER / UPI PHOTO / EYEVINE

opposite for an orchestra made up of musicians backing her cause. They played Brahms’ First Symphony to an audience of passers-by, which included well-heeled Parisians but also a removal man dozing in his lorry.

“We have decided to use the language of music to express our despair at the end of classical musical at the Salle Pleyel,” she said.

Mrs Tarditi says that she is driven by cultural aspirations rather than a desire for personal vengeance against her estranged husband. “The divorce has nothing to do with it,” she said.

“What interests me is music and musicians.”

Stuntmen in bid to conquer Knievel canyon United States

Will Pavia New York

Hot property Flowers, chillis and pumpkin seeds dry on the roofs of homes in the pretty Chinese village of Huangling, whose traditional way of life draws in tourists

When Evel Knievel tried to jump Snake River Canyon in a rocket on wheels he called “Evel Spirit” he fell headfirst into the abyss, hitting the cliff walls on the way down. He barely survived and never attempted the stunt again.

Yet the dream of strapping oneself to a rocket and vaulting Idaho’s vast canyon remains. Two rival stuntmen now hope to attempt the jump, in tribute to the greatest American stuntman who ever risked his life for TV ratings.

“What he did was crazy,” said “Big” Ed Beckley, 64, who has spent much of his life jumping lines of parked cars astride a motorcycle. Beckley plans to make the jump in a motorbike with bodywork to protect him while he travels at 400mph with a rocket tail providing thrust.

Jumping some 720 metres (2,370ft) over a drop of 150 metres, he will deploy parachutes to reduce his airspeed, cutting loose just before reaching the other side and landing on his motorcycle.

His rival is Eddie Braun, 53, a Hollywood stuntman. Braun was inspired to make a career of living dangerously after meeting Knievel as a child. “He gave me his autograph,” he said. “It’s going to be fixed in the cockpit of my rocket.”

He has hired the son of the man who built Knievel’s rocket to design another “Evel Spirit” and paid Knievel’s son, Kelly, to use the name. “There is only one Evel Knievel,” said Braun. “I’m not trying to best him. I’m simply doing what he dreamed could be done.”

Swiss museum accepts art looted by Nazis Baby found alive in drain was Germany

David Charter Berlin

A Swiss museum yesterday agreed to accept a controversial bequest of art collected by one of Adolf Hitler’s dealers, but said that more than half would remain in Germany while experts checked the true ownership.

Bern Art Museum was left 1,280 paintings, prints and drawings in the will of Cornelius Gurlitt, a reclusive hoarder from Munich who died in May, two years after the discovery of his secret collection. He inherited the works, including paintings and drawings by Chagall, Matisse and Picasso, from his father, Hildebrand, who was ordered to dispose of so-called degenerate art seized by the Nazis and use the proceeds to acquire classical works for Hitler. The collection is said to be worth more than €1 billion (£790 million).

Matthias Frehner, director of the museum, said that it would initially accept between 400 and 500 of the works to avoid any risk of acquiring art that may have been looted from its rightful owners under Nazi rule from 1933-45. The pieces would go on show next year and be integrated into the museum’s existing collection, he added.

A taskforce set up by the German government and the state of Bavaria will continue to investigate the works where there is no clear evidence of legal acquisition before 1933 or after 1945. So far, agreement has been reached to return three pieces: Seated Woman, by Henri Matisse, will be returned to the heirs of the French collector Paul Rosenberg; Max Liebermann’s Two Riders on the Beach will go to the descendants of the art dealer David Friedman; and a sketch

by Carl Spitzweg called A Couple Making Music will go to Martha Hinrichsen,

granddaughter of the Jewish collector Henri Hinrichsen, who died in 1942 in Auschwitz.

The World Jewish Congress had warned the Swiss museum that it risked an “avalanche” of lawsuits if it accepted all the works.

Christoph Schaeublin, president of the museum’s trustees, said that any of the art which had doubt hanging over its provenance would “not even touch Swiss territory”. Lostart.de. a website for tracing owners of art looted by the Nazis, lists 465 works from the collection as possibly acquired under duress.

“This was not an easy decision for us and there were no shouts of joy,” Mr Schaeublin said.

The collection remained hidden for decades until tax inspectors stumbled upon it in a raid on Mr Gurlitt’s flat in 2012 after he was caught with a large amount of cash on a train from Zurich.

dumped there six days earlier

Australia

Bernard Lagan Sydney

A newborn boy who was found down an 8ft Sydney drain after his cries were heard by passing cyclists had been dumped there six days earlier by his mother, police said yesterday.

The child’s 30-year-old mother, who is from Samoa, was traced through hospital records, and has been charged with attempted murder.

Doctors said that the baby would have died in the heatwave that hit Sydney on Sunday if he had not been found.

Police said the boy was born last Monday after a 30-hour labour and that his mother forced him, wrapped in a blanket and plastic sheeting, through a gap in the drain’s 440lb concrete cover the next day. Dirt at the bottom of the

drain appeared to have cushioned the fall. The boy’s cries were heard coming from the drain, a few metres from a busy motorway, early on Sunday morning by a father and daughter out cycling.

A police file handed to the court said the mother, who cannot be named, had “made full admissions to putting the baby down a drain knowing it may kill the baby”. A magistrate ordered that the woman have a medical assessment before the next hearing on Friday.

The boy was in a stable condition at Sydney Children’s Hospital.

Andrew McDonald, a paediatrician and MP, said that the hot weather and coolness of the drain may have helped the infant to survive. He said that newborns carried a lot of fluid. “What was surprising was that the baby had a vigorous cry after five days,” he added.

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Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

World

Soldier who accused Kagame of triggering genocide is abducted Rwanda

Jerome Starkey Nairobi

A former Rwandan soldier has been abducted in Nairobi hours after he was called to testify at an international inquiry into the country’s genocide.

Emmanuel Mughisa claimed that he had evidence that President Kagame of Rwanda, then a rebel commander, had

ordered his troops to shoot down the country’s presidential plane in 1994, killing President Habyarimana of Rwanda and President Ntaryamira of Burundi and unleashing three months of violence in which almost a million people died.

Mr Kagame’s government, which receives £90 million a

year in British aid, has consistently denied the allegations. The official history of Rwanda blames hardline Hutus, angry at Mr Habyarimana for ceding power to the Tutsi rebels, for firing the missiles that brought down the plane.

Although no one has claimed responsibility for Mr Mughisa’s disappearance, he joins a long list of Mr Kagame’s opponents who have disappeared or died.

Mr Mughisa, who was also known as Emile Gafarita, was last seen outside his home in a suburb of Nairobi shortly before midnight on November 13. His neighbours said President Kagame, accused of attack

that they heard a scuffle and saw two men handcuff him and bundle him into a vehicle. “The police said they didn’t arrest him, and this means the conclusion is he was forcibly removed,” said François Cantier, Mr Mughisa’s lawyer.

Mr Cantier, who founded Lawyers Without Borders and worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda after the genocide, said that he knew of two witnesses who had disappeared and “other witnesses who had to flee the country because of security”.

A few hours before Mr Mughisa disappeared, Mr Cantier sent him a summons from the judges Marc Trévidic and Nathalie Poux, calling him to testify on December 8. Although both men knew the risks of testifying at the French tribunal, Mr Cantier said that his client was determined to be heard.

France has hosted a number of inquiries because the plane’s three crew were French. An inquiry in 2006 by Jean-Louis Bruguière, a French magistrate, accused Mr Kagame and his close associates of plotting the attack. In 2010 Jean Mutsinzi, a Rwandan judge, found that Hutu extremists were to blame.

Joel Mutabazi, a former bodyguard, told The Times in 2012 that Mr Kagame was involved. He was later abducted from a United Nations safe house in Uganda, smuggled to Rwanda and sentenced to life in prison.

In 2011, Scotland Yard warned two Rwandans living in England that the Rwandan government posed an “imminent threat” to their lives. Rwanda’s former head of intelligence was found strangled in Johannesburg on January 1, after he fell out with Mr Kagame. In August a South African court convicted four men of trying to kill the exiled army chief Kayumba Nyamwasa.

A lawyer for the Habyarimana family said it was incomprehensible that Mr Mughisa’s disappearance was a coincidence. He accused the French government of failing to protect him, because they feared his testimony would jeopardise their relations with Rwanda.

Mr Kagame’s spokeswoman declined to comment.

57 killed in Afghan volleyball game bomb

Kenya kills 100 to avenge bus massacre

China defends dredging

Kenya

Jerome Starkey Nairobi

Kenya’s armed forces claim to have killed more than 100 people in Somalia in retaliation for an al-Shabaab attack on Saturday, which killed 28 people travelling on a bus.

William Ruto, the deputy president who is on trial for crimes against humanity, said the military carried out two punitive raids.

“Our message to them is clear,” Mr Ruto said. “You may sneak and attack innocent civilians, but for any attack on Kenya and its people, we shall pursue you wherever you go.”

Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the Saturday’s attack, in which gunmen stopped a bus in northwest Kenya and killed 19 men and nine women who could not recite the Muslim declaration of faith. Survivors said that the victims were made to lie on their stomachs as two gunmen moved along the line shooting them.

Human-rights groups said revenge attacks risked innocent lives and driving people into the arms of the terrorists.

Ben Rawlence, a human-rights fellow at the Open Society Foundation, said Kenya’s retaliation served no purpose.

“The security sector is a corrupt mess,” he said. “Every time something happens in Kenya they bomb a village in Somalia . . . but whether Kenya has any ability to differentiate who is al-Shabaab and who is civilian is not clear.”

Kabul The death toll from a

suicide bomb at a volleyball game in Afghanistan has risen to 57, making it the deadliest single attack in the country since 2011.

The blast on Sunday ripped through during the final moments of the match. Ball bearings had been packed into the bomb.

Hundreds of young men and boys attended the tournament, which featured three local teams in the volatile province of Paktika. President Ghani, who visited the injured in hospital, condemned the attack as “inhumane and un-Islamic”.

Yesterday, two Nato soldiers were killed in the east of Afghanistan.

No details were available. (AFP)

Cyanide sent to Czechs Prague Two envelopes posted to Czech ministers in the past week contained a cyanide-based poison, the authorities said. Tests on an envelope sent to Andrej Babis, the finance minister, detected a deadly dose of the poison. Milan Chovanec, the interior minister, received a similar letter last week. He said the attacks could be a response to a crackdown on drugs, or Prague’s military assistance to Kurds. (AP)

Web editor jailed Bangkok The editor of a Thai

website has been jailed for four and a half years for posting an article by a British academic in 2009 that was ruled to have insulted the monarchy. The sentence imposed by a military court on Nut Rungwong for publishing Giles Ji Ungpakorn’s piece on Thai E-News comes amid restrictions on criticism of the royal family since the army seized power in May. (AP)

Beijing China said that a vast

reclamation project on a disputed island in the South China Sea is to help it to perform public service duties such as search-and-rescue missions. Dredging had created a land mass almost the length of Fiery Cross Reef, big enough to host a military runway, but China denied any such plans. The Spratly Islands are claimed by Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei. (AFP)

Moroccan floods kill 32 Rabat Floods have killed 32 people

in Morocco after heavy rain pounded the country for days.

Twenty-four people died near the city of Guelmim when a flash flood swept down a dry riverbed, sweeping cars away. The army and national police rescued 214 people, including 40 by helicopter, the interior ministry said. Two French nationals were among those rescued. Roads around Marrakesh have also been cut off. (AP)

Turkish biology lesson Ankara President Erdogan of Turkey has declared that women are not equal to men in work and accused feminists of not understanding the special status that Islam attributes to mothers.

“You cannot put women and men on an equal footing,” he said. “It is against nature. Their constitution is different.” Earlier this month he declared that Muslims discovered the Americas before Christopher Columbus. (AP)

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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World

Machetes rule in war of greed and neglect SIA KAMBOU / AFP / GETTY IMAGES; JEROME STARKEY

Mob justice, cannibalism, torture and rape are rife in Central African Republic, writes Jerome Starkey

The waiting room was full of thieves. One had a bandage on his back that marked the spot beneath his shoulder blades where he had been stabbed when he was caught. His jeans were stained with blood.

The two men next him had been stabbed through their wrists; one left, one right.

Their wounds appeared identical. Both men had been held down, the doctors said, and their arms were forcibly outstretched so they could be maimed.

Violence in the Central African Republic has forced a million people from their homes and left thousands dead, but the men in Bangui’s hospital were not victims of the war but of the slide towards a state of anarchy that leaves justice to the mob.

The former French colony has had three leaders since a coup in March last year, in which Muslim rebels from the north forced President Bozizé into exile. The state’s writ, already fragile, has been collapsing ever since.

“Violence is now a normal way of regulating social problems,” said Delphine Cherdorge, the head of Médecins Sans Frontières in the landlocked country. “You can’t go to the police because they have no power.”

The excesses of the mostly Muslim rebels, known as Seleka, prompted violent reprisals from their majority Christian and animist rivals, known as Anti-balaka, meaning anti-machete, gangs.

Analysts said that this was never a religious war but was fuelled by greed, neglect and competition for resources in one of Africa’s poorest nations. Yet the downward spiral of violence — which has included cannibalism, rape and torture — and the ease with which people are labelled either Muslim or non-Muslim has split the country along religious lines.

“It’s a catastrophic situation because it is difficult to know what is possible to reverse the cycle,” Ms Cherdorge added.

Kazmir Djaporo, a village chief sitting in the outpatients’ ward, bore the scars from when he was abducted for ransom and his arms were trussed behind his back with twine. One boy had gashes on his forearms from where he was tied to a chair for three weeks, Julie Wenzel, the nursing supervisor, said.

“It’s not a war in the true sense,” said Ahmadou Tidjani, the imam at Bangui’s central mosque. “It’s an excuse to use violence against Muslims.”

The country’s Christians feel similarly persecuted. Bangui’s once bustling Muslim quarter, known as Kilometre 5, is now an eerie, half-abandoned enclave where

Guenefio Romaric blames himself for his savage beating

Machetes are the weapon of choice for Muslim rebels. The Christian and animist gangs who oppose them are called the “anti-machetes”

Killer policeman joins hunt for bodies South Africa

Ruth Maclean Johannesburg

The head of a death squad during the apartheid era in South Africa has been helping the prosecutions service to look for the bodies of people who went missing during the regime.

Eugene de Kock, known as “Prime Evil”, was originally sentenced to 212 years in jail. He has served 18 years but is being considered for parole.

When he applied for release in July, the prisons minister said that his victims’ families should be consulted, and in the meantime directed him to help to search for bodies.

“We can confirm that for the past six months de Kock has been assisting the NPA [National Prosecutions

Christians fear to tread. The imam said the only solution was to bring the warlords to justice. “All of these people, Muslims, Christians and foreigners, all of the people who pushed us towards war, we must bring them to justice,” the imam said.

Where that could happen is not immediately clear. In the city’s only working court, Narcisse Foukpio, the deputy state prosecutor, struggled through the day’s five cases. “We have one desktop computer for seven prosecutors,” he said. “It’s just not possible to do more.” Two detectives arrived to brief him on an investigation: the theft of three six-packs of bottled water.

It was a similarly trivial crime, by the standards of the CAR, that put Guenefio Romaric in hospital. He was beaten half to death for try-

Authority] missing persons task team to locate the remains of people who went missing,” a spokesman for the prosecution service said.

For ten years de Kock led the police’s “counter-insurgency” unit, which targeted anti-apartheid activists, including members of the African National Congress.

De Kock was given two life sentences in 1996 for six murders, and 212 years for other crimes, including torture and fraud, by a judge who said that he was a chilling and revolting agent for apartheid. He was never expected to be released.

However, he was given amnesty for all his politically motivated crimes after testifying to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which de-

cided that two murders did not fall under that category.

Candice Mama, the daughter of one of de Kock’s victims, has said that she thought that he should be released.

“Growing up I had a face and context for my father’s murder. Eugene was in prison and served his time. My family already forgave him before the meeting,” she said, adding that he seemed honestly remorseful to her.

“His apology came from his soul.”

Ms Mama said that, like many South Africans, he was brainwashed from a young age to believe that what he did was right. “It was a relief to see he is not evil,” she said.

A decision on his parole will be made by the end of January.

ing to steal a tarpaulin worth £15 from his neighbours. “I had no money, I was hungry,” he said.

Both his feet and shins were still bandaged from where he was kicked, dragged and beaten with planks by three men.

Scabs and stitches scarred his face and head, and his arm was broken in two places from when he tried to protect his head.

“I don’t blame them,” Mr Romaric said.

“I was the one who brought this on myself.”

During the attack, his arms were bound behind his back and a fourth man arrived with a knife, he said, but the father of the household intervened. “Otherwise I don’t know what would have happened,” he said. Many are less fortunate.

After two weeks unable to walk and a third on crutches, Mr Romaric, 29, vowed to abandon petty crime, but he scoffed at the thought of calling the police if he were ever robbed. “I would beat him,” he said. “I would beat him hard, to show everyone how much I hate stealing.”

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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Strike three for Petrofac

Germany back A Cup more in good books than full

Pages 34-35

Page 36

Shares dive after profit warning

Rising confidence boosts eurozone

Business

Sir Ben Ainslie’s new challenge

Working life, page 37

Time Lord goes back to future business commentary Alistair Osborne

N

ow we know why BT got Dr Who to advertise Cellnet in 1985. Nothing like a bit of time travel.

How did Tom Baker put things back then? “The power behind the button.” Too right. Just lifting a mobile that size needed phenomenal power. Surprising the doc didn’t mistake it for his Tardis.

Anyway, flash forward to today and guess what? BT’s only got a Time Lord running the show: one Gavin Patterson. His latest idea is to go back to 2001, when BT owned a mobile phone company — before it demerged the daftly named mmO2, the business that housed Cellnet.

Free of BT’s civil service style, O2 swiftly looked a lot more sensible, making the inspired decision to sponsor Arsenal’s “Invincibles”, before getting taken out by Spain’s Telefónica in 2005 for £18 billion.

Things have changed a bit since then and it’s not hard to spot why either O2 or EE, the other mobile operator BT is flirting with, might be just the thing for Mr Patterson.

Telecoms and TV are converging, as the BT boss knows better than most, being the brains behind the group’s acquisition of Premier League and Champions League football rights — the bedrock of its consumer broadband business. Adding mobiles would bring quadplay; four services on a single bill, enhancing BT’s fixed-line, broadband and TV offer.

Yet does BT need to own a mobile business? Buying the now slimmed-down O2 would cost about £10 billion, including debts, while EE would be something similar. Mr Patterson has already lined up a cheaper option, too, signing a white-label deal in March that would allow BT to offer a mobile service across EE’s network — just as EE uses BT for its broadband service.

Still, one reason BT shares leapt almost 4 per cent was the line that it had “received expressions of interest” from Telefónica and EE’s owners Orange and Deutsche Telekom — so Mr Patterson can name his price. There was even talk that BT, worth £31 billion, could hand Telefónica a 20 per cent stake in return for O2, though you’d think the Spanish group would prefer cash to fund its Latin American plans.

Whatever, Mr Patterson’s travel back in time would be on his own terms. If only Arsenal could find a similar Tardis.

Friends united

W

ho would have thought it?

Ten years after its last episode, Friends is back.

Only this time the sitcom stars a Kiwi from Aviva (story, page 40). Did you catch the first episode: the one where Mark Wilson junks the strategy, doubles down on the UK and goes in for a nice bit of financial engineering?

Well, that’s how some of the

reviewers have written up the Aviva chief’s £5.6 billion all-share tilt at Friends Life, not least Shore Capital, which asked if it was a “rights issue in disguise”. You can see the point.

Mr Wilson had given the City the impression that when Aviva was finally in shape to do deals, he would look at faster-growing markets outside Britain. Instead, he’s taking a £5.6 billion bet on Friends at an indicative 399p — worth closer to £5.3 billion yesterday after Aviva’s shares fell more than 5 per cent. So he’d be bulking up in Britain just when nobody really knows how George Osborne’s annuity reforms will play out, and paying a £700 million-plus premium to do so.

Valuing the putative deal is tricky, too, because Aviva is yet to disclose a key figure: likely synergies. Nomura suggests Mr Wilson will have to find a “bare minimum” of £250 million by 2016 before he can think about paying the enhanced dividends he sees, while UBS reckons he’ll need £300 million before there’s no dilution to earnings per share.

Yet Aviva can see other attractions.

Friends is debt-free, so immediately improves its balance sheet. Friends also has its £68 billion Heritage book of closed life assurance funds, throwing off about £2 billion cash a year — and whose customers form a market for Aviva Investors’ products.

Indeed, any deal would give Mr Wilson a quicker path to the cashgenerating insurer he craves, while defensively deterring predators. Just don’t expect so many laughs from the latest series of Friends.

Risky business

N

ot many people know what it’s like to lose £200 million in a day. So spare a thought for Ayman Asfari, the Petrofac chief executive. He owns 18 per cent of the oil services group that lost more than a quarter of its value yesterday (story, pages 42-43). And he has only himself to blame.

True, the oil price hasn’t helped, taking $45 million off forecast profits for 2015. But that was only part of the reason analysts cut estimates by up to $200 million to leave them at $500 million. The real culprit was Petrofac’s breakneck expansion into riskier projects, away from its focus on work in the Middle East and Asia for national oil companies.

Projects in the North Sea, Romania and Mexico were behind the second profits shocker since May. But little illustrates Mr Asfari’s overconfidence than the fixed price contract for Total’s Laggan-Tormore project in Shetland, where expected profits of $45 million in 2015 have been cut to zero thanks to union disputes and bad weather. At least Mr Asfari has a clear incentive to sort things out — before he’s forced to cut the dividend.

alistair.osborne@thetimes.co.uk

Lego builds case for big cut to VAT

I

t is a favoured destination for family days out and a big local employer in the royal area of Windsor, but Legoland

could employ more and boost regional economies further if the government cut VAT on tourism, according to its owners at Merlin Entertainments (Miles Costello reports).

The newly listed theme parks operator is at the heart of the Cut Tourism VAT campaign, which is calling for the tax to be

slashed from 20 per cent to 5 per cent. A cut like that, according to the group, would help to create more than 100,000 jobs and would boost local economies outside of London by £3 billion a year.

The campaign, which has cross-party backing from almost 100 MPs,

wants George Osborne to use his autumn statement at the beginning of next month to announce the cut, which it reckons could boost Treasury coffers by £4 billion over the next decade through a higher tax take in other areas, such as on income and through national insurance.

Two routes open for BT’s return to mobile Nic Fildes Technology & Communications Editor

The shifting sands of the British telecoms sector have blown in the direction of BT after it revealed that it has opened talks to buy back O2, the mobile phone unit that it sold 13 years ago.

The Times understands that BT also has been asked to consider buying EE, Britain’s biggest mobile phone network.

The approach, by one of EE’s two shareholders, could lead to a deal that would bring BT a further 27 million mobile customers.

The two interests have lifted the group to the role of kingmaker in the British mobile market. BT is set to launch its own mobile services over the EE network next year, but it admitted that it would consider options to “accelerate” its ambitions.

O2, which has 24 million customers, is the most profitable company in the British mobile market and would cost £10 billion, according to analysts.

Kantar estimates that seven million people in Britain pay bills to both BT and O2, providing a large overlap that BT could use to cross-sell services.

Telefónica, the Spanish telecoms company, bought O2 in 2005 for £17.7 billion and says that it is the jewel in its European crown.

EE could cost more than £12 billion thanks to its larger customer base and its portfolio of airwaves used to carry wireless signals. It is jointly owned by Orange, of France, and Deutsche Tele-

kom, who pulled a float of the business this year but are understood to be keen to consider their options.

BT and EE already have strong links.

EE supplies mobile capacity for BT staff, the largest non-government mobile phone contract in Britain, and will support its launch into mobile next year. BT supplies EE with broadband capacity for its internet service.

A deal would be the biggest carried out by BT, although it has been stepping

up its investment under Gavin Patterson, its chief executive, including a near-£2 billion spending on broadcast rights to support its pay-TV ambitions.

BT demerged the then-struggling mobile division BT Cellnet — now O2 — in 2001 to cut its debt burden and refocus its sprawling business. BT then invested heavily in its broadband network, now the basis for its recovery, but it was left as one of Europe’s only sizeable telecoms companies without both fixed and mobile infrastructure.

BT said yesterday that it had received “expressions of interest from shareholders in two UK mobile network operators” and named O2 as one of the targets. El Confidencial, a Spanish newspaper, reported that Telefónica had kicked off talks with BT over the sale of O2 in return for a 20 per cent stake in Telefónica.

Jerry Dellis, an analyst with Jefferies, said: “All else equal, we think O2 would the preferable deal. EE is in the midst of a complex integration of networks, brands and back office systems.”

Shares in BT rose 10¾p to 390¾p.

Telefónica shares were unmoved.

Right time to make the call, page 31

30

Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

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Business

Need to know Your 5-minute digest

economics Germany: Business confidence in Europe’s biggest economy has rebounded unexpectedly this month, avoiding a seventh consecutive monthly fall and suggesting that the country is on the road to recovery. The business climate index rose to 104.7 points, up from 103.2 in October, beating economists’ expectations of a dip to 103.

However, experts said it was unlikely to be enough for Germany to lead the eurozone out of the doldrums. In the Ifo institute’s survey of 7,000 companies, present conditions and expectations rose, month-on-month, from 108.4 to 110 and from 98.3 to 99.7, respectively. Page 36 Global growth: Andy Haldane, the Bank of England’s chief economist, said that global growth could be “soggy” for years, owing to the high levels of debt on the balance sheets of both households and governments. He said that the lingering stockpile of debt from the financial crisis was acting as a “headwind to growth”. He also said that confidence had been hit hard, deterring business from making investments and taking risks.

Page 36

banking & finance 0.32% Citigroup: The Wall Street investment bank is to pay a $15 million fine for failing to supervise adequately communications among its equity research analysts, clients and the company’s sales and trading staff. The lapses of supervision at Citi’s global markets unit occurred between January 2005 and February 2014, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Aviva: Shares in the insurer sank more than 5 per cent yesterday as its shareholders struggled to see the strategic rationale for its £5.4 billion bid proposal to buy Friends Life, whose shares surged almost 6 per cent as its investors embraced the plan. Schroders, the second-largest shareholder of Friends, faces a potential conflict of interest, as voting in favour of the takeover would mean that it would almost certainly lose a big fund management mandate.

Page 32; Tempus, page 38

Aegon: The Dutch-owned insurer said that it had sold its 35 per cent share in La Mondiale Participations, its life insurance, pensions and savings joint venture in France and Luxembourg, to its majority owner La Mondiale for €350 million, saying that it was no longer a core activity. It formed the partnership with the wealth manager in 2002.

construction & property 0.99% Remortgages: Despite the competitive rates on offer, remortgages have slumped by more than a fifth over the past

year. Lenders handed out 23,505 loans for remortgaging in October, down 15 per cent from September and 21 per cent lower than in the same month a year earlier, according to the provider Legal Marketing Services. Gross remortgage lending fell by 20 per cent to £3.5 billion, down from £4.4 billion in September and the lowest level since June 2013. As a result, remortgaging has a 19 per cent share of the total mortgage market, down from 24 per cent in October last year. Page 33 Songbird Estates: The Qatari-Canadian consortium stalking the listed vehicle that owns a 70 per cent stake in Canary Wharf Group is preparing to “go hostile” in an attempt to ratchet up the pressure and win control of the Canary Wharf estate in east London. The Times understands that the Qatar Investment Authority and Brookfield Partners are preparing themselves to make a formal offer for Songbird, which one source said “could be in the region of between 325p and 330p a share”. Page 31

consumer goods 0.02% Cranswick: Lower pig prices improved margins at the supplier of sausages and other meat products and sent pre-tax profits ahead by 11.4 per cent in the six months to the end of September to £25.8 million, despite static revenues. Tempus, page 38

health 0.49% GlaxoSmithKline: Shareholders will meet on December 18 to vote on the FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals company’s asset swap with Novartis. The group is planning to buy the Swiss company’s vaccines business, sell its cancer care operation and create a joint venture in consumer healthcare in a deal involving more than $20 billion of assets.

Merck & Co: The American drugs company has bought the rights to an experimental vaccine against the ebola virus from NewLink Genetics, a biotechnology company based in Iowa, for $50 million plus potential royalties if the antidote is successful.

AstraZeneca: European medical regulators have given the green light to Duaklir Genuair, a combination of two drugs to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

AstraZeneca acquired rights to the treatment as part of its purchase last month of Almirall’s respiratory portfolio.

leisure 0.18% Ben Ainslie Racing Ltd: Lengthy odds rarely got the better of Sir Ben Ainslie during his sporting career, but the four-time Olympic gold medal-winner admits that he is

having to master a new discipline for his latest challenge. Since last December, he has undergone a crash course in business to give him a fighting chance of “righting one of the biggest wrongs in British sport”. He is the team principal of Ben Ainslie Racing Ltd, a company he has formed to compete in the America’s Cup. Page 37 Merlin Entertainments: It is a favoured destination for family days out and a big local employer in the royal area of Windsor, but Legoland could employ more and boost regional economies further if the government cut VAT on tourism, its owners contend.

The newly listed theme parks operator is at the heart of the Cut Tourism VAT campaign, which wants the tax to be slashed from 20 per cent to 5 per cent. Such a cut, according to the group, would help to create more than 100,000 jobs and would boost local economies outside London by £3 billion a year.

World markets FTSE 100 6,729.79 (-20.97)

6,800

Petrofac: The collapse in oil prices and shortcomings on projects has forced the FTSE 100 oil and gas services company to slash next year’s profit forecast by more than a quarter. Issuing its latest profit warning, Petrofac said that 2015 net profit was now expected to be about $500 million (£319 million), down from the $688 million expected by the City. Petrofac also warned that net profit this year would now be at the bottom of its $580 million to $600 million guidance range.

Shares in the company, which were trading at £14.63 before May’s warning, slumped by more than 26 per cent to 877½p. Pages 34-35 BHP Billiton: The world’s largest mining group heaped another $500 million on to its savings target as it begins the sales pitch for its $15 billion spin-off plan. BHP is to find $4 billion (£2.6 billion) in productivity gains by July 2017, a $500 million increase on its previous guidance. It also said it could cut investment from $14.8 billion to $14.2 billion next year. It came as the Anglo-Australian miner revealed a management reshuffle to reflect the company’s plan to forge a big new mining group consisting of cast-off assets, such as its aluminium and manganese and its less-profitable coalmines.

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technology 0.40%

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$ 1.600

Page 29

natural resources 1.78%

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The day ahead The S&P/Case-Shiller monthly health check of America’s housing market will be released today, in advance of markets closing for Thanksgiving Day on Thursday and early closures on Friday.

In the four months to the end of August, the index recorded monthly declines in the 20 cities that it monitors after rapid growth in each of the past two years. However,

HSBC analysts expect the string of declines to have come to an end in September. The bank predicts a 0.4 per cent monthly increase after a 0.1 per cent fall in August.

This won’t be the only housing-related data to be published in the United States this week. Tomorrow, new home sales data will be released by the commerce department.

Graph of the day B&M1 The row over Eurotunnel running its MyFerryLink service as a

rival to P&O and DFDS ferries is back with the Competition Appeal Tribunal. The Competition and Markets Authority has ruled that running a ferry business and undersea shuttle trains is anticompetitive.

Eurotunnel says that the CMA has no jurisdiction BG1 as MyFerryLink was not a merger but a start-up.

Market share of traffic on the cross-Channel short-sea crossing

P&O Ferries

27%

Eurotunnel

Source: industry estimates; CMA reports

DFDS 51% 51%

Friday, when many chains will offer deep discounts to coincide with the last payday before the festive season.

Fortnum & Mason: New stores in Dubai and at London’s St Pancras station helped to double annual profits at the upmarket grocer to £3.8 million during the year to July, compared with £1.8 million over the preceding 12 months.

Hamper sales were up by 18 per cent and tea sales rose by 13 per cent. A further outlet opened last week at Heathrow airport.

14%

MyFerryLink 8%

Results in brief

MoPowered Group: Since its debut on the Alternative Investment Market a year ago, when N+1 Singer helped it to raise £4 million by selling shares at 100p, the disappointment has been relentless. By March, the shares had peaked at 113p after MoPowered talked up a revenue opportunity of about £1 billion for its technology, which tailors retailers’ websites for smartphones. Instead, losses widened and costs soared. Yesterday, MoPowered warned that annual revenues would miss market expectations of £1.6 million, because of fewer new clients and smaller contracts. The shares dived 24.1 per cent to 5½p. Page 39

telecoms 1.01% BT Group: The shifting sands of the UK telecoms sector have turned in the direction of the former telecoms monopoly after it revealed that it had opened talks to buy back its former mobile phone unit O2.

The Times understands that BT has also been approached by the owners of EE, the UK’s largest mobile phone network, about a potential deal to acquire that business which would add 27 million mobile customers to its base. BT has focused on broadband and IT services since it demerged Cellnet — now O2 — in 2001 to cut its debt pile. Telefónica, the Spanish telecoms company, owns O2 after acquiring the UK company in 2005 for £18 billion, but it has been shedding assets to reduce its debt position.

Pages 29, 31

Name

Pre-tax figure Profit (+) loss (-)

Dividend

Accsys (industrials HY) Cranswick (consumer HY) Eckoh (services HY) GB Group (services HY)

-€6.2m (-€3.8m) £24.6m (£26.1m) £0.1m (-£1.4m) £1.4m (£1.3m)

0c 10.6p p Jan 23 0p 0p

6 Results in brief are given for all companies valued at more than £30 million. f = final p = payable

retailing 0.33%

The day’s biggest movers

Black Friday: Shops are likely to take £200 million on “Black Friday” at the end of this week — the day after Thanksgiving in the United States — double the sum generated a year ago, according to research by Mintel for Retail Week.

A third of consumers plan to do Christmas shopping on

Company

Change

MediaZest First contract and a new product TalkTalk Reheated bid rumours Friends Life In takeover talks Smith & Nephew Rekindled takeover speculation LSE A push by two brokers BHP Billiton Nagging demand concerns Aviva Reaction to takeover talks FirstGroup Rumours of a contract miss MoPowered A revenue warning Petrofac Another profit warning

176.0% 6.4% 5.9% 4.4% 3.3% -2.5% -5.4% -9.7% -24.1% -26.5%

transport 1.66% FirstGroup: Shares in the transport company suffered their worst one-day drop since May last year over the possibility of yet another rail setback. Traders cited media reports that suggested that the East Coast rail franchise competition, for which FirstGroup was in the running, could be lost to a foreign bidder. FirstGroup has suffered a series of disappointments in its rail business this year, bidding for four contracts without winning one.

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

31

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Business

Timing is right to make the mobile call Turn the telephone clock back 13 years and the world looked very different to BT. Nic Fildes reports

T

he demerger of BT’s mobile division in 2001 as part of a rescue fundraising process looks, in hindsight, to have been incredibly short-sighted.

BT was shorn of its growth engine, it missed out on the iPhone-inspired smartphone revolution and was left as the only former state-owned telecoms player across Europe not to own a mobile network, making it something of a lame duck.

To add to the ignominy, Telefónica, Spain’s equivalent of BT, scooped up O2 (formerly Cellnet) and enjoyed a spectacular run, not only on BT’s doorstep in Britain but in Germany and the Republic of Ireland, as well.

No wonder that the demerger has been described one of the worst strategic errors in British corporate history.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, however. Back in 2001, Cellnet was an albatross around BT’s neck. The auction of 3G licences had contributed to BT’s woes by saddling it with a £6 billion bill just as its costs in other parts of the business were getting out of hand. It was also unclear that the promise of mobile communications would deliver the sort of profits needed to claw back the investment.

Add to that, Cellnet was a distant third in its home market behind the high-flying Orange and Vodafone, and it soon fell behind T-Mobile, too. Meanwhile, its problems in Germany and the Netherlands were so bad that analysts called for those units to be shut down.

All those headaches were eased as the company demerged what was dubbed BT Wireless.

BT investors were, for the most part, pleased to be rid of the mobile division at the time and the new management team, led by Ben Verwaayen, who replaced Sir Peter Bonfield, pushed into broadband at a time when it was deeply unfashionable to do so. That investment has laid the ground for BT’s entry into pay-TV, premium sports and even its own modest foray into mobile.

Peter Erskine, who led O2 after the demerger, was also adamant that leaving BT was the making of the mobile business. Freed of the dead hand of its former owner, O2 surged to top spot in the market under the new brand and even landed selling the iPhone on an exclusive basis. That costly, but lucrative, deal would have been hard for BT to agree to back in 2007.

The rebranding was also key. It is unlikely that many people would be

Playing the long game

1994: Cellnet switches to digital technology to compete better with Orange and One-to-One

1985: Cellnet, joint venture with Securicor, is awarded mobile licence alongside Racal-Vodafone

2003: Prince Harry causes rumpus at rugby World Cup by wearing old Cellnet-branded top despite O2 efforts to give him its jersey

2005: Telefónica of Spain agrees £17.7bn takeover of O2, gaining UK, Dutch, German and Irish networks

1996: Cellnet logo appears on England rugby shirt as first corporate sponsor

2006: Overtakes Vodafone to become UK’s largest network, citing the demerger as crucial factor in its success

Suave attack dog made most of good fortune Profile

G

avin Patterson is the first to admit that he inherited the reins of a company at an opportune time. Lord Livingston of Parkhead, his predecessor as chief executive of BT, had spent years chanting a “more to do” strategy at the ailing telecoms group as he got to grips with its yawning pension deficit, its profligate global services division and a cost base in need of a shake-up (Nic Fildes writes).

Mr Patterson, in contrast, took over as the business was set to turn and has transformed the image of BT from a dowdy company defending its corner to an attack dog let off the leash. First came the unexpected move into

content via BT’s acquisition of Premier League rights — a move Mr Patterson designed during his time as head of BT Retail. Then he landed a knockout blow for Champions League rights, under which all European games will disappear from Sky and ITV screens next season.

The former Pantene marketing man joined BT a decade ago and has worked his way up the ranks. The 46year old, who holds a chemical engineering degree, cuts a suave air through the accountants and engineers that usually populate the upper echelons of the telecoms industry. His

1999: BT pays £3bn to buy out Securicor’s original £4m stake

2007: O2 wins exclusive deal to sell iPhone in UK, ushering in growth. Millennium Dome is rebranded under the O2 name

favourite gadget isn’t an iPhone or Tesla car, but a Nutribullet juice maker.

He is a trustee of the British Museum, president of the Advertising Association and sits on the board of IAG, the British Airways owner. He is an avid Liverpool FC fan and is a regular visitor to Anfield.

A further shake-up has been brewing under the surface of BT this year.

Having split

2001: Crippled by debt, BT says it will demerge BT Cellnet as part of rescue deal. Cellnet rebrands as O2

2012: O2 suffers network outage for two days, the latest in a series of glitches. Telefónica, struggling with debt, partly floats German unit

its business unit out of BT Retail, Mr Patterson raised the possibility of a sale or merger of Global Services in an interview with The Times earlier in the year and since then has applied to Ofcom to merge the struggling wholesale unit into Openreach, the structurally separated division that handles engineering and lines.

There has been a changing of the guard since he took over, with Joe Garner, a former head of HSBC UK, brought in to run Openreach, with two key lieutenants, John Petter and Graham Sutherland, promoted and with Delia Bushnell poached from Sky Italia to run the TV and Sport units. Yet mobile is where the attention has been focused and the news that it has been approached over, and is considering, a move on O2 and EE is the biggest test yet of Mr Patterson’s resolve.

2002: O2 brand appears on England rugby and Arsenal shirts. O2 drops to fourth place in the UK mobile sector

2013: O2 sells broadband unit to Sky, making it mobile-only again.

Telefónica sells O2 Ireland, O2 Czech

2014: BT confirms it is in talks to buy back O2, 13 years after demerger

tempted to travel to Greenwich for a pop concert at the “BT Cellnet” arena, whereas the rebranding of the old Millennium Dome as “The O2” has been hailed as one of the great marketing successes of recent times.

This was, for many years, a divorce of convenience, even if BT was later pilloried for giving away the keys to the kingdom as the world went smartphone mad.

The telecoms sector did, however, turn on its axis as intense competition and lower roaming rates started to bite and mobile phone companies went exgrowth. Suddenly broadband was not such a bad place to be and Vodafone pounced on the ailing Cable & Wireless Worldwide network to prove the point.

O2, despite having the lowest churn and highest margins in British mobile, has not been immune to the evaporation of growth in the market and it has been forced to pump billions into its network after a series of outages. In addition, it sold its broadband division, once the fastest-growing in the UK sector, to Sky last year.

BT, conversely, has been getting stronger and more confident and arguably has timed a return to mobile to perfection, with the two largest networks effectively up for grabs.

Thirteen years after it was forced to exit wireless, BT has found itself in the driving seat with two willing sellers on the other side of the table.

Consortium considers hostile approach for Songbird Estates Kathryn Hopkins, Deirdre Hipwell

The Qatari-Canadian consortium stalking Songbird Estates is preparing to “go hostile” in an attempt to ratchet up the pressure and win control of the Canary Wharf estate.

The Times understands that the Qatar Investment Authority and Brookfield Partners are readying themselves to make a formal offer for Songbird that one source said “could be in the region of between 325p and 330p a share”. Any offer, which could come as early as this week, would be put directly

to shareholders in Songbird, a listed vehicle that owns a 70 per cent stake in Canary Wharf Group, which manages and owns most of the east London financial district.

One insider said it was unlikely that an offer below 400p a share would be accepted. The initial approach, on November 7, was pitched at 295p a share and was dismissed as “significantly undervaluing” the company.

It is understood that there have been no direct talks between Qatar and Brookfield and Songbird’s independent board since it emerged that the two had

made an approach to buy the shares in Songbird that they did not already own.

The Qataris own 28.6 per cent of Songbird and Brookfield controls 22.08 per cent of Canary Wharf. One market source said that the Qataris and Brookfield had tried to make contact directly with some of the largest shareholders in Songbird Estates.

The top three investors are Simon Glick, a former diamond trader-turnedNew York property investor; China Investment Corporation, China’s sovereign wealth fund; and Morgan Stanley Real Estate. However, they have been

rebuffed, with one market source saying that “the shareholders want them to speak to the board and to stop trying to get in through the back door”.

The Qataris and Brookfield have until December 4 to “put up or shut up” under the City Takeover Code, but if they make a formal offer it could extend the negotiation period by a further 60 days.

It is understood that there is no certainty the duo will make an offer and they could still choose to walk away or attempt to reach a recommended deal with the Songbird board. One market source said: “I don’t think it would suit

them to be really hostile, given the rather complex nature of the Songbird shareholdings.”

Songbird, which has at least £6.3 billion worth of property assets, has a free float of about 20 per cent and minority investors are understood to want “at least 380p” a share. However, other market experts point out that Canary Wharf Group has an ambitious development pipeline that will require significant capital and that “that needs to be factored into a fair value” for the group.

Shares in Songbird Estates fell by 2½p to close at 338p.

32

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Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

Business

Aviva’s takeover plan leaves Schroders facing a dilemma Miles Costello

Schroders faces a potential conflict of interest in the wake of Aviva’s surprise £5.4 billion approach to buy Friends Life.

The blue-chip fund manager is the second-largest shareholder in Friends Life, with a stake of more than 9 per cent that is worth about £480 million based on yesterday’s share price.

However, Schroders is also one of several fund managers that run money for the insurer, which contracts out the management of the lion’s share of its £100 billion of assets.

Voting in favour of Aviva’s takeover of Friends Life would mean that Schroders almost certainly would lose its mandate to manage about £14 billion of that amount.

Schroders declined to discuss its voting intentions yesterday, but a spokeswoman said that potential conflicts often arose and she made clear that the manager had a system in place to manage all situations.

She said that the fund manager’s ultimate responsibility was to its feepaying clients and maximising long term value for them and there were “principles in place for dealing with conflicts of interest”.

Several other large Friends shareholders welcomed the prospect of the takeover yesterday, which sent the insurer’s shares rocketing by more than 8 per cent at one point, before they

No job for the faint-hearted Analysis

P

utting together two of Britain’s biggest insurers, and their myriad IT systems, could prove to be a nightmare, analysts say (Miles Costello writes).

Aviva is the product of decades of mergers and still labours under the legacy of previous entities.

Friends Life, formerly Resolution, was created by Clive Cowdery as a consolidation vehicle for the insurance markets.

“With Aviva promising investors the fruits of its restructuring, and integration of said companies, into the mix comes another pile to sort out — IT platforms, personnel, life funds and legacy products,” Eamonn Flanagan, of Shore Capital, said.

closed 20¼p higher, up 5.8 per cent, at 368¼p. Aviva is offering 0.74 of its ordinary shares for every Friends Life share held, valuing Friends’ shares at 377½p each.

Alastair Gunn, a fund manager with

Jupiter, which is a top 25 Friends shareholder, welcomed Aviva’s advances, but raised the prospect that it might be forced to pay a higher price or that a counterbidder could emerge.

There was speculation in the market yesterday that Legal & General might consider launching its own bid for the insurer. “I don’t think this deal is done,” Mr Gunn said. He added that the merger plan was a direct consequence of George Osborne’s pensions reforms of this year, and predicted that further deals could be on the cards.

The chancellor used his March budget to declare that retiring savers no longer needed to buy an annuity, in a move that was regarded as making some specialist providers vulnerable.

“It was kind of inevitable that there would be consolidation in the industry following the government’s change in the annuities regulations,” Mr Gunn said. “There are naturally going to be other companies that don’t have the outlook they might have had. If you’re just retirement or partnership and have effectively one product, the outlook for this product has been completely changed. Whether they got together or get taken over by a more diversified rival remains to be seen.”

Shares in Aviva lost 29p, or more than 5 per cent, to close at 510p, and some of the insurers biggest holders were struggling to see the rationale for the approach yesterday.

Tempus, page 38

ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / GETTY IMAGES

Asia in palm of its hand

A

French maker of Shea butter hand cream and olive paste conditioner has reported a sharp rise in

interim profits as the popularity of its products soared in Asia (Deirdre Hipwell writes).

L’Occitane said that its pre-tax profit in the six months to September 30 was €40.3 million, up by

204 per cent compared with this time last year.

Overall, sales rose by nearly 9 per cent to €485.9 million year-on-year. The company is present in nearly 100 countries and has more than 2,700 stores worldwide.

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

33

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Business

Louise Cooper

Competitive rates fail to revive remortgages

The psychopathic tendencies that lie behind misbehaviour by banks

‘‘

Louise Cooper is a financial analyst and Goldman Sachs alumna. Follow her on @Louiseaileen70

Royal Bank of Scotland was fined £56 million last week for its IT incompetence and £400 million the week before for manipulating foreign exchange markets.

Since the financial crisis, banks in Europe, Britain and the United States have been fined tens of billions of pounds for a plethora of dodgy deals.

The list includes the mis-selling of mortgages, interest rate swaps and payment protection insurance; money laundering; rigging Libor and currency markets; foreclosing on home owners illegally; breaching sanctions against Iran; misleading investing clients; aiding tax fraud; violating securities laws and JP Morgan’s failure to oversee a $6 billion unauthorised trading loss.

This damning catalogue is evidence of endemic malfeasance throughout the industry.

Nature, the science magazine, published a study which suggested that the culture of the industry encourages such dishonest behaviour.

The University of Zurich found that “when bankers think about their jobs, they are more likely to lie”. Given the scale of misconduct, banking culture was clearly venomous.

Culture is “the way we do things round here” — how individuals treat each other, the values by which a company is run and, above all, bosses’ behaviour and actions.

I experienced the toxicity of a poor culture many times during my City career, including one example of appalling bullying. The bully was in a position of power — a “producer” — whereas the bullied was a trainee, and

REX FEATURES

Gordon Gekko said that lunch was for wimps — and that went for honesty, too

so bosses ignored it. Illegal behaviour was accepted provided profit was made. Almost immediately the bullying behaviour was copied by the juniors on the desk. It has been said that “bad culture spreads like wildfire”, but good culture takes for ever to inculcate.

Currency traders continued to rig the markets until October last year.

Despite increased regulatory scrutiny, massive fines for banks and politicians and the public baying for blood after bailouts, the traders

continued. Their culture — the way they behaved — did not improve.

Regulation is only part of the solution to stop individuals breaking the rules. An honest corporate culture is also essential. The behaviour of peers is key to preventing transgressions. New bank bosses have a long way to go to create a more-inclined-to-obey-the-rules culture.

However, is culture wholly to blame or does the financial services industry simply attract more dishonest and

A recipe for team-building within the Square Mile

“O

nly one letter of difference from bankers to bakers.”

My brother, who runs a multimillion-pound engineering business, gave me that quote. With his colleagues, he has tried to create a culture that is both profitable for the company and good to its employees and clients.

His industry is male-dominated and so I was interested when he told me that the company had set up a baking group. Every Friday one

member brings along his or her efforts for the others to try and “informally critique” — a sort of Great British (Engineering) Bake Off. My brother is the first to admit that he lacks culinary skills, so he steers clear of “advanced doughs” or baked Alaska and opts for a deliberate strategy of providing “highly calorific simple crowd-pleasers”.

As on the television show, recipes don’t always go to plan. He tells me that one chocolate brownie “had a

density equivalent to depleted uranium” and “was solid enough to have been used as a warhead”. Unlike the TV show, baking is at home — a relief to one of his colleagues, who stayed up half the night and emptied her store cupboards with five failed attempts. Apparently, it took her all weekend to clean up the devastation in her kitchen.

Could the City follow this example and use cooking to change its culture?

A Great British (Banking) Bake Off?

immoral people? The study of 128 employees in Nature suggests the former. I think it is both. Culture corrupts, clearly, but the industry also appeals to the immoral and, in many cases, the psychopathic (not all of whom are murderers and often are to be found running giant corporations).

Many of the defined attributes of a psychopath are criteria for a successful career in investment banking. Psychopaths tend be feel little empathy, be emotionally cold, superficially charming, highly manipulative and prone to taking risks.

Starting out in the 1990s, I was propositioned by an overworked, heavy-drinking, haggard, 50-year-old male colleague who already had a wife and a mistress. This example illustrates a number of psychopathic traits: promiscuity, obviously (I was to be the third woman in his life); an increased sense of self-worth (I was 25 at the time and not unattractive); and a willingness to lie (to his wife and mistress). To be a successful trader requires being cold and detached. And a trader, by the nature of the job, is willing to take multimillion or billionpound risks that most of us would find terrifying.

Psychopaths are also highly manipulative and superficially charming — key attributes for a good broker. Sales jobs rank highly in psychopath careers. Arguments on trading floors get aggressive and unpleasant. Punching someone is rare, because it can lead to dismissal, but there is plenty of male-dominant chest-bumping. “Poor behavioural control” is common. It is also a feature of psychopaths.

Regulation is making banking much less profitable than it used to be.

Reduced power, lower pay, fewer risks — all will ensure that psychopaths are less interested. Huge fines are forcing bank executives to take wrongdoing more seriously and they are slowly cleaning up the harmful culture.

The FBI has a list of professions in which psychopaths are likely to be employed. Worryingly, journalists and others in the media score highly.

Concerned, I did a test and, to my relief, scored “normal”. Psychopaths never say that kittens are their favourite pet. To me, that is incomprehensible.

’’

Kathryn Hopkins Property Correspondent

Remortgages have slumped by more than a fifth over the past year despite the competitive rates on offer.

Lenders handed out 23,505 loans for remortgaging in October, down 15 per cent from September and 21 per cent lower than in the same month a year earlier, according to the provider Legal Marketing Services.

Gross remortgage lending fell by 20 per cent in October to £3.5 billion, down from the £4.4 billion in September and the lowest level since June 2013.

As a result, remortgaging now has a 19 per cent share of the total mortgage market, 5 per cent lower than last month and down from 24 per cent in October last year.

Andy Knee, the chief executive of LMS, said: “Despite signs of resurgence in the market last month that remortgaging had taken a turn for the better, this month saw that assumption come crumbling down with the worst October we’ve experienced since during the midst of the recession.”

He added that even with the competitive rates on offer, customers appeared to be hesitant to take advantage of these amid new rules implemented by the Financial Conduct Authority aimed at curbing risky lending.

Others are also holding off, fearing an interest rate rise from the record low of 0.5 per cent, although the consensus is that this will not happen until October next year, at least. Previously, markets had expected an increase next summer.

The figures further confuse the picture of how the housing market is faring. While some data point to a slowdown, others indicate that it still has some distance to travel upwards.

Hometrack, the property data group, said last week that the average price of a home in the UK’s 20 top cities was growing at more than 5 per cent a year for the first time in a decade. Some cities, principally London, were witnessing double-digit annual growth.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders published figures showing that gross mortgage lending was 5 per cent higher than in September, at £19 billion, and was up 8 per cent on last year. It said that with expectations of the first interest rate rise moving to the fourth quarter of next year, as well as positive forecasts for growth, pay and unemployment, there was potential for market traction in the new year.

34

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Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

Business

Strike three and they’re out as Tim Webb

More than £1 billion was wiped off the stock market value of Petrofac yesterday as investors rushed for the exit and left the oilfield services company counting the cost of its third profit warning this year.

It blamed falling oil prices and further delays on North Sea projects for the announcement, which sparked the biggest ever one-day fall in its share price.

Petrofac, which builds rigs and operates oilfields for others, warned that profits next year would be about $190 million lower than forecast. Its shares promptly crashed by more than 26 per cent, or 315½p, to close on 877½p, a four-year low.

Delivering what one analyst called “a litany of woes”, the company said that project delays and cost overruns on two large North Sea oil projects were mostly to blame — but there was more.

Petrofac also wrote off $45 million of earnings from its upstream division, which includes oil and gas exploration and drilling, after cutting its oil price forecasts from $100 to $80 because of the recent slump in crude prices.

Ayman Asfari, the Syrian-born chief executive who owns 18 per cent of Petrofac, admitted: “We have not covered ourselves in glory.” Referring to his £130 million paper loss over the slump in the share price, he said: “I’m actually the biggest shareholder. I’m the most disappointed as a result of the drop.”

Total profits for next year are forecast now to come in at $500 million, compared with analysts’ expectations of about $690 million. Profits this year are likely to come in “towards the lower

end” of the range of $580 million to $600 million that had been suggested previously.

The City is fast losing patience with Petrofac. Last year the group scrapped a much-vaunted target to double 2010 earnings by 2015 because it was impossible to meet. It has also scaled back its NORWAY Aberdeen

North Sea

Edinburgh UNITED KINGDOM

50 miles

Greater Stella Area project

GERMANY

Inside today

Problems go beyond the price of oil Tempus, page 38

plans for Integrated Energy Services, its new upstream division, which takes a cut on the oil produced from a project.

Andy Inglis, the former head of BP’s exploration division at the time of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, was hired to head the division in 2011 but he left this year for Kosmos Energy, a Dallasbased explorer.

Alex Brooks, an analyst for Canaccord Genuity, the stockbroker, said:

“Petrofac used to be regarded as one of the highest-quality stocks in the sector.

Now that the company has started warning on profits, there is a strong degree of scepticism about the sustainability of its business model.”

Petrofac’s $1.2 billion project to build a gas processing plant in the Shetland Islands for Total’s Laggan and Tomore development has gone far over budget, wiping $45 million from its profits for next year.

The company had intended to make a margin of about 9 per cent on the contract, but now it says that it will not book any profit at all.

Mr Asfari blamed windy weather in the Shetlands and a dispute with unions for the “brutal” cost overruns.

However, Mr Brooks said: “If you blame the weather, you’re basically saying you did not have any slack in your project.”

One large shareholder expressed concern about the transparency over how and when the group books profits for the projects that it delivers on behalf of oil companies. The group has not disclosed the extent of the cost overruns and wants Total, the French oil group, to pick up some of the bill.

Petrofac’s other big headache is the Greater Stella project in the North Sea. These new oilfields are expected now to start producing oil in the third quarter of next year, up to two months later than forecast, accounting for $40 million of next year’s forecast fall in profits.

The group has also cut forecast income from its Mexican projects next year because of new energy reforms being passed in that country and has had to renegotiate the contract for its Ticleni project in Romania.

Petrofac has gone well over budget on its £1.2 billion project to construct a gas

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

35

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Business

Petrofac issues profit warning It pushed the envelope and then it got a bit crumpled Behind the story

U

processing plant for Total’s Laggan and Tomore development on the Shetland Islands, wiping £45 million from its profits

ntil relatively recently, Petrofac could do no wrong (Tim Webb writes). It floated on the London Stock Exchange at 215p in October 2005 and within five years its value had grown more than sixfold.

It set itself apart from industry stalwarts such as Wood Group with its close links to the national oil companies of the Middle East responsible for so much of the world’s crude production.

These links put Petrofac at the front of the queue when these notoriously impenetrable state-owned companies awarded lucractive

contracts to build rigs and operate oilfields.

Then, in 2010, Petrofac set a target to double earnings by 2015. Key to this was the establishment of an upstream division, Integrated Energy Services (IES), which would take stakes in projects it worked on, allowing Petrofac to book a chunk of the oilfields’ production.

The company also expanded into places like the North Sea, where it has less expertise. Despite a charm offensive by the group, the City was always sceptical about the earnings

target, which was formally abandoned last year.

Shareholders were also uneasy about the amount of capital IES gobbled up and the division has been downsized. The delays and cost overruns in the North Sea that helped to trigger yesterday’s profit warning are a hangover of Petrofac’s aggressive — but doomed — attempt to hit its earnings target.

Ayman Asfari, the chief executive, said: “We probably pushed the envelope to achieve that target.

Over the last 18 months, maybe we have been trying to cling to the original target, but really maybe the price for that has been we have taken our eye off the ball in the execution of business.”

Ayman Asfari: “Took our eye off the ball”

The crash that could cost membership of a very exclusive club Tim Webb

Ayman Asfari had made his first £1 million by the time he was 30 after setting up a construction business in Oman.

However the Syrian-born executive was not satisfied because he did not own the business. “It was like building a palace but the foundations were on sand,” he said in a newspaper interview.

The foundation of his fortune today

— his 18 per cent stake in Petrofac — was shaken yesterday by the oil services group’s profit warning, which sent shares in the oil services group crashing by a quarter.

This year’s Sunday Times Rich List ranks Mr Asfari and his family 87thrichest in Britain, with a fortune estimated at £1.1 billion, and he now risks the ignominy of falling out of the billionaire bracket. “I lost more than

anyone else today,” he said. When the group’s share price has taken a knock in the past, he has been sanguine about the impact on his personal wealth, once saying: “It’s not the money that drives me now. I’ve got enough.”

He owns a mansion in St John’s Wood in north London, enjoys holidaying on his 150ft yacht and has fulfilled his lifelong ambition to own a jet.

In 2012, he got into hot water with

shareholders after it emerged that Petrofac was paying $1.4 million to hire a corporate jet from an offshore trust linked to him. In the same year, he received a financial package of $2.6 million, including a salary of nearly $1 million.

The 56-year-old son of a diplomat grew up in Syria. He went to school in Aleppo before graduating from Villanova University in Philadelphia and

obtaining a master’s degree in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2006, he set up the charitable Asfari Foundation with his wife, Sawsan, which last year distributed £2.67 million, including £876,000 to help internally displaced Syrians and Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries.

Mr Asfari, who has headed Petrofac since the 1990s, is also a keen golfer.

36

FGM

Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

Business

Debt levels dampen hopes of growth, says Bank chief Philip Aldrick

The Bank of England’s chief economist has warned that global growth could be “soggy” for years because of the high levels of debt still on the balance sheets of both households and governments.

Andy Haldane said that the lingering stockpile of debt from the financial crisis was acting as a “headwind to growth”. He also argued that confidence had been hit hard, deterring business from making investments and taking risks.

“We are still paying for some of the cost of the crisis — debt levels still a bit too high, both out there among companies and households, but also among governments, increasingly,” he told the BBC. “I think people are still scarred by the crisis, their appetite for taking risk has been diminished, possibly on a more durable basis. And both of those things near-term will tend to drag growth back a bit.”

Meanwhile, accountants, lawyers and advertisers took on staff at the fastest rate in seven years as Britain’s dominant services sector continued

to power ahead in the three months to November.

Investment in land and buildings also reached its highest level since 2010, according to the CBI’s quarterly service sector survey.

A robust performance by the sector, which accounts for three quarters of national output, may help to restore confidence after David Cameron’s warning last week of red lights “flashing on the dashboard of the global economy”. The CBI said that services companies, from retailers to banks, “grew steadily and robust growth is expected to continue into early 2015”. However, optimism has taken a knock, easing back from earlier in the year.

The services sector has led the recovery, growing faster than the whole economy in 2011, 2012, and 2013, offsetting a recession in the production industries, such as manufacturing. It expanded 0.7 per cent in the three months to September, underpinning an equivalent GDP increase. The rapid growth of the sector, which is now 7.2 per cent larger than its precrisis peak, is causing recruitment bottlenecks, the CBI said.

CHARLES PLATIAU / REUTERS

Light work Galeries Lafayette, the upmarket department store in Paris, puts on a spectacular show for Christmas shoppers

Germans hand eurozone timely confidence boost David Charter Berlin

German business confidence returned to positive territory after six months of decline yesterday to give a much-needed fillip to the fragile eurozone.

The main business climate index beat expectations to rise to 104.7 points in November, from 103.2 points in October, the Ifo think-tank said.

The increase will have come as a relief to Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, after the eurozone’s biggest economy narrowly avoided falling into recession last week amid a run of pessimistic indicators suggesting that the country was stuck in a rut.

German GDP shrank by 0.1 per cent in the second quarter, but it returned to growth in the third with modest expansion of 0.1 per cent. The eurozone as a whole grew by 0.2 per cent between July and September.

“The downturn in the German economy has ground to a halt, for the moment at least,” said HansWerner Sinn, the head of Ifo, which calculates its headline index on the basis of present business and the outlook for the next six months made by 7,000 companies.

“Assessments of the current business situation are slightly more favourable than last month,” he said.

“Expectations with regard to the months ahead are also brighter.”

The Ifo sub-index measuring current business rose to 110.0 points, from 108.4 points last month, and the outlook sub-index increased by 1.4 points to 99.7.

Klaus Wohlrabe, an Ifo

economist, said that the decline in the euro to a two-year low against the dollar and falling oil prices were contributing to a more positive sentiment among German businesses.

“It is too early to say whether we are seeing a change in the trend,” Dr Wohlrabe said. “This is a positive signal, but we need to wait until December to see if it continues.”

Analysts were encouraged by the turnaround, especially after investor sentiment in Germany rose for the first time this year in figures published last week.

“After a six-month slide, German business confidence staged a strong rebound in November, illustrating that any swansongs on the eurozone’s The figures gave breathing space to Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister

biggest economy came too early,” Carsten Brzeski, an ING DiBa economist, said. “In our view, the Ifo index is currently the best single leading indicator for the German economy. The Ifo reading gives clear comfort for our view of an accelerating economy in the final quarter of the year.”

Jennifer McKeown, of Capital Economics, said that the rise in the Ifo index was “a relief after falls in other survey indicators, but it still points to only slow growth . . . The fall in the euro and easing concerns over geopolitical factors are starting to have some positive effects.”

The German DAX stock index and the French CAC 40 both rose. brought to you with

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the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

37

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Business TIPPING POINT The problems faced by one of Britain’s greatest sportsmen will be familiar to many entrepreneurs

Ainslie learns that business isn’t plain sailing

Where to go, and what to eat Jeff Mills

DON EMMERT / AFP / GETTY IMAGES

The Olympian is having to master new skills en route to the America’s Cup, James Hurley reports

L

engthy odds rarely got the better of Sir Ben Ainslie during his sporting career, but the four-time Olympic gold medal-winner admits he is having to master an entirely new discipline for his latest challenge.

Since last December, he has undergone a crash course in business to ensure he has a fighting chance of “righting one of the biggest wrongs in British sport”.

The 37-year-old is team principle of Ben Ainslie Racing Ltd, a company he has formed to compete in the America’s Cup and a role demanding far more than the skills that made him the most successful sailor in Olympic history.

“It’s pretty hands-on. The goal-setting and team-building is very familiar from sport, but I’m finding communication is the aspect that’s most different — making sure everyone knows what everyone else is doing.”

Over the past eight months, the company has gone from having no employees to 60 and Sir Ben expects to have a team of 100 by the time of the next America’s Cup series, due in 2017. Some of the problems he is facing will be familiar to anyone who has led or worked in a fast-growing business: “As a completely new team, we’ve been free to decide which structure we wanted, but we’ve had growing pains. It’s about finding the right people with the right attitude and it takes time for people to build relationships.

“It’s coming together now. The most important thing is that people are compatible — personalities are as important as capability.”

While he is in a more familiar role when sailing the team’s testing boat, on which design idea are being put though trials, for four hours each day, the remainder of his role combines recruitment, management, sales and

LIFESTORE

postcard from Reykjavik The most northerly of the world’s capital cities does have charm. Key industries include banking, software and aviation Man on the ground “There’s a strong work ethic, but the locals play hard, too,” Peter Nielson, a data analyst, says Refuelling The Radisson Blu Saga hotel is close to the main business area Acting local Laekjartorg and Austurstraeti districts have late night bars

Sir Ben Ainslie wants to transfer his experience in winning the America’s Cup with Team Oracle USA into his own boat

dealing with the eye-watering cost of putting togather a challenge. He is hoping to raise £35 million from private backers, much of which is already secured, and a further £45 million from commercial sponsors.

A partnership with a Formula One motor racing team is also on the cards to help to engineer a competitive boat and the hydrofoils on which it will skim over the water.

“That will help us with the technical challenge. The key factors will be aerodynamics and control. There’s not that much of the boat in the water these days.”

With the team’s backers including Sir Charles Dunstone, a co-founder of Carphone Warehouse, Sir Keith Mills, the Air

Miles and Nectar Card entrepreneur, and Peter Dubens, the technology investor, Sir Ben says he has had plenty of advice to call upon. “From management structure to doing deals, that has been an incredible resource for me.”

Last year, Sir Ben became the first Briton to win the competition when he helped Oracle Team USA to complete a remarkable comeback by reversing an 8-1 deficit to Emirates Team New Zealand to earn a 9-8 victory.

He expects that experience to prove useful for his bid for a British boat finally to win the oldest trophy — at 163

years — in international sport. To allow him to concentrate on sailing, and his intention to be helmsman on the team’s boat, he intends to pass day-to-day charge of the business to a general manager next year.

His team is developing a base in Portsmouth that Sir Ben says demonstrates that it can play a role in the local economy far beyond 2017 — by providing apprenticeships to encourage young workers to get into the sailing industry, for example. With that in mind, and a tricky qualification process to navigate for the right to race the defending champions, might a goal beyond the 2017 competition, likely to be held in Bermuda, be more realistic?

“We are building a business for the long term, but we wouldn’t all be working this hard if we didn’t believe we’ve got a real chance of winning this time around.”

working lunch Massimo restaurant & Oyster Bar The Corinthia hotel, Whitehall Place, London Order Oysters if you prefer, otherwise excellent Italian food from the set lunch menu. Try a starter of marinated swordfish with grapefruit and fennel, then chestnut tagliatelli with wild mushrooms and chives Expect A grand dining room on the ground floor of the Corinthia hotel and the company of politicians and Hollywood stars

38

Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

FGM

Business Markets Students advance in economics competition

Martin Waller Tempus Buy, sell or hold: today’s best share tips

Problems extend beyond the price of oil

Slipping on an oil slick

cranswick

Petrofac share price

Revenue £482m

Order backlog $bn

30 Sep, 31 Dec 2014 2013

Dividend 10.6p

S

upplying the big supermarkets as they claw at each other for a falling market share is never Offshore engineering 12.2 7.8 going to be that easy. Cranswick lost £14 and construction a big contract with one of them, which sent revenues 5 per cent lower Offshore projects 3.7 3.1 and operations in the second quarter and left them £12 little-changed at the half-year.

Engineering and 1.5 0.2 The company insists that much of consulting services the work was won back in October and at the previous price. The hiatus, £10 Integrated 3.8 3.9 though, highlights how competitive a energy services market it operates in. The price of petrofac pigs has moderated since the £8 Total 21.2 15.0 Order intake this year $10bn comparable period, in which Q1 2014 Q2 Q3 Q4 the horsemeat scandal pushed people towards field in Romania, both of he problem with Petrofac, follow me other forms of protein. these within that integrated as I have suggested before, MY ADVICE Avoid on twitter This has allowed margins, services business. was always going to be WHY Company appears for updates below 5 per cent last time, The problems cannot be execution risk. The to be remarkably @MartinWaller10 to revert to a more normal entirely down to the oil business model of its 5.4 per cent and left pre-tax price. As Petrofac admits, the integrated energy services division, accident-prone. There must profits 11.4 per cent higher at execution on a number of which was to provide the engine for be some question over £25.8 million in the first half to the projects has not been as good as it growth, was to take positions in large future dividend payments end of September. should have been. oil and gas contracts and lock in Cranswick has been trying for All this will hit cashflow and there some of the eventual production years to lessen its dependence on the must be some question over future from the same. pork cycle and last month it agreed dividend payments. To emphasise Perhaps we should have paid more yesterday, after news that profits for to pay a total of £23.6 million for the positive, the backlog of orders heed when Andy Inglis, the BP high the current year would come in at Benson Park, which supplies cooked flier poached to run this business, the bottom end of expectations. That represents the most successful chicken and turkey to the prepared year for winning new work and departed at the start of the year reaction may seem extreme, food trade. Such deals are, by provides some reassurance for for a new career in the United except that the company definition, few and far between. coming years.

States. The danger with such admitted that 2015 profits The shares rose 69p to £14.04p.

There has been a degree of M&A large projects is that would also fail to hit $500m They change hands on more than in the oil services sector, with offers something goes wrong and forecasts, at $500 million Forecast net profit about 30 per cent below 15 times earnings, which suggests no for CGG, the French group, and that profits disappear. for 2015 pressing reason to buy.

Baker Hughes, in the United States.

Add to that an inevitable consensus.

Some wonder if Petrofac will now exposure to the oil price and Even more worrying, the attract attention. Frankly, I doubt it. the scene was set for problems seem to be spread The shares now sell on about eight yesterday’s profit warning, the across the group. The Greater MY ADVICE Avoid times this year’s earnings, which third in the company’s recent history. Stella Area project, where Petrofac WHY High rating for shares seems ridiculously cheap.

The last was in May — and the has a 20 per cent stake but is not the seems to discount good news One for gamblers only, though — graph shows how the shares reacted. operator, was the subject of an otherwise safer avoided.

They lost another 315½p to 877½p earlier warning, as was the Ticleni

The 15th Target Two Point Zero Bank of England and The Times Interest Rate Challenge is under way, with 307 teams competing for the Challenge Trophy and £5,000 for their school or college.

In 42 regional heats, teams of four students, aged 16 to 18, will analyse economic data and their possible impact on inflation and the economic outlook, as the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee does at its monthly meetings.

The winning team from each regional heat will advance to one of six area finals to be held in February next year. The national final will be contested in March at the Bank of England.

Prizes in regional heats went to: Birmingham: winner: Wolverhampton Girls’ High School; runner-up: Aldridge School, Walsall. Leicester: winner: Oundle School, near Peterborough; runner-up: Stamford Endowed Schools.

London: winner: Queen Elizabeth’s School, Barnet; runner-up: Nonsuch High School for Girls, Cheam. Luton: winner: Saffron Walden County High School; runner-up: Sandringham School, St Albans. Winchester: winner: Peter Symonds College, Winchester; runner-up: The Portsmouth Grammar School.

Source: Thomson Reuters

£16

T

friends life/aviva 16m customers of merged group

I

f Aviva manages to clinch a deal to buy Friends Life, the ultimate losers look like being the latter’s shareholders. At present they are invested in one of the highest and most reliable payers of dividends on the stock market.

The yield on the shares, which have been recommended for just that reason by this column as recently as last month, still approaches 6 per cent, even after yesterday’s jump of 20½p to 368¼p as the markets reacted to Friday’s late announcement of a possible offer.

On the basis of the terms published, investors would be swapping into a business with a dividend yield of about 4.8 per cent and with a lot more uncertainties going forward.

Friends Life has gradually been shedding unwanted and non-core businesses, a process that is pretty well over. By contrast, Aviva is the living proof that insurance mega-mergers do not always add value, having been created from a series of deals between Commercial Union, General Accident and Norwich Union. Its shares, off 29p at 510p, are back only to where they were in mid-2008.

By some measures, a merged entity would be Britain’s biggest

insurer. Yet there will be some disruption, inevitably, as the companies are merged, which competitors can be expected to take the fullest advantage of.

Friends Life shares are back to where they were before they plunged after the shock changes to pensions in the spring budget. I would be tempted to take some profits, rather than stick around amid all the uncertainty.

MY ADVICE Take profits WHY Attractive dividend yield available elsewhere

Bank failure inquiry The Bank of England has begun to investigate the collapse of its internal system for processing high-value transactions between lenders. Deloitte, the accountant and consultant, will lead the inquiry into the failure for several hours last month of RTGS, which handles more than £250 billion of payments daily.

And finally . . .

N

ote the strength of Phoenix Group, whose shares rose 11p to 780p on the back of the Aviva approach for Friends Life.

The assumption is that this will be the next target for consolidation in the insurance sector. Possibly so, but I would point out that the shares offer an even better yield than Friends Life, of approaching 7 per cent. Anyone who takes my advice and banks profits might do worse than reinvest the proceeds in Phoenix, whose latest trading update saw cash being generated at the top end of its forecast range.

Tasty Swiss sale New Zealand’s richest man has agreed to sell SIG Combibloc, one of Europe’s biggest carton packaging manufacturers, to a Canadian private equity group for up to €3.75 billion. Graeme Hart’s Reynolds Group Holdings bought the Swiss-based SIG, which makes cartons for soups and milk, for $2.3 billion in 2007.

PRICES Major Indices New York Dow Jones Nasdaq Composite S&P 500

London Financial Futures 17817.90 (+7.84) 4754.89 (+41.92) 2069.41 (+5.91)

Tokyo Nikkei 225

17357.51 (Market closed)

Hong Kong Hang Seng

23893.14 (+456.02)

Amsterdam AEX Index Sydney AO Frankfurt DAX

422.91 (-0.55) 5349.00 (+56.90) 9785.54 (+52.99)

Singapore Straits

3340.53 (-4.79)

Brussels BEL20

3243.85 (+8.62)

Paris CAC-40

4368.44 (+21.21)

Zurich SMI Index DJ EURO Stoxx 50

9058.51 (-22.04) 3211.70 (+17.48)

London FTSE 100 6729.79 (-20.97) FTSE 250 15710.06 (+18.44) FTSE 350 3657.23 (-9.01) FTSE Eurotop 100 2810.31 (+1.84) FTSE All-Shares 3590.99 (-8.12) FTSE Non Financials 4185.37 (-11.94) techMARK 100 3375.70 (+17.55) Bargains 1062378 US$ 1.5700 (+0.0058) Euro 1.2624 (-0.0020) £:SDR 1.07 (+0.00) Exchange Index 86.8 (+0.1) Bank of England official close (4pm) CPI 128.40 Sep (2005 = 100) RPI 257.60 Sep (Jan 1987 = 100) RPIX 257.10 Sep (Jan 1987 = 100) Morningstar Long Commodity 822.96 (+1.33) Morningstar Long/Short Commod 4514.90 (-14.96)

Long Gilt 3-Mth Sterling

3-Mth Euribor

3-Mth Euroswiss

2 Year Swapnote 5 Year Swapnote 10 Year Swapnote FTSE100 FTSEurofirst 80

Period Dec 14 Mar 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Jun 15 Sep 15 Dec 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Jun 15 Sep 15 Dec 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Jun 15 Sep 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Dec 14 Mar 15

Open 117.21 116.41 99.440 99.390 99.320 99.200 99.060 99.915 99.920 99.935 99.930 99.915 100.04 100.09 100.11 100.11 111.59 127.61 148.34 6758.0 6690.0 3924.5

High 117.27 116.44 99.440 99.390 99.320 99.220 99.080 99.915 99.925 99.935 99.935 99.920 100.05 100.09 100.11 100.12 111.59 111.56 127.65 100.00 148.43 100.00 6765.5 6704.5 3924.5

Commodities Low 117.00 116.16 99.430 99.370 99.290 99.170 99.030 99.905 99.915 99.930 99.925 99.910 100.04 100.08 100.10 100.11 111.58 111.55 127.60 100.00 148.21 100.00 6719.5 6668.0 3924.5

Sett 117.14 116.30 99.430 99.370 99.300 99.180 99.040 99.910 99.915 99.930 99.930 99.915 100.04 100.09 100.11 100.12 111.59 111.91 127.62 127.62 148.27 148.27 6730.0 6675.0 4234.0 4236.0

Vol 301731 207595 6570 21651 26900 24251 25001 25999 26436 18839 26610 22358 519 666 2487 2326 163 104 232 3 948 3 61332 29 1

Open Int 408827 37128 383933 420057 473902 328765 344617 469443 399089 348121 338652 308989 68037 83880 57335 27548 21777 11305 5422 580067 20503 76

Feb

ICIS pricing (London 7.30pm) Crude Oils ($/barrel FOB) Brent Physical Brent 25 day (Jan) Brent 25 day (Feb) W Texas Intermed (Jan) W Texas Intermed (Feb)

78.55 79.60 80.05 75.80 75.85

-0.85 -0.70 -0.70 -0.70 -0.75

Products ($/MT) 748.00 712.75 411.75 638.00

750.00 714.75 412.00 640.00

-8.00 +2.50 +5.75 +3.00

unq 701.25-700.75 698.75-698.50

Brent (9.00pm) Dec unq Jan 79.63-79.60

Cocoa Dec Mar May Jul Sep Dec

unq unq unq unq unq unq

Mar May Jul

Nov Jan Mar May

unq unq unq unq

Jul Sep

unq unq unq Volume: 15058

Feb Mar

710.50-710.00 725.00-712.50 Volume: 116814

Mar Apr

80.73-80.59 83.00-78.00

unq unq Volume: 16126

White Sugar (FOB) Reuters

ICE Futures Gas Oil Nov Dec Jan

Volume: 291534

RobustaCoffee

Spot CIF NW Europe (prompt delivery) Premium Unld Gasoil EEC 3.5 Fuel Oil Naphtha

80.12-80.05

LIFFE

Dec Mar May

unq unq unq

Aug Oct Dec Mar

unq unq unq unq Volume: 5957

London Grain Futures LIFFE Wheat (close £/t) Nov May

125.65 133.40

Jan Jul

129.05 134.40

Mar 131.30 Volume: 311

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

39

FGM

Markets Business

PA

One oil minnow hopes to get another on the hook Gary Parkinson Market report

H

ere’s something you don’t see every day: an attempted hostile takeover of one junior oil company by another.

Sort of. Sound Oil, already pumping gas from its Casa Tiberi discovery in Italy, declared its intention to make a bid for Antrim Energy, another AIM exploration and production minnow.

Between the lines, Sound’s official statement reads something like this: “We have tried to engage with Antrim’s management about a deal.

No dice. Here’s another chance. If not, they know what’ll happen.”

The ever-readable Malcolm Graham-Wood, the founder of HydroCarbon Capital, was impressed.

“This is a particularly interesting

technology

Running very short of power

N

o one can accuse MoPowered of inconsistency. Since its AIM debut a year ago, the disappointment has been relentless.

Back then, N+1 Singer helped it to raise £4 million by selling shares at 100p, pocketing £160,000 of fees. By March, the shares had peaked at 113p after MoPowered talked up a revenue opportunity of about £1 billion for its technology, which tailors retailers’ websites for smartphones.

Instead, losses widened and costs

Wall Street report

making a possible $16 billion offer.

King, six times a Wimbledon singles champion from 1966 to 1975, had Smith & Nephew replacement joints fitted to both

Bid talk provides spike of excitement

F

our years after Billie Jean King loudly sang the praises of Smith & Nephew and its replacement knees, a rival company appeared yesterday to be set to bid for it (Deirdre Hipwell writes).

Shares in the British medical devices specialist leapt amid rumours that the Michigan-based Stryker was in talks with banks about

Scotland (+/-)

1,100 08:00am

170.38 +2.85

171.58 +20.67

unq

0.00 +0.00

0.00 +0.00

15mth

Copper Gde A ($/tonne) 6730.5-6731.0 6679.0-6680.0

7310.0-7320.0

Lead ($/tonne) 2045.0-2046.0

2050.0-2051.0

1980.0-1985.0

Zinc Spec Hi Gde ($/tonne) 2297.0-2300.0 2308.0-2309.0

1943.0-1948.0

Tin ($/tonne) 20475.0-20480.0

20495.0-20500.0

Alum Hi Gde ($/tonne) 2059.5-2060.0 2047.5-2048.0 Nickel ($/tonne) 16530.0-16535.0 16600.0-16605.0

Noon

16:00pm

1,050

knees in 2010 and a year later formalised a partnership with the company to tell the world that with them “I feel like I’m 20 again”.

Investors were pretty excited, too, yesterday as rumours

0.00 +0.00

3mth

1,160

1,120

London Metal Exchange (Official) Cash

1,180

1,140

AHDB meat services Average fatstock prices at representative markets (p/kg lw) Pig Lamb Cattle GB 0.00 170.38 171.58 (+/-) +0.00 +2.85 +20.67 Eng/Wales (+/-)

1,200p

Smith & Nephew Share price

20505.0-20555.0 2280.0-2285.0 18770.0-18870.0

of Stryker’s interest emerged via a report on Bloomberg. Shares in Smith & Nephew jumped more than 10 per cent (see graph, left) after the report before closing a more considered 4.4 per cent up at £11.38. Rumours that Smith & Nephew is a target also led to speculation that Johnson & Johnson could be interested.

British companies have become vulnerable to American groups seeking to reduce their tax bill by changing their domicile through an overseas takeover.

Both Stryker and Smith & Nephew declined to comment.

Gold/Precious metals (US dollars per ounce) Bullion: Open $1201.85 Close $1197.17-1197.68 High $1202.99 Low $1192.70 AM $1196.00 PM $1197.50 Krugerrand $1185.00-1257.00 (£754.66-800.51) Platinum $1210.00 (£770.58) Silver $16.42 (£10.46) Palladium $796.00 (£506.93)

It’s a short week on Wall Street and already traders seemed have one eye on Thursday’s Thanksgiving turkey and sweet potato pie. The Dow Jones industrial average oscillated in a narrow range, closing 7.84 points up at 17,817.90.

move,” he said, “as without warning and weak mining actually launching an offer, shares, lost 20.97 points to Sound has effectively insured 6,729.79 in spite of huge follow us that Antrim shareholders get takeover interest. on twitter an opportunity to look at Continental markets, for updates what might be a very @timesbusiness unencumbered by London’s interesting deal.” preponderance of resources The deal offers 0.3198 Sound shares, fared better. Paris, shares for each Antrim share, Frankfurt and Madrid registered valuing them at 3.44p, or nearly modest improvements. £6.4 million for the company.

Again, mining shares were Yesterday they rose by 8 per cent to unsettled by nagging concern about 3½p, while Sound shares edged 1.2 per demand for industrial metal. cent higher to 11p.

BHP Billiton, which is cutting costs Sound’s thinking is that by still more deeply in response to combining its technical, financial and tanking metal prices, fell 41p to £16.21. commercial knowhow with Antrim’s Meanwhile, Petrofac was clobbered, producing assets in the UK North Sea tumbling 315½p to 877½p and losing and Ireland, which generate the more than a quarter of its market revenues to cover costs, it would value after the oil services company’s create a merged entity with both the latest profit warning. scale and geographical diversity to Aviva fell 29p to 510p as the market appeal to a broader range of took its first chance to respond to the institutional and private investors. unexpected news, after London had The wider stock market drifted closed on Friday, of the insurer’s lower in light trading. The FTSE 100, £5.4 billion takeover talks with weighed down by a horrible profit Friends Life, up 20½p at 368¼p.

Dollar rates Australia Canada Denmark Euro Hong Kong Japan Malaysia Norway Singapore Sweden Switzerland

1.1616-1.1617 1.1293-1.1296 5.9836-5.9846 0.8044-0.8045 7.7558-7.7570 118.38-118.41 3.3518-3.3533 6.7806-6.7837 1.3036-1.3040 7.4377-7.4411 0.9672-0.9674

Argentina peso Australia dollar Bahrain dinar Brazil real Euro Hong Kong dollar India rupee Indonesia rupiah Kuwait dinar KD Malaysia ringgit New Zealand dollar Singapore dollar S Africa rand U A E dirham

13.367-13.369 1.8239-1.8241 0.5882-0.5958 3.9967-4.0124 1.2630-1.2633 12.177-12.179 97.024-97.227 18757-19338 0.4561-0.4587 5.1541-5.3562 1.9992-1.9999 2.0464-2.0473 17.332-17.343 5.7641-5.7704

2 mth

3 mth

1mth

3mth

6mth

12mth

0.10

0.15

0.23

0.48

0.50

0.56

0.68

0.98

-0.13

-0.05

0.05

0.21

Sterling Euro

6 mth

12 mth

0.5048

0.5309

0.5565

0.6847

0.9806

Clearer CDs

0.58-0.43

0.60-0.45

0.65-0.50

0.80-0.65

1.07-0.92

Depo CDs

0.58-0.43

0.60-0.45

0.65-0.50

0.80-0.65

1.07-0.92

Eurodollar Deps

0.10-0.20

0.08-0.18

0.11-0.21

0.23-0.33

0.48-0.58

Eurodollar CDs

0.15-0.08

0.18-0.12

0.22-0.15

0.36-0.21

0.52-0.38

Sterling spot and forward rates

Dollar

Smith & Nephew was chased 48p higher to £11.38 after a newswire pointed out that Stryker was no longer locked out from bidding. BT advanced 14p to 394p after confirming that it was in the early stages of talks to buy O2.

On AIM, Quindell was squeezed another 15.9 per cent higher to 82p.

Traders reported that IG, the big spread-betting firm, was no longer taking new bets against the controversial insurance claims processor’s share price, prompting speculation that institutions may be asking for stock lent out for “shorting” to be returned, forcing bears to buy back shares to close down-bets.

Finally, TLA Worldwide has signed up Real Madrid, holders of the European Cup, to play in the inaugural Asia Pacific version of the International Champions Cup in Australia next July. Manchester City and Inter Milan were rumoured to be in as well. The sports marketing group was unchanged at 37¼p.

Money rates %

1 mth

Currency

soared, all but wiping out the cash raised from the float. Back to its broker in September for a rescue £3.5 million fundraising, this time at 5p.

To yesterday, when MoPowered warned

Base Rates Clearing Banks 0.5 Finance House 1.0 ECB Refi 0.05 US Fed Fund 0-0.25 Halifax Mortgage Rate 3.5 Treasury Bills (Dis) Buy: 1 mth 0.44; 3 mth 0.42. Sell: 1 mth 0.34; 3 mth 0.35

Interbank Rates

European money deposits %

MoPowered has been disappointing investors since its AIM debut

Mkt Rates for Copenhagen Euro Montreal New York Oslo Stockholm Tokyo Zurich

Range 9.3760-9.4108 1.2650-1.2605 1.7564-1.7755 1.5628-1.5714 10.600-10.654 11.505-11.701 184.05-185.94 1.5150-1.5211

Close 9.3960-9.3980 1.2633-1.2629 1.7734-1.7737 1.5700-1.5702 10.648-10.651 11.679-11.684 185.88-185.92 1.5186-1.5190

1 month 46ds 4pr 9pr 4ds 95pr 40ds 9ds 8ds Premium = pr

3 month 140ds 11pr 27pr 11ds 273pr 107ds 34ds 29ds Discount = ds

Other Sterling

that annual revenues would miss market expectations of £1.6 million because of fewer new clients and smaller contracts.

Cue the shares cratering 24.1 per cent to 5½p. Not quite a member of the “95 per cent club”, but never cheaper.

At least Bagir Group, another N+1 Singer float, has been steadier of late. This is the Israeli tailor that made its debut on AIM in April at 56p, shed nearly 68 per cent one day the next month after a stunning profit warning and marked time yesterday at 11½p.

Exchange rates Australia $ Canada $ Denmark Kr Egypt Euro ¤ Hong Kong $ Hungary Indonesia Israel Shk Japan Yen New Zealand $ Norway Kr Poland Russia S Africa Rd Sweden Kr Switzerland Fr Turkey Lira USA $

Bank buys Bank sells 1.970 1.710 1.910 1.660 10.080 8.840 12.340 9.820 1.380 1.200 13.050 11.480 421.940 347.140 21890.600 17461.200 6.640 0.000 199.480 172.760 2.220 1.880 11.520 9.960 5.850 4.790 77.130 64.230 18.980 16.080 12.470 11.080 1.670 1.440 3.880 3.100 1.710 1.500

Rates for banknotes and traveller's cheques as traded by Royal Bank of Scotland plc yesterday

Data as shown is for information purposes only. No offer is made by Morningstar or this publication

40

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Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

Register Obituaries

Jack Chalker

Artist who used his skills to chronicle the terrible treatment of his fellow captives while being held as a prisoner of war by the Japanese

DAVID SANDISON/THE INDEPENDENT/REX

The drawings and paintings of the artist Jack Chalker provide one of the most stark and horrific first-hand testimonies of the cruelties perpetrated by the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War. His illustrations compel scrutiny on how a people preoccupied with beauty and peace could be degraded by a bellicose regime bent on expansion through conquest.

Chalker’s training in graphics and painting at Goldsmiths College was interrupted by his enlistment in the Royal Artillery, training and posting to Singapore as part of the 18th Division sent to reinforce the island against Japanese attack. His regiment was barely ashore when — to avoid civilian casualties — the garrison of 100,000 men surrendered. Held briefly in a camp at Changi, Chalker was sent first to a labour camp in the city, then to the Burma railway.

The Japanese 15th Army invading Burma from Thailand depended for supplies on sea routes vulnerable to submarine attack. It was decided to build a railway from Bangkok to Rangoon along a 258-mile route that had already been surveyed by the British but abandoned as too difficult.

The labour force comprised 180,000 conscripted Asian workers and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war. In the year it took to complete the railway half the Asian workers and 12,399 prisoners died, more than 6,000 of them British.

On leaving the Singapore work camp where he had already begun to sketch acts of brutality, Chalker secretly hid his few brushes and paints in his pack

His feelings towards the Japanese varied between disgust and compassion before he was herded into metal-box wagons with thousands of other prisoners for transport to the rail head. On arrival they faced a 200-mile march to Three Pagodas Pass, where their work began.

Japanese support for the workforce was based on the provision of just 250 grams of rice per day and the prisoners were forced to build “rest” camps for the rising toll of sick and injured; but nothing could excuse the atrocious conduct of the Japanese guards.

Chalker recorded the pitiful state to which the Asian workers and the prisoners were reduced through overwork — up to 16 hours a day — malnutrition, malaria, Beriberi and jungle sores. Strong men became skeletal, scarcely able to walk, yet the guards beat them and devised humiliating and exhausting punishments, such as holding heavy rocks above their heads for hours or being tied to poles with cans of stones hung round their necks.

The most difficult section of the projected route lay in Kanchanaburi province in western Thailand. Chalker’s sketches and watercolours, and those of other artists among the prisoners — Philip Meninsky, Ashley George Old and Ronald Searle — were subsequently assembled as a record of the brutality of the Japanese regime.

Discovery of one of his drawings led to a thrashing. Learning of Chalker’s talent, the commander of his labour battalion ordered him to produce 20

The dysentry hut at Chungkai hospital camp, sketched by Chalker, below, while he was a theatre assistant working with the Australian surgeon Edward Dunlop TIM MERCER

drawings or paintings every day of jungle birds and flowers for him to send to his family in Japan.

In March 1943 Chalker fell sick and was sent down river from the Kanyu labour camp to the hospital camp at Chungkai, built to receive prisoners suffering from dysentery and dengue

fever. There was no element of sympathy here, only a requirement for the sick to recover quickly and return to work on the railway. An acute shortage of medical supplies obliged the doctors — themselves prisoners — and inmates to use every scrap of material they could scrounge to devise hospital equipment.

It was here that Chalker met the Australian surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel Edward “Weary” Dunlop — nicknamed at school from the advertising slogan, “Dunlop tyres never wear out”.

A man of indomitable determination and physical presence, Dunlop was operating daily on prisoners in urgent need of the amputation of infected limbs. He welcomed Chalker as a theatre assistant and also used his drawing skills to design crutches and articulated prostheses.

This work helped Chalker to deal with the overwhelming sense of hopelessness — at a time when there was no end to captivity in sight. Ingenuity over concealing his drawings and paintings in sections of bamboo buried in hut floors or hidden in atap roofing brought a new dimension to his existence. In June 1944, when he was about to be transferred to a camp at Nakhon Pathom, he recovered those of his drawings that had survived and was able to conceal them in his haversack until liberation came in September 1945.

The son of a railway station master who had received the MBE for work in the transportation of British troops in

the First World War, Jack Bridger Chalker was born in London in 1918. He was unable to take up a scholarship to the Royal College of Art because of his enlistment, but the college accepted him on demobilisation and he graduated RBA in 1951. His interest in medical art flourished and he was eventually elected a fellow of the Society of Medical Artists of Great Britain and awarded an honorary degree by the University of the West of England in 2003.

Exclusive to members

A gallery of artwork

by Jack Chalker On tablet and at thetimes.co.uk/obituaries

He was married three times. Ann Nixon became his first wife at the beginning of the war. They had a son, Guy, who is a retired customs officer. Divorced in 1957, Chalker had another son, Adrian, who runs a travel company, and a daughter, Dion, by his second wife Jill, who died. He married Helene Merrett-Stock in 1965. She survives him, as do all his children.

Immediately after his release in 1945, Chalker worked as a war artist with the Australian army in Thailand. Some of his drawings were used as evidence at the trials of Japanese officers and

NCOs charged with war crimes. His feelings towards his former tormentors were mixed, varying between disgust at their cruelty and compassion for their brutalisation under the Japanese culture of Bushido, the so-called Samurai code of frugality, loyalty to the Emperor and honour unto death that reduced the status of those who surrender in battle to worthlessness.

He published two books: Burma Railway Artist (1994) and Burma Railway: Images of War (2007). A BBC documentary dealing with the reconciliation of former prisoners with their Japanese captors, screened earlier this year, also drew on his illustrations.

After his graduation from the Royal College of Art, he taught art history at Cheltenham Ladies’ College until becoming principal of the West of England College of Art in 1957. On retirement from that post in 1985, he worked as a medical illustrator, finally settling in Bleadney, Somerset, where he became well known for his informal talks on the years he spent as a prisoner of the Japanese.

Chalker’s sense of humour and skill as a raconteur remained with him to the end of his life, as did his love of portrait painting and quickly sketching faces, which he would do sitting in a car outside a supermarket.

Jack Chalker, war artist and medical illustrator, was born on October 10, 1918. He died on November 15, 2014, aged 96

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

41

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Register

Mary Burkett

Formidable patron of the arts who established the Abbot Hall gallery in Cumbria and was a tireless supporter of the region’s artists PHIL RIGBY/CUMBRIA LIFE

As Cumbria’s grand landscapes and lively communities created new generations of artists, writers and poets, few, if any, escaped the notice of Mary Burkett. For 20 years she was director of the Abbot Hall art gallery in Kendal and a stalwart champion of artistic talent in the region.

A determined woman, skilled at networking her way among those with funds and influence, she transformed Abbot Hall, a grade I listed Georgian building, into an art gallery of national standing making numerous significant acquisitions. Barbara Hepworth’s Trezion, Romney’s The Gower Children and The Great Picture triptych were notable among them.

Burkett had a positive attitude to dealing with delicate issues, insisting to any doubters “you have to put your head above the parapet” — and for more than 60 years her head remained visible, a doughty figurehead to Cumbrian culture. Although modest about her own work she wrote the biographies of 12 Cumbrian artists. One was based on letters exchanged with Percy Kelly, a “troubled genius” to whom she spent much of her time giving encourage-

Having inherited the hall, she wanted to turn it into a colony of artists

Burkett outside Isel Hall, a building she lovingly restored and which was ranked as one of Britain’s thousand best houses

ment. Burkett’s gaze was straight and unswerving. “No one dared say no to Mary,” her close friend Melvyn Bragg once said, and Simon Jenkins ranked her home, Isel Hall near Cockermouth, among England’s 1,000 best houses.

Jenkins added that she had been described to Prince Charles as “the maddest woman in Cumbria” — a wry tribute to her work in rescuing the house.

She inherited the hall, a 14th-century pele tower in grounds overlooking the River Derwent, from a distant relative and had a vision of turning it into a colony of artists, writers and crafts people. The vision was never fully realised but Isel did become home to a

talented mix of her friends, among them the potter Edward Hughes, the sculptor Josephina de Vasconcellos, the Australian artist Nancy Tingey, the musicologist Finbar O’Suilleabhain and the art historian David Cross.

Mary Burkett was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1924. She obtained her BA teacher’s certificate at St Hild’s College, Durham, and first moved south to work as a teacher. She returned north to Cumbria in 1954 as an arts and craft lecturer at Charlotte Mason College in Ambleside.

In the early Sixties she set out with a friend in an old Land Rover on an adventure to Iran. Ten miles from

Kendal the vehicle broke down, but the pair were determined to succeed and, after repairing their transport, went on to spend several months exploring Iran, describing the experience in a jointly authored book, The Beckoning East.

The trip kindled a lifetime interest in felt and Burkett became a world authority on the woollen fabric, promoting artists who used it. Among them was Jenny Cowern, an exhibition of whose work was staged at Abbott Hall and of whom a biography, A Softer Landscape, was written by Burkett and Val Rickerby.

Her circle of friends was large, international and extraordinarily varied. In

letters exchanged with Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Joseph Stalin, Burkett was always addressed as “Dear Warrior” while Alfred Wainwright, the renowned Cumbrian curmudgeon who illustrated his famous series of books on Lake District rambling with meticulous drawings, she found to be “warm and funny once an initial frosty reserve was broken”.

She mounted three exhibitions of Wainwright’s work at Abbot Hall in the face of opposition from purists critical of his lack of formal art qualifications.

He was persuaded to donate the profits from one of his books to Abbot Hall and at times she chauffeured him on visits

to Hardnott and Ravenglass, encouraging his interest in Roman history, perhaps a wise move since Wainwright was at the time the Kendal borough treasurer. Her own keen interest in archaeology grew from digs with her friend Professor Rosemary Cramp, the eminent Durham archaeologist.

Burkett’s ability to spot artistic talent long before it had fully blossomed was particularly acute when she came across Sheila Fell, a young Cumberland artist from Aspatria, who had already been given an exhibition at Abbot Hall.

LSLowry, another of Burkett’s contacts, agreed that Fell deserved national recognition, describing her as “the greatest landscape painter of the century”.

After Fell’s early death in 1979, Burkett, with help from Lowry, staged a tribute to her at Abbot Hall and Cate Haste, the author and wife of Bragg, was invited to write a biography.

By 1986 when she retired from Abbot Hall, Burkett’s ceaseless enthusiasm for the art and history of Cumbria had spread into a whole range of like-minded organisations that benefited from her determined approach to “get things

She overcame opposition to stage exhibitions of Wainwright’s work done”. The Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry, set up by her in 1971, still flourishes and many other organisations and arts charities have benefited from her guidance or trusteeship, among them the Rosehill Theatre at Whitehaven and the Senhouse Museum with its fine collection of Roman artefacts at Maryport. History and art were the drivers that powered an astute woman who never married.

“Everybody’s mind needs art,” she declared, “whether they know it or not.”

Mary Burkett, OBE, arts patron, was born on October 7, 1924. She died on November 12, 2014, aged 90

Dorian Paskowitz Surfer who gave up his work as a doctor to embrace a nomadic lifestyle that included introducing the sport to Israel Even by the often outrageous standards of surfers, Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz was off the scale. Although a graduate of Stanford Medical School, Paskowitz eschewed a conventional professional life and became a trailblazer for the nomadic surfing lifestyle. He also fathered a large number of children, wrote books, set up what would become an internationally known surf school and introduced surfing to Israel.

A lifelong advocate of healthy living, Paskowitz surfed well into his old age.

A 1998 New York Times article described him as a “78-year-old whose body looks like that of a man 40 years younger”, but Paskowitz was still catching waves more than a decade later. “I can’t see anymore, so I catch waves by listening to the waves crash, the people laughing and having fun, and by feeling the ocean moving beneath me,” he told Surfer magazine in 2010.

Paskowitz was proud of his Jewish heritage. “I am very, very moved by being a Jew, and by what happened in Hitler’s Germany,” he said. “To me, as a Jew, to have this going on and not do anything, would be like you, as a surfer, paddling out and watching somebody drowning and not give them any aid.”

The son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, Dorian Paskowitz was born in Galveston, Texas, in 1921. He learnt to

OMER MESSINGER/NURPHOTO/REX

Paskowitz was surfing in his eighties

swim at the age of nine in typically unconventional fashion. “The Columbo brothers, surfers from Hawaii, used to hire out boards there for $1 a session,” said Matt Warshaw, the author of The Encyclopedia of Surfing. “Dorian would borrow 9ft boards from people when they’d finished. He’d hang on to them,

practising his surfing, until the brothers chased him down and got them back.”

When he was 13 Paskowitz’s family moved to California. In San Diego, with world class breaks on his doorstep, he honed his skills. He became a lifeguard at Mission Beach and was soon a regular in waters that have become household names in the surfing community — the San Onofre breaks of Lower Trestles and Old Man’s. He competed in his late teens, too, coming seventh in the 1939 Pacific Coast Surf Riding Championships and second in the 1941 Pacific Coast Surfing Championship.

“The cosmic force of San Onofre made me,” said Paskowitz. “In these waves I found a power that took a nice Jewish boy and made him a nobleman.”

Unlike many surfers, however, Paskowitz took his academic studies seriously. He spent a year at the University of Hawaii before deciding to be a doctor and enrolling, in 1940, at Stanford. Military service from 1946-47, during which he served aboard the USS Ajax, came after he qualified as a doctor.

Paskowitz returned to Hawaii and worked as the state’s public health officer from 1947 to 1952. Living on the island of Oahu, the home of some of Hawaii’s best surfing, he experienced more by way of career advancement than surfing nirvana. “These were the

worst years of my life. I deserted surfing and in its place I substituted ambition,” he said. His personal life was chaotic.

Marriages in 1942 and 1952 ended in divorce; he had children in and out of wedlock.

In 1956, Paskowitz turned his back on medicine. He gave up his apartment, lived in a station wagon and decided to dedicate his life to surfing. The same year came a remarkable trip to Europe with his friend Jack Haley, a no less charismatic surfer from Seal Beach, California. The pair took boards but only Paskowitz made it as far as Israel.

He surfed off the coast of Tel Aviv, where the locals had never seen anything like it.

In Israel, Paskowitz also embarked on a quest to sleep with 100 women. He got as far as Juliette, whom he married in 1959. Surfing has since blossomed in the country, and Paskowitz returned in 2007 under the aegis of Surfing for Peace, an organisation he helped to set up to promote a settlement between Israelis and the Palestinians.

The couple had nine children; not one attended school. Instead, having returned to America, the family lived in a mobile home and travelled the country, Paskowitz taking occasional jobs as a doctor while his wife educated their children at home. Their eccentric

life was chronicled in a documentary called Surfwise. Each child could surf well — two of his sons, Israel and Jonathan, became nationally known longboarders in the 1980s. But their lack of exposure to normal society took its toll.

His youngest son Joshua struggled with heroin addiction and said that Surfwise failed to capture “one per cent of how bad it was. Not even close.”

Paskowitz started what is now the Paskowitz Surf Camp in 1972. The school, which specialised in teaching surfing to young people with personality and drug disorders, was respected and popular. Clothes designer Tommy Hilfiger became a corporate sponsor in 1997; the Paskowitzes became celebrities, known as “the first family of surf”.

He wrote a book, Surfing and Health, which was published in 1997. Another book, Surfing and Sex: How to choose a Mistress, did not find a publisher. He is survived by Juliette and his children.

In 1991, he was inducted in the International Surfing Hall of Fame. “I may not have ridden as big a waves as some of these guys,” he said, “but nobody has ridden waves with a bigger heart than me.”

Dorian Paskowitz, surfer, was born on March 3, 1921. He died on November 10, 2014, aged 93

42

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Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

Television & Radio/Announcements Births, Marriages and Deaths

Today’s television BBC ONE

6.00am Breakfast 9.15 Don’t Mess with Me 10.00 Homes Under the Hammer 11.00 Claimed and Shamed 11.30 Channel Patrol 12.15pm Bargain Hunt 1.00 BBC News; Weather 1.30 BBC Regional News 1.45 Doctors 2.15 The Doctor Blake Mysteries 3.10 Escape to the Country 3.40 Glorious Gardens from Above 4.25 Flog It! 5.15 Pointless 6.00 BBC News 6.30 BBC Regional News 7.00 The One Show 7.30 EastEnders 8.00 Holby City 9.00 The Missing 10.00 BBC News 10.25 BBC Regional News 10.35 Imagine: The One and Only Mike Leigh 12.20am FILM: The Shooting Party (1985) 1.55-6.00 BBC News

BBC TWO

6.05am Homes Under the Hammer 7.05 Channel Patrol 7.50 Claimed and Shamed 8.20 Sign Zone 10.35 HARDtalk 11.00 BBC News 11.30 BBC World News 12.00 Daily Politics 1.00pm The A to Z of TV Gardening 1.15 Life in the Undergrowth 2.15 The Great British Bake Off 3.10 A Place to Call Home 3.55 The Rockford Files 4.45 Great British Railway Journeys 5.15 Vintage Antiques Roadshow 6.00 Eggheads 6.30 Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two 7.00 The Great Interior Design Challenge 8.00 MasterChef: The Professionals 9.00 Secrets of the Castle with Ruth, Peter and Tom 10.00 The Walshes 10.30 Newsnight 11.20 World’s Greatest Food Markets 12.20am-12.50 Sign Zone: Film 2014 3.55-6.00 BBC Learning Zone

5.00 Come Dine with Me 5.30 Coach Trip 6.00 The Simpsons 6.30 Hollyoaks 7.00 Channel 4 News 7.55 Turner Prize at 30 8.00 Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners 9.00 The Paedophile Next Door 10.00 Gogglebox 11.00 Skint 12.05am Poker 1.10 Cage Warriors 2.00 KOTV Boxing Weekly 2.25 Trans World Sport 3.25 The Grid 3.55 Anglesey Sandman Triathlon 4.20 SuperScrimpers 4.40 Location, Location, Location 5.35-6.20 Countdown

Sky1

6.00am The Real A&E 7.00 Greggs: More Than Meats the Pie 8.00 Futurama 9.00 NCIS: Los Angeles 11.00 Hawaii Five-0 1.00pm NCIS: Los Angeles 3.00 Obese: A Year to Save My Life USA 4.00 Greggs: More Than Meats the Pie 5.00 The Simpsons 5.30 Futurama 6.30 The Simpsons 8.00 The Flash 9.00 NCIS: Los Angeles 10.00 Britcam: Emergency on Our Streets 11.00 Legends 12.00 NCIS: Los Angeles 1.00am Hawaii Five-0. Double bill 3.00 NCIS: Los Angeles 4.00-6.00 Stargate Atlantis

BBC World

6.00am Good Morning Britain 8.30 Lorraine 9.25 The Jeremy Kyle Show 10.30 This Morning 12.30pm Loose Women 1.30 ITV News; Weather 2.00 Peter Andre’s 60 Minute Makeover 3.00 Secret Dealers 4.00 Tipping Point 5.00 The Chase 6.00 Regional News 6.30 ITV News 7.00 Emmerdale 7.30 Live Uefa Champions League: Manchester City v Bayern Munich (Kick-off 7.45) 10.00 ITV News at Ten 10.30 Regional News 10.40 Uefa Champions League: Extra Time 11.40 The Cube 12.40am Jackpot247 3.00 Loose Women 3.50 ITV Nightscreen 5.05-6.00 The Jeremy Kyle Show

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

Channel 4

Sky Sports 1

ITV London

6.55 Spanish Football Gold 7.10 Football’s Greatest Teams 7.40 Live Uefa Champions League: APOEL v Barcelona (Kick-off 7.45) 9.35 Football’s Greatest Players 10.05 Barclays Premier League Review 11.00 The Club That Vanished 12.00 PL Years: Man Utd’s Treble 2.00am FL72 Review 3.00 Barclays Premier League Review 4.00-6.00 PL Years: Man Utd’s Treble

Sky Sports 2

6.00am Cricket Classics 7.00 Sporting Greats 7.30 Barclays Premier League Legends 8.00 Cricket Classics 9.00 England’s Best Ashes Days 11.00 Cricket Classics 12.00 Sporting Greats 12.30pm Best of ICC WT20 1.00 Cricket Classics 3.00 Flintoff: The Ashes 2005 4.00 Sporting Greats 4.30 Best of ICC WT20 5.00 WWE: Smackdown 7.00 WWE Slam City 7.30 Best of ICC WT20 10.00 Sportswomen 10.30 Best of ICC WT20 1.00am England’s Best Ashes Days 3.00 Best Bits 5.00-6.00 Cricket Classics

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6.00am Tour de France a La Voile 7.00 Kiteboarding 7.30 Rise as One 8.00 Sporting Heroes: Gary Newbon Interviews Tanni Grey-Thompson 9.00 The Sky Sports Years 10.00 Time of Our Lives 11.00 Racing News 11.30 Kiteboarding 12.00 The Sky Sports Years 1.00pm Weber Cup Ten Pin Bowling 2.00 Tour de France a La Voile 3.00 The Sky Sports Years 4.00 Weber Cup Ten Pin Bowling 5.00 Sporting Greats 5.30 Sea Master Sailing 6.00 Sporting Heroes: Gary Newbon Interviews Tanni Grey-Thompson 7.00 Sporting Greats 7.30 Sea Master Sailing 8.00 The Sky Sports Years 9.00 Weber Cup Ten Pin Bowling 10.00 School of Hard Knocks 11.00 Beach Volleyball 1.00am Weber Cup Ten Pin Bowling 2.00 Sports Unlimited 3.00 Terrain Unleashed 4.00 Sea Master Sailing 4.30 Sports Unlimited 5.30-6.00 Rise as One

British Eurosport

6.20am The King of Queens 7.10 3rd Rock from the Sun 8.00 Everybody Loves Raymond 9.00 Frasier 10.00 Daily Brunch 11.00 Jamie’s Comfort Food 11.30 Come Dine with Me 12.00 Channel 4 News Summary 12.05pm Come Dine with Me 2.10 Countdown 3.00 Fifteen to One 4.00 Deal or No Deal

6.00am Football Gold 7.00 WWE: Afterburn 8.00 Soccer AM: Best Bits 9.00 Ford Monday Night Football 11.30 SPFL Round-Up 12.00 FL72 Review 1.00pm Barclays Premier League 2.00 Ford Monday Night Football 4.30 FL72 Review 5.30 Fantasy Football: Highlights 6.00 Barclays Premier League

7.30am ITU Triathlon World Cup 8.30 ITU World Championships: 25 Years 9.30 NFL Round-Up 10.00 Watts 10.05 Eurogoals 11.00 Horse Racing 11.15 Live Curling: Russia v Germany 2.00pm Uefa Youth League 2.45 Live Uefa Youth League: Manchester City v Bayern Munich (Kick-off 3.00) 5.00 Motorcycle Live Show 2014 6.00 Australian Football 7.30 Live Curling: Germany v Scotland 10.05 GT Academy 2014: Masterclass 10.15 Blancpain Sprint GT Series 11.15 Rally: Australasian Safari 12.15am-12.35 Horse Racing

Radio 4

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Radio 3

Today’s radio

5.30am News 5.43 Prayer for the Day 5.45 Farming Today 5.58 Tweet of the Day 6.00 Today 8.31 (LW) Yesterday in Parliament 9.00 The Reith Lectures 2014 9.45 (LW) Daily Service 9.45 Book of the Week 10.00 Woman’s Hour 11.00 Shared Planet 11.30 Soul Music 12.00 News 12.01pm (LW) Shipping 12.04 A History of Ideas 12.15 Call You and Yours 1.00 The World at One 1.45 Terror Through Time 2.00 The Archers (r) 2.15 Afternoon Drama: Lost in Mexico (r) 3.00 The Design Dimension 3.30 Mastertapes 4.00 Spin the Globe 4.30 A Good Read 5.00 PM 5.54 (LW) Shipping 6.00 News 6.30 Tom Wrigglesworth’s Hang-Ups 7.00 The Archers 7.15 Front Row 7.45 Syria: Bread and Bombs 8.00 Afghanistan: The Lessons of War 8.40 In Touch 9.00 All in the Mind 9.30 Document (r) 10.00 The World Tonight 10.45 Book at Bedtime 11.00 What the Future? 11.30 Today in Parliament 12.30am Book of the Week (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 The Forum 9.50 More or Less 10.00 World Update 11.00 News 11.06 Outside Source 12.00 News 12.06pm Outlook 1.00 News 1.06 The Inquiry 1.30 Discovery 2.00 Newshour 3.00 News 3.06 Business Daily 3.23 News About Ebola 3.30 Sport Today 4.00 The Newsroom 4.30 The Documentary 5.00 The Newsroom 5.30 World Business Report 6.00 World Have Your Say 6.50 News About Ebola 7.00 The Newsroom 7.30 Click.

Technological and digital news from around the world 8.00 News 8.06 The Inquiry 8.30 The Documentary.

Investigating global developments, issues and affairs 9.00 Newshour 10.00 The Newsroom 10.30 World Business Report. Informed analysis 11.00 News 11.06 Outlook 12.00 The Newsroom 12.20am Sports News 12.30 Click 1.00 News 1.06 Business Matters 2.00 The Newsroom 2.30 The Documentary 3.00 News 3.06 Outlook 4.00 Newsday 4.30-5.00 Click

6.30am Breakfast 9.00 Essential Classics 12.00 Composer of the Week: Manuel de Falla 1.00pm News 1.02 Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert. The pianist Steven Osborne plays Prokofiev and Rachmaninov 2.00 Afternoon on 3.

The Ulster Orchestra performs Sibelius, Pettersson and Gade, live from Belfast 4.30 In Tune. With Julian and Jiaxin Lloyd Webber and Alexandra Dariescu 6.30 Composer of the Week: Manuel de Falla (r) 7.30 Live Radio 3 in Concert. The Academy of Ancient Music performs works inspired by Paris and Vienna — Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp with Rachel Brown and Masumi Nagasawa, and Gluck’s ballet Don Juan 10.00 Free Thinking Festival Discussion. Matthew Sweet and guests discuss science fiction, space travel and knowledge 10.45 The Essay: Shaping the Air — Writers and Radio. The journalist and broadcaster Olivia O’Leary tells her life story through radio moments 11.00 Late Junction 12.30am-6.30 Through the Night

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the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

43

FGM

Games Bridge Andrew Robson

Reiver a. A raider b. A pulley c. A silver coin Dotterel a. A plover b. A senile fool c. A wooden peg Shagreen a. Upset, annoyance b. Sharkskin c. An alcoholic tincture

Dealer: West, Vulnerability: Neither Teams

♠9 7 6 3 ♥AQ 5 4 ♦A J 10 5 ♣A

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

W

♠Q J 5 ♥J 7 3 ♦9 8 6 ♣J 6 3 2

T2 CROSSWORD 1

N

Reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen has defended his title by winning the 11th game of the championship in Sochi, thus reaching the winning total of 6½ points. Carlsen retains the title until the next challenger emerges.

The 11th and decisive game was a curious struggle in which Carlsen appeared to be dominating the centre and enjoyed access to Black’s kingside, which had been weakened by pawn advances.

Nevertheless, Anand conjured up counterplay with an ingenious pawn sacrifice which Carlsen chose to decline. Anand continued imaginatively with a sacrifice of rook for bishop in order to create a dangerous passed pawn, but Carlsen contained Black’s ambitions and accurately capitalised on his material advantage.

White: Magnus Carlsen Black: Viswanathan Anand World Championship, Sochi (Game 11) 2014 Ruy Lopez 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6 4 0-0 Nxe4 5 d4 Nd6 6 Bxc6 dxc6 7 dxe5 Nf5 8 Qxd8+ Kxd8 9 h3 Bd7 Varying from 9 ... Ke8, played in games 7 and 9 of this match.

Anand’s plan is to create a refuge for his king on the queenside.

10 Nc3 h6 11 b3 Kc8 12 Bb2 c5 13 Rad1 b6 14 Rfe1 Be6 15 Nd5 g5

1 Carlsen 2 Anand

3 0 1

Contract: 6♥ , Opening Lead: ♠ A/♣7/♦4

andrew.robson@thetimes.co.uk

An extraordinary move which leaves a serious hole in the black camp on f6. However, has conceived of an ingenious method of counterattack and is not concerned by the apparent wound in his pawn structure.

16 c4 Kb7 17 Kh2 a5 18 a4 Ne7 19 g4 Ng6 20 Kg3 Be7 21 Nd2 Rhd8 22 Ne4 Bf8 23 Nef6 b5

________ árD 4 g D] àDk0 DpD ] ß D DbHn0] Þ0p0N) 0 ] ÝPDPD DPD] ÜDPD D IP] Û G D ) D] ÚD DR$ D ] ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ

7 8 9 0 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0

6½ 4½

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

No 6567

4

5

6

8 9 10

11 12

13

14

15

16 17

18

20

19

21

Killer No 4019 16

10

Solution to Crossword 6566 ACUS SU H O L A E L E AR A I M C T A T E Y A C N T HRA L L E Y A S E T T RA M K I G I C I AN N L E I GH T T U

B E N G A L I

T L E Y I NG C CH T

NG R MW A Y A M CAME O A NDRA

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.

How you rate 12 words, average; 16, good; 20, very good; 25, excellent

19

18

Typo (8) Waist measurement (5) Richard —, British actor (9) Mine (3) Short journey (4) River of Iraq (6) Trendy; in addition (4,2) Informer (6) Be understood (4,2)

A B A BR R L A G E

17

19

24

1 7 8 9 10 11 13 14 17

18 Intention; bequeath (4) 20 In good health (3) 22 Old Austrian currency (9) 23 Hibernian (5) 24 Maintain one’s seat (3,5) Down

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 12 13 15 16

Great power (5) Alpine cableway (3,4) Crack, break (4) Foolish person (6) Holds firmly (5) Nearly snow-coloured (7) Skimpy undergarment (1-6) Eg, native to Helsinki (7) English bishop and saint (7) Winding round (7) Jewish month; sir hit (anag.) (6) 17 Take off one’s clothes (5) 19 Delicate; illuminate (5) 21 Long narrow opening (4)

16

16

9

15 12

7

14

12

16

6

8

Fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. The digits within the cells joined by the dotted lines add up to the printed top left hand figure.

Within each dotted line ‘shape’, a digit CANNOT be repeated.

Codeword

No 2251

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.

4

19

17

19

14

15

22

8 20

14

9 10

14

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18

18

6

18

12

14

2

21

4

24

2

1

13

19

I

3

25

24

4

12

25

2

11

26

L

5

10 8

B

19 10

13

18

2

21

21 24

10

24

2

1

26

14

2

2

4

26

20

18

15

23 10

8

14

4

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24

21

12

16

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20

4

14

8

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21 24

21

23 24

19

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24

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9 7

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25 20

Winning Move solution

5

11

10

Reiver (a) A member of a border-raiding party (Scots and northern dialect).

Dotterel (a) A Eurasian plover with reddish-brown underparts and white bands around the head and neck.

Shagreen (b) The rough skin of certain sharks and rays, used as an abrasive.

7

17

22

16

10

Word Watching answers

22 9

7 11

7

3

4

10

Yesterday’s answers est, meet, mete, pee, pest, pet, see, seem, seep, seme, sept, septet, set, sett, steep, stem, step, stet, tee, teem, temp, tempest, tempt, test

7 5

Moderate 5min

6

23

Across

1 8

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

28

22

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

________ á DBDRD D] Winning Move à0pD Dpi ] ß D 4 DpD] Black to play. This position is a variation Anand-Carlsen, Sochi (Game 10) ÞD 0 D D ] from 2014. Ý h g D D] Anand could have achieved winning ÜD D D D ] chances in game 10 had he chosen a more ÛPD D )P)] forceful line at a key moment. However, ÚD DRD I ] he would have needed to be careful to ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ avoid this trap. How can Black win?

Solution right

3

Mild

5

7

UP R MA T WE

An astounding stroke. Now 24 axb5 a4 25 bxa4 Rxa4 and 24 cxb5 c6 both give Black strong counterplay so White prefers to decline the sacrifice.

24 Bc3 bxa4 25 bxa4 Kc6 26 Kf3 Rdb8 27 Ke4 Rb4 This is a major misjudgement.

After 27 ... Rb3 Black’s prospects are excellent.

28 Bxb4 cxb4 29 Nh5 Kb7 30 f4 gxf4 31 Nhxf4 Nxf4 32 Nxf4 Bxc4 33 Rd7 Ra6 34 Nd5 Rc6 35 Rxf7 Bc5 36 Rxc7+ Rxc7 37 Nxc7 Kc6 38 Nb5 Bxb5 39 axb5+ Kxb5 40 e6 b3 41 Kd3 Be7 42 h4 a4 43 g5 hxg5 44 hxg5 a3 45 Kc3 Black resigns

4 5 6 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 0

2

E

Pass 1♦(1) Pass 1♥ 1NT(2) 4♣(3) Pass 4♦(4) Pass 4♥ Pass 4NT(5) Pass 5♦(6) Pass 5♥ (7) Pass 6♥ (8) End (1) Playing Five-card Majors.

(2) As a passed hand, this shows the other two suits (it can’t be natural). The passed hand 1NT bid normally shows 5-5 in the other two suits, however. Most (red-blooded) humans would make a (skimpy) takeout double.

(3) Splinter – though North is barely worth it – showing a singleton (void) club and a raise to 4♥ .

(4) Control-showing bid (showing the king in partner’s suit is fine).

(5) Roman Key Card Blackwood (RKCB) agreeing hearts. Frankly, I’d have bid this a round earlier with South’s hand: the club splinter opposite is great news.

(6) Zero or three of “five aces” (incl. ♥ K) – playing “1430”.

(7) Signing off, in case partner has zero keycards (admittedly pretty unlikely).

(8) Must raise with three keycards – partner could hardly be using RKCB with no keycards at all.

World Championship, Sochi 2014 1 2 ½ 1 ½ 0

No 6567

Times Quick Crossword

Chess Raymond Keene Carlsen wins

Sudoku No 6978

Word Watching Paul Dunn

1 ... Bxf2+! 2 Kxf2 Rxd1 is winning for Black, e.g. 3 Bxb7 Rd2+ 4 Kf3 Rxa2.

The 18th World Computer Bridge Championships, held at Sanya, China, during the quadrennial World Bridge Series, was won by Shark Bridge, narrowly beating Micro Bridge in the Final. This was the critical board.

At the other table, Micro Bridge had stopped in 5♥ and made 11 tricks. Shark Bridge needed to bid to 6♥ then make it to take the trophy. They duly bid it – could they make it?

At the table, the Micro Bridge West led the ace of spades and play was over quickly. Declarer won the second spade, drew trumps in three rounds, cashed four diamonds throwing one club and (later) ruffed the other club. 12 tricks, slam made and the trophy.

Say West had led a give-nothing-away club (or, equivalently, his trump). Win dummy’s ace and cash the ace of hearts, seeing West’s ten. Using the Principle of Restricted Choice (West might have played the jack of hearts from ♥J10), lead a low heart and, when East plays low, finesse the eight (key play – a necessary risk).

Ruff a second club, cross to the queen of diamonds, ruff a third club, cross to the king of diamonds, draw East’s jack of hearts with your king and lead over to dummy’s ♦AJ, discarding a spade.

Just one spade is lost at the end – 12 tricks made – via seven hearts, four diamonds and a club.

The one opening lead that scuppers the slam is a diamond. This removes a precious entry to hand for the second club ruff and there’s simply no route to 12 tricks.

10

18

13

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20

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

2

3

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5

14

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18

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6

7

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26

I

L

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

9 7 4 8 6 1 5 3 2

8 2 6 9 3 5 7 1 4

6 8 9 2 1 3 4 7 5

No 6975

7 1 5 6 4 9 3 2 8

4 3 2 5 7 8 1 6 9

3 6 8 7 5 4 2 9 1

5 9 1 3 8 2 6 4 7

2 4 7 1 9 6 8 5 3

7 5 3 4 2 8 1 9 6

2 6 9 7 5 1 8 3 4

8 1 4 9 3 6 2 5 7

1 2 5 8 4 7 9 6 3

No 4017

9 8 7 1 6 3 4 2 5

3 4 6 2 9 5 7 1 8

6 9 1 5 8 4 3 7 2

4 3 2 6 7 9 5 8 1

5 7 8 3 1 2 6 4 9

D I V I D H M G A P P A L P E O P E R F OR Y I F L OWN B A AM I S S N N H J U S T I F O E N S T AG

No 2250

E A X I S N C D I NQU E S G U A M I N L E A R WE I RD O U BONAN Z E I D Y CROO E E W DUR I NG

S T A T E L A N K Y

44

FGM

times2 DARREN QUINTON / BPM MEDIA

Laurence, here’s the truth about Christmas Robert Crampton

L

aurence LlewelynBowen’s “magical immersive theatrical version of Santa’s grotto” has closed after just one day. Why? Because it’s crap. Why is it crap?

Because Christmasthemed winter wonderland Santa’s grotto whatsits are always crap. It’s a seasonal ritual: around about right now, a new marvellously magical Christmastastic grotto opens . . . and then immediately closes. Because it’s crap.

That said, Llewelyn-Bowen’s Warwickshire-based “Magical Journey” does sound extra-specially unusually crap. Smoking elves, foul-mouthed not-nearly-fat-enough Santas, broken-down decidedly unmagical trains? These may be standard features of the crap grotto offer — but a total lack of snow, fake or otherwise? That’s quite imaginatively crap, that is. In this context, I’m not sure I’ve heard of anything quite so crap before.

Ticket price per child? £22.50 or £17.50 depending on the day of the week. Sets half finished, rubbish and building materials lying around, queues unacceptably long, presents unacceptably cheap, tacky and unadorned — the elves no doubt too busy smoking to bother with any wrapping paper. Crying kids, disgusted parents, demands for refunds, the announcement of a three-day closure to overcome “teething troubles” — all the elements of a failed tourist attraction are in place.

Pretty much what you’d expect from a man who’s built a career on a staple gun, wavy hair and a funny accent.

The jihad goes up in smoke I enjoyed hearing about the French jihadi who, having travelled to Syria to sign up with Isis, then elected to

That said, I feel a measure of sympathy for the strangle-voiced small-screen decorator. The man has apologised and promised to put things right. But the fact is, Christmas — not just Santa’s grotty grotto, the whole shebang — is set up to fail. I’m pushed to think of any event — although the average music festival comes close — in which the prior fantasy so regularly and so hugely exceeds the grim reality.

Christmas occupies such a revered place in our national psyche (one might almost call it a religion) that any criticism of it is unwelcome — so I don’t suppose mine is a popular view.

It is, however, a rational one.

None of the three competing versions — Christian, Dickensian and consumerist — of Christmas can hope to make good on their promise. Peace on earth and goodwill to all men? Not going to happen, is it? Never has, never will. We can make efforts to journey towards such desirable outcomes, at Christmas or whenever, but those who imagine paradise will one day arrive — on December 25 or on any other day — are in for a major letdown.

The Dickens/Disney version of Christmas entails similar disappointment. It doesn’t snow in most of Britain in late December. It’s usually mild and wet. Most homes don’t have open fires any more.

No logs, no chimneys, no chestnuts.

Extended families bicker and grate.

Enforced jollity seldom succeeds. Most board games are paralysingly boring.

So is the Queen’s message. You’ve seen the film before. You’re chasing the dragon of some dim-remembered day when you were eight years old — and that day ain’t coming back.

The modern approach of naked consumerism won’t work either. The gluttony is regrettable and regretted, the debt is crippling, the gift almost always better wrapped and ribboned and full of future promise than it is opened and actual. The John Lewis ad has it right, only perhaps not in the way intended: it’s not a real baby penguin, it’s a stuffed toy facsimile of a real baby penguin.

Christmas cannot deliver anything close to what it says it can. Faced with that inexorable truth, poor old Laurence never really stood a chance, did he?

come back home because he couldn’t handle his new comrades-in-arms not allowing him to smoke, Islamist nut-jobs taking as dim a view of tobacco as every other human pleasure.

Flavien Moreau, 27, said he knew he might find the smoking ban tricky — presumably

especially so when the added stress of people shooting at him kicked in — which is why he’d taken a supply of nicotine gum along with him. Even so, he couldn’t hack going fag-free for longer than two weeks and decided to quit. The battlefield, that is, not the snouts.

Jay Z can outdo Band Aid I’m not surprised lots of people — even some of those people singing them — think the new Band Aid lyrics are patronising and inaccurate; the original ones were too. Africa, Bob Geldof and his chums informed us 30 years ago, is a continent “where nothing ever grows/No rain or rivers flow”. To which I say: you what?

A fair few things — plants, trees, crops, the usual stuff — grow like the clappers in much of Africa, thanks in part to the heavy rainfall, rainfall which finds its way into numerous rivers — the Nile, Congo, Orange, Zambezi, Volta, Niger and so forth. That couplet must rank as one of the stupidest ever set to music.

Although admittedly it’s not quite as daft as one mega-famous rapper’s geocentric homage to his favourite handgun: “My .38 revolve like the sun round da earth.” Not a big fan of Copernicus, that Jay Z dude.

I can’t help feeling a twinge of admiration for the man’s heroic lack of commitment.

“I dedicate my life to destroying the infidel and bringing about one united Islamic state . . . er, no, hang on, when I say ‘my life’, can I change that to ‘a fortnight’. OK? Anyone got a light?”

Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

‘Everyone here

The decision of a school in Leeds to teach English in the same way it would French has caused outrage, says Carol Midgley

W

hen Georgiana Sale announced that she would be teaching English as a foreign language at her Leeds secondary school a vicious postbag was swift to follow. She was, asserted the hate-mailers, a “wog lover” who should be sacked. She should send the pupils and their parents away. There were racist phone calls, too, but no one had the guts to leave their name.

The school principal’s “crime” was to address head-on the fact that about 85 per cent of her pupils, comprising some 55 different nationalities, do not have English as a first language and to come up with a practical solution to the problem. That solution was, from September this year, to go back to basics and teach English formally and grammatically as a foreign language in a similar way to how we may have learnt, say, German at school. Hers is the first school in the country to do this wholesale. The entire staff, from music to maths teachers, were sent on a training course that had to be specially designed as it had never been done on this scale before.

Which is why I am standing in a classroom at the Leeds City Academy on a Monday morning watching pupils learning the alphabet. A girl of 14 is placing counters on a Bingotype grid each time she recognises a letter until she gets a full house. On an adjacent table a boy of 12 is playing a type of literary snakes and ladders while sounding out letters. Two boys aged about 12 are placing lists of words such as cat and cup in alphabetical order. Every six minutes a bell chimes and the children move on to another table to tackle a different challenge. They are also being encouraged to recognise the difference between upper and lower cases.

It is the sort of thing you might see four and five-year-olds doing in primary schools. However, the reality is that for some teenagers here such rudimentary learning is imperative. As Sale says, a few pupils are illiterate in their own language, never mind in English. Some hail from places where their schooling has been patchy or nonexistent.

If the problem isn’t

dealt with now, they are destined to fail. There are children here from as far afield as Africa, Russia, the Middle East, Europe and India. Some are the children of political refugees, others are traumatised by conflict in their home country. Recently a pupil joined from Iceland. Even among those who were born here, many live in households where English isn’t generally spoken. It is estimated that more than a million children in England do not use English as their first language, double the figure in 1997.

What seemed to incense the trolls and haters — aside from this being “proof” of the education system going soft or being politically correct — was the (incorrect) assumption that all children, regardless of where they were born, would have these sort of very basic lessons. It is true that all pupils have the extra English lessons but different classes cater to different levels of ability. Children attend whatever class matches their competence. Hence in another classroom the maths teacher Onene Osarolla is showing a group of 11, 12 and 13-year-olds with a better grasp of English how to use connectives in complex sentences. Next door an advanced class of children of mixed ages is using Benjamin Zephaniah’s Face to explore literary techniques and to expand their vocabulary. They are looking at the use of onomatopoeia and juxtaposition. At a time when the Department for Education has placed greater emphasis on the correct use of grammar in exams, the idea is that it will benefit all pupils.

As we walk through the bright corridors of the school where signs on the wall are translated into various languages, Sale says that it would have been ignoring the elephant in the room not to tackle the language problem.

There is, she says, little point teaching children about the metaphysical poets if they struggle to hold a conversation in English. “They are never going to get GCSE history unless they can speak English.” She wants them not wa only to speak English but be En grammatically correct when they do so. Her ambitions for them are high.

“Children will always pick up language but often it is pidgin English — the En tenses might be wrong or they don’t use conjunctives properly — which might get them a job as a cleaner or [driving] taxis but it probably wouldn’t get pr them much further.”

Many years ago there was more formal teaching of English grammar in

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

45

FGM

times2

learns English as a second language’ TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER STEVE MORGAN

Many pupils with a language barrier who do go on to university often don’t do so until they are 23 or 24. Their progression is delayed. “I’m not deluded about this. Some of them [the current pupils] will probably go on and start their A levels when they are 18 . . . but it’s about closing that gap”.

Frank Monaghan, of the National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum (Naldic), has said that there is no evidence that schools or pupils did badly because the cohort spoke more than one language. “Children need to be aware that they live in a multilingual world and that the vast majority of the world’s population operates in at least two languages.

We are doing children a disservice to think they are somehow living in the 1950s. There are massive cognitive benefits to children who operate bilingually. We praise children to the roof who can go into a shop in France and ask for a baguette but this is trivial when you consider learning A-level chemistry through a second language,” he said.

Some here are the children of political refugees, others are

People do not realise what riches these children bring

schools and grammar plays a large role in learning a foreign language, such as German or Latin. This may be why some say that a well-taught foreigner often speaks English better than people born here. While there is still some grammar taught in English lessons, what this school is offering is more of it and at a much more basic level for those who need it.

“There is a differentiated set of lessons. With children who may be illiterate even in their own language we cover things such as the alphabet and for all pupils we cover phonetics.

At other levels . . . we do more complex, advanced work such as the analysis of text and high-level vocabulary.

Michael Gove brought about increased rigour in GCSEs. He said: ‘We are expecting pupils to write good English to prepare them for their adult lives in work.’ Many native English speakers aren’t speaking the sort of English that will get them those sort of results. They are speaking English that will get them a C level but these children are clever. I don’t want to get them Cs. I want to get them As and A*s.”

Sale, who is also an educational consultant, has an expertise in leading challenging schools and has been a lead Ofsted inspector, came here three years ago to try to improve its results.

Last year about a quarter of its GCSE pupils achieved the national benchmark of five good grades including English and maths, and an Ofsted report said a “large majority of students enter the school with skills in reading, writing and numeracy that are well below those expected for their age. This remains a significant limiting factor for students’ achievement overall despite the school’s effective early screening, which accurately identifies their needs.”

As we walk through the school she breaks off to admit a poorly child, a boy of about 15, to the sick bay. She is sanguine when asked if the hate mail bothered her. She received far more letters of support than criticism, she says, including from university professors and the playwright Alan Bennett, who went to school in Leeds.

She thinks the news broke this year just as immigration was high on the news agenda. She says Ukip made a reference to the school and to her on social media.

Yet aren’t the people who rang the school attacking her precisely the same sort of people who would complain about foreigners not bothering to learn English? “Yes, but this is nothing to do with logic. This is to do with an emotional response — ‘there are too many foreigners here’.

Well, I can’t send them away; it is against the law for me to do that. The prime [task] of a head teacher is to give the pupils the diet they need. So I can have all the children in and do nothing about it . . . or I can do something about it.”

Many other UK schools, of course, teach English as a foreign language to some pupils but this tends to be done on a much smaller scale, for example, taking a few pupils out of a PE lesson to have extra tuition. No school has before offered across-the-board lessons. This school, which has fewer than 400 pupils, is unusual in that children who have just arrived from other countries join it at all times of the year. Since the start of September alone she has taken on more than 60 extra pupils, some of whom speak English but most don’t.

She discovered that there wasn’t a course she could buy off the shelf to teach English this way as she could to teach, say, French or Spanish. “They are produced abroad, of course, where English is a foreign language. I did look at a few of these; the best one I found was Libyan but I didn’t feel it was quite right. So we have had to design this course from scratch as well as finding a way to diagnose exactly where a pupil is in using the English language.”

Georgiana Sale, principal of Leeds City Academy, left: “These children are clever. I don’t want to get them Cs. I want to get them As and A*s”

traumatised by conflict in their home country. One side-effect of having poor English is that children have tended to stick to their own cultural groups. The number of free school meals here is more than double the national average and it is, says Sale, an area of high economic deprivation. However, Sale adds, people “do not realise what riches these children bring”.

Many pupils’ parents have been part of groups fighting for democracy and freedom. “If there’s an election and they hear people haven’t voted they are amazed, absolutely disgusted!” she says. “You ought to hear some of the discussions we have, discussions about right and wrong . . . about dictators, political ideas, what is truth. In other schools I have worked in these have just been hypothetical things.” Most have a faith, most have a family with whom they sit down and eat a meal each night together, most have parents who value education extremely highly and push them to take it seriously.

“These are the riches people don’t talk about,” she says.

She believes that after Christmas they will begin to see higher standards in English, though some of the teachers I spoke to said they were seeing improvements already.

However, having set the changes in place, Sale won’t be here. She will leave the school she loves at the end of the year, satisfied that rates of progress have improved since she arrived. At age 60 she feels the time is right to hand over to someone else.

“The children describe the school as a family, which is lovely,” she says. “I feel my job here is done.”

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Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

times2

Posh girls in riding boots and pink bikinis: my year at Tatler The BBC’s fly-on-the-wall has everyone talking. Giles Coren says it was more fun 15 years ago — when he worked there

I

f the fly-on-the-wall documentary about life at Tatler magazine that began last night on BBC2 had been made 15 years ago, it would have been so much better. There would still have been rarely terrific elocution (honestly, rarely, rarely terrific), lashings of totes amazeballs parties and hectares of posh totty, but there would also have been . . . me!

For I was once Tatler totty myself.

Towards the end of the last century, stuck in a grim desk job at the Mail on Sunday, I had telephoned the deputy editor of Tatler for a quote for a story on Tara Palmer-Tomkinson (remember her?), when she said, apropos of nothing (everything Tatler people say is always apropos of nothing), “Do you want a job at Tatler?”

“Doing what?” I asked.

“Well, nobody does anything much here,” she said. “You’d be editing a thing called ‘Tatler About Town’, which is a review section full of pieces written by the editor’s friends, which you’re not allowed to change even though they’re total rubbish, so most of the time you’ll be having long lunches, going to parties and copping off with posh girls. We can only pay you 40 thousand a year, which is probably half what you’re getting at the Mail but . . .”

“I can start on Monday,” I said.

And I did.

And so began the best year of my life. A year in which I learnt three very important lessons: 1) A job can be fun.

2) I’m not really a journalist.

3) Posh girls are filthy.

And when I say ‘fun’ I mean FUN. Newspapers in the 1990s were for the

most part grim, windowless tram sheds in the middle of nowhere, full of angry middle-aged men trying to cling on to their jobs in a dying industry.

But Tatler was on the second floor of Vogue House, slap in the heart of the West End and positively bursting with girls. The place was full of natural light and the smell of expensive perfume.

And my desk was right by a window looking over the trees of Hanover Square towards Bond Street. Not that I ever looked out of it. Because the view inside was so much better. I just used to sit there all day in a puddle of my own drool, wearing three pairs of underpants just in case I was called upon to stand up.

“What are the girls like?” My old

Martha jumped out of a cupboard shouting ‘look at my pompoms!’ friends at The Times used to ask me in those terrible awful sexist days when women were sometimes treated as mere sex objects by young men who didn’t know better.

“Nothing special,” I used to say.

“They’re just beautiful young women who went into journalism because their breasts were too big for modelling.”

You could say things like that at Tatler, then. Because posh girls don’t give a damn. And anyway the sex bombs of whom I speak were for the most part both brilliant journalists and

so far above me in the social peckingg order that I might as well have been a dog barking as a man (although only the travel editor was allowed to bring her dogs in — Kenzo and Prada, I think they were called, tiny things, likee guinea pigs in drag).

Among these I would include Kate Reardon, the current editor and star of the series. Back then she was beauty editor or horse correspondent or jewellery manager or something, but her occasional presence in the office (nobody was what you would call “full time”) was alone enough to make me iron a shirt in the morning. And then there was Melinda Stevens, now editor of Condé Nast Traveller (“the sainted one” we used to call her — me and my friend Alan, a sub-editor and about the only other straight man under 60 in the building.) And of course there was the smoking-hot social editor (the one who wrote the blurbs for the stomachturning party photos at the back), Clare Wentworth Stanley, later the Marchioness of Milford Haven (or possibly Clare Milford Haven, Marchioness of Wentworth Stanley) and a whole string of Rachels and Lulus and Carolines who flitted about like so many well-spoken butterflies, endlessly tripping in from the fashion department in nothing but a pair of riding boots and a pink bikini and asking me if it “worked”.

Now, although many of the staff did go on to great things in the business (I should also mention Lucy Yeomans who became editor of Harper’s Bazaar, and the fact that the aforementioned Alan is now a senior executive of this very newspaper) there was also a fair degree of, um, shall we say, intellectual torpidity.

Such as when, thanks to the minis ministrations of my young assistant Stefanie Marsh (now the revered Times feature writer Stefanie Marsh), we got Hunter S Thompson to write our ‘Tatler About Town’ cover story (a 1,000-word sex and polo bonkbuster) and I had to go to a very senior editor to ask if we could pay £1 per word for it, what with Hunter being the most famous journalist in the world. I remember her response verbatim to this day.

“Hunter who?” She said. “I’ve told you Giles, we can only pay money like that for really big names. Like Reggie Nadelson.”

Telling Hunter S Thompson, on the phone, that he’d have to bend on price because he wasn’t a big name like Reggie Nadelson was one of the lowlights of my professional life.

“If I had you here, I’d f***ing shoot your eyes out,” he said. I literally hid under my desk for a whole morning.

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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times2 FRONT COVER: TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER SIMON JESSOP, REX FEATURES

Paddington — why it’s really a movie for grown-ups

By Alex O’Connell

But then Martha from fashion jumped out of a cupboard in a cheer-leader’s outfit, shouting “look at my massive pompoms!” and I forgot all about it.

I’d like to tell you that I cut a fleshy swathe through the office of Tatler.

And it’s not as if I didn’t try. But I’m afraid I got no further than a couple of snogs and the odd “blowie” — to use house terminology — because most of the girls had come either to do proper journalism (like those aforementioned) or to cop off with someone much, much more glamorous than a runty little hack from north London.

Someone like Ben Fogle, for example, who arrived as a very junior picture researcher halfway through my time there, to a sickening fanfare of female swoons. Initially, I feared the most cataclysmic cock-blocking of my run at the low-hanging fruit, but in the end the staff member Ben most memorably swiped off me was old Peter Townend, the famous society-watcher, debutante wrangler and adviser-on-terribly-importantissues for Tatler. Peter used to take me every Friday afternoon to get drunk

Giles Coren in the 1990s, above left. He enjoyed a year at Tatler after ringing the magazine for a quote for a story on Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, above; the current team, including editor Kate Reardon, top centre

at the Chopper Lump, and tell me how dreadfully common everyone was apart from the field marshal’s daughter who ran the subs desk.

But he dropped me like a hot potato with no caviar in it the moment Ben arrived.

I talk of hot potatoes with caviar because that was what we senior executives always ate over lunch meetings at a place down some Mayfair backstreet whose name I forget, but which is now long gone.

Can that be true? Can there have been caviar and potato restaurants in London in the late 1990s? And can we really have gone to them? I think we did. But we tended to go for the cheaper “pressed caviar” option at only £70 a pop.

But I won’t mock it, because they were golden times. The editor, Jane Proctor, herself both bonkers and brilliant, presided over the liveliest office I have ever known, where, if bonkersness was the rule, brilliance was also abundant enough. As in the person of the late John Graham, a white-haired Old Etonian former war reporter who wrote on bridge and cocktails from the bottom of a claret bottle and treated all the girls with the respect and love of a grandfather. If you made a film about the place, you’d call it The Devil Wears Barbour.

It is true that not much work went on. But it never does on monthlies.

Indeed, it was very important to do nothing at all for three weeks so as to generate one week a month where there was a bit of pressure and then one single afternoon (which they laughably called “press night”) where you actually had to stay as late as six or seven o’clock (mostly drinking vodka and cackling over grotesque sexual headlines you knew you couldn’t get away with).

This created an astonishing journalistic slowness during the rest of the month, the like of which I have never seen anywhere else. Because while most journalists are trained to write any piece up to 1,500 words in less than three hours, including research and phone calls, what happened at Tatler was that senior writers would conduct an interview at Claridge’s, then hand the tape to a young girl who couldn’t type, who would eventually deliver a transcription of the interview, which the writer would then spend the whole of the following month trying to turn into an article, sitting at her desk, day after day, wrapped in a pink pashmina, crying. (Pashminas were huge back

then — a dealer who charged only £100 per shawl used to visit the office once a fortnight with new colours).

And it wasn’t just the girls. As editor of my section I was responsible for the restaurant critic, an excellent man and a very good writer, who also took many days to crap out his meagre handful of sentences. As “press day” approached, he would turn off his mobile phone, unplug his home line, and refuse all contact with the world, sweating over 600 words about some tedious restaurant for which he wasn’t getting more than a couple of hundred quid anyway.

One month, when I’d had enough, I cycled over to his big house in Hammersmith, was let in by the maid, went up to his study and stood over him while he wrote it, shouting, “Come on! Come on!” After that he stepped down from the job, and I took over as restaurant critic. Which I suppose was rather my ticket out of there.

But I would go back in an eye-blink

When I had finished hooting, I fell asleep under my desk if I thought they’d have me. Quite apart from anything else, no other publication has been as tolerant of me, personally, and all my own failings as Tatler.

One afternoon, for example, quite late in my time there, a girlfriend called up to speak to me and was told

by Stefanie that unfortunately I was too drunk to come to the phone.

“Oh my God,” said my girlfriend. “Is he unconscious drunk?”

“Drunker,” said Stef.

“Don’t tell me he’s one-arm-pressups drunk?”

“I am sorry to have to tell you,” said Stef, “that he is sweater-pulled-overhis-knees-perched-on-the-editor’sdesk-hooting-like-an-owl drunk.”

And when I had finished hooting, I fell asleep under my desk for the rest of the afternoon and the whole of the night. And the next morning, when all those beautiful, smart, rather eccentric young women fluttered like budgerigars into work in their brightly coloured pashminas, nobody even mentioned it.

Posh People: Inside Tatler goes out on Mondays on BBC Two at 9pm

D

arling, didn’t you love how authentic Paddington looked — like one of Werner Herzog’s bears, not a boring old cartoon character? Oh, and wasn’t it so funny? Didn’t it remind you of The Mighty Boosh? It’s the same writer/director, you know?

Paul King. And wasn’t the wallpaper in the Browns’ bedroom gorgeous! It looked like that hand-printed Chinese stuff that costs about a squillion pounds per roll. I kept thinking I can’t believe that they haven’t really converted Paddington’s attic by now — I mean it is 2014 and the house is in Notting Hill. It’s crying out for a wet room.

And they played the Mission: Impossible music! Ironically! While Nicole Kidman swung from a rope into the Natural History Museum! Did you love that? I did. And the songs the street performers were playing?

London is the Place for Me [hums song]. It’s Trinidadian calypso! When the Empire Windrush, an old troop carrier, arrived at Tilbury docks on June 21, 1948 and inaugurated modern Caribbean immigration to Britain it also supplied calypso with a famous image — on Pathé newsreel — of Lord Kitchener singing that song.

It’s brilliantly used in the film because it reinforces the point about Paddington being a new immigrant — which is particularly pertinent at the moment with immigration policy being such a hot potato and an election around the corner.

At the premiere on Sunday the children sat transfixed — but it was the parents who laughed the loudest.

It is the perfect storm for this sort of cross-generational cultural theft: it has lashings of nostalgia, a clever contemporary script (Mr Brown is a hedge-fund manager), weather jokes, and it makes London look like a place you’d want to live in (so life-affirming!).

Poor kids, they can’t have anything to themselves any more. We take their pop music — the former soundtrack of rebellion — and play it in our people carriers. And now we’re almost certainly going to take the new Paddington film, out on Friday.

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Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

body&soul

Don’t think that you’re immune to STIs just because you’re over 40 Dr Mark Porter

S

exually transmitted infections are traditionally considered to be a plague upon the young, but older men and women, particularly those returning to the dating game, should take note of the latest infection report from Public Health England. While the under-25s still account for the bulk of new cases, rates of some of the more common infections are rising fastest in the over-35s.

Just because you may have forgotten about a threat doesn’t mean it’s no longer there. Take genital herpes, once etched on the consciousness of those of us who spent our formative sexual years during the Seventies and Eighties; it seems to have dropped off the awareness radar. Yet far from disappearing, along with gonorrhea, syphilis and chlamydia, the number of new cases of genital herpes has soared in recent years, and it is the over-35s who are leading the way with a 37 per cent increase in new infections over the past five years, compared with a 19 per cent jump in the under-25s.

Perhaps the most startling statistic relates to another all too often forgotten foe — HIV/Aids. We may not discuss it as much as we did in the Eighties and Nineties but it is still out there, and worringly common. More than 100,000 people are living with HIV/Aids in the UK, a third of whom are women, half are over 35, and heterosexual sex is now the most common way to catch the virus.

Meanwhile, among gay and bisexual men living in London, around one in eight is now HIV positive.

It is not all bad news. Rates of infection with genital warts seem to be flat in the over-35s and falling slightly

GETTY IMAGES

among the young thanks to the introduction of the routine immunisation of teenage girls against the causative human papillomavirus (HPV). It is, though, still a huge problem with 74,000 new cases of genital warts diagnosed in 2013 in England alone, around a fifth of whom were over the age of 35. And warts aren’t the only problem associated with HPV — it also triggers cancerous change (of the cervix, vulva, penis, anus and mouth) in a small proportion of those who catch it.

Infections — and cancer — are not the only potential consequences of unsafe sex. Unplanned pregnancy is a

constant threat too. Although the number of abortions in younger women in the UK is finally starting to fall, it has remained pretty constant over the past decade in older women.

In 2013, 27,327 abortions were carried out in women over the age of 35, and for around half of them it wasn’t the first time their contraception had let them down and they had to resort to such drastic action.

What is clear from the latest STI and abortion data is that it is not just the young who need to be careful.

Older couples — gay or straight — are putting their health and wellbeing at risk because they are not taking

enough precautions. Contraception for older couples has been transformed in recent years thanks to the introduction of safe, effective long-term methods such as implants and Mirena (a “coil” impregnated with hormone), but neither offers any protection against sexually transmitted infections and I still advise my single older patients, or those returning to the scene, to go double-dutch and use condoms on top of an effective contraceptive. Your fertility may not be what it used to be when you were younger, but the consequences of an unplanned pregnancy, or a “dose” of something unpleasant, will be just as devastating.

If you have put yourself at risk from an STI then talk to your GP or practice nurse about being tested. And if you are too embarrassed to mention it to them, as many older patients are, then contact your local sexual health clinic who will see and treat you in complete confidence and won’t inform your doctor unless you want them to.

To find the nearest one visit the Find Services section of NHS Choices at www.nhs.uk

Sexually transmitted infections: the facts 0 There were 450,000 new diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections in England during 2013 0 Chlamydia was the most common STI, accounting for nearly half the cases 0 Rates vary significantly with ethnic group. Asians are at lowest risk, Black African Caribbeans at highest 0 Urban areas tend to have higher infection rates than rural ones

QA My son has had eczema since he was a baby. It’s not bad enough to bother him much with itching or soreness, but he is embarrassed about the appearance of his skin when swimming. Have there been any advances, or is it still moisturisers and steroids?

There are new creams and ointments (the immune modulators tacrolimus and pimecrolimus) but perhaps our biggest advance is a better understanding of the best way to use more established types.

Steroid creams clear up eczema, moisturisers keep it away. If you try to treat flare-ups with only a moisturiser you are unlikely to succeed.

We now know that you only need to use steroid creams once a day and that it is best to hit hard to get the disease under control, rather than dib and dab when the skin looks sore. A good regime for your son’s skin might be to apply moisturiser in the morning and steroid ointment at night for two to three weeks and then to continue with the moisturiser alone.

You can carry on using the steroid for two days a week to maintain control in difficult cases, but check with your GP first.

If you have a health problem, email drmarkporter @thetimes.co.uk

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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body&soul

Fancy a massage or a bit of Botox with your root canal work today?

New dental spas offer hotel-style pampering and concierge services.

As well as fixing your teeth they’ll also treat your face, says Peta Bee

GETTY IMAGES

I

f the concept of relaxation and luxury at your local dentist’s surgery extends to a fish tank and water cooler in the corner of the waiting room, then you clearly don’t live in Crewkerne.

This moneyed enclave of Somerset is home to actors, former pop stars and ex-politicians, none of whom mind paying well above the local odds to live within a lava stone’s throw of voguish Frome and its celebrity country hangout, Babington House. It follows that Crewkerne is also home to the country’s plushest dental practice, an environment so serene that it sees regulars travel for miles to be thoroughly pampered while someone works on their root canal.

Step inside the Black Swan Dental Spa, set amid upmarket vintage shops and health stores in Crewkerne’s bustling centre, and you might be forgiven for thinking you had entered the Cowshed Spa. There is a waft, not of sterilising chemicals, but of incense and scented candles. Glamorous receptionists escort you to a room with hardwood floors, stylish gilt mirrors and overstuffed, turquoise leather sofas where you can watch what you like on a flat-screen television. You are handed a drinks menu from which you can select from a long list of “tooth-kind” options including herbal teas, flavoured waters and low-sugar juices. As staff scurry to prepare your order, and just when you thought things couldn’t get any better, you are offered a complimentary paraffin hand wax and some luxury lip balm.

By the time you are ready for your consultation — in a suitably swish room, walls painted in muted colours — you can barely remember why you were there in the first place. And that, says director Dr Ahmad Nounu, is the point of the emerging trend for dental spas. They are intended to be such emporiums of peace and tranquillity that you forget about the drill. At the Black Swan, the pampering extends to providing pure wool blankets and warm lavender neck wraps to ensure that clients don’t feel chilly during treatment. Shiatsu massage cushions are slipped behind their backs in the dentist’s chair and they are given DVD glasses to wear while their mouths are being probed. It has been astonishing how many newcomers have been

lured by the opportunity to catch up with missed episodes of Downton Abbey, Nounu says. “About half of all our clients ask what films we have when they first call,” he says. “They’ve heard from friends but don’t quite believe you can get all this at a dentist.”

Nounu came up with the ideas for his practice, which opened two years ago, after coming across similar set-ups in New York and California.

“Internationally, there is a big move towards making a visit to the dentist a more pleasurable experience,” he says.

“There’s no reason why people should be wary of having essential dental treatment, but the idea that it can actually be enjoyable is only just catching on in the UK.” Until now, anyone wanting the tooth-spa experience was forced to travel to European clinics such as Grand Resort Bad Ragaz or Clinique La Prairie in Switzerland. Yet with medical spas — where doctors work alongside complementary therapists and beauticians — having been the fastest growing sector of the spa industry over the past decade, it was only a matter of time before dentists here followed suit. A growing number of British clinics now offer spa treatments, from massages to facials and manicures.

“A lot more surgeries are emphasising relaxation,” says David Arnold, spokesperson for the British Dental Health Foundation. “If it makes people want to go to the dentist more often and if it means they are less wary of treatment, then we are fully supportive.”

We have some way to go before

After becoming popular in America and Europe, dental spas are now opening in Britain

meeting the expectations of US dental clients. There, some patients are treated to hotel-style concierge services where staff will make your dinner reservations, take your mobile calls, sort out babysitting or dog-sitting and order in food for you — as well as organising a complimentary limousine service to and from the practice. Specialist dental spas in the US include the Lavaan drill-free dental spa in Greenwich Village, where you ease back in a lightfilled loft with an individual flat-screen TV above your chair to undergo smile-enhancement treatments, such as the 30-minute Clean, and leave armed with products such as winewipes to keep up the gleam.

Still, for the jittery or anyone with dental anxieties, a spa-style dentist is a no-brainer. Dental spas also provide a niche for those who want to get

A dental practice shouldn’t feel like somewhere you go to be punished

everything done in one appointment and under one roof. Dr Keith Cohen, who has recently opened his Dentexcel spas in central London — one in the City, the other in Harley Street — says the response to his treatment menu has been phenomenal. Clients can book to have dermal fillers or Botox, deep tissue massage, acupuncture facials or homeopathy, all with qualified therapists, at the same time as having a filling replaced or their teeth whitened.

“People are very surprised when they first come,” Cohen says. “Our reception is like that of a smart hotel — the whole place is positive and airy. We want people to feel instantly brighter. A dental practice should not feel like somewhere you go to be punished.”

None of this comes cheap — nor, of course, on the NHS. A 45-minute acupuncture treatment at Dentexcel is £60 and a 30-minute massage in the chair is £45; at the Black Swan spa, an initial consultation is £75 and if you pack in some Botox or dermal fillers while you’re there, expect to add £175 to the bill. Yet many of Cohen’s clients consider the service a blessing, not least because it provides a convenient cover for the anti-ageing procedures.

“It’s more socially acceptable to say you are getting your teeth done than have a wrinkle relaxant injected during your lunch hour,” Cohen says.

“People seem to like the fact they can say they are going to the dentist, but come out with much more than that.”

Blackswandentalspa.co.uk; dentexcel.co.uk

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Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

arts

The night Nina Conti turned Prince

Winning awards and performing for Prince Harry, Nina Conti has turned an old-hat art form into a naughty, grown-up comedy show, says Alex Hardy

‘I

don’t know where to put my hands,” says ventriloquist Nina Conti, and she means it.

Her monkey puppet Monk, along with her Scrooge-faced Scottish Gran, have been taken from her for our photoshoot, and she’s twitching about looking for something to play with. She grabs a bracket from the table and makes it talk.

It’s not surprising that she wants to cling to her puppets — she’s used them to take what’s often seen as an old-hat art form and become a highly fashionable performer. It’s an unusual career path: in 1999, Conti, daughter of actor Tom, was performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company. An affair with the theatre maverick Ken Campbell later, she was encouraged by him to take up ventriloquy — and was

quickly rewarded with the 2002 BBC New Comedy Award. Her act has little in common with the likes of Keith Harris and Orville. See, for example, the climax of her new DVD Dolly Mixtures, in which she trepans the brain of her old man puppet John, who is desperate to die.

After a decade or so performing acclaimed, often award-winning shows, Conti is having a breakthrough moment. She was recently the entertainer of choice at Prince Harry’s 30th birthday. (She turned the royal jester into a man-size puppet by putting a mask over his jaw and taking control of his speech. She isn’t allowed to talk about it, but she creases up at the memory. “That was really fun,” she sniggers). The same mask act, as seen on Live at the Apollo, has just earned her a British Comedy Award

nomination for Best Female TV Comic. She’s recorded a pilot for a BBC Saturday-night variety show.

The story of how she came up with her boundary-stretching act is appropriately unorthodox.

When she was a young actress, Campbell became her mentor and lover. Although their love affair was short-lived, he gave her a teach-yourselfventriloquism kit in 2000 and donated his collection of dummies to her on his death in 2008, including the Gran puppet, back then, a man: Conti did a gender reassignment with some saggy boobs stuffed under a children’s cardigan.

“I never got to thank him well enough for having given me a whole career,” Conti said in a film she made

the following year, Her Master’s Voice, in which she honoured Campbell by visiting a resting place for dead ventriloquists’ dummies in Kentucky.

In one scene she revealed that she had had an abortion; in another, Monk interrogated her on her trysts with Campbell. “He was 60, you were 26: tell us about that, Nina.”

I meet Conti, now 40, and it’s clear her passion for the film lingers (as does Campbell’s beyond-the-grave influence).

“I was very grateful to Ken Campbell who got me into it,” she tells me. “I would never have thought of it otherwise. I really had to get knocked on to that path.” Her affection seeps into her choice of venue today. We meet in West London’s Frontline club, where she trained alongside war reporters so she could make Her Master’s Voice herself.

“I just thought, If ever a film had to be made by me, it’s this and I want to do it right.” Having failed to get support

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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arts

Harry into her ventriloquist’s dummy TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER DAVID BEBBER

and feels genuinely relaxed. Her father’s words aren’t the only reminder of mortality she’s had of late. Even now, she feels like Campbell is giving her preternatural career guidance.

Conti has been developing her new obsession, clowning — training with the world-famous Philippe Gaulier, and developing a new live show with advice from Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning clown Doctor Brown.

Recently, however, Conti noticed a book at home called Clowns. “I thought, ‘How did I get this book? I’ve got to have got this from Ken’. Then I was flicking through it and he’s actually put my face in, stuck my face in on a page called modern clowns and made it look like I’m in the book as a clown. He gave me a book about clowns and now I’m doing clowns.”

When she noticed it, Conti says, “I screamed. There was a guy painting the children’s bedroom upstairs and I terrified him.”

The clowning projects include a new live show for 2015, In Your Face, in

Being in straight leading lady territory never appealed to me

from TV channels, she persisted alone, enrolling on a course on “documentary film-making and editing for solo journalists and war reporters. I loved that I was the only ventriloquist among all these war photographers.”

Her tenacity paid off — the film won the Audience Award at the South

by South West film festival in 2012, and, when the BBC aired it, she earned a British Comedy Award nomination.

It wasn’t without personal risk.

Making the film meant confessing the relationship with Campbell to her father, and her husband, the comedian Stan Stanley. “I think it was just the right amount that I spoke about it,” she tells me, thoughtfully.

Now, with Stanley, she has two boys, aged 10 and 3, and the puppets inevitably soak into life in their East Finchley home. “The monkey and my three-year-old have a very healthy full-on relationship,” Conti says, remarking that her son will often

phone Monk, or give Monk’s voice to a Playmobil man. “He takes great pleasure in Monk not getting what he wants. ‘I’m so sorry Monk but the rats ate your cheese’.”

For Conti, the monkey is partly protection. “There’s always something to hide behind,” she says, of how Monk allows her to be “terrible” and “vulgar”.

“It’s a strange zone of zero responsibility because nobody is saying it,” she says.

So is there any deeper reason that she clings to a protective device? “I keep changing what I think is the reason for it,” Conti says, her tone of voice light, but eyes often flicking around the room, suggesting she’s not so comfortable getting to the nub of things. “It wasn’t like an obvious thing from childhood that I wanted to talk to my toys, no,” she stresses. It did have something to do with her family background and wanting to take a more original path. “Coming from a family of actors [her mother is Kara

Ventriloquist Nina Conti at the Frontline Club in London with her sidekicks, the monkey puppet, Monk, and Scottish Gran. Left: with her father Tom

Wilson], it seemed very unoriginal to just do the same thing. Being in straight leading lady kind of territory never appealed to me. And so then this extra element . . . it’s that one step removed from yourself that just makes you much more comfortable.”

Conti’s upbringing was unconventional. She was in her early teens when her father, Tom, starred in Shirley Valentine; later she talked about her parents’ open relationship. More recently, her dad has told reporters that he would like to be euthanised if he becomes too ill. Now she laughs it all off. “I’m supportive of whatever they want to do and their ways. I said to him the other day: ‘What’s the plan then? You’ve always said you don’t want to stick around if you start drooling and needing a nappy. I’m not going to kill you. I hope you’ve got a plan because I’m not doing anything.’

And he said: ‘There’ll be a note, or something. ‘Don’t go in the garage.’ ” Her laughter, here, is unrestrained

which her only props will be the talking face masks (like the one used on Prince Harry) but used on as many audience members as is necessary to spin a story. “It’s taking the masks thing and mixing it with some clown stuff and some improvised stuff. I start with one person and grow a story from them. So each show is different.” She tried it out in Edinburgh this year and said the stage, set only with 15 masks, “looked like a weird sort of gimp dungeon or something, you know, when people arrive and you see all these half faces hanging off like a hat stand. You think, ‘Oh God, don’t let me sit near the front’.”

Conti is also working on a documentary for BBC Four about becoming a “giggle doctor” (practitioners who harness laughter for therapy in children’s hospitals).

She’s trying to develop a sitcom or film in which she wears Monk continuously for six weeks (in an online pilot, co-starring her husband and father, the latter purrs hilariously: “There’s a certain range in Monk which I think I recognise.”). Conti is also doing more genre-busting by “putting ventriloquism into novel form”: writing a book that she describes as “an autobiographical fiction in two voices”, hers and Monk’s.

She says she’d love to take proper time out to write the book. “I dream of renting a little flat somewhere, like Copenhagen, and going there for three months, but I can’t because I love the children too much to leave them. So I have to do it during the two-hour nursery window.”

Perhaps the lack of eye contact earlier was not evasiveness, but, rather, the sign of someone unused to sitting down in one place for too long.

Nina Conti Live: Dolly Mixtures is out now on DVD; ninaconti.net

52

FGM

artsfirst night Concert Huddersfield Festival St Paul’s, Huddersfield

Concert Dmitri Hvorostovsky Wigmore Hall

T

S

{{(((

he punter’s exasperation was clear as he filed out of the 37th Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival’s opening blast. “Oh dear,” he cried in a tone suggesting that he wouldn’t be attending the 28 concerts lying ahead. The festival, it’s true, didn’t put its best foot forward with the very first work, Christian Wolff’s 37 Haiku: settings of John Ashbery that only made the poet’s cryptic lines doubly impenetrable. I’ve had more fun staring at a brick wall.

Yet the rest of this Wolff tribute (the American turned 80 this year) contained plenty to chew over with pleasure. There were the wriggling wisps of For Six or Seven Players, early music of fragile beauty, and the chunkier twists and turns of Trust. The sharp attack of Petr Kotík’s Czech ensemble Ostravská Band spread its own delight, especially during the spiky judderings of Martin Smolka’s Autumn Thoughts and Kotík’s Nine + 1.

More Wolff appeared the next day when Philip Thomas premiered the piano piece Sailing By, stamped with three Wolff trademarks: fragmentation, constant surprises and piquant silences. I would have taken the scissors to Michael Finnissy’s Beat Generation Ballads, eclectic musings eventually in variation form, which fully displayed Thomas’s flair but didn’t deserve to last 50 minutes.

At the Lawrence Batley Theatre, time also moved slowly during Salvatore Sciarrino’s 1982 Lohengrin, a staged monodrama co-produced by New Music Bergen and derived from a parody version of the legend by Jules Laforgue. Epicurean pleasures could be found in Sciarrino’s delicate soundscapes and Sofia Jernberg’s motley vocals, but with meaning generally lost among clicks, gurgle and whispered words, the total experience remained nebulous. Oh dear.

Geoff Brown Box office: 01484 430528, to Nov 30

Theatre The Realness Hackney Downs Studios, E8

J

{{{((

ay Johnson has been out of prison ten minutes when he hits trouble. He’s determined to change his life, but opportunities are scarce on his east London estate, and crime seems the only path to prosperity. It’s a familiar story, but in this new musical it’s delivered with heart, soul and a blistering sense of urgency. Directed by Maggie Norris of the Big House, a company working with care leavers and ex-offenders, it’s performed with fierce commitment by a largely non-professional cast. The results are ragged, but thrillingly raw.

Colin Falconer’s striplit designs and Mic Pool’s two vast walls of video imagery brilliantly transform this concrete space into a kaleidoscopic array of urban locations, from tower blocks to nightclubs and playgrounds.

Youths on bikes weave among the action, looking for a fight to pick or a mobile phone to snatch; blinged-up

Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

MARILYN KINGWILL

{{{{(

A packed arena was testament to the singer’s enduring popularity

Reckless? More safe and solid Lisa Verrico bows to the inevitable as the Canadian superstar plays to the faithful Pop Bryan Adams 02 Arena, SE10

{{(((

T

he 30th anniversary of Bryan Adams’s album Reckless can’t have been on many people’s radar until the singer decided to celebrate it. Although a multimillion-selling, six hit singlespawning pop behemoth that broke the Canadian globally, Reckless wasn’t a game-changer musically. Search for a current rock star who cites Adams as an influence and you would struggle.

Still, a packed O2 was testament to the singer’s enduring popularity. It didn’t matter that few of the fans who came to sing along to Summer of ’69 and howl every word of Heaven probably realised that Adams had released what he said was his 13th album. This was a night of nostalgia as neatly packaged and slickly presented as the deluxe reissue of Reckless.

Now a fit 55-year-old whose only concession to his rock-star status is a greased backed hairstyle better suited to teenage boys, Adams is such a pro that he could probably have performed this show half-asleep and still not hit a bum note. That he was halfway through his opening number by 8pm suggested how keen he was either to

gangsters glare and preen; babymothers with pushchairs ooze attitude. Maureen Chadwick and David Watson’s book is fast-talking, insolently witty and slangstudded, while Kath Gotts’s songs, ranging from hip-hop to R&B, reggae and gospel, have real punch.

The show is over long and the early scenes have a formulaic, blandly educative flavour. But as the plot darkens, so its grip intensifies as it depicts sexual exploitation, gun crime and drug dealing. A narcotics-fuelled sequence featuring Jay in an MTV rap video-style fantasy with a bevy of sexy, cocaine-smuggling airline stewardesses is undercut by scenes of casual abuse and violent tragedy.

Ashley Gayle is a warm, engaging Jay, with Jacqui Dubois affecting as his God-fearing, careworn mum, and eyecatching comic relief comes from KM Drew Boateng’s officious traffic warden. The undoubted star, though, is Veronique Andre, incendiary as Shanice, Jay’s tough-minded ex and the mother of his baby. And if it hits some potholes, the production blazes up its grimy streets powered by pure passion.

Sam Marlowe thebighouse.uk.com; to Dec 20

Concert RLPO/Petrenko Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

{{{((

get started or be headed home.

Technically, the only thing wrong with this frills-free show was the sound when Adams stopped to talk — every sentence echoed at the back of the arena, meaning that he spoke over himself. The songs, however, were crystal clear and faultlessly, faithfully performed. Had anyone hoped for some added extras, however — passion, drama, a fiddle with his tame pop-rock formula perhaps? — they were disappointed. Adams clung to a well-worn checklist which he tirelessly ticked off. Many of his moves — a running high-five with his guitarist during Run to You for example — were familiar from his last tour in 2011.

On the plus side, a lengthy set provided value for money. Once Reckless had been performed in its entirety, with added tracks that didn’t make the original album, Adams ploughed through umpteen other hits and sang some acoustic covers. His signature song (Everything I Do) I Do it for You was an inevitable highlight of a set steeped in inevitability.

Tonight, First Direct Arena, Leeds; Wednesday, SSE Arena, Wembley

C

elebrating its 175th anniversary, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is naturally spending much of this season on the symphonies and concertos of Tchaikovsky, who was born in the same year as the orchestra (though lamentably he never visited Liverpool on his trips to England). Not so predictably, perhaps — but more commendably — it is also continuing its bold policy, during Vasily Petrenko’s eight years (and counting) as music director, of commissioning new pieces.

The latest is Michael Torke’s Concerto for Orchestra, which struck me as embracing all that’s best and worst about contemporary classical music, particularly as composed on the other side of the pond. Unlike what was generally being written by serious composers 30 years ago, it is user-friendly, buzzing with syncopated energy and enticingly orchestrated. It is also superbly and ingeniously crafted: nearly half an hour of music is spun out of a four-note motif heard on trumpet at the start.

Yet its repetitions soon became mind-numbing and its colouristic

omething was troubling Dmitri Hvorostovsky at the Wigmore Hall. You couldn’t hear it in the big, burnished sound of his voice but the swiftly drawn, deep lungfuls of air that fuel the Russian baritone’s phenomenal breath control had the hot, dangerous rattle of incipient bronchitis. Twenty-five years after winning the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition he is too practised a recitalist to be easily thrown off course. Any students in the audience will have witnessed an object lesson in how a peerless technique and a bottle of mineral water can sustain a singer in taxing circumstances.

If compromises were made, they were subtle, the tone beautifully nurtured through the full compass of the voice, the dynamic control impeccable. But those students will also have learnt the value of an assiduous language coach. While the lyrics in Hvorostovsky’s Glinka and Rimsky-Korsakov songs were meticulously enunciated, those of Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and the three Strauss lieder that closed the recital were smudged and boiled into a thick meaty broth of uncertain provenance.

Glinka’s songs are tailored for a salon and a square piano. Seated at an over-bright Steinway, Ivari Ilja captured the delicacy of the keyboard figures, while Hvorostovsky smoothly identified the ambiguities of the poetry. The Rimsky-Korsakov set darkened the sense of melancholy, each word of Shto v imeni tebe moyom? precisely shaped. The long, anguished lines of Kindertotenlieder were impressive but a piano can only hint at the sophistication of Mahler’s orchestration and the words were a mush. Of the Strauss, only Cäcilie was intelligible. Zueignung sounded like a dirge from a state funeral, while Morgen, stretched to tantric abstraction, was bizarre and glorious.

Anna Picard effects were mostly more thrillingly explored by Stravinsky more than a century ago in The Firebird. Torke seems to have all the tools to say something important, but nothing important to say.

Still, the RLPO played persuasively, and Petrenko coaxed something even more impressive in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 1. The piece is subtitled Winter Daydreams, although there was nothing dreamy about the volatile fervour that Petrenko found in the first movement. The slow movement, too, had plenty of delightful numaces. Sadly he and his players could do little to make the finale — possibly Tchaikovsky’s worst — sound better than banal.

Much excitement, though, in Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto, where the soloist was the young, blindsince-birth Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii. I found his poetic playing mesmerising when I could hear it, but something — either his touch, or the acoustics of Philharmonic Hall, halfway through a £14 million restoration — made the piano sound muffled in comparison to the pin-bright orchestra.

Richard Morrison

54

FGM

Champions League: now it’s getting serious Manchester City will be eliminated if they lose to Bayern Munich tonight, while Chelsea can get through to the last 16 by overcoming an old foe

Sport

Football, pages 57-59, 64

Small jumps fields are growing concern ALAN CROWHURST / GETTY IMAGES

Alan Lee Commentary

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jumps horses to service the present race programme and the good ones are in too few hands, thus unlikely to take each other on. This should serve as a warning to all in the sport.

All-weather racing, it is now clear, has had a detrimental effect on the horse population for jumping. Fewer mid-range Flat horses are now going hurdling, with owners of limited budgets preferring regular runs on artificial surfaces to the time and risk involved in switching codes.

Until recently, novice hurdles were the first races to fill, often commanding two divisions. Yet only 11 of 27 such races run last week attracted a double-figure field. Prize money evidently made no difference — novices worth £20,000 at Haydock

Park and Ascot both had only six runners.

Ascot had even incentivised its novice hurdle, with an extra £5,000 on offer had it drawn eight or more.

This was one of four bonuses, totalling £45,000, advertised for its Saturday card. Not one of them was activated.

Though widely publicised, Ascot believes its bonus structure is not yet fully appreciated by owners and trainers. Far from losing interest in jumping, as was rumoured during the course redevelopment, Ascot has improved its prize money by £173,000 this season and offered the same again in field size incentives.

Nick Smith, head of communications, said: “It’s too early

to say we are disappointed. We need to give the scheme a couple of years, and I’m sure we will do so. It’s difficult to change established culture and to maybe get trainers to run two in the same race. But field sizes are now a very big issue.”

Only a fool would argue with that.

Short-term, owners and trainers may be delighted at the dearth of opposition but the trend is potentially damaging. Racecourses will suffer through loss of media-rights payments and a drop in spectator interest. Sponsorships will be at risk and prize money jeopardised.

Eventually, fixtures will be scrapped.

For jump racing, superficially so strong and attractive, this requires urgent attention.

1.30

3.30

12.40 Amateur Riders' Handicap

3.10

J

Lingfield Park Rob Wright

12.30 The Green Ogre 2.30 Millicent Silver 1.00 Ya Hafed 3.00 Little Jimmy 1.30 Malanos (nb) 3.30 Draco’s Code 2.00 Southway Star Thunderer’s double 1.00 Ball Hopper.

2.00 Browns Brook (nap).

Going: heavy; all-weather: standard At The Races

12.30 Novices' Hurdle (£3,119: 2m) (9)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

602/ ALLTHEGEAR NO IDEA 853 (H) N Twiston-Davies 7-10-12 S Twiston-Davies P10P/ DERRYOGUE 577P Miss Z Davison 9-10-12 Mr H G Miller (7) 6-05 ETHELRED 14 J Snowden 6-10-12 W Featherstone (10) 31-3 GOLAN TO WAR 20 D Dennis 5-10-12 A Coleman 550 PRIMO ROSSI 56 T Gretton 5-10-12 Felix De Giles 222-3 THE GREEN OGRE 18 G L Moore 4-10-12 Joshua Moore PF-6 US ET GARRY 18 Mrs A Batchelor 5-10-12 L Aspell 225-5 HAATEFINA 25 (P) M Usher 4-10-5 D Crosse WALK OF GLEAMS Miss A Newton-Smith 5-10-5 A Thornton

6-4 The Green Ogre, 3-1 Golan To War, 4-1 Haatefina, 5-1 Allthegear No Idea, 33-1 Walk Of Gleams, 50-1 others.

Rob Wright’s choice: The Green Ogre failed to stay over farther last time Dangers: Haatefina, Allthegear No Idea

1.00

Novices' Handicap Chase

(£3,769: 2m 4f) (5)

M Batchelor 1 0P403 YA HAFED 8 (P) Sheena West 6-11-12 2 6P-30 LEITH HILL LEGASI 27 (T,P) C Longsdon 5-11-8 C Deutsch (5) L Aspell 3 410-P STRANGE BIRD 18 (T) R Rowe 9-11-8 A Wedge 4 -16P3 BALL HOPPER 13 R Ford 10-11-6 5 0U0-P SAND ARTIST 22 (BF) Miss V Williams 6-10-10 A Coleman 5-2 Ball Hopper, 3-1 Strange Bird, Ya Hafed, 4-1 Leith Hill Legasi, 6-1 Sand Artist.

Wright choice: Ya Hafed has slipped in the weights and can win a poorly contested race Danger: Ball Hopper

Falling numbers: steam rises from a runner on a day of small fields and low temperatures at Kempton Park yesterday

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Handicap Hurdle (£3,119: 2m) (7)

54243 DORMOUSE 8 (P,D) Anabel Murphy 9-11-12 N Fehily 2U0- MINORITY INTEREST 274 D C O'Brien 5-11-7 T Cannon 000/1 MALANOS 8 (D) A Carroll 6-11-4 T Whelan (3) 43100 CAFE AU LAIT 16 (T,V) A Middleton 4-11-3 R Johnson 211 SINNDAR'S MAN 40 (D) D Pipe 3-11-0 T Scudamore 430-0 THE GAME IS A FOOT 22 G L Moore 7-10-11 Joseph Akehurst (7) 6-662 REGGIE PERRIN 22 (T) P Phelan 6-10-7 Paddy Bradley (10)

5-2 Malanos, 11-4 Sinndar's Man, 7-2 Dormouse, 7-1 The Game Is A Foot, 15-2 Cafe Au Lait, 9-1 Reggie Perrin, 25-1 Minority Interest.

Wright choice: Malanos won well under similar conditions at Leicester Dangers: Sinndar's Man, Dormouse

2.00

Handicap Chase (£3,769: 3m) (4)

R Johnson 1 1255/ GENTLE GEORGE 584 (D) P D Evans 11-11-12 M Goldstein 2 6P-04 ARBEO 18 (B,D) Mrs D Grissell 8-11-11 3 13P-6 BROWNS BROOK 34 Miss V Williams 8-11-10 A Coleman T Whelan (3) 4 5P111 SOUTHWAY STAR 7 (T,D) N King 9-11-4 Evens Southway Star, 11-4 Browns Brook, 9-2 Gentle George, 13-2 Arbeo.

Wright choice: Southway Star has not looked back since joining Neil King, winning three from three Danger: Arbeo

2.30

Mares' Maiden Hurdle

(£3,119: 2m 3f 110y) (6)

50-0 CLOUDBUSTING 8 (P) Miss Z Davison 6-10-10 Mr H G Miller (7) 1 M Goldstein 2 U/P-P DOUBLE BUD 22 Mrs D Grissell 7-10-10 4-0 GLENARM 27 J S Mullins 5-10-10 A Thornton 3 L Aspell 4 3540- GRACE AND FORTUNE 223 R Rowe 7-10-10 1HEL TARA 229 N Henderson 5-10-10 J McGrath (3) 5 6 120-2 MILLICENT SILVER 22 N Twiston-Davies 5-10-10 S Twiston-Davies 11-10 Hel Tara, 7-4 Millicent Silver, 11-2 Glenarm, 11-1 others.

Wright choice: Millicent Silver pulled clear of the others when runner-up at Plumpton Danger: Hel Tara

3.00 1 2 3 4 5

Handicap Chase (£2,144: 2m) (5)

-4055 THINGER LICHT 14 (D) A Carroll 5-11-12 L Edwards 0-446 UPTON MEAD 34 (B) K Tork 7-11-10 Mr D Burton (7) 1-5PP SHANTOU BREEZE 36 (V) M Madgwick 7-11-2 M Goldstein -5023 LITTLE JIMMY 8 (V,CD) T Gretton 7-10-11 Felix De Giles -5F2P SPORTSREPORT 47 (P,BF) J S Mullins 6-10-10 A Thornton

2-1 Little Jimmy, 3-1 Sportsreport, 4-1 Shantou Breeze, 5-1 others.

6 The Harry Fry-trained Jolly’s Cracked It, who made it two from two over hurdles when winning at Ascot on Friday, is being aimed at the 32Red Tolworth Hurdle at Sandown Park in January.

Newbury has to re-engage with public

veryone wants to love Newbury but few have felt inclined to do so recently. It is among the fairest galloping tracks in Britain and has a vast catchment in a heartland of jump racing. Somehow, it spiralled towards financial ruin, with depressing consequences for prize money, facilities and attendances.

“We accept that Newbury had lost its way,” Julian Thick, the recently appointed chief executive, said. He is too diplomatic to blame previous managements but a series of ill-fated initiatives, including a renaming of the course and an unpopular dress code, helped to alienate those already disapproving of the residential construction that was essential to stave off bankruptcy.

This is a pivotal week in Newbury’s mission to restore affection. It has no greater asset than the Hennessy meeting and, while Saturday reliably draws a crowd of around 18,000, Thursday and Friday have tended to be staged as if for a private club of die-hards.

“The first two days underperform — that is self-evident to anyone who comes,” Thick said. “It presents a huge opportunity to us.” Advance sales are up but Thick admits that is from an alarmingly low base. He also accepts that reconverting the sceptics may be a long job.

A new road-bridge, due to open next year, will help to remedy the traffic jams that curse the place. Thick also plans lavish new owners and trainers’ amenities and a facelift for tired entrances. More than anything, though, Newbury needs to communicate with its lost support and win back hearts and minds.

racing correspondent

udged on booming public interest and the star quality of its horses and humans, it would be easy to declare that jump racing is in rude health.

Another key indicator, though, tells a different story, one that cautions against complacency and may even foretell of a crisis.

Assessing the state of National Hunt is a little like choosing a holiday.

The luxury end has never been stronger but, like the seductive images in the glossy brochure, it comes with a price ticket that few can afford. Down at the package-tour end of the market, demand is waning worryingly.

Analysis of the week starting last Monday was instructive. Over the seven days, 116 jumps races were staged and more than half of them (62) failed to attract eight runners.

That percentage is far from unusual.

Ten of the 14 races at today’s two jump meetings also fail that simple numerical test.

Of course, it is true that size is not everything when applied to jumping fields. If quality outweighs quantity, exciting racing is still likely. Nor should bookmaker interests dominate thinking. Agitation over each-way betting is understandable but the developmental nature of novice chases, for instance, should guarantee their protection.

Such mitigation, though, is starting to wear thin. By any rational judgment, there are not enough

Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

Wright choice: Little Jimmy, tried in a visor, is more reliable than his opposition Danger: Thinger Licht

Blinkered first time: Lingfield Park 1.30 Cafe Au Lait.

2.00 Arbeo. 3.00 Shantou Breeze, Little Jimmy.

Sedgefield 2.20 Casual Cavalier.

Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race (3-Y-O: £1,560: 1m 5f AW) (10)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

BLEU ET NOIR T Vaughan 10-12 R Johnson DRACO'S CODE G L Moore 10-12 J E Moore DUKE OF HANOVER A Hutchinson 10-12 Tom O'Brien KALASKADESEMILLEY K Morgan 10-12 A Wedge KING LOUIS A King 10-12 G Tumelty PRINCE OF POETS J Tuite 10-12 S Twiston-Davies SILVER MOUNTAIN J Jenkins 10-12 A Coleman SYMPHONY OF KINGS A Carroll 10-12 L Edwards OVERDO J S Mullins 10-5 Kevin Jones (7) STORM RUN R Teal 10-5 L Aspell

9-4 Bleu Et Noir, 5-2 King Louis, 9-2 Draco's Code, 10-1 Kalaskadesemilley, Prince Of Poets, 12-1 Silver Mountain, 14-1 others.

Wright choice: Draco's Code, a son of Galileo, changed hands for €35,000 a year ago Danger: King Louis

Southwell Rob Wright

12.10 Company Secretary 2.10 Invincible Wish 12.40 Red Invader 2.40 Galuppi 1.10 Whispering Star 3.10 Reach The Beach 1.40 Go Grazeon 3.40 Art Dzeko Going: standard Draw: no advantage At The Races Tote Jackpot meeting

12.10

Amateur Riders' Handicap (Div I: £1,872: 1m) (9)

1 (1) 56660 JONNIE SKULL 3 (T,V,C,D) Phil McEntee 8-11-0 Miss S Brotherton 2 (7) 22552 COMPANY SECRETARY 10 (P,BF) J Hughes 3-10-12 Mr James Hughes (5) 3 (4) 41045 POOR DUKE 4 (E,B,D) M Mullineaux 4-10-12 Miss M Mullineaux (3) 4 (9) 1622- ANGELENA BALLERINA 571 (V,C,D,BF) A Turnell 7-10-10 Miss B Hampson (5) 5 (3) 25506 IT'S ALL A GAME 12 (B,CD) Richard Guest 3-10-8 Mr S Walker Mr M Murphy 6 (8) 6600- MAZOVIAN 376 (C) M Chapman 6-10-7 Miss S Coll (7) 7 (5) 46030 SUPA SEEKER 71 (D) A Carroll 8-10-5 8 (2) 00300 LA DANZA 32 Shaun Harris 4-10-2 Mr A Blakemore (5) 9 (6) 00000 MOXEY 93 (H) D McCormick 3-9-12 Miss A McCormick (7) 2-1 Company Secretary, 5-1 Jonnie Skull, 6-1 It's All A Game, La Danza, Supa Seeker, 8-1 Poor Duke, 12-1 Angelena Ballerina, 25-1 Mazovian, 33-1 Moxey.

(Div II: £1,872: 1m) (9)

1 (7) 02312 CITY OF ANGKOR WAT 4 (T,BF) J Hughes 4-11-0 Mr James Hughes (5) 2 (2) 60061 RED INVADER 49 (C) P D'Arcy 4-10-13 Mrs R Wilson (5) 3 (4) 1100- YOUNG JACKIE 479 (B) G Margarson 6-10-10 Miss K Margarson (5) 4 (9) 06602 UNCLE BRIT 47 (P,CD) R Menzies 8-10-10 Miss C Walton 31240 MIAMI GATOR 12 (V,D) K Burke 7-10-8 Mrs C Bartley 5 (1) Miss E Jack (7) 6 (8) 15560 NIFTY KIER 6 Phil McEntee 5-10-6 7 (5) 56620 VERY FIRST BLADE 11 (E,B,C) M Mullineaux 5-10-3 Miss M Mullineaux (3) 8 (3) 00-40 PINK CADILLAC 118 B Haslam 4-10-0Miss L Sanders (7) Mr S Walker 9 (6) 006- PAINT IT RED 417 Richard Guest 3-9-12 11-4 Uncle Brit, 4-1 City Of Angkor Wat, 11-2 Miami Gator, 6-1 others.

1.10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Maiden Stakes (£3,235: 1m) (8)

0/ DARK DIAMOND 722 R Cowell 4-9-7 G Lee (5) A Kirby (7) -2505 DANZKI 12 (B) Miss G Kelleway 3-9-5 0DISCO DALE 341 R Fahey 3-9-5 Sammy Jo Bell (5) (6) B McHugh (2) 33003 LENDAL BRIDGE 12 T Coyle 3-9-5 A Carter (5) (1) 04460 MAJOR ROWAN 42 B Smart 3-9-5 T Hamilton (4) 0056 SEA WHISPER 50 Miss A Stokell 3-9-0 J Crowley (3) 62222 WHISPERING STAR 132 D Simcock 3-9-0 Hayley Turner (8) 2432 WU ZETIAN 8 A Balding 3-9-0

6-5 Wu Zetian, 9-4 Whispering Star, 8-1 Lendal Bridge, 10-1 others.

1.40 1 2 3 4 5

Novice Stakes (2-Y-O: £2,588: 7f) (5)

(3) 16532 SPINDLE 36 (CD) M Usher 9-2 (2) 6430 DARK WONDER 34 J Given 9-0 HIGH INTENSITY S Dixon 9-0 (5) 4 PADLOCK 46 D Simcock 9-0 (1) F4 GO GRAZEON 17 J J Quinn 8-9 (4)

L Keniry G Lee Luke Morris J Crowley T Eaves

9-4 Padlock, 11-4 Dark Wonder, Spindle, 6-1 Go Grazeon, 7-1 High Intensity.

2.10 1 2 3 4 5

Claimer (2-Y-O: £2,045: 7f) (5)

(5) 51425 CHILWORTH BELLS 8 (D,BF) T D Barron 9-1 G Gibbons (3) 12562 INVINCIBLE WISH 7 (P,D) B Ellison 8-13 P Mulrennan J Fanning (1) 0005 STRIKING STONE 12 (B) J Hughes 8-9 Hayley Turner (2) 65066 CERISE FIRTH 8 (H) S Hollinshead 8-6 D Brock (3) (4) 20540 REET PETITE 62 H J Evans 8-2

5-4 Chilworth Bells, 6-4 Invincible Wish, 6-1 Reet Petite, 14-1 others.

2.40 1 2 3 4 5

Maiden Stakes (£2,588: 1m 4f) (5)

(4) -0226 CROPLEY 21 (B) Miss A Stokell 5-9-11 (1) -2232 GALUPPI 36 (BF) J Jenkins 3-9-5 (3) 52622 MASTER DAN 22 J Given 3-9-5 (2) 40443 DARTING 35 (H) A Balding 3-9-0 (5) -0000 SWEET SUMMER 93 J Holt 3-9-0

13-8 Galuppi, 15-8 Master Dan, 5-2 Darting, 12-1 others.

Ann Stokell (5) A Kirby G Lee D Probert S Donohoe

Handicap (£2,588: 1m 4f) (8)

J Fanning 1 (3) 6-001 STREET ARTIST 8 (D) D Nicholls 4-9-12 2 (7) 60-10 CLASSIC COLORI 23J M Keighley 7-9-10 W Twiston-Davies C Meehan (7) 3 (5) 45122 YUL FINEGOLD 28 G Baker 4-9-9 4 (1) 60606 LUV U WHATEVER 11 (C) M Appleby 4-9-9 Alistair Rawlinson (5) A Kirby 5 (6) 15526 LAYLINE 8 (H,D) Miss G Kelleway 7-9-7 6 (8) 25662 ROYAL MARSKELL 12 (C,D,BF) A Hutchinson 5-9-5 T Eaves G Gibbons 7 (4) 60201 MIXED MESSAGE 29 (P,C) B Ellison 4-9-0 8 (2) 22051 REACH THE BEACH 12 (T,P,CD) B Powell 5-8-11 B A Curtis 3-1 Street Artist, 9-2 Luv U Whatever, 5-1 Reach The Beach, Royal Marskell, 6-1 Yul Finegold, 10-1 Layline, Mixed Message, 14-1 Classic Colori.

3.40

Handicap (£1,941: 6f) (14)

1 (5) 02252 MUSICAL MOLLY 7 (P,CD,BF) B Ellison 3-9-7 G Gibbons T Hamilton 2 (10) 02356 BOROUGH BOY 7 (CD) D Shaw 4-9-6 Luke Morris 3 (1) 06011 BEST TAMAYUZ 7 (H,CD) S Dixon 3-9-6 D Nolan 4 (14) 00004 MR MO JO 69 (H,B) L Eyre 6-9-5 H Burns (7) 5 (3) 62320 BLACK DAVE 21 (D) P D Evans 4-9-5 J Fanning 6 (8) 14646 MEEBO 7 (T,V,C) J Jenkins 3-9-4 7 (11) 41650 CLAPPERBOARD 26 (B) P Fitzsimons 3-9-4 W A Carson 8 (12) 20000 SPEIGHTOWNS KID 18 (B,D) M Herrington 6-9-2 G Lee T Eaves 9 (2) 00063 INVIGILATOR 7 (T,D) D Shaw 6-9-2 10 (4) 10650 FATHOM FIVE 20 (CD) Shaun Harris 10-9-0 K Lundie (7) D Probert 11(13) 3500 SATELLITE EXPRESS 18 P D Evans 3-9-0 S A Gray (5) 12 (7) 33202 LUCKY MARK 7 (P,D) J Balding 5-8-13 P Makin 13 (9) 01030 ART DZEKO 220 (CD) B Baugh 5-8-12 14 (6) 32305 LAUGHING ROCK 20 (P,D) M Appleby 4-8-11 Alistair Rawlinson (5) 3-1 Musical Molly, 7-2 Best Tamayuz, 8-1 Lucky Mark, 10-1 Invigilator, Laughing Rock, 12-1 Borough Boy, Fathom Five, Meebo, 16-1 others.

Course specialists Lingfield Park: Trainers A Middleton, 3 winners from 7 runners, 42.9%; D Pipe, 5 from 16, 31.2%; T Vaughan, 4 from 13, 30.8%. Jockeys Tom O'Brien, 8 winners from 16 rides, 50%; Joshua Moore, 9 from 32, 28.1%; S Twiston-Davies, 4 from 15, 26.7%.

Sedgefield: Trainers J J Quinn, 6 from 17, 35.3%; S Crawford, 8 from 27, 29.6%; J Ewart, 6 from 28, 21.4%. Jockeys Mr S Crawford, 5 from 14, 35.7%; P Brennan, 6 from 19, 31.6%.

Southwell: Trainers K Burke, 10 from 29, 34.5%; A Balding, 8 from 25, 32%; D Simcock, 7 from 23, 30.4%. Jockeys Alistair Rawlinson, 10 from 33, 30.3%; P Makin, 46 from 212, 21.7%.

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

55

FGM

Comment Sp Sport

High time England took show on the road Owen Slot Chief Rugby Correspondent

T

he best way to be a World Cup winner next year is to move to Darlington. You may have noticed that England’s standing has been dwindling of late, but in Darlington you can be an All Black. Next October, for five days during the World Cup, the All Blacks will be in town for a training camp, and the intention is for the place to paint itself all black in return.

They are already planning a world record-breaking sized haka (“Ka Mate Ka Mate” from 4,000 locals in synch).

The Northern Echo is running a best home haka video competition. The very best hakas will be shown to their guests. This is Darlington wrapping their visitors in its warmest embrace.

Darlington: the All Blacks’ second home.

This is engagement of the very kind that England 2015, the World Cup organisers, want. Take the game around the country. Have a new audience fall for it.

It is exactly how the RFU wants to use the World Cup too. The RFU has planned meticulously for utilising the World Cup as a one-off opportunity to boost participation, to take the game to communities, demographics and schools where it has traditionally had no fit. The planning for a rugby legacy post-England 2015 is light years ahead of anything put in place to capitalise on the Olympics.

So after three consecutive Saturdays at Twickenham and one more to come, here is the question: if we are taking rugby around the country, why not take the England team around the country too? The All Blacks, with all their infernal mystique and super-slick branding, may yet be the key to unlocking a new northeast audience, but so might an England fixture at St James’ Park, home of Newcastle United.

When World Cup tickets went back on sale yesterday, one lesson to be had was that there is a broad, regional appetite for the game. Manchester, Brighton and Exeter, for instance, had all already sold out. Notably, two so-called rugby “heartlands”, Cardiff and Leicester, had not.

When the World Cup has been and gone, why not let England travel

Sedgefield

DAVE THOMPSON / PA

Scrum on down: staging England games at stadiums such as Old Trafford will help the team connect with the wider public

occasionally, too? The All Blacks, as it happens, do not play solely in Auckland. The Wallabies do not play solely in Sydney. And the Springboks are not an Ellis Park franchise.

Likewise, England cricket is not rooted to Lord’s and the Germany football team are not anchored to Berlin. In all cases, the country shares the team.

Taking England around England would, in many ways, fit neatly with

the broader ideology being conveyed

by Stuart Lancaster. When he took over as England head coach, he grasped immediately the danger of a perceived gulf between celebrity sportsmen and their fanbase and he has worked hard to eradicate that.

“Connecting” with the roots of the game is a very Lancastrian message.

You see it on matchdays now when England park up at Twickenham and walk through the crowd. Better,

12.50 Juvenile Hurdle

1.50

(3-Y-O: £3,639: 2m 1f) (6)

Rob Wright

12.20 Jacks Last Hope 2.20 Amir Pasha 12.50 Chivers 2.50 Carters Rest 1.20 Apache Pilot (nap) 3.20 Legacy Phoenix 1.50 Silver Vogue Going: soft (heavy in places) At The Races

12.20 Conditional Jockeys' Novices' Hurdle (£3,639: 2m 4f) (7)

1 2 3 4 5 6

1 EL BEAU 18 J J Quinn 11-5 D C Costello CHIVERS 50F (P) T Easterby 10-12 D Cook SHIMBA HILLS 103F Mrs L Hill 10-12 N Scholfield SON OF FEYAN 208F Mrs L Normile 10-12 G Cockburn (5) 6 MITCD 18 M Todhunter 10-5 W Renwick THE BUNNY CATCHER 21F Mrs S Watt 10-5 H Brooke

U40-P DANTE'S FROLIC 14 W Amos 6-11-12 D Bourke (5) 30P-6 ROYAL MACNAB 156 (T) R Menzies 6-11-11 T Kelly (3) 456-2 SILVER VOGUE 25 Mrs S Smith 6-11-5 R Mania 25-24 MIDNIGHT STREAKER 29 (BF) B Arthey (Ire) 5-11-4 P Brennan -2221 RUNSWICK DAYS 14 (CD) J Wade 7-10-13 B Hughes 000-P CROWN AND GLORY 46 C Fairhurst 7-10-10 J Kington (3)

4-6 El Beau, 3-1 Shimba Hills, 9-2 Chivers, 16-1 Son Of Feyan, 50-1 others.

9-4 Silver Vogue, 5-2 Runswick Days, 7-2 Dante's Frolic, 5-1 others.

1.20

2.20

Handicap Chase (£2,729: 3m 3f) (7)

6/112 JACKS LAST HOPE 31 C Grant 5-10-12 D O'Regan (6) 6-0 MIXBOY 29 (H) J Ewart 4-10-12 D Bourke (6) 51-60 NOT A BOTHER BOY 15 Mrs S Smith 6-10-12 J England (3) 6/P POLITBUREAU 10 M D Hammond 7-10-12 J Colliver (3) 4-2P0 ROYAL SEA BREEZE 13 (P) S Crawford (Ire) 5-10-12 A J Fox (8) VALENTINE'S GIFT 27F (H) N Bycroft 6-10-12 G Lavery (5) 00-P WILLIAM WILD 10 Miss T Jackson 6-10-12 J England

1 -1333 URBAN GALE 94 (P,CD) Miss J Foster 9-11-12 Samantha Drake (5) 2 416U- HEEZ A STEEL 214 (CD) Mrs J Walton 13-11-12 Alistair Findlay (7) 3 314-0 GIBBSTOWN 29 (P) P Stafford (Ire) 8-11-11 Mr J E Flynn (7) C Bewley (7) 4 033/P CRAFTI BOOKIE 184 (P) W Amos 8-11-11 5 42135 DEBT TO SOCIETY 15 (T,P,CD) R Ford 7-11-4 H Challoner (3) M J McAlister 6 5-062 APACHE PILOT 18 (T) M Barnes 6-10-6 T Kelly (3) 7 4-5PP OVER AND ABOVE 129 (T) H Hogarth 8-10-0

1-2 Jacks Last Hope, 11-2 Mixboy, 12-1 Royal Sea Breeze, 14-1 Not A Bother Boy, Politbureau, Valentine's Gift, 25-1 William Wild.

100-30 Urban Gale, 7-2 Debt To Society, 4-1 Crafti Bookie, 11-2 Heez A Steel, 6-1 Apache Pilot, 9-1 Over And Above, 10-1 Gibbstown.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6

Novices' Handicap Chase

(£4,159: 2m 4f) (6)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Handicap Hurdle (£2,339: 2m 1f) (8)

241-2 CAPTAIN SHARPE 106F (P,D) R Johnson 6-11-12 Mr T Dowson (7) 0/0-0 AMTIRED 26 (P,D) Mrs M Fife 8-11-12 T Kelly (3) -06P6 ORCHARD ROAD 19 (H,T) T Davidson 7-11-9 J England (3) 03000 STANLEY BRIDGE 38 (CD) F Murtagh 7-11-7 Lucy Alexander 00/10 ARDESIA 181 (D) Miss T Jackson 10-11-4 Samantha Drake (5) P-600 SEA ROCKET 19 D Ffrench Davis 6-11-1 P Moloney 60243 AMIR PASHA 14 (V,CD) M D Hammond 9-11-0 J M Maguire 00-P0 CASUAL CAVALIER 25 (B) J Wade 6-10-12 B Hughes

7-2 Amir Pasha, 4-1 Captain Sharpe, 9-2 Stanley Bridge, 11-2 others.

surely, would be to take England to different crowds elsewhere. Why not?

Because of the stadium.

Twickenham is the cash cow of English rugby, a concrete monolith expertly managed to squeeze from it every pound of revenue. In the last financial year, when the stadium staged two fewer England games, ticketing revenue fell by £7.7 million.

Twickenham is now so good at using its assets, it makes more from

Bet of the day Apache Pilot (1.20 Sedgefield) Showed improved form raised in trip and switched to fences last time 2.50

Handicap Chase

(£2,729: 2m 110y) (5)

T Kelly (3) 1 P0-32 PISTOL BASC 180 (H,C,D) R Menzies 10-11-12 2 53U22 BROTHER SCOTT 17 (C,D,BF) Mrs S Smith 7-11-11 C Bewley (7) 3 05651 CARTERS REST 26 (H,CD) G Bewley 11-11-8 Miss J Walton (7) D Cook 4 300PP ODDS ON DAN 18 (T,P) L Egerton 8-11-5 J Kington (3) 5 5P533 ZAZAMIX 5 (V,D) Andrew Crook 9-10-2 13-8 Carters Rest, 15-8 Brother Scott, 4-1 Pistol Basc, 13-2 Odds On Dan, 12-1 Zazamix.

hospitality and catering than it does simply tickets.

To move a single game from Twickenham to, say, Old Trafford would reduce ticket sales by 7,000, and, beyond the basic fee for stadium hire, would incur extra charges for catering and all the other expenses to dress up a stadium for a new event.

The loss of income for a single game would be more than £1 million.

The television argument is the same. After the first weekend of the autumn internationals, viewing figures showed that a peak of 0.9 million viewers had watched the England-All Blacks game on Sky, with an average of 0.8 million. The audience for Wales v Australia, which was on BBC1, was a peak of 2.7 million and an average of 2.1 million.

Bear in mind that Wales has a population less than half that of London. The opposing arguments are straightforward: do you take more money from a broadcaster to reinvest to take the game to the country? Or do you just have less cash and more viewers so that more of the country can sample the game that way?

So, too, the live experience. Do you use the England team as an asset at Twickenham to raise funds for the game? Or do you use them as an asset away from HQ to raise interest?

The bottom line, always, with the England team is that the best way to win popularity is to win games. If England moved from Twickenham, they would miss the familiarity, they would not have their newly designed changing rooms or the feelgood messaging around the tunnel.

But they would still get a crowd, possibly different in personality, arguably more delighted to get to see their team, maybe noisier and less critical if events turned against them.

Twickenham is hardly a fortress right now and the argument that they would win less from another home venue is not convincing.

Twickenham must and will remain England’s home. Maybe, occasionally, like at the end of a four-week run, it is time to take the show elsewhere. If you are from Darlington, of course you can go to see England at Twickenham. But why not England occasionally going to you instead?

3.20

Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race (£1,560: 2m 1f) (9)

CUDDYS WELL S Walton 4-11-2 D Bourke (5) 1 0- GUNS AT MIDNIGHT 320 M Walford 6-11-2 D C Costello 2 HILLIER C Grant 4-11-2 B Hughes 3 B Harding 4 RU-31 JOHN WILLIAMS 177P W Amos 5-11-2 4-0 PERSEID 29 B Arthey (Ire) 4-11-2 P Brennan 5 WILLIAM RUSSELL T Davidson 6-11-2 J England (3) 6 0-0 BROADWAY BELLE 56 C Grant 4-10-9 D O'Regan (7) 7 LEGACY PHOENIX S Crawford (Ire) 5-10-9 8 Mr S Crawford (3) LOULOUMILLS M Barnes 4-10-9 M J McAlister 9 2-1 Legacy Phoenix, 4-1 John Williams, 5-1 Hillier, 15-2 Broadway Belle, Perseid, 14-1 Cuddys Well, William Russell, 16-1 others.

Rob Wright’s midday update thetimes.co.uk/sportsbook

Yesterday’s racing results Kempton Park

Going: soft (heavy on bend adjacent to lake) 12.35 (2m hdle) 1, Arzal (R Johnson, 7-2); 2, West Wizard (2-9 fav); 3, Uptendownone (12-1). 9 ran. 7l, 21l. H Whittington.

1.05 (2m ch) 1, Tango De Juilley (Aidan Coleman, 10-1); 2, River Maigue (4-9 fav); 3, Ted Spread (10-1). 5 ran. 11l, 3l. Miss V Williams.

1.35 (3m 110yd hdle) 1, Letemgo (Tom Cannon, 9-4); 2, Neville (7-1); 3, Alberobello (7-4 fav).

6 ran. NR: Malibu Rock, Silmi. 8l, Kl. G Smyly.

2.10 (3m 110yd hdle) 1, Carole’s Spirit (D A

Jacob, 11-1); 2, Clara Mc Cloud (4-1); 3, L’unique (4-1). Polly Peachum (f) 8-11 fav. 6 ran. 8l, nk.

R Walford.

2.45 (2m 4f 110yd ch) 1, Tenor Nivernais (Aidan Coleman, 5-1); 2, King Edmund (11-4 fav); 3, Roc D’apsis (20-1). 7 ran. NR: Vision Des Champs.

Sh hd, 2Kl. Miss V Williams.

3.15 (2m 5f hdle) 1, Brother Tedd (R Johnson, 4-6 fav); 2, Hurricane Vic (20-1); 3, New Horizons (5-1). 6 ran. 11l, 15l. P Hobbs.

3.45 (2m hdle) 1, Theinval (J McGrath, 4-1); 2, Lough Kent (7-2); 3, Germany Calling (7-4 fav). 8 ran. 6l, 7l. N Henderson.

Placepot: £91.70.

Quadpot: £31.20.

Ludlow

Going: good to soft (soft in a few places) 12.50 (2m hdle) 1, Jack Frost (Peter Carberry, 1-2 fav); 2, Father Edward (9-2); 3, Go Odee Go (14-1). 16 ran. 3Kl, 13l. N Henderson.

1.20 (2m 4f ch) 1, Hold Court (Paul Moloney, 3-1); 2, Citizenship (20-1); 3, Tistory (8-11 fav).

6 ran. 2l, 11l. Evan Williams.

1.50 (2m 5f hdle) 1, Ewings (J M Maguire, 16-1); 2, Chicoria (2-1 fav); 3, Superior Fire (6-1).

12 ran. Kl, 2Kl. B Pauling.

2.20 (2m ch) 1, Arkaim (Kielan Woods, 8-1); 2, Sir Valentino (11-4); 3, Last Shot (9-4 fav).

7 ran. 2Kl, 8l. Mrs P Sly.

2.55 (3m ch) 1, Royal Palladium (L Treadwell, 3-1); 2, Shinooki (7-1); 3, Mac Le Couteau (8-1).

Buddy Love (6th) Evens fav. 8 ran. 6l, hd.

Miss V Williams.

3.25 (3m hdle) 1, Grand Gigolo (Maurice Linehan, 12-1); 2, Tisfreetdream (50-1); 3, Young Lou (7-1). Hand On Bach (4th) 11-4 fav.

12 ran. 2Kl, sh hd. Ian Williams.

3.55 (2m flat) 1, Bengali (T Scudamore, 11-4); 2, Timon's Tara (12-1); 3, Midnight Mint (7-1).

Belle De Londres (5th) 15-8 fav. 7 ran. 1Nl, 2Nl. D Pipe.

Placepot: £469.20.

Quadpot: £72.00.

Wolverhampton

Going: standard 2.00 (5f) 1, Give Us A Belle (A Kirby, 9-2); 2, Danzoe (10-1); 3, My Meteor (50-1). Pearl Noir 3-1 fav. 13 ran. Kl, sh hd. Mrs C Dunnett.

2.35 (1m 1f 103yd) 1, Razor Wind (A Kirby, 1-3 fav); 2, Westwood Hoe (5-1); 3, Panatella (7-2).

11 ran. 3Ol, hd. C Appleby.

3.05 (1m 141yd) 1, Greatest Journey (Kieran Shoemark, 5-2); 2, Offshore (7-4 fav); 3, Red Stripes (10-1). 6 ran. NR: As A Dream. 1Ol, 2Kl. S Bin Suroor.

3.35 (2m 119yd) 1, Uncle Bernie (Robert Tart, 9-1); 2, Rutherglen (11-8 fav); 3, Call Me Pj (8-1).

8 ran. 3Ol, 4Kl. A Hollinshead.

4.05 (7f) 1, Celestine Abbey (Jack Mitchell, 50-1); 2, Laura B (5-2 fav); 3, Fast Scat (16-1). 10 ran.

NR: Clampdown, New Abbey Dancer. Nk, 1Nl. J Ryan.

4.35 (7f) 1, Don’t Be (L Morris, 9-2); 2, Sewn Up (6-1); 3, Rich Again (100-30 jt-fav). 10 ran.

NR: Gambino, Pour La Victoire. 1Nl, 2Ol. Sir Mark Prescott.

5.05 (7f) 1, Malaysian Boleh (Jack Duern, 11-1); 2, Be Royale (11-4 fav); 3, Queen Aggie (8-1).

12 ran. Kl, hd. S Dow. 5.35 (1m 141yd) 1, Loraine (G Baker, 13-8 fav); 2, Jumbo Prado (14-1); 3, Act Your Shoe Size (8-1). 12 ran. 3Nl, hd. J Osborne.

Jackpot: not won (£19,475.85 carried forward).

Placepot: £28.40.

Quadpot: £6.20.

56

FGM

Sport Rugby union

Lancaster to give Ford another chance but Farrell faces the axe TOM SAWYER/REX FEATURES

Alex Lowe

Ever-changing times

Stuart Lancaster has confirmed that George Ford will start at fly half against Australia on Saturday, but the England head coach is giving serious consideration to dropping Owen Farrell and fielding his fifth different centre partnership in six matches.

Ford brought a new dimension to the role on his first international start in England’s 28-9 victory over Samoa, playing with a variety and an imagination in attack that guaranteed he would retain the No 10 jersey to face the Wallabies.

Farrell was moved to inside centre for the Samoa game to play alongside Ford, but that experiment could be over almost as soon as it began. The Saracens man has been out of sorts all series and he did not look at all comfortable playing in midfield.

In contrast, Lancaster was impressed with the contribution that Billy Twelvetrees made off the bench against Samoa and the Gloucester captain has a chance in today’s two training sessions to cement his place back in England’s starting line-up.

“George has earned the right to start again. He’s played well enough for that.

It was a really good start for him,” Lancaster said.

“His execution when we decided to kick was excellent, his goalkicking was good and defensively he was strong. He also took his opportunity well in terms of creating opportunities and line breaks.

“Owen helped George out a lot in terms of on-field communication.

George benefited from having someone like Owen alongside him.

“The options surround Billy Twelvetrees and Owen at 12. Billy impressed me from the bench, he did well and brought good energy to the team. He’s worked hard on the feedback we gave him when he came back into camp and he’s a genuine prospect for us at 12.”

Twelvetrees was England’s first choice inside centre through the RBS Six Nations Championship, but Kyle Eastmond started the QBE internationals wearing the No 12 jersey before Farrell was switched into midfield last weekend.

Eastmond has now been jettisoned altogether as England return to their policy of fielding an inside centre with a trusted kicking game. Eastmond, Semesa Rokoduguni, his Bath teammate, and Danny Care, the Harlequins scrum half, were all released by Lancaster last night so that they can prepare for Friday’s Aviva Premiership match.

Three weekends ago they were all first-choice picks for England, underlining just how unsettled the back

If Billy Twelvetrees starts against Australia, England will have fielded five different centre partnerships in six matches. Only once in their past seven matches have they named an unchanged midfield.

Italy 11 England 52; Rome, March 15 Billy Twelvetrees and Luther Burrell New Zealand 20 England 15; Auckland, June 7 Kyle Eastmond and Manu Tuilagi New Zealand 28 England 27; Dunedin, June 14 Twelvetrees and Burrell New Zealand 36 England 13; Hamilton, June 21 Eastmond and Tuilagi (changed at half-time to Burrell and Tuilagi) England 21 New Zealand 24; Twickenham, November 8 Eastmond and Brad Barritt England 28 South Africa 31.

Twickenham, November 15 Eastmond and Barritt England 28 Samoa 9; Twickenham, November 22 Owen Farrell and Barritt

Worth a punt: Ford showed sufficient promise on his international debut against Samoa to keep his England place for Saturday’s encounter with Australia

division is and how much Lancaster has shuffled his cards in a desperate search for the right balance.

“We don’t have the level of experience in our back line that other countries have,” Lancaster said. “The combinations are certainly going to be thought about a lot over the next six to 12 months.”

Lancaster’s hand was forced over Rokoduguni when the Bath wing was injured on his debut against New Zealand, but the emergence of Anthony Watson and Jonny May has been a real plus point for England in what has been a challenging series.

“It was only a couple of weeks ago

that Roko was playing, but he got injured and Anthony has taken his opportunity really well. It is very hard for a coach to drop him,” Lancaster said.

“The big step forward for me in the last two to three weeks has been those wing slots. Anthony has taken his opportunity really well and Jonny May has stepped up as well.”

Lancaster is also striving to find the right balance to his back row and he pointed towards a return to the side for Tom Wood, who was dropped for James Haskell last weekend. Ben Morgan will start again at No 8, with Billy Vunipola unavailable having suffered a concussion playing for Saracens last weekend.

6 Aaron Mauger, 33, the former New Zealand centre, will become head coach of Leicester Tigers, for whom he played from 2007 to 2010, on a three-year contract next season. Mauger is at present assistant coach to Crusaders in the Super 15. Elliot Daly, the Wasps centre, has been charged with verbally abusing Ian Tempest, the referee, during his side’s Aviva Premiership defeat by Exeter Chiefs on Saturday. Daly was cited and will appear before an RFU disciplinary hearing in London tomorrow.

“Tom Wood’s lineout option is one to consider for this weekend because of the pressure we feel we can put on the Australian set-piece,” Lancaster said.

“Tom never likes missing a minute of training, never mind international rugby, and there was definitely a reaction from him during the week. When he came on, although he gave away a penalty, his contribution was good.

“A fired-up and motivated Tom Wood is a pretty useful person in your armoury.”

Courtney Lawes will not train until Thursday but Lancaster said he was “cautiously optimistic” that he would be fit to play.

Results

Fixtures

Football Barclays Premier League

Aston Villa

(1) 1

Agbonlahor 29

Southampton(0) 1

Clyne 81

Vanarama South: Boreham Wood 4 Westonsuper-Mare 0.

P Boreham W ....... 18 Bromley.............16 Ebbsfleet ..........17 Basingstoke ......15 Gosport Boro.....14 Havant & W.......16 Whitehawk........17 Eastbourne .......17 St Albans City...18 Hemel H.............15 Chelmsford .......17 Maidenhead.......17 Hayes & Y..........17 Bath City............16 Concord R .......... 15 Sutton ...............16

W 11 9 8 9 7 8 8 6 8 7 7 6 6 6 5 5

D 3 3 5 0 5 2 2 7 1 3 3 4 4 3 5 5

L 4 4 4 6 2 6 7 4 9 5 7 7 7 7 5 6

F 41 30 25 25 26 24 27 23 27 19 20 27 20 20 23 23

A 17 20 10 17 9 15 24 23 28 24 28 31 24 23 22 25

GDPts 24 36 10 30 15 29 8 27 17 26 9 26 3 26 0 25 -1 25 -5 24 -8 24 -4 22 -4 22 -3 21 1 20 -2 20

Farnborough......17 6 1 10 16 31 -15 Bishop’s S..........17 4 6 7 24 28 -4 Wealdstone.......18 4 6 8 18 27 -9 Staines Town .... 16 4 0 12 21 33 -12 Weston-s-Mare.15 3 2 10 16 36 -20 Spanish league: Granada 0 Almeria 0.

Italian league: Genoa 1 Palermo 1.

19 18 18 12 11

American football NFL Atlanta 24 Cleveland 26; Chicago 21 Tampa Bay 13; Denver 39 Miami 36; Houston 13 Cincinnati 22; Indianapolis 23 Jacksonville 3; Minnesota 21 Green Bay 24; New England 34 Detroit 9; Philadelphia 43 Tennessee 24; San Diego 27 St Louis 24; San Francisco 17 Washington 13; Seattle 19 Arizona 3; New York Giants 28 Dallas 31.

Basketball NBA Boston 88 Portland 94; Los Angeles Lakers 94 Denver 101; Memphis 107 Los Angeles

Clippers 91; Miami 94 Charlotte 93; Oklahoma 86 Golden State 91.

Boxing AIBA World Finals Jeju, South Korea: Finals: Lightweight: K Taylor (Ire) bt Y Allekseevana (Azer).

Flyweight: M Esparza (US) bt L Whiteside (GB). Light-welterweight: A Beliakova (Russ) bt S Ryan (GB).

Cricket Fifth Twenty20 international: P Sara Oval, Colombo: Nepal 72 (20 overs; Sompal Kami 40); Hong Kong 73-8 (19.5 overs). Hong Kong win by two wickets and take five-match series 1-0.

Tour match, Adelaide: First day of two: Cricket Australia XI 219 (R G L Carters 58); Indians 59-1.

ICC Women’s Championship: First ODI, Bangalore: India 114 (38.5 overs; D Niekerk 49, M Kapp 4-21); South Africa 118-8 (41.1

overs; S L Tryon 50). South Africa won by two wickets.

Cycling

UCI Track Cycling

Six-day International Competition, Ghent, Belgium: Final result: 1 J de Buyst (Bel) / K de Ketele (Bel) (Team: Baloise Insurance) 440 points; 2, M Cavendish (GB) / I Keisse (Bel) (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) 394; 3, Leif Lampater (Bel) / Dillier Silvan (Switz) (Team Caruur) 311 (+1 lap); 4, A Rasmussen (Den) / Marc Hester (Den) (Team Lotto) 279 (+2 laps); 5, N Stopler (Bel) / O Vergaerde (Bel) (Topsport Vlaanderen) 215 (+7 laps); 6, M De Pauw (Bel) / C Grasmann (Ger) (Provincie Oost-Vlaanderen) 253 (+10 laps); 7, ATorres (Sp) / D Muntaner (Sp) (John Saey - Lecot) 153 (+15 laps); 8, G O’Shea (Aus) / Shane Archbold (NZ) (Callant Upgrade Estate) 186 (+21 laps); 9, I Savitsky (Russ) / V Manakov (Russ) (Primus Haacht) 186 (+26 laps); 10, M Vingerling (Neth) / Y Havik (Neth) (Team 3M) 109 (+29 laps).

Football Kick-off 7.45 unless stated.

Champions League: Group E: CSKA Moscow v Roma (5.0); Manchester City v Bayern Munich. Group F: Apoel Nicosia v Barcelona; Paris Saint-Germain v Ajax. Group G: Schalke v Chelsea; Sporting Lisbon v Maribor. Group H: BATE Borisov v Porto (5.0); Shakhtar Donetsk v Athletic Bilbao.

Sky Bet League One: MK Dons v Rochdale.

Johnstone’s Paint Trophy: Northern Section: Quarter-final: Oldham v Preston.

FA Cup: First-round replay: Concord Rangers v Mansfield.

Vanarama Conference: Braintree Town v Welling; Bristol Rovers v Barnet; Dartford v Chester; Dover v Nuneaton; Grimsby v Woking; Kidderminster v Wrexham; Macclesfield v Torquay; Southport v Aldershot. North: Colwyn Bay v Harrogate; Gloucester v Stalybridge; Tamworth v Brackley; South Basingstoke v Bromley; Bath City v Hemel Hempstead; Ebbsfleet United v Gosport Borough.

Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

Foley heads to video library for insight on fellow No 10 Owen Slot, Alex Lowe, John Westerby

Bernard Foley, the Australia fly half, knows so little about George Ford, the England No 10 who will start against him at Twickenham on Saturday, that he said he is going to have to start “scrounging” through video footage to try to find him.

Foley, 25, is a relative newcomer to the international game at fly half, too, but compared with Ford, he is an old sage. If Ford has one card to play, it is what Foley calls “a bit of unfamiliarity and the unexpected”. He acknowledges that when Australia landed in London three weeks ago, he had not really considered that it may be Ford starting on Saturday. “I was probably thinking back then that Owen Farrell would be starting,” he said.

Foley and Ford are in similar positions. They are both young players trying to cement their position at fly half for their countries in the relatively short space of time between now and the World Cup. The Australian is a few matches ahead, having been his side’s starting No 10 for most of the season.

Ford is so new he remains something of a mystery man to him.

It is Foley’s role to review the opposition back line and he will be looking in particular at how England defend with the diminutive Ford in the playmaker position.

“For the English, we will have a look at the 10 channel,” Foley said. “He’s the bloke who touches the ball in attack, so you can fatigue him in making tackles Foley has settled into the role of Australia fly half

so he is not as potent when he gets the ball.”

Adam Ashley-Cooper, one of the more senior Wallabies, said yesterday that despite recent defeats by France and Ireland, his team are making forward strides, having changed coach with the appointment of Michael Cheika only a month ago.

“Even though we’ve copped a couple of blows, for the longer term, the bigger picture, I think we are in far better shape than we were at the start of the tour,” Ashley-Cooper said.

Ashley-Cooper could move from the wing to outside centre on Saturday because Tevita Kuridrani has been ruled out of the game with the ankle injury he suffered early in the second half of last weekend’s 26-23 defeat by Ireland in Dublin.

Warren Gatland, the Wales head coach, has delayed the announcement of his team to face South Africa until Thursday as he awaits the progress of several injured players. The front row is a particular area of concern, as Gethin Jenkins is recovering from hamstring trouble, while Nicky Smith has a pectoral muscle injury.

As the match falls outside the designated international window, Paul James, the Bath prop, will be unavailable, a condition that also applies to Richard Hibbard and James Hook, of Gloucester, although George North will be available if he passes concussion protocols. Rob Evans, the Scarlets prop, has been added to the Wales squad.

South Africa will be without several players, including Bryan Habana, the wing, who returns to Toulon.

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

57

FGM

Lambert halts Southampton’s march Aston Villa Cardiff City

Agbonlahor Campbell, 21 29

Southampton West Ham United

Clyne C Cole8142, Noble 90+3

Arindam Rej

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER, ALAN WALTER

1 0 2 1

The expectation surrounding Southampton, and potential Champions League qualification, had been steadily growing. Last night, that optimism was punctured, but at least they could take consolation from a late equaliser from Nathaniel Clyne that prevented defeat after a difficult evening.

Before that strike, it looked as though this would be an even bigger reality check for Southampton as Gabriel Agbonlahor fired home. Although Aston Villa could not hold on until the end, they could take encouragement from their showing — often unattractive but efficiently gritty — as they eased the strain somewhat on Paul Lambert, their manager.

Fraser Forster, the Southampton goalkeeper, will not want to be reminded of the Villa goal as he failed to react quickly enough. It meant that Southampton were breached for the first time in 439 minutes in the Barclays Premier League. How ironic that the team known for being so resilient were broken by a side who have been so lacklustre in front of goal this season.

It meant that Villa eventually took a point, and two noteworthy landmarks for their club were not ruined. While Lambert’s 100th game in charge of Villa was not a cause for raucous approval from certain sections of their support, he would have enjoyed his players’ commitment. It was also the day that marked the club’s 140th anniversary — with club legends present to witness the occasion — and the present side showed heart for the occasion. It was just a shame that it was witnessed by their lowest crowd of the season.

Trophy-winning memories feel like a long time ago these days at Villa Park, highlighted by the patches of empty seats around the stadium last night, and a glance at the teamsheet showed the task awaiting the home team. Christian Benteke, Fabian Delph and three central defensive players were all missing through injury or suspension.

Rather than play in a conservative fashion in the initial stages, though, Villa chose to be positive. As Agbonlahor had an early effort blocked by Toby Alderweireld then gathered by Forster, the signs were there that Southampton would not find the contest as easy as the formbook suggested.

It did not take long for Southampton to start finding some fluency themselves, with Morgan Schneiderlin frequently involved, as is typically the case. Schneiderlin, Victor Wanyama and Sadio Mané were all wasteful with finishes, however, as the visiting team failed to make that pressure count.

Villa’s makeshift defence looked unsettled at that stage, but Southamp-

Alisher Usmanov, Arsenal’s secondlargest shareholder, has issued a withering criticism of Arsène Wenger’s reign, suggesting that the manager’s principles are restricting the club, that he refuses to learn from his mistakes and nobody at the Emirates Stadium is prepared to hold him to account.

The assessment by the Russian billionaire, who owns almost 30 per cent of the club, represents something of a volte-face: the signings of Mesut Özil and Alexis Sánchez seemed to have mollified his demands that Wenger

Rodgers given assurances by owner over his position Tony Barrett

Brendan Rodgers will begin the process of guiding Liverpool out of their slump away to Ludogorets tomorrow in the knowledge that his position is not under immediate threat.

Although Fenway Sports Group (FSG), the club’s owner, is disappointed that Liverpool have dropped to 12th in the table after losing their past three Barclays Premier League matches, there is no appetite to make Rodgers pay the price with his job, despite speculation that FSG is considering alternatives.

Having signed a four-year contract as recently as May, on the back of Liverpool finishing second in the Premier League and securing a return to the Champions League after a five-year absence, Rodgers retains the backing of his employers.

Rodgers readily acknowledges the need for Liverpool’s results to improve, starting with tomorrow night’s Champions League group B tie against Ludogorets in Sofia, but although FSG agrees with that appraisal, it is putting the manager under no additional pressure and has given no indications that his job is on the line.

Critically, Rodgers held talks with Tom Werner before Liverpool’s defeat

by Chelsea on November 8, during which he reiterated his long-term vision for the club to his chairman.

During those discussions, Werner did not waver in his support for Rodgers and, despite the 3-1 defeat by Crystal Jump to it: Mané, of Southampton, goes airborne in his attempt to shield the ball from Hutton, the Villa defender, last night

ton were hit with a surprise blow when Ciaran Clark launched the ball forward and Agbonlahor had the pace to beat Forster to it. The Villa forward took the ball wide, then produced an angled

Premier League Table P W Chelsea..................12 10 Southampton.........12 8 Man City................12 7 Man United............12 5 Newcastle..............12 5 West Ham..............12 5 Swansea ................ 12 5 Arsenal .................. 12 4 Everton..................12 4 Spurs......................12 5 Stoke......................12 4 Liverpool................12 4 West Brom ............ 12 3 Sunderland ............ 12 2 Crystal Palace........12 3 Aston Villa.............12 3 Hull ........................ 12 2 Leicester................12 2 Burnley .................. 12 2 QPR........................12 2

D 2 2 3 4 4 3 3 5 5 2 3 2 4 7 3 3 5 4 4 2

L 0 2 2 3 3 4 4 3 3 5 5 6 5 3 6 6 5 6 6 8

F 30 14 24 19 14 20 16 20 22 16 13 15 13 12 17 6 14 11 8 11

A 11 6 13 15 15 16 13 15 19 17 15 18 17 19 21 17 17 18 20 23

GD Pts 19 32 18 26 11 24 4 19 -1 19 4 18 3 18 5 17 3 17 -1 17 -2 15 -3 14 -4 13 -7 13 -4 12 -11 12 -3 11 -7 10 -12 10 -12 8

finish to give his team the lead. Considering how solid Southampton have been this season, and how consistently they have collected clean sheets, it was a surprising sight.

Southampton refound their energy before the interval and went close to an equaliser when Mané cut in from the left and struck towards the far corner, before Brad Guzan stretched to produce a fine save. Villa also had a chance to extend their lead before half-time, but Clark’s headed attempt was hooked clear by Schneiderlin.

Southampton’s small contingent of supporters would have expected a reaction from their side at the start of the second half, but it was Villa who were the brighter. Charles N’Zogbia arrowed a 12-yard shot towards goal that was averted by a block from Ryan Bertrand.

Although the visiting team gradually started enjoying more possession again, Villa were working hard to protect their lead. A late challenge from Wanyama on Tom Cleverley provided

an indication that frustration was creeping into Southampton’s game, as they repeatedly found the sting taken out of their attacks.

Southampton finally had a glimpse of goal when José Fonte forced Guzan into a save, and the Villa goalkeeper cleared a Dusan Tadic free kick. Just when it seemed as though the visiting team were running short of ideas on how to break down their opponents, however, the goal came. The two full backs combined as Bertrand charged into the penalty area and pulled the ball back for Clyne to finish confidently.

Aston Villa (4-2-3-1): B Guzan — A Hutton, C Clark, J Okore, A Cissokho — A Westwood, C Sánchez (sub: D Bent, 74min) — C N’Zogbia (sub: K Richardson, 64), T Cleverley, A Weimann — G Agbonlahor. Substitutes not used: S Given, L Bacuna, J Cole, M Lowton, J Grealish. Booked: Okore.

Southampton (4-3-2-1): F Forster — N Clyne, J Fonte, T Alderweireld, R Bertrand — S Mane (sub: E Mayuka, 79), V Wanyama, M Schneiderlin — D Tadic, S Long (sub: J Cork, 89) — G Pellè. Substitutes not used: K Davis, M Yoshida, F Gardos, H Reed, M Targett.

Booked: Wanyama, Clyne.

Referee: P Dowd.

Usmanov says Wenger’s approach holds Arsenal back Rory Smith

Football Sport

deploy Arsenal’s financial might and, over the past year, tensions between him and the board appeared to have eased. His remarks to CNBC yesterday, though, suggest that period of détente came to an end with the Barclays Premier League defeat by Manchester United on Saturday, marking Arsenal’s worst start to a season since 1982.

As well as claiming that Wenger could not recognise where he was going wrong, Usmanov also said that Arsenal need to strengthen “in every position” if they are to compete with Europe’s elite.

“He is one of the greatest coaches, not just of European but of world

football,” he said. “But we have a Russian proverb which goes: ‘Even an old lady can have a roof falling on her.’

“Everybody makes mistakes. He can make mistakes and I know as you age it is more difficult, more challenging, to accept one’s mistakes. Does [Wenger] have money or not? There is officially money in the club.

“Arsenal is a dream that sometimes becomes a mirage and sometimes a pain. [The] potential of the team is there, but there is no critical evaluation of mistakes. No genius can retain the same level of genius if they do not acknowledge mistakes. We just repeat

the same results year by year. Quite high to secure the place in the Champions League [and then] we regularly lose in the first [round] of play-offs. As an investor, I am not happy with that.

“My opinion — and I tell it openly — is that we need to strengthen every position to play on the level of such teams in the UK as Chelsea and Manchester City; in Europe like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Paris SaintGermain and other clubs. I like Arsène for his principles. But principles are sort of a restriction. And restrictions are always lost possibilities.”

Rodgers has credit in the bank from last season’s feats

Palace on Sunday, that position has not changed.

The overriding feeling within Liverpool’s hierarchy is that, regardless of present difficulties, Rodgers has more than enough credit in the bank after last season’s remarkable exploits to be given the opportunity to put right what is going wrong.

Liverpool’s main targets for this season — to reach the knockout stages of the Champions League and finish in the top four of the Premier League — remain achievable despite their worst start to a campaign since 1992-93 and Rodgers will be expected to lead a revival.

To that end, Rodgers can ill afford Liverpool to slip to a fifth successive defeat in all competitions against Ludogorets, because it could bring their Champions League participation to an abrupt end and increase the scrutiny that he is under. But he goes into that crucial game in the knowledge that, although external pressure is growing, this is not reflected in the corridors of power at Anfield.

The need for rapid and significant improvement has prompted Adam Lallana to call upon his Liverpool teammates to show greater solidarity to emerge from their slump.

“We need to stick together, it’s as simple as that,” he said. “We have a tough game on Wednesday, so we all need to be together for that one. We need to win to stay in the competition, so the lads will be fighting for their lives to do that. It’s important, not just for ourselves, but for the fans, the manager and everyone involved with Liverpool.”

58

Sport Football Arsenal’s swift action leaves United satisfied Manchester United have decided against lodging a complaint over an incident at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday in which an Arsenal supporter threw red wine at the visiting team’s bench. A fan was arrested after the incident and Arsenal have promised stiff action against him if he is found guilty.

United confirmed that an incident took place but are happy with how Arsenal dealt with the situation. A United spokesman said: “There was an incident after the first goal but Arsenal’s staff and stewards acted quickly and professionally to it. Contrary to reports in today’s media, we will not be making a complaint to the FA.”

Irvine backs Mulumbu West Bromwich Albion plan to speak to Youssouf Mulumbu after the midfielder’s cryptic pre-match tweet that appeared to ridicule his omission from Saturday’s matchday squad to face Chelsea.

Upon discovering that he had been dropped for the 2-0 defeat, the player, below, tweeted: “In the stand looool. . . . ” Alan Irvine, the head coach, however, has backed him to rediscover his best form.

“I’ve got every faith Youssouf will come again,” Irvine said. “At the start of the season he was one of the first names on the teamsheet.”

FGM

Early exit from Europe will put Pellegrini back in the spotlight James Ducker Northern Football Correspondent

Manchester City had not long secured the three points against Swansea City on Saturday when thoughts turned to their Champions League assignment against Bayern Munich.

Samir Nasri can always be relied upon for a frank assessment and among a myriad of candid statements from the France midfielder was an unprompted admission that, barring a drastic turnaround in fortunes, City’s season was at risk of following a similar trajectory to their post title-winning campaign under Roberto Mancini in 2012-13.

There are certainly parallels to draw to that troubled season, when City, as champions, finished 11 points behind Manchester United in the Barclays Group E

Man City v Bayern Munich Kick-off 7.45pm TV ITV

Radio BBC 5 Live Referee P Kralovec (Czech Republic)

Man City (possible; 4-2-3-1)

Coates contests charge Peter Coates, the Stoke City chairman, is to fight his FA misconduct charge for suggesting that there is “a bias towards other teams”. Stoke, frustrated by refereeing decisions in three home games this season, are adamant that Coates has not questioned the integrity of any officials. Stoke’s defence will also make reference to the FA’s decision not to take action against Garry Monk, the Swansea City head coach, who accused Victor Moses of cheating to win a penalty against his side last month.

John Neal Chelsea paid tribute yesterday to John Neal, their former manager who died on Sunday aged 82. “It is no exaggeration to suggest there might not be a Chelsea FC today had he not made such a success of dealing with crisis,” a statement on the club website read. Neal, below, was appointed at Stamford Bridge in 1981, when financial problems were crippling the club, and took them to the second division title in 1984. He also managed Wrexham and Middlesbrough, having played for Hull City, Swindon Town, Aston Villa and Southend United.

Hart Zabaleta

Kompany Demichelis Fernando

Milner

Clichy

Lampard

Nasri

Jovetic

Agüero

Lewandowski Ribéry

Götze

Robben

Rode

Alonso

Rafinha

Bernat

Boateng

Benatia

Neuer

Bayern Munich (possible; 3-3-3-1) Group E Bayern Munich Roma CSKA Moscow Manchester City

P 4 4 4 4

W 4 1 1 0

D 0 1 1 2

L 0 2 2 2

F 11 7 5 4

A 1 11 9 6

Pts 12 4 4 2

Premier League and exited the Champions League without winning a single group match, a dismal record that contributed to Mancini losing his job. With their latest title defence already on rocky ground as they trail Chelsea by eight points, City’s fate in Europe looks similarly bleak.

If either CSKA Moscow or Roma win their match in Russia, City, with only two points from their opening four Champions League matches, will be eliminated should they fail to beat Bayern at the Etihad Stadium tonight.

There is another parallel to draw, though, namely with Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona, and in the context of Pellegrini’s future at City and, specifically, his ability to guide this team out of their present malaise, it may be as pertinent as it is instructive.

After winning back-to-back league titles and the Champions League under Rijkaard, Barcelona’s hierarchy felt that the squad fell into something of a comfort zone during the course of the 2006-07 campaign.

In his book, Goal — The Ball Doesn’t Go In By Chance, Ferran Soriano — then a Barcelona director, now the City chief executive — recalled how Rijkaard’s democratic management style had succeeded in unifying a squad that had lost its way under the more autocratic figure of Louis van Gaal but that, after a downturn in results, the Dutchman needed to adapt his approach.

“The team kept its talent, but lost some motivation,” Soriano wrote. “So the leadership style needed to change.

The formula based on delegation was not ideal. Rijkaard needed to start playing the coach again, and sometimes he had to adopt a much more direct and even authoritarian approach. The group had to learn to work again and Rijkaard had to be their guide and give them very specific instructions.”

Txiki Begiristain, then Barcelona’s sporting director who is now director of football at City, tried to help to remould Rijkaard but with limited success, and after finishing second and third in La Liga and failing to reclaim the Champions League, the former AC Milan player was shown the door at the Nou Camp in May 2008.

“I honestly believe that if he [Rij-

Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER, BRADLEY ORMESHER

Warning shot: Nasri, the midfielder, believes Manchester City must improve their dismal record in Europe or risk their season falling to pieces as it did in 2012-13

kaard] had changed his leadership style when we identified the need, he would have changed the direction and the team would have been successful again,” Soriano concluded. “We were not decisive enough and our timing was out.”

Will history repeat itself or might Soriano and Begiristain already be making efforts to encourage Pellegrini to change where Rijkaard struggled? In truth, there has been little evidence, either in the way he sets up his team or manages the group, to suggest that Pellegrini is trying to adapt his nonconfrontational methods or has even been urged to.

Nasri dismissed the idea that City’s players had entered their own comfort zone or were resting on their laurels

after winning the title and Capital One Cup last term, but with so many key players underperforming and results reflecting that, it is clear that something has to give.

For the most part, Pellegrini has stuck doggedly to plan A, to which many are becoming wise, and the absence of a plan B is disconcerting.

Whether the suspensions of Yaya Touré and Fernandinho and an injury to David Silva have forced his hand or there are other factors at play, City may actually set up differently against Bayern as they try to shoehorn their way into the Champions League knockout stages, perhaps by flooding a midfield that has often been too easy to bypass in Europe. Pellegrini may argue otherwise but the pressure on him is mounting.

Nasri warns City slackers that they may pay for failure Continued from back page

fit to play. Frank Lampard, Fernando and James Milner could all start in midfield.

Nasri warned that it was imperative that City avoid a repeat of the errors they made in 2012-13, when they followed up their championship win by finishing well adrift of Manchester United in the title race and exited the Champions League after failing to win any of their six group matches.

“In the last three years I have been here we have won the league twice and been runners-up, but now we have to improve in the Champions League if we want to be a top club,” Nasri said. “It’s not enough to be top in your league if

you don’t do anything in the Champions League.

“With the players we have and everything, the owner [Sheikh Mansour] gives us his trust. We have to return it in the Champions League.

“For the moment we haven’t performed in the Champions League but that is nothing to do with [being in] a comfort zone.

“The manager doesn’t give anyone a comfort in what happened last year. It’s forgotten and we need to use what happened under [Roberto] Mancini in the year after we won the title. We don’t want to repeat the same mistake.

“We won the league and then after that we were 11 points behind

Futures market Yaya Touré Midfielder will be 32 next summer and in final two years of contract Gaël Clichy In poor form and also in final two years of deal from next summer Jesús Navas Has been inconsistent. Also with two years left after this season Martín Demichelis Could leave on a free next summer Fernandinho Poor second season after an excellent first campaign

Manchester United and lost in the first stage of the Champions League.”

Xabi Alonso, the Bayern midfielder who won the Champions League with Liverpool in 2005 as well as Real Madrid last season, said that money does not always guarantee success.

“There is not a determined formula — that when you are earning more you are winning more,” he said. “You are trying to buy success, but there are big surprises in football.

“What happened that year with Liverpool was really a great surprise, but it was very different from what is going on at Manchester City. You expect City will make an impact in Europe but so far they haven’t done it.”

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

59

FGM

Sport

Diplomatic Di Matteo has no time for talk of revenge Matt Hughes Deputy Football Correspondent

Schalke v

It took winning the Champions League for the famously inscrutable Roberto Di Matteo to raise a smile at Chelsea, so an early reunion six weeks after taking charge of Schalke was never going to have him jumping for joy. The fiery José Mourinho will meet the ultimate Ice Man this evening in a rainy Ruhr Valley.

Di Matteo said all the right things yesterday, without giving the impression that he truly meant them. The Swiss-Italian appeared just as reluctant to talk about his historic triumph in Munich as the harsh sacking that followed five months later, despite going through the motions by claiming that his relationships with many of tonight’s opponents, such as John Terry, Didier Drogba and Petr Cech, will last for ever. In his determination to look forward he was perversely dismissive of his past, refusing to nominate even one stand-out memory.

The only message Di Matteo seemed keen to spell out was that this Champions League tie is not about revenge, which given the imbalance between the two teams is probably just as well. Whereas Chelsea arrived as runway Barclays Premier League leaders defending an 18-game unbeaten run since the start of the season, Schalke have lost two of their past three matches and are outside the Bundesliga’s Europa League places.

While Di Matteo’s record of four wins and three defeats probably says more about the squad he was bequeathed than his own managerial talents, he is under pressure to improve at an impatient club, who have not allowed one manager to survive two successive seasons for almost two decades.

“I have no sentiment for revenge,” Di Matteo said. “I enjoyed a wonderful time there. You would always like to have time, but we all know that’s not the case in modern football. You just have to live with that and get on with it.”

Di Matteo had been living as a virtual recluse in the two years since leaving west London until Schalke appointed him last month, showing little inclination to go back to work until Chelsea stopped paying him last summer.

The 44-year-old seemed an enigma at Chelsea — a supreme organiser and man-manager undermined by a reputation for aloofness and arrogance — and this ambiguous status has followed him to Germany, where the locals do not know what to make of him.

Di Matteo’s task is not straightforward, because he inherited a team

Chelsea

Group G

Kick-off 7.45pm TV Sky Sports 5

Radio talkSPORT Referee J Eriksson (Sweden)

Schalke (possible; 3-5-2) Fährmann Howedes

Uchida

Santana

Neustädter

Höger Kirchhoff Boateng Fuchs Huntelaar Choupo-Moting

Costa Hazard

Oscar

Willian

Matic Azpilicueta

Fàbregas Terry

Cahill

Ivanovic

Courtois

Chelsea (possible; 4-2-3-1) Group G Chelsea Schalke Sporting Lisbon Maribor

P 4 4 4 4

W 2 1 1 0

D 2 2 1 3

L 0 1 2 1

F 9 8 8 3

A 2 9 8 9

Pts 8 5 4 3

struggling in the Champions League, and Schalke need to win tonight to keep qualification for the next round in their own hands. While the expectations are not as high as at his previous club, the 62,000 fans who pack the VeltinsArena every week have enjoyed knockout European football for the past eight years, and an early elimination would be an unfortunate start, as well as painful reminder of his sacking by Chelsea.

“We’ve got to give an absolutely great game and hope Chelsea have an off day,” Di Matteo said. “They’ve not lost this season and have fantastic players, so we’ll have to work hard to play our best if we are to win the game.”

Schalke’s players have been impressed by Di Matteo’s calmness under pressure, but pundits such as Lothar Matthäus, the former Germany captain, have questioned whether he has brought a coherent playing style and tactical philosophy, which was also a criticism of Roman Abramovich.

Chelsea’s owner never wanted to appoint Di Matteo even after he had delivered the trophy he craved, and as soon as their European defence faltered the next season he was gone, sacked on the spot at 4am at the club’s training ground after returning from an away defeat by Juventus. Given such brutal treatment, Di Matteo’s lack of sentimentality is understandable.

ADAM DAVY / PA

In the pink: Jon Obi Mikel, second right, keeps an eye on Diego Costa as Chelsea players prepare for tonight’s Champions League encounter with Schalke

Mourinho disparages 2012 triumph Matt Hughes

José Mourinho took a swipe last night at Roberto Di Matteo, the Schalke coach, denigrating his achievement in winning the Champions League with Chelsea in 2012 by claiming that becoming kings of Europe is not always a great feat because of the unpredictability of knockout football.

Mourinho has won the competition twice, with Porto and Inter Milan, but also won the domestic championship on both of those occasions, so his observations do not apply to himself. Chelsea finished sixth in the Barlcays Premier League when Di Matteo led them as caretaker manager to their triumph against Bayern Munich two years ago.

Mourinho’s comments could also be

interpreted as a dig at Rafael Benítez, whose Liverpool side finished fifth in the English top tier when they won the Champions League in 2005.

“The Champions League, I’ve said many, many times, is not a consequence of great work,” he said. “ You can win the Champions League in your worst season. You can finish fifth and win the Champions League. Liverpool did it and Chelsea, too.

“So the Champions League is something that you cannot say, ‘This is the direction I want to go because I have won that competition.’ A knockout competition always has a big percentage of unpredictability.

“I can do nothing to win it. I can only work to improve my team all the time, make a very good team like we are

doing, with me working on the pitch and the club board working at other levels, like we did in 2004, 2005 and 2006, which ended with the Champions League.”

Chelsea can ensure qualification for the knockout stages with victory in Gelsenkirchen and Mourinho urged his players to do so at the first attempt to give them greater leeway during a busy December. Thibaut Courtois returns in goal after being rested from their past two Champions League matches, against Maribor.

“We have two matches, but it would be better for us to qualify tomorrow,” Mourinho said. “We have so many matches in December, so if we can avoid a crucial match and that pressure, it would be very good for us.”

ITV / REX

Political football: the worlds of Bullard and Currie collide with curious results

Larks with Currie favour Bullard for jungle crown Giles Smith Sport on television

Y

ou could argue that the format, 14 series in, is showing signs of wear.

You could argue that the show has now officially squeezed all there is to be squeezed from the sight of a former boy band member standing in a heavy downpour of mealworms. You could maintain that when you’ve seen one celebrity put his head in a bowl of eels, you’ve seen them all. This column may not ultimately agree with you, but all of these things you could reasonably argue.

What is absolutely beyond dispute, though — and surely even for the competition’s fiercest critics — is the ability of I’m a Celebrity . . .

Get Me Out of Here! to deliver, year after year, at least one set of televised images beyond our wildest imaginings.

So it was the other night, when the cameras alighted (all too briefly, one could only feel) on Jimmy Bullard, the former Wigan Athletic midfielder, in the rudimentary pond that serves the camp as a recreational pool, happily bouncing up and down with a swimsuited Edwina Currie in his arms while shouting, “Politics! F*** politics!”

Here, clearly, was a moment of high jinks without precedent in the annals of televised pro-celebrity camping — without precedent, too, in the annals of football and late 20th-century Conservative politics and the unique and seldom visited place where those two things overlap.

To say that Bullard has come into his own after a shaky start is to put it lightly. Rock-hard confidence has its place in the jungle, but touching vulnerability plays better in the long term. Thus Carl Fogarty, the former superbike world champion and sport’s other contender for jungle honours, has been a mostly spectral presence since it became apparent nothing Ant and Dec could cook up was likely to trouble someone who cheated death for a living.

Whereas, last night, as Bullard tentatively inserted his arm into a

box of plainly tame pythons while gargling with fear and emitting slightly more lucid cries of, “I’m going to struggle here,” one could only see a lot more of this kind of thing ahead of him.

That said, purists are maintaining that the competition isn’t the challenge it was. Since Chris Packham, the TV naturalist, among others, attacked the programme for abuse of insects in its bush tucker trials, we seem to be seeing a new emphasis on offal, which is presumably deemed more sensitive.

Now this is a complex issue, and I’m a Celebrity may yet have a case to answer. But it would be a shame if the programme earned no credit at all for bringing certain obscure Australian fauna into the spotlight in the first place. In the UK, for example, a large number had never even heard of the witchetty grub before Phil Tufnell ate one on his way to victory in 2003.

Elsewhere, mockery has rained down like a bucket of mealworms on Wayne Rooney since the post-match interview in which he sagely paid tribute to Manchester United’s defence for keeping a clean sheet against Arsenal — a tribute that would have been all the more sage if Arsenal hadn’t scored in the match that had just ended.

But it’s easy to pick holes from the unpressurised comfort of the sitting room. In fact, Rooney’s mishap merely illustrates something that this column has long maintained, that television is too impatient in its lust to get a microphone under the noses of sport’s protagonists, and accordingly often ends up unfairly calling on them to reflect on an event’s import before (literally, in the case of Rooney on Saturday evening) the sweat has so much as dried on their faces.

The consequence is very often an exchange in which the protagonist in question finds himself leaning on stock answers and in which illumination and depth of analysis are sacrificed for mere immediacy.

The obvious solution would be to allow for a longer period of due reflection and delay the post-match interview — until after Match of the Day, say, when Rooney would have had a chance to have a bath, look at the highlights and properly digest the germane details, such as the score. But would television wait that long? We doubt it.

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Hamilton plots prolonged dominance Kevin Eason says newly crowned champion has everything in place to follow in footsteps of Schumacher and Vettel

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ewis Hamilton has waited a long time for his turn at world domination and he is not going to let the chance to rule Formula One slip easily from his grasp.

The new world champion spent time sifting through the past yesterday so that he could absorb the present and plan for a future he had thought would elude him. After the eras of Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, is F1 witnessing the birth of a new dominant force? Will this be the Hamilton era?

The stars are aligned, just as they were when Schumacher embarked on a run of five consecutive titles with Ferrari between 2000 and 2004, or when Vettel took four world championships on the bounce for Red Bull.

Just like them, Hamilton has the car, he has the team, he has the resources from Mercedes and, more importantly, he has the desire. You could see it in his eyes early yesterday morning, as bright as the moment he stepped from his silver Mercedes on Sunday night as the winner of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix — and world champion for the second time. At 29, he is at his physical and psychological peak, as he has showed by winning 11 of 19 races this season.

Hamilton pondered for a second when asked whether he saw more world championships on the horizon, unwilling to appear arrogant or selfserving, even though he has already scored more race victories, 33, than any other British driver.

He knows more than most how difficult it is to be more than a flash in the pan. Britain has produced ten world champions, more than any other nation, yet only Jim Clark and Graham Hill, with two each, and Sir Jackie Stewart, with three, have gone on to multiple titles. It is an inexplicable gap in the nation’s curriculum vitae.

“I definitely feel at the top of my game,” Hamilton said. “Is it healthy for the sport to see — I don’t want to say dominance? We want competition. We want to be racing for wins with the Ferraris and the McLarens. We want to come out ahead because that will make

the wins even sweeter. This is an era where we can continue to be the best, if we apply ourselves and learn from this year and improve.

“We have had a great package with a great team this year. Sebastian had that, as did Michael, [Ayrton] Senna and Mika [Hakkinen].”

This championship was not just a victory but a justification. It all seemed so easy when Hamilton burst on to the scene as a precocious rookie in 2007 with McLaren. He went to the final race of that season as champion-elect, an outrageous position given that his team-mate was Fernando Alonso, a two-times champion. He failed that time but, a year later, he squeaked home ahead of Felipe Massa.

It was a triumph but would also be seen as a failure in Hamilton’s eyes if a single title was all that his astonishing talent would yield. His desperation was evident when he hawked himself to Vettel’s Red Bull squad in 2011, trying to climb on to their winning bandwagon.

Then came the approach from Mercedes, who wanted Hamilton’s lavish talents to partner Nico Rosberg, regarded as the team’s steady hand. The cynics lined up to crow that Hamilton had taken leave of his senses, leaving a McLaren team who had nurtured him from the age of 13 to world champion for a squad that, over three seasons, had spent much, promised more and delivered little.

But Ross Brawn, the architect of this season’s winning car, turned up at the Hertfordshire home of Hamilton’s

Stewart’s mark under threat Three world championships Sir Jackie Stewart 27 wins, 17 poles Two world championships Lewis Hamilton 33 wins, 38 poles Jim Clark 25 wins, 33 poles Graham Hill 14 wins, 13 poles One world championship Nigel Mansell 31 wins, 32 poles Damon Hill 22 wins, 20 poles Jenson Button 15 wins, 8 poles James Hunt 10 wins, 14 poles John Surtees 6 wins, 8 poles Mike Hawthorn 3 wins, 4 poles

VLADIMIR RYS / GETTY IMAGES

On top of the world: Hamilton celebrates with the Mercedes team with whom he hopes to enjoy further title successes

father, Anthony, clutching a laptop with the data for the 2014 car. Hamilton knew what was coming and took the ultimate step of cutting his lifelong ties with McLaren.

After a season in waiting, the rewards came and Hamilton at last believed that he could win a championship again. Yet it all seemed to be crumbling, particularly when Rosberg led the championship going into the Belgian Grand Prix in August.

Their now infamous collision at Spa triggered all-out war between the team-mates who had been childhood friends. Hamilton accused Rosberg of crashing into him deliberately and Mercedes were plunged into a row that tore the team in two. Somehow, Hamilton emerged from the wreckage of his relationship with Rosberg stronger than ever. His psychological recovery was astonishing — he won the next five grands prix.

Animal magic and flower power inspire Rio mascots

‘Greatest catch’ star wishes he was victorious Beckham

Olympic Games A yellow cat-like

NFL aficionados have described it as the best catch they have seen, but the man who took it does not want the label to last. Odell Beckham Jr hopes that his spectacular one-handed take for a New York Giants touchdown on Sunday night can be bettered — by himself.

“I hope it is not the greatest catch because with time I hope I can make more,” said Beckham, the 22-year-old wide receiver, whose moment of magic, right, could not prevent a 31-28 home defeat by the Dallas Cowboys.

“It really means nothing — you still go home with a loss, and that’s just not a good feeling.”

The catch — a sensational take at full stretch, back arched like a highjumper, the ball finally nestling between his right thumb and two fingers — lifted a crowd of more than 80,000 at MetLife Stadium. “I have played this game for ten years and that was the greatest catch I’ve seen,” Antrel Rolle, his team-mate, said, while LeBron James, the NBA star,

figure that also combines elements of monkeys and birds has been unveiled as the mascot for Rio de Janeiro 2016.

The cartoon-type character represents the animal life of Brazil.

The mascot for the Paralympics is a doll with a mop of leafy hair, meant to represent the vast diversity of flora in Brazil. Their names will be chosen in a public poll after they made their first official appearance yesterday at a school in the Santa Teresa district of Rio, which is a mix of precarious slums and homes for millionaires.

American football Several seasoned

tweeted: “Man I just witnessed the greatest catch ever possibly by Odell Beckham Jr! WOW!!!!”

Tony Romo, the Dallas quarterback, said: “That one is right there with anything I’ve ever seen.”

Watch footage of Beckham’s brilliant catch at thetimes.co.uk/sport

“I remember sitting on my balcony in Monaco, with the most incredible view of the sea, sitting there and thinking about growing up with the view from my house in Stevenage,” Hamilton said.

“I went for a long run and the following

‘He is at his physical and psychological peak, as 11 wins this season testify’ days, I really thought about my approach to the next race, how I would approach each session, tweak it a little bit — and the results came.”

The 2008 championship, when Hamilton was only 23, almost took him by surprise and he made up his mind that this title would not pass him by.

After he left his car behind and walked through the cheers on Sunday night, he kept his crash helmet on and turned his

face away from the cameras. “No man wants to be seen with tears,” he said.

“My emotions were all over the place and I was disorientated. I had to sit down and take in the moment for myself. When I won the championship [in 2008], my dad and I sat down in a room. But so much went on, I wish I had sat down longer and taken more in.”

There will be a chance to take in much more if this truly is the start of the Hamilton era.

Inside today

A £25 million contract and £5 million bonus, celebrated with a £4 glass of melon juice . . .

News, page 5

British pair fall at the last in World Championships Boxing Lisa Whiteside and Sandy

Ryan, the Great Britain pair, had to settle for silver medals when they were beaten in their finals at the women’s World Championships in Jeju, South Korea, yesterday.

Whiteside, boxing at flyweight in place of the injured Nicola Adams, looked unlucky to lose a split points decision for the title to Marlen Esparza, an experienced American, while Ryan, 21, a light-welterweight who was competing in her first senior international tournament, lost on points to Anastasia Beliakova, of Russia.

Inside today

The day Dani King hit a pothole and thought she was going to die News, page 15. Read King’s monthly column online at thetimes.co.uk/sport

Roger Federer, Stanislas Wawrinka and the rest of the victorious Switzerland Davis Cup team received a warm welcome when they returned to Lausanne after defeating France

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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Formula One Sport

‘Spa was defining — internal rivalry can destroy teams’ SRDJAN SUKI / EPA

Continued from page 63

by his performance engineers. He had just taken pole. He was eating a large bowl of yoghurt and his eyes were scanning a computer screen in front of him.

Directly opposite Rosberg was the seat used by Hamilton. To the right of Hamilton was Clear and two along to the left was Lowe. On other tables were the engineers responsible for the engines, tyres and controls. At the back, on a screen, were the support teams back in Brackley, also tuning into the meeting. Everyone had a headset and microphone. Nobody was talking.

But the meeting could not start.

Hamilton had not arrived. He was talking to VIP guests including Pharrell Williams, the rapper and his friend, in the Mercedes motorhome. This was the third meeting at which the Briton had kept Rosberg waiting. Less than half an hour earlier, Rosberg had ratcheted up the pressure on Hamilton in the postqualifying press conference, cataloguing his team-mate’s mistakes, talking about the possibility that he may buckle under the pressure, and encouraging other drivers to get into the action.

If this was Hamilton’s riposte, it was perfectly judged. Rosberg signalled that he wanted the meeting to start. Lowe responded by breaking the tension with a question about the final lap of qualifying.

The clock continued to tick. The assembled engineers were completely silent, scrutinising the telemetry, waiting for the second of their drivers to arrive, all too aware that the tension was building like a wave. When Hamilton arrived at 7.12pm, there was

experience for me.” Hamilton, naturally, was euphoric, kissing Nicole Scherzinger, his girlfriend, and embracing his team. He was magnanimous in victory, offering the possibility that his relationship with Rosberg may start to thaw.

“Perhaps things will naturally ease up a little now,” Hamilton said. “[Nico] was gracious enough to come and see me after the race, which I appreciated.

That was tough. I know what it is like losing a championship.”

For Mercedes as an outfit, the race was a fitting finale. The sense of unity, already apparent when Hamilton’s race team applauded Rosberg’s pole the day before, was emphasised by the

‘Rosberg ratcheted up the pressure on him in the press conference’

Spa treatment: Hamilton and Rosberg clash at the Belgian Grand Prix, after which Mercedes took steps to cool tensions

an almost audible sigh. Hamilton sat down, avoiding eye contact with Rosberg. He started going through his checklist, softly spoken, but combative.

Rosberg was more consensual and expansive. Both men were on the verge of one of the most important days of their lives and you could feel the mutual ambition and tension.

Neither man was prepared to blink.

When I left the room, they were both staring into their computer screens, analysing the videos of qualifying. They still hadn’t made eye contact.

In the event, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was a procession for Hamilton. After a blistering start, he sustained his lead until the German started having problems with his hybrid engine and

dropped through the field. By the end, it was a formality.

To Rosberg’s credit, he took defeat with dignity, congratulating Hamilton and his team. As he left the garage an hour or so after the race, I suggested that losing can often be the making of a sportsman. “I agree,” he said. “If you don’t believe in that, you should not be in sport. This can be a big learning

spontaneous celebrations at the end of the race. There was no schism, no animosity. Even some of Rosberg’s team were crying tears of joy.

Wolff, standing at the back of the garage, looked quietly satisfied. He had proved himself to be an exceptional if unconventional leader. “The most rewarding thing of all is that we overcame the trauma of Spa,” he said. “We got back together. Can we carry this spirit forward? I don’t know. I am a natural pessimist. I always worry that things are about to go wrong.

“But today, we can thank two brilliant drivers for giving us an incredible show over the season. It has been an incredible ride.”

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Sport Formula One

‘Spa was the defining moment. We knew that internal rivalry can destroy teams’ Exclusive Lewis Hamilton won the World Championship in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. For the entire weekend his every move and those of Nico Rosberg, his title rival, was under scrutiny by Matthew Syed, who was embedded with the Mercedes team

O

n the afternoon of August 24, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg collided at Spa during the Belgian Grand Prix. The pair touched going into Les Combes on lap two, which ultimately forced a retirement for the British driver. Even before the race had ended, Toto Wolff and Paddy Lowe, the leaders of Mercedes F1, held a crisis meeting. The conclusion was emphatic: this has to stop. If the drivers continue to engage in civil war, the team could be destroyed from within.

“Spa was the defining moment of the year,” Wolff says on the terrace at his hotel in Abu Dhabi on Sunday morning, hours before a dramatic seasonending race. “We created a set of rules at the beginning of the year [on the Wednesday before the Melbourne Grand Prix]. We knew we had a situation where both men are No 1 drivers.

We knew from history that internal rivalry can destroy teams. And we were determined not to let that happen.

“But these are two super-competitive individuals and the rules were being stretched at every race. During the European season and into the summer, the tension was escalating. At Barcelona, there was an incident where Lewis may have been at fault. He turned the engine modes up at the end [which is against the rules]. I spent the Monday morning with him, walking up and down the beach. He was very down.”

Lowe, who handles the technical side of the Mercedes operation, sitting on the other side of the table, agrees.

“Lewis was destroyed by it,” he says.

“He knew he had done something wrong, but it was probably instinctive.

He was under pressure and he reacted to that.”

At Monaco, the drama continued.

“We had an incident where Nico missed the braking point [compromising Hamilton’s qualifying lap],” Wolff says. “It caused more tensions between them. But they talked and sorted it out.

Lewis tweeted a photo of when they karted together as kids. Then at the next race in Canada, Lewis tried to embrace Nico. It was as if he was saying: ‘We are friends.’ ” But the temperature between the drivers was set to intensify again. “We had a problem on Lewis’s car in qualifying in Germany and Hungary and both times he had to race from the back,” Wolff says. “We were not very precise in our communications over the radio, and he was angry. The entire situation was getting heated. Smoke was rising from the pan.”

The scene was set for the collision at Spa, an incident that the team blamed

squarely on Rosberg, who accepted responsibility. What followed was one of the most astonishing behind-thescenes interventions in F1 history.

Reaching a peak: Nicole Scherzinger congratulates Hamilton on Sunday

Sports personality odds

Rory McIlroy......................2/9 Lewis Hamilton.................3/1 Gareth Bale.......................20/1 Jo Pavey...............................33/1 Charlotte Dujardin...... 50/1 Lizzy Yarnold..................80/1 Adam Peaty...................100/1 Carl Froch.......................100/1 Kelly Gallagher...........100/1 Max Whitlock.............100/1 Odds: William Hill

Great minds . . .

Toto Wolff Articulate and dynamic, Wolff runs the operation. An entrepreneur who once made a fortune selling candles during a protest march in his native Austria, he has a 30 per cent stake in the business. “F1 is a great sport, but you should always keep perspective,” he says. “We race cars.

It is not the only thing in life.”

Paddy Lowe Self-effacing and cerebral, Lowe oversees the technical side. A Cambridge-educated engineer, he started out with McLaren in 1988 and has worked in F1 since. “F1 only had eight channels of data when I arrived in the sport,” he says. “Now it has more than a thousand. The transformation has been mind-boggling.”

Andy Cowell The man who leads the engine team. “We set ourselves a series of BHAGs [Big Hairy Audacious Goals],” he says. “We didn’t initially design the power unit to be car-friendly, but to initiate the testing process. Only after we had learnt about the engine from the test cell did we start optimising it for the car.”

It was on the Sunday night at Spa, away from the cameras and the furore surrounding the Rosberg manoeuvre, that Wolff and Lowe took a decision that, on the face of it, was staggeringly risky: they imposed a five-day blackout. Both drivers were cut off from their support structure. They were not allowed to call or email their teams, so were unable to have their usual debrief.

“They are wonderful young guys, but any human being is going to be affected by intense competition,” Wolff says.

“Emotionally they are still developing.

We had to signal that this had to stop and we applied it to both drivers because it could easily have been the other way round. For an organisation as process-oriented as us, it was unprecedented.”

This was an impressive intervention.

In one sense, it was detrimental for the team, because the drivers needed access to the data that is provided at the post-race debrief. But, given the level of tension and its destructive potential, it was imperative.

The stand-off ended five days later.

The drivers were called on Thursday evening and asked to report to the Brackley HQ the next morning. Lowe and Wolff met Rosberg at 9am, with Hamilton at 10am and with both drivers together at 11am. The meetings took place in the boardroom.

“We told them that this is not how we want to continue,” Lowe said. “They both understood. They are smart guys.

They could see that we were in danger of losing something special.”

The two support teams had a similar meeting. These are the engineers, technicians and assorted performance analysts. Many have PhDs; almost all excelled as undergraduates. They are used to analysing data, crunching numbers. In the way they approach engineering, they have learnt to put emotions to one side and to look in a clear-eyed way at the evidence. But their responses in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of a post-race showdown were all too human.

“Nico’s side said that the incident was clearly Lewis’s fault and Lewis’s side said that it was clearly Nico’s fault,” Wolff says. “We let them talk it out. The meeting lasted several hours. But at the end we said: Do we all agree that this incident was completely unnecessary?

‘Yes’. Do we all agree that this could happen in the future? ‘Yes’. Do we all agree we don’t want this to happen again? ‘Yes’. The conclusion was accept-

After the storm: friends since childhood, team-mates and bitter rivals for most of TOM GANDOLFINI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

End of the road: mechanical problems in Abu Dhabi ended Rosberg’s title hopes

the times | Tuesday November 25 2014

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Formula One Sport HOCH ZWEI / ACTION IMAGES

Culture where ‘standing still is tantamount to extinction’ Matthew Syed

F

a tempestuous season, Hamilton and Rosberg show their respect for each other after the Englishman’s victory in Abu Dhabi secured a second world championship

ed by everyone: this is one team. We have to pull together. By the end, we went out almost holding hands with each other.”

The tensions within Mercedes cut to the heart of F1. This is a sport about metrics and data. But it is also about the red-blooded ironies of the human psyche. It is about emotion, passion and the irrationalities that emerge when two men are exploring the limits of supercars around a track, and two support teams are working through the night in pursuit of the championship. But this human aspect has often been neglected in the past in F1. In many ways, it has been the sport’s Achilles’ heel.

“People within the sport are mathematicians,” Jock Clear, Hamilton’s performance engineer, says. “We like hard data. That is why the sport has often struggled with the soft, subjective aspect of performance known as the human being. We have consciously tried to improve on that this season at Mercedes. We have tried to make decisions, sometimes firm ones, designed to create unity and to dispel tension. It has been a departure from the usual methods. But I think the results show that it has worked.”

“We have to handle each driver differently,” Lowe says. “They are complete opposites on the spectrum of personality. Wolff adds: “The pressure is intense. It is inevitable that there will be

tensions between the drivers and teams. But you ignore that at your peril.

“I spoke to Alain Prost about his rivalry with [Ayrton] Senna and he said that the most important things are transparency and authority. Both drivers have to know that you are being honest with them, but they also need to buy into the rules of engagement. You cannot have a civil war. When drivers get carried away with their superstar status, you will never catch them back.”

The strategy conceived at Spa worked. Hamilton and Rosberg had not become friends all of a sudden, but they

had bought into the framework demanded of them. They achieved a one-two finish at five of the next six races. By the time Hamilton won the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi, Mercedes had won the constructors’ title. And by the time the F1 juggernaut moved on to Abu Dhabi, the team were being hailed as among the most dominant in the sport’s history.

But one title was still to be decided.

Hamilton led by a sizeable margin, but Rosberg still had a chance to win the drivers’ championship. The men had internalised the imperative to keep the

races free of deliberate sabotage, but they were still driven to win. As the clock ticked down to the start of the race, the body language was understandably strained. And, for arguably the first time in an intriguing season, the mind games were going into overdrive.

At 7.57pm on Saturday, the crucial eveof-race debrief was about to get under way in the Mercedes garage. The room was small and sparse. Rosberg was sitting in the middle of his table, flanked Continued on page 61

Champagne moment for garage band Matthew Syed

Nicole Scherzinger arrived in the garage 20 minutes before the start of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix along with Anthony Hamilton, Lewis’s father, and Nicolas, his brother. She walked over to Vivian, the wife of Nico Rosberg, and offered her a hug. All around them, mechanics and engineers were pacing, measuring and analysing.

Was Scherzinger nervous? “No,” she said with a smile and a wrinkle of her nose. Anthony was less certain, grimacing before standing, arms folded, before one of the TV monitors. As the clock

ticked down to the start of the race, even the engineers seemed to be feeling it, glancing at each other, blinking at the TV and computer screens.

An F1 garage is an extraordinary environment: intimate, fraught, but ultimately intoxicating. It is where the pitstop crews are positioned, where the team bosses chew their nails, and where all the instructions sent to the drivers are relayed into headphones throughout the garage, so that every detail is absorbed by team members.

It is also a place where they know how to celebrate. Moments after Hamilton secured the championship,

the champagne was flowing. While Scherzinger was surrounded by cameras and pitlane girls were sashaying past to take photos, I noticed one of the engineers, a quiet Canadian who had made a telling intervention during the debrief the day before.

He was standing a foot outside the mêlée, sipping a glass of bubbly. “It makes it all worthwhile,” he said, before proceeding to deconstruct the possible technical reasons why Rosberg’s engine had failed.

Glamour, champagne and intellectual rigour: in many ways, this was F1 in microcosm.

ew cars in history have been as dominant as the Mercedes W05 Hybrid. Sixteen victories, 18 poles and a car that, at times, seemed to fly. Ten days before the Abu Dhabi showdown, I visited the team’s headquarters in Brackley to try to understand the secret of its success. It is a place of astonishing sophistication and rigour.

“The first stage in everything is to objectify the problem,” James, a performance analyst, told me. “A good example is the pitstops. Per gun, there are eight sensors. Just by looking at data, without speaking to the human involved, I can ascertain exactly what [has] happened.

“When they initially connected to the wheel nut, I can tell that they, say, connected 20 degrees off the optimum angle. When they start rotating the gun, I can tell how long it has taken for the nut to physically loosen all its pre-loaded torque and for the wheel to start moving off the axle.

“I can tell how quickly the gun man has moved away; how quickly he has reconnected, how long it has taken for the tyre to be removed, the second tyre to be refitted to the axle, how clean the second connection was to it and how long he was gunning on for. And the precision of this information helps us to create an optimisation loop. It shows us how to improve every time-sensitive aspect.”

Yet this approach, while impressive, is just the beginning.

The pitstop is one of hundreds of dimensions of performance that are deconstructed, analysed and incrementally improved upon every day at Brackley. The atmosphere is relentless and, in many ways, revelatory. It offers an example that other sports (and industries) could learn from.

Other key factors in the success of Mercedes include the structure created by Ross Brawn, the former team principal, whose contribution is acknowledged across the team.

Also eulogised is the engine created by the Mercedes operation at Brixworth, overseen by Andy Cowell. The hybrid power unit has better fuel consumption, greater power and more efficient weight distribution.

But the culture at Brackley is at the epicentre of the Mercedes phenomenon. The sense of purpose and clarity is almost overwhelming.

“F1 is an unusual environment because you have incredibly intelligent people driven by the desire to win,” Lowe said. “The ambition spurs rapid innovation. Things from just two years ago seem antique.

Standing still is tantamount to extinction.”

Brawn was a key influence in setting up a winning structure for the champions

Sport

Tuesday November 25 2014 | the times

Mercedes uncovered red

Exclusive After three days locked away with Lewis Hamilton and his team, Matthew Syed reveals the secrets of the world champions ons Pages 61-63

thetimes.co.uk/sport

british press awards — sports team of the year

City stars may pay for failure, warns Nasri James Ducker Northern Football Correspondent

Samir Nasri has warned his fellow high earners at Manchester City that their futures will be at stake should they suffer a third exit in four seasons at the group stage of the Champions League.

Should CSKA Moscow or Roma win their Champions League group E match in Russia, City will be eliminated if they fail to beat Bayern Munich, who have already qualified, at the Etihad Stadium tonight.

Nasri believes that City are fortunate still to have a chance of qualifying after mustering only two points from their opening four matches and said that the players could have no complaints if the club sought to offload some of them next summer should they fall short again in Europe.

The France midfielder admitted that, with so many well-paid players in a squad with an average age of about 29, the Barclays Premier League champions would have no excuses for not delivering again.

Manuel Pellegrini, the manager, is also likely to come under pressure if City bow out and fail to challenge Chelsea, whom they trail by eight points, in the title race.

“I think we are really lucky that we are two points behind [Roma and CSKA] with two games left and have a chance to qualify,” Nasri said. “We need

to take it now because we are not going to have any favours from anyone else any more.

“Of course [as players we will feel we have failed if we do not qualify]. With the salary of every player and the level of those players — 90 per cent of the team is world class — then not to qualify from the first round of the Champions League would be a huge blow for the club, and for us as well.

“We need to show that we are smart players and to use what has happened in the last couple of years to improve.

Now is the moment.

“Sometimes people say our team is a little bit old but a midfield player is in his prime at 27 to 31 or 28 to 32. So I think it’s the perfect age. And let’s be honest, we need to do something, or otherwise next year it is going to be new players, it’s going to be everything. You have to respond.”

With Yaya Touré and Fernandinho, the midfielders, suspended after their red cards in the 2-1 defeat at home to CSKA three weeks ago and David Silva, Edin Dzeko and Aleksandar Kolarov injured, Pellegrini suggested that there could be changes to the “way we are going to play”.

Sergio Agüero and Stevan Jovetic sat out training yesterday morning as precautions after both suffered minor knocks in the 2-1 win at home to Swansea City on Saturday, but Pellegrini said that the forwards will be Continued on page 58

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TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER, ALAN WALTER

Nathaniel Clyne celebrates the late goal that earned Southampton a 1-1 draw away to Aston Villa last night. Report, page 57

across

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1 Firm heading for receivership and bankrupt, nothing to invest (6) 4 Sides batting intermittently (3,3,2) 10 Small joy of the cryptic crossword, a dangerous game? (9) 11 After putting back, soak plant again (5) 12 Evil daughter has come in sozzled (7) 13 A couple of presents unlikely to be found? (7) 14 Choice of parts in rear half of boat: a large vessel (5) 15 Arrest essential to fix a contrary European (8) 18 Company having typed badly, one filed work as a journalist (4-4) 20 From the East, some of Asia’s American Africans (5) 23 Principality with golden sun (7) 25 Animal always going after stick — canine ultimately involved? (3,4) 26 White knight in dark, invisible at the end (5) 27 Intimate message is very good in revolutionary book (9) 28 Try getting species into action and wish for success (8) 29 Venture with fish shop (6)

1 After unexpected rise, double remaining (8) 2 Bread rose, might you say? (7) 3 Deny tears flowing, as hardly moving (9) 5 Archer speedy with bar and lock (6,8) 6 A quarrel? That’s about right? (5) 7 Bath time — time flies! (7) 8 Spice in upended stone cask (6) 9 Lifting equipment requiring defensive actions (5,3,6) 16 Musical success for me (6,3) 17 Game where good lord overcome by spirits (3,5) 19 Matchless woman in game (3,4) 21 Stripper beginning to strip before judge? (7) 22 Blabbermouth talks with a government leader after uprising (6) 24 Horse put up for review (5)

Yesterday’s solution 25,952 D I I C H E WO I T E H D E E A N T H A

S Y R I N G A

F L A I L E I D

T A F F R U S E E Y S A L I S A I U K Y COME I E P A R T Y G N Y H E C T P E D H L R T OM I S E R M G V A P RO V G E E L E S T S T

B O N E C H I N A

E N E EW D L E A M L

N T E C A R H M I S I D N E R I

S E L U A N A E T I I C F E R I ON G L E

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