T t 2014 11 05

OF LONDON

wednesday november 5 2014 | thetimes.co.uk | no 71346

Fashion May turns her fire on Tory rival

Why smart women are faking it Pages 32-33

BILL COOPER

Culture secretary’s plan to boost mobile phone coverage dismissed as threat to national security

Francis Elliott Political Editor

Theresa May has risked a new round of cabinet warfare by warning one of her long-term rivals for the Tory leadership that his key policy could leave Britain open to terrorist attacks.

A confidential letter from the home secretary, seen by The Times, advises that plans by Sajid Javid to make mobile phone companies improve their coverage threaten to damage the ability of intelligence agencies to thwart plots.

Plans for new laws to make operators fill in mobile “not-spots” are to be announced by Mr Javid today as he steps up his battle with the telecoms industry.

The culture secretary made improving phone coverage, which is poorest in rural areas, his priority after his promotion to the cabinet in the summer. Conservative strategists believe that action to close the gaps, estimated to cover a fifth of Britain, is a way of winning back support in former countryside heartlands being targeted

by Ukip.

David Cameron, a strong supporter of action on “not-spots”, has complained about the poor reception in Cornwall, where he takes family holidays, and in other rural areas.

Mr Javid confirmed last month that his favoured option was to make companies allow customers to swap between networks to bring about “national roaming”. He has said it is not fair that visitors from the Continent are instantly switched to a rival provider when they lose signal — a requirement of EU law — while the service is unavailable to domestic customers.

However, Mrs May, who was criticised this week by Norman Baker on his resignation as a home office minister

for being “uncollegiate”, has warned the prime minister and other senior cabinet members that the change risked undermining national security.

Her letter said that two of the proposed options, including national roaming, “could have a detrimental impact on law enforcement, security and intelligence agency access to communications data and lawful intercept”.

She also raises objections to another option, allowing companies such as Tesco to offer customers packages that use all four of the main networks.

Mrs May calls for further studies to make sure that the changes do not stop police from accessing “information that is crucial to keeping us safe”. She argues that their ability to listen to calls and read emails is “vital to protecting the public from crime and terrorism”.

The home secretary does not spell out the technical issues that could undermine the interception of calls, but it is thought that roaming would significantly complicate agencies’ ability to track suspects.

News of her concerns will embolden phone operators, who have refused to introduce network-swapping voluntarily, arguing that it would reduce their incentives to invest in new masts. They rejected an offer of reduced government fees for the range of radio frequencies that they use.

In a Whitehall showdown on October 20, three days after Mrs May sent her letter, Mr Javid and Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the treasury, gave industry bosses a week to commit to the change or face the threat of legislation. The deadline passed without action from the operators.

Opening his consultation today, Mr Javid will say: “I’m determined to Continued on page 8, col 5

Stage exit Sylvie Guillem, who starred with the Royal Ballet for 17 years, is to retire after a world tour next year. News, page 7

British troops are heading back to Iraq Deborah Haynes Defence Editor Michael Evans

Britain is preparing to send troops back to Baghdad to support a US-led mission to help the Iraqi security forces in their fight against Islamic State.

A number of officers are set to join an American headquarters that has been established in the capital to train and advise the Iraqi army. More British training teams could be sent to the semi-autonomous Kurdish north of the

country. Details have yet to be finalised but an announcement is expected in the coming days.

While only on a small scale, it would mark the first enduring British mission to Iraq since all UK forces pulled out of the country in 2011, eight years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

“We are exploring what more can be done on training as part of a future package of support aimed at bolstering the ability [of the Iraqi military] to

tackle [Islamic State],” a senior defence source said.

Pressure is growing on Britain and its allies to do more to help Haider al-Abadi, the new Iraqi prime minister, as his security forces struggle to reclaim territory in the north and west of the country that fell to Islamic State earlier in the year.

“The strategy is Iraq first, which is really important,” a Whitehall source said. “If Iraq fails or the government Continued on page 2, col 3

IN THE NEWS Hallowe’en horror

Royal plea to clerics

Britons combat ebola

Rolls-Royce job cuts

Liverpool on ropes

Claudia Winkleman will miss a second week of hosting Strictly Come Dancing this weekend after her 8-year-old daughter suffered burns in an accident on Hallowe’en. Page 3

The Prince of Wales called on Muslim leaders and their religious colleagues to break their silence over the suffering of members of minority faiths in the Middle East. Page 12

A small team of British medical volunteers in Sierra Leone is leading the battle to keep the capital’s main hospital open as ebola continues to spread. Page 24

Rolls-Royce is to cut 2,600 jobs in a restructuring that aims to save £120 million over the next two years, followed by annual savings of £80 million. Page 37

Liverpool will struggle to reach the round of 16 in the Champions League after a spirited performance failed to prevent a 1-0 away defeat by Real Madrid. Pages 62-64

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News INSIDE TODAY

World

Daniel Finkelstein

Clintons lead the charge as Obama’s star power fades

Gargantuan child abuse inquiry will fail the victims

Page 25

Opinion, page 17

fashion

Keira Knightley: tley: my battle to lead a normal life Pages 30, 31

Obituary

James LaRossa: lawyer who defended the New York mafiosi Register, page 55

Opinion 17 Weather 17 Cartoon 19 Leading articles 20 Letters 21 World 24 Features 30 Business 37 Markets 47, 48 Register 49 Sport 53 Crosswords 52, 64 Please note, some sections of The Times are available only in the United Kingdom and Ireland

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Mental health services are still failing young people, say MPs Chris Smyth Health Correspondent

Children are being failed by dysfunctional mental health services that have “serious and deeply ingrained problems”, from prevention right through to crisis care, MPs warn in a report published today.

Young people face “battles” to get treatment and teenagers are routinely sent hundreds of miles from home or locked up in police cells because there are no hospital beds available, the health select committee report says.

Teachers should be trained in spotting mental health problems and urgent research is needed into how the internet increases stress, promotes bullying and encourages anorexia, the committee says.

Budgets are being cut and opportunities to stop children becoming ill are ignored, the MPs add as they report “universal concerns” about child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).

Hilary Cass, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said that youth mental health was becoming a “hidden epidemic” because of neglect from politicians.

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Households are much less worried about energy bills than they were last year, according to an official survey which undermines the case for Ed Miliband’s policy of freezing bills.

A third of people said that they worried about the amount they paid for gas and electricity, the lowest proportion since the Department of Energy and Climate Change began its quarterly survey in March 2012.

Concern about bills was almost twice as high last summer, shortly before Mr Miliband announced that he would force energy companies to freeze prices for 20 months if Labour won next year’s

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Last year 236 children were treated in police cells and the MPs say that this would be “unthinkable for children experiencing a crisis in their physical health”.

According to the report, a shortage of beds meant more than 200 children were treated in adolescent psychiatric wards last year, while many others were “shunted” around the country to a free space, far from family and friends.

Promises of 50 more beds across the country may not be enough, it adds.

Norman Lamb, the care minister, who has previously said that children’s mental health services are “stuck in the Dark Ages”, said: “I am determined to make sure young people get the mental health care they need. We’ve invested £7 million in new beds, I’ve launched a taskforce to improve services and we are introducing a new waiting time standard to make sure young people with psychosis get prompt treatment. I strongly welcome this report which will support our work.”

Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, said: “Mental health remains the poor relation of the NHS and children’s mental health even more so. That simply cannot be allowed to continue.”

general election. The survey, of 2,103 households, also found that trust in energy supplier had risen, with more people believing that their power company was transparent and fair.

More than three quarters of those questioned were worried about steep rises in energy prices in the future, although this was the lowest proportion since the survey started.

A Labour spokesman said the fall in concern about energy bills would not prompt a review of the policy.

The DECC said that the reduced concern about energy bills was reflected in a general trend regarding prices. The proportion of people who were worried about food prices fell

from 50 per cent in April last year to 28 per cent in the latest survey. The level of concern over rent and mortgage payments fell over the same period from 30 per cent to 18 per cent.

The survey revealed continued high support for renewable energy. Solar was the most popular method, supported by 80 per cent of those questioned.

Which?, the consumer body, said its own polling showed that three quarters of people were worried about energy bills, and one quarter trusted the energy industry to act in their best interests. Richard Lloyd, the executive director, said: “While trust may have marginally improved, energy remains one of the least trusted industries.”

Britain sends forces back Libya training to Iraq in fight against Isis in doubt after Continued from page 1

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“If a child with a physical illness is forced to travel hundreds of miles for a bed, if funding for hospital services are severely cut or if there is huge variation in the provision of care for children with a physical condition — it is deemed a national scandal,” she said.

“And yet we continue to see budget cuts and increases in waiting times for CAMHS, and increasing numbers of children and young people being held on adult mental health wards and high numbers still held in police cells.”

She said one in ten children has some form of mental health problem and 80,000 have severe depression, with little progress in reducing these numbers.

She added: “There is a clear message to the next government: get to grips with the CAMHS crisis or put the mental health of thousands of children, young people and adults at risk.”

Peter Hindley, of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, urged ministers to act. “It is unacceptable that children and young people’s safety is being compromised while they wait for a bed to become available. Of particular concern is the unacceptable practice of taking children detained under s136 of the Mental Health Act to police cells,” he said.

Energy bills cause less of a headache Ben Webster Environment Editor

of LONDON

Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

becomes sectarian then that is a massive problem. If we are serious then we have got to stop [it] failing. If we can stabilise Iraq then we have got a hard shoulder to start putting the squeeze back on Syria. If we lose Iraq then we are doomed.”

There is a need to retrain the Iraqi army, which crumbled in the face of Isis advances in the summer. A Pentagon assessment found that at least half of all military units were incompetent. The United States has already agreed to send about 500 soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division to Iraq and elsewhere in the region.

Britain, wary of committing to a campaign so close to a general election, has been slower to respond to the demand to offer training teams and advisers who may be called upon to operate on the ground alongside Iraqi troops.

David Cameron has gone out of his way to say that the government will not be sending “ground troops” back into Iraq. However, there is an acknowledgement that some presence is needed to support Iraq’s military and to ensure that Britain has influence in

Baghdad — something that was lost when UK forces pulled out of southern Iraq after the 2003 invasion.

“The politics are really important.

We need to demonstrate that we are committed to the military fight,” the Whitehall source said.

General John Allen, President Obama’s special envoy for the anti-Isis coalition, indicated in London last month that he was hopeful Britain would participate in the US training programme for the Iraq forces.

The US has 12 teams of specialists, seven based in Baghdad and five in Arbil, who are advising the Iraqi higher command headquarters on anti-Isis strategy. The divisional headquarters, which started operating on Monday, will provide further strategic support.

Britain has so far only sanctioned a two-week training course on heavy machineguns in Arbil for the peshmerga forces, involving 12 soldiers from 2nd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment.

There are also plans to help to train moderate Syrian rebels fighting Isis in neighbouring Syria. This is a longerterm ambition as it will take months to identify suitable forces to work with.

‘sex assaults’

Deborah Haynes Defence Editor

A plan to train 2,000 Libyan soldiers in Britain was in chaos yesterday after two recruits were charged with raping a man and three others were charged with sexually assaulting women.

The alleged crimes prompted the Ministry of Defence to send the first wave of more than 300 Libyan troops home early from a training camp in Cambridgeshire while the entire programme was placed under review.

“Training was initially expected to last until the end of November but we have agreed with the Libyan government that it is best for all involved to bring forward the training completion date,” a spokesman for the MoD said.

Two men, aged 33 and 22, appeared at Cambridge magistrates’ court yesterday charged with the rape of a man in the city on October 26. They were remanded in custody until next Tuesday.

The alleged sexual assaults on women were on the same day. Three men, aged between 18 and 27, have been remanded in custody until January 5.

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

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Strictly presenter’s child in Hallowe’en pumpkin horror

News

Wake-up call with personal touch adds sense of alarm

BBC / REX / GETTY IMAGES

Kaya Burgess

Claudia Winkleman will miss a second week of hosting Strictly Come Dancing this weekend after her daughter, aged eight, suffered burns in a Hallowe’en accident on Friday.

BBC One viewers were told last Saturday that Winkleman was unable to take part in the show because “one of her children was unwell”. Zoë Ball stepped in to cover for her on the celebrity dancing competition.

Ms Winkleman’s daughter, Matilda Thykier, was taken to hospital after her Hallowe’en costume is believed to have been set alight by a pumpkin candle while she was trick-or-treating in central London.

The presenter’s family has asked for privacy over their daughter’s condition.

She is expected to remain in hospital for further treatment and her parents said they were “hopeful of a full recovery”.

A statement released by Winkleman, 42, and her husband, Kris Thykier, 42, a former PR executive and founder of Archery Pictures production company, thanked NHS staff for their support and warned people to take care around fire on Guy Fawkes Night tonight.

“Our daughter was involved in an accident on Friday night while celebrating Hallowe’en. She is having the best care possible and we are hopeful of a full recovery,” they said.

“We would like to thank everyone that has been so supportive and particularly the NHS doctors, nurses and staff who have been absolutely incredible.

“We would like to take this opportunity to remind anyone taking part in fireworks parties or Guy Fawkes celebrations to be vigilant about the dangers of candles, open fires and fireworks and to please have the appropriate safety measures in place and to hand.”

Matilda, whose mother also fronted the Film programme on BBC Two, had a bit part in the 2013 British comedy film I Give it a Year.

Zoë Ball will again step in as host on Strictly this Saturday and it is not known when Winkleman will return. A BBC spokesman said: “All our thoughts and very best wishes are with Claudia and her family at this time.”

James Dean Technology Correspondent

Winkleman with Strictly co-host Tess Daly. Left, Matilda with her father and, below, in the film I Give it a Year

A London Ambulance Service spokesman said: “We were called at 5.23pm on Friday to an address on Connaught Square, W2. We sent an ambulance crew, a single responder by car and an advanced paramedic to the scene. We treated a child and took

her to hospital as a priority.” Winkleman, who took over from Bruce Forsyth on Strictly Come Dancing, also has two sons — Jake, 11, and Arthur, 3 — with Mr Thykier, whom she married in 2000. Winkleman is the daughter of Eve Pollard, a former editor of the Sunday Express, and her stepfather, Sir Nicholas Lloyd, used to edit the Daily Express.

In 2013, there were 82 fire-related injures between Hallowe’en and Bonfire Night — an increase of more than a third on the year before. A spokes-

woman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said: “Data collected across Britain in previous years shows that, on average, around 1,000 people visit A&E for treatment of a firework-related injury in the four weeks around Bonfire Night, with half of the injuries being suffered by under18s. About half of firework injuries happen at family or private parties and about a quarter in the street or other public place.”

The most recent full statistics, from 2005, show that there were 990 accidents over the four-week period, with 475 at family parties and 281 affecting children under 13.

RoSPA advice warns: “Sparklers should not be given to anyone under the age of five. To a young child, the heat from a sparkler is equivalent to the heat from a welding torch.”

It also warns of the dangers of “unattended pumpkin candles” and said that 138 people in England were admitted to hospital last year after their clothing caught fire. Parents are warned to look for a “CE” mark on costumes, which denotes that they comply with the European toy safety directive.

“This is agent Nick Fury from SHIELD,” the caller said. “Wake up, your planet needs you.” Thus went one wake-up call on the “social alarm” that replaces irksome beeps with messages from human beings.

Users of Wakie, a smartphone app, set their alarms to receive a one-minute wake-up call from other users who might be anywhere in the world. The calls often come from Russia, according to reports from some users.

“Woke up to a thick Russian accent telling me he loves me,” said one.

Another said: “The other day, I got woken up by a very drunk-sounding Russian guy, apparently in a loud bar. I don’t think he knew how to say anything other than ‘wake up’ in English.”

Others have reported being woken with maths problems and bursts of trivia about the caller’s home town.

The makers of the app claim that calls from humans wake the brain faster than alarm clocks. This is likely to be true for some of the less friendly messages that some users have reportedly received.

“Some dude with the scariest voice ever told me to wake up or he will fly to the UK and wake me up personally,” one said. Another apparently received the message: “You will die in seven days.”

The app has also generated privacy concerns. Many users said that their calls were sometimes diverted to the recipient’s answering service, which read out their phone number.

There may be unfortunate side effects. One user wrote on Reddit, the social network: “I think I just ended a relationship . . . woke two people up. The first was cool, said ‘I’m awake, thanks,’ and the second not so cool. I could hear a man and a woman, and when she realised I could hear them too, she started freaking out on the guy. I tried to explain, but the one-minute timer was up.”

Another said: “I got a call from Japan.

I think he was watching porn . . . did not need coffee that morning.”

The feedback verges on the positive, nonetheless. “As much as I despise being awakened by someone telling me to ‘wake the f**k up,’ it’s been amazing to be awakened by friendly, smiling voices that greet me with ‘good morning, sunshine’ from the Netherlands and other parts of the world,” one reviewer wrote.

The app is available in Britain for Android and Windows phones, but is not yet available for iPhones.

Leading article, page 20

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Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

News ANDREW MATTHEWS / PA

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Feminist T-shirt in clear The charity behind the “This is what a feminist looks like” T-shirts alleged to have been made in a Mauritius sweatshop has rebutted the claim. The Fawcett Society said it had seen evidence from the supplier, Whistles, that factory staff were paid above the minimum wage.

Celebrities wore the T-shirt to back a feminist issue of Elle.

Stonehenge salute Jacob Bruce and Owein O’Brien of 1st Battalion Royal Regiment Fusiliers herald an exhibition about Salisbury Plain’s history as an army training ground

Migrants cost £120bn but energetic young Europeans earn their keep Richard Ford Home Correspondent

Immigrants from outside the European Union cost Britain almost £120 billion over 17 years, compared with a £4 billion contribution by those from the EU, according to a study published today.

Recent migrants from Europe have also contributed more in taxes than they received in benefits, and were better educated than British-born residents.

The findings that EU migrants make a positive contribution will fuel the debate on the impact of migration as the prime minister prepares to make a keynote speech outlining plans to curb the flow from Europe to Britain.

Christian Dustmann, director of the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration at University College, London, and co-author of the study, said: “A key concern in the public debate on migration is whether immigrants contribute their fair share to the tax and welfare systems. Our new ana-

lysis draws a positive picture of the overall fiscal contribution made by recent immigrant cohorts, particularly of immigrants arriving from the EU. “European immigrants, particularly, both from the new accession countries and the rest of the European Union, make the most substantial contributions. This is mainly down to their higher average labour market participation compared with natives and their lower receipt of welfare benefits.”

However, Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: “This report confirms that immigration as a whole has cost up to £150 billion in the last 17 years. As for recent European migrants, even on their own figures — which we dispute — their contribution to the exchequer amounts to less than £1 a week per head of our population.”

The study found that non-EU migrants resident in Britain between 1995 and 2011 took more from the public purse in each of the 17 years. This amounted to £118 billion, compared

with a positive contribution of £4.4 billion by European migrants. In the same period, British-born workers made a negative contribution of £591 billion.

Migrants who came from Europe between 2000 and 2011 made a net contribution of £20 billion.

Immigrants from the east European states who joined the EU in 2004 had contributed 12 per cent more than they received in benefits, and those from older EU states such as France, Germany, and Spain 64 per cent more.

The report says that migrants from eastern Europe are younger than the average population, have higher employment rates, are more likely to have degrees and less likely to have low education levels. “The level of education of immigrants in this country is extraordinary. It is higher in comparison to other EU countries,” Professor Dustmann said.

The total immigrant population almost doubled to seven million between 1995 to 2011. The number of

European migrants more than tripled to 2.3 million and the number of nonEuropeans rose from 2.8 million to 4.6 million.

Migrants made up almost 14 per cent of the adult population in 2011, up from just under 9 per cent in 2000. About 2.3 million new jobs created since 1995 went to immigrants and about 1 million to British people.

The study found that, overall, migrants had a lower probability of receiving state benefits or tax credits than British people.

David Green, director of the thinktank Civitas, said: “The shallow focus of the UCL report on whether immigrants pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits misses out some vital costs.

“The study ignores the Europe-wide consequences by focusing on a shallow comparison within the UK. People who migrate tend to be young, better educated and energetic. They make good employees here but they are a loss to their own country.”

Poles top of league for work

Open up for refugees, begs UN

Richard Ford Home Correspondent

Foreign-born adults in work

Laura Pitel Political Correspondent

They have acquired a reputation as grafters and official figures show that Poles have the highest employment rate of any nationality in England and Wales, including the British.

The Office for National Statistics report, based on findings from the 2011 census, analysed groups according to place of birth. About 80 per cent of working-age Poles resident in England and Wales on the day of the census were working, compared with 69 per cent of UK-born residents and 59 per cent of those born outside the EU. The study also revealed high levels of unemployment and caring roles among some immigrant communities. Bangla-

Poland South Africa Ireland US Jamaica Pakistan Bangladesh

78.1% 75.9% 67.8% 61.4% 55.1% 32.3% 30.5%

Source: ONS. Recent arrivals (2007-2011) aged 16-64

deshi and Pakistani-born residents who had been in Britain for between five and ten years and 11 and 30 years had the lowest rates of economic activity. This was largely down to the relatively high proportions of women in the economically inactive category.

Britain and other European nations must open their doors to more refugees if they are to prevent thousands from drowning in the Mediterranean, a UN diplomat has warned.

António Guterres, the UN high commissioner for refugees, said that the UK’s decision to withdraw support for search and rescue operations would not diminish the numbers of people trying to cross from northern Africa to Europe.

Ministers were criticised last week for claiming that continued support for rescue missions created a “pull factor” for those tempted to make the journey.

Mr Guterres said: “If we really want

to fight smuggling and trafficking, it’s important to create more legal avenues for people in need of protection to have access to Europe.”

This required a more flexible visa policy and more opportunities for resettlement of those seeking asylum.

While acknowledging that the UK was a major destination country for asylum seekers, coming eighth in the world last year, he said: “It’s the UK’s right or not to receive economic migrants. “[But] if somebody who needs protection comes to the UK, it’s the obligation of the UK if that person is really in need of protection to grant protection.If you don’t separate the two things, then the debate loses clarity.”

Benetton snubs UN fund, page 28

BBC ‘gag’ on women Senior women were forced out of the BBC because they were seen as too old then gagged with confidentiality clauses, the Lords communications committee was told. Miriam O’Reilly, 57, who sued the BBC for discrimination after she was axed as a presenter of Countryfile, told peers that prospects for older women in the news division had not improved since she won her case in 2011.

Britons die at resort A British man died of a suspected heart attack in Cyprus after rescuing a fellow holidaymaker from the sea, police said. She too later died. The British woman, named locally as Christine McLeish Sugarhood, 66, was seen in difficulty in the water at a beach in Paphos. The man, understood to be Bernard Harris, 61, dragged her back to shore then collapsed, police said.

Smokers’ painful lesson Smokers are three times more likely to suffer from long-term back pain because of their habit’s effect on the brain, a study found.

It is the first evidence to link smoking and chronic pain with the part of the brain associated with addiction and reward. The study, published online in the journal Human Brain Mapping, also found that giving up smoking lessened vulnerability to pain.

Most read at thetimes.co.uk 1. British banker’s ‘love triangle’ 2. Boy gets 20 years for classroom murder of teacher 3. Brussels offers olive branch 4. Virtual IDs for everyone 5. Why gyms are on a go-slow 6. Sex, lies and rock and roll in East Berlin 7. Gibraltar flight forced off route 8. Labour support hits new low 9. Confessions of a cougar 10. Costa Concordia’s final victim

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

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Babies died after neighbours mistook 999 crew for police Gabriella Swerling

A woman is in a coma and her newborn twin daughters have died after neighbours refused to let paramedics into their block of flats, believing the flashing blue lights signalled a police raid.

Jocelyn Bennett, 27, was 32 weeks pregnant with the twins when she called an ambulance in the early hours on Wednesday after waking up with severe stomach pains.

She suffered a placental abruption and was in too much pain to reach the entry button when a first responder arrived 12 minutes later.

Emergency crews tried to get into the building by ringing neighbouring flats but they refused to answer their intercoms after mistaking the ambulances’ Jocelyn Bennett is in a medically induced coma

flashing blue lights for police vans.

Police arrived at Peck House in Druids Heath, Birmingham, 20 minutes after the paramedics and forced the door open.

Ms Bennett suffered a cardiac arrest.

When paramedics reached her flat, her heart had stopped and she was lying unconscious on the floor.

She was taken to Birmingham Women’s Hospital where doctors delivered twin girls, Melody, weighing 4lb 1oz, and Rose, who was just 3lb, by emergency caesarean section.

Ms Bennett and her partner, Kevin Clarke, 31, had named the twins weeks ago.

Ms Bennett is currently in a chemically induced coma but both babies suffered multiple organ failure and their life-support machines were switched off yesterday as nursery rhymes played in the background. Ms

Bennett’s father, Joe, 54, said: “It was so hard and I could barely breathe.

They looked so perfect, and when the ventilators were taken off their tiny bodies, I expected them to start moving.

“We had to make a decision to switch off the life support machines and it wasn’t easy. There was nothing that could be done for the girls. Now we have to concentrate on Jocelyn.”

Mr Bennett and his family had both baby girls christened and held a Christmas celebration to mark their short time together.

He added: “We’ve taken lots of pictures for Jocelyn to see when she does wake up. She may not even remember being pregnant as she could have brain damage. But we want her to see what her little girls were like.”

Mr Bennett said that his daughter’s illness “came out of the blue”. She had had a trouble-free pregnancy, enjoying a family party just days earlier.

Mr Bennett, a factory worker from King’s Norton, Birmingham, said: “It could have all been so different if the ambulance crews could have reached her earlier. The fact that paramedics couldn’t get in was down to the terrible entry system at the building.

“I cannot fault the paramedics and the police as they tried their best to get to Jocelyn as quickly as they could.”

He said that a police raid at the tower block had left residents reluctant to answer unexpected calls.

“If any residents see flashing blue lights they don’t answer their calls because they fear it’ll be another raid.

No one answered their buzzers when the paramedics tried them. The trades entrance had been deactivated so they weren’t able to get in that way. All the emergency numbers are on the inside of the building, which didn’t help the police and the ambulance crew.

“There are vulnerable people living in that building and the council has a duty of care for them. A better system needs to be in place Something needs to

Breast cancer drug can also work for prostate patients Kat Lay

A drug that targets genetic mutations responsible for breast and ovarian cancers could also help to treat prostate cancer, according to experts.

Olaparib was developed to target cancer-causing mutations, such as that which prompted actress Angelina Jolie to have a double mastectomy. It has now shown “spectacular” results in the treatment of some prostate patients, according to the doctor leading the trial.

Johann de Bono told delegates at the National Cancer Research Institute cancer conference in Liverpool that olaparib appeared to be effective against prostate tumours that harboured certain genetic defects.

“In a significant proportion of endstage prostate cancers in patients who have had every single treatment available, we are seeing spectacular responses with this tablet taken twice a day, with minimal side-effects,” he said.

The results were visible both in scans and in falls in the number of cancer cells in the blood — and were not limited to men with the BRCA mutation, a known risk factor for prostate cancer.

“A much, much bigger population of men with advanced prostate cancer can

benefit from these drugs,” he said. He estimated that between 20 and 40 per cent of prostate cancers might be helped by the drug.

Preliminary data showed a third of 50 men treated with the drug had had “spectacular responses”, he said, in some cases living for more than a year longer than expected.

The drug, one of a group known as PARP inhibitors, kills cancer cells by preventing enzymes from repairing damaged DNA in the cells.

The trial is the first to show that prostate cancer has different subsets with different genetic profiles.

Dr de Bono said that the next challenge would be making it routine for doctors to match drugs to the genetic profiles of tumours, rather than only with where they occurred in the body.

Iain Frame, director of research at Prostate Cancer UK, said: “The development of drugs that can be tailored to a man’s individual cancer has huge potential but we need to understand more about the genetic make-up of cancers and how they grow for this to be possible.”

The researchers are planning to initiate phase three trials of the drug for use in prostate cancer patients next year.

be done by the council about this because if there is another emergency, this could happen again.”

West Midlands Ambulance Service admitted that paramedics had difficulty entering the building.

A spokesman for Birmingham city council said that they were investigating why paramedics could not enter the building as all towers should have emergency access. He added: “Our thoughts are with the family.”

News NEWSTEAM

One of the baby girls weighed 3lb when she was delivered by caesarean section

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France taxes Britons with holiday homes Adam Sage Paris

Britons with second homes in French towns and cities will see their council tax rates rise by hundreds of euros a year after President Hollande’s government yesterday rounded on “wealthy foreigners” in a desperate attempt to raise money.

The move is designed to generate €150 million for local councils, and will hit anyone who has a second home in 28 cities and suburbs, including Paris and Nice.

No one with a second home in rural

France will be affected. The so-called weekend tax has been sold by President Hollande as a measure to address France’s housing crisis by claiming that it will encourage property owners to rent out their second homes. However, in truth, the levy is a means of raising new revenue for hard-up local councils from a group of people, many of whom do not have the vote.

The Socialist cabinet has recently been forced to slash state subsidies for local councils to try to meet calls from Brussels to cut the French budget deficit.

At the end of last month, President

Hollande was rattled by a threat from Brussels that it would reject his budget because it did not reduce the deficit significantly. The government then was forced to announce a €3.7 billion cut in subsidies for next year’s budget.

However, the tax has caused fierce controversy amid signs that the government was itself split over the measure. Under the plan disclosed by Michel Sapin, the finance minister, urban councils will be authorised to levy a tax equivalent to 20 per cent of the residency tax paid by all households for anyone with a second home in one of the prescribed 28 town areas. This will add €90 to the rates on an average flat in Paris — which are among the lowest in France — but €200 to €300 in some of the capital’s suburbs and in other cities. All households pay at least one type of council tax — a residency tax, paid by everyone, and an owner tax, paid only by those who own their property.

French press reports suggested that tourist destinations popular with the British, such as Annecy in the Alps, or Bordeaux in the southwest could also be hit by the tax.

Most of the 200,000 Britons with holiday homes in France will escape the tax rise since their properties are in rural areas. However, 10,000 Britons own second homes on the French Riviera, some urban areas of which, such as Nice, will be included by the new tax. Many Britons have also invested in property in cities such as Lyon and Toulouse.

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER DAVID BEBBER

No one trusts us (but French are even worse) Valentine Low

Lip service The Royal College of Art’s graphics retrospective exhibition features the Rolling Stones logo, designed by John Pasche in 1971 when he was a student

As everyone knows, except possibly the French, an Englishman’s word is his bond. Foreigners, in contrast, are slippery, deceitful and not to be trusted.

Or so we thought. It turns out that far from being considered models of decency and probity, the British are regarded by the rest of the world as one of the more untrustworthy nations on the planet.

In a finding that may be the result of centuries of propaganda by our neighbours across the Channel, a poll has found that the UK is considered less trustworthy than the US, Canada, Germany and Japan.

People in 47 countries were asked by ORB International, a research company, which countries they considered to be the most trustworthy, with Japan coming top — 16.5 per cent rated them highest — followed by the US and Germany. The UK lagged behind with just 6.5 per cent, while the French fared even less well, getting a top rating from just 4.2 per cent.

On the other hand, at least people in Britain know who they can trust: it’s us.

UK respondents regarded themselves as being the most trustworthy (27.9 per cent), followed by Canadians (13 per cent) and the Japanese (8.2 per cent). At the other end of the spectrum, the UK deemed the Italians to be least trustworthy (0.5 per cent) followed by the French (0.7 per cent) and Russians (0.8 per cent).

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

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Ebook readers underline the popularity of classic quotes Jack Malvern Arts Correspondent

Underlining passages in a favourite book has traditionally been a private act and no more.

With paperbacks it would have been impossible to know whether one reader’s treasured moment was unique or part of a mass appreciation, but the veil has been lifted by a function available on ebooks.

The results may delight or offend, depending on whether readers mind that passages they thought defined their individuality are shared by up to 20,000 other people.

Fans of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which routinely comes top of polls of people’s favourite books, may be unsurprised to learn that the most highlighted sentence from the book is the opening line: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

Amazon, which allows owners of its Kindle ereaders to make their highlighted text public, found that 4,491 readers marked the first line.

For the first volume of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, readers plumped for a quote by the elf Gildor: “The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.”

Most of the highlighted passages feature a life-affirming homily, even among titles such as Fifty Shades of Grey, E. L. James’s series of digestible erotic novels.

Some 10,000 admirers of the first book preferred a A passage in The Hunger Games had the most “hits” of all

passage originally uttered by Andrew Carnegie, an industrialist who became one of America’s most generous philanthropists: “A man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.”

The most highlighted lines from the later books in the series concern declarations of love and fidelity that would be spoilers for people still waiting to read the story.

The most popular single passage came from The Hunger Games, the first of Suzanne Collins’s trilogy about a dystopian society, that was made into a series of films starring Jennifer Lawrence.

Some 22,311 people highlighted: “The rules of the Hunger Games are simple.

In punishment for the uprising, each of the 12 districts must provide one girl and one boy, called tributes, to participate. The 24 tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland. Over a period of several weeks, the competitors must fight to the death. The last tribute standing wins.”

The most popular verses in the Bible appear to have been a closely fought contest, with only 3,899 people highlighting a passage from Paul’s epistle to the Philippians in the New International Version of The Bible, which is the most commonly owned edition among Kindle users. Readers found comfort in Philippians iv, verses 6 and 7: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

BBC

Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in the 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, whose opening line is a favourite of readers

Edited highlights Pride and Prejudice “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” The Bible (Philippians iv, 6-7) “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” The Lord of the Rings (Volume 1) “The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out” Fifty Shades of Grey “A man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled”

Falconry and grief memoir wins £20,000 book prize Jack Malvern Arts Correspondent

A tale about using falconry as a way of coping with grief won the Samuel Johnson Prize last night. Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk became the first memoir to win the £20,000 non-fiction prize since it was first awarded in 1999.

The book, which combines Macdonald’s life with a biography of TH White, the author of The Goshawk, was praised by the judges as “a book unlike any other”. It tells how her father’s death caused her to follow a dream and become a falconer. Her obsession with training a goshawk becomes intertwined with her grief.

Claire Tomalin, chairwoman of the judges, said the book was “set in English landscapes observed with a visionary

eye. Writing about wildlife and the environment has never been better or better informed than this.”

Macdonald is also a poet, illustrator and a historian at the University of Cambridge.Her previous books include Falcon (2006) and Shaler’s Fish (2001).

The other on the shortlist were John Campbell’s biography Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life, Marion Coutts’s The Iceberg: A Memoir, Greg Grandin’s The Empire of Necessity, Alison Light’s Common People and Caroline Moorehead’s Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France.

It is the first time that the prize has been won by a woman two years in a row. Last year’s winner was Lucy Hughes-Hallett for The Pike, a biography of the poet and early fascist Gabriele D’Annunzio.

Guillem, ballerina who rewrote the repertoire, bows out Debra Craine Chief Dance Critic

Sylvie Guillem, arguably the most influential ballerina of the past 25 years, has announced her retirement from the stage.

The French dancer, 49, will give her final performances in London in May as part of a world tour that culminates in Tokyo in December 2015.

From Royal Ballet star to queen of contemporary dance, Guillem has forged one of the most remarkable — and longstanding — careers in dance.

In a statement delivered yesterday at Sadler’s Wells theatre, where she has been an associate artist since 2006, Guillem said: “So why stop? Very

simply, because I want to end while I am still happy doing what I do with pride and passion.”

From the moment she arrived at Covent Garden in 1989, in knee-high, lace-up leather boots and a bowler hat, it was clear Rudolf Nureyev’s protégée was no ordinary ballerina. For the next 17 years, as principal guest artist with the Royal Ballet, she made some of the 20th century’s most enduring ballet heroines (Juliet, Manon, Marguerite) her own, while she convinced the Royal Ballet to open up its repertoire to outside influences, most spectacularly in Broken Fall, her collaboration with Russell Maliphant and the BalletBoyz.

Meanwhile, her prodigious tech-

nique (she trained as a gymnast before she joined the Paris Opera Ballet School in 1976) and her tall, hyperflexible body redefined the image of the contemporary ballerina.

Unlike her colleague Darcey Bussell, who retired early from the Royal Ballet in 2007 and went on to a career as a television presenter and Strictly Come Dancing judge, Guillem has enjoyed a second career as a contemporary dancer.

She has organised and starred in her own projects, working with artists as diverse as Russell Maliphant, Akram Khan, Robert Lepage and Alexander McQueen, and notched up one hit after another, from Push to Sacred Monsters

Guillem arrived at Covent Garden in knee-high boots and a bowler hat

(which returns to Sadler’s Wells on November 25).

Glamorous, charismatic and indomitable on stage, she has seemed capable of almost anything. She will bow out at Sadler’s Wells with a final programme, entitled Life in Progress, which will celebrate her career as a contemporary dancer and will feature works by the choreographers who have been most important to her life postCovent Garden: Khan, Maliphant, Mats Ek and William Forsythe.

“I have been on an exhilarating journey, and now I’m about to change direction,” Guillem said — although she has not revealed what such a change of direction might mean.

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This was Elvis remixed with a little northern soul Ann Treneman Parliamentary Sketch

I

t was a big day for conspiracy theorists. Stormin’ Norman, the man who believes that David Kelly was murdered, had left the Home Office amid a swirl of rumours. His cover story that he wanted to spend more time with his band was laughably transparent. We

all knew there was more to it. And George Osborne, the chancellor, isn’t the sort of man to let sleeping conspiracy theories lie.

So there I was, on a grassy knoll, watching Treasury questions. Down below, I examined George closely.

The hair was very black. Was it possible that he was a very thin Elvis? I looked over at Ed Balls, whose physique looks faintly Elvis-ian, though I can’t see him in a white diamante jumpsuit.

Perhaps Elvis was the inspiration for Norman’s band. Stranger things have happened; like, for instance, the fact that Norman has been a

minister for four years. Now it was a case, as Elvis would say, of Return to Sender.

Down below, not aware that I was on the grassy knoll, George was re-inventing himself as the man who re-invented the north. Oops, did I say the north? What I meant to say was the Northern Powerhouse. It may sound like a gastropub but it is, of course, the new Osborne term, soon to appear on maps, I suspect, for anything vaguely up the M1.

I have a theory (well, I am on a grassy knoll) that George sees this as his legacy. He was going to get rid of the deficit but when that proved

elusive, he knew that it was, as Elvis once sang, Now or Never. Since then George has been on a never-ending tour of the north, wearing his hi-vis jacket, visiting manufacturers, big or small. He’s invented High Speed 3 and now has done a deal so Greater Manchester can have its own Northern Powerhouse mayor.

Manchester is only the beginning. “Today I have opened my door to discussions with any metropolitan authority that wants to adopt a new model of governance,” he announced.

The powerhouse is going to get only more powerful.

Yesterday, by pure chance, I am sure, for conspiracy theories have their limits, five Tory MPs had questions on the order paper about the Northern Powerhouse.

George answered each in turn, bringing his powerhouse to Pendle, Blackpool, north Wales, Weaver Vale and Carlisle. He is, like Elvis, the King.

There was a miniwobble when Dennis Skinner, the Beast of

Bolsover, was All Shook Up and called George a hypocrite. The chancellor explained that he had cut taxes for 25 million working people.

“It is the Conservative party that is the party of the working people now,” he claimed. It seemed a bit rich (sorry, just slipped out) but when you are the King, not to mention Elvis, you can say what you like.

Ed Balls bypassed the Northern Powerhouse and asked instead about Europe. The King was scathing.

“The idea that Labour would get a better deal in Europe is total fantasy, alongside the shadow chancellor’s fantasy that Labour left us with a golden economic legacy and that you have been right all along and everyone else is wrong,” ranted George. “The MP for Lewes [i.e.

Stormin’ Norman, left] has resigned, so there is now a vacancy for a conspiracy theorist at the Home Office — you should apply!” Ed laughed. And then, I swear, Elvis left the building.

Lib Dems are May attacks turning backs rival’s phone coverage plan on coalition Michael Savage Chief Political Correspondent

More Lib Dems have walked out of the coalition government in an attempt to rescue their seats at the election.

Jenny Willott and Mark Hunter, who each have majorities of less than 5,000, will leave their jobs as government whips as the party attempts to retain as many of their 56 MPs as possible.

The departures come after Norman Baker, the home office minister, resigned in frustration over his relationship with Theresa May and her team.

He suggested that the home secretary’s advisers had continually attempted to “minimise my room for manoeuvre” in the department.

The moves are a sign that the Lib Dems are shifting into full election mode, with most polls showing that they are still supported by less than 10 per cent of voters. Senior party figures concede that they had expected their fortunes to have picked up by now, after the decision to form the coalition and the hugely damaging U-turn over tuition fees.

David Cameron was dismissive of Mr Baker’s resignation yesterday. “We’ll cope without him,” he said.

Mr Baker launched a fresh attack on Mrs May yesterday, saying that he had faced a constant battle with her and her special advisers.

“I’m afraid that the home secretary, who I think is a formidable woman . . . has one great drawback, which is that she regards this a Conservative department in a Conservative government and it’s not,” he said.

Lynne Featherstone, the international development minister, will replace Mr Baker at the home office. She worked in the department in 2010.

Leading article, page 20

Continued from page 1

ensure the UK has world-class mobile phone coverage as investment in infrastructure will help to drive this government’s long-term economic plan.

“It can’t be right that in a fifth of the UK, people cannot use their phones to make a call. The government isn’t prepared to let that situation continue.”

However, one of the operators, EE, said that the proposal for national roaming was flawed. A spokesman said: “This will deteriorate network reliability for tens of millions across the UK, plus it also risks prices rising, which customers understandably won’t tolerate.”

A government spokesman said: “We don’t comment on leaked documents.”

However, a No 10 source confirmed: “Ministers are consulting on a range of options.”

Insiders point out that Mrs May had raised objections to only two of the four options put forward in today’s consultation. The other options are a “coverage obligation” that would require operators to cover a minimum amount of territory or force them to allow rivals to install transmitters on their masts.

The home secretary, who was engaged in a spectacular cabinet bustup this summer with Michael Gove over how to tackle Islamist extremism, was defended by Mr Cameron yesterday after the resignation of Mr Baker, the Liberal Democrat minister.

“Yes, she is tough and robust but that’s why I think she is so good,” the prime minister said. “Many ministers have worked with her very effectively, knowing that she is a strong leader.”

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

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Banker left glamour model for new life ENTERPRISE

Billy Kenber, Leo Lewis Hong Kong Michael Sainsbury

The British banker charged with murdering two sex workers in his apartment in Hong Kong had a lengthy relationship with a glamour model before leaving Britain, it emerged yesterday.

Sonya Lorretta Dyer, 29, a model who sometimes uses the pseudonym “Sonya Milkshake”, lived with Rurik Jutting, 29, in his east London flat until shortly before he moved to Hong Kong in July 2013.

Ms Dyer has modelled for a number of racy publications and filmed a video for the men’s “urban glamour and lifestyle” magazine CandymagUK in which she poured a milkshake over herself while wearing a bikini.

Mr Jutting was arrested in the early hours of Saturday after police discovered the body of Seneng Mujiasih, 30, also known as Jesse Lorena, lying in his blood-splattered living room.

Officers later found the body of his most recent girlfriend, Sumarti Ningsih, 25, who had only moved to Hong Kong a month earlier, tied up in a suitcase. Her head was almost severed.

According to the charge sheet, Mr Jutting murdered Ms Ningsih five days before his arrest.

Mr Jutting quit his highly paid job at Merrill Lynch shortly before Ms Ningsih’s death on October 27, leaving an out-of-office message in which he described himself as an “insane psychopath”.

The Times has learnt that in the weeks before the bodies were discovered he had hired a recruitment agent to seek other positions at banks in Hong Kong.

The 29-year-old had been using a British-based headhunting company to pursue at least three alternative jobs in investment banking. However, after several weeks of almost daily contact, he abruptly cut off his dealings with the company on the same day that he left Merrill Lynch, according to a source.

He allegedly told the headhunting company that “something big” had occurred in his life.

Mr Jutting, who studied at Peterhouse College, Cambridge, and attended Winchester College, worked at Barclays and Merrill Lynch in London before moving to the US bank’s Hong Kong office.

Colleagues said he was nearly an invisible character at the bank and appeared to have few friends at work, while a former co-worker in Britain remembered him as “mild-mannered, even a little naive on some occasions” but “extremely intelligent and articulate”.

“I never heard him say anything weird or aggressive about her, or women in general,” one said. Mr Jutting had two significant relationships while

working in the City. Before dating Ms Dyer, he had briefly been engaged to Sarah Butt, 28, a colleague at Barclays, The Daily Telegraph reported.

However, she is said to have been seen kissing another man while on secondment in New York and, although the couple went on to become engaged for a short time, the relationship came to an end. It was then that he began seeing Ms Dyer. The couple moved in together but residents of the Cambridge graduate’s former flat in Wapping said that they believed he had broken up with Ms Dyer a few months before he moved out and went overseas.

Last night, Ms Dyer’s agent was reportedly offering to sell an exclusive interview with her to the highest bidder, while an unnamed friend told the Daily Mail that the model was devastated.

“She thinks it could have been her.

She’s feeling really confused,” the friend said, adding that Mr Jutting had treated Ms Dyer well.

Since moving to Hong Kong, the previously athletic banker, a former rower, had put on significant amounts of weight and gone out with a string of southeast Asian women.

On Monday, Mr Jutting appeared at Hong Kong’s Eastern magistrates court. Asked if he understood the charges being put to him he replied: “I do.”

Yesterday, Ms Ningsih’s father called for his daughter’s killer to receive the

‘I never heard him say anything weird or aggressive about her, or women in general’ Above, Rurik Jutting as a Cambridge student at 21 with a friend. Left, his former girlfriend

Sonya Lorretta Dyer, a glamour model. Below, Seneng Mujiasih, one of the murder victims

death penalty and for her body to be returned to Indonesia.

Ahmad Kaliman, told the BBC: “I ask the government of Indonesia to help me return my daughter to me. She was an Indonesian citizen. Please help return her body as soon as possible.

“I was told she was killed, mutilated and packaged into a suitcase. What can you do? This is fate.”

Speaking from Indonesia, a friend of the second victim, Ms Mujiasih, said she had turned to prostitution in order to send money home to her mother who was building a house.

An former boyfriend in Hong Kong said: “She was never a true bar girl; she seemed fussy and selective about her dating. Some girls will take the cash no matter what. Jesse wasn’t like that. She had a plan and probably a series of sponsors who helped her out, which kept her out of the desperate zone of having to accept all offers.”

Hong Kong abolished the death penalty in 1993 and has retained a separate legal system to mainland China, where capital punishment remains widely used.

Dewani still owes me money for murder, taxi driver claims Ruth Maclean Johannesburg

Shrien Dewani still owes money to the taxi driver who played a role in the murder of his wife, a South African court has been told.

Zola Tongo said that the Bristol businessman had not paid him 4,000 rand (£226) for hiring two hitmen to murder Anni Dewani or 1,500 rand for the taxi fare to the township where she was killed. Tongo told Mr Dewani’s murder trial yesterday that he “took it as a loss”.

Under questioning from Judge Jeanette Traverso, he claimed that the purpose of the trip was to stage a hijack-

ing and Mrs Dewani’s murder. Mr Dewani, 34, denies arranging his wife’s murder on their honeymoon four years ago. Legal experts say that the state’s evidence has been so poor that Mr Dewani could return to England as a free man without even taking the witness stand.

Yesterday, Francois Van Zyl, Mr Dewani’s lawyer, played CCTV footage of Tongo disappearing into a hotel room with Mr Dewani after the murder.

Tongo then re-emerged with a bag that Mr Dewani had been carrying moments earlier. This bag, Mr Van Zyl said, contained 1,000 rand and a thank you card, a gift to the taxi driver for his

help. Tongo said that it was “nonsense and a lie” that he had been given a thank-you card. When Mr Van Zyl asked if he did not want to admit receiving the card because it would “fly in the face” of his story, Tongo denied it. “If the accused gave me chocolate or any other gift, why wouldn’t I say it now?” he asked.

Tongo, who is two years into an 18year jail sentence for his part in Mrs Dewani’s death, was appearing for a sixth day at the Western Cape High Court. One of the state’s star witnesses, he has stood up to Mr Van Zyl’s questioning, earning regular reprimands from Judge Traverso for answering

back. His evidence, however, has been revealed to be full of inconsistencies with the statement he gave to police days after Mrs Dewani, 29, was found dead in the back of his taxi in the Khayelitsha township near Cape Town.

Tongo accuses Dewani of hiring him within an hour of their first meeting to find people who would kill his wife for 15,000 rand.

He said yesterday that when the two men, Xolile Mngeni and Mziwamadoda Qwabe, banged on the taxi window with guns and “hijacked” them, he had been made to get into the back seat with the Dewanis while they got into the front. This contradicts his statement

which said that he was in the front, Mr Van Zyl pointed out. Backed up by Qwabe’s testimony, Tongo’s evidence forms the basis for the prosecution's case. Mr Dewani’s legal team is considering applying for the case to be discharged once the prosecution has finished calling witnesses. William Booth, a prominent South African defence lawyer, believes that Judge Traverso might consider the application “reasonable”.

According to Mr Booth, Mr Van Zyl must consider whether he “can convince the judge that the client should be acquitted without having to move on to the defence’s case”. The trial continues.

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Overtime ruling puts millions in line for extra holiday pay James Hurley

Ford galaxy Harrison Ford joined stars including Terry Gilliam and Jo Wood at the SeriousFun gala in London last night to raise money for seriously ill children

Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

Millions of workers stand to reap the benefits after a legal ruling that holiday wages should take account of regular overtime.

Business groups said that the judgment by an employment appeal tribunal left employers facing significant extra costs and the “administrative nightmare” of having to recalculate how their staff are paid.

The tribunal ruled that British employers had been incorrectly interpreting European rules by calculating holiday pay on basic salary, and that regular overtime should be included.

The government, which unsuccessfully intervened on behalf of employers, said that it would set up a “taskforce” to “understand the financial exposure employers face”.

The ruling could have implications for future pay rises, pensions and commission payments, employment experts warned. Vince Cable, the business secretary, said: “The government will review the judgment in detail as a matter of urgency.”

There was relief among bosses that the judgment limited the ability for employees to recover historical underpayments.

Employers and the Department for Business had feared a bill running into billions of pounds due to claims for shortfalls in holiday pay going back as far as 1998, when the EU’s working-

‘There are no winners’ Case study

T

he nature of Tony Factor’s Essex-based office removals company, Function Business Services, means that he often pays his 15 staff overtime (James Hurley writes).

“Businesses move at weekends and in the evenings, so I regularly pay our people overtime on top of a basic salary.

I’m not happy about the ruling.

Whichever way I look at it, it’s an additional overhead. Our cost per hour will increase. Either I pass that on to clients, or it’s less profit for the company. There are no winners,” he said.

Mr Factor rejected the argument that it was fair for holiday pay to include overtime if it was a regular part of takehome pay. “We’re a generous employer. Overtime is voluntary.

That argument doesn’t wash.” He said that his company, which has a turnover of £3.5 million, would need guidance on how to update its pay policies.

time directive was implemented in British law.

The directive says that holiday wages should be based on normal pay. Typically, British companies have taken this to mean basic salary, but workers and a trade union successfully argued that it should include overtime when it regularly forms a large proportion of takehome pay.

The tribunal ruled on three cases, which involved employees of Hertel, the industrial services group, Bear Scotland, the road maintenance company, and Amec, the engineering firm.

The Unite union, which fought the cases, argued that workers who were regularly required to work voluntary overtime were unfairly paid less when on holiday. “This ruling not only secures justice for our members, but means employers have got to get their house in order,” Howard Beckett, of Unite, said.

The EEF, the manufacturers’ body, warned that the decision would hit investment plans and increase costs.

The Department for Business is understood to have estimated that the ruling could apply to up to one sixth of the UK workforce, or five million people.

An appeal is expected, meaning that businesses could face years of uncertainty. Adam Lambert, of the law firm Clyde & Co, warned that “what may look like a victory for workers could lead to employers having to recover the pay through other means”.

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

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Japanese whisky leaves Scotch lost in translation Katie Gibbons, Richard Lloyd Parry

Scottish whisky enthusiasts have been left red-faced after a single malt from Japan was named the best in the world.

Despite assertions from a Scottish master blender that the country’s water of life remains “the finest around”, international appreciation seems to have been diluted.

Not a single Scotch whisky made it into the top four of the respected 2015 World Whisky Bible, which crowned Japan’s Suntory Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 as the finest. Praising the Yamazaki’s “near indescribable genius”, the list’s author, Jim Murray, added insult to injury by declaring that a Scotch whisky could “never get anywhere near” its taste.

Richard Paterson, who comes from a long line of Glasgow whisky blenders, said that Mr Murray’s ratings should be “taken with a large pinch of salt”.

“There is no truth in suggestions that Scotch whisky is losing popularity. It has absolutely taken the world by storm,” Mr Paterson said. “People are prepared to pay £240,000 a bottle, so to suggest that it’s losing its grip is simply ridiculous.”

Mr Paterson, who works with the Dalmore and Whyte & Mackay distillers, added: “Scotch whisky has been on the go since 1494, whereas this Japanese company has only been around since 1923. If there was any kind of competition, we have the advantage.”

His call to arms was echoed by James Withers, the chief executive of the industry trade body Scotland Food and Drink, who defended his country’s whisky and claimed that “a little competition with Japan was welcome”.

“Japan doesn’t really pose a threat to us. In some ways it’s a sign of our success that we have countries like Japan seeking to develop their own

TMS

diary@thetimes.co.uk | @timesdiary he drove off through a red light.

When caught and breathalysed it turned out he was under the limit.

I, McKellen, the odd one out The 1976 BBC drama series I, Claudius featured just about every great actor of the day, but Sir Ian McKellen has revealed that he turned down an invitation to join them. In a New York Times talk at Bafta, McKellen said he was asked to play Caligula but didn’t want to be second fiddle to Sir Derek Jacobi, his friend since university, who played the title role. John Hurt was Caligula instead. Jacobi used to find after the show that people shouted “Hail, Caesar” at him in supermarkets; McKellen also received odd greetings.

“I used to get ‘Hey, Peter’ from people thinking I was O’Toole,” he said (spot the difference above). “I would reply grandly: ‘I’m what Peter O’Toole used to look like’.”

A Conversation with Oscar Wilde, the Maggi Hambling sculpture near Trafalgar Square, is again missing its bronze cigarette. It has been sawn off and replaced several times since the statue was installed in 1998. Noting this, McKellen said: “How far we’ve travelled when Wilde is reviled not for being gay, but for being a smoker.”

one for the road “Noble lords who are long in the tooth will remember that I was a roads minister,” Lord Whitty told a debate on Monday. “It is a pretty dreadful job.” Whitty has an unhappy past with roads. On election night in 1992, the Labour peer was stopped on suspicion of drink-driving. After telling the police: “Leave it out, I’ve had a f***ing bad enough night,”

It was my daughter’s fourth birthday party on Sunday. When I mentioned this in passing to Baroness Jenkin of Kennington, she recalled taking her son to parliament at the same age, when her MP husband, Bernard, was a Maastricht rebel. “I’m FOUR,” the boy declared in the canteen.

“That’s good,” said his grandfather, a former cabinet minister. “Your father is generally against.”

a fool and his money Martin Shanahan, the new chief executive of IDA, Ireland’s foreign investment agency, might have a tough challenge in America. He went on CNBC, a TV network, to talk up Ireland and found that the interviewer was unaware that it’s an independent country. He also thought they use sterling. “We use euros,” Shanahan told Joe Kernen.

“What? Why would you do that?”

Kernan asked. Shanahan explained that while Scotland has the pound, Ireland is a different country. “But aren’t you right next to it?” Kernan asked. “It’s sort of the same island, isn’t it?” And the US is essentially Canada with fewer moose. all hands on deck What is the world coming to when the House of Commons cannot find enough MPs to form a bridge partnership, let alone a team? It’s the match against the Lords today but the Commons side will feature only one sitting MP: Bob Blackman. He has had to rope in three who left in 2010, one who went in 2001, one who lost his seat in 1997 and two ringers. Blackman blames the end of late-night sittings. “MPs go home in the evening rather than play cards,” he says. However, the Commons are the defending champions, having ended a long run of defeats.

Blackman offers two reasons: “I left at half-time last year and instead of the usual lunch with lots of wine, we broke for tea and cake.” The peers play better when sozzled. patrick kidd

whisky markets. It’s a compliment,” Mr Withers said.

About 40 bottles of whisky were exported from Scotland every second, he said, which was evidence that the “industry is in a good place and it’s reputation is very, very strong”.

However, Kai Ivalo, of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, admitted that Japanese single malts “really are very tasty”. Suntory, which was celebrated

by Bill Murray in the 2003 film Lost in Translation, had gone from strength to strength in recent years, Mr Ivalo said, so award success was “inevitable and perhaps overdue”.

“Japanese whisky has been popular

Top tipples Winner The Suntory Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013, Japan Second William Larue Weller 2013, US Third Sazerac Rye 18-year-old 2013, US Single Cask Four Roses Single Barrel Limited Edition #3-4P, US

for the past five years. When we bring out Japanese whisky, our members are always very keen on it. I personally find it very tasty,” he said.

The Yamazaki was given the joint highest mark ever awarded and its taste was described as “thick, dry, as rounded as a snooker ball”.

The three runners-up were all American bourbons.

Since it became available in January, Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 has sold out on international whisky websites.

Suntory time: Bill Murray in the 2003 film Lost in Translation

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News

Muslim leaders must condemn rise of intolerance, says prince The Prince of Wales, visiting Mexico, left, said in a pre-recorded message at the launch of a report into religious freedom that the hostility towards Christians in the Middle East was a “tragedy”

David Sanderson

The Prince of Wales has called on Muslim leaders and their religious colleagues to break their silence over the suffering of minorities in the Middle East.

The prince said that after the “horrendous and heartbreaking” events in the region it was imperative that leaders assumed responsibility and condemned intolerance towards other faiths.

Speaking in a pre-recorded message to launch a report into religious freedom, the prince said that he wanted to highlight the “growing plight of Christians threatened by persecution in the Middle East”. Christians as well as nonSunni Muslims living in Syria and Iraq have been ordered by Islamic State to convert or face “the sword”.

“It is an indescribable tragedy that Christianity is now under such threat in the Middle East,” he said, adding: “Rather than remaining silent, faith leaders have, it seems to me, a responsibility to ensure that people within their own tradition respect people from other faith traditions.”

The Religious Freedom in the World report, produced by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, found that Muslim countries “predominate in the list of states with the most serious religious freedom violations”.

The report, which sets out to describe the religious freedom in 196 countries,

said that social media was contributing to persecution and resulting in “fundamentalism and religious hatred [being] felt far beyond geographical boundaries”.

Archbishop Antonio Mennini, the papal ambassador to Britain, said at the launch of the report in the Palace of Westminster that the phenomenon of terrorism had meant the “value of a human life has been lost . . . a human person can be sacrificed [in the name of] persecution”.

The report found that Christianity remained “by far the most persecuted faith group”. Baroness Anelay of St Johns, the foreign office minister, said yesterday: “In many parts of the world there is a real danger that Christianity will become extinct.”

Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, the assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that the disappearance of Christians from the Middle East would be tragic. “We must not conflate what some Muslims do with what Islam teaches — they are poles apart,” he said.

The report concluded that only six countries had shown an improvement in the “overall state of religious freedom”, namely Iran, Cuba, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Zimbabwe and Taiwan.

It said that the situation in Britain had “deterioriated”, citing as an example the fact that Catholic adoption agencies which refused to place children with homosexual couples had either been forced to change their rules or close.

Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

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News

TIM ROOKE / CHRIS JACKSON / GETTY IMAGES

Isis publishes housekeeping guide for the jihadist’s wife John Simpson

It is not quite the Women’s Institute.

The Zora Foundation, which claims to be Islamic State’s agency for women, has launched a “cookbook” for the domestic jihadist goddess to keep her ruthless Islamist well-nourished during those long days toting Kalashnikovs and enforcing Sharia.

The foundation, whose slogan is “preparing for the honour of jihad”, has already launched what has been dubbed a “finishing school” for young women hoping to wed militants.

Its latest attempt to support the war effort is an online resource for women to share recipes. Perhaps to match Isis’s archaic approach to justice and civil liberties, the first suggestion closely resembles an Ancient Egyptian recipe, using butter, dates and millet to make little balls.

The millet balls, which are said to go well with coffee, aim to provide a conveniently sized, simple source of sustenance for the “mujahidin” (holy warriors) which can be “eaten any time, or between battles”.

“They contain significant calories, and will extend the power and strength of the mujahidin, God willing,” the post goes on.

Last month the Zora Foundation, which is said to have been created to “prepare sisters for the battlefields of jihad”, launched a series of videos in

Fighting food

Ingredients butter, dates, millet flour Method 1) Remove the stones from the dates, melt the butter and mix together 2) Add the flour and knead until the mixture is of a thick consistency 3) Roll into handy-sized little balls so your holy warrior can eat on the go

Arabic aimed at giving lessons on how to be “good wives of jihad”.

The videos, one of many tools to persuade girls to travel to join Isis, include advice on how to stay fit by jogging “in order not to be a burden to your jihadi brothers” and how to sew “the clothes of Allah’s soldiers”.

In blog posts, Aqsa Mahmood, a young Glaswegian-born woman who dropped out of university to marry a fighter, gave a detailed account of life as a jihadist bride.“Your day will revolve around cooking, cleaning, looking after

and sometimes even educating the children,” Ms Mahmood, 20, wrote.

“I didn’t even know how to cook when I got married (three months ago) but now I’ve had so much free time that I’ve learnt . . . Trust me, sisters, ‘practice makes perfect’.

“Wallahi [I swear to God] I have come across such beautiful sisters who will spend mornings and nights in happiness because they are cooking the mujahidin food or they’ll clean the whole building without anyone even figuring it out who it was.”

6 A restaurant worker at a Cornish seaside resort has been arrested by police investigating links to Islamist terrorists in Syria (David Brown writes). Police were yesterday searching the Balti King in Hayle after the arrest of a Bangladeshi national on Monday night.

The man, aged 26, was arrested in relation to “internet activity around the conflict in Syria” and was not linked to any immediate threat to the United Kingdom police said. He was being questioned on suspicion of preparing for an act of terrorism.

A diner who claimed to have been at the Balti King at the time of the raid wrote in a review on the TripAdvisor website: “Food below average, mushroom bhaji was tasteless, no atmosphere in restaurant until place was raided by 8 police with full body armour and battering rams!”

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Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

News

Voters turn on Tory defector after U-turn in key by-election battle Lucy Fisher Political Correspondent

Mark Reckless, Ukip’s by-election candidate, was attacked by voters last night for his “hypocrisy” in campaigning against a local housing development after it emerged that he lobbied the government for its go-ahead last year.

The Tory defector’s change of mind on the proposed development on Ministry of Defence land at Lodge Hill in Chattenden, Kent, was revealed by The Times more than two weeks ago. The

former Conservative MP for Rochester and Strood had spoken in support of plans for 5,000 houses at the natural conservation site on the Hoo Peninsula but has now made opposition to them a central pledge in his by-election campaign.

The Tory defector was criticised yesterday by residents in Hoo, near the site of the proposed development, where he hosted a public meeting with Nigel Farage last night.

Some of the mainly undecided voters

who attended were grumbling about Mr Reckless’s change of position.

John Scott, 70, said earlier: “It’s ridiculous. The Conservative Medway council supported the development and so did Mark Reckless, when he was a Conservative MP. Now he’s switched to Ukip, he’s against it. It’s hypocritical — he’s doing it for the votes.”

Twins Michaela Gooding and Avril Grant, 57, agreed. Ms Grant said: “As a local resident I’m against the development. Mark Reckless’s position is con-

fusing. He was for it before, because it went along with the Conservative way of thinking about development. Now he’s with Nigel Farage, he says he’s against it. Who knows the truth?”

Natalie Bennett, the leader of the Green party, said Mr Reckless’s “flipflop” was “the kind of thing that makes the public cynical about politics”.

“Hypocrisy is the word,” she said, adding: “We need people who say what they mean, and not those who sway with the wind and say what will get them elected.”

Referring to a leaflet handed out by 20 Conservative activists outside the public meeting, Mr Reckless said: “It says, ‘Faced with a by-election, Reckless turns on Lodge Hill’. Actually it was the other way around. Faced with a Conservative party driving through 5,000 houses at Lodge Hill in a bird sanctuary in an SSSI [site of special scientific interest], I said ‘No, enough is enough, I’m going to resign my seat’.”

He said: “It wasn’t easy for me to leave the Conservative party, I’ve been a member all my adult life.”

It emerged yesterday that Mr Reckless exhorted Mark Prisk, the Conservative housing minister, to meet supporters of the development in an email in February last year.

Nick Boles, the former Conservative planning minister, also claimed that Mr Reckless had “lobbied me repeatedly in favour of development at Lodge Hill”.

The Ukip candidate appeared to support the development as recently as May. Rodney Chambers, Medway council leader, wrote in a letter to Mr Reckless that in a parliamentary briefing that month: “You expressed that your preference was that we should continue to seek to secure approval for Lodge Hill.”

Campaigning yesterday, Mr Reckless told a voter that in the final run-up to the November 20 by-election, he had taken on board advice from Douglas Carswell, his Ukip colleague and fellow defector from the Conservatives, to “avoid saying anything silly”, because “if you say something out of place, it can get exaggerated”.

He admitted that his wife and children went on holiday for a fortnight after his defection, because it was difficult for them, after he faced terse criticism from former Conservative colleagues.

Fathers who refuse to pay face credit penalty Fathers who refuse to pay child maintenance could be given a lower credit rating in an attempt to get them to hand over the money they owe (Rosemary Bennett writes).

Ministers said that new powers would come into effect next year to enable the old Child Support Agency and the new Child Maintenance Service to share details of defaulters with credit reference agencies. This could affect their chances of borrowing money or being given a mortgage.

Information will be shared about a person when a liability order is made against them, a measure used as a last resort by the agencies. In the past year, 12,410 liability orders were granted.

Poker ‘cheat’ appeals An American poker player has appealed against a High Court ruling that he cheated to win £7.8 million from one of London’s oldest casinos. Phil Ivey, 38, a professional gambler, lost his case against Crockfords after a judge ruled last month that his use of a technique known as “edge sorting” was cheating. His lawyer said that the judge had been incorrect in both fact and law.

Briton’s education prize A former English teacher who set up a charity to support female education in Africa has won $500,000 after being announced as the 2014 WISE Prize for Education laureate. Ann Cotton’s charity, the Campaign for Female Education, operates in 5,000 schools in five African countries and has helped more than one million girls to attend school in the past 20 years.

Royal demon trap found Cryptic markings discovered under the floorboards of a stately home have been identified as “demon traps” designed to protect a visiting king. Grids carved into joists at Knole, a National Trust property in Kent, were the result of a superstitious fervour that gripped England after the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605, archaeologists from the Museum of London Archaeology found.

Inside today

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Teacher’s killer is moved after threat from inmates John Simpson

The schoolboy who stabbed his teacher to death in front of his classmates has already been moved from a young offender institution because of threats of violence.

Will Cornick, 16, is on 24-hour suicide watch after murdering Ann Maguire, his Spanish teacher, at Corpus Christi Catholic College, in Leeds. He was originally held at Wetherby Young Offender Institution in Yorkshire but was moved for his own safety.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years and is now one of 16 under-18s serving indeterminate life sentences in Britain’s youth offender facilities.

Leeds crown court was told that Cornick was proud of the murder and that he felt nothing for Mrs Maguire’s husband, two daughters and wider family. The killer told a psychiatrist that he belived his actions were “fine and dandy”.

The Anson wing at Wetherby is specially designed for long-term juvenile inmates, but Cornick was moved to another young offender institution when other youths there discovered his identity.

A report submitted by the defence to the court hoping to preserve the anonymity originally provided to Cornick stated that he was deemed to be at risk from other convicts and that he was

Will Cornick also planned to kill Sinead Miley, another teacher, above, and the assistant head, Andrew Kellett

in solitary confinement in a cell with a glass door. He had no contact with other inmates, Richard Wright, QC, told the judge.

Cornick, who was said by psychiatrists to have “psychopathic elements to his personality”, had spoken to friends of “brutally killing” Mrs Maguire.

Though generally positive, a recent report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons found that at Wetherby, where Cornick

was briefly held on remand, accounts of assaults by groups of inmates and selfharming rates were on the increase.

The report also said that conditions in the “separation and care unit” were “bleak”.

Frances Crook, the chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, yesterday said that the decision by Mr Justice Coulson to lift the boy’s anonymity was not in the public interest.

“The child will be notorious inside prison and will never be able to grow past the crime he committed,” she wrote in The Guardian. “The crime is now his permanent identity.”

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice said that the department could not comment on individual cases.

Meanwhile, an inquiry has been launched into the circumstances surrounding the murder of Mrs Maguire.

The Leeds Safeguarding Children Board said that it would investigate the incident with the school and other agencies. Jane Held, independent chairwoman of the board, said: “The members of the board have already agreed to work with the school and other agencies to look into the circumstances surrounding the incident.”

The board is made up of agencies who have responsibility for children in Leeds, including Leeds city council and West Yorkshire Police.

Thunderer, page 18

News COTSWOLD WILDLIFE PARK / PA

Fresh faces A colobus, a species of monkey, is among the newborns at Cotswold Wildlife Park. Others include a red panda, a tapir and five grey mouse lemurs

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Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

News

End of the pier show A double rainbow over Smeaton’s pier in St Ives. The secondary arc is caused by the double reflection of light inside raindrops, which gives a slightly different angle and reverses the colours

I feared Wests would torture and kill me, says lesbian lover

Dying woman discloses that Rose was the boss in the killers’ evil partnership, writes Dominic Kennedy

Rose West dominated her husband Fred, according to the lesbian lover who shared the bed of both serial killers.

In a final interview before she died of cancer, Kathryn Halliday disclosed the sexual power play between the couple who killed and buried at least 12 young women before their urban torture dungeon was discovered by police.

Fred West’s former solicitor, Howard Ogden, also said that he regarded Rose as the stronger of the pair and that her husband’s role was to help her to enact her violent depraved fantasies.

Ms Halliday spoke out to celebrate the fact that she had survived 24 years after meeting the Wests and was to die of natural causes instead of at their hands.

She feared that the couple were planning to murder her in a sadistic game after they became lovers and let her see

Fred West’s role was to act as the fixer for Rose’s sadistic sexual fantasies

their collection of cruel implements.

She escaped by refusing an invitation to spend Christmas in their home, the notorious 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester.

Ms Halliday, a neighbour, fell under the couple’s influence when she told Fred West that she was a lesbian and he invited her to meet his wife for sex. By that time the couple had murdered all their known victims. “There was noth-

ing at all in Fred’s way to suggest anything but a bumbling, goofy builder, a happy-go-lucky chap, and that is how he came across. When I first met him I liked him,” she told Channel 5’s three-part investigation into the murderers, which begins tomorrow night with an episode called When Fred Met Rose.

“Nothing, nothing prepared me for what I met with Rose, nothing,” Ms Halliday said. “I’m pretty broad-minded but that took me completely off my balance. All the time he was on about Rose and ‘Give Rose a good time and she’ll give you a good time’.

“She was very, very domineering, and she was quite domineering over Fred too. He only ever touched me once. We only ever had sex once but he was a wee bit more gentle. She was very cold, very cold.”

The three of them would chat and laugh but the mood of their friendship changed. “She started to get really, really heavy.”

Eventually Rose showed her neighbour the couple’s array of sexual torture instruments and fetish suits, including leather hoods with no holes for the eyes or nose.

“That just made me realise it’s time to go, get out when you can.”

She changed her mind about spend-

ing Christmas at their house. “I think that this is what saved my life. Rose went ballistic when I said I wasn’t going to stay there. I, for one, just hope she rots in hell.”

Explaining why she had agreed to go on television and reveal everything she knew, Ms Halliday said that the balance was tipped by the knowledge she had terminal liver cancer.

“I said I would agree to do it because I wanted to prove that I survived Cromwell Street. It was nothing to do with them. They did not get me in the end. It wasn’t them.”

Mr Ogden told the programme, which marks 20 years since the couple’s arrest: “He was rather in her shadow and I felt that she was the strong one. I saw Rose as someone who was interested in violence and lesbian sex pretty much in equal measure, and preferably together, and that Fred’s role was in many ways to assist her to fulfil her fantasies.”

West hanged himself in his cell at Winson Green prison in Birmingham before he could be tried, but his wife was convicted of ten murders.

She will die in jail after being given a “whole life tariff”. The house was demolished.

6 When Fred Met Rose, 10pm, tomorrow, Channel 5

Razor gang forced Fred the ice cream man out of Glasgow Dominic Kennedy

Fred West fled for his life from “razor gangs” in Glasgow when they discovered that he was a paedophile. He was suspected of abusing children he met while working in an ice cream van.

He later became a serial molester of children, including his daughter Heather, who was murdered aged 16 and buried under the patio at the Wests’ home in Gloucester.

West worked in Glasgow during the

1960s. Colin MacFarlane, author of childhood memoirs such as Gorbals Diehards and The Real Gorbals Story, has said that it was a reflection of how tough the district was that “Fred West was our ice cream man”.

With his West Country accent, West was seen as a comical character at first but soon rumours spread that he was abusing children.

“The Gorbals in those days was full of psychopaths. There were so many psychopaths you wouldn’t know one,”

MacFarlane said. “At that time nobody went to the police.” The future author witnessed the occasion when the 300strong “Cumbie gang”, named after Cumberland Street, ambushed West.

“The Cumbies decided to do him in and waited for him on a street corner. If they got you, you could get slashed with an open razor or almost kicked to death.

He managed to escape.”

West, who was living in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, with his first wife, hid the truth about his sudden flight from

Scotland. He claimed that he had to leave because of the reaction to a fatal accident in his van when he ran over a four-year-old boy.

The subsequent reign of terror of Fred and Rose West in Cromwell Street only came to an end when their children were taken into care.

Social workers became suspicious when they overheard them saying: “You’ll end up under the patio like Heather.” Police dug up the garden and began finding bodies.

Childhood abuse claims were ‘all lies’

F

red West’s lurid claims that he was sexually abused by his parents is a fantasy, his brother has said. The serial killer’s allegations of depravity in his childhood have been cited by experts as evidence that damaged children risk growing up to become abusers (Dominic Kennedy writes).

His psychopathic personality may instead have been caused by brain damage from head injuries, the investigation suggests.

West, who grew up in a farm cottage in Herefordshire, told police that his father introduced him to bestiality with sheep and used to have sex with under-age girls. He also accused his mother of saying that once he reached the age of 12 he had to have sex with her. He claimed he was made to slit the throat of the family’s pig.

Doug West, his younger brother, tells the documentary: “He never killed a pig in his life because the bloke who was the pig killer used to work with Dad on the farm and that was it. ” As for the abuse, he said: “It’s not true because none of us was ever abused in any way by anybody. As far as Mum and Fred, and Dad and animals, that’s just fantasy.”

In his teens, West was unconscious for seven days after shattering his skull in a motorbike accident and for 24 hours when he suffered brain damage falling from steps. His personality changed and he became aggressive.

His niece, Samantha West, said that the family were victims, too.

“I lost two cousins and when I say my name people look at me like I am evil,” she said. “I wouldn’t hurt anybody.”

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

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comment pages of the year

Why we don’t need to talk about Will David Aaronovitch Page 18

Opinion

This gargantuan inquiry will fail the victims

The child abuse investigation is an impossibly large task. Whoever takes it on must break it up into smaller pieces Daniel Finkelstein

@dannythefink

T

o Whom it May Concern, We do not know each other and you may therefore regard this letter as presumptuous. However, please trust me when I say that, stranger though I am, I have your interests at heart.

I would however like to proffer some advice. If, in the next few weeks, you are approached by the Home Office to chair the independent panel inquiry into child sexual abuse, you should politely decline.

It may be that — having never said a word on the matter, met anyone who knows about it or given it much thought — you can’t imagine that you will be selected for this task.

These, however, are precisely the qualities that make you what the government is looking for. So can I suggest you read on, just in case?

Let me start with a lunch I had a couple of years ago with the behavioural economist Daniel Kahneman. He had just published a book on cognitive illusions and he was explaining to me that writing it had been very painful. It had taken him four years when he imagined he would be finished in 18 months.

What made this amusing to him is that the book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, contains a section on how everyone believes that they are the exception to the rule. This chapter

tells the story of a committee that thinks it will report swiftly even though every other similar study took ages to conclude. Yet despite recounting this tale, there he was believing that his own book, the very one that told this story, would be completed much faster than those of his colleagues.

In other words, even those most aware of it are still subject to the powerful misconception that things will be different and better for them than for other people in the same position.

You will have seen what has happened to both Baroness ButlerSloss and Fiona Woolf. For different, but related, reasons, they had to stand down, having accepted the job of chairwoman. Since, unlike the two of them, you are neither the sister of Lord Havers nor have met Leon Brittan, you will imagine yourself quite different from your two predecessors and immune from their fate. I beg you to realise that this is merely Kahneman’s illusion.

The terms of reference of the

An earlier abuse report ran to 500,000 words and is a tiny part of this inquiry require the panel to consider the way in which “state and nonstate institutions” have, “from 1970 to the present”, failed in their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse.

In order to be sure that you will be free from accusations of conflicts of interest, and to be certain you will command confidence, it is not therefore enough that you should live far from London and be entirely outside the political establishment.

You must also be sure that at no point in the past 45 years have you tangled with government departments, the police, prosecuting authorities, state schools, public schools, care homes, the NHS, prisons, churches, synagogues, mosques or the armed forces. This, by the way, is not an exhaustive list, merely a few examples.

Your relationship with these bodies may be slight and have nothing whatsoever to do with child sexual abuse. Yet the same could be said of Fiona Woolf’s relationship with Lord Brittan. Anybody who accepts leadership of the inquiry is accepting a vast risk to their reputation without any confidence that they will withstand the scrutiny.

That, however, is only one of the reasons why I think you should turn down the job. The very example that Kahneman used to illustrate his point should make you pause. He wrote about a committee that thought it would finish its work much more swiftly than other committees.

Consider the Saville inquiry into Bloody Sunday. This tribunal was looking into the events of a single afternoon in one place. And it wasn’t even the first to do so, as there had already been a tribunal. The Saville inquiry, set up in 1998, finally reported in 2010.

Or consider the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war, again not the first of its kind and again dealing with one clear and reasonably limited topic. The inquiry celebrated its fifth birthday this summer and there is still no date for publication.

The Waterhouse inquiry into allegations of abuse in Welsh care homes between 1974 and 1990 was commissioned in 1996 and was not published until 2000. It ran to more than 500,000 words and contained 700 allegations of abuse. Yet what

The Bloody Sunday inquiry into one day’s events took 12 years to report

happened in Welsh care homes over 16 years is only a tiny, tiny part of what your panel is being asked to consider.

To believe that the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse can be timely and comprehensive is to believe that Kahneman’s illusion, which has governed every similar exercise, will be suspended in this case.

There is of course one reason for accepting the job, and I concede it’s a strong one. You may consider it your duty, whatever the obstacles in your way.

What we have learnt and are still learning about child sexual abuse is very shocking indeed. Its extent has been far greater than we have let ourselves imagine and the failings of almost every institution far greater than we realised. To investigate this is a matter of the highest

importance and the determination to take risks to do so is a noble thing.

So my final piece of advice is this.

To take on this inquiry as it is constituted is not to help victims, it is to fail them. It is not to do your duty it is to fail your duty. The inquiry cannot possibly succeed in its present form. This does not mean, of course, that it cannot identify disastrous lapses; naturally it will. It cannot, however, come close to doing justice to the issue.

You should insist that the inquiry be broken up into pieces and offer to take on one of them.

There is, for instance, an obvious need to look at Westminster, central government and the intelligence services. Almost certainly crimes were overlooked and complacency was rife. Individuals may have covered for each other. There are also elaborate conspiracy theories that seem more unlikely, but must at least be considered.

This investigation, however, should be separate, say, from a look at boarding schools. And that in turn is a different job from looking at prisons.

Or the scouts. Or church choirs. Or council recreational facilities.

I do hope you might consider my advice. And not just for your own sake. The government feels committed to the inquiry it has announced. You, perhaps, are the person who can persuade them to stop persisting in error.

Yours ever, Daniel

The Opinion podcast pod David Aaronovitch, Rachel Sylvester and Ann Treneman pa y politics on endingg two-party thetimes.co.uk/commentcentral

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Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

Opinion

A Putin Wall could bring peace to Ukraine

25 years after the Berlin Wall came down, it’s time we realised that barriers have their benefits Roger Boyes

@rogerboyes

N

othing quite beats a good paradox in politics. Just as the world hails the 25th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Vladimir Putin is getting ready for a new one. This time round it would divide eastern from western Ukraine, the logical next step in Russia’s Cold War 2.0.

It’s not yet clear who would build this wall, or fence, or barbed-wire curtain; it could be the Kiev government or the Russian-backed separatists. In each of the opposing camps, there is support for some kind of physical boundary between the two sides. To my astonishment I find myself in sympathy with the idea. There was something indecent about living in eastern Europe in the months before the Berlin Wall was punctured; it was like spying on a man’s last gasping seconds. But political walls aren’t just a curse, they help to define identity. And when, as in Ukraine, a problem cannot be solved by one generation, a wall can buy time.

The alternative is to hope for a Ukrainian government broad and tolerant enough to award the separatists all possible autonomy, short of outright divorce. That’s a non-starter, however much Europe

leans on President Petro Poroshenko.

The aim of western policymakers must be to preserve a Ukrainian state with a democratic and competent government that is free to choose its national course. That can’t be achieved by force, not as long as Russian tanks are revving their engines, so it has to come about through some counterintuitive thinking. If you want feuding communities to come together, first separate them. Build walls, then make holes in them.

The Ukrainian intellectual Mykola Riabchuk makes the case for Ukraine being a single state containing two countries: the flipside, in other words, of postwar Germany, which was viewed as one nation artificially divided into two states. There are plenty of differences, of course, between western Ukraine — it’s enough to

To reunite feuding people, first build a wall between them visit Lviv’s Catholic cathedral to sense its links to western civilisation — and the sovietised east of the country with its obvious affinity to Russia. There are nationalists in the west who argue that making a clear separation, but not an irrevocable split, from the eastern regions would speed Kiev’s entry into the European Union and free the rest of the country from the east’s corrupt postsoviet feudalism. A muddled commitment to inclusiveness, they say, isn’t going to work.

The Berlin Wall was oppressive but barriers can also end conflicts

Separatists, meanwhile, see the merits of a barrier akin to the UNpatrolled Green Line that still splits Cyprus. One of the Donetsk rebel leaders has talked of his region becoming the equivalent of northen Cyprus, self-governing but heavily subsidised by Turkey. It may have slipped his mind that northern Cyprus lives off sandy beaches. The Donbass has coal. The separatist leaders may crave independence, a sponsored statelet, but they know they are dependent on Putin riding to the rescue.

Outright Russian annexation of breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk, however, would at this stage entail high costs. Repeated waves of sanctions on top of plummeting oil prices are beginning to hurt Moscow.

A show of respecting Ukrainian sovereignty (minus Crimea, which Putin now considers to be for ever Russian) while protecting “his” eastern Ukrainians behind a wall could do the trick. Putin’s motives for constructing a wall — he may even call it, in imitation of the east German regime, an “anti-fascist protection bulwark” — would be different from ours, since his longterm ambition is almost certainly some form of permanent dismemberment of Ukraine.

Just because Putin is in favour of a barrier does not make it wrong.

Ukraine is close to economic collapse. It needs to focus on reform and on growth, not on fighting (and often losing to) thugs. Walls are not only oppressive; they can end conflict. There are risks: that unlike the Germans, the Ukrainians will not be able to find their way back together. Or that the wall, like Belfast’s “peacelines”, simply feeds political inertia rather than progress.

Or that, like Israel’s West Bank barrier, violence recedes but all curiosity about the everyday problems of Palestinians dries up.

It doesn’t have to be like that.

Instead the wall should become a chance, over years, for the Kiev government to bring prosperity to Ukraine and shows its readiness to share the fruits with the east.

The EU must help with this. And it should give the people of eastern Ukraine time to see the impotence of their rebel leaders and the flimsiness of Russian promises.

In fact, let’s call it the Putin Wall.

And rip it down when he finally falls from power.

Matthew Parris My Week

It’s the end of the road if black cabs don’t wise up

T

wo smartphones. Two cabs.

One destination. Last Wednesday my partner and I were dining with his brother and wife in London.

After dinner we wanted to go east and they west. Each brother grabbed his phone and ordered an Uber car.

On each screen, the nearest car was 1.2 miles away. Sibling rivalry kicked in. Fight! Fight!

Everyone crowded round the smartphone screens to watch the two car icons moving across the Google map, in an unwitting race for our address. There were air-punches and cries of “Yes!” from our challengers when our car took a wrong turning and had to reverse.

But still we won. Yes! Uber is the biggest thing in public transport for years, as important as HS2. Quite soon taxis cruising the streets opportunistically will be history; you won’t ring a minicab company for a car; and the car

taking you to the airport will not return empty. Huge networks of drivers and virtual networks of passengers will use IT to get the nearest car to the customer, paid on account. The gains in efficiency and convenience are irresistible.

Black cabs must adapt or die, but will not adapt and will die. “Most”, said the historian Leopold von Ranke of human institutions, “see their ruin before their eyes; but they go on into it.” London cabbies are campaigning against Uber and Berlin has banned it, but resistance is doomed. If you know any young person studying to take the Knowledge and become a black-cab driver, please, please warn them.

Wheelie menace

A

rriving by train from Derbyshire on Monday, I encountered the usual snarl-up at the train doors and then again at the top of the escalators, caused by passengers simply stopping mid-stream (as it were) to telescope their wheelie-case handles out or in, while everyone else trips over them. I’m afraid women are particular offenders, seeming to suffer, as they

suffer when queuing at counters, from a disinclination to anticipate a required action; so they hold everyone up while they look for their purse or get their handle extended.

Wheelie-case indiscipline can be positively dangerous at the bottom of escalators, spewing moving passengers out on to stationary ones; and now that people have wheels even for tiny bags (when will the first wheelie-handbag appear?) it’s getting worse.

Before taking cars on to the public highway, drivers need licences. So we should to operate wheelie-cases in congested spaces; there should be test pads with simulatorescalators, where urban novices learn how to telescope and lift a wheelie-case on the hoof without stopping; and then, later, to hit the ground running. Before passing their tests, wheeliedrivers should have a big red “L” on their cases.

Offenders should be wheeled off by whistletouting officials.

Trumpet major

W

hile we’re on antisocial behaviour, what’s with those individuals — usually men, over 40 and typically upper-class — who think it’s somehow OK in

company to blow their noses with a tremendous trumpeting sound, like a bull elephant? Others adorn a sneeze with a kind of shout. The sheer volume can be intolerable.

I’ve seen babies and startled cats all but leap from their cots and baskets. Gentlemen, even if you’ve been to a minor public school and feel yourself entitled to a certain command, nose-blowing is inherently disgusting, and a public sneeze is a mishap, not a war-whoop. Where unavoidable, either should be executed discreetly.

The Leon I know

A

ll right — I’ll say it. I’ve dined with Lord and Lady Brittan. I’ll say more.

I like, respect and admire the former home secretary. Leon Brittan’s contribution to politics and public life has been immense; and this lynching-by-allegation and guilt-by-association is a monstrous injustice.

I’ve no idea whether a “dossier” about an “establishment paedophile ring” from the eccentric Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens was overlooked in Brittan’s Home Office, but I knew the late Mr Dickens, who was as mad as a snake and a rank conspiracy theorist, and I would have overlooked his theories too.

There. At least that rules me out of chairing any public inquiry.

Let’s not get into a moral panic about killer schoolboys David Aaronovitch

I

t is no consolation at all to the family and friends of Ann Maguire that her murder was unprecedented. Nevertheless it is the case that no pupil has ever before killed a teacher in a British classroom. As a reflection on society or as an event that holds lessons for us, the tragedy was about as indicative as a Saharan snowfall.

It was odd then for the judge in the case, Mr Justice Coulson, to cite as one reason for naming 16-year-old Will Cornick as the killer, that such an action might be a “potential deterrent” to others. Even if there were other potential classroom murderers it’s hard to see how they would be deterred by a very public name and a mass-reproduced face being attached to Mrs Maguire’s murderer. And, of course, there probably aren’t others.

It was strange, too, for psychiatrists to say that Cornick was not mentally ill. That may be true in the limited sense that he was capable of understanding what he was doing.

It’s hard to see how naming this young killer will deter others But nothing about his state of mind leading up to the knife attack on Mrs Maguire suggests that he was mentally well. His belief that the teacher was solely responsible for the “shit” he thought his life had become, was borderline psychotic. The boy was in big trouble.

As ever in this country we have gone haring after the decoy rabbit.

An exemplary sentence makes no sense, for there is no one to set an example to and we have no idea what kind of rehabilitation Cornick may be capable of. For these reasons the more careful Scandinavians, faced with similar crimes, refuse to name the young perpetrators and resist handing down very long sentences.

No one can be blamed (as some newspapers have implied) for failing to realise what Cornick was up to, nor will it be useful to go around trying to spot the tell-tale signs of would-be teacher killers.

“Withdrawn” or quiet pupils can do without wannabe psycho-sleuths investigating them for signs of murderous weirdness.

Probably the most significant thing Cornick said after the murder was that, for him, it had been a choice between homicide and suicide. In 2012, for every 100,000 young men between the ages of 15 and 19, six killed themselves.

Yet had Cornick chosen this path, his death — though much more typical — might have been reported locally, and then forgotten about. It could be 50 years before we see another classroom murder — it will be days till the next young suicide.

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

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Opinion

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Remember: dementia needn’t be a tragedy

Instead of bribing doctors to diagnose Alzheimer’s, we should be exploring little ways to make sufferers’ lives better Alice Thomson

@alicettimes

D

o you really want to know what might happen to you in your old age? My brother, a scientist, did. So he volunteered to have his DNA tested in a trial. The results weren’t particularly startling. He has a genetic predisposition to dementia and Alzheimer’s. This isn’t shocking.

My great-grandfather and grandfather both had dementia and my father suffers from memory lapses. What they did discover was that my brother has more Neanderthal in him than 98 per cent of the population, which entertained the family until we realised we probably have similar genes.

Now there are plans by Public Health England to test everyone at middle age to see if they may be at risk of developing dementia. I don’t want to know. The results will merely show how rapidly you are losing your memory. A better indicator is to look at family history.

Not that there is much you can do

anyway if you start putting the children’s homework in the fridge or your mobile in their packed lunch. If the tests suggest that your brain age exceeds your biological age, doctors are supposed to tell you to drink less, quit smoking and keep your weight down with a healthy diet.

That’s all obvious advice for anyone wanting to live a longer life and who may be predisposed to heart disease, various cancers or dementia. You can play more memory games or take up crosswords, but worrying about developing an incurable disease could blight your life unnecessarily for decades. Each time you lock yourself out in your dressing gown

Whirlwind visits are not just ineffective, they are frightening becomes a potential tragedy rather than an irritation.

Nor should we be paying GPs £55 every time dementia is diagnosed in a patient. The aim is to encourage early diagnosis but it’s insulting to suggest doctors wouldn’t bother without a bribe. There may also be cases where they suspect a patient has the condition, but decide not to burden them with the knowledge

prematurely. What’s more, this bounty will cost more than £6 million a year.

By next year 850,000 people will have dementia but their memories will slip slowly at first. They may stock up on packets of toothpaste every day, eat two breakfasts, become clumsy, suffer small strokes, repeatedly ask for their loved ones and forget their names.

Sufferers from dementia and Alzheimer’s desperately need help when their world is starting to become hazy, their reality is being challenged and their brain tissue is shrinking.

There are ways of helping. Gadgets can assist sufferers and carers — such as watches that speak the time when you can no longer remember the difference between the hands.

Supermarkets increasingly provide assistants for customers with dementia so they don’t get overwhelmed finding the marmalade or fill up their baskets with dozens of Scotch eggs and forget the milk.

But increasingly they will need more care, even if they are physically able. Families aren’t always there to step in: one in ten social care visits now only lasts 15 minutes once a week. For dementia sufferers, trapped in their homes, unable to remember what a toaster does, how to use a tin-opener, cut their nails or

shave, these whirlwind visits aren’t just ineffective, they are frightening.

As sufferers deteriorate, they need more urgent aid. My husband’s stepfather became increasingly violent with Alzheimer’s after his wife died. Unable to recognise the rota of carers, the seasons or even day and night, he lashed out and his own family and friends withdrew.

When his GP informed us he was being sectioned we drove down and

Businesses need to offer more flexible hours for carers promised to find him accommodation instead. But it was a harrowing 48 hours, desperately searching for a home. Everyone we contacted turned us away until we were visiting units with padded walls, wailing inmates and the stench of cabbage.

Seven out of ten people in care homes suffer some form of dementia but there is a harsh grading system: if you are doubly incontinent, unable to eat or drink, volatile and aggressive, there are few places that will take you, even though at times you can be loving, logical and lucid.

Hospitals find dementia patients equally difficult. One shocking incident stood out in the Mid Staffs

scandal — patients who were so thirsty they drank water from vases.

Actually, they had Alzheimer’s and were ignored. This year, an inquiry found that nine out of ten hospitals offer dementia care that is not always up to standard. Patients were left in pain or went hungry because they weren’t mentally robust enough to complain.

There is so much more we can do.

Sufferers in the early stages need help to continue with plans and projects or just go to the pub.

Businesses could offer more flexible hours for exhausted carers; care homes and hospitals must adapt to what is becoming an epidemic as people live longer. Countries, led by Britain, are slowly putting more money into research, but there are 5,755 international trials into new cancer drugs, compared with 99 into Alzheimer’s and 14 into vascular dementia. It is still a death sentence.

But it doesn’t need to be a tragedy.

As my father’s memory shifts and slides, he has become an exaggerated version of himself, even kinder, milder and more gentle.

Intellectually curious, he revels in discovering Rembrandt or a Red Admiral butterfly as though for the first time. He lives in the moment, laughs at his confusion, enjoys reminiscing and lets others worry about the future. And we should.

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Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

Leading articles Daily Universal Register UK: Marks & Spencer interim results; publication of the National Institute Economic Review, including the forecast for the UK and world economies; Bank of England monetary policy committee meeting, with the decision on interest rates tomorrow; the Toy Retailers Association reveals the top 12 toys for Christmas.

US: Results of US midterm elections.

Finish the Job

Norman Baker is no great loss to the Home Office but the last six months of the coalition’s time in office should not descend into deliberate political detachment Norman Baker, who until he resigned on Monday was a junior minister at the Home Office, is renowned for having some peculiar views. He has an interest in UFOs. He is convinced that Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary, and David Kelly, the former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, were murdered by agents of the state, and even went to the trouble of writing a book about the latter, in which he assembled precisely no persuasive evidence for his conspiracy theory.

Mr Baker’s latest eccentricity is his belief that the home secretary, Theresa May, should not be allowed to run the Home Office. The proximate cause of Mr Baker’s resignation, and his given reason for leaving office, is that Mrs May was refusing to take the evidence about the failing of drugs policy at all seriously. If it is possible to get past the irony of Mr Baker, of all people, demanding that people should pay heed to evidence, he has a reasonable point, which, had he stayed in post, he would have been in a position to argue. Instead, Mr Baker has confected his exasperation at not getting a fair hearing from his boss, declared that working at the Home Office was like “tramping through mud”, and promptly flounced out.

There is both a narrow and a broad political lesson to be drawn from the otherwise insignificant

loss of Mr Baker from public office. The narrow lesson is that, with electoral politics in its most fractured state in living memory, many MPs can feel the breath of the electorate on the back of their necks. Mr Baker won a majority of 7,600 in Lewes in the election of 2010 but with the Liberal Democrats rarely reaching double figures in the national opinion polls, he will not be the only MP in his party who will be using the last six months of the parliament to throw himself into constituency work in the hope of saving his political career. Two other Liberal Democrat ministers, the junior whips Mark Hunter and Jenny Willott, have also left office to concentrate on their seats.

The broader political lesson is that every day in this parliament charts new territory for all involved. The experience of a full coalition is novel for all its participants and Mr Baker’s resignation may be a sign of what it looks like when the partners to the coalition begin to detach in the last six months before they face one another at the general election in May. The temptation for strategic squabbling is obvious but the attitude of Lynne Featherstone, Mr Baker’s replacement, is much more mature: “I have always had a very constructive relationship with Theresa May and I look forward to working with her again.”

There have been genuine differences of outlook between the Lib Dems and the Conservatives in the coalition, which is to be expected. The Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, scuppered the home secretary’s plans for what he called the “snoopers’ charter”. But the occasions on which philosophical differences have spilt over into political petulance have been rare. Disraeli famously said that Britain does not like coalitions, but the past four years have at least shown that a coalition can provide strong government.

It needs to continue to do so. It is a mistake to think that the business of government ends when legislation has passed through the House of Commons. All over Whitehall major programmes are in the process of being implemented, of which the tardy universal credit is the most pored-over. The deficit in the public finances has started to expand again. The next government, whoever forms it, would be glad of a coalition that uses the last six months of this parliament to get on with its job.

Mr Baker now has more time to devote to his band the Reform Club, with which he recently released a single about a tramp who sings Hey Jude through a traffic cone. Unlike much of what Mr Baker says, we are not making this up. In the manner of his leaving office he is no example to follow.

Changing the Record

Taylor Swift is right that people should pay for music but may be wrong about how Taylor Swift has a point. This week, the American singer and pop star — whom your children will know about even if you do not — removed all of her music from many internet music streaming services, such as Spotify. Her new album 1989 (named, distressingly, after the year she was born) is likely to be the only record this year to sell more than a million copies in its first week. Her last, Red, did this, too. Yet it has also been listened to a quite staggering 260 million times on Spotify. Now Swift has decided that if fewer people had done the latter, more might have done the first.

Today, broadly speaking, there are four ways for people to get hold of new music. Some will buy a thing called a “compact disc”, which you can perhaps explain to your children while they explain Taylor Swift to you. Some will buy and download digital tracks from an outlet such as Apple’s iTunes, while a growing number will “stream” music from the internet, either from a subscription service (such as Spotify) or from a free one (such as YouTube). Others, finally, will find illegal downloads.

Many within the industry have a particular

loathing of streaming services, believing that they pay artists a pittance relative to downloads. Nor are they wrong. Last year, Spotify confirmed that most artists received $0.007 per play. “Please can 2,000 people listen to my new song on Spotify,” some musicians have been known to quip, “because I need to buy a new toothbrush.”

Legal download sales, per track, do indeed earn artists many times more. Yet streaming sites are perhaps better compared with illegal sites, which by definition earn artists nothing at all.

In recent years, the music industry has learnt that there is little it can practically do to stop people from seeking out free music online. Instead, most labels now prefer to bill for it, with free streaming sites such as YouTube paying a royalty for each song played. The sums here are even smaller than those with a subscription service such as Spotify. Yet it is this service that Swift and her record label have targeted.

In part, this may be simply because they can.

The Swedish Spotify remains a relatively minor player in the music industry, and makes for a less dangerous totemic foe than Google (which owns

YouTube) or Apple (which runs the streaming service Beats Music). Swift, while now vastly wealthy herself, has long argued that musicians deserve a greater share of the streaming pie. “It’s my opinion that music should not be free,” she wrote in The Wall Street Journal this year, “and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album’s price point is.”

This newspaper, itself a subscription service, believes it vital that consumers should remain familiar with the concept of paying for content.

Subscription services such as Spotify have had enormous success in establishing this principle.

One likely reason they have not had even greater success — and thus generated greater revenues with which to pay artists — is the competition from cheaper and illegal services, which pay artists even less, or nothing at all.

Taylor Swift may be the biggest pop star in the world today and is likely to be able to change the rules of the game in her favour. She should realise, nonetheless, that the broader concept of a subscription streaming service is about as good, for her industry, as the future is likely to get.

Brave New World

That hath such alarm clocks in it When they imagined the future in books and films our forebears pictured us — their descendants — conquering new galaxies, setting up space colonies, communicating by telepathy and travelling to work by jet-pack. Visiting us now from beyond the grave they would doubtless — at first glance — be disappointed. No cities on Venus, they would observe sadly, no mind-melds. The world today is still recognisably the world it was.

Only gradually would they realise that the true marvel of the age is contained in the small, unimpressive rectangles of metal and glass that Earth’s inhabitants carry at all times. They

would come to see that the mobile phone has revolutionised our lives. And above all they would admire our apps.

For example the Touch Surgery app (“practice complex surgery anytime, anywhere”) allows the owner to go through the process of cutting open and ministering to an imaginary patient using 3-D images. As one app reviewer put it: “I am only 15; an aspiring surgeon and I already know the steps to taking out an appendix.”

But, as reported in today’s paper, not all apps are equally useful or equally properly used. The “Wakie” app, which gets people in different time

zones to act as your alarm clock by phoning you up and saying whatever comes into their minds, seems more of a problem in itself than a solution to something else.

Though the “Poo Log” has a certain utility, the iVibe Massager Lite is unlikely to do more than embarrass the purchaser, and the app that “warns” boyfriends when it is that time of the month would be liable to turn them rapidly into ex-boyfriends.

Parents of teenagers may also want to express an opinion on the app that measures just how high a mobile phone is thrown up in the air. It will not be, one imagines: “That’s progress!”

Nature notes People out after dark for Guy Fawkes Night may have their last chance this year of seeing pipistrelle bats. They come out a little after sunset and pursue nocturnal moths and flying beetles. Like other bats, they get their picture of the world — including their insect prey — by emitting high-pitched sounds and detecting the echoes. They do this at an amazing speed.

They often fly into the light around lamps, offering brief good views of themselves, because they can find insects there that have been attracted to the light. Although they look large with their eight-inch wingspan, their furry head and body combined are only an inch and a half long. Once the weather turns frosty they will go into hibernation under roofs. Since 1999, another pipistrelle species has been recognised and named the soprano pipistrelle. They are almost identical in appearance to the common pipistrelle, and are quite common, but their echo-location calls are higher pitched. Generally speaking, they can only be heard and identified with the use of batdetector machines. However, zoologists define the two pipistrelles as separate species because they do not interbreed. derwent may

Birthdays today Lester Piggott, pictured, 11-times champion jockey, 79; Bryan Adams, singer, (Everything I Do) I Do It for You (1991), 55; John Bowen, playwright and novelist, The Truth Will Not Help Us (1956), 90; John Berger, art critic, 88; Alexa Chung, model and author of It (2013), 31; Niall Dickson, chief executive and registrar, General Medical Council, 61; Art Garfunkel, singer, The Sound of Silence (1964), 73; Jonny Greenwood, lead guitarist, Radiohead, 43; Elizabeth Hallam Smith, librarian at the House of Lords, 64; Tessa Jackson, chief executive, Institute of International Visual Arts, 59; Bernard-Henri Lévy, philosopher, 66; Anthony McClaran, chief executive, Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, 57; Sir David Mason, professor emeritus, University of Glasgow Dental School, 86; Tamzin Outhwaite, actress, New Tricks, 44; Sam Shepard, playwright, True West (1980), 71; Tilda Swinton, actress, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), 54.

On this day In 1854 French and British forces defeated the Russians at the Battle of Inkerman; in 1909 the first FW Woolworth store in Britain opened in Church Street, Liverpool; in 1914 Britain declared war on Turkey and annexed Cyprus; in 1956 British and French paratroops landed near Port Said, Egypt, during the Suez Crisis.

The last word “A throw of the dice will never eliminate chance.” Stephané Mallarmé, French poet, (1897)

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

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Letters to the Editor

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

Child abuse: survivors’ voices must be heard

Christmas crisis Sir, The UK’s road transport and logistics industry is in desperate need of 45,000 new truck drivers. This shortage already affects 70 per cent of logistics providers and most others expect to be affected soon.

The issue is fast becoming significant: unless urgent action is taken by the government and the industry as a whole, shoppers could be facing empty shelves, if not this Christmas, then next.

We are asking George Osborne to use his autumn statement on December 3 to announce national funding to help UK residents to gain their LGV driving licence and certificate of professional competence. The UK’s economy is improving but it’s up to the road transport industry to ensure that the supply chain keeps moving. richard burnett, chief executive, Road Haulage Association; steve agg, chief executive, Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport; steve hobson, editor, Motor Transport

Overlooked?

Sir, Looking at the huge sums being spent on Crossrail and HS2, it is bewildering to most people in the north east that so little is done for us.

Good infrastructure helps to attract businesses, so we are being held back.

Despite 20 years of politicians’ promises, the A1 north of Newcastle is still in effect a country road. George Osborne has said there is a “compelling case for upgrading the A1” but will we get it? We’ll find out when he makes his autumn statement whether he thinks of us up here as relevant. frank woodhouse Ponteland, Newcastle upon Tyne

Kindertransport Sir, You reported the honour conferred on Sir Nicholas Winton by the Czech government in recognition of his rescue of Jewish children in 1939 (Oct 29). The full story is told by his daughter Barbara Winton in If it’s Not Impossible. Sir Nicholas was in Prague for three weeks, returning to find foster homes for the children. My father, Trevor Chadwick, ran his operation in Prague. He was there for four months, remaining after the Nazi invasion. It was he who had to arrange the transports. Recognition is also due to Doreen Warriner who was in charge of the refugee operation in Prague as a whole; and also, as Sir Nicholas says, to the Czechs who played such a critical role. charles chadwick London NW3

Corrections and clarifications The Times is committed to abiding by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (“IPSO”) rules and regulations and the Editors’ Code of Practice that IPSO enforces.

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

Sir, Theresa May had little option but to apologise to victims of historic child sex abuse in the wake of Fiona Woolf ’s decision to fall on her sword as chairwoman of the government inquiry. It is still worth noting, however, that it was only probing by backbench MPs and digging by a free press that unearthed the evidence that led to Woolf following her predecessor Lady Butler-Sloss down “Resignation Road”.

As media adviser to some abuse victim groups, I’m well aware that the home secretary’s statement still leaves many survivors far from reassured. To rescue confidence, key steps must be taken.

First, victims must be meaningfully involved in the selection of the new chairperson.

They also need to be fully involved in reviewing the inquiry’s structure — including whether it should be a royal commission.

Second, the home affairs select committee should still summon May and her officials to investigate the

selection process that led to the Woolf/Butler-Sloss fiascos.

Third, the government must not run scared at the radical idea of appointing an awkward nonestablishment figure such as Michael Mansfield QC to take the helm of Britain’s most important public inquiry for many years. paul connew St Albans, Herts

Rugby injuries

share Melanie Reid’s concern about big hits in rugby.

Could we learn from the airlines with their cabin baggage templates?

Put a gate at the end of the players’ tunnel, and if you do not fit through you don’t get onto the pitch. tj robinson Banbridge, Co Down

Sir, Melanie Reid is right in her condemnation of the “big hit” in modern rugby (“Rugby score: broken jaws 2, fractured cheekbones 1”, Notebook, Nov 4). The rugby authorities and particularly the “law book” authors would do well to give serious thought to her article.

At any one time about 25 per cent of players at the top level are unavailable for selection because of injury. Assuming that an individual player is injured for 25 per cent of the season and that the season lasts 32 weeks, he would expect to be out of action for eight weeks. At a rate of four weeks per injury, he would expect two injuries per season.

Further, assuming a senior career of 12 years, he could expect 24 injuries of this severity over his career. The authorities should properly consider the long-term effects of these injuries on the quality of the player’s later life. john owen Trefriw, Conwy Sir, Having watched a good Ulster team being outmuscled by an immense Toulon team recently, I

on this day november 5, 1914

DECLARATION OF WAR WITH TURKEY A supplement to the London Gazette published yesterday contains the following: Owing to hostile acts committed by Turkish forces under German officers, a state of war exists between Great Britain and Turkey as from today.

Foreign Office, Nov 5, 1914.

The Gazette also contains an Order in Council annexing the island of Cyprus. The order, after reciting the agreement of August

Sir, Nonsense is coming out of the Westminster village about finding someone to run the child abuse inquiry. If the establishment looked outside its confines it would find, in every part of the UK, people who are perfectly capable of doing the job.

The usual establishment suspects from the pool of lawyers and other great-and-good worthies either aren’t up to the task or, in some cases, are too concerned with preserving their relationships and position. The assertion that a suitable person can only be found abroad is ridiculous and is often

Cougars Sir, I was interested to read the defence of older women dating younger men “Confessions of a cougar” (Nov 3), particularly as I am the man in such a relationship.

I was heartened to see the subject treated with sensitivity rather than the “phwoar, old biddy chases young stud” angle.

Readers may find the man’s perspective equally interesting. For me, it has been an immensely rewarding experience where we make the most of our differences — be it her greater experience or my “youthful exuberance”.

We are also of different races, countries and religions, but the difference that raises eyebrows is the age gap: society isn’t ready for women 14, 1878, by which the Sultan of Turkey assigned the island of Cyprus to be occupied and administered by England, and affirming that by reason of the outbreak of hostilities with Turkey the agreement has become annulled, asserts that it has seemed expedient to annex the island. His Majesty, with the advice of his Privy Council, has therefore ordered: From and after the date hereof the said island shall be annexed to and form part of His Majesty’s Dominion, and the said island is annexed accordingly.

DEPARTURE OF THE TURKISH AMBASSADOR The Turkish Ambassador and his suite left Charing Cross by the Folkestone boat express yesterday.

Special cars were attached to the train for the accommodation of the ambassador and his party, who mustered together 19. Mr Walford Selby, one of Sir Edward Grey’s private secretaries, was present at the station on behalf of the Foreign Secretary, and before leaving the minister expressed to Mr Selby his

made when the establishment fails to appoint one of its own number.

The subsequent appointment of “someone from abroad” almost always turns into disaster. jon cousens Ebford, Devon Sir, I suggest two candidates for the chair of the child abuse inquiry: Baroness (Floella) Benjamin for her empathy for the welfare of the young individual, and the Dutch diplomat Sigrid Kaag, a woman whose work dealing with toxic issues cannot be ignored. mark riley Sandhurst, Surrey Sir, While it is essential to hear the voice of victims, it is now clear that interested parties have had a veto over the way an investigation is conducted, despite protests that this is not the case. This is a significant precedent which will lead to problems in the future. john bausor Wokingham, Berks to do what men have been doing for millennia. ankit mathur London SE16

Freight by air Sir, Gatwick and Heathrow are both lobbying strongly for a new runway at their respective airports, and Heathrow is currently lauding its freight throughput. Last year there were 2,421 movements of freight-only aircraft. Why couldn’t these planes instead use Stansted or Birmingham, which have good road and rail connections? The slots freed could be allocated to open new routes to China or South America. john b ashton Norton-sub-Hamdon, South Somerset

Plugged in Sir, Regarding your stories about migration, I have just had work done by an electrician who lives near Brno with his Czech wife but works here because the pay is better. He is English. brian parker Dartmouth, Devon gratitude for the arrangements made by the Government for the comfort of his party. The party will travel via Folkestone and Flushing to Constantinople.

The Ambassador has sent this message to Sir Edward Grey: “At the moment of leaving English soil, where I have enjoyed generous hospitality, I beg you to present very respectfully to His Majesty the King an expression of my most profound gratitude for the ever kind welcome with which I have been honoured during the whole of the period of the mission which has accredited me to this country. I beg you to believe that I retain a happy memory of the amicable relations which have existed between your Excellency, your staff, and myself, and which have made easy for me a task sufficiently heavy in difficult circumstances.” sign up for a weekly email with extracts from the times history of the war ww1.thetimes.co.uk

Gum health Sir, It is not unreasonable for Dr Paul Batchelor to assert that bleeding gums, the mild form of gum disease which is seen in the majority of the population and can be self-limiting, do not meet the definition of a public health problem (“Gum disease threat ‘inflated to sell mouthwash’ ”, Nov 1).

However, many dentists would disagree with his suggestion that gum disease is a normal part of ageing.

The more severe gum disease, from which about 15-30 per cent of the modern adult population suffers, has many significant consequences, including poor aesthetics, loss of selfesteem, recurring gum infections and ultimately tooth loss.

The progression of bleeding gums to destructive gum disease is caused by a number of factors including smoking, genetic factors, diabetes and possibly poor diet, but is most effectively prevented by the lifelong maintenance of good gum health. francis j hughes Professor of Periodontology, Kings College London

Culture clash Sir, Hannah Betts’s concerns in “I’m a whore and a slut. And all in a few metres” (Nov 1), featuring ten hours of walking in New York as a woman, are misplaced. In America, it is polite to make remarks that would be seen as exaggerated or intrusive in the UK. Hence the woman was being rude not to respond with a smile or wave.

She was also wearing a skin tight T-shirt and jeans. It is ludicrous to pretend such things are not likely to attract attention; that is why in past times women had to be chaperoned and to dress modestly.

There is an amusing video of ten hours of walking in New York as a man. He suffered too. paul f withrington Northampton Sir, Hannah Betts might attract far less attention and feel much safer if she relocated to Pitlochry. kate west Pitlochry, Perthshire

Young and serious Sir, Who listens to 23-year-olds, Judy Macdonald (letter, Nov 3) asks.

Politicians do — just ask the Lib Dems, who have seen their youthful support ebb away after the U-turn on tuition fees.

More than 40 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds voted in the last election and there may be a greater turnout next May. Party leaders ignore the young at their peril. frank greaney Formby, Merseyside Sir, As the younger Pitt was 24 when he became prime minister he must have had sufficient going for him at 23 to be “taken seriously” the following year. a pugh-thomas West Monkton, Somerset

Parental lead Sir, It was great to see the students from Boroughmuir High School pictured with “kindness pledges” (Nov 1). One student promises to “walk the dog instead of her parents”.

Be warned: parents can suffer from claustrophobia if not walked daily. ralph sutton Dorking, Surrey

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Pickles to seize control of failing council Dominic Kennedy Investigations Editor

A mayor was humiliated yesterday when Eric Pickles threatened to send commissioners to take over his failing council in east London.

Lutfur Rahman had been accused of buying votes with grants and showing favouritism to the Bangladeshi community.

Mr Pickles, the communities and local government secretary, took the rare step yesterday of saying that he will seize powers from the mayor, whom he accused of abusing public money, helping cronies, trading favours and spreading divisions.

Mr Rahman is already facing a High Court action by local voters to strip him of

Lutfur Rahman, mayor of Tower Hamlets, is accused of rigging his election

office. They allege that his re-election in May to run Tower Hamlets was fraudulent and rigged.

“This is a borough where there have been widespread allegations of extremism, homophobia and antisemitism being allowed to fester,” Mr Pickles told the House of Commons, where MPs from both sides strongly supported his action. He compared Mr Rahman to a medieval monarch in the way that he handed out grants.

A report by government inspectors “paints a deeply concerning picture of obfuscation, denial, secrecy, the breakdown of democratic scrutiny and accountability, a culture of cronyism risking the

corrupt spending of public funds,” he said.

Mr Pickles sent auditors from the consultancy firm PwC to Tower Hamlets six months ago after a BBC Panorama investigation claimed that the mayor was effectively buying votes by giving grants to Bangladeshi organisations. Mr Rahman, an independent, was re-elected with a majority of 3,000 over Labour.

PwC found that the mayor’s approval was needed for any grant of more than £1,000. Grants amounting to £407,000 were given to organisations which failed to meet the minimum criteria laid down by officials for receipt of the public funds.

Nearly £100,000 was given to lunch clubs, all providing hot meals for Bangladeshis and Somalis, even though none of the organisations had applied for the money.

PwC also highlighted concerns about the sale of Poplar town hall to a company with connections to an individual involved in the mayor’s election campaigning.

Mr Pickles has given the council 14 days to object to the takeover but has demanded that the mayor must agree within 24 hours to stop making grants or the government will strip him of the power instantly.

Mr Rahman said: “The report highlights flaws in processes. These are regrettable. I was always confident [that] wild claims about fraud would not be substantiated.” dkennedy@thetimes.co.uk

Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

Inspector called Hillsborough fans ‘animals’ David Brown

A police inspector on duty at the Hillsborough disaster described Liverpool fans as “animals” and claimed that they took money from victims, the inquests into the deaths of 96 football supporters were told yesterday.

Robert Purdy was on duty outside the turnstiles of the Leppings Lane entrance to the stadium in Sheffield for the FA Cup semi-final on April 15, 1989. In a written statement after the fatal crush, Mr Purdy said that some of the Liverpool fans “were nice but others were just animals”.

He admitted yesterday that it was an insulting and inappropriate description but said that he was upset and angry when he wrote the statement.

He also wrote that he heard another officer saying “they’re picking up money”, referring to fans on the pitch, where victims had been taken. Mr Purdy admitted that he had not seen money being picked up and that he did not know whether the other officer was referring to fans picking up their own cash, but he denied that it was a “nasty attempt” to smear Liverpool fans.

The inquests continue.

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

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Deporting officers ‘ignored prisoner’s dying plea for air’ David Brown

Three custody officers killed a failed asylum seeker on a British Airways jet by pinning his head into a seat for up to 35 minutes, a court was told yesterday.

Jimmy Mubenga was heard by other passengers to cry out repeatedly “I can’t breathe” as he was held by officers from G4S on the plane at Heathrow airport.

By the time the cabin crew raised the alarm it was too late and he died of cardiac arrest. The officers, Terrence Hughes, 53, Colin Kaler, 52, and Stuart Tribelnig, 39, are charged with the manslaughter of Mr Mubenga.

The court heard that the officers would only be paid for the hours that they worked even if a deportation was cancelled or not completed, and the round trip to Angola was expected to last 26 hours.

A section of the Boeing 777 with three rows of three seats has been specially built inside Court 16 of the Old Bailey to show the jury how Mr Mubenga died.

Mark Dennis, QC, for the prosecution, said that Mr Mubenga had been put on the flight to be deported to Angola in October 2010.

He said: “Each officer would have known from their training and from common sense that keeping someone in such a position was likely to cause a person harm, yet they did so over a prolonged period.

“They did so ignoring the repeated shouts from Mubenga that he was in trouble — ‘I can’t breathe’. Shouts that were heard by many a passenger seated further away.”

The court heard Mr Mubenga was fit and healthy when he boarded the aircraft.

Mr Dennis said: “He had been thoroughly co-operative with the officers and had shown no sign of any resistance to what was happening to him. A few minutes after boarding everything was to change. Mubenga and the three officers became

embroiled in a commotion which escalated into a struggle as the officers tried to force Mr Mubenga into a row of seats and then into a seated position.”

The officers used rigid handcuffs to bind his arms and hands behind his back and fix the seatbelt around his waist.

Mr Dennis said: “Such physical restraint should have been enough to hold Mr Mubenga in the seat and, above all, to make [him] realise that there was no point in struggling further even if he had wanted to do so.”

The prosecutor said that, despite being in an “excited state”, “there was little he could do but accept the situation and calm down because he was in such a confined space and bound from behind and strapped in his seat”.

Mr Dennis said there had been an officer on each side of Mr Mubenga, with another leaning over from the seat ahead and, between them, they endeavoured to pin their prisoner into his seat.

“In doing so, they held Mr Mubenga in such a position bent forward that his ability to breathe properly was inevitably impaired,” he told the court.

When the cabin doors were secured and the plane pushed back to taxi towards the runway, Mr Mubenga was “staring open-eyed ahead of him”.

Mr Dennis said the guards appeared to have assumed Mr Mubenga was feigning his condition and it was only when one of them realised that he was in a critical state that a medical emergency was declared.

Mr Mubenga had been living in the UK for a number of years with his wife and children, the youngest of which was a few months old. Although tearful before his departure and upset by having to leave his family behind, he had acknowledged that he had to go back and was “resigned” to the situation, the court heard.

Mr Hughes, Mr Kaler and Mr Tribelnig all deny the charges. The trial continues.

Botham persuades RSPB to back down on fundraising Ben Webster Environment Editor

The RSPB has admitted making misleading claims about how much it spends on nature conservation, after a complaint by Sir Ian Botham.

The charity, which has an annual income of £127 million, has amended key statements on its website after the former England cricketer and a group of fellow shooting enthusiasts complained to the Charity Commission.

Until last week the RSPB stated on its homepage: “90p in every pound goes directly towards our conservation work. That means more money spent on saving nature and less on admin.”

It has now admitted that this “could be construed as misleading” because it spends £21 million on “generating income”, £13 million buying goods to resell in its shops, £19 million Sir Ian Botham: charity misled its donors

on “education and communication”, including lobbying, and £4 million on “membership services”.

The amount spent by the RSPB on creating nature reserves to protect birds more than halved last year, falling from £2.7 million to £1.2 million.

The RSPB now says: “We spend 90 per cent of our net income on conservation. That means we are passionate about spending your money on what matters most for nature.”

Sir Ian is the figurehead of You Forgot About the Birds, a campaign that objects to the RSPB’s lobbying for grouse moors to be licensed to keep hen harriers from being killed by gamekeepers.

Sir Ian said: “The RSPB is so hungry for money that it has been gratuitously misleading donors.”

An RSPB spokesman said it accepted that the original claims had not been “adequately or consistently explained”.

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News JAIMI CHISHOLM / WIREIMAGE / GETTY IMAGES

Racing certainties The Spandau Ballet band members Tony Hadley, Steve Norman, Martin Kemp, John Keeble and Gary Kemp at the Melbourne Cup race meeting. Two horses died after the race, won by the British jockey Ryan Moore. Sport, page 53

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Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

World

Britons take stand at ebola hospital that refuses to die Sierra Leone Anthony Loyd Freetown

They are civilians, but their eyes carry the same luminosity as exhausted soldiers in a besieged garrison, and a war load of death is present in their every working week.

Most of the patients cared for by the British volunteers at the ebola isolation ward in Connaught Hospital, Freetown, will die. Some of their colleagues have died, too.

A few patients do not even make it past the hospital gates, but die instead in an assessment tent outside the entrance.

Welcome to the chlorine-soaked world of the King’s Sierra Leone Partnership, the small team of British medical volunteers at the heart of Freetown’s struggle against ebola.

“What we said here at Connaught was, ‘This hospital cannot close’,” said Oliver Johnson, the programme director of the KSLP and a pivotal figure in Sierra Leone’s fight against ebola. “We have to throw whatever we have at it.”

KSLP’s determination to defend the Connaught against being overrun by ebola began in earnest this summer.

In August, as the wave of ebola cases swept from the east of the country into the west, Dr Johnson and his small British team in the Connaught hospital, originally there to help to broaden the country’s medical infrastructure, noted the effect of the closure of the main government hospital in neighbouring Liberia.

The JFK, the largest hospital in Monrovia, had closed in July after two of its leading doctors died from ebola. Other government hospitals followed suit, their staff terrified by the virus, which overwhelmed Liberia’s resources.

“The closure of the JFK caused a domino effect, and an implosion in Liberia’s ability to respond to ebola,” Dr Johnson said. “We did not want the same happening to Connaught.”

Yet for a perilous few weeks Connaught hospital, Freetown’s main medical facility — which was opened

by Queen Victoria’s 3rd son, the Duke of Connaught, in 1912 — nearly suf-

fered a similar fate to the JFK. In midAugust Modupe Cole, Connaught’s senior physician, who was managing the 16-bed isolation ward, contracted ebola and died. The virus killed other staff too, causing panicked junior doctors and nurses to go on strike.

One night that month Dr Johnson was called and found that the entire hospital had been abandoned by terrified staff, with the exception of the senior doctor and matron.

“We had a hospital full of patients and empty of staff,” he recalled.

It was the lowest ebb Naomi Walker has to turn away people suffering with ebola

of an ebola crisis that is still in flux. British Airways had stopped its flights to Freetown. Foreign charities were pulling out. There was a sense of panic and exodus. And the virus was rampant.

“From the end of July our caseload went from one or two, to five or ten, and by early August we were full,” Dr Johnson said.

“In a fairly short space of time it was like a tsunami of cases rolling down from the east of the country. They hit the west side: Port Loko exploded, Freetown exploded, and all of the isolation units apart from Connaught and the one at the military hospital basically collapsed.”

As the call went out for more KSLP volunteers, Dr

Don’t come home, aid worker told

A

n aid worker helping to deal with the ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone had to travel to Britain for a break instead of returning home to America because officials in his home state threatened to ban his children from school if he had contact with them (Jerome Starkey writes).

Justin Forsyth, the chief executive of Save the Children, said that the threats were “appalling” and “ridiculous”, and urged America to stop imposing de facto travel bans because they risked thwarting efforts to curb the spread of the disease.

“He got a message from the South

Carolina Education Board that he wasn’t welcome to come home and they would take his children out of school if he did,” Mr Forsyth said.

“So he has taken two weeks’ rest and recuperation in Britain because he is fearful to go back to America.”

More than 5,000 people have died from the disease. All but ten of the deaths were in West Africa, but widespread fear of the disease prompted a number of countries to cancel flights and close their borders with the regions that were worst affected.

Mr Forsyth said that there was a desperate shortage of medical professionals

in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, the countries that have borne the brunt of the outbreak, meaning that containment efforts and clinics needed international help.

“We need doctors and nurses, and we need some countries that are putting bans on travel to get out of the way and to help,” he told the BBC. Britain has refused to guarantee that infected health workers would be repatriated.

Dame Sally Davies, Britain’s chief medical officer, admitted yesterday that ebola kept her awake at night. She is worried the virus will reach Britain, she said.

Johnson and his team struggled to bolster the confidence of local staff and control a rising caseload. More than 500 suspected ebola cases — more than 300 of them confirmed — have entered their isolation ward in less than three months.

Many die there, unable to be moved to one of the limited spaces in a treatment centre before they are overcome by the virus. Others, though clearly sick with ebola, are turned away from the Connaught’s gates if the hospital’s isolation centre is already full.

“I tell them that I am sorry,” Naomi Walker, a KSLP volunteer, said. “I say that I can’t admit them, that we do not have enough beds, this is an imperfect system, and I say sorry. I don’t feel in a position where I have much choice.”

Even today, there are only about 15 KSLP volunteers in the Connaught, all working in the ebola isolation ward, in conditions scarcely imaginable to British troops in the country, whose role involves little or no first-hand exposure to ebola cases.

Although the relationship between KSLP and the British army is close — Brigadier Stephen McMahon, the commander of the British ebola task force in Sierra Leone, last week called King’s and Médecins Sans Frontières “the real heroes of the ebola story here” — there are still tensions.

The military is building treatment centres while volunteer civilians are overwhelmed by the struggle to tend patients, removing each day’s dead and cleaning up body fluids contaminated with virus. Though the troops are building six 100-bed ebola units, there are not enough medical volunteers to staff them.

With the exception of a specialist 12bed unit for sick staff, the army will not be involved in the treatment of ebola.

“It’s fantastic that the British Army has come out to Sierra Leone,” Dr Johnson said. “The treatment centres they are building are superb — chlorine on tap — but they are going to come too late to solve the problem on their own.

I would love to see the army with a more hands-on approach to running these units.”

Bear-faced cheek A polar bear, its snout

Arab states bury differences and forge pact against terrorism The Gulf

Hugh Tomlinson, Bel Trew

Arab states are in talks to form a new defence pact that will coordinate military action across the Middle East as they seek to counter terror threats in the region.

Spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, the initiative is intended as a counterweight by Sunni powers to their Shia nemesis, Iran, and to resurgent Islamist groups, including the jihadists of Isis.

With the consent of the US, talks between the Arab allies have been underway for months to establish a new framework for military intervention.

The decades-old proposal for a standing, pan-regional “Arab army”

has been dismissed, perhaps forever.

Instead, member states will contribute forces from their own militaries with a focus on swift, precise operations.

Kuwait is also involved in the talks, with Bahrain and Jordan likely members of the alliance. Qatar remains excluded, however, after infuriating neighbouring states with its support for Islamist groups in the region, including the Muslim Brotherhood.

Arab officials said yesterday that there was no plan to intervene in Iraq or Syria but other targets were being considered. These included Libya, where Is-

lamist groups control several cities, and Yemen, where Houthi rebels accused of links to Iran have seized the capital Sanaa. Egypt and the UAE are believed to have launched airstrikes on targets in Libya during August and September.

Both have denied it but the strikes set a template for the new pact.

The plan reflects a new assertiveness among Sunni powers after the Arab Spring, which unleashed a A Kurdish woman watches the battle with Isis for Kobani

new wave of political Islam around the region, threatening their power.

With a war-weary America no longer seen as a dependable security partner and, worse still, showing signs of détente with Iran, the major Sunni powers have concluded that they must act.

“It is clear Washington is disengaging from the Middle East, at least as an interventionist power,” one Saudi government adviser said. “We need to look to new alliances and, fundamentally, to ourselves.”

Talks about closer ties have been underway since the Egyptian army overthrew Mohamed Morsi, the Islamist president, last summer. Stunned when Hosni Mubarak was toppled in the Arab Spring in 2011, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have pumped billions of dol-

lars into the military junta in Cairo.

Plans for a joint taskforce with a centralised command have been jettisoned, however. The concept of an Arab army has always fallen foul of shifting alliances and enmities.

Saudi Arabia has advocated expanding the Peninsula Shield force, but others are unwilling to commit to a taskforce dominated by Riyadh.

“We won’t see a standing army, joint chiefs of staff or a centralised command,” Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a political scientist said. “Instead policy and military response will be coordinated.”

Negotiations have accelerated this year as security has disintegrated across the region. Egypt and Saudi Arabia in particular face mounting terrorist threats at home.

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

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De Niro is the baddie in tax row with town Page 27

Benetton haven’t paid into UN sweatshop disaster fund Page 28

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Clintons v Obama Swing states Democrat held Republican held Safe seats

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Clintons capitalise as Obama withers US Midterm Elections the battle for capitol hill David Taylor, Devika Bhat, Matt Spence

still bloody after feasting on a walrus for three days, investigates the deck of a boat in the ice off Svalbard for further treats

Isis beat boys for failing Koran studies Syria

Catherine Philp Beirut

Islamic State militants tortured and abused Kurdish schoolchildren for four months after capturing them on their way home from sitting exams in Aleppo to the Syrian battleground town of Kobani.

Four boys told Human Rights Watch that they had been repeatedly beaten with electrical cables and hoses and forced to watch videos of Isis militants beheading captives.

The teenagers were among 250 schoolchildren captured by Isis in May. The last of them were released last week. All the girls, numbering about 100, were released after a few hours but the boys, aged between 14 and 16, were

kept captive and forced to undergo religious instruction, facing physical punishment if they fared poorly in their lessons or attempted to escape.

“They made us learn verses of the Koran and beat those who didn’t manage to learn them,” one boy, aged 15, said. They beat us with a green hose or a thick cable.

“They also beat the soles of our feet,” he added, a common form of torture in Syrian jails.

One recounted how a boy who had muttered “Oh mother!” when caught in another group’s room was strung up with his hands tied behind his back, one foot tied to his hands, and told he should call for God, not his mother.

The boys were held in a school in the Isis-controlled town of Manjib, 35 miles

from Kobani, where they forced to undergo intensive religious training.

Their guards became harsher after a group of boys attempted to escape, and forced them to watch videos of captives being beheaded.

The captors were from Syria, Jordan, Libya, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, a boy said. The Syrians administered the worst beatings, especially a man named Abu Shehid from near Aleppo, they said.

The boys said they were given no explanation for their release in September, other than that they had completed their religious education. They were given 150 Syrian pounds (75p) and a DVD with religious material, and let go, after which they made their way across the border to Turkey.

The Clintons have replaced President Obama as the star attractions for Democrats fighting to hold on in the midterm election battleground states.

Mr Obama was left on the bench during the campaign while Bill and Hillary Clinton led the charge in the most hotly contested races.

Since Labor Day on September 1, the traditional start of campaigning, the Clintons have been all over the map, but Mr Obama, who has been in a yearlong trough of unpopularity, has not visited a single state where control of the Senate was being decided last night.

Mr Clinton was most in demand, appearing at 53 events in the final 64 days, compared with 46 for his wife and 32 for the president.

However, the pattern of their appearances was most telling. Mr Obama has stayed on the friendly Democratic-held east and west coasts and stops close to his home city of Chicago.

Meanwhile, Mrs Clinton plunged into states where the key battles of the 2016 presidential election will happen — from Iowa and New Hampshire to Florida and North Carolina.

As the label “Clinton Democrat” has been adopted by supporters and candidates in the southern states, a fondness for Mr Clinton, 68, has been palpable.

He has campaigned in eight of the key Senate races and made the battle for Arkansas a personal mission, turning up at 13 events in the state where he began his political rise as governor at the age of 32.

Thirteen years out of office, he

described himself as a retired nag. “I feel like an old racehorse — people slap me on the ass to see if I can run around the track one more time,” he said.

By contrast, Mr Obama was an unwanted presence, six years after he came from nowhere to wrest control of the party from the Clintons.

Unfortunately for him, this was a campaign fought on Republican terms — an anti-Obama election, almost free of policy discussion.

Chuck Todd, the host of NBC’s Meet The Press, said: “This isn’t Barack Obama’s party any more, it’s the Clintons taking it over again — and the difference from 2008 is the Democrats want the Clintons to take it over. There is a nostalgia for Bill, in particular . . . and real enthusiasm for Hillary.”

There was no doubting the passion in Kentucky, where Mrs Clinton led a rally for 4,500 Democrats who cheered her even when she slipped into boring policy detail.

Badges were on sale with her face on the classic wartime “We Can Do It!” feminist poster and a cartoon image of her husband, in shades with a saxophone and the slogan “Bill Still Rocks!”

Johnetta Pryor, a pub landlord from Bowling Green, Kentucky, said: “We drove here 2½ hours to see Hillary. We are hoping she will run [in 2016]. I voted twice for Obama and I’m still proud of it, but I’m a Clinton Democrat. I like everything the Clintons stand for, cutting the deficit, the whole deal.”

In New Hampshire on the final weekend, supporters were eager for Mrs Clinton’s expected entry into the presidential contest. “She’s been prepped for this her whole life,” said Paul Searlis, a supporter, adding that he was more inspired by her than any of the candidates competing in his state.

His view was echoed by the crowd at a rally in support of Jeanne Shaheen, the Democratic senator. “Are we ready for Hillary?” Ms Shaheen asked the gathering, generating some of the wildest cheers of the afternoon.

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World

Rebels form army to take on Kiev Ukraine

Ben Hoyle Luhansk

Rebel leaders in east Ukraine have begun building a professional army as fears grow that a simmering conflict which has left more than 4,000 dead this year is about to erupt again.

As both sides prepare for a renewal of hostilities, President Poroshenko last night ordered his forces to reinforce vulnerable cities, including the industrial centres of Mariupol and Kharkiv.

Kiev has warned of an “intensive” build up of Russian troops and military equipment in the rebel territories, and separatist commanders and politicians

are increasingly talking about taking further Ukrainian cities. The rise in military activity follows a vote in rebel-held areas on Sunday to elect leaders to the two secessionist areas around Luhansk and Donetsk. The ballot has been denounced by Kiev and the EU, but recognised by Russia.

In the Luhansk People’s Republic the

Inside today

Are we about to build a Putin wall in Ukraine?

Roger Boyes, page 18

authorities are offering fighters salaries ranging from 4,400 hryvnia [£212] a month for an ordinary soldier to 5,800 hryvnia [£280] for an officer, with uniforms, equipment and all meals included, if they sign a year’s contract. The rate is almost 50 per cent higher than that offered to the lowest ranking Ukrainian soldiers serving on the other side.

Alexander Bednov, commander of the Batman Brigade, one of the most powerful of the militias that currently make up the republic’s forces, said that he has already signed up. “It needed to happen,” he said. “A professional army is one of the marks of sovereignty of a government. It defends its borders.” The

leaders of the breakaway republics were both sworn in as presidents yesterday following landslide election victories.

At the regional council building in Luhansk, the inauguration of Igor Plotnitsky, a former Soviet army officer, took place in the grand main hall. He did not sound like a man preparing for peace. He said, “outrages” were taking place in Kiev, adding: “They have a slogan: guns instead of bread, murder instead of work, hatred instead of love and shooting instead of dialogue.”

He warned that Ukraine would become a terrorist nation that would “make Isis and al-Qaeda look like a children’s sports club,” and urged Britain, the US and France, which helped Russia to defeat the Nazis, to join a new “anti-Hitler coalition” to defeat Ukraine.

In Donetsk Alexander Zakharchenko, a former mine electrician, took office. He said he expected the Russian enclaves of Abkhazia, which Georgia claims, and Transdniestria in Moldova, as well as Venezuela and Cuba would provide economic support. “Hopefully, Russia will do so as well,” he added.

President Poroshenko told his National Security and Defence Council that the rebels were not honouring their commitments under the Minsk Agreements, and proposed cancelling a new law offering limited self-government to the breakaway regions.

Since the truce began two months ago fighting has continued, and more than 100 servicemen have been killed and 600 wounded, the Ukrainian ministry of foreign affairs said yesterday.

Riots as white president fires black leader Zambia

Jerome Starkey Africa Correspondent

Riots have forced Africa’s first white president since apartheid into a humiliating U-turn, less than 24 hours after he tried to sack a rival who was seen as key contender for the role.

Guy Scott, a Cambridge-educated economist, had been serving as vicepresident of Zambia when President Sata died in office last week.

One of his first decisions on being promoted was to sack Edgar Lungu as the secretary-general of his ruling Patriotic Front, which led to widespread riots in Lusaka on Monday.

Mr Lungu, the defence minister, had served as acting president when Mr Sata, 77, went to Britain for medical treatment, and was widely tipped to take over when the president died.

Both men appeared on Zambia’s national television yesterday for Mr Scott to assure the nation: “The position of secretary-general will remain with Honorable Edgar Lungu.”

Witnesses said that protestors had stoned cars on Monday night and tyres had been set alight. One woman urged Mr Scott: “Go back to Scotland,” the country of his parents’ birth.

Mr Scott is constitutionally barred from contesting the elections because his parents were born abroad. His decision to sack Mr Lungu had already suffered a setback when Davies Mwila, an MP picked by Mr Scott to take over the job, turned down the appointment.

Mr Lungu said Mr Scott’s decision to sack him was illegal, and accused him of “insulting our culture” by sullying the period of national mourning.

Mr Scott, 70, gave no reasons for his volte-face, but it eased the tensions in the capital, where President Sata’s body will lie in state until November 11.

Prosecutor seeks new jail term for Pistorius Johannesburg South African

prosecutors have appealed for the five-year sentence handed to the Olympic and Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius for killing his girlfriend to be increased.

The National Prosecuting Authority said that the sentence was “shockingly light, inappropriate and would not have been imposed by any reasonable court”. The authority also said that it was appealing against the choice of the charge of manslaughter. It wants Pistorius to be charged with murder, which carries a prison term of at least 15 years. Prosecutors must ask the trial judge for permission to make the appeals. Pistorius, 27, may be eligible for house arrest after ten months. He is being held in the hospital at Kgosi Mampuru II prison in Pretoria. (AFP)

Catalonia poll defiance Madrid Spain’s wealthy Catalan region has put itself on a collision course with the government in Madrid by vowing to press ahead with a symbolic independence vote on Sunday, despite a courtordered block. Francesc Homs, the Catalan government spokesman, said that “everything is ready” for the vote, which will be run by volunteers. Madrid said that the vote was illegal and refuses to recognise it. The northeast region of 7.5 million people accounts for nearly a fifth of Spain’s output. (AFP)

King’s defamer jailed Bangkok A Thai university

student has been sentenced to 2½ years in prison for posting a message on Facebook that insulted the country’s king. A criminal court judge found Akkaradet Eiamsuwan, 24, guilty of violating Thailand’s law of lèse-majesté, which punishes people who defame, insult or threaten the monarchy.

Prayuth Chan-ocha, the prime minister, who led a military coup as army commander in May, is an ardent defender of the monarchy. (AP)

$600m Erdogan palace Ankara President Erdogan’s grandiose new palace is costing Turkey more than $600 million — nearly twice the previous estimates, the Turkish finance minister said. The 1,000-room building, more than 30 times larger than the White House, has been condemned by the opposition as an absurd extravagance which showed that the president was slipping towards authoritarianism. An extra $135 million has been added to the palace budget for next year. (AFP)

Swearing president Prague The Czech president is facing criticism over a radio interview he gave that was littered with expletives. Speaking on Czech Radio, the public broadcaster, Milos Zeman, 70, said that the government had “f***ed up”, called members of the female punk rock group Pussy Riot “bitches”, and used the word “c***”. His spokesman said the president would not apologise for his language, arguing he had opened a national debate about the acceptability of expletives in political discussion. (AFP)

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De Niro is the baddie in tax row with town United States

Will Pavia New York

In the fiery roles that made him famous, the actor Robert De Niro seemed willing to stand up against mobsters, villains and even his own reflection in a mirror if he perceived a principle at stake.

Off-screen, and behind a trust that operates in his name, he is engaged in another struggle against a small town council that has dared to re-assess the taxable value of his 78-acre homestead in the Hudson Valley.

In this fight, he is cast as the baddie: a super-rich landlord whose refusal to pay up could affect local schools and saddle taxpayers with a giant legal bill.

When De Niro’s trust acquired an old farmhouse in upstate New York in 1997, along with two outbuildings and surrounding land, it cost a mere $1.5 million.

Since then, a fresh valuation by assessors from the town of Gardiner, for the purposes of the local property tax, has declared that the residence is worth $6 million.

If that valuation was allowed to stand De Niro’s holding company, Robert De Niro has left taxpayers with a hefty legal bill

Riverside Trust, would owe the town $170,000 a year in taxes. According to court documents, town assessors believed that improvements had made the farmhouse more valuable. Another 20 acres had been added to the estate, one barn was now a recreation centre, the other was now a workshop and an office had been built. There was also a ski slope.

It remains unclear whether De Niro sanctioned the expensive challenge that followed. It has left the authority in the small town of 5,800 people with legal debts of more than $100,000 and facing a fresh appeal, even after a court ruled in its favour. The Riverside Trust may simply have been acting on its mandate to protect De Niro’s assets. A great many residents of Gardiner, however, now hold De Niro personally responsible for the financial quandary that the town now finds itself mired in.

“People here are going to pay their taxes, especially for the schools,” Mike Kruglinksi, a retired railway workman, said.

“And to see the richest resident not willing to pay his share is creating a lot of bad feeling.”

De Niro’s spokesman, Stan Rosenfeld, said that he had no comment.

ATTA KENARE / AFP / GETTY IMAGES

Hostage to history A gun evokes the US flag on the wall of the former American embassy in Tehran. Yesterday thousands of protesters marked the anniversary of its storming in 1979, after which 52 American diplomats were held hostage for 444 days

Most wanted hacker arrested on Thai border Thailand

Richard Lloyd Parry

One of the world’s most wanted computer hackers was arrested on an Interpol warrant this week as he passed through a remote border crossing between Laos and Thailand.

Hans Fredrik Lennart Neij, 36, the co-founder of the file-sharing site Pirate Bay, was arrested by Thai

immigration police in northern Nong Khai province on Monday. He was taken to Bangkok and faces extradition to Sweden where he was sentenced in absentia to a year in prison and fined millions of pounds for copyright violation. According to Thai police he had been living in Laos with his Laotian wife, but had made more than 30 trips into Thailand since 2012.

They said that he has a house on the

resort island of Phuket and deposits in Thai banks of five million baht (£95,500).

Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, his fellow Pirate Bay founder, also fled bail to southeast Asia and was arrested in Cambodia in 2012. After serving his sentence Warg was extradited to Denmark, where he was sentenced last Friday to three and a half years in prison for hacking police computers.

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Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

Benetton snubs $40m UN fund for sweatshop victims Bangladesh

Robin Pagnamenta Mumbai

By a whisker Participants go to great lengths in the moustache competition at the annual Pushkar Fair in Rajasthan, India

High street brands including Benetton have paid no money into a United Nations compensation fund for the Bangladeshi garment workers injured in a building collapse that killed more than 1,000 of their colleagues.

The fund, created a year ago by the International Labour Organisation, a United Nations agency, to compensate those caught up in the Rana Plaza disaster, has raised less than half the $40 million (£25 million) required.

Benetton, whose garments were being manufactured in the building, has instead teamed up with a Bangladeshi NGO, with a separate scheme that it says provides assistance to 280 victims.

The controversy emerged after the allegation that T-shirts emblazoned with “This is what a feminist looks like”, worn by Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg, had been made by workers paid 62p an hour.

The Rana Plaza factory complex in the Dhaka suburb of Savar collapsed on April 24 last year. Many of those who died were producing clothes for sale in UK stores such as Primark, Asda and Matalan.

Benetton, an Italian company, has 6,000 stores worldwide, including hundreds in Britain. Other groups, including the British company Matalan, have contributed what critics describe as a “trivial” amount to the fund.

Luca Biondolillo, a spokesman for Benetton, argued that the company had backed a separate scheme with an NGO called BRAC, a respected Bangladeshi charity. “Over the past 18 months our brand has been one of the more active in support of the victims of the Rana Plaza and their families,” he said. “In the immediate weeks following the tragic disaster, we put in place a

programme on the ground in partnership with Bangladesh-based BRAC, one of the world’s most reputable NGOs, to help those affected by the tragedy — first, with their immediate medical needs, then with a longer-term set of activities designed to support their longer-term needs.

“This is all in addition to the Benetton Group being one of the first signatories of the Bangladesh Fire & Building Safety Accord, through which we are working on helping making the overall industry in that country safer for all, starting with the people who work in its factories.”

Other companies, such as Primark, which has contributed $1 million to the

Rescue workers pull a woman from the rubble of the Rana Plaza building

fund in addition to distributing $2 million through its own short-term assistance programme, have been praised for their proactive approach.

Matalan has declined to reveal the size of its donation to the fund but Labour Behind the Label, a UK campaign group, claimed that it was no more than £60,000.

In a statement, Matalan said the group “continues to be deeply shocked by the tragedy” and had made contributions to two schemes, including another overseen by BRAC.

All Blacks star Tokyo presses broke law by for return of revealing vote nuclear power New Zealand

Japan

New Zealand sporting figures including Jonah Lomu, the former All Blacks star, have been accused of breaking the law by revealing how they voted during the country’s general election.

Lomu and others have been referred to police after allegedly tweeting their support for the National party. Under New Zealand law there is an information blackout when polling booths are opened, banning publication of information that could influence the way people vote. Israel Dagg, a current All Blacks star, and Eric Murray, the Olympic gold medal-winning rower, are also accused of breaching the Electoral Act. Each could face a fine of up to NZ$20,000 (£9,500).

Lomu is accused of backing John Key, the prime minister, after tweeting: “All the best for tonight. Get in there everyone your last chance to vote and grow NZ Go ‘National’ ”. The tweet was later deleted. Dagg and Murray also boasted about their support for Mr Key who ended up winning a third term.

Japan is close to switching its nuclear reactors back on, more than a year after the last were turned off in the aftermath of the meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in 2011.

The government of Shinzo Abe is negotiating the final political hurdles necessary to restart two reactors at the Sendai plant in southwest Japan. This week, the Kagoshima area assembly is expected to vote in favour.

The government insists that nuclear power is an essential part of the energy mix in Japan, which has to import all its oil and natural gas. It remains deeply controversial, though, in a country still reeling from the Fukushima disaster.

Public opinion forced all 50 of Japan’s nuclear reactors to remain offline after they were shut for maintenance. Now, after tighter safety rules, some regional leaders are confident enough to lobby for the restart of their local plants.

Polls show that 59 per cent of people in Kagoshima oppose the restart of the plant, a figure matched in the country as a whole.

Foreign Staff

Rugby union, page 56

Richard Lloyd Parry Tokyo

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REX FEATURES

EU chiefs ‘took bribes’ from Kosovo gangs David Charter Berlin

Red China Plants in the creeks of the Liaohe river, near the city of Panjing in northeast China, turn from green to a vibrant red after growing in mineral-rich soil

Mayor and wife held over Mexico student massacre Mexico

James Hider Latin America Correspondent

Mexican police have arrested a fugitive mayor who is accused of ordering his cartel-infiltrated police force to kill or kidnap scores of students who were staging a largely peaceful protest in his town.

Jose Luis Abarca and his wife, Maria de los Ángeles Pineda — whose three brothers had been senior lieutenants in drug cartels — had been on the run since late September, when police and gangsters opened fire on a protest in Iguala, a town in the southwestern state of Guerrero, by trainee teachers, killing six people.

The police then abducted another 43 students who were allegedly handed to a crime gang. None has been seen since and they are thought to have been murdered.

The mystery of the missing students, many of them teenagers, has sent shockwaves through Mexico and rattled the administration of President Peña Nieto, who came to power two years ago promising to

end the eight-year drug war that has killed at least 70,000 people and left more than 20,000 missing.

Father Alejandro Solalinde, one of Mexico’s leading human rights figures, said he believed that the government was hiding the fact that the students were dead to try to appease public anger at what would be the worst massacre of the drug conflict.

He claims to have spoken to a witness of the students’ death, whom he declined to identify, who told him the students had been forced to dig their own graves in the wooded hills near Iguala before being shot, doused in petrol and burnt, some still alive.

“What causes less damage to the system?” he said. “To say they were burnt, with everything that implies?

Or say they’re disappeared and that they don’t know what happened.”

Part of the public anger derives from the crime’s innocuous trigger: the students, from a rural teacher training college, had been protesting at what they saw as unfair hiring practices that favoured graduates from urban schools. Federal police arrested the fugitive couple in the capital,

Mexico City, officials said yesterday.

They put up no resistance.

Despite the arrest of dozens of local police and the interrogation of gang members, including the detained head of the cartel, police have been unable to find the bodies of the missing students, who were last seen being loaded into police vehicles.

Half a dozen mass graves have been found, revealing the extent to which the area was under the thumb of the heroin traffickers, but DNA tests have so far proved negative.

The governor of Guerrero has already quit in the face of mass protests and a mob assault on his offices.

There have even been reports that the former state governor and the mayor’s wife had been lovers, and that she gave him cartel cash.

Investigators believe that the mayor ordered police to fire on the students because their protest threatened to drown out a speech his wife was making in her campaign to take over from him. The head of the cartel told interrogators he gave the mayor hundreds of thousands of dollars a month to pay off his police.

East German communists back in power Germany

David Charter Berlin

The former communists are set to seize power in a German state for the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago.

Die Linke (The Left), the successor of the Socialist Unity party that once imposed its brand of Stalinism on East Germany, is poised to lead a coalition government in Thuringia.

The party came a close second to Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats in the state elections last month and plans to team up with the Social Democrats and Greens to form an

administration. Its rise has caused consternation among the German establishment as the country prepares to celebrate the anniversary of the fall of the wall on Sunday.

“People of my age who lived through the German Democratic Republic find it quite hard to accept this,” said Joachim Gauck, the German president, who was a dissident against communist rule while growing up in the east.

Katja Kipping, a co-leader of Die Linke, said that the remarks were “unbecoming” of a president whose ceremonial office comes with an expectation of political neutrality.

Thuringia is a poor area of the former East Germany with the fourth lowest GDP of the 16 states in the reunified country.

Die Linke has been rising in national as well as state elections, coming third in last year’s general election to make it the main opposition party in the Bundestag to Mrs Merkel’s “grand coalition”.

The party opposes privatisation, calls for the disbandment of Nato and wants all US bases in Europe removed. It has been the junior party in state coalition governments but has never had enough votes to claim the job of state prime minister.

Senior EU officials in Kosovo have been accused of taking bribes to drop criminal cases and of harassing a local journalist, plunging relations between Brussels and the breakaway state into crisis.

The EU said that it was investigating the corruption allegations and denied intimidating the journalist to hand over leaked documents on the cases.

The EU office Eulex was set up six years ago to help the small Balkan state to improve law and order by assisting with difficult corruption cases.

The tables have been turned on Eulex, with allegations that an Italian judge and a Czech prosecutor each took bribes of ¤350,000 (£275,000). They deny the accusations.

The bribes were allegedly paid by local gangsters to have three criminal cases dropped, including one of murder and another of corruption by senior state officials.

Eulex has suspended one member of staff over the affair: a British lawyer suspected of exposing details to the public.

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fashion

‘I said: fine to do a topless shot, so She may be the face of Chanel and worth £30 million but Keira Knightley still strives to appear as normal as her less well-off friends. By Liz Hoggard

K

eira Knightley is sitting in a darkened hotel room. At first I hardly see her.

Dressed in an asymmetric dark pink frock that shows off tawny limbs, Knightley, 29, is ridiculously beautiful — all cheekbones and interesting shadows. But she swears, fidgets —

I sense an inner tomboy.

The first thing she does is apologise for nearly choking on a biscuit: “like a cat with a hair ball,” she grimaces. I’m expecting her to be more guarded. Since she burst on to our screens at the age of 15 in Bend it Like Beckham (which she shot after taking her GCSEs at her Teddington comp), she’s been accused of being too rich, too posh, too thin (she sued a tabloid in 2007 for claiming she had become a role model for anorexiasufferers). The paparazzi used to stand outside her home and shout “whore” to get a reaction, but the days of being stalked are over. “I’m very lucky. It was quite full-on for a while, but at this age and with the sort of work I went into, it’s now easy to have my own life . . . And it’s nice being back on the Tube,” she deadpans.

Knightley gained a reputation for being prickly, famously terminating an interview when the journalist started quizzing her about cooking with her boyfriend.

Earlier this year she admitted that “up to 25 I was pretty neurotic”.

Surrounded by adults on set, she was trying far too hard to be grown-up.

Today, however, she could almost be the guest you sit next to at a dinner party as she veers from chatting about the pleasures of urban walking to Hillary Clinton’s election prospects.

She wants to know which salon I went to to get the feathers woven into my hair. I apologise for looking like a middle-aged festivalgoer. “No it’s fabulous, totally go for it,” she says.

It’s an illusion, of course. This is work for Knightley. Yet she seems so relaxed. Partly, one suspects, this is down to her recent marriage (she married Klaxons keyboardist James Righton in a small ceremony in the south of France last year) and partly to the sort of roles she’s now taking — indie films rather than blockbusters such as Pirates of the Caribbean.

She and Righton have moved from hipster east London to north London.

They cook, read, travel incognito. “I’m a big fan of walking. I think that’s what makes London a great city. It feels very healthy. I think that’s the number one reason I can’t quite handle LA.” The couple met at a dinner party through a friend and share lots of geeky interests (Righton’s degree was in history and politics, “so he’s a big history buff”), but not, it seems, music.

It’s a cliché that so many actresses fall for British rock stars (think Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, Carey Mulligan and Marcus Mumford) but actually Keira freely admits that she’s isn’t that interested in music.

“The visual side and books are huge for me, but music isn’t,” she confesses.

“I’m married to a musician and therefore have lots of friends now who are musicians. I love how passionate his whole group are about it — obviously it’s a total vocation and particularly now: for so many of them it’s so hard to make any money out of it. But it’s just not my thing. I can’t

quite go there. There’s some stuff I really like,” she brightens, “but I wouldn’t go: ‘I have to listen to it all the time and immerse myself in it’. ” I mention friends of mine who are obsessed with guitars. Her response is heartfelt. “The amount of conversations I’ve listened to about different synthesizers from the 1980s.

And the different places where you buy the synthesizers from the 1980s . . .”

If anything, she says, she loves silence. “Do you know what I did over the summer? It didn’t last long,” she laughs. “I decided that I was going to teach myself to jog because lots of people say how jogging is like meditation. And I actually did manage it for a couple of weeks. In the past I’d been listening to music and that didn’t work at all, but I managed it in silence. Because something about hearing your own breath, and being very aware of what’s around you . . .

I found much better than having pounding music to keep you going.”

Knightley is worth an estimated £30 million. As the face of Chanel she gets some rather good freebies, but she pays herself a small salary (rumoured to be £29,000 a year) because she wants to stay on a similar footing to her friends. “I think it would be awful if you suddenly only hung around with people who were in your pay bracket or your class or profession,” she tells me. “Life is only interesting because of the different people you have in it.

And the idea you only value people who earn a certain amount and therefore have a certain success, that is totally ridiculous. I’ve met some right s***s who earn a lot of money who I definitely wouldn’t want to have dinner with.”

In September, she posed topless for Patrick Demarchelier in Interview magazine, striking a blow for flat-chested women. “I’ve had my body manipulated so many different times for so many different reasons, whether it’s paparazzi photographers or for film posters. And that [shoot] was one of the ones where I said: ‘OK, I’m fine

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long as you don’t retouch’ REUTERS, GETTY IMAGES

vowel sounds. After watching archive footage she fell in love with her character. “It was interesting to have someone who is fighting against a wall of prejudice, but who doesn’t do it in a bull-in-a-china-shop way.”

It’s likely that Clarke knew Turing was gay, but it wasn’t a cynical relationship. “If you think about her options, she would pretty much have been chained to a kitchen sink.

Whereas with Alan it was a meeting of minds and a friendship and great loyalty. They cared for each other very much. And I can understand choosing that over . . . the other,” she says.

“Choosing a life where you get to do what you’re totally passionate about.”

Knightley has been deliberately choosing left-field roles. In Atonement and The Duchess, we saw flashes of genuine vulnerability. She was brilliantly nasty in Never Let Me Go. Yet it was those fearless spanking scenes when she played a psychoanalytic patient in David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method that made critics take notice.

Indie films suit her. There’s less pressure to play the pouting ingénue.

Her most interesting performance yet is in the new US comedy Say When, where she plays an overeducated slacker drifting towards marriage

It would be awful only to hang out with people in your pay bracket

doing the topless shot so long as you don’t make them any bigger or retouch.’ Because it does feel important to say it really doesn’t matter what shape you are.”

“I think women’s bodies are a battleground and photography is partly to blame,” she says. “It’s much easier to take a picture of somebody without a shape; it simply is. Whereas actually you need tremendous skill to be able to get a woman’s shape and make it look like it does in life, which is always beautiful. But our society is so photographic now, it becomes more difficult to see all of those different varieties of shape.

“Which is why I’m so glad feminism is back on the table,” she says. “I remember in 2010 someone scoffing at me because I said I was a feminist — a female journalist scoffed at me for even bringing that up as a thing.

I know it’s difficult to take that from actresses because they are often sexualised, but I think it should be an issue on top of everyone’s agenda.

“I’ve got a couple of mates who are guys who have taken the decision to look after their kids and the s*** they face because they’ve taken that decision is absolutely shocking. The amount of prejudice, the amount of taking the baby to the baby group and women turning round and saying: ‘Oh, is it your wife’s day off?’”

We talk about ageism. “It’s really desperate the kind of image we have of women, and when you hear someone say, ‘She’s let herself go’, whatever the f*** that means. What — because she’s got grey hair?”

As a child Knightley was famously precocious and begged for an agent at six. In fact her parents used the “carrot” of drama classes to help her navigate dyslexia. She still struggles to learn scripts, which must have made her role as Alan Turing’s fiancée Joan Clarke in new film The Imitation Game, quite a stretch. Clarke is an unapologetic bluestocking. Knightley transforms herself in droopy cardigans and has fun with the era’s plummy

Keira Knightley at the Toronto film festival last year and, above left, at Paris Fashion Week in March with her husband James Righton and the designer Karl Lagerfeld

until she meets a feisty teenager (played by Kick-Ass’s Chloë Grace Moretz). Knightley was drawn to a film that is about the problems of the women of Generation Y. “You often see stories about men who can’t get themselves together but it’s interesting there haven’t been more films with female leads who are going through that grand float.”

Recently she was asked if she equated marriage with adulthood and she teased: “If anything, my husband and I have regressed.” Her own parents were hippies who only got married to get a mortgage. When she told them she was marrying Righton they were mildly unimpressed. “It’ll be fun,” the couple insisted. She won praise for her “frugal” wedding — recycling a Chanel dress and commissioning a gold wedding ring from a friend.

There’s something pleasingly old-school about Knightley. She hopes people will go to see The Imitation Game and see that Turing was “one of the grandfathers” of the modern computer, “rather than Steve Jobs or Bill Gates”, but social media leaves her cold. “I was on Twitter for about 12 hours and just went ‘No, it’s not my thing’. All of my friends are on Instagram and I occasionally like looking at their stuff, but I wouldn’t think about taking a picture of anything.”

Say When is released on Friday. The Imitation Game is released on Nov 14

fashion

News and shoes

The latest in fashion and beauty

Giving gloves the elbow Gloves are back and they’re longer than ever. Working in tandem with this season’s bracelet-sleeved coat, which stops at the elbow, long gloves no longer speak of fusty eveningwear.

Gloves with chevron patterns featured on the Christian Dior catwalk, above, and tassels flew from forearms at Lanvin (opt for leather, never satin). It seems that autumn’s modest hemlines have influenced accessories too: boots now meet hems and gloves meet cuffs. You needn’t show an inch of flesh this winter.

Hiking boots step up their game Isabel Marant’s ubiquitous Bekett wedge we trainers meet their match in this winter’s must-have hiking boots. From Tommy Hilfiger, where models trekked down the snowy catwalk in a maroon leather version, to Ralph Lauren’s high-heeled take, the outdoorsy style has officially shed its nerdier connotations. Zara’s sand-coloured pair, above, is £79.99, with a fur-lined interior and a hidden 5cm wedge. They’ll take cold-weather comfort to new heights. zara.com ABC, it’s easy as 1, 2, 3 Want to give something back this Christmas? Matalan, along with a host of celebrity patrons (including Kylie and Britney), has teamed up with children’s charity Alder Hey to create the Alphabet Scarf. Available in seven shades, the scarves cover every letter of the alphabet and 100 per cent of the profits go to a new children’s hospital/ education and research centre being built in Liverpool. So you (or your giftee) can wear your Varsity initial with pride.

Adult £10, child £5, matalan.co.uk Fran Mullin

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Cheaper, brighter and more fun — how fake fur lost its trashy edge The new faux fur is super-soft and plushy. Wear it with pride in baby pink, magenta and blue, says Harriet Walker

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ice girls never used to wear fake fur — there was always something a bit mangy about it.

Besides, really nice girls inherited the real thing from their grannies. Now that’s all about to change: fake fur is everywhere this winter.

Thanks to improvements in manufacturing and a host of exciting new labels, faux has lost its trashy edge. It has been rehabilitated as a cheaper, more ethical and an altogether more fun alternative to the genuine article. The latest fakes are as soft and plushy as, well, a small, cuddly animal — just don’t expect them to look like one.

Colour now is key and the brighter the better. So don’t make your pick based on how much it looks like mink or arctic fox, go all out on a piece that bears more resemblance to Big Bird.

Revel in faking it.

“I started off using faux fur in a kitsch way,” says designer Helen Moore, “then we worked more traditionally. Now the brights and pastels are flying out. I’ve sort of come full circle.” Moore set up her business more than 30 years ago, until recently supplying staid brown and black fake-fur muffs and tippets mainly to the country set. Now her £120 “vixen” stoles (nipped in at each end where the fox’s head and tail would usually be) can be seen slung around the necks of fashion-week attendees in varying shades of canary yellow, kingfisher blue and magenta. Her bestselling style is a multicoloured, striped version and they’re sold at Fenwick and Anthropologie.

“The quality of fabric has come on in leaps and bounds,” Moore says. “It used to feel like a Brillo pad.” That’s echoed by 24-year-old Hannah Weiland, whose label Shrimps has done more for the fake cause than any number of animal rights activists or demos. The Dulcie, a Sixties-style collared coat with contrast stripes around the hem, comes in at £595 and has been worn by Net-a-Porter’s Natalie Massenet and Alexa Chung.

The “fur” Weiland uses for her coats, biker jackets and clutch bags is thick, convincing and cosy. What’s more, it holds the bright blues, pinks and oranges that she has made her signature in just over two seasons. In September she gave her first on-schedule presentation at London Fashion Week and her stand-out

Candy Cane, £100, Charlotte Simone (charlottesimone.com)

Magenta tote, £90, Helen Moore (helenmoore.com) Faux fur biker jacket, £65, River Island (riverisland.com)

Blaze Multi Vixen scarf, £120, Helen Moore

Powder blue Huff, £29, Helen Moore pieces are instantly traditional hand-warming recognised by the muffs that hang from the neck style cognoscenti. and have an interior pocket Leopard print faux Selfridges has had to for your phone. “My most fur jacket, £335, reorder twice after it popular style in faux fur is the Armani Jeans at John ‘candy cane’,” says designer sold out. (Between Lewis (johnlewis.com) Charlotte Simone, whose selfyou and me, there’s another drop arriving there this week.) ek.) named label deals in both synthetic and real to create poppy, striped “Wearing that much colour isn’t scarves and stoles that feel like easy, but I always start with outerwear modern-day flapper accessories. “It’s and accessories,” Weiland says. “Even perfect for day-to-night — I wear my friends who only wear black mine with jeans and a T-shirt.” will wear my coats. Shrimps is a What’s striking about the new combination of colourful and quite generation of fake fur is the lack of chic — it’s simple and bright without messaging it comes with. In fact its being overbearing.” Her line of resurgence in popularity has more to striped furry clutch bags and Peter do with quality and price than with Pan collars in bright and contrasting political motivations. If synthetic colours might not seem sophisticated versions are up to scratch, the logic on first glance, but beyond the goes, then why would you purchase bubblegum shades they are ladylike the real thing, knowing what goes pieces that speak of a “put-together” along with it? “I’ve never worn real vintage aesthetic. fur,” says Weiland. “I’m allergic to it, The same is true of Helen Moore’s it moults and it smells. It just never felt “huff” — short for “head-muff” — that nice. The fur industry is huge, but which comes in pale blue, pink and bottle green and evokes instant Doctor if the tech keeps developing the way it has been, then that might change.”

Zhivago glamour. Moore even sells

Above: Jacket, £69.99, Zara (zara.com).

Above right: Coat, £210, Maison Scotch (scotchsoda.com)

If fake fur is up to scratch why purchase real?

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fashion Three statement pieces to buy now W Marylebone tote, £895, Aspinal of London (aspinaloflondon.com)

From left: Laura Bailey, Natalie Massenet and Alexa Chung in Shrimps

Certainly there’s a feeling that real fur is egregious these days: during London Fashion Week, one editor walked out of a show for what she felt was unnecessary use of the stuff.

Arguably, the bright and brash nature of the current fake-fur trend would feel tasteless were pieces made from the real deal. “Due to the fuzzy, fun nature of faux fur, it’s more in demand than ever before,” adds Simone. “The quality now mirrors real fur — I’ve worked really hard to achieve a fluffy, soft and silky sheen to all of mine.”

That has translated to the high street too, which is packed with fluffy coats, cropped chubbies and zingy faux trim this winter. Fake fur doesn’t need to be dressy anymore — on the catwalk, Marques’ Almeida teamed it with denim, while River Island’s yellow-collared leather jacket is a good mixture of fluff and tough.

So whether you opt for bright accents or a full look, you can do so with a clear conscience — and peace of mind that you won’t spend the evening moulting.

W Melton wool swing top, £65, Topshop Boutique (topshop.com)

V Rain mac, £35, Asos (asos.com)

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arts

If you only see one Dylan Thomas film, make it this one Take the director from Downton, a Welsh actor from Grange Hill and you have Set Fire to the Stars, the toast of the poet’s centenary. By Kevin Maher

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fter a centenary year of themed walks, festivals, a Dylathon of readings by the likes of Ian McKellen, Katherine Jenkins and (recorded) Prince Charles, as well as Michael Sheen doing Under Milk Wood in New York, you could be forgiven for being a bit Dylan Thomas-ed out.

And yet, 100 years after his birth, the fiery young poet (who died in 1953) has one more trick up his sleeve and it’s absolutely worth persevering with. Set Fire to the Stars, a new film released this week about Thomas’s first tour of New York, effortlessly eclipses all previous Thomas screen biographies (see the star-studded The Edge of Love and the BBC’s A Poet in New York) and provides a fitting conclusion to the centenary celebrations. It’s also an eye-catching calling card for an actor whose moment has arrived.

Celyn Jones appears to be in a state of partial shock. “Things don’t happen like this and that’s the honest truth,” says the 35-year-old character actor.

“And yet somehow this is exactly how it happened.” Mere hours before the swish London premiere of Set Fire to the Stars, the bamboozled Welshman is describing the dizzying whirlwind of the past 12 months, during which time he was fundamentally transformed from whatshisname the TV guy, you know, the English teacher from Grange Hill or that cop bloke from Above Suspicion, into the powerhouse writer-performer behind the greatest Dylan Thomas biopic yet.

“The only way I was ever going to get a part of this size was if I rolled up my sleeves and made it happen,” says Jones. “Twenty years into the game, if you’re going to try to break through, you’ve got to break through yourself.”

Jones explains that as recently as May 2013 Set Fire to the Stars (the title is the final line of the Thomas poem Love in the Asylum) was little more than a fantasy project — a series of coffee-shop conversations with close friend and former Downton Abbey director Andy Goddard. The New York tour it covers was to be the first of four heady, boisterous and boozefuelled events that would culminate in Thomas’s death shortly after his 39th birthday from alcohol-related illness (the poet slipped into a diabetic coma, though a pathologist later diagnosed the causes of death as pneumonia, brain swelling and a fatty liver.)

It was, says Jones, to be a film “about the beast, the angel and the madman.

And a film that would come from a place of honesty and a place of truth.”

After Matthew Rhys’s slimmed-down

Dylan in The Edge of Love and Tom Hollander’s posh Dylan in A Poet in New York (not to mention Sheen), did he not worry about overkill?

“Matthew Rhys and Tom Hollander are tremendous actors,” says Jones, sipping spring water in the Whitehall hotel where we meet. Dressed in jeans and a sharp blue jacket, he has affable boyish features and is considerably less rotund than his screen alter ego.

“Dylan is a hard role and the people who play it work hard to tell their story, but I wanted to tell my story.

The centenary served to motor us along because you feel that people might not want to see another Dylan Thomas film after the centenary. So it became a case of: ‘If it’s going to happen, it has to happen now.’ ”

It was to be a film about the beast, the angel and the madman The film was Jones’s passion project, something he had dreamt about and nurtured for most of his life. If Stephen Fry was, as has often been claimed, “born to be Wilde” (he played Oscar in the 1997 biopic Wilde) then Jones was certainly destined to be Dylan. Besides the Dylan Thomas poetry books and biographies that marked his north Wales childhood, there was the bluntly physical reality facing him in the mirror: “For as long as I can remember people have told me that I bear a certain resemblance to the great man.”

Thus, although Jones’s movie credentials were not so hot (after making a big splash in his debut screen role, as a chipper stowaway opposite Kenneth Branagh in 2002’s Shackleton, Jones slowly slipped into perennial supporting status), the defiant motto surrounding the early development days of Set Fire to the Stars became “No Celyn, no film.” He need not have worried.

Producers came on board last summer and, script in hand (co-written by Jones and Goddard), cast Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood as Thomas’s uptight New York chaperone, friend and semiadversary, John M Brinnin.

Co-stars such as Kelly Reilly (Flight) and Steven Mackintosh (Kick-Ass 2) fell into place. Then they landed veteran cinematographer Chris Seager (Game of Thrones) who,

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arts THE ESTATE OF ALFRED JANES / BRIDGEMAN ART

A portrait of Dylan Thomas by Alfred Janes (1934) and, below left, the poet with his wife and daughter in 1943. Below: Elijah Wood and Celyn Jones in Set Fire to the Stars with the aid of some lush black and white, managed to transform central Swansea into downtown Manhattan (the city’s Lord Mayor’s Parlour doubles, ingeniously, as the Chelsea Hotel). This ultimately allowed Goddard to shoot a high-stakes New York story over 18 short days in January and February of this year in Wales for virtually no money. In fact the movie’s minuscule budget remains firmly under wraps for fear that it might prejudice cinemagoers.

“Don’t feel sorry for us,” says Jones on the money subject. “The film is what it is and it attracted all this talent. So if it deserves anything, it’s for you to forgive it nothing.”

Thankfully, it needs no forgiveness.

Startling to look at (nothing in Goddard’s Downton Abbey oeuvre ever indicated such an artful eye), smartly paced and quietly moving, it’s something of a tennis game between Wood and Jones, as Brinnin shadows Thomas around New York, dragging him from bars, readying him for readings and eventually making an emergency detour to rural Connecticut (also Swansea).

There, in a tiny log cabin, the battle of wills continues as Brinnin forces Thomas to face some harsh emotional truths about his neglect of his wife Caitlin (Reilly) and the poet hopes desperately to avoid the same. Mostly, though, and memorably, it’s about Jones on screen as Thomas.

Masterfully marching through And Death Shall Have No Dominion one minute, vomiting the next, then suddenly wailing and shaking with self-loathing. It’s certainly the kind of performance for which the term “tour de force” was invented.

Best of all, though, for those of you who cringe (me included) every time you see a screen drunk or who wince (me included) at the prospect of watching an entire movie about a screen drunk (think Johnny Depp in The Rum Diary, Dudley Moore in Arthur or Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas:

nightmare, nightmare, nightmare), the miracle of Jones’s turn in Set Fire to the Stars is that it’s utterly humane and surprisingly sympathetic.

“I’m sorry. I’m a horrible little imp,” says Thomas after one drunken outburst with such sensitivity and sadness that empathy is almost immediate and unconditional. The performance, says Jones, was a case of blood on the canvas. “I woke up fully clothed many times during the shoot, having passed out from exhaustion, with the script in my hand,” he says.

“I just wanted to fully commit to something. And this is the biggest role

The black and white transforms Swansea into Manhattan I’ve ever played, and on the biggest canvas. So whether it was going to succeed or fail, I needed to throw something down there and fully commit.” And no, he didn’t drink to get into character. “I needed to be sharper than ever to do it. Lots of words. Lots of dialogue. Big emotions.”

Jones says he was bitten by the acting bug early on in childhood, watching his father, a merchant seaman and a gregarious storyteller, entertaining the denizens of Holyhead docks with jokes and tales (“I remember thinking, ‘I wish I could make people laugh like that’ ”). His career, he adds, was a series of lucky

breaks, bouncing from the Manchester Youth Theatre (where as a teenager he met his future wife, the actress Kate Drew) to a scholarship place at the Oxford School of Drama to his debut turn in Shackleton. “I turned 22 on that job,” he says, smiling. “Me in a fibreglass boat, freezing in the Arctic Circle with Kenneth Branagh. It was an amazing experience and what it taught me was: this can happen again; it can’t just be a fluke.”

Unfortunately it didn’t happen soon enough for Jones. So, in his mid-twenties, married and with a child on the way (he has two now), and after bringing the Gary Owen play Ghost City to New York (where, perhaps unsurprisingly, he was approached by strangers in the theatre bar on an almost nightly basis and told that he should be playing Dylan Thomas), he scaled down his ambitions and became a drama teacher in a south London school for children with special needs. The work was “enriching and satisfying”, he says.

He stayed there for eight years, and when in 2011 the local council closed the school, “it broke my heart. Yet it was also a catalyst that said, ‘Now I owe it to myself and to my family to do something. I’ve got to take control.

I’ve got to go and get into the ring myself and prove something. And Set Fire to the Stars is a part of that.”

Up next for Jones, who is currently based in north Wales with his family, is an intense flurry of work, including the Second World War drama Castles in the Sky (opposite Eddie Izzard) and a biopic of the Goons that he’s written in which he’ll star as Harry Secombe and which is also set to co-star Izzard.

Plus he’s in pre-production on a thriller “in the vein of Shallow Grave”, while collaborating once again with Goddard on another period drama, this time set in the Seventies disco era.

So is there a danger that it all might go to his head? “It’s not about fame or notoriety,” he scoffs. “It’s just about working.

And doing a job. And maybe, when it’s like Set Fire to the Stars, and you’ve made it with a great team, and you’ve attracted the talent, and you’ve protected the story, maybe then for everyone involved you can actually allow yourself to sit back and think, ‘F***ing well done!’ ” Set Fire to the Stars is released on Friday

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A spoonful of sugar

Just the tonic at Fever-Tree

Wanted, an angel investor

Page 39

Page 46

Working life, page 49

. . . leaves a bitter taste at AB Foods

Founders cash in as float gets away

Business

App inventor seeks help with funding

JOE CORRIGAN/GETTY IMAGES

A step in the right direction business commentary Alistair Osborne

M

aybe it is hard to think at Rolls-Royce, what with those Trent engines on full blast.

But you hope that, three years into the job, John Rishton has at last got to grips with the figures and the way the engineer communicates them to the City.

Who else will the Rolls boss have to blame now he’s parted company with Mark Morris, the chief financial officer since January 2012 and a 27-year company veteran?

Yesterday marked the fourth change to profits guidance in ten months, a grisly sequence that started with February’s profits humdinger, taking £3 billion off the company’s market value. Since then, there’s been June’s revised guidance at the marine wing and another big warning only three weeks ago, mysteriously attributed to Russian sanctions rather than global economic jitters.

Now, the numbers are being rebased again to accommodate the £120 million costs over this year and next from shedding 2,600 mainly aerospace jobs. There’s more of the same to come too, judging by Rolls’ warning that it will “pursue further cost improvements in all areas”, including at its Land & Sea arm.

Mr Morris, who earned £1.66 million last year, including his £506,000 basic salary, could not have hoped to survive — though why Rolls couldn’t say what his payoff is, rather than pussyfoot around, is another example of its legendary communication skills. Expect more haste now from his successor, David Smith, in tackling operating margins lagging rival GE’s by an average 6 percentage points.

Getting on top of Rolls’ financial performance will help to restore some of the £5 billion lost from its market value this year. There’s still an SFO inquiry and the strategic blunder of opting out of the engine market for narrow-bodied, 180-seat jets, the type used by budget airlines.

But, as the tick-up in the shares showed, Mr Rishton has at least taken a step in the right direction.

Sugar a sideshow

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mazing, isn’t it? If Associated British Foods hadn’t got fat on all that rigged European sugar, it might never have built Primark into the powerhouse it is.

It’s a wonder that the retailer’s got the gall to sell those super skinny indigo jeans, even if they’re only a tenner. Baggies would be more fitting.

No, that’s not quite how George Weston, the AB Foods chief executive, sees things (report, page 39). Yet, as he spelt out the ramifications of ending EU sugar quotas in 2017, even he couldn’t pretend that Brussels’ market manipulation didn’t have a bit to do with Primark’s success.

Since it bought British Sugar in 1991, AB Foods has benefited from

rules that today guarantee a market in the EU for 1.05 million tonnes of its production. That’s part of a quota system handing EU producers 13.5 million tonnes out of the 16.5 million tonnes of sugar consumed in Europe. The upshot has been stable, market-beating prices and cash.

Not for much longer. The quota system ends in just over two years and new entrants are already muscling in. The result is that, with prices down from about €700 to €500 per tonne, AB Foods’ sugar profits collapsed 56 per cent last year to £189 million and will have a “further large reduction” this year.

True, AB Foods is one of the lowest cost sugar producers around.

Yet, the sugar arm is now dwarfed by the company it helped to build, with Primark profits up 29 per cent to £662 million. UBS analysts’ sumof-the-parts calculations attribute £19 billion of AB Foods’ £22 billion value to Primark and just £3 billion to sugar. Adjust for the negligible debt and the grocery, agriculture and ingredients arms are in for free.

Not bad, considering grocery made £269 million profits, up a fifth.

Mr Weston insists there are no plans to spin off Primark. But sugar’s becoming a sideshow — unless, of course, you count the retailer’s £14 Cookie monster onesie.

Not yet last orders

T

here’s no quicker way to produce a rush for the bar than last orders, as Spirit boss Mike Tye knows, what with the company owning 1,200 pubs. So, what better way to spike cider group C&C’s interest than recommend a £774 million bid from Greene King (report, page 46).

C&C has until November 20 to make a counterbid — not ruled out by the market. With its shares down 22p to 786½p, Greene King’s offer values Spirit at 112p, just above its 108¾p close but barely more than C&C’s rumoured 110p sighting shot.

That came with more than 8p cash too. Still C&C can’t match the £30 million synergies advanced by Rooney Anand, the Greene King boss, which look conservative anyway. Add in a big overlap between the shareholders and he’s clear favourite, even if it’s too early to call time.

Jacks of all trades

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t’s not only Rolls-Royce that’s got exiting finance chiefs. Balfour Beatty’s Duncan Magrath is also off, having miraculously stuck around for five profits warnings. A new chief executive, in QinetiQ’s Leo Quinn, arrives soon. Yet it’s not only the execs that need changing.

The non-execs are skilled in perfume, sugar, healthcare, cars, computers and accountancy. Not so hot on construction, though.

alistair.osborne@thetimes.co.uk

Kors looks to high street, not catwalk

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he stars may come out when Michael Kors sends his collections on to

the catwalk, but the likes of Michael Douglas, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Zoe Saldana, big names on the big screen and on myriad magazine covers, aren’t exactly the problem for the American fashion mogul (Alexandra Frean writes). He is more concerned with a decline

in the number of ordinary punters hitting the shops.

Michael Kors, the New York-based designer’s eponymous brand best known in Britain for its watches and handbags, gave a cautious outlook for the Christmas shopping period, saying that it expected

third-quarter revenue of $1.27 billion to $1.3 billion, marginally lower than the figure expected by analysts. However, it did report robust second-quarter sales growth of 43 per cent, to $1.1 billion, with net income up 42 per cent to $207 million.

Finance chief goes as Rolls cuts 2,600 jobs Marcus Leroux

Rolls-Royce is to cut 2,600 jobs in a restructuring that has led to the immediate replacement of its veteran finance chief and the prospect of more job losses at the FTSE 100 enginemaker.

The company said the majority of the cuts would fall in its civil aerospace division over the next 18 months. It is aiming to save £120 million over the next two years, followed by annual savings of £80 million. John Rishton, the chief executive, warned that the measures announced yesterday would “not be the last”. They follow two profit warnings this year in the space of nine months.

Britain and the US will bear the brunt of the cuts. Rolls-Royce’s aerospace division employs 12,000 workers in Derby and another 3,500 in Bristol. The company employs 7,700 people in North America.

Mark Morris has stepped down with immedate effect as chief financial officer after 27 years with the company.

He has been replaced by David Smith, a former Ford and Jaguar executive who joined the company this year.

Shares in Rolls-Royce immediately rose, ending the day up 1.5 per cent at 848p. The shares have lost a third of

their value this year after the profit warnings in February and October.

Mr Rishton said: “We are taking determined management action and accelerating our progress on cost. The measures announced today . . . will contribute towards Rolls-Royce becoming a stronger and more profitable company.” Mr Rishton, who succeeded Sir John Rose in 2011, is attempting to 6 Growing pressures on the global mining market were laid bare after Weir Group announced that it would shut five factories in the United States, France and Australia.

The Glasgow-based maker of pumps and valves for the mining, oil and gas industries announced the closures yesterday, adding that they may involve up to 350 job losses. boost margins to compete with GE, Rolls-Royce’s American competitor.

The company issued a warning two weeks ago when it informed the City that profits would be flat in 2015.

It blamed a worsening market, and cited Russian sanctions for delayed or cancelled orders. Its worst hit business was its power systems division, which

mainly makes diesel engines in Germany, rather than the aerospace business that is the focus of the job cuts and where Mr Smith, Mr Morris’s replacement, was the finance director.

The company said that the overlap in the development of its Trent 1000 engine for Boeing’s delayed 787 Dreamliner and its Trent XWB for Airbus’s A350 meant that the number of engineers it employed was unusually high, because it was unable to shift workers between projects as one wound down and the other ramped up.

Ian Waddell, national officer at the Unite union, said: “Rolls-Royce is in danger of making decisions in the short term that it will later regret.”

Edward Stacey, an analyst at Besi Research, said that Rolls-Royce had given the City some clarity on the size of the job cuts and the scale of the oneoff costs, but expressed surprise that the measures were being taken in the aerospace division. “Since we know revenue expectations are down for power systems, which is mainly diesel engines, wouldn’t you look for where you can get cost savings within that business?”

The Serious Fraud Office is investigating Rolls-Royce over allegations of corruption in Indonesia and China.

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Business

Need to know Your 5-minute digest economics European growth: Britain’s status as Europe’s leading economy was rubber-stamped by the European Commission when it upgraded the country’s growth forecast and slashed its outlook for the eurozone. The commission raised its 2014 growth for Britain from 2.7 per cent to 3.1 per cent and its 2015 prediction from 2.5 per cent to 2.7 per cent. It cut eurozone projections from 1.2 per cent to 0.8 per cent and 1.7 per cent to 1.1 per cent.

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Interest rates: Leading economists on The Times’ shadow monetary policy committee have reversed their position on interest rates, with the majority calling for them to be left on hold. Two members of the panel have switched from recommending a quarter-point rise to no change, citing low inflation and weakness in the eurozone.

Their change of stance meant that the panel was five to four in favour of leaving policy on hold. Page 44

banking & finance 0.41% Santander: Profits rose by more than half in the third quarter as the lender reported its first earnings since the death of Emilio Botín, the long-time chairman and father of Ana Botín, its new boss. Net income at Spain’s largest bank rose by 52 per cent to €1.61 billion for the three months to the end of September, helped by a rise in profits for its operations in Britain and Brazil, two of its biggest businesses. Page 42 Virgin Money: Private equity backers have bowed to investor pressure over the value of the challenger lender and are understood to be prepared to offer shares that are below the minimum value previously insisted on. Virgin Money shares will be offered at a minimum of 1.3 times book value, lower than the 1.4 times valuation at which Wilbur Ross, the bank’s billionaire private equity backer, is understood to have wanted to float the business. Page 39 Deloitte: The accountancy firm has hired Chris Nicholls, formerly an executive director at JP Morgan Cazenove, to work in its equity capital markets team. The teams acts as a reporting accountant, nominated adviser and independent financial adviser to companies seeking to list.

Dealogic: European revenue at the banking software group fell to $1.1 billion in October, down 42 per cent on the same month last year. It was the lowest October total since 2011.

Fees of $485 million were generated by merger and acquisitions activity, but this was down by 19 per cent on the same period last year.

Germany was the top European investment bank fee-paying nation with a 23.8 per cent share in October, followed by Britain, at 22 per cent, and France, at 10 per cent.

Legal & General: The insurer reported growth across all divisions in the first nine months of the year, with a 12 per cent rise in net cash to £827 million. Despite the loss of some personal annuity business after changes made in the budget, it continues to attract more bulk annuities.

Tempus, page 47

Jardine Lloyd Thompson: The insurance broker reported a 6 per cent rise in organic revenues in the period from July to November — in line with the first half — but said that insurance rates were under pressure and the market remained challenging.

Tempus, page 47

construction & property 0.82% London: House prices in the capital’s most expensive areas will grow at half the rate of those in Wales and the northeast next year as the prospect of a mansion tax pours cold water over an overheating market. Jones Lang Lasalle, the property company, said that prices would grow by 1.5 per cent in prime central London. Broadly, it forecasts house price growth of 4 per cent next year and 5 per cent in 2016 and 2017.

Construction: A slowdown in housebuilding last month pushed construction activity to a five-month low, reinforcing fears that the recovery is losing steam. The purchasing managers’ index for October dropped to 61.4 from 64.2 the previous month and below the consensus forecasts of 63.5.

Persimmon: After building 11,500 homes last year, the company shrugged off concerns that the market was slowing, saying in its interim management statement that it was fully sold for this year, with £696 million of forward sales — up 12 per cent on the same time last year. Page 46

consumer goods 2.74% Bordeaux: The region’s struggling wine industry is launching a €20 million global advertising campaign in an effort to stem sliding sales. The campaign, created by the Isobel agency, is Bordeaux’s biggest and claims to “turn traditional wine advertising on its head”. Page 48 Imperial Tobacco: Despite a 4 per cent fall in the number of cigarettes and cigarette equivalents sold in the year to the end of September, the company raised operating profit by 5 per cent to £2.06 billion helped by cost savings and other efficiencies.

Tempus, page 47

Hugo Boss: Shares in the German fashion house plummeted as it cut sales and profit forecasts to reflect a slowing European economy and reported weaker quarterly profits than predicted. The company said that it expected sales to grow by between 6 per cent and 8 per cent this year, after accounting for currency

changes, while operating profit should rise by 5 per cent to 7 per cent. It previously forecast high single-digit percentage rises. Page 44 Heineken: Laurence Debroux, the French chief financial and administrative officer at JC Decaux, the outdoor advertiser, will succeed René Hooft Graafland as chief financial officer of the Dutch brewer, working alongside Jean-François van Boxmeer, its Belgian boss.

888: Brian Mattingley, the online gambling operator’s chief executive, said he was in active acquisition talks with several targets as the group reported a 22 per cent jump in third-quarter revenues to a record $114 million.

engineering 1.90% Rolls-Royce: The aircraft engine group is to cut 2,600 jobs in a restructuring that has led to the immediate replacement of its veteran finance chief and the prospect of more staff losses. The company said most of the cuts would fall in its civil aerospace division and would take place over the next 18 months. It is aiming to save £120 million over the next two years, followed by annual savings of £80 million. Page 37

health 0.26% NHP: Formation Capital has bought the owner of the nursing home group HC-One for £478 million. The business includes about 220 former Southern Cross care homes in Britain and was sold by Capita Asset Services. Southern Cross was the country’s largest care home operator until it collapsed three years ago. The deal brings total recoveries to creditors of £507 million over the past five years, according to a statement from NHP. AstraZeneca: Definiens, a German diagnostics company with tools to examine the make-up of cancerous tissue is being bought by Astra for $150 million. The business was founded 20 years ago by Gerd Binnig, winner of the 1986 Nobel prize for physics. Page 41

cash in £25 million of shares while retaining a combined stake worth £38 million. Page 46

World markets FTSE 100 6,453.97 (-34.00)

6,650

FTSE 250 15,394.11 (-59.04)

15,600

6,450

15,200

6,250

14,800

6,050

Thu

Mon

Fri

Tue

5,850

Dow Jones 17,383.84 (+17.60) 17,600

Thu

Mon

Fri

Tue

Fri

Thu

Mon

14,400

Tue

Nikkei 16,862.47 (+448.71)

17,400

17,200

16,900

16,800

16,400

16,400

15,900

16,000

Thu

Mon

Fri

15,400

Tue

Commodities Gold $1,168.85 (-2.90)

Thu

$ 1,240

Mon

Fri

Tue

Brent Crude $83.59 (-3.17)

$ 95

1,220

90

1,200

85

1,180

80

1,160

Fri

Thu

Mon

75

Tue

Currencies £/$ $1.5989 (+0.0004)

Thu

$ 1.640

Mon

Fri

Tue

£/€ €1.2740 (-0.0063)

¤ 1.295

1.620

1.280

1.600

1.265

1.580

1.250

1.560

Thu

Mon

Fri

1,235

Tue

The day ahead The task of running Marks & Spencer is claimed by some to be the most high-pressure job in British business.

Marc Bolland, the stylish Dutchman who has occupied the role since 2010, has revamped the website, accelerated international expansion and attempted to inject a little flair into M&S’s fashion. Yet he will deliver half-year results today that are unlikely to delight investors. Numis Securities’

analysts expect pre-tax profits of £252 million for the six months to September, a drop from last year’s figure of £262 million.

Fierce competition among supermarkets is likely to have hit the food business, and teething problems have afflicted M&S’s new website.

Shares in the high street stalwart edged up ¾p to 404¾p yesterday in advance of the figures.

Graph of the day

Ireland yesterday raised €3.75bn of 15-year debt to pay back part of its €67.5bn bail out. The 2.49 per cent interest would have been unthinkable three years ago, when ten-year money would have cost around 15 per cent.

Implied yield on Irish government ten-year bonds

16% 12 8 4

adingec om Source: tradingeconomics.com

leisure 0.42% Greene King: The Suffolk brewer scotched speculation that it might sell off big chunks of Spirit Pub Company after announcing a recommended £774 million takeover of the Chef & Brewer operator.

Rooney Anand, the chief executive, had been strongly tipped to sell off some or all of the merged group’s leased pubs business and about 100 unbranded managed pubs in the event of a deal. Page 46 Fever Tree: Its AIM listing may have valued the drink-mixer company at £154 million, compared with the previously mooted £200 million, but it still enabled the two co-founders to

2008

2009

2010

natural resources 2.95%

2011

2012

2013

2014

0

Results in brief Name

Pre-tax figure Profit (+) loss (-)

Dividend

ACS (technology HY) ABF (consumer FY) DCC (services HY) Imperial Tobacco (consumer FY)

£7.8m (£4.8m) £1bn (£868m) £47.5m (£42.5m) £1.5bn (£1.2bn)

0p 34p f 24.3p p Jan 9 28.73p p Nov 28 128.1p f 89.3p p Feb 17

6 Results in brief are given for all companies valued at more than £30 million. f = final p = payable

The day’s biggest movers Company Physiomics Discloses a big customer Petropavlovsk A rescue bid Man Group HSBC and Credit Suisse are positive Associated British Foods Primark sales prove resilient Imperial Tobacco Pledges a 10 per cent dividend increase Weir Group Closing factories BG Group Oil shares are friendless Aggreko Credit Suisse downgrades Tullow Oil Crude falls for a fourth day Afren Cheaper oil

Change 20.0% 19.5% 5.2% 4.2% 4.1% -3.4% -3.6% -4.3% -5.3% -7.3%

Oil: Prices hit a four-year low after Saudi Arabia escalated its tussle with the United States in an attempt to regain market share. The world’s largest crude producer cut the price for US customers, while increasing prices for Asian and European buyers. The move is part of a plan to undercut the more expensive shale oil projects. Page 40 Petropavlovsk: Shares in Peter Hambro’s Russian goldminer surged after it confirmed a rescue approach. Investors led by a former right-hand man to Oleg Deripaska proposed a cash injection that will lead to bondholders taking a cut and shareholders suffering dilution.

professional & support services 0.44% Boardroom diversity: A Labour government would commission Lord Davies of Abersoch, the former boss of Standard Chartered, to conduct a review into the small number of ethnic minority bosses at the top of British business. Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, said that the peer would undertake an investigation, along the lines of his 2011 government report into women on boards. Page 44

retailing 1.15% AB Foods: The conglomerate suffered a spectacular collapse in sugar profits because of a worldwide plunge in prices. A decision in Brussels to dismantle European sugar quotas contributed to a glut of global supply and its sugar profit slumped by 56 per cent to £189 million over the year to September. The company warned that a “further large reduction” was likely this year.

Page 41

Shop prices: The price of goods in Britain’s shops was 1.9 per cent lower in October in comparison to the same month in 2013. Food prices edged up by 0.1 per cent, the lowest rate of food inflation since 2006, while non-food items were down by 3.1 per cent according to the British Retail Consortium.

technology 1.01% Alibaba The e-ecommerce giant reported a 54 per cent rise in revenue to $2.74 billion, better than the $2.64 billion expected by analysts. However, profit for the quarter that ended on September 30 fell 39 per cent to $494 million after the Chinese company implemented a compensation system before flotation and increased sales and marketing spending. Page 43

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

39

FGM

Business

Life is sweet despite huge fall in profits from sugar Andrew Clark Deputy Business Editor

Would you like one lump or two in your tea? Associated British Foods would prefer you to have three after it suffered a spectacular collapse in sugar profits because of a worldwide plunge in the price of the commodity.

As recently as 2012, AB Foods was making half a billion pounds in profits from its sugar processing operation, which operates thirty-one plants in ten countries, churning out production of five million tons a year.

However, a decision in Brussels to dismantle European sugar quotas has George Weston said AB Foods well placed for changes

contributed to a glut in global supply.

As a result, AB Foods’ sugar profit slumped by 56 per cent to £189 million during the year to September and the company warned that a “further large reduction” would be likely this year.

“All agricultural sectors have been supported within the EU, including cereals and milk, as well as sugar,” George Weston, the company’s chief executive, said. “Sugar was just one of many where demand and supply were regulated by Brussels, and those controls have been taken apart.”

The global commodity price of sugar stood at €750 per tonne in early 2013, but it has dropped to €420.

However, Mr Weston insisted that AB Foods was well prepared for change: “It’s not like we’re sitting here

going: ‘Oh, those wretched bureaucrats in Brussels.’ ” AB Foods’ unusual mixture of businesses has shielded the group from the worst of the sugar slump. Its groceries business, which produces Twinings tea, Ovaltine, Kingsmill bread and Ryvita, delivered a 24 per cent increase in profits to £269 million, aided by rising demand for green tea in Britain.

On top of that, Primark’s seemingly unstoppable momentum continued.

The low-cost clothes chain, which was set up in Ireland in 1969 but took off as a high street brand in the 1990s, generated revenue of £4.95 billion, a 16 per cent increase on last year, as orange maxi dresses, grey jogging bottoms, over-the-knee boots and mens’ shorts proved popular over the summer.

“Our fashion ranges all sold really, really well throughout the year,” Mr Weston said. The group’s overall profit edged up 2 per cent to £1.1 billion, excluding one-off items.

AB Foods is asked frequently about the logic of keeping Primark within the same corporate family as a rag-tag of food and ingredients businesses. The Weston family, who control 55 per cent of AB Foods’ shares, have long resisted change, however, arguing that smart investment by AB Foods has been a key contributor to Primark’s success.

Mr Weston said: “AB Foods has been a great home for Primark. Primark hasn’t done well despite AB Foods, it’s been helped to do well by AB Foods.”

Warren Ackerman, an analyst at Société Générale, said: “The pain, on the sugar front, has been worse than expected. It’s worrying when the most efficient sugar player in Europe isn’t making any money out of it.” However,

GETTY IMAGES

Primark’s sales turn up the heat on M&S Andrew Clark

A “magnificent” year for clothes sales at Primark has put further pressure on Marks & Spencer, which is widely expected to reveal a disappointing performance when it delivers half-year figures today.

Warm autumn weather has prompted warnings of lower profits from Next, SuperGroup and N Brown.

However, October sunshine failed to worry Primark, which enjoyed a 10 per cent increase in both sales and profits in the first six weeks of its financial year, which began on September 14.

“Bad weather happens every year,” George Weston, the chief executive of Associated British Foods, Primark’s

‘Improved perceptions of fashionability have helped it to break through the snobbery’

The groceries arm, including Twinings tea, made £269 million profit

AB Foods’ shares surged by 4.2 per cent to £27.82, making them the biggest riser in the FTSE 100 index.

Jack Gorman, an analyst at Davy Stockbrokers, said that investors cared far more about the volume of clothes sold by Primark than about the health

of AB Foods’ sugar operation. “Primark is approaching 70 per cent of group profits but it accounts for 90 per cent of the sentiment in the stock market.”

parent, said. “We’re not saying it hasn’t affected us. I hope we’re being measured about it, but we’ve taken a lot of sales momentum into this year from last year.”

Denim shirt dresses and indigo shirts are selling particularly well at Primark, which recently entered France and is due to open its first stores in the United States next year.

Anusha Couttigane, a retail expert at Conlumino, said: “Shopping at Primark is no longer something to be whispered about.

Improved perceptions of quality and fashionability have helped Primark to break through the fashion snobbery.”

Analysts are expecting M&S to show a 3.7 per cent decline in clothes sales.

Britain upgraded as leading economy Virgin Money prepares to Philip Aldrick Economics Editor

Britain’s status as Europe’s leading economy was rubber-stamped by the European Commission yesterday, when it upgraded UK growth and slashed its outlook for the struggling eurozone.

In its autumn estimates, the commission raised its 2014 growth forecast for the UK from 2.7 per cent to 3.1 per cent and its 2015 prediction from 2.5 per cent to 2.7 per cent.

At the same time, it cut its respective eurozone projections from 1.2 per cent to 0.8 per cent and from 1.7 per cent to 1.1 per cent, adding that there was no magic bullet to resolve the area’s problems.

Weak investment, faltering confidence, political risks and the hangover from the debt crisis were to blame for the single currency bloc’s woes, the commission said. It warned that low inflation and high unemployment would continue to plague the region.

The threat of a protracted slowdown

remained the biggest risk to Britain, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research warned separately. It said: “The generalised weakness of the global recovery and, in particular, continued stagnation or worse in the euro area are significant risks for the UK.” Despite its warning, NIESR upgraded Britain in its quarterly review. It left its growth forecast for this year unchanged at 3 per cent, but raised the outlook for next year from 2.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent.

Like the European Commission, it cut its eurozone projections, from 1 per cent to 0.7 per cent for this year and from 1.8 per cent to 1.3 per cent for next year.

For once, the eurozone’s problems were not to do with the stricken periphery but its three largest economies — Germany, France and Italy.

All three were downgraded heavily by the commission.

Marco Buti, director-general of the commission’s economics department, said: “The slowdown in Europe has

occurred as the legacy of the global financial and economic crisis lingers.

We see growth . . . coming to a stop in Germany . . . protracted stagnation in France and contraction in Italy.”

The commission’s forecasts did not herald the eurozone calamity of deflation and triple-dip recession that some fear. Although Italy is expected to contract this year, all 18 member states are expected to grow next year and in 2016.

Inflation will be much weaker than expected, at 0.8 per cent next year against 1.2 per cent predicted in spring, but, again, all member states are forecast to hsee rising prices in both of the next two years.

Britain was a beacon of good news in an otherwise gloomy update. The commission said: “The strong growth enjoyed in the first half of 2014 is expected to continue, driven by private consumption and investment, although net exports are projected to detract from growth.” UK unemployment, which stands at 6 per cent, will be 5.5 per cent by 2016, it forecast.

lighten value at flotation Harry Wilson

Pressure from would-be investors has forced the private equity backers of Virgin Money to re-examine the challenger lender’s value.

The bank’s owners are understood to be prepared to offer shares in it below the minimum value that they had insisted on previously.

Shares in Virgin Money will be offered at a minimum price of 1.3 times its book value, lower than the 1.4 times book valuation at which Wilbur Ross, the bank’s billionaire private equity backer, is understood to have wanted to float the business.

The downward shift in Virgin Money’s valuation comes after a standoff between fund managers and the bank’s owners that resulted in the lender postponing its listing last month, before reviving the plan on Monday.

At the bottom end of the price range,

the bank would be worth about £1.3 billion, £200 million less than the lowest valuation that had been expected. Top managers at Virgin Money have bonuses linked to the price at which the shares are floated. According to Virgin Money’s latest annual report, Jayne-Anne Gadhia, the chief executive, could receive a maximum payout equivalent to 0.25 per cent of the lender’s valuation at IPO, £3.7 million.

Last month, Aldermore, a rival challenger lender, was forced to cancel its flotation as fund managers refused to buy shares within their range of 140p to 180p. Virgin Money postponed its listing days after the cancellation.

Virgin Money is set to raise £150 million from the listing to help to expand its business. The company’s 2,800 staff will each be awarded shares worth £1,000, although they will have to remain with the bank for a year.

Virgin Money declined to comment.

40

Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

FGM

Business

Oil price falls again as Saudis step up US price war The price of oil hit a four-year low yesterday after Saudi Arabia escalated its price war against the United States.

The world’s largest producer of crude cut the price that it charges American customers, while increasing December official selling prices for Asian and European buyers.

It is part of a plan to undercut the more expensive shale oil projects under way in America and drive them out of business.

The price of Brent oil fell by $2.70 a barrel to $82.08, its lowest level since October 2010, while the US light crude

benchmark fell to $75.84, its lowest price since October 2011.

Daniel Ang, of Phillip Futures, a financial services group, said that the move “signalled Saudi Arabia’s intention to fight for US market share”.

Traditionally, Saudi Arabia has acted as a swing producer, the only country willing — or able — to reduce output to stop prices falling below $100. However, it is refusing to intervene this time because such a move would only cede a greater market share to the US, whose output has soared thanks to its shale oil boom.

Saudi Arabia appears to be digging in for a drawn-out price war, knowing that

US shale oil projects are less able to withstand a prolonged slump in crude prices because of their higher costs.

Oil prices hit $115 in June, when a military advance by Islamist militants in Iraq triggered fears that they would destroy the country’s huge oilfields and disrupt global supplies. However, Iraqi exports have remained largely unaffected and global oil supplies are

booming at the same time as demand weakens, resulting in the big price slide.

The fall has resulted in lower pump prices for British motorists and could bring down household energy bills. Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said: “Consumers have received an early Christmas present.”

According to the International Energy Agency, most American shale oil projects need the commodity to be priced at $80 a barrel to be economic and drilling would be cut back if prices were to fall below this level. In contrast, Saudi oilfields have among the lowest operating costs in the world.

Based on Bank of America Merrill

Over a barrel

Lynch estimates, Saudi Arabia’s national budget needs oil at $85 to break even, but the country can afford to run a deficit for several years. Oil prices would have to remain low for at least a year for a plan to kill off US shale oil projects to work, according to analysts.

Dominic Haywood, of Energy Aspects, said: “It’s not going to be a couple of weeks of prices below $80. It’s going to have to be there for quite a few months. Saudi Arabia knows that.”

Opec meets in Vienna on November 27, but the cartel has briefed the market against expecting an announcement of any large cut in production quotas.

US oil production million barrels per day

Saudi oil exports to US thousand barrels per day 2,500

7.77 8.13 6.97 7.42

2,000

9.17

10.31

11.5

1,500 1,000

2008 09

500

10

11

12

13

14

0

1978

1984

1990

Oil price USD Bbl Brent oil

120

100

80

1996

US oil 2012

Sinking in a sea of crude

Analysis Tim Webb

W

hen it comes to oil, Saudi Arabia has the United States in a slippery position.

Thanks to its shale boom, the US will soon overtake the Saudis as the world’s largest crude producer. Yet America will never be able to control the global market until it lifts its ban on crude exports, in place since Opec’s price wars of the 1970s.

Awash with crude from shale oil and oil sands projects, much of it from Canada, North American producers are unable to sell their crude to the highest bidder.

Even transporting the oil to where it’s needed domestically is difficult. New pipeline capacity has not kept up with

2013

2008

2014

Oil sands and shale oil costs WTI ($/b) Mining oil sands* In-situ $125 oil sands* Bakken Permian $85 Basin $77 $66

60

2010 2011

2002

2014

supply, resulting in huge bottlenecks and stranded stocks.

The result is that US oil, typically measured by the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) index, has been trading at a hefty discount to Brent.

Saudi Arabia’s move yesterday to cut the price it charges US customers, typically refiners on the southern states’ Gulf Coast, sent WTI prices falling even more steeply than Brent, widening the gap between the two.

WTI prices fell 3 per cent to just below $76 a barrel, almost $6 lower than Brent, which spells more bad news for US shale oil drillers.

Shale oil producers, like all US companies, have to sell their oil at the cheaper WTI price. In reality, shale oil projects in the Permian Basin in west Texas and the Bakken formation in North Dakota, where the pipeline bottlenecks are worst, have to sell their crude at a further discount of $4

Source: Thomson Reuters, RBC Capital Markets

Tim Webb

*Non-upgraded

to WTI. This brings the projects even closer — or in some cases below — the oil price they need to be economic. If shale oil drilling is cut and US production falls, the Saudis are hoping to win back the market share they have lost.

America is a smaller market than Europe and Asia for the Saudis. For the 1990s and the following decade, US imports of Saudi crude were about 1.5 million barrels per day. As the shale oil boom took off, imports fell and in August fell they below a million barrels for the first time since the economic slowdown in 2009.

Ole Hansen, the head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said: “Trying to increase supply to the Gulf of Mexico is adding downside pressure on WTI compared with Brent. The move hurts the Saudis less because their price is more based on Brent.”

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

41

FGM

Business

Ed Conway

Big payday for inventor of a tiny microscope

It’s time to take stock in economics and end the flow of dodgy data

‘‘

Ed Conway is Economics Editor of Sky News

Do you know the difference between debt and deficits?

OK, sorry, that’s an insulting question.

You’re a Times reader — of course you do.

The trouble is, you smart folks are very much in the minority. A few years ago, the Policy Exchange discovered that a mere one in seven people got the answer — that the deficit is what the government borrows in a given year, while the national debt is the cumulative total of all those deficits (minus any surpluses) throughout history.

Such widespread confusion is hardly helped by the fact that politicians routinely mangle the two terms. The Conservatives can successfully brand themselves as the party of austerity despite presiding over a £400 million increase in the national debt. The prime minister can sincerely claim to have cut the deficit in half, while, behind the scenes, Britain’s total public debt hits the highest level since the tail-end of the Second World War. It’s tempting to conclude that this is simply another example of political dissembling. To my mind, though, it reflects a far deeper problem, a problem that helps to underline what’s wrong with mainstream economics. And it is this: economics of late has become too much about flows and too little about stocks.

Allow me to translate. A deficit is a flow, a change in levels. Debt is a stock, the absolute level. Throughout economics, you’ll encounter plenty of examples. There’s inflation, the rate at which prices are going up (as opposed to absolute price levels). There’s gross domestic product v total national wealth. Annual wage increases v wage levels.

Contemplate the world in terms of flows v stocks for a while and eventually it dawns on you: the majority of prominent economic measures are flows. Professional economists seem more interested in GDP than total accumulated wealth or assets; more interested in inflation than absolute price levels; more interested in changes in quantitative easing than the stock of assets owned by a central bank.

You may think that’s fair enough.

After all, flows are often easier to measure than stocks. To get GDP, one

IBL/REX FEATURES

Measuring absolute wealth is hard, as debate over Thomas Piketty’s work shows

Spot the difference UK government debt v deficit rebased to 2004-05 Debt Deficit

400

300

200

100 2004

2009

2014

simply surveys companies and households to find out how much they earn in a given period.

Measuring absolute wealth levels is far harder, as the recent controversy over Thomas Piketty’s research has shown.

However, by focusing purely on the rate at which things change, we often miss the broader story.

Annual house price inflation is one thing, but it tells you nothing about how overvalued or otherwise property is. The fact that the Federal Reserve and Bank of England have stopped buying new assets through QE does not stop the programmes

from stimulating the economy, by dint of the enormous stock of assets sitting in their balance sheets. The ability of a company, let’s say Tesco, to generate profits may not tell you anything about the rate at which its cash reserves are depleting.

Or consider Britain’s current account. It has notched up a deficit almost every year since modern records began, signalling that UK households and businesses keep borrowing from abroad. However, look at the stock, otherwise known as the International Investment Position, and the story seems far less dire. Because of a healthy return on overseas assets, Britain’s IIP, the comprehensive measure of overall indebtedness to the rest of the world, remained relatively low until recently.

That’s all fair and well, but why should you care? The short answer is that we don’t just see our economies in terms of flows rather than stocks; we run them that way, too.

For the past couple of decades, most central banks around the world have been engaged in some form of inflation targeting. In other words, they have set monetary policy in order to target the flow of prices, with very little regard about their level. It’s rather like driving a car around quite competently, without much idea of

your destination. Even when they take notice of other measures, say credit creation, they concentrate far more on the rate of change and far less on the absolute level.

It has become clear in recent years that this framework was not fit for purpose and yet central bankers have done little beyond fiddling around the edges and bolting on questionable extras, such as forward guidance.

Thankfully, that may change soon.

Behind the scenes at the Bank of England, senior officials are actively considering stock-based ideas such as “price level targeting”, whereby if you miss your inflation target in year one you are obliged to compensate in the following years.

A similar shift may well loom in the fiscal arena. Historically, the government has made the vast majority of its money by taxing flows — income, spending (VAT), transactions (stamp duty) and so on.

However, many of these flows are drying up. GDP is stalling throughout much of the rich world, a phenomenon dubbed by some economists as “secular stagnation”.

Europe is facing deflation. Real incomes here in the UK have suffered the biggest five-year fall since the mid-19th century. And footloose corporations have shown how easy it is to shift profits and avoid tax.

Stocks, on the other hand, have never been higher. According to a recent paper from Katharina Knoll, Moritz Schularick and Thomas Steger, house prices across leading developed economies tripled since the 1970s. In the same period, levels of indebtedness rose exponentially. Until the financial crisis, bank balance sheets leapt higher, as did inequality.

Companies became more cash-rich than ever before.

If this is the way things are to remain, at some point fiscal authorities will need to wise up. It seems like a good bet that in the coming years there will be more taxes on assets, whether that means mansions, inheritances or inert cash holdings. And if that means bringing down taxes on incomes and profits, that’s probably no bad thing.

Or, to put it another way, the era of flow economics is drawing to a close.

The era of stock economics is about to begin.

’’

Andrew Clark Deputy Business Editor

A Nobel laureate regarded as one of the fathers of nanotechnology is to become an employee of AstraZeneca.

Astra is paying $150 million to buy Definiens, a German diagnostics company with powerful tools to examine the make-up of cancerous tissue.

The Munich-based business was founded 20 years ago by Gerd Binnig, winner of the 1986 Nobel prize for physics. Professor Binnig was honoured with two colleagues for inventing an ultra-powerful microscope with a probe as small as an atom. The device enabled scientists to examine materials on a miniscule scale. At 67, he remains Definiens’ chief scientific officer.

“He has an ownership stake,” Thomas Heydler, the chief executive of Definiens, said of Professor Binnig, although he declined to specify exactly how much of the takeover price would go to the Nobel prize-winner. “I assume he will be happy.”

MedImmune, AstraZeneca’s biotechnology division, will absorb the German company. It is hoping that Definien’s analytic tools will help to crunch data from tumours to determine which patients will respond to particular cancer drugs.

The buyout was one of a trio of deals struck yesterday by AstraZeneca. The company agreed a tie-up with Janssen to collaborate on clinical trials of MEDI4736, a treatment for lymphoma.

It also entered an alliance for cancer studies with Pharmacyclics, a Nasdaqlisted biotechnology company.

AstraZeneca has accelerated the pace of both commercial and research activity since it escaped an attempted £69 billion hostile takeover by Pfizer in May. As part of Astra’s bid defence, Pascal Soriot, its chief executive, pledged to boost annual sales from $25 billion to $45 billion by 2023.

A six-month cooling-off period will expire soon, leaving Pfizer free to make another offer, although industry experts believe that the chances of it doing so have been lowered by a White House crackdown on so-called “tax inversion” takeovers, under which American companies use buyouts to move their domicile overseas.

Mr Soriot has focused on a narrower range of medical areas, including , autoimmune and metabolic diseases, plus cancer. AstraZeneca’s shares rose 1.1 per cent to £45.71, well short of the £55-pershare level of Pfizer’s final offer.

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Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

Business

Botín delivers on promise as profits soar at Santander Harry Wilson

Profits rose by more than half in the third quarter at Santander as the lender reported its first earnings since the death of Emilio Botín, its long-time chairman and the father of Ana Botín, its new boss.

Net income at Spain’s largest bank

rose by 52 per cent to €1.61 billion for the three months to the end of September, helped by a rise in profits for its operations in Britain and Brazil, two of its biggest businesses outside its home market.

The death of Mr Botín, 79, in September was followed less than a week later by the approval of Ms Botín, formerly

Ana Botín has pledged to continue the “success story” initiated by her father

the chief executive of Santander UK, as the company’s new executive chairman after a unanimous vote in favour of her appointment by its directors.

Santander UK reported a statutory pre-tax profit of £1 billion for the quarter, up by slightly more than £200 million compared with the same period last year, driven largely by a fall in bad debt charges and provisions against customer compensation, including PPI. Nathan Bostock, who replaced Ms Botín as chief executive of Santander UK, said that the rise in profits was attributable to a “strategic transformation” of the business. “We have attracted a further 900,000 to 1/2/3 World this year, with 3.3 million individuals now part of this range of core banking products that were introduced less than three years ago,” he said.

Total current account balances in Britain have reached £37.9 billion, the deposits increasing by an average of £1 billion a month since the start of 2012.

The main negative note was a large write-off against a failed IT project,

with Santander UK taking a £304 million hit on the “decommissioning of redundant systems and charged investment costs”.

Under Mr Botín, Santander grew to become the eurozone’s largest banking group, with big operations in South America and much of Europe, including its British business, which has grown through acquisitions to become one of the UK’s biggest retail lenders.

Speaking in September, Ms Botín pledged to continue the “success story” with her elevation to the top job.

British investors were left with large holdings of Santander equity after the bank bought Abbey National in 2004 and its shares are still among the most widely held in the UK a decade later.

Analysts said yesterday that the bank’s performance appeared to be slightly better than expected, but they pointed to potential risks in its home market and in its South American business. Such caution over the outlook despite the rise in profits was reflected in the shares, which fell 24 cents, or 3.4 per cent, to close at €6.75 in Madrid.

CITY PEOPLE The feuds, the faces and the farcical Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux

Business big shot name stan laurent age 46 position chief executive, photobox group

A

ccording to Stan Laurent, sending cards is a very British custom, which does rather present a problem for the man behind Moonpig: how do you expand overseas (Deirdre Hipwell writes)? The answer, it seems, is to adjust your sights a little from the personalised greetings cards and mugs and stuff, often decorated with photos lifted from a customer’s (albeit electronic) family album, that make up your existing business.

In this case, that means the photo

it’s time to put on the sackcloth and ashes “We want to take away the stigma of the past, add polish and sparkle to our appearance — look more like an Argos than a dingy pawnbroker,” David Patrick, the Cash Converters chief, said in 2011.

Perhaps there has been too much razzle-dazzle: the advertising regulator has banned an “irresponsible” Cash Converters ad for encouraging frivolous spending. one more for the road Through his Founders Forum, Brent Hoberman, the Lastminute.com entrepreneur, below, is running a “drinks industry hackathon” with Diageo, the booze giant, to challenge developers to “create digital tools that blend into the social flow of people’s lives, enabling them to act in the moment and avoid excessive drinking and drinkdriving”. How will drinkers react to iPhone’s Siri ticking them off for being drunk and ordering them a cab? fuelling rumours Is David Lenigas trying

books and online personalised printing offered by Hofmann, a Spanish company being bought

by PhotoBox, Mr Laurent’s baby and Moonpig’s parent.

The attraction, he said yesterday, was Hofmann’s 48 per cent share of the Spanish market, which has the company on track to produce about €40 million of revenue this year. He plans to expand Hofmann’s business into wall decor and personalised “gifting”. The purchase price has not been disclosed.

The married father of two, who carried out his military service on board a French submarine, is a keen runner who has completed 15 marathons. More prosaically, perhaps, and less energetically, certainly, he has an MBA from Harvard and previously worked at AOL, the internet company. to step back from the fray? A few weeks ago the Australian oil and gas man retired abruptly from Twitter, where he had been prolific. Yesterday his Leni Gas & Oil (geddit?) was reborn under the more sober moniker LGO Energy. let’s get the party started The tax faculty technical manager of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales has been in touch with some Christmas party advice. Anita Monteith reminds employers that spending of up to £150 a head is tax deductible and that parties can “boost productivity”. Presumably not the morning after. your pedigree chum The Greene King boss Rooney Anand was raising a glass yesterday to a deal to buy Spirit Pub Company. As chief executive for nine years, is this a grand finale? “I work in reverse dog years,” Mr Anand says, which means that his tenure has been a mere 18 months.

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

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Business

Employees cheer the flotation of Alibaba; profits have fallen by 39 per cent to $494 million

After the float frenzy, Alibaba misses profits aim but hails growth Alexandra Frean Washington

The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba easily beat forecasts for revenue growth in its first quarterly results since its muchhyped $25 billion flotation in September but missed expectations on profits.

It reported a 54 per cent rise in revenue to $2.74 billion, better than the $2.64 billion expected by analysts and despite a slowing home economy.

However, profit for the quarter ending September 30 fell by 39 per cent to $494 million after the company implemented a share-based compensation system before its IPO, consolidated the costs of newly acquired businesses and increased its sales and marketing spend to take advantage of the “intense global interest in Alibaba” at the time of its New York flotation.

Excluding the costs, profits rose by 15.5 per cent to $1.1 billion, a shade less than the $1.19 billion forecast by Wall Street.

Shares in the company, which have risen by 48 per cent from the $68 offer price on September 19, edged up by 3 per cent to $104.80 in lunchtime trading in New York.

Maggie Wei Wu, chief financial officer of Alibaba Group, said that the company was not focusing on the profit fall. “I want to make it very clear that we manage the business to promote growth, not to maximise our own monetisation rate,” she said.

She added that a 2 per cent fall in the average amount spent on Alibaba sites per user “does not really bother” the company either because it resulted from an influx of new users, who tend to spend less initially than

more established customers. The number of annual active users rose by 52 per cent to 307 million in the 12 months ending September 30. Ms Wu said that Alibaba’s research suggests that customers spend an average of 1,000 yuan (£102) in their first year, rising to 15,000 yuan after five years and 30,000 after ten years.

Jonathan Lu, the Alibaba chief executive, said that the company was encouraged by its “improved mobile monetisation”, which grew by 1,020 per cent to $606 million.

Mobile gross merchandise volume accounted for 35.8 per cent of the total, up from 14.7 per cent for the same period last year.

Mr Lu added that the company saw great potential growth in China’s rural areas.

“Right now 34 per cent of Chinese people in urban areas use e-commerce,” he said. “But only 9 per cent of people in rural areas do.

This is a big opportunity for long-term growth.”

The company declined to issue forward guidance, but Daniel Zhang, the chief operating officer, said that Alibaba had high hopes for its special Singles Day sale next Tuesday.

The day, dubbed 11/11, started as a promotion for single people to go shopping but has transformed into a huge sales day equivalent to Black Friday in the United States or Boxing Day in Britain. Last year Alibaba racked up sales of $5.8 billion on the day.

This year it hopes to do better by bringing in more overseas merchandise to China, offering thousands of new mobile phone games and getting celebrities to distribute coupons online to their fans.

Bank ‘prone to group-think and poor management under King’ Philip Aldrick

Bank of England staff felt stifled by bureaucracy and poor management under Lord King of Lothbury, the former governor, according to a private internal survey at the 320-year-old institution.

In responses echoing complaints that the Bank was prone to “group-think” because staff did not feel empowered to challenge their seniors, the survey by the McKinsey consultancy found that employees believed they had “insufficient authority to make decisions”.

The internal review, begun by Mark Carney soon after taking over as governor in July last year to inform his management overhaul of the Bank, also noted that the

institution was “hierarchical” and “slow moving”. According to documents seen by Bloomberg, McKinsey said: “Respondents expressed a need to become more nimble and agile as an organisation. The Bank could benefit from a more open, transparent and consultative style of leadership receptive to challenge.”

The findings were similar to those uncovered in 2012 by three separate internal reviews. According to McKinsey’s survey, staff were also unhappy with the way bonuses were calculated. Only 11 per cent answered “often” or “always” when asked if they approved of the Bank’s approach to financial incentives. Management processes and metrics used to oversee the institution were “comparatively ineffective”, it found.

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Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

Business JENS KALAENE/DPA

T

hey were the somewhat less-thandedicated followers of fashion that Hugo Boss could have done without yesterday (David Charter writes).

After the German business cut back yearly sales and profit forecasts and reported that its third-quarter profits were weaker than expected, investors scurried away from the catwalk in search of a better fit for their cash. In their wake, the fashion house’s shares were trimmed by more than 5 per cent to €99.85.

Not that its latest collection of figures

was all black. Hugo Boss said that it expected sales to grow by 6 per cent to 8 per cent this year, after accounting for currency changes, while operating profit should rise by 5 per cent to 7 per cent. Previously, it had forecast a high single-digit percentage rise for both measures.

“We are still confident of being able to achieve full-year sales and earnings growth and thus outpace the luxury goods sector as a whole,” Claus-Dietrich Lahrs, the company’s chief executive, said.

Third-quarter net profit rose by 2 per cent to €114.7 million, but it missed average analysts’ forecasts The German fashion house said that weakness in Europe and unrest in Hong Kong had hampered its performance for €123 million.

Ethnic diversity in boardroom set for new Davies review Andrew Clark Deputy Business Editor

A Labour government would commission Lord Davies of Abersoch, the former boss of Standard Chartered, to conduct a review into the paltry number of ethnic minority bosses at the top echelons of British business.

Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, said last night that the peer had agreed to undertake an investigation, along the same lines as his 2011 government report into women on boards, if Labour were to win next year’s election.

“We can’t carry on with the status quo, where more than half of

UK management ethnicity

Source: ONS Labour Force survey, 2012

Trimmer figures not in fashion

White Indian Black/ Black British

94% 2.1% 1.1%

Mixed

0.6%

Pakistani Chinese

0.6% 0.5%

Other Asian Bangladeshi

0.3% 0.1%

Other

0.8%

FTSE 100 companies’ boards have no board members of colour,” Mr Umunna said. “What does it say to our young people who, when they aspire to reach the highest levels, can’t see anyone who looks like them in boardrooms?”

The review would go beyond boardrooms. Lord Davies, who sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords, would look at senior management ranks beneath directors to examine options for talented candidates from minority backgrounds.

Among the few non-white corporate leaders in Britain are Tidjane

Thiam, the chief executive of Prudential, Rakesh Kapoor, at Reckitt Benckiser, and Ayman Asfari, at Petrofac. Two thirds of blue-chip companies have an all-white roster of full-time, executive directors.

“It’s a fixable problem and it is a problem we will fix,” Mr Umunna said. Speaking at KPMG’s Asian Festival Dinner, he said that he would prefer not to look at quotas for appointments — although he expressed interest in the Rooney Rule, an American sports regulation that requires clubs in the National Football League to interview at least one black or ethnic minority candidate when appointing head coaches. “We shouldn’t take these things off the table if there isn’t the requisite level of progress,” he said.

Ethnic minorities account for 14 per cent of the population. Government figures from 2012 show that 94 per cent of top management are white. Only 1.1 per cent of senior figures are black, 3.6 per cent are Asian and 0.6 per cent are mixed race.

The coalition is to publish plans for diversity. Vince Cable, the business secretary, wants a target of drawing 20 per cent of directors from nonwhite groups within five years. He has enlisted Lenny Henry, the comedian, and Trevor Phillips, the former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, to devise a strategy.

“I know race is an ambiguous concept,” Dr Cable told The Sunday Times. “It is about recognising that when you’re describing board composition, it is something that has to be taken into account.”

Lord Davies’s report into gender in boardrooms set a target that one in four directors are female by 2015.

This benchmark sparked action — the proportion of women on FTSE 100 boards has risen from 12.5 per cent to 22.8 per cent in three years.

Don’t raise rates yet, say economists in U-turn Philip Aldrick Economics Editor

Leading economists on The Times’ shadow monetary policy committee have reversed their position on interest rates, with the majority calling for them to be left on hold.

Two members of the panel have switched from recommending a quarter-point rise to no change, citing low inflation and weakness in the eurozone. Their change of stance meant that the panel was five to four in favour of leaving policy on hold.

The move is surprising, because the shadow committee has been six to three in favour of raising rates since August, but it echoes increasingly pessimistic comments from Bank of England’s policymakers.

The Bank’s MPC will decide tomorrow on whether to raise rates, with economists claiming that a majority vote to hold them at a record low of 0.5 per cent is a “castiron certainty”.

Martin Weale and Ian McCafferty have been voting for a rate rise since August, splitting the official MPC vote 7-2. Some economists believe that low inflation and the threat of Europe slipping back into crisis may have persuaded Mr McCafferty to reverse his position.

Rupert Pennant-Rea, a former deputy governor at the Bank who is chairman of Royal London Group, and Michael Saunders, UK economist at Citi, were the two members of

The Times panel to switch stance.

Mr Pennant-Rae raised concerns about low inflation, weaker housing, downgrades to Chinese growth and the risk of deflation across the eurozone.

“Price pressures are weakening,” he said. “There will come a time when it again makes sense to start edging interest rates up. This week is not that time.”

Mr Saunders said: “After the surprising weakness of inflation last month, I vote for no change in policy this month. It probably will be necessary to hike rates soon, but the MPC can afford to wait a little longer to help to ensure that the expansion is sustained.”

Others maintained their vote.

Andrew Sentance, a former MPC member, called again for a 0.5 percentage point rise. Sir John Gieve, a former deputy governor, Sir Steve Robson, a former second permanent secretary to the Treasury, and Bronwyn Curtis, chief economic adviser to the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, again voted for a quarter-point increase.

The change in sentiment on the shadow committee comes in the wake of doveish speeches from policymakers at the Bank. Andy Haldane, the chief economist, and Sir Jon Cunliffe have signalled that rates may stay at rock bottom for longer. Markets currently expect the first rate rise to come in August next year.

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

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Working life Business BUSINESS CLINIC Our experts advise a start-up how to find vital funding THE COMPANY Brainbook WHAT Software for people with dyslexia

LIFESTORE

Travel to broaden the mind and a book to broaden horizons Jeff Mills, Hazel Davis

FOUNDER Gary Smith BASED Portsmouth

Where can I find angel to help my idea for dyslexia take wing?

Q

Last year, I started a company that develops software and apps for people with dyslexia, making computers and mobiles easier to use.

With the help of The Start-Up Loans Company government scheme, I developed the technology on a budget of less than £10,000.

We’ve made some encouraging progress, securing almost 10,000 downloads, but my ambition is much bigger, to build a Dolby-like standard for accessibility to make it easier for the world’s 1.4 billion people on the dyslexic spectrum to use technology.

To do that, we need funding and guidance.

We’ve got some help to prepare an application for grant funding, but I want angel investment, too, both for the money and the benefits of an experienced investor.

Being new to business and being aged only 24, I feel I’m at any investor’s mercy. I can design and build software, but I’m

A

Find a friendly soul who is financially and business savvy, ideally someone to act as a financial director even if only part-time, to provide some help in drafting a sensible business plan and negotiating a good deal for investors and you.

Do your planning before you go to funding sources. There is no point in raising too much or too little — both errors will cost you dearly.

Angel investors mostly want a shortish document with a clear proposition, say 15 pages, with the concept and details of the team, competition and financials.

Have supporting detail, market reports, financials, intellectual property and so forth available for investors if they are interested, so that you can respond quickly to questions before interest falls away.

Many business plans contain elaborate financial models of apparently extraordinary precision. Such forecasts are never met and rarely are read closely by investors. Clever investors focus on

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER, RICHARD POHLE

Gary Smith’s struggles with dyslexia led to Brainbook, his ambitious young company

not great on company finances. Frankly, as someone with dyslexia, document preparation scares me.

What do potential

angel investors expect in terms of detail in a written business plan and projections from a start-up? If I find the right investor, how active

short-term cashflow. You should, too. A short financial section will do.

Investors will want to know about you, so a full CV is essential.

You must be pretty good at presenting yourself to have got to where you are. Online crowdfunding might work well for you. A critical part of the sale process is typically a short video sales pitch that might well play to your strengths.

And the dyslexic community would probably help to support such a fundraising.

After funding, angel investors can do anything from nothing to serious involvement. Some add value, some waste your time! Before you buy the “I can help you and invest a bit” line, please check out the potential investor carefully. Good luck.

You have a big global vision, which I like, and getting to 10,000 downloads is a great start.

There is a vibrant angel network out there, particularly in tech, both in and outside London.

Stand out from the crowd and be persistent.

It’s worth registering under the government’s Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme, which gives angel investors generous tax incentives. Investors generally back teams rather than individuals: it’s crucial to identify people with skills that complement yours (for example, sales and marketing and finance).

A business plan is not optional. Investors want to know how big the market is; what makes you different and better than the competition; why people will want it now; how you are going to build your user base rapidly; how you will generate revenue and profitability; how much investment you need; what you are going to spend it on; and your assessment of the

expert one Jon Moulton is founder of the turnaround investor Better Capital, an experienced venture capital investor and an angel backer of early stage companies in his spare time

A

in the business can I expect them to be?

Finally, I’m also looking for tips on the best place to look for potential investors. risks.

Investors will want three to five-year projections to assess their potential return and expect you to have thought about an exit strategy. Think about how much equity you are willing to give up and get advice on a sensible premoney valuation.

Look in London first because of its size and “network effect”. There are helpful “accelerator” programmes (Telefónica’s Wayra, for example).

Consider awards, such as UnLtd’s Big Venture Challenge, and angel networks, such as Clearly So, that like your type of business.

Crowdfunding is worth considering but can be tough unless family, friends and existing users can help you to build momentum at launch. expert two Martin Leuw is an investor and adviser to private companies and the former chief executive of Iris software

postcard from . . .

Naples

book of the week Unselling Scott Stratten (above), Alison Kramer

Naples is chaotic and overcrowded, home to friendly locals with a laid-back attitude to commerce.

Man on the ground “The people may charm you but may overcharge you. Business rules here seem to be made to be broken and life is for living,” Charles Bailey, a Naples-based accountant, says.

Refuelling Check into the Excelsior hotel by the waterfront.

Acting local Head for La Cantinella restaurant at Via Nazario Sauro 23.

So, you have thousands of followers on Twitter? So what, say the authors of this refreshing riposte to thousands of banal “how to succeed on social media” guides.

In a welcome reminder of how one negative review can easily outweigh a thousand new followers, the authors provide a lesson in how and why you should focus on communicating with your own customers rather than trying to “go viral” to prevent the social media “tunnel vision” that they claim most businesses are falling prey to.

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Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

Business

Spirit sell-off ‘not on agenda’ in takeover Dominic Walsh

Greene King ended speculation that it might sell off big chunks of Spirit Pub Company yesterday after announcing a recommended £774 million takeover of the Chef & Brewer operator.

Rooney Anand, the chief executive of Greene King, had been strongly tipped to sell some or all of the merged group’s leased pubs business and about 100 unbranded managed pubs in the event of a deal.

However, Mr Anand, who has over-

seen a string of deals during his nine years at the helm of the Abbot Ale maker, dismissed the idea of such largescale disposals, saying: “Neither is on our agenda.”

He said the only sales that would be considered would be to satisfy any local competition issues. “We do think there will be a need to divest a number of pubs, but it won’t be material enough to make us reconsider the deal.”

Mr Anand played down fears of big job losses as part of a promised £30 million of cost savings, insisting

that any cuts would be significantly below 1 per cent of the combined workforce of about 40,000. One insider suggested that fewer than 200 jobs would be affected.

Yesterday’s recommended offer, worth £1.4 billion including debt, is largely in Greene King paper, with only 8p in cash, to be paid out by Spirit via a full-year dividend and a special dividend.

At the time of yesterday morning’s announcement, the bid was worth 115p a share, equivalent to an equity value of

£774 million, although yesterday’s 22p fall in the Greene King share price to 786½p cut the headline value to about 112p, or £753 million. Spirit rose 1½p to 108½p.

The board recommendation does not close the door on a counterbid from C&C Group. The Magners cider and Tennent’s lager producer has until November 20 to lodge a formal bid after its offer, thought to have been at a similar level to that of Greene King, was rebuffed by the Spirit board. Although its offer included more than a third in

cash, analysts said that it would have to table an all-cash bid to stand any chance of success.

Mr Anand refused to talk about C&C Group, but he shrugged off doubts over the meagre cash component of his own proposal. “We got the feeling from the Spirit team that Greene King paper was as good as the stuff with the Queen’s picture on it,” he said.

The merged group will have about 3,100 pubs with revenues of £2.1 billion and combined earnings of about £490 million.

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER, JON ENOCH; GETTY IMAGES; OLIVER DIXON/IMAGEWISE;

The medicine that became a pick-me-up

T

he medicinal properties of quinine, which occurs naturally in the bark of the cinchona tree, were discovered by the Quechua of Peru and Bolivia. It was used to halt shivering caused by low body temperatures.

The bark was brought to Europe by the Jesuits and its first recorded use as a treatment for malaria was in 1631 in Rome. Jesuit’s bark, as it came to be known, was sought after in London after Charles II, below, was cured of malaria.

The first commercial tonic water was produced in 1858. In colonial days in India, British officers mixed their medicinal quinine tonic with gin.

Fever-Tree flotation offers perfect tonic

T

he co-founders of Fever-Tree were never going to let bumpy markets derail their plans for a stock exchange flotation (Dominic Walsh writes).

Not when they have survived an encounter with gun-toting Congolese militia and a bout of malaria in their quest for the best-quality quinine for their upmarket tonic.

The AIM listing, at 134p a share, may have

valued the company at £154.4 million compared with the previously mooted £200 million, but it still enabled Charles Rolls and Tim Warrillow to cash in £25 million of shares while retaining a combined stake worth £38 million.

The placing, which is being handled by

Harvesting cinchona bark, above, has gone on for centuries.

Charles Rolls and Tim Warrillow, above left, of Fever-Tree tonic, toast their flotation on AIM

Investec, also provides a successful exit for LDC, the private equity division of Lloyds Banking Group, little more than 18 months after it acquired a 50 per cent stake in a deal valuing Fever-Tree at £48 million.

LDC, which is

retaining a stake of 10 per cent post-listing, is selling shares worth £63.9 million in the placing. Of the total proceeds of £93.3 million being raised, only £4 million will be new money for the company to use to continue its expansion strategy. Mr

Warrillow, the chief executive of Fevertree Drinks, as the group name will become, said that he was “delighted” to see a strong demand for the shares despite the “difficult market

conditions . . .

The book is very well covered with a significant number of blue-chip investors, a recognition of the company’s exciting growth opportunities.”

Ex-soldiers build new careers in construction Kathryn Hopkins Property Correspondent

Construction momentum slips back

They are well-used to stepping in when there is an emergency, be it a winter flood or delivering relief overseas, and now Britain’s troops — or rather its former soldiers, sailors and airmen — are filling the breach in the building industry.

Persimmon is turning to former military personnel in an attempt to address the chronic shortage of skilled workers that plagues the industry.

Jeff Fairburn, chief executive of the FTSE 100 housebuilder, has started a scheme to attract ex-servicemen and women to join the industry as bricklayers, carpenters or site managers.

Other companies are doing the same as they struggle to plug the skills gap.

Many workers left the building trade during the downturn and companies are struggling to persuade them to return, as well as trying to train new recruits to cope with increasing demand for new homes.

“The truth is [the skills shortage] is

A housebuilding slowdown last month dragged construction activity to a five-month low, reinforcing fears that the recovery is losing steam (Philip Aldrick writes). The purchasing managers’ index for October dropped to 61.4 from 64.2 the previous month, below forecasts of 63.5. Although

Jeff Fairburn: bid to beat skills shortage

the level remained well above the 50 mark that indicates growth, the slowing pace of activity, combined with weaker manufacturing in recent months, prompted economists to warn that GDP growth would struggle to match the rapid expansion of the first six months.

quite challenging and it will take time for industry to get fully up to speed to meet demand,” Mr Fairburn said. The problem was holding back the number of homes that Persimmon can build, he said.

Mr Fairburn has also been developing the company’s modular building system, in which a large part of a house can be built in a factory and be finished on site in a few weeks. Persimmon is building about 5,500 homes a year

using this system, allowing it to recruit workers from outside the industry and train them to a semi-skilled standard.

The York-based business built a total of 11,500 homes last year. As it published its interim management statement yesterday, it shrugged off concerns that the market was slowing, saying that it was fully sold for this year, with £696 million forward sales, up 12 per cent on the same time last year.

Brandon Lewis, the housing minister, will meet the country’s big housebuilders today to see how government can help them to attract more young people for training.

Mr Lewis said: “I’ll be bringing together the captains of our construction industry to make sure young Brits can benefit from these new opportunities, so we can nurture our home-grown talent and build the homes we need for years to come.” The companies will discuss what can be done to increase work and apprenticeship opportunities and develop new construction methods.

Shares in Persimmon closed down 13p, or 0.9 per cent, at £14.46.

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

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Markets Business companies news

Martin Waller Tempus Buy, sell or hold: today’s best share tips

Smoke signals and rich dividend

Imperial Tobacco share price

W

£28 27 26

Source: Thomson Reuters

25

Dividend 128.1p

24 23 22 Q1 2014

Q2

Q3

Q4

20

hen you are in a consumer market in MY ADVICE Hold long-term decline, WHY Tobacco companies are there are a number among the best dividend of strategies you can adopt. You can try to shift consumers payers in the market, to a smaller number of brands, on assuming that agrees with which you get more bang for your your investment principles marketing spend. You can run the business as efficiently as possible, using the cashflow to fund generous dividend payments, which will keep out how much of this decline is down the activist investors from your door. to people smoking less — not much, And you can attempt to buy market probably. It is more down to the share, when it becomes available. growing trade in illicit fags, as Imperial Tobacco is doing even emerging markets start all of these. The figures for to put up duty. the year to the end of Imps is focusing, like the Down 4% September outline a 4 per rival British American Underlying fall in Tobacco, on core “growth cent decline in the number cigarettes sold of cigarettes and brands”, where marketing is equivalents sold, if you concentrated. It is more disregard the effects of than £60 million into a deliberate destocking that takes £300 million cost-saving product out of the market, leading to programme, scheduled to complete greater efficiencies and making it by 2018. easier to switch consumers into So while annual revenues were off preferred brands. It is hard to work by 6 per cent, the effects of the above

legal & general Value of annuity assets £39.9m

W

e are nearly eight months from a rules-busting budget and almost everyone seems to think that they are a winner. Legal & General certainly seems to be doing well enough. Its third-quarter trading statement showed progress on almost every front, but its annuities business is forging ahead.

The number of individuals buying such, which they are no longer compelled to do, is off by 53 per cent.

L&G, though, also sells bulk anuities.

These are bought by companies that want to satisfy the pension needs of

Unseasonably mild weather has hit the energy business of DCC. As a result, the Dublin-based support services group said that its operating profits and adjusted earnings per share for the full year would rise between 5 per cent and 10 per cent, compared with a previous forecast of between 10 per cent and 12 per cent. First-half operating profit rose by 6.4 per cent to £73.2 million and it will pay a dividend of 28.73p a share. The shares closed down 45p at £34.70.

jardine lloyd thompson

Coping with decline

imperial tobacco Revenue £26.6bn

Too much sunshine

their workforces without undue risk.

L&G reckons that it can double the amount of annuities it can sell, to about £8 billion this year, despite the fall-off in individual business.

Its other growing area, corporate pensions, now has a book worth £10 billion, which means it is at or approaching profitability. Its UK insurance business, covering serious illness and death, now has a seemingly unassailable market share.

The investment management side, the biggest investor in the stock market, is succeeding in spreading beyond Britain, international assets almost doubling in the first nine months, after winning new mandates in the United States and China.

Cost of new American unit £50m

Full year to end of September Brackets = previous year

B

lame the markets we are in, but shares in Jardine Lloyd Thompson fell 56p to 884p on the back of some well-flagged suggestions that rates in the insurance market are experiencing Specialist brands downward pressure and that Revenue £811m down 2% at business remains challenging. constant currency As I have written before, investors Growth markets such as pension funds have latched Market share on to insurance as an asset classs 5.8% (5.7%) where returns typically are better Returns markets (mature) than in, say, bonds. This has pushed Market share capital into the market and brought 26.7% (27.3%) down rates. As a broker, JLT should be less affected than meant that operating profits some. Another perceived follow me were 5 per cent higher at negative, though, was on twitter £2,064 million. This allows actually some good for updates a 10 per cent rise in the news. In August the @MartinWaller10 company, which specialises dividend to 128.1p.

A similar rise can be in big infrastructure and expected in 2018, despite the energy projects, spotted an costs of grabbing market share. opportunity in the United States, Some time in the spring Imps will where this market is well developed. buy a rack of brands, such as The start-up is running ahead of Winston, Maverick and Salem, in the time, 50 staff are already on board United States, after the merger and $10 million of costs will be between Reynolds American and imported into this financial year.

Lorillard shakes these loose.

JLT has never been one of the This will cost $7.1 billion and mean highest dividend payers in the sector, that about a quarter of Imps’ preferring to focus on growth from business will be in the US. It will projects such as that in America. The have to be paid for by debt, but the shares yield a little more than 3 per strong cashflow will support that cent and sell on 18 times earnings, dividend. which does not suggest any pressing That cashflow also meant, along reason to buy. with the flotation of a stake in the non-core logistics operation Logista, that debt is down by £1 billion to MY ADVICE Hold £8.1 billion. That dividend is secured, WHY Shares are still on a along with the 4.6 per cent yield on relatively high rating the shares, up 110p at £27.77, which is the main reason to hold them.

Growth brands (inc Davidoff, Gauloises Blondes, JPS, Lambert & Butler) Market share 5.7% (5.4%)

Cashflow was significantly ahead of market expectations, up 12 per cent to £827 million over the nine months.

This is significant for investors, because L&G has increased dividends by 25 per cent over the past five years, admittedly from a low base, and analysts expect another 18 per cent this year. This puts the shares, up 4½p at 235¼p, on a 4.7 per cent yield, a good enough reason to hold.

MY ADVICE Hold WHY Growth prospects are there; dividend yield is good

Phones4u inquiries PwC, the administrator to Phones4u, has appointed Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, a law firm, to examine if any former directors of the collapsed mobile phone retailer breached their fiduciary duties. The firm will also investigate the conduct of Vodafone and EE, the two mobile networks, whose decision to end their contracts with Phones4u led to the retailer’s demise.

Apple’s euro flavour Apple took advantage of Europe’s lower borrowing costs and sold €2.8 billion-worth of bonds in its first debt offer in a currency other than US dollars. The American technology company’s latest bond sale was split into two tranches — an eight-year bond with a yield of 1 per cent and a 12-year bond yielding 1.5 per cent. In April Apple sold $12 billion of debt with varying maturities.

More than just hot air IGas Energy has increased the estimated amount of gas that its acreage holds by nearly 50 per cent. The AIM-listed shale gas explorer finished drilling an exploration well at Barton Moss, near Manchester, this year and has been studying the rock samples taken. IGas increased its preliminary estimates of the shale gas across all its British acreage to 147 trillion cubic feet.

The shares rose 1¼p to 77¾p.

And finally . . .

F

arewell, then, tiny Lorien.

This is a specialist supplier of IT staff that has been around, in one way or another, since 1977.

Taken private in 2007, it is being bought for £43.8 million, or up to £63.7 million if you include earn-outs. The buyer is the AIM-quoted Impellum Group, which claims now to be Britain’s second-largest staffing business by turnover, with a market cap of about £220 million. Impellum also marks the final resting place of Blue Arrow, subject of one of the worst corporate scandals of the 1980s.

For the latest breaking news thetimes.co.uk/ business

PRICES Major Indices New York Dow Jones Nasdaq Composite S&P 500

London Financial Futures 17383.84 (+17.60) 4623.64 (-15.27) 2012.10 (-5.71) 16862.47 (+448.71)

Hong Kong Hang Seng

23845.66 (-70.31)

Sydney AO Frankfurt DAX

403.78 (-5.26) 5498.20 (+13.20) 9166.47 (-85.23)

Singapore Straits

3281.57 (-9.27)

Brussels BEL20

3111.96 (-11.94)

Paris CAC-40

8718.02 (-33.65) 3034.24 (-48.08)

Long Gilt 3-Mth Sterling

London

Tokyo Nikkei 225

Amsterdam AEX Index

Zurich SMI Index DJ EURO Stoxx 50

4130.19 (-63.84)

FTSE 100 6453.97 (-34.00) FTSE 250 15394.11 (-59.04) FTSE 350 3518.98 (-17.75) FTSE Eurotop 100 2688.02 (-29.37) FTSE All-Shares 3458.54 (-17.59) FTSE Non Financials 4007.61 (-26.41) techMARK 100 3216.54 (-20.32) Bargains 1089255 US$ 1.5991 (+0.0016) Euro 1.2746 (-0.0038) £:SDR 1.09 (+0.00) Exchange Index 87.8 (-0.2) 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 828.02 (-1.38) Morningstar Long/Short Commod 4515.70 (+16.36)

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 115.09 99.420 99.310 99.160 99.000 98.820 99.910 99.915 99.925 99.920 99.895 100.02 100.04 100.07 100.08 111.56 127.42 147.20 6449.5 6397.0 3924.5

High 115.47 60.500 99.430 99.330 99.200 99.030 98.860 99.915 99.920 99.925 99.920 99.905 100.02 100.06 100.08 100.09 111.57 111.56 127.57 100.00 147.62 100.00 6488.0 6428.0 3924.5

Commodities Low 114.97 53.420 99.420 99.310 99.160 99.000 98.820 99.905 99.910 99.915 99.910 99.895 100.01 100.04 100.07 100.08 111.56 111.55 127.37 100.00 147.08 100.00 6421.0 6377.5 3924.5

Sett 115.32 114.52 99.420 99.320 99.190 99.020 98.840 99.910 99.910 99.915 99.910 99.895 100.02 100.05 100.07 100.08 111.56 111.56 127.54 127.54 147.63 147.63 6433.5 6379.0 4008.0 4009.0

Vol 163079 806 24918 38191 45367 39098 40538 38330 16239 27894 22579 24939 6938 5331 2956 2153 82 104 1163 3 236 3 76580 645 1

Open Int 403058 422238 391065 486456 311486 339920 467199 400019 344734 300246 296797 65415 74160 45790 24767 22368 10684 5327 560607 8826 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)

82.75 83.30 82.65 77.20 77.20

-1.80 -1.90 -2.00 -1.65 -1.60

Products ($/MT) 765.00 730.75 423.00 657.00

767.00 732.75 424.50 661.00

-12.00 -20.25 -17.50 -24.00

726.25-725.75 726.25-725.75 726.50-726.00

Brent (9.00pm) Dec 82.68-82.65 Jan 83.23-83.20

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: 19614

Feb Mar

742.50-741.50 unq Volume: 288221

Mar Apr

84.40-84.28 91.00-84.45

unq unq Volume: 8846

White Sugar (FOB) Reuters

ICE Futures Gas Oil Nov Dec Jan

Volume: 975357

RobustaCoffee

Spot CIF NW Europe (prompt delivery) Premium Unld Gasoil EEC 3.5 Fuel Oil Naphtha

83.93-83.70

LIFFE

Dec Mar May

unq unq unq

Aug Oct Dec Mar

unq unq unq unq Volume: 11713

121.50 127.50

Mar 123.75 Volume: 302

London Grain Futures LIFFE Wheat (close £/t) Nov May

118.60 126.00

Jan Jul

48

FGM

Business Markets OLIVIER PON/REUTERS

Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

Idle gossip turns out to be not that idle, after all Gary Parkinson Market report

T

urns out one of those takeover rumours that infect the stock market most days courtesy of London’s spivvier private punters might actually have had a little substance.

Brian Mattingley, the chatty chief executive of 888 Holdings, which purportedly rebuffed a recent approach by Permira, the private equity house, confirmed that one of its shareholders had, indeed, been sounded out. No names were mentioned, but 888-watchers thought it a safe bet that it was one of the two Israeli families who between them control about 60 per cent of the online gaming group.

“We knew where that [story] came from and we knew that Permira had

natural resources

The bears are still hungry

T

he past few years have been miserable for Lonmin, but bears are betting that there’s more to come.

The FTSE 250 platinum miner, part of the late Tiny Rowland’s Lonrho empire before it was spun off in 1998, owns Marikana in South Africa, one of the world’s biggest platinum mines.

In 2012, workers there went on strike over pay and conditions. One day that August, armed police shot dead 44 of them. The massacre, caught on camera, nearly sent Lonmin

Wall Street report Steep losses in energy shares were a burden across Wall Street, even though the Dow Jones industrial average achieved a small gain, rising 17.60 points to 17,383.84. Sentiment was hit after a downgrade of domestic growth across Europe.

Bordeaux ads a snip at €20m

B

ordeaux’s struggling wine industry is launching a

€20 million global advertising campaign in an attempt to stem diminishing sales (Dominic Walsh writes). The campaign, created

by Isobel, a London agency, is the wine-growing region’s

AHDB meat services Average fatstock prices at representative markets (p/kg lw) Pig Lamb Cattle GB 106.44 168.51 180.57 (+/-) +5.80 +7.47 +1.68 Eng/Wales (+/-) Scotland (+/-)

Cash

Bullion: Open $1164.79

7310.0-7320.0

2012.0-2013.0

1980.0-1985.0

Zinc Spec Hi Gde ($/tonne) 2285.5-2286.0 2283.5-2284.0

1943.0-1948.0

19600.0-19605.0

Alum Hi Gde ($/tonne) 2050.0-2050.5 2048.5-2049.0 Nickel ($/tonne) 15150.0-15155.0 15215.0-15235.0

19615.0-19665.0 2280.0-2285.0 18770.0-18870.0

1.1455-1.1459 1.1397-1.1398 5.9321-5.9326 0.7969-0.7971 7.7522-7.7529 113.56-113.58 3.3387-3.3417 6.8564-6.8579 1.2893-1.2898 7.3876-7.3926 0.9601-0.9604

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

13.598-13.599 1.8314-1.8322 0.5988-0.6065 4.0035-4.0194 1.2741-1.2744 12.393-12.395 98.050-98.254 19367-19406 0.4626-0.4651 5.2063-5.4102 2.0551-2.0566 2.0612-2.0621 17.654-17.682 5.8683-5.8747

2 mth

3 mth

6 mth

12 mth

0.6908

1.0062

Krugerrand $1156.00-1227.00 (£722.98-767.38)

Clearer CDs

0.58-0.43

0.60-0.45

0.65-0.50

0.80-0.65

1.08-0.93

Platinum $1231.00 (£769.89)

Depo CDs

0.58-0.43

0.60-0.45

0.65-0.50

0.80-0.65

1.08-0.93

196.81 +4.60

Lead ($/tonne) 2006.0-2007.0

Australia Canada Denmark Euro Hong Kong Japan Malaysia Norway Singapore Sweden Switzerland

0.5546

167.63 +9.93

15mth

Dollar rates

0.5290

unq

Interbank Rates

Silver $16.05 (£10.04)

Eurodollar Deps

0.14-0.24

0.19-0.29

0.22-0.32

0.32-0.42

0.60-0.70

Palladium $797.00 (£498.46)

Eurodollar CDs

0.15-0.08

0.18-0.12

0.22-0.15

0.36-0.21

0.52-0.38

European money deposits %

Sterling spot and forward rates

Currency 1mth

3mth

6mth

12mth

0.10

0.15

0.23

0.48

0.51

0.55

0.69

1.01

-0.15

-0.06

0.04

0.22

Dollar Sterling Euro

companies or research from analysts.

Associated British Foods, owner of the Primark discount fashion, the pensions group Legal & General and Imperial Tobacco, behind West and Davidoff cigarettes, rose 112p to £27.83, 4½p to 235¼p and 110p to £27.77, respectively, as updates were received warmly.

There was interest in the fund managers, too. Man Group added 6½p to 129¾p after a push from both HSBC and Credit Suisse. The Swiss broker also liked Schroders, 25p higher at £24.15.

Gold crept higher, encouraged by a softer dollar. Petropavlovsk, the debt-laden Russian goldminer, jumped by nearly 20 per cent to 26p after a consortium led by a former lieutenant of Oleg Deripaska, the billionaire, launched a rescue bid. The company, whose shares have dived by 98 per cent since June 2010, said that refinancing talks continued. “No transactions has yet been approved or agreed,” Petropavlovsk said.

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 0.32; 3 mth 0.40. Sell: 1 mth 0.31; 3 mth 0.36

0.5069

AM $1169.25 PM $1166.50

3mth

made an approach to one of They accounted for no fewer our shareholders,” Mr than seven of the eight Mattingley told eGaming weakest blue chips, with follow us Review, the gambling Tullow Oil weakest of oil. on twitter industry website. “As far as The Footsie’s only pure for updates we are concerned, we were @timesbusiness exploration play fell 25½p to not engaged with them 456p. Aggreko, temporary whatsoever. It was more of a power provider, not oil share, shareholder interest.” was the exception, down 65p to The chief executive then sought to £14.55 after Credit Suisse downgraded. scratch 888 from any list of likely bid Stock markets across the Continent targets. “I don’t see us being acquired were in the red, too, in spite of Tokyo and, at this moment in time, we will closing earlier at its highest in seven be an acquirer as and when any years and the kind of volte-face from opportunities come along which James Bullard that would make an make strategic sense.” He is in active equity analyst blush. Three weeks discussions with “two or three parties ago, the president of the St Louis at any one stage”, he said.

Federal Reserve Bank was suggesting 888 Holdings shares, spurred by a that the Fed might want to think 22 per cent jump in quarterly about extending QE; by yesterday, he revenues, improved by 3p to 133p in a had changed his mind and was saying weak market, depressed by a that the American economy was in retreating oil price. Saudi Arabia was good shape and that pulling the huge to blame, cutting the price that it economic stimulus programme had charges America for oil. been the right thing to do, after all.

The FTSE 100 fell 34 points to Many of those shares to improve 6,453.97, dragged lower by oil shares. most did so after updates from

1 mth

Low $1163.85

178.56 +1.63

under and the bitter strike plunged it into the red.

Meanwhile, platinum prices have broadly halved from their pre-recession zenith and Lonmin’s shares collapsed from £21.71 in July 2007 to

Money rates %

Close $1168.70-1169.00 High $1173.12

168.76 +6.73

Copper Gde A ($/tonne) 6705.0-6705.5 6660.0-6660.5

Tin ($/tonne) 19600.0-19605.0

Gold/Precious metals (US dollars per ounce)

106.44 +5.80

London Metal Exchange (Official)

biggest and claims to “turn traditional wine advertising on its head”. Borrowing from French poster art of the 1920s and 1930s, the ads use the strapline “The more you look, the more you discover”.

A massacre of strikers at Marikana nearly sent Lonmin under

Mkt Rates for Copenhagen Euro Montreal New York Oslo Stockholm Tokyo Zurich

Range 9.4760-9.5262 1.2801-1.2734 1.8134-1.8285 1.5966-1.6012 10.849-11.036 11.660-11.887 181.11-181.99 1.5339-1.5427

Close 9.4841-9.4848 1.2745-1.2742 1.8217-1.8227 1.5986-1.5989 10.959-10.967 11.812-11.819 181.55-181.61 1.5350-1.5356

1 month 43ds 4pr 9pr 4ds 93pr 39ds 9ds 8ds Premium = pr

3 month 139ds 11pr 28pr 12ds 257pr 114ds 33ds 26ds Discount = ds

Other Sterling

174¼p yesterday, via a £480 million rescue rights in 2013. They may be bumping along close to their lowest ever, but still bears are lifting the size of their wagers that this share price has farther to fall.

Markit, a financial information services company, said that Lonmin was the most-shorted share in the FTSE 250, with 50 million of them, getting on for 9 per cent of the company, on loan to bears making down bets. Moreover, the “borrow” in Lonmin has nearly trebled since early July.

Exchange rates Australia $ Canada $ Denmark Kr Egypt Euro ¤ Hong Kong $ Hungary Indonesia Israel Shk Japan Yen New Zealand $ Norway Kr Poland Russia S Africa Rd Sweden Kr Switzerland Fr Turkey Lira USA $

Bank buys Bank sells 2.000 1.740 1.970 1.710 10.230 8.970 12.610 10.030 1.400 1.220 13.320 11.720 434.540 357.510 22279.900 17771.700 6.680 0.000 196.920 170.540 2.310 1.960 11.780 10.180 5.960 4.880 74.850 62.330 19.580 16.580 12.610 11.210 1.700 1.460 3.960 3.160 1.740 1.530

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

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

49

FGM

Favoured defence lawyer of New York mafiosi James LaRossa Page 50

Register

Obituaries

Alex Starkey

Michael Hayes

Photographer who painstakingly captured the interiors of grand houses for Country Life magazine COPYRIGHT COUNTRY LIFE

Alex Starkey was the last of a series of talented staff photographers employed

by Country Life magazine to record many hundreds of country houses great and small, in his case for a period of nearly 40 years. Like his predecessors Charles Latham, Frederick Evans and Alfred Henson, he worked mainly with a plate camera using large format single sheets of film. The cameras had a rising lens which corrected distortions and avoided the converging verticals that can plague the amateur.

The Country Life wholeplate cameras were Gandolfis, made by a famous family of craftsmen brothers, one doing the woodwork, another the brass trim and a third the French polishing; they always had a long waiting list. Starkey had his own very smart custom-made ebonized Gandolfi, a more wieldy 4in x 5in.

At Country Life Starkey pioneered the introduction of colour photography of interiors and was one of the few photographers who could regularly obtain perfect exposures on the early highly unstable large-format colour film. He was also a master of lighting and his photographs never showed shadows cast by table and chair legs, which result from overdependence on flash or flood-

He never stopped for lunch and was addicted to eating KitKats light. One of his techniques was to use large sheets of white paper taped to windows to reflect sunlight into dark corners of tall state rooms. His methods, however, were less extreme than those of one of his predecessors, Henson, who was once found by a returning owner to have placed every mirror in the house on the lawn to reflect light into a dim north-facing room.

The trick lay in taking a range of exposures, long and very long. The difficulty was that when he was travelling he had to improvise a darkroom in hotels in which he could repackage each day’s film in complete darkness with the correct note of its exposure for the laboratory. Starkey would always say to owners “the sun is my master” and would return to a house or a garden repeatedly until the light was right or the roses in perfect bloom.

In Downton Abbey fashion, Starkey always said that the first rule when photographing a stately home was to get the butler on his side. After that it would be plain sailing and he would get any help he wanted with rearranging the furniture and getting cups of tea at the right time — and possibly keeping dukes at bay.

He used to tell a story about Barnwell Castle, the late Duke of Gloucester’s home in Northamptonshire. The “old boy” kept coming into the room during a 20-minute exposure, in search of a bottle of scotch or some such. Realising he was being a nuisance, the duke said “You want me to bugger off?” to which Starkey replied, “I certainly do.”

Starkey photographed houses for the magazine’s architectural writers, Christopher Hussey and Arthur Oswald (the two did not get on at all), and did much of the photography for Mark Girouard’s pioneering series on Victorian houses.

Starkey, left, and the historian Mark Girouard at work in Merewith Castle in Kent

Exclusive to members

See Alex Starkey’s stunning photographs On tablet and at thetimes.co.uk/obituaries

Girouard’s successor as architectural editor, John Cornforth, commissioned Starkey to do a continuing series illustrating the gorgeous interiors of 17th and 18th century state rooms (many appeared in Country Life’s Christmas Annuals). Cornforth’s interest in interiors led to his collaboration with the renowned interior decorator John Fowler, whose bold paint schemes provoked some furious rows captured in full dazzling brightness by Starkey,

notably at the National Trust’s Sudbury House in Derbyshire. For Marcus Binney he photographed a long series of major houses on the continent which are illustrated in the finest compendium of Starkey’s work, Great Houses of Europe, published in 2003.

Starkey, a slender man crackling with nervous energy, was addicted to KitKats to keep him going when there was no prospect of lunch, and would command anyone with him to walk through a long exposure of a grand staircase assuring them that their shadow would not appear. Around Europe he would place printed signs on doors saying “No Entry, Country Life photographer at work”, keeping large parties of obedient Germans out of state rooms.

When Country Life moved from its palatial Lutyens-designed building in Covent Garden to King’s Reach Tower in Southwark and then to the present

COPYRIGHT COUNTRY LIFE

Blue Fin Building, Starkey proved a doughty champion of the magazine’s photographic archive, ensuring suitable space was found to house it, rescuing valuable glass negatives by Frederick Evans and cataloguing many unidentified houses and gardens.

Starkey’s father was a chauffeur-gardener in the Wirral. He was educated at Calday Grange grammar school in West Kirby. In 1942 he joined the RAF as a radio mechanic, serving with Bomber Command at Wyton and Upwood, working on early radar installations. The sight of so many young men taking off, never to return, left an indelible impression. To please his father he went to work briefly for a bank in Liverpool but then took a course at the London School of Photography.

His first job as a photographer was with Photoway, a firm of commercial photographers in Fleet Street. From 1949 until 1952 he toured the British Isles in a small unheated Ford van taking scenic postcard shots (black and white, of course) — six views each of Budleigh Salterton, Skegness, Aberdeen, Stratford-upon-Avon and so on.

In 1952 he applied for a job at George Newnes, which owned Country Life and Homes & Gardens. For the latter he did features of the “At Home with the Stars” variety — Dirk Bogarde in his house in Kent, Margaret Lockwood in her kitchen, Anne Crawford relaxing.

One of his finest sets of photographs was of Erdigg, a National Trust house in North Wales. Starkey captured it in all its decrepitude as it fell down around the aged owner, Philip Yorke, whose burglar alarm was a large collection of tin cans attached to a length of string.

As well as photographing numerous gardens (a particular passion), Starkey’s commissions included many Country Life covers, from winners at Cruft’s to the latest Aston Martin at motor shows.

When he retired from Country Life in 1987 Starkey definitively laid down his tools and never took a professional photograph again. He married his longstanding companion, Veronica Hitchcock, in 2007. She had worked on Country Life books and on Homes & Gardens and then on Radio Times, later securing the enviable job of vetting films shown on Channel 4. Together they nursed a series of rescued owls in her flat, while enjoying their leisure with regular trips to theatres and ballet. They never missed a good film.

Alex Starkey, photographer, was born on February 6, 1924. He died on October 24, aged 90

Director who gave Julie Christie her big break The TV director Michael Hayes stuck his neck out to persuade the BBC to cast an unknown drama school student called Julie Christie to star in the cult 1961 BBC science-fiction serial A for Andromeda. She played two roles — that of a computer technician decoding a message from outer space and, after the death of the first character, she played a sinister clone who the scientists name Andromeda.

The cosmologist Fred Hoyle, who co-wrote the script, envisaged Andromeda as androgynous, but Elliot persuaded him that the character should be an attractive young woman.

Hayes had met Christie (pictured below) when she was still at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama and was convinced that she was destined for stardom.

The son of a civil servant, Terence Michael Hayes was born in Barking, Essex, in 1929. He was evacuated to Yorkshire during the war, where he attended Harrogate grammar school and started acting in amateur productions.

He joined the BBC as a studio manager and made his full directing debut with An Age of Kings (1960) — the corporation’s filming of Shakespeare’s English history plays in chronMichael Hayes At the BBC in the Sixties he directed Judi Dench, Robert Hardy, Eileen Atkins and Sean Connery

ological order from Richard II to Richard III. The cast included Tom Fleming, Robert Hardy, Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench and a young Sean Connery as Hotspur. Battlefields were created in the studio and each instalment went out live. It was a critical and commercial success in the UK and overseas. Hayes went on to work on popular series, such as Z-Cars, Play for Today, The Onedin Line and When the Boat Comes In. He had married Mary Chester, an actress, in 1955 and they had a daughter, Alisoun. The marriage ended in divorce after he met his second wife, Jane Phillips, at the BBC. A keen horseman and ornithologist, Hayes lived with his family in a dilapidated cottage in the Kent countryside.

He continued directing drama for the BBC including Doctor Who during the Tom Baker incarnation of the Time Lord; Baker became a close friend.

Hayes completed his career with the corporation by reading the news on the World Service from 1986 to 1994.

He is survived by his daughter Alisoun, who is retired, and two children from his second marriage: Patrick, a marketing executive, and Kelly, a business administrator. His second marriage also ended in divorce; but he and his ex-wife remained friends and exchanged plant cuttings.

Michael Hayes, television director, was born on April 3, 1929. He died on September 16, 2014, aged 85

50

FGM

Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

Register

James LaRossa Favoured defence lawyer of New York mafiosi who was made an offer he couldn’t refuse to defend the mobster John Gotti Dubbed “the bionic mouth of whitecollar crime”, James LaRossa was one of the most sought-after criminal defence lawyers in America. Yet while he represented high-profile company chairmen, union leaders, politicians and even judges, he was best known for his work on behalf of New York’s mafia bosses.

Chief among these was “Big Paul” Castellano, the head of the Gambino crime family and said to be the leader of “the Commission”, the shadowy cabinet which presides over organised crime in the US. After years of evading detection, he and 20 other leading mafiosi were indicted in 1985 on 51 counts, among them 25 of murder. The chief prosecutor was Rudolph Giuliani, the future mayor of New York.

“It reads like a poor Mario Puzo novel,” was LaRossa’s response to the charge sheet. Certainly the 70-year-old Castellano appeared imperturbed by his impending trial and by other accusations that he had profited from the proceeds of luxury cars being stolen and shipped to Kuwait. In December 1985 he called at LaRossa’s office to be told that evidence in that case was collapsing, before going on to a meeting with associates at a steak house in midtown Manhattan.

As he and his underboss Tom Bilotti got out of their car at the restaurant, they were gunned down by several hitmen wearing white raincoats and black fur hats.

Watching from across the street was an ambitious younger member of the family, John Gotti, who had staged the coup and succeeded Castellano as boss.

Gotti’s ability to escape conviction soon led the press to call him “the Teflon Don”. Nonetheless, he was keen to retain the best counsel if he should be prosecuted for Castellano’s murder and instructed his aides to make LaRossa an offer he could not refuse. Investigators had planted listening devices which recorded Gotti saying that he would have LaRossa killed if

he had turned him down. Not for nothing was LaRossa known for his skill at getting out of tight corners with wellchosen words. When reporters put Gotti’s threat to him, he adeptly avoided offending the crime lord. “There is no doubt in my mind this was meant as a joke,” he claimed. “He and I have known each other for 15 years, and he wouldn’t say anything like that about me other than in jest.”

In the event, a judge ruled that LaRossa should not represent Gotti in the Castellano case as he might himself be called as a witness. Gotti was convicted in 1992 of numerous offences and sentenced to life, dying in prison ten years later.

James Michael LaRossa was born in Brooklyn in 1931. The son of a postman, he decided on a career in the law because “If you really worked, you could grow without the obvious family connections.” He studied at Fordham University in the Bronx, and then at its law school, before serving as an officer in the Marines during the Korean War. On his return, he joined the US attorney’s office in Manhattan. He later described this experience as excellent training for a defence la lawyer, as he then bec became, making his name in 1972 with a case which set an important prece precedent.

His client, John Giglio, wa was convicted of forging money orders. As the pr prosecutor was unaw aware of it, however, La LaRossa had not been tol told that one of the witne nesses had been of offered incentives to te testify by the authoritie ities. LaRossa appeale pealed to the Supreme Court which ruled that henceforth prosecutors had a duty to ensure that all their colleagues in an office were informed of relevant deals.

Although LaRossa was to be associated with violent crime, he maintained that he found fraud cases more stimulating. In 1978, he told People magazine that he took on just one or two murders a year, and then only if

AP

with an investigation into corruption at New York’s docks. The judge was acquitted. Then, in 1979, LaRossa represented Anthony Scotto, the boss of the dockworkers’ union, who was on trial for extorting money from shipping firms.

Despite LaRossa mustering character references for him from a former governor of the state and two ex-mayors, Scotto was imprisoned for five years.

With his first wife, Gayle Marino, LaRossa had two sons, James and Thomas, and two daughters, Susan and Nancy. He was later married to Dominque Thall, but both marriages ended in divorce.

In 1996 he was hired to represent another of New York’s leading mafiosi, Vincent Gigante. The head of the Gen-

He had a talent for escaping tight corners with well-chosen words

LaRossa, above, was solicited by John Gotti after the mafioso was suspected of murdering Paul Castellano and Tom Bilotti. The hit made headlines in 1985, left

interesting. “Let’s say that someone is caught with a smoking gun, that’s not interesting,” he elaborated.

“International tax cases, with experts on both sides and 600 pages of transactions to read and understand, are much more complex. In a murder you need to know pathology or ballistics — simple

stuff.” The effort needed to master such briefs meant that he regularly worked 80-hour weeks. “Preparation,” he believed, “is what separates the mechanic from the artist.”

Other noteworthy clients during the 1970s included a judge, Ross DiLorenzo, who was accused of having interfered

ovese crime family was accused of racketeering and murder, but for years he had kept up an elaborate pretence of madness, wandering through Greenwich Village in his pyjamas and urinating in the street. Such behaviour had led the press to dub him “the Oddfather”, and throughout his court appearances Gigante continued to mumble and roll his eyes.

LaRossa told the judge that he had not had a single meaningful conversation with his client, but was unable to prevent him from being tried then sentenced to 12 years in prison. Once there, Gigante admitted that his insanity was a charade intended to allow him to escape the blame for such crimes as the attempted killing of Gotti.

LaRossa insisted that he lost no sleep defending those he thought might be guilty. “I’m not proving their innocence,” he pointed out. “I’m attempting to stop the prosecution proving their guilt.

“I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing. I see good lawyers as the last of the gladiators.”

James LaRossa, lawyer, was born on December 4, 1931. He died on October 15, 2014, aged 82

The Right Rev John Bone

Self-effacing Bishop of Reading who was known for his meticulous attention to detail and unassuming godliness

It was often remarked of Bishop John Bone that “love shone out from his filing cabinets”. This expression — used widely in Bone’s diocese of Reading — was a reference to his excellence as an administrator and how his deep care for all in his charge was shown by his thorough observation of the details of their daily living.

He offered, for instance, his holiday cottage in Padstow, Cornwall, to a vicar with small children based in innercity Birmingham. And, on discovering that some of his clergy were struggling to manage their money, Bone promptly organised a series of seminars for them on how to budget.

A man of plain tastes, he had no liking for the pomp of episcopal office, and did not enjoy being addressed as “My Lord Bishop”. It was noted that even his crozier was on the small side, and his down-to-earth quality and unassuming godliness made him much loved by clergy and parishioners. Far from seeking the limelight, he was self-effacing. After a riot by inmates at a prison in his diocese, Bone turned up to see the prison chaplain, saying simply: “I’ve come for the day to

be your curate.” He was in any case surprised to have been chosen as Bishop of Reading in 1989, having expected after 11 years as Archdeacon of Buckingham simply to return to life in a parish.

John Frank Ewen Bone was born in 1930 and awarded an exhibition — in part due to his musical talent — to Monkton Combe School in Bath. He met his future wife, Ruth Crudgington, as a teenager when her school invited the boys of Monkton Combe for an afternoon of games and tea.

Bone played hockey, and, as Crudgington was part of her school’s first XI hockey team, she was sent to meet him. They married at St Stephen’s in Bath in 1954

after Bone had read PPE at St Peter’s College, Oxford.

He trained as a priest at Ely theological college; after ordination he was posted first to Pimlico and later to Henley-on-Thames. His next move was to Datchet and then Slough. He was also appointed Rural Dean of Burnham and, in 1978, Archdeacon of Buckingham. In 1989 he was consecrated as Bishop of Reading. He had also been diocesan ecumenical planning officer in Milton Keynes, where he was responsible for establishing new churches; he was the driving force behind the foundation of the Church of Christ the Cornerstone, an ecumenical church in the city centre that was dedicated in 1992 (the Queen attended the service).

On retiring as bishop in 1996 Bone moved with his wife to Henley-on-Thames. They had two daughters and three sons, the youngest of whom, Patrick, was adopted and now runs a window cleaning firm. Patrick, who is West Bone was a man of plain tastes

Indian by origin, experienced the odd problem with the police during his teenage years. One evening he borrowed his mother’s car to visit friends in Aylesbury and stopped at a petrol station to refuel.

As the young man wound down the window, a police officer reached into the car, switched off the ignition and removed the keys, saying: “I don’t think

He was responsible for founding new churches in Milton Keynes this car is yours — it belongs to the Bishop of Reading.” To which Bone replied: “But he’s my father!”

The couple’s other children are Sarah, a retired nurse; Elizabeth, a school secretary; Nicholas, a theatre director; and Stephen, who is in charge of radio technology for the Bower Group.

Bone’s administrative ability again came to the fore when he learnt that his cancer (of the bladder, lungs and lymph nodes) was terminal. He immediately began to plan his funeral, arranging for all the members of his family to wear

white roses so that other mourners might easily identify them.

As well as playing the organ and the piano, he was passionate about topography, owning a large collection of maps. Some he acquired from his father-in-law, an antiquarian map seller. The former Bishop of Oxford, Lord (Richard) Harries of Pentregarth, recalls seeing Bone out walking with a map in a plastic folder around his neck.

“For most of us carrying a map at all is about as far as we will go, with the route roughly lodged in our mind. Not John.

For him the route was meticulously traced out in crayon on the Perspex, and if I remember correctly, in pencil on the map itself. This care for detail, for the practicality of things, showed itself in every aspect of his ministry.”

Lord Harries delivered Bone’s funeral eulogy at Reading Minster. As he uttered the prayer commending Bone’s soul to heaven, a loud clap of thunder was heard. Many of those present took this as a sign of divine approbation.

The Right Rev John Bone, former Bishop of Reading, was born on August 28, 1930.

He died on July 5, 2014, aged 83

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

51

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Television & Radio/ Announcement Births, Marriages and Deaths

Today’s television BBC ONE

6.00am Breakfast 9.15 The People Remember 10.00 Homes Under the Hammer 11.00 Call the Council 11.45 Close Calls: On Camera 12.15pm Bargain Hunt 1.00 BBC News; Weather 1.30 BBC Regional News; Weather 1.45 Doctors 2.15 Perfection 3.00 Escape to the Country 3.45 Holiday of My Lifetime with Len Goodman 4.30 Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is 5.15 Pointless 6.00 BBC News 6.30 BBC Regional News Programmes 7.00 The Passing Bells 7.30 The One Show 8.00 Waterloo Road 9.00 The Apprentice 10.00 BBC News 10.25 BBC Regional News; Weather 10.35 England: What Next? 11.15 Film 2014 11.45 FILM: Away from Her (2006) Drama 1.35am-6.00 BBC News

BBC TWO

6.00am Homes Under the Hammer 7.00 Call the Council 7.45 Close Calls: On Camera 8.15 Sign Zone 11.00 BBC News 11.30 Daily Politics 1.00pm Restoration Roadshow 1.30 Cash in the Attic 2.15 The Rockford Files 3.00 Cagney & Lacey 3.50 Who Do You Think You Are? 4.50 Great British Railway Journeys Goes to Ireland 5.20 Flog It! 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 Great Continental Railway Journeys 10.00 The Apprentice: You’re Fired 10.30 Newsnight 11.15 Gunpowder 5/11: The Greatest Terror Plot 12.15am Intruders 1.00 Sign Zone: See Hear 1.30 The Kitchen 2.30-3.15 Doctor Who 4.00-6.00 BBC Learning Zone

ITV London

6.00am Good Morning Britain 8.30 Lorraine 9.25 The Jeremy Kyle Show 10.30 This Morning 12.30pm Loose Women 1.30 ITV News; Weather 2.00 Dickinson’s Real Deal 3.00 The Alan Titchmarsh Show 4.00 Tipping Point 5.00 The Chase 6.00 Regional News 6.30 ITV News; Weather 7.00 Emmerdale 7.30 Coronation Street 8.00 Surprise Surprise 9.00 Broadmoor 10.00 ITV News at Ten and Weather 10.30 Regional News 10.40 Through the Keyhole 11.40 The Unforgettable Frankie Howerd 12.10am Jackpot247 3.00 The Jeremy Kyle Show USA 3.40 ITV Nightscreen 5.05-6.00 The Jeremy Kyle Show

Channel 4

6.20am The King of Queens 7.10 3rd Rock from the Sun 8.00 Everybody Loves Raymond 9.00 Frasier 10.00 Daily Brunch 11.00 Come Dine with Me 12.00 Channel 4 News 12.05pm Come Dine with Me 1.40 Small Animal Hospital

2.10 Countdown 3.00 Fifteen to One 4.00 Deal or No Deal 5.00 Come Dine with Me 5.30 Coach Trip 6.00 The Simpsons 6.30 Hollyoaks 7.00 Channel 4 News 8.00 The Supervet 9.00 Grand Designs 10.00 Grayson Perry: Who Are You? 11.00 24 Hours in A&E 12.00 Music on 4: Music Nation 12.30am Rude Tube 1.25 FILM: Ha Bharat Maza (2011) Drama starring Vikram Gokhale 3.35 Phil: Secret Agent Down Under 4.30 River Cottage Bites 4.40 Location, Location, Location 5.35-6.20 Countdown

Sky1

6.00am Dog the Bounty Hunter 7.00 Emergency with Angela Griffin 8.00 Futurama 9.00 NCIS: Los Angeles 11.00 Hawaii Five-0 1.00pm NCIS: Los Angeles 3.00 Greatest Little Britons: Show Ponies 4.00 Emergency with Angela Griffin 5.00 The Simpsons 5.30 Futurama 6.30 The Simpsons 7.30 Live Uefa Champions League: NK Maribor v Chelsea (Kick-off 7.45). Coverage of the matchday four group G encounter at the Ljudski vrt in Slovenia 10.00 Legends 11.00 Forever 12.00 NCIS: Los Angeles 2.00am Hawaii Five-0 5.00-6.00 Stargate Atlantis

BBC World

6.00am BBC World News 6.30 World Business Report 6.45 BBC World News 7.30 World Business Report 7.45 BBC World News 8.30 World Business Report 8.45 BBC World News 9.30 HARDtalk 10.00 BBC World News 10.30 World Business Report 10.45 Sport Today 11.00 BBC World News 12.00 GMT 1.00pm Impact 2.30 World Business Report 2.45 Sport Today 3.00 Global with Matthew Amroliwala 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 with Tanya Beckett 9.30 HARDtalk 10.00 BBC World News America 11.00 Newsday 11.30 Asia Business Report 11.45 Sport Today 12.00 Newsday 12.30am Asia Business Report 12.45 Sport Today 1.00 Newsday 1.30 Asia Business Report 1.45 Sport Today 2.00 BBC World News 2.30 Asia Business Report 2.45 Sport Today 3.00 BBC World News 3.30 Asia Business Report 3.45 Sport Today 4.00 BBC World News 4.30 HARDtalk 5.00 BBC World News 5.30 World Business Report 5.45-6.00 BBC World News

5.30am News 5.43 Prayer for the Day 5.45 Farming Today 5.58 Tweet of the Day 6.00 Today 8.31 (LW) Yesterday in Parliament 9.00 Midweek 9.45 (LW) Daily Service 9.45 Germany 10.00 Woman’s Hour 10.41 Writing the Century 10.56 The Listening Project 11.00 The Move 11.30 Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully 12.00 News 12.01pm (LW) Shipping 12.04 Witness 12.15 You and Yours 1.00 World at One 1.45 Voices of the First World War 2.00 Archers (r) 2.15 Drama 3.00 Money Box Live 3.30 All in the Mind (r) 4.00 Thinking Allowed 4.30 The Media Show 5.00 PM 5.54 (LW) Shipping 6.00 News 6.30 In and Out of the Kitchen (r) 7.00 Archers 7.15 Front Row 7.45 Germany (r) 8.00 Moral Maze 8.45 Four Thought 9.00 Costing the Earth (r) 9.30 Midweek (r) 10.00 World Tonight 10.45 Book at Bedtime 11.00 James Acaster’s Findings 11.15 Poetry Programme (r) 11.30 Today in Parliament 12.30am Germany (r) 12.48 Shipping 1.00 As World Service 5.20-5.30 Shipping

Sky Sports 2

6.00am Sporting Greats 6.30 Sportswomen 7.00 Ashes Modern Classics 8.00 Sporting Greats 8.30 Live International T20 Cricket: Australia v South Africa. From the Adelaide Oval 12.30pm One-Day International Cricket 1.30 International Rugby Union 2.30 Cricket Classics 4.30 WWE: Bottom Line 5.30 WWE: Afterburn 6.30 International Rugby Union 8.00 International T20 Cricket. Australia v South Africa 11.00 Sporting Greats 12.00 One-Day International Cricket 1.00am Cricket Classics 2.00-6.00 International T20 Cricket

Sky Sports 3

6.00am National Badminton League 8.30 Pro Contract: The Football Dream 9.00 Show Jumping 11.00 Racing News 11.30 Sporting Greats 12.00 The Sky Sports Years 2.00pm Great Run Series 2.30 Time of Our Lives 3.30 Sporting Greats 4.00 Squash 5.00 Show Jumping 7.00 Total Rugby 7.30 Sporting Greats 8.00 Anthony Joshua: Heavyweight Hopes 9.00 Sporting Rivalries 10.00 School of Hard Knocks 11.00 Max Power 12.00 Watersports World 1.00am V8 Supercars 2.00 Snow Unleashed 3.00 Pro Contract: The Football Dream 3.30 Racemax 4.00-6.00 The Sky Sports Years

British Eurosport

6.00am Football Gold 7.00 WWE Vintage 8.00 Mini Game Changers

7.30am Uefa Youth League 8.30 Motorcycling 9.00 World Superbikes 10.00 NFL Round-Up 11.00 NFL: Monday Night Football 12.00 Tennis: Fed Cup 2.00pm Tennis: Mats Point 2.30 Figure Skating 4.30 Tennis: Fed Cup 6.30 Tennis: Mats Point 7.00 Wednesday Selection 7.05 Show Jumping 7.20 Riders Club 7.25 European Tour Golf 7.55 US PGA Tour Golf 8.55 Golf Club 9.00 Extreme Sailing Series 9.30 Yacht Club 9.35 Lucia’s Selection 9.40 Wednesday Selection 9.50 NFL: Monday Night Football 10.50 NFL Round-Up 11.20-12.30am Uefa Youth League

BBC World Service

Radio 3

Sky Sports 1

Today’s radio

Radio 4

9.00 Barclays Premier League Review 10.00 Premiership Years 12.00 Football Gold 1.00 Barclays Premier League Review 2.00 Premiership Years 6.00 Football’s Greatest Players 6.30 Premier League 100 Club 7.00 Football’s Greatest Teams 7.30 Live Uefa Champions League: NK Maribor v Chelsea (Kick-off 7.45). Coverage of the matchday four group G encounter 10.00 Kings of Europe: The Chelsea Story 11.00 Premier League 100 Club 11.30 Darts Gold 12.00 Grand Slam of Darts 2.00am Total Rugby 2.30 Darts Gold 4.00-6.00 Grand Slam of Darts

5.00am Newsday 8.30 Business Daily 8.50 Witness 9.00 News 9.06 World Book Club 10.00 World Update 11.00 News 11.06 Outside Source 12.00 News 12.06pm Outlook 1.00 News 1.06 HARDtalk 1.30 Click 2.00 Newshour 3.00 News 3.06 Business Daily 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 7.00 The Newsroom 7.30 Healthcheck. Health issues and medical breakthroughs from around the world 8.00 News 8.06 HARDtalk. 8.30 The Documentary.

9.00 Newshour. The stories behind the latest headlines 10.00 The Newsroom 10.30 World Business Report. The latest business news, with informed analysis 11.00 News 11.06 Outlook 12.00 The Newsroom 12.20am Sports News 12.30 Healthcheck 1.00 News 1.06 Business Matters 2.00 The Newsroom 2.30 Assignment 3.00 News 3.06 Outlook 4.00 Newsday 4.30-5.00 Healthcheck

6.30am Breakfast 9.00 Essential Classics 12.00 Composer of the Week: Alessandro Stradella 1.00pm News 1.02 Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert. Grieg, Bull and Brahms, recorded at the Risør Festival of Chamber Music 2.00 Afternoon on 3. The BBCSSO performs music

by Nielsen, Magnus Lindberg and Dvorák 3.30 Choral Evensong. A 1974 programme from Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford (r) 4.30 In Tune.

A live performance by the Wihan Quartet 6.30 Composer of the Week: Alessandro Stradella (r) 7.30 Live Radio 3 in Concert. The BBC Philharmonic in Sibelius, Panufnik and Mozart 10.00 Free Thinking Festival. Anne McElvoy and guests discuss politicians and specialist knowledge 10.45 The Free Thinking Essay: New Generation Thinkers. Sophie Coulombeau explores the tradition of women taking their husband’s name 11.00 Late Junction. Electronic sounds from Japan and a classic track

by Brian Eno and Jon Hassell 12.30am-6.30 Through the Night

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52

Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

FGM

Games Bridge Andrew Robson

Dealer South

♠6 5

♥5 ♦10 8 5 2 ♣K 8 6 3 2 N

♠J 3

♥K J 10 7 6 3 W E ♥Q 9 ♦Q 9 6 4 S ♦K J ♣Q J 9 ♠ AQ 9 7 4 2 ♣A 10 7 5 4 ♥A 8 4 2 Contract: 4♠ ♦A 7 3 ♣Lead: ♣Q S

W

N

E

1♠ 2♥ 2♠ Dbl(1) 4♠ (2) End (1) This type of double is sometimes termed “competitive”, essentially take-out for the other suits, usually with some tolerance for partner’s suit. When the opponents bid and support a suit (up to the three-level) it makes no sense to play double as penalties: you do not rate to hold good enough trumps.

(2) Fabulous fit, shape and controls.

You ruff West’s club lead and count two tricks outside trumps (the red aces). You therefore need eight tricks from trumps. You cash ♥A and ruff ♥2 with ♠8. You ruff ♣3 then lead ♥4. Do you ruff it with ♠10 or ♠K? Ruff with ♠K (key play). This ensures you score the requisite eight trump tricks. [Ruff with ♠10 and East would overruff with ♠J and promptly return ♠3, condensing your trump winners to seven].

You cross to ♦A and ruff ♥8 with ♠10, not minding that East

Word Watching Paul Dunn overruffs with ♠J, for you must score your four remaining trumps in hand. 10 tricks and game made.

On the bidding – West’s 2♥ bid and East’s failure to support – it is a racing certainty East holds no more than two hearts. With no bidding, the temptation to ruff the second heart with ♠10 is greater, but it should be suppressed. ♠ AQ J 4 Dealer South

♠9 7 6 2

♥9 ♦Q 10 7 6 3 ♣A K 9 Contract: 6♥ Lead: ♣A S

♥K 6 5 2 ♦4 ♣8 6 3 2 N W

S

♠K 8 3

E

Continuing my preview of the World Championship match which starts in Sochi at the end of this week, the following game shows once again what a dangerous tactician and attacker the new challenger can be when he rouses himself to action. In yesterday’s extract we saw lacklustre play by Anand, proving himself only too ready to forfeit the initiative during his title defence of last year.

As noted in Monday’s column, if Anand can regain the sparkling form shown in the victories I have been publishing this week, he will remain a formidable contender to restore the title of world champion for himself.

White: Boris Gelfand Black: Viswanathan Anand Zurich Chess Challenge 2014 Slav Defence 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 e3 Bg4 5 Nc3 e6 6 h3 Bh5 7 g4 Bg6 8 Nh4 Bb4 9 Qb3 Qe7 10 Bd2 a5 11 Nxg6 hxg6 12 cxd5 exd5 13 f3 With the black pawn still on c6, the f1-bishop’s immediate prospects would be poor on g2, so White prepares to break in the centre with e3-e4 at an opportune moment.

13 ... a4 14 Qc2 a3 15 b3 Nbd7 16 0-0-0 0-0 Kingside castling for Black is risky but also ambitious. Black is relying on his defensive resources and on exploiting his a3-pawn.

One immediate plan is to open the c-file with ... c6-c5.

17 Kb1 Rfc8 18 h4 Nb6 19 g5 Nh5 20 Bh3 Re8 21 Rhe1 Rad8 22

1

2

3

4

8

N

6

9 10

E

1♥ Pass 4♦(1) Pass 4NT(2) Pass 5♥ (3) Pass 6♥ End (1) Splinter bid, showing a raise to 4♥ (+) with a singleton (void) diamond.

(2) Loves the Splinter, so uses Roman Key Card Blackwood.

(3) Two of “five aces” (incl. ♥ K); no ♥ Q.

West leads ♣A then (a hopeful) ♣K. You ruff and count five tricks outside trumps (♠AKQJ & ♦A).

Needing seven tricks from trumps, you only need two diamond ruffs in dummy, not three.

Cross to ♥K and lead back to ♥A. West discards, but you cannot draw East’s last trump as you need both dummy’s trumps. You cash ♦A, ruff ♦2, return to ♠K, ruff ♦5, ruff ♣6, cash ♥Q, then lead over to ♠AQJ. 12 tricks and slam made. andrew.robson@thetimes.co.uk

Bg4 Qd6

________ á D 4rDkD] àDpD Dp0 ] ß hp1 DpD] ÞD DpD )n] Ý g ) DB)] Ü0PH )PD ] ÛPDQG D D] ÚDKDR$ D ] ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ

23 Ne2 23 e4 is a critical move. After 23 ... dxe4 24 Nxe4 Qf8 (not 24 ...

Qxd4? 25 Be3), the position offers chances to both sides. White has more space, but the important d5square is now available to Black’s knight.

23 ... Bxd2 24 Qxd2 Nd7 25 Nf4 Nxf4 26 exf4 f5 27 gxf6 Nxf6 28 Re5 Nxg4 29 fxg4 Rxe5 30 fxe5 The alternative was 30 dxe5, which allows Black’s queenside pawns more freedom, but offers White opportunities to cause problems on the kingside.

30 ... Qe7 31 Rh1 Rf8 This position is balanced but White’s next is a mistake.

32 h5 Qf7 Now the black queen becomes more threatening, and if White exchanges on g6, he loses the g4pawn.

33 h6 Qf3 After this invasion, White’s position falls apart. There are too many points that need defending.

34 Re1 gxh6 35 e6 35 Qxh6? loses to 35 ... Qd3+ 36 Kc1 Rf2 and mates.

35 ... Re8 36 g5 Qf5+ White resigns

12

9

13

Difficult

9 1

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

No 6550 5

11

________ á D D D i] Winning Move à)RD D 1p] ß D 0 D D] Black to play. This position is from CaruMoscow Blitz 2013. Þ) DB0 D ] ana-Carlsen, Although Black is up a queen for rook the Ý D )P0 g] white a-pawn is on the verge of promotÜD D D DP] ing with check. Black needs to act drastiÛ D D DPD] cally and he did. Can you see how? ÚD 4 DRI ] For up-to-the-minute information follow ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ my tweets on twitter.com/times_chess.

Solution right

T2 CROSSWORD No 6550 Times Quick Crossword

5

7

♥J 10 8 ♦K J 8 ♣Q 10 7 5 4

Chess Raymond Keene Rival attacks

Ashram a. A sacred tree b. A Hindu retreat c. A form of yoga Ward a. Part of a lock b. Battle-scarred c. An area on a website Stock a. A neckerchief b. Fixed in place c. The original form of a gene

♠ 10 5

♥AQ 7 4 3 ♦A 9 5 2 ♣J W

Sudoku No 6931

3

4 9 2 5

8 6

14 15

16

17

18 19

20

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

Killer No 3988

21

16

22

Tricky 15min

18

15

25

24

Across

1 7 8 10 11 12 14 15

Golf club (6) Intense fear or disgust (6) Mild astonishment (8) Kneecap (7) In an overbearing way (7) Allotted portion (5) Digging tool (5) Top of a wave (5)

Solution to Crossword 6549 O E D I P U S L A P E L

13

23

23

C T O Y S A HY T PH E U L E L A S A T

A L P A I F UNC S N S A L I N C I NX E E L MU M S Y AC T T O HE N

ANAC E O T I ON L C S I O R R T END S T I NE S N T HO O C A RWH

E A L A L O T A ED U ER R S E L A L

19 Sweet bun (7) 20 State of being away (7) 22 Decoration (8) 23 Element; policeman (6) 24 Long upholstered seat (6) 1 2 3 4 5 6 9 12 13 16 17 18 21

Overlook; go beyond (4,2) Rather boring (8) Soonest (8) African tree with oily nuts (4) Back part of a gun barrel (6) Neck band (6) Eg, head of MI6 (9) Different, distinct (8) Next (to) (8) Decorative strip (6) Somnolent (6) (In fine) condition (6) Cereal crop (4)

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

Polygon From these letters, make words of four or more letters, always including the central letter. Answers must be in the Concise Oxford Dictionary, excluding capitalised words, plurals, conjugated verbs (past tense etc), adverbs ending in LY, comparatives and superlatives.

How you rate 12 words, average; 16, good; 23, very good; 30, excellent

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Codeword

No 2234

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Some letters are solved. When you have completed your first word or phrase you will have the clues to more letters. Enter them in the key grid and the main grid and check the letters on the alphabet list as you complete them.

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Ashram (b) A religious retreat or community where a Hindu holy man lives from Sanskrit asrama.

Ward (a) An internal bar in a lock that prevents an incorrectly cut key from turning.

Stock (a) A long usually white neckcloth wrapped around the neck, worn in the 18th century and as part of modern riding dress.

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Yesterday’s answers bed, bod, bode, bored, bud, budo, deb, debur, derv, devour, dob, dobe, doe, doer, dour, dove, drove, drub, dub, due, duo, ode, oud, overdub, red, redo, robed, rod, rode, rude

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1 ... Bf2+! 2 Kxf2 Rc2+ 3 Ke1 Qg3+ 4 Kd1 Qd3+ 5 Ke1 Qe2 mate.

Declaring Trump Contracts – 29 How many trump tricks do i need?

By counting how many tricks you have outside trumps, you can work out how many tricks you need from the trump suit. Note, as usual, that the focus is on winners. ♠ K 10 8

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E S E X EMP P U F L OG O P ROV I E A HUM A L ABA T T O I QU I NC T G

R J E T E R L W E T E D V L A L N S I L I A T I NG R N E O I R CH EW N U L Z E S L OWE D D H Y D

No 2233

S S T T E A U T I CK U C S I ON

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

53

FGM

Sport

City’s target man Manuel Pellegrini says his side could yet win the Champions League

Managing nicely Short-term success in a Premier League dugout no guide to consistency

Football, pages 58-64

Matthew Syed, page 59

Brennan realises big ambition as God’s Own gives lesson to rivals

Alan Lee Racing Corrrespondent

The winter ahead may be enriched by several of the horses behind him but God’s Own was an emphatic winner of Devon’s favourite race yesterday. A packed crowd in the sunshine of Exeter saw the six-year-old novice power five lengths clear of a decorated field in the Vix Technology Haldon Gold Cup. Cue Card, the West Country’s equine hero, ran satisfactorily in fourth after a ten-month absence and Balder Succes, the runner-up, will be a force in all the top two-mile chases. This, though, was an agreeable triumph for the trainer and jockey combination so narrowly denied in the corresponding race a year ago.

That day, as Tom George, the trainer, recalled, Module “pricked his ears on the run-in” and lost out by a head to Somersby. Yesterday, with that rival floundering in rear, God’s Own claimed redemption for his connections and proved himself reformed and transformed from the wayward youth described by George.

“When we first had him, he was very wild,” George said. “He’d go off on the road as if it was a racetrack and it could have gone badly wrong. A jockey called Aodhagan Conlon, who worked for me then, was the making of him, the only one who could get into his head.”

Conlon, now retired, rode God’s Own in a bumper on his British debut but Paddy Brennan has been his regular partner since, other than the day at Punchestown in May when Brennan

Rob Wright

1.00 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

3.05 Mendip Express 3.40 Allthekingshorses 4.10 Lifeboat Mona

Handicap Hurdle

(£3,249: 2m) (12 runners)

25F-5 RAYAK 37 (T) Jonjo O'Neill 4-11-12 R McLernon 112-2 PLANETOID 15F (V,D) Jim Best 6-11-11 J M Maguire 0/0P- CROUCHING HARRY 8F (P,D) Anabel Murphy 5-11-10 N Fehily 52436 GOAL 31 (T,D) G Elliott (Ire) 6-11-10 Miss B Hampson (7) 236P6 MONT ROYALE 27 (D) Jonjo O'Neill 6-11-3 M Linehan (3) 0-320 SPIN CAST 13 (B,BF) H Bethell 6-11-2 D Cook /024- BROCTUNE PAPA GIO 19F (D) K Reveley 7-11-0 J Reveley F-052 L STIG 28 H Daly 4-11-0 R Johnson 550/P PEADAR MIGUEL 18F (H,D) M Mullineaux 7-11-0 B Poste (5) 34212 PRETTYASAPICTURE 20 (P,BF) A King 5-10-11 T Bellamy (5) 46-20 GUANCIALE 148 D Burchell 7-10-9 R Dunne 4P30- GOOCHYPOOCHYPRADER 209 (T,D) N Lampard 7-10-9J Banks (5)

4-1 Prettyasapicture, 5-1 Planetoid, 6-1 Goal, L Stig, 7-1 Rayak, 10-1 Broctune Papa Gio, Spin Cast, 12-1 Mont Royale, 14-1 Crouching Harry, Goochypoochyprader, Guanciale, 33-1 Peadar Miguel.

1.30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Inside today

More racecards and tips Page 55

2.00

Warwick 1.00 Planetoid 1.30 Owen Na View 2.00 Golden Doyen 2.30 Grumeti Going: good to soft Racing UK

was injured and Barry Geraghty deputised for a grade one victory.

If that was one cause for Brennan’s exultant first pump as he passed the post, another was more facile. “I just love this race and I’ve always wanted to win it,” he said. “I’ve worked for some big trainers and been second more times than I’d like, so this means a huge amount.”

Brennan and George, who also combined to win the final race on the card, felt vindicated in their view that the Punchestown win was “no fluke” and, if their options with the winner are limited by his preference for righthanded tracks, they are broadened by the retention of his novice status. “He’ll probably have an entry in the Tingle Creek but he’s more likely to run in the Henry VIII novice on the same card,” George said.

So well had God’s Own travelled that George, in hindsight, was relieved that his momentum was checked by a mistake four out. “It stopped him getting to the front too soon,” he said. By then, Hinterland had been pulled up, Somersby was retreating and even Cue Card was flat out, a sight that caused a rethink for his trainer, Colin Tizzard.

“Until today, I still thought this might be his best trip but that changed my mind,” Tizzard said. “He looks a stayer

Handicap Chase

(£3,899: 2m 4f 110y) (7)

4-433 KITEGEN 17 (D,BF) R Dickin 8-11-12 C Poste 44262 OWEN NA VIEW 17 Fergal O'Brien 6-11-12 A P Cawley 322-2 FERGAL MAEL DUIN 16 (BF) D Bridgwater 6-11-11 S Twiston-Davies 444-2 THE OULD LAD 22 T George 6-11-2 P Brennan 43-33 TRICKAWAY 22 (BF) P Hobbs 6-11-1 R Johnson 2FP-0 REGAL D'ESTRUVAL 13 (H) M Sheppard 9-10-13 M Byrne 3154P STEEL SUMMIT 3 (P,D) D Dennis 5-10-9 N Fehily

3-1 The Ould Lad, 7-2 Trickaway, 4-1 Fergal Mael Duin, Owen Na View, 9-2 Kitegen, 14-1 Steel Summit, 20-1 Regal D'Estruval.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Maiden Hurdle (3-Y-O: £3,249: 2m) (9)

ALL YOURS P Nicholls 10-12 S Twiston-Davies ALZAMMAAR 131F W Greatrex 10-12 D C Costello 42 ARISTOCRACY 28 A Turnell 10-12 J Banks (5) AUF WIEDERSEHEN 119F J Frost 10-12 H Frost 2 GOLDEN DOYEN 25 P Hobbs 10-12 R Johnson 5 MOOJANED 20 D Burchell 10-12 P John (7) KOLIAKHOVA 33F J Flint 10-5 R Dunne 5 PRINCESS OMBU 17 N Henderson 10-5 Peter Carberry (3) THE CAT 287F (H) N Twiston-Davies 10-5 R Hatch (5)

6-4 Golden Doyen, 2-1 All Yours, 5-1 Aristocracy, 10-1 Alzammaar, 11-1 others.

2.30 1 2 3 4 5

Novices' Chase (£7,596: 2m) (5)

305-1 GRUMETI 172 (D) A King 6-11-6 W Hutchinson -P426 ROCK OF FIFE 15 Nick Mitchell 7-11-1 N Scholfield 32-54 SEA CURRENT 5 D Skelton 6-11-1 H Skelton 420-3 THOMAS CRAPPER 19 (D) R Dickin 7-11-1 C Poste 31-33 VIBRATO VALTAT 19 (T,D,BF) P Nicholls 5-11-1 S Twiston-Davies

11-8 Grumeti, 9-4 Thomas Crapper, 5-2 Vibrato Valtat, 11-1 others.

3.05 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Novices' Hurdle (£3,249: 3m 1f) (7)

3-112 MASTEROFDECEPTION 115 (D) Dr R Newland 6-11-5 C Ward (5) 2-2 CRACK OF THUNDER 22 C Longsdon 5-10-12 C Deutsch (7) P3FP- DONTMINDDBOYS 234P R Dickin 5-10-12 C Poste 6-165 KILLIMORDALY 31 (T) A Turnell 5-10-12 G Tumelty P21-3 LOCK TOWERS 168 B Pauling 5-10-12 N Boinville (3) 113P- MENDIP EXPRESS 207 (T,D,BF) H Fry 8-10-12 N Fehily 312-3 THE TOURARD MAN 15 A King 8-10-12 W Hutchinson

11-8 Masterofdeception, 5-2 The Tourard Man, 4-1 Crack Of Thunder, 6-1 others.

3.40 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Handicap Chase (£3,899: 3m 2f) (7)

-1452 ALLTHEKINGSHORSES 10 (T,P,D) P Hobbs 8-11-12 J Best (3) 44P-1 THE MUSICAL GUY 177 (P) N Twiston-Davies 8-11-10 R Hatch (3) 12246 MISSION COMPLETE 19 (T,P,C) Jonjo O'Neill 8-11-8 Tommie M O'Brien (8) 4U320 SILVER MAN 10 (B) J Hughes 7-11-7 N Boinville 003-3 FIX IT RIGHT 17 (BF) Miss E Lavelle 6-11-4 R O'Dea (8) 02221 GEORGIAN KING 28 M Keighley 11-10-13 T Bellamy F5-41 HANDSOME BUDDY 57 (V,C) M Gates 7-10-4 Peter Carberry

9-4 Allthekingshorses, 100-30 Fix It Right, 5-1 The Musical Guy, 6-1 others.

ALAN CROWHURST / GETTY IMAGES

Dunlop hails Melbourne heroics of Red Cadeaux Alan Lee

now and, if he improves for a run like the rest of ours, he’ll run a big race in the Betfair Chase.”

Alan King, trainer of Balder Succes, was thrilled with his seasonal return.

“A cracking start,” he said, suggesting that the Tingle Creek was his likeliest target. “The Schloer at Cheltenham next week will come too soon and I have Uxizandre for that,” he added.

King was also obliged to settle for second in the Bathwick Tyres Novices’ Chase, Carraig Mor losing out to Carole’s Destrier, a 28th winner of the season for the yard of Neil Mulholland.

Harry Fry, another rising young trainer, won the two novice hurdles that opened the meeting and both horses look bound for better things.

Jollyallan, Fry’s first horse for JP McManus, and Thomas Brown, owned by the owner and customers of a Worcestershire hotel, are likely to head next to Newbury’s Hennessy meeting.

Fry reintroduces Mendip Express in a novices’ hurdle at Warwick today and Rock On Ruby, the former champion hurdler, is set to run in the Stanjames.com Elite Hurdle at Wincanton on Saturday.

Ed Dunlop acclaimed Red Cadeaux as “the greatest bridesmaid ever” after the remarkable eight-year-old finished second in the Emirates Melbourne Cup for the third time in four years. Human success for Britain came through Ryan Moore’s winning ride on Protectionist in a race with the wretched postscript of two fatalities.

Dunlop, the Newmarket trainer, was almost speechless after yet another chapter in the book of heroic failures for British stables in Melbourne. “We never lost the faith,” he said. “We have an amazing horse. We’re always susceptible to a young, up-and-coming horse but if he’s still up to it, I’d like to come back again as this is the greatest race in the world.”

Moore, though, continues to conquer the world’s premier racing stages and completed a rare double, after his victory in the Cox Plate, Australia’s top conditions race, last month.

Red Cadeaux has not won since the Hong Kong Vase, two years ago, but in that time he has been runner-up in a Dubai World Cup and twice in Melbourne. With age and recent form against him, he briefly threatened the unthinkable as Gérald Mossé kicked for home off the final turn but Moore, as usual, timed his run impeccably.

Perfectionist was trained for victory

by Andreas Wöhler in Germany but will now remain in Australia. Dunlop said that Red Cadeaux could return for a race in Sydney next year.

Admire Rakti, the Japanese-trained favourite, collapsed and died after the race and Arado was killed by a postrace collision with a rail. “He got spooked by a big flag and ran away from it,” Mike Moroney, the trainer, said.

“They’ve run the Cup for 154 years and nothing like that has happened.”

4.10

1.40

3.15

Brennan and God’s Own clear the final fence in the feature at Exeter yesterday

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

NH Flat Race (£1,560: 2m) (14)

BOLLIN BEAUTY J M Jefferson 5-10-12 B Hughes BRIERY BLOSSOM T Symonds 5-10-12 B Poste (5) FIZZY DANCER K Bailey 4-10-12 J M Maguire HOLLIES PEARL P Bowen 4-10-12 D Devereux LADY OF LAMANVER H Fry 4-10-12 N Fehily LADY OVERMOON M Bradstock 5-10-12 N Boinville (3) 2 LAIKA 34 (BF) B Ellison 5-10-12 R McLernon 1 LIFEBOAT MONA 166P (T) P Nicholls 4-10-12 S Twiston-Davies 232 MISS NORTH LIGHT 19 G Elliott (Ire) 5-10-12 R Johnson NEWTON MARTINI B Pauling 5-10-12 Mr H Beswick (10) 1-22 QUIET CANDID 155 (BF) N Henderson 5-10-12 J McGrath (3) ROMANN ANGEL M Mullineaux 5-10-12 K K Woods 5- SAMEDI SOIR 221 K Reveley 4-10-12 J Reveley SURTEE DU BERLAIS O Sherwood 4-10-12 L Aspell

11-4 Quiet Candid, 7-2 Miss North Light, 7-1 Lady Of Lamanver, 8-1 others.

Chepstow Rob Wright

1.10 Polamco 3.15 Bobby Dove 1.40 Super Sam 3.50 Milosam 2.10 Sir Valentino 4.20 Winter Walk 2.40 Veauce De Sivola Going: heavy (soft in places) At The Races

1.10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Maiden Hurdle (£3,119: 2m 110y) (16)

22- ARZAL (BF) H Whittington 4-11-0 A P McCoy BLANDFORDS GUNNER E Williams 5-11-0 A Wedge 00 EARLS FORT 14 N Mulholland 4-11-0 A Conlon (5) 23-5 INK MASTER 18 P Hobbs 4-11-0 Tom O'Brien 6- KINGS RIVER 342 Miss V Williams 5-11-0 A Coleman MIDNIGHT ROCKER Miss I Pickard 7-11-0 L Treadwell 42- NIGHTLINE 225 H Daly 4-11-0 J Greenall 051-3 POLAMCO 26 (T,D) H Fry 5-11-0 R Mahon 10-2 PUISQUE TU PARS 187 (BF) G L Moore 4-11-0 J E Moore 26- QUINLANDIO 221 B Powell 4-11-0 B Powell 04-00 ROUGH FIGHTER 6 (H) N Mulholland 5-11-0 M Quinlan P22-0 TRUCKERS HIGHWAY 177 J Groucott 5-11-0 H Challoner (3) /13-0 TRUCKERS STEEL 25 (D,BF) T George 6-11-0 R Flint d1-44 WARRANTOR 16 (D,BF) W Greatrex 5-11-0 G Sheehan 00-P ANGLO PADDY 7 S Curran 5-10-7 M D Grant P0-40 ROUQUINE SAUVAGE 181 (T) A Honeyball 6-10-7 Rachael Green

4-1 Polamco, 9-2 Ink Master, 11-2 Puisque Tu Pars, Warrantor, 13-2 others.

Maiden Hurdle

(£1,949: 2m 4f) (12)

ALBERT D'OLIVATE R Walford 4-11-0 D Jacob 1 M Quinlan 2 2P65/ ASHTOWN 983P M Jones 7-11-0 3 2P-26 BEAUJOLAIS BOB 157P (T) R Hawker 6-11-0 Mr R Hawker (7) James Davies 4 54405 BLACK BIZARRE 33 J Santos 4-11-0 0P0-1 BRIDAL SUITE 192P C Mann 5-11-0 T Dowling (7) 5 B Powell 6 1/P-0 DARK DESIRE 16 C Tizzard 5-11-0 J E Moore 7 301-2 DEFINITE FUTURE 173 R Lee 5-11-0 1-0 HOW ABOUT IT 18 Miss R Curtis 5-11-0 A P McCoy 8 6- PASKALIS 235 H Daly 5-11-0 J Greenall 9 00 RIGHT ON ROY 36 M Keighley 4-11-0 Killian Moore (3) 10 3-2 SUPER SAM 188 Miss V Williams 5-11-0 A Coleman 11 M D Grant 12 003-0 WEBBSWOOD 187 S Curran 5-11-0 11-4 How About It, 9-2 Super Sam, 5-1 Definite Future, 9-1 Paskalis, 10-1 Albert D'Olivate, Bridal Suite, 11-1 Right On Roy, 12-1 others.

2.10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Novices' Limited Handicap Chase (£6,498: 2m 110y) (8)

F2F1- SIR VALENTINO 196 (D) T George 5-11-8 R Flint 5100- LORD PROTECTOR 200 (C,D) P Hobbs 7-11-8 Tom O'Brien 0100- JUMPS ROAD 214 (D) C Tizzard 7-11-7 B Powell 000-3 QUICK DECISSON 20 (D,BF) P Hobbs 6-11-2 M Nolan (3) 3304- GOLANOVA 229 G L Moore 6-10-9 J E Moore 400- TRIBULATION 295 R Walford 6-10-7 D Jacob 131-4 WHISPERING HARRY 20 (D) H Oliver 5-10-5 James Davies 1466- ZAFRANAGAR 18F (D,BF) I Williams 9-10-3 R McCarth (5)

3-1 Sir Valentino, 100-30 Lord Protector, 4-1 Quick Decisson, 9-2 Zafranagar, 15-2 Jumps Road, 8-1 Golanova, 16-1 Tribulation, 50-1 Whispering Harry.

2.40 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Handicap Hurdle

(£5,393: 3m) (7)

10P-0 TULLYESKER HILL 188 (B) D Pipe 5-11-12 T Scudamore 0F51- VEAUCE DE SIVOLA 251 (T,D) N Williams 5-11-9 D Jacob PPP-P THE ITALIAN YOB 25 (P) N Williams 6-11-9 A P McCoy 01P-2 GARDE FOU 188 (T,D) Paul Henderson 8-11-5 Tom O'Brien 465F- ONE IN A MILAN 214 (D) E Williams 9-11-4 C Ring (5) 03-2P WESTERLY BREEZE 7 (B) M Keighley 6-10-8 Killian Moore (3) P60-5 DUKE OF MONMOUTH 184 T Symonds 7-10-8 Felix De Giles

11-4 Veauce De Sivola, 7-2 The Italian Yob, 4-1 Tullyesker Hill, 11-2 Garde Fou, 8-1 One In A Milan, 10-1 Westerly Breeze, 11-1 Duke Of Monmouth.

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

Handicap Hurdle

(£1,949: 2m 110y) (14)

2B0-5 EATON ROCK 188 T Symonds 5-11-12 Felix De Giles 5-505 HAVERSTOCK 43 (P) Mrs C Keevil 4-11-11 Mr M Legg (7) 64P0- EASTERN WITNESS 238 Miss V Williams 7-11-11 A Coleman 0035- GRAND GIGOLO 231 I Williams 5-11-10 R McCarth (5) 0F0/4 THEREGOESTHETRUTH 24 H Oliver 6-11-8 Killian Moore (3) 0063- UN BLEU A L'AAM 221 (T) V Dartnall 6-11-7 Jack Doyle 0-043 ACAPULCO BAY 5 (P,D) D Burchell 10-11-5 R Williams (5) -00O4 BULLETPROOF 36 (H,D) K Cunningham-Brown 8-11-2 Tom O'Brien 63P-2 BOBBY DOVE 67 (D) B Llewellyn 7-11-1 S Bowen (7) 4/06- SUNSHINE BUDDY 320 C Down 7-10-13 James Davies 5-541 KOZMINA BAY 156F (B,D) B Llewellyn 5-10-12 M Byrne /PP-P CHADFORD 20 (V,D) Miss C Dyson 6-10-6 T Whelan (3) 45-50 BENEFITOFHINDSIGHT 24 (H,T) H Evans 5-10-5L Treadwell 030-5 DRUMMOND 11 (T,B) B Llewellyn 5-10-0 Miss Jodie Hughes (7)

6-1 Bobby Dove, Un Bleu A L'Aam, 7-1 Bulletproof, 15-2 Acapulco Bay, 8-1 Benefitofhindsight, 9-1 Kozmina Bay, Theregoesthetruth, 10-1 others.

3.50 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Handicap Chase (£3,769: 3m) (8)

144-U SMART EXIT 178 (D) Mrs P Robeson 7-11-12 J E Moore P12-2 MILOSAM 26 (V,D) P Hobbs 7-11-10 Tom O'Brien 3P-51 TUSKAR ROCK 11 (B,CD) Miss V Williams 11-11-5 Mr J Knox (7) 306-0 RAY DIAMOND 15 J Plessis 9-11-5 M Goldstein 560-5 HERECOMESTHEHOLLOW 20 (T) N Twiston-Davies 8-11-1 J Bargary (10) 3234- BASFORD BEN 206 (P,BF) J Candlish 6-11-1 L Treadwell 4-121 KILCASCAN 11 (P,D) Mrs R Gasson 10-10-7Killian Moore (3) 4P-P5 ZIGZAGA 11 Lydia Richards 8-10-0 Mr M Legg (7)

3-1 Milosam, 7-2 Tuskar Rock, 9-2 Ray Diamond, 7-1 Kilcascan, 15-2 Smart Exit, 8-1 Basford Ben, 9-1 Zigzaga, 20-1 Herecomesthehollow.

4.20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

NH Flat Race (£1,711: 2m 110y) (9)

ANOTHER LUSO Paul Henderson 6-11-0 Tom O'Brien 0- BO'S RETURN 235 T Vaughan 4-11-0 M Byrne 3-6 DOCTOR LOOK HERE 188 S Gardner 4-11-0 Miss L Gardner (5) 31- GOLAN TO WAR 199P D Dennis 5-11-0 A Coleman 2 HERBERT PARK 25 D Pipe 4-11-0 T Scudamore 0-0 IRISH OCTAVE 13 Mrs R Gasson 4-11-0 Killian Moore (3) SPARKSFROMMYHEELS E Williams 4-11-0 P Moloney 5331- WINTER WALK 214P Miss R Curtis 5-11-0 A P McCoy MAMMIE'S TREASURE (H) D Rees 4-10-7 A Wedge

4-9 Herbert Park, 9-2 Winter Walk, 10-1 Golan To War, 16-1 others

54

FGM

Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

Sport

Anderson’s load lightened with tour omission LEE SMITH / ACTION IMAGES

Cricket

Richard Hobson Deputy Cricket Correspondent

England marked the start of their three-day training camp at Loughborough by taking a cautious stand on James Anderson, ruling the fast bowler out of the one-day tour of Sri Lanka to allow more time to rest and strengthen a troublesome left knee.

The injury is viewed as nothing more than wear and tear that is typical of an international bowler of his experience.

He managed to play through swelling and discomfort during the summer, but while the medical staff noted some improvement during routine fitness tests two and a half weeks ago, they decreed that he would benefit from being longer away from the action.

It seems as though England will increasingly have to manage Anderson’s workload. Next year is as intense as any. With the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in February the first priority, the selectors and team management are anxious not to risk their leading bowler for the less important fixtures in and around Colombo before Christmas.

An ECB statement said that Anderson, 32, will “undergo a graded return to

Rested development: Anderson will have more time to work on his troublesome left knee after being ruled out of the one-day tour to Sri Lanka before Christmas

the bowling programme over the next two months” that will include a period with fast bowlers on the Performance Programme in South Africa. There he will meet up with Stuart Broad, who is also recovering after knee trouble.

There is no replacement for Sri

Lanka at this stage. The setback has a silver lining because it will allow more opportunities for Harry Gurney, Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan and Steven Finn to express themselves across the seven 50-over matches. One of them will make way for the World Cup squad,

assuming that Broad and Anderson are both available.

Anderson is England’s most successful one-day bowler of all time with 257 wickets at an average of 29.10 and first came to prominence during the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. He is expected to equal the record held jointly by Graham Gooch and Alec Stewart of appearing in four tournaments.

Ben Stokes is prepared to buck a growing trend by staying with the England team overseas rather than taking time out of a tour to be present at the birth of his child back home next year. The young all-rounder has spoken about the imminent clash of dates with his partner, Clare, who is prepared to support his decision to remain alongside team-mates at the World Cup. She is due to give birth to their second child on February 21, the day after England face New Zealand in Wellington and two days before they play Scotland in Christchurch.

To compound the dilemma, Christchurch happens to be the birthplace of Stokes and the home of his parents, who returned to live there last year and have helped with rebuilding work after the devastating earthquake of 2011.

“It sounds pretty heartless to say I am laid-back about the birth of my child,

Khan’s dream fight on the cards, says De La Hoya Boxing Amir Khan will take on

either Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao next year if he beats Devon Alexander in Las Vegas on December 13, according to Oscar De La Hoya, his promoter (Ron Lewis writes).

“I do expect him to get the Mayweather fight,” said De La Hoya, the president of Golden Boy Promotions.

“He has been wanting the major names for quite a while because he deserves it. This is a tough fight that

neither can look past, but obviously the big prize is the Pacquiaos of this world and the Mayweathers of this world.”

However, Khan, who missed out on facing Mayweather this year, says he is not looking too far ahead.

“I’m not focusing on anything other than Devon Alexander,” Khan said. “I’ve made that mistake before. If I beat Devon, I know the next fight will big, even bigger and better, but I have to win first. There is a lot to gain for both of us.”

McDonald makes return

Bentham takes charge

Cricket Andrew McDonald, the former Leicestershire all-rounder, has been appointed the county’s head coach. The Australian became a firm favourite at Grace Road after playing a starring role in Leicestershire’s Friends Life t20 triumph three years ago.

6 Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal scored centuries as Bangladesh made 433 in their first innings of the second Test in Khulna. Zimbabwe ended the second day on 53 for one.

Rugby league England have named

an unchanged side for Saturday’s Four Nations match against New Zealand, which will be refereed by Phil Bentham, of the Super League.

Tournament organisers caused a further stir with Bentham’s appointment after Gerard Sutton, of Australia, took charge of Australia’s 16-12 defeat of England and controversially ruled out a last-minute try by Ryan Hall.

England must win by a minimum of ten points to qualify for the final.

but I am lucky that Clare completely understands my job and the situation,” Stokes, 23, said. “She actually said, ‘If we tell your daughter the reason you were not at the birth is that you were playing for your country, I reckon she will think that is quite cool.’ ” Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen and Anderson are among those to have taken breaks from recent trips to be with their wives, with Anderson travelling back between a gap in Test matches during the 2010-11 Ashes series. In the more distant past, fathers were expected to stay with the team.

Stokes, who became a father in 2012, still has flexibility in the decision. “We do not know what is going to happen,” he said. “I do not want to miss any cricket and Clare is totally on board with that. If I can get back and it does not affect any cricket, then, yes, I will go.”

Having missed the World Twenty20 earlier in the year because of a selfinflicted wrist injury suffered punching a Barbados dressing-room locker in frustration, Stokes is desperate to make the final World Cup 15.

6 Ben Stokes was speaking on behalf of Investec, the specialist bank and asset manager, which sponsors Test cricket in England. Visit investec.co.uk/cricket

Beaten Maguire at a loss to explain poor streak Snooker Stephen Maguire has admitted to considering quitting the sport (Hector Nunns writes). The 33-year-old from Glasgow, once tipped to “dominate the game for a decade” by Ronnie O’Sullivan, lost 4-1 in the first round of the Champion of Champions event in Coventry to Judd Trump, who made a century and four half-century breaks. Maguire also lost in the first round of last week’s lucrative International Championship in China.

“The last two or three seasons have been absolutely terrible,” said Maguire, who has won only one leading title in six and a half years and dropped to No 14 in the world.

“I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe it is time if I slip down the rankings to think about doing something else. I am not too bothered about that match because Judd played well there, but I think it is time to have a look at what I am doing in snooker, maybe look at something different.

“You have to tell yourself it is just a snooker match, but I keep getting tough defeats and there is only so much you can take.”

Results American football NFL: New York 24 Indianapolis 40.

Basketball BBL: London 87 Cheshire 71.

Monday NBA: Brooklyn 116 Oklahoma City 85; Dallas 118 Boston 113; Memphis 93 New Orleans 81; Philadelphia 93 Houston 104; Denver 105 Sacramento 110; Los Angeles 107 Utah 101.

Cricket Second Test: Bangladesh v Zimbabwe

Khulna (second day of five): Zimbabwe, with nine first-innings wickets in hand, are 380 runs behind Bangladesh Bangladesh: First Innings (overnight 193-3) Tamim Iqbal c Ervine b Masakadza 109 Shakib Al Hasan b Waller 137 *†Mushfiqur Rahim run out 11 Shuvagata Hom c Chari b Waller 15 Taijul Islam c Masakadza b Chatara 32 Shahadat Hossain c M’gwe b Chatara18 Jubair Hossain lbw b Mushangwe 1 Rubel Hossain not out 0 Extras (b 6, lb 6, w 2, nb 3) 17 Total (158.5 overs) 433

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-78, 3-173, 4-305, 5-322, 6-376, 7-383, 8-426, 9-433.

Bowling: Panyangara 29-10-49-2; Chigumbura 22-5-60-1; Chatara 27-7-61-2; Mushangwe 40.5-7-127-1; Waller 23-465-2; Butt 11-2-31-0; Masakadza 6-128-1.

Zimbabwe: First Innings Sikandar Raza lbw b Taijul 11 B Chari not out 21 H Masakadza not out 15 Extras (b 1, lb 5) 6 Total (1 wkt, 19 overs) 53 *B R M Taylor, M Waller, C R Ervine, E Chigumbura, †R W Chakabva, T Panyangara, N Mushangwe and T L Chatara to bat.

Fall of wicket: 1-17.

Bowling: Shahadat Hossain 4-0-12-0; Taijul 8-2-21-1; Shakib Al Hasan 3-03-0; Jubair 3-1-11-0; Rubel 1-1-0-0.

Umpires: A S Dar (Pakistan) and B F Bowden (New Zealand).

Ice hockey NHL: New York 3 St Louis 4.

Snooker Champion of Champions Coventry: Group stage (Eng unless stated): M Selby bt S Davis 4-1; J Trump bt S Maguire (Scot) 4-1.

Tennis

(Japan) 6-3, 6-4; E Kulichkova (Russ) bt Zhang Kailin (China) 6-0, 6-2.

Aegon GB Pro-Series event Bath: First round (GB unless stated): M Tutu bt E Hoyt 7-5, 7-6; M Authom (Bel) bt J O’Mara 6-1, 6-1; L Bambridge bt J Carpenter 6-4, 4-6, 7-6; S Ehrat (Switz) bt A Bettles 3-6, 6-4, 6-0; N Pauffley bt D Ferretti (Aus) 7-6, 6-3; J Milton bt A Canter 6-4, 6-4; D Glancy (Ireland) bt R Carter 3-6, 6-3, 6-2; T Martin bt T Farquharson 7-6, 7-5; D Rice bt K Oakley 6-4, 6-4; B Strachan bt M Whitehouse 5-7 6-3 ret.

WTA Open GDF Suez de Limoges Limoges, France: First round: L Tsurenko (Ukr) bt D Kasatkina (Russ) 7-6, 4-6, 6-0; A Schmiedlova (Slovakia) bt A Mitu (Rom) 6-0, 0-0 ret; K Mladenovic (Fr) bt A Sasnovich (Bul) 7-5, 6-3; S Voegele (Switz) bt K Siniakova (Cz) 4-6, 6-1, 7-6; M Zanevska (Ukr) bt D Kovinic (Montenegro) 6-0, 6-4.

WTA OEC Taipei Women’s Challenger Taipei, Taiwan: First round: L Kumkhum (Thai) bt Chan Hao-ching (Taiwan) 6-4, 6-1; Zheng Saisai (China) bt S Fichman (Can) 6-4, 6-2; A Kudryavtseva (Russ) bt Chang Kai-chen (Taiwan) 3-6, 6-4, 7-5; Chan Yung-jan (Taiwan) bt P MayrAchleitner (Aut) 7-5, 6-4; V Diatchenko (Russ) bt M Czink (Hun) 6-3, 6-2; S Peer (Isr) bt Xu Yifan (China) 6-2, 6-1; M Doi (Japan) bt Zhang Ling (HK) 6-3, 1-6, 6-1; E Bychkova (Russ) bt P Kania (Pol) 6-1, 6-4; Wang Yafan (China) bt Zhu Lin (China) 6-7, 6-4, 7-6; T Tanasugarn (Thai) bt K Kozlova (Ukr) 6-4, 6-2; Duan Yingying (China) bt S Aoyama

Fixtures Football Kick-off 7.45 unless stated Champions League: Group E: Bayern Munich v Roma; Manchester City v CSKA Moscow. Group F: Ajax v Barcelona; Paris Saint-Germain v Apoel Nicosia. Group G: Maribor v Chelsea; Sporting Lisbon v Schalke. Group H: Athletic Bilbao v Porto; Shakhtar Donetsk v BATE Borisov.

Sky Bet Championship: Nottingham Forest v Brentford; Fulham v Blackpool (8.0).

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

55

FGM

Sport

Wales getting a head for heights at base camp Rugby union John Westerby

Pushed to their physical limits and close to mental breaking point, Wales’s players face a defining programme of internationals this month, but surviving a gruelling training camp devised by their coaches has been hard enough.

In the preparations for his side’s attempt to end a run of nine consecutive defeats against Australia, Warren Gatland and his coaches have been driving their players harder than ever at their training base in the Vale of Glamorgan. At 6.30am each morning, the players have been riding on static bikes in a new altitude chamber, before enduring, pre-breakfast, the first of three daily cryotherapy sessions. In effect, they have been fitting in an extra training session every day.

Rather than the usual one or two cryotherapy treatments — three minutes at temperatures plunging to minus 120C (-184F) to flush out lactic acid and accelerate recovery — a third session

1.20

Nottingham Rob Wright

12.20 Snow Cloud (nap) 2.20 Rothesay Chancer 12.50 Mojawiz 2.50 Fujin 1.20 Cocker 3.25 Ingenti 1.50 Moohaarib 4.00 Mash Potato Going: good to soft (good in the home straight) Draw: no advantage Racing UK Tote Jackpot meeting

12.20 Handicap (2-Y-O: £3,811: 5f) (5 runners) 1 2 3 4 5

has enabled them to hold morning and afternoon training sessions.

The initial goal is to be in a position, in the closing stages against Australia on Saturday, to be able to haul themselves across the line to put an end to that long run of defeats against the Wallabies. Most of those losses have been agonising; the cumulative margin of defeat over the past four internationals has been nine points. Hence the coaches’ desire to ensure that their players are in condition to compete and concentrate for a full 80 minutes this weekend.

“It’s probably the toughest Welsh camp I’ve been in,” Paul James, the loose-head prop, said yesterday.

“They’ve pushed us to the limit. The coaches are doing their job, but they’re trying to break you to get you mentally tough. We’re tight [as players] and we stick together.” And by the evening?

“I’m just laid in my room like a zombie,” James said.

In the starting line-up to face Australia on Saturday, there is no place

S W Kelly (2) 531 RIO RONALDO 55 M Murphy 9-7 10 UPTIGHT 77 (C) K A Ryan 9-6 Kevin Stott (5) (5) D Tudhope (3) 4122 SNOW CLOUD 19 (D,BF) D O'Meara 9-2 F Tylicki (1) 4026 CROSSE FIRE 73 (P) S Dixon 9-0 R Da Silva (4) 6005 JUNIOR BEN 11 D Shaw 8-0

7-4 Snow Cloud, 9-4 Rio Ronaldo, 7-2 Uptight, 13-2 Crosse Fire, 12-1 Junior Ben.

1 (5) 2 (8) 3 (17) 4 (16) 5 (4) 6 (6) 7 (10) 8 (14) 9 (15) 10 (7) 11 (9) 12 (3) 13(12) 14(11) 15 (2) 16 (1) 17(13)

Maiden Stakes

(Div II: 2-Y-O: £2,588: 1m 75y) (17) BANK OF GIBRALTAR P Chapple-Hyam 9-5 J Fortune 5 COCKER 12 (BF) T Dascombe 9-5 Stephen Craine 0 COPPEROPOLIS 12 (BF) R Charlton 9-5 T E Durcan DARKENING NIGHT J Tate 9-5 D Allan DOWN TO EARTH Michael Bell 9-5 W Twiston-Davies 56 DUKE OF SONNING 8 A King 9-5 D Sweeney 0 GLOBAL FORCE 14 (BF) S Bin Suroor 9-5 F Tylicki HIGHER POWER J Fanshawe 9-5 S W Kelly 3 LAURENCE 21 L Cumani 9-5 T Queally 0 LEONCAVALLO 14 C Appleby 9-5 C Hardie (3) 2 NEBULLA 25 N Quinlan 9-5 P Cosgrave ST SAVIOUR A Balding 9-5 D Probert 66 THE CASHEL MAN 19 D Simcock 9-5 M Harley WELSH REBEL Mrs N Evans 9-5 M Cosham (3) 4 CASILA 22 M Johnston 9-0 J Fanning MARYMALADE H Dunlop 9-0 L Keniry 05 POLITICO 30 J Gosden 9-0 R Havlin

Injuries have meant that North will play at outside centre on Saturday 2.50

Handicap (Div I: £1,941: 5f) (17)

S W Kelly 1 (3) 65103 MAYMYO 29 S Kirk 3-9-7 2 (5) 040-0 MOPS ANGEL 21 (D) M Appleby 3-9-6 A Rawlinson (5) F Tylicki 3 (17) 55060 SIR GEOFFREY 8 (B,D) S Dixon 8-9-6 D Swift 4 (2) 04652 DYNAMO WALT 11 (V,D,BF) D Shaw 3-9-6 D Probert 5 (10) 00000 TIME MEDICEAN 29 (D) A Carroll 8-9-5 F Lynch 6 (13) 00506 RAMBO WILL 16 (D) J Jenkins 6-9-5 S Donohoe 7 (15) 02504 PICC OF BURGAU 21 (D) G Deacon 4-9-3 J Hart 8 (16) 00100 LORD BUFFHEAD 9 (V,D) Richard Guest 5-9-1 P Aspell 9 (12) 11065 FATHOM FIVE 111 (D) Shaun Harris 10-9-1 Joe Doyle (5) 10(11) 00321 DANZOE 8 (V,C,D) Mrs C Dunnett 7-9-0 J Haynes (3) 11(14) 51000 SPRAY TAN 15 (D) A Carroll 4-8-13 D Fentiman 12 (1) 40326 FUJIN 12 (BF) Shaun Harris 3-8-11 T Atkinson (5) 13 (9) 04651 AARANYOW 18 (T,D) C Lines 6-8-9 14 (6) /5-50 SADIIGAH 19 Miss J Feilden 4-8-8 Shelley Birkett (5) T Clark (5) 15 (8) 63404 MINTY JONES 8 (V) M Mullineaux 5-8-7 N Farley (3) 16 (4) 55334 LAZY SIOUX 8 Richard Guest 3-8-7 04056 STUDFARMER 67 (D) P Gundry 4-8-7 J Fahy 17 (7) 5-1 Danzoe, 6-1 Dynamo Walt, 7-1 Fujin, 8-1 Maymyo, Picc Of Burgau, 10-1 Minty Jones, 12-1 Lazy Sioux, Mops Angel, 14-1 others.

Rob Wright’s choice: Snow Cloud was a good second in a better race at Haydock Danger: Crosse Fire

7-4 Nebulla, 7-1 Global Force, 10-1 Copperopolis, 12-1 Casila, Leoncavallo, 14-1 Cocker, Darkening Night, Laurence, 16-1 St Saviour, 20-1 Bank Of Gibraltar, Duke Of Sonning, Higher Power, 25-1 Down To Earth, 28-1 others.

Wright choice: Fujin is at his best with cut in the ground and remains unexposed Dangers: Rambo Will, Aaranyow

12.50 Maiden Stakes

Wright choice: Cocker, a brother to Brown Panther, can step up on his debut Dangers: Laurence, Nebulla

3.25

(Div I: 2-Y-O: £2,588: 1m 75y) (17)

D Tudhope 1 (9) 60332 ARCANO GOLD 11 R Fahey 9-5 60 ATALAN 24 H Morrison 9-5 Hayley Turner 2 (4) COUNTERPROOF J Gosden 9-5 R Havlin 3 (14) 4 DESERT ENCOUNTER 29 D Simcock 9-5 M Harley 4 (3) DIAMOND JOEL M Channon 9-5 C Bishop 5 (5) 66 DOESYOURDOGBITE 22 A Hollinshead 9-5 B McHugh 6 (17) ENTITLING J Fanshawe 9-5 S W Kelly 7 (2) EXCELLENT TEAM S Bin Suroor 9-5 F Tylicki 8 (6) 02 FIBRE OPTIC 22 L Cumani 9-5 T Queally 9 (1) KONNOS BAY Shaun Harris 9-5 B A Curtis 10(13) 40 LE ROUQUIN 67 Michael Bell 9-5 W Twiston-Davies 11(11) MAKING SHAPES P Chapple-Hyam 9-5 J Fortune 12 (7) MOJAWIZ C Appleby 9-5 C Hardie (3) 13(10) 36 PERCEUS 15 (BF) M Tregoning 9-5 Martin Dwyer 14(15) SCOTTISH A Balding 9-5 D Probert 15(12) 0 LADY VELLYN 102 D Haydn Jones 9-0 L Keniry 16 (8) 00 LIPSTICKANDPOWDER 39 (H) W Jarvis 9-0 J Fanning 17(16) 3-1 Fibre Optic, 4-1 Arcano Gold, 9-2 Excellent Team, 13-2 Perceus, 10-1 Counterproof, Mojawiz, Scottish, 14-1 Entitling, Making Shapes, 20-1 others.

Wright choice: Mojawiz, a well-bred son of Dubawi, is taken to make a winning start Dangers: Making Shapes, Perceus

Course specialists

Chepstow: Trainers D Pipe, 18 winners from 82 runners, 22%; A Honeyball, 5 from 24, 20.8%.

Jockey A P McCoy, 12 winners from 69 rides, 17.4%.

Kempton Park : Trainers S Bin Suroor, 66 from 244, 27%; C Appleby, 31 from 130, 23.8%.

Jockey G Gibbons, 12 from 59 rides, 20.3%.

Nottingham: Trainers Mrs N Evans, 3 from 7, 42.9%; S Bin Suroor, 18 from 72, 25%.

Jockey J Haynes, 5 from 16, 31.2%.

Warwick: Trainers Dr R Newland, 3 from 8, 37.5%; N Henderson, 11 from 32, 34.4%.

Jockey R Johnson, 14 from 56, 25%.

1.50 1 2 3 4 5

Handicap

(£16,173: 1m 75y) (5)

(2) 20105 BALTIC KNIGHT 4 (D) R Hannon 4-9-11 (4) 24130 MORACHE MUSIC 32 P Makin 6-9-9 (5) 55030 CORDITE 22 (BF) M Appleby 3-9-5 (3) -1114 GM HOPKINS 26 (CD,BF) J Gosden 3-9-2 (1) 11301 MOOHAARIB 30 (D) M Botti 3-9-2

J Fortune T E Durcan F Tylicki R Havlin M Harley

5-2 Moohaarib, 11-4 Gm Hopkins, 4-1 Baltic Knight, Morache Music, 5-1 Cordite.

Wright choice: Moohaarib won in good style at Pontefract and handles these conditions Danger: GM Hopkins

2.20

Handicap

(£5,175: 5f 13y) (15)

1 (13) 11000 CRUISE TOTHELIMIT 19 (D) I Williams 6-9-7 G Downing (5) D Tudhope 2 (5) 04343 SINGEUR 16 (D) R Bastiman 7-9-5 J Fortune 3 (9) -3116 GREGORI 187 (T,P,D) B Meehan 4-9-5 Josh Quinn (7) 4 (6) 64120 DOMINATE 24 (B,D) R Hannon 4-9-5 1V054 COME ON DAVE 16 (D) J Butler 5-9-4 L Keniry 5 (14) B McHugh 6 (7) 10006 KEEP IT DARK 16 (D) T Coyle 5-9-1 J Garritty (5) 7 (4) 64522 CLASSY ANNE 25 (D,BF) J Goldie 4-9-1 F Tylicki 8 (12) 00004 EVEN STEVENS 21 (V,P,D) S Dixon 6-9-0 F Lynch 9 (2) 40000 ROTHESAY CHANCER 47 (D) J Goldie 6-8-13 22161 IT MUST BE FAITH 7 (CD) M Appleby 4-8-12 10(10) Hayley Turner S W Kelly 11 (1) 42302 ANGEL WAY 70 (D) M Murphy 5-8-11 J Quinn 12 (8) 21330 CLUBLAND 21 (C,D) Miss M Rowland 5-8-11 13(15) 15502 MY INSPIRATION 17 (H,D) Miss A Weaver 3-8-11 M Harley A Carter (5) 14 (3) -0001 FEEL THE HEAT 37 (V) B Smart 7-8-8 M Cosham (3) 15(11) R6600 STEEL RAIN 7 (CD) Mrs N Evans 6-8-7 5-1 It Must Be Faith, 6-1 Classy Anne, 7-1 Singeur, 10-1 Angel Way, Come On Dave, Dominate, Even Stevens, My Inspiration, 12-1 Feel The Heat, 14-1 Clubland, Cruise Tothelimit, Gregori, 16-1 Rothesay Chancer, 20-1 others.

Wright choice: Rothesay Chancer will find this easier than the Bronze Cup at Ayr Dangers: Classy Anne, Singeur

Handicap (Div II: £1,941: 5f) (16)

D Allan (8) 00035 HAZELRIGG 7 (D) T Easterby 9-9-7 A Elliott (2) 24232 RYLEE MOOCH 7 (E,D) Richard Guest 6-9-6 (11) 30160 LUCKY TIMES 8 (D) M Brittain 3-9-6 R Dodsworth (7) (7) 00301 INGENTI 8 (D) Christopher Wilson 6-9-6 Megan Carberry (5) F Lynch (14) 20146 MEEBO 11 (T,V,D) J Jenkins 3-9-5 D J Bates (3) (13) 11160 SPIDER LILY 19 (C,D) P Makin 3-9-4 (6) 10100 TWO TURTLE DOVES 37 (C,D) M Mullineaux 8-9-3 D Brock (3) 8 (9) 53230 LAUGHING ROCK 19 M Appleby 4-9-1 A Rawlinson (5) 13000 BETTY BOO 9 Shaun Harris 4-9-0 B A Curtis 9 (1) Doubtful 10(10) 64060 PROFILE STAR 2 (D) Miss A Stokell 5-8-13 11(16) 45313 FIRST REBELLION 30 (B,D) A Carroll 5-8-12 J Haynes (3) D Swift 12(12) 50000 INVIGILATOR 2 (T,C,D) D Shaw 6-8-11 T Eaves 13(15) 50200 INCOMPARABLE 19 (P,D) S Dixon 9-8-8 14 (5) 52560 COLLEGE DOLL 7 (T,D) Mrs C Dunnett 5-8-8 Joe Doyle (5) J Hart 15 (3) 42502 CAPTAIN SCOOBY 8 (B,D) Richard Guest 8-8-7 16 (4) 62030 BREAN SPLASH SUSIE 12 W G M Turner 3-8-7 R While (5) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

for either Mike Phillips, the scrum half, or Gethin Jenkins, two Lions who find themselves on the replacements’ bench. James, the Bath player, starts in place of Jenkins, while Rhys Webb, the scrum half, will reprise his Ospreys half-back pairing with Dan Biggar.

Injuries have ruled out Jonathan Davies and Scott Williams, so George North will move from the wing to outside centre, with Liam Williams starting on the left wing. In the absence of Adam Jones, who did not even make the squad, Samson Lee, the 21-year-old tight-head prop, will make only his second international start.

There have been particular concerns over the fitness of Dan Lydiate, who has started only two games for Racing Métro this season and will return home from the French club — the region he will join has yet to be determined — after the autumn internationals.

Rob Howley, the Wales assistant coach, acknowledged yesterday that Lydiate’s lack of time on the field this season was a concern, but the flanker’s

Kempton Park Rob Wright

4.35 May Hay 6.40 Evening Rain 5.10 Yorkindred Spirit 7.10 Fire Fighting 5.40 Melbourne Shuffle 7.40 Capelita 6.10 Estikhraaj 8.10 Fickle Feelings Thunderer: 5.10 Waldnah (nap). 6.40 Manshaa.

Going: standard Draw: 5f-1m, low numbers best Racing UK

4.35

Handicap (£1,941: 2m) (11)

Luke Morris 1 (5) 00424 MAY HAY 18 (BF) A Carson 4-9-12 2 (3) 01353 MIGHTY MAMBO 21 (T,P,CD) Mrs L Hill 7-9-12 G Baker 3 (8) 05254 HONEST STRIKE 8 (T,B,D,BF) D Loughnane 7-9-12 A Kirby Kevin Stott (5) 4 (1) 1/000 ARTISAN 19 B Ellison 6-9-11 5 (6) 44315 GRAYLYN RUBY 21 (CD) R Eddery 9-9-9 C Meehan (7) P Cosgrave 6 (4) 05002 UGANDA GLORY 7 G Baker 4-9-8 7 (11) 04103 MEDBURN CUTLER 12 (P) Paul Henderson 4-9-7P Hanagan S Pearce (3) 8 (9) 53634 DR FINLEY 21 (V,D) L Pearce 7-9-3 C Hardie (3) 9 (10) 0/032 DELAGOA BAY 8 S Kirk 6-8-12 10 (2) 65-R0 RED CURRENT 53 (D) M Scudamore 10-8-12 W Twiston-Davies G Lee 11 (7) 52344 JUST DUCHESS 8 M Blanshard 4-8-12 11-4 May Hay, 100-30 Mighty Mambo, 6-1 Honest Strike, 7-1 Uganda Glory, 8-1 Dr Finley, 10-1 Graylyn Ruby, 12-1 Delagoa Bay, 14-1 others.

5.10 1 (10) 2 (9) 3 (6) 4 (5) 5 (2) 6 (8) 7 (1) 8 (3) 9 (7) 10 (4) 11(11)

Maiden Fillies' Stakes

(Div I: 2-Y-O: £2,588: 1m) (11) ALHANIA S Bin Suroor 9-0 P Hanagan BECCABUDDYBLUES Mrs A Perrett 9-0 P Cosgrave FEY C Appleby 9-0 A Kirby 00 LADY D'S ROCK 21 Clive Cox 9-0 S Drowne MICHAELA P Webber 9-0 Martin Dwyer 24 OPPORTUNA 18 (BF) T Dascombe 9-0 W A Carson PENSIONNAT R Beckett 9-0 O Pereira 0 SCIMITARRA 13 P Cole 9-0 Luke Morris 3 TAZFFIN 25 R Varian 9-0 G Lee 22 WALDNAH 22 (BF) J Gosden 9-0 R Havlin 435 YORKINDRED SPIRIT 18 M Johnston 9-0 J Fanning

11-2 Rylee Mooch, 13-2 First Rebellion, Ingenti, 7-1 Hazelrigg, 8-1 Captain Scooby, Spider Lily, 10-1 Incomparable, 12-1 Two Turtle Doves, 14-1 others.

7-4 Tazffin, 9-4 Waldnah, 6-1 Alhania, 17-2 Fey, 12-1 Opportuna, Yorkindred Spirit, 16-1 Pensionnat, 20-1 Beccabuddyblues, 40-1 others.

Wright choice: Ingenti returned to form at Catterick and and remains well handicapped Dangers: Invigilator, Incomparable

5.40

4.00

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

Handicap (£2,496: 1m 2f 50y) (12)

(8) 3-562 MASH POTATO 12 (P,D) M Dods 4-11-7 Mr H Stock (5) (7) 01411 POLAR FOREST 19 (E,C,D) Richard Guest 4-11-7Mr S Walker Mr M Murphy (11) 12150 DAYDREAMER 44 W Haggas 3-11-5 (6) 33223 THE DUCKING STOOL 48 (D) Miss J Feilden 7-11-4 Mr R Birkett 50004 RUZEIZ 12 P Hedger 5-11-4 Mr F Tett (3) (2) (5) 2401/ LEYLAND 420J (B) Miss N Lloyd-Beavis 5-11-4 Mr L Kilgarriff (5) 7 (9) 00-01 CARRAGOLD 147 (D) M Brittain 8-11-3Mr L A Murtagh (5) Mr J Doe (5) 8 (3) 22105 BOBBY BENTON 119 (H) L Dace 3-11-1 Mr D Burton 9 (10) 55500 BOLD DUKE 17 (P,C,D) E Bevan 6-10-13 Mr A French (7) 10 (1) 06430 ZAINDA 22 (H) P Midgley 4-10-7 11 (4) -0006 SHIROCCO PASSION 82 T Coyle 3-10-6 Mr K Wood (5) Mr H Hunt (5) 12(12) 64533 STYBBA 20 (BF) A Balding 3-10-4 1 2 3 4 5 6

4-1 Polar Forest, 9-2 Mash Potato, 6-1 Stybba, The Ducking Stool, 8-1 others.

Wright choice: Mash Potato, a good second at Doncaster, can go one better Dangers: The Ducking Stool, Polar Forest

Maiden Fillies' Stakes

(Div II: 2-Y-O: £2,588: 1m) (10) CAROLINE NORTON J Gosden 9-0 S Drowne CRACKER R Beckett 9-0 S Sanders INCLUDED Mrs A Perrett 9-0 P Cosgrave 0 MELBOURNE SHUFFLE 22 J Gosden 9-0 R Havlin 526 MYTHICAL CITY 14 M Johnston 9-0 J Fanning NAMHROODAH J Tate 9-0 Luke Morris 00 NINEPINS 21 R Hannon 9-0 S Levey PRYING C Appleby 9-0 A Kirby SABHA T Jarvis 9-0 G Lee 00 VICTORINA 15 W S Kittow 9-0 Martin Dwyer

11-4 Caroline Norton, 7-2 Mythical City, Prying, 6-1 Cracker, 10-1 Namhroodah, 12-1 Included, Melbourne Shuffle, 16-1 others.

Blinkered first time: Chepstow 2.40 Westerly Breeze. 3.15 Chadford. Kempton Park 7.10 Flemish School. 8.10 Born To Reign. Warwick 1.00 Planetoid. 3.40 Silver Man.

overall fitness had been a source of encouragement. “Sometimes playing match to match, you do lose a little of that fitness,” Howley said. “But Dan has been in our top five in terms of fitness in the last couple of weeks.”

The new altitude chamber, lurking behind a sealed door at one end of the gym at the WRU’s centre of excellence, has added another dimension to Wales’s preparations. According to the altitude being simulated, a range of locations can be screened on the wall of the chamber, from Merthyr Tydfil to Mount Everest.

Beat Australia on Saturday and they will have conquered a peak at which they have been craning their necks for too long. Suffer a tenth defeat in a row and their feet will be planted firmly back in Merthyr Tydfil.

Wales (v Australia at Millennium Stadium, Saturday): L Halfpenny; A Cuthbert, G North, J Roberts, L Williams; D Biggar, R Webb; P James, R Hibbard, S Lee, J Ball, A W Jones, D Lydiate, S Warburton, T Faletau.

Replacements: S Baldwin, G Jenkins, R Jones, B Davies, J Tipuric, M Phillips, R Priestland, C Allen.

6.10 1 (3) 2 (6) 3 (4) 4 (1) 5 (13) 6 (8) 7 (14) 8 (12) 9 (11) 10 (2) 11(10) 12 (9) 13 (5) 14 (7)

Maiden Stakes (2-Y-O: £2,911: 7f) (14) BOSTON TWO STEP M Johnston 9-5 J Fanning 0 CARRON VALLEY 13 K Dalgleish 9-5 S Levey ESTIKHRAAJ R Varian 9-5 G Lee FENG SHUI J Osborne 9-5 G Baker 0 GEORGIA'S GAMBLE 46 L Carter 9-5 A Quinn KEEP IN LINE S Bin Suroor 9-5 Kevin Stott (5) 03 MUQARRED 13 S Bin Suroor 9-5 P Hanagan 04 MY STRATEGY 20 Michael Bell 9-5 T Queally PAROLE H Morrison 9-5 J Fortune 0 PENANG PAPARAJA 12 Michael Bell 9-5 R Winston THAMES KNIGHT M Tregoning 9-5 L Steward (3) 0 VICTORY MEGASTAR 46 Clive Cox 9-5 A Kirby 0 WALLY'S WISDOM 60 W Haggas 9-5 C Hardie (3) P LADY SPANGLES 61 J Moore 9-0 S Donohoe

9-4 Muqarred, 6-1 Victory Megastar, 8-1 Estikhraaj, My Strategy, 9-1 others.

6.40 1 2 3 4 5 6

Handicap (2-Y-O: £6,469: 7f) (6)

(3) 42221 EVENING RAIN 21 (P) S Bin Suroor 9-7 Kevin Stott (5) T Clark (5) (6) 10000 VIMY RIDGE 32 A Bailey 9-7 A Kirby (4) 01034 FOUR SEASONS 11 (BF) C Appleby 9-5 20624 BE BOLD 24 R Hannon 9-0 C Hardie (3) (1) G Gibbons (5) 10320 JAGANORY 25 P D Evans 8-9 P Hanagan (2) 2422 MANSHAA 38 (BF) M Johnston 8-7

13-8 Manshaa, 2-1 Evening Rain, 11-2 Four Seasons, 9-1 Be Bold, 9-1 others.

7.10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Listed Race (£20,983: 1m 4f) (8)

J Fortune (5) 1364- CHIBERTA KING 341J (P,D) A Balding 8-9-4 M Harley (8) 51222 GRENDISAR 201 (P,CD,BF) M Botti 4-9-4 G Lee (1) 06640 FLEMISH SCHOOL 40 (V,D) D Elsworth 4-8-13 (7) 11620 FIRE FIGHTING 25 (B,C,D) M Johnston 3-8-12 J Fanning T Queally (3) 13401 RYDAN 42 (C) R Mills 3-8-12 10 VIVAT REX 24 (B,D) A Bailey 3-8-12 L Keniry (6) P Hanagan (4) 13012 CARNEVALE 42 R Beckett 3-8-7 Luke Morris (2) 21241 REAL JAZZ 11 Sir M Prescott 3-8-7

2-1 Fire Fighting, 5-2 Grendisar, 6-1 Chiberta King, Rydan, 10-1 others.

7.40

Handicap (£7,159: 7f) (11)

1 (9) 20V50 SWISS CROSS 6 (E,T,B,C,D) Phil McEntee 7-9-7 D Brock (3) 2 (11) 11000 LAWMANS THUNDER 41 (C) I Mohammed 4-9-7 T Clark (5) J Fortune 3 (2) 04050 SANTEFISIO 6 (B,C,D) K Dalgleish 8-9-6 M Harley 4 (3) 50522 SIR ROBERT CHEVAL 33 (D) M Botti 3-9-5 00254 DEAUVILLE PRINCE 20 (D) T Dascombe 4-9-4 G Baker 5 (10) 6 (7) 40410 BLUEGRASS BLUES 11 (B,CD) P Cole 4-9-0 Luke Morris 7 (6) 21230 MUSADDAS 60 (P) S Bin Suroor 4-8-12 Kevin Stott (5) 8 (8) 60040 FORCEFUL APPEAL 109 (D) S Dow 6-8-12 Hayley Turner 9 (1) 50135 OUTER SPACE 33 (C) J Osborne 3-8-12 W Twiston-Davies G Lee 10 (5) 23321 KHATIBA 21 (CD) R Varian 3-8-10 C Hardie (3) 11 (4) 302 CAPELITA 18 (BF) C Brittain 3-8-8 11-4 Khatiba, 5-1 Musaddas, Sir Robert Cheval, 6-1 Deauville Prince, 10-1 others.

8.10

Handicap (3-Y-O: £1,941: 1m 4f) (10)

S Donohoe 1 (4) 1-060 REIMPOSE 102 (H,C) Pat Eddery 9-7 G Gibbons 2 (1) 04503 FICKLE FEELINGS 18 T D Barron 9-2 C Hardie (3) 3 (3) 05360 DARK TSARINA 30 M Madgwick 9-2 A Kirby 4 (7) 4-340 SAN QUENTIN 151J (P) A Carroll 9-0 G Lee 5 (8) 35040 BEAUCHAMP MELBA 40 P Fitzsimons 8-13 Rosie Jessop (3) 6 (9) -5006 L GE R 12J P Charalambous 8-13 06000 BORN TO REIGN 20 (V) Michael Bell 8-12 T Queally 7 (10) J Mitchell 8 (6) 05026 FOCAIL MEAR 15 (BF) John Ryan 8-12 9 (2) 42000 FLYING AUTHOR 31J (T,P) Phil McEntee 8-12 D Brock (3) W A Carson 10 (5) 00600 MOVIE MAGIC 8 J Bridger 8-12 100-30 Focail Mear, 4-1 Fickle Feelings, 9-2 Dark Tsarina, 11-2 others.

Yesterday’s results Exeter

Going: good to soft 1.15 (2m 5f 110yd hdle) 1, Thomas Brown (N D Fehily, 5-6 fav); 2, Vago Collonges (9-4); 3, Kingscourt Native (11-2). 8 ran. 2Ol, 8l. H Fry. 1.45 (2m 1f hdle) 1, Jollyallan (A P McCoy, 15-8 jt-fav); 2, King's Tempest (11-4); 3, Hello George (15-8 jt-fav). 16 ran. 2l, 3Ol. H Fry. 2.15 (2m 1f 110yd ch) 1, God's Own (P J Brennan, 8-1); 2, Balder Succes (4-1); 3, Oscar Hill (50-1). Cue Card (4th) 13-8 fav. 7 ran. 5l, 9l.

T R George.

2.45 (3m ch) 1, Carole's Destrier (Michael Byrne, 2-1 fav); 2, Carraig Mor (9-4); 3, Return Spring (10-1). 5 ran. 6l, 6l. N Mulholland.

3.15 (3m ch) 1, Gas Line Boy (R Johnson, 7-1); 2, Ballinvarrig (5-1); 3, Benbane Head (16-1).

Ziga Boy 7-2 fav. 12 ran. 2Nl, nk. P Hobbs.

3.45 (2m 7f 110yd hdle) 1, Dream Deal (Nick

Scholfield, 10-1); 2, Royal Native (3-1 fav); 3, Phare Isle (10-1). 12 ran. 3Ol, 11l. J Scott.

4.15 (2m 3f hdle) 1, Definitely Better (P J Brennan, 7-1); 2, Legion D'honneur (16-1); 3, Snowball (14-1); 4, Call Me April (16-1).

Ullswater 3-1 fav. 17 ran. 5l, 3Kl. T George.

Placepot: £24.10.

Quadpot: £27.40.

Redcar Going: soft

12.30 (7f) 1, Wiener Valkyrie (G Lee, 4-5 fav); 2, Brotherly Company (13-2); 3, Lewis Valentine (9-2). 11 ran. 1Ol, hd. Ed Walker.

1.00 (7f) 1, Flashy Memories (T Hamilton, 5-1); 2, Udododontu (50-1); 3, Oracolo (20-1).

Ershaadaat (4th) Evens fav. 10 ran. NR: Nebulla. 3l, sh hd. R Fahey.

1.30 (1m) 1, Brooke’s Bounty (P Hanagan, 7-4 fav); 2, Mitchum (16-1); 3, Eium Mac (33-1).

11 ran. NR: Kimbali. 1l, 3l. R Fahey.

2.00 (7f) 1, Acclio (Louis Steward, 20-1); 2, Breakable (7-1); 3, Advance (9-2). Strike A Light (4th) 5-2 fav. 9 ran. NR: Slingsby. 2Kl, Ol. C E Brittain.

2.30 (1m 2f) 1, Open Eagle (D Tudhope, 7-2 jtfav); 2, Maven (25-1); 3, Ty Gwr (6-1). Docs Legacy 7-2 jt-fav. 13 ran. 2l, Kl. D O’Meara.

3.00 (1m 2f) 1, Iftikaar (J Fanning, 11-2); 2, Noble Reach (25-1); 3, Riponian (100-1).

Heartstrings (5th) 9-4 fav. 7 ran. 3Ol, 2Ol. P Kirby.

3.30 (1m 6f 19yd) 1, Hurry Home Poppa (J Fanning, 6-1 fav); 2, Bowdler’s Magic (12-1); 3@, Jan Smuts (10-1). 3@, Time Of My Life (20-1). 16 ran. Nk, hd. J Mackie.

4.00 (6f) 1, Ad Vitam (Raul Da Silva, 14-1); 2, Lord Buffhead (20-1); 3, Mccarthy Mor (11-1); 4, Armelle (3-1 fav). 20 ran. 1Kl, 1Kl. Suzzanne France.

Placepot: £4,473.30.

Quadpot: £146.70.

Southwell Going: standard

12.40 (1m) 1, Master Of Song (E J Walsh, 4-1); 2, Admirable Art (7-2 jt-fav); 3, Trust Me Boy (40-1). Rockie Road (4th) 7-2 jt-fav. 12 ran.

NR: Sarlat. 1Ol, ns. S Bowring.

1.10 (1m) 1, Delightful Sleep (A Kirby, 9-2); 2, Im Dapper Too (6-1); 3, Chez Vrony (16-1).

Vied (6th) 2-1 fav. 11 ran. NR: Uncle Brit. Hd, 6l.

P Evans.

1.40 (7f) 1, Toto Skyllachy (Jacob Butterfield, 9-1); 2, Loud (11-4 fav); 3, Game Mascot (14-1).

12 ran. 6l, nk. Mrs M Fife.

2.10 (7f) 1, Pyrocumulus (B A Curtis, 8-1); 2, Excelling Oscar (50-1); 3, Sparkling Sapphire (33-1). Invincible Wish (6th). Kerrymerry (4th) Penelope Pitstop (5th) 4-1 co-fav. 12 ran.

NR: Lunar Knot, Powerfulstorm. 3l, 3Kl. A McCabe.

2.40 (5f) 1, Spirit of Zeb (D Nolan, 11-10 fav); 2, Crosse Fire (15-2); 3, Seychelloise (8-1).

9 ran. 1l, 2l. R Fahey.

3.10 (2m) 1, Kingscombe (R Havlin, 7-1); 2, Cousin Khee (13-8 fav); 3, Moidore (7-2).

6 ran. Nk, 14l. Mrs L Jewell.

3.40 (1m 3f) 1, Reve De Nuit (S De Sousa, 8-15 fav); 2, Layline (14-1); 3, Lean On Pete (100-30).

7 ran. 15l, 1l. K Burke.

4.10 (5f) 1, Extreme Supreme (D Swift, 4-5 fav); 2, Big City Boy (8-1); 3, Saved My Bacon (12-1).

9 ran. 1Nl, 3Kl. D Shaw.

Placepot: £664.60.

Quadpot: £74.10.

Kempton Park Going: standard

4.35 (7f) 1, Rockaroundtheclock (G Baker, 3-1 fav); 2, Red Perdita (7-2); 3, Rialto Magic (8-1).

13 ran. Kl, 1N. P F I Cole.

5.10 (1m) 1, Gracefilly (Antonio Fresu, 7-1); 2, Carrera (7-2 fav); 3, Cueca (33-1). 12 ran. 3Ol, Kl. Ed Walker.

5.40 (1m) 1, Ertikaan (G Baker, 11-4); 2, Gannicus (20-1); 3, Stormbound (9-4 fav).

13 ran. NR: Russian Remarque. Ol, 1Ol. Miss J Ellis.

6.10 (1m) 1, Miss Buckshot (David Probert, 6-1); 2, Glorious Sun (9-4 fav); 3, Cricklewood Green (16-1). 8 ran. 1Kl, 1l. Rae Guest.

6.40 (1m 3f) 1, Innoko (L Morris, 9-2); 2, Mcbirney (9-4 fav); 3, Brown Pete (8-1). 8 ran.

Nk, 3Kl. A W Carroll.

7.10 (7f) 1, Stonefield Flyer (G Baker, 15-8 fav); 2, Another Try (33-1); 3, Rich Again (5-1).

11 ran. Ol, nk. K Dalgleish.

Placepot: £21.80.

Quadpot: £6.40.

56

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Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

Sport Rugby union

Lancaster keeps promise after May conquers lateral thinking Owen Slot Chief Rugby Correspondent

One of the best dummies sold by England in recent memory was the one

by Stuart Lancaster himself in New Zealand in the summer, when he dropped Jonny May for the second international. At that moment, it seemed safe to take your eyes off May, because he was unlikely to be back.

So when May is named officially tomorrow in the starting XV to play New Zealand on Saturday, it not only says a lot about the resilience of May himself in fighting his way back into the team, but also something about the selection policy.

There was further news as to the thinking of the England management on the back three yesterday when Alex Goode, the Saracens full back, was released back to his club. Anthony Watson will now start on the bench for England for the first time at Twickenham, a significant promotion. Jack Nowell and Marland Yarde are also surplus to requirements; the pecking order has had a considerable shake-up.

It is not a surprise to see Nowell go; he just has not had enough rugby recently and has trained little during the England camp. But rewind four and a bit months to the blighted England tour to New Zealand and Yarde was one of the few out-and-out successes. Yarde played all three internationals; May played the first and was dropped.

6 Dave Attwood will be available to play against New Zealand on Saturday after his fiancée, Bridget, gave birth to their first child last night. Attwood is expected to rejoin the England camp tomorrow.

George Kruis, the Saracens lock, will provide second-row cover for Attwood and Courtney Lawes after being confirmed as one of three uncapped players in England’s 23-man squad. “It will be fine,” Graham Rowntree, the England forwards coach, said. “I’m expecting Dave to be back in on Thursday, able to train a happy man.”

DAVID ROGERS / GETTY IMAGES

John Westerby

Hope over experience England’s wing pairing on Saturday of Semesa Rokoduguni and Jonny May will have seven caps between them. Compare this with the totals of the four southern-hemisphere nations when they last played.

Argentina Juan Imhoff and Lucas Amorosino 62 caps Australia Adam Ashley-Cooper and Joe Tomane 112 New Zealand Cory Jane and Charles Piutau 65 South Africa Bryan Habana and Cornal Hendricks 112

Yarde’s reputation went forward; May’s took a few steps back.

The England wings seem to be engaged in international rugby snakes and ladders. A few steps forward, then down a snake. Chris Ashton has been up and down more than anyone. Yarde was up then down. England’s selections here are often brave, they often put faith in youth (Nowell) and they are prepared to experiment (Manu Tuilagi), but what they are not is consistent.

May was not only dropped from the side after that Auckland match, he was left out completely from the squad. His place on the wing went to Tuilagi, his place on the bench went to Ashton. He is prone to running laterally across the pitch to find the gap through which to burst forward, but against the All Blacks, he simply could not find the gaps. Lancaster seemed to be making a considerable statement before the second international when he said of May that he had seen enough of him.

However, May got home and got his head down and has shown the form that won him his place back. What he brings is an element of the unexpected, which can be dangerous in both a positive and a negative way. His game development was all about cutting out the negative danger. Clearly he has cut out enough to convince Lancaster.

Wings require full repertoire for long career, insists Cueto

Wing and a prayer: May, the Gloucester back, will line up against New Zealand at Twickenham after failing to convince against them on England’s summer tour

While May was impressing the management, Watson made a late burst himself. He suffered an early-season injury that did not help his standing, but he was outstanding in the European Champions Cup against Toulouse 11 days ago and his form has been reflected in this elevation to the bench.

Watson is the genuine shooting star of this England squad. If there are late claims for a World Cup starting place next September, his will be one of them.

Lancaster, thus, has been true to his pledge to pick on form. The selection of Semesa Rokoduguni on the right wing on Saturday is the clearest statement of all that form wins England caps.

However, the balancing act that Lancaster is having to master is weigh-

ing up form selections versus consistent ones. What if Rokoduguni stops scoring heaps of tries in December and January and Christian Wade starts instead?

Does Wade suddenly become the man in possession?

Somewhere in all of this, experience and consistency have to come into play.

Lancaster values form, but he also wants a team who amass more than 500 Test caps before the World Cup. He will never build experience on the wings if their identity carries on changing.

At some point, Lancaster needs to decide who is best for the job, then back them and improve them as much as possible for the World Cup. The intention must be to grow experience, not to restart the learning process.

As England prepare to announce yet another pair of wings today, with Semesa Rokoduguni set to make his debut, it is instructive to look down the list of most-capped players in the positions.

Way ahead with 85 caps is Rory Underwood, but only two others — Ben Cohen (54) and Mark Cueto (51) — have reached a half-century. In fourth place comes Chris Ashton, stalled on 38 caps. Those figures tell the story that England have seldom enjoyed sustained periods of stability on the wings.

Cueto won his caps between 2004 and 2011. At 34, he is now in his 14th and final season with Sale Sharks before retirement and has watched the position evolve over the years.

It is no longer enough to be a high-class finisher, as Christian Wade knows; it is no longer enough merely to score a hatful of tries at club level, as Ashton and David Strettle are painfully aware. A wing must have a fully rounded game, including positional sense, relentless kick-chase, aerial ability and tactical kicking. It helps if he scores tries, too.

“When I started playing, you could just get the ball and run,” Cueto said.

“Now you’ve got to understand the game almost as well as a fly half or scrum half.”

Cueto also started four internationals for England at full back, testament to the way he developed in tune with the game. “In my early days, you could catch the eye as a winger if you came off your wing, but now that’s taken for granted,” he said. “As long as you were fast and could catch a high ball, you could get by.

“Now you’ve got to be so much more aware of your positioning, your tactical kicking. There’s so much work off the ball now and if you don’t do it, you’ll soon get exposed.”

Exclusive to members

Video The wing wonders who are vying for England inclusion On tablet and at thetimes.co.uk/rugbyunion

Farrell says he is ready to lead the charge against All Blacks Alex Lowe

England began to drum out their mantra of “no fear” yesterday as preparations to face New Zealand were cranked up a notch with a double training session. Owen Farrell said that England will take the game to the All Blacks and the Saracens fly half insisted that he is ready to marshal the attack, despite having played in only one full match all season.

Farrell did not appear to be firing on all cylinders when he returned from a quad strain to play for Saracens against Munster on October 24, but he completed the full 80 minutes and has retained the faith of the England management for Saturday’s clash with the All Blacks at Twickenham. George Ford will be on the bench. “I’d be

confident [to start], yeah,” Farrell said.

“I’ve kept up to speed with everything.

I’ve done my work off the field and also kept up with my skills on it. I was watching enough rugby that I was still improving, even though I was injured.

“As a fly half, you try to watch a game and see all the decisions that have been made and what you’d do in that situation. Sometimes doing that is better than having a training session.”

Farrell will be servicing yet another new midfield combination of Kyle Eastmond, whose attacking instincts troubled New Zealand in the summer, and Brad Barritt, with Semesa Rokoduguni and Jonny May providing the firepower from the wings.

England’s high tempo and can-do attitude almost earned them a victory

Farrell showed the after-effects of his injury on his return against Munster

over the All Blacks in Auckland in June, and they have no intention of easing off the gas, despite having lost four times in a year to the world champions.

“We have to be positive,” Farrell said.

“We won’t go into the game trying to hold them out, we will have a go.”

England returned from New Zealand aware of the need to improve their fitness. The All Blacks scored late to win in Auckland and repeated the trick against Australia in Brisbane last month.

“The amount of games they have won in the last couple of minutes, you’ve got to be with them,” Graham Rowntree, the England forwards coach, said.

“We are fitter than we have been. We want to play that brand of rugby as well, an all-court game, wide and powerful.

They are not invincible. They have got a hell of a record that we have to respect, but again we have to go on that field believing in ourselves and what we can bring at home.”

Rowntree urged his players to draw strength from the haka. “The crowd are usually singing at that point,” he said.

“You have to absorb that occasion because it is a special moment and use it to motivate you as well.”

England (probable): M Brown (Harlequins); S Rokoduguni (Bath), B Barritt (Saracens), K Eastmond (Bath), J May (Gloucester); O Farrell (Saracens), D Care (Harlequins); J Marler (Harlequins), D Hartley (Northampton Saints), D Wilson (Bath), C Lawes (Northampton Saints), D Attwood (Bath), T Wood (Northampton Saints), C Robshaw (Harlequins), B Vunipola (Saracens). Replacements: R Webber (Bath), M Mullan (Wasps), K Brookes (Newcastle Falcons), G Kruis (Saracens), B Morgan (Gloucester), B Youngs (Leicester Tigers), G Ford (Bath), A Watson (Bath).

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

57

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Rugby union Sport

England aim to cancel Savea freak show MICHAEL BRADLEY / GETTY IMAGES

Rick Broadbent

If England are to lay down a marker for the World Cup against the All Blacks, they will need to stifle the brute brilliance of man already heading for super-freak status.

Steve Hansen, the phlegmatic New Zealand head coach, set the tone for the generational debate by saying that Julian Savea was probably better than Jonah Lomu. Laurie Mains, the coach when Lomu trampled England into the Cape Town dust with four tries at the 1995 World Cup and inspired Will Carling to remark that the wing was a “freak and the sooner he goes away the better”, concurred.

One man who disagrees is Savea.

Never mind the peerless strike-rate of 29 tries in 30 appearances, he said: “When you talk about great wingers, then Jonah is the big one. I had his haircut and everything. It’s an honour for Steve to say that, but I don’t think anyone is ever going to be better than Jonah because he changed the way the game is played. He was the first. One in a million.”

Lomu scored 37 tries for the All Blacks in a career hampered by a serious kidney problem, while Joe Rokocoko, Savea’s “inspiration” and a hat-trick hero against England, has 46.

However, Savea’s defence and deftness have made him a one-man wrecking ball when it has come to England, scoring twice on each of his two visits to Twickenham as well as a hat-trick in the third international last summer.

Asked how to stop him, Kieran Read, the All Blacks No 8, was perplexed. “I’m

All Blacks’ deadliest finishers 1 Doug Howlett 49 tries in 62 internationals (2000-2007) 2= Christian Cullen 46 in 58 (1996-2002) 2= Joe Rokocoko 46 in 68 (2003-2010) 4 Jeff Wilson 44 in 60 (1993-2001) 5 Jonah Lomu 37 in 63 (1994-2002) 9= Julian Savea 29 in 30 (2012-present)

Thorn in their side: England will want to keep Savea, scorer of four tries in two matches at Twickenham, quiet on Saturday

the worst person to ask,” he said in reference to his Crusaders side falling to Savea and the Hurricanes. “It didn’t work for me this year.”

Such is Savea’s range of skills that he was even beating the world champions at conkers, pea-shooting and stone skimming this week during a surreal event hosted by AIG, the All Blacks’ official insurance partner, by the Serpentine in Hyde Park.

He is not getting carried away, though, and the 38-21 defeat by England in 2012 is a festering memory.

“That was a shock,” he said. “The way

they blew us off the park. I was gutted, the boys were gutted. It took me a few days to get over it, some might have dwelt on it longer. We tried to use that anger to get us motivated for the next game, but we don’t need to lose to get better.”

In recent games, the optimists have started to see chinks in the armour, a draw with Australia in August, a defeat

by South Africa last month. “We let ourselves down in terms of our standards against the Springboks,” Savea said. “The mood was pure disappointment. Everyone has their own

voice, but in the end we had to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask why we started so poorly. It was a lesson learnt.”

The All Blacks are occasionally hit by allegations of arrogance, albeit that anything less than unbridled belief would be self-deprecating folly, but Savea comes across as a humbled, guarded figure. Perhaps last year’s tearful apology and anger-management course after a very public assault charge chastened him. He was not convicted but was clearly regretful and is taking nothing for granted.

“We take one game a time and leave

it to the leaders to inspire us to the goals,” he said. “I just have to do my job.

All Blacks just worry about ourselves.”

The hard-fought summer series against England also means that no one in the All Blacks camp will be licking their lips at the prospect of a pack licking pre-match wounds.

“To us it was not an A team or a B team. We knew they would be tough.

We respect them. They have more in the backs now — the back three are not big boys but they are real quick and can raise the tempo. History shows it is harder to win a World Cup away from home, so this is an important game.”

Another big game on Saturday and the super-freak may start to mess with English minds as well as defences. As for the debate, Read moved it on a step.

Better than Lomu? “He is probably the best winger in the world at the moment,” he mused. Catch him if you can.

58

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Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

Sport Football

Donaldson double helps to make Rowett’s homecoming a delight 0 2 2 1

Cardiff City City Birmingham

Campbell, Donaldson212, 85

West Watford Ham United

C Forestieri Cole 42, 7Noble 90+3

Brendan McLoughlin

It is a long time since St Andrew’s has rocked like this. It was quite a home debut for Gary Rowett, the new manager, as he marked his bow with comfortably Birmingham’s best the result of the campaign, against the team who arrived as the Sky Bet Championship leaders, and maintained his unbeaten start.

It was achieved courtesy of a goal in each half from Clayton Donaldson — the decisive one arriving with five minutes remaining — and, although it was not sufficient to haul them out of the bottom three, goal difference is all that separates them and the sides above the safety line.

Watford, subsequently, no longer sit at the summit. They slipped to third and, on the balance of play, could have few arguments after failing to match the home side’s tireless workrate.

Having safely pocketed a point and clean sheet from Saturday’s first game in charge against neighbours Wolverhampton Wanderers, Rowett was afforded a warm welcome on emerging from the St Andrew’s tunnel for the first time since being appointed as Lee Clark’s successor.

It was not just the crowd who appeared roused by his arrival. Within

How they stand P W Bournemouth..........16 9 Middlesbrough........16 9 Watford .................. 16 8 Derby.......................16 8 Ipswich....................16 7 Wolves....................16 7 Norwich...................16 7 Blackburn................16 7 Charlton..................16 5 Nottm Forest..........15 5 Cardiff.....................16 6 Brentford................15 6 Reading...................16 6 Sheff Wed...............16 4 Huddersfield...........16 5 Millwall...................16 4 Leeds.......................16 4 Rotherham..............16 4 Wigan......................16 3 Brighton..................16 3 Fulham....................15 4 Birmingham............16 3 Bolton ..................... 16 4 Blackpool ................ 15 1

D L 3 4 3 4 5 3 5 3 6 3 6 3 5 4 5 4 9 2 7 3 4 6 4 5 3 7 8 4 5 6 6 6 5 7 5 7 7 6 7 6 3 8 6 7 2 10 3 11

MATT BUNN/REX FEATURES

F 33 26 30 28 24 22 24 26 19 23 21 18 22 12 24 17 17 15 17 16 22 14 17 8

A 16 12 18 16 17 17 17 23 18 19 21 20 26 14 28 21 23 24 19 19 28 29 26 24

GD 17 14 12 12 7 5 7 3 1 4 0 -2 -4 -2 -4 -4 -6 -9 -2 -3 -6 -15 -9 -16

Pts 30 30 29 29 27 27 26 26 24 22 22 22 21 20 20 18 17 17 16 16 15 15 14 6

Forestieri fire: the Watford striker rifles home to level the scores early in their defeat by Birmingham at St Andrew’s

two minutes his team had scored the first goal of his reign as a penetrative, purposeful start was rewarded.

There was an element of good fortune, admittedly, as Donaldson’s attempt from Stephen Gleeson’s cross took a decisive ricochet off Joel Ekstrand to leave Heurelho Gomes, the Watford goalkeeper, wrong-footed. It was a fairytale start for Rowett, a distinguished defender at the club between 1998 and 2000.

Birmingham’s home form has long been the lightning rod for their travails, however, and within five minutes the home hordes, who had seen their team beaten 8-0 on their previous outing here, were chastened by an all too familiar sinking feeling.

Lloyd Doyley’s left-wing centre found Fernando Forestieri and, having had his first effort repelled by Darren Randolph, the forward made no mistake the second time, lashing inside the

far post. Nor did the frenetic tempo abate. Lewis McGugan, among the second tier’s most mercurial performers, thrust a teasing ball across the face of Birmingham’s six-yard box that somehow evaded a bundle of bodies.

Credit to Birmingham, who had a record of just one win in their previous 25 home matches but showed scant signs of fragility as they laid siege to the Watford goal in search of a second goal as the interval approached. Andy Shinnie, unmarked at the back post, should have done better when picked out by Paul Caddis’s centre, while Paul Robinson had a header hooked away.

The visiting side, in turn, always looked a threat and Randolph’s reflexes were required to be flawless when Troy Deeney, a boyhood Birmingham fan, produced a strike that was destined for the top corner.

Gleeson volleyed wide from distance in the second half, while Juan Carlos

Paredes rushed to the rescue for the visiting team when he cut out a dangerous Koby Arthur cross. Next it was Watford’s turn to search for a winner.

Deeney fed Ikechi Anya but Randolph was smartly off his line to thwart the Scotland international.

Then the moment came.

Wes Thomas, a substitute, twisted and turned by the corner flag before laying the ball off to David Cotterill, whose pinpoint delivery was converted with a towering header by Donaldson.

Campbell, Murphy 35,2159

West Wolves Ham United

C Henry Cole 53 42, Noble 90+3

Derek Davis

0 2 2 1

It may not always be pretty, but Mick McCarthy’s methods as Ipswich Town manager are paying dividends.

Ipswich overtook Wolves and moved into the top six with this victory thanks to two goals from Daryl Murphy, their in-form striker.

Given Ipswich’s propensity to concede points after going ahead, the manner in which they managed to close out victory at Portman Road was also important.

Their 34th-minute opener from Murphy was superbly executed. The Republic of Ireland international cut sharply into the box from the right wing

Murphy continues his fine form by curling home the first of his two goals

and curled an angled shot across the keeper from the angle of the 18-yard box, and even though Carl Ikeme got a slight touch, he could not prevent the ball going in.

Wolves were level eight minutes after the interval when Bartosz Bialkowski,

making his first home start in place of the injured Dean Gerken, was left flatfooted and embarrassed when a James Henry cross curled in at the far post.

But Ipswich responded and David McGoldrick set up his strike partner for the second, after sustained pressure, six minutes later.

Murphy raced on to an immaculate through ball and finished with the confidence of a striker scoring his tenth goal of the campaign.

Statistically Ipswich play more long balls forward than any other team in the division so keeper Ikeme was playing the Manuel Neuer style sweeper role to good effect early on. Ikeme, however, was fortunate when Jay Tabb’s close range effort was straight at him after a clever chip from Stephen Hunt, and the keeper was alert when McGoldrick was free from a Hunt free kick.

Wolves were denied a good call for a

Gary Jacob Tripolis, Greece

Emmanuel Adebayor is expected to be left out of the Tottenham Hotspur squad that departs north London today, meaning that Harry Kane is likely to be part of the attacking quartet that starts against Asteras Tripolis in the Europa League tomorrow.

Adebayor, who has been complaining of a hamstring injury, has not travelled for a Europa League game in more than a year and the inclusion of Kane for the group C tie would seem to deal a blow to his chances of starting his first Barclays Premier League match of the season, against Stoke City on Sunday, because Mauricio Pochettino, the head coach, has rotated his strikers between the competitions this season.

Kane hoped to have moved up the pecking order after taking his tally to seven goals in as many games. He was named man of the match after scoring the winning goal with a deflected free kick in the 2-1 win away to Aston Villa on Sunday, after going on when Tottenham were trailing. He has played 95 minutes in six appearances as a substitute in the league.

Pochettino has said that his postmatch analysis of Kane has led him to drop the striker after Europa League games, while also wanting to share the playing time to try to keep his squad fresh for the winter. He has declined to explain the specifics of his analysis.

The striker plundered a hat-trick against Asteras a fortnight ago and was unhappy to lose his place when Tottenham lost 2-1 to Newcastle United three days later.

Ferdinand to accept ban for ‘sket’ tweet Matt Hughes

Birmingham City (4-1-2-3): D Randolph — P Caddis, M Morrison, P Robinson, J Grounds — S Gleeson — D Davis, A Shinnie (sub: W Thomas, 79min)— K Arthur (sub: D Gray, 74), C Donaldson, D Cotterill. Substitutes not used: C Doyle, N Eardley, D Edgar, B Shea, C Reilly.

Booked: Davis.

Watford (4-3-2-1): H Gomes — J C Paredes, T Hoban, J Ekstrand, L Doyley — L McGugan, D Tozser, I Anya — F Forestieri (sub: M Vydra, 75), O Ighalo (sub: K Andrews, 59) — T Deeney. Substitutes not used: J Bond, C Cathcart, D Pudil, L Dyer, S Murray. Booked: Andrews, Deeney.

Referee: M Heywood.

Ipswich gather momentum thanks to Murphy Cardiff City Ipswich Town

Adebayor not part of Spurs travel plans

penalty when substitute Michael Jacobs was pushed over by Tommy Smith while chasing a ball over the defence. Kenny Jackett’s side had been disrupted by an early injury to Dave Edwards who was replaced in the 14th minute by Michael Jacobs, who himself was substituted in the second half.

The defeat was only the second away from home for Wolves this season, with Ipswich, winning, and not dropping points after going ahead, for the first time in three home matches.

Ipswich Town (4-4-2): B Bialkowski — L Chambers, T Smith, C Berra, T Mings — J Tabb (sub: D Ambrose, 79min), L Hyam, K Bru, S Hunt (sub: P Anderson, 76) — D Murphy, D McGoldrick (sub: C Sammon, 90).

Substitutes not used: M Crowe, B Bajner, E Hewitt, A Henshall. Booked: Chambers, Hyam, Bru. Wolverhampton Wanderers: (4-2-3-1): C Ikeme — M Doherty, D Batth, E Ebanks-Landell, T Rowe — K McDonald, L Evans — D Edwards (sub: M Jacobs, 14; sub: L McAlinden, 79), J Henry (R van La Parra, 82), B Sako — L Clarke. Substitutes not used: T Kuszczak, R Stearman, G Saville, S Ricketts. Booked: Doherty, Clarke.

Rio Ferdinand has opted against contesting the length of his threematch ban for using the word “sket” after examining the written reasons for the punishment. The Queens Park Rangers defender remains angry about being given a playing suspension for what was an off-field offence — which runs counter to the FA’s usual disciplinary procedure — but is said to believe that challenging it would be futile.

Under FA rules, Ferdinand is permitted to challenge the length of the ban and the £25,000 fine he has been given, but not the three-man independent commission’s guilty verdict. Ferdinand used the word “sket” — slang for a promiscuous woman — in an exchange on Twitter in August in response to critical comments from a fan about his performances for QPR. His club received the written reasons behind the sanction on Monday and both parties came to the conclusion not to appeal. Sources close to the player claim that he was unhappy with the composition of the three-man panel.

Ferdinand’s lawyers had already written to the FA stating their view that he had no case to answer.

The former England captain has also been ordered to attend an education programme. The FA will publish the written reasons behind the sanction today. It is the second time Ferdinand has been reprimanded by the FA for his use of Twitter after he was fined for appearing to endorse a description of Ashley Cole as a “choc ice” in 2012.

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

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Comment Sport

Mythical model of the modern manager Matthew Syed Sports Columnist and Feature Writer of the Year

I

s Ronald Koeman a good manager? It seems like a silly question, doesn’t it? Of course he is. Southampton have won seven games out of ten in the Barclays Premier League despite a squad that was weakened over the summer. They have a watertight defence. As one pundit put it: “Koeman has gelled the team together brilliantly.” That is why he has a remarkable “track record”.

In the world of finance, they also emphasise the importance of a good track record. If you were going to invest your cash with a fund manager, isn’t this what you would look for?

Someone who has performed above the market, not just once, but consistently? A chap who turns up at your door who has beaten the market for a few straight years must be a genius. It is basic statistics, isn’t it?

Or is it? Suppose there are 100 fund managers in the City and that all of them perform no better than chance.

They think hard about their investment decisions, but in any given year, their odds of beating the market are 50-50. Nevertheless, about 50 of them would beat the market in year one, just through luck. Of those 50, 25 would also beat the market in year two. Of those 25, around 12 or 13 would also beat the market in year three.

These “winners” would look brilliant. Analysts would point to the wisdom of their investing decisions.

Their companies would dress up their track records in glossy brochures. Yet, in the following year, half of them would fail. Perhaps we would “explain” these disasters with reference to hubris, or arrogance, or taking their eye off the ball. We might choose to focus on the six or seven who still have pristine track records.

They are the real winners. Well, at least until next year.

The point here is that randomness, on its own, creates what look like patterns. If you toss a coin a hundred times, you are likely to obtain at least one sequence of four heads in a row and one sequence of four tails. That is just how random tosses come out. It would be almost impossible to throw a coin a hundred times and observe no long sequences at all. The problem is that we get excited about patterns, even when they may be illusory.

Football, although a game of skill, is shaped by luck. Sometimes the luck is easy to see: a bad decision by a referee, a deflection that turns into a goal, etc. More often, however, the luck is concealed within the cacophony of collisions, rebounds, and other subtle factors that, over the course of 90 minutes, lead to a goal here and there. It is largely for this reason that poor teams sometimes

STEVE BARDENS / GETTY IMAGES

High flyers: only the longer term can provide a true measure of the qualities of Koeman, below, for all his progress so far

was under pressure. He had lost his knack. Perhaps he had lost his mojo.

Then, Pardew, incredibly, superbly, turned it around. He had found his coaching vision. He had discovered the optimum tactical plan. Or, as one pundit put it: “He has figured out how to inspire his players at precisely the right moment.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the mathematician, has coined the phrase the narrative fallacy. This is the way in which we retrospectively “explain” random events. In December 2003, for example, when Saddam Hussein was captured, Bloomberg News flashed the following headline at 1.01pm: “US treasuries rise; Hussein capture may

beat good teams and why, over any period, you will always get some teams who perform above and others who perform below expectation.

This is not to say that managerial skill is irrelevant; quite the contrary. It is merely to say that by neglecting the effects of randomness, we tend to overplay its significance, particularly in the short run (which is pretty much the only time horizon in football). Newcastle United are a case in point. They are an average Premier League team. They lost three of their opening seven matches in the league (and drew the others) and have since won three on the trot. If you look at their performance since August, it is largely around expectation.

Yet, according to many analysts, Newcastle have experienced a miraculous turnaround. They were terrible in the beginning. Alan Pardew

not curb terrorism.” Half an hour later, as prices fell, they issued a new headline: “US treasuries fall: Hussein capture boosts allure of risky assets.”

These were largely random fluctuations in bond prices. But analysts felt the need (almost an itch) to provide “explanations”. So when the bonds went up, it was because of Saddam’s capture, which was the biggest news story of the day. Then, when they went down, they used the very same explanation. They probably didn’t even notice the contradiction.

The narrative fallacy is so powerful that it chugs along on autopilot. And this is precisely why Pardew was facing the sack, but is now being hailed as a candidate for manager of the month.

Occasionally, there are

managers (such as Sir Alex Ferguson) who perform above the line linking results to the size of the wage bill, but very few do so consistently. Most managers perform above and below trend at almost random intervals. But it seems difficult for people within football to accept this. They would far rather attribute every fluctuation and bump to the judgment, or lack of it, of a manager. That is why managers are sacked and eulogised in roughly equal proportion.

Perhaps the underlying reason for all this can be glimpsed in the work of Sir James George Frazer, the great anthropologist, as Simon Barnes has noted. Frazer writes of the temporary king, an ancient leader who had complete authority. But his real job was not to rule, but to die. When the crops were harvested, he was deified.

When they failed, he was sacrificed.

Crops were too important to be left to chance; in that sense, the occult power of the temporary ruler was a necessary myth. It provided an opportunity for moral clarity, an opportunity to apportion praise and blame, in a capricious world.

And so to the mythical powers of the modern football manager. Fans, it can probably be agreed, have a deep emotional investment in results. It is difficult and, in many ways, not very human to accept that many fluctuations in results are, at least in part, down to pure chance. Where is the moral clarity in that? Much more satisfying to heap praise or blame on the man in the spotlight. Isn’t this why managers run the gauntlet of adulation and condemnation, often within the same month, occasionally within the same week? They have become modern temporary kings.

Take almost any club in any country and you see this ancient ritual in action. Last season, Brendan Rodgers was a genius (Luis Suárez was, in fact, the real genius); today, his halo has slipped. After three games, Garry Monk was the next big thing; now the jury seems to be out. André Villas-Boas was acclaimed, reviled, then acclaimed again. Managerial skill is a real phenomenon, but randomness and chance are barely mentioned.

So, back to our original question: is Koeman a great manager? The answer is simple: it is still too early to say. What can be said is that his team have overperformed and will experience a regression to the mean.

Only over the long term, when we can distinguish between signal and noise, will we be able to assess his genuine quality. In that time frame, however, he may have been sacrificed.

Elevation and immolation: the perennial fate of the temporary king.

Last night’s results Champions League Group A Juventus

(1) 3

Real Madrid

Olympiacos

(1) 2

Botia 24 Ndinga 61 36,000

Malmo

Atletico Madrid(1) 2

20,000

Group B Basle

Embolo 34 Gonzalez 41 Gashi 59 Suchy 65

(2) 4

L F A GD Pts 1 10 3 7 9 2 6 7 -1 6 2 5 4 1 6 3 2 9 -7 3

Ludogorets 35,272

(0) 0

•Table on page 70

Benfica

Koke 30 Raul Garcia 78

P W D Atletico Madrid.....4 3 0 Olympiakos...........4 2 0 Juventus ............... 4 2 0 Malmo ..................4 1 0

Liverpool 75,000

Group C

Pirlo 21 Roberto (og) 65 Pogba 66

(0) 0

(1) 1

Benzema 27

(0) 0

(0) 1

Conceicao 82

Zenit

Monaco

(0) 0

60,000

(0) 1

Rondon 89 21,000

Leverkusen

(0) 2

Son Heung-Min 68, 73

P W D Leverkusen............4 3 0 Monaco..................4 1 2 Zenit .....................4 1 1 Benfica..................4 1 1

L 1 0 2 2

F A GD Pts 7 3 4 9 1 0 1 5 3 4 -1 4 2 5 -3 4

Group D Arsenal

(2) 3

Arteta 25 (pen) Sanchez 29 Oxlade-Chamberlain 58

Anderlecht

(0) 3

Vanden Borre 61, 73 (pen), Mitrovic 90 60,000

B Dortmund

(1) 4

Galatasaray

Reus 39 Papastathopoulos 54 Immobile 73 Kaya (og) 84 •Table on page 68

Balta 69 78,000

Birmingham (1) 2

Watford

Donaldson 2, 85 18,309

Forestieri 7

Bolton

Cardiff

(1) 3

(1) 1 (0) 0

12,961

(1) 1

Wigan

Derby

(2) 3

Huddersfield (1) 2

Ibe 7, Russell 45+1 Dawkins 77

Ipswich

Murphy 35, 59 17,267

(1) 2

23,044

(0) 0

Bunn 22, Hudson 90+4 27,153

Wolves

Henry 53

(0) 2

Mowatt 49, 67 18,698

Brighton

Gardner 1

Leeds Middlesbro

Sky Bet Championship

Feeney 9, 36 Mills 76

(0) 1

(0) 1

Charlton

(0) 2

Berg Gudmundsson 62, 81 (pen)

(2) 4

Norwich

Bamford 5 Leadbitter 33 (pen), 69 Wildschut 85

16,468

Millwall

Blackburn

(0) 2

(0) 0

(1) 2

Martin 72 Duffy 37, Gestede 65 Williams 88 8,250 Red card: A Wilkinson (Millwall) 61

Reading

(1) 3

Mackie 29 Cox 55, 64

Sheff Wed

Rotherham

(0) 0

13,775

(0) 0

16,881

Bournemouth (0) 2

Surman 65 Fraser 69 Red card: R Drenthe (Sheff Wed) 60 •Table on page 66

League One Swindon

(0) 1

Preston

6,646 P W D L Bristol City..........16 10 6 0 Preston................16 9 4 3 Swindon..............16 8 5 3 MK Dons..............14 8 3 3 Rochdale..............15 8 2 5 Notts County ...... 15 7 5 3 Peterboro............16 8 2 6 Sheff Utd ............ 15 8 2 5 Oldham................16 6 7 3 Fleetwood Town.16 6 4 6 Chesterfield........16 5 5 6 Barnsley..............15 5 4 6 Port Vale.............16 5 4 7 Bradford..............16 5 4 7 Crawley...............16 5 4 7 Walsall................16 4 6 6 Doncaster............14 5 3 6 Colchester...........16 4 5 7 Coventry..............16 4 5 7 Leyton O..............16 3 7 6

(0) 0

Williams 84

F 33 28 32 29 29 22 25 22 23 18 23 23 22 20 15 14 14 22 20 17

A 17 17 19 16 15 14 19 19 18 16 24 24 24 22 25 16 21 24 27 22

GD Pts 16 36 11 31 13 29 13 27 14 26 8 26 6 26 3 26 5 25 2 22 -1 20 -1 19 -2 19 -2 19 -10 19 -2 18 -7 18 -2 17 -7 17 -5 16

Scunthorpe..........16 4 3 9 19 30 -11 Gillingham...........16 3 5 8 14 22 -8 Yeovil..................16 3 5 8 12 26 -14 Crewe..................16 4 2 10 13 32 -19 Vanarama Conference: Braintree Town Grimsby 1, Lincoln City 1 Altrincham 2.

15 14 14 14 0

Scottish Championship Cowdenbeath (0) 0

Rangers

3,919

Law 3 Miller (og) 55 Templeton 85

P W D Hearts.................11 9 2 Rangers...............11 8 1 Queen of South...11 5 3 Hibernian ............ 11 4 3 Raith Rovers.......11 4 3 Falkirk.................11 3 5 Dumbarton..........11 2 4 Livingston...........11 2 3 Alloa Athletic......11 2 2 Cowdenbeath......11 2 2

L 0 2 3 4 4 3 5 6 7 7

F 32 30 21 16 14 14 8 10 11 12

(1) 3

A 6 10 16 12 22 14 21 18 19 30

GD Pts 26 29 20 25 5 18 4 15 -8 15 0 14 -13 10 -8 9 -8 8 -18 8

60

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Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

Sport Champions League

Happy hour gives way to late collapse and leaves Arsenal nursing a hangover Cardiff City Arsenal

Arteta 25 (pen), Sánchez 29, Campbell, 21 Oxlade-Chamberlain 58

West Ham United Anderlecht

C Cole 42, Noble Vanden Borre 61,90+3 73 (pen), Mitrovic 90

Matt Hughes Deputy Football Correspondent

0 3 2 1 3

Arsenal may possess the player of the season so far, Alexis Sánchez, but individual awards will be the only honours they contest at the end of the campaign if they continue to defend so shambolically.

Arsène Wenger’s side somehow contrived to throw away a three-goal lead in a crazy final half-hour against opponents who have finished bottom of their previous seven Champions League groups, Anderlecht gaining revenge for their cruel defeat a fortnight ago thanks to Aleksandar Mitrovic’s stoppage-time header.

Arsenal should still join Borussia Dortmund in qualifying for the knockout stages for a 15th successive year, but such an achievement felt a long way off last night as the atmosphere turned sour at a rainsoaked Emirates Stadium. That felt particularly harsh on the outstanding Sánchez, who, instead of being carried from the pitch, left it with boos ringing in his ears.

Not even his qualities can compensate for deficiencies at the other end of the pitch, a fact that Brendan Rodgers must also accept as he laments the loss of Liverpool’s proposed replacement for Luis Suárez that got away.

Sánchez scored a wonder goal last night and created two others before Arsenal’s late collapse. He has now scored 11 goals in 13 matches and five in his past three, giving Arsenal an instant uplift not seen since Dennis Bergkamp’s transformative arrival almost 20 years ago.

Arsenal had lacked sharpness for much of the first half, but Sánchez was their biggest threat throughout and he gradually took control of the game Arsenal (4-2-3-1): W Szczesny — C Chambers, P Mertesacker, N Monreal, K Gibbs — M Arteta (sub: M Flamini, 62min), A Oxlade-Chamberlain (sub: T Rosicky, 82) — A Ramsey, A Sánchez, S Cazorla — D Welbeck (sub: L Podolski, 82). Substitutes not used: E Martínez, T Walcott, Y Sanogo, H Bellerín. Booked: Monreal.

Anderlecht (4-2-3-1): S Proto — A Vanden Borre, C Mbemba (sub: L Dendoncker, 54), O Deschacht, F Acheampong — S Kljestan, Y Tielemans — A Najar, D Praet, I Conté (sub: A Kawaya, 45) — G Cyriac (sub: A Mitrovic, 62). Substitutes not used: D Roef, M Colin, M Heylen, N Kabasele. Booked: Kljestan, Mitrovic.

Referee: C Turpin (France).

Group D

P W B Dortmund (Q)...........4 4 Arsenal.........................4 2 Anderlecht....................4 0 Galatasaray..................4 0

D 0 1 2 1

ADRIAN DENNIS / GETTY IMAGES

L F A GD Pts 0 13 1 12 12 1 9 7 2 7 2 5 9 -4 2 3 3 13 -10 1

Effort in vain: Sánchez, Arsenal’s most dangerous player, smashes home his team’s second goal on the way to a 3-0 lead that they squandered in the final half-hour

almost single-handedly. He had provided an early notice of his intentions in the seventh minute by shooting wide after a typically brisk run down the left, then went even closer to scoring when hitting a post after a good run down the right from Calum Chambers, but being alive to Sánchez’s danger is very different to being able to neutralise it.

Anderlecht had also threatened, Dennis Praet having a shot deflected wide by Per Mertesacker and Sacha Kljestan being denied by a good save from Wojciech Szczesny, so they will have been even more frustrated that Arsenal’s first goal was largely selfinflicted.

Sánchez was involved, of course, receiving possession from Aaron

Ramsey and playing a wonderful angled ball through to Danny Welbeck, but there was no need for Chancel Mbemba Mangulu to challenge the England striker in such a clumsy manner and concede the ugliest of penalties. Mikel Arteta beat Silvio Proto from the spot with a chip down the centre of goal in the 25th minute.

Arsenal’s second goal four minutes later was all about Sánchez, both in its exquisite creation and stunning execution. Having carried the ball past several opponents at extreme pace from his own half to win a free kick on the edge of the area, he proceeded to take it himself — no one was going to argue — but it was his subsequent actions that took the breath away.

Seeing the ball hit the wall was not a

setback to Sánchez, who returned it past Anderlecht’s dumbfounded defenders with interest with a powerfully struck volley that beat Proto low at his near post. It was one of those goals that instantly demands a second viewing — “did I really see that? — and even Arsenal’s players indulged themselves by glancing up at the big screen.

Arsenal seemed to be on cruise control for much of the second half, which proved their undoing after Sánchez’s tenacity presented OxladeChamberlain with the chance to score his second goal of the season.

Unfortunately, Sánchez’s teammates are more prone to switching off, and some characteristically slack defending gave the visiting team hope

of a thrilling comeback as Anthony Vanden Borre scored twice in 12 minutes. Vanden Borre was offside when he tapped in Ibrahima Conté’s cross in the 61st minute, but Anderlecht’s second goal was less excusable as Nacho Monreal conceded a penalty by needlessly grabbing Mitrovic, the burly Belgian making no mistake from the spot. The visiting team’s third in added time was even worse from Arsenal’s perspective, with Mitrovic stooping low in front of Mertesacker to divert Andy Najar’s cross beyond Wojciech Szczesny.

Wenger may be enjoying some of the benefits from shopping at Tiffany’s after years at Carrefour, but his sparkling attacking gems will bring him nothing without a defensive rock.

Dortmund prove qualified success on good night for Germany Bill Edgar

Borussia Dortmund qualified for the Champions League knockout phase last night by winning 4-1 at home to Galatasaray.

The German club moved five points clear of Arsenal at the top of group D after recording a fourth victory in as many games.

A brilliant pass by Lukasz Piszczek allowed Marco Reus to put Dortmund ahead just before the break and Sokratis Papastathopoulos doubled the lead from close range.

Hakan Balta replied for Galatasaray with a near-post header in the 69th minute but Ciro Immobile, a Dortmund substitute, made it 3-1 soon after. The scoring was completed when Immobile’s cut-back induced an own goal by Semih Kaya.

On a good night for Germany, Bayer Leverkusen took a giant stride towards the round of 16 when they beat Zenit St Petersburg 2-1 in Russia in group C. Son Heung Min scored twice in five minutes to set Leverkusen on course for victory. The South Korea forward struck his first goal from 25 yards to

Knockout blow: Reus sets Dortmund on their way to a place in the last 16

round off a brilliant free-kick routine and steered home the second after he was teed up by Stefan Kiessling. José Rondón, a Zenit substitute, volleyed home a reply in the 89th minute.

Benfica moved level with Zenit on four points at the bottom of the group by beating Monaco 1-0 in Portugal.

Talisca, the Brazilian midfielder, scored eight minutes from time at a corner.

Juventus came from behind to beat Olympiacos 3-2 in Turin in group A. Andrea Pirlo marked his 100th Champions League appearance by scoring from a free kick, but the Greek

champions soon equalised through a header by Alberto Botía.

Delvin N’Dinga headed Olympiacos in front in the 61st minute, but within five minutes they were 3-2 down. First Fernando Llorente’s header went in via a post and Roberto, the unfortunate goalkeeper, and then Llorente’s cross found Paul Pogba, who scored at the second attempt.

Atletico Madrid moved top of the group as they completed a double over Malmo with a 2-0 win in Sweden.

Crosses by Juanfran led to a goal in each half by Koke and Raúl García.

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

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Champions League Sport

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER, BRADLEY ORMESHER

Mourinho tired of complaining about wearying workload Rory Smith Maribor

Stretched resources: Mangala trains yesterday at the Etihad Stadium, where he hopes to return against CSKA this evening

Pellegrini admits win is vital for group therapy James Ducker Northern Football Correspondent

Manuel Pellegrini momentarily allowed his thoughts to wander yesterday to the Champions League knockout stage and the prospect of winning the competition, but the Manchester City manager knows that neither he nor his players can afford to look beyond this evening at present.

Convinced that City’s Champions League fate will come down to their final group E match against Roma in the Italian capital on December 10, Pellegrini refused to paint the visit of CSKA Moscow to the Etihad Stadium tonight as a “death match”, but the Chilean did not attempt to play down its importance.

If City beat CSKA and Roma lose in Germany to Bayern Munich, the runaway group leaders who won 7-1 in Rome last month, the Barclays Premier League champions will leapfrog the Serie A club into second place with two matches remaining.

Yet a draw or, worse still, a defeat by CSKA, against whom they threw away a two-goal lead in Russia to draw 2-2, coupled with a point or win for Roma at the Allianz Arena, would leave City at grave risk of elimination at the group stage for the third time in four seasons.

“I think it is a very important game, but it is not a death match because until 6 Police are to investigate claims that Yaya Touré, the Manchester City midfielder, was racially abused within hours of reactivating his Twitter account on Monday. Touré, 31, quit the social networking site five months ago to focus on the Ivory Coast’s World Cup campaign but within hours of sending his first tweet, he was subjected to racist insults. “For me, it’s a disgrace,” Touré said. “We need to do something to try to tell people those kinds of behaviour have to stop. To have such aggression in sport, I can’t understand that. Football doesn’t have a colour.”

mathematics [dictate otherwise], you can continue,” Pellegrini said. “We must win this game because we have just two points and three games to play, but we don’t consider it a final game.

“We don’t know [what will be needed to qualify]. It will depend on what the other teams do also. It is impossible to be sure but I think this group will be decided in the last game in Italy against Roma.”

Given their present plight, the notion of City winning the Champions League this term may seem rather fanciful, but Pellegrini suggested that his players could take inspiration from those teams who have muddled through the group stage in the past and gone on to triumph in the competition.

Under José Mourinho in 2009-10, Inter Milan finished second in their group with nine points after two wins, three draws and a defeat, but then beat Chelsea, CSKA, Barcelona and Bayern Munich to lift the trophy. Liverpool put an indifferent group stage behind them in 2004-05, when they came second with ten points, to eclipse AC Milan in the final in Istanbul. A place in the final in Berlin on June 6 next year may seem a long way off for City at this delicate stage, but Pellegrini remains optimistic.

“There are teams that qualified with few points and then after that they won the Champions League,” he said. “They are different moments. Of course our target is always to try and win the Champions League. We must put in our mind that we are able to do it. Maybe there are also five or six squads better than our squad or [at] the same level that also want to do it, but with a winning mentality and an ambitious mind, you must always think you can do it. I think we have time to prove it.”

City will be without Aleksandar Kolarov against CSKA, the Serbia defender having been ruled out for a month after suffering a calf injury during the warm-up before the 1-0 derby win over Manchester United on Sunday. Frank Lampard and David Silva are also out, but Eliaquim Mangala, the centre half, is available after missing the United match with a stiff hip.

There will be no risk of a repeat of the 8,000 empty seats at the Eitihad Stadium for City’s last Champions League home match, a 1-1 draw against Roma in September. With supporters having been offered two tickets for the price of one, tonight’s match is sold out, to the delight and no doubt relief of Pellegrini.

“It’s very important,” he said. “I have always said that when we win a game here it is because everyone does their job — the manager, the players and the fans.

“What has happened this year in our three Champions League games, we have time to address and I am sure we are going to address it.”

Group E

Man City v CSKA Moscow Kick-off 7.45pm TV Sky Sports 5

Radio BBC 5 Live Ref T Sidiropoulos (Greece)

Manchester City (possible; 4-4-2) Hart Zabaleta Kompany Demichelis Clichy Milner

Touré Fernandinho Nasri Dzeko

Agüero

Musa Milanov Eremenko

Natcho

Tosic

Schennikov Fernandes A Berezutski V Berezutski Ignashevich Akinfeev

CSKA Moscow (possible; 5-4-1) Group E Bayern Munich Roma Man City CSKA Moscow

P 3 3 3 3

W 3 1 0 0

D 0 1 2 1

L 0 1 1 2

F 9 7 3 3

A 1 9 4 8

Pts 9 4 2 1

In what is fast becoming a leitmotif of his second spell at Stamford Bridge, José Mourinho, the Chelsea manager, has once again made clear his displeasure with the Barclays Premier League fixture list, claiming that those charged with compiling the schedule are not listening to his concerns.

The Portuguese’s consternation is because his side, who face Maribor, the Slovenian champions, in Champions League group G this evening, will have little more than 48 hours to recover before they make the trip to Merseyside to face Liverpool on Saturday lunchtime.

The game is scheduled to be the first of the weekend, of course, because it is being shown on BT Sport, with whom Mourinho signed a three-year deal as a pundit this summer. He has yet to appear as a guest on the channel as part of that contract and it does not seem to have spared the broadcaster his wrath when it comes to the fixture list, either.

“I know, but what do you want me to do? What can I say?” he said, clearly exasperated when asked how he felt about the scheduling of the Liverpool match. “They [the authorities and broadcasters] are not listening [to his concerns], of course not. I did not even bother asking about changing the game [to Sunday].”

It is not the first time that Mourinho has made this complaint: last November he accused those in charge of compiling the fixtures of “laughing at” Chelsea, and he raised the topic again when the club’s crucial meeting with Liverpool last season was moved to a Sunday, despite them having to play Atletico Madrid in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final two days later.

This season, too, he was left mildly angered that Chelsea’s Capital One Cup trip to Shrewsbury Town was scheduled for a Tuesday night, despite the league leaders having been given the Sunday afternoon slot for their match against Manchester United at Old Trafford. He claimed after the win over Shrewsbury that asking players to perform twice in three days “should not be allowed.”

Despite the heavy workload, Mourinho acknowledged that he was unsure as to the extent to which he should rotate his squad, both for tonight’s encounter in Slovenia and in the coming weeks.

He accepts that fatigue could be an issue for the cadre of players who have featured in almost every game for him this season, but he maintained that he could not leave them out when playing well.

“Oscar was our best player against Queens Park Rangers, for me,” he said.

“Is he going on the bench against Maribor? Maybe, yes. It is not easy to rest a player who is my best. Does he need a rest? Maybe yes. Is it right to leave him out? I don’t know. I rotate.

Some players did not play against Shrewsbury, some did not play the first leg with Maribor. We are controlling it.”

He has, at least, managed to draw the sting from the rumbling discord with his own club’s fans. Mourinho commented after the victory over QPR that playing at Stamford Bridge was like “playing in an empty stadium”, but he moved yesterday to ingratiate himself

Group G

Maribor v Chelsea

Radio talkSPORT Referee D Orsato (Italy)

Kick-off 7.45pm TV Sky Sports 1

Maribor (possible; 4-4-1-1) Handanovic Stojanovic

Suler

Vrsic

Viler

Mejac

Mertelj

Filipovic

Bohar

Ibraimi Zahovic

Costa Salah

Willian

Ramires

Schürrle

Matic

Azpilicueta Terry

Zouma

Ivanovic

Courtois

Chelsea (possible; 4-2-3-1) Group G Chelsea Schalke Maribor Sporting Lisbon

P 3 3 3 3

W 2 1 0 0

D 1 2 2 1

L 0 0 1 2

F 8 6 2 4

A 1 5 8 6

Pts 7 5 2 1

with his supporters once more, admitting that he might have gone “too far” but insisting that he did so only because of his passion for Chelsea.

“Everybody at Chelsea knows how much I love the club,” he said. “Even a moment of criticism has to be analysed with the eyes of somebody who knows why I came back and why I’m here with my heart, and why I want to stay for a long, long time.

“I am lucky to do my job in the club I like so much and feel such a connection, and maybe that makes me lead the club with a different emotion. This is not just a job for me. It is more than that, because it’s Chelsea. Maybe I go a little bit too far. But I see myself in the stands, watching Chelsea, and I want to play, I want to help.”

Heavy burden: Terry is one of the elite group of players who has hardly missed a match

62

FGM

Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

Sport Champions League

Liverpool reflect on spurned chance to make gain in Spain Cardiff Real Madrid City

Campbell, Benzema 2721

West Liverpool Ham United

C Cole 42, Noble 90+3

0 1 2 1 0

Oliver Kay Chief Football Correspondent, Madrid

In 50 years of playing European football, Liverpool have featured in some extraordinary nights. This one was just weird. Defeat by Real Madrid ultimately proved inevitable, as had been imagined beforehand, but this was an evening when we went from consulting the record books and Uefa statutes to wondering, however briefly, whether they might succeed in turning logic on its head.

It cannot quite be called vindication, because they were beaten and are now three points adrift of Basle and at great risk of elimination from the Champions League, but this scoreline and, in some respects, the performance were more positive than those predicted by many Liverpool supporters as they headed out to Spain in pessimistic mood on Monday.

Brendan Rodgers’s team selection — with Glen Johnson, Dejan Lovren, Steven Gerrard, Jordan Henderson, Raheem Sterling and Mario Balotelli all either rested or dropped, depending on your view — was one that risked not only defeat but an angry fall-out if things went as badly. As it was, this seemingly depleted Liverpool side competed more intelligently and more creditably than the so-called first team has in recent weeks. Kolo Touré, one of the infamous transfer committee’s more curious signings, was magnificent — food for thought ahead of Chelsea’s arrival at Anfield on Saturday lunchtime, perhaps.

For a time in the second half, as Real’s levels dropped after their failure to add to Karim Benzema’s goal, it was even tempting to wonder whether Liverpool might snatch an equaliser. It had taken them 56 minutes to manage a shot on target, but they were the more dangerous team for ten minutes or so. In fact, momentum seemed to be lost, rather than gained, when Rodgers sent on Gerrard, Sterling and Philippe Coutinho as urgency increased in the closing stages.

For all of 26 minutes in the first half, Liverpool kept their heads above water, applying themselves — the odd scare notwithstanding — in a manner that suggested that this might not be such a bad idea after all. Simon Mignolet had been forced into fine saves to deny James Rodríguez and Cristiano Ronaldo, but Liverpool were defending with more discipline and passing the ball with more precision than they have managed lately.

That was never likely to be enough to keep them level at 0-0, though. The move that brought the opening goal was knife-through-butter stuff, from Isco to Ronaldo to Isco to an overlapping Marcelo, whose perfect cross was steered past Mignolet by Benzema from six yards. At that point, thoughts reverted to just how many might Real might score.

Statistics that they flashed up on the

scoreboard at half-time looked damning of Liverpool’s performance — not a single shot, whereas Real had mustered 13, six of them on target — but then again by the same stage at Anfield a fortnight ago, they had been trailing 3-0, rather than 1-0.

The suspicion, though, was that Real could step up a gear at any time. That was certainly how it felt in the opening minutes, even as they allowed Liverpool plenty of possession, with Emre Can and Lucas Leiva initially appearing far more at home than they have done on their more brief outings at Anfield.

Liverpool were keeping a decent shape, too, but the reality was that they had no penetration on the few occasions they broke forward and very little answer to the speed and guile that Real possess in abundance.

The first two mistakes Liverpool made were very nearly punished. A stray pass from Lucas in the fourth minute led to a chance for Rodríguez, whose shot was saved by Mignolet to his left. Six minutes later Martin Skrtel dwelt too long on the ball and saw his clearance charged down by Benzema, Group B

P W Real Madrid (Q)...........4 4 Basle.............................4 2 Liverpool.......................4 1 Ludogorets...................4 1

D 0 0 0 0

L F 0 11 2 6 3 2 3 3

A GD Pts 2 9 12 6 0 6 6 -4 3 8 -5 3

6 Basle moved into second place in group B with a 4-0 victory over Ludogorets at St Jakob Park last night. The home side took the lead in the 34th minute when Fabian Frei chipped a pass forward to Breel Embolo, who chested the ball down before slotting it into the net. Derlis González got the second seven minutes laster after another deft through ball from Frei. Shkelzen Gashi added a third just before the hour mark after an Embolo cross and Marek Suchý scored the fourth from a corner after 65 minutes.

‘Great work’ is undone by team selection that lacks faith Analysis Tony Barrett

B

ack in August, Brendan Rodgers was confident enough in the transfer business that Liverpool had conducted to claim that “a lot of great work has gone on”. Last night, in the most forbidding setting against the team he believes are the world’s best, he signed off a teamsheet that raised questions over whether he still believes it.

Five of Liverpool’s summer signings were included in the manager’s starting line-up to face

who teed up Ronaldo for a shot that Mignolet stopped, again to his left.

Liverpool were settling into the game to an extent: Lazar Markovic dribbled the ball 40 yards before being dispossessed by the marvellously assured Raphael Varane, while Touré won a few unlikely “Olés” for waltzing around Benzema near the touchline.

A rude awakening was not far away, though. In the 27th minute, a clever one-two between Isco and Ronaldo allowed Marcelo to get away from Javier Manquillo down the left-hand side. So potent when running onto the ball in wide positions, Marcelo played a menacing cross towards the far post, where Benzema, in space behind Skrtel and Touré, scored with ease.

Real threatened a second goal before half-time — Ronaldo with a free kick that caused Mignolet some discomfort, Luka Modric with a chip that Ronaldo could not convert.

Liverpool finally had a shot, even if Iker Casillas could scarcely have been tested by Fabio Borini’s daisy-cutter. It was the start of a much better spell for Rodgers’ team, in which Adam Lallana shot wide and Borini had a free kick deflected narrowly off target.

That was the cue for Rodgers to send on Gerrard and Sterling for the final quarter , soon followed by Coutinho, in what looked like that long-awaited injection of urgency and quality. As it was, Real had a fairly decent substitute of their own, Gareth Bale, who within minutes of his return to action had hit the crossbar.

Bale went close with a free kick soon afterwards and, after one or two vaguely promising Liverpool attacks broke down, it was clear that the equaliser was not going to happen. Rodgers will take solace not from the scoreline but from more a positive performance than he has seen from his team of late. The problem, of course, is that their Champions League prospects are left hanging by a thread, but that was the case before last night Real Madrid at the Bernabéu, but it did not appear to be a declaration of faith, rather a test of their ability to cut it at the highest level. “All I will do as the manager is give them that opportunity to perform,” he had said on the eve of the game. What kind of chance is afforded by being included in a weakened side to face the European champions is, of course, open to question.

As an indictment of the squad at his disposal, Rodgers’s selection policy was damning. The message it sent out was that, after spending almost £120 million on transfers during the summer, Liverpool are unable to cope with playing two matches against top-class opposition in the space of five days.

Rodgers opted to prioritise Chelsea’s visit to Anfield over the Champions League clash with Real, and picked his team for last night’s game accordingly.

Only four of his first-team regulars — Simon Mignolet, Martin

Finished product: Benzema turns Marcelo’s low cross past Mignolet in the 27th

Skrtel, Alberto Moreno and Joe Allen — started at the Bernabéu, the rest of the team being made up of squad players with much to prove.

Those who were rested, including Steven Gerrard, Mario Balotelli, Jordan Henderson and Glen Johnson, will almost certainly start against Chelsea, with the trip to Spain being used mainly as preparation for Liverpool’s meeting with the Barclays Premier League leaders.

Rodgers had made the unusual move of taking his entire first-team squad to Madrid, and he made another departure from his normal procedures for European trips by cancelling plans to

return to Merseyside straight after the game. Instead, Liverpool remained in the Spanish capital for an extra night, their team jet flying back to John Lennon Airport without them as a result of Rodgers’s belief that a positive result against Chelsea would be more achievable if a flight home in the small hours was avoided.

That Rodgers is having to go to such extraordinary lengths speaks volumes. These are not the actions of a manager who has complete faith in his squad or one who continues to believe that “a lot of great work has gone on”.

They are the actions of a manager who lacked belief in a sufficient number of players that he felt it necessary to treat a Champions League fixture against Real Madrid as a warm-up to the main event.

the times | Wednesday November 5 2014

63

FGM

Champions League Sport CARL RECINE / ACTION IMAGES / REUTERS

Real Madrid 4-4-2 tony barrett

6

álvaro arbeloa Liverpool targeted their former player and had some joy, but in the main the right back was dependable

javier manquillo More assiduous than Glen Johnson but lacks the quality to make a difference in the final third

raphaël varane Showcased the speed and ability to read the game that mark him out as arguably a world-class talent

martin skrtel Caught on the ball once but looked more assured next to Touré than he has done when partnered

by Dejan Lovren

sergio ramos Posed little attacking threat, still managed to look vulnerable at times and picked up an unnecessary booking

kolo touré The veteran centre back enjoyed his unexpected appearance and stuck to his task admirably throughout

marcelo Showed his aptitude to create by setting up Benzema’s goal and creating another chance from which Bale hit the bar

alberto moreno A feisty display from the left back who put his costly mistake against Newcastle United behind him

james rodríguez Kept his starting place ahead of Bale but made little impression before giving way to the Wales forward

lucas leiva A promising return to the first team and was disappointed to make way for Gerrard in the second half

6

8

6

7

luka modric Effortlessly pulled the strings in midfield and sat deep to give Real’s attacking players insurance if they lost possession

7

toni kroos Summed up the performance of his team by playing within himself and providing sporadic moments of class

7

Tony Cascarino Commentary

I

f you play the word association game, the term galacticos would prompt many adjectives; expensive, expressive, talented.

However, the present Real Madrid team are, most impressively of all, industrious.

I am staggered by how hard Carlo Ancelloti’s side work at the game.

They are gifted, of course, but they never sit back and admire their craft. I love their workrate.

They are a team with grandeur, but they do not think graft is beneath them. It used to be that Barcelona were the hardest-working team in Europe, but now it is Real.

They won last season’s Champions League final because they toiled more intensely than the very hard-working Atletico Madrid.

They have been lethal in La Liga of late without Gareth Bale and I would argue that the Wales forward needs to improve his own workrate to fit properly back into the team.

The main difference between the old Ronaldo and the new one is that Cristiano never stops trying, never stops running.

If I was Brendan Rodgers, I would have told Mario Balotelli to watch Ronaldo’s movement closely. The Italian will look to see where the pass is coming from, but Ronaldo looks and moves at the same time.

He never stops moving; it is the key to his phenomenal success.

It was not the Ronaldo show last night, however. The player who most impressed me was Raphaël Varane. I saw him play at Lens, where he was

so very composed at a young age. It did not take Real long to snap him up.

He is an astonishing defender and will come to be regarded as the best centre half in the world before too long. He oozed confidence at the age of 17 and reminded me of Laurent Blanc. Now he is a little in the Bobby Moore mould in terms of his coolness under pressure and willingness to have the ball. His pass to Karim Benzema in the first half was the best ball from a centre back I have seen for a good while. It was like a classic Glenn Hoddle pass, the sort that the opposition can read but can do little to intercept.

Real’s greatest weapon is an old-fashioned one. They put the ball into the area, often with pace.

Liverpool could have done with putting the ball into the box more often. In fact, there was rather a lot for Rodgers’s team to learn from at the Bernabéu.

7

simon mignolet Early saves from Rodríguez and Ronaldo helped Liverpool to prolong their resistance

7

Galacticos show they can graft and craft

tony barrett

iker casillas Made his first save in the 56th minute. One of his most comfortable Champions League appearances

6

minute to score the only goal of the game. The result leaves Liverpool in third place in group B and in danger of elimination

Liverpool 4-3-3

6

6

7

7

7

7

emre can Assured in possession but lacked the pace to make the most of his ability on the ball in a promising performance

6

joe allen Operating as a No 10, he failed to hurt the Real defence but worked hard and ensured Liverpool had cover in midfield

5

isco Not as good as he had been at Anfield but still effective, particularly in the way he manages to spot team-mates’ runs

lazar markovic Unconvincing, lightweight and lacking confidence, the Serb was once again a weak link

cristiano ronaldo Spent the night distractedly looking for the goal to equal Raúl’s Champions League record

adam lallana On the rare occasions when he worked himself into a promising position his efforts were hurt by a lack of pace

karim benzema The scourge of Liverpool a fortnight ago, the France striker added another well- taken goal

fabio borini Neat, tidy and diligent but the poor decision making and service ensured that he rarely troubled the Real defence

6

7

Substitutions Gareth Bale (for Rodríguez, 62) Came on and struck the crossbar 6 Nacho (for Arbeloa, 83) Javier Hernández (for Benzema, 87) Not used: Keylor Navas, Pepe, Álvaro Medrán, Lucas Torró.

Booked: Marcello, Ramos, Rodríguez.

Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary).

6

6

Substitutions Steven Gerrard (for Lucas, 69) Could not inspire an equaliser. 6 Raheem Sterling (for Markovic, 69) Unable to make an impact. 6 Philippe Coutinho (for Can, 75) Not used: Brad Jones, Glen Johnson, Jordan Henderson, Mario Balotelli.

Booked: Skrtel, Moreno.

Sport

Wednesday November 5 2014 | the times

The Times: best for rugby Jonny May on the up How to stop the All in England’s game of Blacks try machine snakes and ladders that is Julian Savea Owen Slot, page 56

Rick Broadbent, page 57

thetimes.co.uk/sport

british press awards — sports team of the year

Cautious Rodgers misses point ANDRES KUDACKI / AP

Tony Barrett Madrid

Arsenal 3 Anderlecht 3 Real Madrid 1 Liverpool 0 An understrength Liverpool team produced a spirited display away to Real Madrid last night but were unable to prevent a 1-0 defeat by the reigning European champions that leaves them with an uphill struggle to qualify for the round of 16 in the Champions League.

Karim Benzema’s goal after 26 minutes condemned Liverpool to defeat on a night when Brendan Rodgers’s team selection was questioned after he sent out a weakened side at the Bernabéu.

Despite leaving seven first-team regulars, Rodgers will feel at least partially vindicated that his team remained competitive throughout but their third successive Champions League defeat could prove costly.

Basle’s 4-0 win against Ludogorets means that Liverpool are likely to need to win their remaining two fixtures in group B if they are to progress.

Rodgers’s line-up had prompted criticism beforehand, José Mourinho making thinly veiled comments accusing the Liverpool manager of not picking his best team because he felt that victory against Real was beyond his team.

Gary Lineker was also outspoken about Rodgers’s approach, taking to Twitter to state: “Selecting a weakened side in Europe’s premier competition, especially against Real Madrid, is unbefitting of a club of Liverpool’s stature.”

Arsenal’s hopes of finishing top of their group suffered a setback when they surrendered a 3-0 lead at home to Anderlecht, Aleksandar Mitrovic’s goal completing a remarkable comeback for the Belgian side in the last minute.

Liverpool appeal in vain for offside as Benzema celebrates scoring the decisive goal for Real at the Bernabéu last night. Match report, analysis and ratings, pages 62-63

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(7) 22 Rhythm stick — hit me (formally, almost) (5) 24 Temperature graduation places city on African coast (5) ChampionshipQualifier This puzzle was solved within 60 mins by 43 of the 74 competitors in Heat One of the 2014 Times Crossword Championship

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