T t 2014 11 28 by Jurco Smotrych

OF LONDON

friday november 28 2014 | thetimes.co.uk | no 71366

Film&Music Fil

Cameron in tough migrants crackdown

Newsand reviewsofthe latestreleases Pages46-51 GERAINT LEWIS / REX FEATURES

Sean O’Neill, Crime Editor

No 10 threatens EU pullout if reforms fail Francis Elliott Political Editor

David Cameron will pledge a tough crackdown on welfare payments to make Britain a less attractive destination today, but will resist calls to fight the election on a pledge to cap EU immigrants. He will leave open the option of campaigning for a British exit of the EU if demands for action to reduce immigrantion“fall on deaf ears”. “If we cannot put our relationship with the EU on a better footing, then of course I rule nothing out,” the prime minister will say in his long-awaited speech on immigration. The day after figures showed that net migration was above the level inherited from Labour, the prime minister is to propose that jobseekers arriving from Europe be denied all out-of-work benefits and face deportation if they are unemployed after six months. Mr Cameron will also say that those with a job should not be entitled to inwork payments or social housing for four years. Child benefit and child tax credit payments to EU workers for dependants not living in Britain will end under reforms that he says he will demand as part of a renegotiation of Britain’s membership of the union. Giving Britain what Mr Cameron promises will be Europe’s “toughest system” on migrant benefits is likely to need radical changes to EU law, Whitehall officials acknowledge. Senior Tories realise it will be bitterly opposed by some EU leaders, especially those countries in eastern and southern Europe whose citizens make up the bulk of new arrivals to Britain. Although Labour and the Liberal

Democrats support restricting welfare entitlements of EU migrants, Mr Cameron’s proposals are considerably more stringent than any proposed by the other main Westminster parties. However, many Conservative MPs, including some cabinet ministers, will be disappointed that Mr Cameron is not going further and demanding direct control over numbers. Senior government figures admit that he had seriously considered telling Brussels that Britain needed an “emergency brake” to stem record flows of economic immigrants as he seeks to check Ukip’s political advance. George Osborne is understood to have been among those fiercely opposed to the move, which he said risked alienating business supporters already worried about the prospect of a referendum on EU membership and a British exit. Mr Cameron was eventually convinced to limit his renegotiation demands to those with a reasonable prospect of success as concerns mounted over the practicality of a “brake”, insiders said. Statistics indicating how tax credits considerably increase the financial incentive for jobseekers were also crucial in leading to the decision to opt for a stringent welfare crackdown, they say. In a report released on Monday, the Open Europe think-tank pointed out that while EU migrants make up 5.56 per cent of the UK workforce, families with at least one EU immigrant make up some 7.7 per cent of in-work tax credit claims. Removing top-up payments would make a job on the minimum wage less well paid in the UK than in Spain, it Continued on page 6, col 4

lebgate’ ‘Plebgate’ defeat leaves Mitchell facing ruin

The next mayor of London?

Jeremy Paxman, who describes himself as a one-nation Tory, has been approached by a senior member of the party to consider running for mayor of London. Page 2

Andrew Mitchell was facing political and financial ruin yesterday as a senior High Court judge ruled that he did call police officers “f***ing plebs” in a foulmouthed confrontation in Downing Street two years ago. Mr Justice Mitting said it was his “firm conclusion” that the former government chief whip delivered a foulmouthed tirade at armed police after he was refused permission to cycle through the main gates on to Whitehall. In a detailed judgment at the end of a lengthy libel action, the judge said: “I am satisfied at least on the balance of probabilities that Mr Mitchell did speak the words alleged or something so close to them as to amount to the same, including the politically toxic word pleb.” It was, the judge said, “a heavy blow” for the Conservative MP, who waged a vigorous campaign denying the Plebgate allegations as he lobbied for a return to government. Sat between his wife and his strong supporter David Davis MP, Mr Mitchell seemed to shrink in his seat at the Royal Courts of Justice as it became clear that the judgment was not going his way. He left court saying he had endured “a miserable two years” and added: “We now need to bring this matter to a close and move on with our lives.” His bill for suing The Sun, which first reported the Plebgate story, and being sued by PC Toby Rowland, whom he accused of fabricating the words, could run to more than £1 million in damages and costs. The total legal bill for the case is about £3 million. The judge’s ruling revealed a frameby-frame study of CCTV footage of the incident and a dissection of the conversation between Mr Mitchell and PC Rowland in a dark corner of Downing Street in September 2012. In essence, the judge ruled, the MP was too irate to recall what he said and the police officer was not the sort of man to have made up the allegation. PC Rowland had made notes in his pocket book and contacted his immediate superiors within minutes. He had threatened to arrest Mr Mitchell after the MP had raged: “Best you learn your f***ing place — you don’t run this f***ing government — you’re f***ing plebs”. As he was ushered Continued on page 4, col 4

IN THE NEWS Arrest over murder

Ex-wife’s £337m deal

Putin under threat

Warthogs face Isis

A Lithuanian builder was arrested last night after a couple were stabbed to death at home in Surrey while a teenage boy locked himself in a room for protection. Page 5

A British financier’s ex-wife has been awarded more than £337 million in what is thought to be the biggest divorce award made in the English courts. Page 9

Russia’s economic crisis is likely to pose a threat to President Putin’s leadership within two years, one of the country’s most respected economists has said. Page 22

A US ground attack aircraft the Pentagon wanted to scrap is to target Isis in Iraq. Around 10 A10s “Warthogs” have been sent to a base believed to be near Abu Dhabi. Page 25

News, page 2

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Opinion

Sport

Angry voices are louder today than at any time in the Obama presidency

Franz Beckenbauer may face questions over Russia and Qatar World Cup bids James Masters, page 59

Justin Webb, page 18

times2

The hidden side of Boris Johnson should stay well hidden

Catherine Nixey, page 51

News

Asda tops naming and shaming chart over chicken bacteria Ben Webster, page 8

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Boris brags about London’s exotic army of billionaires Catherine Nixey Radio Critic

As mayor, Boris Johnson has had time to think about what makes London the greatest city on earth. His answer? Its mega-rich inhabitants. “We have now in London 72 billionaires,” he said. But don’t despair if you’re not one, as the presence of these “exotic creatures”, as he called them, apparently helps to provide work for the rest of us by “asking people to bring the car round to the front of the hotel”. In an interview on the New York public radio podcast Freakonomics, presented by Stephen Dubner, the author, Mr Johnson boasted that London had more billionaires than New York and Paris. “London is to the billionaire as the jungles of Sumatra are to the orang-utan,” he said. “We’re proud of that.” It was left to Dubner to add: “I’m sure you like your poor people too, though.” Boris conceded that we did. “Exactly right.” So how well off is Mr Johnson? His host asked him how his net worth compared with his parents’ at his age? His income was, he said “bigger than my parents’ was, certainly bigger than my grandparents’ was”, though he added that calculating relative wealth between the generations was “incredibly difficult to compute” because of the

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rise in house prices. “What’s happening in London is that the kinds of properties that members of the bourgeoisie could afford in the 1960s or 1970s are now absolutely beyond the reach of people of my generation or certainly of my children’s generation.” So while his grandparents “had an absolutely colossal house in wherever the hell it was . . . St John’s Wood, there’s no way anybody in my family could now afford a house in St John’s Wood.” Mr Johnson lives in Islington, his sister Rachel in Notting Hill, while his father Stanley has a farm in Exmoor, bought by Mr Johnson’s grandparents. He acknowledged that high house prices in the capital were a phenomenon caused in part by his billionaires. “The success of London is having a weird effect of making it very hard for Londoners to afford to live there,” he said. “In assets, there is no question that there is a steady impoverishment of the bourgeoisie and we need to address it.” Mr Johnson also implied that Johnson: interviewed on New York public radio

his role was not always intellectually rewarding. When asked what his job as mayor involved on a day-to-day basis, he replied: “I have endless meetings and give a huge and unbearable number of speeches.” “And I take decisions,” he added. The question of Mr Johnson’s prime ministerial ambitions was asked twice and both times batted away. After noting similarities between Mr Johnson and Winston Churchill, about whom the mayor has just written a book, Dubner asked whether a Freudian analysis of his work would see that Mr Johnson was at times “writing about him, but thinking about yourself”. Mr Johnson replied that he had “more in common, frankly, with a one-eyed pterodactyl or a kalamata olive” than the wartime leader. Wrapping up the interview, Dubner noted that, as Mr Johnson was born in the United States, he could run for prime minister, then move to America, establish residency and become president. Mr Johnson replied: “I think the first thing is about as likely as the second . . . Back to Churchill for a second.”

. . . as Paxman is wooed for his job Sam Coates Deputy Political Editor

of LONDON

Friday November 28 2014 | the times

Tory figures are wooing the broadcaster Jeremy Paxman to run as a Conservative candidate for mayor of London. The former Newsnight anchorman has been approached for the role after Mr Paxman labelled himself a one-nation Tory early in the year. Tory MPs believe that he could be a great successor to Boris Johnson when the current mayor stands down in 2016. An approach by a senior party figure has the backing of the Commons tea rooms, but not Conservative HQ. Mr Paxman is mulling the option and, while it is not likely, he has not ruled it out. But that has not stopped the excitement among Tory MPs. “You can see how it’s an enticing prospect: him versus Sadiq Khan [a frontrunner to be Labour’s candidate]. One of who has spent their entire life beating up politicians versus someone installed by the trade unions,” said one Conservative MP. Earlier this week Mr

Paxman was at a dinner with Lord Ashcroft, the Tory peer, hosted in Soho House in honour of Valérie Trierweiler, the former partner of President Hollande of France. Yesterday the television presenter, who is due to present Channel 4’s election special and potentially chair a television debate, played down the chance of him deciding to stand. Asked whether he would encourage speculation about him standing, he told The Times: “I shouldn’t bother, if I were you.” Only one Tory candidate has so far come forward to say they want to try for the mayoralty. Earlier this week the businessman Ivan Massow said that he wanted to represent the party in the 2016 race. In 2006 David Cameron suggested that if he joined the Conservative party and put himself forward, Nick Ferrari, the LBC broadcaster, could win the ballot to be the party’s candidate for mayor of London. Mr Ferrari, who presents the break-

fast show, indicated, however, that he would not stand, as he “did not want to leave the listeners” and joked that he “couldn’t take the pay cut”. Mr Paxman left Newsnight this summer after 25 years. In his final programme, Mr Johnson paid tribute to him, calling him “the last one-nation Tory working at the BBC”. Mr Paxman, 64, later confirmed this was correct. In a talk at a literary festival, he said: “I have to be frank — I suppose I am a one-nation Tory, yes.” Asked if he really thought he was the last Conservative at the publicly-funded broadcaster. “If I had to . . . are there any members of the press here?” he asked, before adding, “I think I’ll plead the fifth on that one.” And when questioned on his reasons for departure, he added: “Look, Newsnight is made by 13-year-olds. It’s perfectly normal when you’re young that you want to change the world. The older you get, the more you realise what a fool’s errand much of that is.”

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David Brown

A former cabinet minister was photographed with a naked boy in the sauna of a guest house at the centre of historical child sex abuse allegations, a Tory MP claimed yesterday. Zac Goldsmith said that the owner of the Elm Guest House in his constituency allegedly claimed to have had photographs of “establishment figures” at the hotel where boys in care had been “brought in for sex”. The MP for Richmond Park said that evidence seized from the guest house along with logbooks, names, times, dates and photographs of guests simply disappeared after a police raid on the hotel in 1982. In a Commons debate on the progress of the government’s inquiry into historical allegations of child

sexual abuse, Mr Goldsmith said that evidence from 12 boys alleging abuse had also “evaporated” and the hotel’s owners, Carole Kasir and her husband, Haroon, were eventually given suspended sentences for “running a disorderly house”. Mrs Kasir died a few years later in “very odd circumstances” after giving details of the involvement of politicians, including the late Liberal Democrat MP Cyril Smith, and celebrities to a campaigner for child protection. Simon Danczuk, a Labour MP, also claimed that Sir Edward Garnier, one of David Cameron’s former top legal advisers, tried to stop him “challenging” Lord Brittan of Spennithorne over child abuse allegations in the Houses of Parliament. Mr Danczuk said that Sir Edward, a former solicitor-general, tackled him

on the evening before he was due to give evidence to the home affairs select committee in the summer. Mr Danczuk told MPs: “The night before my appearance at the committee I had an encounter with the right honourable learned Member for Harborough [Sir Edward Garnier]. “He told me that challenging Lord Brittan on child abuse would not be a wise move and that I might even be responsible for his death as he was unwell. “People who might know about child abuse allegations should answer questions whatever their position. We should not shy away from that.” It is understood that Sir Edward, who has known Lord Brittan for 40 years, was intervening after a request by Lady Brittan, who was worried about the strain on her husband’s health.

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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News ZELIG SHAUL / REX FEATURES; SPLASH NEWS

Hackers attack Spider-Man’s web of secrets Sony Pictures staff frozen out of computer network as film stars’ personal files are ‘stolen’, James Dean reports An extraordinary hacking attack on the Hollywood studio behind the Spider-Man and James Bond films has frozen its worldwide computer network and potentially compromised private information of stars including Cameron Diaz and Angelina Jolie. The massive hack has relegated staff to “sitting at their desks trying to do their job with a pen and paper”, according to an insider at Sony Pictures Entertainment in London. Employees have been warned that it could take “up to three weeks” before normal service is resumed. The hacking collective, Guardians of Peace, infiltrated the internal corporate network of Sony Pictures on Monday and posted messages on employees’ computer screens warning that it would release “top secrets” to the world unless its “request be met”. The group later released a list of files that it had allegedly stolen from the company. One was named “Diaz, Cameron — passport” and another, “Angelina Jolie passport”, according to an analysis of the files by users of Reddit, the social network. Other files allegedly stolen were

named “media budgets”, “deals”, and even “security breach course of action”. Some file names suggested that production schedules and passwords had also been taken. The Sony Pictures source in London said that the company’s computers remained frozen last night. They said that the company had hired hackers to try to fix the problem, only to see their machines immediately corrupted when they tried to log on to the internal computer network. A notice stuck near the lifts of the company’s London office told staff: “Please do not log on to your PC equipment of company wi-fi until further notice.” The source said that the only computers working in London were Macs used in video-editing suites that were not connected to the internet. “You go to work and there are people sitting at their desks trying to do their job with a pen and paper. It’s the same all over the world. “They’re pretending that it’s just an IT problem, but it’s 100 per cent not. They are really playing it down. The tech guys I know said files were wiped,” the source said. Mikko Hypponen, a computer security expert at F-Secure, said it was “not altogether surprising” that Sony had been attacked. “They seem to attract a lot of hate from the hacking community,” he said. “Many perceive them to have an attitude problem with their eagerness to sue hackers.” He added that

Sony Pictures’ Californian HQ and the sign in their London office warning staff not to log on. Left, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone in the production of The Amazing Spider-Man

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he was in no way condoning the attack. The Times understands that around 11 terabytes of information — or 11,000 gigabytes — has been stolen from the company. This is equivalent to approximately 3.1 million music files in mp3 format, or nearly 15,000 DVD films. Such an enormous extraction of data from a company’s computer network would normally set alarm bells ringing in its security department. However, the source said: “So much video data moves around inside Sony that you wouldn’t necessarily notice.” Sony Pictures is an American division of Sony, the Japanese electronics conglomerate, which bought up Columbia Pictures. Columbia had been formed in 1918 and went on to release such classics as All The King’s Men, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia and Kramer vs Kramer. Sales at

Facebook is accused of bamboozling Britons James Dean Technology Correspondent

Britons unwittingly hand over intimate details about their lives to social media companies because they agree to terms and conditions that are as impenetrable as Shakespeare, MPs will say today. As a result, social media companies are not obtaining proper consent from individuals to use their private information for their own gain, according to a report by the Commons science and technology committee. This year it emerged that Facebook had secretly conducted an experiment on 700,000 users in which it success-

‘It’s laughable that people should read 150 pages of of terms and conditions before signing up’

fully manipulated their moods. In July OkCupid, a popular dating website, admitted that it had deliberately mismatched unsuspecting members as part of a psychology experiment. Both companies said that users had consented to their data being used in this way. However, Andrew Miller, the chairman of the committee, said that experiments such as Facebook’s had given rise to serious concerns. The report said there were “serious misgivings . . . in relation to obtaining informed consent for the use of citizens’ data”. “We have not been convinced that the users of social media platforms are fully aware of how their data might be

used and what redress they may, or may not, have if they disagree with how an organisation exploits that data,” it said. Ed Vaizey, the culture minister, told the committee it was laughable to expect that people should read and understand 150 pages of terms and conditions before signing up to online services. The committee said such contracts were “simply too long and complex for any reasonable person to make any real sense of” and were “not fit for purpose”. Steve Wood, head of policy delivery at the Information Commissioner’s Office, warned that some companies were able to “exploit the opacity” of their data policies.

Sony Pictures last year amounted to $8 billion (£5 billion). Guardians of Peace also hacked a number of Twitter accounts linked to Sony Pictures films earlier this week. A statement from the company added: “Sony Pictures Entertainment experienced a system disruption, which we are working diligently to resolve.” 6 The Daily Telegraph and The Independent were among a series of websites hit by a Syrian Electronic Army cyber attack yesterday. The group, which supports Bashar AlAssad, exploited an online advertising network used by the sites.

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No way back to front line for the man they called Thrasher

Friday November 28 2014 | the times

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Lucy Fisher Political Correspondent

As Andrew Mitchell walked away from court looking a broken man yesterday, the one question that reverberated around Westminster was: why did he not walk away from the Plebgate scandal two years ago? In December 2012 Mr Mitchell had been publicly disgraced after The Sun reported that he called Downing Street police officers “f***ing plebs”. But a Channel 4 documentary offered him a ray of hope , saying it wanted to broadcast an investigation calling the claim into question. The Tory MP for Sutton Coldfield had resigned as government chief whip, but the Dispatches programme gave him a chance to give his own account of events on that fateful autumn day three months earlier. The documentary also raised serious doubts over whether Mr Mitchell had actually used the crucial phrase. Yesterday severalcolleagues said he should have moved on after that. “If he had just left it there,” said one senior Conservative insider, “he’d be in the Cabinet and a rich man today.” Instead, Mr Mitchell yesterday found himself counting the political and financial cost of his decision to sue The Sun. Court sources said that he could be landed with a bill of about £1 million in legal costs for the case. As he emerged from the court, crumpled, he admitted he was “bitterly disappointed” with the verdict. Mr Mitchell has long had a reputation in Westminster as an impetuous and mercurial character. Even as a boy he was known as a disciplinarian with a temper – fellow pupils at Rugby school nicknamed him “Thrasher”. After reading history at Cambridge, where he was president of the Union, Mr Mitchell spent several years at Lazard, the investment bank, before joining the family trade: politics. His father was also a Tory MP and the pair served together in the Commons for a decade. He was first elected as MP for Gedling in Nottinghamshire in 1987. After losing his seat in Tony Blair’s landslide election in 1997, Mr Mitchell was reelected as MP for Sutton Coldfield in 2001. Although he ran David Davis’s failed leadership campaign in 2005, David Cameron, the successful candidate, allowed him to keep his seat on the opposition front benches as shadow international development secretary. Mr Mitchell was assiduous in his work, particularly in Africa, but nonetheless faced criticism when claims later emerged that he had “intimidated” and “scared” a 21-year-old student journalist during a trip to Rwanda in 2008 after she wrote an article containing criticisms of the Conservative-led aid project. As international development secretary from 2010 to 2012, Mr Mitchell attracted criticism for his own personal wealth. In addition to living in a £3 million house in one of the capital’s most desirable squares in Islington, north London, he and his wife Sharon, a GP, also owned a £500,000 property in his constituency and a chalet in French ski resort Val d’Isère, which he rents out to holidaymakers. In a 2012 reshuffle, he was put in charge of the whips’ office but, while some felt sorry for Mr Mitchell, most agreed yesterday that for the former cabinet minister, there was no way back to the front line of politics now.

Warning on drug bill A bill put forward by Lord Saatchi, which would allow doctors to try out untested treatments on patients, risks undermining the Hippocratic oath, the leading medical journal The Lancet Oncology said. Letting doctors administer potentially dangerous drugs would be at odds with the fundamental “do no harm” principle of medicine, it said in an editorial.

New Troubles arrest The defeated Andrew Mitchell outside the court yesterday, flanked by his wife, Sharon, and daughter Hannah

Plebgate’s dramatis personae In the words of PC Ian Richardson, who was on duty at the Downing Street gates on September 19, 2012, it was “a quirky incident with a gentleman on a bicycle who had the hump”. However, the foul-mouthed confrontation that became known as Plebgate exploded into a political and policing crisis that has cost Andrew Mitchell and many others dearly. SCOTLAND YARD A strict disciplinarian who believes people who swear at police officers should be arrested, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Met police commissioner, was reluctant to act at first. But when claims emerged that Mr Mitchell had been “stitched up” the Met began Operation Alice, lasting over a year and cost nearly £300,000. Sir Bernard faced calls for his resignation when it was alleged he leaked details of the investigation to the media. Operation Alice was the Yard’s biggest leak inquiry which sent a signal to officers that anyone passing information to the media would be sacked. THE POLICE OFFICERS Four members of the Met’s Diplomatic

Protection Group were dismissed from the police service over their roles in Plebgate. PC Keith Wallis, below, admitted fabricating an eyewitness account of the confrontation at the gates which he emailed to his MP, John Randall, who also happened to be Mr Mitchell’s deputy in the whips’ office. Wallis was thrown out of the Met and jailed but is now thought to be free after serving about half his 12-month sentence. PC James Glanville, who sent The Sun a copy of PC Rowland’s log of the confrontation with Mr Mitchell, was dismissed. PC Gillian Weatherley, who had been in contact with PC Glanville, was also dismissed. PC Susan Johnson was dismissed after a relative of hers contacted The Sun. Two other officers were given written warnings. Other officers were investigated but the Director of Public Prosecutions ruled

none should face criminal charges. PC TOBY ROWLAND PC Rowland said his family was put under huge media pressure after Mr Mitchell’s supporters began claiming the MP had been stitched up by police. PC Rowland was subjected to four investigations and cleared by each one. THE POLICE FEDERATION The organisation was torn apart by the fallout from Plebgate. The clash was initially seen as fodder for its campaign against police cuts but some members went too far, with three officials Ken MacKaill, Stuart Hinton and Chris Jones accused of stage managing a meeting with Mr Mitchell in October 2012 to reignite the issue and call for his resignation. That meeting has been the subject of High Court litigation which has forced the Independent Police Complaints Commission to restart its botched inquiry. The federation was prompted to commission the Normington Review, which exposed tens of millions of pounds held in secretive accounts and corporate spending, which led to the organisation being given a £2.3 million tax bill.

Mitchell faces bill for £1m over ‘Plebgate’ Continued from page 1

out of a side gate with his bicycle, Mr Mitchell told the officer: “You haven’t heard the last of this.” The judge said PC Rowland had been tested under intense cross-examination over several hours and came across as “a rather old-fashioned police officer determined to do his duty as he saw it no matter who it might inconvenience”. The officer of 24 years’ service testified he did not know what the word “pleb” meant when he heard it. The judge added: “He is not the sort of man to have had the wit, imagination or inclination to invent an account of what a senior politician said to him in a temper”. Mr Mitchell, the judge concluded, was not in a state of mind to recall what words he used. The judge referred to significant evidence from John Randall MP, who testified that he was surprised to read a verbatim account of Mr Mitchell’s words in The Sunday Times after being told by his Tory colleague that he could not recall exactly what he said. Mr Mitchell was given 14 days to provide an undertaking not to repeat the claim that PC Rowland had fabricated his allegations. The MP was ordered to pay £300,000 in interim costs to News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun and a subsidiary of News UK, which is the parent company of The Times, and the Police Federation, which supported PC Rowland. Stig Abell, managing editor of The Sun, said that the judgment was a vindication of the newspaper and its reporters. He added: “We now live in a world where the task of uncovering what goes on in our institutions has never been more difficult. It is the job of journalists to shine light into the dark corners of public and political life. There are many in the establishment who do not want us to do that.”

Bobby Storey, a republican from Belfast, has been arrested by police investigating the 1972 murder of Jean McConville. Mr Storey, 58, was detained and later released by police pending a report to prosecutors. Officers stressed he was detained as part of the “overall investigation” into the crime. Mrs McConville’s body was not found until 2003 on a beach 50 miles from her home.

Twitter terror charge A woman has been charged with encouraging terrorism on Twitter. Alaa Abdullah Esayed, 22, of Kennington in south London, will appear before Westminster magistrates’ court on December 10. She has been charged with two offences under the Terrorism Act: encouraging terrorism, and the dissemination of terrorist publications. She was released on bail.

Collared at 100mph A man who tried to blame his Staffordshire bull terrier for sitting on the pedals when he was caught by police driving at close to 100mph has been jailed for 13 months by Durham crown court. Jordan Winn, 23, of Stanley, Co Durham, told police that Buster was in the footwell of his car as he careered along a 30mph zone at 5pm on a Saturday in October last year.

Most read at thetimes.co.uk 1. Cricketer Phil Hughes dies 2. Scots’ new powers raise fears 3. Crude populism will get you nowhere, Ed 4. Deborah Ross: spare me the private school hypocrisy 5. Video: police shoot black boy 6. Double murder in Surrey 7. Isis stones ‘adulterer and gay’ 8. Dogs know what you say 9. Drogba: Chelsea ‘at deadliest’ 10. Parents want grammars

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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News STEVE PARSONS / PA

Builder arrested after couple are stabbed to death in Surrey village Fiona Hamilton Crime Correspondent Georgie Keate

A middle-aged couple were stabbed to death at their home in Surrey while a terrified teenage boy locked himself in one of the rooms. A Lithuanian builder was arrested last night on suspicion of the murder of Patrick Kettyle, 55, and his wife Gillian, 54, who were discovered with multiple stab wounds at their home in Fetcham, near Leatherhead, at about midnight on Wednesday. A massive manhunt centred on Viktoras Bruzas, 38, who knew the couple. He was arrested after being stopped in a black Mercedes. The couple, who own a building company, were found by Mrs Kettyle’s son from her first marriage, who is 16. He is believed to have locked himself in a room while the attack took place before emerging to find them dead. Police found a bloody knife near the property. Both victims suffered multiple wounds to their chest, arms and legs. Hundreds of police officers were involved in the search for Mr Bruzas, who moved to the UK legally in 2008. All British ports were placed on high alert to prevent him leaving the country and an appeal was issued for information on his whereabouts. Surrey police said in a statement: “Mr Bruzas and the vehicle he was travelling in, a black Mercedes, were stopped by officers in Oxshott shortly after 6pm this evening. He has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is currently in police custody.” Kristina Bruziene, Mr Bruzas’s expartner, is listed as the company secretary of Mr Kettyle’s property development business. Mr Bruzas and Ms Bruziene lived in Walton-on-Thames until she was allegedly left him 18 months ago, taking their young son, because of his drinking and violence towards her. Jolita Rimdeikaite, who studied with Ms Bruziene, said they were the “perfect couple” but claims that he “became violent towards her and she had to leave him”. Other friends claimed they had been contacted by the police for details about Mr Bruzas, while a neighbour in Walton-on-Thames said that police had been called to the address frequently. Police refused to comment on the allegations. The murdered couple had been mar-

ried since 2004. Mr Kettyle had two children from a previous marriage — Victoria, 27, and Phillip, 24. Relatives gathered at the home of his ex-wife, Ann, in Croydon yesterday as police liaison officers offered their support along with friends and family. Police said it had been a “targeted attack” although they had not been called to the Kettyles’ address previously in relation to Mr Bruzas. The Lithuanian authorities said that their searches “so far” showed that Mr Bruzas had not been known to them. Detective Superintendent Nick May, from the joint Surrey and Sussex major crime squad, said that the National Crime Agency was liaising with Interpol and the Lithuanian authorities. Police would not say whether the photo of Mr Bruzas that was released was taken in custody, leading to suspicion that he had been arrested in the past. Another man in his thirties was arrested in Walton-on-Thames on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder but has since been bailed. Surrey police had urged the public not to approach Mr Bruzas. The knife that was found by a dog walker on the street where the murder took place was taken away for examination. According to Mr Bruzas’s Facebook profile, he was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, has worked as a self-employed builder since March 1999 and is a fan of Chelsea Football Club. Neighbours said that Mr Kettyle had retired but his wife continued to work as an administrator at Cargill in Cobham, a company that provides agricultural products and services. Wendy Garbutt, a communications executive from Cargill, said: “We are shocked and saddened by this tragic news.” Gwynaeth Laxton, 80, a neighbour, said: “I am in complete shock. We had not long been asleep when we heard a commotion outside. I thought it was foxes or other animals jumping over the fence. But then a short while later we heard the police turn up. “They were a very nice family. Their teenage son is such a lovely, intelligent boy. I don’t know how he is going to cope without them.” The son, who is staying with his grandmother nearby, is believed to be a student at a grammar school in Guildford. Post-mortem examinations are due to take place today.

Patrick Kettyle, far left, was found dead with his wife. Above, Viktoras Bruzas, who was arrested on suspicion of murder. His former partner, Kristina Bruziene, left, had accused him of being violent

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Friday November 28 2014 | the times

News Migration

Cameron’s pledge in tatters after 43% increase in migrant numbers

Kosovo conflict. Asylum applications rise

Official figures reveal the coalition’s failure to bring total down to tens of thousands, Richard Ford writes David Cameron’s pledge to cut net migration to the tens of thousands was fatally undermined yesterday by new figures showing a surge in immigrants moving to Britain to seek work. Net migration jumped by 43 per cent to 260,000 as the country’s recovering economy sucked in migrants from the European Union and elsewhere around the world in numbers which left the prime minister’s promise in tatters. Official figures showed that net migration was now 16,000 higher than when the coalition government came to power and that immigration from outside the EU was once again increasing after three years of falling numbers. Immigration from the EU in the 12 months to the end of June was at a record 228,000 with up to three quarters of migrants coming to work, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. The number of non-EU migrants rose by 30,000 to 272,000 due to increases in those coming to work particularly in finance and insurance, IT and communications and other immigrants accompanying or joining them. Overall immigration for work reasons was at the highest level since figures were available on 247,000, the ONS said. The number of Romanians and Bulgarians coming for more than a year rose from 18,000 to 32,000 with almost three quarters of them seeking work. Separate figures from the Department of Work and Pensions, however, indicated a surge in migrants from both countries seeking work in the nine months after January 1, when they were given full access to jobs in Britain. The number applying for national insurance numbers, which enable people to work, showed an increase from 28,600 to 135,400 in the first nine months of the year. The figures include those coming to work for short periods of under a year and those already in the country seeking work. Half of those applying for national insurance numbers had already been in the country before labour market restrictions were lifted, suggesting that tens of thousands had been working in the black economy before January 1. Overall the number of people arriving in Britain for a year or more rose 16 per cent to 583,000 while the number leaving remained broadly stable at 323,000, producing a net migration figure of 260,000. Sarah Crofts, of the Office for

Net migration

Labour elected

David Cameron at RAF Brize Norton yesterday as migrant figures were released

Inside today

The government must send migrants the right message, not pull up the drawbridge Leading article, page 20

National Statistics, said that the 43 per cent rise in net migration was a statistically significant increase. “We are seeing immigration increasing from within the EU and from outside the EU, and work is the main driver for these increases”, she added. The figures were published only days after Theresa May indicated that the government had dropped the “no ifs, no buts” pledge made by the prime minister to cut net migration to under 100,000 by the next general election. Mrs May claimed that government efforts to reduce net migration had been “blown off course” by EU immigration, but the figures show immigration from outside the EU is rising as Britain draws in more skilled workers. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said the Conservatives’ failure to meet their target for reducing net migration – which the Liberal Democrats had always opposed in government – would undermine public confidence in the immigration system. “This was a Conservative preoccupation. They made that promise. They have now broken that promise and they will have to suffer the embarrassment of having done so,” he said on his weekly LBC radio phone-in. Mark Hilton, of the London First business group, said the latest jump in immigration showed ministers had done the right thing by laying their migration target to rest. “Theresa May ef-

fectively killed the migration target off when she admitted what we’ve known for a long time — that the government was not going meet its pledge,” he said. “Those who work to get the right people with the right skills into the UK won’t mourn its passing. Now we need to dust off the welcome mat and carry on attracting the engineers, tech experts and other workers with the skills we sorely need.” Opposition politicans seized on the figures as evidence of a failed pledge. Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, said the figures showed that Mr Cameron had “spectacularly broken the promise he made to the British people” on net migration. He said: “We are not going to make promises we can’t keep but we do have a plan to deal with people’s concerns, like saying you have to wait two years if you come into Britain from the EU to get benefits.” Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, said: “So much for Mr Cameron’s ‘no ifs, no buts’ promise. So much for their repeated pledge to reduce net migration to below 100,000. “The impact on the NHS, schools, police, and other national infrastructure is immense, and the total Tory failure has now been exposed.” James Brokenshire, the immigration minister, defended the government’s policies saying that it had cut immigration from outside the EU by almost a quarter since 2010, shut bogus colleges, and reduced the number of family visas. Sir Andrew Green, chairman of MigrationWatch UK, which campaigns to cut immigration, said: “These are disappointing numbers. They underline the difficulty of getting net migration down but it remains vital that we should do so if we are to relieve the growing strain on our infrastructure and society.”

1995

1996

1997

1998

Immigration by citizenship For every 100 immigrants to the UK

2000

12 are ‘EU8’ citizens (e.g. Poland)

2001

(thousands) Formal study

150

Accompany/join

20 are ‘EU15’ citizens (e.g. France, Spain, Italy, Germany)

250 200

Work related

16 are British citizens

2002

Main reasons for migration

45 are citizens from outside the EU

6 are Romanian or Bulgarian

Note: figures are rounded

1999

100

50 2014

EU pullout threatened Continued from page 1

claimed. However, workers from countries such as Poland and Bulgaria would still be better off taking low-paid work in the UK — even without in-work benefits — than receiving the minimum wage in their native countries. Nevertheless, Mr Cameron will present this welfare package as an answer to those demanding Britain regain control over its borders. “People have understandably become frustrated. It boils down to one word: control,” he will say. “People want government to have control over the numbers of people coming here and the circumstances in which they come, both from around the world and from within the European Union . . . And yet in recent years, it has become clear that successive governments have lacked control.

“People want grip. I get that . . . They don’t want limitless immigration and they don’t want no immigration. They want controlled immigration. And they are right.” Mr Cameron is understood to have briefed Angela Merkel about the content of the speech yesterday. In response to her warnings not to attempt fundamental changes to the EU’s freedom of movement principle, he will accept it is a “key part of the single market”. To ensure it can survive, however, he will urge Mrs Merkel and others to accept the need for action to ensure it is “sustainable”. “I say to our European partners: we have real concerns. Our concerns are not outlandish or unreasonable. We deserve to be heard, and we must be heard, he will say.”

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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Migration News

Thousands 300 Cap on skilled migrants 260,000 244,000 Coalition takes power Banking crash Recession

Eight east European states join EU

250

UK economy recovers Continued economic problems in Eurozone

Lucy Fisher Political Correspondent

200

April: new visa rules for overseas students

150

100

0 2004

2005

2006

2007

Immigration to the UK by citizenship (thousands) 350 Non-EU citizens 300

2008

2010

250

Non-EU citizens

200 150

EU citizens

200 150

British citizens

Q&A What does David Cameron want this speech to achieve? The prime minister’s most fervent wish for his longawaited address on immigration is that it will allow him to move off the topic. After a thumping defeat by Ukip in the Clacton byelection on October 9, Mr Cameron agreed to Tory backbenchers’ demands to make a “game-changing” speech on immigration to see off Nigel Farage’s insurgency. For weeks Mr Cameron was torn between those

demanding he shoot Mr Farage’s fox and campaign on an election pledge to limit directly EU numbers and those who said any attempt to outflank Ukip was bound to fail and would only validate those committed to a British exit. The latter camp won but by proposing EU migrant welfare restrictions far more stringent than those mooted by Labour or the Liberal Democrats, Mr Cameron still hopes to convince voters he is acting on their concerns. What does he want and will it work? Under the first demand, jobseekers from the EU won’t be able to apply for any out-of-work benefits and face being deported if

2014

China Spain

Australia

-50

2013

Where they come from Top five countries of last residence of all migrants in 2013 (thousands)

India

-100 10

2012

100

British citizens

100 50 2014

2011

Net migration for EU, Non-EU and British ctizens (thousands)

250 EU citizens

2009

46 33* 33 29**

Poland

27 *27% are returning Britons **62% are returning Britons

they are still unemployed after six months. Mr Cameron will say this will require Britain to overturn a 1991 ruling by the European Court of Justice. Before that, EU states Bef could insist that migrants had a job

Ukippers more loyal than rival party supporters

Source: ONS

The rise of Ukip is to continue beyond the general election next year, according to new data that reveals it now boasts the most loyal supporters. The data, collated by the British Election Study, reveals that Ukip has a more faithful and committed voter base than any of the other main three parties. The findings suggest that the antiEU party is on track to maintain the 16 per cent share of the vote next May that it is polling at present, as its voters are unlikely to desert it at the ballot box. The data shows that 75 per cent of Ukip voters are “very” or “fairly strongly” committed to the party, compared with 71 per cent of Labour voters, 68 per cent of Conservative supporters, and only 51 per cent of Liberal Democrat supporters. Matthew Goodwin, a leading academic, has analysed the figures in an article for The Times’s Red Box website today, which shows that Ukip also has fewer floating voters among its supporters than any of the main parties. Only a quarter of its supporter base feel “not very strongly” committed to the party, while the figure is almost half (49 per cent) for the Liberal Democrats, and 32 per cent for the Tories. The findings counter the analysis of many Ukip critics that the party’s vote will collapse next May, as supporters who have voted for the anti-EU party at the local and European elections return to the more established mainstream parties at the general election. As well as being loyal, Ukip’s voters are a socially distinct group, according to other recent research which revealed 56 per cent of Ukip supporters are classified as working class, and tend to be congregated together geographically along the east coast and south of England. Dr Goodwin, associate professor of politics at the University of Nottingham, pointed out that all these factors render Ukip

offer before moving within the Union. The second set of demands imposes a four-year moratorium on entitlements for in-work benefits and social housing. Experts say this is the most contentious part of the package. Together with a ban on child benefit payments for dependents living in migrants’ native countries it will require Britain to tear up EU case law that forbids discrimination between citizens of different member states. Some experts, like the Open Europe think-tank, are confident it can be done without needing all 28 member states to agree but through qualified majority voting. Others are sceptical.

able to navigate successfully Britain’s first-past-the-post electoral system to gain MPs. He pointed out that the high proportion of “strong identifiers” among Ukip’s voter base distinguish the party from earlier protest parties that have subsequently faded away, such as the Social Democratic party. “Ukip is more than just a protest party where supporters flock to it simply because they don’t like the main parties. This would suggest that supporters have a positive, instrumental affiliation with Ukip. Almost one in four is feeling strongly attached to the party,” he said. He added: “It’s distinctly unlikely that Ukip will slump into the 6-7 per cent range in the polls that the Con-

Red Box

servatives need them to if the Tories are to avoid facing problems in the key marginals.” Urging caution, however, about Ukip’s onslaught, he predicted that the party will struggle to gain more than six MPs next May. He also warned that it still has much work to do in professionalising its image and in developing a winning campaign plan. He said: “Ukip is heavily dependent on Farage and there is no clear future strategy in place. Socially ukip essentially has what you need to cause some significant damage in the first-pastthe-post system. Organisationally, however, ukip still has some challenges to overcome.”

What about EU workers already here? There is no suggestion that migrants already here are to be subjected to any retrospective restrictions on their benefits. Presumably, however, the government will have to announce a cut-off deadline in advance of any implementation, opening the prospect of a new wave of migrants seeking to beat the deadline. Is this another ‘no ifs, no buts’ pledge? Mr Cameron’s pledge to reduce net migration to below the tens of thousands has been a millstone around his neck. Without direct control over numbers from the EU, it was

Nigel Farage: Ukip’s supporters could be here to stay, analysts claim

always vulnerable to economic flows he could do little to change. He hasn’t repeated the mistake of committing to a number. His aides won’t say if his statement that welfare restrictions are an “absolute requirement” of Britain’s continued membership of the EU relates to this exact package. Some will suspect that it is, in effect, an opening negotiating position and the final agreement will be watered down. Downing Street won’t give the package the same status as Mr Cameron has already given his promise to hold an EU referendum — that of a nonnegotiable condition of a future coalition.

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Friday November 28 2014 | the times

News

Asda is worst for poisoned chicken Ben Webster Environment Editor

Asda has the worst record for selling fresh chicken highly contaminated with a bacterium that causes more than 280,000 cases of food poisoning and 100 deaths a year, according to a Food Standards Agency survey. Tesco was rated the best among the seven major retailers, with 11 per cent of its chicken having the highest level of contamination when tested by the agency, or more than 1,000 campylobacter bacteria per gram. Twenty-eight per cent of Asda chickens fell into this category, whereas the industry average was 18 per cent.

How your supermarket fares Skin samples contaminated

Highest level of contamination*

78%

28%

Asda Others** M&S Morrisons Co-op Waitrose Sainsbury’s Tesco Total

* Above 1,000 colony forming units of campylobacter per gram **includes supermarkets where the market share was deemed small using the 2010 Kantar data, ie Lidl, Aldi, Iceland, plus convenience stores, independents, butchers etc

Case study No retailer has yet achieved the target agreed with the agency in 2010, with a deadline of the end of next year, of less than 10 per cent of chickens having the highest level of contamination at the end of the slaughter process. The agency, which tested 2,000 chickens bought in shops between February and August, did not reveal the results for Aldi, Lidl or Iceland, saying too few samples had been taken. Asda also had the worst record for campylobacter detected on the outside of the packaging containing the chicken, at 12 per cent, double the industry average of 6 per cent. The overall results showed that 80 per cent of chicken tested positive

ngelo Iacovella realised that the chicken he was chewing was raw and spat it out. He was still infected by campylobacter and suffered diarrhoea the next day. However his problems really began two weeks later when he felt a strong pain in his lower back and right leg. His GP told him it was probably just sciatica but a day

later the pain was so strong that he visited St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, London. He went to A&E four times that week. His parents became so worried they told him to fly home to Italy. He went straight from the airport to A&E and doctors diagnosed GuillainBarré syndrome, a life-threatening condition which can be triggered by a

bacterial infection. Angelo, 41, a private equity analyst, was injected with immunoglobulin five times a day for five days and then spent two months in hospital. He has made full recovery but says he is lucky because many victims never recover, with some spending the rest of their lives in wheelchairs or walking with a stick.

for some level of campylobacter from mid-May to mid-August, compared with 59 per cent in the previous three months. The agency said that the rise was probably because warmer weather tended to cause an increase in campylobacter. Steve Wearne, the agency’s director of policy, said: “Campylobacter reduction is [our] number one food safety priority. If industry meets its target for the end of next year, they will prevent tens of thousands of people from getting ill from this really nasty bug and stop dozens of people each year dying from it and the complications it causes. “There are signs that some retailers are starting to step up to their responsibilities. When more do, we will see the sustained improvements that will help prevent many of their customers getting ill.” The agency said that if chicken was cooked thoroughly and preparation guidelines properly followed, including not washing raw chicken, the risk to the public was extremely low. Retailers have rushed to announce measures to limit the bug, with the Co-op and Marks & Spencer introducing “roast in the bag” chickens to minimise handling at home. Asda and one of its suppliers, Faccenda, said that they were testing technology that kills campylobacter by blasting each chicken for 1.5 seconds with steam and ultrasound. An Asda spokesman said: “We’re disappointed with these findings. There is no ‘silver bullet’ to tackle this issue, but, along with other retailers, we’re working hard to find a solution.”

No 10 defied Cabinet Office advice on grant Jill Sherman Whitehall Editor

Downing Street has “questions to answer” about why it defied Cabinet Office advice over funding a Big Society organisation backed by David Cameron, the public spending watchdog says today. No 10 asked a minister to approve a £150,000 grant to the Society Network Foundation — chaired by Martyn Rose, a Tory donor — despite officials’ concerns about the charity’s poor performance and doubts over its financial sustainability, a report from the National Audit Office says. Margaret Hodge, chairwoman of the public accounts committee, said the decision was “alarming” and it was “hard to believe that government’s decision to renew funding was in the best interests of the taxpayer”. She pointed out that, a year later, the organisation applied to be wound up and the Cabinet Office decided to take over its work. Labour said the Big Society had lost “its last shred of credibility”. The £150,000 grant was the last in a string of grants totalling £3.1 million paid by government bodies and the Big Lottery Fund to the Society Network Foundation and its subsidiary the Big Society Network. The prime minister launched the BSN with a fanfare in 2010 as part of his big society programme to encourage community work and volunteering.

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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News

PHILYEOMANS / BNPS; MOVIESTORE COLLECTION / REX FEATURES

Fellowes fights for Hardy’s hamlet

Frances Gibb Legal Editor

ulian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey, is leading a campaign to save a Dorset hamlet that was once home to Thomas Hardy (Simon de Bruxelles writes). Lower Bockhampton has changed only a little since the novelist attended the village school in the 1840s. Now its tranquillity is threatened by a development of 70 homes on fields owned by an agricultural college. The hamlet provided the inspiration for two of Hardy’s best-loved novels: Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Under the Greenwood Tree. Some of the locations described are still recognisable today. Lower Bockhampton, renamed Melstock in Under the Greenwood Tree, was also the place where he encountered the 18-year-old milkmaid who was the inspiration for

Ex-wife gets record £337m settlement

Julian Fellowes’s home is close to Lower Bockhampton. Below, Nastassja Kinski as Tess

Tess. There are only 28 houses in the hamlet, which means the new estates one on either side of the village could more than quadruple its population. The objectors say that Hardy will be turning in his grave. Lord Fellowes of West Stafford, who is president of the Hardy Society and lives So in manor house in a neighbouring village, said: “We have a

real responsibility to protect the environment of one of England’s greatest writers . . . the residents of Lower Bockhampton are about to be hit with an atom bomb. This development will obliterate the village.” English Heritage has also objected to the plans, which are due to be considered by West Dorset district council. Kingston Maurward College said that it needed to develop the land to expand.

A financier’s ex-wife has been awarded more than £337 million in what is thought to be the biggest divorce award made in the English courts. Sir Chris Hohn, 48, and his former American wife, Jamie Cooper-Hohn, 49, had fought over their £700 million fortune. Details of the sum awarded to Mrs Cooper-Hohn emerged at a private hearing in London yesterday. The sum beats the next highest award by more than £100 million. The couple separated after being married for 17 years. They have four children, including triplets. They are philanthropists and trustees of the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, known as TCI, which works in developing countries. It is the UK’s second-biggest private charity and one of the top private charities in the world. Sir Chris runs the TCI hedge fund, which he claimed was his special contribution to their wealth, arguing that she should receive a quarter of their fortune. His ex-wife claimed that she should get half because the wealth was created as a result of their partnership. Mrs Justice Roberts has yet to deliver a detailed ruling but a draft version has been given to Sir Chris and Mrs Cooper-Hohn and their lawyers. Both Sir Chris and Mrs Cooper-Hohn were at yesterday’s hearing. Neither commented as they left court. The amount of the award emerged

during discussions between the judge and lawyers, including about when the judgment would be made public. The judge said that although yesterday’s hearing had been in private, what had been said could be reported. The judge had heard evidence at a private trial in the Family Division of the High Court in July. The cost of the litigation is thought to run into millions of pounds and another judge who analysed a legal issue at an earlier hearing had wondered out loud about the size of the legal bills. “God knows the cost of being here,” said Mr Justice Holman. “The costs just roll off the back of the duck like a drop.” Alison Hawes, a family law partner at Irwin Mitchell, said: “It is clear that the breadwinner should not receive a higher proportion of the wealth than the homemaker purely because they are the higher earner. “The contributions of the party who has taken a parenting or supportive role are equally valued,” she said. She added that in a case such as this, where “the wealth amassed is so vast”, the party who had directly generated the majority of the fortune may argue that he or she had made a “special contribution”. The award will underline London’s status as divorce capital of the world where women are more likely to receive generous settlements, because the starting point for splitting a couple’s assets is 50/50.

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News

Coroner breaks down in tears as he hears of soldier’s heroism David Brown

A coroner broke down in tears at the inquest of a special forces soldier as he described how he had “died with a rifle in his hand doing a job that he loved” during a mission in Afghanistan. Captain Richard Holloway was killed during a daring night-time raid on a Taliban stronghold outside Kabul on December 23 last year. An enemy fighter, hiding in boulders up to 100ft high, sprayed a magazine from his Kalashnikov and hit the Special Boat Service soldier in the thigh and pelvis. His commanding officer, who was referred to during the inquest as Officer C, carried him off the mountainside as bullets continued to fly, but said he knew that he was already dead. Andrew Tweddle, the coroner for Durham, wept as he spoke to Captain Holloway’s parents Neil and Jaquie, and related their loss to that of his own. Officer C had told the inquest: “Rich died with a rifle in his hand, he died

Captain Richard Holloway was killed during a raid on a Taliban stronghold

doing the job that he absolutely loved and he died protecting the freedoms the Afghan people enjoyed, like the people in the UK.” At the conclusion of the inquest, Mr Tweddle’s emotions broke through as he repeated those words, and cited the death of his own son Aidan, who was killed at 21 in a car crash in 2007. Mr Tweddle said: “He died with a rifle in his hand, doing a job he loved and protecting freedom. I have difficulty saying this. “My son died some years ago in a car

crash. If someone had said to me what that officer had said, I would feel very proud.” Mr Tweddle concluded that Captain Holloway, 29, who was a Royal Engineer before joining the special forces, died from gunshot wounds sustained while on active duty in Afghanistan. Captain Holloway’s family, from Hamsterley, Co Durham, were also in tears at the conclusion of the hearing. Officer C, who gave evidence from behind a screen to protect his identity, was in charge of a major operation to take out high-ranking Taliban officials living in what they believed was relative safety up a rocky valley outside Kabul. He told the inquest that the aim was to attack the Taliban in a valley where no Allied forces had been for some time. After coming under sporadic gunfire the group split in two with Officer C leading one half and Captain Holloway led the UK soldiers in the other section. Captain C said the operation “stopped or definitely delayed multiple high-profile attacks into Kabul”.

Briton killed by Taliban suicide bomb in Kabul Robin Pagnamenta Nooruddin Bakhshi Kabul

Two workers at the British embassy in Kabul were among five people who were killed yesterday by a Taliban suicide bomber who rammed a car

packed with explosives into their diplomatic vehicle. A British security guard working for G4S, the private security firm, and an Afghan driver employed by the embassy were travelling in the vehicle. At least three Afghan civilians also

died and at least 38 people were wounded in the attack just after 10am. Another Briton working for G4S was said to be among those injured. Hours later, the Taliban launched a second attack at a guesthouse housing foreigners, wounding a Nepalese guard.

Friday November 28 2014 | the times

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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News

ISLAND VISIONS / BNPS, SWNS, ROD KIRKPATRIC / F STOP PRESS

Teacher who banned banter forced to quit Greg Hurst Education Editor

Fogs and floods The morning sun shows Moreton Common in Dorset under water after heavy rain, while the river Taw in Barnstaple, Devon,

is shrouded in mist. A weather front moves across the Avon valley in Warwickshire, but brighter days lie ahead Forecast, page 17

A teacher who made headlines by banning the term “banter” in his classroom has been forced to leave his job. Mike Stuchbery, who decided that banter had become a euphemism for bullying, said that colleagues rounded on him in the staffroom afterwards, saying that he could have triggered an Ofsted inspection. While pupils at Lynn Grove High School in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, initially shouted “Banter!” wherever he went, but many agreed with him once he had explained to them the difference between banter and misbehaviour. However, some fellow teachers were unforgiving, accusing him of giving the impression that behaviour at the school was poor. Mr Stuchbery, who taught English via a supply agency, was summoned for a “discussion” at the school at which his departure was “mutually agreed”. His fate has big implications for the growing number of teachers who use blogs and social media to discuss classroom practice and to debate policy, some of whom had an influence on Michael Gove in shaping his reforms to the exam system and curriculum. Issues such as cheating, inflated marks for assessed coursework, hostility to traditional teaching methods and inconsistent practice among Ofsted inspectors have all been highlighted by teacher bloggers. It was

via a blog post that Mr Stuchbery, an Australian, first discussed his ban on pupils using the term “banter”, saying that it was widely misused by teenagers to explain away bullying, disruption or bad manners. His post was published by the TES online and was widely reported, in The Times and elsewhere. Inevitably, the teacher used another blog post to describe his dismissal. Describing his first day back at school after the publicity, he said that he “was surprised to find that the staff room, full of people that would have Mike Stuchbery spoke out about banter on a blog

otherwise greeted me, was eerily quiet”. He went on: “It was like I wasn’t there at all. I made a crack about how I’d made the papers . . . I was told, in no uncertain terms, that I could have brought down Ofsted on the school and that the kids might think I thought they were poorly behaved.” He said that the pupils understood his point when it was explained and concluded that it was easier to challenge a cultural practice with children than with adults, such as his fellow teachers. The school declined to comment.

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Friday November 28 2014 | the times

News Scotland

Labour ‘betrayed’ over plan to stop Scottish MPs voting Sam Coates Deputy Political Editor Lindsay McIntosh Scottish Political Editor

Labour accused David Cameron and Nick Clegg of betrayal yesterday over their new plan to stop Scottish MPs voting on income tax changes that affect the rest of the United Kingdom. The Smith Commission outlined a

new deal for Scotland yesterday, under which control of income tax, VAT revenues, the power to introduce new benefits and control of air passenger duty would be transferred from Westminster to Holyrood. SNP ministers condemned the new devolution settlement, however, and pledged to use the general election to fight for significantly more powers.

Nicola Sturgeon, the party leader, set up the vote in May as a referendum on a fresh deal for Holyrood going far beyond the “disappointing” proposals. The battle quickly turned to the ability of Scottish MPs, who are overwhelmingly Labour, to determine Westminster business that does not cover Scotland. Initially, Labour figures trumpeted a line in the commission’s

final report as a significant win. It said: “MPs representing constituencies across the whole of the UK will continue to decide the UK’s budget, including income tax.” Labour sources claimed it meant that there would be no scope for the Tories to push through plans to create a twotier system of MPs that would bar Scottish MPs from voting on English-only matters. However, No 10 and the Liberal Democrats are now signalling that they will continue to try to block Scottish MPs from voting on income tax rates and bands that affect only voters in the rest of the UK. Labour reacted with fury, with a spokesman for Ed Miliband suggesting that the others were betraying the promise made in the commission’s report. “They are going back on their word,” he said. Labour believes that a two-tier system in the Commons could accelerate the break-up of the UK. Scottish MPs would be able to vote only on those decisions relating to income tax that are “reserved” to Westminster, meaning they could help to decide the level of the personal allowance, the scope of the tax and its exemptions. The Tories will publish their plans in a fortnight. Mr Cameron’s spokesman said: “There is going to continue to be a UK budget. Of course, there are elements where you have seen devolution on financial matters, and in that respect I would say the principle of English votes for English laws applies. In terms of what is for the UK, that will remain UKwide.” A Tory source said they “did not demur” from suggestions they would be pressing ahead with plans to block Scottish MPs setting income tax rates for the rest of the UK. Mr Clegg also made clear that he wanted to restrict the scope of income tax votes. “Well, the bands and the rates of . . . will be devolved to Scotland. But the tax base, in other words who you raise income tax from and the allowance and the exemptions and so on, all of that will still be determined in the UK, in the UK parliament in Westminster. And, of course, all MPs from across the UK can vote in that. Separately, of

Lord Smith of Kelvin, centre, flanked by

course, we need to look at this issue of how you deal with matters which come up from time to time which only affect England and Wales. And my party, the Liberal Democrats, have a plan on how you can deal with that. English votes, if you like, for English matters.” None of these decisions will be settled until after the general election, meaning that the victor will determine the future constitutional arrangements for the rest of the UK. Under the plans released by the commission, the remit will also cover fracking, the Crown Estate, payday lending, fixed odds betting terminals and the work programme. Scottish ministers will have a greater standing in international negotiations as well as input to broadcasting and competition. Lord Smith of Kelvin, the chairman of the commission, said: “Taken together, these new powers will deliver a stronger parliament, a more accountable parliament and a more autonomous parliament.”

English are freed from blame, but union could be in jeopardy Analysis Peter Jones

inancial accountability to voters for what Scottish politicians spend has certainly been delivered by the Smith Commission, but at a potential price of weakening the union. By becoming responsible for levying all the rates and bands for tax on earned income, the Scottish government elected next year will become immensely more accountable than its predecessors. On the basis of the money over which Scotland has most control — £32.5 billion of departmental spending

on health, education, council, new welfare, and other services — it will have to raise just over 60 per cent of what it spends. Add in sums spent on public sector pensions, farming subsidies and capital investment, and it will be responsible for collecting 48 per cent of its spending. Some of that will come in an assigned share of the first 10 percentage points of VAT, meaning that the Scottish government could not cut VAT to boost consumer spending or hike the rate to give it more money. Even discounting that, it still

means that with the devolution of minor taxes, such as air passenger duty, about 37 per cent of its spending will come from taxes fully under Scottish control. As this is much bigger than the current 10 per cent, it should shift debate out of the rut of blaming Westminster for cuts in which Scottish politics has become locked. Still to be seen is how the rest of Britain views this. Resentment at Scots having too much say over English taxes and demands for devolution elsewhere could weaken Britain’s fiscal union.

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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Scotland News

ANDREW MILLIGAN / PA

Ministers struggle to agree on what powers should be sent north From national lottery to immigration policy, just how will UK powers be divided, ask Sam Coates and Lindsay McIntosh

members of the Scottish parliament from all main parties, outlined the Smith Commission’s new deal for Scotland yesterday

A new deal for Scotland Income tax Westminster will keep control of the personal allowance, and income tax on savings and investments, but beyond that Holyrood is free to set the charge as it wishes, but MPs can impose extra tax in extreme circumstances. 6 Power rating: 7/10 Air passenger duty APD, which the SNP has been demanding control of for years, and nearly got in the last settlement, has now been devolved. Nationalists will slash it in half, then abolish it, to northern English airports’ dismay. 6 Power rating: 10/10

Benefits Disability living allowance, attendance allowance and carer’s allowance will go to Holyrood. MSPs can change frequency and recipients of universal credit payments and create new benefits. 6 Power rating: 4/10 Work programme Scottish ministers get control over employment programmes north of the border but Jobcentre Plus remains a UK-wide service. 6 Power rating: 5/10 Fracking Holyrood will be in charge of licensing onshore oil and gas extraction underlying

Scotland. North Sea oil and gas extraction will remain reserved. 6 Power rating: 5/10 Recall of MSPs Holyrood will be able to decide how many MSPs there are, in both the list and constituency systems. It will also have power over the disqualification of members. 6 Power rating: 10/10 Scottish parliament elections Holyrood will be able to set its own franchise, which will mean 16 and 17-year-olds getting the vote — but such moves will require a

two-thirds majority. It will also have power over party political broadcasts and election spending. 6 Power rating: 8/10 Crown Estate in Scotland The Scottish parliament will manage the Crown Estate economic assets in Scotland. There will then be further devolution to the islands. 6 Power rating: 9/10 BBC charter The BBC will lay its annual report and accounts before the Scottish parliament and appear in front of committees in the way it does at Westminster. 6 Power rating: 6/10

When Gordon Brown gave the commission on Scotland a deadline of eight weeks to decide which powers should transfer from Westminster to Holyrood, the process was always going to be fraught. However, when Tuesday morning’s cabinet began to discuss the likely conclusions of the commission, few were expecting to see so many loose ends, potential landmines and unintended consequences. Alistair Carmichael, the Scottish secretary, opened the debate. Then, one by one, cabinet ministers flagged up issues of concern. Some were aghast that, with 36 hours to go before the Smith Commission was due to go to press, major constitutional issues still appeared to be in flux. Theresa May highlighted concerns about a passage on immigration, after the SNP tried to relax rules for students and asylum seekers north of the border. Iain Duncan Smith pointed to concerns about the impact of the plans on universal credit. Even George Osborne raised a bemused eyebrow, while Sajid Javid suggested that the national lottery might be affected. The meeting triggered 48 hours of frantic negotiations, diluting some of the recommendations. Most were finalised late on Tuesday. Mrs May succeeded in pushing the immigration section into an “annexe” to be discussed at a future date, preferably after her departure from politics. Only a few sticking points remained, chief among them whether to devolve abortion law. The Greens were adamant that it should be, while for Labour it was a no-go area. A compromise was reached that a process should be set up to examine the issue further.

There were also disagreements on the wording of the section on equalities, which gives Holyrood the power to set 50:50 gender quotas on public boards, and the division of power on welfare. Both were hammered out in an hour on Wednesday. The formal meetings ended at 8pm on Wednesday night, but there were still last-minute changes. Detailed figures on the devolved spending and tax-raising powers were removed after Scottish government figures raised concerns about their accuracy. The official-level discussions were still going on closer to midnight on Wednesday, with cabinet ministers being called on their mobiles over dinner to approve the fine details. One of the curiosities of the past eight weeks was Labour’s position on the full devolution of income tax to Holyrood — something it had staunchly resisted until this autumn. According to sources close to the commission, Labour decided to concede on the policy at the start of October. Yet Jim Murphy, the frontrunner for the Scottish Labour leadership, was suggesting as recently as Sunday that he would not support it before making a U-turn on Tuesday. Then there were attempts by Ed Miliband to prevent the commission from being used by Tories to insist that Scottish MPs should no longer be able to decide English-only matters, such as the rate of income tax. His office insisted that the phrase “MPs representing constituencies across the whole of the UK will continue to decide the UK’s budget, including income tax” be included, despite it being beyond the commission’s remit. Yesterday David Cameron and Nick Clegg made clear that they were intending to ignore this promise. The debate is still far from over.

Inside today

Giving full tax powers ‘will increase avoidance’ Business, page 36

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Friday November 28 2014 | the times

News

Now it’s boom-time in provinces too as number of £1m properties soars Kathryn Hopkins Property Correspondent

The number of properties outside of London changing hands for more than £1 million has jumped by almost 50 per cent in the past year to a record high. As the property boom moves out of London to the rest of the country, Knight Frank, the upmarket estate agency, said that excluding the capital, sales of homes worth more than £1 million in England and Wales were 44 per

cent higher in the first six months of the year than in the same period in 2013. In the Midlands and Wales, whose property markets have been fairly depressed over the past few years, £1 million plus sales rocketed by 78 per cent year-on-year, while in the north they were 24 per cent higher. Rupert Sweeting, head of Knight Frank Country, said: “Confidence has been rippling through the market for the £1 million-plus market. Bonuses are being paid, company owners have seen

an upturn in profits, mortgage rates have remained low but the threat of increases has perhaps spurred buyers on to take advantage of historic low rates.” The bulk of prime activity was firmly rooted in southern England and the Home Counties, as an increasing number of Londoners move to commuter towns to cash in on the double digit annual rise in house prices in the capital. The majority of £1 million plus sales in the first half of 2014 were located around the transport corridors of the

M3, M4 and the M40. Popular commuter towns and cities in the south of England include Bath, where the number of Londoners who have bought a property has doubled so far this year compared to 2013. Buyers from the capital also made up 24 per cent of sales in Cirencester, 26 per cent in Stow and 44 per cent of sales in Haslemere. The jump in sales in this price bracket over the past year means that the number of properties which are worth £1 million or more and located outside of London has increased by 38 per cent over the last year. The biggest growth, in terms of households, has been in markets on the outskirts of the capital such as Elmbridge, Guildford, and Windsor and Maidenhead. Rising demand for family homes from both Londoners looking to move out of the capital, and buyers wishing to trade up in their local area, has helped to boost property values in these towns. Mr Sweeting said: “The ripples from the London housing market together with increased activity at the lower end of the market are helping to push prices and activity from the bottom up.” The number of homes worth more than £1 million outside London accounts for less than 1 per cent of the total housing stock.

Online today

Give brownfield sites a tax break Anne Ashworth, thetimes.co.uk/

Warrant out for Russian bank chief Charles Bremner Paris

Interpol issued a global alert last night for the arrest of Sergei Pugachev, a London-based Russian who was once known as Putin’s banker, to face charges in Moscow of stealing £600 million of state funds. Mr Pugachev, 51, was close to President Putin but fell out with him after the 2010 bankruptcy of Mezhprombank, which he controlled. He is now wanted in Moscow for his alleged embezzlement of state money used to prop up the collapsing institution. The former billionaire and member of Mr Putin’s inner circle, who moves between Mayfair and Monaco, was deemed one of Russia’s richest oligarchs, worth an estimated £10 billion. He owned a business empire that included banking, shipping and aviation. Responding to a Russian request this summer, the London High Court froze £1.17 billion of his global assets. It fixed at £10,000 a week the spending allowed by Mr Pugachev and his partner Alexandra Tolstoy, a British TV presenter who used to appear in the show Alexandra’s Horse People for the BBC. He appealed against the freeze earlier this month, saying that he was down to his last £45 million. Ms Tolstoy said the couple were struggling to make ends meet. A court ruling is pending. Interpol’s treaty requires signatory states, which include Britain, to detain or summon to a court hearing people whose names are put on the “red notice” list.

Europe votes to break internet companies up The European parliament has voted in favour of breaking up internet search engines, with a particular focus on Google, the sector’s market leader. The resolution means that pressure will be applied to the EU’s competition watchdog to split search engines from other services offered by internet companies. The approval of the measure came despite a warning from the US Congress that its passing would influence a long-running EU competition investigation into Google. The Computer and Communications Industry Association, whose members include Google and Facebook, said that any move to slice search services from internet companies was extreme and unworkable.

Paedophile abused 19 A paedophile has been convicted of sexually abusing 19 children in the care homes he ran in north Wales. John Allen, 73, was found guilty at Mold crown court of historical offences against 18 boys and one girl, aged seven to 15, in the Wrexham area. The court was told that he created “a culture of fear” at the homes and that the victims feared that no one would believe them. Allen, of Ipswich, Suffolk, who was cleared of two serious assaults, was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on Monday.

Unsuitable dog owners A dog owner handed in his pet to the Dogs Trust claiming that it “looked different” after being walked in the rain, and another did so because it “wags its tail too much”. A third rejected a puppy for being “too lively” and chasing frogs. With many unwanted pets expected to be handed in after Christmas, the charity has launched a campaign listing the bizarre excuses offered by owners. It aims to reinforce the message that a dog is for life and encourage people to think twice before buying a puppy as a gift.

Sergeant’s suicide A police sergeant from north Wales attending a rehabilitation centre killed himself after being ordered to leave for breaching its no alcohol rule. An inquest at Ruthin was told that Mark Ord, 51, was aware of the rule but still drank a large glass of wine on the night of his arrival at the Castlebrae Treatment Centre in Auchterarder, Scotland. He was told that he would have to return home but when he failed to turn up for breakfast a nurse found him dead in his room. The coroner recorded a verdict of suicide.

Cross-dressing ‘oasis’ One of the first British shops to sell clothes for cross-dressers has closed. Doreen Fashions opened in 1953 to cater for larger ladies but also attracted men seeking larger-sized stilettos, fake breasts and dresses. All were welcomed by Alan Freedman, 60, its present owner, and Betty, his mother, the previous owner, but stricter parking rules in Waltham Forest, north London, have forced the business online. Mr Freeman said: “Our customers want a good half an hour or more and it’s just impossible to get near here.”

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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Flu crisis looming as parents shun vaccine for youngsters Chris Smyth Health Correspondent

Toddlers are flu “super-spreaders” who threaten to make whole families sick because they are not being vaccinated, the chief medical officer has warned. Professor Dame Sally Davies urged parents to give young children the jab-free vaccine after figures showed that only a quarter of four-year-olds had had the nasal spray this year, and vaccination rates in other age groups were lower than last year. Half a million cases of flu could be prevented if half of young children were vaccinated, as this would stop the virus from sweeping through the family, Professor Davies said. She also warned that toddlers were five times more likely to need hospital treatment for flu than people in their 60s. “Flu can be really nasty for toddlers,

leading to time off nursery, which has a big impact on mums and dads, and sometimes even a stay in hospital. They also spread the virus easily and often pass flu to grandparents and other relatives, who can become very ill, fast,” she said. “Giving two, three and four-year-olds the free nasal spray really is in everyone’s interests if you want to help avoid a miserable winter for all the family.” For the first time, the vaccine is being offered to all children aged four this year, but only 24 per cent have had it. Rates are little better in other age groups, with 28 per cent of two-yearolds vaccinated, compared with 34 per cent last year. Young children are more likely to spread flu because they come into closer physical contact with other people, and do not cover their mouths

News

while sneezing or wash their hands often enough. Professor Davies said it was a “myth” that flu was simply a bad cold, pointing out that the virus causes tens of thousands of hospital stays each year and can lead to complications such as bronchitis and pneumonia. She has led a campaign to get more people vaccinated, and has condemned NHS staff who do not get the jab as “selfish”. Last year just over half of frontline health workers were vaccinated, compared with only a third four years ago. Children are offered a nasal spray as it is thought to offer them the most effective protection, as well as avoiding the need for an injection. Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol, said the main problem was a lack of awareness of the jab-free vaccine among parents.

Asthma sufferers not getting basic care Chris Smyth

Eight out of ten asthma sufferers are still not receiving the basic care they need, a charity has said, six months after a warning that NHS complacency was costing hundreds of deaths a year. Patients are being forced to endure needless hospital stays and life-threatening attacks because doctors do not perform the simple checks needed to

keep asthma under control, Asthma UK said. An online poll of 6,500 asthma patients found that 19 per cent were receiving all the care elements of national guidelines, including a written care plan, checks on their inhaler technique and annual medication reviews. Londoners had the worst care, with 14 per cent of asthma patients there receiving the care they should be, less

than half the rate in Northern Ireland. Deaths from asthma have risen 11 per cent since 2009 to 1,255 in 2013 and a report this year said that most of these deaths were avoidable. Kay Boycott, Asthma UK’s chief executive, said: “This means that there is an asthma postcode lottery — one where the gamble really is life or death.” NHS England said it was working on standardising asthma care.

Harvest choristers Members of the American community gathered at St Paul’s Cathedral in London yesterday morning for a service to celebrate Thanksgiving

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News

Pinter letters reveal a thinker’s drinker

SURESH KARADIA

Jack Malvern Arts Correspondent

Harold Pinter built up a formidable reputation in his lifetime as a serious thinker, Nobel prize-winning writer and thorn in the side of the Establishment. To that we can now add precocious thespian and troublemaking drunk. An unusual glimpse into the playwright’s more jovial side comes through in a collection of more than a hundred of Pinter’s letters, which the British Library has bought from two of Pinter’s friends for £27,000. One of the more rumbustious letters features Pinter, who died on d Christmas Eve 2008, aged 78, describing a drunken pub crawll to his friend Henry Woolf. The author, who grew up with Woolf in the East End of London, uses cockney terms and quotes Shakespeare as he relates a night out with “an Aryan friend”. “[He] was drunker than ever I have seen him,” Pinter wrote. “Pissed as ten newts. We schlapped him about, got chucked out of two pubs, he insulted a party of coppers, god save the mark, was nearly run over at every corner.” He continued that his friend was standing in drizzling rain in Trafalgar Square wearing ragged trousers and “holes rather than shoes on his feet, and that f***ing shapeless hat on his nut,

Friday November 28 2014 | the times

Magna Carta witness saw poetic justice Jack Malvern Arts Correspondent

Harold Pinter’s letters show a jovial side to the playwright, who also enthuses

about the work of Samuel Beckett, telling friends: “I am branded by it”

which we all but pissed in”. Curators at the library were confounded at first by Pinter’s habit of omitting dates from his letters, but soon realised that they could rely on the writer’s obsession with cricket. Rachel Foss, curator of modern literary manuscripts, cross-referenced

his descriptions of matches with Wisden and with cricketing websites. Other letters show Pinter’s ambition, at the age of 18, to found a theatre company and become a succcessful actor. “Henry, my dear, when I am a great, successful actor we shall form a company,” he wrote to Mr Woolf in 1948. “Ron [Percival], you and I will act. And you will also be my artistic adviser and director. It will be a great success.” The correspondence confirms Pinter’s debt as a writer to Samuel Beckett.

The author rhapsodises about Molloy, Beckett’s novel about a vagrant and private detective. “It is a work of dread and confusion, and I am branded by it . . . I am changed by Molloy,” he writes. The library, which acquired Pinter’s own archive in 2007, announced the latest acquisition at a preview of its forthcoming season of exhibitions, which will include a celebration of the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland and an exhibition exploring the culture of West Africa.

An obscure poem in Latin by a Scottish monk will be at the centre of a British Library exhibition after it was identified as the earliest independent account of the signing of Magna Carta. The poem will be displayed alongside the library’s copy of the document, which marks the moment in 1215 when King John conceded that he was subject to the rule of law. The exhibition, Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy, will also feature a copy of the American Declaration of Independence. The monk’s apparently first-hand account appears in the Melrose Chronicle, a record of events set down at Melrose Abbey in the Scottish Borders in the 12th and 13th centuries. It begins: “A new state of things begun in England; such a strange affair as had never before been heard; for the body wishes to rule the head, and the people desired to be masters over the king.” Julian Harrison, the British Library’s curator of medieval manuscripts, said that the account, written in verse, had been overlooked by scholars. “An edition of it was printed in the 19th century but strangely, because it was found in Scotland, English historians haven’t really taken it into account,” he said. It was “a contemporaneous report from someone who clearly might have been there. It’s really exciting.” The exhibition will run from March to September next year.

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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comment pages of the year

These old houses are getting shaky Ben Macintyre Page 19

Opinion

Beware the march of IDS and his gothic folly Iain Duncan Smith’s wildly overambitious reform of the benefit system is poor policy – and poorly implemented is a clue to the problem. Successive Labour ministers looked at doing precisely the same thing and decided, with conservative wisdom, that it was impractical. IT systems in different computer languages had to speak freely to one another to update volatile information on the earnings, taxes and benefits of millions of people instantaneously. It’s a colossal task, to be embarked upon either with great trepidation or not at all. Fired by evangelical fervour, Mr Duncan Smith knew better. First, he decided to build a few of his own prejudices into the design. The allowance for single parents, especially the young, is to be less than for couples. Earners who do not pay tax are punished. It is clear from the design of the policy what Mr Duncan Smith’s holy family looks like: man at work, woman at home. Then he declared that his church would be built by 2017. On its original prospectus, one million people should by now be receiving UC. The actual number is 17,850 in a

Philip Collins

@pcollinstimes

n the early phase of the coalition, the office run by Iain Duncan Smith was known as the Department for Worship and Prayer. The new secretary of state was flushed with fervour about poverty. An epiphany on the Easterhouse estate in Glasgow in 2002 convinced him that a grand Universal Credit scheme would make people better. After this week’s damning National Audit Office verdict on Mr Duncan Smith’s folly, the DWP should be renamed the Church of the Holy Family. The temple of that name in Barcelona, the Sagrada Familia, has just been given a new completion date of 2028. Work on the façades celebrating faith, hope and charity began in 1883 and building has proceeded glacially ever since. The original design was mind-numbingly complex and the architect and inspiration, Antoni Gaudí, was run over by a streetcar in 1926. By now, nobody has the first idea how much the Church of the Holy Family has cost. The Universal Credit (UC) is Mr Duncan Smith’s gothic folly. The UC is a simple enough idea. It wraps together six of the seven existing means-tested benefits covering unemployment, housing and children. Administered perfectly and in full it would simplify the system and make work pay more. Who could possibly be against that? Well, nobody is against it and that

After the 2015 election there’ll be a backlog of 800,000 assessments pilot project in Ashton-under-Lyne. A completion date of 2017 has been put back to 2020. The DWP has already been upbraided for writing off £40 million in failed IT software and £91 million in other assets. The projected cost so far is £500 million. Mr Duncan Smith’s church is in such a state of disrepair that the ministerial oversight group, led by the cabinet office minister Francis Maude, concluded that the original design should be scrapped. Mr Duncan Smith, conscious of the political disaster, refused and

proceeded to spend our money on twin computer systems, the full tale of which has not yet been told. There is, alas, even more to the lamentable record of the DWP than the Sagrada Familia it insists on constructing for benefits. The policy register runs through the bedroom tax, reforms to disability benefits, the work programme and overall spending and not one of them is in credit. When Mr Duncan Smith told tenants in social housing who had a spare bedroom to move house he was told that the existing housing stock made a mockery of his order. He proceeded nevertheless and, with no suitable houses available, only 5 per cent of tenants have moved. The majority of people with spare rooms have indeed been forced to pay a tax on the extra bedroom and two thirds of them are in now in arrears. Brilliant. Predictable and entirely avoidable impoverishment. Mr Duncan Smith’s replacement of the disability living allowance with the personal independence payment (PIP) is also a mess. In a scathing assessment, the Commons public accounts committee reported that disabled people were waiting six months to receive the PIP. The delays mean that spending, which Mr Duncan Smith insisted would fall by £1.2 billion, has in fact gone up by £1.6 billion. Whoever gets his job after the 2015 election will inherit a backlog of 800,000 assessments. Poor policy, badly implemented. A further 700,000 disabled people are on the waiting list for Mr Duncan Smith’s new work capability assessment. Atos, the company given the contract to manage it, had to be eased out and Maximus, their replacement, has said that the backlog will take 18 months to clear. Forty per cent of decisions are

The projected completion date for Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia is now 2028

overturned and the number of disabled getting back into work is actually falling. Mr Duncan Smith has made a lot of the supposed contribution of his welfare reforms to buoyant employment. The work programme, the latest in a long line of welfare-towork programmes that don’t add to welfare and don’t work, has fallen hugely short of its employment targets. One study said the unemployed had a better chance of finding work if they avoided the work programme than if they went on to it. It is also fabulous to claim, as the secretary of state regularly does without evidence, that sanctions in his benefit regime have forced unwilling people into work. Jonathan Portes, of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, has

said that people are not in fact finding work quicker and that, in any case, the link to welfare reform “has no support in the data”. It’s a claim, though, that seems to have plenty of support in the press. Not even Mr Duncan Smith can dispute the bill, however. He was once fond of blithe statements about welfare being the price of failure. To which end he would save £19 billion a year from the social security bill by 2015. The savings so far have been £2.5 billion a year. So far this parliament the government has spent £25 billion more on social security than it said it would back in the optimistic days of 2010. It has been confounded by low pay, which means the tax credit bill is £5 billion more than expected and a rise in housing benefit of £1 billion. To turn his own idiom back against him, Mr Duncan Smith is guilty of the sin of hubris. In opposition he gave the impression that it was Labour’s soft-hearted generosity that caused the welfare bill to rise. He is discovering that welfare is dynamic and complex. Policy at the Church of the Holy Family has been neither. When he was asked why the construction of the Sagrada Familia was taking so long, Gaudí replied that “my client is not in a hurry”. Maybe Mr Duncan Smith has a higher calling and a timescale of his own. He is finding out that in politics there are only two states — the quick and the dead.

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

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Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, western Russia Mostly cloudy, but some sunny spells over Russia. The chance of a few scattered light, wintry showers. Maximum 3C (37F), minimum -14C (7F).

Iberia, France, the Alps, northern Italy A breezy day with scattered heavy showers, snow over the Alps. There will be some bright or sunny intervals as well, the best of the sunshine in France. Maximum 19C (66F), minimum -3C (27F).

Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic Rather cloudy in the east of the region with the chance of some sleet or drizzle, but largely dry in the west with some bright or sunny spells. Maximum 11C (52F), minimum -5C (23F).

Southern Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Malta, the Balearics, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Crete Mainly dry with sunny periods in the west of the Mediterranean, but elsewhere it will be rather cloudy. Maximum 21C (70F), minimum 6C (43F).

The Balkans, Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine Mainly dry with some sunny spells over inland areas of the Balkans, but otherwise it will be rather cloudy with rain or snow in the north and scattered showers along the Adriatic coast. Maximum 11C (52F), minimum -4C (25F).

British Isles Mostly cloudy with patchy rain in the east, and the odd shower along the south coast. Mild in the south. Maximum 15C (59F), minimum 3C (37F). Outlook Largely dry in the north, but feeling quite cool. Milder in the south with rain or showers.

6 22 19

12 32

Forecast for noon today. Wind speed in mph. Temperatures maximum for day, degrees C

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Friday November 28 2014 | the times

Opinion

Obama has failed to reveal his true colour Many black voters hoped their president would stand up for them in Ferguson. He hasn’t Justin Webb

@justinonweb

ne tweet summed it up: “O man Obama, not ready to hear this.” The writer was Ta-Nehisi Coates, a commentator and author, a man not hostile to Barack Obama. Not hostile, but disappointed, as he listened to the president calling for calm after it was announced that the white policeman who shot an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Missouri, was not be to charged with a crime. Other black commentators went further. “I didn’t vote for him on two occasions for him to give speeches like he gave last night,” said Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of black culture at Duke University. “I find it amazing, given who the president is and the access to the best black minds in the country, that so many of his responses to this are so lame.” For America’s first black president, these are his grimmest moments. The word “disappointment” has been bandied about for years; people have cited Guantanamo Bay, a botched introduction of healthcare reform, a failure to tackle inequality, even the absence of promised high-speed railway lines. But for the growing band of black former supporters of Barack Obama a new word is being whispered: tragedy.

Barack Obama, they have concluded, never wanted to be black. They say this not in an offensive way — he is plainly supremely comfortable in his own skin — but as a simple fact of political life. Everyone accepted that he could never have won the presidency in 2008 if he had run as an angry black man; even Jesse Jackson eventually accepted, albeit kicking and screaming, that Obama’s way was the right way. But many black Americans hoped that once he was in power he would reveal, well, his true colours, or colour. He would speak the truth to both sides in the racial divide. And that, many black people assumed, would mean that where institutional racism was discerned their president would call it out: shout about it and take the right side. He tried it just once, right at the beginning of his presidency, when police arrested an African-American

Angry voices are louder today than at any time in the presidency scholar Henry Louis “Skip” Gates at his own home. The professor had been trying to get in after forgetting his keys. Someone called the cops and they took some convincing that a black man actually owned the house. The president said the police had acted “stupidly”. It wasn’t exactly shouting but it caught people’s attention. But what happened next is instructive: there was a storm of

After giving the president the benefit of the doubt, supporters are now angry

outrage and Mr Obama, instead of standing firm, caved in. The policeman who made the arrest and the unfortunate professor were called to the White House for what was described as a “beer summit” — they drank bottles of beer around a table in the garden, the moment captured for posterity by the White House photographer. At the time Obama called it “a teachable moment” and to many it truly was: it taught that this president would find racial matters as difficult to address as all others have, and would probably prefer a beer. But still he had to be re-elected. So many black people gave him the benefit of the doubt. And in 2012, for the first time in US history, a higher proportion of black people voted

than whites — and overwhelmingly they backed Mr Obama. After 2012 the gloves would be off. That would be the moment when their president would draw his line in the sand. And, in Ferguson, the opportunity came. They wanted their president to go to Ferguson and draw that line. And he has not. And they are angry. Not all of them, of course: the Missouri Congressman Emanuel Cleaver dismissed the idea that Mr Obama had a particular need to go to Ferguson, pointing out that the very expectation puts extra responsibility on a black man. Why should he do something that other white presidents might not? Racism is not Mr Obama’s problem, it is America’s. Mr Obama still has many black supporters who cannot bring themselves to blame him for the state of race relations in modern America. He has done, they believe, all that could realistically have been done. But the angry voices are louder today than they have ever been during his presidency. The last word goes to one of those voices, the black historian Jelani Cobb, who concluded a piece for The New Yorker magazine on the rioting in Ferguson with these words: “Perhaps the message here is that American democracy has reached the limits of its elasticity — that the symbolic empowerment of individuals, while the great many remain citizen-outsiders, is the best that we can hope for. “The air last night, thick with smoke and gunfire, suggested something damning of the president.”

Helen Rumbelow Notebook

700 years on, they broke through the oak ceiling

taring at the portraits hanging in my old college dining hall in Oxford, I started to ponder the work of that much maligned philosopher, Donald Rumsfeld. Are there unknown knowns? Let me explain. The dining hall of University College was packed with more women than it’s seen in its 765year history. We had been invited to celebrate 35 years of female undergraduates and the college’s first female fellow, my old English tutor, Professor Helen Cooper. Now the strange part: When I arrived as an undergraduate, this toleration-of-females experiment was just over a decade old. Did I have a clue? No. I chose to un-know it. Just like you blocked out the fact that much of the time you were taught in rooms set up as bedrooms. Like that’s not weird. As Cooper spoke of her time as the lone female fellow, I realised I had

been oblivious to that too. That the senior staff was all-male was a given; human wallpaper melding in your head with centuries of white-haired nerds gazing down from the walls of the room where you ate lunch, hungover. You didn’t look up. That no more female fellows were appointed for another fifteen years didn’t even cross my mind. I remember the second one, Ngaire Woods, professor of international political economy, joining just as I left in the mid-1990s. On her first day a man said to her without irony: “You women get all the jobs”. The self-absorption of teenagers offers protection against life’s harder truths. But those unknown knowns are felt, deep down. So it was good when, not before time, the college unveiled that night its first portrait of a woman. Women have been allowed in most Oxford colleges for less than 5 per cent of the university's history, which makes Cooper’s lone portrait not so bad going. The painting, like Cooper, was of modest size, but

deceptively powerful. The woman sitting next to me, a battle-scarred astrophysicist, said she felt welcome at Oxford for the first time. Cooper’s eyes, real and painted, twinkled warmly.

Greats endeavour

ere’s a mystery worthy of Inspector Morse: what happened to the missing firsts at Oxford? Females have dominated academic tests at every level. But the myth went that they would never do it with firsts. The male genetic profile is supposedly freaky: clustering at the genius and dropout ends of the spectrum. Not so: last ye year as many wo women as men got first-class degrees from British universities. Except at Oxford. Dons have tried and failed to get to the bottom of it. So So, over to you. When giving your answer, please show your wo working. Points will be deducted for use of the phrase: “hair “hairy-legged feminazi”.

Tip of the fatberg

ood news that the NHS will fund millions more gastric band operations. But they should go further and invite those of us who are just a bit podge to watch. I once spent a day with the NHS’s busiest gastric band surgeon. When he opened up a big belly it was revealed as the tip of a fat iceberg. Yellowy-white ropes bound the stomach tight while a fat octopus strangled the liver. It wasn’t “does my bum look big in this?” but “woah, doesn’t her heart look small in that?” Even this expert found his probes lost in fat tunnels. “Can’t you just, er, cut it out?” I asked. The surgeon looked horrified: “No: this fat is holding your internal organs hostage.” After five hours of standing, I was hungry. We adjourned, had a light sandwich, no pudding.

She dunnit

D James, doyenne of detective fiction, defied the usual fate of invisible older women. In fact, her work deepened with the grooves of her wrinkles. Death Comes to Pemberley has the fun and fearlessness that could only come at the start or end of a life. @helenrumbelow

Big Pharma isn’t evil. Ask those who need ebola vaccines Ross Clark

have scoured the internet but the closest I can find to a poster of Sir Andrew Witty is one carrying the GlaxoSmithKline logo, with the mocking words: “Big Pharma: well organised crime. Together we’ll crack it.” Teenage girls, of course, are not going to plaster their bedrooms with the chief executive of Britain’s biggest pharmaceutical company, even if Glaxo has been working harder on ending the menace of ebola than have One Direction, Ed Sheeran and other stars who soaked up adulation for taking a day out to record the Band Aid single. Yesterday, the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that tests on a vaccine developed by Glaxo have successfully produced antibodies in volunteers without side-effects. But then I doubt whether Sir Andrew or his employees want to be pin-ups. I am sure they would happily settle for not being treated as

If they can’t make profits on drugs, they won’t develop them the devil incarnate. Glaxo is no saintly organisation: it was fined by the Chinese for bribery last September and two years ago settled for $3 billion with US authorities after selling antidepressants for unapproved uses. But then neither does it deserve to be accused of being a criminal racket. Big Pharma can’t win. Develop a drug and it is accused of making us sick so that it can profit from our misery, as well as murdering laboratory animals in the process. “Market-driven healthcare is incentivised to keep us sick,” wrote the TV vicar Giles Fraser in The Guardian in October. But how come, if we are being laid low by these dastardly companies, is the number of “healthy-life years” — how long we live without suffering major illness — increasing throughout the developed world? It is a different story when, as with HIV drugs, the product turns out to be undeniably effective, in which case Big Pharma is expected to distribute it free to everyone, regardless of the billions it cost to develop. If companies cannot make a profit on the few drugs that turn out to work after exhaustive tests, they will not raise the capital to develop any at all. Giles Fraser attacks Glaxo for failing to look for an ebola vaccine in 1976, when the disease emerged, but such are the costs that no government did it either. If Bob Geldof, Bono et al were forced to give away all their music and throw open the doors to their concerts for free we wouldn’t have much of a music industry. The same is true with Big Pharma. If the left wants a cure for ebola it will have to learn to live with the idea of profit.

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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Opinion

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

Five stately homes a day are good for you Visiting country houses makes us feel better than playing sport - so why are we allowing so many to fall into ruin? Ben Macintyre

@benmacintyre1

istory makes you happy. That is the verdict of a new study by English Heritage, which found that visiting heritage sites has a greater impact on personal wellbeing than other leisure activities, including sport. Nothing, it seems, lifts the spirits higher than a visit to a historic building. The Heritage Counts survey converted that conclusion into cash terms: the average visitor derives £1,646-worth of wellbeing from heritage sites every year, compared with just £993 for individuals engaged in sporting activities. (This is the amount of money you would have to take away from people to return them to the level of wellbeing they’d have had if they hadn’t done these things.) This discovery is not just surprising but culture-changing: for decades, the government has been nagging that we would be happier and healthier if we got off the sofa

and played football, when it should have been telling us to visit Blenheim Palace, or Kew Gardens, or the old iron works. While consuming five portions of fruit and veg a day, we should also be gobbling up ancient buildings, perhaps not five a day, but five a month, or at a minimum five a year. (The average heritage fan currently visits 3.4 sites annually.) Britain has a profound sense of historical place. An affinity for our built past is sewn deep into the culture, in literature and landscape. The great buildings across the land provide not just happiness, employment and income, but “heft”,

40% of buildings that were at risk in 1999 are still on the register

that ancient and almost indefinable sense of belonging. Yet our built heritage is in peril, underfunded, underappreciated by government and, in too many instances, crumbling. We derive vast pleasure and profit from our buildings and neglect them in way that is illogical, reckless and irreversible. Historians of the future may look back on the early 21st century as the time when we let our history fall down.

Great English literature is jampacked with great buildings, for no country is so attuned to the symbolism of bricks and mortar. Mansfield Park, Blandings Castle, 221B Baker Street, Marlinspike Hall and Downton Abbey. All are invented; all are derived from real places. Castle Howard is in the news, ostensibly because of a change in its administration but in reality because it is “Brideshead” from the television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s novel, a building visited by 200,000 people a year but repeatedly revisited in the imaginations of millions more. Our veneration for stately homes is not mere snobbery or escapism, but a very British form of historical pilgrimage. The heritage sector contributes more than £20 billion to the UK economy. Some 13 million visitors a year pour into the 1,500 privately owned houses and gardens of the Historic Houses Association; membership of the National Trust and English Heritage continues to rise steadily. Our conception of what is worth preserving in the man-made past is also expanding: just as the everyday lives of our forebears now hold our interest more than great events, so do their homes and workplaces. We flock to see not just castles and palaces, but cottages, barns,

foundries, pubs, prisons, burial mounds, battlefields and shipwrecks. Buildings, like humans, are in state of ineluctable decay; but unlike us, with proper maintenance they can be preserved for ever. They feed the mind, the exchequer, and the soul. We profess to revere them, and yet as a nation we neglect them atrociously, for the built fabric of

To quote Shakin’ Stevens, this old house is getting shaky

Britain has never been more loved, or in greater peril. The latest Buildings at Risk Register, drawn up by English Heritage, includes 1,115 important buildings in serious danger. Add churches, parks, gardens and monuments under threat, and the number rises to 5,750. More than 600 places have been added to the register in 2014; four in every ten of the buildings considered at risk in 1999, when the register was first drawn up, are still on it. The backlog of vital conservation projects is growing at an alarming rate, along with the “conservation deficit” — the funding gap between the cost of repairs and the end value of a building. This now stands at

£443 million. Since so many buildings would cost more to mend than their final monetary worth, preservation is not an economic investment, but a moral imperative. The heritage sector was disproportionately walloped by the cuts imposed by the coalition, including a 32 per cent cut over four years to English Heritage. The number of historical-buildings conservation officers employed by councils has dropped by more than a third in eight years. To quote Shakin’ Stevens, the balladeer of architectural renovation, this old house is getting shaky. If visiting historical sites makes us happier than sport, then perhaps we should treat our built heritage with the same obsession that we devote to sporting activities: regard it not as a weekend hobby but as a vital public benefit, train a new generation of participants, and encourage oligarchs to invest in heritage projects as status symbols. If Russian money can revitalise Chelsea FC, it might also restore Eastbourne pier. Like sport, the historical training programme should be gradual and cumulative: start with a few local sites, and slowly build up to a weekly stately home. This may be demanding to start with, but it will make you happier in the end.

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Friday November 28 2014 | the times

Leading articles Daily Universal Register

The Price of Union

Scotland has won control of its fiscal destiny. Now English voters must be given more power over theirs Britain was warned. On September 8, in the sulphurous heat of a campaign to keep Scotland in the Union, Gordon Brown promised “the biggest transfer of fiscal power in the history of the UK”. Yesterday the Smith Commission, set up to consider which powers should be moved to the Scottish government after the referendum, delivered just that. Holyrood has won the freedom to set its own rates and bands for income tax. This is a result of the logical momentum that has been driving towards a more federal Britain for longer than a decade. It is historic but not startling. Yet such is the perennial state of panic in Westminster that the report has turned a milestone into a constitutional emergency. This time the question of home rule cannot be skirted or deferred. By Burns Night on January 25, a mere four months after the referendum, the proposals will be redrafted and laid before parliament in a bill. It is crunch time. The report has not simply revived the West Lothian question: it has rephrased it. It is now clear that there will be two species of MP. South of the border will be English MPs who are quite properly unable to vote on devolved matters that are none of their business. North of it will be Scottish MPs who can, in theory, vote on loadbearing pillars of the budget that have nothing to

do with their constituents. This is not a tolerable state of affairs. There is a very real risk of chaos. If, as seems likely under the energetic aegis of their new leader, the Scottish nationalists pick up a majority of the Scottish seats in the House of Commons at the next election, they will be the pivotal force in a delicately balanced parliament. Any government relying on their votes to pass changes to income tax in the rest of the UK would face an immediate and trenchant challenge to its legitimacy. The budget could founder. The prime minister appears to be moving to address the matter with laudable speed, spurred on by the electoral advantage the Conservatives enjoy in England. He has promised to come up with a plan by Christmas. Yesterday his spokesman said that the report had made the logic of English home rule “irrefutable” and hinted heavily that Scottish MPs could be prevented from voting on the parts of the budget that do not affect their electorate. It is a welcome aspiration. Quite how it will be turned into a resilient plan and then sold to a deeply reluctant opposition remains to be seen. English voters have two other reasons to feel that they have been cast adrift. The first is that at no point in this process have they been asked what

they think. Only people living in Scotland were given a vote in the referendum. The Smith Commission was led by a Scottish peer and made up of two delegates from each of the five largest parties in Scotland. Only two of the ten were Westminster MPs. None was English. The future shape of Britain is being forged by the views of less than a tenth of its population. The report has also enshrined the Scottish government’s power to borrow from the open markets in order to avoid “economic shocks” and to plug capital spending into the country’s infrastructure. This takes the UK into fiscal terra incognita. English, Welsh and Northern Irish taxpayers will have to act as Scotland’s guarantors if it cannot pay its debts. Philip Larkin once hit upon the metaphor of a man throwing an apple core and hitting the side of the basket. The miss was not down to luck, he wrote, but rather the “failure spreading back up the arm/ earlier and earlier, the unraised hand calm,/ the apple unbitten in the palm”. Now is the time to catch the failure before it spreads into crisis. This will take a thoughtfulness and a steadiness of hand that have not often been among the strengths of this government. The price of the union has been set. It must be paid in full.

Welcome to Work sound. They may even find support from mainstream parties in other EU countries where concern about uncontrolled immigration is fuelling fringe politics. His task now is to stick to them. There is no denying the significance of the latest immigration figures from the Office for National Statistics. To avoid embarrassment — not to mention an urgent debate on the most polarising issue in politics — the government needed net inward migration to fall fast. Instead it rose by 42 per cent. More than half the increase came from within the EU, driven partly by a nearly 80 per cent rise in the number arriving from Romania and Bulgaria. These numbers mock those who insist the right response to rising immigration is to do nothing. They have given Downing Street a compelling reason to bring forward Mr Cameron’s speech in the hope that he can take control of the immigration debate and move on, rather than be controlled indefinitely by it. He must be clear, though, that when tens of thousands beat a path to Britain in search of work they are symptoms of success. As forecasts for average eurozone growth this year slip below 1 per cent, Britain is expected to

grow by 3.2 per cent, faster than any other G7 member including the United States. That is why Pret a Manger has a recruitment centre yards from Victoria coach station and why Romanians in search of work tend not to stop in Nice. The influx imposes downward pressure on wages and serious burdens on schools and public services in certain mainly rural areas. Overall, though, it is a boon to the economy. The goal of immigration policy must therefore be to strengthen Britain’s image as a land of hard work and enterprise, not milk and honey. Delaying access to in-work benefits is a good way to do this. Tax credits, social housing and access to the NHS constitute a subsidy for low-wage earners that is available at once to migrant workers in Britain but not in most of the rest of Europe. Mr Cameron says he wants to withhold in-work benefits for newcomers for four years. That number may be an opening bid, but he must hold firm to the principle that these credits should be earned. Then and only then will he have a chance of moving on from immigration to talk about the economic growth to which it contributes.

Don’t You Know Who I Am?

Andrew Mitchell’s failed Plebgate libel suit was nothing short of hubris The simple sword of truth has always had two edges. Andrew Mitchell could have saved himself a great deal of money and embarrassment had he paused to reflect on this maxim before launching one of the most prominent libel actions of the last decade.Instead, he plunged in, suing News Group Newspapers over an allegation in The Sun that he had called Toby Rowland, a police constable a “f****** pleb” when he was forbidden to wheel his bicycle through the gates of Downing Street. (Mr Rowland counter-sued Mr Mitchell.) The action was a foolhardy gamble. At the conclusion of the case in the High Court

yesterday, Mr Justice Mitting ruled that the former chief whip probably had used those words, “or something so close to them as to amount to the same, including the politically toxic word ‘pleb’”. It is not clear whether Mr Mitchell did use the exact formulation: “Best you learn your f****** place; you don’t run this f****** government, you’re f****** plebs.” It does not have to be. What has emerged beyond reasonable doubt from the case is a portrait of a blustering and high-handed grandee with little time or respect for the niceties that other people live by. The public could be forgiven for thinking that

Nature notes Great crested grebes have now lost their fine summer plumage. Their black and orange ruff has gone, and their tall black ear-tufts, and their head now looks very bare. Yet they still have a black cap, and narrow black lines stretching up their face on either side, and if they point their daggerlike beak at you and look you in the face, they seem like angry devils. They breed until late in the autumn, so there are also many juveniles still swimming about. These are full-sized but instantly recognisable because their neck has black and white stripes on it. They can dive and fish as easily as the adults by now, but they will still sometimes pursue their parents, begging for food with loud piping cries. They are the noisiest birds on lakes now. However, the parents often turn on them sharply and drive them off. Great crested grebes almost became extinct in the late 19th century because their head plumes and their soft body feathers, called “grebe fur”, were used to decorate women’s clothes. This led to the start of bird protection legislation. It succeeded for the grebes, and there are probably 5,000 breeding pairs in the country now. derwent may

Birthdays today

The government must send migrants the right message, not pull up the drawbridge Two Ukip by-election wins in two months and a sharp increase in immigration left David Cameron with little choice. Having failed to keep his election promise to cut immigration to the “tens of thousands” he had to keep his more recent promise to say what he proposed to do about it. The prime minister sets out his revised immigration stall today, pledging a crackdown on inwork benefits that goes further than anything offered by Labour but does not attempt to tamper with the EU’s basic rules on freedom of movement. Parts of the package will be unenforceable. Parts may have unforeseen and unwelcome consequences, among them the arrival in Britain of whole families rather than just breadwinners in order to get round new rules on child benefit. The whole raft of restrictions is likely to be resisted by the European Commission. Still, they have the advantage of being sensible. Challenged by the Ukip tendency within his own party to defy Europe and pull up a drawbridge against unskilled EU migrants, Mr Cameron seems to have decided he will not be goaded. He has settled on proposals that are broadly fair and

UK: National Counter Terrorism Awareness Week today focuses on weapons; David Cameron is expected to give a major speech on immigration; Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, issues a warning that parents should get their toddlers vaccinated against influenza. US: Today is Black Friday, the traditional beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

politicians believe the trappings of power somehow elevate them above the people they govern. Matters were not helped by the emergence of a recording in which David Mellor, another former Tory cabinet minister, is heard telling a cab driver to “shut up” and listen to a Queen’s Counsel. This haughtiness risks tainting an entire party. Mr Mitchell should never have brought the suit. He should never have shouted at the officers on the Downing Street gates. A simple apology would have done the trick. A little common courtesy would have been enough to avert this whole disgraceful episode.

Alistair Darling, pictured, Labour MP for Edinburgh South West and chancellor of the exchequer (2007-10), 61; Kriss Akabusi, sprinter, gold medallist in the 1991 world championships and three-times Olympic medallist (1984, 1992), 56; (Fiona Armstrong) Lady MacGregor of MacGregor, journalist, BBC News 24 and ITV Tyne Tees/Border, 58; Manolo Blahnik, shoe designer, 72; Rita Mae Brown, novelist, Rubyfruit Jungle (1973), The Litter of the Law (2013), 70; Martin Clunes, actor, Doc Martin, 53; Alfonso Cuarón, film director, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Gravity (2013), 53; Terence Frisby, screenwriter and playwright, There’s a Girl in My Soup (1970), The Firm (2012), 82; Berry Gordy, founder, Motown Records, 85; Bernard Kops, novelist and playwright, The Hamlet of Stepney Green (1957), The Odyssey of Samuel Glass (2012), 88; Lord (Godfrey) Macdonald, chief of the name and arms of Macdonald, 67; Dervla Murphy, cycletourist and author, Eight Feet in the Andes (1983), Encounters in Gaza (2012), 83.

On this day In 1919 Nancy, Viscountess Astor, won a byelection in Plymouth, becoming the first woman MP to sit in the House of Commons; in 1943 Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met in Tehran to discuss their combined strategy for defeating Germany; in 1964 the US launched the Mariner IV spacecraft, which later sent back details of the Martian landscape.

The last word “The bourgeois prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to the deathly inner consuming fire.” Hermann Hesse, Nobel prize-winning novelist and poet, Der Steppenwolf (1927)

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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Letters to the Editor

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

Facebook and searching for hate on the web

Blair’s award Sir, I am shocked that Save the Children has given Tony Blair an award for “leadership in international development” (“Charity staff rebel”, Nov 26). The charity does amazing work in some of the most troubled parts of the Middle East, where an association with Blair’s name could result in some sort of reprisal. Mr Blair would do well to read the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child — based on the Declaration of the Rights of the Child drawn up by Eglantyne Jebb, the founder of Save the Children — and reflect on the wars that he waged or supported in his time as prime minister. sophie king Little Shelford, Cambs Sir, How short memories are. Do the staff of Save the Children who are objecting to this award not remember the detail surrounding the UN sanctions on Iraq following its government’s refusal to allow UN inspectors to do their job? An exception was made to allow in milk to help starving children but Saddam prevented these deliveries. The fact that our former PM went through with the removal of this tyrant, enabling Iraqi children finally to be fed, ought not lead to such criticism by anyone, and especially not the staff of Save the Children. robin depledge Bournemouth

Child Eyes Sir, I agree with Janice Turner’s opinion of the Child Eyes campaign to conceal the front pages of newspapers in shops (Opinion, Nov 27). The campaign is pointless in the internet age. Children should be educated about unpleasant matters in a gradual and protected manner. Would Child Eyes also advocate parents throwing a blanket over the TV screen when the 6 o’clock news comes on? david turnbull London N5

Sir, The chairman of the intelligence and security committee, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, believes that because one of the killers of Fusilier Lee Rigby wrote of his intentions on Facebook then the internet company knew he did this and could have told the authorities (News, Nov 26). His ignorance of how language search on the web works and its approximate nature appears to be almost total; on the BBC’s Newsnight he seemed to think it consisted of looking for the word “terrorist”. No, Facebook is not reading our messages. Banks of computers, some working for Facebook, some for GCHQ and the US National Security Agency, are indeed processing virtually everything in social media, but at present their ability to find what they are looking for is limited. It would be far more relevant to blame GCHQ, though politicians seem not to understand what their own security agencies are doing, with or without their permission; the whistleblower Edward Snowden has made this clear to everyone. yorick wilks Professor of Artificial Intelligence, University of Sheffield Sir, The furore around what Facebook knew about the intentions of the killers of Lee Rigby comes as no surprise to many of us who have been highlighting online hate on that website for several years. Sadly, there are many pages and groups on Facebook that are inciting hate on a daily basis.

Faulty meters Sir, It is far from clear if the overcharging of 1.5 million prepayment gas consumers is due to a fault with the meters or wrong settings (News, Nov 27). Either way, consumers have paid too much and Ofgem, the regulator, has serious questions to answer. For years I have been pressing Ofgem to use the introduction of smart meters to correct billing inaccuracies but for some reason it is reluctant to do so. We are lacking a strong consumer body solely for energy users and there seems little appetite for one to be

Thrice a QC Sir, Carol Midgley (Opinion, Nov 26) poses a rhetorical question arising out of the recent comments of former minister David Mellor to a cab driver: “Who would tell a cabby no fewer than three times in a matter of minutes that he is a QC?” More of our number than she might think, I fear. professor mark hill, qc London EC4

Corrections and clarifications The Times takes complaints about editorial content seriously. We are committed to abiding by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (“IPSO”) rules and regulations and the Editors’ Code of Practice that IPSO enforces. Requests for corrections or clarifications should be sent by email to feedback@thetimes.co.uk or by post to Feedback, The Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

on this day november 28, 1914

A NOTABLE CENTENARY One hundred years ago today the buildings of Printing House Square were the scene of suppressed excitement, for a great adventure was afoot and on the morrow it was to be proclaimed to the world. Until then the secret was confined to its originators and to a little group of men who were bound by oath to preserve it. The Times of November 29, 1814, was to be printed by steam. We need offer no apology

Facebook hosts pages including “Jewish ritual murder”, “Death to Islam” “The white race” and “The Holocaust is a lie”. The company says it will not tolerate hate speech, but in reality it responds only to user reports and reacts only to the volume of reports, not to actual content. As we have seen with Lee Rigby and other cases, words can lead directly to actions. All social media have a duty of care to ensure such pages and comments are reported to the authorities and removed. With more than 1.2 billion Facebook users worldwide, the amount of traffic must be huge — but the company must scale up its response and take action. If the tragic death of Lee Rigby leads to governments and social media taking hate speech more seriously, it will be a positive outcome. paul corrick Facebook — say no to Hatebook, Radcliffe, Manchester Sir, The government castigates internet service providers (ISPs) for failing to alert the security services to extremist messages, but what is the computational definition of “extremist”? The question can be seen as a practical example of entscheidungsproblem (the question of whether there exists a definite method which, at least in principle, can be applied to a given proposition to decide whether that proposition is provable). This was studied by Alan Turing and found to be insoluble. established by the government or other mainstream parties. Sadly gas and electricity consumers can expect these types of errors to come to light more frequently. ray cope Former director, Gas Consumers Council, Langford, Beds

Kitchen safety Sir, Matthew Hancock, the business minister, describes as “bonkers” requirements for oven gloves to be heat-resistant and washing-up gloves to resist detergent (“EU bureaucrats in lather over kitchen safety”, Nov for dwelling upon the achievement, for the twofold reason that its consequences have been incalculably great, and that from the very beginning they have been intimately associated with the history of this journal. Finding no outlet for his mechanical gifts in his own native Saxony, Koenig came in 1806 to England, where he took out more than one patent, and got in touch, as was natural, with the foremost and most enterprising newspaper proprietor of the day, John Walter the Second. Several years of painful effort and experiment followed before “The Times machine” was successfully completed in 1814 under conditions of profound secrecy. All this would not concern us now had the venture failed but it proved a complete success. The morning of November 29, 1814, opened a new era in the history of printing, such as the pioneers themselves, great though they knew their feat to be, could never have imagined. It may be doubted whether any achievement since the

You would need a perpetual motion machine to do it! Should we not stop wasting time and energy on an insoluble problem? ian pyle Formerly a professor of computer science, York Sir, My company monitors what is being said about our corporate clients on the internet and we process millions of posts a day to find a few hundred significant mentions of a brand name. Our security services would be swamped with data if internet companies handed over every mention of a terror-related word posted on Facebook. Finding needles in haystacks is easy by comparison. richard brown Managing director, UKNetMonitor Sir, It seems it is unacceptable for Scotland Yard to examine the phone records of 1,700 employees of News UK for criminal activity (News, Nov 25), but ISPs must monitor everyone’s emails for evidence of terrorism. What’s more intrusive? john mcandrew Welwyn, Herts Sir, Why is it that when the intelligence services ask for more anti-terrorism powers the politicians obey, but when the same agencies warn that Britain’s involvement in foreign wars increases the terror threat at home, they are ignored? paul donovan London E11 24), and claims that prices “could rise by a fifth” and that the move “would place a huge weight on businesses”. The only businesses that may incur extra costs are those that currently offer inadequate products. The revision of the EU directive on personal protective equipment is timely, and the principle is simple: if a product is meant to protect you it should do so. Our record of ensuring that people go home safely after a day at work continues to improve. Why should anyone expect lower levels of protection outside the workplace? alan murray Chief executive, British Safety Industry Federation invention in the 15th century of the process of printing from movable type has more profoundly affected the thoughts and lives of civilized mankind. By the enormous extension to which it led the way in the rapid communication of knowledge and ideas it has become an instrument of incalculable power. It has worked, on the whole, overwhelmingly for good, and, whatever we may be tempted to conjecture as to its future, this at least is certain, that the limit of its influence has not yet been reached. The long history of The Times has been associated, we are proud to believe, with many phases of activity that have worked for the public good. On nothing can we rest a more unhesitating claim for this fact than upon the birth of the steam printing press within its precincts a hundred years ago. sign up for a weekly email with extracts from the times history of the war ww1.thetimes.co.uk

Phillip Hughes Sir, I write with regard to the death of cricketer Phillip Hughes (obituary, page 82). During the years I played county cricket, helmets were not worn and I was only aware of one cricketer who received a blow to the head, and that was the captain of Essex. What happens today is that the batsman, seeing the ball approaching his head, points his helmet towards the ball and lets it hit him, presumably hoping his helmet will protect him. However, in many cases I have seen the ball get through the grille. I would suggest a trial in which helmets are not worn. Batsman will then do as we did: duck out of the way. Incidentally, one West Indian cricketer wears only a cap and never seems to have been hit. frank mchugh Yorks and Glos (1949-56), Tarring, W Sussex Sir, A year ago to the day you published my letter about the behaviour of Australian cricketers in the Ashes series. I referred to reported comments from players, such as: “We aim to hit and intimidate”, and “Give Clarke the message to go and bust some heads”. It is to be hoped that the death of Phillip Hughes informs the approach to intimidation, but my fear is that in a few months it will be forgotten. john vane Woking, Surrey Sir, By admitting the use of “bouncers” within the canon law of cricket, bowlers are encouraged to target the batsman’s head. It would be better to mark a red line across the wicket; any bowler pitching within the prohibited area should receive a call of “no ball” and a red card, debarring him from the game. james w neville Southborough, Kent

Good grans Sir, Pope Francis is a breath of fresh air but is wrong about grandmothers when he says: “We encounter a general impression of weariness and ageing, of a Europe that is now a ‘grandmother’ ” (News, Nov 26). Grandmothers are hard working, useful and fulfilled. They are loved and needed. Most are generous with their time and emotional support. They do not mourn past fertility as they have passed on this gift. The EU is much more like a grumpy, single old man suffering a crisis. The Pope is surrounded by such men. marian latchman Braishfield, Hants

Mr Puzzle Sir, Your diarist (TMS, Nov 27) says that 20 years ago New Scientist coined the term “nominative determinism” for people with apt names for their jobs. I call it Happy Families. wadham sutton Newcastle upon Tyne

Drain diminuendo Sir, I wonder whether the makers of Janice Turner’s new washing machine, which plays a tune when it finishes a cycle (Opinion, Nov 27), have been canny enough to program snatches of Ravel’s Jeux d’eau during periods of malfunction. dr nicholas marston University Reader in Music Theory and Analysis, King’s College, Cambridge

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Friday November 28 2014 | the times

World

Russians pay an ever higher price for Putin’s showdown with West Russia

Ben Hoyle Moscow

Russia’s mounting economic crisis is likely to pose an existential threat to President Putin’s leadership within two years, one of the country’s most respected economists said yesterday. The economic distress signals are becoming clearer and although western sanctions are not the only cause of Russia’s problems, they make escape from the downturn far more difficult. Ordinary Russians, who have overwhelmingly supported Mr Putin’s annexation of Crimea in March and his refusal to buckle in the face of sanctions imposed as a result, are feeling a growing impact in their daily lives, and the plummeting price of oil has squeezed government receipts. Inflation is running at more than 8 per cent, but food inflation is even higher, and there has been panic buying of buckwheat, a Russian staple that is served as a side dish or cooked into soups, pancakes or porridge. Prices have risen by up to 80 per cent in some regions. Rice is more than 25 per cent more expensive than it was last month, and the retail price of pasta is expected to climb by a similar degree. Sergei Guriev, a former adviser to Dmitri Medvedev, the prime minister, and a former board member of Russia’s largest state bank, said: “If nothing changes, if sanctions aren’t removed and the price of oil does not go up, then in two years the Russian government will have a major problem — it will lack cash and it will not be able to borrow it.” Speaking from Paris, where he fled after state harassment left him fearing for his freedom last year, Dr Guriev said that rising inflation, the depressed oil price, the falling rouble, isolation from western capital markets and plummet-

‘People say it’s getting weird’

ALEXANDER DEMIANCHUK / REUTERS

t the sausage counter of a discount store near Kievskaya station in Moscow, Olga Vlasova was trying to make the last kopek of her monthly pension stretch as far as possible (Matthew Luxmoore and Ben Hoyle write). She receives 18,000 roubles [£235], including a small subsidy for her diabetes. “I look at everything more carefully, trying to make things work,” Ms Vlasova, 73, said. Fish, meat, bread and dairy products have all gone up. I can’t buy cottage cheese, it’s outside my budget.” Her woes reawaken memories of the hardship of the 1990s, but such thoughts help to keep today’s difficulties in perspective. Ms Vlasova’s generation also draws strength

Buckwheat, as eaten at a St Petersburg street event, has risen sharply in price, prompting panic buying

from the deprivations of the Second World War. “We Russians can weather this storm,” she said, adding that she had faith in President Putin’s leadership. At 25, Iyas Setdinov, a marketing manager for a watch retailer, loves French cheeses but can no longer buy them because of a Kremlin embargo on European foods. His monthly food bill has risen by 4,000 roubles (£52) since June but his salary of 70,000 rubles per month has remained static. Some businessmen are unusually nervous. A partner in a western

firm advising the rich said: “I’m hearing people who are very pro-Russian and very on-board with the politics saying this is getting seriously weird. There’s no dissent, but it will affect business decisions.” He expects to miss out on the new iPhone he usually buys himself every February. “I think such things will soon be inaccessible to most Russians,” he said. Sergei, 41, a lawyer paid in rubles invested over $4,000 in the foreign exchange market at the start of this month “to make ends meet”.

ing investor confidence meant that, for the first time, “there is a risk to the existence of the regime”. In Moscow, such thoughts are aired only in private. The business world does not dare to question the Kremlin’s increasingly unpredictable political and military course, even though it has sucked Russia into an economic confrontation with the West over Ukraine that it looks ill-equipped to win. At the high end of the social scale, the economic fall is hurting Moscow’s designer-clad elite. The luxury goods market will contract by up to 18 per cent this year, after 5 per cent growth last year, according to the consultancy Bain & Company. International companies have scaled back and delayed planned acquisitions and expansion. Demand for high-end property in Moscow, normally driven by foreigners, is down by 10 per cent. Occupancy rates in Moscow City, a $12 billion cluster of skyscrapers that was intended to turn the capital into a global financial hub, are so low that a youth hostel has opened on the 43rd floor of one of the glass towers. According to Anton Siluanov, the finance minister, sanctions will cost Russia $40 billion this year, but the falling oil price will take out a further $100 billion. Yesterday the price of Brent crude oil fell below $73 a barrel to its lowest point in four years as a crucial Opec meeting in Vienna failed to reduce the supply that Russia hoped for to prop up prices. That is $27 below the price needed to balance Russia’s 2015-17 budget. The rouble has lost 40 per cent of its value against the dollar this year, with the slide accelerating in the past month. That will make it far harder for Russian companies to pay the $614 billion in foreign debt that they owe, $130 billion of which is due within the next year.

Russia has foreign exchange reserves of more than $380 billion, which Mr Putin has said could be used to substitute for international borrowing, but there is uncertainty over whether more than $200 billion of that can be accessed quickly. China’s role as an alternative source of international investment has been heavily emphasised by the administration, but Chinese business is proving resistant to Russia’s charms. Andrey Kostin, the head of VTB, Russia’s second biggest lender, complained on Wednesday that Chinese banks were not lending to sanctioned Russian companies because of pressure from the US. The Russian central bank predicts that the economy will stagnate next year. A few favourably placed business people have voiced concerns. Alexei Kudrin, the liberal former finance minister whose advice Mr Putin values, wrote last week that “bringing back earlier opportunities with regard to foreign investment and trust in the rouble will take seven to ten years of growth of our economy”. German Gref, the head of Sberbank, Russia’s largest state bank, said last month that the country risked repeating the “mind-boggling incompetence of the Soviet leadership” by returning to a government-directed model of economic development. “You cannot motivate people through the gulag, like in the Soviet Union,” he told a conference. However, President Putin sought to reassure the same audience, saying that Russia remained committed to an “open economy” that was built on strong foundations. Investment would return, he said. “All I have to do is smile and show the devil is not as frightening as he seems.”

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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Stylist to slain Honduran beauty queen is murdered Page 28

SERGIO RICCARDO / CATERS NEWS

Video shows final moments of boy shot dead by police Page 26

Spain’s new radicals would ban job cuts Spain

Graham Keeley Madrid

Podemos, the new left-wing party that has taken Spanish politics by storm, unveiled plans for a swathe of economic reforms yesterday, including the nationalisation of key industries, tax rises and banning redundancies at profitable companies, as part of an emergency programme to pull the country out of six years of financial crisis. Pablo Iglesias, the pony-tailed leader of Podemos, which means “We Can”, said his party was launching a realistic programme to help Europe’s fourth biggest economy to recover, and reduce its devastating unemployment. More than half of Spaniards aged between 18 and 24 have no job and across the country, 24 per cent of the workforce is unemployed. Mr Iglesias said that Spain was suffering from an economic emergency. In a reference to the dominance of the ruling conservative Popular Party (PP) and the opposition Socialists, he said: “Our country does not deserve any more swindlers or sellers of hot air.” Podemos, founded at the start of this year, has terrified Madrid’s political class, appealing to impoverished Spaniards from an anti-corruption and antiausterity platform. This week Podemos secured almost 29 per cent in a poll, beating both of Spain’s main parties. It proposes to make it illegal for Spaniards to be denied access to borrowing, and would seek to secure loans from the European Central Bank to families and small businesses on the same terms as private banks. The measure is designed to encourage spending

to help to boost growth and investment by small businesses. Mr Iglesias said he would cut the retirement age from 65 to 60 to free up jobs for young people and raise taxes to pay for a Nordic-style welfare system. Podemos also proposes to introduce a 35-hour week and nationalise key industries such as energy companies. Mr Iglesias proposed to cut state incentives for short-term employment contracts and introduce fiscal reform to improve tax collection. The party would raise funds by cutting expenditure on Spain’s high-speed 6 Jean-Claude Juncker survived an attempt by anti-EU parties to sack him as president of the European Commission when a majority of the European parliament voted not to censure him over a tax scandal. He received the backing of 461 MEPs from the dominant centre-left and centre-right groups, 101 voted for censure and 88 abstained. rail network and use the proceeds to pay for schools. Under a Podemos government, redundancies would be banned at any company that made a profit. Anger over a series of corruption scandals, high unemployment and an unresponsive two-party political establishment has fuelled a dramatic surge in support for Podemos. A poll published on Monday gave the party 28.6 per cent of the vote, ahead of the PP on 26.3 per cent and the Socialists on 20.1 per cent. Podemos shocked the political establishment when it gained 8 per cent of the vote in May’s European elections, winning five seats.

Mother is jailed for using her son, 6, in cancer fraud United States

Will Pavia New York

A morsel missed A seal that had been flipped dramatically into the air by a great white shark that came up beneath it near Cape Town, South Africa, drops back to the water — and relative safety — after the large predator failed to sink its teeth in

A mother of three from Colorado has been sentenced to 90 days in jail for making her healthy six-year-old son believe that he was dying of leukaemia and for accepting tens of thousands of dollars and a trip to Disneyland from her local community as they rallied to his aid. Sandy Thi Nguyen was convicted of “charitable fraud” and child abuse, although prosecutors suggested that she was guilty of transgressions beyond the reach of the criminal justice system. “While other parents convince their children to dream of a great and limitless future, Sandy Nguyen convinced her son that death hovered over him,” George Brauchler, a district attorney in the city of Aurora, said. “She has done more than cripple the essential relationship between a boy and his mother: Sandy Nguyen has jaded and introduced scepticism into a selfless community that sacrificed for a child in need.” To help her son, Jaiden, 600 children at his elementary school held fundraising events, smashed piggy banks and donated their pocket money. A 5km run at a park raised $7,767 (£4,900)

and a call for pupils to bring in spare change collected $18,405.46. Jaiden appears to have been utterly convincing in his role as a cancer patient, because he believed that it was true. Prosecutors said his mother told him that he received chemotherapy while he slept and she shaved his head each day. Ms Nguyen then became pregnant and is said to have declared that the baby had been conceived to save her son’s life. Stem cells would be harvested from the newborn infant’s umbilical cord and transplanted into her son. She claimed that these treatments had left the family heavily in debt, prompting fundraisers to pay the medical bills. Ms Nguyen, 29, worked at a hair salon and it was there, while discussing her son’s health, that the scheme unravelled. A doctor from the oncology unit of the Children’s Hospital in Denver happened to be in the salon and overheard the conversation. She knew all the children in the unit, but had never heard of Ms Nguyen’s son. When police investigated, they found that Ms Nguyen’s family were enrolled in the government healthcare scheme Medicaid, and did not have any medical bills. Prosecutors said she had received $22,344.34 and that the money was found in a safe at her home.

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Friday November 28 2014 | the times

World

Kim cements dynasty with job for sister North Korea

Leo Lewis Beijing

Kim Jong Un appears to have promoted his younger sister to consolidate his family’s third generation of tyranny over North Korea. Her promotion was hinted at in an official account of a visit by Mr Kim to the studios that produce propaganda cartoons in the secretive state. The final paragraph of the report published by the state-owned news agency referred to Kim Yo Jong, the leader’s younger sister, as a vice-director of the central committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. Her true political power, experts say, may now significantly exceed her stated rank as Mr Kim grows ever more dependent on the small circle he feels he can trust. Ms Kim, who is thought to be 27, has been photographed accompanying her brother on a number of previous outings, but has only ever been referred to as a party official. The naming of her rank for the first time appears intended to show that she is now a central figure in the ruling clique centred on Mr Kim. Mr Kim’s sister, who attended the same Swiss boarding school as her brother, would follow in a tradition set by their late father, Kim Jong Il. He also brought his sister, Kim Kyong Hui, into the inner circle of North Korean political power. She held senior military and party positions and was married to Jang Song Thaek, once a highly influential figure but purged last year. Kim Kyong Hui vanished

Suzanne Sataline

Joshua Wong, the bespectacled teenage icon of the Hong Kong democracy protests, was released on bail yesterday and ordered to stay far from the bustling commercial strip on which demonstrators have focused. However, lawyers for the student, 18, say that the court order will not dampen his resolve to push for change. “Joshua’s made of sterner stuff,” Michael Vidler said. “He’s not going to breach his

Delhi Two teenage girls believed

to have been raped and hanged by attackers actually committed suicide because they feared being punished over the older girl’s relationship with her boyfriend, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation said. An earlier investigation by local police and post-mortem reports, which resulted in five arrests, were incorrect and subsequent medical reports had ruled out any assault, a spokeswoman said. Six months ago images of the girls’ bodies hanging from a tree in their village of Katra in Uttar Pradesh state shocked the country. (AP)

Israel thwarts attack Jerusalem Israel is holding 30

Kim Yo Jong has been seen at official engagements before, but now she has been named with a senior title

from public life when her husband was purged, and speculation over the political ascendancy of Kim Jong Un’s younger sister follows the theory that she has been elevated to fill that void. The apparent promotion was referred to after Mr Kim visited studios that produce

North Korea’s notoriously strident propaganda cartoons. The state news agency published pictures of him smiling at cartoon figures on a computer screen and offering important “field guidance” to the studio’s veteran animators. Apart from references to his sister, the report was in the traditional vein: effusive praise for the 31-year-old despot and plaudits for the “noble mission” of the cartoon-makers. The report was significant, too, in its

confirmation of Mr Kim’s apparently vigorous return to public life after a mysterious absence earlier this year. He is understood to have had operations on his legs and when he reappeared he was walking with a stick. He did not have a stick in the latest pictures. The account of Mr Kim’s tour noted that he “urged the studio to make a radical change in cartoon production by channelling big efforts into it, true to the intention of the party”.

Hong Kong democracy leader is barred from protests Hong Kong

Girls’ murder by rapists found to be suicide

conditions of bail, but this is not going to curb his activities to try and bring genuine democracy to Hong Kong.” Mr Wong left the magistrates’ court as campaigners whose camps have largely been torn up by police prepared for more protests today. The protesters, who for a period shut down key Hong Kong intersections, are demanding a free and fair electoral system for the territory, which is governed as a Chinese-run special administrative region. “We have made it very clear that if they [the police] continue the violent

way of clearing up the place, we will have further actions,” Yvonne Leung, of the Federation of Students, told a Hong Kong radio programme. Students might target government-related buildings or departments, she said. Mr Wong was arrested on Wednesday as officers cleared a protest encampment in Mong Kok, a busy district where students have slept since September 29. Mr Wong and other activists questioned whether the police, instead of bailiffs, could lawfully carry out a court order to dismantle barricades.

News cameras captured a plain-clothes officer suddenly leaping from the police line and tackling the slight student to the ground. Police may have removed Mr Wong and others early in the clear-out “to get the perceived leaders of the demonstrations out of the way so they couldn’t impede progress”, Brian Kern, an activist who witnessed the arrest, said. Police charged Mr Wong with breaching a court order and obstructing a public officer. He denied the charges. His case will be heard on January 14.

suspected militants who had planned a series of attacks in Jerusalem, including one on the Teddy football stadium and another on the light railway. The men were held in September and a gagging order on the case has just been lifted. Israel claimed that the men, recruited from Jordan, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Syria, were commanded from Turkey. (AFP)

Thai election delay Bangkok Elections in Thailand

are likely to be delayed until 2016, the governing military junta said. The admission will cause consternation among the country’s international allies, who had been pushing for a swift return to democracy after the military took over in May. Prayut Chan-O-Cha, the prime minister, had previously said that his government hoped to hold fresh polls around next October. (AFP)

Boko Haram mistakes Abuja President Jonathan of Nigeria has made mistakes in his tackling of Islamic militancy, allowing the threat posed by Boko Haram to rise to “gargantuan” levels, according to an influential predecessor. Olusegun Obasanjo said the president’s “understanding of the Boko Haram phenomenon suffered from wrong reading”, leading to a series of deadly attacks and kidnappings in recent months. (AFP)

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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World

Even a woman giving birth was sent back from safety to Syria Jordan cuts healthcare as it fails to cope with the burden of refugees, reports Sara Elizabeth Williams in Amman Jordan has withdrawn all free medical treatment to the country’s 1.3 million Syrian refugees after the impoverished nation found it impossible to bear the cost of housing, feeding and caring for them, The Times has learnt. Jordanian officials said that providing healthcare for the refugees had cost the country£19 million since the war in Syria began four years ago and that the total bill of looking after them had driven it further into debt. Refugees are prohibited from working in Jordan, which has a border with Syria, leading humanitarian experts to express anxieties about how those who need medical treatment will cope.

‘Most refugees can’t work legally and have exhausted their savings’ Adam Coogle, of Human Rights Watch, said: “This development makes an already tough situation much harder. Most Syrian refugees can’t work legally and have exhausted their savings, so paying for medical care is an additional challenge.” The removal of free healthcare is the latest in a series of changes to what Jordan will provide refugees, in practice if not in policy, as the country puts its own security and debt before humanitarian obligations. Over the past month, Jordan has quietly stopped all but a few refugees crossing its borders. Aid agencies and other charities claim that refugees who had been looking to cross into Jordan have been pushed back from the border. They have also expressed concern that there were an estimated 4,000 Syrians trapped in a no-man’s-land between Syria and Jordan. The government insisted that the border had not been closed. Mohammad Momani, a spokesman, said that the number of refugees allowed in depended on whether, on any given day, it was safe to open the border, but that the

government regularly announced the number of new arrivals. There are already about a million Syrian refugees in Jordan: the UN has registered 618,000 but government officials say there are at least 1.3 million. One refugee camp in Jordan, called Zaatari, which in the summer was estimated to house 81,000 people, is now so big that it is effectively the fourth largest city in the country. However, the vast majority of the refugees do not live in camps, but in rented accommodation within cities where they have less support. Last month, the cash-strapped World Food Programme decided that it had to focus its non-camp aid on those it believed to be the neediest. It left about 12,000 families scrambling to cover the cost of food without their 24 dinar (£21.60) voucher per person each month. “They’re being driven to go back to the camps or go back to Syria. They have no job, no source of income. They’re not left with much choice, to be honest,” said a frontline aid worker, speaking on condition of anonymity. Although a growing number of refugees are returning to Syria, there is mounting concern that the bulk of these returns are not voluntary. Deporting refugees to the country they fled is illegal under international law. Mr Coogle said that he received an increasing number of reports of deportations, often for reasons that were unclear and without refugees getting to present their deportation case in court. “Sometimes they deport people the same day, or they hold them for a couple of days. It’s pretty quick. They basically bus people to a point along the border and say, ‘Walk that way’.” A document leaked to The Times revealed that the dozens of refugees returned to Syria in the past month included children, paralysed men and a heavily pregnant woman who was in labour at the time of her return. Andrew Harper, the UN refugee agency’s top official in Jordan, said: “While acknowledging the legitimate security concerns of the government, it is critical that we do not lose sight that the majority of refugees are women, children, the sick and the elderly and they need to be protected.” Jordan’s proximity to Syria’s war underpins its security concerns: the people and forces who could destabilise the country are just few miles away.

D LEGAKIS / ATHENA

This young refugee was one of more than 700 people fleeing Syria whose stricken ship was towed to Crete yesterday

Hezbollah arms Christian recruits Lebanon

Nicholas Blanford Beirut Tom Coghlan

The Shia militant group Hezbollah is recruiting and arming Christians and other religious minorities in Lebanon, forging improbable alliances to counter incursions by Islamic State and other jihadist groups. Recruits can expect a rifle, military uniform, walkie-talkies and salaries of $500 (£320) a month. Some have received military training at the Iranbacked group’s camps in the Bekaa Valley. The unusual alliances underline the way that people across the Middle East who are naturally antipathetic to each other are being drawn together by the threat of Isis. Recruits are taking up arms to guard villages against radical Sunni militants such as Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra, Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate. A few thousand extremist militants are holed up in the rugged mountains along Lebanon’s northeastern border with Syria. Hezbollah is heavily engaged in Syria’s bloody civil war, with 5,000 men fighting alongside President Assad,

Mediterranean Sea

Homs

Triopoli 20 miles

Beirut

Ras Baalbek

Arsal

LEBANON SYRIA

Rashaya District

Damascus

whose family belongs the Alawite sect, a Shia offshoot. Opponents have long feared that such involvement would drag Lebanon into Syria’s war. The rise of Isis has further stoked fears among Lebanon’s minority sects, such as the Christians and Druze. “I am one of the people that believes that Hezbollah is fighting for our existence. We have no choice but to respect them,” said Rifaat Nasrallah, the leader of a local defence force in the Christian village of Ras Baalbek in the northern Bekaa Valley. The Ras Baalbek volunteers operate small observation posts in the hills overlooking the village against the advance of Isis mili-

tants. Their commander said that he could muster 150 armed men within minutes. In August Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra overran the Sunni town of Arsal, five miles south of Ras Baalbek, triggering several days of fighting with the Lebanese army. The militants pulled back to their mountain redoubt, taking more than 30 captured soldiers and policemen and large quantities of looted arms and ammunition. The lack of shelter in the mountains and the onset of winter has raised fears that the militants may try another assault on Arsal or one of the neighbouring villages, such as Ras Baalbek. Further south, in the Rashaya district of Lebanon, Druze villagers nervously eye the summit of Mount Hermon on the Lebanon-Syria border. Jabhat alNusra has advanced to the edge of a string of Druze villages on the Syrian side of the mountain. The Lebanese Druze fear that the militants could cross the border. “The situation is very serious, dangerous and sensitive,” said Faisal Daoud, a former MP from Rashaya who heads a small Hezbollah-allied and proSyrian political party. “As a minority, we have to defend our villages.”

Reprieve for Warthog as US sends thunder from the sky down on Isis Michael Evans

An American ground-attack aircraft that the Pentagon wanted to scrap to save money has been reprieved to combat Islamic State militants in Iraq. The A-10 “Warthog”, known as the flying tank and one of the most feared aircraft during the Iraq war, has been sent to a base in the Gulf region to join the airstrikes against Isis. A squadron of about ten A-10s, with 300 US Air Force personnel from the US Air National Guard’s 122nd Fighter

Warthogs fire 4,200 rounds a minute

Wing, arrived ten days ago. The group, usually based at Fort Wayne, Indiana, is believed to be based near Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The A-10 is known officially as Thunderbolt and its seven-barrel Gatling cannon can fire 4,200 rounds a minute. Their presence on the battlefield indicates a determination by the Pentagon to take a more aggressive approach towards Isis. The sacking of Chuck Hagel as US defence secretary, because he was considered too passive by the White House,

was another sign that President Obama wants a tougher attacking stance to back his public pledge to “disrupt and destroy” the Islamic militants. It is an extraordinary reprieve for an aircraft that the Pentagon was planning to axe to save $4 billion. Bipartisan support in Congress to save the Warthogs temporarily halted Pentagon plans, but with the US Air Force insisting that other aircraft can perform the same role, its future remains in doubt. With the deployment of A-10s, the US has built up an array of aircraft to

take on Isis. Apache helicopters were used for the first time in Iraq last month. Carrier-borne F/A-18s as well as US Air Force F-16s, F-15Es, B-1 bombers and armed Predator drones have been involved since airstrikes began in August. The Warthog’s capability to launch massive bursts of firepower from a low altitude proved devastating in the Gulf war of 1991 and the Iraq war from 2003. Two A-10s were involved in a friendly-fire incident in the Gulf war when nine British soldiers were killed.

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Friday November 28 2014 | the times

World

Dead in seconds: video shows how boy with toy gun was shot by police United States

David Taylor Ferguson

American police are facing a new gun controversy after the release of film footage showing a 12-year-old boy with a fake gun being fatally wounded within seconds of officers arriving to answer an emergency call. Tamir Rice died the next day after he was shot in the chest by a rookie officer responding to a call from someone who had said that the child was waving a “probably fake” gun and scaring people in a park. The victim was black and the officer who shot him was white, adding to concerns about the way black communities are policed in the US. It follows riots in Missouri this week after a white officer in Ferguson was exonerated for shooting a black man who had assaulted him. Video taken from a security camera at the Cudell recreation centre in Cleveland, Ohio, reveals what happened in the park last Saturday. At first, Tamir looks like any bored child, wandering back and forth on his own, then making a half-hearted attempt at a snowball. He is seen pulling out a realistic-looking gun and pointing it at passers-by. Later footage shows him sitting alone at a table under a gazebo as a police squad car, carrying two officers, Timothy Loehmann, 26, and Frank Garmback, 46, pulls up at speed. Although there is no sound on the film, police claim that Mr Loehmann, who was in the passenger seat and who had been on the force only since March, yelled at the boy three times to show his hands as the car neared the gazebo. Mr Garmback had been with the Cleveland police since 2008. The film then shows Mr Loehmann jumping out of the passenger side and firing his weapon almost immediately,

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felling the boy at a distance of about 10ft. The footage appears to show that Tamir, who was dressed up against the cold, had reached towards his belt and had the gun in his hand as he fell. Police claim their tapes of the original 911 call show that the dispatcher who sent the squad car did not tell the officer that the original caller thought the gun was probably a fake. Tamir’s weapon turned out to be an “airsoft” pellet gun, classified as a toy in the US. It lacked an orange safety indicator, often found on the muzzles of guns to show they are not real. It was modelled on the Colt M1911, a 0.45 calibre automatic pistol that was standard US army issue until 1985. After the shooting, the two officers

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can be seen circling the stricken boy pointing their guns. According to police logs, one radioed in: “Shots fired, male down, um, black male, maybe 20. Black handgun.” The two leave it to the next officers who arrived on the scene four minutes later to start first aid on the boy. The video was released by police at the request of Tamir’s family, who said in a statement: “It is our belief that this situation could have been avoided and that Tamir should still be here with us. The video shows one thing distinctly: the police officers reacted quickly.” A grand jury will examine the evidence and decide whether the officer should be prosecuted or if he was justi-

Security camera footage shows Tamir Rice standing in the gazebo as the patrol car arrives. A police officer jumps out and within seconds the boy is shot. Tamir, far right, died in hospital from his wounds the next day

Sugar daddy seeking relationship without strings is found tied up Will Pavia New York

He was 84 and lived in a Manhattan townhouse, they were twins aged 17 staying in separate foster homes. They met thanks to a website that introduces young women to a “sugar daddy” — older men of means who would open both their hearts and their wallets as part of an “upfront and honest relationship”. Yesterday, Shaina and Shalaine Foster were in jail, awaiting trial and facing possible 15-year prison sentences in a case which appeared to contain the elements of a soap opera: lust, betrayal and an evil twin. “There’s always that story of the good twin and the bad twin,” said Brian Kennedy, a lawyer who claimed to represent the “good twin”. He made the comments outside court where both sisters appeared to plead not guilty to kidnapping, burglary and larceny. “My client, Shalaine, was

Paul Aronson, 84, met Shalaine Foster, 17, and her twin via a website

always going right but it seems she got caught up in something that was not of her making,” he said. According to court papers, it was Shaina who made contact with Paul Aronson, a wealthy retired businessman, via the website SeekingArrangement.com. They went out on a date, then on the second date she brought Shalaine. The three dined at a fine restaurant, then he invited them both back

to his townhouse, stopping on the way to pick up a bottle of raspberryflavoured rum. The website which had brought them together had offered Mr Aronson the chance to find “someone who will cater to your needs” and do so “with no strings attached”. Instead, after apparently showing the twins his home and introducing them to his yorkshire terrier, Muffins, he allegedly ended up bound and tied to his coffee table. He was found the next day by a friend. Prosecutors said that the twins took $420 (£267) and a credit card from his home and went shopping. According to court papers, Shaina seems to have believed that her date would be reluctant to report them to the police. “The old man reported me?” she is said to have told a detective. “I don’t understand why he reported me. He asked me to do things that I wasn’t going to do.”

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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Hillary will speak — for $300,000 David Taylor

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fied in using force against the boy. Edward Tomba, Cleveland’s deputy police chief, said: “This is not an effort to exonerate. It’s not an effort to show the public anybody did anything wrong. “This is an obvious tragic event where a young member of our community lost their life. We’ve got two officers

that were out there protecting the public that just had to, you know, do something that nobody wants to do.” Tensions between the police and black Americans are high after the case in Ferguson, Missouri, where a grand jury has ruled that Darren Wilson, a white officer, should not face criminal

trial for shooting dead the black teenager Michael Brown. Thanksgiving arrived yesterday after a quiet night in Ferguson, where snow and plunging temperatures kept the number of protesters on the streets to barely a dozen. Protests continued across the US and were mostly peaceful, although some

businesses were vandalised in Oakland, California, and dozens of protesters were arrested in Los Angeles after disrupting traffic. In Portland, Oregon, police used pepper spray and made arrests after about 300 people interrupted bus and light rail traffic. Justin Webb, page 18

By Hillary Clinton’s own admission, she and her husband, Bill, were “dead broke” when they left the White House after eight years. Things have, however, changed a great deal since then. While President Clinton has earned $52 million (£33 million) from speeches since he left office, charging $250,000 a time, his wife’s exacting demands were until this point unknown. Newly released documents show that she commands even higher fees than her husband, along with a series of diva-like add-ons that call into question how in touch she is with ordinary Americans as she prepares to run for the White House. The details, released under the Freedom of Information Act, show that she collected $300,000 for a speech at the University of California, Los Angeles, in March. When university administrators asked whether there might be a discount for academic institutions, they were told that $300,000 was “the special university rate”. Officials were told to make sure that the event raised at least $100,000, so free tickets for students were cut back and packages created costing up to $2,000 for two seats, a photo with Mrs Clinton and access to a post-lecture reception with college deans. Backstage, it was not quite Mariah Carey’s Cristal champagne with bendy straws, white roses and vanilla candles. However, team Hillary insisted on hummus and crudites, diet ginger ale and sliced fruit. When she got on stage, the water had to be at room temperature, with lemon wedges. The style and colour of the armchairs Mrs Clinton and her moderator would sit on were discussed at length, the documents obtained by The Washington Post show, with the stipulation that two cushions be kept backstage in case she needed additional back support. Five days before the lecture, a new podium had to be found after her team rejected the one originally planned for her 20 to 30-minute speech. Fees from the former secretary of state’s university speeches have gone to the not-for-profit Clinton Foundation, but those for talks to banks and industry conventions to her private income.

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Stylist of murdered beauty queen killed Honduras

James Hider Latin America Correspondent

A week after the murder of Miss Honduras and her sister, the Central American beauty queen’s stylist has been found stabbed to death in his bathroom. Luis Alfredo Garcia, 41, also known as Destiny, had been bound by the hands and feet and repeatedly stabbed in the neck in his apartment in Sandy Bay, a resort on the Caribbean island of Roatán off the coast of Honduras. He had been reported missing for several days before an assistant found his body last Friday, two days after Maria José Alvarado, 19, and her sister, Sofia, 23, were found shot dead and buried on a river bank outside their hometown of Santa Bárbara in northern Honduras. The deaths in different parts of the country appeared to be unrelated, but police investigating the make-up artist’s murder said it was unlikely that robbery was the motive as none of his belongings appeared to be missing. Mr Garcia had prepared contestants for the Miss Honduras competition earlier this year in which Miss Alvarado was crowned. She had been due Luis Alfredo Garcia: stabbed repeatedly

to fly to London last week for the Miss World competition. Police investigating her murder arrested her sister’s boyfriend, Plutarco Ruiz, who is alleged to be a drugs trafficker wanted in the US. Prosecutors said he had confessed to murdering the sisters in a jealous rage after he accused Sofia of flirting with another man at his birthday party. Three other people have been arrested on charges of helping him bury the bodies. Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world. Much of the country’s crime is related to drugs gangs, and the president warned recently that this is as much a threat to global stability as Islamic terrorism. Santa Bárbara is 30 miles from the city of San Pedro Sula, known as the murder capital of the world because of its homicide rate of 169 per 100,000 people. By comparison, London has a murder rate of one per 100,000 and New York four. The beauty queen’s surviving sister and mother have said they fear that Mr Ruiz could use his alleged connections in the drugs underworld to seek revenge against them after his arrest and are applying for asylum in the US. A memorial service was held in London last week in the run-up to the Miss World competition. The final is on December 14.

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The art of capoeira, once used by slaves and performed today on the beaches of Brazil, has been given protected status

Fighting chance for Brazil’s slave dance ritual Brazil

James Hider Sao Paulo

The athletic, white-clad men and women seen leaping and whirling inches from each other have long been an adornment to the beaches and parks of Brazil. Now capoeira has been recognised by the UN cultural agency Unesco as part of the “intangible cultural heritage” of Brazil in an attempt to protect the legacy of the once outlawed sport. Previously used by runaway slaves

from Africa as a way of practising unarmed self-defence, the dance-like ritualised fight originated in the 16th century on sugar cane plantations in the vast Portuguese colony. It resembles a mixture of karate and break dancing and requires great fitness, flexibility and precision. “It is one of the most important symbols of Brazilian identity,” the Brazilian culture ministry said in a statement. Slaves lacked any weapons to defend themselves against the gangs sent to track them down in their jungle

refuges, or quilombos. The largest and most famous of these was a small republic, the Quilombo do Palmares, made up of 20,000 runaways who resisted dozens of attacks for almost the whole of the 17th century before it was finally destroyed. After the end of slavery in the 1880s, many practitioners of the sport became bodyguards or worked for criminal gangs, prompting the government to ban it. It was forced underground until the 1940s, when it became a popular activity often used to entertain tourists.

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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Plea for death row blasphemer Pakistan

Robin Pagnamenta Mumbai Aoun Sahi Islamabad

The husband of a Pakistani Christian woman sentenced to be hanged for blasphemy has appealed to the British government for help. Asia Bibi, 50, a mother of two, has been on death row since 2010 after being convicted of insulting the Prophet Mohammed during an argument with a Muslim woman over a bowl of water. Her husband, Ashiq Masih, has asked Britain to seek clemency for his wife, whose death sentence was confirmed by the High Court in Lahore last month. “I urge them to contact senior Pakistani officials and request them to forgive Asia Bibi and save her life,” he said. Mr Masih, who filed a last-ditch

appeal with the country’s highest court on Monday, said he believed that only a formal pardon from President Hussain would save her life. He added that British, Spanish and French diplomats had been involved in discussions over the fate of Mrs Bibi, who is being held in solitary confinement in a women’s prison in Multan. Her husband, who lives 200 miles away in Lahore, has been able to visit her only once a month. A spokeswoman for the British High Commission in Islamabad confirmed that diplomats had raised the case with Pakistani authorities “and will continue to do so at senior levels”. She added: “We are concerned that a court has upheld the imposition of the death penalty in the case of Mrs Asia Bibi, following the recent appeal hearing.” She said the UK was working with

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other EU members to apply pressure to Pakistan’s government for her release. In an open letter dated November 17 and published by The New York Times, Mr Masih wrote: “We are convinced that Asia will only be saved from being hanged if President Mamnoon Hussain grants her a pardon. No one should be killed for drinking a glass of water.” The blasphemy allegations date from June 2009 when Mrs Bibi was working in a field near her village and an argument broke out with Muslim co-workers. She was asked to fetch water, but the women told her that she was not fit to touch their bowl because she was a Christian. An argument ensued in which she allegedly made derogatory remarks about the Prophet. Her co-workers later made the blasphemy allegation to a local cleric, leading to her arrest.

Egypt jails 78 teenagers over Morsi rally Egypt

Catherine Philp Beirut

An Egyptian court has sentenced 78 teenagers to between two and five years in jail for participating in protests in support of the Muslim Brotherhood. The boys, aged between 13 and 17, were arrested in Alexandria after taking part in protests calling for the reinstatement of Mohammed Morsi, the president deposed in a 2013 coup. They are the latest, and among the youngest, targets of a crackdown by

Egyptian authorities against the banned Brotherhood and other Morsi supporters since the army overthrew him in July last year amid mass protests against his rule. Thousands of Morsi supporters have been killed and arrested since his overthrow and the designation of the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation. Hundreds have been jailed or sentenced to death in mass trials that the UN has described as “unprecedented in recent history”. Egyptian state media reported that

the boys “were arrested for participating in protests organised by the group calling for the downfall of the regime in which they blocked roads and transportation, and terrified citizens”. Ayman El-Dabi, their defence lawyer, said that some of the boys had not been protesting and had simply been “in the wrong place at the wrong time”. Egypt’s crackdown against Morsi supporters has left at least 1,400 dead and more than 15,000 in jail. Death sentences were handed down on 520 Morsi supporters at a mass trial in March.

Loud and proud Chinese opera at the Cho Su Kong shrine in Bangkok. For many in the Thai capital’s Chinatown, opera keeps alive the culture of their ancestors

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Friday November 28 2014 | the times

World

Motorway gunmen fail in €5m heist Italy

Tom Kington Rome

Italy’s busiest motorway was blocked for hours yesterday after a band of armed and masked robbers set fire to trucks, ripped open barriers and scattered nails on the road in an attempt to rob a security van understood to have been carrying €5 million (£4 million). However, despite firing Kalashnikovs during the well-planned raid, the robbers fled the scene empty handed after the security van managed to navigate around the nails and a flaming barricade. The robbery got under way shortly before 7am on the A1, Italy’s main highway, which links Milan with Rome. A group of up to 15 men, believed to be Italian, dragged two small trucks and a car across the three-lane motorway near Lodi, south of Milan, and set fire to them. On the other side of the motorway, the robbers set up a similar flaming barrier to keep their escape route clear. As the security van operated by the company Battistolli approached, the gang scattered large pieces of sharp metal to puncture the tyres of their intended target. Police later discovered that each piece of metal consisted of two nails twisted and welded together so that a sharp point would stick up when they were scattered on the asphalt. Witnesses reported that as the van

approached, the robbers fired their weapons to slow it down. One lorry driver using the road said that he had been rammed by one of the gang during the raid. “I got down, but he was wearing a mask and I didn’t approach,” he said. The nails punctured the tyres of two vehicles escorting the security truck, but the raid started to go wrong when the truck was able to avoid the nails, get round the flaming trucks and escape. As traffic backed up on both sides of the highway, blocked by burning vehicles, the robbers leapt over the central reservation and sped off in stolen cars, heading south towards Piacenza. Gang members then veered off the motorway on to a lane through a gap in the barrier on the side of the motorway that they had ripped open the night before. Robbers in one of the getaway cars then stopped a woman motorist and commandeered her car, leaving her by the side of the road. Different types of shotgun cartridge were later found in an abandoned car in the area. The raid follows a similar one last April which police suspect may have been carried out by the same group. Robbers on the A9 near Milan halted another security truck from Battistolli after blocking the motorway with vehicles and nails, and escaped with a haul understood to be gold ingots worth €10 million.

NICOLAS MESSYASZ / REX FEATURE

King who rules by Skype loses his four crowns Germany

David Charter Berlin

Crying wolf French farmers drove hundreds of sheep to Paris to protest against state overprotection of wolves, which have attacked hundreds of flocks this year

Thieves have stolen the four crowns of an African king who made his home in Germany after falling in love with the country on a student exchange trip. King Togbe Ngoryifia Céphas Kosi Bansah, 66, returned from an evening out with his German wife, Gabriele, to find that his home in Ludwigshafen, 80km south of Frankfurt, had been ransacked. Most of his royal regalia, including the crowns and golden chains from his grandparents, were taken. King Bansah, who rules via Skype and telephone over 200,000 people in the Hohoe area of southeastern Ghana, is a minor celebrity in the RheinlandPfalz region, and regularly appears in the media and at local events. He said yesterday: “Thieves had come over the balcony on the first floor, prised the door open, smashed the cabinets and ransacked everything.” The value of the stolen items, all several hundred years old, was put at €20,000 (£15,900), but they are irreplaceable. King Bansah first came to Germany in 1970 as a trainee mechanic and now runs a garage. He was crowned in 1992 when his grandfather died and his father and elder brother were passed over because they were left-handed and deemed unfit to rule. He makes half a dozen trips to his kingdom every year, but spends several hours a night on Skype or telephone, ruling on tribal policies and disputes.

the times | Friday November 28 2014

It’s in the bag at last

How to succeed at failing

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Sathnam Sanghera, page 35

Mulberry finds new design chief

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Fast track to rail profits?

Business

East Coast winners take control Pages 38-39

BEN HIDER / GETTY IMAGES

First derailments become a habit business commentary Alistair Osborne

ow for some “pure industrial vandalism by a rotten government”. No, funnily enough, that wasn’t Tim O’Toole, the FirstGroup boss, complaining how he’s now been done over five times in six months on rail franchise bids, having just lost the East Coast to his old nemesis: a Stagecoach-Virgin combo (report, pages 68-69). That was Mick Cash of the RMT union chucking his toys out of the carriage. Why? The government privatising the service again rather than letting it meander on under the state-backed Directly Operated Railways. Sure, DOR returned £1 billion to the taxpayer in five years. But the new operator, ninetenths Stagecoach and one-tenth Virgin, is promising an inflationadjusted £3.3 billion over eight years, while adding 50 per cent capacity. Why would the government snub that? True, the last two private drivers on the East Coast, GNER and National Express, spectacularly hit the buffers. And, yes, the platform gossip yesterday was that the winning bidder had offered at least 15 per cent more than the runnerup. Yet Stagecoach-Virgin do not look the duo for a third derailment. They’ve negotiated a GDP adjuster to offset any fall in passengers, the thing that did for NatEx. And they’re confident enough to put up £232 million of risk capital. That goes to the nub of why they outbid First: they can afford to take calculated risks. You can’t say the same about Mr O’Toole, who might have been in a very different place if the government hadn’t screwed up 2012’s West Coast rail bid. Sure, First bid a dangerously punchy £13.3 billion to “win” it. But the cashflow from the early years would have saved the need for a £615 million rescue rights issue, now even harder for investors to take, with today’s shares at 110.1p below the 119p theoretical ex-rights price. Instead, First has watched Virgin Trains, 49 per cent owned by Stagecoach, retain the West Coast until at least 2017, while itself losing bids on Thameslink, Scotrail, Essex Thameside, the Caledonian sleeper and now the East Coast. Mr O’Toole hails First’s “disciplined approach to bidding”. But each failure makes it harder to take enough risk to win the next one, so making his pledge to retain annual rail revenues of £100 million ever more fanciful. He must hope the government really does want different operators on the West and East coast. But who would bet against Virgin-Stagecoach outbidding him again?

Bargains every day

uxuries, by definition, tend to be pricey. So full marks to Poundland for giving so many people the chance to own a garden

gnome. Its twin-gnome range features the red-hatted “large traditional” and the gruffer-looking “garden” type. Yours, as the shop name suggests, for just £1 too, which may explain why the retailer flogged 250,000 of them last year. People say bargains like that don’t come along every day. Except they do at Poundland, which has built a business that chimes with today’s value-conscious, footloose shoppers (report, page 71). The retailer, which is opening 60 stores a year, has got an edge too, as its chief executive, Jim McCarthy, points out: the “integrity and transparency” of its “single price offer”. Contrast that to the blitz of confusing supermarket promotions. It’s even something Aldi and Lidl can’t replicate. To maintain its pricing, the 566store Poundland takes a hard-nosed approach to stocking items it can no longer afford to sell for £1, replacing them with an alternative. Yet it still sells 1,000 branded products while maintaining gross margins of about 37 per cent. Its half-year figures, the first since March’s 300p-a-share float, show progress too, with like-for-like sales up 4.7 per cent, pre-tax profits 12 per cent higher at £9.3 million and enough cash generation to cut net debt from £26.8 million to £4.4 million. The shares, now 316.2p, have further to travel — like the more enterprising garden gnomes.

Numbers crunched

rade unions have myriad ways to demand a pay rise, such as downing tools and bringing the country to a grinding halt. So it’s refreshing to see the TUC adopt a cerebral approach to an age-old issue: how to boost the workers’ pay. It’s told the pinstripes that it’s good for the country. Having crunched the numbers, the TUC’s spotted a £17 billion hole in the chancellor’s wallet, money the Office for Budget Responsibility was counting on from income tax receipts (report, page 63). Instead of the £176 billion this year the OBR forecast in 2010, George Osborne will collect just £159 billion, a big reason his deficit cutting plans are so skewy. All due to scrooge-like bosses keeping a lid on wage growth. Unpatriotic gits.

China crisis

ee what happens once Ukip wins a couple of seats: shops start banning Chinese customers. They’re “too annoying”, apparently, what with their habit of trying on lots of clothes and not buying anything. Where’s the shop? Rochester and Strood? Well no, actually, Yabao Road in Beijing. Please don’t give that nice Mr Reckless any ideas.

alistair.osborne@thetimes.co.uk

Thanksgiving float A Paddington Bear promotional balloon visits New York for the Macy’s department store 88th bank holiday parade yesterday. Consumers across the United States today indulge in the annual Black Friday spending spree

Saudis set to force oil price below $70 Tim Webb Vienna

Oil prices are expected to drop to below $70 a barrel after Saudi Arabia blocked moves by other members of Opec to cut the cartel’s production at a stormy summit in Vienna. The Saudis threw down the gauntlet to US shale oil companies by relinquishing their historic role of balancing the market during the past 20 years, instead of slashing output to tackle the growing global glut of crude. After five hours of talks, Opec announced that it would not change its production quota, even though prices have slumped by a third since June. Markets were shocked by the cartel’s failure even to commit to stop producing above the quota. The price of Brent fell by $4.93 to $72.80 a barrel, the lowest since July 2010. BMO Capital Markets, the Canadian bank, expects prices to fall below $70 in the near future while share prices of companies exposed to the oil price, including Tullow Oil and Petrofac, slid on the London market. Ali al-Naimi, the 79-year-old Saudi oil minister, cut a defiant figure at the meeting, refusing to answer questions from journalists, unlike other ministers. Before the meeting, Saudi Arabia had come under pressure from hawkish members such as Venezuela and Iran to

slash output to arrest the slide in prices, which is putting a hole in their budgets. However, the Saudis do not want to cede further market share to the US, which, thanks to its shale oil boom, will soon overtake them as the world’s largest producer. Riyadh is digging in for a drawn-out price war with the US, which

Inside today

United Nations of oil more divided than ever Page 34

it is confident of winning as Saudi costs are far lower while US shale oil projects need prices of $80 a barrel to be viable. Credit rating agencies had already begun to sound the alarm over the impact of falling oil prices on shale oil drillers’ balance sheets and yesterday’s Opec decision will do further damage. Miswin Mahesh, analyst at Barclays Capital, said: “It looks like Opec is say-

ing to the US ‘over to you’ and that production cuts will need to be a combination of Opec and non-Opec countries. “The Saudis know the US, not them, are on the high cost curve. This statement telegraphs to the world that it’s no longer entirely down to Saudi Arabia to balance the market.” He said in future the US, and not the Saudis, will act as the world’s swing producer as it did in the 19th century when Standard Oil dominated the market. Opec said it would review its production quota of 30 million barrels per day, representing about a third of global demand, at its next meeting in six months. In September, the cartel produced about 30.6 million barrels per day even though demand for its crude is falling. Citigroup estimates that the total amount of surplus crude will almost double in the first half of next year. Leaving Opec’s headquarters after five hours of talks, Mr al-Naimi said that it was a “great decision”. Abdallah Salem el-Badri, secretary general of Opec, said that low oil prices were good for motorists and that all members were happy with the outcome. Asked what Opec considered as the right price, he said: “I have no idea.” Traders are now uncertain how much lower oil prices will fall and many long positions will be closed, putting more downward pressure on prices.

Friday November 28 2014 | the times

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Need to know Your 5-minute digest year than they were in the same period in 2013.

UK: The confidence of consumers in the economy remained in negative territory for a third month after briefly turning positive in the summer. GfK’s UK consumer confidence index stayed at -2 in November, with two of the five measures used to calculate the figure decreasing. It is the eighth month in a row that the index has stood within two points of -1. The index measuring changes in personal finances during the past 12 months stayed at -7, while expectations for the general economic situation over the next year fell two points to zero.

consumer goods 1.29%

banking & finance 0.41% Funding for Lending: The amount lent by banks and building societies to creditstarved small businesses through the Funding for Lending scheme dropped by £128 million in the three months to September. However, new figures from the Bank of England showed that net lending to this sector through the scheme, which was launched in 2012, slipped by a slower pace in the third quarter of the year, after a £435 million fall in the previous three months. Lloyds Banking Group, which lent £304 million to small and medium-sized enterprises through the FLS, was the quarter’s best performer, followed by Santander at £107 million. During the third quarter, the number of groups participating in the scheme rose from 36 to 38. Page 37 Electra Private Equity: The quoted private equity company said net assets per share had advanced by 15 per cent to £31.74 after gains in the value of a number of recent investments. A review of the business, including a decision on whether to start paying dividends, is due in weeks. Tempus, page 40

India: The Indian government has indicated that it will not appeal against the tax cases it recently lost in disputes with Vodafone and Shell. The move is seen as a sign that the Modi government will be less aggressive in pursuing tax disputes with foreign companies. Last month, a top court in Mumbai rejected the tax authorities’ attempts to seek more than $500 million (£318 million) from Vodafone related to the transfer of shares between its Indian unit and other holding companies.

construction & property 1.21% Home sales: As the property boom moves from London to the rest of the country, Knight Frank, the upmarket estate agency, said that, excluding the capital, sales of homes worth more than £1 million in England and Wales were 44 per cent higher in the first six months of the

British American Tobacco: Revenue & Customs has privately told the world’s second-biggest listed tobacco company that fining tobacco companies for breaching antismuggling legislation could fail to tackle the black market, according to leaked minutes. BAT was penalised this month for oversupplying cigarettes to Belgium amid concerns that genuine tobacco sold in lowerpriced markets was being smuggled into the high-tax UK illegally. BAT, the first company to be penalised under the legislation, was fined £650,000 and could have its executives called before MPs on the Commons public accounts committee. Mulberry Group: The luxury leather goods manufacturer has named Johnny Coca, a designer at LVMH’s Céline brand, as its new creative director. He will fill the void left when Emma Hill, the creator of the blockbuster Alexa handbag, left the company last year. Page 33 SABMiller: The FTSE 100 brewer has delivered a longmooted soft drinks deal in Africa after agreeing to merge its Coca-Cola bottling operations in the region with another franchisee to create the continent’s biggest Coke producer. SABMiller, better known for lager brands such as Peroni and Miller, has signed a deal with Coca-Cola Sabco to form a new joint venture, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, which will produce 40 per cent of all Coke volumes in Africa.

industrials 0.18% Velocys: Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea FC, who started to build his stake in the £272 million AIM-quoted company, formerly known as Oxford Catalysts, in 2012, has lifted his stake to north of 10 per cent. Velocys, which makes kit to convert gas into jet fuel or diesel, has the kind of share roster to make a blue-chip blush. Page 41

leisure 2.17% SSP Group: The provider of catering outlets for airports and railway stations, where Kate Swann, the former head of WH Smith, is the chief executive, produced its first set of figures since the July flotation, showing operating profits after interest rate movements and one-offs up 12 per cent to £88.5 million. Tempus, page 40

Marston’s: Ralph Findlay, the chief executive, claimed that the ending of the beer tie would “not be material” to the Midlands brewer and pubs group, owing to its continuing shift away from tenanted pubs.

The group reported underlying full-year pre-tax profits down 3.6 per cent to £83 million.

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Blonde to Black Pictures: Sadie Frost has turned to crowdfunding in an attempt to raise £150,000 for her film production company. The actress is using the online investment business Angels Den to offer small “filmloving” retail investors the opportunity to back her venture. The company, which was founded three years ago, is selling a 7.5 per cent stake for £150,000. Page 37

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17,800

17,200

17,600

Fri

Tue

Mon

Wed

16,800

17,400

Fri

Tue

Wed

16,400

Thu

Commodities Gold $1,189.69 (-8.69)

$ 1,220

Brent Crude $73.21 (-5.40)

$ 85

1,200

natural resources 0.97% Opec: Oil prices are expected to fall below $70 a barrel after Saudi Arabia blocked moves by other members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut the cartel’s production at a stormy summit in Vienna. The Saudis threw down the gauntlet to US shale oil companies by relinquishing their historic role of balancing the market over the past 20 years, instead of slashing output to tackle the growing global glut of crude. After five hours of talks, Opec announced that it would not change its production quota, even though prices have slumped by a third since June. The price of Brent fell by $4.93 to $72.80 a barrel, the lowest since July 2010. Pages 31, 34 Rio Tinto: The FTSE 100 mining group is putting its faith in diamonds by expanding a key mine in remote northern Canada. Rio and its minority partner will spend $350 million (£223 million) developing a fourth “pipe” of kimberlite, the diamond-bearing ore, at its Diavik Diamond Mine. Page 41

professional & support services 0.71% RPC Group: The specialist packaging producer is buying Promens Group, an Iceland business in the same area, for £307 million, part-financed by a one-for-three rights issue worth about £200 million. RPC’s halfway profits are up 33 per cent to £54.9 million, in part because of earlier acquisitions. Tempus, page 40

retailing 0.66% Poundland: Half-year profits rose by 12 per cent to £9.33 million at the chain of discount shops. Jim McCarthy, the chief executive, said he had high hopes for a lucrative festive season, as shoppers seek thrifty Christmas gifts. Jaeger: The fashion brand’s losses narrowed from £12.6 million to £9.9 million over the year to March as store revamps and a focus on “premium British heritage”

1,180

1,160

Mon

Tue

Wed

1,140

Thu

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Currencies £/$ $1.5726 (-0.0061)

Mon

Tue

$ 1.600

Wed

Thu

£/€ €1.2601 (-0.0026)

¤ 1.280

1.580

1.260

1.560

1.240

1.540

Mon

Wed

Tue

1.220

Thu

The day ahead Nationwide will publish its latest house price index for the UK. It is expected to show a further slowdown in price growth after Graham Beale, its chief executive, said this week that the property

market had continued to slow after peaking in the summer. Gross mortgage lending in the six months to September 30 fell to £13.1 billion, he said, down from £14 billion in the same month last year.

Graph of the day

Household bills have fallen by £70 a year since the coalition government came to power in 2010 as savings on car insurance have offset rising energy bills

Household bills since 2010 election (per year)

Car insurance

£106

Home insurance

£40

began to resonate with customers. Like-for-like sales were up by 10 per cent at the business, which is controlled by Jon Moulton’s Better Capital.

16,000

6,700

Telephone calls

£36

Energy (dual fuel)

£88

Broadband

£24

Source: comparethemarket.com

economics

Results in brief Name

Pre-tax figure Profit (+) loss (-)

Dividend

Acal (engineering HY) Charles Stanley (finance HY) Hardy Oil & Gas (resources HY) Impax (finance FY) Latham (James) (industrials HY) Marston’s (leisure FY) Mountview (property HY) MS Int (engineering HY) Palace Capital (property HY) PayPoint (finance HY) Poundland (retailing HY) RPC (industrials HY) Shaftesbury (property FY) SSP (leisure FY) Vp (industrials HY)

£0.1m (£2.7m) -£3.9m (£4.9m) -$1.8m (-$3.4m) £3.5m (£3.4m) £5.2m (£4.2m) -£59.2m (£67.5m) £20.8m (£13.3m) £0.07m (£1.9m) £8.4m (-£78,419) £22.5m (£21.3m) £9.3m (£8.4m) £34.9m (£30.1m) £447.3m (£241.7m) -£13.5m (£16.2m) £15.5m (£12.3m)

2.2p p Jan 16 3p p Jan 21 0c 1.40p f 1.1p p Feb 20 3.7p Jan 30 6.7p f 4.3p p Feb 2 100p p March 30 1.5p p Dec 31 6p p Dec 30 12.4p p Dec 18 1.5p p Jan 30 5p p Jan 16 13.1p f 6.6p p Feb 13 0p 5p p Jan 2

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 Distil Its gin is cleared for US sale Stagecoach Wins a contract Greencore Investec turns more positive easyJet Cheaper oil Barclays A push by Goldman Sachs Petrofac Bernstein turns more cautious Tullow Oil Opec fails to agree on a production cut EnQuest Crude back at a four-year low Afren Cheaper oil Miton A profit warning

Change 46.0% 8.2% 6.1% 5.7% 2.4% -6.2% -7.2% -10.4% -10.6% -18.7%

technology 1.56% Google: European lawmakers have voted overwhelmingly in favour of breaking up the internet search giant and other search engines. The European parliament passed a resolution that pressures the EU’s competition watchdog to split internet search engines from other services offered by internet companies. The move came despite a warning from the US Congress this week that its passing would unduly influence a long-running EU competition investigation into Google. The Computer and Communications Industry Association, whose members include Google, eBay Facebook, Microsoft and Samsung, said that any move to slice off the search services of internet companies was “extreme and unworkable”.

telecoms 0.85% Monitise: The mobile payments company has recovered some of its magic, with the shares gaining more than 11 per cent, after three big companies stumped up £49 million to invest in it. Santander is taking a 5.5 per cent stake, Telefónica 2.2 per cent and Mastercard — arguably its most important investor — another 0.5 per cent on top of the 1 per cent it already owns. It is the second fundraising of the year for Monitise, which raised £109 million in March.

transport 0.49% East Coast main line: Stagecoach and Virgin Group are set to make hundreds of millions of pounds in the reprivatisation of the main railway line between London and Edinburgh in which the Treasury is hoping to scoop back £3.3 billion. The East Coast main line into and out of King’s Cross, the main rail artery for Yorkshire and the northeast, is from next March to be run by a company badged Virgin Trains but which is 90 per cent owned by Stagecoach, the listed transport group, with just 10 per cent in the hands of Sir Richard Branson’s trading empire. Pages 38-39 Crossrail2: The cost of the second major new railway below London has gone up by more than a third to £27.5 billion, and the project has not properly reached the feasibility stage. Crossrail2 is the proposed new link from underserved northeast London through the centre of the capital to the western reaches of the south bank of the Thames, where Underground stations are few and far between. Page 39

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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Business

Mulberry bags a new design chief from rival Céline

ith a factory in the heart of the Somerset countryside, Mulberry portrays itself as the epitome of English craftsmanship (Andrew Clark writes). However, the troubled leather goods brand has turned to a Spanish designer to regain its creative mojo. A year and a half ago, the resignation of Emma Hill, creator of the popular “Alexa” bag,

kicked off a sales slump which wiped millions off Mulberry’s market value as the brand lost its footing amid a fateful effort to go upmarket. After a lengthy search, the company has filled the void by headhunting Johnny Coca, an accessories designer at LVMH’s Céline label who began his career as a window-dresser at Louis Vuitton boutiques. Born in Seville, Mr Coca learned his trade in Paris by studying at the École des Beaux-

Arts and has taught students at London’s Central St Martins school of design. Godfrey Davis, chairman of Mulberry, said: “He’s Spanish by birth but he lectures in London. He’s very into the London design scene and he’ll be leading a design team of a dozen people, most of whom are British.” The appointment was greeted approvingly by Mulberry’s investors, sending the shares up by 3 per cent to 774p despite a warning that any new inspiration will be a long time coming — Mr

Mulberry hopes that Johnny Coca, right, will recapture the success of products such as the Alexa bag, top left, named after the former model Alexa Chung, left

Coca will not be joining until July. “We’re perfectly capable of trading successfully but the right creative director brings you that extra edge,” Mr Davis added. “He’s very talented and when we analysed what we were looking for, he ticked all the boxes.” In addition to a creative director, Mulberry is still looking for a new chief executive to replace Bruno Guillon, the Frenchman who quit in March after two profit warnings. The company, which has a huge following among brandhungry Asian shoppers, is keen

to move beyond a torrid two years in which it alienated core customers with bags costing as much as £5,000. The company’s profits fell from £26 million to £14 million last year, prompting urgent efforts to revamp the product range towards what Mulberry describes as “affordable luxury”, typically between £500 and £800 for a bag. Heather Sproat, senior lecturer in fashion design and marketing at £24

Mulberry share price

20 16 12 8 4

2010 11

Central St Martins, said that designing handbags was not as simple as it looks. “They’ve actually got to last a lifetime. The customer, who may be paying a lot of money, will expect these bags to be highly durable.” She added that Mr Coca was working at the “very pinnacle” of the accessories industry. “What he doesn’t know about handbags, you don’t need to know.”

Tycoon starts £2.2bn lawsuit against ‘conspirators’ behind wrongful arrest Deirdre Hipwell

Vincent Tchenguiz has begun a £2.2 billion legal action against Grant Thornton, Kaupthing Bank and three individuals he has dubbed “the conspirators” for their alleged role in his wrongful arrest. The embattled tycoon, who has been mired in legal battles since the Serious Fraud Office arrested him three years ago during its failed investigation into Iceland’s Kaupthing Bank, said that he believed the defendants had “conspired to instigate” the SFO’s inquiry into his business affairs. He is seeking “aggravated and exemplary” damages for claims that include conspiracy by unlawful means and malicious prosecution. In the High Court claim, Mr Tchen-

guiz has named Kaupthing, Grant Thornton, the accountancy firm that advises the committee winding up the collapsed Kaupthing’s affairs, Stephen John Akers, Hossein Hamedani and Johannes Runar Johannsson. Mr Akers and Mr Hamedani work at Grant Thornton in the recovery and reorganisation and forensic investigation divisions, respectively. Mr Johannsson is an Icelandic lawyer, who is a member of Kaupthing’s winding up committee. Mr Tchenguiz claims that the three men conspired to put him “under acute commercial and financial pressure”, unlawfully obtained information, and “effectively controlled the SFO investigation”, which led to his arrest. The claim also alleges that Kaupthing and Grant Thornton should be held liable for the actions of the men.

Romie Tager, QC, who has been described as “a real scrapper” and a “terrier of a litigator”, is representing Mr Tchenguiz. The action is the latest development in a long-running saga that began in 2011 when Mr Tchenguiz, 58, and his brother, Robert, were arrested in dawn raids by the SFO in connection with suspected fraud at Kaupthing Bank. The SFO was forced to abandon its inquiry after admitting serious mistakes, including unlawful searches of the homes and business premises of the two brothers. The National Crime Agency apologised and paid £4.5 million damages to the brothers. Robert Tchenguiz, 54, is not a party to the latest legal claim but is preparing to launch a separate action. Vincent Tchenguiz said: “It is clear to

Vincent Tchenguiz with his sister Lisa. He is seeking damages in the High Court

me that the SFO was deliberately manipulated into investigating me by people who intended to cause me harm and were driven by commercial gain and self-interest. “This was, I believe, quite simply, a conspiracy by the defendants to use a criminal investigative authority for their own personal ends and to cause irreparable harm to me and my business interests and I intend to see them held fully accountable.” A Grant Thornton spokeswoman said: “Grant Thornton, Steve Akers and Hossein Hamedani deny all of the claims made. We have all acted appropriately and in accordance with our professional responsibilities and legal obligations throughout.” Kaupthing could not be contacted for comment.

Borrowing forced up to cover £17bn tax shortfall, TUC says Philip Aldrick Economics Editor

Weak wage growth since 2010 has cost the chancellor £17 billion of annual income that could have been used to cut the deficit, according to new analysis. Had pay risen as forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility in June 2010, income tax receipts this financial year would have been £176 billion, the Trades Union Congress

has calculated. Instead, the Treasury is expected to collect £159 billion. Poor income tax receipts have been behind this year’s over-borrowing. Official figures show that borrowing after seven months of 2014 was £3.7 billion higher than last year, against the OBR’s forecast for an £11 billion decline for the full year. The OBR has said that “weakerthan-expected wage growth” was one

reason that it was “unlikely the fullyear [tax] receipts forecast will be met”. Frances O’Grady, TUC general secretary, said: “The government’s failure to get wages growing again has not only left families far worse off than in 2010, it’s put the public finances in a mess too. The economy has become very good at creating low-paid jobs, but not the better paid work that brings in income tax.” The £17 billion gap is equivalent to a

rise in the basic rate of income tax by 4p, or an increase to VAT of 4 per cent. In June 2010, the OBR expected average earnings to be rising by 4.4 per cent this year and next. Instead, the latest official reading of average weekly earnings showed wages have risen this year by just 1.3 per cent. Average earnings have fallen for six years running, down 7.5 per cent since 2008 after accounting for inflation, and

are at levels not seen since 2003 in real terms. Wages have only just started increasing by more than inflation. In June 2010, the OBR had expected pay to outpace prices from 2012. The TUC’s analysis will reignite the political battle over the cost of living. Labour is expected to put squeezed incomes at the centre of its election campaign while the government will be hoping that pay continues to pick up.

FGM

Friday November 28 2014 | the times

Business HEINZ-PETER BADER / REUTERS

On the slide Oil trade price $bbl

120 115

Oil stocks exposed Tullow Oil

110

Petrofac

105

BG Group

100 Royal Dutch Shell 95 BP 90 Weir Group 85

-7.21% -6.23% -5.98% -1.44% -0.68% -0.60%

80 75 Jun

Jul Aug Sep 2014

Oct Nov

Source: Thomson Reuters

Libyan sideshow draws crowds at meeting of oil’s disunited nations Tim Webb

The 166th meeting of Opec, billed as one of the most important for years, got off to an inauspicious start. A Libyan minister delivered the opening address but no one was quite sure which delegation he belonged to; the one sent to Vienna by the deposed official government or the rival delegation representing the rebel administration in Tripoli. An Opec source explained that members were not invited; they just turned up with their own delegations, even if that meant two rival teams attending. This is how the cartel of oil producers, which pumps almost a third of the world’s crude and has the power to control oil prices, works. Think of Opec as the United Nations for oil, except these days the organisation is more divided than ever. Delegates did their best to put on a united front when the media was let loose in the meeting room at Opec’s headquarters for their customary 15 minutes of chaotic face time with the cartel’s ministers before the official business began. In teams of two or three, sitting around two long tables in front of their national flags, the delegations batted away questions from reporters who

were thrusting a sea of microphones in front of their faces. With an estimated 300 journalists attending the meeting, five times more than usual, the session was especially frenzied. Pointedly, the most important man in the room, Ali al-Naimi, the oil minister of Saudi Arabia, Opec’s largest producer, refused to answer questions. The 79-year-old, who began work in 1947 at the age of 12 as a foreman for the

Online

Interactive guide to how the oil price affects you www.thetimes.co.uk and tablet edition

Saudi national oil company, dismissively shooed away reporters. “It doesn’t surprise me,” Jamie Webster, an analyst from the IHS Energy consultancy, said. “He has been pestered for questions for several days now. He is done with answering the same questions.” He is right. There has been a relentless pursuit of Mr al-Naimi and other ministers in the run-up to the meeting, staking out the lobbies of the Austrian

Saudi Arabia’s Ali al-Naimi bats away reporters’ questions as delegates downplayed divisions over the slump in oil prices

Low prices will force a rethink The analysts’ view

he oil price could fall below $70 a barrel and languish there until well into next year, forcing Opec members back to the negotiating table to discuss a production cut before their next scheduled meeting in June, analysts say (Miles Costello writes). Responding to Opec’s decision yesterday not to cut production, experts also predicted that developers would scale back investment in new wells, which are likely to be less profitable because of

the low price. Analysts blamed infighting among Opec’s members for the inaction, the impact of which will be most rapidly felt in the US, which has been among the pioneers of fracking. Richard Mallinson, of Energy Aspects, said: “On one level it proves that despite a 30 per cent drop in prices, Opec members weren’t yet ready to reach agreement on how to respond collectively in terms of how to rebalance the market. “We think we are likely to see low prices persisting into next year because in the first half demand is seasonally weak and non-Opec supplies will continue to grow, primarily US light [shale] oil. “Later in the year,

we will start to see slower growth, less investment, less drilling.” Producing shale oil through high-pressure fracking can cost between $50 and $80 a barrel in the US, as against $2 or $3 in Saudia Arabia. That, combined with operating lives at American wells of little more than a year, means that investment in new production will become unprofitable and seize up. Falling prices could also hit exploration in Europe, according to GlobalData. It said that Chevron is likely to postpone its Rosebank field west of Shetland and Statoil will freeze its Johan Castberg fields in the Barents Sea, off the coast of Norway, for economic reasons.

capital’s swankiest hotels hoping for a clue to Opec’s intentions. Mr al-Naimi left it to Qatar, Saudi Arabia’s ally, to try to downplay the divisions within the cartel over how best to react to the recent slump in oil prices. “All Opec members have a good understanding among them,” Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, the energy and industry minister, claimed. “Everybody is after stabilising the market.” The only woman delgate in the room, Diezani Alison-Madueke, Nigeria’s oil minister, was asked about the prospect of Opec announcing production cuts. She suggested that if there were any, Nigeria should not have to contribute as its output was already well below capacity. “You will record that Nigeria has had cuts in production in the last few years through bunkering and sabotage,” she said. The delegation sent by the Libyan rebels was nowhere in sight, leaving Omar Ali ElShakmak, the minister for oil and gas, to press the official government’s cause. “As a legitimate government, we are looking for a fair price for consumer and producer,” he said. The government has been exiled to Tobruk after being ousted from the capital. Mr Ali ElShakmak said: “We are aiming to come back to Tripoli soon.” He added with a smile: “Inshallah.”

Failure to help weaker members may hit eurozone, Draghi warns Philip Aldrick

Government borrowing costs across Europe hit fresh lows after disappointing inflation figures fuelled growing speculation that the central bank will launch quantitative easing in the new year. Interest rates on ten-year French debt dropped below 1 per cent for the first time on record, at 0.999 per cent, as yields on German, Spanish, Italian, Irish, Portuguese, Norwegian and Swedish bonds all slid to historic lows on mounting fears about deflation. Britain’s 30-year gilt tracked the trend downward, dipping 4 basis points to a historic 2.686 per cent. The decline followed early official

figures showing that inflation in Germany sank to 0.5 per cent in November, its lowest in five years, from 0.7 per cent. Markets had expected a reading of 0.6 per cent. Spain slumped deeper into deflation, with prices falling 0.5 per cent against October’s 0.2 per cent. The poor data came after the European Central Bank’s vice-president revealed that it would consider launching full-blown QE in the first three months of 2015 if existing policies had failed to stave off the threat of deflation and rekindle growth. Vitor Constâncio said the ECB would review its actions in “the first quarter of next year” and “consider buying . . . sovereign bonds”. He also revealed that the plan was to split QE between the euro-

zone members proportionately in line with the size of their economies. Ten-year German bunds fell to a record low of 0.701 per cent. Markets have been hoping the ECB would launch QE to prevent deflation and stagnation gripping the 18-member currency bloc. Growth has fallen to just 0.2 per cent and inflation is perilously close to turning negative at 0.4 per cent. The reaction came as Mario Draghi, the ECB president, right, called for greater centralisation of fiscal controls in the eurozone. He said the currency union would not fully allay fears of a break-up until mechanisms were in place “to share the cost of shocks”. To ensure countries are held responsible, he again called for national gov-

ernments to cede some powers to Brussels. “There is a strong case for sovereignty over relevant policies to be exercised jointly. That means above all structural reforms,” Mr Draghi told an audience at the University of Helsinki. “Lack of structural reforms raises the spectre of permanent economic divergence between members,” he said. “And insofar as this threatens the essential cohesion of the union, this has potentially dam-

aging consequences for all.” Although he has rejected talk of a “grand bargain” between the central bank and governments, his decision to renew pressure on national authorities at the same time as raising the prospect of QE will renew questions about a pact. Unlike the United States, the eurozone does not have a system of fiscal transfers by which richer members such as Germany can aid poorer states such as Greece.

the times | Friday November 28 2014

FGM

Business

Sathnam Sanghera

Osborne moves to cut death tax on annuities

Why accentuating the negative has become a false positive in America

Francesca Steele

‘‘

Sathnam Sanghera is a journalist and author. Follow him on Twitter @Sathnam

If we are to believe the reports, a revolution is brewing in American business. And, because the two are inextricably linked, in global corporate culture at large. The nation that brought us Tony Robbins (“We can change our lives! We can do, have, and be, exactly what we wish!”), turned “have a nice day” into a national motto, where millions believe you can obtain whatever you want, from a fatter salary to a better spouse, by just visualising them, has discovered the power of negativity. More specifically — the power of failure. The New York Times ran a piece this month about FailCon, “a one-day conference in San Francisco celebrating failure” and reported that blog posts about entrepreneurial failure “have become so common in the Silicon Valley start-up world that the blog for the information services firm website CB Insights anthologised several dozen similar posts in a January article titled 51 Start-Up Failure Post Mortems. Meanwhile, Fast Company ran a feature a fortnight ago on New York City’s first “F***-Up Night”, an event celebrating start-up “screw-ups”, where those involved dub themselves “f***upreneurs” and talk about the mistakes that led to their business ideas failing. It reported that “tech entrepreneurs have held three group start-up funerals this year in New York City, complete with bagpipers, PowerPoint presentations and a DJ party”. The idea behind all these events is that a large proportion of all new ventures flop, and recognising the fact is part of becoming a true entrepreneur. And on the face of it, it seems to be a radical departure from the mindless positivity that remains the default setting for business everywhere. Just the other day I read on inc.com that being an “optimist” is apparently number eight in the Ten Powerful Habits of Highly Effective Leaders: “Passionate leaders are a source of GO. They seem to invigorate others easily, and they enthusiastically dive into most things with calculated recklessness.” Soon after, I came across a blog on the Harvard Business Review site

entitled Creating a Culture of Unconditional Love. And, let’s face it, a large part of all advertising everywhere still essentially involves good looking people smiling and laughing and hugging cute animals under semi-literate slogans like “Make Happy”, “Be A Happy”, and “Find Your Happy”. Has business finally woken up to the fact that life is more complicated and difficult than this? That things don’t always work out? That occasionally human beings have to encounter difficulty, disappointment and frustration? Unfortunately, closer examination of these reports suggests not. First of all, it appears that the people attending these events, as spectators or speakers, don’t necessarily understand what they’re about. With Fast Company reporting that audience members at the NYC F***-Up Night “were largely young — too young to have failed, or even started a business, yet”, that “some didn’t know the event focused on failure” and that “one New York City

speaker, Scott Goodson of advertising agency StrawberryFrog, stumbled when asked by an audience member about how to overcome a failed business. He said he didn’t know because he didn’t identify any of his ventures as failures”. Secondly, even when failure is accepted and recognised, those involved seem to discuss it in unnervingly positive terms. With Fast Company talking about the “bragging rights” of those involved and how some attendees at “F***-Up Nights” had “accepted failure with . . . enthusiastic embrace”. And The New York Times writing about how “failure is emerging as a badge of honor among some Silicon Valley start-ups, as entrepreneurs publicly trumpet how they have faced adversity head-on”. Before quoting one entrepreneur saying: “You can actually say to yourself, ‘Just because I failed, doesn’t mean I am a failure’.” This is not embracing failure. Americans have just found a way of talking about failure as if it were success. The man who went on stage

in New York to talk about how he screwed a wine start-up by spending $10,000 on labels which read “chardannay” (sic), was not accepting failure, he was using the anecdote as a macho way of demonstrating he will carry on regardless. Essentially, it is a form of humblebragging — showing off about something while couching it in terms of self-deprecation. It is the entrepreneurial equivalent of responding to the question “what is your biggest weakness?” in a job interview with: “I’m a perfectionist.” Which is a shame, because a backlash against mindless positivity is seriously overdue in business. Barbara Ehrenreich does a brilliant job of explaining just why inane optimism is damaging in Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, the idea for which she had when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and became enraged with being told to embrace the experience as a “gift”. She points out that positive thinking has not only led to employees being water boarded and spanked with metal yard signs in team “motivational” exercises, and mass firings being dressed up as “releases of resources” and “careerchange opportunities”, but that “in the hands of employers has been transformed into a means of social control in the workplace, a goad to perform at ever–higher levels”. More simply, I think the pressure to always be positive leads to people accepting and embracing all sorts of injustices and problems that they shouldn’t need to, promotes selfdelusion and unrealistic expectations, and results in damaging groupthink. I’m not suggesting that people who have been demoted or fired start appearing on stage in gentrified parts of London and New York to gloat about their disappointment, misery, bitterness and poverty. I just think it would be better if the business world adopted an attitude of constructive optimism: hoping for the best, but planning for the worst. Or, to put it another way, I just wish the business world cringed occasionally, as I did reading these reports, and was, frankly, a bit more British about everything.

’’

George Osborne is expected to announce further changes to the pension system in his Autumn Statement next week, in what the pensions industry says is an indication that he is listening to its concerns. It is understood the chancellor will amend the “death tax” reforms announced in September, so that taxes are scrapped on inherited annuities as well as on pensions in drawdown. Next April, the 55 per cent “death tax” on inherited pension pots will be abolished, meaning that if a pension saver dies before the age of 75 his or her pension can be passed on to a spouse tax-free even if it has already been dipped into. Until now, the changes only applied to pensions in drawdown schemes. The adjustments would mean the 55 per cent tax on annuity payments inherited by a spouse is also abolished. The changes will be viewed as a peace offering to the annuities industry, which has seen sales halve. Tom McPhail, head of pensions research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The government is making it up on the hoof so it’s inevitable we will see these sorts of adjustments. This is simply correcting an anomaly.”

L&G in £2.5bn deal with TRW Miles Costello

TRW Automotive, the US-based car parts supplier, has handed a contract to Legal & General to manage and insure the vast majority of its British pension scheme, in a £2.5 billion deal that is the largest of its kind. The FTSE 100 insurer said yesterday it would be taking control of TRW pension assets worth £2.5 billion and insuring the liabilities associated with more than 22,000 of the scheme’s members. The buyoutdeal follows a less comprehensive £3 billion insurance deal for ICI’s pensions scheme that L&G sealed earlier this year. L&G, which has an existing relationship with TRW, said it was also insuring the liabilities of a further 16,000 retired members and had agreed a deal with 5,500 more to provide them with a higher fixed income in exchange for forfeiting inflation-linked payments. TRW, which operates in 24 countries and employs about 65,000 people, said the move was part of a wider drive to remove risks associated with its pensions schemes worldwide.

FGM

Friday November 28 2014 | the times

Business

Giving Scots full tax powers ‘will increase avoidance’ Philip Aldrick

Plans to hand Scotland full powers over income tax will lead to a rise in tax avoidance and burden the Treasury with extra costs, accountants have warned, after a cross-party agreement to give Scotland control over about £14 billion of fiscal policy. Business groups also expressed concern that divergent tax rates and regulations could undermine Britain’s internal market and regretted the cost to companies of updating their systems. Although there was relief that corporation tax would continue to be set in Westminster, business was dis-

appointed that Scotland was given control of air passenger duty. Under Lord Smith of Kelvin’s ground-breaking devolution deal, Scotland will take control of income tax rates and bands, a portion of VAT revenues, air passenger duty and almost £3 billion of welfare spending. It will also have new powers to borrow to “smooth public spending in the event of economic shocks”. Accountants have been warning for months that greater devolution would drive up tax avoidance, as earners take advantage of differential rates and Scotland works to stop avoiders. Karen Davidson, a tax specialist at

Pinsent Masons, the law firm, said: “Any increase or change to a tax regime inevitably leads to a rise in avoidance. “The Scottish government has been keen to point out it would take a much

‘Devolution will lead to tax avoidance. If you want simplicity, the less you devolve the better’ stricter view on what is defined as avoidance.” She added: “There could be an element of frustration if attempts to generate additional income are

hampered because it does not have as wide-ranging anti-avoidance powers as it might like.” Last month, Chas Roy-Chowdhury, head of taxation at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, said: “Devolution will lead to greater complexity and more tax avoidance. If you want simplicity, the less you devolve the better.” Raising concerns about the damage devolution might have on public finances, Michael Izza, chief executive of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, said: “Managing the further devolution of powers will require an expanded civil service and increased resource for Revenue & Customs.” He added: “This will cost money and increase the strain on the public purse. Will the UK government cut other budgets, or will Scottish taxpayers face higher tax rates?” John Cridland, director-general of

the CBI, urged politicians to ensure that devolution did not “undermine the integrity of the internal market but strengthens the environment for job creation, growth and inward investment across the UK”. On the cost and complexity of different tax rates, he added: “Businesses are pragmatic [but] we cannot overlook implications for firms with employees on both sides of the border.” Devolving air passenger duty “risks creating an inefficient bidding war”, Mr Cridland said. The Association of British Travel Agents said: “What a passenger pays flying from Scotland compared with elsewhere in the UK could create an uncompetitive situation for travel businesses.” John Longworth, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “Any divergence in levels of regulation and tax could harm future growth prospects of firms.”

CITY PEOPLE The feuds, the faces and the farcical Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux

Business big shot name lord jones of birmingham age 59 position director, cell therapy ltd

etter known as Digby Jones, the long-time directorgeneral of the CBI, Lord Jones of Birmingham is most often heard voicing his prescription for repairing companies or the economy. His latest role is at a company that wants to repair hearts. Cell Therapy, in which Lord Jones has invested, is hoping to introduce a medicine called Heartcel in 2016 that uses stem cells to reduce the muscle scarring that can lead to heart make-up that does exactly what it says on the tin Poundland boss Jim McCarthy is a fan of ITV’s This Morning. The show recently featured a cosmetics experiment: “They had twins on, two very attractive young ladies who made themselves even more beautiful by applying make-up. One used our make-up, and the other used a more expensive make-up. The viewers voted on which looked more beautiful.” So which one won? “Ours did.” McCarthy’s approach to marketing obviously owes more to Ronseal than L’Oreal. counting on white van man White Van Man cannot escape the limelight. Picked on by Labour Islingtonites, lionised by the tabloids and respected by Ed Miliband. Now he appears to be the subject of close scrutiny from insurers. Direct Line reveals that 57 per cent of vans on British road are white. All of this begs the question of why Direct Line is counting the colour of vans in the first place. Is White Van Man more likely to crash than his more colourful counterparts?

failure. The company is led by Professor Sir Martin Evans, who received the Nobel Laureate for Medicine in 2007. Lord Jones this year appeared on the BBC’s The New Troubleshooter, stepping into the shoes of the late Sir John HarveyJones. Having grown up above his family’s shop in Alvechurch, near Birmingham, he claims to have been “born into business”. He is chairman of Triumph Motorcycles and Grove Industries and a nonexecutive director of Leicester Tigers rugby club. Among his fellow directors at Cardiff-based Cell Therapy is Rhodri Morgan, former first minister of Wales. Lord Jones trained as a lawyer, becoming senior partner of Edge & Ellison in 1995. In 1998 he joined KPMG as vice-chairman of corporate finance, before taking charge of the CBI in 2000. drown your sorrows Marston’s suffered a dip in profit yesterday. The pub featured on the front of its results brochure was The Lost Coins. Chief executive Ralph Findlay insisted the lost coins were a result of pub disposals and The Lost Coins was simply a good example of a new Marston’s pub. paying respect Business minister Matthew Hancock, below, is taking up cudgels on behalf of small businessmen to combat late payment. So prevalent is the problem that last year his own department suffered a 0.5 per cent reduction in the suppliers it paid on time. In Hancock’s defence, the Department for Business gets it right 99 per cent of the time. great wall of china Tim Davie, chief executive of BBC Worldwide, is in Shanghai for a government-sponsored Festival of Creativity. Shame it wasn’t a Festival of Objectivity — Davie could have mentioned China’s censorship of BBC coverage of Hong Kong and the blocking of its websites.

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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Business Actress tries crowd scene to help fund her new film

adie Frost has turned to crowdfunding in an attempt to raise £150,000 for her film production company, Blonde to Black Pictures (James Hurley writes). The actress, right, is using the online investment business Angels Den to offer small “film loving” retail investors the opportunity to back her venture. The company, which was founded three years ago, is selling a 7.5 per cent stake for £150,000. It is planning to use

Funding for Lending falls by £128m but decline is slowing Kathryn Hopkins Economics Correspondent

The amount lent by banks and building societies to small businesses through the Funding for Lending scheme fell by more than £100 million in the three months to September, but the pace of decline has started to slow. New figures from the Bank of England showed that net lending through the scheme, which began in 2012, shrank by £128 million in the third quarter of the year, after a £435 million fall in the previous three months. Net lending to large companies was down £2.2 billion, while to all businesses it was £2.4 billion lower. “It remains disappointing to see less money being lent in this crucial part of the UK economy at a time when [the]

need to establish an infrastructure for sustainable growth is essential,” said Phil Orford, chief executive of the Forum of Private Business, below, although he added that the situation would have been even worse without the scheme. The scheme, designed by the Treasury and the Bank of England to incentivise banks and building societies to boost lending, originally focused on mortgages and businesses. At the end of last year, the scheme concentrated on business lending after disproportionate loans went to households, fuelling fears of a housing bubble. So far it has failed significantly to boost figures. A breakdown of how much banks and building societies lent to small and medium-sized enterprises through the scheme revealed that Lloyds Banking Group, which gave £304 million, was the quarter’s best performer, followed by Santander at £107 million.

During the third quarter, the number of groups participating in the scheme rose from 36 to 38. In terms of overall lending to both big and small businesses through the scheme, the state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland was the worst performer, with Lloyds in second place. The two banks have cut back drastically on lending to large companies since their bailouts. The biggest rise in overall lending came at Santander, which lent £332 million to firms. A Lloyds spokesman said: “The Bank of England’s latest figures show that during the nine months until September 2014, Lloyds Banking Group’s SME net lending growth was £1.2 billion, which is more than any other bank participating.” In the summer, Vince Cable, the business secretary, revealed concerns over the ability of small businesses to access credit. He has been actively trying to encourage small businesses to consider alternative sources of finance such as crowdfunding or pension-led funding.

Late payers to be named and shamed James Hurley

Businesses could be forced to reveal detailed information on how long they take to settle their bills under new plans designed to tackle the estimated £46 billion that is tied up in overdue payments to suppliers. All listed companies with more than 250 staff would have to publish quarterly information on the average time it takes them to pay their suppliers, and the proportion of their invoices paid beyond agreed contractual terms. They would also have to report the proportion of invoices paid within 30 days, after 30 days, after 60 days and after 120 days. While small business groups have

called for much tougher legislative powers to tackle late payers, Matthew Hancock, the business minister, insisted that more robust information would tackle an “underlying culture” of slow payment of suppliers’ bills. He said: “We know that small businesses are often reluctant to risk losing business by using the redress measures we’ve put in place, so we want to tackle the [issue] by increasing transparency on payment practices and performance. “The measures will make it clear to small businesses and consumers alike which large businesses behave properly, and those that think they can ride roughshod over their suppliers.” John Allan, national chairman of

the Federation of Small Businesses, said the plans were welcome but still left smaller companies with too few options to combat late payers. “Small businesses need to be given real power to fight back,” he said. “It is time to put a stop to big business using their size and power to force small firms to accept late payment, excessively long payment terms, or to demand payment to be on a supplier list. “Small businesses are suffering, stifling their ability to grow, and this problem is only getting worse despite the economic recovery. In 2008 £18.6 billion was owed to small firms by big ones. In 2014 this has rocketed to £46.1 billion,” Mr Allan said. A consultation on the proposals closes on January 13.

the funds to release Set the Thames on Fire in 2015, in which Ms Frost stars alongside the comedian Noel Fielding. Another feature film, Buttercup Bill, left, a psychosexual drama that was written and directed by Émilie Richard-Froozan and Rémy Bennett, has already been released. “It seemed very much a part of our ethos to [use crowdfunding to] get potential like-minded film fans and enthusiasts that spot a great investment opportunity as part of the team,” Ms Frost said. Blonde to Black says it aims to “create original screenplays and nurture new talent” based on the experience of its founders, Ms Frost and Emma Comley.

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Friday November 28 2014 | the times

Business Rail network

East Coast winners are on track to lucrative returns Rail reprivatisation puts Stagecoach-Virgin in control of all intercity lines north from London, reports Robert Lea

tagecoach and Virgin Group are set to make hundreds of millions of pounds in the reprivatisation of the main railway line between London and Edinburgh in which the Treasury is also hoping to scoop back £3.3 billion. The East Coast main line into and out of King’s Cross, the main rail artery for

Yorkshire and the northeast, is from next March to be run by a company badged Virgin Trains but which in reality is 90 per cent owned by Stagecoach, the listed transport group, with just 10 per cent in the hands of Sir Richard Branson’s trading empire. The appointment means Stagecoach and Virgin will control all the intercity

lines travelling north out of London. Stagecoach runs the Midland main line into and out of London St Pancras while trains on the UK’s biggest rail network, the London Euston-Birmingham-Manchester-Glasgow West Coast main line is a 51:49 joint venture between Virgin and Stagecoach. Their appointment to the East Coast line will trigger an immediate investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority and the fair trading regulators may take a more careful look than usual at the rail market as Stagecoach, which also runs the Waterloo-based South West Trains, is now involved in a majority of the main lines radiating out of London. The East Coast main line has been the sleeping giant of the UK rail network. Twice in the past ten years operators have had to give the keys back on what is potentially the most lucrative line in the country: GNER, when in 2006 its parent Sea Containers got into financial difficulty; and in 2009

Virgin Trains’ promise

New specially built Hitachi InterCity trains

12,200 5

Additional seats, up 50 per cent

Northern towns to get new direct services, including Sunderland and Huddersfield

Minutes faster on the two-hour plus trip between London and Leeds

Hours, the target for journey time between Edinburgh and London

£5,980

Season ticket between London and Peterborough, expected to rise at above the rate of inflation

National Express, when growth assumptions were undone by recession. For the past five years, rail managers employed by the Department for Transport have been running a widely praised East Coast service and paid back £1 billion of profits to the Treasury. Despite protests from trade unions and Labour, the coalition government began the reprivatisation process two years ago. In a bid that is understood to have been financially more aggressive than two competing tenders, Stagecoach has signed up to more than treble the amount paid back to government, known as premiums, over the eightyear life of the new franchise. In that period, Stagecoach said it expected to make operating margins of up to 5 per cent for its shareholders on revenues that are expected to more than double during the franchise from the present £690 million a year. Stagecoach’s operating profits on the East Coast could approach £500 million over the length of the contract though the company is also committed to investing £140 million of its money

Twice in the past ten years operators of

refurbishing existing trains and upgrading stations. Despite the billions of pounds of profits expected to be made on the franchise, commuters appear unlikely to benefit from lower fares. Outside of a commitment to cut some off-peak fares, Peter Wilkinson, the DfT’s chief franchise negotiator, said that income “from our commuters who are our bread and butter will be invested in delivering a better service.” Mr Wilkinson brushed aside suggestions that Stagecoach-Virgin may raise competition questions because of comments by Patrick McLoughlin, the transport secretary, in the prospectus for the franchise in 2013. In that document, Mr McLoughlin said he expected a new East Coast railway “to rekindle the spirit of competition for customers . . . as it competes with the West Coast main line in speed, quality and customer service”. Mr Wilkinson said StagecoachVirgin’s possession of three north-ofLondon franchises “is not forever”. He said train licences were expected to change hands regularly and that the retender for the West Coast main line starts again next year. Martin Griffiths, chief executive of Stagecoach, said he and Virgin would be repitching for the West Coast but that in any case the lines were not in competition. He said: “These are selfdefined markets and our primary competition is the car, coaches and airlines.” Of Stagecoach-Virgin’s plans to put in decent wi-fi, launch an app for passengers to have at-seat food service and offer Nectar card loyalty points, Mr Wilkinson said: “This is a return to a world in which the railways offer a personal service. It will be a revolution in personal travel.”

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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Rail network Business SIMON WILLIAMS / CREST PHOTOGRAPHY

Losing bidder must run to catch TransPennine Analysis Robert Lea

what is potentially the most lucrative rail line in the country, operating out of King’s Cross, have had to give the keys back

Central route Cheshunt

Tunnel entrance

Robert Lea Industry Editor

Tottenham Hale

London Underground National Rail Euston St. Pancras Victoria

Angel

Hackney Central

Twickenham Clapham Junction

Kingston

Wimbledon Surbiton Epsom

Stations are a representation of location Actual stations are yet to be finalised

Crossrail2 costs increase by a third to £27.5bn Robert Lea

The cost of Crossrail2, a second major new railway below London, has gone up by more than a third to £27.5 billion — and the project has not even properly reached the feasibility stage. Crossrail2 is the proposed new link from under-served northeast London through the centre of the capital to the western reaches of the south bank of the Thames, where Underground stations are few and far between. Financial projections from PwC, the

accountancy firm, for Transport for London put the bill for the project at £27.5 billion, well above the £20 billion that early estimates had settled on. It is also getting on for nearly double the east-west original Crossrail figure, which is on budget at £15 billion to become fully operational linking Heathrow directly with the City and Canary Wharf by 2019. The PwC report says a number of funding mechanisms are open to any future London mayor who gives the go-ahead. They include paying back

£50 million. No one can see from where its next franchise win will come and the loss of TransPennine would put pressure on the profit pledge, triggering what rival executives are framing as the “When does he go?” question. Keolis, 70 per cent owned by SNCF, the French state railway, and the junior partner in joint ventures with Go-Ahead, is eager to strike out on its own. That is shown by its ambitious bid, with Eurostar, for East Coast, its winning of the Docklands Light Railway in London and its solo tilt for TransPennine. Meanwhile there is an argument that FirstGroup may have dodged a bullet with East Coast. Industry sources reckon Stagecoach’s £3.3 billion premium bid for East Coast was about £1 billion richer than FirstGroup’s, which may explain the small tick-up in First’s shares at last night’s close.

Network Rail falls behind on time, safety and profit

Crossrail 2 Regional route Eastern branch future option

he share prices of the two stock market quoted as protagonists in the battle for the East Coast main line tells all. Stagecoach, the victor, pushed on to new highs, its shares up more than 8 per cent, or 30½p, to hit 400½p. FirstGroup, the loser — and a loser on a rail refranchise tender for a fifth time in six months — is nestling just above all-time lows, its shares cheaper even than after last year’s highly dilutive rebasing following a rescue rights issue. So what happens next? By intriguing happenstance the next train competition out of the station is the TransPennine Express. It is to be fought out again between Stagecoach and FirstGroup, with the other shortlisted bidder being Keolis, the French company that was the other loser on the East Coast bid. TransPennine is

arguably the most important railway in the north, identified as such by George Osborne, who wants to revitalise travel across the region, particularly between Manchester and Leeds. Stagecoach’s appetite may be dimmed as East Coast has effectively made it the biggest operator in the kingdom. That would leave FirstGroup pitched against Keolis, which together happen to be the incumbent 55:45 joint venture partners on TransPennine. The importance of the bid to First cannot be understated. Tim O’Toole, its chief executive, above, has promised investors £100 million of annual operating profits from railways. Down to just TransPennine and First Great Western on a contract extension, First’s rail operating profits are running at about

investment through fare revenue, from levying extra business rates, or money from communities that will gain from the infrastructure. It says money could also be raised by council tax levies similar to those that Londoners had to pay for the 2012 Olympic Games. There is also scope, PwC says, for the mayor’s office to raise funding from landowners and property developers adjacent to Crossrail2. There could be rich pickings in the Vauxhall to Wandsworth South Bank strip becoming known as Vanhattan.

Network Rail is running behind on its £38 billion investment plan, will not hit its punctuality records, admits it has to shake up workforce safety and its profits are shrinking. The half-yearly financial update from the state-backed railway infrastructure company, which looks after the tracks, signalling and most of the stations on the national network, carried a downbeat message in the face of increasing demand for train passenger services. Claiming that Britain has the fastestgrowing rail network in Europe, it conceded: “For the 4.5 million daily users, having a reliable and punctual service, every day, is the most important thing. We are currently behind our plan.” The company has already admitted that it is not going to meet punctuality targets set by the Office of the Rail Regulator and has warned it is unlikely to hit even its internal targets. “The yearend target that we have set ourselves is 91.1 per cent of passenger trains running on time,” it said. “We are currently running 1 per cent behind this target.” Reporting £2.9 billion in investments on network renewals and enhancements, the company admitted: “These volumes of work are lower than we had planned.” It further confessed: “While we have the safest railway in Europe for our passengers, our workforce safety is not where we want it to be and this area will continue to attract internal focus.”

Network Rail is, arguably, entering its most complicated time since privatisation nearly 20 years ago. It is five years away from completing the massive Thameslink project through London and has a similar length of time committed to linking the capital’s Crossrail project into the main railway network. It is carrying out hugely complicated work around Manchester to deliver the much-awaited Northern Hub, has multiple electrification jobs around the country, including Great Western, and in Scotland is improving links between Glasgow and Edinburgh as well as building a new railway in the Borders. Increasing investment to record levels and taking borrowing to new records, up £2 billion to £35 billion, has coincided with falling profits at Network Rail. Having lost £145 million of revenues from the train companies in a new tougher regulatory settlement with the ORR, income came in at £3.1 billion in the half year to the end of September. With net operating costs rising by £87 million, operating profits for the half year were down by nearly a fifth, or £232 million, at £967 million. In a statement, Network Rail said: “Increasing capacity on a complex network, at the same time as keeping it running safely, reliably and punctually every day, is the challenge we face. We have clear strategies to deliver the improvements required in the months and years ahead.”

FGM

Friday November 28 2014 | the times

Business Markets news in brief

Martin Waller Tempus Buy, sell or hold: today’s best share tips

rpc group PBT £54.9m up 33%

RPC Group share price 2014

660p

620

580

540

500

ad things worked out differently, RPC Group MY ADVICE Buy long term might today be owned WHY Deal is an attractive one, by Promens. Both are with significant synergies. fast-growing makers of specialist packaging — RPC’s initials Markets they both operate in stand for Rigid Plastic Containers. are high margin for the sector In late 2007, Promens, which and set for further growth originates from Iceland but was quoted in Norway, took a 3 per cent stake in RPC. The assumption was that a bid would follow, because this though the summer’s deal to buy was in the middle of the short-lived, Hong Kong-based ACE was not far doomed Icelandic financial boom. behind. About £200 million will In the event, the Iceland come from a deeply discounted, company was sold to private one-for-three rights issue at equity and was being primed 320p, the rest from for a float in Reykjavik. The renegotiated borrowing €15m company was investing facilities. Annual savings heavily, but its reliance on Deep discounts in rights from merger the eurozone meant that a issues are not uncommon, float might prove difficult. but the reaction of RPC’s RPC yesterday announced shares to the prospect of so an agreed bid for Promens that much cheap equity coming on to values it at the equivalent of the market certainly was. The shares £307 million. This is the fourth shot up 33p to 580p. The deal looks purchase by the British company in like an excellent one, then. the past year, and the largest, Both companies are in similar ssp group Revenue £1.83bn

Dividend nil

SP is one of the few floats this year by private equity, involving relatively high debt, that has behaved itself. The shares were floated at 210p, oversubscribed five times and added 10p to 255p on the first set of results that should have contained no surprises. The company, which has Kate Swann, formerly at WH Smith, as chief executive, operates food outlets such as Upper Crust and Caffè Ritazza at airports and railway stations. At a big site, it might be operating seven or eight different

The 15th annual Target Two Point Zero Bank of England and The Times Interest Rate Challenge is under way, with 307 teams nationwide competing for the challenge trophy and £5,000 for their school or college. In 42 regional heats, teams of four students, aged 16 to 18, will analyse British and global economic data and their possible impact on inflation and the outlook for the UK — as the Bank’s monetary policy committee does each month. The winning team from each

electra private equity

Plastic fantastic

Source: Thomson Reuters

Merging of like minds is a good package

Student interest rate challenge under way

brands. One source of growth is adding new ones where it is under-represented. Another is gaining like-for-like sales through those existing outlets. SSP is relatively under-exposed to markets such as the US and Asia. The most interesting figure in the results to the end of September is a rise in operating margins from 4.3 per cent to 4.8 per cent. This was achieved by importing the sort of disciplines, such as scheduling labour to cope with peaks and troughs in demand and centralised buying, that are common enough in UK retail, Ms Swann says, but are little known in her new field. SSP should be able to come in with

£31.74 net assets per share

Promens, in numbers

£462m

6.8x

his column has championed quoted companies such as Electra Private Equity as a way of allowing the ordinary investor to play the rich man’s game of investing in high-growth private companies £45m £28m and reaping the benefits as the value 2013 earnings before Integration of their portfolio grows. interest, tax and other costs Electra might be about to become one-offs even more attractive to such investors, because Edward Sherborne, the activist, earlier this year bought a 20 per cent stake and 40 3,800 agitated for change. He was rebuffed factories, 35 in Europe workforce by other shareholders, but the board initiated a review that areas, providing specialist will report its conclusions in follow me packaging to food and a few weeks and could on twitter beverages and healthcare. mean the payment of a for updates They overlap, which allows dividend for the first time. @MartinWaller10 a forecast of cost savings The share price has from putting the two therefore been reacting to together and closing unwanted events outside the company’s factories of at least €15 million control, but it added 91p to £26.70 (£12 million) and a one-off cash on news that net assets at the end of saving from holding less stock and the financial year to September, at getting better terms from suppliers £31.74, well exceeded market of €10 million. expectations. These are niche markets, and a This was a 15 per cent rise, at the stand-out from RPC’s halfway figures top end of Electra’s target range. The to the end of September was a rise in total return, including dividends margins from 9 per cent to 10.3 per reinvested, was 25 per cent, after cent, a long way from what you good gains in value in some recent would get from commoditised investments. The shares are still on a product supplied to supermarkets. decent discount to net assets. I would The European market is still be a buyer, before any uplift from a relatively fragmented, and the two decision to pay dividends. together will be buyers of only 4 per cent to 5 per cent of all the polypropylene, the main raw MY ADVICE Buy material, supplied to that market. WHY Forthcoming review The shares sell on 12 times this could be beneficial year’s earnings and look like good value. Buy. 2013 revenues

Purchase price 6.8 times 2013 earnings

3 per cent like-for-like annual sales increases, but the main attraction is the forecast expansion of air travel, up about 6 per cent this year, according to industry figures. Operating profits, stripped of one-offs, rose by 12.3 per cent to £88.5 million, including exchange rate losses. The shares sell on almost 18 times earnings. This looks a bit rich and suggests no immediate upside. Best avoided for now.

MY ADVICE Avoid WHY SSP’s prospects are good but shares are highly rated

regional heat will advance to one of six area finals to be held in February next year. The national final will be contested in March at the Bank of England. Results from the latest heats were: Lancaster: winner: St Bees School, Whitehaven; runner-up: Ripley St Thomas Church of England Academy, Lancaster London: winner: The Latymer School, Edmonton; runner-up: The Henrietta Barnett School, Hampstead Garden Suburb Luton: winner: The Perse School, Cambridge; runner-up: St Clement Danes School, Chorleywood

Hastings premiums rise The chief executive of Hastings said the motor insurer was breaking the mould by pushing through premium increases for drivers while competitors still battle to stem price cuts. Gary Hoffman, the former boss of Northern Rock, said the insurer had increased premiums by “high single digits” percentage points over nine months since January. Hastings was prepared to lose customers or walk away from unprofitable business, he said.

And finally . . .

P Group operates in the same area as Imperial Innovations and the recently floated Allied Minds, taking intellectual property developed in academia and protecting it by patent while taking it to market. Several of its 88 investments, which include Xeros Technology, another of this year’s floats, and Oxford Nanopore, the unlisted genetic sequencing specialist, have been active of late. One, Modern Biosciences, has signed a deal with a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson to develop a rheumatoid arthritis treatment.

For the latest breaking news thetimes.co.uk/ business

PRICES Major Indices

London Financial Futures

New York Dow Jones 17827.75 (Closed for Thanksgiving) Nasdaq Composite 4787.32 (Closed) S&P 500 2072.83 (Closed) Tokyo Nikkei 225

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Amsterdam AEX Index Sydney AO Frankfurt DAX Singapore Straits Brussels BEL20 Paris CAC-40

425.75 (+1.78) 5381.40 (+1.10) 9974.87 (+59.31) 3340.96 (-8.70) 3284.27 (+20.46) 4382.34 (+8.92)

Zurich SMI Index DJ EURO Stoxx 50

9129.15 (+70.21) 3244.92 (+18.84)

London FTSE 100 6723.42 (-5.75) FTSE 250 15889.66 (+101.23) FTSE 350 3660.70 (+0.96) FTSE Eurotop 100 2819.24 (+4.45) FTSE All-Shares 3594.62 (+1.00) FTSE Non Financials 4173.22 (-7.33) techMARK 100 3417.04 (+30.97) Bargains 912935 US$ 1.5729 (-0.0056) Euro 1.2617 (-0.0006) £:SDR 1.07 (+0.00) Exchange Index 86.8 (-0.2) Bank of England official close (4pm) CPI 128.50 Oct (2005 = 100) RPI 257.70 Oct (Jan 1987 = 100) RPIX 257.20 Oct (Jan 1987 = 100) Morningstar Long Commodity 815.09 (-2.06) Morningstar Long/Short Commod 4502.37 (-6.10)

Long Gilt 3-Mth Sterling

3-Mth Euribor

3-Mth Euroswiss

2 Year Swapnote 5 Year Swapnote 10 Year Swapnote FTSE100 FTSEurofirst 80

Period Dec 14 Mar 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Jun 15 Sep 15 Dec 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Jun 15 Sep 15 Dec 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Jun 15 Sep 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Dec 14 Mar 15 Dec 14 Mar 15

Open 118.02 117.11 99.430 99.380 99.320 99.230 99.100 99.910 99.915 99.925 99.925 99.915 100.04 100.08 100.11 100.11 111.59 127.70 148.79 6733.0 6680.5 3924.5

High 118.51 117.68 99.440 99.390 99.330 99.240 99.110 99.915 99.920 99.930 99.930 99.915 100.04 100.09 100.11 100.12 111.59 111.56 127.76 100.00 149.15 100.00 6752.5 6696.0 3924.5

Commodities Low 117.94 117.11 99.430 99.380 99.310 99.210 99.090 99.905 99.910 99.925 99.920 99.905 100.03 100.08 100.10 100.11 111.57 111.55 127.70 100.00 148.79 100.00 6715.5 6666.0 3924.5

Sett 118.39 117.56 99.430 99.380 99.320 99.220 99.100 99.910 99.915 99.925 99.925 99.910 100.04 100.09 100.11 100.12 111.58 111.90 127.74 127.74 149.09 149.09 6720.0 6665.5 4286.0 4287.0

Vol 50636 88454 8447 6845 12896 17440 18001 27908 18066 14520 18653 10506 2951 3091 3259 1172 313 104 768 3 432 3 52172 66 1

Open Int 64855 427356 388969 413482 480557 326340 341078 456738 402062 351261 332758 305035 69438 82908 62497 29575 21876 11305 6025 581718 22395

Mar

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)

71.70 72.50 72.90 69.05 69.15

-5.20 -5.20 -5.20 -4.65 -4.60

Products ($/MT) 726.00 649.25 363.00 575.00

728.00 651.25 376.00 577.00

-29.00 -51.50 -34.00 -53.00

701.75-645.00 680.50-651.50 663.00-639.75

Brent (9.00pm) Jan 88.24-72.10 Feb 75.60-73.01

Cocoa Dec Mar May Jul Sep Dec

2029-1655 1920-1792 1910-1751 1895-1801 1887-1751 1876-1811

Nov Jan Mar May

2094-1991 2148-2062 2109-1951 2128-2061

Mar May Jul

1870-1781 1844-1770 1750 BID Volume: 14398

Mar Apr

710.00-663.25 722.25-667.50 Volume: 179964

Apr May

108.00-72.55 98.00-73.11

Jul Sep

2165-1968 2280-2030 Volume: 2910

White Sugar (FOB) Reuters

ICE Futures Gas Oil Dec Jan Feb

Volume: 807669

RobustaCoffee

Spot CIF NW Europe (prompt delivery) Premium Unld Gasoil EEC 3.5 Fuel Oil Naphtha

89.00-72.70

LIFFE

Mar May Aug

455.00-406.00 447.00-410.00 517.10-432.00

Oct Dec Mar May

521.50-440.00 523.00-410.00 466.60-450.00 467.90-460.00 Volume: 1735

London Grain Futures LIFFE Wheat (close £/t) Jan Jul

129.65 134.20

Mar Nov

132.05 140.60

May 133.65 Volume: 305

the times | Friday November 28 2014

FGM

Markets Business

NEWSCAST

Goldman says Barclays can leave its troubles behind Gary Parkinson Market report

ne of the most influential American investment banks yesterday pushed one British lender and unsettled another. Goldman Sachs told clients to buy Barclays, up 5¾p at 243¾p. Put simply, Goldman said, new rules about how much cash banks need to sit on turned out to be less punitive than they could have been. Barclays is less likely to need to raise more cash and has greater flexibility to restructure its investment bank, source of much of its problems. True, the payoff from the rigging of the foreign exchange market is still lingering, but earlier this month regulators took action against a group of banks. Though Barclays was not among them, Martin Leitgeb,

science

Abramovich fuels Velocys rise

elocys does like to squeak out information late in the day. True to form, news that a big-name investor had topped up his holding landed quietly after the stock market had closed on Wednesday. One Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea FC, who started to build his stake in the £272 million AIMquoted company — formerly known as Oxford Catalysts — in 2012, has lifted his stake to north of 10 per cent. Velocys, which makes clever kit to

European report Shares rose in Europe, adding to a recent rally fuelled by expectations of further stimulus measures from the European Central Bank. Germany’s DAX index closed up 59.31, or 0.6 per cent, at 9,974.87. Wall Street was closed for Thanksgiving.

Rio digs deep at diamond lake mine

io Tinto is putting its faith in diamonds by expanding a key mine in remote northern Canada (Marcus Leroux writes). The FTSE 100

mining group and its minority partner will spend $350 million (£223 million) developing a fourth “pipe” of kimberlite — the diamondbearing ore — at its Diavik Diamond Mine. At present the pipe lies underneath a lake in the Northwest Territories, above. A dyke will have to be built around the ore body and production is planned for 2018.

AHDB meat services Average fatstock prices at representative markets (p/kg lw) Pig Lamb Cattle GB 102.05 172.46 187.26 (+/-) +11.32 -1.50 -0.26 Eng/Wales (+/-) Scotland (+/-)

102.05 +11.32

171.77 -2.35

186.38 -0.46

unq

177.60 +5.42

206.04 +1.61

London Metal Exchange (Official) Cash

3mth

15mth

Copper Gde A ($/tonne) 6621.0-6621.5 6560.0-6562.0

7310.0-7320.0

Lead ($/tonne) 2064.0-2065.0

2067.0-2070.0

1980.0-1985.0

Zinc Spec Hi Gde ($/tonne) 2270.0-2270.5 2279.0-2280.0

1943.0-1948.0

Tin ($/tonne) 20365.0-20375.0

20350.0-20355.0

Alum Hi Gde ($/tonne) 2098.0-2099.0 2064.0-2064.5 Nickel ($/tonne) 16300.0-16325.0 16350.0-16400.0

20355.0-20405.0 2280.0-2285.0 18770.0-18870.0

Under its previous chief executive, Rio tried to sell its diamond business but bidders failed to match its valuation. It is one of a handful of commodities where prices have held firm in the past year. Analysts at Investec said: “Diamonds don’t move the dial for Rio Tinto but the approval does signal ongoing commitment to the division.”

Gold/Precious metals (US dollars per ounce) Bullion: Open $1197.50 Close $1189.33-1190.05 High $1199.60 Low $1186.21 AM $1196.50 PM $1194.75 Krugerrand $1177.00-1249.00 (£748.59-794.39) Platinum $1220.00 (£775.94) Silver $16.27 (£10.35) Palladium $810.00 (£515.18)

Goldman’s analyst, still saw a In truth, the only story in signal that matters were town was oil. Opec could not moving forward faster than agree to cut production and follow us might have been expected. crude sank back to its on twitter Barclays, he thinks, will lowest in four years. Oil for updates get a £4 billion reprimand. @timesbusiness shares followed. Petrofac, On balance, not sufficient to an oil services company tarnish the appeal of the wholly friendless since a profit shares. Not so HSBC, which he warning last week, lost 567p more scratched from Goldman’s “Panto 843½p as Bernstein trimmed its European Buy” list. Costs, already target price. It wasn’t only Petrofac. rising, would continue to grind higher, Oil shares were clobbered he said, thanks to investment to make indiscriminately. They accounted for sure the bank met its regulatory six of the Footsie’s eight biggest losers. requirement, and wages. Enough to Tullow Oil lost 36p to 465p, while see HSBC shares dip 2¼p to 631¾p. BG Group fell 62¾p 986¾p. The wider stock market trod water In the FTSE 250, it was worse. in woefully thin trading. With Wall Afren and EnQuest both retreated Street closed for Thanksgiving, more than 10 per cent, falling 7p to precious few in London were 58¼p and 6¾p to 58¼p respectively. prepared to wade into British shares. However, IP Group ran on 6p more The FTSE 100, soporific all day, to 212¾p. This is the £1 billion dipped 5.8 points at 6,723.4. company that started life in Beeson Unencumbered by London’s resource Gregory, the stockbroker swallowed stocks, continental markets managed in 2002 by Evolution, itself devoured modest gains. Paris and Frankfurt, nine years later by Investec, the South Milan and Madrid were all better. African financial services group that

Dollar rates Australia Canada Denmark Euro Hong Kong Japan Malaysia Norway Singapore Sweden Switzerland

1.1695-1.1700 1.1343-1.1344 5.9651-5.9661 0.8018-0.8019 7.7524-7.7534 117.76-117.78 3.3508-3.3533 6.9352-6.9367 1.2990-1.2993 7.4497-7.4547 0.9637-0.9640

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

13.397-13.399 1.8388-1.8398 0.5889-0.5965 3.9449-3.9606 1.2605-1.2608 12.188-12.190 97.163-97.365 18869-19449 0.4564-0.4589 5.1659-5.3676 1.9979-1.9985 2.0421-2.0425 17.251-17.279 5.7711-5.7774

2 mth

3 mth

1mth

3mth

6mth

12mth

0.10

0.15

0.23

0.48

0.50

0.56

0.68

0.98

-0.13

-0.05

0.05

0.21

Sterling Euro

6 mth

12 mth

0.5044

0.5271

0.5565

0.6841

0.9768

Clearer CDs

0.58-0.43

0.60-0.45

0.65-0.50

0.80-0.65

1.07-0.92

Depo CDs

0.58-0.43

0.60-0.45

0.65-0.50

0.80-0.65

1.07-0.92

Eurodollar Deps

0.33-0.38

0.08-0.18

0.25-0.40

0.33-0.50

0.54-0.73

Eurodollar CDs

0.15-0.08

0.18-0.12

0.22-0.15

0.36-0.21

0.52-0.38

Sterling spot and forward rates

Dollar

specialises in helping others to make the most of their clever ideas. Yesterday, one of them, Modern Biosciences, signed a deal with Janssen Biotech, a Johnson & Johnson company, on a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. Back in the Footsie, cheaper oil and a potential cut to passenger duty in Scotland lifted airlines. EasyJet added 88p to £16.33, while IAG, owner of Spain’s Iberia as well as British Airways, advanced 21p to 457¾p. A rail franchise win spurred Stagecoach 30½p to 400½p, a record. Monitise, small but well followed by private investors, jumped 11.5 per to 34p after the mobile payment specialist secured a near-£50 million investment. On AIM, Distil, the owner of RedLeg Spiced Rum, surged 46 per cent to 1.35p after its Blackwoods Gin was approved for distribution in America. Finally, a profit warning from Miton sent the fund manager 18.9 per cent lower to 21½p.

Money rates %

1 mth

Currency

convert gas into jet fuel or diesel, has the kind of share roster to make a blue-chip blush. Lansdowne Partners, the investment manager that made millions betting against Britain’s banks during

Base Rates Clearing Banks 0.5 Finance House 1.0 ECB Refi 0.05 US Fed Fund 0-0.25 Halifax Mortgage Rate 3.5 Treasury Bills (Dis) Buy: 1 mth 0.44; 3 mth 0.42. Sell: 1 mth 0.34; 3 mth 0.35

Interbank Rates

European money deposits %

Roman Abramovich has lifted his stake to north of 10 per cent

Mkt Rates for Copenhagen Euro Montreal New York Oslo Stockholm Tokyo Zurich

Range 9.3615-9.4077 1.2649-1.2591 1.7688-1.7849 1.5715-1.5822 10.774-10.912 11.513-11.715 185.00-185.82 1.5132-1.5202

Close 9.3741-9.3826 1.2607-1.2604 1.7831-1.7837 1.5720-1.5723 10.900-10.909 11.713-11.719 185.11-185.18 1.5150-1.5156

1 month 37ds 4pr 8pr 4ds 99pr 30ds 17ds 12ds Premium = pr

3 month 131ds 10pr 22pr 12ds 266pr 106ds 36ds 29ds Discount = ds

Other Sterling

the financial crisis, owns nearly 19 per cent. Neil Woodford, Invesco Perpetual’s former star fund manager, now running his own shop, has picked up nearly 5 per cent. It’s been a choppy ride. In the first couple of weeks in October, peak to trough, the price rattled back from 226p to 159p, on concerns that Russia’s tit-for-tat sanctions against the west could deprive Velocys of one of its most important markets. They didn’t, and the shares, up ¼p at 193¼p, have staggered higher.

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 2.030 1.760 1.930 1.680 10.100 8.860 12.450 9.900 1.380 1.210 13.160 11.570 426.040 350.520 22120.700 17644.700 6.720 0.000 200.970 174.050 2.250 1.900 11.710 10.120 5.830 4.780 80.150 66.740 19.200 16.260 12.490 11.100 1.670 1.440 3.890 3.110 1.720 1.510

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

FGM

Friday November 28 2014 | the times

Television & Radio/Announcements Births, Marriages and Deaths

Today’s television BBC ONE

6.00am Breakfast 9.15 Don’t Mess with Me 10.00 Homes Under the Hammer 11.00 Claimed and Shamed 11.30 Channel Patrol 12.15pm Bargain Hunt 1.00 BBC News; Weather 1.30 BBC Regional News; Weather 1.45 Doctors 2.15 The Doctor Blake Mysteries 3.10 Escape to the Country 3.40 Glorious Gardens from Above 4.25 Flog It! 5.15 Pointless 6.00 BBC News 6.30 BBC Regional News Programmes 7.00 The One Show 7.30 The Two Ronnies Sketchbook 8.00 EastEnders 8.30 Citizen Khan 9.00 Have I Got News for You 9.30 Not Going Out 10.00 BBC News 10.25 BBC Regional News; Weather 10.35 The Graham Norton Show 11.20 Cuckoo 11.50 EastEnders 1.50am-6.00 BBC News

BBC TWO

6.05am Homes Under the Hammer 7.05 Channel Patrol 7.50 Claimed and Shamed 8.20 Sign Zone 10.35 The Travel Show 11.00 BBC News 11.30 BBC World News 12.00 Daily Politics 1.00pm The A to Z of TV Gardening 1.10 Life in the Undergrowth 2.10 The Great British Bake Off: The Winner’s Story 3.10 A Place to Call Home 3.55 The Rockford Files 4.45 Great British Railway Journeys 5.15 Vintage Antiques Roadshow 6.00 Eggheads 6.30 Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two 7.00 The Home That Two Built 8.00 Mastermind 8.30 Tigers About the House 9.30 Mock the Week 10.00 QI 10.30 Newsnight 11.05 Never Mind the Buzzcocks 11.35 FILM: AI — Artiﬁcial Intelligence (2001) 1.50am FILM: Quatermass 2 (1957) 3.15-4.15 Sign Zone: Question Time

9.00 Frasier 10.00 Daily Brunch 11.00 Jamie’s Comfort Food 11.30 Come Dine with Me 12.00 Channel 4 News Summary 12.05pm Come Dine with Me 2.10 Countdown 3.00 Fifteen to One 4.00 Deal or No Deal 5.00 Come Dine with Me 5.30 Coach Trip 6.00 The Simpsons 6.30 Hollyoaks 7.00 Channel 4 News 7.55 Turner Prize at 30 8.00 Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD 9.00 Gogglebox 10.00 Alan Carr: Chatty Man 11.05 Toast of London 11.40 FILM: 30 Days of Night (2007) 1.40am Boss 3.40 Phil: Secret Agent Down Under 4.35 Location, Location, Location 5.30 Kirstie’s Vintage Gems 5.50-6.15 NFL: Rush Zone

Sky1

6.00am That Hidden Camera Family 7.00 Greggs: More Than Meats the Pie 8.00 Futurama 9.00 NCIS: Los Angeles 11.00 Hawaii Five-0 1.00pm NCIS: Los Angeles 3.00 Obese: A Year to Save My Life USA 4.00 Greggs: More Than Meats the Pie 5.00 The Simpsons 5.30 Futurama 6.30 The Simpsons 9.00 Football’s Funniest Moments 10.00 Micky Flanagan’s Detour de France. Micky and Noel visit Marseille, Bordeaux and Paris 11.00 Britcam: Emergency on Our Streets 12.00 NCIS: Los Angeles 1.00am Hawaii Five-0 4.00 Stargate Atlantis 5.00-6.00 Crash Test Dummies

BBC World

6.20am The King of Queens 7.10 3rd Rock from the Sun 8.00 Everybody Loves Raymond

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 Talking Business with Linda Yueh 3.00 World Have Your Say 4.00 BBC World News 4.40 Africa Business Report 5.00 BBC World News 5.30 Focus on Africa 6.00 BBC World News 6.30 Middle East Business Report 7.00 World News Today 7.40 Africa Business Report 8.00 BBC World News 8.30 The Firing Line 9.00 Business Edition with Tanya Beckett 9.30 Football Focus 10.00 BBC World News America 11.00 BBC World News 11.30 Newsnight 12.00 BBC World News 12.10am Football Focus 12.30 Talking Business with Linda Yueh 1.00 BBC World News 1.10 UK Reporters 1.30 Cybercrimes With Ben Hammersley 2.00 BBC World News 2.30 Lost Treasures of the Sikh Kingdom 3.00 BBC World News 3.30 Witness 4.00 BBC World News 4.30 The Travel Show 5.00 BBC World News 5.30-6.00 Middle East Business Report

Radio 4

BBC World Service

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 Peter Andre’s 60-Minute Makeover 3.00 Secret Dealers 4.00 Tipping Point 5.00 The Chase 6.00 Regional News 6.30 ITV News; Weather 7.00 Emmerdale 7.30 Coronation Street 8.00 The Martin Lewis Money Show 8.30 Coronation Street 9.00 I’m a Celebrity. . . Get Me Out of Here! 10.00 ITV News at Ten and Weather 10.30 Regional News 10.45 FILM: The World Is Not Enough (1999) James Bond adventure starring Pierce Brosnan 1.05am Jackpot247 3.00 The Jeremy Kyle Show USA 3.45-6.00 ITV Nightscreen

Channel 4

Today’s radio

5.30am News 5.43 Prayer for the Day 5.45 Farming Today 5.58 Tweet of the Day 6.00 Today 8.31 (LW) Yesterday in Parliament 9.00 Desert Island Discs (r) 9.45 (LW) Act of Worship 9.45 Book of the Week 10.00 Woman’s Hour 11.00 Hot Gossip! 11.30 The Missing Hancocks 12.00 News 12.01pm (LW) Shipping 12.04 A History of Ideas 12.15 You and Yours 1.00 The World at One 1.45 Terror Through Time 2.00 The Archers (r) 2.15 Drama 3.00 Gardeners’ Question Time 3.45 Short Rides in Fast Machines 4.00 Last Word 4.30 Feedback 4.55 The Listening Project 5.00 PM 5.54 (LW) Shipping 6.00 News 6.30 The News Quiz 7.00 The Archers 7.15 Front Row 7.45 Syria: Bread and Bombs 8.00 Any Questions? 8.50 A Point of View 9.00 A History of Ideas (r) 10.00 World Tonight 10.45 Book at Bedtime 11.00 A Good Read (r) 11.30 Today in Parliament 11.55 Listening Project 12.30am Book of the Week (r) 12.48 Shipping 1.00 As BBC World Service 5.20-5.30 Shipping

5.00am Newsday 8.30 Business Daily 8.50 Witness 9.00 News 9.06 Outlook Arts 10.00 World Update 11.00 News 11.06 Outside Source 12.00 News 12.06pm The 5th Floor 1.00 News 1.06 HARDtalk 1.30 Science in Action 2.00 Newshour 3.00 News 3.06 Business Daily 3.23 News About Ebola 3.30 Sport Today 4.00 The Newsroom 4.30 Tech Tent 5.00 The Newsroom 5.30 World Business Report 6.00 World Have Your Say 6.50 News About Ebola 7.00 The Newsroom 7.30 The Food Chain 8.00 News 8.06 HARDtalk 8.30 The World This Week 9.00 Newshour. The stories behind the latest headlines 10.00 News 10.06 The Newsroom 10.30 World Business Report. Informed analysis 11.00 News 11.06 The 5th Floor 12.00 The Newsroom 12.20am Sports News 12.30 The World This Week 1.00 News 1.06 Business Matters 2.00 News 2.06 The 5th Floor 3.00 News 3.06 The Newsroom 3.30 Heart and Soul 4.00 The Newsroom 4.20 Sports News 4.30-5.00 Boston Calling

Sky Sports 1

6.00am Football Gold 7.00 WWE: Raw 9.00 NFL 12.00 Ringside 1.00pm Barclays Premier League World 1.30 Football Gold 2.00 Premiership Years 6.00 Barclays Premier League Preview 6.30 The Fantasy Football Club 7.30 Live FL72: Peterborough United v Bristol City (Kick-off 7.45) 10.00 The Fantasy Football Club 11.00 Barclays Premier League Preview 11.30 Football Gold 12.30am Ringside 1.30 NFL 4.30 Barclays Premier League Preview 5.00-6.00 The Fantasy Football Club

Sky Sports 2

6.00am Sporting Heroes 7.00 Ringside 8.00 Time of Our Lives 11.00 Sporting Heroes 12.00 NFL 3.00pm Sporting Heroes 4.00 WWE: Raw 6.00 Sporting Rivalries 7.00 The Rugby Club 8.00 The F1 Show 9.30 NFL 12.30am The Rugby Club 1.30 Sporting Heroes: Gary Newbon Interviews Naseem Hamed 2.30 Ashes Modern Classics 4.00 Cricket Classics 4.15-6.00 Live One-Day International Cricket: Sri Lanka v England. The second contest of the seven-match series, at the R Premadasa Stadium

Sky Sports 3

6.00am Spirit of Yachting 6.30 Lysekil Women’s Match Race 2014 7.00 Thinking Tackle 8.00 Live International Premier Tennis League. Micromax Indian Aces v Singapore Slammers and Manila Mavericks v UAE Royals. Coverage of round one 2.30pm Badminton 4.30 Darts Gold 5.00 Weber Cup Ten Pin Bowling 6.00 Inside Sailing 6.30 Lysekil Women’s Match Race 2014 7.00 Tight Lines 8.00 Sporting Greats 9.00 Weber Cup Ten Pin Bowling 10.00 WWE: Late Night: Smackdown 12.00 WWE: Late Night: Bottom Line 1.00am Weber Cup Ten Pin Bowling 2.00 Tight Lines 3.00 Terrain Unleashed 4.00 Weber Cup Ten Pin Bowling 5.00 Inside Sailing 5.30-6.00 Barclays Premier League Legends

British Eurosport

7.30am Ski Jumping 8.25 Sports Leaders 9.00 Davis Cup Tennis 10.00 Strongest Man: Giants Live 11.00 Snooker: Ruhr Open 12.00 Live Curling: The European Championships 3.00pm Ski Jumping 3.45 Live Ski Jumping. The HS142 individual jump 5.45 Wintersports: Ski Pass 6.00 Strongest Man: Champions League 7.00 Snooker: Ruhr Open 9.00 Boxing: Knockout Classics 10.00 Rally: Australasian Safari 11.00 GT Academy 2014: Masterclass 11.15 World Rallycross Championship 12.30am-12.50 Horse Racing

Radio 3

6.30am Breakfast 9.00 Essential Classics 12.00 Composer of the Week: Manuel de Falla 1.00pm News 1.02 Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert. The Gould Piano Trio and friends play works by Schumann and Brahms 2.00 Afternoon on 3. Esa Heikkilä conducts the Ulster Orchestra in Klami and Tubin 4.30 In Tune. With Vanessa Redgrave, Laurent Naouri and the Lawson Trio 6.30 Composer of the Week: Manuel de Falla (r) 7.30 Live Radio 3 in Concert. Marc Minkowski conducts the BBCSO in Schubert’s Fourth Symphony and Rott’s First Symphony, and the mezzo Katarina Karnéus sings Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen 10.00 The Verb. With Wendy Cope, Joanna Bourke, Lisa Dwan and Richard Lloyd Parry 10.45 The Essay: Shaping the Air — Writers and Radio. Broadcaster Fi Glover on the importance of listening 11.00 World on 3. Mary Ann Kennedy presents a live session by the Hungarian folk-based ﬁve-piece Söndörgo 1.00am-7.00 Through the Night

thetimes.co.uk/announcements

the times | Friday November 28 2014

FGM

Games Bridge Andrew Robson 26 - How to Keep Count

You do not need a terrific memory to play decent Bridge (I’m the living proof). It certainly helps to be able to keep count of the key suits, though, so you know when the opponents have run out. The best way to keep count is to work out how many cards are missing, then each time you see the opponents play a card, reduce that number by one...down to zero. It helps to think in terms of the likely opposing splits too. Consider these suits, say trumps. (a) ♠ AQ62 facing ♠ K543 (b) ♥Q852 facing ♥AK743 In (a) you are missing five trumps. This is the most likely scenario – when you have a eight-card fit. The most likely split is 3-2 (68% if you’re curious). You start with (say) ♠ K and when both opponents follow, you reduce five missing trumps down to three missing trumps. You lead ♠ 3 over to ♠ Q and, assuming both opponents follow again, there’s just one trump left out. If that one missing trump was a winner, you’d leave it out, but here you’d cash ♠ Q to draw it. Trumps drawn. In (b) you are missing four trumps. You can hope for a 2-2 split, but 3-1 is somewhat more likely (because it could be 3-1 or 1-3). You cash (say) ♥Q and see both opponents follow. Four missing trumps have become two missing trumps. You lead ♥3 to ♥A and (say) one opponent follows and the other discards. One trump still left out. You cash ♥K and the trumps are drawn.

Word Watching Paul Dunn [Note the popular, but inferior method of counting is to count all the cards (including your’s and dummy’s) in rounds of four – all the way up to 13. Forget you or dummy trumped and you will miscount the opposing trumps. My advice is to try to get out of this habit.] Dealer: South, Vulnerability: Neither

♠K 5 2 ♥K J 5 ♦J 6 2 ♣K 6 5 3

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

The second book in my catalogue of Christmas gift suggestions is an outstanding compendium about the Sicilian Defence, Black’s most popular reply to 1 e4. Although the book focuses on the energetic Kalashnikov system, it offers a full repertoire against all White’s tries against the Sicilian Defence. This element renders the book extraordinarily valuable for both the Sicilian specialist and the Sicilian generalist who wishes to be prepared for all White’s tries. The Killer Sicilian by Tony Rotella is published by Everyman Chess. White: Viswanathan Anand Black: Teimour Radjabov Dortmund 2003 Sicilian Defence 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 e5 The key move of the Kalashnikov Variation. 5 Nb5 d6 6 c4 Be7 7 b3 f5 8 exf5 Bxf5 9 Bd3 e4 10 Be2 a6 11 N5c3 Bf6 12 0-0 Nge7 13 a3 It looks as though it just keeps pieces out of b4, but Anand has more devious intentions. 13 ... 0-0 14 Ra2 The point of White’s 13th – on d2 or e2, this rook will exert annoying pressure against Black’s centre pawns. 14 ... Qa5 Black intends to centralize his queen on the e5-square, an idea which has its plusses and minuses. 15 b4 Qe5 16 Re1 b5 A thematic ... b5 sacrifice allowing Black’s d and e-pawns to roll forwards.

♠9 4 ♥9 6 4 2 ♦Q 9 8 3 ♣A 10 8

S W N E 1♠ Pass 2♣ Pass 2♥ Pass 3♠ (1) Pass 4♠ end (1) 10-12 points and three-card spade support. Contract: 4♠ , Opening Lead: ♦A

West led ♦AK, then ♦5, to ♦J, ♦Q and you as declarer trump (“ruff”) with ♠ 3. There are five missing trumps. You play ♠ 6 to ♠ K, both following so now three missing trumps. You lead back ♠ 2 to ♠ J, both following so one missing trump and cash ♠ A drawing that last trump. [No danger of miscounting, but if you count in rounds of four, you’d have to remember you trumped at trick three]. You now lead ♣Q, East winning ♣A and leading ♦8. You trump

with your last spade and cross to

♣K, then ♥KJ (high from short length) then ♥5 to ♥AQ. 10 tricks

made. andrew.robson@thetimes.co.uk

17 cxb5 axb5 18 Bxb5 Nd4 19 Bf1 d5 20 Rd2 Be6 A nice multi-purpose, consolidating move – Black opens the ffile, protects the d5-pawn, and allows ... Nf5. 21 f4 Qxf4 22 Rf2

________ árD D 4kD] àD D h 0p] ß D Dbg D] ÞD DpD D ] Ý ) hp1 D] Ü) H D D ] Û D D $P)] ÚDNGQ$BI ] ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ

22 ... Qxf2+!! A stunning coup. 23 Kxf2 Nb5 A wonderful tactical construction. Black’s amazing idea is 24 Nxb5 Bd4+ 25 Kg3 when 25 ... Bf2 is mate. 24 Kg1 Nxc3 25 Nxc3 Bxc3 26 Bb5 Anand allows himself to be bamboozled. Better is 26 Bd2 Bd4+ 27 Be3 Bxe3+ 28 Rxe3 Nf5 leaves an unclear position. 26 ... Bxe1 27 Qxe1 Nf5 28 Bb2 Rac8 Looking to invade on c2. 29 Ba4 Rf7 30 h3 The kingside weaknesses this move creates cost White dearly down the road. 30 ... h5 31 b5 h4 32 Be5 d4 33 b6 33 Qxe4 Ne3! 34 Qb1 d3! 35 b6 d2 36 Bc7 d1Q+ 37 Bxd1 Rf1+ 38 Kh2 Rxd1 leaves Black winning. 33 ... e3 34 Kh2 d3 35 Qb4 e2 36 Bc3 Rxc3 37 Qxc3 Ng3 38 b7 Rxb7 39 Qa5 Rb8 White resigns

________ á D DrDkD] Winning Move àDpD Dpg ] ß D 0 DpD] Black to play. This position is from EljaUkraine 2014. Þ0 DPD Dp] nov-Kuzubov, With an accurate continuation Black Ý DpD ) D] found a clever way to exploit the vulnerÜ) GqH )P] ability of White’s knights along the e-file. Û D !NI D] What did he play? ÚD D D D ] For up-to-the-minute information follow ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ my tweets on twitter.com/times_chess. Solution right

Apache a. A rap musician b. A gangster c. A desert rodent Ming a. A stitch b. Ugly c. A citrus fruit Glaive a. A wooded valley b. A sword c. Reluctant

T2 CROSSWORD

No 6570

Times Quick Crossword

Chess Raymond Keene Full repertoire

Sudoku No 6985

Killer No 4026

Solution to Crossword 6569 DOM I N U O U CURA B A N T R I A L N U MUG B A R CORN I A E C DOGMA A A T M I L L E

O L

A C

HO U T S OO U ER C E

OK ER P A E E ERRA A M C C L AN T E O K S I R E E E XCE L P O I E S K I MO S R E B T WA T E R S

17 Foot lever (5) 19 Small island (3) 20 To give someone the — is to be evasive (9) 22 Flat dish (5) 23 External surface (7) 1 2 3 4 5 6

7 13 15 16 18 21

One who owes money (6) Shiny silicate mineral (4) Pack animal (5,2,6) Begin a hole at golf (3,3) Natural exuberance (6,7) Desiccated by exposure to the heat of the day (3-5) Amount of money spent (6) Arriving on time (8) Irritable, curt (6) Shooter’s retriever (3,3) One renting a room in a house (6) Individual thing (4)

11 17

Codeword

No 2254

Numbers are substituted for letters in the crossword grid. Below the grid is the key. Some letters are solved. When you have completed your first word or phrase you will have the clues to more letters. Enter them in the key grid and the main grid and check the letters on the alphabet list as you complete them. 26 23

26 11

19 1

10 10

8 5

A N

3 5

11 22

17 19 25

5 2

22 9

12 7

14 25

Winning Move solution

Fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. The digits within the cells joined by the dotted lines add up to the printed top left hand figure. Within each dotted line ‘shape’, a digit CANNOT be repeated.

Apache (b) A Parisian gangster or ruffian (from French slang). Ming (a) A common stitch in needlepoint, resembling a honeycomb. Glaive (b) An archaic word for a sword, from Latin gladius, sword.

Word Watching answers

Yesterday’s answers across, arbor, arco, bass, basso, boar, bora, brass, carb, carob, carr, cobra, crab, crass, crossbar, orca, orra, oscar, rass, roar, saros, scab, scar, soar, soba, soca, sora

How you rate 8 words, average; 11, good; 17, very good; 23, excellent

Down

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.

9 1

22 22

8 Look or glance supposed to cause harm (4,3) 9 Smallest Pacific state (5) 10 Change (9) 11 Indian dish of pulses (3) 12 Copying (of a document) (5) 14 Alter so as to mislead (7) 15 Item used in building flood defences (7)

Deadly 55min

Across

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

6 22

Fiendish

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

No 6570 6

1 ... Bxc3! 2 Qxd3 (2 Qxc3 Rxe3) 2 ... Be1+! 3 Kxe1 cxd3 and White must lose a knight, leaving him with a hopeless position.

Tips for Intermediates

3 8

21 21

25 17

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 1

4 17

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

2 4 1 6 9 7 3 5 8

8 9 6 5 1 3 2 7 4

9 6 8 1 7 5 4 3 2

No 6981

7 2 4 8 3 6 5 9 1

1 5 3 2 4 9 8 6 7

4 3 2 7 6 1 9 8 5

5 1 9 3 2 8 7 4 6

6 8 7 9 5 4 1 2 3

7 1 6 4 2 9 5 8 3

8 5 9 6 1 3 7 2 4

3 4 2 7 5 8 6 9 1

2 9 8 5 6 1 3 4 7

No 4024

5 6 4 8 3 7 9 1 2

1 7 3 2 9 4 8 5 6

4 3 5 9 7 2 1 6 8

9 2 1 3 8 6 4 7 5

6 8 7 1 4 5 2 3 9

MAR Z I P AN N O E U ACROS S T H S COUR T I E R R E M E EQU I T A H U S D F I V E ME D J S R MAN T RA E C E R S S K I D CA S

No 2253

A U I T O P I B L O I T

BU N B I S OE X E S A T I N S I G E M T AWA

T T T

E N Y

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Friday November 28 2014 | the times

Baroness James of Holland Park

Writer of elegant, literary detective novels whose most famous creation was the morose poetry-writing detective Adam Dalgliesh

PD James was a writer of classically shaped detective stories who became first a cult success and then — to her own surprise — a bestseller. “Monday, I was ticking along as usual, and by Friday I was a millionaire,” she said. The television serials made from many of them — especially featuring her poetpoliceman Adam Dalgliesh — added to her popularity; she sold more than 25 million copies. She had plotted her murders for many years, usually in the early mornings, while working as a senior civil servant and rearing two daughters almost single-handedly after her husband suffered a mental breakdown. When in 1991 she was created a life peer, it was as much for her assiduous committee work as for her late-flowering fame. “I couldn’t have been a lady writer in a country cottage, it wouldn’t have suited me,” she said. “I grew up thinking it was important to have a safe job with a cheque at the end of every month.” Her brand of crime fiction — described once by Kingsley Amis as “Iris Murdoch with murders” — was unashamedly literary in tone and at times intensely bleak in mood, examining the dark and disturbing aspects of the human mind. She professed herself “grandmotherly” (and certainly appeared as such with her diminutive figure and white hair pushed back by an alice band). Her books rarely featured sex scenes or swear words — “Oh, I know all the swear words, my dear and use them

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‘I couldn’t be a lady writer in a country cottage,’ she once said

Baroness James at home in 2008 — she believed in going into detail about the deaths in her books. “If you want pleasant murders, read Agatha Christie,” she said

myself sometimes, in private. But I see no need for them in my books” — but her murders never lacked in detail. In one book her victim has a snake stuffed in his mouth; in another the dead body is found smothered in sand. “Murder isn’t pleasant,” she said. “It’s an ugly thing and a cruel thing. Let those who want pleasant murders read Agatha Christie.” Like Trollope, whom she greatly loved, James wrote in the early morning and at weekends. She wrote in longhand and then dictated to her secretary who tapped into a computer. “I can write more or less anywhere as long as I’ve got a comfortable chair, a table, an unlimited amount of biros to write with and lined paper to write on,” she said. Because her plots were scrupulously worked out before she began, there was no need to write the chapters in consecutive order, so she composed a jigsaw of passages according to her mood each day, “like shooting a film”. She devised each story meticulously. For instance in one novel, The Murder Room, a man is killed by having petrol thrown over him in a car and being set alight. She spent much time at Scotland Yard finding out who would be first at the scene and what tests would be done.“When I am writing about a killer, I am that killer,” she said. “I am in his mind, which is probably why I don’t have sadistic mass murderers as characters.” James kept copious notes throughout her life to recycle later as material. Working as a nurse, she once saw some-

one being fed through a tube — “I remember thinking: that would be an easy way to kill someone.” She once said: “I was born very much an observer of life.” She lived for years in a large Georgian house in Holland Park, west London, where visitors — invited to call her Phyllis — might note the security bars on the windows and her habit of locking the front door behind her when she arrived home, as much as the William Morris wallpaper and study lined with books. Her other home was on the Suffolk coast where many of her ideas came to her and where she enjoyed solitude. She said that she tended to get her ideas for stories from her acute sensitivity to places. The setting for detective stories was crucial to the atmosphere of menace and suspense, she said. The Black Tower (1975), for example, was born out of a walk along the Purbeck coast in Dorset; A Taste for Death came to her during a visit to an Oxford church. Graham Greene was a major influence and her favourite film was The Third Man. Her energy and sharp intellect seemed to know no bounds. She appeared at the House of Lords for debates — where she was often stopped in the corridor and asked if she shouldn’t be at home finishing her next novel — and in 2009, aged 89, left the BBC’s director general lost for words on air when she interviewed him as a guest editor of the Today programme. Phyllis Dorothy James was born at

home in Walton Street, Oxford in 1920. Her earliest years, however, were spent in Ludlow, Shropshire, before the family moved to Cambridge — she counted herself lucky to have lived in a succession of beautiful towns. She was the eldest child of a disgruntled middle-grade Inland Revenue official trapped in a stable but illmatched marriage. James was expected by her brother and sister to tell them bedtime stories every night in the nursery where all three slept. Before the war, as she revealed in her “fragment of autobiography” Time to be in Earnest (1999), her mother was detained for a time in a mental hospital, to which she made regular melancholy visits with her father. She recalled her mother “clutching at her hospital dress with restless fingers, looking at us imploringly and constantly reiterating her wish to come home”. At the Girls’ High School in Cambridge, James developed a love of history, won a short-story prize, and saw her name in print in the school magazine. There was no question of affording university, so she left school at 16. Then, after working briefly and miserably in the tax office at Ely, she contrived to be taken on as a general assistant by the Festival Theatre in Cambridge, where she met her future husband, a charming Anglo-Irishman called Connor Bantry White, a medical student. They married in 1941 — five days after she came of age — and moved to London.

While he served overseas in the Royal Army Medical Corps she brought up their two daughters: Clare and Jane. When her husband returned, however, his mental health was shattered and he spent the rest of his life in and out of hospitals. He died in 1964 so missing out, to her regret, on her success, and their grandchildren, with whom she adored spending time at one or other of her daughters’ homes (Clare trained as a nurse and midwife and Jane as a language teacher. Both stopped work when their children were small). James never looked for anyone else with whom to spend the rest of her days, but threw herself into work. To support her family she secured a job in the National Health Service, and over the

following years she fo worked her way up in wo hospital administration. She entered the open Sh competition for older Civil Service candidates. Ci “I’ve still got the pre“I’v printed letter which print says: ‘Dear sir’ and ‘sir’ is sa crossed out and ‘madam’ cr has been written in by hand. It was so rare for women to take the exam.” wo She joined the Home Sh Office, first in the police Of department, where she was de particularly concerned par with the running of forensic science labs, and then in the criminal policy departcr dealing mainly with the law relatment, dealin ing to juvenile offenders. James embarked on a parallel literary career, not to make money — she didn’t expect to — but because ever since she was a small child she had wanted to be a writer. “I remember thinking: the years are slipping by and if I don’t make a start soon I’m going to be a failed writer. There was never going to be a convenient time to get on with it.” She had toyed with the idea during the war, but felt that, with bombs falling all around, it was hardly worth embarking on something she might not live to finish. The detective story form appealed to her because it was structured and therefore good training, and because it Continued on facing page

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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Phillip Hughes

Swashbuckling cricketer who emerged from a farm in the Outback to become one of the game’s most destructive batsmen The history of Australian cricket is littered with players who emerged from that vast country’s remote areas to become stars on the grand international stages. The list is headed by the greatest batsman of all, Don Bradman, and includes such notable names as Doug Walters, Jeff Thomson and Glenn McGrath. Phillip Hughes, who made a sensational start to his Test career, was the latest in that long and distinguished line. Hughes grew up in Macksville, New South Wales, 470 km from Sydney, and was raised on his parents’ banana farm. His mother sold raffle tickets to pay for his cricket coaching and, aged ten, he spent so much time on the bowling machine at his local club that they delivered it to his house. He remained a country boy at heart. “Bulls and cricket was what he talked about — probably bulls in front of cricket at times,” said Daryl Mitchell, his captain when he played for Worcestershire last summer. “He was proud of where he was from and I think that is what drew him to Worcestershire so much, and how he lived his time here. In England in the summer of 2013 the Australian squad found itself in disarray after the sacking of Mickey Arthur as their coach and the hasty appointment of Darren Lehmann as his successor. One night in Taunton, after Lehmann’s first training session, the mood was low key and the atmosphere uncertain. At a

His game was based on dominating the bowler from the first over team trivia quiz that night it was Hughes who brought the laughter back to the group. He was teased mercilessly by team-mates for having knowledge of little beyond cricket and cattle. While admitting that his spelling was terrible, Hughes retorted that he was “street smart”. However, it was Hughes who had the last laugh, emerging as the squad’s trivia king and taking great delight in making his point to those who had mocked him. He brought a similarly unaffected joy to his batting. “Nothing upset him,” wrote Peter Roebuck, on watching him score a century, aged 20, in Australia’s

Sheffield Shield competition, “not catching a bus from Canberra the previous evening and arriving in the dead of night, not the watching eyes of a national selector . . . Unfazed, he just kept batting and batting and made it seem as natural as breathing.” Hughes was a batsman whose game was founded on a belief that the bowler should be dominated from the very first over. Not for him the dogged, unbeaten half-century before lunch. The manner in which he played was to flay the attack, however unconventional and inelegant his strokeplay appeared. He became the youngest batsman to score a century in both innings of a Test match. He was 20, representing Australia for only the second time at Durban early in 2009, and was playing against South Africa, whose fast bowlers, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, were among the best in the world. He also struck a century in his first one-day international, which no other Australian had achieved. Wisden stated, with considerable prescience, after his two centuries against South Africa: “Hughes looked, technically and aesthetically, like a club number nine. Maybe number ten. He will either threaten every batting record ever set, or fade quickly after a couple of years once bowlers work him out.” At 20 years and 98 days, his innings of 115 and 160 came at a younger age than two great West Indians, George Headley and Garry Sobers, who had achieved the same feat. “Some of Hughes’s powerful driving showed he possessed more than just a devastating cut shot,” Wisden recorded. His batting technique was described as akin to playing golf with a tennis racket. At 5ft 6in, he was a small man; left handed, he made room for himself at the crease by backing away and carving quick bowlers through the off-side, smiting them down the ground or hooking through square leg. Apart from the hook, it was said that on his parents’ farm he batted with a wall on his left-hand side so that he never learnt to hit the ball in that direction. This made for thoroughly entertaining, rustic batting in keeping with the modern mode of constantly attacking the bowling, and for a while such an uninhibited approach worked spectacularly well.

ELISE DERWIN/NEWSPIX/REX

Hughes was the youngest player to score a century in both innings of a Test match

He had, as he put it, faced “grown men running in at me since I was 13”. He had a wonderful eye and appeared to pick up the length of the ball particularly early. Yet, in common with other batsman in the age of helmets, he sometimes played the hook shot without possessing the requisite technique for the shot. Later that same year, 2009, Hughes was dropped by Australia during the Ashes series in England. His perceived difficulty was in dealing with the short-pitched ball. At the start of that summer, following hard on the heels of his heroics against South Africa, he arrived in England for

a six-week stint with Middlesex. It was a controversial move because the county were giving him the chance to acclimatise to English conditions before the approaching Ashes series. The clamour grew after he scored 118 and 65 not out on his debut. However, Hughes was untroubled by the fuss; shy, polite and affable, he had a sense of humour that Angus Fraser, the Middlesex director of cricket, described as “mischievous in a nice way”. Fraser had no doubts about his ability to thrive. “A lot of Australian cricketers come from outside the big cities, like he does, and you have to be tough to survive out there,” he said.

Her next two novels, A Taste for Death and Devices and Desires, confirmed her prestige and her popularity. Both were solid detective stories, but also unmistakably serious works of literature with a strong sense of place, a clear moral dimension and frequent glimpses of the author’s own enthusiasms. I One book begins with the discovery of a corpse in a west London church (James was a keen student of church architecture); the other is about a series of murders in the vicinity of a Norfolk nuclear power station and expresses ecological concerns. Dalgliesh, now a commander and, less plausibly, a mildly famous poet, had become more introspective and moody than ever. James’s literary career had begun on the safe territory of “clue-gathering”, and she had established a reputation to match those grand mistresses of the genre Dorothy L Sayers, Agatha Christie and Margery Allingham. But her next book, The Children of Men (1992), showed her to be an altogether more searching writer. Although once again plotting the darker side of human nature, it burst the bounds of the detective story and engaged with a contemporary fear that sounded like science fiction.

Such was the appeal of the novel among an audience both hungry for and fearful of the apocalyptic that it was made into a well-received, thoughtful dystopian thriller, Children of Men (2006), starring Clive Owen and Julianne Moore. Meanwhile, a succession of competent, rather than distinguished, adaptations of her books for television intro-

“You don’t get pampered or mollycoddled.” When he was dropped by Australia during that summer he leaked the news on Twitter, marking him down as a very 21st-century cricketer. Thereafter, he was in and out of the Test team. In 2010 he made 86 off 75 balls against New Zealand in Wellington, but only played in three Tests against England in 2010-11. He made a third Test century, against Sri Lanka in 2011, was then dropped during another series against New Zealand, struggled in the face of spin in India and was dropped once again against England, this time after playing in the first two Tests of Australia’s tour in 2013. Nonetheless, he continued to bat prolifically in domestic cricket. There was an understandable reluctance, both on his part and in the minds of his coaches, to tamper with a technique that had served him so well initially. The national selectors never completely lost confidence in him and he was expected to be given another opportunity in the first Test of the forthcoming homes series against India that is scheduled to start next week. Phillip Joel Hughes was born in 1988. He represented Australia at under-19 and A-team level and New South Wales and South Australia in domestic cricket. In England, he appeared for Hampshire as well as Middlesex and Worcestershire. His style of batting was more naturally suited to one-day cricket, particularly the quickfire Twenty20 format, and as a consequence he was signed by Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League. In 26 Tests he scored 1,535 runs at an average of 32.65. It was telling that his one-day international average, 35.91, was higher. In all first-class cricket he made 9,023 runs at 46.51, with a top score of 243 not out. Hughes remained in contact with several English colleagues after his brief spells in county cricket. At Worcester, he was admired for his willingness to pass on his knowledge to the younger players. “Nobody had a bad word to say about him,” the Worcestershire coach, Steve Rhodes, said. Phillip Hughes, cricketer, was born on November 30, 1988. He died, two days after being struck on the head during a cricket match, on November 27, 2014, aged 25

PD James Continued from facing page

seemed to offer the best chance of breaking into the market. Her husband’s pathology textbooks, combined with what she had learnt about forensic science and about the police, were to provide her with technical details. For her hero she devised a somewhat melancholy widower, Chief Detective Inspector Dalgliesh, who — appropriately enough for a character named after James’s old English teacher — was also a poet. Her relationship with her character was to last for more than a dozen books: “It was important for me to create a character I could respect,” she once said. “He doesn’t have an opinion I would disagree with.” The first book, Cover Her Face, was accepted immediately by Charles Monteith of Faber, which needed a replacement for the detective story writer Cyril Hare, who had recently died. It appeared in 1962 and won an excellent reception, with many of the reviewers assuming that PD James was male. It was not until Innocent Blood in 1980 that she broke through into the substantial money-making league. She retired from the Home Office to devote herself full-time to writing, and even

GRAHAM HARRISON/REX

James loved to visit the Suffolk coast

went, for a short time, into tax exile in Dublin. Soon afterwards she toyed, in The Skull Beneath the Skin, with a different protagonist, Cordelia Gray, a woman private investigator estranged from society who had been the heroine of An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972).

When she started writing she didn’t think there was money in it duced them to a new multitude of fans. Her own literary taste was wide-ranging — she believed in the value of reading good writers for her own work — which made her an appropriate chairwoman of the Booker Prize judges in 1987. A practising Christian, James was a vigorous champion of the Authorised Version and the unrevised Prayer Book; the new liturgy she described as “an abomination”. Strong English prose was important to her, and her own writing was unornamented but limpid. She cared deeply about the proper use of English. The moral element of her books al-

so mattered, because she believed firmly in “good social and moral order”. Her final novel, Death Comes to Pemberley, combined her two lifelong passions: Jane Austen and detective fiction, by revisiting the marriage of one of her favourite literary characters, Elizabeth Bennet. “I share her humour and irony and interest in other people,” she once said, “and her wish to be well married.” In 1983 James was appointed OBE, and in 1991 she was elevated to the House of Lords, as Baroness James of Holland Park, where she sat on the cross benches. On her website James once mused on EM Forster’s precept, “The king died and then the queen died is a story. The king died and the queen died of grief is a plot. The queen died and no one knew why until they discovered it was of grief is a mystery, a form capable of high development.” James wrote that she would add: “The queen died and everyone thought it was of grief until they discovered the puncture wound in her throat. That is a murder mystery.” Baroness James of Holland Park, crime novelist, was born on August 3, 1920. She died on November 27, 2014, aged 94

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Friday November 28 2014 | the times

‘You get to an age when you’re not totty any more’

At 43, Richard Armitage thinks he’s too old to be a pin-up. Fans who have seen his brooding John Proctor on stage and his handsome Thorin in The Hobbit might disagree, says Ed Potton

hat do Adolf Hitler, Alex Salmond, Richard III and Iron Maiden have in common? No, they’re not guests at Piers Morgan’s fantasy dinner party. They are all inspirations for Richard Armitage’s portrayal of Thorin Oakenshield, the exiled dwarf king in Peter Jackson’s blockbusting Hobbit trilogy. We already knew that Armitage was an intense, visceral actor, with a strong scent of the method about him. This is the man who asked to be waterboarded to prepare for a torture scene in Spooks, and again, just to make sure, when he played a former SAS man in Strike Back; who was drawn to the role of the mill owner John Thornton in the BBC’s North & South because he was descended from a family of weavers; who dreamt in character as John Proctor when he played him in a much-praised production of The Crucible this year. But the urge to connect the dragon-bothering Thorin to the real world pushed Armitage to new levels of research eccentricity. His interest in Hitler arose because Oakenshield’s bunker mentality reminded him of the Führer’s last days in Berlin. As for Salmond, well, the dwarfs are the SNP of Middle-earth (“If there was a referendum the dwarfs would absolutely have voted yes”). Richard III, meanwhile, was our last king to die in battle, as Thorin does in

Tolkien’s novel (but not necessarily in the final Hobbit film, The Battle of the Five Armies — more of which later). And Iron Maiden? Well, the 43-year-old Armitage also uses a technique that you might call “mixtape method acting”. Before he plays a role he compiles a selection of music that helps him get into character. On the Thorin playlist was Philip Glass, Iron Maiden and Kings of Leon. A combination of melancholic, fierce and hairy — sounds about right. Armitage is more affable than Oakenshield, less fierce and hairy and, at 6ft 3in, considerably taller. His height, he says, often surprises those expecting someone of dwarfish dimensions. Many of the people who saw his much-praised performance in The Crucible at the Old Vic “were shocked that I was about a foot taller than the rest of the cast. They thought they were going to see a little person toddling around the stage.” Instead, they saw a mighty performance that this paper’s five-star review called “gruff” and “passionate”. Armitage knows it was a risk to go back to the theatre after 13 years, having made his name on TV and then in film: “We could have come out with terrible reviews.”

Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield and, left, as John Proctor in The Crucible, with Samantha Colley Instead, there were raves across the board. His relief is palpable: he worried about being typecast as an action hero. “I don’t know why I’m the kind of guy where they just want to put a gun or a sword in my hand,” he says. I do: it’s because he’s built like a lantern-jawed phone box. But that’s why he moved to New wh York two years ago, after he finished shooting The Hobbit films in New Zealand: “I didn’t want to go back to the UK

and slide back into the same habits.” Surely The Hobbit opened doors for him, though? “My career will always be a slow burn,” he says. “I look at people that get fast-tracked and suddenly explode and think: ‘What does that feel like?’ Maybe I’ll get a break-out role when I’m 60.” This seems a step too far in the name of self-deprecation — surely playing a major character in a series of films that have so far grossed more than $2 billion might count as a break-out role? Armitage, however, has a recurring terror of being trapped in cycles. Aside from a part in the forthcoming Tim Burton-produced Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass, his choices since The Hobbit have been determinedly modern. Next on his slate are Urban, a drama in which he plays a social worker, and Sleepwalker, a Memento-style thriller. “I love that you call them choices,” he laughs. “There are far fewer choices than you would think.” His fear of typecasting is paradoxically enhanced by his reluctance to turn things down, so strong are his memories of the time when he didn’t have that luxury. There were the musical theatre roles that he played at the start of his career: Cats, 42nd Street. “What the hell am I doing here?” he asked himself. Then, when he moved to TV, his propensity to smoulder had him briefly pigeonholed as male totty: a hunky swimming instructor in Cold Feet, Dawn French’s love interest in The Vicar of Dibley. But, he says, “You get to a certain age

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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MATT HOLYOAK / CAMERA PRESS

I’m the kind of guy where they just want to put a gun or a sword in my hand

when you’re not totty. I’ve tipped over the totty totaliser.” Don’t believe a word of it. The number of smitten tributes on YouTube demonstrate that Armitage remains a proper pin-up and subject to a bewildering array of fabricated online speculation. I tell him that I googled him before our interview and was informed that he had variously got married, split from a girlfriend, was

My career is a slow burn. Maybe I’ll get a break-out role when I’m 60

the sexiest man in the world and had died. None of these things is true, he insists. “I’ve died? Thank God I don’t read this stuff. It’s one of the reasons I hesitated about Twitter. I didn’t want to talk to people without reading what was said back to me, but at the same time I didn’t want to read what was said back at me.” There have also been rumours about his sexuality, which his Hobbit co-star Ian McKellen fuelled when he referred to “two of the dwarfs” in the films being gay. Armitage says he’s not bothered by the gossip: “If they’re talking about that, at least they’re still interested in you.” Linked in the past with the actress Annabel Capper, he says he’s single now but he’d love to settle down and have kids

Armitage as Lucas North in Spooks, with Peter Firth

at some point. “Definitely — I’m not frightened of being an old dad. I’ve got to have a kid to show these movies to, haven’t I?” His affection for Middle-earth dates from his school days in the Midlands: he made his stage debut at 11, playing an elf in a class production of The Hobbit, wearing “a crocheted dress that they sprayed silver to look like chainmail”. That aside, his childhood sounds happy. Born in Leicestershire, the son of a nuclear engineer and a secretary, Armitage was later “sent to Coventry”, where he studied at the private Pattison College before joining a circus in Budapest to get his Equity card (“I did a bit of juggling and held ladders for acrobats”). Then there were three years at Lamda, which clearly fired his method leanings. “I don’t think acting is pretending,” he says. “Some people pretend and do it very well but I’m not very good at pretending.” He knows that being waterboarded “sounds like an actor being a bit too invested in the role but I’m more interested in presenting the truth than a fake reality”. He describes waterboarding, incidentally, as “the worst kind of panic, like that moment when you start to feel out of control underwater”. Making a playlist sounds less stressful. We can’t go into detail about the new Hobbit film because Jackson, a last-minute tinkerer, hasn’t finished it. Armitage has seen a rough cut, though, and raves about the dramatic structure of The Battle of the Five Armies, in which Thorin’s dwarfs team up with elves and men for an almighty showdown against a goblin horde: “He’s created an entire movie just with the narrative of the battle. You can’t just have lots of people fighting.” So does Thorin pop his clogs? “That’s on the list of things I’m not allowed to talk about, I’m afraid.” What else is on the list? “I’m not allowed to talk about the fifth army — an army of unexpected allies.” In the book they’re eagles — has Jackson embarked on some revisionism? “Well, I can’t talk rev about that. What we can say is that Thorin is redeemed.” He’s always been drawn to conflicted roles: Oakenshield, conflic Proctor, Lucas North, his double Pr (triple?) agent in Spooks. “I (trip know,” he smiles. “I need to know do some comedy, don’t I?” He doesn’t mean it: he knows he’s best at playing men who he’ combine light and shade. That may go back again to Richard ma III, with whom he inherited an obsession from his father. Armitage was set to be called Ar Russell until he was born on Ru the anniversary of Richard’s death. His dad took that as a sign: he was instead named Richard. When the king’s remains were recently discovered under a car park in Leicester, down the road from where Armitage grew up, he was thrilled. He hopes to be involved in a documentary about it for Channel 4 next year. How about playing him? He’s not hopeful: “He was a young man when he died.” Don’t believe that one, either: Armitage could make a splendid Crookback. Imagine the mixtape for that one. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies opens on Dec 12; the Old Vic’s The Crucible is being shown at selected in cinemas on Dec 4 and 7 (thecrucibleonscreen.com)

Who’s who in the new Hobbit

Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) Master thief, franchise hero and reluctant wingman to 12 angry dwarfs, Bilbo helps mount an impossibly brave raid on the Lonely Mountain, home of the genocidal dragon Smaug. He is also beginning to feel the deleterious effects of the One Ring he hides in his pocket.

Smaug the Magnificent (Benedict Cumberbatch) Looks like a dragon. Is big. Sounds like Sherlock. Likes treasure. Is basically sitting on top of the magical Arkenstone that will unite all dwarfs. Last seen effortlessly shaking off molten gold and planning to destroy the lake-town of Esgaroth.

Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) A fictional, smoking hot, elf action-babe not originally found in Tolkien, Tauriel kills giant spiders, protects the weak and, in a queasy subplot that may be a first for interspecies slap and tickle, finds herself falling for a charming dwarf, Kili (Aidan Turner).

Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) Killing time as Esgaroth’s humble boatman, the grumpy, grim-faced Bard is actually a “bowman’’ (boatman, bowman — easy mistake). He is also a king-in-waiting and possesses the one arrow capable of killing Smaug. Which is handy. Kevin Maher

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Friday November 28 2014 | the times

arts

Richard Morrison the arts column

‘Classical concerts at Heathrow could really take off’ AFP/GETTY

s I get older I am getting wilder. At 30 I loved walking into concert halls — the hallowed temples where the great gods of classical music are worshipped nightly — and savouring their calm dignity and genteel rituals. At 60 I increasingly feel that their reverential hush jars with the music. Beethoven, Mahler, Mozart and Wagner weren’t calm types. They were maniacs. That’s why, centuries on, they still enthral us. So while snobs may scoff, I welcome a giant leap for mankind: the first classical concerts at Heathrow. What an idea: easing travellers through those long hours in departures by supplying Chopin instead of shoppin’. The concerts, in Terminal 2 on December 14 and 28, are a collaboration between Caffè Nero and the young Russian pianist who has adopted the typographically inventive name of GéNIA, which is admittedly more marketable that her real one: Evgenia Chudinovich. As well as classics she will play pieces from her new album, which, by spooky coincidence (she is Caffè Nero’s “composer of the month”), is inspired by coffee. And before you exclaim “what a gimmick!”, remember that Bach wrote an entire cantata extolling coffee. Doubtless he received many a complimentary skinny latte for locating the story inside his favourite coffee house in Leipzig. It will doubtless be pointed out that today’s classical musicians have ventured into much “edgier” venues. Indeed, I have reported here on concerts in rave clubs, car parks, disused depots and even, on one odorously memorable occasion, a sewage pumping station. In a way, though, those venues are now as conventional as concert halls are, and

Russian pianist GéNIA will entertain travellers at Heathrow next month they reach almost as constricted an audience — albeit young hipsters rather than affluent wrinklies. The beauty of putting live classical music into somewhere like Heathrow is that it reaches all ages, classes and conditions of humanity. I also admire, rather than abhor, the link between commerce and culture. Many people spend far more of their waking hours at work than they do with their families or in leisure pursuits. So big employers, it seems to me, have an obligation as well as an opportunity to enrich their staff’s lives with cultural opportunities. Some do that brilliantly. The John Lewis Partnership has a long history of

The classical music ‘ambush’ is most likely to strike a spark running musical activities for those working in its stores, and on Monday at the Royal Albert Hall a choir and orchestra drawn from its staff around Britain will perform a choral work by Bob Chilcott specially commissioned to celebrate the company’s 150th anniversary. Chilcott has entered into

the spirit of the occasion by basing his piece on Good King Wenceslas: he imagines the journey of the king and his page to bring victuals to the poor man shivering in the snow “could be one taken by delivery drivers in foul weather to ensure that customers get their groceries”. There’s nothing new about this. In the mid-19th century the great British tradition of brass bands was nurtured by enlightened mill and colliery owners who bought instruments and uniforms for their workers and gave them facilities to rehearse and achieve, in many cases, extraordinary virtuosity. Admittedly, the owners were partly motivated by a fear that, if workers didn’t make music, they would form trade unions and make trouble. Similarly, if in rather more genteel fashion, many companies were running lunchtime choirs for their staff decades before Gareth Malone started his guerrilla choral attacks on Britain’s workplaces. In our pluralistic world it surely doesn’t matter where music springs up — as long as it does spring up. In 1945, when the government set up the Arts Council to spread culture to the masses, the mistake was to imagine that, if enough public money was spent, Britain would soon have 60 million classical-music aficionados. We now know that this was an expensive nonsense. If you haven’t won people’s hearts and minds, sackfuls of subsidy won’t help. Comprehensive music education is the best way to do that, but in its absence (lamentably) it’s the chance encounter with classical music — the “ambush” — that is most likely to strike a spark with latecomers to the genre. That ambush could be listening to a glamorous pianist in Heathrow Terminal 2 or standing shoulder to shoulder with Brian from finance in the alto line of your company choir. Of course, as that superb violinist Joshua Bell discovered a few years ago when he busked at a Washington DC subway station — and earned precisely £16 after 43 minutes of exquisite Bach — putting yourself at the mercy of the “wider public” can be a bruising reality check for a classical musician. That shouldn’t matter. If you believe enough in the power of your art you should boldly take it into every public space where there isn’t an army of security guards to move you on.

Pay the piper, call the tune More than 200 organisations across the arts, design, broadcasting, architecture, fashion and publishing have launched a Creative Industries Federation. Its champions declare that it will be a “CBI of the creative industries” and their thesis is that, although the creative industries have emerged from the recession as Britain’s fastest-growing sector, they have frequently failed to speak with a powerful united voice on such vital topics as the decline of arts and design teaching in schools, the catastrophic reduction in local government funding for culture or the equally self-harming clampdown on visas for top foreign talent seeking work here. Fine. All those trends need to be persuasively countered, but the creative industries could do a lot more to help each other. If some of those internet, film and broadcasting companies earning billions ploughed some of their profits back into the publicly financed institutions training most of their future employees, they would have a far stronger moral case when talking to government ministers about putting more taxpayers’ money into culture.

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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arts

THE CRITICS

Will Hodgkinson

moshes (but only just) to AC/DC p50

Catherine Nixey

hears a podcast starring Boris p51

Hats off to the new Paddington the big film

stature and enthusiasm of a toddler, consistently resulting in disaster. He also has no compunction about licking your face. I took my nephew aged three, and my niece aged five, and it was the stomping-in-cream-cake mess that made them squeal the most. They want to see the film again, and the only part they found “a bit scary” was an earthquake scene at the start. Paddington’s backstory is properly explained with black-and-white “archive” film of an English explorer befriending the bears in the Peruvian jungle, which cuts to colour and allows Aunt Lucy (voiced by Imelda Staunton) to appear zooming down the trees on a stairlift. After Uncle Pastuzo (Michael Gambon) disappears, Aunt Lucy sends Paddington off to London as a stowaway with the famous “Please look after this bear”

label round his neck and tales of child evacuees being taken in during the war. “They will not have forgotten how to treat a stranger,” says Aunt Lucy, in the first of many warnings to Ukip in this film. Our evacuee-cum-refugee arrives at Paddington station as the Brown family head for home. While Mrs Brown and her children Jonathan (Samuel Joslin) and Judy (Madeleine Harris) become fond of Paddington, Mr Brown, who works as an insurance loss-adjuster, is keen to be rid of the risk — a bear in the house increases the risk of accidents “by 4,000 per cent”. (How a loss-adjuster affords a £5 million house in Notting Hill is puzzling.) But soon even Mr Brown is seduced by Paddington’s furry charm and agrees to sneak into the Geographical Society to find the Peruvian explorer’s records. This means we get to see Hugh Bonneville throw off that Downton Abbey demeanour and dress up as a cleaning lady in a pink pinny. But Paddington is in peril, with a racist neighbour and a greedy taxidermist bearing down upon him. Peter Capaldi is the sleazy, dandruffdusted neighbour Mr Curry, who worries about “jungle music” and agrees with Millicent that, “It always starts with just one and soon the whole street will be crawling with them.” Who knows whether he is referring to bears, or immigrants . . . At this point, the film becomes less Michael Bond and more James Bond as the Brown family race off to the Natural History Museum in pursuit of Millicent, who has a glass case already labelled with the words “Ursa marmalada”. In a heroic moment, Paddington even does a Tom-Cruisestyle vertical climb, equipped only with the suctioning powers of two table-crumb vacuums. Yet in the end, adventure aside, this film is about simple values: the kindness of strangers and the crosscultural powers of marmalade. Voiced sympathetically by Ben Whishaw, Paddington is a delight, and a lesson in tolerance that is most timely.

experience back in 1968 and it still leaves the viewer wrestling with philosophical issues that arise with the ascent of man in the early ape scenes, when a smooth-as-basalt black monolith appears on Earth, until the final psychedelic interstellar ride through a wormhole and the sight of the embryonic star child. The movie features William Sylvester as Dr Heywood Floyd, who discovers another black monolith on the Moon. But the real star of the

space-show is HAL, that polite, manipulative computer voiced by Douglas Rain. The design is glorious: the multicoloured liquid-food TV meals, the pastel Sixties’ costumes by Hardy Amies, the space-helmets with frog-like eyes — and the “zero-gravity toilet”. Often as funny as it is monumental, the new digital transfer of 2001: A Space Odyssey is showing as part of the BFI’s UK-wide celebration Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder. Kate Muir

A heady mix of adventure, CGI and marmalade, this is a big-screen update to savour, says ys Kate Muir

senior barrister sidled up to me at a dinner party last Saturday and asked: “Psst, is Paddington any good?” I nodded discreetly. “Do you know any small children I could borrow? Desperate to go. Need an excuse,” he said. But no excuse is needed. Mature fans of the small bear from darkest Peru should realise it is perfectly acceptable to go to Paddington, even alone to a matinee. For the film is endearing, hilarious, and for humans of a certain vintage, tearfully nostalgic. This new CGI Paddington still has melting brown eyes, but is more robust and realistic, more Ursa marmalada than the teddy-like creature in the television series. Plus the cosy, homely, sticky-pawed tales of Michael Bond’s books are given an action makeover, meeting the expectations of a young blockbuster-reared audience. The adult cast, in a similar manner to the Harry Potter series, is mostly from the Great British Thespian department: Hugh Bonneville is spiffing as the

classic film of the week

A robust, realistic and delightful Paddington, voiced by Ben Whishaw, takes a trip on the Tube

Paddington PG, 95min

{{{{(

2001: A Space Odyssey U, 141min

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exasperated Mr Brown, Sally Hawkins is the hippy, dippy Mrs Brown, Jim Broadbent is Mr Gruber in an Einstein-style fright wig and Julie Walters is a very Scottish Mrs Bird. The only import is Nicole Kidman as Millicent, a Cruella de Vil taxidermist. Director Paul King (schooled on The Mighty Boosh) has a superb instinct for slapstick and visual gags, particularly the standout bathroom scene, where Paddington cleans his ears with Mr Brown’s toothbrush, takes a lick at the earwax, recoils and inadvertently floods the bathroom, eventually riding the bath downstairs on self-made rapids. That’s screamingly funny, as is the moment when Paddington takes the “Dogs Must Be Carried” sign literally on the escalators on the Tube. For small children, much of the joy of Paddington is that he has the

tanley Kubrick’s work of mad, transcendent genius seems all the smarter when viewed in the recent context of the laboured and expensive Interstellar. Kubrick’s spaceships are perhaps little more than Airfix models, but he makes them majestic, even awesome, with those opening bars from Strauss’s Thus Spake Zarathustra, and weightless to the waltz of The Blue Danube. Co-written by Arthur C Clarke, Kubrick’s film was a mind-busting

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Friday November 28 2014 | the times

arts music

For those about to rock — forget it with this one rock

AC/DC’s killer back catalogue makes their latest album look all the clunkier, but Kiesza is a real one-off, says Will Hodgkinson

n September it was confirmed that Malcolm Young, the engine of AC/DC, the man who came up with guitar anthems of exquisite brutality and played them with enough conviction to win over working men, women and teenage boys with hormonal issues the world over, had been diagnosed with dementia and forced to leave the band, unlikely to play again. As if that weren’t enough, the band’s drummer Phil Rudd has got into what Malcolm’s brother, the schooluniform-wearing guitarist Angus Young, has called a “strange place”. Rudd has been charged in New Zealand with “threatening to kill” and marked his appearance in court by turning up late, jumping on his security guard’s back, giving photographers the finger and reversing his car into the path of a lorry. AC/DC thrive on adversity — It’s a Long Way to the Top (if You Wanna Rock’n’Roll), their song of 1975, listed all the terrible things that had happened to them, including getting robbed, beaten up and “broken boned”, and they survived the death of singer Bon Scott in 1980 — but on the strength of the underwhelming Rock or Bust, their recent double whammy has proved too much to bear. It’s a shame, because nobody does denim-clad troglodyte rock better than

AC/DC Rock or Bust Colombia

{{(((

Kiesza Sound of a Woman Polydor

{{{{(

McBusted McBusted Island

{{{((

this Australian institution. There’s a swaggering, cavalier wit to classics such as Back in Black and, given the accusation of hiring a contract killer levelled at Rudd (dropped in favour of the “threatening to kill” charge, which his lawyer says he will deny), the ominously prescient Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. The band always seemed like they would be the same playing to 20 bikers in an Outback bar as they would to packed stadiums, but Rock or Bust doesn’t convince in the way the old AC/DC did. It’s constructed around spare guitar hooks Malcolm wrote over the decades with Angus and they prove insufficient to hang an entire album on, even if it is only 35 minutes long. There’s one great song on the album. Play Ball layers a series of riffs on to a basic boogie-rock structure, and while the lyrics are about nothing in particular, the listener will be too busy playing air guitar with adolescent abandon to care. Beyond that it’s slim pickings. It’s not that anyone mistook AC/DC for master lyricists, but here the British-born singer Brian Johnson rhymes “night” with “all right”, against

which there must be some sort of rule. The battle fantasy Dogs of War sounds as though it was written by an 11-yearold boy shortly before his mum called him down for tea and Sweet Candy is a leery ode to a prostitute that, coming from a 67-year-old man from Gateshead, is not entirely pleasant. It doesn’t really matter. They have a killer back catalogue and to see them live is to see all that is great about rock’n’roll. Still, it’s a shame that what will probably be their last album is less a blaze of glory, more a rambling shuffle into the sunset. There aren’t too many pop stars who have done a spell in the Canadian Navy, but Kiesza is something of a one-off. She came into view over the summer with her No 1 hit Hideaway, an uplifting piece of Nineties-tinged house music that began with the low beeps of submarine sonar, went on to feature Kiesza singing at the top of her range about an escapist romance and had a crazy electronic section that sounded like the product of a malfunctioning keyboard. Sound of a Woman is an album of modern dance pop, but it stands out

Kiesza has made an album that stands out because of her professionalism and eccentricity. Above left: AC/DC offer slim pickings

We have lift Orff: a lusty classi classical

Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana comes up trumps as two warhorses get the deluxe treatment, says Geoff Brown Anima Eterna Brugge Carmina Burana

Zig-Zag Territoires

{{{{(

Emmanuelle Haïm Messiah Erato

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rushing off the dust, applying a new coat of paint: the warhorses of the repertoire regularly need this kind of attention. And it suits the classical recording industry, whose bedrock has always been music already well-known — though if that remained the sum of their offer we’d all be in serious trouble. How many recordings of Orff’s lusty medieval cornucopia Carmina Burana have there been? More than

enough, some might say. But even if you are not the work’s friend, or are worried by the continuing debate about Orff’s behaviour in Nazi Germany, you’d still have to salute the freshness of this live performance from Anima Eterna Brugge, the eternally imaginative authentic instrument ensemble directed by Jos van Immerseel. Their goal, he says, was to reach an interpretation that came “as close as possible to Orff’s artistic DNA”. The

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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arts through a blend of professionalism and eccentricity, which makes sense when you learn of its creator’s background. Kiesa Rae Ellestad eschewed the usual teenage pursuits of smoking behind the bike shed for a combination of ballet lessons, sailing, rock climbing, martial arts and tenday hikes in the Canadian Rockies. All of this paved the way for Sound of a Woman. From her bravura, vocal-corddamaging performance on Hideaway to the gospel-soul of Losing My Mind, the 25-year-old’s debut is the product of a former overachieving child on an eternal quest for self-improvement. So Deep is a slow and murky R&B jam in which her emotional vocals float over little more than a drone, and Vietnam — not a belated protest at America’s great military misadventure but a cri de coeur about a doomed affair — has the sense of glamorous despair that all the best disco records had. The title track is the sort of dreary, big-voiced ballad female pop stars feel compelled to make these days, perhaps because they need to give something for hopefuls on TV talent shows to sing, but otherwise this is a lively album, made by a woman whose hairstyle bears an uncanny resemblance to a Walnut Whip. What do boy bands do when they are no longer boys? McFly and Busted have come up with a novel solution: join together and, in pop’s equivalent of the horror movie The Human Centipede, become McBusted. They lost Charlie Simpson of Busted along the way but otherwise the fusion has proved successful, with thousands of twentysomethings who had Busted/McFly posters on their bedroom walls in the mid-Noughties crowding into arenas to relive their recent youth. It works, chiefly because McBusted don’t take themselves the least bit seriously. Air Guitar celebrates their spurious credentials as a rock band, welding a pop punk style to words about a lifetime spent being uncool. What Happened to Your Band finds James Bourne of Busted telling us what it’s like to walk down the street and be forever recognised as that guy from that band. There aren’t many pearls of wisdom here — How’s My Hair? is about as meaningful as a bottle of Pantene Pro V and Beautiful Girls Are the Loneliest is a ham-fisted attempt at sensitivity — but McBusted know their lowly place in the pop pantheon, and they have embraced it with gusto.

is reimagined for today

Emmanuelle Haïm does all right by Bach

stampin amping rhythms still stamp away, but they do so with dappled colours and an unusually light, lithe gait. Drums using animal skin, not plastic, are usin used; the wind instruments date use from the early 20th century; fr violinists and chums bow away vi on gut strings. Voices, too, prevent the work ever seeming a beefy sledgehammer. Soprano Yeree sle Suh, golden and sweet, flies Su high like a bird, while tenor Yves es Saelens wonderfully conve veys rueful pain in the song of the roasting swan. Simon Rattle’s Berlin version of 2004 did its own handsome redecoration job on the work; but this account, with its even subtler hues and clearer textures,

goes much further in letting us listen to Carmina Burana with new ears. Emmanuelle Haïm’s account of Handel’s Messiah never performs quite the same service, though it’s a decent recording in its way. The choir and orchestra of Le Concert d’Astrée trot along with the trim rhythms now customary in “authentic” performances of Handel. Occasionally they slice their notes too abruptly for comfort: the progress of notes in Lift up your heads is particularly choppy. Among the soloists, Lucy Crowe and Christopher Purves are the most consistently pleasurable; Tim Mead and Andrew Staples spread delight in patches.

Radio review

Why Boris really loves London: all the rich people

In a podcast, the mayor of London said the capital’s 72 billionaires make the city great. So much for the other 7,999,928 of us, says Catherine Nixey

t was toe-curling. The weekly Freakonomics Radio podcast claims to explore “the hidden side of everything” and this week it took the form of a half-hour interview with Boris Johnson. By the end of it you couldn’t help but feel that, for his sake, it might have been much better if this side of him had remained out of view. The interview, made for New York public radio, was presented by Stephen Dubner (who also co-wrote the bestselling Freakonomics book and its follow-ups) and was entitled The Man Who Would be Everything. The not-so-subtle subtext of this — “Everything including prime minister” — felt to British ears like American optimism, though with a dash of patriotic pride you felt Johnson would at least prove himself The Man Who Could Be Reliably Entertaining on Chat Shows. He wasn’t. The embarrassment began early when he declared, with bombastic impoliteness given that he was being interviewed in New York, that London was “the greatest city on earth”. It deepened when, as if by way of proof, he cited not London’s culture or its cosmopolitan population of eight million, or its history, but instead the claim that “we have now in London 72 billionaires . . . New York has only 43”. Really? That’s it? That’s all the mayor can think of? Johnson then went on to add that “London is to the billionaire as the jungles of Sumatra are to the orangutan”. Apparently they help provide work for the other 7,999,928 of us by doing things like “asking people to bring the car round

to the front of the hotel”. Lucky us. It got worse. When asked what his day involved he said having “endless meetings and [giving] a huge and unbearable number of speeches”. Voters, rejoice. If, that is, you’re not too busy bringing those cars round to the front of the hotel. Perhaps worst of all, he sounded disingenuous. When asked his hobbies,

London is to billionaires what Sumatra is to orangutans he said collecting old camembert boxes. When asked where he got his shoes, he said he couldn’t remember and then took them off to have a look (“These are so warm . . .”). Church’s, it turned out. And when asked how he got where he is today, he said, to “getting hold of a “g secondhand copy of Abbott and Mansfield’s Greek Grammar”. I leafed through mine after, wondering which section had so inspired him. The “Formation of Tenses from the VerbStem” perhaps? “Notes on the Declensions”? So hard to choose. Perhaps it was this faint whiff of phoniness left lef him somehow sounding less amusing than slightly needy; less the Man Who Would Be Everything than the Man Who Would Be Anything You Want Him to Be. After listening to this, that did not include prime minis minister.

Friday November 28 2014 | the times

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Cricket’s darkest day

Sport

Mike Atherton, Gideon Haigh and Matthew Syed reflect on the shocking death of Phillip Hughes Pages 60-64

Henderson relies on instinct as stars ruled out Alan Lee Racing Correspondent

Nicky Henderson made the short journey from Lambourn to Newbury with heavy heart yesterday, having ruled out his two most exciting horses from their planned comebacks. Sprinter Sacre and Simonsig were both due to run next weekend but neither will now appear and Simonsig also seems set to miss the William Hill King George VI Chase on Boxing Day. Explaining the decisions as the Hennessy Festival began, Henderson revealed that Simonsig, last seen winning the Arkle Chase at Cheltenham 20 months ago, had missed work through lameness and Sprinter Sacre, whose unbeaten chasing record perished to a dramatic heart issue last Christmas, still lacks race fitness.

“It’s boring when it all comes at once but that’s a trainer’s life,” he said. “It’s what we live with and it’s not a lot of fun at times. We’re not taking chances. They are nearly there but we can’t do this half-cock. If you push these horses too hard, the wheels fall off.” The 888Sport Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown Park will now be without both its major draws, Sprinter Sacre and Sire De Grugy, who is injured. This is a blow to the gathering momentum of the jumps season and another setback for the biggest stable in Britain. Henderson also scratched Hadrian’s Approach and Sign Of A Victory from tomorrow’s big races due to ground concerns. He was immediately pushed out from 7-4 to 9-4 by Betfred to regain the trainers’ championship but secured a restorative success through L’Ami 12.55

Newbury Rob Wright

12.25 Karezak 2.40 Sound Investment (nb) 12.55 Highway Code (nap) 3.15 Tea For Two 1.30 Manballandall 3.45 Different Gravey 2.05 Saphir Du Rheu Thunderer: 1.30 Unique De Cotte (nap). 2.40 The Paparrazi Kid. Timekeeper’s top rating: 12.55 Highway Code. Going: soft (heavy in places on hurdle course) Racing UK

12.25

Q Associates Juvenile Hurdle

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

R Johnson A Coleman R Dunne M Goldstein N Fehily S Twiston-Davies Joshua Moore D Jacob

v124 ------92

10-11 Karezak, 6-4 Old Guard, 4-1 Mick Jazz, 20-1 Bassarabad, 25-1 Haleo, Sheer Poetry, 33-1 Highsalvia Cosmos, 100-1 Lucky Dottie.

Rob Wright’s choice: Karezak beat subsequent grade two winner Golden Doyen at Chepstow and will be hard to beat Dangers: Mick Jazz, Old Guard

Doncaster Rob Wright

12.15 Fergal Mael Duin 2.30 Big Water 12.45 |Novirak 3.05 The Kvilleken 1.20 Un Ace 3.35 Charlie Cook 1.55 Taruma Going: good to soft (soft in places on chase course) Tote Jackpot meeting At The Races

12.15 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Novices' Limited Handicap Chase (£3,899: 3m) (11)

22-22 FERGAL MAEL DUIN 23 (BF) D Bridgwater 6-11-8 Tom O'Brien 10-1P MANY STARS 29 (T,D) D Skelton 6-11-7 H Skelton 20-1U DUNDEE 16 (B,D) A King 6-11-6 T Cannon 51-23 PRIMO CAPITANO 34 M Keighley 6-11-5 A Tinkler 56-1P PREMIER PORTRAIT 16 (P,BF) K Bailey 7-11-4 D Bass 43-3F BROADWAY SYMPHONY 30 Tracey L Bailey 7-11-3 G Sheehan 1F-32 JIMMY SHAN 127 (BF) T Vaughan 6-11-3 J E Moore F5-23 BAYLEY'S DREAM 30 P Webber 5-11-2 L Treadwell 0/P-6 DE VOUS A MOI 13 Mrs S Smith 6-10-13 J England (3) 66162 TALES OF MILAN 22 (T,B) P Middleton 7-10-12 H Haynes 2PP/0 REAR VIEW 21 (P) S Waugh 7-10-8 J Banks (3)

4-1 Fergal Mael Duin, 11-2 Jimmy Shan, Primo Capitano, 6-1 Bayley's Dream, 8-1 Many Stars, Tales Of Milan, 9-1 Dundee, 10-1 others.

12.45 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Novices' Hurdle (£3,899: 2m 110y) (18)

06 AMAZING BLUE SKY 17 Mrs R Carr 8-10-12 J Greenall 20-40 AZURE GLAMOUR 16 (BF) N Richards 5-10-12 D N Russell 0 BARREN BROOK 14 (H) M W Easterby 7-10-12 A Thornton CHEVALGRIS 45F G A Swinbank 4-10-12 P Moloney 00 DR IRV 13 P Kirby 5-10-12 F Keniry 0-00 EARL THE PEARL 17 D Skelton 4-10-12 H Skelton ENGROSSING 31F (H) P Niven 5-10-12 L Aspell 5- EXCLUSIVE WATERS 10F Miss T Waggott 4-10-12 W Kennedy 25/ GLINGERBURN 587 N Richards 6-10-12 B Harding GREAT EXPECTATIONS 31F (T) J Jenkins 6-10-12 H Haynes 4 NORTHANDSOUTH 49 N Twiston-Davies 4-10-12 R Hatch (5) NOVIRAK 35F J Fanshawe 6-10-12 D F O'Regan 1212- RELIC ROCK 237 (D) S Gollings 6-10-12 Tom O'Brien P-60 ROCKWEILLER 9F Shaun Harris 7-10-12 D Crosse SET THE TREND 18F D Dennis 8-10-12 G Sheehan SILVERY MOON 34F T Easterby 7-10-12 J Reveley 52- TURKEY CREEK 253 P Webber 5-10-12 L Treadwell 0 VIKING WARRIOR 17 Shaun Harris 7-10-12 Sam Jones

4-1 Relic Rock, 6-1 Azure Glamour, 13-2 Silvery Moon, 7-1 Novirak, 10-1 Dr Irv, Glingerburn, 11-1 Chevalgris, Set The Trend, 12-1 others.

Rob Wright’s midday update thetimes.co.uk/sportsbook

043-F0 F52-34 541-11 4345-0 000-33 2363P053-02 223-05 45-633

1.20 1 2 3 4 5

bet365 Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Chase (£6,498: 2m 2f 110y) (9) HIGHWAY CODE 48 (T,CD,G,S) R Lee 8-11-12 J Best WILTON MILAN 20 (T,P,G,S) P Nicholls 6-11-10 J Sherwood (6) COMEONGINGER 25 (T,G,S) C Gordon 7-11-7 T Whelan WALKABOUT CREEK 17 (G,S) K Frost 7-11-6 J Hodson (3) QUICK DECISSON 23 (S) P Hobbs 6-11-6 M Nolan (3) GREAT OAK 316 (T,D,F,G,S) T Vaughan 8-11-4 A Johns (6) VISION DES CHAMPS 25 (G,S) G L Moore 5-10-9 Joseph Akehurst (8) BARENGER 31 (P,C,D,S) Ali Stronge 7-10-8 C Shoemark OLYMPIAN BOY 19 (D,G,S) Mrs S Leech 10-10-4 Killian Moore (3)

7-2 Comeonginger, 9-2 Quick Decisson, 5-1 Highway Code, 6-1 Wilton Milan, 7-1 others.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11F0-0 340-50 5202-1 10P-01 1110-0 313164 301/4-34411 01P-22 1134/1

Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle

Novices' Chase

13-8 Un Ace, 3-1 Flementime, 4-1 A Tail Of Intrigue, 9-2 others.

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

Handicap Hurdle (£3,249: 3m 110y) (13)

0/4-0 PRINCE OF PIRATES 17 (C,D) B Haslam 9-11-12 A Tinkler 641-P STREAMS OF WHISKEY 32 (BF) N Richards 7-11-11B Harding 10-55 MISTER NEWBY 22 (H,D) R Phillips 8-11-10 D Hiskett (7) 6-143 ORBY'S MAN 22 (T) C Longsdon 5-11-9 K K Woods /1F-5 AZURE AWARE 31 (T,P) K Bailey 7-11-7 D Bass /051- TARUMA 485 (P,D) S West 6-11-6 F Keniry 06-15 WICKED SPICE 41 N Richards 5-11-5 D N Russell 31-45 TOTAL ASSETS 22 S Waugh 6-11-3 J Banks (3) 4-334 THE WINKING PRAWN 1 (T) G McPherson 7-10-12 P Moloney 22222 SOLWAY SAM 13 (D) Miss L Harrison 11-10-12 H Haynes -223U FRONTIER VIC 17 N Twiston-Davies 7-10-11 R Hatch (5) 222F/ HARRY THE LEMMON 674 (T) J Ewart 8-10-9 Lucy Alexander 3-2P4 WESTERLY BREEZE 23 (P) M Keighley 6-10-8 T Bellamy (5)

4-1 Orby's Man, 6-1 Harry The Lemmon, Solway Sam, 8-1 others.

2.30 1 2 3 4 5 6

Handicap Chase (£6,498: 2m 3f) (6)

P305- SHOOTERS WOOD 223 D Pearson 10-11-12 J Cornwall (5) 3-421 BIG WATER 26 G A Swinbank 6-11-8 P Moloney 3-113 SHADRACK 33 (C) K Reveley 10-11-8 J Reveley 33-04 BILLY CUCKOO 18 (V,CD) T Coyle 8-11-1 L Aspell 213/4 PREMIER GRAND CRU 18 (T) J Ewart 8-11-0 Lucy Alexander 13125 TREGARO 44 (T) M Sowersby 8-10-3 B Harding

6-4 Big Water, 7-2 Shadrack, 6-1 Billy Cuckoo, Premier Grand Cru, 7-1 others.

01113/ 200-13 U253-4 1P12-3 41114-

L’Ami Serge gave his trainer a welcome win

Fuller's London Pride Novices' Chase

3.15

(Grade II: £17,370: 2m 4f) (5)

CONEYGREE 671 (D,S) M Bradstock 7-11-1 N De Boinville DEEP TROUBLE 11 (H,D,G,S) B Case 7-11-1 D Jacob DELL' ARCA 14 (G,S) D Pipe 5-11-1 T Scudamore HORATIO HORNBLOWER 28 (C,G,S) N Williams 6-11-1 N Fehily SAPHIR DU RHEU 278 (D,BF,S) P Nicholls 5-11-1 S Twiston-Davies

-136 v140 129 --

11-10 Saphir Du Rheu, 7-2 Coneygree, 4-1 Dell' Arca, 7-1 Deep Trouble, 14-1 Horatio Hornblower.

Wright choice: Saphir Du Rheu was the pick of these over hurdles and looks the sort to be even more effective over fences Danger: Dell’ Arca

2.40

bet365 Open Handicap Chase

4101-1 /221-1 21221/30-3

Inkerman London Novices' Hurdle (£6,498: 2m 5f) (5)

THOMAS BROWN 24 (P,C,D,G,S) H Fry 5-11-6 N Fehily TEA FOR TWO 40 (D,G,S) N Williams 5-11-3 Lizzie Kelly (7) FORYOURINFORMATION 300 (T,S) Miss R Curtis 5-10-12 A P McCoy OUT SAM 243P N Henderson 5-10-12 B J Geraghty PORT MELON 14 (G,S) P Nicholls 6-10-12 Doubtful

152 v159

v131 124 ----

13-8 Tea For Two, 2-1 Thomas Brown, 4-1 Out Sam, 5-1 Foryourinformation.

Wright choice: Tea For Two, useful in bumpers, made a pleasing debut over hurdles at Kempton Park and can follow up Danger: Foryourinformation

3.45

(£31,280: 2m 4f) (9)

2P24-3 ROLLING ACES 34 (T,P,C,D,S) P Nicholls 8-11-12 Doubtful 103-21 SOUND INVESTMENT 20 (T,D,G,S) P Nicholls 6-11-5 S Twiston-Davies F00-00 CANTLOW 13 (CD,S) P Webber 9-11-2 B J Geraghty 1/131- THE PAPARRAZI KID 337 (D,S) W Mullins (Ire) 7-10-11 Robert Walsh 506-21 CARRIGMORNA KING 34 (T,C,D,F,G,S) P Hobbs 8-10-10 R Johnson 11030- PENDRA 221 (G,S) C Longsdon 6-10-10 A P McCoy 2115-0 LOOSE CHIPS 20 (B,D,S) C Longsdon 8-10-7 N Fehily 0011-1 LAMOOL 33 (D,G,S) T Vaughan 7-10-4 M Byrne 3123-4 NO BUTS 20 (D,S) D Bridgwater 6-10-0 T Scudamore

1 2 3 4 5

won’t make the Peterborough and it would be a tall order to go for the King George, having missed a season and never run over three miles.” The defection of Sign Of A Victory would appear to leave the StanJames.com Fighting Fifth Hurdle at the mercy of Irving, now odds-on in a dispiriting field of five. Victory for Irving would complete an unprecedented 100 grade one winners for Paul Nicholls, the champion trainer. Nicholls suffered an odds-on reverse yesterday, however, when Southfield Theatre was no match for Carraig Mor in the grade two novice chase at Newbury. Alan King, who is contemplating the Feltham on Boxing Day for the winner, went on to score with Ned Stark and completed a treble with Yanworth in the bumper.

bet365 " National Hunt" Maiden Hurdle (£6,498: 2m 110y) (11)

5341- BALLAGH 285 (D,S) B Case 5-11-0 D Jacob 1 CAPTAINOFINDUSTRY D Pipe 5-11-0 T Scudamore 2 R Johnson 3 1100-2 COYABA 25 (S) M Keighley 4-11-0 2-3 DAYS OF HEAVEN 34 (BF) N Henderson 4-11-0 B J Geraghty 4 1- DIFFERENT GRAVEY 221P (G) N Henderson 4-11-0 D Bass 5 03 MIRKAT 188 A King 4-11-0 A Coleman 6 P24- REMILUC 241 (T,BF) C Gordon 5-11-0 T Cannon 7 1-0F ROBBIE RABBIT 19 (G) N Hawke 4-11-0 J Best 8 P Brennan 9 1/15-0 SEVEN NATION ARMY 212 (D,S) T George 5-11-0 1- SIMON SQUIRREL 237 (T,D,S) P Nicholls 4-11-0 S Twiston-Davies 10 00 TANIT RIVER 15 (H) T Vaughan 4-11-0 A Johns (7) 11

--v120 116 --109 ---80

9-4 The Paparrazi Kid, 4-1 Pendra, 5-1 Lamool, 6-1 Sound Investment, 7-1 Carrigmorna King, 10-1 Cantlow, No Buts, 14-1 Loose Chips.

9-4 Simon Squirrel, 5-2 Days Of Heaven, 5-1 Seven Nation Army, 6-1 Coyaba, 8-1 others.

Dangers: Unique De Cotte

Wright choice: Sound Investment was impressive when winning at Sandown Park and can defy a 7lb rise Dangers: The Paparrazi Kid, Cantlow

Wright choice: Different Gravey won on his only start in an Irish pointto-point and looks interesting Dangers: Simon Squirrel, Coyaba

10-11 Unique De Cotte, 7-1 Little Boy Boru, 15-2 Tagrita, 8-1 Tullyesker Hill, 12-1 others.

(£3,899: 2m 3f) (5)

1 2 3 4 5

mind and it leaves you rather empty.” Henderson said he would not be averse to reintroducing Sprinter Sacre in the Desert Orchid Chase on December 27, despite it being the race in which he was alarmingly pulled up last year. However, Simonsig has him scratching his head, after the natural target of the Peterborough Chase became impractical. “He had been in really good order until he was lame for a couple of days,” he said. “He’s sound now, and being ridden again, but he

126 133 131 136 136 135 129 134 133 v142

JUNCTION FOURTEEN 42 (BF,S) Miss E Lavelle 5-11-12 A Coleman BALLY LEGEND 20 (T,D,G,S) Mrs C Keevil 9-11-11 J Best REV IT UP 29 (V,D,G,S) T Vaughan 8-11-11 R Johnson TULLYESKER HILL 23 (B,D,G,S) D Pipe 5-11-8 T Scudamore TAGRITA 20 (T,S) P Nicholls 6-11-6 S Twiston-Davies MIDNIGHT OSCAR 20 (P,D,G,S) K Bailey 7-11-2 E Cookson (5) MANBALLANDALL 387 (T,C,S) Fergal O'Brien 6-11-1 S W Quinlan LITTLE BOY BORU 11 (S) Miss S Smith 6-10-10 Mr H Bannister (5) GARDE FOU 23 (T,D,S) Paul Henderson 8-10-6 N Scholfield UNIQUE DE COTTE 12 (S) D Pipe 6-10-5 A P McCoy

Wright choice: Manballandall is unexposed

2.05

1 2

(£8,758: 3m 110y) (10)

21415 A TAIL OF INTRIGUE 17 I Williams 6-11-7 W Kennedy 0P-F1 UN ACE 26 (C) K Bailey 6-11-7 D Bass -U004 MINELLA FORFITNESS 35 (C,D) C Pogson 7-11-1 A Pogson 512P- FLEMENTIME 221 (BF) M Keighley 6-10-8 A Tinkler 1620- FREE THINKING 225 R Waley-Cohen 6-10-8 Mr S Waley-Cohen (3)

1.55

v129 121 123 114 124 106 112 112 128

Wright choice: Highway Code can repeat last year’s win Danger: Barenger

1.30

(3-Y-O: £6,498: 2m 110y) (8 runners)

1 KAREZAK 48 (D,S) A King 11-4 BASSARABAD T Vaughan 10-12 0 HALEO 13 (B) Mrs L Young 10-12 HIGHSALVIA COSMOS 30F M Hoad 10-12 62 MICK JAZZ H Fry 10-12 OLD GUARD 137F P Nicholls 10-12 LUCKY DOTTIE 31F P Phelan 10-5 6 SHEER POETRY 48 R Woollacott 10-5

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Serge in the valuable bet365 Intermediate Hurdle. “Too many people are saying there is something wrong with the horses,” he said. “Our stats are actually the same as last year. Last Saturday was good, we had three winners — but then three odds-on shots get beaten on Monday and everyone thinks I’m committing suicide again. I haven’t quite done that yet but it is pretty tough. “I’m aware people will wonder if Sprinter is ever coming back but he wouldn’t be in training if we didn’t think we were going to get there. It’s my instinct telling me to back off. I don’t have an alternative race in

3.05 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Novices' Handicap Hurdle

(£2,274: 2m 3f 110y) (13)

O35-0 JOKERS AND ROGUES 36 J Wade 6-11-12 D F O'Regan -0422 THE KVILLEKEN 51 (B,BF) M Keighley 6-11-12 T Bellamy (5) 00210 CON FORZA 43 (T,B,D) P Middleton 5-11-11 H Haynes 52B4- ERGO SUM 256 B Pauling 7-11-7 D Bass 60/6- HIGH HOYLANDER 367 T Coyle 8-11-7 L Aspell 5000- WHICHWAYTOBOUGIE 324 K Reveley 5-11-5 J Reveley 0-406 ALL RILED UP 22 H Chisman 6-11-5 D Hiskett (7) P00-0 IFITS A FIDDLE 210 R Phillips 5-11-5 Tom O'Brien 504-3 EXCLUSIVE DANCER 17 (P) G M Moore 5-11-4 F Keniry 53R20 TENNESSEE BIRD 68 M Sowersby 6-11-2 G Sheehan -2616 IVANS BACK 161 (D) N Kent 9-10-12 A Wedge -P605 FIDDLER'S FLIGHT 43 (H) J Norton 8-10-6 A Lane 43-44 FIRST OF NEVER 187 Miss L Siddall 8-10-0 W Kennedy

4.25

154 156 156 154 158 155 156

Handicap (£2,749: 5f 20y) (12)

1 (6) 34612 INVINCIBLE RIDGE 6 (T,CD) E Alston 6-9-7 Luke Morris 2 (8) 20320 BAPAK BANGSAWAN 15 (T,B,C,D) Miss A Stokell 4-9-5 Ann Stokell (5) T Hamilton 3 (4) 65201 DYNAMO WALT 13 (V,CD) D Shaw 3-9-4 P Mulrennan 4 (12) 30040 HADAJ 31 (D) M Herrington 5-9-4 60625 MARIA MONTEZ 38 C Hills 5-9-3 S Drowne 5 (3) 6 (9) 00024 THORPE BAY 6 (D) M Appleby 5-9-2Alistair Rawlinson (5) R Tate (3) 7 (2) 00402 BAINNE 15 (H,D) J Eustace 4-9-2 8 (10) 32400 SHAWKANTANGO 30 (V,C,D) D Shaw 7-9-0 Georgina Baxter (7) 9 (1) 30100 WEST COAST DREAM 13 (C,D) R Brotherton 7-9-0 T Eaves 10 (5) 12314 SIMPLY BLACK 13 (P,CD) D O'Meara 3-8-13 Josh Doyle (7) 11 (7) 50000 MAYFIELD GIRL 102 (D) M Brittain 4-8-13 P McDonald G Lee 12(11) 6-205 FLIGHTY CLARETS 160 R Fahey 4-8-12

7-2 The Kvilleken, 6-1 Ergo Sum, 7-1 Jokers And Rogues, 8-1 others.

9-2 Dynamo Walt, 5-1 Invincible Ridge, 13-2 Bainne, 15-2 Thorpe Bay, 8-1 Simply Black, 10-1 Maria Montez, 11-1 Flighty Clarets, 12-1 others.

3.35

4.55

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

NH Flat Race (£1,625: 2m 110y) (7)

3 CHARLIE COOK 201 G McPherson 5-11-4 R Hatch (5) 65 LOWCARR MOTION 161 P Kirby 4-11-4 Mr J Wright (7) 2 MAGNIMITY 201 H Daly 4-11-4 J McGrath (3) 55-2 RAINY CITY 59 (T,BF) P Nicholls 4-11-4 Miss M Nicholls (7) /3P0- SAMTOMJONES 393 J Norton 6-11-4 Mr P Hardy (7) TROPICAL SUNSHINE P Bickerton 6-11-4 N Slatter (7) 3 VERNI 27 J Ewart 5-11-4 D Irving (7)

10-11 Rainy City, 9-2 Magnimity, 13-2 Verni, 15-2 Lowcarr Motion, 8-1 others.

Wolverhampton Rob Wright

3.55 True Course 5.55 Majeyda 4.25 Dynamo Walt 6.25 Know Your Name 4.55 Logans Lad 6.55 King Of Eden 5.25 John Reel 7.25 Berlusca Going: standard At The Races Draw: 5f-7f, low numbers best

Handicap (£2,102: 5f 216y) (13)

1 (1) 10324 LOGANS LAD 25 (T,B,CD,BF) D Loughnane 4-9-5 E J Walsh (5) Luke Morris 2 (7) 35440 ITALIAN TOM 52 (D) R Harris 7-9-5 3 (6) 40305 CHOOKIE'S LASS 21 (C,D) K Dalgleish 3-9-5J Haynes (3) 4 (5) d0032 JOLLY RED JEANZ 25 (B,D) T Dascombe 3-9-5 W A Carson G Baker 5 (10) 536- SHOTGUN START 437 M Wigham 4-9-5 A Kirby 6 (2) 32505 BINT MALYANA 28 (H,C) P D'Arcy 3-9-5 7 (11) 30150 IMPERATOR AUGUSTUS 104 P Holmes 6-9-4D J Bates (3) J Egan 8 (12) 62320 BLACK DAVE 24 (D) P D Evans 4-9-3 9 (3) 64003 SEVEN LUCKY SEVEN 25 M Herrington 3-9-3 T Eaves 10 (8) 1620- JOHN COFFEY 409 (D) M Appleby 5-9-2 Alistair Rawlinson (5) R Havlin 11 (9) 01040 FOXTROT PEARL 25 (D) J Holt 3-9-2 M Harley 12(13) 65500 VOLITO 25 (D) Anabel Murphy 8-9-2 13 (4) 00000 WHIPPHOUND 25 (C,D) W M Brisbourne 6-9-2 P Mulrennan 11-2 Jolly Red Jeanz, 6-1 Logans Lad, 13-2 Bint Malyana, Chookie's Lass, 9-1 Black Dave, Seven Lucky Seven, Shotgun Start, 12-1 others.

5.25 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Maiden Stakes

(£2,588: 1m 5f 194y) (7)

Ann Stokell (5) (1) 02264 CROPLEY 3 (B) Miss A Stokell 5-9-13 5 DIRECT APPROACH 25 Miss L Siddall 10-9-13 P Aspell (7) 42 JOHN REEL 13 P D Evans 5-9-13 J Egan (6) SILVER SONGSTRESS 17J J Weymes 4-9-8 Luke Morris (2) T Eaves (3) 004 RENEWING 25 R Brotherton 3-9-5 0 ROYAL BATTALION 133 S C Williams 3-9-5 G Baker (4) 4 HARMONICAL 39 M Brittain 3-9-0 P McDonald (5)

Course specialists

3.55

Doncaster: Trainers J Ewart, 7 from 27 runners, 25.9% ; P Nicholls, 11 from 52, 21.2%. Jockey J McGrath, 3 from 10 rides, 30.0%. Musselburgh: Trainers B Mactaggart, 4 from 11, 36.4%; D McCain, 30 from 106, 28.3%. Jockey J M Maguire, 29 from 105, 27.6%. Newbury: Trainers H Fry, 7 from 13, 53.8%; P Nicholls, 38 from 182, 20.9%. Jockeys M Byrne, 3 from 10, 30.0%; R Walsh, 13 from 51, 25.5%. Wolverhampton: Trainers R Varian, 20 from 74, 27.0%; S C Williams, 29 from 111, 26.1%. Jockey K Shoemark, 8 from 36, 22.2%.

1 (9) 15540 THE DAPPER TAPPER 18 (V) Eve Johnson Houghton 9-7 G Downing (5) Martin Dwyer 2 (3) 24033 ROBIN HILL 92 W Muir 9-6 K Shoemark (5) 3 (7) 43445 BAHANGO 98 P Morris 9-6 03201 FROZEN PRINCESS 21 (CD) J Osborne 9-4 G Baker 4 (5) A Kirby 5 (2) 06425 TRUE COURSE 18 C Appleby 9-4 Doubtful 6 (11) 550 TORRIDONIAN 74 J Tate 9-3 50322 MOST TEMPTING 14 (P) R Cowell 9-3 Doubtful 7 (12) W Twiston-Davies 8 (8) 00024 AIR OF YORK 10 (B) R Harris 9-0 Luke Morris 9 (1) 0066 COURSING 14 Sir M Prescott 8-13 S Donohoe 10 (6) 45005 DIMINUTIVE 22 (B) G Harris 8-10 R Da Silva 11(10) 00001 TONI'S A STAR 34 (B,CD) P Green 8-7 A Elliott 12(13) 00442 PANCAKE DAY 15 J Ward 8-6 J Egan 13 (4) 0000 LYDIATE LADY 34 (P) P Green 8-4

1 2 3 4 5 6

3-1 Frozen Princess, 4-1 True Course, 5-1 Coursing, 7-1 others.

11-4 Penny Drops, 100-30 Badr Al Badoor, 7-2 Majeyda, 4-1 others.

Nursery Handicap

(2-Y-O: £2,102: 5f 20y) (13)

11-8 John Reel, 2-1 Cropley, 11-2 Royal Battalion, 15-2 Renewing, 14-1 others.

5.55

Conditions Stakes (£11,828: 7f 32y) (6)

J Fanning (6) 42102 BADR AL BADOOR 16 J Fanshawe 4-9-1 (1) 35310 MAGGIE PINK 20 (C,D) M Appleby 5-9-1 Alistair Rawlinson G Lee (3) 33212 KHATIBA 23 (D) R Varian 3-9-0 A Kirby (2) 1-360 MAJEYDA 163 (D) C Appleby 3-9-0 G Gibbons (4) 32432 PENNY DROPS (B,BF) W Haggas 3-9-0 Luke Morris (5) 61340 STOSUR 34 (B) Miss G Kelleway 3-9-0

Bet of the day Highway Code (12.55 Newbury) Should be sharper for a recent run over hurdles and is just 3lb higher than when winning this a year ago

6.25

Handicap (£2,749: 7f 32y) (10)

1 (7) 22153 SMOKETHATTHUNDERS 6 (C) J Unett 4-9-7 P Mulrennan 2 (4) 53422 AL MUHEER 11 (H,C,D,BF) T Dascombe 9-9-6 P Vaughan (7) 3 (5) 50300 DYNAMITE DIXIE 18 (T,P) Phil McEntee 5-9-5 P Aspell 4 (6) -6050 DREAM SCENARIO 126 (V,C) M Brittain 4-9-4 P McDonald 5 (8) 00052 SHOWBOATING 27 (T,P,C,D,BF) A McCabe 6-9-4 M Harley C Beasley (3) 6 (10) 60100 DISCLOSURE 60 (H,B) L Eyre 3-9-3 T Hamilton 7 (2) 05-00 SUMMERINTHECITY 14 R Fahey 7-9-2 M Naseb (7) 8 (9) 40240 HIERARCH 89 (C,D) D Simcock 7-9-0 A Carter (5) 9 (1) 21000 SMALLJOHN 62 (V,C,D) B Smart 8-8-12 10 (3) 06653 KNOW YOUR NAME 15 (V,D) P D Evans 3-8-10 J Egan 4-1 Showboating, 5-1 Al Muheer, 11-2 Smalljohn, 6-1 Hierarch, 7-1 others.

6.55

Handicap (£2,749: 7f 32y) (10)

G Lee (9) 50042 HAGREE 38 (T,C,D,BF) Declan Carroll 3-9-6 Luke Morris (8) 146 ARTISTIC QUEEN 56 J Tate 3-9-5 J Egan (2) 50043 KING OF EDEN 18 (T,D) E Alston 8-9-4 (1) 50604 KHAJAALY 11 (T,P,C,D) M Appleby 7-9-4 Alistair Rawlinson (5) 5 (7) 32000 PRIME EXHIBIT 7 (T,C,D) D Loughnane 9-9-4 E J Walsh (5) 6 (3) 12605 BEAUTIFUL STRANGER 24 (P,D) K Dalgleish 3-9-3 J Fanning T Eaves 7 (4) 12560 MADAME MIRASOL 7 (P,CD) K A Ryan 3-9-2 J Mitchell 8 (5) 6-032 FLICKSTA 15 John Ryan 3-8-12 T Hamilton 9 (6) 40510 WOODBRIDGE 157 (D) R Fahey 3-8-12 P McDonald 10(10) 40301 LUCKY LODGE 45 (B) M Brittain 4-8-9 1 2 3 4

11-2 Hagree, 6-1 Beautiful Stranger, Flicksta, Khajaaly, 13-2 Lucky Lodge, 8-1 Prime Exhibit, 9-1 Artistic Queen, King Of Eden, 10-1 others.

7.25

Handicap (£7,246: 1m 141y) (13)

G Gibbons 1 (2) 51110 SPES NOSTRA 204 (C,D) T D Barron 6-9-7 A Kirby 2 (8) 40430 MOONDAY SUN 39 A Turnell 5-9-6 T Eaves 3 (1) 14000 SILVERWARE 34 (C,D) K Stubbs 6-9-2 Sam James 4 (6) 01045 BERLUSCA 7 (C,D) D O'Meara 5-9-1 T Hamilton 5 (12) 05200 LOYALTY 11 (V,C,D) D Shaw 7-9-1 M Harley 6 (5) 22100 LACAN 48 (D) M Botti 3-9-1 35424 KINGSCROFT 24 (B,C) M Herrington 6-8-11 G Lee 7 (7) P Makin 8 (4) 61026 HANALEI BAY 24 (C,D) K Dalgleish 4-8-11 J Duern (3) 9 (11) 05005 BROCKLEBANK 14 S Dow 5-8-9 C Beasley (3) 10(10) 65040 MIA'S BOY 14 (C,D) C Dwyer 10-8-9 Luke Morris 11 (9) 26313 ALMANACK 14 (CD) I Williams 4-8-7 J Fanning 12(13) -4000 QUICKASWECAN 14 M Johnston 3-8-6 Hayley Turner 13 (3) 54050 WESTMINSTER 18 M Appleby 3-8-4 11-2 Lacan, 6-1 Hanalei Bay, 7-1 Spes Nostra, 8-1 Almanack, Kingscroft, Mia's Boy, 9-1 Quickaswecan, 10-1 Loyalty, 11-1 Berlusca, 12-1 others.

the times | Friday November 28 2014

FGM

Sport

Murray the Maverick signs up to break with tradition Tennis

Thriller in Manila

Whether it really is a new dawn, or just a money-spinning exhibition, the International Premier Tennis League has attracted the biggest names in the sport to Asia, where the competition begins in Manila today. Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, Andy Murray, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras are among those who have signed up, competing for four franchises that will play matches in Manila, Singapore, Delhi and Dubai over the next three weeks, digging into their traditional close season. The work should be profitable and not too arduous. Each of the teams will play each other in a five-set match, each over three days, in the four cities. Each match consists of five different matchups of a set each, featuring men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, mixed doubles and a legends’ set. Points are scored for each game won, with the team who have the most points after the five-set match winning. The scoring has been tinkered with. There are no deuces, with the first point at 40-40 winning the game, while a tiebreak would be held at 5-5 in a set, all to ensure that the match can be completed in a handy three-hour slot for television purposes. “It is a new concept that we will see if it’s going to work or not,” Djokovic, the world No 1, said. “I’m excited, as all the players who are supposed to be part of

The Coca-Cola International Premier Tennis League consists of four teams, based in the Philippines, Singapore, India and the United Arab Emirates. Each side plays a total of 12 matches, split into three days of action at each venue, first Manila, then Singapore, Delhi and Dubai, concluding on December 13. Matches consist of five single sets, featuring men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, mixed doubles and a legends’ singles. Points are scored for each game won. There will be no deuces, with the first point after 40-40 winning a game. If a set reaches 5-5 it is decided by a tie break. Words by Ron Lewis

the ITPL league, to see how it’s going to go. “We are kind of exploring the new market for tennis. It’s a new concept, and people will be able to see the top tennis players performing some great, high-level tennis, but also not having so much pressure of winning all the time.

So these events are allowing us players to enjoy it, while playing as well and not to think too much about pressure. I don’t think that it can harm in any way the ATP Tour. Anyway, the season is over and this is in our off season.” Neither Djokovic, who will play for the UAE Royals, nor Federer, who will play for the Micromax India Aces, will be in action in Manila over the next three days, but Murray will be as a star attraction for the Manila Mavericks. Today he will play a set against Marin Cilic, who is representing the Royals. Tomorrow Murray faces Gaël Monfils, of the Singapore Slammers, and on Sunday he plays Tomas Berdych, of the Aces. It has been a busy week for Murray, who announced his engagement to Kim Sears as well as chopping Dani Vallverdu and Jez Green from his back-room team. As a boxing fan, he got to meet Manny Pacquiao, one of his heroes, left, yesterday, when he checked out his team’s home court at the Mall of Asia Arena. What future the event has is still to be seen. The formation has not been without difficulties, as planned franchises in Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong collapsed. The tournament is the brainchild of Mahesh Bhupathi, winner of 12 grand-slam doubles titles, who hopes the league will grow to eight teams. “It is a revolutionary team event breaking through the boundaries of traditional formats,” Bhupathi said. “But we need to be sustainable and we don’t want to be too aggressive.”

Hülkenberg doubles up

Prize for Night Games

Tough start for England

Motor racing Nico Hülkenberg is to combine his Formula One role at Force India with competing for Porsche in two rounds of the World Endurance Championship, including the Le Mans 24-hour race next year. Hülkenberg has been given permission by Vijay Mallya, the team principal of Force India, to drive in the six-hour event at Spa-Francorchamps in May as a prelude to Le Mans a month later.

Sports books Anna Krien, an

Hockey England face a tough

Ron Lewis

Musselburgh Rob Wright

12.05 One For Hocky 2.20 Un Anjou 12.35 Tara Mac 2.55 De Chissler 1.10 Boruma 3.25 Masirann 1.45 Merchant Of Dubai Going: good Racing UK

12.05 Handicap Hurdle (£2,599: 3m 110y) (7) 1 13F21 ONE FOR HOCKY 22 (CD) N Richards 6-11-12H Challoner (3) G Watters 2 P62-5 CLONLENEY 18 (T) Alison Hamilton 8-11-10 C Whillans 3 33-P6 WYFIELD ROSE 22 (P) A Whillans 5-11-7 C Nichol 4 30P-P LEROY PARKER 21 (H,B) F Murtagh 6-11-2 J Corbett (8) 5 P15P2 BALLYREESODE 14 (D) S Corbett 9-10-11 Colm McCormack 6 4504F DISCOVERIE 97 Mrs D Sayer 6-10-1 7 5500P FARMERS CROSS 22 (H,V) J Haynes 10-10-0 D O'Regan (3) 6-5 One For Hocky, 7-2 Ballyreesode, 4-1 Discoverie, 10-1 others.

12.35 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Maiden Hurdle (£2,599: 2m) (11)

F0 ANGINOLA 15 D Dennis 5-10-12 B Hughes 0-20 BLAST MARTHA 14 Michael Smith 5-10-12 H Brooke 0-5P0 BRACING 27 N Alexander 5-10-12 Mr K Alexander (7) 36235 CATCHTHEMOONLIGHT 26 (H) Miss L Russell 6-10-12 D R Fox (3) U5P42 DEFINITELY GLAD 41 (T) S Corbett 7-10-12 J Corbett (7) 03 KNOCKLAYDE SNO CAT 27 (T) S Crawford (Ire) 5-10-12 A J Fox (7) 0-P0P QUEENS REGATTA 20 B Mactaggart 5-10-12 T Kelly (3) 43-0 STYLE SETTER 15 (H) D McCain 4-10-12 J M Maguire 230-0 TARA MAC 14 K Dalgleish 5-10-12 C Nichol (3) 6 THANKYOU VERY MUCH 13 J Bethell 4-10-12 J Colliver (5) 055P0 WATCHMEGO 17 (T) M Barnes 6-10-12 M J McAlister

5-2 Definitely Glad, 3-1 Knocklayde Sno Cat, 4-1 Catchthemoonlight, 9-2 others.

1.10

Handicap Chase (£6,256: 2m 4f) (9)

1 4-1PU REAPING THE REWARD 21 (T,D) Miss L Russell 10-11-8 C Nichol (3) D C Costello 2 413-2 THINGS CHANGE 14 (BF) J J Quinn 6-11-6 3 50062 BEARLY LEGAL 24 (T,D) K Thornton (Ire) 8-11-0 G Watters (5) 4 5-214 COBAJAYISLAND 33 (D) Miss L Russell 6-10-13 P Buchanan 5 F03F0 THE ICE FACTOR 28 (T,P) S Crawford (Ire) 6-10-10 A J Fox (7) G Fox (5) 6 24515 BETTER B QUICK 24 (D) P Stafford (Ire) 8-10-9 7 2P255 RYTON RUNNER 45F (T,V,C) Miss L Russell 6-10-7 D R Fox (3) D O'Regan (7) 8 30P2/ BROKETHEGATE 996 C Grant 9-10-3 B Hughes 9 -05F1 BORUMA 10 (D) Mrs D Sayer 4-10-3 4-1 Boruma, 6-1 Cobajayisland, 13-2 Reaping The Reward, 7-1 others.

LEE SMITH / ACTION IMAGES

Man in agony: O’Sullivan rests his broken ankle in between points, during a victory that caused him much pain at the UK Championship in York yesterday

O’Sullivan hobbles to win Snooker

Hector Nunns

Australian author, has won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award with her book Night Games: Sex, Power and a Journey into the Dark Heart of Sport, about the rape trial of a young Australian Rules footballer. It beat six other nominees to the £26,000 prize, including the autobiography of Gareth Thomas, the former Wales rugby player, detailing his struggles with his sexuality.

double-header in the Champions Trophy in Mendoza, Argentina, this weekend, taking on Australia, the six-times former winners, tomorrow before meeting Germany on Sunday. Shona McCallin, 22, the Slough midfielder, is expected to make her debut and for the first time in 15 years, Kate Richardson-Walsh will be missing from the England squad after taking time out to consider her international future.

Ronnie O’Sullivan said that he may have to pull out of his quest for a fifth UK Championship title after limping past the challenge of Daniel Wells, the Welsh amateur, at the Barbican Centre in York despite breaking an ankle. O’Sullivan, 39 next week, had tried to play down the extent of the injury suffered while running in Epping Forest, near his home in Essex, in the build-up to the second most important tournament on the calendar. However, from the moment he hobbled into the arena in loose-fitting shoes, and with a stool next to his chair on which to rest his leg, it was clear that the five-times world champion was severely hampered in most aspects of his game, extending to his stance. Painkillers and a strong desire to cope with the handicap carried the visibly distressed title favourite past Wells, the former professional, 6-2, but there was little joy in O’Sullivan’s expletive-

1.45

2.20

2.55

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

Maiden Hurdle (£2,599: 2m 4f) (12)

30-62 DANEHILLS WELL 16 (H) Alison Hamilton 6-11-0 T Kelly (3) 0-026 DEVENISH ISLAND 167 Karen McLintock 5-11-0 C Whillans (5) P5-F3 FLY VINNIE 21 A Thomson 5-11-0 D Cook 0-04F JACKOFHEARTS 41 Mrs J McGregor 6-11-0 J Kington (3) 0-6P KIWAYU 13 P Kirby 5-11-0 A Nicol (5) 246-2 MERCHANT OF DUBAI 22 J Goldie 9-11-0 R Day (7) 00P NEDDY BOGLE 21 M Todhunter 4-11-0 H Brooke 0 NEW YOUMZAIN 14 Mrs L Normile 5-11-0 G Cockburn (5) 6610 RED SPINNER 33 D McCain 4-11-0 J M Maguire SAINT ELM P Griffin (Ire) 4-11-0 B Hughes P1-4U THE COBBLER SWAYNE 21 Miss L Russell 5-11-0 P Buchanan /3-22 TRADEWINDS 14 (H,BF) J Ewart 6-11-0 D Bourke (5)

5-2 Merchant Of Dubai, 11-4 Tradewinds, 4-1 Danehills Well, 7-1 others.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Handicap Chase (£5,198: 2m) (10)

1-152 CHESTNUT BEN 22 (T,D,BF) P Winks 9-11-12 Mr R Winks (7) -0645 WHY BUT WHY 22 (P,D) N Alexander 6-11-12 Mr K Alexander (7) U5423 UN ANJOU 8 (D) D Dennis 6-11-10 J Bargary (7) 66-15 BALLYCOOL 27 (T,D) Miss L Russell 7-11-7 D R Fox (3) FP-05 REGAL D'ESTRUVAL 23 (D) M Sheppard 9-11-1 C Poste -10U6 YOURHOLIDAYISOVER 26 P Holmes 7-10-13 J Kington (3) 01022 SADDLERS DEAL 46 (P,D,BF) B Ellison 9-10-13 D Cook 600/P RED TANBER 27 (CD) B Mactaggart 11-10-9 T Kelly (3) 00055 WOT A SHOT 42 (H) C McBratney (Ire) 5-10-8 B Hughes 4-06U TWEEDO PARADISO 22 (H) Mrs R Dobbin 7-10-0 C Nichol (3)

4-1 Ballycool, Saddlers Deal, 6-1 Why But Why, 7-1 others.

Handicap Hurdle (£3,249: 2m) (10)

1 O3251 CLAUDE CARTER 22 (P,CD) A Whillans 10-11-12 C Whillans (5) E Sayer (5) 2 51443 ENDEAVOR 22 (P,D) Mrs D Sayer 9-11-10 R Day (7) 3 34FP- SEASIDE ROCK 13F K Dalgleish 4-11-7 G Watters (5) 4 65FF1 DE CHISSLER 16 (D) M Todhunter 7-11-5 D R Fox (3) 5 /F5-0 URBAN KODE 22 (V,D) Miss L Russell 6-11-4 C Nichol (3) 6 0/4U0 SNOOKER 29 (P) Mrs R Dobbin 8-11-1 7 0-0F0 PEGASUS WALK 22 Mrs R Dobbin 5-11-0 Mr T Dowson (7) 8 P-445 DALSTONTOSILOTH 20 (T,BF) F Murtagh 6-10-12 B Hughes H Challoner (3) 9 2544P SO BAZAAR 46 Andrew Wilson 7-10-0 H Brooke 10 0/B-6 VAN MILDERT 21 (P) Mrs E Slack 5-10-0 11-4 De Chissler, 7-2 Endeavor, 4-1 Claude Carter, 13-2 others.

riddled post-match comments. Running has probably saved his snooker career, but on this occasion it had hurt him. “I didn’t enjoy any of that,” he said. “It was painful for me to play with it out there with this. It is broken, so I am f***ed, basically. As far as pulling out goes, I practised and then wanted to see what would happen out there. “But I was all over the gaff. If it doesn’t improve, I’m not sure I can play the next match. I couldn’t get on the shot properly. I was hobbling around and it was swelling up and very painful. I did all I could do and took painkillers, but if it is not better by Sunday then I probably won’t play. “I am gutted, it is so frustrating. I am enjoying my snooker more than ever. I am so f***ing annoyed, maybe I should stop running till the end of my career.” Ali Carter was edged out 6-5 by Zhang Anda, of China, in the former Crucible finalist’s first ranking tournament since undergoing treatment for lung cancer this year. 3.25 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

NH Flat Race (£1,949: 2m) (8)

0-4 ANOTHER BYGONES 21 (H) Karen McLintock 5-11-2 A Nicol (5) 04 ATTENTION PLEASE 32 Mrs R Dobbin 4-11-2 H Brooke 0-5 CHAIN OF BEACONS 203 A Thomson 5-11-2 Steven Fox (7) 0-64 CHASING WATERFALLS 22 C Swan (Ire) 4-11-2 B Hughes 252 IM TOO GENEROUS 21 S Crawford (Ire) 4-11-2 Mr S Crawford (3) LEADING SCORE (H) J Ewart 4-11-2 D Bourke (5) 4P2- MAKE IT HAPPEN 222P Miss L Russell 5-11-2 G Cockburn (5) 2-3 MASIRANN 21 (BF) B Ellison 6-11-2 D Cook

9-4 Im Too Generous, 100-30 Masirann, 9-2 Chasing Waterfalls, 13-2 others.

Blinkered first time: Doncaster 12.15 Dundee. 3.05 Con Forza, The Kvilleken. Musselburgh 12.05 Farmers Cross. 1.10 Ryton Runner. Wolverhampton 5.55 Penny Drops. 6.25 Disclosure.

Yesterday’s racing results Newbury

Going: heavy (soft in places)

12.25 (2m 110yd hdle) 1, Jollyallan (A P McCoy, 1-8 fav); 2, Lanceur (12-1); 3, Capilla (7-1). 5 ran. 4Kl, 23l. H Fry. 1.00 (3m 2f 110yd ch) 1, Woodford County (Mr C Gethings, 2-1 fav; Thunderer’s nap); 2, Itoldyou (5-1); 3, Susquehanna River (11-4). 5 ran. 1Nl, 1Kl. P Hobbs. 1.35 (2m 5f hdle) 1, Vazaro Delafayette (T Scudamore, 7-4 fav); 2, Spookydooky (5-1); 3, Church Hall (12-1). 7 ran. 8l, 3Nl. D Pipe. 2.10 (3m ch) 1, Carraig Mor (N D Fehily, 21); 2, Southfield Theatre (4-11 fav); 3, My Silver Cloud (50-1). 1Nl, 99l. A King. 2.45 (2m 6f 110yd ch) 1, Ned Stark (D F O’Regan, 5-2 fav); 2, Timesawastin (8-1); 3, Knockanrawley (14-1). 8 ran. 3Kl, 1l. A King. 3.15 (2m 110yd hdle) 1, L’Ami Serge (B J Geraghty, 9-4 fav); 2, Kilcooley (6-1); 3, Violet Dancer (12-1). 8 ran. 6l, 9l. N Henderson. 3.45 (2m 110yd flat) 1, Yanworth (A P McCoy, 11-10 fav); 2, Rabunda (4-1); 3,

Rollingontheriver (7-4). 4 ran. 2l, 11l. A King. Placepot: £27.60. Quadpot: £20.10.

Taunton

Going: soft (good to soft in places) 12.35 (2m 1f hdle) 1, Ascendant (Brendan Powell, 13-8 fav); 2, Arrayan (6-1); 3, In The Crowd (8-1). 9 ran. 14l, 5l. A Reid. 1.10 (2m 3f 110yd hdle) 1, Earthmoves (Nick Scholfield, 11-2); 2, Gaelic Myth (9-4 fav); 3, Assam Black (5-2). 13 ran. NR: Rathlin Rose. 4l, 5l. P Nicholls. 1.45 (2m 110yd ch) 1, Cody Wyoming (J M Maguire, 6-5 fav); 2, Sun Wild Life (10030); 3, Somchine (9-2). 4 ran. 1l, 4l. C Mann. 2.20 (2m 1f hdle) 1, Come On Annie (Mrs Alex Dunn, 9-4); 2, Bollin Judith (15-2); 3, Cloudy Spirit (8-15 fav). NR: Fairy Alisha. 6l, 4Kl. A Dunn. 2.55 (3m 110yd hdle) 1, Floral Spinner (R While, 11-2); 2, Barton Heather (5-4 fav); 3, Regal Flow (15-2). 6 ran. 2l, 22l. W G M Turner.

3.25 (2m 7f 110yd ch) 1, Ballyegan (G Derwin, 11-8 fav); 2, Kilcascan (9-2); 3, Bob Will (17-2). 8 ran. Hd, 14l. R Buckler. 4.00 (2m 3f 110yd) 1, Shot In The Dark (G Tumelty, 9-1); 2, Ordensritter (4-1); 3, Canarbino Girl (33-1). Minister Of Mayhem 3-1 fav. 9 ran. 1Nl, 10l. J Geake. Placepot: £20.90. Quadpot: £11.90.

Uttoxeter Going: heavy (soft in places) 12.15 (2m hdle) 1, Rose Of The World (S P Jones, 6-1); 2, Pandorica (7-4 fav); 3, Tyre Hill Lady (3-1). 8 ran. Nk, 18l. Miss J Davis. 12.45 (3m hdle) 1, Zeroeshadesofgrey (Trevor Whelan, 8-13 fav); 2, Relentless Dreamer (15-8); 3, St Johns Point (9-1). 5 ran. NR: Devenish Island. 16l, 13l. N King. 1.20 (3m ch) 1, Rattlin (Callum Bewley, 100-30); 2, Molly’s A Diva (10-11 fav); 3, Churchtown Love (9-4). NR: Top Totti. 54l, 31l. Mrs S Smith.

1.55 (2m hdle) 1, Lady Garvagh (M G Nolan, 9-2); 2, Acapulco Bay (4-1); 3, Stag Hill (92). Summertime Lady (6th) 3-1 fav. 7 ran. NR: Lady Ra. Hd, 17l. R Woollacott. 2.30 (2m 4f 110yd hdle) 1, Chestertern (G Sheehan, 6-4 fav); 2, Rouquine Sauvage (7-4); 3, L Frank Baum (5-1). 6 ran. NR: Gurkha Brave, Safari Journey. 1Kl, 8l. W Greatrex. 3.05 (2m 4f ch) 1, Ray Diamond (James Best, 15-8); 2, Lord Lir (11-4); 3, Mohi Rahrere (7-4 fav). NR: Hi Bob. 21l, Ol. Miss J Du Plessis. 3.35 (2m flat) 1, The Boss’s Dream (Trevor Whelan, 1-3 fav); 2, Primo Blue (22-1); 3, Charlie Breekie (5-2). 4 ran. NR: Monkey Rum. 3l, 3Ol. N King. Placepot: £92.50. Quadpot: £60.70.

Kempton Park

Going: standard 3.55 (6f) 1, Waabel (Jordan Vaughan, 6-4 fav); 2=, Encapsulated (8-1); 2=, Fairy Wing (25-1); . 10 ran. NR: Picnic In The Glen, Sweet Piccolo. 1l, dht. Miss A Stokell.

4.25 (1m) 1, Logorrheic (S M Levey, 7-1); 2, Quest For Wonder (5-1); 3, Whitchurch (121). Niblawi (4th) 10-11 fav. 14 ran. Kl, 2Kl. R M Beckett. 4.55 (1m) 1, What A Dandy (P Cosgrave, 132); 2, Tevez (25-1); 3, Chelwood Gate (6-1). Flamborough Breeze (4th) 2-1 fav. 9 ran. NR: Mambo Spirit. Hd, Ol. J R Boyle. 5.25 (7f) 1, Engaging Smile (Jim Crowley, Evens fav); 2, Rastanora (9-2); 3, Hyphaema (20-1). 9 ran. 1Ol, Kl. R M Beckett. 5.55 (7f) 1, Redstart (A Kirby, 5-6 fav); 2, Althania (2-1); 3, Plaisir (9-1). 8 ran. NR: Faery Song. 2N, 1Kl. R M Beckett. 6.25 (7f) 1, Cascading Stars (L Morris, 121); 2, Them And Us (4-1); 3, Colour Party (11-4). Muradif (6th) 9-4 fav. 7 ran. Kl, Kl. J S Moore. 6.55 (2m) 1, Strawberry Martini (M Dwyer, 7-1); 2, Charlie Wells (7-2 fav); 3, Shadarpour (5-1). 10 ran. ns, 1N. W R Muir. 7.25 (6f) 1, Mishaal (P Mulrennan, 11-2); 2, Spring Fling (8-1); 3, Plucky Dip (Evens fav). 12 ran. 2N, Ol. M Herrington. Placepot: £259.00. Quadpot: £32.00.

FGM

Friday November 28 2014 | the times

Sport Rugby union

Bath’s band of brothers join forces for club and country Rick Broadbent

If football had Manchester United and their class of ’92, rugby now has Bath XXV. As he sits in a listed gothic building on a sun-dappled estate, just upstairs from the grand piano, Mike Ford is understandably optimistic. “When we crack it, I don’t think we will win it for just one year,” he says. The Bath head coach is talking dynasties. The Bath forwards have done their bit for England this autumn, with David Wilson scoring a try against South Africa and Dave Attwood juggling All Blacks with babies, but a string of what Ford terms “a band of brothers” have played in the backs. The Bath manifesto — “predominantly, we want a team that is young and English”. Heading this club and country list is Ford’s son, George, at present ousting Owen Farrell at No 10, while Kyle Eastmond, Semesa Rokoduguni and Anthony Watson have all featured for Stuart Lancaster’s stuttering side. Bubbling under are Jonathan Joseph, rated by Ford as “the outstanding player in the Premiership”, and Sam Burgess — the marquee signing from rugby league, Australia and Russell Crowe — who makes his Bath debut against Harlequins tonight. For Ford, another rugby league convert in his second full season in

charge at Bath’s plush Farleigh House HQ, the supply line is testament to the day he sat down with Bruce Craig, the owner, to find the Bath way. “I came up with the philosophy that we are a Roman city and should aim to score 25 points a game. Hence, you see the XXV on the kit. In crude terms, that’s what we’re about — we’re an attacking team,” he said. “In the past they’d tried to buy a culture, signing the best players like Stephen Donald and Lewis Moody, and it had not worked out. We looked at Manchester United in the 1990s and the way they had youth coming through together. Did we stumble on it? A bit, and we need older influences, too, but we also talked about having a band of brothers growing together over a period of time. George was the catalyst.” The internecine duel between old friends, George Ford and Farrell, is a clash of contrasts and tomorrow’s game against Australia has huge implications for both. “After this weekend, everyone can compare apples with apples,” Ford Sr says. It could be a crucial two days for the family. George’s mother, a lay rugby fan, dragged him shopping this week and ignored his protestations that he had an international on Saturday. “It’s only a game,” she told him. Father and son do not share her

Burgess bow pleases Lancaster Owen Slot Chief Rugby Correspondent

That Sam Burgess is to make his debut for Bath tonight against Harlequins has predictably raised interest in his future for England. Stuart Lancaster, the England head coach, said yesterday: “We will subjectively and objectively assess all the players and Sam will come into that equation because, clearly, he’s a good player. This is one game of many he will play in rugby union. “Speaking to a couple of the Bath lads, speaking to Kyle Eastmond, I asked how he was settling in and he just said, ‘He looks pretty good to me.’ ” There are no remaining Aviva A League matches for Burgess to gain a soft start in union. Lancaster said: “Credit to Bath for doing what they’re

doing — he’s going straight into a Premiership game against a Harlequins side who are desperate for the win, so it’s a big game for both teams.” George Ford, the fly half, said: “I haven’t been at the club the last couple of weeks, but the lads have been saying he’s looked really sharp in training. He’s the type of character who wanted to play three weeks ago when he still wasn’t fit. “He’s going to do everything he can to make it a success. From my point of view, I can’t see it not being a success just because of the way he is. Putting a timescale on it is difficult.”

MIKE HEWITT / GETTY IMAGES

On the charge: Watson, who made his England debut this month, is one of a crop of youngsters to have impressed at Bath

nonchalance. There are downsides to working in tandem, as the Farrells know from the naysayers’ nepotism charge, and when George moved from Leicester last year, the Fords expected similar sniping. “We actually put something in place with the owner, but we’ve never spoken about it since,” Mike says. “All you can do is be honest.” What makes George special? “Every day he wants to come to work and get better. Simple as that.” Is that unusual in professional sport? “Yes, unbelievably so. He’s the kid who sits at the bottom of the stairs at 7am for an 8am meeting, bags packed the night before, when it only takes ten minutes to get there.” Father has only once taken son to task. “We went on holiday when he was at Leicester and he was [being] a nasty short-tempered git. I gave him a grinding, but I knew why it was — he was not playing where he felt he should have been.” Fly half at Bath is clearly that place, but Ford accepts that forging an England team from different club cultures is difficult. He cites the Harlequins way with its quick tempo, Saracens’ kickchase and Leicester Tigers’ set-piece strategy. “Our way is to go at defences. We don’t play deep like most international teams. I was a defence coach for years and know where defenders don’t want to be. I want them to have 0.5 seconds to make a decision not five. I want a confrontational, in-your-face

Ford’s backs for the future George Ford (aged 21) Caps 5: Son of Mike Ford, the head coach, and now challenging Owen Farrell for the England No 10 jersey. Kyle Eastmond (aged 25) Caps 6: Former rugby league man rated by Ford as the centre who will soon take rugby by the scruff of the neck. Anthony Watson (aged 20) Caps 3: Flying back who impressed in England’s win over Samoa. Semesa Rokoduguni (aged 27) Caps 1: Army winger who played against the All Blacks. Ford calls him “one of the kids” because he is still young in terms of his rugby career. Jonathan Joseph (aged 23) Caps 6: Ford wondered if he was too soft mentally before signing him. Says has been proved wrong. Sam Burgess (aged 25) Caps 0: The debate about whether he will be best used in the centre or back row will take off after tonight’s Bath debut.

attack. It’s why we brought Sam in — he can play in those tight areas,” he says. There is more to come from the Bath backs. “We can get a lot, lot better and are only scratching the surface,” Ford

said. Joseph was ready this autumn but it was “not his time”, and Ford has told him to be prepared for when Lancaster calls. “I told them all that the last thing you can do is be selfish and play well, but not give a s*** about the team. If they train well together and play well together, they’ll get picked together.” Playing club combinations for England is not “rocket science” and he says Eastmond’s time is coming, despite the knockers’ suspicion of small centres. He says Eastmond never missed a tackle for England in his two games this autumn and “smashed” Sonny Bill Williams. “I think he’s the one who will take the game by the scruff of the neck. The leadership qualities, which he did not have before, are coming through.” And there is Burgess’s blossoming to look forward to, too. Could he join the “band of brothers” in time for the World Cup? “Yes, definitely. He asks 1,000 questions. He’s intelligent. He doesn’t look like an alien. I don’t get too worried about the technicalities — I ask, can he run the football, can he make the ground and can he make the tackles?” Ford’s wife, Sally-Anne, was too late to get a ticket for tonight’s game so she will watch on television and sort out the boxes after moving last week. “She would not come down in case it did not work out for George,” Mike said. “She finally moved last Wednesday, which was ironic. I said, ‘He’s starting for England — do you think we can say it’s worked out now?’ ”

All Schools plan to widen sport’s appeal before World Cup Alex Lowe

The RFU is working to break down perceptions that the sport is the preserve of the wealthy, white middle class as part of wide-reaching efforts to ensure that next year’s World Cup leaves a positive and lasting legacy on English rugby. The RFU’s “Lead up and Legacy” plan has seven pillars, four of which are focused on building participation in the game, and one of the key projects within that is the All Schools programme.

The £10 million scheme, which is supported by CBRE, the property adviser, is designed to introduce rugby into 400 state secondary schools before the World Cup and 750 before the 2019 tournament in Japan. The RFU already has 300 schools signed up, with the final tranche to come on board next September. Steve Grainger, the RFU’s community rugby director, believes that the governing body will be ready to capture the moment and maximise the benefits of hosting the World Cup.

That not only means providing youngsters with an opportunity to play, which is where the All Schools programme kicks in, but also that they have access to the coaches, clubs’ facilities and kit. “We started early, three years before the final,” Grainger said. “We are convinced we can create a real legacy. We started making sure we have a supply chain ready before the tournament. “All Schools is trying to change the perception that rugby is an exclusive sport and prove it is inclusive. The

values of the sport are very similar to the values of a school. “We want to ingrain rugby through the life of the school, not just on the pitch but in terms of attendance, behaviour and self-esteem. We are hearing some good success stories. “We have introduced rugby to Cranford School in Hounslow, which has a heavy Asian population. An assistant head teacher there has said it is beginning to have a significant impact on the community. “He attended a meeting in the

mosque and someone said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we got a Mo Farah in rugby?’ “By getting more schools to play rugby, it means there are already programmes in place for when the kids get excited during the World Cup. You have to have the opportunities there when participants want them. It is no good saying, ‘Come back in six weeks,’ because you have missed the moment.” That was one of the key issues after the London Olympic Games, and the All Schools programme is the matchday charity at Twickenham tomorrow.

the times | Friday November 28 2014

FGM

Centre parting puts style over substance TOM DWYER/REX FEATURES

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Stuart Barnes Commentary

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he decision to drop Owen Farrell for the fourth of the autumn internationals should be as contentious as the decision to select him for the first one. With less than two full games behind him, he was named fly half for the match against New Zealand. Now, with three weeks of international rugby behind him, we are told this integral part of the squad will play a big part from the bench. So what happened to the long-term plan to look at George Ford and Farrell’s celebrated junior midfield partnership at senior level. Was last Saturday it? If so, the decision to discard the idea appears impatient and premature. Ford said that he enjoyed playing alongside Farrell against Samoa and the highlight of the (admittedly murky) afternoon, Ford’s stabbed cross-field kick for the try by Mike Brown, was apparently on the call of Farrell. In the first half, Farrell’s deft pass to the looping Ford played a crucial role in the first England try. There was plenty of tentative stuff in between, but what was expected as two fly halves combined from the start of a senior international for a first time? Amid the dross there were seemingly enough moments to make the plan worth persisting with for one more game; especially one where victory is probably more important than it has been for any game during the Stuart Lancaster regime. Three wins minimum was the target this autumn; those were the words of the England head coach, not the media. Defeat tomorrow leaves England with one win over a small rugby nation that is playing through a state of internal rebellion. And while Farrell is out of form, the case for retaining him this time is greater than it has been all month. The bright sparks would have been enough for Lancaster to justify a second look at an idea he has harboured for a few years. The quality of Farrell’s goalkicking and the

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Kicked to touch: Farrell did not deserve to start at fly half against New Zealand but Lancaster has been too quick to dispense with England’s 10-12 partnership

question marks that are yet to be answered by Ford (they cannot be until he succeeds under the greatest pressure) must have tempted Lancaster to retain them in tandem. That would have been the pragmatic selection. It would also have been deeply unpopular. But that is not to say it would have been the wrong one. Would I have picked Farrell? On form and fitness he was not ready for the first two internationals, but bringing him on from the bench if required would have been a fair option. By the time of the third game he was clearly not deserving of a starting place, but international selection is not as simplistic as who deserves what. Given Ford’s form and Farrell’s excellent kicking under pressure, given Farrell’s edge and Ford’s class, given the problem finding a 10-12 link through the years, it was worth a try

against Samoa. Unless it was an absolute calamity, the trial had to be looked at against the more serious challenge of Australia. So yes, I would have selected Farrell for an international that could revive England or send them into a tailspin from which they may feasibly not recover in time for the World Cup. Picking a team in the pub and in the media is a whole other world to selecting as a head coach. Aesthetics are not on tomorrow’s agenda, only the result counts. That is why the recall of Billy Twelvetrees is far from the obvious one. The Gloucester man may have impressed in training and have skills that fit Lancaster’s inside centre playbook, but he has a tendency to the fickle, something that infuriated the management in the second international in Dunedin during the summer. It is one hell of an occasion to recall

him at the expense of England’s clutch kicker. On Saturday, Ford kicked well without ever looking like nailing the difficult kicks. If he strikes the ball as he can, if his technique overcomes the questions surrounding his temperament as a goalkicker, Ford will turn a risky selection into a good one. But if England lose because of goalkicking, the blame should be directed at the head coach, who has, in this instance, made the easier, popular decision to go with the antiFarrell flow when a punchy pragmatic game and a proven goalkicker were the prime elements required. The retention of Ford has left many critics suggesting he has earned a long run at fly half. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Farrell has been taken from the line of fire, but remains that “integral” part of the team. Ford will have to kick his goals as well as run the game with the feel and touch that marks him as potentially special. If Australia make a mess of Ford, Owen Farrell will have two months of club rugby to revive his case for the fly half shirt. Farrell has been at the heart of the team for three years and with less than a year to go to the World Cup, he is not going to disappear. The Bath pivot has to play the game of his life to remain the favourite to wear No 10 in the opening game of the Six Nations Championship in Cardiff. Farrell will not be as hastily discarded as the Ford/Farrell experiment has been. The brave decision would have been to stick, not twist, with the choice at No 12. As Dryden once wrote, “The most may err as grossly as the few.”

Rugby union Sport

Hooper gives Robshaw seal of approval as ‘absolute pest’ John Westerby

To an open-side flanker, it ranks as quite a compliment to be described as an “absolute pest”. Chris Robshaw may still be struggling to win over the doubters who would prefer to see England pick a more traditional No 7, or at least to examine Steffon Armitage’s suitability for international rugby, but Michael Hooper, his opposite number as captain and open-side at Twickenham tomorrow, was happy yesterday to point out that good flankers come in different shapes and sizes. The past two meetings with Australia have prompted the extremes of opinion on Robshaw and his role in the England back row. Two years ago, Hooper was outstanding in Australia’s 20-14 victory at Twickenham, dominating the breakdown and raising serious questions about England’s lack of a scavenging No 7. Last year, England turned the tables with a 20-13 win and Robshaw gave one of his finest performances for his country, even scoring a try. “Robshaw is an absolute pest,” Hooper said. “Last year he had a really good performance against us around the ruck disrupting our ball, and made it a tough night for us around the breakdown. His work ethic is great, that’s the main attribute of a No 7. He’s their leader and a big part of the team.” Hooper has established himself as one of the game’s leading flankers, although he will face a struggle to retain the No 7 shirt if David Pocock makes a full recovery from his latest knee injury. Australia will wear black armbands at Twickenham as a mark of respect for Phillip Hughes, the Australia Test batsman. “It was news you never want to wake up to,” Hooper said. “For us as a team, it was a pretty sombre mood and all our thoughts go to his family.” Liam Williams will replace George North on the wing for Wales’s game against South Africa tomorrow. North was ruled out after suffering concussion in the defeat by New Zealand last weekend. Wales (to play South Africa tomorrow): L Halfpenny; A Cuthbert, J Davies, J Roberts L Williams; D Biggar, R Webb; G Jenkins, S Baldwin, S Lee, J Ball, A W Jones, D Lydiate, S Warburton, T Faletau. Replacements: E Phillips, A Jarvis, R Jones, L Charteris, J King, M Phillips, R Priestland, S Williams.

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Friday November 28 2014 | the times

Sport Rugby union

Changing times put Lancaster in the spotlight over selections

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER, GRAHAM HUGHES

Owen Slot on England’s latest centre pairing and the questions it raises about the head coach’s culpability over the lack of continuity in the side

tuart Lancaster confirmed yesterday a team for the final autumn international match against Australia that contained three changes — and a whole load more questions about how he is selecting his team. Throughout his tenure, the England head coach’s selection policy has placed value on consistency and continuity. By bringing Billy Twelvetrees in for Owen Farrell at No 12, however, he will try his third 10-12 combination in three matches and his fifth centre pairing in six. Circumstances have played their part in this, but since England hit their poor run of form, continuity has been shelved while Lancaster has mixed and matched in search of threequarter combinations to rescue his poor autumn campaign. The other changes were as expected, with Dylan Hartley returning at hooker for Rob Webber and Tom Wood displacing James Haskell, who is retained on the bench. However, the real questions surrounding this team are still those at half back and midfield; World Cup combinations should by now be starting to bed in, but Lancaster has not yet decided on who is in the bed. The Australia game at Twickenham tomorrow thus assumes massive importance, not only for the team’s confidence but also for Lancaster’s credibility. In switching and switching again, he has had to address the problem of Farrell’s poor form and yet denied his England team: M Brown (Harlequins); A Watson (Bath), B Barritt (Saracens), B Twelvetrees (Gloucester), J May (Gloucester); G Ford (Bath), B Youngs (Leicester Tigers); J Marler (Harlequins), D Hartley (Northampton Saints), D Wilson (Bath), D Attwood (Bath), C Lawes (Northampton Saints), T Wood (Northampton Saints), C Robshaw (Harlequins, captain), B Morgan (Gloucester). Replacements: R Webber (Bath), M Mullan (Wasps), K Brookes (Newcastle Falcons), G Kruis (Saracens), J Haskell (Wasps), R Wigglesworth (Saracens), O Farrell (Saracens), M Yarde (Harlequins).

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combinations the chance to work repeatedly together and improve. It is Lancaster’s contention that his training group works slickly enough to allow for such changes. If the new 10-12 of George Ford and Twelvetrees settles quickly into game-breaking form, then the day is his. As he acknowledged, tomorrow’s game is a real “mood shaper”. Lancaster’s new-look England thus prepare for a critical game with some of their recent team-mates surplus to requirements, even on the bench. What was, in the RBS Six Nations Championship last season, a settled unit is now changing fast. Danny Care, for instance, was the No 1 scrum half three weeks ago and he is now No 3. Likewise, Kyle Eastmond was the first-choice No 12 and is now third choice. Semesa Rokoduguni was a first-choice wing against the All Blacks at the start of the month, but now probably comes in fourth. Lancaster talked through his attitude to team changes yesterday with this explanation: “Everyone understands that if you’re given the opportunity there’s a responsibility to perform and you have to do that consistently, and if you don’t then the likelihood is that someone else will get the chance.”

Back in favour: Twelvetrees plays centre for England against Australia in place of Farrell, who is dropped to the bench

His explanation is hard to dispute, and though it may seem harsh, it probably applies to Care and Billy Vunipola. More surprisingly, it almost certainly applies to Eastmond who played two games outside Farrell, a No 10 who was not in form and whose game is hardly a neat fit for Eastmond’s even when he is. Some hard analysis on Eastmond’s game has clearly worked against him. Lancaster said yesterday: “We have given Kyle an opportunity in the first two games. There are areas of the game where Kyle had done well, but equally there were one or two areas where he needed to step up.”

Inside today

Centre parting puts style over substance Stuart Barnes, page 55

Farrell has also paid the price, though his is not half so great. He is still retained in the match-day squad of 23, but the demotion disproves the theory that he is undroppable. “He accepted that George had played well and that he’s not on top form,” Lancaster said. The head coach also said that last weekend’s Samoa game was evidence that Farrell could play at No 12, though this, in itself, was contradictory. Farrell had given evidence that he could play 12? Yes. But enough to play 12 this weekend? No. Of all the fall guys, Rokoduguni seems the most unfortunate. He was injured for the South Africa game, an injury that made selection for the Samoa game harder, and now that he is fully fit, he has seen Anthony Watson stake a proper claim to his place. “That injury changed the dynamic of this series, but it hasn’t changed the dynamic

of what we think he can do,” Lancaster said. Lancaster seemed to be saying that Rokoduguni would be back. The tenor of his assessment of these games, though, suggests that there are some who will not. “This series, we will have learnt a lot about the merits and strengths of the players, about who can and who can’t deliver,” he said. But who is it that has he learnt cannot deliver? The biggest losers in this game of shuffle and reshuffle: Care and Eastmond. Surely he doesn’t mean Care. What he has really learnt is that some leading performers from recent campaigns — Care, Farrell and Vunipola — have not delivered this time round. That does not mean that they cannot, it just shows that they haven’t. That is the real concern. For now, Lancaster desperately needs to have alighted on some alternatives who can.

Unfazed Ford happy to be reunited with another old friend Alex Lowe

England may be fielding their third inside centre in as many weeks but George Ford, the fly half, expects the transition between Owen Farrell and Billy Twelvetrees to be seamless. He is simply swapping one old friend for another. Ford and Twelvetrees played together for Leicester Tigers, cutting their teeth on cold and wet Monday nights on the A League circuit before graduating into the senior squad. Although both players moved on from Welford Road, they have remained close friends off the field. Tomorrow, they will be reunited on it as England’s twin playmakers against Australia, charged with masterminding a successful end to an otherwise

disappointing QBE autumn international series. Twelvetrees has been reinstated at inside centre with Farrell, Ford’s friend from their school days in Harpenden, dropped to the bench for only the second time in his England career. “It’s one mate after another,” Ford said yesterday. “I played with Billy at Leicester for a long time and we see each other all the ay time. It’s good to play with someone you ha have a relationship with as you can talk about the game easily. “Billy’s natural position is 12. He is very good at talking through the game and feeding information, Ford starts at fly half again

he has that second pair of hands to distribute and he can kick the ball. It helps when you have tw two people who can do that.” Twelvetrees appeared to have made the England No 12 jersey his own after starting every match of the RBS Six Nations Championship, and he turned in some impressive per performances alongside Luther Burrell. An ankle injury cut his season short, but he went on to tour to New Zealand and after six weeks out of action, he was asked to start the second international against the All Blacks. Tw Twelvetrees produced a decent

first half, but tried to force an offload and New Zealand counterattacked to score a try. It was a costly mistake. Twelvetrees was dropped and left under no illusions by Stuart Lancaster, the head coach, that his game-management and decision-making had to improve. “It’s professional sport, it’s cut-throat,” Twelvetrees said. “I was very disappointed, like any player who is dropped. “When I get told I need to do things, it’s about going away, working on them and being better from it. My whole pre-season at Gloucester was about making better decisions in games, being more positive where I can and making good impacts.” Twelvetrees, who earned the start with a bright performance off the bench

against Samoa last weekend, vowed that the fallout from that failed offload would not cramp his style and he is looking forward to forging a partnership with Ford that could continue into the Six Nations. “I am fully aware of that opportunity and that is what is very exciting for me and for George,” Twelvetrees said. “Those A League years were some of the most fun times. I remember going up to Sale on a Monday night when it was raining and cold, but the boys were really excited. You know there is someone in the first team ahead of you and that is where you aspire to be. It is the same with England. “It is nice George and I had that time together in the second team at Leicester and then the first team, and now we have an opportunity at the weekend.”

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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Sport

Coe running for president in bid to widen appeal Athletics

Ron Lewis Athletics Correspondent

Lord Coe will stand for the presidency of the IAAF next summer, promising a hard line on drugs and to make athletics more exciting for younger people to watch and compete in. The two-times Olympic 1,500 metres champion, who was chairman of the London 2012 organising committee, formally announced his candidacy to take over as the president from Lamine Diack, who will stand down next summer. The 81-year-old from Senegal has held the role since 1999. He is likely to face opposition from Sergey Bubka, the great Ukrainian pole vaulter, and Nawal El Moutawakel, who won the women’s 400 metres hurdles for Morocco at the 1984 Olympic Games, when the vote is held at the next IAAF congress in Beijing on August 18.

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER, BEN GURR

Front-runners for the post Sebastian Coe Age: 58. Country: Great Britain Olympic golds: 2 (1,500 metres, 1980 and 1984). World records: 11. IAAF council member since 2003, vice-president since 2007.

It will be Coe who will be the favourite, however, having been increasingly active inside the IAAF and having headed the evaluation committee for the 2019 World Championships that were awarded to Doha, the capital of Qatar, last week. Diack has also hinted that Coe would get his support. “As long as I can remember, I have woken knowing that athletics, in some way, would shape my day,” Coe said yesterday. “As a young boy, running was the thing that I loved beyond anything else and I have been hugely fortunate that athletics has been at the centre of my life ever since. “As I speak to friends and colleagues around our great sport I appreciate that we are entering a very important time for athletics and that it is the right time to open a discussion about the future. “That discussion needs to focus on how we build on the many achievements of recent years, recognise that

Sergey Bubka Age: 50. Country: Ukraine Olympic golds: 1 (pole vault, 1988). 6 golds at World Championships World records: 35. IAAF council member since 2001, vice-president since 2007.

On the campaign trail: Coe, a vice-president of the IAAF, outlined his vision for the future of athletics when launching his challenge for the top job yesterday

we have new challenges in a new era and how we can tackle those challenges with vision and ambition. I believe I have something to offer to that debate.” Coe, an IAAF council member since 2003 and a vice-president since 2007, is due to reveal his manifesto early next month, but high on his agenda will be to help the sport to reach new audiences. “For the London Games, I was told that athletics was dying, no one would come to the stadium, and we had 20

Fury ends war of words with Chisora Boxing

Ron Lewis

Tyson Fury and Dereck Chisora have exchanged enough insults over the past few months to last them a lifetime, so when they met for the final press conference yesterday before tomorrow’s heavyweight clash, there were no harsh words and a healthy smattering of respect. Some would have been disappointed, but having had a threemonth publicity campaign before a first aborted meeting in July, there was little left to say and Fury, who was fined £15,000 by the British Boxing Board of Control for a foulmouthed outburst in June, said that he was turning over a new leaf. “This is the new me, I am trying to change my ways,” Fury said. “With the help of God I will do just that. Nobody is perfect, but I am trying to be a better person. I am relaxed, there is no animosity towards Dereck.

“It’s a boxing match, it’s about me doing my thing and Dereck doing his. That will be it, whoever has the best strategy on the night will get the victory.” There was no need for the hard sell, as all 18,500 tickets at the ExCeL in London’s Docklands have been sold. The bout is the main event in a huge bill that will be screened live on BoxNation, which includes a fascinating British, Commonwealth and European middleweight bout between Billy Joe Saunders and Chris Eubank Jr, as well as Frankie Gavin defending his British welterweight title against the unbeaten Bradley Skeete and Gary Sykes defending his British super-featherweight title against the undefeated Liam Walsh. Victory will earn Fury a shot at Klitschko

Fury’s clash with Chisora, which is for the British and European heavyweight titles, stands well on its own, though. The winner is assured of a shot at Wladimir Klitschko, although with the WBO, WBA and IBF champion being allowed a voluntary defence next, it is likely that it will be next summer by the time the winner gets in the ring with the Ukrainian. Fury, 26, who beat Chisora on points in 2011, is not too concerned about Klitschko right now. “There is no pressure on me at all, because I am taking it one fight at a time,” he said. “Both of us are capable of giving Klitschko a good go for the world title, if not win it. “The last fight between me and Dereck does not have any relevance. We are different people, we’re more mature. I was the first man to beat him. I’m sure he would like to get the victory, not because of revenge — it’s the rewards.”

Results Football Europa League Group C Tottenham (0) L Partizan

(0) L

Stambouli 49 Other result: Asteras Tripolis 2 Besiktas 2.

Group D Celtic

(1) 1 Salzburg

(2) 3

Johansen 30

Carvalho 8, 13 Keita 90+2 Other result: Astra Giurgiu 1 Dynamo Zagreb 0. P W D L F A GDPts Salzburg (Q)....5 4 1 0 16 7 9 13 Celtic (Q).........5 2 2 1 7 7 0 8 Astra Giurgiu...5 1 1 3 5 10 -5 4 D Zagreb..........5 1 0 4 8 12 -4 3

Group H Wolfsburg (0) 0 Everton

(1) 2

23,625

Lukaku 43 Mirallas 75 Other result: Krasnodar 1 Lille 1. 6 Table on page 94 Other group results: Group A: Villarreal 2 Borussia Mönchengladbach 2; Zurich 3 Apollon Limassol 1. P W D L F A GDPts B M’gladbach...5 2 3 0 11 4 7 9 Villarreal..........5 2 2 1 13 7 6 8 Zurich...............5 2 1 2 10 11 -1 7 Apollon ............ 5 1 0 4 4 16-12 3 Group B: HJK Helsinki 2 Copenhagen 1; Torino 0 Club Bruges 0.

P W D L F A GDPts Club Bruges ..... 5 2 3 0 8 1 7 9 Torino...............5 2 2 1 4 2 2 8 HJK Helsinki ...5 2 0 3 4 9 -5 6 Copenhagen ....5 1 1 3 4 8 -4 4 Group E: Dynamo Moscow 2 Panathinaikos 1; Estoril L PSV Eindhoven L. P W D L F A GDPts D Moscow (Q) . 5 5 0 0 8 3 5 15 PSV..................4 2 1 1 5 4 1 7 Estoril..............4 1 0 3 3 4 -1 3 Panathinaikos..5 0 1 4 5 10 -5 1 Group F: Inter Milan 2 Dnipro 1; SaintÉtienne 1 Karabakh 1. P W D L F A GDPts Inter Milan (Q) 5 3 2 0 6 2 4 11 Saint-Étienne..5 0 5 0 2 2 0 5 Karabakh..........5 1 2 2 3 5 -2 5 Dnipro..............5 1 1 3 3 5 -2 4 Group G: Feyenoord 2 Seville 0; Rijeka 2 Standard Liège 0. P W D L F A GDPts Feyenoord........5 3 0 2 7 6 1 9 Seville..............5 2 2 1 7 5 2 8 Rijeka...............5 2 1 2 7 7 0 7 Standard Liège 5 1 1 3 4 7 -3 4 Group I: Slovan Bratislava 1 Young Boys 3; Sparta Prague 0 Napoli 0. P W D L F A GDPts Napoli...............5 3 1 1 8 3 5 10 Sparta Prague..5 3 1 1 11 4 7 10 Young Boys......5 3 0 2 11 7 4 9 S Bratislava.....5 0 0 5 1 17-16 0 Group J: Aalborg 1 Steaua Bucharest 0; Dynamo Kiev 2 Rio Ave 0. P W D L F A GDPts D Kiev (Q)........5 4 0 1 10 4 6 12 Aalborg............5 3 0 2 5 8 -3 9 S Bucharest.....5 2 1 2 11 7 4 7 Rio Ave............5 0 1 4 3 10 -7 1

Group K: Dynamo Minsk 0 PAOK Salonika 2; Guingamp 1 Fiorentina 2. P W D L F A GDPts Fiorentina (Q)..5 4 1 0 10 2 8 13 Guingamp ........ 5 2 1 2 5 5 0 7 PAOK Salonika 5 2 1 2 9 5 4 7 Dynamo Minsk 5 0 1 4 1 13-12 1 Group L: Lokeren 1 Legia Warsaw 0; Trabzonspor 3 Metalist Kharkiv 1. P W D L F A GDPts L Warsaw (Q)..5 4 0 1 5 2 3 12 Trabzonspor.....5 3 1 1 8 4 4 10 Lokeren............5 2 1 2 3 4 -1 7 Metalist...........5 0 0 5 3 9 -6 0

Golf

Emirates Australian Open Sydney: Leading first-round scores (Australia unless stated): 67: J Spieth (US). 68: S Gardiner, A Price. 69: B De Jonge (Zim), A Tampion, R McIlroy (N Ire), R Green, G Drakeford, A Sato (Japan), A Crawford.

Snooker Coral UK Championship York Barbican: First round (England unless stated): F Patrick (Scot) bt J Burnett 6-4; R Lawler bt A Borg (Malta) 6-5; D Morris (Ire) bt Li Hang (China) 6-4; I Figueiredo (Br) bt F O’Brien (Ire) 6-4; R Williams bt S Baird 6-4; M Davis bt J Jones 6-2; L Brecel (Bel) bt N Saengkham (Thai) 6-1; K Doherty (Ire) bt M Mann 6-2; M Fu (HK) bt A Saif (Qat) 6-4; L Highfield bt J Jones (Wales) 6-3; J Robertson bt Zhou Yuelong (China) 6-1; R Hull (Fin) bt T Un-Nooh (Thai) 6-5; M Williams (Wales) bt S Hallworth 6-1; J Lisowski bt C Melling 6-1; R O’Sullivan bt D Wells (Wales) 6-2; M Allen (N Ire) bt E Sharav (Scot) 6-2; Liang Wenbo (China) bt D Grace 6-3; Zhang Anda (China) bt A Carter 6-5; R McLeod bt I Burns 6-2; P Lines bt J Swail (N Ire) 6-4.

Fixtures Football Sky Bet League One (7.45): Peterborough v Bristol City; Sheffield United v Notts County. League Two: Accrington Stanley v Exeter (7.0).

(7.45): Bedford v Doncaster; Cross Keys v Cornish Pirates. Pool five: Jersey v Plymouth Albion (7.30). SSE National League One: Loughborough Students v Hartpury College (7.30).

Rugby union

Other sport

Aviva Premiership: Bath v Harlequins (7.45). Guinness PRO12 (7.35): Cardiff Blues v Benetton Treviso; Munster v Ulster. British & Irish Cup: Pool two: Aberavon v Yorkshire Carnegie (7.15). Pool four

Basketball: BBL Championship (7.30): Glasgow v Durham; Leeds v London; Plymouth v Manchester; Surrey v Cheshire; Worcester v Bristol. Snooker: York Barbican: Coral UK Championship.

consecutive sessions, morning and night, sold out and now people are starting to buy tickets for the World Championships [in London in 2017],” Coe said in an interview in L’Équipe. “So our sport is still strong. But we all know that it is difficult to convince young people to join us. That’s the challenge. We must be imaginative.” This is likely to lead to an expansion of street games, and he is also likely to push for a condensed schedule at the

Nawal El Moutawakel Age: 52. Country: Morocco Olympic golds: 1 (400 metres hurdles, 1984). World records: 0. IAAF council member since 1995, IOC vice-president since 2012.

World Championships and seek innovations such as the World Relays, launched in the Bahamas this year with races up to 1,500 metres, which Coe called “a total success”. He also said that the sport must work hard in the fight against drugs. He was critical of the selection of Justin Gatlin, two times a drugs cheat, in the shortlist for athlete of the year. “Restoring confidence must now be a pillar of our federation,” he said.

FGM

Friday November 28 2014 | the times

Sport Europa League

Stambouli gives Spurs qualified success after pitch invasions Cardiff CityHotspur Tottenham

Campbell, Stambouli 21 49

West Partizan HamBelgrade United

C Cole 42, Noble 90+3

Gary Jacob

0 1 2 1 0

Tottenham will finish top of group C if they avoid defeat away to Besiktas in a fortnight, which would in theory provide them with an easier opponent when the competition resumes in February. Benjamin Stambouli scored his first goal for the club, following up after Roberto Soldado clipped the post when clean through four minutes after the restart, and the midfielder made a complete hash of adding a second in the dying moments. Soldado could be considered less unfortunate when he was unable to beat the goalkeeper from close range and the striker’s future remains in question Tottenham Hotspur (4-2-3-1): H Lloris — K Naughton, V Chiriches, J Vertonghen, B Davies — M Dembélé (sub: N Bentaleb, 56), B Stambouli, — A Lennon, Paulinho (sub: H Winks, 87), É Lamela — R Soldado (sub: H Kane, 66). Substitutes not used: M Vorm, E Dier, C Eriksen, H Winks, D Ball. Booked: Stambouli. Partizan Belgrade (4-3-3): M Lukac — B Ilic, L Cirkovic, V Stankovic, V Volkov — S Ilic (sub: N Marinkovic, 74), S Markovic, N Ninkovic (sub: A Zivkovic, 62) — P Grbic, P Skuletic (sub: N Kojic, 78), D Lazovic. Substitutes not used: Z Zivkovic, N Petrovic, P Luka, Fofana. Booked: B Ilic, Grbic. Referee: Y Aranovskiy (Ukraine).

Group C

P W Tottenham (Q) ............5 3 Besiktas (Q).................5 2 Asteras Tripolis ........... 5 1 Partizan Belgrade........5 0

D 2 3 2 1

L F A GD Pts 0 9 3 6 11 0 10 5 5 9 2 7 10 -3 5 4 1 9 -8 1

having not scored in more than two months. Mauricio Pochettino has made an unexceptional start to his tenure but Tottenham still sit two points off the top four and host a Capital One quarter-final against Newcastle United next month. Off the pitch, they are expected to be charged by Uefa today for failing to control their supporters after three separate incidents of fans running on to the pitch from the home stands, resulting in the referee taking the players off the pitch five minutes before the interval. In farcical scenes, Mousa Dembélé tackled the third intruder to the floor before Yevhen Aranovskiy, the Ukrainian official, expressed concern about safety to the coaches and security staff and led the players to the dressing room. The teams emerged ten minutes later after supporters were warned of bans from the stadium announcer. Perhaps less likely, but possible, is Uefa charging Soldado, who ripped the shirt off the second man, and Dembélé for tackling the fans. The seriousness seemed lost on everyone when the first intruder, an overweight man, showed a good turn of pace to evade the attention of a number of stewards and take a selfie with Kyle Naughton and Jan Vertonghen in the centre circle,though his next picture is likely to be accompanied by a police number and subsequent ban from football grounds. By the third invasion, it became a farce. All three men appeared to be wearing shirts with the same logo of a company that sponsors Tottenham, al-

ALASTAIR GRANT / AP

Stepping out: Soldado, the Spurs striker, attempts to tackle one of the pitch invaders who disrupted last night’s match

though there were no suggestions it was a marketing trick. Pochettino made five changes to his side, hardly validating his suggestion that his players need an extra day’s rest after appearing in Europe and that their league fixtures should be rescheduled for Monday. Often the head coach has changed every outfield player between games, weakening the idea that disruption was an issue, despite Tottenham losing four of their past six league games after European ties this season. Tottenham were unbeaten in 17 Europa League group stage matches and Partizan were without a win in 16 group games so it was no surprise when the home side started the brighter, although Soldado was not the forward you would want an early chance to fall to. The Spain forward drilled a shot

inches wide of the post from the edge of the penalty area and later the ball literally bobbled over his feet after Érik Lamela put in a delicious low cross. Naughton volleyed over the bar. Partizan crept into things and fashioned the best two chances of the first half. Branko Ilic’s cross found Danko Lazovic who sidefooted just wide. Later, Lazovic brilliantly scooped a ball for Petar Skuletic to run on goal but Hugo Lloris stayed on his feet long enough to force him wide. Vlad Chiriches was at fault, not for the first time this season, in what could be one of his final starts for the club with Roma resurrecting talks to sign the defender in January. The centre back snubbed the Italian club at the start of last season to move to Tottenham, where he has been prone to mistakes. Roma believed they had

agreed a loan deal for him in the summer but instead signed Mapou YangaMbiwa from Newcastle United. Chiriches’ departure would mean Eric Dier covering at centre back and DeAndre Yedlin expected to complete a move from Seattle Sounders. Lloris easily smothered a low shot from Nikola Ninkovic, whose unwanted claim to fame was being banned for a year by the Serbian FA for his part in the clashes after England Under-21 players were subjected to monkey chants from the crowd two years ago. Erik Lamela slid and caught a drive that skimmed over the bar and Harry Kane forced Milan Lukac, the Partizan goalkeeper, to save from a free kick. Lazovic snatched at inviting chance at edge of the penalty area and Andrija Zivkovic turned an effort over at the near post.

Martínez’s choices justified by Belgium pair boosting Everton Cardiff City Wolfsburg

Campbell, 21

West Everton Ham United

C Lukaku Cole 42, 43,Noble Mirallas 90+3 75

Arindam Rej Wolfsburg

0 2 1 2

In a German city famous for its car manufacturing, it was Everton who displayed efficiency and drive to reach their desired destination of the knockout stages in the Europa League while sealing top spot in their group. Their two Belgium forwards, Romelu Lukaku and Kevin Mirallas, were the men who combined — on separate occasions — to score a counter-attacking goal apiece, while the Everton defence managed a clean sheet despite waves of Wolfsburg attacking. Everton had started the night a point clear of Wolfsburg, second in the Bundesliga and in second place in the group, but the club have now achieved their objectives with a game to spare and in the next round will avoid some of the challenging clubs who will enter from the Champions League. Considering Everton’s busy schedule and injuries, including a muscular problem for James McCarthy suffered last night, it is a welcome luxury. Roberto Martínez, the Everton manager, had his selection vindicated,

which included Luke Garbutt playing 90 minutes and succeeding at left back — despite having not previously started a game for the club aside from in the League Cup. The contributions of Lukaku, under pressure to justify his £28 million transfer fee, and Mirallas, playing his second game since injury, were also timely. “We had to keep a well-organised shape and defend with intensity, but had personality on the ball and could have scored more,” Martínez said. “We were lethal on the break.” After Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City’s successes beforehand, Everton’s win ensured a quadruple for English clubs against German sides in European competition this week. Wolfsburg, though, were impressive ambassadors for Germany. The home team had produced a high-tempo start, but it was the visiting side who almost snatched the lead in those early exchanges. Garbutt delivered the corner and Sylvain Distin should have scored but the Frenchman’s downward header struck the turf then hit the bar. The Bundesliga team continued to press though and Ivan Perisic had a strike wrongly ruled out for offside after a flick by Nicklas Bendtner. Everton were being made to work hard and their efforts paid off when

RONNY HARTMANN / GETTY IMAGES

Wolfsburg (4-2-3-1): D Benaglio — Vieirinha, R Rodríguez, R Knoche, M Schafer — L Gustavo, J Malanda (sub: D Caligiuri, 64min) — K De Bruyne, A Hunt (sub: M Arnold, 75), I Perisic — N Bendtner (sub: I Olic, 75). Substitutes not used: M Grun, T Klose, C Trasch, S Jung. Booked: Gustavo, Perisic. Everton (4-2-3-1): T Howard — T Hibbert, P Jagielka, S Distin, L Garbutt — J McCarthy (sub: L Osman, 31), M Besic — A McGeady, S Eto’o (sub: R Barkley, 72), K Mirallas (sub: C Atsu, 83) — R Lukaku. Substitutes not used: J Robles, A Koné, S Coleman, T Browning. Booked: Besic. Referee: J Miranda (Spain).

Group H

P W Everton (Q)..................5 3 Wolfsburg .................... 5 2 Lille...............................5 0 Krasnodar.....................5 0

Low blow: Lukaku continued his bid to justify his club-record £28 million transfer fee by ensuring that Martínez’s side will be playing in Europe in the new year

they claimed the lead. Mirallas started a counterattack, close to the halfway line, by supplying Lukaku, who showed strength to advance then produced a calm finish. Wolfsburg carried on causing problems after the break and suffered a

second offside decision against them. Bendtner was in the offside position when he headed in after Perisic had nodded the ball across. Aiden McGeady should have made the game safe on the hour, when he woefully shot off target from seven

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yards, despite the goalkeeper being on the floor after saving an effort from Lukaku. Wolfsburg, though, kept pushing forward and the impressive Perisic watched another decent effort by himself strike a post. Everton’s resilience was rewarded again when Mirallas struck. Lukaku held the ball up before threading it forward and his compatriot finished coolly. Wolfsburg’s frustrations continued late on when Maximilian Arnold was denied by Tim Howard, then Ross Barkley had a curling strike disallowed — but that was far less costly than the ones which Wolfsburg were earlier denied. Everton were already on the road to the knockout stage.

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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FA acts over Whelan ‘comments’ BARRINGTON COOMBS / PA

James Masters

Dave Whelan has been charged by the FA after the apparently antisemitic and racist remarks he made in an interview last week. The Wigan Athletic chairman had promised to step down from his role at the Sky Bet Championship club if found guilty by the FA after uproar in the wake of his appointment of Malky Mackay as the club’s new manager. The 77-year-old reportedly said that “Jewish people chase money more than anybody else” and that it was “nothing” to call a Chinese person a “ch***y”. An FA statement confirmed last night that he had been charged “in relation to media comments” and has until 6pm on December 5 to respond. According to the FA, Whelan has been charged after comments that could be considered abusive and made a reference to ethnic origin and religion or belief. He is expected to face a threeman independent regulatory commission within the next fortnight. Whelan made the comments last week while defending Mackay. The Scot is still under investigation by the FA after allegations that he exchanged racist, antisemitic, sexist and homophobic text messages with Iain Moody, his former head of recruitment at Cardiff City. Mackay was accused of describing Vincent Tan, Cardiff’s Malaysian owner, as a “ch***” in one text and is reported in another text, in reference to Phil Smith, a Jewish football agent, to have said: “Nothing like a Jew that sees money slipping through his fingers.” Last week, Whelan reportedly told The Guardian that he felt the word “ch***” was not offensive and that he used to say it of Chinese people when he was young. “If any Englishman said he has never called a Chinaman a ch***, he is lying,” he is reported to have said. “There is nothing bad about doing that. It is like calling the British Brits, or the Irish paddies.” Whelan added that he did not believe the reference to Smith was insulting. He is said to have commented: “Do you think Jewish people chase money a little bit more than we do? I think they are very shrewd people.” The chairman — who said he did not think there was “a lot wrong” with anything Mackay said — reportedly added: “I think Jewish people do chase money more than everybody else. I don’t think

Michael Garcia, the man who compiled the report into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, has begun an investigation into three members of Fifa’s executive committee. Ángel María Villar Llona, of Spain, Michel D’Hooghe, from Belgium, and Worawi Makudi, from Thailand, are understood to be among the names being looked at by Garcia for possible ethics code breaches. Franz Beckenbauer, a former Fifa executive committee member, is also believed to be under investigation by the American attorney, along with Harold Mayne-Nicholls, from Chile, who led the inspection team that published reports into the countries bidding for the next two tournaments. Villar Llona, who allegedly refused to answer questions from Garcia, will await his fate along with D’Hooghe, Fifa’s medical officer, and Makudi, president of the Thai Football Association. Villar Llona could face questioning after the Spain-Portugal bid for the

Stricken Pelé in hospital under specialist care Pelé has been admitted to a special care unit in a Sao Paulo hospital. The Brazil legend, 74, was thought to be improving, having been taken to hospital on Monday with a urinary tract infection, but was transferred yesterday. A statement from the hospital, reported by Globoesporte.com, read: “The Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein reports that the patient Edson Arantes do Nascimento [Pelé] has been admitted with clinical instability. To receive the best care, he has been transferred to be monitored in a special care unit.” Pelé won the World Cup with Brazil in 1958, 1962 and 1970.

Sickness bug sweeps through Stoke camp Owner occupied: Whelan, the Wigan chairman, and Mackay, left, the manager, have both been the subject of FA attention

that’s offensive at all.” Later that night he offered his “sincere apologies” if he had offended anyone. There could be more embarrassment for Whelan after a Labour MP wrote a letter to the prime minister demanding the Conservative Party clarify its stance on the remarks made by one of its donors. According to the electoral commis-

sion, Whelan has made ten donations to the party since December 2007, the latest of £100,000 coming in August this year. “David Whelan is a significant donor to the Conservative Party, and has donated £1.5 million since 2007,” Karl Turner, the Labour MP for Hull East, wrote in a letter addressed to David Cameron and Grant Shapps, the party

Was it something I said? November 19 Malky Mackay appointed as new manager of Wigan despite being under investigation by the FA for allegedly exchanging text messages of an antisemitic, racist, sexist and homophobic nature. November 20 Whelan defends hiring Mackay and says there was “not a lot wrong” with what his new manager did while at Cardiff City. Says it was “nothing” to refer to a Chinese person

as a “ch***” and that “Jewish people chase money more than everybody else”. November 21 FA says it is “very concerned” to read of Whelan’s comments and writes to him requesting his observations. November 26 Whelan replies to FA. November 27 Whelan charged by the FA and given until 6pm on December 5 to respond.

chairman. “His most recent donation of £100,000 was received by the Conservative Party on the 2nd August 2014. Given his status as a significant contributor to your re-election efforts you must now make it clear if you personally condone or condemn these comments. Turner added: “I hope that you agree with me that these antisemitic and racist comments have no place in modern British society, and as such I hope that you also agree with me that you must now give up any money that you have received from Mr Whelan and consider which charitable groups would be better recipients of it. “Failure to act swiftly in this matter will show a lack of leadership. It will not be possible for you to simultaneously condemn offensive remarks while accepting large sums of money from those responsible for them.” When contacted by The Times, the Conservative Party refused to comment.

Beckenbauer may face questions over World Cup bids James Masters

Football Sport

2018 tournament was described as “particularly uncooperative” in the 42-page summary report that was released by Hans-Joachim Eckert, the Fifa ethics judge, this month. The Spaniard may also face questions about alleged vote-swapping between their team — led by Villar Llona — and the Qataris, which was alleged by Phaedra Al-Majid, the bidding whistleblower, last week. Both bids have denied any collusion. D’Hooghe revealed in August 2011 that he accepted a painting from an adviser to Russia’s 2018 bid and later

said it had no value and was a “poisonous gift”. He also said that his son Pieter’s move to take up a job as surgeon in Qatar’s Aspetar sports medicine hospital was entirely unrelated. Beckenbauer, who was banned for 90 days from all football activity in June after failing to co-operate with Garcia over the investigation, may face questions over his links with Qatar and Russia. The German, who won the World Cup as a player and a coach, has business links with Russia and Qatar, but there is no suggestion that these ventures influenced his votes. Beckenbauer has also denied allegations that he was offered any incentives to vote for either country. Makudi is expected to be questioned over his involvement in a gas deal Beckenbauer denies being offered incentives to vote

between his country and Qatar, which was completed shortly before the vote for the 2022 World Cup in 2010. He also faced allegations from Lord Triesman, former chairman of the FA, that he demanded television rights to a friendly between England and Thailand in return for his vote. Makudi attempted to sue Triesman over the allegation that was made under parliamentary privilege, but was unsuccessful. Fifa will hold its next executive committee meeting in Morocco next month, when more information from Garcia’s 430-page report may be made available to members. The news comes the day after the Serious Fraud Office confirmed it was investigating evidence relating to the World Cup corruption probe and a week after a criminal complaint was submitted by Fifa to the Swiss attorneygeneral over allegations of wrongdoing during the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments. This month, Eckert cleared Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 finals.

Stoke City’s preparations for tomorrow’s trip away to Liverpool have been disrupted after a sickness bug swept through their camp, leaving Mark Hughes, the manager, with concerns over three players. Asmir Begovic and Geoff Cameron missed training yesterday, while Phil Bardsley was sent home. The club’s Clayton Wood training ground was closed yesterday for a deep clean of the building after a number of academy players were struck down.

Berahino backed for Arsenal test after arrest Alan Irvine, the West Bromwich Albion head coach, has urged Saido Berahino to draw a line under his week to forget by tormenting Arsenal tomorrow. The Midlands club have deemed their leading scorer to be in “the right frame of mind” despite it coming to light that the forward was last month arrested for drinkdriving. He has not been charged but will be questioned by police next month. “If Saido plays as he has done for most of this season we will be delighted,” Irvine said.

Redknapp is given little room for manoeuvre Harry Redknapp, the Queens Park Rangers manager, has admitted that he will struggle to recruit players during the January transfer window, despite acknowledging that he needs to strengthen his squad if the club are to avoid relegation from the Barclays Premier League. “We need one or two additions, whether it be a couple of loans or whatever,” Redknapp, below, said. “We could do with strengthening in certain areas. I don’t see us spending, though.”

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Friday November 28 2014 | the times

Sport Cricket's darkest day

Blossoming batsman who will remain for ever young Gideon Haigh says Phillip Hughes was an original talent who appeared to have all the time in the world before he was cruelly cut down

t always takes you slightly aback when you see a Test cricketer close up. Normally you observe them from afar, when they are involved in what they do best, and trying mighty hard at it. Then they are usually a little flushed. They are sun-creamed, stubbly, slightly grim. But in repose, whether in a hotel lobby, or boarding a bus, or traipsing to training, or simply tapping on their phones, they look astonishingly young, taut from the discipline of their various physical regimes, but still almost teenage in their gawkiness. To excel in sport, of course, involves a kind of indefinite extending of youth, with its boundless horizons of future possibility. Watching Phillip Hughes, so boyish, cheerful and amiable, was all about the future. There was barely any past. I remember a press conference on the 2009 Ashes tour. Then 20 years old, he was asked what he recalled about the preceding Ashes in England. Not much, he said. He had been in year 10 at the time, and hadn’t been allowed to stay up and watch it. Long-headed critics looked askance at his homespun technique, so raw, so original, so seemingly ingenuous. But it came underpinned by a prodigy’s record, and a knack for hundreds, which few in his generation shared. Hughes played the first Test of that series at the SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff. He cut his eighth ball for four. The journalist in front of me, a good Aussie patriot, said aloud with

lip-smacking satisfaction: “The first of many!” He seemed vindicated when the next one was dispatched identically. Eighteen months ago, I watched Hughes bat with enormous maturity and poise against England at Trent Bridge in the Test match now remembered for the spectacular strokeplay of Ashton Agar. I speculated at the time that his unbeaten 81 would in the long term be more significant than Agar’s starspangled 98, being as Australian cricket was in sorer need of top-order stoicism than tailend heroics. In each case, in 2009 and 2013, the selectors left Hughes out after another Test. There was work for him to do on that technique, not at that stage quite secure enough for the lures, baits and pitfalls of the top level. But we were all of us — peers, pundits, selectors, spectators — dealing in blue sky with Hughes. He had the attitude. He had the look. Here was a cricketer, we told ourselves, with time on his side. Perhaps he assuaged his disappointments the same way. Certainly, he handled himself as first reserve with dignity, patience and enthusiasm. Thus the intensity of the shock at his loss. Hughes is the tomorrow cricketer who will now form part of history. He is not the youngest Test cricketer to die. That tragic mantle still belongs to Manjural Islam Rana, the Bangladesh spinner, who was 22 when

Hughes, pictured playing a sweep shot against Sri Lanka at the SCG last year, had been expected to make his return to the

he died in a motorbike accident in March 2007. But he has become the first to be cut down, as it were, before our very eyes — in the act, in full bloom, in the presence of his mother and sister, by a ball from a bowler who just over six weeks ago was his team-mate in a one-day series in the Gulf. Every line of that is torture to write,

and I simply watched him play cricket. What can palliate the blow for his immediate circle? There will be analyses, repercussions, maybe even recriminations. When our modern bubble of safety is pricked, we ache for objects of ire, and some have already been lined up as potentially blameworthy: the

bouncer, the helmet, the medics, an anonymous ABC tweeter. But please, not yet. Why sour tragedy with anger? That the world has turned topsy-turvy is enough to cope with for the present. A Test match is scheduled for next Thursday in Brisbane. In all likelihood, Hughes would there have resumed his

Death destined to become a sad reference point Richard Hobson Deputy Cricket Correspondent

Plenty of cricketers have died young: at war, to illness or accident, by their own hand or someone else’s. But to go actually playing the game is rare in the extreme. According to Scyld Berry, the journalist, author and historian of the game, a cricketer has not been killed by a short, fast ball hitting the head since 1870. Like Phillip Hughes this week, George Summers was only 25. With the tragic manner of his death, Hughes has become a reference point for the game. For as long as cricket is played, in whatever format, his name will spring to mind whenever a batsman is hit on the helmet or head. Comparisons with Hughes will be inevitable, survival considered a very lucky escape. “Not like poor old Phil,” the sigh will come. “And what a player he was.” Hughes will become a legend. In tributes yesterday, it was not uncommon to hear him described as a potential great, writers pointing to a

first-class average of 46 (with 26 hundreds) rather than a Test mean of 32. The 14-run difference merely showed that Hughes had so much more to offer, not least because he seemed to be on the verge of a Test recall. In life, his technique was picked apart. Three times, Australia dropped him from their Test side. From now on, people will think the best of him and hope that he really could have scored the Test runs that his early brilliance foretold. They cannot be proved wrong, and only the cruel will even think to try. It is the notion of players becoming better when they are out of the side taken to its ultimate, saddest degree. For an idea of how the Phillip Hughes name will reverberate, consider the short life of Archie Jackson. Jackson died of tuberculosis in 1933 at the age of 23. At 19, he marked his Ashes debut by scoring 164 against England. He did not reach three figures in any of his remaining seven Tests, perhaps because the early signs of illness had developed even by his only tour here in 1930.

More than 80 years on, Jackson is still used as the benchmark for a young player. More so than Donald Bradman, even. Nobody considers that Harold Larwood might have ruffled Jackson during the Bodyline series in 1932-33, when Bradman’s average was almost halved. Jackson is simply a flower that was not allowed to blossom. When Mark Waugh was playing at his willowy best, those versed in the game might picture Jackson batting with the same elegance (and a lighter bat). That is the image handed down. Hughes will become this and more. It is grotesque to think in terms of

Bare figures M Inn No Runs H’est 100 50 Avge 26 49 2 1,535 160 3 7 32.65 Test 25 24 1 826 138* 2 4 35.91 ODI 1 1 0 6 6 — — 6.00 T20 First-class 114 209 15 9,023 243* 26 46 46.51 91 89 12 3,639 202* 8 23 47.25 List A Twenty 20 34 34 8 1,110 87* 0 10 42.69 * denotes not out

rankings, but his loss is more poignant because he succumbed to injury sustained on the field. And the tragedy goes deeper even still because Hughes suffered attempting the most thrilling and daring shot in the game, the hook. Had he ducked or swayed either side of the line, like most batsmen, he would still be with us. The same audacity helps to explain an equivalent sadness felt in England when Ben Hollioake died in a road accident in Perth in 2002. Hollioake was 24, a free spirit who moved games forward with bat and ball. Like Hughes, his most memorable moment came early, when, at 19, he scored 63 from 48 balls on his one-day debut against an Australia attack that included Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Shane Warne. His career stuttered, but it was still possible to watch England faltering in one-day cricket ten years later and imagine how much better they might be had Hollioake survived to fulfil that early potential. He could have been a heck of a player. So could Hughes.

Jackson remains synonymous with a talent cut down before its prime

the times | Friday November 28 2014

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Cricket's darkest day Sport

MANAN VATSYAYANA /AFP/ GETTY IMAGES

Hughes’s delight at living out his dreams cut cruelly short Matthew Syed

Australia Test team in the match against India, scheduled for next Thursday

Test career. What just days ago we looked forward to we now dread. The longer term? Cricket reserves a corner of its mythology for the unheard melody — always, as Keats wrote, the sweeter. Bradman’s well-loved contemporary, Archie Jackson, 23 when he perished of tuberculosis, played only eight Test

matches but is remembered today. Google “Archie Jackson” and the face that looks out is as fresh and youthful as Hughes’s. That is how this good young man, Phillip Hughes, will remain: good and young for ever. 6 Gideon Haigh is a columnist for The Australian.

watched a group of hotel workers playing cricket in a dusty expanse a few hundred yards from my hotel in Abu Dhabi at the weekend. They were low-paid immigrants, probably from India or Pakistan, wearing long trousers and sandals in the oppressive heat, but playing a fine game. The wickets were sticks screwed into the ground, the boundary was an arbitrary line that they seemed to be able to see, but which was invisible to me, and they were sufficiently serious about the match to have appointed an umpire, who stood solemnly, watching over events. The most visible thing, however, was the joyful immersion. They were lost in this beautiful, complex, compelling game. I stopped and watched, as I always do when I happen upon a game, and was instantly transported into the drama. They smiled at me. They could see I was a fellow traveller, another human conversant in the language of cricket. I stayed so long, I was late for the grand prix. This morning, Phillip Hughes died from playing cricket. He was struck behind the ear by a bouncer from Sean Abbott in a first-class match in Sydney on Tuesday, fell to the ground, and passed away in hospital two days later. The ball had severed an artery in the brain and caused “massive” internal bleeding. He was 25. The world is understandably shocked. This was a young man, his life ahead of him, someone whose easy charm and uncluttered outlook had endeared him to dressing rooms in Australia, three county sides in England and the Australia national

Online today

Incredibly rare injury caused massive bleed that proved fatal Obituary, page 45

team. Whenever one with so much to live for passes away, there is going to be widespread mourning. But there is an additional poignancy when death is caused by sport. Hughes was not killed by a disease or a malignancy; he died from playing the game he loved. He was a professional cricketer, a man who earned his keep playing the sport, but out there in the middle, facing the bowling of Abbott, he was immersed in the same joys, the same jo existential thrills, as the hotel workers out hot on that dusty field in Abu Dhabi. His life ended doing the very thing that gave his life meaning. It is that terrible juxtajux position that lends sporting tragedies trage a distinctive flavour.

Abbott, of New South Wales, delivered the fateful ball in a match at the SCG

Sport is about joy, about fun, about getting away from the humdrum and the banal. At its best, it is the arena of fantasy and heroism, a place where the serious things of life, such as politics and war and pestilence, and petty office rivalries melt away. It is a place of escapism and hope. That is why, to those who love these invented worlds of bat, ball and shuttlecock, sport is precious and irreplaceable. How tragic, then, how impossibly sad, that Hughes could have met his end in such a place. How awful that he could have endured fatal injuries while immersed in the multifaceted joys of building an innings. Even for a bowler such as myself (university second XI standard, no better), it was batting that I looked forward to most: the centre of attention, surrounded by fielders, trying to negotiate that fine line between risk and reward. And then . . . catastrophe. In a wise piece yesterday, Mike Atherton, the chief cricket correspondent, wrote about the “terrible beauty” of fast bowling. He added: “Without fast bowling, without the physical threat, cricket is a lesser game. But with that, comes inevitable risk.” This is not just true of cricket, of course. In equestrianism, in motor sports, in skiing, in rugby and in many other sports, risk is part and parcel of the game. We should do everything to reduce risk, but we should never attempt to eliminate it altogether. Cricket played with a putty-soft ball would no longer be cricket — and it would have held few pleasures for Hughes, or for anyone else who plays the game, at international level or the local village green. One sincerely hopes that Abbott will find a way through the understandable feelings of guilt, and that he has access to proper counselling. The same goes for the fielders who were in the vicinity of this tragic accident. And for Hughes’s family and friends, one trusts that, over time, they may find a silver lining in an otherwise ghastly episode. For the poignancy of his death, that he died doing the thing he loved, also provides an important kind of meaning. Yes, Hughes died far too yo young, but as a Test cricketer and an acclaimed batsman, he also li lived out his dream.

Opener’s memorable Durban double may never be surpassed Geoffrey Dean

The memories of Phillip Hughes’s twin hundreds in the Durban Test of March 2009, for those of us who reported on that match, will always remain vivid, for me certainly. To score a maiden century in your second Test, against a formidable South Africa pace quartet of Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini, Morné Morkel and Jacques Kallis, was one thing. To follow it with another in the second innings was quite another, and in doing so Hughes became the youngest batsman in history to make two hundreds in the same Test. He was just 20 years and 98 days, about six months junior to George Headley when he achieved the feat for West Indies against England in Guyana in 1930. Hughes had given notice of his talent in his Test debut a week earlier in Johannesburg, where he made a positive 75 after a duck in his first innings. There had been some South African mutterings about the young

left-hander’s technique, but any perceived weaknesses hardly hindered him when he charged to 75 not out by lunch on the opening day in Durban. This included six fours off Morkel’s first two overs, when Hughes cut devastatingly as well as hitting forcefully down the ground. Hughes’s nerveless, and very rapid, advance through the nineties was something that still brings a chuckle. Having gone from 93 to 99 with a straight six off Paul Harris’s left-arm spin, he went down the pitch to his very next ball and drove him even farther over the ropes at long-on. In racing to three figures from 132 balls, he became the fourth-youngest Australian Test century-maker. When Hughes eventually fell to Kallis for 115, his domination of an opening stand of 184 in 44 overs was such that Simon Katich had contributed only 59. Australia went on to make 352, a total that was put in context when South Africa were bundled out for just 138 in reply. Graeme Smith and Kallis took

Moment in the sun: Hughes became the youngest player to score two hundreds in the same Test when he took on the mighty South Africans in Durban in 2009

blows from Mitchell Johnson on a lively pitch that forced them to retire hurt. Ricky Ponting nevertheless declined to enforce the follow-on, allowing Hughes the chance to rewrite one of the oldest records in Wisden. It appeared initially that he might do it in quick time, as he galloped to his fifty from 78 balls. Tied down thereafter by Harris’s tactic of bowling into the rough outside his off stump, Hughes nevertheless showed his adaptability, grafting hard over his second fifty, which took him a further 169 balls. Once past his two-century landmark, Hughes accelerated to score his third fifty from 66 more balls, and unselfishly sacrificed his wicket with a declaration imminent. His 275 runs in the match were instrumental in an Australia victory that secured the series. After arriving on the Test scene like a comet, Hughes could not tie down a regular place in the Australia side, but his achievement at Durban will long be remembered. If it is never surpassed, it would be a fitting epitaph.

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Friday November 28 2014 | the times

Sport Cricket's darkest day

Tragic twist for homespun boy who made unorthodox way to the top Mike Atherton reflects on an enigmatic young talent and asks what lessons can be learnt from the passing of the 25-year-old Australia batsman

ne of cricket’s worst days. Perhaps the game has been lucky all this time. After all, a rock-hard missile thundering down at sometimes more than 90mph represents a serious threat. We had seen concussions, broken bones and even, as reported here yesterday, a momentary stilling of a heartbeat. Now a young man has died. Not since the death of Ben Hollioake, a team-mate and friend, have I awoken to such grim, grim news. There were differences, of course, Ben having died in a car accident, Phillip Hughes after an incident on the field of play. But there were similarities too in the poignancy of the loss and the knowledge of such youthful promise snuffed out in an instant. Those who knew Hughes spoke well of him as did those who knew Ben — a positive, vibrant, beautiful presence; a twinkle in the eye, a sense of playful mischief. Cricket has not known anything like the universal outpouring of grief that flowed from all corners of the globe towards the banana farm in Macksville, a small town on the Nambucca River between Sydney and Brisbane where Hughes began fashioning the unorthodox game that took him to the summit of his sport. In many ways, it was an archetypal Australian story, the boy from the outback with a homespun method, but with a tragic twist. Greg Baum, the noted Australian sportswriter, called it “an Achillean tragedy”. Hughes was a highly unusual batsman and he had a jumpy, awkward way of playing the short ball, often with both feet off the ground, chest pointing towards the bowler. It was the kind of

method that would, and did, attract the attention of fast bowlers looking for a chink in a batsman’s armour. Achillean tragedy, indeed. But, as South Africa’s bowlers discovered in Hughes’s second Test, if the line of that short ball was not quite right, if it was a little outside the line of off stump, then Hughes would climb into it with a ferocity that belied his slight frame. After that start, when he became the youngest batsman to score two hundreds in a Test, Australians sounded the bugle: here comes another from the bush to taunt you. It didn’t quite work out that way in his 26 Tests, but we thought that time was on his side. Inevitably, there will be questions asked of the game now. There may be some hysteria, and the desire to apportion blame. At the outset, it should be stated that no blame should be attached to Sean Abbott, the young fast bowler, and recently Hughes’s team-mate, who caused the damage. Spare a thought for Abbott now, a young man who will inevitably blame himself and who will have to find a way of dealing with his burden. One hopes that he will play again with all his heart;

Inside today

Blossoming star will remain for ever young Gideon Haigh, pages 60-61

A life living the dream cruelly cut short Matthew Syed, page 61

to play for himself and for the games that Hughes cannot. Fathers everywhere may be asking themselves whether this is a safe game for their sons and daughters. Bouncers are, have always been and always will be a part of the game, a legitimate tactic. This being the first tragedy of its kind in many thousands of first-class games is enough of a reminder, then, that cricket is an incredibly safe game. It is not American football or boxing or, even, rugby. Physical contact is not its primary aim and it is safer now than ever before, with helmets and all manner of padding to protect batsmen. But, as with anything, there is risk

attached. There is no getting away from this. Maybe with the advent of helmets and arm-guards and chest-guards this had been, if not forgotten, then put to one side, complacently. Batsmen of an earlier, pre-helmeted, generation knew all about risk. They evaluated risk, according to the conditions they were playing in and the bowlers they were facing. Perhaps that, too, had been forgotten. The hook shot remains risky, even with helmets, and it should be played accordingly. Modern batsmen who go down on one knee to sweep quick bowlers, as they routinely do in Twenty20 matches and others, should

be reminded, too, of the dangers involved. Bowlers, and umpires, need to be reminded of Law 42.6 (i), which pertains to the excessive bowling of fast and short-pitched deliveries, designed to intimidate and hurt, regardless, as the Law states, of the protective equipment worn. Too often protective equipment worn by tailenders (remember Courtney Walsh bowling to Devon Malcolm in Jamaica in 1994?) has made umpires reluctant to act. Bouncers, to repeat, remain a legitimate part of the game; fast bowling remains a beautiful if terrifying part of the game, and gladiatorial combat

Australian prime minist minister lead leads tributes to much loved personality Richard Hobson Deputy Cricket Correspondent

The tributes to Phillip Hughes flowed from the prime minister downwards in Australia yesterday. Tony Abbott said: “Phillip Hughes was a young man living out his dreams. For a young life to be cut short playing our national game seems a shocking aberration. He was loved, admired and respected by his teammates and by legions of cricket fans.” Darren Lehmann, the Australia head coach, wrote on Twitter: “RIP you little champ, we are all going to miss you. Love, prayers to all the Hughes family xxxx.” The thoughts of David Warner were typical of those of who played

with Hughes. “RIP my little man,” Warner tweeted. “You will always be with me when I walk out on to the field. Not just a mate but a loved one to us all big man. Forever in my heart brother for life. Miss you buddy.” Middlesex, Hampshire and Worcestershire, the county sides who signed Hughes as an overseas player, provided warm recollections of the Australia player. Daryl Mitchell, the Worcestershire captain, said: “The biggest memories will be of Phil as a guy and in the dressing room. He was a top lad with time for everybody and loved all the dressingroom banter. Whether it be the pavilion attendant, a junior pro, a senior player

or even management, he enjoyed the same level of mickey-taking across the board. He was a country boy and proud of where he was from. I think that is what drew him to Worcester so much, and how he loved his time here in a small city. “ Angus Fraser, the Middlesex director of cricket, controversially brought Hughes over to play three county Abbott led tributes to Hughes with an emotional address

championship matches before the 2009 Ashes series. “Even at 20, his attitude to cricket was a lesson to many Middlesex players who had been professionals for several years,” Fraser said. “He possessed a lovely, carefree, simple attitude to life, but his character was underpinned by a strong work ethic and a fierce desire to be the best he could be.” Fraser remembered how the competitive side of Hughes surfaced when he confronted Andre Nel, the South Africa fast bowler, in a match at the Oval. “Nel took exception to the hiding he was receiving and bowled a beamer,” Fraser said. “I can still picture the diminutive Hughes following the

bear-like Nel down the pitch and said, ‘Weak, f***ing weak, that is why you quit international cricket to play for Surrey.’ ” Hughes went on to score 195. Rod Bransgrove, the Hampshire chairman, described Hughes as a “talented, ebullient and lovely lad” and recalled a conversation in the dressing room last year. Bransgrove said: “He told me that after [Shane] Warne, [Simon] Katich, [Michael] Clarke and [Shane] Watson, he felt like Hampshire’s forgotten Aussie. I told him then, and I say it again now, you will never be forgotten, Hughesy.” MCC flew its flag at Lord’s at halfmast as cricket supporters left flowers at the Grace Gates.

the times | Friday November 28 2014

FGM

Cricket's darkest day Sport

World joined in mourning for lost talent The world of cricket was united in its grief at the death of Phillip Hughes, with poignant front pages in Australian newspapers, below left, displaying the shock felt across the country. The national flag was flown at half mast, below, over the pavilion at the SCG, where the batsman, playing for South Australia against

between batsmen and fast bowlers has given the game some of its most treasured moments. Unless the Law changes, however, looking deliberately to maim someone who cannot handle himself at the crease is not part of the game. It is good to be reminded of all these things in the wake of Hughes’s death. If one episode summed up how a sense of complacency, of ignorance of risk, had crept into the game it was the appalling episode last winter between Piers Morgan, the talk-show host, and Brett Lee, the former Australia fast bowler. I hesitate to recall such a clownish episode at such a time but it needs

Tragedy on the pitch Wasim Raja (2006): The former Pakistan batsman suffered a heart attack while playing for Surrey over-50s at Marlow. Ian Folley (1993): Hit below the eye while batting for Whitehaven versus Workington, the former Lancashire and Derbyshire bowler suffered a heart attack in hospital. Raman Lamba (1998): The India player was struck on the head fielding at short leg in Dhaka. Zulfiqar Bhatti (2013): Hit in the chest while batting in a domestic game in Pakistan. Wilf Slack (1989): The former England opening batsman collapsed during a match in Gambia.

saying, as was said at the time by some of us. Lee ran through the crease, bowled six short balls at Morgan, deliberately following him to try to hurt him, as the talk-show host backed away, turning his head, terrified and clueless, and as a cohort of cheerleaders stood by lapping it up. Disgraceful. Like many fathers, no doubt, I went to my lad’s cricket bag this morning to check over the helmet. There was a screw missing on one side; no doubt he had played wearing his helmet like that all last season. I’ll make sure I sort it out before he plays again. When I played, I never remember changing my helmet despite the

New South Wales, suffered the blow to the head from which he later died. Flowers and an Australia cap were laid outside the Grace Gates at Lord’s, below centre, while the big screen at Trent Bridge relayed a tribute to a batsman who starred there in the Ashes last year, top left. Respects were paid before play started in a match in Calcutta, left

number of clatterings I took. And fielding positions? I often fielded close in at silly point without a helmet, and put fielders there as captain; put Nick Knight there in his first Test, only to see him hit and carted off to hospital with a head injury. Complacency had crept in. It is good to respect the game, in all its brutality and beauty, accepting that there will always be risk attached and the chance of a cruel accident to stop us in our tracks. Deep down, Hughes knew that, as we all do. Time, then, to remember his youthful, joyful spirit, undimmed by the dangers that all batsmen face. Twenty-five years of age; 63 not out.

Fears for players’ mindset Continued from back page

Hughes in a Twenty20 international as recently as last month. England players past and present, in Sri Lanka or at home, were among those to flood Twitter. They included Ian Bell and Chris Woakes, who were playing against Sri Lanka in the 25-run loss on Wednesday when Hughes was still fighting the losing battle for his life. Bell, an Ashes opponent, said: “Absolutely devastated to hear that Phil has passed away. Thoughts and prayers with his family and friends. Please spare a thought for Sean Abbott too. Absolutely horrendous.” Woakes added: “Literally lost for words. Such a sad day. Thoughts are

with his family and friends.” James Anderson, who bowled to Hughes during England-Australia series, said: “Can’t quite believe the news. Devastating. My thoughts go out to Phil Hughes’ family and friends. Thoughts also with Sean Abbott.” 6 Tillekeratne Dilshan and Thisara Perera, the Sri Lanka players, have been fined and reprimanded by the ICC for disciplinary offences in the first one-day international against England. Dilshan will lose 25 per cent of his match fee for excessive appealing, and it is understood that Perera’s 20 per cent fine is for using inappropriate language on the field. Both players admitted the offences.

Helmet safety coming second to cosmetic approval Josh Burrows

The death of Phillip Hughes is likely to lead to a redesign of cricket helmets, but manufacturers admit that cosmetic concerns still prevent players from wearing the safest equipment. The ECB confirmed today that there are no plans to make helmets compulsory for adult cricketers. “This will refocus the way we look to develop our range,” said Nick Wilton, who helps to design helmets for GrayNicolls. “It’s just a sad, sad case that has brought it all to light again.” Significant improvements to helmet safety have been made in the past year, after an ICC-commissioned scientific report in 2013 identified four key weaknesses in their design: balls penetrating between grille and peak; the grille being forced into the face; the grille being pressed into the temple; and the ball hitting the lower rear of a batsman’s skull. Helmets were made the subject of a new British Standard, the most rigorous international specification, as a result of that study and the first new helmets came on the market this year. The designs feature fixed grilles, stiffened peaks, greater protection around the cheekbones and slightly more coverage at the back of a batsman’s head. However, despite the recommendations of the 2013 report, increased armour behind the ears — the area where the skull is weakest and the area where Hughes was struck — has not been introduced because players value comfort and movement over safety. The report suggested that this area could be better protected by “improved shock attenuation and by extending the shell of the helmet to cover the entire occipital region”. Hughes was wearing a 2013 Masuri helmet, dating to before the design changes. The 2014 model, created after the new British Standard was introduced, does not offer protection that might have saved the batsman’s life: no cricket helmet available on the open market does, though helmets used in hockey, baseball and ice hockey do. Wilton said: “There has been an element of the helmet being a cosmetic

item. Probably the first port of call was to see how the player looked in the helmet.” Tom Milsom, the designer behind the new wedge-shaped Ayrtek helmets, said: “If you go too far with innovation, they [the players] are going to reject it. If you’re trying to protect every aspect and every angle, then they’re going to need innovation and change in terms of the aesthetics of it.” Manufacturers say the new British Standard has helped to spread the safety message through the professional ranks in the past 18 months. Modern designs — including the helmets worn by Michael Carberry and Stuart Broad — are now common. The ECB would like safety concerns to percolate down to the amateur ranks, where many batsmen wear vastly outdated equipment, although Mike Gatting, the former England captain now in charge of recreational cricket, has no plans for new regulation. Helmet use in this country is compulsory for those under 18 playing with a hard ball, but adults will continue to be allowed to choose between wearing one or not. “You always try and keep children safe, because that’s important,” Gatting said. “Adults are adults. If people don’t wear helmets then that’s their choice, but we would always recommend that people wear them.”

Made to measure To pass the 2013 British Standard, helmets undergo four tests. Temperature test Helmets baked at 50C for a minimum of four hours. Artificial ageing Helmets exposed to 125W UV lamp for 48 hours. Drop test A helmet is strapped to an artificial head and dropped at 5mph7mph on to a ball-shaped anvil. The impact is measured at the front, back and side, and also the air vents. Projectile test Balls are fired at the grille and peak at 62.63mph (for men’s helmets), and 51.45mph (for junior sizes). The speeds replicate the impact of a 90mph ball.

How different helmets compare Masuri helmet 2013 helmet profile, as worn by Phillip Hughes

August 2014 helmet modifications

Baseball batsman

Approximate area of impact Field hockey goalkeeper

Ice hockey player

Sport

Friday November 28 2014 | the times

Mix and match leaves a muddle

Everton seal knockout spot

Pressure builds on Stuart Lancaster over selection policy

Europa League group won with game to spare

Rugby union, pages 54-56

Report, page 58

thetimes.co.uk/sport

british press awards — sports team of the year

England fears over players’ frame of mind Richard Hobson Deputy Cricket Correspondent Colombo

England will ensure that former county colleagues of Phillip Hughes are in the right frame of mind to be able to play before rubber-stamping their side for the second one-day international against Sri Lanka tomorrow. Representatives of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Sri Lanka Cricket have agreed that the match will go ahead after the death yesterday of the Australia batsman, who collapsed after being struck on the head by a bouncer on Tuesday while playing for South Australia against New South Wales. Eoin Morgan and Steven Finn featured alongside Hughes for Middlesex in 2009, and Moeen Ali for Worcestershire in 2012. Finn was among the England players who tweeted a message of respect, describing Hughes as a “champion of a man”. England and Sri Lanka players and officials observed a minute’s silence during an engagement at the British High Commission in Colombo last night. David Boon, the match referee, is due to confirm whether the silence before play tomorrow will last for one minute or two. Players will wear black armbands throughout the contest. As the tragic news began to sink in, England scrapped their daily tour press conference and the planned announce-

ment of the 2015 fixture list from London was delayed by 24 hours to allow a clear run for tributes to Hughes from the team and the ECB. A statement issued on behalf of the players said: “Our deepest sympathies go out to Phil Hughes’ family, friends and team-mates at this incredibly sad time. Phil was admired and respected by all he played against and will never be forgotten by the cricket community.” Elsewhere, Pakistan and New Zealand opted to postpone the second day of the third Test in Sharjah, which was due to resume this morning. India decided to abandon the second and final warm-up before their Test series against Australia begins in Brisbane next Thursday. That contest is in doubt as Cricket Australia decides how best to respect the memory of Hughes, 25, who, because of injury to Michael Clarke, had been tipped for a recall after more than a year out of the Test side. Clarke, who had spent time at the bedside of his team-mate, was clearly shaken as he read out a statement from the Hughes family at a press conference at St Vincent’s Hospital, in Sydney. New South Wales and South Australia players have been given counselling and psychological support with a particularly close eye on Sean Abbott, the bowler who struck Hughes. Abbott made his Australia debut alongside

Phillip Hughes 1988-2014

Continued on page 63

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