Top stories UK news International Financial Saturday Comment & debate Editorials & reply Obituaries Reviews Weather

Sport: News & features Guardian review: Features & reviews Travel: Travel features Family: Family features Money: Money news & features Weekend: Starters Weekend: Features Weekend: Fashion and beauty Weekend: Space Weekend: Back The Guide: Features The Guide: Previews Cook: Cook

Top stories

Mark Carney warns house buyers: can you afford the mortgage? A very public murder: the killing of Private Lee Rigby Co-op Bank investors back 1.5bn rescue Saatchi: 'I adore Nigella now and I am broken-hearted to have lost her'

Mark Carney warns house buyers: can you afford the mortgage?
Home-owners should not rely on being bailed out of any future difficulties by rising house prices, Bank of England governor warns
Larry Elliott and Jill Treanor The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 20.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England. Photograph: Martin Godwin

The governor of the Bank of England has issued a blunt warning to potential home-owners that they must be able to pay their mortgages when interest rates go up and not rely on being bailed out of any future difficulties by rising house prices. In an interview with the Guardian, Mark Carney said on Friday that Threadneedle Street's decision to rein in mortgage lending was designed to head off a boom-bust in the property market at an early stage and avoid drastic policy action in the event of a bubble. "Think about the mortgage you are taking on, the debts you are taking on," Carney said when asked what his message was to those aspiring to get on the housing ladder. "You are taking at least a 25-year mortgage, maybe a 30year mortgage. "Are you going to be able to service that mortgage five years from now, 10 years from now, if interest rates are higher? Or are you counting, even subconsciously, on the price of your house keeping going up and if something happens an ability to sell it quickly and not facing the consequences of not being able to pay?" Carney was speaking as the latest data from Nationwide building society showed annual house price inflation at 6.5% its highest since July 2010. The governor expressed concern about the lack of new homes being built as the Bank's own figures demonstrated that demand for property was strong. Mortgage approvals are running at levels not seen since Northern Rock was nationalised in February 2008. In a wide-ranging interview that included bankers' pay, City scandals, the Co-op bank rescue plan and his plans for the Bank of England, Carney said: Reform of the conduct of the financial sector is overdue. The Bank is increasing its scrutiny of bank executives following the scandal at the Co-op involving the Rev Paul Flowers. The Bank of England is anxious for the private-sector restructuring of the Co-op to go ahead but would step in with its own rescue if bondholders rejected the deal. He opposes the cap imposed by Brussels on bankers' bonuses, due to come into force next month. He wants more women in senior positions at the Bank of England to address the gender imbalance at the top. The newly appointed Canadian governor of the Bank justified the decision by the Bank's Financial Policy Committee (FPC) to end Funding for Lending for home loans a year earlier than planned. The scheme has been regarded as crucial in reviving the housing market since it was introduced in August 2012. It offers lenders cheap money in return for loans to customers, but from the new year it will be limited to business

lending still falling according to fresh figures from the Bank. "The right way to do policy to protect against the boom and bust cycles is to act early in a graduated, proportionate way and that reduces the probability of having to act in a bigger way later." He added: "I'm less concerned about the housing market, given the steps the FPC has taken." He said that Britain was building half as many homes a year as Canada despite having a population twice as large, and added: "It is widely acknowledged that there is a very large supply-side issue here. "I fully recognise that Canada is the second-biggest country in the world. It's easy to build housing as it's easy to find places [to build]. But it does give you a sense of the issues around the constraints on supply and the movements in prices you see as well. They all reinforce that sense that there is a supply issue. And there's nothing the Bank of England can do to change that." The governor expressed a reluctance to use interest rates as a way of cooling down the housing market because it would affect all parts of an economy only just recovering from recession. "You could use [interest rates] to address financial stability but it is a very blunt tool. It hits all aspects of the economy from the south to the north from across manufacturing. It affects exporters. It has a range of impacts SMEs [small and medium-sized firms] as much as people borrowing for detached homes in Knightsbridge." House prices are forecast to climb a further 10% next year and the Bank of England has embarked on a range of measures to try to temper the appetite for home loans. Affordability tests being introduced next year will require mortgage lenders to assess a borrowers' ability to repay a loan and lenders will be watched to ensure they do not relax lending criteria too much. "What we don't want to see is a marked deterioration in underwriting standards that often happens, whether it's here or abroad, when a housing cycle really gathers momentum. It's one of the things that feeds momentum, so we want to see prudence from lenders," Carney said. The governor said the Bank had enough powers to prevent a housing bubble as the FPC can recommend to the regulators that lenders take a tougher stance on the size of a mortgage compared to the value of the house the socalled loan-to-value (LTV) ratio. He said that if the Bank did in the future recommend any caps on LTVs, he expected lenders to heed the warning. "We have to make the case to act, convince people of the case, but it is not insubstantial if the FPC stands up and recommends that there should be a cap on loan to values just as a hypothetical example," Carney said.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

A very public murder: the killing of Private Lee Rigby

Savage street attack on soldier was retaliation for perceived western oppression of Muslims, court hears
Vikram Dodd, Josh Halliday and Matthew Taylor The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 20.59 GMT

Two men who launched a "barbarous" attack on a soldier in a London street, holding his hair and hacking at his neck as they attempted to behead him, claimed they were inflicting "carnage" in retaliation for western oppression of Muslims, an Old Bailey jury heard on Friday. Lee Rigby, 25, was killed near the Woolwich barracks in south-east London in May in an attack carried out by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale. They deny murder. The jury saw new and graphic footage of the attack and its aftermath, as it was revealed that one of the assailants had produced a handwritten note justifying his actions which he passed to an onlooker. In it Adebolajo tried to justify the attack as a strike against the west for alleged aggression against Muslims. Prosecutors say that when paramedics arrived, Adebolajo told them: "Please let me lay here. I don't want anyone to die, I just want soldiers out of my country Your government is all wrong, I did it for my God. I wish the bullets had killed me so I can join my friends and family." Richard Whittam QC, prosecuting, said Adebolajo, 28, and Adebowale, 22, crashed a Vauxhall Tigra into Rigby from behind as he crossed the road, at a speed of 30-40mph. CCTV footage showed that Rigby, the father of a twoyear-old son, was lifted on to the bonnet and hit the windscreen. He was flung to the ground as the car hit a street sign, and was not seen to move again. Whittam said the two defendants, brandishing a cleaver and knives bought the day before, then got out of the car and Adebolajo, in the words of one witness, embarked on a "barbarous" attack. "The driver was carrying a cleaver in his right hand. He knelt down by Lee Rigby and took hold of his hair. He then repeatedly hacked at the right side of his neck just below the jawline. He was using considerable force, bringing his hand into the air each time before he struck." Another witness, the crown said, also saw that Adebolajo "held his head and deliberately sliced at the neck". The other man, Adebowale, "stabbing Lee Rigby to the body with some force". The jury heard that more scenes of horror unfolded, with Adebolajo striking nine times at the soldier's neck. Onlookers screamed hysterically and shouted at the attackers to stop. Another witness said he saw Adebolajo "sawing at the neck of Lee Rigby with a 'machete' and the other man trying to cut bits of the body by hacking away at it". Whittam said the witness described the attack as "being like a butcher attacking a joint of meat". The two men are then accused of dragging the body into the middle of the road, because "they wanted the members of the public present to see the consequences of their barbarous acts", Whittam said. Rigby a drummer and machine-gunner in the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers had served in Helmand, Afghanistan. On the day he was killed he was travelling back from the Tower of London where he was helping army recruitment. Pictures held up in court showed he was wearing a Help for Heroes sweatshirt as he arrived at nearby Woolwich station, shortly after 2pm. The jury and Rigby's family and friends watched on screens around the Old Bailey as graphic scenes were shown in court. At times it was too harrowing and some left the court. The two defendants sat in the dock separated by security guards, just feet away from Rigby's family. Brown paper was taped over part of the dock where the defendants sat, so they were shielded from the view of the victim's relatives and friends.

relatives and friends. Video was played of Adebolajo handing a letter to a woman after the attack. The court heard the handwritten note said that "carnage reaching your town" was "simply retaliation for your oppression in our towns". It continued: "Whereas the average Joe Bloggs working-class man loses his sons when they're killed by our brothers, when the heat of battle reaches your local street it's unlikely that any of your so-called politicians will be at risk or caught in crossfire so I suggest you remove them. "Remove them and replace them with people who will secure your safety by immediate withdrawal from the affairs of Muslims." The court heard that in a police interview after the attack Adebolajo is alleged to have said: "Your people have gone to Afghanistan and raped and killed our women. I am seeking retribution. I wouldn't stoop so low as to rape and kill women." He added: "I thank the person who shot me because it is what Allah would have wanted." Whittam dismissed any notion that retaliation for any perceived wrongdoing was a defence morally or in law and pointed out that Rigby had been dressed in civilian clothes. The prosecutor told the court: "Killing to make a political point, or to frighten the public to put pressure on the government, or as an expression of anger, is murder and remains murder whether the government in question is a good one, a bad one or a dreadful one. "Equally, there is no defence of moral justification for killing, just as there is no defence of religious justification. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth suggests revenge or retaliation and, in the context of this case, murder." The jury also saw footage which the crown said showed how close an armed officer who rushed to the scene came to being injured. As police arrived, Adebolajo came within feet of the female officer who realised too late that she could not get her gun out of a leg holster in time as she was sitting in the front seat of a car. Adebolajo, the crown said while playing the video footage, raised a meat cleaver at the officer, and was stopped only by her colleague in the back seat of the car who opened fire, without time to aim properly. The shots propelled Adebolajo off his feet. His alleged accomplice, Adebowale, was pointing a gun at them and was also shot. Both men are also charged with conspiring to murder and the attempted murder of police officers who arrived at the scene of the attack, which they deny. The court was told the two accused had pleaded guilty to having a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, and the crown allege the weapon was used to scare off members of the public as the accused waited for the police to arrive. The trial continues.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Co-op Bank investors back 1.5bn rescue

Threat of emergency intervention recedes as many bondholders back deal which will see Co-op Group's stake cut to 30%
Jill Treanor theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 22.57 GMT

A number of other Co-op Bank bondholders still need to approve the deal. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The threat of emergency intervention by the Bank of England into the Co-operative Bank receded on Friday night after thousands of retail investors gave their backing to a 1.5bn lifeline for the troubled high street bank. The support of the bondholders is a major step towards avoiding Threadneedle Street having to step in to wind up the bank but is part of a process that will force the Co-op Group which owns supermarkets, funeral homes and pharmacies to cede control of its banking business to bondholders, who have been led by aggressive US hedge funds. The complex restructuring is still far from complete a number of other bondholders still need to approve the deal but the support of the retail investors was regarded as the biggest hurdle because they needed to be convinced to vote. Some 13,000 bondholders had invested 370m in the bank using financial instruments that paid high returns and were relied on by pensioners for income. Other groups of bondholders also have to vote and a number of court hearings are necessary before the fresh injection of capital into the bank will be formally agreed. Once it is, the Co-op Group will own just 30% of the bank which is expected to be floated on the stock market late next year and the bondholders will own the remaining 70% of the shares. In joint statement on Friday night the management of Co-op Group and Co-op Bank said they were delighted by the support. "We are now highly confident that our 1.5bn recapitalisation plan for the Co-op Bank can be achieved," they said. The Bank of England has given the bank until the end of the year to plug a capital shortfall identified in June but the bank's problems escalated this month after its former chairman Paul Flowers was arrested on allegations about buying drugs. Its future has sparked a political row about whether Labour ministers encouraged the bank to merge with Britannia Building Society in 2009 and now regarded as the source of many of its loan losses and whether the coalition cheered on the now ill-fated attempt to take control of 631 Lloyds Banking Group branches. The bank was forced to admit on Thursday that customers were moving their current accounts because of the Flowers scandal and the fears that it would be hard to maintain its ethical approach to business once the Co-op Group

was no longer in control. But it had stressed that savers a key source of its funding had not been leaving. The Co-op Group had warned that if bondholders had failed to back the restructuring they risked losing all their investments as the only alternative was "resolution" by the Bank of England.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Saatchi: 'I adore Nigella now and I am broken-hearted to have lost her'
Art dealer tells jury he had not seen ex-wife taking drugs and admits email taunting her was nasty
Esther Addley The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 20.01 GMT

Charles Saatchi attended Isleworth crown court yesterday where Italian sisters Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo deny fraud. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Charles Saatchi still "adores" his former wife Nigella Lawson, and does not believe she was "so off her head and addled with drugs" that she allowed their two former assistants to run up huge credit card bills, he told a court on Friday. The multimillionaire art dealer, who separated from Lawson this year, told a jury at Isleworth crown court he was "utterly heartbroken" by their subsequent divorce. "I adore Nigella now. I adore Nigella and I'm absolutely brokenhearted to have lost her." In emotional and at times combative testimony, Saatchi told a packed court that around the time Lawson moved out, after he was photographed with his hand around her throat at a London restaurant, he had been shown witness statements from Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo alleging that Lawson had been a daily user of cocaine, cannabis and prescription medication throughout their marriage.

Saatchi, dressed in his customary blue suit, white shirt without a tie and black suede loafers, took the stand on the third day of the trial of the sisters, who are accused of running up huge credit card bills buying designer clothes, staying in luxury hotels and booking first-class flights for their personal use. They deny fraud. He was repeatedly asked to raise his voice for the jury. "I'm so sorry, I didn't realise I had such a quiet voice," he said. Saatchi was "completely astounded" to learn of the drug allegations, he said. "I don't like drugs at all and I didn't like reading what the Grillos said was the culture in my home." He admitted, however, that he had written an email to his former wife on 10 October in which he addressed her as "Higella" and taunted her about the drug allegations. "Nigella, I was sent this by a newspaper and I could only laugh at your sorry depravity," the email began. It continued: "Of course now the Grillos will get off on the basis that you were so off your head on drugs that you allowed the sisters to spend what they liked. And yes, I believe every bit the Grillos said." It concluded: "Bravo you have become a celebrity jurist on a global television gameshow and you have got the pass you desired, free to enjoy all the drugs you want forever. Classy." Under cross-examination from Anthony Metzer QC, representing Elisabetta Grillo, he said: "I was just being nasty. This is not a very pleasant email, but I was very, very upset." He said the email came to light when Lawson's legal team passed it to the prosecuting lawyers and said he was "entirely bereft that this private note to Nigella has come back to haunt me". He called her decision to pass it to her lawyers "a terrible, terrible mistake". In response to later questioning by Metzer, however, he said: "Are you asking me whether I think Nigella really was off her head? Do I think she was off her head and addled with drugs? Not for a second." He said he had "never, ever seen any evidence of Nigella taking any drug whatsoever". The court heard Lawson had instructed her lawyers to serve a withdrawal statement on 17 October, seeking to back out of giving evidence to the sisters' criminal trial and a separate civil case that Lawson and Saatchi had initiated against them. Saatchi said he had never read a letter sent in October by his lawyers to Lawson's legal team threatening to sue her, including for 600,000 allegedly spent by the sisters, if she refused to give evidence. "I haven't read that letter. My conversation with my lawyer was simple: 'Can you send a letter which is extremely forceful and says: you really are going to have to attend or otherwise the consequences will be very unpleasant.' It worked!" Lawson is now expected to give evidence in the trial. He continued: "Do I think Nigella is going to say [in court]: 'Yes, I gave them authority to go out and spend what they like'? Not a chance." He told the court that he had also never read a document prepared for him by his financial director, Rahul Gajjar, which detailed spending of 100,000 a month including an alleged 76,000 by the Grillos on six credit cards used by Lawson and five of the couple's personal assistants. "I do not spend my days fussing about even very large sums of money," he told Karina Arden, representing Francesca. "It's not that I'm rich, it's just that I'd rather not look at a piece of paper with money written on it. It's not what I do." Speaking about the incident at Scott's restaurant, after which he accepted a police caution for assault, Saatchi said: "I was not gripping, strangling or throttling her. I was holding her head by the neck to make her focus, can we be

clear?" "Was what you were talking about ... ?" began Metzer. "No. Her drug use? No," replied Saatchi. Saatchi agreed the sisters, who had initially been employed as nannies for Lawson before the death of her first husband, John Diamond, had been "like family". "I'm very fond of or was very fond of Francesca and Lisa [Elisabetta]. They were part of our family The children adored them. I was very fond of them. Nigella was very fond of them." Francesca Grillo lived rent-free at the family home in Eaton Square and her room was next to the couple's bedroom, he said. "If you want me to speak plainly, the truth is there was no real need for us to keep them both on but we liked them very much and found work for them." He said after the pair's alleged high spending had been brought to his attention in July 2012, he met Francesca and offered to allow the sisters to continue working for the couple and to live rent free in a property owned by Lawson in Battersea, but to have their pay cut as "what I described as penance". Francesca had described the offer as "humiliating", he said. "I think she said as she left: 'I would rather go to jail than go to Battersea.' And then she said: 'See you around.' " Saatchi appeared at one point to refer to a tweet sent by Lawson earlier this week in which she posted a recipe for "holiday hotcake" and described it as "the perfect recipe to show thanks for all your support & to those who hashtag #teamNigella." "I have grown familiar with the term 'Team Nigella', and I understand Team Nigella to be three former members of the staff who moved out of the home when she did," the art dealer told the court. "I don't have a Team Saatchi." The case continues.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

UK news

David Cameron to argue in favour of green jobs in new year Court hears countdown to 'horrific, frenzied' Woolwich attack Fights break out at Asda as shoppers descend on Black Friday deals Christmas unwrapped: retro cameras among gifts to be snapped up this year Christmas shopping: click, click merrily online, the virtual tills are ringing Labour is still weak on economic strategy, warns former Brown adviser

Labour is still weak on economic strategy, warns former Brown adviser New asbo threat to carol singers is 'complete nonsense', says minister Badger cull called off in Gloucestershire UK embarks on biggest food drive since second world war Iron Maiden: too hairy for pop but still turning metal into gold Poll shows growing disaffection over private healthcare providers Analysis: don't mention opium war or human rights Comet Ison: a viewer's guide Comet Ison appears to survive close encounter with the sun Labour calls for BT to cut line rental charges as part of eight-point plan Low pay commission talks to UK workers to advise on minimum wage George Osborne's rejection of Keynes vindicated by recovery, say allies Arctic 30: unlikely activist forced to find strength in Murmansk jail London 'slave' group went from figures of fun to tiny underground commune Britain's damp, leaky homes among Europe's most costly to heat By 'eck chuck, Coronation Street's moving out of Manchester Quarter of primary schools have fined parents for term-time holidays, survey says The Guardian and Observer Christmas appeal 2013: Future Africa Katine's farmers struggle in face of floods and drought More borrowing under universal credit scheme Mairead Philpott loses appeal against 17-year sentence for manslaughter House of Cards writer to present EU referendum bill into the House of Lords St Jude storm may have killed around 10 million trees Peaches Geldof apologises for Ian Watkins sex abuse tweet Paddy Ashdown warns lack of action in climate change risks extreme weather HS2 planning: 'How on earth is the public meant to make sense of this?' Simon Hoggart's week: let's end this obsession over Ed Miliband

David Cameron to argue in favour of green jobs in new year

PM signals return to green agenda after 'cauterising' energy price fears sparked by Osborne's autumn statement
Nicholas Watt and Rowena Mason The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 22.27 GMT Jump to comments ()

David Cameron wants every conversation about green to be about growth, green tech and green jobs, says one senior Tory. Photograph: Scott Barbour/Getty Images

David Cameron has reached out to modernising Tories by saying in private that he will argue in favour of the economic benefits of renewable energy in the New Year after George Osborne has "cauterised" public angst over green levies in his autumn statement. As the chancellor prepares to announce on Thursday that he will fund some of the green charges through general taxation, allowing for cuts to energy bills, the prime minister has told Tory modernisers that he will happily talk about green jobs once "public angst" has been addressed. One senior Tory told the Guardian: "Come the New Year the prime minister wants every conversation about green to be about growth, green tech and green jobs. But before you do that you have got to cauterise the public angst there is about green levies." The changes on green energy charges, which will be one of the main measures in the autumn statement, have been the subject of intense wrangling between the government and the big six energy companies. Government officials have been pushing energy companies not to raise prices until after the next election in return for taking 50 of green levies off gas and electricity bills, several industry sources have told the Guardian. The sources confirmed a BBC report that firms are under the impression that they have been asked to keep down gas and electricity prices for an extended period, unless there were changes in international fuel prices a claim that was dismissed by Downing Street yesterday as "utterly misleading". One source at an energy company said between 20 and 25 could be saved by making changes to the energy company obligation (Eco) a programme to cut energy usage for the most vulnerable households. Another 12 could be saved by shifting the warm home discount, giving poorer households money off their electricity bills, into general taxation. Network companies are also being asked to find some modest savings. Last night, the BBC also reported that targets on cutting energy usage under the Eco scheme will be cut by 30%. It said it had seen a letter also revealing a plan to spread the programme over four years rather than two. The autumn statement will be Osborne's first financial statement of the parliament to be delivered amid a backdrop of encouraging economic news. In addition to his announcement on energy bills the chancellor will explain how he will pay for the introduction of a transferable marriage tax allowance. He will also announce how he will fund the provision of universal free school meals for infants a concession demanded by the Nick Clegg as the price for not causing trouble on the marriage tax allowance. Tory modernisers confronted Cameron in private last week after a minister told the Daily Mail and the Sun that the prime minister wanted to "get rid of all this green crap". It is understood that the minister has been told that his remarks were unhelpul because they "made the prime minister look like a hypocrite", in the words of one Cameron ally. Cameron has told the modernisers that he regards the autumn statement as a key moment in clearing the air. One Tory said: "Downing Street doesn't want to be talking about green crap, they don't want to be talking about green luvvies. They just want to focus on the cost of living." The prime minister made clear that he wants to avoid a public confrontation between the "vote-blue-go-green" modernisers and climate-change sceptics just before a general election. One Tory said: "The [modernising] agenda is not being junked. It just feels unnourished. You don't want to have a war about what it means to be a Conservative just at the point when we are reaching escape velocity in the economy." In his autumn statement the chancellor will please the prime minister and delight the Tory right in the autumn statement as he announces through clenched teeth how he will fund a transferable marriage tax allowance. As one of

statement as he announces through clenched teeth how he will fund a transferable marriage tax allowance. As one of the most socially liberal MPs Osborne is no fan of the idea. Osborne is prepared to have a dig at Clegg when he explains how he will fund the provision of universal free school meals for infant school children announced by Nick Clegg at the Lib Dem conference . The chancellor is understood to be tempted to out that the free school meals idea was proposed in a report written by the Leon restaurant founders, Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent, which was commissioned by Michael Gove in consultation with Osborne. In his autumn statement the chancellor may try to outstrip Clegg, who recently called for the personal tax allowance to be increased to 10,500 by April 2015, by saying that it should be raised by an even higher amount. Osborne will also look at extending the business rate relief which is due to stop at the end of March. There are currently intense negotiations between the Department for Energy and Climate Change and the energy companies over the cost of gas and electricity, as bills are due to hit a record of more than 1,400 a year when all the recent price rises come into effect. The BBC said the government was demanding a price freeze until mid-2015 as part of a wider deal on environmental levies. It is understood there has not been a ministerial letter to this effect but officials are putting pressure on the companies not to announce any more price rises for another 18 months. Sources said some companies are more receptive to this than others, with one claiming a year-long freeze is possible but waiting until after the next election would not be feasible. There are also fears that they would then not be able to raise prices for an even longer period if Labour wins the next election, as Ed Miliband has promised a bill freeze for almost two years after that. Cameron's official spokesman insisted no request for a price freeze had been made during negotiations over the green levies, with Downing Street sources blaming it on a possible misunderstanding. "The story is utterly misleading. The government has not asked for a price freeze. People should wait for us to announce our plans," the spokesman said. However, Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, seized on the confusion to say Cameron looked like a "weak and flailing prime minister". "What we now know is that while David Cameron has in public been opposing an energy price freeze, in private he has been pleading with the energy companies to get him off the hook. "What Britain needs is Labour's strong, credible plan that we're publishing today to freeze energy prices until 2017 and reform a broken energy market so it properly works for business and families." Earlier, Miliband pledged to "reset the broken energy market", promising that all energy bills will be simplified and use the same method to explain the cost of energy per unit and the precise standing charges. He laid out the idea in a green paper on energy, which included the implementation of its plan for a price freeze, and for how energy profits and trading can be made more transparent. The party also developed its idea for a new energy security board, which would be responsible for ensuring the UK's energy resources do not run out. It would take over the current responsibility from the National Grid and the current regulator.

Sign up for the Guardian Today

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Court hears countdown to 'horrific, frenzied' Woolwich attack

QC tells Old Bailey weapons used to kill Lee Rigby on his return to Woolwich barracks cost just 54.97
Josh Halliday, Matthew Taylor and Vikram Dodd The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 20.21 GMT

The weapons that were used to kill Lee Rigby cost 54.97, the Old Bailey jury at hearing the Woolwich murder trial heard. Opening the prosecution case, Richard Whittam QC said that one of the men accused of murdering of the soldier, Michael Adebolajo, was captured on CCTV on 21 May, the day before the attack, visiting a branch of Argos in Lewisham, south London. He drove there in a Vauxhall Tigra, the same car the crown said was used the next day as a weapon to run over the soldier in a suburban street. The jury was shown pictures of receipts recovered by police from the car after the attack: a knife sharpener was bought for 9.99 from the Argos store and 44.98 was paid in cash for a set of five Taylors Eye Witness knives in a block. Just after 8am on the day of the attack, Adebolajo was seen driving the car in the area around his home before filling up with petrol at a local shop. He told the assistant he did not have any money or identification and, according to Whittam, offered his phone as security. He told the shop assistant not to answer if it rang. Adebolajo went home and returned. He paid for the petrol then headed towards the address of his co-accused, Michael Adebowale, at around 9.30am. The court heard that the two men were together for the rest of the morning before setting off for Woolwich. The court was shown video footage and images of the pair driving around the area for at least an hour before the attack. Rigby was returning to his barracks in Woolwich after spending the morning at a recruitment fair at the Tower of London. The soldier's mother, Lyn Rigby, left the court in tears when jurors heard they were about to see her son's final moments. Dressed in a blue Help for Heroes hooded top with a camouflage backpack slung over his shoulder, Rigby was shown passing a pub and council offices as he walked the short distance from Woolwich Arsenal Docklands Light Railway station. Instead of turning into his barracks, he crossed the road. Without warning, the jury heard, Adebolajo drove the Tigra straight at Rigby. There were gasps as CCTV footage showed the car ploughing into Rigby from behind, lifting the 25-year-old onto the bonnet and windscreen before it crashed at up to 40mph. His unconscious body landed two feet in front of the car, the court heard. "What unfolded after that was shocking to those who observed it," Whittam told jurors. After a short delay Adebolajo and Adebowale got out of the car and set about an "horrific, frenzied attack," the jury was told. Amanda Bailey saw Rigby's prone body and attempted to telephone emergency services but dialled 9999 in her panic, the court heard. Describing Bailey's witness testimony, Whittam told jurors: "The driver was carrying a cleaver in his right hand. He knelt down by Lee Rigby and took hold of his hair.

in his right hand. He knelt down by Lee Rigby and took hold of his hair. "He then repeatedly hacked at the right side of his neck just below the jaw line. He was using considerable force, bringing his hand into the air each time before he struck." Bailey saw Adebolajo hack nine times into Rigby's neck, the jury heard. Another witness, Gary Perkins, saw Adebolajo "sawing at the neck of Lee Rigby with a machete" while Adebowale was "trying to cut bits of the body away". He said the attack was like "a butcher attacking a joint of meat". Another witness told police he "instantly believed that he [the attacker] was trying to cut the victim's head off by the way he was attacking him", jurors were told. Saraj Miah, who was standing outside a nearby shop, saw the two men attacking Rigby and shouted: "Don't kill him," before Adebowale took out a rusted handgun and aimed it at him. As the two defendants dragged Rigby's bloodied body into the street several women engaged the pair still armed with knives, a gun and covered in blood in conversation. Horrified onlookers watched as Amanda Donnelly Martin was shown going to Rigby's lifeless body sitting down next to it in the road and rubbing his back and trying to offer some comfort. Others were seen talking to the two alleged attackers as they gesticulated and argued. Vikki Cave, a first aider, approached the body to see if she could help, Whittam said. She heard the taller of the alleged killers talking about "religion", the jury was told. Whittam said he was "saying things about religion such as 'these soldiers go to our land, kill/bomb our people so an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"'. Cave asked if Adebolajo was going to attack them. Whittam said he replied: "No, you need to keep back when the police and soldiers get here." Adebolajo, still carrying a knife, passed a handwritten note to Donnelly Martin as she was sitting by Rigby's side, the court heard. Whittam told jurors the letter read: "Many of your people are aristocrats that directly benefit from invasion of our lands without material loss. "Whereas the average Joe Bloggs working class man loses his sons when they're killed by our brothers, when the heat of battle reaches your local street it's unlikely that any of your so-called politicians will be at risk or caught in crossfire so I suggest you remove them. "Remove them and replace them with people who will secure your safety by immediate withdrawal from the affairs of Muslims." One onlooker filmed as Adebolajo addressed the camera, jurors were told, saying: "You people will never be safe. Remove your governments, they don't care about you. You think David Cameron is gonna get caught in the street when we start busting our guns?" The jury was then shown footage of the moment the first armed police arrived. Three officers in the police BMW had been warned of the seriousness of the situation as they raced across south London but as the car turned into the street they could not have been prepared for the scene. As the car turned into Artillery Place with its sirens blaring the driver a female officer was alerted by a shout from a colleague in the back of the car to Rigby's stricken body lying in the road. The court heard that within a split second she saw a man running towards the car with a meat cleaver. She went to draw her pistol but could not get it out of her holster. Whittam said: "She immediately thought "he is going to kill me." But her colleague in the back of the car opened fire. Adebolajo, who was just a few feet from the car, was hit and flung to the ground.

flung to the ground. Within seconds Adebowale, who had a gun in his hand and was also charging towards the police, had also been shot. As he fell to the ground he lifted the gun towards the officers who shot him again. Onlookers scattered as the three officers tried to secure the area. Whittam told the jury that in police interviews Adebolajo said his name was Mjahid Abu Hamza and added: "Your people have gone to Afghanistan and raped and killed our women. I am seeking retribution. I wouldn't stoop so low as to rape and kill women." He is alleged to have said: "I thank the person who shot me because it is what Allah would have wanted," adding "I love Allah more than my children." Adebolajo refused to sign the notes of this conversation, Whittam said, claiming his words had been taken out of context. The next day, 23 May, Adebolajo made more comments to police, the jury heard. He is alleged to have said: "My intention was never to harm civilians. There were women and children around. My intention was to hurt military only." Referring to Rigby, the crown alleged Adebolajo said: "He was in his kit, in his uniform coming in and out of the barracks." Whittam, addressing the jury who had seen CCTV of Rigby's last journey, dressed in a Help for Heroes sweatshirt, told the court: "He was not of course in his kit, and he was not coming in and out of the barracks." The court was told Adebolajo then made a further statement: "We hope that one day Great Britain will replace those corrupt politicians with men or women, who truly care about the security of their citizens by withdrawing from affairs of Muslims, including their lands."

The accused
Michael Adebolajo Born in Lewisham, south London, in 1984. Since his arrest Adebolajo, who was living in Romford, Essex, has let it be known he wants to be called Mujaahid Abu Hamza. After being detained by police, Adebolajo refused to provide his home address unless officers would give him an assurance that they would use restraint when attending his property. This was because "someone lived there whom he described as very timid", the court heard. In comments recorded by police officers and read to the jury, Adebolajo described himself as a Muslim extremist and said: "I love Allah more than my children." Michael Adebowale Born in Eltham, south London, in 1991, Adebowale lived in Greenwich. He was brought up in the Christian faith but converted to Islam when he was 17. His parents called him by his middle name Tobi but after his conversion to Islam he adopted the name Ismael. On the weekend before the incident, Adebowale was twice due to meet his father, but on both occasions he failed to show up. After the second missed meeting, Adebowale apologised to his father for getting up late. "The next time his father was to see him was when he watched the news on 22 May," prosecutors told the court.

Sign up for the Guardian Today

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Fights break out at Asda as shoppers descend on Black Friday deals

US tradition of post-Thanksgiving discounts brings scrambles to stores in UK with customers eager for cut-price electrical goods
Sarah Butler The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 14.53 GMT

A shopper is restrained by security guards after a row broke out on Black Friday at Asda in Cribbs Causeway, Bristol, when the man reportedly tried to buy two 60-inch televisions. Photograph: SWNS.com

Shoppers desperate for bargains caused chaos in Asda stores on Friday as the Walmart-owned supermarket brought the US tradition of Black Friday to Britain. Customers scrambled and pushed to snatch cut-price electrical goods after queueing for several hours outside Asda stores around the country. Shoppers took to the social media site Twitter to describe early morning queues and fights. A woman in Merseyside was reportedly taken to hospital in the morning after being assaulted in a queue outside an Asda store. A man was arrested in Bristol after another fracas.

Customers responded to Asda's Black Friday request for

Customers responded to Asda's Black Friday request for photos with a torrent of complaints. Photograph: Twitter

There were similarly frenzied scenes at Asda in Benton, North Tyneside, where some shelves were cleared in minutes as shoppers overran the store. Margaret Green, 55, from North Tyneside, told newswires: "It was bedlam, chaos. It was absolutely jam-packed. There was lots of screaming and shouting. I'm surprised there weren't people on the floor. I found it disgusting. It was horrific." Asda said it had tried to ensure safety by putting security guards in all its stores. A spokesman said: "This is the first time Black Friday has been done on this scale in stores across the UK and our customers were eager to take advantage of the great offers available to them. We planned for high demand and the half a million Black Friday products on offer to our customers have been selling quickly since 8am." The store group knew certain products would be popular, but "no one expected some of them to be sold out within a few hours", it added. The US tradition of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when shops cut prices to encourage sales on what is a national holiday on other side of the Atlantic, is gathering pace in the UK. It is being driven by US retailers with a presence in Britain, including Apple, Amazon and Asda. British retailers, including John Lewis and Dixons, have also begun offering special deals on electrical goods to encourage shoppers to spend early. Amazon has been offering discounts all week while Asda, owned by the US retailer Walmart, had discounts of up to 70% on products including plasma TVs and tablets.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Christmas unwrapped: retro cameras among gifts to be snapped up this year

Smartphones, tablets and bakeware also sought-after with Britons predicted to increase their spending by 2.2% this Christmas
Juliette Garside The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 21.44 GMT

The Leica X Vario looks like a vintage camera from the front and comes with old-fashioned leather cases.

The ultimate Christmas gadget will go on sale at Sotheby's in New York on Saturday. From the studio of Apple design guru Jonathan Ive, it is an aluminium-coated Leica camera, a minimalist digital take on a mid-20th century classic. Unfortunately for amateur photographers looking to add to their gift lists, only one has been made. The Ive Leica will be auctioned to raise money for charity, and its designer thinks it could sell for $6m (3.7m). Few can afford to shop at Sotheby's, but the UK economy is getting stronger and, despite the cost-of-living squeeze, Britons are forecast to increase their spending this Christmas by 2.2% which would be the biggest rise in five years. Shoppers will spend more than 88bn in the final three months of 2013, according to research firm Verdict and technology gifts will be a big part of the return to conspicuous consumption. The biggest sellers are expected to be:

Retro digital cameras

Retailers are predicting that cameras, tablets, smartphones and games consoles will be among the most popular presents this Christmas. Leica, Fujifilm and Pentax are ready to capitalise on the wave of interest in what is being hailed the iCamera with ranges of retro digital devices. Resembling a vintage camera from the front, and accessorised with old-fashioned leather cases, the Leica X Vario which costs more than 2,000 is fitted with a three-inch screen and records highdefinition video and sound. "Retro cameras generate a lot of interest and what they stand for is the re-emergence of photography as a popular pastime," said Matt Leeser, the head buyer for communication technology at John Lewis. "People spent the previous decade downscaling to a compact camera, but with smartphones we are becoming a nation of amateur photographers, and a lot of customers coming into our stores are interested in upgrading." John Lewis has seen a boom in the mid-range SLR cameras, with sales up 62%. It expects games consoles to sell well, because Sony and Microsoft have new machines in the market, and believes the Xbox One will outsell the justlaunched PlayStation 4.

Tablets
But the biggest sellers will be tablets. John Lewis expects to sell a tablet computer every 15 seconds during the festive period. Apple's thinner, lighter iPad Air will be on many wish lists, and Google's Nexus models will do a brisk trade, but the biggest selling piece of electronic equipment this Christmas is forecast to be the iPad mini. "Tablets were top of the electricals category last year and they will be again this year," said Neil Saunders of retail consultancy Conlumino. Many tablets will end up in the hands of children, for whom screen-swiping often has more attraction than dressing dolls or assembling wooden railways. The dilemma for parents is whether to opt for an educational tablet especially designed for children, such as the 50 LeapPad, or give in to the pestering and buy an adult tablet. One deciding factor is choice the best ebooks and games, such as Angry Birds or Temple Run, are largely unavailable outside the Apple and Android universes. "There is the biggest reluctance from the parents' point of view these are quite expensive things to break," said

"There is the biggest reluctance from the parents' point of view these are quite expensive things to break," said Saunders. "You can see why people have cashed in on making kids' versions of tablets, but the truth is when they get to five or six, they want the iPad because that's the thing they can do most on. We will see 'cascading' parents will get the brand-new model and pass the old tablet down to the kids."

The iPhone 5s - available for the first time in gold.

Phones
This could be the last year to buy a BlackBerry for those who prefer their keyboards in three dimensions. The launch of a new smartphone designed to turn around the Canadian company's fortunes earlier this year flopped, and questions are being asked about how long it can keep manufacturing.

The Teksta robotic puppy responds to voice commands and wakes up to greet you with the sunrise.

But for many, the choice will simply be which iPhone to buy. The colourful 5C is cheaper but not enough to outsell the 5S, which recognises its owner's fingerprints and for the first time comes in gold. Apple is expected to sell at least 47m phones in the final three months of the year, and there are already waiting lists for some models. "The gold iPhone is very much in constraint across the marketplace," said Leeser. In fact John Lewis has no supplies, although the sought-after colour is available from mobile networks and Apple shops.

Robots and fairies

Argos is predicting that two of the top-selling toys this Christmas will be technology related. The Teksta robotic puppy responds to voice and gesture commands, goes to sleep in the dark and wakes up to greet you. At 55 from

puppy responds to voice and gesture commands, goes to sleep in the dark and wakes up to greet you. At 55 from Asda it is affordable enough for most families, as is the apparently miraculous Flutterbye flying fairy, whose wind-up skirt allows her to hover like a magic-dust sprinkled helicopter.

Bake-off ware
The digital revolution has yet to enter the kitchen, with internet-connected fridges and cookers still confined to electronics fairs, but retailers are betting that the BBC's Great British Bake Off (GBBO) pastry extravaganza will inspire amateur chefs to upgrade their counter-top gadgets. "Breadmakers have seen an increase [in popularity]," said Argos appliance buyer Kate Gibson. "With the price of a loaf of bread increasing, the desire to do it yourself is becoming more popular. Dietary requirements such as glutenfree and wheat-free mean many people want to know exactly what they are eating and baking your own bread is an appealing solution." Among the likely topsellers will be Kenwood's kMix food mixer, a colourful 1950s-inspired machine with matching toasters and kettles. Katie Bryson, author of the Feeding boys and a firefighter blog, said the splash guard that keeps the clouds of icing sugar at bay was a big plus.

The Nike FuelBand: ideal for those wanting to banish evidence of yuletide feasting.

"Stand mixers are the ultimate Christmas present for the growing army of GBBO-inspired home bakers out there," said Bryson. "I'm more than a bit partial to a kitchen gadget or 10. My favourite of this last year has been the Vitamix not only does it blitz up amazing smoothies, but it can make soups and even a hot cheese sauce without using any heating element, just the friction from the blades."

Fitbands
For a post-feasting workout, exercise wristbands are becoming popular with fitness fanatics and could make an ideal gift for those whose new year resolve extends to purchasing, but not necessarily using, a gym membership. Nike developed the concept with its FuelBand. The latest version encourages the wearer to compete with friends for the most Fuel points. Adidas has responded with the miCoach, which is built like a large watch with a touch-sensitive screen, connects with Android phones, monitors your heart rate and uses GPS to record speed and distance travelled. At 350, it is more than double the price of Nike's gadget, but less expensive than a personal trainer.

Christmas 2013 the top 10 gadgets

iPad mini with retina display from 319 at Apple Xbox One 429.99 from Amazon Google Nexus 7 tablet, 199.95 at John Lewis Nike+ FuelBand SE 129 at nike.com Leica X Vario camera 2,150 at Selfridges Kenwood kMix stand food mixer 379.99 at Argos Gold iPhone 5S from 549 at Apple Bose noise-cancelling in-ear headphones 259.95 at John Lewis Teksta robotic puppy 55 at Asda Flutterbye flying fairy, 29.99 at Argos

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Christmas shopping: click, click merrily online, the virtual tills are ringing
Cyber Monday is the combined result of Thanksgiving in the US and the British tradition of shopping online at work
Zoe Williams The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 18.27 GMT Jump to comments ()

'My local bookseller says he sees people spend ages choosing a book, then scanning the barcode to buy it off Amazon'. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Christmas, huh? Gets earlier every year, except it doesn't: things have changed in the world of the gift, new dates and rules and circuitry have been introduced. We go to the shops to have a look at stuff, then buy online. We're told it's Christmas for at least three months in advance, but two pan-Atlantic impulses the American convention of not starting shopping for Christmas until after Thanksgiving, the UK preference for shopping in our employer's time have fixed upon a single day, Cyber Monday. Falling this year on 2 December, this clickfest saw 10,000 spent per second in the UK last year. Experian the credit rating company which tracks bankruptcies with one hand while tallying spending with the other, estimated 115 million visits to online shopping sites. Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, a consumer psychologist at Anglia Ruskin University, points to the subtleties of the switch: we haven't stopped going to shops; We've merely stopped shopping in them. "The whole tactile impact is still very much there. Women have generally a preference for touching things, wanting to take in the atmosphere. What we are seeing for children is that Mummy and Daddy quite often drag the kid out to look at the window display, and then go off and order it on Amazon because it's cheaper." (My local bookseller corroborates this with the most dispiriting story: that sometimes people go in, spend ages choosing a book, then scan the barcode to get it off Amazon). Ben Rushworth, 28, says: "I'm aware of the moral issues around buying from Amazon, but I'm simply not in the financial position that I can afford to buy the same item for 10 more somewhere else. I'd like to. I just can't." The psychology of the change is fascinating even people who could afford to spend more on principle simply can't access their better selves while they're shopping. "There is no such thing as altruism in consumption. Shopping and consumption is all about pleasure." Jansson-Boyd says. I allow myself a moment of arguing with the academic here: there has to be a grain of altruism somewhere, surely? "This is a social psychological concept, called the tragedy of the commons. If something has a self-serving aspect, then you will sacrifice the common good. A very simplistic example is buy one get one free. If you want to be environmental, you have to reduce your consumption. But people think, I'm getting one free, this is better for me." Toby Flux, 46, points out that, as well as rarely being the cheapest, shops often don't have the right stuff. "The internet is a far bigger shop window and practically guarantees the best price. The magic's gone, when as soon as you arrive at a high street, and you know already you're doing yourself down." And the calculations of self-interest keep on coming we want to do it in our employer's time, according to Jansson-Boyd. "I don't want to spend my own time on people I'm maybe not fussed about." Just one small question, before we get on to why we would put all this effort into anything, when we are such horrible people who don't care about anyone: how come shops still exist? "If the stores are very clever, they can still capitalise on the fact that people are walking through the door. If you can't interest them in something that genuinely is going to bring in money, then baffle them with nonsense. Here's a thing to hang in the tree, if you turn it upside down bubbles come out. Those things you don't buy online." Right. Great. It's enough to put you off shopping altogether, and has done for Nicole Slavin who is "bah humbug about Christmas, partly because of the commercialisation and the sheer social pressure to buy people things". But being a refusnik doesn't help, according to Jansson-Boyd. Many families without small children stop buying presents because they realise, as adults, you're essentially just "swapping money". So they keep the money and spend it on themselves. But it still gets spent. And if you're anti-Christmas for green reasons, that's even worse. "What we're seeing is that people with high levels of environmental awareness are changing their consumer habits at Christmas. Interestingly enough they spend more money than most people, I don't even think they know they do it."

It's easy to opt out when there are no children, and a physical impossibility when there are. Even the psychologist who specialises in the manipulation of consumers and only has two pairs of shoes, buys stuff for her kids (she sticks to 20). The only problem is, by indulging their excitement, we're nurturing in them the same mindless-drone impulse that leads us to work like dogs in order to buy baubles with bubbles in. "If we had more self-confidence, if we were more individual, we would resist this stuff more easily. Because it's killing us," Jansson-Boyd concludes, lightly.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Labour is still weak on economic strategy, warns former Brown adviser

Patrick Diamond says Labour party needs to do more to show voters it can manage the economy competently and tax fairly
Nicholas Watt The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 20.30 GMT Jump to comments ()

Labour shouldn't place too much emphasis on Ed Miliband's signature theme, the cost of living, Patrick Diamond says. Photograph: Ray Tang/Rex

Labour is still hampered by "potentially crippling strategic weaknesses" on the economy that could harm its chances of winning the 2015 general election, according to the man who wrote the party's 2010 manifesto with Ed Miliband. Patrick Diamond, who worked for Gordon Brown in Downing Street and is now an academic at Queen Mary University of London, says Labour is "generally not trusted to manage the economy", which means that many of its policies on other issues are not believed. In a pamphlet for the Policy Network thinktank, Diamond argues that the economic recovery may benefit Labour

because voters believe the recovery is likely to benefit the wealthy. Voters also favour a tax system in which people on higher incomes make a greater contribution to the eliminating of the structural budget deficit. But Diamond warns that Labour needs to do more to shore up its economic credibility before it can win a wider hearing. He writes: "If Labour is to define the politics of recovery on its own terms, however, it has to address two potentially crippling strategic weaknesses. The first is that Labour is generally not trusted to manage the economy, so there is a danger that its wider arguments are not heard by voters. "Having conceded its reputation for economic competence in the wake of the financial crisis, the party faces an uphill battle to convince a sceptical electorate that it can govern in hard times. Labour is regarded by voters as a party of fair distribution, not of production and economic growth yet its entire governing prospectus is predicated on the party's capacity to return the British economy to expansion." Diamond qualifies his criticisms by saying Labour holds several "potential trump cards". Polling by Ipsos Mori shows that 51% of voters favour the return of the 50p higher rate of income tax on people earning more than 150,000. "There is a 'progressive majority' who endorse a fairer system of taxation in Britain," he says. Diamond adds that Labour should not place too much emphasis on the cost of living, Ed Miliband's signature theme in recent months. He writes: "The party would be ill-advised to put so much emphasis on the living standards agenda, since there are limits to how far national governments can affect fundamental movements of prices in globally interdependent energy, housing and retail markets. Moreover, the freedom of manoeuvre available to any government will inevitably be circumscribed: it is possible that further tax rises and spending cuts might be necessary depending on the sustainability of the recovery. "If Labour is to address the strategic weaknesses in its position, it has to reinforce its credentials as an economically competent party with a coherent growth strategy for the UK economy which does not falsely raise expectations about what Labour can achieve in office." He adds: "Labour ought to remember that suspicion of the party's motives still runs deep within the British electorate, only temporarily alleviated by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in the 1990s and 2000s. The charge that Labour governments always run out of money evokes powerful historical memories of past crises in 1931, 1947, 1967, and 1976, for which the party was allegedly responsible. "Labour cannot afford for the electorate to have a hazy view of its credentials for judicious economic management. In truth, Labour will not win power unless voters trust it to manage the economy competently, spend responsibly, and tax fairly."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

New asbo threat to carol singers is 'complete nonsense', says minister

Norman Baker dismisses campaigners' concerns that new anti-annoyance injunctions could be used to ban charity

workers
Alan Travis, home affairs editor The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 13.49 GMT Jump to comments ()

Norman Baker has said carol singers, charity workers and bell-ringers will not be affected by a new government injunction to replace asbos. Photograph: London News Pictures/Rex

The Liberal Democrat Home Office minister, Norman Baker, has rejected as "complete nonsense" claims that carol singers and charity collectors could be banned as a result of the government's new injunctions to replace antisocial behaviour orders (asbos). He has told campaigners that councils would have to go to court to get the new anti-annoyance orders, which are civil injunctions to prevent nuisance and annoyance, known as Ipnas, if they wanted to ban carol singers, bell-ringers or charity collectors. "It is utter nonsense to suggest carol singers and street preachers might be hauled before the courts because of the proposed injunction to prevent nuisance and annoyance," said Baker. He told the Guardian he was willing to meet campaigners to discuss the "nuisance and annoyance test" in the new injunctions but they had been used successfully since 1996 in housing legislation to deal with noisy neighbours and other forms of antisocial behaviour. "The injunction has robust safeguards in place and organisations will have to prove to a court both that the behaviour they are concerned about is genuinely antisocial in nature, and how the order will stop such behaviour. If they cannot, no order will be granted. I cannot think of a court in the land that is going to accept that carol singers meet these tests," said Baker, the minister for crime prevention. "The tests to meet the injunction are used daily by the courts and frontline professionals as part of existing housing and antisocial behaviour legislation and have been for years without causing these sorts of consequences. Having said all that, if those with concerns want me to discuss this further, I am happy to do so." His reassurance follows the launch of a new campaign group that includes Lord Macdonald, a former director of public prosecutions (DPP); Conservative MP David Davis, who was shadow home secretary during the Labour government; Peter Tatchell, and organisations such as Big Brother Watch, the Christian Institute and the National Secular Society. The group claims that the measure in clause 1 of the government's antisocial behaviour, crime and policing bill now going through the House of Lords is so sweeping in its scope that it could be used to stifle many forms of protest on the grounds that they might cause annoyance and nuisance to others. Macdonald has claimed that the powers could be used against "a busker outside a shopping centre, or a street

preacher proclaiming the end of days to passersby, who may all be capable of causing nuisance and annoyance to some person. "Of course political demonstrations, street performers and corner preachers may be annoying to some. They may even, from time to time, be a nuisance. The danger in this bill is that it potentially empowers state interference against such activities in the face of shockingly low safeguards," the former DPP said earlier this month. The new campaign, called Reform Clause 1 Feel Free to Annoy Me, claims the anti-annoyance orders could be used against a group of 10-year-olds playing football in a park, carol singers, charity collectors and Sunday morning bell-ringers; and could be used to silence political activists such as Tatchell or anti-Scientology protesters. They claim it will be used instead of section 5 of the Public Order Act, which was reformed after complaints that it was penalising legitimate protests. But Baker said the courts would not entertain such frivolous uses of the orders, saying they would have a duty to ensure the injunctions were fair and proportionate. Ministers said the courts were used to using the judicial nuisance and annoyance test, which is also used in cases involving those who obstruct the road or abuse alcohol in public. Baker said the new Ipnas would enable councils and others to take swift action to protect victims and communities from more serious harm developing. The decision to introduce Ipnas to replace asbos follows criticism over their high breach rates and evidence that they became a so-called badge of honour for some young offenders. Unlike an asbo, the new Ipnas will not result in a criminal record if breached. They will impose requirements or bans to deal with the underlying causes of the problem. These could include attending an alcohol or drug misuse course, a dog-training course for an irresponsible dog owner or being banned from being drunk in a public place or carrying a can of spray paint in a public place.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Badger cull called off in Gloucestershire

Pilot cull to end earlier than planned after Natural England revokes licence over failure to meet greatly reduced targets
Damian Carrington The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 11.06 GMT Jump to comments ()

The collapse of the badger culling trial in Gloucestershire represents a humiliation for the governments policy on reducing bovine TB. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

The controversial badger cull in Gloucestershire is being abandoned after marksmen failed to kill enough animals to meet even drastically reduced targets, the Guardian revealed on Friday. The collapse of the culling trial represents a humiliation for the government's policy as it means every target set has now been missed. Natural England (NE) will revoke the culling licence and the cull will end at noon on Saturday, three weeks earlier than planned. The cull, intended to help curb tuberculosis in cattle, was initially tasked with killing 70% of all badgers in the area in a maximum of six weeks. But just 30% were killed in that time, leading to an eight-week extension that was granted against the advice of the lead scientist on NE's board. A revised target of 58% was set but shooters have failed to kill enough badgers on any night and several night saw no kills at all. The extended cull was due to end on 18 December. The environment secretary, Owen Paterson, said previously he wanted to roll out the culls across the country, but will have to wait for the verdict of an independent panel of experts. The panel which will judge whether the culls have been effective, safe and humane said it would only consider the initial six-week periods of shooting in Gloucestershire and the other pilot cull in Somerset. Both areas failed to meet the target of killing 70% of badgers in the six weeks. Farming minister George Eustice said: "The extension to the cull has been worthwhile and has removed a significant number of badgers which will make a difference to disease control in the area. Let's not forget that more than 305,000 cattle have been slaughtered in Great Britain in the past decade due to this terrible disease, which is why we are doing everything we can to get it under control." Anti-cull campaigners called the cull a "fiasco" and a "shambles". Mark Jones, Gloucestershire vet and executive director of Humane Society International-UK said: "I am much relieved the government's badger cull fiasco is finally over, for the time being at least. We hope the government will now do the decent thing and admit that killing badgers to control TB in cattle is a ludicrous and inhumane idea." Brian May, musician and founder of Save Me, said: "Now that the failure of this whole shameful badger cull shambles can be seen so clearly seen, in spite of many moves of the goalposts, it must be time to abandon the concept, and get on with the only strategy which can ultimately succeed in eradication of bovine TB - vaccination." The pilot culls were testing whether shooting free-running badgers at night could kill sufficient numbers of the animal to reduce TB in cattle herds. An earlier, decade-long trial found that culling could after four years curb TB infections by about 16%, but it used the more expensive method of trapping the badgers in cages before shooting them. Those

culls were also carried out quickly within eight to 11 days and experts have warned repeatedly that the much longer and less effective current pilots risk actually increasing TB, as fleeing badgers spread the disease more widely, an effect called perturbation. The scientists behind the decade-long trial have called the cull "mindless" and a "costly distraction". Peter Kendall, president of the National Farmers Union, which represents the culling companies, said he supported the decision to end cull. He added: "It is thanks to the professionalism and organisation of the farmers, landowners and contractors on the ground that the operations have been carried out safely and humanely despite intense provocation and intimidation by some anti-cull protesters. The NFU remains committed to supporting wider roll out to help prevent the spread of this terrible disease." Dominic Dyer, at Care for the Wild, said a protest against the cull in Bristol on Saturday would now turn into a celebration. "We've already learned lessons about culling that it doesn't work. And we know that there is another way an improved cattle management system, in conjunction with volunteer-led badger vaccination," he said. The RSPCA's David Bowles, said: "The pilot culls have failed in every aspect. Badgers have been needlessly killed and this could well have made the problems of bovine TB in cattle worse not better in these areas because of the perturbation effect."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

UK embarks on biggest food drive since second world war

60,000 people to receive help over festive season as ministers reject claim of link to welfare changes
Patrick Butler, social policy editor The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 19.53 GMT Jump to comments ()

Shopper Betty Clark donates cereal to volunteers including singer Rebecca Ferguson at Tesco in Kensington, west London. Photograph: John Phillips/PA

The reality of the UK's cost of living crisis has come under the spotlight this weekend as Britain embarks on its biggest charity food drive since the second world war, with the aim of collecting thousands of tonnes of groceries to give to hungry and penniless families over Christmas. The effort involves the British Red Cross (BRC) the first time the charity has been engaged in mass food aid collection in the UK since 1945 working alongside the Neighbourhood Food Collection, which has been set up by the Trussell Trust food bank network, the food aid distribution charity Fare Share and Tesco. Each of Tesco's 2,500-plus UK stores is asking customers on Friday, Saturday and Sundayto buy extra food essentials such as pasta, rice and cereal to give to the charities. Charities said the US-style food drive was a response to increasing concerns about the rise in food poverty. "The deeply distressing reality for Britain this Christmas is that thousands of families will struggle to put food on the table," said the Trussell Trust's chief executive, Chris Mould. "We're already meeting parents who are choosing between eating and heating, and rising fuel prices mean that this winter is looking bleak for people on the breadline." The trust blames benefit delays, low pay, rising living costs and the so-called bedroom tax for a tripling in food bank use over the past year. It said about 60,000 people were likely to receive emergency food from Trussell Trust food banks in the two weeks over Christmas alone, including 20,000 children. Ministers have rejected the claim, saying there is no robust evidence of a link between welfare reform and increasing food bank use. Over 23,000 volunteers will be involved in the food drive, including 500 BRC volunteers. Juliet Mountford, BRC director of UK service development, said the charity had decided to get involved because it found food poverty an increasingly prevalent aspect of its core work helping elderly people to live independently. Tesco published extracts from a survey that found that one in four people in the UK have skipped meals, gone without food to feed their family, or relied on family or friends to provide them with food in the past 12 months. Just over a quarter of respondents said they had struggled to buy as much healthy and nutritious food as they did 12 months ago. Chris Bush, Tesco UK managing director said: "This research shows how hard it has been for some families over the last 12 months, and we know that those on the lowest incomes in particular struggle to meet the cost of rising household bills." The retailer, which will top up the total value of food donated by 30%, said it will not profit from the extra food sales. A previous food drive over two days in July raised the equivalent of 2.5m meals, it says. A Trussell Trust family food parcel will provide 10 meals over three days. Niall Cooper, director of Church Action on Poverty, urged people to donate but warned that food banks should not be regarded as a long-term solution to hunger. "A food parcel, if it means a family can have a Christmas dinner, is great. But what does that family do on 26 December? What does it do through January?" Food drives on this scale are not uncommon in the US and Canada, where food banks have become a formal part of the welfare landscape. In Canada charity food drives began in earnest in the late 1980s and 1990s following a round of deep social security cuts. The charities that ran the campaigns often saw food banks as a short-term response. But as the collections grew bigger, so did food insecurity. Around 1 million people in Canada now regularly rely on food banks. Nick Saul, who runs a network of food poverty projects called Community Food Centres Canada, says that food drives have depoliticised Canada's civic space, turning difficult debates about poverty, low wages and inadequate

drives have depoliticised Canada's civic space, turning difficult debates about poverty, low wages and inadequate social assistance into celebrations of charitable endeavour. "Food drives make us feel that food poverty is being taken care of but it isn't. The solution to food poverty does not lie in charity food, it lies in food justice," he said. "Government needs to meet its responsibility to deliver our basic right to food."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Iron Maiden: too hairy for pop but still turning metal into gold
The classic British metal act may have never been fashionable, but they are helping to pull the UK into economic recovery
Alexandra Topping The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 18.14 GMT

Greg Mead, CEO of Musicmetric, said: 'With their constant touring, Maiden have been successful in turning free file-sharing into fee-paying fans.' Photograph: IBL/REX

Iron Maiden have never been exactly fashionable: too mainstream for punk, too scruffy for New Wave, too hairy and loud for pop. But it seems the classic British metal act is very good at turning metal into gold. In a report published on Friday by the London Stock Exchange, the group formed in Leyton, east London in the 1970s has been cited as one of the UK's fastest growing music firms, helping to pull the UK from economic heart failure into recovery. Iron Maiden LLP, the group's holding company, is one of six music firms at the vanguard of the new music business, according to the report entitled 1,000 Companies to Inspire Britain. The group has been ranked in the music category of the report alongside digital newcomers, such as app-creators

The group has been ranked in the music category of the report alongside digital newcomers, such as app-creators Shazam whose musical pedigree is a little less tried and tested. Publishers Kobalt Music Group and the production music library Audio Network also made it into the list, albeit with fewer riffs and less impressive hair. And it appears that the band consisting of founder, lyricist and bassist Steve Harris, 57, 56-year-old guitarists Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers, 55-year-old vocalist Bruce Dickinson and 61-year-old drummer Nicko McBrain have done it in the traditional way, using old fashioned graft and relentless touring. On the back of 109 days of touring, which saw the band perform 46 shows in 24 countries (their crew drinking 5,646 bottles of Trooper beer and eating 96 wheels of cheese) for their Maiden England World Tour Iron Maiden saw their international fan base grow by five million online fans, according to Musicmetric, with a vast number of them from South America. Greg Mead, CEO and co-founder of Musicmetric, said: "Iron Maiden's BitTorrent data suggests Brazil is a huge driver of fans and given Brazil is one of the biggest file sharing nations on the planet, this is a strong indicator of popularity. "With their constant touring, [the] report suggests Maiden have been rather successful in turning free file-sharing into fee-paying fans. This is clear proof that taking a global approach to live touring can pay off, and that having the data to track where your fan bases lie will become ever more vital." According to Tom Gilbert, from the London Stock Exchange, the report, while clearly championing Iron Maiden, gives a sign-of-the-horns salute to the often overlooked small- and medium-sized businesses fuelling Britain's tentative economic recovery. Rather than measuring profit or revenue, the list which also includes Scottish brewery BrewDog, online printer Moonpig, and Hunter wellies also looked for steady profit over four years, strong email traffic, boosts in employee numbers and other signals such as the number of patents registered or contracts won. "A lot of people think of the stock exchange as the FTSE 100, but the vast majority of companies in the UK are small- or medium-sized, and their success is something of an unreported story," Gilbert said. "Over the last few years the biggest blue-chip companies have in fact produced very few net jobs, that jobs recovery has come from small- and medium-sized companies." And business-savvy heavy metallers, obviously.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Poll shows growing disaffection over private healthcare providers

Public opposition to non-NHS providers used by Labour and BMA to claim private companies have fragmented patient care
Haroon Siddique The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 16.50 GMT Jump to comments ()

Jump to comments ()

Public view of non-NHS provision of healthcare services is hardening. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

The public's attitude has hardened against private providers running healthcare services, a poll has found. When asked last month whether they agreed with the statement: "as long as health services are free of charge, it doesn't matter to me whether they are provided by the NHS or a private company", 47% of people said they disagreed up from 36% in February 2011. The Ipsos Mori poll for King's College London found the proportion of people agreeing with the statement had barely changed over the same period, rising from 41% to 42%. The results were seized upon by Labour and the British Medical Association, with both claiming that use of private providers had led to fragmentation of patient care. Dr Mark Porter, chair of the BMA council, said the consistency and quality of care had been adversely affected. "It has created a shift from an ethos of co-operation to one of competition in the NHS, with providers picking and choosing what services they can provide at a profit," he said. "Given this, and as the true effects of the NHS reforms becoming more apparent, it's not surprising that people are increasingly averse to commercial companies, whose ultimate aim is to turn a profit, operating in our NHS." Jamie Reed MP, Labour's shadow health minister, said: "People can now see what David Cameron' s privatisation plans have done to the NHS. The next Labour government will repeal Cameron's Health and Social Care Act and put the right values collaboration, not competition back at the heart of the NHS." The poll showed that people were much more likely to be amenable to healthcare services being delivered by an external provider if it was a charity or voluntary organisation (54% agreed it would not matter in this case) rather than a private company. The slice of the NHS's 100bn a year budget going to non-NHS providers rose from 5.6bn in 2006-07 to an estimated 8.7bn in 2011-12, according to a study by the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Nuffield Trust health thinktank. A department of health spokeswoman said: "The crucial thing is that patients get the best possible services on the NHS, free to all who need them. "Other providers, whether they are from the private sector or from a charity, have to comply with exactly the same quality and safety standards as any NHS provider." Ipsos Mori interviewed a representative sample of 1,009 adults in Great Britain aged 18 and over by telephone between 12 and 14 October.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Analysis: don't mention opium war or human rights

David Cameron expected to receive warm reception at China summit following spat over Remembrance Day poppies in 2010
Tania Branigan The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 18.34 GMT Jump to comments ()

During his 2010 vist, Cameron wore a poppy in his lapel despite China's request he remove it because officials said it reminded them of the Opium Wars. Photograph: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

David Cameron's last visit to China three years ago was marred by a minor spat over Remembrance Day poppies, after ministers resisted a Chinese request to remove them lest they stir memories of the opium war. It was a reminder that relations have not always been harmonious; the war is still remembered in China as the start of a "Century of Humiliation". More recently, the Chinese government's anger at Cameron's meeting with the Dalai Lama prompted a lengthy diplomatic rift, if not quite the deep freeze some suggested; trade and investment increased and, below ministerial level, government dealings continued as normal. But this time the PM is expected to receive a warmer reception. "In recent times both sides have tried to chase this issue away and let the relationship go back to normal," said Jin Canrong, professor at Renmin University's School of International Studies. China tends to see such visits in broader strategic terms and its priority is a smooth meeting with little friction. President Xi Jinping has also sought to establish a more personal approach, from the tieless "Sunnylands" summit with Barack Obama onwards, in contrast to his dour predecessor Hu Jintao. Diplomats say that at dinners he spurns

with Barack Obama onwards, in contrast to his dour predecessor Hu Jintao. Diplomats say that at dinners he spurns lists of talking points and is willing to engage with his counterparts. "Xi Jinping is a man with a strong personality ... he is very interested in developing relationships with leaders himself," said Feng Zhongping, an expert on Sino-European relations at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.Britain's importance to China lies in large part in influence within the European Union and the Commonwealth and with the US, said Jin and, of course, its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. "I think they would like to hear the UK's views on the recent Iranian nuclear deal; Syria is obviously another [topic]. From the Chinese point of view, probably the most urgent issue is Afghanistan and the post-2014 situation," said Feng. Aside from Chinese investment there, "Afghanistan is our neighbourhood. Any instability or risks following the withdrawal of NATO could have difficult influence on China." Cameron's perspective on Central Asia will also be of interest to Chinese leaders, he added. Britain is China's second largest trade partner in the EU albeit a long way behind Germany. It is also less protectionist than other European countries. "The UK comes second I think what comes first is London," said Bala Ramasamy of the China Europe International Business School in Beijing. "If you talk about manufacturing they will look at Germany and France, but as far as finance is concerned, it's about London." Britain was the only EU country to see both inward and outward investment with China increase last year. The private sector, state-owned enterprises and the sovereign wealth fund CIC have all been keen to pick up assets in an environment where their investment is not treated as a political issue, as it often is in the US. Infrastructure has proved particularly attractive CIC holds stakes in Heathrow airport and Thames Water - and the appreciation of the Chinese currency is likely to encourage more purchases. What China probably wants most from the summit, however, is the absence of certain issues. "They want no mention of human rights. They do not want to talk about Tibet," said Nicholas Bequelin, senior Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Given George Osborne's visit recently I don't think they are too anxious about Cameron." While the UK says its position on Tibet and human rights is unchanged, other diplomats believe it has downgraded their importance. Pressed by the BBC on human rights during his visit, the Chancellor said that China was "tackling its own problems...in the way it thinks is appropriate". If Cameron fails to press China, it will send a worrying signal, said Bequelin particularly after he vowed "to shine a global spotlight on abuses" during his recent trip to Sri Lanka". "I think it will clearly undermine the UK's human rights diplomacy as a whole by showing there are double standards; there are some countries in which you raise human rights and others in which you don't because of your trade interests."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Comet Ison: a viewer's guide

A shadow of its former self, thanks to a brush with the sun, but what remains may still be visible to a curious public on Earth
Stuart Clark theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 13.37 GMT Jump to comments ()

Hot stuff: a composite image from Nasa shows Comet Ison nearing the sun. Photograph: Nasa/AP

Ison has survived its encounter with the sun or at least part of it has. This means that it could still brighten sufficiently to be visible to the unaided eye in December's night skies. Estimates of what we will be able to see will improve over the next few days as astronomers track the comet's progress.

When will it be visible?

The comet is now moving away from the sun. It will be sufficiently far away from the sun's glare to become visible in the pre-dawn sky in the first week of December. The best time to start looking is around 6:30am from 2 December. The comet's tail will be sticking straight up into the sky.

Where do I need it look?

Look towards the east-south-east in the predawn sky. Every morning, the comet will rise a little earlier, and so be visible higher up in the sky. There is also a chance to glimpse the comet in the twilight sky of sunset, looking westsouth-west. However, the tail is horizontal in the evenings and only experienced skywatchers are likely to pick it out.

Do I need a telescope?
Hopefully not, but this all depends on whether the comet brightens sufficiently to become visible without such aids. We will know in the next few days. If an optical instrument is needed, binoculars are often better for viewing comets than telescopes because binoculars have a larger field of view, allowing you to see more of the comet's tail.

Will it be brighter than Hale-Bopp?

No one knows yet but it seems unlikely at this stage. Comet Hale-Bopp graced the night skies in 1997 and was easily visible to the naked eye for months. In the case of Ison, it was only expected to be visible without optical instruments for a few weeks. But, now it has suffered such a dramatic dimming, it may struggle to reach naked-eye visibility.

Was it a comet that the three wise men followed?

Maybe. There are many hypotheses that seek to attribute the star of Bethlehem to a celestial event. Some involved the

Maybe. There are many hypotheses that seek to attribute the star of Bethlehem to a celestial event. Some involved the bright planets Jupiter and Saturn, others invoke exploding stars that can light the heavens for weeks or months. Comets are another popular theory. Halley's comet passed Earth in 12BC, leading to speculation that it may be the root of the story.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Comet Ison appears to survive close encounter with the sun

Solar visit threatened to vaporise the comet but the remnant may be visible from Earth in December
Stuart Clark and Nicola Davis The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 14.04 GMT Jump to comments ()

Comet Ison appears to have survived a close encounter with the sun that had threatened to vaporise it. The remnant could now go on to be visible from Earth in December, but astronomers do not know how bright it might become. Travelling at more than 200 miles per second, Ison passed 730,000 miles above the sun's 6,000C surface on Thursday evening. This would have heated the comet to almost 3,000C, enough to vaporise rock as well as ice. "It would be an absolutely hellish environment, there's never been a better time to use the words 'snowball's chance in hell'," said Tom Kerss, astronomer at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, south-east London. The hope was that the comet would remain sufficiently bright to be visible with the unaided eye throughout December. However, as Ison sped towards the sun, it faded dramatically from view. This led some experts to assume it had disintegrated. "I'm not seeing anything that emerged from behind the solar disc. That could be the nail in the coffin," said astrophysicist Karl Battams, from the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, during a live broadcast on Nasa TV. Yet, rumours of the comet's demise may have been greatly exaggerated. Overnight, something following Ison's orbit re-emerged on the opposite side of the sun. Now it is brightening as it plunges back into deep space. "To all intents and purposes it looked like it had gone, and then amazingly this thing appears out the other side," said Professor Tim O'Brien, associate director of the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank observatory. "What we don't know is whether the whole thing fell apart and whether the dust that was embedded within the ice is just basically in a big cloud and that is continuing to orbit," he explained. "The question is, is it just a cloud of dust or is there still either one or more remnants of the nucleus." Kerss said: "I would put a little bit of money on the fact that part of the nucleus, the actual core of the comet, is still intact." The nucleus, a huge lump of rock and ice, was several miles wide on its approach to the sun, and brightened as the sun heated it to create an atmosphere, or coma, of ice and dust which was blown away from the sun to form a tail.

sun heated it to create an atmosphere, or coma, of ice and dust which was blown away from the sun to form a tail. But radiation pressure, extreme heat and gravitational forces could have ripped the comet apart. "I think it has had a very bad day," said Kerss. "But I think because the comet started to brighten again after passing the sun, that's a fairly good indication the nucleus is replenishing the coma." If the remnant is a cloud of dust it will rapidly dissipate. If it is solid the sunlight will continue to vaporise its ice, creating a tail that may be visible from Earth. Comets are ancient celestial objects. They date from 4.6bn years ago when Earth and other planets of our solar system were forming. They may even have brought the water that fills the oceans and the molecules necessary for life to our world. Arriving from the Oort cloud, a comet-rich region about a light year from the sun, Ison was thought to be relatively "fresh", causing excitement among the scientific community. "Those are quite exciting because if they haven't already given off a lot of their surface as a coma they're expected to be very bright on their first approach to the sun," said Kerss. Before its encounter, Ison's tail stretched more than 5m miles through space. But it failed to brighten at the rate expected as it hurtled towards the sun. "We expect it to have received a gentle cooking over billions of years which has probably made the surface of the comet very volatile and that's why it was expected that it would perform very well in terms of brightness, said Kerss. "But actually the fact that Ison hasn't performed as expected perhaps is a sign that we don't understand the surface of comets as well as we'd like to," he said. Astronomers are now awaiting sight of a new tail. This will allow an estimate of whether Ison will be visible from Earth. If it is, the best time to look will be around 6.30am, in the pre-dawn sky. Looking east, the comet will rise before the sun, with its tail pointing straight up into the sky. O'Brien is optimistic. "It looks pretty bright in the images we are seeing from spacecraft but I wouldn't like to say whether it will be visible to the naked eye just yet. We'll know in the next few days." The dramatic dimming is similar behaviour to a previous sun-grazing comet. In 2011 the comet Lovejoy skimmed the surface of the sun, passing eight times closer than Ison. It too faded dramatically but then survived to develop a new tail as it sped away from the sun. For now, scientists are keeping a close eye on the situation as it unfolds. "We are watching these images coming in still and we are just seeing how it's going to develop," said O'Brien. "I think it's really a exciting thing that we are all following this thing in real time on the web via images being downloaded almost in real time from spacecraft observing the sun."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Labour calls for BT to cut line rental charges as part of eight-point plan
Shadow communications minister Helen Goodman reveals plan to protect consumers against the 'great phone ripoff'
Juliette Garside, telecoms correspondent The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 19.42 GMT Jump to comments ()

Helen Goodman said: 'Its time the government took action to protect consumers against the great phone ripoff.' Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi

Labour has called for BT to cut line rental charges, which will rise to more than 190 a year from January, as the party reveals its eight-point plan to protect consumers against the "great phone ripoff". The shadow communications minister, Helen Goodman, published the plan on Friday to cut broadband, landline and mobile phone costs for households. The coalition is expected to make a similar announcement next month, as the parties turn their firepower on energy companies and telecoms firms in the search for votes. Following the success of Ed Miliband's stance on gas and electricity bills, which the Labour leader wants to freeze for 20 months after the 2015 general election, the government is looking to address the cost of living in next week's autumn statement and has already met with telecoms companies to extract concessions. BT is increasing prices across the board in January, with monthly line rental due to rise by 50 pence from 15.45 to 15.95. Labour says that with householders paying 130 for the installation of a new residential line, the first month's landline charge means they will face a 145.45 bill before even making a phone call. "The government must act to reduce BT's charges now," said Goodman. "Having a mobile or a fixed line should not be a luxury item most people need them in their everyday life. It's time the government took action to protect consumers against the great phone ripoff." Labour is also calling for: The option to receive paper bills without a financial penalty. The four mobile operators charge between 15 and 18 per year for paper bills, which Labour says hits vulnerable customers hardest. Free caller identification to prevent nuisance calls. BT charges 1.75 a month to display the caller's number. Goodman says the service should be free to protect vulnerable and elderly people from pushy sellers such as payday loan companies. Outlawing of mid-contract price rises, which have been imposed by mobile operators on customers who thought

 Outlawing of mid-contract price rises, which have been imposed by mobile operators on customers who thought they had signed up to fixed charges. Ofcom is banning these rises for all contracts signed from January 2014, but Labour says the rules should apply to all existing contracts retrospectively. Free mobile calls to 0800 numbers. Some operators charge 21p a minute, while 0800 calls from landlines cost nothing. A cap on the amount a customer has to pay for bills run up before reporting a phone lost or stolen. Labour wants a maximum similar to the 50 liability on stolen credit cards. Easier switching between mobile networks, and between combined phone, TV and broadband suppliers. Landline charges are an outdated concept, according to Goodman. Almost two thirds of households would get rid of their landline if it wasn't required for broadband access, relying on mobiles and on internet call applications like Skype instead, a study by ISP Review has found. Paper bills are a big issue with customers. "Without paper statements, customers become more likely to miss payments and less likely to have a handle on their finances," said Goodman. The Guardian revealed energy companies have been overbilling customers by at least 650m per year. Over 40% of those with paper bills noticed the overcharging, but only 29% with online bills spotted the errors. BT pointed out that it offered basic line rental, with a small call allowance but no broadband, to those on low incomes for 4.95 a month. A spokesman said: "These figures are wrong as the vast majority of people don't need to pay for a new phone line. There are strong measures in place to ensure vulnerable people get cheaper prices and so we are surprised to face such criticism."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Low pay commission talks to UK workers to advise on minimum wage

Low pay commissioners tour the UK and find overworked employees struggling to make ends meet
Steven Morris The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 21.02 GMT Jump to comments ()

Low pay commissioner Heather Wakefield with Home Instead senior care providers in Wolverhampton. Photograph: John Robertson

Mary, a hugely experienced hospital worker and passionate trade unionist, gestures toward a Birmingham street heaving with workers heading home. "You only have to look at people's faces to see how unhappy they are. People are struggling to make ends meet. And they are getting angry. The cost of living is going up; people's wages aren't. There's only so much people can take. Workers are hurting, suffering." They are the sort of comments that are being made across the country in workplaces and homes. But today, Mary has the ear of an influential audience: the Low Pay Commission, which advises the government on the level of the minimum wage. In recent weeks the commission, made up of employer and employee representatives and academics, has been crisscrossing the UK speaking to low-paid workers from chicken factory operatives to corner shop staff and to the bosses who pay their wages. In January the nine commissioners will gather and, after two or three days of analysis, decide what they think the minimum wage should be. Since the measure was introduced in the UK in the late 90s the government has always followed the commission's advice. So the views of the likes of Mary, who met the commission at a Unison building, are important. As a ward housekeeper her duties include serving food and drinks and cleaning (she joked that she recently got a certificate after attending a course in vacuum cleaning) and general patient care. "Having enough to eat and pay the bills is a struggle. The essentials are getting more and more expensive. I haven't had a holiday in years. I've been saving supermarket vouchers to pay for the Christmas turkey and my husband [who is retired] has given me part of his heating allowance for presents." She is angry that colleagues have to turn to food banks for essentials. "We can get to the moon but too many people are living in Dickensian conditions." Pat, another long-serving health-worker like Mary in her 50s, said: "I live day by day. I like to have my hair done once a month. It's rare that I go out." She still has a mortgage and looks after a disabled relative. "It feels as if we're all going backwards, not forwards." Asked how much the minimum wage should be, Mary and Pat reckon that raising it to 6.50 or 7 an hour (from the current 6.31 for those 21 and over) would make a difference. Ravi Subramanian, regional secretary for Unison, read the commissioners an email from a hospital union rep in which she described how the people she represented were struggling to make ends meet. "Just this week I've had to deal with a member who can't even afford to purchase a new set of underwear and took me in the changing room to show me her ripped bra and the same knickers and jumper that she has had on for a week," she wrote. "I have upsettingly had to deal with a member who, as I came in this morning, asked to see me. I found a quiet room and listened as she had told me she had 40 left for the month and felt the only way forward was prostitution. "I managed to find a food bank. My member went and collected three bags of shopping. This girl sobbed all morning, wondering where the next pound was coming from. She does overtime and I have referred her to our welfare officer but she has told me she isn't the only one thinking of the 'prostitution route'." Next stop on this whistle-stop tour of the West Midlands for the commissioners was Wolverhampton, where destinations included a brewery and providers of care for elderly people in their own home. The care sector is a hot topic, with some employers accused of paying too little. The providers the commissioners

The care sector is a hot topic, with some employers accused of paying too little. The providers the commissioners met, Home Instead franchise owners, typically pay between 7.20 and 9. But Paul Edden, who runs a franchise in Staffordshire, told of rivals who pay the minimum wage and run staff around "like headless chickens". He told of one woman who had received her rota for a weekend late on a Friday night. She had no fewer than 25 calls to make on the Saturday and 27 on the Sunday. Some businesses, the commissioners were told, effectively pay their staff less than the minimum wage by not reimbursing them for travelling between jobs and forcing them to pay for uniforms and training. However, the commissioners also heard the argument that the minimum wage made it more difficult for firms to pay staff more because they could not compete with rivals that were prepared to pay the legal basic. "The minimum wage pegs down the amount we can pay," said Caroline Woodall, from Home Instead's head office. The tour ended in Sandwell, where low pay commissioners Stephen Machin and Heather Wakefield visited Accord, one of the biggest housing and social care groups in the region. The picture provided by chief executive Chris Handy was familiar to the commission. Local authorities "postured" that they wanted providers to pay employees the living wage (defined as 7.65 outside London) but were not prepared to pay enough for contracts to allow them to afford it. Just under half Acorn's Sandwell employees are on less than the living wage. The recommendations made by the Low Pay Commission this time round will be watched particularly eagerly, following suggestions in some quarters that it needs reform and could be helping keep pay too low. Professor Sir George Bain, the founding chair of the commission, has argued that the UK is at risk of creating a twotier labour market in which growing numbers of workers earn very low wages partly because some employers use the minimum level as a starting point. But a striking feature commissioners have noticed on their tours this winter is that many workers on the minimum wage do not claim that it ought to be raised dramatically. Machin, a professor of economics at University College London, said: "Before 2008 people used to say the minimum wage was too low. Now they tend to say they are just happy to have a job."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

George Osborne's rejection of Keynes vindicated by recovery, say allies

Despite near double-dip recession experience, 'omnishambles' budget and tax U-turns, chancellor 'has proved doubters wrong'
Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 16.49 GMT

George Osborne may appear to be sitting pretty ahead of the autumn statement on Thursday, but eurozone woes could still unseat economic recovery. Photograph: Eddie Mulholland/Rex Features

In the intimate surroundings of the oak-panelled Soane dining room, tucked away at the back of 11 Downing Street, George Osborne mused recently to his closest political soulmates that his fortunes had started to turn the corner. Over dinner in the ornate room, designed by the neo-classical architect Sir John Soane, the chancellor told ministers from the Green Chip group of Tory MPs that he remembered sitting in the same spot in February waiting to hear whether Britain would enter a double-dip recession. "George knows how close things came," one ally said. "What a difference six months make here we are with the fastest-growing economy in the G8." Friends say Osborne, who delivers his first financial statement of the parliament on Thursday amid a backdrop of encouraging economic news, believes he has done better than strike lucky. "This is a vindication of George," argued one senior minister, who insisted that the improved economic climate was thanks to the chancellor's decision in 2010 to reject a classic Keynesian response to a recession and to focus instead on a stable monetary policy by targeting the structural budget deficit. One member of the cabinet said: "George can confidently make the argument that the recovery for all is on the way as a result of the decisions he has made. And he is showing this is a recovery for everyone."But there was no sense of crowing at the Soane gathering. Osborne takes little for granted after the searing experience of the "omnishambles" budget of 2012, which forced him into U-turns on the pasty tax and charitable tax relief. "The thing about George Osborne is his ability to bounce back," one Tory said. The chancellor will please his neighbour in Downing Street and delight the Tory right as he announces through clenched teeth how he will fund a transferable marriage tax allowance. As one of the most socially liberal MPs, Osborne is no fan of the idea. He will also announce how he will fund the provision of universal free school meals for infant school children announced by Nick Clegg at the Lib Dem conference. Allies know that a number of "black swans" the phrase for a perceived impossibility coined by the group's former favourite intellectual Nassim Nicholas Taleb could disrupt his plans for a Conservative victory at the next election and his chances of succeeding David Cameron as prime minister. One member of the Osborne inner circle said the continuing woes of the eurozone Britain's most important export market mean that continuing economic growth is not guaranteed. Then there is the small matter of the nature of the recovery, which seems to be largely explained by the classic British trick of consumer-led demand. "Some people say it is a credit-based boomlet we are experiencing, which will get us past the general election," said David Ruffley, a former Treasury adviser who is now a member of the Commons Treasury select committee. "I take a different view. We have to get the British economy growing somehow and you have got to start somewhere."

a different view. We have to get the British economy growing somehow and you have got to start somewhere." Amid fears of a house-price bubble, stoked by Osborne's Help to Buy scheme, the Bank of England's governor, Mark Carney, prompted Osborne this week to refocus the Funding for Lending scheme away from mortgages and on to small businesses. "There is a lot that is pointing in the right direction," one minister said. "But it doesn't mean that we have solved our long-term ills and there is a risk of a housing bubble." Another black swan appeared in the City of London during the week when Osborne's chief rival for the Tory succession made a naked attempt to cast himself as the true successor to Margaret Thatcher. But Boris Johnson's speech mocking people with low IQs and hailing greed as a spur to economic growth caused such outrage that his remarks were seen in Downing Street as a blessing for the chancellor. "I think I heard the putt-putt of champagne corks popping in No 11," one Tory said. "A wintery smile came across George Osborne's face as he briefly interrupted his preparations for the autumn statement to do a jig. No doubt the prime minister has telephoned Boris to say: 'Only you could get away with this.' Ho ho ho." Osborne keeps a wary eye on Johnson, who is his most obvious rival for the Tory leadership. But the chancellor does not stay awake at night working out whether and when he will replace Cameron, not least because he has two more immediate goals: to secure a sustainable economic recovery, thereby "wrong-footing the ghastly Ed Balls" in the words of one loyalist, and to win an overall Tory majority at the 2015 general election. This explains Osborne's decision to draft in the Australian election campaign guru Lynton Crosby to ensure there is disciplined election campaign in 2015, unlike the mess of 2010, which still causes senior Tories to break out in cold sweats. At that point, Osborne would love to have the option of being able to stand for the leadership - though on friend says he may prefer to earn try and earn 20m a year in the private sector. But the prospect of an Osborne challenge and the guarantee of a Boris bid has led to the formation of two distinct camps on the Tory benches. On one side stand the FOGs the Friends of George and on the other stand the FOBs the Friends of Boris. There was once a time when rival groups on the Tory benches were formed on the basis of clashes on the big challenges of the day such as Europe. The divisions between the FOGs and the FOBs are far more prosaic. Those clustering around Osborne have either benefited, or hope to benefit, from his patronage, while those warming to Johnson feel rejected. One senior Tory said Osborne made a "dangerous move" by being intimately involved in the recent reshuffle, which saw his former chief of staff Matt Hancock, 35, promoted to a post just outside the cabinet. His two former ministerial aides Sajid Javid and Greg Hands were also promoted to the second most senior Tory positions in the Treasury and the whips office respectively. Not everybody in the party was impressed. "Osborne overplays his hand in pushing forward his favourites. It pisses everybody off. This is Cameron's government, not Osborne's. You destabilise the party, create jealousies," the Tory said. Nevertheless, Osborne believes the appointments give the Tories the right mix of ministerial clout and campaigning nous to take on Ed Miliband, previously not seen as much of a threat. In a significant speech on the economy in September, in which he claimed that the economic upturn showed that Labour had lost the intellectual argument, Osborne declared that Miliband's focus on the cost of living did not "amount to an economic policy". One member of the government said: "From the very beginning we have underestimated Ed Miliband. There are real problems about Miliband's looks and I think he is very tactical. Over the last two or three months he has seized the tactical initiative." More recently the chancellor has reluctantly acknowledged Miliband's success when he performed a U-turn to announce a cap on payday loans. In his autumn statement he will respond to Miliband on the Labour leader's

signature theme of the past two months his pledge to freeze energy prices by cutting the costs of energy bills by funding some green levies through general taxation. Osborne will say he was ahead of Miliband because he did signal in his speech in September that it is still important to help people struggling with utility bills while wages fall in real terms. But the hostility towards green levies, which prompted one former Osborne intimate to tell the Daily Mail and the Sun that the prime minister had said he wanted to "get rid of all this green crap", has alarmed the Tory modernisers. Leading lights among the "vote blue go green" Tories confronted the Cameron at a meeting in his Westminster office last week. The PM had some comforting words to offer. He is prepared to talk in the New Year of the economic benefits and the potential for jobs in the renewables market. But he can only do that after Osborne has "cauterised the public angst about green levies" in the autumn statement. One moderniser said: "The agenda is not being junked. It just feels unnourished. You don't want to have a war about what it means to be a Conservative just at the point when we are reaching escape velocity in the economy." But reaching out to the modernisers will have to be balanced with comfort for the right. David Ruffley said the right want to know whether Osborne's pledge in his conference speech to run a current budget surplus in the next parliament will mean no tax cuts. "Some clarity on these Delphic utterances up in Manchester would be greatly appreciated by the Tory economic right," he said. "Explain that more but also give a route map for the kind of tax reductions that he thinks he is looking at." Yet, amid familiar pressures between left and right, there are signs that the sometimes awkward Osborne is more at ease in his own skin. A group of ex-miners appear to have been wooed by Osborne when he visited them ahead of a trip to the Thoresby colliery in Nottinghamshire earlier this month to announce the government would underwrite a fuel-benefit scheme. "He was really lovely, he was really down to earth and he was really understanding," said Margaret Clarke, demonstrating, perhaps, a broader than expected appeal.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Arctic 30: unlikely activist forced to find strength in Murmansk jail

Unexpected role for 'real Devon country girl' Alexandra Harris as father expresses shock at daughter becoming face of protest
Sam Jones and Shaun Walker in Moscow The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 19.36 GMT

In a letter Alexandra Harris detailed her struggle to deal with life in an Arctic jail. 'Being in prison is like slowly dying,' she wrote. Photograph: Dmitri Sharomov/AP

On Thursday night, Cliff Harris, a man growing increasingly accustomed to bizarre and frightening occurrences, was sitting at home in Devon watching his daughter Alex tell the 10 o'clock news how she used a radiator pipe, a spoon and an alphabet code to communicate with her friends and keep herself going in a freezing Murmansk jail. It was not, he says with a degree of bemused understatement, something he ever expected to see. But then again, there is not much about the past nine weeks that either the 63-year-old agronomist or his 27-year-old daughter could have predicted in a trip that saw a "real Devon country girl" turned into the public face of Greenpeace's Arctic 30 campaign. When the family said goodbye to Harris in Norway in early September, all they were expecting was for the Greenpeace digital communications officer to have a little adventure and see the beauty of the Arctic for herself. "They were just going to highlight the dangers of oil drilling in the Arctic," her father told the Guardian. "It was quite a shock when we saw the footage of the Russians boarding the ship." Just before she left, she had sent an email to Becky Mercer and some of her other university friends. "It's possible that we could be arrested," it said. "But it's a pretty low possibility. If you hear protesters have been arrested, that's not me. But if you hear that the crew have been arrested, then panic. LOL." But news of her arrest in mid-September and the Russian authorities' subsequent decision to charge the 28 activists and two freelance journalists with piracy, and then with hooliganism, did not prompt much laughter. According to her father, although Harris cares deeply about the environment, she could hardly be described as a direct activist. "When she was a young child, if ever there was a documentary or any news items about animals losing their habitat or facing extinction, she would watch it and you could see she was concerned about what she was hearing and seeing," he said. Graduating with a marketing degree from Bournemouth university, Harris worked in Abu Dhabi for a year before taking a few months off to travel. On a visit to the Amazon she saw what oil spillages could do to an ecosystem. She has lived in Australia for the past four years and worked for Greenpeace for the last two. Despite the fact that six Britons including video journalist Kieron Bryan remain in St Petersburg on bail, much of the attention has focused on Harris. In a letter her parents shared with the Guardian in October she detailed her struggle to deal with life in an Arctic jail. "Being in prison is like slowly dying," she wrote, in a letter that put her at the heart of the campaign to free those held. "You literally wish your life away and mark off the days." Appearing in court for appeals first in Murmansk, and then St Petersburg, the Greenpeace activists could be divided into two groups: those who put a brave face on it and in some cases even seemed to believe that if their incarceration was raising awareness about Arctic drilling, it was perhaps even worth it and those who looked completely shocked and overwhelmed by the experience. Harris fitted into the latter category. During her first hearing in Murmansk, her voice was choked with emotion as she

recalled how she had asked for doctors to attend to her stomach pains but been ignored. At the second hearing, the stern judge who had been doing a passable impression of Anne Robinson for much of the hearing appeared visibly troubled by Harris's emotional plea to be set free.She told the translator to tell Harris to "be calm", and asked if she would like a break in proceedings to compose herself. But those who know Harris insist the appearances do not quite give the full measure of her. Ben Stewart, who is coordinating Greenpeace's campaign to get the Arctic 30 home, said: "She said she never realised herself how strong she was and she had got a lot in her words 'stronger and wiser' in jail because of the level of adversity that she was facing." Kieron Bryan, who met Harris for the first time as they boarded the Arctic Sunrise only to discover that they had grown up a few miles from each other in North Devon, says she was obviously delighted to be part of the Greenpeace campaign. "I saw a picture of her in court looking so upset and that was really moving and really hard to take," he says, "but I kind of expected her to stay strong." Bryan knows that the Arctic 30 episode raises questions about the dangers of protesting in Russia. Although there are serious discussions to be had when everyone is safely home, he believes no one could have predicted the overwhelming scale of the Russian response. "I wouldn't have joined the ship if I didn't feel safe with the organisation because they're an internationally recognised environmental group," he says. "This is not some fly-bynight organisation who haven't done these things before," he says. Stewart says Greenpeace is satisfied that it carried out the correct risk assessments based on the evidence it had but stresses that the group is going to hold "a really, really thorough debrief" when it's all over, adding: "It would be utterly negligent if we didn't." For as long as the Arctic 30 remain on bail in Russia, though, Alex Harris seems destined to remain the enduring face of a situation she had previously only dared joke about. "She's not one of those people that wants to be the centre of attention," says Becky Mercer. "But if it keeps their plight and the plight of the Arctic in the press, I think she would be happy to do it."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

London 'slave' group went from figures of fun to tiny underground commune
Workers' Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought deplored Soviet 'scum' and regarded Britain as a fascist state
Peter Walker The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 20.36 GMT Jump to comments ()

A pamphlet of the London-based Workers' Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, seen as fringe even in the 1970s

The description in the February 1977 edition of the South London Workers' Bulletin is dramatic and breathlessly rhetorical. A hard-working young mother is harassed by a government social security officer over her involvement in a Maoist group. The woman defends herself, and then her young daughter raises a fist and starts singing The Internationale. The story concludes: "Faced with this militant solidarity, the welfare woman ran out like a rat." The woman in question later cut her ties with the group, the south London-based Workers' Institute of MarxismLeninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. Two others, however, did not and seemingly lived with the group's charismatic leader, Aravindan Balakrishnan, for 30 years in conditions police allege amounted to a form of domestic slavery, until they left last month with the aid of a charity. The astonishing story of Aisha Wahab, now 69, and 57-year-old Josephine Herivel, along with a 30-year-old named in reports as Rosie Davies, has focused unexpected attention on a tiny, far-left group, which even those involved in Brixton's radical scene of the time rarely recalled before last week. Wahab has now been reunited with her sister, Kamar Mahtum, 73. Mahtum, who flew to London from Malaysia this week, met the 69-year-old at an undisclosed location. She told the Daily Telegraph: "It was a very emotional day, very revealing, but then I was contented. I got what I wanted, and I can bring home beautiful memories. "I have a feeling that she still wants to come home, eventually. We'll work hard to persuade her." A handful of the surviving pamphlets from Balakrishnan's group uncovered by the Guardian present a view in which the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was "revisionist scum" for rolling back Stalin's policies, and China's "great, glorious and correct" communists were poised to liberate the world. Balakrishnan's group was seen as fringe even for the era, recalls Paul Flewers, a historian of far-left groups who was himself a follower of the Revolutionary Communist party. He said: "In comparison to the rest of us, they were like a strange sect compared to a C of E vicar. We'd have our own paper sales in Brixton at the time, by the station. They'd turn up with their flyers with pictures of Mao on them, and we'd queue up to get them. After our sales were over, we'd go down to the pub and have a good laugh at them. It doesn't seem so funny now." The pamphlets show a group that was almost as obsessed by leftist "revisionists" as by the government or the group's perpetual nemesis, the police. An issue from May 1976, emblazoned with a profile of Mao who at that point was months away from death and thinking more of his own succession than plans to liberate Brixton spends seven densely typed pages railing against Britain's trade unions, or "agents of the fascist bourgeoisie within the working-class movement".

Bob Nind, who as vicar of St Matthew's in Brixton was in contact with many political and community groups, recalls a neighbourhood where unused buildings were common and every variety of organisation sprang up in cheap rented offices or squats. He said: "Many collectives were just people who wanted to make some changes in society, and wanted to make all their decisions together, which was usually fatal in the end. Others were more idealist. "The Workers Revolutionary party would meet in the crypt of St Matthew's, where they seemed to be singing hymns most of the time. They weren't hymns but they sounded like hymns if you didn't hear the words. On one occasion, at the same time at the other end of the crypt was Chris Patten and the Conservatives. It was an interesting sort of time." In general, Nind remembers, the far-left groups tolerated each other, with resentment aimed at a police force, which mainly lived in barracks outside the area, tensions which soon led to riots in Brixton in 1981. "The emphasis was very much more on the attitudes of the police towards the young black community. I think everybody was beginning to feel that." Balakrishnan's group had links to Brixton's West Indian community. The mother whose daughter sang The Internationale was an immigrant from St Lucia, while one of Balakrishnan's closest lieutenants, Ekins Brome, was also a member of the Black Revolutionary Workers' Movement.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Britain's damp, leaky homes among Europe's most costly to heat

Spiralling levels of fuel poverty make government plans to cut home insulation programme perverse, says adviser
Damian Carrington The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 18.12 GMT Jump to comments ()

Aerial view of north London. UK homes are the mostly costly to heat within EU, due to poor maintenance and insulation. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

UK homes are some of the most expensive to heat in Europe because of poor maintenance and insulation, according to new figures from the EU compiled for the Guardian. The analysis of official EU data also found that the UK has the highest levels of fuel poverty of a dozen comparable EU nations, as well as one of the worst proportions of homes in a poor state of repair. Over 10m British families live in a home with a leaking roof, damp walls or rotting windows. The expense of heating leaky homes means government plans to cut a programme that insulates properties in an attempt to trim energy bills is "unforgivably perverse", according to the government's fuel poverty adviser, Derek Lickorish. He condemned the intention signalled by ministers to cut the energy company obligation (ECO) in George Osborne's autumn statement next Thursday. "ECO is a life-saving measure for some and we should be actually doing more. No one should be dying because they cannot afford to heat their home." Andrew Warren, director of the Association for the Conservation of Energy, who speaks frequently to ministers, said: "It is absolutely disgraceful that the big energy companies have orchestrated this unscrupulous campaign, that appears to be succeeding in blackmailing the UK government into cutting by half its established policy to help customers stop wasting money by wasting fuel." Ed Matthew, director of campaign group Energy Bill Revolution, an alliance of over 160 organisations including the TUC, IKEA, Asda and Shelter, said: "It is a national disgrace that thousands of people are dying unnecessarily every year, lives that could be saved by something as simple as better insulation. If Osborne cuts the total energy efficiency budget, as many fear, he will be condemning people to death."

The new figures, compiled by the Association for the Conservation of Energy from official EU data, compares the UK with other EU states with similar climates and income levels, including Germany, France and the Benelux countries. The UK ranks bottom of the 12 for fuel poverty, 11th for the proportion of income spent on energy bills and 9th for homes in a poor state of repair. Other data, from the Buildings Performance Institute Europe, shows that UK has the oldest houses in the EU, with over half built before 1960 and just over 10% built since 1991. Older UK homes require at least double the energy to stay warm compared with many countries, even those with colder climates such as Sweden. The political row over energy bills and the ECO levy has intensified ahead of the autumn statement, which will reveal the changes promised when David Cameron pledged to "roll back" green and social levies. The proposed changes to ECO would mean spending to help people insulate their homes was at the lowest level in over a decade. In February the prime minister said: "We are putting energy efficiency where it should be, at the heart of our energy policy. I want to make Britain the most energy efficient country in Europe." Paul King, chief executive of the UK Green Building Council, said: "We have some of the oldest and leakiest houses in western Europe, that is for sure. We have been very complacent about energy use for a very long time." King also criticised the government's plans for ECO, which comprises 3.7% or 47 a year of the average bill: "Ministers have been spending too much time finding something that works for the energy companies, not consumers." Warren said: "There has simply never been a concerted effort to tackle energy efficiency. The government's green deal programme was supposed to do it but that has failed for many reasons." The green deal, a loan scheme for retrofitting homes was intended to tackle 14m homes by 2020 but has managed just 219 in its first year. "Any home built before the mid-1980s was built without any requirements at all for insulation, windows and so on," said Warren. Building standards are better now, he said. "But even now, most homes built do not comply with the standards and government proposals to tackle that have been kicked into the long grass." Lickorish, who chairs the government's fuel poverty advisory group, said: "It is unforgivably perverse that ECO the only thing that can reduce the bills of consumers permanently is the only thing the government is focusing on." On Tuesday, the Office for National Statistics reported 31,100 excess winter deaths in England and Wales in 2012, up by almost a third on the previous winter. "Not all winter deaths are due to fuel poverty but we understand very clearly the links between cardiovascular and other diseases and cold, damp homes," said Lickorish, calling the level of deaths "morally unforgiveable". He said: "The chancellor is prepared to insulate big business from [green levies] but not to insulate the homes of the fuel poor. The government is not protecting the vulnerable." On Thursday the energy secretary, Ed Davey, told the political magazine House he would not agree to cuts in ECO. "There's no way as a Liberal Democrat, as a minister, I can cut the average person's bills on the back of the poorest. [I'm] just not going there."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

By 'eck chuck, Coronation Street's moving out of Manchester

ITV soap undergoes 'most dramatic change in its history' with move to Salford Quays following 26.5m sale of Granada site
Helen Pidd, northern editor The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 19.03 GMT Jump to comments ()

The Coronation Street cast cut the ribbon outside the new Rovers Return Inn, which keen viewers will notice has an additional upstairs window. Photograph: McPix Ltd/REX

Sue Nicholls was relieved as she stepped out under an umbrella on to the wet cobbles of a new Coronation Street for the first time on Friday. "As long as they've got Audrey's up I know I'm safe for a bit," she said, gesturing across the road from the Rovers Return to the eponymous hair and beauty salon where Audrey Roberts, the character she has played since 1979, has been dyeing and debating for years. Friday marked the grand unveiling of Weatherfield in its new home on the windswept Salford Quays, across the water from the BBC. In January the soap will leave its long established Quay Street site in Manchester city centre, sold for 26.5m earlier this year). To the casual observer, the Street looks just the same Vera Duckworth's old house at No 9 is still adorned with garish blue and yellow cladding (a violation the Guardian's Nancy Banks-Smith once said had dealt the cladding industry a "mortal blow" . The corner shop, the Kabin, is still advertising the Weatherfield Gazette on a neon sign in the window, alongside fiendishly difficult jigsaws and jars of sweets sold by the quarter. Kevin Webster's garage, rather quiet of late after Michael Le Vell took an enforced break to defend himself in a rape trial, is around the corner. There's a phone box that now demands a minimum of 60p to make a local call, and a bus stop with a timetable showing the service from Coronation Street to Ordsall and beyond. All in all, 400,000 bricks were used to recreate the famous neighbourhood, 144,000 of them reclaimed from a derelict row of properties in Salford.

Roy's Rolls cafe, with the rest of the new set, is slightly bigger than the old Quay Street site.. Photograph: McPix Ltd/REX

But look closer and it is clear some things have changed. The houses are more realistically proportioned than those at Quay Street the current set is built at perhaps 80% of real life size, compared with 60% at the old joint. The streets are nearly a metre wider to allow cars to pass more easily. A fire engine can now squeeze down, which is useful in a neighbourhood more disaster prone than most. The Rovers Return has got a new window upstairs to indicate the right number of bedrooms "so that Steve and Liz McDonald don't have to share with Michelle any more", said the executive producer, Kieran Roberts. He described the move, which has been two years in the planning, as "the biggest, most dramatic change in the show's history". "I think it's going to be fun," said Nicholls, 70, who has notched up 34 years in Weatherfield. "I shall miss the old place because it's part of my life, probably more than real life really. But cobbles are the star. We all come and go year after year but the cobbles stay here. They are still absolutely dreadful to walk across, but I wouldn't have it any other way."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Quarter of primary schools have fined parents for term-time holidays, survey says
Sickness being used as excuse for pupils to miss school since legislation ended 'holiday allowance' of up to 10 days
Richard Adams, education editor The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 18.05 GMT Jump to comments ()

The temptation of cheaper holiday deals at off-peak times often leads to parents taking their child out of school during term time. Photograph: Eyewire

A quarter of primary school leaders have fined parents for taking children out of school for unauthorised holidays, according to a survey taken in the wake of new legislation banning holiday absences during term time. The survey also reveals that many parents maybe try to get around the new rules and the fines by claiming sickness as the reason for absence. Legislation that came into force in September ended a policy that allowed schools to grant up to 10 days leave for family holidays. But the national survey of more than 800 primary school headteachers and deputies in England conducted by The Key, a consultancy service supporting school heads suggests the new rules are failing to change parents' behaviour, especially for those with primary school-aged children. More than half the primary school leaders who responded to the survey said applications for additional term-time holidays had risen in recent years, compared with just a third of secondary school heads. Some two-thirds of primary leaders said the extra holiday had become an important issue at their school, with the problem most acute in the south-east, where 69% of school heads said it was an issue, compared with 47% of those in the Yorkshire and Humberside region. The new regulations allow schools to fine each parent 60 for each child's unauthorised absence, rising to 120 if not paid within seven days, and one in four of those surveyed said they had used the new power since it came into force on 1 September. The survey found that schools had also called parents to special meetings with attendence panels or welfare officers, and even threatened exclusion in extreme cases. School leaders in the east Midlands have taken the toughest stance, with the survey finding that 44% of school leaders in the region had imposed fines on parents, compared with just 5% of their counterparts in London. In Derbyshire, 238 fines were imposed on parents of pupils in maintained schools in September alone, which was more than the 219 fines imposed for the whole first half of the year. Nottingham city council has already imposed 164 fines between the start of the school year in September and the end of November, compared with just 338 given out in the entire 2012-13 academic year. But some headteachers said the new rules were having little effect on the behaviour of parents and 63% said they did not expect requests for term time holidays to fall despite the new rules limiting applications to "exceptional circumstances". "Evidence to date shows no decrease in term time requests. Parents take children anyway even if unauthorised," said Carole Staniland, headteacher at Carter Knowle junior school in Sheffield.

The new rules have seen some bitter protests from parents, including petitions led by a group lobbying for parents to be allowed to enjoy the lower prices for family holidays outside of school holiday peak seasons. But the assessment of education experts is almost unanimous that lost classroom time especially in primary school is damaging to a child's education. Fergal Roche, chief executive of the Key, said: "It is clear that the value of the fines imposed is insufficient to deter parents who are saving considerably more on the cost of holidays in peak periods."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

The Guardian and Observer Christmas appeal 2013: Future Africa

From solar lamps to Kindle readers, the transformative power of affordable new technology is the theme of this year's appeal How to donate to the Guardian Christmas charity appeal
Alan Rusbridger The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 15.36 GMT

Schoolgirls from Katine primary school carry water in Katine village. Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian

From solar lamps to Kindle readers, the transformative power of affordable new technology is the theme of Future Africa this year's Guardian and Observer Christmas appeal. Technology affects all our lives, and can be both disruptive and liberating. The projects we are supporting demonstrate how simple, positive technological interventions can create momentous, positive change. This Christmas we focus on three inspiring charities which use low-cost technology in exciting and often ingenious ways.

"Technology justice" is the aim of Practical Action. It promotes new technology, from MP3s to fireless cookers, as a way of tackling poverty. Its programmes include the provision of renewable, locally sourced sustainable energy, development of sustainable techniques to improve agriculture, and access to drinking water and sanitation, particularly in urban centres. Literacy is a crucial step in the eradication of poverty, and e-readers and mobile phone apps are the tool of choice of Worldreader, a global non-profit group. It uses them to distribute books and boost literacy in primary schools in some of the world's poorest countries. Half of sub-Saharan African schools have no or few books: Worldreader has distributed 721,000 e-books to more than 12,300 children in nine countries. Its results are encouraging. Less than five months after receiving one of its e-readers, children read more and read better. SolarAid literally wants to light up Africa. Around 598 million Africans have no access to electricity, and many are reliant on kerosene lamps, which emit noxious smoke. The charity provides access to clean, affordable solar lights in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia. Its solar lamps, which cost as little as $10, are healthier, greener and cheap to run. As part of this year's Christmas appeal, we are also going back to Katine, a rural sub-county in north-east Uganda, which the Guardian has been supporting since 2007. Thanks to readers' generosity in past Christmas appeals, the lives of Katine's 30,000 residents have improved significantly. But life still remains fragile for this farming community. It is subject to increasingly erratic weather patterns that can destroy harvests and leave farmers to struggle, and residents have little in the way of extra assets to see them through difficult times. We're working with Farm Africa , an NGO that has supported more than a million farmers across east Africa this year to improve Katine residents' access to capital and help develop their livelihoods, and take control of their futures. We will also support Farm Africa's work in Tigray in Ethiopia. All donations to Farm Africa's Katine project will be matched by the UK government. Last year Guardian readers' generosity raised more than 290,000 for eight Christmas appeal charities which help disabled people participate fully in society. Thank you: your donations made a real difference to the lives of thousands of people. Over the next few weeks we will demonstrate in a series of articles, films and photo galleries how our Future Africa charities transform lives. We hope they inspire you to give generously.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Katine's farmers struggle in face of floods and drought

Guardian teams up with Farm Africa for this year's Christmas appeal to help train the Ugandan village's farmers in business and marketing and, crucially, providing access to capital How to donate to the Guardian Christmas charity appeal
Liz Ford in Katine

Liz Ford in Katine The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 15.44 GMT

Katine market: life remains fragile for the villages 30,000 residents, the majority of whom are linked to farming. Photograph: Graeme Robertson

Simon Edangat perches on the edge of the desk inside the office at Katine's produce store, a large, whitewashed brick building that sits beside the main road that cuts through the rural sub-county in north-east Uganda. "I sold the co-operative some of my groundnuts, and I brought some for storage for seven months. I made a profit of 150,000 shillings [about 36]. That was money I used to help buy my own land," says the father of five, who chairs the farmers' co-operative that runs the store. Building the produce store was a major achievement of a six-year development project in Katine, implemented by the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref) and the NGO Farm Africa and funded by Guardian readers and Barclays. But Edangat's success was short-lived. This year, the warehouse, which has a 1,000-tonne storage capacity, is empty after a prolonged drought. There are no crops for the farmers to sell or for the co-operative to buy, which means a tough few months ahead for farmers until the next harvest. Life remains fragile for many of Katine's 30,000 residents, the majority of whom are linked to farming in some way. Once-reliable weather patterns have become increasingly erratic and droughts and heavy flooding are common, destroying harvests and forcing farmers to take out high interest loans to buy food to see them through until the next harvest. Conversely, when harvests are good, a lack of decent storage facilities means any crops left over after feeding the family have to be sold almost immediately and usually cheaply. Which is why the produce store is good news for farmers. Opening for business in 2011, it was built in consultation with the farmers, who formed the Katine Joint Farmers Co-operative Society to manage it. The society has more than 2,600 individual members. In return for a membership fee, farmers are able to borrow and save money from the co-operative bank costs are too high store excess produce, or sell it to the management team, which can then sell in bulk ensuring greater profit margins to plough back into the co-operative. Ultimately it should improve food security in the area. But the farmers say they need more support to realise its full potential. This is why, as part of the Guardian's Christmas charity appeal this year, we're teaming up with Farm Africa to help farmers in Katine take control of their futures by helping to train them in business and marketing and crucially, providing access to capital. The area has come a long way since 2007, when the Guardian launched its original Katine Christmas appeal. A

survey conducted before the project began found the sub-county had the worse health and living conditions in Uganda. It was an area that had experienced more than two decades of instability and conflict. The project, documented on a dedicated Guardian website, achieved significant results. Some 19 new boreholes were installed, increasing access to safe drinking water from 42% to 93%. More than 7,000 malaria nets were distributed. School buildings were repaired, desks delivered and teachers trained. Solar panels were installed at the health centre, powering the fridge to keep vaccines cold. More than 270 people have been trained to work on village health teams, offering basic health advice and services to their communities. Parent-teachers associations were established to improve school governance and water source committees were created to manage water pumps. Farmers were organised into groups and given training and the chance to try new seed varieties. A basic microfinance system of village savings and loans associations was set up in each farmers' group to give members access to cash to develop business ideas or to use in times of emergency. John Opio Eluru, the acting general manager of the store, says it has been a blessing. "Since the produce store was built, farmers can have one voice, a collective voice. Some people store produce and we sell it for them. Other times, we buy direct from farmers and they get a good price, they're not cheated," he says. Edangat says farmers are eager to sign up. "There are many farmers coming to join. When we started we were not sure if it would take off, but now we offer savings and credit, everybody wants to join. They are always ringing me about becoming members." But this year's lack of produce means there is nothing to sell and little money to lend, which is stifling the ambitions of the co-op and its ambitions are big. It has already sold produce to the government's national agricultural programme, and wants to buy sorghum from farmers to sell in bulk to the country's major brewer, Nile Breweries. "People are not looking to the bank for loans but to the co-operative, which is overwhelmed. Some 40 farmers applied for loans, but the co-operative was only able to give six loans out because there was not enough money," says David Ogwang, a livelihoods specialist who will be working with Farm Africa in Katine. With money raised through the Christmas appeal, Farm Africa will establish a loan guarantee fund at the local Barclays bank, where the co-op has an account. This will allow the co-op to access a cash-secured overdraft charged at a low interest rate of 0.6%, significantly less than the 2% a month the co-operative would ordinarily pay. With more money at its disposal, the co-op will be able to lend more money to farmers and buy more stock. The coop management committee will also get business training from Farm Africa to enable it to better manage the store and negotiate prices. "Once this takes off, once they have access to money, I am very sure issues of education, issues of health and feeding children can be handled by the farmers themselves," says Ogwang, adding: "We don't need an NGO to bring us mosquito nets, we can buy our own. Income is the key. Deliver that and it provides other services for people." All donations that go to Katine project run by Farm Africa will be matched by the UK government.

Sign up for the Guardian Today

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

More borrowing under universal credit scheme

New review of pilot projects shows universal credit claimants are resorting to payday lenders, overdrafts and other loans
Rowena Mason, political correspondent The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 19.51 GMT Jump to comments ()

Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith's universal credit scheme has led to a rise in borrowing by claimants. Photograph: Rex

More benefit claimants are having to borrow money from family, friends, payday lenders, banks and credit unions to make it through the month under Iain Duncan Smith's controversial universal credit scheme, a survey has shown. The first review of pilot projects found 34% of people are resorting to asking for money from other sources under the new system, which rolls all benefit payments into a lump sum up from 19% under jobseeker's allowance. Claimants are now paid monthly rather than weekly, in a system that ministers claim will foster more responsibility and budgeting skills. However, the number resorting to payday lenders, bank overdrafts, credit unions and advances from the government has risen under the new system, according to the telephone survey of 901 new claimants in Ashton-under-Lyne, Wigan, Oldham and Warrington. The research showed claimants are spending twice as much time looking for jobs under the new system, carrying out searches for 27 hours per week on average compared with 13 hours under jobseeker's allowance. Claimants are also applying for more jobs in a week, typically submitting 16 applications, while those in receipt of jobseeker's allowance apply for 11. And 84% were confident of finding work in the next three months, compared with 76% of jobseeker's allowance claimants. However, 13% of people claiming online found the website crashed, 9% were confused by the instructions, 9% had difficulty getting the information required, 10% said it took too long and 27% did not manage to complete their application on the first attempt. The survey did not ask how many people had actually got new jobs under the stricter universal credit scheme, which is being rolled out slowly amid problems with IT systems and management of the programme.

Rachel Reeves, Labour's shadow work and pensions secretary, said: "The urgent question the government needs to answer on universal credit is whether more than a handful of people will ever be claiming, and how much more money will be wasted beyond the 140 million already written off due to DWP chaos. This report tells us nothing about that." Despite the evidence of more people having to rely on borrowing, the government pointed out that 78% feel confident about managing their monthly spending. However, only a third think being paid monthly is more convenient. Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, said: "Under universal credit, we are beginning to see a cultural shift where people choose to work rather than rely on state support. "It is great that claimants are getting the help they need from our Jobcentre Plus advisors and that they feel confident about managing changes such as monthly payments."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Mairead Philpott manslaughter

loses

appeal

against

17-year

sentence

for

Hearing in case of woman convicted with her husband Mick of killing her six children in a Derby house fire was broadcast on TV
Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 13.03 GMT

Mairead Philpott has had her 17-year prison sentence for killing her six children in a house fire in Derby upheld by the court of appeal. The hearing in Nottingham was the court of appeal's first case outside London to be shown live, with a 70-second delay, on television and websites. Philpott, 32, was jailed alongside her husband Mick in April after being found guilty of the manslaughter of Jade Philpott and her brothers John, Jack, Jesse, Jayden and Duwayne, who were aged between five and 13. Despite losing the first round of her attempt to challenge the length of her sentence, her lawyers succeeded in making a renewed application. Another co-accused, Paul Mosley, abandoned his appeal against the length of his sentence the day before the hearing. Mairead Philpott was not in court. Regulations covering court of appeal broadcasts, which began last month, require cameras to focus only on the judges and lawyers who are presenting their arguments. The feed is on a 70-second delay to prevent any disturbances being broadcast.

The new lord chief justice, Lord Thomas, who is keen to take court of appeal sittings outside London, was one of three judges on the bench. Presenting Philpott's appeal, her barrister Shaun Smith QC said: "[Her] utter dependence ... on Mick Philpott, whilst not excusing culpability, legally or morally, was not given sufficient weight in assessing the length of her sentence."

Richard Latham QC addresses the court of appeal, sitting at Nottingham crown court the first time an appeal court hearing outside London was broadcast live. Photograph: PA

Mairead, he said, was "particularly vulnerable" to a man like Philpott who specialised in taking advantage of young girls with no family support or self esteem. She had been a loving mother, but would forever be known as a child killer; her sentence would be "a lifetime reminder of her inability to stand up to a disturbingly dangerous man". Announcing the court's decision, Thomas said that although Mairead Philpott was under the control of her domineering husband, she was on occasions capable of standing up to him. She had, however, chosen to support his plan to set fire to the house and blame it on her husband's former mistress. "This was not a spur of the moment plan," Thomas said. "It was one that had been carefully and deliberately thought out. The risks of pouring petrol inside a building and setting it alight must have been obvious. Her children were upstairs. She actually participated in setting the fire as petrol was found on her clothes. "She was capable of standing up. She could make a choice. She had a responsibility that was not overborne by the will of Michael Philpott." Her husband was jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years. The broadcast was cut off abruptly after the decision to uphold her sentence was announced, when applause and clapping erupted in court. The following case to come before the court of appeal judges was partially, and inadvertently, broadcast online before judges had time to consider whether it should be televised. The live feed was cut off before that hearing ended. Before the appeal, the courts minister, Shailesh Vara, said: "This is another landmark day for justice. For the first time cameras will be able to live broadcast a court hearing outside of London. "It will give people across the country the opportunity to see and hear the decisions of judges sitting in Nottingham, which is a significant step towards achieving our aim of having an open and transparent justice system. "Justice must be seen to be done and today marks another important step towards opening up the court process to bring justice closer to the public.

"However, we will always balance the need to make the justice system more accessible with the needs of victims and witnesses. That is why we will ensure that throughout the court process, they will not be filmed."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

House of Cards writer to present EU referendum bill into the House of Lords
Lord Dobbs will attempt to win support for the Conservative bill in the upper chamber
Rowena Mason, political correspondent The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 19.16 GMT

Lord Dobbs said: 'I hope the House of Lords will recognise the public demand for a referendum.' Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

Lord Dobbs of Wylye, the man who wrote the political thriller House of Cards, is to introduce the Conservative bill pledging an EU referendum into the House of Lords. The peer and novelist, who boasts on his website that he has "never had a proper job", will attempt to win support for the bill in the upper chamber, where it may run into trouble as it is opposed by both Labour and the Liberal Democrats. The EU referendum bill, promising a poll before 2018, is a Tory-backed bill rather than a government one, as Nick Clegg does not support it. This means it has to be sponsored by backbenchers rather than ministers, with 29-year-old James Wharton, MP for Stockton South, taking it through the Commons over the last few Fridays. The legislation is heading to the Lords after it cleared its third Commons reading unopposed. Many opposition MPs, such as Labour's Mike Gapes, a former chairman of the Commons foreign affairs select committee, tried to "talk it out" by giving long and irrelevant speeches in a bid to make it run out of parliamentary time, but it eventually passed

without a vote. Wharton feared that if his bill had not cleared the Commons on this occasion, it would have failed as there are only three sitting Fridays in the Commons next year when the legislation could be heard again should peers in the House of Lords successfully pass amendments. It is highly unusual for peers to try to change unopposed private members' bills tabled by MPs, but if they table amendments that delay its progress beyond 28 February the last scheduled Commons sitting Friday then it will run out of Parliamentary time and will fail. Wharton accused Labour and the Liberal Democrats of having done "absolutely everything in their power" to frustrate the bill in the Commons, and warned peers not to try similar tactics. "The House of Lords is going to be difficult. There are a number of challenges, but I think there is a very clear message that needs to be sent to them as well, which is that the democratically elected House of Commons has voted for this," he told BBC News. Dobbs said: "I am delighted to be introducing this bill into the House of Lords to give the people of this country a say on Britain's future in a reformed Europe through an in-out referendum. This is a historic choice, as it is the first time for a generation that the public will be given the opportunity to have their say on membership of the EU. "The Conservative party is committed to giving the British people the right to decide. Having passed all its stages in the elected house, I hope the House of Lords will recognise the public demand for a referendum and give it their support." Labour sources said the party remains opposed to the bill and expects it to face "a lot of scrutiny" in the Lords.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

St Jude storm may have killed around 10 million trees

Forestry Commission finds more than half of southern England's woodlands are likely to have been affected by the storm
Jessica Aldred theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 11.28 GMT Jump to comments ()

A sign on a fallen tree warning of a hazardous footpath after the St Jude's storm near Sudbury, Suffolk. Photograph: M J Perris/Alamy

Around 10 million trees are estimated to have died as a result of the St Jude storm that swept across England last month, according to Forestry Commission figures released on Friday. More than half (64%) of the 109,000 woodlands across southern England are likely to have been affected by the storm in some way but very few woodlands should suffer long-term damage, the results of a two-week survey show. "I wouldn't want anyone to be too concerned by the large numbers of trees affected by the storm," said a commission spokesman. "We need to remember that this was a natural event with the effects spread across many woodlands and they have great capacity to recover." Around 650 million trees remain across the area the storm passed through. On the morning of 28 October, the St Jude day storm battered the southern part of the UK and caused widespread disruption, with the Met Office reporting gusts of 99mph on the Isle of Wight. It caused four fatalities, left hundreds of thousands of homes without power, felled trees and disrupted travel. Immediate ecological assessments showed that woodland and ancient trees survived much better than expected, with tree loss nowhere near the scale of previous powerful storms. The National Trust and Woodland Trust, which between them manage several thousand woods across Britain, both reported little serious damage. Richard Greenhous, director of forest services at the Forestry Commission, said: "Sadly the storm left behind some personal tragedies but fortunately our woodlands proved resilient. They should readily recover from localised damage without seriously affecting local woodland and timber businesses and there could even be a benefit to wildlife conservation."

The commission organised a two-week survey of 165 woodlands from Cornwall to Suffolk, searching for trees blown over or snapped and looking at damage to their crowns to assess overall woodland damage. The storm caused more damage between Wiltshire and Kent with little or no damage recorded at the south-west and north-east extremes of the survey area. By sampling clusters of woodland, the commission found that 3.7% of trees suffered damage to their crown (foliage and branches), and 1.5% of area and trees were affected by windthrow and snap where trees are uprooted or broken by the wind. The damage was mostly spread thinly throughout woods and mostly affected broadleaved stands trees like ash, beech, birch, elm, holly, hornbeam, lime, oak and poplar that have wide leaves. "Although around 70,000 woods were affected by the storm, the level of damage within the vast majority of these woods was low. Crown damage was highest at 3.7% of all trees across the storm area, but these trees will recover from that damage," said Greenhous. Ten million of the UK's total standing tree population of 3 billion are likely to be dead. The amount of standing timber affected is approximately 2 million metres cubed, measured against an annual UK harvest of 10.5 million metres cubed. The commission said the loss was substantive, but that by the time the woodlands are mature enough to supply timber, they should have recovered any lost volume. "One per cent of larger trees across the storm area were blown over, plus another 0.5 % snapped around halfway up the trunk. In hard numbers this could account for around 10 million trees 'lost' from the woodlands as a result of this natural event, but we must remember that more than 650 million remain," said Greenhous. "The trees around and below those that are damaged or will die will compensate for this loss and grow into the gap left in the canopy. During that time additional light will reach in to the forest encouraging ground flora and wildlife in general." Most wind-damaged timber will not be economic to harvest and is likely be left where it is, to turn into valuable deadwood habitats for wildlife. In the UK up to one-fifth of woodland species depend on dead or dying wood for all or part of their life cycle. "The dead trees left behind by the storm will contribute to deadwood stocks in the forest and this will be a bonus for biodiversity, providing additional food sources and breeding habitats for flora and fauna such as lichens, fungi and invertebrates," said Greenhous. Woodland Trust head of conservation, Austin Brady, said: "The damage caused by the storm highlights how important it is to ensure we have resilient wooded landscapes containing a mixture of tree species and woodland of different ages, making them more able to either withstand the impact when mother nature strikes or be better equipped to bounce-back and recover. "This applies as much to the creeping threats to our woods from a succession of pests and diseases, gradual climate change and piecemeal erosion by development. The more fragmented our woods become the less likely it is that they will thrive in the long term."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Peaches Geldof apologises for Ian Watkins sex abuse tweet

Geldof may face criminal charges for identifying on Twitter two women whose babies were abused by Lostprophets singer
Matthew Weaver and Josh Halliday The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 09.47 GMT

Peaches Geldof: identifying victims of sexual offences is a crime under the Sexual Offences Act and carries a fine of up to 5,000. Photograph: Michael Bowles/Rex Features

Peaches Geldof has apologised for revealing the names of two women whose babies were abused by the singer Ian Watkins, after it emerged she could face criminal charges for the disclosures. Geldof told her 166,000 Twitter followers she had assumed the names of the women "had been released for public knowledge". On Friday it was revealed that the names of the defendants in the case had been mistakenly included on the court service's listing site. An HM Courts & Tribunals Service spokesman said: "We apologise that the names of the defendants in this case were mistakenly included on our court listing site. The names were quickly removed from the site, and action has been taken to ensure this does not happen again." The mothers of the two infants, a boy and a girl, are subject to lifelong anonymity orders to prevent the identities of their children becoming public. On Tuesday, the mothers, both in their 20s and fans of Watkins's band, Lostprophets, pleaded guilty to a series of sexual offences alongside the singer . On Friday, Geldof explained that the offending tweets had been deleted and that she had learned a lesson from the incident. But in a series of tweets she argued that the identity of the women should be revealed.

"The question of wether [sic] or not to give anonymity to criminals in cases like this will go on forever. However these women and Watkins will be gettings [sic] three-meals a day, a double bed, cable TV etc all funded by the tax payer alongside not being named apparently. It makes me sad. I deleted my tweets however and apologise for any offence caused." Identifying victims of sexual offences is a crime under the Sexual Offences Act and carries a fine of up to 5,000, but publishers who flout the law are often ordered to pay a further sum in compensation to the victim. South Wales police, whose detectives led the Watkins investigation, codenamed Operation Globe, said it was investigating Geldof's deleted posts alongside lawyers from the Crown Prosecution Service. Detective Chief Inspector Peter Doyle, senior investigating officer from the force, said: "We are aware that the names of Ian Watkins's co-defendants have been published on social media channels. Clearly, there is strong public feeling about this case and many people are using social media forums to talk about the issues involved. "We are currently in consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service regarding the matter and will take action if appropriate. "Our primary objective as an organisation remains the safeguarding of vulnerable people and children. Victims of sexual abuse have a right to anonymity in order to protect their future welfare and we urge those discussing the issues raised online to be careful about using information that identifies victims in cases like this."A Crown Prosecution ServicePS spokesman confirmed it was involved in the investigation. The CPS said in a statement: "Anonymity for victims of sexual offences is a vital component of the criminal justice process. The CPS is liaising with South Wales police in relation to their investigation into allegations that the names of two women convicted alongside Ian Watkins have been placed in the public domain, contrary to legislation that protects the identity of victims by banning the publicising of information which would identify them."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Paddy Ashdown warns lack of action in climate change risks extreme weather
The former Liberal Democrat leader says the level of energy at the UN climate talks left him 'speechless'
Adam Vaughan The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 18.37 GMT

Paddy Ashdown said: 'The Philippines disaster should have sent an urgent message demanding bold action.' Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

Lack of action in international climate change talks risks extreme weather events such as the typhoon that devastated the Philippines three weeks ago being repeated, Paddy Ashdown has warned. The former Liberal Democrat leader said that the level of energy at the UN climate talks, which wrapped up in Warsaw last weekend, left him "speechless." Writing in the Guardian, Ashdown also said that climate change is contributing to extreme weather events, that the role of human-caused emissions in global warming is having fatal consequences and that typhoon Haiyan is a preview of what the future holds. Referring to the nearly 200 countries that met last week to work towards a global deal to tackle climate change, Ashdown said: "The Philippines disaster should have sent an urgent message demanding bold action to protect children from disasters like these and delivered plans for how we can effectively rebuild when the worst happens, but the lack of energy has left me speechless." The talks opened with an emotive appeal from the Philippines lead negotiator, who linked the typoon to climate change and pleaded with delegates to "stop this [climate] madness." Yeb Sano also fasted for the fortnight-long talks, prompting a petition that attracted nearly three quarters of a million signatures, calling for "major steps" at the talks. The negotiations ended with an agreement that governments would lay out their targets for future emissions cuts in just over a year's time, as part of efforts to secure an international deal at the end of 2015, at talks in Paris. Ashdown, who is the UK president of children's charity Unicef, said: " I cannot believe we are not yet gripping this issue with the urgency that is needed and unless we do that, what you see isn't going to be one event that shocks and saddens us but an event that is repeated and repeated and repeated." He also warned that children were at the highest risk of extreme weather such as Haiyan, as they suffer the greatest disease and trauma. "Children in developing countries like the Philippines are the hardest hit, despite being the least responsible for causing climate change," he added.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

HS2 planning: 'How on earth is the public meant to make sense of this?'

Standing 2.7 metres tall and weighing a tonne, high-speed rail documents arrive for 'bewildered' councils to digest
John Vidal, environment editor The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 16.31 GMT Jump to comments ()

Camden, north London, where traders have warned of the potentially disastrous impact of the HS2 route. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Spread over 12 large tables in the basement of County Hall in Aylesbury are 28,000 pages of plans for the proposed 350-mile (560km) high-speed railway planned to go from London to Birmingham and later north to Leeds. Dozens of inch-thick volumes of data, maps, reports, drawings, references and calculations, including 400 pages of explanatory notes and the 400-page draft hybrid bill which went to parliament this week are strewn around. A further 33,000 pages of technical data have yet to arrive. Together, a full set of the planning documents stands nearly 2.7 metres (9ft) tall, contains over 20m words and is said to weigh nearly a tonne. "They were delivered this week", says Rachel Prance, who works for Chiltern district council. "When we saw them arrive, it was 'oh my God". It is quite overwhelming. We've got 58 days to read it all and respond, which means we have to do something like 900 pages a day. We're bewildered. "Where do we start? How on earth is the public meant to make any sense of this?". For the first time, Buckinghamshire, which stands to get 40 miles of the line but no economic benefit, and the other 18 local authorities along the route, can see the precise detail of what would be Britain's greatest civil engineering project in 100 years. Copies have been placed in libraries and town halls along the route. Table 42, page 169 of Volume 3, 16.1.1, shows the railway will need 92m tonnes of earth to be excavated by 2025, 20m tonnes of concrete to be poured and 2m tonnes of steel. Volume 2 pinpoints where hundreds of bridges, 125 miles of cutting, 107 miles of embankment, 40 miles of viaduct and 50 miles of tunnels will be built; the 33 ancient woodlands that must be destroyed; the 1,180 buildings to be demolished and the 50sq km of farmland that will be lost.

Marcus Rogers, Alexandra Day and Rachel Prance get to grips with the 28,000 pages of HS2 plans in County Hall, Aylesbury. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

It shows, too, that seven major rivers must be diverted and over 600 miles of security fence erected, along with townsize compounds to house thousands of construction workers and their machinery for up to 10 years. "It will be one of the most complete transformations of the British landscape since Victorian times", says Marcus Rogers, a planner who is advising Buckinghamshire. "I have never seen anything like this before and I don't think people in any way understand the impact it will have. It's not possible to really assess it in the time we have been given. We need to dig into the 33,000 pages we have not seen to see their assumptions that government is working from", he says. "From a preliminary look, we don't think that HS2 has used the proper methodology for noise impact, and may have exceeded World Health Organisation guidelines. I am also concerned that they have used national transport models and not referred to local ones." Nowhere on the route escapes transformation, the dossier suggests. Volume 2: CFA20 Map Book, Map CT-06-112b, I6 shows that people living near the villages of Curdworth and Middleton in Warwickshire can expect new railway sidings, a mile-long cutting and embankment, a long viaduct, several bridges, tunnels, shafts, as well as one large main compound, 14 civil engineering satellite compounds and two railway installation compounds. But they will lose only three farmhouses, along with 15 other houses and buildings. James Richards, who offers donkey rides, horse riding and pony trekking from Dunton stables on the edge of Curdworth, says he has heard of the vast new dossier but not seen it. "The line is not coming through the property although the services will. But it's close enough to be dangerous. Horses don't go with a construction site. It's just not going to be practical to continue. "All I know is that there will be one train every few seconds and the quicker they go goes the louder they will be. We will have to relocate but the question is the price". Curdworth primary school, which the map shows will be within a few hundred metres of the trains, says it is "unconcerned" about the noise or possible air pollution. "It's not causing us any disturbance yet. "It's already pretty noisy with the M5 motorway [so] we don't think it can get worse," said a spokeswoman for the headteacher. HS2 accepts there will be noise and visual impacts in the area but in Volume 2 it admits it rejected a 400-metre "green tunnel" near Middleton, because it would increase the cost of construction and operation. Despite its size, some groups complained this week that the dossier did not have enough information. "It might sound odd asking for more information but there is still much that is missing if we are to be able to judge HS2 and decide whether the pain could ever be worth the gain," said Ralph Smyth of the Campaign to Protect Rural

England. "Communities along the route desperately want to know details of the haul routes that convoys of HGVs will use to move heavy machinery and earth. They also want to know the maximum noise they will hear when trains pass. Yet there seems to be no more information beyond what we were given in May," he said. Remarkably, the dossier suggests that only around 2,000 people along the whole route will be seriously affected by train noise, and only a handful of houses in Aylesbury may need extra glazing. "The map shows the noise will stop right on the edge of the houses. It stretches credulity. It means people will get no mitigation of any kind," said Rogers. "I would be amazed if anyone here has any idea what will happen. You see very little information about it", said Lee Jones, a bank manager cleaning a car in Otway Close, near the open fields that will be turned to concrete. In Camden, north London, where up to 400 council houses may be demolished and 60% of St James' Gardens will be lost, the borough expects to suffer a decade of blight, noise and disruption. "It's going to be awful. I have seen the document in the library. I am definitely moving out before work starts and porperty prices plunge", said Nora Francis, who lives about 400 metres from Euston station. But at least one man is happy at the prospect of shaving 20 minutes off the journey time from London to the West Midlands. "High-speed rail cannot come soon enough for me," said Sir Albert Bore, leader of Birmingham city council and transport lead for the Core Cities group. "It will act as an engine of growth bringing thousands of jobs. It will free up much needed space on our crowded railways. [The hybrid bill] is another major milestone for Britain's high-speed rail ambitions."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Simon Hoggart's week: let's end this obsession over Ed Miliband

Fraternal discord between the Milibands continues. But age did not give David an automatic right to the Labour leadership
Simon Hoggart The Guardian, Saturday 30 November 2013 Jump to comments ()

Ed Miliband becoming Labour leader still rankles with his older brother, as became apparent on Desert Island Discs. Photograph: Tim Hales/AP

!Why are people obsessed with the fact that Ed Miliband stood against his big brother? It cropped up again during his appearance on Desert Island Discs this week. Is there some deep, atavistic belief that the younger must always give way to the elder, as if it were the royal succession? Has he committed a crime against the gods, like Oedipus? It seems a little unfair. David M lost because he took the job for granted, perhaps assuming that the electorate would naturally, unthinkingly plump for the elder. The ill-feeling that persists between the two suggests that he felt that this was an innate right. But I am an older sibling myself, and if my brother had successfully challenged me to become sketch writer for the Guardian I would be disappointed, though hardly outraged. Or feel that the job was mine by right of primogeniture. !I've been a fan of Bob Dylan for decades, since my father brought back his earliest LPs from America, where friends had told him that Dylan was a coming star. I was hooked. I hadn't heard anything like A Hard Rain, and nor had anyone else in the UK. But until this week I'd never seen him perform live. So nothing, including illness, was going to stop me going to the Albert Hall to join friends who had tickets. The place was packed, the atmosphere as electric as one of his controversial guitars. We had a jolly meal before the concert, and finally the moment came. Was I just a touch disappointed? Yes, I'm afraid I was. You can't blame him because his voice is incredibly throaty, making me want to throw Strepsils at the stage. Kingsley Amis once said that the most depressing words in the English language were "shall we go straight to the table?" For rock fans, it is usually "and now, a few tracks from my new album". (Imagine going to see Pavarotti and learning that he was going to sing only selections from Nixon in China.) Almost all Dylan's performance consisted of tracks from his new album, Tempest, with only three classics thrown in: She Belongs to Me, A Simple Twist of Fate and All Along the Watchtower. As he sang he hoisted his voice half an octave at the end of most lines, as if asking a question, like an Australian teenager. And the stage was so murky you could hardly see him or the brilliant band, none of whom he introduced. Indeed, he didn't speak to the audience at all, except for one throwaway remark before the interval, which I didn't catch. A simple "Hello, Kensington Gore!" would have been nice. On the other hand, seeing Dylan live is one more thing to tick off the bucket list, along with the Great Barrier Reef, the Grand Canyon and meeting Robert Vaughn. !At one point Dylan sang about the mournful whistle of a train. American trains do have a mournful whistle, and very evocative it is, like the cry of "All abo-o-oard!" There is nothing more romantic than a long-distance ride across the continent, though on shorter routes Amtrak has installed small windows and serves crummy food, as if those are what people really like about air travel and so must be replicated on the railway. The mournful whistle of course usually acts as the leitmotif for a sad song, reminding the singer how miserable he feels. But I think it's time for some happier songs to hum along to. I hear that cheerful whistle

Blowin' down the track And that whistle tells me My baby's comin' back She went to get the cat wormed But now she's comin' back. !The England cricket team were in Alice Springs this week. I was there myself, one Australian summer. The temperature was well over 100F, and when you parked you had to cover the steering wheel with newspaper or blankets so it was bearable to the touch. I wanted some lunch, so I went into a hotel, where there was a lavish choice: hot roast beef with yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes, roast pork, or roast chicken, all with lashings of gravy. There was a small selection of salad, no doubt for ladies and pooftahs. !I'm still hooked by MasterChef: The Professionals. It is fun to spot the dish you would least like to eat. This week my choice was created by a young chap who is clearly very talented, though perhaps he needs to rejoin the real world sharpish. He served muntjak, confit potatoes, a roast blackcurrant gel, compressed plums, pan-fried grillotes and charred radicchio, accompanied by a venison sauce, the whole served under a dome filled with cherrywood smoke and topped with fresh flowers. All on one plate. And it won more plaudits than any other dish that day! Obviously fish and chips or sausage and mash would be silly, but this is surely a joke. !Stupid labels etc: Tony Johns noticed that a department store Santa is needed in Crawley, at 10.50 an hour. The ad notes candidly that the work is "seasonal". Patrick Russell bought a packet of Avomine tablets, for the relief of dizziness and light-headedness. The leaflet inside warned that side-effects include dizziness and light-headedness. Frank Vigon found a notice taped to a waste bin outside the local Co-op in Macclesfield: "This bin is not for dog waste. It is for Co-op food and waste paper." No wonder they are in trouble. !Useless presents: Brenda Hillmen spotted a tapestry bell pull to hang in your drawing room, only 95. But it can't connect to anything, so you could pull and pull and Bates would never appear. Lindy Williams found plenty of pleasure in the Really Useful Gift Company catalogue, which includes a mock-up of a DJ's record deck for your cat to use as a scratching toy. The picture shows a moggy poised over the deck like Fatboy Slim. 19.99.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

International

Saudi Arabia's foreign labour crackdown drives out 2m migrants China scrambles fighter jets towards US and Japan aircraft in disputed air zone Ukraine aligns with Moscow as EU summit fails Egyptian activist arrested amid government crackdown on dissent Repeat of 2010 Bangkok clashes feared as anti-Thaksin protesters march on Britons protest over Israel plan to remove 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins French businessman heads to desert island to become first 'Web Robinson' Shuga: the soap opera helping Africa confront HIV Jacob Zuma accused of corruption 'on a grand scale' in South Africa Afghan interpreters who fell in love with US soldiers struggle in visa limbo US commander in Afghanistan apologises for Helmand drone strike German policeman arrested over death of man he met via cannibalism website Bolshoi ballet dancer awaits verdict in acid attack trial China's largest desert freshwater lake shrinking faster than ever Silvio Berlusconi paid off witnesses, says Italian court

Saudi Arabia's foreign labour crackdown drives out 2m migrants

Ethiopian workers face hostility amid 'Saudisation' campaign to control foreign labour and get more Saudi citizens into work
Ian Black in Riyadh theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 12.52 GMT Jump to comments ()

Foreign workers waiting to be deported in Riyadh. Photograph: EPA

Under the watchful eyes of Saudi policemen slouched in their squad cars along a rundown street, little knots of Ethiopian men sit chatting on doorsteps and sprawl on threadbare grass at one of Riyadh's busiest junctions. These are tense, wary times in Manfouha, a few minutes' drive from the capital's glittering towers and swanky shopping malls. Manfouha is the bleak frontline in Saudi Arabia's campaign to get rid of its illegal foreign workers, control the legal ones and help get more of its own citizens into work. This month two or three Ethiopians were killed here after a raid erupted into full-scale rioting. Keeping their distance from the officers parked every few hundred metres, the Ethiopians look shifty and sound

nervous. "Of course I have an iqama [residence permit]," insisted Ali, a gaunt twentysomething man in cheap leather jacket and jeans. "I wouldn't be standing here if I hadn't." But he didn't have the document on him. And his story, in broken Arabic, kept changing: he was in the process of applying for one; actually, no, his kafeel (sponsor) had it. It didn't sound as if it would convince the police or passport inspection teams prowling the neighbourhood. Until recently, of the kingdom's 30 million residents, more than nine million were non-Saudis. Since the labour crackdown started in March, one million Bangladeshis, Indians, Filipinos, Nepalis, Pakistanis and Yemenis have left. And the campaign has moved into higher gear after the final deadline expired on 4 November, with dozens of repatriation flights now taking place every day. By next year, two million migrants will have gone. No one is being singled out, the authorities say. Illegal workers of 14 nationalities have been detained and are awaiting deportation. But the Ethiopians, many of whom originally crossed into Saudi Arabia from Yemen, are widely portrayed as criminals who are said to be mixed up with alcohol and prostitution. "They'd rather sit here and do nothing than go home because maybe they will get some kind of work," sneered Adel, one of the few Saudis to brave Manfouha's mean streets. "In Ethiopia there is nothing for them."

Ethiopian Photograph: AP

men

in

Manfouha,

southern

Riyadh.

The Ethiopian government said this week that 50,000 of its nationals had already been sent home, with the total expected to rise to 80,000. Every day hundreds more trudge through the gates of the heavily guarded campus of Riyadh's Princess Noora University, awaiting a coach ride to the airport, fingerprinting, a final exit visa and their oneway flight to Addis Ababa. Incidents involving Ethiopians are reported almost obsessively on Twitter and YouTube and across mainstream media outlets. Ethiopians complain in turn of being robbed and beaten, and of routine abuse and mistreatment by their Saudi employers. Protests have been held outside Saudi embassies in several countries. Prejudice is so rife that the Ethiopian ambassador had to insist that the Muslim or Christian beliefs of his compatriots prevented them from practising sorcery. Yet other foreign workers show little sympathy or solidarity. "These people believe this is their country," said Mohamed, a Bangladeshi who runs a petrol station in the centre of Manfouha. "They are big trouble, and dangerous. I've seen them carrying long knives." Mokhtar, a Somali, had no problem with them. "I'm not afraid of the Ethiopians because we are neighbours," he grinned. "But the Saudis are. I have heard the stories about them breaking into houses and I've seen them smashing up cars on this road." Ansar, another Ethiopian who blamed his boss for withholding his iqama, condemned his

violent compatriots as kuffar infidels. Saudi Arabia's addiction to cheap foreign labour goes back to the oil boom and religious awakening of the mid1970s. In recent years it has come to be seen as an enormous problem that distorts the economy and keeps young people out of the labour market. But the government turned a blind eye and little happened until March. And it remains to be seen whether the notorious kafala (sponsorship) system responsible for many abuses can be reformed or replaced. Saudis say one of the biggest problems is foreigners who have fled their original kafeel and effectively disappeared. "We will need two decades to get back to where we were in the 1970s," predicted Turki al-Hamad, a writer who grew up in the eastern city of Dammam, where Saudis used to work in the Aramco oilfields. "We are better off economically than we were then, but much worse off socially."

Foreign workers wait with their belongings before boarding police buses in Riyadh. Photograph: Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty Images

The "regularisation" campaign has had some unintended though probably predictable consequences. The sudden acceleration of departures, both voluntary and forced, has left building sites deserted and corpses unwashed. Some schools have closed due to an absence of caretakers. In Jeddah a septic tank overflowed disastrously because the cleaners had all fled after hearing word of an impending police raid. Rubbish is piling up everywhere. In Medina undocumented foreigners dressed up in robes to blend in and avoid attention. "Two friends of mine were arrested in a furniture shop," said Mohamed Shafi, a driver from Kerala in India. "Their kafeel said it was too expensive to regularise their status so he sacked them. Now they are in a detention centre and there's no way to contact them." Middle-class Saudis bemoan the sudden disappearance of their maids and drivers (an economic necessity for women, who are banned from driving) and find themselves sucked into a costly labyrinth if they try to intervene. "I had to use the black market and I've paid 100,000 riyals [16,000]) to regularise my workers," complained a British manager. Embassies are being overwhelmed by nationals frantically seeking the documents they need to allow them to leave the country. "You could see this was a disaster waiting to happen," said another European resident. "It just wasn't thought through. It's all about incompetence." In the long term the expulsions should help the wider "Saudisation" programme, based on the nitaqat or quotas for employing Saudis in certain sectors depending on the size of the enterprise. But this is not only about the menial work that pampered Saudis refuse to do. Hundreds of thousands of Europeans, Lebanese, Syrians and Egyptians work in the private sector. According to the latest figures from the IMF, 1.5m of the 2m new jobs created in the last four years went to non-Saudis. Entire areas of the economy are controlled by foreigners. Oil prices are still high and growth enviably healthy but everyone knows that the vast state sector providing jobs for

Oil prices are still high and growth enviably healthy but everyone knows that the vast state sector providing jobs for the boys, if not for the girls will have to shrink in years to come. Officially unemployment is already 12%; it is probably more than twice that among the two-thirds of the population who are under 30. Every year about 100,000 graduates enter the job market. Technical colleges are now providing vocational training. "Saudisation can only succeed if a company really wants to do it," argued Abdelrahman al-Mutlak, a businessman. "It can't be done by regulation. Too many Saudis still think it's a lot more prestigious to hire a foreigner even if there is perfectly good Saudi candidate available."

An Ethiopian worker argues with a member of the Saudi security forces in Manfouha. Photograph: Reuters

Economists point out that with fewer foreign workers sending remittances home, more money will stay in the country and help boost consumer spending. Official accounts of the expulsion campaign have an almost apologetic tone and stress the efforts the security forces are making and the difficulties they face. But the Saudi Twittersphere echoes to complaints that Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, the interior minister (and a likely future king) has been too soft on what one angry tweet called "criminal gangs of Ethio-Israelis". It seems clear that the public is cheering on the government on the foreign labour issue. "It is the right thing to do," said Fawziya al-Bakr, a lecturer. "We've reached the point where people were trading in these workers and women were running away to become prostitutes. This is a problem that has built up over 40 years. It can't just be swept up in nine months. But it has to be done. When everything is legalised it will be easier to control." For Kamel, a Shia businessman from Qatif, in the Eastern province, the expulsions are long overdue. "These people live in ghettoes run by gangsters," he said. "If they are not here legally we don't want them. It just creates problems. They had a period of grace but didn't do anything about it. In Manfouha the Ethiopians started attacking the properties of Pakistanis and Afghans. That was a big mistake. The government says it can solve this problem so it's really acting tough."

Abuses and exploitation

More than eight million migrant workers in Saudi Arabia more than half the entire workforce fill manual, clerical, and service jobs. "Many suffer abuses and labour exploitation, sometimes amounting to slavery-like conditions," says Human Rights Watch. The kafala system ties foreign workers' residency permits to sponsoring employers whose consent is required for workers to change jobs or leave the country. A Pakistani man employed as a driver, for example, needs permission to work in a shop. Employers often abuse this power in violation of Saudi law to confiscate passports, withhold wages and force migrants to work against their will or on exploitative terms.

Thousands work illegally under the so-called "free visa" arrangement, with Saudis posing as sponsoring employers and importing workers to staff fictitious businesses. Workers who enter Saudi Arabia under this scheme work outside the regulatory system for companies and businesses that are happy to avoid official scrutiny while the worker pays often extortionate annual and monthly fees to the free-visa sponsor to renew residency and work permits.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

China scrambles fighter jets towards US and Japan aircraft in disputed air zone
Escalation of response in South China Sea is the first time China is known to have sent military jets in zone alongside foreign craft
Tania Branigan in Beijing and Ed Pilkington in New York The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 17.26 GMT Jump to comments ()

China scrambled fighter jets to investigate US and Japanese aircraft flying through its new air defence zone over the East China Sea on Friday as the regional clamour over the disputed airspace escalated. The ministry of defence announced the move, which is the first time China is known to have sent military aircraft into the zone alongside foreign flights, stepping up its response to the challenge after its unilateral establishment of the zone. It previously said it had monitored US, Japanese and South Korean aircraft and had flown routine patrols in the area on Thursday. The ministry's statement said that two US reconnaissance aircraft and 10 Japanese early warning, reconnaissance and fighter planes had entered the zone. The airforce "monitored throughout the entire flights, made timely identification and ascertained the types," defence ministry spokesman Shen Jinke told the official China News Service. The Pentagon has yet to respond to the statement. Japanese officials declined to confirm details of any flights, saying that routine missions were continuing. The move came as South Korea's Yonhap news agency said officials were discussing how to expand its own air zone. In Taiwan, legislators issued an unusual joint statement chiding Ma Ying-jeou's government for its tempered response to China's announcement of the zone and urging it to lodge a tough protest with Beijing. The government later said it would convey its "stern position". Earlier the European Union's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton expressed its concern that the zone had contributed to tensions in the region, saying that the EU called on all sides to exercise caution and restraint.

Foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang urged the EU to handle the situation "objectively and rationally", adding: "European countries can have air defence identification zones. Why can't China?" While such zones are common, China's is controversial because it includes the skies over islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, which are the subject of a long-running territorial dispute, and overlaps zones established by Japan and South Korea. There has also been concern over China's warning that it would take unspecified "emergency defensive measures" if aircraft did not comply. Taylor Fravel, an expert on regional security at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said establishment of the zone increased the potential for an incident in the air that could spark a larger crisis. But he said tensions might ease if China continued to clarify the nature of the zone and how it intended to deal with unidentified aircraft, especially those flying through the zone but not heading toward China. "China has always chafed at Japan's adiz [air defence identification zone], which at some points is less than 150km from China China probably wants to level the playing field with Japan and increase the pressure on Tokyo regarding the disputed islands," he said. Japan does not acknowledge that ownership of the islands is disputed. The US does not have a position on their sovereignty but recognises Japan's administrative control and has said they are covered by the joint security pact. Many analysts think China is laying down a long-term marker, but did not anticipate the forceful response it has received from the US as well as Japan. "The Chinese government is not going to concede the substance," said June Teufel Dreyer of the University of Miami. "When circumstances are more conducive, they will try to enforce it more strictly in the future. This is a pattern we have noticed for decades." Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, Asia-Pacific director at the US Institute of Peace, said the creation of its zone had its own momentum. "The danger in the announcement is that it empowers the People's Liberation Army, maritime agencies and netizens [internet users] to hold the government to account," she said. "Now people are transgressing the zone, they have to make it look to the domestic audience like they are serious. They have given birth to internal pressures." Behind the immediate issues lie regional concerns about China's growing strength, Beijing's unease at Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe's determination to strengthen his country's forces, and questions about the US presence in and commitment to the region. US vice-president Joe Biden will visit Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul on a trip beginning this Sunday which is likely to be dominated by discussions of the zone. "I think the only problem is Japan because it has taken a confrontational policy. They want clashes and to drag America into military containment against China," said Yan Xuetong, a foreign relations scholar at Tsinghua University. "The international community has ignored the roots of this Abe has clearly stated that his fundamental goal is to revise the constitution [under which Japan renounces war] and he needs security tensions to legitimise his efforts." Tokyo's military ambitions are particularly sensitive because many in China say Japan has not adequately recognised or atoned for its brutal occupation.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Ukraine aligns with Moscow as EU summit fails

Angela Merkel tells President Viktor Yanukovych 'we expected more' after he refuses to sign pact at summit in Lithuania
Ian Traynor in Brussels and Oksana Grytsenko in Kiev The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 04.36 GMT Jump to comments ()

Viktor Yanukovych held secret talks with Vladimir a fortnight ago regarding the EU pact. Photograph: Mindaugas Kulbis/AP

A six-year campaign to lure Ukraine into integration with the EU and out of the Kremlin's orbit failed on Friday when President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign a pact at a summit in Lithuania. Ten days of high-stakes brinkmanship that brought a clash between Russian and other European countries ended with the Kremlin on top, for now, although all sides were careful to leave options on the table. Yanukovych attended the Vilnius summit under pressure to reverse last week's sudden decision to shelve a political association agreement and a free-trade pact with the EU, accords that have been negotiated for six years and were to have been the centrepiece of a meeting attended by European heads of government. "We expected more," Angela Merkel told Yanukovych in a private conversation that was filmed and released by the Lithuanian hosts. Yanukovych remained poker-faced while pleading his case. He was under irresistible pressure from Vladimir Putin, with whom he held secret talks a fortnight ago, to forego the EU pact. "We have big difficulties with Moscow," he said. "I have been alone for three-and-a-half years in very unequal conditions with Russia." The U-turn last week "surprised and disappointed" top EU officials. In September Armenia also suddenly ditched years of talks aimed at integrating with the EU in favour of offers from Moscow.

The Ukrainian failure came as a dismal climax to a decade of efforts at semi-integration with neighbours to the east and around the Mediterranean, offering trade and financial benefits in return for democratic reforms while falling short of the magnetic attraction of EU membership. Pro-European demonstrators who have been protesting in Kiev since last weekend were met on Friday by thousands of Yanukovych supporters, many of them bussed in. A group attacked two journalists from a Ukrainian TV station who were filming in a city centre park. "Some 10 to 15 hands clung to my hood. They were beating me everywhere on the body. I was trying to defend myself," said Dmytro Gnap, one of the victims. Over Friday night police in Kiev broke up the remnants of the anti-government demonstration, swinging truncheons and injuring many, the Associated Press reported. Riot police used teargas when they dispersed the crowd of about 400 protesters. While senior officials agree Moscow has been blackmailing Yanukovych into rejecting the Brussels offer, the Ukrainian president was also given short shrift. "If you blink in front of Russia, you always end up in trouble," !tefan Fle, the EU enlargement commissioner, told the Carnegie Europe thinktank. "Yanukoych blinked too soon." The British ambassador to Ukraine, Simon Smith, called Yanukovych's decision "an egregious piece of cynicism". Kiev is seen to be trying to play the EU off against Russia. Leaders dismissed Yanukovych's proposals that Moscow be involved in the negotiations. Calling it the "most ambitious" agreement ever offered to a non-member state, Jos Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, said that Moscow could not be handed a veto over sovereign Ukraine's relations with Europe. "The Ukrainian people should be disappointed," said the summit host, President Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania. "Today's Ukrainian leadership has chosen a way which is going nowhere." Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European council, said: "The offer is still on the table."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Egyptian activist arrested amid government crackdown on dissent

Detention of Alaa Abd El Fattah and wife follows new protest law, jailing of women and girls, and shooting of student
Patrick Kingsley in Cairo theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 13.06 GMT Jump to comments ()

Alaa Abd El Fattah, pictured in 2011 with his mother and baby son, was taken and beaten in a violent raid, his wife said. Photograph: Amr Hafez/AP

A week in Egypt that campaigners said confirmed a return to Mubarak-era repression ended with the arrest of highprofile activist Alaa Abd El Fattah in a violent raid in which his wife said she was also assaulted. Abd El Fattah has been targeted by every government since Hosni Mubarak's, and his incarceration has come to be seen as an indicator of the state of human rights in Egypt. His arrest followed the sentencing of 14 women and girls to 11 years in jail for taking part in an early morning pro-Mohamed Morsi protest in October, and a draconian protest law that rights groups say severely curtails the right to protest and which the UN says is "seriously flawed". It also followed Thursday's shooting by police of a student protesting against the government at Cairo University, and the 15-day detention of a schoolboy for carrying a ruler bearing a pro-Morsi symbol, according to state media. The arrest of Abd El Fattah, a secular activist also targeted by the administrations of ex-presidents Morsi and Mubarak, confirmed fears that the new government has widened its crackdown on pro-Morsi dissent to the nonIslamist activists who joined calls for his overthrow this year. Until the past fortnight, when non-Islamist activists finally returned to Cairo's streets in significant numbers, the crackdown had largely centred on Morsi supporters and striking workers outside the capital. Abd El Fattah was arrested on suspicion of encouraging a demonstration on Tuesday outside the Egyptian parliament against the army being allowed to try civilians in military courts under Egypt's new constitution. Under the new protest law, the protesters should have sought permission from the police who arrested 79 in minutes. Twenty-four remain in custody, while 22 female protesters said they were beaten and harassed before being abandoned in the desert several miles south of Cairo. After a warrant for his arrest was issued, Abd El Fattah announced that he intended to turn himself in on Saturday. In a statement translated by his aunt, the novelist Ahdaf Soueif, Abd El Fattah also argued that his arrest was political, and said "the legitimacy of the current regime collapsed" just five days after Morsi's overthrow, when soldiers and police killed 51 pro-Morsi supporters at a protest. Abd El Fattah said he had been at a police station for eight hours on Tuesday night to lobby for other arrested activists, and concluded that the police had not detained him because they wanted to make a spectacle of his arrest. That came to pass on Thursday night when, his wife Manal said, several armed policemen stormed their home shortly after 10am, beating both and taking their phones and laptops. An arrest warrant was also issued for Ahmed Maher, the founder of the 6 April youth movement that spearheaded Mubarak's ousting. On Friday, he could not be reached by phone and his whereabouts were unknown. Earlier in the week, Maher had told the Guardian he was considering going into hiding, and compared Egypt's current climate of

week, Maher had told the Guardian he was considering going into hiding, and compared Egypt's current climate of repression to the height of a campaign against him in 2008 "when I was hiding and trying to escape the police, and trying to make my wife and family safe". While Egypt's police were a major target of the 2011 uprising, and their brutality continued unabated under Morsi, they returned to public favour after supporting Morsi's overthrow in July. It was a development that may explain why the security establishment felt free to harden their stance against all forms of dissent this week. "The security sector feels it has the backing of large swaths of the public, who are exhausted by three years of upheaval, and who are now prepared to trade freedoms for stability," said HA Hellyer, an Egypt analyst for the Royal United Services Institute, a foreign affairs thinktank. "But I'm not so sure this kind of policy will be sustainable in the long term. The wider public expects the state to deliver on the economy and living standards, which the state is unlikely to be able to do and if it feels the security sector is given a free hand without any observable benefits, the wider public could just as easily turn against that same apparatus."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Repeat of 2010 Bangkok clashes feared as anti-Thaksin protesters march on

Demonstrations against Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra continue with protest leader vowing to topple government by Sunday
Kate Hodal in Bangkok theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 16.51 GMT Jump to comments ()

Bangkok, Thailand: anti-government protesters march towards the US embassy to ask for the government of Yingluck Shinawatra to be unseated. Photograph: Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press/Corbis

Thanita Benjaworadechkul is a woman who seemingly doesn't know what she wants. What she does know, however, is what she doesn't want: the current Thai prime minister to stay in power. "She is stupid! And all of Thailand knows that," said the whistle-wielding 27-year-old of Yingluck Shinawatra as she marched through Bangkok's downtown with thousands of others on Friday. "I am Thai and this is my country, my government. I want her out!" Primary school teacher Thanita could not answer what kind of government she would prefer, or just who she hoped would rule if Yingluck who was democratically elected to power two years ago on the back of her ruling Puea Thai party were to be toppled. "Her brother Thaksin wants to destroy the monarchy," she shrugged, citing a familiar belief among anti-government protestors. "I just want someone suitable to be prime minister." Other protestors marching alongside Thanita held up caricatures of a singing Yingluck with the message "It's all lipsynching", a reference, it seemed, to the leader acting as a supposed puppet of her brother Thaksin, the former PM ousted in a military coup in 2006 who was widely accused of being anti-monarchy. The business tycoon now lives in self-imposed exile in Dubai after being convicted of corruption, charges he claims are politically motivated. It has been one week since whistle-blowing demonstrators in their thousands have taken to the streets to overthrow Yingluck's government which they brand the "Thaksin regime" storming army compounds, shutting off power to national police headquarters and occupying ministerial buildings. Although the embattled prime minister this week survived a parliamentary no-confidence vote and the number of protestors has dwindled as the week has worn on, more demonstrations are planned for Saturday, with protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban a former deputy premier in the previous government vowing to topple the government by Sunday. The instability has led many to worry that there could be a repeat of the violent 2010 clashes between pro-Thaksin "red shirts" and pro-monarchy "yellow shirts", which saw over 100 killed and 2,000 injured when clashes turned violent. But there have already been reports of violence and intimidation against journalists during these most recent protests. A German photojournalist was assaulted at a rally on Monday after a protest leader singled him out in the crowd, and several Thai TV channels have been accused by demonstrators of being biased, with one Thai journalist coerced by a crowd into blowing a whistle a symbol of the protestors calling out government corruption before he was allowed back into his office building. Senior researcher Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Watch said the "showdown" between protestors, government forces and all those in between was "leading to a very precarious situation where violence seems to be inevitable". He added: "Now the situation is so volatile and so fluid that we have to make an assessment on an hourly basis, chasing different strands of information from different factions [of the government]." Yingluck has made numerous calls for negotiations with protestors and has prepared for violence by invoking the internal security act (ISA), which calls for road closures and curfews. Police have also issued an arrest warrant for protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban. But there have not yet been any explicit attempts to arrest the politician, with the government seemingly keen to wait out the storm rather than act on it. "The government will not instigate a violent situation because that is exactly what Suthep wants," said Udomdet Rattanasatein, a Puea Thai lawmaker. "We will not be provoked." Suthep himself has rejected any form of negotiation or dialogue until the so-called "Thaksin regime" has been ousted, and on Friday vowed to cut telecommunications and seize a number of government ministries, police headquarters and a zoo over the weekend. Protestors are operating from five different locations, including three downtown, one in a ministry and another in the northern suburbs. "We all not let them work anymore," Suthep said of the current government.

"We all not let them work anymore," Suthep said of the current government. Suthep accuses Thaksin and by default, his sister Yingluck of having destroyed not only democracy in Thailand, but the "virtues and ethics of the people". His plan, which critics have said is both too bold and too vague, is to overthrow the government and begin anew with a temporary, unelected "people's council" formed of various representatives, with the king as head of state. "Then the country could get on the path to perfect democracy," he told the Thai news website Prachathai. The current instability in Thailand hinges on an ill-conceived amnesty bill promoted by Yingluck's government as an attempt to help calm simmering tensions after the 2006 coup. But critics believed the bill would have seen Thaksin's corruption conviction cleared and allowed the half-reviled, half-loved former leader to return to Thailand. Although the Thai senate rejected the bill and Yingluck said she accepted the decision, it stirred an already simmering pot of political tension between Thailand's rural poor and urban elite, with demonstrators voicing their grievances at what they allege is a puppet-led, corrupt administration, despite the fact that the ruling Puea Thai party has won a number of democratic elections over the last decade. Speaking to the BBC, Yingluck said the current political situation very sensitive but dismissed any possibility of an early election. "I love this country. I devote myself to this country. I need only one thing for the country," she said. "We need to protect democracy." Chulalongkorn University political scientist Panitan Wattanayakorn, a former government spokesman for Abhisit Vejajjiva, who ousted Thaksin in the 2006 coup, said this would be the prime minister's biggest political test, and could potentially work in her favour. "This is the fight for her survival," said Panitan. "Let's hope in the end the prime minister is now able to come out on her own and talk on her own agenda. That is what we are expecting if we want to get out of the crisis." Analysts believe both sides should reach some form of negotiation before the king's birthday on 5 December a gesture of reverence to the much-loved monarch.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Britons protest over Israel plan to remove 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins

More than 50 public figures including Antony Gormley and Brian Eno put names to letter opposing expulsion from historic land
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 18.49 GMT

Bedouin children walk to school in the Negev desert. Photograph: Karen Robinson

More than 50 public figures in Britain, including high-profile artists, musicians and writers, have put their names to a letter opposing an Israeli plan to forcibly remove up to 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins from their historic desert land an act condemned by critics as ethnic cleansing. The letter, published in the Guardian, is part of a day of protest on Saturday in Israel, Palestine and two dozen other countries over an Israeli parliamentary bill that is expected to get final approval by the end of this year. The eviction and destruction of about 35 "unrecognised" villages in the Negev desert will, the letter says, "mean the forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes and land, and systematic discrimination and separation". The signatories who include the artist Antony Gormley, the actor Julie Christie, the film director Mike Leigh and the musician Brian Eno are demanding that the British government holds Israel to account over its human rights record and obligations under international law. According to Israel, the aims of the Prawer Plan named after the head of a government commission, Ehud Prawer are economic development of the Negev desert and the regulation of Palestinian Bedouins living in villages not recognised by the state. The population of these villages will be removed to designated towns, while plans for new Jewish settlements in the area are enacted. But Adalah, a human rights and legal centre for Arabs in Israel, says: "The real purpose of the legislation [is] the complete and final severance of the Bedouin's historical ties to their land." The "unrecognised" villages in the Negev, whose populations range from a few hundred to 2,000, lack basic services such as running water, electricity, landline telephones, roads, high schools and health clinics. Some consist of a few shacks and animal pens made from corrugated iron; others include concrete houses and mosques built without necessary but unobtainable permission. The Bedouin comprise about 30% of the Negev's population but their villages take up only 2.5% of the land. Before the state of Israel was created in 1948 they roamed widely across the desert; now, two-thirds of the region has been designated as military training grounds and firing ranges. Under the Prawer Plan, between 40,000 and 70,000 of the remaining Bedouin who became Israeli citizens in the 1950s will be moved into seven over-crowded, impoverished, crime-ridden state-planned towns. The Israeli government says it is an opportunity for Bedouins to live in modern homes, take regular jobs and send their children to mainstream schools. They will be offered compensation to move, it adds. Miranda Pennell, a film-maker and one of the letter's signatories, said: "Citizenship counts for nothing in Israel if you

happen to be an Arab. Tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin are being forcibly displaced from their homes and lands. At the same time, there are Israeli government advertisements on the web that promise you funding as a British immigrant to come and live in 'vibrant communities' in the Negev if you are Jewish. This is ethnic cleansing." The actor David Calder said: "The Israeli state not only practices apartheid against the Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories, but it seems they have no hesitation in practicing apartheid on their own citizens in this instance, the Bedouins. When is the west going to find these actions intolerable?"

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

French businessman heads to desert island to become first 'Web Robinson'

With solar panels, a windmill, a laptop, a tablet and two satellite phones Gauthier Toulemonde shows a new way to work
Kim Willsher in Paris theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 15.18 GMT Jump to comments ()

French adventurer Gauthier Toulemonde works on an unlocated and unnamed Indonesian island. Photograph: Gauthier Toulemonde/AFP

Have computer and internet connection work anywhere. So goes the cost-cutting corporate human resources mantra. Even on an uninhabited coral island in the middle of nowhere? To the dismay, perhaps, of office workers everywhere, Frenchman Gauthier Toulemonde has returned to civilisation to report that it is indeed possible, though not necessarily desirable nor particularly cheap, to relocate staff "offshore".

Until six weeks ago, Toulemonde, a businessman, journalist and former banker, was inclined to agree with the received wisdom that workers, given the right equipment, can labour more or less anywhere. Being adventurous as well as entrepreneurial, however, he decided to put the theory to the test and at the same time fulfil a childhood dream of living like a modern-day Robinson Crusoe. "Who hasn't dreamed of going to a desert island, to get away from it all, to go on an adventure. For me it was a childhood dream. When I'm big I'll leave, I told myself, but as an adult obliged to work to live and subject to the numerous constraints of modern life, I realised it was complicated," he wrote in his blog. But a year ago, fed up with commuting from his home in the northern French city of Lille to Paris, Toulemonde, 54, decided to relocate his job as the head of a publishing business to an uninhabited island in the middle of nowhere for several weeks. "I found myself in Gare Saint Lazare in Paris just before Christmas watching the continuous stream of people passing by," he told the Guardian. "They had this sad look on their faces, even though they were carrying Christmas presents. It had long seemed to me absurd this travelling back and forth to offices. "My idea of going away had been growing for a while, but it was on that day, I decided to leave." It took six months to identify a suitable island, a 700-by-500-metre island in the Indonesian archipelago (the Indonesians made him promise not to reveal its exact location) 10,000 miles from Paris, and a few more months to prepare. On 8 October, he left his home in Lille with four towel-sized solar panels, a windmill, a laptop computer, a tablet computer and two satellite phones. He was also carrying two tents to protect him, and the equipment from the humidity and the seasonal heavy rains. Gecko, a borrowed dog, "rented" from a Chinese businessman came too to scare off local wildlife that included rats and snakes. Toulemonde, who had a budget of "10,000 (8,300) for the adventure, including "20 a day for internet, said he wanted to be the world's first "Web Robinson". "I wanted to show how with solar energy and new technology, we can live differently and work from far away cutting out all the time lost in commuting," he said. "The Anglo-Saxon world is far more open to this idea of distance working, but there is a resistance to it in France." He added, that the adventure was no holiday: "I had a business to run, and had to deal with suppliers, banks, clients. The aim was to show I could do this on my own from far away." He woke at 5am daily and went to bed around midnight. For a change of diet from the rice and pasta he had packed, Toulemonde fished in the sea and rooted out vegetables. In between, his company Timbopresse was able to publish two editions of Stamps Magazine, to the same deadlines and with the same content. This week, on his return from the long distance 40-day "business trip", Toulemonde, was a changed man. There were, he admitted, the good points. "It was like being in quarantine for 40 days," he said. "It was good to get away from modern life, to follow the rhythm of the sun and to live in the closest possible contact with nature.

rhythm of the sun and to live in the closest possible contact with nature. "There's always the risk that when you actually fulfil a childhood dream it won't live up to what you expect. In this case far from it. I was extremely happy. Every day was magical." And there were also the, well, not so good. Quite apart from the rats and snakes and the torrential rain and "terrifying storm" on his first night on the island, there was the constant and terrifying fear of the internet being cut off for lack of electricity or because the rats had got to the cables. And, he was forced to admit, life can get a bit dull without someone to say "bonjour" to every morning. "Doing everything virtually has its limits," he admitted on Friday. "Working from a distance is certainly doable, and with the internet and Skype you are never alone. But I'd say 40 days is about the limit. "But it's not the same as physically meeting someone. Nothing can replace human contact."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Shuga: the soap opera helping Africa confront HIV

Successful sex drama moves to Nigeria to help people in country with world's second-highest HIV rate open up about Aids
Monica Mark in Lagos theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 16.53 GMT Jump to comments ()

A scene from MTV's Shuga drama that is encouraging Nigerians to talk about HIV Photograph: MTV Staying Alive Foundation

A Nigerian university student wakes up with her middle-aged sugar daddy one morning and suggests that they start using condoms.

"Baby," the man croons smoothly, before brushing off her concerns with a Yoruba phrase that translates roughly as "an orange is not savoured with its peel on". When the university student who lives off handouts from multiple sexual partners confronts him after discovering he is HIV positive, he tries to appease her with a shopping trip to Dubai. The scenes are being played out by actors, but activists say Shuga, a gritty sex and relationships TV drama, is reaching young people in a way traditional Aids campaigns have rarely done. For decades, attempts to curb HIV in Africa have either focused on medical solutions or behavioural changes normally tied in with Christian-based abstinence messages. That has rarely worked in the continent's countries which have borne the brunt of a 30-year epidemic. Now the producers behind Shuga, which has aired for two hugely successful seasons in Kenya, have shifted the drama to Lagos in the hope of tapping Africa's most populous country and the continent's movie powerhouse. The show premiered to rave reviews this week at a Lagos event studded with Nollywood stars, Afrobeats luminaries and some of the ordinary Nigerians who shine in the series. "The issues are so real, but people can relate because it's not preachy or trying to change society," said Maria Okanrende, a DJ who plays a student trying to break into the music industry as an ex-boyfriend waltzes back into her life. "A lot of people are not going to like its rawness, but if you're watching it, you're going to talk afterwards. Everybody knows someone like my character." The producers believe it is that ordinariness which appeals to young people, among whom Aids-related deaths have soared even while they fall within the general population, as the World Health Organisation reported this week. "My 15 year-old hates it when I say this, but my belief is that in order to conquer HIV we really need to talk more about sex," Georgia Arnold, of MTV's Staying Alive Foundation, which has backed the series, said as clusters of teenagers tried to sneak into the star-studded event. When she repeated that message later in front of a packed cinema audience, a nervous murmur ran through the crowd. But as the lights dimmed, it was clear just how much they were drawn by the painfully realistic depictions of campus life: the booze-fuelled mishaps with exes, wayward visiting younger sisters, friends in abusive relationships and the room-mate with an unwelcome live-in girlfriend. The crowd roared with appreciative laughter when one character, at an HIV testing centre, struggled to remember how many sexual partners she had had, furtively counting on her fingers under the table. Eventually she asks the unimpressed counsellor: "This year?"

Fighting an epidemic
With around 3.3 million patients, Nigeria's HIV rate is second only to South Africa globally. But in an often deeply religious and conservative society, social taboos about discussing sex mean up to 80% of people don't know their HIV status. "When you talk to people about HIV in Nigeria, they say: 'We really don't have that problem here'," said Biyi Bandele, one of the show's writers, best known for directing the hit film Half of a Yellow Sun. He said research trips to clinics had been an eye-opener. "There were people you would never guess had Aids queuing up, literally everybody you could ever meet. My hope is that this story will go into living rooms, and families will discuss it across whole generations."

will discuss it across whole generations." There is evidence that initiatives such as Shuga are already doing that. When South African health professor James Lees saw the first series screened in Amsterdam, he was gobsmacked: "At the end of it, I felt completely emotionally wrung out. I'd been waiting for this series for 20 years." Lee said he had since handed out thousands of copies of the film to community health workers and teachers. A study this year found watching the series produced dramatic results in both awareness and willingness to talk about the disease among Lee's pupils a breakthrough in a country where discussions around Aids are emotionally charged. "What a lot of people sitting at their desks in Geneva or Brussels don't understand is that in the middle of an epidemic is a lot of trauma. When you have watched two, three, four loved ones, even the guy at the post office, go through incredibly painful deaths, would you be able to talk about it? Ironically,many teachers have vast personal experiences of HIV within their families, [but] most have been unable to bring that experience to their classrooms." Lees said he hoped the next series would be set in South Africa. For now, many of Shuga's Nigerian fans say the series has raised a crucial bar in the country's film industry. "That kind of quality and social lifestyle it discusses is really important because Nigerian films have a way of catching fire online you have people from London to Rio to Houston who are going to be watching this," said one enthusiast at the Lagos screening. For Treasure Uchegbu, whose on-screen role as an Aids counsellor mirrors her real profession, filming was so realistic it brought back memories of one of her most heart-breaking experiences. "There was a 22-year-old who had never had sex; never done drugs. She fainted when we told her she was positive. But immediately before the test she had told me the place where she got one very small tattoo done, and I just knew what I was going to [have to] tell her." As night approached, Treasure left the after-party to prepare for a 6am start at her mobile testing clinic.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Jacob Zuma accused of corruption 'on a grand scale' in South Africa

Opposition say president should be investigated if preliminary findings that he misspent huge sums of public money are upheld
David Smith in Johannesburg theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 17.27 GMT

Jacob Zuma's aides said they 'cannot comment on a report that his not been handed to us'. Photograph: Stephane De Sakutin/AFP/Getty Images

Opposition parties have accused President Jacob Zuma of being at the centre of one of the biggest corruption scandals in democratic South Africa, after reports that millions of rand of taxpayers' money were spent on a swimming pool and other facilities at his private home. Zuma was accused of deceiving parliament about the expense and scope of the security upgrade to his residence in a scathing draft report by the country's anti-graft watchdog, entitled 'Opulence on a Grand Scale', that was leaked to the Mail & Guardian newspaper. Opposition parties said that, if the findings are upheld in the final report, the president should face a parliamentary investigation with the potential to lead to his impeachment. The scandal over state-sponsored construction at Zuma's private residence in Nkandla, a modest rural town in KwaZulu-Natal province, has been rumbling since a December 2009 article in the Mail & Guardian about a 65m rand (3.9m) "splurge" there. The cost soared in the intervening years to 215m rand, with a further 31m rand in works outstanding, triggering intense media scrutiny and public condemnation, as well as an investigation by official public protector Thuli Madonsela. The acrimony over "Nkandlagate" has intensified in recent weeks as ministers went to court in an attempt to block the release of her report, while newspapers published photos of the home in defiance of a government warning that this might break security laws.

Villagers' huts in front of security fencing surrounding Jacob Zuma's Nkandla home. Photograph: Rogan Ward/Reuters

Then came Friday's Mail & Guardian with a front-page cartoon depicting Zuma floating on a swimming pool full of cash. The paper published details of Madonsela's provisional report, saying she found that Zuma had derived "substantial" personal gain from the security upgrade at "enormous cost" to the taxpayer, and that he must repay the

state. Officials have repeatedly sought to justify the millions spent on Nkandla, insisting it was essential to provide Zuma with security befitting a head of state. But according to Madonsela, the improvements included a visitors' centre, amphitheatre, cattle enclosure, marquee area, extensive paving, new houses for relocated relatives and a swimming pool - referred to in official documents as a "fire pool" on the pretext it could double up as a water reservoir for firefighting purposes. The Mail & Guardian estimated that these facilities added up to 20m rand (1.2m) of taxpayers' money - a striking revelation in a country where the average black-headed household earns 5,051 rand (302) a month. In what "may be Zuma's greatest embarrassment since taking office", the paper added, Madonsela recommends that parliament call him to account for violating the executive ethics code on two counts: failing to protect state resources, and misleading parliament for suggesting he and his family had paid for all structures unrelated to security. Zuma told parliament a year ago: "All the buildings and every room we use in that residence was built by ourselves as family and not by government." The report also said Zuma ordered that his private architect be drafted in as "principal agent" to oversee the upgrade, even though he was not a security expert. This led to an "uncontrolled creep" of the project and eightfold increase in the cost, with elements such as an underground bunker going way over budget. The 215m rand spent on Zuma's home is in stark contrast to state money spent on improving the security of previous presidents, the Mail and Guardian said. FW de Klerk, South Africa's last white president, who left office in 1994, received 236,000 rand (14,179) for upgrades to his house, while 32m rand (1.9m) was spent on Nelson Mandela's home. The opposition Democratic Alliance said the provisional findings contained in the report "are so damning that, if accurate, they would warrant the most severe sanction of president Jacob Zuma's conduct". Lindiwe Mazibuko, its parliamentary leader, said she would consider tabling a parliamentary motion to investigate Zuma. "As more and more details surrounding Nkandlagate emerge, it is becoming increasingly clear that President Zuma is at the centre of one of the biggest corruption scandals in democratic South Africa," she said. "He must be accordingly held accountable by parliament for his actions." Thabo Leshilo, a spokesman for Agang SA, said the facilities "were purely intended to ensure the president and his family can live in the lap of luxury at taxpayers' expense". He added: "President Zuma should pay back every rand of public money improperly spent on making him live like the monarchy he fancies himself to be, which is out of kilter with the behaviour expected to the head of government in a constitutional democracy accountable to the public." Zuma's political career has been littered with scandals. More than 700 corruption, fraud, money-laundering and racketeering charges against him were dropped shortly before his election in 2009. The following year he fathered a child out of wedlock. But the Nkandlagate saga has particular resonance in a nation whose elite are often accused of betraying the principles of the liberation struggle and showing disregard for the poor. It could also define his presidency just six months before a national election. Justice Malala, a political commentator, said: "It's going to be the main motif of the election. Every single politician in the opposition will grab the microphone to say 'Nkandla' and that will say it all. It's going to be a big liability for the ANC and it will run and run." On Friday Madonsela condemned the leaking of her draft report as unlawful. She is yet to give the interested and affected parties, including Zuma, a right to reply, which may affect her final findings.

affected parties, including Zuma, a right to reply, which may affect her final findings. Jackson Mthembu, national spokesman for the ANC, urged South Africans to show restraint until the final report is published, adding: "As the ANC, we continue to have confidence in our president and we believe and know that he is not responsible for any wrongdoing with regard to the Nkandla security upgrade." A source close to Zuma said: "We cannot comment on a report that has not been handed to us. I think this is on the edge of undermining the justice system."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Afghan interpreters who fell in love with US soldiers struggle in visa limbo
Americans express sense of injustice at immigration process keeping them apart from their loved ones in Afghanistan
Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 11.53 GMT

Danielle Bennett, pictured with children in Kandahar, began the US visa process with Karim, an Afghan interpreter, just after they became engaged in 2011.

When Mary Ann Rollins was deployed to Afghanistan with the Utah National Guard, she was prepared for bullets, bombs, danger and even death but not love. During the months spent on tiny bases in the forested and often deadly mountains of eastern Afghanistan, she became close friends with Zia, an Afghan interpreter who regularly put himself in harm's way to save others, who always had time for local children and a kind word for anyone who was down. Rollins' tour ended in 2009, but her close friendship with Zia continued over Skype and email and grew into something more. Two years after leaving Afghanistan in uniform she was back as a civilian to get married.

"I wasn't looking for romance at the time at all, it just never crossed my mind," the 33-year-old told the Guardian from her home in the US. "When he told me he loved me I was surprised, but I realised that I loved him too. "There's something about all of this that is almost magical. It's like it was meant to happen. It's amazing that I could find the person who is perfect for me, on the other side of the world, on a tiny outpost in a remote area of Afghanistan." The wedding was low key, the honeymoon just a couple of days in Kabul, but Rollins had time to meet her new inlaws and get to know the chaotic, lively Afghan capital few foreigners ever see. She returned to the US pregnant and armed with a sheaf of papers for her husband's visa application. She knew it would probably take months but had no idea the secretive, byzantine process would leave her stranded on opposite sides of the world from her husband for more than two years. Now 15 months old, her son, Ryhan, shouts "dad" when his mum opens up her computer, in anticipation of one of the Skype chats that are their only contact with Zia, 30. "I wasn't happy about not having my husband here for the birth, but I didn't expect that he would miss the whole first year of our son's life," said Rollins. "I'm glad that [Ryhan] does at least recognise his dad." Zia whose name has been changed to protect his identity still works on a US base as an interpreter. Yet a decade of loyal service has done nothing to speed up his immigration case. The torturous limbo in which he, Rollins and Ryhan find themselves goes by the Orwellian name of administrative processing. After usual visa checks are finished, some people need to supply extra information to get a visa, the US state department says. But applicants get no news on what is being checked or how long it will take. Some have waited months, or like Rollins and Zia, much longer.

An Afghan interpreter, right, is attended to by a US army medic on board a plane after being injured while working for Isaf forces in Helmand province in 2010. Photograph: Brennan Linsley/AP

A state department spokesperson refused to comment on their case, but said "many factors can trigger the need for additional steps" in the visa process. Rollins' local senator, Orrin Hatch, has asked about the delays on her behalf, and she has started an online petition calling on the US government to finish processing her husband's visa. More than 13,000 people have signed the epetition so far. There has been no response from Washington, but the publicity campaign did at least bring a message from someone

who found themselves in a similar position. Danielle Bennett had been deployed to Kandahar province with the Alpha Company of the 431st Civil Affairs Battalion. Tasked with helping local women sort through compensation claims for damage from fighting, and handling supplies, she volunteered at a makeshift school, but also found herself spending more and more time with one of the Afghan translators, Karim. "He really became my best friend," said Bennett, 26, who now lives in Arkansas. "He's so modest and humble, he's a really generous person." The couple became engaged two years ago, after an informal commitment ceremony with friends on the base where they worked. The couple began Karim's visa application around the same time. They are still waiting for it to come through. Karim, 23, agreed to speak to the Guardian, using only part of his name for safety reasons. He is now a student in Kabul, but remembers a lonely arrival on the US base in Zhari, a dangerous district where the Taliban leader Mullah Omar was born and in which heavy fighting continues. He was pushed into the job while halfway through a college degree, because his father had to stop work and there was no one else to support their family. "I was a man who had spent most of his time at home, just going to school and back again," he said.

Mary Ann Rollins with her son, Ryhan. The former soldier and her husband, Zia, an Afghan interpreter, are still waiting for a US visa more than two years after applying.

On the base, he had little company until he met Bennett. Americans distrusted him for being Afghan and the local Afghan community condemned him for working with the Americans, Karim said. "In a situation where nobody trusts you, and you are so alone, there is one person who trusts you and she is also beautiful, it's something natural," he said of their romance. The couple's relationship won acceptance from both his family and her fellow soldiers. "A lot of the soldiers really cared about our situation," said Bennett. "Two years after I came back [to the US] we still get messages from our commander and other soldiers asking, 'How is [Karim], is he here yet?'" Bennett added: "There was just one very odd moment when an officer I had deployed with called me to his office and said: 'This will never work out, what do you think you are doing.' All I could think of to say to him was 'I love him [Karim], we love each other.'"

him [Karim], we love each other.'" Karim was approved for a visa online on 1 April this year. "I was crying, I couldn't breathe, when I heard," Bennett said. But when Karim went to pick it up at the US embassy in Kabul, he was told there had been a mistake with the online status for a batch of visas, and that his was still being processed. Karin and Bennett both admit to feeling nervous about meeting again after so long, but both are convinced that a relationship kept alive by phones and internet can last in real life too. "Everything changes in three years, but when you come to love, it doesn't change," Karim said. "I knew the visa would take a long time and tried to tell her, but because it was her first experience of this she thought it wouldn't be more than six months." Bennett and Rollins share the stress of waiting for any updates on the immigration process on Facebook pages dotted with photographs and links to news stories about other interpreters hoping for a visa, a forum for applicants in limbo, and articles about the perilous situation of some who have been refused. The US has promised a special visa programme for Afghan interpreters who took on jobs for its military that exposed them to bombings and battles at work and retaliation at home if what they did for a living was revealed. But hundreds of applicants have been waiting for years, and a growing number say they have been turned down because the US state department believes there is no serious threat against their lives. One picture from this autumn shows a young Afghan, smiling with other interpreters in US military uniform. News had just filtered through that he had been killed while off-duty. Karim and Zia's cases are unusual because they are applying for fiance or spouse visas. But both have the same years of service and testimonials to their bravery and loyalty as the other applicants and the same agonising wait. "There must be some reason why we have to be apart for so long," Rollins said. "Everything else has been so perfect, and then the visa is just not happening. I just have to remember that it is going to work out in the end."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

US commander in Afghanistan apologises for Helmand drone strike

Nato airstrike that killed a child and injured two women came as Hamid Karzai continues to stall on signing security pact
Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul and Ed Pilkington in New York theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 15.02 GMT Jump to comments ()

General Joseph Dunford 'expressed deep regrets' over a Nato drone strike that killed a toddler and injured two women. Photograph: AFP

The United States has moved to end the tense standoff with Afghan president Hamid Karzai over his refusal to sign a security pact between the two countries by formally apologising for a US drone strike in Helmand province that killed a toddler and injured two women. The apology was delivered in a phone call to Karzai late on Thursday by marine General Joseph Dunford, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan. A spokesman for Dunford told Associated Press that the commander had spoken directly to Karzai and "expressed deep regrets for the incident and any civilian casualties" that had arisen from the airstrike earlier on Thursday. Dunford also promised an immediate investigation by Nato into the incident. The US-Afghan bilateral security agreement (BSA) was endorsed at a loya jirga (national gathering) convened by Karzai last week, which was expected to finalise the deal after a year of painful negotiations. A letter from US president Barack Obama which Karzai had demanded and read from at the opening ceremony said the US had already "redoubled our efforts to ensure that Afghan homes are respected by our forces" and continued to "make every effort to respect the sanctity and dignity of Afghans in their homes and in their daily lives, just as we do for our own citizens". But the Afghan president then stunned both his own allies and American officials by announcing he would not sign the pact until after presidential elections next year to choose his successors. He also laid out new conditions for America to meet, including freeing all Afghan prisoners from Guantnamo Bay and ending raids on Afghan homes. Thursday's bombing will make it even harder for Karzai to sign the pact, as it compounds earlier US violations of Afghan trust by betraying Obama's promises just days after they were made, Karzai's spokesman, Aimal Faizi, told the Guardian. "That is how the US respects the sanctity and dignity of homes in the US, bombing a residence for an individual? It is just another example of not fulfilling the commitments of the past by the US," Faizi said. "We want an immediate halt or end to all military operations on Afghan homes otherwise it will further delay the signing of BSA, which will not be in our mutual interests." A coalition official who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject denied that the bomb hit a home. He said it was aimed at an insurgent travelling on a motorbike along a stretch of road with no homes nearby. The target was a mid-level commander who smuggled guns and homemade bombs to insurgents in Helmand. He was killed by a second bomb launched soon after the first missed him, but hit the civilians. After a series of disastrous airstrikes that killed hundreds of civilians in Afghanistan, including dozens siphoning fuel off a stolen tanker and others gathered for a large wedding party, Nato has more recently tightened procedures for

off a stolen tanker and others gathered for a large wedding party, Nato has more recently tightened procedures for bombings to try to limit deaths. The number of civilian deaths from airstrikes fell by more than one third in the first half of this year, but around 50 people were kiled, according to United Nations statistics. Overall, the Taliban and other insurgent groups were responsible for three-quarters of civilian casualties.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

German policeman arrested over death of man he met via cannibalism website
Officer points colleagues to places in garden where he buried remains of chopped up body, says Dresden police chief
Associated Press in Berlin theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 12.03 GMT

A sign outside the Saxony office of criminal investigation in Dresden, Germany, where the arrested officer is believed to have worked. Photograph: Sebastian Kahnert/DPA/Corbis

A German policeman has been arrested on suspicion of killing and chopping up a man he met on a fetish website for cannibalism and who allegedly fantasised about being killed and eaten. Officials said on Friday that the officer is believed to have fatally stabbed the victim at his home in the eastern state of Saxony on 4 November, chopping up the body and burying pieces in his garden. They said the killing happened about a month after the two first met in an internet chatroom. "The victim had been fantasising about being killed and eaten by someone else since his youth," Dresden's police chief, Dieter Kroll, told a news conference. It was not immediately clear whether any act of cannibalism had taken place.

Kroll said the officer was arrested on Wednesday at his workplace in the city. He said police searched the man's property and he showed them several places where he had buried body parts. Dresden police said the suspect was a 55-year-old who worked as a technical expert in the criminal investigation department. The victim was identified only as a 59-year-old man from Hanover and the case was being treated as murder, they said. The investigation recalled the case of Armin Meiwes, dubbed the "Cannibal of Rothenburg", who killed and ate a man who had advertised on the internet for someone to kill him "and leave no trace". Meiwes, who filmed the act, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2006.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Bolshoi ballet dancer awaits verdict in acid attack trial

Former soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko faces nine-year sentence if convicted of ordering attack on artistic director Sergei Filin
Reuters in Moscow theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 17.20 GMT

Pavel Dmitrichenko admits he wanted Sergei Filin 'roughed-up', but says he had no involvement in planning an acid attack. Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images

A dancer at Russia's Bolshoi ballet has been told he faces a prison sentence of up to nine years if found guilty of ordering an acid attack that nearly blinded the theatre's artistic director and exposed bitter rivalries at one of Russia's great cultural institutions. Pavel Dmitrichenko, a former soloist at the Bolshoi, showed no emotion as he listened to the prosecution's case

summary from a courtroom cage. The judge said she would issue a verdict in the month-long trial on Tuesday. Prosecutors have also asked for 10 years in prison for Yuri Zarutsky, who is accused of throwing the acid in Sergei Filin's face last January, and six years for Andrei Lipatov, accused of driving him to and from the scene. "Dmitrichenko's motive was a conflict between Filin and Dmitrichenko," prosecutor Yulia Shumovskaya told the Moscow court, saying the dispute was caused by the dancer's disappointment at not being given good roles by Filin. Filin's lawyer, Natalia Zhivotkova, said: "All the defendants are guilty and, from our point of view, deserve no mercy." Filin, 43, was left writhing in agony in the snow outside his apartment late at night before he managed to get help after the attack by a masked assailant. He has since returned to his job wearing dark glasses and needs further surgery to save his sight, even after more than 20 operations. In his final statement, Dmitrichenko said he wanted Filin roughed-up and given Zarutsky the go-ahead to beat him, but never intended acid to be thrown in his face. "I regret this very much," said Dmitrichenko, 29. "The whole situation happened because of my big mouth." But he repeated that he does not admit guilt and placed the blame on Zarutsky, who has testified that throwing acid in Filin's face was his own idea and that he had not told Dmitrichenko he planned to do it. "My parents raised me properly, and I have never in my life wanted to cause anyone the kind of pain that was inflicted on Sergei," Dmitrichenko said. "I am not a vengeful person. We are artists, we are emotional people. Emotions are part of our profession." Zarutsky, an ex-convict and the only defendant who has admitted guilt, said he deserved no leniency but asked the court to have mercy on Dmitrichenko and Lipatov. "It turned out very ugly on my part, to have drawn two innocent people into this escapade," he said, asking forgiveness from Filin and the parents of his co-defendants. The case has tarnished the reputation of the colonnaded Bolshoi Theatre, which stands a stone's throw from Moscow's Red Square and the Kremlin, and has caused one of its worst crises since its foundation in 1776. The theatre has made management changes to try to train the spotlight back on the stage, but toxic rivalries in the wings have flared up in court, including when Filin came face to face with his alleged attackers. He said Dmitrichenko falsely accused him of favouritism and affairs with ballerinas. Defence witnesses, meanwhile, portrayed Filin as an imperious hothead and Dmitrichenko as a champion of others in the company who felt slighted but feared to speak out against the artistic director, who has considerable power to make or break careers.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

China's largest desert freshwater lake shrinking faster than ever

Hongjiannao Lake has been disappearing since the 1970s but has now shrunk by almost one-third since 2009
Adam Vaughan theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 16.06 GMT Jump to comments ()

Villagers herd cattle on the riverbed of China's largest desert lake, Hongjiannao. Photograph: Liu Yu/Xinhua

The rate at which China's largest desert freshwater lake is shrinking has accelerated dramatically in the past four years, figures show. Hongjiannao Lake, several hundred kilometres to the west of Beijing, has been disappearing since the 1970s, due to a combination of coal mining and climate change. But the speed at which it is losing area has increased rapidly since 2009, when it measured 46 square kilometres (sq km), down from 67 sq km in 1969. Data released by local meteorological agencies on Thursday and reported by Chinese state media, shows the lake has now shrunk by almost one-third since 2009, to 31.16 sq km. He Fenqi, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has said previously that even at the end of the 1990s, "one couldn't see the other bank of the Hongjiannao even through a telescope. Today, it's visible with the naked eye." Ordos, a city north of the lake, has been at the centre of a mining boom for coal and other minerals in recent years. Researchers for the US-based Center for Climate and Security, who have visited the region, have reported: "insatiable demand for the end product means that those who control the land, the communist party and the government (at times a blurry distinction) focus on income while the environment and water are bent to accommodate mining demand." The center also notes that climate records for the area show rainfall decreasing and temperatures increasing, a prospect that will exacerbate water problems. "In some instances the reduction in runoff to lakes and high withdrawal rates mean lakes may disappear," they write. The lake is in a transition area between the desert and a region of windblown dust.

Hongjiannao Lake China Photograph: theguardian.com

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Silvio Berlusconi paid off witnesses, says Italian court

Judges say women each received "2,500 a month from former prime minister before giving identical testimony in court
Associated Press theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 14.10 GMT

The court said Berlusconi gathered the women at his Milan mansion in January 2011 to meet his lawyers after police raided their homes. Photograph: Olycom SPA/Rex

An Italian court has accused the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and his lawyers of tampering with evidence by paying off witnesses in a trial related to his notorious "bunga bunga" parties and has asked prosecutors to investigate the possible corruption of a judicial process.

The accusation in the court's ruling could lead to a new legal headache for Berlusconi, who this week was kicked out of parliament for at least six years because of another, unrelated problem: a tax fraud conviction. The court suggested Berlusconi paid off the would-be showgirls who attended his dinner parties so they would play down the sexually charged nature of the evenings when they testified. He did so, the judges asserted, because he was facing related charges in another case involving accusations that he paid for sex with an underage prostitute who was also a "bunga bunga" guest. Citing testimony and telephone wiretaps, the Milan court said Berlusconi convened about a dozen young women at his Milan mansion on 15 January 2011 to meet his lawyers after the women's homes were searched as part of a police investigation into the parties. From then on, the judges wrote, the women each received "2,500 (2,000) every month from Berlusconi and subsequently offered unusually identical testimony in court, denying the parties had sexual overtones. The court made the accusation in explaining its decision to convict three of Berlusconi's former associates of procuring girls to prostitute themselves at the parties. Berlusconi was not a defendant in the trial. He was convicted in a separate trial of paying for sex with a 17-year-old Moroccan girl, Karima el-Mahroug, better known as Ruby, who attended the parties, and then trying to cover it up. Berlusconi's lawyers have said they will appeal the verdict, seven-year prison term and a lifetime political ban. Berlusconi has defended the payments to the girls, saying it is simply his nature to try to help people in need. Most of the women were aspiring showgirls hoping to get a break on one of Berlusconi's Mediaset television programmes. Many lived in apartments owned by Berlusconi, wore jewellery that were gifts from him and some drove cars that he gave them for their birthdays. In its decision, the judges wrote that the girls gave "overlapping" testimony that contradicted testimony given by other participants in the parties who described sexually charged evenings where girls ended up in their underwear or dressed like nuns, dancing for Berlusconi and letting him touch them. "All the people who received this amount of money gave declarations at trial that were perfectly overlapping, even in the use of language that was incongruent with their cultural background," the judges wrote. "In particular, there was a repetition of names, terms and phrases that the witnesses, when asked, said they did not know the meaning of the word or phrase that they had used. "These were declarations that were directed in favour of Berlusconi." The judges said it was not merely an anomaly that Berlusconi was paying monthly stipends to witnesses testifying in a trial in which he was indirectly implicated. "It's an illegal act: tampering with evidence." In saying they had forwarded all the trial documentation to prosecutors, the judges accused Berlusconi of making the payments, and two of his lawyers of participating in the meeting on 15 January 2011. The judges accused the women of giving false testimony.

Sign up for the Guardian Today

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Financial

Business lending drops in October as BoE adjusts Funding for Lending Mortgage approvals at highest level since February 2008 UK house prices rising 6% a year, says Nationwide Interview: Bank of England governor Mark Carney Two of Britain's big six sell windfarm high-voltage link for 317m Thames Water defers tax liability after 19% surge in profits Ofgem's acting chief executive pulls out of race for top job Co-op and Ecotricity fixed deals pile pressure on Big Six Marks & Spencer staff in Ireland vote to strike over company pension scheme City pay and bonus boom revealed Eurozone youth unemployment reaches record high of 24.4% Indian developer pays 306m for Canadian high commission building Tesco boss faces chorus of scepticism on profit margins Martha Lane Fox stands down as UK digital champion Housing boom lures German builders to leave 'boring Bavaria' for London

Business lending drops in October as BoE adjusts Funding for Lending

Amid fears over housing bubble, Bank of England overhaul to channel loans towards UK firms and rein in mortgage market
Katie Allen theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 14.41 GMT

Bank of England governor Mark Carney wants to rein in mortgage firms. Photograph: Martin Godwin

Just a day after Mark Carney overhauled the Funding for Lending scheme to refocus it on business finance only, new Bank data has shown a fresh drop in lending to UK businesses .

After a rare increase in September, loans to non-financial companies fell back again in October, by 1.1bn. At the same time mortgage approvals were at their highest since early 2008. "The numbers suggest that, despite the medium-term risk of a housing bubble, banks are much more willing to take a punt on the housing market than on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and this is consistent with the consumer driven growth that has stylised recent UK output growth," said Carl Astorri, senior economic adviser to the EY ITEM Club. "For robust UK growth to be sustained over the next couple of years, growth needs to broaden out beyond the consumer." The fall in business lending compared with an average monthly decrease of 1.3bn over the previous six months, the BoE said in its monthly credit release. Compared with a year earlier, business lending was down 3.3%. Within the overall lending drop there was a 0.5bn fall on the month in lending to SMEs. Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight said it was likely business demand for credit "will pick up appreciably" as the recovery takes hold. "As demand for credit does pick up it is vitally important, for healthy UK growth to continue, that all companies who are in decent shape and who do want to borrow whether it be to support their operations, lift investment, explore new markets can do so, and at a non-punishing interest rate. This applies to all companies, whatever their size," he added. Daniel Solomon, economist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research noted that the annual increase in consumer credit growth came in at 1.6bn and there have only been two instances of faster annual rises in consumer lending growth since September 2007. "Such increases in lending are welcome news for UK retailers, suggesting a brighter outlook for sales over the allimportant Christmas period," added Solomon.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Mortgage approvals at highest level since February 2008

The total of 67,701 mortgage approvals in October is still well below of 90,000 monthly average of 2004-2007 housing boom
Katie Allen theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 16.06 GMT

The rate of mortgage approvals for homebuyers does not suggest a bubble is forming in the UK housing market, according to some economists. Photograph: Guy Corbishley/Demotix/Corbis

The number of mortgages approved for homebuyers last month was the highest for more than five years, in the latest sign the property market is gathering steam. The Bank of England's figures showed mortgage approvals rose for the eighth month running in October 67,701 compared with 66,891 in September. This was the highest level since February 2008. But economists stressed that approvals, closely followed as a timely measure of housing market activity, were still well below their pre-crisis average of about 90,000. October's total also fell short of the 68,500 mortgage approvals forecast in a Reuters poll of economists. Matthew Pointon, property economist at the thinktank Capital Economics, said the latest numbers were a reminder that despite schemes such as the government's Help to Buy programme "households face a much tougher time trying to secure a mortgage than they did in the boom years of 2004-2007". He added: "New regulations due to launch next April, and an announcement from the Bank of England that lenders should have regard to possibly more stringent interest rate stress tests in the future, will help ensure that remains the case." The rate of approvals did not suggest a bubble is forming in the housing market, said Allan Monks, economist at JP Morgan. "Mortgage approvals remain exceptionally low, and are rising gradually. The surge in new buyer interest this year has had a surprisingly modest impact on loan approvals, a sign that underwriting standards have far from slipped."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

UK house prices rising 6% a year, says Nationwide

Building society says rate of price growth is highest for three years as Bank of England tries to prevent housing

bubble
Hilary Osborne theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 08.06 GMT

Nationwide's figures show the average UK house price is now 174,566 still about 6% below the 2007 peak. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

UK house prices are rising by more than 6% a year, taking the annual rate of price growth to its highest level in more than three years, according to figures from the UK's largest building society. The news comes after the Bank of England moved to head off the threat of a housing bubble by closing its Funding for Lending scheme to mortgages from January. Nationwide's latest snapshot of the housing market, based on mortgages it has approved in November, showed the average house price is 6.5% higher than 12 months ago, at 174,566. The lender said this was the highest annual rise since July 2010, although prices were still about 6% below the peak they reached in late 2007. On a month-on-month basis, prices increased by 0.6%, slower than in October, when prices rose by 1%. Nationwide's chief economist, Robert Gardner, said activity in the housing market had been buoyed by improved confidence in the economy and government schemes to improve the availability of loans and keep costs low. "Activity in the housing market has picked up strongly in recent months," said Gardner. "A large part of the improvement can be attributed to further improvements in the labour market and the brighter economic outlook, which has helped to bolster sentiment amongst potential buyers. "Policy measures aimed at keeping down the cost and improving the availability of credit are also playing an important role." Funding for Lending has led to a price war on mortgage rates, and Gardner said for a buyer purchasing the typical UK home with a 10% mortgage it had led to a reduction in mortgage repayments of around 110 a month. Although brokers warned of the potential for rising costs following the withdrawal of Funding for Lending, economists said they did not expect it to lead to a marked slowdown in house prices. "With the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme only just starting to kick in and interest rates likely to stay extremely low for some time to come, there is still substantial support to the housing market even in the absence of any further support from the FLS [Funding for Lending scheme]," said Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight.

"Furthermore, overall markedly improved consumer confidence and rising employment is likely to continue to support housing market activity." Nationwide's figures cover the first full month of the government's Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme. The lender is not offering Help to Buy mortgages, but prices paid by buyers may have been pushed up by extra competition from buyers who were. Land Registry figures for October, released on Thursday, showed a surprise fall in prices. It also revised down its growth figures for September.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Top mortgages
Find the best deals on the market
Today's best rates 1.49% HSBC 1.63% Post Office 1.69% HSBC Compare More best buys Payment calculator Speak to an adviser One minute check What can I borrow? Life insurance Provided by London & Country for the Guardian

Interview: Bank of England governor Mark Carney

Governor faces some familiar problems: a bank on the ropes, City pay, and how to prevent a recovery in the housing market derailing the economy
Larry Elliott and Jill Treanor The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 20.00 GMT

Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England. Photograph: Martin Godwin

In his five months as governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney has shaken things up. He has won plaudits for putting Jane Austen on banknotes, appointed a woman to be chief operating officer in the male bastion of the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, started conducting media interviews to explain his actions and this week took the first steps to rein in the housing market. He is also dispensing with the tradition, used by his predecessors, of being addressed formally as Mr Governor. "Call me Mark," he says. But some things are not for changing. A pink-coated waiter still greets visitors and guides them through the rabbit warren of a building, centred on a secret courtyard, to the governor's private parlours. The waiters remain, as do some of the problems that would have been familiar to his predecessors: a bank on the ropes, City pay, and how to prevent a recovery in the housing market derailing the economy. Carney does not want to talk about his private life but says it is a privilege to have his 800,000-a-year job. His fiveyear tenure began in July just as the 1.5bn capital shortfall at the Co-operative Bank was revealed. The first deadline for a crucial restructuring passed on Friday night. It should leave the once mutually-owned bank 70% controlled by outside shareholders, including a group of aggressive hedge funds. The governor stresses the importance of this rescue going ahead, adding that the Bank is waiting in the wings if it should collapse. "We are very focused on how that restructuring proceeds. I'd underscore that it is very much in the interests of all bondholders of the Co-op, particularly individual bondholders who might not think it's necessarily in their interests to think very hard about their choices. Because the alternative to this restructuring would be resolution [winding down] for the group." He says an investigation at the Bank of England is under way by its regulatory arm, the Prudential Regulation Authority, and it will decide shortly whether a full-blown inquiry into individuals' actions is needed. Meanwhile, much stricter interviews are now being conducted to ensure that a bank could not appoint someone like the Rev Paul Flowers, disgraced former Co-operative chairman, to head a financial institution. "There has been a change in the approval process for people in these senior positions, chairman, board members and chief executive offices of the firms. There is much more discipline around the structure."

The financial crisis and its aftermath have unearthed widespread wrongdoing in the City, from the fixing of Libor to laundering of drug money and the mis-selling of protection payment insurance. The latest allegations centre on whether the Royal Bank of Scotland deliberately forced viable businesses to the brink to enable the bailed-out bank to make a profit on buying up their properties. RBS denies the claims, which Carney has said are "deeply troubling and extremely serious". Asked whether any part of the City could now be considered clean, Carney doesn't exactly provide an answer, saying only: "What's happening is heightened scrutiny on a wide range of conduct issues, which is right. It is overdue. And so more is coming to light." The governor says there are three pillars for a successful City: resilience, integrity and innovation. While stressing the importance of the financial sector to the UK economy, he adds: "There are issues that have to be addressed and they are being addressed. At the same time there are fundamental strengths in the British financial system and they are being reinforced. "There are strengths in the City. There are sound organisations in terms of balance sheets, values and the way that they operate. Those organisations are very innovative, they are part of what makes the UK financial system a global good and a national asset, something that helps keep an open global system that is a benefit to the UK." On the thorny issue of whether bankers are paid too much, Carney is also reluctant to be drawn. But he is adamant that the EU cap on bonuses which comes into force on 1 January is the wrong way to deal with putting a lid on pay. Carney is worried that restricting bonuses to 100% of salary (or 200% with the explicit backing of shareholders) could "tilt the structure" of pay deals in favour of short-termism. The Bank is fully behind attempts by UK regulators to force top bankers to spread their bonuses across at least three years and claw back pay if losses occur. Even so, he accepts that changing pay structures is no substitute for changing the culture. "You can't design the perfect compensation structure to deliver integrity."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Two of Britain's big six sell windfarm high-voltage link for 317m
SSE and RWE sell link connecting Greater Gabbard windfarm in same week plug is pulled on Atlantic Array windfarm plans
Terry Macalister The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 19.15 GMT Jump to comments ()

Investors are concerned that renewable power and energy efficiency schemes have become a political football. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

SSE and RWE, two of Britain's big six energy suppliers, have sold to a consortium led by Balfour Beatty for 317m the high-voltage link connecting the Greater Gabbard windfarm off the Suffolk coast. The disposal is required under the latest rules of the energy regulator, Ofgem, but the timing of it could be seen by some as a further retreat by the utilities at a sensitive time. RWE earlier this week pulled the plug on the 4bn Atlantic Array windfarm, Centrica is struggling to find financial investors for its Race Bank scheme, and SSE has recently scaled back its Galloper project. Investors are deeply concerned that renewable power and energy efficiency schemes have become a political football between the government and the Labour party, raising a sense of uncertainty about future policy. But the regulator sees the introduction of third parties into the power transmission side of the sector as a way of increasing competition and driving down costs. Andrew McNaughton, chief executive of Balfour Beatty, said he saw an area of future growth for his construction and infrastructure business: "Reaching close on Greater Gabbard reinforces Balfour Beatty's leading position in the growing and potentially very large offshore transmission markets."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Thames Water defers tax liability after 19% surge in profits

20m a year to be deferred thanks to infrastructure investments, as above-inflation rise in bills boosts pre-tax profits
Press Association The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 18.28 GMT

Thames Water's surge in pre-tax profits was helped by a 5.5% average bill rise and increased usage during the heatwave. Photograph: Cate Gillon/Getty Images

The UK's biggest water company does not expect to pay any more corporation tax for up to a decade, it said on Friday, as an above-inflation rise in bills saw its profits rise by nearly a fifth. Thames Water says its infrastructure investments of 1bn a year over the next seven to 10 years mean it will be able to defer 20m a year in tax liabilities. Thames Water will set out its strategy for the five years from 2015 on Monday, as it submits plans for customer charges over the period to the regulator, Ofwat. On Friday it announced a 19% surge in pre-tax profits to 134m for the six months to the end of September, on turnover up 8% to 976m helped by a 5.5% average bill rise and increased usage during the heatwave. The water and sewerage firm, which serves 14 million customers in and around London, earlier this month had an application to add 29 to customers' bills for next year because of unforeseen costs rejected by Ofwat. Announcing interim results , it said it was "reviewing next steps" and had until early January to decide whether to accept the ruling or ask for it to be referred to the Competition Commission. Meanwhile it disclosed that it has set aside 14m to cover a potential fine over Ofwat allegations of misreporting of sewer flood outputs. Thames Water said it intended to contest the claim vigorously. Water companies are under pressure from the regulator to consider scaling back price increases amid a squeeze on household finances. They must submit proposals for the 2015-2020 period by Monday. United Utilities has already said it is proposing price rises below inflation. Thames Water has not yet disclosed details of its submission, but in Friday's results announcement chief executive Martin Baggs defended its pricing, saying its average bill was the second lowest in the industry. Thames Water is owned by Kemble Water Holdings, whose investors include Australian investment firm Macquarie Group. It sparked anger earlier this year with the disclosure that it paid no corporation tax in the last financial year. The company said that its 1bn a year investments from 2010 to 2015 mean that it has "not paid substantial amounts of corporation tax in recent years".

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Ofgem's acting chief executive pulls out of race for top job
Andrew Wright decides not to put himself forward as a candidate for CEO role
Jennifer Rankin theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 12.24 GMT

Energy regulator Ofgem. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

The leading candidate to take charge of the UK's energy watchdog Ofgem has dropped out, leaving the regulator still without a permanent chief executive almost one year since the vacancy emerged. Andrew Wright, the acting chief executive of Ofgem since June, has pulled out of the race to become its permanent boss. "Andrew decided not to put himself forward as a candidate for the CEO role," an Ofgem spokesperson said. His decision emerged days after Wright was forced to defend the regulator in a parliamentary committee against charges of being "a toothless tiger" that had failed to address rising prices and unfair profits made by the UK's big six energy companies. Wright told MPs he understood why people were "angry and frustrated" about rising energy bills, but said the regulator was doing everything it could within its statutory powers. "Consumers have a perception that the market is not working well and that's something that we agree with. We think the retail market is not working as well as it should do." He rejected the idea he was supportive of the rises, or energy company profits in a week when an Ofgem report showed that profits per customer rose 77% to 53 from 35. Wright had been director of Ofgem's markets division since 2008, before stepping up as acting chief executive in June. He spent more than decade in the City in energy analyst roles at UBS and Merrill Lynch, and worked in the industry during privatisation in the 1990s.

Wright replaced Alistair Buchanan, who announced he was standing down last December after 10 years at the helm of the regulator. Buchanan has since gone on to a lucrative role at consultancy firm KPMG's power and utilities arm. The Ofgem chief executive role has been advertised: a spokesman said the recruitment process was ongoing without specifying when the vacancy would be filled.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Co-op and Ecotricity fixed deals pile pressure on Big Six

Ecotricity fixes prices to April and Co-op launches deals with no exit penalties
Hilary Osborne theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 10.26 GMT Jump to comments ()

Dale Vince, eccentric former new age traveller and owner of Ecotricity, expects the company to double its output of green energy to 80%. Photograph: Richard Saker

Small energy providers have added to the pressure on the 'big six' suppliers to hold prices with the launch of a fixedrate deal from Co-op Energy and price freezes by green energy firms Ecotricity and Good Energy. In a week when price rises in the region of 10% are being implemented by British Gas and npower, Ecotricity said its customers would not see bills rise until at least April 2014, extending a previous promise not to raise tariffs until the new year. The deal applies to its electricity and gas tariffs. Ecotricity said that by creating its own green energy sources it had "reached a degree of energy independence" which allowed it to undercut the standard tariffs of the big six. It generates around 40% of its own electricity through green sources and said it had planning permission for enough new sources to double that.

new sources to double that. Its founder, Dale Vince, said: "We now produce around 40% of our own electricity through our own green sources, and the more we build the better able we are to shield our customers from price hikes that come with a reliance on the fossil fuel market. "That's the way Britain has to go, because only energy independence can properly tackle rising fuel bills. The alternative is where we are now a continuing reliance on fossil fuels, ever-increasing energy bills, and more people falling into fuel poverty every year." Good Energy, which funds renewable energy projects, vowed to keep prices static until the end of March. It said it was able to maintain prices at their current level because it was not subject to rising fuel prices, and did not have any costs under the energy company obligation (ECO), the green levy the government is looking to water down in the autumn statement. Its chief executive, Juliet Davenport, said: "Good Energy has taken the decision to hold prices as the majority of its external costs are not rising until 1st April 2014 We know our customers appreciate price stability and today's news will help them plan their energy expenditure over the coming winter months." Co-operative Energy, which recently announced it was reducing a planned price hike in the light of proposed government changes to energy companies' green commitments, has launched two new fixed-price tariffs for customers. The tariffs will protect customers from price increases for up to two years, but have no exit penalties, so if energy costs do come down people can switch away to a cheaper deal. The Fixed March 2015 tariff will be the cheapest fixed-price plan on the market, costing the average household 1,168 a year for gas and electricity, according to price comparison site uSwitch. Co-op customers can also receive a share of profits twice a year if they sign up to membership. Ramsay Dunning, group general manager at Co-operative Energy, said: "Not only will customers be assured their prices are fixed, if they sign up to any of our tariffs and become a member they will also benefit from a share of profits twice a year and have a say in how their energy company is run, so they will know for sure they're getting the very best deal." According to uSwitch, the cheapest supplier on the market is currently Spark Energy, with its Advance 2 tariff, costing 1,116 a year. This is a variable tariff, so could go up, and the company has scored badly in customer service reviews. After that, the cheapest deals are from Co-op, then two other small providers, Ovo and First Utility. Tom Lyon, energy expert at uSwitch.com, says: "To see another small supplier at the top of the best buy table is fantastic news and a welcome indication of what real competition could achieve in this market. "The deals are there and it's in the hands of consumers to snap them up and fan the flames of competition. Only with a healthy competitive market will we see suppliers battle it out to offer the cheapest plans, superior services and to drive costs and inefficiencies down."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Marks & Spencer staff in Ireland vote to strike over company pension scheme
Union that represents most of the firm's 2,300 staff say the move to close the final-salary retirement plan 'unacceptable'
Phillip Inman The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 23.06 GMT

Marks and Spencer staff in Ireland have voted to take strike action over pensions. Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA

Marks & Spencer staff in Ireland have voted to strike over the firm's plans to close its final-salary retirement scheme. An overwhelming 94% of workers voted in favour of strike action, which is planned for Saturday 7 December and two further days before Christmas at 17 stores across the country. The Mandate trade union, which represents most of the firm's 2,300 staff, said the retailer's move to close the scheme to new and existing staff in favour of a stock-market related scheme was "unacceptable". M&S, which has shut its UK final-salary pension only to new members, said the decision in Ireland followed similar cutbacks by rival employers. Earlier this year it closed four shops that it said were unprofitable and proposed opening a new store in Limerick following a strategic review. The retailer said: "These changes are in line with the Irish market. The changes we are making will help manage these costs for the long term and ensure our business is best set up for the future." "M&S has done all it can to try and move this situation forward so we are extremely disappointed that the company has been given notice that strike action has been called." The union said the pension scheme had a "17m (14m) surplus at its last valuation and was viable over the longer term.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

City pay and bonus boom revealed

2,714 London bankers who earned more than "1m actually received an average of almost "2m in 2012 up from "1.4m in 2011
Jill Treanor The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 19.32 GMT

A painted sign for 'The Banker' public house in the City of London. Photograph: Toby Melville/REUTERS

The financial rewards handed to the City's highest-paid bankers rose by a third last year and more than 2,700 of them were paid more than "1m (830,000) in 2012. Exposing the impact that the European Union's cap on bonuses will have when it is introduced next year, the average bonus paid out was almost four times the size of the bankers' salary in London's financial district. From January, the EU intends to limit bonus payouts to 100% of salary, or 200% of salary with specific shareholder approval. The change will be felt more keenly in the City than elsewhere in the EU. The 2,714 bankers who earned more than "1m actually received an average of almost "2m in 2012 up from "1.4m in 2011. In Germany the number of bankers earning more than "1m was 212 . In France there were 177, there were 109 in Italy and 100 in Spain. The data is published by the European Banking Authority, the pan-European regulator and based on information provided by local regulators in the EU and the European Economic Area. Jon Terry, partner at accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: "The data highlights how the UK is going to be disproportionately hit by the bonus cap. The UK has by far the highest number of high earners, with over 2,000 people earning over "1m. This is almost 13 times higher than Germany, which has the second largest population of

people earning over "1m. This is almost 13 times higher than Germany, which has the second largest population of high earners with over 200 people. "UK financial institutions in particular will need to review pay structures in light of the bonus cap as the current average ratio of variable pay to fixed pay is 370%." George Osborne is opposed to the cap on bonuses and has launched a legal challenge to the plan but it is far from clear when the case might be heard or any decision taken. The Treasury along with the Bank of England fears that bankers will receive salary increases to compensate for their lower bonuses which in turn will make it harder to claw back cash if business goes sour in the future. Banks are now attempting to devise ways of avoiding the cap. Barclays, for instance, is working on new "seniority" allowances, paid monthly in cash, which will not count as part of salary and will, therefore, not be taken into account when the restricted bonuses are introduced. HSBC has admitted it is considering whether it raises bankers' salaries. The EBA pay datahas been published since the onset of the financial crisis. At that time there was no official data about pay levels in the City or across the EU. In 2010 there were 2,525 City workers with in the "1m-plus pay bracket with average pay of "2.3m and with a much higher ratio, 611% of variable pay to fixed salary. The City has the most workers earning more than "1m because of the size of its financial centre relative to others across Europe and the EBA shows that it is not only the UK that will feel the impact of the bonus cap. Germany's 212 bankers received an average of "1.5m and bonuses of 211% of their salaries while for the 177 French-based bankers in the league table the ratio of their salaries to bonuses was 375%. The City, though, was not the home of the bankers with the highest average across the EU in 2012: the average for the 100 high earning bankers in Spain was "2.1m. Some countries in the EU had no entries for individuals receiving "1m or more. These included Bulgaria, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia and Liechtenstein.

FCA investigation
The Financial Conduct Authority has ordered an independent review into allegations that Royal Bank of Scotland is deliberately driving small business customers to the brink of collapse to bolster its profits. As the bailed-out bank repeated that the claims by an adviser to Vince Cable were damaging its business, the City regulator instructed other banks to review their treatment of small business customers. The allegations by Lawrence Tomlinson, entrepreneur in residence at Cable's business department, have caused shockwaves. RBS has already appointed Clifford Chance to review the claims, and now a "skilled person" an individual conducting a review for regulators will also investigate. Clive Adamson, director of supervision at the FCA, said: "We expect all firms to act with integrity and put customers at the heart of their business." RBS argued that the allegations made by Tomlinson have not been proved and are damaging its ability to win new customers at a time when it is promising to lend 10bn to small businesses. "These claims have done damage to RBS's reputation and threaten to undermine our ability to build trust with

"These claims have done damage to RBS's reputation and threaten to undermine our ability to build trust with customers and to increase lending to businesses in the UK economy. We need to get to the facts as quickly as possible. That's why we fully support the FCA's work and will carry on with our own investigation," RBS said.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Eurozone youth unemployment reaches record high of 24.4%

With 3.58 million under-25s in the euro area jobless in October, youth unemployment is a scar that shows little sign of healing
Phillip Inman, economics correspondent The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 14.37 GMT Jump to comments ()

Barcelona, Spain: Eduard Izquierdo, 20, who is being assisted in his job search by Exit Foundation. Spain's youth unemployment rate increased to 57.4% in October. Photograph: David Ramos/Getty Images

The crisis facing the younger generation across the Eurozone worsened last month as youth unemployment hit a new record high of 24.4% with under-25s in Spain, Italy and Portugal finding it harder to get jobs. The grim news on on employment came as the Netherlands was stripped of its prized AAA credit rating despite the country's recent exit from a year-long recession. Ratings agency Standard & Poor's said on Friday that weakening growth prospects showed the country would struggle to improve its financial stability and generate new jobs. It said: "The downgrade reflects our opinion that the Netherlands' growth prospects are now weaker than we had previously anticipated, and the real GDP per capita trend growth rate is persistently lower than that of peers." It cited weakening consumer demand, high levels of personal debt and falling house prices for keeping consumer

spending and tax receipts low in the next few years. One in four Dutch homebuyers is in negative equity as a result of falling property values. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister, said S&P's downgrade to AA+ was disappointing when the economy had returned to growth. S&P's action leaves only three members of the eurozone with a top rating from all three agencies Germany, Luxembourg and Finland. The Eurozone jobless data showed Spain's youth unemployment rate has now increased to 57.4%, only marginally below Greece's August high of 58% - which remains the highest rate of youth unemployment for any country in the eurozone's history. Italy's youth unemployment rate rose to 41.2%, from 40.5% the previous month. In Portugal, it rose to 36.5% from 36.2%. The startling figures from southern Europe contrast with rates in the north where Germany has a 7.8% youth unemployment rate and the Netherlands an 11.6% rate. Italy's credit rating is perilously close to entering junk status and Rome is lobbying hard in Brussels for more time to cut the country's annual deficit. The coalition government headed by Enrico Letta said on Friday it would call a fresh confidence vote in parliament, despite winning a vote earlier in the week, to confirm his government's majority after the withdrawal of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party from the ruling coalition. Letta said the vote would be held after his centre-left Democratic party elects a new leader on 8 December, and would be based on a new agenda for 2014 which would be discussed with coalition partners. "The confidence vote will allow us to pass from defence into attack," said Letta, whose government is backed by the Democratic party, a centrist group Civic Choice and a centre-right group that broke away from Forza Italia. Considering the chaos in Italian politics and the credit rating downgrades affecting some of the EU's traditional paymasters, France and the Netherlands in particular, there are still many analysts who fear for the eurozone's growth prospects over the next decade. Youth unemployment also remains a scar that shows little sign of healing. While the adult unemployment rate fell across the eurozone from 12.2 to 12.1%, 3.6m under-25s are now unemployed, an increase of 15,000 on the previous month.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Indian developer pays 306m for Canadian high commission building

Lodha Group buys Mayfair property from Ottawa to create yet another London enclave for world's super-rich
Jennifer Rankin The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 17.13 GMT

The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 17.13 GMT

The Canadian high commission in London had been based at the neo-Georgian 1 Grosvenor Square since 1960. Photograph: Alamy

One of London's most prestigious properties has been sold to an Indian developer to be turned into another superluxe enclave for the world's super-rich. The Canadian High Commission, at 1 Grosvenor Square, has been sold by the Canadian government to India's Lodha Group for 306m. The sumptuous neo-Georgian building has been home to the High Commissioner since 1960. But to save money the federal government in Ottawa has decided to concentrate all its London diplomatic firepower in Canada House, its base overlooking Trafalgar Square. Simon Stone, director of national development at Savills, which managed the sale, said there had been strong interest in the property, with more than 20 bids from around the world. "It is rare by definition because it is on a beautiful garden square in Mayfair in probably the world's number 1 city. So when they do come up people are very keen to secure them." A spokeswoman for Lodha said the company planned to turn the building into a mostly residential development with flats valued at 5,000 per square ft. This is the first development for the Lodha Group outside India, where the company is developing more than 35m sq ft of property in Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad. Stone predicted that any residential development would quickly find buyers. "There is prime and there is prime and this is really at the pinnacle." But the sale will fuel concerns that too many London properties are aimed at a superwealthy global elite, with ordinary Londoners priced out. Earlier this month a research report from Savills warned that businesses could be forced out of London because their staff can no longer afford to live in the capital. More than 50% of housing demand in London comes from households earning less than 50,000 year, according to Savills, but developers are instead focusing on high-end prime properties. These cost up to 5m to buy or 5,000 a month to rent with many ending up in the hands of overseas investors. Abhishek Lodha, managing director of Lodha Group, said the property was a great opportunity for the company. "1 Grosvenor Square is the best address in the world and we will create a world class development which befits the status of this address." The property, close to Bond Street, has been one of London's elite postcodes ever since Sir Richard Grosvenor an ancestor of the Duke of Westminster, who still owns the square built a row of fashionable homes in the early 18th

ancestor of the Duke of Westminster, who still owns the square built a row of fashionable homes in the early 18th century. Its status has been cemented in literature: in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice the snobbish Miss Bingley whose words are soon to be immortalised on the new 10 note turns up her nose at a country dance, saying. "We are a long way from Grosvenor Square, are we not Mr Darcy."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Tesco boss faces chorus of scepticism on profit margins

Newish chief executive as claimed he can reinvigorate Tesco in the UK while maintaining profit margins at 5.2%. How?

Tesco investors are still waiting on Philip Clarke's promise to come good. Photograph: Joe Fox/Alamy

The Tesco fightback is now 22 months old, if one takes the starting date as the day in January 2012 that Philip Clarke, then the newish chief executive, delivered a thumping profit warning and confessed that the UK business had been "running hot for too long." It was a polite way of saying that Sir Terry Leahy, his predecessor, had taken his eye off the ball as he pursued expensive foreign adventures, notably in the US and China. The remedy was to invest 1bn in the UK stores to generate "a step change" in performance. Investors are still waiting. If the City analysts are right (which is the way to bet), next Wednesday's trading numbers will be horrible. Like-for-like sales in the UK could be down 1.5% in the latest quarter. It will be hard for Clarke to repeat his half-year boast that Tesco's UK performance has strengthened. The group is losing market share and Aldi, Lidl and Waitrose are the current winners.

But a longer-standing Clarke boast obsesses the City. He has claimed he can reinvigorate Tesco in the UK while maintaining profit margins at 5.2%. How? The supermarket game comes with high fixed costs, and traditional wisdom says a fall in same-store sales implies a greater fall in profits. How can Clarke hope to defy the maths and maintain margins? Theories abound. Is Tesco actually taking chunks out of costs? Surely not, since Clarke has been adding staff, trying to shorten queues, and smartening stores. Is it squeezing suppliers? That's broker Cantor Fitzgerald's explanation. Or is it pushing up prices and hoping that higher-spending customers stay loyal if they are thrown enough coupons? Or is the official line that the trick can be achieved by replacing sales of low-margin TVs with high-margin Finest food products correct? Whatever the truth, Clarke faces a chorus of scepticism that he can hold the line on profit margins. JP Morgan thinks weak trading will deliver only 5.1% this year, followed by 4.6% next, and offers a sharp diagnosis: "We believe that UK industry margins are too high relative to other European markets." If Aldi and Lidl did not exist, argues JP Morgan, there wouldn't be a problem. But the continental invaders are now a force: "As the discounters keep re-engineering their product quality and price, we believe that the core own label of the big players is no longer competitive. We expect Asda to break ranks and force industry margins down." If that's a plausible plotline, should Tesco abandon its 5.2% target and take the lead in cutting prices? The strategy could be pitched to investors as a necessary short-term measure to get more customers through the doors to experience the apparent wonders of the new Giraffe cafes, Harris + Hoole coffee shops and tidier aisles. Clarke is probably not ready to alter course, since chief executives tend not to be panicked by a single weak quarter. But he is no longer a new boss and Tesco's overseas operations, where sales trends are even worse, provide no shelter. He's got a big call to make. Now that he has correctly diagnosed the error of Leahy's later years, it will not look clever if he tries to defend a target that is too hot to handle. One of these days, this column will take a vow of silence on Royal Mail's underpriced privatisation. But not quite yet, because the research notes from the previously gagged analysts (those from banks working on the sale) point to a theme that was barely mentioned at the time of flotation and has been largely ignored during the business select committee's disappointing postmortem. Those analysts, almost uniformly, think Royal Mail's dividends could become a thing of wonder. They may not put it like that, but look at Goldman Sachs' forecast for the dividend payout: 200m this year, which Royal Mail has already announced; then 282m; then 352m; then 414m in the 2016-17 financial year. That's a compound growth rate of 27.5% for three years. Very few FTSE 100 companies, as Royal Mail soon will be, can match those hopes. Then consider how Goldman's analyst thinks the dividend can be cranked up so rapidly. He does not expect fancy balance-sheet games, like taking on a tower of debt. Instead, it's down to cash generation. Goldman thinks Royal Mail, with 723m of net debt at last count, can be transformed to a position of net cash of 207m in March 2017, even after paying those dividends. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, and Royal Mail is a stock that comes with well-advertised risks. But, come on, at the float price of 330p, the starting dividend yield was 6%, which was attractive in itself. If there is also a sporting chance of the dividend doubling by 2017, the shares were chronically underpriced. Goldman's 50-page report sets a "12-month price target" for the shares of 610p. The MPs, if they want to get to the bottom of the affair, should ask whether ministers really appreciated Royal Mail's dividend potential under its new, far more generous, regulatory regime. Were they blinded by an obsession with the risk of a strike? For the record, here's Goldman's view of the effect on its forecasts of any strike: "Given the potential for variable and

wage cost savings, a minor impact." Was Royal Bank of Scotland merely incompetent in its lending to small businesses? Or has it also been tipping companies into insolvency and then buying their assets at knockdown prices? The former allegation was the gist of Sir Andrew Large's verdict on RBS, as contained in a report commissioned by the bank itself. RBS did not have processes and systems to meet its own lending targets. It overcorrected for previous reckless lending. This is serious stuff, undoubtedly, but should not be of direct interest to the Financial Conduct Authority, since commercial lending is not a regulated activity. The right response is the one RBS has taken: overhaul the machinery of lending. But the second allegation is explosive. Lawrence Tomlinson, an adviser to the department for business, alleges that viable businesses have been deliberately wrecked to make a profit for RBS. That plainly requires a full investigation and the FCA was right to insist that it, and not RBS, appoint the investigator. And, if RBS is guilty of disgraceful and possibly fraudulent behaviour, the regulator should hit the bank with everything it's got. Outsiders can only keep an open mind at this stage. But one can understand why RBS' board is mighty miffed, to put it mildly, not to have been given a chance to respond to Tomlinson before he published. Investing is easy with hindsight, but here's a bet you might wish you had made on 1 January: put an equal sum into each of the 11 companies in the FTSE 350 index who had women chief executives. Your portfolio would include two fallers: Imperial Tobacco (Alison Cooper), down 2%, and Anglo American (Cynthia Carroll, now departed), 28% lower. But they would more than outweighed by gainers like BTG (Louise Makin), up 67%, and easyJet (Carolyn McCall), 86% higher. Overall, the women-only portfolio would have returned 28%, which is rather better than 12% for FTSE 100 index, the 22% by the FTSE 250 and the 14% by the FTSE 350 itself. Statistically meaningless? Absolutely. The performance period is too brief, performance versus rivals matters more, and 11 companies is too few. But the fact that there are only 11 is perhaps the real problem.

Female-led firms are on the up

Investing is easy with hindsight but here's a bet you might wish you had made on 1 January: put an equal sum into each of the 11 companies in the FTSE 350 index with female chief executives. Your portfolio would include two fallers Imperial Tobacco (Alison Cooper), down 2%, and Anglo American (Cynthia Carroll, now departed), 28% lower. But gainers would BTG (Louise Makin), up 67%, and easyJet (Carolyn McCall, above), up 86%. Overall, the women-only portfolio would have returned 28%, rather better than 12% for the FTSE 100 index, 22% by the FTSE Mid 250 and 14% by the FTSE 350 itself. Statistically meaningless? Absolutely. The performance period is too brief; performance versus rivals matters more; and 11 companies is too few. But the fact that there are only 11 is perhaps the real problem.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Martha Lane Fox stands down as UK digital champion

Lastminute.com co-founder takes credit for pushing government to create gov.uk portal and creating model for digital inclusion
Charles Arthur theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 17.21 GMT

Martha Lane Fox: standing down as UK digital champion. Photograph: Gary Calton for the Observer

Martha Lane Fox has stood down from the role of UK digital champion, where she tried to encourage central and local government to get people online, after just over three years in the role. Fox gave no reason for the decision, but said that she would continue to be a "critical friend" to David Cameron in the House of Lords. In her resignation letter to David Cameron, Lane-Fox said she takes credit for having prodded the government into creating its single gov.uk portal, for starting the RaceOnline 2012 project to get everyone online, and for creating the "champion" model for digital inclusion which has been adopted across Europe. She was appointed UK digital champion in June 2010. At the time there were about 10 million adults who had never been online, and Lane-Fox said "it is my mission to get as many of them online as possible". However, it is unclear quite how successful that effort has been. Responding to Lane Fox, Cameron said that "your work has helped establish a digital culture at the heart of government. That culture is, in turn, transforming how government works and stimulating a new digital economy, improving millions of lives each day." He said it was "a sign of your success that others are now copying our approach". Neelie Kroes, the European Commission's leader of its digital agenda programme, called Lane Fox a "great inspiration and role model [we] now have digital champions across the EU". Mike Bracken, who leads the Government Digital Service team, said on its blog that she had been "an inspiration to us" and that "I'm pleased to say that there really is a digital culture right at the heart of government now, and that's all down to Baroness Lane Fox."

down to Baroness Lane Fox." Fox, who co-founded the lastminute.com website in the 90s, will instead focus on the RaceOnline 2012 effort now renamed Go On UK which aims to bring the benefits of the internet to "every individual, organisation and community". RaceOnline 2012 originally aimed to "get 100% of the UK population online by the time of the 2012 London Olympics" but that proved impossible because of the resistance of many who are not online. Figures published in August by the Office for National Statistics say that about 6.9 million people in Britain principally the elderly, unemployed and disabled have never been online. The ONS said that there are 4m households without internet access about 17% of homes compared with 10m in 2006. Of homes with children, or with multiple adults, 97% are connected. Those who don't have internet access told the ONS they "did not need it". The number of households with an internet connection has risen steadily from 57% in 2005; in 2010, when Lane Fox was appointed, it was 72%. Some analysts have suggested that the fall in the number of people who are not online, or have never used the internet, is principally determined by time: older people who had never used the internet have died, while those who had used the internet when younger now comprise part of the older cohort of the population. ONS figures say that there are just under 500,000 deaths annually in the UK, suggesting about 1.5m deaths, principally from non-internet users due to age, who would be replaced with those turning 16 and would be "internet natives".

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Housing boom lures German builders to leave 'boring Bavaria' for London
German builders, carpenters, window makers, plumbers and electricians are being encouraged to move to UK to exploit its housing boom
Rupert Neate in Nuremberg The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 16.39 GMT Jump to comments ()

Builders work on a roof above the Canary Wharf Crossrail station and retail development site in east London. German builders are being lured to the UK to capitalise on the construction boom. Photograph: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images

In an office block in Nuremberg, southern Germany, Bavarian builders and tradespeople are being lectured on the "vital importance" of tea breaks to British brickies, the difficulty of interpreting British understatement and how to cope with "crazy" UK health and safety laws. This is one of a series of conferences across the country designed to persuade German builders, carpenters, window makers, plumbers and electricians to move to Britain to exploit its "phenomenal housing boom". Ewald Gilbert Denzler, export manager for Bayern Handwerk International (the trade association of 853,000 Bavarians), said he decided to hold the conference after reading about the huge shortage of homes in Britain and the Help to Buy and Green Deal schemes introduced by the government to boost construction of energy-efficient housing. "There is something quite big going on in the UK and German builders with their training and expertise are well placed to exploit the opportunity," Denzler said, as he headed a series of talks designed to introduce Bavarian builders to the British building industry, including a lecture on "tea time" and other cultural differences. Denzler said the movement of highly skilled German workers to Britain was almost a reversal of the 1980s exodus made famous by Jimmy Nail in the TV series Auf Wiedersehen Pet. "In the past there was a good number of UK companies on construction sites in Germany. Now it is the other way round," he said. Denzler said enquiries from tradesmen wanting to move into the British market had more than doubled compared with five years ago, but there are no official records of the number of German building workers or companies that have moved to Britain. He said trade organisations in northern Germany had reported even greater interest in moving to the UK owing to their closer proximity: "Down here in Bavaria it's a much longer journey 10 hours by car, and Ryanair don't let you carry tools." German building firms are particularly attracted by the Green Deal initiative, which the UK government describes as "the most ambitious home improvement programme since the second world war". The scheme allows households to pay for energy efficiency improvements with no upfront cost. Rainer Wolf, chief executive of Handwerkskammer fr Mittelfranken, the chamber of commerce for skilled crafts in Middle Franconia (Nuremberg and the surrounding area), said: "We are one step ahead of the UK on the road to green energy. Germany plans to make all buildings carbon neutral by 2050. We have more experience, and exporting our energy efficiency experience is going to become big business for Germany. "Great Britain is a big future market for our companies," he added. Most of the firms at the Nuremberg conference are "Mittlestand" (small- and medium-sized enterprises) firms focusing on energy efficient construction. Joachim Russ is sales manager of Haga, a 400-employee facades and

windows company based in Nuremberg. He said: "We have a lot of competition in Germany for energy efficient construction; there is less competition in the UK and we could make a lot of money." Russ added that Britain had a "very long way to go" to catch up with German window technology. There, "triple glazing is the most common and no one would think about having single glazing like so many British homes". Windows are close to the heart of many in southern Germany, where daytime winter temperatures hit 3C at best and often fall into double-digit negatives. When asked what defined Germany for her, Chancellor Angela Merkel replied: "Airtight windows. No other country can build such airtight and beautiful windows." Roman Zubiks, a technical draftsman at window company Schindler Roding, has already worked on a project in London's St James's Park. He said he wanted his company to employ a permanent team in London because "it's much more fun than Bavaria" and will save money spent on hiring local contractors. Margit Kachler, head of exports for the underfloor heating company IVT, said she was "really excited" about the energy efficiency subsidies on offer, which could be "really good for us". But she's not keen to head a UK outpost as "London is far too expensive". Markus Seifermann, a German architect working in London who lectured the group on the differences between working in Germany and the UK, said Britain was attractive because "obviously at the moment there is a big opportunity". And, he added: "The atmosphere is a lot more friendly and more relaxed". Seifermann, whose company UberRaum was commissioned to refurbish the German embassy in Belgrave Square, said one of the biggest challenges for Germans in Britain was understanding British understatement. "Brits say there is 'a little bit of an issue' here, which the Germans may take literally when it's actually a big problem." The initiative to encourage Germany's craftsmen, who study for at least five years to gain master craftsman certification, is supported by Rudolf Adam, acting German ambassador to London, who has privately complained of the difficulty of finding highly skilled tradespeople in London. "More co-operation between British and German craftsmen is welcome. Building closer ties between young skilled workers would be of benefit to both our countries," he said. Adam is also understood to be keen to encourage British tradespeople to study for German master craftsman qualifications. The German Confederation of Skilled Crafts has previously trained Chinese workers in the latest automotive electronics and is considering similar schemes with Britain and other European Union countries. "We had a project with China, where Chinese students were trained at university and in the workplace for a year and then went back to China," Wolf said. "That was like a guarantee to never be unemployed and get very well paid for the rest of your life in China because you've got this German degree." Wolf said Britons could sign up for a similar scheme but they would have to learn German first.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Sign up for the daily email

Saturday

Troubled Families head Louise Casey: 'What's missing is love' The Sun on Sunday lied about me last week. Have they learned nothing? Sexual violence against girls - we must open our eyes Prescott, Blair, Straw the next generation of UK politics? Would I choose a British or Scottish passport? It's fast becoming a reality

Troubled Families head Louise Casey: 'What's missing is love'

Casey's task is daunting to turn around the fortunes of 120,000 of England's most damaged and damaging families. So how's that going? Surprisingly well actually
Decca Aitkenhead The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 19.44 GMT Jump to comments ()

'We have to get this right this time. We cannot keep doing these initiatives and failing' Louise Casey. Photograph: Christopher Thomond

Louise Casey has been in charge of the government's Troubled Families Programme for two years, and been in public life for nearly 15. So I thought I had a pretty good idea of both her and her work until we met this week, at a conference in Liverpool for Troubled Families co-ordinators. Tony Blair's former Asbo czar was appointed by David Cameron last year to turn around 120,000 of England's most damaged and damaging families, through a programme designed to replace the old multi-agency muddle with intensive intervention. Each family is assigned a dedicated worker, whose success isn't measured by bureaucratic box-ticking but by the actual change they make. This week Casey announced that they have already turned around 22,000 families, and are on course to transform the rest by 2015. But for all its laudable ambition, her programme seemed to overlook the obvious. Everyone agrees that abuse and violence are endemic in the families in the programme. But I'd never heard Casey, nor her boss Eric Pickles, nor David Cameron, acknowledge the truth that for these families to stand any chance of changing, what they need, above all, is emotional support. I'd prepared a whole list of questions for Casey about this and by the end of her speech it was in the bin.

"All of what we do turns on something very simple: the relationship between the worker and the family," she told the conference. "None of us changes because we are given a report or an analysis. We have to feel that we want to change and know how to change. The difference with family intervention is that they make people believe in themselves." Casey urged her audience, "Remember the humanity in it. Forget which agency you are from, and remember the human being." It turns out that Casey is nothing at all like the rather stern figure we see in TV interviews, who talks a lot about being tough, and comes across as self-assured to the point of fearless. After her speech, she admits that in her hotel that morning she'd had to sit in the same seat at the same table where she'd dined the night before, in an OCDish battle to control her nerves about this article. We spend the day together, and she is the jumpiest interviewee I've ever known, endlessly fretting about how this or that might come across in print. More than once she even wobbles on the brink of tears, and it's only at the end of the day that her anxiety begins to make sense. On the train to Leeds to visit some families I suggest that her speech could practically have been written by Camila Batmanghelidjh, the psychotherapist behind Kids Company, whose prescription of unconditional love for troubled families differs radically from Pickles' call for "a little less understanding". But Batmanghelidjh and Casey, it turns out, are great friends. "And yeah, Camila and I are peas in a pod. We're so different in so many ways, but I completely understand and believe that the thing that is missing in all of this is love." But if they share the same philosophy, why have we never heard Casey spell it out in public before? "I'm surprised you're so surprised," she says, and pauses to think. "I suppose it's partly 'cos I don't give big interviews with my personal views. But I think I've been pretty consistent about saying this is not just about spending loads more money, but about behaving differently and getting a different relationship." She thinks again. "In fairness, you're right. I've probably never said, 'What's missing here is love'." What's also missing from most social work, she goes on, is a language that makes any sense to the people it's supposed to help. Jargon like "parent capacity deficit" is not just meaningless to them, but prevents the possibility of any real emotional connection which, Casey suspects, is precisely why the system likes it. "People have this desire to 'codify', professionalise, put frameworks around things, talk about process, to make themselves feel more secure. It's much easier to say how many meetings you'll have to talk about a problem, than to actually deliver a solution to a problem. And that is endemic. So finding a new language is a big part of this." But most of the programme's workers come from that social work system, and it's delivered through existing local social services structures. If Casey's programme is really going to transform the entire system, it will take a lot more than new language, if she is saying that the current system deliberately discourages the very thing its clients need most.

Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh. Photograph: Matt LLoyd/Rex Features

"Yes, is the answer. Camila would say we have removed social workers' ability to feel or care, and she is right. Because some of what people are exposed to is so hard, we create strategies and structures around them to protect the

Because some of what people are exposed to is so hard, we create strategies and structures around them to protect the worker, which means we can no longer get to the person we are trying to work with. I think we need to bring back, actually, some emotional exposure, the ability to be human, the ability to empathise, not to be fearful of empathy. Instead we all walk around in these big protective clothes. The only person who doesn't," she chuckles affectionately, "is Mrs Bloody Batmanghelidjh." We spend the afternoon visiting families being supported by the programme in Leeds, and the stories of lives drowning in ceaseless violence and abuse, mental illness, gang murders, kidnaps, care, prison, are overwhelming. Along with vast numbers of children, another surprisingly common theme is vast numbers of pets one team member once even found a horse in a family's living room, and another describes her eyes streaming in a house literally soaked with ammonia from the urine of 10 cats and five dogs. "It looks mad, until you realise they want all those pets because they know their pets will always love them," is the explanation. Two things become clear as the day wears on. The bond between the families and their workers are deeply powerful and plainly transformational. And Casey has a gift for intimacy that reminds me a lot of Mo Mowlam, and makes her extremely good at her job. Afterwards I ask how on earth her boss, Pickles, could think we need to understand lives like these less. "Did he say that? OK, I understand what he's saying. You can't just excuse, excuse and excuse. I don't know if that's where Eric is, but that's where I am." So a little less understanding is definitely not a good idea? "I'm not going to get into defending him or not defending him. I think what he's trying to say is, don't pussyfoot around families for ever. And I agree with that."

Former prime minister Gordon Brown. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

As a civil servant who has served three prime ministers, Casey has had to master the art of political neutrality, so when I ask which one was hardest to work for she hesitates and glances at her press officer before replying, with conspicuous feeling: "Gordon Brown." Why? "I was seen and it isn't true as Blair's girl. Blair and the social exclusion unit was of its moment for me, and I had an awful lot of access and power. That wasn't the same under Gordon, 'cos I was seen as Blair's girl. But that's life, isn't it?" Brown wasn't the only person to have erroneously pigeonholed her though. "The Daily Mail don't like me 'cos I'm female and fat and lefty. Other people on the left think I sleep with the devil." Casey herself takes the line that the whole left versus right discourse is completely irrelevant to her work but I'm not entirely sure I agree, and many on the right wouldn't. They believe every single problem Casey is trying to solve can be traced back to the welfare state. Her families, they argue, have been corrupted by a benefits system that rewards teenagers for getting pregnant, penalises parents who live together, and makes unemployment preferable to work so nothing can change until the welfare state does. Casey screws up her face in disbelief. "I don't meet women that think, 'Oh I tell you what, I'll have another child because I can jump the queue'. They have another child 'cos they think it's going to be better this time round. They think the man will be nicer, he's not like the last one, he loves me, and I'll bring another child into this world because I can be a fantastic mum and I've not had

anybody who's loved me enough or taken care of me as a child, and I've been in and out of care myself, and so I've brought a child into this world hoping that this child loves me. My experience of the families I meet is that their benefits are not what dictates their behaviour." The idea that fathers would stick around and pay for their families if the welfare state hadn't taken over that role dumbfounds her. "These domineering, controlling, often violent men would stick around 'cos you decided not to spend your taxes on their partners and children's benefits? That's not that is just so not the real world. Sorry, but it's just not." Anyone who thinks we could break the cycle of children having children by making contraception compulsory for high-risk teens is equally delusional, she says. "Remove pregnancy and they will find something else to get into trouble with. Because they've got trouble in their souls, trouble in their heart, troubles in their head. So even if you brought in some draconian thing like that, they'd find something else to do that would actually be an expression of not having enough love or of having too much pain." She remains convinced, however, that Asbos did work. "Asbos did transform lives." If they were such a great success then presumably she thinks the coalition was wrong to get rid of them. "Well, they are amending them," she says carefully. So the new crime-prevention injunctions are basically Asbos with a different name? "I think they are, yes." They didn't need changing? She looks increasingly uncomfortable. "I think what Teresa [May] did was come in and say, 'Right, I'm going to simplify it all. It's a bit like rebranding. It's not significantly altered. You have to give the people that are elected their chance to do what they need to do." Coded diplomacy doesn't come very naturally to Casey, which is why a press officer is soldered to her elbow for the day. As long as the Dictaphone is off, she's a riot profane, blunt, mischievous, funny, tactile but on the record, or whenever she has to pick her words delicately or be cagey, she looks miserable. This, she admits, has a lot to do with a leaked after-dinner speech she gave in 2005, gleefully reported by the press. "I suppose you can't binge drink any more because lots of people have said you can't do it. I don't know who bloody made that up; it's nonsense ... Doing things sober is no way to get things done," she told an audience of police officers, adding, "If No 10 says bloody 'evidence-based policy' to me one more time, I'll deck them." "Oh God, that was awful," she shudders. "I thought I was going to be sacked, yeah. It was just terrible. When I'd done the speech, of course, I hadn't clocked the significance of using the F-word 17 times in a speech. I know that's stupid, and I was incredibly naive, and ridiculously stupid. But you know, I was talking to a police audience and I was told to be humorous and funny. But, of course, when it came out, oh God, I was mortified. I was ashamed of myself, I felt I'd let my team down, the cause down, myself down. It was humiliating, and I'm so stupid, it was just stupid." That memory, she explains, has a lot to do with why she's in such a flap about this interview. But when I ask what exactly she's afraid of, she isn't really sure. "It's not that. It's just that it's just that I care so much about what we're doing here that I don't want it to go wrong. And I feel like I've got to do the best job that I humanly can, so that we can change the families and change the system, and that feels like a huge and weighty responsibility to make sure I get it right." Her eyes well up and her voice wavers. "We have to get this right this time. We cannot keep doing these initiatives and failing. So getting this interview with you right, it feels important."

Sign up for the Guardian Today

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

The Sun on Sunday lied about me last week. Have they learned nothing?
Not a big deal in the scheme of things, but it's still the same fecund bone-yard of gossip, poison and lies
Russell Brand The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 11.11 GMT Jump to comments ()

Rupert Murdoch with the first issue of the Sun on Sunday. Photograph: Arthur Edwards/AFP/Getty

The Sun on Sunday, which is of course the News of the World with a different hat on, lied about me last week. In the general scheme of things, the crumbling economy, the savaged environment, the treacherous, inept, deceitful politicians that govern us, the corrupt corporations that exploit us, it might not seem like a big deal. That's because it isn't to anyone, except me or my girlfriend. The pain, disruption and distress, that the Sun inflicted by falsely claiming that I cheated on my girlfriend, in the context of such awesome corruption, is a pale liver-spot on the back of Murdoch's glabrous claw. Still though, it's a tiny part of the demon's dermatology and as such, connected to all the other pestilence. Here's how. Storytelling is important, whether it's a ruddy and robust town crier or Homer (I mean the Greek one but the other one counts too). The manner in which we receive information can affect us as much as the information itself. There is a certain duty that comes with being the anointed purveyor of truth. Can we trust that our media is fulfilling that duty? Who do they really serve? Everyone knows papers like the Daily Mail and the Sun can't be trusted, we've come to accept their duplicity as part of their charm, and their defence, that it's only really celebrities and people that deserve intrusion who are affected, while superficially true in this case, is actually the biggest lie of them all. We all remember the worst lies, the ones where the red tops are caught red-handed, like Hillsborough, where the Sun enthusiastically heaped more pain on the grieving people of Liverpool by claiming that innocent fans had pissed on police and rifled through the possessions of their dead fellows under the front-page headline "The Truth". We remember the disgust we shared on learning that the News of the World hacked into the voicemail of a missing child who turned out to have been murdered. We all know too that they were said to have hacked the phones of dead British soldiers, victims of 7/7 and murdered Sarah Payne's mum. These people are not celebrities, they are only known through grave misfortune and then through calculated desecration. Do any of us really think that these transgressions would have been freely admitted if not unwittingly revealed? No we do not. I wonder then what abominations lie uncovered beneath the tit and glitter lacquered grime and scum they serve up daily? We will never know the true extent of their dishonesty. We are dealing with experts in propaganda

serve up daily? We will never know the true extent of their dishonesty. We are dealing with experts in propaganda who will stop at nothing to see their version of events prevail, and on the rare occasions when the truth emerges, like a hernia popping through gorged corpse, they apologise discreetly for their ignoble flatulence in a mouse-sized font for hippo-sized lies. They dispose of the truth as expertly as Pulp Fiction's "Wolf" disposed of Marvin's body, these wolves of pulp fiction. Rupert Murdoch, an animatronic al-Qaida recruitment poster, in his private letter to Sun staff, after the News of the World was briefly closed for a makeover (not through remorse, or shame, no, because they couldn't sell advertising space and because he wanted to launch the Sun on Sunday anyway because it's cheaper to run one title than two some guys get all the luck) referred consistently to his pride in the Sun as "a trusted news source". Trusted is the word he used, not trustworthy. We know the Sun is not trustworthy and so does he. He uses the word "trusted" deliberately. Hitler was trusted, it transpired he was not trustworthy. He also said of the arrested journalists, "everyone is innocent until proven guilty". Well, yes, that is the law of our country, not however a nicety often afforded to the victims of his titles, and here I refer not only to hacking but the vituperative portrayal of weak and vulnerable members of our society, relentlessly attacked by Murdoch's ink jackals. Immigrants, folk with non-straight sexual identities, anyone in fact living in the margins of the Sun's cleansed utopia. How this stuff works can be quite subtle. I remember a few years ago they ran a front-page story headlined "Swan Bake" and a story about immigrants eating the Queen's swans. I chuckled at the gleeful vilification of the alleged perpetrators and the jingoistic reference to the swan's royal owner. More sinister though was the information not included; that if people are eating swans from a park, it's not an act of antisocial defiance, it's because they're bloody starving. What is the implicit agenda of an institution that highlights this aspect of the narrative? It is significant too (cygnetnificant? They love a pun) that adjacent to the copy they placed a photograph of some "eastern" looking men and beneath it, the caption "Asylum seekers, like these pictured, are eating the Queen's swans" LIKE these pictured!! It wasn't actually the culprits, merely, the Sun supposed, asylum seekers "like" them. The reason for this irresponsible approximation is that when we next see an "eastern" looking person out and about we will have a visceral, visual association with an act of antisocial barbarism. This is how the Sun wants us to see immigrants, through their lens of vindictive condemnation. They want us looking suspiciously and disdainfully in the direction of marginalised individuals; "chavs", "immigrants" and "gays," not in the direction of the institutions who actually damage our society banks, corporations and the media. They forever print tabloid tales of benefit cheats on the swindle, which is bad I used to do it but the reality that we lose 1bn a year on all benefit fraud combined, and 25bn on tax avoidance and evasion by big companies and the super rich is seldom reported. Why don't we read that story in the Sun? Perhaps it's because, as Rupert said in his private email, the Sun would "continue to fight for its beliefs". Of course, the Sun believes in an easy ride for big corporations it is a big corporation, Newscorp is one of the biggest there is. Plus they get 35,000 per page for the corporate ads they carry for Tescos, Vodafone, British Gas, O2, corporations within the incestuous family of business, media and government that grow corpulent together. It is common slither from parliament to a position on the board of a big company, or to creep from a tabloid role into a position advising leaders of a sleazy government. All operate within the cosy, loophole-laden system that advances their feudal interests and penalises the rest of us, at a time of ardently imposed austerity. More importantly these corporations, whether they're selling information or consumer goods, collude in a pervasive myth and toil to keep us uninformed on important matters such as the environment, economic inequality, and distracted by vapid celebrity claptrap. The Sun don't want an informed populace rejecting their bigoted dogma and daily objectification of women. Tescos don't want engaged and educated consumers recognising the damage that their corporate marauding does to communities, agriculture and local businesses. Their agenda is the same. These organisations want us dumb and full of junk, in our bellies and our brains. The Sun boast on their website that they give advertisers unique access to their "market", that's you and your family, because as Murdoch says, they are

they give advertisers unique access to their "market", that's you and your family, because as Murdoch says, they are trusted. They gloat about their power "one in every seven quid spent on groceries in the UK is spent by a Sun reader". Actually they don't say quid, they say pounds. On the Sun's marketing site, where they address the people who really matter to them, their corporate partners, they eschew the colloquial jocundity, where stars romp in love-nests and drop tots, here the silvery nomenclature of commerce reigns, the Sun's true tongue. Should we all boycott the Sun as the people of Liverpool devoutly do to this day? Are other newspapers any better? We all enjoy a bit of gossip, it's hard to look away from kiss'n'tells or tittle-tattle whether it's about a doped-up soap star or Murdoch himself. I admit I read the story about his wife Wendi and Tony Blair in the Mail on Sunday last weekend and how they slept in the same house on numerous occasions, without ol' Digger knowing. There's no way we would be reading such a tale, even in its anodyne, sanitised form, without a tacit nod from Aussie-Skeletor. This being a story about powerful, litigious people, it was composed in befittingly genteel terms; the pair are described as having a "friendship". Imagine the pejorative bilge that they'd stir up and slap on, if it'd been a yarn not about tycoons and warlords but about people outside of the mainstream; an out-of-favour celeb, an immigrant or a gypsy. Then we'd be reading about "suspicious, nocturnal trysts" or sleazy secret liaisons. However, you want to describe it, the affair (by which I mean "matter", I've been advised by a lawyer, these words are all filtered and combed before you are allowed to see them) supposed to have caused Murdoch to give his former blood-brother the cold shoulder, hardly surprising after he got Blair elected and supported his unpopular, illegal war so vociferously. You can bet more kids of Sun readers were sent to Baghdad than of any other paper. Some friends of mine thought it dubious that the Sun's deceitful story appeared just days after I'd spoken out against the media, corporations and the government. It could be a coincidence. Or it could be that the Sun loves me when I'm a prattling, giggling, Essex boy "Shagger of the Year", when I'm in my proper place, beneath vacuous headlines, herding their flock towards dumb lingo and crap bingo, when I'm being cheeky on MTV or even unwisely invading answerphones, in a way that many would argue, is less offensive than the manner that they are alleged to have done. In my place I'm fine, but if I use my glistening podium, to talk to the people I grew up with, or signed on with or used drugs with, vulnerable overlooked, underserved, ordinary people, people that can't sue them as I am, then out come the fangs. We know they're all pals, who head up governments, newspapers and big businesses, who hobnob together and horse-ride together. Who can say what Murdoch meant in his letter to despondent and soiled Sun journalists when he ominously intoned that his empire would "emerge stronger". Certainly these are not words of contrition and the Sun on Sunday so swiftly returning to the fecund bone-yard of gossip, poison and lies indicates that they've learned nothing from the outrage they provoked with their desecration of the dead children of ordinary people. I wonder what punishment would be severe enough to make them recognise the wrong they've done to us? Maybe we should show solidarity with the people of Liverpool and the Sun's other victims. Or at least next time we skim these rags remember what they really think of us and what they really care about. Observe the companies that advertise on their tainted pages and let them know that we notice their allegiances. When they start to lose enough money, when enough of us come together and confront our real enemies, not the imaginary ones that they select, then perhaps the sun will go down and tomorrow we might see clearly, in the light of a new dawn. Russell Brand is donating his fee for this article to the Justice for the 96 campaign This article was amended on 29 November 2013 to make explicit the wording of a Sun headline.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Sexual violence against girls - we must open our eyes

A report this week revealed that girls are being abused by other children. Why do adults fail to understand how vulnerable and alone adolescent girls can be?
Deborah Orr The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 19.30 GMT Jump to comments ()

Exploited girls tend to end up isolated from everyone, male and female, young and old. Photograph: Michael Bodge/Getty Images/Flickr RM

Extremes are shocking. But they are also, by their nature, easily isolated as beyond the scope of quotidian experience. Ian Watkins, the former singer with Welsh rock band Lostprophets, this week admitted to the most ghastly child sex offences imaginable. It's easy to put Watkins in a box or a cell marked: "Beyond human comprehension." Or, at least, it should be. But a report, If Only Someone Had Listened, published this week by the Office of the Children's Commissioner for England, says something different. In her foreword, the deputy children's commissioner, Sue Berelowitz, states: "The fact that some adults (usually men) rape and abuse children is generally accepted." She's right. Society may abhor the individuals who commit such crimes. But it is indeed "generally accepted" that such individuals exist, and in some numbers. Berelowitz points out the obvious that this formerly taboo subject is now far from taboo in the service of highlighting another taboo. She continues: "There is, however, a long way to go before the appalling reality of sexual violence and exploitation committed by children and young people is believed." The report, the result of a two-year inquiry, goes on to describe gang-afflicted areas in which "the level of sexual violence and the types of violence inflicted are comparable to how sexual violence is used in war-torn territories". Even when gangs are not involved, the report claims that among young people more generally, attitudes to those who are sexually exploited and raped are far from sympathetic. "The victim, usually a girl (but boys are victims too) is invariably blamed for their own assault," the report warns. "They should not have gone to visit the boy; should not

have worn a tight top; should not have had the drink; have 'done it before' so have no right to say no." It's a depressingly familiar victim-blame list. The report mainly concerns itself with finding structured ways in which agencies and services can intervene to help sexually exploited children and those at risk of exploitation. And that is, of course, of great importance. But there's a disturbing societal context as well, chillingly summed up by Matthew Reed, of The Children's Society: "This report shows that there are particular problems with attitudes towards teenage girls, both from professionals and from their peers." This rings true. Exploited girls tend to end up isolated from everyone, male and female, young or old, except their abusers, which only serves to give their abusers more power. There was outrage when a judge described a 13-yearold as a "sexual predator" and let her 41-year-old rapist walk free from court. But how many times in recent years have paedophile rings been uncovered, having run undisturbed for years because female social workers didn't feel able to intervene in the "sex lives" of children? A couple of years ago, a Canadian psychologist, Tracy Vaillancourt, published the results of an experiment that she claimed showed that "slut-shaming" is hard-wired into the female brain. No one appreciated her efforts much. But her findings, backed by further research, have now been published by the Royal Society, in its peer-reviewed journal The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (Biological Sciences). They're worth taking note of. Vaillancourt's experiment was pretty basic. Eighty-six women aged between 20 and 25 were secretly videotaped after being told that they were taking part in a study about female friendship, and paired with another woman. As they were waiting for proceedings to start, a third women went into the room, dressed for half of her visits in casual clothes with her hair tied back and the other half in plunging top, short skirt and long blonde tresses. No one commented on the casually dressed woman at all. But almost all of them were actively critical and hostile towards the same woman when she turned up looking "sexy". I suppose women could simply deny that they'd ever encountered such behaviour, let alone indulged in it. But that would be a shame, because people can't change what they don't acknowledge. Vaillancourt calls this behaviour "intra-sexual competition strategy" and says that it is most conspicuously present between the ages of 11 and 25. Vaillancourt says the behaviour is rooted in the fact that women are the "higher value gender". It's more important for women to stay alive than men, so that they can have and care for children. So women avoid physical aggression and "have had to evolve less risky strategies to compete for preferred mates and devalue their competitors We exclude females from our peer group, we spread rumours about that person, we suggest they're promiscuous; that kind of thing." Now, this is, of course, no excuse for male behaviour. But it does help to explain why cultures around the world repress female sexuality so successfully. Female collusion in the sexual repression of women by males is typically explained by feminist theory as motivated by fear of men, or failure to understand and resist "the patriarchy". Vaillancourt's ideas suggest instead that women have historically colluded because it served their own evolutionary advantage. I always suspected that men couldn't possibly be capable of such universal success in subjugating women all by themselves. It's significant, I think, that this sort of behaviour starts in early adolescence and tails off when women reach the age of about 25. Rejection by their female peers because they are seen as "sexy" can only drive young girls towards people who appear to be interested in that, thus compounding their vulnerability. With an understanding of what's going on, older women are going to be much more capable both of educating young girls about the dangers of indulging in this sort of female aggression towards other females, and of spotting those who are likely to be the most vulnerable to exploitation. Of course, Vaillancourt, and those who find her ideas useful, will continue to be regarded as the enemy by "victim feminists", who wish to simply blame men for all of women's problems, without spotting the irony in that position. Feminists already defend the right of women to dress as they please, to have the sexual lives that they choose, and to

be able to live without fear of sexual violence, even if they've had a drink. But maybe it's time to acknowledge not only that women in the past have rejected such freedoms themselves, but that to do so is a natural but unattractive female tendency. In her foreword to If Only Someone Had Listened, Berelowitz says: "We have found shocking and profoundly distressing evidence of sexual assault, including rape, being carried out by young people against other children and young people. While we have published chilling evidence of this violence in gang-associated contexts, we know too that it is more widespread than that. This is a deep malaise within society, from which we must not shirk." The behaviour of adults such as Ian Watkins may indeed be inexplicable. But the suffering of the children in the Children's Commisson's report is surely explicable. Perhaps it is the result of an adult failure to understand how isolated, alone and vulnerable an adolescent girl can be. And that should not be something that's hard to understand at all.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Prescott, Blair, Straw the next generation of UK politics?

David Prescott is one of many with familiar surnames hoping to make it into parliament. Emine Saner looks at our Westminster dynasties and what they say about politics today
Emine Saner The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 19.58 GMT Jump to comments ()

David Prescott with father John. Photograph: Tony Kyriacou/Rex Features

David Prescott was born just a few days after his father John became MP for Hull East. "So I've known nothing else," he says. Before he was four years old, he was on the campaign trail in the 1974 general election "I used to go round in the car saying 'vote Yaybour'; I couldn't pronounce the letter L" and he has volunteered in every election

round in the car saying 'vote Yaybour'; I couldn't pronounce the letter L" and he has volunteered in every election since 1983. Politics was in the family. "Labour activism didn't start with John," he says. "My grandmother was a member of Jack Jones's pensioners' parliament [the National Pensioners' Convention] and going back, there were politically active miners as well. If you're the son or daughter of an MP, people think it's just because of your father or mother. But actually it goes much further back and you find activism goes through a whole family." Prescott is standing for selection to be Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) for south London's Greenwich and Woolwich seat tomorrow, after its current MP, Labour's Nick Raynsford, announced he would stand down at the next election. It's the third time he has sought selection in 2008, he stood for his father's Hull East seat, two years later he sought to become Labour's PPC in Weaver Vale, Runcorn. Now he's trying again in the constituency where he has lived for the past 13 years. "I've never known a selection process that's had such a strong list of candidates," he says by way of countering any accusation he has been parachuted in. "I don't look round and find where my best chance of trying to get in is." Did he grow up wanting to become an MP? "Not really. I've always been active, but I made a very clear decision that I wanted to have a life outside politics." Prescott became a journalist, and now runs a PR company. "When Nick announced he was standing down, I had a long chat with my wife about it because I know the impact it can have on families." He describes rarely seeing his father, who would return home on Thursday and then spend the next couple of days on constituency business before heading back to Westminster. But it was an early life filled with political giants Barbara Castle and the trade unionist Rodney Bickerstaffe were family friends. When he moved to London, he moved into a flat with his father and Dennis Skinner. "So when you grow up in that environment you can see the good that politics can do, on a very local level, how it can change people's lives. So it's hard not to think that would be a decent and honourable thing to do. I've always made it clear in my own mind that if the time was right, I'd find my own way." If Prescott were to become Labour's PPC and Greenwich and Woolwich is a safe Labour seat he will join a political class where family ties are not exactly rare. It almost feels as if it could take less time to run through the politicians, or potential politicians, who aren't related. There are siblings Keith and Valerie Vaz, Maria and Angela Eagle, Boris and Jo Johnson (whose father Stanley was an MEP, and in a reversal to the usual pattern, attempted to succeed his son in Henley when Boris stepped down). Until recently, there were the Milibands. And there are the couples Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper, Harriet Harman and Jack Dromey, Jo Swinson and Duncan Hames. Then there are the numerous children of politicians. The Conservatives have Francis Maude (son of Angus). Bernard Jenkin (whose father Charles, now Lord Jenkin, was an MP for more than 20 years), Nick Hurd (son of Douglas), Ben Gummer (son of John) and Andrew Mitchell (son of David). Dominic Grieve, the attorney general, is the son of Percy Grieve, who was a Conservative MP for nearly 20 years. How far back should we trace Nicholas Soames's political lineage? He is the greatgrandson of chancellor Randolph Churchill, and grandson of Winston Churchill; both his father, Christopher Soames, and uncle, Duncan Sandys, were members of parliament. Labour looks just as cosy. The MSP Paul Martin is the son of former speaker Michael Martin. Anas Sarwar took his father's vacated Glasgow Central seat in 2010. Andy Sawford, recently elected MP for Corby, is the son of Phil Sawford, who had the neighbouring Kettering constituency until 2005. And those are just the current MPs. There are also those who tried and failed to win seats, such as Tamsin Dunwoody, who contested her mother's seat in 2008.

Will Straw (son of Jack) who recently became Labour's PPC for Rossendale and Darwen. Photograph: David Hartley/Rex Features

And then there are the potentials Will Straw recently became Labour's PPC for Rossendale and Darwen, next to his father Jack Straw's Blackburn constituency. There was much excitement a few months ago when it was rumoured that Euan Blair, the eldest son of the former prime minister, was being lined up for a soon-to-be-vacated Coventry seat, although that is now looking unlikely. Labour looks set to have an all-women shortlist for Bob Ainsworth's Coventry North East seat, while the longstanding Coventry North West MP Geoffrey Robinson whom, it had been reported, had received a phone call from Cherie Blair inquiring about the seat has said he has no intention of standing down. Still, the rumours persist. As a recent piece in the Independent pointed out, if Euan Blair really were to stand and get himself elected, we could be looking at another generation of Blair, Straw and Prescott. Joe Dromey, the son of Harriet Harman and Jack Dromey, has said it is untrue he was seeking a seat, but it's clear he has a strong political interest he studied politics at university and is a Labour council candidate for New Cross. Emily Benn, granddaughter of Tony and niece of Hillary, who ran in the 2010 general election at the age of 20, looks set to join Croydon council next year. Meanwhile, Georgia Gould, the daughter of the late Labour strategist Philip Gould, who sought to become Labour's PPC in Erith and Thamesmead in 2009, is already a Camden councillor. "I don't think we should ever condemn anybody who wants to give public service, especially at a time when politicians aren't especially liked by the public," says Katie Ghose, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society. "But I think there's a bigger issue: that parties are shedding members, and that means there are fewer people putting themselves forward for election, and fewer in the business of choosing them. Parties are shrinking and you get less and less competition. When we look at family members, what we'd say is politics should be open to all everybody should leave school feeling that elected office could be something they contribute in their lifetime, whether it's the parish council or MEP or any other level. "I don't think it's surprising that family members who have been exposed to politics have that shared passion and do want to go into politics. But we're in a worrying position now as a society where people feel more cut off, and we need to find ways for parties to connect to a much broader range of people, so we end up with a diverse institution." Prof Steven Fielding, director of the Centre for British Politics at Nottingham University, says the number of political families could be compared to "the later 19th century and early 20th century, when access to politics was restricted, and you couldn't afford to be in politics unless you had quite a lot of money, and it was expected that the aristocracy played a certain role. That diminished in the 20th century but it has reasserted itself for slightly different reasons. Class plays a role, but these people are more middle-class and they have the skills of their parents and networks. They're not from grand families, but they are from well-connected families." He adds that the political world isn't the only place where this is happening journalism is another, and law. "It's not a good thing that politics, or any profession, is open to certain people and not others." But perhaps being the son of John Prescott, or any other politician, doesn't always help anyway. "People may be almost twice as concerned to make sure they're selecting you because you're good, as opposed to what your surname is," says David Prescott. When Tal Michael, son of the Welsh first minister Alun, stood for the Ynys Mn Welsh assembly byelection in the summer, he came under criticism. "There were some Plaid Cymru bloggers who were making accusations. It was strange because I had deliberately gone outside of politics and outside of Wales, because it meant I was being employed by people who weren't making connections [to his father]. I am on the side of the

spectrum that thinks it would be wrong to be inheriting position it's about doing things on merit." Lindsay Hoyle, the well-liked deputy speaker who has been MP for Chorley since 1997, served as a councillor in the town for 18 years, becoming deputy council leader, before being persuaded by his Labour colleagues to stand against the Tories. "They wanted to pick somebody local and that was me. This is my home town, it's where I was born and brought up there aren't many MPs who can say that, and it's a real privilege to represent my town." He is also the son of Doug Hoyle, the former MP who now sits in the House of Lords. Did anyone ever accuse him of benefiting from that? "He had a very safe Labour seat, I had a marginal seat. People asked me to stand, which I did. It was nothing to do with nepotism, but I suppose it was being in the right place at the right time." Like Prescott, Hoyle says he was "born into politics. The greats of the Labour movement were at my first conference." He was barely four months old when he was taken to the 1957 conference, where Nye Bevan was speaking. "In 1964 I was delivering leaflets as a young child ready for the election. So you're brought up in it. You live within a political household my mother was on the council as well and as you get into your teens you turn off a little bit. But somehow I came back." There are plenty of examples of politicians' children who have political talent, and perhaps years of public service behind them: Will Straw, who founded the influential blog Left Foot Forward and works for the thinktank Institute for Public Policy Research, has been described as a "gifted political player"; for the past few years David Prescott has been the chair of governors which turned around a failing school; Estelle Morris (daughter of MP Charles Morris), like Hoyle and others, served in local government for years before entering parliament. Being the son or daughter of a politician shouldn't be a bar to entry, should it? "Absolutely not," says Fielding. "They're being judged by party members and activists and you would think that the criteria are exactly the same. But no matter how they get selected, if it is a trend and is getting more pervasive that is not a good thing in itself it's just showing a wider evidence that the avenues to get involved in politics at the highest and most significant level are shutting down for more ordinary people." One question is why, when so many other people are put off by the idea of a political career, the children of politicians are seemingly running towards one. David Prescott saw what his family went through at the hands of the media there was the tabloid frenzy after his father's affair and the way he was generally undermined for years by newspapers who mocked his grammar, his weight, his perceived vulgarity. Did that not put David off? "Not really. If you believe in something and you want to fight for social justice, you're open to that level of scrutiny. It was always difficult to see [him] going through that, but he survived because he's got a passion, and he knows that if you're in power you can achieve an awful lot of good."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Would I choose a British or Scottish passport? It's fast becoming a reality

The white paper on Scottish independence understands that the old, hard edges of nationhood are irrelevant to many
Ian Jack

Ian Jack The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 19.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

'I could hold two passports, and in that way give some solid expression to what I think of as my national identities: British and Scottish.' Photograph: Hypermania/Alamy

Whichever way next year's referendum goes, the prospect of an independent Scotland is now astonishingly normal. Most people may not want it a YouGov poll conducted on Monday showed the No/Yes split in Scotland as 61/27 but nobody now thinks it impossible and increasingly few would describe it as ridiculous. The question "which passport would you choose?" is now asked of people like me quite soberly, whereas 20 years ago it was confined to sentimental conversations in late-opening pubs. For a time, I thought I had a good answer: that because I neither lived nor was born in Scotland, or had a Scottish spouse, I wouldn't get a Scottish passport even if I wanted one. Now, dipping into the lengthy white paper on Scotland's future, I see that the rules for eligibility are more generously drawn, as though the model had been the English cricket team. The details come in a table at the end of chapter seven Justice, Security and Home Affairs. Those who would qualify automatically for Scottish citizenship and passports are British citizens who on the date of independence are "habitually resident" in Scotland or were born in Scotland and live elsewhere. But after independence several other categories of applicants can become Scottish passport holders, including citizens of any country who can demonstrate that they have a parent or grandparent who qualifies or would have qualified for Scottish citizenship. In my own case, I could qualify because (a) I have at least one parent (in fact I had two) born in Scotland; or because (b) I have in the past spent at least 10 years living in Scotland, have an ongoing connection with it, and could apply for naturalisation "subject to meeting good character, residency and other requirements". But by neither route would citizenship be automatic I would need to dig out parental birth certificates or school records to support my application. A Scottish accent, SCO on your car plates, to know to say "debts" rather than "trespasses" in the Lord's Prayer: quite rightly, these things wouldn't be enough. The question is, would I want a Scottish passport, would it matter to me to have one? Thirty years ago, objecting to his inclusion in the Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry, Seamus Heaney rebuked the anthology's editors in a celebrated little verse: " be advised my passport's green. / No glass of ours was ever raised / to toast the Queen." But Scotland isn't Ireland; its history within the UK has been almost entirely peaceable and should independence come, the monarch would continue as its head of state and the colour of its passports wouldn't deviate from burgundy. In any case, an independent Scotland would follow the UK's example in allowing dual citizenship, so that I could hold two passports, and in that way give some solid expression to what I think of as my national identities: British and Scottish, which otherwise are so slippery and hard to separate. The hard edges of the nation state, created by the often mythical homogeneity of the people inside them, are vanishing everywhere. Arguing for a new nation state, the white paper understands that the old tropes of nationhood will no longer do, though until recently they sustained the anglophobic tendency of everyday nationalism, though

until recently they sustained the anglophobic tendency of everyday nationalism. The white paper echoes the more elevated philosophy of the Scottish National party by proposing "an inclusive model of citizenship for people whether or not they define themselves as primarily or exclusively Scottish or wish to become a Scottish passport holder". People in Scotland, it goes on, "are accustomed to multiple identities, be they national, regional, ethnic, linguistic or religious, and a commitment to a multicultural Scotland will be a cornerstone of the nation on independence". Of course, Scotland is no more accustomed to multiple identities than anywhere else in the United Kingdom, and much less so than in London and the other big English conurbations; non-white communities amount to 4% of Scotland's population and more than 14% of England's. But the idea helps position Scotland as a more welcoming society in a country that, according to the calculations of the Scottish government, badly needs immigrants. Of all the generalisations about the social differences between England and Scotland, the best known and most persistent is that Scottish values are more "communitarian" or "social democratic" or just plain nicer. However true that may be the apathy that suffuses so many Scottish towns suggests a different picture this difference is nothing when compared to the contrast between the London and Edinburgh governments in their attitudes to immigration. In the same week that the every major Westminster party followed opinion polls by declaring their hostility to new migration from Bulgaria and Romania, the white paper on Scotland's future declared that increased immigration was essential to the economy. In its view, the UK immigration system was addressing the grievances of south-east England by focusing strongly on reduction, whereas Scotland needed population growth. The contradiction exemplified the benefits of independence. "In future, our enhanced economic strategy will also do more to encourage young people to build their lives and careers within Scotland and to attract people to live in Scotland." Perhaps there's a little smugness here and elsewhere in the white paper: the implication that Scottish tolerance, justice, education and culture are different to other kinds and perhaps even superior. Earlier this year in a New Statesman interview, Alex Salmond said that Scotland was "doing substantially better [than England] as far as our immigrant communities are concerned", which was an absurd assertion given the huge difference in scale between, say, the south Glasgow suburb that is the home to Scotland's largest south-Asian community and a London borough such as Tower Hamlets or a city such as Bradford. The idea that Scotland is friendlier to foreigners or people of other ethnicities has proved remarkably stubborn, partly because the country has adopted such a bowdlerised version of its imperial history into which slaves, indentured labourers and massacres have only recently been admitted. Still, it's an interesting form of nationalism that is anxious to encourage more immigration. Unthinkable in England and possibly politically unwise in some parts of Scotland, it can't be described as regressive. Late in the last century the historian Tom Nairn wrote the quote has become almost as famous as Heaney's that Scotland wouldn't be free until the last Kirk minister had been strangled with the last copy of the Sunday Post. How far away that country now seems, and how much more welcome the notion of a Scotland that is a home to, among others, people who, in the white paper's words, don't think of themselves as primarily or exclusively Scottish. What kind of passport would I choose when and if it comes to it? Both.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Comment & debate

Peaches Geldof's vigilante tweeting speaks for England End this gutter debate about Britain's immigration policy Could an independent Scotland liberate all Britons? Martin Rowson on David Cameron and the green agenda cartoon Justin Welby has got his wires crossed on fashion

Peaches Geldof's vigilante tweeting speaks for England

Her generation of reflexive exhibitionists have no understanding of privacy, or of what was once considered its value
Marina Hyde The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 17.15 GMT Jump to comments ()

'Peaches took it upon herself to tweet the alleged names of the two women who allowed their babies to be horrifically sexually abused by the Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins.' Illustration by Noma Bar

Speak for England, Peaches! This must be the cry sent up by a nation searching for heroes it can believe in, as multihyphenate Peaches Geldof finds the law simply failing to keep pace with her self-elevation into a vigilante with a penchant for appearing in Hello! magazine. But first, a recap: to the job description model-journalist-whatever, let us add the epithet justice dispenser, after Peaches took it upon herself to tweet the alleged names of the two women who allowed their babies to be horrifically sexually abused by the Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins. After some hours, and numerous people pointing out that she was effectively identifying the baby victims, it appears to have dawned on Peaches or more likely her agent or lawyer that perhaps the tweets ought to be deleted. Alas, the realisation did not come quite quick enough for South Wales police, who confirmed they were investigating whether to prosecute her, with the attorney general's office reiterating that "victims of sexual offences have automatic lifetime anonymity and the publication of names or information which can lead to their being identified is a criminal offence". Having slept on this ingratitude for her efforts on Thursday night, Peaches has now offered a quarter-arsed apology for having been a quarter-wit. "The question of wether or not to give anonymity to criminals in cases like this will go on forever," intoned madam and you may care to know there is a [sic] bag in the rear pocket of the seat in front of you. "However these women and Watkins will be gettings three meals a day, a double bed, cable TV etc

all funded by the tax payer alongside not being named apparently. It makes me sad. I deleted my tweets however and apologise for any offence caused." In the circumstances, you do have to marvel at that mulishly self-regarding "for any offence caused" the classic non-apology apology typically proffered by those with a belief in their own absolute probity, which is as unshakeable as it is misplaced. Peaches is sorry "for any offence caused", although it will presumably be some years before the victims are old enough to have her soz passed on to them if indeed it came in any more personal form than her begrudgingly farted-out tweet. The etiquette in these cases of sublebrity digital criminality is also in its infancy, albeit metaphorically, and it is as yet unclear whether the standard response to accidentally threatening to ruin an already massively disadvantaged child's life is a basket of muffins, or a mid-range bouquet, or perhaps four complimentary tickets to Peaches' next trenchant appearance on This Morning. So churlish is the tone of the "apology", in fact, that it is unclear whether a publicist has helped Peaches to even dimly understand that her actions reveal her to place a higher value on pitchfork-waving vengeance than she does on child protection, or to point out that, for all her pretensions to cultural grandeur, she remains not a million intellectual miles from the idiot who famously sprayed "paedo" on the door of a Newport paediatrician's home in 2000. That Peaches should have had every expensive educational advantage lavished upon her and still find herself unable to grasp her basic error is somewhere beyond unfortunate. Still, while she has been vocal in her distaste for those who allude to her own tragedy-beset childhood, it feels only kind to hazard that part of her radioactive silliness might be excused on the grounds of that difficult start. Yet the unpalatable reality, of course, is that Peaches does speak for rather a lot of England. Anyone keen to indulge in a strictly non-scientific research project need only have visited the Daily Mail website's report on the outlawed Peaches tweets, to discover thousands upon thousands of commenters posting variants of "good on her", with a comparatively minuscule number of other commenters fighting the losing battle of trying to explain to these benighted folk what it was she had actually done. As for Peaches, to this comparatively ancient correspondent's eye she seems a high-profile representative of an occasionally alien-seeming tribe a generation who in many cases simply have no understanding of privacy, or of what was once perceived as its value, and who see some sort of continuum between living their own lives online and catastrophically compromising the lives of those they fancy deserve it in the same forum, when ethically there is none. Peaches' renown has enabled her to take her generation's reflexive exhibitionism places mere civilians would be unable to go. Her Twitter timeline dutifully updates her 160,000 followers with near diurnal pictures of her children, and it is notable that she has consistently turned what might have been regarded as private family occasions into means of personally enriching herself. She flogged her wedding to Hello!, along with the news of her pregnancies, and of course "introduced" both her newborns to the world in lucrative photoshoots with the same publication. Frankly, there's every chance she will find a way to turn even this latest incident into gold, and a forthcoming issue of Hello! will carry an interview of her that tap dances round "the misunderstanding everyone is talking about", while allowing her to pose up again with her children in exchange for a few quid. If so, we must doff our hats to the Britannia of idiocy, and observe that she should really be on coins the unapologetic face of some apocalypsebaiting modern currency. Call it Twitcoins, and pile in today. Twitter: @MarinaHyde

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

End this gutter debate about Britain's immigration policy

Instead of pandering to and feeding public fears, politicians on both sides could take the lead in shifting perceptions
Ian Birrell The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 20.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

'There is a huge gap between high figures showing voters saying immigration is a big issue nationally and far lower numbers saying it bothers them locally or in practice.' Photograph: Alamy

It's been a depressing week for British politics as it takes another sordid step into the stinking gutter of xenophobia. It was hard to believe the immigration debate could become any more rancid. But once again we see our posturing political parties jostling to outdo each other in their desperate desire to demonstrate hostility to foreigners seeking to come here. Many leading lights across the political divide privately loathe this tone, which is economically, socially and culturally corrosive for this country. They dislike the deliberate attempt to create a hostile climate to deter potential immigrants. They know many of the ugly arguments they parrot in public fly in the face of facts. But their defence is simple: we must respond to voters' concerns. This is utter rubbish. While Labour falls over itself pathetically to apologise for its past, there is a fallacy among Conservatives inflamed by the rise of Ukip and subsequent arrival of Lynton Crosby that they failed to win outright the last election because they were too soft on immigration. The reality could not be more different: they held a 39-point lead over Labour on this issue, but were largely level-pegging on subjects of core daily relevance, such as economic competence and the health service. Nor will immigration determine how people vote at the next election, according to several leading pollsters I talked to. "They do not believe it is a big issue in their lives," said Stephan Shakespeare, chief executive of YouGov. There is a huge gap between high figures showing voters saying it is a big issue nationally and far lower numbers saying it bothers them locally or in practice. Concerns are, incidentally, highest in areas with lowest numbers of immigrants. Instead of feeding people's fears in tough economic times with a toxic debate locked into ever-decreasing circles, politicians should try something different: to show the leadership that is supposed to be part of their job description.

politicians should try something different: to show the leadership that is supposed to be part of their job description. They can shift polls and perceptions as Cameron knows better than anyone. When he became Tory leader, hugging huskies and raising green issues with such passion, there was a clear rise in concerns over the environment. Eighteen months later, it was the single most important political issue for one in five voters. There are scores of similar examples. Sometimes leaders win over the public by sticking to convictions and ignoring polls, as Ken Livingstone did when introducing his congestion charge. It was opposed by a majority of Londoners but led to concerns in the capital over transport halving within a decade. At other times, they use their platform to shift attitudes, as Tony Blair did on education while in opposition, and Ed Miliband is currently doing on living standards and inequality. The tragedy of the immigration debate is that it contains such fertile terrain for politicians prepared to display courage. For a start, people think there are far more immigrants in the country than there really are. Despite this, more than two-thirds favour admitting the same number or even more foreign students yet they are the very people being driven away to rival institutions, thereby undermining a thriving sector of the economy. Far harder to winkle out illegal entrants and overstayers. Similarly, surveys show Britons seem comfortable luring wealthy foreigners to invest here; allowing nurses and doctors to work in the NHS; letting in skilled people to find jobs; and giving sanctuary to those fleeing war and persecution. But where are the politicians who use such findings to argue migration is a fact of life on a globalised planet as shown by millions of British people living abroad? Instead, they pander to cheap prejudice. Underlying the immigration debate are profound questions over our nation's uncertain role in a rapidly evolving world, allied to serious political issues such as inept border controls, benefit misuse, housing shortages, educational failures, low pay and productivity. Sadly, politicians think the easiest answer is to endlessly blame foreigners.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Could an independent Scotland liberate all Britons?

The Scotland being proposed by Salmond now is the Britain voted for by millions in 1997 a moderate social democracy
Neal Ascherson The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 15.45 GMT Jump to comments ()

'What's so exhilarating is the flock of many-coloured hopes gathering behind this project, like seabirds in the wake of a working trawler.' Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

It was 1977 when Tom Nairn spooked the political world with his famous book, The Break-Up of Britain. He predicted Scottish independence, a bit prematurely. But last Tuesday, as Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon launched their government's manifesto for an independent Scotland, ancient Britain's citizens were being offered a break-through as much as a break-up. In itself, the fat policy manual isn't revolutionary. Scotland's Future is a sturdy, sensible, well-written catalogue of aspirations all of them achievable with luck and skill. But what's so exhilarating is the flock of many-coloured hopes gathering behind this project, like seabirds in the wake of a working trawler. Scotland's departure from the union could mean all kinds of liberations and reinventions for the islanders who live under the crown. England, above all, could at last disinter its identity and the buried radicalism of its people. Stripped of the "British" comfort blanket, the archaism of England's power structure and its monstrous north-south imbalance would become visible and intolerable. And in Scotland itself, there would be a violent climate change in politics as parties ceased to be London's branch offices. Scotland is in many ways a naturally conservative country with a small c. A new rightwing movement, freed from association with "down south" posh boys and Maggie Thatcher, would find strong support. More significant, there would be an insurrection in the Scottish Labour party. With a fresh leadership committed to using independence for social justice, I'd expect such a party to push the Scottish National party aside and form Scotland's government within a few years. Then there's the factor of opportunism, comically familiar to small countries. I have seen it in Scotland before. When whiffs of independence spice the air, the big Union Jack men talk differently down the telephone at night. "Of course I can't say this openly, Jimmy, but I want you to know that if it comes to it, I've always been privately " Lawyers, bankers, union leaders and unionist leaders they'll realign in droves "if it comes to it". Why not? Much the same applies to the apparently fearsome rebuttals to Salmond's document. On inspection, they are nine parts bluff. What makes cheeky Salmond think an independent Scotland would be allowed to use the pound, or enter the EU, or be admitted to Nato? Well, the answer is another question: "if it comes to it", what sort of Scotland do you want as a neighbour? Does London seriously want to force a currency frontier at the border and screw up trade with England's second biggest partner? Does Brussels really want to expel a loyal member and accelerate the EU's disintegration? Does Nato want a new hole on its east Atlantic flank? No, if the Scottish people do vote yes in September (which is still unlikely), healthy opportunism will cobble up solutions to all these problems. Reading Scotland's Future, I couldn't at first account for a faint twinge of melancholy, a recognition. Then it dawned on me. The Scotland being here described or proposed was the Britain so passionately hoped for by the millions who voted for Tony Blair, back in 1997. After 18 years of Thatcherism, the longing was for a return to fairness and a stronger regulating and redistributing role for the state. What New Labour did with those hopes is another story. But Salmond's "what sort of Scotland" is also a moderate, statist social democracy that partners the private sector but is not afraid to for example renationalise the Royal Mail. The yes camp is wider than the official yes campaign. Around Scotland in recent months, I keep meeting people who

The yes camp is wider than the official yes campaign. Around Scotland in recent months, I keep meeting people who would never vote SNP or trust Salmond, but who are painfully admitting that they may have to vote yes. This is because they are appalled at the way the British state is heading, under Tory or Labour: the downward plunge into the barbarism of neoliberal politics, the contempt for public service, the almost monthly advance of privatisation. Wrestling with old loyalties, they may vote for what Ian Jack called "the lifeboat option" an independent Scotland as the only way to escape that fate. It's a lifeboat the SNP government has already launched, using devolution to keep out English "reforms" to the NHS or higher education. Gordon Brown himself used to argue that the health service and the postwar welfare state were the supreme achievement of Great Britain's history. And yet it's only the SNP that has embarked on this astonishing attempt to preserve and grow what's left of that achievement in one part of old Ukania. It hurts to laugh at some of history's jokes, but here's one: in spite of itself, the SNP is the most truly British party in these islands.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Series: The Guardian comment cartoon

Martin Rowson The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 23.25 GMT Jump to comments ()

Print this Share Contact us Sender's name Recipient's email address Your IP address will be logged Short link for this page: http://gu.com/p/3kzhy StumbleUpon reddit Tumblr Digg LinkedIn Google Bookmarks del.icio.us livejournal Facebook Twitter Report errors or inaccuracies: reader@theguardian.com Letters for publication should be sent to: letters@theguardian.com

If you need help using the site: userhelp@theguardian.com Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard: +44 (0)20 3353 2000 Advertising guide License/buy our content

Martin Rowson 2013 Previous Series: The Guardian comment cartoon

Martin Rowson on David Cameron and the green agenda cartoon Justin Welby has got his wires crossed on fashion
The archbishop of Canterbury accuses fashion of hijacking the crucifix, but he misses the point: today it belongs to everybody
Harriet Walker The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 18.11 GMT Jump to comments ()

Madonna exploits religious iconography at the start of her Confessions world tour at Wembley in 2006. Photograph: Dave Hogan/Getty Images

If there is anyone out there who doesn't have enough to be shocked about, you can bet your John Galliano that the fashion industry will find some way to offend them within the next five minutes. That's what fashion thrives on: subversion and irreverence; an immaculately groomed, sneering Johnny Rotten worth millions, the world's bestdressed troll. The latest person to express outrage at this industry's flagrant disregard for common decency is the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who writes in the foreword to his first Lent book that the crucifix has become a fashion statement, devoid of religious meaning. This from a man who regularly wears a dress made of gold. To claim the cross as simply a Christian motif now is to exist in a vacuum. To express disappointment at the fact it has become just another bauble is to miss the point entirely, something the church has proved adept at for 2,000 years. When institutions insist on stasis, they become irrelevant. And when they do that in high dudgeon, they invite iconoclasm something fashion has proved adept at for just as long. People have worn crosses as decoration since Christ was taken down from his: just look at any Giotto frescoes or Renaissance dandy portraits. Devout, God-fearing people from a time when the cross meant everything and when it was just as much of an ornament as it is now. What Welby doesn't appear to realise is that the cross has more meaning now than it ever has done, thanks, in part, to its rehabilitation at the hands of what he calls "fashion", but what is actually just habit and custom. For many, the cross is a piece of jewellery you don't take off, rather than a trend. Before "fashion" made it ubiquitous, you mostly saw the cross on banners over the heads of knights sacking cities; before fashion, it was a symbol under which men and women were arbitrarily burned to death. We have evolved to wear crucifixes on necklaces without feeling the crushing weight of potential divine wrath and brimstone. Now you see 14th-century-style devotional mosaics picked out in paillettes across a dress by Dolce & Gabbana, and Byzantine-style crosses inlaid on leather under the instructions of Donatella Versace. These mischievous Italian designers are working in the high Catholic mode, inspired by the opulence of the religion their country has grown up with. They weave religious imagery into their work, not to strip it of meaning but because it remains at the heart of their culture still. Not, perhaps, for its dogma, but for its iconography, its traditions, its teachings. And for its beauty. The appropriation of the establishment into popular culture is nothing new. In the wake of the 60s and punk, we have no more hallowed icons to tiptoe around. It's a free-for-all. Look around and you'll see people walking about in Tshirts printed with CCCP or plastered with Che Guevara's face. Look further and you see people in faked approximations of designer logos that they've been traduced doesn't detract from their meaning; it gives them a new story. This is no bad thing. Once, people wore the cross for protection. Thankfully, we don't need to live by talismans and the evil eye any more: we have science. So our lingering affection for the cross is entirely symbolic. What Welby doesn't realise is that advertising execs would kill their firstborn to come up with something with such visual traction, something that needs no explanation and no translation. The archbishop should reflect on the fact that religion must adapt to survive. We are a Christian culture, if not a Christian nation any more. That the cross no longer stands for exactly what it signified in the 13th century is logical. And it's a comfortable osmosis. I'd take trendy over tyranny any day.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Editorials & reply

European Union: Britain and the larger view From the archive: 30 November 1985: Botham hits final boundary I hear a tap, tap, tap, but who is doing the tapping? Unthinkable? 007, working-class hero Adhoc-o-nomics: the market and the state Corrections and clarifications UK must protest at Bedouin expulsion Putting the record stright on JFK, civil rights and Vietnam Female philosophers Goodbye, Araucaria, and thank you On your boat Good to meet you Paul Shillito Calling Ian Watkins evil absolves us of the need to try to comprehend what he did

European Union: Britain and the larger view

At a time when prejudices against the EU are being so energetically fanned here, it is important to remember how important all this still is
Editorial The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 22.57 GMT Jump to comments ()

It is a measure of the introversion and strategic poverty of Britain's current conversation about Europe that only two EU-related matters have much domestic salience this weekend. The first is the emergence from the House of Commons of James Wharton's private member's bill on an in-out EU referendum, which now moves to the House of Lords. The second is the latest chapter in the continuing hysteria and, yes, nastiness over the scale of Bulgarian and Romanian migration to the UK when common travel rights kick in in the new year. To say this is not to argue that these developments lack significance. Both of them undoubtedly have real resonance in British politics. The Wharton bill seeks to put the UK's membership of the EU at the centre of British politics between now and 2017, by which date the bill requires the holding of a referendum. The migration scare, on the other hand, is a particularly shameless variant of the core anti-European pretence that the EU is all about "them" prospering at the expense of "us". Both issues are in part the products of an anti-European agenda, backed by a biased press, whose immediate importance lies in their impact within the Conservative party and between the Tories and Ukip, but whose longer-term effect and intention is to feed a general fear of foreigners and scepticism towards the work of the EU. These priorities are particularly shabby when in fact something of genuine importance was happening in Europe this

week. The EU summit that ended in Vilnius yesterday sought to set the dial on a new and better partnership between the EU and the nations on its eastern flank, which must all balance relations between the EU to the west and Russia to the east. Russia's active hostility towards such partnerships with the EU means progress at the summit was limited. Both Georgia and Moldova initialled association agreements with the EU in Vilnius, but Armenia and Ukraine (the latter by far the largest country involved) have stopped short. At a time when prejudices against the EU are being so energetically fanned here, it is important to remember how important all this still is. After 1989, seeking to bring Europe together in the aftermath of communism, the UK was rightly in the van of attempts to get the EU to enlarge to the east, beyond the German and Austrian borders. The new movement of labour rights which are now exciting such hostility on the right are part of the solemn promise of an embrace that we made back then. So, in its own way, is the process inching forward in Vilnius this week. In spite of its many defects and problems, the European project remains a process of historic importance. Britain was right to be part of it in 1989, and is right to remain part of it now.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

From the archive: 30 November 1985: Botham hits final boundary

Ian Botham hit Land's End yesterday. No charges are being preferred indeed all was sweetness and great good humour as members of the Cornish constabulary joined in the finishing line chorus of There's Only One Ian Botham
The Guardian, Saturday 30 November 2013 Jump to comments ()

Ian Botham relaxes after finishing his John O'Groats to Land's End charity walk. Photograph: Adrian Murrell/Getty Images

Ian Botham hit Land's End yesterday. No charges are being preferred indeed all was sweetness and great good humour as members of the Cornish constabulary joined in the finishing line chorus of There's Only One Ian Botham with a group of around a thousand people waiting at the "last hotel in England". Selina Scott was there to meet him and then, as promised, he went in for a swim in Sennen Cove. Botham set out from John O'Groats five weeks ago

and then, as promised, he went in for a swim in Sennen Cove. Botham set out from John O'Groats five weeks ago this morning to collect for the Leukaemia Research Fund. The walk will be rounded off with a final collection in London on Monday, when he will present his cheque to the fund at Great Ormond Street Hospital. The total will be around 500,000 at 874 miles that is about 572 a mile. He averaged 4mph, walking for 220 hours or nine complete days. The distance is the equivalent of 70,000 cricketing singles. No wonder he prefers sixes. He got through four pairs of trainers. He reckons his legs and feet need a week of rest though his back gives slightly more cause for concern if a stress injury is confirmed. He leaves for England's cricket tour of the West Indies on 27 January. An hour from the finish Botham and the three companions who have kept up with him throughout the journey John Border, brother of the Australian cricket captain, Phil Rance, a Manchester hairdresser, and Chris Lander, the sports journalist changed into morning suits and promenaded down the final hill doffing their toppers, Ascot-fashion. At the finish, the Penryn School brass band competed with the loudspeaker that was playing the country-and-western recording by Botham and his buddy, Bobby Buck, Just Take Time to Care For the Helpless Kids Out There. Ian then gave a smiling, one-word-only press conference: "Knackered." At once a damp grey tarpaulin of mist closed in over the headland to muffle eerily the sound of the BBC's hired helicopter and the general squawk of the Desert Island Discs seagulls. There was light enough, nevertheless, for the cricketer to throw into the sea the walk's organiser, Steve Andezier whom Botham referred to throughout his five painful weeks as "Hitler". The event might have caused one or two hairy moments, in more senses than one, for the police down the route. That the walk captured the public's admiration and support was evident from the crowds who stopped the traffic to mob the great all-rounder through every town and city as well as the little huddle of locals who stood waiting for hours at every deserted crossroads in the wilds from Caithness to Cornwall.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

I hear a tap, tap, tap, but who is doing the tapping?

Sandy, Bedfordshire: The sound had the exact tone of a beak on wood and I guessed this was a nuthatch hammering a nut or seed into a crevice
Derek Niemann The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 21.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

A nuthatch (Sitta europaea). Photograph: Alamy

The tap, tap, tapping began just as I passed the biggest sweet chestnut in the wood. I was looking down at the time, noticing how autumn had been pounded into winter. The tramp of countless feet had already pressed the chestnut's leaves into pulp. Though completely flattened, they had preserved their jagged outlines. Newly fallen leaves showed fine ribs and curly edges, awaiting their turn. The sound came again, each blow a tick of a tap, a light, precise strike. It had the exact tone of a beak on wood and I guessed this was a nuthatch hammering a nut or seed into a crevice, provisioning for winter. As if in jubilant confirmation, one called pwooee, pwooee from a little way into the wood. My eyes began to climb the tree, my body swaying this way and that to snake around the trunk and catch sight of the bird. Another round of taps came from somewhere out to the left maybe from the next tree? I was standing beneath the neighbouring chestnut, fingertips touching the trunk, when a nuthatch called high up. But a split second later, too quickly for it to be the same bird, the tapping started up once more. Now it appeared to originate from some laurel bushes between the chestnuts. There was a gap, an entrance to the laurel bower. I stepped inside and could see two small birds flitting among the branches above. One was unmistakably a blue tit, giving a chirruping one song fits all. The other was a great tit. It landed on a thick branch above my head. I saw the end of its tail poking out of one side of the branch and its head out of the other. The bird's beak rose and fell purposefully, striking the wood "tap, tap, tap!" A wise birdwatcher once coined a saying that if you hear a bird call in a wood that you don't recognise, it will be a great tit. It seems the puzzle can be extended to percussion. But what was the bird doing?

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Unthinkable? 007, working-class hero

Lewis Collins's greatest disappointment was his failure to get the James Bond role after Roger Moore
Editorial The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 23.03 GMT Jump to comments ()

A tribute to Lewis Collins, the Mojo musician who became famous in the late 1970s as hit man Bodie in The Professionals, reveals that his greatest disappointment was not his decision to be a hairdresser rather than join the Beatles as a drummer but his failure to get the James Bond role after Roger Moore. Too aggressive, it was said, but

Beatles as a drummer but his failure to get the James Bond role after Roger Moore. Too aggressive, it was said, but really since they chose cleft-chinned toff Timothy Dalton instead they probably meant he wasn't smooth enough. Yet, as Ian Fleming said when he wrote to the Guardian in 1958 to defend his creation against encouraging a cult of luxury (eg choosing a brand of cigarette for its exclusivity rather than its taste), his James Bond was meant to be a blank sheet, an unobtrusive figure to whom exotic things happened. The personal style the martini cocktail and the Walther PPK were added as mere dabs of colour, at least as understood by an old Etonian living in Jamaica. It was Hollywood, not Fleming, that fleshed out the empire's last superhero, building up his suave style and the one-liners and making him a maverick rather than Fleming's classic Englishman. But Fleming enjoyed suggesting that Bond's sadistic violence was actually a rejection of the post-war world of teeth and specs on the state, while what one critic called his satyriasis was, according to Fleming, merely blatant heterosexuality in a world of gender confusion. It's harder to know the face of the enemy now, and Daniel Craig's Bond has become less upper-crust and more complex. But not yet a man of the people.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Adhoc-o-nomics: the market and the state

The brute facts of the crisis are starting to make themselves felt on practical thinking, albeit five years too late
Editorial The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 22.51 GMT Jump to comments ()

Keynes is wrong. Whatever "those in authority" are doing, they are not "distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler". Public policy towards markets in energy, credit, housing and more is swerving around fast, but this is not movement born of ideas. Scholarly economics remains stuck in the same ossified mould as before 2008. Rather, as stagnant living standards and inequality come to mark out the recovery in the same way that they marked out the boom until 2007, the brute facts of the crisis are starting to make themselves felt on practical thinking, albeit five years too late. The pre-crisis consensus of the elite was that prosperity depended more than anything else on the government not meddling too much. Corporations had to be left to get on with making things, which consumers had to be trusted to buy on the strength of whatever they could convince each other their houses were worth. While the good times were rolling, the failure to challenge this model was perhaps understandable; after the bust, it was baffling. Yet just this year, George Osborne was reported to be quipping to cabinet that "we will get a little housing boom, and everyone will be happy as property values go up". This week, however, the governor of the Bank of England, whom Mr Osborne hand-picked, made plain that he, for one, is not so sanguine. Mark Carney's redirection of the Bank's funding for lending financing scheme from mortgages to small business loans is a welcome retreat from the ideology that "all transactions are equal". It is a welcome signal, too, that the Bank will pay some regard to the balance as well as the pace of a recovery, which regional and sectoral data suggests is skewed. This was not a move Mr Carney will have made lightly. For one thing, it could undercut the efficacy of the chancellor's own help to buy scheme. For another, as a former Goldman Sachs man, insofar as Mr Carney has ideological instincts, they are orthodox. He is only concerned with the structure and not the level of City pay; he

ideological instincts, they are orthodox. He is only concerned with the structure and not the level of City pay; he subjects all proposals to influence the distribution of lending to the question: is this Gosplan? But Mr Carney is not, first and foremost, an intellectual; he is a practical executive who wants to get things done, and that is no bad thing. Faced with data showing puffed up house prices and depressed business loans, he saw that things must change. Sniffing a new housing bubble, he uses an interview with the Guardian today to remind homebuyers to ask themselves whether they will be able to afford mortgage payments after rates eventually rise. Coming days before the autumn statement, the Bank's intervention could shake-up the script for and even some of the numbers in the chancellor's set-piece. That would be more of a worry were the government not having so much difficulty in getting its own story straight about the economic borders of the state. It was quite impossible to cap usurious loans until this week, when it was suddenly announced it would be done. Unfettered enterprise was trusted to secure fair private pensions until, last month, charges for these were announced capped too (though at a level more responsible firms say remains too high). Plain cigarette packs were an intervention too far, until on Thursday they were worth looking at afresh. Messiest of all is the chaos of the panicked response to Ed Miliband's modest proposal for a fuel bill freeze. Although the need to rescue the initial attack on the Labour policy as a doctrinaire "con" required No 10 to backpedal frantically yesterday, it has emerged that the big energy companies were being sounded out about freezing bills for as long as practicable, no doubt in the hope that this would be until beyond May 2015. It is not edifying to watch the rules of state intervention being rewritten in the hoof, with ad hoc adjustments which would never appeal to a scholarly scribbler. But it is surely better than the alternative returning to a bankrupt version of business as usual.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Corrections and clarifications

RNLI exhibition | Andrew Sells | Roberto Calasso
Corrections and clarifications column editor The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 20.59 GMT

The caption on a centre-spread picture published on 26 November (Eyewitness: Mousehole, Cornwall, pages 26 & 27), showing a lifeboat in heavy seas, said it was "An image from Courage on our Coasts, an exhibition of photographs by lifeboat crew member Nigel Millard which will be at the Old Coastguard hotel until 4 March, when the RNLI marks its 140th anniversary". In fact the Royal National Lifeboat Institution will mark its 190th anniversary next year, having been founded on 4 March 1824. The main Courage on our Coasts exhibition run by the organisation is currently touring cities in the UK and Ireland (for dates and locations see www.rnli.org.uk/courageonourcoasts). The parallel exhibition at the Old Coastguard, in Mousehole, Cornwall, runs from 8 December to 4 March. An article about the selection of Andrew Sells as the government's preferred candidate for the post of chairman of Natural England said he co-founded the venture capital group Sovereign Capital. That information was included in a government press release, but the company has since contacted the Guardian to inform us that, while Andrew Sells was a co-founder of Nash Sells & Partners Limited, he left that firm six months before it was reborn, after significant

was a co-founder of Nash Sells & Partners Limited, he left that firm six months before it was reborn, after significant changes, as Sovereign Capital in November 2000 (Tory donor chosen to head Natural England, 29 November, page 18). The surname of Roberto Calasso, the author of La Folie Baudelaire, was misspelled as Galasso in a feature in last Saturday's Review section in which writers and critics recommended the books that have most impressed them this year (Get stuck in, 23 November, pages 2-4).

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Letters

UK must protest at Bedouin expulsion

The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 17.17 GMT

Earlier this year, the Israeli knesset approved the Prawer-Begin plan. If implemented, this plan will result in the destruction of more than 35 Palestinian towns and villages in Al-Naqab (Negev) in the south of Israel and the expulsion and confinement of up to 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins. It means forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes and land, and systematic discrimination and separation. The Israeli government is pushing ahead with this plan despite the Palestinian Bedouin community's complete rejection of the plan, and condemnation from human rights groups. Palestinians are holding mass demonstrations in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territory to oppose the Prawer plan and urge international governments to take action capable of pressuring Israel to abandon the plan. The UK government emphasises that it has raised concerns about the forced displacement of Bedouin Palestinians "at the highest levels". Yet such statements ring hollow when the UK government continues to export arms to Israel and continues its ties with the Israeli government and industry. It is time for the UK government to make its relationship with Israel conditional on respect for human rights and international law and take concrete action to hold Israel to account. John Akomfrah OBE Artist, film director, writer Yasmin Alibhai-Brown Author, journalist Rodney Bickerstaffe Bidisha writer Broadcaster Howard Brenton Playwright David Calder Actor Professor Michael Chanan Author Julie Christie Actor Jeremy Corbyn MP William Dalrymple Historian, author, broadcaster Andy de la Tour Actor Jeremy Deller Artist

Brian Eno Musician Bella Freud Fashion designer Peter Gabriel Musician Antony Gormley Trevor Griffiths Playwright Betty Hunter Rt Hon Sir Gerald Kaufman MP Bruce Kent Peace campaigner Jemima Khan Writer, campaigner Professor Tom Kibble FRS Mike Leigh Writer, director Ken Loach Director Caroline Lucas MP Jeff McMillan Artist Michael Mansfield QC Prof. Nur Masalha Jonathan Miller KBE Author, director, broadcaster Professor Laura Mulvey Author Dr. Karma Nabulsi Dr Susie Orbach Psychoanalyst, author Profesor Ilan Pappe Historian, author Miranda Pennell Artist, filmmaker Cornelia Parker OBE Artist Michael Radford Director Professor Jacqueline Rose Author Professor Steven Rose Gillian Slovo Author Professor Avi Shlaim Historian, author Dr Salman Abu Sitta Historian Professor John Smith Artist Keith Sonnet Baroness Jenny Tonge Harriet Walter DBE Actor Marina Warner Author, historian Jane Wilson Artist Louise Wilson Artist Christine Blower General secretary, NUT Pat Gaffney General secretary, Pax Christi Billy Hayes General secretary, CWU Richard Kuper Jews for Justice for Palestinians Hugh Lanning Chair, Palestine Solidarity Campaign Len McCluskey General secretary, Unite Profesor Jonathan Rosenhead British Committee for Universities for Palestine Mick Whelan General secretary, Aslef

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Letters

Putting the record stright on JFK, civil rights and Vietnam

The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 21.00 GMT

It is Paul Donovan's right to loathe President Kennedy with every fibre of his being (Letters, 27 November), but he needs to get his facts right. 1) Civil Rights. It was JFK who, far from showing "a complete lack of interest" in the civil rights of African Americans, dispatched the National Guard in 1963 to enforce schools integration. Lyndon Johnson's civil rights and voting rights legislation of 1964-65 was largely framed by Robert Kennedy in his role as attorney general under JFK and, briefly, under Johnson. JFK lacked the political clout which enabled LBJ to get it past the Dixiecrats in Congress. 2) Vietnam. If Donovan consults the Pentagon Papers, he will find that one of Kennedy's last acts was to order the withdrawal of 1,000 of the 16,000 US military personnel then in Vietnam and to have Robert McNamara announce from the steps of the White House that he intended to effect a complete withdrawal by the end of 1965. It was Johnson who escalated the war to the extent that he needed to introduce the draft, with all the ensuing socially divisive consequences. The removal of Diem in 1963 was certainly a murky episode, but it is worth noting that his replacement, General "Big" Minh, was a neutralist, who was prepared to negotiate with the north. For that reason, no doubt, his tenure did not long survive LBJ's accession and, for the same reason, no doubt, he was dragged out of retirement in 1973 to negotiate with the insurgents when Nixon decided to withdraw. Brian Burden Braintree, Essex Fred Litten's letter on JFK and Vietnam has to be challenged. He accuses JFK of being responsible for the escalation in US forces. In fact JFK ordered a withdrawal of 1,000 military advisers by the end of 1963 and the "bulk" of the US military presence by the end of 1965. This order was contained in National Security Action Memorandum 263 of 11 October 1963. As for morality, what could be more moral than seeking to avoid nuclear conflagration by negotiating with Khrushchev? Reasons enough, though, for the rabid right to want him removed. Bob Nicholson Frodsham, Cheshire On 7 December there is another Willy Brandt anniversary (Letters, 26 November) the "silent apology" in Warsaw in 1970 when he sank to his knees, capturing for many the inability to put into words the horror visited on Europe (and elsewhere) of the Nazi project and a turning point in Europe's and especially Germany's engagement with those events. Dr Paul Machon Arthingworth, Leicestershire

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Letters

Female philosophers
The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 21.00 GMT

Jonathan Wolff is perhaps a tad out of touch (Report, 26 November). There are any number of bright young and not so young women philosophers in the UK. The question is: do the men read the articles, blogs and books of these women? Do they listen to the contributions made by them at seminars, and conferences? A woman professor of philosophy would have been able to think of six or seven ranking professors of philosophy whose work they admire, who also happen to be women: Helen Beebee, Nancy Cartwright, Tina Chanter, Jen Hornsby, Catherine Malabou, Onora O'Neill, Jenny Saul. Perspective is a funny thing. At Manchester Metropolitan we are holding a series of lectures in spring 2014 by philosophers young and old, senior and early career, on various aspects of the hoary topic Women and Philosophy. The men have been expelling us ever since Plato. Professor Joanna Hodge Manchester Metropolitan University

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Letters

Goodbye, Araucaria, and thank you

The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 21.00 GMT

Illustration by David Gibson

The Guardian has lost a terrific crossword setter but, with the passing of John Graham, Somersham has lost a gentleman who was truly a gentle man (Araucaria, Obituaries, 27 November). Our friends Gail and Pierre were married by John at Gail's request and he conducted a service that was unique. A memorable occasion because it was uplifting, sincere and, above all, infused with a sense of fun on such a happy occasion. He was a member of the Somersham reading group and its gatherings will never be quite the same now he is gone. Village quiz nights will now lack some sparkle and zest for there was always stiff competition to be the first to get John on to a team; and he was fair in that he always attempted to sit on a different team on each occasion. Learned, erudite, eloquent, witty and self-effacing about his sharp-minded crossword-setting skill he was all of those and more. He will be long remembered and sadly missed by us all. Paul and Vicky Faupel Somersham, Cambridgeshire We knew his death was imminent but the passing of John Graham, better known to cruciverbalists as Araucaria (Guardian) and Cinephile (Financial Times) will hit the crossword community hard. I had the pleasure of corresponding with John by post from 2000 until 2004. I drank two glasses of fine champagne to toast his memory. Fittingly, I won this in a crossword competition in 2003. The only Araucaria prize puzzle I won was No 23,022, the Christmas 2003 jumbo. I also succeeded in winning Cinephile prize puzzles in 2004 and 2008. Three of the best. Hip-hip-hooray! Nicholas Edward Swindon, Wiltshire I will always remember the frisson of excitement, on turning to the crossword, to find the name of Araucaria as the compiler, and especially so if it were a themed or alphabetical challenge. I wonder if other readers would agree that for the Guardian to publish his collected works would be one suitable tribute to this unsurpassed genius of compilers. Sheila Edmunds Altrincham, Cheshire Warm summer days on the beach, dad with the Guardian crossword firmly on his lap, Christmas specials and the call from the lounge, "just one clue left!". All was right with the world. Farewell, Araucaria, and thank you. Professor David Stephens Brighton, East Sussex Congratulations and thanks to the Guardian for the sincere, perceptive coverage of Araucaria's death. For my 80th birthday last year, my family commissioned a killer-grade personal crossword my life in a crossword. Never has a gift brought such pleasure. It took me two days to complete except for one last clue which took 10 days! I feel I have lost a friend of some 30 years. Joan Purkiss Beverley, East Yorkshire If, on opening the Guardian on a Saturday, I punched the air and yelled "Yesss!", my wife knew what that meant: an alphabetical. Brian Booth Rochester, Kent My favourite Araucarian clue is "Yogdaws" (3, 5, 2, 10, 4). "God moves in mysterious ways". Professor Nicholas Lash

Cambridge Will never forget laughing out loud when I got "Over-complicated way to say 'were you our teacher?'" (Tortuous). Wal Callaby Ipswich My favourite clue was "Excellent host, or absent-minded pet owner (4 7 3)". "Puts himself out". Marion Bolton Middlesbrough John Graham made such a fantastic contribution to the cultural heritage. His holiday specials in particular deserve the highest praise, from shipping forecast maps and "bob doubles" to Christmas messages running round the outside of a giant grid. Heartfelt goodbye to a sweet and lovely man. Ian Shaw Beckenham, Kent

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

On your boat
The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 21.00 GMT

Should it come as any surprise that Ukraine has ditched, at least temporarily, its goal of signing an association agreement with the EU because of the latter's unwillingness to promote fair and balanced economic relations (Report, 23 November). There are millions of people in Greece, Spain, Cyprus and other states on the periphery of Europe whose view of the EU is not that dissimilar. Theo Kyriacou Ware, Hertfordshire In 1981 Norman Tebbit famously suggested that the feckless unemployed should get on their bikes and find work. It is a symptom of how far British politics has shifted to the right since then that Guardian letter writers (29 November) now exhort them to get on boats and planes to somehow find work in countries with even higher unemployment and even lower wages than their own. Peter McKenna Liverpool A few weeks ago the Co-op took out a full page advertisement proclaiming "Ethics has always been in our DNA but now it's in our constitution". Now the Royal Mail has also taken a full page to emphasise its on-going commitment to its customers. Worrying? Peter Jones Cheltenham

 Bruce Kent tells the Scots to forget Culloden (Letters, 28 November). Oh dear, another persistent myth. Culloden was the last battle in a civil war between the Stuarts and the Hanoverians about who should be king of Britain and Ireland. Scots fought on both sides and support for "Bonnie Prince Charlie" (he of shortbread biscuit tin fame) in Scotland wasn't that great even within the Highlands, which were subsequently portrayed as rising en masse for him. Max Bancroft Edinburgh People upset about a building that resembles a vagina (Report, 29 November)? Bit of balance against all the priapic horrors other architects erect, isn't it? Rod Warrington Chester There is joy in heaven over one former Sun editor who repents (David Yelland, Comment, 29 November). Cllr Rev Geoff Reid Bradford

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Good to meet you Paul Shillito

This English teacher, who doesn't miss Julie Burchill, uses extracts from the Guardian in his lessons
The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 21.00 GMT

Good to meet you Paul Shillito

I began reading the Guardian when a teenager as an antidote to my parents' choice of newspapers, which started out on the right wing and then went further. I thought I needed a little more balance with my news coverage; I was entirely correct, because only via the Guardian did I become aware that maybe we couldn't blame everything on Ken Livingstone. When I became an English teacher (my preferred career choice since the age of 14), it soon became clear that the

Guardian was probably our profession's preferred read as it seemed less strident in many of its opinions (if maybe a little cosy sometimes). I thoroughly appreciate the online edition and am always grateful that there seems to be no explicit move to erect a paywall, meaning that any interesting snippets mentioned on the Twitter feed can be accessed quickly. And it makes it far easier to use extracts in my lessons my classes are usually quick to pick up my perspective on news stories. I read often with slack-jawed astonishment and shouting the outpourings of Julie Burchill until there came an inevitable parting of ways. These days I enjoy Simon Hoggart and Lucy Mangan for their acerbic observations. The Guide is just a marvel. It was there that I experienced the excoriating prose of Charlie Brooker and now receive useful pointers for what visual media treats might lie ahead. I don't read the whole newspaper as often as I used to, but it is my go-to news provider when I want to know more than just the headlines, a habit I try hard to instil in my students. If you would like to be interviewed in this space, send a brief note to good.to.meet.you@theguardian.com

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Calling Ian Watkins evil absolves us of the need to try to comprehend what he did
Trying to understand evil as something of this world locates it dangerously close to all of us as human beings
Giles Fraser The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 16.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

Ian Watkins of the rock band Lostprophets has pleaded guilty to 13 sexual offences, including two of attempting to rape a baby. Photograph: South Wales Police/PA

This week, a 36-year-old Welsh rock singer called Ian Watkins from the band Lostprophets no, I had never heard

This week, a 36-year-old Welsh rock singer called Ian Watkins from the band Lostprophets no, I had never heard of them either - pleaded guilty to 13 sexual offences, including two of attempting to rape a baby. The prosecuting barrister told the court that the two women standing beside him in the dock had also "sexually abused their own children and made them available to Watkins for him to abuse." Watkins had sent a text to one of the women: "If you belong to me, so does your baby." Now, I have no interest in trying to enter into some sort of crass competition over outrage. Or, at least, I wish I didn't. For there is a part of me that now wants to write something like this: "Ian Watkins is a walking advertisement for the death penalty." But, the thing is, I don't believe in the death penalty. Thinking about this level of evil it is easy to be lost for words. I do not resile from the force of the word evil. Yet there is a problem with it because of its metaphysical implications, it suggests evil as something alien and other, something of which we are possessed, something that takes us over. This, of course, is a staple of the horror movie genre. But the problem here is that we can too easily think of evil as something outside of ourselves. And this is convenient because it absolves us of the deeply unpleasant task of recognising that the Ian Watkinses of this world are precisely that: of this world. We reach for a term like evil because it also allows us to say that we do not understand. And we want not to understand for two reasons: first, because understanding sounds a little too much like forgiveness or even some sort of sympathy or endorsement (which, emphatically, it is not); and second, because understanding evil as something human locates it dangerously close to me as a fellow human being. Part of the reason we compete over outrage is that we want to signal that this sort of behaviour has nothing to do with us, with me. It is a way of banishing someone from the human family hence the death penalty. That is why we sometimes call this sort of behaviour inhuman. But nonetheless, I really still don't understand. Being sexually attracted to young teenagers is wrong. But being sexually attracted to babies is incomprehensible. Maybe, however, we are looking at it upside down if we think of it as primarily a sexual thing. This idea helped me. "Perversion," argues Robert Stoller in a book of the same name, "is the erotic form of hatred the hostility in perversion takes the form of a fantasy of revenge [that] serves to convert childhood trauma into adult triumph." Or, to put in another way: "There are those who fuck from desire," wrote the (himself highly problematic) psychoanalyst Masud Khan, "and those who fuck from intent. The latter are perverts. Because intent, by definition, implies the exercise of will and power to achieve its ends, whereas desire implies mutuality and reciprocity for its gratification." So maybe tentatively something like this: paedophilia is not about sex per se, but sex as control. For the most part, having desire is about being out of control. Of not having power over the object of our desire. Some of those for whom this out-of-control-ness is intolerable seek an object of their "sexual" attention that is entirely within their control. Hence babies. Maybe, then, we find the idea of sexual attraction towards babies unimaginable because we are thinking about it the wrong way round. Its not a pathology of sex, it's a pathology of power. Twitter: @giles_fraser

Sign up for the Guardian Today

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Obituaries

Saul Leiter obituary Frances David obituary Hetty Bower obituary Frank Gray obituary Stephen Bower obituary Reg Simpson obituary

Saul Leiter obituary

Photographer with a painter's eye for composition and abstraction
Sean O'Hagan The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 14.06 GMT Jump to comments ()

Snow (1960) by Paul Leiter: he often photographed passersby through, or reflected in, windows. Photograph: Saul Leiter, Courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery

Saul Leiter, who has died aged 89, was one of the quiet men of American photography. A pioneer of colour, he remained relatively unsung until he was rediscovered by curators and critics in his early 80s. Even then, Leiter was reluctant to accept the belated praise heaped upon him. "What makes anyone think that I'm any good?" he asked Tomas Leach, who directed the feature-length documentary In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life With Saul Leiter (2012). "I'm not carried away by the greatness of Mr Leiter." That greatness, though, was evident in his often painterly images, which evoked the flow and rhythm of life on the mid-century streets of New York in luminous colour, at a time when his contemporaries were shooting in black and white. In the received history of American photography, it was Stephen Shore and William Eggleston who were the trailblazers of colour photography in the early 1970s, but Leiter was using Kodachrome colour slide film at least two decades earlier. The photographs he created are, in their softly lit, neon poetry, a direct contrast to the clamour and movement of William Klein's New York images or the out-of-kilter kinetic energy that characterises Gary

movement of William Klein's New York images or the out-of-kilter kinetic energy that characterises Gary Winogrand's street photographs. Brigitte Woischnik, who co-edited the catalogue for a Leiter retrospective in Hamburg last year, dubbed him "the Promenader", which deftly suggests his relaxed but utterly attentive approach to street photography, a term that now seems too reductive when applied to his work. Leiter's street photographs, as unhurried as those of Helen Levitt, are more complex and impressionistic. They are as much about evoking an atmosphere as nailing the decisive moment. Leiter was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was given his first camera, a Detrola, by his mother in 1935, the year before the first Kodachrome film for 35mm cameras was produced by Kodak. In the 1940s, Leiter trained as a rabbi in Cleveland and simultaneously found some local success as a painter. His decision to pursue an artistic vocation caused considerable pain to his father, an Orthodox rabbi and scholar of some repute. "I turned away from everything he believed in and cared about," Leiter said. In 1947, one of his paintings was included in the Art Institute of Chicago's survey show Abstract and Surrealist American Art. Having met and befriended the photographer W Eugene Smith, he began working seriously with a Rolleiflex. In 1951, his series The Wedding As a Funeral was published in Life magazine. By 1957, he was juggling art and fashion work. He contributed to Esquire magazine, and another of his series was included in an installation at the Museum of Modern Art entitled Experimental Photography in Colour, curated by Edward Steichen. (Three years earlier, when Steichen was putting together the exhibition The Family of Man at Moma, Leiter had declined his request to submit work for it, thinking his photographs were not up to the required standard.) Leiter worked regularly as a fashion photographer for Harper's Bazaar, Elle and British Vogue until the 1980s, and in 1991 his fashion pictures were included in a show at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, curated by the art historian Martin Harrison. The following year, his early black and white work was included in a book, The New York School: Photographs 1936-63, but, though a member of that esteemed circle alongside Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Bruce Davidson, Levitt and Weegee he was an outsider even among its disparate array of great talents. It is his colour photographs of New York that matter. Mostly taken in and around the East Village neighbourhood where he lived, they are oblique and oddly intimate. He often photographed passersby through, or reflected in, windows. Frequently, the windows are steamed or grimy and the end results blurred, hazy and multi-layered. Passing cars and taxis are another motif, with a shadowy outline of the human figure or, in one memorable picture, a single hand visible inside. People are often glimpsed though slightly open doorways or partially concealed by pillars. His photographs of New York in the snow suggest a kind of opaque otherworld where everything and everyone is rendered indistinct. The warmth of Leiter's colours can give way to more faded tones, an effect that he achieved by intentionally using out-of-date Kodachrome film. Just how daring Leiter's vision was can be measured in two early colour photographs. The first, made in 1950, is simply called T, and features the capital letter outlined boldly amid a wash of grey that is a steamed windowpane, through which is visible a pink shape that may just be the umbrella of a passing person. It could almost be an abstract painting. In a later photograph, Walk With Soames (1958), neon street lights and washes of colour stand out against a dark, looming building and the familiar outline of a traffic light against a light grey sky. A human figure is glimpsed in a blurred silhouette, but it is the shapes and colours that intrigue. Leiter was a singularly gifted photographer because he never stopped looking at life with a painter's eye for composition and abstraction. The Soames of that title was his longtime friend, muse and lover, Soames Bantry, a model turned painter. She died in 2002. "Love comes and goes," he wrote in a short elegy to her. "Friendship is sometimes better, but not always Our lives were intertwined We stumbled though life together." They lived in the same building on separate floors and both experienced financial hardship. A natural iconoclast and an artist who preferred being unknown to being famous, Leiter was a one-off. His photographs are the quiet, yet vibrant, products of his refined imagination and his ever-attentive eye. "I like it when one is not certain what one sees," he said. "When we do not know why the photographer has taken a picture and when we do not know why we are looking at it, all of a sudden we discover something that we start seeing. I like this

when we do not know why we are looking at it, all of a sudden we discover something that we start seeing. I like this confusion." His brother Abba survives him. Saul Leiter, photographer, born 3 December 1923; died 26 November 2013

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Frances David obituary

Anthony Burbage The Guardian, Thursday 28 November 2013 17.47 GMT

The deputy headteacher of a large comprehensive school in Herefordshire, Frances David went to teach in Uganda in her retirement

"I've been waiting all my life to do this," exclaimed my mother-in-law, Frances David, when she flew off in 1993 to teach in Uganda after retiring as deputy head of a large comprehensive school, John Kyrle High, in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. Frances, who has died aged 80, led an active, practical and engaged life. Born in Newport, Gwent, the daughter of Sally and Geoff Rainforth, she married into a large farming family in her early 20s and quickly produced six children. However, the marriage did not last and she became a single parent and a teacher, a profession which, alongside her profound Christian faith, guided her life and principles. She had joined the Labour party while studying history at St Hugh's College, Oxford, but crossed over to the Social Democrats when they formed in the 1980s. She was closely involved in the negotiations that formed the Liberal Democrats in 1988 and stood as a parliamentary candidate for Newport East in 1983 and 1987 and for Monmouth in 1991. She was a tireless campaigner for CND and then later for fair trade, debt relief and peace. However, it was her work in Uganda that many will remember. She had a lifelong interest in Africa, and through

However, it was her work in Uganda that many will remember. She had a lifelong interest in Africa, and through church connections first went there to teach for a year after she retired. On her return, she was indefatigable in raising money for clean water wells through the Busoga Trust, and in sponsoring young people through school and university. She made sure that every penny donated went to someone who needed it. Holding court at her dinner table, she was always willing to argue a point, yet she would listen to others. Her generosity, warmth and tact made her many friends. An accomplished gardener, she turned the food she grew into many of the meals she shared. In her last weeks, in her beloved village of Skenfrith, Monmouthshire, she enjoyed sitting in her cottage garden with family and friends. She is survived by her children, Joanna, Lucy, Patrick, Rebecca, Thomas and Rosalind, 10 grandchildren and her brother, John.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Hetty Bower obituary

Bernard Miller The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 13.54 GMT

Hetty Bower began a late career as a public speaker in 2008, at the age of 102. She was invited to address schools, universities and rallies. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

Few people remember how an early event shaped them. Hetty Bower, who has died aged 108, did. A fingerwagging attempt by an older brother to browbeat the two-year-old Hetty developed in her a commitment to social justice, democracy and peace. It also left her with a tendency to wag her finger. Born Esther Rimel in Dalston, north-east London, she became an implacable opponent of war at the age of nine, when she saw the injuries of the returning veterans of the first world war. In 1926, she and her sister Anita sneaked away overnight to feed locked-out miners. Her sister Cis, a suffragette, took Hetty to concerts and taught her about

away overnight to feed locked-out miners. Her sister Cis, a suffragette, took Hetty to concerts and taught her about politics. Hetty and Anita joined the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries, the first union for women; for its successor, Unison, she marched on Hyde Park in 2011. Hetty joined the Labour party aged 17 and met Reg Bower while collecting dues from new members. They married in 1932 and that year joined the Independent Labour party, later leaving for the Communist party. After the Blair and Brown era, Hetty rejoined Labour. In the 1920s and 30s, Hetty and Reg travelled in Europe, attending the Workers' Olympiad in Vienna and camping with peace activists. She was a life member of the Youth Hostels Association; at the age of 104, she stayed at Bridges hostel in Shropshire while on a "training" walk for her Hertfordshire hike to raise money for Oxfam. During the second world war, Hetty ran a hostel in East Finchley, north London, for Czech refugees. She was a secretary at what became Bishopswood school, in Hornsey, where her daughter Margie later taught. Her public speaking began in 2008 when she addressed the Hiroshima Day commemoration in Tavistock Square, London, aged 102, full of nerves, though no listener could have guessed. Impressively clear and concise, she was invited to speak to schools and universities and at rallies. Hetty was widely interviewed by the media, and continued to march and demonstrate for peace and the NHS, against war and cuts. Her voice, affectionately likened to a foghorn poor hearing meant she was unaware how loudly she spoke sometimes gave the impression of sternness, but Hetty loved to laugh. She moved from a supporting role to being a keynote speaker. Hetty went on every march against the Iraq war, her daughters Margie and Celia accompanying her as they had since the early Aldermaston days. She marched against the proposed closure of the A&E unit at the Whittington hospital in north London, where Margie had been born. Hetty inspired listeners at the Labour party conference this year to continue to protest, saying: "We may not win, but if we do not protest we will lose." She gave the same message to the mainly Muslim children of an East End secondary school who staged a musical about the Battle of Cable Street last year, telling them: "Now it's up to your generation to stand against fascism and racism." Hetty had a stroke as she was about to leave home to speak at a primary school. Having sung the old CND standard The H-Bomb's Thunder in the hospital, she spoke its refrain, accompanied by her wagging finger: "Ban the bomb, for ever more." Reg died in 2001. Hetty is survived by Celia and Margie, two grandsons, Iain and Richard, and two great-grandsons, Sidney and George.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Frank Gray obituary

Natasha Gray

Natasha Gray The Guardian, Thursday 7 November 2013 12.36 GMT

Frank Gray's output included a biography of the playwright Brendan Behan

My father, Frank Gray, who has died aged 72 after suffering complications from a stroke, was a journalist, author and obituarist. His obituaries reflected his many passions: jazz, cinema, baseball, bullfighting, cigars and all things Spanish. His last obituary was of the baseball player Stan Musial. Frank also wrote about Gregorio Fuentes, the fisherman who inspired the character Santiago in Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, and Alejandro Robaina, a Cuban tobacco grower and master cigar-maker. Born and raised in San Francisco, Frank or Francisco as he sometimes preferred developed a passion for jazz at an early age. He saw many of the greats perform, including Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk. He met his future wife, Carole, on the ship back to North America after a life-changing journey to Europe in 1960. They married and settled in San Francisco in 1963, then moved to Canada after the Vietnam war broke out. Frank's career in journalism began at the Canadian Press in Toronto. There were further moves, to Montreal and Vancouver, when working for Air Canada, but Frank and his family eventually settled in London in the late 1970s. Frank reported for the Financial Times world trade and foreign pages for several years. As a journalist, he indulged his varied passions including interviewing Fidel Castro and Zino Davidoff in his role as the FT's "cigar correspondent". Forever nostalgic, Frank always liked to use his old Smith Corona typewriter at work. He would often exclaim to colleagues "I wanna smoke at my desk!" long after it was banned in offices. In 1986, Frank worked for Robert Maxwell's ambitious, yet short-lived, newspaper venture the London Daily News. He was lucky to leave with his pension intact. Frank's ability to navigate corporations served him well when, in later years, he successfully fought for the rights of fellow journalists. Frank spent many years, until retirement in 2002, editing business-themed newsletters for the FT. In retirement, despite the onset of Parkinson's disease, Frank completed a biography of the playwright Brendan Behan. The Crazy Life of Brendan Behan: The Rise and Fall of Dublin's Laughing Boy was published in 2010. He had nearly completed his second book, about only children, when he suffered a stroke. A charming and intelligent man, Frank was always great company and treated everyone equally. His modest, affable manner and mischievous sense of humour will be missed by many. Frank is survived by Carole, me and my brothers, Nicholas and Malcolm, and four grandchildren.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Stephen Bower obituary

Laura Cetinkaya The Guardian, Tuesday 19 November 2013 18.52 GMT

Stephen Bower was a talented player of baroque music and encouraged his children to take up an instrument

My father, Stephen Bower, who has died of cancer aged 69, was what every child would have hoped for in a parent: a patient, funny man with a twinkle in his eye, he could blow smoke from his nostrils like a dragon and was generous with piggy-back rides. He was born in Derby during a wartime bombing raid war, but grew up in Belfast, where his father, Edward, lectured in Latin at Queen's University and where, in due course, Edward and his wife Kathleen brought up a musical family of five children. In the early 1960s my father left Belfast to study classics at Oxford. Visiting his sister, Libby, at York University, he met Lesley, also a student there, and they married in 1974. His feelings about my mother are evident in the many photographs he took, his love for her clear for all to see in black and white. I was born in 1977, my brother, Jonathan, in 1980. Despite working long hours, my father was attentive and caring. He helped us with our homework and read to us, bringing the characters to life with great skill: he is my voice of Winnie the Pooh and of Lady Bracknell. He spent his working life at the technology and computer group IBM. In the days before laptop presentations, he used to draw diagrams on acetate slides. When I was eight, he asked me to draw an unflattering picture of him on one of the slides. I think it featured hairy ears, nose and knobbly knees; it then went into his presentation "accidentally". A talented player of baroque music, he taught me the recorder and encouraged me to learn the piano, the violin and the saxophone. He instilled in us a love of walking and an appreciation of the British countryside as well as ploughman's lunches, pubs and Dundee cake.

ploughman's lunches, pubs and Dundee cake. Recently, as I married and had children of my own, he became a grandfather to my daughters. He would make his hand into a creature that would tiptoe around on finger-legs and investigate the little people giggling at its appearance. He is survived by Lesley, Jonathan and me, and his granddaughters, Hulya and Selvi; and by three of his siblings, Libby, Michael and Mark.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Reg Simpson obituary

England batsman who set up a celebrated Ashes victory in 1951
David Frith The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 16.28 GMT Jump to comments ()

Reg Simpson snicks a ball close to the hands of the slips in a match between Nottinghamshire and Middlesex in 1954. Photograph: Associated Newspapers/Rex

Long-term cricket watchers sometimes think back to the Nottinghamshire and England batsman Reg Simpson, who has died aged 93, when the bouncers are flying nowadays. In an age when helmets were unheard of, this elegant player swayed neatly out of the line of the threatening ball, eventually persuading the bully boys that they were wasting their time. His most famous innings was an unbeaten 156 at Melbourne in 1951 that set up England's first victory in an Ashes Test for almost 13 years. Simpson, on his 31st birthday, was on 92 when the ninth wicket fell. England's last man was the non-batsman Roy Tattersall, whom Simpson shielded as best he could against Ray Lindwall, Keith Miller, Bill Johnston and Jack Iverson. They added 74 (Tattersall 10), Simpson finishing 156 not out, probably the bestremembered of his four Test hundreds, and Freddie Brown's side went on to a celebrated eight-wicket victory.

remembered of his four Test hundreds, and Freddie Brown's side went on to a celebrated eight-wicket victory. Earlier, Simpson had scored 259 against New South Wales (Lindwall and Miller firing away), which was to be the highest of his 10 first-class double centuries (nine of them for Nottinghamshire, the first against Warwickshire only a few weeks after his 1946 debut). Simpson was born in Sherwood Rise, Nottingham, and educated at Nottingham high school. At 16, he joined the local police force, playing cricket for the police team, and also for Nottinghamshire 2nd XI, but the second world war delayed his first-class debut. He joined the RAF and was posted to India, where he served as a pilot, reaching the rank of flight lieutenant and playing some first-class cricket for Sind and for Bombay Europeans. He was capped by Nottinghamshire soon after his 1st XI debut. By 1948, when he not only stroked a pair of 70s against Don Bradman's Australians but ran out Arthur Morris for 196 when fielding as a substitute in the Oval Test, he was considered good enough to tour South Africa with England, making a Test debut at No 3, following the established opening pair of Len Hutton and Cyril Washbrook in the thriller at Durban, but failing in both innings. An abiding and somewhat amusing memory for him from that tour was his third-wicket stand with Denis Compton against North Eastern Transvaal at Benoni. Together they creamed 399, Simpson 130 not out, Compton 300 not out in three hours (still the fastest first-class triple-century). A few months later, Simpson made a speedy and exciting 103 (the second 50 in 27 minutes) against New Zealand at Old Trafford in only his second Test, and 68 in the next, opening with Hutton (206) and showing that he belonged at this highest level, something confirmed by his figures for 1949 and 1950: more than 2,500 first-class runs, with an average more than 60 in both years. As his high-scoring Notts career progressed, and the elegantly acquired runs piled up, there was much debate as to how good he really was. There was a suspicion that he lacked confidence against spin, and he came across as a batsman of moods, although there was no more handsome style than his to behold on the county circuit when at his best. His youth had been replete with all-round sporting success, including rugby at county level, and a cricket partnership of 467 with a lad named Henry Betts in a house match at Nottingham high school. Simpson's strength of will showed later in incidents such as when he bowled underhand lobs to the fiery Wilf Wooller at Trent Bridge in 1951, by way of protest at Glamorgan's negative batting. Back home after his 1950-51 Test triumph in Australia, Simpson became the first Nottinghamshire batsman to score a Test match century at Trent Bridge, a feat dampened somewhat by South Africa's 71-run victory. The dreaded fibrositis, common among sportsmen, began to trouble him around this time and hindered his progress. His Test career was regularly interrupted by wavering form, to the regret of those who relished his elegance at the crease. His second tour of Australia, under Hutton in 1954-55, was much less memorable personally than the first, although this time England won the series resoundingly. Averaging only 26.83 in his first-class appearances in Australia and New Zealand, Simpson failed twice in the massive England defeat at Brisbane in the opening encounter, and thereafter Hutton preferred Bill Edrich, Trevor Bailey and Tom Graveney at the top of the order. Nonetheless, the Trent Bridge regulars continued to enjoy and admire his smooth performances summer after summer, with Simpson captaining the county throughout the 1950s, his job with the bat makers Gunn & Moore enabling him to play as an amateur. In retirement, he was chair of Nottinghamshire CCC's cricket committee and finance subcommittee for many years, and a genial and welcoming club president. Simpson was married three times; and is survived by two daughters of his first marriage.

 Reginald Thomas Simpson, cricketer, born 27 February 1920; died 22 November 2013

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Reviews

Little Boots review The White Carnation review Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom TV review

Little Boots review

Heaven, London Pop's nearly woman evokes Kylie and Lady Gaga, but ultimately brings a wide-eyed intensity all her own
Caroline Sullivan The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 11.48 GMT Jump to comments ()

She's electric Little Boots on stage at Heaven in London. Photograph: Joseph Okpako/Redferns via Getty Images

A look back at the BBC Sound of 2009 poll proves that critics are no better at predicting the future than anyone else. Victoria Hesketh, the 29-year-old singer/DJ behind Little Boots, beat the then unknown Lady Gaga and Florence and the Machine to the title, but afterwards nothing happened quite as it should have. Despite a No 5 debut album,

and the Machine to the title, but afterwards nothing happened quite as it should have. Despite a No 5 debut album, she was dropped by her label; her second LP, self-released this year after a lengthy gestation, only reached No 45. Where did it go wrong? This one-off show offers one answer. Hesketh evokes half a dozen other bespangled electropop females, but doesn't stake out much territory that's uniquely hers. She pushes the idea of costume as art for the encore she wears an LED coat that lights her up like a small blonde android but so does Gaga. Her physical appeal is based on an erotic wholesomeness just like Kylie and her interest in technology has a Robynish tinge. Even Sophie Ellis-Bextor is detectable, in lyrics layered with banalities about a mythical place called "the dancefloor". (It's where she goes to forget about the caddish characters who manipulate her feelings one cad per song.) But nobody's perfect. And it's precisely because she's the Blackpool Kylie that Hesketh is a pleasure to watch. The show is a pared-down version of a Kylie glitterthon, with one costume change, modest disco lights and a small band augmented by two oddly numb-looking backing singers. The latter have little to do, because Little Boots, moving between microphone and a Korg keyboard, is a singing, swivelling dynamo. Her wide-eyed intensity is her strong point: dazzle-poppers such as Headphones and Stuck on Repeat squeeze a lot of mileage out of dancing-as-escapism, but she brings the concept to life. When she swoons through Remedy's key line "Spin me faster like a kaleidoscope, all I've got is the floor" she's the picture of the girl next door, spinning until real life disappears. The set is an invigorating twirl through the new album, Nocturnes, with a few hits from debut Hands added for ballast. Boots has spent much time DJing recently, and the last third of the show is laden with bassy, trancey effects. It's not until the encore, featuring the evening's only ballad, All for You, that you realise how (splendidly) frenetic the rest of the show has been. Did you catch this gig or any other recently? Tell us about it using #Iwasthere

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

The White Carnation review

Finborough, London There are strong performances in this entertaining revival of RC Sherriff's ghost story, but much of the play feels like padding
Michael Billington The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 13.20 GMT Jump to comments ()

Phantom trickery Aden Gillett and Lynette Edwards in The White Carnation at the Finborough theatre. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

It is the fate of RC Sherriff to be remembered for a single play, Journey's End. But he wrote copiously for the West End, and this piece, written in 1953 for Ralph Richardson, enjoyed popular success. Knight Mantell's new production has an archaeological fascination and is very well-acted. But it doesn't achieve the resonance of recent Finborough revivals of Sherriff's contemporaries, JB Priestley and Emlyn Williams. The White Carnation Finborough, London

Until 21 December Box office: 0844 847 1652 Venue website It is no spoiler to reveal, since we learn this in the second scene, that the piece is essentially a ghost story. The hero, a successful stockbroker, returns to the house where, on Christmas Eve in 1944, he, his wife and their guests were killed by a flying bomb. Seven years later the reluctant revenant takes some persuading that he is a ghost and much of the action consists of his embattled encounters with the forces of the law, the church and the state. There are even hints that the brusque hero enjoys what you might call a phantom affair with an empathetic lady librarian. But the play was too obviously conceived as a star vehicle for Richardson, and you feel that a pugnacious moralist like Priestley would have made far more of the hero's belated recognition of his earthly errors. Alex Marker, however, comes up with a stunning set that does a couple of lightning conversions, and Aden Gillett has a corporeal solidity that contrasts nicely with the hero's spectral status. In particular, he brings out the aggressively self-made qualities of a man who, even in the afterlife, gets more fun out of the FT's stocks and shares than Homer or Dickens. There is a peach of a performance from Benjamin Whitrow as a dithery vicar whose first instinct, on meeting a ghost, is to ask if he is Church of England, and good support from Josie Kidd as an intrusive neighbour and Philip York as a pedantic civil servant. The piece is passably entertaining, but much of its feels like quilted padding. Did you catch this show or any other recently? Tell us about it using #gdnreview

Sign up for the Guardian Today

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom TV review

It's great to know that elephants are alive and well in Burma, but it's frustrating not to see more of them on screen
Sam Wollaston The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 23.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

Fleeting presence Elephants captured from afar in Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom on BBC 2. Photograph: Patrick Avery/BBC NHU/Patrick Avery

For a long time, Burma has been pretty much off-limits to everyone, including scientists and wildlife film-makers. Now, for the first time in more than 50 years, a team has been allowed in to find out what treasures are there, and to make this three-part documentary, Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom (BBC2). Exciting, huh? Well, yes and no. Yes, because the country has a lot more untouched forest than anywhere else in south-east Asia, forest that is home to rare and exotic species. These people are going in to catalogue it, to make a list to present to the Burmese authorities in order to try to protect these forests, at a time when the country is about to start changing very quickly. So it's also dead important ecologically. But as a film it's disappointing. Certainly this first one, which focuses on Asian elephants, is. The problem is that elephants are very hard to find in dense jungle, and most of the film is about looking for elephants. So Gordon Buchanan goes up a tree to spend a couple of days on his little platform, waiting for elephants, while Justine Evans looks elsewhere, for evidence. Of which there is plenty: nice, fresh dung; broken vegetation; villagers' stories about encounters with elephants. Just no actual elephants. And even when they do find some, really close, you can't see them because the jungle is so dense. Wait, there they are! Elephants! A whole bunch of them, with babies, too, which means they're breeding, of course. They are quite far away though, the pictures still aren't the best, and then they're gone. All that searching, an hour of TV, just for that? It's brilliant news that they are there, doing well, breeding, and I hope it persuades the Burmese government to immediately declare the area a national park. But as an armchair consumer of high-tech 21st-century natural history television animal porn, basically I'm not feeling completely satisfied. I am, however, looking forward to the massive snakes and tigers in the next episodes; I'm not going to give up yet.

I am, however, looking forward to the massive snakes and tigers in the next episodes; I'm not going to give up yet.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Weather

Weatherwatch: The cleverness of mushrooms

Weatherwatch: The cleverness of mushrooms

Kate Ravilious The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 21.30 GMT Jump to comments ()

Close-up of an oyster mushroom. Photograph: Stockdisc/Getty Images

It has been a glorious autumn for fungi. From bright yellow chanterelles, to the distinctive but poisonous fairytale toadstool, fly agaric, there is an abundance of fungi to be found. A hot summer, followed by a mild, moist autumn will certainly have helped to usher in the bumper crop, but exactly how mushrooms proliferate is still poorly understood. Until now most experts have assumed that mushroom spore dispersal is at the mercy of local air currents. But new research shows that mushrooms are much more proactive, and even go as far as creating their own weather to ensure the spores spread far and wide. Emilie Dressaire, from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, US, and her colleagues used high-speed filming and

Emilie Dressaire, from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, US, and her colleagues used high-speed filming and mathematical modelling techniques to show how shitake and oyster mushrooms release water vapour when they drop their spores. They discovered that the increase in moisture cools the air around the mushroom and whips up winds that blow the spores away. The scientists found that this mushroom-induced weather was strong enough to lift spores clear of the mushroom. "As a result mushrooms are able to disperse their spores, even in the most inhospitable surroundings," says Dressaire, who presented her findings last week at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics in Pittsburgh. Each individual mushroom produces millions of spores, and this clever dispersal technique means that at least some of them land somewhere suitable to grow. After that it all rather depends on the weather.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Sport: News & features

David Warner offers regrets and best wishes as Jonathan Trott recovers Daniel Sturridge injured in training as Liverpool enter crunch month Arsenal's Aaron Ramsey schooled at Cardiff City to be top of class Scandal reminds Arsenal's Arsne Wenger of Marseille misgivings Romelu Lukaku asked Chelsea for transfer before joining Everton Everton put Aiden McGeady and Landon Donovan on shopping list Joleon Lescott's frustration at Manchester City could lead to move Two men appear in magistrates court over 'match-fixing' case Sam Allardyce urges his West Ham strugglers to show true spirit Andr Villas-Boas has history against him in Manchester United acid test Andr Villas-Boas gets Tromso 'sacked in the morning' fan ejected Wayne Rooney could play every game all season, says David Moyes Everton v Stoke City: Squad sheets West Ham United v Fulham: Squad sheets Aston Villa v Sunderland: Squad sheets Manchester City v Swansea: Squad sheets Chelsea v Southampton: Squad sheets Hull v Liverpool: Squad sheets Norwich City v Crystal Palace: Squad sheets Tottenham v Manchester United: Squad sheets Newcastle v West Brom: Squad sheets

Newcastle v West Brom: Squad sheets Cardiff City v Arsenal: Squad sheets Shane Long determined to build on wonder goal for West Bromwich Albion Chelsea Ladies anticipate 'mind-blowing' reception in Japan for IWCC Ashes: Adelaide Oval is breaking new ground so hold on to your hard hat Gary Ballance tilts towards England Ashes debut in Adelaide Tour de France fever writes a new chapter in the Yorkshire Dales diary Leicester's Toby Flood puts boot into Gloucester to complete turn-around England's Marland Yarde could miss entire Six Nations after hip injury Wales believe they can beat Australia and finally end Wallaby hoodoo Weary Australia seek win over Wales to end their most hectic year ever All Blacks coach Steve Hansen opens another door with the Barbarians Magnus Carlsen hits heights but doubts remain over historical standing Australia dismiss revenge motivation against New Zealand in cup final Timmy Murphy set to miss Hennessy Gold Cup ride on Our Father Ashes: We weren't meant to fall in love with Jonathan Trott but we did

David Warner offers regrets and best wishes as Jonathan Trott recovers
'I wish him all the best and I know our team does' 'Saying what I did probably did go over the line'
Andy Wilson The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 14.34 GMT

Jonathan Trott of England looks skyward as his pull shot is caught by Australia's Nathan Lyon during the first Ashes Test. Photograph: Patrick Hamilton/AFP/Getty

David Warner has admitted he regrets having described Jonathan Trott's batting in the first Test in Brisbane as "pretty poor and pretty weak" and sent his best wishes to the 32-year-old following his abrupt departure from England's Ashes tour. Trott flew home immediately after Australia's crushing 381-run win at the Gabba, with the England & Wales Cricket Board revealing he was struggling with a long-term stress-related condition. While England said the decision that Trott would leave the tour was taken at the same time as Warner was making his comments in a press conference, Andy Flower, England's team director, made clear that he thought the Australian's comments were unacceptable and disrespectful.

Australian's comments were unacceptable and disrespectful. Now Warner, addressing the issue for the first time on Friday, has admitted that he went too far. Although he insisted he had no knowledge of Trott's illness when he made his controversial comments after the third day's play at the Gabba, Warner told Fairfax Media in Australia: "I probably stepped over that line and at the end of the day it's cricket. We've got to go out there and play the best we can and as hard as we can without crossing that line. Going into public and saying what I did probably did go over the line a little bit. Obviously it's unfortunate that [Trott] has gone home now. I hope he gets well because we know the type of player he is and he will bounce back from it." Warner added: "We didn't know anything about an illness or what not. It's sad to see anyone go through that tough period and obviously if he's got an illness that's there we hope he gets the right people to help him out. We know the world-class kind of batter he is: he averages 50 in Test cricket and he has been a great player, a rock for England. I wish him all the best. I hope he gets well soon and [is back] playing the best cricket he can." The pace bowler Peter Siddle has indicated the chat will continue, though, and he believes an aggressive approach is needed. "It's a battle out on the field and we go about it how we think it will work," he said. "We'll just keep playing hard cricket, we'll keep putting the pressure on them and keep going from there."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Daniel Sturridge injured in training as Liverpool enter crunch month

Striker leaves training ground on crutches with ankle injury Brendan Rodgers chellenges Jon Flanagan to maintain focus
Andy Hunter The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 22.30 GMT

Daniel Sturridge picked up an ankle injury in training on Friday as Liverpool embark on eight Premier League games in 32 days. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for The Guardian

Liverpool fear Daniel Sturridge is facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines after the striker suffered suspected ankle ligament damage in training. Sturridge had trained "exceptionally well", according to Brendan Rodgers, in response to being dropped to the bench and criticised by the Liverpool manager in the Merseyside derby with Everton last Saturday. Rodgers was unhappy with the 24-year-old playing 90 minutes for England against Germany with a thigh problem before the derby but those injury concerns have multiplied after Sturridge left Melwood on crutches on Friday. The Liverpool striker was immediately taken for a scan on his left ankle and, though the full extent of damage may become clear only over the weekend, the club are braced for bad news. Sturridge suffered ligament damage in his right ankle playing for England against the Republic of Ireland in May and it took a punishing personal fitness programme for him to recover inside three months. Losing Sturridge would represent a serious setback for Rodgers in his attempts to maintain Liverpool's impressive form in 2013 and guide the club back into the Champions League. Last weekend's rebuke aside, the 12m signing from Chelsea has flourished at Anfield and his 89th-minute equaliser at Everton was his 11th goal of the season. Liverpool are not blessed with goalscorers in the potential absence of Sturridge despite the outstanding form of Luis Surez since his return from suspension. The summer signing Iago Aspas is close to returning from a thigh injury but has struggled to make an impact since his 7.6m arrival from Celta Vigo. "We had a good chat this week of where he is at fitness-wise and I just felt last weekend he wasn't fit enough to go into a game of that magnitude," Rodgers said of Sturridge. "He came on and got the point for us and he has had a really good week in training, up until now." Sunday's visit to Hull City is the first of seven fixtures for Liverpool in December, a schedule that includes away games at Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Chelsea. And, despite the worry over Sturridge, Rodgers believes Liverpool's squad can handle the demanding spell. "Mentally we are strong," the Liverpool manager said. "I compare the mentality of the team for my first game at West Brom and now. The difference is night and day. I would expect us to last the pace. There is no question of that. We have the determination to do that. Look at our record this calendar year. We are hard to beat. If we're not at our best and winning, we're fighting to the death to get a result. That's something that's in the group that maybe wasn't there when I first came in." Liverpool's managing director, Ian Ayre, has held talks with Barcelona over the possible January signing of the fullback Martn Montoya, while the Chelsea left-back Ryan Bertrand has also been linked with a move to Anfield. But Rodgers is prepared to give Jon Flanagan a run in the side after the 20-year-old's impressive display at left-back in the derby. The Liverpool manager has warned Flanagan, however, that he cannot allow complacency to creep into his game. Rodgers said: "I think Jon is ready. I have a huge amount of respect for him and that was the reason I put him in. I have seen a boy who got his chance a few years ago and it is very easily done that you can become complacent. You get a new contract and all of a sudden you have a few bad games and you are out of the team. For me he has never really featured and that is the brutal honesty of it. He has played in some cup games but that is about it. "I told him this week to think about where he was a couple of years ago when he was in the team and then he was out of it. I said to him, 'Don't play like you have cracked it because you have had a great game in the derby and been man of the match. Go out and prove yourself every single week and, if you do that, you will be all right.'"

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Cardiff City v Arsenal, Premier League, 3pm Saturday 30 November

Arsenal's Aaron Ramsey schooled at Cardiff City to be top of class

The midfielder who rejected Manchester United to make his name at the Emirates has never forgotten his Welsh roots
Stuart James The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 13.56 GMT

Aaron Ramsey had a lime-green car when he joined Arsenal for 4.8m from Cardiff City in 2008. It lasted about a week. Photograph: Martin Meissner/AP

At Aaron Ramsey's secondary school in the Rhymney Valley in south Wales, Jeremy Evans smiles as he recalls the day when his star pupil was called up to Cardiff's first team. "I remember it very well," Evans, the head of PE at Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni, says. "The head of year came to me to say that he'd had a call from Cardiff City, asking the school's permission for Aaron to play on the Saturday against Hull. We had to call Aaron in from the yard and he had to go and see his head of year to explain what had happened." As a model student who graduated from the Welsh-speaking school with 10 GCSE's and was regarded as university material, Ramsey had no reason to fear he was being summoned for a reprimand. Instead, he was about to create history. Aged 16 years and 124 days, Ramsey supplanted John Toshack as Cardiff's youngest player when he appeared as a substitute against Hull City in April 2007. His place in Cardiff's record books is recognised at the school, where photographs of Ramsey's achievements for club and country decorate the corridors and provide a source of inspiration to all. "I use Aaron's name daily," Evans says. "He's one of those once-in-a-lifetime pupils. I think he helped us more than we helped him, to be honest, because he was so naturally talented. I've been teaching 25 years and he's head and shoulders above the best kid we've ever had." Ramsey is still in touch with his roots. The Arsenal midfielder has returned to his old school a couple of times, including for a sportsmen's dinner to raise funds for a rugby tour to Canada (his younger brother Josh was part of the

squad), and he is often spotted in Caerphilly, the town where he was brought up and which is famous for cheese as well as being the birthplace of the comedian and magician Tommy Cooper. On Saturday, though, there will be a homecoming of a different kind. Ramsey, in the form of his life, goes back to the club where he spent eight years before joining Arsenal in 2008, at the age of 17, for 4.8m. He has faced Cardiff on Welsh soil once before, in an FA Cup tie at Ninian Park in January 2009 . He also returned to Cardiff for a brief loan spell in early 2011, as part of his recovery from the horrific double fracture he suffered at Stoke City a year earlier, but this latest reunion feels different and not only because Cardiff are a Premier League club. "Aaron's going back as one of the main men in Arsenal's team," says Chris Gunter, the Wales international who was at Cardiff's academy at the same time as Ramsey and remains close friends. "He got a few goals early on this season and he's just taken it on from there. "If he has silenced anyone or changed people's minds, then brilliant, but I'm just pleased for him because there's nothing worse than being on a pitch in front of 30,000 people and having your leg broken. So to come back from that and get through it, as well as any criticism he was getting, is fantastic." Ramsey's emergence as the standout player in the Premier League this season is a source of great pride for those who have known him since childhood. For Evans, the memories are not only of a supremely gifted footballer but a multitalented sportsman who excelled at everything he tried, including the shot put. "He was a very good 800m and cross-country runner you can see that with the way he's box to box with his football," Evans says. "He was also Welsh Schools' pentathlon champion in year nine. He was competing against people who went to athletics clubs and trained two or three times a week, whereas Aaron was just doing it for the school, helping me out. I was astounded when he won. "It was the hurdles, high jump, long jump, shot put and the 800m. Aaron was a strong boy he threw a shot 10m. He was in third place going into the last event but he finished miles ahead of everyone else in the 800m. He was also a very good gymnast and an excellent rugby player, league and union. He was good at everything, basically." One thing that nobody at the school wants to be seen doing, however, is receiving any praise for Ramsey's football development. "I taught Aaron maths for five years," Tony Wilding, who is also the school football coach, says. "I think I can take a little bit more credit for how he did in his maths which was very well than how he did in his football. I can't claim any credit for his football because his natural ability was that good. He was an outstanding individual but also very unassuming. Even when he was representing Wales at 14 and playing two years above his age group, nobody knew he was playing apart from us, who took an avid interest in his development. He's very humble. I think that's the way he was brought up." Kevin and Marlene, Ramsey's parents, were taking their eldest son back and forth to Cardiff's centre of excellence from the age of nine. Ramsey's progress was rapid and by the time he was a teenager it was obvious that Cardiff had a rare talent on their hands. "In terms of looking at young players, some have three out of the four elements technical, tactical, physical, mental that you need but Aaron had all four," Lee Robinson, Cardiff's former academy manager, says. "He was such a talented boy. One of the abiding memories I have of Aaron at Cardiff is when we were playing Arsenal in the FA Youth Cup quarter-final at the Emirates in 2007. "Aaron was still at school and he scored in the game. We lost 3-2 and Jay Simpson got a hat-trick for Arsenal. At the end Steve Bould [Arsenal's Under-18 head coach at the time] came up to me and said: 'You've got the best player on the pitch.' I think at that point I knew we had something special."

Shy and quietly spoken off the field, Ramsey came to life whenever he pulled on his boots. "The first time I saw Rambo play was against Swindon reserves, when I was coming back from injury," Darren Purse, Cardiff's former captain, says. "Rambo was 15 years old, he had a day off school, he turned up with the worst haircut in the world and I looked at him and thought: 'Who's this kid?' Paul Wilkinson, the reserve team manager, pulled me over and said: 'Purse, watch this lad play.' "Rambo was the best player on the pitch. He ran the show from the middle of the park. What summed it up was about two minutes before the end, when he put the ball in the top corner from 25 yards." The only problem for Cardiff was that the top Premier League clubs were hovering and there was a real risk that Ramsey would leave for next to nothing. "A lot of people had some positive input all the way through his Cardiff City youth years loads of coaches," Robinson says, "but I think my biggest success with Aaron was keeping him at 16, when players have freedom of movement to go. I know he was being tracked by various Premier League clubs he was going to Newcastle and Liverpool during half-term. Manchester United could have had him for 40,000 at 16 but they didn't think he was good enough. Not long after they wanted to buy him for 4.8m. "It took me lots of discussions with Aaron's father and mother over about six months to get him to commit to signing for Cardiff at the age of 16, which we did on the back of the development pathway being that he would be playing in the first team sooner rather than later, as opposed to going to a Premier League youth team." Never one to shout about his football feats, Ramsey kept a low profile, apart from when it came to his mode of transport a lime-green Ford Fiesta, complete with a black and white chequered roof. "That was his first car," Gunter says, smiling. "I'd moved to Tottenham, he was still at Cardiff and he came up to watch Razorlight in a gig in London. He drove up and stayed with me and I saw the car for the first time. When he moved to Arsenal he still had it. I think it lasted about a week. He didn't need to be driving that into Arsenal's training ground!" Ramsey had a huge decision to make when weighing up whether to sign for Arsenal or Manchester United but Arsne Wenger's influence was instrumental. While Sir Alex Ferguson was away on holiday and happy to leave Mike Phelan, the assistant manager at United, to deliver the sales pitch, Wenger and Arsenal went to the trouble of laying on a private jet to fly Ramsey and his parents to Switzerland where the manager was working as a pundit during the 2008 European Championship to explain face to face, and in great detail, how the teenager's career would develop in north London. While the journey over the next five years has not been without its difficulties, teachers, coaches and former teammates all say they never doubted the ability of the 22-year-old Welshman, whom they feel privileged to have watched, worked with and played alongside. "It has taken time but because you can come back physically from an injury, it doesn't necessarily mean you can come back [straight away] mentally," says Robinson, who remains close to Ramsey. "It's all credit to Aaron and testament to his character but did I believe he would go on to do what he is doing now? Yes, 100%."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Scandal reminds Arsenal's Arsne Wenger of Marseille misgivings

Arsenal manager ponders the match-fixing scandal that hit French football and recent allegations in the UK
Amy Lawrence The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 22.30 GMT

Arsenal's Arsne Wenger was manager of Monaco during the period leading up to the revelations about Marseille. Photograph: Murad Sezer/Reuters

For a man of 64 to reflect on it as "one of the most difficult periods of my life" emphasises how the scourge of matchfixing is a stain that is not easily cleansed. More than two decades have passed since Arsne Wenger was confronted with the realities of such a scandal and it was a monster of a scandal that scarred the reputation of the biggest and best-supported club in France, Marseille. This was not a non-league corruption, it stank at the highest summit. The protagonists were not unfamiliar names, they were infamous. Wenger, who takes his Arsenal side to Cardiff City on Saturday, was in charge of Monaco in the early 1990s and long held suspicions of a nasty smell in the air around Marseille. In 1993, Marseille reached the Champions League final against Milan and only a few days before needed to win at Valenciennes to clinch the domestic title. It later came to light that four Valenciennes players were offered 250,000 francs to "take their foot of the gas". Marseille won the match but the opposition players turned whistleblowers. A bombshell struck the French game, Marseille were stripped of their title and the club's supremo Bernard Tapie was discredited and imprisoned. During the period leading up to the 1993 revelations, Wenger's Monaco had been Marseille's strongest rivals on the pitch and had finished the runners-up behind them for the previous two seasons. Were those titles honest? Were Monaco denied trophies that should have been theirs? These are not easy questions to contemplate even years later.

Wenger brings a rare perspective as one of the few top-level managers currently working to have been directly affected by the consequences of such a blight on the game. It is difficult to imagine just how personally challenging that period was. The constant, nagging doubts but the inability to do anything about it while it was only the subject of whispers and shady gossip. "You hear rumours and after that you cannot come out in the press and say: 'This game was not regular'," Wenger said. "You must prove what you say. To come out is difficult. It is very difficult to prove it. From knowing something, feeling that it is true and after coming out publicly and saying "Look I can prove it" is the most difficult." The effects still hurt. "It is a shame. Once you don't know any more if everyone is genuine out there, that is something absolutely disastrous. I think we have absolutely to fight against that with the strongest severity to get that out of the game." Wenger remembers that uncomfortable feeling as he tried to analyse events that did not ring true. "There are little incidents added one to the other. In the end, there is no coincidence." One of Wenger's most loyal assistants and a right-hand man since 1994, Boro Primorac, was caught up in the events. He was the Valenciennes coach for the fateful game that exposed Marseilles' malpractice. Primorac gave evidence. Wenger admired his courage and invited Primorac to work with him when he was ostracised from the French game as it tried to recover from the scandal. "He did very well because it's not always the fact that you stand up against it, it's the consequences of it after," Wenger said. "I can tell you that story one day and you will be surprised " Wenger's reaction to the allegations of match-fixing in the lower reaches of the English game was to reassert his certainty that the Premier League is clean. He knows from experience what it feels like to be deeply suspicious about what is going on around him and appears not to sense anything similar. "I still think that 99.9%, the English game is completely clean. I hope that's an isolated incident," he said of the case exposed this week in the Conference. "When you see the happiness of the players when they score goals, even in the lower divisions, the passion of the fans when I was at Barnet for example, I can't believe that there is a match-fixing problem in England. "Can it be eradicated completely? I'm not sure. "Even when it was happening in France or in Europe, I always felt that in the end the game will come clean again."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Romelu Lukaku asked Chelsea for transfer before joining Everton

Lukaku was dismayed at signing of Samuel Eto'o

 'Tell the country why you left,' says Jos Mourinho

Dominic Fifield The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 22.59 GMT

Romelu Lukaku, Everton's on-loan striker, had put in a transfer request at Chelsea, according to Jos Mourinho. Photograph: Matt West/BPI/Rex

Jos Mourinho has urged Romelu Lukaku to "tell the country why you left Chelsea" after it emerged the Belgium international had made a verbal transfer request just before the September deadline to force a move away from Stamford Bridge. Lukaku, signed from Anderlecht in the summer of 2011 for an initial 12m, had asked to leave after being granted only a cameo performance in the Uefa Super Cup defeat to Bayern Munich in Prague on 30 August. The forward ended up missing a penalty in the shootout that night but was already struggling to disguise his dismay that Chelsea had secured Samuel Eto'o 24 hours earlier from Anzhi Makhachkala. That left him competing with Eto'o, Demba Ba and Fernando Torres for a lone forward role in a season that culminates with the World Cup finals and convinced the 20-year-old that he would struggle to feature regularly. His transfer request was dismissed with Mourinho keen for the player to stay and fight for a place in the side. After further discussions with Lukaku, the club and manager relented and agreed to allow him to go on another seasonlong loan. The player came close to rejoining West Bromwich Albion, with whom he spent last season on a similar arrangement, but has since scored seven goals in eight Premier League games for Everton. It is understood Lukaku considers his long-term future to be at Chelsea, with the club hoping he will be the finished article for next season. Mourinho was asked about Lukaku before Sunday's home game against Southampton after the loanee, who is contracted until 2016 at Stamford Bridge, told the BBC that he had not had any direct contact with the Chelsea manager since moving to Goodison Park. "I keep private my conversations with my players," Mourinho said. "There are things in our lives that we have to keep [quiet] for ethical reasons but, for example, one day recently he scored and said he hoped I was watching, like saying: 'Why did he let me go?' And that's what I'm telling him now: tell the country why you left. "He has to say. Next time ask him why he left on loan one more season. From my angle, I'm happy he's scoring goals against our direct rivals, and he doesn't score against us because he can't. It's phenomenal that you have a player who, even not playing for you, is scoring goals against your opponents. From a practical point of view, that's very good. "But he's there and it's good for his evolution. It's good for Chelsea because he belongs to us for a long time and I'm happy with that. I just think that, if you keep quiet all the time, you keep quiet all the time. When you enjoy to speak, speak everything. Don't speak only half of it. It's a simple question: 'Why did you leave Chelsea?' Ask him."

Lukaku had earlier admitted to the BBC that he had instigated the move away from Stamford Bridge: "It wasn't the fact that I wasn't wanted. I think I was wanted but I had to make a decision for myself and analyse what was the best thing for me." Chelsea's staff and the technical director, Michael Emenalo, have been in regular contact with Everton to monitor Lukaku's progress at Goodison and have been encouraged by his impact. Mourinho does not expect to add another forward to his ranks in the January transfer window but will instead reassess the situation next summer. "The point is not wanting or not wanting, but that the top strikers are already in their clubs, clubs who are not going to open the door for a crucial player to leave," he said. "And the biggest percentage of them cannot play in the Champions League. The investment for players who cannot play in the Champions League we don't think is the correct one. "We have a plan. We have a board. We have financial rules that we think we have to obey and we have to follow. And, at the same time, we started the season with this group and, most probably, we're going to end with this group. At the end of the season we will be in better condition to analyse our squad, to analyse the market and, normally, make a couple of changes to improve the team for next season. But this season, we are ready to go to the end with the same people."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Everton put Aiden McGeady and Landon Donovan on shopping list

McGeady made available for transfer by Spartak Moscow Donovan could be a loan signing from LA Galaxy
Andy Hunter The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 22.30 GMT

Aiden McGeady, the Republic of Ireland international, has had a falling out with his Spartak Moscow coach, Valeri Karpin. Photograph: David Maher/Sportsfile/Corbis

Everton are considering January moves for Aiden McGeady and Landon Donovan with their interest in the former encouraged by Spartak Moscow's decision to transfer-list the winger. Roberto Martnez, the Everton manager, has a long-standing interest in the Republic of Ireland international, who he attempted to sign for his former club Wigan Athletic last season, and is keen to inject more pace into his side when the transfer window reopens. The prospects of signing the 27-year-old have increased after he was transfer!listed at Spartak on Friday, reportedly having fallen out with the coach Valeri Karpin, although several Premier League clubs will be encouraged by that move. McGeady cost the Russian club 9.5m from Celtic in 2010. The winger is out of contract at the end of the season and Spartak are looking to recoup some of their outlay in January. A move to Goodison Park would see the midfielder join fellow Ireland internationals James McCarthy, Samus Coleman and Darron Gibson. Everton also retain an interest in the USA international Donovan, who enjoyed two successful loan spells at the club in 2010 and 2012 under the former manager David Moyes. The 31-year-old may again be available on loan from the MLS side LA Galaxy, although whether he will increase his workload in a World Cup year remains to be seen.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Joleon Lescott's frustration at Manchester City could lead to move

Lescott says Manuel Pellegrini is not giving him a fair chance 'I need to be given a fair opportunity to prove myself'
Jamie Jackson The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 22.30 GMT

Joleon Lescott has lost his place in Roy Hodgson's England squad as well as Manchester City's first team. Photograph: Paul Mcfegan/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar

Ltd./Allstar

Joleon Lescott has revealed his frustration at not being "given a fair opportunity" to prove himself by Manuel Pellegrini. The defender claims he is receiving differing treatment to other members of the Manchester City squad and would consider a transfer in January. Lescott, who is 31 and in the final season of his contract, said that he is yet to be approached regarding new terms. He featured in Wednesday's 4-2 Champions League win over Viktoria Plzen but only because Vincent Kompany and Matija Nastasic were not fit. Lescott has managed only nine appearances this season and remains the fourth choice centre-back under Pellegrini after falling down the pecking order towards the end of Roberto Mancini's tenure as manager. Having also lost his place in Roy Hodgson's England squad in a season that ends with the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil, Lescott is considering his options. He said: "I need to be given a fair opportunity. I know no one can guarantee me playing every week but I would like to think that given a fair opportunity to play, if I am playing in the team I can do well enough to stay in the team. "If you start to doubt yourself it will affect you so I try not to doubt myself and believe I can perform. When the opportunities come you have to grab them and if it means playing the next few games when Matija is out and Vinny is not ready, then great for me. Hopefully once again I can prove to the club, and if it is not here somewhere else, that I am worthy of a new contract." Lescott believes Pellegrini is not allowing him the same chance as others. "I just want to be treated like everyone else. If I am in the team and the team is winning I stay in the team," he said. "Realistically there is probably only one place up for grabs when Vinny is fit and three of us are fighting for that. I have not played as much as I would have liked this season but I would like to think [against Plzen] I have done a good enough job to prove I can perform at this level." Lescott's status at the club has plummeted since he was first-choice in City's title-winning campaign of two seasons ago and he would consider a fresh start elsewhere in the winter transfer window. "It is hard not playing. No professional enjoys it and I am no different," the former Everton defender said. "It is not great not playing in the last year of my contract. The situation is not ideal but I just have to try to play well when I am given the opportunity. We all train through the week to play and then when you are not it is disheartening. "I want to stay, that is the main thing but the club have not approached me yet, so I don't know what the situation is with them. If I am playing for my future here, then great. If I am playing for it elsewhere, then so be it. I just know that every time I am out there I have to perform at a level were top clubs would be interested in signing me. "It depends what the club wants and what opportunities there are for me. I am not just going to leave a club like this for the sake of it, but at the end of the season I would have to. So nothing can happen now. I can't speak to any clubs and no clubs can approach me but when that opportunity comes, if it does come in January, I will have to look at that. "I have not really focused on anything but if a team abroad was giving me a fair opportunity to play and progress, then I would look at it. If you are not playing for Man City, it does not make you a bad player." Regarding his prospects of making Hodgson's squad for Brazil, he said: "It does not look like I am going at the minute. I have not been in the last few squads, so it is going to be hard but if I am playing for City and we are progressing in the Champions League and the title race, then there might be a place for me. "I have not given up. But I know that comes from playing for Man City, so the faster I can get myself back in City the better."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Two men appear in magistrates court over 'match-fixing' case

Pair remanded in custody in Staffordshire Next up at crown court on December 13
Press Association theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 14.00 GMT

Two men, both originally from Singapore, have appeared in court charged with plotting to defraud bookmakers. They were not required to enter any plea. Photograph: Herbert Spichtinger/ Herbert Spichtinger/Corbis

Two men have appeared in court charged with plotting to defraud bookmakers after a National Crime Agency investigation into alleged football match-fixing. Chann Sankaran and Krishna Sanjey Ganeshan, both originally from Singapore, were not required to enter any plea during a five-minute hearing at Cannock magistrates court in Staffordshire. Sankaran, wearing a hooded Manchester United training jacket, and his co-accused were both remanded in custody to appear at Birmingham crown court on 13 December. Ganeshan, 43, from Singapore, and Sankaran, 33, from Hastings, East Sussex, are accused of conspiring together and with others to commit fraud between 1 November and 26 November this year. The conspiracy is alleged to have taken place in Manchester and elsewhere with the aim of defrauding bookmakers by "influencing the course" of football matches. The maximum sentence for this offence is 10 years' imprisonment. The defence lawyer Paul Jenkins told the court both defendants intended to apply for bail at a future date.

Sankaran, a Singapore national, and Ganeshan, who has dual UK and Singapore nationality, were each charged with a single count of conspiracy yesterday. They were among six people arrested earlier this week as part of a National Crime Agency investigation into an international betting syndicate based in Singapore. A seventh man has since been arrested and he and four others were bailed on Thursday pending further inquiries. It emerged on Thursday that a former Premier League footballer, Delroy Facey, was among those arrested as part of the investigation. The suspects are reported to include three current footballers. Facey, 33, did not turn up to play for his club Albion Sports as scheduled against Athersley Recreation in the NCEL Premier League on Wednesday night, according to the club's secretary Jaj Singh. Singh said: "He was due to come but didn't turn up. He was named on the subs' bench but was a no-show. I have no idea. He's been with us about three months and is a cracking lad."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Sam Allardyce urges his West Ham strugglers to show true spirit
'They can't fragment and think it's all about them' Andy Carroll expected to resume training next week
Jacob Steinberg The Guardian, Saturday 30 November 2013

Andy Carroll, the West Ham striker, is expected to resume training next week although he will not be match fit until January. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA

Sam Allardyce has told his West Ham players that they must stick together for the start of what he believes is a defining period for his side. West Ham have slipped down the table and the manager feels that team spirit will be vital as they look to pull themselves away from danger. West Ham have been boosted by the news that Andy Carroll will return to training next week as he continues his recovery from his heel injury, although Allardyce said that the 24-year-old may not be available for selection before January. A more immediate concern is the visit of Fulham to Upton Park on Saturday and the trip to Crystal Palace on Tuesday, with Allardyce saying that picking up six points against their fellow strugglers could transform West Ham's fortunes. Only goal difference is keeping West Ham above Fulham, whose manager, Martin Jol, is also under pressure after five successive defeats in all competitions, and out of the bottom three after two wins in their first 12 matches. Allardyce, who said that he has not spoken to the club's co-owners, David Gold and David Sullivan, about his future, was the subject of fierce criticism from fans during last Saturday's 3-0 home defeat by Chelsea. He made a double substitution after 40 minutes and Joe Cole stormed down the tunnel after being removed. Cole, who is out of contract at the end of the season, remains happy at the club but Allardyce stressed the need for his players to be professional, while accepting the midfielder's frustration. "It's a difficult period but players show their true team spirit in situations like this," he said. "They show their true togetherness and that's what they've got to do, they've got to stick together. They can't fragment and think it's all about them. It's not just about them, it's about the whole team and everything that goes with it to achieve the right results." West Ham have been blunt in the absence of Carroll, scoring nine goals. The striker, who signed for 15m from Liverpool in the summer, has been undergoing treatment in Amsterdam as part of his rehabilitation and his return to London is imminent, but Allardyce does not want to rush him back into the first team. "It's tentative in terms of your approach," Allardyce said. "You can't get over-anxious and push him too hard. We can't do anything other than what the specialists are saying, no matter how desperate our situation may become. We have to get him fit to stay fit. "We'll have to make an assessment when he is back with us. When we can monitor him on a day-to-day basis we can make that judgment. Having not played a game since May, it will take a bit of time to get into a match-fitness situation. It's up to us to alleviate that as quickly as possible." West Ham have struggled to cope without Carroll. Allardyce has used a strikerless formation in the past six matches, a tactic which has worked less well since its first outing in the 3-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur, but suggested he may dispense with that system against Fulham. However, Modibo Maga has not scored for a year, Mladen Petric has a calf injury and Carlton Cole has not been deemed fit enough to start a league match since rejoining the club last month. One thing Allardyce insists he will not do is drop his captain, Kevin Nolan, even though the midfielder has not scored since the opening day of the season. Nolan, who has played further forward in the past three matches, was West Ham's leading goalscorer with 10 goals last season but has struggled to recapture that form. "He drives our players on," Allardyce said. "When you're in this position and you're not scoring goals, then to leave out your leading goalscorer from last year, you're going to take away something in the team that could possibly finish off a chance even though he's having a dry spell." Allardyce said that he saw fear creeping into his players' game after the defeat by Chelsea but hopes that can be used as an advantage. "You accept it in its entirety to use it as a positive and make you go out with the desire to give your all," he said. "When that happens, you stick to the principles of the game you know are the best for you. You stick to your strengths and don't try to do anything out of the ordinary that's not comfortable for you."

your strengths and don't try to do anything out of the ordinary that's not comfortable for you." Jol has admitted he fears for his job if his team fail to win Saturday's derby or that at home to Spurs on Wednesday. "If I was on the board or an owner I would be worrying," he said. "We need wins. Every game is almost a must-win game." Asked if he believed his position was safe, Jol said: "If we win, yeah. If we don't, I don't know. It is always difficult."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Tottenham v Manchester United, Premier League, noon, Sun 1 December

Andr Villas-Boas has history against him in Manchester United acid test
Tottenham have not beaten United at home since 2001 and desperately need a boost after the debacle at Manchester City
David Hytner The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 23.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

Andr Villas-Boas may recall Jermain Defoe against Manchester United in a bid to spice up Tottenham's misfiring attack. Photograph: Steven Paston/Action Images

Footballers are a superstitious bunch and, as those at Tottenham Hotspur pondered the shattering 6-0 defeat at Manchester City last Sunday, the significance of who would be up next in the Premier League was not lost on them. Manchester United at White Hart Lane is not a fixture that has brought them much cheer in recent years. The last

time Tottenham beat Sunday's opponents at home was in May 2001 when Willem Korsten inspired a 3-1 win. Since then United have recorded eight victories, most memorably when they roared back from 3-0 down at half-time to win 5-3 in September 2001. Juan Sebastin Vern scored the important fourth goal. Too often for Tottenham's liking United's performances have been marked by comfort but this has to be the time the north London side knock them from their stride. The pressure on both teams is tremendous, as they do not want to fall further behind the leaders, Arsenal, but it is arguably more pronounced at Tottenham, given the City debacle and the scrutiny under which the manager, Andr Villas-Boas, has found himself. His problems have merely been magnified by events at the Etihad Stadium, where the team started sloppily and slid to their equal-heaviest Premier League defeat. Gary Neville, the Sky TV pundit, slated Tottenham for the manner in which they conceded the first goal to Jess Navas after 13 seconds, saying that some of the defensive players were "tying their laces and playing with their socks at the kick-off". There was irony to the thumping scoreline as Tottenham had travelled to Manchester with one of the meanest defences in the country. Villas-Boas's issue has been at the other end as his team labour to open up opponents. He has pointed to the club's blemish-free record in the Europa League, which continued in Norway on Thursday night with the 2-0 win over Tromso that ensured they would advance as seeds to the last 32 of the tournament. But the board want achievement, first and foremost, in the league and they have been troubled by the team's style in the competition that matters most. Nine goals in 12 matches (three of them penalties) is the headline statistic that illustrates the difficulties but others show how they are relying on shots from long range and struggling to get numbers forward and in behind. Roberto Soldado has regularly cut an isolated figure in the lone striker role and there has been frustration, as sometimes articulated by the White Hart Lane crowd, at the lack of offensive cohesion and ideas. It has been hard to integrate the seven summer signings, although Paulinho and, in briefer bursts, Vlad Chiriches have done well and Villas-Boas will give serious thought to recalling Jermain Defoe up front against United. Defoe was rested for Tromso, possibly as he has a history of getting injuries on synthetic surfaces the Norwegians play on a 4G artificial pitch but Soldado made the trip and the 26m purchase from Valencia completed the 90 minutes. It was his first appearance for the club in the group phase of the tournament and he did not enjoy himself. On a sub-zero night he got little service and his touch was erratic. Tottenham's mentality faces the acid test but, after the post-City soul-searching, the hunt for positives and omens has started. The 3-2 win at Old Trafford early last season has been seized on and the defender Jan Vertonghen recalled how the club had recovered from their black November last time out. "We did not do well in this period last year, with losses against Wigan, City and Arsenal," he said. "But we had an incredible run after that and that is what we are aiming for now. We can be back easily because the top half of the table is so strong that everybody can win. You cannot write us off. "The mentality is easy because we are so motivated to do well on Sunday, especially after the City game. I am very confident because the supporters will be behind us and we will be so motivated to do well after such a loss." Villas-Boas continues to be the author of his own destiny and, in spite of the misgivings and his prickly behaviour over the past couple of months, he knows that a good result against United could help to turn things round. He would then eye next week's away matches against Fulham and Sunderland as opportunities to rebuild momentum. "We need to bounce back after last Sunday," said the midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson. "We talked a lot about what happened and it was not good enough. We need to put on a performance that is more like us and we need to play attacking football, create chances and score goals. Our target is still to finish in the top four. We are four points off second place so there is no need to worry yet, even though we need to score more goals."

second place so there is no need to worry yet, even though we need to score more goals." United have struggled for consistency under David Moyes but it is more than their Indian sign at White Hart Lane that makes them dangerous. "They never start the season too strong but during the business time of the season, they are always very strong," Sigurdsson said. "They have some world-class players and they are the team that everyone wants to beat."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Andr Villas-Boas gets Tromso 'sacked in the morning' fan ejected

Chant by Norwegian hairdresser gets to Tottenham manager 'I know he is under pressure. He was being a bit petulant'
David Hytner theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 12.53 GMT

The Tottenham manager Andr Villas-Boas has seen his position come under intense pressure. Photograph: Steven Paston/Action Images

Andr Villas-Boas asked for a Tromso supporter who chanted that he would be "sacked in the morning" to be removed from his seat behind the dug-out during Tottenham Hotspur's 2-0 Europa League victory in Norway on Thursday evening. The Tottenham manager said that he was "immune" to all criticism as the pressure on him mounted in the wake of last Sunday's 6-0 defeat at Manchester City. His position has come under scrutiny at boardroom level, with the City humiliation representing the low point of a difficult period, which has featured home losses to West Ham United and Newcastle United and a worrying struggle for offensive fluency in the Premier League. He sorely needs a positive result and performance against Manchester United at White Hart Lane on Sunday.

United at White Hart Lane on Sunday. But Villas-Boas snapped during the Tromso tie when he heard Reidar Stenersen Jr taunting him over his job prospects. Stenersen, a 29-year-old hairdresser who supports Manchester United, directed the chant at Villas-Boas in the early stages of the game. When he did it again at half-time and Villas-Boas pointed at him, he found himself removed by security. Stenersen was told that he could return to watch the second half from the stand on the opposite side of the ground but he declined and retired to the pub. "I first sung after five minutes that he would be 'sacked in the morning' and he looked at me," Stenersen told the Norwegian newspaper Nordlys. "At the half-time whistle, when it was still 0-0 and I started the same song, he pointed at me and suddenly the security came and threw me out. "I know he is under a lot of pressure so I think my words hit him, even though I am only a little guy in little Tromso. He was being a bit petulant. This is the same thing that can be sung by 60,000 at the Emirates Stadium or other grounds." Tromso's head of security, Hans-Thore Hanssen, confirmed that a fan had been moved after Villas-Boas made a complaint to the Uefa inspector. "He was asked to move to the other side," Hanssen said. "I was not there when the incident happened so what he may have shouted, I cannot say. "But I know that he [Villas-Boas] had spoken to the Uefa inspector who, in turn, spoke to our security. The situation was handled correctly. If there is verbal abuse shouted, the supporter should be spoken to and, in some cases, thrown out. In this type of match, there is greater security."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Wayne Rooney could play every game all season, says David Moyes
Manchester United manager marvels at striker's durability Playing matches 'doesn't affect him in a way it does others'
Jamie Jackson The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 22.30 GMT

Wayne Rooney excelled in partnership with Shinji Kagawa during Manchester United's 5-0 Champions League victory in Leverkusen. Photograph: Lars Baron/Bongarts/Getty

David Moyes believes Wayne Rooney may be able to play every game this season, though the Manchester United manager will monitor the striker to ensure he receives a break if required. When fit Rooney has been chosen in every match this season, the striker scoring eight times in 17 games and being among United's most potent creative forces, as he was again in the 5-0 midweek victory at Bayer Leverkusen that confirmed United's passage into the Champions League knockout phase. Rooney will start again in Sunday's trip to Tottenham Hotspur, with Shinji Kagawa expected to continue at No10 as Robin van Persie's groin problem makes the Dutchman a doubt. Regarding Rooney, Moyes said: "There will be times when we do have to look after him. At the moment he doesn't need it. But I will be looking for any signs of a dip. I look at a lot of other clubs and they have played their players continuously. It's just at United here we've got a squad, we can rotate them, we have got other options. So I think I'll try and just wait. If it [a dip] doesn't come around, I don't need to [rest him] and won't do it." Rooney's best form is always a result of him playing consistently. "He is a boy who continually gets better in the games he plays," said Moyes. "It doesn't really seem to affect him in a way it does others. The point I'm making is I just want to make sure I keep him playing as well as he is doing." Moyes believes that the display offered by the Kagawa-Rooney pairing at Leverkusen means there is less pressure to bring back Van Persie early. "I always thought we had other combinations that we could play," the manager said. "You'll very rarely go through a season without having injuries or suspensions and we had to make sure we had other solutions if it did happen. Robin had his injury and so we played Shinji at No10. We've played him on the left before, where he plays for Japan as well, so I think he's good in either position." Moyes believes United can cope without Van Persie despite the Dutchman being such a pivotal figure in last season's title triumph. "If we were without Robin at any point we needed to make sure we could come up with the goals and make sure it wasn't just Robin," he said. "The other night we certainly did and we had to make sure we keep that going." Ryan Giggs, who celebrated his 40th birthday on Friday, was among United's finest performers on Wednesday and could be in line to start at Tottenham. "It's something we have to look at," said Moyes. "But we take our lead from Ryan as much as anything. Ryan tells us how he feels, when he thinks he's right. A lot of that we take from how he feels." The manager is concerned that United require more consistency. After the 1-0 win over Arsenal at Old Trafford they followed with a 2-2 draw Cardiff City in their last league game, conceding a late equaliser. As they are still seven points behind the leaders, Arsenal, the Scot thinks their form can be characterised as "two steps forward, one step back" at the moment. "Yes, we have to get a better level of consistency. I look around the Premier League and that's [lack of consistency] been quite noticeable throughout really. Arsenal are the one side who have shown a real consistency as we're about to go into December. They're the one side who has shown that. We have dropped some points we shouldn't have done and we have to try to eradicate that. "I think there's a little bit of [a lack of] concentration and a bit of us still being a work in progress really, us trying to

work together to get everything we want to be correct, and we've still got a bit to go on that." However Moyes does think that those clubs above United, who stand six, are conscious of the champions coming up on the rails. "People are always aware of Manchester United. I don't think people have in any way [disallowed] Manchester United. I think everybody knows we'll be there or thereabouts come the end and I believe that as well." Regarding whether Nemanja Vidic's recovery from concussion and Van Persie's groin problem will allow them to travel to Spurs, Moyes said: "I'm going to try to see if I can involve them in the squad but until [Saturday] I won't make a decision." While Giggs was given a coach's stop watch by his team-mates as a humorous present to recognise his status as player-coach, the squad also joked further by wearing face-masks of the midfielder and putting up posters in the changing room of the Welshman when he was younger that made him appear as if a member of a boy-band. In response Giggs jokingly refused to make a speech to mark his birthday when asked.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Everton v Stoke City: Squad sheets

The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 17.16 GMT

Fresh from the splendid Merseyside derby, Everton will be confident of maintaining their unbeaten home record against a Stoke side who secured their first victory in nine last weekend. Romelu Lukaku continues to demonstrate all the forward qualities Chelsea currently lack and a win for Everton could elevate them briefly into the top four. Stoke have not won away since August but a rejuvenated Charlie Adam could be one to watch after his goal against Sunderland. Louis Richards Kick-off Saturday 3pm Venue Goodison Park Last season Everton 1 Stoke 0 Referee M Jones This season G5, Y12, R1, 2.8 cards per game

Everton v Stoke CIty: Probable starters in bold, contenders in light. Photograph: Guardian

Odds H 4-6 A 11-2 D 3-1

Everton
Subs from Robles, Jelavic, Heitinga, Naismith, Osman, Oviedo, Alcaraz, Hibbert, Stones, Vellios Doubtful Alcaraz (hamstring), Hibbert (calf) Injured Baines (toe, Jan), Kon (knee, May), Gibson (knee, May) Suspended None Form DDDWWL Discipline Y23 R0 Leading scorer Lukaku 7

Stoke City
Subs from Sorensen, Muniesa, Wilson, Wilkinson, Pennant, Palacios, Edu, Jones, Whelan Doubtful None Injured Arnautovic (hamstring, Dec 14), Huth (knee, unknown) Suspended None

Form WDDLDL Discipline Y27 R0 Leading scorer Adam 3

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

West Ham United v Fulham: Squad sheets

The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 17.04 GMT

Both managers enter this fixture knowing that a bad result could quickly propel their names to the front of the sack race. Without a win in five games, Sam Allardyce's side are clearly suffering from the lack of a quality striker and after one goal in four games, Carlton Cole may merit a start. For Fulham Darren Bent and Dimitar Berbatov may have 195 Premier League goals between them, but their partnership continues to show few indications of prospering. Louis Richards Kick-off Saturday 3pm Venue Upton Park Last season West Ham 3 Fulham 0 Referee M Atkinson This season G7, Y17, R0, 2.4 cards per game Odds H 18-19 A 18-5 D 28-11

West Ham v Fulham: Probable starters in bold, contenders in light. Photograph: Guardian

West Ham United

Subs from Adrin, Spiegel, McCartney, Chambers, Taylor, Diarra, Collison, J Cole, Jarvis, C Cole, Lee Doubtful None Injured Carroll (heel, unknown),Petric (calf, unknown), Rat (hamstring, unknown), Reid (ankle, unknown), Vaz T (shoulder, unknown) Suspended None Form LLDDLW Discipline Y15 R1 Leading scorer Morrison 3

Fulham
Subs from Stockdale, Senderos, Riise, Boateng, Hangeland, Tarrabt, Dembele, Dejagah, Kacaniklic, Karagounis Doubtful Berbatov (illness), Hangeland (leg nerve) Injured Duff (groin, Dec), Rodallega (groin, 21 Dec ), Briggs (groin, 14 Dec) Suspended Riether (third of three) Form LLLLWW Discipline Y20 R0 Leading scorers Bent, Kasami, Sidwell 2

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Aston Villa v Sunderland: Squad sheets

The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 20.25 GMT

Unbeaten in three matches or with only one win in six? Villa fans view the club's season so far in different ways, some believing progress is being made under Paul Lambert and others maintaining that there has been no improvement since last term's narrow escape. Losing at home to the bottom-placed team would give ammunition to the naysayers while a victory would ensconce them safely in mid-table and allay any fears for a while, especially if Christian Benteke regains his scoring form. No such ambiguity at Sunderland: their season has been wretched but Gus Poyet will see this as a game that can be won. Paul Doyle Kick-off Saturday 3pm Venue Villa Park Last season Aston Villa 6 Sunderland 1 Referee N Swarbrick This season G7, Y22, R0, 3.1 cards per game Odds H Evens A 10-3 D 5-2

Aston Villa v Sunderland: Probable starters in bold, contenders in light. Photograph: Guardian

Aston Villa
Subs from Steer, Kozak, Tonev, Clark, Herd, Bowery, Helenius, Lowton, Sylla, Johnson, Robinson Doubtful None Injured Bennett (back, 4 Dec), Gardner (back, unknown), N'Zogbia (achilles, unknown) Okore (knee, May) Suspended None Form DWDLLD Discipline Y23 R0 Leading scorer Benteke 4

Sunderland
Subs from Westwood, Roberge, Diakit, Giaccherini, Altidore, Cabral, Borini, Ji, Mavrias, Dossena Doubtful Diakit (knock), Dossena (knock), Westwood (shoulder) Injured Cullar (hip, 14 Dec) Suspended None Form LWLWLL Discipline Y13 R4 Leading scorers Fletcher, Gardner, Giaccherini 2

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Manchester City v Swansea: Squad sheets

The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 20.21 GMT

4-0, 4-1, 5-0, 7-0, 5-2, 6-0, 4-2: scores registered by Manchester City on their own turf this season to chill Michael Laudrup's Swansea City as they arrive at the Etihad Stadium. Or maybe not: the urbane Dane already has a trophy last season's Capital One Cup and a burgeoning reputation as the brightest of managerial talents whose team play the carpet-football admired by aficionados. If he can successfully plot to claim even one point to halt City's so far perfect record of five league wins before their own crowd then Laudrup will add a further feather to his cap. Jamie Jackson Kick-off Sunday 4.10pm Venue Etihad Stadium Last season Manchester City 1 Swansea 0 Referee M Clattenburg This season G7, Y25, R0, 3.6 cards per game

Manchester City v Swansea Photograph: Guardian

Odds H 3-10 A 12-1 D 5-1

Manchester City

Manchester City
Subs from Hart, Wright, Richards, Garcia, Rodwell, Milner, Kolarov, Dzeko, Guidetti Doubtful Kompany (match fitness) Injured Silva (calf, 10 Dec), Kompany (thigh, one-two weeks), Jovetic (calf, 10 Dec), Nastasic (leg, 21 Dec) Suspended None Form WLWLWW Discipline Y19 R0 Leading scorer Agero 10

Swansea City
Subs from Tremmel, Routledge, Amat, Caas, Britton, Taylor, Lamah, Alfei, Zabret Doubtful None Injured Rangel (calf, 9 Dec), Michu (ankle, 9 Dec), Bony (hamstring, 15 Dec), Monk (knee, Jan) Suspended None Form WDLDWL Discipline Y25 R1 Leading scorer Bony 4

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Chelsea v Southampton: Squad sheets

The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 14.54 GMT

Southampton have won only once at Stamford Bridge since 1995 and yet, aware of Chelsea's current inconsistencies, Mauricio Pochettino's side will travel to the capital with confidence. This is the latest stern test in a tricky run of fixtures they must play Manchester City and Spurs before Christmas which will put their current placing of fifth in proper context. Their hosts were excellent at West Ham last weekend and awful in the midweek defeat at Basel. Jos Mourinho will consider changes to his team, with Fernando Torres likely to start up front and Juan Mata pushing for inclusion. Dominic Fifield

Kick-off Sunday 4.10pm Venue Stamford Bridge Last season Chelsea 2 Southampton 2 Live SS1 Referee M Oliver This season G8, Y33, R0, 4.1 cards per game Odds H 4-7 A 6-1 D 10-3

Chelsea v Southampton: Probable starters in bold, contenders in light. Photograph: Guardian

Chelsea
Subs from Schwarzer, Hilrio, Blackman, Kalas, Cole, David Luiz, Essien, Lampard, Oscar, Mata, De Bruyne, Ba Doubtful David Luiz (knee), Cole (ribs) Injured Eto'o (groin, 14 Dec), Van Ginkel (knee, Apr), Suspended None

Suspended None Form WDLWWW Discipline Y17 R1 Leading scorer Oscar 5

Southampton
Subs from K Davis, Gazzaniga, Fox, Yoshida, S Davis, Lee, Chambers, Osvaldo, Hooiveld, Ramrez, Stephens, Gallagher. Doubtful K Davis (knock), Shaw (thigh) Injured Cork (ankle, unknown), Do Prado (knee, Jan) Suspended None Form LWDWDW Discipline Y16 R0 Leading scorer Lambert 4

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Hull v Liverpool: Squad sheets

The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 16.22 GMT

Hull are the fifth club Steve Bruce has managed against Liverpool and he has a decent record with the previous four losing only five of 17 encounters but he enters the 18th meeting with a serious lack of firepower. While Brendan Rodgers can boast a striker with 21 goals in his last 22 league games, Luis Surez, Hull have scored just four league goals at home all season, the lowest in the division with Crystal Palace, and their only win in the last seven matches was courtesy of a Carlos Cullar own goal against Sunderland. Liverpool have never lost to Hull in 16 fixtures. Andy Hunter Kick-off Sunday 2.05pm Venue KC Stadium Last season n/a

Live Sky Sports 1 Referee H Webb This season G10, Y27, R0, 2.7 cards per game Odds H 23-4 A 8-13 D 31-10

Hull v Liverpool: Probable starters in bold, contenders in light. Photograph: Guardian

Hull City
Subs from Harper, Faye, Rosenior, Proschwitz, Gedo, Graham, Chester, Nagy Doubtful Chester (hamstring) Injured Aluko (achilles, Feb), Quinn (hamstring, Dec 28), McShane (hamstring, unknown) Brady (groin unknown) Suspended None Form LLWLLD Discipline Y20 R1 Leading scorer Brady 3

Liverpool
Subs from Jones, Sakho, Tour, Kelly, Allen, Moses, Alberto, Sterling, Ibe, Ilori Doubtful Sturridge (thigh) Injured Jos Enrique (knee, Feb), Aspas (thigh, Dec), Coates (knee, Mar) Suspended None Form DWLWDW Discipline Y20 R1 Leading scorers Sturridge, Surez 9

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Norwich City v Crystal Palace: Squad sheets

The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 14.17 GMT

Tony Pulis begins his Crystal Palace career with the proverbial six-pointer. These sides have managed just five wins between them this season amid a series of substandard performances to make them both strong relegation candidates. Palace's victory at Hull last weekend was their first away win of the campaign and Pulis will want to maintain some momentum ahead of their consecutive home games against West Ham and Cardiff. Norwich will be hoping Leroy Fer can continue his recent goalscoring prowess. Louis Richards Kick-off Saturday 3pm Venue Carrow Road Last season n/a Referee C Foy This season G7, Y18, R1, 2.9 cards per game Odds H Evens A 7-2 D 5-2

Norwich v Crystal Palace: Probable starters in bold, contenders in light. Photograph: Guardian

Norwich City
Subs from Nash, Johnson, Becchio, Hoolahan, R Bennett, Whittaker, Josh Murphy Doubtful None Injured Pilkington (hamstring, 11 Jan) Snodgrass (knee, 26 Dec), Bunn (foot/ankle, unknown), Tettey (ankle, Feb) Van Wolfswinkel (ankle, 15 Dec) E Bennett (knee, unknown) Suspended None Form LWLDLL Discipline Y13 R0 Leading scorers Howson, Fer 2

Crystal Palace
Subs from Alexander, Price, Parr, Campaa, Mariappa, Grandin, Phillips, O'Keefe, Thomas, Williams, Chamakh, Kai Kai, Kb Doubtful Chamakh (head), Thomas (groin) Injured Murray (knee, Jan), Hunt (ankle, 14 Dec), Guedioura (lung/ribs, 26 Dec), McCarthy (groin, Jan)

Suspended Bolasie (first of three) Form WDLLLL Discipline Y12 R2 Leading scorer Gayle 2

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Tottenham v Manchester United: Squad sheets

The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 17.49 GMT

Tottenham's supporters could be forgiven for feeling a sense of foreboding bearing in mind the harrowing defeat at Manchester City and the fact they have not beaten Manchester United on their own ground since 2001. United put in their best performance of the David Moyes era against Bayer Leverkusen in midweek. Spurs also won, but Europa League 2-0 victories against Tromso only go so far when the manager is under pressure. The question for Andr Villas-Boas is whether his team have got the 6-0 pummelling against City out of their system. A win would certainly go a long way towards strengthening his own position. Daniel Taylor Kick-off Sunday Noon Venue White Hart Lane Last season Tottenham 1 Man Utd 1 Live BT Sport1 Referee M Dean This season G08, Y28, R2, 4.0 cards per game Odds H 9-5 A 17-10 D 5-2

Tottenham v Manchester United: Probable starters in bold, contenders in light. Photograph: Guardian

Tottenham Hotspur
Subs from Friedel, Gomes, Naughton, Chiriches, Fryers, Capoue, Dembl, Lamela, Chadli, Lennon, Soldado Doubtful Adebayor (groin) Injured Rose (toe, 15 Dec), Eriksen (ankle, 21 Dec), Kane (back, 15 Dec) Suspended None Form LLDWWL Discipline Y25 R0 Leading scorer Soldado 4

Manchester United
Subs from Lindegaard, Buttner, F da Silva, R da Silva, Anderson, Zaha, Hernndez, Nani, Young, Welbeck Doubtful R da Silva (foot) Vidic (concussion), Van Persie (groin) Injured Fletcher (match fitness, 7 Dec) Carrick (achilles, 26 Dec) Suspended None Form DWWWDW Discipline Y26 R0

Leading scorer Van Persie 7

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Newcastle v West Brom: Squad sheets

The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 20.22 GMT

Any fears of a crisis on Tyneside have been banished following a run of three successive victories that has moved the side up to a comfortable eighth. Loc Rmy has scored in all three games to take his total to eight for the season, which has helped to distract fans from the ominous spectre of Joe Kinnear (sort of). Steve Clarke, meanwhile, has quietly guided Albion to mid-table and they have lost just once away from The Hawthorns. Louis Richards Kick-off Saturday 5.30pm Venue St James' Park Last season Newcastle 2 West Bromwich A 1 Live SS1 Referee P Dowd This season G10, Y39, R0, 3.9 cards per game Odds H 20-19 A 3-1 D 28-11

Newcastle v West Bromwich Albion: Probable starters in bold, contenders in light. Photograph: Guardian

Newcastle United
Subs from Elliot, Yanga-Mbiwa, Haidara, S Taylor, Dummett, Anita, Ben Arfa, Sammy Ameobi, Ciss, Gutirrez Doubtful Dummett (hamstring), S Taylor (hamstring) Injured R Taylor (knee, Aug) Suspended None Form WWWLDW Discipline Y18 R2 Leading scorer Rmy 8

West Bromwich Albion

Subs from Daniels, Morrison, Anichebe, Vydra, Dawson, Berahino, Anelka, Lugano, Rosenberg, Dorrans, Tamas, Sinclair, Jones, Ridgewell Doubtful Sinclair (hamstring), Jones (hamstring), Ridgewell (calf) Injured Gera (match fitness, 14 Dec), Foster (foot, 14 Dec) Suspended None Form DDWLDD Discipline Y23 R0 Leading scorer Long 3

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Cardiff City v Arsenal: Squad sheets

The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 20.23 GMT

The Premier League leaders will travel to the Welsh capital hoping to pick up a better result than the two Manchester clubs managed. City were beaten 3-2 by Cardiff back in August and United were held to a 2-2 draw last Sunday. On both occasions Cardiff scored from set pieces. Arsne Wenger, who praised Cardiff for their "solidarity, togetherness and fantastic support", has Kieran Gibbs available again after the left-back missed Tuesday's Champions League win over Marseille through illness. Stuart James Kick-off Saturday 3pm Venue Cardiff City Stadium Last season n/a Referee L Mason This season G7, Y27, R1, 4.1 cards per game Odds H 11-2 A 4-6 D 31-10

Cardiff City v Arsenal: Probable starters in bold, contenders in light. Photograph: Guardian

Cardiff City
Subs from Lewis, Hudson, Cornelius, Kim, Noone, Gunnarsson, Bellamy, Maynard, Mason, Connolly, John, Brayford, Smith, Amondarain, Gestede Doubtful None Injured None Suspended None Form DLWDLL Discipline Y16 R0 Leading scorer Campbell 3

Arsenal
Subs from Fabianski, Viviano, Jenkinson, Vermaelen, Monreal, Arteta, Frimpong, Rosicky, Gnabry, Walcott, Akpom, Bendtner, Park Doubtful None Injured Miyaichi (hamstring, 14 Dec), Podolski (hamstring, 14 Dec), Oxlade-Chamberlain (knee, Jan), Sanogo (back, Jan), Diaby (knee, Mar) Suspended None Form WLWWWD Discipline Y19 R2 Leading scorer Giroud 7

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Big interview

Shane Long determined to build on wonder goal for West Bromwich

Shane Long determined to build on wonder goal for West Bromwich Albion
Striker's effort against Aston Villa drew comparisons with Dennis Bergkamp but he is focused on being more consistent
Stuart James The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 19.02 GMT

Shane Long is determined to score a minimum of 10 goals for West Bromwich Albion this season. Photograph: Tom Jenkins

Shane Long has been talking at West Bromwich Albion 's training ground for the best part of an hour, covering everything from Roy Keane to Peppa Pig, but there is one subject that the Republic of Ireland international confesses to "feeling awkward" discussing, and it has nothing to do with his contract situation or the trials and tribulations of deadline day. For someone as modest as Long, who is a footballer without an ego, there is nothing more uncomfortable than being showered with praise, which explains why he is keen to move the conversation on from the brilliance of the first of his two superb goals against Aston Villa on Monday. Long's simplistic take on that marvellous opening goal "Chris Brunt put the ball on my toe and thankfully I managed to control it" is a world apart from just about everyone else's description. In his analysis on Sky, Jamie Carragher drew comparisons with Dennis Bergkamp's wonder strike for Holland against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup. After a fair bit of cajoling, Long eventually concedes that he has watched his goals "a couple of times" since. "I'll tell the truth, when I went back my missus had the game recorded and people were texting me to say [the pundits] had good things to say about me, so I did watch it back. I heard something about Bergkamp-esque I always said that Carragher knew what he was talking about!" Long says, laughing. "But it's in the past now." Long, who has scored four in his last four games for club and country, including the third in Ireland's 3-0 win over Latvia in Martin O'Neill's first game in charge, is playing with supreme confidence and anyone who watched his performance against Villa could be forgiven for wondering why he is not more prolific. "That is the next step consistency. It can't be just a one-off," Long says, "but I feel I've been playing well for most of the season when I've got my chances." At times it is tempting to think that Long could benefit from being a bit more selfish on the pitch. "A few people have said that to me," he says. "The latest one was Roy Keane, when I was away with Ireland. Roy said: 'You need to be more greedy, take more shots on and don't look for that pass rather than taking that chance yourself.' "That stayed with me. You get in these positions; where someone else might be in a better position but you have a good chance of scoring yourself and more often than not I'll try to set up the other person. I don't want to be one of those greedy strikers but, ultimately, you do get marked up on how many goals you score."

Keane is set to become a more influential figure in Long's career following the former Manchester United captain's appointment as O'Neill's assistant. Excited at the prospect of working under a duo who have "created a buzz around the country", Long says his one reservation about Keane was quickly allayed. "You hear stories about what [Keane] was like but in my eyes he was always a legend and an idol of mine, so I was a bit afraid to meet him, because people say don't meet your idols. But I wasn't disappointed. He's a really nice man as well as really professional. "He has got that reputation that kind of scares players a little bit. We were doing shooting before the Latvia game, where you just set each other up but then Roy came in and started setting us up for shots. Everyone was saying: 'I'd better hit the target here.' We started hitting them in the top corner and the keeper was thinking: 'What's going on?' So I think Roy will be a positive influence with things like that, because you know that I don't know how else to say this he won't take any shit. He'll expect the best." Since making his debut for Ireland in 2007 Long has won 43 caps, yet on Twitter on Monday evening some responded to his display against Villa by questioning why Roy Hodgson had failed to call the 26-year-old into the England setup. Long being Long, he laughed along with what became a running joke and later tweeted that he would be on the phone to Hodgson the next day, albeit with a gentle reminder that he had scored at Wembley in May, when Ireland drew 1-1 with England. "I'd never take offence to anything like that," Long says, smiling. "I was just trying to have a bit of banter." Long, by his own admission, is extremely laid back, so there was never any danger he would throw his toys out of the pram when Albion unexpectedly accepted a bid from Hull on deadline day only to later pull the plug on the deal. "It was a bit of a shock but that's football. If the offer is there and it's good for the club, it's something they've got to look at. It was a bit strange that they were willing to let me go but the gaffer [Steve Clarke] spoke to me and said I was a big part of his plans and that kind of reassured me. "You can see now that he trusts me as a player. There is competition here with [Nicolas] Anelka, [Victor] Anichebe, [Matej] Vydra, [Markus] Rosenberg, myself and [Saido] Berahino so I think to start in the team shows that the manager is confident in your ability." The one issue still to be resolved is Long's contract, which expires at the end of next season. The ball is in Albion's court but Long gives the impression that he would welcome the chance to extend his stay. "Happiness counts for a lot, and I'm happy here. The fans are always singing about me, the lads are great, I like playing for the manager, I'm settled with my family, we've already planned for my daughter [Teigan] to go to school here next year, so life's good at the moment." Another child is on the way, which means that Long, who is a talented singer and guitarist, may have some more art work to get on with at home in the new year. "I can draw cartoon characters Peppa Pig, Mickey Mouse and Ben & Holly pretty decent, so I did my little girl's play room. She's happy with it and that's the main thing," Long says. "I got an A in art at school and I always said that if I wasn't getting into football I would be into design or some sort of architecture." On the pitch, his plans have already been drawn up for the rest of the campaign. "The main aim for me is to get to double figures," Long says before Saturday's trip to Newcastle. "Last season I got to nine [goals] and it was frustrating, so I want to get to 10 as soon as possible this season and try to kick on from there."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Chelsea Ladies anticipate 'mind-blowing' reception in Japan for IWCC

Chelsea are preparing for the International Women's Club Championship in 'women's football-mad' Japan
Anna Kessel The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 19.07 GMT

Chelsea's Yuki Ogimi is epected to be the focus of attention when the team travel to her native Japan for the IWCC. Photograph: Paul Thomas/The FA via Getty Images

On the eve of Chelsea Ladies' trip to Japan to make their debut in the International Women's Club Championship (IWCC), their manager, Emma Hayes, has revealed there are more signings to come, in addition to the England defender Laura Bassett and the striker Rachel Williams, for the side that finished second bottom in the FA Women's Super League last season. Seeking to strengthen the spine of a team that leaked 27 goals in their last campaign, the former Chicago Red Stars manager said: "There may be more signings to come to us. A couple more." Bassett, who was linked with the new FAWSL club Manchester City before joining Chelsea, said that the new signings were influential in her decision to join Hayes, as well as the manager's vision for the development of the club. "I think the players that will hopefully be announced shortly will make a massive difference on the results compared to last season," said the 30-year-old, who captained Birmingham to their first ever FA Cup win last year they beat Chelsea on penalties in the final. "It wasn't an easy decision to leave Birmingham, I was speaking to other clubs as well, but Emma and her staff are so passionate and ambitious, they have a real clear vision of where they want to go and how they're going to get there. I just got caught up in it." In Japan, where Chelsea will enter at the semi-final stage next Wednesday to take on either the Australian league winners, Sydney, or the Japanese runners-up, NTV Beleza, the central focus will undoubtedly be on the Blues striker Yuki Ogimi a 2011 World Cup winner with Japan and 2012 Olympic silver medallist, who is currently shortlisted for Fifa's World Player of the Year award. "They're women's football mad in Japan," said Hayes, who explained that Japan's World Cup win came just three months after the devastating tsunami that hit the country. "Yuki says it just exploded after that. It just filled the hearts and minds of the Japanese public." Japanese media organised a press conference solely to announce that Ogimi

would captain Chelsea in the tournament. "You can't go anywhere without 20-30 journalists mobbing you there, it's nutty," said Hayes. "Going over there with an American team last year, we never even saw the [US World Cup winners] 1999 generation get treated like that over in the US. We couldn't believe the adulation, it was mindblowing. It's fabulous. It's a cult following. Their top club team, INAC Kobe Leonessa, average anywhere between 12-20,000 for a home game." The IWCC, also known as the Mobcast Cup and organised for the first time last year by the Japan Football Association and Japanese Women's Football League, is being touted to Fifa officials as a women's equivalent to the Fifa Club World Cup. The top sides from around the world will descend on Okayama, Kagoshima and Tokyo for the second edition of the Cup, with Chelsea facing either Japanese Cup and League winners Kobe Leonessa or the South American side Colo-Colo should they progress to the final. With the Champions League winners Wolfsburg having turned down the opportunity to travel to Japan, Hayes jumped at the chance to participate in a tournament that also ties in with Chelsea's Asia marketing plans. "I think the club are keen for the women to be involved in Japan because we have a female star so to penetrate that market makes it easier if you have a player. It makes sense for us to be invested there." Hayes views the tournament as a good opportunity for her new signings to bed into the team ahead of pre-season training in the new year, and is unrepentant about poor results in the last campaign. "We've just been concentrating on getting it right behind the scenes," says Hayes, who insists she had to implement a new infrastructure to enable the club to move forward. "For me last season was a massive success off the pitch. We progressed players from our centre of excellence we finished the season with five centre of excellence players in our line-up, which is a sign of how far we've come. I'm a big fan of player development and developing my own players. Our project is different to City and Liverpool, we're not trying to buy instant success. We want to develop it."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Australia v England, second Ashes Test, 5-9 December

Ashes: Adelaide Oval is breaking new ground so hold on to your hard hat
As the second Test against England beckons, the Oval environs resemble a building site. It was a beautiful cricket ground, with a wonderful history, but it had become unsustainable
Mike Selvey in Adelaide The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 12.32 GMT Jump to comments ()

A view of the South and West stands during a recent Sheffield Shield match at the revamped Adelaide Oval. Photograph: Morne De Klerk/Getty Images

Sit in front of the West stand, square of the wicket, with the dressing rooms behind, then turn towards the north-east, and it is just possible to remember the Adelaide Oval as it was. The grassy hill, the Northern mound, is still there (although there is seating to the front now) and no doubt the bar will be doing a roaring trade beneath Kenneth Milne's iconic 1911 scoreboard on which will be recorded the deeds of Thursday's second Test. Beyond that, the twin spires of St Peter's Cathedral pierce the sky above the tree line as ever they did. That apart, the ground is unrecognisable from the picturesque place that once partied up in its finery for Test matches on Australia Day. Gone is the Bradman stand to the south, to be replaced by a massive, and indeed impressive new South stand, and to the east, where once stood the Chappell stands, are the bones of a third huge stand, still under construction. The Test is less than a week away but it is a hard-hat area with work continuing not to get the ground completed but simply ready for the Test. To the south, giant rolls of turf were being laid (although not encroaching on what will be the playing area) while beyond the confines of the ground is a building site. A footbridge over the river Torrens will not be ready until next year, as will it all, in time for the start of the footie season. For all intent and purpose, the Adelaide Oval is no longer a cricket ground but has become an Australian Rules football stadium, the new home of the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide teams, on which cricket will be played during the five-month football offseason.

The Adelaide Oval during the Ashes Test of January 1991, with England fielding during Australia's first innings. Photograph: David Munden/Popperfoto/Getty Images

The Oval has always been multiuse. Enter the huge concourse of the South stand that gives access to the ground, and to one side there is a small exhibition, showing how the ground has developed over more than a century. In that time, aside from some of the most memorable cricket ever played (from a room beyond, the strains of Jack O'Hagan's jaunty foxtrot Our Don Bradman can be heard emanating from a museum dedicated to Australia's most

famous cricketer, the specific target of Bodyline in 1932-33), there has been staged cycling and tennis, Aussie rules and rugby league. It has seen carnivals and pageants, royal visits, and rock concerts from Fleetwood Mac to the Foo Fighters. Without question, Adelaide has a spectacular state-of-the-art city centre stadium, although it is a facility funded not by the South Australia Cricket Association, an organisation which had accumulated unsustainable debts in overreaching ground restructuring, or the South Australian National Football League which is a massive beneficiary of the development, but by the state government to the tune of many hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars. The transformation had its roots in Saca's desire to build the West stand, completed half a decade ago, a project initially priced at around A$75m, but with an overspend to A$125m, that despite input from state and federal governments, left Saca with colossal debts. There was also the calamitously expensive installation of what were supposed to be, but are not, retractable floodlights. Tied in was some political expediency. Around the time of the last state election in 2010, the opposition, seeking a vote-winner, proposed the construction of a purpose-built covered stadium, for AFL and soccer, just along the river in the old rail yards on the north bank with simultaneous renovation of the Royal Adelaide hospital, plans which were proving popular. At this time, Saca and AFL were already believed to have been in talks concerning bringing football to the Oval. When the Labour government was seeking an alternative vote-catcher, it was offered the Oval plans, on the condition it financed it to the tune of an original contract price of A$450m (but with a rumoured overspend on top) in addition to a payment to Saca of A$85m to clear its debt. In return Saca would cede control of the ground to an independent body, the Adelaide Oval Stadium Management Authority, with a board representation split between football and cricket.

The Adelaide Oval in 1963, during the drawn second Ashes Test of a series that eventually finished 1-1. Photograph: Albert McCabe/Getty Images

A non-negotiable element in AFL agreement was the provision of drop-in pitches, something that Sydney Cricket Ground, also undergoing development as an AFL stadium, has managed to resist. In addition, the government has provided A$40m for the new bridge, which gives access from the railway station and the city, and a further A$15m to upgrade the transport hub. A new hospital is being built in the rail yards, the first phase of which was opened by the Australian prime minister on Friday. The changes are bad news only in the nostalgic sense. It was a beautiful cricket ground, with a wonderful history, but had become unsustainable. Saca has had its debt cleared and retains an interest in a ground that otherwise, had the covered stadium proposal been pushed through instead, might have become virtually redundant. The millions being spent on servicing the debt

can now, in theory, be allocated to the development of cricket in the state. Meanwhile, AFL has a wonderful 55,000seat stadium achieved with minimal financial input from itself on a project costing upwards of $590m. It may no longer be a cricket ground as it once was but it is hard not to argue that both sports, not to mention the centre of the city itself, have emerged as winners, even if it is on the back of taxpayers. It will remain multipurpose beyond the main use: in March, the Rolling Stones are playing. The idea that they are doing so where Larwood once bounded in to Bradman might just appeal to Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts. This article has been amended to correct the date of the Bodyline series to 1932-33

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Tour match: Chairman's XI v England XI, day one

Gary Ballance tilts towards England Ashes debut in Adelaide

England XI 212-7 dec, Chairman's XI 16-0
Andy Wilson at Traeger Park, Alice Springs The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 09.27 GMT Jump to comments ()

Gary Ballance top scored for England with 55 on day one of their tour match against the Chairman's XI at Traeger Park. Photograph: Gareth Copley/Getty Images

From a golden duck in Perth to a Test debut in Adelaide? That seems increasingly likely to be the story of Gary Ballance's first tour as an England player after he stuck his hand at least halfway up to fill the vacancy left by Jonathan Trott's abrupt departure. Ballance could hardly have made a worse start to his international career for his adopted country, the chunky young

left-hander from Zimbabwe lasting three balls in two innings, the first a one-day match against Ireland in the summer before he chased and edged the first delivery he faced in the opening game of the Ashes tour against a Western Australia Chairman's XI. The fact that he was selected for that game ahead of his Yorkshire team-mate Jonny Bairstow always seemed significant. At that point, Joe Root was expected to continue his opening partnership with Alastair Cook, leaving a position up for grabs at No6, and it appeared that Ballance was the preferred choice to fill it. Michael Carberry's confident 78 in Perth caused a rethink and when he followed that with a century in the second tour game in Hobart where Ballance failed again, this time making four in 17 balls England decided on Root as the best bet to bat in the lower middle order. Now England have lost a batting mainstay and this time Ballance was steadier on his feet. There was already a hefty clue to the way England were thinking when he was named at No3 in a peculiar batting order in which he was followed by Matt Prior, out of form and desperate for runs, at four and Ian Bell, captaining the team in the absence of Cook to allow Prior to concentrate wholly on his batting, at six. Ben Stokes came in between them at five, with Bairstow down at seven another indication of how far he has fallen down the pecking order since he played in the first four Tests of the previous Ashes series, to a role on this tour as deputy wicketkeeper to Prior. Ballance was required in the seventh over, after Carberry flicked uppishly to mid-wicket, and did not depart until the 54th. He only scored 55 from the 134 balls he faced but that will not have concerned the England management unduly. Solidity is the priority after the double collapse in Brisbane and no one found runs easy on a slow pitch and rough outfield that provided unsuitably stodgy cricket for a roasting festival-style crowd. The brains trust cannot have been impressed by his departure, run out after a horrible mix-up with Bell, but it would now be a major surprise if Ballance does not play in Adelaide. Ben Stokes fell well short of overtaking him with a positive but unsubstantial 28 either side of lunch. Bell surely confirmed Bairstow's irrelevance to the debate by declaring 10 overs before the close when he was on 31. Perhaps the most intriguing question is where Ballance will bat? The general assumption is that it will be at six, with Bell or, more likely, Root filling the seat that proved too hot for Trott at the Gabba. When it was suggested to England's team director Andy Flower that Bell and Root must be the favourites earlier in the week, he stressed there was a third option under consideration. Ballance has rarely batted at three for Yorkshire, so it would be a very long shot but it would still seem unwise to rule out entirely the possibility that England have seen him for a while as the long-term successor to another solidly built southern African at first drop. On a day during which the PA announcer was ordered to stop even gentle mockery of the tourists after a few arch comments about Root's regular liquid intake which was understandable anyway for a Yorkshireman in temperatures approaching 40C, especially when it emerged that he has had an upset stomach there was more disappointment for Prior. Two cheap dismissals against Nathan Lyon in Brisbane had left him with 136 runs in nine completed Ashes innings over the past six Tests but he punched and drove positively, if uppishly on occasion, in making 19 from 27 balls before he edged a good one from Simon Mackin to Jake Doran, a 16-year-old wicketkeeper. "He's stoked to be running around out there," Mackin said of Doran, who also took a good low catch to dismiss Bell. "It was an awesome experience for all of us to be playing against the likes of Bell and Prior. Ninety to 100% of people don't know the players in our team."

Mackin, a tall 21-year-old seamer from Perth, has still to play a first-class game and revealed that his range of previous jobs included "packing sushi". Even after a few days in the middle of nowhere in Australia's Red Centre, England's wounds are still raw.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Tour de France fever writes a new chapter in the Yorkshire Dales diary
Towns and villages throughout Yorkshire have been warned to expect something unprecedented when the Tour de France sweeps in to create a gala occasion next July
Richard Williams The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 20.11 GMT Jump to comments ()

The Yorkshire Dales cycling country. Photograph: Alamy

Fans from Belgium and the Netherlands have already been sighted, looking for the best spots to park their mobile homes. The hotels and B&Bs are booked solid. Roads are being resurfaced. The parish council is worrying about how many Portaloos they'll be needing. Winter is coming to the Yorkshire dales but in Ilkley this week thoughts were turning to high summer and the arrival of the Tour de France next July. "It's going absolutely mental up here already," a friend exclaimed when I said I'd be joining him at a public meeting about the likely impact of the Tour on a West Yorkshire town famous in the Victorian era for its hydrotherapy centres and now best known for an old ballad about its moor. Modern Ilkley is a place where 8% of the population of 13,000 are members of the local cycling club, a particularly remarkable statistic given that the institution, having faded into extinction during the 1960s, was resurrected only three years ago. Any day of the week now, it's a rare journey on the main road or the surrounding lanes that doesn't

include an encounter with cyclists out on training rides. On Wednesday evening more than 100 people turned up for the sort of meeting that is being held in towns and villages throughout the county, along the route of stages one, from Leeds to Harrogate, and two, from York to Sheffield. And they were warned to expect something unprecedented. "Think of last year's Olympic torch relay," the emergency planning officer from Bradford council told them, "and multiply it. Then multiply it again. And again." Some are just looking forward to a gala occasion. Local businesses are wondering how they can get a slice of the commercial benefit a total of anything between 100m and 300m, it is claimed generated by the presence of an estimated three million extra visitors to Yorkshire during the week of the Grand Dpart. A sizeable number of residents are concerned about the potential disruption caused by extensive road closures and the sheer scale of the whole enterprise. In its three previous visits to the UK in 1974, 1994 and 2007 the Tour failed to venture north of London. It was Yorkshire's cycling heritage, the man from the tourist board told the meeting, that had enabled Gary Verity, Welcome to Yorkshire's chief executive, to win the bid for the 2014 Grand Dpart against well-funded competition from Edinburgh. "This is cycling country," he said, introducing a couple of short films, one featuring such local heroes as Brian Robinson, the first British rider to win a Tour stage in 1958, Barry Hoban, the winner of eight stages between 1967 and 1975, and Mark Cavendish, whose mum is from Yorkshire, and the other showcasing the spectacular landscape of the dales. Given the explosion in cycling's popularity in the five years since millions thronged Hyde Park and the lanes of Kent, and the vast numbers who endured filthy weather to watch this year's Tour of Britain, even a town that isn't hosting a stage start or finish is going to experience a huge impact, and Ilkley is priming itself. The shelves of the Grove bookshop, a few doors away from Betty's famous tea rooms, already contain more volumes about cycling than all other sports put together. The local bike shop, JD Cycles, is readying itself for a move in February from its present location, hidden away in a former furniture store behind the railway station, to a smart new building on the main road, just a few yards from where the peloton will sweep by next summer. "A lot of people have been saying: 'It's all very well, but it'll be here and gone in 30 seconds,'" the tourist board man said, before explaining that the passage of the publicity caravan alone with its free promotional caps, keyrings and bags of sweets will occupy several hours. Preceding it will be an entire week's worth of events: the opening of a campsite the previous Saturday, a sportive for 1,000 amateur riders on the Sunday, races in the town centre following the example of neighbouring Otley's popular annual event on the Tuesday, a retro-styled Tweed Ride on the Thursday, an after-school family ride and barbecue on the Friday, a bike show in the Winter Gardens all week, and then the Tour itself on the Saturday, with big screens set up for spectators to follow its progress throughout the 191km opening stage. The scope for initiative is vast, and the effort made by individual communities is crucial to the race's unique character. "We want to put on a great show," a man from the parish council said. A lady from Addingham, a village three miles away, through which the Tour will pass on both its days in Yorkshire, mentioned that children at the primary school are planning to create floral displays in the colours of the Tour jerseys. There will be banners honouring the race's past winners, and thought is being given to providing the helicopter-borne TV cameras with a special display on the Cow and Calf, the distinctive rock formation on the ridge of Ilkley Moor, high above the town. Members of the cycling club are working with local schools to create cross-curricular projects involving studies of related subjects, including geography and French. Thousands of "Tour makers", recruited by the tourist board, will follow the example of the volunteers who contributed so much to the London Olympics. The Ilkley branch of the Soroptimists is in charge of a team of guides. More sombrely, an inspector from the local police station announced that all leave has been cancelled for the week,

given the need to match the French system of stationing a gendarme at each road junction on the closed route, no matter how minor, and to ensure that the lanes are kept unclogged, guaranteeing access for the emergency and utility services. She also warned of the potential influx of thieves with plans to steal expensive bikes and burgle houses and tents left empty while the race goes past. And should it rain, the man from Bradford council said, contingency plans will be needed for towing parked vehicles out of muddy fields. This is, after all, Yorkshire, not Provence. But optimism is high. "Gary Verity claims he wants to make Yorkshire the world's No1 cycling destination," the organiser of the town-centre races told me. "It sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? But then we laughed when Dave Brailsford said there'd be a British winner of the Tour within five years. And look what happened with that."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Leicester's Toby Flood puts boot into Gloucester to complete turnaround

Gloucester 17-22 Leicester
Mike Averis at Kingsholm The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 22.04 GMT Jump to comments ()

Leicester's Toby Flood, centre, tries to break between two Gloucester tacklers in the Premiership match at Kingsholm. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

Gloucester's wretched season continues, Leicester on Friday night extending the losing run to five league games but not without having their own game tested. Until 11 minutes from time it was the pace of Gloucester's backs that was winning the game until they finally came unstuck to Leicester's weapon of choice the scrum. Five metres out Gloucester's recently replaced front row were no match for two props and a hooker with more than 100 Tests between them, conceding the penalty which Toby Flood converted to get Leicester's noses ahead for the first time.

first time. Until then the Gloucester tactic of making Leicester's huge pack run around looked as though it might just hold sway. However, five minutes from time Leicester's big men earned their captain his fifth penalty of the night and, bar a few final brave gestures, that was that. "We knew if we had territory our forwards would take control," said Leicester's director of rugby, Richard Cockerill. However, just as important were the 12 points Gloucester's three kickers kicked away. Gloucester started brightly enough, the scrums notwithstanding, Freddie Burns by turns saint then sinner saint when he picked off Flood's pass to sprint home from a good 50 metres, sinner when he missed two kickable penalties and then pushed an attempted drop goal. He did convert his own try but a couple of penalties from Flood cut the lead to one point before the Leicester scrum got on top. First they took one against the head and, when the ball squirmed out of a second, Ben Youngs got to within a couple of metres before the ball was recyled and moved left to right where Flood's clever off-load found Dan Bowden in the clear and only a metre out. Leicester later conceded a try to Jonny May's pace but their forwards' power and Flood's precision eventually told. Gloucester: R Cook; S Monahan, H Trinder, B Twelvetrees, J May; F Burns, D Robson; N Wood (Y Thomas, 69), D Dawidiuk (H Edmonds, 56), S Knight (R Harden, 58), L Lokotui (E Stooke, 56), J Hudson, T Savage (capt, M Cox, 45), M Kvesic, B Morgan. Tries: Burns, May. Cons: Burns, Cook. Pen: Twelvetrees. Leicester: S Hamilton (S Harrison, 78); B Scully, A Thompstone, D Bowden, M Benjamin; T Flood (capt), B Youngs; M Ayerza, T Youngs (N Briggs, 78), D Cole, L Deacon, G Kitchener, J Gibson, J Salvi, T Waldrom. Try: Bowden. Con: Flood. Pens: Flood. Referee: G Garner (RFU)

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

England's Marland Yarde could miss entire Six Nations after hip injury
London Irish wing ruled out for 12 to 14 weeks England running short of manpower in backline
Press Association The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 13.35 GMT

Marland Yarde in an England training session this Autumn Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

England's injury problems are growing before the Six Nations after the wing Marland Yarde was potentially ruled out for the entire tournament. T h e London Irish three-quarter requires surgery to repair a torn hip tendon suffered in last weekend's 20-11 Premiership defeat to Leicester and will miss between 12 and 14 weeks, his club have confirmed. England are short of manpower in the backline with the centre Manu Tuilagi to miss the entire campaign and question marks over the availability of Joel Tomkins and Ben Foden, who both have knee problems. Yarde featured in England's autumn international clash against Australia at Twickenham, after impressing on the summer tour to Argentina. He missed England's clashes against Argentina and New Zealand through injury but this fresh blow leaves a big hole to fill in both the Irish and England ranks. England start their Six Nations campaign against France on 1 February, with Yarde now unlikely to be fit in time to make Stuart Lancaster's squad for that tournament opener. London Irish have also confirmed that the hooker David Paice will miss eight to 10 weeks after fracturing his radius in the defeat to Leicester. Leicester's luckless back-five forward Tom Croft started England's wretched injury run this season. The British and Irish Lion suffered knee ligament damage in September, and will miss the entire season - after missing most of the previous campaign with a serious neck injury. Team-mate Manu Tuilagi will miss the entire Six Nations after surgery on a torn pectoral muscle earlier this month. The wrecking-ball centre was primed for a comeback from the problem in September, only to suffer a serious complication at the last minute. Leicester's Tom Croft is out of the season and the Tigers' lock Geoff Parling has had surgery to repair a shoulder problem he picked up in England's defeat to New Zealand that closed their autumn international campaign. He will be out for at least three months while the Northampton prop Alex Corbisiero is expected to be sidelined for three to four months after knee surgery, according to club boss Jim Mallinder. Saracens centre Tomkins is carrying a knee problem that is yet to be fully diagnosed, while Ben Foden, who played on the wing after Yarde was injured in the autumn internationals, is in a similar predicament. There is some better news for Lancaster with Dylan Hartley recovering quickly from the bruised lung the hooker suffered against New Zealand. He is set to start for Northampton in the Premiership match at Worcester on Saturday. Brad Barritt's ankle problem will keep the Saracens centre sidelined until the new year but Lancaster will hope his

Brad Barritt's ankle problem will keep the Saracens centre sidelined until the new year but Lancaster will hope his chief defensive fulcrum will be fit for a Six Nations return in February. The Wasps wing Christian Wade is also fit again after hamstring trouble to start at London Irish.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Wales v Australia, Millennium Stadium, 5pm Saturday 30 November

Wales believe they can beat Australia and finally end Wallaby hoodoo
Warren Gatland's men recognise the future importance of defeating their southern hemisphere opponents
Robert Kitson The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 22.00 GMT

Dan Biggar's playmaking abilities could prove crucial for Wales when they face Australia at the Millennium Stadium. Photograph: Huw Evans Agency/Rex

These are defining days in Welsh rugby, the possible outcomes both heavenly and hellish. If they can defeat the Wallabies at the Millennium Stadium it will round off an outstanding year for Warren Gatland and his players: a Six Nations title, three autumn Test wins out of four and a Welsh-inspired Lions series victory. Lose at home to demobhappy visitors, on the other hand, and serious concerns about migrating players and impoverished regions will resurface once more. It remains the way in Welsh rugby, even in the best of times. The fatal temptation is to look back and compare the national side with the legends of previous falls. Of more relevance is looking ahead and identifying how a team stuffed with winners can break free from their recurring failures in games against the southern hemisphere's big three under Gatland since 2008. A lasting solution grows ever more urgent with Australia, as well as England, occupying the same Rugby World Cup

pool in 2015. Time is not their friend. Adam Jones, the tighthead rock upon whose propping shoulders so much is based, will be 33 in March. Gethin Jenkins and Ryan Jones will also be 34 when the World Cup kicks off. Jonathan Davies, Ian Evans, Dan Lydiate, Luke Charteris, Jamie Roberts, George North and James Hook are among 10 senior players already committed to playing outside Wales next season, with more certain to follow. Gatland's job is not about to get easier, even when his injured centres Roberts and Davies recover. Which is why this final Test bolted on to the end of the November window for financial reasons has more relevance in terms of long-term momentum than might be expected. The players know it and, tellingly, are not using the Lions' summer deeds as motivation. Non-Lions, such as the recalled fly-half Dan Biggar, crave victory in a Welsh jersey for its own soothing sake. "We are fed up of saying Wales played well against a southern hemisphere team and came out losing by two or three points," says the Ospreys No10. "The coaches and players have said it is not good enough to lose this weekend. The autumn campaign will be judged on this game. It will be a success or a pretty mediocre autumn." Wales under Gatland have rarely lacked the requisite desire; he believes in keeping his senior players on their toes, as evidenced by the omission of Brian O'Driscoll from his Lions third Test lineup. What has been lacking is similar ruthlessness out on the pitch, specifically in the final minutes of big games. While both England and Ireland gave the All Blacks a physical pounding this month, they could not match the world's No1 side for last-quarter composure and crystal-clear decision-making. How many replacements would have combined in the 81st minute as sweetly as Dane Coles and Ryan Crotty did for New Zealand's vital try in Dublin? How many sides would have completed as many phases under such acute pressure? Only those with such ability can aspire to claim the biggest prizes. According to Alun Wyn Jones, captain of the Lions side who beat the Wallabies 41-16 in Sydney, therein lies the key to Wales's fortunes over the next two years, whoever is selected in the playmaking roles. "Warren has said the only way you learn to play with a calm head under pressure is by continuing to do it against these bigger sides," he said. "We have faltered the last four times when Wales have played Australia. At least three of those games we should have won but the scoreline tells us different." Then again, as the All Blacks underlined last week, successful game management is no accident. Simplicity and accuracy can be enough, particularly against tiring defences. "New Zealand knew if they kept the ball they would eventually score," reflected Jones. "There was nothing spectacular. Look at our summer tour in Australia [last year] when we haven't put the ball off the park. We have to make sure we're not caught in that same rut again. We have been there or thereabouts but that's not good enough." It does no harm that several of the muscular runners so crucial to Wales's direct game-plan are available. If Alex Cuthbert, North and Toby Faletau make good ground the home side will surely prosper. Biggar is also a pivotal figure; frequently overlooked by the national management, the ex-drama student is not a dazzler like his opposite number Quade Cooper but, at 24, is a steadily improving playmaker with a point to prove. "It is frustrating watching England beat these teams and then us not quite getting the results. There is a big focus this weekend on making sure we don't overplay and try too many fancy things. It is about being streetwise, doing the basics well and seeing where we are around the hour mark." That scenario may well hinge on how young Rhodri Jones does up front in the absence of Wales's three senior tightheads; Adam Jones, Scott Andrews and Aaron Jarvis. The 21-year-old was at school with North but has started just one game this season for his region, the Scarlets. Thinking clearly and rationally is much harder when your scrum is splintering in all directions. Australia will also be wondering if the Toulon-bound Evans is entirely match fit as they seek a fourth straight win on their European tour, a distant prospect following their disappointing loss at Twickenham in their first game on tour at the start of November. Their head coach, Ewen McKenzie, has succeeded in dragging them out of the pub and back on the road to redemption and a ninth successive win over the Welsh would ensure the bleakest of Christmases for players such as Alun Wyn Jones. "We've beaten them in the Welsh jersey before, we are perfectly capable of doing it and we know

Alun Wyn Jones. "We've beaten them in the Welsh jersey before, we are perfectly capable of doing it and we know we can," stressed the Ospreys lock. "We have to focus on this weekend and not what has happened in the past." Sidestep their Wallaby hoodoo and Wales's future will look after itself.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Australia v Cardiff, Millennium Stadium, 5pm Saturday 30 November

Weary Australia seek win over Wales to end their most hectic year ever
Australia play their 15th and final match of the year in Cardiff on Saturday and say they are 'treating it like a grand final'
Paul Rees The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 19.19 GMT

Australia's Will Genia says 'everyone is really excited' about the changes introduced by their head coach, Ewen McKenzie. Photograph: Huw Evans Agency/Rex

Cardiff, as it usually is with the Welsh Rugby Union arranging an extra Test outside the official window every year for financial reasons, is the venue for the final international match of 2013 on Saturday in what will be the 15th outing for a weary Wallaby side. It has been another taxing year for Australia who have lost seven of their Tests in 2013 as well as a head coach: Robbie Deans departed after the summer failure against the Lions combined with a series of drink-related incidents, and was replaced by Ewen McKenzie, someone who allows his players more latitude on the pitch than off it. "It has been a long year, but there has been a lot of energy in the camp this week," says the scrum-half Will Genia. "Players have been bouncing off the walls and we are treating the game against Wales not as the final game of the year but a grand final: we want to win and end the season on a high."

The International Rugby Board has said it intends to review the rugby calendar in response to fears that players are being overloaded. This weekend marks the 67th international involving a Tier One nation this year, with 53 involving one of the 10 of them against another. Twenty years ago, in the dying days of the amateur era, the numbers were virtually half: 36 internationals involving the Tier One countries, with 26 not involving a developing nation (there was no Rugby Championship then). Australia played seven matches in 1993. Test rugby has been the vehicle used to drive the professional game but there is no more room for expansion. "In one way you do not want the year to end because we are in far better shape now than we were at the start," Genia adds. "We are in a good place now, building under a new coach who is establishing a new environment and culture. "He is setting his mark and all the players are buying into it. Our task is to build from here on in. Ewen runs a tight ship: he lets you know what is right and wrong and there are no grey areas. We are a young group and need that, appreciating the standards to uphold. Everyone is really excited." Australia have not had a settled side in recent years, partly a consequence of injuries. There are only two survivors from the team that started against Wales 12 months ago, the three-quarters Adam Ashley-Cooper and Nick Cummins, but McKenzie has so far worked with what he inherited rather than turn to tyros and he has brought the outside-half Quade Cooper back from the wilderness. "It is hard to say how much we need to improve," says Cooper. "Every team is looking to do so. It's how each individual goes about it and everyone needs the same mind-set to become better. It has been a difficult year with a change of coach and rotation of players. We have had to find our feet again and there is a hard edge around the team. We want to be a great side and we are progressing well." Australia have won their past three matches, against Italy, Ireland and Scotland, after losing their opening tour match to England at Twickenham when they were strangely subdued in the second half. After losing their first three games under McKenzie, against New Zealand and South Africa, they have won five of the seven since and, whatever shape they are in physically at the end of Australia's busiest year, Wales will not pose a mental problem, with the past eight fixtures between the sides going the Wallabies' way. "I have always gone into games against Wales confident because of our recent record against them," Genia says. "We enjoy playing against them and we are all up for it after some of the talk that has come out of the Welsh camp. What more motivation do you need than someone coming out and saying they are going to batter you?" In less than two years, Australia and Wales will start their World Cup campaign in the same group. In the previous two tournaments staged in the British Isles, the Wallabies have won. "That's a long way off," says Genia. "You have to win games along the way, but there are young guys coming through and we certainly have potential."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Sign up for the daily email

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen opens another door with the Barbarians
The successful rugby union man takes a break from all-conquering New Zealand to oversee the Baa-Baas against Fiji at Twickenham but also has his sights on 2015 World Cup
Donald McRae The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 12.05 GMT Jump to comments ()

Another door has opened for All Blacks coach Steve Hansen, with the Barbarians, who face Fiji at Twickenham. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

"We're not giving up," Steve Hansen mutters as he leads me through a brightly lit maze of corridors in a swanky hotel in London. The All Blacks intense and hugely successful coach, who has taken charge of the Barbarians as they prepare for Saturday's entertaining runaround against Fiji at Twickenham, has been subjected to a frustrating series of defeats over the past five minutes. He has tried one door after another, while searching for a free room where we can talk, and each has either been locked or full of bewildered business people staring at the exasperated New Zealander. Last Sunday, having been 19-0 down after 18 minutes against Ireland, Hansen's All Blacks became the first international team since the advent of professional rugby to win every match of a perfect season. Fourteen consecutive victories, however, are in danger of being obscured by the 14th unsuccessful turn of a doorknob in, as Hansen says, "a bloody warren". My cheery small talk dribbles away as Hansen stalks ahead. Finally, with a grunt of satisfaction, the 54-year-old discovers a deserted room. There are no chairs but Hansen almost smiles: "This'll do " We stand nose to nose, separated by a chest-high table, and the transformation over the next hour is striking. Hansen often appears to be a dour Kiwi who might prefer having a tooth yanked out rather than enduring another media ordeal. Yet now, free from Test rugby, he relaxes. "I've just about recovered," Hansen says dryly of a Dublin Test that was won in the last minute when New Zealand's Aaron Cruden was allowed to retake a difficult conversion. "We had mixed emotions. We enjoyed the win, because of the way we got it, but we were disappointed not to have played well for much of the game. But later, as the night wore on, people started to think: 'Gee whizz, this is really quite special winning every match in a season.' No one's done it before and that's because it's mentally and physically so tough." Hansen is typically blunt when explaining how New Zealand conceded three early tries. "We weren't respecting the

Hansen is typically blunt when explaining how New Zealand conceded three early tries. "We weren't respecting the rugby ball. At the kick-off we knew Ireland would be full of noise but we fed them with mistakes caused by their intensity and our poor decision making. At 19-0 down we had a battle on our hands because they're a good side especially with that self-belief. Yeah, we'd played seven Tests in nine weeks and been around the world twice but Ireland played particularly well and we didn't. We came back slowly into the game, inch by inch, and it took the full 80 minutes to get the job done." What did he say at half-time when New Zealand trailed 22-7? "It was pretty quiet in the shed," Hansen remembers. "But we reminded the boys to keep believing and make sure we did everything with accuracy and purpose. In the end it came down to that last retaken kick. We all hoped [referee] Nigel Owens would be strong enough to stick to the rules and he was. You can't charge a kick early and he'd already warned Ireland. He made the right call." Hansen is more interested in the wider ramifications after a historic win was sealed in dramatic fashion. The whole year, in fact, appears to have forged a template that could make New Zealand even more imposing in the buildup to the 2015 World Cup. "Everyone in our team knows we're not unbeatable, so it's great to have gone through a game like that because it's given them even deeper self-belief that, no matter what the scoreboard says, they have to stay in the moment." The concentrated stillness at the core of this New Zealand team reflects well on Hansen. He is also understated when refusing to reflect too deeply in public on a peerless achievement. We know enough about the All Blacks to accept that, in private, they call themselves the most dominant team in world sport. But, here, Hansen strikes an appropriate tone in paying tribute to some opponents especially South Africa. "The best rugby played this year by both teams has to have been the Jo'burg Test. Each game has its own little story but Jo'burg had everything. Both teams scored four tries and played physical rugby with real intensity. The few defensive lapses were caused by good play from both teams. "The Auckland Test against South Africa was another big game. We also had some biggies against Australia and had to work against France and if you're going to win 14 in a year you couldn't have written a better script than Dublin." It is hard to ignore the fact that England are left off that list. As with South Africa, France and Ireland, they held the lead against New Zealand in the third quarter of their recent Test. Hansen might still be smarting from the fact that, during his two-year tenure as head coach only England have beaten an All Blacks team who have won 25 of 27 Tests. Last season they drew with Australia before, shockingly, losing to England. When it's pointed out that he has not mentioned his sole conquerors, Hansen admits: "We don't like losing and because we don't lose very often it's hard to stomach. But getting the odd punch in the gut can be good for you. It keeps your feet on the ground and we learnt how to manage the whole season because all the games accumulate. We did that better this year and rotated more effectively. "Last year we got beaten by the better team on the day. I have lots of respect for Stuart [Lancaster] and his crew. They're working away quite nicely and they've got massive playing numbers and financial support. Wales have also been there or thereabouts for some time. France are dangerous even if they don't seem to have the right recipe but they can get their recipe right overnight. "Ireland also showed that if they turn up with the right mentality they're difficult to beat. The difference is being able to sustain it week after week. New Zealand and South Africa can do it and England have won nine out of their last 11 matches. That's pretty good." His bruising experiences as Wales coach between 2002 and 2004 have given Hansen a deep knowledge of the Six Nations and he stresses how that turbulent period matured his coaching. "We lost 11 on the trot [interrupted by a solitary victory over Romania] but it was all about changing the culture of Welsh rugby. "Too many people had their hands out rather than their hands up. Once I learned, after five months, that you couldn't

coach the Welsh like New Zealanders we started to progress. I became more flexible, while also realising how the culture and core values matter more than anything. We got there in the end and some of the best times I've had in rugby were with that group. We had adversity and pain, because of the Welsh structure, but that young group eventually gave everything they had. A year later they won the grand slam." That same warmth is evident when Hansen talks of his pleasure in welding together a Barbarians team that mainly features Springboks, All Blacks and Pumas. Hansen has chosen Jean de Villiers as his captain and he talks animatedly of Schalk Burger's return, after a serious illness, on Saturday. "We want to beat Fiji but it's a very social event and taps into one of the great things about rugby. "You can contest 80 minutes and belt the heck out of each other and then have a few beers afterwards. I'm enjoying time with good men like Jean and Schalk. If we spoke about rugby all the time we'd probably go nuts, so we've talked much more about real life this week." As a father of six he mentions each of his children by name and age while paying tribute to his wife Hansen has a more rounded perspective than his persona might suggest. He details the need to be "completely present" when with his family and of the "massive sacrifices" they make for him. Such understanding allows him to empathise with his older players and explains why the All Blacks currently boast four men who each have played 100 Tests in a squad with an average age of only 26. "It hasn't happened by chance. After winning the World Cup we've made changes slowly but surely, but all the guys with 100 caps are playing really well." Hansen has unearthed an impressive array of new All Blacks while allowing Richie McCaw, Dan Carter and Conrad Smith six-month breaks away from the game. Is it feasible that McCaw and Carter, the exceptional All Blacks captain and the sublime backline talisman, might play in the next World Cup? "It's their dream. We've got plenty of time to see if they can maintain their desire and performance. If they do, I'm happy to pick them." Hansen shrugs when asked if New Zealand are driven most by the idea that they could make another form of history by becoming the first team to successfully defend the World Cup. "The important thing to realise is that we're not defending it. In Ireland last week they had an official function where we gave the cup back. So it's not ours any more. If we want to do it again in 2015 we have to earn it. That mentality suits us." All the locked doors of an hour before are forgotten as Hansen smiles broadly. "We can just about put a full stop to a memorable season and have one or two wee beers. And then we'll start all over again. We'll be going out to win every game. The rest of New Zealand expects that and it's one of the reasons we're so successful. Those huge external expectations drive the internal expectations of this team even higher. "Once you embrace the fact that you're expected to win every game you're fine. Wouldn't you want that, anyway?" Barbarians v Fiji, on Saturday, 2.30pm, Twickenham. Tickets available via 0844 847 2492 or ticketmaster.co.uk

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.

Sign up for the daily email

Magnus Carlsen hits heights but doubts remain over historical standing
Leonard Barden The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 20.18 GMT Jump to comments ()

3334 A Timofeev v E Inarkiev, Moscow 2008. White (to move) went 1 Re8, missing a forced winning sequence. Can you do better? Photograph: Graphic

Magnus Carlsen, 23 on Saturday, has achieved the strongest global recognition for any chess player since Garry Kasparov. The Carlsen brand stems from the young Norwegian's newly acquired world title, his all-time No1 ranking and his growing legend of invincibility but also from his non-chess attributes as a cool and hunky sex symbol, a part-time male model and a fertile source of comparisons to Mozart, Justin Bieber or Harry Potter. For all that, there are still critics who question whether Carlsen is truly in the same bracket as Bobby Fischer and Kasparov, the two established all-time greats. The reservations are based on Vishy Anand's poor form at Chennai, the luck which Carlsen had in the 2012 London candidates and the inflation in the rating system which has developed since the Fischer and Kasparov eras. Most of all, the unease about Carlsen centres on his playing style, which is very different from the great classical masters of the past. The Carlsen approach responds to two factors which have increasingly dominated competitive chess in the past two decades. One is computer-based thinking, where specific calculation matters more than strategic decisions. The other is the increased length of playing sessions so that, instead of five hours then an overnight adjournment, a game can now last six or seven hours without a break, with the last couple of hours played at a fast time rate. Carlsen certainly knows plenty of hot theory when he needs it there are persistent rumours that he has his own dedicated super-computer in Norway but his preference is to play an objectively level position where his persistent pressure and superior fitness will count, particularly in a long and tiring endgame. In the old days they called it

sitzfleisch. Anand's tame approach and his apparent fixation to take on the solid Berlin 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6 meant that Carlsen's anti-theory plan was only really tested in game nine, He got away with it then, but Kasparov claimed that Anand had more dangerous ways to press home his fierce attack. Carlsen will miss next week's London Classic and play next at Zurich in January, where his five rivals are led by Levon Aronian and Vlad Kramnik, world Nos 2 and 3. The Armenian and the Russian are also favourites for the next candidates in March 2014, leading to Carlsen's first title defence in November. Kramnik believes that Carlsen is beatable, so this would be the most interesting match for chess fans-but most observers believe that Carlsen is capable of further improvement and will see off all rivals for the foreseeable future. From a publicity angle, the optimum opponent at present is Hikaru Nakamura, the brash and charismatic world No 4, who would revive memories of Fischer. 3334 1 Rc3! a5 (alternatives are similar) 2 g4 a4 3 g5 Kb4 4 Rxc4+! Kxc4 5 g6 a3 6 g7 a2 7 g8Q queening with check Kb3 8 Qg7 and 9 Qa1 and White will win the pawn and mate with king and queen. 3333 A black pawn at h5 was missing.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Australia v New Zealand, Rugby League World Cup final, Old Trafford, 2.30pm Sat 30 Nov

Australia dismiss revenge motivation against New Zealand in cup final

Kangaroos's Cameron Smith plays down favourite tag Kiwis leader, Simon Mannering, ready for 'hell of a battle'
James Riach The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 21.00 GMT

Australia's Cameron Smith played in the 2008 World Cup final against New Zealand in which his team let a 10-point lead slip. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA

"It's no secret, it was bitterly disappointing," says Cameron Smith as he casts his mind back to the World Cup of 2008. Five years ago Australia lined up against their oldest foes New Zealand for a final that holds particular resonance on Saturday. Australia, on home soil, took a 10-point lead over the Kiwis only to be overawed by their trans-Tasman rivals in a second half that still sends shudders down the spines of ardent Kangaroos fans. The margin of victory was a remarkable 14 points Brisbane was black and white for a night after New Zealand won 34-20. Smith is one of five players in Tim Sheens's current squad who bear the scars of that defeat, along with Greg Inglis, Johnathan Thurston, Paul Gallen and Billy Slater. Yet for Australia, seeking revenge at Old Trafford on Saturday, when the teams will meet for a third final in succession, is not on the agenda. "That's in the past," says Smith, the captain of the Kangaroos. "We don't want to live in the past, you want to learn from the past but there's absolutely no chance of using that as motivation for this game. There's only a handful of us that played in that match, we've got our own motivations for this game and 2008 is certainly not one of them." It is a message that has been forcefully plugged by Sheens and his squad this last week, once both southern hemisphere sides secured their place in the final at the expense of England and Fiji. Sheens said talk of revenge was for "journos and fans", while Thurston remarked: "If we have that attitude, we'll get pumped." Yet however much Australia reject the links to the past, it is inescapable. The 2008 defeat remains a catastrophic blotch on their otherwise impeccable World Cup record, having previously enjoyed a stranglehold on the competition since 1972. "We played an almost flawless tournament up to that game [in 2008] and even the first 40 minutes was pretty good by us. We just didn't finish it off and the Kiwis were good enough to come over the top of us," says Smith. "But the one thing that we have learned is that it doesn't really matter what has happened in the past month. I don't think the preparation matters. All that matters is how we perform on Saturday afternoon. There's not too many bigger occasions than this one we're all confident, hopefully it's going to be a great match." It is all set up for a spectacular showdown. Australia, undefeated in the tournament and having not conceded a try since their opening match with England, are formidable opponents for the Kiwis, who have triumphed against the Kangaroos only twice in the past five years. New Zealand have also prevailed in every match in this World Cup but have won just 14% of games between the teams since the turn of the century. However, Stephen Kearney's side certainly relish the big occasion and are expected to be backed by the majority of supporters at Old Trafford for a 74,000 sell-out fixture that will be the largest crowd in the history of international rugby league. "There's no doubt these guys [New Zealand], traditionally for some reason, play better in tournaments than in one-off matches but we're not looking at what has happened in the last couple of years," Smith adds. "They have been playing extremely well throughout this entire campaign how many teams would have got themselves out of trouble like they did last week? They've certainly got it in them and if they come out with a great attitude they are going to be very hard to beat." Billy Slater, the deadly Australia full-back who was guilty of a critical error in the 2008 final when returning the ball

into play near his own try-line, has recovered from a knee injury and will start, meaning Greg Inglis will move to centre. For New Zealand, the wingers Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Manu Vatuvei will both play having overcome injuries, although the forward Frank Pritchard misses out with a hamstring problem. The Kiwi captain, Simon Mannering, said: "Every time we play Australia it's a hell of a battle and they test you throughout the game. For us it's a matter of sticking with them and sticking to what we do." This may be Australia's game to lose, but if they underestimate their opponents there is certainly the chance 2008 could be repeated. New Zealand, who boast a daunting pack that includes the enigmatic Sonny Bill Williams, carry a range of threats if they can get themselves within striking distance of the Kangaroos line. Yet Australia have scored 210 points and conceded just two in their past four matches. A defeat for Sheens's side would represent a stunning upset at successive World Cups. It is no wonder, therefore, that Smith and the Kangaroos are putting history to one side.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Timmy Murphy set to miss Hennessy Gold Cup ride on Our Father
Jockey taken to hospital with serious shoulder injury Unconfirmed rumours of a weighing-room altercation
Greg Wood at Newbury The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 19.09 GMT

Calipto, right, ridden by Daryl Jacob, kicks clear in the opening race on the second day of the Newbury Hennessy meeting. Photograph: Julian Herbert/Action Images

Daryl Jacob's place aboard one of the favourites for Saturday's Hennessy Gold Cup is secure after he cut short

another good day's work here on Friday to rest a sore shoulder before the weekend's big race. Timmy Murphy's chance of riding Our Father, another of the major contenders, remains unclear, however, after he was taken to hospital in unusual circumstances during the afternoon. Murphy rode the 9-1 chance Upsilon Bleu to finish fourth in the Bet365 Open Handicap Chase and returned to unsaddle as normal. However, he was later taken to hospital with a suspected dislocation of his shoulder. One racecourse rumour suggested that Murphy had been involved in a weighing-room altercation with a fellow jockey as a result of an incident during the race. Paul Struthers, the chief executive of the Jockeys' Association, was here but declined to comment on rumours of a fight, as news of Murphy's unexpected injury started to emerge. Murphy, 39, is one of jump racing's senior riders, and a Grand National winner in 2008 aboard Comply Or Die, who was trained, like Our Father, by David Pipe. Earlier in his career, however, Murphy's career suffered a number of significant setbacks as a result of problems with alcohol and in 2002 he was sent to prison for six months for indecent assault following a drink-fuelled incident on a plane. Pipe, who was at Newbury's bloodstock sales on Friday evening, could confirm only that he was aware that Murphy had been taken to hospital and that no decision would be made about the ride on Our Father until the jockey's situation had been clarified. "If he's ruled out, I'll have to speak to the owners," Pipe said. "Tom [Scudamore, Pipe's stable jockey] is riding one [Terminal] for Willie Mullins, so we'll have to see." A shoulder injury has also been a problem for Jacob this season, his first as the stable jockey to the powerful Paul Nicholls yard, and he gave up three rides at the end of the card on Friday as he was "very sore" after a fall here the previous afternoon. By that stage, however, he already had a double to his name, including a comfortable success on Wonderful Charm in the Grade Two Berkshire Novice Chase. Jacob is booked to ride Rocky Creek, one of the market leaders, in the Hennessy. With 21 runners due to line up for one of the season's most historic events, it will bear no resemblance to Friday's novice chase, which followed the pattern for similar events in recent weeks with only four starters. Wonderful Charm's straightforward success can only be a further boost for Jacob's confidence, whose season has now yielded 37 winners from 158 rides, a strike rate of nearly 24%. Wonderful Charm was a Grade Two winner over hurdles last season and then lined up for the World Hurdle at Cheltenham. He could finish only eighth at the Festival but two wins in his two races over fences this season saw him start odds-on at 8-11. Tanerko Emery, his only significant rival according to the market, fell early on the final circuit and, though Up To Something, the outsider of the field, was still in with a chance at the final fence, Wonderful Charm jumped it well and eased into a decisive lead soon afterwards. The Jewson Novice Chase over two and a half miles, which will be a Grade One for the first time this season, appears to be the obvious target for Wonderful Charm at the Festival in March. He is top-priced at 12-1 for the opening race on the third day of the meeting, behind only Champagne Fever, last year's Supreme Novice Hurdle winner, who could well run in the Arkle Trophy instead. "It's a great privilege to have a horse of this quality," Robin Geffen, Wonderful Charm's owner, said. "He had a wind operation after the Persian War [Hurdle at Chepstow], and Paul doesn't send horses to the World Hurdle lightly but his breathing was all wrong. "He's had a second breathing op and look at him. He's won three on the trot and he's getting better as he goes. I'd like to see him do the Jewson and go to Aintree as well. I think he'd like Aintree. "Since I was so high I've wanted to win a race at the Festival and my gut feeling at the moment is that the Jewson

would be perfect for him. He's got a lot of speed and two and a half miles looks like his trip for the moment." Jacob's first winner of the day was even more slick than the second, as Calipto played with his field in the opening juvenile hurdle, a race that is often an early target for potential Triumph Hurdle candidates from the leading yards. Nicky Henderson, Alan King and Harry Fry all saddled runners, but Calipto looked like a long odds-on chance rather than a 5-2 joint-favourite throughout the final circuit and Jacob was able to cruise up to the lead approaching the final flight on the way to a three-and-a-quarter length success. He is now top-priced at 20-1 for the Triumph with Hills and Paddy Power. "At home, he's the best juvenile I've got," Nicholls said. "I loved him when I saw him before he had run in France, then he was second the next day at Auteuil and we were able to buy him. "That was the best juvenile [hurdle] we've had this season, but I won't be rushing him. He could run at Cheltenham in January and he'll have an entry in the Triumph, but he could be one we'll take back to valuable races in France as well." Robbie McNamara will miss the Hennessy ride on Lord Windermere, last season's RSA Chase winner, after breaking his collarbone in a fall while schooling at Dermot Weld's yard on Friday morning. Dougie Costello will take the ride on Jim Culloty's chaser, who will attempt to emulate last year's winner Bobs Worth by adding the Hennessy to the RSA. Stephen Higgins, Newbury's managing director, said on Friday that complaints from racegoers about a new dress code at the course are a "storm in a teacup". A number of racegoers have reported being barred from Newbury's Members' Enclosure over the first two days of the Hennessy meeting, mostly because they were either wearing jeans or not wearing a tie. "We've been launching this softly for three months now, via the website, and various other channels, so we're not springing this on people all of a sudden," Higgins told the Racing Post. "From our point of view, this is a storm in a tea cup and I'd much rather you guys were talking about the quality racing and excellent prize-money on offer during these three days."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Ashes: We weren't meant to fall in love with Jonathan Trott but we did
The player's appeal to the spectator, like his skill as a batsman, has been a slow-burn affair but how England will miss him in the specialist No3 role during the Ashes and beyond
Barney Ronay The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 14.03 GMT Jump to comments ()

Jump to comments ()

Jonathan Trott's Ashes absence leaves England with an impossible gap to fill. Graphic: Robin Hursthouse for the Guardian

Plenty of opinion has already been offered as opinion must always be offered on the circumstances of Jonathan Trott's departure this week from England's Ashes tour. At this distance perhaps the only comment worth making is to offer the warmest fraternal support and to praise his decisiveness and honesty. What seems more certain is that this has little to do with the mechanics of cricket itself and a lot to do with the shared travails of simply existing. Human beings have suffered like this for as long as there have been human beings, from the black bile of the ancient Greeks and the melancholy of the middle ages, to the more recent semi-science of individual psychology. David Warner may have his flaws (oh, so many flaws). But he didn't invent depression. One thing, however, is clear. Trott will be terribly missed while he is away, and not just for his runs. With England he has been a genuine rarity, a sportsman of whom it is almost impossible not to grow more rather than less fond the more you see of him. This is the joy of Trott, who has for the last four years acted as a kind of Jane Eyre of the top order, England's own winningly stubborn little 19th-century governess of a No3 batsman, the player you weren't supposed to fall in love with, of whom you may have even been rather grandly scornful this mousey creature, this pinafored artisan before finding yourself seduced, irresistibly, by his quietly insistent rhythms. I write this as an abject and hypocritical convert. Shortly after his call-up to the Test team I described Trott in these pages and apparently in all seriousness as "a crease-fiddling glory-hunter attempting single-handedly to asphyxiate all cricket with his annihilating leg-side wagon wheel". Whereas this summer I found myself gushing helplessly once again over his seductive air of gnarly resolution, even his endearingly baggy whites in which he resembles at times a very clever badger in a waistcoat who knows how to grow tomatoes. If there is an excuse for such fickleness it is that Trott's appeal to the spectator, like his skill as a batsman, is a slowburn affair. At his best those periods of stillness at the crease seem not passive but pointed, a process of studied abrasion by which Trott forces the bowler to blink, to stray into the Trott-zone, from where he will nudge you to death, unleashing occasionally that wristy ballroom dance step of a cover drive, and throughout appearing so parched and monkish and entirely at home you half expect to look down and notice that he's batting barefoot, or spot him pausing between overs to unwrap a small, dessicated piece of cheese from the red and white spotted handkerchief on the end of his stick. It is a quality that has been essential to England's cricket over the last four years and in this respect the Test team will miss him twice over as Trott has been an excellent player in a horribly difficult position. When it comes to No3 it isn't just the runs: there is need for a bedside manner too, an ability to resettle the emotional barometer after the trauma of losing an opener. For this reason No3 remains a more broadly specialist role, fraught with emotional as well as technical demands. In this role Trott has been the austerity chancellor around whom England's winning patterns are forged, the most visible instrument of the Andy Flower era brand of strangle-cricket whereby the batting revs up from

forged, the most visible instrument of the Andy Flower era brand of strangle-cricket whereby the batting revs up from a standing start, and in the best times grind was often followed by a well earned lower-order sense of adventure. Plus, of course, Trott is simply born to bat there. Cut him and he bleeds No3. Not only has he played more Tests there than any of England's other 188 No3s, he is only 300 short of Wally Hammond in the all-time run list. This is a serious modern-day achievement in what, occupied for any length of time, seems not so much a spot in the batting order as a kind of public installation, a shared concern, a peg around which the world is ordered. To the extent that, as far as I'm concerned, Trott will remain England's No3 in perpetuity, at least until some formal ceremony of handover is complete. For England this is a rare quality of stickabilty. Down the years 21 hopefuls have made just a single hundred at three, while Ravi Bopara, with two hundreds, is England's joint 19th most successful No3 of all time. Collectively Owais Shah, Jack Hobbs, Robin Smith, Mike Atherton, Denis Compton, John Crawley and Keith Fletcher played exactly the same number of Tests at three as Trott without scoring a single hundred between them (Trott has seven). David Gower was perhaps the best of modern times, scoring more hundreds than Trott in fewer matches, and resembling throughout a man playing air cricket with a baguette at a particularly well-appointed picnic. The smallscale genius Mark Ramprakash, who might have played instead of Trott at The Oval in 2009, has a claim on being England's worst specialist No3 of all time: he played seven Tests there and averaged 10. There is a point of contrast here with Australia. If No3 is a habitual English sore, helped no doubt by English pitches and the broader gulf between new-ball specialism and the demands of middle order-dom, then in Australia it is a thing of regal pedigree, with successive dons-to-follow-the-Don enthroned as a kind of sporting father of the nation. Through the 81-year Test span of Bradman-Harvey-Chappell-Boon-Ponting Australia can boast an almost unbroken lineage of number three-dom, with these five featuring between them in almost exactly 50% of Australia's total Test matches since the dawn of recorded time. It isn't exactly clear where England will go from here. There are no obvious career No3s in waiting hence the converted opener compromise, which England are likely to follow again with Joe Root in Adelaide. What is certain is that without Trott the team will miss its defining metronome, a valve that helped dictate the flow of Flower-era constriction cricket. In this Trott was above all sure-footed and unchanged, walking out to bat like some indestructible Victorian father in his immovable hat and ancestral moustache, habits immutably set. To replace him in the longer term is a genuine act of reconstruction, a decision on how exactly this team wish to style themselves from here. For now Trott has been great in a role in which few have been great for England and may yet, it is to be hoped, be so again.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Guardian review: Features & reviews

The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan review Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics by Michael Ignatieff review High Minds: The Victorians and the Birth of Modern Britain by Simon Heffer review Treasure Neverland: Real and Imaginary Pirates by Neil Rennie review The Leonard Bernstein Letters edited by Nigel Simeone review Mitterrand: A Study in Ambiguity by Philip Short review Shooting Stars: Ten Historical Miniatures, by Stefan Zweig review Religion Without God by Ronald Dworkin review A Strong Song Tows Us: The Life of Basil Bunting by Richard Burton review The New York Nobody Knows by William B Helmreich review Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett review Equilateral by Ken Kalfus review When the Time Comes by Josef Winkler review Crime fiction roundup reviews How to write 50,000 words in a month John Mullan on Bridget Jones Guardian book club Sleeping Keys by Jean Sprackland review Gerald Finley: 'I feel I've joined the Wagner train and I have a valid ticket' Masters of Sex by Thomas Maier review Pablo Neruda: A Passion for Life by Adam Feinstein review Map of Days by Robert Hunter review Pietr the Latvian by Georges Simenon review Winter by Adam Gopnik review Easy Go by Michael Crichton review Margaret Atwood on the show-stopping Isak Dinesen

The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan review

Set in recession-struck Ireland, this virtuoso debut novel pieces together a fractured portrait of a community in shock
Justine Jordan The Guardian, Thursday 28 November 2013 20.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

Cork county, Ireland. Photograph: Cristian Ciobanu - Ireland / Ala/Alamy

The recession has hit rural Ireland, and "the sky is falling down". Through 21 different voices, Donal Ryan's virtuoso debut novel pieces together a fractured portrait of a community in shock. The local building firm that was the motor of its former roaring prosperity has collapsed, and crooked boss Pokey Burke has fled the country, leaving his employees betrayed as well as broke: here, the global crisis wears the face of your neighbour. His foreman Bobby, once the village's golden boy, is now "filling up with fear like a boat filling with water"; Pokey's father is too ashamed to level with the men his son let down. The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book We hear from builders and their wives, anxious mothers and fathers, young people looking to London or Australia for a future (like "a modern incarnation of the poor tenant farmer", as sarcastic Brian puts it). Dissatisfied single mother Raltn is trapped on a ghost estate with a crippling mortgage, the houses around her unfinished and unsold; Siberian Vasya, one of Pokey's workers, is stuck much further from home. A child mimics her parents' rage and fear; a ghost sets down the things he couldn't say in life. With each internal monologue we deeply inhabit the speaker's confusion and uncertainty, yet also gain a new angle of perspective on the other characters. There's a powerful sense of place and shared history binding Ryan's many voices, their inner and outer selves, distilling a linguistic richness comparable to Under Milk Wood. "You can kind of lose yourself very quick, when all about you changes and things you thought you always would have turn out to be things you never really had, and things you were sure you'd have in the future turn out to be on the far side of a big, dark mountain that you have no hope of ever climbing over." What Ryan catches so well is the internal response to external disaster: there's a queasy, fatalistic lack of surprise among the villagers that the bubble of good fortune has burst, twisted up with "the whole mad Irish country thing" of fearing being taken for a fool, and the bitter pleasure of being proved right by disaster. Bobby is so lovable to the other villagers that some of them almost hate him for it, but the darkness at the centre of his life is a poisonous father willing him to fail, just as the father's boyhood joy was crushed by his own father before. (He got his revenge by "drinking out the farm" he inherited: literally pissing the money up against a wall.) The violence of disappointed hopes and of dysfunctional families become fatally entwined. Damage is everywhere, from abuse passed down the generations to the shadow of schizophrenia. Ryan reaches back to the archetypes of Irish literature the terrible father, the wanton country girl; the peat-black comedy of Flann O'Brien and dramatic rhythms of Yeats and Synge as well as more recent traditions. There's a strong flavour of Patrick McCabe to the least successful plot strand, about a child kidnap. Each character is halting and uncertain, puzzling out their place in a changed world: each heart is spinning. "Why

Each character is halting and uncertain, puzzling out their place in a changed world: each heart is spinning. "Why can't I find the words?" asks Bobby, struggling to articulate his hatred for his father and his love for his wife. He has been silenced repeatedly throughout his life, and as the book ends is lost for words again, in the worst possible circumstances. What is so special about Ryan's novel is that it seems to draw speech out of the deepest silences; the testimony of his characters rings rich and true funny and poignant and banal and extraordinary and we can't help but listen.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

What did you think?

Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists Rate this book Review this book Add to your lists Buy this book

Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics by Michael Ignatieff review
Ignatieff, a Booker-shortlisted novelist and intellectual, tried to make it to the top in Canadian politics. But it all went wrong. This is a clear-eyed, mordant memoir of a failed politician
David Runciman The Guardian, Wednesday 27 November 2013 11.30 GMT Jump to comments ()

An uphill struggle Michael Ignatieff. Photograph: Suki Dhanda

The great German sociologist Max Weber thought that certain professions were not well suited to making the switch to a career in politics. One was professional soldiers, who were prone to become schematic and unimaginative politicians. Another was academics: far too thin-skinned and unworldly for the rough-and-tumble of political life. Weber thought the best way to learn about politics was to do politics. But failing that, the likeliest background for a successful politician was either the law or journalism. Both these professions had the advantage of teaching ruthlessness combined with adaptability. Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics by Michael Ignatieff

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book Michael Ignatieff was both an academic and a journalist before he decided to take the plunge into Canadian politics. He was by no means a typical ivory tower intellectual. Though he taught at Harvard, he had seen plenty of the real world, was widely travelled, well connected and had excelled at most things he did (he was even a Bookershortlisted novelist). He did not think he had many illusions about how tough politics can be, nor about the qualities that would be needed to make a success of it. Still, as he admits in this compelling and curiously moving account of his traumatic experiences near the very summit of Canadian politics, he really had no idea. His rude awakening started early. Parachuted into a safe seat, he was shocked to be greeted by hordes of angry protesters at what he had assumed would be a routine nomination meeting. "Iggy Go Home!" read the placards. Many Canadians were not impressed by someone who had been living abroad for 30 years coming back to tell them how to run their country. Just as many had never forgiven Ignatieff for his support of the Iraq war, symbolised by the fateful moment when, as a Canadian living in the US, he had used the word "we" to describe American foreign policy. Ignatieff got the nomination despite the protests. What he then discovered was just how physically demanding a career in politics can be. This was not simply because of the stamina needed for all the endless meetings and trips to visit remote constituents (especially true in a democracy as geographically vast as Canada). It was also the sheer, relentless demand for physical contact required to seal the deal. Even in the internet age, democratic politics is still primarily a face-to-face business, in which voters have to be able to look their candidates in the eye. Ignatieff discovered he was very bad at this. He had an unfortunate habit of looking down and away when meeting people he didn't know. He had a tendency to tell them what was on his mind, not to intuit what was on theirs. He did his best to remedy these defects, but it was an uphill struggle. Despite his lack of natural political instincts, Ignatieff secured the leadership of the Liberal party in remarkably quick time (it took just three years from his arrival in parliament). The party was in disarray after a long period in government, dogged at the end by scandal and voter apathy (think New Labour with knobs on), and Ignatieff was

government, dogged at the end by scandal and voter apathy (think New Labour with knobs on), and Ignatieff was helped by a factor that is an increasingly powerful force in contemporary politics: he had family connections. His father had been a senior diplomat who worked closely with a number of Canadian prime ministers. The young Michael grew up around politicians and their advisers. Fresh out of university he had got to know Pierre Trudeau, the academic lawyer who became Canada's prime minister in the late 1960s. Trudeau had made the switch from university professor to political leader in late middle age and he proved a sensation. Liberal Canada succumbed for a while to "Trudeaumania", thrilled to be led by a man who seemed like a cross between a rock star and a Left Bank intellectual. If Trudeau could do it, Ignatieff reasoned, perhaps he could too. Iggymania never happened. Ignatieff was too aloof and awkward for that. Still, he came tantalisingly close to becoming prime minister. His chance arrived early on when a surprise alliance of left of centre parties attempted to cobble together a coalition to defeat the government of the recently elected Conservative Stephen Harper and install Ignatieff in his place. But Ignatieff balked at the plan. He rightly thought it would have been incredibly hard to pull off. The basic problem was that this was a plot conjured up by a coalition of losers who had all been rejected by the electorate (again, think New Labour trying to cling on after the 2010 election with a patched up coalition of minority parties under a new leader who had never fought an election). It would have been hell governing under those circumstances, taunted by the Conservatives, reviled by much of the press and unendorsed by the voters. Ignatieff wanted to win the top job the right way, with a clear electoral mandate. Yet part of the poignancy of this memoir comes from our subsequent knowledge, and his, that it was never going to happen. Sometimes in politics you have to seize your chance, however unpropitious the circumstances: you never know what might happen. Treacherous as governing at the head of a coalition of losers would have been, it could hardly have been worse than the fate that awaited him. In his pursuit of a popular mandate, Ignatieff got eviscerated. The Conservatives attacked him in a series of devastating negative ads that ran under the taglines "Michael Ignatieff: Just Visiting" and "He Didn't Come Home For You". Ignatieff compares his predicament to that of Barack Obama, another intellectual and outsider who nevertheless made it all the way. When Obama faced a career-threatening storm over his association with the church of Rev Jeremiah Wright he turned the story back his way with a speech in which he reclaimed his right to speak about his own experiences. Ignatieff could not do the same, and not simply because he lacked some of Obama's gifts. Obama asserted the mantle of authenticity when he spoke about race in America. Ignatieff was a genuine intellectual and outsider he had indeed spent most of his adult life teaching in universities outside Canada which gave him nothing to go on. He wanted to reframe his personal history as the story of the return of the prodigal son. But such a narrative was never going to sound authentic. It just sounded presumptuous. When the general election of 2011 finally arrived the Liberals suffered a terrible defeat, partly because of Ignatieff but also thanks to factors well beyond his control. The party lost over half its seats in parliament, including Ignatieff's. He reflects on this disaster with good grace and minimal self-pity just enough to let us know how much it hurts. He acknowledges that in the campaign he fell back on the fatal error of the losing politician by preaching to the converted. Big crowds turned out to hear him. He thought it meant he was getting his message across. In fact, the people he needed to reach had stopped listening a long time ago. Part of the reason for this is that the political agenda was moving to the right in Canada, as it is across much of the western world. Conservative politicians talk down government and starve it of funds. They then reap the electoral rewards from voters who have grown disillusioned with incompetent and inadequate government services. It's a vicious circle and it poses a serious problem for parties on the other side of the argument. But it's hardly an insuperable one. As Ignatieff says, it needs to be countered by politicians skilled at making the case for decent public services, able to claim authentic experience and, when necessary, capable of being as hard as nails. The fact he failed doesn't mean no one can succeed. He ends with a long quote from Max Weber, which includes Weber's famous image of politics as "the long and slow boring of hard boards". It's a tough old business but someone's got to do it. Ignatieff draws a little comfort from the fact that he has joined the ranks of writers about politics whose own political careers were notably unsuccessful. They include Machiavelli, Tocqueville, John Stuart Mill and Weber himself.

careers were notably unsuccessful. They include Machiavelli, Tocqueville, John Stuart Mill and Weber himself. Ignatieff makes it clear that he knows he doesn't belong in their ranks. But for a clear-eyed, sharply observed, mordant but ultimately hopeful account of contemporary politics this memoir is hard to beat. After his defeat, a friend tries to comfort him by telling him that at least he'll get a book out of it. Ignatieff reacts with understandable fury. He didn't go into politics and through all that followed just to write a book. Still, it's some book. David Runciman's latest book is The Confidence Trap.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

What did you think?

Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists Rate this book Review this book Add to your lists Buy this book

High Minds: The Victorians and the Birth of Modern Britain by Simon Heffer review
Told through the biographies of eminent Victorians, this history is overearnest, schoolmasterly and limited
Kathryn Hughes The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 15.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

Not exactly a crowd pleaser Thomas Arnold. Photograph: National Portrait Gallery

There is something very Victorian about Simon Heffer's book on the Victorians. At nearly 900 pages it exudes a cando confidence about its mammoth task, which is to explain how modern Britain came into being in the middle years of the 19th century. High Minds is as sturdily girded as a bridge by Brunel and there are flying buttresses that would give Ruskin a thrill. Heffer's voice throughout is that of a testy schoolmaster trying to din facts into a class of urchins who would prefer to be out picking pockets. Most Victorian of all, though, is his attitude to his own construction of the past, which remains, at all times, achingly earnest. High Minds: The Victorians and the Birth of Modern Britain by Simon Heffer

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book The focus of High Minds is the period between 1840 and 1880 when Britain transformed itself from a picturesque, lurching, barbaric kind of place into a democratic, civilised nation in which it is flatteringly possible to spot the beginnings of our own times. At the start of the period there is cholera, machine-breaking and eight-year-olds down mines an Oliver Twist landscape of hopelessness and dirty noses. By the end, as Gladstone begins his second term in power, there are town halls, hospitals, married women with their own property and fullish stomachs all round. You could account for this transformation in all sorts of ways, but Heffer has decided to follow the lead of Thomas Carlyle, about whom he wrote a biography nearly 20 years ago. Carlyle famously believed that "the history of the world is but the biography of great men", and Heffer organises his narrative around the intellectual and political careers of a series of great Victorians including Peel, Gladstone, Carlyle, Shaftsbury, Prince Albert and, above all, Thomas and Matthew Arnold. Indeed, he makes the bold choice of using Thomas Arnold, the reforming headmaster of Rugby, as the subject of his prologue. Arnold (below) is not the sort of man you expect to find kicking off a book on the Victorians aimed at the general reader. For one thing he died in 1842, when the Queen was only five years into her reign. For another, his area of expertise educating the sons of the reasonably well-to-do has to be, if not exactly a minority interest, then not a crowd pleaser. But it quickly becomes clear that Heffer sees Arnold as the emblematic victim of successive waves of anti-Victorianism that washed over Britain in the 20th century, toppling heroes and besmirching reputations. And now Heffer rides to the rescue, like a knight out of one of Walter Scott's feudal fantasies, to right wrongs and restore moral order. The first and greatest punch landed on Arnold's jutting jaw in 1918 when Lytton Strachey selected him as one of his "eminent Victorians" and then proceeded to cut him down to size (literally Strachey insisted, on no evidence, that the great man's legs were too short for his body). Arnold's exhausting earnestness, his desire to turn life into a quivering battle between good and evil, even his dropping dead of angina at the age of 46 somehow became funny once sieved through the fine mesh of Strachey's wit. Consequently the good doctor limped through the 20th century

once sieved through the fine mesh of Strachey's wit. Consequently the good doctor limped through the 20th century as the most ghastly bore, popping up in screen adaptations of Tom Brown's Schooldays armed with a stock of moral homilies delivered in a booming basso profundo during Sunday morning chapel. Heffer explains Strachey's character assassination in terms of the Bloomsburyite's resentment of being bullied at his own public school, and then proceeds to set about restoring the headmaster of Rugby to his rightful proportions. Above all, he made a whole generation of privileged young men realise that they had a moral duty to work for the good of others. While the elite Etonians continued to swirl around in their own moral filth, the subaltern Rugbeians were being trained for a life that was serious, generous and, when necessary, self-sacrificing. It was that moral energy, diffused through Arnold's proteges in the succeeding generation, that transformed the early Victorian ethos of sharp-elbows into a mid-century culture of sterling public service. Among this second generation of Arnoldians no one tried harder to spread the gospel of Being Serious than the doctor's own son. In Culture and Anarchy, Matthew Arnold urged the nation to adopt the "sweetness and light" of classical civilisation in order to soften the crude utilitarianism of that other father and son double act, James and John Stuart Mill. Left to the Mills, Arnold warned that Britain would be transformed into a beancounting wasteland where worthy pedants would bustle about trying to create the greatest happiness for the greatest number without having a clue about wonder and joy. You could change the law, give people the vote, even provide the working classes with education, but all you'd end up with was a dreary Town Hall ethos where everyone thought the same. Arnold had a word for it Phillistinism and, snob that he was, thought it probably spoke with a Manchester accent. So far so Carlylean. More interesting, because more unexpected, is the attention Heffer pays to those Victorians who don't quite make the grade as high minds or heroes. Like a latterday Arnold, Heffer pores over his end of term reports, adding comments and revising the class order to reflect a truer ranking. For instance, the historian JA Froude, whom no one reads now, produced "one of the great works of the 19th century" and deserves to stand ahead of Macaulay. Arthur Hugh Clough could have been a contender but messed things up by being too nervy for his own good. Then there are those Victorians who were never going to make house captain but, nonetheless, played a stalwart part in Britain's transition to modernity. Into this category comes George Gilbert Scott, (the architect of St Pancras Midland Grand Hotel and the Foreign Office), Henry Cole (a busybody who invented the Christmas card as an offshoot of the Penny Post) and Robert Lowe (Gladstone's albino home secretary who introduced "payment by results" for elementary schoolteachers). By telling us about these second-ranking Victorians, Heffer finds a deft way of putting flesh on otherwise abstract arguments. Thus he uses an episode from George Gilbert Scott's career to explore the battle to forge a national architectural style in the 1860s. Having won a competition to design new Whitehall buildings for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Scott was all set to produce his signature forest of spiky turrets, the sort of thing you could see in the medieval churches of northern Europe where reverence for God was written in every arched window. The newly arrived Prime Minister Palmerston, however, found the Gothic aesthetic creepy and suggested that Scott should knock up something in the "Classic style". To an aging Georgian like Palmerston, a cool and regular facade in which unruly passion was held in permanent balance suggested exactly the kind of order and harmony most suited to Britain's public demeanour as it stepped smartly out into the age of empire.But there are serious limits to how far you can use biography to tell national history. No matter how carefully you deploy details from the life of Gladstone, Disraeli or even Prince Albert, there still comes a point where the narrative is so complex that it slips out of one man's reach and reveals itself as a multicausal matter that can only be told through the prism of economics or politics, or something as inchoate as the national mood. And it is at places like this that Heffer has no choice but to resort to a conventional narrative of, say, the repeal of the Corn Laws or the Second Reform Act. His synthesis and summaries are always sturdy, but they hardly add anything to an account that could have been written at any point over the last 30 years. It is here that High Minds takes on the feel of a school textbook: dull enough to leave you longing for the bell.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

What did you think?

Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists Rate this book Review this book Add to your lists Buy this book

Treasure Neverland: Real and Imaginary Pirates by Neil Rennie review

Treasure chests, maps, skull and crossbones: where does our popular image of pirates come from?
Colin Burrow The Guardian, Wednesday 27 November 2013 09.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

The acceptable face of rather nasty ocean-going thieves: Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

The generation reared on Captain Pugwash and Tintin will have a very clear idea of what pirates do. They wear striped trousers. They sport eye-patches and cutlasses and wooden legs. They are obsessed by pieces of eight, as are their parrots. The Pirates of the Caribbean generation will expect all of the above, but dolled up and ear-ringed so as to look like Keith Richards after he's had a good old go at the grog, with a bit of tongue-in-cheek cross-dressing on the side. Maps, hidden treasure, hauntings, shipwrecks and much swashing of bucklers (which originally meant striking a shield, or buckler, with a sword), are all further necessary ingredients for a Hollywood pirate film. Treasure Neverland: Real and Imaginary Pirates by Neil Rennie

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book Where do all these images of pirates come from? That's the question asked by Neil Rennie in his scholarly and entertaining history of how a group of rather nasty ocean-going thieves gradually turned into Johnny Depp. He begins by piecing together what historical pirates actually got up to in the golden age of piracy in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Captain Kidd was a privateer pirate-hunter who rapidly decided that if he couldn't beat the pirates off the coast of Madagascar he'd better join them and do some piracy of his own in the Red Sea. When Kidd was finally captured he claimed to have a store of treasure hidden in a location that he would reveal in return for a stay of execution. He was hanged anyway in 1701, though the rope broke the first time around. Kidd's actual description of a sea chest he left on Gardiner's Island (off Long Island) contained only the standard fare of a wealthy sailor: a bushel of cloves and nutmeg and flowered silks, rather than doubloons or gems. But his mythical hoard of hidden treasure went on to generate thousands of pieces of eight in the popular imagination. Blackbeard, or Edward Thatch, was a brute who pillaged maritime traffic between England and America. He blockaded the port of Charleston, South Carolina, and then marooned part of his crew on the coast of North Carolina. Rennie notes that the wreckage of Blackbeard's ship The Queen Anne's Revenge, which ran aground in 1718, has been discovered by marine archaeologists. Disappointingly, it contains many weapons but only a thimble's worth of gold fragments. Sordid truths do tend to lie behind these pirate lives. Henry Every or Avery mutinied during an unsuccessful privateering voyage and turned pirate. He captured a ship belonging to the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1695. His crew spent a week "stripping the men and dishonouring the women". Women could play a less gruesome role in the real-life stories of piracy. The friends Anne Bonny and Mary Read went to sea in a stolen ship with "Calico Jack" Rackham in 1720 (cue Red Rackham's Treasure ) and worked the coast of Jamaica for spoils. During battle they adopted the sailors' garb of trousers, and were said to be identifiable as women only "by the largeness of their breasts". At their trial in Jamaica they secured brief stays of execution by revealing that they were pregnant, after which they disappear from the record. These less than glamorous figures were all given quasi-fictional life in the early 18th century. In A General History of Pirates (1724), once wrongly ascribed to Daniel Defoe, Read and Bonny became conscious cross-dressers rather than just practical sailors who put on trousers to make it easier to fight. Blackbeard's beard began its remarkable growth into a stage prop in scores of pantomimes and films by sprouting "like a frightful Meteor" and covering his whole face. Pirate narratives of the same era also gave Blackbeard a heroic death. According to one story, he was wounded by a highlander, whom he gallantly complimented on his swordsmanship, whereupon his adversary sliced off his head. In another account he died with five pieces of shot in him and "20 dismal wounds". Meanwhile, Henry Avery's alleged rapes of Indian princesses and their maidservants were turned into a full-on exotic romance.

These embellished stories appealed to a London readership that was hungry for tales of adventure and self-reliance, tales that included the early novel Robinson Crusoe (1719) by Defoe. Literary pirates emerged from exactly the same environment as the novel. They were, as Rennie puts it, "made in London as well as Madagascar". The literary pirate still had a few further tricks hidden in his sea chest, though. In Lord Byron's The Corsair (1814) and Walter Scott's The Pirate (1821), the pirate captain became romanticised. The pirate who concealed high birth and noble sentiments under a rough exterior, Rennie argues, appealed to the social aspirations of Scott's readers. The well-born pirate was then gothicised by Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe. Poe's tale "The Gold Bug" gave us the ghostly pirates and elaborately coded treasure maps that were to become staples of Hollywood films. These are distant descendants of the hidden store of treasure Captain Kidd invented to keep the hangman's noose from his neck. The great age of pirate fictions was the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The amiable and well-born Pirates of Penzance (1879) descend from the gentrified tradition of Byron and Scott. Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1883) combines the conventions established by Poe with RM Ballantyne's adventure story for boys, Coral Island (1858). The equivocal figure of Long John Silver owes something to the social amphibiousness of earlier pirates, and may have stolen his wooden leg from a minor character in A General History of Pirates, which Stevenson consulted during the composition of the novel. In Peter Pan (1904) the pirate enters the world of dreams and nostalgia for childhood, but he still hangs on to his aura of gentility. Captain Hook Eton and Balliol is a direct offshoot of the gentrified pirates of the early 19th century. JM Barrie's screenplay for the first film version presented Hook's cabin as a replica of a study at Eton, and had Hook reading the Eton Chronicle. The film's American producers felt this was just too English, and transformed Hook into a social climber who studied manuals of etiquette. They also had Peter Pan mark his victory by hoisting the stars and stripes above Hook's ship in place of the skull and crossbones. Hollywood took the centuries-old cliches about pirates and turned them into Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn, who swung from the rigging in an endless round of films, such as Captain Blood and The Black Pirate. Bonny and Read also enjoyed a rich and randy afterlife on the silver screen, and eventually in fiction as "bra-burning buccaneerettes". The cinematic cliches have now become so pervasive that they feed on themselves. More disturbingly the semi-mythologised pirate lives recorded in A General History of Pirates have come to permeate the historical record. Even The Dictionary of National Biography represents Bonny and Read as deliberate crossdressers, rather than just tough women who knew that petticoats only got in the way during a fight. The myth and the historical reality of pirates continually blur together. This makes Treasure Neverland a difficult book to write. Rennie could have played the killjoy and scolded fictional representations for being untrue, or he could have veered off into postmodern doubt that there were any "facts" beneath the pirate myths. Actually, he walks the narrow plank between these extremes with agility. He sometimes risks going overboard: he reckons that windows i n Peter Pan are like birth-canals, which they aren't really, even though Barrie's story certainly is about the relationship between sexual maturation and the imagination. But, all in all, Rennie not only manages to explain where the pirates of popular imagination come from, but also gives a fascinating example of how historical realities can be transformed into the conventions of fiction.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

What did you think?

Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists Rate this book Review this book Add to your lists Buy this book

The Leonard Bernstein Letters edited by Nigel Simeone review

This cleverly edited collection of letters reveals an attractive and energetic man. But Bernstein now has a mixed musical reputation even if West Side Story will live forever
Philip Hensher The Guardian, Thursday 28 November 2013 10.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

Leonard Bernstein during rehearsals at London's Royal Albert Hall. Photograph: PA/Empics

Like many figures eminent in their time through a grasp of the zeitgeist and a powerful personality, Leonard Bernstein's reputation has not worn well. Future generations may wonder why it was Bernstein who conducted the Berlin concerts in December 1989 to celebrate the fall of the Berlin wall. He had no connection with Berlin, and had conducted the Berlin Philharmonic only once, in 1979. There was, too, a very obvious candidate in Kurt Masur, the great conductor who had been involved in the Leipzig uprising. But the job fell to Bernstein, who had never even lived in the continent whose unification he was celebrating. No one seemed puzzled: it was a case of the triumph of the overwhelming personality. The Leonard Bernstein Letters by Nigel Simeone

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book That personality is apparent in the recordings he made as a conductor, but not always to lasting effect. Just after finishing this book I listened to his Haydn symphony, and I have to admit it made me burst out laughing. It resembled those 1970s Wendy Carlos performances of Bach preludes on a Moog synthesiser, or perhaps a gigantic purple marshmallow lit by green neon, and had precisely nothing to do with Haydn. There are similar atrocities scattered throughout the Bernstein discography, including an unbelievable Enigma Variations and a tawdry Tristan und Isolde. There are some brilliant ones, of course, including the 1958 Rite of Spring that made Stravinsky say "Wow!" and an even more visceral Les Noces. But a lot of it hasn't lasted. Perhaps most deplorable is Bernstein's track record with new music. He conducted and performed a lot of new music over the years, but it is striking that, given anything really good or genuinely groundbreaking, he rarely made a success out of it. Interestingly, he gave the first performance of Messiaen's Turangalla-Symphonie in Boston in 1949. It's a piece whose F-sharp major sugary quality seems right up Bernstein's street; in fact, after the first three performances, he never conducted it again. (Messiaen's letters here are usefully full of concerned reminders to Bernstein of how very difficult the piece is.) Later, in 1969, he and the New York Philharmonic had the honour of giving Elliott Carter's great Concerto for Orchestra its premiere. A recording was made, and it is genuinely rather shocking: one of Carter's most elegant and mercurial scores reduced to uncomprehending gibberish. Bernstein lived through an exciting period of musical invention and acted as a proponent for new music. Unfortunately, he was most at home with the small talents of William Schuman, David Diamond, Roy Harris and, above all, Aaron Copland, and not with anything more exciting. The Letters come after a hugely admiring biography by Humphrey Burton, and I wouldn't have thought that one or the other will need to be done again. This volume is an interesting collection; Bernstein is an attractive, energetic writer and the editor has made the helpful decision to include long letters from his correspondents, which give a very good sense of where he emerged from. There are letters here from, and about, the distinguished conductor (and Bernstein's patron and reportedly his lover) Dimitri Mitropoulos that show Bernstein used all his assets to make an impression. He was very much of his time as a homosexual trying to find a way to live in a largely hostile society. There is a heartrending letter from his wife, Felicia, written only months after their marriage, explaining how she loves him, but "We are not committed to a life sentence you are a homosexual and may never change I am willing to accept you as you are, without being a martyr or sacrificing myself on the LB altar." His other relationships have to be pieced together in this collection; some correspondents, such as Mitropolous, evidently destroyed letters from him, others like Copland wrote allusively; a few, like Farley Granger (an impressive Hollywood conquest) wrote openly and recklessly. Bernstein's sexuality was never much of a secret, and became less so as time passed. This volume is a fascinating insight into a world of nicknames, tame psychologists talking rubbish, gifts of cufflinks between lovers and sexuality used as a gateway to career advancement. Later, the Boston conductor Serge Koussevitsky was a tougher nut to crack. Bernstein adopts a comic UN envoy persona "For your creative energy, your instinct for truth, your incredible incorporation of teacher and artist, I give humble thanks." It worked, and Bernstein was soon a regular in Boston. Koussevitsky was wary, nevertheless, and when Bernstein tried to include a composition of his in a programme, he jumped on him: "You stubbornly insisted on the performance of your own composition Do you realise that you are invited as a guest conductor, to show your

capacity as interpreter of great musical works? May I ask you: do you think that your composition is worthy of the Boston Symphony Orchestra?" It soon would be. If Bernstein's style as a conductor is rapidly passing into the age of historic curiosity, and the way he lived his life not much less of an oddity, he has the distinction of composing at least one work of unquestionable greatness in West Side Story. There are other stage and film works of great interest Fancy Free and On the Town and I have a weak spot for the 1971 radical-chic-Broadway Mass, all Pucci kaftans and afros and tambourines on acid. But West Side Story will live forever. The letters cast a lot of light on the long gestation of the masterpiece, including a detailed three-act scenario which sticks much more closely to the denouement of Romeo and Juliet. It is interesting to see how much Bernstein benefited from the tight control and restraint of his collaborators, Arthur Laurents and Jerome Robbins. Robbins stopped Anita from turning, in his words, into "the typical downbeat blues torchbearing second character"; Laurents turned Bernstein away from his original idea of having the whole thing done in elevated poetic language. Initially, Bernstein refused to do the show if it were in Laurents's demotic style and indeed walked away from it at one stage. It all led eventually to a magnificent stage musical and one of the greatest movies ever made. The regret is that Bernstein never again found such strict and benevolent partners as Robbins, Laurents and the lyricist Sondheim. There are tantalising projects that surface in these letters, such as a modern-day Bohme set in WH Auden's Brooklyn rooming house in Middagh Street, suggested by Betty Comden, and, electrifyingly, a life of Eva Peron with Lillian Hellman, suggested by Marc Blitzstein in 1952. That would be left to other hands. This volume has been handsomely edited, and the decision to include letters from Bernstein's correspondents results in a rich portrayal of a particular age of privilege, the half-hidden circle of closeted homosexuals, the McCarthy trials, and the period of celebrity high culture that the Kennedys sponsored. Bernstein was one of those rare observant egotists, and his letters about the very first years of Israel and his concert tours around the world are absorbing. The personality is in many ways deeply humane and full of excitement; the letters, indeed, persuade one to return to some of Bernstein's old recordings. Let's put the 1963 Mozart G minor symphony on. Then let's take it off again, and quick they really are terrible, alas. Philip Hensher's most recent novel is Scenes from Early Life.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

What did you think?

Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists Rate this book Review this book Add to your lists Buy this book

Mitterrand: A Study in Ambiguity by Philip Short review

The president as narcissist: David A Bell on Mitterrand's charm, private life and political legacy
David A Bell The Guardian, Thursday 28 November 2013 12.30 GMT Jump to comments ()

Un grand sducteur Franois Mitterrand in 1991. Photograph: Sportsphoto/Allstar

Of all modern European leaders, Franois Mitterrand was the one most clearly born into the wrong century. He would have made a superb Renaissance cardinal, presiding over mass with great pomp before retreating to a sumptuous apartment to engage in a little discreet selling of holy offices, before dinner with his mistress. He would have been a brilliant patron of the arts, a peerless schemer in the Curia, a deadly enemy even for a Borgia. A modern democracy was the wrong place for his talents. He succeeded in his greatest ambition, to rule France, but in the end he accomplished relatively little in the role. Mitterrand: A Study in Ambiguity by Philip Short

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book He remains an endlessly fascinating figure, and Philip Short tells the story expertly in this deeply researched and marvellously readable biography. Born into a conservative, bourgeois family in south-western France in 1916, Mitterrand initially gravitated, like so many others in the feverish final days of the Third Republic, to the political

Mitterrand initially gravitated, like so many others in the feverish final days of the Third Republic, to the political extremes. He even moved in circles close to the rightwing terrorist group known as the Cagoule, without ever joining it himself. He also demonstrated a capacity for flamboyant passion by composing more than 2,000 love letters to the first great object of his affections, a young woman named Marie-Louise Terrasse. The war interrupted both his political and romantic plans, landing him in a German prisoner-of-war camp. But he soon escaped back to France, driven in large part by concerns about Marie-Louise's fidelity. And he then began a dangerous political dance, working overtly for the Vichy regime in prisoners' organisations while also flirting with the Resistance. Only in the summer of 1943 did he cast his lot with the latter, and demonstrated reckless bravery in the cause. After the Liberation, his work on behalf of prisoners won him quick election to parliament, and a cabinet post when still just 30 years old. For nearly half a century thereafter he rarely disappeared from the public eye. He was anything but a populist, or a riveting orator. But he had astonishing personal magnetism. The journalist Franoise Giroud left a memorable description of Mitterrand's effect on women: "When he unwound, he was irresistible If he had wanted to, he could have seduced a stone economical in his gestures, his eyes shining with mischief, his voice velvety, his words enveloping you like a shawl." The same qualities helped him to forge powerful friendships with men as well, and to attract a large cadre of political supporters. It also helped that, like many other great politicians, he was a wholly convincing and absolutely shameless liar. As Georges Pompidou once remarked: "Never let Mitterrand impress you. No matter what he tells you, never believe a word he says." His political odyssey was as vivid as his personality. During the decades after the war, most western European politicians moved steadily away from doctrinaire Marxian socialism; Mitterrand moved towards it. Already in 1940, his experience as a prisoner had shaken his confidence in traditional conservative politics. He was especially impressed by the way, in prisoner-of-war camps, an initial attitude of every man for himself gave way to cooperation. As he wrote, quite movingly, many years later: "One has to have seen the new representatives nobody knew exactly how they had been appointed dividing up the black bread into six slices, equal to the nearest millimetre, under the wide-eyed supervision of universal suffrage. It was a rare and instructive sight. I was watching the birth of the social contract." When he entered politics, it was as a member of the broad centre left, and he remained there throughout the 12 years of the Fourth Republic (1946!58), during which he held ministerial posts on 11 separate occasions, and played an important role in the breakup of the French colonial empire. When the Fourth Republic collapsed amid the debris of the Algerian war, and Charles De Gaulle took power, Mitterrand emerged as the most prominent leader of the opposition. He denounced De Gaulle for having staged a "permanent coup d'tat" (even writing a book with this title), and ran unsuccessfully for president against him in 1965. He studied Marx and Lenin, and his rhetoric took on stronger Marxist accents. When a new Parti Socialiste emerged under his leadership in 1971, it had very different ideological goals from Britain's Labour, and from West Germany's Social Democrats. The next year, Mitterrand led it into an alliance with the Communist party, with their so-called Common Programme calling for large-scale nationalisations of industry. During these years, Mitterrand's personal passions remained as strong as ever. After Marie-Louise jilted him, he fell into what can only be called a rebound marriage with Danielle Gouze, eight years his junior. She would bear him three children, but it was not exactly a marriage of minds. Soon after marrying, she innocently asked him how his day had gone. He snapped back: "I did not marry you under the regime of the Inquisition." He cheated on her incessantly, and with no apparent compunction. Then, in his late 40s, he met the 20-year-old Anne Pingeot, and fell for her as completely as he had done for Marie-Louise, although without entirely abandoning his other extracurricular activities. She became to all intents and purposes his second wife, bearing him a daughter, Mazarine, in 1974. Short's account, however, suggests that Danielle Mitterrand does not deserve too much of posterity's pity. In 1958 she acquired a long-term lover of her own, a gym teacher who sometimes fetched the morning croissants for the Mitterrand mnage, and then sat down to a friendly breakfast with Franois. In many other countries, these escapades would have brought Mitterrand's career to a quick, scandalous conclusion. His relationship with Pingeot was widely known in Parisian society. But a compliant and complacent French press not only hid this secret until the end of Mitterrand's presidency in 1995, but two others as well. One, relatively inconsequential, was the youthful flirtation with the Cagoule. The other, much more serious, was that soon after

taking office in 1981 Mitterrand was diagnosed with prostate cancer that had already metastasised to the bone. Remarkably, the secret did not leak out, and doctors kept him alive another 14 years. The presidency itself saw Mitterrand's political journey to the left reach a sudden stop, and then reverse. His platform of large-scale nationalisation was not only anachronistic, but unworkable under conditions of global recession. Capital flight and social unrest ensued, and to stave off an economic meltdown, Mitterrand called for "opening a parenthesis in the history of socialism". It is a parenthesis that has never closed. He implemented austerity policies, sought a modus vivendi with French business and abandoned the full-bore Marxist rhetoric of the 1970s. Mitterrand's 14 years in office (among post-Revolution French leaders, only Louis-Philippe and Napoleon III lasted longer) proved a moderate success in some respects. An ambitious decentralisation programme reduced the power of imperious Napoleonic prefects, and transferred considerable authority to newly created "regions" such as RhneAlpes and Aquitaine. Mitterrand barely bothered to disguise his strategy of "embracing" the Communist party in order to "smother" it, through an alliance that gave it little but four insignificant ministries. The arrangement hastened the communists' decline although their fall, in retrospect, looks entirely inevitable. In 1986, when Mitterrand lost control of the National Assembly to Jacques Chirac's neo-Gaullists, the resulting episode of "cohabitation" secured the Fifth Republic's stability, although the two men worked viciously to undermine each other. Mitterrand strengthened France's place in the western alliance, and worked effectively with Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Helmut Kohl during the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Short argues that Mitterrand "changed the ground rules of French social and political debate in ways more farreaching and fundamental than any other modern leader before him". This is an exaggeration, for to a large extent, Mitterrand did little more than acquiesce in and preside over changes already under way. In fact, he arguably squandered the opportunity to move France towards a more open, flexible form of social democracy, loosening the dirigiste rigidity that still dominates so much of French economic planning and labour relations. He might, for instance, have done more to weaken the influence of the grandes coles: the small, privileged institutions whose likethinking graduates have a stranglehold on the highest circles of French government, business and academia. His weak gestures in this direction were summarily reversed by Chirac in 1986 and never reintroduced. Mitterrand's failures came for two basic reasons. First, he had little understanding of, and less sympathy for, the way France had changed in the "30 glorious years" of postwar economic expansion. He had a sentimental fondness, born of his wartime experience, for industrial workers and peasants, but looked with distaste on the large new suburban middle class. A man of deep literary culture, and respect for tradition, he could not come to grips with men and women who preferred television to Stendhal, and fast food to cuisine bourgeoise. Short largely misses this side of Mitterrand. A skilled and fluid biographer, whose previous subjects include Mao and Pol Pot (Mitterrand must have come as something of a relief), he focuses on his subject's activities, often day by day, to the neglect of the larger historical context. He does, however, capture well the other reason for Mitterrand's failures a narcissism that was monstrous even by the standards of highly successful politicians. One of his anecdotes reveals it: at a crucial moment in the Algerian war, Mitterrand, then the minister responsible for French north Africa, kept a leading moderate Muslim politician waiting in his anteroom for an hour and a half because he insisted on catching up with the comics strips in the France Soir newspaper. As president, once socialism's "parenthesis" had begun, Mitterrand lost interest in social transformation, and concentrated on manipulating those around him, in a manner that commentators compared, with reason, to the court of Louis XIV. Mitterrand himself was not entirely oblivious to this side of his personality. An earlier biographer, Catherine Nay, quoted his astonishing remark, made with tongue supremely in cheek, in reference to Stendhal's archetypical young man in a hurry: "Look at the poverty of Julien Sorel's ambition." And, of course, Mitterrand also invested huge energies in the architectural grands projets that are one of his principal legacies: IM Pei's striking additions to the Louvre; the Grande Arche of La Dfense; the Bastille Opera; the finance ministry at Bercy; the hideous National Library at Tolbiac that now bears Mitterrand's name. No other western leader

ministry at Bercy; the hideous National Library at Tolbiac that now bears Mitterrand's name. No other western leader of the last half-century did anything remotely comparable. It is a record a Renaissance potentate would have taken pride in.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

What did you think?

Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists Rate this book Review this book Add to your lists Buy this book

Shooting Stars: Ten Historical Miniatures, by Stefan Zweig review

A translation of the Austrian writer's essays shows his virtues and vices are two sides of the same coin
Ian Sansom The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 14.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

Stefan Zweig a style that might be considered either the essence of civility or the epitome of bland. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

Is Stefan Zweig a) "the incarnation of humanism"(Clive James), or b) a "professional adorer, schmoozer, inheritor and collector", whose work "just tastes fake" (Michael Hofmann)? The publication of Zweig's Sternstunden der Menschheit (1927/1940) in a new English translation by Anthea Bell may help answer the question, even if for certain readers the English title makes one think of the television comedy panel show hosted by Vic and Bob. ("Shooting Stars" is perhaps preferable though to a more literal translation "Great Moments for Humanity" is the

gist of the German which sounds like the platitudinous title card of a newsreel.) Shooting Stars: Ten Historical Miniatures by Stefan Zweig

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book Shooting Stars forms part of an ambitious project by Pushkin Press to bring Zweig's work to the attention of the English-reading public, an enterprise that has been entirely successful. Zweigmania seems to break out with the publication of each book, with readers discovering his work by word-of-mouth and by accident. For anyone who has not yet embarked on their own journey of discovery their own little abzweig it is probably worth noting that Zweig was born to a wealthy Jewish family in Vienna in 1881, left Austria for obvious reasons in 1934 to go and live in Britain and America, before going to Brazil, where he killed himself in 1942. He wrote novels, plays, biographies, short stories and essays dozens of books, translated into many languages and adored by many, not just disgraced Tory politicians (Jeffrey Archer) and philosophical football managers (Roy Hodgson). He was a writer undoubtedly possessed of great facility, with a style that might be considered either the essence of civility or the epitome of bland. Shooting Stars shows the grand, smooth style to great effect. The book is a collection of essays about historical events: the discovery of El Dorado, the race to reach the south pole, Lenin on the sealed train and so on. The prologue sets the tone: "In this book I am aiming to remember the hours of shooting stars I call them that because they outshine the past as brilliantly and steadfastly as stars outshine the night For in those sublime moments when they emerge, fully formed, history needs no helping hand. Where the muse of history is truly a poet and a dramatist, no mortal writer may try to outdo her." If this sounds humourless, dull and old-fashioned, so it is. If it also sounds ambitious and highminded, so it is also. The essays are perhaps most pleasing when Zweig uses his skills as a novelist. In the chapter on Handel, for example, there is this fine little portrait: "So the servant was seeking diversion from his boredom by puffing not elegant rings of blue smoke from his short clay pipe, but soap bubbles. He had mixed a little bowl of soapsuds and was amusing himself by blowing the brightly coloured bubbles out of the window and into the street." This is Zweig at his best observing the servants blowing bubbles. And this is Zweig at his worst, writing in praise of great men: "Destiny makes its urgent way to the mighty and those who do violent deeds. It will be subservient for years on end to a single man Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon for it loves those elemental characters that resemble destiny itself, an element that is so hard to comprehend." Fans and foes alike can perhaps agree on this: a writer's virtues are often exactly the same as their vices. Zweig's great virtue was that he sought to please. There are worse vices.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

What did you think?

Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists Rate this book Review this book Add to your lists Buy this book

Religion Without God by Ronald Dworkin review

An energetic and engaging public intellectual, Dworkin's contribution to the philosophy of law was incomparable. In his final book, he tackled the idea of a secular sacredness
Jeremy Waldron The Guardian, Thursday 28 November 2013 07.30 GMT Jump to comments ()

He never gave up on explaining to his readers what was at stake Ronald Dworkin. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

Ronald Dworkin, who died this year, was one of the great legal philosophers of the modern era. His books Taking Rights Seriously (1977), Law's Empire (1986) and Justice in Robes (2006) made him famous as a defender of the role of courts in modern politics, both in the US and if he had had his way in the UK. He was a proponent of the "right answer" thesis (there is a right answer for judges to find, even in the most difficult cases), the value of legal integrity (interpreting legal provisions, we should aim to make the law, as a whole, the best it can be) and the idea of rights as trumps (individual rights should prevail not just in the face of tyranny but even against good-hearted efforts to promote the general welfare at some individual's expense). These are massive and enduring contributions to the philosophy of law, each of them adding riches and colour to our jurisprudence.

philosophy of law, each of them adding riches and colour to our jurisprudence. Religion Without God by Ronald Dworkin

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book But this, his last, book, Religion Without God , is about value and religious experience. What's the connection wtih jurisprudence? Why was this occupying the last days of our most prominent legal philosopher? There is a flourishing field of law and religion concerned with religious law (canon law, for example, and Islamic law), the way in which religious traditions, in history, have influenced the development of secular legal systems, the importance of religious values in underpinning the deepest commitments of our legal system, and the ideas of toleration and freedom of worship. There is a huge legal literature about religious establishment and the application of laws to those whose religious practices they affect. (For example, in 1990 the US supreme court refused an invitation to strike down certain narcotics laws under the first amendment's guarantee of religious freedom on the grounds that they inhibited the sacramental use of peyote in native American ceremonies.) For the most part, however, Religion Without God is not about any of this. The book is based on the Einstein lectures that Dworkin delivered at the University of Bern in 2011. In those lectures he addressed questions about the meaning of life and the sublimity of nature, about the intoxicating experience of celestial and earthly beauty, and about our commitment to objective goods whose value transcends the preferences of those who keep faith with them. Dworkin believed that in all this there is something of the religious attitude to life, even though in his own life and, he says, in Einstein's too there was no belief in what he called "a Sistine God", no place for worship, creed or redemption. He went further. Our recognition of objective value, Dworkin argued, must be prior to anything we say about God. It is certainly prior to any role that divine command or example can play in ethics. He would have agreed with Immanuel Kant: "Even the Holy One of the Gospel must first be compared with our idea of moral perfection before he is recognised as such." If a religious attitude lies at the foundation of ethics, it must be religion without God. Judges often have to decide what counts as religion. In 1965, the US supreme court decided that someone who had doubts about the existence of God but who professed a "belief in and devotion to goodness and virtue for their own sakes, and a religious faith in a purely ethical creed" was entitled to an exemption from military service even though previous interpretations of the Selective Service Act confined such conscientious exemptions to those whose opposition to war arose out of a belief in a supreme being. Dworkin approved of this result, and argued that the US constitution's freedom of religion clause should be understood generally as protecting people's ethical independence, not as privileging the worship of a Sistine God. The Einstein lectures were not the first time Dworkin considered these matters. Twenty years ago, in Life's

Dominion: An Argument About Abortion, Euthanasia and Individual Freedom, he suggested that a belief in the sacredness of life was not confined to those who opposed euthanasia and abortion. He offered a secular account of "sacredness", which he thought was a form of objective value "independent of what people happen to enjoy or want or need or what is good for them". On this account, pro-choice advocates might profess a belief in the sacredness of human life too: they would just give a different account of what the ultimate value of life consisted in; an account they found compelling, that emphasised the glory of what people have made of their lives as much as the biological humanity: The life of a single human organism commands respect because of our wonder at the divine or evolutionary processes that produce new lives from old ones, at the processes of nation and community and language through which a human being will come to absorb and continue hundreds of generations of cultures and forms of life and at the process of internal personal creation by which a person will make and remake himself, a mysterious, inescapable process in which we each participate, and which is therefore the most powerful and inevitable source of empathy and communion we have with every other creature who faces the same frightening challenge. The horror we feel in the wilful destruction of a human life reflects our shared inarticulate sense of the intrinsic importance of each of these dimensions of investment. This was a valiant attempt to find common ground in a series of intractable debates, though I am not sure that it convinced anyone who held what we conventionally call a religious view of euthanasia or abortion. Beyond these specific debates, the position taken in Religion Without God reflects a commitment to objective value that has been indispensable for Dworkin's broader jurisprudence. Part of what he meant when he maintained that there was always a right answer to a hard case facing a court was that even if the relevant precedents, legislation and constitutional provisions left the judge with a choice to make, the values that would have to be invoked to guide this choice rights, justice and the common good were as real and objective and compelling as the parchment on which the black-letter law was printed. What was distinctive, though, about Dworkin's view was that objective moral values were not invoked in law in their raw philosophical form. Dworkin believed that legal rights and legal principles entangled moral and legal elements together: one would call them "hybrids", if not for the suggestion implicit in that term that pure law could be imagined without this entanglement. In Dworkin's view, law was infused with value and principle through and through. There was no algorithmic formula for distilling these moral values out of laws, no easy-to-apply rule for recognising their presence. Legal judgment was a matter of argument and discernment, and the sensibility involved had to be partly moral but at the same time attentive in complex ways to what had been enacted and the significance of precedent decisions. That was what lawyers and judges were doing when they delved doggedly into the books of the law to search for legal answers to hard cases. They didn't just abandon the quest and start making new law at the first sign of difficulty. They would keep on at it, respecting the position of plaintiffs and petitioners as people coming into court to seek vindication of their rights, not just as lobbyists for a quasi-legislative solution to some intractable legal problem. In a generous and good-humoured way, Dworkin practised what he preached. He too loved argument the endlessness of it, the scintillation as connection after connection was made. He was not one to allow himself the last word in any controversy, let alone anyone else. He believed that perseverance in argument the worth of persevering in argument was the best tribute to the rights and values and principles at whose altar, in a manner of speaking, he worshipped. And all this was seamlessly bound up with fierce conviction about the real world of constitutionalism and the rule of law. Dworkin's death has led many people to reflect on the role of a public intellectual in explaining the workings of constitutional law in all its intricacy and controversy to the general public. His contribution, mainly in the pages of the New York Review of Books , was prodigious. He published almost 100 essays, reviews, and articles in the Review over 45 years, from a seminal piece on not prosecuting civil disobedience in 1968, through powerful comment on the affirmative action cases of the 1970s, on the Robert Bork nomination in 1987 and the Clarence Thomas nomination in 1991, on abortion, pornography, and assisted suicide, all the way through to the Citizens

Thomas nomination in 1991, on abortion, pornography, and assisted suicide, all the way through to the Citizens United case in 2010 on corporate speech and other things he called the "Embarrassingly Bad Decisions" of the Supreme Court under John Roberts. He believed in law, though there was nothing deferential in his writing. Dworkin had a great faith in courts as forums of principled argument, and though that faith must have been shaken at times, he never gave up on the idea that the these institutions had a salutary role to play in a democracy. Better still, he never gave up on explaining to his readers what was at stake in the decisions he described. You didn't have to agree with him to see the immense contribution he made by talking publicly about this. The courts matter to citizens, and so does the law (their law) that's what he thought. We have nothing like that in Britain, no one of his stature and perseverance to explain in an informed and elegant way what the UK supreme court is doing or the European court of human rights. Perhaps Stephen Sedley is beginning to fill this role, but no one has filled it for us for as long as Dworkin did for his readership in and beyond the US. I think that the crisis in this country regarding the legitimacy of the Strasbourg court has been aggravated by the absence of any such commentator, anyone who might have shown us regularly, on issue after issue, case after case, why the court matters here, why the issues that it confronts matter, and why the law that it brings to these issues matters too, in a way that admits of better or worse reasoning, right and wrong answers. I am no great fan of judicial review of legislation; but I know that a case can be made in its favour and Dworkin made that case, as much in his critique of what the American courts were doing as in his engaging defence of the very idea of constitutional values. I would much rather answer his presentation of that case by someone who made an honest effort to reconcile it with democracy than stand with those in Britain who respond in a thoughtless, negative and sometimes even xenophobic way to the judgments of the human rights court in Strasbourg. A year or two before Religion Without God, Dworkin published Justice for Hedgehogs, a huge book (in every sense) that aimed to bring together apparently disparate principles and values under the auspices of one master ethical conception. Isaiah Berlin followed the Greek poet Archilochus in distinguishing between the attitude of the fox, who gathers many separate things, and the hedgehog, who knows only one big thing. The pluralism of the fox "has ruled the roost in academic and literary philosophy for many decades," said Dworkin; but he wanted to defend the unity of value. His hedgehog, however, was not someone who worried away at a single topic. Instead he worked in the wake of the fox showing that ideas about freedom which foxes like Berlin regarded as separate from ideas about justice, and separate again from ideas about equality, dignity, legality, religion, ethics, democracy and rights could in fact be connected together under the auspices of single respectful ideal. That insistence on looking for connections through argument, not giving up as soon as the going got tough, but thinking that the connections mattered enough to persevere in their pursuit was the motif of Dworkin's jurisprudence and the key to the unity of his philosophical work. Jeremy Waldron's most recent books are The Harm in Hate Speech and Dignity, Rank, and Rights.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

What did you think?

What did you think?

Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists Rate this book Review this book Add to your lists Buy this book

A Strong Song Tows Us: The Life of Basil Bunting by Richard Burton review
In this entralling, expertly researched portrait, the modernist poet is revealed as more active than Eliot and more pugnacious than Pound
Mark Ford The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 12.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

Vagabond poet Basil Bunting on WB Yeats's balcony in Rapallo, 1932

Basil Bunting's Collected Poems opens with "Villon", drafted when he was 25 and then handed over, like The Waste Land four years before it, to Ezra Pound for dramatic cuts and improvements. We know relatively little about the 15th-century French poet Franois Villon, beyond the fact that he was involved in a murderous brawl, was banished from Paris and spent time in jail. He was clearly a hell-raiser and a vagabond, which made him popular with modernist types who sought models of poetic virility and were keen to distance themselves from the effeteness and dandyism of the fin!de-sicle. Pound, although he was tone-deaf, wrote an opera based on "Le Testament de Villon"; in his book of essays The Sacred Wood TS Eliot compared the same work favourably to Tennyson's In Memoriam. A Strong Song Tows Us: The life of Basil Bunting by Richard Burton

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book "Blacked by the sun, washed by the rain," Bunting writes of Villon, "hither and thither scurrying as the wind varies." Bunting emerges from Richard Burton's thoroughly researched and enthralling biography as living a life far more active and variegated than the bookish Eliot's, and even than the pugnacious, controversial Pound's. Like Villon, Bunting had several spells behind bars. Born in 1900 into a prosperous middle-class family in Northumbria, where his father was a celebrated doctor, he was just old enough to be conscripted for the first world war. On receiving his call-up papers he registered as a conscientious objector, refusing even to take up agricultural work because that would send another man to the front. His pacifism probably derived from the Quaker secondary school to which he had been sent. "They took away the prison clothes / and on the frosty nights I froze," he recalls in "Villon", and indeed it seems he was confined for weeks in a freezing darkened cell on starvation rations. Prisoners were allowed to send and receive one letter a month. On his release, Bunting enrolled in the London School of Economics, but absconded mid-course, setting off on a trip to Denmark, Norway and Russia, which he never reached, getting himself arrested just short of the border and deported back to Newcastle. He spent most of his 20s kicking around literary circles in London and Paris, reviewing books and music for various papers in dismissive Poundian terms. In Paris he worked for a while as Ford Madox Ford's assistant on the Transatlantic Review, but soon found himself again in trouble with the authorities, this time for drunkenly assaulting a posse of gendarmes sent to arrest him for disturbing the peace. Pound was delighted to find his protege reading Villon while awaiting trial in the grande salle of the Paris courthouse; and Bunting later reflected that Villon himself might have sat awaiting sentence in the very same court. He returned shortly after his two-week sentence in a Paris prison to London, where, again la Villon, he was occasionally so destitute he slept rough on the Embankment. The varying winds blew Bunting hither and thither. He spent about five years with Pound in Rapallo in northern Italy, where he also got to know Yeats, who classified him as "one of Ezra's more savage disciples". In 1930, he married an American, Marian Culver. Although not as handsomely provided for as Pound's wife Dorothy Shakespear, whose annuity kept ol' Ez in typewriter ribbon and paper, remittances from her Wisconsin parents allowed Bunting to devote himself to his poetry, and to learning classical Persian. To cut down on expenses, they moved to the Canary Islands in 1933; life did prove cheaper, but Bunting disliked the landscape and people. There, he once played an "indifferent" game of chess with Franco. Even the arrival of two daughters (both given Persian names, Bourtai and Roudaba), failed to stimulate in him any desire to assume the role of breadwinner. Like Pound, he conceived of the poet as a hero whose only responsibility was to his art. In 1936, the outbreak of the Spanish civil war drove the Buntings back to London, where Marian finally threw in the towel despite being five months pregnant with a son Bunting would never meet (he died of polio at the age of 16). In a bitter postmortem account of their marriage, she wrote: "The idea of working for a living was so hateful to him that he screamed and raved if it was ever mentioned." Should Marian venture an opinion, she found herself "told to shut up and never open my mouth". Further, she alleges that Bunting was something of a Humbert Humbert, falling in love in Tenerife with a 12-year-old girl, on whom he lavished unwanted attentions. Burton is quick to dismiss this vision of Bunting as a paedophile, and takes in his stride the fact that Bunting's second wife, Sima, whom he met in Persia, was 14 when they married, while he was 50. They do things differently in the east A Bunting poem of 1964 is spoken by a Persian girl on her 14th birthday expressing surprise at the fact that she is still unwed.

The wind that eventually blew Bunting to Iran, where he was undoubtedly at his happiest, was the second world war, in which, renouncing his youthful pacifism, he was desperate to play a part. Indeed, it rescued him from aimlessness and poverty: accepted into the RAF, he was assigned to Balloon Command, and stationed in Hull and then Scotland, but on the strength of his Persian managed to get himself posted in 1942 to Iran, where an abortive barrage balloon mission was planned. He both had an excellent war and wrote some excellent war poetry part three of "The Spoils" is as good as the best combat pieces of Keith Douglas or Anthony Hecht or Randall Jarrell. Competent and decisive, Bunting rose to the rank of wing commander, running Spitfire operations in Malta and Sicily. The Bunting of his Persian years, which ended only with his expulsion by Mosaddegh in 1953, put me in mind of a certain breed of Englishman abroad best exemplified by Wilfred Thesiger. It's a great shame, as Burton frequently laments, that Bunting never wrote a prose book about his time there, first as a diplomat, then as a journalist for the Times but fortunate that he wrote so many vivid and detailed letters to Dorothy Shakespear, Louis Zukofsky and others. Was he a spy? There's certainly a Graham Greene-ish element to his manoeuvring and politicking in the highest Iranian circles. Of course, this biography has been written because in 1965 Bunting published "Briggflatts", considered one of the greatest poems of the century. Brigflatts (he added the extra g to his title to make it sound more archaic) is a tiny hamlet in Cumbria. For several years in his teens Bunting would spend a few weeks there each summer with the Greenbank family, falling in love with their daughter Peggy, to whom "Briggflatts" is dedicated. Her father, John, worked as a stonemason in the graveyard of the Brigflatts Quaker meeting house. Fifty years on, memories of these visits and of his adolescent passion jolted Bunting back to poetry; the opening section of "Briggflatts" brilliantly recasts Pound's epic mode to evoke these long-buried experiences. One of the delights of Burton's book is the chapter devoted to a close reading of the poem's effects and an exposition of its sources. Almost as soon as it appeared, "Briggflatts" catapulted Bunting, who'd spent the prior decade working on the financial section of the Newcastle Evening Chronicle, to quite astonishing fame: packed readings, tours of America, posts in US and Canadian universities, chairmanship of the Poetry Society and the Northern Arts council. English poetic modernism, at long last, had found a star to steer by.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

What did you think?

Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists Rate this book Review this book Add to your lists Buy this book

The New York Nobody Knows by William B Helmreich review

The New York Nobody Knows by William B Helmreich review

This fascinating street-level tour through the 'melting pot capital of the world' traces the city's transformation and gentrification
PD Smith The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 10.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

'Tremendous renaissance' New York City from Brooklyn Heights. Photograph: Andrew C Mace/Getty Images/Flickr

"Walking is the best way to explore and exploit the city", writes Iain Sinclair in Lights Out for the Territory . It's a truth that was discovered in 19th-century Paris by the flneur that "botanist on asphalt", to use Walter Benjamin's memorable phrase who turned the city's boulevards into drawing rooms in which to dissect the metropolitan crowd. And now, from Tokyo to London, urbanophiles agree that it is through what Michel de Certeau beautifully termed "the long poem of walking" that you can truly understand that most complex and beguiling feature of modern life: the city. The New York Nobody Knows: Walking 6,000 Miles in the City by William B. Helmreich

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book Sociologist William B Helmreich was born and grew up in New York City . As a boy, he and his father played a game called "Last Stop". It involved riding the subway from the station at 103rd Street near their Upper West Side apartment to the last stop on the line. Then, like intrepid explorers, they would discover the area's secrets on foot. (Helmreich's father died in 2011 at the age of 101.) In a sense, this book is a continuation of that urban game. To

(Helmreich's father died in 2011 at the age of 101.) In a sense, this book is a continuation of that urban game. To write The New York Nobody Knows, Helmreich walked 6,048 miles, covering almost every block in the city's five boroughs: Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Bronx. It took him four years, walking an average of 1,512 miles a year. He wore out nine pairs of shoes. Helmreich admits that "you have to be a little crazy to explore the city as I did". But big cities do that to you. Their scale and Babel-like hubris seem to demand an extreme response. On his footloose wanderings, he recorded conversations with New Yorkers, including current and former mayors, reassuring his subjects with the words: "It's all right, I'm a professor." His aim was to see how New York has changed since the disastrous years of the 1970s, when the city was almost bankrupt and the murder rate rose to 2,000 per year. That was when Travis Bickle sat in his taxi and ranted against the "whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers and junkies" on the city's mean streets. By the 80s, crime and social deprivation had turned New York into a place of fear. John Carpenter's 1981 film Escape from New York , which depicted a hellish place transformed into a convict colony, seemed to reflect ordinary Americans' horror of their most infamous sin city. But today the city is enjoying "a tremendous renaissance". The murder rate is down to around 500 annually and, Helmreich writes, "New York is now perhaps the safest large city in the country". Its success, he thinks, stems from two groups of people: the immigrants and the gentrifiers. The former brought an incredible drive and ambition; the latter have transformed how the city is seen, turning it into a fashionable, exciting place, bubbling with new ideas and commercial potential. It is now a city people want to live in, not escape from. New York has always been what Helmreich terms "the melting pot capital of the world". In 1917, an American journalist boasted: "It is the largest Jewish city in the world, the largest Irish city, one of the largest German cities. New York is the great whirlpool of the races." More than three million immigrants have come to NYC since the 1960s, and Helmreich thinks their determination to live the American dream has created its current dynamism. Indeed, a laudable feature of this excellent book is its celebration of New York's rainbow diversity. More than a third of its 8.3 million inhabitants were born abroad and at least 170 languages are spoken there. Elmhurst, Queens, is the most diverse neighbourhood, with people from 120 countries. You rarely hear English in Hispanic parts of the Bronx. Likewise in the Chinese neighbourhoods of Flushing, Queens and Sunset Park, Brooklyn. There are also at least 600,000 undocumented immigrants in the city, mostly Mexicans and Chinese, all struggling to realise the American dream while working as waiters and washing dishes. Helmreich says most New Yorkers have immense sympathy for their plight. One Hispanic manager from the Bronx tells him: "This country's been founded on illegal activity. End of story." Over the past quarter century or so, hundreds of thousands of young people "urban pioneers armed with optimism, hope, and more than a little moxie" have streamed into New York, reclaiming a city their parents deserted for the suburbs. Gentrification is now one of the key issues facing the city. It began in the 1970s, in Soho, then the East Village in the 80s, followed by north Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the 90s. Now gentrification has reached places like "Soha", as real-estate agents have rechristened south Harlem. But gentrification comes at a price. One long-term Harlem resident complains about a new cafe: "I went in there for a piece of cake and it was like four bucks! I can get a whole cake for four bucks. Obviously they don't want too many of us in there." Helmreich admits that gentrification is a complex issue and that there are losers as well as winners. But he thinks it has transformed New York, and that this is one reason why the people he meets on his walks are so optimistic about the future of their city. In the end, the voices and stories of the people he encounters are what make this book so memorable. He is a modern-day Henry Mayhew, the journalist who documented the hardscrabble lives of ordinary Londoners in the 1840s. The result is a vivid portrait of the city, a view from the sidewalk of what former mayor David Dinkins called the "gorgeous mosaic" of New York: Hispanic men playing dominoes in a club on Westchester Avenue, in the Bronx, while a naked light bulb "swings wildly back and forth", blown by a noisy metal fan; Hasidic children with skullcaps and sidelocks watching African American kids shoot hoops in the park near where Jay Z grew up in Brooklyn; a procession of some 2,000 people following a statue of the Virgin Mary through the Pelham Bay area of the Bronx; black people playing chess in the light of portable fluorescent lamps in Morningside Park, near Harlem,

the Bronx; black people playing chess in the light of portable fluorescent lamps in Morningside Park, near Harlem, while a young man in sunglasses beside Helmreich finalises adrug deal on his mobile phone; and a cricket match at a club founded in 1872 in Walker Park, Staten Island, where "the soft strains of calypso music fill the air, mixed in with the smells of curried goat and roti". It's refreshing to read a book that celebrates so unreservedly the ethnic diversity of a city and entirely fitting that it should be about a metropolis that has always been defined by its cosmopolitan culture. For Helmreich, the city's diversity is the well-spring of its success. When he finds three restaurants in one small area offering food from six cultures Italy, Mexico, Korea, Japan, China and Spain Helmreich sounds like a proud father talking about his gifted daughter: "That's New York!" PD Smith's most recent book is City: A Guidebook for the Urban Age (Bloomsbury).

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

What did you think?

Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists Rate this book Review this book Add to your lists Buy this book

Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett review

The advent of the steam train keeps Discworld nicely on track
Ben Aaronovitch The Guardian, Wednesday 27 November 2013 07.30 GMT Jump to comments ()

Master of the stealth simile Terry Pratchett. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

I like my fantasy novels to have maps; I'm old-fashioned that way. Not coming up with one indicates a certain lack of commitment by the author to what JRR Tolkien called "the act of secondary creation". A good map of a fantasy world like its real-world counterpart tantalises us with the possibilities. What we might see, where we might go. Raising Steam: (Discworld novel 40) (Discworld Novels) by Terry Pratchett

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels have never included maps. Maps exist you can buy poster-sized versions to hang on your wall or get them as an app for your iPad (I've done both) but they've merely been an afterthought. Pratchett has always been adamant that the Discworld was "a place where stories happen", and that drawing a map would be too constraining. So I was a bit surprised when I opened my copy of Raising Steam, the 40th book in the series, and found a beautiful map spread across pages eight and nine. But the inclusion of a map doesn't mean that the Discworld has finally succumbed to the iron conventions of the traditional fantasy novel. Because this is a railway map, and it marks the world's triumphant arrival into the modern era. The series started as a satirical journey through the conventions of the fantasy genre. It painted its world in broad outline and great splashes of colour, although, from the first, the novels demonstrated Pratchett's eye for telling detail and the absurdities of the human condition. As the series progressed, a strange thing occurred the Discworld, created as a setting for humorous stories, began to take on a certain solidity, as if it were striving to become a real place. It's a conceit that would have pleased Borges. This process was taking place not through the deployment of the traditional fantasy map but through the replacement of archetypes with solid three-dimensional characters.This started, surprisingly, with the character of DEATH, but he was soon followed by the Witches, Lord Vetinari, Captain Vimes and the Archchancellor of the Unseen University, Mustrum Ridcully. These personalities got their feet under the table, as it were, to the point where their fictional demise would prompt national mourning and, possibly, death threats to the publisher. Thirty years on, the Discworld has grown so solid and so weighty that any new novel has to exert a great deal of narrative power just to get that world moving at a decent pace. So it's just as well that the latest book concerns the arrival of the Discworld's very own steam locomotive.

Raising Steam tells the story of what happens when steam power is added to Ankh-Morpork's already febrile industrial revolution, with predictable results screams, explosions and people running into the night. In response the city's ruler, the Patrician, pitches former conman Moist von Lipwig, his number one troubleshooter, into the confusion to bring, if not order, then at least some level of control. Meanwhile, conservative factions among the dwarves, fearing that this brave new world might destroy thousands of years of tradition, take violent action against the accoutrements of modernity. The genius of Pratchett is that he never goes for the straight allegory. Yes, the arrival of steam travel parallels the development of the railways in Britain, not least in the sudden elevation of Swine Town (Swindon) into a major industrial centre, and the fact that its pioneers are a mixture of self-made entrepreneurs, northern engineers and fasttalking conmen. But it is also heavily influenced by the unique "reality" of the Discworld, including trolls, goblins and, of course, magic. Likewise, if you squint a little, the extremist factions of the dwarves could be seen as an allegory for militant Islam but only if you ignore how they resemble evangelical Christians, or luddites, or just people who are afraid of the pace of change in the modern world. Pratchett's themes are the big ones: the threat and promise of change, the individual's search for meaning within their own society, and the fine moral judgments that have to be made between competing rights and freedoms. If sometimes the mighty engine of Pratchett's prose skids a bit on the upslope a tad didactic here, a little heavyhanded in its moralising there we can forgive him. Not least because he remains one of the most consistently funny writers around; a master of the stealth simile, the time-delay pun and the deflationary three-part list (1). On the morning of its release, I could tell which of my fellow tube passengers had downloaded it to their e-readers by the bouts of spontaneous laughter. Not something you see very often during rush hour. (1) Not to mention the strategic deployment of a well-placed footnote. Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series is published by Gollancz.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

What did you think?

Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists Rate this book Review this book Add to your lists Buy this book

Equilateral by Ken Kalfus review

Steven Poole enjoys a comedy of ideas about a grand Victorian project to send a message to Mars
Steven Poole

Steven Poole The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 07.30 GMT Jump to comments ()

Illustration: Clifford Harper/Agraphia.co.uk

Whenever I hear people lamenting the fundamental irrationality of human beings, as is increasingly common these days, I like to recall the fact that we currently have a robot the size of a Land Rover trundling around on the surface of Mars, performing scientific experiments at our behest. This seems like something a species of basically stupid animals would have difficulty accomplishing. But science is not immune to the temptations of wishful thinking, as an earlier episode in our relationship to the red planet shows. Equilateral: A Novel by Ken Kalfus

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book In the late 19th century, telescopic observations of Mars appeared to show artificially constructed channels across the planet's surface. These were christened "canals", and so began what some historians now call the "canal craze", with the scientific and popular press full of increasingly elaborate maps, and speculations about the height, intelligence and lifestyle of the aliens who lived on Mars and built these epic irrigation systems. (An excellent cultural history of this phenomenon is provided by K Maria D Lane's book Geographies of Mars.) To explore this intellectual ferment on the frontier of hard science and fantasy, the novelist Ken Kalfus has invented an awe-inspiring project. Equilateral is set in the 1890s in the Egyptian desert, where a British astronomer, Professor Sanford Thayer, is overseeing the construction of a vast equilateral triangle: each side a trench 306 miles long and

Sanford Thayer, is overseeing the construction of a vast equilateral triangle: each side a trench 306 miles long and five miles wide. The sides are filled with pitch and then topped with crude oil, which will then be set alight, just when our planet is showing its dark side to Mars at the two planets' closest approach. Thus, by means of a perfect geometrical form shining through the blackness of space, humans will provide an unambiguous signal to Martian astronomers of the presence of intelligent life on Earth. The Equilateral will "petition for man's membership in the fraternity of planetary civilizations". Keeping such a huge project on track in the hostile desert is no picnic. Thayer's scheme, directed by an imperturbable engineer called Ballard, employs 900,000 Arab workers: there are water shortages, obstructions natural and otherwise to the digging, and a near-mutiny to contend with. There is also another triangle in playx, this one of the love sort: Thayer's secretary, Miss Keaton, has a crush on him, but the professor only has eyes for a local serving girl. The stage is thus set for a comedy, but Kalfus's comedy of ideas is as dry as the scorched desert winds, and as black as the pitch poured into the Equilateral's trenches. By means of a contemporaneous, first-person-plural narration "We're surprised every time" by the Muslim call to prayer, they relate near the beginning Kalfus keeps imaginative intellectual sympathy and devastating retrospective irony in miraculous equipoise. This can work to purely comic effect as when the narrators and the characters imagine that the vastly more advanced Martians must be using really enormous steam engines and also in a more troubling vein, when the reader is led through the superficially plausible arguments of social Darwinism that we know later led to the 20th-century's racist eugenics. At one point Kalfus effects a devastating dramatisation of the mind's capacity for intellectual self-justification, when Thayer is explaining to himself the necessity for a certain brutal action. On Mars, the professor reassures himself, global conflict must have ended "only through the application of the universal laws of evolution and natural selection, when the superior and inferior specimens of the Martian race diverged into separate species, as is inevitable on Earth. A race of savants and a race of slaves " Some novelists are voluble, and work by a kind of stacking of variation: they pile up four or five ways of saying more or less the same thing in a single garrulous sentence or paragraph. Others prefer singularity, exactitude. Kalfus is of the latter sort. This is a short novel in which every word has been weighed. It results in a style of tremendous descriptive economy and power. Cables "sang themselves taut"; the sky, Thayer speculates, may be "congested with intellects"; our planet whirls through a "vacuum ocean". Occasionally, Kalfus allows himself a moment of pure, happy silliness: "An Oxford linguist suggests that among the inhabitants of Mars the display of an equal-sided triangle commonly represents a grave insult, or even a declaration of war." Equilateral is also a paean to mathematics: in a way, the whole novel is an elaborate pun on "geometry", which comes from the Greek for "measuring the Earth". Thayer's triangle is designed so that each side is exactly 1/73rd of the diameter of the Earth at the triangle's base. (73 is a prime number, which the Martians will understand.) At one point, we are told the labourers sing songs about the golden section while digging sand; at another, there is an inspiring homage to the power of the compass and ruler (or "straightedge" in American English): "With a straightedge and a compass [a man] may plot further triangles right, acute, and obtuse, and then larger polygons; he may contemplate solid geometry. He may invent quadratic equations. He may survey the lands annually irrigated by the Nile. He may predict the motions of celestial objects. He may create a civilization." It cannot be an arbitrary fact that this novel has 32 chapters. Thirty-two is the fifth power of two, and a prime (31) plus one, but neither of those facts seems especially relevant. Perhaps it is meant to echo the novel's passing reference to Messier 32, a galaxy in Andromeda known since 1749, or perhaps there is a deeper numerological justification for it. That's one more mystery to ponder after the beautifully judged, haunting conclusion of this highly intelligent and rich work of fiction.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

What did you think?

Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists Rate this book Review this book Add to your lists Buy this book

When the Time Comes by Josef Winkler review

Alberto Manguel hopes this translation of stories about sin and retribution will give an Austrian great the credit he is due
Alberto Manguel The Guardian, Thursday 28 November 2013 09.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

Like peering into one of those painted Flemish hells Photograph: The Art Archive

During a lunch with WG Sebald in June 2000, I asked him, since he had written splendid essays on Austrian literature, which Austrian writers he recommended. Immediately he mentioned Josef Winkler, whose work he considered a counterweight to what he saw as Austria's moral infamy. I then read three or four of his novels, which all revolve around the same theme: the deep-rooted corruption of Austrian society, especially the farming society into which Winkler was born in 1953. The themes of medieval Catholic traditions, the hardships of rural life and a loveless family are explored over and over again. Winkler's prose reads like a palimpsest of angry stories, each trying to outdo the previous one in increasing depth and relentless scrutiny. Reading Winkler is like peering harder and harder into one of those painted Flemish hells that seethe with horribly inventive details of sin and retribution. The horrors of the second world war provided European countries with a gruesome mythology that has taken on different guises in the various literatures. By and large, for the English, the stories that stem from it are documentary; for the French, they lean towards philosophical fables; for the Italians they take on the tone of magical folk-tales. For German speakers, they seem to have a grotesque eschatological underpinning, as if for Anna Seghers, Heinrich Bll,

German speakers, they seem to have a grotesque eschatological underpinning, as if for Anna Seghers, Heinrich Bll, Gnter Grass and so many others, the experience of the war in this world darkly mirrored, not through religious faith but through literary intuition, the experience of the next. For Austrian writers in particular (Thomas Bernhard, Elfriede Jelinek), the mindset that made so many of their fellow citizens behave as they did under Hitler did not change much after the war. For Winkler, the period from the Anschluss in 1938 to the division of Austria into four zones in 1945 merely rendered the Austrian ethos more explicit: nothing much changed before or afterwards, except an uncanny ability to dissemble. As the old joke has it, the Austrians' greatest triumph has been to convince the world that Beethoven was Austrian and Hitler was German. Only three books by Winkler have been translated up to now into English. The third, cleverly translated by Adrian West, with an illuminating introduction, is a good example of Winkler's powerful art. Set in a village in his native Carinthia, it centres on a 90-year-old man whose occupation is to cook bones until they become a greasy, viscous, foul-smelling brew used to smear the eyes, ears, nostrils and bellies of horses, to protect them from pestering insects. The noxious liquid becomes the device by which the many characters and events of the novel are brought into play; like the bones of the dead used by the ancient brewer, the flesh of the living is collected and made to render its stories. Thus we hear of the artist-priest who decorated a calvary wall with the image of a soul being tortured in hell, that of a villager who, before the war, threw a statue of Christ over a waterfall and who, later, during the war, lost both arms in the trenches. We hear of the hunchback Hildegard, an arthritic hag who forgets to wash, and whose sister Helene is married to a brutal man "who even today venerates Hitler [...] and who, by way of punishment, used to make his daughter Karin not yet 20 go alone to the cesspit with a long-handled ladle to gather faeces and throw them into the manure tanker with a rusty bucket, until bloody blisters formed on her hands". We hear of two boys who end their lives together, lovingly embraced, by tying ropes to their necks and jumping into the stream where the blasphemer had thrown the holy statue. We hear of 15-year-old Ludmilla who, upon discovering her first menstruation, flings herself into the nearby rapids. The recorder of all these deaths (there are many more) is the almost anonymous narrator; the stories are those of his childhood. In opposition to the pastor's credo, who tells the dead: "A deep chasm divides us. None of us can go to you and none of you can come to us," the narrator's mission is to allow the dead to speak again. "I've written 13 books on death," Winkler told an interviewer, "but I always manage to stick life somewhere in them." Baudelaire's "The Litanies of Satan" punctuate this novel, undermining the Catholic litanies that the characters occasionally mouth, just as the occasional memories of the events of the Nazi era are set alongside episodes of ordinary daily brutality. The standing of Winkler in German-language literature is undisputed. The German writer Martin Walser was euphoric when he discovered Winkler's work; Grass praised him for the intensity of his writing. He has won almost every major literary prize in Germany and Austria. It is to be hoped that this translation will bring his writing to the attention of a wider, curious and intelligent English-speaking public. When the Time Comes is available from contramundum.net

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.

Sign up for the daily email

What did you think?

Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists Rate this book Review this book Add to your lists Buy this book

Crime fiction roundup reviews

Where the Dead Men Go by Liam McIlvanney, The Black Life by Paul Johnston, The Edge of Normal by Carla Norton, The Last Winter of Dani Lancing by PD Viner and I Was Jack Mortimer by Alexander Lernet-Holenia
Laura Wilson The Guardian, Thursday 28 November 2013 12.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

A corpse is found in a flooded quarry in Liam McIlvanney's Where the Dead Men Go. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Like his exceptionally fine debut, All the Colours of the Town , Liam McIlvanney's second novel, Where the Dead Men Go (Faber, 12.99), features political journalist Gerry Conway. Still clinging to the dream of old-fashioned investigative reporting, he has been lured back to the Glasgow Tribune after being fired four years earlier, even though the broadsheet is "in freefall, bleeding readers every quarter" and there's no budget for anything more than topping and tailing press releases. What the ever-dwindling readership wants is news of the "city's tribal battles, on and off the pitch Bigotry and violence. Football and crime." So, when ace crime reporter Martin Moir disappears, Conway is deputised to cover an old-school gangland killing. When Moir turns up again, it is as a corpse lashed to

Conway is deputised to cover an old-school gangland killing. When Moir turns up again, it is as a corpse lashed to the steering wheel of a car in a flooded quarry. Conway decides to find out what has happened and soon finds himself caught up in the cat's cradle of symbiotic relationships between big business, smoothly ambitious politicians and the city's criminal underworld, as lucrative contracts are handed out ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Distinctive, vivid and very well written, Where the Dead Men Go more than lives up to the promise of its excellent predecessor.

Paul Johnston's sixth Alex Mavros novel, The Black Life (Crme de la Crime, 19.99), is a well-imagined, wellrendered time-slip in which events during the Holocaust and in post-Olympic, pre-economic-meltdown Greece are painfully joined and almost, but not entirely, resolved. Mavros is approached by wealthy jeweller Eli Samuel to find his Uncle Aron, reportedly seen in Thessaloniki more than 60 years after he was thought to have perished in Auschwitz. It soon becomes clear, however, that Samuel's daughter Rachel, while helping Mavros with his investigation, is also pursuing her own agenda. The Black Life has the whirlwind pace of a good thriller, but it is far more mentally engaging, asking whether it is possible to judge the acts of people who find themselves in extreme situations by the standards of normal life.

The question of whether people who have experienced extraordinary events can ever entirely reacclimatise to ordinary life is explored in The Edge of Normal by Carla Norton (Macmillan, 12.99). Reeve LeClaire was kidnapped when she was 12 and held for four years by a sadistic pervert. Now she is 22, trying to live an independent life in San Francisco with the help of her psychiatrist, Dr Lerner, seeking normality and hoping for intimacy, but fearing that she will never achieve it. When Dr Lerner asks her to help a 13-year-old girl who has just been freed after being held captive for a year and repeatedly violated, she reluctantly agrees. The situation is more complex than it first appears, and the mechanics of the mystery certainly hold the attention, but what stands out about this debut novel is the thoughtful and unhistrionic treatment of a difficult theme.

Although set in Britain, PD Viner's first novel, The Last Winter of Dani Lancing (Ebury Press, 12.99), has a disconcertingly transatlantic feel. Twenty years after 21-year-old student Dani was found dead in mysterious circumstances, her case is about to be reopened by Tom, the now-senior policeman who loved her when he was young. An over-complicated structure with time-shifts and multiple points of view including the ghost of Dani, who is unfortunately unable to remember how her corporeal self met its end makes for a fair bit of confusion, at least in the early stages, but it is worth persevering for a genuinely intriguing read.

Originally published in 1933 and twice filmed in its original German, I Was Jack Mortimer by Viennese author Alexander Lernet-Holenia has now been published for the first time in English (Pushkin Press, 12). No taxi driver, whomever he may once have had in the back of his cab, would be able to top the story of Ferdinand Sponer, whose fare, alive and well when picked up, promptly dies, shot through the throat in the middle of a traffic jam. Sponer, a hapless drifter with a fiancee he can't be bothered to marry and an obsession with an aristocratic former fare, has no idea who murdered his passenger. Thwarted in his efforts to tell the police, he panics and dumps the corpse in the Danube, but fails to clean out his cab. As events spiral out of his control, he ends up impersonating the dead Jack Mortimer who turns out to be an American gangster whose mistress has a jealous husband. Although this isn't, as transator Ignat Avsey claims, "the most magnificent thriller ever written", it is certainly a fascinating snapshot of Vienna between the wars, pacey and entertaining. Laura Wilson's latest novel is The Riot (Quercus).

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

How to write 50,000 words in a month

National Novel Writing Month challenges more than 300,000 aspiring writers to create a masterpiece in 30 days
Colin Robinson The Guardian, Thursday 28 November 2013 15.46 GMT Jump to comments ()

Lock up your inner editor National Novel Writing Month.

The letters shine brightly, white on black, from an open laptop placed prominently in the window of an Irish sports bar facing Madison Square Garden: NaNoWriMo. Inside, a crowd of perhaps 40 people, young women and men in casual dress, are drinking beer and conversing loudly. The discussion, predictably, is dominated by issues of plot, character and writer's block, for this is the first New York City social of 2013's National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo even the acronym suggests writing in a hurry, and no wonder: the objective of those taking part is to complete a novel of at least 50,000 words in the course of November. What is written seems of less concern than how much; after all, as one of the project's gurus puts it: "The path to quality is quantity." Participants are encouraged to download specially designed word-count widgets to create graphic displays of their progress. Completed manuscripts can be submitted to the organisation, which, to forestall any anxiety (or perhaps hope) that they might be read, jumbles the words automatically before counting them. A certificate is sent to those who hit the quota in the allotted time. Founded in 1999 by Chris Baty, a native of Kansas and the author of No Plot? No Problem, NaNoWriMo has expanded rapidly over the last decade and a half. Last year 275,000 writers signed up, a total already surpassed on 2013's participant counter, prominently displayed on the organisation's homepage. "Noveling", a verb coined by a group that evidently regards a work of fiction less as a cultural artifact and more as simply work, has never enjoyed greater popularity. Anything resembling artistic pretension is confidently eschewed by NaNoWriMo. The organisation's logo comprises a heraldic shield featuring quatrains with bold drawings of crossed pens, a laptop, a sheaf of paper, and a steaming cup of coffee, all topped, incongruously, by a Viking helmet. The prevalent aesthetic particularly when displayed on the range of sweatshirts and hoodies it offers for sale is more sports club than literary salon. I introduce myself to Andy, a spry, balding man in a bright green polo shirt. Alongside his day job in educational publishing, he explains, he's a NaNoWriMo old-timer, having first participated in the 2005 programme. He is now an organiser, or what the project calls a "Municipal Liaison", a title that strikes me, like so much of NaNoWriMo's argot, as deliberately prosaic. "If you want to hit the word target," he explains to me, "you have to lock away your inner editor." I say I can see that, and marvel openly at the speed at which participants must write: "What is it?" I hesitate, trying to do the maths,

"2,000 words a day?" "1,667," Andy corrects me. "But some people can produce much more. Quite a few write two novels in the month; one guy even turned in 500,000 words." I whistle incredulously at the vastness of this accomplishment; Andy honours it with a nod and a deep draft of Anchor Steam. "I can't compete with that," he shrugs, placing his beer back on the table and holding up both hands with fingers bent to form crooked claws: "T-rex typist." Andy brings over Claire, who tells me she works from home as a freelance content manager for an educational website. I ask what her novel is about. "It's sort of a sci-fi story, set in a post-economic collapse." She looks past me as she speaks. "But there's mystery and fantasy elements, as well," she adds quickly, in a way that suggests she believes the range of genres may add value to the project. This isn't her first shot at NaNoWriMo. Last year she wrote a "zombie apocalypse" novel and she's written others, too, not just in November. I ask if she has ever attempted to get them published. "No, not yet," she smiles tersely. "I'm following the advice of Kristine Kathryn Rusch" an Oregon-based writer who has published dozens of books under various pseudonyms. "She says you need to write a million words of crap before you can produce anything original. I'm still making my way through the crap." Publication doesn't seem to be a concern for most of the NaNoWriMo crowd. There are celebrated cases of graduates from the scheme going on to produce bestsellers Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants and Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus; and, following complaints from publishers and agents inundated with a flood of just completed manuscripts at the beginning of December, the national organisers have felt obliged to circulate a plea to "let your novel rest" before sending it out. But for the most part, it is the simple achievement of getting the thing done, rather than any subsequent publishing success, or even readership, that drives the writers on. John, an IT manager for IBM, is in his fourth year of NaNoWriMo. He clearly welcomes the challenge of hitting his word count, and particularly relished the struggle this involved last year: "We had Hurricane Sandy to deal with then. I was, literally, writing in the dark." This time round he is working with a plot featuring "a demon whose job it is to get borderline souls to be more evil". "Is it a comedy?" I inquire delicately. "It has comedic elements," he says. "I mean, if you do a bad job in hell you can get fired. But it's more dark than funny." A previous effort was set in "a future dystopia where all new writing is banned and classic literature is compulsory reading." I say that does sound terrifying. "Yes" he avers, "like Nineteen Eighty-Four." A young man with an intense stare spots me scribbling in my notebook and comes over. "Hey, what are you writing?" I say I'm hoping to publish an article about NaNoWriMo. "Cool," he says. I expect him to ask who I am writing the piece for, but he doesn't, and it occurs to me that no one else has either. Just the fact that I'm writing seems sufficient. Stewart is 22 and employed by a computer software company. He is working on a story about a "young guy who goes insane with existential angst". He announces proudly that, the day before yesterday, he wrote more than 5,000 words. "Mind you," he adds, "I have him going to another planet where they use a language not spoken on Earth." I leave the bar with the conversation among the crowd still in full flow. For them, there's a heavy weekend of noveling ahead. For me, there is reflection on the meaning of so many words being written and never read. My admiration for the Stakhanovite determination of these writers can't displace an uneasy feeling that they are perhaps a symptom of an increasingly deskilled and atomised society, one in which any avenue of self-expression, however solipsistic, is grasped, or bashed out, with both hands. But these are general concerns, not susceptible to quick answers. More to the point, this short article has taken me several hours to write. Please don't mention that to NaNoWriMo. Colin Robinson is a co-founder of the New York-based independent publisher OR Books.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

John Mullan on Bridget Jones Guardian book club

Because we know Bridget's story comes from Jane Austen, we also know roughly where it must go
John Mullan The Guardian, Wednesday 27 November 2013 11.21 GMT

Bridget deserves her Mr Darcy Rene Zellwegger and Colin Firth in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason

We know Bridget Jones's Diary is based on Pride and Prejudice, and Bridget half knows it, too. She latches on to the comedy of handsome, aloof Mark Darcy sharing a name with Jane Austen's paragon of pride. When she first encounters him, at Una and Geoffrey Alconbury's New Year's Day turkey curry buffet, she notes the parallel. Instead of mingling happily, he stands with his back to the room, scrutinising the Alconburys' bookshelves: "It struck me as pretty ridiculous to be called Mr Darcy and to stand on your own looking snooty at a party." As bad, she thinks, as being called Heathcliff and spending your evening in the garden "shouting 'Cathy' and banging your head against a tree". Naturally, the distant Mark Darcy is unconscious of his similarity to his famous progenitor, even as he falls into his patterns of behaviour. The Bridget Jones Omnibus: The Singleton Years: Bridget Jones's Diary / Bridget Jones's Diary: Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book Mark Darcy is as dauntingly handsome and rich as his Regency counterpart. Fresh from her discovery of "boyfriend" Daniel Cleaver's sexual perfidy, Bridget tries to read herself to sleep with Tatler and finds Mark Darcy's visage "smouldering out from a feature on London's 50 most eligible bachelors". She ponders the parallel, having a long telephone conversation with her friend Jude "about the comparative merits of Mr Darcy and Mark Darcy"; they agree that Austen's leading man being "ruder" is even more attractive. Of course, the point (which Bridget does not get) is that she is following the Austen plot, too: the man you think you cannot stand is the one who is destined for you. And willowy top lawyer Natasha, who looks like the modern Darcy's natural partner, is but a latter-day Caroline Bingley. Her bitchy put-downs of her perceived rival ("Not in your bunny girl outfit today, then?"), like Miss Bingley's of Elizabeth ("Her hair, so untidy, so blowsy!"), have the opposite of their intended effect. We recognise all this because we know where the story comes from. And so we know roughly where it must go. The essential sexual geometry is taken from Austen's novel: the woman is drawn to the conversationally adept charmer (Wickham/Daniel), but has to learn that he is a cad, and discover instead the deeper virtues of his foe. And they are foes: Wickham tried to seduce Mr Darcy's sister; Daniel slept with Mark Darcy's wife. When Mark Darcy steps in to avert family catastrophe (Austen's eloping Lydia is replaced by Bridget's eloping mother in the company of Julio, the Portuguese conman who has tricked her parents' friends out of their savings), he is heading for roughly the same reward as Austen's Mr Darcy. Bridget's posh colleague Perpetua loudly laments that "a whole generation" only gets to know Austen, Eliot and Dickens through television, but Bridget (BA in Eng Lit, University of Bangor) has surely read the books, too. When told that Bridget finds Blind Date as absorbing as Othello, Mark Darcy reflects that she is "clearly a top postmodernist". Like a top postmodernist, she weaves fiction into her life. "Just nipped out for fags prior to getting changed ready for BBC Pride and Prejudice," she records. Mr Darcy and Elizabeth are, she confesses, her "chosen representatives". In Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason our heroine discusses her problems with men as her friend Sharon "fiddled with the Pride and Prejudice video to try to find the bit where Colin Firth dives into the lake". They fall silent before the apparition of "Colin Firth emerging from the lake dripping wet". Like a good postmodernist, the narrator makes the casting of Firth as Mark Darcy in the Bridget Jones film adaptation inevitable. In this Bridget Jones book the template is not Pride and Prejudice but Persuasion, Austen's last completed novel. Bridget is persuaded (self-help books and friends' advice) to fend off Mark Darcy. When she is later horrified to hear from Admiral Darcy that his son is getting married only to have her heart restarted by learning that this is "our other son" Peter we are replaying the moment in Persuasion when Anne Elliot is told by Mrs Croft that her brother is getting married and assumes for a terrible moment that she means Frederick, the man she loves. When, hidden behind a hedge, Bridget listens to Mark Darcy complimenting the alluring Rebecca on her strength of purpose for saying she will always "follow my heart", we are back with Austen's Anne overhearing Captain Wentworth similarly complimenting the foolish, pretty Louisa Musgrove. As there is a depressive character called Giles Benwick in attendance, we know that he must be Rebecca's destined partner, just as Captain Benwick is selected for Louisa in Persuasion. But Bridget deserves her Mr Darcy. What Fielding most cunningly swipes from Austen is the idea that the proud, superior man whom every girl would like to nab is only interested in the young woman who fails to flatter him. "Bridget, all the other girls I know are so lacquered over," says MD, plaintively. The very thing that makes the reader love her the range of her incompetence makes him love her, too.

 Helen Fielding will be in conversation with John Mullan at 7pm on 4 December, at Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1. Tickets 11.50/9.50. kingsplace.co.uk.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Sleeping Keys by Jean Sprackland review

Sean O'Brien on a collection that offers the history of a marriage
Sean O'Brien The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 17.16 GMT Jump to comments ()

Humanising sense of comedy Jean Sprackland. Photograph: Derek Adams

In gothic literature, the house, or more likely the castle, is often viewed as a metaphor of the body. In her fourth collection, Sleeping Keys, Jean Sprackland takes a more ostensibly domestic but no less imaginative approach: here, houses comprise the location and the history of a marriage that is over and done, like the world in which the poet grew up. As is the way with the imagination, these premises may now be vacant, but they are by no means empty. "Home is so sad," wrote Philip Larkin, because it remembers us: "A joyous shot at how things ought to be, /Long fallen wide. You can see how it was: / Look at the pictures and the cutlery. / The music in the piano stool. That vase." Where Larkin offers an evocative snapshot, Sprackland maps every inch of the lost domain. Sleeping Keys by Jean Sprackland

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book In this case, the house itself soon begins to offer a critique of its inhabitants: the early romantic comedy of an aquarium suddenly emptying itself on the carpet "Ah! that's how they were / in those antediluvian days" gives way to longer-term decay: "Tomorrow they would know the worst: / the ruined carpet, the marshy smell, /the brown seep through the bedroom ceiling." Sprackland is at her best when refusing the option of nostalgia. The pottery figures of a shepherdess and her swain on the mantelpiece are cheap knock-offs with badly painted features "and look at the boy cross-eyed with lust / and the poor girl flushed and impatient, / the two of them trapped in this rictus of desire" fit only to be smashed to pieces on the hearth. It's fascinating to compare this with Ciaran Carson's "Dresden", where idealism survives the accidental breaking of a figurine by the solitary Horse Boyle, perhaps because idealism is not confused with hope, serving instead as its own melancholy reward. Sprackland can also deal very effectively with time which, in Larkin's words, "truly" is "our element" and yet impossible to access directly. "It Occurs to My Mother that She Might Be Dead" evokes a one-way labyrinth of habit, a lifetime spent in domestic drudgery. "How would I know? / I remember the glint in her voice as she said it, / the icy terror that seized me. And now / I stand with my arms full of sheets, and suppose I'm alive." The poem recreates that chill with the parched matter-of-factness of its conclusion, beyond which life seems, at least momentarily, unimaginable. There are some less successful pieces in the book, and these seem bound up with its nature as a sequence a form, like its vaguer cousins the series and the affiliated group with a powerful contemporary attraction, offering something similar to a long poem, but without its longueurs. As the extended subject becomes a resource to be drawn on, supplying the next poem and the next, the particular life of the single poem can sometimes be subordinated to the larger project, which is, in turn, predicated on the idea of an outcome, of a point of completion, so that poems-inthemselves become the infantry of a campaign, or the eggs in the omelette. Something of this kind appears to have happened with "Two Windows", which compares the distortion of light in a bedroom window's old glass during a couple's final row and, later, the different effect of a front-door pane. The first seems decisive in its exploding view, the second "more random: a mass / of membranes, trembling like frogspawn, / trying to net the day, unable to hold it." This should read as a discovery: if it doesn't, then perhaps at this stage the sequence knows too much about its own processes. On the other hand, Sprackland is wittily alert to the process by which the world is pressed into the service of a poem. "Discovery" declares: "Now the rain / is stuck with her as if with some hopeless romantic / who keeps on making it stand for this or that / marvellous thing." Trying to see things for their own sake, the woman cuts an apple in half and her finger with it, and once more the apparatus of symbolism stands ticking over, awaiting admission to the house and the life. If symbols and portents are unavoidable, why not deal with them as crisply as Sprackland does in "Sea Holly"? She brings a lover a bouquet of durable, unillusioned flowers that thrive on salt and whose "head of sweetness wears a steel collar, / a star of bracts sharp enough to draw blood." Naturally, having said this, she goes on into a triumph of

adult mixed feelings: "I stood in the street, spiked with all my warnings. / And he opened the door, and the flowers and I went in." The management of tone, as so often in this book, is assured and tactful. The indrawn breath of risk, the determination to act, and Sprackland's humanising sense of comedy are all present. Just as the effort to see things squarely does not deny feeling, so the life of feeling is not sought as an end in itself, but in concert with good sense and perspective. This is surely a wise aspiration. Sleeping Keys is a book distinguished by rueful but unembittered wisdom.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

What did you think?

Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists Rate this book Review this book Add to your lists Buy this book

Gerald Finley: 'I feel I've joined the Wagner train and I have a valid ticket'
The baritone talks about his 100th Covent Garden performance and the obsession that tied his career in knots
Nicholas Wroe The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 18.45 GMT Jump to comments ()

Gerald Finley: 'It wasn't easy in Canada to be a choirboy when all your friends were playing ice hockey and football'. Photograph: Eamonn McCabe 'It

was a ludicrous progression that I went into the Wagner repertoire with Hans Sachs first," laughs baritone Gerald Finley. "And now Amfortas in Parsifal? This is not the natural evolution for a singer like me. There are other roles that usually come first. But sometimes in this career the step-by-step approach isn't the way it works out." In fact, Finley's career does read like a catalogue of orderly advancement. A leading chorister at King's College, Cambridge and a star of the Royal College of Music, he emerged from the Glyndebourne chorus as Figaro to sing the very first words heard at their new opera house in 1994. He has created contemporary roles in new operas by John Adams and Mark-Anthony Turnage while simultaneously building a reputation as a leading Mozartian. He has won Grammy and Gramophone awards for opera and recital recordings and later this season will celebrate 25 years at the Royal Opera House. Next week will see his 100th performance at Covent Garden in his debut production of Wagner's grail saga, Parsifal, in which he is the physically and morally wounded king, Amfortas. The role follows his acclaimed Hans Sachs in the 2011 Glyndebourne Meistersinger. But look just beneath the surface of Finley's apparently smooth CV and there is much that has not been by the book. One of his signature roles is Don Giovanni he recently featured in no fewer than five productions in just two years but he didn't actually learn the part until he was 40. Finley has endured two significant vocal crises in his career and was so in awe of the great German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau that for many years it distorted his own potential repertoire. Such was his trepidation before taking on the demanding role of Sachs that his wife even bought him a book called Wagner Without Fear. "As with so many things, the Wagner eventually came about through a combination of opportunity and practicality," he explains. "Sachs was on my list for later in my career, but Glyndebourne was the perfect venue for Meistersinger in that it is a relatively small auditorium where the stage is not too deep. That means you would necessarily be towards the front and so volume was never going to be an issue." And, as Glyndebourne has been a reassuring home from home to him throughout his career, so he is similarly surrounded by long-standing colleagues for his Covent Garden Parsifal, most notably conductor Antonio Pappano. "I first met Tony when he was looking for a Giovanni for a concert tour in the Middle East. You'd think it was a bread-and-butter piece, but we were both 40 and it had never crossed our paths. So in Tel Aviv we sang the Don together every day for about three weeks in this bunker-like rehearsal room and got to know each other pretty well, both as people and as musicians. He's been amazingly supportive ever since, and so doing Amfortas with him is both comforting, and also challenging as he's not afraid to really demand of me in front of the entire cast. But because I trust implicitly what he wants, and the results that he gets, he is bringing more out of me than even I knew was there." Finley says for years the combination of enjoying the work he was doing allied to a sense of Wagner as a "psychological fortress" ensured he largely steered clear of the music. "But people did keep saying that not only would I enjoy it, it would help me open up as an artist. And so ultimately I thought if this is going to help me sing better, why am I resisting? Something like Amfortas is not a long role, but it is very condensed, with a great deal of passion and some wonderfully lyrical lines. And the power of the music is palpable." He observes in his colleagues, some of whom have given 50-plus performances, "that they love to come to rehearsal, and they feel that the music is essentially part of their existence. They feel the uplift and are invigorated by it. And I'm sure that being united with the music is a constant that somehow helps them cope with the very disjointed life of the singer, which can be a lot about travel, separation from those you love and being a long way from home." Finley's first home was in Canada although he now lives in Sussex where he was born in 1960 and brought up in Ottawa. There were several musicians in his wider family and from the age of 10 he was singing treble in a renowned Anglican church choir. "Which showed how much I loved the music as it wasn't easy in Canada to be a choirboy whose voice hadn't broken when all your friends were playing ice hockey and football. I liked all those things too, but there just weren't enough hours in the day to fit with my commitment to the choir."

When his voice eventually did break, comparatively late at 16, he moved straight to the bass section and by the time he was 18 was deciding whether he should pursue a career in veterinary science or music. "I went for music, but even then, while I hoped my voice would take me into the musical world, I never thought it would be the prime element of my work. If anything, I wanted to be a choral conductor, and that was what I had in mind when I went to the UK." An audition for the Royal College of Music had been arranged via a relative who had been an organist at Westminster Abbey. But, on arrival in London, Finley was also invited to sing at King's College, Cambridge, where he spent the next three years which included performing alongside Janet Baker, who became an early supporter before returning to the Royal College where by all accounts he was a particularly assured student. "Well, I was connected to the professional choir scene because of King's. And back then that meant you could step in and be a deputy around the place and so could earn a living." He joined the chorus at Glyndebourne, which also meant becoming an understudy and Finley was given the chance to sing in an early rehearsal of Albert Herring because the principal was getting married. "And straight away you know people are thinking 'Finley, hmm ' Those little opportunities are very important and it makes me angry when I see young singers who don't know the music backwards when chances come along. A couple of times my own understudies haven't been prepared when really they should have been throwing me out of a job. And if you put in the work, things can turn out well." In his case he was soon singing around the world in both the core repertoire, especially Mozart, at the same time as taking on new work from Turnage The Silver Tassie , about a footballer injured in the first world war and then Anna Nicole as well as John Adams, for whom he originated the part of Oppenheimer in Dr Atomic. "I like it that we have stories from today that can be reflected or discussed or approached via contemporary music, voice and theatre. But you do attempt to look at any material as if it was the first night. You try to think of Wagner's notes as still being wet on the page, and you try to connect musically with people in a way that perhaps they haven't experienced before. The difference is that every now and again Mark Turnage would call out, 'Gerry, we're going to change that note', in a way that Wagner doesn't. So you see the composer adjusting, hopefully for the better, in response to what one is offering." He says that he will probably take on fewer new roles in the future as he seeks to manage his voice through potentially another two decades of singing. It was while he was at Glyndebourne in his late 20s that he had his first vocal crisis, when he realised he was over-reliant on choral techniques. He spent a year with a voice coach "putting together a voice that was founded on breath and muscle, which shattered my lieder singing completely but enabled me to do the Figaros and a lot of the other roles I sang in the first part of my career." He claims being a singer is less like being a dancer "who are always dancing through pain and injury" than a tennis player. "You can carry on, and make compensations, for a long time when the muscles are out of kilter. But eventually things will just not work any more." In his case a blood vessel broke on his vocal cord. "And that provided an opportunity to think about the fundamentals, something that doesn't often come for a singer in mid-career because you are usually so busy. Like a tennis player who's always wanted to get that serve just right, when recovering from injury you can work on the mechanics without the pressure of performing and earning a living." When he re-emerged, he found himself better able to return to one of his early musical inspirations. "I saw FischerDieskau sing when I was a student and was utterly captivated. For 10 years I wanted to be like him, but couldn't, and therefore tied myself in complete knots. After the vocal problems I realised that I have a love of both opera and of lieder but I only have one voice, so I have to sing it all the same way." Finley will release a CD of Schubert' s Winterreise recorded many times by Fischer-Dieskau in the new year to coincide with a residency at the Wigmore Hall with his regular accompanist Julius Drake, that will also take in work by Sibelius and Liszt. "My recital work is essential because it allows me to dwell on my own artistic interests. Julius is like a musical brother and he understands that I now have to supply new vocal resources for dealing with either big climaxes or Mahlerian suspensions. And I'm learning all the time how to use the equipment I have."

either big climaxes or Mahlerian suspensions. And I'm learning all the time how to use the equipment I have." Other immediate plans include a Covent Garden Marriage of Figaro, a Cunning Little Vixen in Vienna and his first full opera in Canada for 21 years for his debut as Falstaff. "Falstaff and Iago will be my Verdi roles over the next few years. As for other things, if there is a Scarpia out there somewhere I'd be happy to do that, too, and I am not doing any Wagner roles that would preclude Mozart. But the fundamental thing is to find out where my voice flourishes. And you can't deny that doing something like Amfortas helps with that. The revelation to me particularly in Meistersinger is that when I am singing it is usually with just parts of the orchestra, rarely the full sound. So the vocal delivery isn't about planting your feet and bawling it out, and that reassured me that Wagner was about making singing really valuable. And so now I feel I've joined the Wagner train and I have a valid ticket. It's a pretty long train, admittedly, but I'm comfortable on it and feel I can stay around. Amfortas and Hans Sachs will be roles that I sing for the rest of my life."

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Masters of Sex by Thomas Maier review

The TV adaptation is a hit, but who were the real Masters and Johnson? This biography uncovers the story of the couple whose unusual scientific researches they studied 14,000 orgasms kickstarted a sexual revolution
Christopher Turner The Guardian, Wednesday 27 November 2013 15.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

Lizzy Caplan and Michael Sheen as Virginia Johnson and William Masters in the TV adaptation of Masters of Sex. Photograph: Michael Desmond Photography/Showtime

In a laboratory in St Louis, William Masters and Virginia Johnson rigged up test subjects to electrocardiogram and respiratory monitors and asked them to masturbate. The apparatus was a sort of orgasmic polygraph that meticulously documented, as Thomas Maier puts it, "each pulse, breath, thrust and quiver". The scientists also observed

physiological changes in women through a motorised Plexiglas phallus, nicknamed Ulysses, inside which a camera was secreted. It was radical, controversial research for the mid-50s, undertaken with utmost discretion, though there never seemed to be a lack of willing subjects. Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love by Thomas Maier

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book Masters and Johnson went on to watch volunteers having sex through a one-way mirror. Wired up like lab monkeys, the couples seldom knew each other; their faces were veiled in paper bags or pillowcases, with holes cut out for the eyes until Masters's mother made more comfortable silk masks out of the same material as her son's bow ties. Johnson, wearing a white doctor's coat, would occasionally make a discreet entrance to take measurements of erogenous zones. While Masters was aloof and imperious, she was the encouraging, friendly hostess of the clinic. "She made people feel they were doing God's work," remembered one participant. When the fruits of this research, the bestselling Human Sexual Response, appeared in 1966, Masters and Johnson became instant celebrities. According to one commentator, they were "at least as unshakably fixed in people's minds as Procter & Gamble or Benson & Hedges". The 60s was "the decade of orgasmic preoccupation", as Masters put it, and their book captured the mood of this sexual revolution. Nevertheless, the minutely observed descriptions of sexual mechanics were purposefully couched in Latinate, medical language: "This maculopapular type of erythematous rash first appeared over the epigastrium " According to Masters, who admitted to having been deliberately "pedantic and obtuse", it was "the most purchased, least read book in history". Maier's gripping biography, first published in 2009, is essentially a biological romance. In 1971, the research duo got married and were held up as paragons of the virtue of a healthy marital sex life. Despite their celebrity, Johnson described the couple as "absolutely the two most secretive people on the face of the Earth". Maier, who interviewed both at length, keeps us within the cloistered, claustrophobic world of their sex research institute, and the book consequently has a concentrated energy. Only the briefest of sketches are made of the political changes taking place in the country outside. Masters of Sex has been reissued to coincide with the excellent TV adaptation of the same name, a medical Mad Men in which Johnson is played by Lizzy Caplan and Masters by Michael Sheen. His Don Draperish secrets are paternal abuse and a low sperm count. In 1954, Masters, a bald, greying 38-year-old obstetrician and fertility expert (who had set up one of the nation's first sperm banks), became absorbed in sex research. Appalled by Americans' lack of sexual knowledge, he dreamed of supplementing Alfred Kinsey's sociological statistics with physiological data. Kinsey had published the second of his famous reports a year earlier but, as only an associate professor, Masters still wasn't allowed to view a

famous reports a year earlier but, as only an associate professor, Masters still wasn't allowed to view a "pornographic" textbook about reproduction in the Washington University Library. Following Kinsey's lead, he began interviewing, examining and observing prostitutes in St Louis, Chicago and elsewhere. He probably looked through many of the same peepholes Kinsey had spied through a decade and a half before. He soon realised, however, that he needed data from a less skewed and contentious demographic, and he convinced the university to let him set up a secret sexology laboratory.

The real William Masters and Virginia Johnson in 1976. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

Two years later, Masters employed Johnson as a secretary, though she was soon elevated to the role of research associate. A former singer, she had been married three times and was a single mother of two children. She had only completed four years of college, and was not an MD, which was the cause of some criticism among colleagues, and of insecurity on her part. But she was able to put volunteers at ease with her non-judgmental, honeydew sincerity; skills the aloof Masters lacked. And she was committed to the work to which she and Masters devoted evenings, weekends and holidays. Kinsey had crisscrossed America to interview 18,000 people for his reports; together, in their laboratory, Masters and Johnson observed a staggering 14,000 orgasms. Drawing on observations of 382 women (and 312 men), they refuted Freud's theory of the vaginal orgasm, which the psychoanalyst supposed was more mature than the clitoral variety. Kinsey had already questioned this on the basis of his data, but Masters and Johnson definitively proved that the physiological response in the two was identical. They also pointed out the similarities between the cycle of men and women's responses during coitus, portrayed as a carefully choreographed harmony of increased blood flow, engorgement and muscular tension. Nevertheless, twothirds of the book concerned the mysteries of women's bodies: the ability to have multiple orgasms (enjoyed by one in six women, according to Kinsey) gave females a certain sexual superiority. Though critics accused Masters and Johnson of hedonism, of unhitching sex and love, the orgasm was now seen as a fundamental right. Titillated by the voyeurism, they slowly became absorbed in their own research. At Masters's suggestion, they began having sex themselves in the laboratory to test the best positions and techniques. Johnson was 35; her boss a decade older. Later, when asked if it might have constituted sexual harassment, Johnson replied: "It might have been, but I really hadn't thought of it that way back then He was a senior medical person." Their affair spread outside of the lab and was soon an open secret on campus. When Johnson got involved with someone else, it prompted Masters to leave his two children and wife of 29 years, and marry her. Maier asks whether it was a union based on love or convenience. To lose her would have jeopardised the research. Initially, the university had allowed Masters to fund his study by diverting fees earned in his fertility treatment work. When they ended this special privilege, Masters and Johnson left to set up the independent Reproductive Biology Research Foundation, later renamed the Masters and Johnson Institute. There they could raise money from fees charged to patients treated for sexual difficulties. (They also received a $300,000 grant from Hugh Hefner, an admirer whose daughter would later join the board of the institute.) Masters and Johnson claimed on unclear

evidence that half of married couples suffered sexual "dysfunction". To address this they pioneered a treatment that fused Kinsey and Freud, mixing questionnaires with sessions devoted to "sensate focus" a series of touching exercises to cure impotence, premature ejaculation and inorgasmia. Masters and Johnson appeared on the cover of Time in 1970, pegged to a second book, Human Sexual Inadequacy, 300,000 copies of which were sold in the first two months. They charged $2,500 for a two-week sex therapy course, a sum Masters pointed out was cheaper than a few years of psychoanalysis. (They charged even more for use of sexual surrogates, a service only available to unmarried men, though this was stopped when the angry husband of one surrogate sued the institute.) They claimed an 80% success rate and soon had a waiting list of many months, with numerous celebrity and politician clients. But it was never clearly articulated how success was determined, or by whom, and there was a marked self-selecting bias to their optimistic data. Despite being held up by liberationists as agents of sexual freedom, Masters and Johnson proved something of a disappointment to radicals. They tried to divorce sex from politics and were uninterested in how society shaped desire and vice versa. They were politically conservative and staunch defenders of the "marital unit", as they called it. Masters voted for Nixon in 1968, and was a church-going Episcopalian and registered Republican. Johnson was repeatedly asked to attend feminist rallies, but always refused. "I would never march with the ladies," she said. She feared emancipated women made men feel inadequate, the cause of much of the sexual dysfunction she saw. Later books claimed to be able to cure homosexuality in 70% of cases (60% of those who sought "conversion" were married), which alienated the gay liberation movement and spawned a myriad destructive treatment programmes, many sponsored by the church. To this end, in the mid-80s they began using surrogates again, even going so far as to persuade one to live with a paedophile for three months in the hope of correcting him. Another misjudged volume, Crisis: Heterosexual Behaviour in the Age of Aids, fuelled the hysteria surrounding the disease, which they claimed was more rampant than estimated, on the verge of an epidemic of biblical proportion, and could be spread by kissing, toilet seats and mosquitoes. In 1991, the 76-year-old Masters, by then suffering from Parkinson's, suddenly walked out on their 20-year union to marry his first love, a girl he had met on summer camp while a young medical student. Johnson was devastated but managed to put on a brave show of professional unity. However, by then the institute was already foundering. The waiting lists had dwindled and they struggled to pay staff. Looking for a successor, they employed theologians rather than physicians, one of whom was a Baptist minister married to Johnson's daughter, as if they now considered the sexual question a religious one. The many marriage counsellors Masters and Johnson had trained at the institute left to set up a plethora of competing, cheaper clinics. Strapped for cash, Masters, who died in 2001, considered a premium-rate sex helpline. Johnson, who died earlier this year, contemplated a series of advice tapes with titles such as "Couples and the Power of Intimacy" and "Intimacy for a Lifetime (It's Not Over 'Til It's Over)", but they failed to get off the ground. By then, sex had become a saleable product and the media was saturated with lessons on how to achieve better orgasms. Masters and Johnson had helped to create this new environment of apparent libidinous confidence, with which their own archaic sexual coaching methods now seemed hopelessly out of tune. Christopher Turner's Adventures in the Orgasmatron: The Invention of Sex is out in paperback from Fourth Estate.

Sign up for the Guardian Today

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

What did you think?

Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists Rate this book Review this book Add to your lists Buy this book

Pablo Neruda: A Passion for Life by Adam Feinstein review

A fascinating biography of the Chilean poet that paints him as exuberant and heroic
Ian Pindar The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 17.15 GMT Jump to comments ()

From love to politics poet Pablo Neruda. Photograph: Alamy

Pablo Neruda: A Passion for Life by Adam Feinstein

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book "The apolitical writer is a myth created and given impulse by modern-day capitalism," declared the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. In this fascinating biography Adam Feinstein shows how Neruda evolved from a bestselling love poet into a world-famous political poet speaking up for the exploited and downtrodden; his poem "Let Me Explain a Few Things", for instance, written in response to the Spanish civil war, renounces flowers and metaphysics for the repeated line "Come and see the blood in the streets." Feinstein's Neruda is exuberant, gregarious, generous and humane, even heroic (notably helping 2,000 refugees escape Franco's Spain in 1939 and achieving his own daring escape from Chile over the Andes in 1949), although not without faults (infidelity and an unwavering admiration for Stalin). He died of cancer in 1973, just days after General Pinochet's military coup and, as Feinstein explains in a new afterword, persistent rumours that Neruda was poisoned on Pinochet's orders led to his body being exhumed earlier this year. This month it was confirmed that no traces of poison were found.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Map of Days by Robert Hunter review

A bewitching graphic novel with alien landscapes and rich hues that speak of dreams and mystery
James Smart The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 16.54 GMT Jump to comments ()

Visions of the deep stuff of creation Map of Days

Map of Days by Robert Hunter

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book The small, London-based Nobrow Press produces lovingly made, rather individual graphic novels. They have a concise and fun illustrated Freud biography out this month, but this beautiful work is harder to categorise. It begins with a myth of origins: an account of nine celestial siblings who have shaped the universe. One, a face cocooned at the Earth's core, reaches out to the sun: his love for it shapes our world. A boy discovers a route to the face, and determines to help it but his efforts throw the planet out of kilter. Hunter's visions of the deep stuff of creation use a vivid palette that is bright but never jarring: tendrils snake through strata, orbs glow with primary light, and flowers and leaves reach up to the sun, while the woodcut-style panels move, with their own weird geometry, through an oldfashioned child's adventure. The story is engaging but slight, and the functional text rarely matches the lyricism of the artwork but, with its strange symbols, alien landscapes and rich hues that speak of dreams and mystery, Map of Days bewitches.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

What did you think?

Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists Rate this book Review this book Add to your lists Buy this book

Pietr the Latvian by Georges Simenon review

This reissued edition of the first Inspector Maigret novel captures perfectly the moral squalor of a seedy prewar Paris
Nicholas Lezard The Guardian, Tuesday 26 November 2013 07.30 GMT

The Guardian, Tuesday 26 November 2013 07.30 GMT Jump to comments ()

Rupert Davies in the 1964 TV series Maigret. Photograph: Rex Features

The idea of Inspector Maigret came to Georges Simenon one afternoon in a cafe after a few glasses of schnapps. As the day progressed, he added the character's various accessories: the pipe, the bowler hat, the thick overcoat, the cast-iron stove in his office. This represents an almost glacial speed of composition for Simenon; he tended to knock off his novels in around eight or nine days. Pietr the Latvian by Georges Simenon

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book This is the first Maigret novel, published in serial form in 1930 and here translated by David Bellos, and most of the elements are in place. As with all the Maigret novels, you feel the prose skims over events, as if it's somehow preoccupied with something else. You do not get to see inside Maigret; he seems most interested in his pipe. (To nod to Freud, sometimes a pipe is just a pipe, but you can't help reminding yourself of the word's vulgar connotation in French and, at the same time, Simenon's bonobo-like priapism.) Maigret is on the trail of the Latvian of the title, a highly superior conman, who has been spotted by various European police departments on a train due to arrive at the Gare du Nord from Bremen. But when the train pulls into the station, a corpse matching Pietr's description is found in one of the train's toilets with a bullet-hole in its chest. And yet, just a few hours later, Pietr the Latvian is seen in the five-star Hotel Majestic, perfectly dapper in a Savile

And yet, just a few hours later, Pietr the Latvian is seen in the five-star Hotel Majestic, perfectly dapper in a Savile Row suit. Hein? The satisfactions of most crime novels are principally atmospheric: the procedure is, most of the time, a detail. Maigret hardly does any detecting, really; he just has his hunches, perhaps because even rudimentary research into police procedure would have slowed Simenon down. The atmosphere of prewar Paris, though, was something he had soaked up thoroughly. Here we have a wonderfully seedy city, with sordid bars, hired killers who kill other hired killers, drugs (opium and heroin, mainly), and enormous amounts of rotgut alcohol. Everything occurs in a blue fug of tobacco smoke, except when the weather's too bad even for Maigret to light his pipe. The weather is typically rotten in Maigret novels. In Pietr the Latvian it is cold, wet and very windy pretty much all the way through. (In The Late Monsieur Gallet, which Penguin is to publish next month they are doing all 70odd Maigret novels the weather is too hot.) And if that's not enough for you, there's the whole air of moral squalor (apart, of course, from the upright and imperturbable Maigret). You will search in vain for a supporting character who isn't in some way disgusting excepting police officers, that is, although they are mainly ciphers. The curious thing about Simenon is that no one seems to mind the fact that the writing is terrible, bearing all the signs of hackery and haste. The dots ... the limited vocabulary ... the exclamation marks! Sentences such as: "It even took Maigret aback, and he had to clench his pipe harder between his teeth." Simenon can make Ian Fleming look like Nabokov. And yet he trails clouds of glory. The roster of names praising him on the flyleaf of this handsome edition include William Faulkner, Muriel Spark, AN Wilson, Andr Gide, Anita Brookner and PD James all this despite the knocked-off nature of the plot and the nasty but inconclusive whiff of antisemitism ("Every race has its own smell, and other races hate it," we learn as Maigret searches a sleazy hotel room in the Marais). I suppose it is a matter of honesty: the books are not trying to be anything other than themselves. Nevertheless, there hangs about them a suggestion of something dark and disturbing, profound almost, as if Simenon had, through a technique not very far from automatic writing, discovered something fundamental about the soul. Perhaps this is where the greatness of his books lies.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

What did you think?

Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists Rate this book Review this book Add to your lists Buy this book

Winter by Adam Gopnik review

In these chatty essays the New Yorker writer considers everything from firewood prices to ice hockey

In these chatty essays the New Yorker writer considers everything from firewood prices to ice hockey
Victoria Segal The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 16.22 GMT Jump to comments ()

Thing of beauty winter is no longer a menace thanks to proper heating. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

Winter: Five Windows on the Season by Adam Gopnik

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book It's fitting that Adam Gopnik's meditations on winter should have their origins in "five improvised living room lectures" delivered to friends and family and supported by "the cheer of wine and coffee". As the New Yorker writer argues, it was only with proper heating the book discusses firewood prices and the invention of radiators that winter can be appreciated as a thing of beauty rather than a marrow-chilling menace, and there is a chattiness to these essays that suggests he is talking to a fireside circle while nature glints and freezes outside. Gopnik covers a vast amount of ground from this safe space including his beloved ice hockey and the mysteries behind the modern Christmas. There are considerations of Wordsworth and former ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky, Joni Mitchell and Mary Shelley, why polar exploration lacked homoerotic heat ("There must have been a man who put the sex in sextant"), while skating's golden age was a flirtatious whirl. Climate change shadows Gopnik's favourite seasonal things, however, threatening winter's role in marking time and memory: fortunately, the book is there to record it all before the thaw.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Easy Go by Michael Crichton review

Originally published under the pseudonym John Lange, this tomb-robbing caper feels old-fashioned but still manages to thrill
James Smart The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 16.48 GMT Jump to comments ()

Tomb-robbing with more charisma and Nazis Indiana Jones. Photograph: Allstar

Easy Go (Hard Case Crime) by Michael Crichton writing as John Lange

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book In the late 1960s, Egyptologist Harold Barnaby finds evidence of an undiscovered tomb on a neglected papyrus scroll. Within a few clipped pages he has met journalist Robert Pierce, who scoots round glamorous old-world locations recruiting a knife-throwing hardman, a wise-cracking archeologist, a dissolute aristocrat and a wide-eyed beauty. Under the cover of a fake dig, they intend to ransack the tomb and sell its contents back to Egypt. Easy Go is one of eight thrillers Crichton wrote between 1966 and 72 as John Lange, now reiussed with lurid covers by Hard Case Crime. It has many of the features (greed, plans that go wrong, efficient and unimaginative writing) of his later work, although technology doesn't make much of an appearance. Indeed, with its talk of "muscular Negros" and wonder at the exoticism of places that can now be reached on a budget flight, Easy Go feels like a period piece. The Indiana Jones series has since done tomb-robbing with more charisma and Nazis, but there are moments, as when the tomb is opened with a real sense of unease and mystery, in which this old-fashioned caper feels thrilling.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

What did you think?

Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists Rate this book Review this book Add to your lists Buy this book

Margaret Atwood on the show-stopping Isak Dinesen

In 1934, Seven Gothic Tales took America by storm, starting one of the most essential writing careers of the 20th century. Margaret Atwood remembers meeting Isak Dinesen
Margaret Atwood The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 16.30 GMT Jump to comments ()

'Striking, turbaned and emaciated' Isak Dinesen. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

On the Danish 50-kroner banknote there's a portrait of Isak Dinesen. It's signed Karen Blixen, which is how she is known in Denmark. She's shown at the age of 60 or so, wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a fur collar, and looking very glamorous indeed. I first saw Dinesen when I was 10, in a photo shoot in Life magazine. My experience then was similar to that of Sara Stambaugh, one of her bio-critics: "I well remember my own excitement around 1950, when, leafing through a used copy of Life magazine, I stumbled across an article on the Danish Baroness Karen Blixen, her identity not simply revealed but celebrated in big, glossy black-and-white photographs. I still remember one in particular, showing her leaning dramatically from a window, striking, turbaned, and emaciated." To my young eyes, this person in the pictures was like a magical creature from a fairytale: an impossibly aged woman, a thousand years old at least. Her outfits were striking and the makeup of the era had been carefully applied, but the effect was carnivalesque like a dressed-up Mexican skeleton. Her expression, however, was bright-eyed and ironic: she seemed to be enjoying the show-stopping, if not grotesque, impression she was making. Could Dinesen have been contemplating such a moment in Seven Gothic Tales , 25 years earlier? In the story "The Supper at Elsinore", the De Coninck siblings are described as living memento mori: " as you got, from the face of the brother, the key of understanding to this particular type of family beauty, you would recognise it at once in the appearance of the sisters, even in the two youthful portraits on the wall. The most striking characteristic in the three heads was the generic resemblance to the skull." Dinesen was already ill at the time of the 1950 pictures. Nine years later she made a final triumphant visit to New York. She was lionised; famous writers paid homage to her, including EE Cummings and Arthur Miller; her public appearances were packed; and there were more photos. Less than three years later she was dead, as she must have known she would be. Her flamboyant self-presentation takes on, in retrospect, a new meaning: in her place, other doomed sufferers might have stayed in seclusion, concealing from the camera the wreckage of a once striking beauty, but instead Dinesen chose the full public spotlight. Was she incarnating one of her own dominant literary motifs the brave but futile gesture in the face of almost certain death? It's tempting to think so. New York was a fitting choice for her swan song, since it was New York that had made her famous back in 1934 when Seven Gothic Tales took America by storm. Rejected by several publishers for the usual reasons short stories didn't sell, the author was unknown, the stories themselves were odd and not attuned to the zeitgeist the book was finally picked up by a smaller American publisher, Harrison Smith & Robert Haas. There were conditions: the wellknown novelist Dorothy Canfield Fisher must write an introduction, and the author was to receive no advance. Blixen gambled and took the offer. Then she won for, much to the surprise of all, Seven Gothic Tales was chosen by the Book-of-the-Month Club, which was a guarantee of wide publicity and large sales. Now it was time for Blixen to make her own condition: she would publish under a nom de plume, Isak Dinesen. "Dinesen" was her maiden name, "Isak" was the Danish version of Isaac (which means "laughter"), the name picked by the elderly Sarah in the Book of Genesis for her late and unexpected child. Blixen's American publisher tried to talk her out of using a pseudonym, but to no avail: she was determined to be multiple. (And, by the way, male, or at least genderless. Perhaps she did not wish to be thrust into the Lady Scribbler cage, suggestive of lesser merit.) "Isak" was appropriate: Blixen's emergence as a writer was indeed late and unexpected. She had returned to Denmark in 1931, stony broke her marriage was finished; her African coffee farm had failed; her romantic lover, big-game hunter Denys Finch Hatton, had died in a plane crash. Although she had written much earlier her first stories were published when she was barely 20 she'd chosen marriage and Africa over writing; but that life was now finished. At 46, she must have been feeling both desolate and desperate; but also, evidently, boiling with

now finished. At 46, she must have been feeling both desolate and desperate; but also, evidently, boiling with creative energy. The stories in Seven Gothic Tales were written at speed and under pressure. They were also written in English: one reason usually given was that Blixen felt English would be more practical than Danish, since many more potential readers spoke it. But there were surely some deeper motives. She herself was fluent in English; so what, we might ask, could she have been reading in English during her formative years? What, that is, might have led her to write "tales" rather than "stories"? Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales ? Old wives' tales? Fairy tales? The Winter's Tale , the Shakespeare play that lent its name to a later Dinesen collection? The distinction between the two forms was well understood in Victorian times. The French distinguish between contes from raconter, to relate, often intertwined with the notion of yarn-spinning, as in raconter des salades corresponding roughly to our "tales"; and nouvelles, which are stories with their feet firmly on realistic ground. In a "tale", a woman may change into a monkey before our very eyes, as one does in the Dinesen tale, "The Monkey"; in a mainstream short story, she cannot. "Tales" have tellers and listeners within them, much more frequently than realistic stories do. The most famous talespinner of all is Scheherazade, narrating to stave off death, and that is the very first storytelling situation Dinesen offers us. In "The Deluge at Norderney", a courageous group of aristocrats who have chosen to exchange places with a small peasant family waits out the night while a flood rises around them, telling stories to encourage one another and pass the time. Perhaps a boat will arrive at dawn to rescue them; perhaps they will be swept away first. Dinesen ends her story thus: "Between the boards a strip of fresh deep blue was showing, against which the little lamp seemed to make a red stain. The dawn was breaking. The old woman slowly drew her fingers out of the man's hand, and placed one upon her lips. ' ce moment de sa narration,' she said, 'Scheherazade vit paratre le matin, et, discrte, se tut.'" Seven Gothic Tales is filled with storytellers, and also with the kind of fractal exfoliation and multichambering structures so abundantly typical of more ancient tales, such as those in One Thousand and One Nights and Boccaccio's Decameron. There is a "frame" a couple of men on a boat, for instance, whiling away the time by telling about their lives, as in "The Dreamers"; then one of those stories leads into another, told by yet another person within it, which opens up into another, which then links back to the first, and so on. As with Scheherazade, much of this tale-telling (and indeed much of the action in the tales recounted) takes place at night. But Seven Gothic Tales also echoed a more recent period in which writers drew on these older-time forms of taletelling. Blixen was born in 1885, three years after Robert Louis Stevenson published his first collection, New Arabian Nights. That moment ushered in a rich period of late Victorian and Edwardian tale-telling, in both short and long forms, that stretched to the outbreak of the first world war. Not only Stevenson, but Arthur Conan Doyle, MR James, the Henry James of The Turn of the Screw and "The Jolly Corner," the Oscar Wilde of The Picture of Dorian Gray, the early HG Wells of The Time Machine and The Island of Doctor Moreau, Bram Stoker of Dracula, the H Rider Haggard of She, the George du Maurier of Trilby, and a host of other English-language tale-spinners engaged with ghosts and possession and the uncanny were energetically publishing in those years. (Borges, Calvino and Ray Bradbury, among others, drank from the same well.) Stevenson was possibly the most important of these for her. She kept a collected edition of his work in her library,

and alludes to him overtly in the story "The Dreamers" by naming one of her characters, Olalla, after one of his. That particular story plays with many other motifs from the tale-telling tradition, not all of them English: the heroine of multiple identities, as in The Tales of Hoffman ; the dark enchanter, a mirror reversal of the Svengali figure in Trilby, linked with an opera singer who has lost her voice. Two motifs from Stevenson's early work are particularly dominant throughout Seven Gothic Tales : the courageous act or last throw of the dice in the face of impending doom, as in (to give only one instance) Stevenson's "The Pavilion on the Links"; and the controlling older person manipulating the sexual destinies of the young, as in his "The Sire de Maletroit's Door". In the Stevenson stories all turns out well, but in Dinesen's various things do not go so smoothly. In "The Poet", the old arranger gets shot and bashed to death by the two young innamorati with whose fates he has been toying, and who will now face execution themselves; in "The Monkey", a marriage designed to cloak homosexuality is forced, not only by rape, but by a horrifying metempsychosis; in "The Roads Round Pisa", the old arranger is deceived into fighting an unnecessary duel, then dies of a heart attack from the stress. In "The Deluge at Norderney", the marriage stuck together by the elderly Baroness is not only invalid the officiating Cardinal being in fact another person entirely but all the participants may soon perish. Dinesen affirms the Romantic through her insistence on the spiritual validity of honour, but she also subverts it. Not so fast with the happy endings, she seems to be telling us. As with the stories in New Arabian Nights, and indeed as with modern "Romantic" conventions, many of Dinesen's tales are placed long ago and far away; but whereas with Stevenson the choice was primarily aesthetic, for Dinesen there is another layer of significance. She was gazing back at that late Victorian and Edwardian golden age of taletelling across a vast gulf: not only the years during which her own earlier life had ended up as wreckage, but also the first world war, which had smashed the social fabric of belief, status and social convention that had held sway in the two centuries before it. Dinesen can see that vanished country as if through a telescope: she describes it in minute and loving detail, even the more unpleasant sides of it the provincialism; the snobbery; the inturned, stifled lives but she can't return to it except through storytelling. It's lost to all but words. There's a vein of stoic, clear-eyed nostalgia running through her work, and, despite the ironic distance she often assumes, the elegiac tone is never far away. Nevertheless, what pleasure she must have felt in the process; and what pleasure she has provided for her many readers, over time. Seven Gothic Tales is the opening act of a remarkable writing career, one that placed Dinesen on the list of essential 20th-century authors. As James Joyce invokes Daedalus the maze-maker at the end of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man "Old father, old artificer" so many readers and writers might invoke Dinesen: "Old mother, old tale-spinner, stand me now and ever in good stead." And from those Life magazine photographs, her enigmatic, ornamented skeleton self with the living eyes gallantly returns our gaze. The Folio Society edition of Seven Gothic Tales, with an introduction by Margaret Atwood, is out now.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Travel: Travel features

Rio de Janeiro: walking the world's megacities John Grant on Reykjavik A day in Kreuzberg, Berlin Highland hideaways: 10 of the best Scottish escapes The Hardwick, Abergavenny, Wales: hotel review Cuba's hidden treasure: La Isla de la Juventud

Rio de Janeiro: walking the world's megacities

As all eyes turn to Brazil ahead of next week's World Cup draw, Gavin McOwan walks the streets, beaches and mountains of Rio de Janeiro and meets a football legend along the way
Gavin McOwan The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 21.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

Jairzinho celebrating his historic goal in the 1970 World Cup final, and with the writer, who bumped into him in a bar in Copacabana. Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty Images

I'd spent all day walking in the heat and humidity of Rio, and my first beer didn't touch the sides. I was about to dispatch my second when a greying, pot-bellied man appeared next to me at the bar. I froze. He no longer looked anything like the powerful Brazilian striker who had torn defences to shreds in the 1970 World Cup, one of the stars of the greatest football team of all time. But there was little doubt who he was. "Is that Jairzinho?" I mouthed to the barman. He nodded with a smile. A member of the glorious, beautiful team that lit up the World Cup like none since, Jairzinho was its unstoppable goal machine the "Hurricane", the only player in history to score in every round of the tournament, a feat not even Pel, his teammate, got close to. And there he was no longer looking much like a hurricane but standing next to me at the bar. Starstruck, I blurted out the first thing that came into my head: "Hi! You're a legend!"

out the first thing that came into my head: "Hi! You're a legend!" "Yeah, I know that," he replied, as if it was the most obvious thing he'd heard all day. I composed myself enough to offer him a beer (he had one, but paid for his own) and ask him about the football coaching programmes he runs in the city's favelas, but inside I was aglow. (If you're not a football fan, this was like having a chat with Jean-Paul Sartre over a pastis in a Parisian cafe.) I was looking forward to many things on my four-day walk across Rio de Janeiro. Thanks to its unique topography and gobsmacking natural beauty, it offers a city walk like nowhere else on earth, taking in a lake, mountains, two of the world's most famous beaches and some of Brazil's last remaining virgin Atlantic rainforest, not to mention colonial villages and the biggest favela in Latin America all within the city limits. But I'd never dreamed of sharing a beer with a living legend in a scruffy little bar in the arse end of Copacabana. I'd begun my walk eight hours earlier in the spot where Brazil itself had started, or at least came of age and shook off its colonial past. In 1889, at the Imperial Palace in Praa XV, the heart of old Rio, a group of army officers delivered a letter to Dom Pedro II, the Emperor of Brazil descended from Portuguese royalty, with words to the effect: "You know what, mate, I think we can manage our own country on our own from now on. Pack your bags and head back to Europe." Some of Rio's most impressive architecture can still be found in and around Praa XV, but it has been throttled by modernity, its colonial charm obliterated by a concrete flyover, now black and decrepit, built directly over the top of it. In the morning rush hour, I got off a bus in a tunnel underneath the square with dozens of commuters, and within seconds was engulfed by thousands more pouring off the ferries from Niteroi, the satellite city across Guanabara Bay, as planes coming in to land at the domestic airport nearby grazed the tops of the boats in the harbour. The only person I saw not rushing to work was a homeless man standing next to a old disused fountain in the middle of the square. When I asked him about the fountain's history, he said: "It's never worked; it's just for tourists to come and take pictures." But there were no tourists around and the palace was yet to open, so instead I ducked under an arch, Arco do Teles, to a narrow cobblestone street, where, as a child, Carmen Miranda lived at number 13. If I were true to the spirit of this series of megacity walks which has included Mexico City, Shanghai and Tokyo I should have headed north from here, through the endless gritty suburbs and poor favelas that are homes to millions in the urbanised and industrial stretch of Rio. (Actually, scratch that. If I were true to this series, I wouldn't be here at all; I'd be 270 miles away in So Paulo, South America's largest, most dynamic city twice the size of Rio, but not nearly half as much fun.) Which is why I headed south, through old Rio, towards the natural playgrounds of Copacabana and Ipanema, Po de Aucar, Corcovado, Cristo and other places that slip off the tongue like a silky bossa nova melody. I had to battle through the morning commuters, but one boy, asleep on the pavement outside a bank, was completely oblivious as passers-by stepped over him. "Is he dead?" one guy asked. A hefty nudge from the bank's security guard reassured him he wasn't. The air was already thick with the meaty, garlicky whiff of simmering feijo (black beans), the staple that would feed the army of office workers at lunchtime. And by 10am, it was soupy with humidity, too, so I headed for the cool and calm of the Metropolitan Cathedral. From the outside, it looks like an enormous upturned concrete bucket, an example of graceless 70s architecture. But this just made the spectacular interior, of stained-glass windows ascending to the heavens, all the more breathtaking. An effect as awe-inspiring as the grand medieval cathedrals of Europe. Slipping out through the back door, I felt as though I'd walked into in a different city. The office workers had

vanished, and the empty, ramshackle streets of Lapa, Rio's bohemian quarter, were still asleep in the late morning.

Gavin on the Escaderia Selarn

Lapa has been the home of Brazilian artists for two centuries, but no one has contributed more to the area than Chilean-born Jorge Selarn, whose one-man project, the Escadaria Selarn, a flight of 215 mosaic steps, has become a focal point of the neighbourhood. The artist covered every inch of the steps in front of his house in tiles, ceramics and mirrors originally in the green, yellow, blue and white of the Brazilian flag, later adding tiles in other colours brought by visitors. At the top of the steps, I turned left and headed to Santa Teresa, a sleepy hillside village of cobblestone streets, colonial houses and artists' studios that feels cut off from the rest of the city. This was the first of several occasions on the walk when I didn't feel I was in a big city at all. Heading back down the hill, I got my first "wow" moment as I gazed at Botafogo beach on the edge of Guanabara Bay, with Sugarloaf mountain beyond, like a granite spaceship ready for lift-off. This is where the Portuguese fleet arrived on 1 January 1502, hence Rio de Janeiro, (January River) they mistook the huge bay for a river delta. Even laced with roads and buildings, it's a jaw-dropping vista, but I tried to picture what it looked like 500 years ago, the mountains swathed in emerald forest, the beaches ringing to nothing but the sounds of the jungle. It must have been like sailing into Eden. Five minutes later, all notions of tropical paradise vanished as I was confronted by a mash-up of flyovers, tunnels, deafening traffic and pollution a natural bottleneck resulting from the granite morros that shoot into the sky all over Rio. There's no easy way to walk from Botafogo to Zona Sul, the area of Rio with all the famous bits. Until the early 20th century, Rio ended here; Copacabana was an isolated Atlantic fishing village. But once the Tnel Engenheiro Coelho Cintra opened in 1906, the Brazilian middle class started moving south, followed by the rich and famous, who turned the Copacabana Palace into one of the world's most glamorous hotels. I took the narrow footpath through the six-lane tunnel and saw Copacabana beach beckoning at the other end, but I opted for that cooling beer with Jairzinho rather than a swim. I made my way to the beach afterwards, exhausted but ecstatic, my head full of beer and Brazilian football, and practically danced the two miles back to my hotel, cooling my sore feet in the crashing waves.

Copacabanas famous wave mosaic motif on the mosa 'Portuguese' pavement. Photograph: Jeremy Walker/Getty Images

Copacabana's star has long since faded; it is now one of the most densely populated neighbourhoods in the world, tightly packed high-rise blocks squeezed between the mountains and the sea, beer-bellied blokes drinking their pensions away and women with small dogs and bad facelifts. Yet the 4km arc of beach still has an irresistible shimmer, a crescent of white sand 100m deep from the water's edge to the famous wave motif on the black-and-white mosaic pavement. And it's still where Brazil shows off to the world. When Usain Bolt ran an exhibition race earlier this year, when the Rolling Stones played a free gig, and the new Pope addressed the city, they did it on this beach in front of millions. My hotel, the Sofitel, was at the far, western end of Copacabana, in front of the neighbourhood's tiny fishing community, a vestige of when this was an isolated hamlet rather than the most famous beach in the world. The next morning, I walked round the corner to the city's second most famous beach, Ipanema, which was grey and moody, the pointed peaks of the Dois Irmos mountains looming over the far end of the beach, shrouded in heavy cloud. (I went back with friends a few days later, when the sun was out, and Rio was at its sultry best. Hundreds of people were meditating legs crossed, eyes closed on the rocks at Arpoador, at the eastern end of the beach. On the pavement nearby, a busker was playing the saxophone, his hat containing a not inconsiderable amount of cash. This might sound like an everyday scene for a hip city beach, but when I lived in Brazil 20 years ago, people in Rio seemed almost scared to blink lest their bags were snatched from their hands; and the busker's hat would have been nicked by hoodlums, along with his sax. It's still not the safest city in the world I was warned to stay away from Copacabana and Santa Teresa at night but, boosted by the booming economy and double feelgood factor of hosting the World Cup Finals and the Olympics Rio feels a far happier, more confident place. Admittedly, I was there before this summer's riots, but I would argue that the demonstrations were a positive sign of a population confident enough to express its frustration.)

The hillside colonial 'village' of Santa Teresa. Photograph: Luiz Grillo/Getty Images/Flickr RF

But I still had half the city to walk, so I tore myself away from watching locals playing the incredibly skilful hybrid of footvollei on Ipanema, and headed down Rua Vinicius de Moraes, named after the lyricist and bossa nova composer. On the left is Garota de Ipanema (the Girl from Ipanema), the bar where de Moraes wrote the classic song with Tom Jobim in 1962. Despite changing its name (it used to be called Bar Veloso) and being just one block back from the beach, the bar still attracts locals as well as visitors, and does a great steak (go for the picanha, rump cap: it's the most expensive thing on the menu around 25 but will serve two or three people). Down the end of the street is the Lagoa, simply "the Lake", which will host the rowing in the 2016 Olympics. It seems unfair for a city with so many fantastic beaches to be blessed with a beautiful lake too, especially one ringed with imposing black mountains. From the tallest, the 710m Corcovado, straight ahead of me the statue of Christ the Redeemer surveyed the city. After a mile, I turned west through the pleasant but uneventful middle-class suburbs of Leblon and Gvea. It was a quiet, easy day's stroll which I cut short to plan the most challenging section of this walk, through Rocinha, one of the biggest favelas in Latin America. Many of the city's favelas have been "pacified" in recent years and small companies have sprung up offering tours. But when I rang a couple to ask if they had a guide for for a whole day, to take me up the long and winding road through Rocinha, they reacted as if I was slightly mad. So I asked for help at the community centre on the main road at the bottom of the favela. There Dilmar Borges called her grandson Rogrio, who came to meet me and agreed to be my guide the following day. So, on day three, I started at sea level and walked back up to where I'd stopped the day before. "A favela is like a mountain: you need to climb it from the bottom," said Rogrio. At the more desirable bottom of the favela, a two-bedroom house can go for R$80,000 (around 22,000). At first it felt like any other working-class Brazilian street, full of nail bars and mobile phone shops, banks and restaurants.

In Rocinha with guide for the day Rogrio (in the blue glasses) and some of his friends. The favela is home to between 200,000 and 400,000 people. Photograph: Nadia Nightingale; Stuart Dee/Getty Images

But as soon as we hit the dank alleyways off the main drag, the place felt Dickensian. Every thoroughfare was overhung with a black plastic spaghetti of hundreds of internet, telephone and electricity cables. This is how at least 12 million Brazilians live, most in far poorer favelas than Rocinha. It felt otherworldly, but also welcoming and completely safe. This was partly thanks to Rogrio, who seemed to know everyone we met on the long, slow climb to the top of the favela. Young children he knew came to say hello and insisted on having their pictures taken with us. Two policemen armed with huge machine guns also said hello, but declined the photo opportunity. The only time I felt in danger was when I was stung by a bee. "See, I told you favelas can be dangerous," smiled Rogrio. He proudly showed me the new, sadly underused, ecological park, and a pristine clay tennis court funded, with little fanfare, by Novak Djokovic. At the top of the morro, we had a drink at Laje Carlinhos (terracetourist.com), a bar on the roof of a small house, with a sweeping view of the whole favela a mountain dotted with tens of thousands of tiny houses made of cheap red bricks. Beyond lay the Atlantic, to the right was Pedra da Gvea, the imposing mountain I was planning to climb the following day. Up a floor, from another improvised rooftop, we looked in the opposite direction to where the Tijuca rainforest climbs up the hillside in a carpet of dark velvety green. From here, the Cristo who had watched over my entire walk looks down over the city. These views are just as exhilarating as those from the top of Sugarloaf and Corcovado, but free and more rewarding given the long slog it took to get here. And, instead of swarms of tourists, the only other person here was the friendly bar owner Senhor Carlinhos, on hand to point out the sights and crack open another cold beer. I said farewell to Rogrio at the summit of Rocinha, and in less than five minutes I was walking back down through Alto Gvea, Rio's most salubrious suburb. Within touching distance of the favela is the Escola Americana, the most expensive school in town, landscaped into the hillside. Standing on top of a favela full of people living in poverty looking down on a school that charges day fees of over 2,000 a month, it felt like a mad world, but my God, what a beautiful one. On the final day of my walk, I climbed another mountain, but unlike Rocinha, where every crevasse is crammed with humanity, the 844m Pedra da Gvea, two miles to the west, is stark, empty and covered in some of Brazil's last remaining Atlantic rainforest, inside the Tijuca national park. I was accompanied by Rob, a Scottish friend who has lived in Rio for nearly 20 years. He says misses the Highlands but I reckon having mountains like this on your doorstep which you can climb in the morning and then be back down on the beach in the afternoon is ample compensation.

End of the road on top of Pedra da Gvea, looking back over Rio. Photograph: Paul Edmondson/Getty Images

There are dozens of hiking trails in Rio but only in recent years, as a result of greater affluence and expanding horizons, have locals really started taking advantage of them. The ranger at the start of the trail told us, with some pride, that 200 people had come through already that day. Perhaps because it's so close to the city, many were woefully unprepared for the hike, wearing cheap trainers and even flip-flops. The near-vertical rock faces were far more challening than I was expecting and though it pains me to say it I wouldn't have made it to the top without Rob there to chivvy me along. Luckily the mountain was covered in mist for much of the assent, protecting us from the sun. But as we reached the summit the clouds lifted, revealing the city below bathed in sunlight. To the west was the modern suburb of Barra da Tijuca, Rio's future, full of shopping malls and Florida-style condos and home to many of the venues for the 2016 Olympics fringed with sand and sparkling blue sea. To the east, I looked back to the city I'd spent the last four days walking across: the white apartment blocks and favelas seemed tiny and insignificant next to the vast sweep of Copacabana, the ocean and the towering mountains swathed in tropical rainforest. There might be a megacity of 13 million people down there but, from up here at least, it seems that man, despite his best efforts, has barely made a dent on this incredible landscape. The trip was provided by British Airways Holidays (0844 493 0787, ba.com), which offers direct flights from Heathrow and five nights at Sofitel Rio de Janeiro on Copacabana from 1,449, or seven nights from 1,739

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

John Grant on Reykjavik

The American singer-songwriter, 45, on his adopted home's best restaurants, coffee and hostel and why you should think twice before taking a northern lights tour
Robert Hull The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 23.54 GMT

John Grant in Iceland

I first went to Reykjavik for the Airwaves music festival (icelandairwaves.is) in 2011. I went back a couple of months later to record my second album, Pale Green Ghosts. After that I decided I just didn't want to leave. Reykjavik has a mixture of southern and northern mentality. There's a laid-back, relaxed attitude, but also the feeling things are going to get done. There is a lot going on in the city but you can find your own space. I love the fact that there are small shops to explore and cosy cafes to relax in. The first thing I would do is head to Mokka (mokka.is) for a coffee. It's the place that is on the cover of Pale Green Ghosts. As soon as you open the door you can smell them making waffles. Mokka opened in 1958 and is the oldest coffee shop in Reykjavik and it hasn't changed. A lot of locals, and artists, hang out there. It's a great place to start and get a feel for the city. Most people consider a great view to be from up high. If that's you, the best place is the top of the Hallgrmskirkja, the Lutheran church that stands at the top of Sklavr#ustgur. One of my favourite views is from backstage at the Harpa concert hall (harpa.is). You look out over Faxafli Bay, and to the north you can see Mount Esja. When it's low tide I also like to walk over to the Grotta lighthouse on the Seltjarnarnes peninsula: it's serene and peaceful. The Kex Hostel Reykjavik (kexhostel.is) will change your mind about what a hostel can be. It is housed in a former biscuit factory in the 101 area and is decorated with salvaged materials. It has a cool, old-style gym and hosts live music nights. I eat out a lot, so my top three Reykjavik restaurants, in order, are: Bergsson (bergsson.is), the place I go to the most. It's owned by Prir Bergsson. He does a spinach lasagne that I've sometimes had four times in a week. He also makes incredible soups try the parsnip or the sweet potato soup. The Grillmarka#urinn, or grill market (grillmarkadurinn.is), has a spiral staircase that leads downstairs; it's quite beautiful and makes me feel like I'm in the middle of New York City. It's great for fish and is where I head if I want to go all out to impress somebody. The fish is also amazing at Snaps bistro (snaps.is) in the Hotel Odinsve. It also does a wonderful chicken caesar salad. That might sound boring because we've all had a chicken caesar but this is special, the chicken is succulent. Try a carrot cake break . You can find it all over the place but I won't eat it anywhere but from Gar#urinn (Klapparstgur 37), a vegetarian cafe off Laugavegur in the middle of town. You'll be in heaven when you visit the antique store Fr#a Frnka (Vesturgata 3, +354 551 4730). I hear it's not going to be there forever, so don't miss out. When I want to escape I drive to Vik . It only takes two hours and you'll find gorgeous black sand beaches and an incredibly beautiful church on a hill there is usually mist surrounding it. On the way to Vik is the Skgasafn, or Skgar museum (skogasafn.is), which shows you how Icelandic people used to live. If you're lucky, the founder Pr#ur Tmasson, an elderly gentleman with a shock of white hair, may even show you around himself. Icelanders love to speak English. Their English is a joy to hear because of how colloquial and idiomatic it is, but they appreciate your efforts with Icelandic. They know how hard it is for outsiders. I'd think carefully about taking whale watching or northern lights tours. I'm not saying steer clear but Icelanders have ways of figuring out if it is likely you'll see either, but you need to decide for yourself whether you're willing to take the chance. There are no guarantees. John Grant's Pale Green Ghosts is out now. He tours Australia in January and will be in the UK in March

John Grant's Pale Green Ghosts is out now. He tours Australia in January and will be in the UK in March Interview by Robert Hull

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

A day in Kreuzberg, Berlin

Join Berlin's artsy types for brunch, then check out the galleries, parks and nightlife in creative Kreuzberg with insider tips from a local
Jean Edelstein The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 21.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

Kreuzburger burger restaurant, Berlin. Photograph: Alamy

Few neighbourhoods illustrate Berlin's transformation with such vividness as Kreuzberg. Once enclosed on three sides by the Berlin Wall, this former West Berlin neighbourhood, immediately south of the river Spree, drew immigrants, hippies, artists and squatters while the city was divided. It feels more gentrified and upscale these days but still has a revolutionary streak, and is now the hub of Germany's digital currency boom, with the world's highest density of businesses accepting Bitcoin. If you come, rent a bike: it's by far the best way to get around. 11am If Berlin were a country, brunch would be its national sport. Allow a couple of hours to really get into the languid approach taken by locals. "Holy shit, I hit jackpot!" a new-in-town Turkish friend texted me. He had just discovered the fragrant sesamestudded simit rolls and searing pans of menemen (scrambled egg with peppers and tomatoes) at down-to-earth La Femme 1, a stalwart of Kreuzberg's Turkish community, which is among the world's largest outside of Turkey itself. Or try Nest 2, on the edge of Grlitzer Park, which describes its cuisine as German-Mediterranean: traditional breakfasts cured meats, scrambled eggs and jams, all scooped up on dark bread and chewy, seeded rolls are

breakfasts cured meats, scrambled eggs and jams, all scooped up on dark bread and chewy, seeded rolls are served to a young crowd at communal tables in deliberately stripped-down surroundings. There's always Birchermuesli if you're feeling noble. In fine weather, go for a quick post-brunch constitutional in the park: it's charming in its scruffiness and one of the best places to kick back in the sun with a bottle of beer or a Club-Mate iced mat tea that is the Berlin hipster's fizzy drink of choice.

Brunch at La Femme

1pm On the south-west border of Kreuzberg, is the vast Tempelhofer Freiheit 3, park. Berlin is good at urban renewal and the repurposing of the old Tempelhof Airfield, which closed in 2008, may be the best example, with plenty of space to barbecue, picnic, create and play. You can trade in your bike for a little electric scooter from the stand near to the train station, and enjoy the tailwind as you zoom up the old runway (Segways are also an option, but you can't rent one without booking in a training ride beforehand). Rainy day? No problem: take a tour of the disused airport terminal: it's fascinating both from an architectural perspective and as a snapshot of Berlin history. Decades of change are evident throughout the building, from the burnt-out secret bunker where the Nazis stored celluloid film, to a ticket hall branded with now-defunct airlines and the top-floor gymnasium where American GIs spent their free time until the fall of the wall, playing basketball and taking each other on at 10-pin bowling.

Tempelhof Freiheit, Berlin Photograph: Alamy

2:30pm Following the fall of the wall in 1989, dozens of artists crossed over to the east and used the blank concrete as a canvas. Together, the images they created form a stunning memorial to freedom. The East Side Gallery 4, is still standing in spite of pressure from property developers, with 100 paintings on display. And though many of them are

faded and have been damaged with grafitti, the Gallery remains an essential snapshot of the elation and anxieties of the reunification era unlike any other spot in the city.

East Side Gallery, Berlin. Photograph: Alamy

3.30pm Berlin takes its coffee seriously, and there are plenty of contenders for the crown of the city's best cup. Five Elephant 5, may be Kreuzberg's strongest example. Away from the main tourist drags, it is a tucked-away neighbourhood roastery, offering a wide selection of coffees accompanied by freshly baked cakes. A bag or two of their special beans make a perfect souvenir. 5pm Visit the Aufbau Haus 6, at Moritzplatz: it's a former factory reimagined and reopened in 2011 as a centre for culture. The building houses creative businesses, artists' workshops, galleries, cafes and more. On any given Saturday you can see exhibitions and performances, shop in the excellent bookstore or graze in the complex's foodie haven, Coledampf's & Companie . 8pm If it's chilly, book ahead for a cosy Breton-style evening of crepes, galettes and cider at Manouche 7. Summer evenings are better spent over burgers oozing cheese and other toppings at Kreuzburger 8, which has good choices for vegetarians, too. Or head to Hasir, a Kreuzberg institution, for a sumptuous spread of Mediterranean-style grilled meats, fish and small meze plates. There are two branches on Adalbertstrasse: go to Hasir Ocakbasi 9, at number 12 and you can watch your meal being prepared on the vast open grill.

Ottorink, Berlin

11pm Stroll to buzzy Dresdenerstrasse, a side street whose bars and restaurants often spill out on to the pavement. Wuergeengel 10, serves ginger gimlets to a sophisticated but totally unstuffy pre-club crowd, or sit at the bar at

Ottorink 11, where a kind sommelier will teach you everything you've ever wanted to know about weisswein from German vineyards. If you feel like kicking up your heels, Das Hotel 12, is a cocktail bar that evolves into a dancefloor as the night wears on, with DJs spinning a mix of indie, soul, electro and a bit of house this is Berlin, after all. There's a proper club downstairs if you want to pick it up a notch.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Highland hideaways: 10 of the best Scottish escapes

From a snug log cabin to a converted castle, here are 10 new places to stay for a wintry break in Scotland's Highlands
Lucy Gilmore The Guardian, Thursday 28 November 2013 12.19 GMT Jump to comments ()

Eagle Brae log cabin. Photograph: Tim Winterburn

Moody, mist-shrouded mountains, snow-caked moorland, rushing burns and steely grey lochs: the Scottish Highlands can be forbidding in winter. They can also be magical, a Narnia-style wonderland enchanting to explore on foot, skis or snowshoes, and peppered with a clutch of new boltholes, gourmet hotels and log cabins, where you can defrost in front of a roaring fire with a warming dram.

Inn at John O'Groats, Caithness

The Inn at John O'Groats has undergone a complete reinvention.

Take a washed-up hotel on the far-flung north coast, strip it bare and add a rainbow-hued clapboard Nordic extension. What Natural Retreats has created with its multimillion-pound regeneration of this once-tacky tourist site and dilapidated, if iconic, hotel is more reinvention than revamp. The almost Disney-esque architectural creation now houses apartments with one, two or four bedrooms. Using local materials from Scottish larch to Caithness stone, the design features retro-style interiors with a Scandinavian vibe and a playful element. Along with antler chandeliers and funky copper bathtubs, you'll find light fixtures created out of lobster pots and rope. As storms lash the coastline, snuggle up and watch the waves churn. 0844 3843166, naturalretreats.com. From 348 a week (one bedroom) or 192 for a three-night weekend break

Eagle Brae, near Glen Affric

Eagle Brae has log cabins within an 8,000-acre Highland estate. Photograph: Tim Winterburn

Let's be clear, if your wooden holiday home is made from flat planks not whole trunks, it's a chalet, not a cabin. Eagle Brae, however, which opened at the end of the summer, is the real thing. The scattering of seven one- and twobedroom log cabins on an 8,000-acre Highland estate have been hand-built with giant trunks of red cedar from British Columbia, using only chainsaws and chisels for that proper, rounded rusticity. Green wildflower roofs, a micro-hydro scheme and biomass wood-pellet burners for underfloor heating tick the sustainability box. Inside, the look is chunkily rustic: logburner, sturdy wooden beds, tartan throws and hand-carved panels of highland beasts and Celtic knotwork. It's the real Davy Crockett deal. 07738 076711, eaglebrae.co.uk. Cabins from 867 a week (sleeps two) and 1,075 (sleeps four)

Fonab Castle, Pitlochry

Fonab Castle was a hospital during the first world war and is now a luxury hotel. Photograph: Tristan Poyser

All turrets and sweeping views, this Scottish baronial retreat in warm sandstone was built for the Sandeman sherry and port dynasty in 1892. It was a Red Cross hospital during the first world war, and opened as a luxury hotel think parquet floors, wood-panelling and the odd splash of tartan this summer. There are 26 rooms, 13 in the original building (some with alcove turrets in which to curl up and gaze at the view) and 13 in a contemporary wing, with decking and direct access to Loch Faskally. Inspired by the colours of the Highlands, rooms feature Cole & Son wallpapers, White Company bedding and Nespresso machines. After a bracing walk, relax in the Malt Whisky Bar in front of a roaring fire. 01796 470140, fonabcastlehotel.com. Doubles from 140 a night B&B

The Duck's Nest, Nethy Bridge, Cairngorms national park

The Duck's Nest, Nethy Bridge, in the Cairngorms national park.

First there was the Lazy Duck Hostel, a snug little barn with bunks sleeping eight, then came the Woodman's Hut, a romantic eco-retreat for two, and now there's the Duck's Nest. Another hidey-hole on this six-acre family smallholding, this little wooden hut on the edge of a pond paddled by rare-breed ducks is a waterfowl-watcher's dream. Snuggle under local Knockando Woolmill blankets on the terrace in front of the chimenea stove or take a dunk in the woodfired timber hot tub. The bush shower is also outside as is the compost loo (for snowy nights, there is a potty). Inside, you'll find a whisky-barrel lantern and a king-size box-bed with a skylight for stargazing. 01479 821092, lazyduck.co.uk. Doubles from 70 a night (two-night minimum)

Mhor84 Motel, The Trossachs

Mhor84: not your average roadside motel.

The words "roadside motel" conjure a less than cosy image. However, the Lewis family (gourmet boutique hotel Monachyle Mhor at the end of the glen, MhorFish and MhorBread in nearby Callander) has turned the old Kinghouse Hotel on the A84 hence the name into a place where you'll want to linger. The seven rooms have been given a lick of white paint, the bar and restaurant kitted out with a mix of old trestle tables and junk-shop finds. There's vintage china, cowskin rugs, a pool table and comfy sofas for curling up in front of the fire. 01877 384646, mhor.net. Doubles from 60 a night

Leachachan Barn, Loch Duich, Lochalsh

Once a byre for horses, this low-slung stone barn overlooking Loch Duich on the west coast has been sensitively converted into a striking, contemporary, open-plan holiday home by award-winning architects Rural Design. It's a soaring vision of white with vaulted ceilings, antler chandelier, pale-oak parquet floors, apple-green sofas and stateof-the-art wood-burner. The ground-floor master bedroom is peppered with antiques; a second bedroom is up on a new mezzanine level. Picture windows frame views of the Five Sisters of Kintail, while Skye and the pretty village of Plockton, with its galleries, pubs and palm trees, is within hopping distance. 01456 486358, wildernesscottages.co.uk. From 450 a week (sleeps four)

Flagstone Cottage, Castletown, Caithness

Bags of character in a tiny package, this single-storey, quarry-worker's terraced cottage was renovated by The Prince's Regeneration Trust and opened by Prince Charles himself in the summer. Once home to two families, today it sleeps just two in an original 4ft Scottish box bed with traditional kist, or chest, underneath. The colour scheme of dark grey and mustard adds to the cosiness as do the tongue and groove panels, Caithness stone floors, tasteful tartan throws, sheepskin rugs and toasty logburner. 01835 822277, unique-cottages.co.uk. From 275 a week

Links House, Dornoch

After a windswept walk on the beach at Royal Dornoch, one of the prettiest spots on the north-east coast, sink into a bespoke tweed sofa by the roaring fire in the wood-panelled library of this elegant manse with a warming dram. Converted into a luxury hotel earlier this year, Links House has just eight sumptuous rooms, individually decorated with Italian-marble bathrooms, hand-picked antiques and named after famous Scottish salmon rivers: Brora, Beauly, Shin, Oykel, Helmsdale, Cassley, Conon and Carron. The hotel is scattered with quirky sporting memorabilia, the library is stocked with old books, and walls hung with oil paintings reflect the local landscape and Scottish field sports. After a gourmet dinner in front of another log fire in the dining room beneath a grand antler chandelier, step outside with a cigar from the humidor, gaze up at the starlit sky from the terrace and warm yourself by the outdoor

outside with a cigar from the humidor, gaze up at the starlit sky from the terrace and warm yourself by the outdoor fireplace. 01862 810279, linkshousedornoch.com. From 260 a night B&B

The Curved Stone House, Ullapool

The Curved Stone House, Ullapool - where you can take a bath with a panoramic view of the Summer Isles.

A sleek, pale-wood sauna with a sea view is just one of the highlights of this sinewy new build hunkered into the hillside above Ullapool on the wild west coast. You can also soak up the picture-window panorama of the Summer Isles from the futuristic egg-shaped tub. Gavin and Rachel Anderson's inspiration for their eco-friendly, turf-topped, stone and glass house, which sleeps four, came while living in east Africa, where the trend for luxury retreats designed to blend into the natural environment is well-established. They worked with a Hebridean architect and team of local craftsmen and artisans to bring their vision to life, adding underfloor heating for barefoot padding, soaring ceilings and a woodburning stove. 01854 613838, thestonehouses.co.uk. From 900 a week

Vatersay Cottage, Fort Augustus

Vatersay Cottage, a restored lock-keepers' house on the Caledonian canal. Photograph: Peter Sandground/Scottish Canals

The Vivat Trust and Scottish Canals launched seven charmingly restored lock-keepers' cottages along the Caledonian Canal this year. A feat of engineering genius, the canal links a series of lochs from the west coast to the east, slicing through the Highlands from Fort William to Inverness. Vatersay, which sleeps five, is one of a cluster of three

through the Highlands from Fort William to Inverness. Vatersay, which sleeps five, is one of a cluster of three cottages near Fort Augustus at the top of Loch Ness. The little whitewashed property has a red door and a picket fence. Inside, there's a woodburning stove, pastel-painted tongue-and-groove panelling, cream wooden beds, a cheery colour scheme and a brightly patterned stag's head on the wall. 0141 354 7534, canalsidecottages.co.uk. From 60 a night

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

The Hardwick, Abergavenny, Wales: hotel review

With its friendly laid-back feel, this hotel makes a great pitstop on an outdoorsy break in the Brecon Beacons, but its outstanding restaurant lifts it into another league
Chris Moss The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 21.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

Dining room at the Hardwick hotel

Abergavenny's Sugar Loaf mountain is unlike Rio's a magnet for grisly weather. I can just about make out its flat summit through clouds as I arrive. Soon, sheeting rain brings on a premature dusk and everything turns blue-grey and cold. The Hardwick Old Raglan Road, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales NP7 9AA 01873 854220 thehardwick.co.uk

Doubles from 150 B&B (late deals from 75); main courses from 17 As refuges from grisliness go, the Hardwick is pretty high-end. The former pub looks plain enough from the outside the eight-room hotel bit could be an upscale motel but room seven is made inviting with wine-coloured fabrics from Pembrokeshire weaver Melin Tregwynt, a handsome Arne Jacobsen-style leather egg chair and balmy heating. The Hardwick is on the Old Raglan Road, within sight of Abergavenny's hills. Our windows are a bit on the small side, but other rooms have more light and better views: if you need to see landscape and/or sunlight when you wake up, ask for rooms three or four, which have big vertical windows. Room five has wheelchair access and a capacious bathroom. But we're here mainly for the dinner. Abergavenny is the self-styled food capital of Wales and,, the Hardwick's restaurant was voted the best in Wales in the 2013 National Restaurant Awards. In the bar, where locals still sup, barman Ben Bedell mixes us each an Aperol, rum and ginger cocktail, the day's special. Foodie travelogues, cookbooks, newspapers and magazines provide entertainment. With its hunting trophies and squishy settees, tapestry curtains and a huge modern chandelier, the room is cosy in a Middle Earth way. A pungent, garlicky aroma drifts in. We dine in a smallish, beamed room I like it, and the next one along, but find the more modern extension a bit too functional. Most of chef Stephen Terry's food including breads from Alex Gooch in Hay-on-Wye, heritage tomatoes and an all-Welsh cheeseboard comes from nearby. My crab starter is delicately flavoured but, piled high on linguine, is definitely one to share. The Black Mountains smoked salmon, with laverbread and sesame rye, is just perfect. Mains of rack and filo-wrapped shoulder of lamb with spiced lentils and grilled veg, and rib-eye steak with thricefried chips are even better than they sound. We find room for a brownie-and-ice-cream-and-mousse confection and a glass of sweet vin santo. All this adds up to rather more than a refuelling stop for a hike or bike ride in the Brecons. And yet, because of its informal vibe, this restaurant with rooms is just that kind of place. There's a Michelin-starred restaurant up the road (the Walnut Tree, 28th in the NRA list) but for price, presentation, flavour and the proximity of your bedroom the Hardwick is an easy winner. Accommodation was provided by the Hardwick

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Cuba's hidden treasure: La Isla de la Juventud

La Isla de la Juventud is a little-visited corner of Cuba, popular with divers and rich in beauty and pirate tales if not in gold
Claire Boobbyer The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 20.59 GMT Jump to comments ()

Punta Frances beach on Isla de la Juventud, Cuba. Photograph: Alamy

"If there were any treasure, do you think I'd still be here?" winked Vladimir, my Cuban scuba guide. "Well, if there are no buried chests of coins, why do people still come here and search?" I wondered. He shrugged and admitted that, although various glittering items had been turned up over the years, there probably wasn't much left and, if any were found under Cuba's sapphire seas, the world's media was not likely to hear about it. Vladimir and I were supping coconut milk while mulling a modern-day Long John Silver scenario on the beach at Punta Francs, part of a national marine park on the pirate coast of Cuba's Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth), known for its tales of treasure and treason. This large,tear-shaped island droops 60 miles off the south coast of Cuba. In the 16th and 17th centuries, its coves and caves were the sites of battles between the Spanish empire's convoy ships and privateers such as Sir Francis Drake and Wales's Henry Morgan, and other European buccaneers. Gold and jewels might have been off the menu, but I still wanted to explore, so Vladimir and I set off on foot to the troglodytic, weathered stone refuge of French pirate Franois LeClerc, further along the sandy finger of Punta Francs. Clambering down under rock arches into the eroded chamber, we glimpsed the turquoise sea from where LeClerc could disembark in secret from his galleon and go ashore unseen. It's easy to believe the legend that Robert Louis Stevenson based Treasure Island, published 130 years ago this year, on this untrampled corner of the Caribbean. The treasure we found, after a sandy tramp through searing heat past butterflies, crabs and lizards, was the nest of an American crocodile, watched over by a park ranger. It may have been less glittery than the hauls of yore, but it was no less valuable. Thinking I might have better bounty-hunting luck on the seabed, I joined Vladimir's dive boat from the only hotel on the west coast of the island, El Colony. No gold coins glinted beneath tufts of sand, but we swam with hawksbill turtles, barracuda, and Goliath grouper amid the brain coral and sea fans of the reef that filters out along this pirate coast.

Hotel El Colony

Back at El Colony, I took stock. The low-slung hotel, built as a Hilton and opened just weeks before the Cuban revolution in 1959, sits alone on Red Beach, which is famous for its shocking-pink sunsets. Here, I unwrapped my modern-day maps in the hope of better treasure-hunting luck and set off to explore the interior of the island, which is peppered with palms and pines, and has some shiny attractions of its own the marble mountains. Cuba's Isle of Youth is a misnomer. In 1978, Fidel Castro turned the island into a grand communist university for students from around the world. Today those young pupils are long gone and many of the buildings lie abandoned amid the seemingly limitless forests of pine, mango and citrus, or have been converted into community housing. This sense of abandonment extends beyond the erstwhile university project, though. The Isle of Youth is Cuba's least developed corner and is the antithesis of the all-inclusive beach resorts so popular on many other Cuban beaches. There's no tourist promotion, little infrastructure and few hotels. This is the only place in Cuba where the "scheduled" flights depart and arrive when an aeroplane becomes available from another part of the country. Yet mainland Cubans flock to the island in the summer, packing out the B&Bs dotted among the flowery bushes of the small island capital of Nueva Gerona and surging towards the nearby black, marble-flecked Bibijagua beach for sunny mayhem, picnics and games of dominoes. It's only the most inquisitive and determined overseas visitor who books well ahead for the ATR flights, or the more expensive three-hour catamaran from Cuba's southern coast, and gets to experience this slice of unvarnished Cuban reality. Over a dinner of chicken fricassee at Paladar El Chvere, a new, modest, private restaurant in Nueva Gerona owned by an ex-state security agent, I asked a fellow diner, Miguel, why the island appears to have been cast adrift. "Castro threw dust at la isla," he deadpanned, referring to curses used by practitioners of the Afro-Cuban religion of Santera. Spluttering on my rum and cola, I asked if Castro had cursed the island because he had once served time in its infamous jail (60 years ago, with Che Guevara, for a failed attack on the government), now an eerie museum. "No," Miguel explained, "it's because he doesn't want the Americans to take it over again." During the Spanish-American War in the early 1900s, the US, with one eye on creating a second naval base, claimed the island, in the same way it did Guantnamo Bay. It didn't relinquish sovereignty until 1925. It hasn't been the only nation, however, that has attempted to colonise the island. Christopher Columbus dropped anchor in 1494, naming it Evangelist Island but it wasn't officially colonised until 1830 and then only because the English threatened to occupy it.

An American crocodile near Punta Francs

The Isle has also suffered a 500-year identity crisis. Over the centuries it has borne a number of aboriginal names, several Spanish empire names, one post-colonisation name (its current title), and five popular monikers Treasure Island, Pirate Island, the Siberia of Cuba, the Isle of 500 Murders and Forgotten Island. They all play on a history of treason that reflects little of its current bounty: swamps teeming with protected wildlife, pre-Columbian rock art, white-sand beaches, and pine and mango-tree forests, which I hiked through on a new route, guided by Arcadio Rodrguez, an Angolan civil war veteran-turned-ranger. As we bathed in a clear, natural pool, woodpeckers rattled the forest and we feasted on Arcadio's farmyard lamb and sweet Cuban coffee. I wondered whether those pirates of the Caribbean had ever savoured the true treasure of the Isle of Youth its natural beauty rather than merely plundering its passing loot. The Holiday Place (020-7644 1755, holidayplace.co.uk) tailormakes trips to Cuba taking in Isla de la Juventud. Hotel El Colony (+53 46 398181, hotelelcolony.com) has doubles from $52 B&B. Paladar El Chvere (+53 46 32 8326) offers mains from 1.30.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Family: Family features

Why family theatre is not just for Christmas My toddler bites people My list of Christmas tears and cheers Peter Ackroyd: My family values

Why family theatre is not just for Christmas

Family shows are all the rage this Christmas and all year round. Lyn Gardner on why some of the best new productions are designed for people of all generations to enjoy together
Lyn Gardner The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 15.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

'Groundbreaking theatre is being made for families' - Nicholas Hytner, National Theatre. Photograph: Getty Images

It's a Saturday afternoon in Colchester and inside the Mercury theatre there is a low hum from the audience, eagerly waiting for the start of Michael Morpurgo's The Butterfly Lion. What's interesting about the audience is the age range: teenagers sitting down together with senior citizens. The family seated next to me include Holly, 10, who has read the book at school and loves it. But her parents, teenage brother and grandparents are making up the party too. Looking around, there are several groups like this one and it strikes me how unusual it is for young and old to all be in a public space together. In the past, British theatre has neither particularly catered for nor welcomed family audiences, except at Christmas for pantomimes, and occasionally for a big musical such as The Lion King. Instead there was theatre specifically made for children and young audiences; some of it sub-standard, and some of it truly brilliant from inspiring companies such as Oily Cart, Theatre-Rites and Fevered Sleep who all create astonishing work. Then there was the rest of theatre, which was largely for the grownups. There was little crossover, apart from the big West End musicals. Only a few years ago, I took my then 10 year old to see Hamlet and was astonished when the woman next to her stared disapprovingly and said: "I hope she's not going to fidget." It seems some adults are keen for theatre to remain a child-free zone. Fortunately, such attitudes are beginning to change and that's very much due to the rise of family shows such as The Butterfly Lion, the gleefully inventive Matilda (better than Roald Dahl's book) or the mighty War Horse currently in the West End but also out on tour which attract audiences of all ages. Many of these are adaptations of novels with crossover appeal such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (currently in the West End) or as part of grownups' childhood reading experiences. The wonderful Swallows and Amazons, which originated at Bristol Old Vic, introduced a whole new generation to Arthur Ransome's classic. Nicholas Hytner, director of the National Theatre, says: "It's a long time since theatres hauled out the family show as a half-hearted Christmas nod towards an audience that was thought to be indifferent to quality. Nowadays writers, actors and directors fall over themselves to get involved in playing to an audience that is up for any kind of adventure, and without theatrical preconceptions.

"As a result, genuinely challenging and groundbreaking theatre is being made for families theatre that puts a premium on clear story-telling and an even greater premium on telling those stories in a new way," says Hytner. What marks theses shows out and sets the bar so high for future productions, including the National's Christmas show, Emil and the Detectives, is their theatrical inventiveness. It may be hard to remember now, but War Horse was by no means a dead cert for the National Theatre. It was a long time in development and took a great many creative risks. There is a world of difference between War Horse on the page and stage, the latter far more graphically depicting the horrors of the trenches of the first world war. But seen with the family it becomes an enriching experience rather than a troubling one. The RSC will be hoping to repeat the success of Matilda this Christmas with Ella Hickson's new version of Peter Pan, which should excavate the dark heart of JM Barrie's story. Not that it is cheap for audiences: although considerably less than the West End, a family outing for four to Neverland this Christmas is about 90. Family shows increasingly attract top-notch directors from Marianne Elliott to incoming NT director, Rufus Norris, who has directed Beauty and the Beast and a version of Tintin, and what characterises many of these productions is a fearlessness of creativity but also content. Unlike children's literature, which is increasingly forthright and unsparing, theatre for children is sometimes self-censoring as if afraid of stepping beyond the mark of what parents or teachers think might be acceptable. But a show seen with the family all sitting side by side allows for a similar freedom to explore the unspoken and frankly frightening as the classic fairytale does retold at bedtime at home. Back in Colchester, at the interval of The Butterfly Lion, Holly and her family are eating ice-cream and discussing the show. They are all having a good time. "I can't remember the last time we were all out together like this except for a meal," says Holly's dad.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

My toddler bites people

Our toddler scratches and bites but doesn't react when she's hurt another child. I'm trying to protect our new baby from it, but also encourage her relationship with him. What can we do about her behaviour?
Annalisa Barbieri The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 15.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

I'm struggling with the behaviour of my daughter. She's two and for four or five months, has been lashing out on occasion, scratching or biting, sometimes managing to draw blood and cause real pain. She does it to my partner and me, but also to other children. Sometimes it seems to be a response to irritation (eg, when we are trying to change her nappy or when another child is playing with a toy that she wants), but at other times it is completely unprovoked. We've tried all the usual tactics of clearly telling her no, removing her from the situation, ignoring her for a

We've tried all the usual tactics of clearly telling her no, removing her from the situation, ignoring her for a couple of minutes while giving the other child attention all to no avail. Indeed, she shows little reaction even when the child she has hurt cries almost as if she isn't bothered or doesn't understand the consequences of her actions. Since this behaviour started, we've had another child (now 15 weeks old) and we have to try to be extra careful that she doesn't bite or scratch him as well, at the same time as encouraging her to develop a relationship with him. My daughter goes to a childminder two days a week and I'm also worried about the impact her scratching and biting is having there. I'm conscious that my social embarrassment about having a child who bites may be affecting how I handle this situation. P, via email A biting, hitting toddler is not unusual. The parents usually always find it mortifying (and the situation isn't helped by other parents who can use it as an opportunity to be judgmental if their child doesn't do it), but it doesn't mean there is anything wrong with your child or that she will grow up to be violent. If everything else is fine she doesn't show any other behavioural issues, she can see and hear fine (I say this in case there are physical barriers), then try to see it for what it is: a phase. "Given her age," says psychotherapist Dehra Mitchell, "this is quite normal. Biting, scratching, hitting are very common. It is often a response to frustration and, at your daughter's age, language isn't developed sufficiently so that she can tell you verbally what is upsetting her. Biting and scratching is a way of communicating." Sometimes a child can be highly articulate and still hit or scratch because they can't process the emotions they feel. You seem concerned, too, about the fact that your daughter doesn't seem bothered when she hurts someone. I asked Mitchell if this is cause for concern. "Not really when children get into trouble for something they either tend to burst into tears or turn around and ignore you." So, your daughter may be upset and just doesn't want to show it. It may help you look at things from your daughter's point of view I say this to be helpful, not to make any of it sound like it's your fault. She's still extremely young. I realise this started before the baby was born and by my calculation, it must have begun when you were heavily pregnant. I wonder how the new baby "idea" was presented to her? I wonder if she resents his arrival and sees going to the childminder as being sent "away"? When you have a new baby, the older child can suddenly seem much older than they are and they are expected to behave in a way that's more grown up than they really are. Are you making enough time for her, by yourself? I know this can seem hard to do with a young baby, but it's worthwhile. "As a child matures," says Mitchell, "they change. It's a maturing process. Your daughter probably doesn't have the language skills to explain herself, nor the cognitive skills. Try to help her communicate her feelings. Try to give your daughter age-appropriate words. For example, say something like 'You know, I wonder if you feel upset about the baby's arrival?' Help her put into words how she feels and reassure her that it's OK if she's not happy." You need to be firm, but calm and kind, while teaching her that hitting etc is not the way to behave. I don't personally advocate time out especially if she's doing this because she already feels wretched. You need to work out how to deal with it in a way that works for your family and then be patient. She's not going to learn overnight, so don't despair if something doesn't work immediately. Be confident. Your child is not a psychopath. Mitchell also suggests you look at zerotothree.org for information.

"I understand your feelings of embarrassment," says Mitchell, "but your daughter is trying to tell you something, so find a way of encouraging her to communicate in a different way. I wonder if you have a group of other mums to talk to? You will most likely find they too are dealing with difficult behaviour, including biting."

Your problems solved

Contact Annalisa Barbieri, The Guardian, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU or email$ annalisa.barbieri@mac.com. Annalisa regrets she cannot enter into personal correspondence. Follow Annalisa on Twitter @AnnalisaB

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

My list of Christmas tears and cheers

As a Grinch, I won't be joining the chorus of wishful thinking and propaganda, but I can offer a balanced view of the festivities ...
Tim Lott The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 12.59 GMT Jump to comments ()

Tim Lott: 'I bought my working-class parents a brace of quail for Christmas. Their look of puzzlement still haunts me.' Photograph: Karen Robinson

The piling on of expectations from advertisers, children, and own mind makes Christmas harder to enjoy than it should be. Commercialisation and greed hang over the season like vindictive goblins. And yet it really can be hopeful, joyful, even magical. As a known Grinch, I cannot be sincere and join in the chorus of wishful thinking and propaganda. But I can offer a balanced view.

So here is my list of Christmas Tears and Cheers. There's definitely some hope and goodwill in there. Somewhere.

Tears:
I wish I'd more successfully faked delight when my dad bought me a train set when I was eight. He just shrugged, took it back to the shop and got a refund, which he then pocketed. Buying my working-class parents a brace of quail for Christmas. Their look of puzzlement still haunts me. What the fuck was I thinking of? Having that third glass of wine before dinner, then knocking over a glass coffee table, spilling the wine down my shirt and collapsing on my arse. Tipsy conceits about being the dignified patriarch were brutally dispelled. Getting upset when four people bought me the same crap present (a bottle of whiskey). The reversion to a tantrummy state of disappointment and the ineffective attempt to hide it was to come on rather too close terms with my inner child. Using a "chic" 1950s oven to cook the turkey. It wasn't ready till 6.30pm. And it was bloody awful. Buying the children too much "stuff" and watching balefully as the pile of wrapping paper and heap of presents on Christmas morning rose like a hideous eruption from the earth. With each new gift, even the children's enthusiasm began to give way to sullenness and greed. Having to listen to "Why did she get this when I only got this?" It usually marks the beginning of the end of the morning's Christmas bonhomie. Watching It's a Wonderful Life with Eva at the local cinema. It was very touching watching her pretending not to be bored. But she was. And so was I. Funny how many people forget that it's about an hour too long. Going to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, London. Overcrowded, over-commercialised and overpriced, it is to Christmas what a Ku Klux Klan parade is to humanitarianism. Spending my first Christmas without my mum. This year, it will be my dad.

Cheers:
Christmas cracker jokes. My favourite: What do you drain your carrots with at Christmas? An advent colander. Homemade Christmas cards from my children. Going for a walk in the frosty air after the Christmas meal and watching the children skipping merrily in the street as they play with their new gifts of tablets, iPhones and Kindles. The Rupert annual when I was a child. Seeing my four daughters from two mothers so rarely all together now, clustered round the bed on Christmas morning opening gifts and simply being a family, for a brief time, undivided. The Christmas lights and celebrations on Marylebone High Street. Everything that Winter Wonderland isn't. A free Father Christmas, Christmas singers from the local schools, all the lovely little shops offering free wine, sweets and cakes. Christmas adverts for Iceland food products. A wonderful reminder that some people's Christmas lunch is just going to be so much more shit than yours.

Chestnut stuffing. Chipolatas. Roast potatoes. (The turkey is a bit player.) Playing Scattergories with everyone after lunch and fighting over whether head is really a cheese, or whether God is really a fictional character. Christmas service at our local church. Call me old-fashioned, but it is Christ's birthday. And he has given us all such a great gift. Yes the opportunity to give a much needed fillip to the economy. The Polish chocolate plums my dad used to bring home from the delicatessen next to his greengrocer at Christmas. Haven't seen one since 1983. Paper hats. Walking through the quiet streets on Christmas morning. The air always tastes different from any other day of the year. The school nativity play even though none of my children have ever made it beyond second sheep. Ice skating at Somerset House in London. As the light fades from the sky and the Christmas trees dot the darkness, there is nothing more beautiful than watching your children fall over repeatedly, while you skate majestically by. The perfect revenge for the glass coffee-table incident. Follow Tim on Twitter @timlottwriter

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Peter Ackroyd: My family values

The writer and biographer talks about growing up as an only child with his mother and grandmother, not knowing his father
Angela Wintle The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 12.59 GMT Jump to comments ()

Peter Ackroyd: 'The work is more important than the personal life. I don't need to be loved. Work sustains me.' Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

I know nothing about my father. He left when I was a baby, never to be seen again. I have no idea why he left. It wasn't something my mother discussed, although she gave no sense of bitterness or sadness. We went on as if we were an ordinary family, which we were as far as I was concerned. Three Brothers by Peter Ackroyd

Buy the book

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book My father, Graham, made contact in my 20s when he read some poems I'd had published, but the letters petered out. I wasn't that interested, to tell the truth. It would have been like meeting a stranger, and I had other things to do. Years later, I learned of his death when someone phoned my agent. I grew up, an only child, in a council house in East Acton, London with my mother, Audrey, and maternal grandmother. My mother mastered her circumstances and did wonderfully well, given her situation. She worked her way up at the Metal Box Company to become head of the personnel department. After she left, she began to speculate in stocks and shares, and did rather well, so she was quite an intriguing, interesting and intelligent woman. The family atmosphere was an intellectual one, which was very odd for working-class East Acton. My mother promoted my intellectual tendencies and one of my great Christmas presents was Arthur Mee's Children's Encyclopaedia, which I consumed. My mother also took me abroad as often as she could afford, which, again, was quite unusual given our background. She remarried when I was 16, but my stepfather died a few years later so I never really got to know him. My early life was a series of academic hurdles to attain some kind of eminence. I won a scholarship to St Benedict's, a Catholic public school in Ealing Broadway and discovered I wasn't the cleverest boy in the class, which was quite a shock. At about 10, I wanted to be a tap dancer and had a short training at the Barbara Speake stage school. I danced to If You Want to Know the Time, Ask a Policeman at Acton town hall and my performance was a triumph. Just thinking about it makes me want to tap dance again. I don't know if my mother was proud when I got a place at Cambridge; she was too diplomatic to mention it. I had

I don't know if my mother was proud when I got a place at Cambridge; she was too diplomatic to mention it. I had no problem shedding my background and cured myself of a particularly Cockney vowel sound through selfhypnotism. Now, I don't see myself as any class. I've said in the past that I knew I was homosexual by the time I was seven, but that was an exaggeration. I probably was about seven, but I have no clear memories. The fact that I grew up with women may have had some bearing if you take psycho-sexual science seriously, but the origins of anyone's sexuality are very mysterious. I met Brian Kuhn, my partner, in 1971 while studying at Yale. Humour brought us together. He was working in a shop and came back to England with me. Later, he became a dancer for the Ballet Rambert. We lived relatively happily until he contracted Aids in 1990, and I nursed him until his death four years later. I don't want another relationship. It would be a distraction and I'm too old for all that. The work is more important than the personal life. I don't need to be loved. Work sustains me. It's a vocation. It's what I was meant to do.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Money: Money news & features

The best tablets for under 200 Christmas delivery dates: how to mail your cards and gifts post haste

The best tablets for under 200

Miles Brignall test drives the Tesco Hudl, Amazon's Kindle, the Samsung Galaxy and Google Nexus to see which can take a bite out of Apple
Miles Brignall The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 13.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

Tablet sales this Christmas are expected to excede PCs for the first time. Photograph: Katherine Rose

If the hype is to be believed, 2013 is going to be a tablet Christmas and, over the next few weeks, these handheld devices are set to outsell personal computers for the first time. Google, Amazon, Samsung and even Tesco are vying to grab a big slice of the sales action a market long dominated by the Apple iPad. Once dismissed as a product that would never catch on, tablet computers have transformed the way households access the internet and entertain themselves. Want to catch up on a missed TV programme or watch a downloaded film on the go? It's now possible, and on a screen whose quality puts many TVs to shame. Then there's email that you can talk to rather than type, a web-surfing experience done by touch rather than mouse, and more games and apps than you can shake a stick at. With the countdown to Christmas starting in earnest, Guardian Money decided to check out the non-Apple market ie, the options for those who don't have the minimum 250 it costs to get your hands on the smallest iPad. We've weighed them up, checked the camera quality and surfed a thousand websites, so you don't have to. We also talked to the experts who live and breathe this stuff. Aiming at the lower end of the market, we have been largely restricted to seven-inch screens, and ones that use Wi-Fi rather than connecting via a phone network. But having weighed them up, we reckon the sub-200 market will, for most people, come down to a choice of two. In the 120 price bracket, the one to go for somewhat to our surprise is the Tesco Hudl. However, if you can find an extra 60 and we'd urge you to, if you can the Google Nexus 7 (from 180) is Money's top pick. Technology comparison website TechRadar.com's expert Gareth Beavis says that pound-for-pound it is the best and it's hard to disagree. The smallest iPad Mini is 249 at Currys, though you can get 20 cashback, as long as you don't forget to claim it afterwards. If you haven't tried a tablet, it's worth giving it a go. It's not much of an exaggeration to say many users would rather go on a near starvation diet than hand their tablet over, so dependent upon them have they become! The fact they are always on albeit in sleep mode and can be fired up in a second to end the dispute over which actor starred in a certain film, has helped make them indispensable. New voice recognition software is a boon to those who find typing difficult. A few swipes of the screen and you can dictate your email. It's not perfect but pretty damn good. Simon Lawrence at Carphone Warehouse predicts 2013 is going to be "a huge Christmas for tabs", adding: "Last year was supposed to be big, but while that might have been a little overstated, this is going to be the year." He says the big change is the range of products that have come on to the market. "There are now some fantastic tablets that can be picked up for less than 120. They have the advantage that they can do as much, or as little, as you want. "Those looking to just watch the odd film, surf the web and send emails can do so on an easy-to-use level. If you're more technically advanced, they have the capacity to meet your needs, too."

Tesco Hudl: 119 (less with Clubcard vouchers)

Following in Amazon's footsteps, Tesco surprised a few people when it launched its seven-inch tablet (it's pronounced huddle) and it's fair to say it has wowed a sceptical press that probably hoped it wouldn't be very good. For 119 this can't be beaten. The screen is sharp and offers good TV/film watching. It's well made and feels as though it will probably take a bash or two and carry on working. It has the tried and tested Android operating system, and a fast-ish processor that allows users to whizz around pretty smoothly. This tester actually thought the keyboard was better than the one on our iPad 2, and the voice recognition system works surprisingly well given its price. It comes with a standard memory of 16GB, which will be more than enough for most. But it has the major advantage that this can be increased by adding a micro SD card (to be bought separately). Other more expensive tablets, including Apple, don't offer this. If you want to connect it to your TV to watch films bought from Tesco's LoveFilm equivalent, Blinkbox, you can do so via its micro-HDMI slot, although again you'll need to buy an extra lead. Tesco, which can't be making much money (if any) on the price, pre-loads the Hudl with Clubcard points and its shopping channels, but these can be removed. The only real downside we could find was its weight, at 370 grams. It feels pretty heavy in the hand substantially heavier than its expensive rivals. This might be a problem if you plan to use it a lot as an e-reader. Battery life is fine some have said it is slow to recharge but, given most people do this overnight, we don't see it as a problem. The built-in camera isn't amazing but it is good enough. The processor occasionally struggled to keep up, the built-in speakers could be better, and the screen could be brighter, but this is nitpicking. If you want a simple tablet to browse the net, read the occasional book on the go, or for younger kids to use, it is a great choice that beats the others at this price. Money score: 8/10

Money score: 8/10

Kindle Fire: HD 119, HDX 199

When Amazon launched the original Kindle Fire tablet there wasn't a lot of competition, but there is now. The latest version uses a slightly different operating system to other Android tablets, and our impression is that, unlike the others, it has been designed primarily to access the media bought from Amazon films, music etc. It feels nice to hold, the screen is good, and the speakers better than the Hudl's. Amazon shoppers will enjoy the fact that everything they have bought is stored and easily accessible. Shopping is a doddle. However, the cheaper Kindle Fire HD only gets an 8GB memory the 16GB version costs 139 and you can't extend it. On the downside, Amazon's Appstore still lacks many of those on Google Play. For us, the fact there is no camera is a major omission. If you're happy to be limited to using Amazon's services for apps, games, books, music and videos, then you won't be disappointed. The previous model is now just 99, but for everyone else it probably makes more sense to opt for the Hudl. The same is largely true of the more expensive Kindle Fire HDX. For the extra 80 you get a significantly lighter tablet. The processor is faster and the screen and sound are great. There is only a front-facing camera, which means taking anything other than a "selfie" is tricky. The major advantage it offers is the "Mayday" button, which you may have seen advertised. It's aimed at those who struggle with technology and can be dialled day or night. Amazingly, it works well. Overall, the HDX is outdone by the Google Nexus, which is cheaper. Another option to consider is the larger Kindle Fire HD with the 8.9-inch screen. It normally costs 229, but is currently 179 a great price for the bigger screened version. Money score: Fire HD 7/10, Fire HDX 8/10

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3: 139

If you crave the iPad look and feel, but can't afford Apple prices, the Samsung comes the closest in looks, at least. It's a similar design and the way it is set out has an Appley feel superficially, at least. The trouble is that it all feels a tad slow and clunky in comparison to the other tablets tested. It is difficult to type quickly or accurately if you have anything bigger than a child's fingers. That said, it does the job and has a classier feel than, say, the cheaper Hudl. It has sold in big numbers. When looking at websites, the screen feels smaller than it should be as the taskbar is quite big. Gareth Beavis at TechRadar.com says that while Samsung produces fantastic smartphones, its tablet range is "too expensive for what they are, and there are better ones out there". Money score: 6/10

Google Nexus 7: 2012 model 119, 2013 model 180-200+

The Nexus 7 was one of the best last year, offering buyers at the time a great tablet for 159. This is now available for 119, and is still great value, despite being eclipsed by the Hudl. However, the 2013 model, which is also built by Asus for Google, is our top pick. It now starts at 180 (at Amazon) for the 16GB version the 32GB costs over 200. Out of the box it has a quality feel akin to the iPad. It's slimmer and lighter than last year's model, and now comes with two cameras the front is 1.2 megapixel while the rear camera is 5. It's fast to use and the screen is brilliant. Watching BBC iPlayer this week, the programmes looked amazing. The battery has a long life and it is light enough to use as an e-reader.

the programmes looked amazing. The battery has a long life and it is light enough to use as an e-reader. The only downsides are that there isn't a micro SD card slot to allow you to expand the memory, and the speakers aren't as good as the Kindle Fire HDX. Gareth Beavis says that, pound-for-pound, there isn't a better tablet out there. Having played with the main contenders this week, it's hard to disagree. The iPads certainly have more fans, but this tablet, in our view, offers incredible value for money. Money score: 7.5/10 for last year's, and 9/10 for 2013 model

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Christmas delivery dates: how to mail your cards and gifts post haste
A round-up of the costs and deadlines for sending your Christmas cards and gifts in 2013
Jill Papworth The Guardian, Thursday 28 November 2013 10.47 GMT Jump to comments ()

Parcel force: Royal Mail takes on extra staff to cope at Christmas. Photograph: Andrew Milligan for the Guardian

With December a matter of hours away, now is the time to get clued up on the last Christmas posting dates and what it will cost. You still have plenty of time to send items within the UK but deadlines are much tighter if you are planning to send items abroad.

Last UK posting dates

Second class and Royal Mail signed for: Wednesday 18 December. First class and Royal Mail signed for: Friday 20. Special delivery: Monday 23. But you'll need to be quicker off the mark if you are sending items abroad (see table).

Remember the deadlines

Set up a Christmas reminder service at postoffice.co.uk. You are sent an email three days before the recommended last posting date for your requested destination, followed up by an optional text message one day before.

Stamp prices
These are the same as last year. A second class stamp costs 50p, first class costs 60p for a standard letter which includes most greetings cards and postcards measuring up to 24cm long x 16.5cm wide x 0.5cm thick and weighing up to 100g. Bulkier envelopes measuring up to 35.3cm x 25cm x 2.5cm and weighing up to 750g come under the "large letter" format covering items such as CDs and DVDs in their cases, some large greeting cards and most magazines. These cost 69p second class and 90p first class.

Calculating the cost

You can calculate the cost of sending larger items, based on their size and weight, at the Royal Mail's online Price Finder service. Prices to send parcels in the UK start from 2.60 second class, due to arrive in two to three days, and from 3 first class, due to arrive the next working day including Saturday.

Size matters
Parcels are divided into three categories: small, medium and large, and you will find all the dimension definitions at postoffice.co.uk. A medium parcel weighing 500 grams, for example, will cost you 5.20 second class (6.30 with proof of delivery), 5.65 first class (6.75 with proof of delivery) and 6.95 by tracked Royal Mail special delivery to arrive by 1pm the following day. You can buy and print off all these types of postage online at the Royal Mail website. You will have to go to your local post office if you want to pay more 19.92 for Royal Mail special delivery with guaranteed delivery by 9am

the next day. Now that the majority of prices for UK parcels depend on size as well as weight, packing your items in the right way can make a significant difference to your postage costs. For example, when using first, second or Royal Mail signed-for services, sending an item as a small parcel will be cheaper than sending it as a medium parcel. So make sure that soft, compactable items up to a maximum of two kilograms are packed down as much as possible to fit one of the small parcel sizes (45cm x 35cm x 8cm or 35cm x 25cm x 16cm) and remember that the item in its packaging needs to fall within these limits. You can check the prices, weight and size limits at postoffice.co.uk/price-finder so you can package up your items to fit the size and weight limits for the most cost-effective service.

Finding the cheapest option

It is also worth checking, using the Royal Mail or Post Office websites, whether using the Royal Mail's first class, second class and signed-for services is your cheapest option for sending parcels, particularly heavy items. If, for example, you were sending a medium parcel weighing 2.5kg within the UK, the Royal Mail-owned courier service Parcelforce Worldwide offers a cheaper option. Its Express48 service, which guarantees delivery within two working days, includes compensation of up to 100 and provides online tracking of its journey, would cost 12.93, compared with 14.45 for Royal Mail second class signed-for and 16.20 for first class signed-for delivery.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Weekend: Starters

Pictures of the week: Revising History by Jennifer Greenburg

Pictures of the week: Revising History by Jennifer Greenburg

Each week, the Guardian Weekend magazine's editorial team choose a picture, or set of pictures, that particularly tickle their fancy. This week, their choice is Jennifer Greenburg's set of revised vintage photographs

Weekend: Features

Finger-lickin' good: Angela Hartnett's simple party food recipes

Finger-lickin' good: Angela Hartnett's simple party food recipes

Got a crowd coming round for Christmas drinks? You don't have to spend hours in the kitchen, slaving over fancy canaps
Angela Hartnett The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 16.30 GMT Jump to comments ()

'A mouthful with real oomph.' Photograph: Georgia Glynn Smith for the Guardian. Click for full image

Each of these snacks is designed to serve four, so if you need to make a larger batch, just multiply the quantities. And if you've a big crowd, why not make them all? There's very little work in any of them.

Pumpkin frittata with gorgonzola

Creamy blue cheese, sweet pumpkin and rich eggs combine to make a mouthful with real oomph. Serves four. Olive oil 1 small onion, peeled and sliced 300g roasted pumpkin, peeled and diced 1 handful parsley leaves, chopped Salt and freshly ground black pepper 4 eggs 200g gorgonzola, broken into chunks Heat a touch of olive oil in a large frying pan, and gently sweat the onion until soft; you don't want it to take on any colour. Once soft, stir in the cooked diced pumpkin and parsley, season to taste and mix well. Whisk the eggs, pour them over the contents of the pan and stir gently, to combine. Cook over a low heat, until it's almost cooked through from the bottom up about 15 minutes then place the pan under a hot grill, to flash the top. Turn out the frittata on to a board, cut into neat squares and top each with a small chunk of gorgonzola. Serve while still warm.

Potato skins with crme frache and smoked salmon

'Who can resist these?' Photograph: Georgia Glynn Smith for the Guardian

Who can resist a bit of smoked salmon in a creamy sauce, especially at Christmas; even more so when it comes on crisp potato skins? Serves four. 12 charlotte potatoes 1 small bunch chives, chopped fine 100g crme frache Rock salt and freshly ground black pepper 200g smoked salmon, cut into short, thin strips In a hot oven (200C/390F/gas mark 6), bake the potatoes until soft. Once done, remove the spuds from the oven (leave it on: you'll be using it again later), cut in half lengthways and scoop the flesh into a bowl, leaving the skin intact. Mash the potato flesh, stir in the chives and crme frache, and season. Spoon the mixture back into the potato skins and return to the oven for 10 minutes, until crisp on top. Remove, top each potato half with a strip or two of smoked salmon, sprinkle with rock salt and serve hot.

Glazed chicken wings

'Finger-lickin' good.' Photograph: Georgia Glynn Smith for the Guardian

These are finger-lickin' good, even if I do say so myself. Serves four. 16 chicken wings 1 heaped tbsp honey 1 heaped tbsp course-grain mustard 2 tsp HP Sauce (or other brown sauce, if you must) Juice of 1 lemon 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed Salt and pepper 1 handful coriander leaves, chopped, to serve In an oven tray, use your hands to mix together all the ingredients bar the coriander, making sure the chicken wings are well coated, then set aside to marinade at room temperature for 30 minutes. Heat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6, then pop in the tray and roast for 30 minutes, turning the wings every now and then, so they colour and cook evenly. Remove from the oven, arrange on a warmed platter, sprinkle over the chopped coriander and serve hot.

Chicory with spicy crab and almonds

'Tasty and fresh.' Photograph: Georgia Glynn Smith for the Guardian

This really is as simple as they come, with no cooking involved at all: it's just an assembly job that won't take more than a few minutes. It's also incredibly tasty and fresh just what the tastebuds need at a party. Serves four. 2 small heads chicory 250-300g cooked white crab meat ! tsp finely chopped red chilli ! tsp finely chopped fresh ginger 1 tsp chopped basil leaves 30g chopped salted almonds Zest and juice of 1 lime Olive oil, to serve Cut the root off each chicory, then separate them into individual leaves. Mix the crab with the chilli, ginger, basil and nuts, then stir in the lime zest and juice. Spoon a little crab mix on to the wide end of each chicory leaf, leaving the root end free: this acts as a handy handle with which to pick them up.

wide end of each chicory leaf, leaving the root end free: this acts as a handy handle with which to pick them up. Dribble a dash of olive oil over each one, and serve. Angela Hartnett is chef-patron of Murano, Cafe Murano and Merchants Tavern, all in London, and Hartnett Holder & Co at Lyme Wood in Hampshire.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Weekend: Fashion and beauty

Party dresses: All ages fashion - in pictures Fashion wish list: what we like this week - in pictures Lace: Get the look - in pictures How to dress: lace From skater girls to pony skin: what's hot and what's not on planet fashion this week

Party dresses: All ages fashion - in pictures

Each week, the Weekend fashion team pick a range of outfits that represent a current trend and style them for different age groups. This week that look is party dresses, which are huge on the high street at the moment, and show how this potentially tricky look can work whatever your age

Fashion wish list: what we like this week - in pictures

The Weekend fashion team picks their five favourite high street finds each week. So whatever you're looking for be that a new coat, some swanky shoes or an on-trend top check out their wish list. This week, their choice includes a feather bag, kimono and metallic skirt

Lace: Get the look - in pictures

So you've read our fashion editor's column on wearing lace to parties, but how do you go about getting the look yourself? The Guardian's fashion team pick four of the best examples you can find on the high street

How to dress: lace

'There's something in the ritual of lace that draws us to it at the time of year when tradition matters most'
Jess Cartner-Morley The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 16.30 GMT

The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 16.30 GMT Jump to comments ()

Around this time of year, each year, I start to crave lace. Mulled wine, mince pies, insanely expensive, small, decorative woodland animals, and lace. Every festive season, regular as clockwork, nothing whatsoever to do with fashion. Luckily, I'm not alone: also around this time, every season, with cheerful disregard of what was or was not on the catwalk, every store you walk into is selling lace dresses. It's a skin substitute, you see; that's my theory. In summer, when the spaghetti-strap vests come out as soon as the mercury hits 24 degrees and shorts are the default bottom-half uniform of the entire population under 35, you can get up close and personal with as much bare flesh in the average lift as you would in a hot tub in the Playboy mansion. But come October, our skin disappears under a tortoiseshell of 60 denier opaques. And by now we're missing skin, and lace is the next best thing, so out come the lace party dresses. It's not just perviness, to be fair. There's something in the ritual of lace that draws us to it at the time of year when tradition matters most. Miuccia Prada once said lace tracks women through their lives, from christening gowns to wedding dresses, lingerie to mourning garb. She missed out Christmas parties perhaps they're too chic, at Prada, for Wham! and Secret Santa but she's on to something. Lace is a touchstone for special-occasion dress, a lucky charm for nights that feel important. The meaning of lace changes with the colour. White is holy and snowy and untouchable. Red is raucous and festive, a here-come-the-girls clap-and-shriek of a fabric. Black means sex or death sex, generally, unless you drape it over your head and sob, which is a bit un-Christmassy. Navy, dark green and burgundy are the hardest to pin down and, therefore, perhaps the easiest to wear. But in any colour, lace is a promise of, and so a substitute for, bare skin. In other words, you don't need lots of both. A long lace dress with slim lace sleeves looks very grand, and instantly rebuffs any suggestion of sleaze; on the other hand, a slip-of-a-thing nightie dress looks more chic with a lace trim than in all-over lace. No need to overegg the pudding. It's not quite December yet, after all. Jess wears dress, 790, by Carven, from harrods.com. Shoes, 235, stuartweitzman.com. Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Dani Richardson using Kiehl's Skin Rescuer.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

From skater girls to pony skin: what's hot and what's not on planet fashion this week
Going up: acrylic reindeer, Bella Freud's candles, undercollars and Cline's cosy combo. Going down: saying 'sick', macaroon boutiques, fishtail plaits and chokers
The Guardian, Saturday 30 November 2013 Jump to comments ()

Jump to comments ()

Going up
Muji's acrylic reindeer The best decoration 4.95 can buy. Plus we have it on good authority that reindeer are the new penguins this year.

Photograph: Rex Features

Midi skirt plus funnel-neck sweater Thank you, Phoebe, for this winter's cosiest fashion combination. Flashing your 'undercollar' See J Crew's schoolboy blazers and Zara's grey tweed with burgundy undercollar. Skater girls As in Somerset House, obv. The look: beanie hat over blow-dried waves; sheepskin or faux fur over skinny jeans. Just don't fall over.

Bella Freud's candles The 1970 might just convince us the concept of the posh candle is OK again.

Going down
Describing something as 'sick' Does anyone say this in the real world. Do they? Really?

Fishtail plaits Just us, or really hard to master? Macaroon boutiques It's all about the new Maille mustard boutique in Piccadilly. The essential address for gourmet stocking fillers. 'Pony skin' Yeesh, we know it's not actual pony skin but the description still makes our skin crawl.

Photograph: Rex Features

Chokers The grunge dominatrix look just doesn't work on most people.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Weekend: Space

Interior design ideas: American kitchens - in pictures Gardens: roses on their own roots Let's move to: Moseley, Birmingham

Interior design ideas: American kitchens - in pictures

Three American kitchens mix the old with the new, creating spaces that are practical and original

Gardens: roses on their own roots

Don't listen to breeders, roses grow stronger and healthier on their own roots and now is the time to propagate
Lucy Bellamy The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 16.30 GMT

Take cuttings of Rosa 'Cantabrigiensis' to increase your stock of healthy roses growing on their own root system. Photograph: Martin Hughes-Jones/Garden World Images

Next time you buy a rose, look at the bulge low on the stem. It may not seem like much, but this lump, known as the graft union, tells a story. Almost every rose sold in the UK is grafted; breeders join the stem of one rose, the scion, to the roots of a vigorous species rose, the rootstock, until they fuse together. The vigorous growth of the rootstock rose (usually Rosa laxa in the UK; or 'Dr Huey' in the US), is paired with the beautiful flowers of the scion: the best of both worlds. Or is it? What the breeders don't say is that roses can grow happily on their own roots. Grafting is cost-effective commercially; huge numbers of rose bushes can be propagated from a small amount of plant material often a single bud and plants are pushed up to saleable size in the first year. But own-root roses are enjoying an upsurge of interest due to their healthy growth and organic credentials. Roses grown on their own roots are hardier and stronger, and propagate easily from hardwood cuttings. They bloom for longer and are less susceptible to viruses. These roses start slowly, using their energy to produce a root system in the first year, before matching and surpassing the growth, flower production and longevity of grafted roses within three years. Roses from cuttings develop as an organic whole rather than as the result of a quick-fix, junk-food growth spurt. They require no extra cosseting. The suckers strong shoots that grow out from the base of the stem are even true to type. This avoids one of the perils of grafted rose-growing, where the rootstock rose sends out rogue stems that bloom in a completely different colour from the rest of the bush. Rose breeder David Austin introduced a collection of 10 of its most popular roses as "own roots" to its American market two years ago. It now sells almost 30. British breeder Eurosa is launching a range in the UK next year. For the moment, though, there is a free way to get own-root roses growing and that is by taking hardwood cuttings. Roses are easy to propagate in this way, and now, when plants are dormant and the stems are fully ripe, is the time to do it. Once taken, cuttings can be forgotten about until the following year. The stem calluses over during winter and produces roots in spring. All roses can be propagated from hardwood cuttings, so why not experiment with ones in your garden, or scope out friends' and neighbours' finest specimens and beg a cutting or two.

How to take cuttings

Choose strong, healthy shoots from this year's growth that are firm and woody. Use a sharp pair of secateurs to cut a

straight stem around 30cm long and the thickness of a pencil. Remove leaves and the soft tip. Cut sharply and cleanly straight across the base of the removed stem, immediately below a bud. Snip the top of the cutting at an angle. This stops water pooling here and helps you tell the difference between the top and bottom: it is important to plant the cutting the right way up. Make a hole (or trench, if you're propagating several at once) outdoors in a sheltered spot. Add some grit and push the cutting vertically into the ground until two-thirds of the stem is buried. Roots will form along the stem and the buds above ground will start to grow in spring. Leave the cuttings in place until the following autumn, then transplant to their final home.

Roses to grow
'Buff Beauty' is a hybrid musk rose. It has double blooms in an apricot yellow that fade to soft cream and have a strong tea rose fragrance. After three years, it grows into a shrub with smooth, arching stems and dark green foliage. Repeat flowering. Height and spread: 2m x 2m. 'Boscobel' is a red-budded shrub rose; the buds open to loose, double blooms in blushing pinks and apricots. It has a heady myrrh scent. Height and spread: 1m x 1m. 'Cantabrigiensis' is a free-flowering shrub rose suitable for larger gardens. Single, open, pale yellow flowers are followed by orange hips in autumn. Height and spread: 4m x 4m. 'Charles de Mills' is a smaller shrub gallica rose with an upright habit. The velvety-crimson flat flowers are densely petalled and measure 10cm across. With few thorns, it is very healthy, reliable and hardy. Height and spread: 1m x 1.2m. 'Madame Alfred Carrire' is a vigorous, repeat-flowering climbing rose. Unstructured, milky-cream blooms with a hint of pink open intermittently from May onwards. Height and spread: 4m x 8m.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Let's move to: Moseley, Birmingham

Built for wealthy industrialists, this Birmingham suburb will provide rich pickings for oligarchs if HS2 ever gets built
Tom Dyckhoff The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 16.30 GMT Jump to comments ()

Moseley: 'What streets! What houses!' Photograph: Andrew Fox for the Guardian

What's going for it? This week's sermon is on genuine value. If HS2 ever comes off, all the oligarchs turning London into Shangri-la may turn their eyes to Birmingham. And Brum, God forbid, will become a suburb of London. Moseley, where you can buy a huuuuuge Arts and Crafts pile for the price of a three-bed terrace in Peckham, will be easy pickings. But what streets! What houses! Let me pop on my architectural historian's hat and geek-drool over newel posts to die for! Luxurious banisters! Mullions! Moseley dates from the late 19th century, when the idea of the British home was at its aspirational peak, and the architects did not hold back, making it the goto address for Birmingham's industrialists who, high on a hill overlooking the centre, could keep an eye on their factories without filling their lungs with soot. The homes are works of art and, unlike that three-bed terrace in Peckham (no disrespect), worth every penny. Until the oligarchs arrive. The case against Traffic. Alcester Road. Moseley's centre was built like an old village green, only now with white vans and artics. A whiff of kool dude young gentrification. (Pleasantly) shabby round the edges. Well connected? Two miles from the centre, a mile from the university and Queen Elizabeth hospital, and with four main roads heading south. Walking aside, it's buses only round here, though there are lots of them. Hang out at The Balti Triangle is just down the hill. Carters on Wake Green Road is a splendid brasserie. Schools Very good. Primaries: Anderton Park, Park Hill, St Martin de Porres Catholic, King David and Moseley CofE are all "good", says Ofsted, with Ss John and Monica Catholic, Heath Mount, Nelson Mandela, Clifton all "outstanding". Secondaries: lots of independents, but in the state sector Queensbridge and Fox Hollies are "outstanding". Where to buy It's almost all lovely on the hill, with leafy streets lined with mahooosive houses with original stained glass. Quite a few do-uppers. Towards Wake Green, the period shifts to Edwardian/1920s. Cheaper terraces down the hill north to Balsall Heath and east to Sparkhill. Market values Huge detacheds, 600,000-1m. Detacheds, 230,000-600,000. Semis, 150,000-600,000. Terraces, 100,000-300,000. Flats, 75,000-350,000. Rentals: one-bed flats, 400-600pcm; three-bed houses, 625-1,200pcm. Bargain of the week Vast, seven-bed, late-Victorian semi opposite Cannon Hill Park, currently flats and requiring renovation, 375,000, with Robert Powell.

From the streets

Joanne Owen "Fantastic farmers' market and arts market on the last Saturday of every month, plus some excellent independent coffee shops, my favourite being Cafephilia." Majid Salim "The Patrick Kavanagh bar. Known as Pat Kav's, it's a hub for clued-up locals and does a wide range

of beers." Live in Moseley? Join the debate below. Do you live in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire? Do you have a favourite haunt or a pet hate? If so, please email, by next Tuesday, to lets.move@theguardian.com

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Weekend: Back

Weekend readers' best photographs: snack

Weekend readers' best photographs: snack

From leaves to kebabs: your best pictures on this week's theme, snack The next topic is prepare (to appear December 14). Email a hi-res image (one per entry), plus a sentence or two about what inspired you to take your photo, to in.pictures@guardian.co.uk by noon on Wednesday December 4; please supply a daytime telephone number. Conditions apply go to guardian.co.uk/theguardian/weekend/in-pictures-termsand-conditions for full terms and conditions

The Guide: Features

Why Hollywood doesn't get South Korean cinema R Kelly, everything you need to know - infographic

Why Hollywood doesn't get South Korean cinema

Will Spike Lee's adaptation of Oldboy be just another attempt to 'make coleslaw out of kimchi'?
Steve Rose The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 14.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

Min-Sik Choi in Oldboy. Photograph: Allstar

South Korea's cinema boom continues to echo through Hollywood, with the country's acting talent heading Stateside and Korean stories regularly remade. Yet these Americanised versions often end up drained of the weirdness that made them so bracing. It's like trying to make coleslaw out of kimchi. Here are five things that Korean cinema does better. Oldboy Production year: 2013 Directors: Spike Lee Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Josh Brolin, Samuel L Jackson More on this film

Inventive murder weapons

There's no right to bear arms in the South Korean constitution, but it doesn't say anything about hammers. In Hollywood you can simply spray the bad guy with bullets; in Korea, you've got to think out of the box. The toolbox, most often. Oldboy and The Chaser said it with hammers; The Isle deployed fish hooks (many viewers are still recovering); other novel weaponry has included pliers, golf clubs, dumbbells, or simply bare hands. All of which make for visceral close-combat fight scenes and higher dry cleaning bills.

Deranged storylines
South Korea shares a border with a communist dictatorship that's hungry, armed to the teeth and constantly threatening to start a nuclear war. The US has Canada. Living in a permanent state of military paranoia must do things to the South Korean psyche that we cannot comprehend. Perhaps this is why they so regularly come up with terrifying horrors and ingenious gotcha plot twists. What's beyond our wildest imaginations isn't beyond theirs.

Genre-bending
It's not just geographical borders that are shakier. Korean movies blithely flout Hollywood's carefully policed genre rules. As a result, they end up with labels like "kimchi western" (The Good, The Bad, The Weird), "eco-kidnap serial-killer alien-invasion thriller" (Save The Green Planet!) or "man who has a gun inserted into his penis and becomes aroused at the sight of ballerinas and has a brother who's half-tiger drama" (Never Belongs To Me).

Varied menus
We can all agree that harming animals in the name of cinema is not a good thing. But when it comes to "commitment

We can all agree that harming animals in the name of cinema is not a good thing. But when it comes to "commitment to the role", Choi Min-sik's consumption of a live octopus in the original Oldboy takes some beating. Animal cruelty is a no-no in western cinema, but you wouldn't want to be a horse, fish, frog, dog or cephalopod with movie ambitions in Korea, judging by the real horrors they're routinely subjected to. To be fair, Choi a Buddhist said prayers apologising to the octopus before each take.

Epic ambitions
If it's the extremes of Korean cinema that get lapped up in the west, is that their problem or ours? Away from the violence and the weirdness, Korea supports a healthy contingent of award-winning auteurs, like Hong Sang-soo, Im Sang-soo or Lee Chang-dong. But there are also signs that American audiences have shorter attention spans. Bong Joon-ho is making a valiant attempt to bridge the cultural divide with his new sci-fi saga Snowpiercer, starring Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho and Tilda Swinton. But he's fighting with his US distributor, Harvey Weinstein, who wants to cut it by 20 minutes for American audiences. If there's one thing Koreans should have learned about negotiating with Hollywood by now, it's always bring a hammer. Spike Lee's Oldboy is out in the UK on 6 Dec

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Series: Infomania
Johnny Dee The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 16.00 GMT

Print this Share Contact us Sender's name Recipient's email address Your IP address will be logged Short link for this page: http://gu.com/p/3kngv StumbleUpon reddit Tumblr Digg LinkedIn Google Bookmarks del.icio.us livejournal

Facebook Twitter Contact the Culture editor culture.editor@guardian.co.uk Report errors or inaccuracies: reader@theguardian.com Letters for publication should be sent to: letters@theguardian.com If you need help using the site: userhelp@theguardian.com Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard: +44 (0)20 3353 2000 Advertising guide License/buy our content

Previous Series: Infomania

R Kelly, everything you need to know - infographic

Born in 1967, the R&B artist Robert Sylvester Kelly has sold more than 38 million albums as well as creating the rap opera Trapped In The Closet

The Guide: Previews

Sheffield bands forge a future away from Arctic Monkeys Kyle Hall's favourite tracks The Little Mermaid, American Psycho, Stephen Ward: what to see at the theatre this week Jake And Dinos Chapman, Debbie Lawson: this week's art shows in pictures

Sheffield bands forge a future away from Arctic Monkeys

A regular influx of creative minds, an absence of hype, and good old 'Yorkshire graft' help to keep the Steel City's music scene sounding fresh
Luke Holland theguardian.com, Friday 29 November 2013 13.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

Hey Sholay: onstage (mostly) at Sheffield's Tramlines festival.

Music that's dripping with wry, smoggy romanticism that, to many, is Sheffield. The shadow cast by Hawley, Cocker, Turner et al is a mighty long one, but within it hundreds of acts plough subtler furrows, unafraid to experiment. The music coming out of the Steel City at the trumpet end of 2013 is proud of, and utterly dependent on, its city, yet sounds nothing at all like the music of its past icons. In a place that, more than most, becomes defined by a single act once a decade, standing apart is an essential survival mechanism. Nick Cox, guitarist in joy-rock collective Screaming Maldini, explains: "Maybe non-Sheffielders think we all sound like Arctic Monkeys; a lot of bands here [at one point] did. In trying to escape being tarred with the Pulp/Monkeys brush, our bands have got to go the extra mile musically." "We've got the freedom to keep making rich, diverse music away from the glare of people who feel they already know what sort of music Sheffield makes," says Leigh Greenwood, singer of Low Duo, a band steeped in dreamy atmospherics. "In reality, it's much more diverse here than outsiders assume. A skewed outlook or different slant is celebrated." Laurie Allport, guitarist of electro-flecked indie troupe Hey Sholay, agrees: "There's no real assistance from the southern-based music industry. It leaves imaginations to germinate free of influence." This freedom allows a creative, egalitarian atmosphere to flourish. "The bands all seem to be mates, willing to slug it together," says Alex Dowson, producer of the BBC Introducing In Sheffield radio show an observation confirmed by Allport. "The musicians are a community and obsessively modest," he says. This is not of scene of leaders and followers. Take the mousetrap-taut garage rock of Radical Boy and the soon-tobe-defunct Wet Nuns the lads are calling it a day after their current tour ("But hey, at least we'll never make a shit album!") and juxtapose it with the detuned riffery of Dead Sons, the gentle acoustic beauty of Joe Banfi or the dusty Americana of the Payroll Union, and you paint a picture of an indie scene that's nothing if not diverse. Jake Murray, bassist of melodic quintet Blessa (who met at university in the city) can account for his own band's individuality, at least. "Sheffield was stuck in a rut; acts riding the tails of bands like Arctic Monkeys. We tried to frame ourselves in opposition to that." Blessa and Screaming Maldini both comprised of members from inside and outside Sheffield suggest the influx of creative outsiders may also have a part to play in its shifting musical landscape. "Many stay after uni," says Cox. "It's a melting pot of creative people from different backgrounds." Dowson, however, has a much simpler explanation for Sheffield's aural vibrancy: "It's good old Yorkshire graft mate." Low Duo play The Forum, Sheffield, 1 Dec; catch Blessa at the Artrocker New Blood festival, Hoxton Bar and Grill, N1, 16 Jan; Hey Sholay appear at Notting Hill Arts Club, W11, 7 Apr. Screaming Maldini's debut album is out on 4 Feb

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Kyle Hall's favourite tracks

The Detroit producer behind superb LP The Boat Party empties the contents of his psychic record bag
Ben Beaumont-Thomas The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 18.00 GMT Jump to comments ()

Photograph: Jeremy Deputat

The track I'll be opening my next DJ set with Steve Reich: Come Out
Go listen for yourself. A proper creepy hypnotic record sure to get people's attention, to say the least.

The track I always play to rescue a dancefloor Dennis Ferrer & Jerome Sydenham: Timbuktu
I made an extended 10-minute edit of these drums. The track's really punchy and it works as a good tool to layer under anything that needs a lil' oomph for the floor. I wouldn't really call it a rescue so much as an enhancement tool; pretty much always gets the floor going under most circumstances.

The track that currently gets the most rewinds Omar-S: Solely Supported
Feels like I've dropped this acid banger damn near every gig, jeez.

The track I'd play to show off my eclectic tastes Paul McCartney: Secret Friend
I really like the tropical groove of this record. My friend Femi put me up on this one.

The track I think has been unfairly slept on this year GB: The Seeker
"Slept on" is relative to what audience you're speaking about, I guess. But this is absolutely bananas, I love this record. Way more people need to start paying attention to his music.

The track I'd play at my auntie's wedding Zapp: Computer Love

Depends on the auntie, but one of them would love this; it's classic electro.

The ideal festival track Anthony "Shake" Shakir: Pursuit Mix 3

This always reminds me of big crowds. An insanely climactic track.

The track I'd play at sunset in Ibiza Loftsoul Feat Lisa Millet: Dear Friend (DJ Spinna remix)
The bassline is real sexy. Listen and figure out why it's perfect for Ibiza.

The best track by my favourite new artist Jay Daniel: Exit

This is out on my label Wild Oats this year. He's a rising star on the Detroit house scene.

The track that should have been a crossover hit Seven Davis Jr: All Kinds
It's not even out yet, but it needs to cross over when it is!

The track I'd play at my funeral Art Of Noise: Moments In Love (Extended mix)
This is like 20 minutes long; a timeless classic in Detroit. Kyle Hall plays The Hydra: Hyperdub, XOYO, EC2, Sat

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

The Little Mermaid, American Psycho, Stephen Ward: what to see at the theatre this week
The Little Mermaid | Dark Woods, Deep Snow | American Psycho: The Musical | The Nutcracker | Stephen Ward | Chicago

Mark Cook & Lyn Gardner The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 13.00 GMT

The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid, Bristol

How will they make the princess float? That was the question everyone was asking before the premiere of The Light Princess. The NT came up with an ingenious solution for that problem and director Simon Godwin is likely to have an equally inventive way of making his mermaid swim in this stage version of Hans Christian Andersen's story about desire and devotion. Like Andersen's The Red Shoes, there are many problematic issues around the way that women are represented in the story, but just as Kneehigh offered a new slant on The Red Shoes, so Godwin should find ways to make this story feel fresher and more modern, particularly as he has former Skins writer Joel Horwood onboard. Bristol Old Vic, Sat to 18 Jan LG

Dark Woods, Deep Snow, Newcastle upon Tyne

Things get Grimm in Newcastle this Christmas when Northern Stage's Lorne Campbell takes everyone into the forest for a show that promises fairytale magic, dark mystery and quite a lot of the gaudy, gorgeous mayhem that characterised her wonderful The Bloody Great Border Ballad Project at Northern Stage at St Stephens in Edinburgh this summer. It's written by Chris Thorpe, who has impressed this year with intelligent shows that take audiences into the dark thickets of the imagination, but which also have a great sense of fun. The under-sixes have their own Christmas show: Tallest Tales From The Furthest Forest. Northern Stage, Mon to 28 Dec LG

American Psycho: The Musical, London

There would be plenty of interest in a new stage adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's novel, American Psycho, but the decision to cast outgoing Doctor Who, Matt Smith, as the yuppie sociopath Patrick Bateman ups the ante. Smith's about to swap the tardis for a world of Phil Collins, OCD and murder, but it's not like he hasn't treaded the boards before. In his pre-Doctor Who he featured in That Face and The History Boys, and he's about to star in the Ryan Gosling-directed film How To Catch A Monster. Almeida chief Rupert Goold directs for his Headlong company, which premiered the award-winning Chimerica at this Islington venue. The musical transformation comes via Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (book) and Duncan Sheik (music). Almeida Theatre, N1, Tue to 25 Jan MC

The Nutcracker, Southampton

Hattie Naylor and Paul Dodgson's high spirited version of ETA Hoffmann's story was first seen at The Egg in Bath. Very good it was too, although Clara's struggle to break the spell on the nutcracker and defeat the King of the Mice looks even more enticing in this new staging by Blanche McIntyre. She's a director who is worth travelling to see, and this marks the beginning of a new future for this campus theatre under the directorship of Sam Hodges. McIntyre will be back in Southampton next year for a staging of all nine plays in Nol Coward's Tonight at 8.30, which is part of a season that also includes Caryl Churchill's A Number, and Anya Reiss's new version of Spring Awakening. Nuffield Theatre, Thu to 12 Jan LG

Stephen Ward, London

Photograph: Simon Turtle

It's been three years since Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the Phantom sequel Love Never Dies, which got mixed reviews. Now, with playwright Christopher Hampton and lyricist Don Black, he's turned his attention to a story that has already featured in such films as Scandal the game-changing sex-and-spying Profumo affair of 1963, but more particularly the involvement of Stephen Ward, the society osteopath at the centre of the triangle between Profumo, call girl Christine Keeler and a Russian attach. Ward played by Alexander Hanson (who starred in A Little Night Music in London and Broadway) is controversially portrayed here as an unwitting scapegoat rather than high-class pimp. Aldwych Theatre, WC2, Tue to 1 Mar MC

Chicago, Leicester
When it closed back in 2012, Kander & Ebb's sly musical celebration of femmes who really did prove fatal to their menfolk, had become the longest-running revival that the West End had ever seen. It also attracted a string of stars and celebs to the key roles, including Brooke Shields. Now Paul Kerryson directs a new revival of a show, which has taken on a new lease of life since the 2002 movie, and which follows the fortunes of hoofers Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly who form a nightclub act after winning their freedom. Bob Fosse's distinctive, pigeon-toed choreography was key to previous productions' success, so it will be interesting to see how much this deviates and finds its own style. Curve Theatre, Sat to 18 Jan LG

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Jake And Dinos Chapman, Debbie Lawson: this week's art shows in pictures
From Debbie Lawson's magic carpet sculptures in Perth to Jake and Dinos Chapman's Hell in London, Skye Sherwin and Robert Clark find out what's happening in art around the country

Cook: Cook

Gluten-free, egg-free and dairy-free Christmas pudding

Gluten-free, egg-free and dairy-free Christmas pudding

An indulgent Christmas pudding the whole family can have fun preparing and tha everyone can enjoy
Susanna Booth The Guardian, Friday 29 November 2013 12.29 GMT Jump to comments ()

Christmas pudding, but free from gluten, egg an Photograph: Jill Mead for the Guardian

Since Victorian times, the last week before Advent has traditionally been the time when Christian families would get together to make Christmas pudding. This lovely moist version was an instant hit with my family and suits a host of free!froms, because it contains neither gluten, dairy nor eggs although you'd honestly never guess. If you want it nut-free, simply omit the almonds. Serves 4-6 100g gluten-free self-raising flour 2 tsp mixed spice A pinch of salt 75g pure vegetable fat, frozen 1 dessert apple 50g blanched almonds 300g raisins 200g sultanas 140g instant polenta (cornmeal) 400ml boiling water 2 medium bananas 50g golden brown soft sugar 2 tbsp treacle 100g thick-cut marmalade 2 tbsp rum 1 Add the flour, spice and salt to a very large bowl. Roughly grate in the frozen vegetable fat. The easiest way to do this is to place the bowl on the scales, wrap a little foil and a tea towel around the fat and then grate it directly into the bowl. Immediately stir the fat into the flour. 2 Grate the apple and roughly chop the nuts. Stir them into the flour together with the raisins and sultanas. 3 Place the polenta in a second bowl and pour in the boiling water. Stir and set aside for about 15 minutes until

thickened and cooled. 4 In a third bowl, mash the banana and then add the sugar, treacle, marmalade and 1 tbsp rum. 5 Now mix everything until well combined. Allow everyone to have a stir and make a Christmas wish. 6 Place the pudding in a 1.5 litre heatproof bowl and cover with a piece of pleated foil, secured with an elastic band. Place the pudding on an upturned saucer in a stockpot. Pour boiling water into the stockpot until it is one-third the height of the bowl. Put the lid on and simmer for six hours. Top up the water as necessary. 7 Once cooled, remove the foil and pour the remaining rum over the top. Cover with new foil and leave in the fridge until Christmas Day. Reheat by steaming for two hours in the same way as before. What to watch out for Vegetable suet usually has wheat flour added, so you'll need pure vegetable fat (for example, Trex), which can be found in the chiller cabinet.

Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email

Table of Contents
The Guardian and The Observer Top stories Mark Carney warns house buyers: can you afford the mortgage? A very public murder: the killing of Private Lee Rigby Co-op Bank investors back 1.5bn rescue Saatchi: 'I adore Nigella now and I am broken-hearted to have lost her' UK news David Cameron to argue in favour of green jobs in new year Court hears countdown to 'horrific, frenzied' Woolwich attack Fights break out at Asda as shoppers descend on Black Friday deals Christmas unwrapped: retro cameras among gifts to be snapped up this year Christmas shopping: click, click merrily online, the virtual tills are ringing Labour is still weak on economic strategy, warns former Brown adviser New asbo threat to carol singers is 'complete nonsense', says minister Badger cull called off in Gloucestershire UK embarks on biggest food drive since second world war Iron Maiden: too hairy for pop but still turning metal into gold Poll shows growing disaffection over private healthcare providers Analysis: don't mention opium war or human rights Comet Ison: a viewer's guide Comet Ison appears to survive close encounter with the sun

Labour calls for BT to cut line rental charges as part of eight-point plan Low pay commission talks to UK workers to advise on minimum wage George Osborne's rejection of Keynes vindicated by recovery, say allies Arctic 30: unlikely activist forced to find strength in Murmansk jail London 'slave' group went from figures of fun to tiny underground commune Britain's damp, leaky homes among Europe's most costly to heat By 'eck chuck, Coronation Street's moving out of Manchester Quarter of primary schools have fined parents for term-time holidays, survey says The Guardian and Observer Christmas appeal 2013: Future Africa Katine's farmers struggle in face of floods and drought More borrowing under universal credit scheme Mairead Philpott loses appeal against 17-year sentence for manslaughter House of Cards writer to present EU referendum bill into the House of Lords St Jude storm may have killed around 10 million trees Peaches Geldof apologises for Ian Watkins sex abuse tweet Paddy Ashdown warns lack of action in climate change risks extreme weather HS2 planning: 'How on earth is the public meant to make sense of this?' Simon Hoggart's week: let's end this obsession over Ed Miliband International Saudi Arabia's foreign labour crackdown drives out 2m migrants China scrambles fighter jets towards US and Japan aircraft in disputed air zone Ukraine aligns with Moscow as EU summit fails Egyptian activist arrested amid government crackdown on dissent Repeat of 2010 Bangkok clashes feared as anti-Thaksin protesters march on Britons protest over Israel plan to remove 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins French businessman heads to desert island to become first 'Web Robinson' Shuga: the soap opera helping Africa confront HIV Jacob Zuma accused of corruption 'on a grand scale' in South Africa Afghan interpreters who fell in love with US soldiers struggle in visa limbo US commander in Afghanistan apologises for Helmand drone strike German policeman arrested over death of man he met via cannibalism website Bolshoi ballet dancer awaits verdict in acid attack trial China's largest desert freshwater lake shrinking faster than ever Silvio Berlusconi paid off witnesses, says Italian court Financial Business lending drops in October as BoE adjusts Funding for Lending Mortgage approvals at highest level since February 2008 UK house prices rising 6% a year, says Nationwide Interview: Bank of England governor Mark Carney Two of Britain's big six sell windfarm high-voltage link for 317m Thames Water defers tax liability after 19% surge in profits Ofgem's acting chief executive pulls out of race for top job Co-op and Ecotricity fixed deals pile pressure on Big Six Marks & Spencer staff in Ireland vote to strike over company pension scheme City pay and bonus boom revealed Eurozone youth unemployment reaches record high of 24.4% Indian developer pays 306m for Canadian high commission building Tesco boss faces chorus of scepticism on profit margins Martha Lane Fox stands down as UK digital champion Housing boom lures German builders to leave 'boring Bavaria' for London Saturday

Troubled Families head Louise Casey: 'What's missing is love' The Sun on Sunday lied about me last week. Have they learned nothing? Sexual violence against girls - we must open our eyes Prescott, Blair, Straw the next generation of UK politics? Would I choose a British or Scottish passport? It's fast becoming a reality Comment & debate Peaches Geldof's vigilante tweeting speaks for England End this gutter debate about Britain's immigration policy Could an independent Scotland liberate all Britons? Martin Rowson on David Cameron and the green agenda cartoon Justin Welby has got his wires crossed on fashion Editorials & reply European Union: Britain and the larger view From the archive: 30 November 1985: Botham hits final boundary I hear a tap, tap, tap, but who is doing the tapping? Unthinkable? 007, working-class hero Adhoc-o-nomics: the market and the state Corrections and clarifications UK must protest at Bedouin expulsion Putting the record stright on JFK, civil rights and Vietnam Female philosophers Goodbye, Araucaria, and thank you On your boat Good to meet you Paul Shillito Calling Ian Watkins evil absolves us of the need to try to comprehend what he did Obituaries Saul Leiter obituary Frances David obituary Hetty Bower obituary Frank Gray obituary Stephen Bower obituary Reg Simpson obituary Reviews Little Boots review The White Carnation review Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom TV review Weather Weatherwatch: The cleverness of mushrooms Sport: News & features David Warner offers regrets and best wishes as Jonathan Trott recovers Daniel Sturridge injured in training as Liverpool enter crunch month Arsenal's Aaron Ramsey schooled at Cardiff City to be top of class Scandal reminds Arsenal's Arsne Wenger of Marseille misgivings Romelu Lukaku asked Chelsea for transfer before joining Everton Everton put Aiden McGeady and Landon Donovan on shopping list Joleon Lescott's frustration at Manchester City could lead to move Two men appear in magistrates court over 'match-fixing' case Sam Allardyce urges his West Ham strugglers to show true spirit Andr Villas-Boas has history against him in Manchester United acid test Andr Villas-Boas gets Tromso 'sacked in the morning' fan ejected Wayne Rooney could play every game all season, says David Moyes Everton v Stoke City: Squad sheets

Everton v Stoke City: Squad sheets West Ham United v Fulham: Squad sheets Aston Villa v Sunderland: Squad sheets Manchester City v Swansea: Squad sheets Chelsea v Southampton: Squad sheets Hull v Liverpool: Squad sheets Norwich City v Crystal Palace: Squad sheets Tottenham v Manchester United: Squad sheets Newcastle v West Brom: Squad sheets Cardiff City v Arsenal: Squad sheets Shane Long determined to build on wonder goal for West Bromwich Albion Chelsea Ladies anticipate 'mind-blowing' reception in Japan for IWCC Ashes: Adelaide Oval is breaking new ground so hold on to your hard hat Gary Ballance tilts towards England Ashes debut in Adelaide Tour de France fever writes a new chapter in the Yorkshire Dales diary Leicester's Toby Flood puts boot into Gloucester to complete turn-around England's Marland Yarde could miss entire Six Nations after hip injury Wales believe they can beat Australia and finally end Wallaby hoodoo Weary Australia seek win over Wales to end their most hectic year ever All Blacks coach Steve Hansen opens another door with the Barbarians Magnus Carlsen hits heights but doubts remain over historical standing Australia dismiss revenge motivation against New Zealand in cup final Timmy Murphy set to miss Hennessy Gold Cup ride on Our Father Ashes: We weren't meant to fall in love with Jonathan Trott but we did Guardian review: Features & reviews The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan review Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics by Michael Ignatieff review High Minds: The Victorians and the Birth of Modern Britain by Simon Heffer review Treasure Neverland: Real and Imaginary Pirates by Neil Rennie review The Leonard Bernstein Letters edited by Nigel Simeone review Mitterrand: A Study in Ambiguity by Philip Short review Shooting Stars: Ten Historical Miniatures, by Stefan Zweig review Religion Without God by Ronald Dworkin review A Strong Song Tows Us: The Life of Basil Bunting by Richard Burton review The New York Nobody Knows by William B Helmreich review Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett review Equilateral by Ken Kalfus review When the Time Comes by Josef Winkler review Crime fiction roundup reviews How to write 50,000 words in a month John Mullan on Bridget Jones Guardian book club Sleeping Keys by Jean Sprackland review Gerald Finley: 'I feel I've joined the Wagner train and I have a valid ticket' Masters of Sex by Thomas Maier review Pablo Neruda: A Passion for Life by Adam Feinstein review Map of Days by Robert Hunter review Pietr the Latvian by Georges Simenon review Winter by Adam Gopnik review Easy Go by Michael Crichton review Margaret Atwood on the show-stopping Isak Dinesen Travel: Travel features Rio de Janeiro: walking the world's megacities

John Grant on Reykjavik A day in Kreuzberg, Berlin Highland hideaways: 10 of the best Scottish escapes The Hardwick, Abergavenny, Wales: hotel review Cuba's hidden treasure: La Isla de la Juventud Family: Family features Why family theatre is not just for Christmas My toddler bites people My list of Christmas tears and cheers Peter Ackroyd: My family values Money: Money news & features The best tablets for under 200 Christmas delivery dates: how to mail your cards and gifts post haste Weekend: Starters Pictures of the week: Revising History by Jennifer Greenburg Weekend: Features Finger-lickin' good: Angela Hartnett's simple party food recipes Weekend: Fashion and beauty Party dresses: All ages fashion - in pictures Fashion wish list: what we like this week - in pictures Lace: Get the look - in pictures How to dress: lace From skater girls to pony skin: what's hot and what's not on planet fashion this week Weekend: Space Interior design ideas: American kitchens - in pictures Gardens: roses on their own roots Let's move to: Moseley, Birmingham Weekend: Back Weekend readers' best photographs: snack The Guide: Features Why Hollywood doesn't get South Korean cinema R Kelly, everything you need to know - infographic The Guide: Previews Sheffield bands forge a future away from Arctic Monkeys Kyle Hall's favourite tracks The Little Mermaid, American Psycho, Stephen Ward: what to see at the theatre this week Jake And Dinos Chapman, Debbie Lawson: this week's art shows in pictures Cook: Cook Gluten-free, egg-free and dairy-free Christmas pudding