daily newspaper of the year

Monday February 5 2024 | thetimes.co.uk | No 74323

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A prescription for health
Huge fall in
Public want
Met officers
prepared to
carry guns
digital pass
for all their
GP records
pages 6-7
The state of the NHS and social care in Britain today — and how we fix it News,
and pullout

Fiona Hamilton Chief Reporter
David Woode Crime Correspondent

80% back call to have universal health ‘passport’
Health Commission
Rachel Sylvester
Eleanor Hayward Health Correspondent

Every NHS patient should have their
health information digitally stored in
one place so that any doctor treating
them can access their records no matter
where they are, The Times Health
Commission has concluded.
Eight in ten people support the
creation of “patient passports” that
would provide a single system to keep
track of medical records throughout a
person’s life, and which could be
accessed seamlessly across GPs, NHS
hospitals, pharmacies and social care.
The proposal is the first of ten key
recommendations in the Times Health
Commission Report, which is being
published after a year-long inquiry and
amid widespread backing for a data
revolution in healthcare.
The commission, led by a panel of
experts from across health and social
care, spoke to more than 600 witnesses
including senior doctors, hospital
managers and politicians. It concluded
that “technology has the power to
transform healthcare”, with an urgent
need to overhaul outdated and fragmented systems that prevent data
being shared freely between different
parts of the NHS.
YouGov polling for the commission
indicates that 81 per cent of the public
back its key recommendation of NHS
digital health accounts, called patient
passports, with only 10 per cent against.

Eighty-nine per cent said that patients
should automatically be allowed to
access their own medical records.
The accounts could be accessed
through the NHS App — acting as the
gateway to the health service to book
appointments, order prescriptions,
view test results and contact doctors.
Similar systems are in place in Spain,
Singapore, Estonia, Israel and Denmark,
empowering patients and freeing staff
from bureaucracy. At present there are
“between 40 and 60” different types of
electronic patient records within the
NHS, the commission was told, and
about 10 per cent of hospitals are
entirely paper-based.
Under a universal patient passport
system, medical records could be stored
on people’s phones or medical cards,
and pulled up on arrival at their hospital,
GP surgery or pharmacy.
Polling indicates that 56 per cent of
the public agree that the convenience of
being able to book appointments easily
and access care outweighed any risk to
the privacy or security of their medical
records, compared with 22 per cent
who disagree. Sixty-eight per cent of
the public would be happy for the NHS
to allow other medical staff or clinicians
to access their records.
The digital health record would also
allow the NHS to make better use of its
data for life-saving medical research,
and 64 per cent said they would be
willing for their own data to be used
anonymously for research.
There is strong political appetite for
the reforms, with Sir Keir Starmer, the
Labour leader, telling the commission

Shimmering star The British singer-songwriter Dua Lipa at the Grammy awards
last night in California. She was nominated in two categories, including best song

Hundreds of officers have left the
Metropolitan Police’s firearms unit in
less than a year amid anger over
resourcing, disciplinary procedures
and the decision to charge a colleague
with murder.
Figures obtained by The Times show
that the drop in officers carrying
weapons is the biggest for years,
reflecting dissatisfaction about the role.
Between April and December last year,
the force lost more than 250 authorised
firearms officers — about one in ten —
compared with 22 in the 12 months
leading up to March 2023.
In the most recent available data, for
December, there were 2,339 officers
carrying firearms compared with a
high of 2,864 in March 2020.
In September the army was placed on
standby when dozens of officers
handed in their weapons in protest over
the decision to charge a colleague with
the murder of an unarmed black man.
Chris Kaba, 24, was struck in the head
by a single gunshot after a pursuit in
Streatham Hill, south London, a year
earlier. He died in hospital.
The officer has been known as NX121
but his identity is expected to be
disclosed after a court hearing next
month, which has caused further
disquiet among officers from SCO19,
the specialist firearms unit.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Met commissioner, sought to quell the autumn
revolt by pledging to push for new
safeguards, including fewer and speedier
investigations into alleged police
wrongdoing and stronger recognition
of the need for self-defence. A Home
Office review is under way.
However, Lord Macdonald of River
Glaven KC, a former director of public
prosecutions, said police should not
have a “veto” over charging decisions
made by prosecutors.
The prospect of less scrutiny also resulted in concern from police observers,
particularly given that the Met has had
scandals that have been primarily about
officer abuse of power. The force has
been purging predators since 2021 when
Wayne Couzens, a firearms officer

IN THE NEWS
Carrier withdrawn

Dogs kill woman

BBC expert witness

Gaza peace plan

Price rises ahead

Liverpool defeated

Mechanical problems have
forced the Royal Navy to halt
the deployment of the carrier
HMS Queen Elizabeth to
lead the largest Nato exercise
since the Cold War.

A grandmother, Esther
Martin, 68, was mauled to
death on Saturday by two
suspected XL bully dogs while
visiting her grandson near
Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.

Mary Harper, the Africa editor
for the World Service, has been
hired as an expert witness to
help at least 15 Somalian
criminals, including rapists, to
fight deportation.

A plan to end the war in Gaza
brings freedom closer for the
Palestinian prisoner Marwan
Barghouti, who was favoured
as the territory’s next president
in a recent poll.

Eighty-one per cent of British
companies expect to increase
the prices of their goods and
services over the next two
years, a survey carried out by
PwC has found.

Arsenal moved to within two
points of the top of the Premier
League with a 3-1 win over the
leaders, Liverpool. Both have
played two more games than
Manchester City.

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Monday February 5 2024 | the times

News

Today’s highlights
8.05am Dame Clare Gerada, Times health commissioner
11am
The exit interviews: Steve Brine is standing down
after 14 years as a Conservative MP
2pm
Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Tory party,
on his cultural and political milestones
3.45pm Tracy-Ann Oberman, right, on her
production of The Merchant of Venice
9pm
Zoe Strimpel, columnist, and Gerard Baker,
editor-at-large for The Wall Street Journal,
discuss the stories of the day

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NEWS

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TIMES2

GORILLA GLUT
Ape numbers surge
in Uganda after
conservation efforts

BARRY JOHN
Welsh rugby player
nicknamed
The King

HOT FLUSH
Harrow offers
lessons on
the menopause

PAGE 17

OBITUARY, PAGE 41

PAGES 2-3

313

days since Wall Street Journal
reporter Evan Gershkovich
was detained in Russia
#FreeEvan

Commonsense
royal memorial

Russia deploys
Africa army

€225 to park
big car in Paris

The late Queen’s
“relentless common
sense” will be kept in
mind as plans are made
for a memorial in her
honour, Lord Janvrin,
the former royal aide
leading the project,
has said.

Russian mercenaries
have claimed a new
foothold in Africa with
the first deployment of
the Kremlin’s new
private army, which
was established to
replace the mutinous
Wagner group.

Six hours of parking on
a Paris street in a 4x4
or large car will cost
€225. The charge was
backed in a referendum
held by Anne Hidalgo,
the Socialist mayor, on
curbs for polluting
vehicles.

COMMENT 19
LEADING ARTICLES 23
WORLD 24

BUSINESS 29
REGISTER 41
LAW REPORT 43

SPORT 47
CROSSWORD 56
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THE WEATHER

Oliver Wright Policy Editor

Britain’s intelligence agencies are to
vet all government contracts for threats
to national security amid fears that
“dangerous international actors” are
infiltrating critical public services.
Ministers will be given powers to be
able to blacklist companies from selling
goods and services to schools, hospitals
and central government if they have
links to potentially hostile states. A
national security unit will also be set up
in the Cabinet Office to liaise with MI5,
MI6 and GCHQ on contracts that
could jeopardise British resilience.
The move follows growing concerns
about the role of Chinese companies
and technical components in critical
national infrastructure.
In December it emerged that
National Grid had started removing
components supplied by a Chinese state-backed company from Britain’s electricity transmission network
over cybersecurity fears. It follows concerns in the US that “backdoor” electronics in elements like transformers
could be used to shut down parts of the
power network remotely.
As part of the new initiative the UK is

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11
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12
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23

Persistent rain in Scotland. Rain or
drizzle on other western hills. Bright
in the east.

expected to work with officials in the
US and other Five Eyes intelligence
partners to share expertise and identify
potential threats.
One senior government source said a
particular focus of the unit would be on
sectors such as artificial intelligence,
cloud computing and areas classed as
critical national infrastructure.
As well as looking at individual companies bidding for government contracts, security experts are also expected to examine their supply chains and
whether they could be using technology that could be vulnerable to interference by hostile states such as China.
The threat is pressing given the ongoing tensions over Taiwan and the
global economic disruption any conflict would cause.
Alex Burghart, a Cabinet Office minister, said the government was “acutely
aware” of the risks involved with foreign technologies “creeping into our
supply chains and infrastructure”.
He said: “We didn’t feel it was right to
leave contracting authorities with this
enormous responsibility of identifying
potential national security threats.
“The new unit will have responsibility for assessing national security exclu-

sions and will proactively scan the
public sector supply chains working
with national security partners across
government to monitor and co-ordinate response to risk.”
Burghart also announced that the
government planned to remove all
Chinese manufacturers’ surveillance
equipment from sensitive government
sites by April next year.
In November the Cabinet Office told
government departments to stop installing visual surveillance equipment
made by companies that were subject
to China’s national intelligence law,
which compels organisations to “cooperate” with state intelligence work.
Ministers have already banned Huawei, a Chinese technology company,
from the UK’s 5G network, removed Chinese investment and technology from the next generation of civil
nuclear power and now vet all foreign
takeovers of UK companies under the
National Security and Investment Act.
A US official said there was a “critical
need for secure supply chains and infrastructure”, adding: “The things that we
should be looking at is whether equipment is trustworthy, whether it’s subject to nation state control.”

Law ‘will enforce’ equal pay Fuel lottery as
for black and Asian workers prices in UK
Geraldine Scott
Senior Political Correspondent

Labour will enshrine in law the right of
black, Asian and other ethnic minority
people to equal pay if it wins the next
general election, the party is expected
to announce.
Anneliese Dodds, the shadow
women and equalities secretary, will reveal details of the party’s Race Equality
Act today. Dodds will tell race equality
campaigners and experts that the act
will “deliver growth in which everyone
in Britain can have a stake”.
Among the measures in the act will
be a duty placed on public services to
collect data and report on staffing, pay
and outcomes by ethnicity. It will also
strengthen protections for those who
face prejudice because of a combination of protected characteristics.
Under the plans, Labour would enact
measures already included in the
Equality Act 2010 which allow people
who face “dual discrimination” to bring
one claim. For example, a black woman
who believes she is facing both sexism
and racism. It is understood this is to reduce the administrative burden and
stress of going through two processes.
On pay, women at present have more

continued from page 1
Met officers put down their guns
3

11

Infrastructure contracts vetted
amid fears for national security

working in diplomatic protection, used
his police role to carry out the abduction,
rape and murder of Sarah Everard, 33.
The fall in headcount reflects
wider issues in the unit, including low
morale, poor pastoral care and lengthy
investigations by the Independent
Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
A source said: “Policing has changed
over the past few years but the same
issues exist internally and externally.
The treatment of officers involved in
police shootings and the lack of support
from senior leadership, both publicly
and privately, are some of the big issues.
They don’t support the officers — it’s a
token gesture now and again but on the

protections than black and Asian
people and other ethnic minorities, as
well as those with disabilities, because
claims for the latter groups must be allegations of direct discrimination. It
means that while everyone is entitled to
equal pay for equal work, pay claims
can be brought on the basis of sex for
equivalent work, for example if comparing a checkout worker and a warehouse worker in a supermarket.
Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon,
the mother of the teenager Stephen
Lawrence who was stabbed to death in
1993 by a racist gang, welcomed the act
as a “vital step towards tackling racial
inequality at source”.
She said: “Across health, our economy, education and our criminal justice system, it’s clear that action is
needed to root out the inequalities that
scar our society and hold too many
people back from achieving their
potential.”
Dodds said: “The evidence is clear:
you can’t deliver sustained economic
growth unless you include everyone. As
the party of equality, only Labour has a
plan to build a better, fairer future for
the entire country.”

whole it’s very poor. The other is the
length of IOPC investigations into police
shootings; many officers know they
could be the next and they don’t have
faith or confidence in the system that
investigates them to be treated fairly.”
Scotland Yard was dealt a blow last
autumn after a police marksman was
told he must face gross misconduct
proceedings almost eight years after he
shot dead a gangster, Jermaine Baker,
28. He was killed during an operation to
stop him trying to free two prisoners
being taken to Wood Green crown court
in north London in December 2015. The
police marksman, known as W80, was
investigated and the Crown Prosecution
Service did not bring charges.
The IOPC said there were grounds
for W80 to face disciplinary proceedings

‘wildly differ’
Ellie McDonald

Fuel prices are a postcode lottery, the
cheapest being in Northern Ireland.
RAC data suggests that prices there
remain 4p a litre lower, with petrol
averaging 136.2p and diesel 144.9p per
litre. Prices average 140.5p and 148.5p
elsewhere.
The data also shows that the threemonth fall in prices has come to an end.
Simon Williams, an RAC fuel spokesman, said: “It is still concerning ... that
the supermarkets are charging wildly
different prices for identical petrol and
diesel at different locations.”
Last month the cheapest litre of unleaded petrol was sold by Sainsbury’s
for 131.9p in Oxford and Newport; the
most expensive was 145.9p at Morrison’s in Exeter and Ipswich. For diesel,
there was a difference of more than 14p
between Sainsbury’s in Oxford and
Newport, charging 139.9p, compared
with Bath at 153.9p.
The wholesale prices of petrol and
diesel increased by 3p and 4p respectively in January after oil prices rose to
more than $80 amid uncertainty in the
Middle East.
but the Met disagreed and supported the
officer’s legal battle to block the case.
The Supreme Court ruled in the IOPC’s
favour in July last year.
In 2015 Tony Long was cleared of
murder ten years after he shot dead a
suspected armed robber. Azelle Rodney,
24, was killed in north London in April
2005 after Long fired eight shots in
2.1 seconds, six of which hit Rodney.
Ade Adelekan, a deputy assistant
commissioner at the Met, said: “We
recognise this is a challenging time for
our firearms officers ... While the discharge of a police firearm is very rare,
the scrutiny an officer will face for doing
so — although expected and understood — can put officers under a huge
amount of pressure, both professionally
and in their private life.”

the times | Monday February 5 2024

3

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News

Art tycoon drawn into will feud

A billionaire has seen
his family torn apart
by legal rows after his
wife’s death, writes
Hugh Tomlinson
Even among the world’s most
prominent art collectors and
museum directors, a tour of Hubert
Neumann’s home on Manhattan’s
Upper West Side is a rare privilege.
Every wall in the five-storey townhouse is lined with an array of modern
masterpieces, including works by Miró,
Warhol and Picasso. But the collection,
valued at an estimated $1 billion, is now
the focus of a feud that has led to at least
18 lawsuits and allegations of abuse and
fraud, tearing the family apart.
The rift started in 2016 with the death
of Neumann’s estranged wife, Dolores,
herself an avid collector and an early
champion of the graffiti artist JeanMichel Basquiat. Dolores had assured
their three daughters that her estate
would be divided equally. Although
most of the art collection remained in a
trust controlled by their father, Dolores

Melissa
Neumann and
her father,
Hubert, have
been in a legal
battle with her
sister Belinda over
the family’s
collection of
modern art
pieces

kept some of her own
paintings,
including
Basquiat’s Flesh and
Spirit, which was
bought for $15,000 in
1983 and is valued at
up to $40 million.
Her eldest and
youngest
daughters,
Kristina and Melissa,
were stunned, however, as
a new will was disclosed,
leaving the majority of
Dolores’s wealth and
assets, including the Basquiat, to Belinda, the
middle sister. “We’re
sisters,” Melissa recalled
Belinda saying, speaking to
The Wall Street Journal
this weekend. “We’ll get
through this.”
Instead, the row has only
deepened. Family members now only see each
other in court. When the
Neumanns appear at exhibitions and events, their
hosts keep them apart.
Hubert, the 92-yearold patriarch of the
family, has denounced his

wife’s will as “a disgrace, a travesty and
a family embarrassment”.
At the centre of the dispute is an incident in 2015, when Dolores fell, breaking her hip, and was taken to hospital by
Belinda. While her mother awaited surgery, Belinda says that she asked to redraft her will. New documents were
drawn up and signed the following day,
entrusting the entire estate to Belinda.
Belinda has insisted that she was
following her mother’s wishes. She won
a big court victory last year when, at the
end of a trial at which Hubert, the three
sisters and a grandchild testified, a jury
ruled that Belinda had not coerced her
mother to change her will.
Hubert and Melissa have appealed
against that verdict and won a victory
of their own last month, when they
fended off Belinda’s request to remove
her father as managing trustee of the
collection. Hubert had said he always
intended to pass on control of the
family collection to his three children
equally, as his father, Morton, had done.
It was Morton, a mail-order cosmetics tycoon in 1920s Chicago, who first
began collecting landscapes before his
teenage son, Hubert, encouraged him
to focus on modern art.
In 1951 Morton took his two sons to

visit the painter Fernand Léger in
France a few years before his death.
During the course of the trip, they
bought works by Man Ray, Miró and
Picasso, who became Morton’s friend.
Hubert and Dolores passed the
passion on to their daughters. “We were
always meant to do this together,”
Hubert lamented. Of Belinda, he said:
“She just wants me dead.”
Father and daughter have been
locked in a series of ugly lawsuits.
When Belinda put Flesh and Spirit up
for sale at Sotheby’s in 2018, two years
after her mother’s death, Hubert sued,
demanding that the auction house
withdraw the painting. Sotheby’s refused. When the masterpiece sold for
just over $30 million — some
$10 million less than some valuations
— Belinda countersued her father,
alleging that his lawsuit had undermined the sale.
What made matters worse was that
Hubert and Belinda were living in the
family home at the time. A court ordered them to stay on separate floors,
but it reached a nadir in late 2018 when
Belinda’s husband claimed that Hubert
had threatened him. The elderly man
spent a night in police cells before securing a court order to evict his daughter.

‘Watchtok’ woos millennials with world of luxury timepieces
Andrew Ellson
Consumer Affairs Correspondent

The world of luxury watches is not
something normally associated with
millennials. Now aged in their late
twenties to early forties, this generation
are more synonymous with housing
woes and avocado toast.
Yet they are proving unusually interested in fine timepieces and buying
them in record numbers. The auction

house Christie’s says millennials now
account for nearly two in five luxury
watch purchases, up from just over a
quarter four years ago. Experts say the
explanation is the popularity of “watch
influencers” on social media bringing
brands such as Rolex and Audemars
Piguet to a whole new consumer.
This subculture has been christened
“Watchtok” (wristwatch TikTok) and
its king is Anish Bhatt. He may now
have 1.7 million followers on Instagram

and live a life of luxury, but he grew up
in a flat in Wembley above a shop.
Bhatt, 43, said that when he first
started getting interested in watches
the language used was very technical.
“There were watch forums online but
they were mainly populated by older
gentlemen and it was always a jargonheavy discussion,” he said.
He set about trying to change that,
first by setting up a blog on Tumblr and
then in 2011 an Instagram account,

Watch Anish, which proved
key to his success. He said
part of the trick was presenting watches in reallife environments.
Bhatt was the first
watch influencer but he
is now far from alone.
There are dozens across
every social media platform. Danny Pizzigoni,
owner of the Watch Club in

Royal Arcade, Old Bond
Street, said he had seen
huge growth in customers in their twenties
and thirties. “They all
follow these guys that
are watch experts but
also celebrities,” he
said. “You see Jay-Z
[left] wearing Paul Newmans and Pharrell Williams with Richard Milles.”

4

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

News
Quintagram® No 1856
Solve all five concise clues using
each letter underneath once only
1 Excellent, marvellous (5)

-----

2 Compass point (5)

-----

3 System using 0 and 1 only (6)

------

4 Recording (a film) (8)

--------

5 Feel dazed or stunned (3,5)

-------A

A

B

E

E

E

G

H

H

I

I

N

N

N

O

O

O

P

R

R

R

R

S

S

S

S

S

T

T

T

U

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Solutions see MindGames
Cryptic clues see MindGames

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Eyes on the prize Jockeys battle it out during the Sinnington point-to-point amateur horse race held at Duncombe Park estate, near Helmsley in North Yorkshire

Propeller fault prevents
carrier joining exercises
Geraldine Scott
Senior Political Correspondent
Larisa Brown Defence Editor

The Royal Navy has suffered an embarrassing setback after mechanical problems stopped the aircraft carrier HMS
Queen Elizabeth from leading the largest Nato exercise since the Cold War.
The Ministry of Defence said an
“issue” with a propeller shaft had been
found during final checks and the vessel did not set sail as planned yesterday.
Its sister carrier HMS Prince of
Wales broke down 18 months ago off
the Isle of Wight as it sailed for the US
having suffered a malfunction on its
starboard propeller. Prince of Wales
will now be readied to take the place of
the £3 billion flagship on the exercise,
involve more than forty vessels.
It is believed that transferring engineering parts, food and other stores from
one vessel to the other could take about
a week and there would then be the
issue of ensuring that it had the F-35
fighters it needs on board.
The fault is a humiliation for the navy
as it was meant to be the centrepiece of
the Nato exercise. Queen Elizabeth was
also expected to divert to the Red Sea to
take over from a US aircraft carrier in
the region and it is unclear if Prince of
Wales will also take on this role.
Tom Sharpe, a former navy commander, said that the problem meant
that Britain could no longer send a
carrier to the Red Sea now even if it
wanted to. “That’s off the cards now for
a while,” he said.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman
said the problem on Queen Elizabeth
was “separate and not linked” to the

HMS Queen Elizabeth will remain in Portsmouth while the fault is dealt with

earlier defect on Prince of Wales. He
said: “The issue identified is with the
ship’s shaft couplings. The ship’s propeller shafts are too big to be made from a
single piece of metal, so each shaft is
made from three sections.” The ship’s
company on Prince of Wales were notified yesterday that they would have to
take part in the exercise instead.
There is increased scrutiny over the
size of the navy and recruitment problems. Vice-admiral Andrew Burns, fleet
commander, said: “Routine checks
identified an issue with a coupling on
HMS Queen Elizabeth’s starboard propeller shaft. As such, the ship will not
sail on Sunday.”
Prince of Wales will now take over
the lead of Exercise Steadfast Defender,
which will take place of Norway’s Arctic
coast next month.
Its sister ship had been due to lead a
carrier strike group of eight ships —
four of them British, including the Type
23 frigate HMS Somerset and two TideClass tankers from the Royal Fleet Aux-

iliary — supported by US, Spanish and
Danish vessels. It was to have been
joined by its F-35B Lightning stealth
jets from 617 Squadron at RAF Marham, submarine hunting and airborne
early-warning Merlin Mk2 helicopters
from Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS)
Culdrose and Wildcat helicopters of
847 Naval Air Squadron from RNAS
Yeovilton.
Commodore James Blackmore, commander UK carrier strike group, said:
“Steadfast Defender demonstrates the
unity of the alliance, our commitment
to it, and that the UK continues to play
a leading role in Nato.
“The exercise allows us to train with
our neighbours in a truly challenging
environment, especially at this time of
year, but that is why we have to operate
up there; the weather cannot put us off.”
The carrier strike group was due to
take part in the annual Joint Warrior
exercise off northern Scotland then
join Exercise Nordic Response, the
maritime part of Steadfast Defender.

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Houthis warn US and UK
of ‘reprisals’ after airstrikes
Melanie Swan Dubai

The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in
Yemen vowed that there would be
“consequences” for joint US and British
airstrikes on military sites around the
country.
After the third wave of assaults from
Britain and the US — the latest on Saturday striking at least 30 Houthi targets
in ten locations — Yahya Sarea, a
spokesman for the Houthi rebels, said
that the attacks “will not pass without a
response and consequences”.
He claimed that at least 48 airstrikes
were carried out within hours across
Sanaa, Hodeidah and Taiz. “These
attacks will not deter us from our moral,
religious and humanitarian stance in
support of the steadfast Palestinian
people in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
Separately, President Biden had
promised a response to a drone attack in
Jordan that killed three US troops and
wounded many more on January 28.
While the Pentagon has said it does
not want war with Iran, Jake Sullivan,
the White House national security adviser, announced yesterday that there
would be more strikes on Iranianbacked groups. He told NBC’s Meet the
Press: “We intend to take additional
action, to continue to send a clear
message that the United States will
respond when our forces are attacked.”
Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton,
the foreign secretary, implored the
Houthis to stop their “reckless” attacks
on international shipping in the Red
Sea. He said that Saturday’s joint
assaults came after “repeated warnings” for the rebel group to cease its
harassment campaign.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed
that RAF Typhoon jets were supported
by Voyager tankers during the allied
mission as they targeted locations in

Yemen used by the Iranian-backed
militants. More than 30 sites across 13
locations were hit by coalition forces,
according to a joint statement by the
eight nations involved.
Cameron wrote on Twitter/X: “We
have issued repeated warnings to the
Houthis. Their reckless actions are
putting innocent lives at risk, threatening the freedom of navigation and destabilising the region.”
Since Hamas’s attacks in Israel on
October 7, Iran’s proxies have come out
in solidarity with Hamas in Lebanon,
Syria, Iraq and Yemen. The groups have
launched 160 or more drone attacks on
US facilities in the region, punishing
the country for its support for Israel’s
right to defend itself.
The drone attack in Jordan prompted
48 hours of strikes across the region at
the weekend. On Friday night, more
than 85 strikes hit Iranian-linked sites
in Iraq and Syria. They are understood
to have killed nearly 40 people.
Ghaleb Ali Ahmed al-Qudaimi, a
Yemeni human rights activist on the
country’s national committee to
investigate rights violations, said that
rights groups feared a hidden death toll
from the overnight assault. “We have
teams searching for material damage
and civilian casualties. We are very
worried,” he said. So far, the Houthis
have not announced casualties.
Iran also issued a warning to the US
yesterday over potentially targeting
two cargo ships in the Middle East long
suspected of serving as spy ships for
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Nasser Kanaani, the Iranian foreign
ministry spokesman, condemned the
air and missile attacks, calling them
“flagrant violations of international law
by the United States and Britain”.

5

the times | Monday February 5 2024

News

Brianna’s mother calls for social media ban on children’s phones
Tom Ball Northern Correspondent

Brianna Ghey’s mother has called for
social media apps to be banned on
smartphones for children aged under
16, saying that for too long technology
companies have focused on profits over
protecting users.
The transgender schoolgirl was
stabbed to death on February 11 last
year at a park in Culcheth, Cheshire.
On Friday Scarlett Jenkinson and
Eddie Ratcliffe, both 16, were sentenced
to life imprisonment at Manchester
crown court for the murder. The killing
was described by Mrs Justice Yip as “exceptionally brutal” and motivated primarily by “sadistic desires” as well as, in
part, by transphobia.
Jenkinson, who was said to have been

the driving force behind the murder,
had an obsession with serial killers and
accessed the dark web to watch videos
of torture and suicide.
Launching a petition to demand the
changes to the way children access the
internet, Esther Ghey described the online world as the “wild west” and said
she wanted to see mobile phone companies take responsibility for the safeguarding of children.
“We’d like a law introduced so that
there are mobile phones that are only
suitable for under-16s,” she said. “So if
you’re over 16, you can have an adult
phone, but then under the age of 16, you
can have a children’s phone, which will
not have all of the social media apps
that are out there now. And also to have
software that is automatically down-

Esther Ghey told the BBC she did not
“carry any hate” for Brianna’s killers

loaded on the parents’ phone which
links to the children’s phone, that can
highlight key words.”
She said she believed such measures
would have kept Brianna safe, as her

killers’ search history would have been
flagged and they would have been able
to get “some kind of help”.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday With
Laura Kuenssberg, Ghey said that while
she did not “carry any hate” for the
killers, she did not forgive them.
Jenkinson’s family have said that
they were “truly sorry” for the horror
inflicted by their daughter and agreed
with the 22-year minimum sentence
imposed by the judge. They thanked
Ghey for her empathy towards them.
“Our lives are in turmoil, but our immediate focus is to make sure that we
don’t do anything against the wishes of
Brianna’s family,” they wrote in the
Warrington Guardian.
Ghey has never met Jenkinson’s
mother, a secondary school teacher,

Grandmother mauled to death
‘by XL bullies’ on family visit

who she said looked “completely broken” during the trial, but added that she
would be open to meeting her.
“I’d like to understand more how
their life was and what they went
through. I also want her to know that I
don’t blame her for what her child has
done,” said Ghey, 37, a food technologist. “I want her to know that I understand how difficult being a parent is
in this day and age with technology and
phones and the internet, and how hard
it is to monitor what your child is on.”
Ghey became visibly upset as she
spoke of her memories of Brianna in
her “fluffy pink pyjamas” eating pizza
while relaxing at home with her family.
“When I came home, she would be
home, and that’s why the house felt so
empty without her,” she said.

Owners win
heritage fight
to demolish
old vicarage

Billy Kenber
Tom Ball

A grandmother has been mauled to
death by two suspected XL bully dogs
while visiting her grandson in Essex.
Esther Martin, 68, died after being
attacked by the dogs on Saturday afternoon at a property in Jaywick Sands,
near Clacton-on-Sea. Neighbours
heard screaming and rushed to help,
some grabbing spades to try to fight off
the dogs. Police officers arrived within
minutes but Martin died at the scene.
Her family said the dogs were XL bullies, which became illegal to breed, sell
or abandon on December 31, although
the police have not confirmed the
breed.
A 39-year-old man, who the police
said had a “familial relationship” with
the victim, has been arrested on suspicion of dangerous dog offences. The
animals were destroyed by the police.
The suspect is reported to have bred
XL bully dogs and posted a Facebook
advert selling XL bully puppies for £500
last November.
Martin, a grandmother of eight, lived

Esther Martin, 68, was in Essex to see her 11-year-old grandson. There was a police cordon outside the property yesterday

in Woodford Green, east London, and
had travelled to Essex to spend the
weekend visiting her grandson, 11. Her
daughter Sonia Martin, 47, learnt of her
mother’s death when the police visited
her home in Chesterfield, Derbyshire,
at about 10pm on Saturday.
She told reporters that there were
two adult XL bully dogs and six puppies
at the house, and that her mother had
warned that the dogs were dangerous.
“My mum had raised concerns to the
owners about them being dangerous
and quite aggressive,” she said.
She told the BBC she believed the
attack had begun when the puppies
began fighting and her mother was told
by their owner to use a broom to separate them.
Martin said her nephew “ran out of
the house screaming for help” as the
attack began. “We’d really like to thank

Cambridge
Ipswich
Clacton-on-Sea
Colchester
Jaywick
London

10 miles

all the neighbours for coming and helping and trying to save my mum’s life,”
she added.
Lucy Shaw, 38, who lives in a property behind the address where the
attack occurred, said she had been in
the garden at the time. “It was all quiet
and then we heard dogs barking, and

then we heard someone screaming,”
she said. “It seemed like the screaming
of a child. That went on for about ten
minutes. We went back in after a while
because it sounded horrific.”
Martin said her mother, a retired
Tesco worker, had been “getting her life
back together” after the death of
another daughter in 2022 and had
enjoyed going on day trips by coach.
Chief Superintendent Glen Pavelin,
of Essex police, praised the six officers
who entered the house. “Their unflinching bravery and professionalism
ensured that there is no ongoing threat
to the people of Essex. Both dogs were
destroyed inside the house,” he said.
“I would also like to thank local
people who tried to get into the house to
help Esther Martin. You should be
proud. I have seen the flowers laid down
for Esther Martin, as have my officers. I

would like to thank all those who have
come together to pay tribute to her.”
He appealed for anyone with information about the incident to contact
the police.
The government banned the powerful XL bully dog breed after a series of
fatal attacks in recent years. The ban on
ownership came into effect on February 1 and it is now illegal for anyone in
England and Wales to own an XL bully
dog without a certificate of exemption.
Dogs must be neutered, insured and
kept on a lead and muzzled in public for
an owner to have an exemption.
There are believed to be up to 15,000
unregistered XL Bully dogs still illegally
on the streets. The police can seize
unregistered dogs and owners face a
criminal record and unlimited fine.
Scotland is to bring in a ban later this
year.

A company chief executive and his
property lawyer wife have been given
permission to demolish a 100-year-old
former vicarage built by a leading
architect of the gothic revival and replace it with a modern mansion.
Chichester district council gave planning permission to Euan and Harriet
O’Sullivan to knock down Apuldram
House despite opposition from some
locals and the Victorian Society, which
accused them of “wastefully razing it”.
The house, which overlooks Chichester harbour in West Sussex, was
built between 1900 and 1902. It was designed by Temple Moore, best known
for his contribution to Victorian ecclesiastical architecture. Several of his
buildings are grade II* listed.
Planning documents show that the
couple have employed McLean Quinlan, a firm of architects whose work has
featured on Grand Designs, to build
their new home. Mr O’Sullivan, 44, is
chief executive of LGC, a biosciences
company. The couple bought the house,
which sits in 2.5 acres of private garden,
for £4.95 million in August 2020.
Planners approved the application
after hearing that “harmful” alterations
to the original design meant the house’s
appearance was “detrimental” to the
surrounding conservation area. Adrian
Moss, the council leader, said the new
design would be “much more in keeping with the harbour and would be less
intrusive in the landscape”.
Mrs O’Sullivan said that the couple
wanted a home that was “responsive” to
the needs of their young family.
Her husband said that Historic England had rejected an application by the
Victorian Society for Apuldram House
to be listed saying it did “not possess the
necessary architectural or historical
interest”.

The Victorian Society objected to the
owners’ plans to demolish Apuldram
House near Chichester harbour

6

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

News
News Health Commission

NHS old boys’ network makes
Eleanor Hayward Health Correspondent
Rachel Sylvester

The health secretary has criticised an
“old boys’ network” in the NHS, as she
backs calls to radically improve working conditions for doctors and nurses.
Victoria Atkins told The Times
Health Commission that some of the
male-dominated hierarchies in place
when the NHS was set up in 1948 had
“stayed entrenched in the system over
the following decades”.
She said it was vital to “level the
playing field” and remove barriers
holding back female doctors, including
by enhancing the shared parental leave
system for consultants.
Atkins said: “If I can keep women in
the workforce working full-time, we all
win from that.”
The year-long commission has
concluded that the NHS is often a
flawed employer. Bullying and sexual
assault are rife, with nearly one third of
female surgeons sexually assaulted by a
colleague over the past five years.
Hospital staff also face a poor
working environment, which means
they often struggle to access free
parking, make a cup of tea or have a hot
meal during busy shifts.
Atkins said: “I was shocked to read
the reports of female surgeons, the
sexual harassment they were facing,

Inside today

A report into health
and social care in
Britain today
that is absolutely unacceptable. You
assume that the NHS [has] care at its
very heart.”
She called for wide-ranging
reforms to “ensure that the culture is respectful and dignified
and caring, not just to patients,
but to colleagues as well”.
Atkins said: “Why aren’t we
providing hot meals? How
can we thank members of
the workforce, not just doctors, but nurses, anaesthetists, others who are working through the night, or at
the end of a long shift?
How can we say to them,
‘Thank you, you’re really
valued’? How can we
help people juggle that
work-life balance?”
Atkins also called
for hospitals to “try to
find a better way of
helping doctors with
working conditions”,
particularly
when
drawing up rotas, describing her shock at
hearing how a doctor
had been denied
leave
for
their
wedding. Reforms to working

culture are seen as essential to tackling
a chronic workforce crisis in the NHS,
which has caused waiting lists to grow
sharply and is putting patients at risk.
The latest data shows that the health
service in England is short of 121,000
staff, including 42,000 nurses.
One of the health commission’s key
recommendations is for a new “student
loan forgiveness scheme” that incentivises doctors and nurses to stay in the
NHS after they qualify.
It suggests that debt should be cut by
30 per cent for those staying three
years, 70 per cent for seven years and
100 per cent for ten.
This would help to halt an exodus of
staff. At present, one in five nurses leave
the NHS within two years, and a recent
survey found that a third of UK medical
students planned to work abroad.
Analysis by the Nuffield Trust shows
that the policy of writing off student
loans would cost £230 million a year for
nursing, midwifery and allied health
professionals, and an extra £170 million
for doctors. The commission concluded
that this was highly affordable when set
against the costs of the workforce crisis,
with the NHS spending £3 billion a year
on agency staff at present.
Health unions endorsed the recommendation to write off student loan
debt, but said higher pay was also important. Junior doctors and consultants
are in dispute with the government
over pay and working conditions, and
more than 1.3 million appointments
have been cancelled over the past year
due to industrial action by NHS staff.
Pat Cullen, chief executive of the
Royal College of Nursing, said: “Our
evidence to the commission showed
sky-high tuition fees deter people from
entering the profession.
“Though we support student loans
being written off, self-funded fees
should be abolished too.
“We all want a solutions-focused
health service, with prevention at its
core, initiatives to ensure efficiency and
investment in social care. This report
sets out how that could be achieved.”
Professor Philip Banfield, chairman
of the British Medical Association, said:
“This report rightly recognises both the
scale and breadth of the challenges
currently facing health services, health
staff and the health of our population.
“It’s good to see the recognition of the
workforce crisis that the NHS faces; the
risk posed by the exodus of doctors,
ground down by workloads and poor
working environments, and tempted
abroad by better pay and conditions
elsewhere.
“The commission says that retention is key, keeping hold of the
skills and expertise we already
have, as well as recruiting
more staff.
“In this respect,
some of the recommendations are
welcome — such as
student loan writeoffs, as we know
the debt burden
on newly graduated doctors is
huge, and the need
for a more supportive
and flexible culture
within the NHS is urgent.”

Victoria Atkins was
shocked by reports
of female surgeons
being harassed

The ten-point plan

1
2
3
4
5

A digital health account for all
Weekend high intensity theatre
lists to tackle waiting lists
A new GP contract
Student loans to be written off for doctors,
nurses and midwives who stay in the NHS
A no-blame compensation scheme

A National Care System, equal but
different to the NHS
7 Mental health support for children
guaranteed within four weeks

6

An expanded sugar tax and curbs on
marketing of unhealthy food to children
9 A boost to research by giving senior
clinicians protected time
8

10

A Healthy Lives Committee to improve
healthy life expectancy by five years

7

the times | Monday February 5 2024

News
News

a bad workplace for women
We have written our
prescription but it will
need a national effort
Analysis

I

t is not difficult to spot the
problems in the NHS. The
soaring waiting lists, over-run
A&E departments, queuing
ambulances and struggling GP
surgeries are clear for all to see. The
Times Health Commission’s job,
however, was to find solutions
(Rachel Sylvester writes).
As we listened and learnt over the
course of a year the answers began to
emerge. There was a remarkable level
of consensus about what needs to
change.
Three core principles became clear.
Firstly, the system must be rebalanced
away from hospitals and a greater
emphasis put on prevention and
community care. We have a National
Sickness Service formed for another
age and we must create a National
Health Service fit for this century.
This means diagnosing disease
more quickly and treating people
closer to home. It involves
intervening earlier to stop people
reaching crisis point or needing to go
hospital. And it requires transforming
the culture around food and fitness.
Secondly, there is no solution to the
NHS that does not involve reform of
social care. Successive governments
have failed to deal with this issue and
the consequences are being felt in
overcrowded hospitals as well as by
the millions of people who cannot get
the support they need. The ageing
population means that we can no
longer afford to put it off.
Thirdly, technology can transform
healthcare in the way that it has
already turned banking, shopping,
entertainment and dating on their
head. A scientific revolution is under
way driven by data analytics, artificial
intelligence, robotics and genomics
that will enable the system to become
more personalised and predictive.
Exciting medical breakthroughs are
ushering in a new age of cures.
There is enormous cause for
optimism but the health service needs
to look to the future rather than
idolising the past. The NHS and
social care system must seize the
extraordinary opportunities on offer
in the modern digital world to
empower patients, liberate clinicians,
improve services, drive efficiencies

and create a healthier Britain. Other
countries have done it; so could we.
The commission, set up in January
last year, has been evidence-based
and sought to learn the lessons from
the best examples in this country and
abroad in a dispassionate, nonideological fashion. It was supported
by expert commissioners from the
worlds of medicine, business, policy,
science, food and sport.
With a remit to consider everything
from hospitals to GP surgeries, social
care to the obesity crisis, health
inequalities to the NHS workforce,
the commission was one of the
broadest inquiries into health
conducted in this country and
deliberately so because it is impossible
to disentangle the different elements.
Through fortnightly evidence
sessions, patient panels, domestic and
international visits and one-to-one
interviews, the commission heard
from 600 witnesses. They included
doctors, nurses, midwives,
receptionists, social care professionals,
patients, regulators, public health
officials, bereaved families, chefs, an
architect, a fitness guru, a Nobel prize
winner, a former prime minister and
ten people who have served as health
secretary over the past 35 years.
The commission also visited
dozens of hospitals, care homes, GP
surgeries and research laboratories
around the UK and abroad including
visits to Japan, Denmark, Israel,
Ireland and Spain.
The recommendations in the final
report are pragmatic, practical,
deliverable and could be taken up by
any political party or government.
Some proposals could be
implemented immediately, others will
take longer and should be included in
election manifestos.
The ten-point plan of policies
would make a genuine difference but
a broader mindset change is also
required. Simply spending more
money on the NHS will not bring
about the necessary transformation
but neither will a laissez-faire
approach to personal responsibility. A
strategic approach is required, rising
above the partisan point-scoring. It
will take a national effort, from
business, individuals, health
professionals and politicians to create
a healthier Britain.

NHS said
I’d had a
bypass but
I hadn’t
Case study

I

n 2010 Vipan
Maini, an
otherwise fit and
healthy
management
consultant, was
admitted to hospital
after suffering a heart
attack (Georgia
Lambert writes).
Four days later he
underwent an
angioplasty, during
which the consultant
said it was unlikely he
had suffered a heart
attack because he was
“too young” and
didn’t have the
“typical risk factors”.
Within five minutes
the consultant told
Maini that he had in
fact “defied the odds”
and he had suffered a

major heart attack.
“He told me I had so
much damage that it
was likely that I’d had
a previous heart
attack,” he said.
Maini, 58, was given
five coronary stents
but suffered another
heart attack 18
months later.
During a check-up
a consultant asked
whether he had
undergone a
quadruple heart
bypass. “I was
flummoxed by that ... I
said ‘No, I haven’t’. ”
This error was not
amended and it
remained on his
medical record.
In 2019 Miani had a
third heart attack but
his heart was not
immediately checked
because of the belief
that he’d had a
quadruple heart
bypass. “Because of
that inaccurate
information, the
doctors were not
initially going to
examine my heart.
They only changed

their treatment plan
after I told them my
medical records were
incorrect,” he said.
He believes many of
the problems stem
from cultural and
leadership issues in
the NHS. “If you are
not a typical patient ...
there is a risk you will
fall through the net as
doctors may make
false assumptions
which then lead to
inaccurate treatment.
“When they
identify a problem,
such as incorrect
patient records, they
don’t follow it up, so it
[stays] there. The
hospitals were aware
of the bypass issue but
failed to do anything
about it,” he said.
Maini suggested
that AI could be used
to verify patient
records and backed
the design of a
digitised patient
passport. “If done
properly, it should
give control to the
patient over their
records,” he said.

Huge investment vital to put health records online
there should be a “seamless system”
that securely shares NHS data across
all GP, social care and hospital records.
On top of the need to embrace data
and technology, The Times Health
Commission has called for greater
emphasis to be put on prevention and
community care. It notes that reform of
social care is essential, calling for a new
“National Care System” giving the right
to appropriate support.
Among its other evidence-based
policy recommendations, the commission calls for student loans to be written
off for doctors, nurses and midwives

who stay in the NHS, to tackle chronic
workforce shortages. It also calls for
new weekend high-intensity theatre
lists for planned operations, to drive
down NHS waiting lists of 7.6 million.
Sir John Bell, regius professor of
medicine at Oxford University and a
Times health commissioner, said: “The
commission provides an important set
of observations and recommendations
that could form the basis of a new
strategy for the NHS. At the heart of
these recommendations is the need
for a dramatic improvement in the
way we use technology and data ... it will
be impossible to meet the health

challenges of tomorrow without a full
commitment to use these tools.”
Dame Clare Gerada, former
president of the Royal College of
General Practitioners and a Times
health commissioner, said: “The future
health system must invest in technology, data and digitalisation.”
Sir Patrick Vallance, a former
government chief scientific adviser who
gave evidence to the commission, said:
“Companies that invest in research and
development tend to do better than
those that don’t, and the same is true for
healthcare systems.”
The reforms outlined by the commis-

sion would build upon the NHS app,
which has gained 33.6 million registered
users since its launch five years ago. The
NHS is also launching a federated data
platform, which will bring together
different databases within the hospital
system. This platform does not include
GP or social care data.
Dr Vin Diwakar, the NHS national
director for transformation, said:
“Three quarters of the adult population
use the NHS app to access health
advice, manage repeat prescriptions,
view their GP records and book
appointments, and we are adding more
functionality all the time.”

the times | Monday February 5 2024

9

2GM

News

Woman dies
as three cars
and van crash
Laurence Sleator

Portraits and landscape Frances Bell, 40, from Wooler in Northumberland, took the £10,000 top prize in the New Light awards, which showcases artistic talent from
the north of England. An exhibition of entrants’ work will be open at the Bankside Gallery, London, from February 27 until March 3 before travelling around England

BBC radio editor ‘helped Somali
criminals to fight deportation’
David Brown

A BBC editor has been hired as an
expert witness to help at least 15
Somalian criminals including rapists to
fight their deportation.
Mary Harper, Africa editor for the
World Service, has been criticised by
judges over the objectivity and accuracy of her evidence in some of the cases.
Harper has given evidence in asylum
cases dating back to 2013. Seven of the
known cases resulted in the refugee
being permitted to remain in the UK.
Expert witnesses can be paid up to
£2,500 for producing a report in cases
funded by legal aid.
Judges twice questioned Harper’s
objectivity and in a third case described
her evidence as “speculative”.
Rachel Maclean, deputy chairwoman of the Conservative Party, told
The Mail on Sunday she was “flabbergasted” at the number of immigration
cases involving Harper’s evidence.
“What are the families of those
affected by these criminals thinking

when a BBC employee is giving evidence to say they should stay in the
country?” she said.
A BBC spokesman said: “While there
is nothing in the BBC’s rules that prevents staff acting as expert witnesses,
the BBC has clear processes in place to
ensure any external work of this nature
has prior approval.” Harper, 58, did not
respond to a request for comment.
Mary Harper has
also been working
on a scheme for
the United Nations

Concerns about Harper’s evidence in
immigration cases emerged last year
after she was hired as an expert witness
by the gang rapist Yaqub Ahmed, who
attacked a girl aged 16. Harper said he
could be punished by the al-Shabaab
Islamist group if he was forced to
return, that Somalia’s security forces

might claim he was a British spy and
that he might struggle to find work.
Ahmed was jailed in 2008 and was
ordered to be deported in 2015. One deportation flight was halted by a protest
by other passengers. He was returned
last year after an estimated £1 million in
legal, prison and deportation costs and
promised a care package and 14-week
hotel stay on arrival in Somalia.
Harper’s evidence in other immigration cases includes a warning that a man
who sexually assaulted a deaf 17-yearold girl would be at “severely heightened
risk” if he was sent back to Somalia
because he had committed a sex crime.
A judge dismissed his appeal against
deportation, but he is still in the UK.
Harper told a hearing involving
another violent criminal that he would
be at risk from terrorists in Somalia as
his tattooed arms would be seen as a
“sign of homosexuality”. She warned
that a man who had 39 convictions for
80 crimes over 17 years would be
shunned by his clan if he returned.
The convicted drug dealer Ahmed

Ali Jama, 29, who claimed he would be
in danger in Somalia because his father
and sister were popular singers, was
allowed to remain in the UK after a
hearing in which Harper gave evidence.
Harper’s British father, Malcolm, was
an academic who worked in African
universities, and her American mother,
Kay, worked for Save the Children in
Somalia. She was educated at Bedales
School in Hampshire before taking an
anthropology degree at Cambridge and
a master’s degree in African studies at
the School of Oriental and African
Studies in London. She became the
BBC’s Africa editor in 2009.
She has promoted herself as “an expert witness in Somali-related legal
cases” and the “Africa editor, BBC
World Service” on her website.
The BBC said her most recent role
was as a reporter and that she was leaving this month.
In the past year she has been working
with the United Nations Development
Programme to set up an all-female
team of journalists in Somalia.

Braverman blames CofE for ‘bogus’ asylum cases
Geraldine Scott
Senior Political Correspondent

Churches are “facilitating industrialscale bogus asylum claims” by baptising
migrants who convert to Christianity,
Suella Braverman has claimed.
The former home secretary said
some churches were seen as a “one-stop
shop” to “bolster” asylum claims by
those wishing to stay in Britain.
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph
Braverman said migrants would

“attend Mass once a week for a few
months, befriend the vicar, get your
baptism date in the diary and, bingo ...
you’re a God-fearing Christian who will
face certain persecution if removed to
your Islamic country of origin”.
It is understood that the Church of
England does not recognise Braverman’s characterisation. Abdul Ezedi,
the sex offender who is wanted by the
police on suspicion of carrying out a
chemical attack in Clapham, south
London, was twice denied asylum

before being allowed to stay over claims
that he had converted to Christianity.
A church elder said 40 migrants
aboard the Bibby Stockholm barge had
converted to Christianity. David Rees,
an elder at The Dorset Church, told the
Sunday programme on BBC Radio 4
that conversions had increased from
four to forty and the migrants were
attending churches in the local area.
The Church of England said of the
chemical attack: “This is clearly a
shocking and distressing incident [but]

it is the role of the Home Office, and not
the Church, to vet asylum seekers.”
6 Braverman has said she has been
allowed to keep her 24-hour police protection since leaving the cabinet
because she receives threats “on a daily
basis”. She told The Camilla Tominey
Show on GB News: “Usually, home secretaries lose their personal protection
when they leave office. But I have been
assessed and I’m very grateful to the
parliamentary authorities who have
afforded me ongoing protection.”

A woman has died in a multi-vehicle
crash between a van and three cars on
the M25.
Police officers had been in pursuit of
a van in the early hours of yesterday on
the stretch between junction 22 at
London Colney and junction 21A near
St Albans when it collided with three
other vehicles.
No police cars were involved in the
crash and the chase had been stood
down before the incident took place at
about 4am, police said.
The police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct, has been
notified of the incident.
Hertfordshire police did not reveal
which way the vehicles were travelling
when the crash happened but the traffic
data website Inrix, said it had been in
the stretch going anticlockwise. The
force also did not say which vehicle the
woman had been travelling in and gave
no details on the condition of the others
involved in the collision.
The crash led to the motorway being
closed in both directions between junctions 22 and 25. In a statement the
police said the woman’s family was
being supported by specially trained
officers. They added that investigators
had been sent to the scene to begin the
process of gathering information.

Don’t protect
attack fugitive,
police warn
David Brown

A man suspected of a chemical attack
on a mother and her daughters is
believed to be being hidden by
accomplices, as it emerged that police
had offered a £20,000 reward.
Abdul Ezedi, 35, was last seen at an
east London railway station more than
two hours after the attack occurred on
Wedneday in Clapham, south London.
A 31-year-old woman who was
reported to be living in a refuge has
been left with “life-changing injuries”.
Her daughters, aged three and eight,
have suffered less serious injuries.
Ezedi, who was convicted of sexual
assault and indecent exposure in 2018,
was last seen at 9.33pm when he left
Tower Hill Underground station in east
Abdul Ezedi was
seen two hours
after the attack

London, Scotland Yard said. Police
raided two properties in east London in
the early hours of Friday. One was a
YMCA hostel in Leyton where Ezedi’s
brother, Hassan, 21, is living. He said he
had seen him briefly a week earlier,
adding: “If I knew where he was, I’d turn
him in.”
Scotland Yard said in a statement:
“Investigators believe there are people
who know where he is who have not
come forward.”
Commander Jon Savell, who is leading the manhunt, said: “I must warn
anyone who is helping Ezedi to evade
capture: if you are harbouring or assisting him, then you will be arrested.”

10

2GM

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

News
News Politics

I can’t guarantee free childcare
Geraldine Scott
Senior Political Correspondent

The education secretary has said she
cannot guarantee that parents will be
able to access expanded free childcare
when it is due to be available later this
year because she is “not in control of all
the bits”.
Gillian Keegan said she was confident that the pledge would be delivered
but she could not “guarantee something in the future”, after The Times
had disclosed that the government’s
offer was in jeopardy. She told Times
Radio: “We’ve got a plan, which is deliverable.” She admitted that there had
been “a couple of teething things in the
system but we’ve corrected all of those”.
She said: “I will promise [parents] that
we will put childcare in place.”
Rishi Sunak said last month that all

Gillian Keegan reacts after watching an
interview with Esther Ghey, mother of
the murdered teenager Brianna Ghey

eligible children in England would benefit from the scheme, which is being
phased in from April. In the first phase
working parents of two-year-olds will
be able to access 15 hours of free childcare. This will be extended to working
parents of all children older than nine
months from September.
From September next year, working
parents of children under five will be
entitled to 30 hours of free childcare per
week. Ministers have admitted that
parents could miss out on funded hours
at their preferred childcare setting in
the spring if there is limited capacity.
The Times reported last month that
the prime minister’s childcare promise
was under threat because of delays in
allocating funding, staff shortages and
problems with an IT system. Nurseries

1.9m sick days
in civil service
Geraldine Scott

The civil service lost almost
1.9 million working days to
sickness over the course of a year.
The number of days lost to longterm sickness rose by a third over
four years, with the Ministry of
Justice (MoJ) the worst affected.
It is understood the frontline
nature of many of the roles in the
MoJ means staff are more likely to
suffer from long-term sickness.
Across the country, the number
of people off work long term
because of sickness is at a record
2.6 million, with an extra half a
million signed off compared with
before the pandemic, largely owing
to a rise in mental health problems.
The number in the civil service
rose from 1.39 million in the year
to March 2018 to 1.86 million in
the year to March 2022, a 34 per
cent increase. Over that period,
the service grew from 430,075 to
510,080, a rise of 18.6 per cent.
Christine Jardine, the Liberal
Democrat MP who uncovered the
data, said: “These figures ... show
there is a growing long-term
sickness crisis at the heart of
government.”
Garry Graham, deputy general
secretary of the trade union
Prospect, said the figures showed
that civil servants were “near
breaking point”.
Fran Heathcote, general
secretary of the Public and
Commercial Services Union, said
the lower a person was in the civil
service hierarchy, “the higher their
sick and death rates”.
Tackling long-term sickness has
become a government priority,
with the number of people unable
to work due to illness cited as
stunting the economy.
The government said: “We
expect sick leave to be managed
with common sense. Steps are in
place for employees to return to
work as quickly as possible.”

had not been told how much they
would be paid for each of the places on
offer and many providers had told
parents they could not guarantee that
their children would be entitled to the
free hours.
Keegan said: “I’m pretty confident we
can deliver but of course when you’re
working across the whole country
through many, many tens of thousands
of businesses, I can’t guarantee something that’s in the future.”
She told Sunday Morning with Trevor
Phillips on Sky News that she was focused on ensuring that the workforce
and investment were available to “grow
the places” for childcare that “I know
parents are absolutely desperate for”.
Asked whether she could guarantee
that parents of children aged nine
months would be able to access statefunded childcare in September, she
replied: “You know what you cannot
do is guarantee something in the
future that you are not in control of all
the bits.”
She said Phillips was “trying to pick
on semantics” and she was being asked
to “personally guarantee something on
behalf of, you know, thousands, tens of
thousands of businesses that are
working there to grow the capacity and
to make sure that we’ve got the people
in place”.
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, called the response
“another broken Tory promise”. She
said: “The education secretary has
made it clear: there are no guarantees
that parents will receive their new
childcare hours.”
At present working parents who earn
at least the equivalent of 16 hours at the
national minimum or living wage but
make less than £100,000 in annual net
income can get 30 hours of free childcare for children aged three and
four. Nurseries, pre-schools and childminders in England say they are being
inundated with calls and emails from
families who want to take up funded
places.
On Friday the Department for Education announced a trial of £1,000 signon bonuses for recruits and returners
into the early years sector in 20 local
authorities as part of efforts to increase
capacity in the system. Parents who
want to take up the new funded places
on offer this year, however, are facing
long waiting lists in some areas as providers are full.

PM to meet
Northern
Irish first
minister

R

ishi Sunak has travelled
to Belfast to mark the
restoration of power
sharing at Stormont after
two years of political
deadlock (Geraldine Scott writes).
The prime minister was
scheduled to meet Michelle O’Neill
of Sinn Fein, who has made history
by becoming Northern Ireland’s
first nationalist first minister, and
Emma Little-Pengelly of the DUP,
the deputy first minister. His visit
comes after O’Neill said that she
expected a vote on Irish unity to
take place within a decade.
The breakthrough to restore
power sharing came last week after
the DUP announced that it would
end its boycott of the assembly after
a deal was agreed between it and
Sunak’s government to allay
unionist concerns over post-Brexit
trading arrangements.
On Thursday the government
fast-tracked two pieces of
legislation contained in the
agreement through the House of
Commons as part of its agreement
with the DUP, opening the way for
Saturday’s return of the assembly.
The new executive is due to hold its
first meeting today.
Speaking on Sunday Morning with
Trevor Phillips on Sky News O’Neill
said change was happening, adding:
“That is a good thing, it is a healthy
thing, this change can benefit us all.
“I believe ... we can do two things
at once: we can have power sharing,
we can make it stable, we can work
together every day in terms of
public services while we also pursue
our equally legitimate aspirations.”
Asked if this meant that there
would be a unity referendum in the

Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s

next decade, O’Neill said: “Yes. I
believe we are in a decade of
opportunity and there are so many
things that are changing ... All the
old norms, the nature of this estate,
the fact that a nationalist/
republican was never supposed to
be first minister. This all speaks to
that change.”
Gillian Keegan, the education
secretary, said she did not want to

Sunak admits lack of progress on pledge to tackle NHS waiting lists
Geraldine Scott

Rishi Sunak has admitted that the government has failed to bring down NHS
waiting lists despite it being one of his
top pledges.
The prime minister said “we have not
made enough progress” as the number
of treatments waiting to begin was
higher than when he first made the promise at the beginning of last year.
In an interview with Piers Morgan on
TalkTV, Sunak said the government
had “invested record amounts in the
NHS” but he said: “Industrial action
has had an impact. In November we
had a month where there was no strikes
for the first time and you know what
happened to the waiting list? It fell by
almost 100,000.”
Figures released by NHS England
last month showed that 7.61 million
treatments were waiting to be carried
out in November 2023, relating to
6.39 million patients. That figure was
down from 7.71 million treatments and
6.44 million patients at the end of October but waiting lists are still higher
than when Sunak made the pledge to

Rishi Sunak told Piers Morgan that strikes had wrecked his treatment promise

bring them down. When he made the
promise at the start of last year waiting
lists stood at 7.21 million.
Confronted with Morgan’s own
experience with emergency care for his
mother, who had a heart attack but
waited on a trolley in accident and
emergency for seven hours, Sunak said
it was “not good enough” that people

were waiting hours to be seen. Asked if
he had failed on his pledge to bring
NHS waiting lists down he said: “Yes,
we have.”
The Liberal Democrats said long
waits for GP and hospital appointments
were creating a mental health epidemic. A survey by the Office for
National Statistics found that the men-

tal health of almost a quarter of adults
had been made worse by waiting too
long to see a doctor. From a sample of
almost 12,000 adults, 24 per cent reported poor mental health as a result of
long waits for hospital or GP appointments and 18 per cent reported that
their physical health had been affected.
Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader,
said: “This Conservative government’s
failure to tackle agonising waits for
NHS treatment is creating a mental
health epidemic. Millions of people are
struggling to see their GP ... because
ministers have driven local health services into the ground.”
Sir Julian Hartley, the chief executive
of NHS Providers, which represents
NHS trusts, said it was “deeply concerning that so many people are not
getting the care they need, when they
need it”. He added: “These shocking
figures show the detrimental impact of
long waits on people’s physical and
mental health. Trust leaders are doing
all they can to address huge care backlogs across physical and mental health
services.”
Meanwhile a study from the Trades

Union Congress found that GPs had
become responsible for hundreds more
patients over the past decade. It found
that GP numbers in England had fallen
by nearly 2,000 since 2015 and a “toxic
combination” of falling GP numbers
and rising demand had piled pressure
on the health service.
A Department of Health and Social
Care spokesman said: “Cutting waiting
lists is one of the government’s top five
priorities and we have delivered 5,000
more permanent beds as part of the
urgent and emergency care recovery
plan, as well as 50 million more GP
appointments per year.
“We’re going further and faster to
transform our country’s mental health
services.”
The department also said that its
workforce plan would provide 2,000
more GP training places a year by 2031.
Watch the full interview with Rishi
Sunak on Piers Morgan Uncensored’s
YouTube channel from today at 2pm or
on TalkTV at 8pm today on Freeview
237, Sky 522 and Virgin Media 606.

the times | Monday February 5 2024

11

2GM

News
News

plan will happen, says Keegan
Tory rising star
claimed Trump
was ‘refreshing’
Geraldine Scott
Chris Smyth Whitehall Editor

first minister, said that the power-sharing agreement was a sign that there was an opportunity for change in the country

speculate on a border poll. “What is
actually fantastic is to see Stormont
back up and running,” she said.
Under the Good Friday agreement,
the power to call a border poll rests
with Chris Heaton-Harris, the
Northern Ireland secretary.
Sunak’s visit comes as a report
from the Policy Exchange think
tank warned that Ireland presented
a “back door” threat to British

security. The think tank, which is
backed by the former defence
secretaries Sir Michael Fallon and
Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, plus
Lord West of Spithead, a former
security minister, called for the
government to expand its naval and
air presence in Northern Ireland
and to put pressure on the republic
to contribute to security. West said:
“The Western approaches and the

Property expansion rules
are squeezing the economy
Aubrey Allegretti
Chief Political Correspondent

Planning rules that prevent homeowners from building up and out are
costing the economy more than
£130 billion a year, a report says.
Rishi Sunak has been urged to allow
denser development in built-up areas
to help people get on the housing
ladder.
Sir Brandon Lewis, the former housing minister, said that the “important”
research was the first analysis of its kind
on lost economic growth caused by
planning laws, and that the reforms
were vital to the Conservative Party’s
chances in the next election.
The report, by the Adam Smith Institute, a think tank, found that restrictions on height, width and density had
cost the UK up to 6.1 per cent of GDP —
worth about £138.5 billion.
It modelled the economic gain
created by deregulation in built-up
areas that allowed property owners to

expand their homes to eight storeys.
Some costs would be incurred by those
who had to be rehoused while properties were expanded, the paper found.
Additional costs such as new school
pupils, connecting more homes to utilities and increasing numbers of NHS
patients were also considered. But increasing housing density in towns and
cities was not judged to require additional roads, rail lines or reservoirs.
The report estimated that the cost of
building a family home was £404,348
compared with the average asking price
in London of £685,200 according to the
property company Rightmove.
“Using many conservative assumptions, we conclude that removing density restrictions would increase real UK
GDP by 6.1 per cent,” the report’s
authors, Duncan McClements and
Jason Hausenloy, said.
They said that allowing owners to redevelop their properties up to eight
storeys “substantially decreases the
need for any building on greenfield

wider Atlantic and Arctic oceans
and their sea beds have become the
frontline in the grey war that Russia
is waging ... Should hot war break
out bases in Northern Ireland
become even more crucial.
“Sadly, the Republic of Ireland
has shown little enthusiasm for
defence expenditure.”
The Irish Department of Defence
was contacted for comment.
sites, maintains the quality of local infrastructure and enriches homeowners, not housebuilders, while decreasing prices for renters”.
Lewis said: “Increasing the supply of
houses, and thereby bringing prices
down, will have huge positive knock-on
effects.”
He said that under the proposal, instead of facing “extortionate” mortgage
and rental costs, people would be able
to afford to move to the most productive parts of the country.
He said: “The Conservatives urgently
need to make the British people a compelling offer on housing.”
A spokesman for the Department for
Levelling Up said it was committed to
development rights that enabled property owners to extend their home without submitting a planning application.
Government sources said that moves
to allow denser development were
being considered before the budget that
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, will
present on March 6. Other moves to
boost home ownership that are being
examined include lowering deposits for
first-time buyers.
Michael Gove, the housing minister,
is likely to give a speech in the next
month calling for more building on
brownfield sites.

A rising Tory star expected to be among
former ministers at the launch of the Liz
Truss-backed Popular Conservatism
movement once described Donald
Trump as “incredibly refreshing”.
Mhairi Fraser travelled to the US to
see Trump win the American presidency in 2016 and said at the time that
she had “never been as excited” about a
politician.
Fraser, a City lawyer, who is standing
to replace Chris Grayling in the safe
seat of Epsom & Ewell, is to be among
those to speak at the launch of the Popular Conservatism group in central
London tomorrow.
Nigel Farage is also expected to
attend but those close to the event said
he would be there in his capacity as a
presenter on GB News. He told The
Daily Telegraph last night that he was
“open-minded” about joining the Conservative Party but would not do so
before the next election.
Fraser will be joined by Truss, the
former prime minister, Sir Jacob
Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, Lee Anderson, the former Conservative Party deputy chairman, and
Ranil Jayawardena, the former environment secretary.
In comments reported by STV in 2016
Fraser said she found Trump “incredibly
refreshing” when he recognised that
America was “sleepwalking into a politically correct driven decline”.
She also said she did “not see Russia
as a natural enemy” and was more concerned about Islamic terrorism. The
comments were made before Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine but after its annexation of Crimea. Defending Trump
after a series of offensive comments,
she said: “I don’t think he’s a sexist
and I don’t think he’s a racist.”
A friend told The Times: “These
views were expressed eight years
ago. A lot has changed since then
and so, naturally, have her views.”
Some on the Tory right have
expressed support for Trump
in recent weeks, as he looks
likely to become the Republican choice for the US presidential race in November.
Rees-Mogg told the BBC last
month that he would “rather
have Donald Trump than
President Biden”. Jake Berry,
the Tory chairman under
Truss, said: “Bring him back.”
He told ITV that Trump had
been a “much better president than Biden”.
Truss wrote in The
Wall Street Journal in
November that she
hoped that a “Republican will be returned to
the White House in 2024”.
Truss is due to speak
later this month at this
year’s Conservative Political Action Conference in
the US, which this year is
headlined by Trump. One
Tory MP in the centre of

the party said that his colleagues were
insane to align themselves with Trump.
Speaking about the launch of the new
group, dubbed PopCon, he said: “It will
not be popular, but it will be a con.”
Lord Vaizey of Didcot, the former
culture secretary, told Times Radio it
would be “evangelical”. He sarcastically
said: “I really want to go.”
He added: “It’s obviously absolutely
ludicrous the PopCons. It’s the sixth
family. We’ve got five families tearing
the Tory party apart, but now we’ve got
a sixth just in time for the general election. It’s just all going swimmingly.”
Asked how he genuinely felt, he said
he was in “total despair” and it was 1997
“all over again”. He said the party would
choose one “completely unelectable”
leader, then another, and “eventually
we’ll settle on someone who does what
Tories do well, which is to appeal to a
wide electorate”.
The group is expected to be used as a
vehicle for right-wing MPs to stimulate
discussion with party members and
help to unite small-state economic liberalism with a socially conservative
agenda. Its director is Mark Littlewood,
one of Truss’s allies, who was previously
the director of the Institute of Economic Affairs.
One person involved in organising
the movement said: “[The centrist think
tank] Onward have probably already
written half the manifesto so why
shouldn’t others try to contribute.” The
source added: “Liz Truss being involved
does threaten to doom it from the start.”
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph,
Littlewood said: “We know that Conservative principles are popular in the
country. But this only translates into
electoral success when actual results
are shown.”
He hit out at “anti-free-speech
warriors” and “unaccountable
institutions” as holding Britain
back. He said: “We need to dismantle the tools being used by
the detached elites to tell
us how to think and
speak. At present, debate is stifled, voices are
silenced and division is
sown. If we don’t have
a plan to tackle
these impediments,
achieving Conservative outcomes will
feel like pushing
water uphill.”
Gillian Keegan,
the education secretary,
when
asked about the
launch,
told
Times Radio:
“We just try
to
be popular. That’s
where I’m focused on,
delivering on policy that
matters for people.”

Mhairi Fraser was in
raptures about Donald
Trump’s electoral
campaign in 2016

12

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

News
News Interview

Sky-high egos
and a macho
culture at the
heart of No 10
Helen MacNamara was
at the centre of Britain’s
Covid response. It was a
difficult place to be, she
tells Steven Swinford

H

elen MacNamara vividly
remembers the day she
realised Britain was not
ready for the pandemic.
After weeks of being
assured that there was a plan by
ministers and officials, she discovered
that it did not exist.
Shortly after 6pm on March 13,
2020 — ten days before Britain went
into lockdown — she went through
the link door of No 10 and made her
way to the prime minister’s study
where Dominic Cummings, Boris
Johnson’s most senior adviser, and
other senior officials had gathered. “I
said we were absolutely f***ed and we
were going to kill thousands of
people,” she recalls. “There was no
plan.”
“I did feel like the music had
stopped … at that point we had to go
as fast as humanly possible to stop the
virus spreading,” she says in an
interview with The Times. “That felt
like an unbelievable emergency.”
Cummings had reached the same
conclusion and that evening the
prime minister was informed. For the
next nine days No 10 and Whitehall
went into an almost unprecedented
frenzy of activity as plans were drawn
up at breakneck speed for what was
previously unthinkable — a
nationwide lockdown.
MacNamara, 47, was one of the
most senior figures in government
during the pandemic and has played a
central role in the Covid inquiry. Her
evidence, which was the product of
hundreds of hours work, provided a
forensic account of one of the most
chaotic periods in the history of
government.
It gives an insight into not just the
structural weaknesses and failings of
Whitehall as it struggled to cope with
a once-in-a-generation event, but
more broadly into the culture in
No 10 during Johnson’s premiership.
She argues that a combination of
sexism, macho behaviour and overconfident behaviour by men who
thought they could save the world
ultimately led to poor decisionmaking and may have cost lives.
“Everybody was falling out,”
MacNamara says. “It became an
impossible and difficult place to work.
Egos were sky high. There is a great
quality in a sort of person who wants
to get involved in a crisis who puts
their hand up, who runs towards the
building on fire.
“But if what you end up with in a
crisis situation is 30 of those people

all working together, all thinking
they’ve been parachuted in to save
the day, that doesn’t create a very
healthy dynamic. It was pretty
exhausting … one individual,
especially on something this
complicated and difficult, is never the
answer to anything. You have to be
able to work with people, to listen ...
to take people with you.”
The decision-makers in No 10 at
the time were predominantly men. “A
majority of men from a particularly
narrow background really didn’t
help,” she recalls. “It didn’t help the
decision-making, didn’t help the
actual outcome. That sort of dynamic
creates very, very, fast, definite
decision-making.”
The decision to close schools, she
argues, was a product of this culture.
“Closing a school ought to have been
very close to the last thing that
happened, not the first,” she says. “If
schools had to close, much, much
more care and thought should have
been given to what was going to
happen to the education of those
children. There wasn’t sufficient
attention paid to children in houses
who didn’t have broadband, who
didn’t have a laptop.”
Other decisions, such as the closure
of playgrounds, were symptomatic of
the approach. “It was a decision by
people who have no real-life
experience of what it’s like to be stuck
at home with a toddler,” she says.
One of the impacts of the lockdown
she regrets the most was on women
suffering from domestic abuse, who
found themselves literally trapped at
home with their abusers. “We should
have had more time to plan,” she says.
“If we’d have had even eight weeks …
we would have been able to make
sure there was better support.” As it

“ ”
You end up with
30 people, all
thinking they’ve been
parachuted in to
save the day

was, she says, women and children
were left in an “awful” situation, the
consequences are still emerging.
MacNamara was a victim of blatant
misogyny during her time in No 10.
The Covid inquiry disclosed a
WhatsApp exchange between
Cummings and Johnson after the pair
clashed over appointments. “I don’t
care how it is done but that woman
must be out of our hair — we cannot
keep dealing with this horrific
meltdown of the British state while
dodging stilettos from that c***.”
Both have since apologised to
MacNamara directly — Cummings
for using the language and Johnson
for not correcting him. “I was
surprised at how nasty it was,” she

Helen MacNamara says the decision-makers at the time were mostly men from a
narrow background. Closing schools, she says, should have been a last resort

says. “It was misogynist, I think he
[Johnson] should have called him up
on it. I’m not massively surprised he
didn’t. That must have been a normal
way they all spoke to each other.”
Johnson, she says, ran No 10 like a
royal court. “He liked a court
atmosphere, he liked having people
around him that disagreed,” she says.
He also veered between being a
vocal advocate of locking down the
economy and his more “liberal
instincts”. Sir Patrick Vallance, the
government’s former chief scientific
adviser, claims Johnson referred to
Covid at one point as “just nature’s
way of dealing with old people”.
Johnson rejected the claims as
“rubbish” during his appearance at
the Covid inquiry.
MacNamara says he frequently
used the metaphor of the mayor in
the film Jaws who kept the beaches
open despite the risk of a shark
attack. The mayor, he argued, was
right to do so given the relative risk.
“I think anybody who has ever
worked for Boris Johnson would say
that it’s quite a bracing experience,”
she says. “He’s a very big personality.
It’s quite like a rollercoaster. I don’t
think it helped. But you have the
prime minister you have and you
have to serve the prime minister you
have. Arguably if you had different
structures and systems underneath

him it might well have been possible
to serve a prime minister like Boris
Johnson in a better way.”
Lee Cain, Johnson’s former director
of communications, said that he had
the “wrong skill set” to run the
country but MacNamara believes it
would not be appropriate to comment
on that. “I don’t think it is the job of
somebody who has been a civil servant
to start pronouncing on the qualities
of [a] prime minister,” she says.
Matt Hancock, the former health
secretary, has also been criticised. She
suggests that while it would be
“unfair” to blame him for the lack of a
plan in the run-up to Covid, he bears
some responsibility.
In the build-up to the lockdown she
says Hancock argued that the UK
“had the best plans in the world”,
when in fact she says they were
almost non-existent. Others at the
Covid inquiry, including Cummings,
have accused Hancock of lying and
being deliberately misleading —
something he denies. MacNamara
chooses her words carefully.
“It would have been helpful to have
a bit more candour and honesty
about the fact that there were
problems rather than project those
extraordinary levels of confidence
into internal meetings,” she says.
In her evidence she highlighted one
particular moment early in the

pandemic when she asked Hancock
outside the cabinet room if he needed
more help and support. He replied
that he was “loving” the responsibility
and took up a batsman’s stance,
adding: “They bowl them at me, and I
knock them away.” “I just thought it
was extraordinarily not the right
mindset to apply to the situation we
were in,” she says. “It was frightening,
it was a really really frightening time.”
For MacNamara, however, the issue
is not about individuals. Suggesting
that Johnson, Cummings and
Hancock are to blame is the “wrong
conclusion”. “What that experience I
think showed is that lots of the ways
we approach governing don’t work
very well. They aren’t fit for purpose.”
She says that Brexit led to a
fundamental reconfiguration of
Whitehall, with more power in the
centre. “My problem is that you end
up pretending you’ve got a cabinet
government but not running it like
that,” she says. More centralised
power structures also lead to more
potential for things to go wrong.
“Even the most brilliant people don’t
make the right call every day.’
This centralisation of power was
even more exacerbated by Covid,
which MacNamara says created a
fundamental problem — that the
levers in No 10 were “not connected
to anything”. “You had a prime
minister and a team who wanted to
run an awful lot of government from
the centre,” she says.
“No 10 isn’t configured to do that. It
is a very small organisation which is
effectively a massive political machine
and a little bit of civil service.” The
relationship with the Cabinet Office,
which has the firepower to implement
policy decisions, “wasn’t good
enough”. MacNamara supports a
proposal by Cummings for a new
department for the prime minister.
Her concern is that if there was
another pandemic, the government
still may not be ready. “That’s the
thing I still worry about,” she says. “Is
it better today? Are there better
systems? Is there a better plan?”
MacNamara is frustrated that
swathes of primary evidence in
thousands of WhatsApp messages are
not available to the inquiry.
Technical experts were unable to
salvage Johnson’s messages from the
entirety of the first lockdown and
beyond. Nicola Sturgeon, the former
first minister, admitted that she
deleted her own messages.
MacNamara says that the Cabinet
Office deleted all the messages on her
old work phone. “The public record
really matters,” she says.” It’s really
important if you have the privilege
and responsibility of working in
public life that what you are doing is
written down. They had a
responsibility to preserve those
messages,” she says.
MacNamara faced scrutiny during
the pandemic after she was fined for
supplying a karaoke machine used in
one of the notorious Downing Street
parties. “I am extremely sorry for the
misjudgment I made,” she says.
After leaving the civil service,
MacNamara worked at the Premier
League for nearly two years. She left
in January last year to focus on her
Covid witness statement and to take
part in a six-month governance
project. It recommended that the
prime minister’s power to hand out
peerages and honours should be
curtailed to end cronyism.
The report also recommends that
the ministerial code should be
overseen by an independent
watchdog on a statutory footing.
“Shades of grey and ambiguity,
allowing an individual to sort of in the
end do the right thing is a funny way
to run a country,” she says.
MacNamara is undecided on her
next step. Would she return to
government? “I think going back is a
funny idea. I can’t see it.”

the times | Monday February 5 2024

13

2GM

News

University’s oldest graduate completes philosophy master’s at 95
Tom Ball

By the time David Marjot was entering
retirement, most of his fellow students
were yet to be born.
After drawing his pension for 30
years, the former psychiatrist decided
to go back to university to study for a
master’s in modern European philosophy. Last week Marjot, 95, from Weybridge in Surrey, collected his degree
from Kingston University and became
the institution’s oldest graduate.

Accompanied by his son and son-inlaw, Marjot received a standing ovation
as he crossed the stage to collect his certificate from the university’s provost.
“I think it is important to always keep
challenging yourself even as you get
older,” he said of the one-year course.
He added that it had been “hard work”
on account of his memory not being as
good as it was.
He is thought to be one of Britain’s
oldest graduates behind Archie White,
a retired solicitor, who in 2021 received

a degree in fine art from the University
of Brighton at the age of 96.
Marjot, who was a psychiatrist with
the Royal Navy and later the NHS, received his first degree in medicine in
1952. However, it was the death of his
wife that prompted his return to higher
education. He said the course “was a
wonderful way of passing time when
you spend most of your time alone”.
He intends to write a book about psychiatry for which his philosophical
studies around the delineation of the

David Marjot was
given a standing
ovation when he
collected his
degree certificate

body and mind will prove useful. “I
knew I was limited on time, so when I
saw an advert for the course in The
Times Literary Supplement I decided
to apply,” he said, adding: “The main

thing is if you’re interested then go for
it.” He is now contemplating a parttime doctorate, which could take him
until he is 102 to complete.
Professor Stella Sandford, who
taught Marjot, said: “David brought a
wealth of knowledge. [He] once told the
class about his childhood experience of
Empire Day 1938 and compared it to
Remembrance Sunday 2022. He was
able to connect all that up to what we
were studying. It was an amazing and
very moving contribution to the class.”

Bacteria plus
fruit equals
. . . bio leather

Space sector
degree set
for lift-off

Hannah Rogers Copenhagen

Tom Whipple Science Editor

Forget the craft beer and rye bread,
Denmark’s latest fermented export is
for your wardrobe.
At Copenhagen Fashion Week the
label Ganni presented an industry-first
line of products made of Celium: a
100 per cent bio-based “leather”. The
material’s production process is based
on the fermented drink kombucha.
The candy floss-coloured handbag,
miniskirt and sleeveless jacket were
shown as part of an exhibition celebrating sustainable materials.
Celium is the invention of Polybion, a
Mexican start-up. Agricultural fruit
waste is fed to bacteria to create a slime
that is then treated sustainably in a tannery. The resulting material is embossable, dyeable and robust; it is carbonnegative and in its organic form is
entirely plastic-free.
Ganni’s items will be available this
year. Such eco-friendly materials often
cost several times the amount of conventional options but Nicolaj Reffstrup,
Ganni co-founder, said: “We are happy
to take on that premium because we see
it as our responsibility.”

It is time for students to boldly go where
no student has gone before: on one of
the UK’s first space systems engineering degree apprenticeships.
Portsmouth University and BAE
Systems are inviting applications for a
course that will teach students how to
engineer for zero gravity in a university
first they say is a sign of the growing importance of space to the economy.
Doug Liddle, the head of In-Space
Missions at BAE, said: “There’s a ridiculous amount of work in the space sector
at the moment and the thing that is
throttling the growth isn’t good ideas or
funding, it’s people.”
The space sector is worth almost
£18 billion annually to the UK economy, and has a long-term growth rate
of about 6 per cent.
Liddle said the sector typically employed general engineering graduates,
but the apprenticeship would involve
students working on space projects
before graduating with a degree. In
particular, he said, BAE was due to
launch a defence and intelligence
satellite cluster called Azalea.
“They would come in in time to be involved in some of those missions. Then
we’ll be bringing data down from satellites. They’ll get involved in that, and
they’ll get involved in building some of
the other missions that we’ve got.”
Applications are open for the first
year’s entry, which will take five students. Jennifer Coupland, chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships
and Technical Education, said she
hoped such schemes “will put rocket
boosters under the degree apprenticeship programme”.

Ganni’s handbag made from Celium

Vision in white Snowdrops have come into bloom at Kingston Lacy, a 17th-century National Trust property near Wimborne
Minster, Dorset. There are more than 40 varieties on show in the grounds of the country house, which are open for tours

Stalkers ‘abusing child-safety apps’
Constance Kampfner

When Lisa’s former boyfriend started
showing up wherever she was, she initially put it down to chance.
“It was a building paranoia,” she said.
“At first it was like maybe it’s just a coincidence ... But it started to get a little
bit more uncanny as time went on.”
Lisa, not her real name, had ended
things with her boyfriend a few weeks
earlier and asked for space. Suspecting
her friends of divulging her location,
she started giving out false information
about where she would be but he still
tracked her down.
After the physical threats intensified,
Lisa, 19, went to the police. That is when
she found out that stalkerware — software that gave him access to her location, text messages, call logs and more
— had been installed on her phone.

Domestic abuse charities say that
this intrusive technology is being normalised among young people. Nicole
Jacobs, the domestic abuse tsar, said
policymakers and the police were “running to catch up”. “We don’t quite appreciate the extent to which this is
going to increase,” she said. “We have to
be really, really aware how we regulate
these kinds of things.”
According to a Women’s Aid survey,
nearly a third of UK domestic abuse
survivors have experienced the use of
spyware or GPS locators on their
devices by a partner or ex-partner.
When downloaded with consent,
apps such as FindMyFriends that allow
you to keep tabs on a loved one’s location can be useful safety tools but they
can also be powerful weapons for abusers. Other pieces of tech, such as Apple
AirTags to help you to find your keys,

can also be misused. The Love Island
star Montana Brown shared her
“creepy” experience of realising that an
electronic tag had been put in her bag
on her way to an awards show last year.
Emma Pickering, head of tech and
economic abuse at the domestic violence charity Refuge, said these apps
were a powerful tool. “Everything we
do online is on our phone,” she said.
“Stalkerware gives you a complete
insight into somebody’s whole world.”
It is difficult to measure the scale of
stalkerware because it is often undetected or goes unreported to the police
but, according to the cybersecurity
company Avast, the risk of encountering these apps increased 239 per cent
globally between 2020 and 2022.
Some apps pitch themselves as the
modern jealous spouse’s private detective, offering to help people to “find out

what they’re up to”. They are often
designed to conceal themselves, appearing on the home screen as weather
or calculator icons, or not showing up at
all. Others are for parents who want to
track their children’s online activities.
Yet even when used on a child, Pickering argues that stalkerware can have
devastating effects. She told The Times
that normalising it at an early age could
set people up to accept intrusive and coercive behaviour from future partners.
“How many children know and can
consent willingly to the parents listening in to their phone, reading their messages?” Pickering asked. “It’s one thing
to want to monitor your child to make
sure they’re safe online, but there’s lots
of ways you can do that without having
to use stalkerware.”
For Lisa, the experience has left her
scared to use her phone or leave the

house. She says she is in no doubt that
her ex-boyfriend, who would get violent when she received texts from men,
had used them on her during their relationship. She said: “I never thought
there would be apps that could be the
difference between a decent day the
risk of being knocked out, or having a
black eye.”

stories of our times
On today’s Stories of Our
Times, our reporter
Constance Kampfner spies
on the podcast producer
using one of these apps
Listen wherever you get your
podcasts or at thetimes.co.uk/soot

14

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

News

Oxford ‘stupid’
to publish paper
on Uighur DNA
Rhys Blakely Science Correspondent

Making waves The Royal Mint is releasing a commemorative 50p coin to
mark the 200th anniversary of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution

Oxford University has been accused of
“wrong and stupid” behaviour over a
deal with China under which it has
published genetic research suspected
of breaching ethics rules.
The university’s publishing arm is investigating three studies, including one
based on DNA taken from China’s
oppressed Uighur population by scientists linked to the country’s police. The
research has been published online by
Oxford University Press (OUP) in a
journal that receives financial support
from China’s ministry of justice.
The highly unusual deal will raise
fears that Oxford risks becoming entangled in human rights abuses against
the Uighur community.
It will also add to concerns over
China’s efforts to influence UK academia, including by funding Confucius institutes in 30 universities.
Last month China was condemned at
a United Nations meeting over its treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority,
when 160 nations urged it to improve its
rights record. In 2022 a UN report said
that the mass detention of Uighurs in
Xinjiang, northwest China, may constitute crimes against humanity.
Western scientists say it is impossible
to be sure the samples have been obtained with their freely given informed
consent, especially given the researchers are linked to the police.
After being approached by The
Times, OUP said it was investigating
the studies and that “expressions of
concern” would be added to them.
The collection of DNA is likely to
spread fear through persecuted groups
in China, experts said. Genetic databases can be used to track individuals as
they leave traces of DNA behind them,
and also to map family relationships.
Uighur people in Xinjiang are said to
be concerned that state-run DNA databases will be used to match organs forcibly harvested to suitable recipients.
The studies under investigation were

flagged by Professor Yves Moreau, of
KU Leuven, a university in Belgium. He
has spent the past five years investigating the collection of genetic data
from vulnerable groups in China.
Moreau said: “Oxford has to take a
stance: does it want to shore up the reputation of an authoritarian regime by
giving its behaviour credibility in the
scientific arena?”
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former
Tory leader, said: “There is a genocide
taking place [against the Uighur] in Xinjiang. Men are taken away into forced
labour camps, the women have been
forcibly sterilised and we have a record
of them being raped and abused, and
the children are taken into re-education
camps … There’s no way on earth that
anybody would have bothered to ask
them for their permission.”
Oxford had acted with “insensitivity
and stupidity” and publishing the research had been “wrong,” he said.
Articles in the journal, called Forensic Sciences Research, appear online
under its Oxford Academic branding.
However, a statement obtained
through a freedom of information request shows that the journal receives
financial support from the Academy of
Forensic Science, part of China’s ministry of justice, which owns it.
The papers flagged by Moreau include one published in June 2022 that
analysed DNA samples taken from
264 Uighurs. Dr Halimureti Simayijiang, the lead author, was affiliated
with Xinjiang Police College, as well as
Copenhagen University.
Another study by Simayijiang, published by another journal, has been retracted, after an investigation found
that DNA samples were not covered by
proper ethics approvals.
The Chinese embassy in London was
approached for comment.
OUP said: “We agree that these articles warrant further investigation.
While the investigation takes place, we
will be publishing expressions of concern for all three articles.”

War on dissidents ruining
Hong Kong, says minister
Fiona Hamilton Chief Reporter

The security minister Tom Tugendhat
has accused China of destroying the
foundations on which Hong Kong was
built with “ruinous authoritarianism”.
He was responding to a further
crackdown by the Hong Kong authorities, who are planning the introduction
of a law to prosecute dissidents even
when they are abroad. At a reception
for Hongkongers in London last week
Tugendhat said that foreign investor
confidence had taken a dive and added:
“I suspect that as a result of their ruinous authoritarianism we’re going to see
it plunge even further.”
Under Article 23, the pro-Chinese
government of Hong Kong would have
more power to prevent anti-government protests. It would also allow
opponents to be prosecuted even when
they are outside the territory.
Tugendhat said: “They say that Article 23 is necessary to protect Hong
Kong’s prosperity. That’s complete
nonsense. The only thing that Article
23 and the National Security Law will

achieve is the destruction of what made
Hong Kong prosperous in the first
place: liberty, opportunity and the rule
of just law.”
A representative of the Chinese
embassy described Tugendhat’s comments as a “groundless attack”, saying:
“He has no right whatsoever to interfere in China’s internal affairs.”
Last week John Lee, Hong Kong’s
chief executive, said the need for new
laws was urgent to suppress pro-independence sentiment. “We should not
wait any longer,” he said. “The threats
to national security, they are real.”
The Times has previously reported
that Hongkongers in London have
been intimidated, followed and even
assaulted because of their campaign for
democracy. A Dispatches documentary
recently revealed that Hong Kong activists in London had been targeted by
westerners giving false journalistic credentials. The Chinese government is
suspected of using westerners to try to
entrap Hongkongers as part of a wider
campaign of intimidation and spying.
Its embassy has denied this.

15

the times | Monday February 5 2024

News

‘Fake death’ of Captain Cook’s son explored
Sara Tor

Captain Cook’s greatest achievement
of discovering Australia and New
Zealand may have gone down in the
history books, but so has his one failure:
the inability to leave any direct
descendants.
Despite having had six children, all
are commonly believed to have died
young without any offspring of their
own. A new book, however, may be
about to change that.
After the discovery of a 200-year-old
file kept in the National Archives, The
Untold Story of Captain James Cook RN
by Colin Waters, a writer and historical
researcher, has suggested for the first
time that Cook’s eldest son did not meet
an early demise.
Instead, Cook Jr may have faked his
own death in an attempt to desert his
post in the Royal Navy and gone on to
produce a long line of heirs.
He was previously thought to have
drowned off Britain in 1794, along with
six other men, while rowing out to take
up duties on HMS Spitfire.
The boat capsized after getting
caught in stormy weather and his body
was believed to have been found
washed up on the Isle of Wight the
following morning.
Documents unearthed by Waters,
however, appear to indicate that things
were not quite so straightforward. A
letter from the coroner conducting the
inquest noted that the man dead on the
beach had not drowned.
Owing to the body’s position on the
sand, it was concluded that death had

Captain Cook claiming New South Wales in 1770. A new book challenges the belief that his children produced no heirs

occurred once he had reached land. Yet,
of greater significance is the fact that no
proper identification may have taken
place.
“Rather than using a more positive
means of identification, such as by his
crew or even his next of kin, it seems

that Cook’s greatcoat — which was
wrapped around the body — was
deemed sufficient,” Waters said.
“No one appears to have considered
the possibility that it may not have been
Cook who was found. It could have
been a shipmate who had also

survived.” These are not the only
inconsistencies: the research by Waters
has also revealed a distinct lack of
records surrounding the event.
“There are no records to be found
that mention the event, nor is there
even any allusion to it in the logbook of

the Spitfire. What’s also questionable is
that Cook’s name has been virtually
expunged from all official navy records.
We have to ask why.”
With his death now thrown into
doubt, the question turns to where
Cook Jr may have gone if he did indeed
survive. Waters believes that he
returned home to his native Yorkshire,
where he already had a wife and child
— a son named Robert.
“Facts proving that Cook returned to
Yorkshire to tell Robert he was legitimate are quite compelling,” Waters
said. “These include a local woman’s
testament of how she remembered
Cook arriving at Robert’s door but
being sent away by the child’s mother.
“Other local anecdotes suggest he
returned to the area and changed his
name before becoming a farmer.”
Many of those who have claimed
Captain Cook as their ancestor are
descended from Robert, including
Commander Frank Wild, the Antarctic
explorer and second-in-command of
Ernest Shackleton’s expedition to the
South Pole.
Each claimant repeats the same
family story: that they are descended
from the famous Captain Cook via his
son James.
“The story of Cook Jr has long been a
rumour in Yorkshire,” Waters said.
“With more light now shed on the
mystery of his supposed drowning, it
seems that the hearsay may have been
correct. A number of other anomalies
have been discovered regarding the
Cook family as a whole. No doubt there
are more to be found.”

16

2GM

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

News

‘Good sense’ of
late Queen to
inspire tribute
Rhys Blakely

The late Queen’s “relentless common
sense” will be kept in mind in plans for
a memorial in her honour, the former
royal aide leading the project has said.
The Queen Elizabeth Memorial
Committee has been asked to
recommend proposals to the King and
Downing Street for a monument to the
country’s longest-serving monarch and
a “national legacy programme”.
The plans are due in 2026, which
would have been the year of her 100th
birthday. Lord Janvrin, who leads the
committee, said that he would be guided by his recollections of Queen Elizabeth’s pragmatism. The King was
taking a “very close interest” in how his
mother will be honoured, he added.
“My experience was that she was
someone who applied a very sort of
practical view to everything she did and
the issues before her,” he said. “Her
practical views — I will have those
words in the back of my mind.”
Janvrin worked at Buckingham
Palace from 1987 to 2007 including as
Elizabeth’s press secretary and later as
her top aide. Seven newly appointed
members of the committee will gather
for their first meeting at Buckingham
Palace today. They include Baroness
Amos, former leader of the Lords, and
Alex Holmes, the anti-bullying campaigner who is also deputy chief executive of the Diana Award, the charity
founded to promote the legacy of the
late Princess of Wales.
The other members announced by
the Cabinet Office are: Dr Anna Keay,
the historian who is director of the
Landmark Trust; Joe Garner, the
former chief executive of Nationwide
Building Society; Sandy Nairne, the
former National Portrait Gallery director; Sir William Shawcross, the
Queen Mother’s official biographer;
and Dame Amelia Fawcett, chairwoman of the Royal Botanic Gardens,
Kew, and former chairwoman of the
Prince of Wales’s Charitable Founda-

tion. Janvrin described the committee
as “a very talented group of people with
a wide range of expertise, experience
and contacts to manage this important
national project”.
On the importance of establishing a
national memorial in Elizabeth’s honour, he said: “The Queen was our
longest-reigning monarch. She was
there during a period of huge social
economic change.
“I think it would represent the feelings that were so evident at the time of
her funeral if we had a significant
national memorial to her memory both
in terms of the monument and a legacy
programme. I think there was a real
sense in those days after her death of
just how important she had been, and
the contribution that she made to the
life of the nation.”
Elizabeth died peacefully at Balmoral on September 8, 2022, aged 96,
having served as monarch for 70 years.
Public funds will pay for the memorial
and legacy programme.
Janvrin said the committee was conscious of the cost of living crisis and the
importance of “good use” of taxpayers’
money. The government said it would
support the proposals and consider
other funding options as the project developed.
The public will also be invited to have
their say on the plans, but most likely
through feedback rather than a vote. In
a 2018 public poll Boaty McBoatface
emerged as the winning choice for the
naming of a polar research ship, but it
was vetoed and named RRS Sir David
Attenborough instead.
Janvrin said the plan was to incorporate both tradition and modernity. “I
think that the Queen herself always
thought it was not the place for her to be
at the sort of cutting edge of fashion,” he
said. “But we need to have produced
some kind of memorial that will engage
people in the future. And we have in
both the structure and the legacy quite
a canvas to try to engage younger
people and the whole nation.”

The King, who was
joined by the Queen,
greeted wellwishers

Offenders to
face jail over
protests on
memorials
David Woode Crime Correspondent

The King gets back
into royal business

T

he King
made his
first public
appearance
yesterday
since leaving hospital

a week ago (Rhys
Blakely writes).
Accompanied by the
Queen, he joined
worshippers for the
service at St Mary

Magdalene Church in
Sandringham,
Norfolk. Charles, 75,
is recuperating after
being discharged
from the London
Clinic following a
successful procedure
to treat a benign
enlarged prostate.

Activists who scale war memorials
could be jailed and fined as ministers
move to tackle people “disrespecting
those who have given their lives for our
country”.
Ministers will announce this week
that offenders will face a three-month
prison sentence and a £1,000 fine as
punishment for climbing on war
memorials.
James Cleverly, the home secretary,
has vowed to punish demonstrators
intent on “insulting those who paid the
ultimate price for their freedom to
protest”.
He said: “Peaceful protest is fundamental in our country, but climbing on
our war memorials is an insult to these
monuments of remembrance and cannot continue. That is why I am giving
police the powers they need to ensure
they have the tools to keep order and
peace on our streets.”
Climbing on war memorials is to
become a specific public order offence
in England and Wales under an amendment due to be introduced to the Criminal Justice Bill.
It comes three months after video
footage showed a pro-Palestinian
activist running across the Royal Artillery Memorial, which commemorates
the nearly 50,000 soldiers killed in the
First World War. Another protester,
clutching a “Free Palestine” placard,
was seen speaking to a police officer
while standing on part of the 30ft (9m)
monument in Hyde Park Corner, central London. The Metropolitan Police
was criticised for not arresting them.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Met commissioner, said that the actions were not
illegal and it was for the government to
consider whether officers should be
given further powers to respond to protests. “The officer recognised that while
it wasn’t illegal it was unfortunate,
inflammatory in certain ways,” he said.
“The officers at the scene asked them to
get down and they did. The officers
intervened as officers often do to try
and de-escalate risk of conflict, even
when there isn’t an explicit power to
do it.”

17

the times | Monday February 5 2024

News

The forests facing a glut of gorillas
Conservation efforts
have brought the apes
back from the brink.
Now there might be too
many, writes Adam
Vaughan from Bwindi
Impenetrable Forest
Rwamutwe is unfazed by his latest
group of human visitors. The silverback
leads this 14-strong troop of mountain
gorillas, which is lunching on fruit and
leaves in southwestern Uganda.
Despite a powerful 200kg frame and
a name meaning “big head”, the great
ape is calm as he munches on eucalyptus with half a dozen iPhones pointed
his way. Rangers say his serenity is only
punctured by tensions over his preference for one female in his group.
In the 1980s, Rwamutwe’s predecessors were on the brink of extinction.
Today, more than a thousand mountain
gorillas are thriving across two remaining African forest strongholds.
In 2018 they were officially downgraded from “critically endangered” to
“endangered” due to environmentalists’ efforts with local people.
Yet one of conservation’s rare good
news stories is on the verge of becoming a victim of its own success.
In the dense settlements around
Rwamutwe’s home in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, images of gorillas
are everywhere: from shops and
schools
to
matchstick
brands. The oft-repeated
mantra among locals is
they are a good thing
because they bring in
money via conservation
and tourist money.
Kyomukama Kellen, a
woman in Hamulindi
village who has seen a
free water supply installed nearby, said: “I
feel good about gorillas.
We are gaining much
because they are near.”
But that goodwill is at
risk from growing numbers of
gorillas and people living in
increasingly close quarters.
“A lot of pressure is being

Rwamutwe and his troop are thriving but conservation efforts need also to protect villagers like Kyomukama Kellen

put on the habitat. The gorillas
come into the fields and can
destroy people’s crops.
“It’s causing a rift
between local people and
the gorillas,” said Felix
Etobu, a Bwindi ranger
and guide. There is no
compensation if gorillas
pinch locals’ food or damage property. Etobu said
that needed to change.
Tourists are essential
for the money they bring
in, but habituate gorillas
to humans. That means
they tolerate people
getting closer to them, increasing the chance of
gorillas infected with
cholera, typhoid, scabies

from dirty clothing and common flu.
“The biggest threat to gorillas now is
human disease,” said Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, an acclaimed Ugandan
veterinarian and conservationist.
How much Bwindi is bursting at
the seams with gorillas will soon
be revealed. Within months,
scores of people should undertake the first gorilla census since
2018 here and in their other refuge, Virunga National Park
across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Other threats facing the gorillas
feature on a poster at the Kisorobased offices of the Gorilla Organisation, the charity founded by Dian Fossey, the late US primatologist made
famous by the film Gorillas in the Mist.
In the DRC, it is conflict. In Uganda,

poachers and snares remain an issue,
according to Dr Samson Werikhe, the
organisation’s Rwanda and Uganda
programme manager.
People entering Bwindi hunt everything from pigs to buffaloes rather than
gorillas, but the great apes can get
caught in poacher’s snares. “The belief
is when you are going to hunt and you
meet a gorilla, that is a bad day. It’s
taboo [to kill them],” Werikhe said.
Accidental deaths happen. At St
Peter’s Rubuguri primary school, children still sing “they’re the sadden days,
lovely gorilla” over a poacher who four
years ago killed Rafiki, a silverback that
previously led Rwamutwe’s troop.
The need to provide alternative livelihoods and reduce human-wildlife
conflict is where conservation money
comes in.
Charles Hakimana, 64, used to hunt
all day in Bwindi. Today he spends four
hours a day cultivating cabbages at the
“reformed poachers’ garden” funded by
the group Fossey founded.
Uganda is a low income country.
Some people live in abject poverty.
Families with as many as ten children
are common, illiteracy is high and
family planning is a work in progress,
making it tough to accommodate more
gorillas. That is why conservation
money is being ploughed into schools,
to bring solar power, water tanks and
water pumps.
“The surprise for me was that it was
helping the communities that helps the
gorillas,” Leo Gripari said.
Born in Britain with Greek roots, he
founded That Gorilla Brand, a “lifestyle
conservation brand” he and his wife,
Casey, used their own money to build
from a kitchen table after launching it
in 2018. Today, money that the company raises from selling clothes funds
water and sanitation projects for
thousands of people around Bwindi.
It has become second only to the
EU as the biggest donor to the
Gorilla Organisation.
Down the road from that
charity’s office, two of Rwamutwe’s
infants in Bwindi are serenely
stripping a tree of fruit before the
silverback calls and they shimmy
down.
They appear safe and happy.
Whether they remain so will depend
on keeping local people happy too.

the times | Monday February 5 2024

19

V2

Princes’ conservation row
reveals a real rift
Libby Purves
Page 21

Comment

Labour must ditch £28bn pledge to be heard
Headline statistics such as the party’s target for green spending only give unnecessary ammunition to opponents
Philip
Collins

@philipjcollins1

P

olitics by numbers is always
a bad idea. Last Thursday,
the first serious economic
policy document that the
Labour Party has produced
in a decade and a half was lost in the
coverage of a single projected
number. Will a Labour government,
or will a Labour government not, be
spending £28 billion a year on
various green initiatives by the end
of its first term in government?
Shadow cabinet members queued
up to not quite tell us. The shadow
business secretary sounded like the
number offended him; the shadow
chief secretary to the Treasury
wished to discuss anything but; the
shadow chancellor neither
committed to the number nor buried
it. It is time for clarity. The Labour
Party is preparing a cautious
manifesto designed to be bomb-proof
and so, the next time a member of
the shadow cabinet is asked the same
question, the first word of the answer
needs to be “no”.
A bad number can define an
electoral campaign. In 1992 Labour’s
tax bombshell would cost, the Tories
said to great effect, £1,250 per
person. The defining number of 2010
was a budget deficit of £145 billion.
We are still living in the political
shadow of 52:48 and 44 days.
Labour’s victory in 1997 was the
triumph of small numbers, specified
in five pledges.
The trouble with £28 billion is that
the Labour Party does not control

what it means. Delve into the policy
documents — and who doesn’t like
to spend their weekends researching
Labour’s green proposals? — and
you will discover that Labour has
plans for home insulation
(£6 billion), eight gigafactories
(£2 billion), six clean steel plants
(£3 billion), net-zero industrial
clusters (£1 billion) and money as yet
uncounted to establish GB Energy.
Add on a further £8 billion a year,
which is just existing spending rolled
over, and there are legitimate details
available of what Labour would like
to do with the money.
None of which means that
£28 billion will remain the price of a
greener economy. It will mean a lot
more than that. It is just too easy for
the Conservative Party to sum all the
plans into a frighteningly large single
figure: £16 billion in year one, rising
by a further £3 billion every year
thereafter, to £28 billion in year five.
You can write the Tory press release

‘You can’t trust Labour
on the economy’ is all
that Sunak has left
now. “That’s £110 billion in a single
parliament. Where is the money for
all this coming from? Tax.
Borrowing. Tax.”
The problem with £28 billion is
that it doesn’t say Labour is green on
the environment. It says that Labour
is green on the economy. All that
pretty green, someone else’s money.
“You can’t trust Labour on the
economy,” is all that Rishi Sunak and
Jeremy Hunt have left. This is Tory
politics by numbers, and it makes no
sense to hand them the data.
The real shame of this glaring
tactical error is that it obscures two
facts that are both to the credit of

the Labour Party. The first is that the
stress on the number means that the
policies have been lost.
Economic prosperity really does
need to become more
environmentally sustainable. All
serious businesses know this to be
true and most welcome it.
Conservation is, after all, just a more
efficient use of resources. The case
against leading with the spending
pledge is not that it foreshadows an
end to the policy; it’s that the
strategic ambition is threatened by
the tactical naivety. Subject to
Rachel Reeves’s wise caveat that no
spending will be permitted to
infringe her fiscal rules and that
every pound of public investment
must be more than matched by £3 of
private investment, this is a crusade
that Labour should embrace.
The second shame of the number
is that £28 billion dominated a day
when Labour should have been
advertising its revised economic
credentials. On Thursday, Labour
held its annual business conference
at the Oval cricket ground in south
London. Tickets at £1,000 a head
had sold out in four hours and the
party raised £400,000, which are the
best figures at the Oval since, a
month before Tony Blair became
leader of the Labour Party, Devon
Malcolm took 9 for 57 against the
South Africans.
Sir Keir Starmer opened his speech
with two pertinent rhetorical
questions. He asked the audience if
any of them would have bothered
turning up to a Labour business
conference in 2019 and, if they had
done so, whether they would have
felt any sense of being respected. The
unspoken answer is that Labour of
the Corbyn vintage had no respect at
all for the people who gathered at
the Oval and no such conference
would ever have been arranged. The

panel that includes Sir John
Kingman, the former second
permanent secretary to the Treasury
and now the chairman of Legal &
General, and Baroness Vadera, once
a business minister under Gordon
Brown and now the chairwoman of
Prudential.
The review inevitably leaves a lot
of detail to be defined in government
but it is a serious start. It’s the best
policy work Labour has done yet and

Reeves kept inviting
the £28bn question
by not answering it

Labour produced the best figures at
the Oval since Devon Malcolm in 1994

day was — and this was Starmer’s
point — a mark of how far Labour
had travelled.
Earlier last week Labour had
published a report on partnership
written by Iain Anderson, the public
affairs executive who defected from
the Conservatives, which was a runout for every dull platitude ever
uttered in an unenterprising
business. It was full of tautologies
such as “a long-term plan for
business engagement that is futureproofed” and empty formulations
such as “engagement should be open
and transparent” rather than closed
and opaque. It was one of those
reports in which the more it said, the
less it had to say.
Fortunately this was superseded
on Thursday by the publication of
Labour’s financial services review,
which is the work of a distinguished

it is a shame that, when Reeves did
the interview round, all she was
asked about was whether she was
committed to spending £28 billion, a
question she repeatedly invited by
not answering it.
The relationship between Labour
and business is warm but it is
guarded. Labour won’t win the next
election because the business
executives are happy to come to the
Oval. The opposite is true: the
business executives came to the Oval
because Labour is going to win the
next election. The most important
numbers in British politics are still
inflation at 4.2 per cent, interest rates
at 5.25 per cent, 33-18 to Starmer on
who is the best prime minister,
Labour on 45 per cent and the
Conservatives on 25 per cent. They
add up to a Labour victory, but it’s
better to take no more chances.

red box

For the best analysis
and commentary on
the political landscape

20

V2

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

Comment

My open casting call in Richard III dispute
Saying only a disabled actor can play the Shakespearean role misunderstands why we love stories
Tomiwa
Owolade

@tomowolade

D

aniel Day-Lewis is the
premier actor of his
generation; he is also one
of the most versatile. Born
in England in 1957, he has
successfully played characters from
different centuries and other parts of
the world. From the 19th-century
American lawyer Newland Archer in
The Age of Innocence to the 20thcentury Czech surgeon Tomas in
The Unbearable Lightness of Being,
Day-Lewis is convincing in every
role he inhabits.
He played the principled Abraham
Lincoln in Lincoln just as well as the
corrupt Daniel Plainview in There
Will Be Blood. Between 1989 and
1997, Day-Lewis was an Irishman in
three films directed by Jim Sheridan;
he then starred as an anti-Irish
demagogue in Martin Scorsese’s
2002 epic Gangs of New York.
But his most demanding role was as
the painter and writer Christy Brown
in the 1989 film My Left Foot. It
recounts the life of a man born with
cerebral palsy to an impoverished
family in Dublin; the only part of his
body he can control is his left foot.
We don’t simply see Brown’s
disability; Day-Lewis powerfully
conveys Brown’s irreducible sense of
self; his waspish humour and mental
sharpness, his pride, the multiple
aspects of his personality.

Day-Lewis’s versatility is
increasingly obsolete in today’s
cultural climate: it is now offensive for
non-disabled actors to play disabled
characters. More than 100 disabled
actors and their supporters have
signed an open letter condemning
Shakespeare’s Globe for casting its
artistic director, Michelle Terry, in
the role of Richard III. Mat Fraser, a
disabled actor who has played
Richard III, has said that he will “be
personally boycotting the production
if it goes ahead with this casting; I’m
done with the pretenders”.
The critics have compared Terry’s
casting as Richard III to blackface:
white actors playing black characters.
Non-disabled actors do not have the

Experiences portrayed
in fiction don’t belong
to any individual group
lived experience of what it means to
be disabled. In order to ensure the
depiction of Richard III is authentic,
they say, the role should be reserved
for disabled actors.
Sam Brewer, the co-founder of the
disability-led theatre company
FlawBored, is uncompromising on
this topic: “There’s this idea that
everyone should be allowed to tell
any story. Well, disabled people
aren’t allowed to tell any story other
than their own — and now you’ve
taken this one away from us.”
This zero-sum approach doesn’t
add up. It simply means we should
provide more opportunities for
disabled actors. What makes
Brewer’s analysis baffling is the idea

that a malevolent king is a character
that belongs to disabled people.
Many of the disabled actors who
have played Richard III don’t suffer
from scoliosis, as did the king. And if
“authenticity” in terms of casting is
paramount, surely the fact that
Richard III is male is more
significant than the fact he is
disabled? Michelle Terry is a woman.
A gifted non-disabled actor playing
a disabled character is not like
blackface. In blackface, the audience
is in on the joke: a white actor is
presenting a black character with
obscenely exaggerated racial
stereotypes. Blackface is done to
mock a character, not to portray
him. Anthony Hopkins was brilliant
as Othello in a 1981 BBC adaptation
of the play; to describe his
performance as blackface is to
misunderstand that term.
But the fixation on “authenticity”
when it comes to casting actors isn’t
confined to disability. It is evident in
discussions around the race and
nationality of characters. Should the
gentile Bradley Cooper play the
Jewish Leonard Bernstein? Can the
American Adam Driver do a good
job of the Italian Enzo Ferrari? Was
it wise of Al Pacino to be Shylock in
a 2004 film adaptation of The
Merchant of Venice?
A few years ago the black American
actor Samuel L Jackson complained
about the black British actor Daniel
Kaluuya getting black American
roles. But Jackson was silent on the
number of black Americans — from
Denzel Washington to Forest
Whitaker — who have played black
British characters in films.
It is impossible for “authenticity”

to be perfectly maintained in casting.
Actors are playing a role; they are, by
definition, different from the
characters they perform. An actor
might share exactly the same
disability as Richard III but I doubt
that even the most committed
casting director is looking for a childmurderer to play the English king.
The recent film American Fiction is
about a black American writer who
is told he is not black enough because
he doesn’t write “black stories”. But
the idea that some stories belong to
some groups misunderstands why we
read fiction or watch films in the first
place. I feel as attached to a bored
housewife in a 19th-century French
novel as to a text about a 21stcentury Briton; I am as moved by a
film set in South Korea as I am by
one in south London.
Film and fiction portray
experiences that do not belong to
any individual identity group.
Anyone is capable of falling in and
out of love. We can all experience
confidence and impotence, warmth
and hatred, joy and despair. If we live
long enough, many of us are likely to
be disabled in some way or another;
from worsened hearing to weakened
eyesight, from physical ailments to
mental slackening.
Day-Lewis in his role as Christy
Brown vividly illustrates what it is to
be pitied by others and absolutely
hating it. But this is not something
only those born with a disability can
recognise. It is a human condition.
And, as the African-Roman
playwright Terence once expressed,
Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum
puto. “I am human, and therefore
nothing human is alien to me.”

Sathnam Sanghera Notebook

Empireverse
would make
Uranus my
final frontier

I

am in the middle of a book tour
and the question I get asked
most often, after “How is your
mother?” and “What is Caitlin
Moran really like?” is: “After
Empireland, and now Empireworld,
will there be a third book called
Empireverse, analysing the British
Empire’s influence on space?” It’s an
amusing but actually not entirely
ridiculous suggestion. For it’s a
curious fact that after long, difficult,
dangerous journeys colonists often
named the new places they had
“discovered” after the places they
had just left, or after British
monarchs and aristocrats whom they
had just escaped, and there was at
least one occasion when this
tendency spread into space.
As an extension of the fact that
there are at least 35 places called
York in the world, more than 80
Victorias, at least 53 Plymouths and
at least 41 Jamestowns, for a period
the planet Uranus was named after …

George III. The astronomer William
Herschel, having discovered the
planet from his garden in Bath,
labelled it Georgium Sidus (or
“George’s Star”) but the name didn’t
go down well internationally for a
variety of reasons. In the end Roman
mythology won, of course, and,
unless someone has other British
imperial space facts to offer, I admit
that this titbit of trivia might make
for a slim third volume.

Mind the gas

I

am generally driving between
events because British public
transport cannot be relied on in
2024 and, while I consider myself a
motorist, I don’t understand why
those who are lobbying for motorists
are so utterly incapable of nuance.
The AA reacted with
unmitigated fury last week to
the news that owners of the
most polluting cars in the City
of Westminster, including
many large petrol SUVs
such as the BMW X5
and Porsche Cayenne,
would be charged
more for parking
when it’s an entirely
sensible policy.
SUVs take up
more space, are
more dangerous
for pedestrians,
seem to be driven

with the most aggression on our
roads and are more polluting. Indeed,
it’s argued that one of the main
reasons the overall emissions from
petrol and diesel cars isn’t reducing is
that these living-rooms-on-wheels are
so popular. Clearly, the antisocial
proliferation of SUVs should be
discouraged through taxation.
Besides, with new Range Rovers
retailing for six-figure sums and
insuring new versions sometimes
costing five-figure sums, an annual
parking fee of £321 is hardly going to
be a challenge for owners.
Quadruple the charge, I say, and
reduce the tax burden on other
motorists and non-motorists.

Hirsute pursuits

T

wo things happened between my
events in Bath and Edinburgh: I
realised my beard needed a trim
when I didn’t have a trimmer;
and there was an article on the
business pages of this
newspaper reporting that the
male grooming industry was
having to deal with a drop in
demand for shaving
equipment because
beards had become
so popular. This
made me wonder
whether the male
grooming industry
was missing a
trick. Not only is

there a curious lack of innovation in
the beard-trimmer market (they’re all
pretty much the same and roughly the
same price) but there’s also a gap in
the market for beard servicing. Some
barbers will trim your beard when
they give you a haircut, but beards
require more regular maintenance.
Why don’t barbers and
hairdressers offer a cheaper, more
regular service for those of us
aspiring to something beyond
weekend stubble? Or perhaps even
offer classes to those of us who don’t
know what they’re doing? As a Sikh,
I grew up around men who either
had extravagant beards that were
never trimmed or men who were
clean-shaven. As a result, I was never
taught what to do if aiming for
something in between. I bet Ben
Affleck, George Clooney, Bradley
Cooper and all the other bearded
Hollywood actors get help, and lots
of us mortals would pay for
assistance too.

Nothing to sneeze at

S

ocial media post of the month,
from @TOther_Simon: “My
sister-in-law loves to remind us
that she’s allergic to cats. I mean — so
what? I’m allergic to kiwi fruit. I don’t
bang on about it. She should just do
what I do and not eat them any more.”
@sathnam

BBC must cut itself
off from the curse
of government
Anthony Seldon

N

ations in decline turn on
the institutions that have
helped make them great.
Whitehall, the monarchy,
the armed services, the
university sector — and the BBC —
have all been under the cosh in recent
years. All are in need of reform,
certainly, but not of being trashed.
And the BBC is a sitting duck.
Founded 102 years ago under Lord
Reith, the BBC is the outstanding
national broadcaster internationally.
In an age of diminished British
presence globally, it remains the
beacon for the country abroad. At
home, it helps define and unify the
country. What else holds Britain
together today? The monarchy,
certainly. I can’t see much else.
The BBC is needed still more in
the age of deepfakes, AI, Putin and
Trump. The best global validator of
what is true, right and objective, it
doesn’t always get it right — but it
does so more often than any
competitor. Establishing what is the
truth and what is human are today’s
biggest challenges. The BBC cannot
vacate the space. But the BBC can no

It can no longer
fulfil all three aims
that Reith outlined
longer fulfil all three aims that Reith
outlined for it as the public service
broadcaster: “inform, educate and
entertain”, which were duly
embedded in the royal charter. In the
1920s, and for long after, no
competitor was offering
entertainment. Now the competition
is measured not in the hundreds but
in thousands. The BBC has to slim
down if it is to preserve the best.
Equally the BBC has to cut itself off
from the curse of government. With
the trend towards tribal politics and
broadcasting likely to continue, the
government of the day must never be
let anywhere near its funding,
decisions or appointments. Even in
slimmed-down form it will require a
mix of commercial, franchising and
public money to remain the best
globally. An independent body such
as the KEF in Germany could be
established to insulate the BBC from
political pressures.
A supremely high-quality BBC,
broadcasting information and
education across the country and
globally in multiple formats, is the
prize. The new commercial broadcast
channels in the UK do not provide
the balance that the young I try to
educate need. As we all do. Had the
BBC not been so cowed by
government, it would have
challenged the Brexit and other
government claims made at home
and abroad far more fearlessly.

21

the times | Monday February 5 2024

Comment

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Princes’ conservation row reveals a real rift
William and Harry’s dispute over how best to save endangered species goes to the heart of an African dilemma
Libby
Purves

@lib_thinks

A

reported gulf of opinion
between two princes over
African conservation is
more than a tattling royal
story; it usefully reminds
us of a difficult balance and the way
that good intentions can tip into
cruelty. William, we are told, favours
schemes led by local communities:
collaborative and diplomatic, and
therefore probably slower to produce
dramatic results for endangered
species. Harry, the president and
now a director of African Parks, has
been voluble in wanting faster and
tougher action. He has made clear
his view that when people are
coexisting with animals there must
be “fences to separate the two and
keep the peace. Once a fence is up
you are now managing a parcel of
land. Different rules have to apply,
whether we like it or not.”
The organisation itself said, with
unfortunately patronising language,
that “in secure parts of the continent
with low levels of education” there
must be “professionalisation” to save
wildlife. This, in practice, means

employing large bodies of rangers,
sometimes armed, paid and trained
to a higher standard than members
of their nation’s army.
Although they are members of
local communities, rangers selected
by the outsider-charity have a lot of
power and authority. It can be
exerted not only over poachers
incentivised by a wicked
international trade but over their
fellow tribesmen and women.
Resultant abuses — rape, brutality
— were lately uncovered in the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ask the human rights charity
Survival International and it will
offer you plenty of other examples.
Even without physical abuse, a
wildlife charity’s “professionalisation”
can mean grievous disrespect and
impoverishment. When park-keeping
regulations cut off people from
grazing, herding or food-gathering
areas that have been used for
generations the accusation of “green
colonialism” is not unfounded.
Living here in a patch of our own
country bordered by protected
landscapes and wildlife havens we
often joke that most “conservation” is
a form of landscape gardening, as
deliberate as farming or building. An
untouched primitive view is rare in
Britain so bracken gets cut back to
give heather a chance, streams are
cleared, saplings guarded from
squirrels; in bird reserves, traps kill

foxes and crows. Sometimes respect
for one species harms another and
humans choose: the more badgers
you protect, the fewer hedgehogs
you’ll see.
This demands obedience from
humans: dogs on leads, specific paths
across wild heathland, fences around
wild orchids, restricted grazing. Fair
enough. As a democratic society in a
smallish island nation we generally
approve of this conservationist
“gardening”.
But Africa is not our garden. It is
not our “parcel of land” to be
organised from outside by Europeans

Africa is not our ‘parcel
of land’ to be organised
by Europe and the US
and Americans. Its inhabitants are
not under our orders as farmers,
hunters or gamekeepers simply
because we are richer. Any
interference needs agreement, and
perhaps irresistible bribery via aid,
but also demands fairness. The
human rights and lifestyle choices of
an American billionaire or a British
prince are no greater than those of a
barefoot African. And both, hard
though it can be to admit, score
higher than a rhino or an elephant.
So just because a charity has
affluent donors, a budget of

$100 million a year and a nobly born
figurehead, it doesn’t entitle it to full
gardening rights. The model of such
charities, including traditionally the
WWF, has been condemned by some
as oppressive when animal habitat is
turned into parks and game reserves
and the locals turfed out. Luxury
tourism — like Harry’s own joyful
whizzing round a hippo lake on a jet
ski as related in his book — should
not outrank the people who lived in
partnership with nature before.
Caroline Pearce, the executive
director of Survival International,
wrote here that it had been fully a
decade since the charity first
complained to the prince and the
leadership of African Parks about
violations of indigenous people’s
rights. “Across Africa and Asia,” she
wrote, “conservation is for many
indigenous people the primary threat
to their existence.”
The charity, whose budget is
barely a tenth of African Parks’s,
claims successes in resisting both
wildlife and commercial interference
on behalf of Maasai, Kalahari
Bushmen, Yanomami in Brazil and
Dongria Kondh in India. There are
smaller, less obtrusive conservation
wildlife charities that work close to
the ground and are led by African
women and men. The result can
often be fairer but, let’s face it,
probably less dramatic in the saving
of fragile creatures and habitats.

It’s a dilemma. You need a heart of
stone not to be moved by Harry’s
emotional descriptions of animals
falling victim to savage poachers and,
indeed, to understand how he
needed Africa’s noble animals “to fill
the hole in my heart left by
soldiering”. He feels himself enlisted
in “a war to save the planet”. But it is
ironic that a man who accuses others
of racism and stands alongside Black
Lives Matter should have displayed
relatively little concern about
millions of Africans who are unlikely
to get jobs as rangers or guides to
rich visitors: women, children, aged
gatherers of medicinal herbs.
His passion for wild creatures is
admirable but so is his brother’s
caution about methods. Maybe
William’s long training for powerless
Commonwealth kingship, and the
recollections-may-vary caution
brilliantly exercised by the late
Queen, make him more likely to
remember that people with
unimaginably different lives and
priorities have needs and feelings too.
In donating and backing
conservation in far-off countries we
need to pause and ask uncomfortable
questions about our rights and theirs.
Just as in other politics we should
interrogate the equally dangerous
idea that an armed invasion will
spread liberal human rights and
peaceful democracy, whether the
recipients want it or not.

22

Monday February 5 2024 | the times
Letters to the Editor should be sent to
letters@thetimes.co.uk or by post to
1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

Letters to the Editor

Medical mistakes and a culture of cover-ups

Derby’s fading star
Sir, Thank you for Ann Treneman’s
article (“Who’ll save this historic
wreck with a starry past?”, Feb 3),
which we gratefully welcome in
Derby. Had John Flamsteed been
born in Poland or Italy, like
Copernicus or Galileo, then his
house would have been preserved
and treasured as a national symbol.
Flamsteed, who was as important as
these two, has been largely ignored
by history and his house could now
be demolished to provide a block of
flats: 27-28 Queen Street, Derby, is
where he made his groundbreaking
observations that led to him being
appointed the first astronomer royal.
Three applications for listing of the
property have now been refused. I
think we deserve better and our
history needs to be preserved.
Christopher Stone
Derby Civic Society

Writers’ rebellion
Sir, Glad though I am to see that the
lamentable mess being made of the
Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is
now receiving national attention, the
most fundamental problem with the
way it is being run is only addressed
late in your account (“War of wisely
chosen words at literature’s royal
society”, Feb 3). Since its foundation
200 years ago, the RSL has naturally
undergone some evolutionary
changes, but fellowship has always
been an honour conferred for genuine
literary quality. Yet in their apparent
preoccupation with what they deem
to be socially “correct” views, and
with an “inclusivity” that appears to
believe that durable talent is not that
important, those in charge seem to
have lost sight of the fact that a royal
society should be a special club with
a defined point to it. In doing so, they
have alienated a large number of
distinguished fellows and risk
destroying the society completely.
It was probably also a big mistake
to invent a spurious “membership”
category for those with no literary
credentials. Had this just invited
non-writers in for a limited number
of lectures a year, it might not have
mattered too much, but having all
and sundry to AGMs, annual parties,
etc, has made these occasions pointless
and many of us prefer to stay away.
Gillian Tindall
Fellow of the RSL since 1980
London NW5
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Sir, Rachel Sylvester is to be
congratulated for drawing attention
to the scandalous waste of NHS
resources and the unnecessary
distress caused to families involved
in litigation with the NHS (“The
NHS is stuck in a cover-up culture
— there is a better way”, Weekend
Essay, Feb 3).
It has long been blindingly obvious
that this litigation gravy train should
be done away with, and a reasonable
system such as that used in New
Zealand established. The suffering
of the families will be enormously
reduced, and ultimately the NHS
will benefit from transparency and
scrutiny of disasters, initiating
improved care, without necessarily
blaming an individual. As a doctor,
I can vouch for the severe stress
inherent in cases of negligence, which
has catastrophic consequences for all
the medical and nursing staff involved,
in addition to the unhappy litigants.
I trust that your considerable
power will be brought to bear on

the health secretary to bring about
this long-overdue change.
Dr Tom McEwen
Ret’d GP; Lymington, Hants

deserving patients being denied
compensation and the reverse.
Professor Jonathan Beard
Sheffield

Sir, I am delighted that Jeremy Hunt,
the chancellor, now has the power to
push for a no-blame compensation
scheme for the victims of medical
accidents (“Hunt backs no-blame
payout scheme for medical mistakes”,
Feb 3). Such a scheme has been
advocated by most medical royal
colleges and other health
organisations for many years, but
resisted by lawyers who benefit most
from the present system of clinical
negligence litigation. This system is
appallingly slow and increasingly
unaffordable for the NHS. In my
20-year experience as a medical
expert, I have been involved in many
cases that have been unnecessarily
prolonged by lawyers, rather than
patients or doctors, to the detriment
of everyone except themselves. It
is also unreliable; I have witnessed

Sir, My previously well daughter,
Gaia, died aged 25 shortly after
hospital admission of an unexplained
brain condition. At her inquest the
coroner allowed the NHS to pick the
clinical witnesses, and relied on the
hospital’s rambling and muddled
investigation, while disregarding my
proposals. I believe the inquest was a
waste of time and money and a missed
opportunity to learn: the triumph of
reputation over patient safety. More
than two years later the cause of death
remains unknown and my daily battle
for Gaia’s truth continues while I feel
inhumanely robbed of the chance to
grieve the loss of my only child. This
“toxic” and “untruthful” NHS further
harms those already traumatised and
bereaved without blinking an eye.
Dorit Young
London N1

Cancer care failing

A beautiful game

Sir, Your sober commentary on the
failure to deal adequately with cancer
is timely (leading article, Feb 3).
However, the castigation of a failing
NHS being more reactive than
proactive is misplaced. The NHS was
founded in 1948 solely to be reactive,
to heal the sick, and it was not until
the NHS Reorganisation Act 1973,
when all the nation’s social ills were
dumped in its lap, that it began to lose
its grip on the nation’s health. There
is an urgent need to restore the NHS
to its original purpose as desired by its
founders and deal with all the other
ills that afflict the nation elsewhere.
Dr Surinder Bakhshi
Birmingham

Sir, The researchers who state that
rugby is akin to child abuse (Feb 2)
fail to mention any of the positives of
such a wonderful sport: camaraderie,
self-improvement, bringing people
together, mental and physical
resilience and, especially for the
younger generations, letting off steam
in a controlled and regulated space.
Rugby has evolved at lightspeed in
the past 20 years. We now have
concussion checks, altered tackle
heights, the TMO and public
awareness around the dangers of
repeated impact on the body, not to
mention commonplace protective
gear. Sport is about progress, not
perfection. We should, of course, be
safe and prudent, but perhaps we
should look at the positives alongside
the dangers and make fair calls
about the future of rugby in schools.
Rory Forsyth
London SW18

Sir, Having been forced to take part
in rugby as a boy and having hated
it, when I became a headmaster in
1969 I banned it as a compulsory
sport — and this remained so during
my 33-year tenure. Fortunately the
question of boxing, an even more
horrendous activity, never arose.
Brian Harrild
Southwold, Suffolk

Back on the beat
Sir, The home secretary’s emphasis on
neighbourhood policing (“Get back to
basics, police told”, Feb 1, and letters,
Feb 2) is welcome but more may be
needed to reverse what appears to
be the structural unwillingness of
the police to engage directly with the
public. Our small town has a new
police station. It has no front door
and offers no public access, other
than via an external phone that only
connects to police HQ — miles away.
Peter Mooney
Princes Risborough, Bucks

DANGEROUS
DRIVING ON
THE RIVIERA
from the times february 5, 1924
On January 11 we published an
appeal to English motorists, over the
joint signatures of the Presidents of
the Automobile Club of Nice and of
the Sport Automobile of Monaco,
asking them — owner-drivers
especially — “to see that cars
coming from England should be
fitted with means for the lowering of
headlights.” On roads like those
between Cannes and Monte Carlo,
said the two Presidents, “the
dimming of headlights in meeting
oncoming cars ceases to be a
courtesy, it becomes a necessity”.
Some English motorists object to

Sir, I too found compulsory rugby at
school intimidating. Unlike Philip
Stapleton (letter, Feb 3) who managed
to escape to the wings, my assigned
place was always in the dark and
sweaty realm of the scrum. Was that
why I subsequently pursued a career
in journalism, followed by academia
and the church, I wonder?
The Rev Professor Ian Bradley
St Andrews, Fife
this appeal, both as encouraging bad
practice and an interference with
individual liberty. This is a pity. On
the whole, opinion in England is
opposed to dimming; and the advice
of the Royal Automobile Club is
against it. But nowhere in England is
there a problem approaching that
presented by this, beyond doubt, most
dangerous motoring road in the
world. The worst sections are those
between Nice and Monte Carlo, after
Beaulieu, where the road, only wide
enough for two vehicles, runs in a
succession of curves of varying
sharpness under overhanging cliffs, so
that a westbound car has, on its
offside, only a foot or two of clearance
from the sheer rock face. With the
present volume of traffic, night
running without dimming, is almost
impossible, except at a crawl. Once,
running westward, we met an
eastbound car which came blazing
along the inside of a long curve with
its brilliant headlights undimmed.

Green retreat
Sir, Rachel Reeves, the shadow
chancellor, appears to be backing
down from Labour’s green investment
pledge because of “the importance of
economic and fiscal stability” (report,
Feb 2). Yet economists left and right
recognise Britain’s decades-long
capital investment gap. Cutting this
investment is like refusing to repair a
leaking roof to save money. This is
economic illiteracy and Reeves should
know better. The climate crisis will
wreak economic havoc. Imagine using
Reeves’s argument to justify cancelling
the vaccination programme during
the pandemic. It would have been
condemned. Yet climate change will
ultimately pose a far more extreme
crisis, and create millions of refugees.
Reeves will end up on the wrong
side of history if Labour refuses to
do what it can to tackle it.
The Rev Professor Jasper Kenter
Aberystwyth Business School,
Aberystwyth University
The driver of the car in front of us
came almost to a stop. My driver
had to do the same. As he picked up
speed again he muttered something
of which I only caught the sound
“Anglais!” He may or may not have
been right, but it is noteworthy that
the two Presidents should have
thought it necessary to make their
appeal to Englishmen, and it would
be most unfortunate if we should
come to be regarded as rebels and
outlaws in this matter.
The English are, on the average,
the best and most considerate roadusers in the world. We cannot afford
to spoil our reputation by failing to
recognise that this is France, not
England, and that exceptional
conditions prevail here. We have no
right to come here prejudiced and
stiff-necked and refuse to abide by
the rules of the game.
thetimes.co.uk/archive

Johnson’s journeys
Sir, What welcome news that Venice
is preparing to commemorate the
700th anniversary of Marco Polo’s
death (report, Feb 3). In June 1961,
Tim Severin, Michael de Larrabeiti
and I set off from Oxford on two
BSA motorcycles to follow Marco Polo
all the way to Beijing. We travelled
5,000 miles through Europe, Turkey,
Iran and Afghanistan but, for various
reasons, were unable to pass through
the Wakhan Corridor into China.
Last summer, accompanied by my
son Max, I travelled more than 3,000
miles in China, through Xinjiang,
Gansu, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia
before — like Marco Polo in 1275 —
reaching Xanadu and Beijing. Our
main objective was to make a film
called In the Footsteps of Marco Polo. I
have also just finished writing the book
about Marco Polo I began 62 years ago.
We stuck as closely as we could to
Marco Polo’s own itinerary as far as
it is known. En route, we came across
many statues, public squares, even
restaurants and tea houses named
after the explorer. He is widely
recognised in China, not least as a
“bridge-builder” between East and
West. I hope these bridge-building
achievements will be appreciated in
this country in this 700th anniversary
year as much as they will be in Venice.
Stanley Johnson
London NW6

Fit for an Iron Lady
Sir, Dominic Sandbrook is wrong in
thinking that Margaret Thatcher’s
“mystery starter” — a mixture of
Philadelphia cheese, curry powder
and a tin of undiluted beef consommé
— is a punishment. It is in fact
delicious (comment, Feb 3). It was a
regular dish of mine in the Eighties
and is called Snaffles mousse. Thank
you for reminding me of it.
Deborah Chalmers
Tring, Herts

Boxing clever
Sir, Peter Moore laments the apparent
lack of a reverse gear in many of the
cars he encounters on narrow lanes
(letter, Feb 3). In the holiday season I
can understand his frustration. My
solution, when faced with a holiday
week self-catering for my family of
six near Padstow, was to borrow a
friend’s horse box. Not only did it
accommodate all the bags, food, bikes
and beach paraphernalia required,
but when meeting oncoming traffic
everyone was willing to give way,
presumably taking us for locals.
Simon Greaves
Sandwich, Kent

Unbreak my heart
Sir, Surely Rodgers and Hammerstein’s
I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Outa
My Hair must rank as one of the best
break-up songs (letter, Feb 3). “Wash
him out, dry him out/ Push him out,
fly him out/ Cancel him and let him
go” — just a few of its pithy, brilliant
lyrics. I guarantee that listening to it
will cure any heartbreak.
Anneke Berrill
London N1
Sir, I can’t believe Harry Nilsson’s
classic has not been mentioned. I
remember playing it at full volume
as I sank back against the door
and slid to the floor crying out as
melodramatically as possible: “I can’t
live, if living is without you.” I felt
so much better afterwards.
Clare Beard
Sheffield

23

the times | Monday February 5 2024

Leading articles
Daily Universal Register
UK: The Times Health Commission
publishes its final report; Society of Motor
Manufacturers and Traders publishes its
latest car sales figures.

Nature notes
Lenten roses are
one of the first
garden plants of the
year to flower, but
two species of
hellebore can be
found growing wild
in woods and shady places, though both are
a little more retiring than their garden
centre cousins. Stinking hellebore, also
known as bearfoot, dungwort and
setterwort, bears pale green flowers at this
time of year. Despite its name it does not
have a particularly strong smell, and only if
the foliage is crushed. Green hellebore is
native to southern England and looks very
similar; both of them can help to sustain
early honeybees and emerging bumblebee
queens. melissa harrison

Birthdays today
Oliver Mears, pictured,
director of opera, Royal
Opera House, 45; Sir
Ben Ainslie, yachtsman,
four-time Olympic gold
medallist and America’s
Cup winner (2013), 47;
Sir Robert Atkins,
Conservative MEP (1999-2014), MP (197997) and Northern Ireland minister (1992-94),
78; Emma Barnett, broadcaster, Woman’s
Hour (BBC Radio 4), 39; Nolan Bushnell,
co-founder of the Atari video game
company (1972), 81; Queen Mary of
Denmark, 52; Michèle Dix, civil engineer,
managing director, Crossrail 2 (2015-21),
Transport for London (2015-21), 69; SvenGoran Eriksson, football manager, England
(2001-06), 76; Russell Grant, astrologer, 73;
Lord (Christopher) Haden-Guest, actor and
writer, This is Spinal Tap (1984), 76; Melissa
Harrison, writer, The Stubborn Light of
Things: A Nature Diary (2020), and nature
writer, The Times, 49; Douglas Hogg,
Viscount Hailsham, Conservative MP (19792010), minister of agriculture, fisheries and
food (1995-97), 79; Alison Hutchinson, chief
executive, Pennies Foundation digital
charity box, 57; Sir Stephen Irwin, lord
justice of appeal (2016-20), 71; Sir Mark
Jones, interim director of the British
Museum, chairman, National Trust for
Scotland, director, Victoria and Albert
Museum (2001-11), 73; Robert Rogers, Lord
Lisvane, clerk of the House of Commons
(2011-14), 74; Michael Mann, film-maker,
Heat (1995), 81; Thomasina Miers, chef and
food writer, co-founder of Wahaca (Mexican
restaurant group), 48; Rear Admiral Steve
Moorhouse, director, Force Generation,
Royal Navy, 51; Sir Andrew Morritt,
chancellor of the High Court of England
and Wales (2005-13), 86; José María
Olazábal, golfer, two-time Masters
champion, 58; Charlotte Rampling, actress,
The Night Porter (1974), 78; Sir David Reid,
chairman, quality assurance provider
Intertek Group (2012-20), Tesco (2004-11),
77; Cristiano Ronaldo, footballer,
Manchester United (2003-09, 2021-22), 39;
Michael Sheen, actor, The Queen (2006), 55.

On this day
In 1999 Nelson Mandela, the president of
South Africa, made his last State of the
Nation speech, looking forward to the
building of “the country of our dreams”.

The last word
“There ought, I thought, to be a ritual for
being born twice — patched, retreaded and
approved for the road.” Sylvia Plath, poet and
novelist, The Bell Jar (1963)

Grasping the Nettle
The National Health Service is trapped in an unsustainable cycle of crises. Today the
Times Health Commission proposes practical reforms to get the system working
It is so often said that the National Health Service
is in “crisis” that the word has lost its sting. There is
a permanent funding crisis, alongside a workforce
crisis, a capacity crisis, an annual winter crisis, an
A&E crisis, a waiting-list crisis, a social-care crisis
and, increasingly, a crisis in public confidence.
The dysfunction has become part of the national
furniture. That is not how healthcare should be
managed in the fifth-richest country in the world.
The Times launched the Health Commission in
January last year to address the urgent challenges
facing health and social care. Over the past
12 months, an illustrious panel of expert
commissioners, chaired by Rachel Sylvester, of
The Times, has received evidence from more
than 600 witnesses including senior clinicians,
managers, scientists, business leaders, former
health secretaries and policy experts. It now
delivers its findings.
Chief among them is the need for a technological
revolution in the health system. At the moment,
there are between 40 and 60 different types of
patient records with the NHS, and 10 per cent of
hospitals are still paper-based. Sucking this
sand out of the wheels of the system may not
be glamorous but, as will be obvious to any
sick patient who has held their head in their hands

as apologetic staff scramble to retrieve basic
information about their case, it is vital to
improving patient care.
Safeguards will always be needed to make sure
that sensitive health information can be used only
for proper purposes, but the evidence shows that the
public prioritise a functioning system. According to
YouGov polling, 56 per cent of the public agree
that the convenience of being able to access
care outweighed any risk to privacy or security,
compared with 22 per cent who disagreed; 81 per
cent are behind digital “patient passports”.
If the health service is ultimately to take
advantage of the opportunities that medical
technology presents — from personalised medicine
to artificially intelligent tools to diagnose, and
even predict, patients’ ailments — then a grownup conversation will be needed about managing
the privacy risks. The furore in some quarters
about the award of an NHS contract last year, to
set up a “federated data platform” allowing NHS
trusts and other clinical bodies to talk to each
other digitally, appears well out of step with the
mainstream of public opinion.
As important as digital innovation is the need to
place greater emphasis on prevention and
community care, rather than storing up sickness

and struggling to treat it. The health of the nation
is at least as affected by what happens outside
hospitals as what happens within them. A working
social care system is a prerequisite for a functional
NHS, but the point applies outside care settings
too. For example, obesity, which has soared in
recent years, costs the NHS an estimated £19 billion
per year. Policy solutions that do not involve scalpels
or prescription pads — such as sugar and salt taxes,
or advertising curbs to nudge people towards
healthier lifestyles — often trigger politicians’
phobia of the “nanny state”, but that phobia has
proved to be expensive, and the commissioners
wisely recommend that policymakers get over it.
Reform is not only the right thing for patients; it
is also an economic and demographic imperative.
Health spending has risen by 42 per cent since
2010, and the NHS is predicted to employ almost
half of the public sector by 2036. As the population
ages and demand for care grows, it is obvious that
the current model is not sustainable. To recognise
this is not to declare a political allegiance, but to
state a fact. Tomorrow The Times will welcome
both the health secretary and the shadow health
secretary to the launch of this report: both should
review these recommendations carefully as they
start drafting their parties’ manifestos.

America’s Warning
President Biden had no option but to respond to attacks by Iranian-backed groups
Airstrikes are unlikely to produce a decisive result
against terrorist groups and militias of the kind
scattered across the Middle East. Too diffuse,
too mobile, too lacking in vulnerable fixed infrastructure, these organisations are not susceptible
to defeat from the air. America’s campaign in
recent days against Iranian-backed groups in Iraq
and Syria — retaliation for the deaths of three US
servicemen in a drone strike on a remote base in
Jordan on January 28 — will disrupt their
operations but not curtail them. The attacks have,
nevertheless, been the most extensive yet by US
forces against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps (IRGC) and its allied groups, both in geographical scope and intensity.
The main purpose of these raids, including
missions by US-based B1 bombers to emphasise
Washington’s global reach, is to send a signal to
Iran, which has plenty of highly vulnerable fixed
military and civilian infrastructure, a “target-rich
environment” as the air force generals and air
marshals put it. In short, President Biden is saying
to the Iranian regime: back off or you may just find
yourselves in the crosshairs. Though no British

lives were lost in the attack in Jordan, Britain also
has a strong interest in deterring Iranian meddling,
in particular through its sponsorship of Houthi
militants. On Saturday, Britain joined the US in a
strike on Houthi targets in Yemen, for the third
time, in response to recent Houthi attacks on ships
in the Red Sea.
While making it clear that Iran and its allies will
be punished for terrorism, neither Mr Biden nor
the British government wishes to see a full-blown
confrontation that could spiral out of control. The
Middle East has been teetering on the edge of a
general conflagration since the terrorist outrage
perpetrated against Israel by the Palestinian terror
group Hamas on October 7. The concern is that
the violence in Gaza could trigger a domino effect.
But the West cannot stand by and allow Iranian
proxies to threaten its service personnel in Iraq
and Syria — there have been 160 drone attacks on
US forces there since early October — or to
menace global shipping in the Red Sea.
The US bombing threatens to overshadow
negotiations aimed at ending the killing in Gaza
and securing the release of hostages seized by

Hamas. In another round of shuttle diplomacy
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, is
seeking to fashion a long-term settlement of the
Palestinian question amid the present chaos.
The good news is that Iran appears as reluctant
as the US to cross the line into war. While Tehran
has been content to gnaw away at American
power in the region, cultivating its network of
friendly militias and successfully displacing US
influence in Iraq, it has shied away from a ruinous
collision with the superpower. Faced with dissent
at home and uncertainty over succession, the
Iranian regime has a limited appetite for what
would be fatal adventurism.
This mutual restraint is evidenced by what has
not happened. The US telegraphed its intentions,
including IRGC positions outside Iran on its target
list, with enough time for operatives to clear out.
Iran, meanwhile, reined in its main militia ally in
Iraq, which has suspended attacks on the small US
contingent there. Iran has also refrained from
impeding oil shipments transiting the Straits of
Hormuz, its ace in any conflict. For now, both sides
seem to be pulling their punches.

Kindness in Millions
Readers have raised phenomenal sums of money for good causes
A week ago, in noting the extraordinary generosity
of Times readers, we advised that there was still a
couple of days in which to give to our annual
charity appeal. Thanks to a flood of last-minute
donations, The Times and Sunday Times Christmas
Appeal raised a total of £2,039,452 during this
year’s campaign. In any year, that would be a
tremendous achievement. Coming at a moment
when belts are particularly tight, it is a triumph,
and a testament to readers’ kindness and decency.
Feeding Britain, one of this year’s three
charities, will use its share to deliver help to the
7 per cent of the UK population living in food

poverty. A sum of £50 covers a family’s “stepping
stone” away from food-bank dependence into
membership of an affordable food club. The
£374,657 raised for the charity — thanks to readers
and “matching” donations from Prezzo, the Henry
Oldfield Trust and an anonymous donor — will
allow many more families to take that step, while
helping the charity to stock clubs’ larders.
Meanwhile the £1,266,162 raised for Street
Child, following matching donations from the UK
government, the gift brand From Babies with
Love, the jeweller Boodles and an anonymous
donor, will support children in more than 20

countries affected by war to continue their
education, paying for teachers, classrooms and
textbooks in warzones. With this money, Street
Child could construct an equivalent of about 800
classrooms.
The £398,633 raised for Whizz Kids, a charity
dedicated to helping Britain’s 75,000 young
wheelchair users, will go towards getting them the
mobility kit and training they need to live happier
and independent lives. Gifts to Whizz Kidz up to
£50,000 were doubled, thanks to Barratt Developments. In each case, these are transformative
sums for good and urgent causes: thank you.

24

2GM

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

World
Jailed Palestinian ‘holds
key to ceasefire in Gaza’
Israel
Richard Spencer Ramallah

A proposal to end the war in Gaza that
was being studied by Hamas last night
brings freedom closer for the bestknown and most controversial Palestinian political prisoner, the man a
recent opinion poll suggested should be
the territory’s next president.
Hamas has said that top of their list
for any exchange of prisoners for Israeli
hostages would be Marwan Barghouti,
a veteran West Bank leader whose history symbolises the divide with Israel.
To Israelis he is a terrorist mastermind, serving life in prison after being
convicted of five murders. The Israeli
government has not said it will agree to
his release, nor accepted that it is inevitable, which many negotiators believe.
His supporters say he is the Palestinian Nelson Mandela. Every time that
Israel and its supporters around the
world demand that Barghouti be described as a terrorist, they say western
leaders once described Mandela as a
terrorist too.
“My father is very popular among
Palestinians, and that happened for a
reason,” his son Arab Barghouti said at
his father’s campaign office in
Ramallah. “My father never
made big promises to build
roads or schools or the best
buildings. He is just someone from the street
who
made
the
choice to dedicate
his life to the Palestinian cause.”
That struggle has
cost him more than two
decades of his life. He
was arrested and jailed
in 2002 for murder,
having already served
previous shorter terms.
After a statement calling for support for
Hamas in the new war
was released in his name
— though disavowed by
his wife — his family say

Marwan Barghouti, lionised and in prison, is said to accept a two-state solution

he was brutalised in prison, transferred
to solitary confinement and held in the
dark with loud music playing for days.
The Israeli prison authorities have
not commented on the allegations but a
spokesman said: “The prisoner has filed
an official complaint, which will be
examined via standard procedure.”
Barghouti’s struggle has earned him
the enduring hostility of many ordinary
Israelis, who see him as the man who
abandoned the peace process to lead
the second intifada, or uprising.
Starting in 2000, suicide
bombers and armed attackers brought havoc to Israel. Bus
stops, restaurants
and nightclubs were
all bombed. Militants
fought the Israeli army. More than 3,000
Palestinians and 1,000
Israelis died.
Barghouti’s role was
ambiguous, in part
because of his refusal to
offer a defence at his
trial. He was certainly a
top leader of Fatah, the
largest secular political
faction in the Palestin-

ian territories, and in the Palestine
Liberation Organisation, and he led
and justified both intifadas.
The first involved much less violence,
and largely consisted of strikes and protests. Backers of both Fatah and Hamas
say the second, armed intifada was necessary because of the collapse of the
peace process and what they say were
provocative acts by the Israeli right.
Israel held all the Palestinian leaders,
including Barghouti, responsible for
the hundreds of Israeli civilian deaths,
and accused Barghouti of personally
masterminding some of them.
His chief of staff, Ahmed Ghuneim,
said Barghouti, 64, had argued against
targeting civilians, but that other factions and individual fighters had acted
independently. “We were fighting the
Israeli military, which was attacking
our country, attacking our villages, killing our people,” Ghuneim said.
Arab Barghouti, 33, the youngest of
four children, speaks fluent English,
having studied in California. He says
the reason his father is so popular, and,
his supporters say, so feared by Israel, is
that he has rare appeal to the different
wings of Palestinian popular opinion.
As a leader of Fatah, Barghouti represents the traditional and secular wing of

the Palestinian cause, often termed
“moderate” in comparison with the
Islamic militancy of Hamas and its ally
in the Gaza war, Islamic Jihad.
He accepted the peace process and
Oslo accords negotiated by Yasser Arafat, leader of the PLO, and Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister. That
means he has accepted the existence of
the Israeli state, and is in line with western calls for a two-state solution.
However, his role in the second intifada as leader of Fatah’s military wing has
granted him legitimacy with factions at
war with Israel. His long stay in prison
means he has avoided the stigma attached to his Fatah colleagues in the
West Bank, including Mahmoud Abbas,
president of the Palestinian Authority,
who is accused of corruption.
An opinion poll conducted among
Palestinians in December showed that
in a three-way ballot for the presidency,
Barghouti would receive 47 per cent of
the vote, to 43 per cent for Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, whose standing has risen since the war began. Abbas
would receive 7 per cent.
Reports last night indicated that
Hamas was on the verge of responding
to a ceasefire offer that would involve a
gradual exchange of prisoners for hostages over a period of six weeks.
The US wants a deal to be followed by
negotiations for a new government in
Gaza, preferably led by a unified Palestinian Authority under changed leadership, with Hamas sidelined.
There is no clear mechanism for
Abbas to be ousted, but few diplomats
believe he can bring about the change
demanded by Israel, the Palestinians or
negotiators. Israel will not want Barghouti as a replacement. But his son
said it was in Israel’s best interest to accept a settlement before world opinion
turned against it, and with a leader who
accepted its existence.
“My father values peace,” he said.
“He never demanded the destruction of
any state, including Israel. He always
said he wanted people to live in dignity,
and for the Palestinian people not to be
an exception.”

Some like it hot Hundreds of Marilyn

Surgeon haunted by horrors of war vows to return French insult
George Grylls

Professor Nick Maynard has struggled
to sleep since returning home to his
wife and two dogs in Oxfordshire.
The 61-year-old surgeon has been
thinking about the fate of a six-year-old
boy he saw abandoned on a blanket,
along with hundreds of others lining
the corridors at al-Aqsa Hospital in
central Gaza.
The boy’s chest had been torn apart
by shrapnel. Air was leaking out of his
right lung and burns covered his arms
and legs. “He had just been dumped
there,” Maynard said. “He was dying.”
Maynard, who specialises in upper
gastrointestinal surgery, scooped up
the child and succeeded in resuscitating him but after an hour of emergency
work he was dragged back to the oper-

ating theatre to carry out the next piece
of lifesaving surgery, never to learn the
fate of the boy.
“I can’t stop thinking about that sixyear-old child,” he said, two days after
his return from Gaza in his office at
Churchill Hospital in Headington,
Oxford. “I’m talking to my wife about it
all. It’s quite difficult because I get quite
tearful ... I feel very guilty I’ve left.”
Maynard has been travelling almost
annually to Gaza since 2010 to work
and teach in hospitals.
He had been planning a visit in the
autumn before the Hamas terrorist
attacks on October 7 that killed 1,200
Israelis. “I was horrified,” he said. “The
attacks on innocent Israelis were appalling. Any loss of civilian life is profoundly distressing.”
His bond with Gaza strengthened

after he helped Enas, 30, a Palestinian,
to win a scholarship to study medicine
at Leeds, in effect adopting her alongside his three children and walking her
down the aisle at her wedding.
Shortly before Christmas, Maynard,
Nick Maynard led a
team of British
doctors to Gaza

who lectures at Corpus Christi College,
Oxford, led the first team of five British
doctors from Medical Aid for Palestinians to enter Gaza.
His first operation was a thoracotomy on a woman in her 20s: her right

lung had been shredded by shrapnel
and she was bleeding to death. For the
next week and a half, Maynard repaired
shattered livers and mended broken
spleens. Often using a blunt scalpel, he
removed pieces of bowel, intestine and
duodenum. There were limited painkillers and, on one day, no running
water to wash his hands with.
Medical Aid for Palestinians eventually evacuated the doctors after a
warning from the Israel Defence Forces
that fighting was likely to take place
around the al-Aqsa hospital where they
were working.
Back in Oxford, he has enjoyed home
cooking and time with his wife, Fionnuala, and two dogs but he plans to
return to Gaza. “I told my wife that first
night back, ‘You know I’m going back.’
She said, ‘I know you will,’ ” he said.

over tomatoes
hard for Spain
to swallow
Spain
Isambard Wilkinson Madrid

The Spanish prize their tomatoes. They
are the mainstay of the national breakfast — pan con tomate — and of course
there is gazpacho, the cooling soup.
So it is unsurprising that a senior
French politician’s attack on Spanish
tomatoes as “inedible” has provoked
what the media have called “the tomato
war”. Feathers have been significantly

the times | Monday February 5 2024

25

2GM

Chechnya strongman puts
family in key roles amid
questions over his health
Page 26

€225 to park your 4x4 in
Paris for just a few hours
Page 27

Biden to Trump:
you’re going to
be a loser again
United States
David Charter Washington
Hugh Tomlinson South Carolina

Monroe impersonators joined a sponsored swim at Brighton beach, Adelaide, to raise money for cancer charities in Australia

ruffled by the statement by Ségolène
Royal, a former environment minister and presidential candidate.
“Have you tasted the so-called organic Spanish tomatoes? They’re
inedible!” she told a TV interview.
Royal went on to allege that
Spanish organic tomatoes
were not organic at all.
“Spanish organic is fake organic,” she said. “Spanish
fruit and vegetables do not
meet French standards
and should not be on [supermarket] shelves.”
The statement caused
astonishment in Spain.
Farmers have derided her
Ségolène Royal told
an interviewer that
Spanish tomatoes
were inedible and
that farmers used
too much pesticide

comments as “drivel” and “shameful”,
an organic farmers’ association
complained to Brussels about her,
and Pedro Sánchez, the prime
minister, defended the sector.
Calling her allegations “unfounded”, Sánchez said that
clearly Royal “has not had
the good fortune of trying
a Spanish tomato” and
invited her to come to
Spain to “try any of the
varieties of Spanish
tomato”. He added:
“You will see that the
Spanish tomato is unbeatable.”
French farmers accuse
Spain of flooding their
home market with low-cost
products using large quantities of pesticides. During
farmers’ protests in France,
numerous trucks from
Spain have been attacked,

notably at the Boulou tollgate, a few
miles from the Spanish border, and
their cargo of fruit, vegetables and wine
destroyed.
The Spanish professional association
for organic production (Ecovalia) said
that the same rules applied in France
and Spain. “Spanish organic farming is
governed by exactly the same regulations throughout Europe,” said Alvaro
Barrera, Ecovalia’s head, adding that
Royal’s words were “shameful” and that
his organisation had lodged a complaint with the European Commission.
Spain is the world’s sixth largest tomato producer but in the past five years
production has fallen by 20 per cent.
Farmers say tomatoes are less profitable to grow. One third of all tomatoes
sold in the European Union during the
first quarter of 2023 were imported
from Morocco. France accounted for
more than half of Moroccan tomato
sales in the EU, the first time it surpassed Spain’s sales in the region.

President Biden and Donald Trump
will pass each other in the battleground
state of Nevada as they move towards
an apparently inevitable battle for the
White House in November.
Biden arrived in Las Vegas yesterday,
buoyed by his victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary on Saturday,
the first contest in which the president
has appeared on the ballot.
He will spend two days in Nevada,
where he narrowly defeated Trump in
2020, trying to energise Democrat
voters. Republicans will also hold a primary contest this week but Trump will
not be on the ballot. Instead, the former
president will run unopposed in a caucus on Thursday.
Hoping for a show of force in South
Carolina, where he pledged to “make
Donald Trump a loser again”, Biden
won 96.2 per cent of the vote with
counting almost complete, trouncing
two long-shot challengers. It means
that Biden wins all 55 state delegates for
the party convention in August.
The only shadow was an underwhelming turnout of 132,000 voters,
compared with to 536,949 in 2020,
when victory in South Carolina revived
Biden’s campaign after big losses in
Iowa and New Hampshire.
Turnout this year was expected to be
down, with the incumbent president’s
march to the Democratic nomination
all-but assured. Nervous Democrats
are scanning the results, however, for
signs of waning enthusiasm that may
prompt voters to stay at home.
The Biden campaign will be encouraged by stronger turnout among black
voters, a crucial demographic for his reelection hopes. Results put the share of
black voters 13 per cent higher than in
2020, following a series of polls indicating that the African-American vote was
beginning to drift away from the Democrats.
Biden said after the poll: “The people
of South Carolina have spoken again
and I have no doubt that you have set us
on the path to winning the presidency
again and making Donald Trump a loser again.”
Trump faces concerns about turnout
and voter apathy of his own in Nevada,
after the bizarre scenario that will have
the former president and Haley competing in separate polls this week,
although Haley is barely contesting the
state, focusing instead on a showdown
with Trump in her home state of South
Carolina later this month.
On Saturday she appeared as herself
before a mock town hall on Saturday
Night Live putting questions to Trump,
who was played by the comedian James
Austin Johnson. The skit poked fun at
Trump’s recent confusion between
Haley and the former House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, a gaffe that Haley has
mocked on the campaign trail in recent
days. “Are you doing OK, Donald? You
might need a mental competency test,”
she said on the show.

‘Elvis Presley
looks like me’
Foreign Staff

Donald Trump used to boast that
he had seen Elvis Presley up close.
“The fans were ripping the place
apart, screaming. They were going
crazy,” he once told reporters at
the White House.
He admiringly added that when
it was announced that Elvis had left
the building at the end of the gig he
attended, few wanted to leave. “If
they didn’t say that, I think I would
still be there, maybe I wouldn’t be
here,” he said when he awarded
Presley the Presidential Medal of
Freedom 2018.
Quite what has drawn Trump to
Elvis is not immediately apparent,
though they have an uncanny
knack for making supporters lose
their inhibitions, and their homes
— Graceland and Mar a Lago —
have entered the popular
imagination. Yet Trump is still
fixated on the King.
Writing on Truth Social over
the weekend, Trump shared an
image that was half his face and
half Presley’s. “For so many years
people have been saying that Elvis
and I look alike,” he wrote. “Now
this pic has been going all over the
place. What do you think?” Many
pointed out the image showed a
young Elvis and Trump, aged 77.
Last year Trump compared
himself to Presley when Justice for
All, his single with the J6 Prison
Choir — referring to those jailed
for their role in the Capitol riots —
topped the Billboard digital song
sales chart. “On Billboard, which is
the big deal, No 1, Donald Trump,”
he told Fox News in March. “I feel
like Elvis.”

Donald Trump asked his social
media followers if they could see
his resemblance to Elvis Presley

26

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

World

Chechnya
leader installs
daughters as
top officials
Chechnya
Tom Parfitt

Out of the blue Paloma Livellara Vidart, from Argentina, a winner at the 52nd Prix de Lausanne, in Switzerland, a contest that awards scholarships to young dancers

Putin’s ‘Nazi-themed’ successor
to Wagner stakes claim in Africa
Africa
Jane Flanagan Africa Correspondent

Russian mercenaries have claimed a
fresh foothold in Africa with the first
deployment of the Kremlin’s new private army, which was established to replace the mutinous Wagner group.
The contingent’s arrival in Burkina
Faso marks a new push by Moscow to
expand and centralise its influence in
Africa, which, before his attempted
coup in June, was outsourced to Wagner’s commander, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The new force, structured under
President Putin and the defence minister, has kept a Nazi theme. Wagner, in
honour of Adolf Hitler’s favourite composer, has been replaced by the Africa
Corps, the name of Germany’s Second
World War expeditionary forces.
Its mission, however, remains the
same: to keep the leaders of client states
in power, to sow anti-western feeling
and extract valuable natural resources
to help to sidestep international sanctions and fund Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Blood Gold Report, a research unit
based in Washington, calculates that
the Kremlin has earned $2.5 billion
from trade in African gold since Putin
invaded Ukraine two years ago.
Wagner was technically disbanded
after Prigozhin’s death in a plane crash,
weeks after his failed uprising, but
remains active, although the Africa
Corps is actively recruiting Prigozhin’s
men to help it to establish a network of
defence ministry bases in west and cen-

Wagner’s footprint in Africa
How Yevgeny Prigozhin’s men
influenced a continent

LIBYA

2018
MALI

SUDAN

2021

2017

IVORY COAST
2023
MADAGASCAR
BURKINA FASO

2022

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

2018

MOZAMBIQUE

2019

2018
500 miles

2021 Presumed year of arrival
Types of activities

Troops

Disinformation campaigns

Countries where the Wagner Group...
Is taking part or has taken part in
combat or violent action
Is or was present for other activities

Source: Le Monde

tral Africa. Wagner’s first stake in
Africa came in 2017 when it was
hired by the leader of the Central African Republic to prop him up in return
for access to diamonds, uranium and
gold. Billboards have also gone up in
Russia’s African strongholds seeking
local men to join its forces promising
“high cash compensation, free medical

assistance, a secure future for your
family”.
Photographs of a IL-76 military
transport plane delivering 100 men and
equipment to Ouagadougou were published by the Africa Corps on Telegram.
The message said their mission was to
“ensure the safety of the country’s
leader Ibrahim Traoré and the Bur-

kinabe people” and a further 200 men
would join them shortly. Confirming
their arrival, Traoré, who came to
power via a coup in 2022, said that “if
necessary” the Russians would join his
forces fighting the Islamist insurgency
that has taken hold on its borders and
those of neighbouring Niger and Mali.
The eviction of French troops and
UN peacekeepers has increased insecurity in the Sahel, the vast expanse
south of the Sahara Desert that has
been a hotspot for violent extremism. Last year was the bloodiest ever in
the three countries where 14,000
people were killed.
Moscow has exploited the chaos to
forge new alliances and last year signed
a defence pact with the the military juntas in the trio of disaffected former
French colonies. Their increased reliance on Russia was signalled last week
by declaring their immediate withdrawal from west Africa’s regional
economic bloc, Ecowas, which they
claimed acted as western puppet.
Another promising development for
Moscow was the visit last week by the
leader of Chad, which has maintained a
pro-western policy. Mahamat Idriss
Deby’s visit was, Putin reflected, “a
great opportunity to develop our bilateral ties”. Deby has led Chad since 2021,
when he took power in a coup shortly
after his father, the long-serving president Idriss Deby, was killed fighting
anti-government rebels. The junta
promised elections but has delayed
them until October this year.

He is a loyal ally of President Putin and
the subject of a personality cult, but the
leader of Chechnya has further means
to bolster his influence: nepotism.
In another sign of his grip on the Russian republic, Ramzan Kadyrov’s 24year-old daughter has become the latest of his relatives to have secured a
high-ranking official position. Khadizhat Kadyrova is to a serve as deputy
chief of Kadyrov’s administration, her
appointment having been confirmed in
a social media post.
A former militant rebel and cagefighting enthusiast, Kadyrov, 47, has a
wide and growing spread of familial
support in Chechnya, which he rules
like a fiefdom. Another daughter, Ayshat, 25, was appointed deputy prime
minister in October after a turn as culture minister, while his eldest son, Akhmat, 18, became deputy minister of
sport and youth policy in November.
Also in post are Kadyrov’s son-in-law
(Ayshat’s husband), Viskhan Matsuyev,
26, who is agriculture minister; his
brother-in-law, Ramzan Cherkhigov,
56, who is minister of transport; and his
nephew, Khamzat, 27, who was made an
adviser to Kadyrov on security issues.
Numerous other relatives and inlaws of the father of 14 now occupy
posts in politics and the bureaucracy.
The Chechen leader’s allies have denied rumours in recent months that he
is unwell, after he became heavy and
Ramzan Kadyrov
rules his country as
if it were a fiefdom

puffy-faced and appeared to struggle
with light exercise despite previously
being a keen amateur sportsman.
Allegations of illness were not proven but Kadyrov’s installation of relatives in senior posts suggest a man keen
to preserve his position or his legacy.
The Kadyrov family have been
prominent in Chechnya for almost
three decades. Ramzan’s father, Akhmat, was a Mufti, or Muslim leader, who
fought on the side of Chechen rebels
against Moscow’s rule in the 1990s.
Akhmat Kadyrov eventually went
over to Moscow’s side and was made
leader of Chechnya by Putin, but he was
assassinated in 2004. Three years later,
when Ramzan reached 30, the legal age
requirement, Putin installed him.
Under his rule, security forces have
been frequently accused of kidnapping,
torturing and killing suspected Islamist
militants and their relatives.
Kremlin-loyal armed units from
Chechnya, a region of 1.4 million
people, also play a significant role in
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Kadyrov’s son, Adam, caused controversy in September when he was seen in
a video beating a man detained for allegedly burning a Quran. Kadyrov
praised his son, who was then 15, later
awarding him the Hero of Chechnya
award. He had earlier approved the first
Hero of Chechnya recipient as himself.
A survey by the BBC’s Russian Service in 2020 found there were 346
streets and lanes in Chechnya named
after the Kadyrovs. A year earlier, the
family’s home village, Tsentaroy, was
renamed Akhmat-Yurt in honour of
Ramzan’s father.

the times | Monday February 5 2024

27

2GM

World

€225 to park a 4x4 in Paris for six hours
France
Charles Bremner Paris

Parking for six hours on a Paris street in
an SUV or large car will cost €225 under
a new system endorsed by the city’s
voters last night.
In a city referendum, 55 per cent of
residents who voted backed the move
by Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist mayor,
to punish the large 4x4s and other
private vehicles that are deemed to be
the worst offenders for polluting and
crowding the French capital. Only 6 per
cent of 1.3 million potential voters,
however, turned out for the poll on
whether to triple the parking charge for
heavier vehicles, many of which enter
the city from surrounding areas.
The narrow margin reflected opposi-

tion in the affluent western districts of
the capital, where more residents own
vehicles, many in the SUV category.
Hidalgo said: “The Parisians have
made a clear choice, with the considerable divisions that we always see
between east and west.”
The conservative council opposition,
led by Rachida Dati, President Macron’s
newly appointed culture minister,
denounced the referendum as biased
and motorists’ groups are calling it
a publicity stunt.
Only a third of Parisian households
own a vehicle and there is hostility to
“les 4x4 de ville”, as they are known, so
the latest move by Hidalgo to curb
traffic had been expected to pass easily.
The question on the ballot left little
doubt about the expected answer: “For

or against creating a special tariff for
parking passenger cars that are heavy,
bulky and polluting.”
The size beyond which the standard
price for a street parking place will be
increased to €225 for the maximum of
six hours, has been set at 1.6 tonnes.
This exempts most French urban SUV
vehicles, made by Renault, Peugeot,
Citroen and DS. The tariff applies to
hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles and
to all electric vehicles heavier than two
tonnes. Parisians with resident permits
will be exempt in their home area and
the charge will not apply to taxis,
tradespeople, health workers or drivers
with a disability.
Hidalgo, whose city is to host the
Olympic Games this summer, said:
“We are doing this to reduce pollution

and to make our children safer because
these cars are dangerous. Paris is transforming itself to allow people to breathe
better and live better.” Her deputy,
Emmanuel Grégoire, added: “Heavier,
more dangerous, more polluting ...
SUVs are an environmental disaster.”
The motoring lobby said the council’s
logic was wrong because modern large
vehicles pollute less than older small
ones. “This is just a publicity stunt by
Hidalgo. She’s trying to make SUVs the
symbol of the anti-car policies of her
city hall. It’s simplistic and false,” Pierre
Chasseray, head of 40 Million Motorists,
the main voice of French motorists, said.
“If we don’t stop it now, this rebellion
led by an ultra-urban and anti-car
minority will spread like gangrene.”
Hidalgo’s drive over the past decade

Islamic Party members
opposing Ed Sheeran’s gig
pointed to the “disgusting
tragedy” of a gay kiss seen
at The 1975 concert. Far
left: Coldplay’s Chris Martin

Sheeran music ‘too
gay for Malaysians’

A

fter Coldplay
and The 1975,
Malaysia’s
conservatives
have a new
British soft-pop target in
their sights: Ed Sheeran
(Gavin Blair writes).
The Suffolk musician
is due to play the Bukit
Jalil National Stadium in
the capital Kuala
Lumpur on February
24 as part of his twoyear long Mathematics
world tour. The
opposition Islamic Party
has called, however, for
the concert to be
cancelled, objecting to
his support for LGBT
rights.
A party
statement
urged the
government to
take “a firm
stand . .. on
the verge of
Ramadan” and
claimed that
Sheeran’s gig
would “pollute
the sanctity” of
the Muslim holy
month of
fasting, which
this year will

take place in March and
April. It said Sheeran
“has a background of
LGBT ideology, which is
firmly rejected by
Malaysia”.
The coalition
government of Anwar
Ibrahim has responded
to criticism from
traditionalist
opposition groups by
taking a harder line on
social issues, with
applications for
concerts by foreign
artists being
reviewed by the
Malaysian Islamic
Development
Department
before licences to
perform are granted.
Homosexuality
is illegal in
Malaysia.
Last year officials
pulled the plug on a
music festival after
the frontman of the
pop-rock band The
1975 criticised the
country’s stance
on LGBT issues.
Matty Healy told a
concert audience: “I
don’t see the f***ing
point of inviting

to curb traffic and turn Paris into a
bicycle-friendly city is broadly popular
with residents but disliked in the far
more populous wider Paris region,
where about 80 per cent of households
own cars. Under Hidalgo’s SocialistGreens council, the city has closed
traffic thoroughfares and created 50
miles of cycle lanes that have helped to
generate a 71 per cent increase in bike
usage since 2020. It has not, however,
proposed tolls for road use of the type in
operation in London and other cities.
A referendum last April approved a
council plan to scrap self-service
e-scooter services that had been operating in Paris for the past five years,
although turnout was only 7.5 per cent.

campaigned for the
cancellation of
Coldplay’s concert at the
same venue where
Sheeran is scheduled to
play. A total of 75,000
fans showed up to see
the British group,
making it the biggest
concert to date in
Malaysia.
In July last year the
watchmaker Swatch
issued a claim against
the Malaysian
authorities in a Kuala
Lumpur court for
compensation and the
return of 172 rainbowcoloured watches from
its Pride collection that
were seized from shops
in the capital in May.

The 1975 to a country
and then telling us who
we can have sex with,”
before kissing a male
bandmate onstage.
Thirty minutes later the
band walked off, saying

they had been banned.
The opposition
statement referenced
the “disgusting tragedy”
and “indecent scene” in
The 1975’s performance
in its call for Sheeran’s

cancellation.
The government has
since instructed
promoters to install
a “kill switch” for
foreign performers so
that electricity can be

cut off
immediately
in the event
of similar
incidents.
In November
the opposition

Dozens die in ‘fast-moving’ wildfires Gangbuster president on
course to retain power
Chile

Stephen Gibbs
Latin America Correspondent

At least 99 people have been killed
by forest fires in Chile and more
casualties are expected, according to
the government.
The central region of Valparaíso has
been the worst affected, especially the
coastal tourist city of Viña del Mar.
Firefighters in helicopters have
struggled to reach many areas that
have been blanketed by black
smoke. The government has declared a
state of emergency.
Some of the victims were discovered
lying on public roads having been overcome by fumes. Several have died from
severe burns. There are reports of older
residents being unable to escape from
hillside communities before the fires

ripped through the region. President
Boric was travelling to Valparaíso to
assess the damage yesterday. Officials
said that at least 1,100 homes had been
destroyed. Residents have described
the destruction as like the aftermath of
a bomb.
“If you are told to evacuate, don’t hesitate to do it,” Boric said in a televised
address. “The fires are advancing fast
and climatic conditions have made
them difficult to control. There are high
temperatures, strong winds and low
humidity.” He also warned that the
death toll would go up “significantly”.
Boric ordered that temporary field
hospitals be established in the crisis
zone. A curfew has been established in
the most severely impacted towns.
Carolina Tohá, the interior minister,
said on Saturday that 92 forest fires
were burning in the centre and south of

the country, where temperatures have
been unusually high for several days.
The government has called on
Chileans to avoid any travel to the
regions affected by fire. In the coastal
city of Valparaíso, the mayor said 372
residents were reported missing,
raising fears that the death toll might
rise sharply.
The El Niño weather phenomenon
has helped to push temperatures to
record highs in South America in
recent months and scientists say that
man-made climate change is also
making heatwaves, fires and extreme
weather events more likely.
One man, a welder, has been
detained in connection with the fires.
He was said to be working at his home
in central Chile when he accidentally
started a fire that spread to nearby dry
shrubland.

El Salvador
Stephen Gibbs

Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, was on course to win an overwhelming victory in the country’s general election yesterday, which would
secure the leader who once boasted
that he was the “world’s coolest dictator” another five years in power.
Polls showed about 80 per cent
support for Bukele, 42, whose strongman tactics against gang members,
leading to the imprisonment of almost
2 per cent of the adult population, have
slashed crime and transformed the
central American nation.
His nearest rival in the vote was Manuel Flores, the candidate for the left-

wing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), which ran the
country for a decade before Bukele’s
first term of office in 2019. Flores has
only 4 per cent support.
Voters were also electing representatives to El Salvador’s legislative assembly. Polls suggested that the president’s
New Ideas party could win as many as
57 of a total of 60 seats, bringing the
country close to a one-party system.
Bukele’s re-election attempt has
been controversial as the constitution
prohibits consecutive mandates but in
2021 his party replaced several judges
in the supreme court, which ruled that
if the president took a “leave of absence”, which Bukele did in December
last year, he could stand again.

28

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

World

FROM OUR
CORRESPONDENT
Once the headquarters of a swashbuckling
Spanish admiral, a remote inland palace hailed
as a masterpiece is now in the care of sailors
Isambard Wilkinson
LA MANCHA

T

he palace rises out of the
backwoods of La Mancha
like one of Don Quixote’s
phantasms. One of the
great unknown gems of
Spain, and a renaissance

masterpiece, it lies a couple of
hundred miles inland and is run by
sailors — a strange state of affairs
that is the result of a curious
mixture of history, the lack of
Spanish state protection for
heritage and an ingenious solution
to overcome it.
Built by Álvaro de Bazán y
Guzmán, 1st Marquis of Santa
Cruz, an admiral who was
undefeated in his 50-year naval
career, the 16th-century palace
owes its survival to a unique
agreement. “Our family lived in it
until the 18th century when it fell
into disrepair. In 1949 my mother
realised that it needed to be saved

Viso palace, begun in 1562, boasts the largest area of mythological frescoes in Europe

and struck a deal with the navy for
them to look after it,” said Álvaro
Fernández-Villaverde y Silva, 15th
Marquis of Santa Cruz. “The navy
pays one peseta a year for its use.”
The central part of the deal was
for the palace to house a large
portion of the navy’s historic
archive. “We have a special
relationship with the navy, and
given the very limited state aid
available for protecting heritage
the agreement was an imaginative
way to safeguard the archive and
to maintain the palace,” he said.
The marquis and the navy
recently renewed the agreement,
sealing the deal with the payment
of another peseta, extending its
terms until 2088. “It reaffirmed
the navy’s commitment to the
palace even though they have just
opened another archive near
Madrid,” said Santa Cruz.
The journey to the village of
Viso del Marques underscores the
palace’s remote location. Set in
frontierland that once separated
medieval Christian and Muslim
kingdoms, it lies in the shadow of
the mountainous border of

Castile-La Mancha and
Andalusia.
“Don Álvaro’s father took part
in the conquest of Granada [in
1492] and was encouraged by the
monarch to buy land in La
Mancha to weaken the power of
the military orders that owned it,”
the marquis said. He started the
construction of the palace on the
estate in 1562, bringing architects
and painters from Italy — and if
the admiral were to return to his
palace today he might be amused
by the presence of a naval officer
and a handful of other sailors
within its walls.
Lieutenant Juan Manuel
Mestre, the palace’s director,
showed off its grand entrance
and porticoed patio, pointing at
the building’s main source of
wonder: its rich profusion of
frescoes. “It’s a palace
built in the Genoese style,
unique in Spain with its
original structure
Don Álvaro died before
he could lead Spain’s
armada on England

intact,” he said. “Its frescoes have
been preserved in a very good
state thanks to the dry climate.”
Thanks also to the navy, which
took on the abandoned palace and
restored it after it had been
pillaged by Napoleonic troops,
later serving the village as a
hospital and a wedding venue.
Designed by Giovanni Battista
Castello, known as Il Bergamasco,
the palace houses the largest area
of mythological frescoes in
Europe, occupying 8,000 sq m of
walls and ceilings. Experts contend
that in terms of their singularity
and extent the frescoes are
comparable in Spain only with the
vast monastery-palace of El
Escorial outside Madrid that
contains a staircase modelled on
the magnificent one at Viso.
Touring the admiral’s palace,
the visitor encounters halls with
renaissance fireplaces and
bedrooms with carved-stone
window seats with views over La
Mancha countryside. Hidden from
sight is the small flat kept by the
marquis and the vast archive
documenting naval history from
the 18th century until the civil war
of 1936 to 1939.
The frescoes also portray the
main battles in which Don Álvaro
triumphed, including those of
Lisbon, Tetuan and the Azores.
Notably absent is the victory at
Lepanto against the Ottoman
Turks in 1571.
“It’s not known if it was depicted
in a fresco that was destroyed in
the 18th-century Lisbon
earthquake, which badly hit the
palace,” the marquis said. “Or
perhaps it was never painted at all
as the palace was incomplete on
Don Álvaro’s death.”
The admiral was to have
commanded the Spanish Armada
but died in February 1588.
Standing at the casket containing
Don Álvaro’s remains in the
palace’s chapel, a Spanish visitor
quipped: “Things would have been
different if he hadn’t died.”
The marquis recalled a
British MP telling him that if
his ancestor had survived to
lead the fleet, the English
would today be speaking
Spanish. Such what-ifs had
poignance amid the
palace’s grandeur, which
as Santa Cruz said, is an
“emblem of Spain’s
history”. He added:
“It’s sad that it
remains a hidden
treasure.”

Gerhard Richter’s student mural restored
Germany
David Crossland Berlin

Hidden under white paint in the foyer
of a Dresden museum for 40 years, a
63 sq m mural by Gerhard Richter,
one of the world’s most sought-after
living artists, is gradually coming
back to light.
Richter completed Lebensfreude
(Joy of Life), for the German Hygiene
Museum in 1956 when he was 24. The
work was part of his diploma at the
Dresden Academy of Fine Arts and is
in the style of socialist realism.
It was painted over in
1979 after the East German Monument Protection Institute declared that it “lacked
artistic significance.”
It also noted that the
Dresden-born artist
had committed the
offence of “fleeing the
republic” when he emigrated from East to West

Germany in March 1961, five months
before the Berlin Wall was built.
Richter, 91, shared that artistic
assessment of the mural. He believes
his true oeuvre only began after he
settled in West Germany in part to
escape the stifling trajectory his
career was taking under communism. He refused a first request in 1994
to have Joy of Life uncovered.
Richter now takes a more relaxed
view of his early work, Dietmar Elger,
head of the Gerhard Richter archive,
said. The artist gave his approval for
a different approach after
being urged to reconsider
by the director of the
Hygiene Museum, Iris
Edenheiser. She said
that scraping away
layers of paint that
have concealed it
would shed light on
the museum’s history
Gerhard Richter’s Joy
of Life dates from 1956

under communism, the subject of an
exhibition there in March. “Partial
uncovering ... is essential for us to
show historical layers, especially the
overpainting in 1979 and the later
handling of this work,” she said.
Only about a third of the mural is to
be revealed under the project. “Art
has to be visible. Otherwise you can’t
confront it,” Professor Philip Kurz,
head of the Wüstenrot Foundation,
which is sponsoring the project, said.
After completing his studies Richter was admitted to an East German
programme that promoted promising artists and was furnished with a
studio and a small stipend. He
received various commissions for
murals. “The really unbearable thing
was the hopelessness, the pressure to
bend ... to compromise, to adapt,” he
once said in an interview.
He became famous in the 1960s.
His oeuvre includes monochrome
and abstract paintings, prints, glass
works and sculptures. His works typically sell for multimillion-euro sums.

29

the times | Monday February 5 2024

Business
world markets (Friday’s close. Change on the week)

Jan 5

12

19

commodities
Gold
$2,036.37 (-18.08)

Dow Jones
38,654.42 (+544.99)

FTSE 100
7,615.54 (-19.55)

26

Shell joins
trial to
wave off
emissions

currencies
$

Brent crude (6pm)
$77.37 (-4.53)

$

£/$
$1.2627 (-0.0091)

£/€
€1.1710 (+0.0005)

$

¤

8,500

40,000

2,200

120

1.400

1.300

8,000

37,500

2,000

100

1.300

1.200

7,500

35,000

1,800

80

1.200

1.100

7,000
Feb 2

32,500
Feb 2

1,600
Feb 2

60
Feb 2

1.100
Feb 2

Jan 4

11

19

26

Jan 5

12

19

26

Jan 5

12

19

26

Jan 5

12

19

26

S

hell has joined a
project to use
wave energy and
battery storage to
power underwater
infrastructure.
It will invest in the
£2 million Renewables
for Subsea Power
project that has been
running for nearly a
year about three miles
off Orkney. The trial
is designed to help to
reduce the emissions
footprint of oil and
gas installations in the
North Sea. The
project uses wave
energy and batteries
to power marine
equipment and
underwater vehicles.
TotalEnergies, of
France, joined the
trial in December.
Other participants
include Serica
Energy, Harbour
Energy and Baker
Hughes.

19

26

1.000
Feb 2

Richard Tyler, Isabella Fish

Firms’ rising costs fuel fears
that inflation will stay high
UK companies set to pass on raised energy prices
More than 80 per cent of British companies expect to increase the prices of
their goods and services over the next
two years, raising fears that inflation
will not fall back to the Bank of
England’s target.
In a survey carried out by PwC, 81 per
cent of companies said rising energy
costs, as a result of the withdrawal of
government support and global political pressures, would lead them to raise
prices for consumers until 2026.
Surging global energy costs drove
consumer prices inflation to the highest level in nearly 40 years in 2022, as
well as raising transport and other costs
for industry.
The survey of 750 companies found
the vast majority would respond to
higher energy costs by raising the
prices they charged “significantly or

12

Reform the
apprentices
levy now,
urges M&S

A prototype off Orkney
using waves to harness
energy for underwater
equipment is monitored by
TotalEnergies staff

Mehreen Khan Economics Editor

Jan 5

moderately” in the next two years.
Nearly three quarters of businesses said
they expected their profit margins to be
hit by climbing energy costs and a similar proportion said they were anticipating a drop in their competitiveness.
The Bank of England warned last
week that rising energy prices would
keep inflation above its 2 per cent target
for most of this year. The Bank thinks
the pace of consumer price rises will fall
to 2 per cent in the spring, but then will
rise steadily and will stay above the target rate for most of 2024-25.
Sharp falls in energy costs have been
the main driver of so-called disinflation
in the economy over the past 14
months, where inflation has dropped
back from a peak of 11.1 per cent to 4 per
cent in December. The Bank expects
annual inflation to have edged up to
4.1 per cent in January because of a rise
in air fares.

The government stepped in to subsidise energy bills, but financial support
schemes have now expired for most
families and businesses. A quarter of
the businesses surveyed by PwC said
that government energy subsidies had
been “essential for their survival”.
Vicky Parker, from PwC UK, said
state subsidies for companies “cannot be
a permanent coping solution for volatile
energy costs. Government support has
provided a helpful and much-needed
short-term buffer, but it has allowed
transformational thinking to become
less of a priority for businesses.”
The outlook for global energy prices
has worsened after western nations
began bombing Houthi rebels in Yemen
in retaliation for attacks on ships in the
Red Sea. The United States also bombed
Iranian targets in Iraq and Syria over the
weekend in response to the killing of
three American soldiers in the region.

PwC’s survey was carried out in
November and December, before the
attacks escalated. An estimated 10 per
cent of global oil shipments pass
through the Red Sea and 8 per cent of
natural gas, but there has yet to be any
sizeable impact on commodity prices
from the conflict.
Global shipping costs have surged by
300 per cent since December, but they
remain below peaks hit during the
pandemic. Manufacturers are already
suffering from shipping problems as a
result of the Red Sea disruption,
reporting delays of up to 18 days on
goods like chemicals, energy and
metals.
In its latest estimates for inflation
and the economy, the Bank of England
said that “material risks remain from
developments in the Middle East and
from disruption to shipping through
the Red Sea”.

The human resources boss of Marks &
Spencer has joined calls for an overhaul
of the apprenticeship scheme as businesses urge the government to prioritise skills over tax cuts in the budget
next month.
Sarah Findlater, who is in charge of
the hiring and training of 64,000 staff
at the retailer, said the scheme was “too
difficult to access, so millions of pounds
are going unspent”.
She called on the chancellor “to
reform the levy and make it simpler for
employers to access this fund so we can
create even more apprenticeships”.
The call came as a poll of 500 businesses by BDO, the accounting firm,
found that almost a third wanted the
government to tackle the shortage of
skilled labour as its top priority. One in
three employers with revenues of
between £10 million and £300 million
said they struggled to hire apprentices,
citing issues with the apprenticeship
levy, wider funding challenges and a
lack of understanding of how to go
about it. Fewer than one in five of the
companies surveyed said they regularly hired apprentices via the scheme,
citing the high costs of doing so and a
lack of guidance as the main barriers.
The levy, introduced in 2017, requires
employers with an annual wage bill of
more than £3 million to pay 0.5 per cent
of payroll costs into a fund for training.
They are then able to claim on the fund
to meet some of their own apprenticeship costs. However, the system has
been labelled as unworkable by some
bosses, including those at the Co-operative Group, Superdrug and N Brown.
M&S has 200 apprenticeships and
would like more, but Findlater said it
was being constrained from doing so.
Employers say unsuitable courses and
programme lengths were among the
biggest barriers to using the scheme,
resulting in a decline in the number of
positions being offered and the emergence of lower-quality schemes.
Official figures show that in the past
year to July 2023, 337,140 apprentices
started training, down 3 per cent on the
year before and far lower than the
509,400 in 2015. A total of 162,320 apprentices completed their training in
2023, up from 144,350 the year before.
The Treasury is expected to collect
£3.9 billion in levy receipts in the year to
the end of March, according to the
Office for Budget Responsibility. Not
all this is passed on to the Department
for Education and the devolved administrations to invest in apprentices. By
2025, the Treasury will be withholding
about £800 million a year, according to
estimates by FE Week magazine.

30

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

Business

Need to know

1

Britain’s intelligence agencies
are to vet all government
contracts for threats to national
security. Ministers will be given
powers to blacklist companies
from selling goods and services to
schools, hospitals and central
government if they have links to
potentially hostile states.

2

More than 80 per cent of
British companies expect to
increase the prices of their
goods and services because of
rising energy costs and global
instability over the next two years,
raising fears that inflation will not
fall back to the Bank of England’s
target, according to a survey by
PwC.

3

The human resources boss of
Marks & Spencer has joined
calls for an overhaul of the
apprenticeship scheme as
businesses urge the government to
prioritise skills over tax cuts in the
budget next month. Sarah
Findlater, who is in charge of the
hiring and training of 64,000 staff,
said the scheme was “too difficult
to access”.

4

Novo Nordisk is looking at a
site in Dublin for a new
factory to ease global supply
shortages of its weight-loss
“wonder drug” Wegovy. The
Danish group’s choice of the
Republic of Ireland as a potential
location for an estimated €2 billion
investment has turned the
spotlight on the country’s appeal
over Britain as a place to
manufacture medicines.

5

More than £1 trillion of the
nation’s savings is sitting in
accounts earning less than
2 per cent, while the base interest
rate is 5.25 per cent, according to
an analysis of credit data.

6

One of the billionaire coowners of Asda is seeking to
offload his stake after buying
the supermarket chain in a
£6.8 billion deal three years ago.
Zuber Issa, who co-owns Asda
alongside Mohsin Issa, his brother,
and TDR Capital, the private
equity firm, aims to focus on other
areas of his business empire.

7

A state fund that will invest
hundreds of millions of
pounds of pension fund assets
in British growth companies is set
to be launched within 18 months.
The British Business Bank, the
economic development agency,
indicated that the new “Growth
Fund” could deploy about
£600 million in fast-growing
companies.

8

The McLaren Formula One
motor racing team has signed
up Airwallex, a fast-growing
financial technology “unicorn”, as
its latest partner.

9

The boss of the group that
owns Standard Life has played
down investors’ concerns that
the incursion by new players into
the pensions buyout market could
lower returns. Andy Briggs, of
Phoenix, said there was plenty of
business for everyone.

10

Hobbs, the upmarket
women’s clothing chain, is
preparing to open new
stores in more favourable
locations after a string of closures,
bringing its total number of stores
to about 80.

Life sciences turns to Ireland
Alex Ralph

Attempts by Novo Nordisk to ease
global supply shortages of its weightloss “wonder drug” have taken it to a
business park outside Dublin.
The Danish group became Europe’s
most valuable public company last year,
overtaking LVMH, the French luxury
goods conglomerate, thanks to the
success of its Wegovy jab. However,
annual results last week underlined its
struggles to meet booming demand.
As a result, it is looking to expand
capacity in Europe and its choice of the
Republic of Ireland as a potential
location for an estimated €2 billion
investment has turned the spotlight on
the country’s appeal over Britain as a
place to manufacture medicines.
Land has been acquired at the
Grange Castle Business Park in Clondalkin for a 1.6 million sq ft facility to
make drugs for diabetes, obesity and
rare diseases. The park is part of
Dublin’s industry cluster and already
hosts Pfizer, of the United States, and
Takeda, the Japanese company that
acquired Shire, the British biopharmaceuticals group, for £45 billion five years
ago. A ruling on Novo’s planning application is due before the end of the
month and it could lead to the facility
being fully operational by 2026 and the
creation of up to 1,100 permanent jobs.
Novo is merely the latest in a series of
multinational pharma companies to
have turned to Ireland with significant
foreign direct investment. In the past
two decades it has helped to transform
the country, one of the smallest in the
European Union by geographic area,
into one of the leading locations for
drugs production in the bloc, vying with
Germany and Belgium and employing
45,000 people directly.
In 2003 Ireland was home to only two
biologics manufacturing sites; by 2020
this had increased tenfold. The Irish
Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association has called it “a global success story”.
Industry leaders, including Dominic
Carolan, a former chief executive of Ireland’s National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, say it has
been driven by Ireland’s appealing and
consistent fiscal regime, including the
introduction of the 12.5 per cent headline corporate tax rate in the 1990s.
A year ago Sir Pascal Soriot, the head
of AstraZeneca, Britain’s biggest
pharmaceuticals group, blamed a “discouraging” tax rate in the UK for his
company’s decision to invest in a
$360 million manufacturing plant in
Ireland. “You need an environment that
gives you good returns and incentive to
invest,” Soriot, 64, said.
His comments coincided with a

Big farmer to big pharma
Direct gross value added (GVA) per employee of pharmaceutical manufacturing
Current prices (£000)
2015
2019
597

Ireland
France
Germany
Spain
Italy
UK

777

196
232
126

157

124
139
108

136

136
128

Source: Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership
(MMIP); Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA)

report from the Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership, which
warned that the British government’s
strategy for life sciences — one of its five
“key sectors” — was at risk of failing
unless ministers stemmed a loss of
manufacturing investment, jobs and
exports to international rivals. The
report found that there had been a significant decline in traditional medicines manufacturing capacity over the
past 25 years in Britain and that the
global proportion of capital investment
had fallen “dramatically”.
It highlighted the government’s life
sciences “vision” policy paper’s finding
of production volumes being down by
29 per cent and more than 7,000 jobs

having been lost since 2009. The report
concluded that the increase in Britain’s
headline corporation tax rate to 25 per
cent last April had put the country at a
“competitive disadvantage” in attracting medicines manufacturing.
Ireland, meanwhile, has become the
largest net exporter of pharmaceuticals
in the EU and the third largest exporter
of medicines globally. Its life sciences
sector accounts for 39 per cent of
national exports. About 120 overseas
companies have a manufacturing presence in the country. Over the past
decade, about €10 billion has been
invested in new biopharmaceuticals
production facilities in Ireland.
The chief executive of one of Europe’s

biggest investment companies, speaking confidentially, said: “Over many,
many years companies set up there for
tax reasons and what you have today
from a life sciences perspective is just a
truly great ecosystem. There’s a critical
mass of capability, knowhow, people. So
that’s a huge plus.
“And then, of course, the other thing
is just being part of the EU. That does
make a big difference. So you put those
two things together and when people
look at setting up a factory it’s very
often, very high up on the list.” Since
Brexit, Ireland is deemed to be particularly attractive as an English-speaking
country in the EU.
Mark Lawler, a professor of digital

Huge cache of savings sits in low-interest accounts
Jack Barnett

More than £1 trillion of the nation’s
savings is sitting in accounts earning
less than 2 per cent, while the base
interest rate is 5.25 per cent, according
to an analysis of credit data.
The figures, which include money
held in savings and current accounts,
will add to criticism that Britain’s biggest banks are profiting at the expense
of their customers by not passing on
higher interest rates in full.
In contrast, lenders have raised their
rates on mortgages sharply since the
Bank started increasing its base rate in
December 2021, although some rates
are now coming down.
According to data from the Bank of
England, the average interest rate on an
easy-access savings account was

2.02 per cent in December, much lower
than the present base rate. A total of
£1.15 trillion was earning less than this
average. The average return on fixedterm accounts was 3.71 per cent in the
same month.
“Banks aren’t passing on the central
bank rate and instead are taking the
profit for themselves,” Martin Sokk,
co-founder and chief executive of
Lightyear, the investment platform
that analysed the savings data
published by the Bank of England, said.
Since December 2021, the average
rate on a two-year mortgage deal has
increased from 2.34 per cent to 5.56 per
cent, while the rate on five-year
products has leapt from 2.64 per cent to
5.18 per cent, according to Moneyfacts,
a financial data provider.
The Financial Conduct Authority

said: “We have been looking closely at
the value firms provide to savers and we
have seen some saving rates improve
significantly. However, we expect to see
continued improvement from some
firms. We also continue to encourage
customers — including those with
money in current accounts — to shop
around for the best deals.”
A wide difference between lending
and savings rates has generated significant profits for banks, with the sector’s
loan margin, calculated as net interest
income divided by total lending, reaching its highest level since 2006.
UK Finance, which represents banks,
said: “Savings and borrowing rates
aren’t directly linked and therefore
move at different times and by different
amounts. Savings rates increased significantly over the course of last year

and there are a lot of good products
available in a competitive market.
“Many of our members have been
proactively contacting their customers
to let them know about different
savings accounts that are available.”
The high share of cash — 66 per cent
of all deposits — sitting in current
accounts with relatively low rates indicates that people are not shopping
around for deals that provide a better
return on their money, helping banks to
keep savings rates lower than the base
rate. The best account on the market is
a one-year fixed-term deal with a
5.16 per cent interest rate offered by
SmartSave, according to Moneyfacts.
Britain’s big banks are set to release financial results for 2023 in the next few
weeks, illuminating the boost to yearly
profits from wider net interest margins.

31

the times | Monday February 5 2024

Business

and away from Britain

39%

of Ireland’s national
exports come from the
life sciences sector

120

overseas companies
have a manufacturing presence
in Ireland, including the ten largest
global pharma companies

health at Queen’s University Belfast,
said Ireland had gone from a largely
“agricultural country and agricultural
being its major export to essentially
pharmaceuticals and digital”. It showed
“small countries can do big things”.
Initially, Ireland’s life sciences sector
was limited largely to producing active
ingredients for export for final processing and refinement, but since the 1960s
it has expanded to support the processing of final products and multinationals have begun to set up research
centres and joint research projects with
academic institutions.
Hugo Fry, 53, the former UK and
Ireland head for Sanofi, the French
multinational drugs company, which

45,000

direct jobs at Ireland’s
drug manufacturing plants

€10bn

invested in new
biopharma production
facilities in Ireland over
the past decade

operates in Waterford, said there had
been “huge incentives for setting up
manufacturing” in Ireland, which had
enabled it to become “a hub of expertise.
You’ve got this hub in Waterford and
just outside Dublin, this absolute
expertise. There are financial reasons
for doing it in Ireland, but there are also
ready-made experts.”
Now comes Novo’s potential
investment. The Danish group also
recently agreed to pay €85 million for a
manufacturing facility in Athlone,
central Ireland.
Once established, the benefits of a
cluster become “self-justifying”, a
recent report for the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and

Associations found. The report —
which was carried out by Charles River
Associates — on the factors affecting
the location of biopharma investments
in Europe compared with the likes of
the United States, Japan and China
found there were 90 pharma and biopharma plants throughout Ireland. The
cluster lures other companies to join in
order to gain access to the local workforce and to infrastructure, such as
manufacturing support services.
Novo, whose fourth-quarter results
last week sent its shares to new highs,
declined to comment on the merits of
Ireland’s manufacturing industry
compared with Britain in its investment
plans. It also has announced plans to
expand production in Denmark and
France and has formed a partnership
with Catalent, an American contract
manufacturer. However, it recently has
leased office space in the Knowledge
Quarter of King’s Cross in London to
establish a digital innovation hub.
The British government also points
to BioNTech, the German vaccine
specialist, establishing a new research
and development hub in Britain and to
Moderna, the American company,
opting for an mRNA manufacturing
centre in Oxfordshire.
Joe Edwards, director of UK competitiveness and devolved nations at the
Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said that realising the
“tremendous potential” of the UK’s life
sciences sector was “not just about
discovering the medicines and vaccines
of the future here. We also want
companies to make their medicines in
the UK, benefiting NHS patients, supporting supply resilience, creating jobs
and bolstering exports.
“Global competition is fierce, so
attracting companies to place their
manufacturing facilities in the UK
requires a stable, pro-investment, proinnovation ecosystem, coupled with a
policy focus on amplifying areas of
particular UK strength, such as advanced therapy medicinal products
manufacture and green manufacturing
technology.”
A spokesman for the government
said: “The UK is one of the best locations in the world for global life sciences
companies to invest and innovate and
since 2022 our capital grants programme has delivered over £380 million in private investment, creating and
securing over 1,400 jobs across the UK.
Over the past year we have announced
a raft of measures backed by over £1 billion to support investment, growth and
innovation in UK life sciences, including £520 million for life sciences manufacturing, and we continue to invest
heavily in R&D at record amounts.”

Billionaire Asda owner seeks to sell stake
Helen Cahill

One of the billionaire co-owners of
Asda is seeking to offload his stake after
buying the supermarket chain in a
£6.8 billion deal three years ago.
Zuber Issa, 51, who co-owns Asda
alongside Mohsin Issa, his brother, and
TDR Capital, the private equity firm,
has been exploring a sale of his 22.5 per
cent stake as he aims to focus on other
areas of his business empire.
He has been approaching retailers
and private equity firms with proposals
to sell the stake for more than £500 million, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
The deal would need approval from
his brother and TDR Capital and the
transaction could be complicated by
lock-in agreements with both parties.
Issa’s sale of his stake would allow

him to concentrate on running EG
Group, his petrol stations business, if he
can clinch a deal.
However, a private equity source
suggested that he may be unable to
secure a new investor owing to a lack of
demand in the market.
Michael Gleeson, Asda’s chief
financial officer, has said that the company faces extra finance costs of
£30 million when £500 million of debt
falls due this month. He told MPs in
December that the supermarkets group
had debts of £4.2 billion.
Asda’s market share fell from 14 per
cent to 13.4 per cent last year as
Sainsbury’s and Tesco increased their
shares of the market to 15.6 per cent and
27.5 per cent, respectively.
News of Issa’s move to sell his stake
emerged after it was confirmed that his

brother had entered into a relationship
with a former senior tax partner at EY,
Asda’s former auditor. A legal statement said Mohsin Issa, 52, and Victoria
Price, 41, were “highly private people
who are in a relationship and building a
life together”.
Representatives for Issa and Price
said she had never worked on the Asda
business. The Telegraph reported that
Price had resigned from EY the day
after the company had quit as Asda’s
auditor in July last year and that EY had
confirmed to her that she had made all
appropriate disclosures to the firm’s
ethics and compliance teams throughout her career.
Asda said EY had confirmed in a
letter that it would be unable to take on
an enlarged audit after Asda’s merger
with EG Group.

The week ahead
America’s earnings season wraps up
this week with Uber, the ridehailing and food delivery group, and
Walt Disney, the entertainment
conglomerate, reporting their latest
numbers on Wednesday.
Uber is set to reveal revenue of
$9.75 billion, up 13 per cent from the
same period a year ago, and net
income of $353 million. Investors
are watching for updates on the
impact of rising costs, such as
marketing expenses and paying
incentives to drivers as the business
model in some countries has
changed. The introduction of some
new advertising services and
partners could be a boost to its
bottom line.
The House of Mouse is hoping to
keep up with the recent set of stellar
results from Netflix, its streaming
rival. That’s no easy task amid the
raft of changes being made to the
media landscape and with Disney+
being only one of many players

Walt Disney will face comparisons
with Netflix when it reports results

many vying for eyeballs in an era of
ever increasing content. Analysts
expect revenues of £23.7 billion,
about flat from the same period last
year, and net income of $1.63 billion.
While the writers’ strike has ended,
its challenges continue.

tomorrow
Investors will be keen
to see whether
Murray Auchincloss,
the new boss of BP
deviates from the
strategy set out by his
predecessor when he
updates the market for
the first time as the
group’s permanent
chief executive. The
company’s rivals have

reported bumper
profits during the
fourth-quarter
earnings season,
despite oil and gas
prices receding from
the highs of 2022.
City analysts have
forecast revenue of
$41.9 billion and a pretax profit of
$4.19 billion for the

December quarter,
down on $57.7 billion
and $7.22 billion,
respectively,
announced for the
same period in 2022.
Interims Alumasc,
Mattioli Woods,
Renishaw
Trading updates BP,
discoverIE Group,
Virgin Money

wednesday
The last time Barratt Developments
updated the market was in October,
when it said the trading backdrop
“remains difficult”. At the height of
the pandemic property
boom, Barratt was selling
nearly one home a
week at each of its
sites, but for much
of last summer and
autumn it was
selling fewer than
half as many. There
has been evidence
that the market is
starting to turn as
mortgage rates continue
to ease, so when Barratt
publishes its half-year results
investors will want to see signs that
demand is returning.
This time a year ago, Barratt paid

an interim dividend of 10.2p per
share. A combination of changes to
its payout ratio and lower profits
mean that figure is likely fall this
time around.
In October, Barratt
said it would build
between 13,250 and
14,250 homes in its
present financial
year, which runs
until the end of
June. At the
midpoint, that
would be a fifth fewer
than in its previous
financial year.
Interims Ashmore, Barratt
Developments, PZ Cussons
Finals Smurfit Kappa
Trading updates Arm, DCC, UK
Commercial Property Reit

thursday
Unilever, the brand powerhouse
behind Marmite spread and Dove
soap, issues its fourth-quarter
trading update. It reported a 5.2 per
cent rise in underlying sales growth
in the third quarter as price
increases of 5.8 per cent offset a
0.6 per cent decline in volumes.
Unilever expects to report
underlying sales growth of above
5 per cent for 2023. If Hein
Schumacher, its boss, offers any
guidance for 2024, then analysts are
looking for sales of €61.6 billion, an
increase of 2.6 per cent and
underlying growth of 3.6 per cent.
After AstraZeneca raised its fullyear profit and sales forecasts
alongside the drugs company’s
third-quarter results in November,
investors will be looking for
continued progress. The
Cambridge-based group upgraded
its annual guidance for total
revenue, excluding Covid products,
predicting an increase by a “low-

teens percentage” compared with
the “low-double-digit” it had
expected before. It also said its core
earnings per share, its preferred
measure of profitability, would grow
by a “low-double-digit to low-teens
percentage”. The City will look, too,
for continued signs of recovery in
China, where the market has been
disrupted by a corruption
clampdown across the healthcare
sector. AstraZeneca’s investment
plans for expanding its
manufacturing at Speke in the
northwest will be of interest.
Interims Redrow
Finals AstraZeneca, British
American Tobacco, Unilever
Trading updates Anglo American,
Compass, Watches of Switzerland,
SSE, S&U

friday
Trading updates: Bellway

32

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

Business
McLaren, which has
won 20 world
championships in
Formula One, has
agreed a new foreign
exchange deal

McLaren
races to new
deal with
Airwallex

T

he McLaren
Formula One
motor racing team
has signed up a
fast-growing
financial technology
“unicorn” as its latest
partner (Tracey Boles
writes). For the new season,

Airwallex branding will
feature on the halo — the
safety structure around the
driver — of McLaren’s new
MCL38 racing car, as well
as on the overalls of its
drivers Lando Norris and
Oscar Piastri.
McLaren, which is based

in Woking, Surrey, also will
use Airwallex to streamline
its supply chain payments
for all grands prix.
Airwallex is a businessto-business platform that
says its software helps to
reduce the “friction and
cost” associated with

State fund to lift pension
investment in UK growth
James Hurley

A state fund that will invest hundreds of
millions of pounds of pension fund
assets in British growth companies is
set to be launched within 18 months.
The British Business Bank, the
government’s economic development
agency, indicated that the new “Growth
Fund” could deploy about £600 million
a year of pension savings in fast-growing companies.
The fund, which is expected to pool
pension fund money to invest alongside established and new programmes
run by the agency, is one of the
responses to the chancellor’s so-called
Mansion House reforms and other
efforts to push British institutions into
allocating more money to productive
investments in the UK.
The bank is also encouraging proposals from pension funds to establish
new private sector investment vehicles
in which the government would co-invest. The first two private sector partners for its “long-term investment for
technology and science”, or Lifts
scheme, could be announced in the
budget next month.
Louis Taylor, 57, chief executive of

the bank, said: “There is some time
pressure there. It feels like fertile
ground to be able to move things on.
We are prosecuting this, the chancellor’s request, with some pace.”
He said the bank invested about
£300 million a year in “each of equity
and debt”, and added: “We think we
could probably do double that [with the
growth fund] without distorting the
market too much. We don’t want to
raise too much money that we can’t
actually invest. But it’s got to be meaningful as well.”
In December, Stephen Welton, 62,
chairman of the bank, said Britain must
not be an “incubator economy” that
created promising companies only for
them to be acquired by buyers based
overseas.
Taylor said: “We need to figure out a
way to get UK institutional money
investing in those scale-up companies
in order to accrue the benefit to the UK
economy and drive growth. And that’s
pretty much exactly what the chancellor has asked us to explore. We do
have a bit of an issue with risk appetite
in this country, not only this country,
but probably in Europe. The US scene is
much more vibrant. You may see a US

investor thinking, ‘Look at everything
the Europeans are leaving on the table,
this is great.’ ”
The bank has been in operation for a
decade and the programmes it runs
have supported £12.4 billion of wholesale finance to help more than 90,000
companies.
Taylor said the organisation was in a
strong position to help to match
pension assets with growth companies
because its British Patient Capital
subsidiary already had 70 venture
funds managed by 40 fund managers
and had 1,190 companies in its underlying portfolio. “That is giving you
almost instant diversification from
giving you access to lots of different
opportunities in the market, and doing
it on a cost-effective basis.”
He admitted some observers were
“very sceptical” about pension money
going into high-risk growth companies,
but said there had been strong interest
from some in the industry. “We don’t
want everybody to suddenly be an
evangelist because we’ve got to build up
the market,” he said. “Success looks like
a host of private sector competitors and
imitators, but also that no pension trustee can ignore this part of the market.”

spending, holding or
moving money worldwide.
Founded in Melbourne in
2015 and with headquarters
in Singapore, the payments
company supports more
than 100,000 businesses
globally, including Qantas,
the airline, and Shein, the
retailer. It claims to be
more transparent than its
rivals, as well as being able
to eliminate the high fees
associated with foreign
exchange transactions.
Valued at $5.6 billion in
its last funding round —
and thus being well clear of
the $1 billion value mark
that is said to make a
young privately owned
technology company a
unicorn — Airwallex is
expected to be ready for an
initial public offering within
three or four years. The tieup with McLaren should
allow it to “unlock new
opportunities and scale
globally”.
The commercial details
of the deal have not been
disclosed. McLaren’s other
partners include Google,
British American Tobacco
and Darktrace.
Airwallex’s technology
will allow McLaren Racing
to hold, convert and spend
core currencies with speed
while reducing Swift fees.
McLaren’s existing
payments infrastructure
limits payment to suppliers,
such as hotel and event
space providers, to a single
currency account based in
Britain, resulting in high
foreign exchange charges,
slow transfer times and
extra fees.
The partnership comes as
Formula One grows in
popularity around the
world. With races in 24
cities, it has an annual
global television audience
of about 1.5 billion.

Give clarity
on net zero,
says CBI
Mehreen Khan Economics Editor

One of Britain’s biggest business lobby
groups has called on the chancellor to
set out a clear net zero emissions
investment plan in the budget to give
companies an incentive to spend
money on the green transition.
The CBI has written to Jeremy Hunt
ahead of his pre-election budget on
March 6, demanding that the Treasury
highlights gaps in green spending
throughout the economy as part of a
wide-ranging investment plan to
ensure Britain meets its legally binding
commitment to reduce emissions.
The call comes as the Labour Party
has begun to walk away from its promise to set up a green investment fund
worth £28 billion, instead committing
to additional climate spending only if it
is consistent with the party’s planned
fiscal rules.
In its letter, the CBI said that “it is
acknowledged that the majority of
investment needed to reach net zero
will come from the private sector. But
to date there has been little policy
clarity on a plan to incentivise investment.”
It said the government’s adoption of
a “net zero investment plan” should
“identify where green investment gaps
lie and where private finance can be
crowded in to close sectoral financial
gaps, address market barriers and hit
our net zero targets”.
The CBI said Hunt should use the
budget to offer “stability and clear
detail, building on previous announcements” after multiple fiscal events since
2022 led businesses to warn against
flipflopping on key policies such as the
rate of corporation tax.
The business lobby group also called
for the government to enact policies to
help to boost the size of the labour force
by getting more sick people back into
work and by speeding up Home Office
backlogs for visa permits.

Launch cost fears holding
back British entrepreneurs
Charlotte Alt

Would-be entrepreneurs are being put
off from setting up their own businesses
because they overestimate start-up
costs by about 600 per cent, according
to a survey.
On average Britons believe it takes
£34,000 to start a business and about
15 per cent believe it costs up to £50,000,
when the typical cost is actually £5,000.
Dana Denis-Smith founded Obelisk
Support, a legal services business, with
only £500 and believes the misunderstanding about costs could mean that
Britain is losing out on “great” startups. “It’s important to debunk the myth
that it costs tens of thousands of pounds
to start a business. The reality is it can
be much less,” Denis-Smith, 48, said.
“The UK could be losing out on great
new business ideas because people
don’t feel they have the necessary capital to start out. And with that, they also
miss out on the many benefits of
becoming an entrepreneur, such as the
flexibility and work-life balance that
allowed me to see my child grow up at
the same time as running my business.”
American Express and the Entrepreneurs Network, a think tank, asked
1,541 adults and 250 business owners
about their views on setting up a business in the UK. Twenty-seven per cent

of those surveyed said a lack of funds
was the main reason they were not
starting their own business, while 21 per
cent said the absence of a solid business
idea was a key barrier and 20 per cent
said they were reluctant to take risks.
Stacey Sterbenz, general manager of
UK commercial at American Express,
said: “There are significant misconceptions around how much financial firepower is required to start a business.”
The survey also found those who did
Dana Denis-Smith
wants to “debunk
the myths” that
surround starting a
business

take the leap had enjoyed several benefits, including having the freedom to
manage their own work, a better worklife balance and feeling happier. Additionally, 67 per cent of surveyed entrepreneurs believed they made more
money from starting their own business.
Philip Salter, founder of the Entrepreneurs Network, said: “It’s so important to recognise the benefits that
entrepreneurship has for society, offering a crucial source of innovation and
fresh thinking.”

33

the times | Monday February 5 2024

Comment Business

Paul Johnson

Alex Baldock

Make the recycling of
electricals free and we
will all pay the price

More questions than answers with
Labour’s green investment pledge

“

Those of us who pay
attention to this sort
of stuff are probably
getting a little bored
hearing about
Labour’s pledge to spend £28 billion a
year on green investment. Will they?
Won’t they? Will it depend on the
fiscal inheritance? And if so, how?
Please don’t turn away now,
though, because this “row” or
“confusion”, if such it is, tells us rather
a lot about the tenor of the coming
election campaign, the debate about
fiscal policy more generally and the
relationship between the media and
politicians.
First is the salience of a particular
number: £28 billion. It is no longer
the right number, but, because the
policy was originally couched in those
terms, it has stuck. Why isn’t it the
right number? Because since Rachel
Reeves first announced it, the present
government has committed about
£8 billion a year to investment in the
green transition.
Perfectly sensibly, Labour policy —
let’s assume it is the party’s policy —
is to spend £20 billion in addition to
that £8 billion, so we should be
talking about a £20 billion
commitment. It would be ludicrous to
define a spending target as an amount
above whatever the existing
government plans. If Jeremy Hunt
were to have an epiphany and
announce an additional £20 billion of
green investment in next month’s
budget, that should not result in
Reeves committing to outdo him
by another £20 billion.
Second, the context for this
additional investment spending is
all-important. Remember, it is
defined by comparison
with the present
government’s plans
and while those
plans involve
more money for
the green
transition, they
involve a
substantial cut in
investment
spending overall.
Current plans are
to freeze capital
spending in cash
terms for the next five
Rachel Reeves’s green
pledge has become a
hostage to fortune

years. That will take it down sharply
as a fraction of national income. Even
if Labour were to spend an extra
£20 billion a year on top of today’s
government plans, total government
investment spending by the end of
the next parliament would be no
higher, as a fraction of national
income, than it is this year. Given that
all the party’s additional spending is
for the green transition, that would
still mean substantially less for other
infrastructure, roads, hospitals,
houses and the rest. While the
present government has stepped up
investment spending quite sharply
over recent years, these planned cuts
to capital spending, from parties that
both say they want to focus on
growth, surely should be subject to
more scrutiny.
Nor, third, is there much discussion
of how well the money will actually
be spent. Last year there was a furore
over an apparent backtracking from
committing to spending an extra £28
billion in year one of a new
parliament to an extra £28 billion a
year by the end of the parliament. It
may well be that textual analysis of
the original statement will suggest
that Labour’s policy was to increase
by that amount right away, but it
shouldn’t take more than a
nanosecond’s thought to realise that
any such commitment would be
completely mad. Unless you want to
tip vast sums of money down the
drain, then you can’t possibly
commit to that sort of an
uplift straight away. A
gradual increase to that
level makes far more
sense.
If Labour should have
got grief over this, it
should have been over the
original impression that
spending would zip up
immediately, not over
the “clarification”.
The quality of the
spending, the details
of what it is
intended to buy,
really matter.
Fourth, there is the
way in which all of this
is measured against the
“fiscal headroom”. Is
£28 billion (or £20 billion)
“affordable”, given the fiscal
rules? In the very specific
sense that if you took the
current government’s

(basically silly) rule that debt should
be forecast to be falling in the fifth
year of the forecast period, then
announcing £20 billion of additional
spending for that fifth year probably
isn’t “affordable”.
But there are a number of rather
important caveats to that statement,
not least that I don’t think Reeves has
yet signed up to that very specific
fiscal rule. More sensible ones are
available. Aiming at an extra
£20 billion of spending five years
hence is hardly vast in the context of
a budget of well over £1 trillion. By
itself, it won’t be the difference
between fiscal sustainability and fiscal
chaos. Certainly, to have an ambition
or intention to get there, to plan to
get there, is reasonable, all else being
equal.
That takes us, though, to the fifth
and most important point. All else is
not equal. What is most remarkable
about this pledge is not its scale, nor
its affordability; it’s the fact that it is
the only substantial spending pledge
that Labour has made. It is quite the
statement of priority. It has pledged
next to nothing over and above the
present government’s plans for
anything else — health, welfare,
social care, local government,
education, anything. The real
question we should be posing is: is
this really your No 1 priority? Will
investment spending on the green
transition really trump everything
else?
As a former member of the climate
change committee, I am not casting
doubt on the importance of such
investment, but if that commitment
really is the No 1 priority, then it will
constrain action elsewhere. Spending
an additional £20 billion here,
without significant tax increases, will
make offsetting planned cuts in other
areas of public spending all but
impossible.
There are lessons here both for
how parties’ state their policies and
for they are interrogated about them.
Neither the Labour Party nor those
trying to hold it to account have
covered themselves in glory on this
one. Let’s see this as
a trial run for the
election year ahead,
and try to do better
next time.

’’

Paul Johnson is director of the
Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Follow him on @PJTheEconomist

W

hen something that
used to cost
money is now free,
what’s not to like?
On the face of it, a
new government proposal that
retailers can no longer be allowed to
charge to take away old electrical
appliances sounds great, all the
more so when it’s to help the planet,
as well as people’s pockets.
For sure, the proposal targets a real
problem. The UK consistently misses
its waste recycling targets. Who
wouldn’t support more recycling? We
at Currys certainly do.
Great objective, then, but there’s a

“

‘At Currys we account
for half of all retail
technology recycling’
problem. The proposal won’t work. It
will lead to less recycling, not more,
and higher costs for consumers and
more burden for business.
Yawn, a dull tale of old fridges, I
hear you say — but before you turn
the page, there’s something bigger at
stake here. This is about business’s
role in society, about how
government can harness the private
sector to social ends.
Is this simply a smokescreen for a
retailer to wriggle out of doing the
right thing? Hardly. At Currys, we’re
happy to repair and recycle millions
of old fridges, laptops, mobile phones
and televisions. We account for
nearly half of all retail technology
recycling in the UK and have built
Europe’s largest electricals repair
centre in Nottinghamshire.
Customers seem to like the
service we provide. It’s big and
growing. They pay a small fee for us
to take away their old kit, knowing
that it’ll be dealt with responsibly. If
customers don’t want to pay us, they
can use another provider or pay
their council to take it away. But it’s
not an easy service to provide. It
takes investment and know-how in
vans, trucks, people and facilities.
That’s why it’s not free.
Businesses aren’t charities. We
have to provide a service that’s good
enough that customers will pay for it.

We have to treat colleagues well
enough to want to work for us. We
have to pay taxes that fund schools,
hospitals and aircraft carriers. And
there has to be enough left over for
shareholders. Everyone must get
their share, or none of it works.
This is an especially fine balance
for already-overburdened retailers
that, on a good day, might make £3
of profit for every £100 we sell
(compared with £15 profit for a
utility, for example), retailers that
already account for 10 per cent of all
business taxation despite being 5 per
cent of the economy.
Government wants to harness
business for social ends. We love it.
But we can’t do it for free. Making
an adequate profit is our licence to
invest in even more recycling and
repairs. Instead, these proposals give
an incentive to good businesses to
do the bare minimum, to do less
recycling. If you load extra costs on
to retailers, we’ll have to pass them
on to customers. Don’t penalise us
(and competitors such as AO) for
having invested in recycling; instead,
tackle those (such as Amazon) that
don’t offer the service at all, that
merely sell products and forget
about them.
The prime minister knows all this.
He’s been to see our repair and
recycling centre for himself and
lavished our colleagues with praise
for their sterling work in building a
business that benefits customers’
pockets and the planet. The problem
is the gap between what the
government says and what is
actually happening.
There is a better way. Government
needs to go with the grain of
business in dangling the carrot of
tax incentives to do more recycling.
By all means, set retailers recycling
obligations and targets, with
penalties for those that miss them —
the stick. That’ll ensure that
everyone has to pull their weight.
Business can be a powerful force
for good, purpose and profit can go
hand-in-hand, but that’s achieved by
harnessing business to social ends, by
incentivising the social outcomes we
seek, not penalising businesses doing
the right thing, not by meddling in
matters best left to consumers and
businesses and not by pretending that
anything comes for free.
Alex Baldock is chief executive of
Currys

34

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

Business

Is the stage set for Goldman Sachs to
The recent exodus of
senior staff has
increased the pressure
on David Solomon,
reports Ben Martin
“I will bleed Goldman Sachs for ever,”
Jim Esposito, the Wall Street powerhouse’s co-head of global banking and
markets, wrote in a memo last
week. Perhaps, but he won’t always be a

Goldman Sachs man. Despite the declaration of loyalty, Esposito was writing
to clients to tell them of his departure
from the firm.
A 29-year veteran of Goldman,
“Espo” said he was leaving because
“lately, I’ve been consumed by a
feeling of merely going through the
motions”. He said he felt “a strong pull
to explore new adventures”, while
insisting that he remained “optimistic
about the strategic direction of
Goldman Sachs”.
His exit adds to a growing list of
Goldman heavy-hitters who have left

the investment bank in the past year.
The exodus and the firm’s calamitous
push into retail banking have dented its
reputation as one the dominant players
in the industry. Such turbulence also
has raised questions about how long
David Solomon, the bank’s hardcharging chief executive, will stay in his
job.
The New York-based Goldman was
once considered unassailable. While
the 2007-09 financial crisis toppled rivals such as Lehman Brothers and Bear
Stearns, Lloyd Blankfein, Solomon’s
predecessor, successfully steered Gold-

man through the turmoil to record
profits.
Although the bank attracted fierce
public criticism for its role in selling the
mortgage-backed
securities
that
fuelled the crisis, for which it was later
fined, Blankfein survived the furore. He
also overhauled the company’s
business model to adapt to much
tougher industry regulations that were
brought in after the crash, diversifying
Goldman away from trading and into
other businesses, such as consumer
lending. Despite mis-steps along the
way, including Goldman’s role in
Malaysia’s multibillion-dollar 1MDB
investment scandal, Blankfein, 69,
managed 12 years in charge of Goldman, one of the longest tenures on Wall
Street.
Solomon, 62, who took charge in
2018, is appearing far less indomitable.
While Blankfein was known for his
good humour, Solomon is famous for
his gruff personality and brusque
management style, which is said to
have rubbed up some in Goldman’s top
ranks the wrong way. He has attracted
Jim Esposito
feared he was
going through the
motions

attention for his hobby as a DJ at music
festivals and events, although he
stepped back from this unusual sideline
in 2022 when repeated headlines about
it threatened to become a distraction.
He also has drawn scrutiny for his use
of private jets, which Goldman had not
owned outright until he became chief
executive.
Yet it is the debacle over Goldman’s
consumer banking push that, perhaps,
has proved most damaging. While this
venture began under Blankfein in 2015,
it became a focus for Solomon, who
harboured ambitions to make the
digital retail division “the consumer
banking platform of the future”.
The expansion of the business under
Solomon was rapid. In 2019 it struck a
tie-up with Apple to launch credit
cards. In 2022 paid $1.7 billion to buy
GreenSky, a financial technology specialist that handles home improvement
loans.
Yet expanding the consumer business built up billions of dollars of losses.

David Solomon has stepped back from

Unease about the strategy, which took
Goldman away from its Wall Street
roots, began to mount among its investors and some senior Goldman staff. In
October 2022 Solomon was forced to
concede that “the concept of really
being broad with a consumer footprint

Business
briefing
In the face of a cautious
approach from the Bank
of England, hopes of a
spring interest rate cut
have receded as
inflation remains almost
double Threadneedle
Street’s 2 per cent target.
With mixed company
trading updates, keeping
up to date is vital. Get
our latest economics

and business coverage at
8am and 12.30pm each
weekday, direct by email
from the Business
Editor Richard Fletcher
and the Business News
Editor Martin Strydom.
Sign up at
home.thetimes.co.uk/myNews

35

the times | Monday February 5 2024

Business

lose its music-loving boss?

his sideline as a popular DJ to top adverse headlines and to focus more closely on the fortunes of Goldman Sachs

is not really playing to our strengths”
and he executed a U-turn, deciding to
pull back from retail. Goldman agreed
to sell GreenSky for a loss last October
and it is eyeing a potential exit from its
partnership with Apple.
The consumer volte-face has coin-

cided with a painful wider industry
downturn in investment banking.
Financiers earn lucrative fees by
arranging takeovers and stock market
flotations for corporate clients, but the
number of deals has slumped since a
boom in 2021, forcing Goldman and its

rivals to reassess staffing levels. Thus
there have been significant job losses at
Goldman Sachs. The group shed about
3,200 roles, 6.5 per cent of its workforce,
at the beginning of last year in the deepest cuts made by the bank since the financial crisis (it remains a big employer

in the City of London, with a headcount
of about 6,000).
High-profile senior departures,
including that of Esposito last week,
have added to instability at the
bank. They have included the exits last
year of Julian Salisbury and Mike
Koester, both of whom had been at the
bank for 25 years, and of Dina Powell
McCormick.
By August last year, rumblings about
discontent within Goldman, fuelled in
part by disappointment with lower
bonuses, had become deafening. Solomon was buffeted by a barrage of
unflattering news stories, which
questioned whether his position was
under threat. One excoriating article in
New York Magazine even asked if he
was “too big a jerk” to be chief executive
of Goldman.
Yet although Esposito’s exit could
spur further speculation about the
mood inside the bank, there are signs
that Solomon might be through the
worst. While results last month
showed annual net profits had fallen
by 24 per cent to $8.5 billion, the lowest
level in four years and knocked by the
muted deals environment, in the
fourth quarter Goldman reported a
51 per cent jump in profits to $2 billion,
bigger than expected and spurred
higher by the performance of its equity
trading unit and asset and wealth
management business. Solomon said
that “our narrowed strategy is now
focused on our two core businesses
where we have a proven ‘right to win’
with our leadership position, scale and
exceptional talent”.
According to Mike Mayo, a veteran
banks analyst at Wells Fargo: “In their
core business of capital markets, under
David Solomon they’ve shown best-inclass performance.” He said the
consumer debacle reflected “poor
strategy and poor execution”, but he
also credited Goldman for deciding to
“cut their losses” by pivoting away from
the ill-fated retail foray. “Now they’re
refocused on their roots.”
Goldman’s shares have risen in value
by about a third since the end of October, which also has quietened some of
Solomon’s critics.
One senior London-based Goldman
banker said that internal chatter about
Solomon’s position had receded: “In
terms of the top of the house, it’s calmed
right down and the share price has been
pretty strong, which cures quite a lot of
ills.”

Redress is
a consumer
right, says
minister
James Hurley

Access to financial services redress
schemes will remain a key consumer
right, despite concerns that a High
Court case could set a precedent that
allows their removal, the government
has said.
Baroness Vere of Norbiton, parliamentary secretary to the Treasury, said
that the Financial Ombudsman Service
and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme had been established by
legislation because it was “important”
that consumers had “appropriate
routes to seek redress without having to
go through the court system”.
Experts have warned that a £230 million compensation deal for Woodford
investors is “likely to set a dangerous
precedent” for the finance industry by
removing the “cornerstone” protections of access to the redress schemes.
The High Court judge who will decide
whether to approve the compensation
scheme is expected to issue his judgment this month.
The “scheme of arrangement”,
orchestrated by the Financial Conduct
Authority, means that investors would
no longer be able to sue Link, the
administrator of the Woodford Equity
Income Fund, or to complain about it to
the ombudsman in the hope of tapping
a much larger potential compensation
payout by the industry-funded scheme.
Victims of the collapse of Neil
Woodford’s principal investment fund
have voted overwhelmingly in favour
of the deal.
In light of the Woodford scheme,
Lord McNicol of West Kilbride had
asked in a written parliamentary question whether statutory access to the
ombudsman and to the compensation
scheme remained “an expression of UK
national policy”. McNicol said he had
been encouraged by Vere’s response
last week: “I am pleased the government has not signalled any appetite to
reduce the protection conferred by
parliament,” he said.
Link has said that the alternative to
the scheme is insolvency. The City
regulator has said that the scheme “offers the quickest route for redress for
the vast majority”.

Phoenix boss calms fears of disruption Hobbs shopping for better
Patrick Hosking Financial Editor

The chief executive of the group that
owns Standard Life has played down
investors’ concerns that the incursion
by new players into the pensions
buyout market could lower returns.
As a report forecasts that two new
players are set to enter the market this
year, Andy Briggs, who heads Phoenix
Group, said there was plenty of business for everyone. “Demand is high.
We’re not at all concerned,” he said.
M&G and its Prudential UK offshoot
returned to the buyouts market last
year, while possible plans by Lloyds
Bank’s Scottish Widows to sell its socalled bulk annuities division, which
handles buyouts, has prompted speculation about another new competitor
entering what is an oligopolistic
market. The private-equity backed
Utmost Group, Royal London and
Rothesay Life, an existing player, have
all been suggested as potential buyers
of the business.
Hymans Robertson, the pension

consultancy, has said that it believes
two new entrants to the buyout market
will be revealed in 2024, but it has
declined to name them. Canada Life,
another existing player, is also widening its approach.
Pension buyouts, also known as
pension risk transfer deals or bulk
annuity transactions, traditionally
have been the preserve of very few
players, with Legal & General, Phoenix,
Pension Insurance Corp, Aviva and Just
Group dominating the industry.
Insurers are expecting a busy year
for pension buyouts. Rising gilt yields
have improved the health of definedbenefit schemes, enabling sponsoring
employers to rid themselves of schemes
that they regard as distracting, volatile
legacies.
The probable arrival of new entrants
should be good for employers with
defined-benefit schemes, but it also
could reduce returns for the insurers as
more contenders compete for the most
attractive deals.
A record £50 billion of pension fund

assets and liabilities were transferred
from employers to insurers last year,
including the schemes of Boots and
RSA. Hymans is forecasting another
record year in 2024. It believes that
there will be “more competition at both
the large and smaller ends of the
market. We are aware and confident
that there will be two further entrants
in addition to M&G, which is already in
the public domain. Due to commercial
confidentiality, we are unable to
comment further.”
Phoenix owns the Standard Life and
Sun Life brands and is expanding from
being a closed-life consolidator to
running live defined-contribution
schemes for employers and pushing into advice for individuals.
Utmost is owned by Paul Thompson,
61, and Ian Maidens, 59, its founders,
and by funds managed by Oaktree
Capital. It has grown to be a £59 billion
assets business through acquisitions
from Aviva, Axa and Generali and also
has bought the rump of Equitable Life,
the collapsed insurer.

sites after closing stores
Isabella Fish Retail Editor

An upmarket women’s clothing chain
favoured by the Princess of Wales is
preparing to open new stores in more
favourable locations after a string of
closures.
Hobbs, which closed stores in
London’s Bloomsbury, Victoria and
Islington in recent weeks, has seven
new locations confirmed for this year,
including at Canary Wharf in east
London, Watford in Hertfordshire and
Trafford in Manchester.
It also will open new international
shops in Hong Kong, Cork in Ireland,
Hamburg in Germany and Westchester in New York state, bringing its
total number of stores to about 80.
Hobbs, which also operates 128
concessions in Britain and overseas,
was founded in Hampstead, north
London, in 1981 by Yoram and Marilyn
Anselm, targeting the “average woman

between the ages of 20 and 40
interested in clothing”. It was sold to
TFG London, the British division of
South Africa’s Foschini Group, in
November 2017 by 3i. The private
equity group had bought Hobbs for
£111 million in 2004 and was understood to have been marketing it for
about £80 million.
TFG London, which also owns the
Phase Eight and Whistles womenswear
labels, made a profit before tax of
£6.2 million for the year to March 25,
2023, up from £2.97 million the year
before, according to filings at Companies House. Its turnover increased by
8.9 per cent to £377.7 million. It hailed a
“strong” financial performance despite
a “challenging economic backdrop” in
Britain amid high inflation and a cost of
living crisis. It said the rise in sales had
been driven by a combination of a
positive like-for-like performance and
the opening of new stores.

36

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

Business
Business Times Enterprise Network

Author’s advice to founder
strikes all the right notes
enterprise
network
profile

T

A chance encounter in
Cambridge paved the
way for a technology
sector success story,
reports Richard Tyler

C

MR Surgical is valued at
$3 billion and is fêted as
Britain’s largest private
medical technology
company, but it all began
with a chance conversation in a mezzo
soprano’s home in Cambridge. Sophie
Hannah, the crime fiction writer, had
moved to the city in 2010 and wanted

her daughter to join the St Catharine’s
College girls choir. Before the
audition, she arranged some singing
lessons.
“I just Googled singing teachers in
Cambridge and fairly randomly chose
a woman called Jessica LawrenceHares, an American mezzo-soprano,
and booked in a lesson,” said Hannah,
52, whose novels include Little Face
and Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night.
While the weekly lessons took
place, Hannah would wait in the
teacher’s lounge. Here she met Luke
Hares, the teacher’s husband, who was
often in the room with his own young
daughter. “To start with it was a little
awkward, but fairly soon Luke and I
started chatting and became friends.”
When Hares described what he did
for a living — he was a senior
consultant at Sagentia, a firm that
helps other businesses with product
development — it sounded interesting
and baffling in equal measure. “I don’t
know any science and when Luke told
me what he did, I abbreviated it in my
mind to ‘he is a really clever boffiny
type and does general sciency stuff’.”
Hannah had two other “sciency”
friends from when she was a writer-inresidence at Trinity College,
Cambridge, between 1997 and 1999.
Both had gone on to start their own
companies, had protected their
intellectual property and had sold up
for small fortunes. “When something
like that happens to a friend of yours,
it sort of normalises it. I got it into my
head that if you were a sciency,
boffiny-type, this is absolutely
something you should do.” She
suggested Hares should do the same.
“I said, ‘Don’t work for someone else,
start your own company, invent the
most brilliant thing, build up your
company and then sell it for squillions
of dollars.’ ”
Five months later, in 2012,
Hannah was on a book tour in
America when she received a
text from her husband saying
Hares was urgently trying to
reach her. “I rang him and
he said: ‘Remember a few
months ago you told me I
should start my own
company. Well, you
planted an idea in my
head and I have come up
with something that
could be really
amazing.’ ”
He said that he would
have to resign and needed
cash to cover living costs and
to develop the idea. “He was
describing the pre-seed capital
that you need. He said very
frankly, ‘This is your idea and you
are the only person I know who has
any money.’ ”
The timing was good. Hannah had
just received two “seven-figure”
contracts from Hodder & Stoughton,
the publisher, for her popular series of
crime novels. “I had money to spare,
but I still thought ‘What have I done?
I’ve opened my big mouth and now
I’m going to have to disappoint him.’ I
was absolutely sure I did not want to
give him the money.”
When she returned from America,
she invited Hares for a chat. “He was
just very impressive. Neither my
husband nor I were able to assess
whether [his idea] was or was not
likely to succeed, but we did like and
trust Luke. He had been clear that
99.9 per cent of start-ups fail [and

said], ‘There is an overwhelmingly
strong chance that you will never see
this money again. You just have to
know that and be willing to accept
that risk. If you are willing to, I believe
this has huge potential and I will do
everything I can do to make it a
success.’ ”
Hannah rationalised the decision by
picturing how she would tell the story
in future. “If the story was I backed
this thing and it didn’t work out, but
I’m still glad I did it, then I love that
story. In that story I am not the timid,
cautious person who takes no risk. I
loved the story where I was willing to
lose the money for the sake of an

37

the times | Monday February 5 2024

Business
Business

Sustainability can
be addictive as you
strive to do more
JS Pelland

T

he corporate world has
woken up to
“sustainability” being a
means to drive sales.
Measuring carbon
emissions and sharing efforts to
reduce and mitigate from within
business operations is now the norm,
even if there remains huge disparity
in the efficacy of some actions and
far too much “greenwashing” in how
it’s presented. There’s a risk of it
becoming merely part of the sales
patter, talk of good intentions
without necessarily having tangible
actions to back it up — but from
what we saw at the end of the year,
those buying goods and services for
large-scale projects in the UK are
making extensive sustainability
commitments all part of the process
of qualifying to become suppliers.
While rising costs are having an
impact on planned works, there’s still
a desire to have it all, that is costeffective sustainable procurement.
Particularly on large-scale and highprofile projects, ethical and
sustainable
considerations have
been woven into how
they are approved.
Stepping back on those
commitments would risk
a heavy PR blow.
We saw a notable shift
in contract tender
requirements in the last
quarter of 2023, with
several big companies
instructing their
procurement teams to
look at sustainability on
a project and productbased level. It’s now
about more than simply
a supplier’s good
intentions.
Price still matters and it is not the
end of price-based procurement but
merely a growing recognition that
rock-bottom cheapest isn’t always
best. Procurement teams are more
familiar with the terminology and
value of product-level data on things
like embodied carbon and
environmental product declarations.
Coupled with competitive lead times,
it’s giving buyers a greater
justification to choose “greener”
options. When there’s no inflated
“premium-for-premium’s-sake” on
products that offer sustainability
benefits, procurement teams are
being given licence to choose that
route. In fact, they’re encouraged to
consider sustainability first. It’s a
change we expect to take hold in
2024, not only in the big
multinationals but also in small and
mid-sized companies.
As buyers become more interested
in this granular environmental
information, so the onus falls on
suppliers to ditch finger-in-the-air
guesswork on the environmental
impact of an item. It’s challenging to
pull information from each stage of
every material process. Our

“

Sophie Hannah’s backing was crucial to the formation of CMR Surgical, whose Versius system is used around the world

uncertain result but that if it worked it
would not only be financially lucrative
but would revolutionise the way that
surgery is performed. That was like a
heroic story and makes me not a
financially reckless idiot, but someone
who is willing to back optimism with
their own cash.” She invested £35,000,
which Martin Frost, the former CMR
Surgical chief executive, described as
“not a very small amount of money”.
It took Frost and Hares a year of
talking to venture capital firms before
securing the next round of funding in
January 2014. “At the 11th hour, just as
they were starting to lose hope, they
found someone, a Norwegian investor.
It was enough to get them to the

prototype stage.” Frost has said that
the fundraising was about £3.5 million
for a majority stake, enough for the
team of five co-founders to get going.
In May 2021, Hannah received an
email out of the blue from CMR,
asking if she wanted to sell her shares.
“I accepted the offer. I had loads of
shares in a company that used to be
worth nothing and was now worth
£3.5 billion [in May 2021]. I was able to
sell them for a lot of money.” She
signed a non-disclosure agreement,
but can say: “It was several million.”
Hannah now regularly watches
Dragons’ Den, the BBC investor series,
but recognises that the opportunity
she was given was unusual. She has

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since invested in HutanBio, a biofuels
company, because she was impressed
by its founder, John Archer.
CMR Surgical’s Versius system,
based on a wooden design glued
together by Hares back in 2014, was
launched in 2019 and has been used to
perform more than 17,000 surgical
procedures in 20 countries. The
company has just marked its official
tenth birthday and is still based in
Cambridge, with a manufacturing
facility in nearby Ely. Hares remains
its chief technology officer.
However, it has not been entirely
plain sailing. CMR is competing
against a much larger American rival
and last year it cut its workforce of
about 1,000 by a third, before raising
$165 million from investors, including
SoftBank, of Japan,.
Hannah remains proud of where
that chance conversation in a living
room has led. “I walk around
Cambridge and I regularly see people
with CMR Surgical rucksacks and
kagools. I am always tempted to run
up to them and say, ‘Hey, do you know
who I am?’ ”
Her daughter sang for St Catharine’s
College girls’ choir for four years and
last year Hannah self-published a
book called The Double Best Method,
about how to make “brilliant
decisions”, the inspiration for which
was her decision to say yes to Hares.

electrical cable supply chain extends
back to mining the copper and
bauxite for aluminium production
essential for the conductors at the
cable’s core. Yet these are the same
cables that are essential to
electrification, digitalisation,
automation and green energy
projects and their production will be
increased as demand continues to
grow. The value of clear,
comprehensible reporting on these
products grows in tandem.
Just because it’s difficult to push
for change within your supply chain
— to be the most energy-efficient,
most ethical, most sustainable it can
be — doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.
You can’t be responsible for
everything, everywhere, but you can
often choose to work with suppliers
who are making an effort and who
do reflect your values and practices.
It’s not easy to get started and the
biggest step is the first one, so pick a
point and make a start, otherwise
the magnitude of the overall scope
can result in paralysis by analysis.
And, yes, it requires a strong will and
often a good-sized budget to get
under way. In our case, the full
backing of our board smoothed the
path when financial investment and
extensive resources were required,
but it was not without challenges.
Many of the initiatives did require
upfront investment, but they quickly
repaid the outlay from
the savings we made. We
started with installing
solar panels to generate
the equivalent of 100 per
cent of our electricity
consumption (then
added more a year later
to match business
growth); we’ve switched
our HGV fleet to
hydrotreated vegetable
oil biofuels; and we’ve
opened an onsite
recycling plant where
even floor sweepings get
processed into biofuel
pellets.
Once you start it
becomes almost addictive as you
strive to do more, better. We’ve also
found success in leading from the
front with our supply chain,
demonstrating the benefits that
sustainable changes have on the
bottom line of a business. After all,
there are few companies that would
refuse to make positive changes if
there was a business case to support
it.
All this feeds into the information
we pass on to our customers:
accurate data to support buying
decisions. Communication is key —
no greenwashing, no statements
designed to be obtuse, no plans for
the future without tangible road
maps. No one likes virtue-signalling.
Is there more to do? Yes. Will we
do it? It’s only a matter of time.
There’s momentum building and,
with procurement decisions more
firmly rooted in sustainability
criteria, we think 2024 is going to be
the year it takes off.

It’s not easy
to get started
and the
biggest step
is the first, so
pick a point
and start

Jean-Sébastien “JS’’Pelland is
executive director of Eland Cables,
one of Europe’s largest electrical
cable suppliers to the energy
infrastructure industry

38

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

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41

the times | Monday February 5 2024

Rocky actor whose most
famous role was inspired
by Muhammad Ali
Carl Weathers, page 42

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Obituaries

Barry John
Revered Welsh rugby player nicknamed The King who retired at the age of 27 after struggling to cope with a life in the spotlight
“I was the first rugby pop star, superstar,
call it whatever you want,” said Barry
John in an interview with Wales Online. Nicknamed “the King” when he
played union for Wales and the British
and Irish Lions, it was one of the reasons why, at the age of 27, he retired at
the height of his powers. He was unable
to cope with the demands of celebrity in
an amateur sport that had eschewed for
so long the cult of personality.
Rugby folklore has it that when a
cashier curtsied to John outside the
opening of a local bank he decided to
retire. “What began to depress me —
and, in the end, to frighten me — was
the intensifying public movement towards my own deification,” said John,
who was bashful and shy, despite his
success. “I began to scream inwardly.”
Whether his self-imposed exile made
John happier is hard to judge. He knew,
indeed the entire rugby world of the
1970s knew, that he had a unique talent.
He merely accepted the gifts with
which he was born — gifts that, had fate
taken a different turn, could have given
him a career in football — but rugby
supporters, especially in his native
Wales, would never let him forget them.
This was, after all, the man who
turned the famed All Blacks of New
Zealand inside out while touring with
the Lions in 1971, whose wizardry on the
pitch gained comparisons with the
footballer George Best. He scored 180
points on that tour and never before (or
since) have the Lions won a series
against the All Blacks; he scored 90
points in 25 internationals for Wales, at
that time a record, and helped to win a
grand slam during the 1971 Five Nations
Championship.
But it was never the statistics that
made John the most talked-about
rugby player of his era. It was the manner in which he played the game, the
careless grace, the utter arrogance with
which he baffled would-be tacklers, the
show of the ball, the twitch of the hips
and the speed with which he made and
executed decisions.
The Scottish journalist Norman
Mair perhaps captured the magic best.
On seeing John enter a room he observed that it was a relief to see him
walk through the door rather than just
materialise. In his 1978 autobiography
Gareth Edwards wrote that he had a
“marvellous easiness in the mind, reducing problems to their simplest form,
backing his own talent all the time. One
success on the field bred another and
soon he gave off a cool superiority
which spread to others in the side”.
On the rugby field, John had the
capacity to ghost past defenders as
though they were not there and though
he has long been part of the mythical
fly-half factory situated deep in the
Rhondda Valley, none of the others —
Cliff Morgan, David Watkins, Phil Bennett, Gareth Davies and the rest —
played in the same way.
“There’s no explanation to it, you just
know you are comfortable with the ball
coming at you, the timing,” John said in
a 2012 interview. More prosaically,
when Edwards was first paired with
John and suggested a run-out to familiarise themselves, each with the other,
John was still recovering from a late
student night and he remarked: “You
just chuck it, Gar, I’ll catch it.”

John kicks for goal for Wales against England in the Five Nations Championship, and in his British and Irish Lions kit in 1971

Twenty-three of his Wales appearances were alongside Edwards (also his
half back partner in New Zealand) and
that too was crucial to his status within
the game. John played at a time when
Wales were entering a new golden era,
alongside not only Edwards, arguably
the best scrum half to have played the
game, but Gerald Davies, JPR Williams, John Dawes, Mervyn Davies and a

John scored 180 points
in 16 games on the Lions
tour to New Zealand
pack of forwards who could dominate
European rugby.
Williams, who died this year, said he
was “without doubt the greatest player
I played with. He was unbelievable,” he
said. “He had so much confidence there
was a sense anything was possible. He’d
say: ‘Chuck me the ball and I’ll do the
rest.’ I have never seen anyone who
could beat players to the point where
those players would simply fall on the
floor when he had the ball. He was like
a ghost going through, with defenders
falling around him.”
Barry John was born one of six children in 1945 to William and Vimy. His
was a mining family in Low-land, a
smallholding in Cefneithin for whose
club he played before joining Llanelli as
a schoolboy when he made his senior

debut against Moseley in 1964. All
three of his brothers played rugby, one
for Wales; Barry was mentored by Carwyn James, who had won two caps for
Wales as a fly half and lived in the same
village.
After failing his 11-plus exam he spent
a year at Cross Hands senior centre,
after which he was accepted into Gwendraeth Grammar School and, like so
many of his generation, owed much to
the devotion of his teachers; he played
scrum half then but the national
schools selectors managed to overlook
him completely.
He trained as a teacher at Trinity
College, Carmarthen, and, after Welsh
trials in the 1965-66 season won his first
cap against Australia in December
1966. Wales lost 14-11 and though John
retained his place against Scotland, he
then made way for Watkins who captained Wales.
In 1967, however, Watkins joined Salford to play rugby league and John, now
with Cardiff after taking up a teaching
post in the capital’s Monkton House
School, made his first start with Edwards against New Zealand. He marked
the occasion with a drop-goal — he
could kick with both feet — but it was
not an auspicious season as Wales won
only one game.
Nevertheless John was picked for the
Lions tour to South Africa in the summer of 1968 and played in the first international; however, he broke his collarbone during the game and returned

home, without a job. He toyed with
playing rugby league for St Helens but,
after his situation became generally
known, he accepted a post as a representative for the Forward Trust finance
company.
On the field, over the next four seasons, he was an integral part of the development of a wonderful Wales side.
Even the losing tour to New Zealand in
1969, when Wales faced a ludicrous
schedule, became a positive because
the lessons learnt served the Lions well
two years later in the same country.
Wales were unbeaten during the
1969 Five Nations, crashed unexpectedly to Ireland in Dublin in 1970 but
won the grand slam in 1971. The decisive match against France was, in John’s
view, the best game he ever played,
scoring a try in the 9-5 win in Paris but
also, for a player not noted for his defence, making his share of tackles including a try-saving effort on Benoît
Dauga that broke John’s nose.
By then the Lions party to tour Australasia had been selected though John,
tired after the physical demands of the
Five Nations Championship, dithered
for some weeks about leaving his family
for the three-and-a-half month trip. He
was persuaded by Carwyn James, the
Lions coach, who was prepared to let
him train less frequently so as to preserve John’s appetite for the game.
The tour turned into a triumphant
progress for the entire playing party. In
the first international the accuracy of

John’s tactical kicking
ended the career of
Fergie
McCormick, the experienced New Zealand full back.
But the apogee
for John came
in the third
international
when he scored
a try, two conversions and a
drop-goal in the
13-3 win which ensured the Lions could not
lose the series.
In New Zealand he was hailed as the
King, not only for his contribution towards the 2-1 series win (the last international was drawn) but also for his destruction of such fine provincial sides as
Wellington. “He played,” one report
ran, “with such an air of aloof and remote disdain” in the 47-9 win; that disdain was apparent in the 25-6 win over
Hawke’s Bay when, to emphasise his
contempt for the over-physical display
of the home side, he trapped a ball in his
own 22, sat on it as the local forwards
came rushing up then calmly hoofed it
over their heads to touch.
The Lions returned home to a reception seldom granted to rugby players
and, in some cases, were treated like
royalty. The demands on his time were
such that his enjoyment of the game
withered and, at the end of the 1972
season, he retired. “I had simply had
enough of being stuck inside a goldfish
bowl as the most talked-about rugby
player in the world … being pulled from
pillar to post,” he explained. “Retiring
was my only escape.”
The fame, however, did not go away.
After retiring he stayed connected with
the game as rugby correspondent at the
Daily Express and co-commentator of
BBC Radio Five Live. He also worked
for an insurance company taken over
by CT Bowring and as a promotional
figurehead of Gola, the sportswear
company. Inevitably that led to a peripatetic lifestyle and while many of his
contemporaries believed that John enjoyed his celebrity, it is unlikely that he
found anything to replace what he described as “the joy and release of playing”. In 1997 he was one of the first inductees of the International Rugby
Hall of Fame.
The strain on his family life led to
separation from his wife Janet Davies,
the daughter of Alun Talfan Davies QC,
a leading Welsh lawyer, whom he had
met studying for a teaching diploma at
Trinity College in Carmarthen after
leaving school. She referred obliquely
in a 2012 television documentary to an
alcohol problem suffered by John; they
remained on good terms but in his later
years John cut something of a lonely
figure. He is survived by Janet and their
four children: Kathryn, Lucy, Anna and
David.
In 2009 he decided to sell his rugby
memorabilia, including his Wales cap.
He felt no nostalgia towards them, he
said. Playing for Wales was honour
enough.
Barry John, rugby player, was born on
January 6, 1945. He died on February 4,
2024, aged 79

42

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

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Carl Weathers
Rocky actor and American football star whose fans included Muhammad Ali, the boxer who inspired his most famous role
Auditioning for the role of a boxer, Carl
Weathers worried he had delivered a
self-inflicted knockout blow.
He was not impressed with the chosen scene or the man reading the lines
with him and unafraid to say as much.
“They said ‘you’re going to read with
the writer’,” Weathers recalled. He felt
the sequence was flat: “I just blurted
out, ‘I could do a lot better if you got me
a real actor to work with’.”
The writer was Sylvester Stallone
and the film Rocky, in which Stallone
would star as Rocky Balboa, the underdog Italian stallion who takes on Apollo
Creed, the heavyweight world champion dubbed the Master of Disaster.
Happily there was no need for
Weathers to beat himself up for his faux
pas. Not only did Stallone see the funny
side, he felt that Weathers’s cocksure
outburst was just what the boastful
Creed might have said. Weathers had
the job. “Sometimes the mistakes are
the ones that get you the gig,” he said.
Weathers had no boxing background
and limited acting experience but as a
former American football player of 6ft
2in and more than 15st he was well qualified for the punishing role. “It was hard
to escape taking punches on set. There
were times when intentionally we went
at each other,” he told GQ magazine.
Exuding bravado and brutality as a
character inspired by Muhammad Ali,
Weathers excelled and the 1976 drama
was a box-office smash that won the
Academy Award for Best Picture.
Weathers appeared in three sequels,
memorably bowing out in 1985
with Rocky IV in which Creed, dressed
as Uncle Sam, enters the arena to the
strains of Living in America by James
Brown before being beaten to death by
a Soviet dreadnought named Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren).
Another testosterone-fuelled task
awaited when Weathers featured with
two future state governors, Arnold
Schwarzenegger and the wrestlerturned-actor Jesse “The Body” Ventura, in the science-fiction action
film Predator (1987). “There were nightclubs. We were a bunch of young guys.
We were all in our own way trying to
one up each other,” Weathers said. “Nobody wanted to look any weaker than
the other guy.”
One of the best-known scenes is a
handshake between Weathers and

Weathers as Apollo Creed in Rocky IV (1985). He regretted that he became typecast after four high-profile boxing films

Schwarzenegger that becomes an armwrestling contest. The script called for
Schwarzenegger’s character to win. “Of
course I am not going to concede that
without making him work for it,”
Weathers said. “That is a part of who I
am and a part of who he is.”
Carl Weathers was born in New Orleans in 1948. His father was a day labourer and Weathers, who was more

The Oakland Raiders
coach dropped Weathers
for being too sensitive
florid and less streetwise than many of
his peers, endured a difficult upbringing. Relishing the applause after performing in a primary school play, he
nurtured acting and singing ambitions
that were put on hold when his body developed and he became an outstanding
American football player; not least, he
said, because good-looking girls were

more impressed by athletes than choristers.
He played for what is now San Diego
State University on a football scholarship and studied drama before signing
for the Oakland Raiders of the National
Football League. After appearing in
seven games in 1970 he was released
early the next season. Weathers remembered the head coach, John Madden, telling him: “You’re just too sensitive.”
Weathers, a self-described competitor who did not hide his empathetic nature, told Sports Illustrated that he was
both wounded and motivated. “As a
professional football player, the last
thing you want to hear is that you’re too
sensitive. On the other hand, without
that sensitivity, how could I be an actor?
How could I be an actor of any worth,
really?”
He joined the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League, retiring in 1974 to
pursue an acting career. “I forced the
issue by exaggerating a little,” he told

The Washington Post. “In LA I lied
about having acting credits up in San
Francisco. How can they bother to verify your claim that you studied at ACT
(American Conservatory Theater) or
worked as an extra in Dirty Harry?… By
discreetly stretching things, I got an
agent and then a dramatic coach and
then the chance to audition for a real
part. One thing led to another.”
Before Rocky he accumulated credits
in films and television series including The Six Million Dollar Man
and Bucktown, a 1975 “blaxploitation”
picture with Pam Grier. Predator led to
a long-awaited starring role in 1988
when he enjoyed top billing as a Detroit
cop in Action Jackson. Also featuring
Sharon Stone, the film, conceived by
Weathers and the producer Joel Silver
as an update of the “blaxploitation”
genre, was modestly popular at the box
office but panned by critics and Hollywood concluded that Weathers was not
leading-man material.
He largely had to settle for promi-

nent parts in television action series
with the occasional guest appearance
in hit shows such as ER (as the father of
a boxer) and the comedy Arrested Development, in which he played a version
of himself. The worst injury of his
career came not while shooting
the Rocky saga but on the set of a golf
comedy. Playing the one-handed golfer
Chubbs Peterson, Weathers fractured
two vertebrae during a stunt for Happy
Gilmore, the 1996 Adam Sandler
vehicle, leaving him in severe pain for
years.
In the Nineties he began directing for
television and oversaw episodes of Law
& Order, the Hawaii Five-0 reboot
and The Mandalorian, a Star Wars spinoff that debuted in 2019, the year he
voiced Combat Carl in Toy Story 4.
Weathers also acted in The Mandalorian as a magistrate and bounty hunter.
With his still-imposing physique, sonorous voice and silvery beard he was well
suited to portray a savvy and rugged
leader and received an Emmy nomination in 2021.
Marriages to Mary Ann Castle,
Rhona Unsell and Jennifer Peterson
ended in divorce. He is survived by two
sons from his first marriage, Matthew
and Jason, who lead private lives.
Though Weathers hoped to feature
in more intellectual fare and expand his
range during the peak of his fame, it was
not always easy for audiences and directors to look beyond the biceps, given
his enduring association with his indelible breakthrough role. A real-life
trash-talking champion was among his
fans. “One time in Beverly Hills, I was
sitting outside a restaurant and Ali was
coming down the street and had a
group of people around him ... and they
look over where I’m sitting and Ali goes
‘Apollo Creed!’” Weathers told The
Hollywood Reporter.
“Then all of a sudden, there is Muhammad and I standing on the sidewalk throwing punches. It was so bizarre. It was all just in good fun, of
course,” he added. “Last time I saw him
was in New York in a hotel lobby, and it
has to be 11.30 at night, and he makes
me get up to make sure I know he can
still whip me.”
Carl Weathers, actor, was born on January 14, 1948. He died in his sleep on February 1, 2024, aged 76

Jonnie Irwin
Presenter of Escape to the Country who was poached from his surveyor job for his on-screen confidence and boyish good looks
Jonnie Irwin was a 30-year-old surveyor working in commercial property
when in 2003 a message from a colleague caught his eye. “My mate Bobby
was asked by a TV production company
to recommend a property expert to join
their team,” he said. “I’d plateaued in
my current role and was actually considering a move to Sydney.”
Yet having just returned from a trip to
Argentina, he had missed the deadline.
“When I called I was told it was too
late,” he told Birmingham Living magazine. “I just thought it probably wasn’t
too late in truth, so I did my own screen
test on a camcorder and sent it to the
producers,” he added.
He went out on to the streets of
Leicester, interviewing shoppers about
why they were returning Christmas
presents. His cheeky, confident presentation style and boyish good looks impressed the producers, who offered him
a screen test and then a job. That led to
him co-presenting 200 episodes of A
Place in the Sun with Jasmine Harman.
The pair helped their guests to find
homes in France, Spain and Portugal,

Irwin had cancer diagnosed in 2020

as well as further afield, including in the
Caribbean and Cyprus. Along the way
they managed expectations and budgets, as well as guiding participants
through the buying process.
Some tried his patience. “Am I wasting my time showing you any more of
this house?” he snapped at a couple
who wanted their £230,000 to stretch to

a three-bedroom home on the Costa
Blanca with a pool and sea views. It
made for good TV and in 2008 it won
the Television and Radio Industries
Club award for best daytime programme.
Irwin went on to become a staple of
daytime TV, presenting Escape to the
Country on BBC1 in 2010, as well as consumer programmes such as Cowboy
Trap (BBC1), exposing shoddy builders.
In Make My Home Bigger (2012) he
charted the progress of 15 homeowners
who wanted to expand their properties.
In Dream Lives for Sale (Sky One) Irwin added a new dimension to the A
Place in the Sun format by helping those
looking to acquire homes and businesses overseas. The Renovation Game on
Channel 4 was close to Irwin’s heart, for
over the years he had renovated several
homes of his own. “Anyone can do it,
you just need time,” he told The Times,
adding that he had learnt much from
experience. In one early venture he
flooded his neighbour’s property twice.
“I learnt that if you put a nail in a pipe,
you should keep it in the pipe.”

Jonathan James Irwin was born in
1973, the son of James Irwin, a property
developer, and his wife, Averil (née
Orr). He grew up in Bitteswell, near
Lutterworth in Leicestershire and was
educated at the local grammar school.
“My mum and two sisters were passionately into showjumping, so I couldn’t
wait to join the local rugby club as soon
as possible,” he joked.
“I was half-decent at two things:
rugby and acting,” he said. The former
was curtailed by breaking his back,
while the latter “felt too uncertain” and
he feared a lifetime of waiting on tables.
Instead, he studied estate management at Birmingham City University
with a view to becoming a surveyor. He
worked at Christie & Co in Birmingham, before moving to Colliers, where
he specialised in buying and selling hotels, restaurants and bars. “Perhaps due
to the competitive nature of the work, I
seemed to thrive in the industry,” he
wrote on his website. But the lure of TV
was too hard to resist.
Property was what he knew best. He
never ceased to be astonished at how

many homes remained on the market
for more than a year. “Unless it’s haunted, the only reason it’s still on the
market is because it’s overpriced,” he
told the Leicester Mercury. “Everything sells at the right price.”
Irwin and Holmes were married in
2016. She survives him with their sons,
Rex and the twins Rafa and Cormac.
Irwin had lung cancer diagnosed in
2020, though it was not until November
2022 that he spoke about it in public.
“It’s got to the point now where it feels
like I’m carrying a dirty secret,” he told
Hello magazine. “I hope that by shaking that monkey off I might inspire
people who are living with life-limiting
prospects to make the most of every
day, to help them see that you can live a
positive life, even though you are dying.”
Jonnie Irwin, TV presenter, was born on
November 18, 1973. He died of lung
cancer on February 2, 2024, aged 50

Email: obituaries@thetimes.co.uk

43

the times | Monday February 5 2024

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Law Report

Births, Marriages
and Deaths

Injunctions against ‘persons unknown’
to prevent Travellers’ encampments

Where a local authority sought an injunction to prevent unauthorised encampments by Gypsies or Travellers
on its land but, at the time of its application, did not know the identities of
the persons who might, at some
future date, set up camp, the court
could issue an injunction against
“persons unknown”, which was directed at the world at large, provided
that it was shown that there was a
compelling need for such an order.
The Supreme Court so held in dismissing an appeal by three groups
representing the interests of Gypsies
and Travellers against the orders of
the Court of Appeal (Sir Geoffrey
Vos, Master of the Rolls, Lord Justice
Lewison and Lady Justice Elisabeth
Laing) (sub nom Barking and
Dagenham London borough council
v Persons Unknown ([2023] QB 295)
restoring a number of such injunctions that had been quashed by Mr
Justice Nicklin ([2021] EWHC 1201
(QB)).
Richard Drabble KC, Marc Willers KC, Tessa Buchanan and Owen
Greenhall for (i) London Gypsies
and Travellers, (ii) Friends, Families
and Travellers, and (iii) Derbyshire
Gypsy Liaison Group; Mark Anderson KC and Michelle Caney for Wolverhampton city council; Nigel Giffin KC and Simon Birks for Walsall
metropolitan borough council; Caroline Bolton and Natalie Pratt for
Barking and Dagenham London borough council and seven other local
authorities; Stephanie Harrison
KC, Stephen Clark and Fatima Jichi for Friends of the Earth, interven-

ing; Jude Bunting KC and Marlena
Valles for Liberty, intervening; Richard Kimblin KC and Michael Fry for
High Speed Two (HS2) Ltd and the
Secretary of State for Transport, both
intervening.
LORD REED, LORD BRIGGS
and LORD KITCHIN, in a joint judgment with which the other members
of the court agreed, said that the appeal concerned a number of conjoined cases in which injunctions had
been sought by local authorities to
prevent unauthorised encampments
by Gypsies and Travellers.
Since the members of a group of
Gypsies or Travellers who might in
future camp in a particular place
could not generally be identified in
advance, few if any of the defendants
to the proceedings were identifiable
at the time when the injunctions were
sought and granted. Instead, the defendants were described in the claim
forms as “persons unknown”, and the
injunctions similarly enjoined “persons unknown”.
In those circumstances, the appeal
raised the question whether (and if
so, on what basis, and subject to what
safeguards) the court had the power
to grant an injunction that bound
persons who were not identifiable at
the time when the order was granted,
and who had not at that time infringed or threatened to infringe any
right or duty which the claimant
sought to enforce, but might do so at
a later date: “newcomers”, as they had
been described in the proceedings.
Although the appeal arose in the
context of unlawful encampments by
Gypsies and Travellers, the issues
raised had a wider significance. The
availability of injunctions against
newcomers had become an increasingly important issue in many contexts, including industrial picketing,
environmental and other protests,
breaches of confidence, breaches of
intellectual property rights and a
wide variety of unlawful activities
related to social media.

The issue was liable to arise whenever there was a potential conflict
between the maintenance of private
or public rights and the future behaviour of individuals who could not be
identified in advance. Recent years
had seen a marked increase in the incidence of applications for injunctions of that kind.
The advent of the internet, enabling wrongdoers to violate private
or public rights behind a veil of
anonymity, had also made the availability of injunctions against unidentified persons an increasingly significant question. If injunctions were
available only against identifiable individuals, then the anonymity of
wrongdoers operating online risked
conferring upon them an immunity
from the operation of the law.
Injunctions were equitable in origin, and remained so despite their
statutory confirmation. The power of
courts with equitable jurisdiction to
grant injunctions was, subject to any
relevant statutory restrictions, unlimited. Like any judicial power, however, the power to grant an injunction
had to be exercised in accordance
with principle and any restrictions
established by judicial precedent and
rules of court. Nevertheless, the principles and practice governing the
exercise of the power to grant injunctions needed to, and did, evolve over
time as circumstances changed.
The point was illustrated by the
development in recent times of
several new kinds of injunction in response to the emergence of particular
problems, including freezing injunctions, search orders, third party disclosure orders, internet blocking orders, and anti-suit injunctions (and
their offspring, the anti-anti-suit injunction).
Those developments that had
taken place over the past half century
demonstrated the continuing flexibility of equitable powers and were a
reminder that injunctions might be
issued in new circumstances when

the principles underlying the existing
law so required.
Hence there was no immovable
obstacle in the way of granting injunctions against newcomer Travellers, on an essentially without notice
basis, either in terms of jurisdiction or
principle. But that by no means led
straight to the conclusion that they
ought to be granted, either generally
or on the facts of any particular case.
They were only likely to be justified as
a novel exercise of an equitable discretionary power if:
(i) There was a compelling need,
demonstrated by the evidence, for the
protection of civil rights (or, as the
case might be, the enforcement of
planning control or the prevention of
antisocial behaviour) in the locality
which was not adequately met by any
other measures available to the applicant local authorities (including the
making of byelaws).
That was a condition that would
need to be met on the particular facts
about unlawful Traveller activity
within the applicant local authority’s
boundaries.
(ii) There was procedural protection for the rights (including those
under the European Convention on
Human Rights) of the affected newcomers, sufficient to overcome the
strong prima facie objection of subjecting them to a without-notice injunction otherwise than as an emergency measure to hold the ring.
That included an obligation to take
all reasonable steps to draw the application and any order made to the attention of all those likely to be affected by it (including by placing notices
on appropriate websites and giving
notice to relevant representative
groups) and generous provision for
liberty to apply to have the injunction
varied or set aside.
(iii) The applicant local authorities
could be seen and trusted to comply
with the most stringent form of disclosure duty on making an application.

(iv) The injunctions were constrained by both territorial and temporal limitations so as to ensure, as far
as practicable, that they neither outflanked nor outlasted the compelling
circumstances relied upon.
(v) It was, on the particular facts,
just and convenient that such an injunction be granted. It might well not
for example be just to grant an injunction restraining Travellers from
using some sites as short-term transit
camps if the applicant local authority
had failed to discharge its duty to provide authorised sites for that purpose
within its boundaries.
But where those conditions were
satisfied, a newcomer injunction
could be granted which would be effective to bind anyone who had notice of it while it remained in force.
The order was effectively made
against the whole world.
Although nothing in the judgment
was to be taken as prescriptive in relation to newcomer injunctions in
other cases, such as those directed at
protesters who engaged in direct
action by, for example, blocking motorways, occupying motorway gantries or occupying HS2’s land with the
intention of disrupting construction,
each of those activities might, depending on all the circumstances, justify the grant of an injunction against
persons unknown, including newcomers.
Any of those persons who had
notice of the order would be bound by
it, just as effectively as the injunctions
in the present proceedings had
bound newcomer Gypsies and Travellers.
Solicitors: Community Law Partnership, Birmingham; Wolverhampton city council legal services;
Walsall metropolitan borough
council legal services; Sharpe Pritchard LLP and London borough of
Barking and Dagenham legal services; Hodge Jones & Allen LLP;
Liberty; HS2 Ltd legal department and Treasury solicitor.

To book a Birth, Marriage or Death
announcement in the Register, visit:
newsukadvertising.co.uk
for help, please call 020 7782 7553
or email BMDs@thetimes.co.uk
AND this is the boldness we have in him,
that if we ask anything according to his will,
he hears us. And if we know that he hears
us in whatever we ask, we know that we
have obtained the requests made of him.
1 John 5.14-15 (NRSV)
Bible verses are provided by the Bible
Society

Deaths
CHIPPERFIELD Sir Geoffrey Howes died
peacefully on 30th January 2024, aged 90,
after a long illness. Former civil servant.
Devoted husband to Gillian, father to Oliver
and Giles and grandfather to Olivia. Private
funeral.

DOBSON Col (rtd) John, late Intelligence
Corps, passed away on 23rd January 2024,
aged 86. Beloved husband to Hazel, muchloved father to Jeremy, Timothy, Nicholas
and Alexander and grandfather to
Cayetana, Charles and Quentin. Funeral:
Monday 4th March at 2pm, St Mary’s
church, Old Hunstanton. Contact
Dobson_alex@hotmail.com re attendance.

JENKINS FRCP Bernard Stephen on
22nd January 2024, aged 84. Adored
husband of Elizabeth and father of Suzi,
John, Emma, James, Charlie and Lillie.
Consultant cardiologist at Guys & St
Thomas’ Hospital. DGM West Lambeth HA.
Private funeral, Memorial service to be
arranged.

GIMSON Mark Neville died tragically in
São Paulo, Brazil, on 23rd January 2024
after a short illness, aged 72. Very muchloved father, brother and uncle.

HANNAM Barnaby died peacefully at
home on 16th January 2024, aged 91.
Cherished husband of Ann, beloved father,
grandfather and great-grandfather. Private
cremation followed by a service of
thanksgiving at St Mary’s Church,
Grittleton, on 12th February at noon.
Inquiries to AJB Funerals, 01249 713 134.

HOLL-ALLEN Professor Robert Thomas
James died peacefully on 31st January
2024 at home with his wife Julia and
family, aged 89. Funeral to be held at Robin
Hood Crematorium, Solihull, at noon on
Monday 4th March.

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GABY BEDFORD, WHO DIED AGED 76, FEATURED IN THE
TIMES ON NOVEMBER 23, 2019

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St James’s Palace
3rd February, 2024
The Princess Royal, Patron,
Scottish Rugby Union,
accompanied by Vice Admiral Sir
Tim Laurence, this afternoon
attended the International Rugby
Match between Wales and
Scotland at Principality Stadium,
Westgate Street, Cardiff, and was
received by His Majesty’s LordLieutenant of South Glamorgan
(Mrs Morfudd Meredith).

45

the times | Monday February 5 2024

Weather
Weather Eye
Paul Simons

Today Persistent rain in Scotland. Rain or drizzle on other western hills. Bright in the east. Max 13C (55F), min -2C (28F)
Five days ahead

Around Britain
Key: b=bright, c=cloud, d=drizzle, pc=partly cloudy
du=dull, f=fair, fg=fog, h=hail, m=mist, r=rain,
sh=showers, sl=sleet, sn=snow, s=sun, t=thunder
*=previous day **=data not available
Temp C

Rain mm Sun hr*

midday yesterday

24 hrs to 5pm yesterday

Aberdeen
Aberporth
Anglesey
Aviemore
Barnstaple
Bedford
Belfast
Birmingham
Bournemouth
Bridlington
Bristol
Camborne
Cardiff
Edinburgh
Eskdalemuir
Glasgow
Hereford
Herstmonceux
Ipswich
Isle of Man
Isle of Wight
Jersey
Keswick
Kinloss
Leeds
Lerwick
Leuchars
Lincoln
Liverpool
London
Lyneham
Manchester
Margate
Milford Haven
Newcastle
Nottingham
Orkney
Oxford
Plymouth
Portland
Scilly, St Mary’s
Shoreham
Shrewsbury
Snowdonia
Southend
South Uist
Stornoway
Tiree
Whitehaven
Wick
Yeovilton

9
11
11
6
11
13
11
12
13
10
11
12
10
8
7
7
13
11
12
12
12
10
13
7
10
4
8
12
11
13
11
12
13
11
9
11
6
13
11
11
11
12
12
12
13
7
6
8
10
6
13

C
C
C
R
D
S
C
C
C
C
C
C
R
R
R
R
PC
C
PC
PC
C
C
C
R
R
PC
C
C
C
C
C
C
PC
M
D
D
C
C
C
M
C
C
C
C
PC
R
R
C
R
C
C

0.0
0.6
0.0
3.4
1.2
0.0
0.4
1.2
0.0
1.2
0.0
0.0
8.6
1.4
4.2
13.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.2
0.2
1.8
1.6
6.8
0.0
0.4
0.0
1.0
0.0
0.8
0.0
0.2
0.2
1.8
13.2
0.0
0.6
0.0
0.2
0.0
0.0
0.2
0.2
5.8
8.2
4.6
0.8
4.8
0.0

2.3
0.0
0.1
1.0
**
**
1.6
**
0.0
**
0.0
0.0
0.0
2.7
3.1
2.8
**
0.0
0.6
5.3
**
0.1
**
2.9
**
1.8
4.1
1.5
**
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.7
**
**
0.1
1.6
**
**
**
**
0.0
1.5
**
1.7
**
0.7
**
3.8
**
0.4

Unsettled with rain at
times and an increasing
risk of snow later in the
week
Tomorrow
Persistent rain across Ireland,
Northern Ireland and northern
England. Mild and breezy in the south,
cold with wintry showers in Scotland
where a widespread frost will follow.
Max 15C, min -7C
7

12

PC
S
PC
PC
PC
S
S
B
S
B
C
SN
**
B
B
PC
R
PC
PC
PC
S
DU
S
B
PC
PC
B
S
S
C
S
S
S
PC
B
B
S
S
B
S
B
DU
M
PC
PC
S
PC

5

Slight

Temperature

13

Rough

4
6

At 17:00 on Sunday there were 32
flood alerts and two flood warnings in
England, no flood alerts or warnings
in Wales and 10 flood alerts but no
warnings in Scotland.
For further information and updates
in England visit flood-warninginformation.service.gov.uk, for Wales
naturalresources.wales/flooding and
for Scotland SEPA.org.uk

8
36

Aberdeen

NORTH
SEA
9

Edinburgh

Glasgow

40

Wednesday

28

Londonderry

11

Galway
Dublin

Llandudno

11

6

Heavy rain will spread erratically
northwards, with a spell of significant
snow possible across northern England
and southern Scotland, especially
on hills.
Max 13C, min -6C

Friday

3

11

11

Saturday
Cold with wintry showers or longer
spells of rain, sleet and snow in places.
Max 10C, min -8C

2

4
8

9

The Times weather page
is provided by

Today
Aberdeen
Avonmouth
Belfast
Cardiff
Devonport
Dover
Dublin
Falmouth
Greenock
Harwich
Holyhead
Hull
Leith
Liverpool
London Bridge
Lowestoft
Milford Haven
Morecambe
Newhaven
Newquay
Oban
Penzance
Portsmouth
Shoreham
Southampton
Swansea
Tees
Weymouth

32
23
14

-15

5

12
12

Bristol

London

Southampton

eter
Exeter

Plymouth

Brighton

CHANNEL

Light to strong west or southwesterly
winds. Maximum 13C (55F),
minimum 7C (43F).
SW Scotland, Glasgow, Borders,
NE Eng, Edinburgh & Dundee: Much of
the day will be dry and often cloudy,
but outbreaks of rain to the north
may occasional feed further south
at times, especially through the
Central Belt later in the day. Winds
will be moderate to strong west or
southwesterly. Maximum 11C (52F),
minimum 1C (34F).

28

Argyll, Cen Highland, Aberdeen,
N Isles, Moray Firth, NE Scotland,
NW Scotland: Cloudy with persistent
rain and mountain snow. Largely dry in
Shetland. Winds moderate to near-gale
southwesterly, but light easterly in
northern Scotland. Maximum
11C (52F), minimum -2C (28F).
N Ireland, Republic of Ireland: Rather
cloudy with patchy rain and drizzle;
some bright spells. Moderate to strong
southwesterly winds. Maximum
12C (54F), minimum 3C (37F).

Noon today
984

Tidal predictions.
Heights in metres
5

0
-5
-10

11
11

Tides

41

Cambridge

Oxford

22

An unsettled day with rain or
showers in many areas, falling as
sleet and snow in northern areas and
perhaps giving some significant snow
accumulations in places.
Max 11C, min -5C

50

5

32

Birmingham

10

13

59

10

Nottingham

Cardiff

CELTIC
SEA

General situation: Persistent rain in
Scotland. Breezy and mild elsewhere.
Wales, SW Eng, NW Eng, Lake District,
IoM, Cen N Eng, Channel Is: Overcast
with persistent rain or drizzle on
western hills, brighter in sheltered
eastern areas. Winds light to strong
west or southwesterly. Maximum
13C (55F), minimum 5C (41F).
Cen S Eng, Midlands, E Anglia, London,
SE Eng, E Eng: Mainly dry with perhaps
large amounts of cloud at times but
also the chance of some hazy sunshine.

68

15

Sheffield

Swansea

18

4

77

20

Hull

12

12

9

11

Channel Islands

25

Norwich

33

Cork

Manchester

Shrewsbury

7

86

rk
York

Liverpoo
Liverpool

IRISH
SEA

F
95

30

11

9
37

5

C
35

Newcastle

Carlisle

Belfast
11

11

3

5

Flood alerts and warnings

Rain may linger in southern England,
with an overhang of cloud in central
areas. Brighter but colder in the north,
with a few wintry showers. Another
widespread frost will follow here.
Max 11C, min -7C

Thursday

Shetland

3

Moderate

28 (degrees C)

ATLANTIC
OCEAN

10

21
Madeira
14
Madrid
16
Malaga
16
Mallorca
18
Malta
34
Melbourne
Mexico City 24
24
Miami
13
Milan
33
Mombasa
-5
Montreal
0
Moscow
34
Mumbai
8
Munich
26
Nairobi
14
Naples
New Orleans 16
4
New York
15
Nice
18
Nicosia
0
Oslo
10
Paris
26
Perth
8
Prague
-4
Reykjavik
5
Riga
Rio de Janeiro 29
17
Riyadh
15
Rome
San Francisco 12
33
Santiago
26
São Paulo
8
Seoul
33
Seychelles
31
Singapore
St Petersburg 1
2
Stockholm
32
Sydney
14
Tel Aviv
25
Tenerife
5
Tokyo
7
Vancouver
9
Venice
12
Vienna
6
Warsaw
Washington 9
7
Zurich

Orkney

Calm

14

6

S
D
PC
PC
PC
PC
PC
S
S
R
S
B
T
DU
B
S
B
S
S
**
S
S
PC
DU
S
M
B
D
S
PC
C
S
B
PC
R
PC
S
B
B
PC
**
PC
S
B
S
B
S

Sea state

(mph)

8

All readings local midday yesterday

18
10
17
22
20
32
29
15
-1
14
14
8
18
5
11
5
12
34
17
24
30
26
6
8
16
17
22
12
17
12
11
9
16
1
22
24
10
14
26
32
**
20
22
24
15
14
19

34

14

The world
Alicante
Amsterdam
Athens
Auckland
Bahrain
Bangkok
Barbados
Barcelona
Beijing
Beirut
Belgrade
Berlin
Bermuda
Bordeaux
Brussels
Bucharest
Budapest
Buenos Aires
Cairo
Calcutta
Canberra
Cape Town
Chicago
Copenhagen
Corfu
Delhi
Dubai
Dublin
Faro
Florence
Frankfurt
Geneva
Gibraltar
Helsinki
Hong Kong
Honolulu
Istanbul
Jerusalem
Johannesburg
Kuala Lumpur
Kyiv
Lanzarote
Las Palmas
Lima
Lisbon
Los Angeles
Luxor

Wind speed

HIGH
09:02
01:42
06:37
01:42
00:20
06:14
07:16
00:06
07:40
06:49
05:53
00:44
10:11
06:22
08:34
04:44
01:06
06:36
06:09
00:05
00:48
--:-06:39
06:20
06:18
01:07
11:19
01:02

Ht
3.3
9.7
2.8
9.0
4.3
5.3
3.2
3.9
2.7
3.2
4.3
5.9
4.3
7.1
5.7
2.1
5.1
7.0
5.1
5.2
2.9
-3.8
4.8
3.7
6.9
4.3
1.4

21:36
14:24
19:09
14:25
12:57
19:14
19:52
12:40
19:55
19:27
18:27
13:51
22:51
18:59
21:33
17:46
13:45
19:13
18:57
12:43
13:54
12:10
19:25
19:12
17:54
13:47
23:51
13:38

Ht
3.4
9.8
2.9
9.1
4.3
5.1
3.2
4.0
2.8
3.2
4.4
5.8
4.4
7.2
5.6
2.1
5.1
7.1
5.0
5.2
2.9
4.2
3.7
4.7
3.4
7.0
4.4
1.3

LOW

LOW
992
1000

1000
HIGH

1024

LOW
1016

1008

1024

1008
1016
992

1024
1000

HIGH

HIGH
1032

Synoptic situation
A slow-moving frontal boundary
will bring persistent rain across
central and northern Scotland,
with mountain snow. Colder
but brighter in Shetland, where
it will be largely dry with light
winds. Elsewhere, a broad warm
sector will cover central and
southern Britain and Ireland
with rain or drizzle on western
hills, but mild and breezy with
bright spells further east.

Highs and lows
24hrs to 5pm yesterday
Warmest: Pershore,
Worcestershire, 14.3C
Coldest: Aonach Mor, -1.5C
Wettest: Cassley, 26.0mm
Sunniest: Ronaldsway,
Isle of Man, 5.3hrs*

Sun and moon

For Greenwich
Sun rises: 07.32
Sun sets: 16.55
Moon rises: 04.14
Moon sets: 11.16
New moon: February 9

Cold front
Warm front
Occluded front
Trough

Hours of darkness
Aberdeen
Belfast
Birmingham
Cardiff
Exeter
Glasgow
Liverpool
London
Manchester
Newcastle
Norwich
Penzance
Sheffield

17:14-07:28
17:39-07:34
17:29-07:11
17:38-07:13
17:41-07:12
17:27-07:32
17:31-07:18
17:25-07:01
17:28-07:15
17:20-07:18
17:16-06:59
17:51-07:19
17:25-07:12

T

here is a traffic jam
building up in the space
around Earth, crowded
with an increasing
numbers of satellites. Much
of it is driven by Space X and
Starlink “megaconstellations” of
satellites designed for global
internet connection. In coming
decades megaconstellations could
well increase to more than half a
million satellites, and they are
already creating hazards such as
collisions between satellites or their
debris, light pollution in the night
sky and ozone depletion. But a new
and unexpected threat has been
highlighted by a recent study — the
vast numbers of satellites could also
weaken the Earth’s magnetic field.
Every satellite eventually
disintegrates in the Earth’s upper
atmosphere. This debris creates a
massive layer of electrically charged
particles orbiting Earth and a study
last year found that 10 per cent of
particles in the stratosphere contain
aluminium and other metals that
drifted down from 70 to 80km above
the Earth’s surface where satellites
burn up. And the aluminium
particles are suspected to increase
depletion of the Earth’s ozone layer.
A Nasa model of the upper
atmosphere also revealed a sharp
increase in electrical conductivity in
precisely the region where satellites
break up when they fall out of orbit.
If this trend continues, the debris
from satellites could eventually
weaken the Earth’s magnetic field,
which shields all living things on
Earth from harmful radiation.
The Earth’s magnetic field extends
into the magnetosphere, and it is
immense. This shields us from
harmful radiation and preventing
our atmosphere being blown away
by high-energy particles from space
— charged particles from our sun
continually spewed out in the solar
wind, particle radiation from
coronal mass ejections from the sun,
and cosmic rays coming from deep
space. Our magnetosphere plays the
role of gatekeeper, beating off this
dangerous battering. And so the
satellites industry need to recognise
the problem of space trash and the
harm it is doing.

Speak directly to one
of our forecasters on
09065 777675
8am to 5pm daily (calls are charged
at £1.55 plus network extras)

weatherquest .co.uk

47

the times | Monday February 5 2024

Sport
Still no sign of
peace in golf’s
muddied future
PGA-LIV merger is far
away while PGA Tour’s
£1.2bn deal with SSG
complicates matters,
writes Rick Broadbent

T

he Traitors has just finished
on TV. It is a game show
played out against a historic
Scottish backdrop and
involves two rival factions
competing for life-changing money.
All they have to do is say they are
faithful, bluff a bit and avoid
banishment. Casual viewers may think
this is golf with Claudia Winkleman.
On Wednesday the PGA Tour said
it was getting a $1.5 billion (about
£1.2 billion) investment from an
American consortium. That could be
doubled over time. About 200 players
are going to get equity and so become
part-owners, although no timescale
was given and how they will work out
individual sums without causing more
jealousy is anyone’s guess. Talks with
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment
Fund (PIF) continue.
What does it all mean?
In short, golf is in a total
mess of its own making
and looks likely to remain
split for at least two years.
As players phoned their
agents to see how much
they were getting, the
most telling remarks came
in a memo from Yasir AlRumayyan, the governor of
PIF, chairman of Newcastle
United, right-hand man of Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman,
and passionate LIV lover. “PIF
remains committed to investing in
and supporting LIV and the team
golf format,” he wrote.
So LIV Golf, which started its

third series on Friday, is going to
continue whatever happens. If there is
no PGA Tour-PIF deal, the circuit will
continue to grow and can poach
players if and when it decides it wants
to bolster its roster. And we know
everyone has their price. Jon Rahm
once said $400 million would not
change his lifestyle “one bit”.
Technically, he was right as it took
only $300 million. The PGA Tour, and
a diminishing group of LIV detractors,
have made much of heritage, records
and great courses, but its only real
defence against LIV was to throw
money it did not have at prize pots.
The mood music from the PGA
Tour has scarcely been one of fostering
harmony. Jordan Spieth, a board
member, suggested the Tour no longer
needed PIF investment after securing
the deal with the Strategic Sports
Group. Rory McIlroy and Spieth had
an hour-long conversation after those
remarks. “If I were PIF and I was
hearing that, the day after doing this
SSG deal, it wouldn’t have made me
too happy,” said McIlroy, who stepped
down from the board in November.
Emboldened by this new investment,
Tiger Woods and his co-directors may
feel they can now go it alone, but that
would be a reckless risk and they
might wish to consider that the
PIF is worth about $700
billion more than the SSG.
Even if the PGA Tour and
PIF do a deal, the talk of the
game quickly coming back
together will be as woolly as
that of growing it. Two
days before the SSG deal
was confirmed, the US
Senate’s investigations
sub-committee wrote to
Al-Rumayyan saying it
was continuing its
inquiry into PIF. A
Justice Department
anti-competition review
could take well over a

Rahm plays in Mayakoba after making a $300 million switch to LIV while McIlroy,
left, said the PGA Tour was “cheapened” by the loss of some of the world’s best

year. “Even if we get a deal done it
doesn’t mean it’s going to happen,”
McIlroy said in November.
And if that PIF deal does get
through Woods, the Senate and the
Justice Department, there is still the
problem of what to do with LIV. What
about those rapidly ageing ideas about
punishing players returning to the
PGA Tour? Do any of them want to go
back anyway? That equalisation fund
for players whose loyalty sometimes
extended to not getting a LIV offer?
How will players move between
Tours? What about LIV captains’
equity in teams? Oh, and what about
that DP World Tour thing?
DP World Tour players will not have
been placated by a wishy-washy memo
from Keith Pelley, the chief executive
who will soon be free of all this strife
as he takes his dream job at home in
Toronto. Lest we forget, the DP World
Tour had a chance to get into bed with
the Saudis when they met in Malta in
July 2021, but Pelley said the numbers
presented by the Saudis’ marketing
agency, Performance 54, were not
“compelling”. Bob MacIntyre is one
young, ambitious player who thinks
the DP World Tour should do its own
deal with the Saudis if the PGA Tour
excludes the PIF.
Meanwhile, golf has a worldranking system devalued by not
giving some points to LIV Golf events.
That means even the majors will also
become devalued in a year or so. As
for the Ryder Cup, nobody is saying
how that will work next year. Will
Europe let LIV men play or will they
just take the beating in New York?
In a nutshell, everything is up in the
air, as it was in June when the
framework agreement was
announced. With an air of deep-set
frustration, Paul McGinley summed
up the landscape on the Golf Channel.
“Joe Public couldn’t care less about
this announcement,” he said. “This is
about rich golfers getting richer.”
To underline the point 80 men
have been playing for $20million in
the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
(maybe think about tournament titles
in this new future). LIV has also
started its season in Mayakoba with
54 competing for $25 million. Maybe
you had turned off, but Wyndham
Clark shot a course record 60 at
Pebble Beach, while Joaquin
Niemann also had a 12-under round
for a 59 in Mexico. It was wet and
windy on the PGA Tour, with the
final round postponed until today,
and LIV players overcame a food
poisoning scare that had threatened a
postponement. That’s modern golfers
for you – they’re troupers.

Results
Boxing
Wembley Arena, London
British
and
Commonwealth
Lightheavyweight Championships J Buatsi
(Croydon) bt D Azeez (Lewisham, holder)
pts.

Cricket
Third tour match
India A v England Lions
Ahmedabad (final day of four): India A beat
England Lions by 134 runs
India A First Innings 192 (D B Padikkal 65,
S S Jain 64; M J Potts 6 for 57, B A Carse 4
for 52)
Second Innings 409 (B S Sudharsan 117,
S S Jain 63)
England Lions First Innings 199 (A Z Lees 64;
A Deep 4 for 56)
Second Innings (overnight 82-3)
A Z Lees lbw b Mulani
55
M D Fisher c Kushagra b Deep
13
*J J Bohannon lbw b Mulani
18
J E K Rew c Padikkal b Dayal
1
D R Mousley lbw b Mulani
5
†O G Robinson b Jain
80
J M Coles lbw b Mulani
31
B A Carse c R K Singh b Mulani
16
M J Potts not out
0
Extras (b 6, lb 3, w 1, nb 1)
11
Total (72.4 overs)
268
Fall of wickets 1-60, 2-82, 3-100, 4-120, 5-121,
6-134, 7-140, 8-244, 9-268.

Bowling A Singh 13-1-57-0; Deep 14-2-47-1;
Dayal 9-1-45-1; Jain 16.4-0-50-3; Mulani 20-260-5.
Umpires V Seshan and M Krishnadas.
6 India A won three-match series 2-0

First Test: New Zealand v South Africa
Tauranga (first day of five; South Africa
won toss): New Zealand have scored 258 for
two wickets against South Africa
New Zealand First Innings
T W M Latham c Fortuin b Paterson
20
D P Conway lbw b Moreki
1
K S Williamson not out
112
R Ravindra not out
118
Extras (lb 1, w 2, nb 4)
7
Total (2 wkts, 86 overs)
258
D J Mitchell, †T A Blundell, G D Phillips,
M J Santner, K A Jamieson, M J Henry and
*T G Southee to bat.
Fall of wickets 1-2, 2-39.
Bowling Olivier 19-3-62-0; Moreki 22-2-81-1;
Paterson 22-3-59-1; de Swardt 14-4-24-0;
Brand 9-0-31-0.
South Africa *N Brand, E M Moore, R van
Tonder, Z Hamza, D G Bedingham, K D
Petersen, R de Swardt, †C Fortuin, D Olivier,
T L Moreki, D Paterson.
Umpires A Raza and R A Kettleborough.

Second ODI: Australia v West Indies
Sydney (West Indies won toss): Australia
beat West Indies by 83 runs
Australia
(balls)
J M Fraser-McGurk c Hope b Joseph 10 (5)
†J P Inglis c Chase b Joseph
9 (11)

C D Green c Forde b Thomas
33 (41)
*S P D Smith b Forde
5 (10)
M Labuschagne c Greaves b Motie 26 (33)
M W Short c and b Motie
41 (55)
A M Hardie c Forde b Motie
26 (36)
S A Abbott b Shepherd
69 (63)
W J Sutherland c Greaves b Shepherd 18 (33)
A Zampa not out
8 (11)
J R Hazlewood not out
4 (4)
Extras (lb 1, w 6, nb 2)
9
Total (9 wkts, 50 overs)
258
Fall of wickets 1-10, 2-21, 3-50, 4-89, 5-91,
6-142, 7-167, 8-224, 9-251.
Bowling Joseph 9-0-74-2; Forde 9-1-32-1;
Shepherd 8-0-50-2; Thomas 4-0-33-1; Motie
10-0-28-3; Chase 10-0-40-0.
West Indies
(balls)
A S Athanaze c Abbott b Hardie
11 (14)
J P Greaves c Sutherland
b Hazlewood
8 (10)
K Y Ottley c Inglis b Abbott
8 (14)
*†S D Hope b Hazlewood
29 (65)
K U Carty c Inglis b Abbott
40 (51)
R L Chase c Green b Abbott
25 (41)
R Shepherd c Abbott b Sutherland 6 (13)
M W Forde lbw b Hazlewood
7 (9)
A S Joseph c sub b Sutherland
19 (15)
G Motie lbw b Zampa
7 (22)
O R Thomas not out
7 (8)
Extras (b 1, lb 5, w 1, nb 1)
8
Total (43.3 overs)
175
Fall of wickets 1-19, 2-21, 3-34, 4-87, 5-108,
6-126, 7-134, 8-157, 9-167.
Bowling Hazlewood 8-0-43-3; Hardie
8-2-27-1; Abbott 10-0-40-3; Sutherland
8-0-28-2; Zampa 9.3-0-31-1.
6 Australia lead three-match series 2-0

Test match
Colombo: Third day of five Afghanistan 198
(R S Zurmatai 91; M V T Fernando 4 for 51) and
199-1 (I Zadran 101 not out); Sri Lanka 439
(A D Mathews 141, L D Chandimal 107, F D M
Karunaratne 77; M N Zadran 4 for 83).

Darts
Cazoo Masters
Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes (England
unless stated): Quarter-finals (best-of-19
legs): S Bunting bt P Wright (Scot) 10-2; N
Aspinall bt D Gurney (N Ire) 10-9; M van
Gerwen (Neth) bt D Chisnall 10-4; D Van den
Bergh (Bel) bt D Heta (Aus) 10-7. Semi-finals
(best-of-21 legs): Bunting bt Aspinall 11-1; Van
Gerwen bt Van den Bergh 11-2. Final (best-of21 legs): Bunting bt Van Gerwen 11-7.

Golf
DP World Tour Bahrain Championship
Royal GC: Leading final scores (Great Britain
and Ireland unless stated): 275 D Frittelli
(SA) 67, 68, 69, 71. 277 Z Lombard (SA) 65,
73, 71, 68; J Svensson (Swe) 70, 65, 72, 70.
279 O Strydom (SA) 66, 71, 69, 73; F Lacroix
(Fr) 69, 71, 69, 70. 280 S Soederberg (Swe)
68, 71, 71, 70; A Cockerill (Can) 66, 73, 74, 67.
281 R Hoejgaard (Den) 67, 73, 72, 69;
J Guerrier (Fr) 70, 67, 74, 70; N Noergaard
Moeller (Den) 69, 69, 71, 72; J Girrbach (Switz)
65, 70, 74, 72. 282 A Rozner (Fr) 70, 73, 70, 69;
R Hoshino (Japan) 68, 73, 72, 69; U Coussaud
(Fr) 68, 72, 71, 71; Sebastian Garcia (Sp) 71, 68,
70, 73.

US PGA Tour AT&T Pro-Am
Pebble Beach, California: Leaders after
three rounds (United States unless stated):
199 W Clark 72, 67, 60. 200 L Aaberg
(Swe) 68, 65, 67. 201 M Pavon (Fr) 65, 70, 66.
202 T Detry (Bel) 63, 70, 69; M Hubbard
69, 68, 65. 203 J Day (Aus) 69, 71, 63; T Hoge
71, 66, 66; S Scheffler 69, 64, 70; J Thomas 68,
67, 68. 204 S Burns 68, 69, 67. 205 K Bradley
70, 66, 69; P Cantlay 64, 70, 71; J Rose (Eng)
68, 71, 66.

Rugby league
The 1895 Cup: Group stage Batley 15
Featherstone Rovers 14; Dewsbury Rams 4
Bradford Bulls 40; Doncaster 18 Sheffield 22;
Rochdale Hornets 12 Halifax 52; Swinton 18
Widnes 6; Whitehaven 12 Barrow Raiders 18;
York Knights 4 Wakefield 40.

Rugby union
Guinness Six Nations Italy 24 England 27;
Wales 26 Scotland 27. Under-20 France 31
Ireland 37.
6 Table and fixtures on page 50
RFU Championship Ampthill 36 Nottingham
43; Bedford 21 Cornish Pirates 27; Caldy 26
Coventry 22; Doncaster 29 Cambridge 19;
Ealing 36 Hartpury 20.
National League One Bishop’s Stortford 14
Richmond 38; Chinnor 38 Sedgley Park 34;
Darlington Mowden Park 42 Blackheath 27;
Leicester Lions 19 Plymouth Albion 12; Sale
FC 21 Cinderford 15.

Women’s Allianz Premiership Bristol 22
Exeter 12; Harlequins 53 Sale 12; Leicester 26
Gloucester-Hartpury 33; Saracens 48 Ealing 17.

Snooker
BetVictor German Masters
Tempodrom, Berlin: Final (best-of-19
frames): J Trump (Eng) bt Si Jiahui (China)
10-5 (frame scores; Trump first): 75-53 (52
break), 7-106 (73), 85-6, 31-77 (60), 96-3 (51),
82-0 (82), 77-32 (52), 26-70, 0-123 (123), 113-3
(113), 116-0 (108), 81-1 (74), 18-72 (64), 92-32
(66), 82-16 (81).

Swimming
World Aquatics Championships
Doha: Diving: Men: 3m springboard
synchro: Final 1, China 442.41pts; 2, Italy
384.24; 3, Spain 383.28; 5, Great Britain (A
Harding, J Laugher) 376.26.
Open water swimming: Final: Men: 10km 1, K
Rasovszky (Hun) 1hr 48min 21.2sec; 2, M-A
Olivier (Fr) 1:48:23.6; 3, H Pardoe (GB) 1:48:29.2.

Tennis
ATP Open Sud de France
Montpellier: Final A Bublik (Kaz) bt B Coric
(Cro) 5-7, 6-2, 6-3.
WTA Upper Austria Ladies
Linz: Final J Ostapenko (Lat) bt
E Alexandrova (Russ) 6-2, 6-3.
WTA Thailand Open
Hua Hin: Final D Shnaider (Russ) bt Lin Zhu
(China) 6-3, 2-6, 6-1.

49

the times | Monday February 5 2024

Racing Sport

Mullins makes clean sweep of eight Leopardstown grade ones
Rob Wright Racing Editor

Willie Mullins made history when
saddling the winners of all eight grade
one races at the two-day Dublin Racing
Festival at Leopardstown over the
weekend.
While it is a remarkable achievement
for the trainer, the meeting laid bare the
lack of competitiveness of jump racing
at the highest level. This is not Mullins’s
fault. He is a brilliant trainer who
manages to keep all of his owners
happy even when their horses are
competing against each other, which is
quite a feat in itself.
Mullins, 67, has been champion
jumps trainer in Ireland on 17 occasions
but his dominance is still growing. Such
is his success that the leading jumps
owners have flocked to him, and his

Closutton yard, in Co Carlow, is packed
with expensively bought horses to such
a degree that it is difficult for anyone
else to compete.
He saddled 29 of the 48 horses that
contested the eight top-flight races at
Leopardstown. Late withdrawals
meant that yesterday’s Ladbrokes
Novice Chase was reduced to a match
between the Mullins pair of Gaelic
Warrior and Fact To File, with the latter
prevailing after jumping mistakes had
put paid to the chances of Gaelic
Warrior, who was a long way behind
when falling at the last.
The Ladbrokes Dublin Chase had
five runners but only one was not
trained by Mullins, with the 4-11 favourite, El Fabiolo, cruising to an easy defeat
of stablemate Dinoblue. El Fabiolo is
now a best-priced 4-9 with Coral and

Carlisle
Rob Wright
4.07

Ladbrokes to land the Queen Mother
Champion Chase at Cheltenham on
March 13.
Mullins also had three of the fourstrong field for the Chanelle Pharma
Irish Champion Hurdle, with the 2-5

favourite, State Man, repeating last
year’s easy success in the same race.
He remains the 3-1 second favourite for
the Champion Hurdle behind the
brilliant Constitution Hill, who beat
him by nine lengths last season.

Nicholls work rider is
killed in point-to-point

4.20

Keagan Kirby, who works for champion
jumps trainer Paul Nicholls, was killed
in a fall at Charing point-to-point yesterday. Kirby, 25, joined Nicholls in
2019. His mount crashed into the wing
of a fence at Charing and, despite the
efforts of the on-course medical team
and an emergency helicopter, Kirby
could not be saved. Nicholls posted on
X: “Sadly Keagan Kirby, one of our best,
hardworking lads, lost his life riding in
a point-to-point today. RIP Keag, we
will all miss you terribly.”

Handicap Chase
(£4,489: 3m 110yd) (12)

1.32

Mullins saddled
nine winners at
the Dublin
Racing Festival,
including all
eight grade one
races at
Leopardstown’s
two-day meeting

Novices' Hurdle
(£4,084: 2m 1f) (12 runners)

Handicap Chase (£8,450: 2m) (5)

4.40

6.30

Handicap (£5,234: 7f) (12)

7.00

Handicap (Div I: £5,757: 2m 102yd) (8)

7.30

Handicap (Div II: £5,757: 2m 102yd) (8)

8.00

Handicap (Div I: £7,851: 6f) (9)

8.30

Handicap (Div II: £7,851: 6f) (9)

Rob Wright

Handicap (£5,400: 1m 4f) (9)

Open NH Flat Race (£2,178: 2m 1f) (11)
2.15

2.32

Handicap (3-Y-O: £7,851: 6f) (8)

Southwell

4.25
2.02

While things will not be so easy for
Mullins at the Cheltenham Festival,
he already has a record 94 winners
there to his name and further success is
all but guaranteed next month. El
Fabiolo looks a banker in the
Champion Chase, while he also has
Lossiemouth (4-5 favourite) in the
Mares’ Hurdle, Galopin Des Champs
(evens) in the Gold Cup and
Dinoblue (5-4) in the Mares’ Chase.
Two more of yesterday’s Mullins
winners have been promoted to
favouritism for the Festival, with Fact
To File now 2-1 (from 8-1) for the
Turners Novices’ Chase and Ballyburn
heading the ante-post betting for both
the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and the
Baring Bingham, with Mullins yet to
decide which race to target. He looks set
to dominate for some time to come.

Classified Stakes (£5,548: 7f) (12)

5.00

NH Novices' Hurdle

Classified Stakes (£4,187: 1m 4f) (12)

(£4,084: 2m 3f) (12)

Lingfield Park

2.45

Novice Stakes (£6,156: 1m 4f) (7)

Rob Wright

1.15
3.02

3.32

Handicap (£5,757: 1m 5f) (12)

3.15

Handicap (£4,711: 1m 2f) (8)

5.30

Maiden Stakes (£6,156: 5f) (8)

Handicap Chase (£9,770: 2m 5f) (4)

Handicap Hurdle (£5,281: 2m 1f) (12)

3.45
1.45

Handicap (3-Y-O: £4,711: 7f) (9)

6.00

Classified Stakes (£5,184: 7f) (12)

Handicap (£4,711: 7f) (10)

Blinkered first time: Lingfield Park 1.45 Bowman.
2.15 Legal Mind. 2.15 Gintini. 3.15 Abu Royal.
4.20 Vanity Pays. Southwell 5.00 Socialist Agenda.
7.00 Pub Crawl. 7.00 Ney.

Yesterday’s racing results
Lingfield Park
Going: standard
1.00 (1m 1yd) 1, Charlatan (Callum
Shepherd, 6-4 fav); 2, United Force (28-1);
3, Thoughtful Gift (11-4). 8 ran. 1l, ns.
D M Simcock.
1.32 (1m 7f 169yd) 1, Spartan Army (Rossa
Ryan, 6-1); 2, Red Flyer (10-3); 3, Barenboim
(12-1). 9 ran. Nk, nk. A King.
2.02 (6f 1yd) 1, Laheg (J Mitchell, 2-1 fav);
2, Muscika (8-1); 3, King Cabo (11-4). 7 ran.
Sh hd, l. M Botti.
2.37 (1m 1yd) 1, Dear My Friend (J Fanning,

11-8); 2, Nine Tenths (5-4 fav); 3, Diderot (7-1).
5 ran. 1 l, l. C Johnston.
3.12 (6f 1yd) 1, Diligent Harry (R L Moore,
7-4 fav); 2, Annaf (2-1); 3, Willem Twee
(100-30). 6 ran. NR: Clearpoint. 1l, 2l. C G
Cox.
3.45 (6f 1yd) 1, Brave Empire (David Egan,
10-3); 2, Roman Emperor (9-4); 3, Blue Prince
(6-4 fav). 5 ran. Hd, ns. R Varian.
4.17 (5f 6yd) 1, Make Clear (Marco Ghiani,
9-2); 2, Confederation (4-1); 3, Red Walls (3-1).
6 ran. 1 l, 1 l. R M H Cowell.
Placepot: £19.40.
Quadpot: £7.40.

Musselburgh
Going: good to soft (soft in places)
1.20 (1m 7f 124yd hdle) 1, Liari (H Cobden,
10-11 fav); 2, Roaring Legend (11-2); 3, Balboa
(10-1). 8 ran. NR: Eagle Prince. 5l, hd.
P F Nicholls.
1.50 (1m 7f 182yd ch) 1, Beau Balko
(H Cobden, 5-4 fav); 2, Mint Gold (9-1); 3,
Ganapathi (13-2). 7 ran. 1 l, hd. P F Nicholls.
2.25 (1m 7f 124yd hdle) 1, Panjari (H Cobden,
11-2); 2, Bertie’s Ballet (11-4); 3, Titanium
Moon (13-2). 6 ran. NR: Lily Du Berlais. 8 l, 5l.
P F Nicholls.
3.00 (2m 7f 180yd hdle) 1, Curley Finger

(Nathan Moscrop, 16-1); 2, Springwell Bay
(4-1 jt-fav); 3, Hector Javilex (28-1). 14 ran.
NR: Carnfunnock. Nk, 3 l. R Menzies.
3.35 (2m 4f 68yd ch) 1, Corrigeen Rock
(D R Fox, 11-2); 2, Thunder Rock (100-30);
3, Outlaw Peter (7-2). 8 ran. NR: Magna Sam.
2l, nk. Miss Lucinda V Russell.
4.05 (2m 3f 171yd hdle) 1, Welsh Charger
(J J Burke, 7-2); 2, Lihyan (4-1); 3, Duyfken
(6-1). 12 ran. NR: Garde Des Champs,
Sleeping Satellite. 2 l, 5l. A Ralph.
4.35 (1m 7f 124yd Flat) 1, Wicked Thoughts
(H Cobden, 2-1 fav); 2, Getagin (7-2); 3, Saxon
Star (16-5). 7 ran. Nk, l. P F Nicholls.
Placepot: £70.60.
Quadpot: £22.10.

Newcastle
Going: standard
5.00 (6f) 1, Secret Guest (P Mulrennan, 5-2
fav); 2, Mondammej (12-1); 3, Mighty Power
(6-1). 12 ran. l, l. B Smart.
5.30 (1m 5yd) 1, Cusack (Jonny Peate, 11-4
fav); 2, Sycamore (11-1); 3, Mercurius Power
(5-1). 12 ran. 4 l, l. D Thompson.
6.00 (5f) 1, Moon Flight (T Jakes, 9-2); 2,
Jenever (7-2 fav); 3, Quandary (12-1). 11 ran.
NR: Night On Earth. Hd, 1l. Miss L A Perratt.
6.30 (1m 5yd) 1, Las Ramblas (Raul Da Silva,
100-30); 2, Waleefy (6-4 fav); 3,
Parthenopaeus (6-1). 11 ran. Hd, hd. R Varian.

7.00 (7f 14yd) 1, Oliver Show (Billy
Loughnane, 13-2); 2, Lion Tower (22-1); 3, Riot
(25-1). 13 ran. NR: Intervention. Nk, l.
G Boughey.
7.30 (6f) 1, Fantasy Navigator (Jason Hart,
7-2 fav); 2, Tathmeen (17-2); 3, Cubanista
(12-1). 12 ran. Hd, hd. M Appleby.
8.00 (5f) 1, Henery Hawk (T Jakes, 9-1);
2, Mehmo (8-1); 3, The Princes Poet (22-1).
11 ran. NR: Coley’s Koko. l, 3l. Miss L A
Perratt.
8.30 (5f) 1, Bonito Cavalo (P Mulrennan,
4-5 fav); 2, Phoenix Star (6-1); 3, Desert Swirl
(125-1). 12 ran. 1l, 1 l. J S Goldie.
Placepot: £251.90.
Quadpot: £50.70.

50

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

Sport Six Nations

Welsh fightback sets tone
Steve James

Warren Gatland was understandably
seething on Saturday night. His side
may have shown tremendous character, resilience and ambition in staging a
thrilling and unexpected comeback
from 27-0 down, but the ignominy of
the first-half calamity had cut deep.
Apologies were issued for what the
Wales head coach called the “worst first
40 performance in my whole rugby
career as a coach”, but as so often the
greatest fascination was in the detail,
specifically that Wales had intended to
play with tempo and pace in the first
half.
It certainly did not look like that. And
the selection of Gareth Davies ahead of
the in-form and always snappy Tomos
Williams at scrum half, presumably
because Davies’s box-kicking had resulted in so much ball being regathered
by Wales at the World Cup, did not reflect that either.
The home side had made a litany of
errors while attempting to play a
limited kicking game. There were
no excuses. Yes, the lineout had
misfired horribly, but Wales appeared as cautious as they
were callow.
As Gatland said: “That’s
what I was disappointed
with, there were things
in the first half we had
worked on with trying
to speed the game up
and play with tempo.
Those are things in
your control, where
you take quick taps. We
probably came under
pressure and went back into
safety mode, slowing things down
and taking the safe option rather
than being positive.”
A raft of replacements changed
everything, with Williams forming a
devilishly daring half-back partnership with Ioan Lloyd, the hooker Elliot
Dee fixing the lineout, the blind-side
flanker Alex Mann providing energy
and no little punch, Teddy Williams,

How they stand
P W D L F A B T Pts
Ireland
1 1 0 0 38 17 1 5 5
England
1 1 0 0 27 24 0 2 4
Scotland
1 1 0 0 27 26 0 3 4
Wales
1 0 0 1 26 27 2 4 2
Italy
1 0 0 1 24 27 1 3 1
France
1 0 0 1 17 38 0 2 0
Round one
France 17 Ireland 38
Italy 24 England 27
Wales 26 Scotland 27
Round two
Saturday
Scotland v France (2.15pm; BBC One)
England v Wales (4.45pm; ITV)
Sunday
Ireland v Italy (3pm; ITV)
Round three
Saturday, February 24
Ireland v Wales (2.15pm; ITV)
Scotland v England (4.45pm; BBC One)
Sunday, February 25
France v Italy (3pm; ITV)
Round four
Saturday, March 9
Italy v Scotland (2.15pm; ITV)
England v Ireland (4.45pm; ITV)
Sunday, March 10
Wales v France (3pm; BBC One)
Round five
Saturday, March 16
Wales v Italy (2.15pm; BBC One)
Ireland v Scotland (4.45pm; ITV)
France v England (8pm; ITV)

Dyer, the 24-year-old wing of whom Gatland is a fan, scores his try during Wales’s second-half revival, while Lloyd shone

the lock, roaming menacingly and
effectively in the wide channels
and Mason Grady, the outside centre, offering physicality hitherto unseen.
It was a remarkable
transformation, with the
No 8, Aaron Wainwright,

also atoning for some first-half lineout
wobbles with the best half of his international career, alongside the
world-class poacher that is Tommy
Reffell in the back row and Corey Domachowski, the prop, often mimicking
the passing skills of a fly half as first receiver. And it so very nearly produced a

remarkable result in a rip-roaring spectacle that may linger longer in the
memory than the fact that Scotland
achieved their first victory in Cardiff for
22 years.
But, before Wales’s trip to Twickenham this weekend, what conclusions
can we draw from this madcap may-

the times | Monday February 5 2024

51

2GM

Sport

s mystique
for Twickenham John’
was unparalleled
A game of two halves

in the great teams

Wales's near total dominance of the second half allowed them to mount
a comeback that fell agonisingly short
Wales more threatening

F IRST HA LF
Scotland more threatening
0
10
20
30

as a replacement fly half, far left

hem? Was it just the desperation of
staring into the abyss that sparked a
performance unlikely to be repeated?
Can Wales play like that from the start
against England? Does Gatland select
his side to do just that, in other words
select most of those still there at the
end? Is he even comfortable coaching a

Wales and Lions
fly half, known as ‘the
King’, had an aura that
stretched 12,000 miles,
writes Stephen Jones

S E C OND H A LF
40
40
Minutes

side to play in that way? These are intriguing questions. Personally, I think
this has to be the way forward for Wales.
They do not possess the sort of huge
physical specimens that characterised
Gatland’s first tenure. They have to find
another way. Yes, they may be bolstered
this weekend by the return of the centre
George North and Will Rowlands, the
lock, to offer two genuine ball carriers,
but with a young side they simply have
to give it a bit of a lash and Gatland
might be wise to say as much to manage
expectations.
Mistakes will be made, but they will
be ones made while attempting to
attack whenever possible, rather than
the horrendously sloppy ones made in
a fog of pressure and confusion in Saturday’s first half.
There was a bit of chat last week
about England trying to follow their
cricketing counterparts’ positive Bazball methods, of which there was precious little sign in Italy, but maybe
Wales can now adopt that attitude?
Bazball is not gung-ho cricket, or trying
to run the ball from everywhere in
rugby, it is fearless and fast-paced cricket, always looking at the more positive
option to put pressure on the opposition.
Wales played rugby in the second
half on Saturday of which Brendon
“Baz” McCullum, a good enough fly
half to have kept the great Dan Carter
out of the South Island schools’ side,
would have been proud. And they can
do the same to England at Twickenham. They look fit enough to do so, sig-

50

60

70

80

Source: Opta

nificantly fitter than a Scotland side
who were out on their feet at the end.
Williams must start at scrum half and
so too Dee at hooker. It may be that the
fly half Sam Costelow is unavailable
after failing a head injury assessment,
but the free-running Lloyd would be
the brave option anyway. His kicking
from hand and tee was a little wobbly at
the start but it improved, and his sense
of space and opportunity were sublime.
The debutant full back Cameron
Winnett was a little uncertain in that
woeful first half, probably kicking too
much and sometimes not using the
acres of space in front of him before doing that kicking, but he slotted in perfectly in the second half, showing what
a lovely, stepping footballer he is.
Josh Adams, the wing, had a bit of a
shocker, with Gatland calling the penalty he conceded for lobbing the ball into the crowd “dumb” and, with Finn
Russell’s resultant kick successful, it ultimately cost Wales the match. He
made other errors.
Grady was only on the bench because
it was felt that he makes too many mistakes, but could he now replace Adams
on the wing, where he has been playing
for Cardiff? Gatland likes the other
wing Rio Dyer and in the second half
you could see why. He was electric at
times.
As were so many others in red jerseys
when the shackles of the mind were
freed. But was it just a humiliationavoiding one-off? Gatland’s selection
on Thursday and then the game plan
revealed on Saturday will tell us.

‘Beating France would set up title bid’
Mark Palmer

Huw Jones has urged Scotland to
underline their Six Nations title
credentials by backing up a first success
in Cardiff for 22 years with a Murrayfield win over France this weekend.
Fabien Galthié brings his team to
Edinburgh in the wake of a 38-17 home
trouncing at the hands of Ireland, while
the Scots survived an extraordinary
Wales fightback to triumph 27-26 at the
Principality Stadium and nourish
hopes that they can mount a genuine
bid for silverware in Gregor Townsend’s seventh campaign in charge.
Since 2016, Scotland have beaten
France five times at home, and once at
the Stade de France.
Asked if another Scottish victory on
Saturday would blow the tournament
wide open, Jones, the Scotland centre,
said: “Yeah, definitely. We hope so. It’s a
really exciting position for us now with
these two home games coming up. We
absolutely love playing at home and
can’t wait to get back there.
“We know our record is pretty strong
against these teams at home. That was a

huge theme for us last year, backing up
wins. I guess it’ll be the same this year.
We’ve got a good win away but we want
to back that up.
“We’re at home which is great for us
and we’ve got a good chance against a
strong French side. We’re looking
forward to it.”
Jones, 30, said he expected France to
Jones rued the
errors that almost
cost Scotland
victory in Cardiff

come out fighting after their defeat by
Ireland in the opening round. “Do we
expect a reaction from France? Yeah,
absolutely, and I think we’ll be expecting a reaction from ourselves as well.”
Ill discipline proved an almost fatal
thorn in Scotland’s side in Cardiff, as 16
penalties led to two yellow cards and an
opening of the door to Wales, who were
27-0 down two minutes into the second
half. Jones believes that going off script

was key to this collective loss of control.
“Across the board we were guilty,” he
said. “When we were one man down,
we talked about not putting our heads
into rucks, and then I went and put my
head in a ruck at one point.
“So it’s stuff like that. We’ve got the
right messages [from the coaches], it’s
just No 1 to 15, to 23, we just need to be
better. And discipline is not just
penalties, it is sticking to the plan, and
doing what you’ve said you are going
to do.
“At different times we were all guilty
of maybe that panic of ‘we need to get
that turnover now’ and trying to solve
something by ourselves, which doesn’t
work, especially when you are a man
down and the opposition are playing
wide to wide, which means you are
chasing touchline to touchline. It
wasn’t ideal.”
Rory Darge, who was named as one
of the side’s co-captains alongside
Russell but missed the Wales game due
to a knee strain, will be available this
weekend, while the influential lock
Grant Gilchrist will also return after a
one-match suspension.

B

arry John, who has died at
79, was arguably the
signature player of the
golden era of Welsh and
British & Irish Lions rugby
in the 1970s. The margins in any lofty
debate would be small — he would be
competing with Gareth Edwards,
Gerald Davies and the late JPR
Williams, of course, but John might
edge it for the mystique that
surrounded him and the gorgeous
skill of his play.
He once approached a solid
phalanx of England defenders in a
match at Cardiff Arms Park with the
ball held out in front of him. One by
one the white jerseys descended on
him but with the willowy weaving of
his run he raced over to score without
a hand laid on him.
In New Zealand with the Lions in
1971, the peak of British and Irish
rugby, the home followers —
grudgingly, because the nation
favoured gruff hard men rather than
willowy genius — recognised the
physicality of the Lions forwards, the
power of Edwards and the harshness
of Willie John McBride and Derek
Quinnell up front. But as the journalist
John Reason wrote: “They just never
knew what to make of Barry John. He
was a being from another planet.” The
aura stretched 12,000 miles.
John’s kicking game, at goal and
towards touch, was a thing of beauty.
On that tour, one of the most feared
All Blacks was Fergie McCormick, an
aggressive full back who was famed
for making thunderous runs from the
back into the heart of the opposing
defence.
Early in the tour, McCormick came
up against the Lions for the first time.
John played because he was out of
Test contention. John delivered
sweeping diagonals and McCormick
came chasing across to launch his
trademark runs but time and again
the ball went into touch just before he
arrived. This mighty All Black looked
old, slow and ineffective. His
reputation was destroyed.
On that tour, he became known as
“King John”. It was not a loose
nickname, it stuck. He was simply
called “King”. At breakfast one day,
some of the Lions asked Edwards, the
King’s room-mate, how John was
faring.
“He’s shaving,” Edwards said.
The players expressed mock
surprise that John could be
performing such a mundane task
himself, with no retainers. “Can’t quite
be royalty yet then,” they said.
“You wait til he cuts himself,”
Edwards retorted. “The blood comes
out blue all right.”
John’s prowess gave the Lions
fabulous confidence. He was even
tolerated if he went on to the next
field to play soccer during a training
session.
Edwards and John were chosen for
Wales at the same time, and

John was in mesmerising form during
the 1971 Lions tour of New Zealand

Edwards — who predated the arrival
of true athleticism in the sport, called
John and suggested a meet at a point
equidistant from their homes. It was a
wet day and a muddy field, Edwards
arrived sharp as a pin in a gleaming
tracksuit, bursting for action. John
arrived in an old T-shirt and nonmatching shorts.
They pottered around for ages, not
establishing much of an
understanding and John kept
dropping the ball. Famously, John had
seen enough. “Look Gareth,” he said
for tactics for the matches ahead.
“You throw it and I’ll catch it.”
The two half backs were together as
usual for the third Test on that Lions
tour. The series stood at one-all.
Early in the match, Edwards came
thundering off the end of a lineout
way ahead of the rest of the Lions. He
kept his momentum until he was
about to be overwhelmed near the All
Blacks line. Suddenly, as if out of a
trap door, John appeared on his
shoulder, took a deft pop pass and
scored under the posts. Gareth threw
it, Barry caught it.
John retired at 27. He wrote that he
found the attention hard and the
pressure harder. He never returned to
the game. He told the story of a lady
in a supermarket approaching him
with a curtsy. In that era, the only aid
for players who had certain issues was
a stiff upper lip. It is possible that the
King could have played for five more
years had the back-up been in place.
But the mystique and the selfconfidence he had given the rugby
nation could not be forgotten. Nor
will it, ever.
He has been a fine columnist,
always favouring the touch players,
the men of inherent skill, like himself.
You sense that the manufactured,
over-coached nature of rugby these
days would not have attracted him,
and it is possible that Wales never
showed enough gratitude after he left
the sport, and cast around for some
role befitting his heavenly talent and
insights.
It is not a happy era for Wales, with
greats such as David Watkins and
JPR Williams having died recently.
But in hearts and minds and in the
warmest memories, as well as in
replays, the King still reigns.

inside and online

52

2GM

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

Sport Six Nations

Borthwick’s blitzers
and ball movers are
taking risks at last
Alex Lowe and Will Kelleher explain how England are looking
to the future, from aping the best aspects of the Springboks
defence to moving ball more in hand and with width
the defence: blitz like the boks
Elliot Daly will remember all too well
the suffocating power of South Africa’s
blitz defence (Alex Lowe writes).
Selected at outside centre by the British
& Irish Lions for the first Test against
the Springboks in 2021, Daly received a
miss-pass from Dan Biggar just a splitsecond before being flattened by
Lukhanyo Am.
The Lions had picked a team to
attack with pace and width in a bid to
get outside South Africa’s high-pressure system but their strategy was shut
down by one thundering tackle just four
minutes into the game. Am had
charged up on his opposite number and
flattened him at least ten metres behind
the gainline.
Fast-forward to the 2023 World Cup.
Scotland failed to fire a single shot in
attack against the Springboks in Marseille because Finn Russell, the great fly
half magician, was starved of all time
and space. “They blitz very hard,” Russell said afterwards. “In the first half,
they put me under pressure. In the
second half they put the boys outside me
under pressure. They changed it up.”
France managed to counter that blitz
defence in the quarter-final, which is
possible with top-class execution
against an aggressive defensive mindset of high risk, high reward. But South
Africa then scrambled brilliantly, chasing down lost causes to scrape the first
of three one-point victories that would
carry them to the World Cup.
There, in three examples, is a snapshot of why Steve Borthwick recruited
Felix Jones from the Springboks to become England’s new defence coach; a
snapshot of what they want the “white
wall” to become. England’s commitment to changing their approach on
both sides of the ball was evident in
Rome. It was also clear that these things
are not built in a day.
Offensively, as analysed elsewhere in
The Times, England sought to move
the ball more, to attack with greater
depth and from further out. “That was
something we didn’t do well enough,”
Borthwick said. England’s kicking metres were way down on the World Cup.
What they lacked was power in the
backline to help fix the opposition,
which will continue to be a problem
until Ollie Lawrence is fit or perhaps
Max Ojomoh makes the step up to Test
level. To that end, Tommy Freeman’s
contributions off the wing were important and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso made
an intriguing cameo at the end.
Defensively, England’s new strategy
is to blitz the opposition playmakers
and pressure them for time and space;
an approach with a greater acceptance
of risk than would traditionally be associated with a Borthwick game plan.
England were twice exposed in the
first half as Italy, with Paolo Garbisi’s
quick hands and sharp eye, took advantage of misalignment and misreads in
the defence to create two memorable

Chessum

Italy showed the risk of a blitz defence when Chessum flew out of the England
line to close down Garbisi, who timed his pass well and eventually scored the try

Dominant defence
Under new defence coach Felix Jones,
England have made it they clear they
intend to fly off the line and try to stop
opposition attacks at source
2023 Six Nations
Tackle Success, %
84
Dominant Tackles
12
Tackle Dominance, %
8

v Italy
87
13
11

tries, both of which came as Italy
attacked after Alex Mitchell box-kicks.
For the first, Ollie Chessum flew up
on Garbisi but the Italy fly half held his
position cleverly and passed before he
was tackled, creating a three on two.
Fraser Dingwall was too wide and had
lost his connection with Chessum, allowing Lorenzo Cannone to gallop
through the gap. Once in behind, Italy
took their chance with Alessandro Garbisi touching down.
Fifteen minutes later, England flooded up the field behind Mitchell’s kick,
which landed five metres in from their
right touchline. England were bunched
up with 12 players on that side of the
field. Henry Slade was trying to organise a realignment but it was too late.
Chessum again charged up on Garbisi, who played a short pass to Juan Ignacio Brex. This time Slade moved up
with Chessum, keeping the right alignment, and he tackled Brex but the Italy
centre flipped the ball to Garbisi on the
loop and the Azzurri were in behind
again for a try finished by Tommaso
Menoncello and Tommaso Allan.
England say they had only three
training sessions during their camp in
Spain so teething problems were no
surprise. “It’s definitely a change to
come in from a long way out to put pressure on, especially from the Saints way,”
Freeman, the Northampton Saints
wing, said. “The Exeter lads and clubs
with more aggressive defences are used
to it. We want to close the space down

and minimise the pass as much as we
can. If we can do that and put them behind the gainline that’s perfect because
they will kick us the ball back and we’ll
get another chance to attack.”
England were much improved in the
second half and shut down Italy to great
effect with a tighter connection in defence, suffocating them for space and
forcing errors. England’s tackle success
and tackle dominance were up on their
2023 numbers. On two occasions when
Italy succeeded in getting outside England, Chandler Cunningham-South
and Feyi-Waboso scrambled really
well, although Dingwall will regret not
doing better for the hosts’ third try.
“We were too narrow at times,”
Borthwick said. “The thing that struck
me was how we saw other players
covering. When things aren’t perfect
you have got your team-mates to help
you out. Fix it as quickly as you can.”
Life will get tougher for England the
deeper they go into the Six Nations. But
they are committed to the Borthwick
blitz. Watch a replay of Russell’s wonder-pass to Huw Jones in 2018 — he
was under no pressure on the edge of
his own 22 when he saw Jonathan Joseph trying to close down the passing
lane and floated the ball over his head.
The Springboks shut down that
threat at the World Cup. It was not perfect in Rome but England did set out
their intent: to no longer afford any
playmaker the luxury of time or space
to dictate terms.
the attack: keep ball in hand,
ditch kick-first mindset
England’s commitment to a distinct
change in strategy continued with their
attacking game in Rome (writes Will
Kelleher). Their talk in the week of
having an “intent to play” was not hollow, as it was clear they looked to move
the ball earlier and wider, further away
from the Italy line.
At the World Cup they did not look to
play until they were in and around the
opposing 22 and kicked relentlessly not
just from their own half but once over
halfway too, either with high bombs or

Feyi-Waboso puts the tackle in on Italy’s wing Monty Ioane in the closing stages

Ambition burns bright
England stretched the play much more
in attack with ball in hand and kicked
less compared to last year
v Italy
2023 Six Nations
Line breaks
3.2
4
Defenders beaten
18.8
25
Kicks in play
34
31
Kicking metres
1,057
862
Play wider than first receiver, %
25
29
Play wider than second receiver, %
6
12
However, their lack of dynamic ball
carriers was slightly exposed
2023 Six Nations
Metres made/carry
3.2
32

Carry Dominance, %

v Italy
2.9
22

searching for corners. On Saturday,
though, they were keen to try to stress
the Italian defence in a different way
with a backline full of intelligent “ballmovers”. To exit their half England still
used their maul and high hanging boxkicks, hoofed up for Freeman, Daly,
Freddie Steward and others to chase,

but once they were in the Italian half
they kept the ball in hand more readily.
That is proved by the statistics, which
show that England passed wider than
ten metres from the starting point of
the phase 60 per cent of the time (51 per
cent in last year’s Six Nations), and they
played wider than the second receiver
twice the number of times they did a
year ago (up from 6 per cent to 12).
The problem England found, however, is that with George Ford pulling
the strings inside Dingwall, Slade and
Daly, it was easy to fall into an attacking
phase-play that is too lateral where no
one busts through the gainline or
changes the angle of attack. Ethan
Roots, from flanker, was the only consistently successful gainline breaker.
England’s carry dominance, compared with last year’s Six Nations, was
down by 10 per cent (32 per cent in 2023,
to 22 per cent versus Italy), and their
gainline success was down 6 per cent
(48 to 42 per cent).
That is largely down to selection, and
the fact that Lawrence and Manu Tuilagi, whom Borthwick wants to help his
side create “momentum”, were injured.
Borthwick had to make the most of the
backline available. “There are a number
of players we have who are really good
at creating momentum but some of
them are not available for selection so
right now we have to balance the
players we have and what we are trying
to do,” the England head coach said.
“If you look at English rugby and the

53

the times | Monday February 5 2024

Sport

New Zealand put
96 points on Italy
so this was poor
Steve Borthwick’s team
won narrowly in Rome
but there was little to
suggest a bright new
era, says Stuart Barnes

E

in Rome in another example of England’s new tactic, using a blitz defence to put opposition ball-carriers under pressure

power that England had, England haven’t produced that kind of power for a
little while. We are trying to find a way
and develop a way that allows us to play
to the strengths that we do have.”
England’s attack broke down a few
times when they went through multiple
phases. No one could cut a cute line
through, so England crabbed across the
field and ended up being turned over.
When it worked, it looked much improved from the World Cup, though.
The best example was when Daly
scored in the first half, thanks to Freeman, who came off his wing to hit a
forceful line off Steward, exposing a
dog-leg in the Italian defence. Freeman
was able to cut through as the other
backs had held their depth, so had time
and space to pick his angle. Daly was on
his shoulder for the offload, and the try.
England know they need to use Freeman — who is 6ft 3in tall and weighs
16st 1lb — more like this. All good
attacks need a balance between those
that can manipulate space, and others
who can scythe through it.
Ford, the fly half, was pleased England have pivoted away from their
kick-first mindset — the style which
dominated their World Cup last year.
“At the very front of our minds . . . is
the intent to play, the intent to get behind the ball and attack the defence,
and go and try and break the line and
score tries,” he explained. “That’s been
the biggest mindset shift . . . playing in it
was pretty exciting.”

‘We’ll protect Feyi-Waboso
from abuse before Wales’
Will Kelleher
Deputy Rugby Correspondent, Rome

England will try to protect their new
Cardiff-born wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso from abuse this week as they face
Wales next in the Six Nations.
Feyi-Waboso, the 21-year-old Exeter
Chiefs wing, made his England debut
against Italy in Rome on Saturday,
appearing for the final three minutes of
the 27-24 victory. He was born and
raised in Wales but opted to play for
England instead. He has British-Nigerian parents and his paternal grandmother was born in Gloucester.
The Wales coach, Warren Gatland,
said that his coaches were “not too disappointed” that the wing had rejected
them for England. By contrast, England
are delighted to have him. Steve Borthwick, having seen how Owen Farrell
and Tom Curry were abused on social
media during the World Cup, knows
Feyi-Waboso could be targeted before
the match at Twickenham.
“We are cognisant of that, rightly so,”
the England head coach said. “Given
the World Cup experience, there’s a
higher awareness now of those external
noises and factors. So we want to make

sure we give all our players all the
support they need. With regard to
Manny, what I’ve seen is a guy who
trains really hard, enjoys being with the
players and spends a lot of time studying for his medicine degree. So he’s very
busy and I don’t think he has too much
time to dwell on these things.”
England are hopeful that the prop
Ellis Genge and the lock George
Martin will be fit. Martin is recovering
from a knee injury and Genge pulled
out of the Italy game, having injured his
foot in training. Martin has joined the
England squad at their Bagshot
training base, but only to continue his
rehabilitation, suggesting that he is not
quite ready to face Wales. Marcus
Smith has been removed from the
squad because of a calf injury.
Borthwick, meanwhile, believes
previous England squads were selfish,
something he is trying to change by
fostering a more collegiate team environment, where players do not fear
being dropped. “I was playing in teams
where players were saying they don’t
want to make mistakes because they
want to get picked next week, [thinking]
‘I don’t want to be the one getting criticised,’ ” the 44-year-old said.

ngland kicked off their Six
Nations campaign with the
opening win that has eluded
them for the past four years.
From that point of view they
can be pleased with their start. From
most other perspectives Steve
Borthwick’s team have much work to
do. Scratch that; make it every other
perspective. Just because England
won, it doesn’t mean they have made
even a half-decent start.
Like England’s attacking play, the
visitors faded into the beautiful lateafternoon Rome light. A slow
beginning — Italy led 10-0 — and a
final 20 minutes that didn’t hold the
attention of the hordes of goodnatured England fans was sufficient
for a win, but post-match nobody in
the England camp hid from the fact
that better was required.
This was a game where
performance was more important
than the result. Before the indignant
patriotic hordes tear this line to
pieces, let’s add a little caveat. If
England performed well, there was
absolutely no chance of Italy gaining
a first win against England in 31
games. It would take a terrible
performance to lose. As it is, the final
margin of victory was a mere three
points. Monty Ioane’s late solo score
may have flattered but still, this was
an 80 minutes short of the sort of
quality to which England aspire.
These were the opponents who
were ten points behind Uruguay at
half-time in their World Cup pool
match in September. I believe there
were good reasons for this deficit.
Italy were bravely trying to play the
sort of high-risk rugby required to
scare the life out of their pool rivals,
France and New Zealand.
Rome may not have been built
in a day but the capital’s national
rugby team collapsed in the tiny
space of 80 minutes. New Zealand
hit them for 96 points. Then
France finished them off with 60.
This is the context in which
England’s start to the Six
Nations should be judged.
Admittedly Gonzalo
Quesada succeeded in
making his team harder to
beat on Saturday by taking
fewer risks from deeper in
the field. But it takes quite
an imagination to see Ireland not
joining the half-century club this
weekend. England were secondrate. Don’t let anyone tell you the
W next to their name equates to
a good start. It does not.
However, it could have been
worse. England did try to play
with an extra dimension. As
they were content to play it
one-dimensionally in France,
it isn’t the greatest praise, but
England did attempt to vary
their game. George Ford
looked rusty at times
but his imagination

stretched beyond the long kick, ad
nauseam. There was plenty of long
kicking but there was a reason
beyond waiting for the opposition to
kick badly or run back inadvertently.
Rome has a mighty long dead-ball
line. Time after time, kicks seemed
destined to go dead, only to roll to a
halt in the acred dead-ball area. This
forced dead-ball drop-outs from
which, should England have wished,
they could have launched swathes of
attacks from 40 metres or so out.
It took my mind back 40 years
when, as a youngster new to the
England squad, I was amazed to see
our team practising putting restarts
dead. It seems crazy now but back in
the mists of a mad and very boring
time, the response to kicking a ball
dead was a 22 metre drop-out, not a
scrum on the halfway line.
In those exceedingly dim and
distant days, no side conceived of
drop-kicking back into opposing
territory, not with those boggy old
pitches. So England would work on
their set-piece restarts, regaining the
ball and possession between the 22
and 10-metre line. What England did
in Rome was a variation on an old
and long-forgotten theme.
Like those early days in the 1980s,
this was a legitimate, if negative take
on the game. The kicking strategy
seems worth dwelling upon because it
suggests so much of the thinking
remains essentially negative. Alex
Mitchell scored a try before he was
substituted around the hour mark.
His primary role was to kick from
deep and make it competitive. In the
main he box-kicked extremely well.
There’s nothing wrong with clean
clearances but it never had a chance
of catching the Italian team out.
The odd dummy kick and pass into
space may have shocked Italy. It may
have caused more consternation in
their defensive ranks than witnessed.
England did try to play with
possession on and around the halfway
line but there was a non-surprising
inaccuracy. Running cute angles and
passing players into space requires
enough practice to become habit.
It frequently failed to click but the
Elliot Daly try, in which Tommy
Freeman popped up in midfield,
made the line break and
offloaded to his fellow
wing was exciting.
On an
afternoon
more of
failure than
success,
here was
proof that
England
have ability.
Mitchell can
evolve into a useful
fulcrum. But
England should have
kept their sharpest
act on the pitch. This
was a case of gameplanning days before
the match. It’s not
only players who need
to play what is in front
of them. The same
applies to managers.
Mitchell should not
have been taken off

54

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

Sport Second Test: India v England

Win or lose, there is much to
Mike Atherton
Chief Cricket
Correspondent

India v England
Visakhapatnam (day three of five):
England, with nine wickets remaining,
require 332 more runs to win

Whatever happens from here in this
match — and after another superb
day’s cricket controlled by England, it
remains impossible to discount them —
it has been a privilege to watch. There
have been so many moments of individual brilliance with bat, ball and in the
field, almost a series’ worth in three
absorbing days, the game has commanded our full attention. These two
teams have served up a treat.
Powered by a hundred from their
cool-cat No 3, Shubman Gill, but held in
check by brilliant captaincy and outcricket, India were bowled out for 255,
setting England 399 to win. It is more
than they have made before in the
fourth innings to win; it would be the

highest successful run-chase in India
and would be the fifth highest in Test
history. The pitch remains friendly for
batting, though, with very little sharp
turn and only the odd ball keeping low.
On this ground seven years ago,
England were challenged to make 405
in five sessions. It was the last match of
Ben Duckett’s first coming as a Test
cricketer and he recalled recently his
instruction from the captain Alastair
Cook, which was to block for the draw.
Duckett scored a miserable 16-ball
duck then but thrashed his second and
third balls to the fence this time, as
England set off in heady pursuit.
Whereas India batted like a team
worried about their opponents’ reputation as fourth-innings chasers, Zak
Crawley and Duckett tucked into
Mukesh Kumar’s opening spell, taking
the seamer for 19 runs in two overs.
When spin was introduced, Crawley
planted Kuldeep Yadav’s third ball into
the stand, a shot as sweet and true as
anything all day. Jasprit Bumrah was
treated with respect but could only
bowl from one end. The openers posted
50 in 65 balls.
Ravichandran Ashwin, who will

Is there
hope for
England?
Go online to
follow our live
file and find
out if Ben
Stokes’s side
can conjure
up another
famous win
on Indian soil
Read the latest at:
thetimes.co.uk/sport

Gill celebrates his
century which kept
India on top

Scoreboard
INDIA First Innings

396

Y B K Jaiswal 209
ENGLAND First Innings

253

Z Crawley 76; J J Bumrah 6 for 45
INDIA Second Innings

R

B 6/4

Overnight 28-0
Y B K Jaiswal
17 27 0/3
c Root b Anderson
*R G Sharma b Anderson
13 21 0/3
S Gill c Foakes b Bashir
104 127 2/11
S S Iyer c Stokes b Hartley 29 52 0/2
R M Patidar
9 19 0/1
c Foakes b Ahmed
A R Patel lbw b Hartley
45 84 0/6
6 28 0/1
@K S Bharat
c Stokes b Ahmed
R Ashwin
29 61 1/2
c Foakes b Ahmed
K Yadav
0
5 0/0
c Duckett b Hartley
J J Bumrah
0 26 0/0
c Bairstow b Hartley
M Kumar not out
0
2 0/0
Extras (lb 2, nb 1)
3
TOTAL (78.3 overs)

255

Fall of wickets 1-29, 2-30, 3-111, 4-122,
5-211, 6-220, 7-228, 8-229, 9-255.
Bowling Anderson 10-1-29-2; Bashir
15-0-58-1; Ahmed 24.3-5-88-3; Root
2-1-1-0; Hartley 27-3-77-4.

surely have a huge role to play on the
final day, along with Bumrah, was introduced with four overs to go and immediately got one to bounce to Duckett,
with KS Bharat taking a fine, diving
catch. This brought Rehan Ahmed to
the crease as the nighthawk, in Stuart
Broad’s absence, and having enjoyed a
better day than they could possibly
have hoped for, England finished 67 for
one, needing 332 more.
England’s previous highest chase in
Tests (378) came in the first summer of
Bazball, at Edgbaston against India,
when Ben Stokes bemoaned the fact his
team had not been challenged to make
more. Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root
made magnificent hundreds on that
occasion, and one imagines Root will be
especially important given the amount
of spin that will be bowled. Bumrah will
be ready for him.
Root was missing for much of the day,
having damaged his little finger in
fielding practice and then again
when attempting a stop at slip in
the morning but is expected to
bat. It left Stokes without his
most experienced spinner
— Root bowled only
two overs at the start
— and one was left
to marvel again at
how he marshalled his resources — always tinkering,
never letting the game
drift and, in his personal
example, outstanding in
the field — and how his
young spinners responded.
England’s out-cricket in the
morning session was as good as
anything they have produced under
Stokes, which is saying something. It
involved a brilliant spell of seam bowling from James Anderson in the first
hour (4-1-6-2) and was followed by
two outstanding catches in the
second, one from Stokes, another
from Ben Foakes, with the result
that India lost four wickets, rarely
looked in control and batted nerv-

ENGLAND Second Innings

R

B

6/4

Z Crawley
not out
B M Duckett
c Bharat b Ashwin
R Ahmed
not out
Extras
(nb 1)

29

50

1/4

28

27 0/6

9

8

TOTAL (1 wkt, 14 overs)

67

0/2

1

Fall of wickets 1-50.
Bowling Bumrah 5-1-9-0; Kumar 2-0-19-0;
Yadav 4-0-21-0; Ashwin 2-0-8-1; Patel
1-0-10-0.

Umpires Marais Erasmus (South
Africa) and Chris Gaffaney (New
Zealand).
TV umpire Paul Reiffel (Australia).
Match referee Richie Richardson
(West Indies).
Series details
all Tests start at 4am GMT
First Test England won by 28 runs
(Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium,
Hyderabad).
Third: Feb 15-19 (Saurashtra Cricket
Association Stadium, Rajkot).
Fourth: Feb 23-27 (JSCA International
Stadium Complex, Ranchi).
Fifth: March 7-11 (Himachal Pradesh
Cricket Association Stadium,
Dharamsala).

ously thereafter. You had to admire the
approach from England, as they began
the session 171 in arrears. At no stage,
looking out on to the field, did the body
language or the field settings suggest
anything other than they believed they
were ahead in the game. All this emanates from Stokes, of course, who never
radiates anything other than self-belief.
Like seven England captains before
him, Stokes was immensely grateful to
have Anderson to hand, surely one of
the greatest athletes our country has
produced. Once again, his opening
spell from the splendidly named Dr
Vizzy End (so named after the Maharajah of Vizianagram, as abject a cricketer
as Anderson is brilliant) suggested a
bowler still at the peak of his powers, his
age, 41, notwithstanding.
The ball to knock Rohit Sharma’s off
stump clean out of the ground was one
of his best, and was reminiscent of the
first time he unveiled his “wobble” seam
ball to uproot VVS Laxman’s off stump
at Trent Bridge in 2011. Twelve years
later, his powers have not diminished.
For his next trick, he pushed one across
the young left-hander, Yashasvi Jaiswal,
the edge giving Anderson his 695th Test
wicket. Two overs later, he might have
had Gill leg-before, a marginal call.
In need of runs and looking like a
man under pressure at the start of his
innings, Gill lived a charmed life initially. He was given out leg-before, on four,
to Tom Hartley, only for replays to
show the thinnest of edges, of which
Gill, by his reaction, seemed unaware.
On 17, he edged Hartley between wicketkeeper and slip, with Root standing
too wide, slightly out of position.
Gill finally began to settle. A six down
the ground off Shoaib Bashir was a reminder of his talent and, in his languid
and unhurried way, he added 81 with
Shreyas Iyer, passing his own half-century in 62 balls. It looked like India were
beginning to turn the screw at last, until
two moments of individual brilliance
from Stokes and Foakes.
Following a lofted drive from Iyer off
Hartley, Stokes sprinted the length of a
cricket pitch back towards long off, to

Crawley, England’s first-innings top

take a stunning, diving catch ten yards
from the boundary edge. This was fine
captaincy, encouraging the aggressive
stroke, and a reminder of his wonderful
athletic ability. The under-edge taken
by Foakes three overs later, staying low
and coming up with the ball in his grasp
as Rajat Patidar aimed a cut, was less visually dramatic but just as brilliant and
reward for years of dedicated practice.
Gill took charge after lunch, moving
beyond 80 with three consecutive
boundaries — six, four, four — off
Ahmed, who was aiming into the rough
from round the wicket. His hundred
came in the 52nd over with a gentle clip
into the leg side and while his reaction
was low-key, he would have felt some
relief, given his low returns thus far and
with Virat Kohli and KL Rahul waiting
in the wings.
In Root’s absence, the young spinners held their nerve superbly, helped
by Stokes’s intuitive field placings. One
such brought the fifth wicket, after
Stokes packed the leg side and goaded
Gill into a fatal and out-of-character re-

55

the times | Monday February 5 2024

Sport

admire in watching England
Thrill of the chase
England have never before successfully
chased this many runs in the fourth innings
of a Test match. But of their six highest
chases, two are from the Bazball era
v India - Edgbaston, 2022
Runs

378

v Australia - Headingley, 2019
362
v Australia - MCG, 1928
332
v Australia - Headingley, 2001
315
v New Zealand - Christchurch, 1997
307
v New Zealand - Trent Bridge, 2022

299

Superman catch
sums up team’s
belief in miracles
Surgery has brought
return of incredible
athleticism for which
Ben Stokes was known
for, writes Simon Wilde

O

scorer, was quick to impose himself on the second-innings run chase despite losing Duckett, his opening partner for 28

verse-sweep off Bashir. The scoreboard
stalled and Axar Patel’s dismissal to a
grubber came in the midst of five consecutive maidens. At tea, India were six
wickets down, the lead 370.
Having crawled to six off 28 balls, KS
Bharat holed out to mid-on immediately after the break; Kuldeep swept high
to mid-wicket; Bumrah blocked for 25
balls without scoring before edging to
gully, to give Hartley a deserved fourth
wicket; and Ashwin edged behind,
Foakes taking another excellent low
catch. Batting timidly after Gill’s dismissal, India’s last six wickets fell for 44
runs in 23 overs.
The only blemish in the field came in
the 68th over when Crawley put down
a catch at slip off Hartley, a straightforward chance when Ashwin had made
four and the lead was 373. That apart,
England’s out-cricket, marshalled by
the inspirational Stokes, was of the
highest order. The way they continued
to pressurise India, despite the situation at the start of the day, was a pleasure to watch.

India unsure on Kohli return
continued from back
up in the series. “The nerves were there
to see,” the 41-year-old seamer said.
“They didn’t know how many [runs]
was enough. They were quite cautious,
even when they had a big lead. The chat
last night from the coach was that
[even] if they get 600, we were going to
go for it.”
Anderson was thrilled to be contributing to England’s performances again
after taking as many wickets as he managed in four Ashes Tests last summer.
“It’s been a shock to the system having
not played a Test in six months, then
bowling 35 overs in three days in these
conditions is challenging,” he said.
Anderson added that Joe Root’s right
hand, which took two blows during the
day, leading Root to stay off the field
from mid-morning, was “not great”. By
staying off to keep the finger iced, Root
“was just making sure he could do

everything he could to help us out in
the second innings [with the bat]”.
Meanwhile, the Times of India has
reported that India’s selectors have yet
to receive clarity on Virat Kohli’s availability for the last three Tests. It quoted a
board source, saying: “The call will be
entirely on Kohli. The board respects
his personal space. If he agrees to play
any part in the series, then there’s nothing like that. But it will be his call.”
AB de Villiers, a team-mate of Kohli’s
at Royal Challengers Bangalore,
confirmed during a Q&A session on
YouTube on Saturday that Kohli’s
absence is due to his wife, Anushka
Sharma, expecting their second child.
“All I know is he is fine,” De Villiers
said. “He is spending a bit of time with
his family. He is fine, he is doing well.”
He added that Kohli had messaged him
to say, “Just need to be with my family
right now. I am doing well.”
The third Test starts on February 15.

ne of the steady refrains
coming out of the
England camp on this
tour has been their
determination to remain
positive in the field whatever the
hardship. They knew there would be
tough days in the dirt — there always
are on the subcontinent — but they
believe there is much to be gained if
they can remain upbeat. It keeps each
other going and sends a clear signal
to the opposition: we never give in.
When India spent day two of the
series piling up a big lead, England
refused to look downbeat. Jeetan Patel,
their spin coach, said: “If you’d [just]
walked into the ground, you’d almost
think we were right on top.”
This provides some
background to the
territory Ben Stokes
patrolled — 20
yards here, 20
yards there — and
the stunning
catch, he took in
the morning as
England battled to
stay in the game
on this third day.
They were being
stymied by Shubman
Gill and Shreyas Iyer,
and were a bowler down
with Joe Root nursing a finger
injury. They were in need of a
moment of magic to give their selfbelief a lift.
Stokes set fields shrewdly all day. In
this case, with Tom Hartley bowling,
he brought up his long-off (himself)
and long-on, inviting the shot over
the top that two “set” players might
fancy themselves to make. Shreyas
Iyer tried, only to slice a stroke meant
for long-on over Stokes at long-off.
Stokes turned on his heels and
sprinted — sprinted, not ran — over
what a TV tracking device measured
at 22 metres before putting in a dive
as the ball came over his shoulder. He
clung on to the catch two-handed,
sliding across the turf before rising,
finger pointing to the sky: “Out!”
Stokes has long been an exceptional
fielder but before left knee surgery in
November his mobility had been
increasingly restricted since trouble
flared at the end of the West Indies
tour of 2022. Not any more. This was
the kind of incredible athleticism and
anticipation for which Stokes used to
be known. Just as he would never
have been able to run out Ravindra
Jadeja as he did in Hyderabad, so he
would not have been able to turn and
put in such a burst of acceleration.
Only last summer in the first Ashes

Test a less agile Stokes dropped a catch
off Nathan Lyon, back-pedalling at
square leg, that he would usually have
taken without blinking. It cost his side
a tight game. Yet he has never lost the
hand-eye coordination that allows him
to judge difficult catches well.
Even since his knee began to
trouble him, he has taken a similar
catch to the one he took here — at
Headingley two years ago in his first
series as captain. On that occasion
too, he had brought himself up to
invite the shot over the top against
Jack Leach and Daryl Mitchell, on
109, took the bait. Mitchell miscued
and Stokes ran back to take the catch
over his shoulder. But there was less
need to put in an explosive sprint.
In his early career, Stokes often
fielded in close positions as he was a
reliable catcher and could cover a
large area to his left or right.
When he took what may be the
greatest of his 104 Test catches, to
remove Adam Voges when Stuart
Broad dismantled Australia at Trent
Bridge in 2015, he was standing at the
end of a long line of slips
because he could be relied
on to reach further
than anyone else.
Voges edged wide
and Stokes took
the catch almost
as the ball was
past him —
leading to the
famous image of
Broad with his
hands to his mouth
in shock.
He was also
England’s best
standalone slip fielder to
spin and took several fine reflex
catches there. One of the best came in
Visakhapatnam in 2016 when he
caught Virat Kohli off an Adil Rashid
leg break which Kohli went at hard.
Stokes had to make a full-length dive
to intercept it — as with the Voges
catch, as the ball was behind him. He
took another one-handed “worldie” at
Pallekelle in 2018 to dismiss Kusal
Mendis off Leach.
In white-ball cricket, Stokes would
often be in the deep because as one of
England’s strongest runners, he could
cover most ground and this role led to
two of his most incredible catches.
One came off a sprint from long-on
to intercept a strike down the ground
from AB de Villiers off Moeen Ali at
Bloemfontein in 2016; Stokes casually
stuck out his right hand just as the
ball appeared to be heading over his
shoulder for six. Better still was his
famous grab to remove South Africa’s
Andile Phehlukwayo on the midwicket boundary at the Oval during
the 2019 World Cup, when he took
the ball even higher in his right hand
and then had to control the ball as he
fell to earth. He never looked more
like Superman than he did that day.
Stokes caught Iyer, inset, after he had
sprinted 22 metres towards the fence

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

Sport

Barry John, 1945-2024
Stephen Jones on the Wales
great who lit up the 1970s

Blunder blows open title race
Van Dijk admits blame for mix-up which gifts
Arsenal second goal in statement victory

Arsenal
Liverpool

India nervous,
says Anderson
Simon Wilde Visakhapatnam

James Anderson has said the “nerves”
shown by India in their second innings
prove that England’s attacking approach
is preying on the home side’s minds.
England reached the close on day
three at 67 for one, with Zak Crawley
and the nightwatchman Rehan Ahmed
at the crease. They require 332 runs to
win the second Test.
Under the head coach, Brendon
McCullum, and the captain, Ben
Stokes, England have already achieved
the unthinkable in a fourth-innings
chase against India, knocking off 378 at
Edgbaston two summers ago.
Anderson, who was back to his
brilliant best, taking five for 76 in the
match, thinks India are feeling the heat
again. The home side were bowled out
for 255 in their second innings to leave
England with a target of 399 to go 2-0

Pressure piles
on Pochettino

3
1

Gary Jacob
Alyson Rudd

Virgil van Dijk took the
blame for a comical mix-up
with Alisson that led to
Arsenal regaining the lead in
a 3-1 win over Liverpool that
threw open the title race.
The Liverpool centre back
said: “It hurts for me. It was
my responsibility.” He and his
goalkeeper missed a long ball
and allowed Gabriel Martinelli
to score into an empty net.
Leandro Trossard sealed the win.

Chelsea conceded four goals for the
second time in successive Premier
League defeats yesterday to increase
the pressure on Mauricio Pochettino,
who admitted that his side were “not
matching the history of the club”.
The Chelsea head coach watched his
side lose 4-2 to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Stamford Bridge and had to
endure his team being jeered off by furious fans. Some chanted the name of
their former manager José Mourinho,
who was recently sacked by Roma.
Chelsea have suffered ten league
defeats in Pochettino’s first season in
charge — four at home — and he said:
“We’re all not good enough. The players
need to take responsibility like I take
responsibility. At the moment, we are
not matching the history of the club.”

The Game
16 pages of
pure football
Inside T2
With the score at 1-1 Alisson compounds Van Dijk’s hesitation by rushing out and air-kicking, and colliding with his own man, allowing Martinelli to put Arsenal ahead

Times Crossword 28831
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February 5 | 2024

Would you want your teen son to
have lessons on the menopause?

They do at Harrow
Helen Rumbelow witnesses a thoroughly modern experiment

2

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

times2

Today’s lesson:

Thanks for emailing me
a Valentine’s Day trigger
warning, Tesco. I need it
Kevin Maher

I

think Geoffrey Chaucer said it
best when, in The Merchant’s
Tale, he announced, and indeed
coined a phrase, “loue is blynd
alday and may nat see”. He
meant, of course, that love is
blind and thus stamped his
authorship on a squishy
romantic concept that has lasted for
over six centuries and is celebrated
annually with a Valentine’s Day
merchandising bonanza that this year
includes cards from cats, cards from
dogs, cards even from “the baby
bump” (sample messages include,
“Next year I’ll give you a snotty kiss”),
and gifts from your “situationship”
partner. Yep, apparently a US firm is
doing big business by flogging
Valentine sweets that cater to this
newest relationship status for younger,
commitment-wary singletons — not
quite a relationship, not quite not a
relationship, just a, sigh, situationship.
These sweets, or candies, are similar
to our homegrown Love Hearts,
except that the phrases on the treats,
such as “true love” and “only you”, are
printed in a blurry font because, say
the makers, they’re designed for
people in “hard-to-read relationships”.
A similar nervousness around
commitment and relationships is also,
it seems, underpinning one of the
most idiotic emails I’ve received in the
past week — and as someone who is
daily plagued by emails from publicists
about the workout routines of Z-list
reality stars, that’s quite an
achievement. It was from Tesco, in
fact, and it was essentially a trigger
warning, alerting me to the approach
of Valentine’s Day next week and
offering me the chance to “opt out” of
all further Valentine-related marketing
content because, “we know it can be a
difficult time for some”. What?
Difficult? For who? The descendants
of the Chicago gangsters murdered by
Al Capone’s men on Valentine’s Day in
1929? The surviving relatives of the
people who died in Prague on
Valentine’s Day 1945, when the Allied
bombers mistook the city for Dresden?
Or those of the partygoers who died
when the Stardust nightclub went up
in flames in Dublin on Valentine’s Day
in 1981?
Oh, sorry, silly me, I thought we
were discussing actual emotional
difficulty. I didn’t realise that Tesco
was referring to, wink wink, and don’t

If Di had
chosen
this prince
It could all have been
so royally different.
According to a new

Harrow School’s pupils are learning
about what their mothers go through
the hard way — they’re experiencing
the menopause. By Helen Rumbelow
Uh-oh, it’s
Liz Truss
again

snigger, “difficulty for the young
people today”. As in? It’s the difference
between the genuinely painful
memories of losing a loved one to an
agonising nightclub inferno and
getting a promotional email about
Valentine’s Day that strikes you, after
much thought and reflection, as
upsetting because you were once in a
situationship with someone who didn’t
recognise your inner power and
glorious individuality and now every
Valentine’s Day your bottom lip
automatically protrudes and you have
to leave work on mental health
grounds and retire to your bed for
Netflix and TikTok.
And while we’re going there, and we
are certainly going there, spare a
thought for the real victims of
Valentine’s Day stress: ie me. For much
of my late childhood and early teenage
years, I dreaded the rolling round of
the annual February 14 letter-fest. I’d
sit at the breakfast table and gingerly
tear open multiple anonymous
missives that all were invariably
written in the same scrawly, scary
hand that featured in the title
sequence of the Brad Pitt serial killer
movie Seven. And then I’d read, to the
zombie rhythms of “Roses are red …”,
about how someone had been
privately watching me, was obsessing
about me, and wanted to end up “... in
the bushes with you!” Absolutely
terrifying.
So, did I opt out of the Tesco
Valentine email chain? Hell, yes. Love,
as Chaucer says, may be blind. But it’s
also very triggering.

book, Queen Elizabeth
actually wanted Diana
to marry Prince
Andrew instead of
Charles. “She couldn’t
help thinking that the
Spencer girl would be
far better suited to her
younger son, Andrew,”
Ingrid Seward writes
in My Mother and I.

Diana and Andrew
together. Let that sink
in, in a Back to the
Future (or, really, The
Time Traveller’s Wife)
kind of way. So many
key moments upended.
No Pizza Express in
Woking for a start (that
was not Diana’s vibe).
They could have

Let the trumpets blast,
let the fireworks pop,
and hide your money
under the mattress,
because Liz Truss is
back. Again.
Yes, the
rehabilitation of Truss’s
political career, which
is akin to pointlessly
defibrillating a roadkill,
continues this week
with the, ahem,
highly anticipated
launch of her Popular
Conservatism
movement — although,
surely that should read
the “highly anticipated”
launch of her
“Popular” Conservative
“movement”?
The tenets of the
movement,
enthusiastically dubbed
“PopCons” by Truss
supporters and the
kind of morons who
missed the 49 days in
late 2022 when she
torpedoed the economy
with a mini-budget
from hell, will be
outlined this week by
Truss and the former
business secretary
Jacob Rees-Mogg, in
the presence of the
former Ukip leader and
third placed I’m a
Celebrity ... Get Me Out
of Here! contestant
Nigel Farage.
For his final
bushtucker trial on
that show, Farage was
locked in a box filled
with various repellent
and slippery
snakes. Oh, please, I
just have to say it: he
should feel right at
home at the PopCon
launch.
danced together at
Tramp nightclub (she
had to make do with
John Travolta at the
White House instead).
And she could have
brought him with her
to Angola, in early 1997,
when she went on that
tour of a live minefield.
And left him there.

I

t’s hard not to brood on the
theme of “toughness” when
walking up the hill to Harrow
School. I arrive on the high
street as the lesson bell goes and
suddenly it floods with teenage
boys — many nearly full-grown
men — all sporting a peculiarly
flat and large straw hat. It is larger
than a Frisbee or a pizza, the sort of
get-up even Helena Bonham Carter
in her prime couldn’t pull off. It
reminds me of the Johnny Cash
song A Boy Named Sue: if you want
to make your son resilient, send him
over the top onto the streets of a
mixed zone 5 London suburb dressed
as the Summer Barbie edition of Jacob
Rees-Mogg.
Soon I am in the school’s famous
Speech Room, which is more than
a room — in the way that the
historic £16,850-a-term school is in
most ways “more than”. It’s hard to
shake the spirit of Winston Churchill
here. He may not have enjoyed his
school days but he loved his old
school, loved the Speech Room’s
cavernous 800-person amphitheatre,
a shrine to vigour, honour and
masculinity: from 1940 onwards he
would return to this space every year.
While Eton produced effete aristos,
Harrow traditionally drilled for
straight-backed commanders.
I arrived at my seat via a school war
memorial so monumental it is a listed
building. What would the ghost of
Churchill think, looking down on
Harrow’s latest fine crop of young
manhood ready to lead, if not the
country (past statistics are favourable),
then at least the establishment? Three
of them have the nerve to volunteer
for a national first (and in front of an
audience of their 17-year-old peers):
they are wearing what appears to be a
kind of war-issue flak jacket. All three
of the boys are also experiencing a
menopausal hot flush.
Courage takes different forms. One
is being the first schoolboy to wear the
MenoVest. It’s not just that it’s hot. But
it is hot. This is nothing like the body
warmer Grandad wears to go fishing.
Powered by a large lithium battery in

a pocket, it is the first garment
designed to simulate the menopausal
hot flush, which research shows is
experienced in some form by 75 per
cent of women. It creates a wave of
45C heat that travels up the back,
intensifies around the chest then
poaches the neck (the collar is very
tight), before the wave subsides and
repeats at random intervals.
Something like being the meat stick on
a doner kebab.
Before Kepu, Melvin and Fred — all
about to do their A-levels — took to
the stage, they were sitting next to me
in the audience of this menopause
workshop, organised for Year 13 by
Harrow. We sat quietly, listening to the
speaker, Lesley Salem, founder of the
menopause educational agency Over
the Bloody Moon, which developed
the MenoVest. Suddenly I notice Kepu
has his hands on his knees and is
doing some deep breathing. He is a
prodigiously talented athlete, captain
of the rugby team, but he has the fixed
glaze of someone physically struggling.
I ask in a whisper if he is OK. He
wipes his forehead and nods stoically.
“It’s almost impossible to describe
this feeling,” he says. “It’s trapping.”
So it’s hot, but it’s also politically hot.
The MenoVest has already caught
some flak. When Matt Jukes, assistant
commissioner of the Metropolitan
Police, tried one on as part of a
menopause awareness workshop, the
radio talk shows lit up with ire, from
Nick Ferrari at LBC saying he should
have been out catching criminals
instead to a former officer deriding it
as a “woke stunt”. What, then, of our
schoolboys, already spending part of
their curriculum schooled in sexual
consent and empathy with teenage
girls, now being zipped into a
simulator to empathise with their
mothers? Haven’t they — some of the
oil paintings of august Victorian men
hanging in this room seem to grumble
— been reprogrammed enough?
Last year the high-profile head
teacher Katharine Birbalsingh gave a
tub-thumping anti-woke speech. She
didn’t name Harrow’s equity, diversity
and inclusion group, run by the boys

3

the times | Monday February 5 2024

times2

how to have a hot flush

The King’s
equerry
saddles up
Charlie Gowans-Eglinton

T

to inform pastoral strategy, but
nonetheless it sounds as though she
wouldn’t approve. “As GK Chesterton
said, ‘The true soldier fights not
because he hates what is in front of
him, but because he loves what is
behind him,’ ” Birbalsingh said, using
militaristic language to accuse private
schools of being in thrall to
“progressive” ideology. “If you don’t
like the woke agenda,” she added,
“then you had better avoid private
schools like the plague.”
I inadvertently sit in front of the
“liveliest” bunch of boys, but even they
are an entirely snigger-free zone for
the 40-minute session. Well, except
once. While on stage Salem asks the
three boys gently cooking in their
MenoVests, “How do you think it
might affect relationships?” I think
she meant, “Imagine you are a
fiftysomething woman trying to keep
the magic alive in your marriage to
Dave while sweating like a tank
gunner.” However, it occurs to the
boys, almost as one, that Salem is
asking us to imagine them wearing the
vest out on a date. “I think it might
affect relationships, yeah,” Kepu says,
as delicious laughter rises to the
stained glass.
Apart from that the boys are focused
and fiercely competitive. When I ask
my group what they know of the
menopause at the outset, one says,
“um, that period thing”, but by then
Salem has set the separate groups to
work on a quiz they are intent on
winning. One question is to guess the
average age of the menopause. One
boy says he thinks his mother is going
through it. The others seize on him:
“Quick, how old’s your mum?” They
thump their chests victoriously with

Top: Harrow students
Melvin, Kepu and Fred.
Above: trying the
MenoVest beside
Helen Rumbelow

It’s almost
impossible
to describe
this feeling
— it’s
trapping

each menopause symptom they guess
right, an endearing mix of irreverence
and intent as only teenage boys know
how. I ask the boy who thinks his
mother is going through it if she
discusses it. “No, no, no — never!” he
replies, laughing at the idea of it. He
will tell her about the workshop. It
crosses his mind now to wonder if she
was “suffering in silence”.
It is little known that state schools
are now statutorily obliged to include
the menopause in their personal,
social, health and economic (PSHE)
education programmes for teens. In
2020 the government overhauled the
relationships and sex education
curriculum, making the menopause a
compulsory subject. A straw poll of my
friends shows that many schools are
still fighting shy. Thomasin Bailey,
head of PSHE at Harrow, told me that
while she was an advocate for single
sex education, “you can’t assume boys
will learn things by osmosis”.
“Boys need to learn about
menopause to prepare them for the
real world: a world that includes

women,” Bailey says. “The best way to
tackle sex-based discrimination, or any
discrimination, is through empathy.”
Salem usually leads menopause
workshops for adults but has done
about twenty schools. Today is the
first time she has used the MenoVest
on boys, yet in all the hundreds of
men who have previously tried it (the
broadcaster Jeremy Vine included)
“none have been negative or flippant
about the experience — they have
been blown away by the impact, how
distracting it is”. Not every woman will
have a hot flush, she says, but it’s a
conversation starter.
“I’ve gone back to schools six
months later and the students had
a conversation with their mum, who
was having a difficult time, and
encouraged them to go to their GP —
and now they’ve got their mum back,”
Salem says. “We’re all part of an
ecosystem, we all affect each other
directly or indirectly.”
It occurs to me that Churchill
could lend one of his most famous
lines to the Harrow workshop: “I have
nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears
and sweat” — emphasis on the sweat.
I chat to Kepu, Melvin and Fred.
They are relieved, perhaps for the
first time, to put on their school
scarves and hats.
“I would like to call up Mum,”
Kepu says, “and say we just went
through the menopause. We will
discuss it.”
I tell the three of them that I
find their willingness to risk
embarrassment and friendly fire
for the sake of empathy quite brave
and moving. I say thank you. They
smile, the polite, perfect gentlemen:
“You’re welcome.”

he King has appointed a new
assistant equerry, and the
first female equerry to the
monarch. Captain Kat
Anderson, 33, is a royal
artillery officer who previously worked
with Rishi Sunak, so her initial
reaction to moving from No 10 to the
Palace was probably utter relief.
Let me confess that I am still not
entirely sure what an equerry is.
Something to do with horses, I’d
assumed, until learning that they’re
the “eyes and ears” of the sovereign —
which could mean anything, from
neutralising security threats to
passing on the gossip from below
stairs. Did anyone bar staunch
royalists really know what an equerry
was, and how to pronounce it, before
we saw Anderson’s predecessor,
Major Jonathan Thompson, in his kilt,
horsehair spouting from his sporran,
at the King’s coronation?
The King inherited the “hot
equerry” from his mother. OK, his
relative hotness — but as most of the
other people on screen at such royal
events are on the “aristocratic” side
looks-wise, it follows that you can now
buy a “Major Jonny Thompson, My
Kilty Pleasure” tote bag on Etsy.
Thompson, now a lieutenant
colonel, has since been promoted to
senior equerry, which you might think
would make him the face of the
equerry calendar, but is apparently a
“more executive but less visible role”.
We get it, Charlie: sometimes you
don’t want your hot friend standing
next to you and reminding everyone
what a full head of hair looks like.
Possibly he was pinching too many
headlines. Not only did Tatler rank
him third on its Social Power Index
2023, it also reported that he
“steals the spotlight — once again”
on a royal visit to Paris in September.
In that article, he was referred to
as “happily married”; perhaps after it
was published, his head could no
longer fit through the ceremonial
doors, never mind those at his family
home in Surrey. He’s recently turned
40 and, according to The Mail on
Sunday, was recently spotted in
public with his reported new girlfriend,
a 33-year-old PR executive.
His legacy remains: no
one had ever dressed as a
hot equerry for Halloween
before Johnson — sorry,
Thompson — and no
one can take that, or
the sporran, away from
him. And
thankfully for
the rest of us,
women can be
hot equerries
too, and
without getting
a swollen head
at the first
flattering
headline. And
so I say awooga
awooga, and
Lt Col Jonathan
welcome, to
Thompson
Captain Kat.

4

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

times2

Charles who? Camilla takes over
With the King out
of action, his once
unpopular partner
has been drawing
in the fans, says
Kate Mansey

I

t is just a short, downhill stroll
from the Ritz to Buckingham
Palace. For the Queen, however,
it has been an uphill climb that
has taken a good quarter of a
century. Last week marked the
25th anniversary of Operation
Ritz, when the King and Queen
were first photographed together as
a couple outside the London hotel. It
was also the week in which Camilla
took centre stage as the most
prominent member of the royal family.
While the King recovers from a
three-night hospital stay to treat
a benign enlarged prostate, Camilla
has ploughed on with her diary
commitments as planned. The media
spotlight that might otherwise have
been directed onto the King or the
Prince and Princess of Wales has, for
the time being at least, been shifted.
As Kate recuperates from abdominal
surgery, Kensington Palace has said
that she will not return to royal duties
before Easter. Prince William has also
said he will ensure her care is settled
before returning to full-time duty.
Along with the stalwart Princess
Royal, it has been Camilla holding
the fort.
For any of the Palace aides who
have helped to improve the image
of Camilla, 76, in the public
consciousness, it must have been
something to behold. She met great
titans of literature at Windsor Castle
on Tuesday, standing before authors
to deliver an off-the-cuff speech. On
Wednesday she was at a cancer care
centre at the Royal Free Hospital in
London. In Bath on Thursday she
was greeted by scores of flag-waving
schoolchildren.
And in Cambridge on Friday —
and with a distinct twinkle in her
eye — she accepted the offer of a
private dance lesson from the Strictly
dancer Johannes Radebe, telling him:
“I will be there. I’ll come. Definitely.”
Camilla even suggested she might take
up tap dancing in her seventies. “I’d
love to do it because I have always
wanted to tap dance,” she said. “In my
dotage it’s perhaps something I could
take up.”
Given the way she was behaving,
the idea of the Queen tap dancing
seemed perfectly plausible. While
meeting a Love Island star she let slip
that while she didn’t watch the show,
her children — the food writer Tom
Parker Bowles, 49, and Laura Lopes,
46 — did. Thanks, Mum.
When well-wishers inquired about
the King’s health during the week,
she gave polite reassurances that he
was “doing well” and getting on with
his recovery. The greatest message

Monday

Tuesday
From top: the King and
Queen outside The
London Clinic; the
Queen with the artist
Haein Song at Windsor
Castle. Right: the
Queen at Meadows
Community Centre in
Cambridge. Far right,
from top: with Laura
Lee, chief executive of
the cancer support
centre Maggie’s Royal
Free in London;
meeting a resident of
St John’s Foundation
almshouses in Bath

This week
there has
been such
positivity
wherever
she went

of reassurance, however, came from
her jolly demeanour. Crowds turned
out to greet her, she spoke about
how patients could now “chill” at a
new cancer care centre she opened
in London, and a photograph of her
merely getting out of a car made it
onto the front page of a national
newspaper.
A Palace source said: “It has been
nice to see people taking more of an
interest in the work that Her Majesty
has been doing for years. She is hardworking, makes trips to all lengths of
the country and if you think where she
was two decades ago there has been
a transformation in terms of public
opinion. This week there has been
such positivity everywhere she went.”
That public opinion hasn’t always
been quite so glowing. For some, she
fulfilled the pantomime villain role
of “the other woman”. Diana’s own
testimony that there were “three
people” in her marriage would do
untold damage for years. After
Diana’s death Camilla continued to
be pilloried. There was even a report,
which later proved to be untrue,
that bread rolls had been thrown
at her outside a supermarket. It was
open season.
Aides, however, began to fear that
by keeping the relationship away
from the public eye — attending

Friday
the same events but arriving and
departing separately — they started
to look disingenuous.
Having won staff over with what
they saw as her inherently cheerful
attitude, they felt that she would one
day do the same with the public. One
insider said that what may in 2024 be
referred to as “being your authentic
self” was always true for Camilla. She
was “a mustn’t grumble type of
person” who gave the impression that
“you were getting the same person in
the palace as the one who kicked off
her shoes at home”.
Eventually, it was felt that there
had been a respectable enough gap
to allow the country to move on.
Campaign Camilla was already
under way, with Camilla building
up her work with the National
Osteoporosis Society, the condition
suffered by her mother. Mark

Bolland, the PR executive hired as an
assistant private secretary to Charles
in 1996, started to introduce Camilla
to newspaper editors and others seen
to be influential when it came to
public opinion.
It was all building towards that
moment at the Ritz. Photographers
were told that the royal couple
would be pictured leaving the Ritz
together after the 50th birthday
party of Camilla’s sister, Annabel
Elliot. Some well-timed choreography
signified, finally, that their
longstanding relationship was
official. Photographers lined up at
the allotted exit and, as promised,
Charles and Camilla walked out into
a barrage of camera flashes.
Later, when footage emerged of
the picture opportunity, the British
Epilepsy Association asked
broadcasters not to use it for fear of

5

the times | Monday February 5 2024

times2

Martha Stewart taught
the royal show What
me about my inadequate life
Nothing about it would impress the home-making
queen (and star of a new CNN film). By Hilary Rose

I
Wednesday

My hallway is inadequate
It can, and should, look “important”.
With a little application, it could be
a “faux bois” masterpiece. The way
to achieve this is with a rocker, a tool
that makes normal paint look like
wood. If I also, as Stewart advises, add
a chair rail — which seems to be a
dado rail at shoulder height — then
my hall will look important. Also, faux
bois! With practice and courage, I
might be able to say that out loud.

Thursday
triggering seizures.
Yet the pictures
alone were enough
to create a storm.
“Meet the
mistress,” said
The Sun’s headline
above a picture
from the Ritz,
which filled the
front page. A strip
of text at the
bottom read: “At last they go public.”
The Times ran with, “Facing the world
together at last: Prince and Camilla
come out of hiding.” It was the start of
what would become one of the longest
and most successful rebranding
exercises in marketing history.
Back then, they faced the world
together. Twenty-five years later,
the PR coup has enabled Camilla to
face the world alone while so many
members of the royal family are
off duty.
The interim period has been a
slow burn. Deliberately so. Taking
on causes such as domestic violence,
rape and sexual abuse have helped
to cement her as a caring and
empathetic royal who supports other
women. It helped, too, that she had
the wholehearted blessing of her
mother-in-law.
When Charles and Camilla married

Daffodils aren’t just yellow
Stewart’s are also white, orange and
peach, and before she plants them she
makes a daffodil “map”. She sprays
white lines on the flowerbed, creating
boxes within which to plant certain
colours. What a time to be alive, as
Wordsworth didn’t say.

n a life of remarkable pointlessness
I have nevertheless still not
thought nearly enough about
Martha Stewart. CNN, on the
other hand, has recently done
little else. It’s announced a four-part
documentary called The Many Lives
of Martha Stewart and my initial
response, shamefully, was “none
of which I know about”.
The documentary — which I have
watched, but people in Britain can’t
yet — is almost three hours of all
things Martha Stewart. Except,
crucially, Stewart herself, because she
declined to be interviewed. So I went
back to the original source material to
find out what I’ve been missing.
Here’s what I’ve learnt from the
American who’s a sort of Delia Smith
meets Anthea Turner, with a dash of
jail and a slightly psychopathic glint in
her eye. A woman who built a home
and cake-making empire, went to
prison for fraud, built another one and
recently appeared on the cover of
Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit edition at
the age of 81.

in 2005, Queen Elizabeth used an
analogy from her love of racing,
saying: “They have come through
and I’m very proud and wish them
well. My son is home and dry with
the woman that he loves. They are
now on the home straight; the happy
couple are now in the winner’s
enclosure.”
There was one question in the
run-up to the wedding that Diana’s
biographer Andrew Morton described
as “the elephant in the room”: could
Camilla ever be called Queen? A
statement from Clarence House in
2005 ended the speculation by stating:
“It is intended that Mrs Parker Bowles
should use the title HRH the Princess
Consort when the Prince of Wales
accedes to the throne.”
Years later, this would be
overturned. A statement released
by Queen Elizabeth on the 70th
anniversary of her accession to the
throne said: “It is my sincere wish that,
when the time comes, Camilla will
be known as Queen Consort as she
continues her own loyal service.”
In the days before the coronation,
the word consort was dropped in
common usage, in line with previous
consorts. Even the name Camilla
is rarely required. History will
remember her as Queen, rather than
the “other woman”.

My wooden kitchen utensils are
inadequate
Painting them in bright colours would
“enliven” my food prep. Seeing as my
food prep consists mainly of putting
bread in the toaster and marvelling
anew at how delicious toast is, I may
pass on this.
My storage is inadequate
If I were a good person, like Stewart, I
would cover cans and boxes with toile
fabric and use them to store pencils
and brushes. I would presumably also
own quantities of pencils and brushes,
which I do not.
Jeans should be folded and I am
folding towels wrong
Just watch the video, OK? I’m losing
the will to live here.
Children’s stuffed toys should be
washed and there is a correct way
to do it
Seriously? People do this? Martha
says unwashed teddies are borderline
lethal. I strongly doubt that my teddy
was ever washed in his life and yet,
somehow, I live. She says they collect
dust, germs and dander. Dander?
What is dander?
She whips up homemade potato
croquettes and perfectly iced cakes
And yet from the look of her she
doesn’t eat many of them, and that
just isn’t cricket.

Martha Stewart in 1997

Before
she plants
daffodils
she makes
a ‘daffodil
map’

‘An undersized area rug can make
the other furnishings around it look
uncoordinated’
I’ve read that sentence left to right,
and right to left, and I still don’t know
what it means.
‘How to create a well-rounded
grazing board’
Ditto.
How to freshen up your kitchen with
a café-style curtain
Cut some tea towels to the same size.
Stitch them together, hem them and
hang them on a rail halfway up your
kitchen window. Ta-da! Then rip the
stupid thing down and burn it.
Let us finish with some of the simple,
home-spun wisdom that has made
her rich
“So the pie isn’t perfect? Cut it into
wedges. Stay in control and never
panic.”
“I can almost bend steel with my
mind. I can bend anything if I try
hard enough.”
“I probably think more about nature
than I think about myself.”
“Baking cookies is equal to Queen
Victoria running an empire.”

6

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

life

Ask Professor Tanya Byron
I can’t forgive my daughter’s husband for
having an affair, even though she has

Q
N
<

My daughter recently
discovered that her
husband has been
having an affair. She
had suspected him
because he never left
his phone anywhere — it was always
with him, even when he went to the
toilet. When she could, she took the
opportunity to look on it, found
photos and sexual texting, and
confronted him.
Unlike my other sons-in-law, I’ve
never particularly liked this one. He’s
always been a bit too smooth for my
liking. However, you accept who your
children love and my daughter
always said that he was the one. I’ve
never spoken my true feelings to my
daughter, but now that he has broken
her heart, I am struggling to hold
back. My other daughters tell me it’s
none of my business, but I disagree
— protecting one’s children is the
business of a mother.
My daughter has now told me that
her husband says that the affair is
over, it was meaningless, meant
nothing etc etc. She also tells me that
she has forgiven him — but I can’t.
They’re in their early thirties and
haven’t been married long, and I feel
that if he has done it once then he
will do it again. I am still holding
back on telling my daughter what
I really think (that she should leave
him before they have children), but
I refuse to talk to him or have him
in my home. My daughter and her
sisters have told me that I am being
unhelpful and should be respecting
her decision and supporting her in
what she chooses. But I hate to see
her being hurt and want to protect
her, especially when I see that she is
possibly walking towards further
heartbreak. Am I wrong?
Connie

st
o
ri
es
h
re
f=
”/
U
A
<
se
st
rs
/o
ri
m
es
m
h
ci

N

This is a very difficult
situation. While
emotionally you’re
not wrong because,
as a loving mother,
your feelings are
understandable, strategically you
might be. Your daughter has been hurt
and betrayed by the person you (and
she) trusted to love and be loyal to her.
It doesn’t matter whether she’s 3 or 33,
her pain becomes yours and all you
want to do is protect her. However,
this is complicated by the fact that
your daughter’s stance — that she will
forgive her husband — is the complete
opposite of yours.
Affairs are complicated and
multilayered, and while her decision
may upset you, it may be that having
heard her husband out, your daughter
has accepted a narrative that allows
her to understand enough to continue
her marriage. Is the narrative genuine?
Only time will tell. An affair does not
have to be the end of a marriage. In
my experience, for some couples an
affair enables an honest and often
painful exploration of issues within the
relationship that may sit behind the
affair. In effect the affair is seen as a
symptom of underlying issues that
need to be addressed.

However, given that your daughter
is newly married you might argue that
the couple haven’t been together long
enough for the usual issues that sit
behind an affair to be relevant:
boredom, monotony, lack of sex, the
build-up of years of resentment. As
this affair happened at the start of a
marriage, it does suggest that seeking
professional support to explore why is
important. Was it cold feet about being
committed to one person for life on
the part of your son-in-law? Was it a
final fling with someone he hadn’t let
go of emotionally, despite him loving
your daughter? Was it opportunistic,
thus indicating a possible impulsive
aspect of your son-in-law’s character
that he needs to address? These are all
important questions that, if explored,
could help your daughter and her
husband learn from the affair and
reduce the risk of further infidelity.
This is the most difficult aspect of all
for you. You fear that your son-in-law
has spun a narrative that allows him to
get away with his betrayal and so that
increases the risk that he will do it
again. I suspect that you are watching
and waiting with anger and anxiety,
in fear that your beloved girl will
one day be hurt and betrayed again.
Living with those feelings is deeply
challenging for a parent.
The problem is that the way you
are communicating your disquiet is
potentially having a negative rebound
effect on your relationships with all
your daughters. It is clear that the
daughter who has decided to forgive
her husband struggles with your
clear lack of forgiveness and this
could have a number of impacts.
First, your ban on your son-in-law
coming into your home could
increase unhappiness and
stress for the couple,
which then further
affects their fragile
relationship. Second,
your behaviour also
deflects attention from
the real issue — the
behaviour of your
son-in-law — and so a
situation he needs to
take responsibility
for risks becoming
all about you.
Furthermore, you
risk creating what is
called a negativity
bias. This means
that from now on,
by focusing on
everything your
son-in-law does that
annoys you, it will
be impossible for
you to see anything
good about him —
you already find
him “too smooth”,
for example.
This is a natural,
instinctive
perspective that
was originally a
survival strategy
enabling us to
react quickly
to potentially

If you would like
Professor Tanya
Byron’s help, email
proftanyabyron@
thetimes.co.uk

aversive stimuli. The environmental
threats faced by our ancestors would
have made negativity bias essential
for their survival — they needed to
attend to, learn from and use negative
information. Nowadays, with threats
markedly different, negativity bias
explains why we ruminate on insults
more than compliments, dwell on
unpleasant events more than pleasant
ones, and focus on the one bad
thing that occurred in an otherwise
good day.
You see your son-in-law as a threat
to your daughter’s happiness and so
focus your attention on all that you
perceive to be negative about him,
continuing to label him an unworthy
partner. As your negativity increases,

You fear he has
spun a narrative
that lets him get
away with it
further stress is added to your
daughter, which risks her closing down
and deciding not to confide in you or
use you for support — something that
I’m sure will distress you more than
what has already happened.
You are clearly furious and want this
man out of your daughter’s life, and
while you have held back on saying
what you feel, you are nonetheless
communicating those feelings by
refusing to have your son-in-law in
your home. It would be more honest
to have a conversation with your
daughter, one where you empathically
listen and find a way to respect her
decision. However close you are to
your daughter, she and her husband
are the only people who really know
what led to his affair.
You can share your natural maternal
concerns and perhaps advise that the
couple engage in some sessions with
a therapist, but you need to convey to
your daughter that if she can allow her
husband back into her life, you can
also let him into yours once more. The
stark truth is that, as an adult, your
daughter has the right to choose how
she manages this situation — and
once you have made your feelings
clear, you have no other choice but
to respect that.
Reversing your ban on your son-inlaw entering your home will be hard,
but you don’t want anger to deflect
attention from the core issue. While
your daughter struggles with your
anger and lack of respect for her
decision (making your son-in-law
the victim, rejected by you), the core
aspect of this issue — his infidelity
and their relationship — is lost.
The one certainty is that your
daughter has one person in her life
who will never betray her or let her
down. However hard she may fall, she
is lucky to have her loving, devoted
mother to pick her up and soothe her
pain. Therefore, do not close down
necessary channels of communication
between the two of you.

My son
Alex Morgan was
attacked in a Swiss
villa. His mother
tells Clare Conway
about the agony
that followed

K

atja Faber’s eldest
child, Alex Morgan,
23, was killed by a
man who was meant
to be his friend. And,
she says, “for the
longest time” the only
thing she could feel
was hurt. “I was so traumatised, so
in shock.” Alex had recently finished
university in London. He had started
his first job, working in commercial
property, and wasn’t enjoying it.
Typical, she had said, laughing.
He was tousle-haired, handsome,
multilingual, impulsive, played guitar
in a band. He wanted to do something
with music. Better get a move on then,
she had said.
“You torture yourself with what
could have been,” she says now.
The pain of losing a child who
should have had everything ahead of
them has been brought into stark
relief by two cases this year. On Friday
two teenagers were sentenced for the
murder of Brianna Ghey, who believed
her killers were her friends. And last
month Valdo Calocane, who killed the
students Grace O’Malley-Kumar and
Barnaby Webber, along with a school
caretaker, Ian Coates, 65, was
sentenced to indefinite detainment at
a high-security hospital.
Faber understands the
“unimaginable horror” the parents
have lived through. “There is a hope
that comes with loving your child. You
look after them when they have a cold.
You nurture their talents. You’re trying
to produce a functioning adult. And
then, suddenly, [there’s] a point when
they’re going to use everything you’ve
given them — all the care, the time, all
the arguments you’ve had — and go
out into the world. To have that
suddenly taken away, it takes your
breath away.”
Calocane was given an indefinite
high-security hospital order rather
than a prison sentence after admitting
manslaughter by diminished
responsibility and attempted murder.
It’s not “true justice”, Webber’s
mother, Emma, said. Calocane knew
what he was doing, insist his victims’
families. The attorney-general is
considering whether the case should
be referred to the Court of Appeal
and upgraded to murder.
It’s a fight all too familiar to Faber.
Now the man who killed her son has
been freed. Just over a month ago,
Bennet von Vertes was granted full
parole after serving nine years of a 12year sentence for killing Alex in such
a brutal attack that he drowned in his
own blood. (The sentence included
a separate conviction for raping a
woman in a London hotel. Von Vertes
was found not guilty of a third charge

7

the times | Monday February 5 2024

life

died aged 23. Now his killer is free
of attempted murder for trying to push
a woman out of a moving taxi.)
“Life goes on for him,” Faber says
with a sigh. “He can go skiing, he can
go shopping. He can go clubbing. He
can do whatever the f*** he wants.”
Before he went to prison, von Vertes
was known to party with aristocrats.
“Most of the people in his milieu have
grown up, they’ve got married, had
children, moved away. How much
they want to hang out with a
convicted killer and rapist, I don’t
know. I imagine some people have
stood by him.”
A heady combination of youth, class,
glamour and violence swirled around
her son’s case. Podcasts have been
made. Television crews have pitched up
at Faber’s house. All across the
continent, magazines and newspapers
have been filled with dazzling and
disturbing details.
Alex, a former public schoolboy, had
been a pupil at Gordonstoun, the
King’s alma mater in the Scottish
countryside, and was part of a social
crowd in London. His camera reel
showed him out with Cara
Delevingne; playing guitar in his band,
a cigarette hanging from his lips;
sitting on a window ledge, legs out of
the window above a pub in Chelsea,
carefree and grinning.

Just because
he is dead
doesn’t stop
me from
being his
mother

Bennet had to
accept his label
as a killer and a
rapist. That helps
He met his killer at Regent’s College
(now Regent’s University London),
when both were students. Von Vertes,
the son of art dealers, was known on
campus for his money. His family lived
in Küsnacht, a village on Lake Zurich’s
Gold Coast, where privacy is as prized
as wealth, a place where Tina Turner
could do her shopping in peace.
The two men weren’t especially
close, but they had Zurich in common.
Alex was born in Islington, London, in
1991, and by 1999 he had moved with
his mother and two siblings to the
Swiss city after his parents’ marriage
ended. It was to Zurich that Alex had
returned for the post-Christmas period
in 2014, with the plan to spend time
with his mother and go skiing. He had
been out drinking with friends on
December 29, 2014, when von Vertes
invited him round for an after-party
at his family’s empty villa. That night
Alex was beaten with several
sculptures and a heavy candelabra,
and stabbed with shards of broken
glass. More than 50 injuries were
documented on his 5ft 8in body. A
candle had been forced down his
throat. It’s believed Alex died between
5.30am and 7am on December 30.
According to von Vertes’s defence in
court in Switzerland, Alex was the
aggressor. Von Vertes was protecting
himself after Alex attacked him. That
claim was undermined by a lack of
defensive injuries on the defendant’s
6ft 5in frame. He had just one cut on
his finger. He was found guilty of

Katja Faber. Above
right: with her son
Alex Morgan. Below:
Morgan’s killer, Bennet
von Vertes

intentional homicide (a Swiss term for
which there is no direct equivalent
in Britain — it roughly translates as
non-premeditated murder) and on the
court steps his lawyer announced an
intention to appeal. When the case
was reheard, in 2019, von Vertes
claimed he was so high on drugs
(cocaine, ketamine, sleeping pills), he
was temporarily insane and believed
Alex was a green alien.
Convictions quashed, von Vertes
was released from prison and sent
to an enclosed rehab — only for
Faber and the prosecution to lodge an
appeal against that ruling, to have her
son’s killer brought back before the
Supreme Court in Zurich and found
guilty of intentional homicide again.
On it went.
Last December the Supreme Court
denied von Vertes’s final attempt to
appeal. “He had to accept his label as
a killer and a rapist and, actually, that
helps,” Faber says. A hollow victory,
perhaps, as it was also decided von
Vertes would soon be given full parole.
He has been out for a month now,
without restrictions. Faber wonders
what she might say if she bumps into
him. “Zurich is quite small, so people
talk. Someone said they’d seen him up
in the mountains in Klosters,” she says.
Financially, it’s been a ruinous
decade. Faber estimates she’s spent
hundreds of thousands in legal fees.
She was awarded civil damages of
130,000 Swiss francs (about £120,000)
after the first trial — but von Vertes

says he can’t pay, that he has no
money. “Even the Porsche he drove,
the family said wasn’t in his name.”
She shrugs; maybe she’ll pursue an
enforcement order to compel him to
pay. “It’s tiresome. The question is,
if he doesn’t have anything, is it just
a piece of paper that I’m going to
frame and put in the loo? You know
what? I can try.”
Surprisingly, she’s not angry at von
Vertes for killing her son. “If anything,
what I wish is for him to heal … I’ve
felt shock, utter disgust and disbelief.
But I’ve never felt angry about what
he did to Alex. However, I am enraged
by what he did after he killed Alex.
Because for me, there is the crime and
then there is the taking responsibility.”
Healing, Faber says, requires
honesty. She wants answers. “I would
welcome meeting him, sitting down
with him. He has never reached out to
say, ‘I want to meet with you in private
to explain and to talk.’”
For the first couple of years, she
couldn’t go anywhere near Küsnacht,
but that has changed. Desperate to be
close to Alex, “I have driven over twice
[to von Vertes’s villa] and parked not
far from the fence. Once their gate was
open, so I could see past the cars into
the house. I felt slightly like a voyeur.
That I hadn’t been invited to be there.”
So she retreated.
“His family moved back into their
house weeks after Alex was killed.
They sit behind their electric fence
and in the last nine years, no one has

thought to say, ‘Katja, would you like
to just be by yourself in the room
where Alex actually died?’”
Faber shakes her head. “I
don’t understand these
people.”
In her mind, she often
returns to that room. “It’s
the days before the
anniversary that are almost
worse. Because I keep
wanting to somehow stop it
from happening. The night
of 29th, the hours tick by
and I think, ‘Oh my God,
what was happening then?
And then? Was he being
beaten again?’ By the time
it’s morning on 30th I think,
‘Well, he’s now dead. He’s
not suffering any more.’ ”
I imagine she has always spoken
plainly — her language honed from a
former life as a criminal barrister in
London. She says her humour has
darkened. “This Christmas, I had the
added joy of knowing Bennet is out.”
She points out that von Vertes’s
freedom was granted on the
anniversary of Alex’s death.
Faber still lives in Zurich, as do her
two surviving children. She has a farm,
too, in the hills of Malaga, where she
grows olives, mandarins and avocados.
For nine years the case has been allconsuming. “People say, ‘Well, isn’t it
time that you moved on?’ It’s not to
say I’m not doing other stuff. I mean,
clearly I’m doing other stuff.” People
around her are filling boxes with
avocados as our interview takes place
and she pauses to give directions.
Nature has been healing, she says.
Hard physical work on the land has
obliterated some of her anguish. Alex
is never far from her mind. “Just
because he is dead doesn’t stop me
from being his mother,” she says.
She means, I think, her fight for
accountability, but also, a need to keep
his memory alive. “Oh, nobody asks
you, ‘How’s little Johnny doing? Has
Tabitha finished college?’ Your child
isn’t doing anything, it’s still in the
bloody cemetery. What I have are my
memories and the photographs. The
way I can mother him is to honour
his memory.”
She stays in touch with Alex’s
friends and will see some in April in
London. Alex would have been 32
now. “Some are in relationships, some
have dogs and cats.” Not all of Alex’s
friends knew each other, but they’ve
bonded over his loss. “It’s fun to see
them. They have this wonderful young
energy and I keep them up to date
with what’s going on.”
Friendships, too, have been born out
of supporting other bereaved parents:
she writes to them, meets them and
talks to them. “If you know somebody
whose child has died, please be there.
Even if you don’t know what to say,
just say, ‘I don’t know what the hell
to say. But I’m here because it is a
horrendous thing.’”
She pauses to consider her thoughts.
“When your child dies, part of you
dies with them. Maybe. Or maybe it’s
that a part of you is in a different
space: a place that is limitless, because
the only thing that inhabits that space
is your love. All I have of Alex now is
the love that I feel for him.”

8

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

first night
classical

classical

Dido and Aeneas

Hallé/Currie

Barbican

Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

B

T

{{{{{

{{{{(

efore it started I wondered
whether this touring concert
presentation of Henry
Purcell’s masterpiece would
merely be a showcase for
Joyce DiDonato, singing the role of
the abandoned Carthaginian queen.
And indeed when we reached the
most famous moment of this short but
perfectly crafted opera — Dido’s
transcendental lament, When I am laid
in earth, delivered over a sepulchral
repeating bass line — DiDonato did
muster all her regal tone and dramatic
intensity, albeit with a slight timing
mishap in the middle. Though the
voice isn’t uniformly consistent now,
this was riveting.
Directing (from the harpsichord) the
superb period instrumentalists and
singers of the pan-European ensemble
Il Pomo d’Oro, Maxim Emelyanychev
demonstrated again what galvanising
energy he has, and what imagination.
Quite simply, I have never heard
Purcell — any Purcell — delivered
with more wit and character, panache
and polish.
The bold use of percussion added
glitter or a stomping beat to the
choruses, as well as a ferocious
thunder sheet to the Sorceress’s scene.
Choral singing was brilliantly lithe and
sharply enunciated. Instruments were
cleverly repositioned for echo effects.
And from the start of the overture to
the final disembodied whispers of the
last chorus, mercurial speeds were
contrasted with sublime spaciousness.
Add to that some wonderfully vivid
solo singing. Andrew Staples actually
managed to turn Aeneas’s scraps into
an interesting psychological portrait of
male spinelessness. Fatma Said was a
radiant Belinda. Best of all, and
upstaging everyone, the formidable
Beth Taylor produced a tour de force
of villainous glee, straight out of
Victorian melodrama, as the anarchic
Sorceress.
And before all this? A beautiful
account of Giacomo Carissimi’s
hauntingly chromatic 1650 oratorio
Jephte. It culminates in lamentations
for both the chorus and the solo
soprano (the outstanding Carlotta
Colombo), singing the part of the
daughter whom Jephte has to sacrifice.
Exquisitely ornamented, perfectly
paced and full of velvety sonorities
particularly for the violas da gamba,
this had a heartbreaking impact.
Richard Morrison

opera
The Handmaid’s
Tale
London Coliseum
(165min)

{{{{(

ver the past four decades
the Danish-born, Britishbased choreographer Kim
Brandstrup has gradually
acquired an international
reputation for high-brow, high-quality
artistry. His acute intelligence as a
dancemaker is on full view in this new
— well, half-new — double bill
derived from Greco-Roman
mythology. Lasting about half an hour
each, these two spare, subtle and
elegant chamber-sized dances are
marked by a quiet, restrained power. It
helps that Brandstrup has been astute
in his choice of creative collaborators,
on and off the stage.
The first work, Minotaur, had its
premiere at this same venue in 2022
before heading to last year’s
Edinburgh International Festival. It
charts, in five succinct and titled
scenes, the killing of the titular halfman, half-bull by the heroic Theseus
(the Royal Ballet’s Matthew Ball) and
the latter’s seduction and subsequent
abandonment of the Minotaur’s halfsister, the Cretan princess Ariadne
(Kristen McNally, one of the Royal’s
principal character artists). Because
the narrative is not spelt out it might
be beneficial to bone up on the source
story beforehand.
Still, the rewards here are ample
regardless of one’s familiarity with
Greek myth. The setting is simple but

evocative: dark, textured walls, against
which are propped a handful of
blood-splattered canvases, and a black
reflective floor. The lone furnishing is
a functional cot bed. The overall tone
is understated, even brooding. Eilon
Morris’s sound design enhances the
piece’s shifting moods.
It is, however, the piece’s formal yet
dramatic dance language — angular,
enraptured, anguished, articulate —
that is paramount. McNally and Ball
are fine but it is Tommy Franzen,
doubling as the Minotaur and
Dionysus, who delivers the apotheosislike finale. With loving stealth and
feline grace his shirtless Dionysus
climbs down the walls towards the
sleeping Ariadne. As fashioned by
Brandstrup, Franzen’s performance is
an imaginative physical marvel.
Ball returns in the bill’s emotionally
lighter second half, partnering the star
ballerina Alina Cojocaru. In the
premiere of Metamorphoses they
respectively embody Cupid, the god of
love, and the mortal Psyche. The
work’s conceptual conceit, beautifully
realised, is that the pair can only meet
in the dark. Their dancing is playfully
teasing, tender and mutually attentive,
with Cojocaru supple and soaring and
Ball convincingly divine. It all adds up
to a thoughtfully crafted and classy
evening.
To February 10, theatreroyal.org.uk

he final concert in the Hallé’s
Steve Reich festival began
with two people clapping.
Reich fans will immediately
know that I’m talking not
about lukewarm audience applause
but one of the 87-year-old American
minimalist’s trademark pieces:
Clapping Music. Taking on its fiendish
rhythmic games were Colin Currie
(percussionist and the concert’s
conductor) and David Hext (the
Hallé’s percussion section leader), who
pulled it off with fierce concentration
and panache.
It was rather better than Runner, a
shallow piece of autopilot Reich that
says very little, very effortfully over its
quarter-hour stretch, however good
the performance from the wind,
percussions, pianos and strings. After
we were released from its clutches, the
prospect of listening to nearly 40
minutes more before the interval was
feeling like an endurance test but
luckily Reich/Richter is the real deal.
True, it starts with the same
oscillations as Runner, but Reich soon
takes them off in a different direction
as the music embarks on a great arc
shape, expanding and slowing down,
as if time itself were stretching out. It
was brilliantly done by the Hallé
players with Currie conducting — but
it’s not the entire story. We also saw
the optional accompanying abstract
film by Gerhard Richter and Corinna
Belz. Vivid pixel stripes morphed into
rich patterns, saturated with colour
and texture. The music mirrored its
transformations — the effect was
mesmerising.
But the headline name for the
evening was Jonny Greenwood. After
the interval the Radiohead guitarist
sloped on in a red T-shirt and jeans.
He launched straight into Electric
Counterpoint, duetting on his guitar
with the pre-recorded parts on his
laptop. Ten years ago, Greenwood
took Reich’s 1987 classic to
Glastonbury. No wellies needed this
time to enjoy the pulsing patterns and
Greenwood’s beguiling performance.
And for the big finish, a big
orchestra. The Four Sections showed a
less hectic side of Reich — at least to
start with, as interlocking, lilting
voices unfolded. If at moments the
performance threatened to sag, the
full-orchestra finale ramped the
energy right back up.
Rebecca Franks

Avery Amereau and Kate Lindsey

led by Professor Pieixoto — a
commanding Juliet Stevenson, in a
speaking role. The story that plays out
on stage is in effect a dramatisation of
a recently discovered diary recorded
by one of those women forced to bear
children by the new regime — the
Handmaid Offred. The mezzosoprano Kate Lindsey reprises her role
here in a performance that is truly a
feat of vocal and physical stamina.
For at least the first 20 minutes, she
is joined in the vocal stratosphere by,
among others, the Handmaids’
draconian matron, Aunt Lydia, with
expertly handled camp seriousness
from Rachel Nicholls. It’s a nervejanglingly appropriate introduction to
a score that is rarely easy on the ears,
a dense layering of liturgical
influences — chant, hymns, oratorio,

gospel. The conductor Joana Carneiro
keeps these elements and the large
forces under control and to make
room for Lindsey to explore some
more muted colours.
The high-frequency distress is also
offset by the contralto depths of Avery
Amereau, also returning to her role as
the embittered wife of one of the
republic’s commanders (here played, a
little sheepishly, by James Creswell)
who must use Offred to have the
children she can’t. But what leaves a
lasting impression is Annemarie
Woods’s set design, with its theatrical
floor-to-ceiling curtains and exposed
lighting. These women are “under his
eye”, as a Gilead catchphrase goes, but
also, it seems to say, under ours.
Daniel Lewis
To February 15, eno.org

Matthew Ball and Alina Cojocaru in the premiere of Kim Brandstrup’s playful Metamorphoses

Gods and monsters
A double bill of
mythological
ballets by Kim
Brandstrup is
a well-crafted
and classy
evening, says
Donald Hutera

dance
Metamorphoses
Ustinov, Theatre Royal,
Bath (75min)

{{{{(

O

T

his production of Poul
Ruders’s 2000 operatic
adaptation of Margaret
Atwood’s novel about the
United States being taken
over by a bloodthirsty Bible-based
dictatorship seems a little close to the
bone — and also nearly didn’t happen.
The chorus and orchestra at English
National Opera had been planning to
strike on the opening night of this
revival of Annilese Miskimmon’s 2022
staging in response to proposed cuts to
several of the company’s permanent
positions and to their annual pay.
Then an interim agreement was struck
and the strike called off.
In the librettist Paul Bentley’s hands
we are not operagoers but delegates at
a 2195 history symposium on the
Republic of Gilead (formerly the US)

9

the times | Monday February 5 2024

arts

A

mid the sugary glut
of Nutcrackers that
spread across the
country’s stages last
winter, one stood
out. “It’s Nutcracker,
dance fans, but not
as we know it,” The
Times’s Debra Craine enthused of the
Southbank Centre’s jazzy rewrite.
Drew McOnie’s choreography told
the story of a lonely boy who just
wants to dance with the fairy atop
his tree, and it took place in a new
pop-up venue underneath the
Royal Festival Hall — “the Tuff
Nutt Jazz Club” — with
Tchaikovsky’s orchestra score
given a slinky refurb by the
composer Cassie Kinoshi.
It was also something of a
statement of intent for the
Southbank’s artistic director, Mark
Ball, whose feet are now firmly under
the table, having joined one of the
UK’s largest arts organisations — and
one of Arts Council England’s “big
four” London recipients of hefty
multimillion-pound grants — in
January 2022.
“We brought audiences into a space
to experience work in a way that we’d
never seen that space used before,”
Ball says of that Nutcracker, speaking
to me in his offices overlooking the
Thames. Prudently, the SBC had a
commercial partner supporting the
show, the entertainment company
Underbelly — “and we generated new
work, a really interesting creative
collaboration between a composer and
a choreographer”. For Ball, it pointed
to a prescription to “revitalising
performance and dancing here”.
The Southbank Centre is a tough, or
even tuff, nut to crack. After a
successful stint at the Manchester
International Festival, Ball, 56, took
over the 11-acre London site after a
prolonged pandemic closure; its
performance spaces are still closed on
Mondays and Tuesdays for financial
reasons. The previous artistic director
quit in autumn 2019 after less than a
year in the post, leaving a hiatus until
Ball’s appointment. In 2021 the centre
appointed an eye-catching new
chairman — Misan Harriman, a
celebrity photographer best known for
snapping his friends the Duke and
Duchess of Sussex under a tree. Some
may be surprised at Harriman’s
appointment since there doesn’t
appear to be much evidence of
concertgoing at the Festival Hall on
his social media feed.
Ball accepts that the SBC had been
drifting. “It was crying out for focus,
vision. We are an organisation that
had a very, very broad range of work.
But perhaps no one quite knew what it
was for.” Performance and dance — as
apart from the musical programmes
most associated with the Royal
Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall
and Purcell Room auditoriums —
provide one answer to that question.
Ball had looked at the calibre of dance
companies that had once graced the
Southbank’s stages from the 1950s.
“And it had somewhat dried up.”
To remedy that, he hired Aaron
Wright from the Birmingham-based
Fierce Festival as head of performance
and dance. Wright’s 2024/25
programme is announced today.
Marquee names are missing but in
April the ferocious Israeli dancemaker
— and Londoner of many decades
— Hofesh Shechter will create on his
second company an ambitious stateof-the-nation drama, From England

We have six resident orchestras and
we give them significant amounts of
time across all the venues.”
Ball does, however, think that
orchestral programming needs new
ideas. “The classical music world has
often tried to commission quite a
contemporary composition kind of
sandwiched somewhere in the middle
of a concert, and has just assumed that
will attract younger audiences. I’m not
convinced that’s the right model.”
Instead he has been following
recent, contentious innovations at the
City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra that have included concerts
featuring surtitles and video (for an
Eroica symphony, images of the

It’s our most
culturally
democratic
art space

Will it be dancing
for joy at London’s
Southbank?
The centre’s new boss Mark Ball is determined to
revitalise one of our biggest venues, says Neil Fisher
with Love, set to his own soundtrack
featuring “English classical composers
in a clash with raging rock in an
avant-garde cacophony”. Before that
comes next month’s visit from dancers
of the Ballet National de Marseille
under the direction of (La)Horde —
an outfit whose disciplined yet
explosive approach was most recently
seen in the choreography for
Madonna’s Celebration tour. “They
haven’t really got a foothold in
London — I felt they were a very
important company to introduce to
the capital’s audiences.”
These inroads by dance troupes,
however, have come at the expense of
what many see as the centre’s primary
purpose — showcasing the world’s
best classical performers in halls built
for orchestras. Between now and the
end of the summer, the Southbank’s
season of visiting orchestras
(“incomparable artists from around
the world” as it says on the website)
has just two events, a concert by the
Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and

Mark Ball and, below,
Chaka Khan, curator
of this summer’s
Meltdown festival

a day’s residency by the Bournemouth
Symphony Orchestra, all the way from
sunny Dorset.
Ball denies that there has been a
shift in priorities. “Our halls were built
for classical music — it’s absolutely the
heart of what we do. But it’s become
more difficult. It’s become more
financially challenging.” In dance, he
points out, “you’re dealing with
ensembles of four, five, six people. I’m
very aware of the cost of shipping over
huge orchestras. Yet I do think we
need to build back that commitment.”
Even London-based orchestras,
however, feel that the Southbank
Centre is no longer welcoming them
with open arms — the offstage
grumble from some of the city’s most
prominent ensembles is that they
cannot get a look-in. “Every art form
wants more dates,” Ball says, bristling.
“We’re in a model where we’ve gone
down to five days a week, although
we’re looking at how we might bring
that back up. I think we support a
really broad range of classical artists.

players’ personal heroes appeared on
screen). Ball is enthused by what he
saw. “There have been some voices of
dissent, of course, but the experience
in the hall was pretty rapturous.”
At the Southbank, he’d like to see
classical groups work with other art
forms, mentioning a series he
programmed in Manchester in which
Arvo Part’s music was played at the
Whitworth gallery. “It’s about how we
move away from these artistic silos
into more collaborative practice.” I am
promised a significant classical
announcement for 2025 about which
lips are still sealed, but in the
meantime a heavy hint is dropped that
the curator of this summer’s Meltdown
festival — the 70-year-old funk legend
Chaka Khan — might well team up
with one of the centre’s orchestras.
Ball’s formative story sheds light on
his evangelism. He was brought up in
Bury; his father was a lecturer and his
mother a school secretary. “The arts
were not really part of our lives.” He
played cornet “badly” in a brass band.
The Damascene moment was seeing a
performance at the RSC by Antony
Sher as Richard III on a school trip.
“What connected in me was Sher’s
embodiment of the outsider … what I
saw was a man racked by insecurity,
trying to pass in the world. And as a
still closeted young gay kid that
challenged me.”
The Manchester International
Festival now has a permanent home in
the £240 million Aviva Studios — as
part of the government’s levelling-up
agenda subsidies have dropped in
London and increased in the north
(the Southbank Centre’s annual
support from the Arts Council most
recently fell from £18.4 million to
£16.8 million). Does Ball have any
regrets that he is now wrestling with
an underfunded 1950s London arts
complex instead of a brand-new
northern powerhouse? He insists not.
The Southbank is, he says, “the
nation’s most culturally democratic art
space” and the city it represents has
not lost its lustre. “London is the most
exciting city in the world. Despite all
of the difficulties, and all of the
perceptions of disunity, it is a
wonderfully tolerant melting pot.
That’s what gives London its energy,
and I absolutely love that.”
Tickets for the performance and
dance season go on sale on
Wednesday, southbankcentre.co.uk

10

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

times2
More
puzzles

Your weekday brain boost
Every day, Monday to Thursday, a page of extra Sudoku super fiendish
puzzles to give your brain an extended workout
Samurai easy
Fill each grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9.
Where the puzzles overlap, the rows and columns do not go beyond their usual length.

Pages 14-16

Train Tracks
Lay tracks to enable the train to travel
from village A to village B. The numbers
indicate how many sections of track go in
each row and column. There are only
straight sections and curved sections. The
track cannot cross itself.

Killer deadly
Fill the grid so that every column, every row and
every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. Each set of
cells joined by dotted lines must add up to the target
number in its top-left corner. Within each set of cells
joined by dotted lines, a digit cannot be repeated.

Suko

Place the numbers 1 to 9 in
the spaces so that the
number in each circle is
equal to the sum of the four
surrounding spaces, and
each colour total is correct

Mini
Sudoku
Fill in the grid so that
every column, every
row and every 3x2
box contains the
digits 1 to 6
Solutions in
tomorrow’s Times2

Futoshiki
Fill the blank squares so that every row and
column contains each of the numbers 1 to 5
once only. The symbols between the squares
indicate whether a number is larger (>) or
smaller (<) than the number next to it.

Solve Times puzzles interactively with
same-day solutions at thetimes.co.uk

Codeword

Thursday’s solutions

Every letter in the
crossword-style grid,
right, is represented by
a number from 1 to 26.
Each letter of the
alphabet appears in
the grid at least once.
Use the letters already
provided to work out
the identity of further
letters. Enter letters in
the main grid and the
smaller reference grid
until all 26 letters of
the alphabet have been
accounted for. Proper
nouns are excluded.

SAMURAI

SUKO

MINI
SUDOKU

TRAIN TRACKS

FUTOSHIKI

SUDOKU

KILLER

CODEWORD

11

the times | Monday February 5 2024

television & radio

In paradise, even Patterson’s in the firing line
Carol
Midgley
TV review

Death in Paradise
BBC1

{{{((

Tell Them You Love Me
Sky Documentaries

{{{{(

D

eath in Paradise threw
everything at its 100th
episode: the shooting of a
much-loved character, a
newborn baby, Cathy Tyson
(spoilers ahead). Was I the only one
who clocked Tyson and thought,
“Definitely the murderer. No
question”? Why sign up a guest star
for a small part?
But as so often, I was wrong. The
only “crime” Tyson’s character,
Jacqueline, committed was adultery (I
thought they slightly wasted her, to be

Radio choice
Ben Dowell

The Gatekeepers
Radio 4, 11am

The Revolution Will Be
Tweeted, a dissertation by
Anika Collier Navaroli,
above, proved grimly
prophetic. She became a
Twitter employee (and later
a whistleblower) with access
to the whole network during
the January 6, 2021, Capitol
insurrection in Washington,
and was one of the people
who decided what could and
could not appear on the site.
As Jamie Bartlett’s eightpart series suggests, the true
gatekeepers of information
are not journalists or
politicians, but people
sitting in “beanbag-strewn
offices” in Silicon Valley.
Among his other interview
subjects is a father who
claims his daughter’s death
was caused by social media.

our tv newsletter

honest). The audacious, almost
immediate, shooting of Commissioner
Patterson (Don Warrington) during
his celebratory lunch to mark 50 years
of policing was unusual in that we
“saw” who did it. So obviously we
knew it couldn’t possibly be him.
Crime dramas don’t strip naked and
show us all they’ve got in minute four.
And so it proved, with all the usual
convolutions.
It was also fairly obvious the
commissioner wouldn’t die. Not like
that, without any build-up. It was all
too low-key. Sure enough, he was soon
sitting up in his hospital bed with his
giant get-well teddy bear, demanding
to know how the investigation was
progressing. Which was a device so he
could tell his team how proud he was
of them.
It also ended with an in-joke. DI
Neville Parker (Ralf Little) said he was
thinking of starting a blog but his
colleagues said it would be boring.
“There must be someone out there
who’s interested in the life of a British
detective in the Caribbean,” he replied.
Well, it’s licensed to 230 territories
worldwide, Neville, so evidently so.
The weekend’s most memorable
programme was Tell Them You Love
Me, from Louis Theroux’s production
company. It examined, in detail, the
sexual relationship between a New
Jersey philosophy professor and a
severely disabled, non-verbal man,

Times Radio

Digital, web, smart speaker, app
5.00am James Hanson with Early Breakfast
6.00 Aasmah Mir and Stig Abell with Times
Radio Breakfast 10.00 Matt Chorley. A full
primer on the political week 1.00pm
Mariella Frostrup. News, views and reviews
3.00 Jane Garvey and Fi Glover. Jane and
Fi’s trademark entertaining style plus live
discussion on the day’s news 5.00 John
Pienaar with Times Radio Drive. Analysis
of the day’s news 7.00 Pienaar and Friends.
Informed debate with leading figures
8.00 The Evening Edition with Kait Borsay
10.00 Carole Walker. Today’s headlines and
tomorrow’s front pages 1.00am Stories of
Our Times 1.30 Highlights from Matt
Chorley 2.00 The Best of Times Radio

Radio 2

FM: 88-90.2 MHz
6.30am The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show 9.30
Vernon Kay. Anastacia performs for Radio 2
Piano Room Month 12.00 Jeremy Vine
2.00pm Scott Mills 4.00 Sara Cox 6.30 Sara
Cox’s Half Wower 7.00 Jo Whiley’s Shiny
Happy Playlist 7.30 Jo Whiley 9.00 The
Blues Show with Huey Morgan. Sitting in for
Cerys Matthews 10.00 Trevor Nelson’s
Magnificent 7. Seven of Rhythm Nation’s
biggest hits, uplifting tunes and essential
throwbacks 10.30 Trevor Nelson’s Rhythm
Nation. The DJ introduces a mix of R’n’B
and soulful tunes 12.00 OJ Borg 2.30am
One Hit Wonders with OJ Borg 3.00 Pick
of the Pops (r) 4.00 Owain Wyn Evans

Radio 3

FM: 90.2-92.4 MHz
6.30am Breakfast
Petroc Trelawny presents Radio 3’s classical
breakfast show. Including 7.00, 8.00
News. 7.30, 8.30 News headlines
9.00 Essential Classics
Georgia Mann presents music and features,
including new discoveries, musical surprises
and plenty of familiar favourites
12.00 Composer of the Week:
Sibelius (1865-1957)
Donald Macleod looks at the Finnish
composer’s life and work during the 1910s.
Sibelius (In memoriam, Op. 59 — revised
version 1910; Symphony No 4 in A Minor, Op
63, I — Tempo molto moderato, quasi adagio;
II — Allegro molto vivace; String Quartet in
D Minor, Op. 56, Voces Intimae, II — Vivace;
III — Adagio di molto; and Violin Concerto in
D Minor, Op 47, III. Allegro ma non tanto) (r)

Commissioner Patterson (Don Warrington) in Death in Paradise

1.00pm Live Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert
Hannah French presents a recital from
London’s Wigmore Hall with the oboist
François Leleux, featuring the pianist
Emmanuel Strosser. Saint-Saëns (Oboe
Sonata in D, Op 166); Dutilleux (Sonata for
oboe and piano); Tsotne Zedginidze (Oboe
Sonata — world première); Bozza (Fantaisie
Pastorale, Op 37); and Debussy (Rapsodie
for saxophone and orchestra — arr. Gilles
Silvestrini for cor anglais and piano)
2.00 Afternoon Concert
Fiona Talkington presents the Orchestre
Consuelo in the 3.00 spot, playing
Beethoven’s Symphony No 1 in a
performance from the Chaise-Dieu Festival
in France. Vox Luminis perform lesser known
baroque composers at the Utrecht Early
Music Festival. Plus, a new recording of
Vaughan Williams’ Varients of Dives and
Lazarus by the BBC Scottish Symphony
Orchestra. Vaughan Williams (Five Variants
of Dives and Lazarus); Tobias Michael (Die
Erlöseten des Herren); Chopin (Scherzo in
B minor, Op 20); Kodaly (Dances of Galanta,
Galanta tancok, for orchestra); Vivaldi (Nulla
in mundo pax sincera, RV 630); Beethoven
(Symphony No 1 in C, Op 21); WC Briegel
(Ach, Herr, lehre doch mich SEGUE Ach wie
gar nichts sind alle Menschen); Holst (Indra
— symphonic poem, Op 13); Madeleine
Dring (Trio for flute, oboe and piano); and
Albéniz (Rapsodia espanola, Op 70)
4.30 New Generation Artists
The pianist Giorgi Gigashvili plays a nocturne
by Chopin, Geneva Lewis plays a violin
sonata by Mozart and there is a new
track by the jazz pianist Fergus McCreadie
5.00 In Tune
With Musica Secreta and Papagena
7.00 Classical Mixtape
A selection of classical favourites mixed with
jazz, folk and music from around the world
7.30 Radio 3 in Concert
Fiona Talkington presents Andrew Manze
conducting the NDR Radio Philharmonic
Orchestra in Bruckner with Midori joining
for Detlev Glanert’s Violin Concerto No 2.
Recorded last month at the Grand Studio,
NDR, Hanover. Detlev Glanert (Violin
Concerto No 2 — To the Immortal Beloved);
and Bruckner (Symphony No 2 in C minor)
10.00 Music Matters
With guests the pianist Tamara Stefanovich
and the Irish fiddler Martin Hayes (r)
10.45 The Essay: Women of Substance
A look at how Frida Kahlo medicated her pain
11.00 Night Tracks
Hannah Peel presents
12.30am Through the Night (r)

Radio 4

FM: 92.4-94.6 MHz LW: 198kHz MW: 720 kHz
5.30am News Briefing
5.43 Prayer for the Day
5.45 Farming Today
5.58 Tweet of the Day (r)
6.00 Today
With Mishal Husain and Justin Webb
9.00 Start the Week
The history of the trade in opiates
9.45 (LW) Daily Service
9.45 Book of the Week: Food for Life
By Tim Spector (6/10)
10.00 Woman’s Hour
Topical conversation with Emma Barnett
11.00 The Gatekeepers
Jamie Bartlett traces the story of how
social media became the new information
gatekeepers. See Radio Choice (1/8)
11.30 The Bottom Line
Discussing the falling sales of meat (3/8) (r)
12.01pm (LW) Shipping Forecast
12.04 You and Yours
1.00 The World at One
1.45 Forgiveness:
Stories from the Front Line
People who had to struggle with
forgiveness in order to be free (1/5)
2.00 The Archers (r)
2.15 This Cultural Life
Juliette Binoche reveals the formative
influences that shaped her career (6/7) (r)
3.00 Counterpoint
With contestants from Sheffield,
Cheshire and Lancashire (9/13)
3.30 The Food Programme (r)
4.00 The Forensic Jeweller
4.30 Beyond Belief
Faith in the modern world (6/7)
5.00 PM
5.54 (LW) Shipping Forecast
6.00 Six O’Clock News
6.30 Just a Minute
With Eshaan Akbar and Angela Barnes (5/6)
7.00 The Archers
There’s trouble at the Bull
7.15 Front Row
8.00 Labour’s Scottish Challenge
The possibility of the Labour Party
making a major comeback in Scotland
8.30 Analysis
Zoe Strimpel examines the future of
families, and if a couple staying together
for the sake of the children is a basis
for a safe, successful society (1/8)
9.00 Do We Still Need The Pips?
Paddy O’Connell discusses the Greenwich
Time Signal. Contributors include Mishal
Husain, Robin Ince and Brian Cox

which landed her in prison for sexual
assault. Anna Stubblefield was later
released after her conviction was
overturned, but her life was ruined.
Here she was with a pixie haircut
telling us how Derrick Johnson, who
has cerebral palsy, “seduced” her and
how they had sex in her office.
As a film it was at times
uncomfortable, a debate about consent
and the disputed credibility of
“facilitated communication”, which
Stubblefield claimed had “unlocked”
Johnson’s mind to reveal his
intelligence and desires. She told his
mother, who she thought treated
Johnson like a child, that “he’s a man
in every sense of the word”. The
documentary didn’t take sides, letting
us hear alternately from Stubblefield,
who still wore a dreamy half-smile
when recounting the affair, and
Johnson’s outraged mother and
brother, who said he was helpless and
that she raped him.
Had Stubblefield enabled Johnson to
express himself or had she guided his
hand on the keyboard? I must say that
what it lacked was Theroux, asking a
probing question with a hangdog look.
What about Stubblefield’s children?
They were barely mentioned. Did she
still love Johnson? I wanted to hear
more about her ex-husband calling her
a “narcissist”. True, he may have an
axe to grind, but it felt an important
statement that deserved scrutiny.

9.30 Start the Week
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Amitav Ghosh,
Richard Brittan and Fiona Measham to
discuss the history of the trade in opiates (r)
10.00 The World Tonight
10.45 Book at Bedtime:
The Song of Achilles
Madeline Miller’s reimagining of Homer’s
Iliad. Read by Tom Hollander (6/10)
11.00 Word of Mouth
Filipino language scholar Ruanni Tupas
discusses English around the world (4/7) (r)
11.30 Today in Parliament
The start of the week’s business
12.00 News and Weather
12.30am Book of the Week:
Food for Life (6/10) (r)
12.48 Shipping Forecast
1.00 As BBC World Service

Radio 5 Live

Radio 4 Extra

TalkRadio

Digital only
8.00am Steptoe and Son 8.30 The
Wordsmiths at Gorsemere 9.00 Wordaholics
9.30 Acropolis Now 10.00 McLevy 10.45
Play Chopsticks for Me 11.00 Father Brown
Stories 11.30 Dr Finlay: The Adventures of a
Black Bag 12.00 Mrs Miniver 12.15pm
Dombey and Son 12.30 Welcome to Our
Village, Please Invade Carefully 1.00 Steptoe
and Son 1.30 The Wordsmiths at Gorsemere
2.00 Wordaholics 2.30 Acropolis Now 3.00
McLevy 3.45 Play Chopsticks for Me 4.00
Father Brown Stories 4.30 Dr Finlay: The
Adventures of a Black Bag 5.00 Mrs Miniver
5.15 Dombey and Son 5.30 Welcome to Our
Village, Please Invade Carefully 6.00 Steptoe
and Son 6.30 The Wordsmiths at Gorsemere
7.00 Wordaholics. With Michael Rosen,
Natalie Haynes, Arthur Smith and Paul Sinha
7.30 Acropolis Now. Comedy, by Lynne Truss.
Last in the series 8.00 The Moth Radio
Hour. Jay Allison introduces storytellers
encountering the people they have always
wanted to meet 8.55 Inheritance Tracks.
Ken Follett picks two songs with special
meaning for him 9.00 A Good Read.
Professor David Nutt and Philippa Perry
speak about their favourite books 9.30 The
Omen. By David Seltzer 9.45 November Dead
List. By Nick Perry 10.00 Comedy Club: Just
a Minute. With Paul Merton, Kerry Godliman,
Daliso Chaponda and Zoe Lyons 10.30
Flight of the Conchords. Improvised comedy
with Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement
11.00 The News Quiz. With Simon Evans,
Ria Lina, Alasdair Beckett-King and Anushka
Asthana 11.30 Concrete Cow. Comedy
sketch show with Robert Webb. From 2004

MW: 693, 909
5.00am Wake Up to Money 6.00 Breakfast
9.00 Nicky Campbell 11.00 Jeanette Kwakye
1.00pm Nihal Arthanayake 4.00 5 Live Drive
7.00 5 Live Sport 9.00 5 Live Cricket 10.00
Gordon Smart 1.00am Dotun Adebayo

talkSPORT

MW: 1053, 1089 kHz
6.00am Breakfast with Jeff Stelling 10.00
Jim White and Simon Jordan 1.00pm
Hawksbee and Jacobs 4.00 Drive with Andy
Goldstein and Darren Bent 7.00 Live Monday
GameNight: Brentford v Manchester City
(Kick-off 8.00) 10.00 Sports Bar 1.00am
Extra Time 4.00 Live Cricket: India v England.
Commentary on day five of the second Test

Digital only
5.00am Jonny Gould 6.00 Talk Today with
Nick Wallis and Rosie Wright 9.30 Kev and
Alex 10.00 Julia Hartley-Brewer 1.00pm
Kevin O’Sullivan and Alex Phillips 3.00 Ian
Collins 4.00 Vanessa Feltz 6.00 The Talk
7.00 Prime Time with Rosanna Lockwood
8.00 Piers Morgan Uncensored 9.00 The
Independent Republic of Mike Graham
11.00 Petrie Hosken 1.00am Paul Ross

6 Music

Digital only
5.00am Chris Hawkins 7.30 Lauren Laverne
10.30 Deb Grant 1.00pm Craig Charles 4.00
Steve Lamacq’s Teatime Session 7.00 New
Music Fix Daily 9.00 Riley & Coe 11.00
6 Music Artist in Residence 12.00 The
Gossip Playlist 1.00am The Gossip Live
and in Session 2.00 Beth Ditto at the BBC
3.00 Beth Ditto’s Loud and Proud Playlist

Virgin Radio

Digital only
6.30am Chris Evans 10.00 The Ryan Tubridy
Show 1.00pm Jayne Middlemiss 4.00
Ricky Wilson 7.00 Bam 10.00 Amy Voce
1.00am Sean Goldsmith 4.00 Steve Denyer

Classic FM

FM: 100-102 MHz
6.30am Breakfast with Dan Walker 10.00
Alexander Armstrong 1.00pm Anne-Marie
Minhall 4.00 Margherita Taylor 7.00
Relaxing Evenings 10.00 Calm Classics
1.00am Bill Overton 4.00 Early Breakfast

12

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

television & radio
Viewing Guide
Ben Dowell

Curb Your
Enthusiasm
Sky Comedy/Now,
3am/9pm

Larry David
is back,
creating
discord,
misunderstanding and
hilarity wherever he
goes. Sadly for fans of

Late

11PM

10PM

9PM

8PM

7PM

Early

Top
pick

the peerless comedy,
this 12th series is the
last, as our man heads
grouchily into the
sunset. Or, as David
jokingly said of his exit,
he’s off to work in field
medicine when he
finally casts his alter
ego aside. As the
curtain rises on the
new series he still has
Irma (Tracey Ullman)
living in his house,
following his failed

attempt to get a law
on swimming pool
boundaries changed
(don’t ask). That last
series finale also ended
with him stealing a
shoe from a Holocaust
memorial museum, a
joke only Larry could
get away with. Now he
is flying to Atlanta with
Leon and Maria Sofia
Estrada (and her dog),
the annoying star of his
Young Larry project

who is riding on the
fame it gave her. Larry
is being paid to attend
the party of a wealthy
white South African
(and superfan), and his
only job is to be
“cordial”. He can
manage that, right?
One of the joys of this
comedy is spotting
early detail you know
will bite Larry later on,
and there is a good
sprinkling tonight. We

also get a brief meeting
with the foul-mouthed
Susie Greene and her
put-upon husband, Jeff,
as they join Larry for
lunch in a restaurant
where service is slow —
because the waiter’s
mother has just died.
There isn’t an awkward
social situation this
show hasn’t covered off,
and this is as awful,
painful and hilarious as
ever. We’ll miss him.

Putin vs the West:
At War
BBC2, 9pm

Norma Percy’s superb
series focusing on the
west’s response to the
growing menace of
Russia concludes. As
the west’s support for
Ukraine starts to fray,
we see Vladimir Putin
working on building his
own alliances to
undercut the tough

western sanctions.
From his navy blocking
Ukraine’s grain exports
through the Black Sea
to Russia being voted
off the UN Human
Rights Council, it is an
eventful tale told by
many of the top global
politicians and
diplomats, all of whom
were in the rooms
where important things
important events
happened.

BBC1

BBC2

ITV1

Channel 4

Channel 5

6.00am Breakfast 9.30 Morning Live 10.45 Dr Xand’s
Con or Cure. A look at some of the latest back pain
gadgets 11.15 Homes Under the Hammer. Featuring
properties in Merseyside, Kent and Hull (r) 12.15pm
Bargain Hunt. Natasha Raskin Sharp meets a Barbie doll
fanatic in Derbyshire 1.00 BBC News at One; Weather
1.30 BBC Regional News; Weather 1.45 Doctors. Nina
helps a patient come to terms with growing older (AD)
2.15 Money for Nothing. Upcycling a G-Plan unit, a
stacking bookcase and a papasan seat (r) 3.00 Escape to
the Country. Briony May Williams helps a couple from St
Albans find a countryside escape in Buckinghamshire for
them and their dog 3.45 The Repair Shop. Geoff Harvey is
tasked with the restoration on a 1970s pinball machine.
A 200-year-old guitar from Vienna and a trunk that has
toured Africa also receive much-needed makeovers (r)
(AD) 4.30 Antiques Road Trip. Margie Cooper and Ochuko
Ojiri head to north-west England, where items include a
1940s fairground collectable and a silver egg cup with
a royal connection (r) 5.15 Pointless. Alexander
Armstrong is joined by co-host Vick Hope 6.00 BBC News
at Six; Weather 6.30 BBC Regional News; Weather

6.45am I Escaped to the Country (r) 7.30 David & Jay’s
Touring Toolshed (r) (AD) 8.00 Sign Zone: Celebrity Race
Across the World (r) (AD, SL) 9.00 BBC News 12.15pm
Politics Live 1.00 Impossible (r) 1.45 The Tournament.
Eight players do battle in the knockout quiz, but only one
will be left standing at the end. Hosted by Alex Scott (r)
2.30 The Farmers’ Country Showdown. A sheep farming
couple, and a father daughter duo compete with the best
of their flocks at Kilnsey Show in the Yorkshire Dales (r)
3.15 The Great British Sewing Bee. Sara Pascoe hosts the
start of the eighth series of the sewing competition with
the contestants making mini skirts and wrap dresses and
transform lockdown loungewear into tops (r) (AD) 4.15
Madagascar. The wildlife of the narrow band of mountains
and rainforest on the island’s east coast, including
cyanide-eating lemurs and endangered primate the sifaka
(r) (AD) 5.15 Flog It! The team values antiques at the
Discovery Museum in Newcastle (r) 6.00 Richard Osman’s
House of Games. With Michael Buerk, Kate Humble,
Glenn Moore and Thanyia Moore 6.30 David & Jay’s
Touring Toolshed. David Jason and Jay Blades visit
the Midlands Air Festival at Ragley Hall (AD)

6.00am Good Morning Britain. News, current affairs and
lifestyle features 9.00 Lorraine. Entertainment, current
affairs and fashion news, as well as showbiz stories and
gossip. Presented by Lorraine Kelly 10.00 This Morning.
A mix of chat, lifestyle features, advice and competitions.
Including Local Weather 12.30pm Loose Women.
Interviews and studio discussion from a female
perspective 1.30 ITV News; Weather 1.55 Regional
News; Weather 2.00 Ainsley’s Taste of Malta. New
series. Ainsley Harriott begins a culinary tour of the
Mediterranean island in its capital Valletta, where he
discovers why Malta is such a melting pot of cultures
(AD) 3.00 Lingo. Two contestants from Chesterfield, a
multilingual couple from London, and another couple from
London try to work out words that appear in the Lingo
grids (r) 4.00 Tipping Point. Ben Shephard hosts the
arcade-themed quiz in which contestants drop tokens
down a choice of four chutes in the hope of winning a
£10,000 jackpot 5.00 The Chase. Bradley Walsh presents
as four contestants work as a team to take on one
of the ruthless Chasers and secure a cash prize 6.00
Regional News; Weather 6.30 ITV News; Weather

6.15am Countdown. Tasha Ghouri is in Dictionary Corner
(r) 6.55 Cheers (r) 7.45 3rd Rock from the Sun (r) (AD)
8.35 Everybody Loves Raymond (r) (AD) 10.05 Frasier (r)
(AD) 11.00 The Great House Giveaway. A teacher and a
security officer renovate a drab and dated two-bed terrace
(r) 12.00 Channel 4 News Summary 12.05pm Sun, Sea
and Selling Houses. In Almeria, Sharon and Steve try to
find a property for two music lovers (r) 1.05 Find It, Fix
It, Flog It. Henry Cole and Simon O’Brien visit the Isle of
Wight (r) (AD) 2.10 Countdown. Jo Brand is in Dictionary
Corner 3.00 A Place in the Sun. Danni Menzies helps
an engaged couple find their perfect holiday home in
Manilva, Spain (r) 4.00 A New Life in the Sun. In
Granada, two former air stewards deal with the aftermath
of a storm at their B&B 5.00 Château DIY. At the
spectacular Château Lagorce, the owners race to bring
down an enormous fig tree before it can bring the wall of
their wedding terrace crashing down (AD) 6.00 Come
Dine with Me. The first host in north Wales is a spray
tan artist, who is hoping to wow her guests with a
Vegas casino-themed night of glitz and glam 6.30 The
Simpsons. A trio of Hallowe’en-inspired stories (r) (AD)

6.00am Milkshake! 9.15 Jeremy Vine. The broadcaster
and guests discuss the issues of the day with co-host
Storm Huntley joining him 11.15 Storm Huntley. Debate
on the day’s talking points continues with Storm Huntley,
who takes viewers’ calls on the biggest stories 12.45pm
Alexis Conran & Friends. The actor, writer and broadcaster
examines the important stories of the day, getting
viewers’ opinions and views on them 1.40 5 News at
Lunchtime 1.45 Home and Away. Felicity snaps at her
brother. Rose warns Cash about his suspension review.
A life is on the line (r) 2.15 FILM: My Nightmare
Office Affair (PG, TVM, 2022) When Nick tries to
break things off with Lisa, he finds himself in a dangerous
game that threatens his job, his family and his life.
Thriller starring Marc Herrmann and Laurie Fortier 4.00
Bargain-Loving Brits in the Sun. Cameras focus on Ellie
and Jim, who have just got married and set up their new
café in Benidorm (r) (AD) 5.00 5 News at 5 6.00 Susan
Calman’s Grand Day Out. The comedian explores Devon
and Cornwall in her vintage camper van, taking in some
dramatic scenery, unspoilt countryside and incredible
historic sights along the way (r) 6.55 5 News Update

7.00 The One Show Alex Jones and
Jermaine Jenas present the usual mix
of topical stories and showbiz chat

7.00 SOS: Extreme Rescues A woman
falls while scattering her father’s
ashes on a mountain (4/12)

7.30 EastEnders A leak at the cafe
threatens to reveal the truth about
Christmas Day. Bernie is determined
to win her old job back (AD)

7.30 Mastermind Specialist subjects are
the career of Arsene Wenger, the
comedies of Oscar Wilde, Donny
Osmond, and The Godfather films

7.30 Emmerdale Nate is given a shock,
Angelica prepares to return to school,
and Rhona is filled with dread (AD)

8.00 Sudden Child Deaths: The Search
for Answers — Panorama
In-depth current affairs report

8.00 Only Connect Specials: Education
Two former teams with ties
to schooling compete (r)

8.30 Scam Interceptors The team take
on fraudsters determined to fleece
a couple out of thousands (r)

8.30 University Challenge The
quarter-final stage of the quiz
continues with University College
London taking on Christ Church, Oxford

8.00 Coronation Street Steve’s early
return catches Tracy and Tommy
on the hop, Daniel’s discretion
intrigues Bethany, and Adam seeks
Dee-Dee and Joel’s help (AD)

8.00 George Clarke’s Adventures in
Americana George visits Florida to
see how the state’s cultural diversity
is represented, and to explore how
decades of hurricanes have shaped this
unique state’s buildings (3/4) (AD)

8.00 Traffic Cops With roads busier on
a bank holiday weekend, Derbyshire
officers deal with hundreds of reports
of drink, drug and dangerous driving,
as well as an array of other crimes

9.00 Silent Witness As the team
investigate the death of a Burmese
man, his young pregnant wife
desperately hopes he is still alive.
Nikki and Jack find themselves in
uncharted territory (7/10) (AD)

9.00 Putin vs the West: At War A look
at how the impact of the war in
Ukraine was felt across the globe,
while Ukraine’s president Volodymyr
Zelenskyy talks about how he
lobbied the West for weapons.
See Viewing Guide (2/2) (AD)

9.00 Born from the Same Stranger
A woman discovers the gynaecologist
organising her conception back in 1959
used only a small number of donors
to produce more than 300 children,
meaning she could be one of
multiple half-siblings (3/4) (AD)

9.00 To Catch a Copper Documentary
following Avon and Somerset Police’s
Professional Standards department,
focusing on cases where police officers
are accused of institutional racism
and unconscious bias (2/3) (AD)

9.00 Police: Suspect No 1 In this special
edition, detectives are tasked with
bringing down the Norfolk-based
Lewis drugs gang, and in particular
the man at the top who oversees the
selling and dealing of crack cocaine
and heroin at street level (5/6)

10.00 BBC News at Ten

10.30 BBC Regional News and Weather
10.40 Have I Got News for You Bill Bailey
guest hosts the satirical quiz, with the
comedian Fin Taylor and Labour MP
Dawn Butler joining team captains
Paul Merton and Ian Hislop (4/11) (r)
11.10 Domino Day Supernatural drama
starring Siena Kelly. A young witch
with extraordinary powers is looking
for a community who can help her
understand who she is (1/6) (r) (AD)
11.55 The Graham Norton Show With
guests including Dakota Johnson (r)
12.45am Celebrity Mastermind Clive Myrie invites
Lee Latchford-Evans, Rachel Parris, Harry Pinero and
Lauren Layfield to take to the black chair in the specialist
and general knowledge quiz (r) 1.15 Would I Lie to You?
Craig Charles, Amy Gledhill, Shazia Mirza and Jeremy Vine
join the regulars on the show (r) 1.50-6.00 BBC News

10.00 Our Flag Means Death New series.
Fact-based comedy drama starring
Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi.
See Viewing Guide (1/10) (AD)
10.30 Newsnight The day’s important
national and international news
stories with Victoria Derbyshire

7.00 Channel 4 News

10.00 ITV News at Ten

10.30 Regional News
10.45 Peston Political magazine show
hosted by Robert Peston, featuring
major interviews with MPs, topical
guests and cultural figures

11.15 Vice (15, 2018) The story of Dick
Cheney, an unassuming bureaucratic
Washington insider who quietly
wielded immense power, reshaping
America and the globe in the ways that
are still felt today. Biographical comedy
drama starring Christian Bale (AD)

11.45 All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite
Hard-hitting action from the
world of All Elite Wrestling (r)

1.20am Sign Zone: Countryfile Joe Crowley is in the
Somerset Levels to explore the history, heritage, and
farming of this unique wetland environment, stretching
from the Mendips to the Blackdown Hills (r) (SL)
2.15-3.15 Great British Menu. The chefs from Central
England serve their starters and fish dishes (r) (SL)

1.25am Shop on TV 3.00 Martin Clunes: A Dog Called
Laura. Martin Clunes explores the lives of Britain’s guide
dogs, adopting Jaina Mistry’s retiring dog Laura and
following her as she tries to find a replacement (r) (AD,
SL) 3.50 Unwind with ITV 5.05-6.00 Ainsley’s Taste
of Malta. A culinary tour of the island (r) (AD, SL)

7.00 Police Interceptors Officers hunt for
two suspects allegedly armed with a
gun after a tram-stop robbery in
Bulwell, while police respond to a
report of teenagers on the rampage
in the market town of Arnold (r)
7.55 5 News Update

10.00 Night Coppers A PC is taken aback
when early into the night shift two
partygoers ask him if he can help them
find their weed, and is called to help a
young woman who has been spiked
in a nightclub (7/8) (r) (AD)

11.05 First Dates A 61-year-old finance
worker and raver is paired with a
part-time DJ in her search for love and
a competitive Pokemon player is on
a date with a book lover (r) (AD)

12.05am Obsessed with My Muscles: Untold (r)
(AD, SL) 12.35 24 Hours in A&E (r) (AD) 1.30 Kitchen
Nightmares USA (r) (SL) 2.20 Couples Come Dine with
Me (r) 3.15 Know Your S**t: Inside Our Guts (r) (AD)
4.10 Love It or List It: Brilliant Builds (r) (AD) 5.05
Sunday Brunch Best Bits (r) 5.20-6.15 Grand Designs (r)

10.30 Casualty 24/7: Every Second
Counts A high number of call-outs for
ambulances has resulted in paramedics
queuing with patients in the corridor at
Barnsley Hospital’s A&E department,
so the team must decide who is seen
at once and who can wait (5/10) (r)
11.30 999: Critical Condition A woman
collapses unexpectedly during a
day out with her family, and is left
unable to move or walk (6/8) (r)
12.30am Traffic Cops (r) 1.25 PlayOJO Live Casino
Show 3.25 22 Kids & Counting (r) 4.20 Britain’s Great
Cathedrals with Tony Robinson. Liverpool Cathedral (r)
(SL) 5.10 Nick’s Quest (r) (SL) 5.30 Entertainment
News on 5 5.40 Milkshake! Monkey’s Amazing
Adventures (r) (SL) 5.45-6.00 Paw Patrol (r) (SL)

13

the times | Monday February 5 2024

television & radio
Katherine Ryan:
Parental
Guidance
W, 9pm

At the time of filming,
the comedian
Katherine Ryan has
children aged 14, 2 and
7 months, and a newish
husband. She has been
breeding “like a
showdog” and it’s a
struggle. This candid,
funny programme takes

us into her life, and she
doesn’t hold back — we
see her breastfeeding
and glimpse her
husband’s opposition
to his teenage
stepdaughter’s outfits.
Ostensibly it’s about
her talking to fellow
parents in a search for
solutions to improve
her “Mom game”. But
really it works best as
an “at home with the
Ryans” experience.

True Detective:
Night Country
Sky Atlantic/Now, 9pm

After the shocking end
to the last episode,
when Navarro (Kali
Reis) got a rather
disconcerting message
from beyond the grave,
things turn even
spookier in frozen
Ennis, Alaska. It’s
Christmas Eve and it
won’t surprise you to

learn that the
formidable Liz Danvers
(Jodie Foster) is getting
everyone to work. We
also reconnect with
Fiona Shaw’s Rose in
an episode awash with
awful things and
chilling twists. Is
there a real-life killer
lurking in the cold
or is something
otherworldly going on?
On present evidence,
probably both.

Our Flag Means
Death
BBC2, 10pm

We’re hoisting the Jolly
Roger on another series
of this very silly sitcom
set on the high seas and
starring Rhys Darby as
the hapless pirate Stede
Bonnet. If you
remember from the
first run, Stede has
given up a life of luxury
to prove himself as a

pirate, despite having
absolutely zero aptitude
for swashing or
buckling. It continues
to be packed with
surprises and fart
jokes aplenty, as well as
a charming love story
between the separated
Stede and Blackbeard
(Taika Waititi).
But it’s also mixed
with a sometimes
disconcerting level of
violence.

Film Jack Reacher
Film4, 9pm

When Jack Reacher
walks into a bar, the
men nod their
approval. Casting Tom
Cruise as the former
military policeman may
be far-fetched, and the
director Christopher
McQuarrie brings little
new to the formula, but
this is enjoyably
boisterous. (15, 2012)

Sky Max

Sky Atlantic

Sky Documentaries Sky Arts

Sky Main Event

Variations

6.00am NCIS: Los Angeles (r) 7.00 DC’s
Legends of Tomorrow (r) (AD) 8.00 Supergirl (r)
9.00 Stargate SG-1 (r) 11.00 NCIS: Los Angeles
(r) 12.00 Supergirl (r) 1.00pm MacGyver (r)
3.00 Hawaii Five-0 (r) 4.00 S.W.A.T (r) (AD)
5.00 DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (r) (AD)
6.00 Stargate SG-1. A group of unforgiving
gods threatens to destroy Earth (r)
7.00 Stargate SG-1. Daniel and Vala take part
in missions to unlock the Jaffa device (r)
8.00 Rob & Romesh vs the NFL. The comedians
train with American football players (r) (AD)
9.00 FILM: Snitch (12, 2013) A man
volunteers to become an undercover informant
in a drug trafficking operation to save his son
from prison. Crime thriller with Dwayne Johnson
11.00 From. Jim, Tabitha and Ethan begin
asking questions about where they are (r) (AD)
12.00 Flintoff: Lord of the Fries (r) (AD)
1.00am Brit Cops: Law & Disorder (r) (AD)
2.00 Road Wars (r) 3.00 Hawaii Five-0 (r)
4.00 S.W.A.T (r) (AD) 5.00 Highway Patrol (r)

6.00am Fish Town (r) 7.55 The Sopranos (r)
10.05 The Wire (r) 12.15pm Game of Thrones
(r) (AD) 1.20 Gomorrah (r) 3.30 The Sopranos
(r) 5.40 The Wire. Double bill (r)
7.55 Game of Thrones. Tyrion seeks a new,
strange ally, and Brienne goes on a mission
while Arya is given a chance to prove herself.
Elsewhere, Bran learns a great deal (r) (AD)
9.00 True Detective: Night Country. Danvers and
Navarro confirm the location of Annie’s murder,
while the police chief levies a harsh punishment
on Leah. See Viewing Guide (4/6) (r)
10.15 Mare of Easttown. Mare opens up about
her family’s history with mental health. Later,
she meets with a semi-retired source about
possible connections in her cases (5/7) (r) (AD)
11.25 Perry Mason. A shocking admission from
Baggerly meets Mason’s wrath (2/8) (r) (AD)
12.35am The Outsider. Holly gains insight
when she investigates a similar case (r) (AD)
1.45 I Know This Much Is True (r) (AD) 2.55
Game of Thrones (r) (AD) 4.00 Fish Town (r)

6.00am Inside the Freemasons (r) (AD) 7.00
Discovering: Gene Kelly (r) (AD) 8.00 The
Directors (r) 9.00 Dark Horses: Italy’s World Cup
Triumph (r) 10.00 Juan Carlos: Downfall of the
King (r) 11.00 Dublin Narcos (r) 12.00 FILM:
Everton — Howard’s Way (12, 2019) The
story of Everton’s trophy-winning peak in the
1980s under Howard Kendall (AD) 2.10pm
AKA Mr Chow (r) 4.00 The Directors (r)
5.00 Discovering: Gene Kelly (r) (AD)
6.00 Dark Horses: Italy’s World Cup Triumph (r)
7.00 Juan Carlos: Downfall of the King (1/4) (r)
8.00 Dublin Narcos. Drug addiction in Dublin (r)
9.00 Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher
and Debbie Reynolds. Documentary (r) (AD)
11.00 Tell Them You Love Me (r)
1.00am FILM: Adrienne (PG, 2021) Tribute
to the actor and director Adrienne Shelly (AD)
3.00 FILM: Steve McQueen — The Lost
Movie (12, 2021) An unfinished movie with
Steve McQueen (AD) 4.50 My Icon: Moeen Ali
(r) (AD) 5.00 Discovering: Gene Kelly (r) (AD)

6.00am Sky Sports News 7.00 Good Morning
Sports Fans 8.00 Good Morning Sports Fans
9.00 Live Tennis: The Mubadala Abu Dhabi
Open. Coverage of day one of the WTA 500
event, held at International Tennis Centre in
Zayed Sports City, United Arab Emirates,
featuring first-round contests. With the top four
seeds receiving byes to the next round, fifth
seed Jelena Ostapenko was the highest-ranked
player in action at this stage last year and she
recorded a 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 victory over Danielle
Collins 5.00pm Live Tennis: The Open 13.
Coverage of day one of the ATP 250 event, an
indoor hard court tournament which takes place
at Palais des sports de Marseille in France
6.30 Live MNF: Brentford v Manchester City
(Kick-off 8.00). Coverage of the Premier League
match from Gtech Community Stadium
11.00 Sky Sports News 12.00 Total Access
1.00am Super Bowl Opening Night. Players
and coaches make their first public appearance
during Super Bowl week 4.00 Sky Sports News

BBC1 N Ireland
As BBC1 except: 7.00pm Hope Street 7.45
Suzie Lee: Home Cook Hero 8.00 EastEnders
8.30-9.00 Sudden Child Deaths: The Search for
Answers — Panorama 10.40 Chinook: Zulu
Delta 576 11.40 Have I Got News for You
(r) 12.15am Domino Day (r) (AD)
1.00-1.50 The Graham Norton Show (r)

6.00am Arts Uncovered 6.15 The Australian
Ballet: The Merry Widow 8.00 The Joy of
Painting (AD) 9.00 Tales of the Unexpected
(AD) 10.00 Alfred Hitchcock Presents 11.00
Discovering: Doris Day (AD) 12.00 The Joy of
Painting (AD) 1.00pm Tales of the Unexpected
(AD) 2.00 Inside Art: Bristol Street Art at M
Shed (AD) 3.00 Anish Kapoor: Stupid Naughty
Boy 4.00 Discovering: Errol Flynn (AD)
5.00 Tales of the Unexpected (AD)
6.00 Alfred Hitchcock Presents
7.00 The Joy of Painting (AD)
7.30 The Joy of Painting
8.00 André Rieu: Live in Sydney. Dame Edna
Everage joins the violinist for an evening of
music as he performs in Sydney, Australia
11.00 Pavarotti: The Duets — The Best of
Pavarotti and Friends. Selection of collaborations
12.35am Ray Charles: Live at Montreux 2.05
BB King: Live in Concert at the Royal Albert Hall
3.50 Lenny Henry’s Got the Blues (AD) 4.50 Sky
Arts Ambassador Bursary Shorts 5.00 Auction

BBC1 Scotland
As BBC1 except: 8.00pm-9.00 Disclosure:
Prisons on the Brink. Lucy Adams reports
11.10 Sudden Child Deaths: The Search for
Answers — Panorama 11.40 Domino Day (r)
(AD) 12.25am The Graham Norton Show (r)
1.15-1.45 Celebrity Mastermind (r)
BBC1 Wales
As BBC1 except: 7.00pm-7.30 SOS: Extreme
Rescues 8.00 Wynne’s Welsh 80s. New series.
Wynne Evans explores the BBC Wales archive
of the 1980s 8.30-9.00 Weatherman Walking
(r) 10.40 Sudden Child Deaths: The Search for
Answers — Panorama 11.10 Have I Got News
for You (r) 11.40 Domino Day (r) (AD)
12.30am The Graham Norton Show (r)
1.20-1.50 Celebrity Mastermind (r)
BBC2 N Ireland
As BBC2 except: 10.00pm-10.30 Ar an Sliabh
11.15 Our Flag Means Death. New series. Factbased comedy drama. See Viewing Guide (AD)
11.45-1.20am FILM: When Eight Bells Toll
(1971) Thriller starring Anthony Hopkins
BBC2 Wales
As BBC2 except: 7.00pm-7.30 The One Show
ITV1 Wales
As ITV1 except: 10.45pm-11.45 Sharp End

TalkTV

BBC4

Talking Pictures

Film4

More4

6.00am Talk Today with Rosie Wright and Nick
Wallis. News, weather and opinions 9.30 Kevin
& Alex. Hosts Kevin O’Sullivan and Alex Phillips
give their unique take on the front pages and
the latest news 10.00 Julia Hartley-Brewer. The
broadcaster covers all the stories you need to
know 1.00pm CrossTalk with Kevin O’Sullivan
and Alex Phillips. Analysis, debate and humour
3.00 Ian Collins. Hard-hitting monologues and
debates 4.00 Vanessa Feltz. The latest stories
6.00 The Talk. A panel of famous faces debate
the hot topics everybody’s talking about
7.00 Prime Time with Rosanna Lockwood.
The host takes a look at the big stories of
the day, and the latest developments
8.00 Piers Morgan Uncensored. The host
presents his verdict on the day’s global events
9.00 The Independent Republic of Mike Graham.
A run through the day’s breaking news
11.00 Piers Morgan Uncensored. The host
presents his verdict on the day’s global events
12.00 Petrie Hosken. The latest news stories
1.00am CrossTalk with Kevin O’Sullivan and
Alex Phillips 3.00 Prime Time with Rosanna
Lockwood 4.00 The Talk 5.00 Jonny Gould

7.00pm Planet Earth II. Wildlife that inhabit
the world’s grasslands, areas that are struck by
some of the most dramatic seasonal changes
seen in the world. Featuring footage of Brazil’s
giant anteaters and Asian saiga antelope, as
well as lions engaging in ferocious battles
with buffalo in the flooded Okavango (AD)
8.00 Art of Persia. The broadcaster and
journalist Samira Ahmed reveals how Iran
preserved its distinctive language and culture
despite the Arab conquest of Persia (AD)
9.00 Britain’s Lost Masterpieces:
Carmarthenshire. Bendor Grosvenor and Emma
Dabiri travel to Carmarthenshire in Wales
to investigate two intriguing portraits of
the Earl and Countess of Carbery (AD)
10.00 Shadow Commander: Iran’s Military
Mastermind. The shifting alliances of Iranian
commander General Qassem Soleimani (AD)
11.00 The Mole: Infiltrating North Korea —
Storyville. Part one of two. A dangerous
10-year mission to infiltrate North Korea
12.00 The Mole: Infiltrating North Korea —
Storyville. Part two of two 1.05am Planet
Earth II (AD) 2.05-3.05 Art of Persia (AD, SL)

6.00am Stagecoach West (b/w) 7.00 FILM:
Forbidden Cargo (PG, 1954) Drama starring
Nigel Patrick (b/w) 8.45 Four Star Theatre
(b/w) 9.15 FILM: Inn for Trouble (U, 1960)
Comedy starring Peggy Mount (b/w) 11.00
Time to Remember 11.35 The Outer Limits
(b/w) 12.35pm The Midlands in the 1960s
12.55 FILM: Two Flags West (U, 1950)
American Civil War Western starring Joseph
Cotten (b/w) 2.45 Look at Life 3.00 The Saint
(b/w) 4.00 That Beryl Marston! 4.30 FILM:
Storm in a Teacup (U, 1937) Ealing comedy
starring Rex Harrison and Vivien Leigh (b/w)
6.15 Showtime in London
6.30 Out of Town
7.00 The Footage Detectives
8.00 The Brothers
9.05 FILM: Absence of Malice (PG, 1981)
Drama starring Paul Newman and Sally Field
11.15 FILM: Mannaja (18, 1977)
Spaghetti Western starring Maurizio Merli
1.05am FILM: The London Nobody Knows
(U, 1969) James Mason explores the capital
2.00 Maigret 3.50 Look at Life 4.00 Justice
5.00 Monty Nash 5.30 Honey West (b/w)

11.00am Gunfight at the OK Corral (PG,
1957) 1.25pm Reach for the Sky (U, 1956)
Biopic of Second World War pilot Douglas Bader
starring Kenneth More (b/w) (AD) 4.10
The Last Hurrah (U, 1958) Political drama
starring Spencer Tracy and Pat O’Brien (b/w)
6.35 All Of Us Strangers Interview Special
6.40 Star Trek Beyond (12, 2016) The USS
Enterprise is lured into a deadly trap, which
leaves the crew stranded on an unexplored alien
world. Sci-fi adventure starring Chris Pine (AD)
9.00 Jack Reacher (15, 2012) A former
military police investigator takes on the case of
a shooting for which an army sniper has been
framed. Thriller with Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike
and Werner Herzog. See Viewing Guide (AD)
11.40 The First Purge (15, 2018) The US
government trials a controversial experiment
to legalise all crime for one night. Thriller
prequel starring Y’lan Noel and Lex Scott Davis
1.35am-3.40 Breaking In (15, 2018) After
her father’s murder, a woman travels to his
home with her two children, little realising four
criminals are already inside. Thriller starring
Gabrielle Union, Billy Burke and Richard Cabral

8.55am A Place in the Sun 10.25 A New Life in
the Sun 11.25 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (AD)
12.30pm Come Dine with Me (AD) 3.10 Four in
a Bed 5.50 Kirstie and Phil’s Love It or List It.
Visiting the rural outskirts of Leeds (AD)
6.55 Escape to the Château. Angel sets about
restoring the Château’s walls to their original
glory using computer mock-ups (AD)
7.55 Grand Designs. Kevin McCloud follows
the progress of a south London couple, who
want to build a home that resembles a
giant stack of glass cubes (3/12) (AD)
9.00 Car SOS. Tim and Fuzz try to
restore a tatty Mk.1 Toyota MR2 (AD)
10.00 Guy Martin’s Lancaster Bomber. The
presenter trains in all seven crew positions on
the iconic aircraft, from pilot to bomb aimer,
receiving tutelage from the last surviving
member of the Dambusters mission
11.05 24 Hours in A&E. A 46-year-old is rushed
in with serious head and chest injuries (AD)
12.05am Emergency Helicopter Medics:
Mountain Emergencies. A biker is injured (AD)
1.10 999: On the Front Line 2.15 24 Hours
in A&E (AD) 3.20-3.50 A Farmer’s Life

ITV2

ITV3

ITV4

Drama

Yesterday

6.00am CITV 9.00 Chuck 10.00 One Tree Hill
12.00 Secret Crush 1.00pm Dress to Impress
2.00 Family Fortunes 3.00 Chuck. US spy
comedy series 4.00 One Tree Hill
6.00 Celebrity Catchphrase (AD)
7.00 Deal or No Deal. Stephen Mulhern hosts
8.00 Superstore. Amy and Glenn set their
colleagues up for Valentine’s Day (AD)
8.30 Superstore. The store starts to heat
up when the thermostat breaks (AD)
9.00 Love Island: All Stars. Highlights
10.05 Family Guy. A look at how the show
might have tackled major events of
the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s (AD)
10.35 Family Guy. Stewie’s body swapping
machine malfunctions (AD)
11.05 Family Guy. Brian decides to enter a
dog competition in which the prize is to
breed with a female (AD)
11.30 American Dad! (AD)
12.00 American Dad! (AD) 12.30am Superstore
(AD) 1.30 Olivia Attwood: Getting Filthy Rich
2.30 Totally Bonkers Guinness World Records
2.45 Unwind with ITV 3.00 Teleshopping

6.00am Classic Emmerdale 7.00 Classic
Coronation Street (AD) 8.05 Where the Heart Is
(AD) 10.15 Agatha Christie’s Poirot (AD) 11.25
The Royal (r) 12.35pm Heartbeat (AD) 1.40
Classic Emmerdale 2.45 Classic Coronation
Street (AD) 3.50 Midsomer Murders (AD)
5.50 Downton Abbey. Period drama (AD)
6.55 Heartbeat. A family of crooked travellers
pitches camp in Aidensfield (AD)
8.00 Vera. The detective investigates the
murder of a young physiotherapist at a luxury
country retreat. Crime drama starring Brenda
Blethyn and David Leon (1/4) (AD)
10.00 Trial & Retribution. New eye-witness
testimony and a television documentary
about the McCready case casts doubt on
the original murder investigation (2/2)
11.55 The Royal. Dr Ormerod is furious to
discover the police have launched an
investigation into his wife’s death, and reveals
that she was planning to leave him at the time
of the accident. Robert Daws stars (r)
12.45am Where the Heart Is. Double bill of
the medical series (AD) 2.30 Teleshopping

6.00am World of Sport 6.05 Minder (AD, SL)
7.00 The Professionals (AD, SL) 8.05 The Saint
(SL) 9.10 The Return of Sherlock Holmes (AD)
10.20 Magnum, PI (AD) 11.20 The Saint
12.30pm The Return of Sherlock Holmes (AD)
1.35 Kojak 2.40 Magnum, PI (AD) 3.40 Minder
(AD) 4.45 The Professionals (AD) 5.50
BattleBots. Mammoth and Hypershock compete
6.55 The Chase Celebrity Special. A Good
Morning Britain special of the quiz show
7.55 The Motorbike Show. Henry Cole rides
through the gloriously traffic-free Lincolnshire
Wolds, meets the Lincolnshire Ladies bike club
and heads north to Langen Motorbikes in Wigan
9.00 FILM: Jaws 3 (12, 1983) A ferocious
mother shark comes looking for her dead baby,
causing havoc in a Florida marine centre.
Thriller sequel starring Dennis Quaid, Simon
MacCorkindale and Louis Gossett Jr (AD)
11.05 From Dusk Till Dawn. Seth decides to
take the Fullers hostage. DJ Cotrona stars
12.05am The Professionals (AD) 1.10
Minder (AD, SL) 2.05 Auto Mundial 2.35
Motorsport Mundial 3.00 Teleshopping

6.00am Teleshopping 7.10 All Creatures Great
and Small 8.00 Doctors 9.20 Classic Holby City
10.40 Classic Casualty 11.40 The Bill 12.40pm
Classic EastEnders 2.00 Monarch of the Glen
3.10 Kingdom 4.10 All Creatures Great and
Small 5.20 Terry and June. Comedy series
6.00 As Time Goes By. Lionel finds himself
surrounded by females when Sandy moves in
6.40 Last of the Summer Wine. Alvin and
Entwistle try their hands at matchmaking
7.20 Last of the Summer Wine.
Clegg and Truly reminisce about Compo
8.00 The Last Detective. Dangerous investigates
the arson murder of an artist and former lottery
winner burned to death while drunk in a locked
room. Drama starring Peter Davison (1/4) (AD)
9.35 New Tricks. DCI Larson asks old flame
Sandra to look into a murder (6/10) (AD)
10.55 New Tricks. The team probes the mystery
of a missing scientist (7/10) (AD)
11.55 Spooks. The team receives warning
of a missile attack on London (9/10)
1.10am Hustle 2.25 Terry and June 3.00
Classic Holby City 4.00 Teleshopping

6.10am VE Day: Countdown to Peace 7.10
Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution
8.00 Abandoned Engineering (AD) 10.00 War
Factories 11.00 Narrow Escapes of World War II
(AD) 12.00 Great American Railroad Journeys
1.00pm Antiques Roadshow 2.00 Bangers &
Cash (AD) 4.00 War Factories 5.00 Narrow
Escapes of World War II (AD)
6.00 Antiques Roadshow
7.00 Great British Railway Journeys
7.30 Great British Railway Journeys
8.00 Secrets of the London Underground.
Tim Dunn and Siddy Holloway explore Clapham
South deep level shelter (6/6) (AD)
9.00 Secrets of the London Underground. Tim
Dunn and Siddy Holloway explore the disused
Jubilee Line areas of Charing Cross (1/10) (AD)
10.00 Bangers & Cash. Paul collects a
cherished 1924 Rover 9 that’s been in the
same family since the 1950s (6/8) (AD)
11.00 Abandoned Engineering (2/11) (AD)
12.00 Great British Railway Journeys 1.00am
Fred Dibnah’s Railway Collection 2.00
Smoke & Steel (AD) 3.00 Teleshopping

STV
As ITV1 except: 10.30pm STV News 10.40
Scotland Tonight 11.05 Peston 12.20am-3.00
Night Vision 3.50-5.05 Night Vision
UTV
As ITV1 except: 10.30pm-10.45 UTV Live
BBC Scotland
2.00pm Sign Zone: Grand Tours of Scotland’s
Rivers (r) (AD) 2.30 Sign Zone: The Agency —
Unfiltered (r) (AD) 3.30-4.00 Sign Zone: The
Forest (r) 7.00 My Kind of Town: Stromness (r)
(AD) 7.30 Highland Road Rescue (r) (AD) 8.00
Who Owns Scotland? (r) (AD) 9.00 The Nine
10.00 The Agency: Unfiltered (AD)
11.00-12.00 Not Your Average Family (r) (AD)
BBC Alba
6.00am Alba Today 5.00pm Treubh an
Tuathanais (Big Barn Farm) (r) 5.10 Na
Clangairean 5.25 AH-AH/No-No (r) 5.35 ’S E
Iasg a Th’Annam (I’m a Fish) (r) 5.40 Su Pic
(Peek Zoo) (r) 5.45 Rita is Crogall (r) 5.50
Stòiridh (r) 6.00 Belle agus Sebastian 6.15
Bogaisean is Gumbalan/Bottersnikes and
Gumbles 6.25 An Sgoil 6.35 Na Dana-thursan
aig Tintin/The Adventures of Tintin (r) 7.00
Vets: Gach Creutair Beo (r) 7.30 SpeakGaelic
8.00 An Là (News) 8.30 Rathad Ramsay. With
Erica MacPherson 9.00 Aileirdsidh Bidh —
Buaidh no Bas/Food Allergies (A Matter of Life
or Death) (r) 10.00 Cuirm@Celtic 10.30
Curaidh na Coille (Birdman of Pollok) (r) 11.30
OMC! (r) 12.00-6.00am Alba Today
S4C
6.00am Cyw 12.00 News; Weather 12.05pm
Ffasiwn Drefn (r) (AD) 12.30 Ralïo+ (r) 1.00
Caeau Cymru (r) (AD) 1.30 Dan Do (r) 2.00
News; Weather 2.05 Prynhawn Da 3.00 News;
Weather 3.05 Stryd i’r Sgrym (r) 3.50 Bwyd
Epic Chris 4.00 Awr Fawr: Og y Draenog Hapus
(r) 4.10 Ein Byd Bach Ni (r) 4.20 Pentre Papur
Pop (r) 4.35 Anifeiliaid Bach y Byd (r) 4.45
Ne-wff-ion (r) 5.00 Stwnsh: Siwrne Ni (r) 5.05
Byd Rwtsh Dai Potsh (r) 5.15 Lego Ffrindiau:
Amdani Ferched! 5.30 Itopia (r) (AD) 5.50
News Ni 6.00 Cegin Bryn (r) (AD) 6.30 Rownd
a Rownd (r) (AD) 6.57 News 7.00 Heno 7.30
News; Weather 8.00 Y Byd ar Bedwar 8.25 Y
Fets (AD) 8.55 News; Weather 9.00 Cefn
Gwlad. New series. Dai Jones goes out and
about once again, meeting and discovering
more about the lives of people from all over the
country (AD) 9.30 Sgorio (r) 10.00 Gwesty
Aduniad (r) 11.00-11.35 Ar Werth (r)

14

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

MindGames
General Knowledge Crossword
1

2

3

4

5

6

No 219
7

Codeword

Train Tracks

No 5129

No 2160
Lay tracks to
enable the
train to travel
from village A
to village B.
The numbers
indicate how
many sections
of track go in
each row and
column. There
are only
straight
sections and
curved
sections. The
track cannot
cross itself.

8

9
10
11

12

13

14

16

15

17

18

19
20

21

22

23

Quintagram®

24
25

Solve all five cryptic clues using each
Solveunderneath
all five cryptic
letter
onceclues
only using

each letter underneath once only

26

1 In danger, some French city (6)

27

Across
1 Soft highly toxic metallic
element (8)
9 Neapolitan ballad composed
in the late 19th century (1,4,3)
10 Early stage in an organism’s
development (6)
11 Actress who won an Oscar
in 1962 for her portrayal of
Anita in West Side Story (4,6)
12 --- Jones, Welsh singer who
recorded Walking in the Air (4)
13 Constellation of the northern
sky resembling a “W” (10)
16 Low padded seat (7)
17 Early Irish missionary who
founded the abbey on Iona (7)
20 Ursine pal of Bill Badger
and Edward Trunk (6,4)
22 George ---, AC Milan and
Chelsea footballer who became
president of Liberia (4)
23 David Cameron’s successor as
prime minister (7,3)
Last week’s solution
L
I
M
E
R
I
C
K

U K
I
A N
G
O S
L
R E
Y

O
A
R I F
S
N
O U T
E
L
D O D

E

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

KenKen

M A N
O
E
T E S
O
T
W E L
N
E
S
A
V
A
N
N
A
H

D
D E
A
R D
L
J I
F
A T

------

25 16th-century English composer
of religious music (6)
26 Small east African republic
on the Gulf of Aden (8)
27 Scottish town home to
Queen of the South FC (8)
Down
2 German naturalist and
explorer after whom a Pacific
current is named (8)
3 1869 novel by RD Blackmore
set in the West Country (5,5)
4 African nation bordering
both Guinea and Ghana (5,5)
5 Slot into which a tenon fits
in carpentry (7)
6 Rich fertile soil of sand,
clay and humus (4)
7 French physicist, a
founder of the study of
electromagnetism (6)
8 Japan’s second-largest city
by population (8)
14 Gershwin number featuring
the line: “Who could ask for
anything more?” (1,3,6)
15 Frontman of the Jam and
Style Council (4,6)
16 Units of magnetic field
strength (8)
18 Princess who married Edoardo
Mapelli Mozzi in 2020 (8)
19 Legendary hybrid creature
of aquatic environments (7)
21 Folk name for the lapwing (6)
24 Name of a biblical figure before
his Damascene conversion (4)

Easy No 6121

2 Comic strip character, officer’s
personal assistant (6)

Challenge
your mind
with these
fiendish
word and
number
puzzles

------

3 Name of composer heard (6)

-----Every letter in this crossword-style grid is represented by a number from 1 to 26.
Each letter of the alphabet appears in the grid at least once. Use the letters already
provided to work out the identity of further letters. Enter letters in the main grid
and the smaller reference grid until all 26 letters of the alphabet have been
accounted for. Proper nouns are excluded. Saturday’s solution, right
Cluelines Stuck on Codeword? To receive 4 random clues call 0901 293 6262 or
text TIMECODE to 64343. Calls cost £1 plus your telephone company’s network
access charge. Texts cost £1 plus your standard network charge. For the full solution
call 0905 757 0142. Calls cost £1 per minute plus your telephone company’s network
access charge. SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5.30pm).

Lexica
H

No 7251
U

T

No 7252
N

G

T

R
S

A

A

B

T

S

T
E

R

N

A

G

O

R

T

R

A

E

L

O

M

N
A

L

B

A

Y

P
A

O

A

A

I

Y

Slide the letters either horizontally or vertically back into the grid to produce a
completed crossword. Letters are allowed to slide over other letters

Futoshiki

No 4669

Kakuro

------

5 Running to a car in mac (8)

-------A

A

A

A

A

A

A

B

C

D

E

E

F

F

G

H

I

L

L

M

N

N

N

N

O

O

R

R

S

T

T

Y

thetimes.co.uk/
bookshop

Winning Move

U

D

X

4 Waste unknown amount in Irish
county (6)

Black to play.
This position is from
Lu Shanglei-Huang,
Chengdu 2024.
In this position White
has “back rank”
problems, meaning he
can be vulnerable to a
major piece landing on
the back rank.
However, 1 ... Rb1+ 2
Re1 does not get Black
anywhere. What did
he play instead?

No 3628
Fill the grid
using the
numbers 1 to 9
only. The
numbers in each
horizontal or
vertical run of
white squares
add up to the
total in the
triangle to its left
or above it. The
same number
may occur more
than once in a
row or column,
but not within
the same run of
white squares.

All the digits 1 to 6 must appear in every row and column. In
each thick-line “block”, the target number in the top left-hand
corner is calculated from the digits in all the cells in the block,
using the operation indicated by the symbol.

Fill the blank squares so that every row and column contains
each of the numbers 1 to 5 once only. The symbols between
the squares indicate whether a number is larger (>) or smaller
(<) than the number next to it.

15

the times | Monday February 5 2024

MindGames
times2 Crossword

Brain Trainer

No 9445

Cell Blocks

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

EASY
8

x3

–4

x 3 + 71

90%
OF IT

–6

1/2

+ 12

25%
OF IT

– 77

75%
OF IT

– 89 + 1/2

OF IT

–4

8/9

OF IT

9

10

MEDIUM

116 + 77

HARDER

127

OF IT

x2

11
12
13

16

42

70%
OF IT

14

15

17

18

x 6 + 968

60%
OF IT

22

24

Across
1 Flock of geese (6)
5 Covered in filth (6)
8 Pierce with a horn; blood (4)
9 Wedge or putter, eg (4,4)
10 Chinese medicinal root (7)
11 Cajun stew or soup made
with okra (5)
13 Uninvited guest (11)
16 Malevolent spirit (5)
Solution to Crossword 9444

CH
D R
I DY L
L P
LOT
I
Y
DOC I
A
LOCK
L O
Y AWN
E
CR I

I F FCHA F F
L A E
I
L
L OW B R OW
H L
S
I
E LONGA T ES
A W L
H
L E L I T ANY
T T S R W
HORNS T EA
A A E S
I NG NYMPH
T
I
D
I
Y
SSCROSS

x 3 – 108

5/12

OF IT

– 897

Divide the grid
into square or
rectangular
blocks, each
containing one
digit only. Every
block must
contain the
number of cells
indicated by the
digit inside it.

Set Square

18 Physical movement
conveying a meaning (7)
21 Of the throat (8)
22 Painful condition often
affecting the big toe (4)
23 Swiss lakeside city (6)
24 Typically red gemstone (6)
Down
2 Making amends (7)
3 Shot in the dark (5)
4 Controversial area of
biology (8)
5 Windstorm (4)
6 Vulgar, coarse (7)
7 Book’s promotional text (5)
12 Completely drench (8)
14 Board member administering
funds and property (7)
15 Send to a destination
by a different way (7)
17 Residential building (5)
19 Big cat (5)
20 Black-and-white whale (4)

Saturday’s answers
ceil, celt, clef, cleft, client, cline, clint, elfin,
elicit, felicity, felinity, felt, felty, fictile, file,
filet, flint, flinty, flit, infelicity, inflect,
inflict, inlet, lectin, left, lefty, lenity, licit,
lief, lien, life, lift, line, lint, linty, liny, lite,
lytic, telic, tile

Killer

Gentle No 9296

Enter each of
the numbers
from 1 to 9 in
the grid, so that
the six sums
work. We’ve
placed two
numbers to get
you started.
Each sum
should be
calculated left
to right or top
to bottom.

Please note, BODMAS does not apply

Solutions
Quick Cryptic 2588

Kakuro 3626

Codeword 5128

Tredoku 1823

Square Routes
256

I
B
M
H
G

Need help with today’s puzzle? Call 0905 757 0143 to check the
answers. Calls cost £1 per minute plus your telephone company’s
network access charge. SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390 (Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm).

Bridge

No 3631

From these letters, make words of
three or more letters, always including
the central letter. Answers must be in
the Concise Oxford Dictionary, excluding
capitalised words, plurals, conjugated
verbs (past tense etc), adverbs ending
in LY, comparatives and superlatives.
How you rate 12 words, average;
16, good; 19, very good; 23, excellent

20

23

OF IT

Polygon

19

21

+ 698 + 1/2

No 5012

ANSWER ANSWER ANSWER

Just follow the instructions from left to right, starting with the number given to reach an answer at the end.

O
U
S
O
R

C
D
T
L
E

I
D
E
L
D

Train Tracks 2159

F
Y
R
Y
O

Andrew Robson

The English Bridge Union fields a
second English team in the
Camrose Trophy (for home
nations) on those years when
England host the second (of the
two) weekends. On the first weekend, held in Newport, South
Wales, the EBU team was captained by Tom Townsend, who
was in sparkling form.
Townsend excelled not only as a
leader — the EBU amassing 69.13
victory points out of 100, almost
ten clear of second place
(England). But also as a player: he
led the cross-imping.
Townsend (East) made a fabulous defensive play on this board
versus host nation Wales, defeating a 4♥ game that made elsewhere. Declarer won the king of
clubs lead with dummy’s ace and
picked up trumps — cashing the
king, finessing the jack and cashing the ace. At trick five, declarer
led a spade to the jack, West signalling his odd-count by playing
low. Crunch moment.
Say East wins the kneejerk
queen of spades and returns a diamond (best). Declarer rises with
the king (to preserve dummy’s ace
of diamonds entry). He leads a second spade to the king, East (say)
ducking. He may ruff a club to
return to hand to lead up a third
spade to the ten and ace. However,
with the ace of diamonds entry, he
is soon chalking up ten tricks via
five hearts, two diamonds, one
club and, crucially, two spades.
Townsend ducked the jack of
spades. Can you blame declarer for
crossing to the king of diamonds
to lead a second spade to the ten?

Dealer: West, Vulnerability: Both
Teams

♠ K J 10 4
♥K 5 4
♦A 3 2
♣A 6 4

♠ 963
N
♥7 2
W E
♦Q J 9 8
S
♣KQ J 5 ♠ 8 5 2
♥A J 9 6 3
♦K 10 7 4
♣10
S

W

Set Square 3629

Lexica 7249
I

Killer

Tricky No 9297

O

♠ AQ 7
♥ Q 10 8
♦6 5
♣9 8 7 3 2
Futoshiki 4667

KenKen 6120

U

A

S

R

T

C

E
H

E
R
Y

M

U

B

Lexica 7250
H

E

R

U

O

F

A
A

A
P

D

L

Cryptic
Quintagram
1 Angers
2 Batman
3 Handle
4 Offaly
5 Raincoat

Word watch

As with standard Sudoku, fill the grid so that every column,
every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. Each set
of cells joined by dotted lines must add up to the target number
in its top-left corner. Within each set of cells joined by dotted
lines, a digit cannot be repeated.
Cluelines Stuck on Sudoku, Killer or KenKen? Call 0901 293
6263 before midnight to receive four clues for any of today’s
puzzles. Calls cost £1 plus your telephone company’s network
access charge. SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390 (Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm).

E
A

I

R

Today’s solutions
Concise
Quintagram
1 Super
2 North
3 Binary
4 Shooting
5 See stars

Killer 9295

T
T

W

Sudoku 14,654

Y

H

G

F

Contract: 4♥ , Opening Lead: ♣K

andrew.robson@thetimes.co.uk

V

C

E(Townsend)

Pass
1♠
Pass
2NT(2) Pass
2♥ (1) Pass
4♥
End
3♠ (3) Pass
(1) The Welsh South does well to respond
2♥ rather than raise to 2♠ (which happened at the other Acol table, ending the
auction and scoring 110, instead of the row
of 620s from 4♥ at every other table). He
made the (sensible — vulnerable games
must not be missed at Imp-scoring) decision
to drive to game, facing a flat 15-count.
(2) 15-19 and forcing to game (facing a
Two-level response).
(3) Showing his delayed (ie three-card) support, offering a choice of games.

East now produced the queen and
led his second diamond — removing dummy’s ace of diamonds
entry to the 13th spade. The hapless declarer was now able to make
only one spade trick — one down.
Note, if instead of returning to
hand with the king of diamonds,
declarer had returned to hand by
ruffing a club, he would have run
out of trumps. To succeed, he had
to lead a second spade from
dummy, a most unnatural play.

R

Y

Cell Blocks 5011
N

U

Witblits (c) A potent homebrewed spirit (Collins)
Dextrality (b) Righthandedness (Chambers)
Taxaceous (a) Pertaining to
yew trees (OED)
Chess — Winning Move

Suko 4030

Brain
Trainer
Easy 8
Medium 876
Harder 2,313

Quiz

1 Daniel 2 First World War
3 St Helena 4 William
Shakespeare. It was the product
of William Henry Ireland
5 The Hobbit 6 Dragon or
serpent 7 Porcelain, produced
1 ... Qd5! is, effectively, a fork at his Plymouth Porcelain
of the white queen and rook. Factory 8 Bletchley Park
The main point is 2 Qxd5
9 Kennet & Avon Canal
Rb1+ mating. White tried
10 Sukarno 11 Jamie Dornan
2 Re7+ Kf8 3 Qe1 but now
12 The Death of Ivan Ilyich
3 ... Qd3! left White without
a good counter to the threat 13 George Holyoake 14 Virat
of 4 ... Rb1
Kohli 15 Charles II

05.02.24
For extra
puzzles
See page 10

Word watch

Sudoku

Easy No 14,655

Difficult No 14,656

Fiendish No 14,657

David Parfitt
Witblits
a A display of verbal
dexterity
b Trivial rumours or
pieces of gossip
c A potent homebrewed spirit
Dextrality
a Alphabetical order
b Right-handedness
c Any system of belief
Taxaceous
a Pertaining to yew
trees
b Subject to punitive
levies
c Organised into
biological categories
Answers on page 15
Fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9.

The Times Daily Quiz

Suko

Olav Bjortomt

1 The eponymous
prophet of which
Old Testament book
miraculously survived
the lions’ den?

coined by which
Indonesian president?
11 Which Northern
Irish actor was a model
dubbed “The Golden
Torso” by The New York
Times in 2006?

2 The Battle of Verdun
(1916) was the longest
battle of which war?

12 Which 1886 novella
by Leo Tolstoy inspired
the Akira Kurosawa
film Ikiru?

3 In 1815, HMS
Northumberland
transported Napoleon
Bonaparte to which
island?

15

4 The forgery Vortigern
and Rowena was touted
in 1796 as a newly
discovered play by whom?

Chimera has a lion’s
head, a goat’s body and
which creature’s tail?

Buckinghamshire
hosted the first global
AI Safety Summit?

13 Which English
radical journalist coined
the terms “secularism”
in 1851 and “jingoism”
in 1878?

5 Belladonna Took is the
only female mentioned
by name in which 1937
novel by JRR Tolkien?

7 Quaker minister
William Cookworthy
(1705-80) was the first
manufacturer in England
of hard-paste what?

9 Which 87 mile-long
canal links Reading
and Bristol?

14 Which Indian
batsman has scored the
most runs in IPL history?
15 Who is this Stuart
king?

6 In Greek mythology,
the fire-breathing

8 In November 2023,
which location in

10 Nasakom, standing
for nationalism, religion
and communism, was
a political concept

The Times Quick Cryptic
1

2

3

4

8

10

16

13

6

18

14

19

21

23

5

7

11

17

20

22

24

Answers on page 15

Place the numbers 1 to 9 in the spaces so
that the number in each circle is equal to
the sum of the four surrounding spaces,
and each colour total is correct

For interactive puzzles visit
thetimes.co.uk

No 2590 by Izetti

9

12

No 4030

15

Across
8 Managed to continue in Asian
capital once (7)
9 Jock’s exclamation about a
particular colour (5)
10 Appeal of domestic cleaner,
little maiden (5)
11 Be a girl, disguised in nativity
play role? (7)
12 Register thanks, having got
home nurse (9)
14 Resort in Iberian country not
favoured (3)
16 Juice to some extent poisonous
apparently (3)
18 With cry, Teresa upset office
worker (9)
21 Take out old pamphlet (7)
22 Tree in land close to sea, we
hear (5)
23 Nothing in trick to excite (5)
24 Joy with members of family
ousting extremists (7)
Down
1 Nuts as items on Christmas
table (8)

2
3
4
5
6
7
13
15
17
19
20
21
22

Sport enthusiast impedes
international — someone very
young (6)
Uplifting demeanour in dire
situation (4)
Imagine avoiding one tricky
puzzle! (6)
Unhappy about German city’s
educational establishment (8)
Caught fibres in items of
furniture (6)
Source of water? Fancy that!
(4)
Said again, looking
embarrassed about country (8)
Ought US city to be gripped
by an obsession? (8)
Erects billets (4,2)
A hundred and one
restrictions in places like Leeds
(6)
Cain’s brother, one with a
shrub (6)
Peer coming ahead of time
stopped prematurely (4)
Boy eating a vegetable (4)

Friday’s solution on page 15

thegame
MONDAY FEBRUARY 5 2024

PAGES 8-9

PAGE 11

Brave new world:
United’s kids
offer glimpse of
bright future

Hendo-mania:
midfielder now
has a range of
Ajax pillows

All the action from the weekend

Feeling the blues
Pochettino’s Chelsea are closer to relegation zone than top four — as fans sing for Mourinho
PAGES 6-7

2

1GG

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

thegame

Jorginho masterclass gives
Arsenal Liverpool
GOALKEEPING MISHAPS

31

Saka 14
Martinelli 67
Trossard 90+2

Of Alisson's top errors leading to
goals, five have come against big
six opposition
Jordan Pickford (Everton), 202 games

Gabriel (og) 45+3

David de Gea (Man United) 178

10

57%
SHOTS ON TARGET

7

11

Alisson Becker (Liverpool) 194

POSSESSION

43%

13

Bernd Leno (Arsenal, Fulham) 160

10

Hugo Lloris (Tottenham) 155

1
FOULS

10

Martin Dúbravka (Newcastle) 127

8

Nick Pope (Burnley, Newcastle) 157

11

11

7

RATINGS
Arsenal (4-3-3): D Raya 7 — B White 7, W Saliba 7,
Gabriel 7, O Zinchenko 7 (J Kiwior 46min, 7) —
M Odegaard 7, D Rice 8, Jorginho 8 — B Saka 7
(R Nelson 78), K Havertz 6, G Martinelli 8
(L Trossard 74). Booked White, Gabriel, Kiwior,
Saliba, Rice, Havertz.
Liverpool (4-3-3): Alisson 5 — T Alexander-Arnold 6
(A Robertson 58, 6), I Konaté 5, V van Dijk 5,
J Gomez 7 (T Alcântara 85) — R Gravenberch 6
(H Elliott 58, 6), A Mac Allister 7, C Jones 6 —
C Gakpo 6 (D Núñez 58, 6), D Jota 7, L Díaz 7.
Booked Gomez, Núñez, Konaté. Sent off Konaté.
Referee A Taylor.
Attendance 60,374.

HENRY
WINTER
Chief Football Writer
At Emirates Stadium

When the pressure was most on
Arsenal here, Jorginho showed his
importance, closing down Harvey
Elliott, Alexis Mac Allister . . . well,
anyone in purple, basically. When
Arsenal most needed somebody to
retain the ball high up the field, Kai
Havertz withstood the pressure from
Ibrahima Konaté and Virgil van Dijk,
doing it so adeptly that Konaté was
sent off for two fouls on the rangy
Arsenal attacker.
This was an afternoon when
Arsenal players, and the most
scrutinised, such as Jorginho and
Havertz, had to stand up and be
counted. When Arsenal most needed
victory to keep them in the title race,
they delivered. They may not win it,
but they are definitely in it.
The players showed their resilience,
especially the outstanding Jorginho,
deservedly defeating the Premier
League leaders.
Liverpool made one defensive
calamity, an astounding and very rare
mix-up between Alisson and Van
Dijk, but were not simply authors of
their own downfall; Arsenal also
scripted this. They pressurised them.
Their fans played their part too. The
Arsenal Invincible Martin Keown
took the microphone before kick-off
and urged fans to forget the Jürgen
Klopp farewell tour narrative in the
media and focus on exhorting their
team to victory.
They sensed when the team most
needed lifting, and when Liverpool
threatened most, going through the
songbook. They even twirled their
scarves and nicked a Liverpool refrain
at the end. As they celebrated,
Manchester City will have joined in
from afar. City remain the favourites
but Arsenal have ensured it is a threehorse race for now, while Aston Villa
will not be dismissed lightly.
Arsenal fans certainly sang the
praises of their manager. It’s

remarkable that some still doubt
Mikel Arteta, more those engaged in
social media skirmishing than the
believers flocking to the Emirates.
Arteta got his tactics right, a 4-2-3-1
system lent additional strength and
fluidity by Havertz’s movement up
top, occasionally dropping off, filling
in for Gabriel Jesus, who was nursing
a knee injury. Havertz is patently
not the finisher they need, and when
the German ran through early on
goal he never looked like scoring,
but he stretched and distracted
Liverpool defenders.
Arteta started Jorginho alongside
Declan Rice and the pair controlled
midfield. Jorginho anchored with Rice
rushing out to press, especially on
Curtis Jones and Mac Allister. As the
game wore on, as Liverpool tried to
get back into the game, Jorginho’s
interventions proved so important. If
Enzo Fernández and Moisés Caicedo
are worth £100 million or more each,
what is Jorginho value? The Italian,
admittedly now 32, cost Arsenal only
£12million from Chelsea a year ago.
Knowing they had to be positive,
and chase all the points, Arsenal’s

HOW THEY STAND
P W D L F A GD Pts
Liverpool
23 15 6 2 52 22 30 51
Arsenal
23 15 4 4 47 22 25 49
Man City
21 14 4 3 51 24 27 46
Aston Villa
23 14 4 5 49 30 19 46
Tottenham
23 13 5 5 49 35 14 44
Man Utd
23 12 2 9 31 32 -1 38
West Ham
23 10 6 7 36 36 0 36
Brighton
23 9 8 6 42 38 4 35
Newcastle
23 10 3 10 48 37 11 33
Wolves
23 9 5 9 37 37 0 32
Chelsea
23 9 4 10 38 39 -1 31
Bournemouth 22 7 6 9 30 41 -11 27
Fulham
23 7 5 11 30 38 -8 26
Crystal Palace 23 6 6 11 26 40 -14 24
Brentford
21 6 4 11 31 36 -5 22
Nottm Forest 23 5 6 12 28 41 -13 21
Luton
22 5 5 12 32 42 -10 20
*Everton
23 8 5 10 26 30 -4 19
Burnley
23 3 4 16 24 47 -23 13
Sheffield Utd 23 2 4 17 19 59 -40 10
* deducted 10pts for breaching financial rules

tactics were immediately clear. They
eschewed elaborate build-ups from
the back, going on the attack far more
rapidly. They targeted the space
behind Trent Alexander-Arnold,
inviting Gabriel Martinelli to race

forward. Konaté was drawn across to
try to deal with Martinelli but the
Brazilian was a constant threat.
Arsenal drove the ball to the feet
of Bukayo Saka, looking for him
to turn Joe Gomez or exploit
the left back’s occasional
inverting into midfield.
Arteta also got his changes
correct, with his half-time
insertion of Jakub Kiwior
for Oleksandr Zinchenko
at 1-1 bringing more
defensive security.
He sent on Reiss
Nelson, who helped
out in defence
when Liverpool
came calling. Arteta
also unleashed
Leandro Trossard,
who plundered
a third.
His tactics, this
swiftness in transition,
were rewarded early.
Arsenal went ahead
after 14 minutes.
Zinchenko touched
the ball in from the

left, and Martin Odegaard played it
first time through the middle,
releasing Havertz. He never exuded
total confidence as Alisson
advanced, and shot straight at
the Liverpool goalkeeper. But
the ball rebounded to Saka.
Two flourishes with his left foot
propelled Arsenal ahead. The
first tamed the bouncing ball and
the second placed it past the
floored Alisson, and past the
sliding Konaté on
the line.
Liverpool badly
missed Mohamed
Salah, still injured,
while Darwin
Núñez began on
the bench, and
the cameras
lingered on him
at times. Klopp
deployed Diogo Jota
through the middle,
flanked by Cody Gakpo
and the left-sided Luis
Arteta relishes his side’s
return to the title race

the times | Monday February 5 2024

3

1GG

Arsenal belief

TONY
CASCARINO
Gregor Robertson
visits ???????????????
Weekend talking points

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND

Alisson and
Van Dijk find
themselves in
a mess, left, to
give Martinelli
an open goal

Díaz. But Liverpool were misfiring,
But then came some even more
along with Anthony Taylor’s
shocking defending. The half-time
transceiver, which required tweaking, entertainment involved airline cabin
much to the derision of the fans and
crew shooting at targets, bizarre
a disapproving wave from Aaron
enough, to a backdrop of The Clash’s
Ramsdale on the Arsenal bench.
London Calling, which concluded
There was certainly a breakdown
abruptly on the “meltdown
in communication in Arsenal’s
expected” lyric. Even more surreally
defence seconds from the break.
came the unexpected meltdown in
Ryan Gravenberch’s pass down the
Liverpool’s defence after 67 minutes.
inside-right channel should
Gabriel’s long ball
have been seen off by a
should have been a
centre back of the
straightforward
calibre of William
intervention for Van
Saliba. Díaz simply
Dijk. The experienced
would not give up,
Dutchman has faced
and the Colombian
such situations
League games lost by
chased and chased.
thousands of times,
Liverpool in their past
Saliba appeared to be
shielding a ball back
34 (W22, D10) — against
expecting David Raya
to his goalkeeper, but
Spurs in September and
to come out and clear.
misjudged
the bounce
Arsenal yesterday
The goalkeeper should
and was also nudged
have taken responsibility.
by Martinelli. Alisson
Instead, Saliba allowed Díaz to
suddenly appeared, trying to
get ahead of him. Raya did come
fly-kick the ball away, but kicked
out, colliding with the Liverpool
Van Dijk instead and missed the
attacker. Díaz, reacting quickest
ball. Martinelli suddenly found
on the floor, flicked the ball across,
himself unmarked, 16 yards out,
it hit Gabriel’s hand and crossed
with the goal at his mercy — and
the line.
he was merciless.

2

Martinelli has hit prolific form at
the right time, scoring three times in
the past three league games after
two in his previous 18.
Arsenal showed their steely side,
protecting the lead. Jorginho
dropped back to left back to beat
Elliott in the air. Odegaard jockeyed
Elliott away from the danger area.
Trossard replaced Martinelli and did
well closing down the lively Elliott.
Arsenal’s task was made easier when
Konaté, already booked, deservedly
received a second yellow for
baulking Havertz.
Arsenal then showed their silkier
side, Trossard taking a pass from
Kiwior, turning away from Elliott,
racing down the left and sliding the
ball, via a slight deflection off Van
Dijk, through Alisson’s legs. At the
final whistle, Arsenal celebrated as if
they had taken a big stride towards
the title, rather than just ensuring
their presence among the
contenders, but their jubilation was
understandable. Dropped points
would have been calamitous. Arsenal
may not last the course, but they
have given themselves a chance.

Chelsea’s recruitment is
the worst I’ve ever seen
Things look bad for Chelsea
but I can only see the situation
getting worse. Darker days are
ahead at Stamford Bridge.
They have lost more games than
they have won in the Premier
League this season and, after
spending more than £1 billion on
players, have a bang average squad.
This is the most negligent
recruitment I have seen. Barcelona
splashed out a lot of money on the
likes of Ousmane Dembélé and
Philippe Coutinho, it didn’t work
and they paid a heavy price.
Chelsea’s recruitment is even worse.
Under Roman Abramovich, if
players were not working Chelsea
would just get rid of them and buy
some more. Those days are over.
They won’t have the funds to spend
a fortune again and comply with
financial rules. They are already
under investigation as it is.
And the value of the misfiring
bunch Todd Boehly has signed off
on is falling. To raise cash, Chelsea
have to sell homegrown players
such as Conor Gallagher, who has
been one of their best performers,
simply because the proceeds will be
pure profit.
Nearly every recruitment call has
been wrong. Cole Palmer has been a

success and Christopher Nkunku, if
he remains fit, could help the cause.
Eventually, though, if things carry
on this way, even they will drop
below the standards expected,
because everyone has.
It is debatable how long Mauricio
Pochettino can last if Chelsea
continue to struggle. But heads may
well roll in every department at
Stamford Bridge — not just the
head coach’s.

Playing Mac Allister at
No 6 backfired on Klopp

Van de Ven must look
out for his goalkeeper

It is not often I criticise
Liverpool’s tactical choices but
Alexis Mac Allister is not a No 6. It
is just not his strength as he gets
caught on the ball and gives away
possession too much.
He has done it a lot this season
and it was very noticeable yesterday
in the defeat by Arsenal because of
the contrast with Jorginho. He did
not give the ball away at all
yesterday and after he won it he
played it simple.
Mac Allister caused Liverpool
problems yesterday, especially in
the first half, because when he loses
the ball in deep positions, the
opposition are in on Liverpool’s
back four. He is far more effective
further up the field.
I also thought Liverpool were out
of sorts yesterday and, after not
losing for 15 league games, looked a
little complacent.

Micky van de Ven has been
outstanding for Tottenham
Hotspur this season — a fine
example of when proper
recruitment policies work.
His speed in recovery in defensive
situations is remarkable, as he
showed against Everton on
Saturday.
But he needs to add to his game if
he is going to be a complete centre
half. He has to become more of a
leader in his own penalty area and
take control of situations. Especially
at set pieces.
Van de Ven should have seen that
his goalkeeper, Guglielmo Vicario,
was in trouble at Goodison Park
and getting bullied at set pieces. He
should have stepped in and taken
control of those situations to
protect his team-mate. The same
goes for his centre-back partner,
Cristian Romero.

Ten Hag’s forwards look
lost without possession

Hodgson deserves to
call time on own career

At last Erik ten Hag looks like
he has settled on a first-choice
Manchester United front three in
Marcus Rashford, Rasmus Hojlund
and Alejandro Garnacho.
In sweeping aside West Ham, all
of them showed high energy and
good technique, and stretched the
opposition defence to full effect.
That is all great when United are
going forward with the ball, but all
three need to work harder to defend
when United don’t have possession.
Ten Hag needs to impress still that
more is expected of them.

Roy Hodgson has had an
outstanding and distinguished
career. He has managed in eight
countries and been in charge of
more than 20 teams, including
Liverpool and England. He has
been a manager since 1976.
He deserves to call time on his
career himself and bask in the
plaudits that are due to him. It
leaves me wondering why, at the
age of 76, he wants to endure
Crystal Palace fans taunting him
and calling for his sacking. Hodgson
deserves much, much better.

TEAM OF THE WEEK

C Ogbene
Luton

E Martínez
A Villa

4-2-3-1
Á Moreno
A Villa

M Van de Ven L Dunk
Tottenham Brighton
Jorginho
Arsenal

D Luiz
A Villa

A Garnacho
Man Utd João Pedro
Brighton

M Cunha
Wolves

O Watkins
Aston Villa

4

1GG

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

thegame
SHAUN BOTTERILL/GETTY IMAGES

‘Incredible
display has
put us back
in title race’
GARY JACOB

Saliba, left, under pressure from Luis Díaz, tried to shepherd the ball back to David Raya, but a mix-up resulted in Gabriel turning the ball into his own net with his hand

To clear or be clever? Van Dijk
and Saliba get it wrong for once
Supreme assurance
usually exuded by the
Liverpool and Arsenal
centre backs was
missing, writes
James Gheerbrant
So you’re 66 minutes into one of your
biggest matches of the season and the
ball goes flying over your head. At
this moment, the game is in the
balance, the title is in your control,
and that’s all a season is, in the end:
an accumulation of thousands and
thousands of moments, and the
decisions that they impel. In this
instant, the ball goes screaming
through the dark sky into the space
behind you, the crowd noise rises to a
torrential roar and, as you turn, you
feel the breath of the fastest player in
the Premier League hot on the back
of your neck. You have to make a
split-second decision. And you, Virgil
van Dijk, make the choice that has
defined your famous career: the
smooth option over the safe one, the
elegant over the elementary, the
cultured over the agricultural.
A second and a half later, your
goalkeeper hurtles over the ball like a
park runner hurdling an unleashed
labradoodle, and Gabriel Martinelli
rolls the ball into the empty net.
The stadium is abuzz and Arsenal’s
title race is afoot. It’s an error that
carries a three-point swing, in a
league where you have twice lost the
title by one. Later, a man sticks a

microphone in front of your face
and you admit, faced with the almost
impossible calculation of speeds and
trajectories and trade-offs that
moment presented, that you made
the wrong call. “I should have made
a better decision there. I should just
try and clear it. I chose to let the ball
bounce and try to put my body in
between.”
Such is the life of a Premier League
centre back. And in fairness to Van
Dijk, he was not the only defender to
err in a game in which usually
immovable objects met with
unstoppable farce. William Saliba, one
of the very few centre backs in world
football who comes close to matching
Van Dijk’s imperious elan, had gifted
Liverpool a goal just before half-time
with a very similar miscalculation:
trying to shepherd the ball back to his
goalkeeper, then watching as chaos
flooded in where he feared to tread.
On Radio 5 Live, Matthew Upson,
the former England centre back,
opined that Saliba had tried to be “too
clean and too clever”. It was a phrase
that perfectly encapsulated so much
of what defending is in modern
football. Once, defending was
fundamentally Hippocratic: first, do
no harm. If in doubt, kick it out.
Nowadays the game is totally
different, and whether it’s playing out
through the press or defending facing
your own goal, an awful lot of centreback play hinges on a calculated
indifference to threat, finding the
neatest possible exit from situations,
trusting the system rather than the
swing of your own boot.
Over the course of a season, this
preference for composure over the
untidy evasion of risk reaps rewards.

Presses are bisected,
possession retained, spaces
opened up, unnecessary
throw-ins and corners
avoided. Less tangibly, the
supreme assurance exuded
by the likes of Van Dijk and
Saliba confers its own power
and can cloak them
like a force-field.
There is a reason
why all the top
teams play this way.
But a season is also
made up of individual
moments, situations,
decisions, the biggest
of which can pitch an
entire campaign in a
different direction.
When is it better to
just put your foot
through it, to put your
fear of the opponent
above your own aura of
command? Saliba’s
team, himself included,
performed a defensive
masterclass here. They
restricted one of the
best attacking teams in
the Premier League to
0.4 expected goals. At
the end of a half in
which they had
thoroughly nullified
and demoralised
Liverpool, that one
moment could so
easily have changed
Konaté struggled
to deal with
Havertz and
was sent off

the course of the game. In 180
minutes this season against Liverpool
and Manchester City, it was arguably
the only clear sight of goal Mikel
Arteta’s defence have allowed.
In the end Arsenal got what they
deserved from this game, and
the thought occurred that
Arteta may just have
stumbled across his best
team. Jorginho was
outstanding, so precise
and judicious in his choice
of when to pass between
the lines and when to go
short and square, and his
controlling presence
enables Declan Rice to be
the best version of himself.
Up front, Kai Havertz’s
height, scrappy physicality
and tireless channel running
gave Van Dijk and Ibrahima
Konaté a restless 90
minutes and offered a
constant outlet for
Arsenal’s defenders to
play over the top of
the press.
Arteta decisively
won the tactical
battle here, but
this was a match
whose most
indelible moments
were those scenes
of defensive
meltdown, each
team shooting
themselves in the
foot by attempting
the meticulous,
and inviting
the
ridiculous.

Mikel Arteta declared that Arsenal
were back in the Premier League title
race after a 3-1 win over Liverpool
that turned on a mistake by Virgil van
Dijk. His Arsenal side recovered from
two straight league defeats at the turn
of the year to move within two points
of the league leaders.
Van Dijk took the blame for a
comical mix-up with Alisson, his
goalkeeper, which let Gabriel
Martinelli tap the ball into an empty
net and put Arsenal back in front in
the second half. Leandro Trossard
sealed Liverpool’s second league
defeat of the season — the other also
coming in north London, against
Tottenham Hotspur in September —
after the defender Ibrahima Konaté
was dismissed for two bookings, each
for tangling with Kai Havertz.
Arteta said Arsenal had shown the
mentality to rebound after difficult
results, while knowing that a defeat
would have left them trailing
Liverpool by eight points. “Absolutely,
we have shown that today,” Arteta
said. “We are there [in the race], that’s
for sure. It gives us momentum and
the way we have done it we are back
on it, I am really excited.
“We were ruthless when we had a
chance. It was an extraordinary game
and an incredible performance. It
feels like a big win and feels like we
have connected on a different level
with our people because the stadium
was sensational. The players left
absolutely everything [out there].
They put their heart and soul in
every single ball. I cannot be any
prouder.”
Bukayo Saka limped off with a kick
to the foot, which Arteta said was not
serious, after the winger had given
Arsenal an early lead. With 30
seconds left of first-half stoppage
time, Luis Díaz took advantage of a
mix-up in Arsenal’s defence and his
pull-back hit the defender Gabriel and
went in to level the score.
Arteta said that after dominating
the opening half, when Liverpool did
not have a shot on target, he had to lift
the players at the break. “The way we
conceded was painful, we could not
feel sorry for ourselves, we needed to
react and there was a lot to play for,”
he said. “The message was there were
going to be difficult moments and we
had to navigate through them.”
Van Dijk took the blame for the
mix-up with Alisson. “I take full
responsibility for that,” Van Dijk said.
“That is a big moment, a big turning
point. I should have made a better
decision — it hurts for me. It was my
responsibility, I should try to clear it.
After the break we had opportunities
and were dominant, the atmosphere
started to become nervous. Alisson
touched me a little bit and he couldn’t
clear it. In so many ways losing was
unnecessary. At the highest level it is
a split decision.”
Jürgen Klopp challenged his
Liverpool players to go on another
unbeaten run after only a second
defeat in 34 league games since April
last year. “It was a bad day at the
office and we need to make sure it
does not happen again,” Klopp said.
“It was a strange second goal. It was a
misunderstanding, it shows they are
human. The red card made it tricky. A
lot of things went against us.”

the times | Monday February 5 2024

5

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thegame

Forest earn point in sullen scrap
BRYN LENNON/GETTY IMAGES

Bournemouth

Nott’m Forest

1

Hudson-Odoi 45

Kluivert 5

1

RATINGS
Bournemouth (4-2-3-1): Neto 5 — A Smith 5,
I Zabarnyi 5, M Senesi 5, L Kelly 5 (M Kerkez
83min) — L Cook 5, R Christie 5 (A Scott 56, 5) —
A Semenyo 6 (M Tavernier 45, 5), J Kluivert 6
(P Billing 56, 5), L Sinisterra 6 (D Outtara 71) —
D Solanke 5. Booked Senesi, Kluivert, Neto.
Sent off Billing.
Nottingham Forest (4-2-3-1): M Sels 5 — N Williams
5 (G Montiel 78), A Omobamidele 5, Murillo 5,
N Tavares 5 — R Yates 5, N Dominguez 5 (Danilo
71) — A Elanga 5 (G Reyna 71), M Gibbs-White 6,
C Hudson-Odoi 6 (R Ribeiro 89) — T Awoniyi 5.
Booked Omobamidele, Yates.
Referee R Welch.
Attendance 11,200.

HAMZAH KHALIQUE-LOONAT
Callum Hudson-Odoi’s delightful
curled effort provided a rare moment
of excellence and earned Nottingham
Forest a draw with Bournemouth in a
curious game characterised by
petulance rather than quality.
This fixture was a throwback, but in
all the wrong ways. This was a roughand-tumble, rugged contest, in which
the best attacking players could only
act in glimpses.
“It was not a beautiful game,” Nuno
Espírito Santo, the Forest head coach,
said of the match, although it was not
obvious from the start that such a
torrid, broken affair would play out.
Bournemouth began brilliantly,
ferociously pressing to win the ball
and pinning Forest back into their
own area. Luis Sinisterra, Justin
Kluivert and Antoine Semenyo
posed threats from all angles,
dribbling and shooting across the
front. It was a distillation of
Bournemouth at their best. Dominic
Solanke, sandwiched between the
Forest defence, was the only player
who could not get involved.
Yet despite the strong approach
play, it was a set piece that provided
the opener. A corner was swung in
from the left which Sinisterra met
with a flicked header, and with the
ball about to cross the line Kluivert
poked in at the back post.
From roughly the 15th minute
onwards, set pieces would offer the
best opportunities of the match.
Morgan Gibbs-White’s deep cross into

Neto failed to stop Hudson-Odoi’s curled equaliser, with the forward’s effort a rare moment of quality in a match that became increasingly scrappy as it progressed

Murillo was headed into Ryan
and made for a more open contest.
Yates’s patch, and his swivelling
The referee, Rebecca Welch, was
effort required Neto to get
keen to let the game flow,
down sharply.
much to the chagrin of both
Bournemouth’s control
supporters, but the
of the game was
quality of the match in
wrested back by Forest
the opening 15 minutes
shortly before the
felt improved for the
half-hour mark.
intensity, speed and
Goals from outside the
Andoni Iraola’s
physicality allowed.
box by Hudson-Odoi for
team tried to play with
However, once
Forest, having scored
the same aggressive
the players recognised
all four of his Chelsea
tempo when a steadier
the leniency of the
goals in the box
and slower game might
officiating they began to
have been more conducive
push the boundaries, falling
to building on their lead.
to ground and feigning injuries
As they continued to press, Forest
at the slightest contact.
attempted to play more direct passes,
Soon it descended into a fouling
which pushed their opponents back
contest. There were 31 in total, 19 by

2

Bournemouth and 12 by Forest. “It
was a tough game to whistle, both
teams were arguing,” Nuno said.
His sentiment was mirrored by
Iraola. “It wasn’t an easy game,” the
Bournemouth head coach added.
Lloyd Kelly appeared fortunate that
when he grappled with Yates in the
box, neither the on-field referee nor
the VAR decided to award a penalty.
Tempers began to flare. Kluivert,
annoyed that a tug on his shirt was
not penalised, froze in expectation of a
foul and retaliated by charging down
Anthony Elanga. The forward was
lucky not to receive another yellow for
at least two challenges.
The openness of the game led to
very few chances, though. “The game

was basically decided by set pieces,”
Iraola said.
When either a free kick or corner
was awarded, both managers
surrendered the touchline, allowing
their respective set piece coaches to
bark instructions from the dugout.
Simon Rusk, Forest’s first set piece
specialist coach, orchestrated the
equaliser. Again, Murillo made the
first contact, this time heading
towards Hudson-Odoi.
The forward recovered the loose
ball on the edge of the area and duly
curled in the equaliser.
There was then little of note,
beyond Philip Billing’s red card in the
84th minute, in a second period that
produced zero shots on goal.

Newcastle’s frailties run deeper than just Pope loss
Newcastle United
Longstaff 7, 23, Trippier 67, Barnes 73

Luton Town
Osho 21, Barkley 40, Morris 57 (pen),
Adebayo 62

4
4

MARTIN HARDY
After Newcastle United’s 1-0 victory
over Manchester United on
December 2, Jürgen Klopp ended a
feud with Eddie Howe by saying: “I
don’t think I ever praised Newcastle
before but I have to say, ‘Wow!’ ”
“It was a commercial for pressing,
counterpressing and direct, really
good football.”
Newcastle were fifth, with 26 points
from 14 games, and two points off a
Champions League place. Nick Pope
had suffered a dislocated shoulder
with four minutes remaining. That
felt significant even then, for
Newcastle had conceded only four
goals at St James’ Park in the nine

Premier League games they had
played this season.
It is too simple to say that
Newcastle’s recent capitulation
defensively is solely down to the
absence of Pope, but it has not helped.
The four goals conceded against
Luton meant Newcastle have leaked
ten goals on home soil in three
games. That is some turnaround.
“Defensively there were some worries
for us,” Howe admitted.
That was a sober viewpoint,
beyond the drama of coming back
from 4-2 down, and with good reason.
Newcastle have taken seven points
from the nine games since that
victory against Manchester United
and for the first time there was an
element of dissent towards Howe,
when he chose to leave Dan Burn at
left back, despite his difficulties with
the pace of Chiedozie Ogbene.
When Elijah Adebayo scored the
fourth in the 62nd minute, there was
a chant from the Gallowgate End to

Howe of “Tino, Tino”. He listened
and replaced Burn with Tino
Livramento and the game changed
direction again.
Twice Newcastle had led through
Sean Longstaff goals, twice Luton
came back, through Gabriel Osho
and the excellent Ross Barkley.
Then they led through a Carlton
Morris penalty (given after VAR
adjudged that Burn had fouled
Ogbene in the penalty area)
and then came Adebayo.
The spirit showed, the
dramatic goals and the
noise created when
Kieran Trippier and
Harvey Barnes
scored could not
mask a worrying
trend for a team
who finished fourth
last season. Pope is a
Burn’s deployment at left
back brought fan derision

huge loss, but Newcastle’s issues
run deeper than the absence of the
England goalkeeper.
“It’s very unlike us,” Howe said.
“Even early season, we weren’t perfect
defensively, but we were tight enough.
“The last few games here have
been far from ideal defensively
and it’s certainly something
that we’ll go away and look at
and try to find answers to.
“Our midfield has a
different look about it
than it did last year with
the pace of Joe Willock
and the ball-winning
abilities of Joelinton.
Certainly they’ve
been absolutely
fundamental to our
success, and we’ve lost
their athleticism.
“That’s not a criticism of,
again, the three players who
played — Sean scored two
and I think Lewie [Lewis

Miley] did really well. We switched
him and Bruno [Guimãraes] during
the game and Lewie showed maturity
beyond his years to play as a six
because there’s a lot of responsibility
in that position.
“Bruno is Bruno, so that’s not a
criticism of those players, but just our
midfield dynamic looks different.”
The reality is also that the gap to a
Champions League place has grown
to 13 points in two months and no
one is talking of a return next season.
For Luton, there has been the
first murmurings of international
recognition for just how well Barkley
has done. There was a goal, an assist
and a game-controlling display.
“I don’t want to create big
headlines,” Rob Edwards, the Luton
manager, said.
“Gareth [Southgate] is very good
at his job and he knows far more
than me. All I know is that since he’s
been back in the team, we can have
more control.”

6

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Monday February 5 2024 | the times

thegame

Tentative Chelsea
plagued by doubt
under Pochettino
Chelsea

2

Palmer 19
Silva 86

Wolves

1-1 Cunha 22min

1-2 Disasi og 43min

4

Cunha 22, 63, 82 (pen)
Disasi (og) 43

RATINGS
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): D Petrovic 6 — M Gusto 5
(A Gilchrist 81min), T Silva 6, A Disasi 5, B Chilwell
5 (B Badiashile 81) — M Caicedo 5 (N Jackson 63),
E Fernández 6 — C Palmer 7, C Gallagher 6,
R Sterling 5 (M Mudryk 71) — C Nkunku 6
(C Chukwuemeka 71). Booked Gusto, Chilwell,
Caicedo.
Wolves (3-4-2-1): J Sá 7 — M Kilman 7, C Dawson 7,
T Gomes 6 — N Semedo 7, M Lemina 7, J Gomes 7
(M Doherty 90), R Ait-Nouri 7 (H Bueno 87) —
P Sarabia 7 (T Doyle 72), M Cunha 8 — Neto 8
(J-R Bellegarde 72). Booked Semedo, Neto.
Referee T Robinson.
Attendance 39,628.

ALYSON RUDD
This was Chelsea’s tenth defeat in the
league this season so it would be
misleading to label the result as a
shock, and quite possibly a sizeable
proportion of Chelsea fans expected
it. But there was something
instructive about the manner in
which Wolverhampton Wanderers
arrived utterly free of nerves and
bursting with energy. It was as if Gary
O’Neil had decided the cleverest way
to ensure victory, their first at
Stamford Bridge since 1979, would be
for his team to try to be the opposite
of the west London club and
capitalise on their embarrassment at
losing so comprehensively on
Wednesday against Liverpool.
Everything that was scintillating
came from Wolves. Chelsea are a
team arguably still in transition but
have so much expensive individual
quality on the pitch that it is very
hard to summon sympathy for their
plight. It is the plight of being rather
ordinary when so much more is
demanded and expected. Little was
expected from Wolves at the start of
the season and yet they have lit up
the Premier League, providing
entertainment, skill and speed, and
the freedom to attack at will. By
contrast Chelsea are tentative and
overly cautious. No wonder their
supporters groaned at length.
Mauricio Pochettino knew he was
supposed to respond to the generally
lacklustre display at Anfield midweek
and in some respects selected a more
balanced Chelsea team, not least
because he deployed two full backs
instead of asking a centre half to
deputise out wide.
The head coach expected a reaction
against the team who defeated them
at Molineux on Christmas Eve but it
was clear, all the same, which side
felt more comfortable with their place
in the universe. Wolves ran at the
home side from the start, as if their
primary objective was to provide
entertainment, and Matheus Cunha’s
shot was well saved by Djordje
Petrovic. Indeed, O’Neil’s side have
been a joy to watch all campaign with
Pedro Neto a ball of balletic energy.
Christopher Nkunku was initially
Chelsea’s liveliest player and in the

opening minutes had just José Sá to
disappointingly shot wide. A Pablo
beat as he powered forward, but the
Sarabia free kick fluttered against the
Wolves goalkeeper raced out to divert
outside of Petrovic’s net and then a
the ball and the France international
Neto free kick struck the wall, but
was unable to adequately readjust.
Wolves were more dangerous when
If you want a flash of genius from a
running with the ball and scored
Chelsea player, though, it comes most
a third after Neto set the right
regularly from Cole Palmer, who ran
flank ablaze to set up Cunha for a
to meet Moisés Caicedo’s perfectly
precise finish.
judged angled pass and then slotted
Chelsea simply looked at the
the ball calmly past Sá.
opposition like they had never before
The visiting side responded
encountered such smiling positivity.
immediately. Caicedo turned villain
The Wolves fans sang “You’re f***ing
by being easily dispossessed by João
shit” and the home supporters joined
Gomes, leaving Chelsea exposed and
in. It felt like a watershed moment,
allowing Cunha to shoot. The ball
the day the Chelsea fans ran out of
then deflected unkindly off Thiago
patience with the present regime,
Silva, with Petrovic wrong-footed.
having been briefly delighted to
Nkunku’s sparkle gradually
have reached the final of the
dimmed but no one
Carabao Cup.
stepped up into the void
Wolves did not ease up
to offer the positivity
and Malo Gusto felled
that was sorely
Cunha in the penalty
required. A promising
area. Gusto was
Before
this
season
Chelsea
free kick routine was
immediately
hadn’t
conceded
4+
goals
wasted by Raheem
substituted and then
in consecutive league
Sterling. Wolves came
Cunha stepped up to
games since 1989. They
closer from a similar
take the spot kick
have now done it twice
position with Cunha’s
with a bucketful of the
under
Pochettino
header rippling the top of
sort of confidence that
Petrovic’s net.
comes from having had a
O’Neil’s team fizzed with
superb match, waiting for the
energy and took the lead after Neto
goalkeeper to dive to his right before
found the run of Rayan Aït-Nouri,
gently placing the ball in the opposite
whose strike clipped Axel Disasi so
direction for his hat-trick.
that the Chelsea goalkeeper was
Thiago pulled a goal back for
again deceived by a deflection.
Chelsea with a header at the near
Not everything Wolves attempted
post from a corner kick, but it did
paid off and at times they took
little to lift the sour mood. Jeanunnecessary risks, but their overall
Ricner Bellegarde really ought to
levels of joy as they pelted forward
have scored a fifth for Wolves but
served to underline just how hesitant
had too much time in which to decide
Chelsea have become overall and
how to finish.
jeers rang out as the half-time whistle
O’Neil said his is “an emotional
was blown.
group”, which can be a concern, but
As if they could smell the selfright now Chelsea could do with
doubt, Wolves ran at Chelsea some
more evident emotion and passion of
more at the start of the second half,
their own.
but Pochettino’s players responded
“It’s time to change. If you wait any
with a neat move in which Ben
longer it will be too late,” Belle Silva,
Chilwell cushioned a long ball from
the wife of Thiago, posted on X,
Palmer into the path of Sterling, who
which acted as a final indignity.

1-4 Cunha pen 82min

36

‘Time to accept reality:
ALYSON RUDD
Mauricio Pochettino said his Chelsea
side are not living up to the history of
the club after they conceded four
goals for the second time in
successive Premier League defeats.
The 4-2 defeat by Wolverhampton
Wanderers increased the pressure on
the Chelsea manager, who had to
endure his team being jeered off by
furious fans, a few of whom chanted
the name of the former manager José
Mourinho, who is out of work having
been sacked by Roma last month.
Chelsea have now suffered ten
league defeats in Pochettino’s first
season in charge — four at home —
and the Argentinian admitted: “We
are all not good enough. At the
moment, that is the reality. Myself,
also. I’m the first one responsible for

this situation. What we were showing
today was that we are not good
enough. We didn’t manage the
situation properly and, of course, no
one can be safe.
“I don’t want to come here and say,
‘No, I am the best, and the players are
the worst.’ We are all responsible. The
players need to take responsibility like
I take responsibility.”
The fans also sang derogatorily
about the team’s performance and
longingly for Roman Abramovich, the
former owner who had to relinquish
control in the wake of Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine, but under whom
the club won five Premier League
titles and two Champions Leagues.
“At the moment, we are not
matching the history of the club,”
Pochettino added. “That is true.
We need to accept it and we need
to be critics but we cannot give up.

the times | Monday February 5 2024

7

1GG

thegame
DAVID KLEIN/REUTERS; BRADLEY COLLYER/PA; CRAIG MERCER/ALAMY

Spurs’ Achilles heel?
Giving up ‘big chances’
JASON CAIRNDUFF/ACTION IMAGES/REUTERS

Everton
Harrison 30, Branthwaite 90+4

Tottenham
Richarlison 4, 41

2
2

PAUL JOYCE

Cunha celebrates
equalising in the
first half, above,
with the first of
his three goals
for Wolves, who
took the lead
when an
Aït-Nouri shot
deflected in off a
rueful Disasi, far
left. Cunha then
extended Wolves’
advantage with a
precise finish,
right, on 63
minutes before
the Brazilian
completed his
hat-trick from the
penalty spot, left,
after he had been
fouled by Gusto

1-3 Cunha 63min

Tottenham conceded late again, with Branthwaite equalising in the 94th minute

flight side for the number of goals
they should have conceded this term
(41), behind Sheffield United, Luton,
West Ham United and Fulham.
That they have actually leaked only
35 may reflect well on the goalkeeper
Guglielmo Vicario, but he has looked
especially susceptible at set pieces
over the past week, with Manchester
City profiting in their FA Cup success
before Sean Dyche borrowed the
playbook to great effect on Saturday.
Tottenham’s high defensive line
and willingness to play out from the
back is non-negotiable, as shown by
Postecoglou’s “It’s just who we are,
mate” speech after the nine-man, 4-1
defeat by Chelsea in November. Yet
the approach that has been roundly
heralded also offers constant
encouragement to opponents.
“To concede in the 94th minute is
killing,” said the defender Micky van
de Ven, who was constantly urging
those in front of him to take more
care in possession. “We had to kill the

game at the end. We needed to play in
their half but we let them attack.”
Everton’s willingness to push until
the final whistle is an improvement
that Dyche has overseen during his
year in charge and which will serve
them well in their relegation battle.
They were also buoyed by the
manager’s willingness to roll the dice
in the closing stages.
Lewis Dobbin, 21, has played only
an hour of football since scoring
against Chelsea in December, and the
brightness of his cameo suggested he
could have been deployed more often.
But that Dyche was in a position
to go for broke perhaps revealed
as much about Spurs, who have now
conceded eight goals in stoppage
time. “We know what Tottenham are
like,” the winger Ashley Young said.
“They are a good side and they want
to play out from the back. But when
you get in their faces, you can win the
ball back in high positions and you
get chances to go and score.”

Watkins: We are out of sticky spell
Sheffield United
Aston Villa
McGinn 12, Watkins 16, Bailey 20,
Tielemans 30, Moreno 47

0
5

CHARLOTTE DUNCKER

we aren’t good enough’
We’ll work hard to change. We will
try to find things a different way. If
it’s not working in this way, we
need to move on and try to find a
different solution.”
Yesterday’s defeat, which left
Chelsea in 11th place in the Premier
League, followed the midweek 4-1
thrashing away to Liverpool. It was
the second time under Pochettino
that Chelsea had twice conceded four
or more goals in consecutive league
games, having not previously done so
since December 1989.
The former Tottenham Hotspur
head coach admitted that on a
personal level it was unpleasant to
hear the discontent from the stands,
and said that the players needed
support to overcome disappointment.
“The perception is one thing,
another is the reality,” Pochettino
said. “The perception is Chelsea

For all the optimism that Ange
Postecoglou has brought to
Tottenham Hotspur, there are
occasions such as this when the sense
of progress feels in the balance. The
head coach’s hangdog demeanour
betrayed his disappointment at
another late concession, with Everton
taking advantage of clear frailties to
pilfer a point.
Tottenham are five points better off
after 23 matches than last season but,
like then, sit fifth in the standings and
are entering a decisive period when
improvement is required and
consistency is key if objectives are
to be realised. A run of five wins in
13 Premier League matches since
moving two points clear at the top at
the end of October can be partly
attributed to injuries, of course, but
design faults also persist.
The attack-minded Postecoglou
lamented a lack of killer instinct at
Goodison Park as they spurned the
chance to increase the pressure on
those sides above them. That he then
went on to rue the “little moments”
that his team had been unable to deal
with effectively also felt instructive.
The statisticians would regard the
goals Everton scored, by Jack
Harrison and Jarrad Branthwaite
from inside the six-yard box, as “big
chances”, and one of the subplots of
Tottenham’s season is that they give
away too many of those (64). Only
two promoted sides, Luton Town and
Sheffield United, have faced more and
Spurs also rank as the fifth-worst top-

should be in a different position but
from different circumstances, we are
not there. Maybe because we are not
good enough. Of course we need to
accept this is the organisation and the
players we have.
“To understand the fans is really
important. We say, ‘Yes, we want to
apologise, I feel sorry.’ We are
disappointed like them but until the
end we need to fight together. If we
want good results in the future we
need to stay together.
“They are right to criticise and be
angry but the players are young, the
young team needs support. At the end
of the game they can behave like they
want to behave, because they are
entitled to behave how they feel.
“When you don’t win at a club like
Chelsea, with all the expectation, you
need to accept that what happened
can happen.”

For some, Aston Villa losing to
Newcastle United last week proved
what they had thought at the start of
the season: that Villa did not have the
credentials to mount a long-term
challenge for the top four.
But for Ollie Watkins and the rest
of the Villa team there was no panic
or doubt in their ability. “People are
very fickle within football,” Watkins
said. “We lost against Newcastle after
a 17-match unbeaten home run and
there’s a lot of negative talk. Then
they drew today and we won and it
changed again.”
Villa were back to their best at
Bramall Lane. Of course Chris
Wilder’s Sheffield United side were
amenable in this 5-0 defeat but Villa
were slick, quick and dangerous every
time they pushed forward. After three
games with only one goal a return to
their goalscoring best could not have
come at a better time, with an FA Cup
fourth-round replay against Chelsea
coming up and Manchester United
visiting Villa Park next weekend.

Douglas Luiz and Watkins’s
partnership was key, with the
Brazilian’s skill creating Villa’s first
and second goals. After a six-game
spell without a goal, Watkins has
scored two in two and provided
another two assists on an evening
of domination in South Yorkshire. It
has taken him to 21 goal involvements
this season, with only Liverpool’s
Mohamed Salah ahead of him, on 22.
“Obviously it’s nice to be among
the top names and the top players
in the league,” Watkins said. “I’m
pushing to remain up there at
the end of the season. There
was a spell when I felt as a
team we were slightly off it —
and me personally maybe
suffered from that, because we
weren’t creating too much.
“But we’ve had a positive
reaction to a loss in
midweek and now we’re
back firing again.”
Their ability to
bounce back from
defeats has enabled
them to remain in
the fight at the top
of the table: five times
in the league this season
they have recovered from a loss
Watkins is behind only Salah in
his goal contributions this season

with a win. Another positive for Unai
Emery, the Villa head coach, is that
his players believe they have identified
the problem that had plagued them in
the past few weeks.
“We were not having space in
transition, playing a bit too slow and
teams were showing us respect and
making it hard for us by having a lot
of bodies behind the ball,” Watkins
said. “It’s just about keeping a positive
mindset, keep going. It’s very hard
when you don’t score for two
or three games and you’ve got
to be ready for the chance
when it does come.
“When Dougie played me
those two balls through I was
licking my lips. I was unlucky
with the first one, it just hit
the post when it could
have gone in.
“But I kept going
and he found me
again with the second
one — that was
definitely the pass of
the season.”
The performance may
have come against a team
who look destined to
go straight back down,
but if Emery’s side can
replicate it this week then
their top-four bid will be
firmly back on track.

8

1GG

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

thegame

Young guns offer hope of bri
Man Utd

West Ham

3

0

Hojlund 23
Garnacho 49, 84

RATINGS
Man United (4-2-3-1): A Onana 8 — D Dalot 8,
H Maguire 7, L Martínez 8 (R Varane 71min),
L Shaw 7 (V Lindelof 88) — K Mainoo 7
(S McTominay 64, 7), Casemiro 8 — A Garnacho 8,
B Fernandes 7, M Rashford 6 — R Hojlund 8
(Antony 88).
West Ham United (4-2-3-1): A Areola 5 (L Fabianski
46, 5) — V Coufal 5 (K Phillips 72), K Zouma 5,
N Aguerd 5, Emerson 4 — E Álvarez 6, T Soucek 6
(M Cornet 72) — B Johnson 5, J Ward-Prowse 5,
M Kudus 5 — J Bowen 4. Booked Soucek.
Referee A Madley.
Attendance 73,612.

PAUL HIRST
On the day when Manchester United
paid their annual tribute to the
victims of the Munich air disaster, it
was fitting that two of their young
guns stepped up to the plate and
delivered the rarest of things — a
straightforward and reasonably
comfortable victory.
Alejandro Garnacho, 19, scored
twice and the 21-year-old birthday
boy Rasmus Hojlund also got on the
scoresheet as United brushed aside a

wasteful West Ham United to climb
above them into sixth place.
Garnacho, Hojlund and Kobbie
Mainoo, himself only 18, were sitting
arm in arm on one of the advertising
hoardings after the Argentinian’s first
goal — United’s three young hopes,
smiling and delivering as they try to
rescue their team’s season.
United were ruthless in attack in
their third successive win in all
competitions, but Lisandro Martínez,
Harry Maguire and Diogo Dalot
played their part too with some
lion-hearted defending.
Sadly for Martínez, he came off in
the second half with a serious-looking
knee injury after tangling with
Vladimir Coufal. It was a bitter blow
for the inspirational centre back, who
was playing his fourth game back
after a long-term foot injury.
Kalvin Phillips had another day to
forget for West Ham, a week after his
woeful debut against Bournemouth.
The Manchester City loanee came
off the bench in the 72nd minute,
having lost the ball to Scott
McTominay on the halfway line in
the build-up to United’s final goal.
With Erik ten Hag’s squad
replenished with the return of the
likes of Casemiro and Maguire from
the treatment room, the United
manager sounded a note of optimism

in his programme notes. “I think this
is the strongest squad I have had
available for selection since I first
arrived,” he wrote.
The programme also contained
an advert for one of United’s
sponsors, Chivas Regal whisky. It
was fronted by Marcus Rashford,
which was topical given the
striker’s recent 12-hour
drinking session in Belfast.
As the teams left the tunnel,
the fans in the Stretford End
unfurled a surfer flag
remembering the victims of the
Munich air disaster, which
took place on February 6,
1958. Many of those who
died that day were young
players, known as the
“Busby Babes” after
their manager,
Matt Busby.
How
appropriate,
then, that United’s
youth should
dominate this game.
Tomas Soucek had the first chance,
heading James Ward-Prowse’s corner
towards goal from close range. His
effort flicked off Edson Álvarez,
Hojlund opened the scoring on his 21st
birthday with his fifth goal in six games

diverting the ball away from André
Onana, but the goalkeeper reacted
well, palming the ball away.
Casemiro was grappling with
Álvarez as Soucek headed the
ball goalwards, but neither the
referee nor VAR thought the
Brazilian was guilty of a foul.
In the 14th minute
Rashford burst into life,
skipping past a white
shirt before being
jockeyed off the ball.
Kurt Zouma put the
ball behind for a corner
and his shoulder
accidentally collided
with his team-mate
Alphonse Areola’s head
in the follow-up.
Areola recovered and 30
seconds later he tipped Bruno
Fernandes’s dipping shot over
the bar. Soucek would have tested
Onana again had Maguire not
flung himself at the ball and
diverted it behind.
Martínez had a rush of
blood to the head, slamming
into the back of Mohammed
Kudus to give away a free
kick perfectly positioned
for a man of WardProwse’s skills. The Stretford
End held its breath as Ward-

Prowse took the free kick 25 yards
out, but he could not clear the wall.
After growing in confidence, United
opened the scoring. Zouma’s attempt
at clearing Martínez’s long ball into
the box was poor. Casemiro beat
Ward-Prowse to the loose ball with a
full-blooded slide, that nudged the
ball to Hojlund. Twenty yards out and
with a few white shirts in front of him,
Hojlund still had a lot of work to do
but he dropped his shoulder one way,
then the other, before sweeping the
ball into the far corner.
West Ham looked for an immediate
response. Ben Johnson rasped
Onana’s palms with a fierce longrange shot.
Areola, still feeling the effects of his
collision with Zouma, was replaced by
Lukasz Fabianski at the start of the
second half. “He is fine,” David
Moyes, the West Ham manager, said
of Areola after the match. “We just
took him off as a precaution.”
Maguire, so solid and dependable
in the first half, started the second
period poorly, dallying on the ball.
Emerson picked his pocket and
advanced towards goal but shot over.
It was a let-off for United. Not long
after, they moved two goals clear.
Garnacho chested down
Fernandes’s cross-field pass, turned
past Emerson and got his shot off. It

the times | Monday February 5 2024

9

1GG

thegame
ASH DONELON/CLIVE BRUNSKILL/SEBASTIAN FREJ/GETTY IMAGES

Palace fans left in
envy of rivals’ zest
Brighton
Dunk 3, Hinshelwood 33, Buonanotte 34, Pedro 84

Crystal Palace
Mateta 71

4
1

PAUL ROWAN

Garnacho scores the third goal, main. His celebration after the second, above, with
Hojlund and Mainoo, echoed Kudus’s when West Ham beat United in December

ight future at last

Those with a sense of entitlement
were made to feel a little unwelcome
at the Amex Stadium on Saturday.
Both managers railed against it, one
from a position of strength, the other
pinned to the ropes but still slugging
it out after all these years.
These were Brighton & Hove
Albion’s first goals in the league this
year and Roberto De Zerbi did not
take too kindly to being reminded of
it. “You think Brighton is a top, top,
top team?” the head coach pondered.
“Brighton should be competing with
Newcastle, Aston Villa, Tottenham?
Explain to me why Brighton have to
compete with the big teams? You
compare how many players the big
teams lost and how many important
players Brighton lost this season.”
Palace fans would just like to be
competing with their fiercest rivals,
and there lies the nub of the problem
for Roy Hodgson. They probably
would just like to be Brighton for a
few weeks. They would love to have
Brighton’s recruitment policy, to be
able to sell on their players for
multiples of millions while still
improving season after season; not
only in terms of league position but
in the type of football they play. In
Brighton’s case, that has gone from
stodgy under Chris Hughton to
exciting under Graham Potter and to
mostly exhilarating under De Zerbi.
No wonder Potter is being linked
with Palace, but their supporters fear
they may end up with somebody like
Hughton. Palace have spent a similar

Fresh injury fear for Martínez
PAUL HIRST
Erik ten Hag fears that Lisandro
Martínez is set for another long-term
layoff after injuring his right knee in
Manchester United’s 3-0 win over
West Ham United.
The Argentina defender, playing his
fourth game since returning from a
four-month absence with a foot
injury, hobbled off in the first half of
the match at Old Trafford after
tangling with Vladimir Coufal while
shielding the ball in the corner.
The 26-year-old centre back tried
to carry on playing for a few minutes,
but he admitted defeat and was
replaced by Raphaël Varane.
“It doesn’t look good for him,” Ten
Hag, the United manager, said. “We
have to wait and make the right
diagnosis. At this moment we are very
sad, hopefully it is not too bad, but we
can only pray. It looks like he has to
sit some games out again.
“It is a personal disaster, but it is
also really bad for the team.”
David Moyes, the West Ham
manager, was unhappy that Andrew
Madley, the referee, did not give his

UNITED’S UNFORTUNATE
PROGRAMME GAFFE

After a week in which Marcus
Rashford’s night out in Belfast
dominated the agenda, Manchester
United’s programme carried an
advert for whisky with the striker
front and centre...

team a penalty for a bear hug by
Casemiro on Edson Álvarez. “I think
we should have had a penalty in the
first half,” Moyes said. “Casemiro has
put both his arms around him so he
can’t go anywhere. That is rugby.”

amount in transfers to Brighton over
the past few seasons, but the money
they have taken in is close to zero as
players see out their contracts, all
while tens of millions have swelled
Brighton’s coffers. Palace’s attempts to
capture the head coach zeitgeist have
floundered after the failed stints of
Frank de Boer and Patrick Vieira, and
Hodgson has twice steadied the ship.
Now Palace fans want to roll the
dice for a third time and most of them
want to see the chairman, Steve
Parish, gone as well. Parish helped to
rescue Palace from oblivion but their
fans were again chanting “you don’t
know what you’re doing” on Saturday.
For Hodgson and Parish, it seems
the pressure will only mount. With
Palace 3-0 down at half-time, the
introduction of Michael Olise was a
disaster as his hamstring failed again.
His absence, plus those of Eberechi
Eze and the captain Marc Guéhi,
make Palace look like a Championship
club. Yet Hodgson may still be the best
option to prevent that being a reality.

Fofana shows Agüero spirit
Burnley
Fofana 71, 90+1

was not the most venomous of strikes,
but crucially for United, it struck
Nayef Aguerd and flew past
Fabianski, who had no time to react.
Garnacho parked his posterior on
the advertising hoardings, where he
was joined by Hojlund and Mainoo.
The Argentinian said he was inspired
by Kudus, who did the same when
West Ham beat United in December.
Some courageous defending kept
United in the lead. Martínez was in
the thick of it. As he shielded the ball
in the corner Coufal clattered into the
defender, who collapsed in a heap,
twisting his right knee in the process.
It was a clumsy challenge but
Andrew Madley kept his cards in his
pocket. Álvarez lifted the ball over
Maguire and Jarrod Bowen timed his
run to perfection. Just as the England
international was about to pull the
trigger, Dalot dived at full stretch and
steered the ball behind.
Martínez went down, still feeling
the effects of Coufal’s challenge, and
was replaced by Raphaël Varane.
West Ham gifted United their third.
Twelve minutes after his introduction
Phillips surrendered the ball to
McTominay, who found Garnacho
with a precise pass. Garnacho picked
his spot and fired into the far corner
before sitting pretty on the hoardings
with his jubilant team-mates.

Hodgson could be without another of
his best players after Olise’s injury

Fulham
Palhinha 17, Muniz 21

2
2

IAN WHITTELL
No one would ever confuse Vincent
Kompany’s relegation-haunted
Burnley side for the Manchester City
team he captained to the 2012
Premier League title but, in one
important regard, the manager found
common ground.
Kompany captained City the day
Sergio Agüero’s dramatic stoppagetime winner clinched the title and
delivered one of English football’s
most iconic memories.
A 92nd-minute equaliser
from David Datro Fofana is
hardly the stuff of such
legend but it at least
backed up Kompany’s
claim that the spirit of
Agüero is alive and
kicking at Turf Moor.
“I won the title,
having 30 seconds to
score two goals, so
belief is never an issue
with me,” Kompany said.
“I’d be more disappointed if
Chelsea loanee Fofana
gets fightback started

we didn’t have a go. In the end,
everybody could see we had a go and
I think the fans always respect that.
“The first half was just silly, in
terms of how we conceded the goals,
but the belief is always there. There is
no doubt about that.
“There is no point looking at the
table if we’re not going to take care of
business ourselves.
“There are many, many teams who
would have just taken the easy way
out and you can start feeling sorry for
yourselves and they didn’t do that.”
Those two first-half Fulham goals,
scored by João Palhinha and Rodrigo
Muniz, preceded a second-half
fightback and two goals from Fofana,
a January loan signing from
Chelsea making his home debut
off the bench.
Fofana, who spent the first half
of the season with Union Berlin,
could yet justify Kompany’s
longstanding interest in the
striker, dating back to his
breakout years with Molde.
“I was following him
before Chelsea got him,”
Kompany said. “He has
goalscoring ability.
“He had that in Norway
but then you get lost in
the top five leagues and
as a striker you need
to get used to it. But
sometimes it’s just the
right timing so that’s what
I wanted to try to do.”

10

1GG

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

thegame
MARK PAIN/ALAMY

Brentford feel
reassured by
Frank’s nous
in hard times
ALYSON
RUDD

As the title race intensifies,
Manchester City will not make the
mistake of thinking their trip to
Brentford this evening represents a
straightforward sort of way to keep
pace with Liverpool. The west
London club won both league games
against Pep Guardiola’s team last
season. City may have won the Treble
but they could not fathom a way to
deal with the pragmatism and
discipline of Thomas Frank’s team.
Brentford have struggled in their
third season in the Premier League, a
consequence of bad luck in the games
they dominated, a raft of injuries and
the eight-month suspension served by
Ivan Toney. The striker’s return has
lifted the side and he has scored in his
first two games back. Apart from a
costly lapse in concentration against
Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday
evening, the team are more energetic
with the talented Toney on the pitch.
But the return of the 27-year-old
also serves as a reminder of just how
adroit Brentford are at handling
issues that are difficult, emotional or
complicated. Toney was not returning
after a long-term injury but because
he admitted to 232 breaches of FA
rules on gambling. His punishment
was not only the long suspension
but restrictions on training with his
team-mates.
The first sign that Toney was in
good hands came in May when his
manager named him as his player of
last season but made it plain he
received that recognition for his
20 goals, his all-round contribution
and his leadership skills. Yes, Frank
said, it was impressive that Toney’s
performances did not dip during the

three months he had to wait for the
disciplinary hearing, but the Dane
was determined that the narrative
should be about the player’s
importance and not his foibles.
Still, the world was watching when
the ban was lifted for the home game
against Nottingham Forest a fortnight
ago, and may have wondered if the
club had made a gaffe and were
dabbling in hubris when a digital
billboard opposite the Gtech
Community Stadium displayed an
advertisement with an image of
Toney accompanied by the slogan
“He’s back”.
The club were not, however, being
uncharacteristically overindulgent.
They had nothing to do with the
billboard and are, in fact, intrigued to
know who did. The ad used a poorquality photograph of Toney and the
image was inverted, which points to a
fan group or someone on a small
budget, because it was only on view
for a few seconds per digital rotation.
If you were determined to find a
flaw in the way Frank handled the
striker’s return you may point out
that it was patronising and a tad
soppy to hand Toney the captain’s
armband for that first game back. But
Toney was already vice-captain, and
with Christian Norgaard, the captain,
unavailable, the armband
automatically went to the striker.
Had caution not been the
watchword of the January transfer
window, Toney might easily have
joined a top-six club. Brentford would
have noted the interest and invested
before any deal, which tends to be
their transfer policy. There had been
speculation that the club would have
held out for an offer in excess of
£100 million because of a sell-on
clause that benefits Peterborough
United, but the figures involved are
not as huge as assumed.
Given that Peterborough sold
Toney for £10 million, Brentford’s
profit will be significant regardless,

Frank’s stewardship of Toney’s return after a lengthy absence exemplifies the Dane’s ability to handle tricky situations

and no clause will affect their attitude
to a future deal. Indeed, they pride
themselves on being a club who do
not stand in the way of player
ambition. They could have held out
for more than the £27 million optionto-buy clause Arsenal offered in their
loan bid for David Raya, for example,
but accepted that the goalkeeper
wanted to move to a bigger club.
Toney, then, with his manager’s
help was able to slot back in without
resentment, and with the knowledge
that being first choice and firing at
Brentford probably improves his
chances of selection for England over
finding his way with a new club in a
different system.
That Toney’s ban would be handled
impressively should not have come as
a surprise. This was the club who
offered Christian Eriksen a way back
when everyone else assumed he
would retire. What is not widely

known is that it was Frank’s teenage
son Bertram’s idea that the club
should ask if the Denmark midfielder
wanted to play again. Not many topflight managers listen to their children
and not many clubs sit down to
discuss what many deemed a perilous
notion, after Eriksen was fitted with
an implantable cardioverter
defibrillator after his collapse at the
European Championship in 2021.
“What’s up, Christian? Do you want
to come to Brentford?” Frank asked
the player he had coached at under-17
level for Denmark, six months after
that dramatic incident. Frank made it
sound natural and simple but knew
there would be fear and cynicism.
Brentford allowed their new signing
to explain at great length and
unhurriedly to the media why it was
safe for him to play at the top level
and how he did not want to be treated
any differently. The club were

confident but allowed the rest of us to
voice our concerns so that by the time
Eriksen made his debut in west
London in February 2022, we were all
simply hoping he would show
glimpses of his undoubted talent. In
the end, he lit up the league.
Brentford sit four points above the
relegation zone but Frank is allowed
to plot accordingly and without panic.
Matthew Benham, the Brentford
owner, is not prone to sacking the
manager when times are tough and
stuck with Frank after he lost eight of
his first ten Championship matches.
Yes, they are a small club, but they
have navigated the biggest of Premier
League stories with far more nous
than more established teams have
shown in difficult circumstances.
BRENTFORD V MANCHESTER CITY
8PM KICK-OFF
TV SKY SPORTS MAIN RADIO TALKSPORT

Pep rejects Madrid ‘noise’ over Haaland 2025 move
PAUL HIRST
Pep Guardiola hopes that Erling
Haaland’s Manchester City career will
not be short-lived, and that the club
manage to the keep the Norwegian
out of Real Madrid’s clutches for
many years.
Haaland’s contract has 3½ years left
to run, but the Madrid-based media
have already started talking about the
prospect of the 23-year-old moving to
Real in the next couple of years.
It is understood that the club will
not look to recruit Haaland this
summer as their principal target is
Kylian Mbappé, who is set to leave
Paris Saint-Germain when his

contract expires at the end of June.
Sources indicate that a move for the
Norwegian is more likely in the
summer of 2025, when Guardiola’s
contract expires too, although it is
unlikely that the Spanish club will be
able to match his present wage, which
is more than £400,000 a week.
Guardiola said he did not know
how contract talks with Haaland were
progressing but the Catalan made
clear that he wants his star forward to
remain as long as possible.
“What do you think? That we
don’t want Erling to stay here for
one decade?” the City manager said.
“Honestly, yes, we want him [to stay]
for a long time in this club. We are in
love with him.

“If someone wants Erling it’s easy:
phone, call Man City and ask. That is
what we do when we want to sign
someone. It’s not complicated.”
One report in Spain suggested
that Haaland could decide to
move to Madrid
because he is
becoming tired
of the English
weather.
City have long suspected
that Real will use the Madridbased media to unsettle
Haaland when they make
their move for the striker,
Madrid may struggle with
Haaland’s £400k wages

who has stated in the past that he
would one day like to play for the
14-times European champions. “Of
course, you have to ignore it [the
speculation],” Guardiola said.
“I know the reality. It doesn’t
bother me so long as the
players are focused on what
they have to do. If they
[Real Madrid] really want
him it is an honour and it
means that we did a good
job and Erling especially
did an incredible job, so
yeah, is it true? I don’t
know. Is it just to make a little
bit of noise? That’s fine.”
Haaland seems to be
enjoying life in Manchester.

The striker, who has scored 19 goals
in 23 appearances this season, has
settled in a city centre flat and enjoys
spending time in the city.
“For me it’s easy for my family to
come over, right over the sea, it’s
really close,” Haaland said. “I like the
vibes, the positivity from the fans.
“I love to joke like them — we are
similar in Norway, we like the banter.
People see us on the streets, United
fans, and we joke with each other.
“People leave me alone to a certain
degree. I like it, I’m in the shop and
can joke with people and it’s nice.”
City can keep up the pressure on
the leaders, Liverpool, this evening if
they beat Brentford to extend their
winning streak to nine matches.

the times | Monday February 5 2024

11

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thegame

Record shirt sales and no negativity as
Amsterdam gripped by Hendo-mania
Saudi spell hasn’t quelled
the hype in Netherlands
over veteran midfielder’s
Ajax arrival, as
Tom Allnutt
discovers
It was half-time at the Johan Cruyff
Arena and Jordan Henderson was the
only one running. As the rest of the
Ajax players trudged towards the
tunnel, some glanced up as their new
team-mate jogged past them. With
Henderson about to disappear from
view, some Ajax fans applauded.
There are two sides to Henderson’s
arrival in Amsterdam: the big things,
like the hype and hyperbole around a
former Liverpool captain, a winner of
the Premier League and Champions
League, joining a historic club like
Ajax. Some in the Netherlands even
say Henderson is the biggest signing
in Dutch history. Others rushed to
the club shop to buy Henderson
pillows, duvets, shirts and mugs.
In the middle of a dreadful season
for Ajax, that joy and excitement have
value. Hendo-mania could turbocharge this team for weeks to come.
The other side is the little things,
the finer details Henderson brings
which could have a longer-lasting
impact. “It’s about bringing back
what we call in Holland a ‘top-sport
culture’,” Lentin Goodijk, reporter for
the Dutch football magazine Voetbal
International, says. “Henderson is here
to bring a winning mentality.”
In that sense, there aren’t many
better. Last week Henderson watched
Ajax’s reserves and showed an
interest in Silvano Vos, their 18-yearold midfielder. Unable to play against
Heracles, Henderson told the Ajax
coach, John van ’t Schip, that he
wanted to be at the game and, to
reduce the noise around the team, he
drove there in his car. “He was not
obliged to come but he really wanted
to be there, he was very sure about
that,” Van ’t Schip said.
Unsurprisingly, Henderson has
joined the Ajax leadership group and
has been a commanding presence at
training. Younger players have been
gushing about the guidance he gives
them, about when to press and when
to hold position. There has been no
ego, no fuss, even when the 17-yearold defender Jorrel Hato accidentally
stamped on his foot.
Henderson admitted his
voice was hoarse on
Saturday night because
of all the instructing he
did during the game.
For the fans in
Amsterdam, the
levels of hype have
been almost surreal.
In Jordaan, a
neighbourhood to
the west of the city
centre, a street
artist altered a road
sign so that an A
was crossed out to leave “Jordan”,
next to a picture of Henderson in an
Ajax shirt holding a paintbrush.
Henderson-themed Ajax merchandise
has been popular among supporters

Henderson
looked sharp on
his debut and has
been celebrated
on local street
signs, inset

Henderson has already been seen
riding a Dutch cargo bike around
Amsterdam’s local parks.
According to the club, the
Henderson No 6 was Ajax’s fastestselling shirt in history, with more sold
in a day than those of Dusan Tadic
and Daley Blind in a week. Before the
PSV game, one young fan outside
the club shop, Daies,
said he was going to
buy two. “My aunt
is a big Liverpool
fan,” he said. “This
one is for me but
I’m going to get her
one for her birthday as well.”
Inside, Ilias, who works
behind the counter, puffs
out his cheeks. “Every day, two
weeks now,”
he says.
“Henderson,
Henderson,
Henderson.”
Even if sales
were boosted by
mid-season
discounts, Ajax
were taken

aback by Henderson’s international
reach. His shirt was very popular
online in Asia, which the club suspect
comes from lingering loyalty for
Liverpool, who enjoy large support in
countries such as Saudi Arabia,
Malaysia and Singapore. That is all
part of the Henderson package. At 33,
he is an established name joining
Ajax, the club that traditionally buys
talent young or creates it.
“It’s not normal for Ajax,” Willem
Vissers, a sports journalist for de
Volkskrant, says. “[Luis] Suárez,
Ronaldo, Romário — they were all
young and quite unknown when they
came to Holland. A top player coming
from England to Holland is exciting.
A player who was Liverpool captain a
couple of years ago is spectacular.”
Everyone in Amsterdam seems to
have an opinion on Henderson. At
Café Bouwman in Utrechtsestraat,
where they give out free Jagermeister
shots for every Ajax goal, the waiter
says Ajax are “lucky to have him”.
At Schiphol airport, an immigration
officer asks the reason for travelling
and seconds later is talking about
Henderson joining “a club in a mess”.

DUTCH EREDIVISIE
PSV
Feyenoord
Twente
AZ
Ajax
Go Ahead Eagles
NEC
PEC Zwolle
Sparta
Fortuna Sittard
Utrecht
Almere City
Heerenveen
Excelsior
Heracles
RKC
Volendam
Vitesse

P
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20

W
18
14
12
10
10
8
7
7
7
6
5
6
6
4
5
4
3
3

D
2
4
5
5
5
6
8
5
5
6
8
5
4
9
4
3
3
3

L
0
2
3
5
5
6
5
8
8
8
7
9
10
7
11
13
14
14

F
63
53
39
40
47
34
39
30
25
21
23
21
31
33
26
18
21
13

A
9
17
21
21
36
28
33
32
27
33
30
37
40
38
48
38
47
42

Pts
56
46
41
35
35
30
29
26
26
24
23
23
22
21
19
15
12
12

It has been a chastening season for
Ajax. The draw with PSV meant they
stayed fifth, 21 points off the top of
the Eredivisie. Their best hope is to
finish in the top three and qualify for
the Champions League, which would
be a brilliant turnaround for a team
who sat second bottom in October.
In the past six months, Ajax have

changed coach, director of football
and half the first-team squad.
Amid the gloom, Henderson was
what Ajax required. They wanted a
holding midfielder to go with the
more attacking duo of Kenneth
Taylor and Kristian Hlynsson, 21 and
20 respectively. They wanted more
steel in a technical team. Above all,
they wanted a wise old head in a
young, inexperienced dressing room.
Some of the giddiness around
Henderson perhaps comes from a
need just to feel something positive.
“It’s big, and Ajax are making it big, of
course, because it has been a shitty
season for us,” Sander Zeldenrijk, the
chief editor of Ajax Life supporters’
magazine, says. “A lot of people
expect Henderson to be a quick
medicine but to be honest, Ajax need
two or three more signings like this.”
Excitement may also explain
why there is hardly any talk of
Henderson’s time in Saudi Arabia.
The disapproval of him in England,
for how he was a vocal supporter of
the LGBTQ+ community and moved
to a country where homosexuality is
illegal before leaving after less than
six months, appears to have hardly
registered in the Netherlands.
A popular view is that Henderson is
held to higher standards than many
other players to join the Saudi project.
“It seems a bit harsh,” Goodijk says.
“We know Newcastle have owners
from Saudi Arabia, that lots of players
have gone there, without many
complaints. Here there is really no
negativity for Henderson at all.”
“With Henderson, it’s just about the
football,” Vissers says. “That’s the only
part people are interested in here.”
There is also little concern about
Henderson’s final season at Liverpool,
when he was part of a weary midfield.
The hope is he can run, tackle and
lead. After his debut against PSV, a
Dutch journalist asked Henderson
why he played the simple pass so
often when he could have been more
bold. “I think people were surprised
he wanted to join Ajax,” Goodijk says.
“Expectations are very high.”
Henderson could yet meet or even
surpass them. Back among Europe’s
aristocracy, he looked sharp against
PSV and played all 95 minutes, a
significant box ticked for Gareth
Southgate, who was there watching.
There were the little things too, the
nerves he said he felt before kick-off,
the roar of the 55,000 Ajax fans and
that dash to the tunnel at half-time.
“There’s pressure here to perform,
pressure on me to deliver,” Henderson
said. “That’s what you want.”

12

1GG

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

thegame
Substitute
Rusyn buries
Clarke’s cross
beyond Boro
goalkeeper,
Glover

Settled Rusyn offers taste of
Middlesbrough

Sunderland

1

Rusyn 83

Forss 61

1

TEAMS
Middlesbrough (4-2-3-1): T Glover — L Ayling,
D Fry, R van den Berg, L Engel (L Thomas 84min)
— D Barlaser (L O’Brien 77), J Howson — M Forss
(S Silvera 77), H Hackney, F Azaz — S Greenwood
(J Coburn 77). Booked Greenwood, Ayling, Engel
Sunderland (4-3-3): A Patterson — T Hume,
D Ballard (Seelt 90), L O’Nien, L Hjelde — P Ekwah,
D Neil, J Bellingham — A Ba (P Roberts 67),
M Burstow (Rusyn 67), J Clarke. Booked Hume
Referee D England.

MARTIN HARDY

Nazariy Rusyn arrived in England in
September, unable to speak English,
living in a hotel across from the
Stadium of Light and with concerns
about his wife and child back in his
homeland of Ukraine.
Michael Beale, the Sunderland
head coach, revealed that Rusyn’s
family had now joined him in
England. He also said it had relieved a
big area of stress for Rusyn after the
forward scored an equaliser, when
only seven minutes remained in a
Tees-Wear derby full of endeavour
and opportunity but missing what
Michael Carrick, the Middlesbrough
head coach, called “a killer instinct”.
Last week Middlesbrough sold
Morgan Rogers to Aston Villa for a
fee that could rise to £15 million and
last August they agreed a deal that
took Chuba Akpom, their top scorer

for the campaign that had just
finished, to Ajax, for £16 million. Two
weeks later Sunderland sold Ross
Stewart to Southampton for
£10 million.There is a brutal reality to
life outside the Premier League that
those three transfers highlight rather
well, but it means the challenge for
Beale and Carrick is to produce goals
when their sides do not necessarily
have a goalscorer.
Middlesbrough had Sam
Greenwood, a midfielder, up front
and Sunderland had Mason Burstow,
a 20-year-old who has scored once in
his 14 Sky Bet Championship
appearances in a red and white shirt.
It was why the introduction of
Rusyn in the 67th minute and his
impact 16 minutes later was so great.
Someone needed to cut through the
endeavour and the creation of

chances, and actually put the ball in
the net, which he did with some style.
It needed Jack Clarke, the next
Sunderland player who could leave
the club for a significant transfer
fee, to ping a fine, crossfield ball to
Rusyn, on the right, just outside
the Middlesbrough penalty
area. Rusyn’s first touch
could be described
either as a bit heavy or
a perfect set, as the
ball sat up, ready for
the 20-yard rightfooted volley that
followed.
Tom Glover, the
Middlesbrough
goalkeeper, must
Rusyn’s equaliser was
his second league goal

have been surprised, as his dive
to his left was a fraction too slow
and the ball clipped the finger
tip of his left hand as it flew into
his goal.
Beale had asked before the
game whether it was a real derby
— after his team’s loss in the
Tyne-Wear fixture against
Newcastle United in the FA
Cup last month. The delight
in the Sunderland end
suggested it meant
something. He paid credit
to Rusyn.
“They [his wife and child]
are here now and I have
seen a difference in him,
and you would,” Beale
said. “If you are a father,
living away is different if
you’re living in different parts of

the times | Monday February 5 2024

13

1GG

thegame
MARTIN SWINNEY/SUNDERLAND AFC/GETTY IMAGES

POSTCARDS FROM THE PYRAMID
The biggest stories from the EFL each weekend

Tomasson takes aim at his bosses

his ability
the UK, but obviously where he is
from there is a war going on and he
was a long way away from his wife
and child.
“They are here now which is
fantastic for him on a personal level. I
think all the time his English
improves he will have better
connection with his team-mates on
the pitch. At the moment his energy
and his pressing and his work ethic
is great but it’s just that connection
that is missing.
“I also think he played probably
most of his football or probably 75 per
cent of his football as a left winger
coming in or a left forward. I’m not
saying he’s not a No 9. I’m saying he
is more than that. It was interesting to
see he got his goal pulling in the wide
areas which he likes.”
That lack of a No 9 remains a

thorny issue. Sunderland had been
the better team in the first half and
spurned a great chance when
Abdoullah Ba’s shot was cleared off
the line by Rav van den Berg.
Middlesbrough were the better
side after the break and went ahead
when a Greenwood shot from a free
kick deflected off Pierre Ekwah
into the path of Marcus Forss. The
first touch with his left foot on the
turn was exquisite and the finish
with his right was not bad either,
firing into the corner of Anthony
Patterson’s goal. It looked enough,
until Rusyn struck.
“There is frustration and there’s a
little bit of we need to get what we
deserve from games and
performances,” Carrick said. “I
suppose, it’s maybe that ruthlessness,
that killer instinct.”

Disappointment on the pitch,
frustration in the dugout and nearmutiny in the stands. Welcome to
Blackburn Rovers, the Sky Bet
Championship’s latest “crisis club”.
Boos greeted full-time at Ewood
Park on Saturday, as a 2-1 defeat by
Queens Park Rangers left Jon Dahl
Tomasson’s side without a win in
eight league matches and only five
points above the relegation zone.
The club’s owners were the subject
of the fans’ fury. “We want Venky’s
out,” rang out, while Steve Waggott,
the chief executive, was also targeted.
“You’re not fit to run the club,” was
one of the kinder comments.
What followed was a remarkable
press conference from Tomasson,
with the former Denmark striker
laying bare the level of discord within
the club and casting fresh doubt over
his own future.
Tomasson had not spoken to the
media pre-match — “A club decision,”
he said — but here he pointed the
finger at his board and revealed he
had offered to quit in the summer,
having learnt that his budget for the
season would be slashed.
“It was like a hand grenade,” he
said. “It changed everything. I said to
the club that this was not the project
I signed up for, and if they wanted to

Hodge enjoys putting QPR 2-0 up at an
Ewood Park with plenty of empty seats

find another [head coach] they could
terminate my contract, no problem.
“They said, ‘No Jon, please stay,’
then I moved my family over and put
all my energy towards Rovers on a
daily basis.”
Tomasson insisted that he would
not walk away now, but Blackburn’s
perilous position — 18th, with the
league’s worst defensive record —
may take the call out of his hands.
“It’s a very serious situation,” he
said. “But it can’t come as a surprise. I

Critics can’t faze Maresca Robinson lauds
It’s hard to believe that Enzo Maresca
has come in for criticism from some
Leicester City supporters this season.
The manager admitted his frustration
after hearing some grumbles during
the midweek home win against
Swansea City but there were no signs
of discontent during the 5-0 win away
to Stoke City that moved Maresca’s
side 11 points clear at the top of the
Championship.
“I don’t like it when people hurt the
players, because I know the effort
that they’re doing to bring this club
back to the Premier League,” he said.
“If some of the fans aren’t sure or
convinced, it doesn’t matter to me.
The performance was very good

today and that experience will make
us better. I’ve said many times, our
fans are unbelievable. At home some
of them maybe aren’t convinced, but
it is what it is.”
Jamie Vardy appeared from the
bench to score his side’s final two
goals and take his tally for the season
to double figures. “Obviously, like
everyone, you want to be playing as
much as you can, but if you’re on the
bench and you’re coming on, you
have to make sure you make an
impact,” the forward, 37, said.
“Thirty-seven is just a number.
You’re as young as you feel. I look
after myself, keep myself fit, so I’ll
keep going for as long as possible.”

Williamson’s comeback spoilt by sloppy defeat
MOLLY
HUDSON
Women’s Super League

This was supposed to be a day of
promise and considerable excitement
for Arsenal; Leah Williamson, the
England defender, was making her
first start since rupturing her right
anterior cruciate ligament in April.
Instead it was a day that may well
prove the one that denies them the
Women’s Super League title, as West
Ham United celebrated their first
league win over Arsenal. The 2-1
defeat leaves Arsenal third, three
points behind Manchester City and
six behind the leaders, Chelsea.
With Williamson on the pitch in
the first half, her side dominated.
Alessia Russo’s 43rd-minute header
was thoroughly deserved after
Vivianne Miedema hit the bar for

Arsenal, and Mackenzie Arnold was
required to make a number of saves.
Williamson was withdrawn at halftime, in the latest successful
staging post of her lengthy
recovery from the
serious knee injury, but
her departure signalled
the end of Arsenal’s
stranglehold on the game.
Almost immediately
Steph Catley clumsily
swung her boot in the path of
Riko Ueki, who went down in
the penalty area. Several
television replays proved
inconclusive as to whether the
contact was just outside the
box or not, but with no VAR
in the women’s game Melissa
Burgin pointed to the spot.
Viviane Asseyi slotted in
the penalty and the club
who had started the day
Williamson made her first
Arsenal start since April

told the club these things in the
summer.”
Defeat by QPR capped a chaotic
week for Blackburn, one in which
progression to the fifth round of the
FA Cup was followed by the clubrecord sale of the midfielder Adam
Wharton to Crystal Palace and the
addition of four new signings.
None of the new boys played here.
One of them, Duncan McGuire, was
absent amid suggestions that the deal
to sign the striker from Orlando City
had fallen through because of a
registration issue. “I am not allowed
to speak about that case,” Tomasson
said. “I think you should ask Steve
and the ownership about that.”
Blackburn have not commented,
but there is no denying the mess the
club is in. They were second best on
Saturday and had Sinclair Armstrong
been a little more polished then QPR,
themselves battling to stay up, would
have won even more comfortably.
They took 61 minutes to break
through, with Ilias Chair’s shot hitting
the post and rebounding into the net
off the goalkeeper Aynsley Pears.
Joe Hodge made it 2-0 and while
Sam Gallagher pulled one back,
Blackburn failed to produce a rousing
finale. Cue the boos, the protests and
Tomasson’s brutal honesty.

second from bottom grew in
confidence. Manuela Zinsberger, the
Arsenal goalkeeper, often appears on
the verge of an error, and her punched
clearance from a free kick fell straight
to Hawa Cissoko, the centre back,
who showed the composure of a
striker to guide the ball into the
top corner in the 58th minute.
West Ham’s starting XI did
not feature a single English
player — the first time that
has happened in any WSL
side. Yet at Dagenham &
Redbridge’s ground – the
home of West Ham Women
— the well-travelled group
gelled impressively. Ueki
and Honoka Hayashi, the
Japanese duo, were
particularly bright.
Arsenal had no answer
and familiar failings
returned; a lack of
clinical attack and errors
leading directly to goals.
Arsenal have now lost

unwanted Smith
Karl Robinson’s impact at Salford City
continues to be felt after the 3-1 home
victory over Wrexham extended the
club’s unbeaten run under the new
head coach to five games.
Matt Smith, who made it 3-1, has
now scored 19 league goals this
season and Robinson is relieved still
to have the experienced forward at
the club. “It baffles me that we didn’t
have a phone call from anyone about
taking Matt Smith in January,” he
said. “If I was managing somewhere
else and I had seen what money is
getting spent and had the resources
to do it, I’d get him.”

three times this season — a team
have never won the WSL title with
more than two defeats.

Warnock’s
shock return
– at Aberdeen

Elsewhere…
On Thursday Brighton & Hove
Albion released an interview with
their new signing Taylor Smith, who
has joined on loan from Gotham FC.
She expressed her excitement at
working with Mel Phillips. Later that
day the manager was sacked.
It was a decision that surprised
many across the women’s game —
including Emma Hayes, the Chelsea
manager — after David Weir,
Brighton’s technical director, cited the
investment the club have made and
results failing to meet expectations.
They were comfortably beaten 2-0
by fourth-placed Manchester United
yesterday, in the first match of Mikey
Harris’s interim tenure, thanks to a
brace by Nikita Parris. The 29-yearold forward could be on the verge of
an England recall after scoring eight
goals in nine WSL starts this season.

Neil Warnock is set to make a
surprise return to management and
work outside the English leagues for
the first time by taking charge of
Aberdeen (Michael Grant writes).
The 75-year-old is set to join
the Scottish Premiership club until
the end of the season and his first
game in the dugout could be against
Rangers at Ibrox tomorrow.
Over four decades in management,
Warnock as worked at every level of
the English game, from non-League
to the Premier League.
“I’ve always wanted to manage in
Scotland,” he once said. “I like the
humour of the Scots. They are so
passionate. It rubs off on you.”
Despite announcing his retirement
in 2022 he returned to Huddersfield
Town a year later, staying until last
September. That was his most recent
role, until Aberdeen came calling.

14

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

1GG

thegame
Premier League
P

W
D
9
2
9
2
Y 2 Arsenal ......................................... 23
7
3
Z 3 Manchester City.........................21
9
1
Y 4 Aston Villa...................................23
8
0
Z 5 Tottenham Hotspur.................23
7
1
Y 6 Manchester United .................. 23
5
4
Z 7 West Ham United......................23
6
5
Y 8 Brighton & Hove Albion.........23
8
1
Z 9 Newcastle United ..................... 23
5
3
Y 10 Wolverhampton Wanderers..23
5
3
Z 11 Chelsea.........................................23
3
4
W 12 Bournemouth.............................22
6
1
W 13 Fulham..........................................23
3
3
W 14 Crystal Palace............................23
4
3
W 15 Brentford......................................21
3
3
W 16 Nottingham Forest...................23
3
2
W 17 Luton Town ................................ 22
3
3
W 18 *Everton.......................................23
1
2
W 19 Burnley.........................................23
2
2
W 20 Sheffield United ........................ 23
* deducted 10pts for breaching financial rules

W 1 Liverpool......................................23

Home
L
0
1
0
1
3
4
2
1
3
3
4
4
4
5
4
5
6
6
9
8

F
30
30
27
30
23
18
18
26
29
19
20
12
19
14
20
15
17
13
13
12

A
9
11
10
11
15
18
11
15
14
18
18
17
12
16
20
17
17
14
27
31

W
6
6
7
5
5
5
5
3
2
4
4
4
1
3
2
2
2
5
2
0

D
4
2
1
3
5
1
2
3
2
2
1
2
4
3
1
3
3
2
2
2

Away
L
2
3
3
4
2
5
5
5
7
6
6
5
7
6
7
7
6
4
7
9

D
2
5
2
5
3
2
3
5
3
4
6
2
2
5
6
5
4
1
2
4
7
3
1
4

Away
L
2
2
6
3
7
6
7
6
8
7
4
6
7
6
8
6
7
8
10
7
6
8
12
10

F
22
17
24
19
26
13
18
16
19
18
18
18
11
12
11
13
15
13
11
7

A
13
11
14
19
20
14
25
23
23
19
21
24
26
24
16
24
25
16
20
28

GD
30
25
27
19
14
-1
0
4
11
0
-1
-11
-8
-14
-5
-13
-10
-4
-23
-40

Pts
51
49
46
46
44
38
36
35
33
32
31
27
26
24
22
21
20
19
13
10

Sky Bet Championship
P

W 1 Leicester City.............................30

Y
Y
Z
W

Y
Z
Z
Y
Y
Z
Z
Y
Z
W
W
W
W

Y
Z
W
W
W
W

2 Southampton.............................29
3 Leeds United..............................30
4 Ipswich Town.............................29
5 West Bromwich Albion .......... 29
6 Hull City ....................................... 29
7 Coventry City.............................30
8 Sunderland.................................30
9 Norwich City..............................30
10 Preston North End...................30
11 Watford........................................30
12 Middlesbrough..........................29
13 Cardiff City..................................29
14 Bristol City..................................30
15 Plymouth Argyle......................29
16 Millwall.........................................30
17 Swansea City ............................. 30
18 Blackburn Rovers.....................29
19 Birmingham City.......................29
20 Stoke City....................................30
21 Huddersfield Town..................30
22 Queens Park Rangers.............30
23 Sheffield Wednesday..............30
24 Rotherham United...................29

W
12
10
11
10
10
7
6
9
9
8
5
6
6
6
8
4
4
5
5
4
4
3
4
3

D
1
2
4
3
3
4
8
0
2
2
5
3
2
3
3
4
5
2
6
4
6
4
4
6

Home
L
2
2
0
1
2
4
1
6
4
5
5
6
6
6
3
7
6
8
3
7
5
8
7
6

F
31
34
32
35
25
23
22
25
23
23
25
16
18
18
36
14
17
20
20
11
19
15
15
16

A
9
15
11
21
11
15
13
18
15
26
19
16
18
17
23
21
19
26
17
20
21
22
20
20

W
11
8
7
7
4
6
5
4
4
4
5
6
6
4
1
4
4
5
3
4
2
4
2
0

F
33
21
20
18
16
20
24
16
25
15
20
27
18
15
12
16
22
22
14
17
14
12
7
9

A
14
17
15
17
16
23
21
15
30
23
20
26
21
17
24
17
29
29
28
22
26
19
30
34

GD
41
23
26
15
14
5
12
8
3
-11
6
1
-3
-1
1
-8
-9
-13
-11
-14
-14
-14
-28
-29

Pts
72
61
60
59
48
45
44
44
44
42
41
41
40
38
36
33
33
33
32
32
31
28
23
19

Sky Bet League One
P

W
D
9
4
8
3
Y 2 Derby County............................30
3
Bolton
Wanderers....................28
10
2
Z
8
4
Z 4 Peterborough United..............29
7
3
W 5 Barnsley.......................................29
6
6
W 6 Stevenage...................................28
7
5
W 7 Oxford United ........................... 30
10
3
W 8 Blackpool....................................30
6
3
Y 9 Leyton Orient.............................29
6
5
Y 10 Bristol Rovers............................29
7
3
Z 11 Northampton Town.................29
4
6
W 12 Lincoln City ................................ 30
9
1
W 13 *Wigan Athletic.........................30
7
4
Y 14 Cambridge United....................28
4
5
Y 15 Wycombe Wanderers.............29
7
1
Z 16 Shrewsbury Town....................30
4
5
Z 17 Exeter City..................................30
6
4
Z 18 Burton Albion............................30
6
3
Z 19 Charlton Athletic......................30
5
1
W 20 Port Vale......................................27
7
4
W 21 @Reading......................................29
4
3
W 22 Cheltenham Town....................28
3
2
Y 23 Fleetwood Town.......................29
3
5
Z 24 Carlisle United...........................30
deducted *8pts/@4pts for breaching league rules

W 1 Portsmouth..................................31

Home
L
2
3
3
2
5
1
3
3
5
3
5
4
5
4
5
7
6
5
7
7
4
7
10
7

F
23
26
30
33
28
18
25
33
14
23
20
17
22
15
17
15
8
16
28
17
23
13
13
14

A
16
14
18
15
19
10
15
15
19
15
17
12
14
15
19
18
12
15
24
17
16
21
25
22

W
9
10
8
8
8
9
8
3
5
5
5
5
4
2
4
3
5
2
1
3
1
2
2
1

D
5
2
2
4
5
1
1
4
6
2
1
5
5
4
5
2
1
4
7
5
4
2
5
3

Away
L
2
4
3
3
1
5
6
7
4
8
8
6
6
7
6
10
9
9
6
6
9
10
7
11

F
27
27
21
23
25
24
24
14
19
17
16
14
21
10
18
6
13
9
15
11
14
8
15
12

A
12
14
9
17
14
17
22
20
15
24
25
18
22
19
20
23
29
24
22
25
28
19
25
28

GD
22
25
24
24
20
15
12
12
-1
1
-6
1
7
-9
-4
-20
-20
-14
-3
-14
-7
-19
-22
-24

Pts
63
59
58
56
53
52
51
46
42
40
40
38
37
35
34
33
33
32
31
30
28
23
22
20

BILL EDGAR’S
DEEP DIVE INTO

LEAGUE TITLES
A Liverpool title would
equal Manchester United
record, but how has the
honour changed hands in
history of English game?
Liverpool’s strong recent form has
lifted them to the Premier League
summit and raised their hopes of
winning a 20th league title, which
would equal Manchester United’s
record. One or the other of these
northwest giants has held the status
of record champions since Liverpool
moved clear of Arsenal by winning
their ninth title in 1976. Aston Villa,
Sunderland and Preston North End
complete a sextet of clubs to have
topped the list (while Everton have
been joint top). Here is a chronology.
Most English top-division titles won:
1889: Preston 1
Preston North End became the first
Football League champions,
remaining unbeaten during that
1888-89 season. They finished 11
points ahead of the runners-up Aston
Villa in a 22-game campaign with
two points awarded for a win — the
equivalent of a 29-point winning
margin under the present set-up of
three points for a win over 38 games.
1893: Sunderland 2, Preston 2 —
Sunderland draw level
Preston immediately doubled their

P

W 1 Stockport County.....................29

Y
Y
Z
Z
W
W

Y
Y
Z
Y
Y
Y
Z
W

Y
W

Z
Y
Z
Y
Z
W
W

2 Mansfield Town........................29
3 Barrow ......................................... 30
4 Wrexham.....................................28
5 Crewe Alexandra ..................... 30
6 Milton Keynes Dons................29
7 Notts County..............................29
8 Harrogate Town.......................29
9 AFC Wimbledon........................29
10 Gillingham...................................29
11 Accrington Stanley..................29
12 Morecambe................................28
13 Newport County.......................29
14 Crawley Town............................28
15 Walsall..........................................28
16 Tranmere Rovers.....................30
17 Swindon Town..........................30
18 Bradford City.............................30
19 Salford City.................................30
20 Grimsby Town...........................29
21 Colchester United....................30
22 Doncaster Rovers.....................29
23 Sutton United............................30
24 Forest Green Rovers...............29

W
10
7
7
11
9
9
10
5
6
7
8
5
7
8
6
8
8
4
3
5
4
6
3
2

D
4
6
6
2
3
3
1
2
3
3
3
6
6
0
5
2
2
7
4
4
4
2
6
3

Home
L
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
7
4
5
5
3
2
7
2
5
4
3
7
6
7
7
7
10

(1) 3

Arsenal

Bournemouth (1) 1

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

D
3
6
5
5
6
3
4
3
7
1
3
1
1
3
3
2
5
3
3
7
1
3
4
5

Away
L
3
2
4
5
4
6
8
4
4
7
6
7
9
6
8
10
9
8
7
6
10
9
9
7

F
28
30
26
12
25
21
25
19
16
11
17
22
14
18
25
16
24
20
22
16
18
13
13
16

A
17
16
19
19
22
22
34
16
15
18
20
30
26
26
31
24
37
23
23
22
29
27
36
26

GD
33
24
13
15
11
10
7
0
10
-9
4
-3
-4
-3
1
2
-3
-4
-10
-10
-16
-20
-25
-23

Pts
58
54
53
52
51
48
44
44
43
43
42
40
40
39
38
37
37
37
34
29
29
29
22
20

(1) 1

Nott’m Forest (1) 1

Kluivert 5
Hudson-Odoi 45
11,200
Sent off: P Billing (Bournemouth) 84

Brighton

(3) 4

Dunk 3
Hinshelwood 33
Buonanotte 34
Pedro 85

Burnley

(0) 2

Fofana 71, 90+1
20,203

Everton
A
12
8
11
21
22
15
20
21
19
17
18
15
20
21
10
19
19
16
29
29
29
26
23
27

1897: Aston Villa 3, Sunderland 3 —
Villa draw level
Villa’s third title came in a historic
week for them. They secured both
parts of the league and FA Cup
double on the same day, beating
Everton in the cup final while a
defeat for second-placed Derby
County in the league meant Villa
could not be caught at the top. Seven
days later Villa beat Blackburn
Rovers in their first match at the
newly built Villa Park.
1899: Aston Villa 4, Sunderland 3 —
Villa move clear
Villa moved ahead of Sunderland and
then stayed top of the list until 1936
— after a dramatic last day of the
season. Defeat at home to secondplaced Liverpool would have given
their opponents the title, but Villa

Preston
Liverpool

Saka 14
Gabriel (og) 45+3
Martinelli 67
60,374
Trossard 90+2
Sent off: I Konaté (Liverpool) 88

(1) 2

(1) 2
(1) 3

Hojlund 23
Garnacho 49, 84

Newcastle

Mateta 71
31,345

won 5-0. They also won the league in
1900, their fifth success in seven
seasons, all under the manager
George Ramsay.
1936: Sunderland 6, Aston Villa 6 —
Sunderland draw level
Sunderland, who had not been
relegated since first entering the
League in 1890, had won their fourth
title in 1902 and fifth in 1913 and now
finally hauled in Villa, in the same
season that Villa dropped out of the
top flight for the first time. Aptly,

Fulham
Wolves

(2) 4

Tottenham

(2) 4

(2) 2
(0) 0

73,612

Luton

(2) 4

Longstaff 7, 23
Trippier 67, Barnes 73
52,211

Osho 21, Barkley 40
Morris 59 (pen)
Adebayo 62

Sheffield Utd(0) 0

Aston Villa

(4) 5

McGinn 12, Watkins 16
Bailey 20, Tielemans 30
Moreno 47

Sky Bet Championship
Blackburn

(0) 1

QPR

(0) 2

Gallagher 73
12,888

Pears (og) 61
Hodge 64

Huddersfield (0) 4

Sheffield Wed (0) 0

Pearson 68, Thomas
76, Koroma 70, 80

21,067

Hull

(1) 1

Millwall

(0) 0

Philogene 5

21,486

Middlesbrough (0) 1

Sunderland (0) 1

Forss 61
31,716

Rusyn 83

Norwich

(0) 2

Coventry

Sargent 60
O’Hare 48
Sainz 84
26,306
Sent off: L Kitching (Coventry) 71

(0) 1

Ipswich

(0) 2

Shrewsbury (1) 1

Cambridge U (1) 2

Moore 75, 87
17,313

Rotherham (0) 0

Southampton (2) 2

Udoh 12
Taylor 14, 46
6,795
Sent off: T Bloxham (Shrewsbury) 90+4

11,179

Bednarek 4
A Armstrong 38

Forster-Caskey 85

Stoke

(0) 0

22,657

Swansea
Watford

(2) 2

Andrade 4, 41
39,321

West Ham

(3) 3

Keane 5, 39
Edmundson (og) 8

(0) 0

(2) 5

Plymouth

(1) 1

Whittaker 18

(0) 0

19,739

West Brom

Leicester

Daka 26, 66 (pen)
McAteer 30
Vardy 73, 90+8 (pen)

16,965

Matheus Cunha
22, 63, 82 (pen)
Disasi (og) 43

Harrison 30
Branthwaite 90+4

Man United

Crystal Palace (0) 1

Palhinha 17
Muniz Carvalho 21

Palmer 19
Thiago Silva 86
39,628

F
34
18
17
43
30
26
36
18
28
15
25
20
28
26
17
29
29
15
20
25
24
20
21
14

1895: Sunderland 3, Preston 2 —
Sunderland move clear
Sunderland became the record
champions after giving every single
starting slot but one to a Scot — the
Englishman George Goodchild made
one appearance that season.
Naturally, it remains the top-flight
campaign for any club where team
selection was most dominated by one
non-English nationality.

Results
Premier League

Chelsea

Sky Bet League Two

tally in 1890 but Sunderland
responded by taking the crown in
1892 and 1893. Over those two
campaigns they won 26 of their 28
home league games and drew the
other two.

Cardiff

(1) 1

Bowler 43

(0) 1

Birmingham (0) 0

(0) 1

Barnsley

Weimann 85

League One
Bolton

(1) 1

Ashworth 64
21,709

Cole 5

Burton Albion (0) 0

Lincoln City (0) 1

3,995
Hackett-Fairchild 54
Sent off: A Mitchell (Lincoln City) 29

Charlton

(0) 0

Derby

(1) 1

16,014

Méndez-Laing 31

Cheltenham (0) 1

Wycombe

Taylor 58
4,181

Grimmer 20
McCleary 29
Davies (og) 49

Exeter

(0) 0

8,085

Fleetwood

(2) 3

Bristol Rovers (1) 1
Aguilera 15

(1) 3

Port Vale

(0) 0

Stockley 8
Coughlan 65
Broom 90+4

3,751

Leyton Orient (2) 3

Carlisle

Forde 40, 45+4
Sotiriou 58
8,468

Vela 21
Maguire 90+5 (pen)

Oxford Utd

(1) 1

Reading

Harris 32
10,897

Brown (og) 76

Peterborough (0) 2

Wigan

(1) 2

(0) 1

Blackpool

Accrington (0) 0

(0) 0

5,014

Grimsby

(0) 0

MK Dons

(0) 0

8,745

Barrow

(0) 1

Stockton 78

3,501

Bradford City (0) 0

AFC Wimbledon (0) 0

16,790

Colchester

(0) 3

Smith 65
Fevrier 67
Anderson 70
4,519

Crawley

Stevens 11 (pen)
Doidge 27
Thompson 74

(1) 1

Forster 17
2,856

Gillingham

Morecambe (1) 2
Garner 35, 84

(0) 1

Masterson 77
5,710

Mansfield

Forest Green (2) 3

Walsall

(1) 1

Notts County (0) 0

Keillor-Dunn 8

8,667

Newport Co (0) 2

Swindon

Evans 53
Palmer-Houlden 74

Glatzel 46
5,912

Salford

(2) 3

Vassell 6, Watt 16
Smith 56

Harrogate
Cornelius 17

(0) 1

Doncaster

Tranmere

(1) 1

Dalby 41
5,491

(1) 1

Eastmond 73
3,021

(0) 1

Wrexham

Lemonheigh-Evans 30
9,325

Sutton Utd

(0) 1

Hutchinson 62 (pen)

(1) 1
(0) 1

Ironside 90+6 (pen)

(0) 0

Crewe

(0) 0

7,169

Vanarama National League
(1) 3

Northampton (0) 1

Ogilvie 7
Leonard 89
Lane 16, 58, Lang 71
19,245
Sent off: T McIntyre (Portsmouth) 54

(0) 1

League Two

Stockport

Knight 90+1
Aasgaard 20, 85
Jones 90+4
Magennis 52
8,184
Sent off: M Smith (Wigan) 76

Portsmouth (2) 4

Stevenage

Barnet

(1) 1

Stead 13

Bromley
Cheek 8

Dorking
Briggs 90+5

Wealdstone (0) 1
Andrews 90+9

(1) 1

Hartlepool

(1) 2

Dieseruvwe 27
Grant (og) 60

(0) 1

AFC Fylde
Ustabasi 37, 45
Barrett 70

(2) 3

LEADING
GOALSCORERS
Premier League
14 E Haaland
(Man City)
14 M Salah
(Liverpool)
13 D Solanke
(Bournemouth)
12 Son Heung-min
(Tottenham)
11 J Bowen
(West Ham)
11 O Watkins
(Aston Villa)
Championship
16 S Szmodics
(Blackburn)
16 M Whittaker
(Plymouth)
15 A Armstrong
(Southampton)
13 J Clarke
(Sunderland)
12 J Rowe Norwich)
12 C Summerville
(Leeds)
League One
17 D Cole (Barnsley)
16 A May Charlton)
16 J Reid
(Stevenage)
15 C Bishop
(Portsmouth)
15 J Rhodes
(Blackpool)
League Two
20 M Langstaff
(Notts County)
19 M Smith Salford)
16 W Evans
(Newport County)
16 J Young
(Swindon/
Bradford City)

the times | Monday February 5 2024

15

1GG

thegame
reached the top of the list,
Manchester United were also new on
the scene, emulating their northwest
neighbours by claiming a seventh
title with their second in a three-year
spell. Their first two successes had
come early in the century but this
was the fifth and final title achieved
under Sir Matt Busby. By the time
United won their next crown — their
eighth — in 1993, Liverpool had
taken their tally to 18.
1970: Everton 7, Man Utd 7,
Liverpool 7, Arsenal 7 — Everton
draw level
Everton had become champions for
the first time back in 1891 and here
their manager Harry Catterick
repeated his success of 1963 to bring
the club level with United, Liverpool
and Everton on seven wins, with
Villa and Sunderland only one
behind. The egalitarian feeling in
English football at this time was
strengthened by the fact that seven
different clubs won the title in the
seven years from 1967 to 1973.
The FA Cup told a similar story of
closely matched clubs. As of 1970,
Villa led on seven triumphs, with
Newcastle United and Blackburn on
six and Tottenham Hotspur, West
Bromwich Albion and Wanderers on
five; and nine different clubs lifted
the trophy in the nine years from
1965 to 1973.

Villa were joined in demotion by
Blackburn and thus those two lost
their status as the only two founder
members to have been ever-present
in the top division.
1948: Arsenal 6, Sunderland 6,
Aston Villa 6 — Arsenal draw level
Arsenal only became champions for
the first time in 1931 but they quickly
racked up five more titles to create a
three-way tie with Sunderland and
Villa for most titles. In this season
they became — and still are — the

only postwar champions whose
starting XIs across the season had an
average age of over 30.
1953: Arsenal 7, Sunderland 6, Aston
Villa 6 — Arsenal move clear
Managed by Tom Whittaker, who
was a coach at the club during their
1930s pre-eminence, Arsenal finished
top on goal average ahead of Preston,
who were seeking a third title (and
still are). The London club won the
title by coming from behind to beat
Burnley in the season’s last game.

1966: Liverpool 7, Arsenal 7 —
Liverpool draw level
Liverpool won their first two titles
before the First World War, their
next two between the wars and a
fifth in the first season after the
Second World War. They lifted the
trophy for the second time in three
years under Bill Shankly to end
Arsenal’s run as record champions.
1967: Man Utd 7, Liverpool 7,
Arsenal 7 — Man Utd draw level
A year after Liverpool had first

1971: Arsenal 8, Everton 7, Man Utd
7, Liverpool 7 — Arsenal move clear
Arsenal are the only team to have
twice taken the lead in the count of
most league titles, matching their feat
of 1953 in 1971. The manager Bertie
Mee’s team also lifted the FA Cup in
this year.
1973: Liverpool 8, Arsenal 8 —
Liverpool draw level
Just as they did in 1966, Liverpool
drew level with Arsenal, whose
18-year gap between titles from
1953 to 1971 would be repeated
between 1971 and 1989. This was
Liverpool’s last league success
under Shankly.

1976: Liverpool 9, Arsenal 8 —
Liverpool move clear
Three years later, now with Bob
Paisley as manager, Liverpool began
the charge that destroyed the
closeness that had existed at the
summit of the table of champions for
so long. This was the first of their ten
titles in 15 years — two more than
any club had managed between 1888
and 1976.
2009: Man Utd 18, Liverpool 18 —
Man Utd draw level
As mentioned, United had slipped to
18-7 behind Liverpool between the
latter’s triumph in 1990 and United’s
first success under Sir Alex Ferguson
in 1993. But the Scot ate up the
deficit, reshaping his team several
times but continuing to dominate the
English game. Three consecutive
titles from 1999 were repeated from
2007 to 2009, which brought his club
level with their Anfield rivals.
2011: Man Utd 19, Liverpool 18 —
Man Utd move clear
Two years later United moved ahead
at the summit of the champions table
for the first time with their
penultimate triumph under Ferguson.
During the period of United’s 12 titles
from 1993 Liverpool had rarely
looked like potential champions,
finishing runners-up only twice.
Most top-flight league wins
Man United 20, Liverpool 19, Arsenal
13, Everton 9, Man City 9, Aston Villa
7, Chelsea 6, Sunderland 6, Newcastle
4, Sheffield Wednesday 4
United won a 20th title in 2013 in
Ferguson’s final season and Liverpool
reduced the deficit to one in 2020.
Now they can draw level once more.
Years spent as record champions
(excluding war years):
Aston Villa 33
Liverpool 33
Arsenal 15
Man Utd 13
Preston 4
Sunderland 2

Fixtures
Eastleigh

(0) 1

Chesterfield (1) 3

Maguire 90+5 (pen)

Berry 37
Mandeville 84
Grigg 86
Sent off: P McCallum (Eastleigh) 45

Oldham

(0) 0

Halifax Town (1) 1

Aldershot

(0) 2

Wright 26
1,928

Tolaj 48
Thomas 69

Kidderminster (0) 3

Oxford City (2) 2

Morgan-Smith 57
Lambert 74
Omotayo 78

Parker 17, 43 (pen)

Ebbsfleet

(0) 0

1,859

Rochdale

(1) 1

Dagenham & R (2) 2

Sinclair 40

Effiong 9, 45+3 (pen)

Solihull Moors (0) 0

Altrincham

1,388

Newby 31

Southend

(0) 0

6,372

Woking

Gateshead

Davies 28

Cinch Scottish Premiership
Aberdeen

(0) 1

Miovski 50
17,002
McGhee 26
Cameron 59
7,506

(0) 1

Hibernian

(1) 2

(1) 1

(0) 0

Nathaniel-George 16
P W D L F A GD Pts
Chesterfield.......30 25 2 3 75 35 40 77
Bromley...............32 16 10 6 53 35 18 58
Barnet...................31 17 5 9 59 45 14 56
Altrincham.........29 13 10 6 54 38 16 49
Aldershot.............31 14 6 11 56 57 -1 48
Solihull Moors..30 13 8 9 45 41 4 47
Gateshead..........29 13 7 9 53 40 13 46
Oldham...............30 12 10 8 45 39 6 46
Rochdale............30 11 8 11 48 44 4 41
Halifax.................30 10 11 9 33 33 0 41
Hartlepool..........32 12 4 16 49 58 -9 40
Wealdstone ....... 28 10 8 10 40 40 0 38
Eastleigh.............30 10 8 12 51 61 -10 38
Dagenham & R .31 10 7 14 39 43 -4 37
Boreham Wood.31 8 13 10 40 51 -11 37
Maidenhead......30 8 12 10 31 38 -7 36
*Southend..........29 13 5 11 44 32 12 34
York......................30 7 13 10 40 48 -8 34
Dorking...............30 10 4 16 36 50 -14 34
AFC Fylde...........30 8 8 14 45 53 -8 32
Kidderminster...32 8 8 16 29 41 -12 32
Ebbsfleet.............32 8 7 17 38 56 -18 31
Woking................30 8 6 16 29 39 -10 30
Oxford City.........31 7 6 18 44 59 -15 27
* deducted for breaching league rules
North Alfreton 0 Tamworth 0; Boston 3
Southport 0; Brackley 1 Darlington 0;
Chester 1 Banbury 1; Curzon Ashton 0
Buxton 3; Farsley 3 Bishop’s Stortford 1;

Hearts

(0) 3

St Mirren

(3) 3

Gogic 8
Kiltie 34 (pen)
Mandron 44

Boreham Wood (1) 1
Maidenhead (1) 1

(0) 1

Forrest 55
Shankland 79 (pen), 87

Dinanga 58

(0) 0

Celtic
Kühn 63

Dundee

(1) 1

Balanta 14
Sent off: L Ndlovu (Boreham Wood) 41

York City

Gloucester 1 Kings Lynn 2; Hereford 5 Blyth
2; Scarborough 1 South Shields 1; Scunthorpe
2 Rushall 0; Spennymoor 0 Peterborough
Sports 0; Warrington T2 Chorley 1. South
Aveley 0 Worthing 3; Bath C1 Eastbourne 0;
Braintree 3 Dover 0; Farnborough 2
Dartford 1; Hampton & Richmond 2 Truro 1;
Havant & Waterlooville 2 Chelmsford 1;
Maidstone 2 Yeovil 1; Slough 2 Westonsuper-Mare 0; Tonbridge 2 Chippenham 0;
Torquay 0 St Albans 4; Welling 0 Taunton 0;
Weymouth 4 Hemel Hempstead 3.

(1) 1

Motherwell
Bair 38
5,491

Rangers

Kilmarnock

(1) 1

Mayo 13

(2) 3

Livingston

(0) 0

Soares Silva 40
Matondo 45+2
Cantwell 56

49,688

Ross County (0) 0

St Johnstone (1) 1

Mbunga Kimpioka 34
P W D L F A GD Pts
Celtic....................24 18 4 2 55 16 39 58
Rangers...............23 18 1 4 48 11 37 55
Hearts..................24 14 3 7 32 22 10 45
Kilmarnock........24 8 9 7 27 26 1 33
St Mirren.............24 9 5 10 27 29 -2 32
Dundee................22 6 8 8 31 36 -5 26
Hibernian............23 6 8 9 28 37 -9 26
Aberdeen............22 6 7 9 25 34 -9 25
St Johnstone ..... 23 5 9 9 16 29 -13 24
Motherwell.........23 4 10 9 27 36 -9 22
Ross County......22 4 7 11 19 33 -14 19
Livingston..........24 2 7 15 15 41 -26 13
Cinch Championship Ayr 1 Dundee Utd 2;
Dunfermline 0 Morton 5; Inverness CT 0
Queen’s Park 1. League One Annan 2 Alloa
3; Edinburgh City 0 Kelty 3; Queen of the
South 0 Hamilton 2; Stirling Albion 2 Cove
2. League Two Bonnyrigg Rose 0 Stranraer
0; Clyde 1 Peterhead 1; Elgin 1 East Fife 0;
Forfar 1 The Spartans 0; Stenhousemuir 1
Dumbarton 0.
SPFL Trust Trophy Challenge Cup: Semifinal Falkirk 0 The New Saints 1.

Women’s Super League Aston Villa 2
Bristol City 2; Chelsea 3 Everton 0;
Liverpool 1 Tottenham 1; Manchester City 2
Leicester 0; Manchester Utd 2 Brighton 0;
West Ham 2 Arsenal 1.
P W D L F A GD Pts
Chelsea
13 11 1 1 41 12 29 34
Man City
13 10 1 2 35 8 27 31
Arsenal
13 9 1 3 29 13 16 28
Man Utd
13 7 3 3 30 15 15 24
Liverpool
13 5 4 4 17 19 -2 19
Tottenham
13 5 4 4 20 26 -6 19
Leicester
13 3 4 6 16 24 -8 13
Aston Villa
13 4 1 8 16 26 -10 13
West Ham
13 3 2 8 15 27 -12 11
Everton
13 3 2 8 10 25 -15 11
Brighton
13 3 2 8 13 29 -16 11
Bristol City
13 1 3 9 15 33 -18 6
French Ligue 1 Brest 0 Nice 0; Lille 4
Clermont 0; Lyon 1 Marseille 0; Metz 1
Lorient 2; Monaco 1 Le Havre 1; Nantes 0
Lens 1; Reims 2 Toulouse 3; Rennes 2
Montpellier 1.
P W D L F A GD Pts
PSG.......................20 14 5 1 48 17 31 47
Nice......................20 11 6 3 20 11 9 39
Brest.....................20 10 6 4 29 17 12 36
Lille.......................20 9 8 3 28 14 14 35
Monaco...............20 10 5 5 37 28 9 35
Lens......................20 9 5 6 24 19 5 32
Reims...................20 9 3 8 27 27 0 30
Marseille.............20 7 8 5 28 22 6 29
Rennes................20 7 7 6 30 25 5 28
Strasbourg.........20 6 7 7 21 26 -5 25
Le Havre.............20 5 9 6 23 24 -1 24
Toulouse............20 4 8 8 19 27 -8 20
Montpellier........20 4 8 8 20 25 -5 19
Nantes.................20 5 4 11 20 31 -11 19
Lyon.....................20 5 4 11 20 33 -13 19
Metz.....................20 4 4 12 17 31 -14 16
Lorient.................20 3 7 10 26 42 -16 16
Clermont............20 3 6 11 14 32 -18 15
German Bundesliga Bayern Munich 3
Borussia Mönchengladbach 1; Bochum 1
Augsburg 1; Cologne 2 Eintracht Frankfurt
0; Darmstadt 0 Bayer Leverkusen 2;
Freiburg 1 Stuttgart 3; Mainz 0 Werder
Bremen 1; RB Leipzig 2 Union Berlin 0;
Wolfsburg 2 Hoffenheim 2.
P W D L F A GD Pts
B Leverkusen....20 16 4 0 52 14 38 52
Bayern Munich 20 16 2 2 59 19 40 50
Stuttgart.............20 13 1 6 46 26 20 40
B Dortmund ...... 20 10 7 3 40 26 14 37
RB Leipzig..........20 11 3 6 44 26 18 36
E Frankfurt........20 8 7 5 30 24 6 31
Freiburg..............20 8 4 8 26 34 -8 28
Hoffenheim.......20 7 5 8 37 39 -2 26
Werder Bremen 20 7 5 8 29 32 -3 26
Heidenheim ..... 20 6 6 8 28 35 -7 24

Wolfsburg..........20 6 5 9 25 32 -7 23
Augsburg...........20 5 7 8 29 37 -8 22
B M’gladbach....20 5 6 9 36 41 -5 21
Bochum..............20 4 9 7 22 38 -16 21
Union Berlin.......19 5 2 12 18 34 -16 17
Cologne..............20 3 6 11 14 34 -20 15
Mainz ...................19 1 8 10 14 31 -17 11
Darmstadt .........20 2 5 13 22 49 -27 11
Italian Serie A Atalanta 3 Lazio 1; Bologna 4
Sassuolo 2; Empoli 0 Genoa 0; Frosinone 2
AC Milan 3; Inter Milan 1 Juventus 0; Napoli
2 Hellas Verona 1; Torino 0 Salernitana 0;
Udinese 0 Monza 0.
P W D L F A GD Pts
Inter Milan..........22 18 3 1 51 10 41 57
Juventus.............23 16 5 2 36 14 22 53
AC Milan..............23 15 4 4 46 27 19 49
Atalanta...............22 12 3 7 40 22 18 39
Bologna...............22 9 9 4 29 22 7 36
Roma....................22 10 5 7 36 26 10 35
Napoli...................22 10 5 7 32 26 6 35
Fiorentina...........22 10 4 8 31 25 6 34
Lazio.....................22 10 4 8 25 23 2 34
Torino..................22 8 8 6 20 19 1 32
Genoa...................23 7 8 8 24 26 -2 29
Monza..................23 7 8 8 21 28 -7 29
Lecce....................23 5 9 9 24 33 -9 24
Frosinone ........... 23 6 5 12 31 44 -13 23
Sassuolo..............22 5 4 13 28 41 -13 19
Udinese ............... 23 2 13 8 23 37 -14 19
Cagliari................22 4 6 12 21 38 -17 18
Hellas Verona....23 4 6 13 21 32 -11 18
Empoli..................23 4 6 13 15 36 -21 18
Salernitana.........23 2 7 14 19 44 -25 13
Spanish La Liga Alavés 1 Barcelona 3;
Girona 0 Real Sociedad 0; Granada 1 Las
Palmas 1; Osasuna 0 Celta Vigo 3; Real Betis
1 Getafe 1; Real Madrid 1 Atlético Madrid 1;
Valencia 2 Almería 1; Villarreal 0 Cádiz 0.
P W D L F A GD Pts
Real Madrid.......23 18 4 1 48 15 33 58
Girona..................23 17 5 1 52 25 27 56
Barcelona ........... 23 15 5 3 47 30 17 50
Atlético Madrid 23 15 3 5 45 25 20 48
Athletic Bilbao..23 13 6 4 42 21 21 45
Real Sociedad...23 9 10 4 32 21 11 37
Valencia ..............23 10 5 8 29 27 2 35
Real Betis............23 8 11 4 26 25 1 35
Las Palmas.........23 9 5 9 23 20 3 32
Getafe..................23 7 9 7 29 31 -2 30
Alavés..................23 7 5 11 23 30 -7 26
Osasuna..............23 7 5 11 26 36 -10 26
Rayo Vallecano 22 5 9 8 19 28 -9 24
Villarreal.............23 6 6 11 33 45 -12 24
Celta Vigo...........23 4 8 11 24 32 -8 20
Mallorca..............23 3 11 9 19 30 -11 20
Sevilla...................22 3 8 11 27 36 -9 17
Cádiz.....................23 2 11 10 15 31 -16 17
Granada ............. 23 2 6 15 23 45 -22 12
Almería................23 0 6 17 22 51 -29 6

Kick-off 7.45 unless stated

Sky Bet Championship Sheffield Wed v
Birmingham (8.0). League Two Notts
County v Gillingham.
Scottish Cup: Fifth round Morton v
Motherwell (7.30).
Kick-off 3.0 unless stated

Huddersfield; Sunderland v Plymouth;
Watford v Leicester. League One Barnsley
v Leyton Orient; Blackpool v Oxford Utd;
Bristol Rovers v Burton Albion; Cambridge
Utd v Cheltenham; Carlisle v Portsmouth;
Derby v Shrewsbury; Lincoln City v
Fleetwood; Northampton v Bolton; Port
Vale v Stevenage; Reading v Charlton;
Wigan v Exeter; Wycombe v Peterborough.
League Two AFC Wimbledon v Barrow;
Crewe v Crawley; Doncaster v Tranmere;
Forest Green v Mansfield; Grimsby v
Stockport County; Harrogate v Colchester;
MK Dons v Accrington; Morecambe v
Sutton Utd; Swindon v Salford; Walsall v
Newport County; Wrexham v Bradford City.
FA Trophy: Fifth round Bishop’s Stortford
v Coalville; Bromley v Aveley; Chorley v
Solihull Moors; Hampton & Richmond v
Macclesfield; Hereford v Gateshead;
Peterborough Sports v Kidderminster;
Wealdstone v Hendon; Welling v Barnet.
Vanarama National League Altrincham v
Rochdale; Boreham Wood v Maidenhead;
Chesterfield v Ebbsfleet; Dagenham &
Redbridge v Oxford City; Dorking v Halifax;
Eastleigh v AFC Fylde; Southend v York;
Woking v Hartlepool (5.30).
FA Vase: Fifth round Bridgwater v Deal;
Emley AFC v Whickham; Hallam v Lincoln
Utd; Highworth v Great Wakering; Jersey
Bulls v Falmouth; Stourport Swifts v
Worcester City; Tilbury v North Greenford.
Scottish Cup: Fifth round Aberdeen v
Bonnyrigg Rose; Inverness CT v
Hibernian; Partick v Livingston; Rangers v
Ayr (5.30).
Cinch Championship Dunfermline v
Queen’s Park. League One Alloa v Stirling
Albion; Cove Rangers v Falkirk; Hamilton v
Annan; Kelty Hearts v Queen of South;
Montrose v Edinburgh City. League Two
Dumbarton v Forfar; East Fife v
Stenhousemuir; Spartans v Elgin; Stranraer
v Clyde.

Saturday

Sunday

Premier League Fulham v Bournemouth;
Liverpool v Burnley; Luton v Sheffield Utd;
Man City v Everton (12.30); Nottingham
Forest v Newcastle (5.30); Tottenham v
Brighton; Wolverhampton v Brentford.
Sky Bet Championship Blackburn v Stoke;
Cardiff v Preston; Hull v Swansea; Ipswich v
West Bromwich (12.30); Leeds v
Rotherham; Middlesbrough v Bristol City;
QPR v Norwich; Southampton v

Premier League Aston Villa v Man Utd
(4.30); West Ham v Arsenal (2.0).
Sky Bet Championship Coventry v Millwall
(midday).
FA Vase: Fifth round Hilltop v Romford.
Scottish Cup: Fifth round Airdrieonians v
Hearts (5.0); St Mirren v Celtic (2.0).
Cinch Premiership Dundee v St Johnstone
(2.0).

Today
Premier League Brentford v Man City (8.0).

Tomorrow
FA Cup: Fourth-round replays Coventry v
Sheffield Wednesday; Plymouth v Leeds;
Southampton v Watford.
Sky Bet League One Bristol Rovers v
Fleetwood; Burton Albion v Cheltenham;
Cambridge Utd v Bolton; Exeter v
Peterborough; Port Vale v Leyton Orient;
Stevenage v Reading. League Two Walsall
v Morecambe.
Vanarama National League Altrincham v
Dorking; Dagenham & Redbridge v
Chesterfield; Halifax v Solihull Moors;
Gateshead v Eastleigh; Wealdstone v
Maidenhead; Woking v Oxford City.
Cinch Scottish Premiership Motherwell v
Ross County; Rangers v Aberdeen (8.0).
Cinch League One Stirling Albion v
Montrose. League Two Bonnyrigg Rose v
Elgin.

Wednesday
FA Cup: Fourth-round replays Aston Villa v
Chelsea (8.0); Nottingham Forest v Bristol
City.
Cinch Premiership Hibernian v Celtic (8.0);
Kilmarnock v Livingston; St Johnstone v
Hearts; St Mirren v Dundee.
Women’s League Cup: Quarter finals (2.0):
Brighton v Aston Villa; Tottenham v Man
City; Chelsea v Sunderland; London City v
Arsenal.

Friday

16

2GG

IAN
HAWKEY
At the Africa Cup of Nations

March of baby Éléphants symbolises
the changing face of African talent
ISSOUF SANOGO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Drive the 20-odd miles from Sol Béni, the bucolic
headquarters of Abidjan’s most celebrated
football academy, to the Alassane Ouattara
Stadium, a modern monument to Ivory Coast’s
sporting ambition, and you’ll pass the supersized
image of Sébastien Haller at least three dozen
times. He is on almost every other roadside
poster. If he’s not endorsing a mobile network,
he’s advertising mineral water or a domestic
appliance. The last of those may be the hardest
sell, given Ivorians saw their electricity bills rise
10 per cent just as the 34th Africa Cup of Nations
rolled into town.
Hosting an Afcon is expensive. This one, now
in its thrilling approach to the semi-finals, has
taken more than $1billion (£791 million) from the
Ivorian treasury and while there are clear
infrastructure legacies, such as smart new
highways, the intended rally-round-the-flag
benefits have teetered alarmingly these past
three weeks. The national team have done
almost everything possible to sabotage a run to
Sunday’s final. They lost two of three group
games while still longing for Borussia
Dortmund’s Haller, the star centre forward, to
recover from injury; they sacked their coach, the
Frenchman Jean-Louis Gasset, mid-competition.
Remarkably, Ivory Coast are still in the race,
having taken their brinkmanship to fresh levels
of suspense during Saturday’s quarter-final
against Mali. For the second time in as many
knockout ties since squeaking out of the first
round via repechage — Ivory Coast were the
fourth best of the four third-placed qualifiers
from the groups — they fell behind. They were
already down to ten men, after the first-half
dismissal of the defender Odilon Kossounou.
On 90 minutes, they found their latest
Houdini, Brighton & Hove Albion’s Simon
Adingra, fresh off the bench to turn some
penalty-box pinball into an equaliser. In stoppage
time of extra time, more blessings: a marginally
less random ricochet, off the heel of Oumar
Diakité, another substitute, propelled the
Ivorians into Wednesday’s semi-final against the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
Diakité, in keeping with the rollercoaster spirit
of the campaign, promptly absented himself from
the next game with a suspension, collecting a
second yellow card during his shirtless
celebrations. He had become carried away, as any
20-year-old might, when “thinking,” as he
phrased it, “that with that goal I have put joy into
the hearts of 30 million Ivorians.”
A special joy too into the heart of the Sol Béni
academy, on the banks of the Ebrié lagoon.
Diakité is one of theirs, or he was before he made
the standard teenage voyage to European club
football, in his case to RB Salzburg, where every
young striker travels with optimism, knowing
that Sadio Mané and Erling Haaland passed
through there. Kossonou, of the Bundesliga
leaders Bayer Leverkusen, is another
schooled at Sol Béni, a relieved man now
that Diakité’s late goal has rendered his red
card less relevant to the bumpy story of
Ivory Coast at their home Afcon.
Diakité and Kossonou are heirs
to a great lineage. A generation
ago Sol Béni, nursery of the
Abidjan club ASEC
Mimosas, had a legitimate
claim to being one of the
most fertile hothouses in
the sport. From it came a
cohort of players to stand
comparison with, say,
Manchester United’s class of
1992, or the gifted

Monday February 5 2024 | the times

Leaders
Real denied
by Llorente
in derby
EUROPEAN ROUND-UP
DOMINIC AKIBOYE
Real Madrid were denied the chance
to extend their lead at the top of La
Liga to four points by a late Atletico
Madrid equaliser at the Santiago
Bernabéu as they failed to take
advantage of Girona being held by
Real Sociedad on Saturday
Brahim Díaz gave Real the lead in
the 20th minute when the ball
dropped to him in the Atletico box.
Atletico thought they had found an
equaliser just after half-time when the
former Manchester City defender
Stefan Savic put the ball into the back
of the net, but the goal was chalked
off for offside. But Marcos Llorente
equalised in the 93rd minute when he
headed on Memphis Depay’s flick-on.
Xavi’s farewell starts with a victory

Diakité misses
the semi-final
after removing
his shirt in
celebration of
his goal after
Adingra had
struck, below

Elsewhere in La Liga, Barcelona
defeated Alavés 3-1 in their first
match since Xavi, the coach,
announced he would be leaving the
club at the end of the season. Robert
Lewandowski opened the scoring,
netting his first league goal in seven
games, with a delightful chip. Ilkay
Gundogan doubled Barcelona’s lead
just after half-time, volleying into the
roof of the goal after Pedri’s lofted
pass. Alavés struck back only two
minutes later when Samuel
Omorodion headed home Alex Sola’s
outside-of-the-boot cross. The
substitute Vitor Roque killed any
chance of an Alaves comeback in the
63rd minute, slotting his finish into
the bottom corner. It should have
been a wonderful night for the 18year-old Brazil forward, who has two
goals in his past two games after
joining Barcelona from Athletico
Paranaense in January, but moments
later he was subject to a contentious
decision and shown a second yellow
card.
Inter extend lead over Juventus

contemporaries who emerged from Barcelona’s
La Masia alongside Lionel Messi.
When Messi’s Barça won the Treble in 2009,
they had Yaya Touré, a product of ASEC’s youth
system, as midfield anchor; his brother and fellow
ASEC student Kolo was an Arsenal Invincible.
Salomon Kalou won the European Cup with
Chelsea. Didier Zokora did something very rare
after leaving Sol Béni: he won a trophy with
Tottenham Hotspur.
You could go on. Many major European prizes
were picked up by ASEC graduates of that
vintage. But if the likes of Diakité and Kossonou
testify that the ASEC nursery remains a go-to
site for international recruiters, it is no longer so
exceptional. The landscape of talent
development in Africa is changing; other
Francophone countries such as
Morocco and Senegal have stolen
a march in their academy
set-ups. Nor is the career
ladder that leads from
local, schoolboy
potential to European
club and to national team
as linear as it was.
Should Ivory Coast beat DR
Congo and make Sunday’s final at the
grand new stadium, it will be with a
side whose make-up is very distinct
from 2015, when Les Éléphants most
recently won an Afcon, with a majority of
ASEC alumni in the line-up. The 2024
Éléphants differ in part because of shifting
demographics, in part because Fifa rules

have loosened around dual-nationals’ eligibility
to represent a second country during their senior
career. Haller, the poster-boy now steadily
recovering fitness, and Seko Fofana, the driver of
their midfield, were both born to Ivorian parents
in France, for whom they won age-group caps.
DR Congo draw heavily on players from the
country’s vast diaspora, while Nigeria have
progressed impressively into the last four partly
because Ademola Lookman (a World Cup winner
with England’s under-20s in 2017) and Alex Iwobi
(once of England’s under-18s) so effectively
complement Victor Osimhen’s masterly leading
of the forward line.
If the high standards at this tournament
owe plenty to footballers tutored at European
academies, the contrarians in this, and outsiders
in the last four, are Nigeria’s semi-final
opponents, South Africa, where a poor showing
at Afcons over two decades has been interrupted
by a squad excluding the country’s few exports to
Europe’s better leagues, such as Lyle Foster, of
Burnley, or Lebo Mothiba, of Strasbourg. Instead,
South Africa are built largely around a local club,
Mamelodi Sundowns.
Sundowns, wealthy by African standards and
the most potent sub-Saharan challengers to the
Egyptian and Maghreb clubs who dominate the
African Champions League, had nine players on
the pitch in South Africa’s efficient elimination of
Morocco, the 2022 World Cup semi-finalists.
It’s a unit whose familiarity with another is
evident in their well-drilled offside line. It’s a unit
that needs to be especially robust and daring on
Wednesday, up against Osimhen and Lookman.

In Serie A Inter Milan came out 1-0
victors in a top-of-the-table clash
with Juventus at the San Siro. The
home side took the lead in the 37th
minute through a fortuitous own goal
after Benjamin Pavard’s acrobatic
attempt was turned in by the defender
Federico Gatti. Inter were largely in
control of the game with Hakan
Calhanoglu dictating tempo from
deep while Nicolò Barella and
Henrikh Mkhitaryan worked hard to
win the ball back out of possession.
Inter are four points clear of Juventus
at the top of Serie A having played
one game fewer than their title rivals.
Milan rally to win away from home

AC Milan battled back to win 3-2
away to Frosinone on Saturday. Milan
took the lead early through Olivier
Giroud but Matías Soulé soon
equalised with a penalty. Soulé has
been making a name for himself —
the Argentina winger’s penalty took
his Serie A goalscoring tally this
season to ten, and he registered his
second assist of the campaign in the
65th minute by setting up Luca
Mazzitelli to give his side the lead.
Frosinone’s advantage would not last
long as Giroud turned provider,
heading across the six-yard box for
Matteo Gabbia to turn home in the
72nd minute. Luka Jovic came off the
bench to seal the win for Milan.,

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European forests, which provide wood for making paper,
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Source: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), 2005 - 2020
European Forests: EU27 + Norway, Switzerland and the UK

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®

the times

Cradle to grave; dustman to duke
The National Health Service is
woven through the nation’s
emotional life but it has become
more like a sickness service and
desperately needs to evolve

A

neurin Bevan, the architect of the
National Health Service, summed up
its founding principle in 1948. “Illness is
neither an indulgence for which people
have to pay; nor an offence for which
they should be penalised,” he said, “but
a misfortune, the cost of which should
be shared by the community.”
The health service may be a political shibboleth but it
is also woven through the emotional life of the nation.
Its promise to care equally for everyone from the cradle
to the grave and from a dustman to a duke has always
had a powerful hold over the public imagination. That
sentimental attachment was clear as people stood on
their doorsteps clapping for healthworkers during the
pandemic. It was evident in the children jumping on
hospital beds for the London 2012 Olympics.
Now, though, the NHS is cracking under the pressure
of spiralling waiting lists, packed A&E departments and
overwhelmed GP surgeries. Staff are burnt out, patients
are getting sicker and hospitals are crumbling. The
social care system is struggling to keep up with rising
demand. Life expectancy is falling. The UK lags behind
comparable countries when it comes to cancer survival.
A record 2.6 million people are off work with long-term
illness. Britain has become the most obese country in
western Europe and there are huge health inequalities,
with devastating economic and social consequences.
This is despite the fact that healthcare staff are
working harder than ever and the health service is
absorbing an ever greater share of public resources. The

Department of Health and Social Care budget has
climbed to more than £180 billion of which NHS
England accounts for about £155 billion.
The NHS is already the sixth biggest employer in
the world, with 1.6 million staff. The Institute for
Fiscal Studies (IFS) predicts that by 2036 it could
employ almost half of all public sector workers and
about one in eleven of the entire English workforce.
The proportion would be even higher if social care
staff were included.
The mythology surrounding the NHS is powerful.
That was clear in last year’s anthropomorphic 75th
“birthday” celebrations. The playwright Sir David
Hare argued that it was part of a national story dating
back to the 1940s “about what happens when the
soldiers come back saying we don’t want the world to
return to how it was in the 1930s.”
The NHS must evolve from what it has become —
a reactive sickness service — into what its name
promises: a more proactive health service. The
political debate goes round in circles about funding
and pay, staff shortages and bed numbers, but
solutions are emerging that will be much more potent
drivers of change. Technology has the power to
revolutionise health and social care for the 21st
century in the way that it has transformed banking,
shopping, dating and entertainment.
There have been at least a dozen commissions and
inquiries over the past 25 years that have made
recommendations about the NHS and social care.
Most have largely been ignored. It is now time to act.
With millions of employees off work because they are
unwell and tens of thousands of children absent from
school with mental health problems, the economic as
well as the physical health of the nation is at stake. A
long-term approach is needed to rise above party
politics and move beyond the annual emergency
handouts to allow more strategic planning. The costs
of illness are rising exponentially and we cannot
afford to carry on as we are. It is only by creating a
healthier Britain that we will unlock its true potential.

Health Commission

The scale
of the
problem
The NHS is breaking records for
all the wrong reasons — lengthy
waiting lists, delayed responses,
staff shortages and poor outcomes
— but simply addressing funding
may not be the best answer

O

ne evening Waheed Arian came out
of the accident and emergency
department in Coventry where he
works as a consultant to find 14
ambulances lined up outside the
hospital. “I had to open up each
ambulance and look inside and
decide which patient could come in because we only
had two beds,” he said. “They were all suffering, they
should all have had a bed. The NHS is under such
stress that we are being asked to do things that we
shouldn’t be doing.”
This is the human reality underlying the statistics
about the crisis in the health service. Patients are
waiting in hospital car parks and medics are
struggling to do their jobs.
As the annual winter crisis turns into an apparently
permanent state of emergency, the NHS is breaking
all the wrong kinds of records. The waiting list for
routine hospital treatment in England stands at more
than 7.6 million, nearly 3.4 million higher than before
the pandemic. More than a million patients are
waiting for more than one non-emergency procedure
such as a hip replacement, knee surgery or
physiotherapy and some need up to five. Although the
backlog fell slightly at the end of last year, it has more
than tripled since 2010. Industrial action has added to
the strain along with new waves of Covid and flu.
Of course, millions of individuals get excellent care
from healthcare staff who are working their hearts
out in difficult circumstances but the system is not
functioning as it should. The health service heading
for one of its worst winters since records began.
Every part of the system is affected. Ambulance
response times have soared and at one point last year
patients were waiting on average 90 minutes for
category 2 calls (which include suspected heart
attacks and strokes), five times the goal of 18 minutes.
Performance has since improved but is still way
outside the target. In December the average response
time was 45 minutes and 57 seconds.
The doctors’ strikes have undoubtedly compounded
the problem but they are not the only explanation.
The NHS came out of the pandemic with a much
higher backlog for planned operations than many
other countries. Meanwhile, the physical
infrastructure of the NHS is crumbling as a result of a
sustained underinvestment in capital spending. There
is a similar sense of exhaustion among family doctors.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, president of the Royal
College of GPs, said: “We have two thirds of GPs
saying that they don’t have enough time to see
patients properly, and fear for patient safety as a result
of that. The stress that people are under is so huge
that large numbers of people are threatening to leave.”
The performance of the health service is suffering.
In international league tables the NHS scores highly
on fairness but poorly on outcomes. Life expectancy
has fallen and a growing number of people live for a
greater proportion of their life in ill-health.
Members of the commission’s patient panel and
focus groups repeatedly expressed their frustration
with the inefficiencies of the NHS as a system, while
often praising the care they had received from
individual members of staff.
Despite having been protected for more than a
decade from the Treasury axe, the health service has

I’ve been
assaulted, spat
at and bitten.

a serious productivity problem, particularly in
secondary care. Hospitals employ more doctors and
nurses than ever but analysis by the Institute for Fiscal
Studies found that extra funding was not translating
into more care and the health service was carrying out
“substantially fewer” appointments and operations than
before the Covid crisis.
There are many extraordinary people doing
exceptional things in the NHS, saving lives every day,
but the system as a whole seems unable to learn from
its innovators. The institutions have not adapted.
Hospitals are disconnected from GPs and the NHS
from local authorities, with patients shunted between
the uncomprehending constituent parts. There is a
culture of box-ticking and risk aversion.
Retired doctors who volunteered to help with the
Covid vaccine programme were required to take
eighteen training modules, including one on preventing
terrorism. Far from being a vast monolithic
bureaucracy, the health service is a series of fragmented
and competing fiefdoms, encircled by an alphabet soup
of quangos and regulators.
Politicians love playing with what the former cabinet
secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood called “the biggest train
set on Whitehall” but even those who have got their
hands on it acknowledge that the fiddling has gone too
far. Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor and a former health
secretary, said the NHS was being “micromanaged to
death” and was “dreadfully inefficient” because of
excessive central control. “An average hospital will have
100 targets, a GP will have 78 targets,” he told the
commission. “There is literally no healthcare system in
the world that micromanages every single person to the
extent that we do in the NHS. That makes it very, very
difficult for any NHS manager to innovate because if
you put a foot wrong you’ll be missing a target.”
The fundamental problem is that too many people
end up in hospitals, the most costly place to treat
patients, because of failings in other parts of the system.
Those who can afford it are seeking alternative
routes to treatment and care. The commission’s YouGov
poll found that 15 per cent of patients had paid for a
private operation or GP appointment in the past year.
The pressures are only going to increase. Almost one
in five of the UK population is over 65. By 2050 it will
be one in four. Over the next 25 years the number of
people older than 85 in England will double to

2.6 million. In many ways this is something to celebrate
but it also creates challenges.
Some say that a new funding model is the answer
and point to the social insurance systems around
Europe. The evidence presented to the commission
suggests that this is not the answer. Sally Warren, head
of policy at the King’s Fund, which has studied all the
alternatives, said: “If you look at all of the work that’s
done on international comparisons, the general
consensus is that there is not a particular funding
model or delivery model that is either particularly good
or particularly bad. There’s nothing to suggest that by
suddenly moving to social insurance we’d get better
outcomes. It would be a distraction.”
The key question is not how a country raises the
money but how it spends it. There is a risk of muddling
up cause and effect. Israel, for example, funds its
healthcare through a social insurance system but on a
visit there the commission heard that the real source of
its success was its widespread adoption of technology.
Germany, where health insurance is compulsory, has
better health outcomes than the UK but it also has
more than three times as many hospital beds.
The commission looked closely at the case for
charging for GP visits but in Ireland, where patients pay
€60 for an appointment, doctors and patients said the
system was backfiring. The commission concluded that
introducing a new way of paying for the NHS would be
a distraction and cause huge disruption and political
turmoil without any guarantee that the risks would
outweigh any benefits. It is also unnecessary since there
are better ways to drive efficiency using technology,
data analytics and artificial intelligence.
There is, however, a need for a radical rewiring of the
system to reduce the over-centralisation, shift the
balance towards prevention and empower patients. The
private sector has a key role to play, both in developing
the new technologies that will help to drive reform and
in delivering more treatments and diagnostic tests on
behalf of the NHS. The health service must get over its
squeamishness about business and seek to encourage
an entrepreneurial spirit while understanding that
companies can make a valuable contribution to
healthcare so long as this does not undermine the
principles of universal care, free at the point of need.
The number of central targets should be reduced and
the focus should be on keeping people healthy rather

the times

Hospitals and
waiting lists
Hospitals are the most costly way to manage health
and yet they have become the first resort for many
patients. There are more imaginative solutions
than simply building more ‘sickness factories’

T
than just treating them when they are sick. The scale of
the crisis means that a radical rewiring is required, with
all Whitehall departments working together to improve
the health of the nation over a prolonged period rather
than just chasing after the latest short-term political
initiative or dealing with the newest emergency.
For too long the NHS has had to deal with a “feast or
famine” funding regime with annual emergency
handouts rather than a strategic approach. There has
been too little consistency, not helped by the fact that
there have been six health secretaries in the past six
years. The NHS has too often been “weaponised” in the
political battle for hearts and minds by all sides.
The commission proposes the creation of a new
independent “healthy lives committee”, empowered by
an ambitious and legally binding commitment to
increase healthy life expectancy by five years in a
decade and reduce the health gap between rich and
poor. Following a model similar to the climate change
committee, it should be made up of outside experts and
hold the government, industry and the NHS to account
for the progress in improving health, with clear annual
milestones on the path to achieving the goal. It would
focus on healthy life expectancy, rather than just
overall life expectancy, to help to bring about the
necessary mindset shift and encourage a long-term
approach with cross-party agreement.
Sir Michael Barber, who successfully tackled waiting
lists as head of Tony Blair’s delivery unit and advised
Boris Johnson, said the key to achieving change was to
focus on a few targets rather than micro-manage
details. “It’s about having goals, it’s about planning, it’s
about data. It’s building routines where you’re having
an honest conversation, and it’s about really solving
problems, and not just hoping things will get better. It
creates an atmosphere where you’re not blaming
angrily, you’re not shouting at people, you’re not being
critical: you’re saying it looks like we’ve got a problem,
what are we going to do about it?”

6

here are brightly painted bicycles in the
corridors at Aarhus Hospital in Denmark.
The clinicians use them to get around the
500,000 sq m estate, which serves
350,000 people on the Jutland peninsula.
Some patients arrive by helicopter from
up to 90 miles away but those walking
into A&E tap their medical card on to a reader, giving
the clinicians instant access to their records.
Despite its size the hospital has a personal touch.
There are no wards in the gleaming new blocks.
Instead, patients are treated in individual rooms,
reducing infection rates and improving recovery times.
Nor do alarms ring relentlessly. If someone asks for
help then a message is sent directly to their nurse. A
patient hotel means that people can be moved quickly
out of acute beds.
This is the first of a new generation of super-hospitals
that have helped to turn the Danish health system into
one of the best in the world. It has improved outcomes
and driven efficiency by bringing urgent treatment into
large specialist centres, harnessing the power of
technology and transforming community care. The
emphasis is on keeping people out of hospital. In
England 10 per cent of hospital beds are taken up by
people who are well enough to go home after treatment
but in Aarhus the figure is less than 3 per cent.
Since embarking on its health reform programme in
2007, Denmark has halved the number of hospitals and
reduced in-patient bed days by a fifth while increasing
outpatient appointments by 50 per cent and investing
in social care. Despite widespread public opposition at
the start, patient satisfaction is now high. Cancer
outcomes have improved, waiting times are low and
people can book appointments, see test results or order
prescriptions via an app. The Ministry of Health says it
is turning hospitals from cathedrals — high-status
power centres attracting resources and knowledge —
into lighthouses that help patients to steer their own
course. A similar shift is needed in this country.
This is not to say that the NHS should emulate the
Danes and embark on an immediate round of hospital
closures. The UK has 2.4 beds for every 1,000 of the
population compared with 7.8 in Germany, 6.9 in
Austria, 5.7 in France and 5.5 in Belgium. Even after its
bed reductions, Denmark has 2.5 per 1,000 people and
more doctors per capita than Britain. Many hospitals in
this country are running at 95 per cent capacity and
some are at more than 100 per cent. The recommended
level is 85 per cent.
The excessive focus on secondary care has had a
damaging effect on the wider health system. Only
15 per cent of those on the waiting list for elective
surgery have had a decision made to admit them for
treatment. Most are not waiting for hip replacements,
knee operations or cataract removal; they are waiting
for diagnostic tests or results. The UK has the fifth
lowest number of CT and MRI scanners in the OECD.
Almost 1.6 million people are waiting for tests and scans
compared with about a million in 2019, before Covid.
The economic as well as the human cost of the
elective surgery backlog is high. Analysis carried out by
LCP Health Analytics for the Institute for Public Policy
Research think tank found that cutting waiting lists
could boost the economy by £73 billion over five years
by getting people back to work.
The NHS must get much better at moving patients
smoothly through the system. That means improving
the productivity of operating theatres and reducing the
length of time people stay in hospital after surgery, as
well as ensuring there is adequate social care for them
when they are ready to leave.
Turning this around will not be easy but it is possible.
Some hospitals are using the power of data to drive
efficiency with remarkable results. Chelsea and
Westminster reduced its waiting list for elective surgery
by 28 per cent before the strikes threw a spanner in the

works. By replacing numerous Excel spreadsheets with
a unified data platform, the hospital tripled the
productivity of administrative staff and increased the
use of operating theatres by more than 8 per cent.
Other parts of the NHS are struggling just to get
the basics right. In 2022 administrative errors caused
the cancellation of 12,600 operations. Some hospitals
are routinely wasting up to 20 per cent of their
surgical sessions because the patient is not ready in
time or a member of staff is absent. The hedge fund
manager Sir Paul Marshall argued that transparency
was a crucial tool. “Data is the most radical and
disruptive thing in any walk of life because it reveals
bad management, it reveals bad practice, it challenges
vested interests, it liberates the customer,” he said.
In the education world, giving parents more
information about schools has had a transformative
effect on performance. The same should happen in
health. The NHS has an internal interactive tool
called the Model Hospital, which ranks all hospitals in
the country on hundreds of key metrics covering
everything from surgical outcomes to the cost of
hospital food. A user-friendly version of this
fascinating data source should be made public to help
to drive up standards and give patients the tools to
make an informed choice about their care.
In London, Guy’s and St Thomas’ has started
running regular high intensity theatre (HIT) lists,
which get through a week’s operations in a single day
at weekends. Two theatres run side by side, with extra
staff and a rapid turnover of patients. The commission
recommends that monthly HIT lists should be used in
50 hospitals to tackle the elective waiting list. They
should then become a regular part of the NHS’s work
programme to keep the backlog under control.
Surgical hubs, separated from emergency care, are
another innovation that have proved effective. There
are 94 of these ring-fenced units around England,
ploughing through elective operations undistracted by
acute cases, and another 35 are in the pipeline. The
programme should be expanded around the country
to ensure that all patients have access to surgical hubs.
Over time the NHS should aim to separate “hot”
and “cold” (acute and planned) care altogether as
much as possible, creating specialist emergency
centres and distinct elective hubs. In Northumbria the
specialist Emergency Care Hospital in Cramlington is
a 24-hour acute hospital for the most urgent cases.
The trust’s general hospitals in Ashington, Hexham
and North Tyneside have urgent treatment centres for
more minor conditions and are also “centres of
surgical excellence” where most planned operations
are carried out. Since the reorganisation in 2015, the
results have been outstanding across the board.
There needs to be much greater fluidity between
the different parts of the NHS and social care.
Wolverhampton has pioneered “vertical integration”
with primary, secondary and community services all
working together. Like Northumbria, it employs its
own GPs, who are on a par with consultants and can
do shifts in the hospital as well as in their surgeries.
The bureaucracy is reduced for family doctors and the
hospital has been able to build links in the community.
The layout and balance of hospitals must be
rethought. Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal
College of Emergency Medicine, argued that
“inflexible” wards should be replaced by individual
rooms for the sake of patient care as well as privacy.
“We’re making people sicker in hospital by putting
them in open bays,” he said.
Outpatient appointments must also be streamlined.
One senior consultant suggested that about a quarter
of these follow-up meetings could be scrapped and
many more moved online, saving time and money. In
many cases patients are able to manage their own
condition and should be given a choice about whether
they need a follow-up appointment at all.
Charities also have a role. Maggie’s cancer centres,
attached to 24 hospitals, have the time and space to
offer humanity and a cup of tea to patients away from
the busy clinical setting. They are deliberately created
to look different from an NHS institution, with
buildings designed by world-renowned architects, and
offer benefits advice as well as psychological support
to people who have had cancer diagnosed.

6
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Health Commission

GPs and
primary care
Doctors are burning out and deserting general
practice, patients cannot get appointments and
an ageing population will only increase demand.
There are ways of spreading the load but action is
needed urgently to stop the system crashing

C

laire Murphy is a GP in the sleepy
market town of St Neots, nestled
around the banks of the Great Ouse
in Cambridgeshire. There seems little
to fear in this rural idyll, famous for
its medieval castle, nature reserve and
meadows. Yet being a family doctor
here has become increasingly dangerous.
One day a patient arrived at the surgery in an
“aggressive, agitated” state. “He was slurring and he
smelt of alcohol,” Murphy said. “We got him into a
side room. He slumped to the floor so I knelt down
beside him. The first thing he did was pull a knife out
of his trousers. I was on the other side of him so I
didn’t see it but another doctor grabbed his hand.”
It was terrifying but, as paramedics took the man
off to A&E, Murphy just carried on working. “I had
somebody with chest pains in the waiting room, I had
other patients to call and I had the management
board the next morning. It was only half way through
that meeting that I thought, ‘Actually, I don’t feel
great.’ I had gone on to autopilot, made sure that
everybody else was OK.”
Her father was a GP in the practice where she now
works and she grew up in the town. When she started
out it was impossible to walk down the high street
because everyone wanted to talk. That has changed.

The emotional toll of the role is huge. “Every night I get
the kids to bed, get the laundry on and then I log on
and finish my day job. I could be doing blood tests or
letters until 11 or 12 at night.”
The headlines may be dominated by ambulances
outside hospitals and waiting lists for elective surgery
but the crisis in primary care, arguably the real front
line of the NHS, is at least as great. The average
number of patients each GP is responsible for has
increased by nearly 17 per cent since 2015 and now
stands at almost 2,300 people. Last October 2.6 million
patients waited more than four weeks to see a GP, up
from 1.9 million the previous year.
Family doctors see more patients each month than
A&E departments do in a year. Amanda Doyle, director
of primary and community care at NHS England, said
GPs were delivering half a million more appointments a
week than before the pandemic but “there’s a mismatch
between demand and capacity” driven by the growing
number of older people.
Record numbers of people are training as GPs, with
4,000 recruited every year, Doyle said. “But what we
are not managing to do is to retain experienced GPs.”
In 2022 the Health Foundation estimated that
England was missing the equivalent of 4,200 full-time
GPs. NHS England predicts that 12,000 more GPs will
be needed over the next decade to meet patient need.
The latest GP Worklife Survey found that a third of
family doctors in England planned to quit within five
years, including three fifths of those over fifty.
Anita Raja, a GP in Birmingham, moved to the UK
ten years ago, having trained in Pakistan. Now many of
her colleagues are opting to go to Canada, Australia or
New Zealand because it is so stressful working for the
NHS. “We are all just drowning, every single day,” she
said. “I personally know five GPs who have left. At the
moment I have four very close friends who are in the
process of moving to the Middle East. These people are
fantastic GPs, they have been trained in England and
we are losing them because they’ve just had enough. To
get into medical school you need to be an A-star
student: these are highly intellectual individuals. Why
would they want to stay in an environment which is so
abusive to them?”
Sanjay Gadhia is a GP at the Lakeside Surgery in
Corby, Northamptonshire, and chairman of the
Lakeside Partnership, which oversees eight practices
across thirteen sites. His Corby team looks after almost
50,000 patients in one of the most deprived parts of the
country. He typically works a 12-hour day starting at
about 7.30am and the surgery is open in the evening
and at weekends, but he said patients were getting
“crosser” all the time.
Patients, who are used to instant gratification, often
have unrealistic expectations about what GPs can

deliver. “We’re an open door and people see us as a
solution for everything,” Gadhia said. “We get all sorts.
Sometimes it might be, ‘What do I do about my
housing and my benefits?’ Or ‘My partner’s having an
affair. My child’s failed his entrance exams. The school
will only allow my child to wear swimming goggles if
they have a letter from the GP. My employer said if I
want to wear trainers I need a letter from my GP. My
neighbour’s built a fence and it’s stressing me out. I’m
going on holiday to this place, what do I need to take?’
We may sit back and look at it and go, ‘That’s a bit silly,’
but for the patients it’s often that we are their only
point of contact.”
Family doctors are picking up the pieces for other
bits of the welfare state and at the same time the
bureaucracy they have to deal with has increased.
Angela Hartley, a GP in Kettering, Northamptonshire,
said she had to spend up to 40 per cent of her time on
paperwork.
The commission heard from many witnesses that the
GP contract, agreed in 2004, was overly bureaucratic
and outdated. One particularly bizarre anomaly is that
it is held “in perpetuity” which means that a doctor can
sell it on or even hand it to a relative if they are a
qualified medic.
GPs get about £100 per patient per year to pay staff
and run their practice but a big tranche of their funding
comes through something called the Quality and
Outcomes Framework. This is supposed to incentivise
doctors to earn money for chasing targets. In reality it
means that they have to spend hours filling in forms
with hundreds of boxes to tick, each worth only a few
pence. It is so time-consuming that some surgeries now
have more admin staff than doctors.
Patricia Hewitt, a former Labour health secretary,
who studied primary care as part of a government
review, told the commission: “The current GP contract
is not fit for purpose. It needs to be reformed.” The
commission agrees. A new GP contract is needed to
ensure that patients can get appointments in a timely
fashion and protect continuity of care for those who
need it. The focus should be on health outcomes rather
than box-ticking minutiae with a smaller number of
targets designed around patients. This will give doctors
more time to focus on the bits of the job they love. The
priorities should be set locally, with a greater share of
the primary care budget distributed through the
Integrated Care Systems rather than from Whitehall.
GPs must be encouraged to see the bigger picture of
population health rather than just having their eyes on
the ten-minute appointment schedule.
There is no “one-size-fits-all” model. The primary
care system should continue to include a mix of GP
partners and salaried doctors for the foreseeable future
but the balance is likely to shift because more of the

the times

younger generation are choosing to be employed rather
than run their own business. In 1990 more than 90 per
cent of GPs were partners; now it is only half and the
proportion is dropping rapidly. The new contract must
prepare for this shift by incentivising more
collaboration within primary care and between GPs
and hospitals.
Super-practices, bringing together several GP
surgeries, are a good way of sharing the administrative
burden and reducing back office costs, just as
multi-academy trusts have done with schools. As
Hewitt, who is also chairwoman of the Norfolk and
Waveney Integrated Care Board, put it: “We need
primary care working at scale and we need it working
within integrated neighbourhood teams. At the
moment the contract gets in the way of doing that.”
GPs should be encouraged to be more pro-active,
working closely with pharmacists, nurses, social
prescribers, physiotherapists and mental health
professionals.
This does not mean losing the personal touch. A
number of studies have shown the benefits of patients
having a regular doctor. In theory, patients do have a
“named doctor” but the system is so dysfunctional that
many rarely see them.
New ways of working must be developed to help
GPs to cope. Although some patients will always need
one-to-one appointments, group consultations can be a
good way to help people to manage and reverse longterm conditions such as diabetes, asthma and arthritis.
In trials, these have been cost effective, reduced
pressure on doctors and improved outcomes for
patients as they encourage peer-to-peer support.
Although GPs are the face of primary care, they are
part of a bigger system that includes nurses, mental
health specialists, pharmacists, physician associates,
social prescribers, community link workers and health
coaches. Primary care works best when these health
professionals work together and patients see the right
person at the right time. In Hull the fire service is
involved in the frailty clinic. When an elderly person
has a fall, it is a firefighter rather than a paramedic
who goes out to help them. Physician associates are
welcomed but must be regulated by the General
Medical Council to give them credibility and align
them with other health professionals.
Pharmacists should be incentivised to do more
prescribing, consultations and community care. There
have been some steps in the right direction and
pharmacists are now able to prescribe a handful of
drugs including the oral contraceptive pill. From 2026
all newly qualifying pharmacists will be independent
prescribers but pharmacists told the commission that
the financial incentives were still misaligned.
The role of the GP as the “gatekeeper” to healthcare
must evolve, with patients able to self-refer to a
specialist for certain conditions such as dermatology
and musculoskeletal problems. This will free up
doctors’ time and give individuals a greater sense of
control over their health. The barriers between
primary and secondary care should be broken down.
That could involve GPs being employed by hospitals
or consultants doing outpatient appointments in the
community.
Around the country, the commission saw how
collaboration was improving care for patients and
making life easier for clinicians. In Cambridge one of
the large GP practices has set up a joint programme
with the neurology department at Addenbrooke’s
Hospital that has already significantly reduced visits
to A&E.
Technology, used smartly, can improve the
connection between doctor and patient. Although
some people will always need to be seen in person,
digital triage systems can quickly direct people to the
right medical professional and ensure that face-to-face
appointments are available for those who really
need them.
There has to be a better public understanding of the
services that are available and how and when to access
them, as well as an expectation that patients can often
manage their own conditions. Matthew Taylor, chief
executive of the NHS Confederation, believes there
should be a new “social contract” on health. “We need
to give people more and we need to expect more from
people. Instead of a model of medical experts handing
pills to passive patients there should be a partnership.”

6
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Workforce and culture
It’s all about the people, the commission was told repeatedly. The NHS is supposed
to be a caring institution but it is a flawed employer. Bullying, sexual assault,
arrogance and hierarchical attitudes are rife, to the detriment of patients

K

evin Fong understands better than
anyone what happens to the human
body and mind in extreme situations.
As the consultant anaesthetist
responsible for major incident planning
at University College London
Hospitals, he deals with devastating car
crashes and appalling terrorist attacks. He has worked
with Nasa on space medicine and, during the pandemic,
he was the national clinical adviser on emergency
preparedness, resilience and response.
At the height of Covid he conducted a survey of
thousands of doctors and nurses in more than forty
hospitals. “We saw extremely high levels of reported
symptoms of mental illness amongst our frontline
teams, using a standardised scoring system which exists
as a measure of post-traumatic stress,” he told the
commission. “We got rates, on average, amongst our
respondents of 46.5 per cent at the peak of the 2021
wave, which compares with, if you surveyed the general
population, rates of about 3 per cent outside of Covid.
The highest rate published before our study was in
British military veterans who had served in a combat
role in the Afghan conflict, and that was 17 per cent.”
There is, he said, no solution to the crisis in the NHS
that does not involve better understanding the needs of
the 1.6 million people who work in it. “There have been
five reorganisations since I was first studying medicine
in the 1990s. It’s akin to switching the NHS off and
switching it back on again and hoping that something
magical is going to happen in the reboot, and it almost
never does. We’ve changed commissioning structures,
we’ve changed regional and national structures. It’s
always about structures; it’s never about people.”
The NHS may be founded on the principles of care
and compassion, but the experience of people working
in it is often shockingly bad. In the latest staff survey,
more than 30 per cent said they felt burnt out. Almost
40 per cent found their work frustrating or emotionally
exhausting and 45 per cent had felt unwell as a result of
work-related stress in the previous 12 months. Only a
quarter said there were enough staff at their
organisation for them to do their jobs properly.
The fall in productivity in the NHS is at least partly
related to the poor wellbeing of staff. The Institute for
Government has calculated that 500,000 staff days are
lost to mental ill health every month. Doctors are twice
as likely, and nurses four times as likely, to take their
own lives compared with workers in other professions.
When it started in 2008, NHS Practitioner Health,
which supports doctors, had 200 patients a year. Now it
has 200 every week. Almost all reach the threshold for
a formal diagnosis of mental illness; about a third have
had suicidal thoughts. A report from the Healthcare
Safety Investigation Branch, published last February,
found that “harm is happening” to patients because of
the “significant distress” among doctors and nurses.
The number of vacancies in the NHS has dropped
from a peak of 130,000 in December 2022 to about
112,000 but more than one in ten nursing posts are still
unfilled. Since 2019 there have consistently been more
than 40,000 nursing vacancies in the NHS. The health
service in England is spending more than £3 billion a
year on agency staff, which undermines the sense of
camaraderie, makes it harder to build a team spirit,
reduces efficiency and is costly.
Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England,
admitted to the commission that the health service was
over-reliant on agency staff and said that such workers
should be the exception rather than the rule.
Last year’s NHS workforce plan included a doubling
of medical school places, a 50 per cent increase in GP
trainee places for junior doctors and 24,000 more nurse
and midwife places a year. There will also be a rise in
apprenticeships and a consultation on accelerated
medical degrees. These are all welcome, although the
lack of anything on social care in the workforce plan
was a glaring omission, but the NHS also needs to get
much better at retaining staff. In 2022 nearly 170,000
workers left their health service jobs, a record exodus.
More than 27,000 cited work-life balance as the reason
they were quitting, which was higher than the number
who left because they had reached retirement age. The
number of doctors taking early retirement has more
than tripled over the past 13 years.
Recent strikes have focused attention on pay but the

I’ve been
sexually
harassed lots of
times

problems with the NHS workforce go way beyond
money. The commission heard that there was often
nowhere for NHS staff to get a hot meal so clinicians
worked 12-hour shifts with nothing to eat but crisps
from a vending machine. Many hospitals do not even
provide somewhere to make a cup of tea or sit down
for five minutes during a stressful day on the wards.
In an age when individual autonomy feels
increasingly important, NHS employees often have
little control over their lives. This is understandable to
some extent when rotas need to be filled in a busy
hospital department but it has gone much too far and
working for parts of the health service has now
become all but incompatible with modern family life.
Clinicians are unable to book time off 18 months in
advance to get married. The commission heard of one
junior doctor who got confirmation that she could
have a day off for her own wedding four weeks before
the date but could not go on honeymoon because she
was not allowed to take the time off as holiday.
Bullying and buck-passing are rife in an
organisation that thrives on hierarchy. Sexual
harassment and racial discrimination go unchecked.
In 2022 more than half of doctors experienced or
witnessed verbal or physical abuse.
The NHS has the largest workforce in Europe and it
needs to modernise its employment practices to retain
and recruit staff. Flexibility and innovation should be
encouraged, the old hierarchies broken down and new
career paths created.

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Health Commission

the times

6 A new National Care System giving everyone the
right to appropriate support in a timely fashion.
6 Farir pay for independent social care providers
and it should be part of the NHS workforce plan.
6 Higher pay caps for how much people can have in
assets before they pay towards their social care and
the caps should rise with inflation.
6 A right to a social care assessment.
6 Expanded reablement programmes.
6 Automatic entitlement to free social care for those
with a care need before the age of 25.
6 A National Volunteer Service for young people to
work in care homes. All medical students should be
expected to spend some time in a social care setting
during their training.
6 Developers must be encouraged to create more
sheltered housing and intergenerational homes.

Health Commission

Patient
safety
The devastating consequences of
medical negligence are made
worse by a culture of blame
that lengthens legal battles and
prevents vital lessons being learnt

M

artha Mills was a bright, vivacious
teenager who loved making silly
videos on her phone, going to the
park and drinking hot chocolate
with her friends. She enjoyed
reading, wrote her own stories
and talked about being an author,
an engineer or a film director. “I’m as jolly as a jolly
bird,” she used to say when she was young.
Then in 2021, a few days before her 14th birthday,
she died of sepsis after a series of catastrophic errors
by doctors at an NHS hospital. For her parents,
nothing will ever be the same. “There’s a sense of
before and after,” her mother, Merope Mills,
explained. “I look back at pictures and it’s like this life
exists, this perfect life that you can’t get back to. And
part of you can’t quite understand how.”
Martha’s father, Paul Laity, said his thoughts
revolved around two questions: could he forgive the
doctors who failed his daughter and could he forgive
himself? “There are moments where I think I could
have done something different and she would have
been fine. When I visit Martha’s grave absolutely the
first thing I always say is ‘I’m sorry.’ ” But he added:
“I’m also angry with the hospital ... There was a
catalogue of mistakes and inexplicable behaviour,
systemic problems but also complacency and
arrogance. When we reflect on it every day we don’t
cease to be shocked.”
Martha’s death was entirely avoidable but over and
over again crucial signs that could have saved her
were missed. She was taken into hospital after a
bicycle accident. The force of her fall had pushed her
pancreas against her spine, causing a laceration and
she was admitted to a specialist unit at King’s College
Hospital in London. There she developed sepsis but
she was not transferred to the paediatric intensive
care unit quickly enough to prevent her organs
becoming overwhelmed.
The doctors were high-handed and patronising.
They knew that she had severe sepsis six days before
she died but did not give her the treatment that would
have saved her life. After a few weeks on the ward,
Martha started bleeding profusely from the tubes in
her arm and stomach. “It was very bad,” Merope said.
“The nurses were waking me at night saying, ‘We
need to change her because it’s gone all over her
sheets.’ I’ve still got her blood-soaked pyjamas.”
When she raised concerns she was dismissed as an
“anxious mother”. The nurses who registered that
Martha was “at risk” were not listened to by the more
senior medical professionals. “Looking back on it, I

feel we were powerless, I feel we were kept in the dark
about a lot of things,” Mills told the commission. “We
feel like we let Martha down by trusting the doctors. I
kept saying to her, ‘Don’t worry, you are in the best
place. They know what they are doing.’ I really thought
that was the case and I feel a fool now for thinking it.”
An inquest found that if Martha had been referred
more promptly to the paediatric intensive care unit and
appropriately treated then “the likelihood is that she
would have survived her injuries”. Her parents blame
the “consultant is king” attitude. “We thought we were
in the best place but in this instance the best place
meant the worst place because it came with a kind of
hubris, which meant that they thought they were in
some way superior,” Mills said.
Mills and Laity have won cross-party support for
their campaign to introduce “Martha’s rule” giving
patients and families the right to activate a critical care
review in hospital. They argue that more patient power
will do something to change the attitude of those
doctors who think they know best and do not listen to
patients and families. The NHS is now implementing
the reform and has promised to take on board the
lessons from Martha’s death.
There are about 11,000 avoidable deaths every year in
the NHS due to patient safety failings and thousands
more patients are seriously harmed. In the year to
March 2023 there were also 384 so-called “never
events”, including laser surgery being performed on the
wrong eye, ovaries being removed in error and swabs or
surgical instruments being left inside a patient. Yet
despite a litany of reports and inquiries following
trauma and tragedy, the real “never event” is that parts
of the health service never seem to learn.
Last year the Institute of Global Health Innovation at
Imperial College London found that, on patient safety,
the UK was falling behind many other countries in the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development, including Norway, Finland, South Korea
and Japan. The UK ranks 21st out of 38 countries and
more than 17,000 lives could have been saved had it
performed at the level of the top 10 per cent.
The commission heard that there is a pattern of
behaviour, with families and patients too often
dismissed or ignored. Joshua, the son of James
Titcombe, who was appointed as an adviser to the Care
Quality Commission on patient safety, died when he
was only nine days old at the Furness General Hospital,
part of the Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, in November
2008 after a series of catastrophic errors. “An infection
that could easily have been spotted after he was born
wasn’t,” Titcombe told his fellow commissioners. He

described how his family’s life had been “turned upside
down” by the tragedy but as he came to terms with the
loss of his son what shocked him most was the NHS’s
response to the mistakes that had been made.
He worked as a project manager in the nuclear
industry, where safety is paramount and, as in the
health service, the smallest error could be disastrous. “I
was used to a culture of learning. In the nuclear
industry if there was a rusty bolt in the wrong place
there would be a really thorough forensic investigation
and everyone would ask, ‘What can we learn from
this?’ What I experienced from the hospital was the
exact opposite of that. There was basically a cover-up.
Medical records went missing. There were huge
discrepancies between what my wife and I knew had
happened and what the staff had reported as
happening. It meant the trust didn’t learn.”
An inquiry, published in 2015, uncovered a “lethal
mix” of failings in Morecambe Bay, which had led to
the avoidable deaths of 11 babies and a mother between
2004 and 2013. Titcombe now runs the charity Patient
Safety Watch. “Healthcare is incredibly complex, just as
the nuclear industry is incredibly complex,” he said.
“Humans are fallible, there will be errors but what
we’ve got to have is a healthcare system that’s more
resilient to errors so that systems are safer. Most
importantly, we’ve got to have a culture where, when
things do go wrong, the response isn’t to single out the
individual. We’ve got to have a culture that says, ‘Right,
this has happened, our priority is to look after the
people who’ve been harmed to help them heal.”
The continuous improvement of patient safety should
be a priority for all modern healthcare systems. There
ought to be a virtuous circle in which clinicians work
together to reduce patient harm. Yet several inquiries
into serious patient safety failings have concluded that
the health service is stuck in a vicious circle of buckpassing, cover-up, denial and blame. Actions that would
increase patient safety are not implemented
consistently and clinicians do not feel confident to
speak out. Tensions between professionals create a
culture where mistakes are more likely and the
hierarchical structure means that the concerns of
junior staff members are too often ignored.
These cultural problems are being compounded by a
flawed compensation system that discourages openness
and makes it harder for the NHS to improve its
processes when things go wrong. The cost of medical
negligence is spiralling and the commission heard that
the total cost of outstanding compensation claims now
stands at an astonishing £70 billion, almost half the
NHS annual budget.
Clinical negligence settlements can total millions of
pounds and cases sometimes go on for a decade or
more. Doctors, nurses and midwives know that their
reputation will be destroyed if the court finds against
them. The stakes are therefore incredibly high and the
legal nature of the process means that the claimant has
to prove negligence to get an award. That makes it very
difficult for staff to admit to, and learn from, mistakes.
The commission recommends that the NHS should
move to a system of “no blame” compensation, with
settlements determined according to need rather than
through a lengthy court battle. Patients and families
would receive money more quickly and the health
service would be more able to be honest about what
had gone wrong in order to improve. The system would
be similar to those in New Zealand, Sweden and Japan.
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, was among many
witnesses who supported such a reform.
The change should be made alongside other reforms
including the promised introduction of “Martha’s rule”,
named after Martha Mills, which would make it easier
for families to insist on a second opinion. There are 17
regulators overseeing patient safety in the NHS. This is
confusing, opaque and over-complicated. There should
be a review of the regulatory landscape with the aim of
creating a simpler, more easily understood system to
bring clarity for patients and the health service. The
health ombudsman, who can currently only respond to
complaints, should have the power to initiate
investigations and ensure that the outcomes of
inquiries by other bodies are implemented.
For families, this is not about the money. Titcombe
explained that the current compensation system
“retraumatises” parents while discouraging
improvements in care. “For families, the last thing on
their mind is litigation,” he said. “They want the
organisation to learn and they want to heal.”

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the times

Science and technology
A digital health account for all patients could open up the benefits of data, AI and an integrated health
system. The development of the Covid-19 vaccine showed what could be achieved when the government,
the NHS and academia work together and further research by medical professionals should be encouraged

A

t Singapore General Hospital, robots
deliver medicines, pick drugs for
prescriptions and wash equipment.
Patients arriving for a clinic register
using an app on their mobile phone,
sign themselves in at touchscreen
kiosks and receive a printed schedule
that gives them the time of their scans, tests and
appointments throughout the day. Computer records
are all connected and data shared between GPs and
hospital staff. Prosthetic limbs and medical devices are
created by 3D printers.
In Estonia there is an online patient portal with an
app to access medical records, read test results and
book appointments. In Denmark patients have a credit
card-sized medical card to access services that they tap
on a card reader when they arrive at A&E or use to
pick up a prescription. The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota
has dozens of data analysts working alongside its
clinicians and has created more than 180 AI models for
improving healthcare. Its virtual wards have expanded
to include emergency medicine and neonatal care, with
specialists providing real-time expertise to local doctors
in rural hospitals across the Midwest.
The commission visited the Souravsky Medical
Center in Tel Aviv, Israel, before the Gaza conflict
began. A robot was showing patients around the
emergency department. People registered digitally,
identifying themselves through facial recognition, then
measured their own blood pressure, temperature and
heart rate in “self-triage booths”. In the control room
upstairs banks of screens showed bed capacity and
operating theatre slots, using AI to predict surges in
demand and reallocate staff. Surgeons operated with
headsets that allowed them to visualise the inside of the
patient’s body. Innovation was encouraged.
Since the pandemic there is a clear appetite for
reform in the NHS. More than 33 million patients have
signed up for the NHS app. Two million appointments
are booked and 600,000 repeat prescriptions ordered
on it every week. New solutions are emerging within
the health service. Northumbria Healthcare NHS
Foundation Trust introduced drones for transporting
chemotherapy, which has a limited shelf life, quickly
and efficiently. On the south coast, medication that
would normally take four hours to get from the
manufacturing unit in Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight,
via taxi and hovercraft, arrived in 30 minutes by drone.
The NHS is rapidly adapting but there is a long way
to go. The systems that do exist are often hopelessly
outdated and slow. One study found that doctors were
wasting 13.5 million hours a year on inefficient IT.
Computers can take half an hour or more to switch on.
The health service still has more than 600 fax
machines and 79,000 pagers. Sarah Clarke, president of
the Royal College of Physicians, said that when she was
on call during the junior doctors’ strike she discovered
that she could not cut and paste data while writing up
the discharge summaries and had to retype each
document. Social care is even further behind.
The NHS has spectacularly underinvested in
technology, repeatedly raiding the capital budgets that
fund IT projects to chuck money at the winter crisis.
Some hospitals and GP surgeries are using data and
technology to streamline their activity and improve
efficiency but the health service as a whole is woefully
fragmented. The commission heard that there were
“between forty and sixty” different types of electronic
patient records within the NHS.
The federated data platform, which will start being
used across the health service in the spring, is a step in
the right direction. If successful it will bring together
different databases within the hospital system and
allow health professionals to access more information
about their patients. Privacy campaigners have raised
concerns that the American data analytics firm Palantir
is involved in the contract but this is not the main issue.
Palantir will not be able to access, use or share data for
their own purposes. The real problem is that the
platform does not include GP or social care data and so
services will still not be properly integrated.
There are vested interests in the health service that
are reluctant to reform. The British Medical
Association (BMA) spent years threatening legal action
against plans to give patients automatic access to their

The health
service can no
longer afford
to ignore the
transformative
power of science
and technology

own medical records. That change was implemented
last October but the BMA is still refusing to endorse
data-sharing with the UK Biobank research
programme, even though patients have given consent
for their records to be handed over.
The commission believes that the NHS and social
care system must fully harness the transformative
power of technology and data to empower patients,
liberate doctors from bureaucracy, introduce more
choice and drive efficiencies. A digital health account
should be created for all patients, as exists in Estonia,
Denmark, Spain, Singapore and Israel. The “patient
passport” would be accessed through the NHS app and
could be used to book appointments, order repeat
prescriptions, view test results, read referral letters and,
in time, arrange social care. GPs, hospitals, paramedics,
pharmacists and social care providers should all have
access to the data when necessary.
There must also be a grown-up debate about data
privacy. If the tax office and banks can keep sensitive
financial information secure then there is no reason
why the NHS cannot protect health data. A YouGov
poll for the health commission found that more than
80 per cent of respondents backed a digital health
account and the proposal was widely supported in the
commission’s patient panel and focus groups.
The commission proposes the creation of a British
Data Authority to reassure patients that privacy will be
protected and deal with ethical concerns while allowing
the advantages of data-sharing to be made available to
ensure the best possible care. This is similar to the
Danish Data Authority, which has successfully guided
the country through the digitisation programme and
ensured that the correct balance is struck between
openness and security. Face-to-face or telephone
consultations should always be available for patients
who are not comfortable with technology.
The digital health account would also allow the NHS
to make better use of its data for medical research.
More than a million people have joined Our Future
Health, a research programme funded by government
and industry that carries out health checks to
accumulate data. More than half the first 100,000
patients who went through the system discovered that
they had cholesterols that should have been treated,
highlighting the benefit of the project.
The NHS must be ready to capitalise on the
developments in medical research that are emerging as
scientists harness the power of genomics and AI. At
Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, AI has slashed the time it
takes to read chest x-rays from seven days to seven
seconds, reducing the workload of radiologists by a

third and allowing the hospital to identify patients
with suspected lung cancer more quickly. The
clinicians were nervous and double-checked the scans
that the machine said were “normal” before giving
patients the all-clear but Adrian Hood, a consultant
radiologist, told the commission: “It was always right.”
A wider medical revolution is under way. The
commission visited one of the NHS trial sites for the
Galleri blood test, designed to detect more than fifty
types of cancer before symptoms appear. This could
be used by a million patients within months. So-called
“liquid biopsies”, which detect tiny fragments of
tumour DNA in the bloodstream, also allow doctors
to sequence the precise genetic code of the cancer.
The life sciences industry is one of Britain’s most
successful sectors, employing more than 280,000
people and contributing £94 billion to the economy
every year. One study found that every £1 invested in
medical research delivered a return equivalent to
about 25p every year for ever. Yet the number of
patients enrolled into clinical trials by the NHS has
dropped by 44 per cent in five years at a cost of almost
£1 billion to the health service and far more to the
wider economy. The UK has fallen from 4th to 10th in
the world ranking on commercial clinical trials.
The bureaucratic process for clinical trials and
medical approvals should be speeded up. A new
funding mechanism must also be created for
expensive curative therapies, allowing the NHS to
spread the cost over years so patients can benefit from
the “new age of cures”. More must be done to ensure
that research thrives. The commission proposes that
some staff time should be ring-fenced, including
giving 20 per cent of consultants and other senior
clinicians 20 per cent protected time for research.

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Health Commission

Social care
The population is ageing but policy has not kept
up. Successive governments have promised and
failed to fix social care, which continues to be
seen as the poor relation of the health service

J

oan Bakewell is a broadcaster, campaigner,
author, university president and member of
the House of Lords. At the age of 90 she is
more active than most people half her age,
even turning up to vote in parliament last
year with a chemotherapy pump attached to
her body. Yet she says that she is still
sometimes patronised and ignored. “As you get older
you have less and less voice,” she told the commission.
“However much you get together and make
statements and issue reports you are, nonetheless,
judged to be at death’s door. There’s a real problem
with people who are ageing and the attitude of society
to them.” This is, she thinks, what explains the failure
by governments to find a solution to the policy puzzle
that is social care. “Money will always help but I just
think the attitude of society at large is in need of a
real kicking. There’s a feeling that older people are
over the hill; they’re not of any use. Social care needs
people to care more.”
Rishi Sunak is just the latest prime minister to kick
the can down the road on social care, having
announced soon after arriving in Downing Street that
reform would be delayed until October 2025, after the
next general election.
The political failure over more than two decades
has left many people approaching old age “as though
they’re standing in the middle of the road with a lorry
driving towards them and the best they can hope for
is that they die before the lorry hits them”, Sir Andrew
Dilnot told his fellow commissioners.
The crisis in A&E departments over the past year
has highlighted the consequences for the NHS. More
than 13,000 people who are medically fit to go home
are stuck in hospital beds, many of them because
there is no social care provision. The Institute for
Fiscal studies found that a 31 per cent reduction in
spending on older people’s adult social care was
associated with an 18 per cent increase in A&E
admissions and a 12.5 per cent increase in A&E
readmissions within 7 days. Lord Darzi of Denham
described seeing this play out on a daily basis in the
health service. “I do a ward round every morning and
40 per cent of the patients have social care problems.
They are sitting in first class seats, which have
intensive care support, operating time attached to
them, highly specialised nursing.”
The moral and demographic case for creating a
fairer and more sustainable social care system is
overwhelming. By 2050 there will be 2.6 million
people over 85 in the UK, meaning that there is an
increasingly urgent need to act. Already too many
elderly people are being left without adequate
support. According to Age UK, 1.6 million older
people in England do not receive the support they
require for activities essential for living; 2.6 million
over-fifties have some kind of unmet need; and 76
people are dying every day while waiting for care.
The social care market is in a fragile state. The
combination of increases in mortgage rates, energy
bills and the minimum wage has left many providers
teetering on the brink of collapse. Some insurers have
withdrawn altogether from the care home market
after the pandemic, creating more instability. Last
year two thirds of councils reported that domiciliary
care providers in their area had “closed, ceased
trading or handed back council contracts” affecting
more than 8,000 people. The impact is worse in
disadvantaged areas, where care homes do not have
as many self-funders to cross-subsidise councilfunded places.
The workforce crisis in social care is even greater
than the one in the NHS. There are 152,000 staff
vacancies in England and figures from local
authorities show that about 170,000 hours a week of
home care cannot be delivered because of a labour
shortage.
There is now an urgent need to act. Almost one in
five of the UK population is over 65. By 2050 it will be
one in four. We cannot afford to wait any longer to fix
social care. Politicians do not want to find the money
to pay for reform but this is a false economy because
far greater costs are piling up in the NHS instead.
The state must underwrite the costs of social care

We’ve got
to stop just
pulling people
out of the
river, and go
upstream and
find out why
they’re
falling in

because the private sector will never take on such an
unpredictable risk. One in seven adults aged 65 face
lifetime care costs of more than £100,000 but there is
no way of knowing where the expense will fall or who
will be liable. There is also the fundamental unfairness
that at the moment if you get cancer all your care is
paid for by the NHS but if you have Alzheimer’s you
are responsible for costs that can total hundreds of
thousands of pounds.
The commission recommends the creation of a new
National Care System giving everyone the right to
appropriate support when they need it. Equal to but
different from the NHS, the NCS should be
administered locally and delivered by a mixture of the
public and private sectors, as now, but with national
guidelines, registered providers, minimum standards for
users and employment rights for workers. A statutory
duty should be imposed on local authorities to provide
information, advice and assistance.
Social care was a glaring omission in last year’s NHS
plan and all future strategies should be integrated. Care
workers will need to be better paid, over time rising
towards parity with NHS staff doing comparable roles.
There should also be better career paths, routes to
promotion and management.
The NCS would help to arrange support for
everyone, regardless of income but, as now, wealthier
older people would pay some care costs up to a cap. At
the moment people with assets over £23,500 get no
state support at all and people with assets of £14,250
start to lose their funding. These levels have been
frozen for more than a decade. The cut-off point should
be higher and should also, in the future, rise with
inflation to ensure that it keeps pace with the realworld cost of living.
The expectation should be that people will stay at
home rather than go into residential care. There will
always be times when a care home is the right place for
a patient but there ought to be a greater emphasis on
prevention to enable more people to live independently.

In Manchester, Bernie Enright, the director of adult
social services, has managed to balance the books, an
extraordinary feat, by putting in place an extensive
reablement programme that has slashed demand for
care. When people come out of hospital they are given
a short-term intensive package that might include
installing equipment, making home adaptations or
physiotherapy. As a result, 61 per cent of users are
discharged with no care needs at all and a further 11 per
cent have had a reduction in their needs. Enright likes
to quote the late archbishop Desmond Tutu: “We’ve got
to stop just pulling people out of the river, and go
upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”
It is important to remember that social care is not
just about older people. Working age adults account for
half the budget and their needs are just as worthy. The
commission proposes that, as part of the NCS, those
who are born with a disability or develop a care need
before the age of 25 should have free social care.
There should be more initiatives to encourage
interaction between the generations. A National
Volunteer Service should be created for young people
to work in care homes and visit the elderly or longterm disabled. This could be part of a National Care
Apprenticeship open to all 18 to 25-year-olds, paying
the living wage, or a reduction in university tuition fees,
with accredited training as a route into health and care
roles. All medical students should be expected to spend
some time in a social care setting during their training
to help to break down barriers between the two sectors.
Developers must be encouraged to create more
sheltered housing and intergenerational homes with a
new planning class of “housing with care”. Other
countries have already embraced such ideas with
powerful effect. In the Danish city of Aarhus the House
of Generations combines affordable housing with
residential care home and nursing home places, student
accommodation and a kindergarten.
The commission visited Japan, which, with the
highest life expectancy and one of the lowest birth

the times

Mental
health
The pandemic has left behind an
epidemic of depression, anxiety,
self-harm and tics. Young people
have been badly hit, making it a
crisis with long-term consequences

W

rates, has the greatest proportion of elderly citizens in
the world. An extra 690,000 care workers will be
needed by 2040 to cope with the rapidly ageing
population. The Tokyo suburb of Tama City, once a
gleaming 1970s new town, has been transformed into a
“healthy-happy city” with pedestrian walkways and
more than 1,400 “silver volunteers” who do gardening
or cooking for the community in return for a token fee.
A hollowed-out shopping street has been turned into a
hub for charities offering help with grocery shopping,
laundry and using a smartphone.
The number of those requiring hospital treatment or
social care has dropped and there is a gap of only 18
months between healthy and unhealthy life expectancy
at 65 in Tama City, compared with more than a decade
in Britain. As a result, the social care insurance
premiums that the municipality is required to pay have
been reduced.

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hen Anne Longfield became the
children’s commissioner for
England in 2015, young people
would often talk to her about
their mental health. “They said
they knew they couldn’t get
help and treatment easily
because there just wasn’t enough help to go around,”
she told the Times Health Commission. “Some said,
‘We know that we’ve almost got to try and take our
own life before we can get help.’ And I thought that was
pretty shocking at the time. Now, young people are
saying not only do they have to try to take their own
life, they have to try and take their own life several
times and they say there will be an assessment of levels
of intent within that.”
The pandemic has left behind a mental health crisis
in Britain, across the whole population but particularly
among the young. The number of children and young
people with a probable mental health disorder rose
from one in nine before the coronavirus crisis to more
than one in five last year. Almost a quarter of those
aged 17 to 19 had a diagnosed problem. More than a
fifth of young women had an eating disorder, a
thirteen-fold increase in five years. There have been big
rises in anxiety, depression, self-harm and tics. When
half of adult mental health problems emerge before the
age of 15, and three quarters before the age of 18, this is
an immediate crisis with long-term consequences.
There are long waiting lists and ever stricter criteria
for NHS help. Analysis by the children’s commissioner
for England found that half the 1.4 million young
people with a probable mental health disorder did not
receive any treatment at all from children’s mental
health services in 2021-22. Many of those who were
seen were only given a single appointment. A third of
children who were referred for treatment had their case
closed before they got any support.
The Children’s Society’s annual survey of young
people shows that children’s wellbeing has been falling
for more than a decade. Last year almost a third were
unhappy with at least one area of their lives. Almost
half were worried about rising prices and 40 per cent
were worried about the environment. Rachel de Souza,
the children’s commissioner for England and a former
head teacher, said that she had seen an “absolute
explosion of mental health issues” around the country
since taking up the position in 2021.
Although the pandemic affected mental health and
resilience, the crisis started before coronavirus forced
the country into lockdown and closed schools. Tamsin
Ford, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at
Cambridge University, said there was a “sudden and
quite marked uptick in anxiety, depression and selfharm among young women” first detected in about
2014. The pressure of exams is in her view a big factor.
The psychologist Amy Orben, group leader at
Cambridge’s Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit,
explained that the evidence on the impact of social
media on the teenage brain was very mixed and
inconclusive. “We’ll have people who are extremely
harmed by it and we’ll have people who use it for good,”
she said. “It’s like diet. Food can have both positive and
negative influences.”
Addiction is a growing problem, particularly among
the young. Henrietta Bowden-Jones, a psychiatrist and
national clinical adviser for gambling harms who runs
several addiction clinics, said recent studies had shown
that 60,000 children were now addicted to gambling.
Pornography and video games are also significant risks.
Children are not the only ones who are struggling.
According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, there
has been a 20 per cent increase in mental health need
across all ages. In 2022, 5,642 people took their own
lives, three quarters of them men. People in the poorest
10 per cent of the population are two and half times

We know that
we’ve almost got
to try and take
our own life
before we can
get help

more likely to have a mental health problem than
those in the top 10 per cent.
Last year the Care Quality Commission rated
40 per cent of mental health providers as “requires
improvement” or “inadequate” for safety. It found that
lack of capacity meant that people with mental health
problems were being cared for in the wrong
environment, such as A&E. Other public services are
dealing with the consequences. When the commission
spent a day with the London Ambulance Service
many of the emergency cases involved somebody who
was mentally ill. The Metropolitan Police has
announced that it will no longer attend emergency
calls related to mental health. According to the Royal
College of Psychiatrists, the economic impact of
mental illness is £118 billion a year.
There is a strong link between rising levels of
mental illness and the growing number of people of
working age who are economically inactive. A survey
for the commission by the professional services firm
PwC found that mental rather than physical illness
appeared to be the main cause of long-term sickness.
The commission believes that children’s mental
health has to be given a higher priority. It cannot be
right that young people have to make multiple suicide
attempts in order to get support. National four-week
maximum waiting times should be guaranteed for all
children and young people who need access to mental
health services, with appointments within a week for
those at risk of self-harm and suicide.
There needs to be much better data so that progress
can be monitored. Mental health trusts should be
required to publish key metrics including waiting lists
and waiting times for children’s and adult services and
criteria for treatment being refused. This would
highlight gaps in provision and drive up standards by
exposing the poor performers. The government
should undertake a national wellbeing survey in
schools. Mental health hubs should be set up across
the country, offering drop-in facilities and early
intervention, including peer-to-peer support.
All children must have mental health support at
school with access to specialist NHS teams. Only a
third of pupils are now covered by school mental
health teams. The programme will be expanded this
year but it will still cover only half of schools.
Research by the charity Barnardo’s found that mental
health school teams were effective at supporting
children and young people with mild to moderate
mental health problems and improved outcomes for
those with access to them. The analysis suggests that
every £1 invested generates £1.90 in savings.
More mental health support is important but the
real aim should be to stop children needing
professional help. There must be a greater emphasis
on developing the emotional resilience of young
people so that they can cope with the ordinary
pressures of life. This means encouraging activities
such as sport, drama, debating and volunteering as
part of a more-rounded education. Pupils should be
taught about the importance of sleep, healthy eating
and exercise and learn how to manage their screen
time, including social media.
The most forward-thinking parts of the health and
care system understand that there is a false dichotomy
between mind and body. In Cambridge the new
children’s hospital will combine mental and physical
health so that young people with eating disorders, for
example, can be treated in one place rather than
having to be transferred if their condition deteriorates.
The way in which people are being treated is
unacceptable. There may be limited circumstances in
which segregation is justified for the safety of patients
or those around them but the accountability of
providers has to be improved. Long-term solitary
confinement should end and patients with severe
autism and learning disabilities must be offered better
support at an earlier stage. More than 10,000 autistic
adults in England are not receiving the social care
they need, leaving them vulnerable and at risk of
being detained, according to the Autism Alliance. Its
analysis found that 44 per cent of autistic adults have
to wait more than two years for social care and 77 per
cent reach crisis point before care is provided.
The true measure of any society can be found in
how it treats its most vulnerable and when it comes to
mental health Britain is failing.

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Health Commission

Health inequalities
The healthy life expectancy gap between the poorest and richest in Britain is profound
and growing. A more equal country would have economic as well as social benefits but
the whole system needs to work toegther more effectively if that is to become a reality

P

eople living in Blackpool have the same
healthy life expectancy as those in Angola.
Glaswegians can expect to live in good
health for the same number of years as
people in Eritrea. For Hull, the
comparison is with Gambia, for Belfast it is
Burkina Faso and for Blaenau Gwent it is
Pakistan. These figures, presented to the Times Health
Commission by the International Longevity Centre,
were striking enough but even more shocking were the
stark differences within the UK. There is an 18-year gap
in average healthy life expectancy between the
healthiest and most unhealthy areas around Britain.
The health inequalities around Britain are not only
profound and widespread but they are growing. Overall,
people in the healthiest areas have got healthier in the
past ten years but healthy life expectancy has fallen in
the least healthy areas.
Absolute life expectancy, as opposed to healthy life
expectancy, is falling. Men living in the poorest areas
can expect to die 9.4 years sooner than those living in
the richest areas and the difference for women is 7.7
years. Compared with other similar nations
internationally, between 2011 and 2017 the slowdown in
life expectancy in the UK was marked and the UK as a
whole has experienced lower rates of improvement
annually than all the countries, except the USA and
Iceland. Overall, inequalities in avoidable deaths
increased markedly between 2010 and 2017 in the most
deprived areas in England, by 8 per cent among females
and 17 per cent among males.
Arguably, though, healthy life expectancy is a more
important and useful measure. People in the poorest
areas are dying earlier but they are also living a greater
share of their lives in ill health, often unable to work.
The Health Foundation found that the poorest women
were unhealthy for more than a third of their lives,
compared with 18 per cent for the richest. Among men,
the figures were 30 and 15 per cent.
Sir Michael Marmot, director of the UCL Institute of
Health Equity, said it was “heart-rending” that health
inequalities had got worse since he published his
landmark report on the subject in 2010. “The greater
the deprivation, the shorter the life expectancy and that
gradient is steeper for healthy life expectancy than it is
for life expectancy,” he told the commission.
Those in the poorest parts of England are now more
than four times as likely to die early from a health
condition that could have been prevented or treated,
such as diet-related heart disease or cancer caused by
smoking. There is a terrible human cost to these
avoidable deaths, of course, but the country is also
paying a huge economic price. An analysis for the
commission by the economics and finance consultancy
Oxera found that the cost of people in deprived areas
dying early from health conditions that could have
been prevented or treated has risen to almost £8 billion
a year, an increase of 20 per cent since the pandemic.
The study showed that the economic impact of
avoidable deaths in the poorest parts of England rose
from £6.3 billion in 2019 to £7.7 billion in 2021. Michael
Gove, the communities secretary, warned against
putting all the blame on individuals. Some Conservative
MPs have suggested that people need to learn how to
cook and budget properly rather than use food banks,
but Gove said the causes of ill health were “not so
much lifestyle choices as limited opportunities and
narrowed horizons”. He told the commission: “Poor diet
isn’t simply a matter of poor self-control; it’s a matter of
the environment in which people live. Of course it is
possible to have a healthy diet on a budget but the
constraints that people who are poorer face mean that
it’s more difficult.” There are also, he said, “deaths of
despair” related to smoking, drinking or drugs.
He said that Bevan had been responsible for housing
as well as health when he founded the NHS. The NHS
may be responsible for delivering care to the sick but
less than 20 per cent of our health is determined by
medical interventions; the vast majority is driven by
wider social factors including diet, smoking, housing,
alcohol, air quality, education, poverty and working
conditions. This is what explains the stark health
inequalities and when the other social determinants are
going in the wrong direction then healthy life
expectancy will too.
Obesity rates have soared and “Victorian” diseases

Poor diet isn’t
simply a
matter of poor
self-control; it’s
a matter of the
environment
in which
people live

such as scurvy and rickets that are associated with poor
diet have risen. Almost 11,000 people in England were
hospitalised with malnutrition in 2022, according to
data obtained by the commission under Freedom of
Information laws. The number of cases of malnutrition
have more than doubled in a decade and have
quadrupled since 2007-08. The figures also showed that
171 people were treated for scurvy and 482 patients
were admitted with rickets, 405 of them children.
The environment in which people live is hugely
important and there are vast discrepancies. Almost half
the fast-food outlets in England are in the most
deprived parts of the country. The most affluent 10 per
cent of the country is home to only 3 per cent of fastfood restaurants, chip shops and burger bars, and the
poorest decile has 17 per cent, according to data from
Public Health England. Knowsley, the second most
deprived borough in England, has the country’s most
severe childhood obesity problem. Of the children who
completed primary school in the borough last year
47 per cent were overweight, including 31 per cent who
were obese. According to a report by a Liverpool
University researcher in 2021, Knowsley has 98
takeaways and two greengrocers. More than a million
people in the UK live in “food deserts” with limited
access to fresh, affordable food.
Air quality is another issue. Public Health England
estimates that poor air quality will cost the NHS more
than £5 billion a year by 2035. Up to 36,000 people die
prematurely a year because of dirty air. Then there is
housing: about a fifth of children are growing up in
damp homes, with sometimes devastating
consequences. In 2020 Awaab Ishak, a two-year-old
from Rochdale, died as a result of overexposure to
untreated mould in a social housing flat.
The paralympian Baroness Grey-Thompson warned
her fellow commissioners that disabled people were
often forgotten or discriminated against in the health
and care system. “At the start of the pandemic,
compulsory DNRs [do not resuscitate orders] were put
on tens of thousands of people who had no underlying
health conditions, basically saying if you get Covid you
were told you wouldn’t get treated.” There are also
appalling inequalities in maternity care, with black
women four times more likely to die in childbirth than
white mothers.
There is now a moral, social and economic
imperative to tackle the growing health inequalities
around the country. Progress should be monitored by a

Healthy Lives Committee with clear annual targets for
narrowing the gap between rich and poor. The
approach required would be different in each area and
local communities must be empowered to enact the
changes that they think will be most effective. The
commission recommends that more money and power
over health policy should be devolved to mayors and
regions to stimulate innovation and incentivise local
leaders to take stronger action and also more clearly
link health budgets with healthy life expectancy.
There is one other practical change that would make
a difference nationally: sick pay should be reformed to
ensure that people do not go to work when they are
acutely ill and likely to be infectious. This would
minimise transmission of disease, reduce prolonged
absence, improve mental health and create healthier
workplaces. At the moment sick pay is only available
from the fourth day that a worker is ill and if they earn
less than £123 per week with an employer they are not
eligible. Nearly two million low-income workers with
more than one job receive no sick pay, despite working
in crucial industries such as cleaning, care work and
food services. This incentivises people to go to work
when they are sick because they cannot afford to take
the time off. We propose that the earnings threshold
should be abolished and the waiting period removed.
In general, healthcare must be brought closer to
people, particularly in the most deprived areas, which
often have both poor health and low levels of
engagement with the NHS. There should be more
community link workers in GP practices to help
patients to cope with social issues affecting their health
and wellbeing such as social isolation, money worries,
unemployment, benefits or bereavement. Family hubs
are another good way to provide support for parents
and their children and point the way to other services.
Public information campaigns on vaccinations are
essential to keep levels high enough for herd immunity.
There are some bright spots that show the way
forward. Nearly 1.2 million people have now been
invited for NHS lung cancer screening in mobile testing
units parked in supermarket car parks and outside
community centres. Since its creation in April 2019 the
programme has discovered 2,705 lung cancers and
about three quarters of them were at an early stage so
they could be treated, compared with about a quarter
without the proactive approach.
These initiatives rely on information about gender,
ethnicity and lifestyle to help to identify those most at
risk of cancer, but data can also highlight other social
problems if information is shared between different
public services. In Bradford, literacy rates have been
significantly improved by cross-checking NHS and
school records. They showed that a third of pupils who
had poor eyesight diagnosed were not going to the
optician to get spectacles, which meant that they
struggled with learning to read and write. Under the
“glasses for classes” programme, children have a vision
test in the reception class and those who need
spectacles are automatically given two free pairs. In
2017, when the scheme was introduced, pupils in
Bradford were 6.2 percentage points behind the
national average in reading at the end of primary
school and within two years that had halved.
The same principles are being applied to autism. By
analysing data about children with autism diagnosed at
the age of 11 by the NHS, it was found that many of the
traits were already apparent in the information that
had been collected by schools for educational purposes
at the end of reception year. A Leeds University team
started looking at new data, using the same
methodology to spot the children who were likely to
develop a problem. With 1,700 children on the NHS
autism waiting list in Bradford, they decided to bypass
the normal process, which could take years, and started
visiting schools to carry out immediate assessments of
those they had identified as being at risk. The results
were extraordinary: it took one day to assess a child, as
opposed to two weeks.
It is another example of the power of data to
transform public services for the benefit of users and
staff. There must be greater coordination between
government agencies to identify problems early and the
whole system needs to work together to create a
healthier, more equal Britain.

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the times

Obesity and
public health
Unhealthy lifestyles are taking lives and costing
companies a fortune in lost productivity. Better diet,
an end to smoking and more exercise can be brought
about if we lose our aversion to the ‘nanny state’

T

he problem, according to the restaurateur
and food campaigner Henry Dimbleby, is
that health policy is being distorted by the
myth of the “nanny state” created by a
political class “who had nannies and had
ambivalent feelings about those nannies”.
Jacob Rees-Mogg may be the only MP
who has taken his nanny on the campaign trail but he
is not the only politician who is terrified of appearing to
tell the British people how to live their lives. The health
service is left having to “clear up the dirt”, Dimbleby
told his fellow commissioners.
Almost one in three British adults is now obese. Two
thirds are overweight or obese, up from half a
generation ago, and in some age groups the rates are
even higher. Three quarters of people aged 45 to 74 are
obese or overweight, according to the latest Health
Survey for England. The Institute for Government
think tank concluded last year that obesity was “a
global problem but particularly chronic in the UK”.
As a result, Britain has some of the highest rates of
preventable disease in the world, including heart
disease, diabetes, cancers and dementia. There is
growing evidence that obesity is undermining our

wealth as well as our health. An analysis by Frontier
Economics, commissioned by the Tony Blair Institute,
found that Britain’s weight problem was costing
£98 billion a year, equivalent to almost 4 per cent of
GDP. About a third of the cost falls on the state.
Susan Jebb, professor of diet and population health at
Oxford University, pointed out that diet, a lack of
physical activity, smoking and alcohol accounted for
about 80 per cent of non-communicable diseases. “It’s a
huge proportion and yet we are simply not mobilising
our health and care systems in a way that bears any
resemblance to that evidence,” she said. “We’re so busy
mopping up the overflow from the butt that’s
overflowing we never get round to turning off the tap.”
The chef Jamie Oliver, who has been campaigning for
healthier school meals for almost twenty years, said: “I
had all that nanny state business thrown at me every
single day often by very well-off males, but kids really
benefit from a good nanny. It’s the nanny state that
controls the quality of the rivets in the plane that holds
you up 36,000 feet in the air. It’s the nanny state that
makes sure the tyres are built with some integrity on
your car. For the love of God, why would you not treat
food the same?”
In Japan the commission witnessed the mandatory
annual health check in progress at the Dai-ichi Life
insurance company in Tokyo. Doctors and nurses in
white coats were measuring blood pressure and heart
rates as well as taking blood samples to test. Behind a
screen at the end of the room employees were weighed
and had their waists measured, a legal requirement
under the 2008 “Metabo” Law. If people do not meet
standard guidelines for waist size, they are expected to
attend counselling or receive motivational support.
Businesses can be fined if they do not achieve sufficient
participation rates.
The commission believes that transformative
change is now essential to tackle obesity. There needs
to be a concerted effort by government, business, civil
society and individuals to break the junk food cycle.
Our supermarkets, high streets and school canteens
are flooded with unhealthy options and millions of
pounds are spent on marketing them. The incentives
in the system need to be rebalanced to make it harder
to profit from foods that are harmful. The
commission found strong support for more state
intervention to promote healthier lifestyles. Almost
three times as many people thought that the
government should be doing more to encourage people

to eat healthily as believed that the government was
doing too much.
There is too often a sense of fatalism in Britain
about our health but other countries have managed to
transform their outcomes by concerted and sustained
effort. In the 1970s men in North Karelia, a remote
province of Finland, had the highest mortality rate
from heart failure ever recorded anywhere in the
world. In 1972 a 27-year-old doctor called Pekka
Puska was hired to lead a public health project. Over
the next three decades he created a programme that
reduced heart disease by 80 per cent among the men
of North Karelia having promised to “do everything,
everywhere all at once”.
The commission began by analysing the scale of the
problem in the NHS and social care system. It
concludes by identifying the breadth of the solution
that is required to create a healthier and wealthier
Britain. The healthy lifestyle needs to be made the
easy choice. People must be empowered to take charge
of their own health, clinicians liberated from
bureaucracy, staff supported, patients heard.
Innovation must be embraced. Technology can shape
the future. And with collaboration between individuals,
businesses, government, health professionals and
community groups it is possible to turn things around.
Everything, everywhere, all at once.

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