April 19, 2020 · Issue no 10,206 · thesundaytimes.co.uk £2.90 · only £2 to subscribers THE HISTORY FREE POSTER OF ART INSIDE Ministers plan for schools to reopen in three weeks’ time W Over-70s would be locked STONES STAR IN LIVING ROOM LIVE AID Revealed — how the down for more than a year government sleepwalked LD COMMUNICATIONS into pandemic catastrophe W PM to take final decision INSIGHT ment and did not initiate key parts Caroline Wheeler, Tim Shipman virus as a constant threat,” said of the official pandemic plan. A and Sian Griffiths David Nabarro of Imperial College senior Department of Health London, an envoy for the World The government ignored warnings insider who attended preparation Senior ministers have drawn up a Health Organisation on Covid-19. from scientists and lost a crucial meetings in February said: “I three-phase plan to lift the corona- “That is going to be the new five weeks in the fight to tackle the assumed we must not have been virus lockdown that would see normal.” coronavirus, despite being in a per- worried because we did nothing. schools reopen as early as May 11. Johnson will be given three ilously poor state of preparation We just watched. A pandemic was Under “traffic light” proposals dates for schools reopening: May for a pandemic, a Sunday Times always at the top of our national to be presented to Boris Johnson 11, June 1 or the start of September. investigation has found. risk register — always — but when it when he returns to work, schools If the reopening is delayed, pupils Government whistleblowers, came we just slowly watched.” would reopen in three weeks’ due to sit GCSE and A-levels next scientists and emergency planners The prime minister has been time, with pupils of different age year would have to go to school say there was complacency at the accused of a lack of leadership in groups taught for only part of the during the six-week summer holi- heart of the government in late Jan- the crucial weeks before March. week or every other week to aid days. Contingency plans are also in uary and February, when it should Boris Johnson did not attend any of social distancing. place to push back their exams by have been urgently replenishing the five virus meetings held by The first pupils invited back two months until July 2021. emergency stockpiles. Cobra, the emergency committee, would include primary school chil- The prime minister is receiving A senior Downing Street adviser in January and February, and spent dren and those in years 10 and 12 official papers at his Chequers said training for a pandemic had 12 days out of the public eye while who are due to sit GCSEs and A-lev- country retreat and has been call- been neglected for years, and on a “working” holiday at a grace- els next year. ing cabinet ministers to “catch up stockpiles of personal protective and-favour mansion in Kent. The first stage would also give a on developments”, but aides say equipment (PPE) were run down Instead, he left Matt Hancock, “green” light for non-essential he is not likely to resume full duties and out of date, contradicting the health secretary, to chair the shops such as clothes stores and until later this month. claims by the government that it meetings. Yesterday Hancock was garden centres to reopen where Plans to be presented to him on was well prepared. under pressure after NHS Provid- social distancing can be main- lifting the lockdown are being This was despite strong warn- ers, which represents healthcare tained, a return to full bus and rail drawn up by a “quad” of ministers ings from its scientific advisers as trusts across England, warned that services and the restart of elective who met for the first time on Tues- early as late January that the virus stocks of medical gowns and labo- surgery in the NHS. Commuters day: Dominic Raab, Michael Gove, had a comparable infection rate to ratory coats “will be exhausted in are likely to be asked to wear masks Rishi Sunak and Matt Hancock. the 1918 Spanish flu that killed 50 the next 24 to 48 hours”. on public transport. Raab put Gove in charge of over- million people. The investigation has estab- The second “amber” phase, seeing those future plans. In a sign By late February, scientists were lished that the government failed beginning in late May or early June, that the toughest restrictions will warning policy-makers that the UK to make meaningful contact with- would see more shops and busi- end, Gove told Wednesday’s quad could suffer 380,000 deaths with- the key industry association repre- nesses reopen, all employees meeting that he had changed his out urgent intervention, and rec- senting British PPE manufacturers. urged to return to work and some position and now supported Sunak ommended a lockdown to stop the The British Healthcare Trades small social gatherings permitted. and other “hawks” who want disease spreading. It was almost a Association (BHTA), which repre- Pubs and restaurants and larger action to save the economy. month before ministers acted, sents almost 500 companies, says events such as sport and concerts Ministers have been spooked by allowing the disease to become it had been ready to help supply would not be phased in until later an “apocalyptic” Treasury report, embedded in the population. PPE to hospitals for the past two in the summer. warning that failure to ease restric- Ministers also failed to correct months, but it was not until April 1 However, ministers warn that tions in “the next few weeks” shortfalls in training and equip- Continued on page 2→ the over-70s and those who are would mean six out of 10 busi- particularly vulnerable to the coro- nesses will be out of cash within 12 navirus will be stuck on a “red” weeks. One source said that failure light for months. They will have to to act would mean “there won’t be NEWMAN’S VIEW wait until there is a vaccine before anything left of the economy”. resuming normal life. This third The revelations came as: The Queen phase may not be possible until the l The UK death toll rose to 15,464, autumn of next year. up 888 on the day before. The toll silences her A professor of global health last weekend was 9,875 warned last night that there was no l Lord Deighton, chief executive guarantee a vaccine would be of the organising committee of the birthday developed. “For the foreseeable London Olympics, was appointed future, we are going to have to find the government’s “PPE tsar” to get gun salute ways to go about our lives with this lContinued on page 2→

Roya Nikkhah Royal Correspondent For the first time in her 68-year Wealthy flock to reign, no guns will fire to celebrate the Queen’s birthday on Tuesday. She asked for the traditional UK in private jets 41-gun and 21-gun salutes, usually made at Hyde Park and the Tower of London, to be cancelled and David Collins supplied by WingX, an aviation said government buildings do not Northern Correspondent consultancy. America has the need to fly the Union Jack, feeling world’s highest Covid-19 death toll, that such measures would not be Hundreds of private jets have been in excess of 38,000. “appropriate” during the corona- used by rich passengers to enter More than 15,000 passengers virus crisis. the UK from virus hotspots since are still arriving into the UK each A single post on the royal INDEX the lockdown began. day on normal flights. No routine family’s social media channels will Britain is already setting itself tests are carried out on arrival. be the only official commemora- Lottery News 2 apart from the rest of the world Private plane operators should tion of the Queen turning 94. She Weather News 31 with few travel restrictions. Many carry out due diligence on passen- will spend the day at Windsor Cas- other countries have clamped gers hiring private jets to see if they tle with the Duke of Edinburgh, Letters News 26 down on international travellers conform to the government’s rules who is 98. Sudoku Review 30 and imposed quarantine rules. on “essential travel” only. Other members of the family are TV & Radio Culture 37 An investigation identified 545 Some wealthy passengers are expected to convey their birthday private jets landing in UK airfields being misleading about the pur- wishes in telephone and video since the lockdown was imposed poses for private jet hire, however, calls, but these will remain private. last month. They have arrived claiming they are travelling to fam- The Queen’s birthday parade, from Germany (32), France (27) ily homes, rather than second Live in their own homes, clockwise from top, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie trooping the colour, which had and Spain (25). A total of 15 private homes or holiday homes. The UK Watts of the Rolling Stones record their parts of a song for the One World: Together at Home charity been due to take place on June 13, jets have also arrived from operates an open borders policy, concert. The clips were edited together for the show, broadcast in Britain tonight Report, page 5 has already been cancelled. y(7HA9F6*LNSSRO( |||+#!. America, according to flight data Continued on page 2→ @RoyaNikkhah 2 The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 NEWS

This week in MPs face temperature test to enter Commons, but most will Zoom in The Sunday

Times. Caroline Wheeler Public Health England before MPs will meet on Tuesday l Eight screens being erected the cafe in Portcullis House to a virtual voting system so that system, I would imagine that Deputy Political Editor parliament resumes on to agree the new “hybrid” in the chamber to enable the protect those using the tills. legislation can be passed. the usual channels will be Also on our Tuesday, said he wanted to arrangement, which will see Commons to sit virtually for Chairs have been limited to Hoyle said: “What we can’t looking to make sure we have phone app, MPs and their staff could be screen people to “check they 120 MPs participate in the first time after it was one per table. have is that those in the the least number of votes asked to undergo a are fit and well” after a proceedings using the video agreed that MPs can question The hybrid parliament, chamber do something possible.” on tablet and temperature test before number of MPs, including the conferencing service Zoom. ministers via Zoom which will enable MPs to different from the MPs who For MPs who use Zoom, entering parliament, under prime minister, Boris Up to 50 will be allowed in l The chamber being participate from afar for the are not there. We are Hoyle said the books on the online at plans being drawn up to Johnson, were struck with the chamber, following the marked out to show MPs how first time in the institution’s currently looking at different shelves behind members thesundaytimes.co.uk protect them from the the virus. guidance on social far they must remain apart to 700-year history, will initially voting systems, and our main speaking from their homes coronavirus. Hoyle has been leading distancing, but Hoyle’s observe social-distancing only work for urgent aim is to make sure it will be could be enlightening. Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the preparations for parliament strong advice to MPs is to rules, with cards being placed questions and statements by as secure as possible, and “I think the ones that still Speaker of the House of to reopen safely this week, “stay away”. to indicate which seats may the government. that’s why we are taking have Viz and The Beano on NEWS REVIEW Commons, who has with strict social distancing Changes that have been be used But discussions are already serious security advice. Until their shelves will speak discussed the idea with measures in place. introduced include: l Plastic screens erected in under way about introducing we have agreed on a voting volumes,” he said.

THE LOCKDOWN’S VICKIE FLORES BRUTAL LEGACY Now Captain Tom Niall Ferguson on why our disastrous Covid-19 walks all the way to policy could herald a top of iTunes chart 1930s-style depression

Tony Allen-Mills on April 13 to raise what he and Tim Ripley hoped would be £1,000 by walking 100 lengths of his Captain Tom Moore, the garden. “He’s always been 99-year-old former soldier our hero, but now he is the who became a champion nation’s. The support is just fundraiser for the NHS by incredible — we are blown walking up and down his away,” said his daughter garden, has added another Hannah yesterday. distinction to his The Duke of Sussex was late-flowering career. He is among those praising the old STYLE top of the iTune pops. soldier, declaring him A charity single recorded “utterly amazing”. He added: by the actor and singer “It’s not just what he’s done, Michael Ball with backing it’s the reaction that people DREW’S COMPANY vocals from Moore shot to the have had as well. I think [it’s] top of the iTunes UK chart just wonderfully British.” The actress and beauty within hours of its release Boris Johnson has said he mogul Drew Barrymore yesterday. The singer and the is looking at ways to honour spends a day at the soldier collaborated on a Moore for his “heroic rousing — but socially efforts”. Aircraft enthusiasts beach in a deeply distanced — version of You’ll at Biggin Hill, the former RAF personal photoshoot Never Walk Alone, a song by base in south London, are Richard Rodgers and Oscar reportedly planning to fly a Hammerstein for their 1945 Spitfire over Moore’s musical Carousel. Bedfordshire home when he Ball and Moore were turns 100 on April 30. recorded separately at their Moore said he had “never homes and their voices were in my wildest dreams mixed digitally. Their song imagined I would be releasing gave the iTunes chart a a single with Michael Ball”, nostalgic look: the next most who is best known for his popular single yesterday was roles in musicals such as Les We’ll Meet Again, another Misérables and The Phantom NHS charity collaboration of the Opera. He added: “I between Katherine Jenkins also never thought it possible and Dame Vera Lynn, the for me to walk in the garden Second World War “forces’ and raise millions.” sweetheart” who is now 103. @TamInUk Moore’s chart success MAGAZINE came as his fundraising effort Veterans left in need, Captain Tom Moore at his home with daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore and granddaughter Georgia after completing his charity walk last week passed £23m since he set off page 17 CURSE OF THE KENNEDYS America’s most famous — and tragic — family Mayors fear London-first virus has just lost another two of its members plan is damaging the regions

response was an unequivocal “no” from the benefit of Greater Manchester, or any would have lasted care workers one week workers back to work would help the Civic leaders in Greater regional leaders, who are concerned other particular region, but for every- in the region, just 48,000 arrived. West Midlands more than other regions, Manchester and the West about a “London-first” approach. body’s benefit. I think certain decisions “This would be something I would and Liverpool, which depends heavily on Senior politicians believe a lack of might have been made differently if have raised with Cobra,” he said. “And it’s tourism for jobs and income, will be hop- Midlands have called for input into Cobra from local government Cobra had had a regional voice from the a problem not just specific to us but ing for a boost to the hospitality sector. access to Cobra meetings has caused blunders in addressing the very start of this crisis.” something that is going on across all the “We need to be part of those discus- growing crisis in care-home infections, a A strong regional voice on the Cobra regions in the care sector.” sions,” said Street, who used to be man- on easing the lockdown lack of personal protective equipment committee could offer practical “on the Street said he had been “comfortable” aging director of John Lewis. “We under- (PPE) for care workers, and a confused ground” experience that some govern- with not being on Cobra due to the emer- stand our regions better than anyone.” David Collins Northern Correspondent NHS volunteer scheme that clashes with ment sources say the current “overly cen- gency meetings so far being about Cabinet Office Briefing Room A CULTURE existing local schemes. tralised” set-up lacks. national guidelines and policy-making (Cobra) is used for committees that co- Boris Johnson faces rising pressure to Two of the most powerful civic leaders “The role of local government is being around the epidemic. But as the focus ordinate the government’s response to a open up Cobra emergency meetings to outside the capital, Andy Burnham, the massively underplayed in Whitehall,” begins to shift towards a recovery plan national emergency. political leaders from outside London as Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, said Burnham, a health secretary under after lockdown, he said: “I would defi- London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has used THE KILLERS plans are drawn up to lift the national and Andy Street, the Conservative mayor Gordon Brown who led the response to nitely want to make the case for the Mid- Cobra meetings to argue that building lockdown. of the West Midlands, said they would swine flu in 2009. “We have issues in lands.” workers should not be going to work in Brandon Flowers Senior ministers privately canvassed support a seat on Cobra for the regions as Greater Manchester that I would like the Lifting the lockdown “sector by sec- the capital. several of the country’s metro mayors government planning moves to the chance to express in Cobra.” tor” would affect regions differently, He claimed the prime minister over- reveals his wife’s last week about their thoughts on a “recovery” phase. Burnham gave an example of asking making it crucial that they had input, ruled him during Cobra, arguing that post-traumatic stress staged “regional release” of the lock- “There should be representation for the government for PPE for care home both Street and Burnham said. building workers could carry out their disorder helped shape down, with London the first to benefit the English regions on Cobra now,” workers in Greater Manchester last week. For example, relaxing restrictions on jobs in relative safety. the band’s latest album from being freed of restrictions. The Burnham said. “I’m not saying that for After asking for 500,000 items, which the car industry and bringing 20,000 @DavidCollinsST

England will receive free in the early weeks of March. laptops, tablets and 4G “There’s no way you’re at war Schools wireless routers so they can Super-rich use private jets Five if your PM isn’t there,” the take the online lessons adviser said. “And what you Until Johnson returns, learn about Boris was he to reopen none of the plans is set in to flout lockdown rules weeks didn’t chair any meetings. He stone. Raab told ministers liked his country breaks. He that data on how the didn’t work weekends. in three lockdown is working, from →Continued from page 1 The super-rich have also since the lockdown was lost by “It was like working for an the scientific advisory group unlike 130 other countries been using private jets to imposed.” old-fashioned chief executive for emergencies, will not be that have imposed travel leave the UK. A total of 767 The Civil Aviation in a local authority 20 years weeks available for two more weeks. restrictions since the private planes have flown Authority, which oversees ministers ago. There was a real sense FIND US ON Ministers and officials at pandemic began. from UK airfields since the and regulates all aspects of that he didn’t do urgent the Department for Professor Gabriel Scally, lockdown. This includes 115 civil aviation in the UK, said it crisis-planning.” Education are said to favour president of epidemiology flights from London had “no way of knowing if the The body representing 110 →Continued from page 1 schools returning “sooner and public health at the Royal Farnborough airport, known hire of private aircraft has →Continued from page 1 UK diagnostic test companies personal protective rather than later” but insist Society of Medicine, said it for its “discretion and increased or declined in the offer was accepted by the has said the government equipment supplies to NHS they will be “led by the was “hard to understand” bespoke service”, according recent weeks”, as it does not NHS. In the meantime British failed to seek help with ANY SECTIONS workers science”. To help parents why the UK persisted in an to one private jet company’s monitor the numbers. suppliers were sending PPE coronavirus tests until April 1, MISSING? l Robert Jenrick, the home schooling, the first open borders policy, calling it website. It emerged last week that overseas, the association’s the night before Hancock communities secretary, national online UK classroom “most peculiar”. The most popular French police turned back a chief executive, Dr Simon announced a target of If your paper is incomplete announced a £1.6bn cash is launched tomorrow, called Justin Bowman, chief destinations for jets leaving private jet after a group of Festing, said. 100,000 tests a day by the we will send you the injection for councils and told Oak National Academy, on executive of the Air Charter the UK during the lockdown wealthy passengers flew from By late February, the end of this month. missing section(s) subject them to keep parks open the first day of what would Service, the largest private were France (34), Germany Farnborough to Marseilles for government itself had sent Sources close to Hancock to availability. Telephone l Gavin Williamson, the usually be the summer term. charter service in the world, (34), Spain (30) and Russia a holiday. 266,000 items of protective said that from late January he 020 7711 1521 or email education secretary, backed a An education department said: “Governments are (23). Private jet hire to Clive Jackson, founder of equipment to China, instituted a “prepare for the your details to: virtual school that will spokesman said: “We will facing huge challenges Moscow can cost between the private plane hire firm including 37,500 gowns, after worst” approach to the virus, customerservices provide online lessons for only reopen schools when moving people from different £20,000 and £70,000. Victor, said he believed most a request for help. held daily meetings and @sunday-times.co.uk with pupils trapped at home the scientific advice indicates parts of the world back to the Ten private planes have of the industry was acting The Downing Street started work on PPE supplies. Missing in the subject. l Disadvantaged children in it is the right time to do so.” UK, where they are stranded. flown to the United Arab responsibly when taking adviser said stockpiles of PPE A No 10 spokesman said “The airlines stopped Emirates since the lockdown. bookings from the public. had been allowed to last night: “The prime pretty much overnight. There Industry sources say a private “We have an obligation not to deteriorate during the years minister has been at the helm LOTTERY are still thousands of people flight to the UAE would cost flout the rules as we have an of austerity, and training for a of the response to this, RESULTS SATURDAY SATURDAY FRIDAY in the wrong place. Many of up to £100,000. essential part to play in the pandemic was neglected, as providing leadership during APRIL 18 APRIL 18 APRIL 17 these flights will be legitimate One aviation source said: Covid crisis, providing contingency planners were this hugely challenging repatriations from around the “These are some of the genuine medical evacuation diverted to prepare for a period for the whole nation.” 3, 6, 31, 43, 46, 53 7, 9, 10, 34, 35 16, 28, 32, 37, 45 Bonus 26 Thunder Ball 11 Lucky Stars 1, 11 world. I would hope those wealthiest people who count and repatriation for families no-deal Brexit. abusing the rules are in the the UK as their home, who in distress.” The adviser criticised How Britain sleepwalked to minority.” are fleeing to second homes @DavidCollinsST Johnson’s lack of leadership disaster, Insight, pages 6-7 The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 3 NEWS Fingers at the ready, quiz king of New York takes on Grandmaster Wang

BBC The rival stars of University Challenge are COULD YOU WIN set for an epic final THE TROPHY? showdown after taking Bobby Seagull led a Cambridge team social media by storm to University Challenge fame in 2017. Below, the maths teacher and TV Sian Griffiths Education Editor presenter poses 10 questions. When two young stars emerge from 1 Stolen in 1990 from the Isabella obscurity to go head to head on national Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, television tomorrow, Britain will have a The Concert is thought to be the chance to escape the uncertainties of most valuable unrecovered painting 2020 and return to a more familiar age. in the world. It is one of only 34 On one side of the screen will be Ian known paintings by which 17th- Wang, 21, from Sale, Greater Manchester, century Dutch artist? an English student known as Grand- master Wang after smashing a series of 2 In the 1968 musical Oliver! the lead quiz questions on 1980s music, including character is asked if he would “go to identifying the hip hop band Grand- Timbuktu”. Which west African master Flash and the Furious Five. country is the city of Timbuktu in? On the other side of the screen will be Brandon Blackwell, from New York, who 3 What is the acceleration of a 50kg started his quiz career at 14 and has net- object pushed with a force of 1,000 ted more than £375,000. The University newtons? Challenge final is billed as one of the big- gest duels in its history — and certainly 4 “Want, disease, ignorance, squalor the most welcome. and idleness” were five social The internet is abuzz with tweets and problems identified in the 1942 tales about the pair. Blackwell, star of the report by which Liberal economist? team from Imperial College London, wears a jumper adorned with a silhouette 5 What decade in the 1800s links the of Dmitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist Meiji restoration in Japan, the (you knew that), and spars with Jeremy publication of Little Women and the Paxman, the BBC presenter, who apolo- opening of the Suez Canal? gised in an early round for making the questions “too easy” for him. He denies 6 Don’t Look Back in Anger by Oasis, that his characteristic thinking pose with I Should Be So Lucky by Kylie two fingers alongside his nose is a rude Minogue and Go West by Pet Shop gesture aimed at Paxo. Boys were all influenced by the same Wang, for Corpus Christi, Cambridge, canon by which German baroque has also felt the lash of Paxman’s tongue composer? when the latter accused his team of “milking it” after they lingered too long 7 In Shakespeare’s plays, what over an answer. connects Cleopatra’s lady-in-waiting Both have fans and detractors on Charmian, Portia in Julius Caesar and social media, where Blackwell, in partic- Ophelia in Hamlet? ular, gives as good as he gets. It is no big surprise to followers of the cult television 8 Element 118 was formerly known by show for brainboxes, now ending its 49th a placeholder name, ununoctium, series, that the final offers two teams of but is now the only member of the four men apiece, although at least not all periodic table named after a eight are white. “Quizzing has always currently living scientist? What is its been white/male, but it is shifting in the new name? right direction,” said Blackwell, 26, now back in New York after completing his 9 Combining the first letters of the master’s degree in computer science at Ian Wang for Corpus Christi and Imperial’s Brandon Blackwell, who uses his first name to identify himself on the quiz, answer a large proportion of the questions capital cities of Cyprus, Vietnam and Imperial. Bosnia & Herzegovina gives us the “The show is shifting from what it used quiz just for money. It was to challenge Office in London. A fan of the show since put a bit of distance between us and that. name of which institution founded in to be. You see LGBT-visible contestants, himself. “That’s why I was drawn to he was 10, he tried out for the Corpus “The versions of ourselves that people 1948? more minorities, more women — and Britain and its culture of quizzes and pub Christi team every year while he was see on TV are not our real selves. I come more people who do not want to go on in quizzes. You have these incredibly tough there, succeeding in his final year. across as more excitable on TV.” 10 What concept links the author a suit and tie and answer questions about quizzes. It’s a national pastime.” Pop culture questions are his bag: Like Blackwell, he crammed for the Arundhati Roy, a welfare index first Aristotle for 90 minutes.” He refused to take part in University “The questions I find hard are easy to show, buying quiz books and holding used in Bhutan and a well-known He even likes to smile when he gets an When you’re Challenge when first selected, unhappy others.” He was “very impressed” when practices against Trinity College, Cam- phrase in the US Declaration of answer right. Wang, too, has been known that one or two women who had scored someone on his team knew the number bridge, knocked out in the quarter-finals. Independence? to give a joyous thumbs-up to the camera. there, under highly in trials had not been chosen. The of German provinces. Blackwell has scored 482 of his team’s Blackwell started quizzing at 14 in the selection was “three white male students The question he kicks himself over was 1,170 points. Wang has won 319 of Corpus Answers: 1 Johannes Vermeer; 2 Mali; game show Jeopardy!. Raised by his the lights and me. I messaged the guy in charge and who coined the term Afro-futurism. “The Christi’s 1,190. Yet both resist the idea 3 20 metres per second squared; 4 William mother to work hard, he threw himself said ‘This is not OK’.” A year later he answer was Samuel R Delany — and I that tomorrow’s final will come down to Beveridge; 5 the 1860s; 6 Johann Pachelbel; into the contests, entering the competi- with joined a new team and says he now “gen- mentioned him in a dissertation I wrote them, or that they are this year’s Eric 7 Suicide; 8 Oganesson; 9 The NHS; tive quizzes at university as well as shows uinely loves” his teammates, even if hav- on sci-fi, so that would have been a good Monkman and Bobby Seagull — the last 10 Happiness on television. “When I was 19 I went on a Paxman, it’s ing four guys “is not a sensible strategy one to get,” he said. “But when you are cult pairing of the show in 2017. “This is show called the Million Second Quiz. I because they all tend to answer the same there under the lights with Paxman, it’s not a fatal duel. There are eight people After tomorrow’s University Challenge won a lot of money on it — $339,416. If you not like being kind of questions”. not like being on your sofa at home.” taking part,” Blackwell said. “If you’re final at 8.30pm on BBC2, Bobby total all my winnings in quiz shows, I have Wang is just as animated and also keen Wang said he was not expecting to be expecting me vs Wang in the final, don’t Seagull will host an online pub quiz on won $468,652 and 72 cents.” Seventy-two on your sofa that the programme should project a the star of the team. “It was surreal. It’s tune in. This is his team vs our team.” his YouTube channel to raise money cents? “I go on shows where it is a rolling “less white, less male, less middle-class” good that my team is really supportive, Don’t bet against it either. for the NHS. Donate at justgiving.com/ amount. They stop the clock.” at home vision of academic life. He graduated last we have group chats to talk about how we fundraising/quizfornhs Blackwell said he had never entered a summer and works for the National Audit are being received on social media and Editorial, page 24 Second plague is Art critic unlocks schoolboy Archers take a coming from Asia to sabbatical and infect your garden secret of Duchamp’s urinal broadcast repeats

PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART©SUCCESSION MARCEL DUCHAMP/DACS Jonathan Leake British gardens and farms and Tony Allen-Mills note scribbled by Duchamp, Grant Tucker one in which the village bids Environment Editor transmits more than 100 using italics, that read: “One Arts Correspondent farewell to one of its most viruses deadly to those Ever since the conceptual only has: for female the public loved characters. For gardeners, the lockdown plants. artist Marcel Duchamp urinal and one lives by it.” The For millions of fans of The In the second week, the may offer little chance of He said: “These creatures submitted a porcelain urinal connection between female Archers, the only thing getting episodes will focus on key relaxation because a second don’t need to mate. The to an exhibition in 1917, the and urinal now began to them through the lockdown developments for important plague is coming from Asia to females just pump out clones art world has argued over the make sense. was their daily escape to the characters. “Particularly Britain — and the pest can of themselves, up to five a lavatory fixture — later voted “The more I looked around fictional village of Ambridge. when some have had to leave clone itself up to five times a day. When the colonies get “the most influential artwork I found this misogynist,” the Radio 4 announced or returned to [their homes day. overcrowded, they produce of the 20th century”. art critic said. Duchamp’s yesterday, however, that it and farms] as part of Scientists have warned that offspring with wings that can The piece Duchamp final work before his death in will have to broadcast from its prominent storylines,” the greenfly populations will fly off to new locations. They named Fountain was rejected 1968 was Etant donnés, a archives for three weeks in BBC said. surge four weeks earlier than target all the flowering and by the organisers of the peep-show installation in May because the new The third week will cover normal because of the ornamental plants including exhibition in New York on the Philadelphia offering viewers episodes are taking “a little the important events in the exceptionally mild winter, chrysanthemums, poinsettia grounds that it was not art. a close-up view of a naked longer than anticipated” to Ambridge calendar, airing the giving them a chance to and so on.” Uproar ensued, magnified by woman with her legs apart. record during the lockdown. episodes when significant attack plants while they are For farmers, an early aphid the absence of any clear While Duchamp’s The BBC said there are annual traditions have taken still vulnerable seedlings. explosion can spell disaster statement from Duchamp as preoccupation with women “extensive challenges posed place such as the annual Steve Foster, a scientist at because many species target to why he picked a urinal, and vaginas has been widely by the continuing pandemic”. flower and produce show. Rothamsted Research, one of cereal crops, oilseed rape, why he signed it “R. Mutt” discussed, nobody before Jeremy Howe, editor of The It is not the only soap the UK’s leading agricultural sugar beet and brassicas such and why he displayed it lying appears to have linked sexism Archers, said he is well aware facing problems. EastEnders science centres, said: “Aphids as cabbages and broccoli. on its back. Duchamp’s work “wonky” punning and to Fountain, which when the that listeners tune in “for has been reduced from four are very dependent on This year Scotland and Now The Sunday Times art bears the invented a strangely spelt urinal is placed on its back many different reasons, not to two episodes a week and temperature. In the past, they northern England were up to critic Waldemar Januszczak signature R Mutt, female alter ego, Rrose starts to resemble more the simply entertainment but Coronation Street from six to used to be killed off each 1.5C warmer than normal believes he has the answer, apparently a Selavy, which pronounced in shape of a vulva. escapism and companionship three, to help preserve winter by frost. However, if while southern England was which appears certain to reference to the French sounds like: “Eros, Januszczak noted that too”, but it was simply not current stock. With filming you have a warm winter, like up to 2.5C above average. inflame the century-long German c’est la vie.” He drew a Duchamp was obsessed with possible for the production halted, however, both BBC we just had, it doesn’t kill the Rothamsted’s records show it debate about a work that expression for moustache on a postcard of the French realist Gustave staff to work any faster. and ITV are set to run out of aphids so they’re there in was catching aphids as early helped inspire conceptual ‘earth mother’ the Mona Lisa and called it Courbet, whose work, Between May 3 and May 24 material within weeks. large numbers, early on in the as January and so the real artists from Andy Warhol to LHOOQ, which spelt out in L’Origine du Monde, features a there will be five weekly When The Archers, which spring ready to cause explosion, which usually Tracey Emin. French sounds like: “Elle a close-up of a hairy vulva. archive episodes, which will has been running for 70 problems as soon as starts from mid-May in the “The urinal is really a chaud au cul (She’s got a hot The art critic said: “You air from Sunday to Thursday years, returns it will see fewer temperatures rise.” south to early June in the vagina,” Januszczak said last bum).” can see how easily a at the usual time of 7pm. interactions between the cast There are more than 500 north, is already beginning. week. He described The judges who turned schoolboy mind like The new episodes, which to reflect social distancing species of aphids but the The Royal Horticultural Duchamp as a “terrible down Fountain included Duchamp’s saw Courbet’s are being recorded by the measures and characters serious pest species number Society said gardeners did misogynist” with a “sneering Katherine Dreier, who later picture as a challenge. So he cast from their own homes, “sharing more of their private fewer than 10. Foster said he not have to use toxic disrespect for womanhood”. became a patron of produced an alternative will begin again on May 25. thoughts with the listener”. was particularly concerned chemicals to control aphids. Investigating the Fountain Duchamp. Researching her vulva: a urinal. Once you have Each week’s archive Howe said: “While the about one species, the peach- They could either wait for for his BBC series The Art life, Januszczak came across seen that connection, it’s very episodes will have a theme. coronavirus might be coming potato aphid, originally from them to be eaten by other Mysteries, Januszczak said his ST DIGITAL the German expression difficult to unsee it.” The first will take listeners to Borsetshire, listeners can Asia, which is evolving into an animals, such as blue tits and “eureka moment” came Waldy and Bendy’s “urmutter”, meaning earth back to important events in still expect The Archers to be “über-pest” because it ladybirds, or use the “finger when he realised that the R. Adventures in Art, part 2 mother. R. Mutt, pronounced Waldemar Januszczak, the lives of Ambridge an escape and the residents reproduces extremely and thumb” method of Mutt signature must be a pun. Discover this week’s in German, sounds like a Comment, page 23. residents, including four to be bickering and as playful quickly, targets more than squashing them. Duchamp, who was born episode at shortened form of that. Raphael’s renaissance, couples walking down the and witty as ever.” 400 plant species found in @Jonathan__Leake in France, was fond of sundaytimes.co.uk/culture Januszczak also found a Culture, pages 12-13 aisle for their weddings and @GrantTucker 4 The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 NEWS NEWS Queen’s couturier helps hospital staff scrub up well IN BRIEF

Roya Nikkhah which already has a royal his style as “very classic, very alterations business in Ascot, sure @mattgardiner . . . and I also joined the effort to Royal Correspondent link. Medics there saved the elegant and very has also joined the call, have ever looked so colourful! provide personal protective Countess of Wessex’s life in understated. It does not sending several sets of Has highly amused the staff & equipment. His clients include the most 2003 during the premature scream — it whispers”, said he patterned scrubs to Frimley patients in these dark times.” Burberry, best known for Boy, 17, hurt in famous woman in the world, birth of her daughter, Lady was “very happy to offer what Park, much to the grateful The Frimley Health NHS trench coats, has halted crash at funeral royal brides and Louise Windsor. little help we can to our amusement of Henry Bourke, Foundation Trust, which normal production at its ballerinas. Now the Queen’s The designer — who fabulous NHS. an orthopaedic consultant oversees Frimley Park, factory in Castleford, west A 17-year-old boy is fighting couturier, Stewart Parvin, dressed the Queen in blue for “If you would like to get and knee surgeon, and his Heatherwood and Wexham Yorkshire, and will instead for his life after being run who designed the outfit that the Commonwealth service at involved as a home sewer, or colleague Matt Gardiner, a Park hospitals, said: “Our make surgical gowns. over by a motorbike at a she wore to Prince Harry and Westminster Abbey in March, as a business with work consultant hand and plastic main reason for needing Barbour’s factory in funeral in Kent. Aaron Smith Meghan’s wedding in 2018, her last public engagement space, there are several Stewart surgeon. more scrubs is that we have Jarrow, south Tyneside, has was injured as 150 mourners has turned his hand to before the lockdown — [social media] groups set up Parvin’s Bourke tweeted last week: repositioned a lot of our staff switched from producing attended Thursday’s service. designing medical scrubs for produced his first set of that are co-ordinating the scrubs share “Thank you to @TFWAscot to different areas of the waxed jackets to creating Police were at the event. Two frontline health workers. scrubs using simple blue and effort.” They include Scrubs a colour with . . . for making and donating hospitals, so to have the extra medical gowns for staff at the men were arrested on Parvin’s creations are green material donated by a Glorious Scrubs and For the an outfit he scrubs for us at stock is terrific.” Royal Victoria Infirmary in suspicion of dangerous being delivered to Frimley west London fabric shop. Love of Scrubs. designed for @FrimleyHealth where we The British fashion houses Newcastle upon Tyne. driving. Park Hospital in Surrey, Parvin, 53, who describes The Fashion Workshop, an the Queen have completely run out. Not Burberry and Barbour have @RoyaNikkhah Early jail release paused after error

A scheme to free prisoners Hancock hands kit shortage early to help jails cope with Covid-19 infections has been suspended after six inmates were released by mistake. The offenders were let out because of an problem to 2012 Games boss “administrative error”, the Ministry of Justice said. All six have returned to prison. The chief planner from spearheaded the wartime efforts on air- craft production, the appointment of WHAT THEY SHOULD BE WEARING WHAT THEY MAY HAVE TO WEAR Seagull clean-up the London Olympics Lord Deighton will bring renewed drive and focus to co-ordinate this unprece- down pan in Looe has been recruited to dented peacetime challenge.” Recommended personal New guidance for spearhead a massive A national PPE plan unveiled nine days protective equipment health staff if PPE Residents of the Cornish ago to tackle the shortages has failed to (PPE) for health staff is in short supply seaside town of Looe will manufacturing effort solve the problem. have to put up with treating Covid-19 Last night Robert Jenrick, the commu- increased levels of seagull nities secretary, said 84 tons of PPE, patients mess as the council ”will not Tim Shipman including 400,000 gowns, was due to have access to gull control Political Editor arrive from Turkey this weekend. Mich- FFP3 respirator Full-face Medics now told services this year”. The “egg ael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, is mask visor single-use eye removal service” has been The man who led planning for the Lon- among senior ministers who have argued protection can suspended because of the don Olympics has been appointed the privately that Britain needs a ministry of be reused lockdown. government’s “PPE tsar” in an admission supply-style figurehead to co-ordinate that ministers have failed to get a grip on the response. The health secretary is the supply of personal protective equip- widely perceived to be stretched too thin, ment to NHS workers. having to bring together testing, PPE, DIY dentist yanks Lord Deighton, 64, who was chief hospital capacity and efforts to buy and out own tooth executive of the 2012 organising commit- build ventilators. The NHS tee, has been hired by Matt Hancock, the Deighton, a former Goldman Sachs Long-sleeved is using A man who extracted his health secretary, to lead a “national banker, has experience in government. disposable 150,000 own tooth after being effort” to make life-saving gowns, gloves In 2013, under David Cameron, he fluid-repellent refused emergency dental and masks. became Treasury minister with responsi- gown gowns every treatment has advised The appointment of Deighton, who bility for the national infrastructure plan day others against DIY surgery: it knows the prime minister well from their and was made a life peer. took 90 minutes. Billy Taylor, work together on the Olympics when “Countries around the world face 33, from Axminster, Devon, Boris Johnson was London mayor, is rem- unprecedented demand for personal said NHS 111 told him not to iniscent of Winston Churchill’s decision protective equipment and this necessi- go to a dentist unless he was to hire his friend Lord Beaverbrook. The tates an equally unprecedented domestic having trouble breathing. publishing mogul was made minister for manufacturing response,” Deighton said. aircraft production in 1940. Burberry, Rolls-Royce, McLaren, Ineos Short-sleeved Gloves Senior sources said Deighton would and Diageo are among companies that disposable co-ordinate the “end-to-end process of have answered the call and started to pro- non-fluid-repellent Telyn the osprey design through to manufacture, includ- duce gowns, visors, hygiene products coverall – if gowns cracks egg record ing streamlining approvals” to speed up and equipment. “I look forward to bring- Gloves unavailable. the flow of the PPE. He will also support ing together new partners in the pursuit Staff told to The earliest egg-laying at the smaller companies as they scale up to of this single goal: to get our dedicated wash forearms Dyfi osprey project near join the effort. frontline workers the essential equip- afterwards Machynlleth in Wales has The appointment follows weeks of crit- ment they need,” Deighton added. been recorded. One of the icism that the government has over- “This effort calls for exceptional team- birds, Telyn, laid an egg 11 promised and underdelivered on PPE. work and I am confident that we, days after meeting a mate, Hancock said: “Just as Lord Beaverbrook together, will rise to this challenge.” Idris. The fish-eating birds usually take 14 days to produce a clutch. Telyn laid ‘Terrified’ frontline medics fear recycled gowns are spreading disease the egg on Friday. Vicar of Dibley in

Andrew Gregory PPE items — gowns in Sara Gorton, said: “If gowns that the infection is spreading reprisals by their managers. transmit the virus from one Nursing staff in the most charity comeback Health Editor particular — as a result of a run out, staff in high-risk in hospitals and care homes. One said a promotion was patient to the next. Even high-risk environments — national shortage was raising areas may well decide that it’s Whitehall officials fear the retracted by their trust after though we are washing our where Covid-19 patients are The Vicar of Dibley is Hospital staff and care the risk of them contracting no longer safe for them to failure to adequately equip they spoke out on social hands, our clothes may be being treated on ventilators — returning in a new sketch as workers are “terrified” that the virus, passing it to others work.” the health and social care media about the shortages. contaminated and spread it.” say they feel pressured to Children in Need and Comic they may be infecting and worsening the epidemic. Unite’s assistant general workforce with PPE is Another said: “I work in a Dr Rinesh Parmar, work without sufficient levels Relief join forces on Thursday patients and vulnerable care Ministers said 55,000 secretary, Gail Cartmail, said derailing efforts to cut the high-risk area for Covid-19 chairman of the Doctors’ of protection. for the BBC’s The Big Night In. home residents with the gowns arrived on Friday, but it had advised staff to refuse rate of infection and deaths. patients — I also cover Association UK, said: “Many A Royal College of Nursing It will be first time Dawn coronavirus because they are they equate to about eight to work if they felt they Both goals are among the paediatric and oncology doctors are in an impossible survey of 14,000 nurses French has played the role having to work without hours’ supply because the were not being protected, government’s five criteria to patients. I’ve been told that I position and have reported found 51% of those treating since Emma Chambers, who sufficient personal protective NHS is using 150,000 every adding: “The continued be met before the lockdown have to wear the same gown the rationing of gowns and Covid-19 patients had been played the much-loved equipment (PPE). day. lack of PPE is a national can be lifted. all day. I’m terrified I’m going visors, with some having to asked to reuse items of PPE scatterbrain Alice Tinker, Britain faces a cross- Yesterday the communities scandal.” Two officials said it could to spread the virus.” wipe down items that marked as “single use”. died two years ago. contamination crisis, they secretary, Robert Jenrick, Some doctors with medical be July before the NHS had Public Health England would normally be for single Asked by MPs about PPE warned, after medics were promised 400,000 would roles that take them to enough gowns to avoid staff issued new guidance on use. supply on Friday, Matt ordered to treat Covid-19 arrive today, but dozens of different departments said having to reuse or work Friday that said that if long- “There is an emerging Hancock, the health patients without waterproof NHS trusts still fear they will they were alarmed at being without them. More gowns sleeved, fluid repellant gowns concern and fear among secretary, said: “I would love full-length gowns if supplies run out by tonight. ordered to wear the same made in China have been ran out, staff should simply doctors that the rationing of to be able to wave a magic ran out. Britain’s two largest trade PPE throughout a shift. One ordered but will take weeks wear coveralls with aprons, PPE in this way may wand and have PPE fall from At least 50 NHS workers unions, Unison and Unite, feared they may “spread the to arrive. and wash their arms inadvertently lead to the the sky in large quantities and have died after contracting said health and care workers virus” to cancer patients and More than 20 health and afterwards. spread of the infection to be able to answer your the virus. could quit if the PPE crisis sick children. care workers spoke out about A doctor in the east of other patients, something question about when Staff raised concerns that was not resolved. Ministers have been PPE, on the condition of England said: “I can’t be sure that we are desperate to shortages will be resolved.” rationing and reuse of key Unison’s head of health, warned there is evidence anonymity for fear of that I’m not helping to avoid.” @AndrewGregory

NHS is ‘weeks too Care homes on brink of Hold funerals now, French: charity show slow’, says supplier collapse as staff stay away clerics urge families Father bakes 6lb pasty for new son Tim Shipman had confused them. The NHS Caroline Wheeler The figure far exceeds its Caroline Wheeler and told by City of York council is weeks too slow to compete estimate last week of 1,400. last week that she and her A father of three has baked a and Shingi Mararike Nicholas Hellen A supplier of personal adequately in this volatile The sector is pressing the two children could not attend huge Cornish pasty to protective equipment (PPE) market and against other One in four carers are unable Care Quality Commission Religious leaders have drawn the funeral of Colin, her celebrate the birth of his new has warned that government buyers who are way more to work, leading to fears that (CQC), the regulator to which up minimum standards for husband of 42 years. son — matching the size and bureaucracy has made it aggressive,” he said. the sector is on the brink of care home deaths are funerals to persuade families After a warning from Justin weight of the child. Tim Fuge, impossible to buy the “Foreign governments are breaking down, according to reported, to issue accurate to bury their dead now rather Welby, the Archbishop of 33, from Liskeard, Cornwall, necessary supplies. paying cash (sometimes over a survey by the research data. The CQC has added a than wait until the lockdown Canterbury, that people who spent 2 ½ hours making the Howard Amor of Seren the odds) to secure group Skills for Care. Covid-19 tick-box to its death is eased. have died of Covid-19 should 6lb 4oz pasty and 19 hours Plus, a pharmaceutical production capacity and The most common reason reporting form, which care Luke Miller, the not be disposed of like cattle eating it. Jowan was born two supplier with 40 years of stock.” was self-isolation with virus home managers fill out after a Archdeacon of London, said: in the foot-and-mouth weeks early on April 4. Fuge experience with Chinese Instead, the government symptoms or because of death on their premises. “In these extraordinary outbreak, the guidelines baked the pasty on Thursday suppliers, was contacted has offered to pay after 30 living with someone with the The Age UK charity has times, people are naturally make it clear that close family – the date his son was due to three weeks ago by NHS days. “The market in China symptoms. Some carers were stopped its home help inclined to delay the funerals members will be allowed to be born. Supply Chain, the agency that demands payment up front. trapped by childcare. service in Essex until at least of their loved ones.” attend the funeral and there buys kit for the health Suppliers don’t have infinite The survey of 211 adult June, while its branch in Extra mortuaries have should always be a minister service, and asked to help. cash to finance a national social care providers, a sector North Yorkshire and been constructed in the from the family’s chosen faith He provided quotes to crisis. Government needs to that includes carers offering Darlington took similar capital and Miller warned: or belief. Where possible, a supply surgical masks, find a funding solution.” home help to the elderly and measures last month. Care home residents are at “We have sufficient mortuary crematorium should offer to protective suits, eye A spokesman said the those working in residential The daughter of a high risk from the virus capacity, but to be sure that livestream or record the protection and sanitising gel, government was processing homes, found that a third of housebound 88-year-old remains the case it is essential funeral. The family’s choice pledging to supply samples offers from 6,000 suppliers: those who responded said woman who uses the service now there’s nobody going that we move quickly to of burial or cremation should within three days. “We are working rapidly to they needed more staff. twice a week in Essex says over to check on her. It funerals.” be respected. There was no response. get through orders and It comes as the number of she is now worried about weighs on my mind and my The new standards, This weekend Simon Amor has supplied new ensure they meet the safety care home residents who how her mother will cope. heart heavily,” she said. released today by London’s Clarke, the communities quotes every seven days as and quality standards that have died with Covid-19 may She pays £28 a week for Caroline Abrahams, the Strategic Co-ordination minister, issued emergency market prices change. “We’ve our NHS staff need. We have have reached 7,500, help with cleaning, making charity director at Age UK, Group, are expected to be powers for town halls to heard nothing back from the delivered more than a billion according to Care England, the bed, shopping and taking said: “Charities are having to adopted around the country. order businesses to help with NHS, except one response to pieces of PPE equipment to which represents out the rubbish. “My mum make extremely difficult Marie Dean, an NHS worker the “transportation, storage Jowan: born two weeks complain that our updates the front line so far.” independent care services. had a fall two weeks ago and decisions.” from Huntington, York, was and disposal” of bodies. early, weighing 6lb 4oz The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 5 NEWS Lockdown ‘Live Aid’ lets Gaga, Ellie and Stones spend the night together The most star-studded line-up in rock history is playing tonight to raise millions for healthcare Lloyd Webber asks fans

TAYLOR HILL/MARIO ANZUONI to play the Phantom Grant Tucker Have you ever heard a soprano warble Entertainment Correspondent and thought you could do better? Well, now is your chance, writes Lockdown-weary Britons who fear they Grant Tucker. are heading for their 19th nervous Andrew Lloyd Webber has breakdown may be cheered tonight by entertained the nation every Sunday a performance unique in the annals of during lockdown, playing his most rock’n’roll. famous musical numbers on YouTube The Rolling Stones have overcome (#Composerinisolation) and social distancing to perform together in a encouraging fans to video themselves global charity concert — but without singing along. leaving their homes. Their appearance in Today he is doing a song from the One World: Together at Home event, Phantom of the Opera, and is asking to be broadcast in Britain tonight, was people not just to sing along but to described by one of the organisers as make up their own cadenza. The best “utterly genius”. one will be included in the show when Sir Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie it reopens in London and New York. Watts and Ronnie Wood all recorded Taylor Swift and Ellie Goulding are joining the Rolling Stones and Elton John in the One World concert. All the stars recorded solo performances from their homes @GrantTucker their home performances with iPhones. The video clips were edited together for a musicians who contributed solo per- After tuning her guitar and setting up a of different locations. “Because of the show there is a six-hour internet version had to give money. We didn’t think that song included in a concert dubbed the formances from their home studios and tripod for her phone to record, Goulding challenge of unstable connections gener- that was due to be posted online last was right,” Evans said. Live Aid of the coronavirus era. living rooms. Those helping to raise more realised she needed better lighting. She ally, we couldn’t risk any internet going night. “We had late-night Zoom [confer- “Instead we wanted to ask philan- “How they produced their remote than £40m for healthcare workers and to called a friend who “left them outside my down. So it’s all been prerecorded from ence] calls with Asia and early morning thropists and the private sector to step up special when all four of them are in differ- fight the virus included Sir Elton John, front door. So I’ve got some big lights in their living rooms,” he said. calls here in New York with Europe. It has — and they have.” ent parts of the world is remarkable,” said Lady Gaga, Sir Paul McCartney, Taylor my living room that are bloody hot.” Pre- A US version of the show was broad- been non-stop and the amazing thing is Lady Gaga, who helped to produce the Hugh Evans, co-founder of Global Citi- Swift, Stevie Wonder and Annie Lennox. paring her sofa as her set gave Goulding cast in America last night but a special we’ve produced this entire thing without concert, sent a message to health work- zen, the online movement behind the Some of the other British stars taking “an extra appreciation of people behind two-hour UK version will be shown on any of us seeing each other,” Evans said. ers: “Put your wallets away . . . and sit event. “It looks spectacular. I couldn’t part included the singer Ellie Goulding, the scenes” at concerts, she added. BBC1 from 7.15pm. It will be hosted by Unlike Live Aid, the concert is not a back and enjoy the show you all deserve. believe they had all done it remotely. It 33, who has suffered from stage fright. Brandon Flowers, the Killers front- Dermot O’Leary, Clara Amfo and Claudia fundraising telethon with viewers invited You’re putting yourselves in harm’s way was like they were in the same room.” She said it was “nice to just sit and play man, left his lounge for his rehearsals: “I Winkleman. to contribute. Instead, the organisers tar- to help the world and we all salute you.” While it was not known yesterday the guitar and not worry. have a piano and a keyboard set up in a Evans said his team of up to 300 edi- geted companies such as Apple and Coca- In 1985 Phil Collins flew across the which song the group had performed “I jumped at the chance of doing some- bathroom. It is doing wonders for me.” tors and producers had 12 hours of video Cola, which contributed funds to buy Atlantic on Concorde to perform in Live there were plenty of joke suggestions, thing where I could just sit in my living While charity concerts have tended to footage from musicians and stars around protective equipment and support Aid concerts on the same day in London including: Stay Two Metres Away From My room in my pyjamas essentially and per- be live, Evans realised early on that the the world. The footage includes comedy efforts to develop drugs and vaccines. and Philadelphia. At least in the age of the Cloud, We’ve Run Out of Brown Sugar and form three songs. It’s nice not to be as technical challenges posed by the lock- segments and serious clips about social “We didn’t want the public to feel — coronavirus he could do both from the Let’s Spend The Night Apart. nervous as I would have been performing down could lead to chaos with perform- distancing and face masks. at a time when many people have lost comfort of his sofa. The Stones were among more than 100 with all those other people”. ers streaming contributions from dozens In addition to the two-hour broadcast their jobs and lost loved ones — that they @granttucker

Ill met by moonlight — but laureate got a poem out of it

Bryan Appleyard and hope. Also the title says clearly that what was going It was the evening of the on in the cemetery was life supermoon earlier this that had been stilled.” month. The poet laureate, The poem also suggests the Simon Armitage, and his eerie feeling of distance from family took one of their one another that now regular walks from their shrouds our lives. “I was Quentin Blake has done home near Huddersfield. thinking about all the almost 200 drawings since As usual, they passed a enforced distances, places the lockdown began cemetery, but this time there you can’t walk, people you was something different. can’t talk to. I don’t know Police incident tape draped whether this man was the entrance, the gate was burying somebody or digging Nicolette Jones padlocked and then they saw, a grave, but there was nobody standing by an open grave else in attendance.” Sir Quentin Blake, 87, is and leaning on a spade, an Armitage knows a number consoling himself in the “astronaut in a hazmat suit”. of people who have had the lockdown by doing what he “It was really alarming to virus and recovered, but this usually does: drawing every look sideways and see this scene was a reminder of day. The illustrator, best figure. And he — I assume it those who do not. He sees the known for his work with was a he — was the only work as an essential part of Roald Dahl, goes into the person in the graveyard. It his role as poet laureate. private square near his home was one of those moments The most difficult thing in west London every day and when it completely brought it about the poem was the meets his best friend of 54 home to you. And it was right supermoon. “I couldn’t make years, Linda Kitson. there, staring back at us in that happen with the moon; I Kitson, who used to be his this very disarming silence, couldn’t make the moon student at the Royal College this incredibly still evening.” empathise with what was of Art, where Blake taught for Back home, he talked happening. It just seemed so 20 years, takes a 15-minute about the scene with his wife, disconnected.” He tried many walk, “avoiding people”, to Sue, and their daughter, adjectives — shameless, the square, where they chat — Emmeline. Over the next flagrant, indifferent — before at a safe distance — while week, Armitage, 56, landing on one that captured Blake draws. He has done 194 struggled to distil this its seeming callousness — drawings since the lockdown encounter with the pandemic “cold-blooded”. began on March 23. into a poem. Finally, in 83 The latest of his isolation words entitled Still Life, he ST DIGITAL drawings is a “rainbow succeeded. “The poem is full Exclusive recording of series” — 10 pictures using the of ambiguities. The Simon Armitage reading rainbows that he saw in ambulance is about his poem people’s windows. “I thought emergency and crisis, but Go to sundaytimes.co.uk we all needed something also there’s a rush for help or our app cheerful,” said Blake. At first he did not know that the symbol had been adopted by STILL LIFE the NHS, but now he plans to BY SIMON ARMITAGE auction the original works in aid of the health service. The images play with Quentin Blake makes rainbows rainbows as three- dimensional objects, The local cemetery’s exploring what you might out of bounds, turn the shape into. In one, a to raise pots of gold for the NHS entrance draped man walks with his own portable rainbow under his with a candystripe helix arm. It is not a self-portrait not as hard as not being able of incident tape, “although I am unshaven to to draw every day would be. chain and padlock about that degree”, he He misses going to his confided. second home in Hastings, wreathing the gate. The images express not East Sussex, but admits that We’ll edge past only the characters’ delight in his life had already become on a path that slaloms the rainbow itself, but circumscribed by age: “I everyday pleasures: walking wasn’t going to the theatre the hawthorn hedge, on a breezy day, the bond of any more.” A daily walk in the exchange stares affection with a dog, the view square is enough for him, with the astronaut from a roof, a treat on the although he has friends who table or a cosy place to read. are buying rowing machines. in a hazmat suit A man with a rainbow If someone else in the square and visor and mask moustache suggests that “you gets too close, he shouts at and over-shoes can be large and formal and them to “leave me alone”. stolid and still have a fanciful Blake, who has a long- and white leather gloves, bit of rainbow in you”. standing flatmate, the writer propped on his spade “I draw in a free- John Yeoman, relaxes by at an open grave. expression sort of way, not watching detective dramas as from life,” said Blake. well as by drawing. He is also The universe “I know about anatomy, reading detective stories — breathless and but what I draw is the Georges Simenon’s Maigret muggy tonight, description of a gesture or an books — and a life of the 18th- expression. You have to feel it century polymath Blake’s pictures book, provisionally titled Mr illustrated books to more has his escape — drawing: “It a cold-blooded moon, in your body. And apparently Beaumarchais. Both are in portray Filkins in the Desert, about a than 300. is bracing to the spirits. And marooned villages I make the faces when I draw. French, which, he said, characters’ man walking to visit his He is phlegmatic about you discover things.” under the hill, In the dog picture, I identify “slows me down a bit”. delight in the granddaughter to celebrate these anxious times: “I try to with the dog: cheerful and While others are rainbow as well his 90th birthday. His latest, feel on holiday although I also Quentin Blake’s 10 rainbow a stagnant dusk hopeful and enjoying the introducing themselves to as everyday The Weed, appeared just feel under siege. But I am illustrations will be available that parts to allow novelty of the kennel.” Zumba or Zoom, Blake is pleasures before the lockdown, aware that I am one of the less as free e-cards tomorrow. Go an ambulance through. For Blake, self-isolation is working on a new picture bringing the total of his unfortunate.” And he always to quentinblake.com 6 INSIGHT INVESTIGATION REVEALED 38 DAYS when Britain sleepwalked into disaster

from its campus next to the Royal Albert between January and March. The Boris Johnson skipped five Cobra meetings on the Hall, a team at Imperial College’s School researchers estimated that up to 1,900 of of Public Health led by Professor Neil Fer- these passengers would have been guson produced its first modelling assess- infected with the coronavirus — almost virus, calls to order protective gear were ignored ment of the likely impact of the virus. On guaranteeing the UK would become a Friday, January 17, its report noted the centre of the subsequent pandemic. and scientists’ warnings fell on deaf ears. Failings “worrying” news that three cases of the Sure enough, five days later on virus had been discovered outside China Wednesday, January 29, the first corona- — two in Thailand and one in Japan. While virus cases on British soil were found in February may have cost thousands of lives acknowledging many unknowns, when two Chinese nationals from the researchers calculated that there could same family fell ill at a hotel in York. The already be as many as 4,000 cases. The next day, the government raised the report warned: “The magnitude of these threat level from low to moderate. five weeks — that Johnson would attend a ning in late January and early February. numbers suggests substantial human-to- JONATHAN CALVERT, Cobra meeting about the coronavirus. Scientists said the threat from the coming human transmission cannot be ruled out. But by then it was almost certainly too storm was clear. Indeed, one of the gov- Heightened surveillance, prompt infor- THE PANDEMIC PLAN GEORGE ARBUTHNOTT AND late. The virus had sneaked into our air- ernment’s key advisory committees was mation-sharing and enhanced prepared- On January 31 — or Brexit day as it had JONATHAN LEAKE ports, our trains, our workplaces and our given a dire warning a month earlier than ness are recommended.” become known — there was a rousing homes. Britain was on course for one of has previously been admitted about the By now the mystery bug had been 11pm speech by the prime minister prom- the worst infections of the most deadly prospect of having to deal with mass identified as a type of coronavirus — a ising that the withdrawal from the Euro- INSIGHT virus to have hit the world in more than casualties. large family of viruses that can cause pean Union would be the dawn of a new a century. It was a message repeated throughout infections ranging from the common era unleashing the British people who Last week, a senior adviser to Downing February but the warnings appear to cold to severe acute respiratory syn- would “grow in confidence” month n the third Friday of January a Street broke ranks and blamed the weeks have fallen on deaf ears. The need, for drome (Sars). There had been two by month. silent and stealthy killer was of complacency on a failure of leadership example, to boost emergency supplies of reported deaths from the virus and 41 By this time, there was good reason for creeping across the world. in cabinet. In particular, the prime minis- protective masks and gowns for health patients had been taken ill. the government’s top scientific advisers Passing from person to person ter was singled out. workers was pressing, but little progress The following Wednesday, January 22, to feel creeping unease about the virus. and borne on ships and planes, “There’s no way you’re at war if your was made in obtaining the items from the the government convened its first meet- The WHO had declared the coronavirus a the coronavirus was already PM isn’t there,” the adviser said. “And manufacturers, mainly in China. ing of its scientific advisory group for global emergency just the day before and Oleaving a trail of bodies. what you learn about Boris was he didn’t Instead, the government sent supplies emergencies (Sage) to discuss the virus. scientists at the London School of The virus had spread from chair any meetings. He liked his country the other way — shipping 279,000 items Its membership is secret but it is usually Hygiene and Tropical Medicine had con- China to six countries and was almost breaks. He didn’t work weekends. It was of its depleted stockpile of protective chaired by the government’s chief scien- firmed to Whitty in a private meeting of certainly in many others. Sensing the like working for an old-fashioned chief equipment to China during this period, tific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, and the Nervtag advisory committee on respi- coming danger, the British government executive in a local authority 20 years following a request for help from the chief medical adviser, Professor Chris ratory illness that the virus’s infectivity briefly went into wartime mode that day, ago. There was a real sense that he didn’t authorities there. Whitty. Downing Street advisers are could be as bad as Ferguson’s worst esti- holding a meeting of Cobra, its national do urgent crisis planning. It was exactly also present. mate several days earlier. crisis committee. like people feared he would be.” There were new findings that day with The official scientific advisers were But it took just an hour that January 24 IMPENDING DANGER Chinese scientists warning that the virus willing to concede in public that there lunchtime to brush aside the coronavirus The prime minister had been sunning had an unusually high infectivity rate of might be several cases of the coronavirus threat. Matt Hancock, the health secre- INQUIRY ‘INEVITABLE’ himself with his girlfriend in the million- up to 3.0, which meant each person with in the UK. But they had faith that the tary, bounced out of Whitehall after One day there will inevitably be an aires’ Caribbean resort of Mustique when the virus would typically infect up to country’s plans for a pandemic would chairing the meeting and breezily told inquiry into the lack of preparations dur- China first alerted the World Health Orga- three more people. prove robust. reporters the risk to the UK public ing those “lost” five weeks from January nisation (WHO) on December 31 that sev- One of those present was Imperial’s This was probably a big mistake. An was “low”. 24. There will be questions about when eral cases of an unusual pneumonia had Ferguson, who was already working on adviser to Downing Street — speaking off This was despite the publication that politicians understood the severity of the been recorded in Wuhan, a city of 11 mil- his own estimate — putting infectivity at the record — says their confidence in “the day of an alarming study by Chinese doc- threat, what the scientists told them and lion people in Hubei province. 2.6 and possibly as high as 3.5 — which he plan” was misplaced. While a possible tors in the medical journal, The Lancet. It why so little was done to equip the In the days that followed China initially sent to ministers and officials in a report pandemic had been listed as the No 1 assessed the lethal potential of the virus, National Health Service for the coming claimed the virus could not be transmit- on the day of the Cobra meeting on Janu- threat to the nation for many years, the for the first time suggesting it was compa- crisis. It will be the politicians who will ted from human to human, which should ary 24. The Spanish flu had an estimated source says that in reality it had long since rable to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, face the most intense scrutiny. have been reassuring. But this did not infectivity rate of between 2.0 and 3.0, so stopped being treated as such. which killed up to 50 million people. Among the key points likely to be ring true to Britain’s public health aca- Ferguson’s finding was shocking. Several emergency planners and sci- Unusually, Boris Johnson had been explored will be why it took so long to rec- demics and epidemiologists who were The professor’s other bombshell in the entists said that the plans to protect the absent from Cobra. The committee — ognise an urgent need for a massive boost texting each other, eager for more infor- same report was that there needed to be a UK in a pandemic had once been a top which includes ministers, intelligence in supplies of personal protective equip- mation, in early January. 60% cut in the transmission rate — which priority and had been well-funded for a chiefs and military generals — gathers at ment (PPE) for health workers; ventila- Devi Sridhar, professor of global pub- meant stopping contact between people. decade following the 9/11 terrorist moments of great peril such as terrorist tors to treat acute respiratory symptoms; lic health at Edinburgh University, had In layman’s terms it meant a lockdown, a attacks in 2001. But then austerity attacks, natural disasters and other and tests to detect the infection. predicted in a talk two years earlier that a move that would paralyse an economy cuts struck. “We were the envy of the threats to the nation and is normally Any inquiry may also ask whether the virus might jump species from an animal already facing a battering from Brexit. At world,” the source said, “but pandemic chaired by the prime minister. government’s failure to get to grips with in China and spread quickly to become a the time such a suggestion was unthinka- planning became a casualty of the auster- Johnson had found time that day, how- the scale of the crisis in those early days Johnson and human pandemic. So the news from ble in the government and belonged to ity years when there were more pressing ever, to join in a lunar new year dragon had the knock-on effect of the national fiancée Carrie Wuhan set her on high alert. the world of post-apocalypse movies. needs.” eyes ritual as part of Downing Street’s lockdown being introduced days or even Symonds. Below, “In early January a lot of my global The growing alarm among scientists The last rehearsal for a pandemic was reception for the Chinese community, weeks too late, causing many thousands Hancock, who health colleagues and I were kind of dis- appears not to have been heard or a 2016 exercise codenamed Cygnus led by the country’s ambassador. more unnecessary deaths. said in January cussing ‘What’s going on?’” she recalled. heeded by policy-makers. After the Janu- which predicted the health service would It was a big day for Johnson and there An Insight investigation has talked to the risk was low “China still hadn’t confirmed the virus ary 25 Cobra meeting, the chorus of reas- collapse and highlighted a long list of was a triumphal mood in Downing Street scientists, academics, doctors, emer- was human-to-human. A lot of us were surance was not just from Hancock and It was a shortcomings — including, presciently, a because the withdrawal treaty from the gency planners, public officials and poli- suspecting it was because it was a respira- the prime minister’s spokesman: Whitty lack of PPE and intensive care ventilators. European Union was being signed in the ticians about the root of the crisis and tory pathogen and you wouldn’t see the was confident too. massive But an equally lengthy list of recom- late afternoon. It could have been the whether the government should have numbers of cases that we were seeing out “Cobra met today to discuss the situa- mendations to address the deficiencies defining moment of his premiership — known sooner and acted more swiftly to of China if it was not human-to-human. tion in Wuhan, China,” said Whitty. “We spider’s was never implemented. The source said but that was before the world changed. kick-start the Whitehall machine and put So that was disturbing.” have global experts monitoring the situa- preparations for a no-deal Brexit “sucked That afternoon his spokesman played the NHS onto a war footing. By as early as January 16 the professor tion around the clock and have a strong web of all the blood out of pandemic planning” down the looming threat from the east They told us that, contrary to the offi- was on Twitter calling for swift action to track record of managing new forms of in the following years. and reassured the nation that we were cial line, Britain was in a poor state of prepare for the virus. “Been asked by infectious disease . . . there are no con- failing; In the year leading up to the coronavi- “well prepared for any new diseases”. readiness for a pandemic. Emergency journalists how serious #WuhanPneu- firmed cases in the UK to date.” rus outbreak key government committee The confident, almost nonchalant, atti- stockpiles of PPE had severely dwin- monia outbreak is,” she wrote. However, by then there had been every meetings on pandemic planning were tude displayed that day in January would dled and gone out of date after “My answer: take it seriously 1,000 cases worldwide and 41 deaths, repeatedly “bumped” off the diary to continue for more than a month. becoming a low priority in the because of cross-border mostly in Wuhan. A Lancet report that domino make way for discussions about more Johnson went on to miss four further years of austerity cuts. The train- spread (planes means bugs day presented a study of 41 coronavirus pressing issues such as the beds crisis in Cobra meetings on the virus. As Britain ing to prepare key workers for a travel far & fast), likely patients admitted to hospital in Wuhan has the NHS. Training for NHS staff with pro- was hit by unprecedented flooding, he pandemic had been put on hold human-to-human trans- which found that more than half had tective equipment and respirators was completed the EU withdrawal, reshuffled for two years while contin- mission and previous severe breathing problems, a third fallen also neglected, the source alleges. his cabinet and then went away to the gency planning was diverted outbreaks have taught required intensive care and six had died. Members of the government advisory grace-and-favour country retreat at Chev- to deal with a possible overresponding is better And there was now little doubt that the group on pandemics are said to have felt ening where he spent most of the two no-deal Brexit. than delaying action.” UK would be hit by the virus. A study by powerless. “They would joke between weeks over half-term with his pregnant This made it doubly Events were now mov- Southampton University has shown that themselves, ‘Haha let’s hope we don’t get fiancée, Carrie Symonds. important that the govern- ing fast. Four hundred 190,000 people flew into the UK from a pandemic,’ because there wasn’t a sin- It would not be until March 2 — another ment hit the ground run- miles away in London, Wuhan and other high-risk Chinese cities gle area of practice that was being nur- The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 7 NEWS

BEN STANSALL/STEFAN ROUSSEAU/@ROBABDUL

tured in order for us to meet basic testing equipment was another big error we did nothing. We just watched. A pan- ist who is a key government adviser, Boris Johnson missed five Cobra meetings on the prepa- requirements for pandemic, never mind of judgment, according to the Downing demic was always at the top of our made this clear in a recent BBC interview. taking part in a rations to combat the looming pandemic, do it well,” said the source. Street source. It would later be one of the national risk register — always — but when “I think from the early days in Febru- lunar new year which he left to be chaired by Hancock. “If you were with senior NHS manag- big scandals of the coronavirus crisis that it came we just slowly watched. We could ary, if not in late January, it was obvious ceremony in Johnson was an easy target for the oppo- ers at all during the last two years, you the considerable capacity of Britain’s pri- have been Germany but instead we were this infection was going to be very serious Downing Street sition when he returned to the Commons were aware that their biggest fear, their vate laboratories to mass-produce tests doomed by our incompetence, our and it was going to affect more than just on January 24, the following day with the Labour leader, sweatiest nightmare, was a pandemic was not harnessed during those crucial hubris and our austerity.” the region of Asia ,” he said. “I think it was the day he Jeremy Corbyn, labelling him a “part- because they weren’t prepared for it.” weeks of February. In the Far East the threat was being very clear that this was going to be an missed the first time” prime minister for his failure to It meant that the government had “We should have communicated with treated more seriously in the early weeks unprecedented event.” Cobra meeting lead on the virus crisis or visit the areas of much catching up to do when it was every commercial testing laboratory that of February. Martin Hibberd, a professor By February 21, the virus had already on Covid-19 the UK badly hit by floods. becoming clear that this “nightmare” might volunteer to become part of the of emerging infectious diseases at the infected 76,000 people, had caused By Friday, February 28, the virus had was becoming a distinct possibility in government’s testing regime but that London School of Hygiene and Tropical 2,300 deaths in China and was taking a taken root in the UK with reported cases February. But the source says there was didn’t happen,” said the source. Medicine, was in a unique position to foothold in Europe with Italy recording 51 rising to 19 and the stock markets were little urgency. “Almost every plan we had The lack of action was confirmed by compare the UK’s response with Singa- cases and two deaths the following day. plunging. It was finally time for Johnson was not activated in February. Almost Doris-Ann Williams, chief executive of pore, where he had advised in the past. Nonetheless Nervtag, one of the key gov- to act. He summoned a TV reporter into every government department has failed the British In Vitro Diagnostics Associa- “Singapore realised, as soon as Wuhan ernment advisory committees, decided Downing Street to say he was on top of to properly implement their own pan- tion, which represents 110 companies reported it, that cases were going to turn to keep the threat level at “moderate”. the coronavirus crisis. demic plans,” the source said. that make up most of the UK’s testing sec- up in Singapore. And so they prepared Its members may well regret that deci- “The issue of coronavirus is something One deviation from the plan, for exam- tor. Amazingly, she says her organisation for that. I looked at the UK and I can see a sion with hindsight and it was certainly that is now the government’s top prior- ple, was a failure to give an early warning did not receive a meaningful approach different strategy and approach. not unanimous. John Edmunds, one of ity,” he said. “I have just had a meeting to firms that there might be a lockdown from the government asking for help “The interesting thing for me is, I’ve the country’s top infectious disease mod- with the chief medical officer and secre- so they could start contingency planning. until April 1 — the night before Hancock worked with Singapore in 2003 and 2009 ellers from the London School of Hygiene tary of state for health talking about the “There was a duty to get them to start bowed to pressure and announced a and basically they copied the UK pan- and Tropical Medicine, was participating preparations that we need to make.” thinking about their cashflow and their belated and ambitious target of 100,000 demic preparedness plan. But the differ- in the meeting by video link but his tech- It was finally announced that he would business continuity arrangements,” the tests a day by the end of this month. ence is they actually implemented it.” nology failed him at the crucial moment. be attending a meeting of Cobra — after a source said. There was also a failure to replenish Edmunds wanted the threat level to be weekend at Chequers with Symonds supplies of gowns and masks for health increased to high but could not make his where the couple would publicly release and care workers in the early weeks of WORKING HOLIDAY view known as the link was glitchy. He news of the engagement and their baby. SUPERSPREADER February — despite NHS England declar- Towards the end of the second week of sent an email later making his view clear. On the Sunday, there was a meeting A central part of any pandemic plan is to ing the virus its first “level four critical February, the prime minister was demob “JE believes that the risk to the UK popu- between Sage committee members and identify anyone who becomes ill, vigor- incident” at the end of January. happy. After sacking five cabinet lation [in the PHE risk assessment] officials from the Department of Health ously pursue all their recent contacts and It was a key part of the pandemic plan ministers and saying everyone should be high, as there is evi- and NHS which was a game changer, put them into quarantine. That involves — the NHS’s Operating Framework for “should be confident and dence of ongoing transmis- according to a Whitehall source. The testing and the UK initially seemed to be Managing the Response to Pandemic calm” about Britain’s sion in Korea, Japan and meeting was shown fresh modelling ahead of the game. In early February Influenza dated December 2017 — that response to the virus, John- Singapore, as well as in based on figures from Italy suggesting Hancock proudly told the Commons the the NHS would be able to draw on “just in son vacated Downing Street China,” the meeting’s min- that 8% of infected people might need UK was one of the first countries to case” stockpiles of PPE. after the half-term recess utes state. But the decision hospital treatment in a worst-case sce- develop a new test for the coronavirus. But many of the “just in case” stock- began on February 13. had already been taken. nario. The previous estimate had been “Testing worldwide is being done on piles had dwindled, and equipment was He headed to the country for Peter Openshaw, professor 4%-5%. equipment designed in Oxford,” he said. out of date. As not enough money was a “working” holiday at Chevening of experimental medicine at “The risk to the NHS had effectively So when Steve Walsh, a 53-year-old being spent on replenishing stockpiles, with Symonds and would be out of the Imperial College, was in America at doubled in an instant. It set alarm bells businessman from Hove, East Sussex, this shortfall was supposed to be filled by public eye for 12 days. His aides were the time of the meeting but would also ringing across government,” said the was identified as the source of the second activating “just in time” contracts which thankful for the rest, as they had been have recommended increasing the threat Whitehall source. “I think that meeting UK outbreak on February 6 all his con- had been arranged with equipment sup- working flat out since the summer as the to high. Three days earlier he had given focused minds. You realise it’s time to tacts were followed up with tests. Walsh’s pliers in recent years to deal with an Brexit power struggle had played out. an address to a seminar in which he esti- pull the trigger on the starting gun.” case was a warning of the rampant infec- emergency. The first order for equip- The Sunday newspapers that weekend mated that 60% of the world’s population At the Cobra meeting the next day with tivity of the virus as he is believed to have ment under the “just in time” protocol would not have made comfortable read- would probably become infected if no Johnson in the chair a full “battle plan” passed it to five people in the UK after was made on January 30. ing. The Sunday Times reported on a action was taken and 400,000 people was finally signed off to contain, delay returning from a conference in Singapore However, the source said that attempts briefing from a risk specialist which said would die in the UK. and mitigate the spread of the virus. This as well as six overseas. to call in these “just in time” contracts that Public Health England would be By February 26, there were 13 known was on March 2 — five weeks after the first But Public Health England failed to immediately ran into difficulties in Feb- overrun during a pandemic as it could cases in the UK. That day — almost four Cobra meeting on the virus. take advantage of our early break- ruary because they were mostly with Chi- test only 1,000 people a day. weeks before a full lockdown would be The new push would have some posi- throughs with tests and lost early oppor- nese manufacturers who were facing Johnson may well have been distracted announced — ministers were warned tive benefits such as the creation of new tunities to step up production to the lev- unprecedented demand from the coun- by matters in his personal life during his through another advisory committee Nightingale hospitals, which greatly els that would later be needed. try’s own health service and elsewhere. stay in the countryside. Aides were told that the country was facing a cata- increased the number of intensive care This was in part because the govern- This was another nail in the coffin for to keep their briefing papers short and strophic loss of life unless drastic action beds. But there was a further delay that ment was planning for the virus using its the pandemic plan. “It was a massive spi- cut the number of memos in his red box if was taken. Having been thwarted from month of nine days in introducing the blueprint for fighting the flu. Once a flu der’s web of failing, every domino has they wanted them to be read. sounding the alarm, Edmunds and his lockdown as Johnson and his senior pandemic has found its way into the pop- fallen,” said the source. His family needed to be prepared for team presented their latest “worst sce- advisers debated what measures were ulation and there is no vaccine, then the The NHS could have contacted the announcement that Symonds, who nario” predictions to the scientific pan- required. Later the government would be virus is allowed to take its course until UK-based suppliers. The British Health- turned 32 in March, was pregnant and demic influenza group on modelling left rudderless again after Johnson him- “herd immunity” is acquired. Such a plan care Trades Association (BHTA) was that they had been secretly engaged for (SPI-M) which directly advises the coun- self contracted the virus. does not require mass testing. ready to help supply PPE in February — some time. Relations with his children try’s scientific decision-makers on Sage. As the number of infections grew daily, A senior politician told this newspa- and throughout March — but it was only had been fraught since his separation It warned that 27 million people could some things were impossible to retrieve. per: “I had conversations with Chris on April 1 that its offer of help was from his estranged wife Marina Wheeler be infected and 220,000 intensive care There was a worldwide shortage of PPE Whitty at the end of January and they We did accepted. Dr Simon Festing, the organisa- and the rift deepened when she had been beds would be needed if no action were Almost and the prime minister would have to were absolutely focused on herd immu- tion’s chief executive, said: “Orders diagnosed with cancer last year. taken to reduce infection rates. The pre- personally ring manufacturers of ventila- nity. The reason is that with flu, herd nothing, undoubtedly went overseas instead of to The divorce also had to be finalised. dicted death toll was 380,000. every tors and testing kits in a desperate effort immunity is the right response if you the NHS because of the missed opportu- Midway through the break it was Edmunds’s colleague Nick Davies, who to boost supplies. haven’t got a vaccine. we just nities in the procurement process.” announced in the High Court that the led the research, says the report empha- plan we The result was that the NHS and care “All of our planning was for pandemic Downing Street admitted on February couple had reached a settlement, leaving sised the urgent need for a lockdown home workers would be left without flu. There has basically been a divide watched 24 — just five days before NHS chiefs Wheeler free to apply for divorce. almost four weeks before it was imposed. had was proper protection and insufficient num- between scientists in Asia who saw this as warned a lack of PPE left the health ser- There were murmurings of frustration The team modelled the effects of a bers of tests to find out whether they had a horrible, deadly disease on the lines of . . . We vice facing a “nightmare” — that the UK from some ministers and their aides at 12-week lockdown involving school and not put been infected. To date 50 doctors, nurses Sars, which requires immediate lock- government had supplied 1,800 pairs of the time that Johnson was not taking work closures, shielding the elderly, and NHS workers have died. More down, and those in the West, particularly were goggles and 43,000 disposable gloves, more of a lead. But Johnson’s aides are social distancing and self-isolation. It esti- into than 100,000 people have been con- in the US and UK, who saw this as flu.” 194,000 sanitising wipes, 37,500 medical understood to have felt relaxed: he was mated this would delay the impact of the firmed as infected in Britain and 15,000 The prime minister’s special adviser doomed gowns and 2,500 face masks to China. getting updates and they claim the scien- pandemic but there still might be action have died. Dominic Cummings is said to have had A senior department of health insider tists were saying everything was under 280,000 deaths over the year. A Downing Street spokesman said: initial enthusiasm for the herd immunity by our described the sense of drift witnessed control. that “Our response has ensured that the NHS concept, which may have played a part in during those crucial weeks in February: has been given all the support it needs to the government’s early approach to man- hubris “We missed the boat on testing and PPE JOHNSON RETURNS month ensure everyone requiring treatment has aging the virus. The Department of . . . I remember being called into some of 400,000 DEATHS The previous night Johnson had returned received it, as well as providing protec- Health firmly denies that “herd immu- the meetings about this in February and By the time Johnson departed for the to London for the Conservatives’ big fund tion to businesses and reassurance to nity” was ever its aim and rejects sugges- thinking, ‘Well it’s a good thing this isn’t countryside, however, there was mount- raising ball, the Winter Party, at which workers. The prime minister has been at tions that Whitty supported it. Cum- the big one.’ ing unease among scientists about the one donor pledged £60,000 for the privi- the helm of the response to this, provid- mings also denies backing the concept. “I had watched Wuhan but I assumed exceptional nature of the threat. Sir Jer- lege of playing a game of tennis with him. ing leadership during this hugely chal- The failure to obtain large amounts of we must have not been worried because emy Farrar, an infectious disease special- By this time the prime minister had lenging period for the whole nation.”

The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 9 NEWS Cleaners hung out to dry as NEWMAN’S WEEK families stop paying them

ernment’s support schemes and have no worked had continued to support her: together and that we are helping out Many domestic workers other source of income. four friends who worked as cleaners had those who are left behind, with food abandoned by their Barratt has 200 cleaners on his books lost all their income. She is applying for banks and NHS volunteers. who clean about 2,000 homes, but all the self-employment income support “But in the middle of it, you have got middle-class clients have been abandoned by those for whom scheme, which pays out a grant of up to cleaners, some of the most poorly paid during the lockdown are they have cleaned lavatories, ironed £2,500 a month from June. She said that vulnerable people and . . . some of the shirts and made beds. He said many had if she received any payments, she would very best off are not following the script in a desperate situation developed a close relationship with their return money to her clients. at all. It is actually quite appalling.” customers, receiving presents at Christ- If cleaners have organised their finan- Our ethical calculations must change “It could be worse — we could be “Just point to the person you Nicholas Hellen Social Affairs Editor mas and sometimes house-sitting at cial affairs to declare minimal profit in in the crisis, he said. “Actions that in in lockdown” saw sunbathing” weekends, but the clients still decided recent years, however, they will be enti- normal life are about pursuing a good life It is the dirty secret of many middle-class against showing financial loyalty during tled to only negligible support because [suddenly] become selfish. If you lay homeowners: they may be donating to the lockdown. the government’s grant is linked to someone off in this situation, you are food banks and checking on a vulnerable “Everybody has pulled back. It is declared profits. condemning them to misery.” pensioner, but they are not paying their human nature — don’t spend any money Many cleaners are paid cash in hand, Elizabeth Oldfield, the director of cleaner during the lockdown. in case it goes on for a long, long period.” and do not declare the income to HM Theos, a faith-based think tank, paid her Richie Barratt, the director of Perfect Meanwhile, he said, the cleaners are Revenue & Customs; this leaves them in a way through university by working as a Cleaning Company — which counts “desperate”. In Wimbledon Village, an precarious position during the lock- cleaner. She said the pandemic had owners of stately homes and “Mrs Jones elite enclave in southwest London, one down, which has already lasted for four taught us that we are “more integrated down the road” among its customers — homeowner, who did not want to be weeks. than we thought” and yet we have built said: “As soon as Boris Johnson named, said: “We have continued to pay Many of their employers, however, an economy that is “less human, less rela- announced that everything was closing our cleaner and the lady who did our worry that their own financial situation is tional and rewards a lack of loyalty”. down, the only calls we got were people ironing, but my neighbour and a lot of my also unstable, and fear getting a pay cut Oldfield added: “Choosing to be in ending their regular cleaners. friends have not. or less freelance work, and thus feel una- relationships with people we pay money “A lot of regulars pay by direct debit “You have to be very careful what you ble to continue to pay a cleaner who is not to and receive money from that are more and standing order. All of those have say around here. A lot of people are very, able to work during lockdown. long-lasting is more satisfying and more stopped.” very tight when it comes to money.” According to Julian Baggini, 51, an human — and we can start by paying the He said “not a single person” had Maria Zaleska, 43, who has clients in author and the academic director of the person who clears out our underwear offered to continue to pay, even though the village, said she was fortunate that Royal Institute of Philosophy: “There is a drawer.” “The ‘Coughing Major’ story should help “We’ve got people working round many cleaners do not qualify for the gov- two of the four families for whom she collective narrative that we are pulling @NicholasHellen take our minds off things!” the clock on excuses”

It’s good to talk — we’re back on the blower

Liam Kelly starred in British Telecom’s Enterprise Correspondent TV adverts in the 1980s and 1990s talking on the phone to Before the crisis, Emily Black her grandson, urged people made phone calls only to her to make calls. “Just pick up energy provider or doctor’s the phone and say hello,” she surgery. “I don’t like to talk said. “Especially if you know on the phone,” she said. “I someone has been bereaved. would much rather send a A lot of people have gone.” six-page text message.” Lipman, 73, said she had Since the lockdown, that started texting in recent has changed. Black, 25, a years, but was making lots of wedding planner from Hythe, phone calls to her family and Hampshire, has been calling that if she thought someone her grandparents on the was “really alone” would call Norfolk coast at least three on FaceTime, “which is times a week. horrendous because you have The conversations started to look at yourself”. with her urging them not to The mobile operator Three break the lockdown by going has reported that calls to to the shops every day, and soon shifted to helping set up Lipman: a Tesco home delivery and ‘Pick up the advice about using an iPad, phone and while she got gardening tips say hello’ in return. “I feel like I can have a proper conversation,” Black said. “It’s just nice to chat, isn’t it?” She is not the only one who thinks so. It is not just video- calling apps such as Zoom prayer lines doubled in the and Houseparty that have first two weeks of lockdown, become much more popular, and levels remain phone calls have too. “significantly above normal”, Vodafone, which has while EE is seeing increases 19.5 million UK customers, is on Friday and Saturday handling an average of evenings, as people order 4.5 million minutes of voice meals from takeaways. calls a day, compared with Jo Stobart, 49, a vicar from 3.2 million before the crisis. Ilminster, Somerset, and her EE, the mobile network six church wardens are owned by BT, says the making regular calls to 100 average length of a call has parishioners to make up for doubled to eight minutes. not seeing them in person. “Mobile phone calls have “To talk to them is the best made a comeback,” said Nick thing I can do. I come away Jeffery, chief executive of from all these calls much Vodafone UK. “They had more cheered,” she said. been in decline as social There is a sting in this tale. media usage grew, but the Vodafone, EE, O2 and Three lockdown has reversed that.” are raising the cost of mobile Maureen Lipman, who contracts by more than 2%.

Nailed it! Cow print is new manicure craze

Sarah Jossel a lockdown for Beauty Director experimenting with shades such as “marshmallow”, Spare a thought amid the “strawberry margarita” and coronavirus gloom for “orgasm” (apparently a celebrities doing their peachy-pink). fingernails. Millions of people There is also a new trend are following their every towards black-and-white “nailfie” (selfies showing “splotching”, known as cow newly painted nails). print. “I’m seeing a lot of cow “The nail struggle is real,” print now. They look good on declared the actress Jada every nail length,” noted Pinkett Smith (10.3 million Alicia Torello, a nail artist. Instagram followers). According to NPD market “Never thought I’d say research, sales of basic nail this,” added the Kardashian polish products have risen by clan’s Kylie Jenner (170 102% in Britain since the end million followers), “but the of March. Luxury items are natural nails might stay.” also selling well. The rest of the beauty Even America’s hippest business may be burdened young politician has joined with boarded-up boutiques the nailfie fun. Alexandria and closed cosmetics Ocasio-Cortez (4.3m counters, but Instagram followers) online sales of posted a picture of nail-related her fingers with the products are caption: “Having booming, new my nails clean or consumer painted helps data shows. It me feel a little seems there more in is no time like control or put together, even The ‘cow print’ if other things PHOTO:@STEPHSTONENAILS are a mess.”

The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 11 NEWS

Lockdown on both sides doesn’t stop 550 migrants trying to cross the Channel

CARE 4 CALAIS Dipesh Gadher basis, someone has to have officials intercepted 72 migrants are intercepted and there’s no way of assessing Clare Moseley, its founder, brought it over,” said Lucy migrants, including 25 men that no one had been proven symptoms. They are cold, said the virus could take hold At least 550 migrants have Moreton of the Immigration and four women who came to be carrying Covid-19. wet and often seasick.” after nine migrants were illegally crossed the Channel Services Union (ISU), which ashore near Hastings, East All arrivals during the Crew members have removed for isolation by the in small boats since the represents border staff. Sussex. The highest number lockdown are processed and overalls and gloves, but French authorities. “There’s coronavirus lockdowns began Home Office data shows on a single day during the fingerprinted at Dover docks. rescuing migrants from no running water and people in Britain and France. that at least 481 migrants, lockdown is 95, with 42 The Home Office said any ramshackle boats or the are sleeping four or five to a The people smuggling including 14 children, have migrants crammed into one migrant displaying symptoms water makes social distancing tent,” she said. continues amid fears of a crossed since March 23, when inflatable dinghy. is taken away for isolation. impossible. The ISU has The Home Office said: Covid-19 outbreak at camps in the UK lockdown began. Most The figures are only for Moreton said no tests were called for Border Force crews “Migrants undergo a medical Calais and Dunkirk. Nine say they have come from Iran those detected. They do not done at the docks, nor when to be tested for the virus after assessment on arrival and are migrants with symptoms or Iraq. Another 69 people, include people caught on the migrants were moved to every 28-day rota at sea. routinely monitored. Should have been removed from the including seven children, are French side of the Channel councils to be rehoused. She About 1,500 migrants are it ever be necessary, there are camps in the past week, believed to have arrived in and sent back to France, said it was difficult to identify at camps in Calais and facilities to self-isolate in our British charity workers say. the previous week, after where smugglers charge up those who might have the Dunkirk. The only NGO that asylum accommodation. We But the UK government is not France restricted movement to £13,000 a person for virus. has continued to give out aid remain committed to routinely testing new arrivals. on March 17. passage. Immigration sources “When a Border Force is Care4Calais, run by seven stopping these illegal “On a purely statistical On Easter Sunday, UK said “more than half” of The Care4Calais charity helps at camps in Calais and Dunkirk vessel picks these people up, British volunteers. crossings.” Young, gifted and blocked — but generation Z is finding a way to shine

GABBY DAWNAY University, gap years and in front of an image of 10 Downing St, with the text: “Me trying to reduce Boris WHO ARE career paths are on hold, into letting me go to Magaluf in July.” Others cite McDonald’s and Nando’s as GENERATION Z? so young people are their ideal post-lockdown activity. getting creative to make At the same time, generation Z-ers seem to think that life may not go back to their mark on the world the way it was. The dual threat of climate 8 seconds change and now Covid-19 has led to an How long, on average, a Gen Z-er Gabriel Pogrund and Tom Calver explosion in creative and often irreverent focuses on a piece of content online. posts bearing the hashtag #apocalypse, Ruben Dawnay was supposed to spend which has been watched 100m times. 63% his gap year making money by selling Most of the content is not serious or Say they are bored during the salt-beef sandwiches in a market, before overtly political. However, much of it lockdown, more than double their pursuing the conventional path of uni- hints at a belief that the world is not as parents (29%). versity followed by a graduate job. certain a place as it once was. Viral videos As a self-taught cook, the prospect of include teenagers wearing gas masks, 47% selling sandwiches at his own stand, pondering which of their classmates Report being stressed and 34% Ruben’s Reubens, at Brixton market in would survive an apocalypse, and send- lonely — in both cases the most of south London, offered the chance to ing mock last words to their loved ones. any age group. make money and “do something differ- Eleanor Rees, 20, who recently had ent” before starting an economics course her second-year lectures in history at ‘Happy’ and fearless at Manchester University in September. Bristol University cancelled, said: “I Yet more say they are happy (43%) But Dawnay belongs to generation Z — don’t think we’re as consciously political than any other age group, and only those people born between 1997 and as maybe the generation above us, 19% report being scared, the lowest 2012 — whose choices have been thrown because most of us weren’t really there number demographically. into doubt by the coronavirus. for the financial crisis or to a lesser extent The lockdown has forced him to run Brexit. But I think after a shock like this 52% his business from his parents’ kitchen: he that there will be more interest in Support the use of mobile tracking advertises his home-made sarnies online protecting ourselves from existential data by the government to monitor via Instagram — and delivers them by challenges, whether that’s global health the lockdown — far less than older bicycle to customers in his area. or the environment . . . I don’t see how it generations. Looking ahead, the boredom of life in won’t have an effect.” lockdown has forced him and many In the short term, those leaving school 50% others to consider what they truly want to or graduating are not taking their Of all users of the Tinder dating app do once their freedom has been restored. prospects for granted. are Gen Z-ers. According to YouGov’s weekly polling Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, of the national mood, people aged 18 to the government has adopted a policy of Facebook or Twitter? 24 are more lonely, bored and stressed “freezing” the economy — and artificially Neither. Gen Z-ers use SnapChat, than any other demographic. They are, preserving vulnerable companies and TikTok and Instagram. though, the least scared. sectors — so that things can return to “It makes you want to take risks. I normal once the pandemic is over. didn’t really want to go to uni anyway. I Last week, however, the chancellor, Sources: YouGov 2019, YouGov did okay in A-levels and thought I should Rishi Sunak, warned of “tough times” 2020, Ipsos Mori 2020, TalkWalker apply and have that as a security,” says ahead for the British economy, after the Dawnay. “Coronavirus has forced every- Office for Budget Responsibility warned Ruben Dawnay has a place at Manchester University to read economics but prefers running his own sandwich business one to pause, and during that you think: that the pandemic could see the econ- what actually makes me happy? What omy shrink a record 35% by June. Accord- by the fact that many young people have Mel Newton, a partner at KPMG who other words, young people entering the tion: Max Klymenko, who is based in Lon- will I enjoy doing after this has finished? ing to a report by the Learning and Work had to cancel studying or travelling focuses on the modern workplace, workforce amid uncertainty over lock- don and has 400,000 followers, is part of I’m leaning towards going with the flow Institute, years of job growth have been abroad after graduating. predicts that the coronavirus will not rep- down and a move towards home working a trend for people to show the books they and doing what I actually like doing, wiped out by a month of the pandemic, What some graduates may not expect resent a workplace revolution. Instead, could struggle with internal politics and are reading and give tips on how to read which is this food business.” with one in three under-25s employed in is that the number of graduate jobs, the lockdown would accelerate existing how to rise up the ladder. amid the distractions of social media. He adds: “I think a lot of people have shutdown sectors, double the number of although slowly falling, is 11% higher than trends “beyond measure” and create a She added: “I think they’ll be desper- His tips, posted to hashtags including grown up with access to social media and those over 25. the same period last year. According to situation in which generation Z becomes ate to get back into the office. While they #boredinthehouse, #reading and #nerd, that means you have an outlet for creativ- Such uncertainty has fuelled a surge in Indeed, tech jobs, which can often be the first to exist online, both socially and want to be able to work anywhere and encourage people to read a single page a ity and entrepreneurship long before anxiety among young people seeking done from anywhere, remain the biggest professionally. don’t want to get tied down, they’ll want day and to stick to that approach reli- others might have done before.” employment. According to Indeed, the category of employment (11%), with the “It’s a game-changer in terms of work- access to people.” giously. Similarly, videos of teenagers It is too early to predict the cultural US-based job-search site, there was an next biggest, education (6.3%) and ing from home,” she said. “Senior leaders In social as well as professional terms, performing dances or memes with their and economic consequences of a genera- 80% rise in the number of people clicking accounting (5.7%) well behind. are often suspicious about whether their the coronavirus has had counter-intuitive parents or grandparents have taken off. tion coming of age during a lockdown. on graduate jobs in the UK between the Such figures suggest that employers people are actually working at home. effects. Tinder, the online dating app half The question facing generation Z for the However, TikTok, the video-sharing app start of lockdown and last week. are confident that the economy could Now they realise they’re productive. of whose users belong to generation Z, moment is similar to that facing the dominated by generation Z, offers an Jack Kennedy, an economist at the rebound after the coronavirus recession. We’ll see certain floors of companies said that young users — often derided as entire population: will the coronavirus insight into the mood of the first genera- company, said interest in graduate jobs Employers also caution against the idea shutting once a week, saving companies superficial and for eschewing romance — present a blip — or the start of a new era? tion to truly grow up online. had been in decline this year, but that as that generation Z will be cursed in a simi- money on facilities and also giving were having far longer conversations. Dawnay, in between taking orders for Since the outbreak, the hashtag #after- “the bleak economic outlook became lar way to the youngsters who graduated employees the flexibility they want.” The company’s tech team also reported his sandwiches, said: “ I don’t think it’s as lockdown has attracted 3.4m views, with clearer and as sectors across the market during the 2008 financial crisis: crippled Newton said such a change posed risks an increase in “care phrases”: tender or simple as people being let out one day thousands of people posting their went into decline, our data suggests there by unemployment and median graduate for generation Z, despite being the first emotionally intimate questions asking and having a bit of fun and then life being dreams of life returning to normal. One was a scramble among students to secure salaries lower than any generation since age group of so-called digital natives: how a person was doing. exactly the same as it was. I think this post depicts a user dancing flirtatiously roles”. The trend has been compounded people born in the 1960s. “You can’t prove yourself from afar.” In TikTok also reported a return to tradi- could affect my generation for years.”

Lettuce help — Romanians 39 key workers, 19 nationalities, 8 million come to rescue of farmers views . . . and I wrote it in under an hour

Jonathan Leake, application process and only under quarantine conditions Grant Tucker we should have immigrant years, urges the public to Imbuldeniya, 37, said: Environment Editor 9% [about 3,000 people] are in hostels on the farms. She Media Correspondent voices, key workers’ voices, support migrant workers “The point was to spread the committing,” said Hops said the co-op had recruited reading out the poem line by when the crisis is over. message as far as you can, They voted firmly for Brexit, Labour Solutions, a leading 500 UK workers, but most It has been heard millions of line. It’s down to her genius It includes the lines: “So whether it’s via the UN or not. but for many farming agricultural recruitment were inexperienced and times around the world that we did it this way.” you clap for me now / All this And I feel like we’ve already communities the sight of agency. would be trained by the thanks to a viral video, but a The project was in love you are bringing / But achieved that.” hundreds of east European “We think it’s partly Romanians. poem praising key workers response to a call by the UN don’t forget when it’s no It has caught the eye of workers returning to British because the chancellor’s A survey by the National from ethnic minorities took on March 30 for coronavirus longer quiet / Don’t forget thousands of NHS workers. A fields could be the most subsidy schemes mean many Farmers’ Union suggests less than an hour to write. content that conveyed when you can no longer hear staff member who asked welcome one in weeks. people no longer needed farmers face desperate times The two-minute video, in positivity, kindness and the birds singing.” permission to play it in the Several planeloads of farm work.” to bring in harvests. “The which doctors, nurses, solidarity. The UN received Smith is “baffled” by the atrium of North Middlesex Romanian fruit pickers and Last week the first 150 horticulture sector requires teachers and delivery drivers nearly 17,000 submissions in millions of views the video University Hospital said more vegetable croppers are being Romanians landed at around 70,000 seasonal read lines from You Clap for two weeks from 143 has received, including more than 60% of its workforce flown to the UK to stop Stansted, where they were workers each year,” said Me Now, has been viewed by countries. They included than 8 million just on Twitter. were black and minority thousands of tons of checked for Covid-19 the union. at least 8 million since it was written work, audio music, He said: “I remember us ethnic. The NHS worker asparagus, strawberries, infection and driven to a “Growers have always tried uploaded last week. animation and film. dancing around in our wrote: “By sharing this, it will raspberries and other crops 17,300-acre farm in East to recruit locally but due to Darren James Smith, the The poem, inspired by collective kitchens when we make such a difference to our going rotten. Anglia for the lettuce-picking the seasonal nature of the author of the hit 39-line Imbuldeniya’s Sri Lankan had reached 1,000 views on staff feeling supported and It follows an apparent season tomorrow. work, the rural location and verse, said: “It took under an mother, an NHS nurse for 40 Instagram. We were so patients being reminded to miscalculation by the The plane was chartered at often long hours, there has hour to write. It wasn’t long. I excited; we thought we had be kind.” government, which had a cost of about £40,000 by been a historical lack of don’t want to say exactly made it. For us the point was The first 10 NHS doctors to hoped that the thousands of G’s Growers, a farming interest from British people. [how long] because it sounds never a political message, it be named as coronavirus staff laid off by employers co-operative of 17 members “Our survey data shows like I’m bragging or it didn’t was a humanitarian one.” victims were from ethnic would work in a “land army” that needs 1,250 people to that last year 99% of seasonal matter.” He credits the The video is voiced by 39 minorities. Last June, NHS of seasonal farm workers. harvest salad crops for workers were EU nationals. poem’s success to the video, UK key workers from 19 England recorded that 13.3% An estimated 35,000 supermarkets. At least five Nearly 60% came from produced by his colleague nationalities: British, of staff in hospital and Britons applied, only to reject more flights are planned. Romania and Bulgaria.” Sachini Imbuldeniya. The This will Kurdish, Albanian, Sri community services gave a the jobs when the chancellor, “This is part of our strategy British workers will be pair work for The Bridge Lankan, Filipino, Barbadian, non-British nationality. The Rishi Sunak, announced his to ensure we have enough essential if crops are to be Studio, a creative content make such a Greek Cypriot, Indian, St Intensive Care National Audit furlough scheme. seasonal agricultural workers saved, said Jack Ward, of the agency owned by News UK, Lucian, Chinese, Kenyan, and Research Centre has “We had around 33,500 to continue to feed our British Growers Association. parent company of The difference to Montserratian, Jamaican, found that a third of 3,370 people from Britain apply for nation,” said Beverly Dixon of “Just by June we will probably Sunday Times. Pakistani, Slovenian, critically ill patients are these roles — but only 20% of G’s, who added that the need about 35,000 people to Smith, 39, said: “Sachini our staff Bangladeshi, Kosovar, The video is voiced by 39 non-white. people completed the Romanians would work harvest fresh produce.” said this has to be a film, and Ghanaian and Nigerian. workers from 19 countries @GrantTucker

The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 13 NEWS Now the fish comes direct to your dish

Speaking by satellite phone, Kay, 34, “We started working on it on a Friday Lewis Colam, of Sound Seafood, said: nisations, welcomed the website and Facing oblivion when who was out in the trawler Admiral Blake [March 20] and we had the website up in “Many fish markets across the country other initiatives to promote British fish, supermarkets and off the south coast of Cornwall on Thurs- 72 hours, and 1,500 boxes of fish were have just stopped, but the Plymouth mar- but urged ministers to give the industry day, said: “Prices are down by about 60% dispatched from Plymouth in the first ket is still going and I would say Call4Fish financial support. “It is not a substitute restaurants cancelled for some species and a lot of boats are not week,” said Portmann. “Then we started is one of the main reasons for that.” for the normal supply chains,” he said. orders, fishermen have operating because it’s so bad.” Some of hearing from other ports.” Nigel Birt, 52, who fishes with his son The government announced £10m in his fish will go to the new market. The calls — from Brighton to New- Sam, 16, in their boat KT-Sam off Lyme grants last week to support fishing. It turned to home delivery It is the inspiration of Rodney Ander- haven, Lowestoft and Grimsby — were Regis and owns the fishing merchant includes £1m to support projects such as son, a former government director of from others who had seen their markets Lyme Bay Fish Shack, has signed up. Call4Fish and help fishermen sell their Jon Ungoed-Thomas fisheries, and his friend Terri Portmann, vanish and wanted to join the initiative. Birt said: “We would normally be very catches in local communities. who saw the “economic tsunami” facing Grimsby has one of the biggest fish mar- busy selling to hotels and restaurants, so The changes are a welcome boost for What do you do with a boatful of fish the industry. They hit on the idea of a kets in the country, but it has shut we have had to diversify and offer a deliv- Alistair Blair, an Oxford graduate from when restaurants shut, exports collapse community venture, Call4Fish.com, to because of the collapse in demand. ery business service to homes. We will be Grimsby who pioneered a national home and supermarkets close their fresh fish promote catches landed in Plymouth. Plaice, lemon sole, turbot, brill, hake rolling out national deliveries.” delivery service 25 years ago, sending out counters? The most perishable of foods Plymouth city council and Plymouth and mackerel are among the fish that can Tudor Evans, leader of Plymouth fish that is frozen the day after it lands. needed an inventive answer: sea to fork. Trawler Agents, a fish auctioneer, agreed be ordered for next-day delivery. council, appears in cooking videos His company, The Fish Society, has When Jordan Kay, one of Britain’s to support the project. Seafarers UK, a Sound Seafood, a family-owned busi- encouraging people to buy fish from the quadrupled its orders and he has more youngest fishing skippers, and his crew marine community charity, and the Fish- ness in Plymouth that operates 10 fishing new website. He said: “It’s a fantastic than doubled his staff. “I’ve only been arrive in Plymouth harbour today, they mongers’ Company, one of the oldest liv- vessels including the Admiral Blake, has resource. It’s been a thrill to work on it.” waiting 25 years,” said Blair, 65. “Our will use home delivery to sell some of ery companies of the City of London, set up a home-delivery website on the Barrie Deas, chief executive of the business has exploded.” Sam Birt, 16, and father Nigel have their trawler’s icy catch. helped with funding. new “quay to kerb” Call4Fish venture. National Federation of Fishermen’s Orga- JonUngoedThomas signed up to the new venture

DAVID YARROW Snap up this photo to show NHS pride

Shingi Mararike In a world now obsessed by social distancing, David Yarrow remembers being about as close as you can be to another creature when he took this photograph in South Africa. For him the lioness symbolises the “strength, focus, resolve and fearlessness” of hospital staff. “I don’t think the British people have ever been more proud of an institution than they are right now of the NHS,” said Yarrow, 54. “They are the heroes not just of my generation, but of every generation that is living through this pandemic. I hope that this image can become symbolic of our affection and respect for the British institution.” Prints of the lioness picture go on sale on Thursday for £500. An NHS staff member will be given one for each that is bought. People can buy a digital copy for £10. All proceeds from the sale will be donated to Heroes, a charity founded last month by doctors and nurses on the front line fighting the pandemic. One of the charity’s ambassadors, the former England and Chelsea footballer Joe Cole, said: “We’ve all had a realisation of how fragile our lives are and we all need to work together.” @ShingiMararike

To buy a print, go to David Yarrow is selling prints of his picture of a lioness on the prowl to raise money for the NHS. The £500 raised from each sale will go to Heroes, a charity founded last month by doctors and nurses artforheroes.co.uk

Stop press — local papers face axe just as readers need them most

Martin Fletcher communities they serve has they received a quarter of all “It’s a perfect storm,” says helping small businesses, News, urged its readers to never been greater, and most British advertising Douglas McCabe, a raising funds and lifting show solidarity by singing Three days before lockdown have risen admirably to the expenditure. Today they publishing expert with spirits. Oliver Dowden, the Portsmouth football club’s began 80 local newspapers challenge. But the crisis could receive scarcely 2.5%, the rest Enders Analysis. He believes culture secretary, says they anthem, The Pompey across Britain ran identical well destroy them. having migrated to websites most free papers will close for are playing “a vital role in Chimes, at 3pm one Saturday. front pages on March 20. With the closing of local such as Google, Facebook, good because they depend helping co-ordinate Many of the Tindle group’s “When you’re on your own, businesses, the lockdown has Rightmove and AutoTrader. wholly on advertising, and volunteering and 200 titles printed Helping we are there for you”, the slashed the advertising that Since the lockdown began, some paid-fors will suffer the neighbourhood efforts to Hand forms for readers to headline proclaimed. The generates three-quarters of hundreds of newspaper same fate. look after the vulnerable”. list their contact details and text stated: “Britain’s local their revenues by as much as employees have been Local newspapers face this The Sheffield Star give to vulnerable press has never been more 80%. Their print circulations furloughed and about 50 existential threat just as they persuaded the JD neighbours. important than it is now.” It have dropped by 20%-30% newspapers have been forced are proving their value to Wetherspoon pub chain to Henry Faure Walker, chief was a noble sentiment, but because so many newsagents to suspend publication. communities that are coming rescind fines imposed on executive of Newsquest, says raised a question: how long have shut and people must Northern Ireland’s 116-year- together as seldom before. Royal Hallamshire Hospital his 165 titles have seen online will those papers be there for stay indoors. old County Down Spectator They are publishing guidance staff who parked in a closed traffic jump 80% this month. you? Insiders expect the lamented: “Through huge from councils, highlighting pub’s car park. The Liverpool “In this crisis people feel the The coronavirus crisis is industry’s revenues to halve cataclysmic events such as services, locating the Echo urged readers to give need to turn to trusted news the biggest story that most of this year, and it was two world wars, the Spanish vulnerable, promoting good money they would have bet sources more than ever, and the country’s 1,000-odd local struggling even before the flu and the bombings of the works, paying tribute to the on the cancelled Grand we employ trained, and regional papers have crisis began. Sales of Troubles the paper has never dead, identifying shortages of National to community professional journalists who covered. Their value to the newspapers have halved in a missed an edition — until crucial equipment in organisations. kick the tyres of news and besieged and bewildered decade. Twenty years ago now.” hospitals and care homes, Portsmouth’s paper, The fake news.”

Llamas, ferrets and hamsters are called up in hunt for vaccine

JESSE KRAFT Tony Allen-Mills An accidental discovery in effectively than previously responded very similarly to a Brussels university achieved. humans. The study Researchers have tried laboratory in 1989 tipped off Labs and drug producers concluded that ferrets would laboratory mice and rats, but researchers to the unusual tend to use llamas because be “a useful tool to evaluate these are desperate times in properties of antibodies they are more easily managed the efficacy of [antiviral the hunt for treatments for found in the blood of camels, than camels. Reading treatments] and preventive the new coronavirus. Now it’s llamas and alpacas, all Llamas University last year invited vaccines”. the turn of the laboratory members of the camelid the public to choose between The same may be true of llama. family. are Boris and Jeremy for the Syrian hamsters, whose A new Belgian study Originally used in HIV name of its new baby responses to infection by the reports that antibodies research, the antibodies have easier to research llama; 69% of voters coronavirus “closely obtained from llama blood since proved effective in chose Jeremy. resemble the manifestations can help to neutralise combating a wide range of manage There was further good of upper and lower the virus responsible for viruses, including recent news from the animal world respiratory tract infection in Covid-19. outbreaks of Middle East than in a South Korean-led study of humans”, according to “These molecules may respiratory syndrome (Mers) the new coronavirus’s effect researchers from Hong Kong serve as useful therapeutics and severe acute respiratory camels on ferrets. The domestic or University. during coronavirus syndrome (Sars). European ferret (Mustela Science magazine reported outbreaks,” claimed a report The camelid antibodies are putorius furo) has long been that eight hamsters infected by Belgian and American much smaller than human used in biomedical research, with the virus lost weight, researchers based at the antibodies, opening the door particularly in the study of became lethargic and Vlaams Institute for to what has become known as human flu. developed ruffled fur, Biotechnology in Ghent. nanobody technology, the Antibodies from The South Korean study hunched postures and “The feasibility of using use of tiny molecules to llamas’ blood were published in the journal Cell rapid breathing. High levels [llama antibodies] . . . merits deliver drugs that can target used in HIV Host & Microbe reported that of the virus were found in further investigation.” microscopic viruses more research ferrets infected with Covid-19 their lungs. 14 The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 NEWSCORONAVIRUS CRISIS PM’s stark choice — should he risk killing the economy or thousands of people?

With Boris Johnson away convalescing, cabinet colleagues and rivals realise they are ‘actually quite glad they are not the prime minister’

think we should suppress the virus com- for primary school pupils to return first.” led by Sunak, Gavin Williamson, the edu- tries that came out of lockdown sooner TIM SHIPMAN AND pletely and those who think we should Children in years 10 and 12, who are due cation secretary, Alok Sharma, the busi- not only lost more lives but their econo- run things quite hot, use the spare capa- to sit GCSEs and A-levels next year, are ness secretary and Liz Truss, the inter- mies took a bigger hit too,” one source CAROLINE WHEELER city in the NHS and aim to keep the R likely to take those exams two months national trade secretary — backed up Sir said. Fears of a second wave of the virus number just below one,” one official said. later than usual, in July and August 2021, Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary. are shared by Chris Whitty, the govern- Another senior insider said: “You have to help them make up for lost time. The sum of their fears was contained ment’s chief medical officer. to be clear. Running hot means more peo- No decision has been made but May 11 in a briefing document for ministers A cabinet source said: “The problem ple are likely to die. That’s the decision is the preferred option to reopen schools. which warned that 60% of businesses do with running hot is that there is a delay of the prime minister will have to take.” If Johnson decides on a delay, they might not have cash reserves of more than three several weeks between taking action and A cabinet source added: “People are open up during the July and August months and “significant problems” in the seeing the results. We want to avoid a realising they are actually quite glad they summer holidays supply chains of consumer goods would situation where you relax the rules and are not prime minister — and most of Phase one will also see a full return to put many out of business. then have to tighten them again.” them never thought they would say that.” parliament, rather than the virtual One in three fashion businesses are The hawks are irritated with Hancock s he walked his dog, Dilyn, Johnson’s colleagues are seeking to debates due to take place this week. not expected to survive a month. The car for failing to get the virus testing regime around the grounds of have options in place for his return, with “Non-essential retail will also reopen as industry faces “cash-flow issues” and air- anywhere near the 100,000-a-day figure Chequers last week, Boris John- No 10 adopting a “battle rhythm” to long as you socially distance,” a senior lines will run out of money “within a mat- he has promised by the end of the month. son could have been forgiven prepare. Dominic Raab, Johnson’s desig- Tory said. This means the reopening of ter of weeks”. Hospitality, tourism and “When we come to ease the lockdown we for wondering if school- nated deputy, chairs the daily 9.15am DIY stores such as Homebase and Ikea, sports and events-based industries are need options,” one said. “All of them children still learn the biblical meeting of the Covid-19 “war cabinet”. garden centres and service sector outlets also vulnerable, while six out of 10 local require mass testing and if that’s not Astory about the wisdom of A deeper policy meeting on a single such as opticians and hairdressers. newspapers are expected to go under. working we can’t make those decisions.” Solomon or the harsh realities specific area follows with a smaller group George Eustice, the environment sec- One source familiar with the projec- Without data on the precise effects of of Hobson’s choice — the classic dilem- of ministers and officials. Last week’s retary, proposed cutting the minimum tions said: “If we don’t start lifting the lockdown, no decisions can be made. But mas for those facing difficult decisions. issues included care homes, the econ- wage for agricultural sector employees, lockdown in the next few weeks there everyone agrees the decision cannot be Ministers say reopening schools has omy and the procurement of personal who will also return in the first phase, but won’t be anything left to come back to.” delegated to scientists. A Tory source become the symbolic first step in a grad- protective equipment. this is not supported by others. Another described the threat as “the end said: “The danger is we become like ual lifting of the coronavirus lockdown: a The existence can now be revealed of a Another key component is to return to of civilisation”. [Tony] Blair when he handed power to decision that only Johnson can make “quad” who have formed an inner war full rail and bus services. “You can’t get the intelligence services over Iraq. when he returns from his convalescence. cabinet, like the one that ran the coalition people back to work unless the trains and ancock has been vocal in meetings Medical science is critical to informed The Department for Education is government under David Cameron. At buses are operating,” a source said. This that the priority has to be ensuring decision making but can’t replace working on the basis that some pupils will 6pm Raab has talks with Michael Gove, will mean difficult talks with the trans- the NHS does not collapse. Gove political judgment.” return to school Monday, May 11, which the Cabinet Office minister, Rishi Sunak, port unions, who want more protection Hbacked him up in cabinet last week Johnson became more engaged at the would clear the way for more parents to the chancellor, and Matt Hancock, the for their workers. Hand sanitiser will be to show a united front from the end of last week. Reports that he was go back to work. The question for John- health secretary. This “gang of four” was placed on buses, trains, trams and Tubes quad but told their meeting on Wednes- “sleeping a lot” and “still frail” were son is how far and fast to go. briefed on the virus and social distancing and drivers will get personal protective day that his position has changed. “I’ve capped by Raab telling cabinet ministers Debate in cabinet has been character- data by Sage, the government’s scientific equipment. “They’re worried about the come to the view that we need to run this on Thursday not to call the prime minis- ised as between those who want to save advisory group for emergencies. RMT [union] demanding concessions on hot”, Gove said. “I agree with Rishi.” ter so that he could rest. But by the end of lives and those who want to save the Raab told his colleagues at Thursday’s pay and pensions to get their people back Hancock replied: “I don’t agree.” the week Johnson was texting and economy. In fact it is more complicated. virtual cabinet meeting that it would be to work,” a source said. Gove’s change of heart could shift the phoning colleagues. Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s two weeks before the panel of experts In phase two, which might not take balance in favour of the hawks as Raab, “He’s been calling for a catch-up to chief scientific adviser, said on Thursday would have the data on which to base a place until July, low priority retailers who has remained neutral while he is check where things are,” a cabinet source that the virus reproduction rate, known decision. He has asked Gove to chair dis- such as bookshops would reopen and all deputising for Johnson, is also thought to said. “There has not been a load of back- as “R”, was “below one”, meaning each cussions of the long-term options. The adults would be urged to return to work. be instinctively hawkish. The more cau- seat driving.” victim infects on average less than one phrase “exit strategy” has been banned Last in the queue in phase two would be tious “suppress” approach has found It would have taken the prime minister other person, the key to overcoming the in Whitehall after one epidemiologist pubs, clubs and restaurants. some support in Downing Street, which only a few calls to realise his colleagues disease. pointed out that the only virus to have The third phase, ending “shielding” of sees that the lockdown retains the over- have left the driver’s seat vacant. On We don’t What Johnson and his scientific advis- been eradicated was smallpox. the elderly and most vulnerable from the whelming backing of the public. paper he faces Hobson’s choice, do what ers will have to calculate is how much The work Gove is co-ordinating puts virus will take longer — possibly until the At Tuesday’s 9.15am Covid-19 meeting the hawks want or nothing. In reality it want to relax they can ease the lockdown and “keep R schoolchildren in the vanguard of a autumn of next year. “The over-70s will Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s key aide, may be Sophie’s choice, where both under one”. The other key number is three-phase approach. Under the pro- have to stay at home until there’s a vac- used his first day back in the office after options are terrible to contemplate. the lockdown this: there were about 2,700 critical care posals, pupils will be taught in smaller cine,” a senior Tory said. time off with symptoms to raise the Span- Johnson will hope that he can find a beds empty in the NHS last week. classes of 15, rather than 30, to enable “The lockdown isn’t going to be lifted ish flu of 1918, which killed at least 50 mil- solution that approaches the judgment of rules, then Ministers who foresee economic disas- social distancing rules to be observed. geographically but there will be some dif- lion people worldwide and more than Solomon. ter if the lockdown continues believe the They would be taught for part of the week ferentiation by age group based on risk.” 200,000 in the UK. tighten NHS has a cushion that can be exploited. or every other week. A source familiar Insiders say the impetus to lift the lock- “He warned that he had been looking Editorial, page 24, “The debate is now between people who with the plans said: “The priority will be down is coming from a group of hawks, at papers on the Spanish flu that coun- Niall Ferguson, page 27, Business them again

Is it safe for children — and teachers — to go back to school?

been widely relaxed. Some Governments planning of 9,000 people deemed at with a catch. “Whether the valuable: a vaccine or want to talk about ... personal recommended for persons of TONY ALLEN-MILLS Mumsnet users have invented back-to-school orders will high risk of the virus, lower incidence of positive treatment targeting ACE2 protective equipment”. all ages”. games with old toys — such as need to consider some of the including some already results . . . resulted from less receptors might slow viral There is no simple answer German researchers have AND SIAN GRIFFITHS Playmobil Pandemic in which following questions. showing symptoms or who exposure to the virus or from entry into human cells. It may to whether age is a factor in found little evidence of child- toy figures must maintain had recently returned from biological resistance is not also help to explain why transmission of the virus. to-adult infection. Samples social distance to avoid arrest Should we treat children infected countries. Of these, known,” said the report in the children do not get sicker. Very few children have died taken from infected children by a plastic policeman. differently? 564 were aged under 10 and New England Journal of Researchers have from Covid-19, but in several have in some cases turned Others are worried that The overwhelming evidence 38 of them tested positive. Medicine. previously found that the countries a small minority out to be so weak that they children were becoming from numerous studies in The researchers also comparatively large surface needed hospitalisation. Some could not be grown into full restless and lethargic, barred China, America, Europe and recruited a second group of How are children staying area of the lung makes it had other serious medical virus cells in the laboratory. An informal poll on from playgrounds, cut off elsewhere is that children are 12,000 Icelanders chosen at healthy? highly susceptible to inhaled conditions and US reports Professor Johannes Mumsnet, the parenting from friends. There are also not as vulnerable to Covid-19 random, of whom 848 were It is hard to think of social or viruses. But they have begun have suggested that Hübner, an epidemiologist at website, suggested last week fears of increasing domestic as they have been to past under 10. No child tested environmental factors that to hypothesise that children’s childhood obesity is a Munich University, cited a that Britain is divided over a violence and child abuse. viruses. “Children are positive but the findings came would apply to children but smaller lungs may not complicating factor. German study that had found key element in any plan to Robert Halfon, Tory typically more susceptible to not adults. Researchers have provide the receptor-rich If children can get as sick traces of virus lasting for up begin easing the coronavirus chairman of the Commons influenza complications, yet suspected from the start that environment that enables the as adults, there appears to be to six weeks in children — lockdown. If primary schools education committee, is so far they have experienced the key piece of this virus coronavirus to spread. no reason why they should much longer than in most are among the first to reopen among those calling for all lower than expected rates of puzzle may lie not in the Professor Calum Semple, a not also be as infectious as adults. “It was never possible next month, parents were schools to be reopened as Covid-19 disease and deaths behaviour of the child but in paediatric specialist in adults. “Transmission is likely to find a replication-capable asked, would you be happy to soon as the scientific and in children appear to be the behaviour of the virus. respiratory infection at [to be] the same,” said the virus in the [stool samples] of send your DC (darling child) medical evidence allows. rare,” according to a study in They believe it invades Liverpool University, Jama study. one of these children,” he back to a crowded classroom? What kind of risk do the Journal of the American human cells through a speculated last month that A recent report by the US said. Of the 1,800 people who children present to each Medical specific receptor known as “children may be relatively Centres for Disease Control responded, 48% voted no, other and the adults who Association ( Jama) ACE2 (angiotensin-converting protected from Covid-19 due and Prevention concluded What are parents worried 52% yes. “We need to get back supervise them? this month. enzyme-2). In a healthy to underexpression of ACE2 that “social distancing and about? to normality,” one mother In China, data from person the enzyme is found [receptors] in their alveoli everyday preventive Although some are fearful argued. “Absolutely not,” 72,000 cases showed in the lung and other organ [key units of lung function]”. behaviours are about the prospect of leaving responded another. “Far too that only 0.9% involved tissues and helps to lower lockdown, for many parents soon, in my opinion.” children aged under 10, blood pressure, among other Will children infect their the immediate problem is Parents have encountered withw no deaths in that age functions. For those infected teachers? how to keep children busy. both pain and pleasure in the group.g In America, a study of with Covid-19, the ACE2 cells Not least among the concerns One Mumsnet user challenges of family life under the first 150,000 laboratory- found in the lungs may of teachers is the prospect of recommended a virtual visit lockdown. Many have risen confirmed Covid-19 cases for become what one report being stuck in small enclosed to the Louvre. But another, nobly to the task, drawing up whichw the age of the patient described as “a reservoir for classrooms with large groups who had clearly abandoned fun-filled routines featuring wasw known showed only 1.7% viral invasion” — helping to of children. If there was talk all hope, said: “Get them to baking, drawing, reading and occurred in those under 18. explain why the lungs are of schools being required to Should schools reopen for tidy their rooms.” learning new crafts. In a smaller study in proving so vulnerable in reopen, said Geoff Barton of the summer term? Restrictions on screen time Iceland, researchers critical cases. This finding, if the Association of School and Cast your vote at Spare our children anguish, for teenagers appear to have assembled a targeted group confirmed, might prove College Leaders, “we would sundaytimes. co.uk/poll News Review, page 28 The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 15 NEWS

LIFE AFTER LOCKDOWN

ILLUSTRATION: TONY BELL Swedes come up with a new take on safe shopping — no assistants

December she plans to who is in charge of five with security cameras and RETAIL expand from 14 shops to 80 premises, which reduces the attempts to access the shop across Sweden. staff and delivery costs are logged on a central “A lot of shops in the compared with other village computer. If any stock is LOUISE countryside have been closed stores. stolen, finding the down because they’re not The managers are also on perpetrator is not difficult. CALLAGHANHAN profitable and people have hand to help residents Two thieves in the southern moved to the city. But there understand the app, which is region of Skane were quickly are still people living in the now used by 16,000 people in found by local police. countryside and they need Sweden, many of them Such incidents are rare, Ulleaker, Sweden services. It’s become even elderly. Garcia says that most however. “Our shops are in more important during customers quickly learn how small places where everyone corona,” she said. to use it. knows everyone,” said In a hamlet a few miles from Since the pandemic began “For those in risk groups it Garcia, who comes from a the medieval Swedish town of the company has been is often much more village in Sweden’s north, not Uppsala, the local shop, Lifvs, contacted by Swedish trade convenient and safer to come far from the Ice Hotel in sits among fir forests and authorities in Italy inquiring here than to a big Kiruna. “We see very little open fields. Inside are neat about the possibility of supermarket that they might theft.” shelves stacked with expanding abroad. The Lifvs have to use public transport One customer compared avocados, oat milk, chicken shops are restocked and to reach,” she said. the system to the old Swedish breasts and pickled herring. cleaned daily by a manager All the shops are equipped shops in the countryside, There is no shopkeeper. which often had an honesty Instead, locals in this bucolic box where customers would hideaway download a mobile leave money for eggs or milk. app that opens the shop door But in the past 20 years and allows them to scan thousands of local shops have products, paying for them closed down. Garcia hopes online. the Lifvs stores will go some The shop is open 24 hours way towards replacing them a day, seven days a week. and also provide a meeting Initially designed to provide a place in remote communities. retail option for people living “It’s very convenient,” said in remote areas, the 14 Lifvs Faisal bin Taher, 41, as he shops across Sweden have, as used his phone to open the the coronavirus spreads door of a Lifvs near Uppsala. through the country, become The Bangladeshi engineer, a lifeline for older people who who works nearby, said he want to stock up while staying used the shop for small socially distant. purchases. “There’s no “We want people to be able corona here,” he said. to buy breakfast, lunch and “You don’t have to be dinner from here,” said Bea around so many other Garcia, 45, who co-founded people. That’s very good.” Lifvs three years ago. By A woman shopping at an unmanned store near Uppsala @LouiseElisabet Fares to soar as airlines lose middle seats

will reduce maximum load they could rise by as much as thousands of British travellers TRAVEL factors to 66%. 50%. Cathay Pacific has involved in increasingly bitter John Grant, from aviation returns to Sydney from £684 disputes with airlines, tour Chris Haslam analysts OAG, said: “Such a next January. Flights to operators and agents over significant cut in capacity per Malaga in September start at recompense for this year’s Air fares could rise by 50% flight will certainly lead to an £52 with BA and United flies ruined breaks. when the lockdown is lifted increase in average fares as to LA in October from £372, Under the package travel as airlines adjust to a world in demand picks up. The and the advice from the trade regulations (PTRs), which fewer passengers can operating economics of the is to book now. customers are entitled to be squeezed onto planes. airline industry are wafer thin But who will? Not the their money back within 14 Last week, carriers at the best of times so transport secretary, Grant days if their trip is cancelled. including easyJet, Wizz, Delta removing 30% of available Shapps, who told Radio 4’s With cash flows severed, and and American announced capacity will have an Today programme on Friday unable to recoup funds paid that they would ensure social inevitable consequence.” that he would not be booking to overseas suppliers, some distancing by removing Currently, airfares are low a summer holiday, and firms have defied the law by middle seats from sale, a but one industry source says probably not the tens of delaying or even refusing process known as reimbursements and offering “dedensification”. For so-called refund credit notes. easyJet, it means the number These allow travellers to of passengers who can be EATING OUT WORK rebook a holiday at a future THE FIVE squeezed onto an A320-200s date or receive a government- will be cut from 180 to 120. guaranteed cash refund at the TESTS THAT 152 34 The loss of the dreaded l When restaurants open, l The working week may expiry date of the note. middle seat has a cost they may have to operate at be staggered to avoid a The Association of British COULD END l Ensuring that l A sustained and l A drop in the l Ensuring l No risk of a attached because the era of half capacity to avoid crush on public transport. Travel Agents (Abta) argues LOCKDOWN the NHS could consistent fall in infection rate to demand for tests second viral wave cheap flights, enjoyed for the people sitting too close Many people will continue that PTRs were not written cope nationwide. the daily death “manageable and protective that might swamp past 25 years, is only possible together, with waiters to work from home on most for the current crisis, but the Dominic Raab set A drive to rate. levels”. equipment could the NHS. because of the high density wearing face masks. Bar days, and to travel to the business secretary, Alok out the conditions increase hospital If the lockdown Another three be met. Any return of passenger loads on planes. staff could have to work office only for key Sharma, has ignored pleas for that must be met capacity has is working, a fall weeks of Ministers have the virus this Competitive fares offer behind Perspex screens. meetings. their modification. The for restrictions to resulted in should be visible lockdown should been criticised winter may be slender margins, and profit consequence, says Abta, is be lifted thousands of soon. But data produce the about the accompanied by a depends on volume. l Rather than be served l Workplace canteens agents and operators going spare beds. But from other desired fall in provision of both. heavy load of In order to break even, food, customers could be could operate a system of bust and “significant long- the government is countries rates; if not, It may take more seasonal flu cases. low-cost carriers need to sell asked to queue to place sittings, to even out term damage to the UK travel still behind on its suggests rates fall something has than three weeks The risk to the between 75% and 80% of orders and then pick up demand and prevent industry”. target of 18,000 more slowly than gone badly to resolve supply NHS is unlikely to seats on any flight, but their meals from a counter. overcrowding. Knives out in refund battle, ventilators. they rise. wrong. problems. recede. removing the middle seats Travel, Home, page 13

SUN, SEA AND SOCIAL DISTANCING France plans a different path back to normality

the social divide between surprise at the government’s drink a coffee in a cafe with a Europe has not allowed dwindling chances of being EUROPE households with ample “reckless” decision. “We friend afterwards.” children to leave home at all able to stretch their towels space, laptops and a good know schools are places France is following the since it began its lockdown on out across the sunloungers of Peter Conradi broadband connection and where the virus spreads example of Denmark, which March 14: public pressure for Italy, Spain or Turkey this Europe Editor those without. easily,” she said. “It is difficult on Wednesday began a relaxation of the rules is summer. Markus Söder, the It was such considerations to see how we will leave this reopening primary schools. growing after Ada Colau, the Bavarian leader, suggested Schools or shops? And what that were reportedly behind epidemic behind us if we Despite some concerns mayor of Barcelona and they try some of Germany’s about cafes, restaurants or the decision by the French open the schools.” among parents, it appears to mother of a three and a nine- “wonderful destinations” hairdressers? Which to president, Emmanuel Such concerns were have gone well, with classes year-old, posted an appeal to instead. The chilly waters of reopen first is a question that Macron, to make the echoed by Vanessa half the usual size and as the government on the North Sea await. is dividing Europe’s reopening of schools a key Lejzerowicz, who teaches many lessons as possible held Facebook, declaring: “Wait Such Teutonic certainty is governments as they prepare element in the relaxation French at a lycée in Suresnes, outside to minimise infection. no more. Free our children.” in sharp contrast to Italy, the 1.5m (5ft) to relax their coronavirus from May 11 of France’s tough on the outskirts of Paris. “I’m The Danish government, Restarting commerce has first and still hardest hit of The Perspex 2m lockdowns. confinement regime. very opposed to restarting on one of the first in Europe to been the priority for European countries by the 4.5m (15ft) box — open The varying approaches Non-food shops will May 11 because they cannot impose a lockdown, is so Germany. It is following the virus. The government is at the top — will taken — and their success at remain closed, as will bars, guarantee health pleased at how the spread of example of neighbouring considering what relaxation allow holiday-makers preventing a feared second cafes and restaurants, which requirements for the children the virus is slowing that it will Austria, which since last of the rules to allow during to enjoy time on the beach wave of infection — are are unlikely to open before or the teachers,” she said. allow beauty salons, Tuesday has allowed small the second phase of the without fear of catching Covid-19 presenting the UK with rival mid-July. Like many of her hairdressers and even tattoo non-food shops, garden lockdown, which is due to role models as it struggles to The decision, announced colleagues, she said she may parlours to open tomorrow. centres and DIY shops to start begin on May 4. Schools will Italian beach-goers could operators and restaurants.” choose its own path back to a in a broadcast on Monday refuse to return to work “No one wants to keep operating again. not open until September at find their sun lounger and The company, based near form of normality. watched by a record 36.7 unless the problems have Denmark closed a day more Guidelines agreed by the the earliest. ombrellone surrounded by Modena in northern Italy, is With the Easter holidays million people — more than been resolved. than is absolutely necessary,” German chancellor, Angela The plethora of different a plexiglass box this also hoping to supply cafes now over across most of the half of France’s population — Another, Isabelle, who wrote Mette Frederiksen, the Merkel, together with the national rules has largely summer. The boxes would and restaurants with Continent, how soon to allow followed the president’s visit teaches 10 to 15-year-olds in prime minister, on Facebook. leaders of the country’s 16 sidelined the European be large enough for a screens to separate diners. pupils back into the a few days earlier to Seine- the northwest of the capital, “But we mustn’t go ahead states, will see similar rules — Commission, which has family, at 15ft (4.5m) long About 25 million fewer classrooms is a pressing Saint-Denis, a poor region of would prefer to resume in faster than we are able to although, in a nod to the merely looked on as member and 6.6ft (2m) high. They foreigners than usual are concern for policy makers. blocks of council flats September. “I’m very anxious keep the epidemic under powerful German motor states have sealed off borders have been devised by an expected to visit Italy from Restart lessons too soon and northeast of Paris, where the for myself and my family,” control.” industry, car dealers will be from one another. Italian company that makes July to September. they could not only spread lockdown is hitting especially she said. Norway’s kindergartens allowed to restart, too. The main focus instead has screens for banks. Whether or not the boxes the virus among themselves hard, particularly among “The corridors in my will open tomorrow and While schools will reopen been the battle between “We can make any size or catch on in Italy, they could but also take it home to families with small children school are only two metres some primary schools a week from May 4, it will initially be wealthy northern countries shape,” Claudio Ferrari, prove ideal for British parents and grandparents. crowded into tiny flats. wide. How can the children later. In Sweden, which has only for a minority of pupils — such as Germany and Holland head of Nuova Neon Group beaches, providing Keep the schools closed The wisdom of the practise social distancing?” drawn world attention by those in the highest class of over how much they will have 2, told La Repubblica protection not only from too long, however, and it will decision was questioned by She also questions the pursuing a much lighter primary and secondary to dip into their pockets to newspaper. ”And we have Covid-19 but also from cold slow the economic recovery doctors, while Francette order in which the lockdown lockdown, primary schools school who have exams this help the poorer southern already received several north winds. by making it more difficult for Popineau, co-general is being relaxed. “They’re did not close at all. summer. states, which have also been inquiries from beach @Peter_Conradi parents to work. secretary of a leading telling us to go and teach This is a dramatic contrast Many Germans seem more hit even harder by the virus. It also risks accentuating teachers’ union, expressed lessons but we can’t go and to Spain, which alone in preoccupied by their @Peter_Conradi 16 The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 NEWS

IN A BIT OF A FLAP

Bookies lure back ex-addicts MALCOLM PARK

Betting firms are targeting Some have relapsed, adding to their debt could afford the sums they were betting In another case, Ben Jones, from Not- problems. and the source of their funds. His organi- tingham, was jailed in 2019 for stealing former gamblers stuck at Claire Murdoch, NHS national mental sation used subject access requests more than £370,000 from his employer, health director, said: “As head of under data protection laws to obtain a cake-decorating company. He was home and doing little to England’s mental health services and a industry documents detailing thousands stealing £30,000 a month, but Betway check where the money nurse of 37 years, I am not easily shocked. of betting transactions. failed to stop the transactions and one of But reports of firms deliberately targeting Antonio Parente, 40, a former Dubai its “VIP managers” offered Jones cash they spend comes from ex-punters who have beaten their property investor who lives in Sussex, bonuses. Betway was fined £11.6m by the demons and attempting to exploit them lost about £3m in a two-year spree from Gambling Commission last month for again during the coronavirus is below the 2014 with Ladbrokes, Paddy Power and failings linked to VIP customers. Andrew Gregory Health Editor belt — even for an industry whose moral William Hill, conducted online and in Gamvisory says: “We have seen a and Jon Ungoed-Thomas compass is so consistently off.” London betting shops. He admits some of wealth of evidence from gamblers that Gamblers Anonymous said addicts the money was stolen from business have committed crime, showing they The betting industry was under attack on had received “emails from companies associates in Dubai, but says he was never have been able to pump hundreds of two fronts last night as the country’s top trying to lure them back, with offers of challenged about its source. thousands of pounds and sometimes mental health official accused it of using free bets”. Murdoch said: “These tactics Parente, who was a “VIP customer”, several millions of pounds into gambling “predatory” tactics to lure back former are shameless. They are predatory and said: “I was spending tens of thousands of accounts. All signs of harm were ignored.” gamblers and a report accused book- need to stop.” pounds in betting shops in cash and no The Betting and Gaming Council makers of failing to combat a crime wave A report by Alex Macey, a reformed questions were being asked. Some of it promised new checks “to ensure that as customers steal to bet. gambling addict and former police was my money and some of it was stolen. people are betting within their means”. With betting shops closed, book- detective, said betting companies failed No proper checks were done.” He says Ladbrokes said any stolen money gam- makers have flooded social media with to check suspicious transactions. Macey, Ladbrokes gave him free “bonuses” to bled by Parente had been “fully divested” promotions offering welcome bonuses who chairs the Gamvisory Group, which carry on betting; corporate hospitality, and its procedures had been improved. worth hundreds of pounds. campaigns for more transparency in the including an invitation to Royal Ascot, Betway said it had settled with Jones’s The Betting and Gaming Council, industry, said: “Some gamblers are turn- and business-class flights. victim and had tightened controls. which represents 90% of the non-lottery ing to crime to fund their bets and are Parente has not faced criminal action The Gambling Commission said: “We industry, insists that steps are taken to getting away with it over long periods because his victims were in Dubai and have imposed licence conditions that ensure members do not exploit vul- because there are not proper checks.” have not pursued charges. In 2018, Lad- make it mandatory for operators to pre- nerable people trapped at home. But Macey, 38, a former police officer with brokes agreed to pay £975,000 to them in vent money-laundering. We also expect health professionals, addiction special- the Kent and Dorset forces who lost return for a pledge not to “bring any operators to check that a customer’s ists and MPs said people who had kicked £250,000 to gambling addiction, said his report or make any report to any regula- gambling is affordable. We have been their habit were struggling to cope with organisation had uncovered systemic tor”. The money Parente spent at Paddy taking increasingly tough action where Ring-necked parakeets fighting over a feeder in a London garden yesterday adverts, texts and emails targeting them. failings in checking whether gamblers Power is subject to legal proceedings. we find failings.”

Crowdfunding site tells anti-5G mob: Go fund yourselves

Shanti Das and Tom Calver identify campaigns relating to misinformation on 5G”. Conspiracy theorists who The spread of conspiracy claim that 5G is linked to the theories has had serious coronavirus have been consequences. After calls for banned from raising money concerned citizens to protest on GoFundMe. against 5G infrastructure The crowdfunding website went viral, phone masts had previously approved a across the country were string of appeals pushing the destroyed, including one idea that Covid-19 is caused, serving the NHS Nightingale or made worse, by the new Hospital in Birmingham. generation of wireless Nick Jeffery, chief technology. executive of Vodafone UK, One campaign, which was said 20 masts had been seeking to raise £8,000 to attacked. “advocate for truth”, claimed “It’s heart-rending that that 5G “was literally set into families cannot be there at motion not a week prior to the bedside of loved ones,” he the pandemic” and was said. “The small solace of a therefore to blame. phone or video call may now Another wanted £50,000 be denied them.” to fund a protest “before we Brendan Wren, a professor lose any more people to this of infectious diseases at the 5G poisoning”. It stated that London School of Hygiene “lockdown was performed and Tropical Medicine, has globally” to allow engineers described any link between to install more 5G masts. 5G and the coronavirus as a “If you don’t stand up you “biological impossibility”. will forever be sick,” said a Last week Professor third campaign, which urged Stephen Powis, medical people to “take down the 5g director of NHS England, said towers” and boycott the theories linking 5G to the technology. spread of Covid-19 were the The notion of a connection “worst kind of fake news”. has been circulated widely on They were described as social media and shared by “absolute nonsense” by the celebrities. office of Boris Johnson. “We Last week Ofcom said it have been working with was investigating 419 social media companies to complaints against the make sure these entire bogus television presenter Eamonn claims are not circulated,” Holmes after he appeared to said a spokesman for the suggest that people should prime minister. not dismiss a link between GoFundMe’s terms of use the pandemic and 5G. He has already supposedly prohibit since said his comments were attempts to raise funds that misinterpreted and that there are “misleading, inaccurate was “no scientific evidence” [or] dishonest”. to substantiate the theories. The company, which is GoFundMe deleted the based in California, said: “All campaigns last week after campaigns remain under being contacted by this continuous review by our newspaper. The website trust and safety team and are added that it was “stepping actioned accordingly.” up efforts even further to @Shanti_Das

Pregnancy left film star Drew shoeless

Grant Tucker Entertainment Correspondent For the actress Drew Barrymore, it was not just her belly that grew during pregnancy. Her feet also went up three shoe sizes — a blow to a woman who had a prized collection of designer shoes that no longer fitted. Barrymore, 45, who is best known for playing Gertie in the sci-fi film ET when she was seven, writes in today’s Style magazine: “I’ve had to give up my old shoe-loving Carrie Bradshaw days [a reference to the shoe- obsessed character in the TV show Sex and the City]. “After I gave birth to my daughter, my feet grew three shoe sizes.” Barrymore, whose daughter Olive is seven, thinks fashion is going to change after the lockdown ends. “I think we’ll want to peacock and dress up. We will come out in full energy and more appreciative,” she said. Drew Barrymore, pregnant @GrantTucker with daughter Olive, in 2014 The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 17 NEWS

ENDA BOWE Slip of the Veterans false arm caused left in need air crash Mark Branagan A doctor crashed his plane after his artificial arm detached from a DIY gadget as MoD cuts that he was using to pilot the aircraft, an investigation has found. The left-forearm amputee escaped injury as the aircraft’s nose buried itself in helpline the runway on touchdown. Investigators from the Air Accidents Investigations Branch (AAIB) said the pilot, “Closing the Veterans UK helpline and who met the requirements The support service has asking older veterans who could be in for medical fitness to fly, was had to send welfare staff their eighties or nineties to send an using a homemade tube email instead is not good enough. attachment he called a home and is telling those Ministers should make it a priority to “prosthetic adapter” to with emotional problems safely restart this service for those who connect his false limb to the need it,” he said. controls of his two-seat to call the Samaritans The Royal British Legion, a charity that French monoplane. gives financial, social and emotional sup- It worked successfully Tim Ripley port to veterans and their families, said while he was circling Full its helpline remained open to provide Sutton Airfield, near York, In the month that 99-year-old Captain “critical support to anyone within our but then came loose from the Tom Moore raised more than £20m for community facing hardship during these steering column. the NHS, the Ministry of Defence has cut unprecedented times”. A report said that “the back support for veterans like him just A Legion spokeswoman noted: “The landing gear dug into the when it is most needed. The measures temporary closure of elements of Veter- ground and folded back include shutting a telephone helpline for ans UK may result in some veterans or under the wings” as the nose thousands of veterans, many of them their families struggling to access infor- “pitched down further”, vulnerable. mation or support they’re looking for.” Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones star in the screen version of Normal People, which has sold nearly 500,000 copies in the UK damaging the engine, landing On the website of its Veterans UK sup- Veterans UK said: “Supporting veter- gear and propeller. port service, the ministry says it has sent ans has never been more important and It concluded: “The heavy pensions and welfare staff to work from like many organisations we have needed landing occurred because, home because of Covid-19 and advises to adapt the way we deliver our services Sally Rooney romance may be last new TV when the prosthetic adapter veterans who need “urgent emotional in these difficult times. detached from the control support” to phone the Samaritans. “We have updated our helpline to Grant Tucker nearly 500,000 copies in the ‘Hmm, that sounds good.’ Life, a new drama series column, the pilot was unable Officials admit that more than 2,000 include a recorded guidance service for Entertainment Correspondent UK, follows the complicated Then I got the book and I just about a group of flat-dwellers to regain control of the veterans have been forced to email for veterans so they can access the right relationship between fell in love with it,” Edgar- in Manchester, concluded aircraft before it hit the help instead of calling the MoD. They advice. We have temporarily asked those One of the most keenly Marianne and Connell, Jones said. filming earlier this year but ground.” have also stopped processing new appli- needing specific support to email us. Our awaited TV adaptations of the who start a secret Filming for Normal will not be ready for After the crash in April cations for war pensions, war widow advisers will call them back that same day year begins next week — and relationship as awkward People took place in Dublin, broadcast until after the 2019, the pilot, 69, added a pensions and compensation, and appeals if urgent help is needed.” it could be the last new TV teenagers before they both Sligo, Italy and Sweden, and lockdown ends. The BBC will Velcro strip to make the have been postponed. A source at the Ministry of Defence drama for a long time. go off to study at Trinity the series was wrapped up also be adapting Rooney’s contraption more secure, the The changes emerged as Moore, who said: “Every effort is being made to make As lockdowns cause chaos College Dublin. before Christmas, but post- debut novel, Conversations AAIB said. His 1958 Jodel started 100 laps of his garden on April 6 to sure these changes are as temporary as for executives round the Connell is played by a production was not finished with Friends. D117A aircraft was 61 years old try to raise £1,000 for NHS Charities possible and we aim to get it back up and world, the BBC’s adaptation TV newcomer, Paul until just before the lockdown For those who prefer to at the time of his flight. Together, found he had become a running as quickly as possible. Some of Normal People, a romantic Mescal, 24, while Daisy was announced. binge-watch — or who cannot The pilot has not been national hero. 2,700 veterans have made use of the bestseller by the Irish novelist Edgar-Jones, 21, who has The BBC has been forced find anything else to do — the named, but had worked as a Improving help for Britain’s 2.5 million email and callback service since the start Sally Rooney, 29, managed to starred in Gentleman to halt filming on a long list whole series of Normal People doctor specialising in veterans, nearly half of whom are over of the pandemic.” get to the finishing line just in Jack and Cold Feet, plays of dramas — including Line of will become available on prosthetic limbs and had held 70, was prominent in the Conservative Processing war pension and war time. The 12-part series will Marianne. She decided Duty, Peaky Blinders and Call iPlayer next Sunday. a flying licence for almost election manifesto last December. widow pension applications was difficult begin on BBC 1 on April 27 at to go for the role after the Midwife — but a third @GrantTucker nine years. The Civil Aviation John Healey, the shadow defence sec- because many Second World War records 9pm, with the aim of seeing a friend rehearsing series of The A Word will Authority has now ordered retary, criticised the reduction in servi- are held on paper in archives and could cheering up Monday nights for an audition for the start on BBC1 on May 5. You have been watching . . . extra checks for pilots ces, arguing that veterans “will need not be accessed by staff working from for the next few weeks. part at her kitchen and you will for some time, with musculoskeletal extra support”. home, the source added. The novel, which has sold table. “I thought: Rooney: hit novelist Business disabilities. 5 Arian Baptistry 6 Gothic sculpture, Chartres Cathedral Created for the Ostrogoth king The statues of Old Testament queens and kings in Theodoric the Great, the Arian the Royal Portal at Chartres Cathedral are among Baptistry in Ravenna has some of the the most celebrated early gothic sculptures. most compelling mosaics of the early Integrated perfectly into the architecture, tall and medieval period. Arian Christianity columnal, they are filled with precise details and differed from the Roman variety in its beautifully observed hints of human expression. understanding of Jesus. The beardless Christ being baptised has a notably feminine body. 7 Rogier van der Weyden Legend has it that in Descent from the Cross, now in 2 Cueva de las Manos the Prado, van der Weyden showed off his skill with Art was never a hobby. It was oils by depicting 100 types of tear! In the painting, always a necessity. To make commissioned by the Guild of Crossbowmen, the cave paintings, prehistoric pose of Jesus is based on the shape of a crossbow. societies would trek deep underground in conditions of real danger, armed only with unreliable torches. Leaving these marks on the cave wall must have been a matter of life or death: a crucial communication with the world beyond.

3 Prince Rahotep and his wife Nofret Although Egyptian art is renowned for its colossal scale, it was also capable of surprising intimacy. This superbly detailed portrayal of a princely couple from the Old Kingdom is one of the earliest depictions in art of recognisable human presences — faces from the past, brought back to life. 3

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4 Vatican cAD70 Vatican Column Trajan’s AD113 Rome Sea Creatures mosaic cAD100 Pompeii portraits mummy Fayum Egypt AD100–300 Roman Bible The Silver c520 Uppsala, Sweden Arian Baptistry 30,000BC 30,000BC Aboriginal art, Gabarnmung 26,000BC Australia Paintings Lascaux Cave 17,000BC de las Manos Cueva c13,000BC Argentina n’Ajjer art, Tassili Rock Algeria 12,000–5,000BC art, Matopos Hills Rock 10,000–500BC Zimbabwe Nofret Prince Rahotep and his wife Egypt 2,500BC of Ramses II Great Temple Egypt 1,274BC–1,244BC Fresco Three Women Knossos c2,000BC reliefs Assyrian 700–600BC Nineveh or Poseidon Zeus c460BC Athens the Amasis Painter olpe, Black Figure c540BC Louvre Frieze Parthenon British Museum 443–437BC de Milo Venus c130BC Louvre Laocoön Lion Man statue 40,000BC paintings Cave 35,000BC Chauvet of Willendorf Venus c540 Ravenna Gospels Lindisfarne British Library c700 of Sainte-Foy Reliquary Conques 983-1013 San Marco d’Oro, Pala 976-1105 Venice Tapestry Bayeux c1095 Bayeux portico Romanesque c1120 Burgundy Vezelay, Gothic sculpture Cathedral c1145 Chartres Stained glass Cathedral c1235 Chartres and Jesus mosaic The Virgin 1100–1200 Venice Torcello, mosaics Cathedral Sicily 1180–1250 Monreale,

PREHISTORIC ART 40,000–5,000BC ANCIENT ART 3,000BC–AD400 MEDIEVAL ART 400–1300

1 Venus of Willendorf The full figure and cradling hand of the Willendorf Venus seem to indicate pregnancy. As she cannot stand, she was probably a portable amulet created to ensure fertility. For primitive humans, nothing was more important than the survival of the species.

4 Laocoön and His Sons Made at the height of the Hellenistic era, the magnificent marble statue of Laocoön and his sons wrestling a sea serpent was dug up in Rome in 1506. Almost life-sized, full of coiled A HISTORYRY and explosive movement, it is the supreme classical depiction of human struggle.

ROCOCO 1700–1800 ROMANTICISM 1800–1860 IMPRESSIONISM 1860–1885 PPO

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Goya Tiepolo Watteau Watteau 1841–1919 1775–1851 1775–1851 1791–1824 1684–1721 1834–1917 1776–1837 1841–1870 1841–1895 1687–1753 1697–1768 1745–1554 1746–1828 1706–1775 1774–1840 1774–1840 1801–1848 1780–1867 1819–1877 1703–1770 1703–1770 Canaletto 1798–1863 1727–1788 1696–1770 1699–1764 1844–1926 1840–1926 1830–1903 1832–1883 1832–1883 Edgar Degas Thomas Cole Mary Cassatt Paul Cézanne Paul Paul Cézanne Antonio Bossi Claude Monet Wieskirche JMW Turner JMW Turner Berthe Morisot John Constable Frédéric Bazille Frédéric Camille Pissarro

Gustave Courbet Gustave Eugène Delacroix Edouard Manet Edouard Théodore Géricault Balthasar Neumann François Boucher François Thomas Gainsborough Johann Joachim Kändler Johann Joachim Kändler Pierre-Auguste Renoir Renoir Pierre-Auguste Caspar David Friedrich Friedrich Caspar David Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique

17 Pierre-Auguste Renoir When it came to depicting and celebrating the joie de vivre of Paris, no artist of the impressionist epoch could hold a candle to Renoir. Trained as a porcelain painter, he had a feathery touch that perfectly conveyed the flighty pleasures of his times, especially in his dance paintings.

12 François Boucher 14 Caspar David Friedrich 18 Vincent van Gogh Playful, enticing, erotic, the art With his lonely back-views and exposed Starry Night was painted in conditions of of the rococo era can be understood mountain-tops, Friedrich set out to lockdown in the asylum at St-Rémy. Sent as a giant loosening of the belt: make his viewers feel vulnerable there after his tragic ear-cutting, van a descent into frivolity. It is often and emotional. Although most of Gogh had no visitors for a year and lived difficult to take seriously. Boucher’s his pictures are tiny, they pack a in a cell on the first floor. This was the notorious portrait of his mistress huge Romantic wallop as they keep view from his barred window. Stars, he stretched out on a chaise longue was reminding us how small we are when wrote, were the souls of dead poets. the soft porn of the 18th century. compared with the vastness of nature.

15 J M W Turner 16 Edouard Manet Although most of One of the most innovative painters who Turner’s art is a ever lived, Manet set himself the task of tribute to the producing a 19th-century art that could turbulent beauty match the glories and achievements of of the natural the Old Masters. He blazed a path world, he was that led directly to the impressionist drawn as well to revolution. 13 Wieskirche the manmade fogs Although much rococo art was of of Victorian Britain dubious merit, the epoch was also and the wonders of responsible for some marvellously industrial pollution. inventive combinations of art forms. Never more The Pilgrimage Church of Wies in brilliantly than with Bavaria, designed and painted by the his famous Rain, Zimmermann Brothers, is one of the Steam, and Speed, most airy and uplifting spaces you painted in 1844. will ever walk into. 8 Michelangelo Painted in Rome between 1508 and 1512, the Sistine Chapel ceiling is the supreme achievement of the Italian Renaissance. Fresco, the high-risk technique used by Michelangelo, allows a fixed amount of painting a day and is almost impossible to alter.

9 Jacopo Pontormo The mannerist style challenged the grace and perfection of Renaissance art, and replaced it with contorted anatomies and Opal Fruit colours. The neurotic and tortured Pontormo was a master of twisty compositions that swirled like a tornado.

10 Caravaggio In the baroque age, art stopped waiting for viewers to notice it, and began hunting them down! Caravaggio used extreme violence, dramatic lighting and scary realism to grab the attention of his audience. The results are some of the most riveting images in art.

11 Bernini The most skilled sculptor ever to raise a chisel, Bernini was famous for the magical transformations he achieved with his carving. His masterpiece is the stunning Apollo and Daphne in the Borghese Gallery in Rome. Daphne turns into a tree. Stone turns into silk. Marble turns into leaves.

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Giotto 1267–1337 Eyck van Jan 1390–1441 der Weyden van Rogier 1399–1464 Masaccio 1401–1428 Sandro Botticelli c1445–1510 Bosch Hieronymus c1450–1516 da Vinci Leonardo 1452–1519 Albrecht Dürer 1471–1528 Michelangelo 1475–1564 1475–1564 Giorgione c1477–1510 Raphael 1483–1520 Titian 1488–1526 Pontormo Jacopo 1571–1610 Annibale Carracci 1560–1609 Rubens 1577–1640 Hals Frans 1582–1666 Artemisia Gentileschi 1494–1557 Agnolo Bronzino 1503–1572 Parmigianino 1503-1540 Tintoretto 1518–1594 Giambologna 1529–1608 Arcimboldo 1526–1593 El Greco 1541–1614 Fontana Lavinia 1552–1614 Caravaggio 1593–1656 Bernini 1598–1680 Velazquez 1599–1660 Rembrandt 1606–1669 Vermeer 1632–1675

RENAISSANCE 1300–1550 MANNERISM 1530–1600 BAROQUE 1600–1700

21 Jeff Koons Playful and subversive, the belated pop art of Jeff Koons knows exactly which buttons to press to arouse its audience. In his balloon sculptures, like his famous remake of the Willendorf Venus, Koons is trying to reawaken the innocent joys of childhood.

20 Yoko Ono A pioneer of happenings and conceptual art, Yoko Ono was a notable avant-garde artist long before she met John Lennon. Cut Piece, her most famous performance work from the RY OF ART 1960s, involved sitting silently on the stage while members of the audience came up and cut away her clothing.

OST-IMPRESSIONISM 1885–1905 MODERN ART 1900–1980 CONTEMPORARY ART 1980–

21 18 19 22 20 b1955 b1955 b1933 b1983 b1983 b1943 b1932 b1955 b1955 b1935 b1954 1881–1973 1922–2011 1912–1956 1859–1891 1882–1967 1872–1944 1887–1968 1864–1901 1879–1935 1879–1935 1901–1966 1907–1954 1869–1954 1921–1986 1863–1944 1866–1944 1903–1970 1909–1992 1853–1890 1853–1890 1848–1903 1839–1906 1932–2006 Carl Andre Frida Kahlo Frida Mark Rothko Yoko Ono Yoko Lucian Freud Freud Lucian Jeff Koons Jeff Paul Gauguin Paul James Turrell Turrell James Joseph Beuys Pablo Picasso Pablo Henri Matisse Francis Bacon Francis Piet Mondrian Edvard Munch Edvard Nam June Paik Nam June Paik Cindy Sherman Edward Hopper Edward Georges Seurat Georges Seurat Jackson Pollock Jackson Gerhard Richter Gerhard

Marcel Duchamp Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Alberto Giacometti James Lee Marshall Lee James

Kazimir Malevich Malevich Kazimir Vincent van Gogh van Vincent Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Njideka Akunyili Crosby Crosby Akunyili Njideka

22 Njideka Akunyili Crosby WALDY AND African-American art is currently the hottest ticket in the art world. Its BENDY’S distinguishing features are a return to storytelling and to figurative painting. ADVENTURES Born in Nigeria, Akunyili Crosby lives IN ART in Los Angeles, where her warm and touching pictures pay an emotional In his podcast tribute to the black experience. this week, Waldemar and the art historian Bendor 19 Kazimir Malevich Grosvenor Ethnically Polish, but trained in discuss Moscow, Malevich was the most Leonardo, and radical of the early modernists. take a virtual A master of dramatically spare tour of the Van abstraction, he believed that the old Eyck show in language of art needed to be thrown Ghent. Go to aside and replaced by a radical new sundaytimes. style he called suprematism. co.uk/culture

PHOTOS: © NATURHISTORISCHES MUSEUM, VIENNA; ALAMY; GETTY; COURTESY OF MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON; MUSEE D’ORSAY, PARIS, FRANCE; MOMA, NY © NJIDEKA AKUNYILI CROSBY COURTESY THE ARTIST, VICTORIA MIRO, AND DAVID ZWIRNER © JEFF KOONS ©YOKO ONO/COURTESY GALERIE LELONG & CO, NEW YORK 20 The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 COMMENT Rod Liddle A blast from the past proves it’s wrong to take boffins’ word as final on Covid-19

rather ragged dawn breaks treated with a benevolence verging on agrees with the concept of herd over the Jornada del Muerto reverence, their opinions rarely immunity, or the science that thinks it How did jammy desert, New Mexico, July 16, challenged. This is partly because most unfeasible? It’s Trump v Biden 1945. At a distance assumed to of us journos are arts or social science The scientists cannot agree. They are Watson get this gig? be safe from the 100ft tower grads. We are completely out of our each beholden to belief systems and containing the “gadget” — a depth and thus have a touching, blind paradigms that intercede with the When a vacancy occurred for the job of Acylindrical plutonium faith in science and a terribly mistaken pristine scientific method of inquiry — chairing UK Music, it was immediately implosion fission bomb — the belief that it delivers unassailable and it could not be otherwise. You could obvious who should be given the role. It scientists are taking bets on what will objective truths, shorn of ideology and Take as one example Professor Neil teach me had to be the former deputy leader of happen when the button is pressed. politicking. We think the scientists are Ferguson of Imperial College London, the Labour Party, Tom Watson, famous The Italian Enrico Fermi, the architect above the fray: but they are not, and who is helping to drive our anti-virus the gropes for his vibrant top 20 hits and quixotic of the whole Trinity Test project, is they always have skin in the game. This strategy. In 2005 he predicted that 200 brilliance on an array of instruments. offering wagers on whether or not the is not to say that they are wicked, or million people would die of bird flu. The Some people, however, complained atmosphere will catch fire and, if it does, thick. Simply that they are human, the total number worldwide was 282 over six — musicians, for example. Petitions will the conflagration wipe out only the same as the rest of us. years. Four years later he estimated that cited Watson’s unsuitability, not least state or the entire world? This had been So, when the government tells us it is swine flu had a 0.4% mortality and that because of his role in hounding public a genuine concern, for a while. always “following scientific advice” in 65,000 British people might die. It figures accused of paedophilia by the The rest of the Los Alamos team, this surreal episode, we should say: yes, turned out to have a mortality rate of fantasist and liar Carl Beech. The disc perhaps the most brilliant minds of the but whose science? The science that said 0.026% and killed 457 British people. jockey Paul Gambaccini, himself once 20th century, were also pooling bets restricting travel didn’t matter, as did the Earlier he had suggested that up to the victim of baseless allegations, said: over their coffees on the yield expected World Health Organisation, or the 50,000 British people could die from “The Labour Party and the UK music from the blast. These ranged from nil science that now approves of lockdown BSE (mad cow disease). In the event industry have become champions of (Norman Ramsey, whose later work led and social distancing? The science that there were a total of 177 deaths. His injustice. I have no time for either.” to MRI scanners and the atomic clock), suggests Covid-19’s lethality is 4% of modelling and methodology has been Tom’s new gig is thought to pay about through a very meagre 0.3 kilotons of patients, or 10, or 0.1? The science that criticised by other scientists. £60,000 a year for a day or two’s work TNT (Robert Oppenheimer) to a My point isn’t that Ferguson is always each week. It would be interesting to monumental 45 kilotons (Edward wrong (although he is often wrong, you learn of the selection procedure, no? Teller, who had brought some suntan have to say). It is simply that he is lotion along, just in case he was dead captured by a system of thinking that right. He wasn’t). leads him to certain conclusions. In other words, none of them had the In this he is no different from any Our aid budget rises remotest clue. They had their ideas. other scientist. This is not a tirade Their theories, which captured them against “experts”. It is just a plea that his like a bat out of hell and then bent them this way and that. views might be challenged, and Only a couple of years earlier an even leavened with the opinions of scientists At last we are getting our priorities right. more brilliant mind, that of the Danish who think differently. Because on Our overseas aid figures for the past physicist Niels Bohr, the father of atomic Covid-19, they all think differently. 12 months have just been published and fission, had suggested that such a bomb Maybe we will emerge from this with a we’re spending more than ever before was utterly unfeasible, given the better understanding of what science — a record £15.2bn. PHOTOBUBBLE: NICK NEWMAN extraordinary amounts of energy (and We think the can do for us: its innumerable benefits, I’m delighted to see that aside from money) required to enrich uranium to its unavoidable flaws. rebuilding a mosque in Egypt, we have the point where it might be capable of scientists are The winner of that pool of Trinity Test l The police have very kindly issued can you buy some tools to mend it? spent more than £1m attempting to obliterating hundreds of thousands of scientists, by the way, was the Polish guidance about the sorts of things we The police added: “It is allowable to reduce the amount of salt Chinese people. If anyone knew about nuclear above the fray émigré Isidor Isaac Rabi, who went for can leave our houses to do. burgle a property provided that at all people eat in their food. stuff, it was Bohr. He was wrong. 18 kilotons of TNT. The actual yield was I’m thrilled to discover that it is times social distancing is observed The Chinese predilection for salty The coronavirus is a less excitingly — they are not, 20 kilotons which, as history soon “allowable” to go out to buy tools to and the burglars provide face masks food has been at the very forefront of existential threat to us all, although it is attested, was sufficient to sort out repair a “fence damaged in recent and disposable gloves for their my mind these past few weeks and I’m punching well above its weight, but and always Nagasaki. I have a piece of trinitite from bad weather”. You are also allowed to victims. Bank robberies should take delighted that this issue is now being many of the same sorts of knowns and the test site, fused desert sand now go for a nice long walk, but not to go place only during the hours of addressed. If we can bung the Chinese unknowns apply. If you listen to the BBC, have skin in devoid of radioactivity. A pale green for a brief walk and then sit on a bench darkness, to minimise the virus threat government another few million next or read newspaper columns and memento from another deferred for a “long time”. But what is a “long to staff and customers.” Actually, they year in the hope it will deter them from headlines, you will hear the scientists the game Armageddon. time”? And if the bench is damaged, didn’t say that. I made that bit up. eating bats, all the better. The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 21 NEWS HOW SOUTH KOREA WORKED SHOCK AS HONG KONG POLICE A COVID-19 MIRACLE ARREST 15 OPPOSITION LEADERS WORLD NEWS GO TO SUNDAYTIMES.CO.UK GO TO SUNDAYTIMES.CO.UK OR OUR APP OR OUR APP Trump lashes out at own lockdown No room for New York’s to liberate ratings

“Trump is a master at JOSH casting enemies,” said Charlie GLANCY Sykes, a conservative radio grieving as bodies pile up host. “Knowing what plays to his base, what buttons to push, what scapegoats to ADAM NADEL pick.” Washington The call for liberation casts Overwhelmed by the the president as a coronavirus, undertakers In the past few days Donald cheerleader for American Trump has threatened to shut prosperity, desperate to are telling devastated Congress and claimed total reopen the economy, while families they must put authority over America’s the nanny state Democrats governors, without insist on keeping things their mourning on hold constitutional basis. closed. The president has insulted Amid the turmoil, Trump’s reporters, calling the CBS electoral poll numbers Laura Pullman New York White House correspondent, remain steady. He is still a Paula Reid, “disgraceful” and coin toss away from being The De Riso Funeral Home occupies a accused The New York Times re-elected in November. double-storefront between Alina’s Wine of writing “fake stories”. “It’s another reminder of & Liquor and a Chinese gravestone Such rhetoric, while how utterly polarised our business on 4th Avenue in Sunset Park, unimaginable in any other politics has become,” said Brooklyn. In normal times its reception modern president, has Sykes. rooms bustle with well-dressed families become expected from “There is a base that is saying goodbye to their loved ones. Not Trump. But he broke new absolutely unshakeable. They any more. ground on Friday with what will either ignore Trump’s “The smell will hit you like a ton of appeared to be a call for worst behaviour or many of bricks,” warns Matthew De Luna, a popular insurrection. them will applaud. What a lot trainee employee. Tweets encouraging of people regard as shocking It does. The funeral parlour is so over- Virginia, Minnesota and and inappropriate is catnip whelmed with coronavirus victims that Michigan to “liberate” for many of his supporters.” it’s been forced to use one of its reception themselves were a reference Some view the situation rooms as a makeshift morgue. to anti-lockdown protests that rather differently. When The bodies are lying in sealed bags in have broken out in those Trump attacks and derides cardboard boxes, double stacked on states in recent days, as reporters in the briefing chairs, tables and trolleys. The boxes are libertarians, gun-lovers and room, some Americans see a scrawled with the victims’ names and, in Trumpian conservatives have brutish megalomaniac acting some cases, the dates when they’re due poured onto the streets. without constraint or to be cremated or buried. The body of an Each of the states has decency. elderly man dressed in a smart grey suit Democratic leadership but Many others, however, see lies openly on a table. they are following shutdown an enthusiastic patriot “This looks like a storage locker. It recommendations issued by coming under relentless shouldn’t be like this,” says De Luna, 21, the Trump administration. attack from a snooty media his exhausted eyes peering over a medi- He appears to be encouraging elite, who have been cal mask. citizens to defy his own crusading against him from The room isn’t refrigerated — “we have orders. day one. an air conditioner but that barely does When asked about the “If you like President anything” — and the smell is pungent. tweets at Friday’s briefing, Trump, you love the press Outside, ambulance sirens blare as the the president responded that conferences; if you don’t like sun sets over the East River. some states were being “too President Trump, you “Usually, families have viewings here, tough” and that “elements of probably hate the press we serve coffee or it’s a place for kids what they’ve done is too conferences. It’s that simple,” to run around during a service. Now, much”. said Jason Miller, chief we’ve got around 35 bodies in here,” says Sabrina De Riso allowed to hold proper wakes for the The virus is closely affecting her mare,” he says. “If I wasn’t so exhausted As ever, liberals responded spokesman for Trump’s 2016 De Luna. at her funeral dead. The television usually used to colleagues, too. “People who work with the thought would keep me up at night.” with outrage. “‘Levying war presidential campaign. “My uncle has been here for two weeks parlour, where screen memorial videos of the deceased us . . . their loved ones are passing away, Hart Island, a mile-long wasteland against the United States’ is The briefings command — he was 45 — and he has no set date to go she is surrounded is permanently switched off — there’s not so we have directors going into trailers at where Long Island Sound meets the article III’s first definition of serious ratings, attracting an to the crematory. People are dying by the by bodies in enough time. hospitals, removing their own personal Bronx, has served as a burial site for indi- treason,” said Laurence average audience of truckload and crematories and cemeter- cardboard boxes “All those parts that help give people loved ones that are flipped over, upside gent New Yorkers since 1869. Over time, Tribe, a Harvard law 8.5 million, rivalling The ies are all backed up.” solace are now being taken away from down, stacked on top on each other,” says as the city has been ravaged by yellow professor. “Inciting armed Bachelor, a popular television With New York the current global me,” says De Riso. “I can’t even print De Riso. fever, tuberculosis and the Aids epi- insurrection comes awfully reality show — as the epicentre of the pandemic — more than prayer cards right now. Families are De Luna is tasked with fetching bodies demic, it has been the final resting place close. Watch out, Mr president has happily 12,000 people have died in the state — aggravated, and I want to be able to give it from hospitals. “I’ve been in these for approximately one million people. President. You’re playing observed. funeral homes are at breaking point. to them, but we can’t.” trailers and it reminds me of when I was Typically, 24 unclaimed bodies are with fire.” He operates on the basis Shell-shocked undertakers are wrestling For hospitals, nursing facilities and in history class looking at pictures of buried on the island each week; now, it’s In the face of an epochal that attention is power and at with the worst crisis of their professional funeral homes, lack of storage is a grim Auschwitz. It’s mentally draining to see 24 a day. The revelation that prisoners crisis, with more than the moment he has the stage lives, and mass graves are being dug by issue. that, and then to come back to your own from nearby Rikers Island were being 36,000 American deaths while Joe Biden, his out-of-work construction labourers. The city set up 45 morgues this month place to fill it again.” offered $6 an hour to dig mass graves on from Covid-19 and 22 million presumptive rival in 2020, is As deaths in the city soared, restric- and refrigerated trucks have been Some in the industry are fearful for Hart Island was met with outrage. Now new unemployed, Trump is relegated to the sidelines. tions were lifted to allow crematoriums stationed outside hospitals for weeks. their own safety. “This is a communic- construction workers in hazmat suits, clearly not shying away from Much of Trump’s to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a The De Riso business has also rented a able disease so, of course, we worry all who had lost their jobs due to the the divisive, belligerent gunslinging bluster is just week, but there is still a two-week wait. refrigerated truck to store more bodies. the time,” says Antaoco, 54. shutdown, have been hired as novice politics that has sustained that: bluster. If he tried to To lighten the load, Andrew Cuomo, It’s the “I’ve been doing this 26 years and this “We’ll go home to our wives and kids gravediggers. him over the past four years; shut Congress, override the the governor of New York, recently is the first time that we’ve had to resort to and we worry just like a nurse, a doctor. Inside the De Riso Funeral Home, the quite the opposite. His daily governors or throw federal allowed undertakers based outside the most using trucks,” says Joe Antaoco, a De Riso We’ll strip down before we go near phone rings constantly and Stephanie press briefings, whose stated resources behind a Empire State to volunteer here. employee. “The Aids crisis was nothing anybody and shower. Then you get up at Romo-Williams, a young mother whose purpose is to inform and Midwestern insurrection, “If you ever told me that as governor, horrible like this because the death rate was 6am and have to do it all again.” grandparents have died from Covid-19, is reassure the American many of his supporters might I’d have to take these actions, I couldn’t nothing like this.” As the system clogs up, funeral homes weeping in the doorway. people, have at times become be alarmed. even contemplate where we are now,” thing The city medical examiner’s office has are forced to turn grieving families away. “My grandfather was 77 and my grand- a form of campaign rally. But, as the saying goes, Cuomo said. allowed hospitals to keep bodies for up to John D’Arienzo, 58, also a fourth-genera- mother was 67. He passed on Sunday and Trump’s call for they tend to take their Nevertheless, the industry is on its I’ve ever 14 days but De Riso argues that this isn’t tion undertaker, is working 18 hours a she passed today. “liberation” casts him as a president seriously but not knees — stretched for time, equipment, enough. day, seven days a week, but his Brooklyn “They’ve been together for 40 years, cheerleader for prosperity, literally, ignoring the Punch staff and space. done in “They need to create more holding funeral home is at maximum capacity. but they weren’t even allowed in the desperate to reopen the and Judy show and focusing Sabrina De Riso, 24, a fourth-genera- facilities. There’s plenty of space, ware- “I turn down about 25 calls a day. Last same room at the hospital,” she says, economy, while the nanny on the actions taken by the tion funeral director in sunglasses and my life houses that they could rent or parks to week it was more. It’s the most horrible wiping away tears. “I feel like my heart is state Democrats insist on administration to combat the towering stilettos, laments not being create storage,” she says. thing I’ve ever done in my life. It’s a night- being taken out.” keeping things closed. pandemic. From surfing to Anzac Day, this crazy quarantine is clobbering us cobbers

job at the end of this commemorative structures non-locals were back. For the includes me grinning beside a of Australia (unlike Cook) that what they actually said to SATURDAY BEV lockdown. were planned. Most are now first time, I’m looking modest wooden statue of demonstrating his skills at him was “ganguru” which From my lowly vantage cancelled or on hold. forward to winter, which is Cook in the tiny town of training dogs to surf. He has means “don’t understand HADGRAFTT point, it seems obscene that just over a month away. Seventeen Seventy, so-called even done this with a golden your question”. Bank Holidays mean little anyone has a spare million or TUESDAY Reduced temperatures will (in case you hadn’t guessed) retriever named Hobie, On my last visit there I these days, but we have ten to spend on a boat they hopefully mean reduced because that’s when he which he rescued from a spotted a plaque marking the Anzac Day coming up in a rarely use, when laid-off crowds. landed there. pound and had surfing 6ft place where Cook spied his week’s time, which is when Sydney workers are threatening a Normally, I’d have spent the It had hoped to a hold a waves within seven weeks. first roo, which was “seen, we normally all go to dawn “rent strike” because they Easter weekend surfing. But WEDNESDAY 26-day festival to mark the Dog owners will appreciate described, sketched, shot and services to remember the MONDAY can’t afford to pay for their Sydney’s northern beaches, 250th anniversary, and how difficult it is to persuade eaten”. This seems beyond sacrifice of our diggers on the basic accommodation. But no where I live, were a clearly that’s not happening. retrievers to stay on top of the rash since he could have had battlefield, especially at doubt I could find someone battleground. That’s because Winter usually sees me Not that Seventeen water rather than leaping into no idea that Australia had Gallipoli during the First My socially distanced who would argue the benefits the eastern beaches such as heading up to Queensland Seventy particularly needs it. They will surely also plenty more of the World War. exercise regime is, weather the boats bring. Bondi, a virus infection for a bit of warmth. Also it’s the link with Cook to put it on applaud Chris’s remarkable marsupials. What if he had This year, instead, we have permitting, a morning outing Australians generally seem hotspot, were closed in an safer to kayak at that time of the map, as it has one of the (unofficial) world record for dined on the last one? been asked to stand at the in my kayak. Paddling around to be arguing about one ship effort to prevent crowds the year as the crocodiles rare east coast beaches that the most dogs on a surfboard end of our drives with Sydney Harbour, I ponder or another. gathering. aren’t actively feeding. That’s looks west, on the reverse at one time — 25! — and join FRIDAY candles at 5.55am — so they what I now suspect should Our current obsession is Locals initially tried to what I’ve been told, anyway, side of a headland, so you can me in suggesting it would be will be more dawn-lawn have caused more with a cruise liner, the Ruby make the best of it by doing and since no crocodiles have grab your camping chair and lovely if Seventeen Seventy services if you will. controversy than it did at the Princess, the subject of a the picturesque coastal walk so far attempted to eat me, bottle of chardy and spend a erected a statue to him as well I set out for a walk around the For a fleeting moment I time: the surprise police investigation after instead, but of course it the theory appears to hold. very nice evening watching as Cook. beautiful grounds of the wonder if it might be OK for appearance here last June of 2,700 passengers were became so crowded that the The state borders are the sun set. Incidentally, Chris told me former quarantine station in me not to change out of my three Chinese warships. allowed to disembark in local council closed that as closed now, so I have to It is also home to Chris de his training methods work on Manly, now converted into a pyjamas so I can go back to It was later explained that Sydney without health well. Frustrated, the Bondi content myself with looking Aboitz, a dog whisperer who children as well as canines heritage-listed hotel bed afterwards, but the the Chinese crews had checks despite allegations surfers checked out the at old photos instead. One has circumnavigated much and that he doesn’t tolerate complex. famous Australian laid- stopped off to stock up on that the ship’s senior staff webcams trained on Manly JAMES D. MORGAN silliness, as he surfs with his Curiously, although many backness does not apply to vast quantities of baby knew they were a coronavirus and the other northern phone in his pocket and Sydney hotels are quarantine Anzac Day. Any lack of formula (which was nothing risk. beaches, saw the surf was doesn’t want to fall in and centres for Australians respect could see you driven new) and face masks (which Across Australia today pumping and that everyone get it wet. Any struggling returning from overseas, this out of the country or losing was). Looking back from there are 662 Ruby Princess was having a great time, got in home-schooling parents may one, purpose-built for your job. coronavirus lockdown I passengers infected with their cars and drove over wish to check out his videos. stricken early settlers, is not We had been wondering wonder if we ought to have coronavirus, and more than a here. among them. what to do about playing the been even more suspicious quarter of our 63 total deaths Lifeguards kept making THURSDAY Mind you, it is said to be Last Post, but a Music for than we were at the time. are linked to the boat. We announcements over the haunted by a matron, a Mateship campaign is Paddling on, I try to might no longer be in speakers that exercise was doctor and patients who encouraging buglers to purse calculate the total worth of all lockdown without it. limited to an hour, but when Still on the subject of Captain succumbed to their fevers, so their lips and play for their the cabin cruisers moored in If it wasn’t for this virus, all the “exercisers” are Cook, further north in perhaps it would be neighbours, while some the harbour. the controversial boat we’d dressed in identical black Cooktown, where he ran inappropriate. It would also families have been spending I conclude it’s far more be arguing about is Captain wetsuits how was anyone aground, he is credited with be easy to escape from. So far their time in isolation than the “eye-watering” James Cook’s Endeavour. going to police that? naming the kangaroo. Some only one man has escaped learning how to play it on the A$130 billion (£66 billion) It is 250 years since the Social media today is full of say he christened it thus from hotel quarantine — in violin. promised by the government Yorkshire seaman arrived in fury. One of Australia’s best- because he thought that’s Perth — climbing down the I have a few days to to ensure up to six million what became Australia, and known surfers said, in effect, what the local Aboriginals fire escape to visit his practise. I might respectfully Australian workers still have a various celebrations and he wished the days of bashing A deserted central Sydney yesterday as the sun rises told him it was called, and girlfriend. He is now in jail. dust off my saxophone. 22 The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 WORLD NEWS

Core! Agent Apple brings Saxon Priest and Streaked Pippin back from the dead

Laura Pullman New York with boxes and boxes of from the east coast to the off. They have rediscovered a variety first recorded in Kittageskee, which was the Saxon Priest. The records, so I’m familiar with Pacific northwest, in the 10 lost apple varieties in a Illinois in 1901. The pair also rediscovered in Idaho. It detectives spend apple Scouring rugged going through records and 1800s and early 1900s. single season. “It’s a record unearthed the Gold Ridge, “became lost because it’s just harvest time from late August mountainsides and remote that attracted me to this,” he “Every apple that was for us. I was shocked. We’d Nelson Sweet, Claribel, too small so it could never be to early November hunting ravines, David Benscoter is said. “Then it’s just picking carried by these pioneer never come close to 10 apples Colman, Fink and Milafyi. commercially acceptable but around rural Washington and well trained to track clues. up clues.” nurserymen had a specific before,” said Benscoter, who “Washington State it’s an explosion of flavour in Idaho, often following up on After years as an FBI agent, he Once, America had 17,000 purpose,” he said. “The Ben runs the Lost Apple Project, a University had up to 500 or the mouth”. tip-offs from strangers about is an apple detective, hunting named varieties of apples. Davis apple, for example, is non-profit organisation, from 600 apples growing on He became hooked on potentially juicy spots. “We down and reviving varieties Now, decades after industrial- not that great tasting but it his home near Spokane, campus in the early 1900s. I apple-hunting eight years ago cover a lot of ground on foot, of the fruit previously scale agriculture wiped out would keep for ever in a Washington. went and looked, and Sary after a disabled friend asked going up and down, we’re in believed to be extinct. numerous smaller orchards, cellar.” The new finds include an Sinap was in the records. I got him to pick apples from her mountains and ravines and Sleuthing “lost” apple about 4,500 are known to Now his endless hours ancient apple from Turkey goosebumps,” said Benscoter. old orchard and he could not places that cars and trucks trees and catching corrupt survive. seeking out long-neglected called the Sary Sinap; the “It might still be growing in identify the variety. can’t get to.” politicians, as Benscoter once Benscoter, 65, focuses on orchards and diving into Streaked Pippin, which could Turkey, but certainly in the Today, the Lost Apple The rest of the year is spent did, require similar skills. finding apples grown by historical archives with his have originated in New York United States we don’t know Project has rediscovered 23 researching, pruning, taking “When I was in law homesteading pioneers who sidekick, EJ Brandt, a as early as 1744; and the of any other trees.” Another varieties in total, including cuttings and planting them at enforcement, I’d work cases travelled across America, Vietnam veteran, have paid Butter Sweet of Pennsylvania, Sary Sinap: from Turkey favourite find is the the Flushing Spitzenburg and home.

JOHANNES EISELE at the early stages, even as Shi and her colleagues were investigating its origins, has further compounded suspicions. In the latest revelation, internal party Curse of the documents seen by the Associated Press disclosed that China’s leaders delayed warning the public for at least six days after secretly determining that the country was facing an epidemic. On January 14, Ma Xiaowei, the top ‘Bat Woman’ — health official, laid out the grim assess- ment to provincial cadres, delivering unspecified instructions from President Xi Jinping. It was only on January 20 that Xi alerted the Chinese people to the dangers of the highly contagious disease. what went on During the six-day public silence, more than 3,000 people had been infected and millions had travelled ahead of the lunar new year holiday. Such secrecy explains why scepticism greeted an announcement by Beijing on in Wuhan lab? Friday increasing Wuhan’s official Covid-19 death toll by a suspiciously pre- cise 50% — from 2,579 to 3,869. Chinese Within eight days of her return from officials insisted that the new figures As America puts the screws on Shanghai to Wuhan in December, her reflected a more accurate count now that team concluded that the new disease the epidemic had eased, not an earlier Beijing, there is closer scrutiny sweeping the city was indeed almost effort to conceal the severity of the crisis. certainly a new bat coronavirus. But Shi Many believe, however, that the figure of claims that the coronavirus was surprised that the cases had emerged is still way too low — and that cover-ups so far from the bats’ usual habitat in possibly included an accidental leak from leaked from a research centre China’s subtropical south. In comments Shi’s laboratory. published by Scientific American maga- “We’re not suggesting that the Chinese zine, she recalled a nagging fear: “Could had sinister intent, but that they might Philip Sherwell Asia Correspondent they have come from our lab?” have screwed up,” said one Republican and Josh Glancy Washington Shi, who developed one of the world’s national security aide. “It’s perfectly largest databases of bat-related viruses, possible the lab got sloppy and something China’s “Bat Woman” was attending a frantically pored over the records at the got out. We know that the Chinese have conference with colleagues in Shanghai institute. She was checking for any mis- been engaged in a more general cover-up in late December when an urgent phone Cases handling of experimental materials from over the pandemic, destroying evidence, call came from her boss at the Wuhan bat virus research, especially during cracking down on whistleblowers. Is it Institute of Virology. emerged disposal, Scientific American reported in not reasonable then to ask about the ori- People were falling sick from a mys- an article about her work last month. And gins of the virus, given there was a lab in terious new virus just a few miles from a long she breathed a “sigh of relief” when the Wuhan studying bat coronaviruses?” the institute. And Shi Zhengli, who had results showed that the sequencing of the In a press briefing, Trump was asked earned her nickname for her virus- way new infections did not match those of the whether he thought the virus originated hunting expeditions to bat caves, was viruses her team had sampled. “That in a lab. He responded: “I don’t want to summoned back to the central Chinese from the really took a load off my mind,” she said. say that . . . but I will tell you more and city to lead the laboratory’s investiga- “I had not slept a wink for days.” more, we’re hearing the story. We are tions of samples taken from patients. bats’ Since those early days, though, specu- doing a very thorough examination of Momentum is now growing behind a lation that the Wuhan institute, which this horrible situation.” theory that the laboratory itself — an normal houses China’s top biosafety laboratory, Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth internationally renowned centre of could have been the source of the out- Shi Zhengli at 41 confirmed infected patients had no back to Washington about the Wuhan Alliance, a US research organisation, who research — was the source of the corona- habitat break has swirled online. work in her direct exposure to the market. For some Institute of Virology. has worked with Shi and her institute for virus pandemic that has since claimed It was long dismissed as an internet Wuhan experts, this suggested that even if the In two diplomatic cables, US officials 15 years, is scathing about the lab more than 150,000 lives and crippled the conspiracy theory. But amid the US and laboratory where market had a significant role in transmis- who visited the facility and met Shi accident theory. “The idea that this virus world economy. Chinese blame game over the handling of studies of bat sion it may not have been the source. expressed concerns about safety and escaped from the laboratory is pure That was what Shi reportedly feared, the pandemic, the scenario was pushed viruses have Tom Cotton, a Republican senator, has management weaknesses at the labora- baloney,” he told the Democracy Now! and US intelligence agencies are investi- to centre stage last week by hawks close taken place been raising questions for months. “We tory, according to The Washington Post. TV network. gating while the Trump administration to Donald Trump, with the fans flamed by don’t know where it originated and we One cable warned that the research into Daszak said he had collected bat puts the screws on China. But what is the the president. have to get to the bottom of that,” he said. bat coronaviruses and their potential for samples with Chinese colleagues — evidence? Is this another Chinese The possibility of a laboratory leak has “We also know that just a few miles away human transmission could cause a new “some of the best scientists in the world” cover-up — or politicised “baloney” as also been discussed at the highest levels from that food market is China’s only bio- Sars-like epidemic. — and that the Wuhan laboratory did not one top US researcher claims? of the British government. Earlier this safety level-four super-laboratory that Another piece of circumstantial evi- house the culture of bat viruses but Shi is an acclaimed virologist who month a senior government adviser researches human infectious diseases.” dence on the desks of Trump’s national rather their genetic sequencing. “It’s a headed the team that traced the source of described it as “credible” and said “it is By now the theory that the virus may security analysts is a paper published in politicisation of the origins of a pandemic the lethal outbreak of Sars — another cor- not discounted”. have leaked from the laboratory by February by two Chinese researchers, and that’s really unfortunate,” he added. onavirus — to horseshoe bats in southern The leading theory among scientists human error, infecting a worker who who said the virus “probably originated Shi herself strongly rejects what she China in 2002-3. She was a joint author of remains that the virus spread to humans would have been “patient zero”, has from a laboratory in Wuhan”. The calls “tinfoil-hat” theories. “The novel a research paper that warned last year from bat-infected animals at Wuhan’s become common currency among China authors later withdrew it, saying they did 2019 coronavirus is nature punishing the that it was “highly likely” that future now-infamous wildlife market. But find- hawks. not have evidence for the theories, but human race for keeping uncivilised living coronavirus outbreaks would originate ings published in The Lancet medical It gained added credence last week the claims entered the public domain. habits,” she told the Caixin website. “I from bats, and an “increased proba- journal gave some cause for doubt. when it was revealed that in 2018, US Evidence of the Chinese Communist swear on my life that it has nothing to do bility” that this would occur in China. According to that study, 14 of the first embassy officials in China sent warnings Party’s attempts to cover-up the outbreak with our laboratory.”

Swedes and Chinese pin Spoonful of honey helps the orphaned hopes on their ‘Monster’ chimps’ tea go down in bid to save species

RENATO GRANIERI Louise Callaghan Stockholm earlier this spring, when sequencing equipment in Ben Whitelaw illegal poaching. Reliable data Engstrand was spending his Europe. Freetown is hard to find but the In an airy, spacious days analysing intestinal flora Last week, for the first International Union for Stockholm laboratory, four alongside a team of Chinese time, the researchers were Posseh Kamara is gradually Conservation of Nature young Chinese technicians researchers. As the virus able to start working in adjusting to life under estimates that there are just looked apprehensive as they started to sweep through earnest: churning through lockdown. The 60-year-old 53,000 western chimps in the huddled around a genome- Sweden, he decided 5,000 tests a day, seven days washes her hands dozens of whole of west Africa. sequencing machine something had to be done. a week, from their light-filled times during each 12-hour Tacugama’s response to nicknamed “the Monster”. The state, he thought, was lab by the Karolinska Institute shift and is particularly the pandemic may seem They had been flown in not acting quickly enough to in Stockholm. If needed, they careful about using her drastic because until from Shenzhen to help secure the materials to test say, they can stay open 24 precious supplies of milk and yesterday there were only 26 Swedish researchers increase for and analyse the virus. hours a day working in shifts nappies. When the confirmed coronavirus cases their testing for the China — which had the — clearing 16,000 tests a day youngsters in her care in Sierra Leone, and little is coronavirus — but had been equipment they needed — of key workers and the become stressed, she sings known about the effect of shocked by what they found. was closing down because of vulnerable, using a priority and offers back massages to Covid-19 on chimpanzees. Unlike many Swedes, who the coronavirus, so he had to list provided by the state. ease their anxiety. But the species shares 98.7% have taken a relatively act fast. With no funding Within two weeks, they Kamara, also known as of its DNA with humans and relaxed approach to the secured, he ordered millions hope to have tested all Mama P, is the head of biologists say they are virus, the technicians wore of pounds’ worth of testing frontline medical workers quarantine and nursery at probably susceptible. masks and protective equipment — using his lab’s and those working in Tacugama Chimpanzee Last month leading equipment both inside the relationship with a Chinese residential homes for the Sanctuary, on the outskirts of chimpanzee experts urged lab and in Stockholm’s genomics company, BGI elderly in Stockholm before Freetown, the capital of governments worldwide to streets. On the other side of Group, to have technicians expanding operations to Sierra Leone. Every day, she adopt best-practice the glass from them — his face brought over to Sweden to other parts of the country. helps look after the 96 guidelines, including minimal bare — stood Professor Lars install new equipment and This, they believe, will rescued primates that live visitor contact and clean Engstrand, 63, an expert in reprogramme machines from hold the key to slowing down there, acting as a surrogate clothing at all times, to communicable diseases. analysing gut bacteria to Sweden’s casualty rates, mother to young chimps Posseh Kamara giving Celia, five months, a bath at the Tacugama sanctuary in Sierra Leone prevent chimps from dying as “They are so afraid we’re sequencing and diagnosing which are far higher than its whose mothers have been a result of the virus. going to infect them,” the coronavirus. Nordic neighbours’. killed for bushmeat. in and no one out for 14 days. Sanctuary workers have “If [staff] know a group of Bala Amarasekaran, the Engstrand said. “In the “I didn’t have the money. It Unlike most of Europe, Among those that need the Kamara is one of 31 staff now stockpiled more than three chimps like [their tea] cold, founder of Tacugama, fears beginning it was Europeans was terrifying,” Engstrand Sweden has taken a relatively most attention is five-month- living full-time at the tons of food, including sweet they make it more cold,” that the coronavirus could who were worried about said. “But I knew we had to laissez-faire approach to old Celia, who arrived scared sanctuary, tending to every potato leaves and coconut, to explains Andrea Pizarro, the devastate the species. “The being infected by the get in there. The state was not stopping the coronavirus’s and screaming two months need of the critically ensure that no one goes resident vet. “The babies like only thing we know is we Chinese; now it’s the other moving quickly enough. I spread: imposing some ago from Gola Rainforest endangered inhabitants. “We hungry during the lockdown. it more sweet, so they put in cannot put [the chimps] on way round.” bought this incredibly restrictions, but stepping National Park, near the needed to close the sanctuary Young chimps are given more honey.” ventilators. They cannot Engstrand and his advanced equipment and short of a full lockdown. The border with Liberia. to protect the chimps,” she garlic cloves and fed ginger A 2010 census showed observe social distancing. technicians are co-ordinating 250,000 testing kits.” theory was to allow the virus The sanctuary entered a said. “But we don’t know how tea three times a week to help there were 5,500 wild That’s not going to happen. a remarkable project that Today his lab, following a to spread as slowly as self-imposed lockdown last long this is going to last.” strengthen their immune western chimpanzees in the So it has the potential to be they hope will slow Sweden’s £4m cash injection from a possible through the healthy week, even though there Kamara checks in on the system. Organically grown country. But half of the really, really bad.” death rate, greatly increase its foundation set up by the population, building were only half a dozen chimps long after her shift kale and spinach, usually subspecies commonly found testing abilities and protect Wallenberg industrial family, immunity while protecting confirmed cases of the finishes. “I am scared, so I reserved for the staff, is also in Sierra Leone live outside Donations may be made at frontline workers. has some of the most the vulnerable. coronavirus in the country at come even at night to see if fed to the chimpanzees. protected areas and are at the www.tacugama.com/ It is a big change from advanced diagnostic and @LouiseElisabet the time. That meant no one the babies are OK,” she says. Everyone is in this together. mercy of deforestation and coronavirus The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 23 NEWS MY GENERATION WILL PAY BRAINBOXES, YOUR MOST TO KEEP US AFLOAT COUNTRY NEEDS YOU COMMENT DOMINIC LAWSON, PAGE 24 MAX HASTINGS, PAGE 25 Camilla Long Oxford’s mortar-board mafia meets the evangelicals in a tale of biblical intrigue

MAX DANNENBAUM f you have spent any time in Oxford, long hair, snaggle teeth and bad breath, you will know it is a city of thieves and look like they can’t do up their own No sex, please and hardened criminals. Draw back trousers? Harrison Ford, Obbink is not. the ermine gowns, swish aside the The story begins in 2011, when he was — and no velvet curtains, and you’ll uncover visited by two men working for the any number of bitching Green family, evangelical Christians who hidden Ibackstabbers and wizened villains made their $7bn (£5.6bn) fortune from hiding among the doddering, Hobby Lobby in America. “God makes depths either apparently harmless academics. people who are very creative,” was how It is said the bizarre papyrologist Dirk David Green explained the success of the Horror upon horror greets Obbink “infuriated” the university’s family’s arts and crafts stores business, viewers of Too Hot To more serious teaching staff as an unruly based in Oklahoma. Handle, a shiny new and flamboyant “schoolboy professor”, His son Steve was now pouring “dating” show on Netflix. whose rooms at Christ Church looked millions into a new Museum of the Bible The idea is that 10 attractive “like the set of an Indiana Jones movie”, in Washington, complete with displays men and women must stay stuffed with mummy masks and, of “fashion” inspired by the Bible and a celibate for four weeks to according to one report, covered with restaurant called Manna (one item on win the show’s $100,000 “fragments of ancient papyrus”. the menu called “Exodus” features lamb prize. It’s Big Brother for the I remember attending his lectures, meatballs). He was splurging as much as Love Island generation, only but never dreamt this aloof and wuffling he could on exhibits, up to $70m on the thing that’s rationed isn’t scholar would one day be at the centre 55,000 artefacts in just three years. food or booze, it’s sex. of the university’s most obscure scandal. Steve had also employed two It ought to be the perfect It was revealed on Thursday he’d been academics who’d helped create part of lockdown viewing, arrested for selling a Bible fragment to the Holy Land Experience in Florida, a but how watchable is a some evangelical Christians. Not a crime cheesy theme park where you can show that’s premised on in itself, except the fragment didn’t “catch Jesus being crucified, six times a hidden depths that just belong to him, but to the university. week”. By anyone’s standards, it was an aren’t there? One guy, This is the most exciting drama to hit extraordinary project. Sharron, says: “What I’m papyrology since Lord Carnarvon met As the men went to leave Obbink’s most proud of is my penis.” the mosquito. Papyrologists hold rooms, the don produced a manila Mystery hangs over the decoding of papyrus (right); Dirk Obbink, above right, an Oxford don, was arrested for selling a fragment Another, Kelz, regards a peculiar status among classicists, who envelope. It contained four fragments, four-week affair as a “long- regard them as outsiders, loners, punks, one from each of the gospels, including inscrutable way papyrologists conduct term” thing. “I’m not the while reluctantly admitting they unravel one that he said was a fragment of Mark their business, decoding fragments at an Shine a light on Anne, the brightest spark in the book,” vital primary sources. You have to be from the 1st century AD. If authentic, it agonisingly slow rate under a veil of mews Chloe, from Essex. pretty weird to devote your life to sifting was a miracle — the earliest known New mystery (of the half a million fragments practically perfect princess But it is Sharron who is through ancient rubbish dumps for bits Testament scrap in existence by perhaps Obbink helped oversee in Oxford, just the show’s breakout star. “I of paper, just as you have to be pretty a century. The fragment was snapped up 1% have been published since they were Papyrologists To say that Princess Anne “always been fascinated by studied women and gender boring to spend all your time studying by the museum in 2013. first discovered in 1896). gives zero stuffs is vastly to lighthouses” in the west of studies at college,” said the another subspeciality of classics, coins. The issue wasn’t what it was or where The problem isn’t just the behaviour hold peculiar understate how much tweed Scotland, whose “profile” strip-club aficionado: a I remember speaking to an avid it came from — there are strict laws of Obbink, who claims the documents he she wears. In a recent she quietly wished to “raise”. course that was a “blueprint numismatist who’d managed to collect imposed on the traffic of ancient relics. appears to have signed for the sale have status among interview, the Queen’s Why can’t the other royals on how to pick up women”. every single edition of the British 1p coin People knew exactly where it came from been faked (he says the allegation is daughter says she adores the be more like this? Why do Do we really need to since 1971. His eyes blazed with lust as he — it came from just down the road, from “entirely false”). It isn’t the fact that classicists, fabric because it “looks the they have to “reinvent the watch this kind of guy told me he only had 1982 to go. I a collection owned by the Egypt there is a vast illegal market for artefacts. same at the end of the day as wheel”, as Anne put it, by wrestling with sublimated remember thinking, what’s this all Exploration Society, formerly overseen It’s the fact that a small cabal of who regard it does at the beginning”. throwing themselves at sexy desires and expressing love about? What draws people to niche by Margaret Mountford of The academics control everything, She’d probably secretly causes — like Harry and through delicate objects? Does it give these men — and it’s Apprentice fame (she has a doctorate in classifying objects before exhibiting them as prefer to haul on an old Meghan, who were last seen conversation? It’s a “luxury always men — a feeling of power to own papyrology). Obbink had allegedly sold them or selling them on to cowboys. In tarpaulin or horse blanket for on Friday in conveniently no-bone zone”, the show and trade in sexy relics, showboating it, along with 119 other fragments that Obbink’s case, the early Mark fragment, outsiders, sheer practicality, as visiting captured footage delivering trumpets, filled with fake around billionaires? And why does the had also strangely gone missing. which he himself identified, is unlikely her beloved lighthouses can Covid-19 food parcels in Los twiggy bodies, bad boobs whole thing seem so exciting and The details of the scandal are to be as old as he’d claimed after all. loners, punks be awfully windy and muddy. Angeles. As Anne herself and too much make-up, not glamorous, when the main players have gripping, not least because of the @CamillaLong It is claimed she has might say: effort is vulgar. a vicarage in Jane Austen. Waldemar Januszczak Open art galleries and let us feed our souls 2m apart

s I queued outside the world’s most prestigious glove up. I mask up. I clap on grotesque circumstances we Tesco last week, museums. The diplomatic Thursdays. And I cannot turn are living through have dutifully effort involved in organising on the television without proved anything, it is that we maintaining my 6ft their arrival at the National crying at the bravery of our are an inventive, agile, distance, mask on, Gallery must have taken the lockdown heroes. curious species, full of gloves pulled, it needle off the top of the But — and this is a ingenuity and aesthetics. The Aoccurred to me that Kissinger scale. They came. considered question — is the daily internet feed on which I I could be doing the They went briefly on show. experience of shopping in a rely is a veritable cornucopia same thing outside the They closed. But — and this is supermarket substantially of quizzes, choirs, draw-ins, National Gallery in London what counts here — they are safer than visiting an art dance-ins, mass picture- while waiting to see the still there. exhibition in carefully makings, athletics for the marvellous Titian exhibition Hanging in an empty room controlled gallery home and suchlike. Inside all that opened there last month. at the National Gallery, right circumstances? Would it not of us there’s a Captain Tom — It was open for a couple of now, are some of the greatest be possible to transpose the the fundraising 99-year-old days. Took away the breath of paintings of the Renaissance, ground rules of safe shopping war veteran — desperate for the lucky few who saw it. brought together for the first at a supermarket to safe creativity. Then it closed. time in half a millennium, in queuing for an art exhibition, And it was always thus. If The description “once-in-a- an unparalleled treasure and then for visiting it? you wind back the human lifetime opportunity” is trove of art. And they’re just In the case of the Titian clock to our first efforts at bandied about by the press sitting there. With no one show at the National Gallery, making art, you will see our departments of museums, looking at them. we have the whole of an ancestors mounting but in the case of this Titian Now, you will find no empty Trafalgar Square to incredibly dangerous event it was a bald statement stricter adherer than me to wind around. Not that the journeys underground, down of the facts. the profound government queues should be long. A many miles of dark tunnel, In the 1550s, Philip II of advice about staying indoors carefully maintained internet armed only with flickering Spain commissioned Titian to and protecting the NHS. I go ticketing system would torches, dodging bears, produce a set of paintings for for my daily walk at six in the control the queuing numbers. snakes and sabre-toothed the royal palaces in Madrid. morning. Otherwise, I stay in. Inside, maintaining safe tigers, to draw something on At the time, Titian was the I shop only when I must. I viewer distances would be a cave wall. That is not a most famous painter of the easier than in a supermarket. luxury. That is a social Renaissance, the undisputed You don’t need to touch urgency. giant of European art. Philip anything. You don’t carry So. Let’s pick out the most was his vigorous and anything out. You stand in important of the art determined admirer. And front of a picture. You look at exhibitions that have had to over the next 25 or so years, it. You move on. If the close. Let’s organise a careful Titian fulfilled the numbers are regulated, you ticketing system that controls commission with a can easily keep your distance. the numbers queuing for spectacular suite of seven And the experience itself will shows and visiting them. Let’s paintings that rank among be heightened and improved start with the NHS workers, the greatest achievements of by the quietude. Art was dustmen, bus drivers and the Renaissance. never made to be looked at in delivery people who are He called them his poesies, heaving crowds. keeping us going. Let’s get and their principal subject True, you have to get museum guards back into was the love between gods there, but the British public work with all the protective and mortals. In most cases has shown itself to be gear they need. And let art the mortals come off worse, admirably responsible in work its historic and life- as we invariably do. Nothing matters of public access. The giving magic on us, again. like the poesies had been travel procedures in place for painted before. But no sooner shoppers and workers could Waldy and Bendy’s were they delivered than they just as easily serve the Adventures in Art were dispersed. For five desperate art-lover. In this week’s podcast, centuries they remained In the end, the point here Waldemar and the art apart. Until this show. is that art is not a frippery, or historian Bendor Grosvenor Today, Titian’s just a luxury. The entire discuss Leonardo, and take a masterpieces are scattered history of art attests to the virtual tour of the Van Eyck across London, Edinburgh, Titian’s The Rape of Europa fact that it has always been a show in Ghent. Go to Madrid, Boston, in some of at the National Gallery human necessity. If the sundaytimes.co.uk/culture 24 The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 COMMENT Dominic Lawson My generation will pay ESTABLISHED 1822 most to keep us afloat Silence is not acceptable — ministers must tell us the plan Ultra-low-rate government debt will help the young but hammer the old

he coronavirus crisis has led the The people of Britain are sensible, but f you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a gainers if (or rather, when) the economy does simply the recipients of outrageous good government to take measures they also need hope. The strains of the hundred times: the younger generation return to the path of growth? Why, the fortune, even though that is how it is invariably are the principal financial victims of the generations whose careers are in full flow, or to described. A vanishingly small number of us many would have thought lockdown on families are exacerbated by coronavirus lockdown and the ensuing come. In other words, long-term government were given the money to buy our first property impossible in peacetime. Yet the absence of any word from the govern- damage to the national balance sheet — all borrowing at fixed ultra-low rates — below the by what is nowadays called the “bank of Mum when ministers are asked how ment on how it might end. The economy to safeguard the lives of the oldies who are rate of growth of the economy itself, if all goes and Dad”. I wasn’t (not that I’m complaining); long this unusual period — this is also crying out for a plan. The Office for Imuch the most likely to die from the according to plan — will benefit the young (who and when I made my first home loan payments lockdown — will last and what Budget Responsibility has sketched out a infection. also tend to be net borrowers at an individual in 1981, the rate was 15%. According to the T Thus it has been argued by distinguished level) at the expense of the old. Or, as one Ready for Ageing Alliance, one in 10 of the their proposals are for getting scenario in which the economy shrinks by contributors to these pages that keeping the fund-manager put it to me: “The greatest over-65s are yet to pay off their mortgages. out of it, their response is defensive, even 35% in the second quarter, unemploy- over-70s safe at such great economic cost was beneficiaries of what the government is doing This is a middle-class tale. The transfer of shirty. That has to change. ment rises by at least two million and the unfair to the young: that “if all this is the price are the next two generations. Older savers will wealth from property-owning baby-boomers to The government also needs to show budget deficit hits more than £270bn this of saving human life, we have to ask whether get next to nothing for their loans and the the “millennials” in the form of inheritance some humility. Journalists have been year. The Bank of England will soon pro- it is worth paying” (Lord Sumption) and that benefits will go to those who follow.” seems especially unfair to those from poorer criticised for asking “political” questions vide a similarly gloomy assessment. these older folk are “a dead weight on the I really should put him in touch with John families whose parents never acquired their at the daily Downing Street press confer- An exit strategy not only gives people health system” who should not be such “a Linford of London E14, who in a letter to The own property (not even via the council house burden” (Sir Max Hastings). Times last week moaned: “It is easy for my sales enabled by the Thatcher governments). ences, but that is because, with one or two something to hope for but will also be I’d always thought the social compact was parents to sit, retired, on a triple-lock But if there is an injustice in this, it is not exceptions, the politicians have been important in containing the permanent that we paid in our taxes for the NHS during protected [state] pension, in their Dorset four- intergenerational. It is one of class, not age. behaving like politicians. While the economic scarring from this episode. our working life so that it looked after us when bed house with a large garden and well-stocked Still, don’t sneer at those middle-class scientists can admit that the response in Many businesses have taken advantage of we needed it most, in our declining years. But wine cellar. It is far harder to be aged 35, pensioners who are now reeling over the other countries has been more timely and the government’s job retention scheme, is it actually true that pensioners or those soon furloughed and reduced to 50% of my normal cancelling of dividend payments. In the case of to reach that age — I am 63, if you must know — income; not to mention being cooped up in a the banks, that too is as a direct result of official effective, ministers find it hard to do so. which pays 80% of the wages of fur- will be getting an unmerited free ride during small London flat with no garden or balcony.” policy: the Bank of England instructed them This weekend, once again, they are get- loughed staff and which has been the country’s slide into recession and playing Mr Linford did not say if he was the owner of not to pay out. As James Coney, our Money ting the headlines they did not want: that extended to the end of June. For firms no part in getting the country out of it? that “small London flat”. It is true that those editor, observed: “Banks . . . form the heart of frontline NHS staff are being put at risk by uncertain of when they will be able to The answer is: they — we — absolutely will now in their twenties and even their thirties are many income funds . . . They are hugely a lack of personal protective equipment resume operations, the furlough, which is play a part, and the biggest one. The finding it much harder than my generation did popular among savers. Many have been (PPE). On Friday, Public Health England costing taxpayers tens of billions, may not chancellor of the exchequer has signalled that to get onto the housing ladder. And it does hammered with sharp falls in their pension the almost countless billions of pounds seem to them that we have pulled up that funds. After the financial crisis, [high-yield] warned that “in times of extreme short- be enough. Hence the worries about a big required to shelter the jobs of British workers ladder behind us, not deliberately, but because equities became the only place for a relatively ages” healthcare professionals may need and sustained rise in unemployment during the lockdown — and to help restore of house price inflation. stable income for pensioners. Now this too is to reuse gowns or resort to alternatives. lasting well beyond this summer. growth thereafter — will be borrowed. They But what happens to the value in the homes being taken away.” PPE shortages, together with the crisis in Today we report that the cabinet is will be borrowed at astonishingly low rates of of parents of my generation when we die (as I We sixtysomethings (and older) are not care homes, is in danger of creating the considering a three-phase end to the lock- interest (the official guidance is of long-term fear we must)? All going well, it cascades down asking anyone to feel remotely sorry for us. Treasury debt being issued with an annual to our children. That means you, Mr Linford Technological progress has dealt us a better impression of political leaders who are down. The first, starting next month, coupon of 0.3%). Who will buy this debt? (assuming your published letter doesn’t make hand than any previous generation. But the not in control of events. would see primary schools reopening, Principally, British savers and those British your parents think more of other potential same will be true of each succeeding The government has been lucky that along with classes for pupils sitting GCSEs pension funds that are obliged to keep a beneficiaries). generation, coronavirus or not: that is, unless the public has responded so well to its and A-levels next year. Some non-essen- significant portion of their portfolios in We so-called baby-boomers, however, aren’t long-term growth in the economy ceases lockdown message, with only a tiny tial shops would reopen and some elect- government bonds. altogether. Provided only that governments minority infringing the guidance, given ive surgery in the NHS would resume. But these are pathetic returns, an don’t take their policies from Greta Thunberg, intensification of the trend since the credit such an unprecedented historical reverse that its messaging before the lockdown In the second phase, a few weeks later, crunch of abysmally low rates for savers (the won’t be the fate of the millennials (although, had lacked clarity. People have been very more shops and other businesses would lowest on long-term bonds for over three come to think of it, they are that mesmerising grown up — more so than the government reopen, followed later in the summer by centuries). You need only read the money Swede’s adoring peer group). and behavioural scientists had expected. pubs and restaurants. The final phase — pages of this newspaper to understand what This is not to criticise my daughters’ Now they need to be treated like adults. only after a vaccine has been developed this means to readers of a certain age. generation. I have been moved by how they The purpose of these very low interest wholeheartedly accept the need to constrict The idea that if ministers talk publicly and proved to work, probably next year — Don’t sneer at those rates — a global phenomenon, led by the US their own lives to safeguard the health, about an exit strategy from the crisis it will would release the vulnerable and the Federal Reserve — is the admirable one of middle-class primarily, of their parents’ and grandparents’ dilute the lockdown message is an insult over-70s from the lockdown. encouraging investment and restoring generations. It is in that spirit of mutual to our intelligence. People can under- It is a plan, the merits of which can be economic growth. pensioners reeling at support and solidarity that I declare them fully stand the need for the lockdown to con- debated, but it is said to be awaiting the That is a long-term programme, not one for deserving of our fiscal sacrifice. tinue for a further three weeks, until the return to work of Boris Johnson, without the next year or so. But who will be the biggest cancelled dividends [email protected] peak of the crisis has passed, to prevent whom big decisions are not being taken. NHS critical care from being over- That is wrong. We have a system of cabinet whelmed. Indeed, the public would have government, not a presidency or a dicta- reacted against any attempt to end the torship. Informing people and businesses lockdown too early. There is a contrast of proposed next steps and preparing the here between Britain and some American ground cannot be determined by the states, where protesters are agitating for length of the prime minister’s convales- Sarah Baxter an immediate end to their lockdown. cence. We have a right to know. The far left self-destructs Business is too weak for a over 800 madcap pages second wave of Brexit dogma

When, a few days ago, Downing Street It adds to the impression that this is a announced not only that the government government that puts Brexit above every- A report intended to damn the anti-Corbyn resistance does the exact opposite would not request an extension of the thing else. The suspicion that this is driven Brexit transition period, but would also by unelected officials and advisers adds to ike many of us in lockdown, I had all spied on their own staff’s private got overwhelmed by the sheer number of trolls refuse any EU request for such an exten- the concern. It chimes with Boris John- sorts of good intentions about tackling correspondence and would have felt who joined. Labour, they predicted, was sion, the reaction of many people was one son’s infamous “F*** business” quote. It the final part of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf thoroughly at home in the Stalinist 1930s. becoming “a f****** dying brand”. of astonishment. The announcement fits with a narrative of a government so Hall trilogy, The Mirror & the Light. At In the document are WhatsApp messages “We all have to stay and fight. It’s gonna followed video conference talks between obsessed with Brexit that it was slow to an impressive 882 pages, it looked as between the doughty resisters who tried to be brutal and take forever, but it’s the only David Frost and Michel Barnier, the two respond to the coronavirus danger in Jan- though I would be able to lose myself in keep the Labour Party from being overrun by option.” The staffers were supportive of the it for a while. But I had barely got “Trots”. Their language is a little ripe for my anti-Corbyn coup in 2016, but then so were chief negotiators, and was confirmed in a uary and February. As for EU membership L through the first few chapters when an taste — Karie Murphy, the power behind the 80% of Labour MPs who voted no confidence tweet by Mr Frost, who said extending the tying the government’s hands, this has even more engrossing page-turner came my leader’s office, is described as a “bitch face in the leader and most of the shadow cabinet, transition period would prolong negotia- not stopped others, notably Germany, way. I am referring, of course, to the 851-page cow”, and the f-word and c-word abound. Nor who resigned en masse. A colleague was tions, create more uncertainty and leave responding much better to the crisis in volume known enticingly as The Work of the would I ever use WhatsApp, the leaker’s friend, advised: “It’s not your job to be comradely to Britain liable for budget contributions testing and in financial support for firms. Labour Party’s Governance and Legal Unit in to share my private thoughts — but, as with sex the leader, it’s your job to protect and preserve Relation to Anti-semitism, 2014-2019. tapes, some people never learn. the ongoing functions of the Labour Party, and unable to control its own affairs. Nor is the government constrained by What I found so riveting about the madcap There is, however, the signal and the noise. which will exist long after any incumbent People and businesses were aston- public opinion. As we report today, a poll report is that it reveals clearly that there was a And what comes through loud and clear (amid leader.” Well said. ished for good reason. If we are lucky, and of more than 2,000 people shows that heroic underground resistance movement all the mickey-taking about the Diane Abbott “We’re in meltdown. 25 points down and only if we are lucky, the economy will be nearly half of leave supporters want an operating in the Labour Party under Jeremy “school of calculus” and Corbyn’s speeches [the Tories haven’t] started on us.” As the crawling out of the coronavirus slump by extension, as do two-thirds of all voters. Corbyn, with startlingly sane views about the about “war is bad and killing babies is wrong”) 2017 general election loomed, Labour was the end of the year. Businesses, having Even 45% of Brexit Party voters think the catastrophic penetration of the party by a is that these determined staffers were hellbent trailing so badly in the polls that even the bunch of “mentalist” Marxists and the looming on saving the Labour Party from the deadly Guardianista cheerleader Owen Jones devoted all their efforts to surviving the transition should be extended. They car crash during JC’s useless leadership. And grip of the far left. Here are a few “gotcha” recommended Corbyn stand down (an lockdown, have put Brexit preparations recognise that there are other priorities who’s been proved right, eh? quotes gleefully reproduced by the Corbynites inconvenient truth). Everybody in the party, on the backburner. To inflict on them an now and so should the government. It is That’s not how the Corbynites see it. The that reveal sound good sense. including the hard left, began preparing for the abrupt change in Britain’s relationship its reputation that will suffer from this leaked document has set off a frenzy of “Anyone who nominates Corbyn in order post-Corbyn era, but the internal resistance with the EU, or a no-deal Brexit, would be dogmatism. Somebody needs to knock demands for the traitors to be drummed out to ‘widen the debate’ deserves to be taken were consoled by the prospect of “team of the party and disembowelled. Zealous out and shot.” True enough, metaphorically: Corbyn” joining the “dole queue”. Me too. the height of irresponsibility. heads together. And fast. requests from dozens of far-left MPs and even Dame Margaret Beckett agreed she was a “We will have to suck this up. The people Momentum-backed constituency parties for “moron” for letting Corbyn onto the leadership have spoken. Bastards.” When Corbyn lost the report to be published in full (complete ballot. As the resistance feared, his election the election only narrowly, fuelled by Theresa with the unredacted names of internal then led to the importation of “loads of mad May’s ineptitude and the votes of remainers whistleblowers and Jewish members who Trots”. The resisters tried to limit the damage who thought he had no chance of success, complained about anti-semitism) are piling up by vetting social media accounts for references hopes of dumping him went out of the window. on Sir Keir Starmer’s desk. to Labour MPs as “traitors”, “scabs” and His opponents were left with the worst of both Smart television I should say at the outset that this column is “scum” (a source of outrage in the report) but worlds — a defeat that could be presented as a not going to address the well-documented vindication of Corbyn, leaving his supporters problem of anti-semitism in the Labour Party. to unleash more years of havoc. Labour’s Here is your starter for 10, no conferring: reality TV, it’s remarkable that a panel Because, frankly, there would have been no crushing loss was merely postponed. what term in cytogenetics describes the game in which students show off their anti-semitism problem had Corbyn ever The leaking of this voluminous report has wanted to take a stand against it. Starmer deliberately reignited the myth of the stab in entire chromosomal complement of a cell arcane general knowledge is still popular showed the way on his first day as Labour the back: that — far from voters not trusting that may be observed during mitotic after nearly 60 years. (By the way, the leader when he apologised for the “grief” Corbyn with power in 2017 or 2019 — the dear metaphase? answer to the question was “karyotype”, caused to the Jewish community and promised leader would be in No 10 today if he hadn’t If you even understood the question, but you probably knew that anyway.) to “tear out this poison by its roots”. The leaked report been betrayed. you are probably one of the many fans of Yet again there are complaints about a The backlash, in the form of this leaked This delusional thinking should have University Challenge looking forward to lack of diversity and the dominance of report, is a desperate attempt to mount a show has deliberately been firmly stamped on by Starmer. It is not a trial against the anti-Corbynist enemies within good sign that, in pursuit of a non-existent tomorrow’s final: Imperial College Oxbridge, but there is an obvious merito- — thus proving, incidentally, that the far-leftists reignited the myth of unity, he has commissioned an inquiry into London v Corpus Christi, Cambridge. cratic way to prevent this: the other teams who seized control of the party were indeed the inquiry. In a world of naked dating shows and just have to be quicker on the buzzer. “mentalists” and “complete nut-jobs” who the stab in the back @SarahBaxterSTM The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 25 COMMENT ATTICUS ROLAND WHITE

What am I bid for a letter from the PM?

The nation has reacted to Boris Johnson’s coronavirus letter in time-honoured British fashion — by trying to make a few bob out of it. Copies of the letter, which was sent to 30 million homes, are attracting bids on eBay, even though one seller set his asking price at £8,750. “I’m afraid it was not opened neatly because of nerves,” says the giddy optimist from Yorkshire. Please note: this price — although offering free postage — might not be entirely serious and has so far attracted no bids. However, there has been competition for letters at more modest sums. Perhaps the Treasury could ask the prime minister to write another note. After all, overseas sales of 30 million letters at £8,750 each would mean a £262.5bn boost for the economy.

True blues want to see pretty in pink

Now that parliament appears to be going digital, what will be the dress code? Tory Michael Fabricant has asked supporters for their views on what he should wear. Asked to choose from a suit and tie, Buy prints or signed copies of Morten Morland’s cartoons from our Print Gallery at timescartoons.co.uk casual wear, a pair of fetching pink shorts or evening dress, you’ll be shocked to learn that pink shorts won 52% of the vote. “The pink shorts have it,” says the Lichfield MP. Might we also be finally treated to QUOTES the sight of Jacob Rees-Mogg in OF THE WEEK Max Hastings double-breasted tweed pyjamas? Brainboxes, your “When you’re single at this age, there’s usually a reason for that” country needs you The actress Sharon Stone, 62, on her love life

“Please do not reinvent that In this war, ministers must ditch consultants and recruit real talent particular wheel. We’ve been there, done that” t seems mistaken to heap too much Whitehall is experiencing an invasion of joined the Ministry of Aircraft Production, to Princess Anne tells young royals the old ways work blame on the government for the management consultants. Such people are a do the heavy lifting for Lord Beaverbrook. failures in Britain’s response to dubious resource in good times, a wholly The former Trades Union Congress chief Covid-19. Instead, our rulers should inadequate one in bad. There is talk of Ernest Bevin directed labour. Lord Leathers be judged by how fast they learn from bringing in clever former ministers — Jeremy became responsible for shipping and grim experience, and how Hunt, William Hague, Ken Clarke, Rory transport. The “three profs” — Lord “There are people who Iimaginatively they address the Stewart and suchlike. This might be sensible, Cherwell, John Maynard Keynes and Lionel yawning fissures exposed by this even essential. Even more pressing, though, Robbins — addressed their brilliant minds to think, ‘Who is this complete earthquake. is the demand for high-quality the conduct and funding of government. l Tales from the Colony Room, the new Amid many uncertainties, one thing is administrators lower down the chain. Nearer the coalface, many of the finest book about Soho bohemians that I tosser who thinks lipstick’s assured: the state will play a role in all our In the early months of the Second World mathematicians in the country were guided mentioned last week, tells how former important?’ ” affairs for the next few years, greater than we War, there was regulatory and towards Bletchley Park. Such academics as prime minister Jim Callaghan was But it’s fine to care about your appearance, says have known for 60 or 70 years. The fumbled administrative confusion and bungling at Noel Annan, Edgar Williams and Enoch driving to a conference with Labour the former Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman response thus far represents consequences least as great as now. From 1940 onwards, Powell, thrust into ill-fitting uniforms, Party chairman Tom Driberg when the of generations in which its institutions and however, Britain mobilised its people more dramatically raised the quality of service two men nipped behind a hedge to instruments have been eroded and run efficiently than any other nation. The British staff work. It is an insufficiently understood answer a call of nature. down, as the dynamic of society shifted to Army never achieved excellence, but the aspect of war that it matters least who does “Ooh, I say!” said Driberg. “What a the private sector. The NHS could just cope home front did. the killing — a task requiring little intellect — beautiful c*** you have, prime six months ago, but unsurprisingly lacked The department store chief Lord Woolton and much more who generates ideas and minister. May I have a closer look?” “Complaining about being spare capacity to meet the coronavirus, ran food, and gave his name to an steers them towards implementation. Did this actually happen, though? hence the enlistment of the army to provide economical pie. Patrick Hennessy, Today, thank goodness, we are not Driberg’s biographer, Francis Wheen, in a mansion with a logistics, communications and managerial wunderkind boss of Ford of Dagenham, fighting anybody. We need not thrust once asked Callaghan, who “replied swimming pool. Honestly, support through its Operation Rescript. millions of young men and women into stiffly that no such incident ever took The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, uniform. Yet after generations in which most place”. And you would remember, I don’t want to hear it” after suffering decades of shrinkage and of the nation’s brightest and best have wouldn’t you? Advice for stars from the comedian Ricky Gervais political contempt, struggles to address devoted their lives to making money or international issues, including the welfare of spending it in the private sector, now instead l There are calls for the NHS tens of thousands of British citizens abroad. their talents are desperately needed on the fundraiser Captain Tom Moore to be Meanwhile, we have the police force we front line — a new kind of front line, but just knighted, but he’s not the only deserve, in the absence of effective as critical as were the beaches 80 years ago. wartime officer being celebrated. The supervision as well as adequate funding. No such mobilisation is going to happen in Chap magazine has been remembering “For all those finding it The government should be devolving five minutes. We are all undergoing a the sang-froid of army padre Leslie difficult: the sun will shine many decisions and supervisory functions to supremely traumatic process of adjustment. Skinner, who found himself under local authorities, rather than persisting with But it seems important that those in charge fire in the Dutch town of Enschede in on you again and the a surely doomed attempt to run everything, of government should at least identify a April 1945. clouds will go away” and to distribute stupendous sums of public direction of travel, a roadmap towards As Captain Skinner told the story: Captain Tom Moore, 99, who by yesterday money, direct from Whitehall. But councils, radical measures such as were unthinkable “Halfway down the main street firing afternoon had raised more than £20m for the too, are resource-starved, treated by central three months ago. They should be planning, broke out at both ends, so I dived into NHS by walking 100 laps of his garden government as a burden upon national life for instance, the recruitment of civilian a shop for cover.” The shop was a rather than as a key component of it. special constables to reinforce a police force barber’s, so, as gunfire crackled Above all, the civil service at every level that lacks the numbers to handle the law- outside, he had his hair cut. has been abused, bypassed, despised, and-order challenges that lie ahead. They demoralised. Most of its indifferently should be considering how best to re-employ l The former Liberal Democrat leader rewarded high-flyers quit before reaching the talents of millions who will forfeit their Sir Ming Campbell is an Olympian who the highest posts. Permanent secretaries are existing jobs. could once run 100m in 10.2 seconds, obliged to share power, though seldom Ministers, as much as the rest of us, need so he enjoys his exercise. On the other responsibility, with ministers’ often half- to acknowledge that we cannot look forward hand, he is 78 years old and keeping witted and unfailingly arrogant spin doctors. After decades to some happy date this year when normal strictly to his Edinburgh home. What It would be mistaken to idealise past service will be resumed. We must prepare, to do? British governments, including wartime in which the instead, for a new world, wherein we can “My way of staying fit has been to ones. In the 20th century, however, weak survive and prosper only if we respond to its walk up and down the 44 stairs of our and incompetent ministers were protected brightest and challenges with courage and imagination. three-storey home three or four times and buttressed by an impressive Whitehall Foremost is that we should conscript the a day,” he says. Who needs Joe Wicks? machine. Sir Humphrey Appleby was a best have best possible people to manage the myriad valuable article, much brighter than hapless activities of the state, which will, for many l According to the National Day Jim Hacker. devoted their moons ahead, intrude unprecedentedly but Calendar website, yesterday was It is such human instruments to execute also, we should hope, constructively upon National Columnists Day, during policy that are today lacking, and must be lives to making all our lives. If the government kids itself that which everybody is urged to celebrate rediscovered. Not merely this country, but McKinsey can supply the answers, then it is newspaper columnists. Please, send the world, faces years of unprecedented money, they are asking the wrong questions. no money: flowers will suffice. medical, economic and social stress. The I will be celebrating today instead by critical agent in preserving our societies will now needed on Sir Max Hastings’s latest book is Chastise: The pointing out that Friday was Bat be the state, which thus needs our best Dambusters Story 1943 (William Collins, £25). Appreciation Day. That could have brains and most competent administrators. the front line Niall Ferguson writes in News Review, page 27 been better timed, couldn’t it? 26 The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 COMMENT Matthew Syed When scientists and engineers come together, they win grand prix races . . . then save lives

he sun was setting over the long it has taken for the nut to physically electronics, software and manufacturing of the air-blast to the pipes and internally sophisticated but that have concrete horizon in Abu Dhabi loosen its pre-loaded torque . . . This came together to create a ventilator. improving the regulators.” lost contact with external reality. One when Lewis Hamilton’s sleek, information helps us to create an They could have copied an existing I particularly love the story of how thinks of macroeconomic models that grey supercar pulled into the optimisation loop. We can improve design under licence but, faced with Watt gained the insight for keeping the fail to predict anything and pit lane. I was with the every time-sensitive aspect.” bottlenecks in the supply chain, sought cylinder of his steam engine hot to make psychological theories that fail to Mercedes Formula One team at Last month Mercedes announced that to produce a device with non-traditional Success is based it efficient while simultaneously keeping replicate. I guess I am not alone in Tthe season-ending grand prix in it had teamed up with University College components. It took them just 35 days, the steam cool to create a vacuum. After harbouring growing concerns about the 2014, observing the engineers London to create a non-invasive despite constantly changing on a willingness relentless experimentation with copper empirical status of epidemiological as they went about their business. As the breathing device, reverse-engineering a specifications issued by the government. kettles, flasks and a newly discovered models, not least their lack of robustness car stopped, 16 crew jumped out, vintage piece of NHS kit called a The ventilator is now awaiting to fail fast . . . you understanding of “latent heat” gained to uncertainty. changing the tyres in roughly the time it WhisperFlow CPap. The team worked regulatory approval. from his friend Joseph Black, Watt went True science never loses contact with took you to read this sentence. Hamilton relentlessly, often through the night, and Many have speculated about how figure out where for a walk on “a fine Sabbath afternoon”. reality, a point that struck me afresh was back out on the track in less than despite difficulties with the valves and Britain will be changed, psychologically “The idea came into my mind that as when I visited Mercedes HQ in three seconds. oxygen flow, completed a challenge that and politically, by the current crisis. I your ideas are steam was an elastic body it would rush Northamptonshire before the British After the race — which sealed might have taken two years in less than a would suggest that the most precious into a vacuum . . . and might be there Grand Prix last summer. The Hamilton’s victory in the championship hundred hours. My only surprise is that transformation would be a renewed wrong, so you can condensed without cooling the cylinder. engineering team was as inquisitive as — I spoke to James Vowles, the Mercedes it took that long. They shipped the most appreciation for the beauty and I had not walked further than the golf- ever, relentlessly seeking data to chief strategist, about their success. He recent batch on Wednesday afternoon. greatness of engineering and science. improve them house when the whole thing was challenge their assumptions. I chatted to said it was predicated on a willingness to James Dyson is another who has This isn’t just about a method, but a arranged in my mind.” Hamilton, who has embraced this spirit “fail fast”. “Engineering is not just about demonstrated urgency and imagination mindset; a mindset of identifying This continuity between science and of discovery; a spirit that not only what we know, but finding out what we at this time of national emergency. This problems, and solving them at speed value of the engineering mindset. A can- engineering, the beautiful and intricate explains the success of a motor racing don’t know, for with a complex problem is an engineer who forged his reputation and scale. do attitude. This is the spirit that feedback loop that leads from one to the team but why a rapidly developed there is a lot that even experts don’t by testing at speed, working through Couldn’t much of the public sector catalysed the industrial revolution, other and back, explains much about breathing device is, today, saving lives in know,” he said. “That is why you more than 5,000 prototypes to arrive at benefit from this dynamism? Where where the likes of Erasmus Darwin and innovation. The laws of British hospitals. challenge your assumptions quickly, his dual-cyclone vacuum cleaner. engineers probe ideas, quangos too Joseph Priestley spurred “great thermodynamics moved into the “After every single weekend, I come figure out where your ideas are wrong, “Engineering is about solving problems,” often prefer grandiose plans that cannot alterations in mechanics, geology, purview of theoretical imagination only into the factory and sit with the so you can improve them. he told me, “and this requires a be easily tested, let alone falsified. electricity and botany”, as James Buchan because the invention of the steam engineers,” he said. “We go through “Take the pit stop. When we came up willingness to adapt.” Bureaucracy is privileged over agility, puts it in his splendid review of The engine forced scientists to ask: how does what happened . . . and the implications with a new strategy, we knew it would be I happened to visit Dyson’s plant a empire-building over solution-seeking. Lunar Men. it work? This is why we need stronger for what we will do for the current race. less than optimal, so we built sensors to couple of weeks before the coronavirus When data emerges that shows a plan When James Watt was asked to build links between universities and cutting- We spent an hour and a half today test our approach. When the gun crisis struck, learning about plans to isn’t working, it isn’t seen as an an organ, he reverse-engineered an edge industries, permitting a more talking about starts. People will think it’s operator initially connects to the wheel reimagine long-life batteries and air opportunity to adapt, but to spin and existing design à la Mercedes. “Starting fertile cross-pollination of ideas. just a two-second thing, but there is so nut, I can tell that they, say, connected filtration. As the dangers of Covid-19 obfuscate. Who can forget the phrase “a from scratch, he noticed a thousand Science lost some of its sheen in much detail . . . There is no end to 20 degrees off the optimal angle. When loomed, the hangar was transformed good day to bury bad news”? things that no organ-builder would have recent decades under the scourge of continuous improvement.” they start rotating the gun, I can tell how into a war room where experts from Dyson has long evangelised about the dreamt of, such as adjusting the strength scientism: the use of theories that are @MatthewSyed

The Sunday Times, BIRTHDAYS POINTS LETTERS 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF Email: letters@ TO THE EDITOR sunday-times.co.uk Sue Barker, broadcaster, 64 Unstocked shop received none. Meanwhile, Dickie Bird, cricket The answer to any police MPs have been handed a GEOFF ROBINSON umpire, 87 officer who gets funny about £10,000 grant to help with public transport, and more of James Franco, actor, 42 only sinful items like booze home working — and still State snooping us cycle and walk for exercise Dame Kelly Holmes, and fags being in your receive full salaries, paid by in line with health athlete, 50 shopping basket (Rod Liddle, us. It’s plain wrong. recommendations. Gina Miller, activist, 55 Comment, last week) is to Gerard Norval won’t beat Covid-19 At some point, once the Maria Sharapova, tennis state that the essential items New Milton, Bournemouth lockdown restrictions have player, 33 on your list — flour, yeast, Alongside your report on an Watch the watchers ended, a large proportion Ruby Wax, comedian, 67 Domestos and so on — were Royal physicians NHS phone app that will track The contact-tracing app has of the UK population will sold out. Let’s face it: most of It was kind of the Queen to citizens’ movements, the severe implications for our again be moving around the time it’ll be true. send us an uplifting message. former head of MI5 claims relationship with the state. towns and cities. Crowding Ruth Grimsley, Sheffield Allowing NHS staff to stay at that the wide surveillance There must be robust onto public transport will Buckingham Palace, while powers acquired by the safeguards on who can access clearly be undesirable. Funny business the Queen self-isolates at intelligence agencies after information, for what Reallocating road space, on a Many of the companies Windsor — now that really 9/11 were effective against purposes and for how long. temporary basis, would asking for government aid would be uplifting. terrorism and “are likely to be Participation must be truly enable more of us to travel (News, last week) had been Stan Walker just as effective at helping voluntary, and this means safely by foot or bike and saddled with debt to pay for Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire stamp out the Covid-19 we should not be coerced lower the risk of a second shareholder dividends and pandemic” (News, last week). into using it — for example, Cyclists and pedestrians need space for social distancing wave of infection. directors’ bonuses. I am Germ of an idea Yet the countries that have as a prerequisite for returning Prompt and public Dame Kelly Holmes is 50 reminded of the child who, A 1940s government poster fared best — Taiwan, South to work. Now drivers must cyclists at low cost, allowing government support for this charged with the murder of issued the exhortation: Korea and Germany — have Times of emergency call them more space to safely approach would encourage his parents, asked for “Coughs and sneezes spread focused instead on testing, for us to make sacrifices, but share the roads comply with social distancing local authorities to take the ANNIVERSARIES clemency on the grounds he diseases — trap the germs in tracing and transparency. we cannot allow today’s guidelines. measures needed. Our roads was an orphan. your handkerchief.” It The real relationship health crisis to usher in a With the large increase in From Germany to New can work better during David Thorpe worked then and could help between surveillance and surveillance state. people cycling and walking, Zealand, towns and cities lockdown: let’s make that New Malden, London the government’s hygiene public health is this: for years Martha Spurrier it’s clear that many street around the world are already happen. 1770 Captain James Cook measures now, though an a pandemic has been at the Director, Liberty layouts across the UK are not creating pop-up cycling and Will Butler-Adams, chief sights Australia Bame recognition updated version would be top of the UK’s risk register, fit for purpose during the walking lanes. It is becoming executive, Brompton Bicycle; 1775 American Revolution You commemorate 10 black, required: “Coughs and yet far less was spent on Health before privacy pandemic. Vast amounts of essential as key workers Paul Tuohy, chief executive, begins Asian and minority ethnic sneezes are the issue — trap preparing for one than on How concerned about our currently underused road choose to cycle to work, Cycling UK; Dr Ian Basnett, 1993 Seventy-six members (Bame) doctors who came to the germs in your paper anti-terrorist measures, many privacy would we be if we space can be temporarily avoiding potential director of public health, of a religious sect die in a Britain and lost their lives tissue.” of which were ostentatious were dying or suffering reallocated to walkers and transmission of disease on Barts Health NHS Trust fire at Waco, Texas fighting Covid-19 (News, last Trevor Lyttleton rather than effective. lasting health damage from 1995 Car bomb kills 168 week). Bame communities London NW11 The rhetoric of terrorism Covid-19? Technology that people in Oklahoma proportionally contribute puffed up the security tracks our movements could Litter louts get Drink and drop explanation? There had been 2005 Joseph Ratzinger is more ancillary workers, The good doctor agencies at the expense of save many lives and prevent Like Clarkson, I am spending a point-to-point meeting on elected Pope Benedict XVI carers, nurses and doctors to I was delighted by Christina public health, predisposing the economic ruin of this everywhere my walking time doing the land. the NHS than white Britons. Lamb’s piece on the surgeon the US and UK governments country. something useful by litter- Martin Henry, Chelmsford Would it not be fitting to David Nott, who has operated to disregard the lessons of While it is right to consider Jeremy Clarkson lists the litter picking. As well as the lager Breaking taboo recognise this by naming one in war zones and is now Sars in 2003 and Mers in our privacy, that cannot be discarded in his fields (News tins and fag packets, I now Red mist of the temporary Covid-19 fighting the coronavirus in 2015. We need a radical allowed to interfere with the Review, last week). It’s just as find antiseptic wipes and I share Clarkson’s wrath at of menopause hospitals after Mary Seacole, London (News, last week). redistribution of resources deployment of a tool that bad at the beach. On a recent blue surgical gloves — and the pondlife who use our the British-Jamaican nurse How uplifting to read of a from the surveillance- could end the Covid-19 Clyde coast walk I found loads of plastic energy-drink beautiful countryside to Meg Mathews writes of the who cared for British troops man with such courage, industrial complex to public disaster. There is no contest bottles, trainers, underwear, bottles. Why can’t cyclists dispose of their drinks cans. challenges of sex during in the Crimea? ability and humanity. health. here. Our health and welfare an oven-chips bag — and the take them home? About half of those I pick up menopause (Style, last week). Alban McAteer Sam Ashton Ross Anderson, professor of clearly take precedence. front section of a Vespa Charlotte Casson are from a manufacturer I wish I’d had the strength to Ledbury, Herefordshire Hornby, Lancashire security engineering Nigel Duckworth scooter. Silverdale, Lancashire represented by a brightly act as she describes. Fifteen Cambridge University Dartmouth, Devon June Gowland, Shrewsbury coloured bovine. This high years ago, menopause robbed Sick to the back teeth Huntin’, shootin’, tippin’ proportion is an indication of my husband and me of what Thank you for highlighting Letters should arrive by Can you Adam and Eve it? Clarkson observes that the type of people who enjoy could have continued as a the plight of dentists (“One in midday on Thursday and Labour prepared assessment that our We are 10 miles from the middle and upper-class this “energy” drink. fulfilling sex life. Anxiety hit five dental practices going include the full address and a preparations were among the nearest McDonald’s but local rubbish is never seen on his The manufacturer could me like a tornado. down the tube”, News, last phone number. We may edit for a pandemic best in the world. This was, morons still distribute its patch. This is not quite true of perhaps suggest to its The problem is that week). I am a private dentist letters, which must be she said, achieved through a empty cartons at the roadside the country lanes where I customers that lobbing the nobody talks about what and have applied for help, but exclusive to The Sunday Times Dominic Lawson is wrong in substantial stockpile of drugs — along with stranger items of live. I recently collected 109 empty cans out of the car happens to women and their his assertion that “under the and “sleeping contracts” litter. I found a rifle bag with pieces of rubbish, which window is not acceptable; or, bodies at this time, and what last Labour government there ready to be activated when a red 32AA bra inside it. included two empty better still, charge a deposit can be done to extend their was no special provision required, plus consumables — Discarded by a petite champagne bottles and, on the cans. sex lives: I was just advised to CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS made, in terms of buying respirators, protective assassin, maybe? oddly, an unopened bottle of Robin Welland-Jones use some cream. more ventilators or personal equipment and so on — to the Martin Grass, Somerset Harveys Bristol Cream. The Bentley, Hampshire Name supplied, Northampton protection equipment, to value of £113m. of The Sunday Times should prepare for the pandemic The reason (to quote Dame be addressed to complaints@ long predicted” (Comment, Deirdre once more) “the Stop blaming for a pandemic stems from Low behaviour already in poverty face Covid- sunday-times.co.uk or last week). planning for a pandemic was short-termism and financial 19 without means to pay for Because of an editing error, Complaints, The Sunday The independent review of well developed, the the politicians imprudence across society by the high street medical care, rent or even an article on Antarctica Times, 1 London Bridge Street, the 2009 swine flu pandemic, personnel involved fully and government over food because of UK retailers’ (Travel, April 12) said that London SE1 9GF. chaired by Dame Deirdre prepared” was that a Matthew Syed’s column decades — sanity may be on UK high-street fashion brands unethical actions. Firms must Captain Scott’s last words In addition, the Independent Hine, described the UK pandemic was top of the should be required reading the horizon. have cancelled orders from publicly state whether they were written in his hut on Press Standards Organisation response as “highly government’s National Risk for political commentators, In the meantime, they Asian suppliers (Business and are honouring their contracts. Cape Evans. In fact they were (Ipso) will examine formal satisfactory” and praised “the Register. As far as I’m aware, especially those from the BBC should stop blaming today’s Money, last week). Some will Fiona Gooch, Traidcraft written in his tent. We complaints about the editorial exceptional level of this has remained the case (Comment, last week). When politicians with unrelenting not pay for work already done. Exchange; Mariela Kohon, apologise for the mistake. content of UK newspapers and preparedness the UK has since 2010. I hear one of them recognise venom and look in the mirror. As a result, millions in Asia are TUC; Penny Fowler, Oxfam; magazines. Please go to our attained”. She quoted the Alan Johnson, secretary of the truth of his argument — Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael still waiting for March wages. and 20 others. For a full list see Complaints about website for full details of how World Health Organisation’s state for health 2007-9 that our lack of preparedness Graydon, London SW1 It is a scandal that people sundaytimes.co.uk/letters inaccuracies in all sections to lodge a complaint.

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It was a tale of two Matthews. protecting lives.” Allan readers under his own to their pet project. . . no Jeremy Clarkson demanded tactfully rendered her answer Last week we asked: Matthew Parris doesn’t Plaskett agreed: “Killing the column, on the public short- mention is made of what the death penalty for littering in asterisks. Could you cope with another three months of lockdown? usually pop up on a Sunday, economy — the present policy termism that has blighted might have to be sacrificed to — to much applause from the Finally, a past champion but the Times columnist of economic suicide to be on pandemic planning. “Superb fund it.” “Good point,” gallery. Andrew Harris told told us how to triumph at that YES NO pitched in under Dominic the safe side — will cost many analysis,” said pie eater. Matthew replied. “It reminds of an encounter with a culprit: most contentious of family Lawson’s piece on the Tories more lives in the longer term, “The media plays a massive me of the poll finding that “She said she was providing games, Scrabble. Katie 64% 36% and the NHS: “The question and (unlike Covid-19) not part in feeding this unrealistic people are always in favour of work for road sweepers. I wasn’t happy. “Take this From a poll of 11,193 Times and Sunday Times readers Dominic’s argument points preponderantly in the over- expectation of government. spending on important asked for her address so that I article down now before my me to . . . is whether our 65 age group.” Every day the news features projects until they go into a could set her house on fire husband reads it. Can’t have This week’s question: political class has placed Meanwhile, Matthew someone who tells us ‘more polling station and remember and provide employment for him winning.” Should schools reopen for the summer term? protecting the NHS ahead of Syed was busy responding to needs to be done’ in relation they might have to pay for it.” the fire service.” Andrew Stephen Bleach Have your say at sundaytimes.co.uk/poll The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 27

NEWS REVIEW 12 PUZZLES CROSSWORDS 14 SUDOKU & MORE NEWS REVIEW PAGES 30-31

ILLUSTRATION; TONY BELL

THE BRUTAL LEGACY OF LOCKDOWN

between 30 and 40 million lives around soaring, even as poor countries come cap infected person who survives has immu- The fallout from our the world this year. “We do not consider in hand to the IMF to have their old debts nity; whether or not the virus will recede the wider social and economic costs of forgiven. as spring turns to summer in the north- suppression,” the authors noted, almost We know that at least one policy goal 13% ern hemisphere; and what lasting neuro- disastrous coronavirus as an aside, “which will be high.” has been achieved. Thanks to govern- logical or cardiovascular damage the That may be the understatement of the ment action, the great lockdown has — Predicted virus may do. policy could tip us into year. Last week the chief economist of the thus far — been significantly less costly to contraction of International Monetary Fund, Gita Gopi- investors in nearly every asset class than UK economy he wrong way to think about this nath, published an assessment of the the global financial crisis, even as the real problem — and I already see people the worst economic economic costs of what she named “the economy has suffered more. But no one doing it on social media — is to say: Great Lockdown”. This will be, she said, should pretend that what governments T“They’ve cratered the economy depression since the 1930s, “the worst recession since the Great are doing is “stimulus”. You cannot stim- and yet only 29,000 Americans Depression, and far worse than the global ulate a locked-down economy, any more £273bn have died. That’s less than in some regu- writes Niall Ferguson financial crisis”. The global economy will than you can accelerate in a car with two lar flu seasons!” First, this ain’t over. His- shrink by 3%. And if the pandemic fails to missing wheels. All you can do is stealth- UK’s estimated torically, most pandemics have come in recede in the second half of this year, it ily employ policies that were once dis- public sector net more than one wave, and a second could shrink by another 3% in 2021. missed as too radical — universal basic borrowing — 14% Covid-19 wave later in the year seems all In the US, there has never been such income and modern monetary theory — of GDP too likely. Second, this is the toll after learnt a new American military trous failure to act on both sides of the an upward leap in unemployment: and hope that people and businesses will social distancing and lockdowns. You abbreviation this week: SOL, to add Atlantic. The American epidemiologist 22 million people have filed for un- stay afloat long enough to resume normal really have no clue what it might have to Snafu and Fubar. Snafu, for those Larry Brilliant, a key figure in the cam- employment benefits in the past four service when the public health emer- been if we’d done nothing. who haven’t watched enough war paign to eradicate smallpox, has said for weeks — one in eight American workers. gency is over, whenever that may be. The choice was never between a movies, stands for situation nor- many years that the formula for dealing For the UK economy, the Office for Bud- Even in the best-case scenario, there $3.3tr deadly dash for “herd immunity” and the mal, all f***** up. Fubar means with an infectious disease is “Early detec- Were getary Responsibility (OBR) is predicting will be an almighty fiscal and monetary great lockdown. The choice was, and f***** up beyond all recognition. tion, early response”. the worst year since 1900 — a contraction hangover. In the IMF’s nightmare sce- Estimated cost of remains, between excessively costly and And SOL? That means shit out of Other countries — such as Taiwan and Trump of 13%. While the perennial bulls of Wall nario of a multiyear depression, there global health and affordable containment of the contagion Iluck. At a time when the world South Korea — did both. However, with- Street make their usual predictions of a will come a point when the discrepancy relief measures until we understand it well enough to economy seems more Fubar than out adequate testing capacity, the US and and V-shaped recovery, academic economists between economic realities and asset control it with vaccination and effective merely Snafu, it’s worth considering that the UK could not do the first; and, rather grow more pessimistic by the day. prices will no longer be sustainable. therapy. The east Asian democracies, it’s probably also SOL. than responding early, they chose others True, finance ministries and central So have we made a ghastly mistake? along with Israel and the smarter north I learnt the term SOL from a man instead to dither. banks all over the world have done their Will we one day look back and say that European countries, are showing that you’ve never heard of: Robert Kadlec. Only on March 16, with the publication right all utmost to compensate for the economic policymakers overreacted — that Trump there is a way to avoid economic lock- Since August 2017, Kadlec — a career of terrifying projections by the team at shock inflicted by the great lockdown by and others were right all along to worry downs by mass testing and tech-enabled medic with the US Air Force — has been Imperial College London led by Neil Fer- along reviving the tools they deployed against that the cure would be more costly than contact-tracing. The problem is that nei- assistant secretary for preparedness and guson, did policy lurch from insouciance the financial crisis in 2009-10. Quantita- the disease? From the outset, with the ther Britain nor America seems any- response at the US Department of Health to panic. Without both mitigation (social that the tive easing — purchases of all kinds of evidence accumulating from China and where close to either, even as the political and Human Services. On October 10, distancing) and suppression (economic assets by the central banks — is back, and Italy that the victims of Covid-19 were dis- pressure mounts, especially in Republi- 2018, Kadlec gave a lecture at the Robert lockdowns), Ferguson argued, “81% of cure this time the quantities being eased make proportionately over 65, a few right-lean- can states, for a return to work. Strauss Centre on biodefence policy, in the GB and US populations would be me feel, well, uneasy. Since February 26, ing politicos and pundits made the mis- What that means, I fear, is that we may which he made a lucid argument for the infected over the course of the epi- would the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet has take of talking as if there were a crude end up with the worst of both worlds: equivalent of an insurance policy against demic”, with “approximately 510,000 exploded from $4.1 trillion to $6.1 trillion. trade-off: the economy or the elderly. enough lockdowns to condemn us to eco- the risk of a pandemic. deaths in GB and 2.2 million in the US”. be more Among its recent purchases are junk Last month, Dan Patrick, the nomic depression, but not enough to “If we don’t build this,” Kadlec con- Allowing for population increases, that bonds. lieutenant-governor of Texas, who is 70, avert a much higher level of mortality cluded, “we’re gonna be SOL should we would have made the 2020 Covid-19 pan- costly Deficit finance is also the order of the was roundly condemned when he posed than we are ready for. ever be confronted with it.” demic more deadly than the 1918-19 influ- day: the US Coronavirus Aid, Relief and the question: “As a senior citizen, are you People die every day, of course. But What makes Kadlec’s remark so strik- enza pandemic. than the Economic Security (Cares) Act, a general- willing to take a chance on your survival there were 6,082 excess deaths in ing is that, only the previous month, the purpose bailout bill that combines in exchange for keeping the America that England and Wales in the week to April 3, government he works for — the adminis- e shall never be sure if those pro- disease? cheques for everyone with soft loans to all America loves for your children and 59% above the average for the corre- tration of President Donald J Trump — jections were correct, because businesses, has a $2 trillion price tag. The grandchildren? . . . If that’s the exchange, sponding week in the preceding five had published a 36-page National Bio- Ferguson’s warning was hastily federal deficit for 2020 was expected to I’m all in.” In response, Andrew Cuomo, years. The number of Covid-19 deaths defence Strategy. In June 2019, Congress Wheeded in both London and be under 5% of GDP; now it could be the governor of New York, tweeted: “My amounted to more than half of that passed a Pandemic and All Hazards Pre- Washington. Beginning a month above 15%. The Fed is buying all of the mother is not expendable. Your mother excess (3,801). And it is almost certain paredness and Advanced Innovations ago, the British and American economies new government debt, though by creat- is not expendable. We will not put a that the week to April 10 will look worse, Act. On paper, the United States was have followed the majority of developed ing excess reserves for banks, not print- dollar figure on human life.” as there were 5,353 Covid-19-related ready for a pandemic — better prepared economies into an economic lockdown ing dollar bills. This was an asinine argument — on deaths in NHS hospitals that week, 88% and better resourced than any country in without precedent in history. Satisfied The OBR estimates that the UK’s public both sides. Economists routinely “put a higher than the previous week. the world. On paper. that his advice had been heeded, Fer- sector net borrowing will be £273bn this dollar figure on human life” when assess- Contrasting these numbers and simi- Almost as well prepared — on paper — guson revised down his projection of year — 14% of GDP — taking total public ing the costs and benefits of public policy. lar data for the US with the far lower was the British government. The Cabinet total UK deaths due to Covid-19 from debt above 100% of GDP. The Bank of The key concept is known as a Qaly — a death rates in countries that practised Office correctly rated pandemics as the more than half a million to “20,000 or England is directly financing some of that quality-adjusted life year — and the going early detection and early response, you No 1 threat to the country, ahead of ter- less, two-thirds of which would have died borrowing by expanding the govern- rate these days in the United States is begin to understand what American sol- rorism and financial crashes. Ministers this year from other causes” (in other ment’s “ways and means facility”, the between $50,000 and $150,000. But diers mean by SOL. Except that luck could count on the epidemiological words, a net 6,700). government’s overdraft at the bank. crude utilitarian calculations — how really shouldn’t play a part in the way a expertise of the New and Emerging Res- Epidemiologists and economists Worldwide, the IMF’s fiscal monitor many units of economic output should well-run country handles a pandemic. piratory Virus Threats Advisory Group appear to have much in common: both puts the costs of additional health and we be willing to sacrifice per Qaly? — are (Nervtag) and the Scientific Advisory like models and maths. But it has become relief measures due to the pandemic at impossible in the case of Covid-19 Niall Ferguson is the Milbank Family Group for Emergencies (Sage). apparent this year that epidemiologists $3.3 trillion. On top of that come public because we still know too little about it. senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, And yet when, in January, reports from don’t much care about economics. sector loans and equity injections to cor- We have only guesstimates of such cru- Stanford, managing director of China made it clear that the new corona- Another Imperial College paper pub- porations ($1.8 trillion) and guarantees cial variables as how many people have Greenmantle and the author of The Square virus now known as Sars-CoV-2 was both lished in March predicted that social dis- and other contingent liabilities ($2.7 tril- the virus without symptoms; what the and the Tower: Networks, Hierarchies and contagious and lethal, there was a disas- tancing and lockdowns could save lion). All over the world, public debt is true infection fatality rate is; how long an the Struggle for Global Power (Penguin) 28 The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 NEWS5G REVIEW CAUSES HEADACHES BUT MAINLY FOR GULLIBLE CELEBRITIES

The new mobile networks have no link to Covid-19 or cancer, writes Tom Chivers. Eamonn Holmes is part of a long technophobe tradition

ILLUSTRATION: CLARE COLLINS efore we go any further: fifth- very similar to the ones in 3G and 4G frequency radiation. Even so, Grimes generation wireless commu- mobile phone networks,” says Andrew points out an engineer must practically nication technology — 5G — Steele, a physicist and computational Holden: agent hug a transmitter to get near those limits. does not cause Covid-19. Nor biologist whose book Ageless is due out said her tweeting Grimes links the sudden prevalence of does it make the coronavirus this year. They are not quite the same, of a link to a the Covid-19 conspiracy theories to social spread faster. It seems odd though: the microwaves are higher petition calling media. “In the past it wasn’t the malign that this needs to be said, but -frequency and therefore higher energy. for 5G to be presence it is now when it comes to mis- apparently it does. At least High-energy “ionising” radiation, such banned had been information.” The conspiracy theories B20 mobile phone masts, as gamma rays or the sun’s ultraviolet a mistake develop by themselves but there is some have been vandalised in light, has enough energy to break chemi- suggestion, he says, of outside help. Britain in recent days, some set alight, cal bonds within molecules. Sunburn “There are Russian fingerprints on some although most did not include 5G equip- causes cancer by breaking chemical 5G conspiracy claims,” he says, “just as ment. bonds in our DNA, causing “spelling mis- there were with HIV in the 1980s. They Amanda Holden, 49, the Britain’s Got takes” that make cells replicate wrongly. didn’t start it but they stirred the pot.” Talent judge, tweeted a link to a petition Lower-energy “non-ionising” radia- Nick Brown, a psychologist and former calling for 5G to be banned, although her tion, such as microwaves or radio waves, IT engineer, recently recounted on Twit- representative later said she had done so does not have enough energy to damage ter a story he was told by a mobile net- by mistake. Eamonn Holmes, 60, who molecules. And although 5G radiation work engineer he worked with in France presents This Morning, said last week that carries a little more energy than 4G, it is in 2008. Every time the engineer the “mainstream media” was playing still at least 10,000 times less powerful installed a mast, the mayor of whatever down the link because it “suits the state than visible light. “If you worry about 5G, village it was in would suggest putting it narrative” (he later backtracked). Goop, then lightbulbs should terrify you,” on the water tower. Then, as soon as the the 47-year-old Gwyneth Paltrow’s “well- Grimes says. mast was installed, everyone would com- ness” company, has been criticised for plain about headaches. The mayor would promoting anti-5G “shielding” blankets. owever, as Holmes might point out, call a meeting, where people would shout Data-carrying radio waves such as 5G, because you can never prove a neg- at the engineer and then demand action and 4G before it, have also been linked to ative, it is not impossible that some to make the headaches stop. scares about vaccinations. People have Hnew information will unveil a link. The engineer would tell the locals, reported headaches, memory loss, heart “Science will keep an eye on it,” “We haven’t turned the mast on yet”, and palpitations and fatigue when in the pres- Grimes says. “But there is zero reason in everyone would go home, their head- ence of a wi-fi router or a mobile phone. the evidence or theory to think this is a aches would stop and the mast would be This distress could well be real but it has problem. Extraordinary claims require switched on. “Everyone is happy,” the never been reliably replicated in scien- extraordinary evidence, and there’s no engineer told Brown. “Except if tific conditions. evidence of harm from 5G.” they’re in a bad-reception area So how has 5G and illness become The question is why these claims and they ask us to turn up the linked in the public mind? don’t die away. Steele points out power. “There’s nothing new under the sun,” that the World Health Organisa- “Two years later we go sighs David Robert Grimes, a physicist tion’s International Agency for to deploy a new genera- and cancer researcher, whose book The Research on Cancer (IARC) hasn’t tion of mast and the Irrational Ape discusses conspiracy theo- helped by classifying low- same people start ries about vaccines and wi-fi. “The same frequency electromagnetic radia- getting headaches things were said about 4G and 2G and tion as “possibly carcinogenic”. It before we’ve wi-fi, and about mobile networks in the sounds bad until you learn that its installed it, and we 1980s.” In the 1970s, Soviet radar opera- “probably not carcinogenic” cat- go round it again. tors were believed to suffer from “micro- egory contains just one sub- “The first time the wave syndrome”; by 2007, some people stance: an obscure chemical Montgolfier brothers sent were lining their homes with tinfoil to called caprolactam involved in up a balloon, it landed in a keep away what back then was described the production of nylon. Both field and was attacked by peo- as “electrosmog”. bacon and cigarettes appear in ple with pitchforks. We’ve had The most recent wave of concern can the “carcinogenic” category. “It’s 200 years of not trusting technol- probably be traced to a piece in the influ- one of those scientific classifica- ogy,” he adds. The new 5G does not ential magazine Scientific American, in tions that have a totally different cause Covid-19, but convincing October, by a public health researcher meaning when they get out to the everyone of that will take some seri- called Joel Moskowitz, titled We Have No public,” Steele says. ous work. Reason to Believe 5G Is Safe. It attracted The EU, always hyper-cautious, significant attention. Moskowitz’s piece has adopted the IARC classification Tom Chivers is a columnist for relied on a small study looking at cancer and imposed stringent limits on low- UnHerd incidents in rats, which found that 2G (not 5G) radio waves were associated with higher rates of some cancers. But he didn’t mention that this was only in male ‘IT SUITS THE STATE’S NARRATIVE’ rats, and that, on average, the rats that had been exposed to 2G radiation lived WHAT HOLMES TOLD VIEWERS longer than the ones that hadn’t. These things point to the findings being a fluke — and the body of evidence suggests the Sitting on the sofa of ITV’s I would say as someone with same. This Morning on Monday, an inquiring mind.” “You look at the sum total of the evi- discussing the vandalism of The next day he admitted dence, the big epidemiological studies of 5G masts with the there was “no scientific millions of people,” Grimes says. And programme’s consumer evidence to substantiate any those studies don’t find any convincing editor, Alice Beer, the of those 5G theories” and link; the incidence of glioblastoma, the presenter Eamonn Holmes claimed he had been cancer usually linked with mobile made his view known: “What “misinterpreted”. phones, has not risen even as use of I don’t accept is mainstream This month Gwyneth mobile phones has rocketed. Scientific media immediately slapping Paltrow’s Goop wellness site American published Grimes’s rebuttal to that [the 5G-coronavirus quietly stopped promoting the Moskowitz piece shortly afterwards. link] down as not true when “5G protection” products, The claim that radio waves cause can- they don’t know it’s not true. including a wrap for cer makes intuitive sense to those of us No one should attack or pregnant women costing who are not physicists: radiation causes damage or do anything like $79.99 (£64) and an electric- cancer, and 5G radio waves are radiation that, but it is very easy to say and magnetic-field — but it has no basis in physical theory or it’s not true because it suits Holmes: claimed his comments radiation-protection blanket epidemiological fact. the state’s narrative. That’s all had been ‘misinterpreted’ for up to $349. “5G operates mainly as microwaves,

eeping children calm priority and thinking about bedtime, and listen to their worried/scared/anxious and because you’re starting to and happy during a how we tackle the subject can concerns. Each child, that’s understandable.” A scare your little brother!” TO SPARE OUR global pandemic is not help to reduce the emotional depending on their age child who can say “that really (don’t be surprised if little Keasy. Gone are those cost later. Here are a few ways and temperament, will have upset me” is less likely to lash brother starts crying). carefree days when it you can help. a different perspective on out. was easy to stay sheltered It’s not the news stories. It’s possible Use the smoke alarm CHILDREN from worrying news. Now we Talk about it to worsen worries by giving Reassure them they’re safe analogy receive an endless stream of It’s not possible to pretend possible to too much information, so Tell your child that when The smoke detector in your information about germs, nothing’s going on. Anxiety try to find out specifically horrible things happen, there kitchen can’t tell the washing hands, social wafts around the house like pretend what is worrying your child. are people to look after us difference between the house YEARS OF distancing and large numbers an invisible gas, affecting us It may not be as bad as you and keep us safe: the being on fire and a piece of of people dying. all; ignoring it makes things nothing’s think and a simple answer government, scientists, toast burning — it will make It’s not surprising parents worse. Talking about our may be all that’s required. doctors, nurses, teachers, the same amount of noise are reporting an increase feelings helps us to feel close ggoingoing on parents. Always use words regardless. It’s the same with ANGUISH, WE among children of to those around us and to feel Cut down on news that reflect the desired state: panic and anxiety: our body nightmares, sleep and better. Everyone will feel a lot “We can stay calm about this can make a “mistake” and behavioural problems, calmer if continuous because solutions will be worry us when it doesn’t anxiety and eating disorders. Be prepared television and radio news found”; “the situation will be need to. It’s a false alarm. NEED TO TALK Even seeing a parent leave It’s important to act with bulletins are switched off. over soon”; “just because the house wearing gloves and confidence. As a parent, you Limit them to once a day at a you’re scared, it doesn’t There’s no doubt the a mask can create long-lasting are the authority figure and fixed time. mean you are in danger”; coronavirus will leave a damage for youngsters. your child will be looking for “anxious feelings always go lasting impact on our ABOUT COVID We should not be surprised reassurance, so get a story Expand their vocabulary away”. children’s lives, but if that to see the next generation clear in your mind, working Children who can describe impact can be handled with struggling to cope with out what you’ll say and how how they’re feeling are less Avoid negative phrases sensitivity, thought and care, problems such as obsessive- you’re going to say it. It’s not likely to resort to temper Our minds make pictures or it does not have to be compulsive disorder, always easy to put on a brave tantrums, aggression or images out of the words we damaging. Our children are depression, post-traumatic face when a stressful piece of defiance. A good way to hear and these have a strong also witnessing great acts of stress and even survivor guilt, news comes to light. Think introduce the concept of effect on how we feel. Using a kindness that may inspire thanks to the repeated ahead: what will you say if emotions is to point out negative word will mean your many of them to become the mantra of “stay home or you have bad news about a positive feelings. For child will end up doctors, scientists and people will lose their lives”. grandparent or other relative. example, “You look really experiencing what you don’t leaders of tomorrow. These messages will affect Asking other parents may happy that we’re going for a want them to. Avoid saying: The crisis is harming youngsters’ mental all our children and they will give you a few ideas. walk” or “You’re excited that “Don’t worry”; “There’s Alicia Eaton is a children’s remember the pandemic for we’re having ice-cream for nothing to worry about”; emotional wellbeing specialist health. Be honest with them, advises the rest of their lives. Make time tea.” You can then empathise “Don’t keep going on about it based in Harley Street, Alicia Eaton — but turn off the news Protecting our children’s Spend extra time with your by using phrases such as: “I or you’ll just start feeling London, and the author of mental health should be a children, especially at can see that you’re feeling worse”; “Stop talking about it First Aid for your Child’s Mind The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 29 NEWS REVIEW

t 6am on Tuesday, Avi Schiffmann, the 17-year-old founder of the world’s most The popular coronavirus- tracking site, woke up, Explainer brushed his teeth, had a piece of toast and then video-called the UN from his Stig Abell Abedroom. “They’re inter- ested in me becoming a youth ambassador for tech. It’s pretty cool,” he tells me over the phone from Mercer Island, near Seattle, where he Loneliness lives with his mother, a doctor, father, a medical writer, and cat, Louie. Schiffmann began tracking the spread Long before global pandemics, of the coronavirus in late December when there were just a few hundred con- loneliness was part of life. The editor firmed cases in Wuhan. “I noticed it was of the TLS kicks off a new column by really hard to find information. If I wanted the most up-to-date numbers, I’d exploring a very human affliction have to go to a local government website, where everything was in Chinese. So I oneliness was already a Reichmann, put “loneliness” decided to build something better and modern problem before for the first time onto a list of faster.” Using a technique called web- we were all driven into mental illnesses, and there it scraping, Schiffmann began download- Lour homes. As it has remained. ing data on the virus from government happens, my own Evidence from those who websites and health sources, adding it to current difficulty is not have endured solitary a central data set, which he formatted isolation, but overcrowding. confinement (another into tables. On December 29, I reside cheek by jowl with modern phenomenon, rising ncov2019.live was launched. my wife, my chosen partner with the penal system of the At first most of the traffic to Schiff- in life’s great quarantine, Victorian period) suggests mann’s site came from his “guerrilla mar- and three children who that the hippocampus — the keting” tactics, linking anyone in online never leave. Last week my part of the brain that deals chatrooms looking for information on bedroom door fell off its with memory, spatial the coronavirus back to his site. Then in hinges. We really are in this awareness and emotion — can March a journalist at Bloomberg wrote a together. be damaged by prolonged news story on him and everything But I can afford to be isolation. Studies on lonely “exploded”. “It snowballed pretty flippant because I have mice (poor things) revealed quickly after that. It was crazy,” he says. regular, tactile, slobbery, that neurons in certain Suddenly ncov2019.live was getting mil- joyful company. Many people regions of the brain had lions rather than thousands of hits and reading this will not have shrunk by as much as 20% in there was so much work to keep the site spoken to a real person today a month. up-to-date that Schiffmann skipped or in the past few days. Social Being alone damages us school for a week. “But then Seattle went distancing is an antiviral deeply. As a species we have a into lockdown and schools closed any- mechanism; it is also physical need to be touched: way, so it doesn’t matter,” he laughs. profoundly anti-human. our nerve fibres tingle and Schiffmann’s website is now updated More people than ever twitch under a caress. Our every few seconds, information on infec- have been living solitary lives, bodies feel healthier after a tions and deaths is filtered by country made self-sufficient by hug. There is even a study and state and there’s even a newsletter technology. Loneliness in that showing that we are more you can sign up to. The site now gets sense is distinctly recent. We generous to a waiter who 30 million visits a day. “I never expected can see the word really touches our arm. this to become a pandemic or for my web- establishing itself in Technology is a partial site to become this popular, but both of literature only in the 19th solution — and in the those things happened.” century, although Milton was coming weeks the only one. Most of the scheduling dilemmas canny enough to call it “the There is a paradox, though: 17-year-olds face right now revolve first thing which God’s eye our digital connectedness around home schooling, games of Fort- Avi Schiffman nam’d not good”. The 19th means we are never entirely nite, Houseparty video calls and TikTok. says he spends century brought urbanisation alone, but never truly in Schiffmann’s diary is slightly different. In six hours a day and mechanisation, privacy communion either. And for between homework and the six hours a programming and anxiety, a sudden every one of us engaged in day he spends programming, he and his MY WEBSITE proximity to strangers. And daily Zoom meetings, silently website have been on a virtual world He turned down as we were pushed together book-perving the shelves press tour. Last week he was interviewed more densely, we pulled behind our colleagues, there for The Daily Show, the prime-time Amer- an $8m contract apart from one another at the will be someone else, ican chat show hosted by Trevor Noah, same time. immured in a flat, talking to and was profiled in The New Yorker mag- to put adverts By the 20th century, the nobody. azine. He’s had to employ a friend to help idea of serious angst The coronavirus ravages answer the thousands of emails he gets a IS HELPING on his site. “It associated with being alone the already weak, day. Most nights he doesn’t get to bed was well established. I write impoverishes the already until 3am. I don’t judge him, then, when would’ve been this surrounded by drawings poor and isolates the already he yawns loudly down the phone. by Edward Hopper, the lonely. Philip Larkin once There have been plenty of lucrative annoying,” he says modern epoch’s great identified death as “no sight, offers. He turned down an $8m (£6.3m) visionary of isolation. We all no sound, / No touch or taste contract to put adverts on his site — “It MILLIONS. IT exist in our own Hopper or smell, nothing to think would’ve been annoying” — and has yet painting now: the roads eerily with, / Nothing to love or link to be tempted by any of the job offers he scene who is impressed by efforts? “No, empty; a single figure lit by with”. We should always has received from tech companies. “I feel but I have had one.” Does he think he’ll moonlight, staring out of a remember that this can be life like I wouldn’t really accomplish much if I have more now? “I hope so. That would lonely window. Hopper was for some people as well. worked at a big company on an internal be pretty neat.” both ahead of his time and of project. I’d just be another name and let University is also on the cards and his time: in the 1950s, a Let’s stick together, somebody else take credit for everything. WOULD BE NEAT Stanford or Cambridge, where his par- psychiatrist, Frieda Fromm- Culture, page 20 I’d rather start my own stuff.” ents met, would be “a dream”, but Schiff- Steve Jobs is his idol — “He was a pretty mann is not interested in studying com- terrible person but a visionary” — and puter science or maths. “I don’t want to Charlotte Brontë on loneliness: Elon Musk is “awesome”. He has no prob- sit there for four years doing something lem comparing himself to the billionaire I’ve been doing for a long time. I’d be The trouble is not that I am Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates either: IF IT GOT ME A interested in something more creative.” “What we’ve created is pretty similar. He So when lockdown ends and Schiff- single and likely to stay does a lot of things related to global mann finally gets some time off, what will health and technology. I hope that one he do? There are tech internships he’d single, but that I am lonely day I become as big as well.” like to apply for, but his first holiday will and likely to stay lonely Schiffmann speaks about his plans be to a “hackathon”, a 24-hour coding (attributed) with total coolness, which comes as no competition where contestants have to surprise when he reveals he’s been pro- GIRLFRIEND TOO solve a programming challenge. COURTESY THE THYSSEN BORNEMIZA MUSEUM, MADRID gramming since he was seven years old. “I’ve done a lot of them before but you Hotel Room How did he learn? YouTube, of course. usually have to be 18, so I have to lie about (1931) by the “There are infinite tutorials. You can my age to get in. One time I pretended to American artist learn practically anything.” be a college student so I could go to an Edward Hopper, Like the rest of the world, Schiffmann After learning how to code from event in San Francisco.” the modern is ready for the pandemic to be over. Schiffmann hopes his project will epoch’s great “There is a lot of pressure working on a YouTube, teenager Avi Schiffmann inspire other teenagers to “create cool visionary of project this big. I haven’t thought about stuff”. He has already given talks about it isolation anything besides the website for more has built the world’s leading by video call to students in Jamaica and than months. I’m burnt out.” Mexico. “I didn’t go to college to do what I When things do return to normal, his virus-tracking service. Anyone do,” he says. “All I did was watch YouTube celebrity status means life will be very dif- videos. Now I’ve created something that ferent. “My mum’s been showing it to all can do it, he tells Hannah Evans helps millions of people around the her patients.” Is there a girlfriend on the world. Anyone can do it.”

e are a nation do is try different types of Home yoga or pilates is hour to stretch or make a cup reborn. Banned from exercise, changing what you reasonably safe but Retter of tea. our national hobbies do each day. “Run on advises listening to your Some people, however, OUCH! Wof propping up the alternate days; don’t run body: “I would always will just be feeling the bar and watching every day. On other days, do recommend people do things grumbles of reawakening other people run around something like circuit in moderation and, if they Reassuringly, muscles. The morning-after after a ball, we have thrown training. The key thing is to feel that their body is in pain pain is called “delayed onset ourselves into YouTube mix it up a bit so you’re not while they’re trying to move DIY ice baths muscle soreness”. “It just DON’T LET workout videos, government- overdoing it in any one area, into those positions, I would means your muscles have sanctioned daily runs, going flat-out running every probably back off a little bit.” are of little use been worked in a way they and virtual classes from the day and wondering why, No matter how fit you were haven’t experienced for a gyms we never normally after 10 days, you end up with before the lockdown, the while. Continuing to do some bothered attending. sore shins.” chances are your back is exercise in that stage is fine,” NOVICE’S Good news for the overall If you’ve never run before, feeling the strain from hours says Retter. health of the nation, but bad now might not be the time to of sitting on substandard Reassuringly, DIY ice baths news for your legs/back/ start, he says. “You may want “home office” furniture. are, says Retter, of little use. knees if this is the first time to look at interval or circuit- Retter recommends raising Hot baths and stretching will you have elevated your pulse based training.” This spreads your laptop and using a help, as will a decent warm- KNEE KNOCK since the turn of the the impact load across more separate keyboard and up: “Get your heart rate millennium. The Labour MP parts of the body than mouse. Use cushions to up — it helps to pump Jess Phillips, complaining of running, which can place adjust your height in your warm blood into your sore legs, called it “Joe stress on joints. “Some chosen chair, and place a muscles so they are Wicksitis”. people are just not designed rolled-up towel at the primed for whatever YOU OFF “There are risks of creating to run.” base of your back you’re about to challenge musculoskeletal injuries if If you ran a marathon in for support. Get them with.” you suddenly take up running the 1990s and want to get up once an And, if you’ve really or high-intensity exercise,” back into your stride, you overdone it, don’t says Greg Retter, a can, but don’t use the same diagnose yourself via COURSE physiotherapist who, as head trainers you had then. “They Google. “Physiotherapists of performance services for need to support your arch and osteopaths across the Team GB, works with athletes and give you a good foot country are still working,” such as Dina Asher-Smith, position.” says Retter, though expect Adam Peaty and Katarina your appointment to be over Warm up, build up and get some Johnson-Thompson. “It’s video call. new shoes: the Team GB physio wise to take a graduated “I would definitely still approach, rather than going access that expertise, albeit in Greg Retter tells Rebecca Myers how flat out from day one.” a different way than you to avoid injury during lockdown Retter says the best thing to normally would.” 30 The Sunday Times April 19, 2020

Comments about our puzzles can be sent to PUZZLES FEEDBACK [email protected] or Puzzles Editor, The Sunday Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF GENERAL KNOWLEDGE JUMBO CROSSWORD 210 NEWS QUIZ Across Down

12 3 4 5 6 78910 1 German director of films including Wings of Desire and 2 1957 novel by Christopher Landon, later a film starring John 1 Who was cold-shouldered Paris, Texas (3,7) Mills and Sylvia Syms (3,4,2,4) for criticising Arctic Roll? 11 12 7 Opera which begins and ends in a garret (2,6) 3 First name of the femme fatale of a 1988 comedy film 13 Mountain range running the length of the Italian peninsula (9) starring John Cleese (5) 2 Where was a woman 13 14 14 Celebrity hair stylist awarded an OBE in 2008 (5,6) 4 Portuguese former goalkeeper, manager of fined for taking her turtle 15 To get out of bed or make an appearance (4,1,3) Wolverhampton Wanderers since 2017 (4,8,5) (pictured) for a walk? 16 Actress whose roles include Saffron Monsoon in Absolutely 5 Old-fashioned name for both Irish and Scottish Gaelic (4) 15 16 17 Fabulous (5,7) 6 “The spiritualisation of ____ is called love” (Nietzsche) (10) 3 What public figure said 19 Heaviest noble gas, produced by the decay of uranium-238 (5) 7 Chinese fruit with a soft but inedible covering (shortest of meanness is the reason 18 21 Driver of the Compact Pussycat in the Wacky Races various spellings) (5) she frequently wears the cartoons (8,7) 8 Turkish equivalent of Mr (3) same outfits? 19 20 21 22 23 Old word for a huntsman; star destroyer class in Star Wars (7) 9 Nincompoops (8) 24 Pertaining to the ancient Persian god of light, identified 10 Footless representation of a bird in heraldry (7) 4 What was named Britain’s with the sun (8) 11 ____ won 21 grand slam titles with Martina Navratilova (3,7) most comforting 23 24 25 26 25 African country named after a lake (4) 12 A company with a ____ website may well say that it offers a television show? 28 Actor who played Antony Royle in The Royle Family (4,6) better browsing experience (8) 27 29 Inhabitants of an ancient Greek city central to Bronze Age 17 Murder on the Dancefloor was a big hit single for ____ (6,5-6) 5 Who is in this year’s final culture (10) 18 George Orwell novel originally subtitled A Fairy Story (6,4) of University Challenge? 28 29 30 32 The canonical hour between terce and nones (4) 20 Urticaria, or hives, is often called ____ rash (6) 31 33 Egyptian city on the Suez canal, founded by the ruling 22 Raymond Burr played Erle Stanley Gardner’s ____ on TV (5,5) 6 Who is spending £67,000 khedive in 1863 and named after him (8) 26 Current captain of the England women’s cricket team (7,6) to study the appeal of the 32 33 34 34 In cricket, a short-pitched ball, typically easy to hit (4,3) 27 In Greek myth, a female Bacchanalian (6) Kenwood mixer? 36 Popular name for the park including the venue of the US 30 Breakfast in America was ____’s bestselling album (10) 35 Open tennis championships (8,7) 31 The smallest country of Central America (2,8) 7 What Labour party figure 38 Albrecht ____, German artist noted for his woodcut prints (5) 32 Former naval term for bread rather than ship’s biscuit (4,4) was nicknamed Dracula? 36 37 38 39 1980 single by Dire Straits; 1987 album and single by Bruce 35 One who uses flattery to persuade (8) Springsteen (6,2,4) 37 Where, according to British culture, it’s “grim” (2,5) 8 What is the pillow 41 Fee paid to secure someone’s services (8) 40 “Men ____ while they teach” (Seneca the Younger) (5) challenge? 39 40 41 42 44 Blackpool’s largest free indoor 42 In organic chemistry, an ____ family attraction (5,6) group is a vinyl group attached 9 Who bought her 43 46 Small variety of cos lettuce (6,3) to a methylene bridge, and is childhood home in 47 Electronic instrument named after the Latin for garlic (5) Tutshill, Gloucestershire? 44 45 46 (pictured) played without 43 One whose native tongue may be touching it (8) Wendish, Czech, Serbian etc (4) 10 How did the weatherman 48 Argentinian football club based 45 Any computer game which seeks Owain Wyn Evans provide 47 48 at Estadio Antonio Vespucio to replicate the real world (3) a musical accompaniment Liberti (5,5) to the BBC news theme?

SUDOKU WARM-UP VERY HARD — PRIZE 1375 KILLER SUDOKU HARD POLYGON

Each row, column and 3x3 box Each row, column must contain the digits 1 to 9. and 3x3 box must Winners will receive a Collins contain the digits English Dictionary & Thesaurus. 1 to 9. The digits within each group To enter, complete the Very Hard puzzle and call 0901 292 of cells joined by 5275 (UK only) (ROI 1516 303 500), leaving your answer (the numbers in the three shaded squares) and contact dotted lines must details. Or text SUNDAY2, followed by a space, then your add up to the From these letters, make answer (three numbers) and contact details — eg figure in the top- words of four or more letters, SUNDAY2 123 John Smith, etc — to 84901 (UK only). Calls cost £1.00 (ROI €1.50) plus your telephone company’s left-hand corner always including the central network access charge. Texts cost £1 plus your standard of each group. letter. Answers must be in the network charge. Winners will be picked at random from all Within each Concise Oxford Dictionary, correct answers received. Lines close at midnight on Saturday. If you call or text after this time you will not be dotted-line group, excluding capitalised words, entered but may be charged. When entering by phone or a digit cannot be plurals, conjugated verbs text, please provide your FULL name and address details, repeated. (past tense etc), adverbs as incomplete entries may be charged but not entered. STUCK? Call our clue line to get four clues for the Very ending in LY, comparatives Hard puzzle on 0901 293 6265 (ROI 1514 515 120). Calls and superlatives. cost £1 (ROI 76c) plus your telephone company’s network How you rate access charge. For full terms and conditions, visit thesundaytimes.co.uk/comprules. SP: Spoke, 0333 202 15 words, average; 21, good; 3390 (Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm) 31, very good; 42, excellent.

CONCISE CROSSWORD 1674 MEPHISTO 3112 CROSSWORD 4899 Don Manley Across Down Robert Price

123456 123456789 1 Predict a feeling of 1 Muslim female started 12345678 annoyance, getting hit getting short with male (5) 10 hard (7) 2 Novel metallic seat having a 6 A distinctive flavour charming quality (12) 9 10 7 8 11 12 13 ultimately lacking in 3 Pigment of drug-injected jelly (5) meat (4) 10 The French into making 4 Weight used by Greeks — 14 15 11 12 13 money, offering modern or Minoans, oddly (4) 9 10 16 form of education (9) 5 Hapless and holy, the 11 Old physician with a husband being ditched 14 15 17 18 19 particular mineral (6) needing shelter (7) 11 12 13 14 15 13 Trip in which sailor is given 6 Stream from a hilltop 20 21 22 23 drum (6) descending on farm (9) 15 Dish of beef king cast 7 Workers to be organised 16 17 18 24 25 aside (4) in pairs later on (12) 16 17 18 19 16 Something dim about 8 Lizards wandering in 26 27 28 agent getting nothing right Nicaragua avoiding 19 20 21 in inaccurate account (9) vehicle (6) 17 Artist wants food and drink 9 In one corner of England 20 21 29 30 — a bit of a nerve is that? (6) having little growth is 22 23 24 31 19 Greek characters hard (7) participating in street 12 Song of heretical assembly (4) nationalist being 22 32 33 25 26 20 Royal’s no leader — rejected (4) equivalent to a famous 14 Acts as tutor to member of NAME ...... writer (4) aristocracy wearing hippy NAME ...... 22 Handle cattle in shed, half accessories? (9) Across Down ADDRESS ADDRESS ...... having escaped (6) 17 Sort of number — manage ...... 1 Best place to start (4,8) 1 Show as true (5) 24 Strange car boot sale it to secure record (7) ...... 7 Paying guest (6) 2 Former vehicle disposing of old books — 18 Candid written accusation 8 Evening star (5) document (7) EMAIL ...... and fish! (9) artist penned (7) Across Down 9 Nil (4) 3 A quadrilateral (13) 26 Operating system that’s 21 Concrete holiday home 10 Cross-country skiing (8) 4 Bliss (7,6) Post your solution to The Sunday Times Mephisto 3112, “superior” leading to occupied by a Parisian (6) 1 What a shopper might do 2 Two fish cut by small PO Box 29, Colchester, Essex CO2 8GZ, or email 11 Equipment (6) 5 With a key (5) [email protected] nothing (4) 23 Sheep’s offspring brought to grab stuff and dash (10) pointed tool (11) 13 Small village (6) 6 Conceal (7) 29 In rack, loose seed (6) up on grass primarily (4) 7 Team’s heading off 3 As a result of whistle- 16 Volcanic vent (8) 9 Pimple (3) The first correct solution picked at random after next 30 First sign of organ 11 25 Garden clippers not right court (4) blower, the mineral Saturday wins Collins World Atlas: Complete Edition, 18 Drug smuggler (4) 12 Fish tanks (7) worth £30. Four runners-up will each receive £20. reconstructed (6) for trees (5) 9 Cheeses said to give you deposit’s protected (9) 20 Measuring stick (5) 14 Souvenir (7) Open to 18+ UK & ROI residents only. 31 Nursemaid hides male 27 Fellow on island offers wind (6) 4 Level of experience 21 Conceit; pointlessness (6) 15 Draw (3) offspring in trees (9) facility for prayer (4) 10 Horse for one desperate to around old university (4,3) The Chambers Dictionary 13th edition is the primary 22 Miserly (12) 17 Map book (5) reference. Readers may email comments or queries to 32 Place to stay, no small 28 Reserved and haughty depart (8) 5 If all else fails, the grand 19 Water lily (5) [email protected] house with huge aim (5) female being put off 11 Dance judge that is tour will end here (2,3,4,6) 33 Big car has little girl with potato (4) introducing a Latin 6 Degenerate daughter is huge appetite (7) number (4) excluded from visit (2,2,3) 12 Special way to enter 7 Where ships are docked competition, used by and legends recounted (5) TETONOR EASY seeds (4,6) 8 Fleece tucked under a 14 How Soviet radar’s been bustle (3) broadcast (9,5) 13 Domestic visa term and CODEWORD KENKEN 16 Clashing statements harm when it’s renewed (11) 136 38 25 36 poets, perhaps? (5,9) 15 Chap who’s desperate to 19 Edification intended in get in air after a ducking (9) In the grid, each speech by gambler (10) 17 Demonstrated how empty number represents 21 Urgent command to clear hand cream could be a letter of the court (4) recycled (7) 14 154 28 120 alphabet — all 26 22 After party, ruffian 18 Sort of pot one throws (7) letters are used. wanting a rumpus (8) 20 Hard to believe, City Use the initial clues 24 Fret about the wings in finally score! (5) in the code table to navigating part of an 23 Utterly boring device one work out the rest of airfield (6) holds to the ear (3) 285 29 147 62 the code. 25 Show tolerance (4) STUCK? To get 26 Cleaners put off by four random extra toilets (10) letter clues, call 0901 293 6266 45 299 34 336 (ROI 1514 415128) or text STCLUE to 84901 (UK only). All the digits 1 to 6 must appear in every Calls cost £1 (ROI row and column. In each thick-line The first correct solution opened after next Saturday wins a 10-carat rolled gold 75c) plus your “block”, the target number in the top Cross Century II fountain pen worth £240. The next three win £125 Townsend telephone left-hand corner is calculated from the Medalist ballpoint pens. All have lifetime guarantees. Post solutions to The Sunday Times Crossword 4899, PO Box 29, Colchester, Essex CO2 8GZ, or email 5 5 7 8 9 13 14 23 24 30 company’s digits in all the cells in the block, using [email protected]. Open to 18+ UK & ROI residents only. network access the operation indicated by the symbol. Prize delivery is suspended until the warehouse used is back in full service. Each number in the main grid can be formed by adding or charge. Texts cost multiplying a pair of numbers in the strip below the grid. Each £1 plus your pair of numbers should be used twice: once as part of an standard network CLUE WRITING CONTEST 1809: HYDROFOIL addition and once as part of a multiplication. For example, a 10 charge. SP: Spoke, and 24 in the main grid may be solved by the sums, 4 + 6 and 4 0333 202 3390 You are invited to write an original cryptic clue for the Winner 1806: Lynne Davis, London NW7 Gastro-pub: Fancy most of posh grub at local eatery x 6, respectively. Enter each sum in the boxes below its answer. (Mon-Fri 9am- word above, in Sunday Times crossword style. Email Any blanks in the strip must be deduced, bearing in mind the 5.30pm). your entry to [email protected]. numbers are listed in ascending order. The best entry selected after next Saturday wins £25. For a full report, visit thesundaytimes.co.uk/cluewriting The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 31 NEWS REVIEW Jeremy Clarkson We definitely can’t blame the Germans this time, so wealthy second-homers get a kicking instead

or the past couple of weeks, door. Instead, they’re all running around pension or savings, anger will mould Others who have a (slightly) better gives them a voice, this government will what happens when a political party we’ve been told fairly constantly saying the crinkly old bastard should their bitterness into a petrol bomb. understanding of fiscal issues will say not survive the post-virus apocalypse. loses an election. It seeks a scapegoat to that this virus is bringing out the bugger off back to Scotland. Especially now that petrol is so cheap. the problem can be addressed by taxing Unless the Argentinians can be cast into the wilderness. It’s also what best in us. We see pictures of Rita Ora is having the same problem. I heard on the radio last week a man the rich. “Bleed Rita Ora dry,” they will persuaded to invade the Falkands again, happens after every disaster. An inquiry people setting up community She’s been posting pictures of her with a garden centre demanding that the yell. “Squeeze Gordon Ramsay so hard which is unlikely. is set up, ostensibly to prevent the same larders in village phone boxes breasts from the rural idyll she’s rented, government buy all his stock because he he becomes smooth.” They really do Sure, Boris will try to surf his mistakes from being made in the future, Fand women making jam to raise and what’s wrong with that? “A lot,” say hadn’t been able to cash in on the believe that if second-home-owning wavelet of popularity for a while, but but in reality its primary purpose is to money for nurses and we think, her new neighbours. They have taken to traditional Easter boom. I feel his pain. celebrities, and Google, paid more tax, eventually he will be consumed by the discover who made those mistakes. So “Yes. We are all much nicer.” local forums to make up stories about Of course I do. But he’s not alone in all Britain’s problems would be solved. tsunami of bitterness. And then he will they can be hounded off Beachy Head. However, I’d argue that, in fact, the how she’s behaving and to say that she “demanding” government cash. The Because there are so many people like be dragged from a drainage ditch by an And that’s our problem with the virus. lockdown is turning most people into should have stayed in effing London. airlines also want it. So do the road this out there, and because social media angry mob who’ll push a scaffolding We can’t blame what we can’t see, so we monsters. We have the police ordering David Beckham is copping it too, and haulage contractors, every single pole up his bottom. are lashing out at people walking in the youngsters to stop sunbathing, and so is the Queen after she fled London in charity, the catering industry, dry- We are told that two million could lose Peak District and sunbathers and fights in supermarkets, and mealy- her “Chelsea tractor” to batten down the cleaners, cake-makers, farmers, their jobs, but it could be four million. It Gordon Ramsay and those poor souls mouthed old bats patrolling the streets hatches at her second castle in Windsor. engineers, racehorse trainers, lower- could be six. We’ve already seen footage who host the daily press conferences with tape measures to ensure everyone People say these weekenders will place league football clubs, printers, builders, from Italy of enraged families trying to and Jeff Bezos and anyone who we think is 6ft apart. And then, last week, a nurse an undue strain on stretched rural landlords, mortgage companies, banks, kick their way through a supermarket’s is better off than we are. came back from her shift to find one services, but that’s not the real reason car dealerships. Literally everyone windows, and it’s likely this will happen This needs to stop. In the First and particularly unpleasant neighbour had for their resentment. It’s bitterness. It’s wants it. And literally everyone isn’t The real reason here too. We will be living in a world of Second World Wars there were posted a note through her letterbox, petty jealousy. As far as I know, Rita Ora going to get it. “I see, I want, I take”. So the next time unimaginable hardships, but the castigating her for leaving the house. hasn’t been into the local village to lick A woman in my village can’t see why. people resent Gordon Ramsay goes down to his seaside country was united because everyone All of which brings us, naturally, to the postmistress’s nose, so why should it She thinks Boris Johnson should hand retreat, he’ll find 16 Corns in his sitting knew who was to blame. The Germans. Gordon Ramsay. He decided that if he bother anyone else if she wants to live in cash to anyone who needs it. I asked these weekenders room, watching Straw Dogs. All our negative energy was focused on was going to have to stay at home, the a second home? Simple. Because she can where this cash was going to come from To prevent this kind of social them, not one another. home he’d like to stay at was his backup afford one and they can’t. and she was perplexed. “From Boris,” is bitterness. It’s meltdown, it’s imperative we find Sadly, these days, it is considered pad in Cornwall. If the virus had brought The big problem is that when the she said as if I were mad. She’s not alone. someone to blame for all our problems. racist to blame a country and its people out the best in his neighbours, they’d pandemic is over, things will get much Thousands of people believe cabinet petty jealousy That’s what we do at the end of a football and their penchant for eating wildlife. have left a nice cake and a welcoming worse. As millions emerge, blinking, into ministers pay for the NHS and our match. We discuss with one another But I think it would be healthier for trug full of vegetables outside his front the light to find they have no food, job, submarines out of their own pockets. whose mistakes were responsible. It’s everyone if we could.

most points are promoted, them, but only one, could be how many of the remaining TEASER 3004 goal difference being used to certain of promotion if they matches involved any of WEATHER separate teams with the same won their two games. If there those teams? John Owen number of points. had been any more teams on AROUND THE WORLD THE UK Going Up Last season’s climax was the same number of points, Send your solution to: The Sunday In our football league, the exciting. With just two games then none could have Times Teaser 3004, PO Box 29, Amsterdam 17C f London 15C f teams all play each other once, left for each team, there were guaranteed promotion with Colchester, Essex CO2 8GZ or email with three points for a win and several teams tied at the top two wins. [email protected]. Athens 24 s Los Angeles 18 f The first two correct solutions opened one for a draw. At the end of of the league with the same How many teams were tied Auckland 21 sh Madrid 20 sh after next Saturday win £20. Open to Bangkok 37 s Mexico City 28 sh the season, the two teams with number of points. One of at the top of the league, and 18+ UK & ROI residents only. Barcelona 16 r Miami 30 f Beijing 25 f Moscow 7 sl 17 14 Belgrade 23 f Nairobi 22 th moderate CHESS David Howell BRIDGE Sally Brock Berlin 13 f New Delhi 37 s Bogota 18 th New Orleans 30 th From 1976 to 1983 the BBC open lines towards the white The Principle of Restricted both honours dropping there Boston 15 f New York 17 f Brussels Oslo ran a programme titled The king; a good practical Choice is well known and it were no more problems, but 18 f 12 f 12 Master Game. The innovative decision for speed chess. 10 works well. It is usually look at what would have Budapest 13 sh Panama 31 th 14 Buenos Aires 26 s Paris 21 f format included footage of Bxg7 Rg8 11 Bf6 Be6 12 Bxe7 applied in this type of happened if West had shown slight elite players explaining their Qxe7 13 d4 0-0-0 Black’s plan situation: out on the second heart. Cairo 30 s Prague 15 f Calgary 12 s Rio de Janeiro 25 s thought processes during is simple. He will attack along A 10 7 6 Declarer would have cashed the games. Chess24’s Banter the g-file. Meanwhile White’s the other top spade and Cape Town 21 s Rome 21 f 10 Blitz Cup is very much a moves are less obvious. 14 K 9 8 3 2 played a third trump. If West Caracas 28 th San Francisco 14 f 21st-century version of that Nbd2 cxd4 15 Nf1? Perhaps it You are declarer and this is started with four spades, or if Casablanca 21 f Santiago 28 s classic show. was time to counterattack: 15 the trump suit. Suppose you they were 3-3 he is home Chicago 13 sh Seoul 18 sh The finale of the Cup b4! 15…Qf6 16 Ng3 Bg4 Now start by cashing the king and immediately. Only if East Dubai 31 s Seychelles 30 f Dublin Singapore 12 caused a sensation last week the momentum is with Black. East plays an honour, then the started with four spades is 11 f 30 th as 16-year-old Alireza Firouzja 17 Qd3 h5 18 h4 Bxf3 19 Qxf3 percentages favour a finesse there a problem. So East wins Geneva 21 f Stockholm 11 f 12 defeated Magnus Carlsen. To Qxf3 20 gxf3 Rd6! Relentless on the next round, playing the third trump, cashes a Gibraltar 22 s Sydney 18 sh beat a world champion in a play. Firouzja goes after the West for an original three spade and plays a fourth Guatemala 29 th Tel Aviv 23 s one-off encounter would be weak kingside pawns. 21 Kg2 cards to an honour. The round. Declarer pitches a Helsinki 6 f Tenerife 18 f Hong Kong 25 s Tokyo 22 f impressive, yet the Rf6 22 Rh1 Ne5 23 Rad1 Rf4 theory is that if East had a diamond from both hands 13 14 Istanbul 15 s Toronto 10 sh wunderkind managed to win 24 Kf1 Rxf3 25 Nxh5? A sign singleton honour he has no and waits for East to give him slight over the course of a 16-game that Carlsen was out of shape. choice but to play it, while if his tenth trick. Jersey 14 f Trinidad 30 th 15 match. It is clear that Firouzja 25 Ke2 allows White to fight he held queen-jack doubleton Johannesburg 25 th Tunis 32 f slight is destined for greatness. on. 25…Rf5! Suddenly the then half the time he would Last week’s problem La Paz 11 sh Venice 16 f 10 Lagos 30 th Vienna 15 sh White: Magnus Carlsen knight is trapped! 26 Rxd4 26 play the queen and half the 8 7 6 3 ♠ Lima 23 f Warsaw 11 f Black: Alireza Firouzja Ng3 Rxg3 as the f2-pawn is time the jack. ♥ Q 7 TODAY’S WEATHER Banter Blitz Cup, pinned. 26…Nc6 27 Rf4 Of course, all rules are ♦ 7 Lisbon 20 f Washington DC 18 sh K Q J 9 7 3 chess24.com 2020 Rxh5 28 Rxf7 Rg4 29 Rh3 made to be broken. Consider ♣ Key c=cloud, dr=drizzle, ds=dust storm, f=fair, fg=fog, g=gales, h=hail, UK forecast Sicilian Defence Rhxh4 30 Rhf3 Rh1+ White today’s four heart contract: ♠ A N ♠ J 5 4 m=mist, r=rain, sh=showers, sl=sleet, sn=snow, s=sun, th=thunder, w=windy A cloudy start with the odd spot of drizzle in the east and ♥ K 10 9 4 2 ♥ 6 a few mist or fog patches in the southwest. Long sunny 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 b3 Nc6 4 resigns White loses further A K 7 4 9 8 6 5 3 W E A K 10 4 2 ♠ ♦ ♦ spells developing, particularly in the north and east, while Bb2 d5 5 exd5 exd5 6 Bb5 Ne7 material after 21 Ke2 Nd4+. ♥ K 8 7 ♣ 6 5 S ♣ 10 8 4 2 ♦ A Q 9 6 southwestern parts stay cloudier with spots of rain across W7 0-0______W a6 8 Bxc6+ Nxc6 9 Re1+ Spot the Move 1215: K Q 10 9 2 EUROPE ♣ A J ♠ Ireland. Light to moderate, generally easterly winds árDb1kgW4] WBlack______W to play. ♥ A J 8 5 3 ♠ Q J 10 8 N ♠ 6 5 ♦ Q J àDpDWDp0p] áWDWDrDWD] ♥ Q J ♥ 9 4 ♣ A ♦ J 3 2 W E ♦ K 10 8 7 REGIONAL FORECASTS ßpDnDWDWD] à0pDWDWDk] 9 9 8 4 3 S K 7 6 5 2 West leads the ten of hearts ÞDW0pDWDW] ßWgbDWDp0] ♣ ♣ London, SE England against South’s four spades. It ÝWDWDWDWD] ÞDWDBDWDW] ♠ 9 3 2 Largely dry with sunny spells. Light northeasterly winds, A 10 6 5 3 2 runs to declarer’s jack and at ♥ moderate later. Max 18C. Tonight, dry with clear spells. Min 5C ÜDPDWDNDW] ÝWDQDWGpD] ♦ 5 4 trick two he plays the king of 12 11 Midlands, E England ÛPGP)W)P)] ÜDWDPDWHq] ♣ Q 10 spades won by West’s ace. Cloudy with drizzle at first, sunshine later. Light to moderate Ú$NDQ$WIW] ÛP)PDWDW)] One declarer won the queen of West now switches to the 20 northeasterly winds. Max 16C. Tonight, dry and clear. Min 3C ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ Ú$WDWDWDK] spades lead, and immediately eight of diamonds. You win 14 Channel Is, SW and Cent S England, S Wales 9…Be7! Firouzja knows no ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ played the king of hearts and a the king as declarer plays the 21 Mist and fog at first, then sunny spells. Mainly light east to fear and has developed a AnaBotella-Toadinthebox, heart to his ten when West jack. What now? 21 northeasterly winds. Max 18C. Tonight, cloudy. Min 4C knack for taking opponents lichess.org 2020. How can played the jack on the first Your only chance is that 212 25 15 24 N Wales, NW England, Isle of Man out of their comfort zones. Black turn the game in his round. With spades 4-2 and declarer has misplayed and 19 Some mist or fog to start, sunny spells later. Light to moderate Black sacrifices a pawn to favour? both minor-suit finesses failed to unblock his singleton 25 easterly winds. Max 18C. Tonight, clear spells. Min 1C wrong he was soon down. ace of clubs at trick two. Play a 22 Cent N and NE England Send your solution (first move only), to Sunday Times Spot the Move 1215, Declarer in the other room diamond back taking a trump The Sunday Times, PO Box 29, Colchester, Essex CO2 8GZ, or email to Largely dry with plenty of sunshine. Light to moderate had other ideas. He played the out of dummy and declarer [email protected]. The first correct answer drawn after next ¬ Sunshine and showers ¬ The Low Countries, easterly winds. Max 15C. Tonight, dry and largely clear. Min 1C Saturday wins £20. Open to 18+ UK & ROI residents only. king and ace of hearts. With can never enjoy his club suit. across Portugal, Spain, Germany, the Alps, Poland, Scotland the Balearics, Sardinia, Sicily, the Czech Republic and the Staying dry with long sunny spells. Light to moderate east to GENERAL KNOWLEDGE JUMBO CROSSWORD 209 mainland Italy, France and rest of central Europe will southeasterly winds. Max 16C. Tonight, dry and clear. Min -3C LAST WEEK’S SOLUTIONS Across: 1 End up, 4 Imprudence, 9 As if, 13 Cointreau, 14 Dara O Briain, 15 Oppenheimer, Corsica, heavy and thundery have rain in the south and N Ireland, Republic of Ireland 16 Ruby Walsh, 17 Tenoner, 18 Call me Ishmael, 20 Opera glasses, 22 A bad lot, 25 Non-fertile, at times and most frequent sunny spells in the north Cloud and patchy rain, bright spells later. Mainly light east to SUDOKU WARM-UP CODEWORD 26 Grand Hotel, 29 Sniff at, 31 Lucinda Green, 33 Camera obscura, 34 Antalya, 35 Huggy Bear, 37 Alan Bennett, 38 Brands Hatch, 40 Hurricane, 41 Tutu, 42 Preference, 43 Gaped across eastern Spain and ¬ Bright spells and showers southeasterly winds. Max 15C. Tonight, fairly cloudy. Min 3C Down: 1 En croûte, 2 Dripping pan, 3 Put in an order for, 4 Ice beer, 5 Paul Michael Glaser, southern France over the Baltic states, Belarus, 6 Underclass, 7 Ear, 8 Cool Britannia, 10 Snail mail, 11 Funchal, 12 Crow, 16 Romesh Ranganathan, ¬ Sunny spells across the Ukraine and western Russia 19 Heather Stanning, 21 Get It Together, 23 Tilt, 24 Onus, 27 The Blue Lamp, 28 Schumacher, THE WEEK AHEAD 30 Immigrant, 32 Masthead, 33 Cohabit, 34 Auberge, 36 Yoda, 39 TIF Balkans, Greece and Bulgaria, ¬ Occasional showers across with isolated afternoon northwestern Scandinavia, MEPHISTO 3111 showers possible drier and brighter elsewhere Across: 1 Furze, 5 Drowned, 10 Satyagrahi, 11 Lawmaker, 13 ’sfoot, 14 Ethnics, 16 Dsomo, 17 Tessera, 11 9 8 19 Monas, 22 Ycled, 23 En avant, 24 Stash, 28 Tent pin, 29 Preif, 30 Span roof, 31 Sneezeweed, 32 Surpass, 33 Avast Down: 1 Falsity, 2 Unaffected, 3 Zamouse, 4 États, 5 Dyker, 6 Raetian, 7 Wrens, 13 13 13 8 National, 9 Dipso, 12 McMansions, 15 Islander, 18 Recipes, 20 Over-rev, 21 Stuff it, 24 Stoss, 25 Strep, 26 Gnaws, 27 Apnea SUN, STREET LIGHTS & MOON 14 15 17 CROSSWORD 4898 12 12 13 SUDOKU 1374 KENKEN Sun Sun sets/ Lights Moon Moon Across: 1 Sober, 4 Debauched, 9 Griffon, 10 Andorra, 11 Afterdecks, 12 Wino, 14 Indoctrinate, rises lights on off rises sets 14 17 18 17 Percussional, 20 Raga, 21 Potentiate, 23 Ritalin, 24 Aquavit, 25 Bonaparte, 26 Hardy Down: 1 Signal, 2 Blintz, 3 Referendum, 4 Dangerous Corner, 5 Blanket coverage, 6 Urdu, 7 Harridan, Aberdeen 05:47 20:27 05:45 05:39 16:05 31 30 24 8 Dragonet, 13 Midas touch, 15 Spare rib, 16 Frighten, 18 Waiver, 19 Sentry, 22 Clip Belfast 06:10 20:34 06:08 05:49 16:26 Monday Tuesday Wednesday SPOT THE MOVE 1214 CONCISE CROSSWORD 1673 Birmingham 05:59 20:13 05:57 05:28 16:13 Mostly dry and Rain possible in Largely dry with Bristol 06:04 20:13 06:02 05:29 16:17 Across: 1 Circular saw, 8 Law, 9 Incognito, 10 Sorry, sunny. Patchy rain western Ireland. patchy cloud and 1…Bb4! wins the queen since 2 Qxb4 Cardiff 06:07 20:16 06:05 05:31 16:20 (2 Nc3 Bxc3 changes nothing) is met by 12 Ego trip, 13 Of late, 15 Values, 17 Lacquer, 18 Judge, in the southwest. Elsewhere, sunny long sunny spells. 19 Emanation, 20 Wet, 21 Triceratops 2...Qd1 mate Cork 06:27 20:38 06:25 05:54 16:41 Max 17C, Dorset and dry. Max 18C Max 19C Down: 1 Cold-shoulder, 2 Row, 3 Unify, 4 Archer, Dublin 06:15 20:33 06:12 05:48 16:30 TEASER 3003 5 Signora, 6 Whip-round, 7 Compos mentis, Glasgow 06:00 20:31 05:57 05:45 16:17 1903, 1936, 1969 11 Reluctant, 14 Tsunami, 16 Arrive, 18 Junta, 20 Woo London 05:54 20:04 05:52 05:19 16:07 KILLER SUDOKU TETONOR 8 7 17 TODAY’S SOLUTIONS Manchester 05:58 20:17 05:56 05:31 16:13 17 19 18 40 22 23 208 NEWS QUIZ POLYGON Newcastle 05:52 20:18 05:49 05:32 16:07 Norwich 05:46 20:01 05:44 05:15 15:59 4 x 10 10 + 12 7 + 16 13 x 16 1 Jane Garvey, the Woman’s Hour presenter. She achy, acyl, airy, amity, amyl, arhythmic, Plymouth 06:13 20:17 06:11 05:33 16:25 12 18 15 17 15 18 120 42 264 34 apologised soon after 2 Rome 3 Princess Anne army, arty, aryl, charity, chary, city, 4 Only Fools and Horses 5 Imperial College London 10 x 12 6 x 7 8 x 33 16 + 18 clarity, clarty, clary, clay, hairy, hiya, 20 19 19 v Corpus Christi Cambridge 6 London’s Science itchy, lacy, lairy, laity, limy, lyric, lytic, NIGHT SKY Venus, brilliant in our W evening sky, is falling 14 288 41 29 Museum and Portsmouth University malty, marly, maty, miry, myth, mythic, lower as it moves around the near side of its 13 6 7 4 + 10 16 x 18 8 + 33 13 + 16 7 Former communications chief Seumas Milne, mythical, racy, rhythm, rhythmic, orbit. Look for the impressive earthlit Moon low according to a leaked report 8 Turning a pillow into rhythmical, rimy, riyal, talcy, thymic, 112 50 13 49 an item of clothing and posting on social media tray, yacht down to its right at the end of the week. Mars, Thursday Friday Saturday 7x161+496+71x49 9 JK Rowling 10 He played the drums from home Saturn and Jupiter (brightest) line up from left Most places dry Cloudy with rain Spells of rain in to right very low in the SE before dawn. and sunny. The in the northwest. the west may Winners Crossword 4896 G Latter, Glasgow, N Jones, Bath, Somerset, R Morton, Salford, Greater Manchester, P Templeton, Whitby, North Yorkshire Mephisto 3109 spread eastwards K Hunter, Exeter, Devon, J Burd, Wood Norton, Norfolk, R Cuthbert, Long Ashton, Somerset, E Hunter, Glencoe, Highland, D Quarmby, Shaw, Greater Manchester Distances in millions of km tonight: Venus 76; chance of an odd Elsewhere, sunny Teaser 3001 M Leonard, Otford, Kent, SJ Shaw, Lostock Hall, Lancashire Chess 1212 C Michael, Wirral, Merseyside Sudoku 1372 U Mannu, Cambridge Mars 196; Jupiter 750; Saturn 1,495. Alan Pickup shower. Max 20C spells. Max 19C later. Max 19C

The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 33 SPORT

ANDREW FOSKER BELL’S ONES TO WATCH

DAN MOUSLEY (WARWICKSHIRE, AGE 18) A really good all-round player, excellent at playing spin. Mousley, above, is innovative and a cricket badger — he really loves the game. JACK HAYNES (WORCESTERSHIRE, 19) Talented batsman, technically good, he played a few first-class games for Worcestershire last season. BEN CHARLESWORTH (GLOUCESTERSHIRE, 19) His Under-19 World Cup was cut short by injury, but he made an excellent 82 against Australia and has the game to become a very good player with red Bell, while still a player, and white ball. has been making his first forays into coaching. JORDAN COX Below, celebrating an (KENT, 19) Ashes wicket in 2005 A really natural athlete, One of England’s great stylists, Ian Bell with Matthew Hoggard sharp behind the stumps and Kevin Pietersen and a good batsman, he is now coaching the next generation, could do well if he breaks but he is not ready to retire just yet into the Kent side this year.

team, while the management staff for the Virat Kohlis, they find a way to play all recent Lions tour to Australia featured RASHID: I COULD three, but it’s not easy.” Marcus Trescothick and Jonathan Trott MAKE TEST RETURN The other sticking point for rising as batting coaches. Bell, for his part, has English talents is the quality of the prepa- always enjoyed studying the art of batting ration they are given for Test cricket, with and is keen to apply his knowledge with Adil Rashid says the shoulder injury the County Championship shunted to ‘There’s no right the next generation. he suffered during last summer’s either end of the season, played largely “Nobody has a perfect technique and World Cup has greatly improved, on green seam-friendly pitches. It seems there’s no right way of batting,” he says. raising hopes that he could play likely that the championship will suffer “Anyone watching Steve Smith bat can through to the next World Cup in when the schedule is rejigged this sum- see that. There are fundamentals that all 2023 and even revive his Test career. mer, because of the economic exigencies the top players do, with their head The England leg spinner believes created by a shortened season, but when position and where they make contact his shoulder could be “as strong as normal cricketing life resumes, Bell feels way of batting with the ball, but there are lots of differ- it’s ever been”. The 32-year-old said: that the programme must be adjusted to ent ways to get to that point.” “I made the decision of playing help England’s aspiring Test players. After the protracted top-order strug- white-ball cricket for the past year or To illustrate his point, and to under- gles of England’s Test team, there have so and [it] will stand until September. line the different challenges faced by been recent signs of progress, given the “If I have the motivation, my young batsmen nowadays, he looks at the emergence of Rory Burns, Dominic shoulder is 100 per cent and I feel I number of players to score 1,000 runs in Sibley and Zak Crawley. But the depth of can get back into red-ball cricket, a championship season. “When I was seasoned top-order talent available to the that’s something I would consider. starting out, that was your benchmark, – just look at selectors, or lack of it, remains a clear “If I stick to white-ball cricket then just to be a good first-class player,” he area of weakness, particularly looking there’s no Ashes for me [in 2021-22], says. “There used to be three or four in ahead to an Ashes series in 18 months but if I play red-ball and my shoulder each team. What was there last year? One against a potent Australia pace attack — allows it then that’s something that I in the whole first division?” Indeed, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh could look towards. But it’s Sibley played his way into the Test team Hazlewood are all ranked in the world’s something I’ve got to earn.” as the only Division One batsman to pass top ten Test bowlers — operating on the 1,000 runs. Steve Smith’ pitches they know best. “There’s way too much scrappy So Bell was heartened, from his stint LAST MAN STANDING cricket in the championship,” Bell says. with the under-19s, to have witnessed “We need to find players who can learn to batsmen, employed as batting coach for allowed me to start thinking about the batsmen of real substance emerging. Of the 12 men who played in concentrate for a day and a half, and JOHN the recent Under-19 World Cup in South transition into what I might do when I Although England failed to qualify from England's 2005 Ashes-winning you’re not getting that when county Africa. Yet the foremost thought in Bell’s finish. I’ve always thought I’d want to stay their group at the 50-over Under-19 World side, all but Ian Bell have retired games are so short. England are playing WESTERBY mind as he approached his new role was involved in the game and when I saw the Cup, he saw enough potential to suggest five Tests in India next winter, five Tests to avoid any temptation to mould young under-19s batting coach position being that the conveyor belt of talent towards Year of last first-class match in Australia the winter after, and totals of batsmen in his own image. advertised, I thought I might apply.” England’s Test team could become well 300 are not going to win you anything “I certainly wasn’t going to tell people For any applicant to work with aspir- stocked over the next few years. 2006 there. You’ve got to be making 500 in to bat like me,” he says. “I know all too ing international batsmen, it does no “I was quite surprised, actually,” he Ashley Giles (age 33) your first innings to be in the game. But well that what has worked for me will not harm to have 22 Test centuries, 7,727 Test says. “I’d expected to see white-ball skills 200 is a good total in county cricket here have been times in work for everyone. Whoever you’re runs and 5,416 one-day international much more in evidence than red-ball 2009 because of the schedule and that’s no way recent seasons when working with, they’re all going to be runs on your CV. But these qualifications skills, but that wasn’t the case. The bats- Michael Vaughan (34) to prepare batsmen for Test cricket.” England’s Test team have different characters and have their own took Bell only so far and, at the age of 37, men had a really good balance of skills, Andrew Flintoff (31) Bell hopes to keep contributing for been crying out for a top- ways of playing. As a coach, you have to for the first time in his life he found him- some really good technical players. Even Warwickshire when the season order batsman resembling help them find their way and then help self preparing for a job interview the guys who are naturally excellent at 2012 finally begins, sharing partnerships Ian Bell. In a period of existen- them to make it effective.” “I wasn’t really expecting to get the T20, they’re all aiming to play Test Andrew Strauss (35) this summer with the likes of Dan tial crisis for English Test bats- The diversion into coaching has been a job,” he says. “But it was interesting to go cricket, they know you’ll get more Simon Jones (34) Mousley, Birmingham born manship, amid growing con- temporary move, as Bell is still playing for for the interview, to prepare and think of respect from your fellow players if you Stephen Harmison (33) and bred, and England Tcerns that a generation reared Warwickshire. Or he hopes he is, at least. what I’ve learnt from the great coaches make it in Tests. That was refreshing.” 2013 Under-19s’ leading run- on Twenty20 cricket was After missing all of last season with I’ve played under: Bob Woolmer at War- The caveat comes with what happens scorer. “I’ve done quite a struggling to adapt to longer forms of the injuries to his toe and knee, he was wickshire, Duncan Fletcher, Andy next to those players. Bell looks back on Matthew Hoggard (36) bit of work with Dan this game, there has been a longing for some hungrily anticipating the start of the new Flower, who was the best in my book, and his formative years and, at a similar stage winter, he’s a good player, of the traditional virtues that Bell embod- season for the final year of his contract Justin Langer at Perth Scorchers. I’ve of his development, the advent of T20 in 2015 he’s innovative, he loves the ied, a stable side-on technique, an ability with Warwickshire, now delayed by the been lucky and I hope I’ve learnt a bit county cricket was still a few years away. Kevin Pietersen (34) game,” Bell says. “It’s funny to play off front and back foot with equal shutdown. He turned 38 last week and, from all of them.” To hold down a place on a county staff Geraint Jones (38) to think I was capped by facility, and the capacity for concentra- having scored five County Championship He got the job, working under Jon now, a young batsman needs to juggle a Warwickshire 19 years tion upon which long innings can be centuries in 2018, has no desire to stop Lewis, the head coach. The appointment much broader skillset. “It’s a hard place 2018 ago and he wasn’t even built. playing yet. was in keeping with a clear desire from to be coming through now, thinking Paul Collingwood (42) born. But I love playing with It made great sense, then, that Bell was “The advice I get is that you’re a long the ECB to keep recently retired luminar- about three formats, and the different 2019 lads like him. And I hope drafted in this winter by the ECB to work time retired, so I want to keep playing as ies close to the game. Paul Collingwood formats are going further apart,” Bell I can keep scoring a few with the best of the emerging crop of long as I can,” he says. “But the injury has worked with the senior England says. “The best players, the Joe Roots and Marcus Trescothick (43) runs too.”

to keep fit,” says Olympic in the British countryside? “I a time, eight times a week. parents’ lawn. “The grass is With the pools all medallist James Guy. “But did discuss it with my coach “The season had been going done for,” he laughs. Giant paddling closed, athletes you can’t physically replicate but we worked out I would really well for me — pretty The biggest struggle for all have been finding on land what you do in the only be able to get in for much all my times had been of the swimmers is curbing pools and pool. You just can’t. about 20 minutes maximum, significant personal bests,” he their famous appetites. “It novel ways to train Swimmers need water.” even in a wetsuit, because I’m says. “The plan was to try to was really difficult for the first “It’s the feel for the water,” really not used to cold water qualify for the Olympics. At few weeks because my body bungee ropes: explains Dearing. “Swimmers swimming. It just wouldn’t be the moment I’m on the up so was still wanting more energy It’s been 15 years since Alice say that and to normal people worth it — and it could do I’m going to do everything to because it was anticipating Dearing last spent this long it doesn’t mean much but it’s more harm than good, I could try to stay on the up.” the training, even though I swimmers try out of the water. The Team how you connect with the potentially get quite ill.” Richards uses rope for the wasn’t,” says Dearing. “I was GB open-water swimmer water, what it feels like, how Ben Proud, the former fastest strokes, and a bungee pacing round the house. normally spends about three much power you can get from world butterfly champion, rope for everything else: “I’ve Being bored as well, you feel to stay sharp hours a day in the pool, it. If it doesn’t feel right, you has moved from his usual been pleasantly surprised — I hungry constantly. My body covering more than 50km a can’t swim fast. It will take a training base in Turkey to his can do pretty much has adapted now and knows in lockdown week in 18 hours of training. good few weeks to get back to mum’s house in Plymouth. He everything I’ve been able to what it needs but those two This week will mark a month feeling that comfortable in says he’s tempted to swim off do in the pool. The only weeks were hell.” since she was last able to the water.” the beach but hasn’t yet been restriction is how big the Georgia Davies, who is swim at all. British swimmers have able to source a wetsuit. As a waves get because it’s quite a based in Turkey, has enjoyed Athletes around the world been trying a variety of new sprinter, specialising in the small pool so it’s difficult to moving in with her boyfriend have had to adapt their sports to tide them over and 50m butterfly, Proud is less Richards uses a video of Dutch swimmer keep breathing.” and his family, having only training regimes as gyms and help maintain their fitness. reliant on hours in the pool: bungee rope to Sharon van Rouwendaal that It can get a bit tedious, but spent four days with him this tracks shut because of the Dearing has been doing “I can keep a lot of my gym train in his he spotted on social media. he says it’s as important for year. But she wonders when coronavirus outbreak, but online yoga videos. “I’ve work going. I spent the first paddling pool The Olympic marathon his mental health as it is for she’ll be able to get back in REBECCA none more so than actually really enjoyed it. I’ve week of lockdown clearing but he says the champion had set up a large physical fitness: “I swim the pool. “Because we’ve swimmers, whose lives never done anything other out the garage and putting waves he inflatable pool in her back because I love it and to not be swum for so many years, MYERS revolve around the pool. For than swimming.” flooring down for weights.” generates can garden and tied herself to a able to do it for who knows when we are first able to get them, the postponement of As an open-water European junior champion make it difficult rope to swim against. how long, with no end in back in the pool, I’m sure it’s the Tokyo Olympics has swimmer, Dearing is used to Matt Richards has spent to breathe Richards constructed his sight — I think I would have going to feel quite weird,” she provided relief as much as competing in lakes. Has she about £1,000 on a paddling own version and now trains really struggled.” The main says. “But we’re not going to disappointment. “I’m trying been tempted to try her luck pool. The idea came from a for up to an hour and a half at downside is the impact on his forget how to swim.” 34 SPORT Beaumont under pressure over backing from convicted killer

Fiji rugby chief However, two reports by Frank Bainimarama, who an unidentified woman but Kean says. He says of younger change, told us on Friday that the first. If he can loosen the Amnesty International have came to power as prime returned to kick Whippy’s trainees: “We must f*** them he would leave rugby if he grip of the old guard, he will standing for key condemned Kean, who was minister after a coup in 2006 head.” up.” He is also heard was not successful. be lauded. put in charge of Fiji’s prisons but has since been elected, The judge sentenced Kean encouraging his men to Beaumont believes a way Yet the presence of Kean is role was criticised in 2016, and the culture most recently in 2018. At the to 18 months in prison, but assault one particular can be found for players of a problem and raises in Amnesty reports surrounding him. reception after the wedding the South Pacific Law journal emerging officer: “Take him Pacific Islands birth or questions of due diligence Amnesty found that a lack of Bainimarama’s daughter in observed that Kean was out one day for some beers, extraction who have been before his support was of independent oversight 2006, Kean, who was uncle of released “after a couple of and while he is drunk beat recruited by the major unions accepted. Why did no one Stephen Jones meant that violence, the bride, was involved in a months” under a CSO the crap out of the — England, New Zealand, check on him? It is less than including beatings and rape, violent altercation with the (compulsory supervision mother******.” Australia and Ireland among two years since Fiji, at last, Bill Beaumont could find his were perpetrated by Fiji’s uncle of the groom, John order). Amnesty pointed out Last week Beaumont and were given a seat on the campaign to serve another security forces, with Whippy, who was badly that only those whose Bernard Laporte, who is World Rugby Council. It is four years as chairman of suspected criminals and beaten and was dead on sentence was longer than running for the vice- Why did no one surely inconceivable that he World Rugby derailed after it escaped prisoners most at arrival at hospital. three years were eligible for chairmanship, and Pichot, of should play any role in rugby, emerged that his nomination risk of human rights One Amnesty report states a CSO. Argentina, the other check on Kean? let alone on the sport’s had been supported by a violations in custody. that before his trial, Kean Kean has also been accused candidate for the governing body. leading figure in Fijian rugby Beatings of prisoners and tried and failed to have the of rampant homophobia. The chairmanship, were on the His presence is a Beaumont told The Sunday who has been convicted of prison officers were frequent. judge removed because he Francis Kean was sentenced Sunday Times has heard a hustings. There is no problem and Times: “The Fiji Union have manslaughter and criticised One of the reports questioned had opposed the military to 18 months in prison graphic recording of him suggestion that Beaumont, nominated one of their by Amnesty International. Kean’s “suitability to be coup, which Kean helped to when he was in charge of the who is regarded as a man of raises questions elected officials to stand for Beaumont, 68, the former head of the prison service” stage as head of the Navy. ignored this direction prison service. stature and honesty, the Executive Committee for England captain who is and mentions his “support Judge Gerard Winter, a and kept up his belligerent As part of a tirade full of condones any part of the which eight candidates are standing against Agustín for corporal punishment”. New Zealand judge sitting on tirade. violent and homophobic Kean “philosophy”. The them — to return to their standing for seven positions Pichot, has been proposed by Last night one senior union the High Court in Fiji, said in “Francis Kean then left the language, he is heard ranting organisation has worked hard original “homes” for World to be elected by the Council. the French federation and figure told The Sunday Times his summing up: “As John Suva Yacht Club and ran to prison officials that they at eliminating violence, Cups — a brilliant idea. At World Rugby does not make seconded by Fiji. that “if these things really Whippy was assisted to the towards Mr Whippy. The assault a third and younger misogyny, racism and present, once you are the decision as to who stands. The Fiji chairman, happened I would be taxi he was in an ugly accused then came up to John official he accuses of not homophobia. committed it is for life, It is a matter for the union. Francis Kean, a former head horrified”. It is understood drunken mood. I accept he Whippy and punched him measuring up. The recording Beaumont is firm favourite leaving weak Pacific Islands “As stated in my manifesto, of the Fijian Navy, is also one from other sources that used vulgar language that three times in the face . . . was made by the officials, to retain his position and teams shorn of brilliant I will be undertaking a full of eight people standing for senior World Rugby figures provoked Mr Kean to firmly while he was lying on the who then fled to Australia Pichot, favoured by many players. review of the organisation’s seven places on the all- are “highly concerned” about tell him to mind his language ground, Francis Kean kicked for safety. who are in despair at the He insists that he is far governance to ensure that powerful World Rugby the revelations. and go home . . . In his him on the chest. The “We are not breeding dominance of old guard better equipped now for a our decision-making bodies Executive Committee. Kean is brother-in-law of drunkenness the deceased accused was dragged away by poofters and weaklings here,” unions and the lack of second term than he was for are the best they can be.” ASHLEY WESTERN THE FORD AND FARRELL TOP TEN GROUNDS Stuart Barnes and Stephen Jones go head to head on the WATCH OUT best places to watch rugby. Have your say now Exeter’s Joe Simmonds can be the man THESUNDAYTIMES.CO.UK/SPORT to split up England’s established No 10s HOW THEY STOOD

STEPHEN a little boring,” he says. “We are able to do a few things together in the gym, and If and when the Premiership JONES some running. Luckily, there is a field not returns Simmonds’s Exeter side far from my house so when it’s quiet in are sitting on top of the table the evenings I get down there and kick a few balls, I have to keep on top of that.” P W L D F A B Pts Exeter Chiefs 13 9 4 0 390 230 9 45 Rugby Correspondent Apart from that, back to Xbox and back to waiting. I asked him if he had feel- Sale 13 8 5 0 334 190 8 40 ings similar to those of Liverpool footbal- Local hero: Bristol 13 8 4 1 289 264 4 38 ne of the last games before lers — the coveted title at their mercy as Simmonds was Northampton Saints 13 7 6 0 303 311 7 35 the season was suspended they sit top of the table, yet no games to having an Wasps 13 6 7 0 339 328 9 33 now qualifies as nostalgia play and no confirmation that the season outstanding Bath 13 7 6 0 241 293 2 30 but the consummate all- will even be completed. season for Exeter Harlequins 13 5 7 1 285 337 6 28 round performance at fly “Definitely, it is something we talk before it was London Irish 13 5 7 1 255 350 6 28 half of Joe Simmonds, 23, of about as players. We are in a great posi- put on hold Gloucester 13 4 9 0 268 282 10 26 Exeter in a compelling tion in the Premiership and also in match at Harlequins, left a Europe, and Europe is something we’ve Worcester Warriors 13 4 9 0 202 301 6 22 Oglow that still pervades. struggled with in the last few years. What- Leicester Tigers 13 4 8 1 207 302 2 20 Simmonds had a huge all- ever happens we have to take positives Saracens 13 9 4 0 338 263 6 -63 round game, kicking beautifully and lead- from our season so far.” ing his team with an icy rugby brain, but But surely they would be mortified if best of all, he was also satisfyingly physi- the season were to be abandoned, even if care not to overdo it. I kick most days but cal, a beautiful runner with the ball in they were proclaimed champions? “I probably 20 balls over the posts and I’m hand. His England career is no longer a don’t think we would want to win it that happy. I can remember a couple of sea- betting punt, it is long odds-on. way, no way,” he says. “We have lost in sons ago in pre-season trying to change a If you know your Exeter Chiefs, you Premiership finals so we definitely lot of things, I was staying locked in on the would anticipate the reply of Simmonds wouldn’t want to take the league without ball and kept my right foot up through the to such flights of fancy. “I obviously want playing the final.” contact. But it wasn’t working for me so I to get ahead but for me it’s just training Simmonds first set foot on a rugby field went back to what I’d always done.” and playing for Exeter and being the best at Teignmouth, and holidaymakers may It was also impossible not to ask him I can be for them,” he says. “And then remember the splendid ground on the about Sam, his extraordinary brother, at focusing week in, week out.” estuary of the Teign. He and Sam, his No 8. “I know he is my brother and I’m He is deep in lockdown now, with elder brother who has also been moving proud of him but he is so good, the things Exeter’s Max Bodilly as his housemate. like some form of meteor this season in he does are unbelievable. I think he’d be He is not exactly revelling in it. “It can be the back row, were footballers until their the best player in the Premiership any mid-teens. week that he has played.” THE FLY-HALF DUOPOLY “Sam eventually went to play rugby When the time comes, you imagine and he started doing well and I didn’t him coming out of the lockdown like a Ford or Farrell has been the starting really want to be left behind so I changed greyhound from the traps. fly-half in 87 of England’s past 100 Tests — at about 13.” He went to Ivybridge College Is there anything better than a young Danny Cipriani is the only other player to — a noted local proving ground for Chiefs Devonian, a lover of sport, playing profes- have started a game at No 10 since 2014 players — for two years before signing for sionally for the Devon heroes, maybe put- Exeter. He has been at the Chiefs for four ting pressure on the grand England mid- Starts at fly-half fervent years, and has been proceeding field axis of George Ford and Owen at a rate of knots. Which weaknesses does Farrell? I put it to him that he must feel George Ford (2014- ) 52 he still have to fix, what does the eagle- sometimes, to adapt a rather coarse eyed Ali Hepher, the head coach, whisper expression, like a pig in manure. Owen Farrell (2012- ) 35 in his ear? recently? He treasures it. “Definitely, and absolutely unstoppable. So does Sim- have superb players all along their back “Because we’re always focusing, it’s “It probably wouldn’t be something he I think that sometimes people who want monds ever demand the ball, for division, with Simmonds in charge, the probably towards the end of the season Toby Flood (2012-13) 6 thinks I should work on, but we review to be fly halves focus too much on their heaven’s sake? gifted pair of Henry Slade and Ollie Dev- where I look back and reflect, and when I our games a lot and it is about being con- kicking. I think these days you have to be “To be honest, it is the opposite. The oto in midfield and with Stuart Hogg com- realise that I’m playing in the best league, Freddie Burns (2012-14) 4 sistent,” Simmonds says. “That’s when an all-round player to be at the top of forwards score so many tries and every ing in from full back against some of the best teams and with you become a rated player and that’s why your game, and I do more work with my time we get in the five-metre zone they When speaking to goalkickers, it is some of the best and most committed all the best are so good. Ali also makes running game than I do on the kicking.” come out with a score. Say if we are near always tempting to ask if their training friends. Charlie Hodgson (2012) 2 sure I’m consistent with the whole game, But surely, he must get furious with his the line and we call for the ball and don’t regimes are based on Jonny Wilkinson “We probably don’t talk about it too not just my kicking.” forwards? Exeter have developed an score, the pack go mental at us.” (being still out there after sunset) or not. much but when we do, we realise that we Danny Cipriani (2018) 1 And the running game, which brought incredible ability to score tries from their But you cannot shut them down by “I’d probably say that I’m the opposite to are doing something special.” him two tries as he tested Harlequins forwards from short range; they can be shutting down the forwards. The Chiefs Jonny,” he says. “I am someone that takes Special is the word, still leaving a glow. Yoga, brain teasers and a new tennis game with a tea towel

dog and cycling so I don’t get lockdown, I was struggling to Live or Lululemon Live lying around the house. My l Add extra items one by do them whenever I feel like JUDY MURRAY ON bored. avoid the fridge and the wine Instagram at 7.30am. favourite is Tea Towel Tennis. one. it. Next week I’ll do 600. It’s LIFE IN LOCKDOWN Sports people are used to rack. To try to keep mentally Its great for developing good to have goals. having routine and discipline I have a great app called sharp, I get stuck into brain 1 tea towel absorbing skills and soft in their daily lives so when Yoga Go and I choose a teasers and 1,000-piece 2 people hands as well as team work. Recipe from The Quick that’s disrupted, it’s workout from that each day jigsaws. And I’ve been 4 small soft items like balls, Roasting Tin by Rukmini I travel overseas a lot with important to adapt and create and I make sure I stretch challenging myself to try new soft toys, rolled up socks, General fitness tip Iyer. work so I’m not used to a schedule that keeps you before it and after it things. This week I’ve made a toilet roll. Find things you are able to do I love the Rukmini Iyer books. spending lots of time at home both physically and mentally otherwise I won’t be able to quiche from scratch for the l Put the tea towel on the and that you enjoy doing. A This one is from the Quick and I’m certainly not used to active. I write a timetable move the next day. And I also first time ever, I’ve learnt how floor. Place one ball in the little and regularly is better Roasting Tin Book, which are sitting still for long periods of every evening for the choose an online or TV to use TikTok and I’ve centre. than busting a gut and feeling all done and dusted in 30 time. following day because I find it workout to follow daily but enrolled in an online l Pick up the tea towel at its sore. I like to skip but I get out minutes, which suits my Luckily I have lots of sports easier to stick to a plan if it’s again I like to ring the reflexology course. edges. of breath quite easily. So I set hectic lifestyle. It’s salmon in equipment in my garage and written down. changes. My favourites so far And on top of that I’ve l Bump the ball up and trap myself a target of 500 a day a sticky honey glaze with lots I’m mixing up my “one-a- It includes my food timings are Joe Wicks at 9am, Anton created some great new on the tea towel. Start with a and I break it down into of fresh veg. Simple, quick day” exercise time between and what I’m going to eat du Beke (my Strictly dance content for my Family Tennis Murray has found inventive small bump and then make manageable chunks. So five and nutritious. This is one of running, walking my parents’ because in the first week of partner) at 11am via Twitter Programme using whatever is ways of staying active the ball go higher. times a day I will do 100 and I my favourite recipes. The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 35 David Walsh Two of America’s most successful trainers, the winner of racing’s richest race and an FBI doping investigation with repercussions for the sport on both sides of the Atlantic

AHMED YOSRI onday, March 9, started off like any other day for Deanna Manfredi. She was on her farm in eastern Pennsylvania, busy enough that morning not to have tuned in to the news. MAbout 11am she received an email from a fellow board member of the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association. The message linked her to the breaking story. Twenty-seven people, including two of the country’s most successful horse racing trainers, had been indicted after an FBI investigation into doping. Manfredi scanned the names. Trainers Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro stood out. Racing, a sport that now struggles for mainstream attention, was back in the news. Four days later a leader article in The Washington Post would call for the sport to be outlawed. “Anyone who thinks horse racing is like any other major sport is lying, ignorant or kidding themselves. . . The rot in horse racing goes deep. It is a sport that has outlived its time.” Manfredi is the fourth generation of her family to breed, keep and race horses. “I read the story that morning and felt elation. Servis and Navarro, it couldn’t have happened to two better guys. What they were doing was the worst-kept secret on the planet. I wanted to go out to the barn and tell my horses that things had just gotten better for them.” Michael Dickinson trained the first five home in the 1983 Cheltenham Gold Cup. Four years later he had his first runner in the US, having set up a training operation in Maryland. He took a break from training in 2007, then resumed his career four years ago. He was on a visit back to England when all hell broke loose back in the US. “I was pleased by the news. Surprised and also delighted that the FBI got involved. Many people in racing have been let down by horse racing’s authorities. I remember reading what [fellow trainer] Graham Motion said that morning and fully agreeing with it.” “If this doesn’t wake us up as an industry, I don’t know what will,” Motion “I said to somebody, if they had come to One of the leading trainers, Mark Casse, Maximum Security, ridden race, the $20 million (£16 million) Saudi said. “It’s our own fault. We let it Jason Servis’s me the day before this happened and wants clenbuterol removed from US by Luis Saez, wins the Cup in Saudi Arabia. Nine days later, the happen. This shows we are incapable of said, ‘I’m not going to tell you who but racing. “I cannot tell you how many Saudi Cup in Coolmore FBI indictment specifically named policing our own sport.” indictment is, two big trainers are going to be busted times I have bought a yearling or a two- colours, but the $10 million Maximum Security as one of the horses During his break from training in the for doping and juicing, who do you think year-old, brought them home and prize was withheld amid doped by Servis. More recently racing US, Dickinson travelled to many at best, an they are?’ my answer would have been watched them wilt away to nothing,” he doping fears. Below, Servis, authorities in Riyadh announced that countries around the world. “The Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro. says. “It is very sad and disheartening.” left, and Magnier the $10 million due to the winner of the question was always the same. When is embarrassment “Everybody in this room was Since the March 9 announcement, the Saudi Cup was being withheld, pending the US going to ditch its permissive extremely suspicious of those two guys, FBI has added a further two to the list of an inquiry. medication policies? My reply was for the Irish-based as we are of many other trainers whose 27. The investigation has emphatically The question Coolmore’s bosses will always, ‘Never.’” names have not come up in this.” proven that US horse racing, with all its now be asking themselves is how they That, of course, was before the FBI got Coolmore Stud Such is the FBI evidence it is unlikely myriad authorities, is not capable of could have staked so much on a trainer involved. the trainers will ever again work in policing itself. Servis and Navarro’s about whom there was so much racing. They both deny the allegations. winners didn’t fail drug tests. suspicion? “A lot of racing people in the It is not the list of names on the FBI’s using it on everything almost.” Navarro They’ve got an uphill battle: from Everyone knew their extraordinary US were surprised when Coolmore, who charge sheet. Nor is it the drug-dealers’ replies that he himself has “more than 12 80,000 US federal criminal cases in strike ratios — winners to runners — were have made so many astute decisions, argot for their hideous products: red horses” on SGF-1000, and then tells 2018, 90 per cent of the defendants unachievable without doping, yet there bought into this horse,” Dickinson says. acid, frozen pain, monkey, SGF-1000, Servis they should end the call. “Jay, pleaded guilty, 8 per cent were was no shortage of owners willing to In the US, there is a clamour for BB3. No, it is those moments in the 43- we’ll sit down and talk about this shit. I dismissed and of the 2 per cent that went send them horses. The indictment radical change. “If this is the catalyst page indictment when secretly recorded don’t want to talk about this shit on the to trial, 83 per cent were convicted. highlights one conversation where an for getting our Integrity Act through conversations are reproduced. phone, OK.” For US racing, the problem is not as unidentified owner asks Navarro Congress and the Senate, it won’t The lowest point comes in an They looked out for each other. On straightforward as a small number of whether his horse is getting “all the have been in vain,” Manfredi says. exchange between Nick Surick and February 18, 2019, Servis warned his rogue trainers. American trainers and shit”. Under the proposed Michael Tannuzzo. Surick is a harness friend via a text message about the breeders are allowed to use drugs and “Everything,” Navarro Integrity Act, US racing’s trainer, Tannuzzo a low-level racehorse presence of a racing official in the barn medications in a way that is not said. “He gets everything.” anti-doping programme would be trainer but they work with people who where drugs were stored and permissible in other countries. Horses For the Irish-based run by the United States Anti- are high profile. administered. Navarro later explained to that otherwise might not be able to race Coolmore Stud, Servis’s Doping Agency. “You know how many f***ing horses Tannuzzo what would have happened are kept going by pain-masking drugs. indictment is, at best, an “I’ve been in the game since I was he f***ing killed and broke down that I had he not been tipped off. “Some horses excel on these drugs. embarrassment. On January 1 this 12,” West Point Thoroughbreds made disappear,” Surick tells Tannuzzo. “He [the racing official] would have Others die,” Manfredi says. year it was announced that John founder Terry Finley told “You know how much trouble he could caught our asses pumping and pumping In the three months from December Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick The Washington Post. get in . . . if they found out . . . six horses and fuming every f***ing horse that 30, 2018, to March 31, 2019, 23 Smith had bought a 50 per “This is the biggest we killed.” runs today.” racehorses died racing or training at cent stake in Maximum thing that has According to the FBI, Surick is There was a pattern to how Servis and Santa Anita track in California. Twenty- Security, the best horse happened to our referring to racehorse trainer Navarro, Navarro became highly successful. With one of the 23 had evidence of trained by Servis. business in a very who was among the most successful support from owners, they bought pre-existing pathology at the site of their Two months later in long time. If we trainers in the US. Navarro and Servis horses from claiming races and soon had fatal injury. Eleven had received intra- Tabor’s blue-and- don’t take were top trainers, rivals and at the same them performing at a much higher level. articular corticosteroid injections. orange silks, advantage and will time as thick as thieves. Many suspected what they were doing. Before being sent to the sales, Maximum Security ourselves to In a recorded conversation, Servis Bill Finley is a racing journalist with yearlings are fed the steroid-like drug won the world’s change, we’re tells Navarro about SGF-1000, “I’ve been the Thoroughbred Daily News in the US. clenbuterol to promote muscle growth. richest ever horse dead.”

of an 80-minute sporting house urging both sides on in French sides slug it out up up with greatness if a referee 50-plus metre kick has been Drama of 2009 experience? Pretoria, that’s another story. front, or two Kiwi teams run decides to be the star of the forgotten in Lions land as fans My five-point Lions Test would Atmosphere is essential. The second Test was played in 20 tries in a thrilling 60-60 show. If he can be as rage even now over Ronan The game is theatrical but in front of raucous hostility. draw, only when the giant accurate, as empathetic as O’Gara’s up-and-under that have left even the whereas Shakespeare thrives The sound, the singing, is a pack is taken on by the Nigel Owens was when New led to Steyn’s penalty. Had he guide to what Bard speechless in the silence between lines, mighty part of the occasion. brilliant back line does the Zealand beat South Africa kicked into touch, the game rugby union withers when If the rest of the game reach for the stars. I sat (again the Boks) at Ellis Park would have gone to the third the audience is stilled. The Premiership season is to be slack-jawed as Brian in October 2013, no sport can Test in Ellis Park — but the STUART roar of the crowd covers up played, as suggested, at vast O’Driscoll literally rose to the live with union’s magical Lions could only have drawn makes a for the fact that even a empty arenas such as challenge of the Springbok combination of brutishness, the series. The Irishman BARNES technically outstanding rugby Twickenham, even the giants. It was thrilling. I lost brilliance and brain. wanted to win. He knows the match has far more errors enthusiasm of the BT team any semblance of neutrality. Christophe Berdos was not difference between greatness great rugby than an evening’s will not mask the fact that a If you want a classic case of in Owens’s class that day in and something pretty performance at the RSC. game without atmosphere is big versus little, look no 2009 but he didn’t stop every damned good. Stage players have no one average at best. further than the Japanese hit- time there was another surge The Lions’ series draw in game doing their best to wreck all Size is another key and-run against South Africa in the violence that rocked New Zealand in 2017 is one of I watched the second Test of the rehearsals that go into commodity. The match has to in 2015. It wasn’t just the the stadium and upped the their greatest achievements the 2009 Lions tour in South first night. “To be or not to matter. One-nil up or down in magnitude of the shock but tension. Referees are not but I’ll never forget the Africa yesterday. Nothing — in be” would be a damned sight a Lions series against the the contrasting style that Hamlet and are never meant absence of atmosphere at the all my experiences playing, harder soliloquy if three reigning world champions: it made this a great game. to be. You can have 80,000 final whistle. A drawn match writing, commentating — will blokes were simultaneously doesn’t get bigger than that. Rugby, being as fans, two great teams but if a and drawn series. Greatness top that match. The viewing grabbing you around the The stakes have to be huge. multilayered as it is with laws referee is pedantic, greatness requires heroes and villains. was the incentive required to shoulder, hip and ankle while Players performing under and their often random will escape the game. A last-minute kick can elevate write a companion piece to making a grab for poor physical and mental interpretations, cannot come Finally, the fifth and most an average game into a great the series of Top Tens that Yorick’s head that has pressure. It’s why I rate important part of the one (think the 2003 World Stephen Jones and I have had somehow found its way into Fourie du Preez the greatest package. Drama. An instant Cup final) whereas the game the pleasure to write during the action. player of the century. He Try acting when the heart stops, when with one team pulling away to the lockdown. Forced or otherwise, rugby dominated a World Cup in Shakespeare the entire 80 minutes seems win by eight points after a Not on the subject of what teems with mistakes. So 2007 and produced a as if Shakespeare had indeed superb 70 minutes of action are the greatest games, rather much has to be off the cuff, masterpiece with Lions with blokes written it, as if the play has gathers dust on the shelf. what makes a great game. errors are inevitable. Sitting pawing all over him two years grabbing you by inexorably led to the Where there is no drama, What are the component still and watching the later. Big-match player. overwhelming moment. there’s no greatness. This O’Driscoll rose to the parts required to leave impossibility of perfection A contrast helps in the the shoulder, The 2009 Test was decided applies to Twickenham and challenge of facing spectators and viewers glued unfolding would be an ugly making of a great game. by a magnificent kick from Cardiff every bit as much as the Springboks to their seats in the aftermath experience. But with a full Compelling as it is when two ankle and hip local hero Morné Steyn. The Stratford-upon-Avon. 36 SPORT THE ART OF SCORING Patience, practice and poise the key to finding the net even if (like me) you’re not a born predator like Lineker or Van Nistelrooy

WAYNE ROONEY

’m going to be honest — and this might surprise you — but I’m not a natural goalscorer. I was never a Gary Lineker or a Ruud van Nistelrooy; I never looked at myself that way. I hold the goal records for Manchester United and England and am very proud Iabout that — yet there have been better No 9s than me. I always wanted to score but I’ve always loved the game more than the individual stuff. My favourite players to watch were those like Paul Scholes and Xavi and I get more joy out of splitting a defence with a pass than from any goals I’ve scored myself. One of my favourite moments, for instance, was Robin van Persie’s strike versus Aston Villa when United won the title in 2012-13. I found him from inside our half and he beat Brad Guzan with a beautiful volley and the best thing was that Robin and I had actually worked on that move before the game because we knew Villa’s centre backs liked to push up. PSYCHOLOGY The hardest thing to learn is patience. For me, it wasn’t difficult mastering the runs to make or the right finishing techniques but the mental challenge of playing No 9 should not be underestimated. For most

of my career I’ve played in deeper posi- ILLUSTRATION BY RICHARD WALKER AND PETE BAKER. PHOTOS: PELHAM / DARREN STAPLES ANDREW YATES tions and my instinct is to drop off and get on the ball. there were no instructions, it was down ball. You can lengthen or shorten your to whip it. I scored my first free kick in my What an out-and-out striker has to do If I was building to me and Ruud to have an understand- MY PERFECT GOAL stride, depending how the ball’s coming United debut versus Fenerbahce. Prac- is learn how to wait, how to stay in posi- ing and I loved playing with him. His in, but what you’re looking to do is arrive tice is everything: that’s another thing I tion and just trust in team-mates to get a team, I’d start movement was exceptional. at it with composure and it’s one of the saw in Ruud and I copied the seriousness I always say the overhead kick versus the ball to them in the right places. You In some teams the No 10 stays outside hardest things to teach. I always remem- with which he practised penalties. City is my favourite goal, but not when might go 40 minutes with your only with Kane as my the area but I was a No 10 who always ber saying to Danny Welbeck, “Danny, it comes to the craft of scoring touches being a couple of layoffs with tried to get in the box and the trick is to when you go through every time you TRICKS OF THE TRADE your back to goal yet you can’t allow No 9 and then decide your movements depending on Against Wigan in 2009 my timing was shoot you’re falling over. Just steady yourself to feel bored: you remind your- what your No 9 is doing. I’d watch Ruud’s perfect. I got across the centre back as yourself. Slow yourself down.” That last You learn little things along the way. The self you’re doing a job for the team and build from there run in front of me and make my own run Rafael crossed from the right and got a step — that’s your chance to gain control best advice I received was from Fergie. that the chance you’ve been put on the off the back of him. nick on the ball over your body. If you’re still running at a He’d say “you’re working too hard” and pitch to take might come along at any back and get on the ball was tough. Over Good movement is about the split sec- hundred miles an hour it’s impossible. at first I thought, “What do you mean? moment. the years I grew more calm and my best ond, making eye contact with your team- It’s like golf: when you step up to the Isn’t that what you want?” But I used to Just two of my 13 seasons for United period of scoring with England, by a mile, mates and knowing their games: for tee and try to absolutely smash the ball, try to run as hard as I could for 90 min- were as the main No 9 and I scored 34 was under Roy Hodgson when I was No 9 instance if I was No 9 and Scholes or Ryan you might hit it straight one time in ten utes and in the last ten minutes be tired. goals in both campaigns. But I never once and a mature footballer patient enough Giggs had the ball I’d try to go in behind whereas if you take a nice smooth swing The manager wanted his strikers to keep came off the pitch feeling I’d played well. to stay away from the build-up play. every time, because Scholes could find you’ll probably get the shot you want. a little bit in the tank, because that match- I remember getting the man-of-the- you from deep and Giggsy had that deli- Similarly, you very rarely score goals winning chance might not arrive until the match award after scoring two headers v cate little touch where he could just dink Rooney by just hitting the ball as hard as you can. 90th minute — Fergie time! AC Milan at home and feeling bad taking MOVEMENT one over or slide one down the side. Out of my 363 for club and country, just I used to practise finishing when I was it because — in my mind — I hadn’t really I got plenty of goals as a No 10 too and key What I learnt from Ruud was not three involved striking the ball with maxi- tired. At the end of a training session I’d been involved in the game. With a differ- to scoring is movement. Van Nistelrooy having any fear of making that run and mum power: my volley for United v New- get a ’keeper and Eric Steele, the goal- ent way of thinking, I’d probably have was No 9 when I joined United and the the ball not coming. Just do it — and don’t castle, one against Wolves at Old Trafford keeping coach, and do five sets of six: a lit- scored a lot more than I did. first thing we spoke about with the team get frustrated if the pass doesn’t arrive. and a goal for Everton at Portsmouth tle sprint then a shot. By the fifth and My first game at No 9 was the famous and Sir Alex Ferguson was defending: when I was 18. sixth rep of each set, you were out of Keane v Vieira showdown with Arsenal at without the ball it would be my task to get It’s the same with free kicks. When I breath — and if you learn to finish when Highbury. I remember thinking, “I can’t back in and give us a midfield five or to sit FINISHING was younger, I couldn’t get the ball you’re tired, it’s so much easier when you play this role.” I was up against Sol Camp- on the opposition holding midfielder. Once you’re in position, you read how Man Utd up-and-down over the wall and in my first get a chance and you’re normal. bell and Pascal Cygan and couldn’t see Ruud and I would then try to squeeze the ball is travelling and how you’re going Wigan season at Everton I’d go out with a bag of Before joining United, I’d seen Ole how I could hold those two off. them to one side of the pitch — for to get on the end of it. Then your brain balls and, with no goalkeeper, just prac- Gunnar Solskjaer scoring all these goals Movement: Rafael I played better than I expected and the instance if they had a right-footer playing switches in a split second to, “Am I put- On ball tise the shape and accuracy I needed. by shooting through defenders’ legs — physical aspect proved fine but I came off at left centre back we’d squeeze them in ting this near post, back post; am I going Off ball I started by hitting the ball softly and incredible. I watched him in training, I thinking, “I didn’t enjoy that, I don’t want that direction, so the team could press to strike it, dink it?’ gradually built up the pace over the space spoke to him: “How do you know what to play there.” Fighting that urge to come from there. But when we had the ball Then it’s about your approach to the of two years until I was confident enough the defender is going to do?”

a ball about and as soon as it and a gentleman with a got involved. There was a bit crew and there was an came to him it was instant magical left foot. Norman of a cult following because we England international, not Hunter control. He was 76, but still didn’t mind, though. had such a great time. long retired, who couldn’t ‘Covid clauses’ in contracts big and strong and he Our families were close. We would sail round the handle him. Norman, who had it all, certainly hadn’t lost it. We had a dinner party just Mediterranean and the had stopped playing ages ago, Norman always had an four weeks ago and went on passengers would often play a comes on and, within five Jonathan Northcroft performance-based pay in negotiation,” Geey said. amazing natural ability and I holiday each summer for the game of football against the minutes, he’s just taken him players’ deals. “However that doesn’t more than thought people judged him past 20 years. Norman and I crew. We didn’t normally get and the ball straightaway and Football clubs are At present, contracts in mean you couldn’t have a for the wrong reasons. did these P&O Cruises involved because it wasn’t for said, “That’s how you do it.” examining ways to insert England work from a contract where particular We met in 1979 at Barnsley. together doing after-dinner us, it was for the punters. But Like all world-class centre “Covid clauses” into player standard template in which clauses were included. just tough Norman was a big name and talks. It started with me, this one time we did and we halves, he knew how to contracts to protect there are no “force majeure” “The issue at the moment everyone respected him Gordon Banks and Alan were getting battered. This defend but he also knew how themselves against future clauses, unlike in Scotland, would more be that if you because of the reputation he Mullery, and then Norman guy was running riot for the to play, and left-sided shutdowns. where “clause 12” appears to have clubs thinking [a guy image had. I remember playing a GETTY IMAGES defenders like that were so Different mechanisms are allow clubs to suspend shutdown through Covid] behind-closed-doors game at rare. That was the beauty of being looked at that may salaries when football is isn’t going to be a six-month the training ground in pre- Norman. help owners avoid having to suspended in the SPFL. issue but more likely an 18- season and one of the Back in those days, you bargain over wage cuts and This has been a factor month issue, there might be RONNIE opposition, an England had to overcome the physical deferrals in the event of the allowing Scottish clubs to an attempt to introduce GLAVIN international and top player, aspect of the game before you Premier League and EFL drive a harder bargain on more performance comes walking out with his could play. The guys who being suspended again. pay cuts and deferrals amid elements into contracts.” mates. “Oh, f***!” he says. could do both were really Some agents are braced the shutdown than Basic pay tends to “Have you seen who’s playing special, and Norman was one for clubs attempting to counterparts south of the account for at least 75 per for them? It’s Hunter!” of them. In the modern game, introduce clauses that border. English clubs could cent of the remuneration in Former team-mate and We played together and you’d need a blank cheque. would trigger an automatic look to introduce something most deals, topped up by friend of Norman Hunter then he was my manager at He could have played in any pay cut if a “force majeure”, similar in future — though in bonuses for appearances, Earlier this year, I was at Barnsley. I remember one era. He was a special player such as a pandemic, led to the short term it may be wins, goals and the team’s Norman’s house in Leeds. We time in recent years we were and a gentle, kind man. football’s suspension. simpler to control pay via overall performance. were in the back garden and talking about the whole ‘Bite We would always talk However, one of Britain’s performance means. Putting greater emphasis Norman — who died last week Yer Legs’ thing [his about football. Norman was leading football lawyers, “There are no force on performance earnings aged 76 after contracting nickname] and, in a way, it still such a fit guy. I know his Daniel Geey, believes that majeure clauses in existing could prevent future coronavirus — was playing devalues how good Norman age but if you had seen him, clubs may try to protect Premier League or EFL disputes such as those that with his three young really was. That kind of made he was so big and strong so themselves in stealthier contract templates and have greeted attempts to get grandchildren, who he him seem like a bit of an for this to have taken him is ways — by pushing for a something as substantive players to take pay cuts in idolised. They were knocking animal but he was a class act Norman Hunter tackles David Court of Arsenal in 1969 hard to imagine. greater emphasis on would probably need a lot of the present suspension. The Sunday Times April 19, 2020 37

BACK OF THE NET

It was quite simple. Ole explained that together but you could see that all he when you shape to shoot, defenders tend wanted was to be the best player in the to stick their leg out to try and block and world. He practised and practised and that makes a gap. He perfected the tech- began to produce. Cristiano has become US sport has lessons for how nique. And it’s harder for the ’keeper 229 an incredible scorer and he and Messi are because they don’t see the ball when it arguably the best two players the game leaves your foot. I scored one past Joe HARRY KANE has seen. Hart against Manchester City that way. But despite my friendship with Cristi- football can return stronger Headers used to frustrate me: when TOTAL GOALS ano, I’d go for Messi. It’s for the same rea- younger, I just couldn’t seem to score a son I loved watching Xavi and Scholes: it’s GLEB GARANICH headed goal and it turned out that was the different things in Messi’s game. I’ve down to timing. I worked day-in, day-out talked about composure and I can’t Game has golden to get the timing and in 2009-10 went on a remember seeing Messi score when he opportunity to run where I scored 18 goals in 12 games, has hit the ball as hard as he could. He just half of which were headers. That was rolls them in, makes it so easy. reset itself and get purely about learning how to pull off the Ronaldo is ruthless in the box, a killer. fans back onside back of a centre half or get across him at But Messi will torture you before he kills the right moment. you. With Messi you just get the impres- when it resumes sion he is having more fun. Those two THE BEST have completely changed the game in Jonathan Northcroft, terms of goalscoring numbers and I don’t Ian Whittell When asked my favourite goal, I always think they’ll ever be matched. say the overhead kick versus City — but As for mine: how did I become a A warm voice comes down we’re talking, here, about the craft of record-breaker if I wasn’t a natural the line from chilly goalscoring, how it’s about teamwork, scorer? Time. I played for United for 13 Saskatchewan, Canada. Night movement, control and timing and a goal years, England for 15 years. I had time to temperatures near Prince that probably few people remember break those records — and looking back I Albert remain well below sticks out for me. It came versus Wigan, should have scored more. zero and it’s only a few weeks when Rafael crossed from the right and I don’t think it will take long for Harry ago that Robyn Regehr my timing was literally perfect: I got Kane to claim my England record and it cleared snow off the lake to across the centre back, got a nick on the would be a proud moment for me. I’ve make a rink for his kids. ball and the ’keeper had no chance. never been a selfish player and it would Regehr was a stalwart hero Anticipating is so important, knowing be great for England for Harry to get of ice hockey, a great team when the ’keeper is going to spill it or the there. Bobby Charlton had to wait 50 player and defenseman defender is going to head it without years — I hope it’s not so long for me. The whose long career enough power, and those strikers who United record might last longer simply culminated in Stanley Cup always seem to be in the right place for because players don’t stay at clubs as victory; who won a World long as they used to. Mind you, if Cup, played at the Olympics Messi or Ronaldo came to Old Traf- and always won the respect Despite my ford for a swansong they’d proba- of fans. bly break it in three or four years. If England’s footballers Jürgen Klopp and Jordan Henderson will take heart from how ice hockey bounced back friendship with need help navigating their way forward after the re-bond with its public. get into who they were as Cristiano, I’d go coronavirus shutdown they Hockey faced all that in 2004. people and show their could do worse than listen to “In Canada, when we were different interests. They FOOTBALLER for Messi — he Regehr. “I don’t know what’s locked out for that entire made it more interactive for 384 going to change, but it’s going season, the media coverage fans — instead of the player tortures you and to be very important for was extremely negative being just the player.” TURNED RUUD VANN players to be engaged with towards the players,” recalls New financial controls then kills you the public and do a great job Regehr, now 40. “People said, agreed upon boosted the TRADER NISTELROOY not just on the field but off it ‘You guys get the chance to overall health of the league, as well,” Regehr says. play a game, why don’t you enriching most teams and TOTAL GOALS Forty days have passed just go out and play it?’ enabling players over time to Rebecca Myers talks to since any play in the Premier Players will never, ever win recoup income they had lost sports stars using the League. Friday’s latest club that argument or even get initially through the cap. How lockdown to learn how conference upheld June 8 as close. That’s just the way it is English football — especially to play the stock market the “best case” for when it [when it comes to pay].” the EFL — could benefit from might restart, which would When the NHL returned, this shutdown producing a THESUNDAYTIMES.CO.UK/ extend the shutdown to 13 Regehr was in a generation of similar redrawing of SPORT weeks, roughly the length of players who found economics. a full close season. themselves having to strive The NHL also used its tap-ins are sometimes called lucky. Yet the pause could well harder than predecessors to 2004-05 hiatus as an career affected by two NBA Pros know otherwise. The great scor- prove longer, with the reach out to supporters, via opportunity to “reset” how lockouts. He’s a football fan ers are often like that. Sergio Agüero “football-by-June” scenario the media and community hockey itself was played. and is following comes to mind among current Pre- regarded as optimistic by work. The collective “Leading up to the lockout developments in his native mier League players. He has much authorities inside and outside bargaining agreement that the game was more defensive Germany, where Bundesliga more to his game than just being a the sport. Whenever it comes got hockey playing again orientated,” Regehr says. teams are back training. No 9 but he’s a fantastic scorer, who back, it’s clear football will be included a formula where “There was a lot of Nowitzki sympathises with gets all types of goals. re-emerging from a hiatus players’ remuneration was obstruction, hooking, footballers, but feels they can I’ve been trying to explain how unprecedented outside now linked to the commercial holding, checking. The get through this. “It’s scoring is often down to players wartime and that’s where success of their teams and the owners, coaches and players comparable to the [2011] working together and the Liver- Regehr comes in. North entire league. wanted to implement lockout [over NBA pay] pool front three are the perfect American sport is This had positive effects. something different — for the because in that case we didn’t example. Mohamed Salah and experienced in shutdowns “It led to more engagement, advantage to work for the know what the timing was, if Sadio Mané provide the depth and he was part of an NHL more openness, having more offensive player rather than there was a season or even — by pushing teams back which that bounced back from off-ice availability — because defensive player.” like in this situation — if we allows Roberto Firmino to come the longest of all — as a players who had foresight Rules were amended and were playing until the end of deep for the ball, the opposition rebooted, more connected could see the better job they “it led to more speed, more the season,” he says. centre backs relax and suddenly and popular game. did off the ice, the more they skill, more excitement and “But it’s harder in another the other two make diagonal runs at Labour disputes caused could grow the game,” entertainment for fans”. way because of the terrible incredible pace to attack the space. most of those lay-offs. Major Regehr says. Anyone up for using situation worldwide. You It reminds me of how Roma used to League Baseball has had “Hockey is a big part of shutdown to tweak VAR? worry for your family and play with Totti as No 10 and two quick three seasons significantly Canada and Southern Alberta NHL attendances jumped friends so it’s mentally tough runners attacking the box from wide. disrupted by strikes over [Calgary’s province] had by 7 per cent after lockdown. to stay focused on your It pains me to admit it, but Liverpool player pay, the NFL two, the about a million people at the The value of teams near- fitness. Also [in 2011] you are the best attacking unit in world NBA two and NHL four. In time. The Flames tried pay- tripled over the next decade. could go to the gym, work football at the moment. 2004-05 the entire hockey per-view games and to show a Those scare stories about out, play in YMCAs or local Then there’s Harry Kane. In the season was cancelled. Then, different side to players, to “football’s impending crash” halls.” last two seasons we’ve seen him drop Regehr was a young star of perhaps don’t have to come The NBA, like the NHL, has deeper more and play balls in behind the Calgary Flames team who true — so long as stakeholders tended to rebound stronger and he’s very good at it, as we saw had reached their first ever Scare stories talk constructively and vision from lockouts. Likewise the when England beat Spain in Seville. Stanley Cup finals in 2004 about ‘football’s is shown. Instead of NFL. While crowds and But if I were managing Harry, I’d be tell- only to lose in the last squabbling over deferrals and ratings slumped after the ing him to stay high as that No 9. His big- moments of a seven-game impending return dates, could football 1994 World Series was lost gest strength is finishing and he strikes series, having already been not use its break to thrash out through lockout, baseball was the ball so well that from 20 yards or robbed in game six by a crash’ don’t have a new way of using — and resurgent later in the 1990s closer he should be looking to hit it controversial call. to come true growing — its revenue, like thanks to new playing stars. whenever possible. He went from that agony to NHL did? “Hockey came out better Harry is a classic No 9, the closest a ten months and six days It’s significant the NBA is and in baseball they’re still I’ve seen to Ruud. If I were building lockout before the NHL taking the opportunity, in selling out stadiums for the a team, he’s the one I’d start with. started again. During the Covid shutdown, to redraw World Series,” says Rick Harry Kane: there’s my No 9. Then period players were vilified, its calendar. The Sunday Burton, the Dick Falk I’d build the rest around him. portrayed as greedy and to be Times understands a Professor of Sports “not doing their bit” for their committee of owners, Management at Syracuse MESSI V RONALDO AND sport through their refusal to coaches and player University. RECORD-BREAKING accept a salary cap. representatives are close to “I think the Brits and Yanks The parallels for Premier agreement on reducing a have short-term memories Ronaldo wasn’t as focused on League players are obvious. gruelling schedule and when it comes to, ‘This is the goals when we started playing Something far more serious moving the basketball season end of the world as we know than pay has caused football’s — via a new December start it,’” Burton observes. “Three impasse — but pay has date — so it no longer clashes years later they can’t even CRISTIANO become a central, emotive with the NFL regular remember who was in the issue. Beyond that, there are campaign. competition that year.” RONALDO questions about football’s The legendary Dirk So look at the lessons from 725TOTAL GOALSS entire economics and about Nowitzki — arguably Europe’s America: football can — and how the game should try to Regehr suffered lockdown greatest player — had his should — survive and thrive.

Newcastle United might very soon be darkness and much wailing. The chief daughter of a Yorkshire landowner, Allies they may well be, but few would prised from the meaty grasp of owner backer of this spectacular new deal is the Staveley began her business career with argue that the country is a bastion of Rod Mike Ashley, much to the euphoria — Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund a restaurant but has since moved on to democracy, human rights and perhaps misplaced euphoria — of the (PIF), one of the richest investment much bigger and better things. progressive, liberal thinking. It is, rather, club’s long-suffering supporters. They funds in the known universe. She briefly hit the headlines a decade an autocratic medieval sandpit. Liddle have wanted Ashley and his “cockney It is of course controlled by various or more back for enjoying, if that is the One of the PIF’s recent investments, mafia” out of St James’ Park pretty much branches of the Saudi royal family — right word, a romantic affair with Prince incidentally, was in a public relations since the first day he arrived and have which is where a small but probably Andrew, but reportedly declined his firm charged with the task of improving accused him of chronic assailable technical hitch might crop up. offer of marriage. Staveley is reportedly the country’s image after the mismanagement, failing to provide Sheffield United, in the same league as heartily disliked by Ashley, who assassination by government-sponsored Geordies will not decent investment for the often Newcastle of course, are owned by considers her a self-publicist. He speaks thugs of the dissident Saudi journalist, floundering side and foisting upon them Prince Abdullah bin Musa’ad, who is also of what he knows, does Mike. Jamal Khashoggi. These are the sort of care tuppence Steve Bruce as manager in place of a senior part of the Saudi royal family The talk, then, is of Newcastle people with whom Newcastle are eagerly their beloved Rafa Benítez. and entertained Blades fans in receiving the sort of investment which clambering into bed. at thought of Ashley is reportedly very close September by explaining what a lovely propelled Manchester City from being Fans have wanted to see the back of But I doubt that either the Geordie to handing over the club to new bunch of people the Bin Ladens were second-city underachievers to world Ashley since almost his first day faithful, or the Premier League, will care getting into directors and investors for (except for “one black sheep”). beaters — and most neutrals would be tuppence about any of that, and it won’t about £300 million — hard cash! Rules prohibit two clubs in the same pleased that the Geordies will at last be the first time a club has been owned bed with an — and there is some talk on league being owned by the same people. have owners who punch the same It won’t be the first time by an institution or individual with Tyneside about how Newcastle But there should be sufficient distance weight as the 50,000 dedicated souls that the club has been dubious morals. Indeed, it is becoming autocratic, might become the new between Abdullah’s private passion for who turn up at St James’ each week to the rule. Manchester City, elevated into Sheffield and the corporate interest in watch their side fail to score any goals. owned by an institution What awaits the perpetually medieval super league status, one of Newcastle shown by his relatives’ PIF. United should be a big club. And yet it is beleaguered manager, Bruce? Appointed the richest clubs in the Some 80 per cent of the club will be 51 years since they won anything of note or individual with to the usual howls of anguish from fans, sandpit world, unlimited owned by the PIF, with the remaining (the old Fairs Cup) and not far short of a dubious morals he has guided an obdurate but hugely potential etc etc. 20 per cent divided between two other century since they won the top division boring team to a semblance of safety. But then dawns backers. The first are the enigmatic title. The fans yearn for the return of Rafa — are invariably Reuben brothers, who worked their way But time has moved on since discovered, to their great displeasure. and he is known to be a favourite of the bright at up from scrap-metal yards and carpet Manchester City’s sudden elevation. We Clubs are enjoined to live within their aforementioned Ms Staveley. It’s hard Newcastle warehouses to a position where they now have the Financial Fair Play rules, means. not to feel sorry for Bruce, a decent, and tend to be own vast chunks of Mayfair and indeed specifically designed to stop the splurge There are also questions about ethics. highly capable and self-deprecating followed by swathes of Newcastle. The other backer spending of the arriviste. The authorities I am well aware that “ethics” and chap, but one assumes he may be the prolonged is the Dubai-based, but Yorkshire born, keep a very close eye on the accounts — “Premier League football” rarely belong first change under the new hours of businesswoman Amanda Staveley. The as indeed Manchester City have recently in the same sentence. But Saudi Arabia? administration. © TIMES NEWSPAPERS LIMITED, 2020. Published in print and all other derivative formats by Times Newspapers Ltd, 1 London Bridge St, London, SE1 9GF. 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