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The Independent (London, England)
The Independent is a Monday to Sunday newspaper, owned and published by Independent Print Ltd and headquartered in London, England. It was first published in 1986 in reaction to the conservative views held by the London Times and the London Telegraph. It has a liberal slant. The Independent's audience is London based, with 54 percent of its readership living in London and its surroundings. Other notable qualities of its readership are: the average reader is 43 years old; 59 percent are employed; 62 percent are married; 48 percent have a college degree or higher; and 73 percent own their own homes. Regions covered include: London and South East, South West, Midlands, North and North East, North West, Scotland, and Wales. The Independent is the youngest of Britain's daily newspapers and is notable for challenging London's more established and conservative daily newspapers. The daily edition was named National Newspaper of the Year at the 2004 British Press Awards. In 2010, Simon Kelner, Editor-in-Chief of The Independent, and Johann Hari, a regular columnist in the paper, each received a Comment Award, similar to the U.S. Pultizer Prize. Oliver Wright is Whitehall editor; Oly Duff is home news editor, and Katherine Butler is comment editor.
Articles from March 16, 2012
A Fragmented View of Outcast Lives
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LOST MEMORY OF SKIN by Russell Banks Clerkenwell Press, Pounds 12.99, 416pp Pounds 11.69 from the Independent Bookshop: 08430 600 030 The Causeway connects the Great Barrier Isles on Florida's Gulf coast with the mainland at nondescript Calusa City....
A Gloriously Unfinished Celebration
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BBC Radio 3 is devoting an entire week to Schubert. He's just the composer for these tough times, says Jessica Duchen Please don't phone me in the last week of March: I'll be listening to the radio. The Spirit of Schubert, which monopolises BBC Radio...
A. L. Kennedy Novelist
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BooksI've just finished Russell Banks's Lost Memory Of Skin, which has its flaws, but the man can really write and he's passionate about social justice in America. He chose his country's most marginalised group [sex offenders] as his focus and continued...
An Anniversary Marked by Death and Destruction
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After more than 8,000 civilian deaths, a full-scale bombardment of one of the country's largest cities and renewed fears of all-out civil war, the first anniversary of Syria's uprising was marked by flag-waving rallies from regime supporters in Damascus...
Andrew Motion Poet and Novelist
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One minute with... Where are you now and what can you see?I'm in my [north London] basement study looking into the garden. I can see our cat Missy, who's sniffing something on the paved bit.What are you currently reading?A proof of The Yellow Birds by...
A New Coalition in the Making
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BUSINESS QUESTIONS SIMON CARR'S SKETCH Cute exchange between an easy, patrician Chuka Umunna and the questing turtle that the Business Secretary has become. It's old and new. Youth and age. Nouvelle Labour and Zimmer Socialism.Chuka has relaxed into...
Apple on Course to Become Most Valuable Firm Ever
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Apple shares touched $600 (380) apiece yesterday, a mere five weeks after they first topped $500, and analysts predicted the iPhone maker will soon become the most valuable company of all time.The stock passed its new milestone in early morning trading...
Arafat's Widow Considers Role in Politics to 'Continue Legacy'
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Suha Arafat says Palestinians miss the democratic rule implemented by her husband The widow of the late Yasser Arafat has said the resistance leader sacrificed their marriage and a relationship with the couple's only daughter for the Palestinian cause.In...
Ask the Expert
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Q We are in the process of buying a house from a couple who are splitting up. When we offered on the house both were on the title deed. But now they have registered the house in her name and he has taken out a charge against the property. Should we be...
A Titanic Struggle to Avoid Cliche
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I hadn't heard of Titanoraks before last week... but I suspect more of us belong to this grouping than actually know it. Titanoraks are Titanic obsessives. James Cameron is one and Julian Fellowes is, too. He cheerfully confessed as much in an interview...
Belarus May Have Executed 'Bombers'
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Two men condemned in 'flawed' trial for metro attack may be dead after President refuses pardon Two Belarusian men who were sentenced to death in a dubious trial last year may already have been executed, after it emerged that President Alexander Lukashenko...
Big Ben Boost Could Banish Backbench Success Story
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The DIARY Visitors to the clock tower that contains Big Ben can thank a little known body called the Backbench Business Committee for saving them money. In its two-year existence, this committee has chalked up some small successes in strengthening the...
Can Kauto Star Light Up the Gold Cup One Last Time?
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Kauto seeks again to fulfil extraordinary Cup destiny Now we come to the most compelling question, the one that this afternoon carries the power to both rivet and maybe haunt all those who care about Kauto Star.Kauto runs today in the Gloucestershire...
Can Kauto Star Light Up the Gold Cup One Last Time?
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Kauto seeks again to fulfil extraordinary Cup destiny Now we come to the most compelling question, the one that this afternoon carries the power to both rivet and maybe haunt all those who care about Kauto Star.Kauto runs today in the Gloucestershire...
Can Old Brigade Lead Chelsea to Biggest Prize?
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Lampard and Co believe that age is irrelevant, it is desire that counts and that they have in abundance The name of Andre Villas-Boas was scarcely mentioned at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night but for Frank Lampard in particular, Chelsea's second-leg...
Can Old Brigade Lead Chelsea to Biggest Prize?
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Lampard and Co believe that age is irrelevant, it is desire that counts and that they have in abundance The name of Andre Villas-Boas was scarcely mentioned at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night but for Frank Lampard in particular, Chelsea's second-leg...
Captain Martyr Says Revenge Is Not on the Menu
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Sam Warburton tells James Corrigan why tomorrow's big match is about a Grand Slam, not his World Cup red-card heartbreak Revenge is a dish best not served at all. Or so they are saying down at Wales base camp. The World Cup semi-final of 2011? Don't...
Casanova Ken and the Other Conquest-Counters
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SEX Corrie's Bill Roache has joined a band of men who have boasted about their vast number of sexual partners. Chaps, we really don't want to know, says John Walsh Ken Barlow has long been thought by Coronation Street viewers to be a bit of a moralising...
Caught in the Net
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Plane sailing for Kathryn BintKathryn Bint is well-connected, it seems. The Chicagoan psychedelic folk singer (above), now based in London, trades under the moniker One Little Plane and has a new album out in May on Text Records, the label of Kieran...
China's Struggle between Reform and Reaction
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World View Barely had the Chinese Premier, Wen Jibao, finished his final press conference this week with some surprisingly open remarks about the need for more political liberalism in the country than the charismatic party boss of Chongqing was summarily...
Clarke Goes Solo at Tesco
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The grocery giant's boss has seized the reins of its UK operation. By James Thompson Liverpool football club hired Gerard Houllier to become its joint team manager in July 1998 along with Roy Evans. The experiment failed and Mr Evans got the boot just...
Cooking Up the Past
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As a prisoner of war, Alice Marshall's grandfather kept a notebook listing the foods he longed for. So she decided to remember him by creating the meals of his dreams. By Simon Usborne When Alice Marshall discovered a notebook that belonged to her grandfather,...
Could Tamara's Life in the Fast Lane Hit Bernie's Wallet?
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Ms Ecclestone's excess causes Aussie MP to question Formula One subsidies Boasting a 45m London house complete with crystal bathtub, massage parlour for her five dogs and a handbag collection valued at 500,000, Tamara Ecclestone's lavish lifestyle may...
Culture to Comfort Us
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Has our art become impossibly conservative? Is this the age of anodyne, coalition culture? This weekend the crowds will once again pack out the Royal Academy at all hours of the day and night, eager to take in David Hockney's primary-coloured visions...
Diagrams Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen, London ***
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Sam Genders, founder and former frontman of folktronica act Tunng, went in a more glinting electropop direction on his warmly received Diagrams debut record, Black Light. He ditched some of the glitch, the irritating samples and a lot of the more traditional...
DVD & Blu-Ray Reviews
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SNOWTOWN (18) Justine KerzelDVD/Blu-ray (120mins)****Justin Kerzel's film is about John Bunting, Australia's most notorious serial killer who was responsible for the "Bodies in the Barrels" murders in impoverished Snowtown, Adelaide, in the 1990s. There...
Esprit May Reassert Traditional Values against Old Guard
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It would not do justice to either horse to conclude that the heart says Kauto Star and the head Long Run - and not just because an instinct in favour of Quel Esprit will ultimately override them both. Long Run, certainly, deserves a place in our hearts....
Esprit May Reassert Traditional Values against Old Guard
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It would not do justice to either horse to conclude that the heart says Kauto Star and the head Long Run - and not just because an instinct in favour of Quel Esprit will ultimately override them both. Long Run, certainly, deserves a place in our hearts....
Ferguson Offers No Excuse as United Fall
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ATHLETIC BILBAO 2 Llorente 23, De Marcos 65 MANCHESTER UNITED 1 Rooney 80 Athletic Bilbao win 5-3 on aggregate The campaign was almost as brief as it was unwelcome and it was most certainly not "enjoyneering", to borrow from the slogan, promoting a Spanish...
Ferguson Offers No Excuse as United Fall
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ATHLETIC BILBAO 2 Llorente 23, De Marcos 65 MANCHESTER UNITED 1 Rooney 80 Athletic Bilbao win 5-3 on aggregate The campaign was almost as brief as it was unwelcome and it was most certainly not "enjoyneering", to borrow from the slogan, promoting a Spanish...
Festival Diary
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Olympian view for Scu on the hillPeter Scudamore became part of the fabric of Cheltenham when winning 13 Festival races during the 1980s and 1990s, including two Champion Hurdles and a Champion Chase.But two of his lesser triumphs really stand out in...
Finding a Voice within Silence
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PAINTER OF SILENCE by Georgina Harding Bloomsbury, Pounds 14.99, 312pp Pounds 13.49 from the Independent Bookshop: 08430 600 030 Georgina Harding's third novel is deeply and patiently concerned with a principal character who can neither hear nor speak....
First Lady's Caring Image Unlikely to Recover
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Anger at leaked details of extravagant shopping in midst of bloodshed. By Cahal Milmo ASSAD EMAILS As recently as January, Asma al-Assad continued to polish her image as a thoroughly modern, caring and liberal-minded consort to an awkward dictator. In...
Five-Star Panesar Makes His Statement of Intent
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CRICKET SRILANKA BOARD XI 169 ENGLAND XI 6-0 Suddenly, Monty Panesar can do no wrong again. The way things are going, he will be fully restored in the nation's affections by the summer, on the shortlist for Sports Personality of the Year in the autumn...
Freak Folk's Weird Sister Finally Hits the Charts
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Four years after her debut EP kick-started the hype, Beth Jeans Houghton has an album, a new home in the US and a veteran rocker boyfriend. By Emily Mackay On a bright, bitter morning, the 22-year-old Geordie singer- songwriter Beth Jeans Houghton takes...
From Movie Villain to Real-Life Hero
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Javier Bardem is about to play a Bond baddie, but his new documentary is all about doing good, he tells Kaleem Aftab 'There is no good side to celebrity," Javier Bardem laughs. The Spanish actor knows all about the price of superstardom. One half of...
Gallant Mare Makes a Man of Big Buck's
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Nicholls' star sees off an audacious rival to make it four World Hurdle wins in a row - and 16 from 16 By the time the champion was in the parade ring, it felt as though the mist hiding the great escarpment of Cleeve Hill had come to represent the unseen...
Gatland Wants Wales to Raise a Closed Roof
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Warren Gatland doesn't want anything raining on Wales's Grand Slam parade - least of all the rain. With comments which may incense Philippe Saint-Andr, he all but accused the French coach of being negative and called for the authorities to take away...
Geraghty's Award-Winning Ride Lets Nesbitt Take a Festival Bow
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Jimmy Nesbitt watched in near disbelief as the scene-stealing Barry Geraghty delivered a superb performance to bring home the actor's Riverside Theatre in the Ryanair Chase yesterday.It was good enough, he suggested, to forgo an Oscar in exchange for...
Geraghty's Award-Winning Ride Lets Nesbitt Take a Festival Bow
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Jimmy Nesbitt watched in near disbelief as the scene-stealing Barry Geraghty delivered a superb performance to bring home the actor's Riverside Theatre in the Ryanair Chase yesterday.It was good enough, he suggested, to forgo an Oscar in exchange for...
Harry's Back in Oslo to Clean Up the City
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PHANTOM by Jo Nesbo, trans. Don Bartlett Harvill Secker, Pounds 16.99, 464pp Pounds 15.29 from the Independent Bookshop: 08430 600 030 At the New Zealand International Arts Festival, Jo Nesbo was asked how he felt about being called "the new Stieg Larsson"....
Health Chief Warns: Age of Safe Medicine Is Ending
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Antibiotic crisis will make routine operations impossible and a scratched knee could be fatal Antibiotic resistance would make simple surgery too risky to attempt The world is entering an era where injuries as common as a child's scratched knee could...
Henderson Relishes 'Decider' as Two Legends Prepare for One More Battle
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Last year, the race seemed to mark a changing of the guard. Long Run had not even been born when Kauto Star, a gallant third, won his first steeplechase for Paul Nicholls. Few could have envisaged that both camps might return to the Betfred Cheltenham...
Hillsborough Files Show How Police Put Blame on Fans
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Relatives of Liverpool supporters killed in the Hillsborough disaster reacted angrily last night after leaked Whitehall papers disclosed that Merseyside police wrongly blamed the tragedy on drunken fans at the time.Confidential documents relating to...
Hillsborough Justice Is Overdue
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LEADING ARTICLE The leak of official documents on the aftermath of Britain's worst sports tragedy, when 96 football fans were crushed to death at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield in 1989, confirms suspicions that there was something deeply political...
How Mugabe Won over a Nation - Again
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After 32 years in power, Zimbabwe's President is winning new adoration with a familiar formula: taking from white businesses to give to black people. In Harare, Alex Duval Smith reports He may face opprobrium abroad, but at home President Robert Mugabe...
How to Improve Literacy in a Time of Austerity
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LEADING ARTICLE The good news is that Ofsted's new chief inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, has turned the spotlight on literacy standards in schools. The bad news is that they have remained stagnant for the past seven years, with one in five children,...
Hundreds of Egyptians Register to Run for Office
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After decades of iron-fisted authoritarianism bolstered by sham elections, Egypt's forthcoming presidential poll looks set to take place in markedly different conditions after hundreds of candidates signed up to run for the office.Registration for the...
INGREDIENTS TO SERVE 4 for the Gnocchi 300g Butternut. [Derived Headline]
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What's for supper? Squash gnocchi with butter and sage INGREDIENTS TO SERVE 4For the gnocchi300g butternut squashFresh sage leavesOlive oilSea salt700g large floury potatoes, such as King Edwards2 egg yolks200g plain flour, plus extra for rolling2 litres...
In the Shadow of the Shard
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The Shard already dominates the capital's skyline and Liverpool, Brighton, Glasgow and east London are next in line for the tower treatment. Or are they? Oliver Bennett finds out why the next generation of skycrapers is struggling to get off the ground...
Karzai Tells Nato: Keep Your Troops Inside Bases
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President calls on West to withdraw from villages as Taliban sever talks on Afghan future The West's faltering operation to enforce security in Afghanistan and secure a peace plan suffered twin blows yesterday as the Taliban announced it was pulling...
Kimi Back to His Mumbling Best
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FORMULA ONE Kimi Raikkonen took a step towards never being invited to another official press conference here yesterday, proving that two seasons of crashing rally cars has had no adverse impact on his ability to speak Morse code.Asked how much his driving...
Kimi Back to His Mumbling Best
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FORMULA ONE Kimi Raikkonen took a step towards never being invited to another official press conference here yesterday, proving that two seasons of crashing rally cars has had no adverse impact on his ability to speak Morse code.Asked how much his driving...
Kimi Back to His Mumbling Best
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FORMULA ONE Kimi Raikkonen took a step towards never being invited to another official press conference here yesterday, proving that two seasons of crashing rally cars has had no adverse impact on his ability to speak Morse code.Asked how much his driving...
Lancaster Sidesteps Coaching Issue with Class and Humour
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England caretaker tries to put focus on Ireland match despite the uncertainty of his future Stuart Lancaster left the England team hotel late on Tuesday afternoon, drove north up the motorway for a good three hours, spent the night at his home in Leeds,...
Last Night's Viewing
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I think one big problem for the couples in Love Life, ITV's new romantic drama, is that they're absolutely lousy at buying Christmas presents for each other. We got not just one but two flashback unwrapping scenes in last night's opening episode, neatly...
Lottery Winner Is Ordered to Share His $24M Jackpot
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Builder who was in syndicate claimed he bought ticket himself A builder who won the lottery, quit his job and tried to keep his good fortune secret from co-workers who should have shared in the jackpot has been ordered to surrender $20m (12.8m) to the...
Mancini: Blamemefor Thinking We Would Go through Easily
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Roberto Mancini has accepted full responsibility for Manchester City's elimination from the Europa League. Though he may have been trying to protect his players after a dreadful first-half display last night, he admitted to underestimating Sporting Lisbon."When...
Mark Pincus Founder, Zynga
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SPOTLIGHT ON ... The creator of FarmVille?Mr Pincus's company makes a host of popular games played on Facebook, from FarmVille and CityVille to Words with Friends, so blame him for global procrastination levels hitting a new high.I kind of want to thank...
Mary Berry
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My life in food... Berry, a judge on The Great British Bake Off, has written 70 books, which have sold some 6 million copies worldwide. Her latest, which she will be signing in London's Selfridges today, is Mary Berry's Complete Cookbook.What are your...
MasterChef Lacked One Ingredient: Suspense
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FIRST NIGHT MasterChef BBC1 *** You have to have a big appetite for superlatives if you're to consume an entire MasterChef final. In fact, a funnel would come in handy sometimes, like they use on foie gras geese. You end up glutted with overheard praise,...
Matilda the Musical Leads Olivier Nominations
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Upbeat and feelgood productions make the running for Britain's top theatre awards The musical makeover of a young Roald Dahl heroine has landed 10 nominations at the top awards in Britain's theatrical calendar, with audiences flocking to feelgood shows.Matilda...
Metropolis of Filth and Friendship
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LONDON IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: A GREAT AND MONSTROUS THING by Jerry White Bodley Head, Pounds 25, 682pp Pounds 22.50 from the Independent Bookshop: 08430 600 030 The first problem in talking about London is deciding where it begins or ends. In 1907,...
Miller's Tale Still Has Plenty of Selling Power
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Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is the sort of play that benefits from a pertinent revival. Rarely has his take on the hollow heart of the American Dream seemed more relevant as American self- belief continues to falter amid economic fragility and...
Mirror's Cut in Pension Payments under Fire
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Newspaper's owner denies raiding funds as experts call for scrutiny by regulators The owner of the Daily Mirror has come under fire over a controversial move to slash payments into its pension fund by 69m over the next three years - even as the deficit...
Mr Cameron Is a Prime Minister Too English for His Own Good
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Even in Opposition, David Cameron benefited from his prime ministerial appearance. Indeed, this is probably what speeded him to victory in the Conservative leadership ballot - that, and the confidence to pace the conference stage and deliver his candidate's...
New Releases
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THE SHINSPort of MorrowColumbia****The Shins' first album for Columbia, Port of Morrow is not quite as immediately likeable as its predecessor, 2007's Wincing the Night Away - but then, not being immediately likeable is one of the things that sets Shins...
Nine Million to Feel Fuel Poverty in Next Four Years
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FAIR ENERGY Report calls for a new strategy to reduce heating costs for poor, focusing on more efficient homes Almost nine million people will live in fuel poverty in the next four years despite ministerial pledges to eradicate it by 2016, a Government-commissioned...
No Picking and Choosing Now for Manchester's Humbled Duo
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The question before kick-off was whether the two Manchester clubs could pick and choose trophies; whether attempting to win the Europa League would distract from their assault on the title.It was born of the same arrogance that blithely states the Premier...
Observations
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He caught the stars in his spotlight BY CHARLOTTE CRIPPSIt is quite a feat to persuade stars, John Gielgud included, to be snapped in your tiny bedroom. But Anthony Grant pulled it off 30 years ago when, as an unknown photographer, he snapped all manner...
Odds against Bwin.Party in Europe Make It a Loser
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MARKET REPORT The Cheltenham Festival may be coming to a climax, but punters were deciding that Bwin.Party was too much of a long shot yesterday. The online gambling group was left near the back of the pack thanks to fears over the cost of a tough battle...
On the Menu
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Food news & reviews THIS WEEK IVE BEEN DRINKING PISCOSOURSLike Paddington Bear in reverse, the lunching classes have all been looking across the Atlantic to Peru this year. The land of meat skewers with spicy sauces, Peruvian corn and marinated fish...
Our Libraries Need to Study Success
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The week in books Whatever you think of the high-visibility Tory MP Louise Mensch, she has - as Louise Bagshawe, the prolific author of spicy romances - reached more real readers than anyone else in the House of Commons. In the Lords, of course, sit...
Overweight, Overexposed and over Here
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Obesity There is, as usual, a belt-busting amount of fat-related news this week. Which? magazine accused the Government of failing to defuse the UK's famous ticking obesity time bomb. The title of Slimming Couple of the Year was awarded to Simon and...
Paperbacks
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THE FORGOTTEN WALTZ by Anne EnrightVintage 7.99 (230pp) 7.59 from the Independent Bookshop: 08430 600 030An adulterous affair lies at the heart of Anne Enright's novel, her first since her Man Booker win in 2007. The storyline might be a classic one...
Peter Halliday
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Actor best known for the science fiction TV series 'A for Andromeda' In more than half a century as an actor, Peter Halliday's legacy is a television role he took in his 30s, in one of the small screen's early sci-fi classics, which has retained a cult...
Poker
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The difference between internet poker and "real" poker is exemplified by a new method of playing being introduced by the world's biggest online operator.In real poker, a game played with cards and chips you can feel against people you can see, the pace...
Richards Adds to Apology but 'Stolen' Row Threatens His Re-Election
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Sir Dave Richards, the embattled chairman of the Premier League, yesterday emailed Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, respectively presidents of Fifa and Uefa, to apologise for saying the world and European governing bodies had "stolen" the game from England.Neither...
Richards Adds to Apology but 'Stolen' Row Threatens His Re-Election
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Sir Dave Richards, the embattled chairman of the Premier League, yesterday emailed Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, respectively presidents of Fifa and Uefa, to apologise for saying the world and European governing bodies had "stolen" the game from England.Neither...
Rio or BHP Could Be the Best Bets for a Long-Haul Punt on Mining
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INVESTMENT VIEW There are no two ways about it: the big four FTSE 100-listed diversified mining groups had a cracking start to the year. In the first two months of 2012, Rio Tinto and Xstrata's shares both jumped by nearly a third, while BHP Billiton...
Screen Talk
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Scout's horrorEtan Cohen (not to be confused with Ethan Coen) is one of Hollywood's hottest writers and Ben Stiller's go-to guy for scriptwriting, having worked with the comic actor on Tropic Thunder, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and Stiller's latest...
Sea of Thunder Can Drown out Big Noise Boston Bob
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Willie Mullins has described Boston Bob as a match for any novice he has ever brought to the Festival, which guarantees he will start a hot favourite for the Albert Bartlett Hurdle today. It would be no surprise to see him look a Gold Cup winner in the...
Sea of Thunder Can Drown out Big Noise Boston Bob
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Willie Mullins has described Boston Bob as a match for any novice he has ever brought to the Festival, which guarantees he will start a hot favourite for the Albert Bartlett Hurdle today. It would be no surprise to see him look a Gold Cup winner in the...
Shivered Southwark Playhouse, London ****
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When some artists affect to say the unsayable, the result is simply unspeakable. To listen to some folk, you might run away with the idea that Philip Ridley - renaissance man of the East End and master of the sawn-off baroque - is just a sensationalising...
Showing Films Is No Way to Teach English
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Let me be clear. I am no hobbit fancier. As a very young woman I made a habit of scanning the bookshelves of prospective boyfriends for Elvish tendencies. One glimpse of a well-thumbed Tolkien and I was out of there.Now, as the mother of a teenage boy...
Sir Alan Cottrell
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Government's Scientific Adviser who worked to establish safe nuclear power For some 70 years the impact of Sir Alan Cottrell's work on the basic understanding of materials and its application to engineering structures, his academic leadership, his role...
Soaring Oil Prices Prompt Talk of Turning on the Taps
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US visit ends with the two leaders trading political favours - and a visit to Ground Zero. By David Usborne in New York As the Prime Minster, David Cameron, wound up his three-day official visit to the United States in New York, details emerged of a...
Some Still like It Hot, Fast.And Screwball
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Two new films hark back to Hollywood's classic comedies - but can they match them for wit? By Geoffrey Macnab The screwball is making a comeback. A comedy genre which flourished in Hollywood in the 1930s and early 1940s, and which yielded such classic...
Spector 100 Club, London ***
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There is a fine line between winning eccentricity and clowning irritation, one that Spector's Fred Macpherson patrols with the subtlety of Rush Limbaugh. At least his between-song meanderings, a mix of badinage and one-liners, help to set his five-piece...
Strong Arm of the Law
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New plans to modernise the police force would see officers fitter, smarter - and having to work for less. Paul Peachey reports Police officers face pay cuts if they fail annual fitness tests designed to improve standards under the most radical reforms...
The Battle against a Killer Crustacean with an Appetite for Destruction
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Feeding on young fish and tiny aquatic creatures, the invasive species could be disastrous to UK wildlife One of Britain's most dangerous invasive species, the so-called "killer shrimp" which destroys a wide range of water life, has started to spread...
THE BELL by Iris Murdoch
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book of a lifetime The respectable titles to give would be 'Middlemarch' or 'Howards End'. Both pulled me up short in my late teens with their ability to make me care deeply about the emotional lives of unimportant people. Until then I'd thought novels...
'The Children Can Escape the Country, but They Can't Escape the Conflict and Fear'
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Syrian refugees, many heart-breakingly young, are flooding into Lebanon. By Liane Wimhurst in Baalbek Mona flinches each time she hears a bang in the chaotic refuge in the Lebanese mountains that has been her home for a week. The five- year-old wears...
The Diary
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The king of T-shirtsHe is known as the "sixth member of Radiohead", the shadowy figure who provides all of the band's artwork. Now Stanley Donwood - variously believed to be a pseudonym for Dan Rickwood, an old university friend of Radiohead's lead singer...
The Oreo Cookie Milkshake Route to a Job with Goldman Sachs
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OUTLOOK How do you manage to get a job at Goldman Sachs? There's the Oxford double first, the family connection, and the 17 interviews route (or some combination thereof). But it can be much more straightforward than that. It is just a bank.I asked my...
The Power of the Press
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Terrines - compressed 'loaves' of meat or vegetables - may have humble origins, but these earthy delights are worthy of the top table, says John Walsh Sometimes derided as the lummoxy country cousin of the pat, the parfait and the galantine, the humble...
The Ten Best Mixers
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1. Kitchen Aid Artisan Stand Mixer409, hartsofstur.comThe Artisan's unique engineering means it makes unbelievably short work of everything from cake mixes to bread dough.2. Cookworks Hand Mixer with Bowl14.99, argos.co.ukThis 200W hand mixer has a rotating...
They Had a Mutual Interest in Making the Trip Work - It Did
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COMMENT They don't need to act; the bonhomie is real," one British minister said, reflecting on David Cameron's bonding with Barack Obama as his three-day visit to the United States ended last night.The Prime Minister and his team were surprised that...
Thousands More Hit by PIP Implant Scandal
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Up to 7,000 more women than previously thought may have been fitted with potentially defective PIP breast implants in the UK, the Department of Health announced yesterday.It brings to 47,000 the total number of women who are thought to be at risk from...
Thunderbolts of Illicit Love
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THERESE AND ISABELLE by Violette Leduc, trans. Sophie Lewis Salammbo Press, Pounds 10, 110pp Pounds 9 from the Independent Bookshop: 08430 600 030 Violette Leduc, described as "France's greatest unknown writer", has been posthumously stalking me for...
