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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 December 5, 2003
A Bit Over-Indulgent, but What Do You Expect from a Christmas Confection? ; FIRST NIGHT Nutcracker! Sadler's Wells, London
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IT CAN be strange to come back to a long-running show. Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker! has become a regular Christmas treat at Sadler's Wells. It's the first of his revised classic ballets, made before the huge success of his Swan Lake. It has kept most...
Angry Flood Victims in the South of France Look for Someone to Blame as Evacuations Continue
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AN ANGRY, damp, dishevelled little group had gathered on the edge of town, staring at a car park under three feet of water and a half- submerged street sign reading "piscine" (swimming pool). "They say the level of the Rhone is going down," said Yves,...
Art a la Carte
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"The true style of America is the Gothic", someone said, and sometimes I try to work out what it means. It doesn't refer to their taste for public monuments. That's what we do (I'm thinking of St Pancras station and the Houses of Parliament), whereas...
Asda to Make Checkouts `Sweet-Free' after Protests
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PARENTS SEEKING refuge from the pestering of their children while grocery shopping will soon find sanctuary in the aisles of Asda, the supermarket chain, which is to remove sweets from some of its checkouts. Penny Coates, the private-label director of...
ATHLETICS: Americans Set to Vote on No-Tolerance Drug Policy
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USA TRACK And Field, strongly criticised for its stance on doping issues in recent months, has reacted dramatically by proposing a life ban for any athlete guilty of a serious abuse. The new measures drawn up by the USTAF committee would also see life...
ATHLETICS: Americans to Vote on No-Tolerance Drug Policy
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USA TRACK And Field, strongly criticised for its stance on doping issues in recent months, has reacted dramatically by proposing a life ban for any athlete guilty of a serious abuse. The new measures drawn up by the USATF committee would also see life...
At Least Hamlet Was Spared the Hype
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I had an acquaintance once who would always do the same thing when he went to New York. Before opening a newspaper or turning on the television in his hotel room he would go to the nearest cinema and see a film. Any film. The less he knew about it the...
Badat Faces Three Charges over Plot with Shoe Bomber
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A BRITISH Muslim appeared in court in London yesterday charged with conspiring with the "shoe bomber" Richard Reid to cause a life- threatening explosion. Sajid Badat, 24, from St James Street, Gloucester, was arrested last Thursday as part of a series...
Bank and ECB Leave Interest Rates Unchanged
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INTEREST RATES were left steady on both sides of the Channel yesterday as the Bank of England and the European Central Bank resisted pressure for an increase in response to the rebound in growth. The Bank decided to keep the base rate at 3.75 per cent...
Barenboim: The Origins of a Musical Rebel
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Daniel Barenboim was born in Buenos Aires in 1942, to parents of Jewish-Russian descent. He began playing the piano at the age of five under the tutelage of his parents, and gave his first concert at seven. When he was 11, he was declared a phenomenon...
Books: Bestsellers
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Unsullied by any tricky foreign languages, the top 10 language books are a glorious celebration of our own dear English in its infinite variety - a subject lucratively explored by Melvyn Bragg (pictured). Leading the field (that is for ever England)...
Bridge
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On today's hand, from the round robin qualifying matches at the 2003 World Championships, most North-South partnerships ended in Four Spades. And - most went down - even at those tables where the top hearts were not initially cashed. When North-South...
British Woodlands at Risk as Mysterious Disease Spreads
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A MYSTERIOUS and deadly tree disease has spread across southern England, raising fears that Britain's woodlands are facing the biggest threat since Dutch elm disease changed the landscape 30 years ago. Government scientists confirmed yesterday that sudden...
BUSINESS ANALYSIS: Bank to Be Brought to Account over BCCI Collapse ; Liquidators of Failed Lender Seek Pounds 1bn Damages in High Court Case Starting Next Month
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AS THIS year's festive celebrations pass, and new year resolutions are still uppermost in many people's minds, there will be plenty in the City who will be looking into the past. They will be taken, via a high- profile court case, back more than 30 years...
Carr Turns on `Abusive and Controlling' Huntley
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HER VOICE shaking, Maxine Carr turned to Ian Huntley yesterday and called him "that thing in the box". She may have been smitten when she met Mr Huntley in a Grimsby nightclub and she may have written daily to him from her prison cell even after he was...
Carr Vents Fury at `That Thing' Huntley
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MAXINE CARR turned to her former fiance in the dock at the Old Bailey yesterday and said she would not take the blame for what "that thing in the box" did to Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. Ms Carr, 26, broke down under cross-examination by Richard...
Chess
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The annual World Computer Chess Championship took place from 22- 30 November in Graz, Austria. Very important both as a point of comparison in a highly competitive field and a shop window for the chess public, this year's 19th edition attracted 16 entrants...
CHRISTMAS APPEAL: Sailing the Solent or Driving a Rolls - Your Chance to Win a Unique Prize
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Lot 1: Hold the front page See how a newspaper is put together, from morning conference to the tense deadlines. Meet the staff and marvel at their brilliance and unusual fashion sense. (Winning bid last year: pounds 1,800) Latest bid: pounds 222 Lot...
CHRISTMAS APPEAL: Stalked by Poverty and Death: Welcome to the World's Worst Place to Be a Child
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WELCOME TO Angola. The worst place in the world in which to be a child. There are two ways to explain why. First meet Mano. He is five. He lives in Luanda, the capital, along with large numbers of other "displaced persons" - to use the jargon for refugees...
CHRISTMAS BOOKS: A Novel Perspective on History When Fact Blends into Fiction ; History
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It may be true that we have a primal need for narrative, to judge by the universality of myth. Certainly we reconstruct historical fact as story, creating chains of consequences, whether we call these fact or fiction. The historical novel fills out the...
CHRISTMAS BOOKS: As Strange as Springer ; Memoirs
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I used to think that autobiography was a form of weakness," says Hilary Mantel in Giving up the Ghost (Fourth Estate, pounds 16.99), "and perhaps I still do. But I also think that, if you're weak, it's childish to pretend to be strong." If autobiography...
CHRISTMAS BOOKS: A Week in Books
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Here on the critical touchline, the consensus seems to be that, this year, the national squad of English novelists has performed more like the soccer than the rugby team. Recent outings by its top strikers, from Amis to Ballard, have prompted some jeering...
CHRISTMAS BOOKS: Chile, Brum, and All That Jazz: An Offbeat Year in Fiction ; Fiction
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The Booker judges have already been rebuked by Julian Barnes for writing superfluous newspaper columns as a means of bulking out their fees. He can relax: what follows is simply a list of the ten or so novels, picked from the 117 Man Booker submissions...
CHRISTMAS BOOKS: From Punk to Punctuation ; Reference
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We live, to coin a concept that may prove no more solid than a chocolate doubloon on a Christmas tree, amid a culture of facts rather than ideas. In place of the grand theories that lashed the 20th century along, the internet era seems to enjoy nothing...
CHRISTMAS BOOKS: From Runaway Genes to the Missing Lynx ; Science
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Fears about the future preoccupied many science writers this year. Bill McKibben, author of the 1989 eco-classic The End of Nature, continued his crusade against the "techno-utopians" with Enough (Bloomsbury, pounds 17.99). In a genetically-engineered...
CHRISTMAS BOOKS: Old Masters, Young Bloods ; Art
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Art is a slippery term. For many it simply means a poster to fill the space over the mantelpiece, for others the sort of hard-edged conceptual stuff in artist-run spaces in the East End, which cannot be understood without a whole panoply of contemporary...
CHRISTMAS BOOKS: Performing Rites ; Theatre and Television
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Prohibitive production costs may ensure that Shakespeare is no longer the most performed playwright in the country, but he remains a safe bet at the bookshops. Of the many books on the Bard to have appeared over the past year, three are especially recommended...
CHRISTMAS BOOKS: Swoons and Screams ; Film
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Sweeping here and there in a billowing burnoose, Rudolph Valentino was the first and probably last time an Arab was ever thought sexy in Hollywood. Though in reality an Italian immigrant, his lustrous olive skin and fluttering lashes were what made The...
CHRISTMAS BOOKS: Symphony for the Devil ; Music
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Most music lovers feel instinctively music's unique capacity to synchronise emotional, communicative and motor skills, not only within our own brains but in the minds and bodies of others. It just depends on what you mean by music, and where you stand...
CHRISTMAS BOOKS: The Comforts of Madness and Middle Age ; Poetry
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Poetry's a zoo in which you keep demons and angels" said the Australian poet Les Murray. There are plenty of both in this year's crop of poetry books, but the demons tend to dominate, in the lives, if not the work. John Clare sets the tone. "My life...
CHRISTMAS BOOKS: The Joy of Goat and Parsnips ; Food
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The recipe for daube of beef in Sophie Grigson's Country Kitchen (Headline, pounds 25) is a wholly orthodox prescription for this classic from the south of France. Brown your shin beef, fry your lardons and veg, combine with a bottle of decent red wine...
CHRISTMAS BOOKS: The Literator- COVER STORIES
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Yet again, an Irish novelist has caused publishers around the world to have palpitations. Penguin Ireland leaped on Sinead Moriarty's The Baby Trail after the author sent a tentative email asking if anyone would be interested in reading her work-in-...
CHRISTMAS BOOKS: The Year of Drop Goals and Broken Dreams ; Sport
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George Best stands, hands on hips, young and beautiful, gazing out of the frame to another part of the pitch, a lick of black hair flying up from his forehead. It is 1965, and the photojournalism student Peter Robinson seems to have stolen his soul....
Consumer Choice Turns Us All into Children ; A Stressed-Out Single Mother Will Always Choose Placatory Soft Drinks over a Pitched Battle with a Toddler
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As everyday stories of less-than-perfect parenting go, my friend Sacha's tale of an encounter on the communal stairwell beats the band. Her upstairs neighbour was returning from the dentist with her four-year- old. He had just had all of his baby teeth...
COVER STORY: The Sound of Peace-Making ; the Conductor Daniel Barenboim Has Defied His Critics to Create a Youth Orchestra Whose Musicians Cross the Israeli-Palestinian Divide. He's Not Playing Politics, He Tells JAMES RAMPTON, but Music Is His Contribution to Finding a Solution to the Conflict
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In August, as the intifada was raging in the Middle East and the much-vaunted "road map" to peace appeared to be in tatters, thousands of miles away, in the Royal Albert Hall, the pianists Saleem Abboud- Ashkar and Shai Wosner were smiling, holding hands...
CRICKET: England Battle Back after Mauling by Muralitharan ; Sri Lanka 331 and 99-5 England 235
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SANATH JAYASURIYA and Kumar Sangakkara have scored their runs and Chaminda Vaas will continue to claim valuable wickets but this Test has become the contest everyone predicted. In the race for the line, Muttiah Muralitharan has taken a significant, early...
CRICKET: Langer Leads Assault on India ; Australia 262-2 V India
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JUSTIN LANGER hit an unbeaten 115 as Australia took control of the first Test against India with a dominant batting performance on the opening day in Brisbane. The India captain Sourav Ganguly's decision to put Australia in to bat backfired as Langer,...
Directors Face Fines in Move to Prevent Corporate Scandals
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COMPANY DIRECTORS will face unlimited fines and court action under tough new rules designed to stop Enron-style scandals and improve standards of corporate behaviour in the UK, the Government announced yesterday. The post-Enron legislation comes more...
Dissent Grows in Cabinet over Top-Up Fees Plan, as Think-Tank Questions `High-Risk, Low Return' Gamble
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THE PRESSURE on Tony Blair over university top-up fees intensified yesterday. Some cabinet ministers questioned his approach and he was warned that ministerial aides may resign over the issue. After the cabinet discussed top-up fees for more than an...
Do We Want a Society without Taboos?
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Fans of murder trials will have appreciated a few surprisingly homely details that have emerged in this week's hilariously disgusting story of cannibalism in Germany. Arnim Meiwes, the flesh- eater in the dock in Berlin, has revealed that he had always...
Eastwood Thriller Tipped for Oscars as It Scoops First Big Award of the Season
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CLINT EASTWOOD'S powerful thriller Mystic River, set in the working- class suburbs of Boston, enhanced its status as a favourite in the race for the Oscars yesterday after it was named best film of the year by the National Board of Review. The New York-based...
Ecstasy Use Falls by 20% in a Year as Rave Craze Fades
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YOUNG PEOPLE'S love affair with ecstasy appears to be on the wane, after new figures disclosed yesterday that the number of people taking the pill has slumped by a fifth in the past year. The demise of all-night raves, the growing popularity of cocaine...
Ecstasy Use Falls by 20% in a Year as Raves Vanish
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YOUNG PEOPLE'S love affair with ecstasy appears to be on the wane, after new figures disclosed yesterday that the number of people taking the pill has slumped by a fifth in the past year. The demise of all-night raves, the growing popularity of cocaine...
Elite Universities Told to Modernise or Risk Losing World-Class Status
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OXFORD AND Cambridge universities were warned by a government task force yesterday to modernise or risk losing their world-class status. The group, commissioned by Chancellor Gordon Brown to review links between universities and business, said the tradition...
Falconer Asks Board of Child Protection Agency to Step Down after `Chaos' Claims
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MINISTERS DEMANDED the resignation of the entire board of an official child protection agency yesterday amid claims that it had descended into "chaos". The Child and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) was set up two years ago to protect...
FILM: Meet the Ring Master ; He Plays One of the Best-Known Characters in the Lord of the Rings, but You've Never Seen His Face. RYAN GILBEY Meets an Invisible Star
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I meet Andy Serkis, whose leather jacket and crown of moist black curls give him a rockabilly tinge, in a Soho cafe. Some way into our conversation we become aware of a couple loitering just beyond reach, with two children peeking out from behind them....
FILM: NEW RELEASES - Mothers, Lock Up Your Sons ; Thirteen (18) Catherine Hardwicke (100 Mins) Iii88; STARRING Evan Rachel Wood, Nikki Reed, Holly Hunter
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Here's one to give parents a fright. Thirteen sometimes feels like the most disquieting film about trying to mother a young girl since The Exorcist. Yet if its 13-year-old protagonist does take on the aspect of a monster from time to time, it is only...
FILM: The Rise of Little Voice ; Shirley Henderson's Career Started in the Boxing Ring, and She's Never Ducked an Acting Challenge since. She Tells RYAN GILBEY about the Night She Took Her Promiscuous Character to the Disco
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In the darkened corner of a hotel tearoom, Shirley Henderson is perched in a regal armchair with pastries spread out on the table before her. She looks like she's holding court and loving every minute of it. "Have a sticky bun," she urges me, gesturing...
FILM: Women Behaving Badly ; Holly Hunter Bonded with Her Director Catherine Hardwicke during the Making of the Mother-Daughter Drama Thirteen. Not Surprising, since They Were Two of the Few Adults on a Set Full of Giddy Teens. She Tells LESLIE FELPERIN Why She Loves Being a Grown-Up
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One of the first things I did after I saw Thirteen, director Catherine Hardwicke's kidney-punching debut about an out-of-control 13-year-old girl named Tracy was to go home, remorseful for my own behaviour at that age years ago, and call my mother. When...
Football: A Team Good Enough to Drop Best and Charlton ; Manchester United Legends Overlooked for `House of European Football' as Uefa Associations Pick Greatest Players of Last 50 Years
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IMAGINE THE scene of the Golden Jubilee celebrations at Uefa headquarters in Switzerland next summer when the doors of the House of European Football are thrown open to the 52 best European players over the last 50 years, as nominated by their national...
Football: British and Irish Are Made to Wait in Agonising Marathon Draw
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THERE WILL be those, as this afternoon's marathon draw for the qualifying rounds of the 2006 World Cup drags on, who will think Sting knew what he was doing when he withdrew from the ceremony. However, those who persevere to the bitter end will be rewarded...
FOOTBALL: Ferdinand Facing Threat of Euro 2004 Ban
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RIO FERDINAND'S failure to take a drugs test could cost him his place in next summer's European Championship after Sepp Blatter, the president of Fifa, the game's governing body, yesterday threatened to increase any punishment handed down to the player...
Football: Leighton Resigns as Leeds Reach Agreement on Debts
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AS LEEDS UNITED yesterday temporarily staved off the threat of becoming the first Premier League club to go into administration, battle lines were drawn in the contest for control of the club with the deputy chairman of the plc, Allan Leighton, resigning...
FORGOTTEN HEROES ; the Poet Remembers His Fellow Poet Harry Fainlight
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Who was he? Born in 1935, he was the brother of Ruth Fainlight, who is married to the novelist Alan Sillitoe. He won a scholarship to Pembroke College, Cambridge. In the early Sixties he lived in New York; he came back to London in the mid-Sixties, living...
Former Liberian President Placed on Most Wanted List
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INTERPOL PLACED the former Liberian president Charles Taylor on its most wanted list yesterday, boosting an international hunt to bring him to justice. A "red notice" posted on the Interpol website accused Mr Taylor of "crimes against humanity" and "grave...
Friday Law Report: Merger Caused Company to Breach Its Contract for Haulage Services ; 5 December 2003 CEL Group Ltd V Nedlloyd Lines UK Ltd and Another ([2003] EWCA Civ 1716) Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lord Justice Waller, Lady Justice Hale and Lord Justice Carnwath) 26 November 2003
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A COMPANY which had granted another company the exclusive right to supply it with transport services for a three-year period was in breach of contract by voluntarily merging its business with another group in such a way that its transport requirements...
German Construction Giant Mulls Bid for Luton Airport Operator TBI
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THE OPERATOR of Luton airport, TBI, was facing a fresh fight for its independence yesterday after the German construction giant Hochtief said it was considering a cash bid. Shares in TBI, which also operates airports in Cardiff, Bristol and Belfast,...
Government Tackles Employers' Liability Crisis
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THE GOVERNMENT yesterday threw a lifeline to businesses facing spiralling insurance costs by postponing their liability to pay the NHS costs of treating injured employees. The Department of Work and Pensions also unveiled plans to protect the smallest...
Hardy Amies Ready for AIM Float after Singapore Injection
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HARDY AMIES, the Savile Row couture house founded by the Queen's late dressmaker, is preparing to float on AIM after sealing a crucial refinancing deal with a Singapore-based fashion conglomerate. Aussino, controlled by the Canadian retail entrepreneur...
Hawking Rejected BBC Drama Script as `Soap Opera'
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STEPHEN HAWKING the world-renowned cosmologist, rejected the script of a BBC drama about his university years because it portrayed his life as "a soap opera", it was revealed yesterday. The BBC film focuses on his time as a PhD student at Cambridge University,...
High Risk Bid by Nigeria to Prevent Summit Split
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IN A high-risk strategy, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria was trying last night to call a meeting of African and Caribbean states attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government conference to try to prevent Zimbabwe dominating the meeting. The conference...
HOCKEY: Walsh Ends England's Drought
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KATE WALSH played the archetypal captain's role for England here yesterday. The 23-year-old converted a 67th-minute penalty corner to ensure her side beat the Netherlands 1-0 and record their first victory in the BDO Champions Trophy. Walsh would be...
House Seller Was Held Hostage Because He Changed His Price
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A HOMEBUYER who assaulted the seller of a luxury farmhouse and took him hostage because he raised the price of the property by pounds 200,000 was jailed for three years yesterday. Lester Stacey, a mobile home dealer, threatened to cut out vendor Adam...
How an American War Hero Is Taking His Battle over Iraq to Washington
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THE LEFT leg of retired Colonel David Hackworth still carries a bullet that he picked up while fighting in the Vietnam War. Wounded a total of eight times, he claims to be America's most highly decorated soldier, his chest weighed down by honours such...
I Had No Choice with Huntley, Says Carr
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MAXINE CARR turned to her former fiance in the dock at the Old Bailey yesterday and said she would not take the blame for what "that thing in the box" did to Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. Ms Carr, 26, broke down under cross-examination by Richard...
Ireland's Catholic Church Apologises for Years of Abuse
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THE CATHOLIC church in Ireland yesterday formally apologised after a damning report on their handling of child abuse scandals was unveiled. Roman Catholic bishops expressed sorrow yesterday and promised to improve systems for protecting children from...
Israeli Forces `Foil Suicide Bomb Attack on School'
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ISRAELI SECURITY forces said yesterday they had foiled a plan by Palestinian militants to carry out a suicide bombing inside a school, which would have been the first large-scale, deliberate attack on children by the militants. Islamic Jihad, the militant...
JAZZ LIVE: Pharaoh Sanders Jazz Cafe London Oooo9
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Descending the stairs of The Jazz Cafe, the blue-velvet-shirted tenor saxophonist Sanders has the aura of a spiritual leader. Which is exactly what he is, in terms of late-Sixties free jazz pioneering. It was Sanders who joined John Coltrane in the last...
Lancet Calls for Tobacco Ban to Save Thousands of Lives
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TOBACCO SHOULD be made illegal and the possession of cigarettes a crime in order to curb the menace of smoking, a leading medical journal will say today. In an attempt to drive the lethal habit to extinction, The Lancet calls on the Government to ban...
`Lancet' Says Tobacco Should Be Outlawed to Save Lives
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TOBACCO SHOULD be made illegal and the possession of cigarettes should be outlawed to curb the menace of smoking, a leading medical journal says today. In an attempt to drive the lethal habit to extinction, The Lancet calls on the Government to ban tobacco...
Last Night's Television; Anatomy of a Mass Murderer ; Horizon: Hunt for an Aids Vaccine (BBC2); Judge John Deed (BBC1)
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In May 1984, at a press conference held to announce the discovery of the virus that causes Aids, the prediction was made - with only lightly guarded confidence - that a vaccine would be along in two years, three at the most. Since then, 25 million people...
Leading Article: A Ban on Tobacco Would Be Illiberal and Ineffective
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AT LEAST the editor of The Lancet has performed a public service by reducing the question to its basics. And it is obvious that, were tobacco to be discovered today, its use as a drug would be banned. Why, then, should The Lancet's call for total prohibition...
Leading Article: Whatever Happened in Samarra Last Weekend, It Was No Great Victory
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IT WAS a famous victory in a war that was declared over more than seven months ago. No wonder the world was puzzled when, on Sunday, the US authorities announced that 46 militia fighters had been killed in a successful action to repulse an attempted...
Life for `Evil' Killer Who Set Fire to Flat
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A MAN was jailed for life yesterday for murdering three young people in a fire. Andrew Affleck stuffed burning paper through a letterbox to start the blaze which trapped two sisters and their friend in a flat as part of a hate campaign The judge, Lord...
Lord Falconer Asks `Chaotic' Child Court Board to Resign over Service Failures
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MINISTERS DEMANDED the resignation of the entire board of an official child protection agency yesterday amid claims that it had descended into "chaos". The Child and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) was set up two years ago to protect...
NEW RELEASES: Grandpaboy Dead Man Shake FAT POSSUM Iiii8
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With his influence increasingly evident in the work of alt.rockers such as Ryan Adams, the former Replacements frontman and creative mainspring Paul Westerberg has returned to the fray with a vengeance recently. Dead Man Shake marks the return of Westerberg's...
Obasanjo in High-Risk Bid to Prevent Summit Split
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IN A high-risk strategy, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria last night called together the leaders of African and Caribbean states attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government conference to try to prevent Zimbabwe dominating the meeting. The conference...
Obituary: Antonia Forest ; Effortlessly Believable Children's Writer
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ANTONIA FOREST wrote 13 books for children, published between 1948 and 1982. Her 10 best-known works concern the doings of the fictional Marlow family, and she also produced two historical novels about the Marlows' Elizabethan ancestors. The modern-day...
Obituary: David Hemmings ; Flamboyant Actor in Films from `Blow-Up' to `Gladiator'
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THE BRITISH actor David Hemmings first achieved international fame when he starred in 1966 in Michelangelo Antonioni's controversial thriller Blow-Up, which led to starring roles in such films as Barbarella and The Charge of the Light Brigade. Later...
Obituary: Vernon Howe ; Architect of Such Advertising Campaigns as `Heineken Refreshes the Parts Other Beers Cannot Reach'
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VERNON HOWE enjoyed a distinguished career in advertising. With his copywriter of the time, Terry Lovelock (now a noted jazz percussionist) he was responsible for first informing the nation that Heineken was the only beer that "refreshes the parts other...
OUTLOOK: TBI Takes Off
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RUNNING AIRPORTS is a fast moving business and we're not just talking about the speed with which the jets leave the runway. On Wednesday evening the chief executive of TBI, the operator of Luton airport, described stock market rumours of a bid approach...
OUTLOOK: What Will Sir Ken Pay to Walk Down the Aisle with Safeway?
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ONLY 20 bidding days left to Christmas if Sir Ken Morrison wants to tuck Safeway in his shopping trolley before he goes off to carve the turkey. Wm Morrison, the only one of the supermarket groups cleared to bid for Safeway, would like to wrap up a deal...
Pandora
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A coalition of the unwilling Two decades after the Alliance tried to "break the mould" of British politics, the film director Ken Loach is calling for a new coalition to break the dominance of the main two parties. "The war has exposed the vacuum on...
Parents Pressure Supermarket Chain to Try `Sweet-Free Checkouts' for Children
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PARENTS SEEKING refuge from the pestering of their children while grocery shopping will soon find sanctuary in the aisles of Asda, the supermarket chain, which is to remove sweets from some of its checkouts. Penny Coates, the private-label director of...
PARLIAMENT AND POLITICS: Blair Attacked for Setting `Phoney Target' in Drive to Cut Asylum Bill
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TONY BLAIR was embroiled in a new spin row yesterday after he claimed the Government would cut the country's bill for dealing with asylum- seekers by December next year. The Prime Minister forecast that numbers of refugees with unfounded asylum claims...
PARLIAMENT AND POLITICS: I've Seen a Disaster Up Close, It's Gordon's Speech Notes ; THE SKETCH
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LOOKING DOWN on the Chancellor (and that's easier than it sounds from where we sit) you get a good view into the boiling disturbance that constitutes his brain. His notes. We can see his speech notes. They look like the correspondence of some troubled...
PARLIAMENT AND POLITICS: New Law for Illegal Organ Removal
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REMOVING ORGANS or tissue from dead bodies without the consent of families will be punishable by up to three years in prison and unlimited fines under new legislation unveiled yesterday. Ministers said they were fulfilling a promise made after the Bristol...
Poems Reveal a Runaway's Torment
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THE ANGUISH of a missing Asian teenager, whose family had planned an arranged marriage, was reflected yesterday in a series of poems found in her bedroom. Shafilea Ahmed, 17, disappeared from her home in Warrington, Cheshire on 11 September. Earlier...
RACING: Illustrious Company Awaits Rooster
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THERE REMAINS an element of romanticism in National Hunt racing and a component is the grey vote, an appreciation of any successful silver horse. In recent times, this congregation has included the great Desert Orchid, Teeton Mill and One Man, while...
Reed Elsevier Growth Hit by US Syllabus Changes
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SHARES IN Reed Elsevier slumped 7 per cent yesterday after the publishing giant warned that its earnings growth is set to slow in 2004. Reed shares lost 35p to 459p as the company, normally considered to be one of the best managed in its sector, told...
Reichmann May Top Pounds 1.55bn Offer for Wharf
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PAUL REICHMANN, the Canadian property tycoon, is considering a new takeover bid for Canary Wharf, the property group where he was executive chairman, after Morgan Stanley last night offered pounds 1.55bn for the company. People familiar with Mr Reichmann's...
REVIEWS: CLASSICAL - Operest St John's, Smith Square London Ooo99
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The front man of Channel 4's cult show Banzai, Masashi Fujimoto, keeps his day job close to his chest. He's an operatic tenor and jobbing musician and artistic director of a year-old group called Operest. But, whether by accident or design, the opportunity...
REVIEWS: DANCE - Royal Ballet: Mixed Bill Royal Opera House London Ooo99
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The Royal Ballet has commissioned three works this season, and put them on the same bill. It's as if they're getting a quota out of the way, shuffling all the new stuff into the same corner. In spite of starry casting, it isn't popular: seat prices have...
Reviews: Spotlight Contemporary Classical Music
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So what do I encounter on returning home after five weeks in the USA? Mikhail Pletnev on BBC Radio 3, complaining that modern music, which he refuses ever to play, consists solely of that nasty dissonant stuff which no one in their right mind would ever...
REVIEWS: THEATRE - Bridging the Baby Gap ; THEATRE Excuses! Soho Theatre London Ooo99
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There's pre-millennial and post-millennial, AD and BC. But such watersheds pale into insignificance compared to the pre-baby and post- baby divide in any parent's life. The import of that indescribable upheaval is reflected in the drolly drastic structure...
REVIEWS: THEATRE - Skellig Young Vic London Ooo99
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His breath stinks. He is riddled with arthritis. He gobbles spiders and raw mice and leaves droppings like those of owls. Two suspicious humps bulge under the shoulders of his coat. His hygiene and dress sense would drive the What Not to Wear pair into...
ROCK & POP: Rogue Male ; Elephant Man Leads the Herd of New Jamaican Stars. CHRIS MUGAN Meets the Rough Diamond of Ragga
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First, there was Sean Paul; then, Wayne Wonder. Now, the larger- than-life Elephant Man completes a triumvirate set to spearhead reggae's return to global recognition. Its latest rise in popularity has been driven in part by US music's love of all things...
ROCK & POP: The Sixth Stroke ; LINE THOMSEN Meets Gordon Raphael, the Strokes' Producer, and Discovers How Music Can Set the Recording Studio on Fire
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Some might think Gordon Raphael lucky. After all, he is the preferred producer of most lauded indie band in Britain, The Strokes. Raphael produced The Strokes' debut album, Is This It, which was voted No 1 record of 2001 by Billboard, NME and Time among...
ROCK & POP: Unsweetened Danish ; with Short Songs Played in One Key and Using Just Three Chords, the Danish Duo the Raveonettes Have Little Time for Frills. LINE THOMSEN Meets Sune Wagner and Sharin Foo, Who Tell Her All about the Joys of Love Gangs and Untamed Girls
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Take one key (either B flat major or the "glorious B flat minor"), and play a song with a maximum of three chords, for no more than three minutes. Mix it raw, with no sugar or sweeteners, and no hi-hat or cymbals at all. Choose a band name that pays...
RUGBY LEAGUE: Hunslet Dispute Hasty Move
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HULL KR will decide on their new coach at their board meeting tonight but face a battle to keep one of their new signings. Hunslet claim that the National League Two Player of the Year, Phil Hasty, is still with them, despite being announced as a signing...
