Convenience Big Store: A wake-up call for the rest of the world?

22 October, 2022

Behind the headlines

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A wake-up call for the rest of the world?

What lessons, if any, can be drawn from Liz Truss's ignominious 44-day premiership? Here's one, says Jeremy Cliffe in The New Statesman: "Britain is European, not American, at heart." For decades, British voters have been "indulged in the fantasy" that they can have extensive, European-style public services paid for by American-style low taxes. But whatever Britain's many "cake-and-eat-it" politicians tell the public, "there is a trade-off". Trussonomics was an attempt to abandon the European social model and go fully American: small government, low taxes. But Britons, and the markets, weren't having any of it. Our state is just too big – and with the climate crisis, pandemics, war, and an ageing population, it's only getting bigger. Truss was right to recognise that Britain has to choose either the American or the European economic path. She just chose the wrong one.

Plenty of Americans enjoy seeing the old country "hit itself repeatedly in the face with a shoe", says Gerard Baker in The Times. To which the obvious response is: at least we can change our leader without incurring the wrath of a "violent mob". Smarter Americans see the market reaction to Truss's unfunded tax cuts as a stark warning about the "looming menace" of debt. Since the global financial crisis, governments and the private sector have floated on an expanding ocean of "free" money, insistent that it would never lead to inflation. "That era is over." No government – not even the US, with the exorbitant privilege of having the world's reserve currency – can "defy economic logic" for long. Britain's "near-death experience" should serve as a wake-up call for everyone else.

Heroes and villains

Villain

The Crown, which has made John Major far too sexy for comfort. The former PM is portrayed by Jonny Lee Miller (pictured) in the Netflix drama, says Michael Deacon in The Daily Telegraph. Miller, 49, is "best known for playing the devilishly handsome Sick Boy in Trainspotting", and once being married to Angelina Jolie. Goodness knows who they've cast as Edwina Currie, Major's one-time mistress. "Scarlett Johansson, perhaps, or Keira Knightley."

Hero

Boris Becker, who is teaching yoga and meditation to fellow inmates at HMP Huntercombe. Life inside clearly suits the disgraced tennis star, who is serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence for concealing assets in a bankruptcy case. According to the German tabloid Bild, he has lost weight, given up alcohol and is "sharing his life experience with his fellow prisoners".

Villain

A Japanese official tasked with conserving the country's cultural heritage, who managed to demolish Japan's oldest loo. The 30-year-old functionary was visiting a Buddhist temple in Kyoto when, forgetting his car was in reverse, he rammed into the 650-year-old bathroom housing the monks' old latrines. Restoration of the 14th-century facilities will likely take until the new year.

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Hero

Meghan Markle, who graciously blesses humble fast-food workers with her presence. In an interview with Variety, the Duchess-turned-podcaster reveals that she likes to visit an In-N-Out burger restaurant near her home in California. "It's really fun to go through the drive-thru and surprise them," she explains. What an admirable "act of adoration", says Claire Carusillo in Gawker. "Princess Di would surprise AIDS patients in the 1990s; Meghan leaves a 22% tip at In-N-Out drive-thru."

Life

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"Where did it all go wrong?"

The great George Best once predicted "they'll forget the rubbish when I've gone and remember the football". Thankfully, says Nick Timothy in The Critic, he was dead wrong. Best the off-pitch gambler and boozehound is far more legendary than Best the mercurial winger. He was unpredictable and rarely turned up to training, instead choosing to see a string of supermodel girlfriends. "I used to go missing a lot," he later quipped. "Miss Canada, Miss United Kingdom, Miss World."

Some fans weren't so charmed by his off-pitch antics. One night, after a successful gambling session at a hotel casino, the washed-up Manchester United veteran stumbled back to his room with his girlfriend – a former Miss World – and ordered champagne. When the waiter arrived, "he found Best lying in bed, surrounded by bank notes and with the former Miss World half-naked in his arms". "George," said the waiter, "where did it all go wrong?"

Property

THE BOLTHOLE This newly renovated apartment lies on bustling Chamberlayne Road in Kensal Rise, northwest London. Decorated in sleek, monochromatic tones, it has an open-plan kitchen-diner, two decent-sized bedrooms, and sash windows flooding the living area with light. The street has an excellent selection of cafes and restaurants, an independent cinema and one of London's finest florists. Overground services run from Kensal Rise station, a three-minute walk away. £525,000.

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Stop recycling plastic

If you want to save the oceans, says Tom Chivers in the I newspaper, stop recycling plastic. Most people who study this stuff agree. The reason is that a lot of the West's "recycled" plastic is shipped off to Asian countries to be processed, much of which ends up in the ocean. While only about 0.05% of UK plastic waste is dumped into the environment, the figure is 6.5% in the Philippines, 19% in China and 20% in India.

Instead, we should put plastic in non-recycling bins, so it'll end up in landfill. "Modern landfills are pretty good": they have high-strength "geotextile" fabrics at the bottom so liquids can't leach out, and they're divided into sealed sub-compartments from which the contents can't escape. Once your landfill is full you can cover it up and farm on it, or build something fun, like a golf course. "And nothing in that landfill is going to end up in the ocean."

Sport

David Beckham with a catch in Iceland. Instagram/@DavidBeckham

High society has an unlikely but "incurable addiction", says Helen Kirwan-Taylor in Tatler: fishing. Top-tier anglers are in the Houghton Club, which comprises just 25 mostly aristocratic members, including King Charles. Lesser celebrity fishing fans, such as Emma Watson, David Beckham and Prue Leith, make do with exotic fishing holidays in the likes of Iceland, Cuba and Tahiti. One guru hosts training camps in the Seychelles, with guests splashing out a cool £12,500 to learn to catch trevally, a type of huge, bird-eating fish. Ethically minded celebs are taking to the sport because, unlike shooting, it's not a "matter of life and death". Most now practise the "catch-and-release" method: reeling in a huge fish, posing for a quick photograph to show off on Instagram, then returning it to the water unharmed.

Noted

Princess Beatrice and the Duchess of York doing the business. Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty

It's not just us "plebs" who are supposed to curtsy when we meet royals, says Sophia Money-Coutts in The Daily Telegraph: the royal women are expected to bow and curtsy to each other – even in private. The rules for who curtsies to whom are mostly based on their "position in the pecking order". So Kate is expected to bend the knee to "blood" princesses, such as Anne, Beatrice and Eugenie. But if William is in the room then his presence "catapults her above" Beatrice and Eugenie, who have to bob to her. As for Meghan, she technically has to curtsy to pretty much everyone, including Kate, because William is more senior than Harry. You can see why she "might have found royal gatherings a bit much".

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