The army has been placed on standby to help the Met police, after more than 100 firearms officers handed in their guns in protest at the decision to charge one of their colleagues with murder for the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man last year. The soldiers will be available for counter-terrorism operations and will have no powers of arrest. The backlash over the possible scrapping of the planned HS2 rail link between Birmingham and Manchester is growing, says BBC News. With a decision on the high-speed line expected this week, former chancellor George Osborne said ditching the extension would be a "gross act of vandalism". A Nasa capsule containing a 250g sample of the far-off asteroid Bennu safely touched down in Utah yesterday (pictured). The fruits of the Osiris-Rex mission, which took seven years to complete, should provide new insights into the earliest history of the solar system. |
Thatcher and Major: a "privately poisonous" relationship. Michael Putland/Getty |
The shamelessness of today's former leaders |
We are now spectators, says Dominic Lawson in The Sunday Times, at an "ex-prime ministerial circular firing squad". Last week there was Liz Truss on X (formerly Twitter) posting a long list of reasons why everything would be better if she, not Rishi Sunak, were in charge. A few days earlier, Theresa May ("remember her?") popped up on the radio to promote a new book defending her own premiership, and putting the boot into Boris Johnson. On the same day, Johnson himself delivered a "thunderous rebuke" to the government for what he regarded as its "inadequate military support" for Ukraine. |
There is nothing unusual in former Tory leaders "burning with resentment" at their replacements. But in the past, they didn't feel the need to broadcast their bitterness. Ted Heath spent decades in what was called his "incredible sulk" at Margaret Thatcher, after she challenged his leadership and won – but at least it was "silent". When Thatcher was deposed by John Major, their relationship too became "privately poisonous". It was said by close allies that she "never had a happy day" after she left Downing Street, while Major grew resentful when she supposedly called him a "grey" man with "no ideas". He privately ranted that she was "mad", "loopy" and "emotional". But, crucially, all this only came to light years later, after the diaries of a former No 10 advisor were published – Thatcher and Major themselves didn't air their dirty laundry in public. What a shame the most recent crop of former leaders, desperate to remain at "the centre of public attention", cannot show similar discretion. |
|
|
The Vikings used hay to smoke fish and meat, says Bloomberg, and now the dry grass is "stacking up on menus once again". Michelin-starred chef Tommy Banks serves a tart infused with the agricultural staple at his Yorkshire restaurant The Abbey Inn, while Fallow, in London, offers a hay-smoked burrata with a smoked tomato dressing. In New York, Jack & Charlie's No 118 roasts chicken in a bed of hay. Chef Ed Cotton says the smell in the kitchen after the bird has come out of the oven is "unbeatable". |
|
|
If you're struggling to get your teenagers out of bed, says The Economist, spare a thought for American parents. Most US schools start the day "a little after 8am", but more than a quarter get going even earlier. In Louisiana, lessons begin at 7.45am; in Syracuse, New York, it's 7.25am. |
| |
When Anna Wintour agreed to an interview, says Lauren Indvik in the FT, she said she wanted to meet for lunch at The Ritz. I duly called the restaurant up, but they told me they were fully booked. A quick call from one of Wintour's two personal assistants later, and the receptionist emailed me to apologise: "I was not aware you were attending with Anna Wintour." |
Brand with DeGeneres in 2011. Michael Buckner/WireImage/Getty |
Hypocrisy has become the "only unforgivable sin" |
Why is it, asks Martha Gill in The Observer, that some public figures can get away with murder for years, and others can get away with nothing at all? Russell Brand long behaved "in ways that would kill most other careers". It was the same with the influencer Andrew Tate, the rapper R Kelly, and indeed Donald Trump. Yet for others, the slightest transgression is enough to torpedo their careers: US talk show host Ellen DeGeneres lost her job after rumours emerged that she was sometimes "mean" to staff; Chrissy Teigen, the internet celebrity, lost her sponsors when it emerged that she had once sent a string of nasty messages to a 16-year-old. Why couldn't they weather the storm?
|
The answer is hypocrisy. Whereas the likes of DeGeneres and Teigen tried to "con the world into thinking they were nice people", Brand and the others didn't bother. They were open about their philosophy, and stuck to it. And that's crucial, because people today view hypocrisy as worse than all other human flaws – it is, as the writer Judith Shklar puts it, the "only unforgivable sin". This gives predators and criminals a "handy loophole": if you want to guard yourself from scandal, just "become an advocate for bad behaviour". It's the same in politics. Jacob Rees-Mogg got away with implying that those who died in the Grenfell fire had "lacked common sense" in part because he "poses as a contemptuous aristocrat"; Boris Johnson "had no principles at all, so got away with almost everything". No one likes a hypocrite, of course – we're right to despise them. "But there are worse things." |
This video of Pittsburgh Penguins ice hockey player Sidney Crosby hand-delivering season tickets to a family of superfans has racked up nearly nine million views on X (formerly Twitter). The team has sent players to deliver season tickets since 2007, says one user, "which has to be one of the coolest traditions in sport". |
|
|
The news that Chinese officials gave a British diplomat a teapot containing a secret listening device reminded me of a similar case around 20 years ago, says Juliet Samuel in The Times. On that occasion, the gift from Beijing was an astrolabe – an ancient astronomical instrument – and the British official passed it to the security services. When they found the inevitable bug, rather than chucking the whole thing out, the official "re-gifted it to a reclusive friend who lived in an isolated coastguard cottage in Dorset". Ever since, he has chuckled at the thought of China's spooks "trying to decipher the thick Dorset accents". |
It's Theresa Dawes, a nanny hired by Boris and Carrie Johnson, who says she was sacked after three days for having a drink with the former PM while his wife was still in hospital with their third child. "It was a lovely, hot day," the 59-year-old Zimbabwean tells the Sunday Mirror, "and when Boris got home, he went out on to the terrace and opened a bottle of wine. He asked me to join him." The drink was witnessed by Boris's mother-in-law, which may or may not explain why Carrie was "extremely rude" when she returned from hospital. Explaining the sacking, she says, Boris blamed it on his wife: "She's hormonal, she's just had a baby, it's out of my control." |
|
|
"I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol." American comedian Steven Wright |
|
|
Been forwarded this newsletter? Sign up for free to receive it every day |
|
|
https://link.newsletters.theknowledge.com/oc/60897464f90441077868de3cjjg5i.5hp/3b8863be&list=mymail |
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment