Financial Times UK November 21 2020

21 November/22 November 2020 ★ FTWeekend 5

i / buying guide House Home

In the first 10 months of 2020, the number HOMES
of homes going under offer in Highgate, FOR SALE
Hampstead and West Hampstead was HIGHGATE AND
nearly 9 per cent higher than in the same HAMPSTEAD
period in 2019
B Apartment, Hornsey Lane Gardens,
According to LonRes, the average Highgate, £1.075m
property price in Hampstead (NW3) this A three-bedroom flat with 1,346 sq ft
year has been £2.25m; in Highgate (N6), it of living space. The master bedroom has
has been £2.02m; and in Kilburn/West an en-suite bathroom, and there is a
Hampstead (NW6), it has been £1.07m small cellar, a patio, garden and garage.
The property is about a 15-minute walk
Property prices near from Highgate Tube station. Available
Hampstead Heath through Savills.

Average property price ( m) B Spaniards End, Hampstead, £5.25m
Hampstead (NW ) A seven-bedroom, 5,682 sq ft Grade II-
listed Georgian house next to Hampstead
Highgate (N ) Heath. Besides lawned gardens, a
summer house and garage, it boasts
Kilburn/West Hampstead (NW ) famous past residents, including Dame
Henrietta Barnett, a social reformer of the
Source: LonRes early 20th century. Available through
Hamptons International.
outside the standard entry points — ages (Clockwise from families are increasingly concerned by are the 1930s originals; the pricier grim’s Lane and the rungs of the ladder
4, 7, 11 and 16 — have also increased, top) Pond the political situation there. homes are the new ones. that connect them: Denning Road, Car- B Hampstead Manor, Kidderpore
says Louise Eaden, head of admissions. Square, lingford Road and Kemplay Road. Avenue, Hampstead, £7.5m
Highgate; four- Buyers looking for the area’s most To the south of the heath is Hamp- A 3,810 sq ft house, part of a 13-building
“[Since lockdown] I think more peo- bedroom house, exclusive homes head to the west of stead Village, close to Hampstead Tube, On these streets, demand for refur- development on the site of former
ple are moving to the area, including £7.5m, Knight Highgate’s centre. Many can be found which provides access to central Lon- bished homes, which can reach prices of Westfield College. It has four bedrooms,
outside the typical school cycles,” she Frank; three- along The Bishops Avenue, often nick- don via the Northern Line. Here buyers £3.5m, has been hit since lockdown four bathrooms, a balcony and access to
says, adding that the school’s virtual bedroom flat, named Billionaire’s Row, which runs favour the more densely terraced Victo- compared to unmodernised ones, which a communal garden, concierge, private
learning offering has become a crucial £1.075m, Savills from the top of Hampstead Heath into rian and Georgian period houses that start at around £2m, says Brookes. parking, swimming pool and spa facilities.
part of its appeal. Applications are also East Finchley. Others are located have smaller gardens. Many are to be “[The former] are not selling; the offers Available through Knight Frank.
up from Hong Kong, she says, where Alamy Stock Photo along Courtenay Avenue, and Comp- found along Willoughby Road and Pil- are not as easy to come across.”
ton Avenue, which stretches between
Kenwood House and the southern Buyers seeking more space in this
boundary of Highgate Golf Club. All price bracket will head further west
three streets feature regularly in lists around Golders Hill Park, an area with a
of the UK’s most expensive addresses. Tube station also on the Northern
Line. Other large homes are available
Closer to the centre of Highgate, nearby on and around Frognal, a road
popular roads include Stormont Road, that begins on the western reaches of
Sheldon Avenue and Denewood Road, Hampstead Village before snaking
where original 1930s houses, some in south downhill towards Finchley Road.
need of a spruce up, stand next to Frognal’s past residents include former
much larger more modern homes, the French president Charles de Gaulle.
results of “knock down and rebuild”
projects. “Homes in this area will go With summer over and Londoners
from £2.5m up to £10m,” says facing a winter of homeworking, the
Brookes of Savills. At the cheaper end appeal of internal space has trumped
terraces and gardens, says Snooky Con-
teh, head of lettings at local agent
Wayne & Silver. “Outside space was a
bigger premium in summer months but
now it’s all about a space to work from,
whether that is a fourth bedroom in the
attic or a shed in the garden — it may not
fit a bed but as long as you can put a desk
and shelves in it [it works].”

6 ★ FTWeekend 21 November/22 November 2020

House Home

Architecture | A ‘white box’ ‘My cabinet of experiments’ Keeling House (Denys Lasdun, 1957)

in a Modernist high-rise (Above) Ben and He lives here with his wife Frances in a but as an opportunity to develop his
Frances Allen in maisonette on the 10th and 11th floors ideas. He calls it his “cabinet of experi-
has been reimagined as an their apartment of the building. It had been renovated in ments”. As in Soane’s former home,
in Keeling the 1990s after being saved from demo- mirrors are used to innovative effect,
atmospheric and homely House, Bethnal lition. “Most people had this as just a creating weird illusory corners and
Green, which white box space,” says Allen. “When we niches. The reflections are “a way of
living space. By Lucy Watson has views of the moved in it was white kitchen, white playing”, says Allen. “To make it elabo-
City of London; counter and, you know, Eames lounger rate enough that it feels bigger.”
B efore he became known for (left) a partition in the corner.”
the Brutalist behemoth of of shelving The west-facing views, although stun-
London’s National Theatre, separates the It is now a complex space full of art- ning and vast enough for him to see to
on the south bank of the original narrow work — mostly by Olafur Eliasson, with Hampstead Heath in north London, can
Thames, Denys Lasdun built galley kitchen whom Allen worked for 10 years — and be “a bit agoraphobic”, says Allen. So he
the concrete 16-storey Keeling House, in from the living optical illusions, inspired by something wanted “warmth and enclosure”. This
Bethnal Green, in the city’s east end. The space — © French+Tye unlikely: Sir John Soane’s Museum, the includes a nod towards the original nar-
architect Ben Allen moved to the Grade former home of the neoclassical archi- row galley kitchen: a partition of shelv-
II*-listed building in 2016 and has read a tect that opened to the public nearly ing with a neat fold-out desk, which
lot of interviews with its creator. 200 years ago. became Allen’s studio during lockdown.
“He was like, ‘Oh, in the Sixties, we
had no idea what we were doing with Allen, whose architecture studio is He and Frances had no intention of
concrete. But by the time we built the relatively new, having left his role as a renovating until the rather prosaic cata-
National Theatre in the Seventies it was designer at Eliasson’s Berlin studio in lyst of the flat being too cold. The high-
really quite sophisticated in the UK,’” 2013, saw this not just as an investment, rise has original single-glazed Crittall
says Allen. windows that hum in the wind and no
Bad news for him. “This isn’t even the gas supply, so relies on electric heaters
1960s. This was built in the Fifties!” and secondary glazing. Little could be
Although the building has proven changed due to the listed status and con-
robust, and popular, it is, Allen admits, crete walls.
“full of architects”.
The couple decided on wall insulation
and underfloor heating as a solution.
Which was intrusive enough to make
them decide that they might as well do
over the whole flat.

Frances was quite pragmatic about it.
She phoned The Modern House, an
estate agency that specialises in selling
mid-century and contemporary homes,
and asked how much it was worth
spending on the property to make its
impact on the value worthwhile. “If you
call a normal estate agent they’d have
said five grand, but they were actually
quite positive about it,” he says. The
agents said £40,000 — the Allens have

21 November/22 November 2020 ★ FTWeekend 7

House Home

Allen, an architect himself, has tried to create ‘warmth and enclosure’

spent £45,000 — “but some of that is ‘Once you start you get costs were relatively low. The shower
stuff we can take with us.” They also a bit hooked. I think it’s cost him less than £300. But the con-
“suggested that this is more sought-after complete, just because for stant experimentation is not easily rep-
than the Barbican”, he says, “because our sanity it had to stop’ licable: “I’m not sure a client would
there are so many flats there. Here there have put up with this vagueness.”
are just 60.” monumental, snake-like brass shower.
“It feels like it’s going to be there for 100 After a year of work and “fiddling
Artworks and models are every- years,” he says, which is the opposite of around”, the flat is complete. Or, at
where, including an Eliasson mould of a his experience working mainly with least, “I think it’s complete, just
concrete column that was intended for interiors. “It’s depressing, the idea that because for our sanity it had to stop.”
the structure of a house. UV filters and everything will be in a skip in five years’ He was at one point told he was getting
automatic blinds protect Allen’s books time. Hopefully the robustness means a bit carried away with the tiny, elabo-
from bleaching. that it ages well.” rate bathroom.

There are other experiments. The The bathroom “is the bit where I But it has been worth it. Even on a
irrigation system for the plantings on went to town and decided to have blustery day the window seat, sur-
the windswept balcony, designed by some fun,” says Allen, who describes rounded by shaking ornamental grasses
Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, was not tested the view of the vanity mirror as you outside, is bright and atmospheric. And,
before installation and does not quite come up the stairs as a “floating orb importantly, says Allen, “I enjoy it when
work. Dimmer switches had to be taken effect”. It is deliberately dark — an Frances enjoys it, because she’s put up
apart and redesigned to suit the low-en- “inward space” that he compares to a with a lot of weird details.”
ergy (but harsh) LED lighting — they hammam. (Allen’s architecture work
can now be dimmed lower than candle- (Above) The just thought it’d be interesting to see is frequently with office spaces and is
light without annoying flickering. study desk can what kind of patina it builds up.” concerned with health and wellbe-
be used sitting ing.) Open-plan spaces cause prob-
And the concrete counter in the or standing; Although he might feel differently lems, he says, as do the huge windows
kitchen was a freebie from the contrac- (left) the about the counter if he had not got it in a high-rise. “People need a refuge.”
tor, who wanted to learn how to make bathroom; for free: “If you pay lots of money for
them. It has a couple of marks, but no (right) the these things you probably get a bit It took some trial and error to get the
matter: “It’s a living thing and we don’t master bedroom more jumpy.” fittings right. Most brass taps are actu-
want to be too precious,” says Allen. “I with custom ally plated in a gold chrome because
dimmable LED Solid materials that are allowed to age manufacturers are worried about tar-
lights — © French+Tye is a repeated theme. The little bathroom nishing. So Allen would buy taps and
is cavelike, full of arches, shadows and send them to be stripped just to see what
mirrored curves. It is also home to a was underneath.

“Once you start you get a bit
hooked,” he says. But as this was his
own property, he had no deadline and
he had the right industry contacts (and
he didn’t mind the friendly builder
turning up at 9pm to potter around),

8 ★ FT Weekend 21 November/22 November 2020

House Home K Bedside table by
Handsome Vintage
B Tuck In by Alijoe Designs £85 I Midcentury drinks £180
Debbie Carne sources unique vintage ceramic designs cabinet by Blu Avery This smart piece has
and adds her own narratives using decal transfers and been revived with a
imagery. alijoedesigns.com £595 hand-painted abstract
Made in collaboration design. etsy.com
with Surfacephilia
Wallpapers, this B Scalloped shade by Heather Orr £400
metallic design brings Orr repurposes old lampshades to create
a touch of opulence to unique designs such as this one, which
the home. bluavery.com works either with a pendant or floor lamp.
heatherorr.co.uk
Upcycle uplift
I Two-tone rocking chair by
Interiors | Reused, reupholstered and rejigged Orange Otter £195
furniture to update your home. By Roddy Clarke Available in a range of
colour combinations,
this vintage rocking
chair adds a pop of
colour to any decor.
orangeotter.co.uk

B G Plan sideboard by Studio27 From £879
This vibrant sideboard is available in different sizes and creates a
stunning focal point. studio-twentyseven.com

B Bauhaus mid- B Floral wall hanging by Sue Gifford B Large footstool by
century cabinet by Colour Me KT £395
Maisie’s House £345 €1,000 After sourcing the legs
This 1950s record Salvaging a top from a table deemed on eBay, Colour Me KT
cabinet has been hand- beyond repair, Gifford has repurposed constructed a new
painted by founder it into a piece of wall art, inspired by frame and upholstered
Chloe Kempster with a the hedgerows she would walk past on the stool using a
design inspired by the her lockdown daily walks. fabric design by
Bauhaus era. suegifforddesign.com Kirath Ghundoo.
maisieshouse.co.uk colourmekt.co.uk

K Midcentury sideboard K Danish hammock B Willow Broughs transformed using
by Atom Interior Styling chair by Sharp & walnut side table a William Morris
Simpson £750 by Patience & print. Available
£335 This 1960s chair has Gough £895 at Liberty’s and
The piece has been been reupholstered A 1920s burr can be bought as
refinished in a bold in pastel tones but walnut piece that a pair. patience-
geometric design and gold the team can also has been gough.com
feet have been added to create custom
the legs to elevate it. designs in your
atominteriorstyling.com choice of fabric.
sharpandsimpson.com

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21 November/22 November 2020 ★ FTWeekend 9

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10 ★ FTWeekend 21 November/22 November 2020

House Home Stuck inside Tahiti table
of Memphis lamp, Ettore
Kristall end Sottsass
table, Michele
DeLucchi,
1981

Pariano Angelantonio

Design | The shortlived What came out of that evening in the
Memphis movement was little flat would be Milan’s contribution
a ‘cocktail of bad taste’ — but to PoMo, an exuberant pop cocktail of
its influence is still being felt bad taste with a surprising afterlife.
today. By Edwin Heathcote
While they talked, Bob Dylan’s “Stuck
H as there ever been any tive studio. They gathered in the small Sottsass and his friends Inside of Mobile with the Memphis
worse design than Mem- Milan apartment that Sottsass shared were bored by the industry, Blues Again” was allegedly stuck on
phis? Or any better? The with his wife Barbara Radice, sitting its ruthless output and repeat on the turntable. They had their
provocative, self-con- around a table covered in his Bacterio sleek but soulless products name. It was a good gag too. “Mobile” is
sciously cartoonish furni- patterned laminate, a sickly morass of Italian for furniture — “movables”. And
ture collective that splattered garish col- black squiggles like organisms under them had drifted back into practice, (Main picture) Where kitsch met cool — Memphis made it move. In Ancient
our over the high-end galleries, fashion a microscope. growing up, teaching, designing hous- the Memphis collection at Milan’s Post Design Egyptian, incidentally, “Memphis”
stores, hotel lobbies and loft apartments ing or lamps. Gallery; (above) a meeting of the Memphis derived from “mn-nfr” or “enduring
of the 1980s still splits opinion. But those Sottsass was provoking a younger group in Asolo, Italy, December 1983 and beautiful”. Well, enduring anyway.
pieces that caused such a furore then are generation of designers to kick back at Sottsass and his friends were bored (Ettore Sottsass is fifth from the left)
now in museums all over the world, their what they all saw as a moribund late- by the industry, its ruthless output and The town of Milton Keynes is a con-
colours still as vivid, their forms still as Modernist scene in the city. sleek but soulless products. They Luca Miserocchi; courtesy Memphis SRL temporary of the movement, born of
joyously ridiculous as 40 years ago. wanted something new. Postmodern- the same impulses. An urban creature
The work continues to make waves — Radical Italian designers had, in the ism, the hybrid style that adapted vis- balancing on the edge of late Modernism
as well as big money at auction — and is 1960s and 1970s, already questioned ual languages with gusto, embracing and Postmodernism, between the social
being recognised with Memphis: Plastic the cycle of capital and consumption, everything from classicism and ancient and the commercial, looking to both
Field, an exhibition at Milton Keynes’s the churn of Milan’s massive furniture Egyptian to Russian Constructivism British pastoral traditions and Ameri-
MK Gallery. It had been due to open this industry as well as its ponderous archi- and Art Deco, was making waves at the can confidence. The MK Gallery’s 2019
week, but has been postponed until it is tecture. Practices such as Superstudio, time, steering a line between the popu- redesign by architects 6a makes those
safe to do so. Archizoom and UFO presented “criti- lar and the radical, treading on toes, influences clear. Its vivid colours, cus-
It was 1980 when Ettore Sottsass cal utopias” including endless gridded but only lightly. PoMo critiqued the tard yellows and postbox reds, and the
invited a group of young designers to landscapes rolling out over green fields system from squarely within it. big circle of a window seem to belong to
create a new movement and a new or deserts, collages of hairy hippies and that moment of uncertainty and
aesthetic. Or, at least, a new collabora- suburban housewives wandering the change, between the barricades of the
radical Modernist version of the yellow 1960s and the big business of the 1980s.
brick road. By the late 1970s, most of
At the heart of the exhibition will be
the piece that embodies Memphis more
than any other: the Carlton book-shelf-
cum-room-divider Sottsass designed
in 1981. It was everything that good
Modernist design was not supposed to
be. Made not from solid, traditional

21 November/22 November 2020 ★ FTWeekend 11

(Above) Show-off style at the Memphis collection in Milan — Luca Miserocchi House Home

materials but from MDF covered in vinyl tar. This was design led not by indus- view with Disegno magazine. “He Carlton room
used to say that any movement, tak- divider, Ettore
laminate, it is an aggressively non-func- try (the traditional Milanese model in ing the example of Cubism, should not Sottsass, 1981
last more than five years.”
tional item. High design and low craft, which Sottsass was used to working)
The movement might be over but
Milanese provocation executed in the but by publicity. The pieces were their Memphis is still very much with us.

materials of the mass-produced kitchen. own marketing, striking images of Edwin Heathcote is the FT’s architecture
critic
You might, perhaps, fit a dozen books on enigmatic objects that the press could

it, or a couple of knick-knacks, some- not help but splash all over.

thing in the undersized drawers, but Yet the company was never a commer-

that’s it. This is furniture as art object, cial success. It refused to make limited

statement of intent. And the intent is a editions but the pieces were too expen-

Milanese middle finger to good taste. sive for the mass market. By 1985,

Although it is often por- Sottsass had left the group and it

trayed as a revolution, dissolved in 1988. But it was

Memphis was not quite not the end. All of Mem-

that. Sottsass had been phis’s 150 designs are still

designing provocative being produced — and sold.

Pop shockers for at least a I asked Sottsass’s widow,

decade, along with his Barbara Radice, herself a

more restrained, elegant critic and writer, to what

and practical products extent the Memphis

for big business, most moment had been a provo-

notably Olivetti and Pol- cation. “It must be what

tronova. Gillo Dorfles had everybody thought and

laid the theoretical never dared ask,” she says.

groundwork with his “Ettore and everyone

1968 book Kitsch: the were serious and excited

World of Bad Taste. Studio about the whole affair,

Alchimia (in which refounding the language

Sottsass himself had been of design, the change in

involved) had set up in the mood, using colour

1976 and pioneered much and decoration, maybe

of this language of garish D’Antibes cabinet by asymmetrical shapes and
colours, suprematist George J Sowden, 1981 unusual materials. Every-
shapes, historical forms one was happy to be free

and strange symbols. of the old mood and to be

But Memphis made it cool. Karl Lager- able to breathe. The whole world was

feld kitted out his Monaco apartment in waiting for an update of the language

Memphis. He had a Carlton and a boxing of design. And provocation . . . I’d

ring bed (by Masanori Umeda), a rather call it humour . . . isn’t it all

banana-yellow sharkfin-legged Mem- part of the game?”

phis Milan Brazil desk by Peter Shire and And that is, at least from this dis-

a Beverley Cabinet (Sottsass) with its tance, exactly what it looked like.

single absurd lightbulb. These were no With their caricatured boldness,

mere highlights, no accent pieces — bright colours, chequerboards and

Lagerfeld’sentire interior was Memphis. pastels, nursery shapes and cartoon

David Bowie became an avid collector. demeanour, Memphis provided the

A hundred of his mostly Memphis pieces board and a few pieces to play the

were sold after his death in 2016 at game of life with.

Sotheby’s in London for almost £1.4m. “Ettore thought that design should

When the New York show Memphis at help people become more aware of

Midnight opened in 1982, the Chelsea loft their existence: the space they live in,

in which it was being held saw crowds of how to arrange it and their own pres-

more than 3,000 gather for a glimpse of ence in it,” said Radice in a 2014 inter-

the new aesthetic. Memphis designs and

knock-offs popped up everywhere, from

music videos and sitcoms to corporate

lobbies and yuppie lofts.

As a collective it was remarkable,

the list of designers eye-popping.

Michele DeLucchi, Aldo Cibic, Andrea

Branzi, George Sowden, Nathalie du

Pasquier, Michael Graves, Shiro

Kuramata, Javier Mariscal, Peter

Shire, Martine Bedin, Alessandro-

Mendini . . . and on and on. It was a

stellar cast that came together for one

great visual performance and set the

scene for the show-off decade.

Memphis flowered briefly but

brightly. And the press, the wealthy,

the collectors came like bees for nec- Burundi, Nathalie Du Pasquier, 1981

Italian radicalism and design as revolution

Italian design might now be When the US unexpectedly
synonymous with top-end furniture withdrew from the Milan Triennale
stores and high fashion, but between in 1968, its director, the architect
about 1968 and 1980 it was the Giancarlo Di Carlo, decided to use
locus of radical anti-consumerism. the empty space for an installation in
Enzo Mari, who died aged 88 last solidarity with the ongoing Parisian
month, was a life-long communist student protests. He filled it with
who injected politics into his designs rubble and piled it high with white
— notably with the autoprogettazione goods, as symbols of out-of-control
project, a booklet of designs capitalist consumerism.
distributed for free, illustrating how to
make a range of furniture using only But even this radical gesture wasn’t
nails and planks. Despite working as enough for the Italian students, who
a product designer for big companies, staged a sit-in, shutting the show
Mari always resisted the fetishisation down completely. At the same time
of design as art and refused to Florentine architects Archizoom and
show his work in galleries, saying it Superstudio were making images of
belonged in homes and on the streets. egalitarian utopias realised more
through ideas than design. They were
Enzo Mari — Mondadori via Getty Images provocative pictures of endless grids
and sparse landscapes populated
with unknowable technologies.

Italy embodied both ends of
the spectrum: sprezzatura and
socialism, design as fashion and as
revolution. Memphis represented an
abandonment of those politics. It was
radical form-making but its intent
was aesthetic, a framing of lifestyle,
the “end of boring”. It squashed the
idea of Italian design as something
provocative and dangerous under
a riot of garish colour and form, and
was easily and completely subsumed
into the culture of consumerism.

EH

12 ★† FT Weekend 21 November/22 November 2020

House Home

Gin’s the the garden needs investment. In 2016
‘it’ thing the Japanese company Suntory bought
a controlling stake in Sipsmiths for
Our columnist finds that the revival of the juice of about £50m. Trewithen was founded
the juniper berry has come as a tonic to gardening on the proceeds of tin. It can be
maintained on the proceeds of gin.
G ardening has many links, Gin is botanically rooted in juniper (Above) Twig of common juniper drug”. In 1751 the emphasis changed. A Troops in India were ordered to drink
but what about its berries, picked off the common juniper with blue berries; (below right) ‘Gin new gin act lowered taxes and banned quinine-based tonic water, but it was so Own-brand gins with links to herbal
flourishing link with gin? tree. As a result Juniperus communis Lane’ by William Hogarth, 1751 production by small gin makers. Big bitter that they were allowed to add gin gardening have proliferated. Copper
Downton Abbey has a gin is back in fashion as a long-term companies, it was hoped, would keep to make it palatable. G and T began in Rivet Distillery in Kent makes an
flavoured with rhubarb. commercial planting, especially where Getty Images/iStockphoto the drink away from the lower classes. army camps. excellent strawberry gin and a sloe
Botanic gardens sell own-brand gins a cooler climate favours it. gin aged in oak barrels. Palmers, long
with “botanicals” that give them Robin Lane Fox At the time of the act, William In the 1920s established at Langleys in the West
distinctive flavours. Kew has a gin; What about gin and gender? Gin On gardens Hogarth’s grim print Gin Lane cocktails helped, Midlands, supplies many of the
Edinburgh has a gin called 1670; used to be mother’s ruin. Now it is magnified the perils. In the lower followed by designer gins in Britain. Of the
the Chelsea Physic Garden supplied daughter’s delight, especially when centre, a gin-crazed, pox-marked that tempting necessary juniper berries, the majority
botanical ingredients to Beefeater locked down at uni. In class terms, gin’s mother lets her baby fall from her invention, a White are still imported, especially from trees
London gin in 2014. Oxford Botanic history exemplifies social mobility. breasts into a black hole. A dying Lady. So did the in the Balkans, but one of the finest
Garden has a Physic Gin. Simon Received wisdom is that, like golf, it woman is being dumped but the effects rise of martinis. new brands, Hepple Gin, is based on
Hiscock and a fellow director of the was invented by the Dutch. In the mid show among men, too. One carries However, even junipers grown in Northumberland.
Oxford garden have just compiled 17th century, British soldiers fighting in another baby impaled on a stick. Gin in the 1990s
The Botany of Gin (Bodleian Library, Europe were given it as “Dutch was blamed for that hardy perennial, nobody was I have yet to see blue-faced
£15.99), with colour pictures of courage” and then William of Orange a crime wave in London, but gin mixing gin with undergraduates with a double chin:
anything from allspice to liquorice. arrived from the Netherlands in 1688. parlours, gin palaces and a drunken today’s designer what do they think of the new fashion?
More, as ever, can be said. The Glorious Revolution propelled underclass persisted. In Dickens’s botanicals, “Ever so 2015”, those I polled answered,
Dutch “genever” into fashion. It was Bleak House the decrepit Mr Krook coriander, as if it is rather passé, though one
Like designer gumboots, the gin helped by punitive tariffs slapped on reeks of gin in his rag-and-bottle store raspberries or was proud to buy her gin from the
revival has taken me by surprise. the French. Wine and cognac were behind the Chancery law courts and lemongrass. The same outlet as that 2015 figure,
In the 1960s gin was occasionally surcharged, whereas homegrown gin has a bottle of gin on the table before change came in David Cameron.
drunk by women who could not order was exempt. Gin took off as a cheap he bursts spontaneously into flames. 2008 when the 1751 gin act was
whisky without causing comment. local drink for the British poor. Unlike at last repealed, making smaller-scale Here and in Holland gin is peaking
There were two or three brands and wine, it was fit to drink within 10 days Prohibition and propaganda failed, production legal. among the young, with hot money
they were either for old fogeys or the of processing. as usual. In 1888 the London social going into tequila. What about Spain,
flashy in fast cars, the “gin and observer Walter Besant wrote a chilling Flavoured gins began to proliferate, Italy and the Philippines? Spaniards go
Jensen” set. Pink gin was painfully In October 1663, Samuel Pepys description of a man in his mid-forties, led by Sipsmiths, who had pressed for for gin in big glasses. Botanical gins are
pretentious. For the under-25s, the recorded that he took “strong water seen in a pub in the West India docks. the change. They set up a distillery in a on the rise in Italy: in Milan, Selvatiq is
makers of Beefeater gin had a made of juniper”, hoping it would cure His face was “a ghostly, ghastly, corpse- disused garage near London’s Hogarth scouring Lombardy and Piedmont for
reputation for recruiting members of his constipation. I assume it was like kind of blue”, caused by persistent roundabout. Hogarth would have loved
the Oxford Boat Race crew. Gin and merely water flavoured with juniper gin drinking. “Too many double gins to satirise it, but it too has a link to “wild sustainable”
French, a very British way of referring berries, an old recipe which predated give ladies double chins,” a music hall gardening. One of Sipsmith’s founders, ingredients.
to gin and vermouth, had a hint of alcoholic gin. Sixty years later, the song warned. However, the menace Sam Galsworthy, is heir to the superb A significant
Brexit, as did Gin and It, a favourite spread of gin was another matter. had its uses. The discovery that quinine Cornish house and garden Trewithen. proportion of the
drink of Denis Thatcher. Downing From 1729 to 1751 parliament passed countered malaria gave gin a tonic. After a ravaging from phytophthora, world’s gin imports,
Street staff recall his insistence that five gin acts to try to control it. meanwhile, go to
only the cork of a bottle of Italian First, they raised taxes on it. Small the Philippines.
vermouth should be passed over his businesses evaded them and, as Jessica What about gin
cocktail glass of neat gin. The It must Warner puts it in her excellent book and the former
not be mixed with the Brit. Craze: Gin and Debauchery in an Age of empire? India is the
Reason, gin became “the original urban one to watch. As
a percentage of the
country’s population,
India’s gin drinkers
are very small but
the numbers are
impressive. So is the
range of botanicals
being mixed for them:
lavenders from Kashmir, junipers
from the Himalayas, turmeric and
legal types of hemp.
Here is my personal use of gin: gin
and pheasant. Roast a pheasant, now
in season in Britain, putting four or five
crushed juniper berries inside it and
basting it with a quarter of a cup of gin
and a quarter-cup of water. Gin may
have turned faces blue, but it turns
a pheasant’s flesh deliciously soft and
aromatic. My chin has yet to sag.

NOVEMBER 21/22 2020

MOMNEAYTTERS

Financial literacy is more
important than ever, which is
why the FT is launching a
charitable foundation to help.
By Patrick Jenkins



MARK RUWEDEL; MACK BOOKS @FTMag

‘Being in the world with a camera ‘The regime’s legitimacy 5 Simon Kuper
was more attractive to me than has been weakening… Has the press finally learnt
being in a studio with a canvas’ people are talking about how to challenge lies?
a post-Erdogan world’
Photographer Mark Ruwedel, p34 6 Inventory
Laura Pitel reports from Turkey, p22 Isis Davis, actor and writer
‘Forget the age of the
motor car, the last 8 Robert Shrimsley
century was the age Domwell: ye secret chat messages
of the oven’
8 Letters
Rowley Leigh, p40 10 Tech World

FT.COM/MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 21/22 2020 Will wearables help Singapore’s
senior citizens fight Covid?
12 Undercover Economist
The vaccine obstacle course

14 Money matters
A post-coronavirus economic crisis is
looming, yet levels of financial literacy
across the world remain worryingly low.
Patrick Jenkins says it’s time to act –
and invites FT readers to help him

22 What Erdogan’s family drama tells
us about Turkey
After the shock resignation of his
son-in-law earlier this month, the Turkish
president faces questions about the
economy – and his own future.
Laura Pitel reports

30 Observations: All by myself
Like millions of others, Claire Bushey
lived with loneliness long before
Covid-19. Will the pandemic help
society to beat this modern curse?

34 LA through my eyes
From coast to desert, via urban sprawl,
photographer Mark Ruwedel has
documented Los Angeles from angles
most people will never have seen

40 Rowley Leigh
John Dory boulangère

45 Jancis Robinson
Bright young Burgundy

47 Fantasy dinner party
Janine Gibson on her dream meal

48 Nicholas Lander
Reporting for duty

50 Voyage of discovery
Tim Hayward feasts in a
mysterious corner of Essex

53 Games
54 Gillian Tett

Why men are leaving ties
in the 20th century

Issue number 897 • Online ft.com/magazine • FT Weekend
Magazine is printed by the Walstead Group in the UK and
published by The Financial Times Ltd, Bracken House, 1 Friday
Street, London EC4M 9BT © The Financial Times Ltd 2020
• No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form
without the prior express permission of the publisher

Cover illustration by Nathalie Lees

3



KSIUMPOENR ell, we’re interrupting this The new journalistic approach isn’t so much
because what the presi- “speak truth to power” as “force power to speak
OPENING SHOT dent of the United States is truth to us”. That still allows journalists to cover
saying, in large part, is abso- policies even-handedly. Trumpist politicians
Have journalists lutely untrue,” said CNBC can go on TV to advocate for a border wall or tax
finally learnt anchor Shepard Smith as his cuts for the rich. They just can’t lie. Nor should
how to challenge network pulled away from they get airtime to deny climate change or warn
political lies? Donald Trump making base- against vaccines, unless they have peer-reviewed
less post-election claims scientific evidence. Ideally, anyone disseminating
FT.COM/MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 21/22 2020 about illegal voting. As did falsehoods won’t get invited back.

W othernetworks.Journalism’s The legal-scientific model requires TV journal-
belated turn against false- ists to prepare like lawyers in court. If a politician
hood should resonate far beyond the US.
‘The new journalistic approach
Trump’s was the most successful project of isn’t so much “speak truth
political lying in a modern democracy. His 22,000- to power” as “force power to
plus misleading or false claims, as documented by speak truth to us”’
The Washington Post, set a record that may long
outlive him. On the upside, he has taught social crams six lies into a 90-second interview, the
media and journalism how to deal with future journalist needs to be fully briefed to catch them,
political liars. Facebook and Twitter are finally because most viewers won’t have the information.
slapping warnings on his false posts. Now my pro- Doing a live interview becomes a high-wire act: the
fession needs to adopt the standards of evidence of moment a journalist mistakenly claims that a poli-
the law courts and science. tician is wrong, up goes the cry of “fake news”.

In Trump’s first five years in politics, journal- Imagine how this model would have improved
ists fell into the trap of amplifying his falsehoods. debate before Britain’s referendum on Brexit.
When he launched his candidacy in 2015 by claim- Journalists wouldn’t have repeated the Leave
ing that “Mexico” was sending “rapists” north, side’s claim that the UK “sends” £350m to Brussels
journalists were caught unawares. They didn’t each week. But silencing falsehoods is only a start.
know how to handle a politician who simply made The legal-scientific model also means downgrad-
stuff up. Previous politicians, many of them law ing claims for which evidence is weak. During the
graduates, had preferred the lawyer’s trick of referendum campaign, then prime minister David
using convoluted, weaselly language to muddy Cameron kept repeating the Treasury’s forecast
the truth. So in 2015, TV channels let Trump that Brexit would cause an instant year-long reces-
keep crying “rapist”. They should have noted that sion. Broadcasters should have said: economic
undocumented immigrants appear to have lower forecasts are usually wrong (as this one proved)
crime rates than native-born Americans, then so we won’t amplify them. Likewise, journalists
stopped repeating his unfounded claims. should downplay increasingly unreliable polls.

In part, letting falsehoods pass was lazy jour- It’s better to privilege empirical information
nalism, in a profession that traditionally privileges from actual participants. Instead of letting politi-
access over accuracy. More significantly, TV loves cians spin Brexit, ask exporters, drivers and trade
a ratings magnet. CNN’s boss Jeff Zucker live- negotiators for testimonies from the ground.
streamed Trump’s rallies and hinted at offering
him a weekly show. Though most media opposed A new journalism can’t undo the damage from
Trump, it’s also true that media made him. TV, Trump. Since 2015, Republicans have absorbed
even with falling audiences, still provides much of his falsehoods and become emotionally wedded
the material that goes viral on social media. to them. Most of his voters now seem to believe
his claims (repeatedly dismissed by the courts)
Trump’s inventions – Obama spied on me! Mail that the election wasn’t fair. Some Republicans
voting is fraud! – were allowed to drive the news are migrating to far-right social media that toler-
agenda. Once the media’s energy is spent debat- ate lying. However, the legal-scientific approach
ing whether a falsehood is true, truth has already to journalism could thwart the next Trump. If
lost. Post-lie fact-checking rarely has the impact journalists deny airtime to lies, they will incen-
of the initial lie. tivise politicians to tell the truth. That might just
increase trust in both professions.
For all the fuss about Russian bots and
Macedonian teenagers, presidential falsehoods Journalism’s next test may come when the
are uniquely potent. Studies by Harvard and Biden administration rolls out vaccines against
Cornell this summer each found that the lead- the coronavirus, if Trump warns against taking
ing transmitter of disinformation in the US was them. We’ll know we have learnt and grown if Jeff
Trump. Only after he lost the election, notes Anya Zucker doesn’t broadcast his claim live.
Schiffrin of Columbia’s School of International [email protected] @KuperSimon
and Public Affairs, did the media dare confiscate
his megaphone. Finally, American journalism is
adopting the legal-scientific model: just as courts
and scientific journals reject unsubstantiated
claims, so now do TV channels.

ILLUSTRATION BY HARRY HAYSOM 5

INVENTORY ISIS DAVIS, Isis Davis, 35, won the Best Script to be aware of social inequalities DAVID REISS
ACTOR AND WRITER Award at the British Urban Film and stand up against them.
Festival for her screenplay Draw What would you like to own that
‘IbT’mehaegsirncaattereryfnupelltIacdcaeidn. n’t and recently joined the writing you don’t currently possess?
have it as a child’ team for TV show Killing Eve. A holiday home in Ibiza.
She has appeared in the BBC’s What’s your biggest extravagance?
Silent Witness and Channel 4’s My eldest daughter’s birthday party
Electric Dreams and in the films plans. She’s only five but when
Bruno and Lie Low. she has a party, the next day she’s
What was your childhood talking about what she wants to do
or earliest ambition? the next year.
I didn’t have any positive ambitions In what place are you happiest?
as a child – my desire was just to At home with my family.
have a bad reputation, sadly. What What ambitions do you still have?
led me to that point caused me to So many! As a performer, one of
play out this damaged role for my my dreams is a long run on stage
early years, until I left London at 21. in the West End – theatre was my
Private school or state school? first love, though I’m so grateful
University or straight into work? for all the screen work. As a writer,
State school until I was 13, then I getting my own series greenlit is the
was excluded from mainstream ultimate goal.
school. I attended a pupil referral What drives you on?
unit. When I left London, I Seeing how far I’ve come and how
re-educated myself, got my key many hurdles I’ve jumped. Knowing
skills, got a BTec [a vocational there’s still so much I want to
qualification] and went to achieve. And my kids – my two girls.
university. I proudly got a first-class What is the greatest achievement
degree in performing arts from the of your life so far?
University of Gloucestershire. My children and my little family.
Who was or still is your mentor? What do you find most
My dad. He got the worst of me irritating in other people?
as a troubled teen but he’s always Unreliability and insincerity.
been by my side and supported If your 20-year-old self could see
me. Professionally, Sheila Mander, you now, what would she think?
a theatre director, one of the She wouldn’t believe it could
practitioners who established be true. She’d be relieved and
the performing arts class at the overwhelmed that the hard times
university. She believed in me from were going to come to an end, that
day one. She really championed me change was going to happen, that
and she directed my one-woman she would live a happy life.
show This Is Who I Am. Which object that you’ve lost
How physically fit are you? do you wish you still had?
I go through phases of bingeing on Before the Cloud existed, the most
the gym, signing up with a personal heartbreaking thing was to lose a
trainer and going hard for months. phone with photos on it that you
Or I can go the other way. I broke could never get back.
my foot so currently I’m not very fit. What is the greatest
Ambition or talent: which challenge of our time?
matters more to success? Personally, protecting my children
The mixture. Without ambition, from the evils of the internet and
talent can be wasted. Talent social media. The internet can be a
is a great start but you have to scary place. I’m so grateful I didn’t
push forward. have it as a child.
How politically committed Do you believe in an afterlife?
are you? Yes. Don’t ask me what it looks
As a mixed-race, working-class like, though. I don’t believe there’s
gay woman, life is a political just nothing.
commitment. I stand very firm in If you had to rate your satisfaction
my core social beliefs. I always want with your life so far, out of 10,
my children to know where we’ve what would you score?
come from as a family. Their start Eight. There’s so much more to
in life has come from the hard work come, to do, to achieve.
and determination of both me and Interview by Hester Lacey.
my wife. I want them to know that Isis Davis appears in “The
if they work hard, they can achieve Secret Garden”, available now
their goals and dreams. I want them on Sky Cinema on Demand

6 FT.COM/MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 21/22 2020



ROBERT SHRIMSLEY
THE NATIONAL CONVERSATION

Reply

Domwell: ye secret ILLUSTRATION BY LUCAS VARELA “Is AI finally closing in on human Quiz answers The link was shades of blue 1. “Baby Shark” 2. Talcum powder 3. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (basis of the film Blade Runner) 4. David Steel 5. The Sky at Night – Patrick Moore.
chat messages intelligence?” (November 14/15). (A posthumous episode went out in early 2013) 6. Franco-Prussian 7. “In the Navy” 8. Royal Albert Hall 9. Ice hockey 10. Midnight Cowboy Picture quiz Billie Jean King + Arthur Conan Doyle = King Arthur
Couldn’t you find a comely lady? definitive work on prophesying. I wouldn’t be surprised – take
The infighting in Downing I’ve tried. Lady Huntingdon is This is what’s wrong with this a look around, the bar is low.
Street that led to the most blonde and well-connected country. Our Whitehall Saynowt via FT.com
departure of Boris Johnson’s in the tech sector. But then prognosticators cannot see Don’t be fooled by GPT-3. What
most powerful adviser, Popbitch found out and now the outside their elite Palace of you’re seeing is just sophisticated
Dominic Cummings, has reminded king is shacked up with that Richmond bubble. statistical pattern matching. Its
everyone of the feuding at a royal Howard woman instead. It’s a You fixed the Boleyn woman. You structure is nothing like a brain,
court, except played out in media nightmare. I’m supposed to be confiscated her head and had her and it is nearly infinitely worse at
briefings, private chat groups and his brain, not his pimp. marched out of the building by an learning than a brain. A human
intrigue against the PM’s fiancée, Might we not make common cause armed swordsman. doesn’t have to consume the
Carrie Symonds, who was derided with Catherine Howard? I got Nexit done :)))) (Axe emoji.) entirety of Wikipedia just to learn
as “Princess Nut Nuts”. So it is It won’t work. Have just heard she (Crying with laughter emoji.) how to write. Deep learning, while
timely that the FT has secured wants Jane Rochford as director Anyway what are we going to do able to exhibit something that looks
exclusive access to the secret of communications. She’s never about Princess Nutjob? like learning, will never match
chat-app messages of Henry VIII’s liked me. Princess Nut Nuts, we have to the efficiency, learning ability
courtiers, including Thomas Probably because you had her stick to the branding. or robustness of a real brain.
“Classic Thom” Cromwell and his husband tortured and killed. LOL. OK. But we have to move fast. MTW via FT.com
colleagues from “Voteth Leave”, Really. People are so petty. Don’t Don’t worry, we are going to find
which led the break with Rome. they realise there’s a plague? I am him another woman. And once we @taylor__stjohn November 13
Have you seen what Princess working on operation moonshot. have, those Howards are for the A nuanced and excellent article
Nut Nuts is up to now? We’ll have 500,000 vinegar and chop. They’ve walked right into via @FT that takes seriously
Can we really not think of a better arsenic cures by February. my trap. Now, Lord Lee, how do compensation for corporate-led
name for her? We are supposed to But remember what that Boleyn you look in a corset? atrocities in Congo (“Belgium’s
be political geniuses… woman did to Wolsey. It will be the Classic Thom. reckoning with a brutal history”,
Aye, it’s ribald mockery. But same again. Editor’s note: Cromwell and his aides November 14/15). It will never
the focus-group testing showeth I warned Wolsey. It was all in left the court that week. One insisted it cease to amaze me which
this resonate mightily with my blog. was an entirely amicable parting and actions are thought to require
northern yeomanry :)) Only because you edited it later. tweeted that in an act of clemency the compensation and which don’t
You set up a focus group on her? ROFL. king had commuted their sentence
Of course, you dolt. It was run by How can you tell? from hanged, drawn and quartered to Re “Children who lose a parent
Fitzroy Strategies, the team who Because we write with quill pens, a basic beheading. It was very much as need more support” (November
came up with the “Take Back Our dolt, you just crossed out the bit Cromwell had predicted in his blog. 14/15). I remember the day after
Money” slogan on the dissolution you wrote before. [email protected] my dad died, and following an
of the monasteries. I was simply retrofitting my avalanche of text messages offering
So what is Princess Nutty doing? forecast. You really need to read @robertshrimsley condolences, a person I had not
Princess Nut Nuts, get it right. She Supersoothsaying. It’s the connected with much after school
is intriguing against us. She wants just picked up the phone and rang
the Howards in all the major roles. me. It was wonderful. Perhaps
She’s texting Henry all the time, others were concerned to interrupt,
reminding him I commissioned but some interruption from the grief
the Holbein picture of Anne of is actually welcome. Call the person.
Cleves and saying we need more Visit the person. Invite the person.
environmental policies. Sass via FT.com
Holbein did overdo it a bit. Re Elaine Moore’s column “How
He’s paid to overdo it a bit. If I’d social media is opening a new
wanted realism, I’d have gone for generation gap” (November
Francis bloody Bacon. 14/15). I’m in my late twenties
I don’t think Francis Bacon has and my sister is late teens. I’m
been born yet, Thom. called old because she says I
But I blogged about empiricism use Facebook while she uses
two years ago. This is what’s Snapchat. There’s less than
wrong with government. 10 years’ difference between us!
Anyway, we needed a new wife NorthWest via FT.com
to keep the Howards out.

When in Rome… see the city the FT way. FT Globetrotter offers insider guides to the world’s great To contribute
cities, with expert advice on eating and drinking, exercise, culture – and navigating the new normal. Please email [email protected]. Include
Explore a new guide to Rome for the lowdown on its top power-dining restaurants, a Vespa tour of a daytime telephone number and full address
its mazy streets, the best (and most beautiful) running routes and much more; ft.com/globetrotter (not for publication). Letters may be edited.

8 FT.COM/MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 21/22 2020



T ECH new technology into their
WO R L D daily lives,” the report said.

BY STEFANIA PALMA IN SINGAPORE Ensuring seniors’ mobility is
critical as the world jumps into
Will wearables help ILLUSTRATION BY PÂTÉ and out of lockdowns to counter
Singapore’s senior waves of infections. As one of
citizens fight Covid? In the rush to fight Covid-19, ‘In the rush to combat the groups more vulnerable to
countries around the world – Covid-19, countries have Covid-19, self-isolation can be vital
Last week, I saw a frail, especially tech-keen governments paid little attention to the to protect the elderly. But it also
elderly woman, hunched such as Singapore – have turned elderly beyond telling triggers unintended consequences,
over and dragging her feet, to apps, QR codes and digital them to stay at home’ with loneliness making older adults
walk towards a supermarket mechanisms to trace citizens more susceptible to depression
in downtown Singapore before and identify cases. But some and anxiety.
stopping short at the door to dig have paid little attention to the
through her bag for her wallet. elderly beyond telling them to This is a significant issue
A queue had started forming stay at home. The rest of the world for Singapore, where more than
behind her as she finally found is waiting to see if Singapore’s 600,000 people – one-tenth
her identity card, on which she wearable tokens prove successful of the population – are aged
scanned a barcode to get access at enabling older generations to 65 or above and where seniors’
to the store. adapt and remain socially active. social interactions often occur
She needed to do this to outside the home, including in
check in for Covid-19 tracing In a July survey of 7,500 community clubs that are dotted
purposes, but by the end of the Singaporeans between the ages of across the island.
year her ID card won’t be enough: 55 and 75, Singapore Management
the government is making its University found that only Even with the new tech,
TraceTogether smartphone app 40 per cent of the respondents however, not all older Singaporeans
mandatory to access most public were comfortable with scanning are embracing TraceTogether.
venues, such as malls, restaurants QR codes for digital check-ins. One 75-year-old told me he
and workplaces, before the had downloaded the app and
country eases social restrictions “These findings highlight then deleted it before picking
further. Since the elderly are least the difficulties that older up the device only to leave it
comfortable with smartphones, adults face when adopting at home. “Our privacy might
the government has also turned be compromised… I am not
to wearable tech to try and reach comfortable with that,” he said.
the whole population.
In June, it launched a tracking The government has said the
device that functions in the device has neither GPS nor internet
same way as the app, which uses nor cellular connectivity and that
Bluetooth to record distance all data – which is deleted regularly
between users and the duration – stays on the token until the user
of their encounters. (The health tests positive for Covid-19. At that
ministry can reach out to users in point, they are obliged by law to
case of “probable contact” with an hand the device – government
infected individual.) This small, property – over to the authorities.
white plastic square fits in the
palm of your hand and can be tied Critics argue that in a
to a lanyard to be worn around the quasi-authoritarian democracy
neck; it has an impressive battery with a high degree of acceptance
life of six to nine months and a QR of state surveillance there
code on its back that is scanned may be longer-term scope for abuse
at a venue’s entrance. Its solid of tracing mechanisms, and that
physical presence, compared with a widening net of data collection
a fiddlier app, makes for much on the population is worrisome.
easier check-ins. Almost 55,000 people have
signed a petition rejecting the
10 token because of privacy concerns.

But back in downtown
Singapore, the seniors having
the least trouble entering the
supermarket were those using
tokens. A 69-year-old woman
told me the device simplified
matters since she did not own a
smartphone and would rather not
use her ID card for fear of losing
it. “I don’t know how to scan
things,” she said.

Whether one supports the
move to make TraceTogether
an omnipresent tech or not, the
island nation will at least give
seniors a way to keep making
trips to the supermarket.
Stefania Palma is the FT’s
Singapore correspondent

FT.COM/MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 21/22 2020



The race to find an effective TIMHARFORD be badly disrupted. If there is a
vaccine appears to be on fight to allocate syringes, vials
the home straight. The THE UNDERCOVER or other hitherto overlooked
same cannot be said of ECONOMIST components in the supply chain,
the race to roll it out everywhere. I worry that we have made few
Preparing to present a BBC radio The vaccine preservation this year. That’s a friends in the past four years. FRAN MONKS
series titled How to Vaccinate the obstacle problem, because dry ice is also
World, I’ve been looking at the route course useful for keeping vaccines cold. And even if there is nothing to
ahead. It is less of a marathon, • Logistics. In a major and worry about except a queue at the
more of an assault course. ‘It’s often the simple stuff underappreciated miracle, more border, the Pfizer vaccine is going
that trips us up. There are than 85 per cent of children to be manufactured in Belgium and
So, in no particular order, reports of a shortage of are now fully vaccinated Germany and, remember, needs
here is a brief guide to some of dry ice, which is useful for against diphtheria, tetanus and to be stored at a temperature of
the obstacles that remain. keeping vaccines cold’ pertussis. Rates of vaccination for -70C. Calais can get cold in January
• Efficacy (1). Do these vaccines tuberculosis, polio, hepatitis B and but it doesn’t get that cold.
– of which there are more than a measles are similarly impressive. • Crowd control. It would be
hundred in prospect and about a So the cold chain needed to nice if each vaccine were stored
dozen in last-stage development maintain many vaccines, which in a single-dose pack. A patient
– actually work? The recent is the temperature of a beer could stroll up to a clinic and
announcements that the Pfizer/ fridge, is well established. We get vaccinated at a convenient
BioNTech vaccine appears to even have cold chains developed moment. But the ultra-cold
be 95 per cent effective and the to support the distribution of the chain will rely on fancy “thermal
Moderna one almost the same are polio vaccine, which needs to shippers” storing a thousand
very encouraging and bode well for be kept at -20C, a temperature doses or more; each glass vial
other vaccines. The good news from achievable by a domestic freezer. will contain five or 10 doses.
Pfizer may be even better than it But the new Pfizer/BioNTech Break the seal on a big batch of
appears – reading between the lines, vaccine needs to be kept at vaccines and you’re going to want
some statisticians speculate that -70C. This ultra-cold chain will a large number of people coming
the efficacy is closer to 97 per cent. not be trivial to maintain. through the door in short order.
• Brexit. I don’t want to kill the Getting socially distanced people
But the fact that every nerd mood but the advisers surrounding in the right place at the right
in the world is trying to reverse- UK prime minister Boris Johnson time for their shots, especially
engineer the actual numbers have been fighting like rats in in rural areas, may not be easy.
behind Pfizer’s press release is cause a barrel. They seem woefully • Paperwork. Most of the serious
for concern. It’s understandable underprepared for – or perhaps vaccine candidates require two
that the announcement came by indifferent to – the prospect of a doses. Not only do we have to figure
press release rather than a peer- no-deal Brexit on New Year’s Day. out who is getting vaccinated when,
reviewed paper; the news was just but we need to get them back again
too big to be kept secret while drafts The chemicals industry is for a second dose 21 days later.
were circulated. But more data seriously worried that cross- If this sounds like it shouldn’t be
should have been released sooner. border transfers of pharmaceutical too much trouble for a modern
• Production lines. A vaccine is drugs and other chemicals will healthcare system to handle,
one of the most complex products then I have an obsolete version
in the world to produce, and the of Microsoft Excel to sell you.
process of scaling up from tens • Efficacy (3). How long does
of thousands of doses for a trial immunity last? Having to vaccinate
to hundreds of millions for mass the entire planet every six months
vaccination is not a trivial one. would be quite a performance. Let’s
• Efficacy (2). Will these vaccines hope the vaccine works for a longer
make people less infectious or period than that, but for obvious
will they simply prevent severe reasons it is far too early to tell.
illness? Either would be good, • The Donald. Yes, him. Trump
but preventing the spread of was prominent in spreading the
infection would be ideal. The false idea that vaccines cause
Pfizer press release leaves us autism, but last year changed
guessing for now. Since the Sars- his tune, urging people “to get
Cov-2 virus accumulates in the the shots”. Would an embittered
upper respiratory tract before Trump, eager to spite his successor
causing symptoms, there is a and win attention for his future
real risk that vaccines will not media or political career, become
prevent people from spreading a prominent anti-vaxxer again? To
the virus even if they are largely ask the question is to answer it.
immune to the disease.
• Missing links. Earlier in the Don’t be depressed about this
pandemic, testing capacity was far from exhaustive list. It is a
limited by the availability of miracle that, less than a year after
suitable swabs. It’s often the simple the virus was sequenced, we seem
stuff that trips us up. There were to have two effective vaccines
fears of a shortage of glass vials, and many more on the way. I am
but this was predicted and is excited and optimistic. But this
being addressed. But now trade story has a few twists in it yet.
publication Gasworld reports an Tim Harford’s new book is
“acute” shortage of dry ice, thanks “How to Make the World Add Up”
to increased demand for food
FT.COM/MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 21/22 2020
1 2 ILLUSTRATION BY CLAIRE MERCHLINSKY



THE FT’S FINANCIAL LITERACY AND INCLUSION CAMPAIGN

MMAOTNTEERYS
Being financially literate is important at the
best of times – and now a post-Covid
economic crisis is looming. Yet levels of
understanding about how to save, stay out
of debt and avoid being ripped off remain
worryingly low. Patrick Jenkins says it’s time
to act – and wants FT readers to join him

Illustrations by Nathalie Lees

14 FT.COM/MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 21/22 2020





FT.COM/MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 21/22 2020 15

G rowing up in a just-about-managing former market The fallout will hit every demographic. To my
town on the fringes of the south Wales valleys, with shame, I haven’t been back to Brynteg School
a music teacher dad and a psychologist mum, there in Bridgend in the 33 years since I left. But even
weren’t many signs to suggest I would develop an with the restrictions of a Welsh circuit-breaker
interest in finance. Then, for my 16th birthday, lockdown, I was determined to find out what the
my father gave me a present: £100-worth of BT current generation of students felt about their
shares on the occasion of the telecoms group’s financial futures.
Thatcherite privatisation. For months afterwards,
I would check the share-price pages of The Daily The video call proves a challenge – the classroom
Telegraph, my parents’ paper of choice. If the stock laptop is playing up and mask-wearing students are
was up a ½ pence, I would rejoice that I was now £1 hard to hear. But I get the gist. Lauren asks if she
better off. should be worriedabout student loans. Theowants
tips to get on the housing ladder.
Primitive stuff. And yet that early interest has
taken me to my current job as the Financial Times’ All of these A-level students seem concerned
deputy editor. Financial literacy has been the about the economic effects of coronavirus and
cornerstone of my career. Brexit. Financial literacy is theoretically part
of the school curriculum across the UK nowadays,
The contrast between my professional life and but in practice it is patchy – as in much of the
my early years, as well as the stark gap between world. The questions from the Brynteg students
haves and have-nots in northeast London where are smart. But without the mass-market share
I live, are among the factors that have encour- privatisations of the 1980s, there is even less to
aged me to try to make a difference. In the coming engage this generation in the practicalities of basic
months, the FT is going to establish its first ever personal finance.
charitable foundation, the Financial Literacy and
Inclusion Campaign. Young people, like those in my old school, make
up one of the disenfranchised constituencies of
We no longer live in a world of paternalistic society on which our financial literacy foundation
employers, nanny states and friendly bank manag- plans to focus. Among the others are disadvantaged
ers. The shift towards a myriad choice of financial black and minority ethnic (Bame) communities,
products, self-determined retirement planning migrants and women. All have been shown by
and sometimes unscrupulous companies that seek academic research to fall below average levels
to exploit us has made it steadily more important of understanding in basic finance, increasing
for all of us to have a firm grasp of basic finance. the likelihood that they will be unable to budget
Your mobile phone contract might be great value efficiently, will get into unsustainable debt or
or a horrible rip-off. Your credit score can rule your will be open to exploitation. The FT’s charitable
life unless you understand its mysteries. These foundation will produce a series of educational
would be reasons enough for the FT to be launch- videos and other material and collaborate with
ing this initiative. existing charities to distribute them in the UK
and around the world. Readers will be invited to
But now feels like an especially important junc- contribute both financially and as volunteers to
ture to be doing so. Financial misery has already help promote the cause.
engulfed many people amid the economic fallout
from the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns Andy Haldane, the Bank of England’s chief
that have accompanied it. The IMF predicts global economist and vice-chair of the National Numer-
gross domestic product will fall 4.4 per cent this acy charity that promotes everyday maths skills,
year, with Spain, Italy, France and the UK suffer- believes the FT should be able to channel financial
ingdeclines of 10percentor more. Unemployment expertise, particularly that of the City of London,
is forecast to peak at 8 per cent in the US and the for the greater good. “What a shame it is that we
advanced economies of Europe. Financial stress have a huge repository of financial literacy in
is sure to spike again once government aid pro- one tiny part of the country and huge need for it
grammes shrink and job losses spiral. everywhere else,” he says. We hope to spread some
of that knowledge.
Catherine McGuinness, policy chief at For Catherine McGuinness, policy chief at the
the City of London Corporation, says City of London Corporation, the scale of the current
better financial understanding is ‘vital’ economic crisis will highlight the gaps in people’s
financial understanding as well as exacerbat-
ing their problems. “At a time when national and
personal finances are taking a hit, it’s more impor-
tantthan ever that people understand complicated
concepts such as interest rates and inflation,” she
says. “If we’re to have a sustainable recovery it is
vital that people… understand how their financial
decisions will affect them over the short, medium
and long term.”

A huge number of households around the world
have low levels of financial cushioning to absorb
the coming stress, according to the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
In a 2020 survey of 26 countries, it found that only
in Hong Kong did a majority of the population
report having rainy-day savings that would last
them for more than six months. In seven countries,
including Russia, Romania and Indonesia, a
majority of people had savings that would sustain

1 6 FT.COM/MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 21/22 2020

‘Armies of people leave school them for only a week or less, or did not know.
knowing their trigonometry without The US and UK did not participate in the study.
ever using it again. Perhaps the
building blocks of how mortgages, Understanding budgeting and borrowing costs
credit cards, insurance and pensions is particularly important in lean times. The OECD
work might be more useful’ found that three-quarters of those surveyed across
the 26 countries could not calculate simple and
Anne Richards, chief executive Fidelity International compound interest correctly.The dataalso showed
that more than a third of people reported spending
FT.COM/MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 21/22 2020 more than they earned in the previous 12 months.
Even in rich economies such as Germany, Italy
and Hong Kong, about one in five people had a
financial shortfall over the year. The OECD report
predicted that the added pressures of the Covid-19
crisis would put “a severe test on individuals’
financial resilience”. Last month the organisa-
tion announced, as part of its Covid-19 recovery
package, that it was redoubling efforts to promote
financial literacy, with a particular focus on women
and young migrants.

“In the Covid crisis, young people have been
more impacted by over-indebtedness,” says Flore-
Anne Messy, executive secretary of the OECD’s
International Network on Financial Education.
“Young people also have lower levels of financial
literacy. This is especially concerning in areas such
as decision-making on credit.” Companies such as
Klarna in Europe, Ant in China and PayPal every-
where make it easy, but often expensive, to rack
up debt via point-of-sale credit when shopping
online – a particular temptation for the smart-
phone generation.

Diane Maxwell, a former banker who led a
national financial literacy programme in New Zea-
land, says engaging people who are frightened of
finance is key. “We developed a series of short films
featuring Ken and Barbie puppets. They were a
huge hit. Done right, financial capability educa-
tion can help cut crime and problem gambling and
foster financial independence.” The benefits go
beyond our bank balances: some of the people who
accessed Maxwell’s programme lost weight and
quit smoking as their financial pressures eased.

Where better to start such financial education
than in our schools? Anne Richards, chief executive
of investment giant Fidelity International, worked
at the Cern nuclear research centre before moving
into finance. But she believes that real-world
money maths is likely to be far more useful to most
people than the abstruse mathematical concepts
taught in the classroom.

“There are armies of people who left school
knowing their SOHCAHTOA [trigonometry
mnemonic] and how to find a first derivative, never
to use them again,” she says. “Perhaps teaching
children and young students the building blocks
of how mortgages, credit cards, insurance and
pensions work through the basic tools of statistics,
risk pooling, compound interest and the like might
be… more useful for the majority.”
Clapton Girls’ Academy in east London is rated
“outstanding” by the Ofsted school inspection ser-
vice. Its cluster of buildings in the heart ofHackney
melds austere Edwardian with modern glass and
steel; this state school has good facilities and a sound
academic record. But achievement is not a given: it
has a high intake of students from disadvantaged
backgrounds and some don’t speak English as a
first language. When it comes to financial literacy,
the girls at CGA are fighting the statistical averages
all the more – as young people, as women and, in
many cases, as members of Bame communities. ▶

17

◀ Some are already having to deal with financial The ‘Big Three’ financial literacy questions
realities beyond their years. Anna Feltham, the
headteacher, says the issues are far more immedi- 30 per cent of Americans, 25 per cent of Italians and 53 per cent of Germans answered
ate than you might imagine. “Some of our 15- and all three of these correctly. Can you? (Answers on page 20)
16-year-olds are even having to manage rent and
mortgage issues because they are English-speak- 1 Suppose you had $100 2 Imagine that the interest 3 Is this statement true
ers and their parents aren’t.” in a savings account and the rate on your savings account or false? “Buying a single
interest rate was 2 per cent was 1 per cent per year company’s stock usually
Fatou, who is 17 and a pupil in Year 12, studying per year. After five years, how and inflation was 2 per cent provides a safer return
for a qualification in health and social care, is much do you think you would per year. After one year, than a stock mutual fund.”
typical of many her age in being unfamiliar have in the account if you how much would you be
with the core concepts of personal finance. She left the money to grow? able to buy with the money • True
admits, for example, to being uncomfortable with in this account? • False
percentages and interest rates. But she knows • More than $102 • Do not know
one thing – in line with her Muslim heritage and • Exactly $102 • More than today
sharia restrictions on interest-bearing debt, she • Less than $102 • Exactly the same
is concerned about borrowing. “Getting into debt • Do not know • Less than today
can ruin your life,” she says. “When my mum • Do not know
and dad came here from Gambia, they were very
careful. Personally, I think it’s not good to take out SOURCE: LUSARDI AND MITCHELL
a loan. What if you can’t pay it back? You get into
poverty and it stresses you out.” BLOOMBERG, AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, CARLOS IBARRA-RIVADENEIRA

Fatou says she has seen friends and acquaint-
ances get into just that kind of fix thanks to
preoccupations with how they look and what they
wear, fuelled by social media: “A lot of people get
so much in debt because they want to dress in
designer stuff like they see on Instagram. Either
that or they try to make quick money from doing
something illegal.”

Fatou’s savviness about spendthrift consumer-
ism is striking but her antipathy to debt might have
a downside too: without student loans, a university
education is impossible in many countries these
days. “Taking out a loan is one of the things that
scares me about going to college – having to pay for
accommodation and getting into debt,” she says.

This is exactly the kind of concern that deters
many poorer students from going to university. In
2017, UCL academics Claire Callender and Geoff
Mason published intricate research concluding
that “lower-class” students were “far more likely”
than students from other social classes to spurn
higher education “because of fear of debt”. That
instinct was higher than when previous research
was done in 2002, in line with an increase in tuition
fees and the prospective debt burden.

In the UK, unlike in some countries, the terms
of student loans are at least designed to be reassur-
ing: you only have to repay anything once you’re
earning more than £26,575 a year – and then only
at a rate of 9 per cent of any excess earnings. If you
still have any outstanding debt after 30 years, it is
wiped out automatically. But this message is clearly
failing to get through, with damaging implications
for social mobility. These students are ripe for
financial literacy education.
Money headaches cannot necessarily be solved
by financial education – but knowledge can help
enormously. When Annamaria Lusardi was grow-
ing up in the market town of Carpaneto, midway
between Milan and Bologna, she remembers
trailing into the town square every Wednesday
morning. Her mother would beetle off to do the
food shopping. She would stay in the square with
her dad, a vintner, as he negotiated deals with
all-comers.

“Nobody saw the little girl with pigtails and a
flowery dress holding the hand of a young man in a
business suit, but I spent those Wednesday morn-
ings with my nose up observing people shaking
hands, writing cheques, whispering numbers,” she

1 8 FT.COM/MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 21/22 2020

From top: Annamaria Lusardi, who writes in the introduction to her forthcoming book, 75%
heads the Global Financial Literacy Financial Literacy: A Vision For the Future.
Excellence Center at The George Three-quarters of people surveyed
Washington University School of It was that early familiarisation with finance – across 26 countries could not
Business; Andy Haldane, chief combined with the rarity of it among women in her calculate simple and compound
economist at the Bank of England, patriarchal homecountry –that inspired Lusardi to interest correctly…
who says there is a ‘huge need’ devote her working life to studying and promoting
for the expertise concentrated in financial literacy. In a paper last year, Lusardi, who +1/3
the City of London to be shared now heads the Global Financial Literacy Excellence
across the UK and around the world Center at The George Washington University School … while more than a third spent more
of Business, wrote of the “near-crisis levels of finan- than they earned in the past year
cial illiteracy” around the world, with low levels of
understanding even in advanced economies with M ore obviously disadvantaged are
sophisticated financial markets. (To Lusardi’s cha- the swaths of refugees, asylum
grin, Italy routinely scores worse than almost any seekers and migrant workers
other developed country, especially for women.) across our globalised world. Many
migrants struggle financially,with
While insufficient income is clearly the genesis inescapable vulnerabilities some-
of poverty, gaps in basic financial knowledge com- times worsened by gaps in basic
pound the issue considerably. Lusardi says her financial literacy. Jennifer Blair,
research showed almost half of the costs paid out co-lead of legal protection at the
on credit card debt in the US, for example, were Helen Bamber Foundation, which
“due to ignorance” of charging structures and the supports refugees who have suf-
impactof compound interest.“Financial literacyis fered extreme cruelty, sees this
a shield against shocks,” she says. regularly. “Refugees often lack the wherewithal to
cope in society. Survivors of human trafficking, for
Lusardi’s specialist subject is women and the example, may have no understanding of what life
financial literacy gap with men. Women’s income costs here. One former client got a water bill. She
will typically be more volatile and they are likely to said: ‘What? You have to pay for water?’”
live longer than men, making financial knowledge
all the more important. Yet, in a recent research Michael Gilmore, a financier based in Singa-
study, she found women knew less on every topic pore who works with local migrants in his spare
in a series of 28 questions on eight different areas time, believes in harnessing entrepreneurial
of finance. In the US, if you are a woman, young instincts to help: “At weekends, I teach basic entre-
and from an ethnic minority, you are in the worst preneurship to migrant workers from Indonesia
possible situation when it comes to understand- and elsewhere,” he says. The first lesson is about
ing finance: that is the vortex. “Women are left the power of saving. So important is it that he has
behind,” she says simply. And the Covid-19 crisis developed a whole saving and investment theory,
has made matters worse: McKinsey estimates that the “Seven Dollar Millionaire”, to explain how com-
around the world women are 1.8 times more likely pound interest, combined with a $7 daily savings
than men to lose their jobs in this downturn. habit, can yield $1,000 in six months and $1m in
50 years, assuming a 7 per cent annual return. This,
“It’s about empowerment,” says Lusardi. “We he says, is crucial financial literacy in practice. “No
owe it to women, who are bearing the brunt of this one thinks about being financially literate per se.
crisis, to make sure they are equipped with the But they do want to be financially secure, to not be
financial knowledge to recover.” But, she stresses, in debt and misery.”
the mission must be far broader than that: liter-
acy in finance, like literacy in language, must be On a damp autumn day in Wales, mist hangs
instilled in any community that lacks it. “It’s about over the seaside cliffs and gentle hills that flank
basic knowledge, knowing your ABC of finance,” the Pembrokeshire village of Penally. In this over-
Lusardi concludes. “And knowledge really is power. whelmingly white corner of the UK, hunkered
That’s true for everyone.” down among the picturesque countryside, sit the
old Nissen huts and barbed wire fences of Penally
‘Women are being left behind. We owe it Military Camp. The soldiers are long gone. But the
to women, who are bearing the brunt camp is back in use, penning in more than 200
of this crisis, to make sure they are asylum seekers who were moved here in Septem-
equipped with the financial knowledge ber from elsewhere in the country.
to recover. Knowledge really is power’
Volunteers who have liaised closely with the
Annamaria Lusardi, George Washington University Eritreans, Kurds, Somalis, Iranians and Iraqis
School of Business who were rehoused here say the setting is totally
inappropriate. “These are victims of torture, rape
survivorswhomayhavebeenthroughabduction,”▶

FT.COM/MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 21/22 2020 19

4.4% ◀ says Blair. Some had been forced into military year – morphing overnight from property-owning
service. Many have PTSD. “They get woken from middle-class Venezuelans into survivors of bread-
The amount the IMF predicts where they’re being accommodated in the middle line Britain. They subsisted for months on the
global GDP will fall this year of the night and driven to an old military camp statutory allowance, which today runs to £39.63
surrounded by barbed wire.” Military exercises a week (up 3p since October). After paying for
£39.63 and army shooting practice take place across the pricey internet and a £20 weekly bus pass, Ibarra-
road. It all makes the trauma come flooding back, Rivadeneira says he had barely £1 a day to live on.
The amount asylum seekers in the say the volunteers. “I needed the WiFi and the bus pass to make pro-
UK are given to live on per week gress. But sometimes it was that rather than eating.”
Abdul (not his real name), a former asylum
Former asylum seeker Carlos Ibarra- seeker from Somalia who now works at the camp, Getting by as an asylum seeker is hard enough.
Rivadeneira lived for months on £1 a day insists it’s not so bad. “The guys here have got food But as many migrants will attest, the biggest hur-
after paying for WiFi and a bus pass: and accommodation. It could be better. If you dles – both societally and financially – come after
‘While you’re waiting for refugee status, offeredthem £10,000they’dbehappy.Butit’sOK.” securing asylum. “While you’re waiting for refugee
you’re in a cushion. Then suddenly it’s status, you’re in a cushion,” says Ibarra-Rivade-
like parachuting without a parachute’ Abdul’s allusion to a dream windfall of money is neira.“Then suddenlyit’slikeparachutingwithout
a throwaway phrase. But it reflects a crucial point. a parachute.” The issue lies in understanding the
While some tabloid newspapers portray British financial infrastructure of a new country, as much
asylum seekers as scroungers and criminals, the as understanding finance. Navigating the benefits
bald truth is that once the basic human rights of system has been particularly difficult. “This is a
food and accommodation have been met, the real- painful process. It’s a gap. Not many organisations
ity for many will be financial stress. are focused on helping you understand this or cope
with the transition,” he says. Having volunteered
Fabio Apollonio at the British Red Cross says during his asylum-seeking period, when paid work
that, as a migrant with no financial history, it can be is banned, he managed to secure a temporary sup-
particularly hard to establish yourself in a modern port-worker job at a charity once his refugee status
data-dominated economy. “Our identities these was granted. The coronavirus squeeze means he
days are defined by what you buy and how you pay now works just one day a week.
for it. That’s something that refugees don’t have.”
“I never imagined becoming an asylum seeker,” As a result, Ibarra-Rivadeneira is perilously
says Carlos Ibarra-Rivadeneira, speaking by Zoom behind on paying his fees for his masters degree in
from his spartan flat in Swansea, 30 miles along the psychology. Yet despite everything, he is optimistic
coast from Penally – and 4,500 miles from home. about his medium-term goals. “In five years or
Pre-migration, the softly spoken Venezualan had less, I will maybe have some savings, I will apply
spent years training young people in everything for a mortgage and I will buy a house. I want to be
from self-development to democracy awareness, practising as a professional counsellor, I will have set
and was used to putting up with intimidation from up my own business.” Financial literacy can provide
loyalists to the hardline socialist government. “But a springboard for refugees not only to survive
then I suffered three attacks. I was beaten against straitened times, but also to thrive as entrepreneurs
the floor with bats and sticks. Two motorbikers and make the economy of their host nation more
accused me of being a traitor. There was another dynamic in the process. “Many migrants have had
attack with firearms. After that we decided we had to fight hard to get where they’ve got,” saysMaurice
to leave.” A plan to fly to Rome was ditched spon- Wren, chief executive of the Refugee Council. “They
taneously during a stopover at Heathrow. “We are by definition entrepreneurial.”
arrived at 5pm and by 2am we were leaving the air-
port as registered asylum seekers.” Everyone has gaps in their financial knowledge.
But for migrants and others who are socio-econom-
Thus the teacher-turned-life-coach, his wife ically disadvantaged, as well as for many women
and two just-grown-up children began the task of and young people, those gaps are significant. Filling
rebuilding their lives. They joined the 30,000 or them in will help avert individual misery, maxim-
so migrants who apply for asylum in Britain every ise individual potential and boost economies.

‘Refugees often lack the wherewithal The FT’s financial literacy foundation is in the Answers 1 More than $102 2 Less than today 3 False
to cope in society. Survivors of early stages of development but the momentum
trafficking, for example, have no is picking up. We have a shadow board of trus-
idea of what life costs here. One tees and a shadow advisory board. I have been
client got a water bill. She said: delighted by the enthusiasm for the project shown
‘What? You have to pay for water?’” by many experts in finance and financial literacy.
A dozen or so of my oldest contacts have been gen-
Jennifer Blair, Helen Bamber Foundation erous enough to pledge seed funding, alongside the
FT itself, sufficient to finance our start-up. Once
the charity is established, readers will be invited
to back the foundation by donating their money,
time and expertise. To reach all the constituencies
around the world that need help will be a vast chal-
lenge. But if faith in capitalism and finance is to be
restored, amid the second global economic crisis in
little more than a decade, it is vital that we try.

The FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion
Campaign is in the process of being set
up as a charitable foundation.
To register your interest in helping,
donating or collaborating, please email
[email protected]

20 FT.COM/MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 21/22 2020



WHAT
ERDOGAN’S

FAMILY
DRAMA
TELLS US
ABOUT
TURKEY

Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) and his son-in-law Berat Albayrak at a rally in 2017
22

As the president’s son-in-law, finance minister Berat Albayrak was once
considered heir to Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But his shock resignation earlier
this month, following months of economic turbulence, has shaken the ruling

party, raising questions about Erdogan’s own future. Laura Pitel reports

23

W destructively. Those are things that you shouldn’t Esra Erdogan and Berat Albayrak at their wedding in 2004
have in functioning democracies.”
hen Berat Albayrak was asked earlier this year daughter, Sumeyye, could become a paid adviser.
about his relationship with his father-in-law, The fact that the country is reeling from a gov- “He didn’t like those false reports,” he says. “At the
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the ernment bust-up that was also a family drama is time, he seemed reluctant to appoint family mem-
young finance minister was gushing. Their bond a source of anger and shame for some who once bers to such positions.”
was not about politics, he told the state broadcaster worked alongside Erdogan – and a sign, they say,
TRT, adding: “The relationship is about an ideal, of how the country has changed during his time Former senior officials from the AKP complain
about soul.” at its helm. that, as Erdogan racked up a series of electoral tri-
umphs and faced an array of threats to his hold on
Six months later, after his shock resignation “In normal democracies, everybody talks about power, his style of leadership changed. He grew
on November 8, that relationship – and Albay- cabinet quarrels, political struggles, party strug- bolder, more domineering and less willing to hold
rak’s political career – appears to have gone up gles,” says a former government official. “But what internal debates. Over time, those traits became
in flames. Like his friend Jared Kushner, the son- is happening here is that we are discussing family interlaced with paranoia and fear. “There was a
in-law and senior adviser of Donald Trump, who matters. What kind of a country are we?” slow evolution of both the party and of Erdogan,”
will soon be forced to leave the White House, the Erdogan is a populist firebrand who has ruled says one person who has known him for decades.
42-year-old now finds himself out of a job. over the country of 83 million people for almost
20 years while taking it down an ever-more author- In 2013, the country was rocked by the huge
The abrupt departure of the second most itarianpath.The ascent of his son-in-law took place Gezi Park protests, when millions took to the
powerful man in the Turkish government in parallel with the steady consolidation of power streets across Turkey shouting “Tayyip, resign!”
has triggered a shake-up in the country’s eco- by the Turkish leader. In the early years, the AKP, Months later, Erdogan’s inner circle was targeted
nomic management after months of mounting which Erdogan co-founded in 2001, represented by a corruption probe spearheaded by former
alarm about a plunge in the lira and plummeting broad views. Though the former mayor of Istanbul’s allies who had turned against him. The prime min-
foreign currency reserves. It has also stunned Tur- roots were in Islamist politics, he sought to present ister, who had long feared the Turkish military
key’s political elite, many of whom believed that his party as pluralistic, pro-European and business- and the country’s notorious “deep state”, called it
Erdogan was grooming his influential and widely a “coup attempt” and grew convinced that he was
resented son-in-law as his political heir in the Jus- ‘BERAT REPRESENTED under siege from a murky alliance of domestic and
tice and Development Party (AKP). “If you were a THE ULTIMATE POWER. international foes. “I think that, finally, he thought
[ruling party] member of parliament, Berat rep- there was no one to trust except his family,” adds
resented the ultimate power. He was alpha and HE WAS ALPHA AND the long-time friend.
omega,” says a former AKP MP. “Now he doesn’t OMEGA. NOW HE DOESN’T
exist… It’s over.” In the years that followed, many of the old
EXIST… IT’S OVER’ allies who had held top government positions
Albayrak’s stratospheric rise – and dramatic fall were either sidelined or quit. Abdullah Gul, a
– is as much a story about how Turkey has changed A FORMER AKP MP co-founder of the AKP who served as president
under Erdogan’s watch as it is about the man until 2014, retreated after Erdogan took the
himself. “It’s very emblematic of an authoritarian friendly by drawing party officials and members of job. Ali Babacan, who ran the economy during
country,” says Daron Acemoglu, a Turkish-born parliament from across Turkish society. its heyday in the 2000s and led Turkey’s (so far
professor at MIT and co-author of Why Nations unsuccessful) negotiations to join the EU, left the
Fail. “Because of his father-in-law’s position, he The AKP, which swept away the old order when cabinet in 2015. Ahmet Davutoglu, who served
was able to be very influential and build a team it won an outright majority in elections in 2002, two years as prime minister, quit in 2016 after
around him that acted autonomously and very was never trusted by some of Turkey’s secularists clashing with the president. Mehmet Simsek,
and leftists. But it won support from the country’s a respected former Merrill Lynch banker who
Erdogan at a political rally as mayor of Istanbul in 1994 poor, conservative underclasses, in part by lifting struggled against Erdogan’s wishes as deputy
a ban on wearing the headscarf that had deterred prime minister, left politics two years later.
observant young Muslim women from attend-
ing university. It gained plaudits from Kurdish Many of these figures were known for speak-
voters by easing curbs on the use of the Kurdish ing their mind to Erdogan and acted as a
language and, later, launching talks to end a dec- counterweight within the AKP. Without them, the
ades-long conflict between the Turkish state and president himself became more and more central
Kurdish militants. The economy boomed, and the to the party and the state. This intensified after the
AKP invested in infrastructure and overhauled defining moment of his leadership – a violent July
the country’s healthcare system. Foreign direct 2016 attempted coup where tanks mowed down
investment reached a peak of $19bn in 2007. civilians and fighter jets dropped bombs near the
presidential palace as a rogue faction within the
Erdogan’s family members were visible at this military sought to topple him by force.
time, occasionally accompanying the then prime
minister on trips or appearing at public events. But
they were not seen as a vital part of government
decision making. Suat Kiniklioglu, a former ruling
party MP, remembers that Erdogan balked at
media speculation 10 years ago that his youngest

24 FT.COM/MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 21/22 2020