The Guardian UK - 03 Oktober 2022

•

The Guardian 7
Monday 3 October 2022

were young and funny’

Palin on Do Not Adjust Your Set. all the laughs, thanks for all the With George
“He’d been sent to us by Cleese, fun you brought and those silly Harrison in
oddly. Mike and Jonesy were not photographs.” He starts to well up 1975; (top) in
impressed. I said: ‘No, he’s got again, and stops. “Ugh. It makes me Life of Brian;
something about him.’ I don’t go. Sorry. Yeah, I still miss Robin. (below) with
know why I said it, and we let him And George has been gone a long Robin Williams
into the gang. He couldn’t write but time but I really miss him.” in 2001
he did brilliant animations, and
that gave Jonesy the idea that the I ask if he’s still friends with ‘You’re an insane narcissist; you
second Python series should be King Charles, as he appeared to be have no business being in charge
linked by animations.” in the 00s. “No, I’m not. I’ve not of a teapot.’ They are undiagnosed
seen him since his 60th birthday monsters, that’s the problem.”
He adored Python’s anarchic when I appeared with the English
defiance. “Anything would go. National Ballet.” He stops and And now he’s on to Britain.
They’d say: ‘You can’t do that’, so corrects himself. “I might have met “I had dinner with Jeffrey Archer
we’d think: ‘Let’s do that, then.’ him since at Billy Connolly’s, but last night and he said: ‘She
We were in a cab in New York going it’s been a while since those days. won’t last long.’” Truss? “Yeah.
to get a picture taken by Richard He’d come over for dinner and I like Jeffrey. He’s very funny;
Avedon and we said: ‘Well, what we’d rip his ass, and he just loved it. a wonderful gossip.”
are we going to do?’ One of us said: He just loved it. Imagine you’ve got
‘Well, we’re not taking our clothes sycophantic people around you all If Idle was living in the UK,
off, for starters’, and of course we day and now a bunch of comedians would he prefer to pay 45% tax
had to do that immediately.” are ripping you apart. It must feel rather than 40%? “45% always,” he
so healthy finally.” says. (He admits he balked when he
There are only four Pythons was paying 83%.) “The Tories are
left now. Chapman died of cancer As he says, though, his job just paying back their supporters.
at 48; Jones from complications has always been to poke the I was happy that the pound
of dementia at 77. Who is Idle establishment rather than pander dropped in reaction to that. Two
closest to nowadays? “I’m not to it. Which is just what he does on weeks in, they’re already talking
particularly close to any of them. his Twitter feed. He’s terrified at the about a vote of confidence.”
Michael is always the first to thought of Donald Trump winning
write a sweet letter if he finds out a second term as president. “If he He tells me more about the
you’ve been through a few things gets to run again I don’t know what dinner with Archer. “We were all
because he genuinely is like that. will happen. We’ve gone back to the cancer survivors at the table, and
But I don’t think of it like we were time of the dictators.” There’s only one thing Jeffrey said last night
one solution, he says. “You need was that in 30 years people will
Hmates. We were colleagues and to have presidential candidates no longer die from cancer. And I
subject to psychological testing. thought: that’s my goal.”
there’s a huge difference.”
Robin Williams We catch up a couple of days
is closest was just a great later, after his appearance with
friend in comedy was Robin friend. I loved Cox, where he sang The Galaxy
Williams, who he says was the most him. I never Song. How did it go? “It was
naturally funny man he has known. expected to fabulous. Great fun. There were
“He was just a great mate. I loved out-survive him 7,000 people there.” Has it given
him. We’d go on holidays together. him confidence to go back on stage?
I never expected to out-survive “Just with Brian Cox!”
him. I couldn’t believe it when I
heard he’d died.” At the time, in It was only after receiving the
2014, Idle was performing live with recent good news from his doctor
a reformed Monty Python. “We that Idle went public about the
were putting a celebrity on stage in cancer. He decided it was time to
a mask and then unmasking them. campaign, to tell people that there
I asked if he’d come to the last night is hope. “That’s why I came out
and do that for us. And he said: ‘I about it. I wanted to say: ‘Look,
don’t want to be on stage.’ That I was very lucky and I survived.
should have been the clue for me – And so can you.’ I’ve heard from so
Robin not wanting to be on stage. many people how much that meant
Then shortly afterwards we heard to them. And that chokes me up.
the tragic news.” Williams, who had That makes me cry.” He pauses.
an undiagnosed condition called “If there is a more appropriate
Lewy body dementia, took his own song for me than Always Look on
life. “Robin had this awful disease the Bright Side of Life, I’d like to
that nobody knew about till after know about it.”
he’d gone. It makes you completely In the UK, Samaritans can be
paranoid. His wife would leave the contacted on 116 123 or by emailing
room and he’d think: ‘She’s having [email protected]. You can contact
an affair.’ Horrible.” the mental health charity Mind by
calling 0300 123 3393 or visiting
Williams’s family asked Idle to mind.org.uk
speak at his memorial. He couldn’t
face it, so he wrote a song for him.
Does he remember the lyrics?
“Goodnight, Robin, thanks for

• The Guardian
Monday 3 October 2022
8 Arts

‘Folk music is
sexy and filthy
and at the end
of the night
you fall over’

She was the pink-haired fiddler who

punked up folk – but Covid almost

sunk her and her famous family. Eliza

Carthy tells Dave Simpson about the
healing power of boozy, bawdy musicat me and just said: ‘The children

are going to be safe. The house is
going to be safe.’ And that’s the
first time we’d felt like that for a
decade.” She reaches for a tissue, to
wipe away the tears rolling down
her face. “I’m sorry,” she says, “but

A it’s been really hard.”
t the start We’re sitting in the kitchen ‘We were looking
at selling our
of this year, things did not look of their congenially cluttered instruments’
... Carthy
good for the Waterson-Carthy folk family home in Robin Hood’s in Whitby

dynasty. It was, as Eliza Carthy Bay, a fishing village on the North Someone
accused me
put it, “struggling to survive”. Yorkshire coast. At the back door, of trading on
my youth and
Her mother, the celebrated singer her 81-year-old father – who beauty. I was
like: You wot?
Norma Waterson, had been unable influenced Bob Dylan and taught

to tour for a decade after falling Paul Simon to play Scarborough

into a coma that left her having Fair – is feeding chickens. Carthy

to re-learn how to walk and talk. moved back in 2011, becoming

She’d never returned to full health a “part-time carer and single

and had recently been hospitalised mum”, as well as running her own

with pneumonia. Meanwhile, band. On the wall are posters for

Covid lockdowns had deprived the NormaFest, the festival she set up

MBE-awarded Eliza and her father, in 2015 so her mother could at least

the revered singer-songwriter perform locally. “She was a classic

Martin Carthy, of their means of matriarch – loving but firm,” says a modern world, fusing traditional you fall over. And that’s how I like PHOTOGRAPHS: WENN/ALAMY; CHRISTOPHER THOMOND/THE GUARDIAN
and contemporary music with to live.”
income. Being self-employed, like Carthy, brightening at this happier rock guitars, reggae rhythms and
sometimes edgy subjects, mixing Quite literally, in some instances.
many artists, they didn’t qualify memory. “When I moved back, she in the bawdiness and vulnerability The song Blood on My Boots
she displays in person. describes the night her friend, the
for furlough, just a small business wanted me here but didn’t want me comedian Stewart Lee, invited her
“I object to the Brit-centric to the premiere of Jerry Springer:
grant that lasted six months. to touch anything.” She laughs and definition of folk,” she says, “which The Opera, which he co-wrote.
is very white and safe and fixated After four glasses of champagne,
“By the third lockdown,” says gestures towards a laptop plonked with acoustic instruments.” In her Eliza hit the cold night air and took
role as president of the English a tumble. “They found me under
Carthy, “we were looking at selling on a kitchen worktop. “She’d say: Folk Dance and Song Society, she a bridge,” she says with a laugh. “I
has been keen to shake things up, literally had blood on my boots.”
our instruments.” ‘This isn’t your office! It’s a food diversity-wise. “To me, Ariana
Grande is folk music. Bohemian She recalls the first time she
Then an old agent friend in preparation area!’” Rhapsody is folk. I define folk as picked up the fiddle, in her case
whatever you can sing in a pub – one that had belonged to her
the US suggested Carthy launch Lately, Carthy has thrown and for people to be able to join grandfather. In the nicest possible
in and be as shit as you like. Folk way, she says: “I didn’t want to be
a public appeal for help. “You herself back into music. This music isn’t clean. It’s sexy and my dad.” Female fiddlers – give
filthy and at the end of the night or take a Kathryn Tickell or Helen
wouldn’t believe the people who month, she releases Queen of the O’Hara – were rarer in the late 80s

gave us money,” she says. “It’s been Whirl, an album of fan favourites

comforting and heartbreaking.” chosen by a Twitter poll and

Sadly, Waterson passed away in re-recorded with her crack band

January, aged 82. “We weren’t the Restitution, to celebrate the

allowed to see her until the last 30 years since she skipped her

day,” says Carthy. “And she was A-levels to become a professional

gone by then. But we’d been musician. Her parents led the “folk

FaceTiming and I got to tell her how revival” in the 60s, but Carthy is

much was in the fund. She looked seeking to refashion the genre for

The Guardian • 9
Monday 3 October 2022
PHOTOGRAPHS:
COURTESY OF AVANT
ARTE © CHRISTIAN
DEFONTE,© OAK
TAYLOR-SMITH

‘Music can be
life-changing’
… at Camp
Bestival in 2015

Throwing
up questions
… Self in
her studio

Seats and the city

and 90s, never mind sporting She laughs at the memory. “It’s Sitting, says Tschabalala Self, can be a political act.
bovver boots and a buzz cut. interesting encountering your
“Someone said: ‘You’re trading early 20s self. There are certainly The New York artist talks to Chloë Ashby about being
on your youth and beauty.’ I was things that I’m not prepared to do inspired by ‘video vixens’ – and the best way to reposemagine you’re on a bike, as
like: ‘You wot?’” She dyed her hair any more.” As she tells it, she’d
pink and blue and toured the folk been inspired by Ani DiFranco’s opposed to a car, a train, or
clubs, getting by on four hours’ songs about “abortions and stuff” a plane,” says Tschabalala
sleep on couches. “In some ways, which gave her the desire to be Self. “Imagine how the world
it was punk,” she says. “At one “completely honest” about a
point, I woke up in a bed and it was real-life incident. She’d had her ‘ I appears, how quickly and
snowing on my face.” In another heart broken and the line “I don’t backing dancers for male artists. Self took
incident, when her vehicle broke want to be one of the beautiful inspiration from the racialised, objectified
down, she tested the old wives’ people” is pointed. “I was still and hyperbolic representation of these
tale about sealing a leaky radiator in love with him and he said: ‘It so-called hip-hop honeys.
with a dozen eggs. “It didn’t doesn’t matter, because we’re the
beautiful people.’ I thought: ‘No. “In the beginning it was a lot of mirroring,”
Gwork. We just got a radiator full of I’m a scrubby little asshole from
Yorkshire and I don’t like you very easily you’re able to move she says. “Then I started to interject more of
scrambled eggs.” much. I’m a punk and you’re an
arsehole!’” Her mighty cackle fills through it. How clearly you can see people my own intentions and aspirations onto the
radually, after the kitchen. When the time came to
encountering some resistance record the song, she says, another and they can see you.” She pauses. “Your subject.” She started out printmaking, before
from the more traditional folk musician walked into the studio. “I
camp, she earned their respect as thought: ‘Oh Jesus, it’s Nick Cave worldview shifts depending on the vehicle developing the instantly recognisable art she
other younger musicians emerged, and I’m singing about blowjobs!’”
such as Seth Lakeman and Jock you’re in. For me, it’s the same with bodies. is now known for: radiant assemblages of
Tyldesley. “I credit the folk scene She now describes herself as a
for that,” she says. “I think they “carer”. When her band got ripped Inside, we’re all essentially the same – but mostly female bodies that comprise printed,
realised that if they didn’t get new off and didn’t get paid, she recorded
blood, it would just be a case of a solo album, 2019’s Restitute, in we’re moving around in different bodies that painted and sewn materials.
them waiting for the phone calls her bedroom and sold it on the
telling them another old artist has web to compensate them. Lately, dictate our experience.” The new work at Pilar Corrias features
died. Instead, they let us in and she’s been planning her father’s
said: ‘Show us what you’ve got.’ Covid-delayed 80th birthday gig This freewheeling analogy is characteristic intimate vignettes of men and women sitting
Sometimes we fell on our arses at the Barbican in London, writing
and sometimes we didn’t, but the her next solo album and – after of Self, who lives and works in New York’s on chairs, at tables and in front of mirrors.
great thing about folk clubs in the being further waylaid by the virus
80s and 90s is they held folk up – teaching music at her old school Tri-State area. We’re chatting ahead of Titled Home Body, it explores how the
and that’s why my dad still plays in Robin Hood’s Bay. “You can’t
the clubs. These people weren’t put a value on the emotional and two projects she’s launching in London personal and the performative co-exist within
professional promoters. They were spiritual awareness that music
social workers, nurses, teachers – brings from an early age,” she says. this month: the first, a large bronze a domestic setting where, Self believes,
decent people who built stages that “Music is mathematics. You can
kept us all alive.” actually learn about the science of sculpture of a seated figure in Coal Drops identity and gender politics can still run riot.
how arpeggios affect your nervous
After 1998’s Red Rice, often system. Music is so undervalued. It Yard, commissioned by Avant Arte, the “When we think of the home,” she says, “we
called her “drum’n’bass album”, can be life-changing.”
was nominated for the Mercury organisation-cum-marketplace that aims think of interiority and privacy – and those
prize, as was Anglicana five years By playing it – and reaching out
later, Warners signed her up, to people again – she’s starting to to make art more imply a sense of freedom. We imagine we’re
hoping for “a cross between Joni put this year’s sadnesses behind
Mitchell and Judy Garland”. They her. “I found coming out of the In a video, people accessible; the second, free to behave as we wish. But there are still
perhaps weren’t expecting such pandemic traumatic at first,” a solo show of new expectations and limitations that mirror, if
songs as The Company of Men, she says, “because it reminded
which begins: “I’ve given blowjobs me of all the pain and isolation. talk about sitting – drawings, paintings, not magnify, those that exist in public.”
on couches / To men who didn’t But whenever we’ve performed, sculptures and Seated, the sculpture at Coal Drops Yard,
want me any more / Why didn’t I’ve felt that collectivism again
they tell me before?” – and laughter and people. The and their favourite functional objects at takes one of those unnamed women and puts
pandemic’s brought up a lot of stuff Pilar Corrias Gallery. her on public display, throwing up questions
and I’ve thought: ‘Maybe I should places to do so about such seemingly straightforward
call so-and-so.’ And that’s been With both, Self continues things as a Black woman taking up space
really lovely.” her exploration of the
Queen of the Whirl is released on
28 October. Eliza Carthy’s UK tour Black female body: “It’s or the act of sitting itself. “To be seated is
begins on 23 November.
the body I feel I can have the most honest relatively simple,” she says, “but it can also

conversation about because it’s my own.” be political.” An act of resistance reminiscent

The youngest of five, Self was born in 1990. of sit-ins and a symbol of basic human rights.

Her parents grew up in New Orleans, moving Accompanying the sculpture is a video that

to New York in the 1970s when her father was shows Londoners talking about sitting from

accepted on to the MFA writing programme their favourite places to do so.

at Columbia University. Her mother spent her Self is now one of the most sought-after

spare time sewing pillows, cushions, curtains artists in the US, although she balks at the

– “anything she refused to buy”. Self was idea. “Once you concede to it,” she says,

raised in Harlem, a diverse neighbourhood “you’re essentially conceding to your own

soaked in art history, and her parents invested commodification and objectification. And

in their children a strong Black identity. “They how does that benefit you in the long run?

experienced segregation in the American Because when people start to perceive objects

south,” she says. “But they were also the first as old, they usually throw them out.”

generation there to experience integration. Self does, however, want her art to reach

They had a lot of dual experiences that as many people as possible, and for viewers

gave them a sophisticated understanding to stand in front of her work and experience

of racial dynamics in America – and I “a transcendent moment”. “It doesn’t have

inherited those.” to be a realisation about the work,” she says.

Self was in her early teens when “It could be a personal realisation. I want

she started to notice how Black to make people feel like they have the tools

women’s bodies were treated in to navigate the world a little more easily.”

popular culture. “This was the No matter what body – or vehicle – they’re

early 2000s, the era of music moving around in.

videos and video vixens,” Seated is at Coal Drops Yard until 31 January;

she says, referring to women Home Body is at Pilar Corrias until 17

of colour who performed as December; both London.

• The Guardian
Monday 3 October 2022
10 TV and radio

The Walk-In
9pm, ITV

Youngs Teflon
(second left)
with Karen,
Nicole and
Daniel

Review Everyone Can Rap, never really listened to rap music before she decided From Bafta-winning screenwriter Jeff
ITV to give it a go. Pope, this five-part, fact-based drama
is a close-to-the-bone examination of
A heartwarming It’s a solid group with a range of abilities and modern Britain. Set in 2016, it has
one-off that gets motivations, though they share a desire to improve Stephen Graham as reformed neo-Nazi
would-be rappers themselves and their confidence in some intangible Matthew Collins, who is now an activist
spitting bars way. Part of the point of this programme, I suspect, is for the advocacy group Hope Not Hate.
to reframe rap and hip-hop for a television audience Far-right tensions are palpable thanks to
★★★★☆ who, like Karen, may not be entirely familiar with it, the imminent Brexit referendum and
or may have picked up on more negative associations. the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox
Rebecca Early on, two Cambridge academics, Dr Akeem Sule brings things to a head. Matthew must
Nicholson and Dr Becky Inkster, are brought out to explain the go undercover to infiltrate the group
artistic and social merits of the form. They play the threatening to carry out a further hit.
I n Everyone Can Rap, a lovely, too-short film group Maino’s All the Above, and give a presentation
by Daniel Dempster, the south London rapper on its use of cognitive reframing. Hollie Richardson
Youngs Teflon takes three everyday people
who have never rapped before and sets about This establishes that the programme is not really And Inside Man Larys, ordered his own
turning them into pros over the course of a for rap fans. It spends more time defending rap than a another 9pm, BBC One father to be burned to a
single week. “Everyone can rap” is the theory show such as the BBC’s Rap Game UK, which assumes thing Did Edgar leave a crisp, there’s a vacancy
but, at the start of it, Youngs Teflon – Tef to his mates – its audience has an inherent knowledge of the genre. confession in his suicide for the King’s Hand –
is not sure whether that theory will hold. Perhaps It has an eye on rap’s critics, reaching out to those All four series note? Can Janice smart- welcome back, Ser Otto.
it’s more of a question. Can everyone rap? We’re about who deride it as tuneless, artless or without merit. of The Rap talk her way out of Harry’s Amid the drama, expect a
to find out. While the academics are interesting, the programme’s Game UK are basement? And why is lot of dagger action. HR
arguments about the power of rap are more convincing available on Grieff suddenly bargaining
Tef is working with three complete newcomers, when they come from Tef, who explains its function as iPlayer for his life by admitting The Big Blow Out
all of whom have their own reasons for wanting to a therapeutic device, and as “a voice for the voiceless”. where he buried his wife’s 10pm, E4
try something new. Nicole, 38, is a London mum; she head? Steven Moffat’s AJ Odudu hosts a new
points out that usually, when Black mothers are seen The programme is framed as a talent show. There tricksy drama continues, contest to find the UK’s
on British television, it’s because they are suffering or is a brief nod to Love Island-style tricks with a “text with Tuesday’s finale best hairstylist. Every
in pain. She wants to put something different across. from Tef” moment (just the one), but in general it giving the answers. HR week, judges Lisa Farrall
Also, she says: “I want to be vocal. I want to be loud looks more like old-school Pop Idol than modern-day and Sam McKnight will
for a day.” primetime pomp such as The Voice. It made me Trouble at Topshop be putting hairdressers
nostalgic. I liked the meeting room aesthetic and the 9pm, BBC Two through their paces, but
Daniel, 34, is from Brighton. He is autistic – low-stakes, anti-hysterical feel of it all. It’s all incredibly In the second half of a only one will make the cut.
some viewers may recognise him as a regular on the sweet and heartwarming. It lives in the same territory competent documentary, Tonight: the masterpiece
horribly titled yet very touching Channel 4 show as Gareth Malone and his choirs, and is uplifting it’s one thing after another challenge, with the theme
The Undateables – and as a result often muddles his wherever it can find an opportunity to be. for the clothes store that of This Is Me. Who’s
words. His parents explain that until he discovered once ruled Oxford Street. getting the chop? Should
music, he was so shy and withdrawn that he would Youngs Teflon takes the mentor role and teases With the financial crash be plenty of highlights.
wear sunglasses at all times. Now, he gives the confidence out of his proteges. He asks them to riff on and the rise of fast online Ali Catterall
impression of a man who will try anything that has their greatest challenges and to use that as inspiration. fashion already making
the potential to excite him. Nicole raps about her experience of an ectopic life difficult, scandals Ladhood
pregnancy. Daniel belts out his favourite catchphrases. around owner Philip 10pm, BBC Three
And then there’s Karen, 52, from Birmingham, who Karen takes on the self-doubt that plagues her. Once Green’s business practices There aren’t many shows
has a long history of anxiety and panic attacks. She the three contenders have been to an open mic night, make the roof fall in. that can pull off a trippy
to see how the professionals do it, they get a makeover, He does not naturally musical interlude set to
a rap name, and the chance to perform their carefully attract sympathy. Take That’s Never Forget,
crafted raps in front of friends and families at their Jack Seale complete with dancing
own special show. devils wearing Nike
House of the Dragon trackies … In the second
This tentative one-off feels like a pilot for a bigger 9pm, Sky Atlantic part of this concluding
series, one that would allow the participants more Things are really firing double bill, it’s A-level
time to show how they went from having never rapped up after that time jump. results day, but the boys
to spitting bars, and what it meant for them to get Tonight, somebody has are more preoccupied
there. To use the language of reality TV, I wanted to stolen super-dragon with solving the most 00s
see their journey. This only had time to show the start. Vhagar – last seen of crimes: who smashed
In the end, all three prove to be decent performers, far cremating her dying rider, their TV with a Nintendo
better than the early moments suggested they would Laena. And after Alicent’s Wii remote?
be but, in many ways, that is beside the point. The scheming collaborator, Katie Rosseinsky
point is that they did it. Three unlikely rappers got
to be loud for the day.

•

The Guardian 11
Monday 3 October 2022

BBC One BBC Two ITV Channel 4 Channel 5 BBC Four

6.0 Breakfast (T) 9.15 Rip Off 6.30 Bargain Hunt (T) 7.15 6.0 Good Morning Britain (T) 6.10 Countdown (T) (R) 6.50 6.0 Milkshake! 9.15 Jeremy Vine
Britain (T) 10.0 Crimewatch Antiques Road Trip (T) (R) 9.0 Lorraine (T) 10.0 This 3rd Rock from the Sun (T) (T) 12.45 Holiday Homes in
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Joe Crowley investigates the Ronnie informs James of a peas could solve the plastic at how the nation’s roads are journeys through six British
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The University of Glasgow elite team of motorway
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Rachel (2017) Period
achieve anything.
(1/8) 9.0 Wild Inside.
Professor Ben Garrod

and veterinary surgeon

• The Guardian TODAY’S PET CORNER ANSWER BLUE
Monday 3 October 2022
12 Puzzles

Friday’s Quick crossword no 16,351
solutions
1 2 34567
Wordsearch
Across Down
1 Skater’s movement (6,2,5) 1 One of Aesop’s stories? (5) 8 9
8 Bodily support (3) 2 Escort for the coffin at a military 10
9 Contemporaries of the same 13 11 18
funeral (5,2,6) 16 12
status (4,5) 3 Tintin’s occupation (8) 14
10 Gave backing to (8) 4 Followed orders (6) 15
11 Details, in brief (4) 5 Ingredient of shakshouka and 17
13 Little Miss Muffet’s sitting place (6) 19
14 Kind of skirt (or moustache!) (6) souffles (4)
16 Trick (4) 6 Those in charge at Cape Canaveral? 21
17 If red, they’re a distraction (8)
20 Infallible (9) (6,7)
21 Stretch of turbulent water caused 7 Earth’s surface? (7)
12 That’s great (8)
by one current flowing across 13 Inside information given away (3-4)
another (3) 15 Be suitable (6)
22 In a calculated way (13) 18 Wet through (informal) (5)
19 Shingle strip extending seaward (4)

Sudoku no 5,803

20

22

Stuck? For help call 0906 200 83 83. Calls cost £1.10 per minute, plus your phone company’s access charge.
Service supplied by ATS. Call 0330 333 6946 for customer service (charged at standard rate).
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Suguru

Sudoku no 5,807 Suguru Wordsearch

Easy. Fill the grid so that each row, column and 3x3 Fill the grid so that each square Can you find 15 words associated
box contains the numbers 1-9. Printable version at in an outlined block contains a with sushi in the grid? Words can run
theguardian.com/sudoku digit. A block of 2 squares contains forwards, backwards, vertically or
the digits 1 and 2, a block of three diagonally, but always in a straight,
squares contains the digits 1, 2 and unbroken line.
3, and so on. No same digit appears
in neighbouring squares, not even
diagonally.

Word wheel
DIFFIDENT

Saturday’s Quick
crossword

Solution no 16,350

J ENE SA I SQUO I

CCNBTPN

O I L ED REAREND

N I SUGNE

T I P S APPEND I X

RSUTS F

I DEALS GELAT I

V T S TQN

AUD I ENCE DUNG

NRRHPAE

CYAN I DE AST I R

E P OMR I S

SMEARTAC T I C S

Word wheel Pet corner

Find as many words as In Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of
possible using the letters Peter Rabbit, what colour is
in the wheel. Each must Peter’s jacket?
use the central letter a. Red
and at least two others. b. Brown
Letters may be used only c. Blue
once. You may not use d. Trick question, he doesn’t
plurals, foreign words or wear a jacket
proper nouns. There is at Answer top right
least one nine-letter word
to be found. TARGET:
Excellent-59. Good-50.
Average-36.

• G2
Daily
As Labour rises in the polls, is equality being left behind? Nesrine Malik, page 3 pullout
This ignorance about Irish-British history exacts its cost Jennifer Horgan, page 4 life &
Art Rosenbaum, folklorist who collected traditional US music Obituaries, page 6 arts
section
Inside

The Guardian Monday 3 October 2022

Opinion
and ideas

Behold a party A s Liz Truss stumbled through Basingstoke looks like a solid chunk of ILLUSTRATION:
adrift from last week’s disastrous round MATT KENYON
reality – and its of interviews with local radio Conservative England. The Tory MP, Maria Miller,
own heartlands stations, Basingstoke’s United 
Reformed church was giving away has a majority of 14,000. The borough the town
John bread. Loaves donated by local John Harris
Harris supermarkets were arranged on dominates voted for Brexit by the same narrow hosts the
metal shelves covered by a tarpaulin. Politics Weekly
Every so often, someone would gingerly walk up and majority as the country as a whole. Outwardly, it UK podcast
help themselves, before turning their attention to the every Thursday
hot food that was also available: soup, risotto and seems comfortably off, but the town centre is full
stew, cooked by a group of spirited volunteers.
of vacant shops and charity outlets, and huge office
A few yards away, I met Peter. Now retired, he
had worked for the telecoms giant Motorola, a once buildings lie empty. All told, Basingstoke embodies
sizeable local employer that closed its Basingstoke
operation in 2017. Rocketing bills, he told me, meant a malaise I have seen before in other southern towns
he was now limiting himself to two hours of TV a night,
rationing lighting, keeping his heating off and wearing and suburbs: a sense that the dynamism and aspiration
sweaters and fleeces whenever he was indoors.
that arrived in the 1980s peaked well before the crash
In 2016, he had supported leaving the EU – hoping,
he said, that the billions the Brexiteers said we gave to of 2008, and have been fading ever since.
the EU would now be spent at home. Three years later,
he voted Conservative, thanks to Boris Johnson. Now, Beyond the spectacular fumblings of Truss and
the few words he uttered about politics were full of a
weary cynicism. At the next election he won’t vote. Kwasi Kwarteng, these are the long-term roots of the

Tories’ sudden political crisis. For a long time, millions

of people in supposed Conservative heartlands

have been managing to just about maintain their

material comforts while their surroundings have felt

increasingly shabby and fragile. First came austerity,

then the pandemic, and the effects of the latter soon

merged with the economic fallout from Brexit and

the war in Ukraine. Now, amid hugely increased

living costs and the prospect of big
jumps in mortgage payments, it feels as
if the disruption and decay that has so

• The Guardian Monday 3 October 2022

2 Founded 1821 Independently owned by the Scott Trust № 54,778
‘Comment is free… but facts are sacred’ CP Scott
Behold a party adrift from
reality – and its own heartlands Conservatives tax base shrinks. They are cheered in that endeavour
John Harris by a small circle of libertarian economists – the same
A failing prime minister clique who believed, in defiance of all evidence, that
Continued from front without a mandate spells cutting Britain off from the EU, its nearest and richest
electoral ruin for her party market, would somehow boost trade.
drastically affected people’s immediate
environment is threatening to consume The choice of a new leader was never going to solve The prime minister knew that she would
the most basic foundations of their lives. problems that have been amassed during 12 years of encounter opposition, including dissent within her
For a very long time, Tory electoral success has Conservative government, but even Liz Truss’s fiercest party. But the possibility of crippling parliamentary
been based on a time-honoured trick: persuading critics have been surprised by her efficiency at making rebellions will test her self-image as a risk-taking
the social middle that it has nothing in common things worse. Her government’s plan for growth seems maverick, unafraid to take tough decisions. There
with the bottom, and indeed kicking poor people to be exploding on the launch pad before it has had a is also a difference between political criticism
around just to reinforce the point, something that chance to take off. Yesterday the former cabinet minister and a hostile reaction from the bond market. To
the Truss government’s approach to “welfare” looks Michael Gove indicated that he would not vote for make herself unpopular was a problem for the
set to resume. But the crisis we are in is blurring Ms Truss’s package because it was wrong to be cutting Conservative party. To cost Britain its reputation for
those distinctions. Over the past few months, I have tax for the wealthiest when so many were suffering. informed policymaking is a problem for everyone,
met plenty of people – in Basingstoke, Birmingham, It is style as well as substance that is a problem. It although the cost will not be felt evenly.
suburban Merseyside and Milton Keynes – who are looks callous for the chancellor be at a cocktail party
becoming acquainted with a new reality of cancelled celebrating the mini-budget with bankers who are its The mini-budget also marks a return to the dreary
holidays, self-rationed petrol and basics food brands. biggest winners. The prime minister did say that she had politics of austerity. Ministers have hinted that
There is a palpable fear about where they might be got things wrong. But, rather than a course correction, benefits might not be uprated in line with inflation
heading: beyond the discount supermarket, might Ms Truss doubled down. next spring. That would reverse a commitment
the next stop be the food bank? made (reluctantly) by Mr Sunak, under pressure
The party’s annual conference this week was always from Tory MPs who understood that millions of
In that context, a mini-budget that focused its tax going to be awkward for Ms Truss when so many Tory people faced destitution as rising prices shrivelled
cuts on a tiny minority of top earners and lifted the MPs preferred Rishi Sunak as a candidate for Downing the purchasing power of their welfare payments. To
cap on City bonuses was an act of complete political Street. Healing those divisions is not made easier by the cut those people adrift in a financial storm would be
stupidity. As long as Conservatism could successfully vindication of Mr Sunak’s bleakest forecast of Ms Truss’s monstrous – as is the suggestion by the Tory party
present itself as the voice of homeowners, car drivers, plans. It might be too much to expect real contrition from chairman, Jake Berry, that they ought to get better-
commuters and small businesspeople, the suggestion someone who defended Boris Johnson even after he had paid jobs. That the storm has been whipped up by
that it was primarily about the interests of the very been driven from office for duplicity and incompetence. the government’s own financial mismanagement
wealthy could easily be neutralised. Now, many Mr Johnson was at least shrewd enough to see the only adds spite and cynicism to the callousness.
people who habitually voted Tory seem to sense that utility in tactical U-turns. His successor prefers a rigid
they are being left behind, and the party millions once ideological conviction based on theories about market Benefit claimants might be underrepresented at
forces that the financial markets are not buying. a Tory conference, but the party’s core voters will
Tvoted for as a matter of habit seems to be treating not be unaffected by the crisis enveloping their
Ms Truss and her chancellor have turned the UK into anointed prime minister. Their mortgage payments
them with a high-handed indifference. a laboratory for testing the hypothesis that channelling will rise; their NHS services will be further denuded.
wealth to society’s richest tier and starving the public Few prime ministers achieve the scale of political
here is another element of this sector of resources will generate an investment boom of and economic error in a full term that Ms Truss has
political neglect. Over the past six such magnitude that tax revenues will surge even as the committed in a month, and with a flimsier mandate
years, Conservatives should have than most. The Tories might quickly regret having
been focusing on the threadbare state chosen her as their leader. Without adjusting their
of even outwardly affluent towns and plans or their top team, Conservatives deserve
cities, the increasingly precarious to pay a heavy electoral price for inflicting that
lives of their party’s voters, and basic misfortune on the rest of the country.
issues such as housing and public
transport. Instead, they were either getting lost in Chess the blanks, with claims that Niemann had computer
Brexit’s endless complexities or extolling a utopian help. Elon Musk unhelpfully suggested that he was
“global Britain” that quickly collided with reality. Countering cheating claims using unusual methods; Niemann countered by
Now, what ministers call “Brexit opportunities” seem is hard. They should not be offering to strip naked.
to only be open to a tiny number of very privileged made without evidence
people, like the hedge fund managers Kwarteng Carlsen and Niemann met again last month in an
reportedly shared champagne with only hours after Chess generally hits the headlines only for reasons online game, and the world champion sensationally
his big announcements. Would you believe it: a external to the game itself: Bobby Fischer’s eccentricity; resigned after making just one move. Carlsen said
revolution sold to the public as the very essence of Viktor Korchnoi’s allegations that the Soviet Union was he was unwilling to “play against people that have
anti-elitism turns out to be the most elitist project using hypnotism to undermine him in his 1978 world title cheated repeatedly in the past”, and that he believed
modern British politics has ever seen. match with Anatoly Karpov; the Toiletgate furore that the younger man had cheated “more than he has
The latest Tory prime minister, as we know, marred the 2006 world championship. Now, the reigning admitted”. Niemann has acknowledged cheating
fancies herself as the heir to Margaret Thatcher. But world champion Magnus Carlsen’s airing of suspicions online as a teenager, but insists he has never done
as Truss’s latest encounter with the BBC’s Laura over the play of the 19-year-old US grandmaster Hans so in an over-the-board game and angrily denies the
Kuenssberg once again proved, the comparison is Niemann has put chess into the spotlight again. new claims. “Once a cheat, always a cheat,” chorus
completely laughable. Thatcher was always confident, his detractors, but Niemann should surely not be
fluent and on top of her brief; Truss is hesitant, stilted. Carlsen has been world champion since 2013. condemned for youthful misdemeanours in games
And another difference says even more about the Niemann is a tyro who has made astonishingly rapid where little was at stake. There is no evidence that he
contrast between Conservatism then and now. progress recently. Carlsen has publicly questioned that cheated when he beat Carlsen.
Thatcher hugely helped the rich, but her deepest trajectory, saying on Twitter last week that “his over the
affinity was with an electorate that included both board progress has been unusual”. These days, most The world champion is right to say that cheating
a chunk of middle England and newly confident elite players become grandmasters in their early teens – poses an existential challenge to chess – there have
elements of the working class. But Truss seems to Carlsen was 13. Niemann, a charismatic character who been many examples at less exalted levels of the
have no core constituency. The arrogance of her says his life has been devoted to proving critics who said sport. But he is wrong to muddy the waters around
Etonian chancellor hardly helps; neither does a cold, he wasn’t good enough wrong, was a late-developing 17, Niemann without substantive evidence. Britain’s
theoretical set of ideas that is shredding Tory ideas and his rise to super-GM level has been meteoric. former world title contender Nigel Short says that
rather than promoting them. There is one particularly the young American is at risk of suffering “death by
glaring example: as the banks withdraw mortgage The controversy erupted when Niemann beat innuendo”. Experts reckon Carlsen played unusually
products and interest rates leap, what will be the fate Carlsen last month in the Sinquefield Cup. Niemann poorly in his defeat to Niemann. Maybe it was just
of the age-old belief in a property-owning democracy? said he had somehow guessed what opening Carlsen a bad day at the office. Or perhaps it was the result
And so to one last, rather overlooked point. As our would play. It was Carlsen’s first defeat in 53 classical of paranoia: once a player believes their opponent
economic troubles pile up, there is talk of renewed (long-form) games, and he reacted by withdrawing is cheating, that inevitably affects their own play.
austerity: in her interview with Kuenssberg, Truss from the tournament, making gnomic references to Carlsen needs to produce concrete evidence – ideally
declined to rule out public spending cuts. She and her something being not quite right. “If I speak I am in big as part of the inquiry announced on Thursday by the
colleagues ought to bear in mind the observation of trouble,” he tweeted. Some of his supporters filled in International Chess Federation – or let Niemann get
writer and academic Ross McKibbin, written in 1999 on with his career. Only by playing over a long period
but every bit as relevant to 2022: “The middle classes will the latter’s true playing strength emerge – while
make more use of the NHS, public transport, public any repeated cheating in the rarefied conditions of
libraries, local swimming pools, public parks and their elite tournaments would soon be exposed.
right to state welfare than anyone else.” Therein we see
one key aspect of the Tories’ snowballing crisis, and
further proof of this surreal period’s defining political
fact: that if Tories only seem able to bring to their own
heartlands worry and despair, the game is surely up.

Monday 3 October 2022 The Guardian •

Opinion 3

There’s
a strange
amnesty extended
to this party when it
comes to allegations
of prejudice against
people of colour

As Labour rises I t may not have been the best week for the Apsana Begum, resemblance to the criticisms of white male MPs
in the polls, is country, but it has been a good one for MP for Poplar elsewhere in the messages”, received not even an
equality being Keir Starmer and his Labour party. Party and Limehouse apology from party leadership for what she describes
left behind? conference, we are told, was by all accounts as “sustained racist abuse”. The Forde report
a triumphant affair, where even the hecklers PHOTOGRAPH: foreshadowed its own reception in the party, which
Nesrine of yesteryear were gone. Labour is leading in HOUSE OF COMMONS/ it said failed to treat complaints “with the urgency
Malik the polls, and if Starmer retains this advantage JESSICA TAYLOR/ and sensitivity they deserved”.
over the next two years, he is on his way to a REUTERS
coronation, vindicated in playing the long game. This is an experience familiar to Apsana Begum,
the MP for Poplar and Limehouse in east London.
But there is another side to this story of a party Begum tells me that she has spent the first year and
hitting its stride. You may have heard a lot about a half of her tenure after being elected in 2019 battling
Islamophobia in the Tory party. But not so much, I’d claims of housing fraud triggered by her ex-husband’s
wager, about Islamophobia in the Labour party or brother-in law and a Conservative councillor. During
racism toward Black MPs and staff. Or misogyny. Which the case, Begum claimed that she was in the dock
is odd, because it has been reported by party members, because she was a survivor of domestic abuse,
MPs and an inquiry in the shape of July’s Forde report. including coercive control and financial abuse –
That reality is in sharp contrast to the image of the allegations her ex-husband denied. Nevertheless,
party that leadership projects – one of zero tolerance she cleared her name in crown court.
of prejudice and fast, decisive action to enforce
discipline, most recently suspending the whip from the But that wasn’t the end, she says, because allegedly
MP Rupa Huq for comments about Kwasi Kwarteng. her ex-husband, a former Tower Hamlets councillor,
and his friends within the Labour party waged a
The testimonies in the report are not light on relentless campaign for her “not to remain in her
detail, nor are they from junior staff. And they are seat”. She alleges that she was so harassed and
all consistent in the patterns they report: receiving intimidated at the local party level that she was signed
racist abuse, taking it to relevant parties higher up, off sick. During her leave, members of the local party,
then being summarily ignored. Ali Milani, who was who she claims were goaded, voted to start a trigger
a parliamentary candidate in Uxbridge and South ballot, meaning that she is to fight a reselection battle.
Ruislip and has written a book about his experience,
tells harrowing stories of being called a “terrorist” by She tells me how, in her view, the leadership “failed
Labour members in the local selection campaign and to intervene in the trigger ballot process”. Complaints
receiving hand-delivered death threats to his home. have been made to headquarters about disruption,
“I recall sending complaints about such behaviour and intimidation and harassment towards women, but
activity to the legal and governance unit,” he says, only the process is ongoing. Begum says she has written to
“to be met with silence for over 13 months.”
BLabour’s general secretary, David Evans, saying she is
Despite his experience, Milani was still shocked “seeking advice and considering taking legal action”.
when the Forde report came out, with its detail
of “underlying racism and sexism” in WhatsApp egum – the UK’s first hijab-wearing
exchanges between the party’s “most senior staff”, and MP – attributes her treatment to a
party members explicitly “spelling out their experiences combination of racism and misogyny,
of discrimination – racism, Islamophobia, sexism – in but also senior Labour lack of interest
constituency parties and in party processes”. at best, and active bias at worst, in
the case of an MP from the left of
What happened? Broadly, nothing. Diane Abbott, the party. Pivoting away from this
who the report said was the subject of exchanges that flank of Labour means that younger
expressed “visceral disgust, drawing (consciously brown and Black members tend to be sidelined, as
or otherwise) on racist tropes, which bear little demonstrated in the dismantling earlier this year of
the party’s community organising unit, one of the
most diverse teams that existed in the Labour party.
But there is something else going on. There is a
strange amnesty that is extended to the Labour party,
or this Labour party, when it comes to allegations of
prejudice towards people of colour and Muslims in
general by the wider press – and even more so if they
happen to be on the left of the spectrum. And there
is a general lack of interest in following up on any
allegations of wrongdoing in a party that everyone
who matters has agreed, it seems, is on the right track,
having “cleaned up” the mess that Jeremy Corbyn left
behind. There has even been silence in response to the
claims in Al Jazeera’s Labour files, which alleged that
claims of racism were weaponised, exaggerated, even
fabricated, as part of the effort to purge its Corbynites.
I asked for a response; none has been forthcoming.
Still, if you listen, there is a message: if we need
to erase leftwing politics from the agenda, and
along with it the hopes and aspirations of its people
of colour, then so be it. The Labour party may be
en route to power, but we owe it to those it has left
behind to be honest about the cost.

• The Guardian Monday 3 October 2022

4 Opinion

This ignorance Potato jokes aren’t funny to me – government turning  For one, if educated British people do not understand
its back on its own people in a time of crisis rarely is – the difference between Ireland and the UK, they
about Ireland but I heard dozens of similar gags during my 12 years Jennifer cannot understand Brexit. Take the Conservative MP
in English and international British schools. They were Horgan Andrew Bridgen, who in 2018 confidently declared
exacts its cost never nasty – they just came from a place of ignorance. English people had a right to an Irish passport due to
Rubbing shoulders with colleagues in history is a secondary the common travel area. Or how about Boris Johnson,
Jennifer departments, I quickly came to a realisation: while school teacher who, when concerns were raised about the possibility
Horgan Irish students arguably learn too much about Ireland’s and Irish of a hard border, brushed off fears as “pure millennium
colonisation, British students certainly learn too little. Examiner bug stuff”, and later as a “folly”. Try using that word
B efore emigrating from Ireland to columnist with any of the families and communities affected by
teach in London in 2006, I assumed In every Irish classroom, children are reared on decades of violence and devastating loss.
British people would know as much stories of oppression and rebellion. Every child
about me as I did about them. I was understands the intricacies of Anglo-Irish relations. As Even now, as Ireland and Britain continue to grapple
put right just a year into the job, a secondary English teacher, I can’t avoid plays, novels with highly sensitive trade agreements in the wake of
when a colleague teased: “Why the and poetry dealing with our relationship with Britain. Brexit, knowledge of this kind matters. In June, Liz
salad, Jen? I thought you Irish loved Irish students leave school with the historical and Truss, then foreign secretary, summed up so much
a potato.” But Irish people don’t emotional weight of colonisation on their shoulders. when, with a straight face, she pronounced taoiseach
just happen to love potatoes. Pushed on to infertile as “tea-sock”. In delicate negotiations, considering
land in west Ireland, most notoriously at Oliver Compare that to Britain, where teaching English the historical British policy of eradicating the Irish
Cromwell’s command, farmers had been encouraged rightly involves texts focused on class, misogyny and language in Ireland, it’s paramount that elected
to grow the ill-fated crop by their British colonisers. injustice, often set around the second world war but politicians, at the very least, get Irish names right.
When the blight came, little was done to help them. rarely relating to Britain’s relationship with Ireland, When Queen Elizabeth spoke a few words in Irish at a
The resulting Great Hunger brought the death or despite Ireland’s literary clout and proximity. state dinner in Dublin Castle, the former seat of British
emigration of 2 million people – more than a quarter power in Ireland, she did something very significant.
of the population – between 1845 and 1852. In 2016, my school embarked on a project on the British She showed Irish people and Irish culture her respect.
empire. Irish media were consumed by the centenary Politicians must look to their recently deceased and
of the 1916 Easter Rising, a historic turning point in the beloved monarch for inspiration in this regard.
fight against British rule. Naively, I offered a book on the
subject to our head of history – it was returned to my While British people are taught not to know –
desk the next day. I should have known better. not to care – about Ireland’s history, Irish people
carry the pain of that history around with us. Every
Studying Othello in my A-level English class, we political gaffe, every time an Irish celebrity is wrongly
had a debate on race. I asked my intelligent, wonderful claimed as British, every mix-up of Britain, Ireland
students whether white people can experience ethnic and the UK – every time it happens, is corrected and
prejudice as seen in the play. No, they said. “What about happens again – sets our relationship back. It makes
Britain’s treatment of the Irish?” I asked. They looked at Irish people feel as if their nationality, their distinct
me blank-faced – of course they did. I told them about cultural difference, is a detail too insignificant to learn
the infamous signs my grandfather saw while living in about. Yes, it’s time we move on – but to do so requires
London in the 50s: “No blacks, no Irish, no dogs.” respect and knowledge on both sides.

This failure of British schools to teach students
anything about Ireland has far-reaching consequences.

Monday 3 October 2022 The Guardian •

Letters  [email protected] 5
 @guardianletters

Established 1906 Tories have presided over it. They didn’t have anything to Corrections and
rising health inequality eat and didn’t want anyone to clarifications
Country diary know.” This was related to the
Comins Coch, We are extremely worried to hear • I was not surprised to see history children in assembly. • Conservative party members
that the government is turning repeating itself on reading that who voted for Liz Truss to be prime
Ceredigion its back on the commitment the health secretary has decided One in five parents state they minister represented 0.17% of the
to tackle unacceptable health to ditch the long-promised white are struggling with school costs, general electorate, rather than
The overnight rain was heavy but inequalities (Coffey set to abandon paper on health inequalities. In including school meals (22%) and 0.3% as a piece said. The latter
ceased abruptly, leaving in the promised white paper on health 1979, the Heath Education Council PE kit (27%). End Child Poverty applies when all those voting in the
dark stillness only the sound of inequalities, 30 September). This was told not to publish its report found that London’s poverty figure final round, 141,725, are included
dripping trees as the cloud moved will undermine the commitment to on inequalities and health by is 35% against the UK average of (Why is Starmer still standing
slowly away. In the early morning tackling disparities in the women’s the Thatcher government. The 27%, and it’s terrifying to read up for a broken voting system?,
light, the hills beyond the valley health strategy for England. It council defied that order and in from the Greater London Authority 26 September, Journal, p3).
are crisply outlined, the suddenly could halt the momentum from the 1980 published the Black report, that 400,000 children face
cold air washed clean to give clarity newly created maternity disparities which strongly advocated action food insecurity. • The technology company LG is
and contrast. Lines of dense mist taskforce, set up to end the stark and helped to create programmes from South Korea, not Japan (Car
drift in complex shapes across disparities in maternal outcomes that sought to mitigate this harm London Sport’s mission is to get battery startup Britishvolt had
the valley floor, lifting and fading that continue to persist. during the Thatcher government inactive Londoners active, because huge plans – but is it running low?,
only as the sun rises. and beyond. if you live an active lifestyle, you’re 29 September, p32).
Recent research has attributed more likely to live a longer and
In the low-angled sunshine, 12% of stillbirths in England to It is a disgrace that the inequality happier life. Huge inequalities Editorial complaints and corrections can be sent to
the points of dew scintillate on ethnic inequality and 24% of disparities not only continue persist when it comes to exercise, [email protected] or The readers’
every blade of grass and spider’s stillbirths to socioeconomic but have increased after 12 years depending on postcodes and editor, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU.
web – each node is enhanced and inequality. Turning away from of Conservative governments, bank balance. In London, 360,000 You can also leave a voicemail on 020 3353 4736
the whole curved surface creates a addressing health disparities will and the current one trying to children are “inactive”, but how
faint, blurred spectrum of colour. challenge the ambition to halve bury such negative findings can children exercise and play if Cooking up solutions
Yet, however picturesque this rates of stillbirths and neonatal wreaked by their actions again they are hungry? to cost of living crisis
might be, dewed grass still gives and maternal deaths by 2025. The shows their true colours.
you cold, wet feet, along with a timing could not be worse; we are John Boswell Poor activity levels and hunger My 83-year-old neighbour came
grumpy assertion that the approach barely post-pandemic and are now Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire play a part in disrupting a child’s for tea last week, but apologised
of autumn is now undeniable. faced with a cost of living crisis. We physical and mental health. for having to leave in a hurry. “I
urge the government to maintain • Last week, my six-year-old Our research has already shown need to check how my hotpot
Crossing into the next valley, the commitment to publishing the daughter came home from that nearly half of Londoners supper is cooking,” she said.
along the path that once served the white paper by the end of this year. school and said: “Mummy, did are cutting back on exercising “It’s on the bonfire I’ve made
Victorian school, I head across the Dr Eddie Morris you know a child pretended to due to financial strain. How from garden clippings.” That’s
hillside on the edge of the beech President, Royal College of eat their lunch out of their lunch can sport and physical activity heating and eating in 2022 in
wood that abuts the lane. The air is Obstetricians and Gynaecologists box, but there was nothing in continue to benefit lives when Thérèse Coffey’s constituency.
still, with only the vaguest sound families aren’t able to feed Mary Clarke
of movement from leaves and Mini-budget will result in ‘social murder’ themselves and children are Saxmundham, Suffolk
branches – until the hammering hungry at school? Swift action is
begins. Tap, tap … tap, tap, tap … Between August 2018 and mental health problems and essential to ensure that a whole • Your article describes the Tory
tap… Expecting to find someone July 2019, the UK had more than of course excess winter deaths generation doesn’t get left behind. MP Robert Largan’s seat, High Peak
chiselling a slot in a gatepost, I 23,000 excess winter deaths. Such across other parts of society. Emily Robinson in Derbyshire, as a “red wall seat”
glance between the trees, but the deaths are the direct and indirect CEO, London Sport (Jittery Tory MPs tell Truss to
unreasonably loud sound is coming outcomes of poverty-inducing It is worth applying the sack chancellor or face backbench
from higher up. The tapping stops, policies that stretch the poorest definition of “social murder” to substantively from the decisions mutiny, 29 September). It most
and a dark outline swoops away in society financially, sometimes the recent decisions taken by made in the mini-budget, certainly is not. Over the 40 years
through the understorey as the to the point of choosing between the chancellor of the exchequer. some at the bottom of the that I have lived here, High Peak
woodpecker – probably a greater eating and heating. Social murder is the outcome of increasingly disparate has resembled a bellwether
spotted – moves off. This was deliberate policies that facilitate economy in Britain will lose constituency, and has voted
not the structured drumming of We are now entering a social, economic and political their lives as a result. Tory far more than it has Labour.
staking out a territory, but the foreseeable (and foreseen) fuel oppression, and which lead Hopefully the current shenanigans
considered engineering of a hole crisis, with a cost of living crisis to untimely and ultimately Importantly, these are might lead it to return a Labour MP
in a dying trunk. Hopefully, this that is likely to bypass the top avoidable and preventable decisions that could have been in the near future.
will become an additional nest 10% of earners in the UK, while deaths. While corporations made differently. In a socially just Sara Shaw
site for the coming season. exacerbating illness, hunger, and wealthy elites will benefit society, we would recognise this Glossop, Derbyshire
not only as ethically dubious,
Before the lane emerges into Dispelling myths on hydrogen and heating but actively criminal. • Re Nick Boles’s article on the
pasture land, it is sheltered by Victoria Canning intellectually self-enclosed
an arch of beech trees through The letter from Prof Gordon E independent studies do not see a Head, Centre for the Study of relationship between the prime
which the full morning light is Andrews responding to an article significant role for hydrogen. Poverty and Social Justice, minister and chancellor (I was a
now filtering. Here and there, covering my recent research on University of Bristol Tory MP. Liz Truss has convinced
the leaves are beginning to turn, hydrogen and home heating Prof Andrews says that it is Steve Tombs Professor of me to vote Labour, 30 September),
edged now with the colours of contains a number of errors impossible to retrofit the 24m criminology, Open University usually when Tory politicians
senescence – and a few circle down (29 September). First, he states properties heated by gas with heat start causing serious problems,
from the canopy, landing with a that the International Energy pumps in a sensible timescale, increase would be paid by all UK men in grey suits are tasked to sort
barely audible sound on the gravel. Agency and the UK government stating that 27,000 heat pumps gas consumers to fund hydrogen things out. In cases of folie à deux,
Beyond the trees, bright sunshine believe that “hydrogen should are installed every year. But in Leeds only. The costs behind the however, men in white coats have
slices across the landscape and be a major part of the road to net the government has a target for 4.5% also refer to “blue” hydrogen, been found to be a better bet.
the day is suddenly warmer. zero carbon, as it is the only way 600,000 heat pumps to be installed produced from unsustainable fossil Prof Alan Costall
I head onwards, wondering if to decarbonise heating in the every year, as outlined in the Heat gas, which has clearly increased in Portsmouth
the dog that guards the next next 20 years”. That is incorrect. and Buildings Strategy. price since the 2016 report.
farm will remember me. In the IEA’s Net Zero 2050 report, • Glyn Evans writes that “first past
John Gilbey hydrogen makes up less than 2% The letter also states that such Finally, Prof Andrews says that the post also has the advantage
of energy demand in buildings in a conversion to “green hydrogen” the IEA shows that green hydrogen of preventing extreme parties
We do not publish letters where 2050. And, as my study showed, all would increase bills by 4.5%. would cost 3p/kWh by 2030. The from gaining power” (Letters,
only an email address is supplied; However, this claim is misleading latest IEA report states that green 30 September). Who does he think
please include a full postal for two reasons. First, the 4.5% hydrogen might be produced at a is in power right now?
address, a reference to the article price of 3.5-12.1p/kWh in the most Rich Chandler
and a daytime phone number. optimistic scenario by then. But Caldicot, Monmouthshire
We may edit letters. Submission this does not include the price
and publication of letters is subject of transport and distribution,
to our terms and conditions: see which adds significant costs.
theguardian.com/letters-terms Dr Jan Rosenow
Director of European programmes,
Regulatory Assistance Project

• The Guardian Monday 3 October 2022

6 Obituaries

Art Rosenbaum records. Blackwell led him to other University in New York, obtaining a
musicians, and in 1961 the folklorist degree in art history and a master’s
Folklorist, writer, painter Kenneth Goldstein, in charge of Unlike an in painting. In 1973, he took a post
Prestige Records’ Bluesville label, algorithm, teaching art at the University of
and song collector who commissioned Art to record five when Art Iowa, where he met another field
LPs by Indianapolis musicians. recalled recorder, Harry Oster, who had
documented traditional particular found remarkable blues and gospel
Blues was only one of Art’s tunes, he singers in the backwoods and
American music interests. While in Indianapolis did so with penitentiaries of Louisiana.
he also recorded the magnificent warmth,
I n the late 1950s and 60s, from obscurity and enabled them Old Cornelia fiddler John W Summers. Then, drawing on In 1976, Art moved to the
Americans intrigued by to reach a new audience were John Highway, oil on inspired, like so many of his memories University of Georgia in Athens,
their vernacular music Cohen, Mike Seeger, Sam Charters, linen, 1999, by generation, by Harry Smith’s 1952 LP of the where he taught at the Lamar Dodd
began to venture into Chris Strachwitz, George Mitchell, Rosenbaum, collection Anthology of American people who School of Art for 30 years, becoming
the places where it was David Evans and – perhaps the most right, playing Folk Music, he sought out players had taught the university’s first Wheatley
typically made, taking variously talented of all of them – the banjo in 2013 of southern banjo styles, such as him professor in fine arts. He and his
tape recorders with them. the song collector, musician, writer, Buell Kazee and Bascom Lamar wife, Margo (nee Newmark), whom
For some this was purely painter and teacher Art Rosenbaum. WILLIAM B WINBURN; Lunsford, and transmitted their he had married in 1966, lived
a private quest, while others MARGO NEWMARK music in the instruction book Old- outside the city in an ageing ranch
secured tiny budgets from folk Art, who has died aged 83, had ROSENBAUM Time Mountain Banjo (1968) and the house. She, too, was a painter and
music record companies to tape unbounded and inexhaustible album Five String Banjo (1973). musician, a fine photographer and
their discoveries at length. curiosity. As a teenager with a a collaborator in all their work.
holiday job in Michigan, he heard Art was born in Ogdensburg,
Out of this ferment of field the songs of migrant workers and, New York, the eldest son of Della Wherever Art went in Georgia, he
recording emerged artists such having taped them, realised this (nee Spark) and David Rosenbaum, found music to record, whether it
as the bluesmen Fred McDowell was more than a hobby: “Along and grew up in Indianapolis, where was the old-time stringband led by
and Robert Pete Williams, and the with being a passionate enthusiast his father worked as a physician the fiddler Gordon Tanner, son of
old-time singer, banjo and guitar for the type of music I loved, at the Veterans Administration the 20s record-maker Gid Tanner,
player Roscoe Holcomb, as well I was a documentarian.” hospital. He studied at Columbia the banjo songs of the “outsider
as “rediscovered” figures from artist” Howard Finster, or African-
the record catalogues of the 20s A few years later, living in American “ring shouts” performed
including Dock Boggs, Clarence Indianapolis, he came across by the McIntosh County Shouters.
Ashley and Furry Lewis. Scrapper Blackwell, once nationally
famous as the guitar-playing His work was celebrated in 2007
Among the rambling recorders partner of the singer and pianist by the Dust-to-Digital box set Art of
who retrieved these musicians Leroy Carr on bestselling blues Field Recording, Volume I, which
gathered material from more than
half a century, accompanied by his
sketches and paintings and Margo’s
photographs. In 2008, the set won
a Grammy for best historical album
and was followed by a second
volume. The scope of the more than
200 recordings reveals the breadth
of Art’s fascination with traditional
music: old-world ballads, sacred
music from several southern
denominations, dance music,
blues – music both professional and
amateur, public and private.

“Art was on a mission to go out
and meet people who made music,”
said Lance Ledbetter of Dust-to-
Digital Records. “He recorded their
songs, learned them on his banjo,
became their friend, painted them
in his murals, and invited them to
perform at art galleries, museums,
concert halls and folk festivals.
His mind contained a database
of vernacular music but, unlike
an algorithm, when Art recalled
particular songs or tunes, he did
so with warmth and tenderness,
drawing on memories of the people
who taught them to him.”

Art’s books include Folk Visions
and Voices: Traditional Music and
Song in North Georgia (1983); Shout
Because You’re Free: The African
American Ring Shout Tradition in
North Georgia (1998); and further
instruction books in banjo-playing.
A retrospective of his paintings
and drawings, Weaving His Art
on Golden Looms, was held at the
Georgia Museum of Art in 2006.

He is survived by Margo and
their son, Neil, and by his brother,
Victor, and sister, Jenny.
Tony Russell

Art (Arthur Spark) Rosenbaum,
folklorist, painter and musician,
born 6 December 1938; died
4 September 2022

Monday 3 October 2022 The Guardian •

 [email protected] 7
 @guardianobits

Richard Burnett His economy of movement Georgian farmhouse in Godstone,
was pronounced: his arms and Surrey, he was the fifth child of
Fortepianist and founder hands barely moved and there Joan (nee Humphery) and Sir
was something fascinating in the Leslie Burnett. His parents were
of a museum dedicated way his fingers connected with the wealthy by virtue of being two of
keys with dexterous, un-apparent the proprietors of Hay’s Wharf,
to the playing of antique vigour. When demonstrating a warehouse on the Thames in
instruments Dick liked to tell the London. Nonetheless, the family
keyboard instruments story of Muzio Clementi, “father home had one bathroom and no
of the modern pianoforte”, passed central heating, because Dick’s
I n 1976 the fortepianist on by Clementi’s grandson, of Burnett father had it removed.
Richard Burnett, who has being shown into his grandfather’s loved to
died aged 90, opened the study and finding the great man buy things At Cheam school, in Headley,
Finchcocks Living Museum dramatically playing something of he thought Hampshire, the matron taught
of Music in Goudhurst, his own composition, on a piano the public Dick to juggle, a skill later
Kent. For the next four of his own manufacture, while would like supplanted by tightrope walking
decades it was home to reading from a volume, not of and unicycling. From Eton he
more than 100 antique But it was the open afternoons Burnett, centre, music, but Thucydides. went to the Royal College of Music
keyboard instruments and their that originally surprised and at the piano, and the Royal Academy of Music
music, realised by established delighted visitors, at their peak with the tenor As a performer, Dick was the in London (1951-52), and then to
performers – or by anyone who numbering 20,000 a year, for whom Ian Partridge, opposite, holding an audience take a degree (1957) in economics
turned up. This was previously the instruments were a novelty, and left, and the enraptured, but with a lack of and modern languages – Danish,
unheard of. Other museums the hosts’ informality provided an actor Prunella drama that made him seem almost Swedish and Norwegian – at
disapproved, though some unparalleled experience. Scales. They absent from the proceedings. Once King’s College, Cambridge. There,
eventually copied the idea, and gave more I asked him afterwards what he before an expectant audience,
Melvyn Tan was among the pianists Visitors were captivated by than 400 had been thinking of. “Jokes,” he having been given the wrong
who drew direct inspiration for the Dick’s humorous way of imparting performances replied, and indeed his could be sort of rope, he fell theatrically
course of their careers from Dick’s information. They were also of their show An very funny and well-crafted. into the Cam. Later he studied
pioneering philosophy. taken aback by the quality of his Evening With German, Dutch and Japanese.
performances: he got early pianos, Queen Victoria He tried to match each composer
He and his wife, the writer and not just his own, to be sparkling with the right instrument and was By nature, Dick was
Katrina Hendrey, had bought in the treble, nobly thundering in FRITZ CURZON careful not to get between the contradictory: kind, energetic,
Finchcocks, an early Georgian the bass, with every variation in listener and the music. Notable generous and brilliant, but
manor house with 13 acres, in 1970 between and witty usage of pedal among his recordings on the Amon sometimes baffled. He needed
and ran it together. It was then and knee-lever devices. Ra label are The Romantic Fortepiano space in which to experiment, and
in a shocking state, but provided – works by Hummel, Czerny, cared very much for his home and
workshops for Adlam Burnett, Schubert, Chopin and Schumann what could go into it. In 2008 he
the firm that Dick ran with Derek on his 1826 Viennese instrument was appointed MBE.
Adlam, building replicas and by Conrad Graf – and pieces by the
restoring instruments with a gifted American Louis Moreau Gottschalk, He married Katrina in 1969,
team of craftsmen until 1980. on pianos by Broadwood and and in 1984 they formed the
Erard as well as the Graf. With his Finchcocks Charity for musical
When the house was opened as a friend the violinist Ralph Holmes education. They maintained
museum, it provided an ideal setting he recorded Beethoven sonatas, their long-term commitment
for instruments to sound in the sort and with another, Alan Hacker, a to Finchcocks until the flow
of ambience for which they were Clarinet Collection. of visitors diminished and the
intended. There was always a full repairs needed to the collection
programme of events throughout An Evening With Queen Victoria and the house were too great. In
the open season, culminating each was devised by Katrina from letters 2016 I helped organise the sale by
September in formal concerts and diaries for Prunella Scales, who auction of most of its contents,
involving well-known artists who excelled in fleshing out Victoria’s and 14 historical instruments,
loved going there. character in a comical way, facing the covering the whole repertoire,
magnitude of her position as a girl, have found a home at a new centre
A room at Burnett’s Finchcocks Musical Museum, Kent PARKER PHOTOGRAPHY/ALAMY gathering confidence and eventually in Tunbridge Wells. .
reaching problematic old age. Dick’s
selection of music for the tenor Katrina survives him.
Ian Partridge and himself included Julian Machin
works by Mendelssohn; the queen’s
consort, Prince Albert; Gilbert and Richard Leslie Burnett, fortepianist
Sullivan’s account of a republican and collector, born 23 June 1932;
monarchy from The Gondoliers; and died 8 July 2022
a Fugue in E by JS Bach.
Birthdays
Over three decades, it ran for
400 performances. The show’s Sir Stephen Brown, former
original piano was a marquetry president of the family division, 98;
Collard & Collard from around Christopher Bruce, choreographer,
1840, whose scaly aspect gave it 77; Lindsey Buckingham, musician,
an unpromising resemblance to a 73; Chubby Checker, singer, 81;
giant lizard. Typically un-resonant Sir Terence English, cardiac
of its period, it blossomed under surgeon, 90; Neale Fraser, tennis
Dick’s considered coaxing, as Irving player, 89; David Hart Dyke,
Wardle noted in his review of the writer and former Falklands naval
first performance at the Old Vic commander, 84; Rachel Maclean,
in London in 1980, which led to Conservative MP, 57; Shazia Mirza,
performances all round the world comedian, 47; Clive Owen, actor,
and was shown on BBC TV. 58; Ruggero Raimondi, operatic
bass, 81; Sir Sonny Ramphal,
I witnessed the whole former Commonwealth secretary
Finchcocks museum venture, general, 94; The Rev Al Sharpton,
from acting as a teenage car civil rights activist, 68; Jake
park assistant when it opened to Shears, singer and songwriter, 44;
sourcing and acquiring many of the Gwen Stefani, singer, 53; Rebecca
instruments, pieces of furniture Stephens, mountaineer and writer,
and paintings. Dick was a true 61; Mark Tami, Labour MP, 60.
collector and loved to buy things
he thought the public would like.

Born at Stratton, an early

• The Guardian Monday 3 October 2022

8 Puzzles

Saturday’s Killer sudoku Codeword
solutions
Easy Each letter of the alphabet makes at least one appearance in the grid,
Sandwich sudoku and is represented by the same number wherever it appears. The letters
The normal rules of decoded should help you to identify other letters and words in the grid.
Killer Sudoku 833 Sudoku apply: fill each
row, column and 3x3
box with all the numbers
from 1 to 9. In addition,
the digits in each inner
shape (marked by dots)
must add up to the
number in the top corner
of that box. No digit can
be repeated within an
inner shape.

Medium

Cryptic crossword

Solution No. 28,871
NSUAS SP I
I NCAPABLY CERES
K HMBMA E I
EM I L Y E UME N I D E S
SSSE A
F EMA L E S THE A T R E
A E RROL
THR E E AMY A P R I L
EEVL D I
S I S T E R S WE I RDOS
T ARCO
CHARLOTTE AORTA
LTE I NTRN
ARENA AC CRE T I ON
NDRNHDT E
Guardian cryptic crossword No 28,878 set by Nutmeg
This week’s winners of The
Language Lover’s Puzzle Book 12345678 Across Down

are: 1 Insisted on personal pieces, 1 Worst fate potentially
Maddie James, Box; Tim
Kearns, Bridge of Earn, Perth; initially at a loss (5,2,4,4) encountered in bath? (4,5)
Peter Holland, Stone; Roisin
Ryan, Bristol; Peter Wilson 9 Rather greasy seafood with a dry 2 First 20 letters broadcast not
Washington.
Please allow 28 days for 9 10 stuffing (7) my choice? (2,2,3)
delivery
10 A knight in royal household 3 Ulster Times introduced to man

running for herald (7) on board craft (8)

11 12 11 Nature trail (3) 4 Drag, shifting old pigment (5)

12 We dig and unearth a potty (3,8) 5 Audibly criticise acts providing

13 Hero on overseas trip books event night music (9)

for players (10) 6 Decent honest Conservative? (6)

15 Kind of word sent round in brief 7 Contrasting articles from Paris
13 14 15 16 note (4)
and London on ‘love

18 Path commentator’s travelled up in moderation’ (7)
17 (4)
8 Determined to attack (3,2)

18 19 20 21 20 Dissatisfied fellow delivered a 14 Preacher’s spoken, boring

lecture on corruption (10) Scrooge (9)

22 23 Advanced tips on better 16 Convertible seating poorly tested

information technology within working group (3,6)

23 24 25 for businessmen (11) 17 Regularly curved track? (8)

25 Part of boot from West? (3) 19 Regal killer has right implement

26 Plants unknown in drained area lying around (7)

beside meadows (7) 21 Venerable revolutionary I

26 27 27 Anticipate Macron’s ready to satisfied in bed (7)

accommodate English politician 22 Sturdy plant blocking stone path

(3-4) (6)

28 Investigator’s prime article that 23 Rent such as minister retains (5)

28 may upset diplomatic aide (8,7) 24 Tint of marine coats particularly
intense at first (5)
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