Новости за 28.07.2015

One year ago, there a silly kerfuffle when economic output finally crawled back to the level previously achieved on the eve of the 2008 recession. The Chancellor hailed this as a “major milestone” and much of the media took up this line in their reports, presenting the data as a sign of economic success.

From the British traveller’s perspective, the best thing about New York’s LaGuardia Airport is that you can’t fly there direct from the UK. This 20th-century muddle has enough trouble coping with domestic flights in the new millennium without adding the complication of international arrivals. Flights from Britain instead touch down at JFK and Newark, which suffer from much the same problems as “LGA”.

So the “Glorious Twelfth” is nearly upon us again: in a fortnight’s time, on 12 August, the grouse shooting season opens, and the heather moorlands of Northern England and Scotland will ring out to the sound of shotguns firing on the world’s most expensive gamebirds.

So far the Turkish offensive against “terrorism” has been directed primarily against the PKK Kurdish guerrillas in the mountains of northern Iraq rather than Isis in Syria.

When he narrows his eyes and stares into the camera, there is something of Jose Mourhino about Jeremy Corbyn. “The Special One” of Labour’s left wing may be a bit older and have less of a confident swagger, but he has the tousled grey hair, the deep-set eyes and the craggy, unshaven look of the all-conquering Chelsea manager.

It might have been a throwback to Nazi Berlin as more than 2,000 athletes filed past a grim statue of “Germania” into an austere, stone amphitheatre built for Hitler’s 1936 Olympics.

It took him three days, but Lord Sewel’s resignation, after first saying he would take a leave of absence pending an investigation into his behaviour, is possibly the only sensible thing he’s done in the last month.

If you thought Britain’s approach to the so-called Islamic State was already confused and misguided – it just got a whole lot worse. It seems that, when David Cameron last week said that he wanted Britain to “do more” against Isis, he actually meant more to make the situation messier, more volatile and more dangerous.

In 1968, a group of Russian dissidents wrote a letter to The Times, asking Britons to support two writers who had been imprisoned for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda". Their letter inspired 16 eminent intellectuals to write back, including Bertrand Russell and A J Ayer, and the result was Index on Censorship – a magazine, a pressure group, and a tireless champion of free speech. Now, the USSR is no more, but Index on Censorship is still campaigning.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayip Erdogan, is playing a dangerous game of divide and conquer, both at home and in the region. Having spent the best part of the conflict in Syria acquiescing to Isis – which has been using Turkish territory as a transit point into Syria, and using it to build a lucrative commercial hub – Turkey has started targeting the jihadis in Syria.

The benefits of a musical education on the development of all young people, the warning cries about cuts in music education in the state sector and the need for government to reverse their refusal to make arts education part of the national curriculum have been shouted from the rooftops. While we need to keep up the pressure on the Government, the National Youth Orchestra accepts that arts organisations have a role to play and we've decided to act.

Tesco shocked the nation today by deciding to remove from its shelves Ribena, Capri Sun and other soft drinks you fondly remember chugging like it was the elixir of life after running directionless around the playground at lunch during your youth.

The Labour leadership election is under attack - or at least that is what some would make you think. Today, Harriet Harman, interim leader of the party, assured members that “rigorous due diligence” was being taken to prevent any sort of “infiltration” from the hard-left or Conservatives backing Corbyn in an election-destroying long game, following a Sunday Times report. But is this just a bit of media-scaremongering from the right? Forgive me if I don’t sign up to the widely held belief that... Читать дальше...

The word erogenous comes from the Greek eros which means love, and the English genous, meaning producing. An erogenous zone is an area of the human body that has heightened sensitivity, which, when stimulated, may create a sexual response such as relaxation, thoughts of sexual fantasies, sexual arousal and orgasm.

Topshop’s been under the spotlight this week for using mannequins which are, according to one woman, “ridiculously shaped” and responsible for fuelling women’s body insecurities. That woman was angry customer Laura Berry, whose Facebook post about the tiny mannequins attracted thousands of ‘likes’, messages and comments – enough to grab the attention of Topshop bosses, and lead to the mannequins’ removal. It turns out more women care about plastic replica people that you could ever have imagined. Читать дальше...

It’s official: we should all be very, very worried about cake. Stop fretting about rent and bills and the housing crisis and start having nightmares about Victoria sponge – because according to one of the new Great British Bake Off contestants Ugne Bubnaityte, cake is a sin. Writing on her blog, Bubnative described the much-loved treat as ‘nutritional sin’ and – just to hammer the point home - ‘sinful’ goodness.

It can come as no great surprise that Facebook has announced the UK roll-out of its legacy feature today, which enables profiles to be managed after a user’s death. After all, social media is now an integral part of most people’s lives – why not make it a part of your death as well?

A strange poem called "Worst Day Ever?" is cropping up everywhere at the moment, after being pinned around London and shared across social media. Upon first reading it may seem to be a completely negative take on life, but offers a surprising twist when then read backwards. With this in mind I thought I'd have a go doing something similar, but on the surprising disparity between what the Tory government said before they gained power and what they are actually doing. Now that really is a story with a twist... Читать дальше...

Of course there is going to be another series of Channel 4’s Married at First Sight, because people hated it. As long as things stay out of the courtroom, moral outrage is what feeds the media machine. And this is how we date now, right? Everything is just a snap of the fingers – or a swipe of the touchscreen – away. We rely on apps and online search engines to match us with others based on proximity, gender, height, interests, aspirations, hopes and dreams…as if these are all equally quantifiable, subject to an exact science. Читать дальше...

What was the most shocking thing about former Deputy Speaker of the Lords John Sewel’s conduct in the last few days? Was it the moment that he was caught on film, released by the Sun on Sunday, saying that he’d quite like an Asian prostitute to join him and his powder-snorting female companions, because, ‘They sort of look innocent but you know they’re whores. That’s a nice combination, isn’t it?’ Was it the moment he addressed his expenses in conversation with the women; ‘£200 a day?’ they exclaim... Читать дальше...

A report published today by the Resolution Foundation think-tank makes for depressing reading, especially for people in their twenties. Despite recent falls in overall unemployment, the outlook for young people remains gloomy: insecure work, zero-hours contracts, and old codgers generally getting in the way of their careers and hopes of prosperity.

The revelation by a weekend newspaper of Lord Sewel’s apparent pastimes feels like a throwback to the 1980s, when politicians were regular and easy fodder for the tabloids. That a powerful man seems to have a penchant for drugs and prostitutes comes as little shock. But the fact that the peer presumably believed he stood little to no chance of getting caught out is more surprising – if equally dispiriting. Whichever way you look at it, Lord Sewel’s behaviour is unacceptable, and doubly so for... Читать дальше...

The Kurds were born to be betrayed. Almost every would-be Middle East statelet was promised freedom after the First World War, and the Kurds even sent a delegation to Versailles to ask for a nation and safe borders.