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James Timpson: an inspired appointment
𤣠Laffinâ Kamala | đ Merci, non | â˘ď¸ Rusting rivers
In the headlines
Rachel Reeves has unveiled a series of planning reforms that she says will âfix the foundations of Britainâs economyâ. In her first speech since taking office, the Chancellor said the government would reinstate compulsory housebuilding targets for local councils and end the âabsurdâ ban on new onshore wind turbines. A scramble is under way in France to form a new government after yesterdayâs election led to a hung parliament. In a shock result, Marine Le Penâs far-right National Rally finished third behind a leftwing alliance and Emmanuel Macronâs centrists. More than six million Britons are planning to work from the beach this summer, says The Times. A study by MoneySuperMarket found that a third of employees benefit from âwork from anywhereâ policies, and that about half of them are planning to take advantage by logging on from overseas. Get ready for âsun, sea and spreadsheetsâ.
Comment
James Timpson: an inspired appointment
Keir Starmer is looking beyond the usual pool of political talent to fill his Cabinet, says Libby Purves in The Times. We now have an experienced KC as attorney general, Sir Patrick Vallance as science minister and, in an act of âpolitical and practical geniusâ, businessman James Timpson as minister for prisons, parole and probation. Timpsonâs 2,000 shops offer key-cutting, shoe repairs and dry cleaning. He makes decent profits, refers to his 5,600 employees as âcolleaguesâ, and fixes things. Itâs hard to think of anything more âreassuringly useful, workaday, efficient and familiarly Britishâ.
More importantly, there is surely no one fitter for this ministry. Timpson pioneered the practice of hiring ex-offenders, chaired the Prison Reform Trust and founded an advisory board linking prisons with employers. His good-humoured, unsentimental practicality is entirely devoid of the âmawkish performative pityâ or âvague helpless blaming of âsocietyââ that so often afflict do-gooders. He likes work, and understands the dignity and satisfaction it brings. And he knows that not only are our prisons an often unredemptive mess, which condemn offenders to âsqualor, boredom and the risk of radicalisationâ; they are also full. Timpson argues that just a third of the nearly 100,000 souls currently locked up need confinement. A third could be better employed doing community sentences, as they do in the Netherlands, and the rest mainly just need support through mental illness or personal chaos. Clearly, itâs neither humane nor practical to spend ÂŁ50,000 a head per year making countless, potentially harmless, people âangrier, more depressed and likelier to relapseâ. So good luck to Timpson, a man who sees when things need fixing, âand sets about itâ.
Architecture
A thread on X by art writer James Lucas showcasing the worldâs most beautiful metro stations has racked up more than 32 million views. It includes the glittering violet ceiling of Toledo in Naples; the cornicing and mosaics in the yellow dome of Komsomolskaya in Moscow; the ornamented vaults of the Soviet-era Alisher Navoiy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan; the raw, unrefined tunnel of Swedenâs RĂĽdhuset carved out of the rock beneath Stockholm; and the âwaffle vaultâ ceiling of Foggy Bottom in Washington DC. See the rest here.
Inside politics
If Joe Biden does stand down in the presidential race, says Axios, Kamala Harris would be âall but unbeatableâ for the Democratic nomination. Despite fears over his vice presidentâs unpopularity, Biden would almost certainly endorse her, and the Obamas and Clintons would likely follow. So potential challengers would not only be saying ânot your turnâ to the first black, female vice president; theyâd also be going against âthe sitting president and two former presidentsâ. And unlike other hopefuls, Harris would have âformidableâ campaign apparatus already in place, from the White House, the Democratic National Committee and the Biden-Harris campaign. Donald Trump last week bestowed the vice president with one of his trademark nicknames: in reference to her âgiddier momentsâ, he called her âLaffinâ Kamala Harrisâ.
Nature
Kutuk River in Alaskaâs Gates of the Arctic National Park. Ken Hill/National Park Service
Dozens of rivers in Alaska are turning orange, says Atlas Obscura. Scientists say this âalarming trendâ is the result of the waters effectively rusting: as permafrost melts, long-stored acids and metals â including iron â are released into rivers where they interact with oxygen, turning the water from clear blue to a milky orange. There are now 75 carrot-coloured rivers and streams across the state, creating a tangle of ribbons that can be seen from space.
Comment
Jean-Luc MĂŠlenchon, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. Getty
Once again, France is ungovernable
On first glance, says Ben Hall in the FT, Emmanuel Macronâs snap election gamble appears to have paid off. His aim was to break the âpopulist feverâ gripping France and halt the far-rightâs âseemingly inexorable riseâ â and, sure enough, yesterdayâs second round saw Marine Le Penâs much-hyped National Rally (RN) beaten into third place. The RN moans that this was only because of a âcynicalâ tactical voting arrangement between Nouveau Front Populaire, the left-wing grouping that unexpectedly won the most seats, and Macronâs Ensemble alliance, which finished a better-than-expected second. But cynical or not, voters âwent along with itâ.
Yet Macron also wanted this election to be a moment of political âclarificationâ for France, and âit has provided anything butâ. The French Parliament is now split into three more or less evenly sized blocs, all âunwilling to work with each otherâ. Jean-Luc MĂŠlenchon, the âbelligerentâ leader of the far-left party that dominates the Nouveau Front Populaire, has already said there will be no compromise on the groupâs âradical tax-and-spend programmeâ. Macron will be hoping that MĂŠlenchonâs bloc will eventually fragment, enabling his party to put together a coalition with the socialists, greens and other moderates. But that could take âweeks if not monthsâ, and the centre-left would demand a high price to switch camps â reversing the presidentâs flagship rise in the pension age, say, or reimposing a wealth tax. All this suggests we could be in for a repeat of the volatile postwar period when âthe presidency was weaker and a raucous parliament was supremeâ. Now, as then, France looks âungovernableâ.
On the way out
Canât speak a word: Lily Collins in Netflixâs Emily in Paris
Just 7,000 British teenagers studied A-level French this year, says The Sunday Times, down from 22,700 in 1996. Itâs partly because so many French teachers left the UK after Brexit, but also reflective of a wider trend in which kids are shunning languages and arts subjects in favour of those they feel will lead to well-paid careers. More than 101,000 students sat maths A-level this year, for example, while 76,130 took psychology and 43,410 did history. French fell out of the top 10 way back in 1997, and is now down to 25th. Ouf.
Life
Getty
If you ever feel like youâre always the bridesmaid, never the bride, remember the great Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare, who died last week aged 88, and whose irreverent works from behind the Iron Curtain made him one of the few Albanian authors whose novels were translated internationally. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature 15 times, but never took the crown.
Snapshot
Snapshot answer
Itâs part of a collection of old Chinese crockery that was found in an attic in Lincolnshire and sold for ÂŁ162,000 at auction. Gill Stewart came upon a box marked âbroken porcelainâ while rooting around for Christmas decorations, says The Sun. The pots and bowls were left to her by her grandfather, who collected them while stationed in China during the Boxer rebellion at the turn of the 20th century. Her first instinct was to stick the whole lot in the bin, but she decided to take it to an auctioneer on the off chance it was worth something.
Quoted
âEven if I were travelling with you, your trip would not be mine.â
Paul Theroux