Having worked hard at school, Emmanuel Opoku was rewarded with exceptional exam results and looking forward to university. Despite his tough background in east London, the teenager had big ambitions, hoping that a chemistry degree at world-renowned Imperial College, London, would be followed by a lifetime of scientific research helping to increase access to medicines in the developing world.
News from the Electoral Reform Society that members of the House of Lords who did not vote in the last Parliamentary session claimed £100,000 in expenses is sadly not surprising, but it should be shocking.
Last year, Rebecca’s husband Nick was hit by a car and seriously injured. Here, in one of a series of columns, she writes about the aftermath of his accident
Is Jeremy Corbyn the enemy of Israel and British Jews? That is what the The Jewish Chronicle, some MPs and various sections of the media would have us believe. It is an accusation that is both absurd and menacing. The right, Blairites and hard Zionists have formed the most unholy of alliances to slay the reputation of the next likely leader of the Labour Party. They thought he was a bit-part player, but he has unexpectedly became the front-runner; now every political trick in the book is being used in an attempt bring him down. Читать дальше...
We have nightmares. They have dreams. Isis provides real or fantasy nightmares almost every day. A Croat is beheaded in Egypt. An Isis suicide bomber kills almost 70 civilians in a Baghdad market. Twitter, Fox, ABC News and the British tabloids bring us an “Isis map” – which may be a load of old baloney for all they know, because Isis has said nothing about it. The map purports to show us just how much of the globe Isis intends to swallow at first gulp: Spain, Greece, the former Yugoslavia, Turkey... Читать дальше...
The world governing body of athletics has denied that it suppressed the publication of a report showing that a third of athletes at the 2011 World Championships had confessed to doping, following more alarming claims about drugs abuse in the sport.
A major new advertising campaign from Coca-Cola is one of the most significant developments in the marketing world. Coke may no longer be the world’s most valuable brand – Apple now claims that crown – but the 130-year-old fizzy drink represents a bellwether for brands, even popular culture.
Pianist Paul Wittgenstein, brother of philosopher Ludwig, was quite a guy. His response to losing his right arm in World War One was not to wallow in self-pity, but to work like crazy on his left-hand technique, and commission left-hand concertos from the best composers of the day. But if he didn’t like them, he didn’t play them: he never played Prokofiev’s. When Ravel played him the solo part in his own concerto, Wittgenstein disliked that too, and though he later softened towards it, he insisted on playing it in a way Ravel didn’t like. Читать дальше...
Performed by four male dancers from physical theatre company Gecko, Institute’s ‘story’ is as shifting and fluid as their deliciously watchable movement – it twists and turns and tangles up like their bodies. We seem to begin in some kind of cartoonishly dystopian office, with absurdly outsized filing cabinets.
Two women sit next to each other; Sue MacLaine speaks, Nadia Nadarajah signs. Both seem to imply the other is interpreting for them – there are comically patronising pauses while they wait for them to ‘catch up’.
Kimin Kim’s jump soars like an eagle, but even he can’t lift St Petersburg Ballet Theatre’s trudge through Swan Lake. His guest star turn is a glimpse of sparkle in a glum performance.
World athletics' governing body has been accused of blocking a survey that apparently states a third of top athletes admitting cheating.
When I saw your front page last Sunday – “Corbyn: ‘I’ll bring back Clause Four’”, my heart sank, as I have been impressed with Corbyn’s policies, such as an alternative to austerity, re-nationalise the railways, or to put it another way, get a better return on our investment, Trident, and his general demeanour.
The world premiere of the Northern Ballet's production of 1984 is only weeks away, and its choreographer, Jonathan Watkins, is finessing a pas de deux with the principal dancers.
Rodrigo Rato is a man with plenty on his mind. Spain's former deputy prime minister and the one-time head of the International Monetary Fund is the subject of not one, but three corruption investigations.
It is a scene repeated thousands of times a day at airports up and down the country.
'Hi there, can I help you?" "Gooooood morning, what can I do for you today?" "Hell-o, how can I be of assistance?" I have walked into the local branch of my bank and three super-smiley staff have simultaneously rushed to greet me from behind their sci-fi podiums, eager to assist. Should I feel valued? Because I don't. I just feel like they're embarrassing themselves, and it's all my fault for being there.
Visitors to the Holroyds' retirement bungalow in Hove are usually struck by the extreme austerity of the furnishings. It will be readily observed, for example, that the carpets are nearly threadbare, the kitchen linoleum is so ancient that feet stick to it in hot weather, and three of the conservatory windowpanes are reinforced with brown paper. As for the sofa on which Mr Holroyd, clad in a much-mended sports jacket and heel-less slippers, occasionally reclines to watch cricket on his tiny portable television set... Читать дальше...
There are places, on America’s mid-Atlantic seaboard, where you can still imagine the coastline as the first English settlers must have seen it, more than 400 years ago. No boat marinas, no highways, no beachfront houses for rent: just reeds, marshes and shimmering expanses of water where the sea meets the sky, and the hazy outline of pristine forests.
The discussion about whether Labour is left-wing enough is proof that the Labour party is mad The idea that the Tories won the election because Labour wasn't left enough is misunderstanding the people to a wilfully ignorant level: they voted Tory, for god's sake! But some people can't accept that.
One of Britain's most celebrated theatre directors, Sir Trevor Nunn, is embroiled in a furious row over the all-white cast chosen for his latest Shakespearean production, The Wars of the Roses. The distillation of four history plays, which opens at the Rose Theatre in Kingston next month, will be performed by a 22-strong cast led by Joely Richardson and Rufus Hound.
To date, it has been a rivalry in word only, oft-talked about but yet to materialise.