St Patrick’s Day cheer puts Brexit woes in the shade
Dancers take part in a St Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin on March 17 CHARLES MCQUILLAN/GETTY IMAGESA boost in spending in bars and restaurants for St Patrick’s Day helped consumer spending to rise at its fastest pace in five months during March. Visa’s Irish consumer spending index, which measures all payment types, including those made with cash and online, found that consumer spending jumped by 2.7 per cent during the third month of this year compared with the same period last year. This was much higher than in February, when consumer spending dropped by 0.6 per cent compared with the same month in 2018. This was partly attributed to consumers being nervous about the then-looming deadline for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. Bars, restaurants and hotels profited from the holiday spending ALAMYDespite the improvement, the study, produced by IHS Markit, a UK global information provider, found that the rate…
Source:The Times
April 17, 2019 23:04 UTC
‘Lack of evidence’ in Clutha crash inquiry
The helicopter that crashed into the Clutha pub in Glasgow in 2013 did not have a flight recorder fitted TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JAMES GLOSSOPAn air accident investigator has expressed his regret over the lack of available evidence that could be retrieved from a police helicopter that crashed on to the roof of a pub, killing ten people. Peter Wivell, a senior inspector at the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), told a fatal accident inquiry it was “frustrating for everyone” that some questions could not be answered. David Traill, the pilot, as well as two crew members and seven customers in the Clutha bar in Glasgow were killed when the aircraft crashed on to the roof of the building on November 29, 2013. The inquiry was told that the helicopter did not have a flight recorder fitted. Mr Wivell reiterated calls made by the AAIB for more aircraft, both…
Source:The Times
April 17, 2019 23:04 UTC
Gene therapy helps ‘bubble boys’ live in the outside world
David Vetter, who lives with the syndrome, inspired the film The Boy in the Plastic Bubble CHANNEL 4/GETTY IMAGESA gene therapy has been developed to treat “bubble boy” disease, a condition in which babies lacking a functioning immune system must live in a sterile plastic environment. The disease, X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency or SCID-X1, is a rare, inherited disorder in which immune cells do not develop or function normally. The most famous patient was David Vetter, an American boy who died in 1984 at the age of 12. His life inspired the film The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, which starred John Travolta in 1976. In a trial involving eight youngsters, scientists replaced the faulty gene that causes the condition.
Source:The Times
April 17, 2019 23:04 UTC
The feuds, the faces and the farcical
Given Tim Martin’s long-established (and vociferous) anti-European Union views, it is no surprise to find the mullet-coiffed JD Wetherspoon chairman and founder devoting several pages of the latest edition of Wetherspoon News, the in-house organ, to the debate. On the letters pages, he nevertheless found time to deal with more pressing issues taxing his pub customers — like empty ketchup bottles, a barman’s ignorance of how to make a Whisky Mac, whether baby-changing facilities should be in the ladies’ loo, the merits of a Welsh miner’s breakfast and why some pubs no longer ring a bell for last orders. Serious issues all. Gin Lane by William Hogarth ALAMYItaly, a taste of the pastThe whole world seems to be cashing in on the gin boom. Who knew the Italians made…
Source:The Times
April 17, 2019 23:04 UTC
Lender staying way ahead of its peers after record quarter
Niall Dorrian, chief executive of Linked Finance, says his firm holds about 85 per cent of the Irish peer-to-peer lending marketOne of Ireland’s largest next-wave lending platforms has said that its levels of funding issued jumped by nearly a third over the first three months of 2018. Linked Finance, a peer-to-peer lending service focused on the small business sector, said that it had issued €11.3 million in funding over the course of the first quarter of the year, up from €8.6 million for the same period in 2018. Peer-to-peer lending involves private investors providing capital to businesses looking for small loans with less of a wait-time than that encountered via traditional banks. Linked Finance said that its 32 per cent growth across the quarter represented a new record for the company, which was established in 2013. Niall Dorrian, chief executive, said that growth had continued…
Source:The Times
April 17, 2019 23:04 UTC
We didn’t expect all this abuse, admits Twitter founder Jack Dorsey
Jack Dorsey said that his company particularly needed to address how to combat abuse of women PRAKASH SINGH/AFPTwitter makes it “super easy” to abuse and harass others, especially women, its co-founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey has admitted. The head of the social media platform said the company was looking at how to fundamentally change Twitter to combat abuse that users receive, as well as the spread of hate speech and fake news. “We have seen abuse, we have seen harassment, we have seen manipulation, automation, human co-ordination, misinformation. These are dynamics that we were not expecting 13 years ago,” Mr Dorsey, 42, said. Twitter has 321 million monthly active users worldwide and has been accused of allowing state actors to influence national elections on its platform, as well as letting toxic accounts linked with extremist groups profilerate and allowing racism, misogyny…
Source:The Times
April 17, 2019 23:04 UTC
Sturgeon: Independence would be nothing like Brexit disorder
Nicola Sturgeon yesterday. She will set out her independence strategy next week KEN JACK/ALAMYNicola Sturgeon has said that there would be “nothing disorderly” about Scotland leaving the United Kingdom as she prepared to outline her plan for a second independence referendum. The first minister was branded “deluded” by unionists who said that independence would be “monumentally more complicated” than Brexit. Speaking to journalists at the Scottish Trades Union Congress in Dundee, Ms Sturgeon said that “there will be nothing disorderly about Scottish independence when it happens”. She added: “You only have to contrast the Scottish independence…
Source:The Times
April 17, 2019 23:04 UTC
Sturgeon is out of step on trans rights, MSPs claim
Gillian Martin lost her job as a junior minister after it was revealed she had made transphobic comments ROGER GAISFORD/ALAMYThree prominent SNP MSPs have raised concerns over Nicola Sturgeon’s position on transgender rights, according to leaked messages. A minister, a former minister and a committee convener appeared to suggest the first minister was “out of step” with her party colleagues on the issue. Ruth Maguire, the convener of Holyrood’s equalities and human rights committee, shared a quote from a speech that Ms Sturgeon gave at a UN event in New York in February, online. It read: “As an ardent feminist, I don’t see the greater recognition of transgender rights as a threat to me as a woman or to my feminism.” Ms Maguire shared her displeasure with the other MSPs by commenting “FFS”. Gillian Martin, who lost her job as a junior education minister…
Source:The Times
April 17, 2019 23:04 UTC
Bureaucrats pour cold water on Burning Man festival
Burning Man, which takes place on federal land in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, is under threat from bureaucrats ALAMYBurning Man, a huge yearly party in the Nevada desert created as an experiment in free expression, self-sufficiency and community living, is under threat from the federal bureaucrats. Organisers had applied to extend the festival’s permit to 2028 and increase the number of staff and festival-goers — known as “Burners” — from 80,000 to 100,000. In response the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which oversees the dry lakebed where the festival is held, has issued an environmental impact report running to almost 400 pages, whose recommendations threaten to change the face of the event. Among the BLM’s suggested improvements are the hiring of security guards to screen for drugs and weapons, a perimeter barrier to protect against mass shootings, and the use of skips on…
Source:The Times
April 17, 2019 23:04 UTC
Dugdale was abandoned in the legal jungle
During her stint in the I’m A Celebrity . jungle in 2017, Kezia Dugdale was surrounded by fairweather friends competing to win a popularity contest. How familiar that feeling must have been when Scottish Labour bosses abruptly announced they were not stumping up her legal fees to help to defend this defamation action. It began with unwavering loyalty: the party swung in behind her, rejecting an offer to defend the suit by the Daily Record, which had published the column from Ms Dugdale, and insisted on assembling a legal team for its former Scottish leader. Labour initially believed it had a duty of care to one of its own, underlined by the support of Iain McNicol, who was…
Source:The Times
April 17, 2019 23:04 UTC
Want a threesome? Try Feeld, the polyamory dating app
By Blackfriars Bridge a tall, dark, thirtysomething man, not unattractive, ran up to me, gasping, “Excuse me,” in a foreign accent, “are you Swedish?”“No!” I barked. “I am British!”“Oh,” he said, nervously stroking his phone, then: “Are you single?”Hello, I thought, but replied: “I’m married.” The man frowned, then said: “Sorry, but I have to ask . I’m Mexican, my wife is Swedish. We wanted a threesome, but . could you join us for a foursome?”…
Source:The Times
April 17, 2019 23:04 UTC
Housing market dragged down as buyers in southeast get jitters
London and the southeast, which are “more vulnerable” to Brexit, led the slowdown GETTY IMAGESHouse prices grew at their slowest pace in more than six years in February as the southeast of England dragged down the rest of the market with its first fall in prices since 2011, according to official figures. Average house prices in Britain rose by 0.6 per cent to £226,000 in the year to February, according to the Office for National Statistics. This was slower than the 1.7 per cent growth in the year to January and the lowest annual growth rate since September 2012, when the economy was contracting. Analysts said that buyers and sellers were waiting for clarity over Britain’s future trading relationship with the European Union before committing to major transactions. Buyers are holding off in anticipation of a house price drop…
Source:The Times
April 17, 2019 23:04 UTC
It was a cruel defeat but we have to accept it, says Pep Guardiola
Guardiola’s quadruple dreams are over after the defeat by Spurs REUTERS/Phil NobleManchester City’s quadruple dreams are over after Tottenham Hotspur knocked Pep Guardiola’s team out of the Champions League in a thrilling and controversial match. Spurs benefited from two video assistant referee (VAR) decisions to beat City on away goals and set up a semi-final tie against Ajax. Liverpool will meet Barcelona after they beat Porto 4-1 last night to seal a 6-1 aggregate win. Guardiola, 48, celebrated wildly on the touchline in injury time after he thought that Raheem Sterling had scored a crucial fifth goal to win the tie, but VAR overturned the decision because Sergio Agüero was offside when Christian Eriksen’s back-pass flicked Bernardo Silva’s right leg in the build-up. Guardiola — whose side have won the Carabao Cup, have reached the FA Cup…
Source:The Times
April 17, 2019 23:04 UTC
TV review: Chimerica; Earth from Space
ChimericaChannel 4★★★☆☆Earth from SpaceBBC Two★★★★☆Lucy Kirkwood’s 2013 stage play Chimerica, which I didn’t see, got five-star reviews and five Olivier awards. You may expect that this complex geopolitical story hinging on the iconic photo of Tank Man, the protester who stopped a Chinese army tank during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, would play out still better as a TV series, especially since it was updated to include Donald Trump’s presidency and so-called fake news. However, I doubt anyone saw five stars in this opening episode. I could see an excellent plot and at the end of the series a brilliant twist (I have watched all four episodes), plus a decent lead performance by Alessandro Nivola as the disgraced American photojournalist Lee…
Source:The Times
April 17, 2019 23:04 UTC
Times letters: Notre Dame and the challenge of rebuilding
Sir, The fire at Notre Dame is deeply upsetting. The restoration promised by President Macron will need the skills and craftsmanship of many individuals to complete it. We work closely with many of the great cathedrals across the country and in the past year have actively supported the training of 23 stonemasons. We in the UK have a depth of skills and experience that could be invaluable to the team working in Paris and stand ready to assist in whatever way we can. The training is an…
Source:The Times
April 17, 2019 23:04 UTC