Country Life 25-Jan-2023

Future Publishing Ltd, 121–141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London W2 6JR 0330 390 6591; www.countrylife.co.uk AMID the dispiriting news last week—that teachers are to go on strike, that the tragedy of Ukraine is relentless, that heating prices surge as it freezes outside and so on—came the pronouncement from the chairwoman of the Food Standards Agency that a cake lying temptingly on a shelf in an office is akin to passive smoking. Apart from the fact that this analogy doesn’t really work—one doesn’t normally inhale cake, plus you can say no to it—she was trying to make a serious point about obesity, its appalling toll on public health and its damaging connection with junk-food advertising. Cake wasn’t the best example to choose, however. Chips limp with oil, fizzy drinks, sweets, fast foods slathered in…

A BILL repealing all the remaining EU laws still on statute books by the end of the year has been described as ‘not democratic’, ‘inefficient and possibly incompetent’ by critics. The Retained EU Law Bill was passed last Wednesday by 59 votes, despite efforts from MPs in both the Conservative party and Opposition to defeat it. The bill will likely face opposition in the House of Lords. The bill will see UK Government departments either repeal or reform all laws derived from the EU that stayed on statute books after the UK formally left the trading bloc in 2020. It is estimated that there are about 4,000 pieces of legislation that will have to be removed in the next 11 months. The EU-derived laws and regulations cover a wide variety of…

Quiz of the week 1) Which is Britain’s largest cathedral? 2) What’s a name for a male otter? 3) Victoria was known as the grandmother of Europe, but how many grandchildren did she have? 4) After Great Britain and Ireland, which is the largest island in the British Isles? 5) Which two great architects worked together in the 19th century to remodel the Houses of Parliament? Word of the week Dissight (noun) Eyesore 100 years ago in COUNTRY LIFE January 27, 1923 IT is difficult to say whether the flower year begins in December or in January, so we are thankful for the long season of blossoming of the Christmas roses (Helleborus niger). The always-welcome yellow winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) is a true January flower and a most accommodating plant, spreading by self-sown seed under leafless shrubs or in…

Letter of the week What’s in a name I WAS interested to read your piece on the amusingly named gritter lorries of Scotland (Town & Country, January 11), but hasten to assure you that puns are also found south of Gretna. Here at the northern edge of the Cheshire plain, I have seen, since Christmas, trucks revelling in the names of Gritter Thunberg and Spreddie Flintoff. Gavin R. Hall, Cheshire The writer of the letter of the week will win a bottle of Pol Roger Brut Réserve Champagne Everything but the kitchen sink WHEN the late-December issue finally arrived on January 10, I found myself despairing again at the concept of ‘the live-in kitchen’. Key trends for 2023 include the ‘death of the sitting room’ (Interiors, December 28, 2022). Actually, it’s not dead. My mother always…

IN a nation where traditional political loyalties have become very weak, our political leaders seem increasingly out of touch when they argue about the things on which they fundamentally agree. That’s why the national mood was caught when Keir Starmer addressed the negotiations with the EU on the Northern Ireland Protocol. He announced in advance that he would support a deal brokered by Rishi Sunak. This is support the Prime Minister may well need in order to face off those who want no deal at all (the look-back-in-anger Brexiteers and the Protestant-ultras). For the farming community in Ireland, a deal is vital because agriculture and food processing is a cross-border activity and its most important export. The DUP fears an agreement because it would then lose its excuse for refusing to…

THE Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, opened its doors to the public just over 25 years ago, in October 1997. Since then, the museum’s signature building of limestone, titanium and glass, by Frank Gehry, has become an internationally recognised symbol of the city. It also continues to attract large numbers of people; last year, it received more than 1¼ million visitors. Athena has nothing but praise for what the Guggenheim at Bilbao has achieved, but, for present purposes, she is less interested in the museum itself than in the myth it created. Not only in Europe, but across the world, local and national governments have sought to re-create what has been dubbed the ‘Bilbao effect’. Put simply, they have been persuaded to invest in culture and striking new architecture in order…