Over 70 per cent of the population is in long-term unemployment, hospitals have run out of medicine and as a result people are dying. This is an unprecedented situation.Aid and trade have been disrupted, causing immense hardship. If passed, it will cause much damage to the cause of academic freedom. It will also taint NATFHE with the mark of extreme selectivity, to put it at its mildest.PROFESSOR JACOB KLEIN PROFESSOR RAYMOND DWEK, FRSUNIVERSITY OF OXFORD BARONESS DEECH HON FELLOW, ST ANNE’S COLLEGE, OXFORD PROFESSOR MARK PEPYS, FRS UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON PROFESSOR SIR ALAN FERSHT FRS UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGESir: Muslim Aid has made an initial allocation of £100,000 towards the provision of medicine, food, and the other necessities of life to the long suffering poor of Palestine The situation today is grim. But when, of all the conflicts in the world today, you choose to single out for condemnation and boycott the Jewish state, and only the Jewish state, we can only repeat the words of the Times editorial that greeted the similarly perverse AUT actions a year ago, that such “actions are an echo of the Nazi ban on Jewish academics, and the general discrimination so common three generations ago”.We urge the members of NATFHE to oppose this motion. These conflicts are arguably as bitter, if not much more so, than that between Israelis and Palestinians.

Yet the country singled out for condemnation and boycott is Israel. We have heard nothing of the boycotting of Russian, Chinese or other academics.We do not agree with those who claim that any criticism of Israeli policies must stem from sinister motives. Apart from their condemnation by international bodies, and general considerations of harming progress in science, the arts and education, such boycotts, whatever their underlying causes, alienate the very people – university academics – who are generally the most active in trying to alleviate these causes.Whatever the rights and wrongs of Israeli and Palestinian policies in the Middle East conflict, there are many other conflicts in the world today: the Russian crushing of Chechnya; the Sudanese genocide in Darfur; and the Chinese occupation and on-going ethnic takeover of Tibet, to say nothing of severe human rights abuses by governments in many other countries. What would the consequences have been if blackout curtains and the civil defence measures taken during the Second World War had been voluntary? Waiting for George Bush is not an option.ELIZABETH PERKSELLESMERE PORT, CHESHIRE Israel, Palestine and academic boycotts Sir: We heard with dismay that the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education in its national conference on 27 May, will consider a motion recommending boycotting Israeli academics who “will not publicly dissociate themselves from Israeli policies”.Academic boycotts are to our mind unacceptable and counterproductive. We are exhorted to use our vehicles less, buy cars with lower fuel consumption, save water, reduce the temperature in our homes, use low-energy bulbs and so on.The Government was elected to lead us and if the threat is as great as we are told then there should be compulsory measures to ensure that we consume less of the earth’s resources and cause much less pollution. Graphs of lives lost will soon replace graphs of rising carbon levels unless the world not only acknowledges the problem but legislates to change its behaviour.”TADESSE DADIPROGRAMME SUPPORT ADVISOR, TEARFUND HORN OF AFRICA SUB-REGIONAL OFFICE ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIASir: It is now generally accepted that global warming is threatening the future of our planet and is to a large extent the fault of the industrialised world.The environmentalist lobby and even the Government threaten us with dire consequences if we don’t mend our ways. Pastoralists in Ethiopia and Kenya are facing calamities as a result of extended droughts and erratic rainfall.For us the effects of climate change are a daily reality pushing us closer and closer to disaster.

“Man who died at the wheel, Professor Whitlock, was a safe driver No other vehicle involved They can’t find any mechanical defect in his car. “If it was an accident on the motorway, why do they want to involve us?” said Sergeant Comfort, as he and the Inspector drove up the M1.
“They’re not sure it was an accident,” said Braid. Today he is featured in a tale entitled “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Car”. As the weekend looms, I am bringing you a relaxing crime yarn. That’s right, it’s time for another case for the Sixty Second Sleuth, Inspector Keith Braid, so-called because he can solve any crime in one minute flat. With Bill at her side, schmoozing away on her behalf, and with Hillary cutely triangulating away all the beliefs she’s espoused since the two met at college, who’d be bold enough to back against her now? Not, to name one shrewd old punter, Rupert Murdoch.m.norman independent.co.uk

More from Matthew Norman. time and again, the Clintons, whatever their dealings in private, have come together in public to exhibit a supernatural ability to overcome more worrying problems than a little negative polling in the mid-west.

Hillary has come through it all little scathed, and, on the old “what doesn’t kill you” principle, seems stronger than ever.An overtly tough, independent and opinionated woman, and the voters of the Bible Belt don’t sound like the cosiest of electoral bedfellows, Hillary certainly has her flaws – not least a clumpingly leaden, forensic style in the starkest of contrasts to Bill’s “Ah know the pain y’all feel” southern preacher And yet, and yet… Everything there is to be known about her, her family, her friends and her business dealings was exhaustively exhumed long ago, and even if, much like that woman Ms Lewinsky’s blue dress, her dirty washing hasn’t exactly been dry-cleaned, it has at least been thoroughly aired. This week, the New York Times did what, until recently, Mr Murdoch’s Post would have done much more crudely. It devoted its front page and 2,000 words inside to an investigation into the state of this union, and concluded by implying that the marriage is a sham.Anyone who has read Primary Colors, Joe Klein’s brilliant fictionalised account of the first Clinton presidential campaign, will suspect that this paints too simplistic a portrait of a complex and sophisticated relationship. But even if the two loathe each other, and can tolerate being in the same city only through a shared addiction for power, you wonder how much this will damage her prospects.The huge advantage Hillary holds over all other would-be candidates is she is immune to the sort of media prying into her past that destroyed the likes of Gary Hart.

Even so, stand by him though she did, and does, the state of the Clinton marriage continues to fascinate America, and to be deployed by fearful Republicans as the most effective weapon in its arsenal of malevolence. Her maiden name of Rodham seems oddly fitting for a woman perceived as seldom backward in galloping forward, swishing the cane, after the fashion of the late “Professor” Jimmy Edwards, when her husband’s overgrown schoolboy misbehaviour calls for corrective therapy.After her famous faux pas in scorning the moral of Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man, she reversed her position in what now looks a forerunner of the many policy readjustments she continues to make to ditch that pesky liberal tag. If they can’t have him in the Oval Office, maybe enough Americans will suffer Hillary to have him wandering around the West Wing, chastity belt neatly padlocked, pulling the strings.On the other, Hillary is hardly anyone’s puppet. It is in the gloriously ambiguous character of William Jefferson Clinton, needless to say, that both her best shot and her greatest obstacle appear to lie.On the one hand, his persistent popularity is such that, but for the amendment restricting presidents to two terms, he would still be Commander in Chief, and, given his aversion to cretinous foreign-policy mistakes, the world would be a less gruesome and dangerous place. But he and other rivals are long shots now, and few analysts anticipate Hillary failing to win the nomination.The far bigger question, of course, concerns her chances of restoring Bill to the White House with the inaugural and ironic-sounding title of First Gentleman. With barely 18 months until the next US election campaign properly begins, he appears to be having a decent each-way punt on Hillary.And no wonder. According to William Hill, Hillary is 2-1 favourite, and if these odds are partly based on her unrivalled recognition factor with American voters, they also reflect the growing feeling that, after eight years of the idiot, America will feel that the Republicans could use a rest; and that no serious Democrat rival figures on the horizon.There were high hopes for Barack Obama, the ridiculously good looking and charismatic half-Kenyan Illinois congressman, who wowed the Democratic convention with some dazzling oratory after September 11 (having taken a herbal remedy, which tends to blur the vision, that night, I spent an hour confused as why people were waving placards for Osama).

Large chunks of America’s liberal left (the neo-Thatcherite centre right, in our own terms) are taking umbrage at this time-honoured Murdocho-Faustian pact Hillary disdains this analysis. She has accepted Rupert’s kind offer, so she says, because he’s a constituent of hers who believes she is doing a fine job.I trust we can all enjoy this image of the owner of News Corporation and neo-Con Fox TV (with whose top executive Hillary recently spent quality time) as Joe Schmo, the archetypal abrasive, wisecracking New Yorker waiting impatiently in his senator’s outer office for hours, like any normal constituent, to catch two minutes of her surgery time to moan about street lighting, the lack of English of immigrant taxi drivers, and the declining quality of lox.Others read more into it, reasoning that while Mr Murdoch still loathes Hillary, and everything for which she increasingly affects not to stand, her realignment on issues such as military spending and even abortion has been adroit, to say the least – he has never shown a phobia for backing winners. “Don’t Run” was the front-page headline, and, when this injunction was ignored, the title was relentlessly vicious about her on an almost daily basis.
Here we are, six years on, and Mr Murdoch, who increasingly resembles Davros, the creator of the Daleks, will be donning the tuxedo to greet the worthy, the wealthy and the plain weird in the cause of boosting the coffers earmarked for a senatorial re-election already regarded as a shoo-in for Hillary.The fundraiser has not delighted all her fans, in truth. Given the extreme hostility of Mr Murdoch’s papers towards her in the past, news of this soiree deeply intrigues students of American politics.

If either man has support outside his own tribe, it is Abdul Wahid. (Not one of Abdul Wahid’s key negotiators in Abuja was Fur; Minni’s were all Zaghawa.)”All the main tribes are against Minni,” a leader of the independent Darfur Forum told me last month. Their adherence to the agreement is reason enough for many Darfurians to refuse it.The United States, the key player in Abuja, always banked on Minni to bring peace home. In purely military terms, Minni’s is the strongest rebel faction in Darfur. But his Zaghawa tribe comprises less than 10 per cent of the population of Darfur, and the abusive, undisciplined behaviour of his forces has awakened old fears that the tribe has a hidden agenda – occupation of the more fertile lands of others.Abdul Wahid’s Fur, historic rulers of the Sultanate which gives Darfur its name, make up almost one-third of the population. Only two parties have endorsed it: the Sudan government and the faction of the SLA that is led by Minni Minawi. Both believe in domination through force; both are ruled by small and ruthless tribal elites.

The Darfur Peace Agreement, three weeks old today, is, for the moment at least, not worth the paper it is printed on. The Janjaweed militias, the Sudan government’s partner in crime in the first genocide of the 21st century, were not party to the inter-Sudanese peace talks in Abuja and are writing their rejection of it in blood. The ordinary people of Darfur, also shut out of the talks, have little idea what the agreement says and are demonstrating against it, even though the rainy season is approaching and conditions in the overcrowded camps of Darfur are about to deteriorate lethally.
Abdul Wahid Mohamed al Nur, leader of the largest faction of the Sudan Liberation Army, has refused to sign the agreement So has the smaller Justice and Equality Movement. A friend called by satellite telephone from Jebel Marra, the mountainous heartland of Darfur, yesterday.

Janjaweed were attacking barely a mile away and women and children were fleeing for their lives He was “in the middle of a war” Asked what could be done to help him, he said: “Pray”. But he faced up to what could not be done, and he couldn’t bloody do it!”. Probably unequalled, for instance, is this: “I twirled her round the dance floor She said: ‘I hate the way you’re doing it’. I said: ‘Why?’ She said: ‘I’ve got a wooden leg and you’re unscrewing it.’”And let’s hope no one makes too much of another Hill classic, They Said It Could Not Be Done: “They thought that it could not be done Some even said they knew it.

Fallon described the latter as “a very polite group of young lads” He also booked traditional jazz bands across Europe. They included, in their early years, Shirley Bassey, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. He was one of the first to use the bass guitar, doubling on it and the acoustic instrument for the rest of his career.In 1952 Fallon founded the Cana agency and devoted much of his time to promoting the people on his books. He accompanied Lena Horne in 1955 and the leaders he worked for during the Fifties included Ralph Sharon, Humphrey Lyttelton, Harry Parry, Kenny Baker, Tony Crombie, Tubby Hayes and Tony Kinsey.

He worked often with the pianists Lennie Felix and Alan Clare and was the house bassist for the Lansdowne Studio’s record labels. He became friendly with the American singers Josh White and Big Bill Broonzy and separately made several tours with them.The regular groups he worked with included Johnny Duncan’s Blue Grass Boys and the Lennie Felix Trio and he played Latin and country music as well as jazz.Fallon crossed many musical boundaries, recording on violin with the Beatles in 1968, and playing a late- night session for Princess Margaret and her coterie. “See you on the bus on Monday,” was all he said after hearing Fallon play.The trio also accompanied the American singers Maxine Sullivan and Hoagy Carmichael and made an eight-week tour of Sweden with St?ane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt, ending the year with a season in Nice.Fallon toured with both Mary Lou Williams and Sarah Vaughan in 1953 and was the first choice for any all-star jazz group. He was backed by Jack Fallon, the guitarist Malcolm Mitchell and the drummer Tony Crombie.Ellington was in his pyjamas on the Saturday night when Fallon arrived to audition for the job.

They lasted 10 years before splitting up – persuading Luck to go solo. “To be against mainstream and popular culture was one of my things. I feel it’s a challenge to any musician to talk about things that matter.”After various incarnations Luck joined King Prawn, a band he describes as “very hardcore, very dance-oriented, very subversive”. I’ve always loved writing songs which have a conscious edge, and which make people open up, or feel good and inspired. London Calling and Sandinista were very important because those punks were making advanced world music That’s when I started to really study music.

“On my 15th birthday he gave me albums by The Beatles, Elvis, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and The Clash… You will never ever get that kind of love, or deception, or cruelty anywhere else.”He was inspired to get into music by his brother Azam. The area was grey and flat, but the people made it what it was. You’d hear cries of, ‘Get the Pakis, get the Pakis!’ It was absolutely insane, but the beauty was that all the hard white boys, hard black boys, and hard Asians got together to defend themselves [against each other]: the unity and brotherhood was unbelievable It was harsh growing up in that environment. Even the teachers used to make fun of us.”In our comprehensive school, we had 20 per cent black, 20 per cent Asian, and 60 per cent white and/or mixed up Our school was the only one in the area that had coloureds Every day there used to be battles. I remember going to Drew Road Primary School in E16, and I was the only brown boy Jaswinder Singh was the only brown girl.

That’s my mission in life; to create and cross over music, and infiltrate.”Luck talks with machine-gun flair, firing out bursts of intuitive sound-bites and streetwise philosophies. “When I was with my tribe of Jamaican boys, English indigenous boys and Canning Town Asian boys, we used to have strange heroes. We used to admire Yasser Arafat, but not for this reason or that reason It was in the same way people admired Ariel Sharon He’s another fighter. All these little Al Pacino types – you don’t mess with them.”We had to build up our own little street culture and stand up for ourselves. “When I was a kid I used to mix up bhangra beats, thrash metal and hip-hop. My friends used to think it was mad, and that it would never come out, but I told them to wait until 2050 Hopefully I’ll still be making music. He veers between positivity and sadness, his long, dark beard, beanie hat, loose trousers and piercing dark-brown eyes making him look every inch a Muslim – except for the nose ring, the most obvious sign of his playful, rebellious streak.As someone who’s always loved the sound of a searing, overdriven guitar, Babar Luck stood out from the crowd.

I’ve got my East End hat, and my Canning Town switch, and when you hit the Canning Town switch there’s a red mist, and you get out of there.”In the flesh he comes across as a mass of happy contradictions, the result of an endlessly inquiring mind and overactive vocal cords. Among a vibrant backdrop of punk-rock riffs, rock-steady ska, acoustic soul, and hip-hop, his stark, poetic, and often melancholy wordplays paint a picture of the trials and tribulations of growing up as a British Asian in the East End of London.
At times bearing close resemblance to Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (check out “My Friend Used to Be (A Madaxeman)”) it chronicles the complex, and often brutal tribal systems of London’s multiethnic street hierarchy “I protect myself with my fists,” he says when we meet “But I’d rather use my brains That’s just how it goes. By far its biggest asset is Luck’s unerring ability to write a decent tune. It’s an album that offers a ray of hope when misunderstanding and intolerance seem to be the order of the day.

The instrument itself took longer to enter the musical vocabulary. George Mgrdichian, oud player: born Philadelphia 28 January 1935; died New York 30 April 2006. “We must not write off some children as unfit for the world of education,” he added.Tough action also needed to be taken against failing schools with privately-sponsored academies offering “a clear and viable way out for failing schools”.Teachers’ leaders last night welcomed his speech as showing a clear sign he intended to improve the lot of the least well-off pupils.But Chris Keates, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, cautioned: “The clear commitment to constant reform and renewal needs, however, to be tempered with a recognition that schools need time to embed and consolidate change if it is to be effective and sustainable.”. “We need to demonstrate that the public sector can outperform the private sector,” Mr Johnson said.One of his key priorities would be a drive to improve the education of children in care – who were up to 25 times more likely to end up in prison or some form of custody as adults.He said that a Green Paper would be produced this summer outlining ways of improving their performance at school.

We make a bad system worse – running the risk of wider community unrest, greater racial tension and deeper social exclusion,” he said.He said the aim that the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, set out in his Budget speech in March – of bringing spending levels on state schools up to those in the independent sector would create “a great launch-pad” to improve standards. Now only a very small minority did not “which is arguably an even harsher condition”.”Because it is those groups who are already liable to social exclusion that the education system fails. Instead, the “trust” schools would give heads greater freedom to innovate and improve standards.Mr Johnson acknowledged that some youngsters still got a “raw deal” from their schooling.In days gone by it was only a very small minority that received a good education. “We need to fight these ideological demons,” he added.He said it was “rubbish” to suggest they would cream off the brightest pupils. “The truth is they will work under exactly the same code of fair admissions as other schools with academic selection ruled out,” he added.

In the UK, the regulators are a bit quick out of the blocks.” 12.10pm The car passes Didsbury, the suburb of Manchester where Mr Lambert was born and brought up after his parents moved north from London for work. Asked whether he thinks it will be a level playing field across Europe, he says: “No, it will be like looking over the edge of the Eiger. “It is an exciting time,” says Paul Jennings, its chief executive.Ron Shone, vice-president for health and safety, updates the DG on the EU rules on classification, packaging and labelling of dangerous substances that are known as REACH. Innospec, which is based in the UK but listed on Nasdaq, makes chemicals that boost fuel efficiency. He has commissioned a report into business demands before next summer’s Comprehensive Spending Review that is taking up considerable resources 11.10am Next stop Innospec in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.

It is a company that fits very well with Mr Lambert’s concerns. He says he has not come across a CBI member that was not concerned about climate change. “We are energy intensive so the incidence of energy costs in the finished products is very high,” he says. Mr Lambert says he will “rattle cages” in London and Brussels.The DG probes away at the issues that bother the company, asking about their R&D spend, the difficulty in finding qualified staff and the paucity of science education in the UK. “Energy and skills and education are the themes we are going to be working very hard at,” he tells them.

10.45am Back in the car, with the temperature heading towards a century-record of 36.3 deg C Admittedly, in the “Pilks” glass furnace it was 1,060 deg C. Mr Lambert’s predecessor Sir Digby Jones promised to visit all 14 regions and nations of the UK three time a year each Mr Lambert is cautious about making a similar pledge. For Pilkington, it would have been more expensive to stop the production line, so it managed to switch energy supplies. Paul McKeon, a director of its worldwide building products division, says he is “nervous” after last winter saw spot market gas prices rise five or six-fold. The company is impressed to have the CBI’s boss visit – Prince Andrew is coming for lunch so it’s a busy day – and he is greeted by three executives.It is soon clear that security and cost of energy is top of their agenda.

“It is important to be visible and to be quite noisy,” he says before the meeting. Two decades ago the populace of St Helens marched in protest at a proposed takeover. A month ago the company was taken over by NSG, a smaller Japanese outfit. Long-serving employees were upset but no one marched.Today Mr Lambert is more interested in the future and in what services and help the CBI can offer Pilkington. At the end is the gleaming white building that once housed the Littlewoods pools empire before the company’s sale to the Barclay Brothers and which is due to be converted into city apartments. 9.00am The first stop is Pilkington’s float glass plant in St Helens on Merseyside.

However, his feats in the two previous seasons – in which he led the Wearside club to third in the Championship and then to first place – gave McCarthy the edge as Wolves assessed his credentials against a field that included two internal candidates, Ince and assistant manager Stuart Gray.Jez Moxey, the Championship club’s chief executive, described those achievements as “one of the most impressive managerial jobs I’ve seen in this division”. So far Lilian Thuram, Fabio Cannavaro, Emerson and Gianluca Zambrotta have left, while Patrick Vieira is reportedly on the verge of a move to Internazionale.However, Buffon, reportedly a target of Arsenal and Milan, has indicated he is willing to stay, and Deschamps said: “We have managed to keep the goalkeeper I am 100 per cent certain that Buffon is staying. They continue to be linked with Arsenal and England’s Ashley Cole, with reports stating he could complete a £16m move across the capital as early as next week.In Italy, the Juventus manager Didier Deschamps has claimed that his World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon is following Alessandro Del Piero’s example by staying at Juventus in Serie B.Juventus will start next season in Italy’s second division with a 30-point deficit after they were found guilty of match fixing. Chelsea have accepted an offer from Valencia for their defender Asier del Horno. They have not revealed any details of the fee involved, but Del Horno has travelled to Spain to discuss the deal with the La Liga club. Del Horno, 25, joined the Premiership champions from Athletic Bilbao for £8m last summer but struggled to hold down a regular place in Jose Mourinho’s side.
The imminent sale could prompt Chelsea to move for another left-back. “I spoke to David Gill [United's chief executive] on the phone yesterday and there is no development as far as Real Madrid is concerned “They have made an offer: we have rejected it.

If they don’t come back in and increase their offer, he won’t be going and I would be content with that It would not bother me one bit. He is a striker who can score upwards of 20 goals a season and there are not many of those going around.” United wrap up their three-match South Africa tour in the Vodacom Cup final against Kaizer Chiefs in Pretoria today ­ a rematch of the game between the sides in Cape Town on Tuesday, which United won with a late strike from Dong Fangzhou.. Real moved in once the World Cup was over and, with their new coach, Fabio Capello, confirming his interest in signing him, it was thought Van Nistelrooy would join Fabio Cannavaro and Emerson as incomers at the Bernabeu. Instead, discussions have stalled over the fee, with Real refusing to meet United’s £15m valuation. Bayern remain hopeful of luring Van Nistelrooy ­ a fluent German speaker. That move prompted an angry response from Van Nistelrooy, which resulted in him being ejected from the team hotel, barred from playing in Roy Keane’s testimonial three days later and, to all intents and purposes, closed the door on his Old Trafford career.

“Ruud is not definitely leaving and I expect to see him at training on Monday,” Ferguson said yesterday. However, no deal will be completed over the weekend, meaning that the striker is expected for the start of pre-season work. The Dutch striker’s future has been the subject of speculation throughout the summer, with both Real Madrid and Bayern Munich linked with the 30-year-old. A move at some point seemed inevitable, given Van Nistelrooy’s end-of-season falling-out with Ferguson, who hardly played the forward through the latter stages of the campaign, then dropped him in favour of Giuseppe Rossi for the last game against Charlton.

“I didn’t want to be an old lady in her bed watching MTV and thinking: ‘I could have done that so much better than her’, and be really angry that I didn’t at least give it a go. All of a sudden I saw the future and was determined that that wouldn’t happen.”‘Son’ is out now on Domino. It’s like the story of the ugly duckling that grows up to be a swan.”Although she took a gamble giving up a highly successful acting career, things finally seem to be taking off, especially in Argentina. “I had a problem at this big folk festival in Seattle when the rented keyboard I was using wouldn’t load my music samples. The audience were waiting a long time and a few yelled out that I should just sing with my guitar, so I started to sing the keyboard parts with the voice, and it sounded great.

So when I returned to the studio I decided that I should sing like the keyboard notes, and that the behaviour of the singing should follow suit. Even if it was out of tempo or didn’t fit with the other notes, I had to sing it. So a new world of de-tuning and out-of-time notes opened up to me. I discovered that the note that didn’t work at the beginning becomes so beautiful that you build everything around it. I think that sometimes I’m quite lucky not to understand the words of songs that I love because they can be really bad, and then you’re in trouble.”She believes that live performances had the biggest impact on the sound of the new album, most notably through newfound singing techniques.

trying to be something that I’m not.”I grew up listening to music I didn’t understand so I’m totally used to enjoying music without understanding the lyrics,” she continues. “I think the whole way I listen to music now has been a little bit deformed by that experience Even in Spanish I don’t really pay attention to the lyrics. “I’ve been realising the importance of language lately,” she muses. “But even though I know people care so much about it I’m not prepared to sing in English, because I wouldn’t feel like myself I’d feel like I was faking something… I think the odd, out-of-synch looping that I do represents a little of that.

Each loop has a mode so it’s like having two different birds singing in time, but ignoring what each other is doing. The disparity is beautiful.”Son has been described as her most accessible work to date, although she is never likely to break into the mainstream, especially as she refuses to sing in anything other than Spanish. You have a beautiful flower and then an earthquake, and the only thing you can do is contemplate the beauty of them.”The artwork (always distinctive on her albums) is a patchwork tapestry woven by her great aunt of her and her sister when were they little girls. “The cover really describes the record because I was very influenced by the randomness in the behaviour of sounds and movement in nature,” she says “It’s like watching fireflies. They look like they’re floating in space, and you can’t follow them because you can’t tell where they’re going. What I’m saying is that if you want to lie you can tell me anything, but make me believe it. Don’t make me doubt you because I don’t mind if it’s true or not.”She says that her lyrics talk about everyday things “Son means a pleasant sound, but it also means ‘they are’.

Tour matches may enjoy a somewhat questionable status in the cricket calendar of today but they are nothing if not an opportunity. Having helped to put on 119 for the second wicket with Fulton, Van Jaarsveld attempted a half-hearted pull off Cork and the ball flew straight to the substitute fielder Tom Smith at deep backward square leg.Walker came and went, falling to a tame bat-pad. Key, the captain, was dismissed off the third ball of the morning, caught behind by Gareth Cross off a fiery Glen Chapple. Key’s protracted departure from the crease suggested he felt he had not made contact.The Lancashire bowlers really put their backs into the task, but Fulton and his new partner Martin van Jaarsveld rode their luck and displayed admirable patience as they chipped away at the target.The rest of the morning session belonged to Kent, Van Jaarsveld passing 50 for the ninth time this summer and surviving a blow to the helmet by Dominic Cork, another Lancashire bowler who was fired up throughout the day and exchanged pleasantries with sections of the crowd.Flintoff’s enforced absence from the attack – his two overs yesterday were bowled well below full pace – fuelled the determination of the rest of the bowlers.They all rose to the task after lunch when Kent’s grip on proceedings was loosened. Maximum points and maximum tension marked Kent’s fourth Championship victory of the season, a win which lifted them into third on the table and opened up the title race. Lancashire’s gloom was deepened by the loss of Andrew Flintoff from their attack on the final day because of discomfort in his troublesome left ankle, and by the knowledge that Kent had closed the gap on the second-placed Red Rose county. While the loss of Flintoff was significant, the foundation of the defeat lay in Lancashire’s inadequate first-innings total and a clutch of dropped catches, two of them yesterday and one first time around when Matthew Walker was on one – the Kent man going on to make a very big hundred.
But the Lancashire bowlers stuck admirably to their task and in the sultry mid-afternoon heat had Kent supporters chewing their nails as they reduced them to 179 for 8, but Amjad Khan and Min Patel kept their heads and their wickets to steer Kent home with some 23 overs to spare.The portents had not been that good at the start of the day when the Kent openers Robert Key and David Fulton resumed the chase for the 215 runs required.

Wides are unavoidable in one-day cricket but in Test cricket, where far greater leeway is given, they are unacceptable England conceded a shameful 13 wides at Lord’s. Lewis would offer Strauss greater control but his lack of pace could be exposed in Manchester. The only surprise selection could be that of Jamie Dalrymple, the Middlesex off-spinner. Dalrymple is unlikely to oust Monty Panesar, who bowled well in Pakistan’s second innings but there is a chance of him playing if the pitch, like the current weather, is parched.

If Dalrymple makes his Test debut it would be at the expense of Plunkett, but the decision would place too much emphasis on the toss. If Strauss called correctly and batted first all would be fine. But should he lose it, and find himself with two seamers, there is every chance he could spend two days in the field. Possible England squad: A J Strauss (capt), M E Trescothick, A N Cook, K P Pietersen, P D Collingwood, I R Bell, G O Jones (wkt), L E Plunkett, M J Hoggard, S J Harmison, M S Panesar, J W M Dalrymple, S I Mahmood, J Lewis.. England’s bowling at Lord’s was disappointing but it should be better at Old Trafford.

Stephen Harmison and Matthew Hoggard had bowled only 22 first-class overs between them in the month preceding the Test, and it is to be hoped their radars have been realigned during the past week Liam Plunkett was also wayward. Sajid Mahmood and Jonathan Lewis offer alternatives to the fast bowler but neither has the potential to bat at No 8, a position Fletcher believes Plunkett can fill. Debate will continue about England’s wicketkeeper, but Geraint Jones will hold his place. He scored 34 runs in the first Test but kept well – taking five catches in the first innings – and Fletcher, his biggest supporter, is unlikely to give way to the Chris Read fan club. Ian Bell, who scored a hundred in the first Test, will retain his place in the squad.