18 1GM Wednesday April 8 2020 | the times
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Bid to curb beach litter
Protected beaches are just as
blighted by litter as those outside
conservation areas, according to a
study that recommends measures
to cut plastic pollution. Beaches
in Devon, Cornwall and Kent
had the most litter, about 70 per
cent of which was plastic. The
researchers used clean-up data
collected over 25 years by Marine
Conservation Society volunteers.
Writing in Environmental
Pollution they called for more
water refill points and a deposit
return scheme for bottles.A A A A A A C C
C D D E E E E I
J L M N N N N O
O P P R R S T U
Solve all five clues using each
letter underneath once only1 Alexander ---, 18th-century poet (4)
2 Accepted set of great works ( 5 )
3 Manage (an exhibition, eg) (6)
4 Bright red N American bird ( 8 )
5 Rebel Without a Cause actor ( 5 , 4 )
Quintagram® No 65 8
Solutions MindGames in Times
Cryptic clues every day onlineOLIVER DIXONTom Watson, who was deputy leader of
the Labour Party and once referred to
an obscure rock band in a resignation
letter, has been appointed to a senior
role in the music industry.
Mr Watson is the new chairman of
UK Music, an umbrella body repre-
senting record labels, songwriters and
promoters. He stood down as an MP
before the general election in Decem-
ber and said that he wanted to “start a
different kind of life”.
In parliament he was known as a
music buff and tabled the early day
motion calling on the BBC to reverse
the planned closure of 6Music in 2010,
a campaign that succeeded.
He was regularly photo-
graphed at Glastonbury and
cited Drenge, a Derbyshire rock
group, in his letter to Ed Miliband
to resign as Labour’s election
co-ordinator in 2013.
“Be that great Labour leader
that you can be, but try to have
a real life too,” he wrote. “And
if you want to see an awesome
band, I recommend Drenge.”
However, his UK Music ap-
pointment raised some eye-
brows in the record industry,
because of concerns about his
Ex-MP gets top job
at ministry of sound
role in fanning the flames of the West-
minster paedophile conspiracy.
In February campaigners demanded
that he be blocked from a peerage after
the Independent Inquiry into Child
Sexual Abuse found no truth to his
“sensational allegations”, which he
voiced in parliament in 2012, that a
powerful paedophile network operated
at the heart of the UK establishment.
Harvey Proctor, a former Conserva-
tive MP who was falsely accused of
child abuse during Operation Midland,
the police investigation into the allega-
tions, wrote to the House of Lords ap-
pointments commission demanding
that Mr Watson should not be enno-
bled. He had been nominated for a
peerage by Jeremy Corbyn.
Mr Watson, who represented
West Bromwich East for 18 years, is
also likely to be called before a
Commons committee investi-
gating Operation Midland.
Feargal Sharkey, who
was lead singer of the Un-
dertones and led UK
Music from 2008-2011,
said that he “could not
think of a more appro-
priate or better qualified
candidate”.
Mr Watson, who had
been a shadow culture sec-
retary, said that he would
fight for maximum support
for the industry to combat
the effects of the pandemic.Matthew Moore Media Correspondent
Too quiet The charity that runs the ruined abbey at Painshill in Cobham, Surrey,
has asked the public to donate or become members during its Covid-19 closureTom Watson at Glastonbury
in 2017, on his way to losing
7st and reversing diabetes