the times | Tuesday July 28 2020 2GM 13
News
A father of two who kicked a police ser-
geant in the back during a protest
against Black Lives Matter has been
sentenced to 28 months in prison after
his “distinctive green shorts” helped the
authorities to find and arrest him.
Daniel Allan, 35, travelled to London
from Sunderland to take part in a far-
right protest outside the Houses of Par-
liament on June 13. At about 3.15pm the
electrician ran up to a group of officers
before kicking Richard Lambert in the
back, causing him to fall to the ground.
A court was told that Allan, who had
drunk eight cans of lager, “embold-
ened” other protesters to move forward
and attack police officers.
Mr Lambert was left with bruising to
his back but was not seriously injured.
Police officers circled to protect him
and Allan ran back into the crowd.
When video of the assault was upload-
ed and circulated, other officers recog-
nised the “luminous shorts” Allan had
been wearing and detained him.
Allan told officers that he had trav-
elled to London to “help protect police
and statues”. At Westminster magis-
trates’ court last month Judge Nicholas
Rimmer, who referred the case to
crown court for sentencing, said: “The
seriousness of conduct consists of being
part of a wider protest in which missiles
Daniel Allan was
identified from
footage of the
attack. He had
drunk eight
cans of lagerTesla has been widely credited with
revolutionising the world of electric
cars but now one of its designers is
coming for something much closer to
many people’s hearts: the chocolate
chip cookie.
Remy Labesque, a senior industrial
designer at Tesla in Los Angeles, has
spent three years trying to re-engineer
the chocolate chip from its classic
tear-drop shape to create a better “melt
Less than 5 per cent of the most senior
jobs are held by people from ethnic
minorities, according to a study.
The figures have hardly changed in
the past three years despite public com-
mitments from government, the public
sector and business to make corporate
leadership more diverse.
Ethnic minorities were virtually
absent in the leadership of key areas
such as healthcare, education and
criminal justice. The report said that
1,046 of the country’s 1,097 most power-
ful roles were filled by white people, or
95 per cent, even though the country
was 87 per cent white at the last census
in 2011. Sixteen top jobs were held by
black people.
The proportion of leaders from eth-
nic minorities has risen by the equiva-
lent of 15 people in the three years since
the research was last carried out by
Green Park, an executive search andWhites dominate most powerful jobs
diversity consultancy. It says that Boris
Johnson was responsible for a third of
the increase by appointing ten ethnic
minority government ministers, up
from five in 2017.
Raj Tulsiani, chief executive of Green
Park, said: “If ever there was a need for
open and carefully curated conversa-
tions about the UK’s relationship with
race and power, the time is now.” He
said the report, the Colour of Power
2020 , showed total failure to address the
disparity of power in the highest eche-
lons despite institutional rhetoric about
diversity and inclusion.
The research looked at the top roles
in 39 areas including central and local
government, public bodies, the private
sector, universities, sporting organisa-
tions and charities.
Fifteen had no ethnic minority rep-
resentation at the top level, five had
seen a decrease since 2017 and in more
than half there had been no change.
The report said that there were nominority Supreme Court judges, per-
manent secretaries, chief constables,
chief executives of Metropolitan bor-
oughs, chief executives of financial in-
stitutions and regulators, or leaders at
the 15 national sport governing bodies.
There were two minority chief exec-
utives at FTSE 100 companies, one
chief executive or managing partner at
a top law firm, one at a top publisher
and one editor of a national newspaper.
Green Park said that public and pri-
vate sector organisations should pledge
that no big strategic decisions — in-
cluding acquisitions in the private sec-
tor or policy proposals in the public sec-
tor — should be taken by an exclusively
white or male leadership team.
Trevor Phillips, chairman of Green
Park, said: “The fact that one person,
the prime minister, is responsible for a
third of the increase in ethnic minority
individuals on the Colour of Power list,
reveals that if there is a will to make a
difference, then change is achievable.”Richard Ford Home Correspondent
Attacker who
kicked police
caught by his
green shorts
were being thrown, you personally
kicked out at Police Sergeant Richard
Lambert to his back, that seems to have
caused further violence.”
Allan, who had admitted a charge of
violent disorder, was sentenced at
Southwark crown court on Friday.
Judge Sally Cahill, QC, said that the
assault was “appalling behaviour”.
“You might have thought that you
were here to protect statues, but that
was the last thing you did when you got
here,” she added.
According to the Sunderland Echo
Allan had 51 previous convictions.
Detective Inspector Neil Gunn, lead-
ing one of the investigations into recent
disorder, said: “This was an unprovoked
and cowardly attack against one of our
officers. We welcome this sentence and
I hope this brings comfort to the officer
who was kicked — I know he’ll share
my disgust in Allan’s actions.
“Allan was truly caught red-handed,
his assault was not only shared widely
on social media, it was also witnessed
by a team of officers gathering video
evidence. Thanks to the very distinctive
colour of his shorts, he was arrested a
short while later by City of London
police. Our investigations to trace those
responsible for other acts of violence
during demonstrations continue.”
Video depicting other far-right pro-
tests showed missiles and bottles being
thrown at police, with others trying to
jump over cordons to confront officers.
Priti Patel, the home secretary, said
that 38 officers had been hurt during
the disorder. She shared a video on
Twitter of demonstrators throwing
objects and described the behaviour as
“unacceptable thuggery”.
Writing shortly before the incident
involving Allan, Ms Patel continued:
“Any perpetrators of violence or van-
dalism should expect to face the full
force of the law. Violence towards our
police officers will not be tolerated.
Coronavirus remains a threat to us all.
Go home to stop the spread of this virus
& save lives.”
She said later that the large majority
of Black Lives Matter demonstrations
were carried out “peacefully” over the
weekend. The “hooliganism” was
blamed on the “far right” and “racist”
protesters.Charlotte Wace
Northern Correspondent
DANNY LAWSON/PAWood worker Jamie Frost with his sculpture The Gaslighter’s Comeuppance, part of his exhibition The Way of All Flesh,
which includes many smaller sculptures and drawings and runs until October 3 at the Visual Arts Centre in ScunthorpeTesla designer spends three years perfecting the chocolate chip
in the mouth” texture. The convention-
al shape of the chocolate chip may be
more than 80 years old but many chefs
and chocolatiers have argued that it is
badly suited to its function because it
lacks a broad surface area to
maximise taste and texture.
“The chip isn’t a designed
shape,” Mr Labesque told
Bloomberg News. In-
stead, he said, it was theproduct of an industrial manufacturing
process developed for speed.
Mr Labesque was hired by Dandelion
Chocolate in San Francisco to create a
mould. He was told to create the “best
chip for the experience of tasting
chocolate”, allowing it to melt
on the tongue. His redesign
looks like a flattened
diamond with a faceted
pyramid shape and two
thick edges tapering to thin
ends.
“The thermal mass of a thin pieceof chocolate melts more quickly on the
palate,” Mr Labesque said. “So when
you put a Dandelion chip on your
tongue the thin, chiselled edges warm
to melt nearly instantly.”
Edd Kimber, winner of the first The
Great British Bake Off series, in 2010,
whose chocolate chip cookie recipe was
described by The Times as a “deeply
sophisticated cookie with a more
complex favour profile than anything
else”, said that many people wanted a
better chip.
“The traditional chocolate chip is notwhat a modern baker or cookie
enthusiast really wants,” he said. “The
benefits of a flatter ‘chip’ are well
known, with most high-end chocolate
companies making something they
refer to as a wafers or pastilles, flat discs
of chocolate that melt wonderfully.
“I haven’t got my hands on Dandeli-
on Chocolate’s new chip but their
design makes total sense to me. It’s on
the flat side so when baked into a cookie
it will create layers of melted chocolate,
and because it varies in thickness it can
also give a variety of textures.”Tom Knowles
Technology Correspondent
The improved chocolate chip
looks like a flattened diamond