the times | Saturday October 17 2020 1GM 31
Leading articles
“arrangements similar to Australia”. Australia may
not have a free-trade deal with the European Union
but it benefits from dozens of other arrangements
that facilitate trade that Britain would be without.
Australia is unhappy with these arrangements,
which is why it is trying to negotiate its own trade
deal with the EU.
The reality is that there is far more at stake in
these negotiations than the prime minister is
willing to acknowledge. A no-deal outcome would
be bad for both sides, but particularly for Britain.
There is hardly any sector that shares Mr Johnson’s
belief that the country could “mightily prosper”
without a deal. For industries that are deeply
integrated into EU markets, such as car
manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and chemicals,
the increased costs and disruption to supply
chains arising from new customs checks, tariffs
and loss of regulatory permissions on everything
from product standards to data sharing would be
highly damaging. To inflict such costs in the
middle of a pandemic would compound it.
Nor would the fallout be solely economic. No-
deal would make Britain less safe as the security
services would lose access to EU databases. Above
all, no-deal would threaten to bring fresh instability
to Northern Ireland, particularly if the governmentacted on its threat to override the protocol in the
withdrawal agreement. Indeed the breakdown in
relations that would follow from any decision to
renege on the treaty agreed less than a year ago
would be likely to preclude any prospect of mini-
deals. The result would be a deeper rupture that
could take a long time to heal.
There is no reason why it should come to this.
Despite the latest brinkmanship, the outlines of a
deal are plain to see. It is clear that the government
should compromise on state aid. This is a bizarre
hill for a Tory government to die on, not least
given that Britain needs a robust, independent
system of subsidy controls to police its own
internal market. In return, it is clear that the EU
fleets will have to accept reduced access to British
fisheries, though here too the government needs a
deal, given that 60 per cent of the fish caught in
British waters are exported to the EU.
The best hope must be that the posturing was
part of the theatrics necessary to reach a deal.
Both sides need to keep talking to bridge the
remaining obstacles. But time is running out and
the danger of miscalculation is high. Mr Johnson
and President Macron, his leading adversary,
should be under no illusion that a no-deal outcome
would be a failure of statecraft.fail”, the firm went ahead and when it did fail,
launched a judicial review. On another occasion
the firm filed a judicial review on behalf of an
Algerian woman, who was about to be deported,
on the basis that she was in a relationship with a
British man. A judge found the case to be “totally
without merit”.
Judges have refused judicial review of 11,627
immigration cases over the past five years on
the grounds they were “totally without merit”,
according to Ministry of Justice figures. These
are cases that by definition should never have
been brought. Their sole purpose was to delay
deportations and in the process wasted the courts’
time. What’s more, some dishonest lawyers coach
their clients to give false answers. Writing in
The Times today, James Hanratty, a former
immigration judge, records how “when I was
sitting a few lawyers had coached appellants to lie
about their age, to say they were gay, to engage in
sham marriages and, in asylum cases, to say they
had come from, say, Afghanistan when in reality
they had come from over the border in Pakistan”.
If the legal system is to function effectively andcommand public confidence, lawyers who abuse
the courts should be struck off. Yet this rarely
happens. In the past three years the Solicitors
Regulatory Authority (SRA), which oversees the
profession, has brought only 11 cases before a
disciplinary tribunal, which resulted in six
solicitors being struck off and two suspended. One
of the Malik brothers was suspended in 2017 and
the other fined. Yet both remain registered and free
to practise, albeit subject to certain constraints.
As Mr Hanratty notes, in the most deplorable
cases criminal charges should be brought against
lawyers for perverting the course of justice.
Of course judges have a role to play in this too.
They have the power to report errant lawyers to
the SRA. The suspicion is that they are not making
sufficient use of these powers. That is unfortunate.
Britain has a proud tradition of providing
sanctuary to those in need of protection. That
tradition relies on the efforts of decent lawyers
willing to work, often for low fees, to help
vulnerable people who may wrongly face
deportation to despotic regimes. It is for them
that more must be done to root out the rogues.was celebrated for her vocal range. Yet recordings
of her singing have either been lost or survive only
with degraded sound quality. Her name alone
survives in such culinary creations as peach melba
and melba toast. Now, thanks to advanced techno-
logy of the 21st century, her voice can be recreated.
The venture employs a modern soprano, Nancy
May, allied to historical scholarship and early
sound technology. Using an original microphone
and transmitter to record from a crystal radio,
May will attempt to replicate Melba’s distinctive
style of runs and trills. The recording will then be
digitalised in order to try to understand how theprocess of recording might have distorted the
original sound, and to correct for it. The result
should be the closest that a modern audience can
get to hearing the original “voice”.
Some may cavil that the sound will not be the
diva herself, but historical understanding does not
require excessive literalness. In 2018 The Times
publicised the speech, using artificial intelligence
and a database of recordings of the president’s
voice, that John F Kennedy was due to give on the
day of his assassination. Technological innovation
has created an enduring record of the sounds of
greatness; it can now, too, bring them to life.Keep Talking
Failure to reach a trade deal would be a blow for Britain
and the European Union. Both sides need to find a solution
Did Boris Johnson pull the plug on the Brexit
negotiations or not? As so often with this
government’s communications, it was hard to tell.
The prime minister delivered a televised press
statement yesterday in which he warned that it
was time to prepare for no-deal after European
Union leaders said that it was up to Britain to
compromise. Crucially he did not rule out further
negotiations. Then, hours later, his spokesman
delivered a much firmer message, declaring that
there was no point holding any further negotiations
unless either the EU was prepared to compromise
or the discussions were to be over mini-deals to
mitigate the disruption of a no-deal. Lord Frost,
the prime minister’s chief negotiator, later told
Michel Barnier, his EU counterpart, not to come
to London for talks on Monday.
If Mr Johnson’s core message was confusing,
other parts were outright misleading. The
government is not, as the prime minister claimed,
simply seeking a trade deal similar to the one that
the EU agreed with Canada. It is seeking rights of
access to EU aviation, road haulage and energy
markets and mutual recognition of professional
qualifications, for example, that go well beyond
what was offered to Canada. What’s more, the
fallback option in the event of no-deal is notBad Apples
Rogue solicitors who abuse the immigration courts should be struck off
You don’t have to go along with Priti Patel’s attack
on “do-gooders” and “activist lawyers” to recognise
that bad apples in the legal profession are making
a mockery of the system, particularly when it
comes to immigration cases. It is an important
principle of justice that the government should act
in accordance with the law and that those claiming
asylum can bring their cases before the courts
where they have grounds to believe that the
government has failed to do so. But it is also
important that lawyers acting on behalf of those
claiming asylum do not waste the courts’ time or
squander legal aid budgets on cases that have no
chance of success. Those that do undermine public
confidence in the system. Yet some solicitors are
doing exactly this and, worse, getting away with it.
We report today on the case of Malik & Malik,
a firm set up by two brothers in Willesden in
northwest London, which has brought dozens of
bogus asylum claims yet is still allowed to practise.
One case involved an Albanian man who claimed
asylum on the basis that his relatives wanted him
to exact revenge for his father’s murder. Despite
being told by a judge that the case was “bound toRecord of Greatness
Modern technology is recreating the sound of a celebrated opera singer
It was, said Pyotr Tchaikovsky, “the most surprising,
the most beautiful, the most interesting among all
inventions that have turned up in the 19th
century”. The great Russian composer was
referring to the mechanical recording and repro-
duction of sound, pioneered by Thomas Edison
with his invention of the phonograph.
The instrument, which became known as the
gramophone, made the reputations of, and earned
fortunes for, singers of the early 20th century,
including the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso and the
Australian soprano Nellie Melba. As a coloratura
soprano, specialising in elaborate melody, MelbaDaily Universal Register
UK: London, Essex, York, Chesterfield,
Barrow-in-Furness, northeast Derbyshire,
Elmbridge and Erewash move into Tier 2
coronavirus restrictions.
Michael Eavis, pictured,
founder (1970),
Glastonbury Festival, 85;
Anthony P Adams,
emeritus professor of
anaesthetics, University
of London, 84; William
Anders, Apollo 8astronaut, took the iconic image Earthrise in
1968, 87; Sir David Butler, social scientist,
psephologist and author, 96; Ernie Els,
golfer, 51; Ian Gambles, chief executive,
Forestry Commission, 58; Alan Garner,
children’s author, The Weirdstone of
Brisingamen (1960), 86; Mark Gatiss, actor
and writer, Sherlock (2010-17), 54; Wyclef
Jean, singer, Killing Me Softly (1996), 51; Mae
C Jemison, the first African-American
woman to travel in space, 64; Felicity Jones,
actress, The Theory of Everything (2014), 37;
Stephen Kovacevich, pianist, 80; Matthew
Macfadyen, actor, Succession (since 2018),
46; Sir Cameron Mackintosh, musical
producer, 74; Rob Marshall, film director,
Chicago (2002), 60; Patrick Ness, writer,
A Monster Calls (2011), 49; Sir Andrew
Parmley, lord mayor of the City of London
(2016-17), 64; Kimi Raikkonen, racing driver,
41; Sophy Ridge, broadcaster and writer, 36;
Philippe Sands, QC, professor of law,
University College London, and author, East
West Street, 60; Chuka Umunna, Labour,
independent and Liberal Democrat MP for
Streatham (2010-2019), 42.
In 1651 Charles II fled in disguise to France
after his defeat by Oliver Cromwell at
Worcester. He spent eight years in exile.
Martina Navratilova,
pictured, tennis player,
nine-time Wimbledon
singles champion, 64;
Paul Chuckle (Elliott),
comedian, ChuckleVision
(1987-2009), 73; James
Daunt, managingdirector, Waterstones, 57; Lord (Dafydd)
Elis-Thomas, MS for Dwyfor Meirionnydd,
74; Dame Barbara Frost, chief executive,
WaterAid (2005-17), 68; Lord (Nicholas)
Houghton of Richmond, constable of the
Tower of London, 66; Wynton Marsalis,
trumpeter and composer, 59; Dame Judith
Mayhew Jonas, commissioner,
Commonwealth War Graves Commission,
72; Sir David Normington, chairman,
Birmingham Royal Ballet, 69; Freida Pinto,
actress, Slumdog Millionaire (2008), 36; Dr
Kate Pretty, archaeologist, 75; Sir Jim
Ratcliffe, industrialist, chairman and chief
executive officer, Ineos chemicals group, 68;
Lady (Flora) Saltoun of Abernethy, chief of
the name of Fraser, 90; Howard Shore, film
theme composer, score for The Lord of the
Rings film trilogy, 74; Gladstone Small,
cricketer, England (1986-91), 59; Esperanza
Spalding, jazz musician, 36; Michael Stich,
tennis player, 52; Lord (Dick) Taverne, QC,
former Democratic Labour MP for Lincoln
and a founding member of the Social
Democratic Party, 92; Mike Tindall,
England rugby player (2000-11) 42;
Jean-Claude Van Damme, actor, Universal
Soldier (1992), 60; Lindsey Vonn, skier,
Olympic gold medallist (2010), 36.
“Rhythm is everything in boxing. Every move
you make starts with your heart, and that’s in
rhythm or you’re in trouble.” Sugar Ray
Robinson, boxer (Sugar Ray, 1969)
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