Happy everyday

Blog: I’ve rarely seen anything worse

Former England striker Trevor Brooking says Kevin Keegan faces a tough task reforming his side from one which produced one of the worst performances in living memory to championship contenders.

England’s performance at Wembley was one of the poorest I can remember.

I’d even go so far as to say that over the two legs Scotland were the better team.

But if you are looking at who might do better at Euro 2000 you’ve got to say it would be England.

Not in their current shape, though. Playing like this they will get beaten by most teams.

Kevin Keegan has been in an awkward position in that he came into the job in the middle of the qualification campaign and had no time to experiment.

Now he has six months to sort things out.

is a big test for him. He has got the motivational skills but he faces some tough tactical decisions.

He needs to find a formula to get the best out of his young talent. At the moment you are looking a group of individuals who are not playing as a team.

Keegan’s number one priority is to decide on a system that suits his players.

If he is going to persist playing 4-4-2 he needs at least two left-sided players. At the moment England are having problems finding just one.

It’s not a question of picking your best players and then swapping round systems to suit them. England won the World Cup in 1966 by picking a system, actually one without wingers, and sticking to it.

That might mean picking one or two players who on paper are not as talented as others.

Craig Brown made two changes to his side for the second leg – he brought in Neil McCann and Callum Davidson.

Both are natually left footed but neither are first choices for their clubs.

They may not be as talented as one or two others but they gave Scotland great width and shape.

With Graeme Le Saux injured, the only two left-sided players Keegan had were Steve Guppy and Steve Froggatt and I would have certainly played one of them at Wembley.

Blog: International stars

French actress Eva Green, who played love interest Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale, won the Orange rising star award voted for by the British public.

“It’s a real honour because I’m French and it’s an English award. I have just moved here and have had the most amazing welcome,” she said.

Whitaker, who has also won Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards for The Last King of Scotland, said: “This means a lot because to be embraced by another shore is a special thing.

I try to think of myself as a citizen of the planet,” he added.

Greengrass’s United 93 depicts one of the 11 September 2001 plane hijackings.

Accepting his award, the film-maker said: “I firmly believe that cinema must deal with the way the world is and the dangers there are. We need it very much now.”

The Spanish-language dark fairytale Pan’s Labyrinth won three Baftas including the award for best foreign language film.

Former US reality TV show contestant Jennifer Hudson added the best supporting actress prize to her considerable collection for her performance in the musical Dreamgirls.

Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock’s script for The Last King of Scotland won the best adapted screenplay honour.

The award for special achievement by a British director in their first feature film went to Andrea Arnold for the Glasgow-set drama Red Road.

The best animated feature film Bafta was awarded to Happy Feet.

Westenra and Terfel up for Brits

Welsh bass baritone Bryn Terfel and teenage singer Hayley Westenra lead the nominations for the fifth classical Brit awards next month.
Violinists Nigel Kennedy and Vanessa Mae, and the world’s first opera band Amici Forever will join the ceremony on 26 May at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
TV news presenter Katie Derham returns for a fourth year to host the ceremony.
New Zealand-born Westenra, 17, has two nominations, as does Terfel – including one for male artist of the year.
Also receiving two nominations is composer and conductor John Rutter, whose Distant Land album is nominated for contemporary music award and ensemble/orchestral album of the year.
Five of the awards will be voted for by The Classical Brit awards voting academy, which includes the media, members of the Musicians Union, promoters, industry executives and orchestra leaders.
Listeners of Classic FM will be invited to vote for the album of the yea

Digital take-up continues to rise

Almost three out of four UK households now watch digital television, according to media watchdog Ofcom.
Quarterly figures show that 73.3% of households watch digital services on their main TV set, a rise by around 800,000 over the last three months.
Around 18.5 million have digital TV installed, with increasing numbers watching on second or third sets.
The figures also show that 9.3 million households now have digital terrestrial television, such as Freeview.
More households (7 million) watch digital terrestrial TV than traditional analogue TV (6.4 million) on their main set, according to Ofcom’s report.
Between late 2007 and 2012, the analogue TV signal will be switched off in the UK. Aled Jones – Higher, Amici Forever – The Opera Band, Bryn Terfel – Bryn, Denise Leigh/Jane Gilchrist – Operatunity, Dominic Miller – Shapes, Hayley Westenra – Pure, Lesley Garrett – So Deep Is The Night, Luciano Pavarotti – Ti Adoro, Ludovico Einaudi – Echoes ¬ The Collection, Myleene Klass – Moving On

Classical Brits glory for Terfel

Welsh bass baritone Bryn Terfel won the prizes for best album and male artist at this year’s Classical Brit awards.
Italian opera star Cecilia Bartoli was named best female artist at the event, held at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
British conductor Sir Simon Rattle won orchestral album of the year for his recording of Beethoven’s Symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic.
The awards, in their fifth year, are billed as the orchestral and operatic answer to the pop and rock Brits.
Terfel won the best album award – the night’s biggest prize – for Bryn, which has sold more than 300,000copies in the UK since it was released last year.
Mezzo soprano Bartoli beat New Zealand-born teenager Hayley Westenra to win her award, while Terfel triumphed over violinist Nigel Kennedy in the male category.
Another violinist, 29-year-old Daniel Hope, was named best young British classical performer.
The contemporary music award went to US composer Philip Glass for his soundtrack to the film The Hours.
Russia’s Maxim Vengerov won the critics’ award for his recording of Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto and William Walton’s Viola Concerto, conducted by his friend and mentor Mstislav Rostropovich.
Guests at the ceremony – hosted by ITV news presenter Katie Derham for the fourth year running – included former boy soprano Aled Jones, actor Nigel Havers and musical star Elaine Paige.
The event, which will be broadcast on ITV1 on Sunday, featured performances from Westenra, Kennedy, fellow violinist Vanessa-Mae and Welsh soprano Katherine Jenkins

Bryn urges flares for festival

Bryn Terfel’s popular Faenol music festival is going back in time this weekend.
One of the highlights of this year’s show, held near Caernarfon, north Wales, is a revival of a 1970s Welsh rock opera with the original cast.
And opera star Terfel is encouraging festival-goers to turn up in full 1970s gear for Nia Ben Aur, which was first performed 30 years ago.
“I’d even like people to dress up in 70s clothing!” said Terfel.
Jazz performers Jamie Cullum and Jools Holland were the other big attractions of the weekend.
Holland and best-selling singer and pianist Cullum headlined on the Saturday night, with more than 8,000 tickets sold already.
“Jamie Cullum is having a wonderful time, with his album going double platinum before Christmas,” said Terfel.
I met him before the Proms in London and hinted that I’d like him at my festival.
“And it’s come true, which isn’t easy because he’s very busy and this will be his 10th successive concert.”
“This year, we’ve veered off the road,” he added of the jazz theme, alongside the classical and Welsh rock line-up.
“I have to bring something new every year, hence we’re having a big band, jazz and blues evening.”
The Gala Opera Night on Sunday will again feature more young talent, with tenor Joseph Calleja appearing with Terfel, as well as 17-year-old violinist Chloe Hanslip.
Bass baritone Terfel said that for the fifth year of the festival on the Faenol estate he has responded to requests to bring in giant screens to show performers close-up.
“It’s wonderful to wear an entrepreneur’s hat for a change – it’s something different from what I do for the rest of the year.
“It’s something I wanted to do for the location – and the artists that have come here have enjoyed it and return for holidays.”

Barriers breached

Mr Griffin accused the protesters of “attacking the rights of millions of people to listen to what I’ve got to say and listen to me being called to account by other politicians”.
But Weyman Bennett from Unite Against Fascism accused the BBC of “rolling out the red carpet” to Mr Griffin and said his appearance on the flagship discussion programme “will lead to the growth of a fascist party” and promote violence against ethnic minorities.
About 25 people managed to get through the gates and run towards the BBC building when security guards opened them to let in a car. A few minutes later they were led, dragged or carried back outside.
There were also protests outside BBC buildings in Bristol, Liverpool, Nottingham, Glasgow and Belfast.
Earlier on Thursday, BBC director general Mark Thompson said it was up to the government to ban the BNP from the airwaves if it felt Mr Griffin should not be allowed to take part in Question Time.
Welsh Secretary Peter Hain, who had tried to stop the broadcast, said: “The BBC should be ashamed of single-handedly doing a racist, fascist party the biggest favour in its grubby history.”
But Prime Minister Gordon Brown said it was a matter for the corporation and he did not want to interfere with it, while Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw said that most of the cabinet did not share Mr Hain’s view.
BBC Deputy Director General Mark Byford said it had been “appropriate” to invite Mr Griffin to appear given the support the BNP received in the last European elections when it gained its first Euro MPs.
He said: “He was scrutinised and challenged along with the other panellists heavily by the audience, that was right in our view.
“It would have been quite wrong for the BBC to have said ‘yes, you are allowed to stand in elections, yes you have a level of support that now meets the threshold but the BBC doesn’t think that you should be on’.
“We have no views on the politics or the political leaders what we do hold absolutely dear is that due impartiality is a value we uphold and that’s why Mr Griffin was on tonight.”

Audience challenge

But his references to Britain’s “indigenous people” prompted other members of the panel to challenge him to say he meant white people.
Mr Griffin said the colour was “irrelevant” and said Mr Straw would not dare go to New Zealand and tell a Maori he was not “indigenous”. “We are the aborigines here,” he claimed.
But he was accused of making up facts. He was also challenged by several black and Asian members of the audience.
One man asked Mr Griffin: “Where do you want me to go? I love this country, I’m part of this country.”
Following the programme, Mr Griffin told BBC News too much of the programme had been a a beat up Nick Griffin programme instead of Question Time”.
He added that of the 25 or so allegations made against him in the programme – he was only allowed to answer four or five of them and that was “grossly unfair”.
While the programme was being recorded the anti-BNP protest continued, with the whole west London BBC building “locked down” for more than an hour and the road outside closed.
The Metropolitan Police say six protesters were arrested and three police officers injured in the protests.

Secrets of frog killer laid bare

Scientists have unravelled the mechanism by which the fungal disease chytridiomycosis kills its victims.
The fungus is steadily spreading through populations of frogs and other amphibians worldwide, and has sent some species extinct in just a few years.
Researchers now report in the journal Science that the fungus kills by changing the animals’ electrolyte balance, resulting in cardiac arrest.
The finding is described as a “key step” in understanding the epidemic.
Karen Lips, one of the world authorities on the spread of chytridiomycosis, said the research was “compelling”.
They’ve done an incredible amount of work, been very thorough, and I don’t think anybody will have problems with this.
“We suspected something like this all along, but it’s great to know this is in fact what is happening,” the University of Maryland professor told BBC News.

Spotting a war crime

It is not always easy to spot a war crime.
The displacement of civilians from their homes by an enemy army is not necessarily a war crime.
It can be argued that the displacement is being carried out for the protection of the civilians.
It only becomes a war crime if the expulsions can be proven to be part of campaign of ethnic cleansing or designed as a mass punishment of civilians.
Equally, is it a war crime for the air force of one country to bomb an enemy’s television station because of the propaganda in the broadcasts?
Under the Geneva Conventions, this is not a war crime. Just about all aspects of a state’s infrastructure – roads, bridges, power stations, factories – become legitimate targets if they might be put to military use.
Such attacks only become war crimes if the extent of collateral damage to civilians and civilian interests resulting from the attack would be excessive compared to the military advantage gained from the attack.
Genocide is defined by the tribunal as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.
But the law on war crimes is continually evolving.
In February 2001, the tribunal in The Hague delivered a ruling that made mass systematic rape and sexual enslavement in a time of war a crime against humanity.
Mass rape, or rape used as a tool of war, was then elevated from being a violation of the customs of war to one of the most heinous war crimes of all – second only to genocide.