The accounting is in on Britain’s so-called Festival of Brexit. It was meant to be a patriotic celebration but, instead, it is the second-most obvious failure to come out of the UK since voting to leave the EU (we’ll get to the Number One failure in a moment).
The Festival of Brexit idea was born after the 2016 referendum as part of the "take our country back" nostalgia when Boris Johnson used to promise that Britain could "have our cake and eat it". But, now as we say hello to our fourth Conservative Prime Minster in six years, Liz Truss is finding out that there is no cake after all, and the Festival of Brexit turns out to be a disaster. Sixty-six million visitors were thought likely to visit the festival. Only 238,000 turned up. The festival cost £120 million ($138m), so a government handout of £500 each might have been more useful in these hard economic times.
The Festival of Brexit nickname was controversial. It was quickly dropped, in part because few people in Britain’s creative communities wanted to be associated with anything badged as Brexit. It was renamed Unboxed but the £120m White Elephant never caught the public imagination.
Yet, it is only the second-most obvious failure to come out of leaving the EU because this week, the most obvious failure is of course Mr Johnson himself. The accounting is in on him, too. He was chosen as Conservative party leader in 2019 on a promise to "get Brexit done". That slogan won him 43.6 per cent of the vote in the December 2019 general election which, under the archaic Westminster system, guaranteed a parliamentary landslide of 80 seats. But since then, the British people – most notably those who voted for Brexit and voted for Mr Johnson – have recognised that Brexit is far from done. It’s unfinished.
The British people have recognised that Brexit is far from done
Yet, undeterred, Mr Johnson’s resignation speech boasted that his proudest achievements were "getting Brexit done, settling our relations with the continent after half a century and reclaiming the power for this country to make its own laws in parliament".
The political analyst and pollster Peter Kellner pointed out that "the trouble is that most voters reject his claim". A Deltapoll found only one in three voters thought Mr Johnson had kept his promise to get Brexit done. Almost two thirds – 60 per cent – agreed, instead, that Mr Johnson "has not really fulfilled his promise as Brexit is not going well and many problems in our relationship with the EU have yet to be solved". This is a toxic inheritance for his successor, Liz Truss. As Mr Kellner noted, this profound dissatisfaction extends to both those British voters who voted Leave in 2016 (46 per cent) and those who voted Conservative in 2019 (41 per cent.) Mr Kellner concludes that while some Leave voters now think Brexit was simply a mistake, "around 4 million Leave voters still favour Brexit but say it has so far worked out badly" during Mr Johnson’s time in power.
Unless Ms Truss can convince Conservative and Brexit voters otherwise, she is unlikely to win the next general election. Polling for the Conservative party is grim. Most show the Labour opposition about 10 per cent ahead of the Conservatives. Of course, Ms Truss may get some kind of bounce from being the new face in Downing Street, except for the fact that she is an old face – formerly a minister in the Environment Department, the Justice Department and the Foreign Office among other jobs. Some commentators suggest she has risen without a trace, full of ambition yet lacking any real achievements in any of these jobs. She has loudly trumpeted her post-Brexit trade deals, yet almost all have simple been rollovers of existing EU trade deals.
Any Truss honeymoon will probably be very short because her in-tray is daunting – one of the most serious economic crises most of us can remember, soaring inflation, energy bills crippling businesses and terrifying ordinary families, plus the Ukraine conflict and the unresolved Brexit rows.
Mr Johnson offered some characteristically bizarre farewell advice to the British people. He suggested we could all save energy by buying a new kettle for £20 thereby saving about £10 a year. I am not making this up. He made some kind of analogy with the UK’s failure to invest in nuclear power, although his Conservative party has been in power for 12 years and failed to do so.
The Johnson years, like the Festival of Brexit, never lived up to any of the publicity nor the wild ambitions Boris and his boosters promised. Perhaps historians will see Mr Johnson’s epitaph in the comments by Keir Starmer, the Labour party leader. Mr Starmer said that Mr Johnson was not a wicked person, but he was a "trivial" one. A showman is not an act suitable for difficult times. It’s an act which – like the Festival of Brexit – the public came to reject. And my kettle is old but reliable. I think I may need to sit down and have a strong cup of tea.
Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Timeline
1947
Ferrari’s road-car company is formed and its first badged car, the 125 S, rolls off the assembly line
1962
250 GTO is unveiled
1969
Fiat becomes a Ferrari shareholder, acquiring 50 per cent of the company
1972
The Fiorano circuit, Ferrari’s racetrack for development and testing, opens
1976
First automatic Ferrari, the 400 Automatic, is made
1987
F40 launched
1988
Enzo Ferrari dies; Fiat expands its stake in the company to 90 per cent
2002
The Enzo model is announced
2010
Ferrari World opens in Abu Dhabi
2011
First four-wheel drive Ferrari, the FF, is unveiled
2013
LaFerrari, the first Ferrari hybrid, arrives
2014
Fiat Chrysler announces the split of Ferrari from the parent company
2015
Ferrari launches on Wall Street
2017
812 Superfast unveiled; Ferrari celebrates its 70th anniversary
hall of shame
SUNDERLAND 2002-03
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
LA LIGA: Sporting Gijon, 13 points in 1997-98.
BUNDESLIGA: Tasmania Berlin, 10 points in 1965-66
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Is it worth it? We put cheesecake frap to the test.
The verdict from the nutritionists is damning. But does a cheesecake frappuccino taste good enough to merit the indulgence?
My advice is to only go there if you have unusually sweet tooth. I like my puddings, but this was a bit much even for me. The first hit is a winner, but it's downhill, slowly, from there. Each sip is a little less satisfying than the last, and maybe it was just all that sugar, but it isn't long before the rush is replaced by a creeping remorse. And half of the thing is still left.
The caramel version is far superior to the blueberry, too. If someone put a full caramel cheesecake through a liquidiser and scooped out the contents, it would probably taste something like this. Blueberry, on the other hand, has more of an artificial taste. It's like someone has tried to invent this drink in a lab, and while early results were promising, they're still in the testing phase. It isn't terrible, but something isn't quite right either.
So if you want an experience, go for a small, and opt for the caramel. But if you want a cheesecake, it's probably more satisfying, and not quite as unhealthy, to just order the real thing.
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Cherry
Directed by: Joe and Anthony Russo
Starring: Tom Holland, Ciara Bravo
1/5
ADCC AFC Women’s Champions League Group A fixtures
October 3: v Wuhan Jiangda Women’s FC
October 6: v Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women’s FC
October 9: v Sabah FA
Indika
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A cryptocurrency primer for beginners
Cryptocurrency Investing for Dummies – by Kiana Danial
There are several primers for investing in cryptocurrencies available online, including e-books written by people whose credentials fall apart on the second page of your preferred search engine.
Ms Danial is a finance coach and former currency analyst who writes for Nasdaq. Her broad-strokes primer (2019) breaks down investing in cryptocurrency into baby steps, while explaining the terms and technologies involved.
Although cryptocurrencies are a fast evolving world, this book offers a good insight into the game as well as providing some basic tips, strategies and warning signs.
Begin your cryptocurrency journey here.
Available at Magrudy’s , Dh104
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
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Company%20Profile
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Banned items
Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
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Political flags or banners
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Bikes, skateboards or scooters
