divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/41171?ns=guardianpageName=Politics%3A+Darling+hopes+VAT+cut+will+boost+Christmas+salesch=Politicsc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Politics%2CEconomic+policy%2CTax+and+spending%2CRetail+industry+%28Business%29%2CPre-budget+report%2CRecession+%28UK%29%2CCredit+crunch+%28Business%29%2CTax+%28Money%29%2CObserver%2CUK+newsc5=Personal+Finance%2CCredit+Crunch%2CBusiness+Markets%2CNot+commercially+usefulc6=Toby+Helm%2CHeather+Stewartc7=2008_11_23c8=1122643c9=articlec10=GUc11=Politicsc12=Economic+policyc13=c14=h2=GU%2FPolitics%2FEconomic+policy" width="1" height="1" //divpAlistair Darling will make a high-risk bid to lead Britain out of recession tomorrow, when he is expected to cut VAT and entice the British people to go on a pre-Christmas spending spree./ppThe move by the Chancellor and Gordon Brown won the support last night of Charles Clarke, one of the Prime Minister's most high-profile critics, a sign that the economic crisis is at last uniting Labour and focusing minds on the battle against the Tories. With high-street stores slashing prices to attract customers, Darling will offer help with his pre-Christmas price cut in an attempt to limit the collateral damage from the global financial crisis./ppThe cut is expected to see the rate drop from its current level of 17.5 per cent for at least a year - and possibly for as long as two years./ppHowever in an interview this morning, the Tory leader, David Cameron, warned public borrowing could top £100bn to pay for Brown's "fiscal stimulus" package to rescue the ailing economy. /pp'I think people are going to be shocked tomorrow when they see the extent of government borrowing,'' he told BBC1's Andrew Marr show./pp'Maybe £80bn this year, before the recession's even properly started, and possibly over £100bn next year. And next year, that is over £4,000 extra for every family in the country.'/ppLord Mandelson, the business secretary, acknowledged this morning that the government could not know whether the planned changes would persuade people to spend more. 'We don't, but that's not a reason for inaction,' he said. /ppAsked when there would be tax rises, he added: "In the medium term, the chancellor has said, and he's absolutely right to say this and he'll do so again tomorrow, that we have to get our public finances on to a sustainable basis. /pp'He's got to explain how he's going to do that and he will.'/ppLast night, as Darling put the finishing touches to the most important financial statement of Labour's 11 years in government, there was speculation that he might slash the rate to 15 per cent, a move that would cost the government about £12.5bn a year./ppSuch a move, certain to be interpreted as evidence that Brown is preparing for a possible election next year, is seen by the Prime Minister as essential to help the economy ride out the severest economic downturn for generations. /ppDarling is also expected to announce an extension of the £2.7bn giveaway announced in the summer to buy off Labour rebels opposed to the abolition of the 10p income tax rate. The original rebate, worth £120 a year to basic rate taxpayers, was due to come to an end next April, but the Chancellor is likely to carry it over for at least another year. There could also be wider changes in personal tax allowances to take many low earners out of paying tax at all, as well as plans to speed up infrastructure projects to help salvage jobs in construction. /ppIn an interview with the Sunday Mirror, Darling today promises help for 'every household' so people can 'get through the difficult period'. He also promises support for householders with mortgages and those facing redundancy. 'Worried mortgage holders will get help and I shall do what I can to help those who lose their jobs.'/ppThe public sector, he says, will be asked to spend less. 'In these difficult times the public sector will, like the rest of the country, be tightening its belt.'/ppThere was also speculation that Darling could help motorists by postponing plans to increase vehicle excise duty on the most polluting cars.br /With the financial markets nervously waiting to see how Brown and Darling intend to pay for the measures, the Prime Minister received a significant boost last night when Clarke, a former Home Secretary, finally buried the hatchet and lavished praise on his former political enemy over his handling of the economic crisis./ppEnding one of the bitterest feuds at the top of the Labour party, and in a sign of how it is now united behind its leader, Clarke, who only in September called for Brown to shape up or quit, told The Observer that the Prime Minister had shown 'genuine economic and political leadership at a time when it was both desperately needed and difficult to do'. He said: 'It's been a real surprise to me but Gordon's economic self-confidence has made him more decisive on the political front.' The PM had listened to his critics and had 'earned the right to support'./pp'I think that, since the Labour party conference, he has done really well in meeting the challenges of the world financial and economic crisis,' said Clarke. As a result, he said he felt Brown could lead Labour to a fourth consecutive general election victory.br /'Winning the election, particularly in the marginal seats in the south east, remains a really tough call, but Labour is obviously back in the race and can do it.'/ppCity economists said a VAT cut was 'psychologically attractive', as it would encourage people to spend when times were hard and could easily be withdrawn later./ppThe government's deficit will balloon to way above £100bn next year, but the Treasury hopes to reassure the City about the long-term health of the government's finances by announcing detailed plans to increase taxes and squeeze public spending, once the recession is over.br /Britain's approach of plunging deeper into the red to pay for a short-term economic support package was echoed in the United States, when President-elect Barack Obama promised to save 2.5 million jobs with a two-year stimulus plan./pp'There are no quick nor easy fixes for this crisis, which has been many years in the making, and it's likely to get worse before it gets better,' said Obama. 'But 20 January is our chance to begin anew, with a new direction, new ideas and new reforms that will create jobs and fuel long-term economic growth.'/ppIn a speech to the CBI annual conference tomorrow, Brown will defend his own 'fiscal stimulus' plan, insisting that a 'new approach is now needed if we are to get through this unprecedented global financial recession with the least damage to Britain's long-term economic prospects'./ppThis weekend, the Conservative party launches a nationwide campaign aimed at highlighting its view that Brown's '£100bn borrowing binge' will mean higher taxes in the long run. Poster vans warning of a 'tax bombshell' - the same phrase the Tories successfully deployed against Labour in the 1992 general election campaign - are being used in London and in busy shopping areas across the country./ppGeorge Osborne, the shadow Chancellor, last night accused the Prime Minister of conning the electorate with tax cuts that would have to be paid back. 'Only the Tories will deliver lower taxes that last,' he said./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/economy"Economic policy/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/taxandspending"Tax and spending/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/retail"Retail industry/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/pre-budget-report"Pre-budget report/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/recession"Recession/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/creditcrunch"Credit crunch/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/tax"Tax/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Politicscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227440083773112311480652026"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Politicscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227440083773112311480652026" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/53627?ns=guardianpageName=Football%3A+Tottenham+v+Blackburn+-+live%21ch=Footballc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Premier+League+%28Football%29%2CTottenham+Hotspur+%28Football%29%2CBlackburn+Rovers+%28Football+club%29%2CFootball%2CSportc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CPremier+Leaguec6=Minute-by-minute+report%2CSean+Inglec7=2008_11_23c8=1122642c9=articlec10=GUc11=Footballc12=Premier+Leaguec13=c14=h2=GU%2FFootball%2FPremier+League" width="1" height="1" //div!-- Block 6 --pstrong3 min/strong Another long pass, this time from McCarthy to Santa Cruz, but the Paraguayian international is unable to stop it hitting his shin and skidding off for a goal kick./p!-- Block 5 --pstrong2 min/strong It's a good early atmosphere at the Lane and Spurs are immediately on the attack; a long ball is drilled towards Aaron Lennon at the back post but there's no one in the six-yard box to meet his subsequent cross./p!-- Block 4 --pstrong1 min/strong We're off! "Speaking of relegation, my three to go down are West Ham, West Brom and Bolton," says Tommy Drayton. The first two are in deep trouble already and the other is managed by Gary Megson. Nuff said." Nuff said? I haven't heard that phrase since the 80s. You'll be whoops-a-daisying next./p!-- Block 3 --pstrongThe weather/strong After a snowy then boot-sodden wet morning, the sun is shining over north London. Meanwhile this from Gary Naylor: "If ether team lose today, relegation becomes a real possibility," he says. "Given that 40 points is the accepted, if historically slightly high, mark for safety, the losing team would have to play the rest of the season at roughly the level Manchester City have played so far. 'Arry or The Guvnor will have to raise their game significantly if they are to avoid being the team that fills the spot everyone allocated to Hull in the August previews." Think it's a bit harsh to tell Redknapp to raise his game, Gary. He's done pretty well at White Hart Lane so far, albeit having had a huge dollop of luck./p!-- Block 2 --pstrongTottenham Hotspur: /strongGomes, Corluka, Woodgate, King, Assou-Ekotto, Bentley, Jenas, Huddlestone, Lennon, Pavlyuchenko, Bent. strongSubs: /strongCesar, Bale, Zokora, Gunter, Campbell, Dawson, O'Hara. /ppstrongBlackburn Rovers: /strong Robinson, Ooijer, Samba, Nelsen, Olsson, Emerton, Andrews, Mokoena, Pedersen, McCarthy, Santa Cruz. strongSubs: /strong Brown, Kerimoglu, Simpson, Fowler, Judge, Derbyshire, Roberts./p!-- Block 1 --pstrongPreamble/strong Good afternoon everyone for a game that promises to have more goals than a positive thinker on New Year's Day: four of Spurs' last five games have featured three goals or more, while Blackburn's last five matches have featured an average of 4.4 goals. The bookies make Spurs odds on for this, but Blackburn have only lost one out of their last six against Tottenham. My prediction? 2-1 Spurs./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/premierleague"Premier League/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/tottenham-hotspur"Tottenham Hotspur/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blackburn"Blackburn Rovers/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Footballcountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227447517736112313520542402"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Footballcountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227447517736112313520542402" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/2056?ns=guardianpageName=Sport%3A+Hatton+was+good%2C+but+let%27s+not+get+carried+awaych=Sportc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Ricky+Hatton+%28Sport%29%2CBoxing%2CSportc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Kevin+Mitchellc7=2008_11_23c8=1122635c9=articlec10=GUc11=Sportc12=blogc13=c14=Sportblogh2=GU%2FSport%2Fblog%2FSportblog" width="1" height="1" //divpRicky Hatton was rightly pleased with an improved performance in beating Paulie Malignaggi and restoring much of his reputation./ppBut it's way too early to get carried away. Victory at the MGM Grand Arena this morning over an opponent whose tricks evaporated under sustained pressure keeps Hatton in line for a huge payday in the UK next summer, against the winner of the Oscar De La Hoya-Manny Pacquiao fight in the same ring on 6 December./ppAnd there was much to admire about his better head movement and his patience. He still gets caught too easily when coming in, especially early in a contest when the adrenalin is pumping. Once he had settled down though, behind a jab that he has ignored for far too long, he was able to set his man up for some heavy hooks to head and body./ppHe took Malignaggi's boxing away from him. After a few anxious moments in the early rounds, Hatton was confident of blasting his way past what has to be one of the weakest jabs in the light-welterweight division./ppWhen the end came, 28 seconds into the 11th round, there was a sense of relief around the Arena, although Malignaggi was hardly out on his feet. His trainer, Buddy McGirt, said he threw the towel in because his fighter was losing and did not have a punch with which to pull it out of the fire./ppHe was right. But Malignaggi, a proud man, looked willing and capable of taking it a bit further./ppHatton's long camp with Floyd Mayweather Snr has obviously improved his sharpness and technique. He sat down on his punches and, after missing early, did not panic./ppCan he beat De La Hoya or Pacquiao? I don't know. Neither does he. But he has put himself into that frame with a much better chance than he might have had a year ago./ppBilly Graham, the trainer from whom he parted after his last fight, a poor points win over Juan Lazcano six months ago, was in Las Vegas but not at the fight. That was puzzling and sad at the same time, as he will have wanted his friend to do well - and yet not want to be seen as the trainer who oversaw the deterioration of his boxing./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/rickyhatton"Ricky Hatton/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/boxing"Boxing/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Sportcountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227436840196112310460558022"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Sportcountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227436840196112310460558022" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

As the Bay Area looks to become the a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/21/travelandtransport-alternativeenergy"electric vehicle capital of America/a, the a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/automobiles/autoreviews/23-vw-jetta.html?em"2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI/a won the a href="http://www.greencar.com/features/2009-vw-jetta-clean-diesel-wins"Green Car of the Year Award/a at the a href="http://www.autobloggreen.com/category/la-auto-show"LA Auto Show./a br /

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/97493?ns=guardianpageName=Sport%3A+Hatton+back+in+business+after+overpowering+Malignaggich=Sportc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Boxing%2CRicky+Hatton+%28Sport%29%2CSportc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Kevin+Mitchellc7=2008_11_23c8=1122632c9=articlec10=GUc11=Sportc12=Boxingc13=c14=h2=GU%2FSport%2FBoxing" width="1" height="1" //divpRicky Hatton put his career back on track with an 11th-round stoppage win over a game but exhausted Paulie Malignaggi at the MGM Grand Arena this morning, and is set now for a mega-fight in the UK next summer against either Oscar De La Hoya or Manny Pacquiao./ppThe New Yorker protested afterwards - with some justification - that Buddy McGirt had acted hastily in throwing in the towel just 28 seconds into the round. But, in reality, he was well behind on points and did not have the punch to pull the fight out of the fire./pp"I enjoyed this fight a lot more than the last time I was here," Hatton said. "I am in a new camp and I think it showed, with a lot of things I learned./pp"I was getting frustrated because Paulie is a much better fighter than you think. I dropped my shoulder and allowed my punches to go. Paulie is a great fighter. I think you can see the things I worked on in camp. I slowed down, was more composed and used my jab more. I want a big fight now. I only have a couple more years left."/ppIt was a workmanlike performance which started slowly and built steadily towards a conclusion that was inevitable after the midway stage. Malignaggi, stopped for the first time in his career, could not live with the Mancunian's pace. Once Hatton worked his way past the Brooklyn fighter's quick but weak jab in the early stages, he found his opponent increasingly easy to hit and hurt./ppHe had him in trouble several times with big hooks but Malignaggi, who endured a 12-round hiding by Miguel Cotto three years ago, was not going to fold easily. He had occasional success but did not have the weight of punch to inconvenience an energy-fighter such as Hatton. Hatton retains his International Boxing Organisation light-welterweight title but, more importantly, rediscovered his self-belief after his knockout defeat at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jnr in the same ring last December./ppHe has clearly benefited from the training expertise of Mayweather's father, Floyd Snr, looking sharper and more focused than for some time. He made mistakes and was caught coming in too eagerly in the first few rounds, but he did what he had to in a way that re-established his reputation. There was a view abroad that, at 30, he was paying the price for his chaotic lifestyle between contests - and that remains a valid criticism - but it was hard to fault his performance against a skilled and tricky counter-puncher./ppHe stalked Malignaggi from the opening bell to the finish. Malignaggi, though, edged the first round, dropped the second, shared the third, then took the fourth as slight anxiety crept into Hatton's work. However, once he settled down, Hatton found his range more regularly and Malignaggi's work grew ragged on the retreat. He rocked the Brooklyn stylist several times. When the end came, he had him breathing hard but noticeably in trouble. "Ricky is a great fighter," Malignaggi said, "but this goes on my record as a stoppage and it shouldn't be."/ppLiam and Noel Gallagher, Hatton's guests, led him into the ring and he was cheered by a host of celebrities at ringside, including David Beckham, as he climbed out of his "Ricky Fatton" suit to reveal a body chiselled to perfection over the past two months./ppOn the undercard, Hatton's younger brother, Matthew, took his record to 35-4, boxing well behind his jab over 10 rounds to outpoint the 35-year-old Ben Tackie (whom Ricky had beaten nearly five years years ago), 98-92, 97-93, 98-92./ppMeanwhile, at a bar somewhere on The Strip, Hatton's estranged trainer of 12 years, Billy Graham, was watching on television. He had refused to come to the arena, but said he just wanted to be in town to support his friend. Even so, he will have ambivalent thoughts of watching Hatton rehabilitate himself without him in his corner./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/boxing"Boxing/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/rickyhatton"Ricky Hatton/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Sportcountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227421600169112306380554246"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Sportcountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227421600169112306380554246" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

iMedical Hypotheses, Vol. 71, No. 6. (December 2008), pp. 839-850./ibr /br /Cancer is usually considered to be a by-product of design limitations of a multicellular organism and its intrinsic fallibility. However, recent data prompt a revision of some established notions about carcinogenesis and form a new paradigm of carcinogenesis as a highly conserved biological phenomenon – a programmed death of an organism. This altruistic program, which is unleashed when mutagenesis surpasses a certain critical threshold, gives a population the important benefit acting as a guardian of the gene pool against the spread of certain mutant genes. A growing body of evidence supports this point of view: (i) epigenetic changes leading to cancer arise early, simultaneously in many cells and look like deterministic regulation; (ii) concept of cancer stem cell suggests a view of carcinogenesis not as vague transformation but as well known differentiation; (iii) tumor/host relations usually perceived as antagonistic are, in reality, synergistic; (iv) death of an individual from cancer is predetermined and results apparently from a specific activity (killer function) of cancer cell and (v) evolutionary conservation indicates that cancer comes with a general advantage that explains its evolutionary success. A holistic approach to carcinogenesis suggests new avenues of research and new therapeutic strategy.

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/40964?ns=guardianpageName=Sport%3A+The+star+next+doorch=Sportc3=The+Observerc4=Rebecca+Adlington%2CSwimming+%28Sport%29%2Colympics2008%2CSport%2CSport+features%2CObserverc5=Not+commercially+useful%2COlympic+Gamesc6=Anna+Kesselc7=2008_11_23c8=1120185c9=articlec10=GUc11=Sportc12=Rebecca+Adlingtonc13=c14=h2=GU%2FSport%2FRebecca+Adlington" width="1" height="1" //divpThe comedian Russell Howard said it best when he summed up what we all love most about Rebecca Adlington. 'She's so normal it's fantastic, she looks like she could work at Greggs! You know, "I've gotta go bloody fast, I've left pasties in the oven!"' As a fan of comedy, no doubt OSM's Sportsperson of the Year would roar her head off at that. It is Adlington's 'Greggs' appeal that the British public relate to; her expression of delight after winning two Olympic gold medals was so human it won over a nation. The unpretentious 19-year-old from Mansfield is instantly likeable./ppOn the morning of the photoshoot, Adlington arrives straight from the pool wearing a Team GB tracksuit, her hair wet from a 6am training session. She is not precious about her appearance. She slings her coat over her lap, apologises to the stylist about the state of her hair - 'It was in such bad condition after Beijing I couldn't get a brush through it' - and gets down to the nitty-gritty of showbiz gossip from the previous night at the Cosmo awards. /ppThere was Kim Cattrall ('Stunning in real life, not at all wrinkly'); drag queen Jodie Harsh ('At first I thought it was Jodie Marsh!'); and Trinny and Susannah ('They never grabbed my boobs, but I haven't got any anyway'); all were there to collect awards. Adlington's was Ultimate Sports Superhero, which meant having to negotiate the dreaded red carpet. /pp'I don't know how to pose to save my life,' she says. 'Someone said cross your legs, but my shoes were so high I'd have ended up wobbling and looking like a prat. You know how celebrities do that thing where they keep the same face on every single photograph? They never seem to get the whole... [contorts her face into a series of gurns] whereas I always get that photo where I'm mid-sentence and looking awful.'/ppAs Adlington chats away, the stylist applies the curling tongs and there is a loud sizzle. 'Oh my God, is that my hair? I'm gonna leave with one side bald! Oh well.' Then, spying a large curl in the mirror, she lets out a delighted squeal: 'I feel like Sandy out of Grease!'/ppAdlington confesses she is a bit nervous about being photographed in a swimsuit. Why? She's an athlete, she's bound to look gorgeous. 'Are you kidding?' she screams, 'I've got massive bingo wings, look. I've got this armpit hanging out which is my pec muscle, it just, like, hangs over because it's so big. I've got man shoulders, I'm not toned at all. And after Beijing I've put on a bit of weight.'/ppMost people can reel off a list of things they dislike about their appearance, but they're either lying to make you feel better, or they really are unhappy. Adlington is neither, just honest. She yanks up her T-shirt and grabs a handful of her stomach. 'Look, I don't have a flat stomach. I've got the tyre. All the other girls on my swim team are skinny. Like literally nothing rolls over. /pp'I do get a bit insecure,' she continues, reflecting on all these new demands to be photographed. 'The worst thing is the photographer, because you feel like they must have shot so many gorgeous skinny people and then they've got to work with someone that's not.' /ppIn fact, the resounding verdict around the studio today is, 'My God, hasn't she got great legs?' and 'Doesn't she look gorgeous?' She does. Serene and beautiful, but wonderfully unaffected as, sweating under the hot photographic lamps, she asks for a tissue. 'If you don't want to see something really disgusting, look away now,' she says, wiping the sweat from her underarms with a grin. /ppAdlington has been famous for only four months, but she has been swimming for 15 years. It started when she dived into a pool on holiday, aged four, and paddled about like a natural. So her parents took her for lessons at the local pool in Mansfield - due to be renamed after Adlington next month - along with her two elder sisters. It was Rebecca who showed the most promise, swimming competitively from the age of nine. By the time she was 12 she had joined her current coach, Bill Furniss, at the Nova swim club in Nottingham, making the 20-mile round trip from Mansfield twice a day. /ppAll those years of dedication and hard work, yet before Beijing you had to scour the internet to find anything written about her. Swimming is rarely big news - even when she won 800metres gold at the world championships in Manchester in April this year, there followed just one national newspaper article. But Olympic medals are different, and after Beijing, with golds in the 400m and 800m freestyle, Adlington was instantly hailed as Britain's most successful swimmer in 100 years. How, then, does she reflect on her achievements? /pp'You know when I wake up in the morning I think, "Is it 5.20am already?" rather than, "Oh I've won two Olympic gold medals." It's something that will never quite sink in. The weirdest thing is just the fact that you can say, "I've won an Olympic gold medal". That is the scariest thing in the world. I'm just a 19-year-old girl. Everyone keeps saying it's really special, but I don't see myself as being special. It's like how you don't think you're beautiful but someone else thinks you're stunning.'/ppAdlington says she misses the Olympics, the camaraderie of being in a gang of friends. At times she makes it sound more like a holiday camp than a highly pressured environment for elite athletes. /pp'I loved it out there. The hardest thing was having to leave after we spent five weeks together. You found yourself picking up people's accents and phrases - you do though! Like if someone's being an idiot the guys called them a tool or a weapon, so when I got back home I start calling everyone a tool. When we got back together for the Olympic parade in London we had such a laugh on that bus, just being back together again was brilliant.'/ppBut when it comes to her own performances, the memories are more sober. 'You know I was so nervous. Especially for the 800m. It is my main event, closest to my heart. Winning the 400m was an unexpected bonus, but to get a medal in the 800m, that was always my goal./pp'Before the race I got really emotional. I thought I was going to throw up, then I thought I was going to cry, then I thought I was going to pass out. I had to lie down on the floor. Then I got in the call room 15 minutes before the race and suddenly I was fine. Michael Phelps was racing in the 100 fly and we were all watching it on the TV. It was so close at the finish, everyone was like, "Oh my God!" He won it by 0.01 of a second. I can't even click that fast.' /ppWasn't her own 400m final, against the American Katie Hoff, similarly close? 'Oh no,' she says, casually, 'that was 0.07 seconds.'/ppThe battle for the 800m title was more than just a second gold medal for Adlington. Breaking Janet Evans's 19-year-old world record was a physical experience more intense than anything she had ever endured. 'It was the most painful race in my whole entire life,' she says. 'I put every little bit of me into it, mentally and physically. When I finished my body collapsed, probably because I pushed it a little bit too far, but I was so wanting to do it and so up for it that the adrenaline just took over. Afterwards my body hurt, it had never been so sore. And you're drained. It wasn't just the pain, it was the nerves, all week I'd had them. People don't realise how tiring that is. You can't eat properly because you're so nervous. I lost 2kg in two days just from the heats to the 800m final.'/ppEarly in 2005, when Adlington was 15, she had been forced to curtail her swimming when she and her elder sister Laura contracted glandular fever. The disease was not new to the Adlington family: the oldest daughter, Chloe, had gone through it five years before and suffered so badly she had been forced to give up swimming. While Rebecca battled with the disease and its after effects of chronic fatigue syndrome, the virus entered Laura's brain and she lay in intensive care fighting for her life. /pp'It was a rough time for us. Laura had encephalitis [swelling of the brain], I had my final year of GCSEs and wasn't feeling too hot. My mum was really worried. In those situations family comes first and swimming has to come last. So for a couple of months I focused on my family. My mum and dad were constantly at the hospital, Chloe did everything else - looking after the house and driving me to training, while we kept the rest of the family updated with phone calls. If there was any news, good or bad, or even if Laura just woke up and spoke to us we'd be ringing round to tell everyone.'/ppAdlington's coach, Furniss, wanted her to keep swimming so, with the agreement of her doctors, he created a pared-down regime. 'You have to keep the feel of the water going otherwise you lose your technique,' Adlington says, 'but every time I got in the pool I felt like I couldn't go anywhere. I felt as though I hadn't slept and yet I was sleeping 12 hours a night. I felt heavy all the time, like I was 40 stone. Bill was extremely good with it all. He never said, "Oh, she's ill, I'll leave her," he took a step back, made me go easy and got me right. It was hard, but I didn't ever complain because I'd seen what both my sisters went through, I was just grateful that I didn't have to give up swimming.'/ppEverybody agreed that swimming was the best thing for her, but Adlington's parents could not help but worry. 'You have two of your children with a similar type of viral infection,' says her mum Kay. 'You ask yourself all sorts of questions. We monitored Becky's training very carefully: if her appetite waned, if she couldn't sleep, if she was irritable. We didn't want to scare her, though, we didn't want her to feel this was the start of what Laura had. But she must have asked herself the question, "Will it do this to me?" In Laura's case the virus attacked both the front and back of her brain, which made it more complicated to treat. The doctors pumped her full of everything they could. It was up to her then. It was agonising./pp'We carried on with as much normality as we could. School allowed Becky to drop one of her lessons so that after morning training she could come home and have a proper breakfast, and dry her hair. Before she was ill she just used to have her cereal in the car and go to school with wet hair. That sounds awful, doesn't it? But we were always on the go.'/ppAdlington's parents shielded her from the worst of Laura's illness, insisting that the other two daughters didn't visit her in intensive care. 'They didn't want us to see her there with all the tubes,' Adlington says. 'It was a terrifying time. But it was hardest on my parents.' That is not entirely true. Adlington had been tipped as a medal hope for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, but her illness left her unable to compete, which was a tough disappointment to take./ppIn true Adlington style it isn't long before she starts cracking a few jokes. 'You know, when Laura started getting better we were a bit nasty,' she says with a smile. 'Where the illness had impacted on her brain she was doing some hilarious things. Like she thought there were little men dancing on the end of her bed, or that the drip in her chest was a baby, or the thing you wee through - the catheter! - she thought she was leaning on a pen and she kept trying to move it. It was funny, but it was also scary.'/ppPulling through those events must have made her stronger. 'It did,' she says, 'it definitely made me stronger and I wouldn't be the person I am today without those things happening to me.'/ppWith the final photograph taken, Adlington skips off to get changed back into her tracksuit, but keeps the Fifties-Style make-up on. 'I love it!' she says. 'I definitely want my hair like this for Sports Personality of the Year.' Following on from her OSM accolade, Adlington cannot wait for the BBC awards night in Liverpool on 14 December, at which she is a favourite for the top three. She can barely contain her excitement as she talks about the outfit she plans to wear; it is her effusiveness that makes her such a genuinely appealing candidate. She has already chosen her dress and her shoes: all she needs now is the trophy. /pp· Watch a a href="http://www.observer.co.uk/osm"video/a of Rebecca Adlington collecting her OSM award./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/rebeccaadlington"Rebecca Adlington/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/swimming"Swimming/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/olympics2008"Olympics 2008/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/sportfeatures"Sport features/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Sportcountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227444365998112312500652405"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Sportcountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227444365998112312500652405" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/91276?ns=guardianpageName=Art+and+design%3A+How+I+learnt+to+love+the+streets+in+the+skych=Art+and+designc3=The+Observerc4=Architecture%2CCulture+section%2CObserverc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CArchitecturec6=Rachel+Cookec7=2008_11_23c8=1122322c9=articlec10=GUc11=Art+and+designc12=Architecturec13=c14=h2=GU%2FArt+and+design%2FArchitecture" width="1" height="1" //divpSome children are brought up to love cats and hate dogs, others to adore Manchester United and despise Liverpool. I was brought up to revere Victorian architecture and to abhor modern buildings. Modern buildings, whatever their vintage, whatever their supposed virtues, were rubbish and that was that. In the 1980s, an 'executive' estate was built on the field opposite our Sheffield home. For my parents, midway through restoring their black-leaded fireplaces, the arrival of these buildings involved a certain amount of trauma, an anxiety that transmitted itself to me. /ppOur terrace was built of local sandstone and, darkened by age and industry, its exterior always reminded me of burnt toast. These houses, though, were built of brick so bright it made my eyes ache and they had gleaming tarmac drives which looked, even in dry weather, like licks of liquorice. At night, I lay in bed and indulged in violent fantasies in which I went Awol with a wrecking ball./ppIn Sheffield, haters of modern architecture had a perfect focus for their loathing in the form of Park Hill, the council estate that is now the biggest listed building in Britain. As a teenager, I hated Park Hill even more than I loathed Mrs Thatcher, for the simple reason that it made people think badly of my city. It wasn't just that no one liked so-called Brutalism. By the mid-1980s, the flats, then nearly 30 years old, were in a sorry state: dilapidated, and reputedly crammed with the council's most difficult tenants. Yet no visitor could escape them. The estate sits high on a cliff, overlooking the railway station, dominating the landscape like some great prison (a friend of a friend was once told by a taxi driver that Park Hill had been built, not in the late 1950s, but in the 1930s and that had Hitler invaded Britain, it would have been the site of his HQ). /ppWhen I went to university and told people where I was from, they would wrinkle their noses and say: 'Oh, I went through there once on the train...' and you just knew that they were picturing Park Hill. It was embarrassing. Why couldn't the council knock the thing down and start again? /ppStrange, then, that all these years later Park Hill is not only one of the buildings that I like most in the world, but the cause of an unexpected passion on my part for 20th-century buildings in general and 1960s buildings in particular (though I still hate executive estates and always will). This is not to say that I love every bit of concrete I see. The more I learn, the more I realise that postwar architecture is like any other kind of architecture: some is good, some bad. /ppRecently, I visited Robin Hood Gardens in Poplar, east London, a scheme with which Park Hill is often compared, and a recent Brutalist cause celebre (in July, to much gnashing of teeth from architecture nerds, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, advised by English Heritage, ruled that the estate, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson and completed in 1972, would not be listed, though the Twentieth Century Society has since been successful in its request for a legal review of this decision). /ppThanks to my new fondness for grey slabs, I expected, if not to love it, then to want to save it; this is the only housing scheme that the radical Smithsons ever managed to get built. But the DCMS was right. Robin Hood Gardens is neither generous, nor well-built, and its site has changed beyond all recognition in the last 30 years, its old dockyard views gone, its 'gardens' polluted by the relentless grind of traffic into the Blackwall Tunnel. It is beyond saving, as its fans would find out if they ran a competition among developers for its renovation (there isn't a company in the land that would want that gig)./ppBut Park Hill is not Robin Hood Gardens. Once a great and innovative building, it one day will be again. In the last year, Sheffield City Council's ambitious plan to give the estate a second life as a hip home for urban professionals has at last got under way: tenants have moved out and Urban Splash, the development company, has moved in. When I first heard about this project, I assumed that these residents, worn down by living in a building so down at heel, would be glad to escape, that they'd say to the incoming yuppies: 'You're welcome to it' and score themselves a nice new house. /ppI was wrong. More than 200 have put down their names for the share of Park Hill that will eventually be owned by Manchester Methodist Housing Association (determined that the site be socially mixed, the council has decreed that a third of the 900 new flats will be 'affordable' and two-thirds of those will be for social rent). Some are living elsewhere and hope to return. A hard core, however, remains on site even as the dust rises around them. This lot love Park Hill and don't like the idea of living anywhere else./ppCut to last April, when all this started. Until now, I've never been inside Park Hill. Once I'm standing in the middle of it, though, two things strike me. The first is the sense of drama that builds as you walk through its courtyards, which get grander the higher the flats grow (built on a hill, the lowest tower sits on the site's highest point and vice versa); their embrace makes me think not of A Clockwork Orange but of the Colosseum in Rome. The second is the fact that Park Hill, unlike Robin Hood Gardens and its listed neighbour, Ernouml; Goldfinger's Balfron Tower, is not built of concrete. Its frame is concrete but its curtain walls are made of red, orange and yellow brick. Thanks to the damage wrought by heavy pollution, this is not something you can tell from the street. /ppBeside me, in the whipping cold, Grenville Squires, a caretaker who has worked here for 26 years - until recently, he lived here, too - is hopping with excitement. He loves tourists. 'The way it all fits together,' he says. 'It's like a jigsaw puzzle. I look at it as a feat of engineering. It was so clever. It had a district heating system - the only place with one like it was in Norway, where they'd capped a geyser - and a communal waste disposal system [this survived until the advent of disposable nappies]. When the new developers did a concrete survey, they found that it is not yet a third of the way through its life.' /ppWe get in Grenville's electric cart, and he drives me along Park Hill's interconnected decks to prove that the now much derided 'streets in the sky' really were wide enough to take a milk float. When we get to a suitable vantage point, he attempts to describe the estate as it was. 'There were four pubs, a supermarket, a hardware shop, a butcher's, a ladies' shoe shop, a chip shop. It was like a medieval village; you didn't have to leave.'/ppSo he doesn't believe that it was Park Hill's architects, Jack Lynn and Ivor Smith, who are to blame for what eventually became of the estate? That their design was too brutal, too idealistic, too rigidly controlling? /pp'No, it was the council's fault. They gave anyone who wanted one a flat and they didn't work hard enough at maintenance. She's lovely [the building]. She's my mistress, the only lady who's fetched me from the marital bed at two in the morning and made demands. She has come on hard times, but all she's got to do is wash her face and put on a new dress and she will be fine.'/ppAt the Park Hill social club, I meet the hard core who remain in residence; they are of the same opinion. Brenda Hague was 22 when she moved into Park Hill on 7 December 1959. Was she full of foreboding as she took possession of her neat new flat with its covetable kitchen, a reconstruction of which I have just seen in Sheffield's Weston Park Museum? Not at all. 'It was luxury,' she says. 'Me, my husband and our baby were living in a back-to-back. My parents were there, too, and my brother. We had no bathroom, just a tin bath on the back of the door. So when we got here it was marvellous. Three bedrooms, hot water, always warm. And the view. It's lovely, especially at night, when it's all lit up.'/ppIn those days, Park Hill was a quiet place, most of its tenants young families. But even when it began to be run down, in the 1980s, her fondness endured. 'It always felt safe to me. They say it looks horrible. Maybe it does from the outside. It's what's inside that counts. My son lives in Harrogate now and he has nothing but fond memories.'/ppHow does she feel about the refurbishment? Pleased, so long as she can remain where she's always been. I ask her friend Edith Bradbury, another resident of almost half a century, if it's hard to imagine a new Park Hill, rising like a phoenix from the ashes of its previous incarnation. 'It is. But it was hard to imagine it when it first went up. All the little streets this replaced. Who'd have thought it?'/pp'Will it work? Will it be a success?' 'Yes. I think it is going to be lovely.'/ppPark Hill tells the story of a century. The streets it replaced were home to some of the worst slums in Europe, people living 400 to the acre in houses so tightly packed they barely saw the sun, their only access to water a standpipe in the yard. But they had work. The valley that Park Hill lords it over was home to steel mills, mines and the workshops of the Little Mesters, the craftsmen who made the finest cutlery in the world. Park Hill's fortunes faded as this industry evaporated into thin air; between 1979 and 1989, 53,000 jobs were lost in a city of 200,000. /ppWhat interests me, though, is what the estate tells us about our relationship with modern buildings. These days, a single structure can come to represent a world view, standing proxy for our aesthetics and our politics. I used to hate it and now I like it. Perhaps you think this tells you a lot about me, but it doesn't really. Or it shouldn't. Park Hill is only one building. This is why we should treat with caution the arguments of commentators like Simon Jenkins, the new chairman of the National Trust, who deride all Brutalist buildings, the 'ideologues' who created them and the intellectuals and theorists who praise them while choosing to live in Georgian terraces. /ppBrenda Hague is no theorist, nor is Ivor Smith an ideologue. 'When Reyner Banham [the architecture critic] called us Brutalists, we didn't know what it meant,' says Smith (his partner Jack Lynn is dead). 'We didn't think we were Brutalists. We thought we were quite nice guys.'/ppWhen work began on Park Hill in 1957, he and Lynn were young, newly qualified, full of youthful enthusiasm and inspired by the optimism abroad in postwar Britain, however austere. 'The Uniteacute; [by le Corbusier, in Marseille] had just been built and it was exciting. But it wasn't an infatuation. We'd also made drawings of John Wood's crescents in Bath.'/ppReturning to Park Hill after 35 years, he thought it looked 'marvellous' from the town. Was there anything he would have done differently? 'The decks. A street has windows at street level. But at Park Hill, conditioned by best value for money, we couldn't have windows on to the pavements.' Does he like Urban Splash's ideas? 'Yes, though if anything I think they could be more daring.'/ppWhat of those ideas? The company has produced a flash brochure to showcase its pound;130m refurbishment of Park Hill and it makes for cheering, if occasionally comic, reading. To the naysayers, it points out that the density of the site - 192 people per acre - is well in excess of what the government considers to be a sustainable community and that the flats' original plans are more generous than the boxes favoured by modern developers. So, Park Hill is a 'bruiser'. /ppThe company will give it 'romance': oak trees, allotments, a wildflower meadow, crown green bowls, a dance studio, a high street ('a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker'). The marketeers write of wanting to build a 'yellow brick road' leading to a city sweet shop, Granelli's Spice ('spice' is a Sheffield word for sweets and Bertie Bassett one of its most famous sons). Cutest of all, the company will retain the graffiti that adorns Park Hill 13 storeys up and which once had a starring role in an Arctic Monkeys video: 'I LOVE YOU WILL U MARRY ME'. /ppBut none of this would be happening at all were it not for the building itself. English Heritage's controversial decision to confer Grade II* listed status on Park Hill in 1998, for its contribution to British Modernism, now seems prescient and wise. It surely would have been demolished otherwise and lots of identical, red-brick boxes stuck in its place. Of course, refurbishments of modernist buildings are extremely challenging and not all successful. In Islington, residents of Lubetkin's Spa Green Estate are taking legal action over the recent refurbishment of their homes, claiming the work was 'poor at best, and damaging at worst'. /ppBut for the time being, the sense of hope and expectation at Park Hill is palpable. After my visit, I catch the bus home to our toasty old terrace and, over supper, I ask my mother, ever so politely, if she has thought about where she will live in her retirement./ph2Good, bad, ugly? Modernist landmarks/h2pstrongRoyal College of Physicians, Regent's Park, London, by Denys Lasdun (1964)/strongbr /Most people know Lasdun for the Royal National Theatre, but this is miles better; its elegant sensibility seems to owe more to Frank Lloyd Wright thanbr /le Corbusier./ppstrongHunstanton Secondary School, Norfolk, by Alison and Peter Smithson (1949-1954)/strongbr /The building that made them famous: a steel frame with brick and glass panels, and a water tank high on a tower, it's a small-scale homage to Mies van der Rohe./ppstrong2 Willow Road, Hampstead, London, by Ernouml; Goldfinger (1938)/strongbr /Goldfinger is best known for his immense Brutalist tower blocks, Trellick Tower in North Kensington, and Balfron Tower in Poplar. Willow Road, his home, is more gentle and notable for its clever use of space and a spiral staircase designed by Ove Arup./ppstrongTrinity Square car park, Gateshead, by Owen Luder and Rodney Gordon (1969)/strongbr /Also known as the Get Carter car park, after the 1971 film in which it appears. See it now: its demolition is imminent. Gordon also designed the unpopular Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth - demolished in 2004 - and the Michael Faraday Memorial at Elephant and Castle in south London./ppstrongApollo Pavilion, Peterlee, by Victor Pasmore (1963-1970)/strongbr /Controversial piece of abstract public art in the Sunny Blunts housing estate. A grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund has recently been awarded for its restoration./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/architecture"Architecture/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Artscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227399527393112300260553996"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Artscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227399527393112300260553996" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/85152?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+Disillusioned+bankers+quit+the+City+for+the+rewards+of+teaching+sciencech=Businessc3=The+Observerc4=Banking+sector+%28Business%29%2CScience+%28Higher+education%29%2CTeaching%2CEducation%2CObserverc5=Investments%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CEducation+Weekly+Education%2CHigher+Education%2CSchools+Educationc6=Robin+McKiec7=2008_11_23c8=1122544c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=UK+banking+sectorc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FUK+banking+sector" width="1" height="1" //divpThe thrill of City life appears to be fading for hundreds of investment bankers who are preparing to turn their back on the financial sector and opt for a career in science teaching./ppThe Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) has revealed that inquiries about science teaching posts rose by a third last September compared with the same month in 2007. The agency will reveal this week that formal applications for science teaching posts have reached record levels and that further significant rises are expected next year in the wake of the world financial crisis. Many of those applicants are coming from the City, it says./ppAmong those swapping the trading floor for the school laboratory is Elizabeth Baldwin. The 44-year-old worked for almost 20 years for major banks, including Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers, until she found, a few months ago, that the excitement of the job was disappearing./pp'I had just had my second child, Thomas, and the thought of going back to the City became less and less palatable,' she said. 'The high pay no longer compensated for the long hours and lack of social life.'/ppSo the business analyst - who has a degree in chemistry and biology from King's College London - quit and is now applying to join a training course to become a science teacher. The City is a major employer of science graduates. As it cuts back on jobs, and as more individuals like Baldwin become disillusioned with the financial sector, the numbers of science teachers are set to soar as stockbrokers and analysts quit their Ferraris and stock options for test tubes and Bunsen burners, according to experts./pp'There is no doubt that the credit crunch has a huge silver lining in terms of science education in Britain,' said Graham Holley, the agency's chief executive. 'It is going to do a great deal of good for the teaching of chemistry, physics and biology.'/ppScience teaching has been a cause of considerable concern for education experts for decades. The City has attracted large numbers who are employed, often with lucrative salaries, as business analysts and IT experts. As a result, fewer graduates with top degrees have become teachers. Physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics classes have suffered and fewer children have been inspired to take up science. /ppIn turn, fewer graduates has meant fewer scientifically trained individuals available to work for British industry - and not enough good graduates available to become teachers, who are needed to inspire future generations of sixth-form students and undergraduates to study science subjects./ppThe government pledged years ago to halt this trend and has introduced a number of measures, including increased salaries for science teachers compared with those in other subjects. /ppThe TDA also launched its Transition to Teaching programme this year to increase numbers. Encouraging results are emerging. This week the agency - which is responsible for boosting teacher recruitment in Britain - will reveal that for the first time the country has exceeded the target set for numbers of new science teachers./ppA total of 3,114 science trainees entered colleges during the academic year 2008-09, a rise of 2.5 per cent on the previous year. 'That is the highest number of science teachers we have recruited since the TDA began 13 years ago,' said Holley./ppMost of these new recruits have been encouraged by schemes that ensure that salaries start at around pound;24,000 for science teachers, and can eventually rise to pound;50,000 for more mature candidates, according to the TDA./ppIt is a reasonable reward, but it certainly does not match what a science graduate can earn in the City, a point stressed by Baldwin./pp'I will be earning a third of what I would have got had I stayed in the City,' she said. 'But money is not everything. Instead of going to work early and leaving very late, I will get a chance to come home and be with my boys, Matthew and Thomas./pp'My father was a teacher, so I know what to expect and what I will get out of the job. I know teaching won't be easy, but I know as well that it can be very rewarding.'/ph2'I wanted more time with my boys'/h2pstrongFor two decades, Elizabeth Baldwin worked for major banks including Lehman Brothers and Bank of America - a job that took her to Australia, Hong Kong and London. /strong/pp'The City was part of my life. I would work long hours and then drink with friends. It was in my blood, though it did mean that I never saw my house in daylight. /pp'But after the birth of my sons - Matthew, who is two-and-a-half, and Thomas, who is 15 months - I found the place was no longer my natural habitat. /pp'Each time I went back after maternity leave, it no longer felt familiar or safe. So I decided to find a job that would give me some time with my boys. /pp'My father was a teacher and my sister is a teacher, so it was natural that I would think of education. I am not jumping into it, however. My salary will be about a third of its previous level, although my partner still has his job in the City./pp'I will miss the cut and thrust, and the gossip. On the other hand, it will be good to get home by 5.30 and see my children.'/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/banking"UK banking sector/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/science"Science/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/teaching"Teaching/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227436840239112310460558022"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227436840239112310460558022" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/75803?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+Woolworths%3A+everything+must+goch=Businessc3=The+Observerc4=Woolworths+%28Business%29%2CRetail+industry+%28Business%29%2CBusiness%2CUK+news%2CObserverc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Marketsc6=Zoe+Wood%2CHeather+Stewartc7=2008_11_23c8=1122526c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=Woolworthsc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FWoolworths" width="1" height="1" //divpFor 30,000 Woolworths staff it may be a bleak Christmas as it became clear yesterday that the veteran high-street retailer could go under this week if management cannot clinch a fire sale./ppWoolworths evokes nostalgia for precious pocket money spent on bottles of cola and ill-advised chart singles by Bucks Fizz. Last week it became clear that Woolworths itself was worth only pocket money, with management in talks to sell the 800-store chain for pound;1./ppThe collapse of Woolworths would be by far the largest retail failure this year, symbolising the high street's woes./ppAt the branch in Muswell Hill, north London, yesterday morning, the perspex lids on the pic 'n' mix - strawberry cables, jelly snakes, jazzies - remained firmly closed./ppNone of the shops in this affluent suburb is bustling - the estate agents are empty and even the swish boutiques have 'Sale' signs in their windows alongside the posh frocks. But Woolworths has a special air of desolation. Packed aisles of Christmas toys and gifts are on special offer, three for the price of two./pp'I quite like Woolies, but basically it's all just a bit crap isn't it?' says one browser, Steve, as he leaves empty-handed. A woman is buying plastic coathangers; another is discussing Advent calendars with a member of staff; and a boy is briefly mesmerised by a musical Santa which dances and plays the saxophone, before his mother drags him away. At the till, two young women lean with their chins in their hands, chatting to the security guard./ppIt wasn't always like this: Woolies once had a shop on every British high street and a special place in the hearts of millions of bargain-hungry shoppers. It was famous for selling anything from sixpenny toys to brown paper and string./ppMusic-hall artist Stanley Holloway used to recite the monologue 'Albert and the Lion', in which the eponymous hero came to a sticky end. Albert brandished '... a stick with an 'orse's 'ead 'andle/The finest that Woolworths could sell'./ppBut today, there are plenty of rivals also piling it high and selling it cheap. In the Muswell Hill branch, almost everything - from Christmas gift packs of Lynx aftershave to Paul O'Grady's autobiography - seems to be reduced. The Tannoy is blasting out 'The Little Drummer Boy' and other festive tunes, punctuated by announcements about a 20 per cent off deal with the slogan 'Woolworths: Let's Have Some Fun!'/ppWoolworths boss Steve Johnson should be visiting his stores today, making sure they are well stocked with Star Wars Clone Trooper helmets and Barbie dolls for this critical time of year./ppBut instead Johnson, who joined the business three months ago pledging to revive it, is fighting to pull Woolworths back from the abyss. With sales so poor that the company is at risk of breaching the conditions on its loans, the board believes that offloading the retail division is the best solution./ppWoolworths is willing to sacrifice the eponymous chain so that its more successful ventures - EUK, which supplies CDs and books to supermarkets, and 2Entertain, a joint venture with the BBC making shows such as Top Gear - can thrive. Management is trying to broker a complex deal by which the retailer might enter administration without dragging its sister companies down with it./ppRestructuring firm Hilco offered to take over the business for pound;1 in return for shouldering nearly pound;270m of Woolworths debt. But the retailer's banks, which include American lender GMAC and Burdale, part of Bank of Ireland, rejected the Hilco plan late last week./ppThe banks are owed almost pound;400m and would be first in line to get their money back if the group collapsed. Unlike suppliers, banks are secured creditors, so have first claim on funds raised by administrators in the sale or break-up of a collapsed business./pp'If this business falls over in a controlled way, a big chunk of the staff will keep their jobs,' said one source close to the talks. 'If the collapse is uncontrolled, everyone risks losing their jobs.'/ppThis weekend's quest is for a deal that the banks will accept. Hilco specialies in distressed businesses, often using what is called a 'pre-pack administration', an insolvency procedure that enables it to shed stores it does not want or cut new rental deals with landlords. /ppWoolworths has tried to reinvent itself many times, most recently as a rival to Argos, launching an internet arm, The Big Red Book - but the results have been poor, with the group making a pound;90.8m loss in the first six months of the year./pp'Woolworths has been ailing for years because it is a jack-of-all-trades and master of none,' says Retail Knowledge Bank analyst Robert Clark. 'It has lots of loyal customers it has failed to exploit over the years due to serial management failure. The irony is that if Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown announce measures to stimulate spending among the lower socio-economic groups on Monday, Woolworths would be a natural place for them to shop.'/ppBack in Muswell Hill, another shopper, Rob, is emerging with a Woolworths carrier bag. He has bought a birthday card and a copy of the Radio Times. 'I go in there very, very seldom,' he says and expresses little sorrow at the possible disappearance of such a venerable retail institution. 'It's a rubbish shop, really: it's the same as WH Smith. They've had their day.'/ph2Five cents to 1.43p/h2p· Frank Woolworth opened his first store, in Utica, New York State, in 1879 with the gimmick that everything was priced at five cents. It failed because it was too far out of the town centre, but a second shop in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, became a roaring success. He soon varied the formula, selling some goods at 10 cents, and the famous 'five-and-dime' store was born./pp· Woolworth visited England in 1890 and wrote in his diary: 'A good penny and sixpence store, run by a live Yankee, would be a sensation here.' The first store was opened on Church Street, Liverpool, in 1909 and the British offshoot became more successful than its American parent./pp· Sweets sold by weight - later called the 'pic 'n' mix' - were a key part of Woolworth's formula. When the Liverpool branch opened, the entire stock of sweets sold out on the first day. /pp· By the 1930s, Woolworth was opening a store every fortnight in Britain. When the Second World War broke out, it had 759 branches./pp· Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton - Frank's granddaughter, pictured at her wedding to film star Cary Grant - was known as the 'poor little rich girl'. By the time she died in 1979, Hutton had run through seven husbands and most of her $500m inheritance./pp· Shares in Woolworth's group, now renamed Kingfisher, were worth just 1.43p on Friday./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/woolworths"Woolworths/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/retail"Retail industry/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227399527246112300260553996"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227399527246112300260553996" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/22782?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+Is+this+the+final+death+knell+for+Citigroup%3Fch=Businessc3=The+Observerc4=Citigroup%2CRecession+%28UK%29%2CBusiness%2CObserverc5=Credit+Crunch%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Marketsc6=Heather+Connonc7=2008_11_23c8=1122435c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=Citigroupc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FCitigroup" width="1" height="1" //divpVikram Pandit, chief executive of US bank Citigroup, started last week by telling the group's staff that 52,000 of them would lose their jobs. A few days later, it looked as if he could soon be following them. The bank's share price halved in just four days and continued to slide as investors and rivals started to bet it could not survive the financial crisis, despite a chorus of protests from its executives, one of its leading investors and some high-profile analysts./ppAs the bank's executives staged a crisis board meeting, rumours swirled around Wall Street that it was preparing to ditch its Smith Barney brokerage business, or to sell off its cards business. Or that it would need an extra $100bn (pound;68bn) from the government, on top of the $25bn that it already has; or that Pandit's fellow directors were calling for his head. Others said it was poised to merge with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs - or, indeed, any bank with the financial capacity to absorb it. /ppBut as Pandit appeared to rule out a Smith Barney sale and putative buyers like Britain's HSBC - one of the few global banks with the wherewithal to stage a rescue - made it clear they were not interested, the crisis intensified./pp'It's fear and panic at this point,' said Gerard Cassidy, a banking analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Portland, Maine. 'Investors have seen similar movies this year, and the endings are very unpleasant.'/ppPandit told key employees on Friday morning that they should not focus on the falling share price as that was not what concerned regulators and rating agencies. Instead, he said, they should remember that it has a solid capital position and a good business model./ppUnfortunately, however, the market was beginning to suspect he was wrong on both counts: and his warning of job cuts was one of the things that brought those concerns to the fore./ppWhile rivals like JP Morgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo have taken advantage of the financial crisis to make government-brokered acquisitions of Bear Sterns, Merrill Lynch and Wachovia respectively, Citi has missed out. These moves gave its investment banking rivals the much stronger balance sheets of deposit-taking banks. When the deals are completed, these three will be the only US banks with more than $600bn in deposits, three times that of Citi. Pandit must regret having allowed Wachovia, with which it had agreed a deal, to defect to Wells Fargo. The $400bn of deposits it would have brought would have significantly bolstered its financial strength./ppInstead, last week's announcement of job cuts - which will affect a fifth of the workforce and, some insiders fear, even more to come in the future - made it clear that Citi's only real option now is to shrink its business, whether by shedding staff or selling businesses. Neither is particularly palatable: a workforce which is concerned about who is going to be next out of the door is unlikely to be productive. Nor will it be easy to sell any of its businesses: apart from a lack of buyers with the cash to pay for them, the prospects for financial business profits are grim in the teeth of a global recession and a race to reduce debt by consumers and businesses alike. David Trone, an analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton Cochran Caronia Waller, wrote in a note last Wednesday that, although the sale of more assets was crucial to 'fortify the capital base,' it is unclear whether Citi 'will be able to continue to find buyers'. /ppAs significant as the job cuts was the announcement two days later that Citi had completed its withdrawal from SIVs - structured investment vehicles investing mainly in sub-prime mortgages, which have proved to be some of the most toxic assets in the financial crisis - by taking pound;17.4bn of them from one of its subsidiaries on to its own books. That made investors worry about two things: first, that by taking on the SIVs, Citi was effectively admitting that it would be one of the biggest losers from the US Treasury's decision to abandon its TARP programme, under which it had committed to buying the worst of these toxic assets from the big US banks./ppAnd second, without that support, Citi would be forced to make yet more swingeing write-downs. It has already written off more than $70bn this year alone and is the only one of the big US banks to have made losses in four consecutive quarters - the latest was more than $2.8bn. /ppIt is a far cry from the swaggering Citigroup created by Sandy Weill, one-time chairman and chief executive of the bank. At the peak of its fortunes in 2006, its $205bn of annual revenues eclipsed those of countries like New Zealand and made it the 50th largest company in the world, with operations stretching across the globe - including one of the largest operations in Asia by a Western bank. But a series of regulatory breaches exposed the difficulties of managing such a sprawling and gung-ho investment banking empire, and led to Weill's replacement as chief executive by Chuck Prince. /ppHe proved himself as ebullient as his predecessor: when the financial markets were starting to show signs of strain in July 2007, he told the Financial Times: 'As long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance. We're still dancing.' /ppThat aggressive expansion into the teeth of the downturn was one of the factors which led to him being replaced by Pandit, but the former Morgan Stanley executive has not had an easy start. While he has been much more aggressive about writing down assets than many of our British banks, some have questioned whether he has the strength of will to rein in the global empire, or the vision to determine where its future lies./ppHis presentation to staff was full of platitudes about the future of its business like: 'Today, our strategy is simple: To be the world's truly global universal bank.' And on its financial strength: 'Over the past 15 months, Citi has added approximately $75bn in new capital, including approximately $50bn through public and private offerings.'/ppBut the bank ended the week worth less than a third of the amount it has raised this year alone. And even a robust statement of support from one of Citigroup's biggest shareholders, the Saudi prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal - accompanied by a $350m investment in the bank's shares - failed to have any impact on its decline. /ppLadenburg Thalmann's Dick Bove, one of the most influential banking analysts in the US, said in a note: 'I see no reason why [Citigroup should fail]. The only reason banks fail is because their cash flows turn negative and it does not appear that this is likely at this bank. This is because the bank is able to roll over its liabilities and because its net interest income is positive./pp'It would take a Depression every bit as large and long as the Thirties debacle to shake this company's viability.' /ppThe trouble is, that some commentators are now starting to worry whether we could be in for something worse than a Thirties-style depression as unemployment continues to rise and America's car giants look in danger of joining the list of casualties, risking putting many more millions out of work. /ppIn that climate, no amount of reassurance from analysts or bosses is enough to stem the panic./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/citigroup"Citigroup/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/recession"Recession/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227399527494112300260553996"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227399527494112300260553996" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a