The Leisure Review: World of Leisure

Sunday 1 June
Basildon is to have its own signposted tourist route this autumn thanks to the assistance of lottery funding. A large chunk of Universal Studios in Burbank, California goes up in smoke but the film vaults are apparently undamaged. Jack Warner, a big man in FIFA’s establishment, advises the FA to use David Beckham to front its World Cup 2018 campaign. Lawrence Dallaglio reaches the end of his celebrated rugby union career. The BBC Trust says that the Corporation does not over-pay its top performers. Legendary bluesman and rock and roll pioneer Bo Diddley dies at the ripe old age of 79.

Monday 2 June
Get your flags out: Home Office minister Liam Byrne suggests that the August bank holiday could become a celebration of Britishness as the “Great British weekend”. The National Theatre is to offer Sunday matinees from September, as will the Donmar Warehouse. Jessica Ennis is out of the Olympics with a fractured ankle. Michael Johnson says he will hand back the gold medal he won for the 400m relay in the Sydney Olympics.

Tuesday 3 June
Music industry trade body will be holding a celebration of fifty years of British independent record labels on 4 July. The National Gallery announces its autumn exhibition: a celebration of Renaissance portraits. Aston Villa announce that they will have Acorns, the West Midlands children’s hospice charity, on their shirts next season. Meanwhile, Gretna FC resign from the Scottish league and go out of business. Dwain Chambers seems keen to launch a legal challenge to his Olympic ban. Britain’s 1997 4x400 silver medal team could be moved up a place following the handing back of medals by members the US team.

Wednesday 4 June
The National Audit Office does its Olympic Price Watch duty by pointing out that the Ministry of Defence has spent £500m on eight Chinook helicopters that cannot yet take to the air thirteen years after they were ordered. David Hockney writes to The Guardian to condemn New Labour’s “cultural vandalism”. Rose Tremain wins the Booker Prize for her novel The Road Home. Significant works of art that may well be the ill-gotten gains of major criminals have been found in safety deposit boxes by Inspector Knacker. The 240th summer exhibition opens at the Royal Academy. England’s attempt to curry favour with Jack Warner by giving Trinidad and Tobago a good thrashing seems to have come unstuck thanks to the seventh substitute used by England; this was against FIFA rules and the result may now be void. Shane Warne is going to stay in retirement but Mark Hughes is definitely going to be managing Manchester City. Doha, the capital of Qatar, is ejected from the IOC’s list of candidates for the 2016 Olympics and cries foul; Tokyo, Madrid, Chicago and Rio de Janeiro are still in the running.

Thursday 5 June
Save our Rubens, says TV history man David Starkey in support of the Tate’s £6m fund-raising effort to keep a preparatory sketch for the Banqueting House ceiling in the UK. The TUC says that the culture of long hours is returning as the economy struggles. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival unveils its pogramme. A ten-point checklist has been drawn up by NHS doctors for use by night club staff dealing with potential drug overdoses. A Polish tabloid, with a front-page montage of the national football coach holding the severed heads of two of Germany’s squad, shows that the Euro 2008 tournament can survive without the British teams. It seems that Cristiano Ronaldo might like to play for Real Madrid after all; could the reported £200,000 a week have any bearing on his decision-making process? The IOC approves the latest changes to the London Olympic park, including the removal of plans for a specialist fencing centre, a smaller handball venue and a permanent BMX track within the park. Meanwhile the government reveals the detail of its plans for the 2012 legacy: it’s free swimming. “I hear the sceptics but I’m sick of them really,” says culture secretary Andy Burnham. Oh, and Sport England is to have a new purpose in life. Iwan Thomas, preparing for his return to athletics any day now, says receiving a gold for the 4x400 relay at the 1997 world championships would be “a shallow victory”.

Friday 6 June
Clint Eastwood tells fellow film director Spike Lee to “shut his face” regarding the ethnic mix of actors on Eastwood’s films. Pierre Cardin is hatching plans to create a “St Tropez of culture” around his restored castle near Avignon; that the chateau used to be the residence of the Marquis de Sade may be a help or a hindrance, depending on one’s idea of culture. The British Retail Consortium says that the failure of British teams to qualify for Euro 2008 has cost the UK economy £600m in lost spending. The Tories are critical of the 2012 legacy plans, saying it’s a disappointment and a betrayal. Sprinter Justin Gatlin has his four-year doping ban upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Andy Baddeley wins the Dream Mile in Oslo, the first British winner of the famed middle distance athletics prize since Peter Elliot in 1991.

Saturday 7 June
Dumfries House, the subject of a £45m rescue package funded by Prince Charles among others, opens to the public for the first time since it was built in the 1750s. The Hebridean island of Canna is now officially rat-free after a £500,000 initiative to save the very rare Canna mouse. Euro 2008 kicks off in Austria and Switzerland. Spike Lee suggests that Clint Eastwood should stop talking as though he owns a plantation. The second Smithfield Nocturne cycle race takes place in London, bringing late-night bike racing to the capital; another is planned for Manchester in August.

Sunday 8 June
Sixty years after the arrival of MV Empire Windrush, the Imperial War Museum in London opens an exhibition this week titled From War to Windrush chronicling the role of people from the West Indies in two world wars. It seems that only two members of the BBC staff have taken up the offer of relocation packages to ease the move from London to Manchester. It also seems that Hadrian is not all he seems: one of the most celebrated statues of the Emperor in the British Museum has been found to be a Victorian creation, with an ancient head affixed to a 19th century body. Marks and Spencer has signed an agreement to build a great big branch on the 2012 Olympic site; it will open in 2010.

Monday 9 June
Donald ‘The Donald’ Trump arrives in Scotland to put his hairspray to the sternest of tonsorial tests. He also stresses his Scottish heritage as part of the campaign to allow him to turn Aberdeen’s delicate dunescape into a large pile of money; a golf resort comprising an eight-storey hotel, 950 timeshare apartments and a Trump Boulevard. In a move that can only be explained by a typographical error, Manchester City seem determined to sign Ronaldinho, the toothy Brazilian currently labouring up and down for Barcelona, and pay him a world record £200,000 a week. Manchester will become the second British city to impose a congestion zone for traffic at a cost of £2.8bn. The island of Lesbos is going to court in an effort to stop people who aren’t “from around here” using their nomenclature; it’s nothing to do with homophobia, they say (well only a bit).

Tuesday 10 June
Archbishop Tutu says that Zimbabwe’s cricketers should not be welcome in the UK while Robert Mugabe remains in power. The BBC unveils plans to put 81 years of its radio and television archives online at the Banff television festival. It seems that Sir David Richards, chair of the Premier League, admitted that his employers were not good for the development of the England national team at a sports conference in Dubai. Belgian sporting superstar Tom Boonen has tested positive for cocaine, a “recreational drug” that does not appear on the UCI (cycling’s international governing body) banned list. Boris Johnson is critical of the failure of 2012 organisers to develop an adequate post-Games legacy.

Wednesday 11 June
The last ten thousand tickets for this year’s Glasto go on sale at HMV shops around the country. Posts in the DCMS government Olympic executive are advertised, including deputy director, staging delivery and head of sports liaison. Zara Phillips is withdrawn from the British squad for Beijing following an injury to her horse. A grouping of environmental organisations rejects plans for a £15bn tidal barrage across the Severn estuary. An independent panel decides that two pieces of porcelain in two British museums – the British Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge – were looted by the Gestapo. A pilot for a government initiative to show classic films to school pupils reveals the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup as the favourite offering. French fashion houses are feeling the impact of a boycott by Chinese tourists shocked by the outcry against the Beijing Olympics. Those who thought Lord’s to be last bastion of sporting integrity are found weeping in the streets of St John’s Wood as Sir Allen Stanford launches his Twenty20 competition stood next to a perspex box containing $20m in cash. David Bernstein, former Manchester City chairman, is to be the new chairman of Wembley Stadium. The UCI might not be bothered by cyclists having the occasional toot but the Tour de France begs to differ: the Tour tells Tom Boonen he won’t be welcome.

Thursday 12 June
Zoo Nation, an urban dance group noted for its street routines, will receive the Olympic torch in Beijing on behalf of London 2012. Christine Ohuruogu clocks 51.06 in winning the 400m at the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava.

Friday 13 June
The Folkestone triennial art festival opens and Tracey Emin grabs all the column inches anyone could wish. Worried about the 2012 legacy? Research from the British Market Research Bureau suggests that teenagers are turning away from swimming as a regular leisure pursuit. Andy Murray withdraws from the Artois championship at Queen’s Club with a nasty case of hurty thumb but says he’ll be fine for Wimbledon. Martina Navratilova says he won’t win if he does make it. Shanaze Reade, winner of the recent BMX world championship by a proverbial street, says she’s only performing at 40% of her capability.

Saturday 14 June
Kevin Pietersen says that fifty-over cricket is doomed in the face of the march of Twenty20. British rugby union teams spread round the world to take on the best – and come up seriously short, except Scotland who beat Argentina. The Health and Safety Executive and Maldon Council open a joint investigation into an incident in which a girl drowned in the Blackwater Leisure Centre. At the International Rugby Board’s junior world championships Wales under-20s win against France and a mass brawl accompanies the final whistle, prompting an official investigation.

Sunday 15 June
It’s the Drummer Live exhibition in London, at which we discover sales of percussion instruments have more than doubled in the last decade. Sailor Hilary Lister, a quadriplegic with no movement below the neck, begins a solo voyage around the coast of Britain, which will take her about twelve weeks. Down to the cut where we find scientist Rex Harris who runs a canal boat, the Ross Barlow, on zero emissions; he thinks it could be a major step towards reducing carbon emissions from transport. In Spain two people are reported killed in separate bull-running festivals. Kevin Pietersen’s reverse sweep slog in the one day international against New Zealand brings runs and controversy: the MCC is to consider whether a batsman’s change of stance mid-delivery is in accordance with the spirit of the game.

Monday 16 June
The Home Office is working on plans for changes to the youth justice system which are likely to focus on local authorities’ youth trusts. A report commissioned by Manchester City Council on trouble on the night of the UEFA cup final finds that the 37,000 Rangers fans with tickets were “a credit to the club”; it was the other 160,000 that turned up unexpectedly that seem to have been a source of bother. Ban Ki-Moon, head man at the United Nations, officially unveils a sculptural beam of light on top of Broadcasting House in London as a memorial to journalists killed in the line of duty. It seems Tiger Woods won the US Open on one leg and will now be taking the rest of the year off to put right his now-knackered left knee. Mark Cavendish says he might well ride in the Tour de France next month.

Tuesday 17 June
Corfe Castle had a royal balcony from which Henry I (on the throne 1100 to 1135) may well have given the official royal wave, according to the National Trust. For three Saturdays in August some of Manhattan’s busiest streets will be closed to motor vehicles, allowing free rein to the pedestrian instinct. “We have never been afraid to try new ideas,” says Mayor Bloomberg. Chinese officials warn people in Xinjiang not to turn out to see the Olympic flame in case of unrest. Whitbread says its Premier Inn hotel chain continues to out-perform the market with sales up by over 10% this quarter. Boris Johnson’s Olympic adviser, David Ross, says that the 2012 budget is facing a “perfect storm” of financial and security issues that will push costs beyond the £9.3bn. And speaking of the Olympics, the lastest GB team member to look doubtful for Beijing is 400m hurdler Rhys Williams, who has a stress fracture in his foot. Tennis officials say that the WADA doping regulations are unworkable for tennis professionals flying all over the world at the drop of a set; knowing where they will be for an hour a day months in advance isn’t possible.

Wednesday 18 June
Sports (and licensing) minister Gerry Sutcliffe concedes that the 2003 Licensing Act and its encouraging effect on the lap dancing industry may have been a mistake. The canoe hire sector comes under scrutiny at an inquest on the drowning of a nine-year-old girl on the River Wye in 2006. Members of the England rugby team on tour in New Zealand are subject to police questioning following “an incident”. Cyclist Sharon Laws, in the running to be part of the Olympic road racing team, has crashed in training and may be doubtful for the Big Show. France going out of Euro 2008 is “a disappointment not a failure”, according to coach Raymond Domenech. Andy Murray is seeded number twelve for Wimbledon. Mayor Johnson (sic) calls for greater transparency regarding all aspects of the London 2012 project.

Thursday 19 June
John Armitt, chair of the Olympic Delivery Agency, concedes that the Olympic village will definitely require additional public funding to the tune of tens of millions. Meanwhile the National Audit Office warned that the public-private partnership deal with the contractor, Lend Lease, is in danger of going badly wrong in light of the current banking climate. The culture secretary is threatened with legal action by Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, after Mr Burnham’s apparently (to Mr Burnham, not to Ms Chakrabarti) light-hearted comments about her relationship with that unlikely protector of freedom, David Davis. Mr B’s colleague, junior transport minister Tom Harris MP, explains we should all stop being so “bloody miserable” as we’ve never had it so good. Bristol is named as Britain’s cycling city as part of the Department of Transport’s £100m investment in cycling; one city and eleven towns will share the funding to encourage 2.5 million to get on their bikes. Australia is hastily considering new regulations for its television output after Gordon Ramsey’s latest programme clocks up eighty four-letter expletives (probably that one in particular) in forty minutes. Linford Christie says that it should have been his right “as a stalwart of our sport” to carry the Olympic torch in April.

Friday 20 June
Developers of the Battersea Power Station in London are now proposing an eco-power station for the site, including a 300m chimney; 3,200 residential properties are still part of the plan. The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester marks the sixtieth anniversary of the first calculation completed by a digital computer with a re-enactment of the process by a replica machine, originally titled the Small Scale Experimental Machine.

Saturday 21 June
Euro 2008 continues in all its non-British glory, bringing excitement and disappointment to nations across the continent. Holland go out to Russia in the quarter-finals and the commentators’ attempts to link anyone playing with the Premier League is becoming increasingly tiresome.

Sunday 22 June
It’s Wimbledon eve and the annual two-week assessment of the state of British tennis begins. The event raised £26.3m for the Lawn Tennis Association last year, more than half the LTA’s income. However, this is down from a 1998 peak of £33m. Martina Navratilova suggests lifetime bans for anyone involved in match fixing; eight matches at previous Wimbledons are under scrutiny for dubious results. The world’s oldest race marks its five hundredth anniversary in Carnwarth, South Lanarkshire; Scott McIntosh was this year’s fastest runner, covering the three-mile course in seventeen and half minutes. Paul Ince is confirmed as manager of Blackburn Rovers, becoming the first black British manager of a Premier League club. The British men’s athletics team wins the European Cup and, along with the women’s team, bring some much-needed pre-Olympic cheer to the camp. Scott Redding, a fifteen-and-a-half-year-old from Gloucestershire, becomes the youngest person to win a motorcycle grand prix with victory in the 125cc British grand prix at Donington.

Monday 23 June
The Labour Party is £24m in the hole and is auctioning a range of opportunities and experiences, many of which seem to have a sporting or cultural flavour, to raise funds. CCTV cameras, the efficacy of which has been questioned for some time, are apparently being developed with ‘ears’. The Association of Public Health Observatories publishes data on national differences; the research shows, for example, that 16% of Hackney’s children are obese, as opposed to Teesdale, where only 4.86% of children are obese. Boris Johnson announces the next two occupants of the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square: Antony Gormley’s One and Other, followed by Yinka Shonibare’s Ship in a Bottle. The Conservative Party publishes plans to “support, nurture and encourage” the arts, promising “the lightest of touches” and an “American-style culture of philanthropy”.

Tuesday 24 June
Not much sign of the credit crunch in St James’ as one of Monet’s waterlillies, Le Bassin aux Nympheas, is sold at auction for £40.1m. Butlin’s is to open its first sushi bar. “You might see sushi as the contemporary version of fish and chips,” says Butlins MD Richard Bates. Artist Steve McQueen has been chosen to represent Britain in the 2009 Venice Biennale. Shipping magnate Sammy Ofer has provided £3.3m to complete the Cutty Sark renovation. This follows his £20m donation to the National Maritime Museum. Paul Ince becomes the first black manager in the Premier League and is welcomed to Blackburn Rovers with the news that the trust set up by the late Jack Walker to put funding into the club is to end its annual investment. Linford Christie was not included on a prompt card used by researchers polling the public for Britain’s greatest Olympian owing to his positive drugs tests. Fears that funding raising from the private sector will fail to raise the predicted £100m for Team GB at the 2012 Games has prompted the Treasure to prepare an emergency funding package.

Wednesday 25 June
Briton Chris Eaton wins a match at Wimbledon, sending the nation into temporary tennis-related paroxysms. Bingo clubs will be allowed eight high-prize gaming machines per hall, thanks to the DCMS. Police in Cornwall are planning to use ‘mosquito’ noise devices to disburse groups of partying young people from beaches this summer. The BBC unveils a new version of its iPlayer, which promises personalised viewing schedules. UEFA president Michel Platini is planning to end clubs competing in Europe while servicing huge debts over the next “three to five years”. England’s one-day cricket captain, Paul Collingwood, upholds the cricketing tradition of win at all costs by appealing when bowler and Kiwi batsman collide in the field, leaving the Grant Elliott out of his ground. However, the tradition of England being crap at one-day cricket takes precedence and England lose anyway.

Thursday 26 June
Government figures show that 2,943 people died on UK roads in 2007, the lowest number since records began in 1926. GCap Media, owners of Capital Radio, are fined £1.1m for a phone-in rip-off. Pub and bar company Regent Inns says profits will be minimal this year, prompting its shares to drop by 40% to 3.85p. Meanwhile retailer John Lewis votes to extend its final salary pension scheme. Sooty has been bought for £1m by Richard Cadell, who had previously served as Sooty’s on-screen companion. Paul Collingwood is suspended for four one-day matches as punishment for – wait for it – as slow over rate. Needing someone to step into the breach who understands and respects the venerable and fragile spirit of the game, England turn to – wait for it – Kevin Pietersen to replace him. Newham announces that it will be hosting six-day cycle racing from October 2009 and British Cycling announces that plans to have a British professional road team competing in the Tour de France have been advanced, meaning there could be a squad in the Tour peloton in 2010.

Friday 27 June
Ministers are reported to be considering free laptops for the poorest families in an effort to end “the digital divide”. The Royal accounts are published, revealing that the Royal household’s official business costs the taxpayer £40m a year. Russian president Dmitry Medvedev shows his artistic side by giving fellow heads of state copies of a book of his own photographs. Glastonbury kicks off with some rain. It seems skateboarding is the latest craze with kids in Kabul

Saturday 28 June
Dwain Chambers achieves the Beijing qualifying time in Germany, suggesting that his bid for selection for Beijing may now proceed through the courts. Accounts from the British Olympic Association show that the organisation had record debts of £1.3m and took a loan from its chairman, Colin Moynihan.

Sunday 29 June
Almost a year on from the smoking ban in England, NHS figures show a 22% rise in the number of people giving up. Spain win the European Championship, beating Germany in a fascinating final. Jay-Z takes Glasto by storm. It seems that next up on the Hollywood picket line will be the actors. George Clooney is negotiating, which should improve attendance at meetings. The BBC team to cover the Beijing Olympics will comprise 437 staff. Sepp Blatter admits that FIFA does have a Plan B for the 2010 World Cup in case South Africa falls short of security and facility expectations. More than one hundred British athletes have signed a petition which says that Dwain Chambers should not be permitted to run in the GB athletics team.

Monday 30 June
Into the second week of Wimbledon and Andy Murray thinks he’s fit enough to win it. Royal Parks chief executive Colin Buttery suggests that the parks could serve as a demonstration project for planting vegetable gardens. The Duchy of Cornwall accounts show that Prince Charles runs his Aston Martin on wine. Martin Creed unveils his latest art work, Work No 850, which involves a series of runners sprinting through the gallery of Tate Britain. A Jeff Koons floral sculpture sells for £12.9m, a record for a Koons work. Netherlands demonstrates how quickly the law can tie itself in knots: new regulations make the tobacco in your coffee shop joint illegal but not the cannabis.