A-listed former Bernat Klein textile studio sells for £279,000
The concrete and brick structure was designed by Peter Womersley who is considered to be one of the greatest brutalist architects to have worked in Scotland.News of its sale emerged earlier this month and soon afterwards leading Scottish heritage and design organisations joined forces in a bid to buy the building to bring it into public use.The property, which was granted a Category A listing in 2002, has been in a state of decline for more than two decades.Klein, who died in 2014, collaborated with major European fashion houses such as Dior to design some of the most beautiful textiles of the 20th Century.His studio was built as a workspace for design, weaving and exhibiting samples.It lies adjacent to his home, High Sunderland, built by Womersley in 1958 and also a listed building.
The Bernat Klein Foundation (BKF), the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) and Scottish Historic Buildings Trust (SHBT) launched the successful coalition bid to save the property from ruin.With support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund they hope to "create a new venue to inspire creative arts in the Scottish Borders".It has been estimated the full cost of restoration undertaken by specialists could exceed £3m.However, the group's first priority is to "secure ownership of the property and prevent further deterioration".
They hope to restore the building to be used as a design studio alongside a programme of public engagement.Once complete it is intended the site would become a permanent base in the Borders for the Bernat Klein Foundation whose projects include exhibitions, workshops and talks.The studio won a RIBA Design Award and the Edinburgh Architectural Association Centenary Medal in 1973 for its exemplary use and combination of the materials of concrete, brick, steel and glass.
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Telegraph
33 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Trump played the EU at its own game... and won
Squaring off across the table from Ursula von der Leyen was Donald Trump, banging his fists and demanding a 30 per cent blanket tariff. The clubhouse of the Trump Turnberry golf course had become the unlikely setting of a face-off between the two global superpowers – and ultimately, the EU's humiliation. The Telegraph has spoken to insiders who were in the room when the negotiations were taking place and has seen diplomatic notes that paint a clear picture. It's one of Mrs von der Leyen, the European Commission president, bowing to pressure from the US and being beaten at the bloc's own game. She had just agreed to the US imposing 15 per cent tariffs on EU goods entering America, while Britain had come away with a rate of 10 per cent. And at the end of it all, she and her team of EU negotiators had to put their thumbs up, their smiles not reaching their eyes, as they stood next to Mr Trump who boasted of the 'biggest deal ever made'. US officials had played hardball for the weeks and months leading up to the high-stakes showdown. Panicked European officials had turned to their Japanese counterparts for advice before flying to Scotland, asking for their advice on how to be successful like them. But ultimately, the EU was beaten by a dealmaker who played the bloc's game better than they could have played it. Over the years, Brussels has used the size of its single market to reinforce the need for trading partners to make concessions, rather than the other way round in talks over deals. And European leaders have voiced their frustration at the move. France's leaders described it as a 'dark day' for Europe and that the bloc hadn't been feared enough going into the talks. Trump plays hardball After a round of golf, the stage was set for the American negotiating team, including Mr Trump. A no-deal deadline was set for Friday, Aug 1. Without a pact Brussels would be subjected to the 30 per cent tariffs set out by the president in a letter to Mrs von der Leyen just two weeks earlier. European firms doing business in America would have become uncompetitive overnight if the EC president didn't shake hands on a pact. To secure this deal, the German eurocrat was told she would have to stomach a number of concessions, signing on the dotted line of an agreement that would be considered one-sided in favour of the Americans. Brussels also knew this agreement was needed to avert a nastier, more chaotic transatlantic trade war that would have left Europe without its most important ally until at least January 2029, when Mr Trump's second term comes to an end. To achieve this, member states agreed that they would have to stomach a blanket tariff because of a belief that the US president wouldn't settle without one, a source familiar with the negotiations told The Telegraph. Maros Sefcovic, the EU's trade commissioner, had briefed capitals that they simply wouldn't be able to do business in the US if that tariff rose to the 30 per cent demanded by Mr Trump. Therefore, they needed to settle on a number that would be an increase on the status quo originally charged on European imports into America – 14.8 per cent, according to one official. Some might argue that this was the EU being made to take a taste of its own medicine, with the bloc usually the first negotiator to reach for hard deadlines and use its size and strength to extract concessions from prospective partners. And it worked, the bloc had blinked. Before Mrs von der Leyen headed to Scotland, European capitals signed off on a mandate, perhaps for the first time, that would use a trade deal to increase tariffs from the current number. Behind the scenes For 24 minutes, the US President and the commission chief held an impromptu press conference under the eight chandeliers in the glamorous ball room at Trump Turnberry. With the Brussels and White House press packs ushered out, the real talks could begin. Mr Trump opened with his gambit of 30 per cent tariffs on all European products imported into America. The commission's first offer was 'high single digits', a source briefed on the wrangling said. The White House delegation stood firm as their European counterparts began slowly ratcheting their number closer to the American's figure. But ultimately, the commission's team kept their cool, at the recommendation of the Japanese, the most recent country to sign an agreement with the US. The Telegraph can reveal that a top aide to Mr Sefcovic had reached out to his Japanese counterpart for help on handling the Americans before the talks. 'They come in shouting the high number, and all you have to do is hold your cool and they diminish as you push back,' a source said, describing the advice. The other tactic deployed by the Europeans was to woo Mr Trump with some large numbers presented to him on a single sheet of A4 paper. Eurocrats had used their build-up to prepare an offer on paper that the US president would see as a major victory. That was an offer to buy billions of dollars worth of American military technology – born out of Nato's recent decision to increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP. The EU pledged to purchase $750bn (£565bn) worth of energy from the US over the next three years. And then there was a further promise that European companies would invest $600bn (£452bn) by 2028. These, European officials claim, are non-binding, not really worth the paper they were written on. The numbers were calculated using publicly available order information and information from trade associations. But this was enough to convince Mr Trump to settle at a tariff rate of 15 per cent, covering about 70 per cent of EU exports and totalling about €780bn (£588bn) worth of trade. In return, US imports into the EU will not face higher tariffs. 'This is probably the biggest deal ever reached in any capacity, trade or beyond trade,' Mr Trump declared. 'It's a giant deal,' he added, referring to the $600bn and $750bn promises. 'That's going to be great.' The US president's claims of victory and the deal were met with derision in Europe. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said the bloc hadn't been 'feared' enough in the talks, which opened the door to the concessions. François Bayrou, Macron's prime minister, described it as a 'dark day' for Europe and accused the Commission of bowing to American pressure. Michel Barnier, the EU's former Brexit negotiator, said accepting tariffs was an 'admission of weakness'. 'This weakness is not inevitable. It results from poor choices that ensure neither the sovereignty nor the prosperity of the continent and its states,' he wrote on social media. Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, meanwhile said it would cause 'considerable damage' to his country's economy, the largest in the Eurozone. In comparison, Britain had negotiated a tariff rate of 10 per cent, five less than the EU, in its own deal with Washington. This was hailed by Brexiteers as evidence that leaving the bloc was the right thing to do. Paris and Berlin had been the two capitals pushing hardest for the bloc to take a more robust stance in the trade talks. The French had especially pushed for a package of €93bn (£81bn) of retaliatory tariffs to be unleashed to bring Mr Trump and Washington to heel. There were also calls from Paris to clamp down on American tech firms doing business in Europe. 'This was a big red button nobody was willing to push,' an EU diplomat told The Telegraph, spelling out fears that Europe's economy is reliant on American payment services. But Mrs von der Leyen, who was particularly dovish, argued that this would spill over into other sectors and potentially spell an end to what is a crucial alliance for Europe, especially in security. Fears that the White House and Pentagon would withdraw security guarantees for Europe and cut off weapons supplies to Ukraine overshadowed the talks. But the commission president and her top officials also steeled member states for a longer-term game. Devil in the detail Gabrielius Landsbergis, a former Lithuanian foreign minister, said: 'The only way I can explain to myself why the EU commission would choose to humiliate Europe by accepting the 15 per cent tariff is that they hope to appease Trump enough for him to maintain US security commitments in Europe.' Now Mr Trump has his victory, the devil would be in the detail as the terms are finalised, Mrs von der Leyen's team told member states. The commission will be looking to quietly enlarge a list of products that are exempted from tariffs in more technical talks with Washington. Eurocrats are already briefing that Britain's deal, despite having a lower tariff rate, doesn't protect key European industries, such as beef farmers.
The Guardian
8 hours ago
- The Guardian
Deal or no deal? World leaders walk tightrope in tariff negotiations with Trump
It was grip-and-grin time for Ursula von der Leyen as she sat across from Donald Trump in Scotland last week, with the two announcing a deal for 15% tariffs on European imports that would avert a transatlantic trade war – but came at a stiff price for the 27-country bloc. After committing to a unilateral US raise on tariffs that came on the heels of a Nato commitment to increase defense spending to 5% of national GDPs, von der Leyen then thanked Trump 'for his personal commitment and his leadership to achieve this breakthrough'. 'He is a tough negotiator, but he is also a dealmaker,' she said, as the US president beamed. The EU was one of just a number of parties to strike a deal with Trump before his temporary pause on new tariffs came to an end this week. And like many others, the guiding principle for the EU appeared to be: it can always get worse. 'This is clearly the best deal we could get under very difficult circumstances,' Maroš Šefčovič, the EU trade chief, said. Others had a far bleaker interpretation of the dynamics, as Trump has wielded the threat of sky-high tariffs to cudgel his trading partners into submission. 'It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, brought together to affirm their common values and to defend their common interests, resigns itself to submission,' wrote the French prime minister, François Bayrou. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán put it another way: 'It was Donald Trump eating Ursula von der Leyen for breakfast,' he said on his podcast. Later, he called her a 'featherweight'. World leaders have been forced to adopt a position of appeasement and pragmatism as they've approached the Trump administration, which has swung between imposing staggering tariffs on imports and then announcing last minute pauses and exclusions that suggest there is little rhyme or reason to the White House's tariff strategy. But the key factor for Trump appears to be taking whatever he can get. Countries across Asia exporting to the US were quickest to begin negotiating new trade deals with the White House. Vietnam was desperate to cut a 46% tariff imposed on the country, and Trump early last month announced that he had negotiated a 20% rate with Vietnamese negotiators. Except, it turned out, they believed that they had negotiated an 11% rate, Politico reported. And treasury secretary Scott Bessent this week admitted that he had never seen the deal, which the Vietnamese authorities have never confirmed. Trump reportedly used the trade threats along with other incentives in order to broker a recent peace between Thailand and Cambodia after fighting broke out along the border between the two countries. He soon announced a 19% rate – a significant cut from 49% for Cambodia and 36% for Thailand – which appeared more motivated by international politics than trade considerations. But while many countries in the region will breathe a sigh of relief as they avert sky-high tariffs, some see a new danger in the arbitrary redrawing of the US's trade relationship with the world. 'What we felt during this negotiation is that the US trade environment is fundamentally changing,' South Korean trade minister Yeo Han-koo said shortly after a deal was made to tariff imports at 15%, down from a threatened 25%. The two sides had made a verbally agreement but had not made a formal draft, he said, because the deal had to be struck so quickly. 'I think we are entering a new normal era,' he said. 'So, although we have overcome this crisis, we cannot be relieved, because we do not know when we will face pressure from tariffs or non-tariff measures again.' Leaders who have stood up to Trump are having the hardest time. Among others, Trump has focused his ire on Canada, which he has blamed for the fentanyl crisis in the US, a charge that Canada's prime minister Mark Carney has rejected. Trump on Friday announced that he would raise tariffs on Canada, a top trading partner, to 35%, as tough negotiations between the two sides continued. Carney, who had coined the elections slogan 'Elbows up, Canada' as a signal of defiance against Trump's tariff and annexation threats, said he was 'disappointed'. 'While we will continue to negotiate with the United States on our trading relationship, the Canadian government is laser focused on what we can control: building Canada strong,' Carney said.
The Guardian
11 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘It's a lonely job': Neil Warnock on management, Guardiola and his ire for Ferguson
'I was at Crystal Palace and I wanted a centre-half,' Neil Warnock says as, after 45 years as a manager, he describes how football has changed since his rise from non-league to the Premier League. 'I sent Ronnie Jepson, my assistant, to Scotland to watch a centre-half. And he came back and said he would cost us around £4m, but he was very good. So I told the people at Crystal Palace.' Warnock resists identifying Steve Parish, Palace's chairman, by name for he is deep in a story that illustrates how data analytics is not always infallible. 'He asked for 24 hours and went to the data people. The next day he said: 'We don't want to go ahead.' I asked him why and he said they don't think he's quick enough. I said: 'He might not look quick enough, but he's in second gear in Scotland. If he had to sprint, he'd sprint.'' I already know Warnock is remembering how he missed signing Virgil van Dijk and, as we're having an enjoyable knockabout, I ask if even a great player such as Franz Beckenbauer might have been dismissed by the stats men. The German sweeper had pace and tenacity, but his regal vision meant he could intercept a pass without needing to produce a crunching tackle. 'Correct,' Warnock replies. 'Beckenbauer would never have got on, would he, with the data? He'd have been playing Sunday league, Beckenbauer. 'So we didn't sign Van Dijk. He went to Southampton [for £13m]. I was with Cardiff a few years later, when we got to the Premier League, and I came up against him at Liverpool [who signed Van Dijk for £75m]. He came up and said: 'Mr Warnock, you could have signed me'. I swore and said: 'I bet you were glad that you were too slow for me.' We had a laugh together.' 'It just shows you. They can sign these great players on a computer but I was at Middlesbrough and they said they'd got a left-back for me,' Warnock goes on. 'I watched him for five minutes and said: 'He can't defend. I don't want him.' They said: 'But his stats show he's got the most tackles, the most headers.' I said: 'Are you listening? He can't defend.' Managers now are more or less coaches and they're letting the recruitment team pick the players. But the data people don't see the character of the person or other aspects of his game.' A freewheeling conversation with Warnock moves from memories of drinking pink champagne with Brian Clough to a bitter fallout with Sir Alex Ferguson. It includes recollections of eight promotions, five relegations, and a lot of pride. 'I survived 1,627 games,' Warnock says. 'When I started [at Gainsborough Town in 1980] I just wanted to survive a season. Let alone 45 years as a manager. Fucking hell. Frightening, isn't it?' Warnock's managerial career ended in March last year. He resigned after Aberdeen beat Kilmarnock 3-1 to reach the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup and, while he won't discuss the reasons for his abrupt departure from Pittodrie after eight games, Warnock didn't like off-field interference in his work. He is now a part-time consultant at Torquay United and hopes to help the club return to the Football League. But, in a sign of his diluted focus, the 76-year-old's attention is also on his upcoming tour, when he will appear at the London Palladium. Warnock sounds suitably gobsmacked in his unvarnished Sheffield accent. 'When I was a kid, my mum had multiple sclerosis and my dad worked in the steelworks. But on a Sunday night I used to sit in front of my mum in her wheelchair and she played with my hair while as a family we watched Sunday Night at the London Palladium. So when these shows were being discussed I just said: 'I'd love to do the Palladium.' I didn't suppose we could, but I'll be thinking so much of my mum and dad. 'In those days your dad never told you he loved you. It was macho. But he was a crane driver in the steelworks and after his 16-hour shifts he would come home to a wife with multiple sclerosis and three kids in a two-bedroom semi. You don't appreciate what he must have gone through until years later.' Warnock's distinctly human stories prompted Pep Guardiola to invite him into the Manchester City dressing room. Towards the end of last season Warnock spoke to a group of multimillionaire footballers, including Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland, and he grins now. 'The first thing I said is: 'I bet you lot think yourselves lucky you've not got me as your manager, because you'd be kicking the ball from there to there and it wouldn't be on the ground.' They all creased up. I said a few other things that made them laugh. Afterwards Pep said he'd enjoyed it so much and that you don't get that now in football – the humour. He said: 'Everything's so methodical, so data-driven, blah-blah-blah.' He said we miss that human element.' Warnock interviewed Guardiola for Sky Sports and, despite their mutual affection, there is an amusing clash of philosophies. Guardiola cackled through much of the interview but he looked almost bewildered when Warnock said: 'We love man-marking.' After Guardiola said 'You love, huh? Why?' Warnock explained that, as his teams were technically inferior, they had to try and nullify the opposition. 'And the players,' Guardiola asked, 'they support it? They like it?' Warnock's immediate reaction – 'well, they had to' – makes Guardiola smile again. As Warnock tells me now, 'I never had a good team but I always had a good dressing room.' Warnock was old school. 'When I were manager at Palace,' he says, 'Man City brought down two buses full of staff. I thought: 'Bloody hell, I've never seen 'owt like it.' I got our kit man to chuck a bucket of cold water on the floor in their dressing room to make it scruffy as possible.' But there were occasions when Warnock was helpless. 'At Cardiff we played City [in 2018] and had a couple of shots. It was 0-0 after 30 minutes and I'm thinking: 'we're doing well here'. Then we went in at half-time 2-0 down and after Bernardo Silva scored the second I'm saying out loud on the bench: 'What a goal. That's unbelievable.' And I'm the opposition manager!' Cardiff lost 5-0 and were relegated that season when a controversial 2-1 defeat by Chelsea hastened their demise in May 2019. 'It's a lonely job, being a manager,' Warnock says. 'I felt very lonely at times and probably the loneliest was at Cardiff when Chelsea got a goal that should have been disallowed for three yards offside. I knew that would relegate us. The dressing room was desolate because the lads had given me absolutely everything. I can tell you now the linesman was Ed Smart and Craig Pawson refereeing. I can see it as if it were yesterday. I'll be looking at that on my grave. 'I told the referee and linesman: 'I wish you could come in my dressing room and see the desolation because you didn't do your jobs right.' We didn't deserve to go down that year.' Warnock was fined £20,000 for complaining about the officiating but now his attention reverts to Guardiola. 'I noticed how much he was having to bite his tongue when you looked at the goals City conceded towards the end of last season. It wasn't anything tactical. They were just bad mistakes. I knew it hurt him but he's got the bit between his teeth again now. I'm going to be interested in seeing how they go this season because they'll be a threat. Liverpool have spent all that money and Arsenal are spending as well, but Pep's signed two or three good players. He's the best manager since I've been around and I think he'll prove it again.' Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion When I ask Warnock for the top three managers he has faced, he responds with just two names. 'I'd say Pep one and Arsène Wenger two because he changed the whole concept of football. Oh my God, his intelligence.' Warnock and Wenger also had an unlikely bromance. 'He liked me and he respected me. It was said that Wenger never had any managers in his office after a game but he always invited me. On one occasion I even took my kids in and we had a picture in his office.' He frowns when I suggest it's strange Ferguson has not been added to his top three. 'I'd have to put Fergie in,' he says grudgingly. 'But I'd have Pep and Arsène before him.' Warnock once spoke warmly of Ferguson and how the Scot would write to him encouragingly after every promotion and relegation. But his attitude has hardened now. 'I don't really want to talk about him because I've not got anything good to say.' Is that because Ferguson played a weakened Manchester United side against West Ham in the final game of the season in 2007? 'Absolutely. Unforgivable, in my eyes. Same with [Liverpool's] Rafa Benítez. He played the kids at Fulham that same year.' The pain for Warnock was intensified because Sheffield United, his boyhood team, were relegated after they lost at home to Wigan and West Ham stayed up after beating United by a solitary goal scored by Carlos Tevez, whose registration was thought to be ineligible by Warnock and many others. Has he spoken to Ferguson since that disastrous day? 'No,' Warnock says with icy finality. He is happier discussing another managerial icon in Clough. 'I was at Notts County [between 1989 and 1993] and Cloughie used to walk past our little training ground to get to their 10 acres where they had a fantastic training facility. He would be with [Clough's assistant at Nottingham Forest] Alan Hill and a black labrador. Cloughie would walk across my pitch. He never walked around it and nobody said 'owt. He looked round at what we were doing, shook his head and walked on. Brilliant!' Warnock laughs before becoming more serious again. 'We drew 1-1 at their place and at one of our lunches, he said: 'You don't realise, son, but it's a remarkable job for a club like Notts County to be competing with us in the top division. It'll never happen again, what you've done.' And of course Notts County went from the old First Division to non-league football. 'I've had eight promotions and if I went back to these clubs tomorrow, I'd get a great reception. I got Cardiff in the Premier League. Look where they are now. To get Notts County in the top flight? If I had a fashionable name or I were a fashionable manager, I think I'd have got more acknowledgment. But they gave me an award this year at the Football League, for my contribution to the EFL.' Warnock sinks back in his chair and smiles: 'I thought: 'Bloody hell. It's about time!'' Neil Warnock: Are You With Me? is at Opera House, Manchester on 29 August, London Palladium on 18 September and Ashton Gate Stadium, Bristol on 28 September. Tickets at
