The Observer view on the UK’s right to rent shame | Editorial

A scheme forcing landlords in England to act as border agents actively creates race discrimination, the high court has ruled

‘Our policy is not to sell to coloured people.” That’s what a stunned Mahesh Upadhyaya was told when he tried to buy a house in Huddersfield in 1968. He went on to become the first person to bring a racial discrimination case under the new Race Relations Act. While the case was eventually dismissed on a technicality, the judge declared unequivocally that discrimination had occurred. It was a first and important step towards ridding a nation of the “rooms to let: no coloureds” signs that were commonplace in the 60s.

Fifty years later, Britain is, thankfully, a society far more tolerant of ethnic diversity. But a landmark high court ruling on Friday declared that government legislation is now actively creating racial discrimination in the housing market. The right to rent scheme demands landlords in England check the immigration status of tenants, with fines of up to £3,000 and a potential prison term if they fail to do so. The Observer first reported on this legal challenge last March.

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All eyes to the skies – and the weeds | Allan Jenkins

March can seem like a false start, but you can crack on indoors, and watch the weather for signs to sow outside

Whatever TS Eliot says, March may be the cruellest month. The days are longer, the vernal equinox is close, the clocks go forward (the first extra hour is on the 31st), but still it’s time to hold back. In the vegetable garden at least.

All the advice is to cloche and cover if sowing, say, carrots outdoors – particularly if you live outside the south. We don’t cover over at the plot, so I watch the weather and forecasts obsessively and take my pointers from the weeds. If it is warm enough for them to thrive I might scatter or sow a rill of oriental salads. It is too hard to resist their ragged beauty.

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Graphic scenes in a rural Kent home

Designer Anthony Burrill and his wife Emma have embraced country house living on their own terms

If you know about Anthony Burrill and the upbeat graphic slogan prints he creates, you might guess that he lives in a creative urban hotspot – east London, Glasgow, Bristol… Actually, he lives with his wife Emma, two almost-grown-up children, their spaniel Pip, plus some chickens in a former granary, deep in rural Kent.

The couple met at the Royal College of Art when Emma was studying photography and Anthony, from Lancashire via Leeds University, was studying graphic design. After graduating, they worked from their kitchen in Brixton but, with the arrival of their second child, they decided to move. “We both grew up in rural places so we wanted to escape the city and be nearer to the beach. Emma’s from this area and we fell for this village because of the lovely school, and made our plans around that,” says Anthony.

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Graphic scenes in a rural Kent home

Designer Anthony Burrill and his wife Emma have embraced country house living on their own terms

If you know about Anthony Burrill and the upbeat graphic slogan prints he creates, you might guess that he lives in a creative urban hotspot – east London, Glasgow, Bristol… Actually, he lives with his wife Emma, two almost-grown-up children, their spaniel Pip, plus some chickens in a former granary, deep in rural Kent.

The couple met at the Royal College of Art when Emma was studying photography and Anthony, from Lancashire via Leeds University, was studying graphic design. After graduating, they worked from their kitchen in Brixton but, with the arrival of their second child, they decided to move. “We both grew up in rural places so we wanted to escape the city and be nearer to the beach. Emma’s from this area and we fell for this village because of the lovely school, and made our plans around that,” says Anthony.

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Gone to print: space and colour in a textile designer’s cottage

Her home studio may have changed little in 40 years, but Pauline Caulfield is revisiting and reinventing her work

Tucked down the side of a London terrace is an enclave of 12 red-brick studio houses built in the late 1800s. Pauline Caulfield moved into hers in 1975; previous residents include the painter John William Waterhouse, the abstract artist John Hoyland and the illustrator Arthur Rackham. The interiors have barely changed since. A pair of red checked sofas she bought in the 1970s have been re-covered, but in a fabric very close to the original. Likewise, the squat coffee table in front of the fireplace has been repainted, but in a similar shade of yellow. A precarious fibreglass sculpture by the pop artist Nicholas Monro has balanced on top of a wooden chest in the corner for decades. “I love it. It’s always been here,” she says. “I don’t like the idea of hanging on to the past, but some good decisions were made when we moved in.”

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Gardening tips: plant violets

Then cut back winter jasmine and visit Lanhydrock in Cornwall to see the magnolias

Plant this I would gladly lie belly down on a damp lawn to get a whiff of sweet violet blooms (Viola odorata), such is my love for these tough little plants. They are best planted under deciduous trees and look wonderful with snowdrops and wood anemones. The flowers and leaves are edible, too.

Snip this Winter jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) is a reliably cheery shrub for the colder months thanks to its flushes of egg-yolk-yellow flowers, but it’s now due a tidy-up. Cut back a few of the oldest stems at the base and trim the rest back to a set of buds to rein in floppier growth. Tie in any loose stems.

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How to get the best harvest from seed potatoes | Alys Fowler

Our gardening expert on the case for chitting spuds before planting them

It is most likely too late to debate whether to chit or not. Across the land, egg boxes are full of sprouting potatoes willing on the first good days of spring. There is something so pleasing about those little fat shoots appearing at the end of a tuber.

The idea is to develop the chits (shoots) on the seed potato before it is planted out, to speed up growth so you can harvest your crop three to four weeks early. If chitting speeds up growth at the beginning, it also hastens the end with the onset of senescence – and this can do quite the opposite to what’s desired. It can reduce yields. The trick is to keep those chits as healthy and chubby as possible.

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