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| Columnists |
| Issue 1342 |
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| With New Bio-Waste Spreader: "Given how difficult it is for young farmers to get a foothold in Scotland… Scottish politicians and farm leaders are reviewing the laws governing tenanted farms… What would do much more good [across the UK] - but what no farming or landowning organisation is ever likely to suggest to legislators - is the removal of inheritance and capital gains tax exemptions that apply to farmland but which are now distorting the industry in thoroughly destructive ways…”
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| With M.D.: "…Clear evidence was revealed of systematic failure in maternity services across the [University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation] trust, and serious concerns about how the entire trust operated. Yet in February 2010 Ann Abraham [the then Health Service Ombudsman] refused to investigate, saying it was the CQC’s job to address failures, and two months later, CQC registered Morecambe Bay ‘without conditions and with no planned investigations’...”
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| With Dr B. Ching: "The private finance initiative order for new Thameslink trains is running so late even the National Audit Office has woken up to the delay. Despite this, the auditors aren’t advising against using PFI for trains, even though the government has conceded that it doesn’t work…” |
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With Remote Controller: "Britain’s Secret Homes is a bizarre attempt by the network at one of the heritage/history shows that are generally left to the BBC, which had been the main employer of the two chosen co-presenters, Michael Buerk and Bettany Hughes… In the gardens of a stately pile, the presenters stroll around looking like a rich retired businessman and his third wife on a weekend break. The producers require them to deliver alternate links, but with both of them always in shot: a grammar that leaves the silent partner looking awkward, especially when, as here, the non-speaker seems to have been directed to turn sideways and gaze into the eyes of the other. The result resembles a cheap advert for an optician’s or an illustration for a report on stalking..."
[Review of Britain’s Secret Homes, ITV].
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| With Old Sparky: "Given the many attractions of a possible shale gas bonanza in the UK, the government is determined to give the embryonic ‘unconventional gas’ industry a kick start – even, it seems, at the risk of environmental damage…” |
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| With Piloti: "For a century and a half this porte-cochère has been Newcastle’s gateway. Arriving or departing passengers have been able to board or alight from taxis protected from the weather inside this impressive, functional structure which enhances both the experience and the city. But no longer. Some bright spark has noticed that it offers yet another retail opportunity, so, after minimal public consultation, Network Rail and East Coast railways are going to glaze in the arches ‘to create a dramatic new public and retail space’…” |
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| With Lunchtime O’Boulez: "Of all the young British conductors tipped to follow Sir Simon Rattle’s glittering career path, an obvious candidate is the comparably tousle-haired and sort-of cute (as Rattle once was) Robin Ticciati, already active on the international circuit and poised to take musical charge of the Glyndebourne Festival in 2014. However, for someone so young (he’s still only 30), he is already worryingly prone to throwing his weight around and behaving like a diva – as has just happened at Zurich Opera where he walked out of a Don Giovanni he was contracted to deliver, laying down his baton after only two performances and attracting a charge of unprofessional conduct…”
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| With Bookworm: "The Women’s Prize victory of AM Homes…was bittersweet for Granta, her UK publisher, which seems to have been caught on the hop. Sigrid Rausing, owner and publisher of both the book arm and the magazine, was away in Transylvania on other business, according to the website Book Brunch, which doesn’t suggest high expectations or enthusiasm about the book. And while the win was good for morale, Homes’s acceptance speech wasn’t…”
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| With Slicker: "The next privatisation by the government… is expected to be that of a business probably few in Britain realise the taxpayer is in – buying blood from thousands of paid American donors. Plasma Resources UK (PRUK) is a major player in the US plasma centre business and provides about a third of the blood plasma products used by the National Health Service, as well as since 2010 owning the NHS’s own blood products laboratory… The Department of Health is looking to raise £200m-plus from the sale…” |
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Letter from Kiev
From Our Own Correspondent: "Family values may be a bit old-fashioned in some places, but here in Ukraine we celebrate such ties – and none more so than the 30 families that pretty much control everything that happens in politics and business. Viktor Yanukovych is not just our president but also the country’s leading franchise. His younger son, also called Viktor, is an MP, but the elder son, 40-year-old Oleksandr, has attracted more attention. Oleksandr’s business interests have expanded exponentially since his father finally became president in 2010…” |
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To read all these columnists and more in full, you can buy the latest edition of Private Eye - or subscribe here and have the magazine delivered to your home every fortnight.
Next issue on sale:
25th June 2013. |
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Only In The Magazine
Nation Celebrates 60 Years of Dimbleby Dynasty… Lord Lobby of Sleaze Admits: ‘I’d do anything for money’… Tsar Tsar Appointed to Oversee Double-standards Tsar… Me and My Spoon, with Rhys Ifans… Guardian Latest: Katz to Leave Sinking Ship… Sally Bercow Names Top Tory in Sex Scandal… Lord Leveson Fact-Checking with Carine Patry Hoskins… Ann Widdecombe’s Diary, as told to Craig Brown
And also...
- Arise, Sir Amyas: The auditors who want a knighthood for their beleaguered boss
- Fracking hell: Ministers take a light touch approach to a possible shale gas bonanza
- Blood money: Why the coalition’s next privatisation may make taxpayers see red
For all these stories you can buy the magazine or subscribe here and get delivery direct to your home every fortnight.
Next issue on sale: 25th June 2013. |
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