Tweet

With M.D.: "As health secretary Victoria Atkins orders a review of the vaccine compensation scheme following a big rise in pandemic-related claims, the scientific evidence on Covid vaccines remains clear. They were highly effective at reducing severe illness, hospitalisation and death among those most at risk; less effective at reducing transmission as new variants emerged; and in very rare cases caused severe illness, hospitalisation and death in people who were often not high risk…"
With Bio-Waste Spreader: "It's not just in Cumbria that landlords are clearing tenant farmers from the land (see last Eye). In Devon, even the National Trust (NT), it seems, is clearing tenants off its land in the name of greening. Until November 2021, Tim Jakins was tenant of the National Trust's 460-acre New Barton Farm near Plymouth. He moved to the farm in 1996 with his wife and six-month-old son. The house was in a poor condition and the farm buildings were dilapidated…"
With Dr B Ching: "At last there's a light at the end of the railway tunnel, thanks to Labour's rail plan and strong lead in the polls. But the party's old belief that private finance is free money still lingers. If elected, Labour promises to create Great British Railways as the new 'directing mind', which is what the government announced in 2021 but was too dysfunctional to implement. Although the Tories accepted that railway fragmentation is a curse, they insisted GBR would hand contracts to private train firms…"
With Remote Controller: "Following his transition from TV freeway speedster to tractor boy, Jeremy Clarkson hoped to provide on Clarkson's Farm a field- to-fork experience – animals raised on his Diddly Squat estate would then fill the menu of the farm shop restaurant wrapped in bread made from his wheat. But in the first four-episode drop of season three (before the concluding quartet on 10 May), West Oxfordshire district council closes down the eatery on planning grounds…"
With Old Sparky: "So. Farewell then, Chris Stark, chief executive of the government's statutory climate adviser, the Climate Change Committee (CCC). After six years earning more than the prime minister, he is moving to the Carbon Trust, another lucrative green quango set up by the government, where he'll earn at least twice as much – more than £400,000 a year. Altruism this is not. Stark made barbed comments about government policy as he left his role…"
With Lunchtime O'Boulez: "Arts Council England chief executive Darren Henley ate humble pie on Radio 4's Front Row last week, suggesting he and his staff have finally realised their future is in question. That ACE imposes burdens on those it funds to amass data about outreach to ethnic minorities and diverse gender groups – a process that absorbs much of their funding – has been well documented on these pages…"
With Slicker: "Almost £4m in 'reasonable' legal fees was received by UK lawyers acting for sanctioned Russian individuals and companies in four months from last October, according to data provided by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) in response to a freedom of information request from Private Eye. The payments were reported to OFSI under the third legal services general licence issued by the Treasury unit since the invasion of Ukraine…"
Letter from Islamabad
From Our Own Correspondent: "What news of our former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife, the veiled guru Bushra Bibi? Both are now under lock and key accused of various crimes, including marrying too soon after her divorce (see Eye 1560) and flogging off a limited-edition Graff watch given to Imran by Saudi ruler Mohammed Bin Salman. Imran is now known as Prisoner 804, after the number of his cell; and politically charged sandals with 804 embossed on them are all the rage…"