With Bio-Waste Spreader: "Amid continuing uproar orchestrated by the likes of the National Farmers Union and the Country Landowners Association, the government is said to be considering changes to its proposal to impose inheritance tax (IHT) on farmland. As matters stand, from April 2026 IHT will be applied to farmland owned by estates above a threshold of £1m. In reality, if the married couple allowance applies and other IHT tax reliefs are included, the IHT threshold for most farming families is more likely to be £3m…"
"Having declared war on the British Medical Association, health secretary Wes Streeting is facing another five-day walkout by resident doctors, starting at 7am on 14 November. This time it's about both pay restoration and jobs. A BMA survey of 4,401 resident doctors found 34 percent of respondents had been unable to secure substantive employment or regular locum shifts…"
With Dr B Ching: "Newly retired Network Rail chief Andrew Haines has shed more light on the rail industry's famous inefficiency, but the government appears in no hurry to act. Interviewed by Railnews, he said: "Why does Network Rail ‘gold plate' assets? Because that's what we are told to do, more or less." When the Levenmouth railway was rebuilt for passenger trains to Edinburgh to start last year, the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) demanded traditional telephones at trackside signals…"
With Remote Controller: "Three opening scenes from TV dramas, broadcast during the last 60 years: 1. In London's plush Park Lane in 1879, a family that made its fortune in tea gathers for lunch at Uncle Timmy's, where relatives worry about finding the right match for unmarrieds but one husband seems sweet on the German governess. 2. In London's mansion land in 1874, a diphtheria epidemic threatens the life of the daughter of a scion of a Victorian family business…"
With Old Sparky: "As the Financial Conduct Authority investigates potentially criminal misdeeds at tree-burning energy company Drax, information reaches the Eye which the FCA might add to its agenda. The authority needs to establish whether known falsehoods in Drax pronouncements about the sustainability of its fuel sourcing were made deliberately, recklessly or negligently. So investigators will be interested to learn..."
With Lunchtime O'Boulez: "Two years ago the Colston Hall, run by Bristol Music Trust, reopened with a fresh look and a new name, having ditched the old one because of its associations with the slave-trader Edward Colston. From now on the venue would shine as the Bristol Beacon, serving the community with purity and light – er, until it shone on something the hall was seemingly trying to hide…"
Letter from Colombo
From Our Own Correspondent: "Bankrupt and with a political class to match, Sri Lanka was ready for radical change when it elected Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) as president last year. The new Jathika Jana Balawegaya or National People's Power (NPP) government, the main component of which is the former Marxist revolutionary JVP, promised an end to corruption and nepotism, and already has one high-profile scalp…"
With Gold Digger: "Huge blow for Putin's war machine as UK sanctions Russian oil," thundered foreign secretary Yvette Cooper and chancellor Rachel Reeves in a recent government press release. But how effectively will the sanctions work? The main targets of the sanctions they were announcing were Russia's largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, which many might have assumed were already sanctioned..."