With Bio-Waste Spreader: "The sight of convoys of tractors descending on Westminster earlier this year gave the strong impression these protests were solely concerned with the proposed introduction of inheritance tax on farmland. But the demos have been about a whole series of perceived threats to farmers' livelihoods, including the rapidly rising cost of... repairing tractors. Until recently, many repairs were done on farm…"
With M.D.: "Patient satisfaction with the NHS is at an all-time low, often because people struggle to see any doctor, never mind the same one. But continuity of care in general practice is more powerful and better value for money than many drugs. It reduces emergency admissions, unnecessary investigations and mortality rates, and raises patient satisfaction. Maybe that's where the government should be putting its money…"
With Dr B Ching: "The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has identified 'barriers' to private investment in rail infrastructure but glossed over the industry's stifling bureaucracy – which includes the very same ORR. The Treasury wants more private funding for infrastructure generally and asked ORR to review the rail system. Third parties, including local councils, already have an ORR 'framework' for funding or part-funding rail infrastructure, but they told ORR there was 'uncertainty'…"
With Remote Controller: "Multiple layers of BBC middle management are titled 'genre commissioners', allotting responsibility for individual strands of programming such as docs, comedy or kids'. It might be time to add a specialist executive for the genre of naughty-step television. The mid-August BBC1 schedules feature two flagship series from which the lead presenters have been sacked since the last one – Match of the Day and MasterChef – although the franchises continue…"
With Old Sparky: "Governments always get frustrated when regulators tell them their plans technically don't work. Their solution? In the case of Sizewell, the new French nuclear power station recently given the go-ahead, ministers simply ignored the strictures of the planning authorities and regulators. Now, with grim irony on the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a hastily cobbled-together official review has concluded that our nuclear regulatory regime is 'not fit for purpose'…"
With Lunchtime O'Boulez: "The fallout from the Royal Opera House's flag-waving fiasco gets ever messier, and the efforts of senior managers to cover their own backs ever clumsier. The Royal Opera's director, Oliver Mears, ran onstage during a performance of Il Trovatore last month in an attempt to snatch a Palestinian flag away from an extra (see last Eye), which not only failed but turned comic…"
With Slicker: "The collective investment vehicle for the pension schemes of London's boroughs has quietly unloaded more than £6.75m of Israeli government bonds, as well as shares in Israeli banks worth more than £800,000. The bonds and shares were sold by the London Collective Investment Vehicle (LCIV), one of eight local government pension scheme asset-pooling companies. LCIV manages £34bn of pooled assets for the 32 London boroughs and the City of London…"
Letter from Bangkok
From Our Own Correspondent: "As everyone familiar with the mafia knows, wars between families are the most bitter – especially when they were once allies, and money and pride are at stake. We don't know for sure if it was the push by billionaire ex-Thai PM (and still current political godfather) Thaksin Shinawatra to legalise gambling here that riled the ruling Hun family next door in Cambodia…"