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With M.D.: "MD's initial view of the trial of Lucy Letby was to accept the verdict in August last year and criticise hospital managers for not investigating the concerns of the whistleblowing paediatricians sooner. Post publication, I was then contacted by a number of experts who believe the science and statistics presented at the trial were incomplete and flawed and that the case against Letby?was not proven beyond reasonable doubt. The Eye was set to publish these views last September but was prevented from doing so by a court order…"
With Bio-Waste Spreader: "With a landslide majority, and now free of the constraints imposed by the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, the Labour Westminster government is free to develop a new farm policy for England. (Agriculture is a delegated power to the UK's national governments and regional assemblies.) In which direction will it go?..."
With Dr B Ching: "Ending broken public services needs oodles of cash which Britain doesn't have, but 'National Rail' could be improved by spending less money in many areas, with early savings recycled for improvements such as more second-hand rolling stock for CrossCountry. Labour estimates the current rail shambles wastes £2.2bn a year. It will bring all ex-franchises in-house when contracts expire and create Great British Railways…"
With Remote Controller: "'Sunday will be a good day for Spain!' predicted Carlos Alcaraz, interviewed by Annabel Croft on Wimbledon after his semi-final victory in what are still improbably called the gentlemen's singles. He was booed by an Anglo-centric Centre Court crowd, assuming he was predicting that beating Novak Djokovic in his final would be followed by his country dumping ours out of the Euros. BBC presenters jumped to defend the Spaniard, as well they might because he was neatly previewing a sports broadcasting 'Super Sunday'…"
With Old Sparky: "Labour enters government having made a dramatic commitment to 'unleash tidal power', as if the Tories wilfully chained it up. In fact, tidal projects have been awarded the highest subsidy rate of any category of renewables (four times as much as for wind power); but after more than a decade only one tiny test plant is supplying tidal power to the grid. So why the failures – and what is going to, ahem, 'change'?..."
With Lunchtime O'Boulez: "So many people in the music world invested hopes in Thangam Debbonaire as our new culture secretary, it hit hard when she became one of the few Labour MPs who lost their seats in the party's landslide victory. Backstage lobbying for a swift peerage so she could still take the job came to nothing. As a result, she goes down in history as the best culture tsar we never had: someone who understood the issues, having worked as a professional musician, and looked set to be (at last) a serious champion for the arts in government…"
With Slicker: "The new Labour government has begun where the Tories left off: looking to reassure the City that it has nothing to fear when it comes to financial services regulation. Here was new chancellor Rachel Reeves a week after the election applauding the Fundamentally Complicit Authority's new 'soft touch' regulation regime for listed companies: financial services were 'at the heart of this government's growth mission'…"
Letter from Rome
From Our Own Correspondent: "As delegates left the G7 summit in Italy last month, we Italians were left wondering which way our prime minister Giorgia Meloni was facing. Towards the centre – cosying up to Joe Biden, supporting Ukraine and horse-trading with the EU's Ursula von der Leyen – or back to her origins on the far right?..."