With Bio-Waste Spreader: "With UK agriculture facing the second major oil price shock in four years (first the war in Ukraine; now closure of the Strait of Hormuz), the increasing fear is that farmers are on the point of drastically scaling back their production of food. With much of the rest of the world seeking ever greater food self-sufficiency, should UK legislators be doing more to encourage domestic food production?..."
With MD: "Should GPs be able to seek advice from a specialist before referring a patient to hospital? When MD trained, you could phone up a consultant and ask for help. Now we have NHS Advice and Guidance, introduced in 2015, where GP requests are submitted electronically and reviewed remotely by a consultant, who advises whether a patient should be added to the waiting list or another course of action is more appropriate. It was an optional service…"
With Dr B Ching: "An obscure letter from a train firm micromanaged by the government doesn't bode well for future relationships between centralised Great British Railways and devolved train services. Transport for Wales – nationalised and mainly subsidised by the Welsh government – wants to start running trains to northern and central Bristol in December. Great Western Railway, which the Department for Transport controls, already runs Bristol-Cardiff trains. Among GWR's objections to TfW's Bristol trains is that the ticket-revenue allocation system would divert money from GWR to TfW…"
With Remote Controller: "ITV and Channel 4, who go big when Number 10 is in play, don't bother when just town hall keys are dangled: they went with Batman Begins and a repeat of Eight Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown while the BBC was launching the 21 hours of Elections 2026. Although listings pages were given the plural title, the studio graphics went with Election, a usage the BBC generally employs when parliamentary seats are being chosen along with a new PM…"
With Old Sparky: "Greg Jackson, founder and boss of super-successful energy supplier Octopus, is welcomed in the corridors of power. So his controversial contribution at a recent industry conference on the security of the electricity grid bears careful consideration. In the context of last year's catastrophic Spanish blackout (during which people died, Eyes passim), he said: ‘I'm not advocating for blackouts, but if you asked Spanish consumers, "Would you accept the odd blackout in return for electricity costs that are 25 percent lower, or don't have [price] spikes?", enough of them would say yes'…"
With Lunchtime O'Boulez: "A muted launch party for this year's Proms: the low-key event was conspicuously low-budget compared with past blowouts. Those who braved tube strikes to attend were miffed to find that, though the invitation asked for ‘dietary requirements', there was no food. ‘Lured on false pretences,' said one leading light of UK music as he joined a swift collective exit after the speeches. Happily, the Proms programme itself looks full, but with fewer big-league overseas orchestras than previously…"
Letter from Ashgabat
From Our Own Correspondent: "Our neighbourhood is in flames and the price of basic goods is rocketing. Happily, Turkmenistan's glorious leaders know just what to do: if you can't deliver peace, build more golf courses. In February our former president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, attempted to gatecrash the inaugural meeting of in Washington of Donald Trump's fatuous ‘Board of Peace'. Alas, even Turkmenistan had not signed up to this increasingly ludicrous international folly. The ‘National Leader of the Turkmen People', once a dentist and still our Arkadag (protector), was turned away. But the trip was not wasted…"