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With M.D.: "In MD's view, convicted baby-killing nurse Lucy Letby should be granted leave to appeal her verdicts, preferably without having to wait 10 years in jail first. There have been sufficient serious concerns raised by credible experts in numerous fields as to whether the science and statistics were presented fairly and completely to the jury at her trials; and had they heard the fuller picture with alternative explanations for the deaths, they may have changed their verdicts on some or all of the cases…"
With Bio-Waste Spreader: "The latest revised total income from farming (TIFF) figure for England for 2023, published recently by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, shows a 19 percent drop to £4.5bn. This fall was driven primarily by decreases in farmgate prices for arable crops and milk. 'TIFF', however, is a misnomer as the 'income from farming' figure includes farm diversification enterprises (£1.4bn) and subsidies not linked to food production (£1.7bn)…"
With Dr B Ching: "Labour's pre-election 'plan to fix Britain's railways' ignored HS2 but will be tested by problems paraded in an HS2 update last week from the National Audit Office. As the rail industry lacked coherence and leadership, the Department for Transport took charge of HS2, now estimated to cost £45bn-£57bn (excluding recently identified 'cost pressures') just for London-Birmingham. DafT created HS2 Ltd to deliver the project and entrusted development of HS2 train services to the firms responsible for Avanti West Coast (yes, really!)…"
With Remote Controller: "The first French Olympiad for a century immediately revealed two location-related problems: the drenching July weather and the games taking place in the nation whose language Brits are most likely to speak. This encourages, among those fronting the BBC's Olympics 2024, an attempted bilinguality that comes out as Franglais. 'Bonsoir, tout le monde!' Hazel Irvine began her first commentary stint…"
With Old Sparky: "At the big launch of GB Energy last week, energy secretary Ed Miliband chose his words carefully. He is trying to walk back some of the literally unbelievable commitments Labour made before the election on 100 percent electricity decarbonisation and reducing our energy bills for good, all by 2030. Keir Starmer was not intending to undercut Miliband's retreat, but he was goaded by hacks into repeating a pre-election promise.…"
With Lunchtime O'Boulez: "After a year's 'reflection' on his habit of encouraging colleagues with the odd slap, news that conductor John Eliot Gardiner will not return to the choirs and orchestras he founded is no great surprise, though it disappointed some. The announcement from the collected ensembles of the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists et al suggested Gardiner had no choice, while his own version suggested he did…"
With Slicker: "And with one bound – or maybe two – he was free. Alistair Barclay has avoided the humiliation of either bankruptcy or an individual voluntary arrangement with his creditors receiving only pennies in the pound. The bankruptcy petition filed against him last December by Investec Bank, owed £950,000, was withdrawn two weeks ago and with it seemingly went the need for the IVA…"
Letter from Accra
From Our Own Correspondent: "Akwaaba! Welcome to the home of the other presidential contest this winter. In Ghana, we used to pride ourselves on more or less credible, rather dull elections, in which the same two parties would slug it out every four years. This allowed us to worry about our friends across the Atlantic. As a sign of our concern, we offered citizenship rights to all African-Americans…"