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With M.D.: "Have restrictions on the use of puberty blockers since 2020 caused a 'huge increase in deaths of young trans people', as the Good Law project has claimed? Louis Appleby, professor of psychiatry at the University of Manchester and lead at the Centre for Mental Health and Risk, was commissioned by health secretary Wes Streeting to find out by reviewing data from an audit of deaths among current and former patients…"
With Bio-Waste Spreader: "Though agriculture wasn't mentioned in the recent King's Speech, there's every chance that in her first budget as chancellor of a cash-strapped government, Rachel Reeves will remove or limit a valuable tax privilege farmland owners currently enjoy. Her likely target is agricultural property relief (APR), which allows owners of farmland, farm buildings, farm cottages and farmhouses to pass on these assets, either in their lifetimes or in their wills, free of inheritance tax…"
With Dr B Ching: "The Tories' 'reversing Beeching' programme is a gift that's still giving – not to the public (obviously), but to Tory politicians. 'Restoring Your Railway' (RYR) was announced in 2020 by then-transport secretary Grant Shapps, who trumpeted reopening Fleetwood's railway 'in the near future' and 'kickstarting reversal of the Beeching cuts' of the 1960s. But two years after Shapps' fanfare, the government's last (and only) RYR update listed the Fleetwood project as merely having a 'route into RYR' via a 'Pre-Ideas Fund'…"
With Remote Controller: "Sixteen days after a giant head of Marcel Proust floated down the Seine to start the 2024 Olympics, the tiny body of Tom Cruise abseiled from the roof of the Stade de France to close them, accepting the flag for next host Los Angeles. Thwarting an outbreak of simultaneous translation from BBC hosts waving their yellowing A-levels, the organisers cannily chose a flag-bearer…"
With Old Sparky: "An early crisis looms for energy secretary Ed Miliband, who must decide what to do about the tree-burning, heavily polluting electricity generator Drax, provider of 6 percent of the UK's electricity. Had the election not been called, Drax was scheduled to receive confirmation in late July of the new subsidies it demands after its current bungs run out in 2027…"
With Lunchtime O'Boulez: "Since management took the decision to sack the boss, the empire of orchestras and choirs founded by John Eliot Gardiner looks ready to fall apart. It's been a year since Gardiner withdrew from conducting his own bands after punching a singer; and when Monteverdi Choirs and Orchestras (MCO) finally announced last month that they weren't having him back, it proved divisive…"
With Slicker: "Recent developments in the unrelenting lawfare between the Serious Farce Office and mining group Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) have raised the stakes in what, if it is not already, could become an existential threat to the SFO. The latest SFO annual report two weeks ago revealed a provision of more than £230m to cover the potential liability should ENRC again prevail in a second civil trial…"
From Our Own Correspondent: "The rush by far-right opportunists including Nigel Farage and Andrew Tate to identify the Southport knife attacker as a Muslim immigrant, explicitly or by inference, reminded us of a similar tragedy here last November. Then, Gript (a notorious website more commonly known as Grift), rushed to reveal the attacker's identity as an asylum seeker but later admitted it was the wrong man; he is suing the website for libel…"