Pump the brakes: train drivers at 12 rail companies are once again set to strike, this time on October 1st and 5th. October 5th happens to be the last day of Tory Conference in Birmingham. Looks like Labour members won’t be the only ones to have their big week derailed by the union barons.
The 12 companies striking are: Avanti West Coast, Chiltern, Cross Country, Greater Anglia, Great Western Railways, Hull, LNER, London Overground, Northern, Southeastern, Transpennine Express and West Midlands Trains. Hungover hacks and staffers better start looking up the bus timetables…
Despite the reshuffle being formally paused until after the Queen’s funeral, Liz Truss has ploughed on with sacking Tory tree-hugger-in-chief Zac Goldsmith from his DEFRA ministerial post. While the government is still paying lip service to the Net Zero target, they’ve signalled climate and animal welfare issues could be de-prioritised over the coming months. The Guardian speculates that the Animal Welfare Bill could be first up for slaughter. The PM’s next royal audience should be interesting…
The news comes as The Guardian reports Liz is planning to follow through on her leadership election pledge and lift the ban on fracking as soon as possible, with first licences set to be issued as early as next week. This will no doubt come as welcome relief as energy bills continue to rise during winter. The decision comes despite the paper’s ominous quote from a forthcoming report that forecasting fracking-induced earthquakes “remains a significant challenge”. In August 2019 Caudrilla halted work after recording the UK’s “biggest fracking tremor”. The tremor in question was 1.55ML on the Richter scale, “which it likened to ‘a large bag of shopping dropping to the floor'”…
UPDATE: Read Zac’s letter to his former Defra colleagues below:
The Met is finally one step ahead of the eco-loons. In the early hours of the morning, police officers fished a suspicious-looking crusty out of the Thames as he paddled around next to the Commons terrace, apparently while wearing a Go-Pro camera and dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. According to Mail Online, the suspect insisted he was practising for “a charity swim”, and after ruling out any terrorist-related antics under questioning, police now believe he was on a scouting mission for Extinction Rebellion or Insulate Britain ahead of the Queen’s funeral on Monday. Scotland Yard said:
“At around 03.25hrs on Monday September 12, police became aware of a man in the River Thames who appeared to be using a flotation device. He came out of the water at Victoria Tower Gardens. Officers spoke to him. He was given words of advice about his proximity to a restricted area.”
Rather than whacking on the handcuffs – as they seem to do for anyone holding up blank protest signs – the coppers gave him a slap on the wrist and told him to go home. That’s surely the last anyone will hear of him then…
There’s a glimmer of hope yet that Liz Truss may fulfil her dream of being featured in Vogue, as the editor tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy his attitude is ‘wait and see’ rather than a straight no. During the leadership campaign Nicola Sturgeon told a fringe audience that her only real interaction with Liz Truss had been at the COP26 summit where the future PM only asked her how the First Minister had secured a big feature in the glamourous lifestyle magazine.
“That was the main thing she wanted to talk to me about, she wanted to know how she could get into Vogue – and she calls me an attention-seeker…
I said to her they came and asked me. I didn’t really mean to do this, but I said to her it hadn’t actually been my first time in Vogue, it had been my second time.
It looked a little bit as if she’d swallowed a wasp. I’m sure she’ll be in Vogue before too long.”
While editor Edward Enninful didn’t rule out a big Truss interview and photoshoot, there do seem to be some ideological differences between the new PM and the magazine’s editorial line on progressive social attitudes.
KGM: Would you put Liz Truss in Vogue?
EE: Haha, someone asked me that question before. Let’s see how she pans out, how about that.
KGM: That doesn’t tell me much. What do you think of her?
EE: I’d like to see what she does as a leader… and then we can have this conversation again in six months’ time.
The clock is ticking…
Hat-tip to The Sun for the splash mock-up…
Any families with a bit of spare time this weekend, or looking for that perfect Christmas bonding activity, are in luck. The European Commission has launched its own 110-page quiz and accompanying board game focused entirely on itself and its benevolent dear leader Ursula von der Leyen. Yes, 110 pages.
The quiz booklet, available now, features 101 sections and is the perfect brain teaser for any budding europhiles. It’s also open to players of all ages, with questions such as “What is the aim of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation?” and “Can you name one of the six political priorities of the von der Leyen Commission?” Sure to provide hours of fun for all those children out there with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the European Green Deal Investment plan…
Just imagine your child waking up on Christmas day, wide-eyed with excitement for what Sinterklaas has in store for them under the tree, only to find themselves answering questions like:
- By 2030, by what percentage should the use of fertilizers be reduced?
- What is the total amount of the EU’s long-term budget for 2021-2027 (in current prices)?
- Trafficking in human beings remains a serious threat in the EU despite progress achieved in the past years. Victims are mainly women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation. Roughly what percentage of victims do women and girls account for?
The winner is the first to reach the finish line, or give up and go outside…
A 4-mile queue: what are the chances the Aussies run into ex-Black Rod David Leakey?
