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Nobody stabs their best friends in the back better than the Tories. Just amazing how Cameron, Johnson and Gove have turned on each other, destroying the political careers of two of them and probably Gove as well.

Will we ever learn if Gove’s treachery was a last minute decision or a carefully plotted move that was planned months ago?

The events that take place in my new book “RANT” start to look pretty tame when compared to real life politics at the moment (will Corbyn ever go?), but I hope if you want an enjoyable summer read you will give it a try.

As for events in Parliament, I rather agree with the comment that they “make House of Cards look like The Teletubbies” !

Not content with their traditional habit of smashing up the restaurant in which they dined, the members of the Bullingdon Club have become more ambitious and this time have done a pretty good job of smashing up the nation.

Cameron, Osborne and Johnson were all members of the notorious Oxford dining club that used its privileged wealth to get away with wrecking the places where they dined. Now the three of them have done the same to the United Kingdom.

The difference is that when they were in Oxford, they paid for the damage. This time the rest of us are going to have to pick up the bill.

People have been saying some ridiculous things during the Referendum campaign, but Michael Gove seems to have lost all touch with reality. He compares economic experts warning about the fall-out of Brexit to the Nazis who orchestrated a smear campaign against Albert Einstein in the 1930s.

So Michael, that’s the International Monetary Fund, 10 Nobel-prize winning economists and the Bank of England? I don’t think so!

And to think this man used to be Secretary of State for Education.

 

“Our communities have been deeply enhanced by immigration, be it of Irish Catholics across the constituency or of Muslims from Gujarat in India or from Pakistan, principally from Kashmir. While we celebrate our diversity, what surprises me time and time again as I travel around the constituency is that we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.”

Jo Cox, Maiden Speech to the House of Commons

I’m delighted to announce that “RANT” ( the second book in “The Bonhunt Chronicles” series) has now been published and is available in paperback and for Kindle:

http://amzn.to/1UHhXwe

Across the nation the election was on a knife-edge. In Chipping Bonhunt it was murder.

A councillor has gone missing and young Chloe Gatiss makes a gruesome discovery in the old railway cutting. Has the battle over all the proposed new housing turned nasty?

When a developer lies to the police and another councillor is attacked in broad daylight, Inspector Wendy Pepper has to work out who profits from this mayhem.

Meanwhile, in Norfolk a terrified prisoner awaits their fate.

 

 

The debate about Europe in advance of next month’s referendum is hardly an edifying spectacle. What should be an informed, intelligent discussion about the future of Britain and Europe has sadly degenerated into a silly shouting match led by a group of public school boys scoring points off each other.

I hope, probably in vain, that over the final weeks of the campaign we might rediscover the vision that led to the creation of the European Union: the desire that we might set previous conflicts behind us and move forward together in the interest of the common good.

 

It comes to something when the Chief Rabbi is turned away from the polling station because polling officers don’t have his name on the list, but that’s what happened this morning. At a time when there is huge concern about ant-Semitism the incident couldn’t be more unfortunate.  It was accidental, but hugely symbolic.

Barnet is “Easy Council.” Everything has been boiled down and services outsourced. It might cut costs, but in cutting salaries, pensions and outsourcing the Council’s services, it appears that competence and loyalty have been outsourced as well.

The fact that huge numbers of voters had been left off the lists sent to polling stations in Barnet today must have been pretty obvious to anyone with any knowledge of the borough. Either the people responsible were completely out of touch, or they just didn’t care. Whichever it was, it is a damning indictment of the Council and its approach to service provision. Barnet has betrayed democracy.

I was lucky enough to spend last Saturday evening in Saffron Walden Town Hall watching a very good production by the Cheese Nibblers of “The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery.” The Cheese Nibblers are an enthusiastic and talented lot, and they seat you at tables enabling you to enjoy a good bottle or two during the evening as well as the company of your friends.

On the way home, I reflected on how fortunate I am to live in such a vibrant community. Saffron Walden is no ordinary town. There can’t be many places of its size where you are spoilt for choice as to what to do on a Saturday.

If amateur drama isn’t your thing, then there’s always Saffron Screen, the excellent community cinema that uses one of the halls at Saffron Walden County High School (“better than a real cinema” to quote one young visitor). While you’re there, you could also take in a concert from the outstanding programme offered by Saffron Hall; the world class concert venue that was developed in partnership with the school.

Just to set the seal on your choices for activities over a weekend, the shops and market are about to be joined by Harts Books, an independent bookshop being established by Daunt Books. That has to be the cherry on the cake of good fortune for the town. If you’re ever at a loss as to what to do with your time, point your car in the direction of Saffron Walden, or catch the train to Audley End and take the connecting bus (check the times).

It seems that David Cameron has approached his tax affairs in the same way he does everything else: Leave it to the last minute to decide what to do and then, just like a student facing a classic essay crisis, try and resolve everything in a state of panic.

It’s really very bizarre. As far as I can see he’s done nothing wrong. The problem is that the way he’s handled the Panama affair and rushing out his tax returns makes it look as though he has!

It does also confirm that he’s not short of a bob or two.

An absolute pleasure to visit Saffron Walden County High School yesterday to see their outstanding production of “The Glass Knight.” This is the world premiere of a new opera by Philip Sunderland with libretto by Gareth Prior, telling the story of a local legend about a basilisk destroying medieval Saffron (or Chipping as it was then) Walden.

It is an ambitious piece, even more so for a school to perform. The staging was beautiful, but what really shone out were the outstanding performances given by County High students, singing some very challenging roles and supported by some very talented school musicians in the orchestra. The inclusion of enthusiastic pupils from local primary schools added further to this very impressive achievement.

Congratulations to everyone involved. A truly remarkable evening.