• Vetting

A government spokesperson has said that Number Ten’s “vetting has to be better.” How does it work now?

• Number Ten: Are you a bad person?
• Candidate: Er…no.
• Number Ten: Good. Are you involved with any bad people?
• Candidate: No, that’s to say, well, I hardly knew them, you know, like, er, not really, and even if I did, I haven’t seen them for ages – really, I haven’t – and didn’t know what they’d done wrong; if they did, which I didn’t know anything about anyway; or at least I didn’t then.
• Number Ten: You wouldn’t be lying to me?
• Candidate: No. Absolutely not, that’s to say – no. No way.
• Number Ten: Fair enough. Would you like to be a life peer, or our Ambassador to the USA?

That’s what it looks like. I’m sure it must be more comprehensive than that but the results seem to be as if this approach were used.

• Lords

The House of Lords is an odd second chamber and far too large. However, the idea of appointing people rather than electing them isn’t completely bonkers. The problem is how they’re picked.

I’ve looked in vain for a decent summary of the background of all the peers so the next sentences rely on my impressions. Far too many life peerages are given to people like Matthew Doyle, who’ve already made a good living out of political mendacity and opportunism. Do we need yet more people from the political arena there? The place seems to be a retirement home for members of the political establishment, including civil servants, diplomats, politicians and snake-oil merchants: smoothie-chops and greasy-pole dancers in search of what they feel they deserve from life, as if they haven’t had enough already.

People like, perhaps, “Lord” Doyle; or the hapless David “Lord” Cameron, the austerity author, Greensill lobbyist and Brexit facilitator? Have we not had enough of him, without his popping up as Foreign Secretary or commentator on this or that or legislator in perpetuity?

If the Lords as an appointed chamber is to work at all, we need first of all to get rid of the remaining hereditary peers and bishops. Then we need to appoint people who have excellence and expertise in useful professions, of which political spin is not one. Teachers, doctors, engineers, scientists and writers would all be on my list.

What chance of this happening? About less than zero.

• Testifying

The awful man formerly known as a Prince is finding himself increasingly hit with accusations resulting from the Epstein files. Some feel that his undignified silence is too much.

“We call upon King Charles III to compel his brother Andrew,” this petition says, “to testify before the US Congress, which he has so far avoided doing of his own volition. This testimony is essential, not only for the victims, but also as an affirmation of a commitment to justice from institutions of power. By doing so, the British monarchy demonstrates a dedication to transparency, justice, and accountability. It is time to stop protecting the institution and instead demonstrate that King Charles and the British monarchy is worthy of respect from the British people.”

Former PM Gordon Brown has also got involved in this, saying that the Andrew person should be interviewed by the Police.

• Battles

There are two battles that I’m trying to fight with regard to English usage. Both are probably doomed to failure. None the less, I continue.

The first is “they”. I fully get that some people want to be referred to as being gender-neutral. It’s also become an actual thing in, for instance, job adverts where you don’t know the gender of the application. “They will be expected to perform…” is acceptable to describe a singular applicant.

However, there’s a twist to this. “They are coming over this weekend” when referring to an arrangement involving a gender-neutral person leaves open whether they’re coming alone or with their partner. Can we not use “they is”? It sounds ugly and wrong but it is at least precise.

The other is 12am and 12pm. Both of these are meaningless – how can you have something that’s “twelve before noon”, or “twelve after noon”? – and also confusing. Seeing either written down in isolation, I wouldn’t be sure what was meant, although the context often comes to the rescue. It’s noon and midnight: accept no imitations. But it seems we have to…

• Spark

I was listening to BBC R4 in the car today, I forget when or which programme, and Ian Rankin chose The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark as his major inspiration. Both are Edinburgh novelists of some distinction in their different fields.

He rightly referred to Spark’s self-definition as a poet – this, and not novelist, is the sole description she wanted on her Italian grave – and yet it’s for her novels that she’s always been known: and Jean Brodie perhaps above all.

I love Muriel Spark’s prose (I don’t know her poetry). Her short stories are sublime and her novels even more so. Many, including The Comforters, The Bachelor’s, A Far Cry from Kensington and Loitering with Intent, I’ve read over and over again, devouring each phrase like Turkish delight. Each time, there’s something new – her economy with words is staggering and, perhaps with a poet’s eye, she leaves gaps into which the reader’s imagination can tumble and on each revisit come to a different conclusion as to exactly what might have been meant.

There’s also, as Rankin rightly pointed out, a darkness under her brittle charm: and of a very particular kind. She was obsessed with the idea of blackmail – all the above four books have strong elements of this – though not always of a straightforward kind. She was adept at plotting the strange paths of control that we weave around each other. The outcomes are often surprising. They’re also both funny and dark. No other writer I can think of has done this as well and with such a deceptively light touch.

Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene both praised her work extravagantly: I hope not only because she was, like them, a Catholic convert. Although she wrote a few duffs, taking all their books into account, I think she might have been the best of the three.

The only book of hers that I’ve never been able to finish, though, is The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I’ve tried several times but something about it, and in particular the main character, wears me down.  Inspired by Rankin’s praise (I’ve never read any of his stuff but should perhaps try that too) I might try again.

Be ready, Hungerford Bookshop: an order for a title or two might be coming your way…

• And finally…

• If you notice any falling off in the quality of this website, that’s because the female half of Penny Post has decamped to Tasmania for the rest of the month. WhatsApp, the internet and good old emails means that her laptop and phone are still plugged in but with an eleven-hour time difference for receiving instructions…

• The Monroe Doctrine is a nineteenth-century American view of its sphere of influence which Trump has reimagined as the “Donroe” Doctrine. This article in The Week takes a brief and cogent look at the history of this idea.

• As we reported a few weeks ago, our own West Berkshire Council is regarded as one if the best highways authorities in the country for fixing potholes. This BBC article takes a look at how WBC does it.

• The pushback against the predatory Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) charges in Waverley and elsewhere continues. it seems that an ever-growing number of MPs of all parties are recognising that this is an injustice that it’s in their power to help fix.

• ‘Reading, writing and learning a language or two can lower your risk of dementia by almost 40%, according to a study that suggests millions of people could prevent or delay the condition,” The Guardian informs us. “The number of people living with the condition is forecast to triple to more than 150 million globally by 2050,’ the article continues, “and experts say it presents a big and rapidly growing threat to future health and social care systems in every community, country and continent.’

I don’t think I could write any more than I do. I read a fair bit. I speak French fairly well but mainly because I spent a lot of time there when I was young. I have no desire or particular aptitude for learning any other language and nor do I feel the need to: my main ambition in what years remain to me is to become better at writing English. I know I shall never become completely fluent in it as there’s always an emotion, a thought or description that eludes my power of expression.

If this is keeping dementia at bay, great. If it isn’t, then I’ll do it anyway until the wheels stop turning. When that happens, I hope I won’t notice, or care: but I might. Not much I can do about it…

Across the area

• A good idea at the time

Inventions like CFCs, leaded petrol and Thalidomide all did exactly what they set out to but at a hideous cost that wasn’t foreseen at the outset. Other time bombs exist, some of which have been quietly ticking for far longer. Petrol and plastic are perhaps the two best known: but there are others.

In this separate article, we take a look at three of these, artificial football pitches, car tyres and forever chemicals. All of these have recently become more in the public eye as a result of, respectively, EU legislation, research done by Action for the River Kennet and a government initiative. We consider how we got to this point, what we can do about the issues and how all of us have a role to play in minimising the downsides of future inventions, including the ones that will hopefully replace what we know now to be these convenient but problematic technologies.

• Counting the pennies

WBC’s Executive meets on 12 February to consider the awful problem of its budget for 2026-27. This will then be ratified at a Full Council meeting later this month. Few administrations have had to cope with such a financial nightmare and the situation, and the choices, would be pretty much the same regardless of which party had been in power for the last ten years or which was in power now. The ingredients in this perfect storm include SEND costs, adult social care, inflation, the government’s recent financial settlement and increasing compliance issues and staff costs.

It would appear that the administration’s plan is, wisely in my view, not to cut non-statutory services like libraries and community transport but to borrow more money from Whitehall through emergency support (which may or may not be provided to the extent requested). If it is, the hope seems to be that matters can be toughed out for the next year or so. By then, two things might have happened: the government taking on the future (and perhaps even the past) SEND costs; and Ridgeway Council might have been approved.

If both these things happen, and if the equally serious issue of adult social care can be dealt with, WBC will then find itself in calmer waters and part of an authority that is in a much healthier financial position – the Vale and South Oxfordshire, as they don’t have responsibility for education or social care, have some decent reserves.

This seems like a reasonable strategy. It’s a lot easier to cut services than it is to restore them later. Ten years ago there was massive push-back to the threat of library closures in West Berkshire, just as there has been recently to proposed cuts to community transport in Wiltshire (the first was reversed and the latter looks as if it will be).

It’s possible that some services would be provided by parishes, which can raise their precept by as much as they like. This will, however, lead to inefficiencies and a series of postcode lotteries, with some parishes being more willing or able than others to step forward. Councils provide hundreds of services, many of them non-statutory, and we’d be worse off without them. Any cuts would also fall most heavily on those who have the most need of support.

There are a number of ifs in this, though. The government may not provide the funds. SEND costs may not be taken on in full. The social-care cost spiral may continue to worsen. Ridgeway Council may not happen. If even one of these comes to pass then a Section 114 notice (a declaration of effective bankruptcy) would seem inevitable.

And speaking of Ridgeway Council…

• Have your say on council reorganisation

A statement from West Berkshire Council (and a very similar one from the Vale of White Horse) confirms that the government has “launched a consultation on options to reorganise local councils across Oxfordshire and West Berkshire. Local Government Reorganisation is a government-led reform to change how councils in two-tier area are structured, replacing county and district councils with single unitary structures responsible for local services.”

• Have your say on planning enforcement

West Berkshire Council is inviting residents to share their views on the draft Planning Enforcement Plan during a six-week public consultation running until Monday 9 March 2026.

As mentioned last week, I have my suspicions about how effective planning enforcement is ever going to be as long as enforcing planning conditions isn’t a statutory requirement and the necessary funding isn’t provided in order to make sense of a system which, let us not forget, local planning authorities did not create but merely have to implement.

That said, the proposals – including the creation of a new category of very urgent breaches which will be investigated within two days – seem welcome. The unauthorised encampment outside the gates of one of the country’s major nuclear facilities at Aldermaston might qualify as one such under these new arrangements, if adopted.

However, WBC responded within that length of time anyway and, months later, the settlement remains. A planning authority can only do so much in the face of national legislation which provides, some would say reasonably, various checks and balances.

The real problem is that we have a planning system that’s bristling with fine phrases and complex procedures and yet which often falls flat on its face when confronted by a determined challenge. How the balance between the individual desire and the public good will be organised remains as elusive as ever.

You can click here for more information on the consultation and how to take part, which you need to do by 5pm on Monday 9 March.

News from your local councils