Dearest Gentle Reader, this Sunday has delivered a most peculiar assortment - a political leader unveiling bold plans for a demographic that may not strictly require rescue, a government quietly abandoning its own scheme under cover of declared victory, and an entire nation cheerfully handing over £408 for an event not yet headlined, at a farm, in twenty months' time. There are also spies lurking in the groves of academe, and a grave report about a beloved piece of living history. This Author has opinions on all of it - some barely suppressed.

Dearest Gentle Reader, this Saturday brings a royal war of words that not even the most accomplished diplomatist could smooth over, a billionaire whose patriotism travels no further than the Monaco border, and a government scheme that may yet place the parents in gaol while the children run free. This Author has opinions on all of it - and a great deal of barely concealed astonishment.

Dearest Gentle Reader, this Tuesday brings a sentencing scandal that has endured far too long, a maternity inquiry that found rather more embedded disgrace than the establishment would prefer, and a political speech so carefully unpinned from detail that one scarcely knows whether to applaud or merely ask a follow-up question. There is also, naturally, more heat on the horizon - and a doorbell camera that has done more for justice this season than many a magistrate.