So am at my mum’s and I found a charity cookbook she co-edited in 1989 (in aid of the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford). Most of the contributors were local but they also approached some distinguished figures of the time and… well, here is haute cuisine a la Ken Clarke.
And, in something of a coup, courgettes a la Maggie.
The book - ‘Friendly Food’ - is now out of print. But it’s a reminder of how late the culinary revolution came to the country - and indeed how long the spirit of deference lingered…
Another coup - a recipe from one of the Royals
Gravlax from Blenheim
The Speaker’s nut roast - I love his explanation for being vegetarian…
Beans on toast and an egg cocktail from Tony Baldry - the ‘salmonella-free!’ is a lovely period detail…
Raymond Blanc went a bit OTT for the target market, but as my mum says they couldn’t exactly turn him down…
And a contribution from a Mr Richard Stein of Padstow
Mrs Archbishop
And a few other highlights to finish
I should stress - the bulk of this is useful local recipes. But I found it a fascinating insight into how quickly tastes and attitudes have changed - and am pretty impressed with my mum for pulling it together.
New analysis from @CPSThinkTank today shows the state is spending almost £24k for every adult in the UK. As I say in my column, this means we are likely spending more than *every single one of us is earning*. And it’s only going to get worse. (1/?)
Why is it going to increase? Because of the lie at the heart of the spending review. Reeves wanted to end austerity - but there wasn’t any money. So she put all the increases into the first half of the parliament.
That means Labour is set to go into the election off the back of more ‘Tory austerity’ - overall departmental spending rising by just 1% a year, but much, much less for most departments given that includes 3% pa for the NHS (which is, as ever, getting most of the extra cash).
Starmer says Whitehall is filled with 'a cottage industry of checkers and blockers'. It’s too hard 'for the most enterprising people in country to just get on with the job'. So he's going to cut compliance costs for firms by 25%. Great! Just a few minor problems... (1/?)
In his speech, Starmer cited Alison, a brewer and publican, who has to spend hours filling in forms. But Alison is about to be hammered by NIC rises and minimum wage hikes!
Then there's the Employment Rights Bill, voted through the Commons on literally the same day as Starmer's speech, which will... raise compliance costs for business, by between £0.9bn & £4.5bn (though we'll come back to that).
Welfare reform is not just a fiscal necessity, but a moral one - because as I argue in @thetimes today we're not just paying people off, but writing them off. (1/?)
The govt is set to announce a rumoured £5bn in benefit cuts. It's already hugely controversial. Yet as I point out in my column today, it would cover just 1/16th of the predicted increase in the welfare bill. thetimes.com/comment/column…
Of course, a lot of that is pensions (hi, triple lock!). But the other big driver is ill health. Today, 9.3 million people of working age are economically inactive, and 6m on out of work benefits. Of those, 2.8 million are inactive due to illness - up from 2m before the pandemic.
Have written column today on the NHS - and the fact that @wesstreeting appears to be attempting the biggest shake-up since Lansley, even though no one's actually noticed. (1/?)
Ever since Lansley, the NHS has had two hands on the wheel - the Health Department and NHS England, the latter of which actually *runs* the NHS day-to-day. This... hasn't worked well.
The departure of Amanda Pritchard was reported as Streeting reasserting DHSC control. In fact, it's part of an attempt to make health more like schools - local control, local responsibility, with the centre driving accountability and transparency, not controlling with iron fist.
On Wednesday, the Climate Change Committee will publish a document far more important than any Budget or industrial strategy - because it will set the terms of trade for the British economy for years. (1/?)
The Seventh Carbon Budget gives the govt its official blueprint for how much carbon we can emit in 2038-42 - and where emissions need to be before then, and (crucially) what kind of things might need to be done to reach those targets.
These targets, once adopted, are legally binding. The govt can be, and has been, sued for not having an adequate plan. The problem is, they also require us to do some pretty dramatic things - which get more dramatic the further we are from hitting the targets.
The triple lock is a wasteful, unfair and outdated policy. So why the hysteria when politicians even gesture towards questioning it? Thread, with charts and data and stuff. (1/?)
As I say in my column today, the purpose of the triple lock - which sees the state pension rise by the highest of earnings, inflation or 2.5% - was to restore the value of the state pension, and tackle pensioner poverty. It’s succeeded.
Today, according to official statistics, pensioners are substantially less likely than those of working age to be in poverty after housing costs are taken into account.