Peter Rhodes on eternal life, the Iron Lady and plans for robbing the rich
We're going to live for ever – again. A drug used to treat diabetes and obesity is reportedly so potent that it might cure or prevent other ailments. The usually-sober Daily Telegraph headlines it as the “fountain of youth.”
Reality check. In the 1990s, I read a report on progress being made on treatments that would lead us towards immortality. Unfortunately, at the then rate of progress, the breakthrough was still decades in the future. I did the maths to discover that I might achieve immortality - but not until I was 84.
A controversial portrait of Margaret Thatcher has been moved in Downing Street because Keir Starmer allegedly finds it “unsettling.”
I can understand that. What could be more unsettling, as you wade through Whitehall's treacherous, binding treacle of democracy, to be continually confronted by an image of an Iron Lady who sliced effortlessly through the system and Got Things Done?
I recall chatting with one old-school Labour MP who reflected frankly on Mrs Thatcher: “I wish I could do for my class what she has done for hers.”
Smoking is one of the stupidest things you can do and governments have a duty to help you quit. If that includes a smoking ban in hospital grounds and pub beer gardens, then so be it. So long as we all understand that if the latest proposals strike a reasonable balance between public-protection and personal freedom, the next ones may cross a darker line. For if smoking can be banned in a beer garden, why not in your own garden?
Meanwhile, the Government seems to be pushing the message that the much-heralded October 30 Budget will be all about fairness. in a Robin Hood sort of way, with the burden falling on those “with the broadest shoulders.”
Snag is, while you may look in the mirror and see a weedy specimen gazing back, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and her merry men may well see you as a fiscal Arnold Schwarzenegger , with massive shoulders well capable of carrying your fellow citizens. Robbing the rich always has a popular ring, until you read the small print and realise they're talking about robbing you.
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