Peter Rhodes on space junk, troublesome statistics and Labour's plum place in conference season
The Tories, usually the last party to hold their annual conference, have allowed Labour to get the cherished final billing – and thus the final word. No-one seems to know how it happened, although a phrase much heard in Whitehall is “It's all Boris's fault.”
I asked the question last month: “Who can guess how the case against Lucy Letby will stand up to repeated appeals?” Now the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is calling for the inquiry into the case to cover statistical evidence used in the trial. As the RSS puts it: “It is far from straightforward to draw conclusions from suspicious clusters of deaths in a hospital setting.” Watch this space.
Happy birthday, Chateau Rhodes. It's exactly 100 years since a farmer decided to convert an old smithy, charmingly known as “the waggon hovel,” into two cottages for farm workers. We still have the plans he submitted to the local council. Back in 1923, there were no proper foundations or damp-proofing, just a floor made of wooden boards soaked in tar. The windows were single-glazed, the WC was, of course, outside. In winter the occupants kept warm by wrapping up and burning huge quantities of coal.
Over the past 30-odd years, at alarming expense, we have insulated, electrified, de-carbonised, cavity-filled, draught-excluded and double-glazed those chilly old cottages to make one modest home. Which is why, on this centenary, I get really irritated at being lectured about insulation and fuel efficiency by know-all eco-kids waving banners and blocking roads.
You are probably aware that space is choc-a-bloc with old satellites and other junk. You may not be aware that in the past five years the number of satellites has quadrupled to 8,000, with another 44,000 due to join them, courtesy of Elon Musk. An expert warned us on Today (Radio 4) of a catastrophe waiting to happen. If one satellite wrecked another, the combined debris might trigger a chain reaction, pulverising hundreds of others.
Worst of all, as the sky erupted in countless colourful explosions, you wouldn't even be able to post the images to your pals because social media wouldn't work. The end of civilisation as we know it. So not all bad.
