Peter Rhodes on fly tippers, a perfect politician and how The Hum is humming up North
I'd always think twice about confronting fly tippers. They are a breed of unprincipled despoilers often in possession of shovels, crowbars and suchlike hard objects. So I'm impressed by the villagers at Packington, Warwickshire, who spotted tippers unloading broken slabs, pipes and other debris in a lane. The locals promptly used their own cars to blockade the two vans and detained the tippers until the cops arrived, booked them and – joy of joys – impounded their vans. An expensive day for the tippers. Well done, all.
According to a report by the Resolution Foundation think-tank, 11.2 million people live in homes with savings of less than £1,000 - that's about one in three working-age households. It's a depressing figure but it would be fascinating to know how many people with a comfortable level of “rainy day” savings actually have a smaller income than some of those with virtually no savings. To the dismay of campaigners dreaming of a totally equal society, it has always been true that some people simply manage their money better than others.
A week after the Tucker Carlson interview, I'm still struck by the reasons given by Putin for not wanting to invade Poland or any other neighbouring countries. It's because Russia “has no interest” in such countries. Not that it would be a premeditated act of pure evil which would kill thousands of innocent people, then? No – in Putin's rule book it's all a question of interests.
