Peter Rhodes on macho machines, accent bias and when is it right to sink a sub?

McLaren and Aston Martin are among firms that will benefit from this watering-down of green policy. I dare say the super-rich who purchase such beasts will be thrilled at the prospect of buying these gas-guzzling macho machines for years to come.

However, we live in a new age of austerity. Pensioners are freezing, NHS patients are stuck in hospital corridors. In such a world, does anyone really need a supercar?

Imagine this. A British submarine catches a Russian sub in the act of cutting a vital underwater internet cable beneath the North Sea. What happens next? Cutting a cable is criminal damage but sinking a sub could be construed as mass murder, especially by the sort of lawyers who regard any British military action as illegal. So what are the undersea rules of engagement? I like to think some great minds in Whitehall have the answer. But I'm not sure they do.

Edinburgh University is urging staff to fight “accent bias,” the bullying of working-class students by more privileged kids with posh accents. And before we raise the old, old chorus about wimpy snowflakes, let me tell the tale of a trip to Majorca some years ago where most of the party were Londoners and a couple of lads came from the Black Country. From the moment those two trippers opened their mouths, they were ridiculed for their Midland accents. It was a revolting display of bullying by people who would never think of themselves as bigots. But why does it take a university to stand up against accent bias? Why hasn't this been sorted out at school age?

The war on quangos has been declared – again. Cabinet Officer Pat McFadden has ordered every department in Whitehall to justify all their quangos. Past experience tells us that the usual way to get rid of quangos is to set up a new review, inquiry, commission, board, tribunal or trust to wield the axe. In other words, create a quango to eliminate a quango. You tend to end up not with fewer quangos but more. Fancy that.