It’s hard to think of a more momentous by-election than the one taking place in Makerfield later this week. If the ex-Manchester mayor wins, it will trigger a Labour leadership contest that is likely to see the replacement of Keir Starmer as Prime Minister.

I don’t know if it’s because of the fact that it’s set in three very different countries or that the majority of matches appear to start well after my bedtime? Perhaps it’s that The Donald is going to place himself at the epicentre of everything, hand-in-corrupt-hand with the obsequious Gianni Infantino?

With its slogan ‘Software That Dominates’ and extensive use of military jargon instead of more standard office-speak, the US tech firm Palantir is fast becoming one of the most notorious corporations in the western world. But is it really a supervillain or merely a scapegoat and how worrying are its inroads into British systems?

Before he realised he’d bitten-off more than he could chew with his Iranian escapade, ol’ Tiny Hands Trump decided that he’d have a pop at us for our reticence in joining the party and attempt to undermine our legitimate sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.

I don’t have many claims to sporting fame but I did once share a swimming lane with the recently departed, and luxuriously mustachioed, David Wilkie MBE, and thought I held my own for a good fifteen metres of the pool. Give or take ten.

Many of us will have welcomed the US court ruling t’other week regarding Meta, YouTube et al. The twenty year old plaintiff had sued the parent companies of four social platforms for damaging her mental health by intentionally addicting her to their products.

We’re all painfully aware that Tiny Hands can’t get his story straight as to why he launched a war against Iran and, in the absence of a clear explanation, many appear to have latched onto the claim that it’s a crusade, a holy war. Former TV personality, second lieutenant and current secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, bears much of the responsibility for this.

Our criminal courts are massively backlogged, dangerously close to collapse and the Government is proposing to limit the use of juries in England and Wales. Is the plan justified?

Irrespective of where you stand on the current US/Iran conflict, I think everyone’s pretty much agreed that it has been kicked-off in a half-cocked, cack-handed manner.

The job numbers released last month were the starkest and most sobering seen in decades. Unemployment has climbed to over five percent and one in six young people are officially unemployed, including over a million not in education or training.