Imagine for one second being the White House aide that drew the short-straw and had to wake-up El Presidente last week to tell him he hadn’t won this year’s Nobel peace prize? Man alive what a job!

With Manchester’s shape-shifting Andy Burnham now positioning himself as Labour’s heir apparent it made me consider where did the so-called metro-mayors come from and what do they do exactly?

Right about now hundreds of thousands of nervous teenagers are packing their bags in expectation of an enjoyable and highly beneficial three or four years at university. Sold as the surest route to success where the ‘graduate premium’ can yield up to #400,000 in additional lifetime earnings, it’s viewed by many of the hopefuls as being a no-brainer.

I fully realise that I’m in the minority on this one (or perhaps a minority of one – ed) but I genuinely feel some pity for our Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves. In preparing for the imminent Autumn Budget, she finds herself in an impossible conundrum.

Many of you are aware that I’m a believer in certain cryptos, applauded their development and their initial operation outside of the traditional finance industry, and have even been a ‘miner’ of Ethereum in the past. In the process, I’ve been both successful and unsuccessful in roughly equal measure but remain broadly positive.

Following on from my ‘Taiwan’ post t’other week several of you justifiably pointed out that a conflict far closer to these shores, the war in Ukraine, continues to rage and an agreeable solution to this should occupy our thoughts far more.

With the Middle East and Central European conflicts remaining in full flight, the world’s attention has been somewhat removed from China’s designs on a relatively small island a little off its eastern shores, Taiwan. However, the country is seen by China as a breakaway province, which must, at all costs, be reunited with the motherland. Could this prove to be the next flash-point in current geopolitics?

Finding out that cheeky-chappie greengrocer Gregg Wallace is blaming all his self-inflicted sexist woes on a combination of autism and ADHD makes me ask the question of why does everyone suddenly seem to have ADHD?

If Sir Keir and his earnest Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, are to be believed, change for the better within the NHS is on the way and ambitious reforms should make the service as convenient as booking your holiday or finding love online.

The belief that politics, and politicians, are universally failing society is becoming an increasingly widespread, popularly-held opinion. Many of the issues facing most/all western economies.