David Cameron’s attempt to bring a little greenery to the red-brick villas of west London has run into a spot of nimbyism.
He is getting an Edwardian house in the suburb of North Kensington done up as a family home and wants to stick an eco-friendly wind turbine on the chimney stack.
Now some neighbours, led by Barbara Want, wife of Nick Clarke, presenter of Radio 4’s The World at One, are angry. The offending turbine is not quite one of those 300ft monsters disfiguring the Highlands, but a little number not much taller than the Tory leader himself.
Still, Want believes it ruins a historic area and has objected to the planning application with Kensington and Chelsea council.
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She is also unhappy with Cameron family plans to install light wells to brighten a basement they are converting into a bedroom for their son Ivan.
Cameron’s turbine may not be twitching, but Clarke’s political antennae clearly are. The presenter, sensitive to suggestions that BBC lefties were plotting against the Tory leader, just had time to say: “I’ve had all my political opinions surgically removed,” before scarpering clear of the altercation.
Pound sticks his oar in to calm rising Anglo-Scots tensions
For official government help on the thorny political issue of whether Scotland fans should support England in the World Cup, we turn to Stephen Pound, parliamentary private secretary to Hazel Blears. Some critics dismiss Mr Pound as a rent-a-quote, but that belittles his talent in this area: he is at least Lease-a-Quote, and in this case he rose to the occasion magnificently. “If Scotland played Germany in the World Cup then I’d row in behind the f****** Picts,” he said. Warming to the theme, he went on to complain that the Scots were “chippy” and had “imposed half the cabinet on us”.
Isn’t it marvellous the way that football can unite us all?