Ross Clark

As the parent of a special needs child, now an adult, the last thing I'd want to do is deny help to those who are in the same position. I know what a burden it can be to families.

When I moved to the Cambridgeshire Fens 26 years ago, the electricity substation lying a mile across the fields was an unsightly intrusion, but otherwise innocuous.

This isn't the 1980s, when there was a spate of thefts of VW badges after American hip-hop band the Beastie Boys turned them into a fashion item by wearing them around their necks.

Banned from working or claiming the benefits for which United Kingdom citizens can apply, it is commonly said they are surviving on as little as £8 a week.

A Gazan family granted the right to settle in Britain under a scheme intended for Ukrainians. A convicted rapist who avoided deportation to Afghanistan.

Year by year, the tale of HS2 grows more wretched. The latest report on the fiasco depicts contractors behaving like a gang that tarmacs driveways taking advantage of a widow.

For a Prime Minister whose priorities are 'growth, growth, growth', the prospect of ten gleaming 'data centres' on the Northumberland coast is manna from heaven.

Rather tragically, we have Sir Keir Starmer to represent UK interests. You can almost sense the jubilation on the faces of EU negotiators as they eye up our fish and dream up ways to trap Britain.

ROSS CLARK: You can almost sense the jubilation on the faces of EU negotiators as they eye up our fish and dream up ways to trap Britain in their regulatory claws

Is there anything more dishonest than repeated government promises to pare back the quangos? Two months ago, this doomed process began yet again.