Robert Jackman

According to reports this morning, the government is planning to issue an order to all local councils forbidding them from stopping trials of 5G mobile broadband on the basis of what it considers to be unfounded safety claims. For those that not familiar, 5G (literally ‘fifth generation’) is the next wave of wireless internet which will apparently boost our connection speeds tenfold and increase the UK’s productivity by some £2bn a year. Yet three councils – Totnes, Glastonbury and Frome – are opposing local trials of 5G masts until they’re convinced it doesn’t present an increased cancer risk. The government wants them to think again. An increased cancer risk might sound pretty alarming.

I was 17, studying for my A-levels in Great Yarmouth. Looking to defy my parents’ instruction to get a part-time job, I hit upon a cunning plan: why not apply to the shop least likely to require the services of a mopey teenage boy? That shop was Claire’s Accessories. Little did I know at the time that Claire’s — home of plasticky tiaras and tinsel wigs — was a retail empire at the height of its power. Five decades after it had arrived in America, Claire’s commanded some 3,000 outlets across the world and was present in more than 95 per cent of American malls. Its success had been built on one thing: ear-piercing.

Has the UK really legalised medical cannabis? That was certainly how it was reported last winter when Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, overhauled government policy to give more UK patients access to cannabis-based medicines. But now the groups that lobbied for those changes - and the parliamentarians that support them - say the new scheme is a disappointment,  benefiting only a tiny number of patients.  What’s really going on? That was the question that kicked off yesterday's Spectator cannabis briefing which brought together practitioners, politicians and legal experts to get to the bottom of cannabis policy in Britain. What’s changed? Who benefits? And where will it go next?

Over the past six weeks something odd has happened. Head to the culture pages of any newspaper and you can’t miss it: the increasingly frantic praise for Fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s smash-hit sitcom, has reached crisis point. What started as a collective love-in is now full-blown hysteria. After Monday’s finale, critics resembled devotees of a religious cult as they rushed to outdo each other with their tributes. One was literally speechless: Fleabag having ‘raised the bar so utterly’ that ‘all one could do was shake one’s head in appreciation’. The Guardian, rarely outdone in these things, published a guide to help its readers ‘survive after Fleabag’. The commentariat, it seems, is truly smitten.

For those of us who have experienced life in a 'woke workplace', Toby Young’s Spectator cover story this week makes grimly familiar reading. My former workplace might even have a claim to be the worst of them all: Amnesty International. Some years before joining The Spectator, I worked a lowly communications gig at Amnesty's London HQ. And while it’s true that many individual researchers were brilliant (constantly making life more difficult for some of the world’s ugliest regimes), the organisation itself was, well, a bit of a mess. And for the exact reasons Toby describes. But perhaps the worst thing about these workplaces is that, for all their progressive language, they’re not actually terribly nice places to be.

If you were looking for an international drugs empire, Downham Market would not be the first place you’d think of. With a population of around 10,000, this sleepy Fenland town is probably about as typical as they come — typical, that is, apart from the smell. It was around two years ago that residents first noticed it: a distinctive pungent scent which seemed to hang on the wind before eventually engulfing the town for several days. Now locals say the gusts come and go. But when the odour first appeared, it was so strong that at least one resident phoned the police to complain about feeling nauseous. It turned out that the smell was coming from an 18-hectare cannabis plantation housed in some nearby industrial greenhouses.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH Over the past ten years, few industries have faced changes as dramatic as retail – and, in particular, the British high street. While the high street itself remains a much-loved institution, it seems that hardly a week passes without another reminder of the unprecedented changes – from consumer habits to technology – it currently faces. On one hand we hear stories about the challenges for British retailers – from squeezes in living standards to the closure of major chains like Toys R Us, it seems some of us have become conditioned to expect the worst. But at the same time there are the success stories – like the new wave of independent retailers, over half of whom say they are optimistic about the sector’s future.