William Cash

‘English Tourism Week’, which runs until 23 March, kicked off with a jaunty reception in Downing Street. Various ‘celebratory’ and industry events are planned for this week. But those who work in England's tourist industry are not in the mood for celebrating. For all the fanfare, our tourist and hospitality sectors are in trouble – and the government is to blame. The tax will further cripple the marginalised UK tourism sector To celebrate ‘Tourism Week’ while at the same time administering a punishment beating that hits B&B, hotel and pub owners, as well as self-catering and Airbnb owners, is the equivalent of chartering a luxury bus to parade the English cricket team – ‘Cricket Awareness Week’ – down Whitehall after their last 5-0 Ashes whitewash.

It is ‘insane’, Reform’s Doge chief Richard Tice said this week, that children are wearing ear-defenders in classrooms, supposedly as a ‘calming activity’ to reduce anxiety and stress. Such practices, he said, show UK’s ‘special educational needs and disabilities’ system – known as Send – is not fit for purpose. The number of children receiving support for Send has increased from 1.3 million in 2019 to 1.7 million today, and by 2029, Send-related debts in UK councils are expected to reach £17.8 billion. These costs may bankrupt some local authorities.

With an inconclusive first and second day at the Conclave – to date – speculation in Rome is mounting that there may be deep divisions inside the Sistine Chapel. We may be in for an intense session of vote trading and complex geopolitical chess-board negotiations. The next pope, especially if it is one of the younger members of the Conclave – by which I mean under 70 – will shape the faith of some 1.4 billion Catholics for possibly as long as 20 years, maybe more.  Age may turn out to be a critical factor. The Conclave may want a younger pope from an entirely new generation not besmirched by the sins of the church.

Has the merry-go-round of the global elite summit – epitomised by the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, which concluded this weekend – had its day? As I saw at Davos when I was editor of the finance magazine Spear’s, the WEF has been out of touch for years. Its costs of attending are now so expensive that it is increasingly difficult to justify attending what is essentially a global-class corporate ego massage circus. The first problem with Davos as a platform to ‘improve the state of the world’ is that there are now plenty of other, smaller, and more exclusive global insider CEO ‘thought leadership’ conferences. There is the Sun Valley Conference in Idaho, the Milken Conference in LA, the Google Summer Camp in Sicily, and Brilliant Minds in Stockholm.

Last year, I wrote here about the dark side of LA, after the Friends actor Matthew Perry was found dead in the hot tub of his $6 million Pacific Palisades house. I grimly predicted that his luxury ocean-facing bungalow – sold on to a developer for over $8 million just a few months after his fatal drug overdose – would become a new stop off on the ‘Movie Star’s Homes’ tours.  Was I wrong? The Perry multi-million glass bungalow narrowly avoided the flames. The LA wildfires have torn through the Palisades area, and have reached the very part of the Hollywood Hills where I used to live in the 1990s. Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna said that it looked as though ‘an atomic bomb dropped in these areas’.

It is no coincidence that Theresa May chose to hit the campaign trail in Wolverhampton and Dudley last weekend; both are areas where Ukip did especially well in 2015. What is emerging is that the West Midlands – particularly the Labour-held Midlands marginals – will be the key battleground in this coming election. From the creation of the Mercian kingdom by Alfred the Great, to the Battle of Bosworth and Germany’s bombing of Coventry in 1940 – not to mention the 2015 election which led to Brexit – the Midlands has provided the backdrop against which the future of our country has been shaped. The election on 8 June will be no exception.

It was Henry Fairlie in his famous article in The Spectator in 1955 that made the critical point about the way 'Establishment' power (political, legal, media, foreign office, civil service and so on) is exercised in Britain: namely such a 'matrix' of influence was exercised 'socially', behind closed doors; or maybe 'closed chambers' would be more apt as the Supreme Court faces the biggest legal showdown in its short history on Monday 5 December.

On the morning of the Referendum vote, I texted Nigel Farage - as the Heritage and Tourism spokesman of his party -  to say he 'had fought a hard battle and deserved to win'. He texted back: 'One dares to hope'. Like most of the best English people I know Nigel has a strong sense of loyalty and decency and also loves a drink. He doesn't take himself - or politics -  that seriously. Like Jimmy Goldsmith he gave up a business career to fight his cause. He only pursued his convictions so hard because he believed in leaving the autocratic and anti-sovereign EU  - and risking the opprobrium of many - regardless of career or any financial rewards. Well, now he has resigned from Ukip, and I have decided to follow his example.

During Owen Paterson's vocal conversation with David Cameron in defence of his record as Environment Minister after learning he was being sacked, Paterson reportedly said: 'this will be a kick in the teeth to 12 million countryside voters... you are making a big mistake'. There is already mounting evidence to suggest Paterson could be right. Judging by the two standing ovations that Paterson went on to receive last Friday at the Game Fair at Blenheim Palace (at the mere mention of his name), Charles Moore commented that 'you could almost see the disaffected Tory voters fleeing to Ukip across the tent'.