A belated write-up of the month of August.
Thinking back a month, two stories pop out for me.
One was the death of Russian mutineer Yevgeny Prigozhin – a larger-than-life modern day warlord, responsible for the ‘little green men’ at the start of the Russian/Ukraine war in 2014, the troll farms that may well have influenced both the Trump election and the Brexit referendum, several regime changes in Africa and a bizarre rebellion in Russia just (in fact, exactly) two months earlier.
The second story was the long awaited expansion of London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) rules across the whole of London. This means that polluting vehicles (about 1 in 6 in recently expanded areas) must pay £12.50 every day that they drive. The ULEZ started many years ago – under a certain Mr B Johnson as London mayor in fact – and saw some grumbling but nothing unexpected when it expanded into my area a few years back. But the expansion to London’s outskirts – 20 miles from the centre – set off a political storm when it caused an upset in the Uxbridge by-election (caused by that same Mr Johnson’s latest antics), and since then the politics of environmentally-driven policies have been upended. There will be more repercussions attributed to the ULEZ and that Uxbridge byelection, I’m certain.
My August
August saw an influx of overseas visitors. A highlight was a trip to The Hut restaurant on the Isle of Wight, which is London prices and service levels in a fantastic coastal setting.
I also managed a bit of walking on the south coast, near Weymouth.
FIRE v London 