Liz Truss's Persistent Push for Fracking in the UK

The government may have backed the controversial new Chinese super-embassy but that doesn’t mean the battle is over. As the academic Daniel Susskind noted: “It is a good thing that China thinks in terms of centuries, because they are about to meet the British planning system.” Labour’s on the map Darren Jones, the PM’s chief secretary, tried to capture the zeitgeist in his speech on Whitehall reform. He gave it at What3Words, the tech company that revolutionised navigation by giving every three metres in the world a unique three-word phrase. Jones said the company had designed “a simple solution using creativity and modern technology”. However, it did not escape anyone’s notice that those invited to the event had been expected to find the venue using only its postcode. What3Words occasionally throws up very apt phrases for locations. For instance, the HQ of the Labour Party can be found at “cheer.voters.meals”. Wonder where they got the idea for free breakfast clubs from. Archer’s last story? We shall soon see the end of one of Westminster’s most successful careers, albeit not a political one. Jeffrey Archer, whose time in politics ended in a perjury conviction, will be drawing a line under his career as a novelist this October, exactly 50 years and some 275 million sales after his first book. The Tory peer announced his next novel will be his last, saying: “I realised by the end of the first draft that this was going to be my final novel as, at the age of 85, I could never hope to equal it again.” The book will be called Adam and Eve, so Archer ends at the beginning and will be done with creating fiction. Then again, can he break the habit of a lifetime?