Solar farms will be better than more new homes

I imagine - and I hope, mistakenly - that there will be pretty severe outrage over the proposal to cover a few hundred acres of countryside near Aldington with solar farms. Standard arguments will be about loss of farming and recreational land, undesirable visual impact and the usual bleats about upsetting local wildlife (or flora and fauna).

The first two might have some small merit, though if the solar farm goes ahead it will at least prevent the land being covered in unwanted, overpriced houses. As to the flora and fauna, we have seen in other areas the superb resilience of wild things, pretty well all of whom have an irresistible ability to carry on regardless of human interference. Anyone who doubts this should look at the Barton Towers ‘garden’.

I was pretty upset to learn that Ashford is about to lose our

Age UK. They sent out letters last week, asking people to write to MP Damian

Green and ask him to persuade KCC to continue funding the service.

I wrote. Mr Green replied, to the effect that he had been in contact with Imago, the company that was taking over and he was sure that Ashford would continue to receive a good service.

Imago has a smart website that smacks of advertising agency input. I read it all. It mentions Medway and

North Kent, but not a word did I find about Ashford. There was mention of Zoom calls and telephone interviews but no suggestion of the friendly, personal help given by Age UK Ashford.

Wild things have an irresistible ability to carry on, regardless of human interference

I have a daughter who suffers from alopecia. Had a comedian embarrassed her publicly by making a crass joke about her condition, I hope I would have had the courage to do as Will Smith did by walking onto the stage and slapping the idiot.

The Smith slap should have been the end of the matter but, predictably, the media have blown the whole thing out of proportion and will keep it going for days.