There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES

IF YOU grow many plants in containers you’ll have noticed that potting compost isn’t getting any cheaper — and it wasn’t particularly cheap to start with. (Apparently, the rising cost of everything is the fault of Covid, Russia, Brexit and possibly astrology, and nothing to do with rampant and opportunistic profiteering by oligarchs, gangsters, capitalists and kleptocrats, so we’ve just got to accept it and definitely not riot like our ancestors have always done in the past.)
Several people have asked me lately whether compost — meaning in this context the stuff you buy in bags, not the stuff you make on the allotment — can be reused.
The answer is definitely yes, I’ve been doing it for many years, but there are some provisos.

MAT COWARD presents a peculiar cabbage that will only do its bodybuilding once the summer dies down

A heatwave, a crimewave, and weird bollocks in Aberdeen, Indiana horror, and the end of the American Dream

A corrupted chemist, a Hampstead homosexual and finely observed class-conflict at The Bohemia

Beet likes warmth, who doesn’t, so attention to detail is required if you’re to succeed, writes MAT COWARD