Why spend £42bn on HS2 when Government could buy M6 Toll?

AND now, the most burning issue for tomorrow's Autumn Statement by the Chancellor. Since when has December been in Autumn?

A READER raises a question which demands an answer. If the Government wants to make north-south travel easier, why spend £42 billion on HS2 when, for a tiny fraction of that sum, it could buy the M6 Toll, scrap the toll charges and instantly double the capacity of England's major north-south route? So simple, so cheap. So utterly ignored.

NATIONAL treasure and BBC presenter Clare Balding says her grandmother told her it was "disgusting" that she was gay, proving once again the great difference between friends and relations. You choose your friends.

MIND you, Balding could be accused of double standards. In the summer she very publicly boycotted the Open at Muirfield, a club which bans females, on the grounds that "morally" she could not attend an all-male club. Yet Balding is determined to cover the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi in Russia, despite that country's stern anti-gay laws. She says her staying away "would make absolutely no difference at all to anyone in Russia." Some cynics will point out that the Winter Olympics are a damn sight more glamorous and exciting than a week among golf-obsessed hearties in dreich old Scotland. Nice to be able to pick and choose your assignments, though. What obliging and understanding news editors they must have at the Beeb. I always seemed to work for the other sort.

THERE's a sudden, unexpected flurry of long-tailed tits at the Chateau Rhodes combined bird table and feline snackery. They are pretty little chaps and according to the twitcher websites, they have changed their behaviour over recent years Once, LTTs skulked around in hedges and woodland but now they are regular garden visitors and experts at the nut holder and fat ball. How long before they make it on to Christmas cards?

PLANNING officers in Cambridge have discovered a garden outbuilding, occupied by two migrant workers, with a toilet in the kitchen right next to the sink. The appalling, insanitary and illegal accommodation provided by some unscrupulous landlords to immigrants is a scandal. However, I couldn't help recalling a British estate agent on telly a couple of years ago describing how one well-heeled English couple installed a WC in their bedroom, and didn't understand why it might put off some buyers.

HOW bizarre to turn on a mainstream British TV station at prime time and find The Bible (C5). Hailed as "an epic miniseries," it's the sort of God-bothering nonsense you find on telly in the US Bible Belt, with an oily-smooth preacher popping up in the ad breaks to ask for donations. It sets out to tell "stories of faith and courage" yet avoids the embarrassing bits and doesn't ask awkward questions. For example, the opening episode thoroughly sanitised that curious business of Lot being visited by two angels in Sodom. It is a cracking yarn. Genesis tells how the depraved men of Sodom wanted to molest these newcomers. To placate them, Lot offered them the use of his two virgin daughters, a charming commentary on the value of females in those days. The telly version makes this incident look more like boisterous gatecrashers being turned away from a party. Tinker with the text and you end up with The Greatest Story Never Told.

STILL on religion, any old soldier will tell you there are no atheists in the trenches. The same applies in the waiting room at my local garage. It is MoT test day. As I write this, I offer the usual prayers to the gods of springs, gaskets and widgets.

I HAD my first Christmas dinner on December 2. A personal record.