I have been checking up on Sadiq Khan’s Superloop bus service which is designed to help me navigate London post-ULEZ. It is of particular interest as I live 5 miles from ULEZ’S border and Superloop is designed for those of us who live in ‘the sticks’.

So to reach Superloop I have to take the 294 bus for a 12-minute ride to Romford Bus Garage (294 frequency is every 12 minutes peak time). From there a 296 bus would deliver me to connect with Superloop. This bus takes 32 minutes to reach Ilford (296 frequency is every 20 minutes peak time).

Now in Ilford, somewhere Khan regards as the outer fringe of the capital, even though it’s a full 40-minute drive to the M25, I can catch Superloop, but not until next year.

Next year (or is it the year after?) Superloop costing north of  £6 million will take me to Walthamstow or the Royal Docks on the X123 route. But what is Royal Docks: Beckton, North Woolwich, Custom House or Silvertown, and why should I have the need to visit Walthamstow?

All I know is Havering going to miss out because Superloop won’t reach every outer London borough – at least this one gets nothing at all.

The Peers Entrance to the House of Lords, to create a more secure portico was supposed to cost around £2 million, but thanks to ‘inflation’ and ‘delays’ it is now going to cost somewhere in the region of £7 million. Just why do you need a burglar-proof front door when you’ve got armed police standing outside evades me, could they not just stick a Ring doorbell on there and be done with it?

Here’s a question for you: What connects a London Black Cab with Germany’s Leopard 1 battle tanks being sent to Ukraine?

The answer is the German company Reinmetall, it provides key components for the tank, including the turret and the gun. It also supplies automotive parts for the cab, and the war in Ukraine has changed the fortunes of the 130-year-old company. Before the war the company was valued at €4bn, today it is worth €10bn. With the slow automotive market, the company now is estimated to make €70m from sales of shells for these tanks.

What’s the collective noun for a group of mayors? ‘A magnificence of mayors’, is apparently the answer, well, our ‘magnificent’ Sadiq is hosting a conference next week with ‘mayors from around the world’ for the inaugural Partnership for Healthy Cities Summit. They will be discussing strategies to combat noncommunicable diseases and injuries. Top of Khan’s list is fighting the ‘toxic air’ that causes ‘asthma and stunted lung growth in the young and dementia in the elderly’, and no doubt burnishing his success at getting 160,000 of London’s cars scrapped at a stroke.

Environment Secretary Therese Coffey was at Camley Street Natural Park in north London recently to launch the ‘environmental improvement plan’ for safeguarding England’s rivers. She was quoted as saying, “Actually, I really do give a s**t about water quality,” and that she would “hold the industry to account” and had set “clear expectations” for how much they will be allowed to spill from overflows. But no new money was announced to deliver any of these pledges, nor what punishment would be meted out to water company transgressions.