The Clash: It was now or never…

Thames Water got a lot of people annoyed this week when they demanded £29 from each customer to meet the cost of infrastructure development. Why not use some of the huge profits? came the response. Is this proof that privatisation hasn’t worked and only serves the few rather than offering better service and choice to the many? Yes, says Cat Hobbs of pro-public ownership group We Own It. Hang about, says columnist Alex Massie – look at the benefits privatisation has ushered in. It’s a heavyweight tussle.

And there’s more…

Letter To My Younger Self features Jonathan Agnew. Up until now he has been one of the most familiar voices on British sports commentary – the voice of cricket, in many ways. After this runs, he’ll be the man who is very honest about his failures with women, child maintenance and other issues of the heart. It’s a great read.

John Bird looks to chaos, or rather the joy that can come when you let go – especially in art. There is a calm to be found, he says, in finding the order in randomly applied splashes and dots.

Samira Ahmed, meanwhile, looks to the ’70s. She asks some interesting questions about the way we are judging the ’70s, the Operation Yewtree decade. Read it and see.

My Week this week is with veteran actor Roy Hudd. He’s attempting to save Music Halls and he’s a mad keen Egyptologist. These two things inform everything.

There is much else, of course. Our featured vendor is Bernie Buxton from Plymouth. He is a man who enjoys his job and enjoys the role it brings as part of the community. There is a look at how the 140 characters of Twitter are crushing the life out of the Welsh language (long words); there is a great piece on the phone lines that operate direct links between the red phones on the desks of presidents across the globe (who has them, who wants them); you can win The Clash’s forthcoming huge boxset and Sam Delaney comes over all funny watching Kirstie Allsop.