WELL. I’m a prophet and I didn’t know it!

When Wiltshire’s Asset-Stripper in Chief Jane Scott was elevated to the peerage, I wrote: “I’m sure she will soon secure a government role.”

And lo! It has come to pass that she’s been made a Whip, and is bidding farewell to County Hall.

“Having wrought such a transformation on the city of Salisbury, she can now turn her undoubted talents to reorganising the rest of the country,” I wrote, back then in 2015.

OK, you may have detected a hint of sarcasm in those words.

However, when we witness the sheer egotistical nastiness of Demonic Cummings, the vain posturing of Jacob Rees-Mogg, the ignorance of Priti Patel - a Home Secretary who doesn’t even know the difference between terrorism and counter-terrorism – Call Me Jane begins to look like one of Boris’s better-advised appointments.

I may take a dim view of what the unitary authority did under her leadership, but at least she was up to the job.

According to the government website, a Lords Whip – also quaintly known as a Baroness-in-Waiting - is the equivalent of a departmental minister in the Commons, “promoting and defending departmental policy, which involves answering questions, responding to debates and taking through primary and secondary legislation”.

Having watched her administration’s dispassionate and efficient annexation of Salisbury, I have no doubt she is admirably qualified for her demanding new role.

I didn’t think she’d sit quietly minding her own business on the back benches at Trowbridge or Westminster for very long.

There’s talk (I’m not sure how serious) of moving the entire House of Lords to York, which would be a bit of a long commute...but anyway, it would be churlish not to wish her luck in this latest role. She’s certainly worked hard for it.

Save our wooded skyline

HERE we go again. With wearying predictability, the beady-eyed would-be developers of Salisbury’s skyline are back on the attack.

They’ve launched yet another appeal to be allowed to build houses on the little bit of wild woodland at the top of Bishops Drive.

It doesn’t matter if we hack down 130 protected trees, is the landowners’ argument, because these will be ‘affordable eco homes’ with ‘living roofs’. And the woods haven’t been maintained, so they’re pretty scruffy anyway.

Whose fault is it that the woods haven’t been maintained, I wonder?

These people have tried over and over again to be allowed to build something – anything – on this site. They are not going to take ‘no’ for an answer. They’ll just keep chipping away.

So Wiltshire Council’s beleaguered planners are going to have to gird their loins for another time-consuming, tax-consuming battle.

They will need our support.

Here’s how to do it. Go to acp.planninginspectorate.gov.uk and register your details, quoting reference 3242889, then simply tell them what you think.

It’s easier than it sounds. I’ve already done it.

anneriddle36@gmail.com