laudablePractice Cost-saving, morally bankrupt measures that pander to a hyper-individualised, atomised society - not exactly the core values of the Labour movement of yore

The Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool responds today with shock and deep concern to news of the vote in the Commons, endorsing assisted suicide. The poorest and most vulnerable in British society will be now bullied into choosing death, unprotected by a deeply regressive "reform".

Sizewell, Suffolk A third nuclear reactor - Sizewell C - is being built here, causing some disruption in the neighbourhood, and the display of fervent placards, but closer to the scene local families fish and swim in the water by the plant, and buy refreshments from Sizewell Tea.

Blythburgh Church Far too many years since I visited this late medieval gem on Suffolk's coast. The ends of its very early pews are decorated with vivid carved depictions of the seven deadly sins, while angels keep watch timelessly above the chaste beauty of the whitewashed nave.

4.32am on the Summer Solstice at the Aldeburgh Festival Britten Pears Arts

A sketch of French Horn player George Strivens, in the Kitchen Garden of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears' home, The Red House, Aldeburgh; playing Peter Maxwell Davies's Sea Eagle, evoking a rare inhabitant of Orkney, while Suffolk gulls cried out applause overhead. Britten Pears Arts

This story made my day. Fraudster who claimed to be selling 'Scottish-grown tea', also said he'd invented the Bag for Life. I like to think I would have smelt a rat at that point. Perhaps his greatest crime was to have sourced his fake tartan tea, from a wholesaler in ... England

20 years a Deacon, today Glory be to God on High

I've been given a nutcracker. Very beautiful - wood and brass; also, menacing: its finely engineered mechanism has a hint of old school naval discipline. Just off to get a supply of Brazils in, and I'll be rewatching Master and Commander, yet again, with my own customised snacks.

Survival Swimming Lessons Startled from a reverie on a railway journey by a Liverpool Biennial poster glimpsed on a passing platform. Liverpool Cathedral is listing, like Titanic before the end, while survivors cavort in 1920s bathing costumes, among rising waves. Book Now Beat the Floods

Bleak just now to see protestors positioned very close to the Princes Road Synagogue, Liverpool's oldest, waving huge flags, and inviting drivers to honk their horns for Gaza. To this gentile it felt like antisemitic intimidation of the city's tiny Jewish community. Merseyside Police

The Bank of England is inviting people to suggest designs for the next generation of banknotes. My only recommendation is that they should be less ephemeral, crisper - falling more heavily onto a collection plate - and not transparent. Flimsy plastic cash surely causes inflation.

Herbert is an outstanding example of the authentic struggle of heart and mind for the presence of God in simple dress, without having to resort to the idiom of the primary school, writes BijanOmrani thecritic.co.uk/issues/july-20…

Roses, pruned, moistened roots wrapped in bags for life, on the move with me, to the Rectory garden, where they're planted in the ground, having been cultivated in pots and planters in the Cathedral Close. They were gifts, and I pray they survive the shock in the summer sunshine.

Today is a good day for defrosting the freezer. Prepare for the dramatic, unexpected rise in global sea levels, as the Anderson Ice Sheet thaws.

Nigeria was the last country in the world to give up Pounds, Shillings, and Pence, two years after Britain, in 1973. Coins bearing Queen Elizabeth II's image were the only ones in use through the first decade of independence.

Deminonagenarian