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Despite Boris Johnsons best efforts to pretend they arent happening, conversations about his potential replacements continue to bubble along.

By playing a leading role in the recent effort to oust the Prime Minister, Jeremy Hunt has done a decent job of putting himself back on the map. But a gossip from his constituency this week told me that his local party is unimpressed with him over a rather more prosaic issue than partygate or Brexit: the rights of cyclists.

Ive written before about the mania of the cycling culture wars between cyclists and drivers and pedestrians. Nowhere is this more intense, it seems, than in south-west Surrey. Pedestrians are infuriated by cyclists use of pavements, drivers are infuriated by the ever-expanding space bikes are taking up on the road, and cyclists are infuriated by the lack of safe cycle lanes.

The worst of it, I was told, is not that Mr Hunt has taken one side or another, but that he hasnt taken a clear side at all. He is, apparently, playing all sides.

In search of evidence to back up this claim, I was trawling Godalmings village Facebook group. Cycling is clearly a hot-button local issue, but this isnt without upsides. It has inspired an entertaining exchange of doggerels.

Cycle lanes having priority getting longer and wider, catering only for the smug pushbike rider/ writes Kim Hicks. And then we have the serious biker,/ who show off their bits whilst squeezed into Lycra.

Another local, Stephen Bradbury, was quick to respond: I know that some people on bikes like to break the rules,/ But not all of us cyclists are complete fools.

But it was left to Phil Bro to have the last word: Its [sic] been a long day/ To be writing ditties/ Youll bounce off my bonnet if you get on my titties.

My feeling is that Mr Hunt should at least enter the poetry contest if he wont take a clear stance on the policy question.

Last week, I wrote an essay for this newspaper on the creeping power of human resources departments and how they have become unwitting enforcers of radical Left-wing norms in the workplace. In the worst cases, they have started trying to fire employees for Right-wing or pro-Brexit social media posts.

I was somewhat amused, therefore, to come across this description of how a proper, authoritarian Left-wing outfit does it. In Putins People, Catherine Belton describes the career of Putin aide Viktor Ivanov, who worked his way up through the KGBs human resources department: His job was to keep a close eye on everyone, she writes. The job of human resources, said [an ex-KGB officer], was to collect damaging information on colleagues and use it to destroy their careers.

In a smaller, pettier way, I am sure many of us know the type.

My extensive research for last weeks essay has had an unfortunate knock-on effect on all of the algorithms generating my search results and personalised adverts. LinkedIn is now spamming me with an apparently bottomless list of great jobs available in HR, while YouTube serves up an unending diet of ads for products to improve the efficiency of your team and videos on what does an HR girl do all day??? or How to get into HR.

A hot tip in the latter category is to always be networking. With 13 conferences in the next year listed just by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the official HR industry body, it would be almost impossible to ignore such advice. I feel as if I am trapped in some sort of devilish, HR-amplifying algorithmic ratchet.

Forget the anti-vaxxers and Islamists. We must cleanse the internet of these incessant HR groomers.

More here:
The cycling culture wars have come to Surrey, with some bizarre consequences - The Telegraph