Pick of the week

This column is rarely concerned with contentious issues, unless they are in the past, but, this week, the fate of public( ). This had been estimated only to £1,800-but estimates are largely irrelevant in charity auctions. All admirable, but I learn that some LGBT activists are agitated by the NHS ‘appropriation' of a symbol they regard as their own. Were it the rainbow flag, that might be reasonable, but no one should own the rainbow itself, which, after all, has a near antediluvian pedigree.