On October 12th last year some readers of the South China Morning Post were surprised to read a letter from former liaison office head Lu Ping. “These guys who advocate for Hong Kong independence are sheer morons,” Mr Lu said. “Deprived of support from the mainland, Hong Kong will be a dead city. Do they know where the water they are daily drinking comes from?” Mr Lu also later firmly stated his views on what he saw as an independence movement growing in Hong Kong. The dialogue brought the former official sharply back into public focus. Gloria Yick of RTHK’s “Headliner” programme recently interviewed him.

By Thursday night, all 710 amendments to the Budget bill, most filed by four radical pan-democrats, had been vetoed in the Legislative Council. The Budget is expected to be passed early next week, although some 50 inclusion motions and a third-reading vote are still pending. Legislators from People Power and the League of Social Democrats had hoped their filibuster would force the government to start a consultation on introducing a universal pension scheme and include a $10,000 cash handout in the budget. The filibuster had been ended by Legco president Tsang Yok-sing after a closed door meeting with lawmakers on Monday

Housing is always a problem in Hong Kong, particularly for some low paid workers faced with a stark choice between eating or having a roof over their heads. Apart from the many people living in substandard accommodation there are, according to one study, around 1,200 street sleepers in Hong Kong. Now one group of them is being asked to move out, to make way for plants,