Yet a Conservative friend of mine is also confused by this budget: the stamp duty reform "back door mansion tax" as he calls it, and "total government spending massively increased but only on the things that old people use."

Interesting. Sadly, there will be no local green asparagus until April. This recipe sounds good and I prefer green asparagus made in a simple way like this to the (cheaper) Bavarian white asparagus made in some drown-all-semblance-of-vegetable way, as it usually is. My apologies for the following totally off topic question, but we got back from Vietnam recently where we had stayed overnight in Hai Phong and had Banh Da Cua Hai Phong. Banh Da Cua are mung bean fettucini and have a lovely texture. I can get them in the local Vietnamese markets. While I can make a guess to the veggies in the dish, I have no idea what went in the broth or fishcakey bits. It is seriously my favorite noodle soup dish I had in Vietnam (and yes, that IS saying a lot). I cannot find a recipe for it online in English (and am even having trouble finding one in Vietnamese, partly due to weird Vietnamese web site behavior) and was hoping you could help. I realize Hai Phong is well outside your balliwick. If I can somehow get a recipe from one of the Czech Vietnamese here, many of whom come from near Hai Phong, I'd be happy to send you a link. My Czech is worse than most of theirs, which in the older generation isn't very good, and their English is about as good as my Vietnamese. (hello, goodbye, thank you)