Peter Rhodes on cousin marriage, a crackdown on shoplifters and cheaper houses Oop North

After last week's item on house prices, north and south, a reader suggests the old line “ for the price of an ordinary house in London you could buy a mansion in Yorkshire” no longer applies. I bet it does. A quick search online reveals new terraced houses in London's chic Clerkenwell at an eye-watering £2.8 million . A bigger town house in equally chic Harrogate is £470,000.

This north-south property divide has been with us for ages. Years ago I met a couple from London who, when their company relocated to Yorkshire, sold their modest houses in the capital and bought an enormous stone-built mansion near Wetherby. From terrace-dwellers to lord and lady of the manor in one easy move.

Why the the sudden flurry of alarm about marriage between first cousins? In the Commons, Richard Holden MP (Con) has called for the practice to be banned in order to reduce the risk of birth defects. 

Speaking for some ethnic-minority communities, an Independent MP,  Iqbal Mohamed, says a ban would be ineffective, and more education is the answer. But why now? This is a very old public-health issue.

Way back in 1986 a report on community medicine in Walsall referred to “the high proportion of handicapped children being born of close relatives who marry - often first cousins.” At about the same time, a Black Country GP was telling me of his fears about cousin marriage and the strange attitude among some families that a handicapped child was “a test sent by God.”

If all this was common knowledge 38 years ago, why is it only now being raised in Parliament? If the answer is “cultural sensitivities,” then shame on them all.

Great news. A nationwide team of specialist cops has identified 228 previously unknown offenders involved in shoplifting gangs. So far 32 have appeared in court. Five have been deported. I wonder if they're back in the UK yet.