Mark Andrews: How the decline of Corrie mirrors today's politics, Lenny's call for reparations, and David Lammy joining the Chippendales

In a crackdown on rogue vape shops, the Government has said all sellers of e-cigarettes will need to be licensed in future. 

Something certainly needs to be done, we have all read about unscrupulous shopkeepers selling vapes to 13-year-olds, and stashing illicit e-cigs in hidden compartments in the walls.

And I'm sure, if you have a penchant for colourful lanyards,, requiring shops to hold licences sounds a very sensible idea.

I'm not convinced  The aforementioned acts are already criminal offences, and when caught, the perpetrators can face lengthy sentences. The problem is that, with enforcement left to cash-strapped councils, the wide-boys think it's worth the risk, as they will probably get away with it. And I suspect that is very often the case.

Asking these overstretched councils to enforce a new licensing regime will take up even more resources, presumably meaning that trading standards will have even less time and money to investigate the felonious retailers. Meaning that the chances of them getting away with it increase.

What would really help, of course, would be a big dollop of cash for local authorities to spend on trading standards, but in the current financial climate it's about as likely as David Lammy joining the Chippendales. 

Passing new laws, rather than enforcing the ones we have, is the cut-price option. 

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There was a time, back in the 1970s and 80s, when Sir Lenny Henry was quite funny. Not quite in the Les Dawson league, or even Mick Miller, but his sketch shows were usually a bit of harmless clean fun. 

Anyhow, this week he said the UK Government, ie the British taxpayer, should pay £19 trillion to Black British people as compensation for slavery. I'm still waiting for the punchline.

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OK, I guess the very fact that I'm responding to his ridiculous suggestion means that he has achieved his objective, using shock tactics to get us talking about the subject.

What I would really like to see, though, is a fly-on-the-wall documentary, where he goes door-to-door around some of his old haunts in Kates Hill, Dudley, trying to convince them about the merits of his proposal. I bet it will be far more entertaining than anything he has been in lately.

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I've just been looking back over some old episodes of Coronation Street from the 1970s. I wasn't a huge fan, back then I thought it was for old people. But watching it now shows just how good it was: the sharp wit of the haughty Annie Walker, the comedic gold of the hapless and boorish Fred Gee, and the pathos of how the normally ebullient Mike Baldwin blamed himself for the death of his friend Ernie Bishop. 

I only mention this because it made me think, at the end of the party conference season, how the changes in television are a metaphor for today's political landscape.

Back then, there were three channels, Coronation Street was on twice a week, full of big characters, and practically every household in the country watched it.

Today it's on all the time, the characters have disappeared, and hardly anybody's interested.

And while both in TV and politics, there are now more choices than ever, can you honestly say there's anything to see in any of them?