Peter Rhodes: Sherlock in the firing line

A BELGIAN journalist on the BBC referred to the fear of an attack on Brussels which he proudly described as "the capital of Europe." That's what the EU does. It makes little states feel really important.

THE true capital of Europe, as everyone knows, is Berlin. One hundred years on, the Kaiser's dream has come true.

BENEDICT Cumberbatch plays a fashion model of indeterminate sex in Zoolander 2. For this he has been denounced in an online petition thus: " Cumberbatch's character is clearly portrayed as an over-the-top, cartoonish mockery of androgyne/trans/non-binary individuals." Blimey. Who'd be a pantomime dame?

BY far the most important news item this week is of scientists producing genetically-modified mosquitoes. This is globe-changing stuff. It could potentially save 500,000 lives per year, just by tinkering with a few genes. And only the bleakest of pessimists will think of unintended consequences and be reminded of the opening scene in the 2007 movie I Am Legend when Emma Thompson as Dr Alice Krippin (the name is a clue) announces that her new genetically-engineered measles virus cures cancer. Then, oops, it mutates into zombie-rabies. Five billion deaths later . . .

ARCHEOLOGISTS have discovered that, from the time it was founded 2,000 years ago, London has always been a cosmopolitan settlement. As Caroline McDonald, a senior curator at the Museum of London put it this week: "The original Londoners were not born here. Every first-generation Londoner was from somewhere else - whether it was somewhere else in Britain, somewhere else on the continent, somewhere else in the Mediterranean, somewhere else from Africa." This comes as no surprise to those of us who know our Kipling. In his 1911 poem, The River's Tale, Rudyard Kipling lets the Thames tell its own story from the days of dinosaurs to the Vikings. Before the Romans arrived: "Norseman and Negro and Gaul and Greek / Drank with the Britons in Barking Creek."

NO surprises, either, in this week's survey showing that, despite the endless drubbing from the wicked Press (or maybe because of it), Jeremy Corbyn is immensely popular with grass-roots Labour Party members. The YouGov poll for The Times shows that Corbyn who took 59 per cent of the party vote to become its leader, now has the support of 66 per cent of members who believe he is "doing well." How could it be otherwise? The pre-election process allowed anybody to join the party for £3 as a supporter and vote for Corbynism. Overnight, the party was stuffed with people who believe in a brand of socialism which has always had a certain appeal but never been represented in Downing Street. Winning the support of two-thirds of New Old Labour members is no big deal.

THE true test comes a week today at the Oldham West and Royton by-election when real people, not just party enthusiasts, get a chance to give their verdict on Corbynism. In the May General Election, Labour held the seat with a whopping 14,700 majority. Will Corbynism build on that success or flop horribly? Nothing would surprise me. The only lesson from 40 years of watching by-elections is that there are no lessons.

THE British Army's new rapid- response brigades won't be ready for ten years. The Royal Regiment of Oxymorons?