Peter Rhodes: Fear breeds madness

OUR changing language. I heard an EU official refer disparagingly to "the Anglo-Saxon Press." Between you and me, I'm a Viking.

JO Brand was out rambling this week when a sudden gust of wind blew her over. This set me thinking. Most Brits don't understand kph or mph and the sailors' Beaufort scale is far too complex. So how about a landlubber's wind scale based on the size of a celebrity blown over by any given wind? The scale could begin with a tiny character such as Wee Jimmy Krankie and rise by degrees through the sylphs and fatties of showbiz. Thus: "It was blowing only a Wee Jimmy when we set out but soon it turned into a Kylie and by lunchtime it was a howling Brand."

THE Mad World of Donald Trump (C4) seemed to start with a prejudiced title. But the more you watched Matt Frei's hour-long documentary, the more the word "mad" seemed appropriate. Donald Trump is triumphing because America is scared and wants a new messiah. It's scared of migration, scared of terrorists, scared of things that are foreign, alien or not understood. The irony is that the perceived solution - electing President Donald J Trump - is scarier than anything else.

BUT let's not be too sniffy and superior. How many Paris-scale massacres would it take in London, Birmingham or Manchester before Trumpery arose in England?

THOSE of us who once owned a raccoon-skin hat may have lived to see the beginning and the end of the TV revolution. It began in the 1950s when we kids suddenly discovered that no game of cowboys and Indians in a freezing street was half as good as the Cisco Kid on a nine-inch Pye in a warm lounge. The TV revolution entered its demise this week with the report that internet-savvy kids are no longer watching much telly. The fascination has gone, an age of magic has passed and the TV companies, while putting a brave face on it, must be absolutely terrified.

EMMA Reynolds, the Wolverhampton MP and former shadow minister, is one of the good guys. But she is thirtysomething and, like many MPs, is too young to remember life outside the EU (or Common Market as we were duped into calling it). When she declares this week that leaving the EU would be "the worst of all worlds," she is addressing an ageing electorate, many of whom recall Britain before the 1975 referendum, and remember it rather fondly.

THE bedroom tax was one of those measures that look great to bean-counters and horrendous to everyone else. It has not only caused hardship but reinforced the Tories' reputation as the nasty party. This week the Appeal Court ruled that the system discriminates against a battered woman and a family with a disabled child. This was a great opportunity for the Government to accept defeat and amend the law. Hell, no. They are taking it to the Supreme Court. And how many votes will that lose them? Memo to Dave: just let it go.

I WONDER if Worcester feels any sense of communal shame over the rush by hordes of locals chasing the £33 million Lotto jackpot. Okay, one or two may genuinely believe they have the winning ticket. But Camelot report hundreds of claimants, suggesting attempted fraud on a massive scale. Oxford is the city of dreaming spires. Is Worcester the city of scheming liars?