Peter Rhodes: Flags, pubs and cop dramas

HERE'S a great example of the sense of entitlement sweeping the Western world. A survey in California reveals that, compared with only a few years ago, more people now believe in an afterlife but fewer believe in God. Behold, a heaven for atheists. How's that for equal opportunities?

MAYBE it's because they're on the other side of the world that they do things the wrong way around. New Zealanders were asked to vote on several designs for a new national flag. Having chosen a fern-leaf symbol as the best of a bad bunch, only then were they asked if they really wanted to replace their existing flag, which includes a Union Jack, anyway. They voted to keep the old flag, which is what you would expect from a conservative nation like NZ. This exercise in arse-about-face consultation cost £12 million and created a political issue where none had existed before. Which all proves that no matter which side of the planet you occupy, one thing remains constant. It is always dead easy for politicians to spend your money.

BETWEEN now and the EU referendum on June 23, expect every issue you can think of to be enlisted in the fight for votes. Staying in the EU will bring plagues of boils, frogs and locusts. Leaving the EU will mean the English Channel frothing with blood and our firstborn children being sold into slavery.

INEVITABLY, the dead and maimed of Brussels have been shamelessly recruited in the vote-winning game. Some pundits say Britain would be safer and more secure within the Union, sharing resources with each other. Others argue that only by leaving can we defend our own borders. It occurs to me that by far the closest and most reliable exchange of information on terrorism happens not within the EU (Belgian intelligence doesn't even keep Belgian police in the picture), but between Britain and the United States. You don't have to be in a union to be united against evil.

MEANWHILE, the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner, one Nils Muižnieks says migrants entering Britain illegally should be referred to as 'irregular' rather than 'illegal' immigrants. Here's another suggestion. Instead of using the term 'commissioner', we could use the word 'clot'.

WE should all know by now that if one bomb goes off, another one or two may follow. Get out of the area as quickly as you can but avoid public transport. It may be a faint hope but Britain should be better equipped to cope than most countries because the self-preservation lessons of the IRA 'Troubles' are still in our race-memory.

THE pubs will stay open until 1am to mark the Queen's 90th birthday in June. So that's a good old-fashioned British knees-up, followed by a good old-fashioned British punch-up. I wonder how many of the folk we call 'revellers' will celebrate Her Majesty's birthday in A&E.

SO there's this solid, down-to-earth working-class detective whose partner is a young, sensitive, artistic type with a fondness for music, a taste for booze and a broken heart. The plots are implausible but the scenery is adorable and the action is set in one of England's greatest university cities in the 1950s. I am, of course, describing Grantchester and, er, also Endeavour.

HOWEVER, there is one big difference between these two ITV cop dramas. Endeavour is worth watching.