Peter Rhodes: Pushing the boundaries

THANKS for your memories of misinterpreting the names of great composers (Shy Kovsky, etc). One reader recalls the golden age of vinyl when he asked at the music-shop counter for an LP by Monteverdi. The assistant seemed unable to find the disc. Turned out she was searching not under M but under V, for a Mr Monty Verdi.

ANOTHER reader reminds us of Eric and Ernie who thought they were performing a musical item by Paganini, only to discover they were on page nine.

IN an interview, Beattie Edmondson, 29-year-old daughter of Jennifer Saunders and husband Adrian Edmondson, says as a child she had no idea what her showbiz parents did. By chance, I have been catching up on Bottom, the BBC comedy series screened from 1991-95 starring Ade Edmondson and the late, great Rik Mayall. Because of its frantic, gratuitous violence and treatment of women as sex objects, Bottom could never be commissioned today and yet it was one of the funniest and most inventive TV comedies ever made. That's what your dad did, Beattie. In a wilder age, he pushed the boundaries and made millions laugh. Be proud of him.

IN politics, it is unwise to assume anything. So don't be carried away by the assumption this week that Paul Nuttall, the new leader of Ukip who speaks with a broad Merseyside accent, will be a natural magnet for working-class voters in general and Labour voters in particular. Whatever Scousers may like to believe, not everybody loves a Scouse accent.

HOWEVER, I do admire Nuttall's suggestion of rejecting the endlessly convoluted and time-consuming Article 50 process and asking Parliament to repeal the 1972 European Communities Act to kick-start the Brexit process. Today, this is being presented as something outrageous. In fact, throughout our 40-year membership of the Union, we were assured time after time by the Europhiles that if the UK ever wanted to quit, it was a simple matter of repealing the Act. If it was true then, it must be true now. And if it has never been true, let us call the liars to account.

WATCH out for Jasta. It stands for a new law in the United States, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act which could give US lawyers the right to sue foreign states who don't do enough to prevent terrorism. Some legal experts believe that Britain, for example, could be sued for millions of dollars for failing to keep killers such as Jihadi John under control. So if Britain does not detain terrorist suspects, US lawyers could sue the socks off us. If Britain does detain terrorist suspects, British lawyers will invoke the Human Rights Act and sue the socks off us. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Little by little, this planet is being taken over by lawyers and getting steadily madder.

AFTER yesterday's tale of a mouse gnawing through a car's fuel pipe, the most popular deterrent to under-bonnet rodents, according to the internet, seems to be peppermint oil. I have duly dunked some cotton wool in the aromatic oil and fixed it in the engine compartment. It's like driving a very big After Eight mint.