Peter Rhodes: That wokening moment

OUR changing language. A public-relations company tells us it has appointed a "head of environment and cleantech." I dare say it means something to someone.

AND so, too, in a world where people seem to make up any words they fancy, will the headline from a news website telling us that Katy Perry's "political wokening continues apace." Language changes. It just takes us old duffers some time to awakenify to it.

MEANWHILE, back in cyberspace. . . . A reader tells me how his internet provider locked his account when he failed to change his password. And why did he fail to do so? Because the company's emails instructing him to change the password had all been dumped in his spam basket, by the company's own software. First, we put our letters in your bin. Then we punish you for not reading them.

REMEMBER how just before the 2008 financial crash there was talk of sub-prime mortgages? They were loans made to people who could not possibly repay them and secured against properties worth less than the loan. It was a toxic financial time-bomb and we are still suffering the effects. So how worried should be to hear about "sub-prime cars"? As you may have noticed, British roads are stuffed full of brand-new cars. How can it be that ordinary families on modest incomes can afford to put £15,000 or £20,000 worth of automobile on the road? The answer, according to some financial experts, is that they cannot and that "sub-prime cars" could trigger the next crash. Over the past seven years the value of car loans almost trebled to more than £30,000 million. And cars, unlike houses, are guaranteed to lose their value. How many families are borrowing money they can never repay? One fund manager quoted in the Guardian warns that car financing in Britain is "a flashing light." Remember the term. Sub-prime cars.

EON wants to know about my "smart meter experience" in an online survey. Let me, once again, be brutally honest. Smart meters are not a life-transforming thing. On a scale of domestic excitement they come somewhere between acquiring a stick insect and buying a corkscrew. Our smart meter sits in the living room and glows. That's it. So Eon's request will be treated in the same way as eBay's when they invited me to write a review about a tub of fire cement.

HS2, the railway that no-one wants and most of us will never afford, has passed the final hurdle and construction work will start soon. It is founded on two great whoppers. First, it will cost £55 billion - the latest claim, admittedly based on industry leaks, suggests £200 billion is nearer the mark. The second whopper is that HS2 will "rebalance the economy" by benefiting the North. If Whitehall really wanted to reduce London's dominance it would come up with a new railway between Liverpool and Hull or a motorway from Aberystwyth to Norwich. HS2 will merely funnel more jobs, money and commuters into London, while laying waste some of the prettiest parts of England. And none of us ever voted for it.

THE BBC, frequently under fire for paying sky-high wages, has appointed a new commissioning editor for ethics and religion. She is Fatima Salaria.