Peter Rhodes on autumn, taking offence and Brexit snobbery

PUTTING the clocks back marks the beginning of the Great British Whinge about the weather. And yet autumn gives us some glorious moments. I was out on a lake a few days ago when the low sun broke through. I pointed the camera, hoped for the best and captured an image of wavelets turned into a million dancing jewels. A beautiful season.

BARRY Sheerman MP has been accused of snobbery for suggesting "better-educated people" voted to remain in the EU. But he is undeniably right. Brexit was never an intellectual exercise. It was a genuine working-class movement, the same sort of grass-roots uprising that gave us the welfare state and the NHS. And who is to say that the workers got it wrong and academia got it right?

YOU could just as well argue that those exposed to Britain's lefty-liberal education system for longest were thoroughly indoctrinated in an ivory-tower view of the EU, while people living and working in the real world saw it for what it was. A modern-languages professor in London won't hold the same opinion as a self-employed electrician in Wisbech. The first rejoices in Europe's rich culture. The second sees his jobs being taken by Polish workers. In last year's referendum we did not vote on the basis of our exam results or IQ. We each took our own life experiences to the ballot box, and a majority wanted to be out rather than in.

MEANWHILE, never assume that a university degree implies great wisdom. In a country where half of all school leavers go to uni and first-class passes are handed out like peppermints, it is perfectly possible to be as thick as a brick and still have a degree.

IN yesterday's column I gave examples of TV programmes which caused me grave offence - but only when I deliberately set out to be offended. Here's a lesson in how to create lots of offence from virtually nothing. From the Daily Telegraph website: "Anne Robinson has caused widespread outrage after saying women nowadays are 'fragile' and unable to deal with sexual harassment in the workplace." So what is the evidence for this "widespread outrage"? A million women marching on Robinson's office, perhaps? An internet poll signed by tens of thousands of the outraged? Not exactly. The Telegraph's "widespread outrage" was four tweets from Radio 4 listeners.

IN his memoirs out next week, former prime minister Gordon Brown speaks frankly about his failing sight. Pity he wasn't so frank when he was in power. I recall showing him a newspaper with headlines about the state of the economy. He brushed the paper away with one hand. With hindsight, I realise Brown was hiding the fact that he couldn't read it. At the time, it seemed a rude gesture from a very odd bloke.