Express & Star

Peter Rhodes on the Peter Rabbit furore, the best place for that Powell plaque and how we give to charities, whether we want to or not

Lighten up, snowflakes.

Published
Perfect for a plaque?

OUR changing language. Military terms once understood by millions of squaddies are a puzzle for Britain's younger generation. This explains a common error, as seen this week in a Daily Mail report about the unexploded device in London: "Navy divers work to diffuse massive 5ft long WWII bomb." Defuse, perhaps?

WERE you surprised to learn Oxfam gets £32 million a year from the Government? You may imagine that charities do charitable work, supported by the charitable giving of charitable folk, and that the amount of work they do is governed by the amount a willing public is prepared to donate. Dream on. Some big charities get loadsamoney from us taxpayers whether we want it or not and are run, to all intents and purposes, as state-sponsored businesses.

I AM torn on this campaign to erect a blue plaque in Wolverhampton to commemorate the city's most significant MP, Enoch Powell. It would be a target for vandals, unless it could be placed somewhere in the city where it would be visible, but not visible enough to cause offence, and was well out of reach of wreckers. Pity they demolished the old Goodyear Chimney.

I ONLY interviewed Enoch Powell once. It would be wrong to say we warmed to each other.

A NUMBER of readers make the point that those who voted Leave in the 2016 EU referendum did not specify what sort of leave they had in mind. True enough. But that doesn't make the vote invalid, or justify a second poll. I believe the message from the people was on the lines of: "Get us out. Get the best deal you can but get us out." And I think we addressed it not to Parliament but to the Government. We sent our instruction to the train driver, not the passengers.

IN the great Peter Rabbit allergy debate, my sympathies are with the snowflakes. In a new animated film, Peter and his chums defeat their enemy Tom by pelting him with fruit to which he is allergic. A charity, Allergy UK, complained and took some flak on the lines of: "Oh, lighten up, snowflakes, it's only a joke. "

AND then we learned more about the scene. The fruit brings on such a violent allergic reaction that Tom falls to the ground choking and turning red before stabbing himself with his life-saving Epi-Pen. Not so funny after all, is it? I bet we all know kids whose lives are blighted by severe allergy and who must carry their Epi-Pen at all times. The remarkable thing is that apparently at no stage in the production did any script editors, animators or stars see anything wrong in making a joke about anaphylactic shock.

SOME parents have called for the scene to be re-shot, so here's an hilarious alternative. The rabbits trick Tom into wearing striped pyjamas and put him on a train to somewhere called Belsen. Oh, lighten up, snowflakes, it's only a joke . . .