Express & Star

Peter Rhodes on meaningful votes, the World Cup dilemma and the demise of the comma

Love the game, don't trust the host. Not one inch.

Published
Harry Kane - hero

POLITICAL terms of our time. Meaningful Vote: an opportunity for the Brexit vote of 17.4 million Britons to be overturned by a few dozen Remain MPs - in the name of democracy. Fudged on Wednesday this week but still lurking.

LOVED the opening line on The World at One (Radio 4):"Canada has legalised cannabis. We'll be speaking to the high commissioner."

STRANGE, isn't it, that while fewer than 3,000 England fans have travelled to the World Cup in Russia, more than 18 million viewers tuned in to see Harry Kane's heroic winning goal in the England v Tunisia match? I bet the answer is that while the beautiful game has lost none of its fascination, there's deep unease about endorsing Russia in any way.

THE Salisbury nerve-agent affair may be part of the explanation for the low turnout of World Cup fans. But, while the jury is still out on that incident, a full international inquiry has left no doubt that Russia has blood on its hands for shooting down Flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, and killing 298 innocents. Maybe it's that casual act of mass murder, or maybe fear of Russian hooligans, that keeps supporters out of Russia. Love the game, don't trust the host. Not one inch.

PEDANT Corner. Nurse Debbie Lawson has been hailed as "the next Wilfred Owen" after winning the national Poem To Remember competition. She says it took her only ten minutes to write "One For The Team" and it is a superb reflection on the trauma suffered by a soldier haunted by memories of his dead comrade. But it would be even finer if the punctuation were better. What's missing is an endangered species known as the salutation comma. It's an error the classically-educated Wilfred Owen would never have made. Lawson writes: "I keep hearing you mate" and "I keep seeing you mate." What she means is: "I keep hearing you, mate" and "I keep seeing you, mate." One little comma removes any ambiguity. See what I mean, folks?

THIS week's Health Foundation report on the outlook for the Millennial generation makes sad reading. The housing crisis, the demands of social media, the risk of redundancy and general stress mean some in their 20s and 30s will have worse health in middle-age than their parents. The saddest part is the lack of emotional support and problems forming relationships. These Millennials fear for their future. But what makes them a truly unique, and damned, generation is that they don't even seem to fancy each other.

I WROTE recently that in more than 40 years in journalism, I had yet to hear a single reader complain about being a victim of upskirting. A correspondent says this is because it's a modern crime, made possible by tiny cameras. He may have a point. In ye olden days, even if you managed to smuggle your glass-plate camera and tripod under a lady's crinoline, the explosion of magnesium flash-powder was a dead giveaway.