Peter Rhodes on the wickedness of whaling, a movie classic and the statistics of terrorism

DESPITE all the panic and big headlines from Manchester, the crime figures show that you are far more likely to be stabbed by somebody who isn't a terrorist than by somebody who is. Which in itself is fairly terrifying.

A READER tells me he watched the dazzling, startling, breathtaking New Year fireworks display from London and was a little surprised when the TV programme that followed it came with a warning about flashing images.

AND now, a moment of politically correct tut-tutting. The Madness concert on New Year's Eve at Westminster Central Hall featured hundreds of fans wearing the band's trademark Turkish red fez. Is this not cultural appropriation on a massive scale?

TALKING of cult apparel, I got a new pair of Crocs for Christmas. They are all-purpose slobbing shoes, equally at home as slippers or gardening boots. Indeed, you may imagine that you will one day reach a stage in life when you will need no other shoes but Crocs. And then you get to that stage and discover you still need a decent pair of black leather shoes for all the funerals. No-one has yet developed a mourning Croc.

WHALING is a grisly, violent business and the announcement that Japan is to increase its whale kills inspires a shudder of revulsion in the West. As the Independent declares with a superior air: "The return of commercial whaling in Japan is a reminder that even the most progressive of states have their moral frailties." And yet I am reminded of a Japanese philosopher some years ago who offered us morally upright Westerners his thoughts on whaling. He pointed out that to feed 1,000 Japanese people on whale meat requires the death of one creature. To feed 1,000 Westerners on chicken requires the death of 1,000 creatures. Anyone else suddenly feeling a bit morally frail?

AND back to Brexit, like the hangover that has to be faced. Pressure is said to be growing on Jeremy Corbyn to throw his weight behind a second referendum. One Guardian emailer put the case thus: "Another referendum isn't no democracy, it's more democracy." So a third, fourth and fifth referendum would be even better? I fear we will be asking the same question in January 2020.

WE took the Christmas tree down on Wednesday. Now that Christmas begins just after the summer holidays and lasts for three months, does anyone still wait until Twelfth Night to bring down the decorations?

MEANWHILE, plan well ahead for Xmas 2019. Make sure you've got a copy of Bharrat Nalluri's wonderful 2017 movie, The Man Who Invented Christmas which I predict will become a yuletide classic on a par with the other great Scrooge films. It stars Dan Stevens as Charles Dickens struggling with writer's block over A Christmas Carol. It is a little gem waiting to find its slot in the national consciousness. Move over, The Muppets.