Express & Star

Peter Rhodes on crosswords, healthy-eating tips and the hounding of Harry and Meghan

Read today's column from Peter Rhodes.

Published
Fighting back - Harry and Meghan

ANOTHER week, another titanic overturning of medical wisdom. This time last week health experts tut-tutted at the alleged artery-clogging menace of the full English breakfast. And then it was announced, after a major survey, that bacon isn't so bad for us, after all. So what will this week bring? Broccoli - the not entirely silent killer. You read it here first.

I'M always wary of people who are good at crosswords, for two reasons. Firstly, they clearly have tricky, devious minds. Secondly, I am hopeless at crosswords. In the lofty uplands of the Daily Telegraph letters column, readers are currently exchanging their favourite clues, including this one which may well drive you mad: Number (12).

UNTIL now, I never got particularly vexed about the Press's relationship with the Royal Family. It may occasionally be a fiery deal but as a rule each feeds off the other to their mutual benefit. But the endless hounding of the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle which has led to the couple suing a tabloid for copyright infringement, is something altogether nastier. At best she is portrayed as a gold-digger, at worst an enemy of the people. I suspect the vast majority are on the side of the Sussexes and do not swallow the "public interest" posturing from Fleet Street. Markle is a successful young woman, wealthy in her own right, who has joined a very odd family and is trying to make the best of it. The enormous national goodwill seen at her wedding to Harry is a great asset, to be harnessed, not undermined for the sake of yet another scandal-story.

FLEET Street, should be very wary of assuming that the public, just because it buys newspapers, has any deep loyalty to those newspapers. They are readers, not voters. If you asked readers: "Do you believe newspapers should have their stories approved by independent truth-assessors before printing?" I fear that more than half would nod and say it's a good idea.

POLICE are endlessly warning us not to leave valuables in cars and to ensure our homes are locked and secure. Yet when former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan was robbed of a £135,000 wristwatch at gunpoint, not a single cop in The Met: Policing London (BBC1) dared to suggest that driving through London with a show-off bling-bauble like that on your wrist was not the brightest idea.

THE crossword clue? Number (12) is, of course, "anaesthetist."

MEANWHILE, the real hard-news report of the week is that John Lewis will be re-running its Christmas offer of personalised tins of Quality Street containing only the ones you want. Farewell to those indeterminate thingies in orange and red and stand by for a tin crammed with the crunchy green noisette and the chocolate with a nut in known universally as the Big Purple One. Oh, bliss. Do excuse me, I must lie down.

BECAUSE an anaesthetist makes you numb, that's why.