Rhodes on signing T&Cs, the exodus from Number Ten and an unforgettable moment in broadcasting

You might assume, from the way some parts of the media have reported things, that the civil servants packing their bags and quitting Downing Street are nobly demonstrating their hatred and contempt of the Prime Minister. Is it not more likely that they've been sacked?

An unforgettable radio moment. This week's Desert Island Discs featured the statistician Sir David Spiegelhalter. His heartbreaking description of the death and funeral of his five-year-old son Danny, including dressing the lad in his favourite Thunderbirds outfit and screwing down the coffin lid, was the most poignant thing I've heard for years and a reminder of an old saying: the pain of grief is the price we pay for love.

After Monday's item on whether anyone bothers to read online terms and conditions, I came across some research in the States. In 2017 a survey of 2,000 consumers found that on average 91 per cent of people consent to legal terms and services conditions without reading them.

And if you think its only confused old duffers who click the button without reading, think again. The worst offenders are actually the 18-34 age group, with 97 per cent agreeing without reading the T&Cs. The remaining three per cent who dutifully read every word of the contracts must have plenty of time on their hands. Researchers logged how long it would take to read the small print of 13 popular apps. The answer was 17 hours.

You can see what's coming next, can't you? Inspired by this global epidemic of non-reading, a website-security company drafted contracts containing the most outrageous T&Cs, just to see what would happen. Sure enough, 99 per cent of customers granted the company the right to name their firstborn child, the option to have an FBI agent join them for Christmas dinner and (scariest of all) permission to give their mother full access to their browsing history.

There is a serious point to all this. It is that millions of us are signed up to contracts we don't understand with companies who cheerfully take our money, knowing we haven't read the small print. One answer might be to build a time-delay into every contract, making it impossible to sign the deal without allowing a few hours' reading time. That would empower consumers and make big tech more accountable. Two good reasons why it will never happen.