Peter Rhodes: Why Keith Vaz proves that mockery is fatal

A CONTRIBUTOR to the Guardian website takes issue with another, thus: "This post is nothing more than flagrant Trudalism, meekly masquerading as Eurocentric disparity-privilege." Why don't I get emails like that?

KEITH Vaz posed as a washing-machine salesman for his alleged tryst. As one emailer puts it: "Now he's Indesit."

AND that underlines why Vaz had to go. He may have broken no laws, he may have a perfect right to consort with whomever he chooses. But while a politician may survive shame and mud-slinging, the moment he becomes a figure of fun he is finished. Indesit, indeed.

"WE have the power to destroy your company," a blackmailer wrote to a British supermarket, threatening to taint its food products with lethal cyanide. Unfortunately, for all his university education, chemistry graduate David Ward overlooked one detail. He bought his cyanide on the impenetrable "dark web" and did the deal paying in hard-to-trace Bitcoins. But he left traces of his DNA on the postage stamp he handled. He was duly tracked down by police using an earlier DNA sample and is now awaiting sentence. The maths is fascinating. Ward was trying to extract £2 million by blackmail. A pair of DNA-shielding latex gloves costs 99p.

ANYONE else surprised at the dazzling speed and success of the Daily Mail's campaign to rid the world of plastic microbeads? The campaign was announced on August 25. By September 2 it was all over. Mission accomplished, planet saved. The truth is that the campaign against microbeads or "plastic soup" has been going on for at least seven years. The issue was raised by the Dutch government in 2009 and by 2012 most of the big cosmetic companies had agreed to phase them out. In 2015 the Prince of Wales declared: "One issue that we absolutely cannot ignore is that of the increasing quantity of plastic waste in the marine environment" and later that year they were banned in Sweden and California. In July this year Waitrose announced it was abandoning microbeads. The Mail may have shone a light on things but it was not so much pushing at an open door as walking through a door that had already been opened.

SO farewell, David Jenkins who has died aged 91. I interviewed the former Bishop of Durham at the height of his fame (or infamy, if you prefer) when his challenging of the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection brought him into conflict with the Church. He was delightful company, a bright and engaging old chap striving to make sense of a Creator who allegedly loved mankind but allowed terrible suffering. His conclusion was that the moment God created man, He ceased to be omnipotent. Strange to recall that barely a quarter-century ago, people actually cared what bishops believed. Today, no-one gives a damn whether a bishop believes in God, so long as he is sound on gay marriage.

AND as the Church of England reacts to the news that the Bishop of Grantham is gay, another old question arises yet again. Why is it that so many gay men and women choose a career in religion when religion has persecuted them for 2,000 years?