Peter Rhodes: Good news is bad news

THERE is a cynical old saying in journalism that bad news is good news. For Remoaners, however, it works the other way: good news is bad news. And this week's think-tank report showing Britain is doing fine after the Brexit vote is the worst of all news. The bad-loser tendency is now clutching to the straw that, if Armageddon has not yet happened, it will soon, just you wait and see. As one contributor to the Guardian website puts it lyrically: "What is their world if it does not have a sky that is forever imminently falling?"

A REVIEW carried out by the BBC shows that its journalists are paid up to 40 per cent more than those working for commercial competitors. No surprises there. The rivals have to earn their money while Auntie Beeb gets an annual bung of £4,000 million from the public purse. It's easy to be generous with other people's money.

HANDS up. As the world awaits the divorce of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, how many of us knew who or what was a Brangelina? For millions of folk, celebrity news, like football news, is for other people.

I ADMIRED the choice of book for guests' comments at the cottage we hired for our recent stay in Yorkshire. If I were in the holiday-let business I'd opt for a loose-leaf book, for easy removal of negative comments. This comments book was uncut and uncensored. While most visitors were delighted, a family from Sussex was seemingly horrified that the "working farm" described in the brochure was a farm full of animals where people were working. It is surprising how many people think they want the rural idyll and then go to pieces at their first encounter with a hen.

ANYWAY, the grouchy family from Sussex took up three spaces in the book instead of one and couldn't spell "noisy". Enough said.

SKIPTON church holds a grisly tale on the subject of progress. In the 1850s gas lighting was installed which not only lit the church but made it warmer. Sadly, as the temperature rose, the stench from the burial vaults below became unbearable. A foot-thick concrete floor was laid to keep the pong at bay. There must be a moral here.

THE church also boasts that rare and sinister thing, an anchorite cell. This is a tiny room in which the anchorite, one who had withdrawn from the world, would be sealed up for life, praying and offering advice. In ye olden days anchorites were seen as deeply devoted. Today they would probably be diagnosed with agoraphobia. It is a reminder that the so-called Communion of Saints has some very odd members.

MANY thanks for your kind words about my recent piece on my Uncle Alvin who was killed on the Somme. One hundred years on, the First World War still has a rare grip on our emotions. If you'd like to know more about his war, a Google search for "Alvin Smith" and "Thiepval" will produce about 100 items. There's also a video about him on the Western Front Association website