Peter Rhodes on dodgy snaps, a big breakfast and do gentleman prefer blondes?

You must have seen the TV ads for the latest Google Pixel smartphones which use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to alter people's expressions in photographs. This generation of cameras can adapt images before even posting them. If you ever wondered why one of your friends always has photos of wildly-grinning chums, with nobody blinking or scowling, now you know. And in this age of deep fakery, even video and social media don't prove much either.

If reports are to be believed, hordes of eco-zealots are preparing to block airport runways and thus wreck the holiday plans of thousands. It is one thing for Joe Public to be inconvenienced for a couple of hours on the M25 by these posh kids with their axe to grind. It is quite another to have his annual trip to the sun with the wife and children trashed by the holier-than-thou brigade. This could end in bloodshed.

Good to see the Government trying to redefine “extremism,” although striving for such definitions may strike you as a fools' errand. As a general rule I believe that a) anyone to the right of me, or b) anyone to the left of me definitely needs watching. Does this make me extreme?

As every mother has at some time told her little girl, true beauty comes from within. This does not explain why so many mega-rich male millionaires, including the 18-year-old Formula One wonderkid Oliver Bearman, always seem to prefer outwardly-beautiful willowy blondes.

The 40th anniversary of the Miners' Strike sparks all sorts of memories, good and bad. One was shared with me by a senior police officer who was responsible for assembling and sustaining a response squad of 200 cops billeted at a motorway services. When it was all over he had to sign off the restaurant bill: “199 Full English Breakfasts, 1 Knickerbocker Glory.”