Peter Rhodes on lightning, speeding and an unasked question at the BBC

A rash of reports about speeding fines and bans for celebrities is worrying. If celebs are being nicked at a greater rate then ever, it presumably means ordinary people are, too. This is hardly surprising. The imposition of 20mph limits across the UK and a widespread 30mph limit in Wales may make a quick buck for the Exchequer but what is the long-term effect on our economy of banning huge numbers of drivers from British roads, especially professional drivers who are so vulnerable?

A pool of millions of competent drivers is a great national asset; we diminish it at our peril. In the years ahead, as speed limits are forced ever lower and the inevitable prosecutions follow, who will drive our buses, ambulances, trucks and taxis?

The BBC is still tearing itself apart in the row over how the teenage son of a Hamas official came to be the narrator in a documentary about Gaza. We may never know precisely who knew what, but you only have to look at 13-year-old Abdullah to become suspicious. He speaks fluent English with an American accent and moves through Gaza with the swagger that you'll see in any teenager whose dad is somebody important. And yet no-one asked: “Who is this kid?” Unbelievable.

More than 40 years after the Battle of Orgreave between police and striking miners in south Yorkshire , an inquiry is to be held. Why the unseemly haste? Is there no more long grass? Have we run out of tins to kick down the road?

An early complaint about the TV coverage of Orgreave was that it showed 1) miners throwing stones, and 2) police responding with a charge of mounted officers. It was later proved that 2) actually happened before 1).

I doubt if, after so long, we will ever know what happened at Orgreave. According to Shakespeare, truth will out. But it's not unknown for the facts to turn inward, never to be exposed. Sometimes, truth will in.