Peter Rhodes on public transport, deadly rockets and something nasty in a take-away

Never underestimate your enemies For years, so-called experts have dismissed Yemen's Houthi guerillas as “rag tag rebels,” probably because their preferred uniform is loose-fitting desert robes and scarves. Suddenly, with alarming accuracy, the wardrobe-challenged Houthis are lobbing missiles deep into Israel. No so rag tag, after all.

Perhaps we should also worry more over reports that illegal small-boat migrants are quickly vanishing into the UK's black economy and making “easy money” delivering meals by bike. 

We have no idea who these people are but it seems some of them may be delivering food to British homes. In an age of ricin and novichok, can anyone not see the opportunity for evil? Surely the lesson of the years since 9/11 is to think the unthinkable, preferably before it happens.

Nick Robinson, arguably the BBC's best interviewer, warns of the rise of “fawning and partisan” podcasts that give politicians hours of unchallenged airtime and thus pose a danger to democracy. Fair enough. 

But another threat to democracy is the open hostility or favouritism some interviewers show towards their subjects. Is it written in the interviewers' contracts that Lib-Dem leader Ed Davey is to be welcomed to the studio as a thoroughly nice old mate while Nigel Farage is greeted like a bad smell?

Coventry is offering free test rides on its new Very Light Train, described by the council as “like a tram but more flexible . . . an alternative to cars.” But is it a real alternative? 

The great thing about a car is that you don't fill it with drunks, perverts, hen parties, football choirs and suchlike. You travel with people you choose, listening to music you like at a temperature that suits you. There are good reasons why people buy cars. 

Yes, we all know we should use public transport but the drawback is in the name: public. As somebody once remarked, hell is other people (I bet he had a car).