Peter Rhodes on SAS shame, a parcel from BT and yet another outing for the thought police

We are confronted with Panorama's evidence from 30 former soldiers who testify to the cold-blooded murder of Afghan citizens by men who cherish the motto Who Dares Wins. What, precisely, is daring about shooting a boy who has already been handcuffed? How does machine-gunning sleeping people in their beds win anything?

A former special constable, Julian Foulkes, tweeted a fairly innocuous view on social media, warning of the rise in anti-semitism. In the spirit of our age, his words were tracked by a Metropolitan Police intelligence unit. Someone in Kent Police then decided the intelligent thing to do was arrest Mr Foulkes, 71, detain him for eight hours and search his home where one cop was heard on video describing some books on the shelves as “very Brexity things.” Terrified of escalation, Mr Foulkes accepted a police caution.

This “thought police” incident happened in November 2023. The caution was later scrapped but it was only at the weekend, confronted with a Daily Telegraph enquiry, that the Chief Constable of Kent, Tim Smith, offered a personal apology. Mr Foulkes is suing for wrongful arrest. As I wish him well, I look at my own little library. It reflects my interest in the First World War. I have a chilling image of a copper fingering my books and snarling suspiciously: “There's some very Kaisery things here.”

Meanwhile, a big, heavy parcel arrives at Chateau Rhodes - the free BT kit I need to connect to Halo and Full Fibre. As you probably know, Full Fibre is the new, internet-connected phone system which is faster than the old copper-wire landline but unfortunately, goes dead in the event of a power cut. This explains the weight of the parcel; it contained two enormous batteries, designed to give about one hour's phone time.

Halo is another back-up device. If the broadband cable is zapped by lightning or felled by falling trees (which happens regularly here in the sticks) Halo instantly switches to the G4 smartphone signal. It is so dazzlingly impressive that I'm longing for calamity to set it all off. Hark, is that thunder...?