Peter Rhodes on wildfires, gladiators and the shame of Britain's hospitals
I couldn't help noticing that in the same week as Los Angeles, that global shrine to temptation and instant gratification, was erupting in flames, a 25-year-old woman in London was claiming to have set a new world record, having sex with more than 1,000 men in 24 hours.
As the news came in from the California wildfires and the London bonk-a-thon, was anyone else reminded of the sexual excesses and arson that marked the decline and fall of the Roman empire? How long, one wonders, before Donald Trump follows the Emperor Caligula's brainwave and appoints his favourite horse to be a senator?
And is it mere coincidence, among the many echoes of Western civilisation going the way of ancient Rome, that one of our favourite entertainments in 2025 AD was also a box-office hit in 190 AD? Bring on the Gladiators.