Robert Cox: Stick to football, David

Who in their right mind targets the NHS with a computer virus and attempts to hold doctors and nurses to ransom? The global cyber-attack has in fact spread beyond our beloved health service to all corners of the world. Remarkably it was stopped in its tracks, by accident, by a 22-year-old security blogger on a week’s holiday. A victory for the small man.

It does make you think how vulnerable we are in this age of interconnectivity. Our mobile phones linked to our laptops, linked to TVs. What if it was all to collapse in one fell swoop? Maybe I have been watching too many of the Terminator films.

Anyone heading out to watch the new King Arthur movie could be mistaken for thinking they had paid to see a football match. National treasure and former Manchester United star David Beckham makes an excruciating cameo in this Guy Ritchie fantasy flick. This presumably was an attempt to boost publicity and ultimately profit, but one which has backfired. I have no problem with people changing careers, if they have a talent in their new profession. But who has ever listened to Becks and thought ‘now there is the potential for a good actor?’ Next we will have José Mourinho trying his luck at stand-up or Ryan Giggs giving marriage counselling.

I have recently returned from my maiden visit to Newcastle upon Tyne and I have come to the conclusion that the city’s population alone is responsible for keeping all our nation’s breweries in business. A stroll at night through the city centre was a unique obstacle course with the challenge to avoid stepping on vomit, smashed bottles and passed-out revellers finishing their kebabs.

It feels as if the old bus depot off Wolverhampton’s ring road has been demolished in an instant. While many will mourn the loss of a historic building, it has been fascinating to see how the extraordinary former Royal Hospital has become visible from Bilston Road. I understand development at the site will utilise the listed former hospital buildings. It would be a crying shame if they weren’t.

After their drubbing in the local elections, UKIP appear to have been left a little shell-shocked. Leader Paul Nuttall had announced the party will not stand candidates in seats where there are strongly pro-Brexit MPs. Any yet in Stone the party will bid to unseat prominent Eurosceptic Bill Cash. Bizarre.

A homeless Lithuanian has told a judge in the Black Country that he wants to return to his home nation to break his addiction to the now illegal drug, Black Mamba. He had been found carrying a hammer outside the Mander Centre. What does it say about the state of our streets that this man wants out of the UK to dodge this dangerous substance?

I was unfortunate enough to catch the end of the Bafta TV awards on Sunday night. These things always end up feeling like an intolerable love-in completely unheard of in almost any other industry. At least we had the first non-white best actor winner in the awards’ 62-year history, something long overdue.

• Peter Rhodes is away