Mark Andrews: Getting shirty over gender and why house prices are nothing to shout about
It's amazing what you can buy on the worldwide web. A friend drew my attention to a particularly stylish T-shirt on Amazon, featuring a rainbow flag and the slogan "There are more than two genders".
Naturally, I tried to order 37 of them. Well you know, this sort of thing may have been compulsory had Mrs Mordaunt got in.
All was well until I was asked to choose a 'fit'. There were only two options: male or female.
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Is it me, or have the roads between Wolverhampton and Dudley become much smoother over the past few weeks?
After years of being riddled with potholes, they have suddenly benefited from a surge of resurfacing work, all carried out breakneck speed with remarkable efficiency.
And, coincidentally, just in time for the Commonwealth Games cycling trials next month.
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Boris Johnson, who resigned because he lost the confidence of his MPs, will be replaced by another politician – who may also not be the choice of MPs.
Rather, our next prime minister will be chosen by a couple of hundred thousand Tory Party members.
This is nuts. Just as it was when Labour MPs passed a vote-of-no-confidence in Jeremy Corbyn, but were stuck with him anyway because he had a cult following among students and music-festival fans.
If our parliamentary democracy means anything, it should surely be that elected representatives get to choose their leaders, not activists who pay a few quid for the right to vote.
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A report this week said West Midlands house prices were among the 'strongest' in the country. The region was performing 'better than the UK national average', with prices up 2.2 per cent in April, against a national average of 1.2 per cent.
Well I suppose it depends what you mean by 'strongest' or 'better'.
Most of us own a car, a refrigerator and a television set, but we don't get excited when these things go up in price. Yet when it comes to house prices, people seem to be blinded by emotion, and the illusion that it somehow makes us wealthier.
Soaring house prices are good news for a small number of people, mainly buy-to-let landlords and empty-nesters looking to trade down to a cheaper property.
But for most of us, it makes no difference whatsoever. And if you're trying to climb the property ladder, it is bad news indeed.
It's just another form of inflation.
