Peter Rhodes: They mock our weakness

ANYONE else notice that every single question on Any Questions (Radio 4) was an attack on the Conservative manifesto? There's balance and there's BBC balance.

AFTER the Westminster Bridge terror attack of March 22, I wrote: “The ultimate nightmare for Britain, the one we hardly dare mention, is not a lone wolf driving a car into the crowds at well-defended Westminster. It is another loner unleashing his rage on an English town, village, beach or concert hall far from the capital, with not an armed cop in sight.” I take no great credit for that prediction. Anyone could have forecast Monday's atrocity in Manchester. No-one could have stopped it.

AND the most terrifying aspect in the fallout from the Manchester Arena bombing is the frank admission by police that Britain does not have the equipment or the manpower to monitor suspected terrorists in our midst. The numbers of angry, weapons-trained losers flooding back from war in Syria, coupled with those emerging from British prisons who are still dedicated jihadists, are overwhelming the security services. We allow free passage. We release prisoners who have served their time. We play by the rules of a liberal, civilised society while those medieval psychopaths whose aim is to convert or kill all unbelievers simply laugh at our weakness and prepare the next massacre.

HURRAH for Jez's plan to scrap university tuition fees. With one tiny amendment. Let the students pay for the first year but thereafter the fees will be based on their progress, as reflected in their first-year exam results. Shine and the state will pay for you 100 per cent. Booze, bumble, fornicate and flunk and you're on your own, laddy.

BOOZE, bumble, fornicate and flunk. What a great name for a law firm.

OFF for my annual blood-pressure review where a plump nurse lectures me on the benefits of thinness and reveals my cholesterol has risen since last year. But she says I have more than enough good cholesterol to cope with any harm the bad cholesterol may do. I strongly suspect that a few years from now GPs will regard the modern doctrine of good and bad cholesterol in much the way they regard leeches, miasma and a cow pat on your head to cure migraine.

BACK home from Scotland I am busy repairing the gaff (technical boating term) of my old boat. It is a length of wood with two flat bits forming a jaw which holds it to the mast. I am using the strongest glue I can find and emailed a sailing pal: “Have just epoxied my gaff jaws.” Now, there's a sentence I never expected to write.

AS the various political parties tackle the issue of an ageing society, can anyone explain why the NHS regards cancer as an illness but Alzheimer's as some sort of optional retirement activity? If you get the Big C the treatment you need won't cost you a penny. Get the Big A and your worldly goods will be plundered by the state to pay for every bed bath and wet wipe. The first sign of dementia is thinking this makes sense.