Peter Rhodes: A flagship policy

I AM aware that by the time this item appears in print, our shiny new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth may have crashed into the Forth Bridge, run aground or got lost. There is a fine tradition of maiden voyages going awry. The great thing in this case is that it doesn't really matter. The chief purpose of this magnificent £3.5 billion warship, approved by Gordon Brown – “The Great Broon” as his countrymen call him - was to keep the Scottish shipbuilding industry going. A few little bumps mean even more work for the lads.

IN a more honest world, HMS Queen Elizabeth would have been named HMS Job Creation. It is a rare thing for a flagship policy actually to be a flagship.

O IS for Observer and also for Ostrich. Last week saw official figures confirming that the UK population is rising faster than ever, largely as a result of immigration. For the first time, the population of England alone exceeds 55 million. The population of London has soared from 6.8 million in 1990 to 8.6 million today. Yet in a magnificent example of head-in-the-sand journalism at the weekend, the Left-leaning Observer produced a 728-word leader column on the housing crisis, containing not a single mention of immigration. Apparently the crisis is all the fault of Maggie Thatcher (who left office 27 years ago) and “the sacred status of the green belt.” Nothing to do with half a million extra people every year, then?

GREAT TV mysteries of our time. Can anyone explain why the tabloids go off in a fit of the vapours over Aidan Turner's bare chest in Poldark (BBC1) while at the same time over on Channel 4, The Handmaid's Tale is a positive flesh-fest of dystopian bonking, yet nobody makes a fuss?

SHADOW chancellor John McDonnell declares that the dead of Grenfell Tower “were murdered by political decisions that were taken over recent decades.” He is playing a cynical and dangerous game. By now, it is clear that most of England's tower blocks fitted with flammable cladding were built or refurbished in Labour-controlled towns and cities. It is obvious too, that some crucial fire regulations were drawn up under a Labour government.

THE moral: politics should have no place in resolving this national crisis. Hindsight should be forbidden and grandstanding outlawed. Millions of council homes have been provided over the decades by well-meaning councillors of all political persuasions, desperate to put a roof over the head of the poor and dispossessed and following the best advice available from their officials. How must decent, honest Labour councillors feel today to hear their own shadow chancellor effectively accusing them of a conspiracy to commit homicide? But then how many long-serving Labour Party members ever dreamed, in their worst nightmares, that they'd be taking orders from the likes of Corbyn and McDonnell?

AN investigation by the Daily Mail reveals that some travel- insurance companies refuse to pay up for routine mishaps because of exclusions in the small print. I really must have a lie down.