Peter Rhodes on a scruffy coat, a president scared of the rain and more curious pop-up adverts

ADVICE on Armistice etiquette you thought you'd never see. The Huffpost website gave its readers this two-minute silence tip: "Don't take a selfie while honouring."

AND here are the most treasured lines of remembrance in the English language, specially re-written for Donald Trump: "At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them. Unless it's raining."

I CAN tell you one thing with absolute certainty about Jeremy Corbyn wearing an anoraky-thingy at the Cenotaph. It was not some sort of careless oversight. Corbyn was making a statement. The trouble is that if anybody asked him to explain that statement, he would be quite unable to do so. I wonder whether he could explain it to himself. Corbyn has built a career on avoiding anything resembling a straight answer to a straight question.

BUT then politics is all about fudge, evasion and illusion. It is peopled by politicians who think it is clever to answer a simple question with something on the lines of: "You know, the question we ought to be asking is . . ." But you do occasionally come across a plain, blunt and impressively straightforward statement. Take, for example, the Government's official response in support of the national petition against a second EU referendum. It is too long to repeat here but it you want to know why Theresa May is so opposed to the idea, have a look at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/226071

CORBYN'S "scruffy" mac was an irritant but I was more dismayed at the number of men, including elderly men who should know better, who went to the trouble of buying a poppy and attending the Armistice commemorations on Sunday to show their respects, but wore their hats throughout the two-minute silence.

I SUPPOSE we must defer to the experts but I really can't see why the Irish border has become such a huge Brexit issue. Few borders have been so used in so many different forms for so many years and with such flexibility. Britain traded with southern Ireland when it was part of the UK, when it was the Irish Free State within the Empire, when it was a republic outside the Commonwealth and when it was a neighbouring state within the European Union. Ireland also trades with plenty of countries outside the EU. And they're seriously telling us that trade between an EU Ireland and a non-EU Britain is an impossible mountain to climb? Does anyone believe a word of it?

MEANWHILE, back behind my computer, yet another advert pops up, courtesy of Google declaring: "You have opted out of interest based advertising. This ad was shown to you because of the time of day, the website you were viewing or your general location (for example country or city)." It is followed by four adverts for: an electric tricycle, a pair of women's panties, "chicken fillet" bra enhancers and a travel trailer. I feel a novel coming on.