Peter Rhodes on Easter chaos, keeping in shape and the peril of cancers ignored

The latest health tip from Nice, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is to keep your waistline to less than half your height. A friend tells me this supports his contention: “I'm not overweight, I'm just four inches too short.”

Meanwhile the NHS is reporting a crop of cancer cases overlooked during the pandemic when all eyes were on Covid-19. It was inevitable because of the strange relationship we have with the NHS. Over the decades we have come to regard it as a benevolent old auntie, a tireless angel working her socks off for a pittance. And when we're asked not to overburden her during the pandemic, we take it so seriously that we don't want to mention worrying lumps, bumps and pains. We didn't want to bother the NHS and the NHS didn't wish to be bothered by us. Now, the reckoning.

Still on health, the latest wave of highly infectious but less deadly Covid-19 has produced so many symptoms that some cynics believe anyone can now wangle a day off work. As countless sickies are thrown, a reader reminds us of an old comment from an unknown GP : “I never cease to be amazed by the recuperative powers of the self employed."

As Ukrainian refugees wait in squalor, English council officials are busy approving or rejecting the houses offered by would-be hosts. Reasons for refusal so far include bare floor boards, low window sills, garden ponds, glass doors and inadequate smoke alarms. You may rant about jobsworths and red tape but we live in a litigious society. If a refugee escaped the carnage of Mariupol but broke a leg in a floorboard-related incident in Wolverhampton, the lawyers would have a field day.

When this bloody war is over, it may be that some Ukrainian soldiers will never be able to return to their homes in Russian-occupied parts of their homeland. At the same time, the British Army seems chronically unable to fill its diminished ranks. Having seen the tenacious courage of the Ukrainians, why not sign them up in our armed forces, or even create a new unit? The Royal Ukrainian Regiment has a fine ring.