Peter Rhodes on vandalism, skulls and luring savers off cash Isas
Star columnist Peter Rhodes talks about a 'mornonic mission' to fell the Sycamore Gap tree and more
Two men who carried out a “moronic mission” to fell the beloved Sycamore Gap tree on Hadrian's Wall have been jailed for four years and three months for criminal damage. If that's today's benchmark punishment for felling a single tree, then what's the appropriate penalty for the Palestine activists, awaiting trial, who allegedly caused £7 million damage to RAF warplanes at Brize Norton? Concentrates the mind wonderfully, doesn't it?
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has a bit of a downer on cash Isas, probably because they generate tax-free income which chancellors can't get their hands on. She is urging Britain's finance industry to get out there and persuade people with spare cash to invest it not in dull old cash Isas but in exciting, higher-yielding stocks and shares. As the dull old owner of a dull old Isa, I will be avoiding such blandishments, thanks.
Why? because, like millions of Brits of a certain age, I have seen the rise and fall of countless get-rich-quick schemes and witnessed the disappointment of those who believed everything their “financial adviser” told them.
Britain has a large population of once-bitten, twice shy savers who now study the small print and run scared from those six terrible little words: “Your capital may be at risk.” If Rachel Reeves seriously thinks she can turn tweedy cash-Isa fans into roistering buccaneers of the Stock Exchange, she is in for bitter disappointment. Expect more tears.
One TV reviewer described the Beeb's ambitious new archeology series Humans (BBC2) as “invigorating.” Frankly, I found it a tad sleep-inducing.
Like so many modern documentaries Humans, presented by the dramatic Ella Al-Shamahi, took about half-an-hour's material and padded it with musical interludes and random movie sketches (what's with the endless pacing over sand dunes?) to fill a whole hour.
Nor was I convinced by the series' central premise, that you can chart the ascent of man by the changing shape of skulls, focusing on prominent brow ridges and other features. Take a walk along any English high street and I bet you'll see as much variety in modern skull shapes as anything this new series had to offer. Do you not sometimes suspect the Neanderthals are still with us?
