Shropshire Star

Peter Rhodes on the ageless Bond, two puzzles from Salisbury and Jeremy's Secret Album

A perfect world for Corbynism

Published
Missing photos?

I SUGGESTED that Idris Elba, now 45, might be a tad old to be embarking on a career as James Bond. A reader points out that the present incumbent, Daniel Craig, is 50. Maybe so. But he was not always 50. In fact when he took over the 007 mantle in 2005 Craig was a spry young 37.

IN Ian Fleming's books, Bond's age is not revealed, and he never ages. However there is a clue in one passage referring to the secret-service retirement age which suggests he is 37.

IN a perfect world for Corbynism, this torrid week of Wreathgate would end with the discovery of Jeremy's Secret Photo Album and all the wicked smears would vanish. Comrade Jez's stock response when challenged about meeting Irish or Middle Eastern terrorists is to put on his most pious expression and say he wants an end to all violence. He does not need to condemn IRA murders because he condemns all murders. He does not need to condemn Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel because he condemns all attacks. He would have us believe he is reaching out to all in the quest for peace. As he said of the Tunisia affair: "I was there because I wanted to see a fitting memorial to everyone who has died in every terrorist incident everywhere because we have to end it. You cannot pursue peace by a cycle of violence; the only way you can pursue peace is by a cycle of dialogue.”

SOUNDS terrific, doesn't it? But where, exactly, is the dialogue? How much time has Jeremy Corbyn spent talking to the other sides? Where are the photos of this saintly allotment keeper meeting Israeli families bereaved by Palestinian killers? Where are the pictures of him shaking hands with Protestant paramilitaries in Ulster or comforting those maimed by IRA bombs? Maybe all those images are tucked away in Jeremy's Secret Photo Album. Or maybe not.

WHY are we waiting? According to the latest reports, police have CCTV footage of suspects in the Salisbury nerve-agent incidents. So why have they not released it? CCTV captures only a moment in time. Figuring out where those people were, and what they did, before or after the filming is crucial and Joe Public may have the answers. So why can't Joe Public see the footage?

AND here's another Salisbury puzzle. Cops seem to have assumed that the bottle allegedly containing the Novichok agent and found in a local park was the only bottle used. For all we know, a second or third bottle may be lying undiscovered or, worse, sitting on somebody's mantelpiece. Again, releasing an image of the discovered bottle might jog someone's memory. But no images have been shown. It is all very odd.

I WAS reviewing at Stratford this week and can report only patchy progress in the noble march towards gender-fluid casting. In the new production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, not one of the wives is played by a husband.