Shropshire Star

Peter Rhodes on a new planet, Brexit's overlooked MP and Labour's 'work in progress'

Read today's column from Peter Rhodes.

Published
Stephen Kinnock - watch him

IF Nicola Sturgeon says Scottish judges are not politically biased, well, that's good enough for me.

INCIDENTALLY, if you don't fully understand Labour's position on Brexit, it is this. They will get a much, much better deal from Brussels than the Tories ever got. And having obtained this brilliant deal, they will then campaign against it and urge their followers to vote remain. If this sounds a little unlikely, it may well have been refined and perfected by the time this column appears. One BBC reporter sportingly described the policy as "a work in progress" which avoids using difficult words like "shambles."

I HAVE always taken the unfashionable view that Brexit had absolutely nothing to do with Parliament. It was a contract between the Government and the people. Once the people had demanded Brexit, the Government should have ordered the Civil Service to get the best possible deal and the Prime Minister should have signed it off. Job done. Instead, our MPs, 650 assorted oddballs, narcissists, party toadies, super-egos - and a number of thoroughly decent men and women.- insisted on getting involved. The result was like trying to order pizzas to suit 650 customers, given that 40 of them detest pineapple, two-thirds of them won't eat cheese and hardly any of them will swallow humble pie.

AND I still believe the key player in this Brexit deadlock is not Boris Johnson nor Jeremy Corbyn nor Jo Swinson, nor even Nigel Farage. It is Stephen "Compromise" Kinnock. Watch him. Hear what he has to say.

MEANWHILE, back in the real world, we arrived home from our holiday in Devon to find three small wins on Premium Bonds, which just about covered the cost of our restaurant meals during the break. I know you fellow Bond-holders simply love to hear this sort of stuff.

AM I missing something in The Capture (BBC1)? Detective Inspector Carey's (Holliday Grainger) murder investigation has been stymied by some all-powerful organisation (MI5?) pinching the video tape showing the victim being assaulted. But if the shadowy powers-that-be wanted the investigation quashed, wouldn't they just tell Carey to drop it, not just nick part of her evidence? Thus, all would be sorted in one episode instead of six. Mind how you go.

TRAVELLING further afield, scientists unveil a newly-discovered planet named K2-18b which is believed to be the first planet warm and wet enough for life. Reality check. The images of this "super Earth" 109 light years away are not photos but an artist's impression. With current technology we can't see it and even the guesswork is based only on what it may have looked like 109 years ago.

FOR all we know, K2-18b was destroyed by Klingons 70 years back and has since been replaced by a giant theatre curtain bearing the words: "That's All, Folks." It's as good a theory as any.