Peter Rhodes on genders, pensions and the luxury of worrying about small things

I interviewed a psychiatric nurse specialising in war trauma suffered by children. Over dinner this healer of tiny minds asked what were the big political issues in England these days. After a moment's thought I suggested foxhunting. With a smile she replied: “How nice to worry about such small things.”

I was reminded of her this week as Rishi Sunak delivered his Windsor Framework to the House of Commons. I doubt if any of those MPs entered politics to debate the minutiae of imports, exports and red and green channels. They probably dreamed of achieving world peace and building the new Jerusalem. Yet here they were, paying full attention, as the PM talked about Northern Ireland's new deal on sausages and seed potatoes, oak saplings and garden centres.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on this troubled planet 50,000 earthquake victims were being mourned, drug gangs were carving up vast regions and Putin's henchmen were lobbing missiles into Ukrainian homes. And our Parliament debates saplings. It's easy to sneer but we should be thankful. How nice to worry about such small things.

Windsor Framework. Sounds like a very upmarket pergola, doesn't it?

Remember a few years ago how OAPs would moan bitterly about the latest pitiful rise in the state pension, brandishing their 50p pieces with disgust? Following this year's index-linked, triple-locked 10.1 per cent rise, pensioners have gone very quiet, haven't they?

Did you spot my dazzlingly politically correct moment in Tuesday's column when I referred to a company's new receptionist as him/her? How woke am I?

Not at all woke, since you ask. By suggesting job applicants can be either male or female I am, of course, guilty of binary thought-crime (or possibly a micro-aggression) by ignoring other possible genders. So how many genders are there?

According to a drag queen who was allegedly invited to address school children on the subject, there are no fewer than 73 genders. Quite how a drag queen became the guest speaker in the school is being investigated by officials in the Isle of Man. Maybe Roy Chubby Brown was booked up.