Peter Rhodes on lifeboats, bullies and the best place to buy a house

In the great rush to recognise Palestine as a state, did anyone in our beloved government take a close look at the small print describing exactly what sort of state it might be? As Britain made its historic move this week, images emerged from Gaza showing the public execution of three Palestinians accused of “collaboration". The accused were dragged into the street and shot repeatedly while a mob bayed its approval. So how long before this lot gets wined and dined at Windsor?

After my item a few days ago on how to deal with Russian jets in your air space, a reader writes: “The Russians are just like your playground bullies. If you stand up to them they will stay away from you!”

Good luck with that. As I recall, if you stood up to a playground bully, he'd be back the next day with a couple of mates and give you a real whacking.

According to a survey, the average Brit watches TV for no more than 15 minutes before getting bored. Some blame smartphones and others blame our poor attention spans. But there may be another explanation. Are we perhaps simply watching absolute rubbish? This week, the former Python Eric Idle pithily described modern TV as “people trying to bonk each other on islands".

If your chosen programme is boring, why not turn over to Saving Lives at Sea (BBC2), an everyday story of the courageous, and surprisingly photogenic, volunteers of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI)? From the moment the alarm is given to the split second when they snatch a swimmer/surfer/dog from the briny, I defy anyone to switch off.