Rhodes on naming pubs, living with travellers and coats that cause obstructions

A pub in the Shropshire village of Cockshutt has changed its name. It was formerly the Leaking Tap but is now the Woodcock. In male medicine, things generally go the other way.

My eye fell upon a feature claiming that deep-quilted puffer coats are the fashion statement of the season. Well, maybe they are. But I bet the people who design these big, soft and bulky coats don't spend much time in the average modern house with its small rooms and narrow corridors. With two or three puffers hanging in the hall, what you've got is not so much a fashion statement as an obstruction.

In 60 Days with the Gypsies (C4), the explorer and former army officer Ed Stafford lived with travelling families and did his best to befriend them. He seemed to come away from the experience with that same blend of sympathy and irritation that so many bricks-and-mortar folk feel towards them.

For starters, as a society, how did we ever come to accept thousands of traveller children leaving school at 11 or 12? Is this not child neglect on a massive scale? While most of Stafford's contacts, especially the women, seemed decent folk desperate for some stability, even this patient, worldly-wise bloke was horrified to find someone had squatted on his campervan and defecated on the windscreen. Society may be unkind to travellers but some of them do nothing to help their case.

As we head towards soaring energy bills, expect a backlash against green campaigners and the urban guerillas of Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain. The sort of measures they are demanding will inevitably force up prices even further. And while the average Brit may claim to want to save the planet, it's usually on the understanding that the process will be painless.

Truth is, we are sitting on vast amounts of gas and oil but declining to use them. We could be warm and rich but instead we have to be cold and poor. And because the UK produces only 1.1 per cent of global emissions, whatever we do won't make a scrap of difference.

I suspect the backlash against Britain's self-inflicted suffering will begin at the local council elections in May. It will be fascinating to see how the Greens get on.