Peter Rhodes on dirty water, greedy banks and broadcasting without balance

“Not bad for just £15 a month,” boasts the email. Are we supposed to have forgotten that, a wee while ago, it was £12 a month? And in a year from now . . ?

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Good to see an old colleague of mine, Philippa Tomson, has become a presenter on GB News. Pip, as she is now known, is at the cutting edge of opinionated broadcasting. On GBN they take no prisoners and if that means causing offence, so be it.

GBN's output can be simplistic, lowbrow, highly personal and borderline malicious. Yet it fills a vital little hole in the nation's broadcasting menu where, until recently, a largely centre-right population had no alternative to the all-pervading leftism of the mainstream media. The debates on GB News may strike you as little better than pub talk but in a nation that cherishes its pubs, what's wrong with that?

Incidentally, if you still cherish the belief that the BBC is unbiased, try playing IAG, the Inserted Adjectives Game. Just count the number of times in news bulletins that a report criticising the Tories is described by the Beeb as a “damning,” “devastating” or “withering” report, with no evidence to support such words. That's not fact, Auntie, it's opinion.

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Feedback is a growth industry of our age. “How was your recent practice visit?” asks my dental surgery following last week's squeak, polish and flush session with the hygienist. Does anybody read our responses? I'm inclined to write: “It wasn't a practice visit. It was a real visit.” Maybe next time.

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In a famously wet country, Britain's water companies supply an essential product to a captive audience at a price agreed with the Government. And still they manage to run up debts of billions of pounds and fill our rivers with tampons, condoms and poo. Some things are far too precious to be left to market forces and the sooner water is nationalised, the better.