After Brexit, Brexodus?

THE modern spectrum of sexual preferences is usually expressed as LGBT but is sometimes extended to LGBTQ or LGBTQIA. A reader tells me he overheard a woman admitting she “really loved BLT” and wonders where this fits on the spectrum. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's a sandwich.

CARDINAL George Pell says he is looking forward to returning from the Vatican to Australia for his day in court. He faces multiple complaints involving alleged sex abuse. His return to his homeland will literally be music to fans of Tim Minchin, the Aussie musician and comedian. When I last checked on YouTube, Minchin's acidic little song, Come Home Cardinal Pell, had had 2,109,823 views.

WATCH: Come Home Cardinal Pell music video

TO shoot your mouth off once may be considered unfortunate. To shoot your mouth off twice looks like career suicide. I bet nobody was hugely surprised at reports that Jon Snow yelled “**** the Tories!” while meeting fans at Glastonbury. Snow has been a darling of the Left for as long as we can remember and in the heat and bonhomie of Glasto, who might not yell a bit?

SNOW'S bigger mistake came a few days later. Presenting Channel 4 News, he crossed swords with Matthew Kilcoyne of the Adam Smith Institute think-tank. Kilcoyne ended his interview with this tart little jibe: “Not everyone hates the Tories as much as you.” This was the moment that Jon Snow should have said absolutely nothing. Instead, he retorted in hurt tones: “You can say that - but that is actually a very unpleasant thing to have done." In doing so, Snow revealed how worried he is about the Glastonbury incident. And now that is known, Snow is vulnerable to any Conservative interviewee caught in a tricky interview who can simply say. “Well, Jon, we all know you hate the Tories.” Snow is a fine journalist and a great interviewer. It would be a sad loss to Britain's variety of journalism if he has demolished his own credibility.

THE powers-that-be still don't get it, do they? At the core of the Grenfell Tower disaster is the belief that ordinary people were betrayed by that shadowy, ill-defined thing we call the Establishment. The very least the victims could have expected was an investigator they could regard as their champion. Instead, by some arcane and unexplained Establishment process, they got a retired white judge with a double-barrelled name. Sir Martin Moore-Bick is a fine chap with a brilliant legal brain and there is a need for people like him in the inquiry team. But in this crisis perception is as important as qualifications. The survivors should have been allowed to suggest their own chairman or woman, and if they chose someone like Jeremy Vine, Billy Bragg or Dame Julie Walters, then so be it. Grenfell Tower was a great opportunity for politicians to give us the People's Inquiry. Have they blown it already?

THE Guardian carried an impassioned piece warning that highly-educated and skilled EU citizens living in Britain would soon be deserting the UK, the phenomenon called Brexodus. One reader declared that the flight from Blighty would involve not only EU citizens but also Brits “with sort after skills.” I dare say we will cope. Sought of.