Peter Rhodes: A troubled existence

A READER takes me to task for suggesting that some people in line for compensation in the PPI scandal don't realise they are due the money and certainly don't need it. He asks whether I would decline an unexpected inheritance on the grounds that it wasn't expected or needed. Possibly not. On the other hand, if I had been warned repeatedly over the past 10 years that I might be in line for this legacy, and had done absolutely nothing to claim it, how much public money should now be spent ensuring I get every penny? Whatever happened to that old line about Heaven helping those who help themselves?

FROM time to time things go terribly wrong. An airliner crashes. A block of flats goes up in flames. Girls are sexually abused by organised gangs. And then, after the initial shock, it is revealed that everyone knew there was a problem all along but everyone chose to look the other way. It's only after the event that we raise our hands in horror and demand to know why, when all was known, nothing was done. And if you want to see a new national scandal brewing, look no further than Gypsy Kids: Our Secret World (C5, tonight) where we meet children of nine and 13 who have never been to school and whose parents, being semi-literate, cannot possibly educate them.

THE problems caused by travellers are usually reported in terms of caravan invasions, intimidation, crime and the filth left behind. But this series is a reminder that parts of the Traveller community are not only troublesome but deeply troubled.

IF you take your kids out of school for a few days in term time, the education authorities may well impose a steep fine or take you to court. Yet the non-attendance at school by thousands of traveller children is simply ignored. All politicians talk about the importance of education, freedom and the right to choose a better future. But on this issue, with generation after generation trapped in a no-hope web of illiteracy, those same politicians choose to look the other way and ignore child-neglect on a massive scale. Sometimes politicians even romanticise it. Jeremy Corbyn talks proudly of defending "the right to a nomadic way of life." What about the right of these traveller kids to choose another sort of life?

ONE of the London newspapers carries a letter from a lady complaining about online dating. She ticked the "good sense of humour" box and chose a date with someone who did the same. As they met she admitted that her sense of humour revolved around earthy double-entendres involving plums, melons and ginger nuts. Her date responded witheringly: "Personally, for me it is the wit of Oscar Wilde." She was deflated and it was their first and last meeting.

YET as I read this lady's letter, I found myself warming to her. Do you really want to spend a first date with some smartarse Oscar Wilde fan delivering waspish little one-liners such as "some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." Or would you rather be propositioned by some saucy companion who leans across the table and asks how you like your dumplings, sweetheart? No contest, is there?