Peter Rhodes on a grim spring, the joy of delivering and a sudden encounter with Armageddon

The BBC monthly weather forecast for the period March 15-28 is: “Pretty typical for a British spring.” Have six little words ever hinted at so much misery?

My fear that people without smartphones might be left out of the Covid-19 passport scheme may have been solved by the Old Testament. Israel is way ahead of the rest of the world in vaccinating and is already producing a smartphone app showing the owner's health and jab record. But some ultra-Orthodox Jews refuse to use smartphones, so the authorities are also producing a printed paper version of the passport. Problem solved. And if they can do it, so can we. Shalom.