Shropshire Star

Peter Rhodes on cooler holidays, a petrol-sniffing dog and how South Africa's dream became a nightmare

One piece of good news to emerge from the Mediterranean-heatwave horror is that more families are now booking holidays in cooler countries, including Belgium.

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Bruges – prettier than Venice? Photo: Erin Summer from Pixabay.

Excellent. Everybody should see Bruges. It's as pretty as Venice and you don't need a mortgage to buy an espresso.

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Chris Bryant, the openly gay and generally entertaining chair of the House of Commons standards committee, reveals in his new book that he has been sexually assaulted by fellow MPs on “several occasions”.

I can believe that. There is something about being in politics, even as a humble backbench MP, that makes a man (and occasionally a woman) think they are God's gift to the gender of his/her choosing.