The mob is taking over, and God forgive us, we are letting it - James Whale

Kurush Mistry and his partner Shailja Gupta were blasted for their bigotry after a two-minute video was posted on social media. Caught but good, the pair, who live in New York, wrote a grovelling apology claiming their actions were "misguided and thoughtless".

But does anyone really believe them? Not a bit of it. These things follow a welltrodden path. Disgusting behaviour, public shaming, a pathetic apology and then everything carries on as normal.

Now, I'm all for people being named and shamed like this in the media (I'm looking forward to seeing some of the scumbags pictured climbing over the Royal Artillery Monument at Hyde Park Corner being identified) but shouldn't we ask ourselves what has gone wrong that people feel able to behave like this in the first place?

Are our countries, in this case the US and Great Britain, so weakened and feeble that people feel they can behave any way they like, without any recourse to, or respect for, the laws or customs of the land?

It certainly seems to be the case, doesn't it? For the past month we've all had to put up with hordes of over-entitled yobbos bringing our towns and cities to a standstill with appalling abuse of a minority.

Not to mention the disgraceful displays (from both sides of the political spectrum) on Armistice Day.

Ukraine war brings Chariot to inspire

There's not much good news around at the moment, but I was taken by the tale of a young Polish inventor called Piotr Tluszcz. He's just won a James Dyson International Design Award for coming up with something called The Life Chariot.

Inspired by the conflict in Ukraine, he designed what is basically a funky, off-road ambulance trailer which can be towed by anything with a hook attachment and looks a little bit like a quad bike on steroids.

Its low weight and suspension make it safer for a casualty to travel in than the boot of a car, increasing the evacuation capabilities of rescue teams by adding room for one injured person on a stretcher and two more seats for medics or the lightly wounded.

Two units have already been given to the Ukrainian Medical Military Unit and the Polish Voluntary Medic Unit, having been tested in terrain such as mountain trails, forests, caves and mines.

It's an amazingly simple yet effective idea. Well done Piotr, and the James Dyson award people for bringing it to wider attention. Lives will be saved.

Greta’s protests are really grating on me

Why do people (especially politicians) still listen dewy-eyed to Greta Thunberg when she sounds off? She might have been unusual when she started her environmental campaign as a teenager, though I confess I wasn't that impressed.

But now she's hit 20 and popping up at environment protests all over - Sweden, Norway and Germany recently and in a London court last week for obstructing entry to an oil and gas conference.

A majority of Britons don't agree with her, so why do the politicians keep fawning over her? We've got to stop treating her as if she's some born-again deity rather than just another over-indulged adult-child.

Scrounger crackdown is just a government distraction tactic

You know the Government is in trouble when ministers trumpet a crackdown on benefits scroungers and workshy dole cheats.With so many jobs available at the moment, almost no one should be at the social begging bowl unless they really are too sick to work (and I speak as someone who's cracking on despite having terminal cancer).

I don't know one restaurant that couldn't do with a few more staff and I've lost count of the number of times I've seen places closing early or opening for half a day because of "staffing issues".

However, no matter how popular I suspect this sort of measure might be, it strikes me that this may be another policy that doesn't go anywhere - in fact, was never expected to go anywhere - but rather was desperately chucked out to try to shore up support for the Government after last week's disastrous reshuffle.

I suspect most people realise that, which is why there hasn't been a massive outcry from Lefties who seem to think the Government can simply shake the magic money tree every time someone asks for more.Which is a shame because the policy might get more people back into work and off the dole.

Has Strictly had it's day?

Is anyone watching Strictly Come Dancing? Thought not.

Angela Rippon and Annabel Croft aside, this year's celebrities are pretty poor. Perhaps it's time the show danced off into the sunset for good?

No wonder people have lost faith in the BBC

PS: When are we going to admit to ourselves that the BBC is totally finished?

Some of its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war has been, at best, irresponsible, at worst, openly prejudiced against Israel. No wonder people don't trust Auntie anymore.