Peter Rhodes on fishing for food, fishing with hats and fishing for profits in food deliveries

Presumably Auntie Beeb wanted to avoid the row that would surely erupt if viewers witnessed the killing of a salmon. But if you're not going to eat the fish, why drag it around the river with a hook in its mouth?

I have only ever caught one salmon. It was on a press trip (I mean I was on the press trip, not the salmon) in the far north of Scotland. “Put your hat on,” ordered the gillie. “You can't expect to catch fish not wearing a hat.” I obeyed, pulling on an old tweed titfer. Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, the line thwanged tight, a corner of the River Thurso erupted and a fine six-pound salmon was in the bag. Delicious, since you ask.

Gillie? Some prefer ghillie but mine insisted it was gillie because the word comes from the Scottish Gaelic gille, with no H. Another one for the pub quiz.

A reader asks, will the new generation of driverless cars abide by all speed limits, decline to park on yellow lines and absolutely refuse to park in disabled bays without authorisation? Or will we be able to buy bolt-on gizmos to override such troublesome things? Engaging selfish-git function now . . .

One of the surprises during the pandemic has been the cheerfulness of the supermarket-delivery drivers. As one who, as a district reporter, spent many evenings looking for half-hidden addresses, usually in the rain, lugging groceries around town looks like an assignment from hell. Yet these drivers tell me they enjoy the work, the driving, the time off and the chats with customers. One, a former postie, confided that working for Ocado was a hell of a sight better than working for the Post Office. And long may it continue. However . . .

During the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of families have switched to home-delivery shopping and retail experts believe they will not return to high-street shopping. Which means the food-delivery business is bound to become more competitive, especially now that Waitrose and Ocado have parted company and M&S has entered the online-food fray. When profit margins are tight, the usual result is employees being worked harder than ever. Today's cheerful drivers become tomorrow's knackered wage-slaves.

When this pandemic started some scientists suggested that a number of commonly prescribed blood-pressure drugs might worsen your chances of survival. Six months on, we are assured that those same drugs may actually reduce our chance of dying from Covid-19. Just remember, we are led by the science.