Peter Rhodes on a hell-hole prison, fossil phrases and some useful Spanish words for jabs

Our changing language. A “fossil phrase” is the term coined to describe much-loved expressions that have been left behind by real life. An example is a car's glove compartment These days, who keeps gloves in them? And some of us still say “dial the number” when telephone dials are long-dead.

The other day I heard myself referring to a “carriage return” on a laptop. I can also recall when a laptop was something much more interesting than a laptop.

Talking of which, a depressing new survey in the States reveals that young men in their 20s prefer playing video games to what the pollsters rather sniffily describe as “casual sex.” A big factor, apparently, is that so many males in this age group are living with their parents. Believe it or not, kids, there once was a time when the old envied the young.

I suggested a few weeks ago that in terms of political instability, gun ownership, religious fervour and poor education, the United States sometimes looks more like a Third World nation than a modern democracy. To that list we can now add its prison system. Under the US Constitution, Ghislaine Maxwell, awaiting trial in a federal jail on child-sex trafficking charges, is innocent until proven guilty. Yet according to her family, she is being held in solitary confinement, under constant watch, woken every 15 minutes and subjected to strip searches in a tiny 10x12ft cell with a concrete bed and WC. There are probably laws against keeping livestock in such conditions.

And where's the moral high ground? Maxwell's treatment on remand sounds no better than the appalling, spirit-sapping conditions inflicted on Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe by the mad mullahs and revolutionary thugs in Iran. You might expect to find such hell-holes in Iran, North Korea or Myanmar but in the United States in the 21st century? If only half the allegations raised by the Maxwell family are true, America should hang its head in shame.

Having fought against vaccine “hesitancy” among ethnic minorities, health experts have discovered a new group of refuseniks – young parents. About one in six of parents with pre-school children, especially the under-30s, are said to reject the jab or have doubts. I can understand that. Experience suggests that young adults with Covid suffer mild symptoms or none at all. Why risk having the side-effects of a vaccine when the disease itself will barely harm you? The answer is twofold. Do the right thing, have the jab and you'll protect your friends, neighbours and old folk. Don't have the jab and you won't get the vaccine passport and you'll never see Benidorm again. Useful Spanish phrase: “Es tu elección - zanahoria o palo.” (It's your choice - carrot or stick).

The importance of the hyphen. According to a Daily Telegraph headline: “Oily fish eaters less likely to die of heart disease.” That's presumably oily-fish eaters.