Peter Rhodes on dumping dogs, changing minds and getting stuck in the floods

I recently described the installation of our new smart meter. There was a sequel. Consulting my online electricity account (how cyber-cool am I?), I discovered the power company had bunged me a cool £50. It's called the “smart install incentive payment” and they seem to have kept it rather quiet.

Those Hamas / Israel negotiating positions in full. Hamas: "We have invaded Israel, slaughtered 1,400 Jews, taken 200 hostages and indiscriminately lobbed thousands of unguided missiles into towns and cities. Now, clearly, is the perfect moment for a ceasefire.”

Israel: “In response to the above we have targetted Hamas leaders and bombed and shelled the Gaza Strip killing 4,500 people and reducing whole neighbourhoods to rubble. Soon we will invade Gaza, demolish the tunnels and bomb factories and totally exterminate Hamas. And that will clearly be the perfect moment for a ceasefire.”

The government of Jordan says no-one in the region will accept that a terrorist rocket caused last week's hospital catastrophe without “an independent international inquiry into the tragedy” that yields “impeccable evidence that it was not Israel.” And that's not going to happen. The lesson of inquiries is that no matter how impeccable the evidence, believers believe and disbelievers disbelieve and no power on earth will change their opinion. Ask anyone in Northern Ireland.

Some owners of XL Bully dogs are reportedly dumping them on the streets or trying to hand them over to dog charities, which may not be easy. The Dogs Trust says: “We are not currently re-homing any dogs that we think could be typed as XL Bully type dogs.” I bet this rash of sad farewells to rampaging beasts with tempers as scary as their names is connected to Sunderland police considering a murder charge against the dog owner in one recent killing. We love you, Satan - but not that much.

It's a generation thing. As the news came in of Bobby Charlton's death, it was delivered by an assortment of TV newsreaders, some so young that, although they read the auto-cue perfectly, you suspected they hadn't a clue who Bobby Charlton was.