Peter Rhodes on Waterloo, shaking hands and a night out with The Searchers
To demonstrate their commitment to the provinces, some TV companies have set up branches away from London. The result, as we saw a few days ago, is Channel 4 covering a stabbing in Wales from its London HQ and then switching to an item on Irish politics, covered from its studios in Leeds. Beyond me.
Plans to increase diversity in MI5 and MI6 allegedly include advice for our spooks not to shake hands with Muslims for fear of causing cultural offence. A female civil servant quoted in the document says, as a Muslim, she will not shake hands with men and recommends the “hand on heart” greeting instead. You may recall I made this suggestion during the pandemic. A brief nod with your hand over your heart avoids offence and reduces infection risks. Got that, 007?
Heart-touching also spoils things for those peculiar blokes who see any handshake as a trial of strength and an opportunity to crush another person's fingers. If the hand-on-heart is good enough for Bond, it's good enough for the rest of us.
