Peter Rhodes on an undercover cop, tainted tablets and those Europeans who simply refuse to blink

DELIGHTED to check my blood-pressure tablets and find they are not from the batches which are feared to be contaminated with all sorts of nasties, as reported a few days ago. I am relieved, but not hugely surprised. One of the alleged contaminants is an ingredient of rocket fuel. I'm sure I would have noticed.

IN the tense final seconds of Line of Duty (BBC1) John Corbett, the vicious drug dealer, sex addict and gang leader, was stunningly revealed as an undercover cop. The impact was somewhat dulled in our household because, the moment Corbett (Stephen Graham) had showed his face 40 minutes earlier, I said: "Bet he's a cop." Anybody else suss him?

THE polling-station cards arrived yesterday for the council elections next month. In a perfect world I would be able to cast my vote not for one of the local worthies on offer but for someone truly inspirational. I want to vote for Michel Barnier.

HAVE you noticed how the oldest of myths about negotiating with the EU has quietly died? It reeked of Anglo-Saxon grandeur and went something like this: The Europeans always hold out until the last minute but, by jingo, if we heart-of-oak Brits just keep our jolly nerve, Johnny Foreigner will blink first. So far, Johnny Foreigner in the shape of Messieurs Barnier, Tusk and Juncker, has failed to show even the hint of a tremor in the eyelids while our British politicians are doing a fine impression of headless chickens.

I BET many Brexiter hearts would sink if Article 50 were revoked and the whole process were put on hold for a couple of years. The received wisdom is that any delay would kill off Brexit. Not necessarily. For a start, it would give us 24 months in which to look long and hard at the EU. For years the mainstream media virtually ignored EU issues, thanks to its eternal, almost unhealthy, obsession with American politics. Washington, not Brussels, is the focus of every ambitious TV editor and presenter, to the exclusion of all things Euro. We are ignorant about Europe which is why the EU has been able to portray itself as a democratic, liberal and fair-minded haven. In truth, it has some nasty understains, its democracy is dodgy, it bullies smaller members and its expansion plans look decidedly imperial. It ain't Shangri-La. Who knows, after a couple of extra years spent studying the EU, today's Remainers might not be so Remainy, after all.

AS one whose broadband drops out with depressing frequency, I'm not impressed with this week's news that customers will get an automatic £8-a-day compensation if the service fails. Imagine you are running BT, Sky or Talk Talk and half-a-dozen rural lines suddenly go dead. Do you send a team of engineers and vehicles at £1,000 a day to the scene or just bung six complaining customers £48 a day? No rush, eh?