Peter Hill

WORLD leaders are worrying over what to do about North Korea after its sixth and biggest nuclear weapon test. The rest of us are worrying about what our leaders decide. Should America launch pre-emptive strikes to knock out North Korea’s missile and bomb-making capability?

But that might provoke China and/or Russia to retaliate because they don’t want to destabilise their ally, which could lead to South and North Korea merging into a pro-Western state. That’s why they haven’t taken out Kim themselves.

Even if Kim’s generals want to get rid of him they are all terrified of being betrayed and finding themselves at the wrong end of an anti-aircraft gun or a ravening pack of dogs, both ways in which traitors have been executed.

The only solution I can think of is to ignore Mr Kim completely and his sad country. He is a classic case of the spoiled brat clamouring for attention and he’s loving all the attention he’s getting now. Pretend he’s not there. He will shout and scream for a while but when he realises no one is listening he will shut up.

I can’t believe he’s crazy enough to risk Armageddon by throwing his nuclear toys out of the pram. q A MINICAB driver armed with a 4ft sword who was allegedly trying to reach Windsor Castle was arrested outside Buckingham Palace because his electronic navigation had led him to a London pub called… the Windsor Castle. Another example of satnav stupidity.

I recently used GPS to guide us to Dartmouth. We ended up threading through a maze of single-track Devon by-ways and having to reverse numerous times to let streams of vehicles coming in the opposite direction get past. They were presumably also using their satnavs.

If only we had carried a road map, as drivers always used to do. I have several. All at home of course. q PEOPLE who know me would agree that I’m not exactly laid back and I can be a real pain in the butt about travelling. For example, I want to arrive at the bus stop/station/ airport in (very) good time, unlike my wife and son who are deadline junkies and make my blood boil by never being ready to set off.

I also like certainty so it was with misgivings that I initially agreed we didn’t need to pay extra to choose seats on our forthcoming holiday flight. “It doesn’t matter where we sit,” my wife said. “It’s only a couple of hours.” I duly checked in online only to find that we had been allocated middle seats at the front, centre and back of the plane.

My wife also insists that we take only cabin bags. “How many clothes do you need on holiday?” she says. “They can always be washed.” But the airline warns that unless we pay for priority boarding our bags might end up in the hold. The upshot is that I’ve paid the extra for us all to sit together. And, er, for priority boarding. And for pre-checking in for the return flight. It would only have been a worry.

“You are a sucker,” scorns my wife. Well nobody’s perfect. Except you, darling. q NHS bosses warn that hospitals face the worst winter in recent history unless they get an extra £350million to pay for more beds and staff. Reminds me of gangster films in which the Mafia say your store might burn down unless you pay protection money.

Britain spends less on health than some other countries but they mostly have systems partly funded by insurance while “free at the point of delivery” has been the sacred principle of “our” NHS.

It will always be in crisis unless politicians find the courage to say that, as costs spiral, everything can’t be free – and unless the public face reality. q INTERESTING that Britain’s manufacturing industries are growing at their fastest for three years, according to the latest report, and that unemployment is also at its lowest for ages. Funnily enough, orders are especially strong from Europe.

It seems that there is plenty of business to be done despite the gloomy predictions of pro-EU politicians, experts and business bosses themselves. The fall in the value of the pound caused by Brexit uncertainty is helping trade but the country’s prospects look bright.

It would work out fine if the two sides stopped pulling faces at each other and did a sensible deal. q COUNCIL snoopers have recorded nearly seven million offences of refuse bins being improperly used. In some areas residents have been threatened with £2,000 fines. Isn’t it disgraceful how local authorities are both reluctant to collect rubbish in the first place then act like tyrants when they do? Council powers to fine people for all manner of minor rule-breaking should be stopped.

At the same time police powers to prosecute so-called hate crimes should be ended. Our guardians should be made to concentrate on the purposes for which they were created: emptying the dustbins and catching real criminals. q WAYNE ROONEY is in the doghouse again after being charged with drink driving while taking home a woman he met in a club. “How could he do this to me when I’m pregnant?” says wife Coleen who was away on holiday. But that’s precisely the time when even saints have been known to stray.

You’d have thought a footballer’s wife would have had more sense than to risk leaving her husband all on his lonesome. Ever, let alone when she’s expecting.