Every week News Shopper editor Andy Parkes brings you his 5 Thoughts from the last week.

1. I assumed my incredible ability to tip winning horses might have left me after the Gold Cup, but having bet on Many Clouds I realise I was always backing the right horse, I’d just got the wrong race. My colleague Jim says I might as well be picking last week’s Lottery numbers – if only there was a horse called Sour Grapes he could back.

2. There was a really bad smash on the M25 and the traffic was queued back for eight miles with nothing moving an inch. A small group of bored motorists had a kickabout on the opposite, empty carriageway, much to the annoyance of the police. I can’t really see why they made such a big deal out of it, what real harm were they doing? Surely the police had other things to concentrate on.

3. With all the election circus in full swing and future pensions looking such rubbish I now realise how lucky our old people are to be old at the current time. Old people have never had it so good, and never will in the future. No one will ever get such good pensions again and all the parties suck up to them because it’s mainly old people who bother to vote.

4. I had to laugh when I saw the story about the man who was told he couldn’t have two flagpoles flying flags in his garden. It reminded me of when I bought a flagpole and my son became interested in collecting flags and flying a different one each day. It was only after someone in the village asked why we were supporting a particular Arabic state I decided to check on his collection for an IS flag.

5. What a difference a little sunshine on your back makes. And just having enough light in the evenings after work to let you get a few things done outside. Suddenly everything seems better. I’ve heard we’re forecasted to have the best weather ever this summer – bring it on.