“We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality,” wrote the historian Macaulay. Well, I think the British public in one of its periodical fits of Olympiamania takes a bit of …
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Finally revealed! The literary inspiration that drives our glorious leaders
It is said that Beethoven and Schubert were walking down a street one evening when they heard someone nearby playing Mozart. “You and I will never write anything that good,” said Beethoven. I recalled that anecdote when the other day …
Read MoreWhenever you feel tempted to feel sorry for the wretch ….
Read what Steven Ashworth of Dumfries wrote about Brown in a recent letter to The Sunday Telegraph: “This is the man who has wrecked the nation’s occupational pension system; this is the man who refused to implement a High Court …
Read MoreBy their fruits ye shall know them
That little line from The Sermon on the Mount is a good way of saying never mind the waffle, look at what it produces. In the case of our educational system, now under the caring, if utterly mendacious hand of …
Read MoreYet more Ed Balls-ups
Some 30 odd years ago I met a lady who was a granddaughter of the Lion of Judah – the Emperor Haile Selassie. She clearly inherited some of his courage, for she had survived 8 years being imprisoned and tortured …
Read MoreOn turds – an apology
I am not the first person to comment on my stupidity, but I am often the last to notice it. However, I noticed that half way through my last piece I mistakaenly changed the reptilian Adam Applegarth’s name to Appleyard. …
Read MoreSo let’s all stop work.That’s bound to help
This chap is Derek Simpson who runs a big union called Unite. As you can see from his glowing countenance, whoever else is suffering from the present troubles, it is not Derek. But he plans to make sure everyone else …
Read MoreLegal wit – and waste
I have (and I apologise) bored you with moans about my divorce a couple of times, but one story about the changing attitudes in legal circles amused me no end. I was asking my lawyer why it seems almost impossible …
Read MoreA seasonal joke
A driver is stuck in a traffic jam going into Central London. Nothing is moving north or south. Suddenly a man knocks on his window. The driver rolls t idown his window and asks, ‘What’s happened, what’s the hold up?’ …
Read More“Now just high-tail it on out of here, you pesky critter” said the Mail Marshal at Seiko Watches
One of my readers who works at Seiko often fails to get his normal helping of perceptive social comment from me because the Mail Marshal there stops it dead. Something about unacceptable language, apparently. Amazing. So I thought I might …
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