"Mummy is in Heaven, Living with the Angels"

I noticed that headline on the front page of a newspaper someone was reading on the bus today.

I don't know anything else about the circumstances, but the headlined comment is the sort of thing some people might say in the hope of reassuring children whose mother has died.

How reassuring would it be ?

A thoughtful child might wonder why its mother should be living it up (or should I say 'dying it up') in a celestial holiday camp, instead of looking after her children. To accuse her of such negligence is close to libel.

"Adequate is not Enough"

I heard that absurd assertion this morning in a Radio Four discussion of police forces.

I assume it arises from some official definition of 'adequate' as roughly equivalent to 'In no respect so appallingly bad as to justify it's being shut down immediately'

That is not what I mean by 'adequate'.

Another Fiddle with Pensions

I'm suspicious of the Government's new plans for Old Age Pensions.

A substantial increase in the basic pensions is said by ministers to be cost free.

What I suspect is to happen is that the additional pension payments based on National Insurance Contributions will be abolished. Under the present system, people who contract into the state system can get a state pension around double the basic pension. I suspect those extra pension payments will be abolished, leaving many people considerably worse off.

The Strange Diction of Milliband Minor

The Leader of the Opposition speaks oddly. Not only does he lisp and sound as if he had a permanent cold, but there is about him the air of a truculent schoolboy, determined to assert himself, but unsure how to do it.

I fear he's a mistake.

Leicester Closed for a Riot

I had to forgo my usual city centre shopping today, because much of the City centre was closed so that an organisation called the 'EDL' could hold a so-called 'demonstration', and another group called 'The Anti-Fascist League' could have what they called a 'counter-demonstration.

I'm puzzled by the supposed right to 'demonstrate' in the street.

I consider the primary function of roads is to provide people with a way of getting around, and in the case of City centre roads, to get to shops.

People wishing to have a meeting could rent a hall, and do it there.

It is bad enough to allow one group of people to obstruct access to the shopping centre, but to allow another to hold a rival gathering nearby verges on lunacy. If there must be demonstration and counter demonstration in the street, let them be on different days.

In my teens I enjoyed History, and one of my heroes was Napoleon, because he got his troops to fire on the Paris mob. We may have something to learn from him.