Too Late

This general election comes too late. It should have preceded the decision to leave the EU not followed it.

Leaving the EU is a complicated procedure with far reaching consequences that are hard to foresee. The decision to leave should only have been made, if at all, as part of a detailed plan of how to go about it, set out by people prepared to implement it.

The only sensible way to go about that would have been for a party with clear and detailed plans for leaving to present those plans to the electorate and win a general Election on the basis of that policy.

The present government has given notice to leave the EU without appearing to have any clear idea of how to go about it, and now seeks reelection in the hope of entrenching itself in power before its incompetence becomes obvious to all.

I recommend a vote for the Liberal Democrats.

What is a Whistle-blower?

Whistle-blower usually refers to people who expose some misconduct in some organization of which they are a member. It is a matter of concern when such a person is made to suffer for their actions.

In a recent case the term has been used differently. The board of Barclays Bank received anonymous letters alleging misconduct by an employee. After an investigation failed to substantiate the accusations the CEO tried to find out who had made the accusations, and has been accused of breaking rules made to protect whistle-blowers.

Making false accusations is quite different from exposing misconduct. It seems to me reasonable to find out who made the accusations, so that the person wrongly accused may seek redress.

Sad

Our leaving the EU makes me very sad.  Despite all it's faults the EU broke down many of the barriers between countries. I liked the feeling of belonging to something larger than Britain.

Now I feel like an alien in a foreign land, surrounded by narrow minded bigots.

Grammar Schools

I have mixed feelings about the government's proposal to encourage the creation of new grammar schools

I think I benefited immensely from attending a Grammar School but there were quite a few boys there who gained little from the opportunity.

When I taught in a College of Further Education, I came across a fair number of good students who came to us from Secondary Modern schools.

I have doubts about the selection procedure. That seemed to be directed at selecting what were thought of as the cleverest children, with heavy reliance on intelligence tests. Being at least moderately clever is useful for anyone pursuing the sort of academic education grammar schools provide, but it is also important to be studious, attentive and conscientious. I can't think of an easy way to take such factors into account, but I think we need to think carefully before setting up a lot of new schools. The experience of Independent schools could be helpful, many of them use entrance tests without provoking great controversy.

We should also consider how much any schools are needed, now that so much information is available through the Internet. Younger children need supervision, and all pupils will need access to labs and workshops, but herding all under 16's together 5 days per week may no longer be necessary. Hard thought is needed and it would be a mistake to try to recreate the state of affairs that prevailed 50 years ago without considering alternatives.

Artificial Dilapidation

I recently noticed a young lady wearing jeans with a hole much larger than one expects to see, even in the most dilapidated of jeans.

Then I noticed a few strands of fibre criss-crossing the hole and realised that the hole was kept in shape by some sort of netting. I suspect that those jeans were manufactured with a hole.

I wonder if clothes with holes cost more than intact clothes ?

Something for Nothing

A retailer sent me a 'points' voucher for something I wanted to buy anyway, but I looked for it in vain.

When I went to the 'customer service' desk to tell my sad tale, the lady in charge credited me with the points anyway. So vouchers for something that isn't there may still be valuable. In this case the points are worth 40p

Well Hung Bananas

I recently received an unusual present, a banana stand.

It looks like a miniature gallows, with the noose replaced by a hook, from which one is bidden to hang a bunch of bananas. It is supposed to stop the bananas trurning to brown sludge as quickly as they usually do.

A little to my surprise, it seems to work.

My only guess at a possible mechanism, is that the arrangement allows the dispersal of ethylene.

Ethylene is alleged to be emitted by ripening fruit, and to speed up ripening, and bananas are regarded as a potent source of the gas. Adding a ripe banana is often recommended as a way of getting unripe tomatoes to ripen.

Ethylene (C₂H₄) has molecular weight 28, the same as nitrogen and a little lower than oxygen, so it should have a density close to that of air, suggesting that it would tend to hang around in an enclosed space, but draughts in the air should disperse the ethylene emitted by a hanging banana. However, that is just my speculation.

Redcurrant Jelly

I recently used up the last of my homemade redcurrant jelly, and I see no prospect of making any more.

In the previous house I grew my own fruit, but if shops sell redcurrants at all, they do so only in minute quantities at extremely high prices. I should need about 30 100 gram punnets costing more than a pound each to make a reasonable batch of jelly. As making jelly is the only use for redcurrants, I don't see the point in selling them in such small quantities.

I therefore bought some redcurrant jelly. It was most disappointing. It was extremely sweet, lacked the sharpness I expert from redcurrant jelly, and the texture suggested that the setting agent was gelatin, not pectin.

I miss my old fruit garden.

A neglected Garment

Many years ago, most likely in the late 1970's, I decided to get a new overcoat capable of keeping me warm in the coldest weather. At the time it was fashionable for overcoats to be just rather large jackets, reaching down no further than the lower boundary of the buttocks, and leaving legs exposed to the freezing blasts of the Winter winds. So I went to a shop offering made to measure overcoats. Having extracted an assurance that the cost would be the same however long the coat, I specified that it should reach well below my knees.

Staff in the shop were so shocked that they made me sign the order form to signify my consent to the length.

Thus was born my Harris Tweed overcoat.

I used to wear it for about six weeks each year, in the very cold spells we used to have in January and early February, when the insulation it provided more than compensated its weight.

I can't remember when I last wore it, but I sure It must be more than four years ago, and probably a lot longer.

So far this Winter I've encountered only two brief flurries of snow, and in both cases the snow melted within an hour or two of falling, and there has been no frost severe enough to last all through the day. The temperature has always been above freezing by noon.

I firmly believe in climate change !!!

Living Dangerously in my Youth

I've just read the warnings on a packet of aspirin tablets. Apparently aspirin should not be  taken by anyone under the age of 16.

In my schooldays anyone indisposed was sent to the school secretary, who gave them an aspirin. No matter what the ailment, it was always an aspirin !  How did we survive!

The Telephone Directory

A new Telephone Directory arrived today, and I wonderd how long it is since I used one.

I'm fairly sure I haven't looked up any  number in a directory since I moved house rather more than two years ago, and suspect I didn't use one for several years before that. Who, if anyone, still uses directories ?

An Innumerate Minister

Christ Grayling, interviewed on BBC Radio 4 this morning, responded to concerns about the possible extension of Heathrow Airport by saying that there has been a quantum change in the noisiness of planes.

As a quantum is the smallest change physically possible, that doesn't reassure me at all.

It often happens that dim people hear clever people using some word and think they can make themselves look clever by using it too, and do so without first finding out what the word in question means. It worries me when such people somehow get into the Cabinet.