Statistics again.

News item - divorce rates for last year are down by 8%. What does this mean? I've muttered before about using percentage figures in isolation, and here's a case in point. The actual drop is from around 167,000 to 155,000. Not really all that significant. Also the statistic is pretty meaningless unless you take into account current attitudes towards marriage. These days, when "trial" marriages are accepted as the norm, couples tend not to actually get married until they are sure about their compatibility - so fewer divorces. Indeed, perhaps the surprise is that, given the way society has changed, divorce rates have continued to hold at around the 150,000 - 160,000 mark since the 1980's.

Loony Tunes

So it's OK for Tom and Jerry to knock seven bells out of each other, provided they don't smoke? I'm glad I'm getting towards the end of my stay in this crazy world!

Not cricket (2)

What a mess this ball-tampering thing has turned into. What on earth prompted the ICC to make public correspondence which the sender had made perfectly clear was to be confidential? What a breach of trust!Who would want to work for such an employer? Whatever the rights and wrongs of the matter, the ICC have by their strange behaviour deliberately muddied the water for any future inquiry. Nobody comes out of this looking good.

Spring will be...

...a little late this year, says the song, but it appears that the reality is that Spring is starting earlier and earlier. And Autumn, it would seem, is getting somewhat later. All very interesting, but should it be a matter for concern? It's certainly made the news, and the suggestion is that it's happening so rapidly in evolutionary terms that some species of both plant and insect life may fail to adapt in time. I have to say that, if it's a choice between the survival of some insect or flower and a longer period of warm weather, I know which I would choose!

Rest in peace - all of you....

The other item which caught my attention whilst on holiday was the decision to pardon those executed for cowardice during the First World War. I really find myself torn over this - on the one hand it is clear that today many if not most of them would have been diagnosed as psychologically damaged and not responsible for their actions, but on the other hand what you have to ask yourself is whether or not they were wrongly treated according to the laws and understanding of the day - and that is not so clear-cut. I have mentioned before that I am implacably opposed to the death penalty, and that my views were crystallized by the Craig/Bentley case back in the 1950's. I was among the first to raise a glass when Derek Bentley was eventually pardoned in 1998, but that was a different matter - even by the legal standards of 1953 Bentley was probably wrongly convicted, and definitely wrongly executed. Perhaps today's pardons are more directed to the surviving families than to the men themselves, and I can go along with that.

Not cricket

Nemo judex in causa sua is a Latin tag meaning that no-one can both make an accusation and be the person to decide whether it's true or not. And yet, this appears to be precisely what has happened in the final test between England and Pakistan. One of the umpires has (a) suspected that the ball may have been tampered with, and then that same umpire has (b) decided that the ball HAS been tampered with. Whatever in fact happened, this is a blatant denial of natural justice, and if, as has been suggested, the umpire was simply applying the laws of the game, then those laws need changing.

Please proceed to the non-departure lounge.

So what's been going on while I've been away? Well I suppose the major news item has been the terror alert and the effects it has had on air travel. You can't but feel sorry for those who have had their travel plans disrupted as a result and possibly had their one holiday of the year ruined. From the point of view of the "terrorists" - if indeed they are proved to be such - they would have seen it as a win-win situation. Either they would have succeeded in their plan, or if not, they would create massive disruption, which is what in fact has happened. Much opprobrium has been directed at the airports, but I think this is a classic case of not being able to have the penny and the bun. Consumer demand for cheaper and cheaper travel has resulted in airports not being able to afford any redundancy in their systems, which means if any but the smallest thing goes wrong, they just can't cope. Actually I think they did quite well to keep going at all, but this of course is no consolation to those caught up in the chaos.

Return of the wanderer

Been away for a fortnight on holiday with the children and grandchildren. Nice place, good weather, but a struggle to keep my end up. Think I managed it - hope I managed it, and the grandkids had a great time, which is the main thing. The rest of us drank too much, tended to get maudlin and ended up most nights crying on each others' shoulders. It's a great life if you don't weaken!

Farmers are never satisfied....

I wondered how long it would be - this time every year you get headlines in the paper, saying that the hot weather/ cold weather/ wet weather/ dry weather has had a detrimental effect on the harvest, and that we should expect significant increases in vegetables prices this autumn. Nothing changes, does it?