Anything you can do...

Hooray for the Conservatives! Does anybody really think that the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, would have announced what, at least for the survivor of a couple, is in effect an immediate doubling of the inheritance tax threshhold in his pre-budget report if the Tories had not taken the wind out of Labour's election sails last week by stating their intention to restrict the tax to millionaires? After all, this is the same Alistair Darling who last year dismissed out of hand a suggestion by one of his own party that the tax should be eased or scrapped. To paraphrase Dr. Johnson - Depend upon it, sir, when a politician knows his electoral future is at stake, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

Busybodies.

The mother of a severely disabled daughter wants her to have a hysterectomy to save them both the problems which might be caused by the onset of menstruation. Doctors are seeking legal advice (why??) before making any decision. Disability groups have waded in to condemn any such operation as "totally and utterly unacceptable". Why don't they keep their noses out? Here is a parent in a desperately unhappy situation seeking to do what she considers best for her child - and let's not forget it is she (the mother) who will have to deal with the consequences, whatever they may be. I do not see that it is anybody else's business other than hers. She has made it clear that this is a personal decision, and she would not seek to advocate it as a general approach to this kind of situation. Everybody else should stay out of it and keep their opinions to themselves.

Must try a little harder

I'm tickled pink that England beat Australia in the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup, but it does once again highlight the problem of the way the result of a game is decided. I think we would all agree that the object in rugby is to score tries - so why is it then that the side who scored the only try of the game lost? I think it is high time to consider doing away with the penalty kick at goal. Take a quick tap penalty or kick for touch and get the resulting line-out by all means, but let's have the game decided on tries, eh?

Better late than never?

Went for my 'flu jab yesterday. Having had it, on the way out of the surgery I (together with everybody else) was handed a leaflet produced by the manufacturers of the vaccine. Got back to the car and had a look at it. Right at the top in bold letters it said "Read all of this leaflet carefully before you are vaccinated"!

Size matters?

There is, apparently, a "backlash" against the size-zero culture which has dominated fashion and fashion models over the last few years. John Lewis has said it is going to start using some size 14 mannequins in its window displays in an attempt to provide fashions more in tune with what the average woman can wear. Size 16, it seems, is still considered to be on the plump side. Well, Marilyn Monroe was a size 16, and she gets my vote every time!

What a fandango!

So the question of just who wrote "A Whiter Shade of Pale" is back before the courts - or to be more precise, who wrote which bits of it. The dispute centres on the organ intro. Lawyers are in court arguing the case for their two clients, but unfortunately there is no-one there to represent J. S. Bach, who certainly would have a good claim for plagiarism.

Bring back the turkey twizzler!

You don't need to be a child psychologist to know that the surest way to make a kid do something is to forbid them to, and equally the surest way to make them not do something is to tell them they must. But this basic commonsense fact seems to escaped those who are trying to get children to eat "healthier" foods, and who are now expressing surprise and dismay at the fact that the numbers eating school dinners is falling now that burger and chips is no longer allowed to be on the menu. Forcing stuff on kids that they don't want and don't like is never going to work.

Book post

(see post dated 18/11/06)

My latest ten reads -

Steve Berry - The Templar Legacy - 7
C. J. Sansom - Winter in Madrid - 8
Michael Crichton - Next - 8
Robert Harris - Imperium - 7
J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - 7.5
Robert Goddard - Never Go Back - 9
Paul Doherty - The Song of the Gladiator - 8
Barry Eisler - The Last Assassin - 9.5
Robert B. Parker - Sea Change - 8
Michael Jecks - The Death Ship of Dartmouth - 6

Petrol prices

Lots in the papers about the latest rise in petrol duty, which, it seems, is likely to force the pump price of unleaded to £1 a litre. But if memory serves, hasn't the £1 a litre barrier already been breached - albeit only for a short period - sometime last year? And it's worth remembering that in real terms, the price of petrol is pretty much the same today as it was 20 years ago, so we haven't really got a lot to complain about in that respect. What I do find completely unacceptable is that part of the pump price we pay is VAT, and that this is charged on a price which includes fuel duty - in other words, we are being taxed (fuel duty) and then taxed (VAT) on that tax, and that surely can't be right!

Am I missing something?

I'm not sure how you punish underperforming public service companies, but I cannot see the logic in fining them. The latest example is Thames Water which faces a fine of over £12m imposed by Ofwat for poor service to its customers. Of course this means that Thames Water will have £12m less to spend, which doubtless will result in even poorer service to its customers! Can anybody see the sense in that?