Oh, the nostalgia...

So the AA is to introduce patrolmen on bicycles? Plus ça change, and all that - I remember when all AA patrols were by men on motorcycles with side-cars, and if you came across one and you were sporting an AA radiator badge, you would get a smart salute! Those were the days!!

Justice works both ways.

The recent House of Lords decision effectively banning the use of witnesses giving evidence anonymously is clearly right, however inconvenient to the police and prosecutors. If the threat of intimidation or violence dissuades a potential witness from giving evidence that is a matter which must be directly addressed by the police and prosecution, not circumvented by a basic denial of fundamental common law principles. The whole concept is based on two unproven assumptions - that the defendant is guilty and will otherwise escape conviction, and that the witness is telling the truth. Our legal system denies both those assumptions - it presumes the defendant is not guilty until and unless the contrary is proved, and it allows the defendant the fundamental right to challenge the witness's evidence, which clearly is substantially compromised by not knowing who the witness is. I fear this Government - as it is wont to do - will produce some ill-thought-out and knee-jerk legislation, which will simply compound the problem. They should be looking at ways of creating an environment in which witnesses feel able to give evidence, rather than denying the defendant's rights.

Flag waving.

With Andy Murray - at the time of writing - still in Wimbledon, there have been a fair few flags of St. Andrew visible in the crowds. A commentator who perhaps should have known better, referred to one such as "the saltire", and that's a name commonly used by the Scots. But a saltire is just a type of heraldic design - simply a diagonal cross, so the Scottish flag is a saltire, but as that design is also used by other countries and states, it has no particular right to call itself the saltire, although it's true that it's almost certainly the oldest flag of that type.

Oh wow - I didn't see that coming!

I've posted before about surveys which seem to be set up to do nothing but prove the obvious, but equally amazing is how decisions can be taken without regard for the equally obvious consequences. The finding that the decision a few years back to withdraw anonymity from sperm donors has resulted in a significant decrease in such donors is being greeted with surprise - but really folks, what did you expect? Makes you wonder about the intelligence of some of our decision-makers, doesn't it?

Oh no, not again!

Depressing to see signs that the big unions are starting to talk in the same way as they did in the 70's - prepared to hold the country to ransom to get a preferential deal for their members, and sod everybody else. Problem is that the Government is so weak at the moment, and as I understand it, the Labour Party is in such desperate need of funds, that the danger is they may be inclined to give way to them. Hope I'm wrong...

Ha ha.

Couple of quotes about old age which I found particularly amusing -

He's so old that when he orders a three-minute egg, they ask for the money up front.
Milton Berle.

When I was a boy the Dead Sea was only sick.
George Burns

Frankenstein food?

One thing that you learn as you go through life is that there are two sides to every coin - nothing is all good or all bad. Surprisingly, this is a lesson which seems to escape many people. They just concentrate on the good and ignore the bad or vice versa. GM foods seem to me to be one such area - there are clearly enormous benefits to be gained from using that technology, but equally there are detrimental, or potentially detrimental consequences to be considered. To simply look at the one side and ignore the other benefits nobody. What is needed is an unemotional assessment of the pluses and minuses, and an acceptance of the fact that whichever way the decision goes, the views of those who oppose it are valid and must be addressed.

Poo.

I've mentioned before that I've problems with dogs doing their business on my front lawn, leaving me to deal with it, so I was interested when I saw a story of a scheme in Mansfield to address the problem of dog owners who fail to clean up after their pets. But apparently their solution is to "shame" owners by spraying the dog-mess pink. Am I missing something? Just what is this supposed to achieve? If the owner is still around, then the obvious answer is to confront them directly, and if they are not, then how will they be shamed? Don't get it.

... is icummin in.

The last sentence in yesterday's post raises the interesting (some might say vexatious) question of precisely when does summer start and finish. June 24th - known as Midsummer Day - is one of the Quarter Days which were important markers back in feudal times (they were when you had to pay your dues to your landlord), but also harks back to the Celtic tradition that summer starts on May 1st (hence the May Day celebrations) and therefore midsummer falls somewhere around the middle to end of June. The astronomical answer is that summer is the period between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox (June 20th to September 20th this year). And then the Met Office will tell you that summer consists of the whole of the months of June, July and August. So take your pick, but I wish someone would tell the weather that it's summer!

Sun arise...

Most people (and I have to admit that before I looked into this, I was one of them) think that the summer solstice and the longest day refer to the same thing. But no - the longest day (and the name sort of gives it away, doesn't it?) is the date on the calendar when there is the greatest time difference between sunrise and sunset - and that, here in the UK is today, June 21st. The summer solstice on the other hand is a precise moment in time when the sun is at its most northerly point relative to the earth, and this can be anytime from late on the 20th (as it is this year) to early on the 22nd. And then, just to really confuse the issue, Midsummer Day is on June 24th!