R.I.P.

Cyrille Regis.  I feel really bad that it's taken me so long to do this post, but I have struggled and struggled to find the right words,  But having watched the memorial held at The Hawthorns yesterday and having listened to Brendon Batson's eulogy,  I can do no better than to repeat his closing words -

Nice one Cyrille

Nice one, son.

What do you expect?

I am surprised that others are surprised about criminal cases collapsing when evidence comes to light late in proceedings which undermines the prosecution's case.  This is evidence known to the prosecution which they are obliged under the rules to pass on to the defence, but have failed to do so until the last minute.  So, why the surprise?  If you think about it, the prosecution find themselves in a classic "conflict of interest" situation.  On the one hand, it is their job to build a case against the accused, and yet at the same time they are obliged to tell the defence about any evidence  they are aware of which harms that case.  Surely this aspect should be handled by an independent third party - a sort of modern Queen's Proctor maybe?

Moonshine.

I did a post (6/9/12) about "blue moons" which occur when you get two full moons in the same month, and is down to the fact that the lunar cycle is out of sync with the paper calendar.  But of course, it works the other way as well - every now and again you get a month with no full moon.  It can only happen in February (and then only when it's a 28 day one) and comes around about every 20 years.  And yes, this year, 2018, is one such.  There will be no full moon this February.

The road to romance?

I've mentioned before that I live close to the M6 Toll Road, and was aware that there was a local rumour that it was "built on books".  But I've now discovered that the rumour is true.  The company responsible for constructing the road found that mixing asphalt with pulped paper produced a surface that was tougher and much less prone to wear and tear.  The question was - where could they pick up paper cheaply?  And the answer was - Mills & Boon books.  Apparently, for whatever reason, the publishers of Mills & Boon titles invariably massively overestimate demand, with the result that many are left unsold , and many more discarded once read, and so there are always plenty available to whoever can make use of them.  

Take the money!

In all the fuss about the Presidents Club business, one fact seems to be being overlooked.  This was a charity event designed to raise money for various good causes.  Some charities which would have benefited (including, if I understand it correctly, Great Ormand Street Hospital) have said they will refuse to accept any donations from the event.  So the losers will be sick children?  Can't see the sense in that.

Deus ex machina (2)

This title of yesterday's post may have confused some of you.  It literally means "God out of a machine" and refers back to the habit of ancient Greek playwrights who, having got their characters into a hopeless situation would (often with a clap of thunders and a cloud of smoke) have a god or some magical character suddenly appear on stage through a trapdoor or somesuch and using their supernatural powers, sort everything out. Since then, the phrase has come to mean any device which comes "out of the blue" to solve a seemingly insoluble problem.  I thought it was appropriate.

Deus ex machina?

Anybody else find this fresh complaint which has arisen against the "black taxi rapist" and which could over-ride the parole board's much criticised decision to release him just a little too convenient?

Those were the days - or were they?

I commented some time ago about how I thought that the Labour Party attracting so many young people was down to the fact that the young have no memory of what a Labour government was really like  I think much the same thing is now going on with the idea of renationalisation..  You need to be of some age to remember British Rail, British Steel and all that.  Not that privitisation has been a resounding success, but the idea that nationalisation is a "silver bullet" for all our economic woes is very much rose-tinted-glasses thinking.

Go back to...er...

Weird case of the Home Office refusing asylum to a man, and telling him he must "go home" even though they accept that he is stateless and therefore has no home to go to.  It will be interesting to see how they get out of that!

Priorities?

Remember Greg Rusedski?  Zola Budd?  He was a Canadian tennis player, and she a South African runner.  What's the connection - they both represented Great Britain in their respective sports,  They were what were known back then as "plastic Brits" - people from other countries who chose - or were chosen - to represent GB even though they were not born or brought up here,  Their eligibility was based on them having British ancestry.  It didn't sit comfortably at the time, and I thought we'd given up on the idea.  But no - it seems we have been prepared to spend something like £50,000 trying (unsuccessfully) to get a Slovenian tennis player to represent us in the Davis Cup.  This is in sharp contrast to the relatively paltry amounts we are prepared to spend on supporting home-grown talent.