I see a group of public-spirited citizens have clubbed together to fund a “breakfast club” at an inner-city primary school in Derby for poor children who otherwise would go without the most important meal of the day. But, hang on, isn’t childhood obesity now a major problem? And who’s to say those kids aren’t stuffing their faces with McFilthburgers at other times of the day?
An excellent letter in today's Telegraph making the point that the collection of fruitloops supporting the AGW theory generates an instinctive scepticism on the subject:
SIR – With Copenhagen just days away, the problem with the man-made climate change question for a genuine "don't know" like me is that there does not seem to be any credible authority which is independent and devoid of self-interest that I can listen to and trust.
The issue seems to have been hijacked by the same group of sincere weirdos, hand-wringing do-gooders, bandwagon celebrities and anarchists whom I so clearly recall from days gone by at Aldermaston, Greenham Common, and the Newbury by-pass. They too claimed to be trying to save the planet from impending doom.
Then there is the climate-change industry of vote-grabbing politicians, media folk and scientists who clearly have a deeply vested interest in talking the whole thing up, in order to gain power or pay their mortgages.
In the face of this I tend to gravitate, out of sympathy, towards the much vilified man-made-climate-change sceptics – but that is perhaps an emotional reaction. Who can I trust to give me facts I can understand and tell me the truth?
Philip Derbyshire
Brampton, Northamptonshire
In a city renowned for its bitter sectarian divide, it can’t be a good idea for the Scottish TUC to urge Celtic fans to wave Palestinian flags at their team’s match with Israeli team Hapoel Tel Aviv. Surely this falls foul of Celtic’s own code of conduct, which states supporters at the ground would be guilty of “disorderly conduct” if they stir up “hatred or ill-will towards individuals or groups of people” because of “national origin”.
Why is it that members of West Indian and Asian communities living in the UK, who in many cases must be the second or third generation born in this country, usually still have identifiably “ethnic accents”? Not exactly going to help them integrate, is it? You don’t find people of Polish ancestry whose grandparents settled here after the war still talking in a Polish accent – usually the only identifiably Polish thing about them is their surname. Mind you, a lot of blacks in the US still seem to talk in a black patois even though they’ve been there for over two hundred years. I always think subtitles are needed when listening to the racist crap spouted by Jesse Jackson.
Each year we are told that school exam results are better than ever before. But ultimately the tractor stats must collide with reality, as the boss of Britain’s biggest private sector employer has pointed out. This is not to say the pupils don’t work hard – in fact they are often expected to put more work in than they used to forty years ago – but that they are not being properly challenged and stretched by the educational system.
They are scum. Utter scum. Improve the gene pool and run one over today...
Any cyclist making a serious journey would be better off, and inconvenience others less, on a moped. Any cyclist just doing it for the exercise should not be on a public road.
Excellent denunciation of the vile climate change Luddites from Hugo Rifkind in yesterday's Times:
The more I try to be green, the more the showy extremism of the green lobby infuriates me. Not because it’s pious and hypocritical — although it is — but because it’s so wantonly ineffectual. Face it, Dreadhead, it’s time for some pragmatism. People in the developing world aren’t going to spend their lives in dank holes, eating weevils, however much you might like them to. Failure to accept that will only hold us back. You might even call it criminal.
The Irish like to bang on at tedious length about their heroic struggles against British oppression, but you have to wonder whether in reality they’re really cut out to stand on their own two feet, given their contemptible, craven surrender to the yoke of Brussels in the form of the Lisbon Constitution Treaty. Mind you, their feeble acquiescence to the smoking ban suggested they hadn’t really got what it takes.
Autumn again, so the heating in offices goes on full blast, meaning that people have to open windows to keep the temperature down to a reasonable level. Now, I’m no global warming nutter, but what a ludicrous waste of energy! We should revive the old law passed in the 1970s energy crisis that you weren't allowed to use power to heat workplaces above 20º C, and have a team of inspectors going round whacking heavy fines on any employer caught with a higher temperature and the heating on.
And even when the heating’s on, some workers (invariably women) are still running fan heaters under their desks, wasting yet more electricity and selfishly heating up the room even more for everyone else. If I had my way, this would merit instant dismissal. Get the nesh, mardy cows out on the street!
And people need to accept that in the middle of winter they will need to wear jackets and jumpers in the office, just like their parents and grandparents used to.
I can't help thinking that constantly sniffing in the company of others is an offensive and unhygienic habit. On a par, really, with repeatedly and unapologetically releasing rasping, smelly farts. For God's sake, can't you blow your sodding nose?
Why is it that the chips at my local McDonald's are scarcely ever properly cooked? Why is something so simple so difficult?
Indeed, why does Britain as a whole find chips such a problem? The usual approach seems to be to take a spud, slice it into no more than 8 chunks, briefly introduce said chunks to some fat, then call them chips.
The Frogs have the right idea with their "allumettes".
Got an Indian takeway tonight, which reminded me that these meals, while they may be tasty, are always about half as much again as you really want to eat. There can't be far short of 1,000 calories in one. If you shared one between two people it would make two acceptable, if a touch frugal, meals. Surely this must be one of the major causes of obesity in this country. Isn't it time restaurants and takeaways were made to display calorie contents of meals?
