Any parent knows - or should know at the very least - that the more intelligent a child is, the more careful you have to be about what you say in front of them.
The problem is that not only do we sometimes forget this, children usually have extremely good hearing - particularly when it’s something they’re not supposed to hear - and a remarkable ability to be ’within earshot’ when you’re not expecting it.
This was recently demonstrated in clear, unambiguous terms by the four year old daughter of one of my wife’s colleagues.
Bimbo Barbie, Brain-Dead Barbie, Boney Barbie...
You get the picture?
Naturally, her husband is rather more amused by this than she is.
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Recycle, Request, Refused...
It seems that not all of Dover District Council's staff have got the message about it's alleged commitment to recycling.
A certain nameless DDC official recently told a local school that they could not have the materials they wanted for a school project as they were to be incinerated. When the school attempted to clarify what it naturally assumed to be a health and safety issue they were told.
"Oh no, there's nothing wrong with them. They're just marked for incineration that's all."
A certain nameless DDC official recently told a local school that they could not have the materials they wanted for a school project as they were to be incinerated. When the school attempted to clarify what it naturally assumed to be a health and safety issue they were told.
"Oh no, there's nothing wrong with them. They're just marked for incineration that's all."
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
While I was out...
In the weeks before the election it was suggested that the reason for my long silence was that I had been 'identified' and subsequently crucified by party enforcers or perhaps even by the blackshirts themselves.
That's not unreasonable considering the way I've criticised the behaviour of the party leadership and Gordon Brown in particular. But alas, as so often in real life, the true reason is much more mundane and boring...
I've been busy.
One of the problems associated with this little 'hobby' of mine is the deceptively large amount of time it can consume. It's all very well thinking I'll just dash off a quick post about whatever happens to have caught my attention, but where politics are concerned that quick post can easily turn into a multiple page missive.
Keeping it to a reasonable size and/or paring it down afterwards takes time. Ensuring that the shorter version says what I want it to without too much danger of being accidentally misinterpreted takes even more time and suddenly it's not a quick post any longer.
Naturally I could 'make' time for this but then it wouldn't be fun anymore and as I've mentioned before, I do this mostly for my own amusement.
This means that I missed the opportunity to comment on such gems as Gordon Brown's appalling behaviour at the Cenotaph. The well deserved ear-bashing he got from Mrs Janes and his pathetic attempts to deflect criticism of his fiscal mismanagement by pointing the finger at Spain and claiming that the UK was not the only member of the G20 still in recession.
As the more politically aware will already know. Spain is not and has never been a member of the G20, regardless of whatever that deranged Scots git may or may not have convinced himself and some of his ‘colleagues’ of - although in their case it was more likely to have been the blackshirts who did the ‘convincing’. To then call them an 'unofficial' member when challenged on this fact merely served to further highlight his increasing inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality.
And then of course, there was Jim Devine's 'inappropriate' behaviour towards Nadine Dorries.
I must admit this did not come as a surprise to me as Jim Devine is one of the very worse offenders who, drunk or sober, seems to be incapable of keeping his hands off any woman unfortunate enough to attract his attention.
Sadly however, Jim Devine is by no means the only one guilty of this sort of misconduct which is far too common amongst MPs, some of whom seem to see this as a perk of the job rather than a criminal assault.
Finally I tip my hat in respect to a very senior member of the BBC, who on being told that Chris Evans had been chosen to replace Sir Terry Wogan as the presenter of the Radio 2 breakfast show because “he’s popular with the 15 to 24 age group" remarked
"So are venereal diseases but you wouldn't employ one to present an early morning radio show!"
That's not unreasonable considering the way I've criticised the behaviour of the party leadership and Gordon Brown in particular. But alas, as so often in real life, the true reason is much more mundane and boring...
I've been busy.
One of the problems associated with this little 'hobby' of mine is the deceptively large amount of time it can consume. It's all very well thinking I'll just dash off a quick post about whatever happens to have caught my attention, but where politics are concerned that quick post can easily turn into a multiple page missive.
Keeping it to a reasonable size and/or paring it down afterwards takes time. Ensuring that the shorter version says what I want it to without too much danger of being accidentally misinterpreted takes even more time and suddenly it's not a quick post any longer.
Naturally I could 'make' time for this but then it wouldn't be fun anymore and as I've mentioned before, I do this mostly for my own amusement.
This means that I missed the opportunity to comment on such gems as Gordon Brown's appalling behaviour at the Cenotaph. The well deserved ear-bashing he got from Mrs Janes and his pathetic attempts to deflect criticism of his fiscal mismanagement by pointing the finger at Spain and claiming that the UK was not the only member of the G20 still in recession.
As the more politically aware will already know. Spain is not and has never been a member of the G20, regardless of whatever that deranged Scots git may or may not have convinced himself and some of his ‘colleagues’ of - although in their case it was more likely to have been the blackshirts who did the ‘convincing’. To then call them an 'unofficial' member when challenged on this fact merely served to further highlight his increasing inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality.
And then of course, there was Jim Devine's 'inappropriate' behaviour towards Nadine Dorries.
I must admit this did not come as a surprise to me as Jim Devine is one of the very worse offenders who, drunk or sober, seems to be incapable of keeping his hands off any woman unfortunate enough to attract his attention.
Sadly however, Jim Devine is by no means the only one guilty of this sort of misconduct which is far too common amongst MPs, some of whom seem to see this as a perk of the job rather than a criminal assault.
Finally I tip my hat in respect to a very senior member of the BBC, who on being told that Chris Evans had been chosen to replace Sir Terry Wogan as the presenter of the Radio 2 breakfast show because “he’s popular with the 15 to 24 age group" remarked
"So are venereal diseases but you wouldn't employ one to present an early morning radio show!"
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