Checking it Twice

It’s a very short nice list this year.

It’s Friday, so let’s kick off with a little exercise for my ethically aware yeomen. The last Bank Holiday of summer passed with the normal combination of Battleship grey skies and drizzle. All of the little darlings have been packed off back to school with new school uniforms, assorted pens, rulers, coloured pencils and Crayola sets. It is time to think of Christmas. (Note 1) So who do you think should top the Santa Claus all time Naughty List?

At the moment, top of my list are Armand, Luis and Angel. The last couple of days, they have been in a particularly mischievous mood. On Thursday, I couldn’t post my chosen photograph. Yesterday, I couldn’t post anything at all – I couldn’t even add comments to my blog. So, patient yeomen, if you are reading this – Beware! Our favourite, mystical, invisible dwarves have moved on to pastures new and those pastures could well be your page.

Thinking about it, making a naughty list isn’t much of a challenge. What is really needed is something quite difficult. How about you try to develop a nice list?

I don’t know about you, but I went down the list and a few names caused me to raise an eyebrow or two. For example, Peter Tatchell. Yes, Mr. Tatchell has strong principals and the character to carry them through life. Yet, surely some of his methods are far from being described as good and there are plenty of people out there who would question his principles.

Another surprise on the list is Laurie Pycroft a pro-vivisection campaigner. (Note 2) Animal testing always raises strong emotions on both sides of the debate. What is it the yardstick being used to measure goodness?

For example, I was left wondering about Peter Tatchell’s viewpoint on the firemen suspended for refusing to hand out leaflets at a gay rights march. I wonder if he would support their right to refuse to follow orders on the basis of principle or would he feel that their principles are prejudiced?

All it goes to show is that in modern Britain there is no longer a single moral code against which you can judge. (Note 3)

Rather than depress my good yeomen, perhaps I should lighten things up with a few rather surprising snippets from the news.

If any of you are planning a little romantic excursion with your partner (or somebody else’s), then Paris is definitely out. If you want Apparently, the place for lovers to get the blood pumping to all their important places is Brixton High Street.

It has been strange news day all round. The New Zealand man who was caught speeding even though he had no arms. (Note 4) There is a campaign to save the railway carriage that carried Winston Churchill on his last journey.

Yet the best piece of news is that we have had near miss with British History. After his liberties with the William Wallace story, I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I saw that Mel Gibson will not be adding his twist to the story of the Dambusters raid.

From 14th June, the industry standard Crozzy Standard has been applied to footnotes.

NOTE 1: It strikes me that the mere mention of Christmas on the first day of September is enough to find my name appearing on some of your Naughty Lists. I didn’t mean to depress you with an un-seasonal mention of the festive season. Just console yourself that you are unlikely to be as depressed as Roger. Click to return

NOTE 2 : The Pro-test website can be found here. Click to return

NOTE 3: I came to the conclusion that with Christian Leaders being noticeable by their absence in the list, the moral code must have been that of the journalists themselves. Perhaps it would be an interesting exercise for them to share their moral code and allow the public to scrutinise how they match up against it. Click to return

NOTE 4: I sat in my car for hours trying to work out how I can steer the thing with my foot. Apart from a near rupture, I have nothing to show for my efforts. Can anyone of my more flexible yeomen explain how it is done? Click to return

TECHNORATI TAGS : Trivia ; News ; Ethics ; life ; Comedy ; red1hols.