Peter Rhodes on kites, conspiracies - and when is a job not a job?
Star columnist Peter Rhodes tackles some hot topics - do you agree with his point of view?
Do you sometimes suspect there's a conspiracy between decision-makers in Whitehall and the manufacturers of blood-pressure tablets?
For instance, did you not hear the nation blowing a collective gasket at the news that the Government's preferred candidate for Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration was 73-year-old John Tucker who happens to live in Finland. So far the row has focused on the “totally ludicrous” travel arrangements. But there is another issue. This job has been done satisfactorily by an interim boss for the past eight months and, we are now told, can be performed perfectly well by someone of pensionable age working from home in Helsinki. So is it really a job at all? Would it ever be missed? Why not clear the desk, lock the office and see what happens? Think of the money we might save.
A few years ago, a friend with a sailing boat moaned about the wind: “It's either full bloody on or full bloody off.” I remembered that conversation a few days ago, contemplating the magnificent kite we bought our grandson seven weeks ago, still unwrapped. From the moment he received it on Christmas Day until now in mid-February, there's been either no wind or far too much wind. In all the dire warnings about climate change, I can't recall anyone mentioning kites.
According to a survey in the Times, almost half of Brits aged 18-27 believe this is a racist country and only 11 per cent of them would fight for Britain. I can understand Generation Z's aversion to fighting. Guns and bombs are very noisy and do not fit at all well into a sofa-based snowflake lifestyle. But Britain being racist? Wherever do they get such ideas?
Repeated surveys show Britain to be one of the least racist countries in the world. A couple of years ago the World Values Survey asked if people felt uncomfortable about the idea of living next door to somebody of a different race. The Brits scored a minuscule two per cent, the second best result in the world, after Brazil. Sing it loud and sing it proud: we are good people.
