Peter Rhodes on rich politicians, human implants and how to commemorate fags
Deja vu department. Arnie Szoke, a father of two from west London, has hit the headlines after getting a microchip implanted under the skin on the back of his hand. The £400 surgical procedure, carried out in Germany, enables him to make purchases without having to carry cash or a card. So is this the future? Not exactly. In fact it's more like the past.
Nearly a quarter-century ago, in August 1998, the British professor and robotics expert Kevin Warwick had a chip implanted in his forearm which enabled him to open doors and paved the way, according to one report, for a man-machine cyborg. We're still waiting for the cyborg and frankly, after 24 years of research, you might expect things to have progressed further than the German implant which, on its first outing, helped Mr Szoke purchase nothing more exciting than a chocolate bar.
A street in Bristol where a tobacco factory once stood has been named, in memory of a famous brand, Navy Cut Road. Furious health campaigners are demanding a change of name. Bronchitis Boulevard, perhaps?
Still on health, here's a headline from the Daily Telegraph: “Beware the new Disease X: a fungal threat to humanity.” The good news just keeps on coming, doesn't it?
What sort of message is Britain sending to the world when critics endlessly bang on about Rishi Sunak's personal fortune or his wife's millions? The Guardian naturally leads the charge demanding: “Does Rishi Sunak's £730m fortune make him too rich to be PM?"
So do we seriously believe that the only sort of politician who can understand ordinary people is someone living in social housing with a bog-standard education and a minimum-wage job? Or is a personal fortune of, say, £1 million acceptable for an MP? Or maybe £5 million? But not £10 million? Who sets the bar, and in whose name?
In Sunak's case, this issue goes deeper than the mere politics of envy. It's as though migrants to this country are welcomed, but only up to a point, and the real message from Britain is: “Come here by all means, work hard and prosper. But don't prosper too much, okay?”
