Peter Rhodes on an incendiary queen, an election dilemma and more bad news on parking
I referred yesterday to Boadicea whose name can be spelled in many ways (Boudicca, Boudica, Boudega, etc). Her unique feature, as one historical website explains, is that she's “probably the only woman in the world who has a statue erected in her honour in the middle of the city she burned to ashes.”
Fair point. London has its statue of Boadicea the serial arsonist, but no statue of Fireman Sam.
“Good news, drivers,” chirps the Daily Mail, claiming success in its campaign to save cash parking meters. Read on, however, and it's not good news. It's very bad news.
The problem for those who don't have a smartphone is being unable to use car parks where fees can be paid only with an app. An added complication for smartphone users is that many different apps are in use. The latest news, from the National Parking Platform, is that drivers may soon need to download only one app. Well, so what? Far from making life easier, a single-app scheme actually entrenches the smartphone in the parking process, hastening the end of cash and card meters. I've rarely seen such bad good news.
And whatever happened to Michael Gove's stern letter when he recently wrote to all councils, forbidding them from forcing drivers to pay using smartphones? Has any council taken notice? Or did the Tory minister's letter go straight in the Gove-bin as our nation stumbles towards the day when not carrying a smartphone will be punished as anti-social behaviour?
A reader found himself in the voting booth with a quandary. Did voting really matter? Could his ballot paper possibly make a difference? Then he noticed the plastic table top was loose. He spent a couple of minutes public-spiritedly fixing it which, he says, probably did more good to the world than his vote will.
Meanwhile, I do admire the enthusiasm of activists as the results came in. After a few years you realise local-election nights follow the same pattern: 1) The party of Government takes a hammering but promises to learn lessons. 2) The party of Opposition says it is on course to form the next government. 3) The Lib-Dems say this is their greatest breakthrough since Orpington. And after a few more months, while we're all breathlessly awaiting the New Jerusalem, it doesn't arrive.
