Peter Rhodes on a floating hotel, a temporary prison and a land of spivs and plebs
Floating the idea of a “one-off” new tax on the super-rich, the TUC says it would affect only the wealthiest 0.3 per cent while generating £10 billion a year for the public purse. The sceptic in me recalls that income tax was originally targetted at the rich but now hammers millions of ordinary families. And how long before “one-off” becomes “two-off”?
On the other hand, who can ignore the TUC's warning of wealth inequality creating “a tale of two Britains”? Two growth areas of our age are food banks and luxury cars. Do you not sometimes think this is a land of spivs and plebs?
As the row over the accommodation barge, Bibby Stockholm, rumbles on, I am reminded of a few nights I spent aboard the world's first floating hotel in Vietnam some years ago. I don't recall anyone developing water-phobia or worrying about the fire precautions but it has the distinction of being the only hotel I've ever stayed in where the wardrobe contained a lifejacket.
Down memory lane again. The vast sums being spent on acquiring and improving accommodation for migrants has echoes of 1980 when prison officers went on strike and the Government suddenly had to find temporary jails. For a few months, Rollestone Camp on Salisbury Plain, a familiar billet for thousands of Territorial Army soldiers, was pressed into service as HMP Rollestone. When the Terriers were allowed back, they were amazed at the improvements to the toilets, accommodation and cookhouse. Conditions that had been deemed good enough for soldiers of the Queen were apparently not good enough for Norman Stanley Fletcher.
According to a survey (where would we be without them?), 60 per cent of members of the Craft Bakers Association reckon the word “scone” should be pronounced to rhyme with “phone,” not with “gone.” I fear the “phone” version will eventually triumph because it's the preferred pronunciation in the South of England and, sadly, southern ways tend to drift north.
In the meantime, pronouncing the letter H as “haitch” seems to be gaining ground. The BBC's golden boy and presenter of University Challenge, Amol Rajan, is a “haitch” man, to the dismay of some viewers. We never heard a “haitch” from Paxo.
