Peter Rhodes on peeling spuds, writing great songs and a campaign short on optimism
Terms for our time. According to the Financial Times this week, the current General Election campaign has an “optimism deficit.” Love it.
Young vandals in Suffolk wrecked 70-year-old Gillian Mears', gate and she threatened to “wring their necks.” Now, what do you think our dazzling criminal-justice system did next? Did it send cops in hot pursuit? Did it punish the criminals and secure compensation for the victim? Or did the cops simply reprimand Mrs Mears for “issuing threats”? No prizes.
Before we start finding 30,000 recruits for Rishi Sunak's vision of National Service, here's another statistic to ponder. According to the National Literacy Trust, more than seven million people in England have “very poor literacy skills.” If we really want to strengthen this nation and make it a place to be proud of, and a country worth defending, we could start by ensuring no teenager leaves school without being able to read and write. Or is that too much to ask?
