Peter Rhodes on elites, enemies and a tempting trick with a computer
Two cases have come to light of police officers deliberately weighing down keys on their computers to create the false impression that they were working, when they were not. On particularly stressful days I can understand the temptation. What could possibly go wronggggggggggggggggggggggg
A council in Hertfordshire has rejected plans for a military parade to mark VE Day on May 8 on the grounds that it would be for what one councillor called “the elite". But then wars tend to be fought and won by elites, by the brightest and bravest of their generations, often from opposite ends of society. I once read a comment by an officer in the early weeks of the First World War in 1914 as working class lads went into battle commanded by the upper crust of our public schools. He noted that “it's only the top ten per cent and the bottom ten per cent who are fighting". Britain's armed forces rely heavily on such people - elites, if you wish to call them that. It will be a sad day when we no longer cherish them.
According to documents submitted in his latest High Court case the terrorist group Al Qaeda has called for Prince Harry to be murdered. That is not surprising. In an ill-advised chapter in his book, the prince reckoned he had killed 25 Taliban during his tour of duty in Afghanistan. When Harry complains about the level of security he gets in Britain, does he ever reflect on how much risk he brings on himself? Possibly not. Only a few days ago he jetted in to Ukraine in a “secret” visit which is bound to be seen as supportive of Ukraine - and therefore as a snub to Vladimir Putin and his army of spooks and assassins. Does one prince really need so many enemies?
Both houses of Parliament sat all day to pass a new emergency law to keep the Scunthorpe blast furnaces blazing and thus save the British steel industry. Or at least that's the theory.
But how many times in the past have we watched Parliament passing Bills to deal with some great national problem from migration to riots, only for the shiny new law to be challenged in the courts and picked apart by vested interests or human rights lawyers? The history of English law-making is of quick fixes which turn out to be neither quick nor a fix.
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