Leave school, join the professional ranks and put behind you all those tedious rules and regulations and petty punishments, right? Wrong! News this week that two octogenarians of noble rank were banned from the House of Lords bar for failing to attend a training course about modern behaviour; had they attended, their irascible Lordships would have learnt that it’s no longer acceptable to compliment a women on her attire. How many women do you know who would be deeply disappointed if no one noticed how beautiful they were looking and worse, failed to mention it?! Is this really the pretty pass we have reached; two elderly gentlemen who have given many years of loyal and dedicated service to their country and companies, denied the odd snifter or three for playing hookey from “school”. The really scary part is that the Upper House voted by a large majority to enforce the sanction. Perhaps they’re just not very popular!
Talking of nobility, I’m thinking of moving. Sussex by the sea is losing its lustre with the news that the “Duke of” is shortly to publish his tell-all memoirs. There we were, thinking we’d seen the back of him and Wallis Simpson Mark II and he ups and stuns everyone, not least the Royal Family, by doing the one thing that no member of the aforesaid brigade should ever do; for an obscene amount of money; which he might give to charity. Does that make it any better? Whatever has happened to a sense of duty? It has, of course, often been whispered that his Mother went elsewhere for the seed of her second son. Perhaps he doesn’t actually have blue blood at all….
Either way, in my humble opinion and risking a quick trip down the Thames to Traitor’s Gate, he deserves all the opprobrium that will no doubt be heaped upon his sloping shoulders. One can only assume that he has handed all his trousers over to Megan and now has a wardrobe full of kilts.
A charming friend (no, he really is), suggested the other day that as only the good die young, I could expect to live for a very long time. It got me thinking. Why would only the good die young? Is Heaven so short of buddies for the Boss that he has to snatch the righteous before their time? Or is he worried that if allowed to loiter too long on Planet Earth, Mr or Mrs Goodietwoshoes would be vulnerable to the wiles of Lucifer and might even end up going down instead of up? Is it because JC didn’t last long here before returning to the bosom of his family? It seems counter-intuitive to me. Surely it’s the really naughty who should bunk off prematurely and leave the genuinely wholesome to work their magic on this troubled globe?
I wonder what my parents would have thought if anyone had suggested that one day the country would be the victim of a Pingdemic. I suppose it’s marginally better than a Pongdemic….
ADayInTheStrifeOf 