Friday, February 20, 2015
GETTYAnn suggests New Year resolution for David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Milliband
The next General Election is four months away so here are some suggested New Year Resolutions: Ed Miliband. “I will make this the year when I recognise that my brother would have done a vastly better job.”
David Cameron: “I will make this the year when I recognise that party workers are not optional extras but rather the source of my own success.”
Nigel Farage. “I will stop talking just about coming nut of Europe and start talking about what we will do if that happens.”
Nick Clegg. “I will give up.” The electors. “I will listen to what the politicians actually say, not to what people say they are saying.”
In nine months Strictly Come Dancing returns so perhaps the contestants could resolve never to burst into tears just because they make a mess of a dance, which is scarcely the same as making a mess of a war or a hospital operation and commentators could resolve to accept that no, it is not an unfair advantage if someone has had dance training in the past because ?rst of all a lot of people in entertainment have and secondly it is the range of expertise or lack of it which makes the programme interesting.
Throughout the year people will be offended. Let them resolve to accept that this is an occupational hazard of being human rather than a source of riches.
Let all public servants resolve that the rulebook shall be their servant and not their master. Let their bosses resolve that they really can be trusted to use their discretion rather than the manual.
Let the police and CPS resolve that false accusations can damage lives and to take the effects on the innocent far more seriously.
Let them also resolve to recognise that Britain has been founded on freedom and that to stand by an opinion is not the same as fostering hatred.
And let us all resolve to make this a better year for some other living being because the sum of happiness in the world is composed of millions of individual words and actions.
HENRY BOURNEThe Countess of Wessex poses for photo shoot ahead of her 50th birthday
The Queen and all of us can relax about the future of the monarchy
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IT WAS good to see the Countess of Wessex looking so stylish and relaxed as she posed for a photo shoot ahead of her 50th birthday.
Both she and Kate Middleton have brought some much needed normality and level-headedness into their generations of the Royal Family.
The Queen and all of us can relax about the future of the monarchy.
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THE fresh outbreak of speculation about the paternity of Prince Harry is not just tasteless and hurtful but also daft.
I long ago came to the conclusion that there could be no truth in the rumours that he is the son of James Hewitt, who must be the biggest bounder any woman ever had the misfortune to encounter.
This is not because of some obvious resemblance to the royals but because I am cynical enough to believe this is one scandal it would have been impossible to hide.
Some of the more unpleasant sections ofthe media in this country are ruthless in the pursuit of what they call investigations and the rest of us call intrusions but they are beacons of restraint and kindliness compared to some of their continental equivalents.
This is not a story any of them would have left alone and Prince Harry has led a public life, meeting people, going to school, partying and joining the military.
There would have been a million chances to nab some hair or other source of DNA. Yet no such evidence has ever been brought into play. Why not?
Because there is nothing to prove. So let the gossips keep quiet next time a mischief-maker takes a photo that indicates a likeness between Harry and his mother’s lover.
After all in some lights there is a resemblance between parts of the paparazzi and a pack of wolves.
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A seasonal thank you A BIG thank you to all who made Christmas a success – to the postmen who delivered cards addressed to Ann Widdecombe, Somewhere on Dartmoor; the supermarket assistants who stayed cheerful through the pressure of queues and the demands which began “I can’t find...”; the taxi drivers who took the carless to see family on Christmas Day; the choirs who filled churches with angelic singing at midnight mass; and especially the children whose simple joy makes Christmas.
As I do not make a fuss of New Year I am now enjoying a period of peace and calm but my greatest fun was hearing the stampede of small feet on Boxing Day in search of the presents which those naughty reindeer had dropped from the sleigh on Christmas Eve and which had not yet been found.
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NORTH Wales police breathalysed 11,000 motorists in the run-up to Christmas but only 45 were over the limit.
That is an immensely cheering statistic as it proves beyond peradventure that the overwhelming majority of motorists have a responsible attitude towards drink-driving.
That in turn means that social attitudes can change for when the law was first introduced it was strenuously resisted in some quarters and widely flouted.
Smoking is similarly being marginalised so perhaps in 50 years’ time Brits will be saying: “Obesity? What’s that?”or even “Do you remember when there was all that social media stuff...?
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THE Government is right to announce a crackdown on anti-Semitism, which for years has been the hidden racism in this country.
Jews have been so well integrated and have made such a huge contribution to British life that it is tempting to think prejudice against them a thing of the past. Alas not.
To be sure parts of the Jewish community are over sensitive and my patience was sorely tried when there was an outcry againstMel Gibson’s The Passion Of The Christ, claiming it portrayed Jews in a bad light and was therefore anti-Semitic.
Tosh. If it is anti-Semitic to portray the actions of the first-century Sanhedrin as bad then it must be anti-Italian to portray Pontius Pilate and his crucifying soldiers as bad. Yet there is enough real anti-Jewish prejudice about.
When Michael Howard became leader of the Conservatives some people, emboldened by my attack on specific aspects of his conduct, thought it all right to confide to me that they had doubts about his Jewish background.
A couple of weeks ago a man came up to me in, of all places, the petticoat department of M&S, to tell me he thought Jews were wrecking Britain. When I relayed the conversation to a taxi driver his response was: “I thought that went out years ago.”
I suspect most of us assume that. Now the renewed conflict between Israel and Hamas provides an excuse for those with a hidden agenda of hatred.
But what is it exactly that provokes such hatred? The chap beside the petticoats could not tell me.
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Kara Scott
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