Liadnan

... in England, given the so-cunningly-timed introduction of the ban on smoking, are clearly the Clerk of the Weather's attempt to prove he has a truly unpleasant sense of humour. Either that or punishment for Gordon Brown. (But I thought Gordon Brown was our punishment for Tony Blair.)

Never mind. I shall persist in my stand against this government's roughshod trampling of civil liberties.. oops, sorry, wrong page, that's a rant for another day about something or other. I may not like the ban but this (the petition for JR referred to in the post, not the post itself, obvs) is clearly balls and I hope the costs order reflects that.

Going back to the weather, I bet the AELTCC wish they'd pulled their collective fingers out re sorting out that roof on the show courts at Wimbledon. This must be shaping up as one of the worst Wimbledons, weatherwise, of recent history, and I suspect I am not the only one whose interest has waned as a result.

It was sunny when I woke up, and I was full of the joys of Spring. Now hail sweeps across central London, and my mood.

But enough of that.

KenMcLeod of the Clan Mcleod (you did that yesterday: Ed) writes, as so many others have, on the appalling general knowledge test results coming, for once, from England rather than the Transatlantic Colonies:

Blame is being divided between the Left in the education system (downgrading 'kings and battles' history for social history) and Hollywood (making shit up). This seems fair and balanced.

...

I can think of ways in which the method of the survey could bias the results. If, for instance, people were presented with a list of names of battles, and asked to indicate which were real and which were not, wouldn't Endor and Helm's Deep sound more historical than the Little Big Horn and the Bulge? Still, I like the idea that some of my compatriots believe Harold Wilson flanked by Xena and Conan led an army of cyborgs to victory over the apes in the Battle of Woking during the Martian invasion ...

There's a novel in there somewhere.

Plus a later post on smoking bans:

In the smoking culture war, of course, 48.03% of statistics are made up, so I prefer to stick with arguments from liberty and common sense. If it turns out to 'work' in Ireland, I won't take that as a reason to oppose it less in Scotland. I'll just take it as bad news about the Irish.

Glad to know the hard left are on my side.

Anyway, having made it look as though I've made a substantial post by quoting someone else at length, and having spent the day on a fairly complicated Thing (raising the interesting question of whether long-established subtle differences that may -or may not- exist between equitable presumptions about gifts made by husbands to wives and those about gifts made by wives to husbands, usually operating to the benefit of the wife, should be revisited by the courts or left to Parliament to resolve), and having run out of breath on that last parenthesis, I shall now go forth from this place and wend my way slowly and via a cafe to Soho House, apparently, at the kind invitation of Simon. Went out with K. last night, so this idea of living quietly while I recuperate seems to have gone for a Burton. What is a Burton? Can I be bothered to google? Tune in tomorrow for the next thrilling installment...