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Misinformation: the Thin-Skinned and the Gullible
A close friend of mine received some unwelcome post recently: a letter from the local police force with an accusation of insulting behaviour. It referred to a comment she had posted on a certain social media web site – well-known for its own lack of legal responsibility, partisanship and the politics of its owner – where she drew, in no uncertain terms, the original poster’s attention to a piece of misinformation from a German politician, well known for a wealth of false claims over the years, and described the further distribution of such fact-free propaganda as more than just foolish. The poster felt that their honour and credibility had been…
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A Most Respectable Lifestyle
I suspect it depends a great deal on a person’s interpretation of Respectable, and whether it can be accepted for many different ways of life, or just from those in certain professions, and the former landed gentry but, as a child, it was a lifestyle which appealed to me. The fault is undoubtedly that of my grandmother – mother’s side – who talked of the old ways of the professional tramp, and the morals and standards some of them lived up to. How they traversed the country, seeking odd jobs and short-term employment in return for sustenance and a quarter to rest in, before moving on to new areas; unbound,…
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Fielding the Three Big Questions
There is a certain attraction to traditions, especially when visiting foreign lands, which draws tourists and others into a spiral of mixed feelings. On the one hand, it is good to see that the old ways are being respected and upheld. On the other the question of why people cannot simply let go, especially when it comes to traditions filled with outdated pomp and circumstance, costing the taxpayer a fortune without bringing them any benefits. Just as not everything which is new is good and worth pursuing, so it is with the old; there comes a time when traditions need to be consigned to the history books, taught in classes,…
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The Utopian Golden Age of Steam
Transport, especially trains, has a bad name. Some might say it is well earned, others that the comments and accusations, when taken in context of the whole picture, are overblown and unnecessarily damaging. The fact remains, things are not what they used to be, and many hark back to the days of steam, when trains were punctual and clean, as if they had lived those days themselves. Here, in a country where the punctuality of trains is always talked about as being perfect by those from other countries, things are as they have always been, and as they are in most other western nations. The trains and buses run, that…
