Monday Moan 55

Never work with children or Dads?

Roberto Perrone broadcasts on BBC Three Counties Radio every weekday afternoon for four hours.   That’s a lot of air time to fill each day and it must be a huge challenge to make it fresh and interesting.  Like all presenters of such programmes though, there must be times when he must wonder how he’s going to keep an interview going when the person on air is either not very interesting or seems reluctant to talk.

 

Most people being interviewed seem quite happy to talk, of course, but it’s a gamble when you have children as your guests.  Last Wednesday afternoon Roberto dipped his toes in the water with an interview with a couple of young cricketers who had been part of a school team that had won a national competition.  As you might expect with 11 year-olds, they were full of ‘amazing’, ‘great’, ‘yeah, really nice’, and the like.  Slightly hard work but it worked pretty well.  

 

However, Roberto might have wondered why his producers had then lined up another young sporting star to be interviewed shortly afterwards.  This time it was a budding long-distance runner who was being interviewed with his Dad.  Good old Dad was quite happy to talk about his son, his son’s school and athletics club and the charity he was supporting.  However, Roberto struggled manfully to get the young runner to say much beyond ‘yep’ to any question.  I felt for him as he tried different ways of framing his questions to try to avoid those that invited a response of ‘yep’; compelling radio but I was left feeling sorry for all involved.

 

It will take 5 minutes, but do have a listen here.

 

Sainsbury’s – customer service?

I love to shop in my local Sainsbury’s.  One of the reasons is that there are so few customers that you can walk round freely without the usual stress levels associated with busy stores.

 

But why so few customers?  I think I know why.  The shop is run for the convenience of staff and not of customers. Shopping there yesterday I heard an announcement that the store was going to close in five minutes and I should make my way to the checkout.  Obedient as ever I did exactly as they wanted and then made my way out of the shop. Unfortunately, the staff, presumably eager to get home, had decided to lock all the exits bar one – which meant every customer had to walk all round the premises in order to find the one remaining open door and, having found it (with no help from any of the employees) this then entailed walking out through the car park.

 

Must try harder.

  

No test required

Here’s the scene.  A mother is in charge of two young children.  One of her children, probably no more than 5 or 6 years old, has already crossed the busy road they are trying to negotiate.  The mother is holding onto the other one, probably two years old, with one hand.  In her other hand is her mobile phone, pressed to her ear so she can continue her conversation with whoever was on the other end.  There is a break in the traffic so mother and child prepare to cross the road – mobile phone still in use.  The child’s hat falls to the ground.  

 

So, does the mother;-

1.  Leave the hat where it is and continue to cross the road?
2.  Put her phone down, pick up the hat and continue across the road?
3.  Let go of the child, keep talking on the phone and pick up the hat?

 

Unbelievably, she chooses option 3 - to let go of the child.  At the same time, the other child, perhaps seeing the fallen hat and wanting to help, runs back across the road, apparently oblivious to the approaching traffic and without a word from her mother to stop her.  Fortunately for all concerned, she made it across the road and the whole party was reunited.

 

You don’t have to take a test before you become a parent – but maybe you should?

 

 

More than a colour

Watching Dan Cruickshank’s BBC 4 documentary about the growth of London in the 17^th century was an interesting way to spend an hour on a Sunday evening.  But I had to wonder what it would be that a casual viewer might remember most about the programme.  Would it be something about the Great Fire of London, or perhaps about the Plague?  Would it be about the history behind Covent Garden perhaps?  

 

Sadly, it occurs to me that people might remember most that the House of Orange was named after the colour of the carrot.  At least, that is the impression I think you would get from listening to this extract from the programme.

 

No doubt when editing the programme Dan Cruickshank must have realised that this was what seemed to have been said, so why wasn’t this given some kind of voice-over to avoid this historical nonsense being perpetuated?  

 

Sloppy work chaps.

 

Monday Moan 43

Keep up ……. or keep quiet

Watching the news the other day that instant irritant Margaret Hodge appeared on my screen.  Readers of previous editions will understand that comment (see Moans 6 and 27). My immediate thought was what on earth had her House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found worthy of an insightful and newsworthy report?

She didn’t disappoint me.  After months of deep investigation and consideration into last summer’s London Olympic Games, the PAC had decided that there was a bit of a problem with the security arrangements, and that ticket allocations had been flawed, with too many empty seats in the first few days in the areas set aside for officials and athletes .
 
None of this is news, of course.  So I’m not quite sure why the media decided it was important enough to interview Margaret Hodge yet again.
 

No doubt those who are responsible for such things in the Olympic movement in Lausanne and the organising committee for the next Games in Rio de Janiero are even now poring over the text of the report and the tapes of Margaret Hodge’s interviews in order to take heed of her advice.

  

 

Would you invite this man to dinner?

Amidst all the interest in the antics of Luis Suarez it is easy to forget that behind the headlines is a man shaped by his background, just like the rest of us. 

Little Luis comes from a poor Uruguayan family, one of seven children, and had to move to Europe in order to earn a crust.  His career has been blighted by allegations that he dives, acts, handles the ball, racially abuses other players and, on occasions, tries to eat them. He feels alone and that the world is against him.

 

Then he discovers that they have stopped the tradition of the half time orange that has been the main sustenance available to players during a game since the beginning of time.  Is it any wonder that he decides to snack on his opponents once in a while?

 

 

A gold star for Sainsbury’s

I have had occasion to complain in these Moans about the way Sainsbury’s have thrown away perfectly good food.  So, in the spirit of telling a good story when there is one, I am pleased to say that on a visit to the ‘offending’ branch at the weekend I witnessed them reducing the price of their cakes rather than throwing them away.  Good to see.

 

No stars for Marks & Spencer though

As one store rises in my estimation another descends.

 

In Marks & Spencer at the weekend I needed to use the toilet.  Standing there and minding my own business (required behaviour if you don’t want to be misunderstood) I heard the door open, someone stand there without coming in, and some rustling of paper.  Then the door closed.

 

Turning round I realised that the sheet of paper on which they record when they have ‘inspected’ the toilets had been on the wall just inside the door and that this must have been what I had heard rustling.  OK, I was grateful for the privacy I had been granted instead of someone coming in and giving the place a thorough inspection whilst it was being used, and I assumed that whoever was supposed to do the inspection was probably standing outside and waiting for me to leave.

 

But no, I soon realised that I had imagined a far greater sense of responsibility and tact on the part of Marks & Spencer than was actually true.  Looking at the inspection sheet as I went out I saw that even though it was only 15.30, the toilets had, apparently, been inspected and found to be clean at both 16.00 and 17.00 already! 

 

I was outraged and thought I’d take a photo of the sheet on my smartphone, with my wristwatch next to it to prove the deceit of the store. Fortunately, I soon decided that taking photographs in a public toilet was not a good idea after all, so you’ll just have to take my word for it!

  

Finally, a missing person appeal

Anybody seen Ed Miliband?  Missing without trace for too long now.

Monday Moan 37



Latest from Sainsbury's on wasting food

Sainsbury’s have kept their promise to investigate my complaint about wasting food (see Moan 36 last week) and have sent me this further response:-

 

“I’ve contacted the store and spoke to our Customer Service Team Leader, [……].  She’s sent her apologies for this matter and informed me our bakery department should close at 5pm on a Sunday.  She also said there has been a shortage of colleagues at our bakery lately.  However, this doesn’t mean our bakery department should close early.  [……] will therefore feed this back to our Bakery Manager, […..], when he’s next available.  He will investigate this further and work hard to try and resolve this as soon as possible.  We’ll also continue to monitor any further comments regarding this to see if anyone else has had a similar experience.  As this isn’t the kind of visit we want our customers to have, I’ve arranged for a £10 gift card to be posted to you for the inconvenience caused.  Perhaps you can use this to buy something nice on your next visit." 

 

Oh dear.  What to do now?  Obviously, the £10 voucher is intended to buy my silence.  It may not be a life-changing amount of money, but it’s the thought that counts, isn’t it? 

 

Indeed it is – and that’s a worry.  I wasn’t looking for compensation, I wanted an answer to why good food was being thrown away. Unfortunately, three replies later, I am no nearer getting an explanation from Sainsbury’s than I was at the beginning.  It doesn’t matter to me that they might have had staff shortages and so decided to close early the day I was there. I’m puzzled by the apparent mystery over when the Bakery Manager might next be available. But neither of these things are relevant to the issues I have raised unless Sainsbury’s were to be telling me that the actions I observed were in breach of their procedures and they wanted an explanation from the Bakery Manager before taking further action.  Nothing of this nature has been said, and so I assume that the actions I witnessed were perfectly OK as far as the company is concerned.

 

Powerless to extract a proper response from the company, I shall spend my £10 voucher on food which I will then give away to the first homeless person I see on the street outside.  A small gesture, perhaps futile, but it’s all I can do.

 

 

Not a protest vote?

So, the Eastleigh by-election result saw the Lib Dems retaining a seat against the odds – those odds including being widely ridiculed as a political force, mainly it seems for behaving like grown-ups and accepting responsibility by going into coalition with the Conservatives. The Lib Dems then made their task much harder by having an MP lie to protect his driving licence and continue to lie in order to try to stay out of jail – almost certainly to no avail. And then the forces of political opportunism threw in a late additional ball and chain for the Lib Dems in the massive form of Lord Rennard and multiple allegations that he has behaved inappropriately.

 

In fact, as with most by-elections, almost everyone could claim to have done well.  The Lib Dems actually won, UKIP got their best ever result in a by-election, the Conservatives failed to take a very winnable seat but did avoid complete catastrophe, and Labour managed to improve its share of the vote despite coming in a rather bedraggled fourth.

 

The thing that strikes me most about this particular by-election, apart from the fact that the Lib Dems won, is the nonsense of UKIP's loudly repeated statements that this was not a protest vote and that it should now be taken seriously as a political force.  These positions seem to overlook some  rather obvious facts.  For example, any party whose public face is represented by ex-Conservatives Nigel Farage and Neil Hamilton starts from a position of difficulty if it wants to be taken seriously. And given that the party’s popular appeal is based almost exclusively on its populist opposition to things rather than on any positive policies (anti-immigration, anti-Europe, anti-gay marriage, etc), its whole appeal is based on the notion of protest - why deny it?

 

 

What’s the point?

There were 14 candidates in the Eastleigh by-election. Yes, in addition to the 4 ‘main’parties, another 10 people paid out their £500 deposits and found 10 registered electors in the constituency who were prepared to sign their nomination form.  These 10 candidates mustered just 1,756 votes between them.

 

I know it’s a democracy and anyone should be entitled to stand for election provided they meet the various rules involved. But it’s all a bit of a joke isn’t it, when we are supposed to take them all seriously?    Or is that the point – it is just a joke?

 

Trouble is, it’s hard to know which of them is serious and which of them is just having a laugh.  For example, isn’t there a lot of commonsense in the idea that the European Constitution could be sorted out by going for a long walk, on the basis that walking is good for the constitution?  Surley you'd vote for the party that said that?  But would you vote for a party with a policy that if you got into an unfortunate situation and went slightly overdrawn and the bank slapped a £30 charge on you for being a couple of quid overdrawn, provided you repaid the money in a few days you would get that penalty charge back?  Doesn’t that sound like fiscal irresponsibility? Would you vote for the party that wanted to scrap the Bedroom Tax, because spare bedrooms are very handy for storing bondage gear, watching porn on the internet or sleeping with your pet cat when you can’t stand sleeping with your spouse/partner anymore because of their unacceptable behaviour in the bedroom?  And then there was the party that wanted to defend the right to asylum – presumably so that there would be somewhere to house the other candidates?

 

In the end I had to admire the party that observed that an election with 14 candidates was always going to squeeze its share of the vote. As a result, it didn’t view its 30 votes in quite as negative a light as you might suppose. In fact, it took heart from this solid foundation of support and declared that its new aim was to work for the last to be first.

 

Ambition and a target - that's what it's all about, isn't it?

 

A great career change?

A few months ago Frankel, arguably the greatest ever racehorse, retired after winning all of his 14 races. I wonder how many conversations there were in bars all over the country where punters said they wouldn't mind being retired to stud, being asked to 'cover' 200 mares each year, and being paid £125,000 a time for the pleasure?

It doesn’t always work out, of course.  He might be a failure in the potency stakes.  He might turn out not to be that interested in mares, having been trained to ignore them until now. Although I doubt that he’ll find himself being retired from stud and sent back to race again, as happened to another highly-rated horse once.

 

But let’s hope he doesn’t suffer the indignity of the stud we were shown on BBC’s ‘Countryfile’ yesterday, who was fooled into thinking that a replica horse was the ‘real deal’ and got so excited that the amorous session with the dummy lasted only a few seconds.  Of course, the fact that this particular stud failed to spot that his dream mare did not have a head or legs might make you question whether he deserves any sympathy.

 

And all this before the watershed.  Good luck to the parents who had to explain it all to their curious children.

Monday Moan 36

 

Latest from Sainsbury's on wasting food

I have received a response from Sainsbury's to my question about why their staff were throwing away good food rather than trying to sell it or give it away to a charity for needy people (see Moan 34).

 

“Thanks for your email.  We’re always happy to answer customer enquiries regarding our stores and services.   I can understand your concerns regarding food waste in our [XXX] store as you saw our staff in the process of clearing everything off the shelves and putting them into plastic bags marked for waste. I would therefore be happy to explain what we have in place to help reduce waste.

 

To implement our groundbreaking ground zero food waste to landfill programme we work to a clear hierarchy of reduce, reuse and recycle to divert food waste from landfill. We view waste as a valuable resource that can be treated in ways that both generate energy and reduce environmental impacts.

 

Our landfill diversion hierarchy starts with good stock control to reduce the generation of food waste. We also donate food that is within its 'use by' date to charity.

 

Our landfill diversion hierarchy then sets out the preferred options for the treatment of the remaining food waste. Our preferred choice is anaerobic digestion, which breaks down the food waste into fertiliser and methane gas, used to generate electricity. Each store or depot evaluates whether there is a suitable anaerobic digestion plant within practical distance. Our second tier of preferred waste treatment methods are In-Vessel Composting (IVC), Fluidised Bed Combustor (FBC) or Pyrolysis. Our third choice is incineration. We use 'backhauling' - using lorries on return journeys - to divert food waste to waste treatment.

 

We periodically revaluate our food waste processing choices. And as new anaerobic digestors are built we move towards this solution.

 

Now, I don’t know about you, but I think that response amounts to not much more than blowing a lot of hot air through a living waste disposal unit. It’s just a load of guff.

 

I have, of course, thanked them for it but put in a request that they actually address the issues I raised in my note to them.

 

Watch this space for any response.

 

Oscar comedy show

In a major breaking story today, the Government has announced that ‘Honest’ Harry Redknapp is to be asked to lead an inquiry into tax evasion.  It has also emerged that the Government has decided that the recent Leveson Inquiry was deeply flawed and it has appointed Rupert Murdoch to review it and come up with his own recommendations for action.

Unlikely, you might think.  But surely no more unlikely than asking a policeman facing attempted murder charges to run the investigation into the death of Reeva Steenkamp in the home she shared with Oscar Pistorius.

Yet this is exactly what happened in that case.  And it seems that every time I read about the case fresh lunacy has been uncovered.

The police case, widely leaked through the press, included such things as the victim having been beaten before being shot, of banned drugs being found at the scene and of a neighbour having heard shouting for an hour before the shooting.  In court it emerged that all three of these elements of the prosecution’s case were either wrong or dubious. The victim’s body showed no signs of any abuse apart from the gunshot wounds; the ‘banned’ drugs turned out to be herbal remedies; and the neighbour who heard “two people talking loudly at each other” appears to have been that rare person who can hear things clearly from huge distances, as their house was somewhere between 300 and 600 metres away, depending on which part of the police evidence you choose to believe.

Perhaps we ought to skip over ‘minor’ errors such as the chief investigating officer forgetting to wear protective covers on his shoes whilst trampling all over the murder scene, since he, Hilton Botha, was possibly distracted by thoughts of the charges of attempted murder that he was facing.  But is it just coincidence that the police have now said that Carl Pistorius, brother of Oscar, is to face charges of culpable homicide, relating to a road accident in 2010?  Or is this a rather pathetic case of tit-for-tat “we can drag up embarrassing things too” retaliation?

The whole thing is descending into farce, which is an insult to the victim and to thoughts of getting to the truth in the name of justice.

 

Lord Who is charged with being a bit creepy

So, Lord Rennard (who?) is accused of behaving inappropriately towards some of his female colleagues a few years ago.  Serious accusations, of course, and they should be investigated.  But, but, but …… was this really the most important news of the weekend, justifying the lead position on the BBC News and in many newspapers?  Did it really require Nick Clegg and his Liberal Democratic Party to be put in the stocks as if they were an affront to human decency?

 

Or is this perhaps related to an important by-election this week, where the Lib Dems are facing an uphill battle to retain Chris Huhne’s Eastleigh seat?  A succession of Labour politicians have called for an independent investigation rather than the internal Lib Dem investigations that have been announced.  Why?  Apart from political opportunism it is hard to think why they are getting involved in this.

 

Lord Rennard’s name sits on a different list from that of most of the famous people who have found themselves accused since the Jimmy Savile revelations first emerged - Max Clifford, Stuart Hall, Jim Davidson, Freddie Starr, Garry Glitter, Dave Lee Travis, and others.  But there appears to be an insatiable appetite for further names to be dragged through the dirt, so the list will grow.  As a non-watcher of TV soaps I had no idea who Michael Le Vell was until he was arrested recently, but I’m sure his will not be the last name in the entertainment industry to be exposed to the glare of unwelcome publicity. 

 

Then we have the case of Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who is to step down as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, following allegations, which he denies, of inappropriate behaviour towards priests dating back over 30 years. Cue inevitable jokes asking for clarification of what exactly inappropriate might mean in this case.   I'm not sure I can take much more.

 

Finally, is there an email ‘black hole’ or is it just me?

I am getting a little concerned about the number of people I know who seem to have disappeared from the face of the email earth.  And not just people I know, but people I class as friends who I have known for many years.  The first time I realised I was writing to someone and getting no response I put it down to my perhaps having the wrong email address.  But it keeps happening.  I have now resorted on a couple of occasions to that old-fashioned way of communicating – sending a handwritten letter.  But still no responses.  I am begining to get a complex about this and wonder if I have, inadvertently, so offended these people that they no longer wish to acknowledge my existence.

 

But before you jump to conclusions, I should add that none of them were on the Moan’s distribution list, so this cannot have been the cause of the problem.

 

Fingers crossed that I hear from them soon – no offence was ever intended and I miss not knowing what is happening in their lives.

Monday Moan 35

 

OK, so we backed him when he was a winner, but now ……

Ed Miliband made his way up through the ranks of Labour Party as a close advisor, both economic and political, to Gordon Brown. He was a special advisor to Brown from 1997-2002 and after a period in the USA, was appointed by Brown as Chairman of the Treasury’s Council of Economic Advisors.  After getting elected to a safe Labour seat in 2005, Miliband found himself appointed to the Cabinet by Brown in 2007.

Ed Balls was another economic advisor, political advisor and, alongside Miliband, cheerleader for Gordon Brown in the latter’s long-running battle to oust and then replace Tony Blair in the Prime Minister’s office. Balls had been Chairman of the Treasury’s Council of Economic Advisors prior to Ed Miliband being appointed to that role.  Like Miliband, Balls was rewarded with a Cabinet position once Brown became Prime Minister.

 

That was then, but life moves on and the political world allows anybody to denounce their previous friends and their previous positions if it appears opportune to do so. Thus, Miliband and Balls have now been able to promise to reintroduce the 10p tax band, originally introduced and then scrapped in the Budget of 2007 by Gordon Brown.  In making their policy announcement, Miliband and Balls did not hold back in their criticism of Brown and his decision to scrap the rate – conveniently forgetting their own positions at the time as Labour Ministers.

 
With friends like this ……….

 

Breaking news ……… 85 year-old man decides to retire

I tread carefully here, of course, but isn’t there something odd about expecting a man to take on a position which really is a ‘job for life’ – for that is what being the Pope has meant.  Get elected and then stay in the job until you are carted off this earth and can be replaced by someone else who has a plenty of miles on the clock.

Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to resign, at the age of 85 for goodness sake, is a break with tradition.  Apparently he’s not the first Pope to resign rather than serve his full term, although the last resignation, almost 600 years ago, seems to have been made under pressure. The last ‘voluntary’ resignation was another 200 years earlier. Curiously, that Pope also appears to have been 85 years old.   

It is fair to say, therefore, that such resignations are rare.   No doubt that’s why the BBC decided to despatch a crack squad to stand outside the Vatican to bring us live coverage of events.  Stand by for wall-to-wall coverage of the election of a replacement Pope, from an electorate of (at the moment) the 118 Cardinals eligible to vote.  Apparently, Cardinals find themselves disenfranchised beyond the age of 80.  Wonder how that age limit came into being and why it was not extended to other things?

 

And the Oscar goes to …….

The annual extravanagza that is the ceremony Academy Awards – or the Oscars – takes place this coming weekend.  The first such ceremony was held in 1929 and this year's promises to be a long evening, with 24 categories of winners to be negotiated before everyone can go home. I think I am looking forward most to discovering who the Academy decides to honour in the Makeup and Hairstyling category.

But, of course, the real Oscar story this week is much more interesting, sad and hard to fathom – the arrest of Oscar Pistorius for the alleged murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

 

It’s hard to see what kind of defence Pistorius can have, but I’ll not comment on any of that until I hear what is said in court.  Millions of people around the world will be hoping there is some kind of explanation which can leave them still in awe of the man who has come to be such a symbol of hope to disabled people, and who has brought such pleasure to people through his achievements.  I count myself lucky to have seen him in the flesh in this year’s Paralympics, running a semi-final in world record time, holding 80,000 people in his grip just by being there. 

How many of us stopped to think that beneath the glitz and glamour this superstar, like any other, was also just a human being. All humans have complicated lives and are subject to different pressures, temptations and worries every single day.  I don’t know whether those things are easier or harder for superstars to handle, nor whether they are more intense because of being in the public’s eye. All I know is that everyone snaps from time to time – it’s part of the human condition. It’s a reality check for us all when that person is also a wealthy and apparently enviable superstar. If they are actually just like the rest of us, are we wasting our time dreaming of wealth and happiness?

  

That’s not what I meant

I have a new phone.  Like all new gadgets it is taking me a while to get used to how it works, and its various idiosyncracies.  OK, that reference to idiosyncracies is just my excuse for when it doesn’t do as I expect.  Last week, for example, I sent a text message as I do on countless occasions every day.  I don’t have a ‘signature’ saved for use each time, so I duly just added my name at the end of the message.  Only my phone decided to auto-correct whatever it was that I had typed and so my text was sent under the signature of “Probing”.

Actually, I quite like that and might use it in future.  But I will also pledge to take learning how my phone works a little more seriously now.

 

Latest from Sainsbury’s following last week’s piece on waste

…………………

Monday Moan 34



Strip away the veneer and they are all the same

There are those who fondly imagine that there are different types of politicians; those we know all too well from the experience of many years, who are on the make, who get seduced by the status of their office or the power of responsibility, and those who are not like them, who have some scruples, who are not out for themselves and who genuinely want to do the right thing.

 

The dawn of the Coalition government promised a new beginning, with the coming to power of a party and a group of politicians who had not been corrupted by office and who had the opportunity to put into practice the line they had put forward in opposition – open government, honesty, acting for the common good.

 

How sad. How naïve.
 

Chris Huhne now faces jail for lying and thereby perverting the course of justice. Sympathy for him will be in short supply because he’s a politician, he comes across as arrogant, he has been exposed as a liar, and not just a small time liar, but one who has brazenly and repeatedly fronted up before the cameras to repeat his lies.

 

Yet, curiously, the other main protagonist in this sad affair does not engender any public sympathy either. We are not granted the usual luxury of siding with the ‘victim’. Vicky Pryce’s attempts to portray herself as the vulnerable woman, unable to withstand the demands of her overbearing husband, do not sit well with everything else we know about this hugely successful woman.  She is a highly respected economist with a great CV, working for top-rated private sector companies before landing very senior positions in the Government. In her personal life she seems to have a thing for men of some standing. 

What we learn from this is simply that, as we ought to have known all along, people in such positions are actually just like the rest of us. They have private lives that are as complicated as ours, they lie when they feel the need, they are vindictive against people who they think have wronged them.

How dispiriting.

 

Unloved politicians

Talking of unloved politicians, it was good to see Michael Gove so apologetic and humble over his U-turn on his plans to reform the examination system through the introduction of the English Baccalaureate and scrapping of GCSEs.  Obviously I am being economical with the truth about the apologetic and humble bit.

The man has form as far as the Moan is concerned (see Moan 3) but the thing that has really surprised me is that he, and it seems others, think he has been doing a splendid job in Government and that he is a serious contender to lead his party one day.  If it was April I would assume this was a joke but, sadly, it might actually be true.

Cue more sadness.

 

What an unjustified waste

Walking around our local Sainsbury’s yesterday afternoon about an hour and a quarter before closing, we thought we’d see what they still had for sale in their bakery area.  From a distance it did not look very hopeful as the shelves seemed to be almost empty, but we carried on anyway.  When we got nearer we saw that the shelves were, indeed, empty.  But it was also clear that they were only empty because the staff were in the process of removing everything that was there and throwing it into a waste bag, very clearly marked as ‘not for consumption’.

The staff were as bemused as the customers who were asking why they were doing this.  ‘Orders’ seemed to be the best way of describing their response to questions.  Yet the shop was open for another 75 minutes, and they were throwing away perfectly good food rather than reducing it in price in order to encourage sales, or making it available to a charity that might offer it to the homeless or needy.

What kind of crazy logic is at work here?  I have no idea, but I have written to the store manager and will let you know his response.  Maybe I'll be referred to their company values and environmental credentials - maybe they need to be updated or followed?

 

And another beef

Talking of food, I have difficulty with so many aspects of the horsemeat ‘scandal’.  

As a confirmed member of the ‘never touch beef’ club I realise I am on potentially shaky ground, but here goes ………

At the outset of the revelations I imagine many people were not only surprised to discover that cheap beefburgers contained horsemeat, but were equally surprised, and probably pleasantly so, to discover that they contained any form of meat at all. 

Since then the scale of the scandal (deception?) has grown to the point where even the French have started to withdraw products from their shelves.  Yes France, the home of horse steaks for the unwary British traveller, has taken the opportunity to remove some British products from its shelves.  Nothing new in that, really.

I am told that horse meat is safe, that it is quite tasty, but that it is virtually unobtainable in the UK (at least, under its proper description), mainly because we are a sentimental lot when it comes to animals and which of them we want to see served on our dinner plates. Horse meat is one of the few 'horrible foreign foods' left, allowing us to feel superior and civilised in comparison with those places that eat such things. France, for example.  Music to the ears of UKIP and the Tory right I expect.