Our Times – No 2
Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc FRSA
1. Why anyone still has an account with Facebook is a puzzle to me. Why would anyone willingly give so much of their personal information (permanently, remember) to such a company? Facebook users would be much safer simply painting all their personal details on a wall near their home. How many, I wonder, would willingly do that?
2. A French court has given a suspended prison sentence to a vegan who wrote that she had no sympathy for a butcher killed in a terrorist attack. So, no free speech in France, then. It is startling to see that someone has been taken to court for daring to express an opinion officially regarded as unpalatable. Heaven help us all and protect us from the French thought police. (I don’t agree with what was said. But if the French suppress all unacceptable opinions, all they will be left with will be the awful Macron.)
3. It is claimed that 17,000 Labour members have quit the party in the last 3 months because they don’t like Corbyn’s approach to anti-Semitism. That’s bollocks. At least 16,990 left because they don’t like Corbyn’s policy on the EU and on immigration.
4. We all get cheated these days. Cheating citizens is the default position for Government departments, councils, utilities and businesses of all shapes and sizes.
5. When searching the Web for information, you should be constantly on the look-out for secretly sponsored sites. There are, for example, websites dealing with vaccination which appear to be independent but which are funded by drug companies in one way or another. (At least those who visit this website can be pretty sure it isn’t sponsored by anyone. Who the hell would sponsor the stuff that appears on www.vernoncoleman.com ?)
6. Literary critics have claimed that Agatha Christie’s books have shorter sentences towards the end. They say that the shorter sentences are there to add excitement to the last pages for the reader. I disagree. I think that Christie wrote in shorter sentences as she approached the end of a book because she was getting more excited.
7. There are now more murders in London than in New York. I wonder why that could be. (If I dare to mention immigration I will probably be sentenced to prison by a French judge so obviously I won’t. The fact is that immigration is to racism as bicycles are to cheese.)
8. Around 40% of the EU’s budget goes to the Common Agricultural Policy – which means it goes to French farmers. (Oh dear, whoops. Pardon monsieur le juge.)
9. Less than 7% of our economy involves exports to Europe. What the hell are the remainers worried about? We can play hard ball with the EU – so why don’t we?
10. Online anonymity is a bad thing. It enables trolls to cause pain without risk. Online abuse would stop overnight if everyone using the Web had to put their real name to anything they wrote.
11. People who defend the NHS (and who say how wonderful it was when they had their operation) are doing enormous harm – for they are the excuse the bureaucrats need to leave things as bad as they are.
12. Everyone should live at least as long as Keith Richards or it’s not fair.
Copyright Vernon Coleman 2018
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