Passing Observations 127

This is a long standing series of small items which have caught my eye or mind and which seem relevant, startling, amusing or all three. Occasionally, items which appear here may return as a longer piece. Mostly they will not.

1. If a driverless car is caught speeding (as will happen, as sure as politicians are liars) who will pay the fine and have points put on their licence?
2. I don’t mind people believing there are no germs or infectious diseases, and I don’t mind many of the same people believing that the earth is flat and that we will fall off the edge if we travel too far. But those illiterates who adhere to these unscientific notions have developed a habit of abusing and bullying those who don’t share their fantasies. The absurdly indefensible hypotheses that there are no germs, no infectious diseases and no human immune system are as big a fraud as the fake pandemic, and will do as much harm. Curiously, those who support this and other nonsensical theories (such as global warming) are always especially indignant and abusive when their hypotheses are questioned. They much prefer to threaten than to debate. I wonder why that could be.
3. The essential elements of English culture are: Shakespeare, PG Wodehouse, Gilbert and Sullivan, Elgar, John Constable, Turner, Lewis Carroll, Desperate Dan, Billy Bunter, Biggles, John Buchan, Chaucer, Beowolf, The Green Knight, Jerome K. Jerome and T.H.White. All have now been vilified and banned by the left wing thought police.
4. The conspirators’ plan is a simple one. If you create enough chaos, people will welcome being controlled because the control will replace the chaos with certainty. And, of course, the control will lead directly to power and money.
5. Refusing to invite Putin to the queen’s funeral was madness. We aren’t at war with Russia (though the media likes to pretend we are). The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is a localised designer war. Refusing to invite Putin merely made everything considerably worse – which was, of course, the plan.
6. In the Middle Ages, people were terrified of going into hospital because they were frightened that if they went in they would never come out. The same is true today. As far as health is concerned, we are back in the Middle Ages – with one exception. In the Middle Ages new patients were given fresh straw for their beds. Today, new patients may be expected to sleep in dirty sheets.
7. Posh French people (and there are some) always set the table with the tines of the forks pointing down against the table cloth rather than up in the air (as most other people usually do). They do this in order to display the family crest on the back of the fork. I bet you didn’t know that and I bet your life will be richer now you do know it.
8. News is the stuff everyone wants to keep out of the newspapers and off the television. There hasn’t been any news in the newspapers or on television for years.
9. Back in the early 1980s, I wrote a book called Aspirin or Ambulance which consisted of a series of flow charts deigned to help the reader decide whether a particular set of symptoms could be treated at home or required an ambulance and a hospital visit. The book was successful, with a number of foreign editions being published. And because it was basically written in the same ‘yes’ or ‘no’ style that computers operate, it attracted the attention of several computer specialists. A computer programmer helped turn the flow charts into computer programmes. No one believes me when I say that I was responsible for the world’s first medical software for home computers but curiously I was. The programmes sold in over two dozen countries and were the subject of articles in a number of newspapers, including The Times, the British Medical Journal and a clutch of computer magazines.
10. The BBC has hired consultants to help it prepare for life without the much hated and anachronistic licence fee. Oddly, the consultants chosen are banned for three years from bidding for government contracts because of `grave professional misconduct’ relating to state corruption in South Africa. We can always rely on the BBC to do the wrong thing.
11. 'These sanctions are hurting our own people more than they are hurting the Russian war machine,’ – Geert Wilders, Dutch politician talking about the sanctions against Russia and, I’m afraid, stating the obvious. (But he gets credit, because no other politician seems aware of it or brave enough to say it.)
12. The EU is, more than over, showing that it values technocratic management above democracy. This is pure Great Reset. All Remainers are supporters of the Great Reset and the conspirators.
13. I used to like cricket when it was a sport played by gentlemen. All that is left now is the history. As far as cricket is concerned, there is very little `present’ and absolutely no `future’.
14. It is rumoured that according to the Met Office there will be a light shower at 10.13 am on September 30th 2055. The shower will last for six minutes. I suspect, however, that the Met Office may not be 100% sure what the weather will be like later today and may have even less idea what the weather will be like next week.
15. A box arrived today. It contained functional stuff. On the outside of the box were printed these words: ‘Why not photograph opening this box and share your pictures on social media?’ Why would anyone do this? Why would anyone want to look at pictures of someone else opening a box? People who do this are insane and deserve the world they’re going to get.
16. I’m afraid that people who aren’t awake now are never going to wake up. They’re lost: bought and ready to be sold into slavery.
17. Incredible news from France where, I am delighted to say, it is illegal for traders to refuse to accept cash payments in legal currency. Apparently, the French penal code states that traders cannot refuse cash payments for the settling of accounts and can be fined up to 150 euros if they do so. How galling that the French should take the lead on this but we should follow their example immediately.
18. In a couple of decades’ time a quarter of the world’s population will live in Africa. Today, three quarters of Africans are under the age of 30. Africa has more than half of the world’s farm land, huge quantities of essential metals and rare earth elements. Britain has a long standing relationship with Africa. But guess who now has the biggest influence over Africa? If you guessed China then you’re right. Britain let the ball drop.
19. Over the last six years a company called Southern Water dumped 21 billion litres of untreated sewage (which is what you think it is) into the seas off England’s southern coast. The company was fined a modest £90 million. The problem, of course, is that our sewage systems were built by Victorians for a 19th century size population. (The problem has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with global warming.)
20. Artificial intelligence (known as AI) may be artificial but there is no hint of intelligence. AI simply collects and shares data without any sense of right or wrong and without regard for privacy. We should learn to regard AI and its proponents as enemies of mankind. They are as dangerous as gun toting terrorists.