Disproportionate Uproar and Constitutionalist Interpretation

I quite like Boris Johnson as mayor of London. He's a character and a well-rounded representative for the city and I'm sure sticks in the minds of those who come to visit which, from a tourism officer's point of view, is probably useful. This doesn't mean, however, that I agree with anything that he says.

He wrote a slightly entertaining piece about Scandinavian crime dramas last week, where he told us that the Scandinavian brand of socialism and big government meant you had to drive around during the day with your headlights on and other health and safety nonsense. I see the point that he was making that governments should allow the people some common sense when setting laws.

But personally, I would install headlights on my forehead if I could enjoy the standard of living of the Scandinavians. I'd much rather have to have my headlights on during the day than pay more tax than a multi-billionaire.

If you want to see how utterly pathetic and insignificant the people of the UK can be, you need only have joined me yesterday on a delayed train from Manchester Piccadilly to Sheffield. The train was delayed by 10 minutes and therefore got stuck behind a slower, stopping train using the same route. The journey took, at most, 20 minutes longer than it would have anyway.

Because it was busy, I was standing in the vestibule area by the door, uncomfortably close to a man who drank 15 cans of McEwan's between Piccadilly and Stockport. There was a woman and her son who moved down to the vestibule when we were about 10 miles outside of Sheffield.

The announcer made a cleverly worded announcement saying:

"I apologise for the delay but due to our late departure from Manchester Piccadilly we are stuck behind a slower service and will therefore most likely be arriving at Sheffield between 15 and 25 minutes late."

After that announcement, the woman held her watch up to her left eyeball and counted down the 900 seconds. As that 900th second past she melodramatically looked around at everyone else with a "look how hysterical I currently am!" expression on her face and then said, "So much for 15 minutes!" and in the following minute tutted one hundred times. She then went on to try and organise some sort of passenger revolt against the ticket-man, accusing him of "lieing over the loudspeaker", trying to find someone who agreed with her. Other passengers gave fuel to her fire, baiting her with their own tales of similar misfortune encountered on previous rail trips. One old man said that he'd missed his connection and if they didn't pay him compensation he was going to take the matter to court. Another suggested that we move over to the other line and overtake the train in front of us and then made the (correct) assumption that there were going to be "some bloody health and safety regulation against it".

Eventually the train pulled in to Sheffield station and everyone left the metal enclosure of the carriage, and silently walked through the station.

Black people all over Europe, the US and Africa complained when they were slaves, in the 1910's and 20's women in the UK fought for their right to vote, in Zimbabwe the people are trying to survive while their government rapes their economy for their own individual gain.

In the UK, we tirelessly fight against the burden of a moments inconvenience caused by a Health & Safety law. We get "outraged" when a train is delayed. We find something to get upset about.

Cheer the fuck up! (Sorry mum)

Boris Johnson might get the support of the knee-jerk morons I met on that train by moaning the popular tune about Health & Safety "madness", but he'll have to do a lot more to convince those with this "common sense" he seems so keen on.

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Something I read earlier made me a little bit annoyed. In Texas, the curriculum the schools teach is being adjusted by the current state administration. The religious right wants to have more Christian values in textbooks and in teachings.

That didn't really annoy me because, at the end of the day, it's Texas. What annoyed me was that Cynthia Dunbar, a constitutionalist, has had Thomas Jefferson's name cut from the list of figures who inspired revolutions in the 18th and 19th century because he coined the term "separation between church and state". She is, unsurprisingly, a Christian who believes that the constitution was written on "Christian values".

David Bradley supports this by pledging money to charity if anyone can find the "separation of church and state" in the constitution.

Maybe Cynthia Dunbar could do her argument a favor and find the part of the constitution which proves it was written on Christian values...