2 July 2009 (Thursday) - Another Day...

I see that nearly a third of the members of the members of the Scottish parliament agreed with me that Scottish home rule is a waste of time and money yesterday. The Queen made the effort and showed her face there. Her Majesty wasn’t particularly well, (I think she’s looking very frail these days) but she turned up to what was supposed to have been an historic occasion.

Nearly forty per cent of the MSPs couldn’t be bothered to show up to celebrate ten years of Scottish home rule, citing excuses as lame as umpiring a cricket match, moving office, visiting a creamery, socialising with asylum seekers and opening a footpath.

The 163 children born in Scotland on the day that the Scottish parliament opened were invited to the occasion. 143 came along – only ten per cent of them didn’t. Ten year olds could make the effort that paid parliamentarians wouldn’t.

It’s just another reason why the Scottish parliament is a total waste of money. The building itself has cost over £430 million, and costs over £70 million a year in running costs. Why on Earth do we have a Scottish parliament? Surely in the twenty-first century such small mindedness should be behind us. Surely we should be looking to a unified humanity with a world government.

We shouldn’t be harping back to home rule. Where does home rule end? Do we really want to go back to the dark ages when each individual county had its own King? And why should Ashford be beholden to edicts from far-off Maidstone? Come to that, what does “Johnny Foreigner” at the Stour Centre know about my concerns in Beaver Road?

Meanwhile the world is a sadder place as we say goodbye to Mrs Slocombe. Molly Sugden died today. She was eighty-six. Only four years older than Her Majesty….

Regular readers of this drivel may recall my entry of 16^th June when I commented that after six months, the road works outside my house had been finished. Two weeks and two days later I’ve just had someone ringing the doorbell. Someone in overalls. Would I please move my car because they want to dig the road up. As I type this, the pneumatic drill is going again. And so is my blood pressure….