Martin’s looks are hardly key to his success
THE BBC asked on its Facebook site if it was appropriate for a Scottish MP to be wearing a black cross on her forehead during a committee session. It was Ash Wednesday and the Catholic MP in question, Carol Monaghan, had been to mass and had the traditional ashes marked on her forehead in the shape of a cross. So had I. So had thousands across the country.
It is normal practice in the Catholic Church and in some Anglican churches too. Would the BBC dare to ask if it was appropriate for a Muslim to appear with a hijab? Or a Sikh with a turban? So why a Christian with an ash cross? Ignorance or prejudice? I suspect a large dose of both.
Meanwhile a consultation issued IS it really any wonder that flytipping is on the increase? Local authorities are making it as hard as possible for householders to dispose of their rubbish lawfully and then wonder why many resort to dumping it illegally.
My own grass cuttings provide a pretty good example. At the height of the growing season it is quite by the General Pharmaceutical Council proposes that pharmacists who do not wish to prescribe abortifacients (drugs that induce abortion) may in future be obliged to do so.
This is founded on the growing view that individual conscience is disposable but it is also gratuitous. Pharmacies abound in the UK, with impossible to fit the results of a couple of hours’ mowing into my green bin, so the gardener takes it to the tip, where because he is in a truck with the company name on its side he is charged for disposal of commercial waste in the sum of £40 a time, which naturally I repay him.
Then there is the growing infrequency of bin collections which most towns having more than one and most people – particularly active young and middle-aged people – easily able to find one. So if they’re refused what they want in one pharmacist they can try another.
It is therefore unnecessary to force pharmacists to choose between job and conscience just as it should be causes bottles, plastic, cardboard and newspapers to pile up, compelling householders to take it for disposal themselves but for some that is easier than others. It is even being mooted that food waste will be collected every three weeks. Do local authorities really think that decent citizens want to put up with rotting food, which can be attractive I HAVE some sympathy with Martin Clunes who has tried to prevent his appeal against HMRC’s decision to refuse cosmetic surgery as a “necessary expense” being heard in public. My own belief is that tax affairs should always be dealt with in private unless fraud, evasion, dubious schemes or lies are involved, but this is merely an argument about admissibility of a claim.
Nevertheless, if Clunes did not want the details of his surgery rehearsed in the public domain he had the option of simply accepting the taxman’s decision, which is what thousands of weary citizens do every year. Instead, knowing that tax tribunals are public affairs, he chose to fight and must therefore take responsibility for the consequences.
Anyway, he has had a hugely deserved successful acting career, which has never depended on his looks. Now that reminds me – where is the bill for all that panto make-up, which I never remember to claim? unnecessary to force bakers to put slogans on cakes.
This will affect not just Christians but practitioners of other major religions as well. Perhaps it is the latter who should protest as they stand some chance of being heeded, while Christians are increasingly being treated as aliens from outer space.
IT’S NO SURPRISE THAT FLYTIPPING IS ON THE INCREASE
only to rats and foxes? Yet if said decent citizen wants to dispose of food there is often no way of doing so.
Add to all that the enslavement to the rule book whereby bins will be left unemptied if a leaf has crept in and you have the clearest possible provocation to flytip. It is not an activity I approve of but it is fast becoming one I can understand.