Peter Hill
LEFT-WINGERS led by Jeremy Corbyn condemn the idea of voters having to produce identification at polling stations as an outrage against minorities but their real reason for objecting is that vote rigging benefits them. It’s no coincidence that electoral corruption is rife in areas dominated by Labour.
Evidence of identity is quite reasonably demanded in many aspects of life from driving to merely picking up a package at the post office. It’s ridiculous that people can vote by simply stating that they are who they say they are without proof.
The Windrush scandal is appalling but it does not mean that voter identity should be scrapped. On the contrary it shows the need for everyone to have tangible evidence of their existence. Personation, vote stealing and bullying have no place in our democracy in which the secret ballot is a sacred right. Identity cards are necessary to make the electoral system honest. q A HARD border between Northern Ireland and the Republic would be inconvenient but it would not be the end of the world. Britain has a hard border between us and all the countries outside the EU but we manage to trade with them.
EU negotiators are desperate to stop Brexit but to suggest that if we leave the customs union that will trigger a return to sectarian violence in Northern Ireland is baseless scaremongering. As far as I know trade was never the reason for the Troubles.
If Britain stays in the customs union, meaning we can’t do our own deals outside the EU, Brexit will be stone dead. Theresa May should have the courage to tell Barnier, Juncker and company to get knotted. The border can be as hard or soft as the two Irelands choose and be damned to the Brussels bullies.
Why can’t it work as it does between Switzerland, not an EU member, and its EU neighbours? I have travelled numerous times between Swiss Geneva and France and the border appears to operate seamlessly.
The people of Britain voted for Brexit and as the Prime Minister has often said Brexit must mean Brexit. q PRINCE Harry’s fiancée Meghan Markle has been branded a snob because she hasn’t invited some of her hillbilly relatives to the wedding but I don’t blame her.
Weddings can cause more grief than funerals when emotions run high. I will never forget the day my wife and I were invited to the nuptials of Eddie the painter’s daughter.
For a start the groom failed to turn up and we all waited in the church for what seemed like hours with the vicar wringing his hands and the bride being driven round repeatedly.
A search party was sent out and the groom eventually appeared escorted by two burly members of the bride’s family.
At the reception the caterer refused to produce any food until Eddie paid up in cash.
During the belated feast, fights broke out on the top table between the two families with some of the guests joining in. Blood flowed over the trifle.
I often wonder whether the marriage prospered. Let’s hope the uninvitees don’t turn up and spoil Meghan’s big day. q A WOMAN is killed when she is sucked out of an aircraft window after an engine explodes. Another woman is killed when a car ploughs into her house where she is sitting inside.
Recently a mother died when a pile of bricks fell on her from a building site and not far from where I live a man walking to work was killed by a helicopter falling from the sky after colliding with the top of a skyscraper.
Fate? The hand of God? Or the awful randomness of events. Enjoy every minute of life you can. For tomorrow… q ACTOR Sir Tom Courtenay, 81, is enjoying life afresh after surgery cured him of colour blindness. “I bought a brown T-shirt a while ago and now I’ve realised it’s plum. It’s incredible,” he says.
Tom’s affliction was the result of scarlet fever as a child. Unfortunately there is still no cure for the millions of mostly men, including me, who inherit colour blindness in their genes.
Normal people can’t understand what a tragedy it is for those who can’t tell the difference between red and green or blue and purple, for whom the world looks duller. I’m hoping scientists will find the answer in time for me. Hurry up, please. q OBESITY is the curse of our times especially among children but I doubt if the proposed ban on fast food outlets near schools will have much effect. There is a better way to keep children fit: the Daily Mile. It was started by Scottish headmistress Elaine Wyllie in 2012 but I confess I have only just read about it.
The way it works is for all the children of a school to run around the playground or field for 15 minutes every day.
It doesn’t matter if not every child is able to run all the time or even if those unable to walk have to be pushed in wheelchairs. The important thing is for everyone to take part. The Daily Mile has been enthusiastically taken up all over the world and by all accounts children love it, are happier, work better and keep their weight down.
And it doesn’t cost a penny. Brilliant or what? q THE April heatwave has been just like summer. Or could it have actually been all the summer we are going to get and now we’re cooling down towards winter? Ever the optimist.