Sometimes we must ditch the rule book
Widdecombe
THE latest folly in following the rule book to the letter is revealed in the terrible saga of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, the young girl who collapsed on a BA flight after eating a Pret a Manger baguette containing sesame seeds. There was a defibrillator on the plane but it was at the back and the crew would not fetch it because the rules stipulated they should be stationed at the doors before landing. Anybody with any sense would have run for that defibrillator and then gone back to the doors.
This is the same BA that last year made an 87-year-old woman wet herself, with a hostess actually blocking her way to the loo rather than helping her to get there safely. Why? The rules specified that all travellers should be in their seats ready for a take-off that had already been delayed 90 minutes.
The rule book is, as the old maxim says, a good servant but a poor master yet in Britain it reigns supreme even when life itself is at stake. BA inflexibility is but one example. Trains will pull out leaving women alone on stations late at night rather than disobey the rule that says lock the doors for a full 30 seconds before departure. “Twentyeight seconds? You are too late, Madam.”
RULES say you cannot park in a space where the meter is out of order so just keep circling and adding to congestion. The police say they must pursue a complaint, however daft, because the rule book says so. Employees are no longer valued for their judgment, common sense or discretion but for the number of boxes they can tick according to the rule book. Examiners look for prescribed answers rather than for flair and originality. Brexit may release us from EU rule but we will still remain slaves until the day common sense reasserts itself. And while on the subject of Natasha’s death, I see that Pret a Manger took two years to apologise to the bereaved parents, doing so just before the inquest opened. What bothers me is why anybody should have to wait two years for an inquest in the first place. IT IS 100 years since the end of the First World War and yet some people think we should still be fighting it. How else can one account for objections to the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, being invited to the Cenotaph ceremony? If he wishes to show respect to our war dead, then what is the problem? Give peace a chance! PARTNERS: Ann with Anton during her Strictly stint in 2010 has sent it and to do so only on a number you have found for yourself, not on any number in a text or mail.
Next, never make that call on the landline or mobile on which you have yourself just been called. Switch to another phone, call somebody else first to make sure the line is clear or switch your mobile right off and wait. You may lose a few minutes if the approach is genuine but not all your savings if it isn’t.
Remember also that many fraudsters rely on coincidence. If you have just made a payment or placed an order and you get a text or email about payments or orders, you will naturally assume it to be genuine. Don’t.
Check first on a number you have found for yourself. Finally if somebody rings up saying ALAS! Anton Du Beke was voted off Strictly at the weekend. He will be devastated but at least he will have a bit more time to spend with his twins, which must be some consolation. I suppose he must just wait to see whom he gets next year but meanwhile the rest of us will have to be content with seeing him only in the group dances … unless TV bosses can think up a wheeze?
SIMPLE WAYS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM TELEPHONE SCAMS
I HATE the fur trade. Killing an animal for food is one thing but, unless you are a nomad living in the frozen wilds with no means of support, it is never necessary to kill for fur. No living being should suffer merely for fashion. So if a fur shop opened near me, I would protest to the council. I would sign petitions calling for its closure and maybe even peacefully demonstrate on the pavement outside.
What I would not do is threaten the owner of a repugnant but perfectly lawful trade. Yet in the four weeks that her fur shop has been open in Stroud, Gloucestershire, Faye Rogers received 1,000 hate messages and death threats.
She is now closing down which is a victory for compassion towards animals but a triumph of barbarity towards humans. they are from your computer company do not switch on your computer. I had a call recently from a man purporting to be from the company which supplies my broadband.
He asked me if my computer was switched on. I said, “It was when you rang but now it is shutting down, so go and scam somebody else.”
Sadly, that is probably exactly what he did.