Shedding light on night ban
LET’S HOPE THE SMART NAPPY BRINGS US BACK TO OUR SENSES
WHEN I passed my driving test in
1971, I had never driven at night and found the management of other drivers’ headlights confusing.
So I understand the proposal to ban new drivers from night driving.
However, that could be unfair as it might adversely affect those who, for safety reasons, drive home after work in the dark.
Surely a more proportionate response is simply to insist that learners spend certified time driving in the dark before taking the test?
NOW that the leadership shenanigans are over we know that Boris Johnson is moving into No. 10. Mrs May will have packed up the removal van and be returning to backbench life. MPs and MEPs will be contemplating the August buckets and spades season and absolutely nothing will have changed except that we now have a PM with the will to deliver Brexit.
Whether the will produces a way has yet to be seen. The parliamentary arithmetic will not alter nor the stubbornness of the same Parliament in rejecting the will of the people. Only the prospect of a general election and the loss of seats may serve to concentrate minds.
Yet the message stays the same.VoteTory and get Corbyn. The Peterborough result still shouts that loud and clear, where the Brexit Party lost by a few hundred and the Tories by a few thousand.
If some people decide to trust the Tories again because Johnson has replaced Theresa May – and I understand the temptation – then the inevitable upshot will be that Corbyn will benefit. The only way to keep Jeremy Corbyn out is to vote for the Brexit Party firmly and decisively.
MEANWHILE, I face returning to Brussels and an email informs me that my constituents can enjoy a subsidised visit to the European Parliament. At Westminster it did not matter whether constituents were coming from Highlands and islands or Penzance: MPs had no financial help to get them there.
At least there is something to see at Westminster: Big Ben, historic buildings, the King’s death warrant, the Queen’s robing chamber, ancient architecture, stunning art and sculpture. The European Parliament by contrast is a vast, impersonal, modern building with nothing to see except a large chamber and a series of corridors.
No wonder you have to pay people to come and look at it. Outside a collection of flags waves in the air. The sooner that collection no longer includes the Union Jack, the better.
A VICAR in Kent is to offer a Sunday afternoon service to help those who cannot get to church in the morning because they are suffering a hangover from Saturday night. Has it not occurred to him that on Sunday afternoons most of his flock will be recovering from Sunday lunch?