Wasting lots of time glued to ‘smart’ phones

I was pleased to read, a few days ago, that increasing numbers of intellectuals have forsworn the use of the ubiquitous (not to mention iniquitous) curse of the modern age, the ‘smart’ phone.

Research has shown that nine out of ten people now own one, spending an average of almost five hours a day glued to its mesmeric screen. Assuming they don’t peer at their phones for five hours during their working day (say, eight hours) and while they sleep (another eight hours) this adds up to 21 hours per day, which leaves only three hours free to do anything useful.

I’m glad I’ve never been tempted to have one.

I have mentioned some time ago that I spend some time each day watching American news broadcasts.

Well, there has been a story there about a Russian warship playing games off the coast of Cork in an area relied on by local fishermen for the pursuit of their livelihoods. In protest, said fishermen have vowed to have their fleet out, hindering the movements of the Russian vessel. I find it odd that I’ve never seen any reports of this on UK news. Okay, so these are southern Irish fishermen but, surely, such a story is of interest to British audiences.

This adds up to 21 hours per day, which leaves only three hours free to do anything useful

And then we come to the Gray report and the news that we may not ever get to see it in full, thanks to the Metropolitan Police deciding at last - to take an interest in the shenanigans which occurred during the early days of lockdown. So far, whenever our excuse for a prime minister has been asked to comment he wanders off, saying ‘what the British public want to hear about are our fantastic successes with the vaccine rollout...’

When asked about the rising energy costs and rising food prices, he had the gall to say that he understands how we must feel about such trivia.