Christmas 2014 was A' OK.
We had a 'cool yule'.
The grandchildren enjoyed the pantomime.
Lovely gifts were exchanged.
Christmas Lunch was fabulous with Roast Beef the preferred alternative to Turkey.
The Christmas Pudding flambe'ed marvellously and the nontraditional Bailey's Cream was a great alternative to cream or Cumberland Rum Butter.
But what made it sad was that somewhere along the way the indoor critic lost her wedding ring.
The ring was Victorian or more likely Edwardian, 22 Carat Gold and I bought it in Shudehill in Manchester in 1968 for £5 00, a pretty good investment to capture the girl of my dreams.
I rang my lawyer immediately but apparently losing a wedding ring does not mean the automatic end of the marriage, it is apparently only a sign of the marriage, which is still there in both reality and in practise.
Obviously the loss was felt by both parties and a certain sadness descended on the post Christmas festivities.
Eventually we reported the loss to the insurance company.
They asked had we contacted the police?
Well no we hadn't, so we did!
THE PHONE NUMBER IS 101!!!!!!!!!!
101, is of course the number of the room in George Orwell's 1984.
Irony?
Sign of a humour by-pass?
Indication that nobody made the connection not only with George Orwell's dystopian vision or even the TV series of the same name?
To recap: Room 101 is the torture chamber in the Ministry of Love, in which the Party attempts to subject a prisoner to his or her own nightmare, fear or phobia, with the object of breaking down their resistance.
Well, they certainly broke down mine.
Law Enforcement after 5 years of the Con-Dems is simply, breathtakingly, hopeless.
The 'phone rang and a recorded voice gave me options.
One of which was reporting Lost or Stolen Property.
I pressed the relevant button on my telephone key pad.
Only to be told that the Police in Cumbria no longer record lost property.
They do however encourage people finding lost property to return to the owner?
If your insurance company wants either a report or a number then you have to go onto the web-site and download a letter which says that the force is no longer with you!
Then I tried to speak to an operator to be told that the 'phone is answered between the hours of 9 00 and 12 00 and if I need further assistance (sic) then I should dial:
101!
So this is Law Enforcement and Community Policing at the end of five years of a Con-Dem administration.
Try Health? They have their own Room 101!
Try Education, Room 101!
Try DWP, Room 101 is where the sanctions are invented and imposed!
Orwell was wrong of course.
Simply imagining the future by transposing the last two digits of the year he published his book, '48 to '84 wasn't sufficient to capture the enormity of what has happened to the post war settlement gradually over time and dramatically over the past five years.
In the late fifties I watched a TV series, before Z Cars, which featured an elderly genial policeman called George Dixon who arrested ne'er do wells, helped the elderly to cross the village green safely and always ended with: 'Evenin' all'.
I watched it in Black and White but it was called Dixon of Dock Green, a hint that before too long you would be able to not only imagine it, but actually see it, in colour.
My recent experience suggests to me that we have gone right back to Dixon of Dock Grey.
If this reverse thrust continues back to the smaller state and less Government it won't be too long before we leave Orwell's vision behind and continue back to the future, back to a society that yearns for the good times as described by Dickens in his social commentary.
The Ghost of Christmas Past is coming!
We had a 'cool yule'.
The grandchildren enjoyed the pantomime.
Lovely gifts were exchanged.
Christmas Lunch was fabulous with Roast Beef the preferred alternative to Turkey.
The Christmas Pudding flambe'ed marvellously and the nontraditional Bailey's Cream was a great alternative to cream or Cumberland Rum Butter.
But what made it sad was that somewhere along the way the indoor critic lost her wedding ring.
The ring was Victorian or more likely Edwardian, 22 Carat Gold and I bought it in Shudehill in Manchester in 1968 for £5 00, a pretty good investment to capture the girl of my dreams.
I rang my lawyer immediately but apparently losing a wedding ring does not mean the automatic end of the marriage, it is apparently only a sign of the marriage, which is still there in both reality and in practise.
Obviously the loss was felt by both parties and a certain sadness descended on the post Christmas festivities.
Eventually we reported the loss to the insurance company.
They asked had we contacted the police?
Well no we hadn't, so we did!
THE PHONE NUMBER IS 101!!!!!!!!!!
101, is of course the number of the room in George Orwell's 1984.
Irony?
Sign of a humour by-pass?
Indication that nobody made the connection not only with George Orwell's dystopian vision or even the TV series of the same name?
To recap: Room 101 is the torture chamber in the Ministry of Love, in which the Party attempts to subject a prisoner to his or her own nightmare, fear or phobia, with the object of breaking down their resistance.
Well, they certainly broke down mine.
Law Enforcement after 5 years of the Con-Dems is simply, breathtakingly, hopeless.
The 'phone rang and a recorded voice gave me options.
One of which was reporting Lost or Stolen Property.
I pressed the relevant button on my telephone key pad.
Only to be told that the Police in Cumbria no longer record lost property.
They do however encourage people finding lost property to return to the owner?
If your insurance company wants either a report or a number then you have to go onto the web-site and download a letter which says that the force is no longer with you!
Then I tried to speak to an operator to be told that the 'phone is answered between the hours of 9 00 and 12 00 and if I need further assistance (sic) then I should dial:
101!
So this is Law Enforcement and Community Policing at the end of five years of a Con-Dem administration.
Try Health? They have their own Room 101!
Try Education, Room 101!
Try DWP, Room 101 is where the sanctions are invented and imposed!
Orwell was wrong of course.
Simply imagining the future by transposing the last two digits of the year he published his book, '48 to '84 wasn't sufficient to capture the enormity of what has happened to the post war settlement gradually over time and dramatically over the past five years.
In the late fifties I watched a TV series, before Z Cars, which featured an elderly genial policeman called George Dixon who arrested ne'er do wells, helped the elderly to cross the village green safely and always ended with: 'Evenin' all'.
I watched it in Black and White but it was called Dixon of Dock Green, a hint that before too long you would be able to not only imagine it, but actually see it, in colour.
My recent experience suggests to me that we have gone right back to Dixon of Dock Grey.
If this reverse thrust continues back to the smaller state and less Government it won't be too long before we leave Orwell's vision behind and continue back to the future, back to a society that yearns for the good times as described by Dickens in his social commentary.
The Ghost of Christmas Past is coming!
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