Hmm

I don't know about you but I find the Miliband brothers a bit odd. I cannot quite put a finger on why but there is something about both of them which is a little off beam and makes me wonder why they are involved in politics at all rather than doing some kind of boffin or similar job. Or perhaps they are not quite as clever as we are led to believe and politics is all they can aspire to. David Miliband made me think this on a number of occasions but particularly as a result of the unfortunate photograph of him with a banana. Ed Milband has made me think this on each occasion I have heard him speak and particularly when I heard his unfortunate speech comparing the greedy trade union marchers last Saturday with the Suffragettes, the American Civil Rights marchers and the Apartheid protestors.
My wife attends Italian and History adult education courses and today being the last day of term for Italian has enrolled for next term's course but was informed that next time she enrolls she must produce her passport. This cannot be for money laundering reasons - there is simply not enough money involved. It must presumably be as a result of the clampdown on the issue of student visas although for the life of me I cannot see why. Someone applying for a student visa would have to have a course already lined up before making application to the Home Office and as part of such application would have to produce a valid notification of acceptance on the course. The need therefore to provide one's passport to enrol on an adult education course is a regulation too far and should be abolished.
In my youth when London was still an English town and when one waited for a bus or whatever one queued in an orderly fashion for the very good reason that it was only fair that if space on the next bus was limited it should be taken by those who queued first. Today there are no queues but a melee waiting around the bus stop when those with the strongest elbows get on first. Some things were better in the old days.