You too can find someone to blame

Someone (I forgot who) once said 'if you can keep your head while all about are losing theirs, you've found someone to blame my son'. This week, I have watched two programmes where everyone blames everbody else and no one seems to accept responsibility for what goes wrong.

The first one was Prime Minister's Question time on Wednesday 12.00pm. What a shambles! Questions went unanswered or were answered with a statement that went part way to answering the question but deflected blame back to whoever had asked the original question.

The second programme was The Apprentice. I have never seen such an excellent example of rats leaving a sinking ship. In this case, the rats were female! They had lost the task set by Sir Alan and were trying to avoid being fired. If looks could kill, there would be at least two females waiting in the morgue for a post mortem!

Then there is the culture of if anything goes wrong - sue the other party. Imagine the scenario, you go into Starbucks or MacDonald's, order a coffee, drink it, burn your throat and then sue the proprietor! Come on guys, coffee is supposed to be hot!

Then we come on to health and safety. We now have to put up notices warning users that the hot water tap can, when turned, on emit water that can get very hot!! Oh good grief, it is a hot tap after all.

This is a short blog, as I have to go and defend myself in crown court as allegedly I ignored an acquaintance in the street and they are suing me for compensation for post traumatic stress

Famous people I have met and seen

I am at that stage in my life when the mind tends to wander and you remember things from years ago whilst forgetting what you did ten minutes ago and completely blanking out what you need to do in the future.

For some reason I thought about the famous people I have met or seen. Years ago, I was a governor at a local school. The school had been closed for a few months due to an oil leak. When it reopened, we had a big celebration. The guest of honour was Betty Boothroyd, our local MP and the first female Speaker of the House of Commons! The school had originally been opened by the then Secretary of State for Education, one Margaret Thatcher so to redress the balance we had to have Betty. Anyway, to cut a long story short I had the privilege of serving Betty with a cup of tea and a sarnie!

I have seen Russ Abott in Woolworths, Cliff Richard in Boots (the shop not the footwear) and appeared on the Rolf Harris Show (BBC in its black & white days). I have met Violet Carson, (Ena Sharples from Coronation Street) been introduced to Princess Anne and had a soundbite aired on Beacon Radio news.

Recently, we had our AGM at the church. This is the time when we hear and read reports on what has happened over the past year. It is good to remember (see above), but what really made the night for me was what was planned for the future. There are some great themes being explored that will impact on our community and expand the faith and expectation of our church members and friends.

Watch this space!