More modern madness!

When I first read reports of a notice going up in a block of flats advising all residents that from now on, Brexit having been “done”, everyone had to speak English I thought it was perhaps a spoof, fake news, a wind-up, a provocation. Now it seems that it was placed on all the fire-doors of a fifteen storey block of flats. If that was a “joke” of some kind it was a very well-executed one! I wonder how the Welsh feel about being told that now we must all speak only English in the UK. Or perhaps the “jokers” meant it only for England.

Then this afternoon there has been this: “Political journalists have boycotted a briefing at No 10 Downing Street after one of Boris Johnson’s aides banned selected reporters from attending. The walkout took place after a confrontation inside No 10 in which Lee Cain, Johnson’s most senior communications adviser, tried to exclude reporters from the Mirror, i, HuffPost, PoliticsHome, Independent and others.
Reporters on the invited list were asked to stand on one side of a rug in the foyer of No 10, while those not allowed in were asked by security to stand on the other side. After Cain told the banned journalists to leave, the rest of the journalists decided to walk out collectively rather than allow Downing Street to choose who scrutinises and reports on the government.”

I do like a nice bit of solidarity. After all, if the journalists accept the exclusion of some of their number today, tomorrow it might be their turn to fall out of favour. It’s all just a little disturbing though.

Yesterday, as I returned from my run I came across a young man putting party banners up on the entrance to the tunnel next to the pub near our house. The pub was originally a coaching house, which explains the tunnel. At the far end of the tunnel was a huge puddle and so, as I am a helpful soul, I pointed out to him that there was another way round for pedestrians so that they did not have to navigate the small lake. But in fact the banners were for motorists who would not be able to follow satnav as the local council, busy with their work on the water drainage works on our road, had blocked the other road entrance to the industrial estate, where the party venue was situated.

He then revealed to me, with great pride, that his small son was one year old and they were throwing a party at the aforementioned party venue, which they had booked before the council decided to make access difficult.

Time was that for first birthdays you invited the grandparents round for tea and that was about it. Now you have to have a big party for your family, all your old friends and the new friends you made at the National Childbirth Trust classes, accompanied by their small offspring. And you can say what you like but the party is for the parents, not for the children at all.

Columnist Zoe Williams has been expressing her amazement at the extravagant party Kylie Jenner threw for her two-year-old daughter, the improbably named Stormi. But, as MS Williams points out, it’s not just the rich celebrities who have such parties. It’s become big business and “children’s parties have gone bananas. One New York City party planner, Anne Ligeard Murat, revealed recently that her basic children’s party package started at $6,000 (£4,600).
It is not unusual for the high-net worth parent to drop 50 grand on a sleepover, complete with bespoke soft-play ball pit.
A couple recently spent six figures recreating a Parisian scene in Washington – for a one-year-old.”

Wow!

You can’t blame the party-planners for cashing in on such collective madness but surely there are better things you could do for your one-year-old with such amounts of cash!