Did you know that the Emperor Justinian banned homosexuality because it causes earthquakes? We’ve had a Mullah recently put a country’s earthquakes down to girls wearing short skirts and now we have that weird creature, the all but in name dictator of Iran, Ahmadinejad (Why not shorten his name to ‘Mad’?) whose election has always been in some doubt, blame the wicked West because the country is suffering a severe drought with its rivers running dry. Boy, western scientist really have entered into the world of futuristic sci-fi that they can produce a drought over an entire country. I wonder how they do it. They have recently discovered Venus has an ozone layer, much thinner than earth’s evidently but there nevertheless so now the belief in the possibility of life elsewhere gets a decided boost. Of course there is life elsewhere. I’m a firm believer in that. It’s not possible that in the unending vastness of the cosmos and far away galaxies there is no life other than our own. Maybe in the discovering of Venus’s ozone layer they have inadvertently caused Iran’s droughts or maybe it’s all down to homosexuality and girls dressing immodestly.

I’ve been thinking, something I still do, despite the mind growing more feeble by the day, what was the point of various countries getting rid of their monarchs when the elected heads of state are kings in all but name and with much more power over their subjects than a constitutional monarch? What is Assad but king of Syria? What is Ahmadinejad but the new Shah of Iran? What was Sadam Hussein? Has a dynasty not been founded in North Korea that looks, unless there is something like a revolution, to continue?

But to carry on our discussion on the madness of our elected masters. The UK is in almost as deep a doodoo as Greece whose government keeps on borrowing more money when they can’t pay back what they’ve already borrowed, but in Britain the chancellor of the exchequer when questioned about foreign aid says he didn’t think Britain should get out of the mire by not helping those in need of help (or words to that effect and whatever happened to God helps those who help themselves?)) and blithely earmarks another billion dollars in foreign aid. Well, so what? He shrugs. It’s not his money. If he wants to play the good Samaritan with someone else’s money who are we to question it? But whatever happened to charity begins at home? It is estimated that in 2012/13 an extra 600000 children and 800000 adults of working age will be living in poverty?

And who are we to question that that venerable old institution the BBC that is fast becoming an anachronism, has been awarded three and a half billion this year to keep its head above water? Are any of the overpaid management likely to make a small sacrifice and possibly reduce their salaries a little? Not bloody likely, not while the TV licence stands at £145.50 and, like the Greek property tax, is something, unless you throw out the television set, unavoidable. And what about those obscene bank bonuses? Is the government ready to tackle the banks? Not bloody likely.

One could go on and on but really why bother?