Yet another dig at elf and safety but only because the stories grow more and more bizarre. We’ve had policemen who won’t climb ladders or go out in the rain in case they slip and hurt themselves and we’ve had the story about the lady dying because she wasn’t rescued from the mine shaft in time and we now have a paramedic who refused to lift a fourteen year girl suffering a heart attack in case she hurt her back – her own back that is, not the girl’s, who died on the way to hospital. There’s no saying she would have been saved but the delay whilst elf and safety rules were invoked certainly didn’t help matters. The paramedic, a Miss Lynn admitted mentioning health and safety but said: ‘What I actually said was we need to think of the safety of everyone. That included Shannon. I was trying to get control of the situation.’ Yes, just like the fire chief.

Another very interesting story this week which goes one step further in proving to me that the world (England if nowhere else) is going stark raving mad: pupils aged five are to be given transgender lessons. Aged five! Whatever happened to childhood? I’m not saying children aged five are little innocents but why lumber them at that age with something they need know nothing about until later in life or until they ask? It isn’t going to stop bullying which is evidently the reason being given. It’s just going to make them more curious and probably more aggressive in targeting those who appear to be different. Whereas before it might not have been so noticeable now they will know what to look for and appearances as we know only too well can be deceptive.

I seem to remember some time ago writing to say that after a half century or more of getting The Sunday Times, we gave it up. This was because of the cavalier way overseas readers were treated, despite howls of outrage. The paper got thinner and thinner as section after section was cut. The price never went down and the last straw was losing the Culture section. They kept the car sales section but who living outside the country want to know abut car sales? I suppose one can get the culture section on the internet these days but to be honest I can’t be bothered to even try. I still get it anyway. Friends in England every three months or so send it to me, minus the television pages which are of no interest, and I was thinking only yesterday that I hadn’t received any for quite some time and Hey Presto! As if by magic, two rolls, not one, but two rolls are delivered, half a year’s worth, twenty-five in all so guess that will keep me in reading matter until Christmas. Thank you the Maffins of Huddersfield.