Aiding Arthur

There will be howls of protest from both right and left at the news that ARTHUR SCARGILL has won a legal case against what used to be the National Coal Board. The right will vilify him as an old-fashioned class warrior and the left will continue to blame him for the demise of the coal industry caused by his imbecile strategies at the time of the Miners’ Strike in the nineteen-eighties.

I don’t know the merits or demerits of this case, but surely Scargill isn’t to be denied legal assistance just because he’s Scargill?

In a similar vein, I hope the Government won’t be too blinded by the £ signs in its eyes in efforts to tackle the burgeoning legal aid bill. The ‘no win, no fee’ culture has a lot to answer for, not least in the legal firms touting for business and defiling our streets and TV screens in the process.

But a phase with the following words in it comes to mind: ‘bathwater’, ‘throwing’ and ‘baby’.

Smoking

I can say this with no axe to grind, because I've never smoked a cigarette, a pipe, or anything else. The anti-smoking fascists are in action again, this time making moves for cigarettes to be sold only in plain cartons from under the counter. They won't be satisfied until smoking is banned anywhere in the open air and until all smokers are made to wear a yellow armband. Everyone knows smoking is not exactly a heath aid, but what business is it of everyone else?