Sheffield University European Society

Excellent meeting yesterday evening with the European Society at Sheffield University.  I shared a platform with two Labour hopefuls from their EP list but I was most impressed by the quality of questions and the discussion that got going on several occasions.

Questions ranged from bio fuels, the effectiveness of the Carbon Trading Scheme, the merging of the post of High Representative and Foreign Affairs Commissioner, the tendency for separatist movements in the EU, the role of the EU as a military power and a good discussion on European identity and the boundaries of the EU. Great stuff.

Back to Sheffield on Friday for a debate hosted by IPPR North entitled ‘Up North: Can policies deliver?’ with amongst others a certain Nick Clegg. After that, some leaflet delivery of course!

Passover rip off?

 

It seems that holidays, of whatever origin, are an opportunity for retailers to start charging over the odds for ordinary products just because they are somehow ‘holiday-themed’. And Passover it seems is not different.

 

Seen in my local Waitrose on Sunday ‘Wilkin & Son’ Tiptree No Peel Orange £1.65 but then on the Kosher shelves under ‘Passover’ the exact same marmalade at £2.05; the only difference being that the rear label has some sort of validation from a Rabbi in Manchester that the marmalade is kosher. Is that just a rip-off or am I missing something here?

My Charlton Heston story

 

So farewell to Charlton Heston. I didn’t share all his political views (although he did march with Martin Luther King) but he was a pretty fine actor.  And I guess that is how I will remember him. Best part? Well, it has to be Taylor in ‘Planet of the Apes’!

 

My Charlton Heston story is that when we went to the Cocktail Bar at Reid’s Hotel in Madeira in the 1980s we were served by a elderly waiter who I thought would have certainly remembered the hotel’s post war heyday of Winston Churchill, Gregory Peck, Muhammed Ali, members of Europe’s royal families and so on. So I asked him who was the most famous person he had served in the Cocktail Bar over the years. He thought about this for a while and said: “Charles Heston”. In a poor attempt to cover his obvious mistake by humour, I said “Oh, the brother of the famous Charlton Heston?” Quick as a flash he said, “no, I don’t think he had a brother”!