Somehow for me it summed up so much that is wrong with our country - the arrogance of those in power who cannot possibly be wrong in any way.
I know I have readers from outside the UK so a very very basic explanation of what this is about. Numerous post office employees (postmasters and postmistresses) were accused of stealing from the post office. Some were sent to prison for fraud and some even committed suicide because of the shame it brought on them and their families.
The culprit in all of this was the post office and malfunctioning computer software. The employees had done absolutely nothing wrong and to me it was mind boggling that people who were pillars of local communities could have been wrongly accused of theft and fraud. Many lost their livelihoods, their homes and their marriages and all because those at the top of the tree were too arrogant and plainly stupid to see what was in front of their noses.
How they could have come to the conclusion that so many unrelated people were trying to steal from them at the same time is beyond me but as I have said the level of arrogance in our country sometimes stuns me. I do hope that all those wrongly accused and who are still around receive huge amounts of compensation from the Government.
Of course we now have the nonsense that they still have to prove their innocence and that will take more time. They all need their convictions to be overturned and full compensation paid and any of the Post Office so called top brass still around should be held to account for their total stupidity and inability to see further than the end of their own noses.
Yesterday we heard that ministers and post office officials were meeting for talks. Sometimes I feel that all we do in this country is talk and when we've finished talking, we talk some more. Action not words is what is needed.
*. *. *
Sad to hear that David Soul has died. I used to watch Starsky and Hutch - the American cop drama. I made up a joke about it, although I suspect others did too.
Which police duo drive around all day in cars?
Starter key and clutch.
Hilarious yes?
Anyway David Soul sang at Carrow Road football ground many years ago and I suppose that makes him a Soul Singer (boom boom). Talking of which I fear that Basil Brush has a new operator. The furry fox puppet was on a quiz show the other day and his voice sounded less deep and less foxy.
But back to David Soul. He sang from a smallish stage in front of the City Stand which we always call the main stand. It's actually the.smallest stand but the one that has the directors' rooms and dressing rooms beneath it.
Mr Soul attracted a small crowd. It was actually a very small crowd but it did teach me a lesson. Never buy the most expensive seats. For this concert the most expensive seats were in the centre of the stand and facing the stage. Less expensive seats were towards the wings of the stands. But there were so few there that the singer told everyone to move into the centre to make like a crowd. That means that people paying for the cheaper seats found themselves next to people paying a lot more.
I do have a problem with different priced seats. You might pay say £50 for a seat in the front eighht rows of a theatre and £35 for a seat in row nine but your view of what's going on and the sound etc that comes to you is exactly the same.
At a recent concert we attended, we paid less than the people we sat next to on the same row as our tickets were in the cheaper zone but our experience was identical.
Same as on trains and flights etc. Everybody will have paid a different fare depending on from where they got their tickets and when they bought them. We always shop around for the best deals and it can save you a huge amount of money.
I'm not sure whether I was reviewing the David Soul concert for the local newspaper, although I suspect not. Which poses the question what was I doing there as his schmaltzy take on music certainly isn't normally down or up my street.
But I did enjoy his hits "Don't give up on us" and " Silver Lady". So along I went. I don't remember much about the concert other than moving seats. That suggests it was neither particularly good nor particularly bad.
*. *. *
Thanks for all the comments on my photos of Eastbourne. This week has brought shivering temperatures and I'm really looking forward to when things warm up and I can get on my travels again and do what I enjoy doing.