Intermission

Welcome to the world gone mad as reported in our daily paper. First, the 'new' geography.

The break up of the USSR, the unification of Germany and other events might have accustomed us to the redrawing of international boundaries, but a recent pronouncement by Dominique Dupilet, the council leader for the Pas de Calais département in northern France, seems just a little surprising. M Dupilet has stated, 'I consider that we are the south of England' - although he has not actually ceded any territory to the UK and his overlords in Paris might well seem fit to disagree with him. But it is really just part of a cunning plan to make money from the 2012 Olympics. The Pas de Calais has allocated 12 million euros to upgrade hotels and sports training facilities and is working hard to attract teams to the are for their pre-Olympic training.

And now to the world of not just political correctness, but political ultra-correctness.

Somebody wanted a cleaner and tried to place and advertisement at their local Job Centre which specified "a reliable cleaner". The advertisement was refused on the grounds that the inclusion of the word "reliable" discriminated against unreliable people. I am rendered almost speechless - but did wonder if the inclusion of the word "cleaner" would discriminate against cooks, bus drivers, teachers etc.