Profligacy and shirt buttons

It may have escaped your notice, indeed, if you live outside Europe there is probably no reason why it should have been drawn to your attention, but there was an election yesterday.  In Greece.  Now, elections in Greece are not something that we in Britain would normally get worked up about, but this time the result could send shock-waves throughout the so-called euro-zone - and possibly even throughout the European Union.  It was therefore quite understandable that the BBC television news late yesterday evening should devote time to the result of the election.

But did they really need to send to Athens not only Gavin Hewitt, their Europe editor, but also Clive Myrie, one of their top news readers?  Could not Mr Hewitt simply have covered the matter, reporting to Reeta Chakrabarti as she headed up the studio presentation in London?  And I wouldn't mind betting that Mr Myrie spent at least two nights in a top Athens hotel.

The Beeb seems to be making a habit of such extravagance these days.

And they are not the only ones.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, moonlights as a writer for the Daily Telegraph newspaper with a column published every week.  OK, I have no problem with that, always assuming that he writes in his own time.  But this week's column reports on his trip to Kurdistan where he met Peshmurga fighters and refugees driven out of their homes by the so-called Islamic State terrorists.

I have to wonder if the trip was undertaken in his capacity as Mayor or if it was in a purely private capacity.  Was it undertaken during his annual leave - and who paid?

Another momentous matter covered recently in the said newspaper concerns shirt buttons.  Well, not so much the buttons as the button holes.  Why, asked a correspondent, is the bottom button hole on men's shirts horizontal when all the rest are vertical?

What's that?  You'd never noticed?  Shame on you!

Anyway, an answer was provided by somebody with specialist knowledge, a shirt maker or some such.  And the answer was not, as one gentleman opined, so that the dresser knew when the last button had been fastened.  It is to stop the shirt gaping (and displaying the wearer's stomach) when the wearer turns in his seat.

I have since examined all my shirts.  Only one of them has the bottom button hole set horizontally.  Maybe I'm just a cheapskate when it comes to buying shirts!