​Do you ever wonder if the world has gone totally mad and lost all sense of proportion and contact with reality? Has everyone become obsessed with minority opinions and blowing them out of proportion? I have written before about the fact that you cannot compare different generations in anything. But, when I read this week that objections were being raised against the singing of ‘Fairytale of New York’ because the use of the word “faggot” is in the lyrics, I think we really have reached a new stage of bizarreness.
 
No doubt at some point in the future time the word ‘Brussels sprouts’ may be given a new connotation in the same way the word ‘gay’ has. To me, gay simply means happy, cheerful and colourful, as well as being a girls name.
 
I don’t know when it took on its modern meaning, but that is no reason to strike its traditional use from history and historical context. Poor Noddy! So, I do wonder if when I’m 100, which is only 30 years away, we won’t be able to have Brussels sprouts with our turkey for Christmas! Personally, I don’t like them so don’t eat them, but I’m just trying to make the point that things have gotten a little silly!
 
So, let’s grow up and fully embrace the wonderful richness of the English language where words can have multiple meanings, and not allow connotations that have been recently added to historical words to choke to death those traditional meanings that have been with us for centuries.
 
Words such as jam, bark, nails, mine, set and run have over six hundred different meanings! The five pillars on which Mahatma Gandhi built his life were respect, understanding, acceptance, appreciation and compassion. So, let us respect traditional meanings while understanding that times change and accept new meanings as an appreciation of our wonderful language, while showing compassion to those who use words differently. The alternative is a sort of literary Japanese knotweed.
 
Talking of being 100, what about Arthur Grisbrook who celebrated is 100th birthday in October. The Metro reported that he claims his longevity is due to eating mixed grills and drinking red wine! Now that’s one for the PC health police to explain if ever there was one!
 
His favourite meal which he cooks himself is steak, gammon, fried egg, tomato, peas, mushrooms, chips and hash browns! “I eat and drink what I fancy and don’t worry what the so-called experts say”, the Metro quotes. Of course, sense is needed, and he clearly has it, but extremes and fear are never the order of the day!
 
I don’t know where Arthur lives but maybe I should invite him to share a mixed grill with us at the London Grill Club one day!

​One of the saddest things when anyone dies, apart from the obvious loss of a loved one if they are close to you, is the loss of experience that dies with them. Add to that wit, humour and a certain degree of respectable maverickness and you have Baroness Jean Trumpington.
 
I had the pleasure of meeting with her several times in the eighties, it was always a refreshing experience! You were never left in any doubt of what she thought on any given matter! A true upholder of tradition, but not just for the sake of it, it always had to be worth upholding, but she equally acknowledged that times change, and things move on.

​Tens of thousands of words have been and are being written, so I’m not going to go into too much detail, but life let alone politics needs more people like her. Resolute, reliable, impish and unpredictable, she was a chain-smoking health minister who was respected by the nation, having been dubbed 'Baroness Battleaxe' after waving a ‘V’ sign at her friend Lord Tom King in the House of Lords.
 
Born four years after the end of The Great War, she survived beyond the 100th Anniversary of its ending. Unlike so many modern politicians, she knew that real life and real people lived outside the corridors of Westminster.
 
I don’t know whether she was a ‘Leaver’ or ‘Remainer’, but I have the feeling that she might have made an excellent Secretary of State for Brexit and would have wholeheartedly respected the view of the British people, even if she personally disagreed. It’s such a tragedy that so many of our modern politicians don’t have that sense of duty.

For the record, I voted remain, although I want out of what the Common Market has become and where it is going. It will all implode, partly due to the race to federalism, and we needed to be there to be the driving force shaping Mark 2.