Sometimes, the UK’s confusing legal system still appears to be able to deliver unbelievable mistakes.
This is 78 years old Gaie Delay who was jailed for 20 months in 2022 as part of a UK Government ‘crackdown’ on Just Stop Oil protestors. Last Christmas she was release due to medical issues and was to be fitted with a ‘Tag‘ to finish her sentence at home.
Due to physical issues, a correct size tag could not be sourced to fit her. After a number of days; 20 as it turns out, she has now been recalled to prison for those 20 days to finish her sentence! She must be a very dangerous criminal!!! Full story here and here.
With the rise of keyboard and voice operated devices, it seems that the art of handwriting is on a marked decline. I would admit to being one of those who does not write with a pen as much as I used to, though I still sometimes reach out for my lovely Waterman pen (a birthday gift from my sister a few years ago), to use it to write Birthday/Christmas cards.
One interesting fact I learned from this very interesting article (Long-Read) is that as today’s primary school children are not taught to write cursively (joined up writing to you and me) so they also struggle to read it. Amazingly, Finland removed cursive writing from its schools in 2016!
Having spent some of my secondary education years at a Roman Catholic school where penmanship was drilled into you – even the teachers (Nun‘s) used square chalk on the blackboards – everything handwritten had to be in the Italic script style of writing! It’s a shame to see it handwriting slowing disappearing. I’ll have to give myself some ‘Writing-Lines‘ to keep me using my Waterman, so that I don’t lose the physical and mental ability to handwrite something in the future.
I was sad to see that the British Council is facing a UK.Gov funding shortfall and may be forced to reduce its operations around the world. I think this organising does a tremendous amount of work on behalf of the UK and should be looked on as a good use of ‘Soft Power‘. One effect of withdrawing funding, will be an upsurge in the influence of Russia and China in areas where we once promoted our basic core values.
Beasley's Place 