Things That Annoy Me

Some things are irrational and annoy me.

Why are sausages getting longer when the ingredients are more expensive and the clientele more obese? Are the sausages unlike the customers thinner?

Why is there no fuss about the lack of alcohol in Qatar? I have no data but suggest there are more alcoholic football fans than gays. The former need a drink, the latter can get by until the final whistle blows. Football annoys me too but it’s not compulsory to play or watch. R does neither although he played at a high standard.

Prime Ministers’ Questions used to serve a democratic purpose calling the PM to account twice a week. Now it is a well-rehearsed, once a week pantomime like the wrestling matches between Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks. It serves no purpose except to fill in that awkward thirty minutes for MPs before drinks and lunch in the tax payer subsidised bars and restaurants in the Palace of Westminster. If it goes on too long you can see them slinking out.

BBC radio have merged the World Service and Radio 4 presenters and brought back retired staff. Frankly that should have been done ages ago but, like the ENO, tax payers’ money blunts economy. This doesn’t annoy me but the repetition of news stories on both channels is disappointing. Really annoying to wake up in the middle of the night and listen to something I’ve already heard. On the plus side it sends me back to sleep.

The Crown is a great soap. Usually I know the characters and the plot so it’s not like jumping into The Archers – I don’t know any of the characters these days or what’s happening in Ambridge. It annoys me that Sir John Major thought it necessary to refute the plot line in an episode in the new series. Every episode in The Crown has a plot – it’s drama and makes for good viewing. Nobody could possibly believe it’s true. I accept it’s distasteful to the characters depicted but they can ignore the show. It’s just a glossy Downton Abbey with more cars than Top Gear surging around.

I’m very annoyed about the way Conservative party leaders are elected. It has gone wrong, not once but twice. I voted for Jeremy Hunt, then I voted for Rishi Sunak but as you know it was Boris and Liz. I do not think the party membership can be trusted to vote for the good of the country. Their votes are bought with promises to their advantage. It is a rotten borough.

Jolly good having a little rant but I’m not making a drying-up cloth.