According to a story in the Metro, the old saying “What’s mine is yours”, does not apply across the board. A OnePoll survey by Village Hotel found that while people in the UK are happy to divvy up moisturiser and soap, toothbrushes, razors and pyjamas are a no-go.
The top ten things people were unwilling to share were:-
- Underwear
- Toothbrush
- Razor
- Social media passwords
- The bathroom
- Pyjamas
- Phone password
- Bank account
- Bath towel
- T-shirts
Only one in eight agreed it was acceptable to share food on a first date, and when it came to paying the bill, 63 per cent of women were more inclined to split it compared with 41 per cent of men.
The Daily Mail reports that the UK is getting its first state primary boarding school, at an estimated cost of £9 million: Wymondham College Prep School in Norfolk will become the UK’s first state boarding school for boarders as young as 8.
The school is aiming to take in 450 girls and boys aged four to 11, but only boarding children at 8 years old plus. The education is free, but fees for boarding will cost around £11,000 a year. That might seem a lot, but other public boarding schools charge much more: Brighton College charges £50,000 a year, while Eton’s fees are £42,501 a year and Harrow charges £41,775.
Jonathan Taylor, chief executive of the Sapienta Education Trust, said the new school will offer a solution to middle-class families unable to afford public school fees and ‘support their working patterns’.
I can’t help but see this as the slippery slide into the end of free state education. Since the Tories came to power in 2010, school funding has been slashed by around £7 billion. Many schools have been forced to lay off staff and beg parents for money for essentials such as stationery and even toilet paper.
Another victim of austerity cuts seems to be the Lollipop men and women of the UK. According to the Guardian, cash strapped local councils, desperate to save money, are axing lollipop ‘people’ across the country.
According to the Department for Transport, some 4 million schoolchildren, accompanied or on their own, walk or cycle to school in Britain every day. In 2009, the latest year for which figures are available, seven child pedestrians or cyclists were killed or seriously injured every day – including at traffic lights, pelican and zebra crossings. According to a recent survey of more than 15,000 children by the road safety charity Brake, one in 10 children say they have been knocked down while walking or cycling, and one in six have had a close call.
First trialled in Britain in the 1940s, the road crossing patrols – the familiar lollipop men or women with their yellow high-vis jackets and big round Stop signs have helped to ensure those statistics are not even worse. They became a national institution following the 1953 School Crossing Patrols Act. However, whilst councils have a general duty to promote road safety, crossing patrols have never been required by law. As a result, many councils, hunting for ways to save money in the wake of government spending cuts, are now looking to cut crossing patrol numbers, or even to scrap the service all together.
In some areas, parents are getting together to organise “walking buses”. Walking buses involve chaperoning pupils (typically two adults (a “driver” leads and a “conductor” follows), to walk to school along a set route.
Maybe they should just send them to state boarding schools.
Bad news for people who enjoy a tipple in Wales: According to BBC News, the Welsh Assembly has put a minimum price on alcohol, per unit. They have started with 50p per unit of alcohol, which means a typical bottle of wine will cost no less than £4.99. There is even an online calculator: https://www.bestwaywholesale.co.uk/alcoholpricing
I am not sure it will put off the worst culprits of drinking too much: the baby boomer, 55-64 age group.
According to a story in the Daily Mail, a new app will let you play Sherlock. If you are the victim of a crime the MyPolice app will allow you to report the crime, gather evidence, and report suspects using your smartphone. Then sit back and wait for the perpetrator to be apprehended.
I think we should discuss this one in a pop up session. Think about some of the ways this could go oh so wrong.
Corona Virus has everyone worried, and the stock market is not doing well, but if you are looking for a good investment, don’t bother with Bitcoins, or gold; go for handbags. According to a story in the Times, designer handbags, called Birkin bags, have outstripped most other investments (not even the FTSE did as well: in 2019 it gained just 12%, whereas Birkin bags gained 13%) having increased in value by 108% over the last ten years.
The Birkin bag is made by fashion house Hermes (I might have mentioned their scarfs to someone once), and it’s the same old story: You have to have money, to make money. Nowadays, the bags are only “offered” to their most important customers, and even if you wanted to buy one, you would have to fork out anything from £9,000 to £500,000. Then, if you wanted to sell it later, it would have to be in pristine condition, which means you can’t even enjoy it. Like toys in their original packaging, that have never been played with.
It all reminds me of tulips. One last thing, before you go and rob your piggy bank and rush to get one from EBay, there are also lots of fakes out there. Caveat Emptor
And finally, an uplifting story from Zom to end with. A 180 kilogram turtle named Yoshi was released 2 years ago, after 20 years in captivity. Scientists tracked her as she travelled halfway round the world; from South Africa to the West Australian coast.
You can read more about her remarkable story here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-07/yoshi-turtle-journey-tracked-37000km-from-cape-town-to-australia/12024088
I wonder who has her film rights.
Sources
- The Metro
- The Guardian
- The Daily Mail
- BBC News
- ABC Net