The Shadows

It's great. If you look at 'Is Anyone Out There' - a few blogs back, there are now three comments. Not that any of them are considering anything I may have said (one does suggest I can be ignored). The pleasure is that they are now talking amongst themselves.

It all started with liars. Civilisation is the worse off because people lie. It was suggested it was the worst of the deadly sins.

Politicians are often labelled as liars, but I have just an edge of sympathy for them, because their time in office is often too brief. They are emphemera, at least that's the way the British Civil Service mandarins think of them.

They are right. Politicians are useless. They spout platitudes. They are rarely held responsible for any decisions taken. Invariably they are given two choices by their advisors. A good one, and a bad one. The good one is that preferred by the administrators.

We are all slightly mad, allowing nerds to make decisions that affect all our lives. And we've allowed them to get so entrenched that they can take 50% of all earned income, and still we don't complain. Even we they take us on wars which are nothing to do with us.

It's British administrators who enforce silly European laws, which the rest of Europe happily ignores. It's these people who insist that all boxes are correctly ticked, and never consider anyone to look outside the box.

I had to get outside a big box the other day. I got on a bus with my senior bus card. Presenting it to the driver he said, 'I can't take that. It's out of date.'

So it was, I'd given him last year's card, and not the new one, which had just arrived. 'I've not got any younger,' I said. But he was adamant, and I had to get off the bus, walk home and get the newly-issued card.

Why do I need to renew a senior citizen's bus pass every year? Providing a photograph each time, filling in long forms, providing documentary proof of my age?

Perhaps it's because I look so young?