Category: Uncategorized

If Andy Burnham is serious about freedom of movement for young people across Europe, it’s got to work both ways. If it was introduced tomorrow, would it actually help our 1 million young people not in employment, education, or training, get jobs in Europe? I’m not sure that it would. Just because most are not linguistically equipped to work in other parts of Europe. So what is Andy going to do about that?

For as long as I can remember, there has always been a complacency about language learning in the UK. Where the only people linguistically fluent are those born and brought up in bilingual families. Where we expect everyone else in the world to accommodate us.

If you want to learn another language, it is easy enough to put on your headphones and log onto Duolingo. It’s free and it will show you the structure of any language. But it can only take you so far. Language learning is a social activity. What you have learned with your headphones will quickly fade if you’re not using it day in and day out. As a young man I once joined a Spanish evening class at a local secondary school. It folded after one term. And -yes – I know this in every major town there are language circles. But they are primarily for people who already have a working knowledge of other languages and who want to polish their skills. Not for someone starting out from scratch

How I wish that I had internet dating when I was in my late teens and early twenties. So much better than looking for love in a crowded disco. Shouting above the noise,

” Ello Luv! Wanna dance?”

With internet dating, I could have taken my pick from the World. And from the comfort of my living room table. Instead of squeezing past bouncers. Of course it wasn’t always like that. Before the Great War, many artisan marriages were within trades. For example, the dressmaker’s daughter marrying the tailor’s cutter. I guess it was quite transactional. And if you were wondering about tailor’s cutters? They were people who made shirts. In the days before every shirt was imported from China. And there are also similarities with modern internet dating.

When you log onto your dating site, your internet platform steps into the role of ‘kaaj lady’ or marriage broker. Like a kaaj lady, it will show you pictures of prospective dates. Klick on one of those pictures and she will give you a little more information about their job and social standing. Then is over to you

I don’t feel quite the same way about the recent passing of Jeffrey Archer as I did – say – with the passing of Frederick Forsyth a couple of years back. For me Forsyth was up there with the greats, like Stephen King or the late Wilbur Smith. Day of the Jackal was part of my adolescence. The difference with Forsyth and Smith is that they wrote from their own life experience. By contrast, Archer came across to me as a former Conservative politician turned writer. Yes he was good at his trade. I have read a couple of his books. Though I can’t remember any of the plots. Other than that I recall one of them being based in the Vichy France. Have I got that right? But Archer was famous in other ways. He was the first celebrity defendant to be convicted by a jury. I recall him standing against Red Ken in one of the London mayoral elections. But I didn’t vote for him. All I remember about his campaign was that he wanted to reduce some bus services. What a choice that was?