A New Year Beckons

This is New Year’s Eve and many of us will be celebrating tonight with friends and family and waiting for the stroke of midnight which will signal the arrival of 2011, the New Year. There may be much jollity, food and drink and, perhaps, some fireworks.

New Year’s Eve is celebrated worldwide. Midnight sees out the old year with all of its associated problems and welcomes in the new year with the hope that it will be a better one than the one that went before it.

Today is also the feast of St. Sylvester, a 4th-century Pope who reigned during the time of Constantine the Great. He was born in Rome, supposedly the son of a Roman soldier, and was pontiff for nearly 25 years. He died in 335 and is buried in the church he built over the Priscilla Catacombs.

Let us hope that the New Year will be a decent one and that, for those who choose to honour him today, St. Sylvester will look beneficently upon them. In both cases, I hope so.
.

What Does It Mean?

The Crown Prosecution Service has dropped all charges against a man who was due to stand trial next year over allegations that he failed to stop at the scene of an accident, failed to report an accident and driving without due care and attention.

In words I seem to have seen before, the reviewing lawyer for the CPS said: ‘I have reviewed the file of evidence passed to me ... and have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.’

What does this mean? Does it mean that the man concerned might have committed the offences but there is not enough evidence to prosecute? Or does it mean that the charges were dropped because, as he had stated, the man was innocent?

The CPS statement leaves things in the air somewhat, but let’s assume the man was innocent.
.

Not Immortal

We hear more and more of teenagers who die or who are mained while speeding or driving dangerously. Such stories are tragic for those involved and for their families, especially when they occur over the Christmas period.

So it was sad to read of the three teenagers killed and another who received serious injuries in a head-on crash as the car they were in tried to overtake another car on a road in South Yorkshire on Monday evening. Miraculously, the driver of the oncoming car they struck received only minor injuries.

Some teenagers seem to feel that they are immortal and, encouraged by television programmes such as Top Gear, drive as if they are competing on a race track.

Alas, many of them discover only too soon the truths that a driving licence doesn’t come with experience, that the roads are not race tracks and that death and serious injury may be the consequences of their bad driving.
.

Bad Move

A number of newspapers report this morning that one in four local councils is planning to scale back or even abolish school crossing patrols - the iconic and distinctive ‘lollipop’ men and woman who morning and afternoon guard the road crossings outside British schools.

One council, Northamptonshire, is said to be planning to scrap the service altogether and save over £200,000 per year by sacking 65 people and encouraging local communities to replace them with voluntary patrols.

I have no idea what sort of things are hidden away in the annual budget for councils such as Northamptonshire, but I would have thought such a small sum could have been saved by making cuts elsewhere in them.

At least a dozen children are killed or seriously injured on our roads each year. If the government supports road safety campaigns, then it should set up a system under which no council should be allowed to abandon school crossing patrols if the appropriate savings could be made elsewhere in their budgets.
.

Thank Heavens!

It is reported that a study into a disease, the white-nose syndrome, that has killed a million little brown bats in the US since 2006 warns that the species may be wiped out in less than twenty years if a solution is not found.

Apparently, one option being considered is a cull of bats in areas where the disease is known to be present, though this has been ruled out.

Thank heavens for that. If culling the creatures turned out to be a viable option, it would be only a matter of time before someone though of applying the ‘cure’ to Swine Flu!
.

They’re Watching!

Tonight my wife will be treating our grandchildren to the pantomime, that curious British mix of humorous, slapstick, musical drama that has entertained Christmas audiences for the last couple of hundred years. A type of theatrical performance which absolutely baffles foreigners because of its tradition of men playing women and women playing men and of all the ludicrous things that happen during it.

I shall be resting indoors with the two dogs enjoying the peace and quiet of an empty house. In my mind’s eye, however, I will hear our grandchildren shouting out at the top of their voices, ‘He’s behind you!’ or ‘Oh, no he isn’t!’ And I can visualise them ducking when the water, or pretend water, is thrown at the audience or their surprise when the genie suddenly pops up in a cascade of pyrotechnics. I image also their reaching out desperate to catch the sweets that are always thrown out by one or more of the leading characters.

These are happy memories from the past. Memories that will not apply to children going to see a production of Aladdin in Barrow, Cumbria, because the killjoys and jobsmiths in the local council have forbidden the throwing of water and sweets or the customary pyrotechnics on health and safety grounds.

A council official, who obviously is not an aficionado of pantomime, said that the rules were necessary to ensure no members of the audience were injured during the performance. Christopher Biggins, Britain's most famous pantomime dame, correctly summed the situation up as ‘idiotic and ludicrous!’

What’s the betting that Barrow Borough Council send one of their jobsmiths to watch Aladdin every day to check that the rules are being followed?

Watch out! He’s behind you!
.

Not Even A Mouse

It is Christmas Eve and across the English-speaking nations perhaps the most popular poem to be read on this day will be that most commonly known as ’’Twas the Night Before Christmas’ from its first line.

The poem was first published under the title A Visit From St. Nicholas on 23 December 1823 in the Troy, New York, Sentinel newspaper. It was published anonymously having been sent to the newspaper by a friend of Clement Clark Moore who is generally thought to be its author. The poem is considered to be largely responsible for the invention of Santa Claus as he is thought of today: his appearance, his mode of transport and the names and number of the deer, the night of his visit and the idea that he brings toys to children.

So, in keeping with the season, Happy Christmas!

A Visit from St. Nicholas

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro’ the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there ...’
.