British Farce Day

Today brings two costly and outmoded British institutions: Census Day and putting the clocks forward by one hour to mark British Summer Time. In the days when changing the time meant adjusting your wristwatch, the clock on the mantelpiece and an alarm clock, it didn't take too long. Nowadays we are surrounded by clocks in central heating systems, ovens, TVs, video recorders, microwave cookers and mobile phones, most of them with fiddly controls and microscopic instructions. My PC is the only thing that adjusts itself. What does all this time-wasting cost us in man-hours? As for the Census, our cities are overrun with immigrants, both legal and illegal, who don't speak English. Half of London's prostitutes are estimated to be Eastern European sex slaves smuggled into the country. If you were their pimp, would you fill out an honest census form? Then there are African children smuggled into the UK to become household slaves (CLICK). Many legal immigrants don't bother to learn English; if they work, they work in language ghettos like the kitchens of Chinese or Indian restaurants. In the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, only 64% of its population filled in the 2001 census form (title link). That was the worst in the country, but the average in London was only 85% for something that is required by law. Did you notice the list of languages which came with the 2011 census form? It covers languages from Akan/Twi-Fante to Yoruba. How much does it cost us to translate all this gibberish? In a futile attempt to drum up trade for 2011, the Census Bus (above) is on its way to a Yoruba-speaking native living somewhere near you (CLICK). What a farce!