How much is the pencil?

Funny how the immigration debacle at Heathrow Airport suddenly came to light over the last few days. I’d like to point out that my entry of 17th April covers this very issue. It was chaos when we flew in from Hong Kong on 15th April. It was lucky we came in on an early flight. Apparently some late arrivals are having to wait so long in immigration that all the transport services have shut down for the night by the time they get out. Interestingly, the Telegraph is today reporting that the Home Office has been attempting to keep the matter quiet. Reading between the lines it would seem that Heathrow and the Home Office are not the best of friends currently. Heathrow were handing out leaflets to passengers apologising for the delay and urging disgruntled travellers to complain to the Home Office. The Home Office responded by telling Heathrow to stop handing out the leaflets and to stop letting passengers take pictures of immigration queues.

My opinion..

Damian Green (immigration Minister) is giant Dick with no idea what he is doing. He is obsessed with crowd pleasing antics and seems constantly surprised when they are revealed to be ineffectual window dressing. And, as I type this and the row escalates I see that the government is blaming bad weather and delayed flights for the immigration delays. Bullshit! We queued for two solid hours to get through immigration on 15th April, and our flight arrived on time. And that was before the bad weather.

In my last entry I mentioned new legislation in the Netherlands that will mean foreign visitors are not able to buy cannabis in the local coffee shops any longer. The legislation apparently became necessary because the coffee shops have attracted an undesirable tourist element. You can argue the pros and cons, but ultimately this came about because at least some people don’t like what decriminalisation of cannabis did to places like Amsterdam. The funny thing is a Brighton councillor saw the same news and concluded that a great idea would be to open cannabis shops in Brighton to pick up the tourist business that the Netherlands is about to lose. Can anyone else see a flaw in this strategy?

But lets talk about something moire light hearted. If any young ladies out there are thinking of taking part in the Miss Globalcity beauty Pageant in Taiwan, you’re going to have to sign an agreement not to have an affair with any married men. Although, it strikes me that a smart girl may well be able to keep it secret. I mean, an affair that’s not a secret is pretty much not an affair any more if you think about it. It also strikes me as quite difficult to prove. If one of the contestants is accused of having an affair, does the accuser need to provide evidence?

And finally, here’s a maths problem. You buy a pencil and a notebook. They cost £1.10 in total. If the notebook is £1 more than the pencil, how much is the pencil?