May fails the vacuum cleaner test big time : Grumpy posed the question [ See http://grumpy.eastover.org.uk/eu-vacuum-test/ ]as to whether after an exit agreement with the EU it would be possible to make a vacuum cleaner in the UK with a 1 kw motor complying with US regulations and export it to the US. The answer seems to be a resounding ‘no’, since EU regulation will apply to goods.It is little short of pitiful to see Johnson, Gove, and others on TV trying to convince the UK populace that black is white, up is down, and that 2+2=5. It’s the sheer arrogance of these failed politicians after they have been humbled and humiliated by May, that they cannot admit to having had their wimpish butts comprehensively kicked at Chequers.
Period fantasy – put a sock in it: MP Danielle Rowley announced to the House of Commons that she was having a period and had spent £25 that week on sanitary products. Now, if these were Tampons, the supermarket cost is about £2 for 20, so that would imply using 2.2 every waking hour. As a male, Grumpy is ignorant on these usage rates, but simple observation would dictate that either she needs to see a doctor or that she was using hyperbole. Why? She was publicising the latest feminine band wagon of ‘period poverty’, pushing (at its extreme) to free universal sanitary product provision. Without analysing the merits or otherwise of this movement, the element that has baffled grumpy is the picture painted of women going to school and work with socks in their panties (as claimed by this movement) because they can’t afford a 10p tampon. Where do they get all these socks from, given that they (if like Ms Rowley) they would have to use 36 per day ? Or do they traipse home from work on the tube with 25 soiled socks in a bag awaiting washing for the next day ? A mystery.
4D boobs : The Daily Mail reported that a new “4D augmented reality” system had been developed to allow women to see what they might look like after cosmetic breast surgery. The accompanying photo showed a woman looking at a representation of herself on a flat 2D screen. This is the sort of drivel written by junior members of staff who did a course in Media Studies at a small town Technical College. Setting aside the fact that only a 2D system was shown, we humans can only spatially experience three dimensions, and there is no physical humanly detectable manifestation of four dimensions – pure fantasy marketing hype. [For simplicity, I’m ignoring the relativistic notion of Minkowski Space with time as the 4th dimension, which we are all part of, or the 11 dimensions of Calabi-Yau structures of string theory.]
Female quota harridans again : Feminist activists have been apoplectic that the Bank of England chose the only man on a shortlist of 5 as a new members of the monetary policy committee. This was presumably either because (a) a woman should have been chosen regardless of merit – the quota argument – or (b) that the selection board was biased against women. Setting aside the first as being morally dubious, the second is an outrageous slur on the selection board. In fact, the Chair was Clare Lombardelli and the female majority on the board was completed by a previous MPC member, Kate Barker; both have impeccable credentials and experience, and they presumably chose the best candidate. MP Rachel Reeves said this was “truly staggering”, and so she gets the Grumpy Harridan of the Week Award.