Week 11
Its official, this is the driest UK spring on record but its not that inconsistent with the weather over the last few years. We might gripe but we acknowledge that May-June now gives us the best weather while July-August is very much a lottery and you definitely need your umbrella and raincoat handy. The problem we have is that our institutions are set in ways that are not easily adapted. Its often been said that we ought to split up the summer school holidays and that it doesn’t make a great deal of sense to have children off for such a long period. Ask a SEN (special educational needs) teacher and they’ll tell you their pupils can spend the best part of their autumn term getting back to where they were in mid July.
This means family holidays get corralled into the peak season when the rates go up. At the same time we now get wet, changeable weather. Its typical of the British mindset, doing it the way we’ve always done it with structures built with that in mind. The irony is evident when you compare life in Britain today with 50 years ago and its best illustrated with the comedic, but somewhat true, observation that when a foreigner doesn’t understand what you’re saying, you just say it louder. A history of ruling 2/3 of the world has that effect. It also goes some way to explaining why a party that serves 5% of the population maintains 40%+ popularity.
