Today, a couple of slices from the Fruit Cake Zone of Politics.

Italian roads, as you will know if you’ve ever tried to join one of their slip-roads to hell, are dangerous places. Mindful of this the Italian government is going to impose a driving ban on anyone over the age of 80. Well, it’s a start. It’s common knowledge that the over-80s are incorrigible demons for texting/applying mascara/sliding their hand up their passenger’s skirt whilst driving. They are also, of course, the chief perps of high speed, late night, testosterone and alcohol-fuelled slaloms with roadside plane trees. Smart piece of legislation.

In the UK, where everyone is now a ‘client’ whose levels of customer satisfaction must be monitored, the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is broadening its Childcare Sufficiency Assessments of pre-school nurseries to include, yes, the children. Undeterred by the fact that most of these clients can’t even ask for the bathroom, the council will be encouraging them to draw how they feel about their nursery experiences. A low cost item of lunacy, I grant you. I guess the only burden on council funds will be the fee of a child psychologist with a master’s degree in Wax Crayon Scribble Analysis.

After weeks of sensationally blue skies we now have a more typical Dublin day. Scudding clouds and all that. Which got me thinking that ‘scud’ is a greatly neglected verb. Tennyson used it in A Dream of Fair Women:  ‘crisp foam-flakes scud along the level sand’. But when else do you ever hear it?

I tell you. Tennyson and fruitcake in one easy-read blog. Is that good value, or what?