#and he pays the ultimate price for it. because like the quiz states... it is an ugly truth that tomorrow is not guaranteed.

[mad-hunts]

what chess piece represents you?

the black knight.

you are a black knight, the black sheep, the underdog. as the only piece that can jump over others, you can easily get yourself in and out of situations - always catching people off guard with your charisma and cunning. you move in the shadows, trading information with shady people, getting the upper hand through not always good methods. how far do you think this road can take you? for all your charisma or cunning, lies can only get you so far. one day, that mask you've put on will slip, and you'll be left defenseless. but until then, oh black knight, live like there's no tomorrow - because there might not be.

tagged by: @divingdownthehole.

tagging: @lvebug, @twcfaces, @talentforlying, @forensisch, and anyone else who might like to do this quiz!

[meezyrosegold]

Society; or what being a paperboy during a pandemic taught me about class, Existentialism and loving my community

Part 1: Why I took the job

“I used to work on my feet for seven dollars an hour, call my mama like “I ain’t making minimum wage mama” - Frank Ocean, Futura Free

Nobody’s dream job is being a paperboy. Nobody's dream job is being a paperboy especially during a global pandemic, where if you forget to wear government-issued latex gloves, you end up with blood on your hands. So then why did I take the job? 

Merton did a study into what he called “strain theory”, in which he studied crime in America's golden age, the 1950’s. He found that the idea of the “American Dream” left many dissatisfied, as many of the urban poor were unable to buy their white picket fence through legitimate means, African-Americans were redlined, Mexican-Americans were forced into certain districts and Asian-Americans were quota’d, meaning they were unable to form communities. It’s no coincidence that the Gangsta Disciples, Latin Kings and Asian Boyz, the biggest racial gangs still active today, were formed in the 20-year post war period. These poor, urban, often ethnic minority groups were forced to “innovate”; drug dealing, extortion rackets and even armed robbery were some ways they attempted to become the “ideal American”; wealthy, self-sufficient and suburban. Merton’s conclusion was that, under capitalism, it is not the hard work that is respected, rather whether the goal is successfully achieved.  I noticed this play out in my own community. I began seeking out a job after being beaten in a game of basketball by a ex-“click-boy”, a young man who finds vulnerabilities in clothing outlets online security (Brands “hit” range from Chanel to Clarks) and begins selling it at a discounted price. Their choice of work often gives them a headstart on the latest fashion, indeed, as I was staring at the sole of his fresh-out-the-box Nike Air Force Ones, both the PumaHeads and the Adidas casuals looked on in jealous awe. During the game I vividly remember the speaker playing drill, London’s new hyper-masculine genre of music, the fact it was being played from inner-city basketball courts to Members of Cabinets daughter’s “Tik-Toks” encapsulates Merton’s point; “Employees who have a college education are respected but the robber barons who stole for their money were also admired, which demonstrates that success is viewed as more important than the actual means to achieve success”, the modern day cowboys don’t run from the sheriff, rather, they sit up late trying to work out what Gucci would put as the password on their website.

But why a paperboy? The 7-day working day combined with a 5:30 start topped up with a pay less than minimum wage was enough to make any union boss salivate, yet it was the most coveted job in the neighborhood. Yet ever since David Cameron declared an “concerted, all-out war on gangs' ', the young men in the area have been looking for somewhere to “do masculinity”. 

“CORONAVIRUS DECLARED SERIOUS AND IMMINENT THREAT TO THE UK” read the headline on February 10th, I have a vivid memory of holding it in my hands muttering something about fear mongering, just over a month later the country was placed in lockdown.

Part 2: Why I stayed (during a pandemic)

“Le peu que je connais de la morale, je l'ai appris sur les terrains de football; ce sont mes vraies universités”

- Albert Camus, France Football

Camus once said “Everything I know most surely about morality [...] I owe it to football”, I mirrored the sentiment, everything I know about responsibility, I learned from paper delivery. 

The job wasn’t easy. I would often have homework late into the night, leading me to simply stay through the night, going to work, and then sleeping in school. Once the pandemic arrived, I became lethargic and irritated, I had nothing to do, and I would let anyone within earshot know. However, I kept at the job because it seemed to be the right thing to do.

But who decides what the right thing is?

In the 1960’s, Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University set up an experiment in which participants would quiz a man behind a door,  when an answer the man behind the door gave was incorrect, the participant was to administer him an electric shock. To Milgram's shock, when pressed to continue by scientists, most participants would continue the experiment until the man behind the door died. In Milgram’s experiment, the “man behind the door” was merely an audio recording, but the implications were horrifying; would humans follow orders at the sacrifice of everything they knew? When talking to relatives I would act as if my job was a feat of humanitarian superstrength, my work of charity I did simply out of the goodness of my heart, yet at the end of the day I was partaking in a business. When hearing about my progress at the end of the week I began to wonder if the only reason I was sacrificing so much for this job was because those wiser than me told me it was what I should be doing. Yet if it was a duty, why did it make me feel so awful? 

Sartre described a student he had who was at a crossroads in his life. He could fight against Nazism for his nation and his people, a cause both he and us today would see as noble. But marching into Berlin would leave his sick mother behind; he could stop the spread of the virus, facism, yet one inevitable casualty would be his parent. He could fight in a war that would continue without him, being a small part of a large cause, or he could be one person's world. The whole point of this young man's decision, Sartre said, was that nobody could give him an answer; the answer did not exist until the young man chose it. Discovering Sartre’s philosophy was a Godsend, I had been living as if  “to be was to do”, there was an answer out there, I just had to consult the right oracle, but embracing the absurd taught me that there was no correct path except the one I walked down, “to do was to be” 

Part 3: What’s changed

“To live without hope is to cease to live [...] It’s no coincidence that above the entrance to Dante’s hell is the inscription ‘leave behind all hope, you who enter here”

-Fydor Dostoyevsky, Essays

Through investigating why things in my community were the way they were, why I followed these patterns, and why I should even care in the first place, I realised my duty was not just to have my place in it, following orders from those deemed wiser, but was to improve it.

From behind the counter of a quaint corner shop, I saw futures for boys forgotten . Loud mouths weren’t told not to talk back by almost carricaturally draconian teachers, but were given a soapbox to vent their frustrations at the news. Athletes didn’t have their parents called in for skipping lessons to play football, the calls came in from local pensioners thanking them for the speedy delivery. When I described who I was working with to my maths teacher (many coworkers were past suspended), he claimed we were “lunatics running the asylum”, I don't know many lunatics who skipped lessons looking into diversifying their assets at 16.

Weber claimed that Calvanist Christians were the ultimate capitalist; the idea that there were only a limited number of spots in heaven combined with the tenant of “worship through work” led to the East Coast of the USA being the most economically productive region on the planet. However, I’d like to pose a new culture that could take their throne: North London State School boys. The children of the dilapidated factories in Tottenham, Wood Green and Kentish Town left us with a work ethic as strong as our undiagnosed ADHD. While we may not have laid the groundwork for the most powerful nation of all time, I imagine when Jefferson’s pen lifted off the declaration of independence for the last time, the smile on his face was similar to what the kind lady No. 46 see’s through the window after her Times is delivered.

[mcdouglecompany-blog]

Hilarious Remy Parody, Who Should Win the Nobel Peace Prize, Stefan Molyneux- My Brutal Year, Escalation of Online Censorship and Book With All Due Respect.

Hilarious Remy Parody, Who Should Win the Nobel Peace Prize, Stefan Molyneux- My Brutal Year, Escalation of Online Censorship and Book With All Due Respect.

Hilarious Remy Parody.

Who Should Win the Nobel Peace Prize?

Stefan Molyneux: My Brutal Year.

Escalation of Online Censorship and Book With All Due Respect

The Ongoing Escalation of Online Censorship.

New Book- With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace.

  Remy: Horrifying Tweets Resurface

https://youtu.be/mpHiDsnqOSA

ReasonTV

Remy returns to the news desk to bring you what passes for journalism these days. Written and Performed by Remy.

LYRICS: Trudeau denies the report. Ed? A rough week for Canada's first black prime minister. Thanks, Tim. A problem long posed, now finally an answer A cure has been found to a rare form of cancer. We'll tell you who found it, what he thinks this means, And dig up some tweets from his early teens. Plus the Good Samaritan, whose quickness and breadth Saved a family of four from a fiery death. We'll ask how he did it, how he made it in time, And why he tweeted this back in 2009. Uh, Ed? Yes, Tim. Forgive the defiance But I think we should focus on the news part, the science And not what they tweeted back when they were 10 The science, hmm. I'll try it again. Archaeologists have unearthed a series of tweets Made by this local hero when he was 13. Will this middle-school tweet soon mean his demise? Our report might just win the Pulitzer Prize. Pulitzer Prize? In what? Scrolling down? We found immature things immature people wrote down. Our country's at war and that's the story we sought? War coverage, yes—I'll give it a shot. This Navy SEAL unit is now under fire For a series of tweets, we'll take our magnifier And pay no attention to how their recent life's been And tell you what you should think that says about them. Says about them? What's it say about us? That the first thing we do after someone's discussed Is comb through their childhood looking for dirt. OK, I can do this, I assure you I'm cured. Well she's the first woman to serve on the board Of our town's city council—and she just signed an accord. We'll comb through the details of what she did write And through years of her tweets in hopes of wrecking her life. OK, see, I hate this, this is just what we do Make things controversial for clicks and for views. When we're covering news, should our first thought each time Be "Let's find what they tweeted back when they were nine"? Finally, millions can now walk thanks to his prosthesis But a hateful hand signal when he was a fetus Leads many to now question what he promotes. We'll toss him in a well and see if he floats.

    Dennis Prager talks to Pete Hegseth, Host of Fox and Friends, and US Army Major. He teaches the new PragerU video, “Who Should Win the Nobel Peace Prize?”

  Who Should Win the Nobel Peace Prize?

https://youtu.be/zorsPXbnf80

PragerU

They’ve saved the free world more than once. And they’re on the job preserving the peace right now. When it comes to making the world a more secure place for good and decent people everywhere, this one group deserves the bulk of the credit. Who is this group, and how can we ever thank them? Pete Hegseth, U.S. Army Major, has the answer. This video was made possible by a generous grant from Colorado Christian University. Learn more at PragerU.com/CCU

Script: If the Nobel Peace Prize was given out to people who truly made the world a more peaceful place, one group would win every year: the United States military—the US Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines. Now, you may be thinking, how can you award a peace prize to a group whose purpose is to fight wars? Fair question. I’ll tell you how: because the reason we are free, the reason anyone on earth today is free, is ultimately thanks to the US military. They saved the free world from German domination in the First World War. They saved the free world from Japanese and German fascism in the Second World War. They saved the free world from communism in the Cold War. And they’re saving it now. That might sound like an exaggeration, but only because they’ve protected us for so long. National security—the protection of citizens from an external foe—is not a given; far from it. It’s the product of the hard work of American military men and women who stand guard 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, every year. And, they’ve been doing so for as long as any of us can remember. The First World War, the Second World War, the Cold War, the Korean War, both Iraq Wars, the Afghan War—these were all conflicts that the US tried to avoid. But they were wars that the US fought not only for itself, but for good, decent and free people everywhere. Where the US military was not ultimately victorious—the Vietnam War—50 million people were deprived of freedom of speech, of assembly, of press, of travel, and of religion. As many as two million were brutally imprisoned and murdered. The only reason South Korea isn’t an open-air concentration camp like its northern neighbor is because America came to South Korea’s defense nearly 70 years ago. To this day, we still have 30,000 troops stationed there to protect the free South from the unfree North. And it’s not just the open conflicts the American military resolves; it’s the not-wars—all the conflicts that were never fought because our adversaries feared the consequences of American military involvement. Let’s put it this way: The reason Iowa soybeans can be shipped from Seattle to Shanghai, or coffee from Colombia to Cleveland is because the American military—specifically, the Navy—stands guard over the world’s shipping lanes. Block those lanes and the price of everything skyrockets, and international commerce grinds to a halt. Like it or not, the US military has been, and remains, as close to a global sheriff as exists on planet Earth—on the beat, keeping the peace. Don’t believe me? Ask yourself this very simple question: What if China disarmed? Or Iran? Or North Korea? Or Russia? Think the world would be a better or worse place? The question answers itself. Now, imagine if America disarmed. Think China stays out of Taiwan or Hong Kong? Iran out of Israel? North Korea out of South Korea? Russia out of eastern Europe? And those are just state actors. Islamists would quickly return, bolder and more vicious than ever. For the complete script, visit https://www.prageru.com/video/who-sho...

Donate today to PragerU! http://l.prageru.com/2eB2p0h To view the script, sources, quiz, and study guides, visit https://www.prageru.com/video/who-sho... VISIT PragerU! https://www.prageru.com Join Prager United to get new swag every quarter! http://l.prageru.com/2c9n6ys Join PragerU's text list to have these videos, free merchandise giveaways and breaking announcements sent directly to your phone! https://optin.mobiniti.com/prageru Do you shop on Amazon? Click https://smile.amazon.com and a percentage of every Amazon purchase will be donated to PragerU. Same great products. Same low price. Shopping made meaningful. FOLLOW us! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prageru Twitter: https://twitter.com/prageru Instagram: https://instagram.com/prageru/ PragerU is on Snapchat! JOIN PragerFORCE! For Students: http://l.prageru.com/2aozfkP JOIN our Educators Network! http://l.prageru.com/2aoz2y9

    Stefan Molyneux: My Brutal Year.

https://youtu.be/H3N0O8S9HaY

Stefan Molyneux

I have always counselled honesty, and although it is very tough for me to show the soft underbelly of my fears and insecurities, it's time to talk about what the hell is going on with Freedomain and philosophy...

 ▶️ Donate Now: http://www.freedomain.com/donate ▶️ Sign Up For Our Newsletter: http://www.fdrurl.com/newsletter Your support is essential to Freedomain Radio, which is 100% funded by viewers like you. Please support the show by making a one time donation or signing up for a monthly recurring donation at: http://www.freedomain.com/donate ▶️ 1. Donate: http://www.freedomain.com/donate ▶️ 2. Newsletter Sign-Up: http://www.fdrurl.com/newsletter ▶️ 3. On YouTube: Subscribe, Click Notification Bell ▶️ 4. Subscribe to the Freedomain Podcast: http://www.fdrpodcasts.com ▶️ 5. Follow Freedomain on Alternative Platforms 🔴 Bitchute: http://bitchute.com/freedomainradio 🔴 Minds: http://minds.com/stefanmolyneux 🔴 Steemit: http://steemit.com/@stefan.molyneux 🔴 Gab: http://gab.ai/stefanmolyneux 🔴 Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/stefanmolyneux 🔴 Facebook: http://facebook.com/stefan.molyneux 🔴 Instagram: http://instagram.com/stefanmolyneux Amazon Affiliate Links ▶️ US: http://www.fdrurl.com/Amazon ▶️ Canada: http://www.fdrurl.com/AmazonCanada ▶️ UK: http://www.fdrurl.com/AmazonUK

    The Ongoing Escalation of Online Censorship.

https://youtu.be/0ipqC-_zBAc

Computing Forever

Support my work here: https://computingforever.com/donate/ Support my work on Subscribe Star: https://www.subscribestar.com/dave-cu... Follow me on Bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/hybM... PayPal Donations Welcome. Click here: http://goo.gl/NSdOvK Check out these videos on COPPA: TheQuartering's video on COPPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qejM-... Tech Review USA's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGBZr... J House Law's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b9HG... Help Support My Channel. Buy Computing Forever Merchandise, Mugs, Hats, T-Shirts: http://ow.ly/3v3TWq Subscribe to my Second Channel: http://ow.ly/XgZm100E1L6 SUBSCRIBE TO THIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/user/LACK78 http://www.computingforever.com KEEP UP ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Gab: https://gab.ai/DaveCullen Minds.com: https://www.minds.com/davecullen Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/ComputingFor... Google+ : LACK78: http://goo.gl/k4gWsg Google+: Computing Forever: http://goo.gl/Q8gZpY

    Dennis Prager talks to Nikki Haley, former US Ambassador to the UN and Governor of South Carolina. Her new book is With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace.

  -------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Visit Pragertopia  https://pragertopia.com/member/signup.php 

The first month is 99 cents. After the first month the cost is $7.50 per month. If you can afford to pay for only one podcast, this is the one we recommend. It is the best conservative radio show out there, period. ACU strongly recommends ALL ACU students and alumni subscribe to Pragertopia. Do it today!

 You can listen to Dennis from 9 a.m. to Noon (Pacific) Monday thru Friday, live on the Internet  http://www.dennisprager.com/pages/listen 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

For a great archive of Prager University videos visit-

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  -------------------------------------------------------------------- 

  The Rational Bible: Exodus by Dennis Prager  

NATIONAL BESTSELLER "Dennis Prager has put together one of the most stunning commentaries in modern times on the most profound document in human history. It's a must-read that every person, religious and non-religious, should buy and peruse every night before bed. It'll make you think harder, pray more ardently, and understand your civilization better." — Ben Shapiro, host of "The Ben Shapiro Show" "Dennis Prager’s commentary on Exodus will rank among the greatest modern Torah commentaries. That is how important I think it is. And I am clearly not alone... It might well be on its way to becoming the most widely read Torah commentary of our time—and by non-Jews as well as by Jews." — Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, bestselling author of Jewish Literacy Why do so many people think the Bible, the most influential book in world history, is outdated? Why do our friends and neighbors – and sometimes we ourselves – dismiss the Bible as irrelevant, irrational, immoral, or all of these things? This explanation of the Book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible, will demonstrate that the Bible is not only powerfully relevant to today’s issues, but completely consistent with rational thought. Do you think the Bible permitted the trans-Atlantic slave trade? You won’t after reading this book. Do you struggle to love your parents? If you do, you need this book. Do you doubt the existence of God because belief in God is “irrational?” This book will give you reason after reason to rethink your doubts. The title of this commentary is, “The Rational Bible” because its approach is entirely reason-based. The reader is never asked to accept anything on faith alone. As Prager says, “If something I write does not make rational sense, I have not done my job.” The Rational Bible is the fruit of Dennis Prager’s forty years of teaching the Bible to people of every faith, and no faith. On virtually every page, you will discover how the text relates to the contemporary world and to your life. His goal: to change your mind – and then change your life.

  Highly Recommended by ACU.

Purchase his book at-

https://www.amazon.com/Rational-Bible-Exodus-Dennis-Prager/dp/1621577724

    The Rational Bible: Genesis by Dennis Prager 

USA Today bestseller Publishers Weekly bestseller Wall Street Journal bestseller Many people today think the Bible, the most influential book in world history, is not only outdated but irrelevant, irrational, and even immoral. This explanation of the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, demonstrates clearly and powerfully that the opposite is true. The Bible remains profoundly relevant—both to the great issues of our day and to each individual life. It is the greatest moral guide and source of wisdom ever written. Do you doubt the existence of God because you think believing in God is irrational? This book will give you many reasons to rethink your doubts. Do you think faith and science are in conflict? You won’t after reading this commentary on Genesis. Do you come from a dysfunctional family? It may comfort you to know that every family discussed in Genesis was highly dysfunctional! The title of this commentary is “The Rational Bible” because its approach is entirely reason-based. The reader is never asked to accept anything on faith alone. In Dennis Prager’s words, “If something I write is not rational, I have not done my job.” The Rational Bible is the fruit of Dennis Prager’s forty years of teaching the Bible—whose Hebrew grammar and vocabulary he has mastered—to people of every faith and no faith at all. On virtually every page, you will discover how the text relates to the contemporary world in general and to you personally. His goal: to change your mind—and, as a result, to change your life.

  Highly Recommended by ACU.

Purchase his book at-

https://www.amazon.com/Rational-Bible-Genesis-Dennis-Prager/dp/1621578984

Click here to download the episode

[gyrlversion]

Fast, pain-free divorces? They are slow agony for our children

Fail to keep up payments on a house or car, or break your employment contract, and see what happens to you.

The courts will take the side of the person or company you have wronged, force you to pay up and probably throw in a punishment too.

But break a marriage contract and the courts will now take your side and punish anyone who gets in your way, especially anyone who wants to abide by the contract.

The person who wants to stay married and refuses to accept the end of the pact, can – if he or she resists – be dragged by force from the family home, under the ultimate threat of prison.

The supposedly Conservative government last week revealed that it is to strip away the last shred of legal protection from the former institution of marriage. You may have said all kinds of things about sticking around, but from now you just need to say ‘It doesn’t suit me anymore’, and in six months the marriage will be dissolved, no delay.

This strikes me as amazing in itself – that there is one unique area of law where the delinquent person is rewarded and the dutiful person punished.

You’d have thought more people would be interested. But, as so often when really strange things happen in our revolutionary society, nobody notices or cares.

The supposedly Conservative government last week revealed that it is to strip away the last shred of legal protection from the former institution of marriage.

You may have said all kinds of things about sticking around, but from now you just need to say ‘It doesn’t suit me anymore’, and in six months the marriage will be dissolved, no delay.

The philosopher Sir Roger Scruton is not a friend or an ally of mine. I greatly disagree with him, for instance, about his Cold War view of Russia. And I thought he was foolish to accept even an unpaid post from a Tory government that only wanted to use him as window-dressing. 

But his sacking from that post, by the Housing Minister James Brokenshire, because of remarks attributed to him by the Left-wing New Statesman, is still shocking. 

Did Mr Brokenshire (who similarly sacked a conservative doctor from a government body in 2011) call for and obtain a full recording or transcript before acting? Or did he just run away? 

Sir Roger is unworldly and sometimes obscure, but the idea that he is an anti-Semite, or any other kind of racial bigot, is absurd. 

I understand that some people think this is a good idea, but isn’t it a pity that there’s no major political organisation in the country which is prepared to stand up for the other point of view?

Well, there you are, if you like anything traditional and British, you have no friends at Westminster. Get used to it.

Everyone involved will deny this, but the people who pay the real price for this destruction of secure home life are the children.

Every statistical measure shows that the breaking of marriage harms them. But they have no voice. It is the adults, liberated from their responsibilities, who write articles in the papers, make the programmes on the radio and TV, and the speeches in Parliament, which claim everything will be fine.

It won’t be. Our monstrous taxes, and most of our worst social problems – from chaotic schools to crime and overstretched hospitals full of old, ill people – arise from the very expensive failure of the state to substitute for the stable, solid family which used to be held together by lifelong marriage, and now isn’t.

Perhaps the simplest, most graphic way of showing that neglect of children is now an epidemic, is last week’s news from Walsall, where an infant school has designated a staff member to change the nappies of five-year-old children because so many pupils are not toilet-trained.

These poor children also cannot communicate or hold a pencil properly, let alone use cutlery or dress themselves.

What else have they not learned in these vital years? What sort of adults are they going to be? I am not sure I want to be around to find out. 

A wonderful revolt took place last week against the miserable dumbing-up of the once-entertaining TV quiz programme University Challenge.  

Instead of asking questions which every educated person might be able to answer, the show now spends an immense amount of time asking highly specialised questions about science, which take ages to read out and which only about one person in 100,000 could even guess at.

In the semi-final between Durham and Edinburgh, presenter Jeremy Paxman (whose knowledge of science is, I guess, sketchy) enquired sternly of the Durham team: ‘Give the two-word name of the bacteria from which the following thermo-stable polymerases were first isolated.’

Eh? I bet he understood that.

The Durham team simply refused to pretend they even cared they didn’t know, and wisely responded ‘Pass’. If others would only do the same thing, the programme might become fun to watch again.

In the semi-final between Durham and Edinburgh, presenter Jeremy Paxman (whose knowledge of science is, I guess, sketchy) enquired sternly of the Durham team: ‘Give the two-word name of the bacteria from which the following thermo-stable polymerases were first isolated.’

A miserable attempt to rewrite the past

I used to love museums. I prefer quiet to noise, and enjoy the way old things communicate the real nature of the past. As Thomas Hardy wrote in his marvellous poem Old Furniture: ‘I see the hands of the generations, that owned each shiny familiar thing.’ They were like huge attics. Nobody was trying to tell you anything. You could just dream a bit.

One of my favourites was the Ashmolean in Oxford, which displayed Guy Fawkes’s lantern, and the overpoweringly lovely Alfred Jewel, once owned by that great King. They’re still there, but modernisers are hard at work, turning this great collection into a politically correct nursery of equality and diversity.

A sad employee has sent me a miserable document, Ashmolean For All, which the museum tells me is genuine. It opens by saying it is ‘central to the Museum’s Strategic Plan 2018-23’ – and if that does not make your heart sink, it adds: ‘It is a new policy focused on equity and inclusion.

It aims to improve the way the Ashmolean serves, represents and includes diverse communities and individuals.’ It must ‘evolve to remain relevant to all its potential audiences’.

Oh, and it’s all ‘in response to a changing political landscape and awareness of new thinking about the current role of cultural organisations around the world’.

There’ll be ‘decolonisation’ and searches for ‘coded racial harassment’ and ‘systemic racism’. Go soon, if I were you, before the project’s finished.

No old, beloved, established thing is now safe from the commissars of political correctness. We are in a slow-motion version of China’s cultural revolution, and at the end of it hardly anyone will remember who we used to be.

This drama is brilliant – as a spotlight on failing Britain

When Detective Sergeant Lisa Armstrong is assigned to a missing persons investigation, at first it seems like any other. As a Family Liaison Officer, she’s trained never to get emotionally involved. But  there’s something very different about this particular case. With horror Lisa realises she’s got a personal connection with this family; one that could compromise her and the investigation. As she grapples to get justice for the grieving family, Lisa discovers it could come at a cost. 

The plot of ITV’s police drama The Bay is ludicrous. I can’t even begin to work out who has killed whom or why, though for once it doesn’t seem to be all based on child abuse.

But the series, which is filmed in Morecambe, is a wonderful spotlight on modern Britain as it actually is – the casual swearing, the dreadful schools in which the young endure fear and are corrupted by all kinds of moral slurry on their computers, the expensive new Blair-era public buildings with their nursery colour-schemes.

The sort-of heroine (played by Morven Christie, left), a senior police officer, engages in knee-tremblers in alleyways with people she’s hardly met.

It is also a world in which the old professional middle class has almost completely vanished.

Only one minor character speaks in the authoritative BBC tones once associated with this class. And he is a pensioner running the food bank. To me, this gives a sense that there’s really nothing underneath any more, and if you fall through a gap, you’ll fall for ever.   

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