Published: Thursday, 15th May, 2008 09:30
Say cheers to brewer's foresight
By Maurice O'Brien
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Maurice O'Brien, Reading's favourite columnist
THE scruffy green builder’s van parked on the grass verge looked like any other dumped vehicle.
Drivers heading into the car park at the Tilehurst branch of Waitrose, organic broccoli prices on their minds, probably never gave the battered, N-registration van a second glance.
The more curious might possibly have wondered about the multi-coloured police patrol car gliding in behind them and pulling up near the hedge, not far from the recycling containers.
But they’d definitely have done a double-take had they kept an eye on the stationary patrol car, and spotted the white-capped, uniformed officer emerge from the driver’s seat, shimmy past the hedge and disappear swiftly inside the van.
Closer inspection would have revealed the outline of a camera lens through the murky glass of one of the back windows, trained on traffic meandering along the Oxford Road from the direction of the Tilehurst station roundabout.
Excess speed? Mobile phones in use at the wheel? Checking number plates for tax dodgers or car thieves?
Nicking people for any of that lot in the Oxford Road would surely be heartily applauded by most. Let’s hope similar ingenuity is being employed in all areas of police operations.
- ONCE the lie about weapons of mass destruction was out of the way, the substitute justification for invading Iraq was the salvation of its people from evil Saddam’s murderous megalomania.
But if the welfare of other nations is so important, how come the poor wretched people of Zimbabwe are still waiting to be saved from Mugabe’s brutality and genocide?
And why is the West standing back so politely and permitting the equally mad, faceless generals in Burma deny untold thousands of their people the life-saving aid so readily available if only they’d give the word?
Meanwhile in Moscow last Friday, Putin and his alter ego Medvedev, who have swapped jobs in a manner reminiscent of the good old Kremlin days, staged a display of military might straight from a Soviet Union history book.
Ever get the feeling that not only has the West taken its eye off the ball, but it might not even have been watching the right one in the first place?
- THE owners of the iconic Guinness brewery at St James’ Gate in Dublin have announced plans to scale back production there and move to a new superplant at Clondalkin outside the city in 2013.
News reports said that around half the St James’ Gate site will be sold off for £500m and included the informative gem that in 1759 Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 lease on the brewery at £45 per annum.
So not only did dear old Arthur create the best drink in history, he pretty much ensured we should be drinking it forever too.
Pure genius.
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