Polly Toynbee and sofas (2)

Here is the link to the RSA article which quotes Ms Toynbee ad longum. The competition remains open for entries...

Comments

[Hew BG]

Mr Seat,

whilst I appreciate that the line you quote must have given you a fairly substantial shock - and pleased to hear that you weren't sharpening an axe or toying with a boiled egg, or even sipping a dangerously hot cup of coffee at the time - you have failed to do your duty: there is much more fisking to be done here.

I offer:
1) "Research suggests that children born in 1958 were much more likely to advance in life above their parents’ earning and educational levels than the children born in 1970." Errrmmmmm..... What happened to a) teacher training colleges and b) grammar schools in this period?

2) "In a population of 60 million people, not everybody can be consulted and their individual view taken in." Errrmmmm.... So why try to control it all from the centre then Polly?

[Hew BG]

A competition entry. I can hardly put it better than Janet Daley. Might as well enter this before anyone else does:

"in the 1960s the telephone service was run by the General Post Office and that meant you had a six-month waiting list, particularly in London, for a telephone line. When you got to the top of the waiting list you were given an appointment with an engineer. After staying home from work on three occasions to greet this engineer, he would turn up and install your telephone line. When the line failed, which happened at fairly regular intervals, you rang the engineers and a rather dilatory voice put you on another waiting list for an engineer, who might actually show up on the third appointment."

105 words: will that do?