The PR Blog

When I was a lad, life was simpler, harder yet straightforward and honest. As the world is flooded with newfangled gadgetry and newfangled woke spoke, I find myself looking back on the post war years with a strange regret. Life is so newfangled that it is a complex place of ever-increasing innovation, and gratitude for the simple things in life is a far distant memory. We should consider how imprisoned we have become in this newfangled world which has rewarded us with so much and yet taken even more by stealth.

When remembering the past, and the way things used to be, one date has particular significance … 15^th September. On that day in 2002 a man who had a huge influence in my life passed gently to another life. Extremely talented, always cheerful and willing to help his customers, well liked and highly respected Pharmacist Alf Dlugaj had managed a pharmacy in Ayr, and I had the great good fortune to have been his first, and only, apprentice. 

We learn many things in life, from a range of different people and random events, and the course of our life is often changed in a manner completely unexpected, which was demonstrated in spectacular fashion by the way in which the life of our dearly loved Queen Elizabeth moved in new directions from carefree childhood to assuming the onerous duties which she willingly accepted and discharged so well as promised, all her life, whether it be long or short.

It is always interesting to remember how things used to be, but much more hazardous to attempt to anticipate the future.

The question is not whether children or adults should be given Covid vaccines. The question is who gets to choose.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced last week that children under the age of 12 will no longer be offered Covid-19 vaccines, unless the children are deemed high risk.

The decision appears to have rankled The Guardian, which quoted several physicians who criticized the move.

“When we know there is a safe and effective vaccine available this seems unjustifiable to me,” Professor Christina Pagel of the University College London told the newspaper, noting that deaths from COVID shots are rare.

Australia has become a nation ruled by fools.

We have surrendered power over every aspect of our lives and industry to fifteen debating chambers in eight ruling cities. These assemblies are controlled by lawyers, unionists, centralists, green dreamers, power seekers and tax consumers.

Their direct cost alone is horrendous. There are 837 politicians (ignoring local government). Each has a salary (say $200Kpy), travel and office costs (say $150Kpy), and staff costs (say $200Kpy) – a billion here, plus a billion there and pretty soon you’re talking real money.

Who could forget the delightful moment that Queen Elizabeth II took tea with Paddington Bear?

For myself, it was wondrous. 

After years of hearing about Me Me Again and Harry the Ginger Flop, it was so nice to stumble upon a bit of the British Queen ignoring their childish and selfish antics.

In fact, when the movie Paddington was released it made people rather surprised and, well, rather jolly gobsmacked. Our Queen took tea with a rather lovely young bear and marmalade became rather special