Oh, Sir Jasper

Sitting in my garden, thinking about nothing in particular, a song from my youth found its way into my head.

Oh Sir Jasper do not touch me!
As she lay beneath the lily-white sheets with nothing on at all.
Oh Sir Jasper do not touch!
As she lay beneath the lily-white sheets with nothing on at all.

And so on until we reach the final, rather predictable, verse …..

Oh!
As she lay beneath the lily-white sheets with nothing on at all.

(Don’t worry, the white sheets will be balanced politically and correctly by the Black Spitfire below.)

I had not heard this song for perhaps fifty years, but I could not get it out of my head.

To turn my mind to other things, I reached for the Daily Telegraph, always good for a view of the world as seen by a much younger generation. And, fully tailored to modern society, I don’t have to worry if there is a nearby ‘safe space’, and there are plenty of ‘trigger warnings’ about ‘cultural appropriations’ or ‘micro-aggressions’.

(For readers unfamiliar with these terms, a good example of ‘cultural appropriation’ is the English pretending that Fish & Chips is their national dish. The concept of frying fish was, of course, brought to England by Jewish immigrants from Portugal and Spain, while the first fish ‘n’ chip shop was opened in London, East End by a Jewish immigrant, Joseph Malin, around 1860.)

I skipped over the story “Around the world in a silver Spitfire” – they will land in Jordan but miss Israel – probably afraid that Ezer Weizman’s Black Spitfire would be waiting for them.

Another headline caught my eye “Senior police officer faces action for saying ‘whiter than white’”. Oh, I thought, he must be very senior if he remembers the old 1955 TV advertisement for Persil Washing Powder – Persil washes …… He certainly deserves a black mark for this.

Lying beneath sheets, white or black, was probably the last thing on the mind of professor Jasbir Puar of Rutgers University. This person has just won a National Women’s Studies Association prize for her book charging that Israel intentionally maims Palestinians. The Alison Piepmeier Book Prize is supposed to be awarded for scholarship that focuses on feminist disability studies but seems to have strayed somewhat. The Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers congratulated Puar on the prize. I’m not sure what happened to the Men’s in these studies. But Rutgers University’s website clearly shows its lack of inclusivity and equality “The Department has a rich history ….” Not a word about the poor’s history!

I was finally saved from the song in my head by the announcement by Jeffrey Archer (if, like me, you have never heard of him, he is, like me, an author, although my Len Palmer Mysteries – available from Amazon, are probably better) – “I’d vote for Jeremy Corbyn if I lived in the North”. I had a quick look, perhaps he meant if Jeremy Corbyn lived at the North Pole – even I would vote for him if he was there.

The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn recently outlined his opposition to airstrikes in Syria saying ‘I am a leader, not a dictator‘

This started a new tune that goes on and on ……..

Jeremy Corbyn I’m a leader, not a dictator.
Jeremy Corbyn, not a dictator
Corbyn, a dictator
Dictator