Peter Rhodes on bureaucrats, battles and the value of a little bronze cross
From Antiques Roadshow (BBC1), we learn that a fair price for a Victoria Cross is now £250,000, about the same price as a typical UK house.
I wonder how many recipients of Britain's highest award for gallantry from the 1850s to the present, given the choice, would have preferred a new house to a little bronze cross.
When Home Secretary Yvette Cooper asked the Civil Service to redefine extremism, Sir Humphrey (of Yes, Prime Minister) would have been proud of them. The bureaucrats' solution was, of course, more bureaucracy. Under their plan, just about anything remotely offensive would be classified as extremism including men who hate women, conspiracy theorists and anyone who believes Britain has two-tier policing. So, about half the population?
