A week ago, my wife’s brother, Paul, went sailing in Greece, stumbled and was fatally injured. He was 74. He had been in charge of Plymouth courts and, over the years, passed on to me some extraordinary tales. I offer two:
A drunk in Truro had been taken into custody for the night and was checked as regards health by a police doctor who proved to be of Pakistani origin. The drunk demanded that the “Paki bastard” leave the cell. As a result, the police, ever ready to protect the public, agreed that this was an awful incident of racial abuse and prosecuted the drunk in front of Paul who fined the drunk £30 and burdened him with £170 costs (the cost to the taxpayer of this episode was several thousand pounds).
As the accused turned to leave the court Paul pointed out to him that “next time, call the police doctor a fat bastard and you’ll be quite alright”. All this got back to the Lord Chief Justice who arranged for Paul to be ticked off. Dear God!
On another occasion, two drinkers in a Cornish bar were having a discussion which turned into a fight which just had to be settled by violence in the car park (after all truth has to be determined if it is to rule). But one of the protagonists took out a shotgun and discharged the first barrel which missed and merely took off the other man’s ear. The second barrel jammed and would not go off. Thus attempted murder had to be dealt with.
And the point at issue? This was which of the two men was the more Cornish. Another true story.
*****
Leaving aside Paul’s legal career he went 50/50 with Charlie Graham-Wood in establishing the Cafe du Marche, the most successful restaurant that I have ever encountered – whether as diner or financier. It repaid its initial overdraft of £30,000 in five weeks flat. Beat that!
*****
Starmer is a clandestine Remainer and therefore hosted at the FT where he is clearly lining up a covert return to the EU. It means that should he get into power he will be lying all day every day towards this very end. We know this since Heath kicked off this style of behaviour some fifty years ago. Remainers cannot desist from deception.
*****
Finally, the chairman’s father, Sir Jimmy Mellon, died a few weeks ago and since he was a director of Webis (WEB) there was a delay in clearing the decks. This has now happened and a few days ago WEB issued a convertible loan. This might be the beginning of something juicy – which suggests that WEB is worth buying at 1.5p.