How times change

[Tony Griffiths]

How times change - you wouldn't get away with it now.

[Duncan Grimmond]

"That Barbara Castle! Minister of Transport! What would a mere woman know about how much I can drink and still be able to drive"

I'll never forget seeing that stupid man being interviewed on Tonight with Cliff Mitchelmore when the breathalyser was being introduced by one of my heroines!

[Tony Griffiths]

It goes back a long way: https://www.insurancefactory.co.uk/news/...-it-become
That must be a young Barbara Castle looking out of the window - and wagging her finger.
Barbara Castle always surprised her civil servants by knowing an astonishing amount about the places she was visiting and the right questions to ask, e.g. an aircraft factory. Eventually one of them plucked up the courage to ask her how she always had such a grasp of the subjects. "Oh," she said. "It's simple. I just buy a children's book on the subject, read it from cover to cover and then throw it away. It tells me all that I need to know."

[Howard Wright]

It goes back a long way: https://www.insurancefactory.co.uk/news/...-it-become
That must be a young Barbara Castle looking out of the window - and wagging her finger.
Barbara Castle always surprised her civil servants by knowing an astonishing amount about the places she was visiting and the right questions to ask, e.g. an aircraft factory. Eventually one of them plucked up the courage to ask her how she always had such a grasp of the subjects. "Oh," she said. "It's simple. I just buy a children's book on the subject, read it from cover to cover and then throw it away. It tells me all that I need to know."

Help is there a children’s book on the Austin Seven.

Cheers

Howard

[Tony Griffiths]

It goes back a long way: https://www.insurancefactory.co.uk/news/...-it-become
That must be a young Barbara Castle looking out of the window - and wagging her finger.
Barbara Castle always surprised her civil servants by knowing an astonishing amount about the places she was visiting and the right questions to ask, e.g. an aircraft factory. Eventually one of them plucked up the courage to ask her how she always had such a grasp of the subjects. "Oh," she said. "It's simple. I just buy a children's book on the subject, read it from cover to cover and then throw it away. It tells me all that I need to know."

Help is there a children’s book on the Austin Seven.

Cheers

Howard

Sadly, they all start at a post-PhD level.

[David Stepney]

What about "HAL5 and the Haywards" by Henry Donald?

[Duncan Grimmond]

Wasn't there something of a Haynes...

[Ian Wegg]

"That Barbara Castle! Minister of Transport! What would a mere woman know about how much I can drink and still be able to drive"

I'll never forget seeing that stupid man being interviewed on Tonight with Cliff Mitchelmore when the breathalyser was being introduced by one of my heroines!

Yes, and also the group of teenagers who complained "They're just trying to spoil our fun". Different times.

This newspaper story is one of my favourites, a man who lost his life as a result of the new law!


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(Mrs Werry later took part in the BBC Radio programme Down Your Way when it visited Midhurst in 1976. After talking to Brian Johnston about stoolball her selected piece of music was played: Harry Secombe singing "The Drinking Song" from The Student Prince. Perhaps it reminded her of her husband!)

[Tony Griffiths]

In the 1960s one of the motorcycle magazines ran a series of racing machine tests, usually at Silverstone, conducted by racing journalist Bruce Main Smith. The first tests were run in the morning, followed by lunch at the nearby Green Man pub - where BMS allowed himself a single bottle of brown ale. In the afternoon he always posted a quicker time.

[Andy Bennett]

There are indeed strange things that went on in 'different times'.
I lost 2 schoolfriends (with 2 others seriously injured) in the early 80s to a drunk driver who preferred the pavement to the road. His only defence being that they shouldn't have been walking on the pavement late at night when it was clearly thee for him to use as a run off area.

I was also amazed to watch a Barbara Whitehouse programme a few months back where she was in a studio discussion/debate with a group of middle aged men under the banner of the 'Paedophilia information exchange' promoting the 'benefits' of paedophilia and campaigning for no age of consent and that sex with children should be allowed unless the child specifically objected. it was just mindblowing.

Some things were better 'in my day', some most certainly weren't.