Scandals Old And New

The Mail leads with allegations of sex abuse against Cyril Smith. They're only thirty years too late. What I can't work out is whether this is a subtle way of drawing attention to unmentionable scandals about living politicians or of deflecting it. The Mail suggests that successive governments- Labour and Tory- protected Big Cyril in order to keep the Liberals sweet. Are Mail readers saying "Ooh, weren't the 70s awful!" or asking themselves whether something similar may not be going on today?

The establishment would much rather we oohed and aahed about Smith than show any curiosity about ****** or ******** or ****** ****** but they must wonder whether it's in their interests to keep the topic in the headlines. How long will the public be content to mumble over dry old bones when there are fresh ones for the picking? 

Online Surveys

I've signed up for a couple of internet survey sites. 

One of them sent me a questionnaire this morning. I spent all day (well I did other things in between) trying to get the damn thing to load. First it stuck on one screen, then it stuck on another. Finally- 12 hours later- the bugs had been ironed out and it ran beautifully- only it turned out to be all about football and- having answered a handful of questions that demonstrated my ignorance of the subject- I was selected out.  So no credits, just an entry to the daily draw.

Ailz has been doing surveys for years. She says this is how it goes.