Incidentally, plans for a 3,600 space
lorry park alongside the M20 were
submitted last year, but were rejected in
November ... when it was found the
government had not undertaken a full
environmental study.
Geographical Jottings
Mark Peters, chief executive of the Gold
Coast 2018 Commonwealth Corporation.
He added that they offered to pulp the
programmes and reprint them, but
Team England encouraged them not to
because they saw the lighter side of the
error.
England has a population of just over
two million and its capital city is Banjul.
The country first participated in the
Commonwealth Games in 1970, despite
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth founding
the British Commonwealth in 1959 and
the Games having started, as the Empire
Games, in 1930. These are facts,
according to the glossy official
programme of this year’s
Commonwealth Games which at A$10
(€6.30, £5.40) became a popular
souvenir in Australia last month. Its 130
pages give details of all 71 countries
which competed in Gold Coast during
April, including the African nation of
England. Didcot, south of Oxford, is sometimes
referred to as England’s “most normal
town.” However, one resident recently
attempted to alter this perception with
additions to road signs along the A4130.
On the approaches to several
roundabouts, drivers found directions to
Oxford and Newbury had been
appended with extra place names
including Narnia, Gotham City, Middle
Earth, Emerald City and Neverland. The
signage lettering exactly matched the
genuine directions which mayor Jackie
Billington admitted would make people
smile when they saw them, adding that
Didcot would now be “quirky” instead of
boring old “normal.”
The Empire struck back with the error
which had confused England with
Gambia. Organisers said that the
programme had had to be reorganised
after Gambia’s return to the
Commonwealth in January this year,
after leaving in 2013. “Sometimes you
make mistakes, and we cop it,” admitted Oxfordshire County Council however
decided that inviting motorists to drive
through a wardrobe or to follow a yellow
brick road is a terribly serious offence. In
a statement, it classified the cheeky
additions as, “vandalism and a potential
distraction for drivers.” The signs have
now be removed.
27
Gender Equality
When is a PC not PC? When it’s a Police
Choir in Derbyshire where Chief
Constable Peter Goodman has decided
that an all male group of about 35 of his
officers is “incompatible” with the force’s
policies.
Derbyshire Constabulary Male Voice
Choir was asked to become a mixed-
voice group in September last year.
Chairman Kevin Griffiths said that,
following a meeting in January to discuss
the issue, they were sent notice in March
that permission to use the county force’s
name had been revoked. The group,
which has raised around £750,000 for
charities, is henceforth to be known as
the Derbyshire Community Male Voice
Choir.
Mr Griffiths added that, since the choir
was first formed, no woman had ever
asked to become a member. This is
hardly surprising, as few ladies we know
would aspire to membership of a choir
described as “male voice.” But the Chief
Constable is committed to being in
charge of an organisation which has, “no
enclaves where people from different
backgrounds cannot go.”
Continued overleaf