Straight talking?

Straight answers aren’t common just now. Even Buckingham Palace struggled to know how to respond to reports that the Queen let slip that she supports West Ham. A spokesman said, ‘Which team she supports is not something we would know"’.

Meanwhile the ‘Lockerbie bomber’ story just isn’t going away. In the Scottish Parliament, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill again defended his decision to release the bomber. But it wasn’t enough to stop the SNP government being defeated over its handling of the case.

South of the border the repercussions continue too. Maybe the apparent lack of straight answers is a factor. A government minister seems to have accepted that trade was after all a factor in discussions in 2007.

As if that weren’t enough, the issue of compensations for victims of IRA bombs made from Libyan supplied explosives has emerged again. Does the government support it or not? Perhaps the simplicity of Paul’s (and more importantly God’s) answer ‘Yes’ (2 Cor 1:18,19), would be a good example for all contemporary politicians and leaders.

On a lighter note (so to speak), the essence of England has been captured in a perfume called By George!. It was produced for VisitEngland, to promote the country during the Ashes series.

Those who smell it are apparently being taken on ‘a journey through an English seaside garden with salty sea air notes mingling with damp earth, garden mint, carrots and beetroots and freshly cut grass’. All of this is wrapped up in the ‘subtle exhaust fumes of the lawnmower’. Perhaps.

Paul said that Christians bear the ‘aroma of Christ’ (2 Cor. 2:15,16). I wonder how he would have described that particular perfume?

Emlyn Williams