<don’t mention the Olympics>
My
ageing car, like most recent vehicles, has a security system. I get a nice
little remote control with two buttons, one to lock it and one to unlock it.
The unlock button also helpfully turns on the interior light. Then once in the
car it can’t
be driven until the key is turned in the ignition and the immobiliser is happy
with the key. The key itself folds into
a plastic handle so there are no sharp edges in your pocket. Some modern cars
don’t even need the key, just the proximity of it or a
card. This level of security and convenience is fairly standard on a cheap basic
mass market car.
My
house cost about 30 times as much as a new car. I have a scrappy metal key for
the front door which has a sharp scratchy pointed shape and a fiddly small
piece to hold and turn once you have found the tiny unlit hole. The back door
has a separate key, which although smaller than its ancestors still follows a design that someone
from 1000 years ago would easily recognise. There are yet more separate keys
for the conservatory door, garage and shed.
So why
doesn’t my
house have an electronic central locking system? One key that opens everything
and switches the lights on as I walk up the path on a wet night or that will
lock all the outside doors with one button press at bedtime.
I
suppose I could get such a system, although it would cost a fortune and the
retrofit would be a nightmare. I could get pick and mix, an automated lock here
and remote lights there. There is even an iPad app that will remotely control
wireless enabled mains outlets or control the heating remotely. Yet none of this stuff is built in nor integrated together, when it
would be both simple and cheap to include in a building, essentially a few low
voltage wires, some electric locks and sensors and a car type electronic receiver and control module. Why does nobody offer it?
(</don’t mention the
Olyimpics>
What
on earth was that ceremony about? I get much of the symbolism, the stage effects
were clever and impressive, but all that NHS stuff and the non-stop metrocentric
diversity and plastic steel drums? Not a mention of religion (I'm not religious but our history doesn't work without it) and not a hint to recognise that outside London rural England still exists.