Change or the Same?
6 November
I'm not sure if the world is changing or whether we are simply seeing more of the same.
In the United States of America, Barack Obama has been elected to the presidency confounding certainly my predictions. I'm well on record as saying that it will be a cold day in hell before US citizens en masse vote for a black president. Presumably, they are skating on the River Styx even as I type.
I suppose I judged those North Americans by the hypocritical standards of we English. I well remember the scenes in the mid-1980s when pollsters realised that they could not trust what people were saying in response to their questions. Asked if they disliked Margaret Thatcher's policies, most people said yes. Notionally, anyway, the policies were unpopular and so was she.
People also said yes if they were asked if they would vote against her. However, people did something quite different in the seclusion of the voting booth when they recognised that, by and large, they were better off under the Conservative government. For at least two elections, Labour was promised and then denied victory.
So, I assumed that US citizens would not say outright that they would not vote for a black man - that would be rude. But, on the day, I was sure that they wouldn't. Well, in the swing states, enough did.
So, there will be change. In symbolic terms, it's a great moment. Just as, in symbolic terms, it's a great moment also that Lewis Hamilton has won the Formula One Grand Prix title. It's great because it says that extraordinary people do rise to the top of their profession. And that racial heritage and skin colour may play a part in the energy which pushes them to the top but that it need not be a bar - providing, and here's the big get out clause, that you have all sorts of other folk rooting for you.
That said, I suspect that the one group of people in the USA who were really praying that the result of the presidential elections went the other way were the secret service and security forces. They potentially now have a nightmare maximum eight years during which all sorts of crazy people may get it into their heads to have a pop at the President or the First Lady or the kids.
But, to lower the tone completely, if you had to view one of them with their shirt off, the President Elect wouldn't win that competition by such a large margin.
Meanwhile, the cost of petrol has now dropped to 92.9p per litre. Back in May, it was 110.9p per litre. In fact, we're sort of back to where we were on petrol prices a year ago.
Looking back, I've sort of been keeping tabs on the ups and downs. March 2007 saw the price at 91p per litre. Going back, in October 2006, the price was as low as 84p per litre. In the previous September, it had been 88p having been at nearly £1 during the summer. And, as I said then, the fluctuations are not about supply and demand but rather they are about the casino nature of the stock market which traders/gamblers betting on predictions as to which way the price will go.
One thing has remained the same, however.
I had my interview for the job at Liverpool University yesterday. They said that they'd be contacting the successful candidates (two posts/ten candidates) today. I haven't heard.
I'm very upset about it. I can't see why I haven't been given the nod. I would be such a good person for that job. The only thing that I can think of is that I am just too good and they couldn't handle it.
Ah, well. Onwards and upwards.