Colin Baker

School league tables are not the answer
SATS testing has been under scrutiny in the media in the wake of the report of a House of Commons' committee in the week that pupils countrywide have been taking the tests.

Health warnings aren't my cup of tea
DOES anyone else share my confusion about what's good and bad for you? The latest dilemma concerns vitamin pills. For years we have believed in the beneficial effects of supplementing one's diet with a judicious addition of all the vitamins of the alphabet, most of which cost a pretty penny (worth it however if the claims for their powers in warding off illness and engendering health are right).

I get fit by watching Wycombe Wanderers
I MUST own to a reluctance to engage in physical exercise for its own sake.

It's not so ludicrous to be scared of buttons
THERE was a story in the media this week about a lady in Waterlooville who suffers from koumpounophobia.

I've cornered the market on grumpiness
THE makers of the television programme Grumpy Old Men/Women have finally acknowledged its contributors were far from old and (I would argue) nowhere near grumpy enough.

I'm all in a spin after my washing machine breaks down
I WAS brought up in the post war days of the boil wash and the mangle, so the washing machine is, for me, still a highly prized domestic item. You only need to have caught your fingers in the mangle once to appreciate the march of technology!

We're used to scantily-clad women in this town
WELL, the build-up to the opening of Eden (as Adam and Eve must have also recalled) was pretty intense and feverish.

Football must be rescued from the louts
PLAYER behaviour and respect for referees has hit the headlines again this week. I am amazed that there are still those who are prepared to defend actions that are steadily eroding the respect the game once had throughout the country.

Locking out rail passengers is not the solution
A FRIEND of mine who travels to London regularly at weekends, being more environmentally-friendly than I am able to be (given my working hours and the times of last trains), always uses the train.

The show can't go on for the walking dead
I AM lucky to work in a profession where "taking a sicky" is as unattractive to the employee as it is to the employer. Not only do I enjoy my work but "The show must go on" is etched through my generation's bones like Blackpool rock.