Peter Rhodes on renationalisation, jokes from Edinburgh and voices from beyond the grave
You know you're getting old when you hear the top ten best jokes from the Edinburgh Fringe and don't even smile. Join the club.
According to a survey, more than two-thirds of Conservative voters say that the government should temporarily renationalise energy companies if they cannot offer lower bills. Why stop there? Does anyone seriously believe the policy of privatising utilities and relying on supervisory bodies to protect the customer's interests has worked?
"It is difficult, if not impossible to combine the citizens' rights and interests and the private enterprise's interests, because the private enterprise aims at its natural and justified objective, the biggest possible profit.” Not my words. That's the great Birmingham politician Joseph Chamberlain, supporting the public ownership of water supplies, in 1884. Nothing changes.
My father died 30 years ago. In the last years of his life we recorded hours of VHS video showing him and his family. There he is, walking, talking and looking over his specs as he asks for help with the Times crossword. When he was born in the 1920s, to possess such a record of an ordinary citizen's life would have seemed magical.
Today's equivalent of those videos is a program called StoryFile, in which the subject answers loads of questions which are stored using artificial intelligence and 3D images. After his or her death, friends and relatives can have startlingly realistic conversations with the dear departed. The creator of Storyfile Dr Stephen Smith, featured his own mother who died in June aged 87. After the cremation, guests asked questions and the deceased appeared to answer them “with new details and honesty.”
Bereavement is an intensely personal affair and if voices from beyond the grave can bring you comfort and closure, then go for it. I have two reservations. Firstly, the novelty may wear off sooner than you think. Although we have hours of my dad recorded, we have viewed the tapes no more than a dozen times in 30 years.
Secondly, don't expect any answers to the really important questions. Six months after her death, Granny may cheerfully assure you that's she's very proud of everything you've done but may be irritatingly vague about the combination to the wall safe.
