Ellee Seymour

Hard to believe, but it seems the French hope to beat us at our own game – conkers!

While our nanny state is intent on banning this favourite pastime from our local schools, our European neighbours have been hammering away at it in great style.

Mais oui, they even hope to thrash us in the World Championship this weekend – is nothing sacred for the Brits!

The game was introduced to France by the expat community and there are 300 paid up members, mostly French, of La Fédération Française de Conkers. It has soared in popularity, especially since being shown on French TV.

Their schools are not such killjoys either. French schoolchildren have taken it up in the playground free of meddlesome bureaucrats.

My son James was runner-up in his school conker championship a couple of years ago, I’m glad he wasn’t deprived the chance of this fun. It looks like we will soon have to hop over the Channel for a game if we cannot conker those killjoys….

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Allowing a police officer with a political/religious conscience to be excused from an assignment where he felt “uncomfortable” may be seen as very generous of the Met.

All citizens have personal views, but have to continue working professionally and keep them in check. If you are unable to do so, you are obviously not suited to the job. Mostly, in the UK, British people are not passionate about religion or politics.

But Pc Alexander Omar, a Muslim police officer in his late 20s, obviously was, and owned up to it, which resulted in him being excused from guarding the Israeli embassy in London on moral grounds as he objected to Israeli bombings in Lebanon. He has also taken part in recent anti-war protests, so he clearly has very strong views on this.

On the one hand, he did the right thing in being honest, and he is probably a great cop in other areas. Unfortunately, as a result, he could now find his position severely compromised, his weakness has been widely exposed which could lose him credibility, even taunts and racial abuse.
Surely if he is attached to Scotland Yard’s Diplomatic Protection Group, he would have been strictly vetted to ensure he had no prejudices or discrimination that would have interfered with his duties.

I can’t see the Met making a habit of this, they would expect their officers to rise above personal feelings and put their duty first, that is what the British public expects and we cannot lose sight of that. We need to know our coppers are tough and brave and resilient and true to serving us at all times.

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