I think maybe perhaps it's time the Royal Family decided to implement a ban on sex with citizens of the United States of America. It often doesn't turn out very well. Edward VIII stopped being Edward VIII so he could marry the obnoxious Wallis-Simpson. Constitutional Crisis negotiated but the abdication tainted with later Nazi overtones. Did he really mean when he declared Something Must Be Done during a visit to some economically distressed part of England that all the Jews should be killed? Then we have the present family rift following Prince Harry's marriage to the toxic Meghan Markle. Yet another American divorcee - will they never learn? Prince Nice-but-Dim simply married someone just like his mother. Now Prince Andrew is no longer Prince Andrew because of sex parties in America set up by Robert "The Bouncing Czech" Maxwell's daughter and her creepy boyfriend. Double trouble mixing with a Maxwell and teenage American girls.

Most folk like to get some praise. Some even seek it. But I remember when I worked at the Government of Saskatchewan and someone praised the daily news summary that I'd prepared for the morning meeting. They meant well. But I just knew that the colleague who prepared the summary on alternate weeks would interpret this as a criticism of her. And it was my life she would make more difficult as result. And I was correct. I sometimes wonder if senior management praise for the Campbeltown Courier's coverage of the Mull of Kintyre Chinook Crash led my then-boss to undermine me and make my job as editor more difficult than it had to be was an example of something similar. Only, she was motivated by fear that I would get her job and wasn't just being petty.

Censored

OK, time I think for what is going to become an annual Downer. It's around Remembrance Day and I think it's important to remember what soldiering is all really about and how badly things can work out for too many people. I've never been sure whether this photo from 1917 shows British or Canadian kilties. The photo is sometimes credited to The Official Canadian War Photographer. Sadly, the guy I was going to ask, Tim Cook at the Canadian War Museum, died suddenly a couple of weekends ago. He was a good guy. Anyway, click here to see the photo  – <a href="/index.php/14-titles/81-wardead" target="_blank&quot;">War Dead</a></p>

The BBC has a science programme called Discovery. It causes me some concern. Quite often it profiles leading world scientists. What concerns me is the majority of them come from privileged backgrounds. I don't think scientific ability is dependent on, or even linked to, parental income. This suggests to me that genuinely talented working class kids are not being given a chance. And the exclusion of talent must mean our science is far more mediocre than it should be. England seems to worst for this, Scotland and North America, though no meritocracies, appear to be slightly better, say children of school teachers, and the sole Aussie was, if I recall correctly, was the son of a working class single mother. Now I don't know how hard it is to get a job as a scientist. But one English princess decided she wanted to be a journalist when she graduated from Oxbridge. Hey Presto, Princess gets a good job as a journalist handed to her. Then she decides she wants to be a scientist instead. Hey Presto, she gets a good job as a scientific researcher. I'm not saying she is not a good scientist. What I am saying is that equally, or more, talented folk from humbler backgrounds were pushed aside to make way for her and never got a chance. We all end up losers when Privilege closes ranks to make sure their kids get all the good jobs. Can the UK really afford to stifle talent so that Nigel, Charlotte and Tim can have first pick?