Stirling Moss and Wafer Thin Mints

Developing a sense of humour

I'm trying to introduce my children to the joys of Monty Python. It's a struggle. To be fair they're only seven, half French and they have the same opinion of my humour as their mother does (i.e. not funny) but I think I'm making progress.

They also have a bit of Yorkshire blood in them. "Who'd a thought thirty years ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Chateau de Chassilier" at least draws a wry smile and resonates with their trips to see Grandpa Black in God's own county.

Mr Creosote, of "one more wafer thin mint" fame, isn't working quite yet. But can you really have too much of a good thing? Well, clearly you can. I think the Mr Creosote rule even applies to the gender agenda.

Here's what I mean. Take this month's pantomime villain Stirling Moss. A woman will never win a Formula 1 race because "they lack the mental aptitude" was his throw-away line. A bit crass and no-one likes generalisations.

But doesn't he have a point?

I mean the gender agenda is all about recognising female talent. Diversity is a good thing primarily because men and women often bring different skills to the party? So if they have different skills aren't you allowed to suggest that men might be better at some things?

Michael Schumacher probably had enough Teutonic certainty to have pushed RBS even further off the cliff than Sir Fred did. But what a driver!

So a polite message to all those feminists out there. Let's leave Stirling and Formula 1 alone. There are easier and more important battles to fight. Giving part of our nation's motoring heritage a hard time for saying something that might just be true looks just a little bit greedy...

Ben Black