KEEPING IT ON TAP

There's always plenty of valuable material on Jane Stranz's personal blog, Of Life, laughter and liturgy. I keep meaning to refer to things there, as with Deirdre Good's and Johan Maurer's (among others - including Dave Walker, who has subverted his way onto the Church Times, I see). But then mentioning them here means you can go off and read them yourself. One of Jane's recent offerings, topical for Lent:

"The latest post on Seven weeks for Water focuses on bottled water and church and NGO campaigns encouraging us to think outside the bottle. If you can turn on a tap at home and pour yourself a glass of water you're among the most privileged 15% of people in the world. The latest Ecumenical Water Network newsletter is available... Please also keep sharing information about the Ecumenical youth summer school on water."

A nice twist on this theme is the news that British chancellor Alistair Darling will drink tap water when he delivers his budget prognostications next week. No surprise there, you would think, unless you knew about the quaint parliamentary custom whereby the chancellor has traditionally been allowed to break the House of Commons "no alcohol" rule on this one occasion. Gordon Brown, true son of the Scottish manse, used to favour Highland Spring as opposed to anything stronger, but most Tory money-men have been dedicated tipplers.

Being under the influence is, apparently, a desirable if not necessary qualification for running the British economy. I couldn't possibly comment. Incidentally, the UK's licensing laws were introduced during the first world war, to keep the workers in line - that is, to make sure that they were in a fit state to go on churning out munitions. The exceptions included Oxford and Cambridge universities, where the sons of fortune were deemed suitable to drink intoxicating beverages at any time of day or night. Ah, the English class system...

To finish on a constructive note: here's the End Water Poverty Now site.