When does humour become not funny? BUYING GOODS ONLINE OUR VIEW

I have always been convinced that the British sense of humour has been one of our most commendable and enduring assets. Through the horror of two World Wars and all the disasters and conflicts that have beset us over the years, the Brits have always managed to find some way to raise a smile out of even the most tragic circumstances.

The skill of our comedians and cartoonists is such that their humour never sets out to undermine these situations, merely eases their seriousness by lightening the mood and in doing so allows those affected to hopefully surmount their problems more easily.

The British sense of humour, sometimes indefinable and unique, has always been a bit of a mystery to the rest of the world and often something that most foreigners simply can't get their heads around. Some years ago, I wrote that whatever the terrorist or our enemies can throw at us nothing will ever rob us of our most commendable and enduring gift, our humour. Well I was wrong. At the time of writing that particular piece we weren't being strangled by the despicable, destructive, and downright traitorous yolk of the PC brigade.

Not content with changing their fellow citizens from a nation that prided and flourished through its policies of oratory freedom into a herd of sheep, watching every word they say and almost frightened to open their mouths in case they offend somebody, this utterly superfluous bunch of time and woke wasters have finally managed to turn their attack on one of the most dearly loved jewels of our culture, our purveyors of comedy.

Subsequently most comedians are simply not funny anymore. Jokes that retain reference to classism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, xenophobia or Islamophobia are just not allowed on public platforms.

For the new breed its ok to repeat appalling swear words, or even un­ dermine white culture, but step out of line against a minority and you can bid your career goodbye.

One TV channel I tune into actually presents (with a large cautionary notice) a wonderful selection of early brilliant British comedy shows. ‘Benny Hill’ ‘Till Death do Us Part’ ‘Hale and Pace’ to name but a few. Many contain racist humour but they are glaringly non ­ contemptuous, simply frivolously humorous. What I find truly disturbing about this whole PC farce is just how far this Orwellian situation is allowed to go.

Another bunch of them have now issued guidelines instructing schools that eight­year olds be taught that all genders can have periods ­ to avoid...... wait for it. ‘Offending girls who identify as boys’! Well, frankly if I had my way, I would prosecute these morons for child abuse. Unfortunately, as a member of a majority, nobody is allowed to listen to me!

DURING lockdown, few of us were able to go shopping in person and ended up buying large amounts of product online.

This activity made many large businesses upgrade their websites to offer a wider and faster range of services and many of us still buy a great deal of material online.

There has certainly been some return to personal shopping although it is telling that Amazon have recently closed two of their self­service, cashless physical supermarkets as it would appear that they were not proving popular.

It can be difficult to buy online from the UK because of Brexit and unless the store you are purchasing from has registered for European VAT and is shipping goods below a certain value, there is often a delay and the possibility of the purchaser having to pay customs duties.

Online stores situated within the European Union can supply goods to any other EU State which means that local online sellers should in theory become more competitive.

One of Spain’s largest fashion giants has until recently used Correos for delivery and the Spanish Post Office has generally been very efficient but now they have changed and are using other couriers who presumably offer a cheaper service.

We have readers who complain that despite paying for home delivery, couriers simply state that they have tried to deliver and couldn’t so have left the goods at a central point for collection which may be several kilometres away. If the purchaser doesn’t collect the goods, then they are returned to the seller and refund can take anything up to a month which is no good for anyone.