Fear of Flying...

...Not much call round here for frequent flying: on most days a bicycle is all I require to complete my parish rounds. A car for necessary trips to Norwich, plus of course the horse-box for countless county shows and the like. Shame really, as I should love to be in a position to cut up my British Airways Club Card - or whosoever it is named - and post the virtual pieces on www.baboycott.com

The refusal of British Airways to allow Miss Nadia Eweida to wear her cross rampant, permitting only couchant as it were, is as ugly a demonstration of corporate insanity and ill-considered oppression as one would hope not to witness. The particular lunacy of their official stance is that were the lady to arrive for work sporting a more exuberant symbol of her faith - say a pectoral cross a foot or so in length - she would be allowed it as it could not reasonably be hidden beneath her clothing. That being their rationale for allowing a turban but not a five-pennypiece sized cross.

Perhaps our own Bearded Bard [The Arch himself] should take a lesson from Miss Eweida's example. Far too often he has contented himself with looping his cross of office into his shirt pocket, as if too onerous to be left where it can and should be seen. If he is not willing to bear witness to his faith in this way, then I am saddened. (Correspondence on the subject has been exchanged with his third under-secretary, though not - to my surprise and slight dismay - with any resulting change in behaviour.)

Will talk to H about booking that long-awaited foreign holiday next year, just for the pleasure of not flying with my national airline!