Obviously I’m talking about a structured system of sitting with many active aspects . . .

Even I know the difference between that and loafing. Well, aimless loafing. I have no problem with creative loafing. I am, to the untrained eye, just sitting about dotting words on the an ethereal page, but I know it’s part of a long-running blog. I also know that I’ve been checking up egg recipes for breakfast and stoking up a case of incandescent rage by reading what passes as an agony aunt column. There are a lot of people who write questions which look like they have been suspiciously tailored to let their journalist mates rant on about various hot topics.

These are both things I need to do on a regular basis. Everybody needs breakfast. I think you can see this from an earlier post. I also need to remind myself that journalists are lazy and untrustworthy. They get paid loads of money just to sit down and write. It’s not hard. I’m doing it now. Apart from the being paid bit. They have huge resources and a dedicated web of sneaks and snitches, and they are being taken to the cleaners by Prince Harry at the moment.

In any decent society he wouldn’t be allowed near a court of law with his whining, self-serving, look-at-me sob story. If our journalists were any good they would have nailed him years ago and he’d be living as a recluse in a cold and draughty country on something resembling the average wage, not a $16,000,000 mansion in California with the American media feeding his vanity and raining cash on him.

It would be just him, his creepy Uncle Andy, and a ring of steel to keep them away from decent people. And probably a couple of those ankle bracelets. They would have to cook for themselves, run their own baths and ruminate on how it could all have been so different. They were both acclaimed as war heroes and they both married women who were well-liked for a time. What would have happened if Andrew had been allowed to marry Koo Stark, for instance, or if Harry hadn’t decided on a tell-all memoir to cash in? You’d have thought the Royal family would have learnt a lesson from the Peter Townsend fiasco.

All of which brings me to the uncomfortable conclusion that they are victims of their birth, and my views might be a trifle uncharitable. However, it is undisputable that in the old days peter Townsend was a proper hero and Princess Margaret had a sense of duty that some of the younger royals would do well to study.

Yes, sitting. It is definitely an activity if done properly.

Haddock Special at the Fishpan, Scarborough

The pictures have nothing to do with the subjects. Sorry about that.