AN EXERCISE IN POINTLESSNESS....

Well, I guess the sign above is a good example. And there are countless others in the world of officialdom. One of my `favourites` is on the M20 just outside Ashford in Kent, where there`s an enormous traffic information sign which has never shown anything, but in the bottom right hand corner there`s a notice saying `Sign Not In Use.`

Now I know it`s the season of goodwill and the last thing I want to do is appear humbugish, but I`ve been left wondering about christmas cards. We`ve sent loads out to friends and family and not really thought much about it apart from a natural desire to express the compliments of the season.

A few years ago, when I had more relatives alive than I have these days, I used to send a `rogue` card to someone each year, just for the hell of it. I would select a distant relative, one who had not previously been in receipt of glad tidings from me and one who would certainly never expect to, send a card and sit back and wait to see if it was reciprocated. Some were, some not.

Of course, that was another act of pointlessness and although it provided me with a brief interlude of perversity it was nevertheless pointless....but that was the point of it, of course. So I`ve just been wondering about the whole christmas card business; we send them out and then sit back and expect to receive them in return. Virgin forests are razed to the ground, fortunes are spent on postage, postmen suffer stress-related illnesses, relationships are secured or destroyed on the whim and fancy of yuletide feelings.....and we all go through the whole thing year after year, as the planet creaks and groans under the weight of our insecurities.

Time to put a stop to it all? Who among us has the courage to make the first move? Just in case you haven`t had a card from us this year, please don`t take it to heart - you may just be the non-recipient of a `rogue`card I haven`t sent in the first faltering steps towards a more sensible world. And if you haven`t sent me one, why not? I guess you think it would be a pointless excercise.