I realised it's now the middle of October so I have to ask, how is everyone enjoying their 6 month free trial to the new world order? On the Corona front there's a new 3 tiers system and the whole thing is about as made up and opaque as the 33 tiers of freemasonry. I wonder how that's going these days? Presumably less handshaking thanks to Covid. And none of those weird midnight ceremonies, what with a 10pm curfew.

The big story this past week was in France where a history teacher was decapitated by a terrorist, which I guess only goes to show the dangers of using a classroom practical to teach kids about the French Revolution. The situation actually occurred after the teacher taught a lesson about free speech that involved cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Cartoons which I chose not to replicate this week, partly out of fear of reprisals but also partly because being Scottish there's a slim chance that I am indeed one of those immortal people out of the movie Highlander and Sean Connery laid it down pretty firm about the rules of that game and not losing your head. As to the news story itself I'm not sure exactly how it went down or if the teacher put up much of a fight, though it is the french we're talking about here. The teaching association has since reiterated that it's important to discuss tough subjects though. To which I would respond that they're already teaching all of the lessons in french and that must make them pretty tough already. It is worth noting that this week's incident is but the tip of an iceberg of underlying tensions that seem to be covered up remarkably well, asides from when it spills into international news by way of the internet. The fire earlier this year at Nantes Cathedral for instance was portrayed by many outlets as a tragic accident which it absolutely wasn't. There is a level of denial and complicity at play here akin to when the titanic hit the iceberg and many peoples' reaction was to add some of the ice to their gin and tonic.

The other big story this week was out of America with only a few weeks to go until voting day. A few weeks back Joe Biden was odds on to win. Now Trump is even money and Biden is just odd. This was all compounded off the back of a major story about how Biden's son was up to his eyeballs in corruption with links to Ukraine, China and Joe himself was even offered shares in a multi-million dollar business venture as part of a negotiation that pretty much involved him being in the room and occasionally namedropping President Obama. I didn't think any candidate could out-Clinton the Clintons but the Democrats really went hardball this year it seems. None of this of course will change any supporters' minds. To paraphrase Mr Trump from a few years ago, Joe Biden could stand sneezing and coughing in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose one voter. However, the story will be a decisive blow for the argument that "all politicians are the same." While Trump and Biden represent two vehemently polarised political parties, both candidates are remarkably similar in their personal life whether it be murky business dealings, age, health or accusations of racism in a world where nobody even knows the definition of what that is on a day to day basis. What is known is that a reduced turnout is known to benefit the president, albeit at the polling station and not at his currently closed casinos where he's probably losing money faster than any of his punters ever did.