Because that's how it's always been done

 We love tradition, don't we?  It gives us a sense that we are part of something bigger; a feeling that we are connected to everything that has gone before.  When someone asks why we are doing something a certain way, that seems totally stupid, we say, "Oh, I don't know, it's tradition isn't it?"  We think that because it's the way it has always been done then that's the best way.  

It could be true that our ancestors have tried all other ways and so there is no point us trying to find a better way.  However, some things have come to my attention this weekend that tradition can't defend.

I'm back in the pool and have noticed that I still try to count my lengths, despite wearing a SwimTag wristband and being very bad at counting because swimming becomes a moving meditation.

"One, two,,,,,,,,,,twelve,,,,,,Tuesday, Wednesday,,,,,,,Oh damn!"

Counting lengths while swimming is a tradition that can be stopped because we've found something better.

The Brexit talks are reaching their final deadline and it seems as though there wasn't an oven ready deal after all.  In fact, it looks like Boris, didn't even know what he wanted to cook, doesn't have any food in the cupboards and doesn't actually own an oven.  

"It's fine," political commentators tell us, "This is just the way things are done. An agreement will be reached at the eleventh hour."

The way it is done, apparently, it to arrogantly wave your demands around, keep everyone up all night for days on end and feed them Domino's pizza without giving them water until they give in.  It seems as though fish is the problem.  I don't want to talk about how stupid it is that that a country, where most of the population hate eating fish (unless it's unidentifiable, wrapped in batter, smothered in vinegar and served with chips), has given up their rights to be part of Euratom, the European, Europol, free movement and cheap mobile phone roaming for the right to catch more fish than we want to eat. That argument has been made and people who disagree with me will, rightly, point out that I lost.

However, it's a risky strategy isn't it?  How do you know that the people you are negotiating with are going to be more likely to give in when sleep deprived than you?  How do you know that they don't thrive on salty pizza?

We make all our most important decisions at the last minute and when most people are tired, and probably thirsty.  It's no wonder that government seems so hopeless.  Go to bed, get a good night's sleep and talk again after your porridge.  It would be so much more sensible.  It might be how it's always been done but what if there's a better way?

The other thing that came to my attention this weekend was the sacking of the Eton College teacher, Will Knowland.  It seems as though, despite bringing his school into disrepute and refusing to take down a YouTube lecture that makes it clear that Eton have been grooming their boys to be war loving, misogynists for years the Daily Mail and many of the boys he teaches have leaped to his defence, claiming that his free speech has been curtailed. Michael Gove's wife, Sarah Vine, self confessed feminist, writes about how she disagrees with most of what he said but it is wrong to stifle his freedom of speech. 

In truth, his freedom of speech is stronger than ever.  His freedom to teach has been stopped but even I  watched his lecture. I can absolutely see why he was sacked.  He's boring.  Old fashioned and wrong about many things.  His arguments about keeping men as the aggressive hunter gatherers, to be strong and competitive and to dominate women (because that's what women really want) are based on the concept of 'that's how it's always been done.'  He says that only men are equipped to protect and that it's all to do with biology.  Big shoulders equals in charge.  Big hips ready for impregnating. He demonstrates his points with clips from films. He uses films that glamorise war.  Weirdly, for an English teacher, he barely mentioned literature. The lecture takes dark turns in some places, like when he suggests rape is normal and shouldn't be stopped because there is more male on male rape in prison and when he concludes that feminists are pro incest and paedophilia. He has just managed to get his message across to many more people, rather than just the impressionable, unloved, boys that have been abandoned into his care by people who are hoping he will give them all the tools they need to run the country when they are done.  

Even Eton can see that just because that's the way it's always been done, it doesn't mean it should continue.  Come on government, it's time to buy a fitbit and have sensible negotiations.