Political column January 20

It is pears.

In the unlikely event that I tricked you into double checking you will have now reassured yourself that apples is six letters, pears is five.

Nevertheless, if you did double check it meant that momentarily I managed to cast a doubt.

You can count letters and so be sure, but there are circumstances in which people can be induced into knowingly giving wrong answers.

There was a famous experiment in which a group of people were shown two lines on a board and asked to vote on which was longer.

In the first vote almost all hands went up to vote for the shorter line. One person, puzzled and quizzical, put their hand up to vote correctly for the longer line. And so it went on, with the group overwhelmingly giving the wrong answer on each occasion.

Feeling awkward and isolated, the individual soon abandoned their "rebel" stance and simply voted along with the rest for an easy life, even when one line was blatantly much shorter than the other.

What they didn't know was that all the rest of the group were stooges who had been told to vote the wrong way every time, and that they themselves were the subject of the experiment, which was basically about the pressure we are all under to go along with the crowd even against our better judgment.

You can measure lines and the like, so there can be answers that are indisputably right. There is not much to be said for being indisputably and provably wrong about something in the face of the evidence.

However, there are other areas of judgment, interpretation, and opinion in which the fact that almost everybody may agree on something shouldn't mean that those who put their hand up in opposition should be treated as crackpots (unless they are crackpots).

For instance, as the interminable and expensive Covid inquiry trundles on, its tone seems to be based on the underlying belief that lockdown was the correct response, which also appears to be in accord with the view of the overwhelming majority.

Many expect that when it eventually reports it will find that lockdown should have come sooner. This will be the "right" answer.

But not, I imagine, to Piers Corbyn, who used to hail from our patch and is the brother of Jeremy.

He is from the brigade of the minority hands-uppers. He campaigned against face masks, vaccinations, and lockdown restrictions during Covid and got arrested. He gatecrashed an Extinction Rebellion "No Faith In Fossil Fuels" church service in London and told them that man-made climate change does not exist.

He insisted on paying £1.90 cash for a pack of strawberries in a cashless store, which he described as a "dystopian place."

Most people will disagree with him, but unless we are all to vote like sheep we surely need to hear from the heretics.

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As I drove past one of the huge stadium-sized dazzlingly-bright LED display signs in Telford centre the other day an image flashed up (no pun intended) of a giant woman in a bikini.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Had it been an image of mushy peas or a portion of chips I would have been so distracted that I would have veered dangerously all over the road.

The undressed lady was advertising some Bollywood venue or event in West Bromwich although I can't say exactly what as naturally I kept my eyes on the road as best I could, as did others as there was no traffic pile-up.

It is interesting to see what is officially acceptable in terms of signage these days. I have lately taken a particular interest in these massive council-approved advertising boards alongside some of the busiest roads in Telford.

This is in the wake of Telford & Wrekin Council's decision a little while ago to refuse planning permission to the Crispy Cod at Ketley for a digital advertisement board in its car park.

Reasons given were its "position, size and height" and "visual clutter."

I can only imagine the council thinks the chippy's electronic advertising boards would be far too small and insufficiently bright for passing drivers to see.