“Mermaids are committed members of the social justice movement.” – David Tuffley.

Is this a blindingly obvious truth? Or is it arrant nonsense? It has a certain Radio 4 Today programme “Thought For The Day” ring to it, but actually it comes from a po-faced dissection of Bob Dylan’s Desolation Row, to which Mick Hartley links.

Mr Hartley thinks Mr Tuffley, of Redland Bay, Australia, is talking twaddle, but I’m not so sure. For one thing, Mr Tuffley’s location suggests he lives next to the sea, and thus may from time to time have seen, conversed with, or otherwise had traffick with mermaids. As far as I can ascertain, Mr Hartley is a Londoner, and thus is unlikely to be familiar with such semiaquatic beings, other than at those times they splash and cavort in the Thames.

I note that Harriet Harman’s latest Equalities Bill has not a jot to say about mermaids, and this may indeed have led to a justified sense of grievance, even of victimhood. But for the time being I shall reserve judgment. I plan to view footage of marches and demonstrations, seeing if I can spot any mermaids among the more common students, crusties, and beardy higher education lecturers. I shall report back when my researches are at an end. Ah, but when is research ever at an end?