Not just the map that's pink

I read a surprisingly interesting article about the official hangman for Singapore. He's a semi-retired 73 year-old civil servant (as it were) who hasn't been replaced because no-one else will take the job.

This little nugget is buried in the middle of the article:

Mr Singh will use the Official Table of Drops, published by the British Home Office in 1913, to calculate the correct length of rope for the hanging.

I notice that when people go on about having given railways and civil service to former colonies, they don't point out some of the more interesting legacies of the Empire, like this one.

It's hard to know if this whole thing is a put-on or not, especially when it is revealed that Mr Singh is in fact a Manchester United fan. Of course he is.