Modbury anniversary and Caradon recycling

Time to talk rubbish. You might think I mean everything I write on this blog. No I'm talking about refuse collection and recycling rubbish. The first thing I want to mention is that the scheme in Modbury in Devon's South Hams to be a plastic bag free community is now one year old. Although Modbury is a trailblazer a number of other communities are going down the same route, I believe Crediton in Mid Devon for example is another town wanting to follow in Modbury's footsteps. For me what is just as important as the ban on issuing plastic bags at these places is the fact that towns and villages with their own special identities are doing these things from a communal perspective and that people are thinking about environmental problems rather than going through life on autopilot.

Commendable though Modbury's example is in so many ways I am not convinced that a total ban on all plastic bags is the way forward. We should certainly strive to drastically cut down on their number but not consign them to history. There is the odd occasion when having a plastic bag around is distinctly useful. For instance bringing home a couple of pots with flowers from a garden centre or nursery. Then there is the exhortation of our local recycling firm to place used glass bottles and jars in a plastic bag for the fortnightly collection. In this instance I take my glassware to the bottle bank in the village (on foot by the way, using the car would negate the environmental benefit unless I had special reason to pass a bottle bank on a trip elsewhere). I do though use a plastic bag for the cardboard that gets collected as the inclement weather that we so often endure would cause the cardboard to disintegrate. Obviously I'm trusting the company to recycle the bags or at least dispose of them sensibly.

I've written before about the many downsides of 'pay as you throw' for landfill rubbish. Here in the Caradon District (to become part of 'Cornwall' when the county becomes a unitary authority) we are blessed with better recycling facilities than some. We get a plentiful supply of clear and blue sacks so much more practical I feel for our tiny cottages than the plethora of bins some councils distribute. I've got a calendar in front of me as a reminder of collection dates from this April right through to November 2009. The leaflet also contains some FAQs one of which states where the recycling products go. The destinations are all in England or Wales, not the Far East with its associated transport costs! When the scheme first kicked off we had an equivalent number of red bags at our disposal - these were for clothes and shoes. The penny has dropped that most folk wouldn't need those bags very often , certainly not every other week, so there is a contact number now if you need delivery of the same.

The recycling scheme seems to have bedded in very well, the same operation also covers the North Cornwall District.

New development at Totnes proposed

Yesterday I had to sadly record the impending closure of a factory in Paignton with its attendant job losses. Checking back through the blog I see it was last summer that I noted that Dairy Crest was leaving its long established premises in nearby Totnes. But it isn't all doom and gloom on the employment front in south Devon: there is news of an exciting redevelopment at Baltic Wharf. Let me explain the geography first. Baltic Wharf is a somewhat rundown area on the southern edge of Totnes and on the west bank of the estuary of the Dart. September 2006 saw the purchase of this land by 'TQ9 Partnership' which is owned by three people local to the Totnes area: Steve Mittler, Mark Yallop and Ian Dennis.

In summary the proposals are to add another 300 jobs to the 100 already on site, to build a mix of affordable and open market houses and add some offices and shops. It sounds like an excellent use of a brownfield site which won't detract from the essentially rural feel of the town. Further good news is the participation of architects Harris Sutton Partnership who are based in the heart of Totnes and recipients of many awards.

This is what I like to see - strong involvement of local expertise and finance in the development of schemes which will be good for the community at large. Totnes owes much to being at the lowest bridging point of the Dart so it is appropriate that this scheme is right on the bank of the river.

I am confident that the proposals will be enthusiastically received.

Paignton factory to close

Paignton seems to be particularly unlucky when it comes to closure of factories and loss of jobs. Food manufacturer Uniq has announced that it is going to close its 'Riviera Desserts' site in the Bay with nearly 400 being made redundant. A little background on the company: it makes chilled convenience food and manufactures in France, Germany, The Netherlands and Poland as well as the UK. Despite having invested a sizeable amount of money at Paignton the decision has been made to move production to its other facilities in Somerset and Shropshire. This will not happen overnight, it's expected to take 18 months to implement the plan.

I see it is being suggested by some that poor road communications into Torbay is at least part of the reasoning behind this shock decision. If this is so then here one can see a real dilemma - on the one hand, like 'The Friends of the Earth' I don't want to see more and more of our countryside under new roads but at the same time I don't like the idea of a constant haemorrhaging of jobs resulting from inadequate transport infrastructure. One argument says "make new roads and the traffic will just increase to fill them". My view is that good roads between major centres of population - and Torbay is one such - are a necessary evil. There is an environmental cost, usually conveniently ignored, in making the road in the first place plus the ongoing maintenance in resurfacing etc but this is more than offset by the savings in both pollution and accidents that should follow assuming the same traffic volumes. With the current escalations in fuel prices it's no wonder that companies are so desperate to set up close to motorways or dual carriageways.

There has been a proposal for a by-pass at Kingskerswell for I don't know how many years and construction would certainly help reinvigorate Torbay. I have to confess I don't know the state of play on this scheme, perhaps I need to do some research.

Cherry blossom, cuckoo flowers, orange tips

Yesterday had been forecast to be the warmest day of the year so far so we made preparations for a reasonable length walk to include a picnic lunch. Mindful of the fact that both of us wanted to be home by mid afternoon and that the evening was to be the AGM of our local history group we weren't tempted to drive anywhere. Apart from that there are very special places to visit in our part of the Tamar Valley at specific times of year and this is one such time to draw our attention.

So it was a walk of 7 - 8 miles that took us eventually to a favourite cherry orchard just beyond Cotehele. There was a time when the Tamar Valley had a very strong tradition in market gardening and when in springtime the area was awash with cherry and apple blossom. Sadly most of the orchards have disappeared but thanks to a few dedicated individuals and organisations many of the varieties once familiar to the Valley have not been totally lost. Fortunately the timing of our visit to this wonderful spot was pretty good but it wasn't only the cherry blossom that was to catch our attention. We are lucky enough to have more than a few somewhat damp and uncultivated meadows in the Valley which are home to that joyous plant Ladys Smock or Cuckoo Flower. But it's not just that the flower is such a pleasure in its own right but it provides a host to the Orange Tip butterfly. So the bonus yesterday was to see many Orange Tips on the wing (I notice that several other blogs are recording sightings as well) and several of these were on Ladys Smock just in front of the National Trust's Cotehele Mill. To see either butterfly or flower is a great pleasure but together makes things even more special.

Staying with nature we enjoyed seeing the last of the cultivated daffodils that have gone wild before they go over for another year and marvelled again at the rare maidenhair ferns in the limekilns at Cotehele Quay. Bluebells and stitchwort have joined the lesser celandine to glorify our hedgebanks. Nice to see some of the rarer and unrelated greater celandine on the way and also the honesty that does so well along the road fronting the river west of Calstock.

All the seasons have something to give naturewise but Spring in the Tamar Valley is extra special and we thoroughly enjoyed our stroll in these magical surroundings.

Sat-Nav leads car driver into brook

If you look down the list of subjects to the right of my entries you will note under 'Sat-Navs' that I have sounded off before about the problems they can bring. It's usually tales of juggernauts getting wedged in country lanes or knocking off the corners of buildings that make the headlines but not this time. Late yesterday evening a car driver phoned for help because her car had got stuck in the Grindle Brook, a stream near Woodbury Salterton in East Devon that eventually finds its way into the River Clyst. To add to her embarrassment in trying to extricate herself she had burnt out the clutch. Looking at my trusty Landranger map (sheet 192) I can see exactly where this calamity occurred: there is a little uncoloured road running north-south, the only one crossing the brook. Now the combination of night time driving and an uncoloured road on the Ordnance Survey map really is something to be avoided. The trouble with the Sat-Nav technology is that though you can rely on it most of the time there is going to be the odd occasion when it will fail and obviously in this case at some cost.

It is so so easy to become wedded to the idea that clever technology is foolproof when of course it isn't. Maps have always fascinated me and my shelves groan under the weight of them. Bearing in mind that most of my driving is on reasonably familiar territory I don't see myself needing a Sat-Nav just yet. Reverting to the mishap at Woodbury Salterton the Sat-Nav route if negotiable would only have saved two or three miles. Use the technology as a tool by all means but don't depend on it 100%.

Tavistock Balloon Fiesta grounded

Some disappointing news has come through this week to the effect that Tavistock's popular hot air balloon fiesta has been cancelled this year and looks as if the 2009 event won't take off either. The main reason given for this sad decision is the ever escalating costs and red tape, something most community events are having to endure today. To their credit Tavistock Town Council had come forward with the offer of a loan of £5000 to help the Tavistock Lions and Round Table who organise the event. However as this loan would have to be repaid out of the fiesta profits it was felt that this option wasn't really viable. To make matters worse the only two practical launching sites, at Tavistock College and land by the Tavistock Football Club, both at Crowndale, are out of commission next year because of work upgrading their respective sports facilities.

The Balloon Fiesta, admittedly not as large as the spectacular one at Bristol, has nevertheless become a major event. I have to say that the significance of such activities in local communities is colossal, apart from the huge pleasure they give and opportunities for benefiting charities they also form part of that essential glue to bind society together and give places a sense of identity. If you have read much of this blog you may realise that I am totally passionate about individuality - one of the abiding pleasures one has is knowing that all parts of this country have occasions unique to their area and that's the way it should be!

Maybe we should be more appreciative of the vast number of community events that take place in this very diverse country of ours and cherish them. It would be an absolute tragedy if cost and bureaucracy were to spell their death knell.

Brixham police on YouTube

Here's an interesting sign of the times regarding communication: Brixham police have started broadcasting on YouTube! You can see their first offering, which is just under 10 minutes long, by going to the YouTube site and entering Brixham police. Slightly nerve wracking for the station sergeant but he manages OK. One of the primary features of this first video is to introduce the various constables, PCSOs and specials that make up the team. Unfortunately though it's been done somewhat on the cheap as we don't get to see the officers named and I would have thought that combining names with faces would have been the way forward when using a visual medium. But perhaps that will come in episode two because this isn't a one off as the intention is to produce a regular output.

Brixham appears to be well covered compared with my parish of Calstock. Currently I don't think we have any police assigned to us, we had a PCSO but she has now moved elsewhere. I think it is fair to say that nearly all the crime in this neck of the woods is of the nuisance variety but the return of a PCSO would be welcomed.

If the Brixham experiment gets a favourable reception then we might see the process replicated in many other parts of Devon and Cornwall. I shall post up any further information that comes my way.

Report out on Napoli structural failure

The UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch have published their report into the structural failure of MSC Napoli which was to lead to the rescue of her crew in January 2007 and subsequent beaching off Branscombe. I don't intend reciting a summary of the reasons found for her failure as there are other places on the internet e.g. here where that information can be read. Go to the website of the MAIB to get the full report. The synopsis of the findings listed several contributory reasons for the splitting of the hull, one of these I noticed was the assertion that "The ship's speed was not reduced sufficiently in the heavy seas".

The MAIB arranged urgent checks to be carried out on over 1500 other ships. Of these 12 have been identified as requiring remedial action, another 10 were borderline cases whilst a further 8 were still being examined at the time of the report's publication.

This report is independent of Devon County Council's probe into the ensuing events after the catastrophic hull failure. That inquiry should proceed when the final pieces of the MSC Napoli are removed from Lyme Bay.

Gordon Brown in a spot of bother

It seems to be the way in politics: at times when you are being praised over decision making all the luck seems to be on your side, however when your performance is being questioned then lady luck deserts you. This is certainly the case with Gordon Brown. During his ten years as Chancellor people were lauding him, something I never totally bought into. Luck was certainly on his side with reasonable financial stability on the world scene and the Tories at sixes and sevens. And whatever the failings of the last Major government at least Labour inherited a sound economy which had been repaired following the ignominy of 'Black Wednesday'.

When Brown became prime minister last year he was confronted with various crises: terrorist attacks, foot and mouth, flooding, and he was widely praised for his calm statesmanlike response to them. I think that praise was overdone to be honest. For instance the terrorists, thank God, weren't able to wreak their intended carnage on the populace and this made Brown's reaction so much easier. Similarly the foot and mouth outbreak was far better contained than the 2001 event and for that we can largely thank the Chief Veterinary Officer and other officials. Brown actually looked good last summer without being very extended.

I pointed out after Mr Brown's last budget in 2007 the con regarding income tax changes and I also mentioned in that piece how the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson had been taken in by Brown as evidenced by Nick's blog entry at the time. Now of course Brown's luck is deserting him because the abolition of the 10p tax rate is coinciding with the problems of the so called "credit crunch". Led by Frank Field a substantial number of Labour MPs are expressing disquiet about the removal of the 10p tax rate. Alistair Darling yesterday tried to buy off some of the rebels by suggesting that he might try and do something for the poorest in society at an unspecified later date. Of course Darling is in a cleft stick here - the 10p problem is 100% of Gordon's making but he, Brown, cannot be shown to have made a mistake.

One thing that is causing some criticism at the moment is the selection of services and products that go into the basket to determine the inflation rate. With minimal disposal income for many it's the payment of mortgages and council tax, the cost of food, heat and light that matters. You can always do without the purchase of a CD player or a trip to Disneyland! For many people their personal inflation rate is far higher than official figures would suggest.

There are other matters on the near horizon to worry Labour. Two I would mention are the impending local elections on May 1st and the totally unnecessary change in the law extending detention from 28 days (which the Director of Public Prosecutions is happy with) to the arbitrary figure of 42 days. No wonder Labour MPs in marginals are getting so jittery!

Should the government lose the vote on the abolition of the 10p rate and get trounced in the elections then Brown's position will be almost untenable. He might have to ask for a vote of confidence. Very interesting times for followers of politics!

BBC repeats? - Yes please!

I smile with some amusement if I hear 'Joe Bloggs' complaining on a BBC radio phone in about too many repeats on TV and that the licence is a waste of money. That person will conveniently overlook the fact that his licence fee is allowing him to broadcast his moan for all and sundry to hear! Whilst accepting that not everything is right in BBC land I do believe that the licence does provide value if one uses a fair number of the services they provide and not just TV channels. Younger readers of this blog may not realise that in the old days you had to purchase a licence to listen to the radio and I have to put my hand up to say I remember when that was so. Then of course there are the thousands of pages the Beeb has on the 'net'. Certainly their news pages are excellent for linking into other sites. The facility to listen again to radio programmes is also another bonus.

What really initiated this entry though is the fact that yes there certainly is at least one repeat scheduled for tonight. The one I'm thinking of is 'Dads Army'. I know it has been repeated more than a few times(!) but for me it was and still is the pinnacle of small screen comedy. The writing, casting and acting was of the very highest order and even knowing the 'plot' so well I still get a great deal of pleasure from watching it and can't fail to burst out laughing again at some of the antics on the show. However I musn't get too excited about all this for one simple reason: Dad's Army is following the snooker! I know that the Beeb have done this trick before - if the snooker is at a particularly exciting stage then they will stay with it and Dad's Army fans will have to wait for their fix as the BBC know that DA is certainly one programme they can cancel at short notice.

On the subject of repeats one series I would very much like to see again on terrestrial TV is the run, I think it was six in number, of great railway journeys of the World. These were on the box so many years ago that they would appear to be new to many viewers. There must be vast numbers of tapes in the BBC vaults of such interesting programmes that would be worth showing again.

So will Dads Army be on tonight? I won't have to wait long to find out!

UPDATE: Yes it was on! I think to continue with the snooker the viewer was invited to press the red button on their remote or some such thing. I don't have that technology on my TV!

Death of Gwyneth Dunwoody

There have been many appreciative comments on the political blogs about MP Gwyneth Dunwoody who has died aged 77. Mrs Dunwoody was the Labour member for Crewe and Nantwich and was highly respected for her integrity and commitment by her political friends and foes alike. In fact she was regarded as one of the best members of the House of Commons.

Let's backtrack to 1966 for a moment. It was in that year that she was elected as MP for Exeter, her then husband John, a GP, winning the Falmouth seat for good measure. This particularly resonates with me as I was living in Exeter at the time and remember voting for her. I've never been really addicted to any one party and today their policies (or at least those of the three main ones) are getting ever closer. I guess the varied character of our MPs typifies the country as a whole. Some such as Gwyneth Dunwoody richly deserved the title 'honourable', many others are anything but! It's unfortunate that so many votes in the house are made along strictly party lines - common sense, integrity and competence are the things I demand from decision makers not party labels or prejudices.

Although born in London (her father Morgan Phillips was General Secretary of the Labour Party for nearly two decades) Gwyneth had been a member of Totnes Borough Council prior to her election as Exeter's MP. Today's Speaker of the House of Commons is Michael Martin and he is courting a lot of controversy in that post. There must be many who rue the day that Gwyneth wasn't selected for that job.

Not much else I can say really - I just hope that others with such excellent principles will get into future governments whatever their party affiliation.

National Trust make Wembury purchase

I have to say that I have a very soft spot for the Wembury area just east of Plymouth. It's not that it is a particularly spectacular part of our peninsular but it is nevertheless truly delightful. Although geographically close to Plymouth it has managed to avoid being enmeshed by that city's spreading tentacles; the fact that it lies in the South Devon AONB, that the National Trust have holdings here and that there is an active amenity society have all helped Wembury to retain its country feel. Yes its lovely little beach gets very crowded at times but a few minutes walk from this mass of humanity and its large car park full of shiny metal gets one into another world.

The "Wembury Peninsular" is bounded on the east side by the River Yealm and Cofflete Creek and its the sylvan west bank of the latter that forms Wembury Wood. The National Trust have just signed a deal to buy part of this wood which I understand will adjoin Hollacombe Wood, happily in the care of the Woodland Trust. This is great news because public access to the wooded banks of these creeks is quite limited. When people talk about the scenery of Devon and Cornwall attention is normally focused on the Moors and the Coast. That's understandable for sure bearing in mind the wonderful views and good walking opportunities they present. But I would like to sing the praises of our drowned river estuaries (or rias) and the deep woods that so often clothe their banks. Ideally viewed from a canoe there are still some examples such as at Lerryn in Cornwall where the rambler can enjoy that combination of trees and water.

Wembury Parish is criss-crossed by a number of paths and of course there is the coast path hugging the shoreline as well. It's always very satisfying to spend a day there.

Napoli Inquiry Chairman named

Toward the end of January I had written about the upcoming inquiry about lessons to be learnt from the events emanating from the deliberate beaching of the MSC Napoli off Branscombe. In that piece I had mentioned the name of Ian Mercer who is well respected and had competently chaired another Devon County Council inquiry following the dreadful foot and mouth outbreak of 2001. The good news is that Professor Ian Mercer CBE has been appointed now to oversee the Napoli inquiry. Also good to know that both Dorset County Council and East Devon District Council are keen to see this inquiry go ahead.

Although well aware of Ian's long career relating to conservation and environmental issues and his association with Devon I had forgotten that he had previously been in the navy. He seems to tick all the right boxes. No news yet as to when the inquiry proper will get underway but as soon as I know I shall put it on this blog.

Marathons big and small

Yesterday saw the holding of two marathons - the World's largest (London) and possibly this country's smallest on the island of Tresco. Many years ago when I was really into road running I had applied to take part in the London event but with it being so heavily oversubscribed it wasn't surprising to be turned down. However I have managed to compete in (and finish!) four marathons in my two counties, this was before the Isles of Scilly event came into being.

I have hinted before about my total lack of prowess on the sports field and this particularly applies to ball games. Now I wouldn't pretend for a moment to be a class runner but as with walking I enjoyed the freedom that running gives. The fact that an extremely likable blonde lady living in the village at the time was no mean marathon runner has absolutely nothing to do with it!

So for a brief period I got caught up in the marathon mania and was pleased that I did - it certainly helped my confidence even though there was never the remotest chance of getting amongst the medals. I'm not sure now but think my personal best would have been around 3 hours 40 minutes, hardly fast enough to set the world alight but at least quick enough not to be placed last! One of the things that had special appeal to me about this sort of running is that it is a great leveller; I'm one of those people with an absolute core belief that everyone has a place in society whatever their background, education, social standing or talents. So in a marathon for instance you could have a road sweeper running alongside a brain surgeon - I like that concept.

Back to yesterday's events. A decade or two ago I would have been glued to the TV to watch the London Marathon. I don't have quite the same passion for it now. But in an age when one is constantly reminded about the vast number of things wrong in the World the two events yesterday restores one's faith in human nature. You only have to think about the colossal sums raised for charity by the runners, something the UK excels in, and the way one's confidence and self esteem are improved by participation.

A few comments now about the Tresco Marathon specifically. The event is always run in support of cystic fibrosis, the UK's most common life-threatening inherited disease. To cover the correct distance entails running seven and a half laps. The number of entrants are into three figures, somewhat fewer than London commands! In the men's class the winner was Bob Brown who hails from Callington which is about 5 miles from here. Fastest lady was Fiona Ruetsch from Penzance who I believe was running only her second marathon! Bob on the other hand has won this event before. A plus from this event would be the slight boost to the Scillies' economy, engendered by the run, which tends to be on a knife edge these days.

Congratulations to all that took part in these two events.

Calstock's Roman Fort and Rubber Band

A few days ago, last Tuesday to be exact, saw us have a very interesting and enjoyable evening at two vastly different events. First up at 7 o'clock was the annual meeting of Calstock Parish Council where one gets the opportunity to hear a review of what that council has done and hopes to do. I have to own up and say that this hasn't always been a port of call for me but what really enticed us to go was the inclusion of a talk in the proceedings. It was the end of last January that saw me write a piece on the discovery of a Roman fort near the Parish Church (in fact I believe I was the first person to put that information into the public domain) and the aforementioned talk was on the subject of the fort and given by historian Peter Claughton and archaeologist Chris Smart. So far it is very much a case of 'work in progress': we should know a lot more when they come back to Calstock at the end of May. The Parish Council found that they had a bit of surplus money and, I'm very pleased to say, have made a donation to our friends from Exeter University for the furtherance of their work. We were very pleased about this and hope there is plenty more to discover about the Roman occupation at Calstock.

This meeting was held at Albaston. It was only a few minutes drive from there down into Calstock itself and the Tamar Inn to enjoy the enthusiastic playing of 'The Rubber Band'. When they play at Calstock and Gunnislake each month one can never be sure who is able to come and their last pub gig was very much down on numbers but still enjoyable. This time though they were well into double figures and on top form.

In my earlier piece today I had hinted about trying not to get be too narrow in ones interests. On this particular evening we had gone from a Roman Fort to traditional Cornish music which I think is quite a contrast!

More wildflowers out as April showers continue

Exactly a week ago I was commenting on the snow showers we had seen this month and also contrasting this April with the same month last year when there were so many glorious sunny days. Now the weather is a little warmer than last weekend but hardly tropical, at least it's moving in the right direction but still with a showery regime in place. We are promised a drier day or two before it goes downhill again midweek.

On one of the better days of the past week I walked the couple of miles or so to a favourite roadside stall to top up my supply of vegetables and eggs. This is a pleasing stroll not only from the scenic point of view but it is usually not overburdened with traffic either. The hedge bank flowers are starting to come into their own now with swathes of the bright yellow of lesser celandine adorning them. Stitchwort and bluebells are not at their maximum yet but there are quite a few in flower.

With dense woodland across the valley and many mature gardens around with bushes and ponds there is always a chance of some good wildlife stories. Chatting to an acquaintance who lives around the corner from here it was good to hear about his sighting of a fox curled up asleep under a shrub in the garden, this I think was just before dusk. Also a young peregrine circling around their garden.

On the subject of wildlife I must mention a rarity that's arrived on an RSPB reserve this week. It is a little crake which has been spotted on Exminster Marshes just south of Exeter. Reports say that this water rail type of bird hasn't been seen in Devon since the mid nineteenth century! Naturally word has got around and the twitchers have turned up in force. Luckily for them it has been not too difficult to spot. I have to say that though I thoroughly enjoy seeing all manner of wildlife I don't get desperate for these once in a lifetime chances to see such a species. Yes there are people totally fanatical about such interests and thank god there are because their knowledge on a particular subject can add so much to human learning. The big problem if you are 'narrow and deep' is that you can get far too preoccupied with one type of interest to the exclusion of so many others. I know someone in this area for example who probably knows more about their specialism than anyone else in the parish and that knowledge is, to me, extremely interesting. But that same person doesn't always appreciate that others might not share the same passion!

I like to think that my interests are relatively broad and not too shallow! There are a few people who are both 'broad' and 'deep', and I class a special friend as one such, but I don't think that I have the mental capacity to be one of them!

Olympic Torch woes

It was all supposed to be so different - the Olympic torch relay through a number of countries was going to be something special for the Chinese but it has become an utter shambles. Following the debacle of its run through London and then Paris, in which demonstrations against China's human rights record and particularly their treatment of the Tibetans stole the headlines, the torch crossed the pond to America. The route of the torch through San Francisco had to be changed at somewhat short notice which meant bitter disappointment for a good many of the Chinese who live in that city. When the torch arrives in the host country we are told that it will pass through Tibet so we can expect some clashes there for sure.

The other day Labour MP Kate Hoey had pointed out that China was given the 2008 games on the understanding that it would improve its behaviour on human rights in a number of areas. Ms Hoey has stated that no progress has been made in any of them. So this begs the question of why such a major country should have been given the Olympics prior to them moving forward on human rights issues. There is a school of thought saying that politics should be kept separate from sport; that is an arguable point but the reality in any case is that like it or not they can't be kept separate.

To make things worse there is confusion about whether Gordon Brown had said he would be at the opening of the 2008 Games. It appears he had intimated he would go to the Games but Downing Street says he will not be at the start but would certainly be present at the closing ceremony. That last bit makes sense in as much as the Chinese will pass the baton to the UK when the Games conclude. The Chinese it would seem are not best pleased believing that our Prime Minister had committed himself to be at the opening ceremony though. As usual Mr Brown is looking somewhat uncertain as to what he should be doing.

Although I'm not fanatical about sport I realise just how important it can be to my fellow countrymen. With less than good news on the economy at the moment the government will desperately want some British success to generate a little bit of a feel good factor. We fluffed it when it came to the European soccer internationals so for Brown medals for Britain in China would be a godsend.

MSC Napoli - work has started again today

It was just a fortnight ago that I wrote my most recent piece on the Napoli and in that post I gave a link to a press release by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. In essence that statement indicated the Napoli would take another five months to be completely removed, this being significantly longer than the original plan. Well now the contractors are back and are using small explosives to cut off propeller, rudder and main drive shaft. In that entry I had opined that the activity re MSC Napoli through the summer would be a draw for the tourists rather than deterring them and I still hold that view. The key thing of course is the prevention of any further pollution.

As I had said before I think that Devon County Council will have to delay the start of the hearings in their Public Enquiry but I know they are keen to encourage people who have been affected by what's happened to contact the Council with their stories and their thoughts.

Al Fayed has to call it a day

Phew! Thank goodness the Diana inquest is over. At long last Mohamed Al Fayed has decided to abandon his long running campaign to prove Diana and Dodi were murdered, all part of a conspiracy headed by the Duke of Edinburgh so he said. The 11 person jury by a 9 - 2 majority quite clearly laid the blame for the accident at the door of Al Fayed's driver Henri Paul and the chasing paparazzi. This was a bold but absolutely correct verdict in my opinion. Al-Fayed had said under oath that he would accept the jury's decision; however he stated that it was for the sake of Princes William and Harry that he wasn't pursuing matters. That of course is a load of tosh, he just wasn't in a position to do anything else.

So why did the Harrods boss chase these totally wild and nonsensical conspiracy theories? Only he would know I suppose. There are though a couple of points I would venture to make. Firstly it might be that he just cannot accept that one of his own trusted employees was partly responsible for the death of both Diana and his son. And of course as Henri Paul's employer some of that blame would have to attach to him. Secondly and not much talked about is the fact, at least I think it's a fact, that Al Fayed wasn't ever granted British citizenship. I believe that is a subject that has become an obsession with him and that he feels it is the Establishment in this country that has stopped this ambition. If Dodi and Diana had married, and I personally don't think this was ever on the cards, then Al Fayed might have felt this was his route into British society.

These are just gut feelings on my part but now deserted by his defence team and vilified by the media this bitter man must feel very lonely today.

Snow showers in April

As happened over the Easter weekend we are getting something of a repeat performance with the weather with an icy Arctic blast affecting the whole country. Sunshine as I look out of the window now but even here at not much above sea level there have been some short lived snow showers this morning. The clocks having changed to British Summer Time a week ago it might be thought that snow at this time is very extreme. However this is nothing that unusual and any snowfall during April is almost guaranteed to be of a very transient nature.

This cold snap is in stark contrast to the wonderfully warm and sunny April we appreciated in 2007! Of course a lot of people will deride those who believe in man made climate change because of the sort of weather we are experiencing just now. I have read and heard many many arguments on this subject and am still not 100% convinced one way or another but on balance believe that man is affecting the climate. What one has to be so careful about though is not confusing weather and climate. Sure we have and will continue to have many fluctuations in short term weather patterns that will suggest that there is no overall warming of this planet. For myself I think a good guide is to see what nature is doing that is different: trees coming into leaf earlier, normally migrating birds overwintering, tropical sea life turning up in our coastal waters, that sort of thing.

With such variability in the weather it is no wonder that this country is so obsessed by it!

Clinton lies for all to see on YouTube

A week since I last blogged: where's the time gone? I'm going international with this entry which is something I don't do that often. But I can't ignore the story of how one of America's serial liars, Hillary Clinton, has recently been caught out. It all centres of course around her repeated claim of visiting Bosnia in the nineties when husband Bill was US President and landing with her daughter Chelsea under sniper fire. Unfortunately for this absolutely appalling woman film footage has been unearthed showing her story to be totally bogus, she didn't have to run to avoid the bullets, in fact everything was calm and under control. If you were to type 'Hilary Clinton Bosnia' into YouTube you would be confronted with numerous videos showing the reality of the situation. There are one or two very good spoof videos too.

So how has Mrs Clinton reacted since she was found out? Apparently she "mis-spoke". I think I'll add that to my lexicon, just in case I'm rumbled telling porkies. Seriously though she and Bill ("I did not have sexual relations with that woman") will tell any number of barefaced lies in advancing their cause. Just a couple of other examples from that loathsome woman: she had said that she was named Hillary after Sir Edmund Hillary who it will be recalled was one of the two men to conquer Everest in May 1953, the other person being Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. However Hillary Rodham Clinton was born in October 1947 when Edmund wasn't a household name. Another instance of her deliberate lying: she said that daughter Chelsea was jogging around the World Trade Centre on September 11 2001. No she wasn't. Chelsea was at home watching the tragedy unfold on television.

Clinton's premier crime which has raised the hackles of so many is her absolutely blatant lying to push forward her personal agenda. But second to that, and far less commented on, is her total lack of judgment in thinking that she could just get away with it. Surely she and her advisers were aware of the film crews in Bosnia when she made her visit and that at some stage the reality would be broadcast. This is where the internet becomes all powerful - as I noted earlier there are a number of places on YouTube where you can view the film footage and also some of the subsequent fallout. One of these videos alone has had almost 2 million hits at the time of writing. In the old days it would be possible to hope that most people might forget such lies, radio and newspaper reports would not always have a lasting effect. But in this highly visual age things are very different. It only takes seconds with a broadband connection to view the footage and the film isn't going to vanish from this site anytime soon.

Perhaps I ought to comment at this point that yes politicians habitually lie, it's stock in trade for them. Take Tony Blair and Iraq for example. We know without doubt that the dossiers on WMD were "sexed up" to use that oft repeated phrase. But I believe that the seeds for Blair's mistaken Iraq adventure were sown a few years before in Kosovo of all places. Why? He and his wife visited the heavily oppressed people in that part of the Balkans and from that point on Blair believed, rightly or wrongly, that our foreign policy should be an interventionist one, for him it was all about a moral crusade. I think with Iraq it was the fact that Saddam was a tyrant that partly drove his policy and not entirely being Bush's "poodle". In Mr Blair's case therefore blurring of some facts, massive over emphasis on others, was all part and parcel of the necessity in his eyes of removing Saddam. Don't get me wrong, I'm no apologist for Blair, once it became clear that Saddam was never a threat to the west I was very firmly on the side of the anti-war folk. But I think Blair thought he was taking this country into war for a just cause even though deceiving the population on such a serious matter as going to war is in itself a very serious matter.

With the Clintons though any lies will do in order to get your sticky fingers on the levers of power. I believe that the next test of democratic opinion regarding whether it should be 'Obama' or 'Clinton' is on 22nd April in Pennsylvania. Let's hope that Clinton is soundly defeated.