Apologies for lack of blogging

Just a brief blogpost to apologise to anyone who could be looking at this blog now and again but think I might have abandoned it.  Well no I haven't exactly but as explained in my last post  I have now started a new blog looking at the unusual and to me highly suspicious death of Dr David Kelly.  This new project has acquired a life all of its own.  In the case of David Kelly it is not just writing my own blog but looking at lots of different forums and other blogs not to mention poring through both the Hutton Inquiry transcripts and his Lordship's report.  I really could do with a thirty hour day!

There is absolutely no shortage of matters unrelated to Dr Kelly that I would like to write about but time is a finite quantity.


Anyway a quick recap - my new blog is here.

A new blog about the death of Dr David Kelly

I've been thinking about this for a while: I've decided to write a new blog! It's not that I'm closing this one down but I have so many thoughts I want to record about the death of Dr David Kelly and the mysteries surrounding it that I've decided to devote a blog to this one subject.

There have been a few entries about Dr Kelly on this site but I feel the need to get everything in one place. Although the death occurred seven years ago I am concerned to keep the events of that time in the public eye and hopefully the new blog will be a small contribution toward that aim. The new blog is here.

The new project means that my musings on this blog might become even fewer! We'll have to see how things pan out.

Dangerous driving law shold be altered

"The law is an ass". How many times have those words been either written or said? Thousands, maybe millions, I would think. Well here is a classic example of why I think "the law is an ass".

It concerns a motoring case that came to court in which 23 year old Christopher Marr was sentenced for dangerous driving and seriously injuring three young people. Evidently he stole his girlfriend's Volkswagen Golf, he was drunk, he drove on the wrong side of the road at it is said 90 mph and he ploughed into the teenagers who were on the pavement. Miraculously, although seriously injured, none of the three died. Not too long ago the maximum sentence for causing death by dangerous driving had been raised to 14 years BUT if someone is injured by dangerous driving then the top limit is 2 years in custody!

This incident happened up north in Bolton by the way so not on my patch. I'm noting it here because the Judge is seething so much about his sentencing limitations that he is sending the relevant papers to David Cameron, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke and the Lord Chief Justice to try to get the law altered. Marr got 26 months, presumably the extra 2 months were in consideration of the other offences. He got a 10 year driving ban as well - should have been a lifetime one.

Now it's possible from what I've read that the teenagers might be either mentally or physically scarred for life following this horrendous event. My argument is why the massive differential between death and serious injury particularly as in this case there are no less than three young lives affected. It can be a lottery in some instances as to whether a person survives or not: for example the time to get to the hospital, the particular level of skill of the medical team. Yet the dangerous driving is the same. Surely the degree of dangerous driving should carry more weight than it does rather than the length of imprisonment being so dependent on whether someone survives or not.

Back from holiday in Dorset

It's been some time since I last blogged and part of this is down to being away from my computer for a few days - well that's my excuse anyway! I am back in the Tamar Valley now having had a very pleasant short stay in East Dorset where one of my brothers and his wife live. This was timed to fit in with another brother visiting the couple whilst yet another brother was staying at Weymouth (no more brothers after this!) and we arranged to all meet up on one of the days. Fortunately the weather was perfectly tolerable if cloudy at times and on the occasion when we all met up it was particularly pleasant.

There was the opportunity to get out every day and we made the most of it. An afternoon visit took us up a fairly substantial hill to see the prehistoric fort on Hambledon Hill and very impressive it was too! On another occasion a circular walk of about 10 miles was undertaken in The New Forest. We also visited Swyre Head in the Purbeck Hills from which a super view is obtained. On a better visibility day one can see the Isle of Wight to the east but looking west Kimmeridge Bay was well in view with the long smudge of Portland beyond. According to Wikipedia it's also possible to see Dartmoor - I feel a little sceptical about this and it certainly wasn't visible on the day we selected. Another port of call was Corfe with its castle - well to be accurate we admired the latter from below on this occasion.

Traffic aside I was well impressed with Corfe. We snacked at the Model Village Courtyard Cafe and I would recommend that to anyone. A little cheaper than the National Trust prices at the Castle I would suggest, very nice food and friendly service as well. The Swanage Branch Line, now one of our many preserved railways has a station at Corfe and obligingly a steam powered train arrived while we were there!

One of my passions can best be described as "topographical history" - I love both local and national history and I'm especially interested in the way that the built environment has been influenced by the geography of an area. With relatively high elevations being visited it was possible to get an overview of the landscape. Not so though on The New Forest walk, from what I've seen so far there seems to be little variation in height over the Forest which at least is good if one is a cyclist! On the plus side plenty of lovely trees of course and breezy heathland to walk over. Lots of very low key car parking areas also got the thumbs up. I was also interested to see a smart fairly ornate signpost with a date of 2008 at its base - I think that this was the year when the Forest became a National Park.

Would I prefer to live in the east of Dorset than where I am now? No. Although I thoroughly enjoyed my brief break and the hospitality that went with it I am definitely a 'Peninsula' person rather than a 'Middle England' person. Any downside to the Tamar Valley? Well I wouldn't mind the lower rainfall that goes with the part of Dorset visited. But I guess nothing is perfect in this World!

Tony Blair's Journey, the Queen and Cherie

Well I for one haven't bought Tony Blair's autobiography "A Journey" so this won't be a critique of the book. However a lot of it is out there on the internet and one can get a flavour of what it is about even though it would be dangerous to comment on certain specifics without seeing the context that they are in. Unsurprisingly reviewers have been taking a lot of interest in Blair's thoughts about Gordon Brown. And of course they are curious to see what Blair says (or alternatively doesn't say) regarding Iraq.

I'm not going to get into those things right now, I'm more interested in Blair's disclosures about his private conversations with the Queen. Although I wouldn't describe myself as a fanatical monarchist I do think that the present system in this country is basically a good one with the monarch having no real power but nevertheless serving a unifying purpose. Now I may well be wrong in detail here but believe that when Parliament is sitting the Prime Minister has a weekly audience with the Queen. Furthermore I think that HM invites the PM and spouse to spend some time with the Royal Family at Balmoral.

Even if it's not spelt out wouldn't you think that conversations with the Queen would be 100% confidential. It seems not though with blabbermouth Blair. One newspaper I hear reckoned that the Queen was furious with what Blair disclosed in his book. Whether that is true I don't know but she would have every reason to be. All I can say is "how very Blair" - I'm not surprised about him. He is one of the new rich and powerful who doesn't get it when it comes to the right sort of behaviour to adopt. Harsh words perhaps but true. He and Cherie seem to be made for each other, I remember writing before - on the 12 May 2008 to be exact - about Cherie explaining that their youngest child Leo only came into this world because she didn't have any contraceptives with her when she and Tony were staying at Balmoral. Back then I stated that I was appalled that she put this information about Leo's conception into the public domain - to my mind it was grossly unfair to Leo to make this stuff known.

Cherie is at it again, once more demonstrating that she's not the "sharpest tool in the box". This is about Lord Mandelson's memoirs "The Third Man" which I think came out last July. In it one can read a note that Cherie had once written to him in support when Mandy was in trouble over the home mortgage scandal and had to resign. Included in the note was a vitriolic attack against one Gordon Brown. It may be that Mandelson didn't quote Cherie's note word for word, it could have been that he relayed just the gist of it. Anyway Cherie has now thrown a wobbly about it, stating through her lawyers that being a private note there was no way it should have been included in a book. I don't know the legal rights and wrongs here but I would have thought she was incorrect. The letter to Mandelson's publishers is demanding that the offending bit of prose be removed.

Let's step back a bit, take a deep breath and look at things logically. The book is out there in the market place, it isn't in draft form, are those books already printed supposed to be returned to Harper Collins for the offending page to be replaced? Up until now only a relatively small part of the population (those who have purchased the book) will know about the note and even then not every reader will remember that detail. But by making a fuss Cherie has ensured a much much bigger audience will have heard about it, rather silly if she doesn't want the whole world to know the contents of this note.

Of course it's just conceivable that Cherie really wanted a much bigger audience to know what she thought of Gordon Brown and this was a way to do just that. A bit like a double bluff in a sense. But is Cherie bright enough to have thought of such a thing?

Radio Cornwall new word today is restorated

Just had a quick gander at the Radio Cornwall website (mainly to have a look at the weather maps - it's pouring here at the moment). Anyway on their homepage and under "Other top stories" we have "Quaker house restorated". Clicking this link confirmed my suspicion that this was about the lovely thatched Quaker Meeting House at the equally lovely named 'Come-to-Good' near Truro.

The article is headed "Quaker meeting house in Cornwall is renovated" and this is followed by "A 300-year-old Quaker meeting house in Cornwall has been restored at a cost of £175,000." It seems perhaps that the writer had the two words "renovated" and "restored" in their brain and came out with a word that was a bit of each! Perhaps we have all had moments like that but I do wonder if people pause enough to make a quick check on whether what they are writing is correct.

I had a chuckle about this at least.

Simon Hoggart and Dr David Kelly

"Dr David Kelly's wrists were slit and he had swallowed 29 co-proxamol tablets. No wonder he died." These are the opening words of a piece written by Simon Hoggart in the Guardian last month. I understand that Mr Hoggart writes political sketches for that newspaper and it's quite possible he is good at that. Like Aaranovitch, Mangold and Rentoul he is firmly in the "Kelly committed suicide" camp. And as with them Hoggart can't even get basic facts right about the Kelly business.

In that first sentence of his Hoggart states two things as fact: the first of these is incorrect and the second not proven. I'll elaborate: he says "Dr David Kelly's wrists were slit". For your information Mr Hoggart it was one artery (the ulnar) severed in one wrist (the left). So wrist not wrists. He uses the word in the plural again further down and of course using "were" rather than "was" confirms he meant the plural.

The next "fact" from Hoggart is that "he had swallowed 29 co-proxamol tablets". Mr Hoggart nobody, but nobody, has ever proved that David Kelly swallowed 29 of these tablets. We do know that part of a tablet was found in his stomach and there was evidence of the constituents of co-proxamol in his body. That does not prove that all 29 were swallowed, willingly or unwillingly, by Dr Kelly. Maybe the powers of logic have by-passed you but I can assure you that the medical knowledge out there cannot definitively equate what was found in his body with the 29 missing tablets. Moreover it seems that Dr Kelly had a rare physical condition that made it all but impossible to swallow a tablet let alone 29 of them. But of course Mr Hoggart, in sounding off about Dr Kelly's death, I don't suppose you have bothered to look at any background evidence.

Another bit of information for you Mr Hoggart: Dr Kelly's friend and confidante Mai Pederson is on record as saying that Kelly had a weakness in his right arm that made even cutting steak difficult. So here is the scenario: Dr Kelly takes three blister packs of his wife's co-proxamol tablets with him (even though he hates pills and would most likely find it near impossible to swallow them); he also takes with him a blunt gardening knife (hard to believe that there wasn't a newer sharper knife in the kitchen drawer). Arriving at Harrowdown Hill he somehow manages to swallow all 29 tablets missing from the blister packs (well according to you anyway) and then using his weak right arm and blunt knife decides to cut the hard to get at ulnar artery, not the more accessible radial artery please note.

So this eminently intelligent man decides to commit suicide by the most tortuous way possible with no guarantee of success. There were alternatives: at Harrowdown Hill there are many trees from which he could have hung himself. If that idea didn't appeal he could have walked on north a little further to the banks of the River Thames and thrown himself face down into it. Even if there was only three feet of water it would be quite enough to drown in. And that part of the river is away from human habitation.

Another point for you Mr Hoggart, the last person that we know of who spoke to Dr Kelly was a near neighbour who he knew well. If Dr Kelly was intent on committing suicide one might expect him either to avoid speaking to her, or at most, say "hello". But according to her testimony at the Hutton Inquiry it was he who spoke first saying "hello Ruth", then they chatted for several minutes and she recalled that he wasn't any different to his usual self. Is this really the behaviour of a man intent on killing himself?

Can I make a suggestion Mr Hoggart? Please stick to political sketch writing, that's more your forte I suspect.

Cornish name for Cameron baby

I was very pleased when the Camerons decided to include a Christian name that had a direct connection to Cornwall following the birth of their daughter in the county the other day. Florence Rose are the first two names and they have added Endellion as a third, 'St Endellion' being the name of a parish close to where they were holidaying in North Cornwall. Endellion has got a nice ring to it I think, certainly my own parish 'Calstock' wouldn't quite work as a girl's name. It might be even worse if they had selected another village in this same parish (my parish is large in population terms with a lot of settlements). Take for example 'Gunnislake' or 'St Anns Chapel' or 'Harrowbarrow' - they wouldn't work either!

A quick note about St Endellion: its church has become very well known to serious music lovers because it is the location for two prestigious musical festivals each year. I've never been and would I think find the music on offer a little heavy for my taste. The website is here Having made this remark I have to say that there is plenty of wonderful classical music around, perhaps I don't devote the time and attention to it that it deserves. The other thing is that the inside of a church is a really special place to listen to good music as a rule.

I've just been looking at a press report on the internet and it seems that Gordon and Sarah Brown have sent their congratulations to Mr and Mrs Cameron on the new arrival. In his autobiography Tony Blair includes the words "Emotional intelligence, zero"in relation to Brown. That might generally be so and in many respects I find Gordon Brown pretty reprehensible. When it comes to people's children though his feelings are warm and genuine: I had commented before about the time when PMQs were cancelled following the death of Ivan Cameron. Brown was really choked (he can't do Blair style acting) - he did feel for the Camerons, partly perhaps because of the tragedy he and Sarah had in losing a very young child.

It sounds as if the new arrival in the life of the Camerons is doing well. Good luck to them.

Small tortoisehells in abundance

In recent posts I have been recording my huge pleasure in seeing so many butterflies on my buddleia this summer. Earlier on it was a very broad range of species I was observing but now the small tortoiseshells are easily outnumbering the others, in fact at any one moment there seem to be more of them than all the others put together.

Past experience has informed me that there are large numbers of bloggers with a particularly keen interest in wildlife. Moreover many of them incorporate photos in their blogs. Out of curiosity I thought I would see if other folk were seeing such numbers of small tortoiseshells this year. Happily Google is very good at helping to find what bloggers are saying. Not only is there a special section for blogs when you call up their search engine but there is a sort of sub-menu which gets you to the more recent entries.

So it was with great delight that I found Caroline Gill's blog 'Wild and Wondeful' here Not only were Caroline's observations in line with mine but, as you can see from the link, there are some really superb photos of this incredible butterfly as well. She posted this yesterday but I notice on Friday there were photos of the 'Painted Lady' butterfly. I'm pleased to say that at least one of these has turned up in the garden. It's interesting that certain years can be especially good for one particular species.

Now not such good news I'm afraid. I heard the other day that greenfinches are in serious decline right now. Some conclusion has been reached I think for the cause although I can't recall exactly what - must do some research on the reason. Although the wheezing sound that these finches produce could hardly be described as a beautiful song at least it was something I could recognise and always typified the sound of the garden in the summer. Sadly I can't remember hearing any in the garden or nearby this year. I really hope that, like the small tortoiseshells, they will come back in numbers again.

Silly article from Martin Robbins

Martin Robbins. Martin who you may ask. Until today I hadn't come across him but in my continued quest to try and understand how Dr David Kelly died I came across a piece written by Mr Robbins in today's Guardian on line (it's in the News: Science part). It transpires that he is a Berkshire-based researcher and science writer. Evidently he is quite happy with the conclusions of the investigating pathologist, Dr Nicholas Hunt, and seems to take the attitude that those querying the conclusion of suicide are loons. Well I don't think he uses that word but that is the impression I got. He ends his article thus:

"The attorney general has already asked people with genuine evidence to present it to his office, but it seems that so far nobody has met the challenge.

The conspiracy theorists should put up or shut up. I doubt they'll do either."

Now I'm rather imagining that the attorney general has made his comment as to a sort of backstop. If he doesn't receive new evidence he might turn round and say: "no new evidence, therefore no new inquest". The AG is showing he might hoodwink people here and Robbins is trying to do the same thing. Of course neither myself or, I would guess, other people wanting the truth will have any additional evidence - how could I for instance? It's not up to people doubting the suicide verdict to bombard the AG's office it is the duty of the system to properly examine the existing evidence, something that the Hutton Inquiry manifestly failed to do.

The only answer now is a new inquest. At least then we would have evidence given under oath, the coroner could subpoena witnesses to attend and a decision arrived at by a jury rather than one individual. Also of course verdicts of either "suicide" or "murder" would have to be "beyond reasonable doubt". Where doubt does exist there is the option of an open verdict and I wouldn't be surprised if that were to be the result in a new inquest.

Robbins has produced a silly article - I hope readers see it for the nonsense that it is.

Bill applauded at Dawlish Air Show

Bill Millin may not be the best known name on the planet. For the record he was the unarmed bagpiper who piped his comrades ashore on the Normandy beach in 1944. This piece of action was incorporated in the film 'The Longest Day'. He survived the D-day landings I'm happy to say and has only just died, his last years living at a Nursing Home in Dawlish. Yesterday was the day of the Dawlish Air Show, part of the annual carnival celebrations - it seems that the show just beat the awful wet and misty weather that has now swept in from the south west.

Someone had the wonderful idea that those present watching the show could demonstrate their feelings for their most famous resident by applauding for one minute. What a brilliant suggestion, there are many occasions of course when a minute's silence is the way to respect someone who has died but I'm sure this would have been the exact time for people to have clapped, and I in turn applaud that decision.

Although I had heard that this was going to happen I now read that a Sea King helicopter lowered a winchman who placed a wreath on the sea in front of the crowds - a nice tribute.

It's possible to read more about Bill's piping exploit by going here . This in fact is in Bill's own words and I can really recommend having a look at it.

Tom Mangold, Dr Kelly and duff reporting

It is looking increasingly likely that a new inquest will be opened into the death of Dr David Kelly. The pressure for this to happen from many quarters is building and I shall pleased if it materialises.

This particular entry is not so much about the suicide v murder question, it concerns just how slanted a journalist can make his story. The person in my sights is Mr Tom Mangold who, on his official website, describes himself as "one of Britain's top television reporters". Evidently modesty isn't his greatest virtue! I've been reading an article he penned which is on "The Independent" website and dated 4 July 2010. It is headed "David Kelly murdered? Yes, and I bet you believe in the tooth fairy too". The sub-heading starts "Investigative journalist Tom Mangold ..." Mangold takes The Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday to task as they said that they produced "damning new evidence" of a cover-up to hide a murder plot. Mangold then writes:

The "new evidence" now includes a statement last week from Mai Pedersen, Kelly's former US Air Force interpreter in Iraq, who was a close friend. After seven years, she has suddenly recalled that Kelly could not have cut his wrist because an elbow injury had left his arm too weak. She has also said that he could not have swallowed 29 tablets because he "had difficulty swallowing pills".

Now it's quite possible that Ms Pedersen repeated the statement at the time described by Mangold but the implication he makes is that this is brand new stuff. Well, it isn't. Her statement came into the public domain in July 2009 a year earlier than Mangold's article. Two possibilities then:

• Mangold didn't know about the Pedersen information until the week prior to his article, almost unbelievable for an investigative journalist, someone who also said "I knew David rather well".
• Mangold was aware of the earlier statement from Mai Pedersen but tried to hoodwink his readers into thinking that this was brand new information. If that is indeed so then it is a total disgrace and furthermore an abuse of his profession.

Later on, in berating those in the "Kelly was murdered" camp, Mangold lists a sequence of events which he says must have happened if their theories are true. He includes "They then kidnapped Kelly and forced him out of the house while his wife was present". What is Mangold on for goodness sake. Kelly might have had a phone call to meet someone away from his home, he might have been shadowed by someone on the way to Harrowdown Hill. I don't know and neither does Mangold.

Mangold we know believes that David Kelly killed himself. Nothing wrong with that. And of course objectivity can get kicked out of the window when you are convinced that your version of events is the right one. Certainly on the basis of the points I've raised one shouldn't give much credence to the writings of Mr Mangold.

Butterflies in abundance

I wrote about butterflies in my last piece when recording our superb coastal walk. Still with these delightful insects I'm thrilled to see more and more of them on the large buddleia that's at the back of the patio. Back in the spring I pruned it quite vigorously and thought I might have overdone things but the result now is a really glorious example of this lovely bush. Of late I've had very disappointing years with hardly a butterfly in sight but 2010 has changed that! More and more butterflies are coming in (I could do with some 'painted ladies' though!) and it seems that by good fortune the pruning time was ideal as the mass of flowers have come at the right time.

Not just butterflies but bumble bees as well. These beautiful creatures really do work hard, as do honey bees of course. No wonder the phrase "busy as a bee" came into being (unintended pun with that last word!) Another great plus for the buddleia is its wonderful scent - I don't have a good nose for scents but I can recognise the buddleia's flowers with no problem!

In a previous entry I had commented about the frogs hopping around in the garden. There are as many as ever in the grass that passes as my lawn. Do I risk getting the mower out to give the lawn a much needed trim? Will the sound and vibration ensure they get out of the way? As far as I can see they appear to avoid getting crushed under my size nines at least. So I might give it a go.

Repeat of a favourite coastal walk

The other day, well Monday of last week to be precise, a friend and I enjoyed a superb coastal walk. I had written about this same walk a couple of years ago although this time we stretched our legs slightly to make the ramble a little longer ...

I'm sure that all lovers of the British countryside know those special places they regard as their own, you know the sort of locations which feel like going to visit a special old friend when you go back to see them. For us that part of Cornwall's south coast between Lansallos and Polruan is one such place. As an added bonus the drive there is pretty well stress free and, at just under an hours travelling each way, a practical distance from home.

Apart perhaps from a few yards at the Polruan end our walk was wholly on National Trust land and there is a total air of timelessness about it. Lansallos itself consists of a church, campsite and a scattering of cottages and houses, really not much more than a hamlet. The Trust have their usual low key car park: two years ago I noted that the honesty box asked for 50p, this has now gone up to a whopping £2! Now £2 for all day parking near the coast is still pretty reasonable in my book so I'll forgive the NT its fourfold increase (I was a member, will be again probably, but have made a temporary economy which means paying these occasional car park charges on their land).

Here, at the start of our walk, we are just inland from the coast and the path to the sea is down a wooded valley for about three quarters of a mile, the briny not coming into view until the last moment. One reason that we selected this particular day, other than it was warm and sunny, is that it was potentially a good time to observe butterflies and coastal flowers, especially toward Lantic Bay. We weren't disappointed!! Having said that I had hoped to spot some 'Clouded Yellows' - it was not to be. Later a friend, more knowledgeable about butterflies than I, said he had read reports of clouded yellows moving up through the country but fewer being spotted on the coast for some reason. But we were compensated by plenty of other butterflies and also a humming bird hawk moth, the first this year!

I won't go into further detail regarding the scenery, there are plenty of images on the 'net of Lansallos Cove and Lantic Bay illustrating how special this area is. After we got home my friend challenged me to write down how many species of wild flower we had seen - I thought I was doing quite well with about two dozen, she though had amassed a total of over 40! Well she is a better botanist than I am! Many of the flowers are butterfly friendly: for instance lots of 'birds foot trefoil' and 'Small Blue' butterflies feeding on them.

In truth there are many other special walks I know but perhaps none of them surpass this one.

Correction: the 'Small Blue' butterflies may have been both small and blue but in fact the species we saw was the 'Common Blue'. Glad to get that sorted!

Garden alive with frogs and bumble bees

I have to hold my hands up and say that my garden isn't the tidiest one in the neighbourhood. It's true that it shouldn't be quite so wild in appearance but, in my defence, I would point out that it is very much a cottage garden and that I want a selection of wildlife to be present.

In amongst the Shasta Daisies, Golden Rod and Calendula there are dozens of froglets scurrying about. These little frogs are only about a thumbnail in size and I can't say for sure that they all came from my pond originally but they are amusing to watch. No doubt some will be lost to predators but it's nice to see them around for the moment at least.

My patio slabs aren't properly cemented together - I'm relaxed about thatand my marjoram has taken advantage of some of the gaps. Apart from that plant being attractive to butterflies it is absolutely humming with bumble bees! I'm a great lover of bees and a summer garden without any would be very depressing for me. Next month should see lots of fresh yellow as my mass of golden rod comes into flower and they normally play host to huge numbers of hover flies. The buddleia at the back of the patio is looking good: so far I've seen a small tortoiseshell, a red admiral, a peacock, a couple of commas and a small white on the bush. If we have a nice sunny weekend perhaps the numbers will build up, I really hope so.

Yes it's nice to share ones garden with nature!

Gordon Brown remains in hiding

It's about time I added to this blog - or gave up altogether! I'll see if I can regain the enthusiasm that I think that I once had.

In my last entry I had expressed a little sympathy toward Gordon and Sarah Brown but that feeling has disappeared now. It would seem that Gordon Brown has not yet appeared in the House of Commons since Labour's defeat in the General Election. So when will he show up? A proud man feeling both bruised and humiliated, my feeling is that the longer he delays making that journey south from Scotland the harder it will be for him. I shall be fascinated to know just how long it will be before he turns up.

Hitting the ground running

The usual phrase is something like "the wheels of government grind slowly" but I'm pleased to see that Messrs Cameron and Clegg are getting a plethora of decisions made very quickly. Sure there are items for which a commission or some such similar device has been arranged so that they are effectively kicked into the long grass but there are huge amounts of policy being enacted even though the coalition is less than two weeks old and we only went to the polls a fortnight ago.

Full marks from me for not only stopping plans for a third runway at Heathrow but saying there would be no expansion at Gatwick and Stansted as well. And also goodbye and good riddance to the Home Information Packs (HIPS) - I've voiced my objections to these before. However the energy performance certificate is still there, courtesy of an EU directive. Not nice for HIPS inspectors finding themselves out of a job (although some will carry on with the energy efficiency bit no doubt) but the then government should never have embarked on such a flawed scheme in the first place.

Brown leaves a message for Cameron

They say "a picture is worth a thousand words" and it is worth scanning this series of 14 photos taken by 'Guardian' snapper Martin Argles of Gordon Brown's final moments at 10 Downing Street before he leaves to tender his resignation to the Queen. Click here. There is a link on the first photo which takes you to some commentary by Mr Argles of these events.

What I found particularly fascinating though is photo number 13 in which Brown is seen writing a message for his successor - whatever can it be? "There's some milk in the fridge", I wouldn't have thought so. Bearing in mind the antipathy between Brown and the new PM perhaps he wrote "You bastard Cameron!". It's all very mysterious.

Seriously though we have at last seen some evidence of Brown's human side: although there has been every reason to criticise him I must admit that I did feel some sorrow for he and his family, his wife in particular I thought was so very choked by his political demise. Politics may bring many rewards but it is also truly brutal at times! For all of his character defects, his tribalism and all the rest it is too easy to forget his genuine feelings towards the Camerons at the time they lost their son Ivan. Of course he and Sarah Brown know only too well the feeling of losing a child and this perhaps was the one time when Brown really did display some emotional empathy.

Gordon Brown and the election

In less than five days from now I will have cast my vote in the General Election and I'll stay with my prediction that the Tories will win through as the largest party, probably with an overall majority. What seems fairly certain is that Labour can't win outright and naturally many people mean "Gordon Brown" when they talk about Labour.

I've written about Brown before but this is a good moment perhaps to bring my thoughts about him into one blogpost. I am a floating voter: at various times in my adult life and depending on where I was living and the circumstances at the time I have voted for each of the three main parties. It was in 1982 that I moved into this constituency and here it is always a fight between LibDems and Tories, Labour and smaller parties being way outside the reckoning. Not only would my voting for Labour be effectively a wasted vote but the recent behaviour of the party and that of Brown in particular would certainly ensure that my vote won't be heading their way!

What is it about Brown that is so off putting? I'll kick off with his attitude to the military. He has been castigated about an apparent lack of empathy with the armed forces and I have blogged before about my take on this. I had written about how appalled I had been regarding the fact that when Brown first became PM he made Des Browne a part time Defence Minister. That he did this at the time when we were fighting both in Iraq and Afghanistan was unbelievable. But not just that, Brown never praises the troops at the start of a major speech such as at the Party Conference, no it is slipped in part way through. Because of the task they have been asked to do for us and the risks being taken you would think that, like Cameron, he would speak up for the military right at the start. Never seems to happen.

The next thing is why did the Labour Party allow Brown to bully his way into the position of Labour leader and Prime Minister unopposed. Surely in this televisual age they should have realised that his many character defects would be cruelly exposed. I can remember him being caught on camera picking his nose and eating the contents thereof, of meeting someone with one of his trouser legs tucked into his sock: the sort of things that get onto YouTube for the whole world to see in the time it takes to say "General Election". No wonder that Labour spinners have been trying to divert away from "style" to "substance". It might seem very unfair to Brown but the increased preoccupation with style is the way of the world right now, and of course a major reason for the success of Tony Blair.

Talking of Blair it's interesting to see him back for the last few days of the campaign. Some had surmised he wouldn't have wanted to be associated with a likely Labour failure and I thought that way myself about him. Maybe Mandelson had pleaded for him to help the party's cause but I don't think that Blair will save their bacon - it's too late now surely, apart from which I think that Blair will be viewed as one of yesterday's men.

Back to Brown, one of my dislikes about him is his failure to assume any responsibility for our economic crisis. And also it still rankles with me that in reducing the basic income tax rate to 20% he removed the 10p tax band thus making millions of the poorest worse off. If it hadn't been for Frank Field and one or two other principled MPs he would have got away with it.

There is so much more that one could write about regarding Brown but I just can't be bothered right now. I'm just hoping come next Thursday that it's "Goodbye and Good Riddance"

Clegg, Cable and hypocrisy

In my profile I had written about myself "Dislikes hypocrisy". One of several reasons for my not voting for the Liberal Democrats next week is the fact that they have demonstrated their particular hypocrisy big time. This all relates to questionable sources of funding that all the three main parties have secured prior to the election. In the video above the BBC's Jon Sopel does a very good hatchet job on Vince Cable. Sopel absolutely correctly makes Cable wriggle over the hefty donation the LibDems received from a now convicted fraudster, Michael Brown. Naturally Cable and Co are finding excuses not to return the money which effectively had been stolen from other people. Of course the LibDems aren't exactly awash with funds and seeing their bank account depleted by two and a half million pounds would be really bad news for them!

That the party is holding on to this money is both legally and morally questionable. But what really infuriated me was the 'holier than thou' attitude of Nick Clegg in, I think, the first of the leaders' debates in which he castigated the Tories and Labour over receiving money from Lord Ashcroft and the UNITE union. What rank hypocrisy! At least Ashcroft has benefited the country by using some of his money to set up 'Crimestoppers', a very different man indeed from the disgraced Michael Brown.

A mad chaffinch at the window

I think that it is fairly well known that Britain's cheerful robin isn't perhaps such a nice character after all. Well certainly he can be very aggressive if he thinks another robin is invading his patch and I've heard of them attacking their own reflections in a window say.

Not just robins it seems because I've had a male chaffinch flying at a small window on the first floor at the back of my cottage. Good job his beak is strong because he has been hitting the glass with some force. This behaviour has been repeated at one or two of my neighbour's windows and I can only assume that it his reflection he has been attacking so vigorously! I have a blind for that window which I am keeping lowered at the moment in the hope that the poor demented chap will give up! So far this morning peace reigns .......

First debate with Party Leaders coming up

This evening sees the first of the three televised debates between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg. As I don't have a functioning TV connection I shall not be watching it live but might well listen to it on Radio 4. I guess the participants are more than a little nervous right now but who, if anyone, will come out on top? A common consensus seems to be that Clegg should benefit a lot because this is a rare occasion when his party gets equal billing with the Tories and Labour. And herein lies a problem: the Lib Dems might hold the balance of power in a hung parliament but they are not going to be, on their own, the next government. So in a sense what they promise, what their manifesto says is slightly irrelevant. With just the two main party leaders the thing has balance but the whole debate will be muddled in my opinion by possibly two of the leaders ganging up against the third. We shall soon know!

Cameron has a lot to lose because expectations are high that he will be very much better than Brown at least. What about Gordon then? This is not natural territory for him and I would hope that he gets well challenged. Surely he will have to get away from tractor statistics and slogans. But can he do that?

Unsettled Easter ahead

Easter weekend is almost on us and it looks as if it is going to be very unsettled so far as the weather is concerned. A shame for visitors to the West Country to be sure. Whilst the worst of the snow has been "up north" in Scotland and Northern Ireland, Dartmoor also saw some with Princetown waking up to about two inches of it yesterday morning. From near the top of the hill that leads south from our village one can see across to the western flank of Dartmoor and from that viewpoint this afternoon I couldn't see any snow still lying. It's possible though that snow remains further into the moor.

The unusually cold winter certainly put a check on nature, but now it seems to be catching up. We are well and truly into the "yellow season" with daffodils, lesser celandine and forsythia well out. Good to see plenty of wood anemones in bloom as well, these do very well in the local wooded banks of the Tamar. Talking of the Tamar, that river was flowing quite high and fast a couple of days ago. I don't know where they nest but kingfishers do get seen in the area close to the weir which is not many minutes walk from here. The River Tamar is liable to rise and fall markedly over a short period of time and the thought crosses my mind: do the kingfishers nest high enough not to be flooded. I imagine they have it worked out!

Politicians and egos

The LibDem's economy spokesman Vince Cable has made a perfect idiot of himself. Now Cable has been gaining a good reputation with the public: the man who tells us as it is, the man who stands above and away from his Labour and Tory counterparts to be honest with the public, the man who really understands economics. At least this is the impression that has been fostered about him. He is sometimes referred to as "Saint Vince" for goodness sake, although I think there may be a sense of mockery when right wing bloggers so describe him.

A story in the Observer newspaper eight days ago intimated that Vince Cable had been to the Treasury and spoken to the Permanent Secretary, Sir Nicholas Macpherson about the fact that he, Cable, was prepared to serve as Chancellor if he had the call, and discussed some policy matters. There was, at least, an implication that Sir Nicholas had instigated the meeting. The truth it has been revealed is that it was Vince who requested the meeting and that it was a mere 20 minutes long! As a follow up I am reading today about Cable making an apology to Sir Nicholas because of the false impression generated by Cable. Not surprisingly some Tory bloggers at least are revelling in his discomfort.

So is it an ego problem, an arrogance thing that afflicts politicians of all hues? Interestingly tonight there is a debate on Channel 4 between the Chancellor and two would-be Chancellors from the three main parties. I no longer have a functioning TV and so won't watch it but what an awful sense of timing for Vince Cable to make his humiliating apology!

Brown versus Paxman - it might not happen

I really have been neglecting my blog, so I had better get on with things!

For those who closely follow politics in this country there are plenty of blogs to read: for me the best I've seen so far is that of Paul Waugh of the 'Evening Standard'. One of his entries today is headed "Is Brown running scared of a Paxo stuffing" and, humorously, underneath is a picture of Paxo Sage and Onion Stuffing! The Paxo in this case is the nickname of Jeremy Paxman, he of 'Newsnight' and 'University Challenge' fame. Paul has pointed out that ever since 1992 Paxo has done an in depth, programme long, interview with the incumbent Prime Minister. However, as yet, Brown hasn't signed up for this particular grilling on Newsnight. Paul states that a senior Whitehall source confirms that the PM hasn't given the green light. Quoting the source directly we hear that "It's not just the airtime, it takes a lot of time to prepare for Paxman, for example." What?!? Are they admitting that Brown has to spend time preparing for Paxman rather than just doing it? We know he is hopeless at a probing interview but this really is very very weak.

His preferred interrogator appears to be Andrew Marr and, it would seem that Andy Marr bowls him gentle full tosses most of the time. It is high time that Brown faced an attack dog who will face him down. Full marks to Jon Sopel by the way on 'The Politics Show' (I watched it on IPlayer) who did pinion him at one point. Although I am a floating voter I do recognise that Brown is a blatant liar and full of self deceit. In fact I would go so far as to say that Brown finds it as easy to lie as tell the truth; I've seen this before, it's almost a psychological condition - lying becomes a way of life, even when it is totally unnecessary from the point of view of everybody.

How can you prepare yourself for a Paxman interview? You can't really, you just don't know from which way the arrows will come. What we do know from Brown is that he is wooden, that he can't think on his feet, that he relies too much on slogans and 'tractor statistics' fired out like a machine gun. He has survived at PMQs because both Speaker Martin and Speaker Bercow have been unprepared to say "The Prime Minister must answer the question".

Brown must be dreading any big interviews coming down the track. I want to see him taken apart - no holds barred. Oh, and my suggested first question from Paxman to Brown, if Brown shows the courage to face his possible tormentor; "With the benefit of hindsight do you think it showed good judgement to sell our gold reserves at the bottom of the market?"

Ann Widdecombe just doesn't get it

Second rant of the day coming up! This all kicked off last month with an assertion by Sir Nicholas Winterton that MPs should be paid to travel first class on the railway. Both he and his wife Ann are Tory MPs standing down in the General Election and were regarded as prime examples of those misusing the allowances and so it is little wonder that his remarks drew a few raspberries. Since then other MPs have deployed various lines of reasoning to show why they consider they should also be paid for first class travel. The one who really takes the biscuit though is Tory Ann Widdecombe!

In the past I have lavished praise on Ms Widdecombe having seen some of her documentary stuff on TV where she has been at the sharp end going where most fear to tread and confronting hoodies and prostitutes amongst others. Full marks to her for that. Now though she has really let herself down talking about how she travels first class and evidently thinks she has a right to be paid out of the public purse. She has tried her hand at writing books and, get this, says that by travelling first class she has been able to write two of her novels whilst in transit as it were.

The inference of her remarks - I believe they were quoted in the 'Daily Telegraph' - is that the public stumping up her fares in first class has enabled her to complete something for her own benefit and not something that is connected with her work as a constituency MP in Kent. She really doesn't get it does she. What a totally stupid inane thing for her to say, especially as she is standing down anyway. I understand that she now has her 'retirement' home near, appropriately, Widecombe-in-the-Moor. Well at least now Ann the only cost to us for you writing a book is if we decide to buy one of the darn things!

Teignbridge staff parking plans

Here we go then, time for a rant or two! First up is Teignbridge District Council in Devon and their plans to charge staff to park at their Newton Abbot main office. Now we are seeing, and no doubt will continue to see, more local authorities slapping a parking charge on their staff who have the temerity to drive to work. This in itself isn't the main reason for my rant although even a flat charge for all is unfair in as much as it discriminates against the person who lives nowhere near public transport whereas others can just hop on a bus. By the way this is all in the name of the environment, trying to get people out of their cars and walking if near enough, or using the train/bus. Of course traffic tends to peak at times of the office commute and the school run, at other times of day it is likely to be more manageable. And increasing the use of public transport should bring their unit costs down.

However it wasn't the basic idea of charging staff to park that made me see red: it was the suggestion, now abandoned, to charge older cars more than the newer models. If you had a car made before January 2001 the proposal was that you would pay double the amount i.e. £1 a day instead of 50 pence. This makes me so angry to think that such an idea ever saw the light of day. Yes of course the technology has moved forward and today's car engines produce less emissions but the pseudo-greens never ever mention the cost to the environment in manufacturing a new vehicle. Nor do they mention that because of the complexity of modern systems on new cars when such parts ultimately fail it becomes too expensive for the owner to replace them. This can mean scrapping a car ahead of time as it were because the rest of the vehicle is perfectly alright. The car scrappage scheme illustrates my point perfectly - yes of course it helped to get the economy to get on the move but had absolutely nothing to do with the environment. When that scheme started I heard an "expert" state it was good for the environment. It's a wonder I didn't hurl something at the radio.

It happens time and again that experts and decision makers will just paint that part of the picture that suits their agenda. Does it make me cross!

Thoughts on Michael Foot

I know that this is a bit late to make a comment but as Michael Foot had strong connections with the west country I think it only right to make a blogpost following the announcement of his death last week. Michael was born in Plymouth on the 23 July 1913, in other words a year before the outbreak of World War One. He was one of seven children, his father Isaac Foot was a solicitor and was Liberal MP fr the then Bodmin Constituency at various times between the two world wars and also did a stint as Lord Mayor of Plymouth. It can be fairly said that Michael Foot was a member of a family with strong political views. Early education was in Plymouth before going to a school in Reading and subsequently Oxford University. It was at the last mentioned that he forsook the Liberal Party for Socialism and as early as 1935 stood for Parliament at Monmouth. However he had to wait until the cessation of hostilities in 1945 before getting into the House of Commons as MP for Plymouth Devonport; he held the seat until ousted by Janet Fookes for the Tories in 1955. Five years later and he was elected as MP for Ebbw Vale in a by-election following the death of his hero Aneurin Bevan. He was to become Labour leader in 1980 but resigned following the Thatcher landslide victory in the 1983 General Election.

Another link Foot had with this part of the world was his unwavering support for Plymouth Argyle Football Club. For several years he served as a director of the club.

So what are we to make of Michael Foot the man? It is generally agreed that he was a very fine orator. It is also the case I think that he was a decent principled man, too decent and principled I guess to be a successful politician. A republican, a founder member of CND and a great believer in state industry, many will argue that he really belonged to another age. Rather like Tony Benn and Enoch Powell he had strong adherents to his views and interestingly like these other two he was very anti Britain's membership of the Common Market. Are we now seeing the end of conviction politics in this country I wonder. Although there are differences still between the major parties they are all jostling for the middle ground and although there are adherents to the more extreme views of parties like UKIP and the BNP these are currently very much in the minority.

A couple of quick points in conclusion: Michael Foot is credited with doing much to get Plymouth functioning again after the German bombing, and apparently it was not a donkey jacket that he wore at the cenotaph but a presentable duffel coat - in fact the Queen Mother complimented him on it!

Morwellham sale progressing

It was last autumn that we learnt that the heritage attraction of Morwellham Quay in West Devon had gone into administration. This followed the decision by Devon County Council to no longer continue to pump funds into the running of Morwellham. Good news time now: Morwellham has been sold and I'm led to believe that it will be run on a fairly similar basis to the way it was before (although in a more business like manner one trusts!). Although I'm aware of who the purchaser is I'm not going to mention any names prior to an official announcement. There are the various legal bits and bobs to sort out but I would think that would be done by the end of this month.

The re-opening of Morwellham to the public will be very welcome boost to tourism in the Tamar Valley and in fact to the wider south west.

Nature wrecking havoc

The last two or three days have seen the weathermen (and women) forecasting a dire day today in terms of wind and rain. We were lucky this time round as it has been the east of England that has seen the worst of it although even they were let off lightly compared with our continental cousins, Spain and more particularly France being very badly affected. At least 50 people have died in Europe as a result of the storms. I don't know whether this weather system is the same one that had caused the recent devastation in the little island of Madeira, especially around its capital Funchal.

I'm guessing now as I have not read up on it but I believe that a major reason for the UK having had a cold winter is the fact that the jet stream which normally brings the succession of depressions that yield the mild wet winters in our latitudes is further south than it should be. So my assumption is that the storms surging through to the south of us are occurring in those places because of the jet stream displacement as well. The recent wet summers in the UK have also been blamed, at least in part, on the jet stream being in the wrong place and not allowing the Azores high to build in over us. So what is going on?

All the foregoing of course is dwarfed by the horrendous earthquake that has devastated part of Chile. As I type this on Sunday evening the current death toll is 708 according to the BBC News Website. Absolutely awful. And this so soon after the horror of Haiti. I've just looked at the Shelterbox website and see that they are currently mobilising a response team to go to Chile to assess the situation.

This does seem to have been an extraordinary year so far in respect of the damage caused by the forces of nature.

End of month, my cold gone, spring coming

Well hear we are then, the last day of February and the cold I've been plagued with for the last few days nearly gone. This is getting into the good time of year for me with noticeably longer days and although hardly tropical there is the sense that any further cold spells shouldn't be prolonged. Apart from the snowdrops which have been excellent in my locality this year other flowers have understandably been reluctant to get going. This valley was famous for the cultivation of daffodils and many of the fields have been abandoned but the daffodils still come up and are an amazing sight but mostly not quite yet. There are wild daffodils too if you know where to look and there will be swathes of wood anemone to come in certain places near the river. The south west is even more special in spring!

Not looking good for Gordon Brown

Although nobody seems to have landed a knock out punch yet on Gordon Brown he certainly seems to be reeling following the allegations in Andrew Rawnsley's book and the aftermath. I never doubted Brown was a bully boy and liable to really violent outbursts of anger. But does it matter if a Prime Minister is boorish, bullying, socially inept, a liar, psychologically unable to accept he has made mistakes? I'm afraid it does.

Brown now has further revelations in Rawnsley's book to look forward to as well as appearing at the Iraq Inquiry next week and with three leaders debates to come before we vote. Will he keep it together or will he crack is the question. I'm not a betting man but I think he will be defeated at the polls whenever they come.

The Piers Morgan / Gordon Brown love-in

Last Saturday I did a blogpost about the then upcoming Gordon Brown interview with Piers Morgan. I've now seen a slightly abbreviated version of this programme on the internet. In Saturday's piece I said " Personally I don't have a problem with viewers seeing a different Gordon Brown"; I'm now regretting that comment! The interview, let's face it, was blatant electioneering and really should not have been broadcast in the run up to the election. Was it Sarah Brown trying to pull the PR strings? Interesting that the director kept cutting away to the fond wife loyally backing her husband. And it went out on Valentines Day, a bit more than a coincidence perhaps!

It seems to me that she is desperately deploying her skills to portray Gordon as a warm people loving family man. I don't doubt for a minute his feelings towards his wife and children but to what degree should this aspect of his character be shared with the public? For the sake of balance I believe that the TV cameras have been in the home of the Camerons. I guess that we will see more of the 'touchy feely' stuff from our politicians as the years go by. Back to Sarah Brown: she introduced her husband at the last two Labour Party Conferences, this was quite interesting and innovative the first time round but I could see that she had set herself a precedent and that it wouldn't have the same spark when repeated and I blogged about this before. As a one-off to 'humanise' her husband it seemed not a bad idea but repeated it is just banal.

Mr Brown admitted flashes of bad temper and put it down to his impatience to get things done He might well say that but the truth is that he is a bully boy, a control freak, a person who would happily see his own henchmen briefing against other Labour politicians, a compulsive liar when he needs to be, in fact not really a nice man at all. Yes I feel sorry about his eyesight problem and his personal family tragedy but do we need to be reminded again about all this.

In the Piers Morgan show Brown was pretty relaxed (allegedly he had been trained for it by Alastair Campbell!) and appeared to be full of bonhomie. However it is the three one and half long party leaders' interviews that will have a greater effect on the voting public particularly as they will be much much closer to the election itself. I think that the Morgan programme will soon be forgotten.

"When I'm Hurtin'" sung by Al and Isla Grant

It is of course Valentines Day tomorrow and I think that this beautiful little love song from husband and wife duo Al and Isla Grant fits the bill. I hope that you enjoy it!

The Brown interview tomorrow

So tomorrow (Sunday) folk will have a chance to see the more human and caring side of Gordon Brown we have been told. His old pal and cheerleader Piers Morgan will chat to him on ITV - I believe that Mr Morgan is doing a series of these interviews so Gordon's is not therefore a one-off. The difference of course is that GB is this country's Prime Minister and there just happens to be a General Election coming up in the very near future!

The piece of the programme that has been heavily trailed is where Brown displays his emotion when talking about the early death of his daughter Jennifer and naturally commentators are having or will have much to say about this. Cynics of course will say that this has all been set up so that Brown can get the sympathy vote whilst his supporters - and there are some - stress that what most people see is only one side of our PM and that he is much more personable than most believe.

Personally I don't have a problem with viewers seeing a different Gordon Brown, he might get a short lived and small bounce in the polls but I doubt that any benefit will last. I don't think that Brown ever went to the Tony Blair School of Acting - his character isn't subtle enough to do pretend emotion. No you will see genuine grief tomorrow and so you should. I remember that Wednesday in the House of Commons when at PMQs he had genuinely warm words to say about Cameron, the news of the death of Ivan having been announced earlier that day (or possibly the night before, can't remember exactly). I know that PMQs weren't continued and that David Cameron was understandably absent from the House.

Although I have every sympathy with Brown and his wife Sarah over their personal tragedy this doesn't in any way shape or form influence my belief that he is not the right person to lead this country and that much of his behaviour is totally unacceptable. The Piers Morgan thing might do him a little bit of good but I think that will be totally negated by the three leader debates to come.

One thing I'm sure about: come Monday morning the mainstream media and the bloggers will be having a good deal to say about one Gordon Brown!

Toyota woes

The Japanese car maker Toyota is suffering from the wrong sort of publicity at the moment. So reliable are its products as a rule that they normally don't merit any column inches at all but now problems with accelerator pedals on certain models and brakes on others have raised enough concern to warrant massive numbers of recalls so that the problems can be fixed. I don't own this make but I drove one belonging to someone else decades back and I have ridden in another very recently and have always felt that they were very well engineered and screwed together and they seemed just about the least likely make to have reliability or safety problems.

A couple of thoughts then about the unhappy position the company finds itself in:

• To its credit Toyota appears to be open and honest about the problems with, as one would expect from the Japanese, the boss making an apology for all to see. This contrasts with recalls made by western manufacturers who would often try and say that a problem didn't exist and would only react properly following plenty of public pressure. Maybe not all of them but I particularly remember Renault who had produced a poor design for a bonnet catch on some of the 'Clio' models with recorded instances of bonnets flying up as the car was speeding along. They attempted to do some buck passing but I think in the end grudgingly arranged a recall but not until after very adverse reports on the BBC's 'Watchdog' programme. This was about three years ago I think, I don't have a personal axe to grind on this never having owned one - I just wanted to point out that other manufacturers have had potential accident faults in their designs.
• The technology in today's cars is very sophisticated and my 24 year old jalopy seems to be from the stone age in comparison! But is all this cleverness really necessary? Take the accelerator pedal on my car - it connects through a cable to a bit of linkage that opens a flap on the carburettor thus allowing more petrol/air mixture into the engine and speeding up the vehicle. Very basic and does the job. The thing that bothers me about today's cars is that many of the simple functions that work perfectly well are being replaced by more complicated procedures which I would have thought would be quite expensive to replace once faults develop. I'm amazed that today's cars are as reliable as they are but should things go wrong you will need a healthy bank balance to get the repairs done. This leads to a favourite gripe: the way some cars are scrapped long before they ought to be just because some piece of space age technology needs replacing but the cost in relation to the car's value makes it an uneconomic process.

As I said before: all credit to Toyota for holding up their hands with regard to the design faults.

Three cheers for Fabio Capello

I've pointed out before that I don't have much interest in sport and I am also not into the lives and loves of such people as pop stars, media personalities and highly paid sportsmen. So who, other than his wife, John Terry is alleged to have slept with is of little concern to me. What is important in this instance though is the undenied story of Mr Terry having a relationship with the girl friend of an England team mate Wayne Bridges. I'm commenting on this because of the action taken by England's team manager Fabio Capello. For me Capello has ticked all the boxes and is like a breath of fresh air: he dealt with the issue of Terry's captaincy very quickly, he made the right decision in my honest opinion, he did the sacking face to face and he didn't tell anyone else prior to Terry being informed of his fate. He then immediately announced who the new captain and vice-captains would be.

So often of late one hears of those in a position of being able to hire and fire squirming out of their responsibilities. I'm thinking of the way the BBC dealt with Jonathan Ross for example where he seemed to be given just a mild rap over the knuckles over those phone calls. Then there are those senior politicians who don't deal with sackings in a proper manner. What really gets me though is when someone finds themselves dismissed from their employment via a text message on their mobile: what a personal insult!

Bravo Mr Capello! You have shown others the right way to go about managing people.

Tony Blair and the Iraq War

I've just been watching some of the video of Blair's evidence at the Chilcot Inquiry on their website (well someone has to do it!). As usual Blair comes over quite convincingly but I don't think that I have the time or stamina to sit through six hours or whatever it is. There is so much one could write on the subject but I'll just make a few comments via bullet points:

• Whatever conclusions are reached by the Inquiry at the end of the day I don't think those who felt strongly about the war at the time (I mean both pros and antis) will change their viewpoint. It is very much like the two sides in the hunting debate or the climate change debate once someone has an entrenched position that is it. Additional evidence is unlikely to sway them in the other direction.
• When Blair became PM in 1997 I don't think he had thought about foreign policy much but when he paid a visit to Kosovo things changed. Witnessing the situation over there he decided that an interventionist policy was needed where there were occasions of that type. Some people referred to Blair as Bush's poodle with reference to Iraq but I beg to differ. I think that Blair developed a missionary zeal and assuming that Saddam had WMD and wasn't going to disarm then Blair had no problems in invading Iraq.
• I think in his evidence on Friday - I didn't get to that bit watching the video this evening - Blair mentioned the figure of 100,000 Iraqis dead as a result of the war. Estimates vary a lot, some have used this lowest figure whilst others have used greater numbers up to one million in fact. I think that Blair volunteered his figure without prompting and I am wondering whether he was trying to spike the questioners' guns. If he got in the 100,000 dead in his evidence first then it might be overlooked that this was the very lowest estimate of several.
• Blair tried to lay the blame for the problems in Iraq post invasion on those pesky Iranians coming in and spoiling the party. No Mr Blair, it's you and Mr Bush who are culpable - before the war there was some sort of strategic balance between Iraq and Iran, post war there was obviously an imbalance in the situation, effectively a vacuum where Iraq is concerned. It is perhaps not too surprising that Iraq's hated neighbour wanted to exploit the situation. The coalition was not prepared for the aftermath, they should have been - no excuses.
• Blair tried to make a strong point about Iraq possibly supplying terrorists with WMD post 9/11. Whether this might have happened one day I don't know but there was zero evidence of any connection between Saddam and Al-Qaida. This reminds me of the fact that following the 9/11 attacks Vice President Dick Cheney set up a special unit to try every way possible to find a connection between the two. I believe that many many Americans were misled into believing that Iraq was somehow involved in 9/11 thus giving extra legitimacy to the invasion.

Much more could be added to this blogpost but I'll leave it at that for the moment.

Air Ambulance base opens at Eaglescott

On Monday i had some kind words to say about Radio Devon when I put up a video of singer/songwriter Jenna Witts from North Devon. Today I'm also going to praise RD - I must be mellowing I think! They have singled out a particular local organisation as their charity for 2010: it is the Devon Air Ambulance that they want listeners to support, in fact I believe that they are hoping to raise £600,000 towards the cost of a new helicopter! It kicked off when presenter Judi Spiers opened the 'Steve Ford Airbase' situated at Eaglescott Airfield, Umberleigh in North Devon on the 21st of January.

I need to elaborate a bit here: This is a new facility erected in double quick time enabling one of the two helicopters to be located in a good position to get to much of north Devon in very short order. Although described as being at Umberleigh it would be more accurate to say that Eaglescott lies in that quiet countryside between Roborough and Burrington (For the avoidance of doubt I should say that Roborough here is a tiny village east of Great Torrington, not the better known place on Plymouth's periphery!). The airfield caters for a flying club, micro-lights and gliders and I think that the Air Ambulance people have acquired a long lease for the bit that they are using.

Why the title 'Steve Ford Airbase'? Steve was born in Exeter and had a good career in the army including being a bomb disposal expert. He had a love of flying, enough to lure him to a job piloting an air ambulance. Sadly he died in a motorbike accident. Evidently an all round good guy and a great idea to name the air ambulance base after him.

At this point it's worth remembering that the air ambulance idea in this country started in Cornwall. Yep little Cornwall was the location for the very first air ambulance and it has never received any money from the government coffers. I was once quite cross about this, that it was dependant on charitable donations to keep flying. However my feelings have changed and I now feel that we sort of have ownership of it and I'm proud of that. I and thousands of others pay £1 for a lottery ticket each week with the chance of a number of fairly modest prizes up for grabs - needless to say I have yet to win anything! Off the top of my head I don't know to what extent this lottery helps to keep the helicopter flying but it is regular repeat income coming in.

Back to Devon now. It is of course a very large county and both wide and deep in shape and so really does need two choppers to cover it. Although the appeal by Radio Devon is commendable there is a small downside that (slightly) bothers me. There are hundreds of worthy causes any of which are deserving of charitable donations. The problem is that many miss out because so much money is going to those organisations that gain a huge profile. An example that crosses my mind is two charities that I mentioned when I wrote about Haiti the other day: 'Shelterbox' and 'Rapid-UK'. Shelterbox has really caught the public imagination and it is a favourite charity of mine - it ticks so many boxes and is very well supported. But what about Rapid UK who not only go out to countries that have suffered natural disasters to do what they can to rescue trapped people but they also share their expertise with those unfortunate peoples who don't have the knowledge. It might be thought that 'Rapid UK' was some sort of state funded group but no they are a charity and so have to self fund. As I understand it they do have quite a job making ends meet. The huge variation in the amounts of money different charities receive is a problem and I don't really know the answer.

Jenna Witts sings "Bring me News"

In my last entry I was quite scathing about the present programme strategy of 'Radio Devon'. I don't take back any of the criticism I made but I should point out that it's not all bad with this broadcaster. They do have the occasional programme, particularly at weekends it seems, where you get what you hope for and one example is a folk music show on Sundays and although I didn't listen to it they had advertised that a young singer/songwriter, Jenna Pitts from Woolacombe in North Devon, would be featured yesterday. Jenna has a sweet voice in my opinion and I thought it an idea to post this video of her singing her song "Bring me News".

I hope that her music brings her success.

Radio Devon gets it wrong

Although living in Cornwall (just) I seem to have much more trouble receiving BBC Radio Cornwall than its Devon counterpart. Perhaps I should try listening on line. I don't listen to the radio continuously, in fact I enjoy the contrast of having no man made sounds around me on occasion although some people seem to be scared of silence. At various moments of my day I am likely to tune into Radio Devon but these times are disappearing rapidly. Why? Well Radio Devon have had a bit of a shakeout dropping some of their presenters. Those remaining it would seem are being asked to do longer stints. Researching today's 'Western Morning News' I see that there are just six shows between 6 in the morning and 1 am: Five of these are single handed and 3 hours each whilst the other one of 4 hours duration has co-presenters.

Now if you are going to have one person doing a three hour programme it needs some music to give the presenter a breather now and then - of course some of these programmes are primarily there to play music anyway. Why my annoyance then? I'm particularly bothered by 'The Interactive Lunch' which runs from midday till 3 pm. Previously there had been a 2 hour phone in programme at lunchtime in which the public could sound off about various issues, in fact I've expressed an opinion on it on one or two occasions. It was hosted by Justin Leigh and he did a very professional job it has to be said, he couldn't be faulted. He was followed by Michael Chequer who I also found to be a good presenter. This programme was totally devoted to the expression of opinions, yes it had the occasional expert being quizzed by the presenter about a subject but this was part and parcel of the broadcast. You understood exactly what the programme was there for.

Move on to the here and now and we have 'The Interactive Lunch' hosted by David Fitzgerald who likes to be called 'Fitz'. Fitz is a genial sort of chap, very much reminding me of Harry Secombe but TIL is such a mish-mash you're not quite sure what it's trying to do. Like its predecessor it has people phoning in and specialists in the studio but every so often it is interrupted by music or should I say "so called music". There is a good deal of pop music that I'm OK with but on his show most of it is so dire I have to hit the off switch! You get the impression that a producer is randomly pulling them from the rack but the bulk is instantly forgettable. I can see that Radio Devon have a bit of a problem because just one person doing a phone in for more than two hours is too much in my opinion. The station has gone from having a very well defined and interesting programme to one that is very bland with occasional assaults on my eardrums. The worst aspect for me is when a presenter starts talking about something else over the top of a song before the last strains thankfully disappear - this isn't Radio1 for heaven's sake (not to cast aspersions on that channel but it is a case of "horses for courses")

It seems that others are getting fed up with what is going on judging by a letter in the paper from Tony Elliott of Kingsteignton. He is less concerned about music peppering the day's programmes but notes how the selection of this music has changed. He reasonably points out that a good number of the daytime listeners are retired folk who are not into the latest pop music. He suggest writing to Mark Grinnell, the managing editor of BBC Radio Devon. Not a bad idea Mr Elliott, not a bad idea at all!

Last Tuesday's snow event

Writing about the better weather in my last post reminds me that I haven't commented yet on the snow event last Tuesday (the 12th) which caused so many problems for drivers in my two counties. I say "snow event", here tucked down in the valley we had no more than sleet that day. A depression coming in off the Atlantic had its weather fronts bumping into the existing cold air that was dominating the UK, a classic situation where substantial falls of snow can occur and one I've seen before a few times. It was very well forecasted by the Met Office and it was always evident that altitude would have a substantial affect on snow quantities.

For those not familiar with my two counties it has to be said that the topography has an absolutely enormous influence on the weather we experience. This weather can be incredibly local, one classic example being the rain that caused such havoc at Boscastle and Crackington Haven in August 2004. This flood was over a geographically small area, villages a few miles away were unaffected. The hills and valleys in the south west that please the tourist's eye (and mine it should be said) have always been a nightmare for road and railway builders. So far as the railway is concerned Brunel hugged the river estuaries and coast between Exeter and Newton Abbot. OK he kept the route pretty flat but we all know about the huge problems there have been with the sea wall at Dawlish!

The main road from Exeter to Plymouth, the A38, has to cross the Haldon ridge soon after it leaves Exeter. Now the top of Haldon is approximately 800 feet above sea level but it's not just drivers having to ascend that much from the Exeter direction that can create problems, it's the degree of steepness. In a much earlier life I was involved in road design and although it was decades ago I do recall that the maximum gradient for trunk road design was 1 in 25 (4% in modern parlance I suppose). I was never involved with 'Haldon Hill' but it wasn't possible I know to get remotely near that figure - I can't remember for sure but I think it was more like 1 in 14, very very steep for a trunk road. Unsurprisingly a third crawler lane was put in place for the uphill carriageway. A similar arrangement holds for the also very steep 'Telegraph Hill', the Torquay A380 route that forks off the A38 at Splatford Split at the bottom of Haldon Hill.

Exact details of the way traffic ground to a halt on these two notorious hills on Tuesday remain a little sketchy but it seems that the rain on the ridge quickly turned to snow, a lorry jackknifed on the A38, traffic stopped and couldn't get going again and because some vehicles started sliding whilst others tried to pick their way through the gaps the whole road system got clogged up making it really difficult for gritting lorries and snowploughs to get through to where they were needed. Result: vehicles stuck for hours and hours with nowhere to go. Eventually, somehow, things did get sorted out and thankfully nobody was hurt. A few comments from me then:

• Although well forecasted the weather changed very rapidly at Haldon, many leaving Exeter in the rush hour I'm sure genuinely didn't perceive a problem just down the road.
• The authorities seemed to be very tardy about officially closing Haldon Hill, the result being that traffic was just joining the queue with nowhere to go. As I heard it on Radio Devon it seemed that they were suggesting traffic could just about get through, that doesn't seem to be the case for the general public although police, fire crews and Dartmoor Rescue Group volunteers seemed to have got through. A very muddled picture.
• There is an alternative coastal route from Exeter to Newton Abbot, a pretty lousy road in my opinion and this got clogged up with traffic. There is a pinch point on this 'A' road at Starcross where two pillars forming part of a property jut out into the carriageway so it's single file only there and it sounds as if this created a lot of trouble.
• All sorts of suggestions from the public and others about how to avoid similar problems in the future. One was to cone off an uphill lane on Haldon and Telegraph Hills when snow is forecast so that gritting lorries etc can get through without hindrance.
• From what I heard today it looks as if underoad heating is being looked at. Nice idea but surely a non-starter. Yes I know that there are heating elements in the Hammersmith Flyover but I'm sure that was all part of the design. I don't know anything about the newest technology but the area at Haldon would be huge and the disruption massive. I really can't see that one flying.
• Similar problems occurred at Telegraph and Haldon Hills less than 12 months ago, in February 2009. On that occasion the sudden snowfall was well into the evening , after I think most commuters would have been home.
• I have memories from decades back of getting stuck on Haldon. It was in the morning I think and I believe it was a similar case of waiting patiently for gritting lorries to clear a way through. Much less traffic back then and I don't recall having to wait for hours for it to be sorted out.
  
• Another morning memory is of going up Telegraph Hill in daylight but with snow on the ground in what was known as a "sit up and beg" Ford Popular of 1950's vintage. Side valve engine, three speed gearbox and 6 volt battery sums it up. But successful in the snow. It had tall wheels, excellent ground clearance and with very little power wheel spin didn't appear to be a big problem! I might have been more confident at the time as well of course.
• Although the Haldon area grabbed the headlines on Tuesday there were other parts of Devon and Cornwall where drivers became stuck. Particularly badly hit were the A386 between Tavistock and Okehampton and, west of the Tamar, the Liskeard area.

As I stated at the start of the piece so local is the weather that we experienced none of that particular bout of mayhem here. As ever the elements can make man look very puny indeed.

Gentle warming of weather

There has been a gentle warming up of the weather here in the last day or two and I have to say it's been good to be able to open the bedroom window a little bit. That one is a sash window, one of two I had replaced with timber double glazed units last year. I love sash windows with their ability to permit air circulation top and bottom; for a while yesterday and today it was possible to open it a fair bit and get a change of air in the room. And for part of the day I turned off the heating - I don't have central heating with a thermostatic control, I have a gas fire downstairs and gas heater in the stairwell to cover upstairs. Sufficient for my needs I guess, I try to keep room temperature in the 60 to 65 degree F range which no doubt is freezing for some!

We went out for a fairly short walk yesterday (Sunday) afternoon and it really is a relief not to watch every step you make in fear of falling over. No special wildlife sightings but no matter it's just nice enjoying the fresh air. My friend had previously seen a redwing in her garden and I've noticed one or two about the village, not surprising with the recent harsh weather. Interesting report from a lady I know in another Tamar Valley village of a snipe in their garden! She told that they had seen them in fields close to their home but this was the first time I think in their garden.

One thing I must check is how a favourite mimosa in a Tavistock courtyard is doing. It had been affected by last winter's cold weather but recovered well. I do hope it has survived the recent sharp frosts.

The horror in Haiti

Obviously the story of the moment is the devastating earthquake in Haiti and I can't add any suitable words to the very many that have already been written and spoken by others. Like I guess a good many other people my knowledge of this state is fairly hazy but click here to read an informative summary about Haiti with some clues as to why it is so impoverished. Thanks to 'The First Post' for this information by the way - it certainly enlightened me.

Speed is of the essence of course in bringing relief and hopefully saving some lives. I want to draw attention to two fantastic organisations from the south west right in the forefront in helping the situation. The first of these is the now well known charity 'Shelterbox' who I believe are already familiar with Haiti following earlier hurricane damage. I've written about them before so I'll just remind folk that they are based down west in Helston and are well geared up to move very fast. Their website is here.

The other one to mention is 'RAPID-UK'. Perhaps not so much in the public consciousness as Shelterbox. As they say on their website here :

"RAPID-UK exists to provide experienced disaster response personnel anywhere in the world when required and to facilitate sustainable training and mitigation programmes in disaster prone countries."

R.A.P.I.D is an acronym for Rescue and Preparedness in Disasters. I understand that it is based at Jacobstowe in West Devon. As with Shelterbox they are already there in Haiti, trying to do what they can. I think that both Shelterbox and RAPID-UK are absolutely brilliant; there may well be some aspects of life in my country that one should be embarrassed about but when it comes to disaster relief I can honestly state that "I'm proud to be British"

Alastair Campbell at Iraq Enquiry

Today is the day when Alastair Campbell is taking centre stage at the Chilcot Enquiry into the war in Iraq. Ignored by many blogs we have to thank Andrew Sparrow of 'The Guardian' who is blogging the enquiry as it happens. It can be read here. And thank goodness for Paul Waugh of 'The Evening Standard' who has taken a keen interest in the Enquiry and posted a lot of Twitter comments. Paul is the best of the political bloggers in my opinion, he really gets how it should be done. He's a journalist as well and has a nice lightness of touch with his blog and picks up on details others miss.

So what of Campbell? Obviously still loyal to Blair. We know how combative he is and so no surprise he attacked Andrew Gillingham in the course of giving his evidence. For Campbell it's pretty obvious that he believes in attack being the best form of defence at times. I've now just spotted as today's session finishes that the BBC have been supplying live video of proceedings. As has happened in previous enquiries Campbell wasn't subjected to really strong cross examination and probably got away with it again. The problem is that the inconsistencies will get lost in the overall narrative.

Slow thaw today, snow forecast tomorrow

It's certainly been less cold in my part of the world today and there has been a very gentle thaw of some of the snow and ice, the last mentioned being a greater problem than the snow. For a change the windows on the car were frost free when I first looked out, not that I needed to drive anywhere as it so happened. If there is just one thing to rejoice about in not having to commute to work by car it's the fact that I don't have to do the de-icing routine first thing in the morning. How did I put up with that for so many years?

Tomorrow is another day as they say and it looks like a sizeable dollop of snow might be on the way. It's the classic situation I've seen before where there is blocking high pressure over Scandinavia maintaining cold easterly winds whilst at the same time a low pressure system with its fronts is trying to make headway from the Atlantic. These situations are always notoriously difficult to predict as to whether one sees snow or rather cold rain - it only takes a degree or two difference to produce one or the other. At the moment the forecasters are going for heavy snow turning to rain. We shan't have to wait long to see the outcome. Strong winds are in the mix so drifting is certainly on the cards especially on the moors.

The really cold weather we have had has perhaps put extra strain on underground services: I'm assuming that is why Mortehoe up in North Devon was devoid of gas supply over much of the weekend - not much fun if you rely on it for cooking and heating. Not heard anything further today so I assume all the repairs are complete. There was also a gas leak at Tavistock bus station on Saturday morning but our local bus was able to drop off and pick up passengers nearby and there appeared to be very little inconvenience when we went in to do a small amount of shopping.

It was a few years ago now when the gas main running down my road started leaking, the gas people appeared promptly enough and did the necessary repair. They came back some later to replace all the gas pipe serving this road. A good deal of upheaval because our road is only one vehicle in width (it can just accommodate the dustbin lorry). We were lucky though because our original gas leak didn't occur during cold weather; I guess it was just 'anno domini' catching up with it! The original gasworks for the village was built in 1872 with coal being brought up the Tamar and then through the little canal that bypasses the weir across the river. One used to hear complaints about service providers not co-ordinating their work but this certainly didn't apply here. At one time electricity cables crossed the lower part of some of the gardens in the Row and I can can recollect the power company coming out to do a little pruning to a tree in my own garden where the wires could easily make contact. At the time of the gas main replacement the contractors also inserted a duct in the road so that at a later date the electricity people could route their overhead line through it. It's difficult to remember the electricity cables over my garden now.

Inconvenient though snow is I must admit that there is something hypnotic about watching it falling. I'm at a low level here so it might be rain rather than the white fluffy stuff. Whichever, it's due here about lunchtime.