Remember the name - Heather Brooke

Heather Brooke - that's not a name that resonates with the majority of folk in this country I imagine. But there are reasons why it should. Heather is a journalist and writer living in London whose single minded determination ensured that we would have the chance to find out just how much our MPs are costing us and what specific claims they are making on the public purse. By winning a High Court battle against the House of Commons there is now information in the public domain that would never have materialised otherwise.

What has happened now is the 'official' version of MPs expense claims has been published, but with a huge amount of information blacked out, as to addresses for example. However thanks to someone leaking the information 'The Daily Telegraph' has been churning out 'uncensored' information for many weeks now and, notwithstanding today's publication of expenses for all MPs, I do hope that the DT carry on with their good work.

One point about all this I want to briefly dwell on, and it's a point worth making strongly I feel, is the still enormous power of the individual. In these days of big government, big corporations, of big committees it seems so easy to believe that the individual has no chance to change history. But, thank God, that perception is wrong. A recent example was that of Joanna Lumley who deployed considerable finesse in ensuring Gurkhas could reside in the UK. Without taking anything away from her Joanna did benefit from being someone well known. But Ms Brooke wasn't, and I guess still isn't, a household name. Yet the action of this one persevering woman has changed the way Parliament, or at least the House of Commons, does its business for ever. I believe we should be eternally grateful to Heather Brooke; she has a website "Your Right To Know" here.

Joanna Lumley becomes a Shelterbox Patron

Fairly recently I wrote about a TV programme in which Joanna Lumley achieved a childhood ambition to see 'The Northern Lights'. This was before the stunning success she achieved in leading the campaign to secure rights for Gurkhas wishing to settle in this country. I have long realised that under that soft silky exterior was a woman of steel and was unsurprised when she put that attribute to such good use in skewering Phil Woolas and Gordon Brown over that issue. She did it with great style it has to be said.

In this blog I have sung the praises of 'Shelterbox' a few times - their website is here by the way. If you were to click on news and scroll down to the early part of this month you will see an entry stating that Joanna is becoming a patron of the charity. She is known to be very enthusiastic about the work that Shelterbox have done and continue to do and having her now identified so close to the organisation is absolutely brilliant news.

BBC Countryfile moves to a new time

There were a couple of programmes on TV on Sunday evening which I thought were worth watching. The first of these was a repeat of something I had missed previously - it was all about actress Joanna Lumley heading to the far north, the very far north inside the Arctic Circle in fact, so that she might have a chance of realising a lifetime ambition and see the Northern Lights. I was always known in the office for having a soft spot for Joanna, it's not just a matter of looks it's the fact that she is a very intelligent person, that she will take up the cudgels on something she is passionately concerned about and as was shown on Sunday she has a huge infectious enthusiasm. I'm glad to say she witnessed the 'Lights' in all their most spectacular glory and she displayed the most genuine almost child-like pleasure with this sighting. Yes a good programme.

Immediately following Joanna's programme there was 'Countryfile' in a new prime time slot. It has always seemed to me a little bizarre to have shown it in the middle of Sunday morning for so many years - surely many of its target audience would be out enjoying the countryside at this very time. 'Countryfile' has had a bit of a makeover for this new series and I have to say that I'm fairly comfortable with what they have done. It is no longer introduced by that stalwart John Craven but I'm pleased to see that John retains a position on the show being a roving reporter on issues of importance (in this instance considering the conflict between seals and salmon farmers). It was down to Matt Baker and Julia Bradbury to effectively do what John Craven had done previously in hosting the show. Sadly we no longer have Michaela Strachan, Charlotte Smith, Miriam O'Reilly or Juliet Morris presenting; when the BBC had announced the changes to the lineup a few months ago some of the press were accusing the BBC of ageism in axing these particular presenters. Of course the Beeb denied this but there is some evidence that they want younger faces on their programmes. I was particularly sorry to learn that Juliet Morris will no longer be on Countryfile, she has strong west country connections and was a presenter on the BBC Spotlight programme for some time. Juliet is very much the 'girl next door' type in my eyes, she seems to be the sort of person that would be great relaxing company and it was a huge shame to lose her to the bright lights of London! One presenter that Countryfile has retained is Adam Henson. He has a farm in Gloucestershire and we are promised that each week he will do a slot from his farm. This is excellent news! Why? Well there is still a big divide in this country between the consumers of our food and those farmers who produce it. Admittedly with farmers markets and so on the gap is closing slightly but there are still too many who never get closer to the source of their food than the shelves in Tesco. This thing is a bit of a hobbyhorse of mine I have to admit but I really feel we need to understand much more about how food is produced. On Sunday then Adam showed us one of his ewes trying to lamb only for one of its front legs to have got stuck so that Adam had to insert his arm in you can imagine where to sort the problem out having gently eased the secured head of the lamb back into its mother for the manipulation. He has livestock and crops and it will be educational to see how his farming year unfolds over the coming months.