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.