A New Year Beckons

This is New Year’s Eve and many of us will be celebrating tonight with friends and family and waiting for the stroke of midnight which will signal the arrival of 2011, the New Year. There may be much jollity, food and drink and, perhaps, some fireworks.

New Year’s Eve is celebrated worldwide. Midnight sees out the old year with all of its associated problems and welcomes in the new year with the hope that it will be a better one than the one that went before it.

Today is also the feast of St. Sylvester, a 4th-century Pope who reigned during the time of Constantine the Great. He was born in Rome, supposedly the son of a Roman soldier, and was pontiff for nearly 25 years. He died in 335 and is buried in the church he built over the Priscilla Catacombs.

Let us hope that the New Year will be a decent one and that, for those who choose to honour him today, St. Sylvester will look beneficently upon them. In both cases, I hope so.
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What Does It Mean?

The Crown Prosecution Service has dropped all charges against a man who was due to stand trial next year over allegations that he failed to stop at the scene of an accident, failed to report an accident and driving without due care and attention.

In words I seem to have seen before, the reviewing lawyer for the CPS said: ‘I have reviewed the file of evidence passed to me ... and have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.’

What does this mean? Does it mean that the man concerned might have committed the offences but there is not enough evidence to prosecute? Or does it mean that the charges were dropped because, as he had stated, the man was innocent?

The CPS statement leaves things in the air somewhat, but let’s assume the man was innocent.
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Not Immortal

We hear more and more of teenagers who die or who are mained while speeding or driving dangerously. Such stories are tragic for those involved and for their families, especially when they occur over the Christmas period.

So it was sad to read of the three teenagers killed and another who received serious injuries in a head-on crash as the car they were in tried to overtake another car on a road in South Yorkshire on Monday evening. Miraculously, the driver of the oncoming car they struck received only minor injuries.

Some teenagers seem to feel that they are immortal and, encouraged by television programmes such as Top Gear, drive as if they are competing on a race track.

Alas, many of them discover only too soon the truths that a driving licence doesn’t come with experience, that the roads are not race tracks and that death and serious injury may be the consequences of their bad driving.
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Bad Move

A number of newspapers report this morning that one in four local councils is planning to scale back or even abolish school crossing patrols - the iconic and distinctive ‘lollipop’ men and woman who morning and afternoon guard the road crossings outside British schools.

One council, Northamptonshire, is said to be planning to scrap the service altogether and save over £200,000 per year by sacking 65 people and encouraging local communities to replace them with voluntary patrols.

I have no idea what sort of things are hidden away in the annual budget for councils such as Northamptonshire, but I would have thought such a small sum could have been saved by making cuts elsewhere in them.

At least a dozen children are killed or seriously injured on our roads each year. If the government supports road safety campaigns, then it should set up a system under which no council should be allowed to abandon school crossing patrols if the appropriate savings could be made elsewhere in their budgets.
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Thank Heavens!

It is reported that a study into a disease, the white-nose syndrome, that has killed a million little brown bats in the US since 2006 warns that the species may be wiped out in less than twenty years if a solution is not found.

Apparently, one option being considered is a cull of bats in areas where the disease is known to be present, though this has been ruled out.

Thank heavens for that. If culling the creatures turned out to be a viable option, it would be only a matter of time before someone though of applying the ‘cure’ to Swine Flu!
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They’re Watching!

Tonight my wife will be treating our grandchildren to the pantomime, that curious British mix of humorous, slapstick, musical drama that has entertained Christmas audiences for the last couple of hundred years. A type of theatrical performance which absolutely baffles foreigners because of its tradition of men playing women and women playing men and of all the ludicrous things that happen during it.

I shall be resting indoors with the two dogs enjoying the peace and quiet of an empty house. In my mind’s eye, however, I will hear our grandchildren shouting out at the top of their voices, ‘He’s behind you!’ or ‘Oh, no he isn’t!’ And I can visualise them ducking when the water, or pretend water, is thrown at the audience or their surprise when the genie suddenly pops up in a cascade of pyrotechnics. I image also their reaching out desperate to catch the sweets that are always thrown out by one or more of the leading characters.

These are happy memories from the past. Memories that will not apply to children going to see a production of Aladdin in Barrow, Cumbria, because the killjoys and jobsmiths in the local council have forbidden the throwing of water and sweets or the customary pyrotechnics on health and safety grounds.

A council official, who obviously is not an aficionado of pantomime, said that the rules were necessary to ensure no members of the audience were injured during the performance. Christopher Biggins, Britain's most famous pantomime dame, correctly summed the situation up as ‘idiotic and ludicrous!’

What’s the betting that Barrow Borough Council send one of their jobsmiths to watch Aladdin every day to check that the rules are being followed?

Watch out! He’s behind you!
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Not Even A Mouse

It is Christmas Eve and across the English-speaking nations perhaps the most popular poem to be read on this day will be that most commonly known as ’’Twas the Night Before Christmas’ from its first line.

The poem was first published under the title A Visit From St. Nicholas on 23 December 1823 in the Troy, New York, Sentinel newspaper. It was published anonymously having been sent to the newspaper by a friend of Clement Clark Moore who is generally thought to be its author. The poem is considered to be largely responsible for the invention of Santa Claus as he is thought of today: his appearance, his mode of transport and the names and number of the deer, the night of his visit and the idea that he brings toys to children.

So, in keeping with the season, Happy Christmas!

A Visit from St. Nicholas

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro’ the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there ...’
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Right For Once

Those busybodies in the European Commission that cause so much aggravation and frustration around the world have just decided that some so-called art work by the late Dan Flavin are no more than ‘light-fittings’ and should, therefore, be subject to full VAT when imported into into the country from outside the EU.

By jingo, some commonsense at last!
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Time To Stop It

I happen to be one of those who admire Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, who is one of our more sensible politicians. I am also a supporter of the coalition government which is trying to get the country out of the mess it found itself in last May.

It is possible that Mr Cable was indiscreet when he recently spoke to two women claiming they were constituents concerned over changes to the benefits system; that is for others to judge. What concerns me more is that it seems to be lawful for a newspaper to send two undercover reporters to interview someone with the sole purpose of encouraging and eliciting from that person statements which might be embarrassing if later published.

It’s about time that the government outlawed this type of provocative journalism that has become virtually endemic in this country. If a journalist wants politicians or other persons to answer questions, then let them be put plainly and without deception.

Of course, whether such questions are answered truthfully is quite another issue!
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Utter Tosh!

A survey of 77 Christians and 57 non-believers by researchers at Canada’s Simon Fraser University claims that the non-believers felt less self-assured and had fewer positive feelings when a twelve-inch Christmas tree was present in a room used for the survey.

The survey also found that Christians were mostly cheered by the presence of the tree but did report feeling more guilt which the researchers felt indicated that the holidays could be stressful.

I’m certainly no scientist but I would question the value of this survey and the way in which it was organised. For a start, the survey seemed directed against Christmas, the number of people involved is ludicrously low and, more importantly, who in their right minds is going to be influenced by an insignificant twelve-inch Christmas tree?

The social psychologist behind the research said pompously: ‘... in contexts where we really do value respecting and including diversity in terms of religion, the safest option is not to have these kinds of displays.’

Blimey! That’s a huge conclusion to reach from a stupid little twelve-inch Christmas tree seen by a total of only 134 people!

Perhaps he ought to have asked the participants whether they were actually offended by the presence and meaning behind the Christmas tree. Perhaps he ought also to have asked them whether they were offended by the lights and decorations to be seen throughout the year of other religions. Possibly, the participants were put off by the way in which the tree was decorated or whether it was nicely lit. Maybe those seeing the tree thought that such a titchy one looked ridiculous. Maybe the tree looked absurd in a room which was otherwise not decorated for Christmas.

There are any number of such questions that could have been asked of the 134 folk who put themselves up for a survey that ended up suggesting that Christmas trees be banned in public places lest they offend non-believers.

Some folk do take themselves very seriously and, in this case, the survey results have been published in the otherwise respected Journal of Experimental Social Psychology under the heading: ‘Identity moderates the effects of Christmas displays on mood, self-esteem, and inclusion’.

It should have read: ‘Utter Tosh!’
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The Challenger Expedition

We live in an amazing world in which new species seem to be discovered every month. Recent reported discoveries include new species of frogs, lemurs, monkeys, spiders, crickets, snakes and many others.

The great age of discovery was that of the Victorians who sent out expeditions to most of the known world and to some of the unknown. And it was on this day in 1872 that one of the most famous expeditions, the Challenger Expedition, set sail from Portsmouth on the first global marine research expedition which, at its conclusion, was said to have contributed ‘the greatest advance in the knowledge of our planet since the celebrated discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries’.

Promoted and ultimately led by Charles Wyville Thomson of Edinburgh University, the Admiralty loaned the expedition HMS Challenger, a 2,137 ton, 21 gun, steam-assisted corvette. The ship was specially modified for the expedition and had all but two of its guns and some spars removed. Extra cabins, laboratories and a special dredging platform were installed. She was loaded with a variety of equipment including trawls and dredges, sounding leads and devices to collect sediment from the sea bed and a total of 181 miles of hemp rope. Some of her scientific equipment was invented or specially modified for the purpose.

Challenger carried a total of 243 officers, crew and scientists for her 1,606-day voyage on which 713 days were spent at sea and which covered nearly 69,000 nautical miles. In this time, the scientists carried out hundreds of deep sea soundings, bottom dredges, open water trawls and water temperature observations. By the time she returned to the UK, around 4,800 new species of marine life had been discovered.

We may never know how many species there are in the world, but there are close to two million that have been named and recorded. It is to expeditions like the Challenger one that we owe much of our information though, as we know, many more are discovered every month.
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2,400-Year-Old Soup

My family enjoy Chinese food and I am partial to the hot and sour soup from our local Chinese restaurant.

So it is interesting to read that Chinese archaeologists have uncovered what is thought to be the oldest pot of soup ever discovered. The 2,400-year-old sealed bronze vessel was discovered in a tomb near the ancient capital of Xian and contained a soup made of liquid and bones that had turned green due to the oxidation of the bronze.

This 2,400-year-old soup certainly knocks 100-year-old eggs into a cocked hat!
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Those Woodpeckers

Researchers from Idaho University have been using a satellite-borne laser to predict areas where North American pileated woodpeckers may be living.

It seems that the woodpeckers, the sort with tall red crests, are very selective about where they decide to live and are usually found in high-density forests. The scientists’ work has enabled maps to be drawn up of the areas favoured by the noisy birds. One of the scientists explained that the woodpeckers make cavities which are then used by other species for nesting and roosting.

It is interesting work but if these woodpeckers like high density forests, I wonder if our own species have similar tastes.

And if that is the case, why are the managers of our local reserve, cutting down so many trees in what they say is an exercise in coppicing?\.

Furious?

An Immigration and Asylum Tribunal have overturned a decision by the UK Border Agency to deport a failed asylum seeker who killed a 12-year-old girl in a hit and run incident before going on to commit other offences. The Tribunal said that because he fathered children in Britain, the decision of the UKBA was a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.

It’s a great shame that the Home Secretary cannot order the UKBA to find this man and pop him on the first plane back home. At the very least, they should find a decent barrister and file an appeal.

David Cameron is said to be furious at the Tribunal’s decision. We are all furious!

Perhaps Parliament should reconsider which bits of the European Convention need to be rewritten or scratched out!
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Who Cares?

A senior Tory MP is reported as being about to reveal that he is gay.

Good for him, some might say. On the other hand, do people really care about the sexuality of anyone these days?

Not in this household!
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The ‘Mini-Mini’

Our first car was an Austin mini which lasted for years until we could see the road beneath our feet and even I realised that it was an unsafe rusting wreck that needed to be replaced. I suppose we were a bit thinner in those days but my wife and I managed to motor all over the UK with our two sons, our dog, Max, which was the size of an Alsatian, and our luggage.

My days of driving that Mini were brought to mind by the report of a New Zealander, Lester Atherfold, who owns a large AEC Reliance Coach motorhome which he and his wife use to tour New Zealand. Recognising that he couldn’t take the motorhome everywhere, Mr Atherfold, who is a retired mechanic, looked to see if he could find a car small enough to go into the boot of his motorhome.

Finding none, he converted a cherry-red 1964 Mini 850 that he bought for £203 in 1988 and, over three months and at a total cost of £95, shortened the ten foot long car by two feet and shrinking its width by a few inches. Now he can drive his ‘Mini-Mini’ up a ramp into the Reliance Coach’s boot and park it beneath his bed where it sits safely until he wants to explore places the motorhome would not easily access.

When I lived in the States, I was quite used to seeing these humungous motorhomes on the freeways. Usually the racks at the back carried motorbikes or cycles but quite often there was a small car being towed behind that could be used on occasions such as shopping expeditions or go to places where it would be difficult to take the motorhome.

But Mr Atherfold takes the prize for originality, especially as I thought we did quite well all those years ago cramming everyone and everything into our first car!
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What About The Parents?

An American woman, supported by an outfit called the Center for Science in the Public Interest, has launched a class-action lawsuit against McDonald’s claiming that the toys given out with Happy Meals was an illegal marketing ploy to exploit children. ‘I am concerned about the health of my children and feel that McDonald’s should be a very limited part of their diet and their childhood experience,’ she trilled.

Her action will be heard by the California Superior Court in San Francisco and it will be interesting to see what happens.

Will it, I wonder, consider whether parental control might have something to do with the problem?
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Earhart Found?

The Discovery Channel have revealed that bone fragments found on Nikumaroro Island, a tiny uninhabited coral atoll in the Pacific, may solve the mystery of the what happened to Amelia Earhart who disappeared in July 1937 while attempting to fly around the world.

The tiny bone fragments were found alongside pieces of a pocket knife, pre-war American bottles and makeup from a woman’s compact. The remains of small fires as well as bird and fish bones and empty oyster shells laid in rows as if to catch water were also recovered.

Amelia was last heard from while heading towards tiny Howland island in the south Pacific when her twin-engine Lockheed Electra crashed in the ocean after running out of fuel. Despite an extensive search being carried out, her body and that of her navigator, Fred Noonan, were never found.

The bone fragments are now being examined by scientists at Oklahoma University who hope that they will yield enough DNA to be compared with members of Earhart’s family.

Another mystery solved?
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Charity Fatigue II

I wrote a few days ago about the number of advertisements on satellite television channels for various charities. They caused me to wonder if the television companies were using them as ‘fillers’ when there were no paying advertisements to broadcast.

Since then I have noted half a dozen more charity commercials which have joined the others at a time of year when many of us are thinking of making donations to worthy causes. Some of these would seem to be fairly small charities and some appear at first sight to duplicate the work of larger and better known charities.

I’ve so far counted a dozen charities appealing for funds in the last couple of weeks and it has struck me that some of them appear to duplicate the work of others, some better known. I wonder what benefit arises when a small charity makes a similar appeal to a larger one?

As I said before, we have made our annual Christmas donation and the spate of charity commercials do not affect us. Except to make me wonder what overheads some of these charities incur before they actually do their advertised work.
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A Disgrace

A Romanian woman who provided compatriots with fake documents to obtain National Insurance numbers and make illegal claims for state benefits totalling nearly £3 millions has been jailed for 27 months. A number of other Romanians were also given jail terms for their part in the scam.

Fraud of this size makes you wonder about the competence of those people responsible for checking benefit claims. Can’t their computers spot fraudulent National Insurance numbers?

The Director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance is quoted as saying: ‘We need a reformed benefit system less vulnerable to this kind of abuse and the authorities need to explain how it could happen and how they will stop it happening. ... Finally, there need to be stiff punishments when criminals rip off taxpayers.’

He got that right!
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A Hostile Environment

I spent forty-odd years in the shipping industry and got to travel on a variety of ships in a variety of oceans. In all that time, I think there were only a dozen occasions when the ship I was sailing in encountered such severe weather that there was danger to life and limb.

They were all very unpleasant occasions and a reminder that the sea can be a hostile environment no matter how large a ship might be. Despite this, when you speak to a seasoned cruise passenger about, for instance, the hurricane you were once in, the chances are that you will be countered by their experience which they are sure was worse than yours. As I’ve said before, some passengers very often wear their bad-weather experiences like medals and are more than happy to talk at length about them.

So I was interested in two recent bad-weather stories affecting cruise ships. The first concerned the small Clelia II which, returning from a trip to Antarctica, suffered an engine failure in severe weather and, for a while, was escorted by an Argentinean Naval ship until things were sorted out. In this instance, there were no injuries except to one crew member.

In the second incident, dozens of passengers and crew were injured when the much larger Brilliance of the Seas encountered such bad weather in the Mediterranean that giant waves sent people and furniture flying around the ship. One report said that the wavs were of such intensity that it caused the ship to ‘rock dangerously from side to side’.

I spent a little time looking up the blogs and twitters of some of those involved in these two and other incidents and was not disappointed for there were some who thought their own experiences were more dramatic.

But none of them were as bad as when I was on the old Victoria in June 2000. We had left Akureyri and had spent a day sailing round the coast of Iceland trying to avoid the worst of some very bad weather when the ship was hit by a hurricane. The ship’s motion was quite unbelievable and ...
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Mysterious Indeed

We all love a mystery, and art historians seem to have uncovered one after discovering minute letters and numbers painted into the pupils of the eyes of Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting of the woman known as the Mona Lisa.

On display in the Louvre, the woman with the enigmatic smile, also known as La Gioconda, was painted in the early 1500s when Da Vinci was living in France and is a half-portrait painted in oils on a poplar panel. There are a variety of theories as to who the painting represents; one says that it is Lisa Gheradini, the wife of a Florence merchant, another says that it is Da Vinci’s mother. Yet another says that it shows the face of Da Vinci himself.

The painting has been closely examined by members of the Italian National Committee for Cultural Heritage who say that, seen under a magnifying glass, the letters LV appear in the painting’s right pupil, while in the left pupil appear the letters CE or CB. In the arch of the bridge in the background appears the number 72 or, possibly, L2.

It seems that art historians were alerted to the secrets of the 500-year-old painting by the discovery of a 50-year-old book that described how the Mona Lisa's eyes are full of various signs and symbols.

Odd isn’t it that truth so often mirrors fiction? The painting, possibly the most famous in the world, featured in the book and movie of The Da Vinci Code whose main character interprets secret messages found hidden in it and some of Da Vinci’s other works.

But whether we will ever discover the secret behind these minute symbols hidden in the Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile, is quite another thing.
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Keep Him Out!

A Florida pastor has been invited to the UK to speak at an English Defence League rally in February.

One wonders why the pastor of a church with less than forty members should be invited to speak but, of course, this is the man who achieved international notoriety for threatening to burn the Koran on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

It has rightly been said that extremism breeds extremism, and we have enough extremists of our own without inviting any more into the country to stir things up. So I for one would welcome a decision by the Home Secretary to keep this fellow out of it!
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Depressing

I spent some time yesterday scanning the comments in some of the online newspapers about the recent student protests.

I wonder sometimes what sort of world we have created when folk can blame everyone in sight for Thursday’s riot but the students themselves. The range of excuses started fairly predictably with the Labour government that introduced student loans but went on to blame the bankers, the current government, the police, fiddling MPs and, among others, even the media.

It is bad news that the students are to carry out more protest marches and, doubtless, there will be a minority of those involved who will set out to cause trouble. Neither will endear students to the rest of us.

Students need to join the real world. Enough of their protests and the disorder that results.
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Cheers!

The UK Border Agency has confiscated over 80,000 litres of Italian wine, 14,000 litres of vodka and over 300,000 litres of beer with a total value of more than a million pounds all of which was illegally imported into Britain recently.

The alcohol will now apparently be turned into fertiliser and the packaging recycled.

I suppose the UKBA is right to put illegally imported items to some other use but, at the same time, one wonders why all this booze couldn’t just be recycled at a profit through the supermarkets.

What I’d like to know is: What is to be grown in the fields fertilised by wine and vodka, and where can we buy whatever is produced in them?
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Roll On Summer!

Like most other people in this country I’ve had enough of the cold weather, and a circular received from one of the cruise lines reminds me that there is something called summer.

A cruise has always been my favourite holiday. One can do as much or, as in my case, as little as one wants. Everything is included in the fare except drinks and shore tours and all you have to do is to relax. Cruising has grown in popularity in this country for the last fifteen years and this is no surprise when you compare the fares with what one might expect to pay in a hotel for a fortnight for instance.

There is, of course, another incentive to a holiday by cruise ship, and that is the increasing dangers involved in a traditional British seaside holiday. Dangers you might ask?

Well, for a start, there’s the tremendous increase in the number of stinging jellyfish that have recently appeared in our coastal waters. There’s the Weaver fish that hide in the sand with three spines protruding which give excruciating pain when they are trodden on. Spiny sea urchins and Stingrays also give intense pain when they are trodden on. And, since 2006, Great White sharks are said to have regularly been spotted in our waters.

Isn’t that enough to put you off a seaside holiday? If not, there’s another new menace to consider and that is the emergence in our waters of the Mantis Shrimp, also known as the Toe-splitter Shrimp.

These little fellows, which can grow to as much as twelve inches, lie in wait on the seabed and either smash or spear their prey with their heavily calcified claws. They are said to be incredibly fast when they strike and, unbelievably, can smash their way through aquarium glass. In fact, three specimens caught off the Kent coast recently are being housed in a reinforced tank in an aquarium in Hastings.

Though these creatures are said to be rare, the experts acknowledge that these and other creatures being seen more frequently in our waters are evidence of global warming. Given the current cold weather, this is hard to believe.

Nonetheless, it all goes to show that a cruise is quite a good holiday idea!
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Deal With It!

Yesterday’s riots in central London had nothing to do with peaceful protest, and if the students think that what happened endeared the minds of the British public to their cause they are deluded.

One may argue about the causes of the current economic crisis but one thing is clear and that is that the coalition government are trying their best to get us out of the mess that was bequeathed to it. They repeatedly make the point that everyone in the country has in some way to make a contribution.

So must then the students. Enough of their protests. The public are fed up with scenes of riot, anarchy and violence.

If the students want the public’s sympathy, they should go back to their colleges and leave the rest of us in peace!
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Journey Into Space

Yesterday saw the demonstration flight of a privately-funded rocket which took off from Cape Canaveral bearing a space capsule which, after orbiting earth for a while, will return to earth by splashing down in the Pacific.

Both the rocket and the capsule were designed and constructed by California's SpaceX company which has won a contract with NASA to provide twelve spacecraft with payloads of twenty tons each to resupply the International Space Station through to 2016.

Private enterprise is a great thing and SpaceX deserves to succeed in this $1.6bn venture.

Let’s hope though that none of our cheap airlines get involved!
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A Flippant Thought

Post-traumatic stress disorder sometimes follows a traumatic event and may overwhelm a person’s ability to cope.

But now, scientists have discovered a way to stop the problem before it starts. Which is good news for those who might suffer from it.

If the new drug, which is injected into the brain, stops the disorder from starting, how do scientists know that it might start in the first place?
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Dark Thoughts

Yesterday was one of my ‘bad’ days when various pains resulting from a problem that developed three years ago effectively incapacitated me for the day.

At times like this my mind invariably wanders to the future when, possibly, a hospital bed looms. It’s not a comforting thought because one reads so many reports of overcrowded wards for the elderly or critically ill along with a lack of care and compassion by the staff supposed to be caring for them. Doubtless, the reports reflect a minority situation but when one has dark thoughts at such times, they become darker in one’s mind.

So it is interesting that a review of palliative care by Marie Curie Cancer Care concludes that the NHS in England has failed to take responsibility for ensuring good end-of-life care. In response, the Health Secretary for England said: ‘We need to ensure that the care people receive at the end of life is compassionate, appropriate and gives people choices in where they die and how they are cared for.’

I hope he and the others responsible get it all organised in time for me!
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Two Questions

Reports say that that the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, is about to hand himself into police hands to answer a European Arrest Warrant issued by the Swedes who want to talk to him about an alleged rape.

Wikileaks has done immense damage by leaking US consular messages and I would have a couple of questions I’d like to ask.

Firstly, who funds Mr Assange?

Secondly, if the recent activities of Wikileaks is unlawful, why are not the newspapers and other media that publish the leaks equally responsible in law?
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Some Good News

The cold weather continues and we learn that the Christmas Brussels Sprout harvest in Britain is at risk because the frost makes their harvesting by machine impossible.

While I feel sorry for the farmers affected, at least for me there’s some good news coming out of this cold spell of weather!
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How Would He Know?

A 25-year-old Russian woman who came to this country three years ago to study and has been working as a researcher for an MP who sits on the Defence Select Committee has been detained on suspicion of being a spy and faces deportation proceedings.

The MP in question backs his researcher 100% and said, ‘I have no reason to believe she did any thing but act honourably during the time she was working for me.’ Perhaps he is right.

Two questions, however, arise in my mind.

The first is why would any MP want to employ a non-British national as a researcher, particularly if that MP could have access to sensitive papers? The second is how would the MP have known whether or not she was a spy?
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A Question

I suppose I cannot avoid mentioning it. The cold and snow, that is.

In our part of Essex, we were hit hard by the snow which fell to a depth I can’t recall before. For the first time ever, I had to clear paths through the snow in the back garden to allow our two small dogs to get out of the house rather than have to tunnel through the white stuff. Four times I had to do this.

Like others around the country, our local council only salt and grit the major roads and so it is always a struggle to get out of our road and those leading to the main roads. The result is that we feel somewhat marooned as you see no-one about for days on end. As more folk get adventurous and start driving, the snow on the road becomes compacted and turns to ice. As, indeed, happened this week. If we had the equipment, we could actually skate along our road at this moment. I don’t complain about this, we just accept it as something which happens ever year.

Like most other people, we have put up with the bad weather with stoicism. What else can we do? The central heating has been on twenty-four hours a day all week, but that is the price, literally, we have had to pay to keep warm. The weather experts tell us that we have to face at least another week of cold weather and we are prepared for this.

What I want to know is: If we are in the grips of global warming, why is it so bloody cold?
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Charity Fatigue

I don’t think I’m a mean man and, when I can, I try to help out local and other charities.

The number of television advertisements for various charities seen in the last few days make me wonder whether the satellite television companies are using them as ‘fillers’ when they have no paying advertisements to broadcast. If so, I think they do the charities a disservice.

In the last few days I have been invited to subscribe £2 per month to St. Dunstans, £3 pm to adopt a tiger, £3 pm to adopt a polar bear, £30 per annum to adopt a lion, £2 pm for the WeCare charity, an unspecified amount to the RSPCA and £19 to the Salvation Army. There were also a couple of others.

All these are worthy charities and I have selected the one that I shall donate to this Christmas. But I do wonder whether the number of these sort of advertisements is one reason why most of the charities themselves admit that Britain suffers from ‘charity fatigue’.

If that is right, then might fewer advertisements than at present help?
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Nuts!

An Australian chap recently ‘married’ his beloved yellow Labrador bitch in an outdoor ceremony attended by thirty of his chums and family members and some of their pet dogs. After the happy couple took their vows, the union was sealed with a kiss.

It has not been explained how the Labrador bitch was able to express her wedding vows, and one assumes that the kiss was a rather wet one. But, unlike human marriages, the groom was at pains to explain that the reason for the wedding was not sexual.

It’s good to know that nutters still exist on this planet!
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Life Goes On

So Russia will host the 2018 World Cup and, within minutes of the announcement, the recriminations have started.

I might be wrong, but surely football is a game? You win some and you lose some.

This time we lost!
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Extraordinary!

Bored with stories about the snow and Wikileaks, I looked around this morning to see if anything else of interest was being reported. I wasn’t disappointed.

To start with, there’s the tale of the drunken passenger on Holland America Line’s Ryndam, sailing in the Gulf of Mexico, who is said to have taken himself into the restricted area at the stern of the ship and released the anchor. He is now in FBI custody and faces a $250,000 fine and a possible prison sentence if convicted. I’ve never heard of anything like that in all my years in the shipping industry.

Closer to home, a South Wales council has threatened to prosecute a ‘Secret Santa’ who leaves Christmas presents for less well-off children hanging from trees in a local park. The offence? Fly-tipping! Are they serious down there in South Wales?

Then you have the woman who was fined £60 for parking 22 minutes longer than the three hour limit in Swansea. The contractor who levied the fine and then refused her appeal was told that the women was a little late getting back to her car because she went to the aid of a suicidal woman who was threatening to jump into the River Tawe. Unsurprisingly, when the story hit the press the contractors changed their mind. Couldn’t they have done that in the first place?

And then, the pilot of the plane carrying Nigel Farage of UKIP which crashed on general election day has been charged with threatening to kill Farage. And, presumably, himself at the same time?

‘Ain’t it a strange world sometimes?
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Wanna Bet?

On Monday evening BBCs Panorama programme alleged that three FIFA executive committee members of accepting ‘corrupt’ payments and that its vice-president attempted to supply ticket touts.

Since all four men are part of the committee that will vote on the 2018 and 2022 hosts, one would think that England’s chances of hosting the 2018 World Cup were slim indeed.

But an official from England 2018 said yesterday: ‘The BBC’s Panorama did nothing more than rake over a series of historical allegations none of which are relevant to the current bidding process.’

I wouldn’t like to bet on it!
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