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I posted this in my.telegraph blog.
I have just been viewing a report on BBC 24 about the forthcoming review of the civic response to the recents floods in Yorkshire. In it the reporter repeated that the floods were unpredictable and extraordinary. The changing patterns of weather in this country make this trite remark sound very complacent. He also mentioned the flood defences or lack of them.
We would not need flood defences if we stopped building on flood plains, stopped paving and tarmacing every available surface, planted more trees and stopped clearing mature trees and finally where there are existing towns at risk they were protected by adequate flood drains under roads and pavements. Forty years ago when I lived in Johannesburg, SA, there were regular storms when an inch or more of rain fell in a an hour or so. The huge drains allowed the water to run off roadways almost as fast as it fell and there was never any risk of flooding to properties of any sort. We have to accept that the recent heavy rain is likely to be repeated on more or less regularly in the future and that building defensive wall to prevent floods will be a waste of time and money.
There were two more hopeful news items recently. Gordon Brown inserted the word economic before the Israeli/ Palestinian roadmap. That does make sense. Until the Palestinians are given a chance economically there will never be peace. But we will have to wait and see.
Then I heard that the BBC will be looking to create better balance in all its output. Let’s hope that this means a balanced view of world news, not the present total preoccupation with what really amount to neighbourhood gossip. It would appear that first thing in the morning the newsroom chooses 3 or 4 pieces of tittle tattle and they become the news stories of the day on every BBC news channel. You have in the UK to wait for the World Service at 1.00 am to hear what has happened in the rest of the world.
The principal excuse from government spokesmen commenting on the our poor showing in the recent Unicef report on children was that the data was out of date. It’s the excuse they make fro every derogatory report. In this case did they really believe that the public would say, “But, of course, in the last year or so I have noticed how suddenly all the young people look so happy and how they are suddenly so polite to others”. There are just one or two who have taken to shooting their peers in their own homes.
Jane Godley said something on Radio 4’s Saturday Live which made me think. She was talking about her husbands family using guns and hse stressed that they were not something they felt big or proud about carrying; they were just a tool, only to be fired in extreme situations. And that is the big difference with the young people in South London. Their guns define their status. They are their “emperor’s clothes”. And that is what makes them so dangerous.
Madeira suits us a holiday destination, a timeshare in the Royal Savoy Vacation Club, right at the sea, yet close by the amenities of Funchal itself. The weather at this time of year is balmy rather than hot, and so far there has been no rain. There is enough activity to be interesting without the crowds of young boisterous youngsters to make us oldies irritated.
An excursion on a large catamaran during which we saw pilot whales and dolphins was a memorable morning. The food has been good and the scenery is magnificent.
Anchored out in the bay is a sinister ship, an American military support vessel, its deck cargo shrouded in white canvas. There is little sign of life on board and there appears to be no traffic with the shore, although at night it is brightly lit. The locals say that similar ships are fairly regular visitors which often stay several weeks. Presumably there is some strategic significance in its presence here off out-of-the-way Madeira. What makes it sinister in my eyes is that it flies no flag. The smallest pleasure craft flies its national flag and navies have always gone into battle with ensigns aloft. In fact the lack of an ensign is regarded as a dubious ruse de guerre. But here we have an US Navy auxiliary ship reduced to skulking in friendly waters. Failure to reveal its true colours is not I think a matter of economic necessity for a cash-strapped Defense Department but rather some tactic in the War on Terror. Surely a great nation should not have to adopt the tactics of stealth and subterfuge practised by its enemies?
war on terror
I seem to have been very quiet on here in recent weeks, not that I have been lulled into complacency by events. It is more of a sign of my pre-occupation with Scottish Education and its new national network portal, Glow. It is still fascinating how politicians seem to have a compulsion to tell half truths. Just yesterday, our revered Foreign Secretary suddenly had a lapse of memory on the Today programme regarding the so-called reasons for going to war with Iraq.
Anyway, A very Happy Christmas to everyone.
After the Woodpecker episode, laterthat evening I discover three tiny frogs about 1 cm long, two in one dog’s food bowl and one in another. The dog bowls are at least a couple of metres apart and the frogs were unable to get out of them so could not really have climbed into them. There were no other frogs, large or small, anywhere else.
I know it sounds far fetched but the only explanation I can think of is that our Scottish Terrier with a longish beard brought them in tangled in it. The dog does have a habit of drinking from the pond in the garden.
