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The adjacent photo is of Snowdrop Valley near Wheddon Cross on the edge of Exmoor in Somerset.
There is scant evidence of spring so far this year as it has been quite a cold winter despite the meteorologists telling us that it was milder than last winter. This is because we had one month of mild weather which raised average temperatures. As regular readers will know, I always put cold weather down to global warming!

The UK is in a pretty poor state at the moment, politically, economically and culturally. Evidence of this can be summed up with the latest headlines which have dominated the press for the past week. Football Match of the Day (MOTD) presenter Gary Linaker twittered that government spokesmen sounded like the German government in the 1930's when criticising their latest immigration policy.

Now that is a pretty dumb remark from a pretty good sports presenter who should stick to his day job while spending some of his £1.35m BBC salary on better potato crisps than Walkers, however, he has a perfect right to say stupid things on twitter and is entitled to have a point of view commensurate with his low level of intelligence. To compare the UK government to the Nazi regime was ridiculous and there were calls for him to be sacked
Aunty BBC duly asked him to resign from MOTD then his equally intelligent pundits on the show resigned in solidarity and MOTD was broadcast with no commentary with the result of attracting an extra half million viewers who enjoyed watching the football without inane comments!

Meanwhile it is costing the UK taxpayer £7m a day to keep illegal immigrants housed and 45,000 came over the English Channel in small boats from France last year. Perhaps that is one reason they come here as in France the government does not house them and you see tent encampments all over that country.
The Tory's idea is to make it law that if you enter the country illegally you are not eligible for asylum and will be sent to Ruanda which lawyers will probably stop but nobody seems to have a solution to the problem and Britain is not alone.

Inflation was down from 9.2% in December 2022 to 8.8% in January 2023 so the government is making progress albeit in small stages. The price of diesel has dropped around here to under £1.60/litre from a high of nearly £2 in the winter and wholesale gas prices have also dropped. The government will continue to subsidise consumers until March 2024 but if wholesale gas prices continue to fall it will not cost them much.

It is the UK budget this week and the chancellor says he will introduce incentives to get the idle Brits who have retired early back to work. IMHO he doesn't have a cat in hell's chance. The next government looks to be Labour and I expect they will resolve the problem by importing loads of cheap labour irrespective of where they are from and the effect on our culture.

The final evidence of the country's dismal state is the Frogs thrashing us 10-53 at Twickers in the Six Nations Championship. Next week we have to face Ireland in Dublin so I am resigned to further humiliation,

Rugby Union Premiership

We have now reached round 20 pf the premiership which began in Bristol where Quins were given a good talking too at Ashton Gate suffering a 51-27 defeat.

This was followed by another surprise as London Irish beat Sale 36-18. Sale are currently runners up in the Premiership.
Leicester Tigers triumphed over Gloucester at Kingsholm 5-26 while Exeter pleased the Sandy Park fans by beating Newcastle 24-5.

Now we come to the tragic bit; Bath Rugby.
No doubt about it we are getting worse under head coach Johann van Graan losing 45-26 against Northampton Saints at Franklins Gardens. This cements our place at the bottom of the table and with Exeter, Gloucester and Quins left to play this season it looks like the concrete has set firm.

If this were premiership football then Van Graan would have got his marching orders by now but in Rugby Union we tend to give our coaches a little more time. Next season Barf will have to do better or Van Graan will be gone.

We can look forward next season to the additions of scrum half Jamie Shilcock and fly half Billy Searle both from Worcester but the former might struggle to start if Ben Spencer is fit and the latter will not get much playing time when Fin Russell is not wanted by Scotland.
Contract extensions are; prop Will Stuart, hooker Tom Dunn, back rows Sam Underhill and Ted Hill, scrum half Ben Spencer, centre Cameron Redpath, winger Joe Cokanasiga and Russian prop Valery Morazov.

Holiday Plans

My original plan was to hitch a lift with the Hockeys in May to deliver one of Carol's ceramics to The Lovely Anna in Céret, France then continue along the coast to the Italian Riviera.
Unfortunately Mr Hockey spent far to much on his teeth during his winter sojourn in Spain so called off the trip. Fortunately my friend Uncle Murdo stepped into the breach and will accompany me for the trip.

We will be travelling in May on Eurotunnel le Shuttle staying at Campanile hotels in Reims and Savoie on the way to an apartment on Levanto in Liguria where we will base ourselves for a few days. Levanto is handy for the Cinque Terre villages which can be accessed by train and within easy reach of Genoa.

Cinque Terre, the five towns, are a string of five old fishing villages perched high on the Italian Riviera in the region Liguria. Here is a link to a web site giving details of the region.

On the return drive we will visit Sanremo which is close to the French border with Liguria. It was a location near here that first attracted me to Liguria when years ago I read a book called Extra Virgin by Annie Hawes about two sisters who bought a cottage in an olive grove which is well worth a read.

The Lovely Anna lives in Céret which is close to the city of Perpignan adjacent to the Spanish border. We will spend a couple of days here in a nice little hotel called Poppys Chambres d'Hotes.
This is Rugby Union country although they do play a bit of League which the locals call Heretic Rugby! This is because of a people who used to live around here called the Cathars who were regarded as heretics by the Roman Catholic church.

We will break our drive back once again at Campanile hotels in Bourges and Calais. This hotel chain is part of a group which includes Premiere Class where I stayed on my last visit to France. It was more like Premiere Underclass and the Campanile group is more upmarket with good restaurants attached.

Rugby News

The Six Nations was deservedly won by Ireland beating everyone with a Grand Slam. England played probably their best Rugby of the tournament but an undeserved red card given to Full Back Freddie Steward by Jarpie Ref Jaco Payper for dangerous play rather sealed England's fate and they lost 29-16.

The table finished as follows:
Despite Ireland's win the most impressive team to watch was France and I still have them to win the World Cup later this year. Scrum Half Antoine Dupont is without doubt the best in the world with Fly Half Ntamack and Full Back Ramos close seconds but the whole team plays superlative rugby and must rate as one of the best French teams ever.
There only problem seems to be consistency of performance. They struggled against Italy and lost in Dublin against the Irish. Maybe they still have the away game problems of old but the world cup is in France this year so they should beat Ireland at home.

Scotland had a great tournament this year and finished only a point behind France. England have so many things wrong that coach Steve Borthwick does not have enough time to fix for the World Cup and so does Wales but Italy, despite collecting yet another wooden spoon showed real improvement.

In the Premiership Barf managed a famous record 36-19 victory at the rec against Exeter to lift themselves off the bottom of the table. We play Gloucester next away and are not holding our breath!

Scottish Politics

A lovely April Fool article appeared in The Scotsman newspaper saying that the SNP planned to erect a statue cast in steel to the fishy lady, Nicola Sturgeon, in the Scottish parliament.

"Efforts are under way to keep costs to a minimum, however, by using surplus steel purchased for the Ferguson Marine ferries, in what may be a fitting if unwelcome nod to Ms Sturgeon's legacy. An early suggestion to also designate the statue a deposit return point has been ruled out on grounds of complexity."

The source said: "This is an idea which has really gathered pace in recent days and now has the full force of the Cabinet behind it.

He added: "Crucially it appears to be an infrastructure project which the government should, with a fair wind, be able to deliver. MSPs will walk past the statue every day and be inspired, while grateful citizens can come to pay tribute to the beloved former First Minister."

"Building the ferries has of course been challenging and an error at the procurement stage actually meant we ended up with a load of surplus steel. Repurposing it for this truly exciting project will both help keep costs to a minimum and prove the SNP is committed to value for money. We are confident the statue will be delivered on time and on budget, and in all likelihood before the Glen Sannox sets sail."

A spokesman for Tory leader Douglas Ross said: "We don't need to be reminded of Nicola Sturgeon every day we go to work. Humza Yousaf's administration will do that for us. This is an outrageous use of taxpayers money, although admittedly cheaper than failing to build a ferry or over-engineering a bottle return scheme."

Interesting times north of the border these days. The Scottish Governments first minister and leader of her SNP party, Nicola Sturgeon, resigned but gave unconvincing reasons for her resignation. An election to replace her followed which was inexplicably shortened and resulted in the election by a short head of pro-Sturgeon continuity candidate Humza Yousaf to replace the fishy lady.

In the meantime the SNP spin doctor resigned after he was given false membership figures by the SNP chief executive Peter Murrell who is married to the fishy lady and who himself resigned when it was revealed that they had 30,000 fewer members to vote for the new leader than was originally declared.

The Polis (Police in the Scots dialect) have been investigating the alleged misappropriation of some £600,000 donated specifically for an independence referendum which has not taken place but has disappeared. A few days after the leadership election and resignations the Polis arrested Peter Murrell, questioned him for 11 hours and released him without charge, meanwhile searching his and the fishy lady's home for two days to try and find something fishy. It was later revealed that the SNP auditors had resigned prior to the arrest.

At the time of writing the fishy lady has gone to ground (sunk to the depths might be more appropriate) having cancelled a speaking engagement amid allegations that Polis action was delayed as a result of political pressure until all the resignations and the election were concluded. That is very unusual as the fishy lady usually takes every opportunity to deny every allegation of wrong doing.

IMHO it can not be good for the governance of Scotland to have had the first minister/leader of the SNP and its chief executive a married couple. For a decade now there has been too much power concentrated with those two people and when the current administration in coalition with the Green party has a majority in the Scottish parliament.

Rugby News

Barf seems to have undergone an end of season renaissance. First we beat Exeter then we travelled to Kingsholm and beat Gloucester 24-33, finally we went to Twickers where, in front of 45,000 supporters there was a try fiesta against Quins with Barf running in six tries to finish worthy winners 35-45.

So Barf moves from bottom of the table to ninth place above arch rivals Glaws who have gone downhill from a promising start to the season.

Sarries cemented their top place and home semi final with a home win against London Irish after a shaky start to win convincingly 45-21 and Barf will face them at the rec in their final game of the season.
Sale struggled against Glaws at Kingsholm but managed a 22=25 result.

The Tiger put Exeter to the sword at Sandy Park 62-19 but the following week the Chiefs just managed to beat Bristol 22-21.

Northampton went up to Kingston Park and thrashed Newcastle 5-66 so the top four are now decided. Sarries will play the Saints at the StoneX stadium and Sale will play the Tigers at Salford City.

I predict that Sarries will beat the Saints but the other semi is a bit harder to predict. I think that the home venue might just give Sale the edge over the Tigers but it should be a close game.
I therefore predict the final at Twickers on 27th May will be between Sarries and Sale with Sarries the winner.
With a bit of luck, fearing injuries, Sarries might field a 2nd XV against Barf at the rec which we need to win to qualify for next years champions cup,

Spring Activities

The weather being more spring like I have been donning my walking boots and exploring sections of the Coleridge Way I had not previously explored.

The Coleridge Way begins at Nether Stowey and finishes 51 miles later at Lynmouth. From Stowey the route goes up over Walfords Gibbet, round the side of Dowsborough and then drops down to Holford.
The path then follows the northern flank of the Quantock Hills, passing Alfoxton Manor which Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy rented while Coleridge was living in Stowey.

You walk parallel to the A39 road as far as West Quantoxhead where you turn South East and follow the line of the hills along the Vale of Taunton Dene as far as Bicknoller. Here you join the Macmillan Way and follow it as far as Sampford Brett. It then parts and heads South to Aller Farm and I have walked all the route as far as here.

It is always a pleasure to sink a few pints of Otter in the Brewers Arms in South Petherton but the icing on the cake is if it is followed by dinner with Ann and Jeremy Clifford. As I was staying with the Hockeys we unfortunately had to put up with Chris but the food was faultless.

It being Spring the South Petherton Combined Arts Society Choir held their Spring Concert in the parish church. The first half was a selection of well known opera songs including such gems as the Pearl Fishers Duet and the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves.

The soloists were Tenor Matthew Minter (who was the star) and it was supposed to be Bass Christopher Sheldrake but turned out to be someone else. I know not who? The accompanist was local pianist Jonathan Delbridge. Alice Dicker was the musical director.

The second half of the concert was devoted to Puccini's Messa di Gloria which I thought should have been programmed first so the well known pieces came last. Puccini was an 18 year old student when he wrote this piece for his graduation from the music academy.

Latest Health update 29/04/2023

My dishwasher heater packed up and a service engineer came to fix it. I was leant against the kitchen worktop watching him when I felt a bit woozy so sat down in an adjacent chair. I woke up on the kitchen floor! The next thing I remember I was sat on the chair and the service engineer had dialled 999 for an ambulance.

The service engineer fetched my neighbour Georgina to stay with me until the ambulance arrived with a crew of three girls one of whom was a Kiwi paramedic from Auckland. I asked her what a Kiwi was doing working here with the NHS while our medics were leaving the NHS to work in Australia and New Zealand. She said she had only been here for three months and came along with two girl friends for the job. She was loving every minute.

I was given the full ECG treatment for a suspected cardiac problem after which the Kiwi said that she was not happy with the drop in my blood pressure from sitting down to standing up and would like to take me to Musgrove hospital for further examination. I was to take stuff in case they wanted to keep me in hospital plus all my medications. I was connected up to their instruments and monitored all the way to Taunton in the ambulance.

At Musgrove A&E the paramedics procedures were once again repeated. A cannula was inserted and blood taken. The blood test results took about an hour to arrive followed by a cardiac consultant who looked through all my medications and questioned why I was taking Metoprolol for high blood pressure. I explained that this was prescribed in NZ after I had suffered kidney damage when I was first diagnosed with myeloma as the drugs that I was then taking to control blood pressure could harm kidney function.
The doctor then explained that they do not prescribe Metoprolol for high blood pressure in the UK now as it's action is to slow the heart rate and that low blood pressure when standing probably caused me to faint. He advised me to cease taking Metoprolol and to monitor my blood pressure daily to ensure my blood pressure did not rise as a result.
My blood tests showed that everything was normal including kidney function and I could go home.

My neighbour Georgina had kindly volunteered to give me a lift back to Williton so I called her and she arrived about half an hour later. I offered to pay her but she declined saying that was what neighbours were for.
While we waited at the hospital for a heavy April shower to stop who should appear but my number one granddaughter Liza who works in Musgrove as a cardiac physiologist. "What are you doing here granddad" and I had to explain everything for the umpteenth time!

The next day I had a call from my GP to ask me to attend the surgery that day. He checked my blood pressure and listened to my heart, confirming what the consultant had told me to monitor my blood pressure for a week when he would contact me again. He told me that there were plenty of other drugs to control blood pressure that did not affect kidney function.
A joined up NHS would you believe!

My friend Murdo who was accompanying me to Italy next month has developed tummy problems and needs hospital treatment so my holiday has been cancelled or maybe postponed until September when hopefully Murdo will have recovered.

UK pension increase

Much has been made of the triple lock policy of the present government which is that the state pension increases each April in line with whichever of these three measures is highest:

• inflation, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) in the September of the previous year
• the average increase in wages across the UK or 2.5%

The highest this time was inflation and as a result the state pension went up by 10.1% - in line with September's measure of inflation.

Much hue and cry particularly from unions and our youth that the workers are having to pay for "rich" pensioners to get an inflation busting state pension rise while they are deprived with wages being held down.

I have a small private pension without which I would struggle to live on only the state pension. This is a with profits type and has increased slightly this year so, combined with the increase in state pension, my income tax has increased. The result is that cash in hand I am actually better off by the grand sum of £3.89 per month.

Thank you Mr Hunt or should your surname be replaced with something more appropriate?

Charles III Coronation

I was 11 years old when Elizabeth II was crowned and I can't remember being much interested apart from Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing climbing Everest for the first time just before she was crowned. Now knocking off that bastard was truly impressive!

I watched this coronation as a fairly neutral observer but IMHO a constitutional monarchy is the best solution to a country's governance that has yet to be invented and has proved it's worth in the UK for several hundred years.
The cost to UK taxpayers of the monarchy we are told is about £80 million per annum which amounts to about £1.50 per taxpayer. Compare that to the French presidency, a country with a similar population to the UK, which in 2021 for the services of the Presidency to the French republic amounted to an estimated €104.59 million (about £89 million) so it was more expensive.

But the main reason I support the idea of a separate head of state who is politically neutral is to avoid idiots like Macron, Trump, Putin, Xi Jinping et al having any political power.

Having said all that I did enjoy the coronation ceremony despite being a bit of an atheist and especially enjoyed the music.
The Coronation orchestra was composed of musicians from British and Canadian orchestras conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano, he of the mobile mouth, with choirs from Westminster Abbey, the Chapel Royal St James's Palace, and singers from the Monteverdi Choir, all conducted by Andrew Nethsingha. Herbert Parry's I was Glad greeted he arrival of the King and their singing and unison was sublime as were the Ascension choir, a group of gospel singers all dressed in white who sang Debbie Wiseman's setting of verses from Psalm 47. Not at all happy clappy but they did jig around a bit!

A Welsh translation of Kyrie eleison, was performed by the eminent operatic baritone Sir Bryn Terfel (sans rugby ball).
The music continued with compositions by William Byrd, Richard Strauss, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Henry Purcell and William Walton to mention just a few of the better known composers.

While the King was being anointed with holy oil screened off from everyone, Handel's Zadoc the Priest was performed by the orchestra and choir.

Apart from the regalia worn by the Royals and assorted bishops and others, the one person who impressed me most was the Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt who also had a prominent role in the accession ceremony after the late queen died. Considering Liz Truss gave her the job in parliament to keep her quiet after she contested the leadership election, that was another of her mistakes as Mordaunt has been continually in the public eye ever since.

Mordaunt is also Lord President of the Council and as such she was required to carry the 17th-Century Sword of State into the Abbey. She wore an elegant teap dress and a matching hat, both embroidered with gold ferns similar to the Privy Council uniform motif.
She presented the Jewelled Sword of Offering to the king during the ceremony and led the procession out of the Abbey serenaded by Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March Number 4 and Hubert Parry's March from Aristophanes'. The event was rounded off with the orchestra playing the Earl of Oxford's March by William Byrd

4000 members of whats left of the British armed forces made a spectacular sight and there are few countries who can match them for military marching precision. For the first time ever the whole parade which stretched over a mile started and then marched in precisely to the same step with each bass drum in each band fitted with an ear piece to ensure unison.

As if to demonstrate their military precision on returning to Buckingham palace gardens and the royal salute, weapons were placed on the ground, hats and busbys removed then three cheers for the king, all performed in perfect unison by the 4000. Very impressive.

Also very impressive was the rugby union game by Bath.

The final round of the Rugby Premiership

The four teams to finish top of the table were decided in the previous round but there was still a competition for the eighth place between Bath and Bristol. Bristol was playing Gloucester at Ashton Gate while Bath met Sarries at the rec so there was real West Country interest

I predicted in my previous report above that Sarries might just decide to field a 2nd XV to protect their star players for the important final play offs to come as this game meant virtually nothing to them apart from pride and that proved to be the case. The only star to be selected was Elliot Daley and he only played 40 minutes after returning from injury.

Barf was off the mark quickly with Miles Reid going over after 2 minutes converted by Ben Spencer who kicked beautifully throughout.
Barf seemed to dominate throughout the first half with Tom Dunn and Beno Obano scoring tries and our rolling maul seemingly unstoppable. Our defence let us down though and this young Sarries team took advantage with tries from Rotimi Segun, Ethan Lewis and a brace from Ollie Hartley so they went in at half time ahead 21-24 and with a bonus point in the bag.

Rugby is often a game of two halves and this one was no exception when our dominance took over. First Beno Obano romped over the line in the first minute then our rolling maul played havoc with these underweight youngsters and Dunny went over for two more in quick succession for his hat trick and Barf were 42-24 up.
Reports were coming in from Ashton Gate so that when Manu Vunipola went over for a great individual try a few minutes later Barf still had much to do. It looked like Bristol were going to win their game against Glaws so we had not only to beat Sarries but beat Bristol on match point difference and we were then 17 points adrift.

Come on you Barf the faithful yelled and so they did. First Chris Cloete then Orlando Bailey scored while over in Bristol, Glaws had scored to ease the situation but there was only one point of match difference so one score from Bristol would give them the place.
Into extra time and a Niall Annett regathered a silly chip from Saracens fly-half Manu Vunipola deep in the Barf half, offloaded to Oliie Lawrence who raced over for the decisive try and the rec went wild.

All the games kicked off at the same time. Sales Sharks were unbeatable at home to Newcastle who were gobbed 54-12.
London Irish were also at home and struggled to a win against Exeter 17-14. Leicester was in the same position as Sarries regarding selection and could not contain Quins who beat them at Welford Road 17-20.

So apart from a few place changes in the table the only significant games that were affected by the table placings were the Bath and Bristol games. Bath have won the last four games and have come from bottom of the table to eighth place on 47 points. Another couple of games like that and we would nave been challenging for a place in the top four!

The importance of coming eighth mean that Barf qualifies for the Champions cup; the premier European competition. What with new signings Scottish fly half Finn Russell and South African prop Thomas du Toit, things are looking a bit more promising for next season playing against Europe's best teams.
We say goodbye to Dave Attwood after many years of faithful service to Barf and other west country clubs. A true ciderman. Also leaving after many years service is General Manager and ex-captain Stuart Hooper.

I watched the Women's Six Nations final England against France. This was a game where a win for either side would win the tournament and all five games for the grand slam and England were firm favourites. Twickers attracted a record crowd of over 58,000 for the women's game
England dominated in the first half and looked like they might run away from France and were 30 nill up until France scored their first try. France continued their comeback in the second half with England only adding one try to their five and France coming within a converted try of winning but England held on to win 38-33.

Captain Marlie Packer, a Somerset girl hailing originally from Yeovil Barbarians, said that she expects the England Women to win the next world cup.

Walking the Quantocks

Rugby Premiership Final

As I predicted the final was between Sarries and Sale and that Sarries would win which they did but it was a proper cup final with the lead never more than one score until the last quarter when Sarries went 10 points ahead.

Owen Farrell produced his best performance of the year with a controlled demonstration of passing, pin point kicking and last second offloading that rightfully earned him the Man of the Match.

Sale were always in the game even in the last ten minutes when you felt if they could just score a try they might overcome Sarries defence as they always looked dangerous when they were in Sarries 22 but it was not to be and Sarries kept Sale largely in their own half to win 35-25.

The match was interrupted by a couple of Just Stop Oil protesters throwing orange powder paint over pitch and players which was quickly dealt with. Tom Curry was seen helping a steward to carry off one of them bodily and the crowd showed their disapproval by booing and showering them with beer as they were carried off. One of them was a Bristol GP who you would have thought would know that rugby fans would not approve and that such action would do his cause no good at all.

Walking the Brendon Hills

I decided to walk some more of the Coleridge Way and selected what looked like an interesting section in the Brendon Hills.

My health update 08/06/2023

Latest blood tests show an increase in my lambda free light chains to 130. This is not good news and may indicate a third myeloma relapse.
The haematologist will review things again after I complete another three weeks of chemo with the existing drugs which have returned the longest good results yet for over 8 months.
Assuming this is another relapse the next drug used will be cyclophosphamide which works by damaging the DNA within myloma cells and results in the cells death. It is used in conjunction with pomalidomide which is an immunomodulatory drug which works in several ways by affecting the immune system to help to kill myloma cells.

Both drugs are administered in tablet form so no need for regular attendance to hospital for infusions and the side effects are the similar to the current drugs I am taking. Life gets tedious don't it!

Boris Johnson resigns as an MP.

Boris received an advanced copy of the parliamentary privilege comittee report into whether he deliberately misled parliament by stating there were no illegal parties held in 10 Downing Street which subsequently proved false and he himself fined as a result.

At the time of writing the contents of the report are not in the public domain but it would appear obvious that Boris has jumped before he was pushed.

He was a popular politician who has become unpopular to many of those who voted Tory at the last election in order to 'Get Brexit Done'. This was largely his own fault through a combination of imposing draconian covid lockdown laws which he and others in No 10 ignored and a failure to govern effectively.

His legacy is undoubtedly his success in undoing the stalemate of a parliament being composed of a majority of those who wished to keep Britain in the EU despite the majority voting Brexit in the 2016 referendum and then winning the subsequent election with a thumping majority. The country had become largely ungovernable.
There is no doubt in my mind that election was in all but name, a further referendum to demonstrate the electorates disapproval of parliamentarians ignoring public opinion.

The subsequent government then failed to capitalise on the benefits of Brexit and now, four years after leaving, have still not removed any of the thousands of EU laws that were rubber stamped by a successive UK governments of all shades.
Boris joins Tony Blair as a populist politician who fell from grace largely due to an inability to tell the truth.

The Fishy Lady gets arrested!

Nicola Sturgeon, the ex first minister of the Scottish government, was arrested in connection with the missing £600,000 from SNP funds following the previous arrest of her husband the ex CEO and the ex treasurer. All were released without charge pending further enquiries and reports sent to the procurator fiscal and crown office.

Polis Scotland have been investigating this now for over two years and Humza Yousaf, the current first minister, has been urged to suspend the Fishy Lady from the SNP until the mystery of the missing £600,000 is resolved but so far has not done so as she is a mate!

Despite having lived in Scotland for 20 years I have never really understood the reasons why the Scots would want independence. They are perfectly capable of self government but I see no benefits to Scotland or the rest of the UK. Even more confusing is that the majority of Scots and particularly the separatists voted to remain in the EU which brings with it a greater loss of independence and loss of sovereignty.

53.6% of Scotlands trade in 2022 was with the rest of the UK. The latest comparative figures I can find are that in 2019 Scotland exported £52 billion in goods and services to the rest of the UK compared to £16.4bn to the EU. That is three times more to the rest of the UK than to the EU. 54% of exports to the EU were oil and gas, an industry where the Scottish government wants to stop new field developments.
In 2022, the latest figures since Brexit, the UK as a whole exported £340 billion of goods and services to the EU, 42% of total UK exports. The UK imported £432 billion from the EU, 48% of total UK imports. The UK had a trade deficit of £92 billion with the EU compared to a £5 billion surplus with non-EU countries, broadly similar to trading pre-Brexit.

The Scottish England land border would present even bigger problems for trade, far greater than it has in Ireland keeping an open border between Eire, Ulster and the rest of the UK. Why would you swap the UK free trade area for one three times smaller? Does Westminster impose laws which are detrimental to Scotland when it only controls defence, pensions and international relations? Of course, in any union, one country should not legislate new laws that affect the existing laws in the other.

Scotland has its own independent system of law and the Scottish parliament controls the economy, education, health, justice, rural affairs, housing, environment, equal opportunities, consumer advocacy and advice, transport and taxation so where is there any advantage for an independent Scotland?

I think that devolution has had a detrimental effect on the UK introducing another costly layer of government and friction. The idea was to try and silence the separatists who wished to end a union that has endured for over 300 years. The result has been the opposite and the SNP is currently the largest political party in Scotland.

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Walking on the Brendons

I completed another section of the Coleridge Way between Roadwater and Sticklepath, a distance of about two miles each way.

The woodland shown on the OS map is no longer there due to forestry clearance however there is plenty of shade and the gradients are easy along this section of the trail.
There is a pub in Roadwater, The Valiant Soldier.

Walking on the Mendips

A reunion of some of the Macmillan Way walkers in the Hunters Lodge Inn at Priddy prefaced a walk by three of us around Ebbor Gorge.

We began at the top carpark on Deer Leap and walked back towards Priddy before turning right into the Dursdon Drove Road. We turned right again down over a meadow until we reached Ebbor Wood and commenced the steep descent before turning right into the gorge.

The path then decends very steeply, almost a scramble, through a gully between cliffs before emerging onto easier ground. At the next junction we turned right back uphill where the above delayed action photo of the three of us was taken with my camera wedged on the arm of a withy bear sculpture.

It was a very hot day and after the climb back to the car we could not resist a swift pint of Butcombe at the Old Vic Pub at Priddy!

Website Update

A secure URL (Uniform Resource Locator known as a web address) should begin with "https" rather than "http." The "s" in "https" stands for secure, which indicates that the site is using a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate. This lets you know that all your communication and data is encrypted as it passes from your browser to the website's server.

Although this website server does have a SSL certificate I had not bothered to use it, however, search engines have begun to downgrade insecure sites. In addition I use Google Analytics to monitor my website visitors which shows me the browser they are using, which pages they are accessing and the country they come from amongst many other things. Google have now changed the code required on every page of a web site you wish to monitor.

Once a page is secure, any insecure links to external javascript library's that I use to make things like slideshows work will not function and anyone who has bookmarked the old insecure pages will get an indication that the site is insecure on their browser. Some people may set their browsers to only display secure sites which is another reason to update.

I have now made this site secure and redirected anyone who is using an "http" insecure URL prefix bookmark to be redirected to the "https" web page.
It has taken three days of work to update the hundreds of pages on the site that are affected by these changes but I would appreciate being notified if you find anything not displaying correctly on a page that I may have missed.

Walking the Coastal Path

This is a circuit following the two alternative routes of the South West Coastal Path between North Hill Minehead and Bossington Hill.

Motoring Problems

Driving out of the village of Kilve on a lovely bright sunny morning I was among a group of cars ascending Kilve Hill driving out of sunlight into shade when there was sudden bang and I realised I had hit something.
I stopped as did the car in front who told me he had overtaken a recumbent trike towing a trailer and remarked to his passenger that it looked dangerous before observing in his mirror that I had hit the trike's trailer. I did not even see the cyclist being so low and in the shade.
Fortunately the elderly Dutch rider was unhurt but my front tire had burst and my bumper damaged so my car was undriveable. Police and ambulance arrived and neither required further action. I contacted my insurers who arranged a breakdown truck and my daughter Becky collected me and lent me her car while mine was repaired.

Three weeks later I collected my car from Taunton repair shop and drove it to Becky's in Stogursey for dinner. On returning to my car I discovered it had been scratched along the side by some vandal. I reported it to the police as there had been other similar instances of vandalism in the village. The local body shop wants £400 to remove the scratch and repaint.
They say troubles come in threes. I hope not!

Walking the Coleridge Way

Two fellow walkers, Stuart Macmanus and James Cobbett, from last years sponsored walk along the Macmillan Way West, arrived here in Williton on one of the wettest days of the year. We drove up to Colton Cross on the Brendons and walked down to Monksilver and the Notley Arms Pub which turned out to serve a respectable pint of Exmoor Ale and a landlord anxious to please.
We continued on along the Coleridge Way to Samford Brett where it joins the Macmillan Way and so back to Williton, a distance of about 5.5 miles but I really struggled the last mile with fatigue and breathlessness.

Update on my health 8/8/2023

The free light chain kappa/lambda ratio increases indicate that I am slowly relapsing for the fourth time as the current drug regime fails to control the myeloma cancer cells. The critical kappa/lambda ratio which is used to indicate the disease progression is 0.6 (normal ratios are 0.26 to 1.65) which is still well within the norm which indicates remission, however, once a relapse is confirmed then life expectancy is reduced to 12 months.

It is important to understand that such a prognosis is purely statistical and is based on historical data of people my age and at this stage in treatment. The data on which it is based may also be old. For now my haematologist tells me she is carefully monitoring my monthly blood tests and will decide when a shift to another drug regime is appropriate.

New addition to my extended family

My eldest granddaughter Eliza gave birth on August 1st to her firstborn and my 6th great grandchild. His name is Albie. Becky and me visited the happy couple Liza and Ian in their new North Petherton home where I was allowed to hold the little fellow.

Ashes test cricket series.

This was one of the finest ashes test series that I have ever watched and one where England should have regained the ashes. The first test at Edgbaston was lost principally because captain Stokes declared when Root was in scoring mode and could have added many more runs

The second test at Lords was close fought but lost in some part due to Jonny Bairstow being run out when he walked out of his crease prematurely when the ball was not dead and wicket keeper Alex Carey stumped him. It might have been the correct decision but it was "not cricket" and Oz Captain Cummins could have withdrawn the appeal but didn't so England were two down.

The third test at Headingly was won by England after a dramatic run chase and a great partnership by Brook and Woakes however the fourth test at Old Trafford was a draw after being rained off with England in a dominant position to almost certainly win the game. This meant the series could end in a draw so Australia would keep the ashes even if England could win the final test.

There was no doubt that England were by far the better team in the series but even though the fifth test at the Oval would make no difference to regaining the ashes it was important to England that Oz did not win the series.
For once the Oz openers managed to get decent scores and the tail did not wag but with plenty of time left in the game Australia had to chase a formidable total of 377 runs to win the series and were bowled out still needing 49 runs so the series was drawn.

Rugby Union World Cup.

The warm up games have started prior to the start of the world cup in France which starts with France playing NZ on the 8th September.

England fielded their 2nd team against Wales in Cardiff and ended the first half 6-9 in front, mostly ahead in all aspects of the game except perhaps their handling.
England failed to score in the second half whereas Wales were a different side to score two tries and win the game 20-9.
Many fans and some of the press have now written England off but I think it is too soon for any conclusions on this result apart from highlighting the old problem of England's inability to score tries. Nest weekends game at Twickers might be a different story.

Scotland met the French 2nd team at Murrayfield and the French showed their class with fast flowing rugby which was pretty to watch, storming to a 3-21 lead at half time. Just like the Welsh game the Scots came storming back in the second half (with only 14 men after Fagerson copped a red card) for a famous 25-21 victory.
Once again the Scots should not get too exited because there was no Dupont, Ntamack, Fickou or Alldritt to name just a few and Galthie would not be happy at his side going from front to back foot so quickly. He will be happy at the performance of his young stars Emilien Gailleton, Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Yoan Tanga in what was really a side he might have expected to lose the match.
France remain my favourites to win their first world cup, probably beating the All Blacks in the final.

Update on my health 24/8/2023

It looks like I am definitely relapsing for the fourth time as the Free lambda Light Chains are now 349mg/l (normally between 3.71 and 26.3) and the Kappa/Lambda ratio down to 0.03 (Normally between 0.26 and 1.65) so in the space of a month it has gone down from 0.6.
At this stage of the disease the options are to try another drug combination or to perhaps get myself involved in a trial.

My consultant haematologist has suggested the combination of cyclophosphamide/pomalidomide/dexamethasone (CPD) for my next treatment. Cyclophosphamide works by damaging the DNA within myeloma cells. Pomalidomide is an immunomodulatory drug which works by affecting the body's immune system and dexamethasone is a steroid. Pomalidomide is similar to Lenalidomide which is one of the drugs I am on now. Side effects are similar to the previous treatment.

From what I can discover this combination of drugs provides a 50% partial response rate or better. When or if the drug becomes refractory (it no longer works) then Musgrove Hospital where I am being treated are participating in a trial but that would mean regular hospital visits for infusions whereas the CPD treatment will be oral so does not require hospital visits.

Holiday Plans

After my holiday plans to visit Italy were cancelled due to my friend Murdo going sick I had planned to try again in September, however, although Murdo is fully recovered he is too committed to travel during that month and to delay further risks the weather turning cold co it is once again cancelled.
So I will relax in front of the telly and watch the Rugby World Cup instead!

NHS Management

The recent conviction for the murder of seven babies by neonatal nurse Lucy Letby has highlighted the apparent mismanagement by people in senior positions in the hospital.

If senior clinicians who gave evidence under oath at the trial are to be believed, senior management not only delayed taking action to remove Letby from her post which may have saved the life of some babies but took the side of the nurse rather that the doctors, even making them apologise to the nurse for upsetting her!

In my opinion it is high time these senior manager in public service are made to pay for their failures and ineptitude. How many times have we heard apologists for health and social organisations failures saying "lessons must be learnt so that this never happens again". The problem is that is always happens again and the highly paid managements responsible go unpunished.

Whilst on the subject of the NHS I note that consultants who are among the highest paid people in the UK are carrying out a series of strikes for more money. At the same time many are leaving the NHS and going to Australia for more money and less hours. At the same time the NHS has the longest waiting time for treatment in it's history.
That seems to me to be another management problem that needs to be addressed and just throwing more money at the NHS is not a solution.

England Rugby

The England Rugby Union team seem to be on a downward trend. They managed to beat Wales by a whisker at Twickers after going down to 12 men with captain Owen Farrell red carded. This was reduced to a yellow by a Six Nations disciplinary committee made up of Australians who said that Jamie George had pushed Wales forward Taine Basham into Farrell causing a head clash thus mitigating the red to yellow. World rugby then appealed that decision and said that as Farrell had admitted foul play by failing to wrap his arms in the tackle the laws do not allow any mitigation and so the red card was reinstated.

As anticipated the following week England were outclassed by Ireland in Dublin but to add insult to injury Billy Vunipola managed a similarly stupid no arms high tackle to Farrell on Irish prop Andrew Porter. Now Farrell has previous but Billy has no record of such misdemeanors so what are the English coaches doing wrong? Both players now have three match bans. Will England beat Fiji on Saturday this week? Will they even manage to make the quarter finals in the forthcoming World Cup? My money is still on France.

Twickers is sold out for the warm up Test this Friday between the All Blacks and South Africa. The RFU are struggling to sell tickets for the England Fiji game on Saturday and the stadium may only be half full which is an indication of what English rugby fans think about how England are playing.

Rugby World Cup predictions

Surprise surprise. The All Blacks were comprehensively beaten by the Boks 35-7 at Twickers in the Quatar cup and those teams were pretty much each country's best side. That result makes me think that NZ might not reach the final especially if they come 2nd in their pool they are liable to meet the Boks in the quarter finals who might knock them out (Literally!).
Fiji deservedly beat a lackluster England 22-30 for the first ever time in a half empty Twickers stadium where the home team was booed. England have to play Argentina next and win or lose that game should survive to the quarter finals but who knows in their current state they could fail to qualify.
The last Summer Nations warm up game was between Australia who were not bad and France who were sublime winning 41-17 so they remain my pick to be world cup winners but they might have to beat Ireland in the quarters to do it who are dark horses.

So it all depends on who comes out of each pool top and then who they meet in the quarter finals. If NZ, Ireland, Australia and Argentina come top of their pools then I predict a France v NZ or a France v Boks final but whatever happens in the pools France are currently the best team in the world.

The tournament opens on Friday 8th September when France play New Zealand. What an opener.

BBC Proms 2023 season

I have been watching almost all the Proms this year and have been particularly interested to listen to several compositions by the British classical composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor who was of mixed race and named by his white mother after the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Coleridge Taylor became well known at the end of the 19th Century early 20th but slipped into obscurity in later years. He died from pneumonia in 1912 at the tender age of 37 leaving a wife, daughter and son who he had named Hiawatha, perhaps so named because his most famous composition was the cantata Hiawatha's Wedding Feast.

The Chineka! Orchestra was formed in 2015 to provide career opportunities for black and ethnically diverse classical musicians in the UK and Europe. The exclamation mark after the orchestra name is because it is an African Igbo exclamation meaning "wonderful". In their Proms concert this year they were featuring one of Coleridge Taylor's compositions I had not previously heard, Four Noveletten.

Prior to each Proms concert performance you are treated (or subjected depending who they are) to a presenter and a few guests who on this occasion featured a black young lady composer who said how much she loved Chineke! and hearing her music played by people who looked like her (which to me implied she thought black people played it better). That was not entirely accurate as many of Chineke!'s musicians looked to be of Asian origin and she was of Jamaican heritage but it occurred to me after those remarks that if an orchestra were to be formed of entirely white musicians, those who formed it might be considered by some in the black community as racist, (defined as a person who believes that some races are better than others) or am I being too pedantic?

For my part I love music played by any competent musician or composer of whatever ethnicity although some modern composers leave me cold. Having enjoyed Chineke!'s rendition of the Four Noveletten the orchestra played the Haydn Trumpet Concerto in E flat major featuring soloist Aaron Azunda Akugbo. The link will take you to a video of him with the Chineke! orchestra and his playing is nothing short of perfection although he changed his hairstyle for the Proms which was awful.

If you are fortunate enough to live in the UK (and have paid your licence fee) you can see all the Proms concerts on the BBC iplayer.

Mendip Sojourn

James Cobbett from Panama who I walked with a few weeks ago was about to return home. He was staying with Mike and Pat Palmer (who were warned he was not house trained) so I travelled up to Mendip to say farewell.
It was a Sunday and we all went up to the Hunters Lodge Inn luchtime session where some very old cavers seemed to have decided to frequent. Some discussion ensued on if we should all head out to Turkey to take charge of the rescue effort to extract an American from a very deep cave but after a couple of pints we lost interest!!

Then it was back to the Palmers where Alistair did his usual Spag Bol and we swung the lantern until late.

Rugby World Cup

Net Zero

The UK government has made a few decisions lately that have had the Greens and other climate activists up in arms, the latest being the approval of the Rosebank oil field development located 130km NW of Shetland. The operators are Equinor who used to be the Norwegian State Oil Company and UK owned Eithaca who have 20% of the project. Equinor are currently the largest North Sea operator.

Algie covered green activist Caroline Lucas says the decision is "morally obscene" and of course the former first minister fishy lady of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon naturally agrees with her. This is typical of most politicians inability to see further than the end of their noses when it comes to business technical decisions and ignores the fact that for some decades we will have no option but to import and use fossil fuels. Just putting your head in the sand and saying we must not burn fossil fuels irrespective of our ability to replace them with a viable alternative is ridiculous.

Opposing Equinors decision to develop Rosebank also ignores the companies strategy to gradually transition to net zero in 2050 by using the proceeds of oil and gas to invest in green energy. They have already substantial investment in offshore wind power, are developing floating wind turbines, are investing in powering ships using hydrogen and ammonia and have substantial CO2 storage capacity. In addition they are investing in electrification of their production platforms using renewable electricity supplies. Extracting oil requires large amounts of energy which has always been provided by gaa turbines. The international average amount of carbon produced by using gas turbines is about 15kg of carbon per BBE (Barrels of Oil Extracted) while Equinor's is currently about 9Kg/BBE. By 2030 they plan to reduce this to 3Kg/BBE.

Equinor is not just another oil and gas company but aims to become an international supplier of energy, only continuing to supply the world market with oil and gas that is required for industrial processes other than energy production while working to develop chemical and storage systems to minimise any greenhouse gasses from other industrial processes dependent on fossil fuels. The eventual destination of the oil and gas from Rosebank will be in the hands of a foreign company but I trust Norwegians infinitely more than I trust the Saudi's or Putin's Russia to make decisions that favour the West. The gas will come ashore in Shetland.

Immigration

The UK Home Secretary has mounted her high horse of late, preaching that illegal immigration is a threat to our cultural diversity. The UK is a multicultural society with 18% of our population from minority racial or ethnic backgrounds. While those born here have generally integrated well but rapid immigration, she argues, has meant that many have not and our British culture has suffered as a result. In the EU only 10% of the population are from racial or ethnic backgound. We should be able to control and slow immigation unless we want to see British cultural life change permanently.

There are those who would have us be an open door, even to illegal immigrants, and cite other EU countries as taking a greater share than us. I do not know where their stats originate and you can pick certain years to suit your argument but the latest stats are, according to HMG, that our net immigration in 2022 was 606,000 whereas by comparison according to Statista, France which has a similar population had a net immigration in 2022 of 161,000.
Then perhaps we should consider population density. The UK has 272 people per km² and France 118. If you take England only where most immigrants seem to head for than the density here ramps up to 424 so perhaps we should send them to Scotland which has a density of only 62!!. We are a very small country, lacking the infrastructure, education capacity and health services to cope with such rapid population increases.

Hamas Israli Conflict and the BBC

The BBC in reporting the massacre of Israli's by Hamas refuses to call Hamas terrorists. They have been criticised by government ministers as well as members of Jewish organizations and the latest complaint is from a bunch of senior KC lawyers. John Simpson and others from the BBC have supported the policy on the grounds that it makes them unbiased and not favouring one side or the other in reporting on the conflict.
Listening to the news on the steam radio this morning the Beeb side stepped the issue by saying that Hamas was proscribed by the US and the UK as a terrorist organization but still refusing to call Hamas terrorists themselves. IMHO if the BBC will not call the rape, murder and kidnapping inflicted on those Israli civilians together with circulating descriptive video of their inhuman actions as terrorism then they are not reporting the situation accurately as there can be no doubt those actions by Hamas were intended to spread terror.
I would say that was not objective reporting and they should not report a proscribed organisation as being just militants or gunmen. Furthermore if the BBC still thinks otherwise then one must conclude they do not believe Hamas to be a terrorist organization.

From 2010 the BBC has had a policy of not using the word "terrorist" as they claim it can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding a situation. In this case can there really be any misunderstanding about the actions of Hamas as other than terrorism? They committed many atrocities, videoed and published them.
In the UK terrorism is defined as serious violence where the use or threat is made for the purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause. That exactly describes Hamas actions.

Now the Beeb seems to be concentrating on describing the Israli bombing of Gaza and the death and hardships of the civilian population there. I have every sympathy with the Palestinian people. I think they have been wrongly deprived of their country. I think successive Israli governments have wrongly promoted new settlements on Palistinian land. I think we should be able to criticize the Israli government without being accused of anti semitism but none of this has anything to do with calling Hamas a bunch of terrorists.

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