In the News ...

So the government have backed down on their proposal to sell of loads of publicly owned forests. The idea was that charities and businesses could buy bits and so through the "Big Society" people would have a say in what happened to them.

But there was such an outcry against it that the Minister got up in Parliament and apologised, admitting they got it wrong.

Perhaps the "Big Society" is working after all ...


And then, apparently (according to BBC Radio 2 News), a small Australian town called Speed is being renamed for a month Speed Kills as a road safety initiative. Also, one of its residents is changing his name from Phil Down to Phil Slow Down.

Just think, if he was proprietor of the local petrol station, he could change his name to Phil Up Slow Down. Just a thought.

Last Night's News

WE sat down to watch the BBC 10 o'clock news last night, wanting to keep up with what's happening in the world.

The main item was that the man accused of masterminding the 9/11 bombing of the twin towers is to stand trial in New York, not far from Ground Zero. He is currently being held in Guantanamo Bay. Informative though this is, was it the MOST important thing that happened in the world yesterday? And it wasn't just the facts that were reported, we also had interviews of people, some who think he should never be allowed to tread on America's soil, others who think it's right he is tried there.

After about seven minutes, the BBC had milked the story as far as they could and we passed on to other news. And only just in time - I was fast losing the will to live!

Keeping up with the news ...

Even though we are abroad on holiday, I buy a newspaper to try to keep up with the news. In the paper yesterday I read that French women are turning their backs on sunbathing topless. Sales of monokinis (the bottom bit only of a bikini - I hadn't heard the word either!) are apparently falling.

The article harked back to 'French post 1968 society' where some insisted sunbathing topless was a woman's right, whereas "family groups claimed exposed nipples would scare children." Which is a bit odd seeing as their mother's nipples are one of the first things they actually see.

That is, unless they were bottle fed. A debate about that was featured in another article in the same paper.

It's good to keep up with the important news whilst on holiday!

Back to the country ...

Although we feel at home in Brentwood since we moved here last year there's one thing we do miss from living in Suffolk. And that is, watching BBC's regional news Look East. Here on digital we get London news. However, we can get a very snowy Look East on terrestrial.

As we were in the 'depths' of Essex recently and saw Look East again, we thought we'd watch it tonight through the "snowstorm".

And we were rewarded! Instead of the gritty London stories we heard about:

• a miniature railway where the steam engine had been derailed due to vandalism, even though it was only travelling at 5 mph (no injuries to passengers);
• the growing of different strawberry varieties to see which taste best (complete with a colour card to see when they are the correct colour to pick);
• a fire in a village called Cold Norton (perhaps it should be renamed now!);
• a teenager who has taken over as landlord of a pub in Thornham Magna.

Oh the joys of rural life!

On the news again

Once again, I must apologise for my lack of blogging, but I'll tell you the reasons for that soon. In the meantime I was watching the BBC evening news last week - the night it was reported that the proposed 2p increase on petrol duty was not going to happen.

You know they have this fixation on sending reporters to stand outside a place that has some relevance to the news item, even though it would make much more sense (especially in the winter or when it's tipping down with rain) to have them sitting in the studio. Well, true to form Nick Robinson was in a petrol station to report on the aforementioned item. And, what was he doing? Putting petrol into a white van! Nick Robinson, BBC's own white van man! Now we have a clue to his day job! Is it plumbing, plastering or just odd jobs around the house?

On the News

I've just watched the 6 o'clock news. David Cameron was on giving his view of a Conservative NHS. One item was to enable someone to go to any hospital in the country for their treatment. That's interesting because as I understand it, that's what we were able to do before the last conservative overhaul of the NHS. Then because of 'contracts' and goodness knows what else, that became no longer possible.

So the good news is we are back where we were 30 years ago! Will Mr. Cameron admit they got it wrong?

Then it was reported that Sir Alan Sugar may stand as labour candidate for London Mayor in 2012. So could we possibly hear those words, "Boris, you're fired!"

In the News Today

This morning on BBC Radio 2 news the first item was Amy Winehouse's wins at the Grammy awards and the second item was Atonement winning best film at the Baftas. So those were the two most important news items from the whole world ... No BBC, of course you're not dumbing down!