The Chelsea Flower Show

I have a friend, K who lives on the south coast she recently wrote to me regarding the Chelsea Flower Show, I thought it might be a nice idea to have a guest slot so, for a change, here is someone else's ramblings.

I've watched "Gardener's World" since the days of Geoff Hamilton, at which time the Chelsea Flower Show merited just one programme. Now we have an hour of Chelsea every night of the week but it seems to me there is little regard for the what the show is about - ie. flowers. We've seen "rival" designers discussing the pros and cons of a garden made mostly of decking; actors expounding on how they've loved gardening since they were knee-high to a grasshopper; a poet reciting her work to some bored visitors; a manic presenter running around to congratulate the medal winners and sundry other incidental "fillers" that have little interest to most people who enjoy gardens.

How much time have the BBC cameras spent in the floral pavillions? Precious little. Why were the interesting interviews with David Austin [the creator of the English rose] and Jekka McVicar [herb grower] so much shorter than the one with the Norwegian designer whose garden seems to be tipped as "best in show"? Has he produced a fabulous garden which anyone would love to have? In my opinion, no. It's just another arrangement of concrete, water, hedging and a couple of cream sofas. It looks like something you'd see in the reception of a posh company head office, or terrace restaurant of a hotel.

I know the BBC have the facility to "press the red button" for 12 hour coverage of Chelsea, but I don't want the telly on all day. I just want an interesting programme covering the gardens and flowers. Prune the celebs and the hard landscaping, and let's have an hours worth of gardens and flowers. It would at least help to make up for "Gardener's World" which is now like a gardening slot for kiddies. And in my opinion, James May's plasticine garden was great!

Think I agree with you there K.

Do they REALLY expect us to trust them?

It appears, apparently, that the actual cost of the Newquay Airport Fiasco, the Council cock up and the details of the cost of claims made by individuals and airlines will not be made available until AFTER the Council elections in June. You may remember that Cornwall Council didn't get a licence in time and the airport was closed for some time, with the Council leaving themselves wide open to compensation claims for cancelled flights and lost revenue. All I can say is how the hell do they expect us to trust them when they are blatantly allowing this cover up. The electorate are being duped into voting for a dishonest council and for councillors who may have been responsible for the problems. This isn't democracy by any stretch of the imagination. Cornwall Council should be ashamed of itself, it makes even Westminster look honest.

Those Ill Gotten Gains..........Again

Mps expenses are in the news again so I am not going to reiterate the morality of claiming "within the rules" and the other pityful bleatings of our elected representatives, but I will say this. If you want the bankers to repay their ill gotten gains then you better do something about the vast number of "mistakes" that seem to have appeared in the somewhat odd and irregular claims put forward in Westminster. Are our Mps really that careless? If they are should they be in Parliment at all?

Westminster should make sure its own house is in order before starting to criticise others. Personally I would sack the lot and start again. Public money is just that, PUBLIC, not to be plundered for private gain by anyone.

As for a 2nd home allowance, Mp's should be given a purpose built accommodation block where they can stay and work whilst in London, Second homes simply add to the problem. Just think what could have been done with the money that has been wasted on so called "expenses" over the last few years.

This episode has damaged Parliment permanently, what little respect was once held for MPs has now evaporated to an all time low and it will take an awful lot to get the tarnish off their reputation.

If you are asking Sir Fred Goodwin to repay his pension then I think you could start with repaying your little "extras".

Looking After The Kids

A breeding pair of Robins have been nesting in the ivy in a quiet corner of the garden, they have been flying too and fro every few minutes for the last few days, carrying food for the chicks or clearing out the nest. In human terms it would be exhausting. Here's just a brief video of their activity, just imagine doing that for 12+ hours a day - if you listen really hard you can hear the chicks tweeting when the parents enter the nest, they are very fast though, blink and you will miss it!

What the Hell is going on?

The Riley graves at Eyam

Copyright © John Beres 2003-2009

Just looking at the headlines this week you would think that we are heading for a real life enactment of the BBC series "Survivors", or at least some catastrophic medical wipeout of the human race on a par with the Great Plague of 1666. It's flu for goodness sake! Yes, tragically people can die from it, but its hardly the Black Death. Why do the media have to whip these things up to a frenzy and cause mass panic. Yesterday on the BBC site 95% of the public comments to the Swine Flu item were suggesting it was over the top and panicing. If it really is that serious why the hell are we allowing flights into or out of Mexico and why arent we isolating people who have been anywhere near the place. The old Eyam strategy would work just as well as it did in the 17th century. Today I noticed the BBC have removed all its public comments on the subject. Maybe our politicians are just so unbelievable that until something actually happens no one takes them seriously them.

If the government want to panic the population then they are going the right way about it. Perhaps this is just an exercise in mass hysteria. One thing I know if this thing ends up the same way as Bird Flu or SARS then this government have cried "WOLF" too many times.

Every little helps - but to what?

Today Tesco announced its profits for the year £3.13 billion. The UKs biggest ever pre tax profit for any retail company. Tesco now sell: Financial products, Clothing, Petrol, Electronic Good, Food, Banking Products, Telecommunication Products the list goes on and on; it would be easier to list the things they don't sell.

They open stores out of town killing of trade in local shopping centres, by buying in such huge quantities they are able to undercut almost everyone else in food, petrol and other consumables, yet this company is still allowed to expand and make such obscene profits.

There is an old adage though that says "the bigger you are the hard you fall" Watch out Tesco, like the banks before you, I reckon you're in for a huge fall; the sad thing is they will take with them a lot of smaller companies. No company should be allowed to be so dominant. Why do companies always have to get bigger and bigger, there is a finite amount of expansion that can be accomplished and Tesco must surely be nearly there. It seems we just don't learn that not all expansion is good, sometimes it just better to say the same, make a reasonable profit and produce goods and services on an ecological sound basis. The runaway train eventually will hit the buffers.....

A Girl Called Dusty

Had she lived she would have been 70 this week, taken far too young Dusty Springfield had an enormous influence on popular music, it was Dusty that brought soul and motown to Britian. She may no longer be with us but her influence and music will live on.

Happy 70th Dusty!

Blatent Advertising - Shame on you BBC.

Did you see that the BBC are now carrying adverts for commercial companies?. This morning on the BBC Breakfast program the BBC showed an interview with the CEO of a well know coffee ( I use the term loosely) shop chain. The pretext of the interview was unclear and highly forgettable but the BBC did allow the blatant showing of a new product, which included the Chief Executive of the chain holding up the offending article and commenting on its cheap (sic) price.

I thought the BBC were against such overt advertising, but then just lately they seem to be a law unto themselves.

Taking the P**S

All I am going to say in this entry is that North Cornwall District Council are just about to spend £342,000 on a new toilet for The Camel Trail at Wadebridge. If that isnt taking the p**s I dont know what is.

By the way the council still doesn't have any funds to repair the potholes and blocked culverts in the road even after 6 months.......

They are also about to pay out 1/2 million pounds in severance pay for two senior council workers who are about to be made redundant when the council unifies...... Its just beyond words.

I think I will donate my council tax to charity this year it will do more good and at least I will be looked after at one of HM hotels.

So who owes all this debt

The worlds governments are pumping billions of pounds, euros, dollars, yen and almost all other currencies in to global financial institutions. Just where has all this debt come from? According to the world population clock the total population of the world is only six billion.

http://www.intmath.com/Exponential-logarithmic-functions/worldPop.swf

You do the mathematics and see if you can work out just how much everyone owes - its surprisingly more than Bill Gates entire wealth. Do I smell something fishy here or am I just being too simplistic.

Have we got our priorities right?

So greedy Sir Fred wont give up his pension: crippling a company and gaining an enormous reward for doing so is obscene and morally wrong, but not so obscene or morally wrong as the service men and women who have lost their lives in a pointless war in Afghanistan - for nothing.

Actresses get a headline on the front page of the national papers and tributes on TV and Radio, the latest war victims hardly get a mention any more.

The total so far in this campaign is 149 - now that really is obscene. Its just got to stop. Perhaps the government should put as much effort in to bringing about a resolution to this conflict as they have into trying to get back Fred's pension. This needless waste of young lives just makes my blood boil. My heart goes out to the friends and families of the victims. As for Sir Fred, perhaps he should reconsider his ill gotten gains and thank his lucky starts he wasn't on that road in Afghanistan.

L/Cpl Paul Upton, 31, Cpl Tom Gaden, 24, Rifleman Jamie Gunn, 21 and Marine Michael Laski, 21. The latest victims, who died this week in Afghanistan.

(photos from the BBC/Cornwall website)

Now there giving it away

Cornwall County Council generously gave 500 tonnes of road salt to Gloucestershire County Council who were running short in the current snowy weather. How come Cornwall CC had so much spare salt? Easy, they didn't bother to grit Cornwalls roads when it was snowy that's how. The major routes may have been done, but the minor roads certainly weren't even thouse on steep hills. Then Cornwall county council dont see to bother too much with roads around here, I reported a blocked culvert in November, it has still not been cleared and the water has now broken through the road and is running in inches deep water like a stream. The road surface has collapsed and all Highways have done is put up a sign saying "Temporary Road Surface" presumably to cover them from being sued if someone has an accident. Such is life in the Dutchy.

What's the Point?

The Bank of Englands interest rate is now 1%, for the life of me I cannot understand how on earth this helps the economy. From what I have heard Banks are now no longer interested in lending money to businesses at such a low rate as there is very little profit in it for them. Building societies who are no longer paying reasonable interest so savers wont bother to save and the Building Societies will have less money to lend. Those people who are dependant on an income from their savings have been hit severly by falling rates, who then are the winners in this situation, well in my view its the Banks, they are in a win, win situation, and who got us into this situation in the first place......

Whilst paying in a cheque recently I was asked by the cashier in the bank if I would like a financial review or some financial advice, I will let you get guess what my reply was.

Impartial - I suspect not.

The BBC are still not bowing to pressure to air the DEC appeal for the victims of the Gazza conflict. It is maintaining its stance on the grounds of impartiality. Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, whose views I do not always agree with has said that "This is not an appeal by Hamas asking for arms but by the Disasters Emergency Committee asking for relief. By declining their request, the BBC has already taken sides and forsaken impartiality." For once Dr. Sentamu I agree with you. The BBC may not be bowing to pressure to show the appeal, but they are certainly bowing to pressure not to show it. From where, one can only guess.

There are rights and wrongs on both sides of the conflict, but for the moment that has to be put aside to relieve the suffering of the victims.

So if the BBC wont do it I will.

Donate by Phone or via the website:-

Telephone 0370 60 60


www.dec.org.uk/

The taxpayer has coughed up millions, the many individual shareholders have lost considerable sums, people have lost their homes, businesses and more, but because the staff did their job properly for once - they get a 10% bonus. Is it me or has the world gone totally barking?

And how could Northern Rock pay back the government loan on time, well by restricting the amount of money they lent to homeowners or business, and what did this mean. Yep you got it. It meant we went even deeper into the so called downturn. I reckon that's a double whammy. Who's to blame in all this, not the cashier at the local branch, good luck to them if they get a bonus, but the top management, who no doubt will be getting their bonus too, I know which salary I like to have 10% of.

I guess its a case of Banks fouling up, getting bailed out, failing to act as a Bank should and lend to business's and individuals that need it, getting bailed out again, and then to add insult to injury getting paid a bonus to do it.

Seems like the business to be in is Banking. No matter what happens its a win win situation.

Enough is Enough

Not a blog or a moan this time, just a plea to the government of the United Kingdom. Since the begining of the year, on a weekly basis the news in the Southwest region has been that yet another solider has died in Afghanistan. Yesterday there were two more. Enough is Enough, its not our war we should get out NOW. Bring our troops home and put an end to this waste of young lives.

Green or just a light pastel shade

So the government is encouraging us all to "go green" and dump the plastic bags, the inefficient light bulbs, switch to greener forms of fuel, open a 3rd runway at Heathrow and even give us an government backed loan to buy a new car.

Hold on though aren't those last two rather incongruous with the green ethic? Surely it's rather hypocritical to spout green ethics and then go ahead with an increase in air traffic by opening yet another runway at Heathrow?

Supposedly it's to keep Heathrow competitive - eh? If you want to fly into London you have to use Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted, how is that competitive with the rest of the worlds airports. Passengers for New York aren't going to fly into Heathrow now are they? Seems to me that the real reason is as usual probably money.

Being green costs, it costs alot, in money, time and effort, it means making sacrifices and a BIG stand against those things that contribute to global warming, the REAL culprits, CARS, PLANES, POWER STATIONS, not piddling light bulbs or plastic bags.