Country Comment

I have been extremley busy of late, hence the lack of postings, in between my day job and my battle with the local council and objector twats over my planning development I am writing a novel. Something I've been meaning to do for years and have now got round to it, however this means I haven't had much time for posting, so I'm a bit behind on the topics.
However last week's main conversation piece was The Ban on Hunting. Now I don't intend to get into one over the rights and wrongs of Hunting, I have ridden to Hounds many times a few years back and support many other field sports and the Countyside Alliance, equally I don't believe the Hunting fraternity do themselves any favours when commenting in public. However what pisses me off is the time, effort and determination that this government is puting into this just to win a few votes.
If they exuded the same determination over tackling crime, illegal immigration, drugs, funding in the NHS, reducing taxes and putting more police on the streets as they have done over this bill then all our problems would be solved and this would be a better country for it.
And as for the Right to Roam Bill- GERROF MY LAND!

And that's for Brookline

We stuffed them! The European Ryder cup team held to it together and showed the USA how to play golf as a team on their own soil.
What a jou to see good old Monty doing his bit and the man of the match - definately Sergio Garcia, I wish I could put like that, actaully I wish I was 24 and could play any shot like him.
My only gripe, The BBC only thought that this monolithic event was worthy of showing edited highlights at 11.30 pm.We haven't all got sky or digital, and there was no reason why the golf could not have been shown live from 5.00pm

Local comment - Do local voices matter?

In his column Ron Tarry's Hungerford (Newbury Weekly News 9th Sept) he makes the following comment concerning Hungerford Town Council:
"APART from the problems on resignations from the town council, there appears to be a determined bid to undermine the council's authority on planning matters and individuals are setting themselve's up as arbiters on what shall be discussed and who shall be allowed to speak at any meetings. There is a suggestion that the town council has no right to speak on the planning application submitted by the town clerk, even though the council has a statutory right to comment on all applications in the parish, and is entitled to do so even if the application is made by a town councillor, although he/she would have to declare an interest and would not be able to attend the meeting.
The fact that the council has 14 days in which to comment on planning applications makes it difficult to arrange a schedule of meetings to meet the deadline, or to publish an agenda in advance of the meeting, and if individuals attempt to undermine the council by coming up with objections to the minutiae, it is difficult to see how the system can continue. Looking back on my many years on the town council planning committee, it seems that all our comments are now being judged by these self appointed ‘legal buffs’ to be illegal, and I wonder how many developments which have been supported should be demolished if this is the case;
Finally it should be remembered that the district council is the planning authority and the Town council’s comments are just that and do not represent a planning decision or even resolution."

I applaud him for speaking out on this point but feel he could have gone much further. The individuals he refers to, I beleive are known to most of us as they have been making their views known in the local press ever since the Mayoral fiasco. These same people have been equally obstructive toward my own planning issues which in no way affects them as individuals but are using it as a platform to unstable the Town council to their own ends and to intimidate certain individual councillors so as to result in their positions becoming unsustainable. There are certain members within the council who should be strong enough to call these dissenters to face a council hearing and be made to substantiate their accusations - in other words - put up or shut up!

Apologies to regular readers who haven't got a clue what I'm talking about.

left or Right handed?

A Romanian man whose penis was mistakenly severed by a surgeon will have a new organ made from skin on his forearm.
The 34-year-old from Bucharest was being operated on for a testicle problem when the incident happened three months ago.
Dr. Ioan Lascar who operated on the man after a colleague made the mistake, told Libertatea newspaper: "The patient's condition is good and evolving as we expected. He comes to medical checks once or twice a week."
The doctor said the man may need some subsequent minor operations.
The surgeon who cut the man's penis has lost the right to perform any operations and is still under investigation for malpractice.

How the hell do you 'mistakenly' cut off a mans penis during surgery and I suppose it could be said that the forearm skin is now foreskin- haha! The only problem is every time he goes to the pub his penis tries to grab hold off his pint,

Phone Masts

Quin Parker posted yesterday an item concerning mortgages and phone masts. Basically the Cheltenham and Gloucester building society refused to lend a mortgage on a property because the master bedroom had a mobile phone mast directly above it. As Quin says I don't think anyone's actually published results that prove adverse effects from mobile phone mast radiation. What do the Cheltenham and Gloucester know about mobile phone masts that we don't?
Personally I don't have a problem with mobile masts, however what I do have a problem with is in this age of, video phones,camera phones, G3 phones that receive email and GPRS - I can't get a sodding signal in the middle of Hungerford or within 2 miles East. If I go west I have to wait until I get to Swindon before I can make a call.
I'm with BT mobile which offer a very good tarrif with 100 free minutes a month, I'm not a big user of mobiles, only making a mobile call when absolutely necessary, but when I do want to make a call I can never get a signal. I spend more in petrol than I do on calls driving around looking for coverage. BT's customer services called me the other day and asked why I didn't use up my free air time, apparently I've accumulated 600 minutes of free air time.
You can Imagine what I said