Audit Commission to be scrapped

The Government has announced that the audit commission will be scrapped. This is a public body that looks for savings and efficiencies in local government.

The functions that it provided will be replace by private sector organisations and consultants.

Well I don't know about you but I think it is the perfect time in this current economic climate for getting rid of the audit commission , after all its not as if we need to make savings and efficiencies. Plus what a good idea, lets pay consultants to do the work, but hang on doesn't the government always go on about how much consultants cost and waste money.

Some days you just dont know whether you live inside the insane asylum looking out or outside the insane asylum looking in. I am waiting for the announcement that white coats with straps are cheaper than suits because it wont be long before David Cameron and his cabinet are wearing them.

When will the madness stop, please don't let it go on for five years until the next election.

Some recent press releases from the audit commission to show what a complete waste of time and money they are:

Local government pensions in England
An information paper

29 July 2010

In our latest information paper, we examine the long-term affordability of the Local Government Pension Scheme, and look at steps that could be taken to put it on a better financial footing.

Sustaining value for money in the police service

20 July 2010

Together with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Wales Audit Office, we have found that police in England and Wales could save up to £1 billion without reducing police availability.

Against the odds
Re-engaging young people in education, employment or training

7 July 2010

We reveal how councils need a new approach in getting to grips with the needs of their local teens, in order to make scarce resources work harder for those at greatest risk of long-term unemployment.

Making the most of frontline staff in the NHS

25 June 2010

Making better use of doctors and nurses in the NHS has the potential to make significant savings, provided that trusts understand the reasons for existing staffing variations on their wards.

I don't know about you but that is one organisation clearly not engaging with the state of the nation and looking for savings all over the place.

Please note - This is all sarcasm, of course we need the audit commission especially if like everything else the government is busy trying to get rid of they save more money than they cost.

The Government: three months on

I am sure I am not the only one who is thinking "same old Tories". Welcome to the wonderful world of slash and burn politics this year get over 25% off democracy. In my defence I only voted for the liberal democrats and although I have never voted tactically before, in the next election I am voting for whoever has the best chance of getting the Tories out. The only thing that the Tories have not yet mentioned is privatisation, but I am sure they are working on a plan somewhere.

Are you all looking forward to the double dip recession, no it is not a new flavour of coalition ice cream but its the roller coaster ahead for us on the economy.

According to David Cameron its all about the big society and communities joining together and they know best how to solve problems. Its beginning to feel like a more bullish American style of politics talking about big society and small government.

Lets take speed cameras which is a nice example of a slash and burn policy that is going to backfire. The government has cut funding for all the road safety partnerships who operate the speed cameras. The Road safety partnerships have basically folded as they cant generate money from tickets, wont get any more from the government and frankly the partners have better things to spend their very limited money on. So the cameras are switched off and that's that right?

Well no, first there is the road safety issue, at least some of these cameras were protecting junctions and schools making people slow down. Now they are gone the collisions will be at higher speeds and inevitably people will be seriously injured or in extreme cases will be killed. I hope anyone that has an accident at a junction/ or road previously covered by a speed camera sues the government for negligence. How ever much you hate speed cameras, speed kills and if people know they aren't going to be caught they will speed even more. Many already do even with speed cameras The outcome will be that accidents / deaths will increase and insurance premiums will go up.

The government in their infinite wisdom have cut funding for something that pays for itself and then some. All the money from speeding tickets goes back into government funds. So funds cut, cameras shut, income cut, more cuts needed. So rather than save money the government will now have to make up the shortfall from a falling speeding ticket income elsewhere, either cutting more services or raising taxes. Please can someone explain to me how this policy makes sense.

Plus if like me you keep to the speed limits you now have to pay for something which previously you could have avoided. Avoidance taxes are great because if you don't have the money or don't want to pay you can avoid it. If as a result of a drop in income from speeding tickets they have to raise income tax I can no longer avoid it.

Come back labour all is forgiven, Gordon Brown was kind of alright really...

I wont even go on about the bank profits...

swiftcover.com

Having recently asked a question about why my insurance has gone up and getting a patronising response I thought I would paste it up on the internet.

From Zephyrist to Swiftcover customer service:

Can someone please explain to me why my monthly insurance premium has risen by 34% this year.

I now have a years driving under my belt which must mean I am a safer driver and I haven't had any accidents this year. Yes, I did claim for a new windscreen which was damaged by the poor condition of the roads (pot holes) but that is not a fault of my driving and although I accept I wont get a no claims bonus this year I don't think I should be charged the equivalent of 3 new windscreens in higher premium charges.

Patronising answer from Swfitcover.com lack of customer service:

Dear Mr Caunt,

Thank you for your e-mail.

The reason for price increases is that the average cost of claims is increasing. This affects all UK car insurance companies.

These are some of the causes:

? Injury claims compensation is increasing.
? Increasing medical costs.
? Fewer cars are repairable.
? Parts are more expensive.

I hope this answers your query.

Commentary from Zephyrist

I haven't bothered replying, I don't see much point.

Conservative Liberals or Liberal Conservatives?

Is the new coalition government of the UK made up of Conservative Liberals or Liberal Conservatives. I personally think they are Liberal Conservatives. The question in my mind is if that judgement is based on what I believe to be their politics or the sometimes unnatural rules of the English Language.

In option 1 I think that the politics are generally Conservative yet tempered by liberalism hence Liberal Conservatives.

In option 2 the majority subject goes second and then the descriptive effector comes first hence Liberal Conservatives.

Of course with the power of the mighty google I can check out the most popular term.

Search term: Conservative liberals uk

About 8,430,000 results

Search term: Liberal Conservatives uk

About 8,390,000 results

Oh, a very narrow victory for Conservative liberals. Probably proves absolutely nothing but it was an interesting thought for the day.

New Scientist : Age of Denial

De Nile, not just a place in Egypt,sorry that is one of my favourite jokes, along with Dubai, no I was just window shopping. I can hear the groaning from here. Normal service resumes in 3...2...1...

This is commentary on a New Scientist Special Report, State of Denial, Volume 206 No 2760 15 May 2010 pp 35 - 45 by various writers including Michael Shermer, Michael Fitzpatrick, Jim Giles, Richard Littlemore, Debora MacKenzie.

Are you a denialist or a sceptic?

A sceptic should review all the available information and reserve judgement until they have reviewed the information. At that point they follow the evidence to its logical conclusion.

A denialist will make the judgement first and then bend the evidence to fit their case or even discard contradictory evidence to support an argument.

Of course not everything is so black and white there are many shades of grey, in all healthy debate people will choose evidence that supports their case but will generally not ignore evidence that is overwhelming against their argument.

This definition is very important to any discussion about the world being in a state of denial. Take any modern issue facing humanity like climate change / global warming. The information is so vast we cannot review and interpret it ourselves, scientists themselves are not public relations people so we have to rely on scientific commentators or journalists to interpret us for us. This relies on them to present the correct interpretation to us and even if they are presenting the correct interpretation they are often overshadowed by the opposing view who have a bigger marketing budget. In climate change oil companies have a bigger budget to present a view that supports their future business. This does not meed they are necessarily the evil empire but they have a lot to say and we are more likely to hear it first.

If I as an average man in the blogosphere wanted to completely investigate global warming then it would probably take at least a full year full time and about £50,000 and at the end of the year I would have just another book of the truth about global warming. Actually how much could I add to the debate? Only Science truly adds to the debate not commentary.

Of course being presented with all this commentary on global issues is it any wonder that some people are happy to deny the truth. I believe that denialists latch on to the most coherent or in your face argument and then accept supporting information denying any contradictory information. In a way we like to have a definitive opinion on an issue such as global warming. Having a view of "I just don't know" is uncomfortable if you are unable to do a complete review of the evidence or progress towards a definitive opinion.

The media although a force for good in reporting everything also confuses us because it constantly contradicts itself. Look at the basic media interview, whatever the person says the interviewer will ask the opposing question. This leads us to question everything and in a sense not to believe what is in front of us but look for the conspiracy or the hidden agenda. We are actually in a state of mistrust even to the point where we no longer trust ourselves.

To quote a song "All of these problems are in your head... you took something perfect and painted it red."

My Creative boost

One of my mini web projects which is very creative but very unpopular is my creative boost. Basically when you press the boost me! button it shows you a picture which inspires you or makes you think. Each picture is a little amuse bouche for the mind.

Here are some of the ones I have added recently:


Image 77 - What is your escape plan?

Image 76 - Naked

Image 75 - Reverse Pschology

Image 74 - Subliminal advertising

Image 73 - UK General Election Result

The 2010 General Election: So many issues they have tissues.

First off, in my long standing campaign to make the media declare there potential for bias I should mention that I voted Liberal Democrat and I voted against the Tory party and although I can think of no particular reason to hate Gordon Brown I cant wait to see the back of him.

Gordon Brown

Perhaps I should explain, nearly everyone in the country wants Gordon Brown out. I want him out but cant help wondering why I want him out. Having spent some time thinking about it, the best I could come up with was that I perceive him to be an arrogant bully. Yet is that opinion based on fact or based on a tissue of lies woven by the media. I submit to the jury the fact that during the election campaign the media changed their portrayal of him from a frowning worn character to a beaming arrogant idiot. Compare photographs of a year ago to photographs of today.Did this portrayal change my perceptions.

So what evidence do I have that he should go. Well actually he handled the economy reasonably well, we survived and I don't think any other party could have done much better, no matter what the opposition parties say. Then he didn't handle the expense fiasco very well either, but then no party or leader was blameless. He was responsible for the continued mess in Afghanistan but again it will always be a mess even under the next government.

I think the best thing I can say about him is we could do a lot worse and maybe that is what lead to the mixed result we had last week.


The Election Result

In my humble opinion no major party won, in fact you could say the only party that could declare a complete victory is the Green Party who finally got their first MP and can finally be a force for good in parliament rather than outside on the protest line.

The Conservative party may have got the most votes and seats but they did not get the landslide victory they wanted and the public judged them as not convincing (or perhaps trustworthy) enough to be put in power.

The Labour party lost seats and were unable to convince the electorate that they were the only safe pair of hands for a secure economy.

The Liberal Democrats had Clegg mania but in the end lost seats, failing to convince anyone they should be given more . Although in their defence I think voters got scared off at the last minute by talk of a "Hung" parliament. Vote Conservative or we are doomed! Doomed I say! Sorry got carried away a bit there.

So no party convinced everyone and we all voted for either local issues or something different. The wind of change was coming but for most of us it felt like a sigh.

The Electorate spoke

So no overall winner and the only majority coalition would be a Conservative / Liberal Democrat pact. However, in their arrogance the Conservatives seem to be refusing to offer much compromise and virtually making the offer of your either with us in government or you can rot on the back benches for another 70 years. The Liberal Democrats appear to be sticking to their principles and holding out for the best deal for their voters especially over electoral reform.

The Labour party in desperation offer everything to the Liberal Democrats to cling on to power although if I were the Labour Party I would give in and come back on a change agenda in five years. OK so Gordon Brown is finished but the Labour Party could come back stronger than ever especially as the next five years probably isn't going to end well for whoever is in power.

So the Liberal Democrats have started to talk to the Labour party to see if they can get a better deal for the people that voted for them. Even though they wont have a majority a Lib / Labour pact would still represent 15 million votes which is more than the last Labour government represented of 9. 5 million votes.

Personally although some people are accusing the Liberal Democrats of being arrogant king makers I would suggest that the Conservative party are the arrogant ones. If they are seriously committed to a stable and secure government then they should be working hard to work out a fair deal with the Liberal Democrats. We the electorate have asked you the Conservative Party to work with another party to form the next government. So get on with it otherwise at the very next election (which may come round a lot sooner than you think) you may find that the electorate may remember that the reason it all went wrong was because the Conservative were more interested in what was best for the party and themselves than what was best for the country.

The world is going to end with proportional representation or a hung parliament

At least that is what the media would like you to believe, conveniently ignoring the fact that many countries around the world have some form of proportional representation or collaborative governments working together in the best interests of the country. New Zealand is one such example.

The whole point of government is to act in the best interests of the people. Look at it this way, a party with a strong majority could be considered to be a form of dictatorship who can put through any laws they want. Surely a weak majority or a collaborative government is better, as they hopefully work in the best interests of the country as without the electorate's support they will be out. This could be strengthened if we all get the right to vote MPs out if we disagree with them, if the majority is single digits the balance of power could change on a monthly basis as MPs are voted in and out. Maybe that is not such a good idea after all, we don't really want to change prime ministers like we change our socks. We would be the laughing stock of the civilised world and even the uncivilised world come to that.

I personally feel positive about a hung parliament, as I would not support the Conservative party on their own or the Labour party on their own but perhaps a government tempered by the Liberal Democrats will on this occasion provide the middle of the road government and steady pair of hands we desperately need.

A final word on electoral reform

How can it be fair that a party such as the Liberal Democrats get 79% of Labour's vote count but only get 22% of their number of seats.

That is just not cricket. If it were in a book it would be called a conspiracy theory.

Politics: Some MPs Salaries in hourly rates

I thought I would put some salaries through the salary converter to see what hourly rate they get.

Members of Parliament get an annual salary of £65,738 which converts to an hourly rate of £34.07. Not including expenses mind you.

In 1911 MPs got £411 pounds per annum.

The Prime minster is entitled to claim £198,661 which coverts to an hourly rate of £102.97.

Cabinets ministers (and the speaker) are entitled to claim £145,992 which converts to an hourly rate of £75.41.

The Basic minimum wage quite possibly paid to some poor underling at the house of commons is £5.73. Although if you count some of the researchers that volunteer the lowest wage at the House of Commons is a whopping £0 per hour.

If you want to use my fantabulous salary converter yourself give it a whirl salaryconverter.co.uk.

Speculation: BA puts pressure on government?

This is pure speculation on my part but I was looking on flightradar24.com early this evening between 7 and 8 and I saw a few planes in British airspace. You can check out the call signs which gives you information on what the plane is.

I saw the Vancouver flight which was the first plane to land at Heathrow in a holding pattern over the isle of man. What were they waiting for, they knew Heathrow was closed when they set off and it was still closed so what is going on?

Strangely enough the airspace opened soon after and the plane landed.

Now my question is why did British Airways let planes fly towards Heathrow knowing that the airport was closed. Did British Airways force the government to open the airspace by saying they had 12 planes that were going to land at Heathrow regardless of what the government said? Did British Airways put the planes in a holding pattern while some last minute negotiations took place and the government gave in. After all if that was the case and the planes did land at Heathrow the government would have to prosecute the national flag carrier during a general election campaign and for what, landing planes despite a air movement restriction? Provided they landed safely which they did it would seem like a mis managed government storm in a tea cup and certainly not a vote winner.

Was British airspace opened on safety grounds or were British Airways up to something?

I shall stop speculating and conspiracy theory navel gazing and leave it up to you dear reader.

Ash and Political Clouds - Some thoughts

Well first of all its been a while, it has been a hectic couple of months and once you dont write for a week you get a bit of a fear factor about sitting down at a computer and downloading your thoughts onto a blank page. The ever problematical writers block. Never mind.

However, with all that is now going on in the world the great need to write overpowered my fears.

Political Clouds

So the UK made history on Thursday with the first live election debate. To be fair the chancellors debate was much better this one was just like the normal bickering that happens at prime minsters question time.

The production by ITV was fairly mediocre including the impressive gaff of turning the sound down on Gordon Brown for the first few seconds of his initial speech. Then you got the presenter barking at the candidates "Mr Clegg!, Mr Brown!" its almost begging for a rap remix. All you needed was Simon Cowell and the X factor judges to create a programme of typical itv trash. At any moment during the programme you were waiting for them to announce details of the phone / text vote.

The Liberal Democrats are the ones coming off best though, out of the two debates they have won both, in fact the chancellors debate was won even more convincingly that the prime minsters. Yet does this translate into a win for the liberal democrats. The situation is very complicated but it would appear not, one poll taken soon after the debate suggested they would get up to 40 more seats. In a hung parliment they would have a significant say but no overall majority. On a constituency basis the situation has many factors to consider one of which is whether the previous MP cheated their expenses. Obviously if they did their will be a vote swing away from the MP or the party but to who. This could be the party who does best in the tv debates rather than just the second place person. I believe all these factors make this particular election unlike any previous one. Elections are normally impossible to call and I would argue this is super impossible to call. We wont know who has won until they are standing outstide of Downing Street saying "I have won".

Another interesting thing is about what is the acceptable image for a UK Prime Minister. I would suggest that the UK population has now got it into its head that to be a succesful prime minster you have to be a Tony Blair clone, ie no more old men. Out of the three you have David Cameron and Nick Clegg who have the Tony Blair look and Gordon Brown who has the old man look. Hence we will elect one of the other two and not Gordon Brown. If Labour ditched Gordon Brown and got themselves a Tony Blair clone would there be a massive swing back to Labour.

Well the next debate is next week and we will see what that brings.

Note:For editorial reasons to allow the reader to determine potential bias I declare myself to be a Liberal Democrat supporter.

Ash Clouds

This is a great news story for TV because in reality there is no visible ash cloud over the UK. News editors are so used to having pictures that they are showing you the ash cloud coming out of the volcano which must have lead to some of the less intelligent members of society looking out of the window for this massive ash cloud. They will never see it because the ash cloud over the UK is invisible apart from a haze over the horizon or possibly the dust on cars etc.

So technically the pictures and the story are not quite matching up.

Anyway the ash cloud is coming down on a north west wind which at least until the wind changes means it is here to stay. In the UK we normally have south west or west winds which bring us warm damp weather on the gulf stream. The North wind predominating our weather system at the moment is also why we had the heavy snow fall earlier in the year.

So, we could have on and off international air travel for the entire summer. Based on that premise I was thinking that if I was a canny airplane operator as soon as there was a gap over Heathrow or the south east airports I would move all my planes to either Scottish, North West or South West airports which in my mind based on the last couple of days are likely to have more potential slots than the South East. If this happens, potentially over the long term could it affect the South East's status as the UK economic regional powerhouse.

As Nick Hewer off the Apprentice would say " I will leave it with you..."

Chris Moyles and the sixty piece orchestra

I like the new jingle called "morning movie", very classy. Only thing is Chris keeps talking all over it, only kidding Chris.

From the link above you can hear it in its full , building glory until the final salute of "The Chris Moyle's Show BBC Radio 1!".

Your doing a cracking job keep it up. Not that I can show my trend credentials by saying I am an avid listener to Radio 1, I have never liked the music even when I was a young un. I have always liked the talky bits of the Chris Moyle's show, he is a good laugh and occasionally he does play a song I can listen to and enjoy.

Crack on Chris and the team.

Snow watch update

Well some more snow around, it snowed nicely yesterday for about half an hour around 5 pm but didn't settle. It must have snowed again last night as when I went out to the car as there was a frosty sprinkling.

Possibly more snow towards the weekend, watch this space.

Post 400: Snow watch round up

Leg 4.

Well I got to Day 4 and stopped posting, mainly because after that the persistence of the snow and ice, it was all beginning to sap my strength and certainly the enjoyment factor. Driving everywhere in 2nd gear and being barely able to maintain speed and direction can get a bit tiresome after a while.

As far as I can remember it snowed on the 8th lightly giving a further 0.5 cm of snow around 6 - 7 in the evening.

Then it snowed heavily on the 13th January and it seemed to be a lot worse in Oxford. The snow was so bad that morning I am surprised the police did not say only travel if necessary. Everyone was trying to get into work and the worst of the snow hit the rush hour. It was not a good day, on the way to work I was bouncing off the curbs trying to maintain direction. The snow was falling heavily, the roads becoming impassible and I decided to turn around and go home while I still could.

Then by Thursday the ice rink roads had cleared again.

All the snow cleared by that weekend although some of the piles still haven't quite gone even now.

Leg 5 - 20 January 2010

A bit of a damp squib, yesterday there was some very wet snow which did kind of settle slightly on the grass but soon melted away in the rain.

Snow Watch 09/10 - Leg 4 Day 4

Well Day 4 and although the snow is lovely, having to drive to work is a nightmare.

In Oxfordshire they are being very sparing with the grit which means any local roads are still covered in snow / ice and not good to drive on at all. The difference can be seen driving north off the A34 onto the A41 towards Aylesbury.

A34 gritted and maintained by the Highways Agency perfect, no snow or slush able to made near normal speeds of about 50 mph. Both Lanes open. The A41 the other side of the M40 roundabout maintained by Oxfordshire County Council, one lane vaguely clear, one lane covered in snow passable by the brave and 4 x 4's. Its pretty pathetic really.

Other local roads even if they don't grit they could at least use a snow plough on them. There is almost 2-3 inches of compacted snow which is getting quite treacherous.

I know the arguments about it being a 1 in 40 year event, other areas are getting priority gritting etc etc. Surely there are contingency plans. Someone who set themselves up with a snowplough and a warehouse full of grit could make a lot of money at the moment.

Plan A,

• set up a massive southern counties Depot containing at least one months grit for the entire south.
  
• put in a rail terminal, get rid of the lorries and make it a lot easier to get the grit out and deliver to any point over the rail network.
  
• Seek alternative supplies, perhaps you don't have to use grit, what about sand, maybe even chalk?
  
• Organise volunteers to shovel, grit and snowplough. Everyone would muck in if it was organised. This goes back to the civil emergencies force I have talked about previously.
• Create laws making householders responsible for their own pavements and driveways.
• create a fleet of flame-thrower ice vehicle, which burns the ice off the road.
• Send 40 MP's on an all expenses paid trip to Sweden to find out how they do it (Joking - although this is the one thing most likely to happen).
  

Any more ideas to help the experts because clearly they need some?

On another subject by the look of the met office weather warnings the heavy snow possible for leg 5 has moved from Sunday / Monday to Saturday / Sunday. Apparently we can expect another 1 - 5 cm of snow.

Watch this space.

Snow Watch 09/10 - Leg 4 update

Wow leg 4 was a complete blast, it snowed for around 15 hours and we ended up with a good eleven inches of snow. I went wading in it early this morning, it was so much fun.

Thats the end of this leg unless you count when the snow gets very compacted, icy and very dangerous.

However leg 5 is already in the offing with a new early warning of heavy snow on Sunday. I somehow down the 11 inches will have vanished by then. If it keeps on coming we could end up with a Candadian style winter. I even saw tracks in the snow which proved somebody had been using snow chains.

Here are some snowy pictures from Chadster, North Oxfordshire.

Last night 05/01, 2000- 2300 about 3 inches of lying snow.























































Some Photos taken approx 1645 today 06/01 with approx 11 inches of lying snow

Leg 4 - Very Heavy Snowfal

This is the first time I have ever seen a flash warning for very heavy snow in my area.

& South East England: Hampshire Oxfordshire W Berkshire	Very Heavy Snowfall	2000 Tue 5	1100 Wed 6
	There is a high risk of an extreme weather event affecting parts of Southern England this evening and overnight. A period of exceptionally heavy snowfall is expected with accumulations of 15-30 cm and perhaps in excess of 40 cm. This is expected to cause widespread disruption to the transport network and could lead to problems with power supplies. The public are advised to take extreme care and refer to the Highways Agency for further advice on traffic disruption on motorways and trunk roads. Issued at: 1633 Tue 5 Jan

Extracted from the met office website at 1855 hrs on 05/01/10. Please check the website for further details as it may have been updated since then.

Chek it out "accumulations of 15-20 cm and perhaps in excess of 40cm", I so want to see what "excess of 40 cm" means, that is heading towards a foot and a half of snow which is half way up to my knees. I have having a snowtasm here.

To update on the history of snow in Oxfordshire for today. I was at work just north of Oxford and it started snowing lightly at 1530 hrs approx. This continued and become what can be described as light but persistent steady snow. Given that the ground was already frozen it was settling happy, even with just a few flakes. I left work to drive home when the ground was lightly covered with no sign of a let up. Better to be safe than sorry. Driving home was cool, no one told me that driving in snow is like being in star wars as the snow flakes come from a point of origin towards you. Driving home was a bit slow as a lot of people probably had the same idea as me and one or two people refused to go above 4o miles an hour. The roads were completely clear and I got home safely.

Since then it has continued being light but persistent and is slowly building up on the ground. On the ground now is approx 0.5 cm. It is expected to snow for at least the next twelve hours but at current fall rate I would only expect 3 - 5 cm. However the weather warning is in effect from 2000 hrs tonight and if the rate increases then accumulations of the sort they talk about in the weather warning above are very possible.

More updates as they come in to the snow desk here in Chadster, North Oxfordshire.

Snow Watch 2009/2010 leg 3

I think leg 2 was between the 21 - 25 of December when I was on holiday so I missed that observation and so will call this leg 3.

Leg 3 is a heavy dusting of snow observed now although it seems to only be a shower. Nothing was on the met office web site and we were even expecting it. A London snow watcher who happened to be visiting for the weekend has also confirmed the observation.

It has settled giving a light covering over the ground, may even go for a walk in a while.

It has been reported to the Met Office via their snow report page which seems not to recognise 2010 so I had to submit it as the 01/01/09. Modern technology eh?

More snow reports will undoubtedly follow in what seems to be shaping up to be a great snow season.

The True meaning of Christmas

Its at this time of year after the annual watching of a version of "A Christmas Carol" (Patrick Stewart as scrooge and Richard E. Grant living up to what his middle initial may well stand for - Excellent), the odd mince pie and a glass of your favourite tipple that thoughts turn to what is the true spirit of Christmas.

I also feel that I should either be a member of the royal family or a member of the clergy or indeed a well respected member of the fourth estate, passing judgement on what Christmas should be.

It is in a sense what you make of it. What it is not is another day on which to compare ourselves to other people to determine whether our Christmas has been success. Long ago I worked out that it is the lot of most of us that we will never be the best at whatever we do, there will always be someone who can do it better. The consolation prize as it were is that I and you can do whatever it is our way and there is no one in this truly wonderful world who could do it quite the way we could.

That is the little bit of magic inside all of us and we can use that magic to create a Christmas that is magic to us. We may not have the biggest turkey, we may all start fighting by 10 am in the morning and we may not get anything we actually wanted for Christmas but at least it is our Christmas with our family and we all bought the magic.

Christmas will never be perfect however much money or even planning goes into it. Often it is the small inexpensive gestures that we remember in the new year. What presents do you remember from Christmas past?

One thing I love about Christmas is the carols, you cant beat a good sing along and it is one of the many things I look forward to each year. It doesn't matter whether you can sing or just shout, it is a spontaneous expression of joy and certainly clears the cobwebs from the lungs.

Tonight on Christmas Eve everyone is preparing for the big day looking forward to whatever is special for them. Father Christmas is criss crossing the sky delivering presents to the children in time for the dawn of Christmas day.

It is this spirit of giving and the belief of universal love and peace that is central to the more spiritual side of Christmas. On one day a year we think of loved ones and strangers and look to make the world a better place in the coming year.

It is a beautiful place this world of ours.

To all my readers, Merry Christmas to you and your families. The joys of the season to you and yours.

Snow Watch leg 1 part 2 update

Well nothing yet, I have had reports from reporters in Maidenhead, High Wycombe and London of snow showers during the day. In Oxfordshire the weather for the day has been wet and cold. The whitest stuff I have seen was last nights sleety hail.

However if the met office had big chuffing alarm bells they would be ring all over the shop. From tonight through tommorrow morning there is a weather warning out for Oxfordshire of "Be aware" with a moderate risk of severe weather. Rain showers will turn increasingly to snow. Accumulations of up to 5 cm are likely.

Call me a snow sceptic but I will wait and see what happens, at the moment it looks like leg 1 will be a damp squib.

Snow Watch 09/10 early start with a bit of unconfirmed light snow

Yes I do declare the Snow Watch 2009/2010 season open. This may be the last season in Chadster, North Oxfordshire as the snow watch base of operations may move HQ at some point next year.

Well I was driving home from work this evening in what can be best described as hailish sleet. It was white aand slightly sleety with a hint of hardness. I would not class it as snow as visibility remain good, there was no sign of floating flakes and snow generally does not make a noise when it hits the floor.

As is tradition in the first possible sighting of snow in a season we look back at the earliest recorded snowfall in Chadster.

The 2008/09 Season started on the 28 October with significant snowfall on January 19 2009.

The 2007/08 Season started on the 18 November with significant snowfall on April 06 2008.

So this season is a late start, does this mean we could be in for lots of heavy snow. Watch this space. This intrepid snow watch reporter will report live from Chadster throughout the season.

The met office currently has a "be aware" notice out for eastern counties for Thursday and Friday of this week. There is a moderate risk of severe weather with local accumulations of between 5 to 10 cm of snow.

Avid snow watchers will know that such an early warning can quickly turn into a warning for blizzard or just as equally into a day of sunshine and showers. Watch the skies.