Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Eye for design

I’ve always liked cars, which is probably a dangerous thing to admit to in these politically correct days in which, in certain quarters, the likes of Jeremy Clarkson are suspected of covertly bearing the mark of the Beast.     

Notwithstanding, I do like cars and in Ruthin today, I saw a car that was – to my subjective eye – utterly beautiful.  It was a 2003 Peugeot 406 coupé, a model that had previously, inexplicably, escaped my notice. 

I spent several minutes walking around it, admiring the purity and elegant simplicity of its lines.  It was, according to a discreet badge low on its flank, a product of Farina, the Italian design house responsible for some of the most exciting models of such exotic marques as Ferrari, Maserati and Alfa Romeo, as well the more interesting offerings of such home-grown names as Morris and Austin in pre-British Leyland days.

I was lucky enough to meet its owner shortly afterwards and got into conversation with him.  He told me that the car gave him enormous pleasure and that he felt sure it was a future classic.

I feel pretty sure he’s right.  It’s an absolute stunner.

What ingredient is it, I wonder, in the Italian DNA that makes them such brilliant designers?  It’s not only cars; it’s ships, it’s clothes, it’s even coffee machines, for heaven’s sake.  Italy, above all nations, produces designers con bravura.

The seven year-old Peugeot, though French-manufactured, screamed “Italian”.  And, as such, it was an object that engendered instant, indefinable desire.

A long haul

As Monty Slocombe has pointed out in his usual courteous and understated way, there has been little blogging on this site over the last few days.  Primarily, this has been due to a significant increase in my workload; I thought an MP’s life was busy, which it is, but ministerial duties have taken that workload up another gear still. 

Sadly, therefore, I have to conclude that light blogging is likely to be the rule, rather than the exception, for the foreseeable future.  My profuse apologies to my readers, but there we are.  I’m sure you’ll understand. 

A second reason for the lack of blogging has been the fact that we have just moved house – a significantly harrowing experience, bedevilled and delayed by all sorts of hiccups. 

The move itself took place on Friday.  We said goodbye to the old family house, loaded our worldly possessions in a couple of vans and headed two miles eastward, over the next hill but one.  There we disgorged the same possessions and settled down to a summer in which we will be sharing our new home with builders, electricians, heating engineers and decorators.  

It will be a long haul, but I’m sure it will be worth it.

Square peg

The BBC News website reports that the junior Foreign Office official who thought it a good idea to insult the Pope in the most crassly offensive terms has been “put on other duties”.

Personally, for his or her own good, as well as that of the Foreign Office, I should have thought it sensible to suggest to the official in question, as kindly as possible, that a career in diplomacy no longer beckons.

First toe in the water

Timesonline has announced today that it will start charging for its online content with effect from June.  The daily charge will be £1; a week’s access will cost £2.

John Witherow, editor of the Sunday Times, points out that the charging structure will be the equivalent of a cup of coffee a day.  Fair point, but the site is still likely to lose thousands of readers, who have become used to unlimited free content on the web.

No doubt other online news sites will be carefully watching the Timesonline experiment before deciding whether to follow suit.

Perosnally, I may be tempted to subscribe on a weekly basis if the product is sufficiently attractive.  Timesonline says that it will be offering a free trial period, which I think will be crucial to the decisions of many as to whether or not to sign up.

No chivalry in London

Was interviewed yesterday by the BBC’s Bethan James, in advance of the Welsh party conference.

Bethan, who is five months pregnant, arrived wearing a London Underground “Baby on Board” badge.  I asked her if it worked.

“No, it doesn’t,” she said.  “People look at, read it, and then return to their papers.”

She then told me of an incident a few weeks ago, when a very heavily pregnant lady got on the very full Tube compartment in which Bethan was sitting.

“She was obviously distressed,” said Bethan.  “Nobody moved, so I got up and gave her my seat.  I then said in a very loud voice, ‘It has come to something when one pregnant woman has to give up her seat for another.’  But no one batted an eyelid.”

Just what has gone wrong with Londoners? 

If Boris wants to do a favour to pregnant women across the capital, he could do worse than order a Stand When You See A Baby On Board Badge poster campaign.

Lower case neutrality

The Observer relaunched yesterday, announcing its aim “to build on a heritage founded on the age of reason”.

Introducing the latest revamp of the perennially ailing Sunday, its editor, John Mulholland, explained:

The Observer remains an independent voice and one that is committed to liberal and social democratic values.

Which it demonstrates by avoiding the use of capital letters.

A really good idea

Sitting in Euston station waiting for the train back to North Wales, I notice a book, apparently discarded.  On its cover is a peel-off label reading:

TRAVELLING BOOK

I’m not lost – I’m on a journey!

Pick me up, read and release me!

The label refers me to a website, www.bookcrossing.com.  There, I discover that:

BookCrossing is earth-friendly, and gives you a way to share your books, clear your shelves, and conserve precious resources at the same time. Through our own unique method of recycling reads, BookCrossers give life to books. A book registered on BookCrossing is ready for adventure.

Leave it on a park bench, a coffee shop, at a hotel on vacation. Share it with a friend or tuck it onto a bookshelf at the gym — anywhere it might find a new reader! What happens next is up to fate, and we never know where our books might travel. Track the book’s journey around the world as it is passed on from person to person.

I think that this is a tremendous idea.  I’ve signed up.

Travel news

At least that will be one thing less for the next Government to worry about.

At Transport Questions yesterday, the junior Transport Minister, Sadiq Khan, told the House that he had listened to representations from Newport East MP, Jessica Morden (presumably ignoring the rest of us) and was proposing to introduce the legislation necessary for the introduction of card payments on the Severn Bridge toll by April.

One further bit of good news was the announcement by his colleague, Chris Mole, that the Department for Transport is working up a proposal for the redoubling of the Swindon to Kemble railway line and hopes to provide further information about it “in the near future”.

The line is an important weekend link on the London to South Wales route and upgrading it would be widely welcomed by Welsh travellers, for whom it has long been a cause for complaint. 

It’s almost as if  an election were  in the offing.

Sorry, no credit

The saga of toll payment on the Severn bridge drones on.

Yesterday, Mr Ieuan Wyn Jones, transport minister in the Welsh Assembly Government, announced that credit and debit card payments on the bridge should become possible later in 2010.

The lack of a card payment facility has now become something of a scandal and an increasing source of annoyance for motorists.  A couple of years ago, on my way to the Royal Welsh show on a particularly hot day, I found myself stuck in a long queue behind a hapless individual who had clearly come out with insufficient cash and was obliged to conduct an elaborate negotiation with the toll attendant before he could be let through.  This must happen reasonably frequently, given that many people carry little cash in this age of chip and PIN.

According to the BBC News website, however, there will have to be a change to national legislation before card payments can be put in place.  Given that we are now in the dying days of this Parliament and the new Parliament will have rather a lot on its plate dealing with Gordon’s toxic legacy, we are probably in for at least one more summer of sticky, bad-tempered queues before the Severn crossing finally catches up with the twenty-first century.

Colwyn Bay pier

A brief housekeeping note:  as many readers will be aware, I have called a meeting at 6.00 pm tomorrow (Friday) to discuss the future of Colwyn Bay pier.

This has generated considerable interest, and other bloggers have been encouraging people to attend.

However, the venue, Colwyn Bay town hall, is quite small and if people do not register their intention to attend, they may find, unfortunately, that they are turned away.

If you do wish to come, you will be very welcome, but please e-mail my office at owenj at  parliament.uk to let us know.  Space is now very limited indeed, so please contact us as soon as possible.

Snow

Can’t say I really like snow – my first ski-ing holiday was also my last – but it certainly does show Westminster off to its best advantage.

Goodbye Noughties, hello Twenty-Ten

Now that the dreadful Noughties are over, there is much discussion as to how we should pronounce the years of the new decade (the “Teenies”?).  Is this the year Two Thousand and Ten or Twenty-Ten?

As I blogged yesterday, I take the view that it is the latter and will certainly be using it.  Not only in the interest of speed (it is certainly much less of a mouthful) but also because it is the way we have always done it.  The Noughties were an aberration, and it’s all to do with our propensity to pronounce the zeroes in years as “oh”.

For example, how do you pronounce the year 1909?  Is it “One Thousand, Nine Hundred and Nine”, “Nineteen Hundred and Nine” or “Nineteen-oh-Nine”?  I’d be prepared to lay good money it’s the third, because it’s the one that comes most naturally. 

Thus, the Battle of Blenheim was fought in Seventeen-oh-Four and Trafalgar in Eighteen-oh-Five; Asquith became Prime Minister in Nineteen-oh-Eight.  Name any year in the first decade of any century since the twelfth and I bet you stick an “oh” in it.  It’s so much easier to say.

So why were the Noughties different?  Well, probably because the word “twenty” doesn’t end in a consonant.  The “y” at its end functions as a vowel, and when two vowels clash, as would be the case if we said “Twenty-oh-Nine”, it would produce an unnatural, jerky effect, a bit like a glottal stop.  We try to avoid glottal stops, which is, of course, why we say “an orange” rather than “a orange”.

However, with the end of the Noughties and their intrusive ohs, we can now revert to our usual pattern of pronouncing years. 

So “Twenty-Ten” it will be, as far as I am concerned, and I expect that within a few months most people will have abandoned the long form of the date.  I may be wrong, but the acid test, as always, will be: what do the Radio 4 newsreaders say?

Let’s hope 2010 is a good one

May I take the opportunity of wishing a very happy New Year to all my readers and, in particular, to my regular contributors.

I’d guess that 2009 wasn’t the greatest year most of us have experienced.  2010 is going to be a big one, whatever happens.  I hope it will also be a good one for you and your family.

A happy and grateful Christmas

A wonderful start to Christmas yesterday evening, with the Christingle service at St Peter’s, Ruthin.  We drove through the Elwy valley, thick with snow, looking like a Christmas card in the twilight. 

Today, after morning service at St Paul’s, we returned home and put up the barricades against the cold.  There is no better place on earth at this time of year than home, and I can’t imagine how utterly awful it must be to be without one.

No matter how depressing the economic outlook, how dreadful the political climate, most of us have a huge amount for which we should be deeply grateful.

A very happy Christmas to all of you.

Posh nosh in Tan y Lan

Last Thursday, Sara and I were delighted to visit the community centre in Old Colwyn, where we enjoyed a dinner sourced and prepared by members of the Tan y Lan Kidz Club.

The meal was excellent: well cooked, presented and served.  All the guests (who included ward councillors Brian Cossey and Cheryl Carlisle, community beat manager Mike Williams and parents of the hosts) thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

The club’s organiser, Jenny Hughes, plans to extend its activities next year by planting out a vegetable garden, so that the entire meal, from soil to plate, may be produced by the children.

The ability to cook is important and fundamental to a civilised society.  Jenny is doing a wonderful thing by helping the Kidz Club youngsters to discover its delights.