After the best Formula One race of the year in Brazil (see earlier post), I was concerned this morning to hear that suggestions of inappropriate overtaking were being levelled at Sebastian Vettel. Fortunately this article has now appeared on the BBC and I can breathe a sigh of relief.   

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20541589

After such an amazing race, the possibility of Vettel being retrospectively punished and then stripped of the drivers’ championship just didn’t bear thinking about.

Ferrari and Alonso need to get off their high (prancing) horses, accept defeat and focus on winning in 2013. This whole technical challenge just reeks of desperation, sour grapes and gamesmanship to me – nothing appealing there then! And as for Alonso; does he just come across as a sore loser - what do you think?

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The BBC reports today that a small earthquake was registered in Cumbria last night.

The tremor registered 2.1 on the Richter scale so was hardly a dramatic event, the equivalent of a geological fart perhaps. Given all the water that has been moving around in the recent spate of bad weather, a bit of ground movement is not even that surprising. And let’s face it; the flooding has been far more dramatic and newsworthy of late.

The thing about earthquakes in Cumbria that bothers me is that our government allows the burying of nuclear waste deep in the Cumbrian hills. That makes seismic activity in the region something we should all be a little more nervous about.  

2.1 this time, 3.6 in December 2010 – 20 tremors a year overall – interesting statistics! What will the next one be? What risk is posed to us all by the burying of nuclear waste in the vicinity? Is it as negligible as the authorities would encourage us to believe?

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The Brazilian Grand Prix was the best F1 race this season, it had everything, thrills, spills, bad weather, safety cars, magnificent endeavour and a dramatic tension that was unrivalled. So much rested on this race for the drivers and the race teams and there was no doubting the commitment from all. The ensuing spectacle was as engaging as F1 racing ever gets. If you missed it, get on the iPlayer and catch up.

I was hoping Vettel would win the 2012 Drivers’ Championship and when he was hit on the first lap, and spun into a backwards drive down the track, my heart was in my mouth. The other cars were racing towards him as he sat helpless in the middle of the track and in a damaged car. Once he got going again he was in last place and that could have been the death knell for his championship contention. But Vettel, known for his perseverance, just got back to work and raced his way back up the field. Alonso, the only other championship contender, went up the field as quickly as Vettel went down it.

The weather demanded more tyre changes than normal; Vettel’s communications system failed; Hamilton got smashed out of pole position, and the race, by Hulkenburg; Di Resta put his car into the barriers; and the great Michael Schumacher drove his last race. In all of this, Alonso’s progress up the field was relentless and the showdown potential was electric.

In the end Alonso’s race was superb (2nd place) and Vettel’s amazing (6th place) given the challenges he faced. Vettel did enough to seal his third championship in a row and becomes the youngest driver ever to achieve that standard.

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14/07/14 FEMALE BISHOPS AT LAST - UPDATE TO PREVIOUS POST

ttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28300618

Today sees some good news and about time too. Having expressed my exasperation in late 2012, it’s important to set the record straight now. We have all had to wait 20 months for the sensible outcome that we always should have had but at least it’s here now (and it didn't take seven years either). Women can be ordained as bishops and I am sure the Church of England will be a better organisation for it.

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HRH, the CofE, female bishops and Derren Brown - 22/11/12

The news this week that the Church of England (CofE) has refused to ordain female bishops, and that the decision will not be re-considered for another seven years, is as disappointing as it is tragic. That decision came despite the public, the clerical majority (including the Archbishop of Canterbury) and the politicians being in favour of reform.

In the Tudor times, Henry VIII broke from the catholic faith and established the CofE in order to bypass the Vatican’s rule and I can’t help but think that our queen maybe needs to wield her power over the church that she is the head of. It’s okay to have a female as the figurehead of the church and the country and yet a woman can’t be ordained as a bishop! This is ridiculous and in my opinion an embarrassment for the United Kingdom.

I have read comment that the decision was based upon keeping the CofE and all its denominations united (as opposed to weakening the infrastructure of the church - which is apparently less desirable than bigotry) but the decision will only be viewed as discrimination towards women because the outcome is only expressed as ‘no female bishops’.

Discrimination, whether sexual or racial, is being forced out of society by legislation and the judicial system and yet the CofE is apparently immune – I have some faith that will change.

How can women be less deserving of the highest religious posts? I genuinely don’t get it.

On a separate but related point, Derren Brown presented a very different view of faith in his show last Friday night - he was able to manufacture a religious epiphany in an atheist through mental manipulation. Fascinating and disturbing in equal measure.

People may watch Derren and question the nature of faith and then find themselves questioning the nature of the organisation that overseas their faith too.  And, the CofE, in making the wrong decision about female bishops, just plays into the hands of its detractors.

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It’s Tuesday and yet again I have reflected upon the pace at which life seems to be moving by. Where has 2012 gone?

Thanks to Chris Evans, and his Breakfast Show on Radio Two, I have begun to mark off the weeks because of a memorable song by Dean Martin and Helen O'Connell called “How D'Ya Like Your Eggs In The Morning?”

Chris plays this tune around 8:05am every Tuesday and whilst it’s good, and I enjoy listening to it, I have recently started to appreciate that every time I hear it, another week of my life has gone, and unlike the record, won’t ever get played again.

This morning on the M1, in the greyness and the rain, I reflected that the year is almost done and in a handful of weeks, I’ll be another year older. These facts made me feel a sense of melancholy, an emotion I am unfamiliar with.

All in all, 2012 has been a pretty good year and a significant improvement on 2011 so instead of feeling old and down, I need to stop listening to Evans on a Tuesday morning and instead get the Christmas CDs out and start looking forward to the festive season. Jingling bells will cheer me up I am sure.

On the bright side, this morning marked off another week of Movember and that means I am another week closer to be able to get rid of the damn moustache. In my survey, the highest poling result is ‘Village People’ so I have this facial hair I am starting to hate (the wife has hated it from the start) and all it is doing is making me look like an ageing gay bloke.  In ten days’ time, I’ll be ten days older but it will be worth it because it will all be over for the tache.

I am feeling less melancholic already.

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This Sunday saw Armistice Day and remembrance services taking place across the country. I made a point of watching the events at the Cenotaph, and my wife and I made sure that our children did too. A solemn but important occasion that the kids need to understand and respect.

Then on Monday night, I watched a documentary on BBC2 about the charisma of Adolf Hitler, that to be honest just made me cross enough to, rather pointlessly I admit, shout at the telly. Charisma or charismatic were mentioned so many times that it seemed to me that the actual words were the only justification for the title of the documentary and, that if they weren’t repeated enough, the viewers might not believe it. As a marketing man, I get the idea of repetition and reinforcement, but around Hitler, all that needs reinforcement is that he was a hate-filled psychopath with as much charisma as a wrecking ball. As for the documentary, it suffered from some poor scripting/narration and I won’t be watching episodes two or three of the series.     

Remembrance of those lost in the war is good as far as I am concerned, remembering the despot that started it (and the very next day) - unnecessary! Hitler thought the Third Reich would last a thousand years, clearly it didn’t, but I suspect that Hitler’s toxic legacy will be a source of national discomfort for the German people for that length of time.

Moving on; as we remember our lost soldiers, we mustn’t forget our elderly folks that are still soldiering on. And on that subject, I came across a perfect story on the BBC website yesterday, which allows me to end this post on a high note.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-20295971  

Congratulations are due to Sam Ledward on reaching his 106th birthday and for maintaining a good sense of humour too.

His story of surviving a motorcycle crash in 1936 and a subsequent coma, despite the doctors thinking he was dead is incredible. Please read it, Sam is clearly a real character.

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Today saw the birthday of one of my office colleagues and, in the common office tradition, cakes and candy were brought in to mark the occasion. The starving throng descended upon them with gusto - and within minutes of the spread being laid out. No point in standing on ceremony.

Many calories were consumed across the day and by the end of it, the table was bare.

Included within a bag of sweets was the item that has prompted this post – a Swizzels Matlow double lolly. I may be in my forties but I have to admit that these lollies appeal as much now as they did in my childhood. Today I sucked and crunched my way through two or three and enjoyed every calorie.

You’ll appreciate that Halloween was only a short while ago; I accompanied my children around our Daventry estate whilst they trick or treated. Much candy was collected and amongst all the chocolate, Haribo and drumsticks was the occasional double lolly. My offspring, well versed in my candy preferences, even handed a few of these over to me without much complaint. Wonders will never cease!

The following weekend I descended upon my sister who lovingly filled a sandwich bag for me of double lollies instead of giving them all to the kids. Happy days!

Candy might be at the top of the music charts thanks, or rather no thanks, to that awful Robbie Williams song, but this week candy for me is about nostalgia. A double lolly takes me back to the days when you could still buy Spangles and Texan bars, when Snickers were Marathons and Starbursts were Opal Fruits; and I am sure that the lollies taste a little better for the whiff of the seventies.

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At the weekend I visited my parents and, over dinner on Friday night, my dad and I discussed the merits of me joining the CND movement. Both my mum and dad were largely supportive and listened to, and understood, the reasoning behind my decision.

My dad, a wonderfully practical type of chap, is of the opinion that nuclear power is necessary in terms of the nature of supply and demand, e.g. we need more power than can be generated without nuclear power so whilst something else might be preferable, there is nothing else as efficient and able to fulfil the requirement. He has a sensible, valid and probably widely shared point of view.

My challenge was not around the economics but rather the risks.

That was Friday, today is Wednesday and I have to say that I feel this BBC article supports my position and makes for some disturbing reading.

The National Audit Office (NAO not CND you note) has stated that the risks posed by nuclear waste storage at Sellafield are intolerable!

Strong words.   

So, on one hand we have David Cameron championing nuclear power and promoting Hitachi’s latest deal, along with John Hayes knocking wind power and then on the other the NAO painting a clear picture that the risks already associated with our existing infrastructure are dangerously high.

Said Dr Ruth Balogh, in the BBC piece; "We shouldn't build any new nuclear reactors if we can't deal with the radioactive mess that's already been created."

And I couldn’t agree more.

The mandate for CND to exist and to play its part in educating the public, and lobbying the government, is crystal clear.

As I write, I am feeling what marketers call post purchase satisfaction. In the two weeks since I joined CND, this is my fourth article that confirms that my decision to join was the right one for me.

And as for Sellafield, let’s all hope that there isn’t a freak seismic event or other unexpected phenomenon that proves the NAO was right with its risk assessment.

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I have written about Elite, the computer game, before...

​...so I was delighted to read this piece of news on the BBC today. It is quite possible that Elite will get a ‘Dangerous’ new makeover and once again be available for purchase and enjoyment. I wish David Braban and Frontier every success in the search for funding via Kickstarter.

If a new version does become available, I’ll buy a copy, and maybe even a new gaming console, in order to play it and introduce my son to the game.

Somewhere I have original PC copies of Elite Plus, Frontier and First Encounters but God only knows if these will still function on today’s hardware – probably not but if any reader knows better, please let me know.

I can only think that there are some other fans of the old game at the BBC, or David Braban has some good connections for this to have made the news. Still the story was a welcome departure from the US election coverage that is boring me to death at the moment.

http://www.frontier.co.uk/games/elite/

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Tonight is bonfire night and today history remembers Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot.  A friend of mine recently reminded me of a humorous saying that "Guy Fawkes was the only man ever to go to parliament with honourable intentions!"

On the subject of politicians; thank God the US presidential election travelling theatre show is nearly over. I am bored stiff of listening to the news coverage; I hope Obama wins and that we can just get back to watching the UK news without being subjected to any US election content.

Obama and Romney are supposedly neck and neck, which is hardly exciting but it does remind me of something with a US connection that is much more engaging. The 2012 Formula 1 drivers’ championship is drawing to a finale and Vettel and Alonso are neck and neck as well. I have got my fingers crossed for Vettel but the championship could go either way (and it may well come down to the last race of the season).

The next race is in Austin, Texas in a fortnight and that will make for some American leadership coverage that really shouldn’t be missed.

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