Closest by 74 centimetres

Soundtrack - This is the Return of Cult Fiction - (very) Various Artists

Just returned from a week in Malvern which while I have been away seems to have turned into some humid outpost of Empire in South-East Asia. It was very hot and very difficult to sleep.

Thank you to the Government for making Politics interesting again but for nothing else at all. The Hutton Enquiry is the ultimate arena for quoting things out of context. None of us read anything about it other than the summaries in the paper and see no more than the headlines but we all sit there trying to work out who lied and who is covering things up and the answers seem to be everyone and everyone. Tony's turn today. Maybe not quite as spectacular as the Saddam statue falling but maybe of more consequence.

What is Geoff Hoon for? If he knows so little about what goes on in his own department then he should step down on grounds of incompetence. It is worrying that so soon after the biggest war that Britain has been involved in for years, the defence secretary is so in the dark about the people around him. But then again, hasn't it always been the civil service who runs Government departments? Yes, Prime Minister was probably closer to the truth than a lot of elected ministers would care to admit.

We went to Upton-Upon-Severn last week. Upton is only just along the road from mjy old school and I was certain I saw someone there who I was at school with. We were in the playground behind the old fire station so if you were there and spotted someone you thought you knew then it was me. email to the usual address.