Myleene was mistaken.

Myleene Klass hit the weekend headlines by saying she was told by police that waving a kitchen knife at an intruder in her garden was illegal - because a knife is an offensive weapon.

Some people have pointed out that for the law to work such a weapon has to be waved about in a public place, and a kitchen doesn't count, and even if it did it would mean that anybody whose kitchen faces the pavement could be locked up every time they chop carrots in full view of passer's by.

Anyhow, it looks as if Myleene must have been mistaken, because according to the BBC a spokeswoman for Police said

"at no point" were any warnings given

In case nobody noticed that little phrase it's repeated at length a bit later

a statement from Hertfordshire police said: "Officers spoke to reassure the home owner, talked through security and gave advice in relation to the importance of reporting suspicious activity immediately to allow officers to act appropriately."

It added: "For clarification, at no point were any official warnings or words of advice given to the home owner in relation to the use of a knife or offensive weapon in their home." "

And again, in another article.

She was, according to her spokesman, later warned by police officers that carrying an "offensive weapon" was illegal in her own home. The allegation is vehemently denied by Hertfordshire Police

and just to be sure, the same article repeats itself a bit, and fleshes it out a bit, to make the point more effectively

And for the record Hertfordshire Police say they didn't tell Klass off at all about her knife-waving.

"Officers spoke to reassure the home owner, talked through security and gave advice in relation to the importance of reporting suspicious activity immediately to allow officers to act appropriately," says a spokeswoman.

"For clarification, at no point were any official warnings or words of advice given to the home owner in relation to the use of a knife or offensive weapon in their home."

So there you have it. All the media and blogging fuss was for nothing - because it didn't happen.

The BBC doesn't say why, or how, Myleene might have been confused and they don't say she made it up, or maybe she imagined it, or maybe she was hearing things. But it's absolutely clear that Myleene Klass was not told it is illegal to stand in her kitchen waving a carving knife at a potential intruder she can see through the window.

Maybe the Telegraph will edit the story from last Friday to make sure it's right.

Myleene Klass, the broadcaster and model, brandished a knife at youths who broke into her garden – but has been warned by police that she may have acted illegally.

and Chris Grayling will have to backtrack

Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, said: "This incident just shows why things are still very confused on this issue and why we need a change in the law."

More civil disobedience

In Portsmouth where

Residents defy 'crazy' health and safety advice to clear vital road ignored by council

It seems that

More than 100 snowed-in residents defied health and safety advice to clear a vital road which had been ignored by their local authority.

The householders armed themselves with shovels and pick axes and hacked their way through around three inches of ice and snow after becoming frustrated with their council's inability to do the job.

The team - aged from three-years-old to 80 - took to Galt Road in Farlington, near Portsmouth in Hampshire, and cleared all 400 yards of it in just over an hour.

And they managed to do it without anybody trying to stop them. Will they be able to claim a refund on their council tax?

Riponians defy elves.

Nice!

Ripon’s weekly market was cancelled on health and safety grounds but half of the stallholders shrugged their shoulders, wrapped up warmly and turned up anyway.

Stamping their feet were Ruth and Peter Olley, solicitors turned whole-hog sausage makers. “It’s cold but we’re up North. We’re hard as nails here,” Mr Olley grinned. “They may have cancelled the market but we’ve got products to sell and customers who want to buy.”

A pity more won't ignore them, but it's because of things like this that some people have decided you're not allowed to clear snow from your own property either.

A pity too, perhaps, that we Rigbys hadn't read that article earlier, it would have saved a bit of hard work. We, and our neighbours, decided to try to clear a narrow pathway along the pavement outside our houses so pedestrians could have a choice - walk on icy snow or walk on a cleared area, it would be up to them.

That's what we did outside Rigby Towers to begin with, but 'our' bit of pavement is now clear because it took a lot less time than we'd expected. To avoid a slick patch of new ice we sprinkled a thin layer of sand and salt - mixing some granular dishwasher salt we'd bought recently with some sand left over from laying paving, that we hadn't got round to spreading on the garden and 'knew it would come in handy'. There are no extra piles of snow in the road because it's all inside several snowmen.

Good news for our council is that we won't be asking for a Council Tax rebate for our hard work.

P.S.
A tip - from past experience salt makes home-made concrete crumble.

grit [salt] and gas update

According to the Times, and an update to this,

On Tuesday ministers are expected to ask councils to reduce gritting further to preserve stocks.

because

The UK’s biggest salt mine expects its reserves to be exhausted by tomorrow and

and

the Government has been forced to order salt from abroad that is not due to arrive here until January 21.

Let's hope this is accurate ... otherwise the country is going to grind to a halt. It's no good having only main roads working, so they look good, if nobody can get to them because side roads aren't safe.

The Met Office said that snow of up to 15cm (6in) was possible on the highest ground but most areas would escape without significant falls.

A spokesman said that an earlier warning of widespread falls of up to 20cm was no longer in force.

Good job the big boys got their hands on the little boys' salt, to make sure there was enough to go round, they mightn't have managed it without the 'widespread falls' warning.

Meanwhile, in Kent,

the Army [is] on stand-by to help deal with the weather

Phew, good job there are plenty of soldiers - we never know when we might need them. Good job the government has a long record of looking after them properly.

Maybe some of the soldiers were once Scouts, because this weekend ...
around 2,500 Scouts and leaders braved the sub-zero temperatures at a winter camp.

They had to hammer tent pegs into the frozen ground at Gilwell Park, near Chingford, East London

Gas problems over? That's good.

The National Grid today lifted its latest gas supply alert — its third such warning in a week — after more supplies came in from the market.

It was imposed yesterday after an imminent shortfall appeared to be looming, and it came after Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that gas was not running out despite recent record levels of demand.

Ah, not quite

The planned closure of a large gas network owned by oil giant BP PLC (BP) cannot be postponed, a person familiar with the matter said Sunday, despite the country's gas supplies coming under increasing pressure amid the continued cold weather.

The Southern North Sea gas pipeline, which brings ashore around 1% of U.K. domestic gas supplies, will be shut down for maintenance next week in order to bring new fields onto the pipeline, and the work is essential, this person said.

The U.K. is currently in the grip of the coldest winter in 30 years and sub-zero temperatures triggered a surge in U.K. demand for heating and power generation Monday, forcing the operator of the U.K.'s natural gas grid to issue an alert that demand was about to outstrip supply in the system.

The U.K. government said at the time there was no risk of consumers being cut off.

The U.K. has just under four billion cubic meters of storage capacity, just one fifth of Germany's, at 19 billion cubic meters, and less than a third of Italy's 14 billion cubic meters.

The lack of stored reserves leaves Britain exposed to competing with other countries for gas imports during periods of strong demand across Europe, and having to pay higher prices to lure it there.

Err, will somebody please tell our Prime Minister what's going on, because he doesn't seem to have much of a clue.

Darling resigns. ...

... No, not from his job in London.

Mrs R read about it on Subrosa, and then in this this newspaper article

No comments from me, just thought it was interesting.

MoD and books.

Is the MoD so short of money that it has to resort to this to make ends meet?

The Ministry of Defence threatened to bankrupt a Royal Marine war hero by forcing him to pay back money earned from his memoirs.

The Royal Marine in question is a member of the reserve forces, who only gets paid by the MoD when he's in uniform.

This Royal Marine Commando, Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher, did three rather brave things whilst wearing his uniform in Afghanistan, and was awarded the George Cross.

You can't eat a medal, not even a George Cross. So, to tell his story and hopefully make some money that would help fund his new business, this Marine decided to write a book about his experiences. It would seem that

'Matt got permission from his commanding officer. He sent the book to the MoD's D-Notice Committee to make sure he was not revealing any secrets.

That would have been all right then, wouldn't it?

He took advice and he followed the rules, he crossed all the Ts and dotted all the Is - no problem.

Seems not, because ...

... - on the eve of publication - the bureaucrats in Whitehall put Matt under formal investigation.

So somebody, somewhere within the MoD, started a chain of events that might have made the MoD about £90k richer, and would have made Matthew Croucher a criminal, possibly no longer able to be a Royal Marine Reservist - even though he had carefully followed the rules.

Mrs R wonders if, if successful, the individual would have got a financial bonus - and if so, how much.

.....

If anybody's interested, the full citation for the award reads as follows:-

"Throughout December 2007 and January 2008, Forward Operating Base ROBINSON, an International Security Assistance Force/Afghanistan National Army location situated 10 km to the south of Sangin, had been targeted relentlessly by an enemy seeking to inflict death and grievous injury on Coalition Forces.

"Complex and highly effective improvised explosive devices had been deployed by the Taliban throughout the Forward Operating Base's area of responsibility with deadly success. Movement around the Forward Operating Base location was fraught with danger and exceptionally high risk for troops, whether vehicle borne or operating on foot.

"Tasked with conducting both overt and covert patrolling to disrupt and interdict enemy forces, 40 Commando Battle Group was determined to regain the initiative.

"Lance Corporal Croucher was deployed to Helmand Province, Afghanistan as a reconnaissance operator in 40 Commando Group's Commando Reconnaissance Force, elements of which were operating from Forward Operating Base ROBINSON.

"On 9 February 2008, the Commando Reconnaissance Force was tasked to conduct reconnaissance of a compound in which it was suspected that Taliban fighters manufactured Improvised Explosive Devices.

"Lance Corporal Croucher's section was deployed on this highly dangerous and challenging operation. In the early hours, utilising night vision devices and under constant threat of attack from Improved Explosive Devices or enemy ambush, the Commando Reconnaissance Force successfully negotiated the complex and varied terrain between the Forward Operating Base and the suspect compound, and established an over-watch position to observe for any sign of activity.

"In order to determine conclusively that the compound was an Improvised Explosive Device manufacturing site, the decision was made to send a small four man team, which included Lance Corporal Croucher, forward to conduct a very high risk 'close target reconnaissance'.

"This required the team to enter the compound. It was believed to be occupied. The team moved forward with extreme caution and stealth and successfully gained entry into the compound without incident.

"After 30 minutes on task, and having identified numerous items that could be used by insurgents to manufacture Improvised Explosive Devices, the team commander gave the order for the team to extract back to their pre-arranged rendezvous point with the remainder of Commando Reconnaissance Force.

"Lance Corporal Croucher was at the head of the group as they commenced the extraction; behind him, approximately 5 metres away, the Team Commander and another Marine were in the open and fully exposed, with the fourth team member a short distance behind them.

"As the team moved silently through the still darkened compound, Lance Corporal Croucher felt a wire go tight against his legs, just below knee height. This was a trip-wire connected to a grenade booby-trap, positioned to kill or maim intruders in the compound. He heard the fly-off lever eject and the grenade, now armed, fell onto the ground immediately beside him.

"Instantly realising what had occurred, Lance Corporal Croucher made a crucial and incredibly rapid assessment of the situation. With extraordinary clarity of thought and remarkable composure, he shouted 'Grenade', then 'Tripwire' in an attempt to warn his comrades to find cover before the grenade exploded. It was clear to him that given the lack of cover in the immediate vicinity, he and the other team members were in extreme danger.

"Due to low light levels, he was unable to determine the type of grenade and therefore had no way of knowing how long the device's fuse would take to function. With his comrades totally exposed and time running out, Lance Corporal Croucher made the decision not to seek cover or protection for himself, but to attempt to shield the other members of his team from the impending explosion.

"In an act of great courage, and demonstrating a complete disregard for his own safety, he threw himself on top of the grenade, pinning it between his day sack, containing his essential team stores, and the ground. Quite prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for his fellow Marines, Lance Corporal Croucher lay on the grenade and braced himself for the explosion.

"Meanwhile, the Team Commander, upon hearing the initial shouted warning, dived to the ground. The rear man in the team was able to take cover by stepping back around the corner of a building; the other team member was unable to react quickly enough and was still upright, fully exposed within the lethal range of the grenade.

"As it detonated, the blast effect of the grenade was absorbed by Lance Corporal Croucher and the majority of the fragmentation was contained under his body.

"Miraculously, his equipment and protective clothing prevented any lethal shards hitting his body and he suffered only minor injury and disorientation from the effects of the blast. Lance Corporal Croucher's day sack was ripped from his back and was completely destroyed; his body armour and helmet were pitted by grenade fragments.

"A large battery being carried in the side pouch of his day sack, for his team's Electronic Counter Measures equipment, also exploded and was burning like a flare as a result of the grenade fragments breaching the outer case. Incredibly, the only other injury was a slight fragmentation wound to the Team Commander's face.

"The others escaped unscathed. Without question, Lance Corporal Croucher's courageous and utterly selfless action had prevented death or serious injury to at least two members of his team. Immediately following the explosion they manoeuvred tactically back to their rendezvous location.

"After confirming with the Troop Commander that no significant casualties had been sustained, the decision was made to interdict enemy forces attempting to conduct a follow-up to the incident. As anticipated, enemy activity was observed by Commando Reconnaissance Force and Lance Corporal Croucher, having refused to be evacuated, along with other members of his team, engaged and neutralized one enemy fighter.

"Throughout his service in Afghanistan, Lance Corporal Croucher has served with the utmost distinction. His actions on 9 February 2008, when he willingly risked his own life in a most deliberate act of self-sacrifice to save his comrades from death or serious injury, were wholly typical of the man.

"During a previous engagement at Forward Operating Base Inkerman on 9 November 2007, Lance Corporal Croucher helped save the life of a fallen comrade who had received a serious gunshot wound to the chest during a ferocious fire-fight with the enemy.

"For twenty minutes, whilst the company medical assistant was pinned down by enemy fire, he applied life-saving first aid which stabilised the wounded man until medical assistance arrived and the casualty could be extracted.

"Meanwhile, on 16 November 2007, whilst providing intimate security to a night air drop in the desert near Forward Operating Base Inkerman, Lance Corporal Croucher was injured in a road traffic accident.

"Evacuated to the UK with a suspected broken leg, he was determined to return to theatre and, following intense physiotherapy, he returned within a matter of weeks to resume his duties with Commando Reconnaissance Force.

"That he was willing to risk all in order to save the lives of his comrades is indisputable; that he possesses an indomitable fighting spirit is abundantly clear.

"Lance Corporal Croucher is an exceptional and inspirational individual. His magnificent displays of selflessness and gallantry are truly humbling and are the embodiment of the finest traditions of the Service."

Chilled oranges and marmalade.

Dick Puddlecote has a piece about snow in Florida, it's here.

Mrs Rigby couldn't, of course, ignore the linked articles which set her off on a happy wander round the internet.

This report says

Viewers in Flagler and Marion counties reported seeing snow flurries just after 5 a.m. Another viewer in Brevard County reported flurries along the beach at Cape Canaveral. Ice reports were also received from Volusia, Orange and Osceola counties.

and this report says

North Florida continues to face one of the coldest winters in its history. (my bold) Wednesday, the NWS center in Jacksonville braved 21 degree (-6C) weather, the city’s coldest temperature on record, Schuler said.

“It hasn’t been that cold since 1884,” he said.

"History" - now there's an interesting sort of word. People write about "history" as if history is something that never gets changed, but Mrs R recalls reading somewhere or other that history is always written by the winners, by the people who end up in charge.

If she was being really picky she'd contact the person who wrote that article to ask them when, precisely, the weather 'history' of North Florida started.

She'd ask if it started in fourteen hundred and ninety two when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, or if this history started in 1513 when Juan Ponce de León y Figueroa called it Florida (because of the nice flowers) or if it was in 1531 when Tristán de Luna y Arellano landed at Pensacola, or if it was a bit later and after usable thermometers had been invented.

Maybe she'd be told that the weather history of Florida started earlier than that, maybe it was so long ago that there weren't any ex-Europeans to see the cold snow and ice and write about it, and maybe she'd be told that weather happened before man was around to experience it - and clever 21st century record keepers and analysts use things like tree ring data to work out whether was cold or not (the annual growth rings are close together when it's too cold for a tree to grow very much) - a bit like the chap who used information tucked away in tree growth rings to make a graph.

Because of all these 'maybes' Mrs Rigby has tried to second guess what the journalist means, and she thinks they're actually talking about the fairly recent history of Florida, and only about the weather in one little part of it, otherwise, being really picky, 'one of the coldest winters in its history' would be cross referencing against weather way back when it got to look like Florida because of continental drift, erosion and so on - which was millions of years ago.

The best thing about history is that it includes yesterday, and most people can remember yesterday. They can also remember things that happened earlier in their lives. So, although Mrs R wasn't around way back in 1884, (we're back to the article in case you're confused), she was around when there were some awful snowstorms in Florida that wiped out the orange crops and made orange juice more expensive - and she knows it's happened more than once.

There are a few sites that mention things like that, and earlier snow storms too - they were very easy to find but Mrs R is resorting to Wikipedia which might not be the most accurate of sites because articles are often written by ordinary folk who have a lot of spare time, but it does at least give a general idea and has everything all in one place.

Here's a quick quote, before somebody gets in there and changes history :-

Snow in Florida is a rare occurrence, especially on the peninsula. During the Great Blizzard of 1899, Florida experienced blizzard conditions; the Tampa Bay area had "gulf-effect" snow, similar to lake-effect snow in the Great Lakes region. During the 1899 blizzard was the only time the temperature in Florida is known to have fallen below 0 degrees Fahrenheit (−18 °C).

The most widespread snowfall in Florida history occurred on January 19, 1977, when snow fell over much of the state, with flurries as far south as Homestead. Snow flurries also fell on Miami Beach for the only time in recorded history.

A hard freeze in 2003 brought "ocean-effect" snow flurries to the Atlantic coast as far south as Cape Canaveral.

The 1993 Superstorm brought blizzard conditions to the panhandle ...

Mrs R does note that the temperatures mentioned are not the same as those in the newspaper article, but thinks it helps make her point. You can read more here and here .

There's more about the snowy "Superstorm" of March 1993 - which made some snow land on Florida - here , and something from NYT about the Blizzard of 1888.

As for the weathermen and women and their, ahem, forecasts, how about this :-

Mark and Barbara Willard were at home in Wickford, England two weeks ago checking the weather forecast on the Internet before packing for their trip to Orlando — sunny and 70 degrees.

On Saturday afternoon they had the hoods on their brand new coats pulled tight around their heads as the walked down the International Drive tourist strip. The weather: 35 degrees and cloudy with a chance of icy rain or even snow.

Maybe these weather forecasters, who've been busy telling us we're all going to fry in 10, 20, 30, 40 or more years time, are now being a bit less warmist, because some of them have said it's going to snow in 'much of Spain'.

If they're right then they've given us enough warning to stockpile some marmalade.

Grit and gas.

It's interesting to wander through different articles and compare the way the same thing is being reported, by the same information provider. This evening Mrs R has been looking mostly at the BBC.

She was relieved to learn that, in contrast with Germany where there's travel chaos because of the snow, here ...

In the UK, which is suffering its worst winter for decades, Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged that gas supplies would not run out, and that road salt will get to "where it is most needed".

Apart from Mrs R having lived through worse winters in recent years, let alone decades, and Derwentwater is completely frozen for the second time in ten years, she's reassured to know there's clearly no real problem with unsalted, ungritted, roads - she must have been imagining things earlier today when she thought the big A-road near Rigby Towers was like a skating rink.

She's also pleased to hear there's no need to worry about our gas supply. It's so comforting to know that we Rigbys are guaranteed hot food all winter.

As a bit of an aside, what do some people do when they want to make things last a bit longer, to eke them out? They water them down a bit, but it doesn't seem to work too well with gas, as people living in Morthoe, Devon discovered. They were ...

... forced to spend the night without heating after water got into the main gas supply pipe in a north Devon village

Wales and West Utilities said about 400 homes have been affected at Morthoe near Woolacombe. An emergency incident room has been set up at the Ship Aground Pub in the village where electric hot plates and fan heaters are being handed out.

It looks as if might be more than one night though, because

It is not known when the gas supply will be restored.

because

Engineers are currently isolating the supply to the properties supplied by the main and tracing the section of gas main affected.

It's got nothing to do with Mr Brown though, he's got bigger gas issues to talk about. He tells us that :-

"We've got plenty of gas.. in our own back yard - the North Sea - and we also have access to the large reserves in Norway and Netherlands via pipelines."

The BBC goes on to say that

Almost 100 firms were forced to stop using gas this week as demand soared.

Why, Mrs Rigby wonders, would this happen if there's plenty of gas? There's no need to ration something that there's a lot of.

She's clearly not thinking straight though, because things are always reported truthfully and without any sort of political skew.

The BBC reporter tells Mrs R, and anybody else who might be looking, that

National Grid also issued two alerts - subsequently lifted - to warn of a potential shortfall in supplies.

Ah! Oops!

Now that isn't true, and Mrs R thinks it's shoddy journalism, because looking away from the BBC for just a moment, at LNG Storage on the National Grid site, Mrs R can see that it currently shows there is 6 days supply at Avonmouth, 5.9 days at Genmavis and only 3.7 days at Partington.

On the same site this page tells us that at :-

17:11 GBA National Grid has declared a GBA for Gas Day 09th January 2010.

So why doesn't the BBC article, last updated at 19:01 GMT, Saturday, 9 January 2010, tell the true position? (Rhetorical question, don't bother to answer.)

The other thing about the things in the article that aren't too accurate is where UK gets gas from, although it's awfully difficult to find out the facts. Looking at reports from 2006 we were told

Where does Britain get its gas from?
Offshore gas from the North and Irish seas produce the majority (up to 90%) of UK gas, but these supplies are rapidly declining. Gas is also imported from Norway and via a pipeline - the so-called interconnector - between Britain and Belgium. This pipeline links the UK to the European gas network.

Belgium and the Netherlands were, and still are, linked to the gas pipe from Russia, although it isn't shown in this BBC map, from January 2009 - which, as some people night remember, is when there was a bit of bother after Russia turned off the gas tap and made homes in some parts of Europe a bit colder.

Maybe it's Russia that holds the key to our energy security, because as recently as December 2009 the Telegraph reported that

Britain is facing an energy shortfall by 2015 over its exposure to six risky Russian gas developments, if the UK becomes much more dependent on imports from abroad, according to Ofgem.

Oops, waffling again.

Let's try to get back on track and stop worrying too much about what might happen in four years time - even though the BBC does have a wonderful article entitled What would the UK do if it snowed this much every year? Silly BBC, there's global warming or something called climate change to make sure this can never, ever, happen.

So let's look at the grit (and salt) situation. In one of the BBC articles I've already used, Mr Brown says

road salt will get to "where it is most needed".

The Mail reports

Lord Adonis ordered councils to slash gritting by a quarter in the hope of eking out supplies until next week.

With tons of imported salt not expected to arrive until later in the month, the Highways Agency has also been ordered to stop gritting motorway hard shoulders.

Lord Adonis said all councils should have enough grit to last until at least Tuesday 'provided they prioritise the distribution of salt in their area appropriately'.

So, from that little paragraph Mrs R can guess that the country is running out of salt. She thinks it could be because the Met Office didn't bother to check their frozen seaweed often enough to let them warn the country to expect snow - and do it before the end of December when all the council staff and government employees were at home enjoying their long Christmas holiday.

If the Met Office had got their forecasts right then councils would have been able to do a bit of forward planning. As it stands the country has only got what's in storage, and what can be dug out from underneath Cheshire and that's that - because what's been ordered at the last minute won't arrive at the docks until the end of the month.

Mrs R thinks it's a pity that Northamptonshire had a teeny bit of foresight, and decided that winter weather might mean they'd need a bit of salt and so ordered some to top up their stocks.

This is, again, from the BBC. I'm going to quote the whole article, mainly because there are too many bits to pick at and names to call ... and I'm rapidly running out of patience.

An order for 4,000 tonnes of road salt for Northamptonshire has been cancelled on the orders of the government.

Heather Smith, in charge of highways, said the county could face running short of grit after the government took control of national supplies.

Stocks destined for the county have been diverted to areas considered to be in greater need.

Minister for the East Barbera Follett said the government was doing what was best for everyone.

Ms Smith said she would love to tell central government Northamptonshire did not want to be part of the national scheme.

'Drifting snow'

David Sparks, from the Local Government Association, said: "Major roads will be gritted. Communications within local authorities and regions will be maintained and people will still be able to get around.

"At the moment we have done everything we can do. We are in partnership with the government and we are dealing with the problem of grit shortages."

The Met Office is forecasting heavy snow in the east of England and has issued a severe weather warning.

A spokesman said: "Outbreaks of snow starting on Saturday afternoon will become heavy and persistent during the evening and into Sunday morning.

"Seven to 12cm (3-5ins) of fresh level snow are expected widely with 10 to 20cm (4 to 9ins) locally. Drifting in the very strong winds will cause even greater accumulations."

Mrs R hopes Ms Smith doesn't need to look for another job soon.

More empty windbags

It's reported that :-

Successful bids for nine new offshore wind farm zone licences within UK waters have been announced.

A consortium including Npower and Norway's Statkraft won the licence for the biggest zone, in Dogger Bank, which could produce nine gigawatts of energy.

Turbines in the nine zones could generate up to 32 gigawatts of power, a quarter of the UK's electricity needs.

In September 2008 Mr Brown said that

Today I can announce the approval of a new offshore windfarm, near Walney Island - off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness. At up to 139 turbines, it will be one of the UK’s largest, providing the equivalent of all the homes in Glasgow and Dundee with clean, green electricity - and helping to give the UK the highest operating offshore wind capacity in the world.

Just a teeny little point - wind farms don't do anything when it isn't windy, which is why our power stations are using a heck of a lot of gas just now. The choice of the word "could" by the BBC is much more cautious than Mr Brown's "will".

He said

In Fife alone - there are some 50 companies investing or planning to invest in renewable energy. With projects such as:

• manufacturing sub-structures for deep water off-shore wind farms;

And if there aren't any wind farms there won't be any need for the sub-structures to support the turbines, so the people of Fife will be out of work, if they aren't already because manufacturing has moved to the continent.

In the same speech to CBI Scotland Mr Brown also said this :-

I am also cautiously optimistic about the long-term resilience and underlying strengths of the British economy

and

... consider financial services - our biggest industry by value, and now Scotland’s biggest employer

Oops, those things went pear-shaped too!

Galloway deported ...

... from Egypt and sent back to London.

Pity really. Couldn't London have refused to let him back in?