I for one wish Gordon and Sarah Brown all the best regarding the illness of their younger son Fraser. The news that the lad has cystic fibrosis makes me realise just how lucky I've been never to have had this sort of debilitating illness - the publicity has made me more aware of what cf is about though.

But what bothers me is the media's attitude to what is essentially a private and personal matter. I understand that it was the lead story on the BBC 10 o'clock news yesterday evening. Was it really THE most important news of the day? I can't really believe that! It could be argued that to know a little bit more about the life of possibly our next Prime Minister is no bad thing but this is way over the top. I would have placed this story about half way through that news programme. But we are now so obsessed with the private lives of celebrities be they politicians, football players, third rate pop stars, whoever. Rant over for today.

One of the tabloids has recently done a piece on what they consider to be the worst Christmas lights in the country. This description has been applied to Cullompton, a Devon town on the west side of the M5 as it heads south towards Exeter. And you might agree with them if you look at a photo showing one string of lights across Fore Street in the centre of town. Much of one side of the street is in the ownership of one person who does not want lights attached to his properties thank you; this might be partly due to some of the buildings being listed.

So there aren't any other festive lights in Cullompton then? Well there are - hundreds of them! This is typical of the popular press I have to say and why I don't hold them in high esteem. Selective journalism is a curse in this country.

Hi and welcome to my blog!
I shall be writing on all sorts of things, anything that takes my fancy really. So it might be Tony Blair, George Bush, climate change, the Tories, government waste, Devon and Cornwall (yes I am biased about my local area), anything topical, the countryside, whatever. So look out for my next post and feel free to comment (politely!). My post times will look a bit odd because I am in the UK not the US - it is coming up to midday here!