Eat 'Roo and Save the Planet

If there's one thing that cows are notorious for it's flatulence.

Did you realise that the average cow produces an impressive 280 litres of methane every day? No, nor did I but apparently it's true. As well as being the butt of many agricultural jokes all this methane makes a significant contribution towards global warming.

Scientists in Australia have suggested that methane emissions could be cut by replacing lamb and beef with kangaroo meat. Around 11% of all Australian carbon emissions originate from flatulating cattle and sheep.

Speaking of the benefits of kangaroo meat Dr George Wilson, of the Australian Wildlife Services (AWS), said: "It tastes excellent, not unlike venison - only a different flavour."

The AWS is keen to see production of kangaroo meat increased to rival the amount produced by conventional livestock.

Shock! Horror! Prisoner Handcuffed in Jail

I've always admired the Scottish legal system - they seem to dispense justice much more quickly and efficiently than their English and Welsh counterparts.

Even so they don't just hand out custodial sentences on a whim - they're only ever used when the offence is so serious that only a custodial sentence is justified, or when the defendant has refused to accept or comply with the terms of a community sentence.

I read today the story of 21-year-old criminal Donna McLeish. She's just served six-months for assaulting someone in a nightclub. The fact that she received a not insignificant custodial sentence points squarely at the fact there were aggravating factors to her crime. I'll not speculate on what those aggravating factors were, but suffice to say we're not talking about someone who gave another nightclub reveller a swift slap when they accidentally stood on her toes.

McLeish was pregnant when she was banged up at Cornton Vale women's prison in Stirling. According to her she was chained to a guard all the time. This included her regular trips to the shower, toilet and doctor.

McLeish told Sky News: "I'd be talking to the doctors about the details of my condition in front of these strangers. It was really personal stuff and it made me feel so uncomfortable but I still had to be chained to one of the guards."

"I never wanted to be treated differently to anyone else. But I felt they were too harsh. This was my first offence - I'm not a persistent offender and they treated me like my crime had been far, far worse."

Reliance Security, the company operating Cornton Vale, issued a statement saying that they had since reviewed their policy on cuffing pregnant prisoners. They also refute the allegations that McLeish was chained to a guard when she showered or used the toilet.

My thoughts on this - you get dangerous pregnant women in prison too, so the fact that someone's pregnant shouldn't necessarily exclude them from being cuffed. What sort of person thinks so little of their unborn child that they selfishly end up in prison in the first place?

No doubt she'll be on the phone to Ambulance Chasers 'R' Us already. The only saving grace is that she's in Scotland. If she'd been in England or Wales the Home Office would have already rolled over and paid up.

Georgia and Russia - the Lie of the Ground

Unless you've been living in a cave for the last few days you will no doubt be aware that violence has erupted between Georgia and Russia.

It's a complicated state of affairs, but I'll summarise the key points.

South Ossetia is a region of Georgia that is seeking independence. In 1992 South Ossetia implemented its own administration and, to all intents and purposes, became a breakaway state under local rule. The key thing is that South Ossetia's break for freedom is not recognised by international statute or acknowledged by the wider world. It is still a part of Georgia.

A few days ago Georgia decided to reclaim what was rightfully theirs in the eyes of the law and international community. Russia, who are close to South Ossetia, didn't like this and decided to invade the breakaway Georgian state using force.

Russia has committed an unlawful act of aggression against Georgia.

To further enflame the situation Georgia is seeking NATO membership. Russia is displeased that the blue shrowd of NATO is tightening around its borders. Had Georgia already been a NATO member then other alliance nations would have little option but to support their plight both in terms of diplomacy and military might.

As it goes the west condemns Russia's heavy-handedness and intrusion beyond Georgia's border.

At best Russia's actions will lead to greater isolation from NATO. At worst, who knows?

ToryTalk.com Seeking Members

Oh dear. It appears that new Conservative forums are like London buses.

ToryTalk.com is another vibrant community of computer literate Tories. It's slightly more established that the previous forum I mentioned, which means it's already populated with lots of interesting stuff to read.

Just browsing through the Policy Discussion forum I see a wide range of controversial issues to get your teeth into. Should England (I think he means the UK) get rid of nukes? Should we adopt the Euro?

Incidentally, for those of you who don't know me, my answer to both of those issues is an uncompromising NO.

If you want to argue with people who share my opinion then why not head to ToryTalk.com?

Rogue Restaurants

I've been away for a couple of days on a Health and Safety course, hence my recent lack of blogging. I regularly go on courses - you might remember I refreshed my AED only last month - because it jogs the old memory and keeps my skills topped up. With my memory not being what it should that's crucially important.

Anyway, I'm not going to bore you with any more details about my course because today's topic is the BBC One series Rogue Restaurants.

It's a fly on the wall (or should that be in the soup?) series about the illegal and unhygienic practices going on in some UK restaurants. The series is presented by investigative journalist Matt Allwright, who also presents the similarly titled Rogue Traders show that busts the balls of dodgy tradesmen.

Last week it was the Harvester chain of restaurants under fire, with shocking undercover footage showing some of their employees serving floor contaminated food to unsuspecting members of the public. It also highlighted their practice of restocking the salad bar before the containers were empty, meaning food lingering at the bottom was likely to be several hours old before consumption.

This week's show highlighted how some London restaurants were routinely employing illegal foreign workers to reduce their staff costs. The illegal workers, forced to work long hours on a pittance, couldn't complain because they didn't really exist. They went to work scared of detection and without the legislative protection afforded to the rest of us.

Another disadvantage of the illegal foreign work force was that they had little concept of UK standards of food hygiene. To them it was acceptable to serve three-day-old food as long as it didn't smell bad.

It's compulsive viewing and it's certainly opened my eyes to a few of the goings on behind the kitchen door.

Next time you're at the salad bar remember that it's probably safer to aim for the top of the container!

Craik Critical of Police Bonuses

One of Britain's police chiefs has criticised a scheme that saw officers receive bonuses of up to £1,200 each last year.

Mike Craik, Chief Constable of Northumbria Police and ACPO spokesman on workforce modernisation, sparked controversy by saying that traumatic situations were part and parcel of a police officer's life and should not attract bonus payments.

Mr Craik's comments coincide with a Freedom of Information Act disclosure showing that officers received £157 million in bonuses last year. The Telegraph helpfully gives a breakdown of some of the individual cases:

• £500 was paid to a sergeant for the removal of a 30 stone man in the advanced stages of decomposition.
• A police constable in Brent received £200 for the "setting up of a borough gym".
• another officer received £500 for disposing of a large number of motorcycles on his days off.
• Two Royal protection officers received £500 for being "regularly deployed overseas and regularly meeting high-ranking people in the host country".

Mr Craik, who recently shared a £47,000 bonus with four colleagues, said: "Bonuses do not have a place in the police service.

"Sometimes what officers have to do can be awful. I was a senior investigating officer in London. I have seen the most grisly things you could ever come across but that is the job I signed up to do."

"Bonuses do not lead to improved performance. Our high performance has come from work we would have done anyway."

I think Mr Craik is absolutely right - it's just a pity he's mounting his soap box after having his own nose in the trough.

The police are already paid very generously compared to a lot of other public sector workers. They have very favourable holiday entitlements, pension rights and overtime payments. Why should they be getting bonus payments for attending road accidents, crime scenes or tending the police station's garden?

Any police officer who finds them self unable to perform their duties without these incentives shouldn't be in the job in the first place. They'd be better suited to a less stressful career - like flower arranging.

ToryClub.org Seeking Members

Calling all Conservatives - here's news of an exciting new web community aimed at us!

Matt Jones, top dog at ToryClub.org, dropped me a line yesterday telling me about his ambitious new project, which he hopes will become the biggest and best Conservative forum on the web.

The new forum promises to be the ideal place for Conservatives to kick off their shoes, pull up a pew and discuss the latest goings on in the world of politics. With all the problems facing the incumbent Government there's bound to be lots to talk about.

Matt wants to pool as many Conservative minds together as possible. If you think you fit the bill please pay ToryClub.org a visit and sign up.

TV Licensing - Persecuting the Public

I remember mentioning once how much I despised the entire concept of the television licence.

I was pretty damning in my criticism back then: "In the twenty first century it is abhorrent that people are obliged to pay for a BBC service they do not want, can't afford or, in some cases, can't even receive.

"The fee penalises those who need television the most - small families and the elderly and infirm - at a time when the salaries of top BBC executives and presenters is at an all time disproportionate high."

I stand by that opinion unreservedly.

As abhorrent as the licence fee may be, it is nowhere near as abhorrent as the organisation tasked with enforcing it. That organisation is TV Licensing (TVL), which is one of the trading names of Capita Business Services Ltd.

My interest in TVL was spurred back to life when a friend revealed he had received one of their "buy a TV licence or face a £1000 fine" type circulars. I remember receiving one of those myself when I was living in university halls - not that I had a television, but little trivialities like that don't seem to bother TVL.

TVL seemingly live in some sort of parallel universe. In their fantasy world no-one can survive without the means of receiving a TV signal. They have a database with all 28 million licenced addresses on and if you're not listed they'll want to know why.

You'll probably have a genuine reason for not having a licence, but to them the absence of your address from the list makes you a licence evader. That might seem an extreme statement, but it's supported by the fact that even if you tell them you don't have a television they'll still visit to check you're telling the truth.

Even if they establish you can't receive a television signal today, that's probably not going to stop them from haranguing you in 6-months time to see if your circumstances have changed.

They aren't exactly polite when they contact you either. Many innocent people have complained about how intimidating they find the tone of TVL's letters. It's not just their written presence that's objectionable - in the last five years two TVL enforcement officers have been charged with assaulting members of the public on their doorsteps.

Of course you could always choose to ignore their letters. Many people who don't require a licence are doing just that as a matter of principle. Despite what TVL would have you believe you're actually under no legal obligation to reply, so why should you do their work for them?

TVL really are a nasty organisation. They pray on the innocent because their staff are too lazy and their equipment too antiquated to catch the guilty.

Royal Mail Booze Ban

Residents of a sleepy little Yorkshire hamlet have just received the disappointing news that they face a 45-minute journey to collect their post each day.

Royal Mail has decided that the narrow winding road to Booze is just too dangerous for its delivery vehicles to use - not that there's ever been an accident.

Shank's pony isn't an option because the local postman has a bad back, making him unable to carry the daily deliveries up the steep hill.

Local Royal Mail manager Colin Appleby told residents in a letter: "The road is extremely narrow, and if you have to reverse down, this is potentially an accident waiting to happen."

Residents of Booze's eleven homes were given just 24-hours notice that their mail service was being suspended. They now face the time consuming journey to Richmond sorting office until a delivery box is installed at the foot of the hill.

A pretty pathetic decision on the part of Royal Mail and shoddy in the extreme that they should spring this move at only one day's notice. With such dubious customer service it's no wonder they're business is losing money hand over fist.

Edit: Apologies about the inaccuracy of the image above. Royal Mail no longer empty any of their post boxes on a Sunday so please disregard the collection times shown.

Fresh Calls for Labour Leadership Contest

A leading Labour backbencher has urged the Prime Minister to call a leadership election.

John McDonnell, MP for Hayes and Harlington, reckons an election would allow Labour an "open, friendly and democratic" discussion on the future direction of the Party.

Speaking earlier on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr McDonnell said: "We have got to address the problem we experienced last year by not having a leadership election and a proper debate about the future of the party.

"Gordon Brown should welcome that. It is not the old politics of John Major saying 'Back me or sack me'. It is saying 'Here is my politics and my ideology. If people have other views, let them name themselves and stand and let's have that debate and that leadership election'."

Mr McDonnell's comments come at a time of mounting speculation that several Labour Big Guns, including Common's Leader Harriet Harman and Foreign Secretary David Miliband, are aligning themselves as potential successors to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Mr McDonnell denied that a leadership race would be damaging to Labour, at a time when they are already hugely unpopular in the polls.

"We could have a leadership election which is open, friendly and democratic and involves the whole country," he said.

That's right John, we could - it's called a General Election but I doubt your Government has either the balls or decency to call one knowing the inevitable outcome.

Elsewhere in Westminster village speculation is rife that Gordon Brown will hit the ground running with a major Cabinet reshuffle in September.

Full Steam Ahead for Darlington's Newest Locomotive

The first new steam locomotive to grace Britain's railways for more than fifty years has been unveiled today at the ancestral home of the modern rail travel.

Locomotive number 60163 Tornado, the fiftieth Peppercorn Class A1 Pacific, was built from scratch by the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust in Darlington.

The 49 original A1s were operated on the east coast mainline by the London and North Eastern Railway. The originals were withdrawn from service in the 1960s and much of their work was continued by the iconic Deltic diesel locomotives.

The project has taken 18-years and £2.9 million to reach completion. Tornado should be seen hauling mainline charter trains very shortly.

A tremendous feat of perseverance and precision engineering.