Spring has sprung

Casino uncertainty

Although Manchester won the day in its bid for a super-casino, it's not out of the woods yet, as a coalition of Labour rebels, Tories and LibDems may scupper government plans by rejecting the proposals in the House of Commons later today.

This, in its turn leaves a possible door open for Blackpool. It was mentioned on the news this evening that several MPs for North West England will be voting against the proposal in favour of seeing Blackpool as the site of the super-casino. However as the government is refusing to separate the super-casino and smaller casinos into two separate votes, the government may well see the whole plan go up in smoke.

Northern Ireland

Normally having to listen to opposing sides in a protracted conflict such as that of Northern Ireland or Israel annoys me intensely as the speeches made by both sides give not an inch towards agreement, progress and future. Today, however, was not one of those days. Although power sharing has been put back until May, it was heartening to hear both DUP and Sinn Fein reading from the same page. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

Rail replacement buses

With the rail crash the other week and the usual round of engineering works, there's been no shortage of rail replacement buses around here of late. Saturday saw some for First group on the A65, although I'm at a loss as to what train service they might be filling in for.

Last week I saw a local bus I'd never seen before bound for Low Gill, up the valley from here. Given the the railway that used to run through the valley stretched from here up to to Low Gill, where it joins the West Coast Main Line, I wondered if it might a Beeching Rail Replacement Bus Service?

Latest Ebay sells

I'm currently selling batches of Cumbrian magazine from the 40s, 50s and 60s. Several of these are complete 12 issue sets and the starting price for each is only 99p.

If you're interested in Cumbrian life from the middle of the twentieth century, these magazines are a real insight, covering the people, places and lifestyle of the time

Click here to view all of my ebay sales.

Public transport pricing

The government seems hell-bent on ensuring that only the rich are able to travel - by any means. The latest report is that rail prices - specifically on the saver tickets - will increase, following hot on the heels of the annual above inflation increase in fares. This comes on top of proposed road charges which Labour seem determine to implement, although the validity of the petition against the proposal was dubious in the way that many things on the internet can so easily be. Meanwhile there's the less than stealthy taxation on flying which was brought in under an environmental banner but of course none of the revenue raised are going into those schemes.

Whichever mode of transport we wish to take, and in this day and age many people don't have much choice in the matter due to the spread of friends, family and work commitments, it seems we're going to be paying more before much longer. I don't have a problem with more being charged for less environmentally friendly modes of transport if the more environmentally friendly modes are made more affordable and attractive. However at the same time I think the government needs to look at intelligent methods of tackling the environmental issue rather than pricing the poorest out of travel while the rich continue to swan about as they please. Perhaps a system whereby an individual's carbon footprint is kept on a database with their passport number. This could perhaps lead to an escalating rate of tax as more flights are made. It's not an easy solution, but then easy solutions seldom prove to be the best solutions.

The 2012 money monster

Is anyone surprised that the cost of the 2012 London Olympics are spiralling ever upwards, now taking ever larger bites out of the Lottery good causes fund. It's not as if London does badly when it comes to funding, and now in excess of £600m that would have been distributed to projects across the country are now going to be swallowed by the capital.

New travel website online

My brand new travel website is now online. Yes, this is the reason why the blog has been quiet of late, but now it's open for business (in a personal, non-commercial sort of way of course)

NORTHFACING.COM celebrates the northern countries of the world. Tired of hot, humid and noisy countries I've decided it's high time to focus on those countries I love the best, and that's just what the North Facing website is all about.

Please drop by and tell me what you think.

Casterton Walk

Radio 2 does NME

It's a sign of the times when the NME music awards is covered on Ken Bruce's Radio 2 show, as it was this morning. In the past this would have been purely the preserve of Radio 1, but now it's a toss-up between Radio 1, Radio 2, 6 Music, XFM and the various rock music DAB stations. Long let it continue.