1090 TV Watching while in Scotland

Today was six days ago when I had an odd assortment of experiences with much unplanned television viewing.

I decided on a morning excursion to .Stirling, but the traffic was a nuisance, with Lorries heading for the Kincardine Bridge, and then, a slow, to stop, build up of traffic, as the outskirts of the town was reached. There had also been several showers, some heavy, so I decided to visit what appeared to be a recently built and opened 24 hour Azda for some shopping at Alloa, but made a mistake, and found myself in a retail park with a Morrison's, so decided it would do. It was here I could not resist buying two cream apple turnovers, eating one in the car park before setting off, and having recently taken to eating fresh pineapple mixed with chunks of watermelon I bought two pineapples for £1.50 whereas back home the cheapest at Azda over the past couple of weeks has been £1.68,and a watermelon. However one reason for the visit was to buy pens which I forgot, so I decided to call in at the Azda as well where I also purchased what was advertised as a single movement travel chair which folds into an over the shoulder bag, much like a shooting or fishing bag. Last summer if I did not arrive early enough for the July concerts in the park, I had to make do with the grass. This could be an ideal solution.

I became unusually tired after a prawn salad lunch and made little progress with my work so turned to television of Morse and Midsummer murders both previously seen, to turned to two programmes which were new to me. One is a games show in two phases were it is theoretically possible to achieve a monthly cash sum for life totalling close to £700,000. For this one has to uncover white as opposed to red lights. The amount of the monthly sum is determined in the first phase and then length of payments in the second with the additional twist that your partner is in a booth with the ability to watch the progress of the game and all a halt if they think the luck of the other is about to run out. This has the advantage that if they are right you take away the amount gained when the partner calls halt but if they do and you continue successfully then you lose any further winning period. It is therefore essential that the couple has agreement on what to do beforehand otherwise it is likely that any winnings will go to paying the lawyers.

The second diversion was of more lasting interest, I had bracketed Castaway along with a number of other heavily edited competitive reality adventures but was impressed by the plea statements by the remaining competitors to continue as the final approached. Each individual appeared to have genuinely expanded themselves by living as a group in primitive and challenging situations. The programme reminded of a series when a group of men participated in the life of a monastic order, and of others where one group of participants attempted to recreate medieval living and another Victorian household experience. Although he was not an immediately likeable character I had a hunch about who would win castaway and for once I was right.

I usually shy away from programmes about cooking, even those featuring personalities, because they always make me feel more inadequate than usual. In this instance seven chefs were competing to prepare a sweet pudding for a banquet to be held in Paris by the British Ambassador to promote the excellence of our culinary art. The judges made Simon Cowell into a gentle sympathiser and I would have loved to have tried even those puddings which they slated. It is time to tackle being a fatty with greater seriousness though.

I seemed to be having more naps than usual and less and less inclined to attend to work so it was unsurprising that my attention then focussed on programme about the rise and fall of the red guards in China. I was already familiar with the subject and previously studied the rise of Communism. What I had hoped for was some indication of how the switch to a mixed economy, based on significant help from international capitalism, had been achieved since the deaths of Chairman Mao and the Prime Minister, and the deposing of the hated wife of the Chairman. There and something like 1000 new cities to be created involving a controlled shift from countryside into an industrial revolution like no other and with the consequence of China leading the world economy before the end of this century.

The only obstacles to this new revolutionary March of the Chinese people appears to be international terrorism and if we succeed in destroying the planet at a faster rate than presently prophesied. Both subjects were covered during the day.

The first was an alarming programme which purported to reveal that the CIA/USA security services were torturing suspects at secret camps in Europe and elsewhere. The programme appeared to prove that secret rendition flights had operated into Poland adjacent to a secret camp and in a stop over rest and recreation centre on Majorca. The film centred on what is alleged to have happened to three terrorist suspects, adducted. moved to different locations where they were tortured, with one former English resident, but not a British subject now moved to Cuba, a German subsequently dumped in a forest in a mid European country and a Canadian whose story appears to have been accepted by the Canadian authorities as authentic. The programme concluded with the information of a series of lawsuits and the intention to bring war crimes charges against senior US government figures as well as those who are said to have undertaken the physical and mental torturing of individuals.

The subject was also aired on Question Time with former Deputy Prime Minister, Michael Heseltine talking sense about the balance that is needed between the roles of the state to protect against terrorism and ensuring that measures taken do not create the kind of society which the terrorists seek to force upon everyone. I have always liked Michael Heseltine, despite his politics, from the time as politician terrible when he seized and swung the Mace into his new role as a charitable elder statesman. Despite my understanding of the nature of power and government, I find it difficult to believe that senior politicians authorised let alone have been aware of the use of torture which cannot then be used to bring individuals to justice outside of the USA arrangements for those in Cuba, and presumably held elsewhere. It is understandable that the movement and location of captured terrorist will be kept secret from concern of organised break outs and terrorist reprisals on supporting governments. It is the responsibility of those who live in democratic societies to set the limits on the measures to be taken to stop terrorist activity.

The impact of the development of the Chinese economy on global energy supply, and its consequence for the environment are mind bending especially as it means that China will eventually have the financial means to explore beyond our solar system, and may become the first people to visit other communicating species, if such species have not already been in contact with human life on our planet before now.

It all makes the latest decision by the British Government, with support from local authority representative bodies to plan reducing the weekly collection of non recyclable waste, to bi- weekly more suspect. The presented argument is that this will force the public to give more attention to recycling as much as possible in the alternate weeks and reduce the quantity going to land fill sites. However the likelihood is that this will only increase the number of private cars taken household waste to the specialist council centres where the present emphasis is on recycling, and the disposal of white goods, batteries, tyres, metals and building materials. The suspicion is that this is yet another switch from a general local tax to pay as you go, but at least the scheme does not appear dependent on yet another computer system. Another fiddling while Rome burns?