If you don’t live in England, you might not be aware that our firemen and women are going through a period of industrial action at the moment. Whilst they are on strike, fire cover is provided by military staff using 30 year old fire fighting vehicles know as green goddess’s. Much has been made in the media of the slow response time of these ancient trucks from another time, in the early hours of Saturday morning; I got my first look at one. Walking home from our team Xmas meal at about 2:30 AM I was initially somewhat confused when a police car drove past my friend Ant and I, with siren blaring and lights flashing, but instead of zooming along the nearly deserted Whiteladies Road it ambled along at around 30 miles an hour. I thought that maybe, they were looking for a specific individual in a none to discreet way. Then eventually from behind us the green goddess lumbered into view struggling like a middle aged over weight jogger, when approached with a small incline. It was not a sight to give you confidence in our safety.

A few moths ago it emerged that Euan Blair the son of that Mr Blair (no not Lionel) was going to be a student at Bristol university, cue much excitement in the local media. Mercifully since the start of the academic year, we have been pretty much Euan free in the local press. All that has changed since when the weekend, when that paragon of virtue the Sunday Mail decided to announce that the Mr & Mrs P.M. had managed to do a dodgy bit of work buying 2 new luxury flats near the University and somehow were able to knock about price down from £270, 000 to £250, 000 per flat. This is at a time when things are selling like hot cakes and everyone else is paying the full asking price. Of course it may just be coincidence that full stamp duty (3%) is payable on any thing over £250,000 rather than the 1% that they will know pay. Very nice saving, when it’s all added up. Mind you it does seam a bit odd that everyone in Bristol now knows where little Euan will be living. Not very clever from a security point of view!