Ash ash

Of course, Wimbledon is in full swing, and temperatures vary from 25°c in London to 16°c in Newcastle. But the real excitement of the summer starts next week: the ashes. Will England loose 5-O again? Vaughan is not going to play, he is actually retiring! This surely doesn't help, though if they can get a few draw, who knows what might happen.

ice ice baby ice

'Duck island' Tory MP is forced to retire

This should go down as a classic moment in British politics:

"A 'furious' David Cameron last night forced a former Conservative minister to stand down as an MP at the next general election after he admitted claiming 1, 645 Pounds for a floating 'duck island' in his garden.
Sir Peter Viggers, a Northern Ireland Office minister in the late 1980s, was told by the Tory leader that he would be stripped of the Conservative whip immediatly unless he agreed to retire.
Cameron acted after the daily Telegraph revealed that Viggers, the MP for Gosport since 1974, had claimed 32 000 pounds in gardening expenses over three years at his Hampshire home. This included a claim for a floating duck island designed to protect his ducks from foxes. This was rejected by the Commons authorities.
Viggers also claimed for 28 tonnes of manure..."

Nicholas Watt in the Guardian

John Bercow

Bercow, who moderated his views after marrying his labour-supporting wife Sally Illman in 2002, said in his letter: "I have been on a political journey of enlightenment from the Thatcherite right to the political centre ground".
Senior Tories can barely bring themselves to speak to Bercow. One shadow cabinet minister said: " The problem with Bercow is that he discovered sex and new Labour at the same time".

30 with some new prospects?