Holidays - The Western Isles (Part 2)

Horgabost Isle of Harris

Well I arrived back from my 'wild' camping holiday on the Western Isles in the early hours of this morning.  It was probably at least a day early but I had my reasons.  You see when you load up your car with all the means to go camping it does help if you don't lose your car keys!

When I discovered the loss I was pitched at a wild camping site at a place called Horgabost on the western coast of the Isle of Harris.  In reality it is about as remote from civilisation as any place in the UK! In the distance there were the odd cottage probably owned by Hebrides hermits but the nearest small store was at least 10 miles away.

It is beautiful as you can see when the sun shines but this is the Outer Hebrides and my first night under canvas was spent listening to the wind tearing at the tent and the rain battering away trying to get at me.  Fortunately I took a tip from the professionals and placed rocks on my guide ropes.  Nae bother Jimmy!

At this point I must pay tribute to the AA! If you are camping or disappearing into the Ullu then full cover should be mandatory.  Fortunately when the keys disappeared (and I refuse to tell anyone how they disappeared) my car was unlocked so I could still load everything back into the car before I was recovered by Callum who arrived all the way from Stornaway on the Isle of Lewis.

Callum took me to the Laxdale camp site in Stornaway where I was introduced to Kenny a local locksmith (Scotlock) who assured me that he could replicate my car key and he could. It took him over 24 hours because he also works for the Council and the Police who require him for emergencies. I did not realise the technology that goes into our car keys in this modern age but Kenny knew and by yesterday I was queued up at Stornaway Harbour fourth in line for an emergency berth to Ullapool!  

I left Ullapool yesterday at 5.30pm and via, Inverness, Fort William and Crianrannich I arrived on the M74 at 11pm.  I slept for 2 hours at the Bothwell Service Station and then arrived home at 6am this morning.  It was the drive of my life!  I challenge anyone to replicate it and I am  71 years of age.

It sounds like a disaster but it was a wonderful challenge.  It is all to easy to think 'old' and this has given me a new lease of life. I was way out of my comfort zone (in more ways than one) but I am so glad that I took on the challenge.  The camping fraternity are brilliant. I do not understand how the huge gap between them and 'Westmonster' can exist? 

It was Kenny who told me that Cameron had lost the vote on Syria as he deciphered the complexities of my car key and he watched in wonder as I did a strange wee dance around my tent! More of that later...!

PS  What did we do before the mobile phone and a public thanks to my wife and daughter for their back up.  They thought I was crazy and now they know that they were correct!!!

So who represents the Worker?

We have had a miserable week in this country. Our politicians have, once again, proven that they have no idea about what happens down on planet Earth. Purely for political reasons they created a fuel panic which was inexplicable. For a modern day Cabinet Minister to stand on the steps of Downing Street and urge the public to panic buy fuel and even store it in jerry cans speaks volumes for his competence and even more for the common sense of the public.


As a consequence everybody went mad and for days there has been queues at every filling station in the countrry. So I began to ask myself what is the background of these leading politicians who frequently  appear to be out of touch with the working class. Even I was astonished when I began to research their backgrounds. Almost without exception they attended a fee paying private school, followed by a period at Oxford and then further education either in the United States or Europe. None of them have actually had to work for a living. Most were indulged by rich parents who could afford them to play at politics.


David Cameron    Eton and Oxford
Ed Miliband         Oxford, London School of Econmics and Harvard
Nick Clegg           Westminster School, Cambridge, Univ of Minnesota and College of Europe
Ed Balls                Nottm High School, Oxford and Harvard
Yvette Cooper      Oxford and Harvard
George Osborne   St Pauls, Oxford and Davidson College N Carolina
William Hague     Oxford and INSEAD
David Miliband    Oxford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Danny Alexander  Oxford and later The European Movement.


Clearly they are just a selection of our leading politicians but they all have one thing in common. They have never had to be concerned about money.  Real life has no concerns for them. Doors were opened for them because of who they were. This is the reason that all of them are 'modernisers'. They want to change the country because it is part of an academic exercise thought up by professors at Oxford, Harvard and elsewhere in the States. They are all playing a political game because they have never done anything else!

Snow, snow everywhere...

My wife and I don't really disagree about that much...well not that often..and not really seriously (gulp) but when the snow falls we have our annual disagreement. When the snow falls British drivers are in the main hopeless. It generally falls every year and every year we have the same panic problems.

Now for fifteen years I lived in Germany. Most of this period I was either in Berlin or somewhere along the former inner German border. Some of the snowfalls that I witnessed were really serious and one had to use everything to just get home or get to work. I often worked shifts which meant that I had to drive through snow at all hours of day and night.

The snow that we get here is minimal. It sometimes gets up to a few inches but generally it is just a covering and yet it invariably sparks a crisis. The reason is that most of our drivers do not use their common sense and more importantly they never learn.

Time to upgrade the driving test and ensure that drivers use a skid patch. No excuses we live in the northern hemisphere and we should all know how to control a skid... even mummies on the school run!