News of the World and Phone Hacking.

OK, I can finally admit the News International didn't hack my mobile phone. Bastards. But they did hack the phones of the rich and famous who are now set to sue for every penny they can get. Which is why I am annoyed that my phone wont be on the list the police must by now compiling so I will be unable to make some money out of this long running sage. Hopefully those who do sue get loads of money out of the paper's owner, he can afford it. Hopefully this little episode of law breaking by News International will persuade the powers that be to block the sale of what's left of BSkyB to News International even if more logical arguments fail. That too much power in one media mogul's hands is a very bad thing. Think how long the News of the World got away with phone hacking by blaming someone else in the company. What they could get away with in a company the size of BSkyB and NewsInternation. For years News International insisted there had been just one "rogue" reporter involved in the hacking of phones. Now they have come out and said that just isn't in fact actual true. If they can avoid telling the truth about this for years what else are they prepared to do for a story.

　

The constant stalling by the News of the World is going to cost them dear, it would have been better if they had admitted it years ago. The size of the damage do would have been much less. I'm thinking here of the cost to us poor tax payers (yes I do pay tax), the man hours of wasted police time and effort. The diverting of all that expertise of the officers who have had to investigate this scandal could have been spent else where on other more serious crimes. I hope the CPS give some though to asking News International for a really big contribution towards those costs.

PS. The photo is nothing to do with the above. For years Stagecoach have run a bus service, the 111, from Torquay to Dartmouth. It ran via the Willows, Torbay Hospital, Marldon Berry Pomeroy and Totnes. Well on the 9th April they changed the route slightly. It now runs from Paignton to Totnes and then to Dartmouth missing out the Willows, Torbay Hospital, Marldon and Berry Pomeroy. I have never been on this route so on Thursday I took a ride from Torquay to Totnes. I then had 30 mins in Totnes and caught the next bus back to Berry Pomeroy. From there I walked down to Longcombe, taking a few photos as I went. I was planning to catch a bus back to Torquay from there.

I knew there would be a choice of thee buses along that road, X80/81, 88 and River Link's 100. Not knowing what time the ran I clicked on the little bus stop symbol which takes me to transportdirect.info, useful for getting bus numbers and times if a bit of a pain to use. It turns out there is ferry from here to Paignton ( the nearest river is in Totnes 5 miles away). It's run by the Dartmouth Steam Railway & River Boat Company and it arrives on Stand L in Paignton Bus Station. In fact according to the transport direct site a ferry should arrive in the bus station at 10:52 Monday morning. I think I will get down there with my camera, should get some good shots.

Anyway the photo is of Berry Pomeroy.

It was a sad day for staff at Paignton Zoo

It was a sad day for staff at Paignton Zoo today as a crocodile was found dead.

Staff said the 35-year-old Nile crocodile had been acting strangely for several days and was under observation by staff, but was found dead on Wednesday in its Crocodile Swamp attraction.

Mike Bungard, curator of lower vertebrates and invertebrates, said: "Crocodiles are very good at hiding illness and very difficult to diagnose.

"He was seen to be lethargic the other day and he was under observation by our in-house vet team because he was not eating normally – though crocodiles can go for long periods without eating."

The crocodile was one of a pair that came to the zoo near Torquay from Wroclaw Zoo in Poland in 2008.

It was born in a zoo in the Czech Republic.

A post-mortem examination on the 10ft crocodile will be carried out to find out the cause of death.

The nominations for the mayor's job are

Gordon Oliver, Cons,

Dennis Brewer, Lib Dem;

Patrick Canavan, Lab;

Fiona McPhail, Voice 4 Torbay;

Sam Moss, Green Party;

Martin Brook, Ind;

Paul Clifford, Ind;

Susie Colley, Ind;

and

Nick Bye, The Devil we Know Party.

Three of the candidates stood in the last election, Mr Bye who won, Mr Oliver who came third and Mrs Colley who came in fourth. The Lib Dem candidate came 2nd but isn't standing this time. The first 3 candidates in the above list have all expressed a wish to see the post scrapped so I expect that if one of them does get elected they will do nothing, not even draw the £65 000 salary that goes with the job.

I have googled some of the candidates to see if I can find out anything relevant about them. Sam Moss needs to work much harder on his web page, content is negligible. Fiona McPhail's Voice 4 Torbay doesn't seem to have a web site, at least I can't find it. Martin Brook is a 46-year-old financial adviser from Barton, Torquay. Again no web site I can find. Paul Clifford only comes up in the Herald Express as being a candidate, have to do better. Susie Colley is a former nurse who runs her own medical insurance business but nothing about her ambition to be mayor.

Remember boys and girls, it's the internet where people get information from these days so get on your computers pdq.

　

　

Photos, One Good One Ugly

Here are a couple of photos taken recently to show Torquay as it looks to the visitors. The top one is of the flower beds in Torre Abbey Gardens, carefully planted and tended to almost perfection.

The bottom one is of The once famous Palm Court Hotel, the world fame was long ago. What it is famous for at the moment is the burnt out shell that disgraces the sea front and the town council for their inability to actually do anything about this mess. Put it in any other seaside town that makes a living from summer visitors and this mess would be just a memory but Torquay is a 3rd World Town and has just given up. Now it sits there and is likely to remain there for at least this coming summer; and for how many summers to come.

For the 5 years before it became a burnt out shell it was a derelict dump. Closed long ago and up for sale but with no planning permission no sale. The only real difference are the 10 foot tall unpainted hoardings failing miserably to hide the fact that Torbay council would sooner hide behind rules than spend some money and tear the place down and turn it into a small park for the holiday makers to sit in. Even a car park would be better than this, then Town Hall would get some income at least.

PS. The fire was in mid December.
PPS. Please don’t let this put you of coming to Torquay, there are plenty of other attractions here to enjoy, it’s just this one blot we don’t seem to be able to get shut of.

Elected mayor system will stay in Torbay until at least 2019

There is much talk in the local paper, the Herald Express, about the position of elected mayor. We had a referendum 5 years ago to decide if we here in Torbay want an elected mayor. I suspect that those who voted for the setting up of such a position did so because they thought it would be better than letting the then, and still is, ineffectual council run the place. I know I did. If the first elected mayor, Nick Bye, is anything to go by we were wrong, Nick has managed to upset lots and lots of people without seeming to please very many. Being a politicion is a balancing act and Nick hasn't been very good at it. He has been deselected by his party and is planning to stand again in May as an independent. Good luck to him.

Now as far as I can tell from reading the Herald Express and the comments there in that those against having an elected mayor don't seem to like the present elected mayor very much. So we now have a not very good elected mayor so lets hope the next one is better, because we have to have at least two more elections, one in May and one in May 2015. Then we can have an other referendum to decide if we want to keep the position. It's up to us voters to pick the right person in May and then decide in 4 and a bit years if we want to get rid of the position of elected mayor.

I think it's too soon to decide, the next holder of the post might be wonderful, who knows we might even what to hang on to an elected mayor.