Happy Birthday Neptune.

Happy birthday to Neptune. It's 164.79 years since Neptune was first discovered by astronomers with some considerable help from a French mathematician. And that 164.79 years is how long it takes Neptune to orbit the sun just once which is why it's happy first birthday to what is now, since Pluto fell out of the favour as a planet, the most distant planet in the solar system.

An other item that caught my notice today that mentioned years was a comment by the Senior police officer in charge of the latest investigations to the phone hacking. She was asked was she going to get the investigation right this time. Considering the failures of previous attempts to sort this on going mess out, it was a fair question. The answer given to a Parliamentary Select Committee was, "I hope so. I don't want to be here in 5 years time trying to explain why I didn't get it right." Does that mean we have to go through all this again in 2016? Mean while, with everybody's attention drawn to this growing and semmingly out of control scandel there is a question that should be asked; "Is anyone actually running the country at the moment?"

And finally, someone in the UK has just won £161 million on the Euro Lottery. Hi there who ever you are, you couldn't spare a couple of million could you? OK only asking. Seriously though, what would you do with 161 million quid?

"It can't get any worse David."

A couple of days ago a backbench Tory MP sidled up to David Cameron in the House and hoping to cheer him up said, "Don't worry David, It can't get any worse." David's reply is not known but he must have known that it was about to get much worse and it has.

I remember in the early sixties the so called Profumo Affair, a government sex scandal that seemed to go on for ever with each new revelation being slowly but inevatively dragged out until the government minister, John Profumo, finally admitting he had slept with a prostitute, the same prostitute had also slept with a Russian spy. There was no suggestion that Profumo had told the prostitute, Christine Keeler, any state secrets she could pass on to the Russian spy but he had to go and the Conservative government almost collapsed following this affair.

There have been other scandals concerning government ministers including Cherie Blair's friendship with a known crook while her husband was Prime Minister and of course the MP's expences incident which senior government ministers knew about but only came out and did something about after a lot of pressure from a newspaper.

Now it seems the present Prime Minister has got an even bigger skeleton in his cupboard in the shape of Andy Coulson, his former director of communications. It would appear that at a trial held in Scotland a few months ago he stated under oath that he was not aware that The News of the World had paid police for information. Now it seems there are emails that prove he did know. That is perjury and better people than Andy Coulson have ended in in prison for perjury. And that isn't his only problem. He still has to clear himself of any involvement in phone hacking. That is looking an increasing difficult task.

Compared to all this, The Profumo Affair of 1963 is beginning to look the rather tame affair it actually was. Come back John all is forgiven.

I did suggest that not buying the News of the World this would be a good idea. I still think it's a good idea but closing the paper down shows the world what a mean bastard Rupert Murdoch is, putting hundreds of people out of work in cynical, and lets hope futile attempt to save face.

How to Hack a Mobile Phone. (Please don't try this at home (or anywhere else))

In all the phone hacking items I have listened to on the news over the last few months one point never seems to have been mentioned and that is how easy it is to hack someone's voice mail or answer machine messages. In case you don't know how to do it then type "how to hack a mobile phone" in your search engine and find out. I tried it on Google and got 45 million results in 0.15 seconds. All you need is the persons phone number and their PIN number for that phone. Mobile phone companies and land line phones all have a default setting of "0000" for the PIN number. In the instruction book for my phone it says "To change PIN enter new PIN and press OK" It doesn't make any attempt to stress how important it is to change this or warn that if you don't then not nice people who work for the News of the World can listen to your voice mail. Most people will not bother because they don't expect to have to access their voice mail from an other phone. How many of you have changed this PIN? Imagine what would be happening if all credit and debit cards were sent out with "0000" as the default PIN. How much money would have vanished from thousands of bank accounts before the card issuers would have been forced to change the system of issuing PIN numbers. So why haven't mobile phone companies changed the way phones are made so as soon as you set up your new phone you get a text message telling you what your PIN number is and the need to change it as soon as possible for your own security?

PS Even if you have been reading the News of the World for the last 25 years why now give it a miss this Sunday, and next Sunday and every Sunday from now until the sordid rag folds for good and all? Or you could click here and sign a petition to stop Murdock getting full control of BSkyB and even more power and influence.

Couple of little stories from the bus.

 A lady boarded the bus and showed me her fare, £3.50, and then instead of putting the coins on the cash tray she looked around with a slightly puzzled look before settling on the big red box hanging in the driver's door. The one with Used Tickets printed on it in big white letters. Now this is strictly speaking for used tickets so the passengers don't litter the streets when they get of the bus with thousands of used tickets. Generally speaking it is used as a litter bin for small items such as used tickets, sweet wrappers, empty coke cans, apple cores, chewing gum and anything else you can think off including greasy plastic bags that once house sandwiches. I know all that lot were in the Used Ticket receptacle because the lady I mention a minute ago dropped her fare into this bin. Now this is a throw back to years ago on their buses. I know it was an idea used on Manchester buses in the sixties and discarded quite quickly. There was a Perspex box into which the fare was dropped through a slot. The driver then examined the money and if it was correct pulled a lever and the coins dropped into a strong box below. It was unpopular with the passengers because no change was given, it was unpopular with the drivers because there were arguments about change and it was unpopular with bus companies because the buses would run late while passenger stood on the platform trying to swap change. The idea soon vanished which shows the lady on my bus hadn't been on a bus for years.

It was also handy because it meant the Used Ticket box got emptied, probably for the first time in weeks while I sorted through the rubbish for the £3.50.

The second story came a day or two later. It had started sunny but by 9:30 thick black clouds covered the sky from horizon to horizon, a cold wind from the south west had turned up making the backs of leaves on the trees visible ( a sure sign of rain to come) and the temperature fallen by several degrees and as I pulled up at a stop a few drops of rain were making their presence know by splattering on the windscreen.

The first passenger, again a lady got on and showed her pass and I issued a ticket. She then asked, "What is it going to do today?" I looked out the window at thick black clouds covered the sky from horizon to horizon, a cold wind from the south west had turned up making the backs of leaves on the trees visible ( a sure sign of rain to come) and the temperature fallen by several degrees and the few drops of rain were still there splattering on the windscreen but joined by many more of their comrades.

"It's going to rain," said I. Well my mother told me always to tell the truth.

"Well you're a miserable sod," said my passenger before lurching down the bus.

I smilled sweetly. What else could I do.

PS it did rain.

PPS it was fine for the next 4 or 5 days after that.

Still Hell at Tweenaway.

After a few days of fairly speedy traffic flow through Tweenaway Cross and hopes for a clear road the cones were back yesterday. I left Paignton at 5 pm last night and went across the traffic lights at 5:40. The journey time should have been 10 minutes at the most. The road surface has been relaid and maybe this little hiccup was caused by something simple like painting white lines. Though it could be the council have discovered the whole thing has been set out incorrectly and are just about top dig it all up and start again. Even if it is all cleared away to day there is still work to do and the road works will be back in October.