Pledges, pledges, pledges

I was wryly amused by the juxtaposition of headlines on this morning's BBC website. Two pledges were reported one immediately above the other: "Osborne to pledge 'growth' budget" and "Defiant Gaddafi pledges victory". Now, as I sit out here in the garden in my shirtsleeves (!) at 4.30 in the afternoon, I've not really digested the budget - but who has yet, except the Treasury boffins who put it together? I gather there are crumbs of comfort for charities and a small refund of the money taken from science research in the autumn spending cuts, which sounds like long-term good news for the MNDA. Mark you, the growth forecast sounds pretty long term as well. As I understand it's particularly good news for the large multinationals, rather than small businesses. Maybe freeing up planning and other regulations might help them, though it sounds a bit worrying to me. However as one commentator, Niall Cooper, pointed out there was not a single mention of people in poverty - which is sad from a government pledged to protect the vulnerable. (Budget ignores plight of the poorest)

However I enjoyed my time in the sunshine. Jane's bulbs are out again, the scent of hyacinths surrounding the new French windows. Talking of which, last week we had our windows replaced by the excellent Nick Ponting and his merry men. We've had to sacrifice the bowed tops to the windows and have replaced wooden frames with plastic - against my professed aesthetic principles. But practicality won in the end. The workmen, I must say, were wonderful. Highly recommended. Here are two pictures. In the first you can see old-style downstairs with replacements upstairs; in the second work in progress downstairs. 

We're pleased with the result. It made an immediate difference in warmth and light, we thought. That's been appreciated as, before the sun shone on us, our boiler's been misbehaving again and the heating unpredictable. Not that that worried our guest at the weekend, the towering Tony Cheslett, our energetic friend from Stockport who introduced us to the joys of the Lake District. He's bagged all the munros. He is well known around the UK for corny stories and for the advice, "If you've got cold feet, wear a hat."

Out and about in Grove (part 2)

By popular demand...!

I apologise to those who have been impatiently waiting for the next episode - but there's something about deferred gratification sharpening the appetite. And to be honest, you need it, because on the whole Grove is quite bland - rather like custard. However my excuse is a good one, as yesterday I finished the painstaking task of checking the proofs, which was concentrated hard work. Last night we packed them up and they're ready for dispatch to Monarch this morning. It's a great feeling. Nothing more I can do!

Over the weekend we had a good friend from our days of camping with Pathfinders in Windermere in the 90s (I almost said in the last century - which is true, but makes it sound so long ago, doesn't it?). Lisa does signing for the deaf, and blind, and leads worship in her church. So when she came to VEC with us she automatically signed in the songs - which I love, it's so expressive. However she was here for a chill-out weekend, and so I went out on my own on a politician hunt on Saturday morning and caught one in the Millbrook shops.

To be honest, I'd had wind of him from the internet, but I wanted to do my bit of lobbying. I'd emailed four local PPCs earlier asking them to support the National Strategy for MND and to ask them how they'd vote on assisted suicide if it came to it. Only one, Adam Twine of the Greens, replied personally and promptly and, lo and behold, there's his name on the MND website. Good on him! Although two of the others subsequently expressed their support for better MND care, they've not bothered to sign up - which is a shame, as it lacks that same commitment. The fourth - HE KNOWS WHO HE IS - hasn't bothered to reply at all, even though I emailed two addresses. I'll leave you to speculate whether it's a case of complacency or of a lost cause. I'm afraid he's forfeited my vote, if he ever had it. Sadly but perhaps not surprisingly all three respondents sat on the fence with regard to assisted suicide. One would hope they had backbone enough to vote for protecting the vulnerable if push came to shove.

PPC Steven Mitchell talking to BBC reporter. My pal, Peter Gill, who's his agent, on the right.

Yesterday Benvolio landed in our garden and has been making his presence known. I assume he's the offspring of Benedict and Beatrice, our local blackbirds. He's really far too big to need feeding now, but dad seems to have a soft heart. There was a hullabaloo at 2.30 this morning. My guess is it was parents mobbing a cat out to get Benvolio. If so, they were obviously successful, as he's back large as life (perhaps his name is Adrian...).

Brian's kindly sent me another donkey / parish priest story. But that will have to wait.

(By the way, have you signed the MNDA National Strategy petition yet. At the conference we were told  the total was 8,000 - which to my way of thinking is not great. Surely there are more than that who'd like to see good care provided nationally for sufferers with MND?)