Whatever happened to protest pop? Given the state of the world around us where are the artists screaming out about it?

This is one of my favourite protest songs, Hope Street by the Levellers. Hopefully it will touch a chord with any one that wants to change the world.

There's a young boy in the queue
Not much else for him to do
He's had a drink, he's had a few
Down the pub on Hope Street

Dear old lady she's looking thin
Got a shopping bag with your life in
Your old man's going through the bins
So it goes on Hope Street

Rain on me come pouring down
Clean the dirt of this old town
Tell the sun to come around
And show his face on Hope Street

There's a flight right down the street
The betting shop has got him beat
Blew his money for the week
on a horse called Hope Street

No old faces out today
Someone took them all away
Cleaning up or so they say
The dirty face of Hope Street

Everyday I look at you
Dressed up in you ties of blue
Saying there's not much you can do
To help the kids on Hope Street

They don't seem to even care
That it was you that put them there
You seem to think they like it there
Hanging out on Hope Street

The world scout and guide movements have just released this statement

Scouts and Guides call for peace in the Middle East

The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) have released the following statement regarding the conflict in the Middle East:
‘It is with increasing concern that we see conflict and tension flaring up in the Middle East. Both WOSM and WAGGGS have many members in Israel, Lebanon and Palestine and we are worried about their safety and that of their families.

When we became a Scout or a Guide we all made a lifelong Promise to 'help other people at all times' and to be a 'friend to all and a sister/brother to every other Scout/Guide'. One of the most important and fundamental principles of our great Movement is to work towards a peaceful world. Both within the countries now involved, and on the outside, we all have a commitment to try our best to bring peace, understanding and security where there is conflict, misunderstanding and fear. We reach out to all our members, past and present, to do their utmost as Scouts and Guides to bring this misery to a swift end and to rebuild the communities in the region that have already suffered too much.’

Enough said

The world scout and guide movements have just released this statement

Scouts and Guides call for peace in the Middle East

The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) have released the following statement regarding the conflict in the Middle East:
‘It is with increasing concern that we see conflict and tension flaring up in the Middle East. Both WOSM and WAGGGS have many members in Israel, Lebanon and Palestine and we are worried about their safety and that of their families.

When we became a Scout or a Guide we all made a lifelong Promise to 'help other people at all times' and to be a 'friend to all and a sister/brother to every other Scout/Guide'. One of the most important and fundamental principles of our great Movement is to work towards a peaceful world. Both within the countries now involved, and on the outside, we all have a commitment to try our best to bring peace, understanding and security where there is conflict, misunderstanding and fear. We reach out to all our members, past and present, to do their utmost as Scouts and Guides to bring this misery to a swift end and to rebuild the communities in the region that have already suffered too much.’

Enough said

After days of utterly stifeling heat the weather tonight has finally broken with a belter of a thunderstorm! It has been some of nature's pyrotechnics at their very very best, cracking thunder, torrential down pours and that wonderful smell of wet wood. Amazing!

In a gap between massive downpours, but still raining none the less, I went for a walk. the smell was over powering and when thelightening flashed it was the real McCoy forked stuff and seemed to be trying to take out my retina! I was wearing flip flops and let my feet drag through the puddles, soaking them in the sweet smelling rain. Nothing like it!

There is of course the concern with weather like this about global warming, living just 5m above sea level this is something very much on my mind! If you haven't already take a look at Heacte's blog (link in the er.... links section!) she regularly has something to say on the subject, albeit from the perspective of our cousins the other side of the pond.

It's a small world, on the way home from work I was on the same train as a bunch of Rangers. I got chatting to their leader and found that they were heading for Cambridge for a few days before going to Norjam, having just talked about meeting some guide leader friends of mine there next week! Not only that but when they got to Cambridge they were being met by a friend of mine who was transporting all their luggage to site. Was well impressed with this bunch of girls, well behaved, well organised, friendly, what more can I say?

Today the evening standard was banging on about how much Camilla costs the country. And it reminded me of what winds me up about SOME royalists (for the record I am a devout republican, despite being a Queens Scout, hey, I have my price!). They bang on about what a wonderful thing the royal familly is and then moan when they have to pay for the memebers of it that they don't like.

Look, the whole point is that with a monarchy, YOU CANNOT CHOOSE YOUR HEAD OF STATE. That is how it works, you get what your given. Why can't we chose they say, why don't we get a say they moan. They just don't get it. If we were a republic with a president then they would get a say.

You can't have it both ways.

Sometimes you have a totally perfect weekend and this was one of them.

First I got to knock off work at 3 on Friday afternoon and travelled down to sunny surrey to catch up with various friends. All the trains were on time, air conditioned and I ended up arriving early!

First I met up with S in Guildford. She's a great friend who I met in the heady days of being a Venture Scout on a winter skills mountaineering course. She is also someone who I don't see anywhere near enough of and one of the few people in the world who put me at ease when talking about religion and other great questions of life. We had dinner at a river side pub, sitting in the sun, all very chilled, all very civilised! It is something that we really must do more often.

Then on to see M just outside and his fiance. I've know M since we were 11, people regularly accuse us of being brothers, his parents still call me Steedy and we can communicate in grunts! After braving a spectacular thunder storm on Staurday morning we spent the afternoon on the beach in Dorset, fossil hunting and swimming in the sea, again all very chilled, relaxed and generally very cool. Followed by fish and chips and sat in thepub till we were kicked out putting the world to rights.

I also got asked to be best man at their weding next year! Am dead chuffed!

Today was then spent over a lazy sunday lunch, reading the papers by the lake and then wending my way home.

For the first time in I forget how long I have finished the weekend relaxed, happy and generally refreshed. More where that came from please!

I have a confession, and it is this.

One of the greatest pleasures in my life is one that is not very sophisticated. I simply love instant mashed potatoe. It's simply gorgeous! yes I know there's naff all potatoe actually in it, yes I know it's full of additives etc, but it's lovely!

I thank you.

In the mean time Cubs has now finished for the summer, ending with a spectacular water fight on Monday night. Time for a rest I think!

It is the end of what has been a very long week, and I hope that next week is a lot shorter. It is a week in which so many of my friends have been up to their necks in issues that it has left me tired and stressed. And to add to it my sister gets married tomorrow, with the inevitable familly stress that that will cause. Ofcourse it does give me an excuse to drink far too much and dance like a complete prat.

Please, though, let me have a day off from all this shit! I've had enough!

Monday will be the last night of the Cubs term with the famous, annual, water night that starts off as an apparent attempt at contructive games involving water and decends in to a free for all water fight, normally kids V leaders. Absolutely love it!

By the time we come back the HQ will have a new kitchen. The HQ needs a total refurb which we are doing bit by bit but the kitchen really is the black hole of Calcutta and I can't wait to see the back of it.

I passed my driving text coming up to 5 years ago. Since then I have driven on only 3 or 4 occassions and frankly if I were to start doing so now would need some refresher lessons. However I do feel well within my rights to dish out some advice on driving to the driver of the bloody great taxi that seemed intent on ending my life prematurely this afternoon while I was cylcing home from the station. If you do happen to ever read this I was the cyclist on the blue mountain bike on regent street at about 7pm. Now read my comments below, they may prevent you being arrested for bloody dangerous driving.

1. When the cyclist in front of you is overtaking parked cars and there is on coming traffic, do not, I repeat DO BLOODY NOT, try to over take him. Thus you can prevent said cyclist from shutting his eyes and praying, really REALLY hard and the on coming traffic from swerving and mounting the curb.

2. When you have succesfully, and more importantly safely, overtaken the same cyclist then before you pull across his path and salm your foot as hard on the break as you possibly can to deposit your passengers (who I hope did not give you a tip) please, get a respectable distance in front and use that little black leaver just next to your stearing wheel. Yes, that's the one, just there, it's called an indicator, I will repeat that in case you didn;t notice, an INDICATOR. It works those pretty flashing orange lights on your car, this will give the cyclist some warning that several tons of metal is about to be dumped in his path and gives him time to apply the breaks.

I thank you.

The news over the last few days has been full of the debate over replacing Britain's nuclear weapons and it has made me pasue for thought as it does create a huge contradiction inmy own mind.

I am not normally one to sit on the fence on controversial issues but this is one time when I feelI must.

No one wants nuclear weapons, including me, not really. The horror of nuclear war and the aftermath is beyond imagination, and their very concept and use, where huge areas of human population wouldbe exterminated at the push of a button goes against everything i belive in. It also creates an absurd paradox, to be used as a deterent you must be prepared to use them, yet the moment you are forced to do so the deterent has failed. And yet at the same time I am reluctant to throw my weight behind the disarmament argument.

It is a cliche but I will say it, you can't uninvent nuclear weapons, pandoras box cannot be closed, the genie will not go back in the bottle! And while regimes like North Korea have nuclear weapons do we really want a world where stable, democratic nations with the ability and will to protect not just themselves but their weaker neighbours do not? Can you imagine that?

I want a peaceful, stable world where we do not squander out resources on horrific weapons that we will never use, but how we get there I don't know, and that is to my own discredit.

Helped with scouts last night, the idea was that they make their own burgers and cook them on a BBQ.

Simple right?

Well that's what I thought, it is amazing what you average 12 or 13 year old can develope it in to! It became a contest in seeing who could produce the most interesting smell by burning random plants found around the hut with the clear intention of fidning something "intoxicating". :-)

There was then the prat who had locked his bike to the gate and lost the keys. He had an absolute beast of a bike lock that was resistant to everything we could attack it with, even an axe. Eventually his Dad stopeed sitting there looking useless while me and Andy tried to sort it and went home to get a spare key. He lives 5 minutes away and yet waited half an hour to inform us that he could do this.

Honestly!

Well we're in to the new gaff!

It's not bad but the curtains are hideous, the floors are made of paper (you can here a phone vibrating in the room above if it's left on the floor!) and the neighbours appear to be non existant but other than that it's not bad.

Cubs is still chaotic, in the process of finding a way of getting one girl cub sleeping accomodation on camp in September.

So yes, I am still alive.

Am wondering though if I am turning in to a girl. Here are the facts.

I have more female than male friends
I have a girl guides promise badge on my uniform
I was bought Belgian chocolate and a foot spa for my birthday and loved it.

You decide?