These abortion figures

This is truly terrifying. 198,000 babies aborted last year. For pity's sake, there were only 650,000 births. Thats almost a quarter of all pregnancies. Something is seriously, seriously wrong. And what do the "experts" say? More of the same please. More and more sex education for younger and younger children and this will solve the problem, we are told today. Yet abortions continue to rise, with the youngest and most vulnerable propping up these figures with huge percentage rises in teenage abortions, and a 20% leap in terminations for under 14s.

Let me say it. Few others will- Sex education is training young people for abortion. If you tell enough young people they can have sex with no consequences, they will, and suffer the very real consequences. Whatever your views on abortion, you wouldn't wish one on a thirteen year old. Don't stand for a system that does. Don't believe that if enough 12 year olds put enough condoms on enough bananas this will change. It won't.

Extra Bank Holiday? Yes Please.

But not to celebrate the contibution of Polish people to Britan as Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski suggests. I'm no less grateful than he for their contribution. I lived in a community with a number of Polish people a few years back. I was inspired daily by their resolve, charm and cheerful attitude. (I found one ravenously attractive. She went off to Jamaica to work with some nuns in an orphanage. What does that tell you?) The other thing I noticed was their sense of national identity and pride. When your homeland has been invaded and occupied as often and as recently as Poland has you tend to hold on to such things. Persecution of Catholics under Communism is also part of the reason why many Poles are dedicated churchgoers. So Poland's national day, the 11th November, is celebrated with fervour and passion as you would expect. Great, let it be so. Britain could learn a lot. How about a Bank Holiday for a British national day? When? I don't mind. Queen's Birthday for all I care. Or why not have four, for the Saints days of each of the countries in our United Kingdom. Our national identity and pride may never match that of Poland's. But let's start somewhere.

What's more fragile than Paul Gasgoine's mental health?

The system that's caring for him, of course. Why it takes a former footballer to be let down by the system for anyone to realise what's going on is beyond me.

Tax on Breathing?

Ok, I get the point of taxing fossil fuels. I might not like paying so much in duty and VAT on petrol, but I do understand. I could do without city traders making a quick buck by gambling on its future price and adding fuel to the fire (geddit!) but such is life.

I got a bike for my birthday. I know I'm a bit old for such a gift, but it's a lovely thing with great riding position and really efficient skinny tyres. I might even be able to ride to work, if I get a bit fitter, saving the planet, money, and the NHS from my impeding heart attack. So how shocked was I when I glanced at the receipt for my new purchase and it showed the really sizeable chunk of VAT my family had just shelled out? Please, Mr Darling, can this be so? Can I really be taxed for wanting to get fit, drive less and save the world? What next, tax on tree hugging? Seriously, are you taxing the CO2 emissions I'll breathe out when riding it? We should be told.

Geography lesson from the BBC

Something horrible happened in Carshalton last week. It was widely reported. Children died. A true tragedy. But something I'd prefer not to think about, let alone write about.

Moving on then, to its reporting by the BBC. For the last three days they referred to the location only as Carshalton (pronounced "Carsholton", apparantly). I was wracking my brains. Surrey. It must be in Surrey. Or Lancashire. I'm sure. Lancashire. It must be a huge place for them just to be referring to it alone, and not a County. "Consett", they might say, without needing to add "Co. Durham". Then the penny dropped. They'd simply forgotten that those of us outside of London ("Who?" I hear them cry!) might just not realise where a small bit of the Borough of Sutton might be. So London I settled upon, and the Beeb kindly included "Carshalton, South London" for me today as proof that someone else has been complaining, and that I wasn't that far out with Surrey as my first guess after all.

If they are not careful, all sorts of things, such as a groundswell of support for a genuine alternative to all that's in Westminster now (i e clambouring to support detention without trial and human-animal crossbreeding) could be happening in the provincial, irrelevant North and they wouldn't even notice.